JP2997460B1 - Image recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

An image recording apparatus is provided that simultaneously improves the recording speed and the resolution. An end portion (3a) of an optical fiber (3) is disposed on a row (L1) along a sub-scanning direction of a recording medium,
Are fixed so as to be stacked in multiple stages in the main scanning direction of the recording medium. As a result, the matrix of the end portion 3a has columns L1: 8 along the sub-scanning direction of the recording medium and rows L2: crossing the column L1 and along the main scanning direction of the recording medium.
It consists of 16 lines. The end portions 3a of the plurality of optical fibers 3 belonging to the same row L1 are arranged at a pitch P. Further, with respect to a perpendicular passing through the center C of the terminal end 3a of one optical fiber 3, the same row L2 belonging to another column L1
Are uniformly shifted by the shift amount S along the sub-scanning direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus for irradiating a recording medium with light to form an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A sheet-like recording medium having a sublimation dye applied to the surface of a base film is irradiated with a laser beam, and the sublimation dye is selectively dispersed by the heat energy of the laser beam, thereby sublimating the surface of the recording medium. Forming an image with a dye has been performed.

In such an image recording apparatus, a recording medium is wound around the peripheral surface of a drum, and the recording medium is rotated in the main scanning direction by rotating the drum. Laser light is emitted while moving the laser head in the sub-scanning direction with respect to the recording medium. The emitted laser light is focused on the surface of the recording medium by an optical lens.

In a conventional laser head, a plurality of optical fibers are arranged at regular intervals in a line along the sub-scanning direction in order to increase the number of points that can be recorded at one time and to improve the processing speed. For this reason, the resolution is regulated by the distance between two adjacent optical fibers. In order to perform higher-resolution recording, a substrate on which an optical fiber is fixed is tilted to substantially reduce the distance between two adjacent optical fibers in the sub-scanning direction.

[0005]

However, when the conventional optical fibers are arranged in a line along the sub-scanning direction,
By increasing the number of optical fibers, the number of points that can be recorded at a time can be increased to improve the recording speed. However, as the number of optical fibers increases, the length of the optical fiber array increases. As the row of optical fibers becomes longer, the difference between the distance from the optical fiber to the recording medium becomes larger between the center and the end of the row. The laser beam emitted from the optical fiber is defocused due to this difference in distance, and the image quality is degraded. In addition, the longer the length of the row, the larger the diameter of the lens of the spectroscopic system, and the larger the laser head.

In addition, since it is necessary to accurately perform tilting of the substrate in order to obtain high resolution, it is necessary to provide a control means, which increases the cost.

In order to further increase the resolution, it is necessary to increase the angle at which the substrate is inclined. But,
When the angle is increased, there is a disadvantage that the degree of overlap between the laser beams increases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to provide an image recording apparatus capable of improving recording speed and image quality.

[0009]

According to the present invention, a plurality of light sources arranged in the sub-scanning direction are provided in multiple stages along the main scanning direction, so that two adjacent light beams irradiated on the surface of the recording medium are irradiated. By reducing the distance in the sub-scanning direction between the focal points, it is possible to form a high-resolution image.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An image recording apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention has a light beam generating unit for generating a plurality of light beams.
And a plurality of optical fibers for propagating the plurality of light beams
And a fixing member for fixing the end portion of the optical fiber,
Provided, the fixing member sandwiches the end portion of the optical fiber
The at least two flat plate members,
Should be placed on the row of recording media in the sub-scanning direction,
The rows are stacked in multiple stages in the main scanning direction of the recording medium.
At the same time, the end of the optical fiber is positioned.
A configuration is adopted in which a groove is formed on both surfaces .

According to this configuration, the termination of the plurality of optical fibers is achieved.
Many pixels are recorded at once because the edges are stacked separately
It becomes possible to do. In addition, the light beam is
When scaling up or down, compared to lining up
The optical system can be made smaller. Also, light on the groove on both sides
By arranging the fiber so that it fits, the optical fiber can be easily
The fiber can be fixed in place.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image recording apparatus according to the first aspect, the image forming apparatus is formed on one surface of the flat plate member.
The grooved portion is perpendicular to the groove formed on the other surface.
It adopts a configuration of shifting .

According to this configuration, the same flat plate member is stacked.
Just by overlapping, the optical fiber is shifted in the sub-scanning direction and
Can be fixed in degrees.

[0014] A third aspect of the present invention comprises a first aspect and a second aspect.
In the image recording apparatus according to the aspect, the depth of the groove is:
A configuration that is smaller than the radius of the optical fiber is adopted.

With this configuration, the depth of the groove can be reduced by the optical fiber.
By making it smaller than the radius of the fiber, the upper and lower flat part
When an optical fiber is sandwiched between materials, a gap is created between them
You. This gap can buffer errors in groove shape accuracy.
Can be.

[0016] A fourth aspect of the present invention comprises a second aspect and a third aspect.
In the image recording apparatus according to the aspect,
The deviation amount is configured to be smaller than the radius of the optical fiber.

With this configuration, the fixed block is
The light beam spot emitted from the optical fiber without tilting
Units can be superimposed on each other,
Image recording becomes possible.

[0018]

[0019]

[0020]

[0021]

[0022]

[0023]

[0024]

[0025]

[0026]

[0027]

[0028]

[0029]

[0030]

[0031]

[0032]

[0033]

[0034]

[0035]

[0036]

[0037]

[0038]

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic diagram showing an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image recording apparatus 1 has a plurality of semiconductor lasers 2 that generate laser beam light for performing recording. An optical fiber 3 for propagating each light beam is connected to the semiconductor laser 2. The vicinity of the end of the optical fiber 3 is bundled by an optical fiber array 4. The optical fiber array 4 is provided with a fixing block 5 for fixing a portion of the end of the optical fiber 3 from which the light beam is emitted (hereinafter, referred to as an emitting portion). On the light beam emission side of the fixed block 5,
A zoom lens 6 for reducing and expanding the light beam is provided. Hereinafter, the optical fiber array 4 and the zoom lens 6 are collectively referred to as a laser head 7.

At the focal position of the light beam of the zoom lens 6, a drum 9 on which a recording medium 8 on which image information is recorded is mounted on the peripheral surface is arranged. This drum 9
A rotating shaft has a motor 10 for rotating the drum 9.
Are connected. By driving the motor 10, the recording medium 8 moves in the main scanning direction. On the other hand, the laser head 7
Are supported by the linear motor 11. This linear motor 11 moves along the axial direction of the drum 8.
As a result, the laser head 7 moves in the sub-scanning direction of the recording medium 8.

Next, the control system of the image recording apparatus of the above embodiment is shown in the block diagram of FIG. Note that the same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

In FIG. 2, a laser control section 21 controls driving of the semiconductor laser 2. Further, the zoom lens drive unit 22 controls the magnification of the zoom lens 6. ROM23
Stores a management table in which the resolution and the magnification of the zoom lens 6 are associated with each other. The operation unit 24 sets the resolution of the apparatus. The image memory 25 stores image information to be recorded. In addition, the main operation unit 26 includes the respective units 21 to 25.
Control.

Next, a fixed block of the optical fiber array 4 of the laser head 7 will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a fixed block of the image recording apparatus according to the above embodiment. Fixed block 5
Is composed of a plurality of flat substrates 31. Substrate 31
Are formed on the front and back surfaces in a direction substantially perpendicular to the front surface of the substrate 31 and substantially parallel to each other.

A plurality of substrates 31 are stacked. At this time, the two adjacent substrates 31 are arranged such that the grooves 32 formed on the opposing surfaces coincide with each other.
The end portions 3a of the optical fiber 3 are fixed between the facing grooves 32, respectively. The end 3a of the optical fiber 3 is exposed at the front of the fixed block 5. Between the substrates 31,
For example, they are bonded with an adhesive.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged front view showing a part of the substrate shown in FIG. Grooves 32 are formed on the front and back surfaces of the substrate 31 at a predetermined pitch P (for example, 256 μm). The groove 32 is shifted in the horizontal direction by a shift amount S (for example, 32 μm) on the front and back surfaces of the substrate 31. More specifically, a perpendicular line II passing through the center of the front side groove 32 'is shifted to the right with respect to a perpendicular line I passing through the center of the back side groove 32 ".

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged front view showing a state where the optical fiber 3 is held between the substrates 31. As shown in FIG. 5, the groove 32 has a substantially trapezoidal cross section, and has a larger width on the opening side than on the bottom side. Inner surface 32a, 32 of groove 32
The angle θ of b and the width W of the opening are such that the optical fiber 3
2a are set so as to make point contact with each other. In this example,
The angle θ is 5 for a radius of 62.5 μm of the optical fiber 3.
4.75 °, and the opening width W is 130 μm. Thus, when the upper and lower substrates 31 are arranged with the optical fiber 3 interposed therebetween, the optical fiber 3 has grooves 3 at two points each, that is, four points in total.
2 is fixed by point contact. At this time, the two substrates 31
The depth D of the groove 32 is set so that a gap G is generated between the two.

The sectional shape of the groove 32 is not limited to a trapezoid.
That is, any shape may be used as long as it can make point contact with the peripheral surface of the optical fiber 3 at at least two points. For example, a V-shape is possible.

The fixed block 5 composed of a combination of the substrates 31 as described above is arranged such that the front and back surfaces of the substrate 31 are aligned with the optical fiber array 4 in the axial direction of the drum 9, that is, the recording medium 8.
Is attached so as to be parallel to the sub-scanning direction. That is, the fixed block 5 is attached to the optical fiber array 4 such that the center of the optical fiber 3 sandwiched between two adjacent substrates 31 is located on a straight line in the sub-scanning direction.

As shown in FIG. 3, the end portions 3a of the optical fibers 3 are fixed in a matrix by the fixing block 5. More specifically, the end portion 3a of the optical fiber 3 is disposed on the row L1 along the sub-scanning direction of the recording medium 8, and the rows L1 are stacked in multiple stages in the main scanning direction of the recording medium 8. Fixed to Thus, in this example, the matrix of the end portion 3a includes columns L1: 8 along the sub-scanning direction of the recording medium 8 and rows L2 along the main scanning direction of the recording medium 8 crossing the column L1. : Consists of 16 lines.

The end portions 3a of the plurality of optical fibers 3 belonging to the same row L1 have a pitch P (in this example, 256 μm).
m). In addition, the center C of the terminal portion 3a belonging to another column L1 and belonging to the same row L2 with respect to a perpendicular passing through the center C of the terminal portion 3a of one optical fiber 3 is shifted along the sub-scanning direction. S is evenly shifted.

Further, one end portion 3a is sequentially shifted by the shift amount S each time the upper row L1 is raised.

Further, between the vertical line passing through the center of the terminal 3a of the n-th optical fiber 3 from the left and the center of the terminal 3a of the (n + 1) -th optical fiber 3 belonging to one row L1, the other row L1
, The centers of the terminating ends 3a of the n-th optical fiber 3 are spaced apart.

The operation of the image information recording apparatus according to the above embodiment will be described. The semiconductor laser 2 is driven according to an image signal to generate a light beam. The generated light beam is propagated by the optical fiber 3. The light beam is an optical fiber 3
From the end 3a. The emitted light beam is
The image is reduced by the zoom lens 6 and irradiated on the surface of the recording medium 8. The sublimation dye applied to the surface of the recording medium 8 is separated from the recording medium 8 by the heat energy of the light beam. The separated sublimation dye is sucked by suction means (not shown). When the drum 8 rotates once, the recording medium 8 moves one time in the main scanning direction.
Each time the laser head 7 is moved by the amount of the line, the linear motor 11 moves the laser head 7 by a predetermined amount in the sub-scanning direction of the recording medium 8. This operation is repeated to scan the entire recording medium 6.

As shown in FIG. 5, the optical fiber 3 includes a core 51 for transmitting a light beam and a clad 52 surrounding the core 51, and the light beam is emitted from the core 51. Therefore, the spot of the light beam irradiated on the surface of the recording medium 8 by the light beam is determined by the size of the core 51.

The image recording operation will be described in more detail. The image to be recorded is sorted for each semiconductor laser 2 in the image memory 25. When recording is performed, the light beam is applied to the end 3a of each optical fiber 3 of the fixed block 5 in FIG.
, But is controlled to always emit at the same position in the main scanning direction. That is, with respect to the column L1 on which recording is performed first, the next column L1 is emitted with a delay by a preset time. Similarly, the subsequent rows L1 are also emitted with a delay of the set time from the first row L1. The adjustment of the delay time may be performed once at a certain arbitrary resolution, and can be easily obtained at other resolutions by multiplying the original delay time by the enlargement coefficient according to the magnification change amount of the zoom lens 6.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a light beam spot in the image recording operation as described above. As shown in FIG. 6, in the same row L <b> 1, a spot 61 is irradiated by the terminal 3 a of the n-th optical fiber 3 from the left, and a spot 62 is irradiated by the terminal 3 a of the (n + 1) -th optical fiber 3. For example, the groove 3
2 is set to a distance obtained by dividing by the number of optical fibers belonging to the same row L2, that is, the number of steps added to the number of stages, the distance n between the spots 61 and 62 belongs to another column L1, and The spots 63 to 69 formed by the end portions 3a of all the optical fibers 3 belonging to the same row L2 as those of the optical fiber 3 are uniformly settled.

Due to such a shift of the end portion 3a of the optical fiber 3, the centers of all the spots 61 to 69 (hereinafter, referred to as recording points) do not overlap. When the magnification of the zoom lens 6 is 1, the interval between recording points is equal to the shift amount S, and is 32 μm.

At this time, the shift amount S is set to the spots 61 to 69.
6, that is, not more than the radius of the optical fiber 3, the spots 61 to 69 can be formed without tilting the entire fixed block 5 including the substrate 31 as shown in FIG.
Can be overlapped with an adjacent spot.

The material of the substrate 31 is not particularly limited, but is preferably silicon in that the groove 32 can be easily formed. That is, a resist mask that selectively opens a region where the groove 32 is to be formed on the surface of the silicon substrate is formed. Next, a groove 32 is formed by etching the silicon substrate. At this time, by appropriately selecting the crystal plane of the silicon substrate and / or the etching conditions, the groove 32 having a desired shape and dimensions can be manufactured very easily. The depth D of the groove 32 can also be adjusted by changing the etching processing time.

As described above, according to the image recording apparatus 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention, in the fixed block 5, the end 3 a of the optical fiber 3, that is, the exit of the light beam, The rows L1 are arranged on the rows L1 along the direction, and the rows L1 are stacked in multiple stages in the main scanning direction of the recording medium 8. Accordingly, the lens diameter of the zoom lens 5 can be reduced as compared with the case where the same number of the end portions 3a of the optical fibers 3 are arranged in the sub-scanning direction. Moreover, since the end portions 3a of the optical fibers 3 are stacked in multiple stages, the number of optical fibers 3 can be increased and the number of pixels that can be recorded at one time can be increased, so that the recording speed can be improved.

By displacing the end portions 3a of the optical fibers 3 belonging to the same row L2 in the sub-scanning direction, the spots 61, 63 to 69 of the recording medium 8 are irradiated on one line along the sub-scanning direction. Recording is performed on the recording medium 8. At this time, since the recording points of the irradiated light beams on the recording medium 8 do not overlap with each other, an image can be normally recorded on the recording medium 8.

When the end portions 3a of the optical fibers 3 are arranged in a line as in the prior art, the pitch cannot be made smaller than the diameter of the optical fibers 3. On the other hand, according to the above-described embodiment, since the end portion 3a that irradiates two adjacent spots does not physically interfere with each other, the shift amount S can be set smaller than that of the optical fiber 3. As a result, as shown in FIG. 6, a spot can be further added between the spots irradiated on the recording medium by the two adjacent beam light sources, and the interval between two adjacent recording points can be reduced. Can be increased. Moreover, unlike the case where the conventional end portions 3a are arranged in one line, it is not necessary to rotate the laser head 7.

The end 3a of the optical fiber 3 is sandwiched by grooves 32 formed on the upper and lower substrates 31, respectively.
As a result, the groove 32 comes into point contact with the peripheral surface of the terminal portion 3a at four points, so that the center C of the terminal portion 3a is positioned by the groove 32. Therefore, by accurately forming the groove 32 in the substrate 31, the terminal portion 3a can be accurately positioned.

By making the opening width W of the groove 32 smaller than the diameter of the optical fiber 3, it is ensured that two points make point contact.

The inner surface 32a of the groove 32 shown in FIG.
By making the width of the groove 32 wider toward the opening side by giving an inclination toward the outside of the groove 32b, in other words, by making the angle θ of the inner side surfaces 32a and 32b acute, the optical fiber 3 The end 3 of the optical fiber 3 can be easily positioned because it is smoothly dropped into the inside.

By making the depth D of the groove 32 smaller than the radius of the optical fiber 3, a gap G is formed between the upper and lower substrates 31 when the optical fiber 3 is sandwiched. The gap G can buffer an error in the shape accuracy of the groove 32.

Further, by forming the grooves 32 in both the upper and lower substrates 31, the thickness of the entire fixed block 5 in the stacking direction is reduced, so that the size of the fixed block 5 can be reduced.

When the material of the substrate 31 is silicon as in this example, a groove having a desired shape and size can be easily formed in the substrate 31 by a so-called photolithographic technique used in the field of semiconductors. 7 can be manufactured accurately and easily.

As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of the same substrates 31 having grooves 32 formed on the front surface 31a and the back surface 31b of the substrate 31 so that the perpendiculars I and II passing through the center are shifted by the shift amount S from each other are prepared. ing. Then, the substrates 31 are sequentially superimposed, and the end portion 3a of the optical fiber 3 is held between the grooves 32 of the two adjacent substrates 31 so that the optical fiber 3
Is obtained in which the end portions 3a are arranged in the main scanning direction. In this manner, by forming the grooves 32 shifted on the front and back surfaces, the laser head 7 can be manufactured easily and with high accuracy without performing alignment of the optical fiber 3.

In the above embodiment, the groove 32 is formed in the fixed block 5 so that the end 3a of the optical fiber 3 is shifted in the sub-scanning direction in the upper and lower stages. However, all the grooves formed in the fixed block 5 may be arranged on the same perpendicular line. In this case, the above-described matrix structure may be formed by attaching the fixed block 5 to the optical fiber array 4 at an angle in order to shift the groove in the sub-scanning direction.

In the above embodiment, the optical fiber 3
Are formed in both upper and lower substrates 31. However, as shown in FIG. 7, the groove 32 may be formed only on one side, for example, only on the lower substrate 32. In this case, since the optical fiber 3 makes point contact with the groove 32 at two points, the center C of the optical fiber 3 can be accurately positioned.

In the above embodiment, the beam light source is
The case of the terminal end portion 3a for emitting the light beam generated by the semiconductor laser 2 and propagating through the optical fiber 3 has been described.
However, the present invention also includes an image recording apparatus using a recording head of a type that emits a light beam directly from an LED using, for example, a light emitting diode (LED) as a beam light source.

In the above embodiment, the optical fiber 3
Are sequentially shifted in the same direction according to the order of the row L1. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the optical fibers 3 may be arranged at random. The invention consequently suffices if the spots are aligned. However, as the arrangement becomes more complex, the semiconductor laser 2
The above embodiment is the most preferable because the control of the above becomes complicated.

[0076]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In the image recording apparatus, it is possible to simultaneously improve the recording speed and the resolution.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic diagram showing an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a control system of the image recording apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a fixed block of the image recording apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged front view showing a part of the substrate shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged front view showing a state where an optical fiber is held between substrates in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a spot of a light beam irradiated on a recording medium in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a modification of the image recording apparatus according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 image recording device 2 semiconductor laser 3 optical fiber 4 optical fiber array 5 fixing block 6 zoom lens 7 laser head 8 recording medium 9 drum 31 substrate 32 groove 51 core 52 clad 61 to 69 spot

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-6-47954 (JP, A) JP-A-7-214803 (JP, A) JP-A-5-281423 (JP, A) JP-A-10-108 114090 (JP, A) JP-A-9-200431 (JP, A) JP-A-7-276701 (JP, A) JP-A-11-129513 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 2/32 B41J 2/44 G02B 26/10

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A light beam generator for generating a plurality of light beams.
And a plurality of optical fibers for propagating the plurality of light beams
And a fixing member for fixing the end portion of the optical fiber,
Provided, the fixing member sandwiches the end portion of the optical fiber
The at least two flat plate members,
Should be placed on the row of recording media in the sub-scanning direction,
The rows are stacked in multiple stages in the main scanning direction of the recording medium.
At the same time, the end of the optical fiber is positioned.
An image recording apparatus, wherein a groove is formed on both sides . 2. A groove formed on one surface of the flat plate member.
Part is shifted with respect to the perpendicular to the groove formed on the other surface.
The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The depth of the groove is greater than the radius of the optical fiber.
3 is also small.
An image recording apparatus according to any of the preceding claims. 4. The optical fiber according to claim 1, wherein the amount of deviation of the groove from the perpendicular is
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein
The image recording device according to claim 3 .