JP3114783B2 - Transfer type inkjet recording device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus for receiving ink droplets from an ink jet recording head by a transfer medium and transferring the ink droplets to the recording medium, and more particularly to a transfer medium cleaning technique.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A recording apparatus for receiving ink droplets from an ink jet recording head by a transfer medium and then transferring the ink droplets to the recording medium is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-169649. Since the image is transferred to the recording sheet, there is a problem that the recording sheet is contaminated by ink droplets remaining on the transfer medium. FIG. 5 shows the above-described recording apparatus, in which molten ink that becomes liquid in a heated state is transferred from a recording head to a transfer medium 1 in accordance with print data.
00 to transfer the ink image of the transfer medium 100 to recording paper. The untransferred ink remaining on the transfer medium 100 is melted again by the heater 102, and then absorbed and removed by the capillary force of the cleaner 101 made of a porous material.

[0003]

However, since the cleaning efficiency of the cleaner is reduced due to the accumulation of the residual ink, there is a problem that frequent replacement is required, and labor and running costs are required. The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a transfer type ink jet recording apparatus which does not require replacement of a cleaner.

[0004]

According to the present invention, an ink image is formed on a transfer medium by an ink jet recording head, and the recording medium is pressed against the transfer medium by a pressure roller. In a transfer type ink jet recording apparatus for transferring an image, a cleaning medium disposed so as to be in contact with an area after the ink image of the transfer medium is transferred to the recording medium, and an ink for removing ink of the cleaning medium And a removing unit, wherein the cleaning medium is made of a material whose surface has a higher wettability to the ink than the surface of the transfer medium.

[0005]

[Effect] The ink for the cleaning medium is more effective than the transfer medium .
High wettability, the ink remaining on the transfer medium is cleared.
Is reliably adsorbed to the cleaning medium .

[0006]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention, in which an ink jet recording head 2, a pressure roller 3, and a cleaning roller 4 as a cleaning medium are arranged around a transfer drum 1 as a transfer medium for recording. The device is configured.

The transfer drum 1 is constructed by laminating an elastic layer 11 made of a rubber material, for example, silicone rubber, fluorosilicone rubber, fluororubber, etc., on the surface of a metal tube 10 so as to easily separate an ink image. The recording head 2 includes a transfer drum 1
, A plurality of nozzles are provided in the axial direction, and the ink pressurized by the piezoelectric element is ejected from the nozzles as ink droplets. In this embodiment, the pressure roller 3 is configured such that a rubber roller is attached to the load mechanism 31 and the recording paper 5 is pressed against the transfer drum 1 in a transfer step.

[0008] Cleaning roller 4 characterized by the present invention
Is configured as a metal roller made of aluminum and is rotatably supported by a support member (not shown). In this embodiment, a load mechanism 32 composed of an eccentric roller directly contacts the transfer drum 1 and is separated from the transfer drum 1. It is configured to move to a position.

As the ink, an ink containing at least water, a water-soluble organic solvent, a pigment, an emulsion, and a colloidal dispersion type resin was used. Specifically, 1.5 wt% of carbon black as a pigment, 6 wt% of a styrene-acryl copolymer emulsion as an emulsion, and a colloidal dispersion type resin (a water sol which is a modified epoxy ester type colloidal dispersion of Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc.) CD-540
(Resin solids 40% Isopropylene glycol 13%
2) by weight, triethanolamine 1 wt% as a water-soluble organic solvent, diethylene glycol 8 wt% as a humectant, and a surfactant prepared by adding pure water to 3 wt%.

In this embodiment, the recording head 2 is rotated while the transfer drum 1 is rotated by driving means (not shown).
When ink droplets are ejected corresponding to print data from
An ink image is formed on the surface of the transfer drum 1. When the transfer drum 1 rotates and the ink image carried on the transfer drum 1 reaches a contact portion with the pressure roller 3, the recording paper 5 is fed into the contact portion by a recording paper conveying means (not shown). Thus, the recording paper is pressed against the transfer drum 1 by the pressure roller 3, and the ink image on the transfer drum 1 is transferred onto the recording paper.

The area where the ink image has been transferred to the recording paper and the ink image has disappeared moves to the cleaning roller 4 as the transfer drum 1 rotates, and comes into contact therewith. Since the cleaning roller 4 has higher ink wettability than the transfer drum 1, the ink remaining on the transfer drum 1 adheres to the cleaning roller 4 and is removed from the transfer drum 1. After being cleaned, the transfer drum 1 moves to the ink image forming area again and executes printing while repeating the above-described steps.

On the other hand, the cleaning roller 4 rotates while holding the ink on the transfer drum 1, and the ink is scraped off by the blade 6 as the residual ink removing means and collected in the collection box 9.

In this embodiment, since the cleaning roller 4 is made of aluminum metal and has a higher ink wettability than the silicone rubber forming the transfer drum 1, the ink on the transfer drum 1 can be easily removed. Can be adsorbed. In addition, since the leaning roller 4 is made of metal and has a smooth surface and high hardness, it has sufficient durability against physical peeling when the blade 6 is brought into contact.

FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which a transfer drum 1 is formed by laminating a fluorosilicone rubber on the surface of a metal tube 10 to easily peel off an ink image. Around this, the inkjet recording head 2,
A recording device is constituted by disposing a pressure roller 7 made of a brass metal roller.

The pressure roller 7 is formed by attaching a brass roller to the load mechanism 33 so as to be able to resiliently press the transfer drum 1, and the blade 6 is in contact with the transfer drum 1 so as to contact the peripheral surface thereof. Are located.

The ink is obtained by dispersing a pigment together with an emulsion in pure water as an ink solvent together with an additive such as a surfactant. Specifically, 1.5 wt% of carbon black as a pigment and styrene-
Acrylic copolymer emulsion 6wt%, diethylene glycol 6wt% as humectant, surfactant 3wt
%, And an ink prepared by appropriately adding a preservative or the like to a few wt%.

In this embodiment, the recording head 2 is rotated while the transfer drum 1 is rotated by driving means (not shown).
When ink droplets are ejected corresponding to print data from
An ink image is formed on the surface of the transfer drum 1. When the transfer drum 1 rotates and the ink image carried on the transfer drum 1 reaches a contact portion with the pressure roller 7, the recording paper 5 is fed into the contact portion by a recording paper conveying means (not shown). Thus, the recording paper is pressed against the transfer drum 1 by the pressure roller 7, and the ink image on the transfer drum 1 is transferred to the recording paper.

When the recording paper 5 passes through the transfer drum 1 in this manner, the pressure roller 7 comes into direct contact with the transfer roller 1. Since the pressure roller 7 is made of brass and has higher ink wettability than the transfer drum 1, the ink remaining on the transfer drum 1 adheres to the pressure roller 7 and is removed from the transfer drum 1. The pressure roller 7 rotates while holding the ink, and the ink is scraped off by the blade 6 and collected in the collection box 9.

Also in this embodiment, the pressure roller 7 also serving as a cleaning roller is made of metal.
Since the residual ink on the transfer drum 1 can be easily adsorbed and has high hardness, it has sufficient durability against physical peeling when the blade 6 is brought into contact, and further has a function as a cleaning roller. Therefore, the number of parts is reduced, and the size of the apparatus can be reduced.

FIG. 3 shows a third embodiment of the present invention, in which an ink jet recording head 2, a pressure roller 3, and a cleaning roller 8 are provided around a transfer drum 1 provided with an elastic layer 11 made of silicone rubber. The recording device is configured by being arranged.

The cleaning roller 8 is formed by coating a metal roller made of aluminum with a fluorine resin as a coating and rotatably supported by a support member (not shown).
The load mechanism 33 is configured to move to a position where the transfer drum 1 is in direct contact with the transfer drum 1 and a position away from the transfer drum 1. A heating means 12 such as a halogen lamp for heating is provided inside the cleaning roller 8, and a thermistor 13 as a temperature detecting means is provided on the surface to detect the surface temperature of the cleaning roller 8. Is configured.

The temperature control of the cleaning roller 8 configured as described above will be described. The surface temperature of the cleaning roller 8 is detected by the temperature detection means (thermistor 13) (s1), and the result is sent to the reference means 40. The reference means 40 refers to whether the temperature is equal to or higher than a specified temperature (s2). If the temperature has not reached the specified temperature, the heating means 12
Heating of the cleaning roller 8 is performed (s3),
Temperature detection is performed again (s1). When the temperature is equal to or higher than the specified temperature, the cleaning roller 8 is brought into contact with the transfer drum 1 by the contact mechanism 33 as contact means (s4), and the transfer drum 1 is cleaned.

In the present embodiment, the ink is obtained by dispersing a pigment together with an emulsion in pure water as an ink solvent together with an additive such as a surfactant. The ink of the present embodiment particularly contains a thermoplastic resin material, and has a low viscosity state at a temperature higher than the melting temperature. Specifically, 1.5 wt% of carbon black as a pigment, 6 wt% of a styrene-acryl copolymer emulsion as an emulsion, and 6 wt% of diethylene glycol as a humectant
%, 3 wt% of surfactant, and several w
An ink prepared by adding t% was used.

Since the melting temperature of this ink emulsion is 90 ° C., setting the above-mentioned specified temperature to 100 ° C. makes the ink remaining on the transfer drum 1 completely dried and cured. Even if it does, the residual ink can be melted, thereby recovering the wettability, or softening to generate an adhesive force, so that the residual ink easily adheres to the cleaning roller 8.

After the transfer, the transfer drum 1 reaches a contact portion with the cleaning roller 8. The cleaning roller 8 is heated by the heating unit 12, and the surface temperature of the cleaning roller 8 is detected by the thermistor 13. The result detected by the thermistor 13 is referred to as reference means 4 in the control device.
If the temperature is equal to or higher than the specified temperature, the cleaning mechanism 8 is brought into contact with the transfer drum 1 by the load mechanism 33 to transfer the ink remaining on the transfer drum 1 onto the cleaning roller 8. Remove.
The ink transferred and removed on the cleaning roller 8 is scraped off by the blade 6.

The temperature of the surface of the cleaning roller 8 is appropriately selected according to the characteristics of the ink used. Further, if the material constituting the outermost layer of the cleaning roller is a material having a higher ink wettability than the material constituting the transfer drum 1, that is, a material having higher ink wettability than the transfer drum 1, not only aluminum and brass but also iron, Metals such as stainless steel and nickel, rubber materials such as nitrile rubber, NBR rubber, urethane rubber, and chloroprene rubber, films of polytetrafluoroethylene, PET, polyimide, etc., and ceramics can be used.

Further, in the embodiment, the case where the cleaning is executed in parallel with the printing process has been described.
The same effect is obtained even when cleaning is performed independently of the printing process.

[0028]

According to the present invention as described above, according to the present invention, the cleaning medium, since wettability to the ink of the surface is formed by a high material than the surface of the rolling <br/> transcription medium, the transfer medium from adhered to the cleaning medium, Ru can play cleaning medium was removed <br/> ink removing means it.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of an ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a second embodiment of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a third embodiment of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a chart showing steps from temperature detection of a cleaning roller to cleaning of a transfer medium in a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example of a conventional transfer type inkjet recording apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 transfer drum 2 inkjet recording head 3 pressure roller 4, 8 cleaning roller 7 pressure roller also serving as cleaning roller 5 recording paper 6 blade 11 elastic layer 32, 33 load mechanism (contact means)

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 2/01 B41J 2/18 B41J 2/185

Claims (10)

(57) [Claims] 1. A transfer type ink jet recording apparatus in which an ink image is formed on a transfer medium by an ink jet recording head, and the recording medium is pressed against the transfer medium by a pressure roller to transfer the ink image. Is transferred to the recording medium.
A cleaning medium disposed so as to be able to contact the area after the cleaning medium, and ink removing means for removing ink from the cleaning medium, wherein the cleaning medium has a wettability with respect to the ink on the surface of the transfer medium. A transfer type ink jet recording apparatus made of a higher material. 2. The transfer type ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning medium is provided on a contacting means, and is configured to be able to contact and separate from the transfer medium. 3. The cleaning medium according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning medium includes a roller, and the ink removing unit includes a blade that contacts the roller.
3. The transfer type ink jet recording apparatus according to item 1. 4. The transfer type ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning medium is constituted by a metal roller. 5. A transfer type ink jet recording apparatus in which an ink image is formed on a transfer medium by an ink jet recording head and a recording medium is pressed against the transfer medium by a pressure roller to transfer the ink image, wherein the pressure roller removes the ink. A transfer type ink jet recording apparatus comprising an ink removing unit that performs cleaning and a material whose surface has a higher wettability to the ink than a surface of the transfer medium. 6. The transfer type ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said ink removing means is constituted by a blade abutting on said pressure roller. 7. The transfer type ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said pressure roller is constituted by a metal roller. 8. A transfer type ink jet recording apparatus which forms an ink image containing a resin component on a transfer medium by an ink jet recording head and presses the recording medium against the transfer medium by a pressure roller to transfer the ink image. disposed contactable to the non-transfer area, and the comprises a cleaning medium heated above the softening temperature of the resin component, and an ink removing means for removing the ink in the cleaning medium, said cleaning medium, said transfer inkjet recording apparatus wettability to the ink at the time of softening the ink is constituted by material higher than the surface of the pre-Symbol transfer medium. 9. The transfer type ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said cleaning medium is provided in a contact means, and is configured to be able to contact and separate from said transfer medium. 10. The transfer type ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said cleaning medium is constituted by a roller, and said ink removing means is constituted by a blade abutting on said roller.