JP3263069B2 - Imaging method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is pending U.S. Patent Application No. 306,076, filed February 6, 1989, and U.S. Patent Application No. 39, filed August 14, 1989.
U.S. Patent Application No. 400,717 filed August 30, 1989
No. 446,877 filed on Dec. 6, 1989 and U.S. Pat. No. 508,287 filed on Apr. 13, 1990, all of which are incorporated by reference. As incorporated herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to image transfer techniques and devices used for electrophotography.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Liquid toner images are developed according to an image pattern on a latent image support surface by varying the concentration of pigment solids in the developing material. The change in density is created by a corresponding pattern of an electric field extending outward from the latent image support surface. This electric field is created by the different latent image and background voltages on the latent image support surface and the voltage on the developer plate or roller.

Generally, a developed liquid toner image contains carrier liquid and toner particles and is not homogeneous. Typically, liquid toner developers contain about 1.5% to 2% solids,
The developed image contains about 15% solids. This developed image has a "fluffy", high density range near the latent image support surface and further away from the latent image support surface,
That is, it has a blurred boundary range.

In order to transfer the image to be developed from the latent image bearing surface to the substrate, prior to the transfer, the pigment solids near the background area are substantially removed and the concentration of pigment in the image to be developed is increased. ,
It is most desirable that the developed image be dense and rigid. Developing tighter fusing increases the viscosity of the image and improves its ability to maintain its integrity under the stresses that occur during transfer of the image. It is also preferable that excess liquid is removed from the latent image support surface before transfer.

As described in U.S. Pat.No. 3,955,533, the art describes the use of reversing rollers spaced about 50 microns from the latent image bearing surface to extend the carrier liquid and pigment beyond the outer edge of the image. It is known to wipe off solids, thereby leaving a relatively clean area on the background.

Techniques for removing such carrier liquids are commonly known as metering. U.S. Patent 3,767,
The modified metering technique described in U.S. Pat. No. 300 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,741,643 uses air knives, but has not been particularly successful due to harm to the background as a result of disturbing effects. Corona discharges have also been used to compress and remove liquid in a developed liquid image.

In U.S. Pat.No. 3,957,016, a positively charged metering roller is underpressured such that the metering roller is held at a voltage intermediate the image and background voltages to remove background stains and slightly densify the image. It has become.

In the prior art, it is known to transfer an image from a light receiver onto a substrate supported by a charging roller. Unless the image is fixed before it reaches the receiver and roller nip, image collapse and flow can occur. This occurs especially when the substrate is a non-porous material such as plastic.

In the prior art, a liquid toner image is generally transferred to a substrate by electrophoresis, whereby a charged image is immersed through a carrier liquid by the action of an electric field created by a high voltage applied to a substrate of opposite polarity to the charge of the image particles. It moves from the image support surface to the substrate.

The voltage provided for such electrophoretic transfer, and thus the strength of the electric field, is determined by the Paschen curve.
The minimum value of urve is about 8 microns, which limits the risk of electrical breakdown that can occur at both the entrance and exit edges of the jaws. Therefore, this Paschen curve must ensure that the voltage difference across the clamp does not exceed about 360 volts to avoid electrical breakdown and possible damage to the image and latent image bearing surfaces.

Electrophoretic densification of the image prior to image transfer is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,039, which shows a metering roller followed by a negatively charged squeeze roller. The squeeze roller performs both operations of densifying the image and removing excess liquid.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,690,539 and 4,708,460 describe an apparatus for removing substantially all carrier liquid from a liquid image on an image transfer member prior to transfer to a final substrate.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,238 describes the use of a charging roller spaced from a liquid image on an intermediate transfer member. The purpose of this mechanism is to densify the image and remove liquid from the image.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,048 describes an apparatus for transferring a liquid toner image from a photoconductor to an image transfer member. The image transfer member is pressed against the photoconductor during transfer to squeeze the squeeze carrier liquid from the non-image area. The image area is maintained in spaced relation from the intermediate transfer member by spacer particles in the toner material as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,774.
This toner material is the only toner described in US Pat. No. 4,796,048 as a suitable toner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention seeks to provide an improved apparatus for enhancing the transfer of an image.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a liquid toner image is transferred from the image forming surface to an intermediate transfer member and subsequently transferred to a final substrate. The liquid toner image comprises a liquid portion comprising a carrier liquid and a solid portion comprising pigmented polymer toner particles substantially insoluble in the carrier liquid at room temperature and a polymer portion forming a substantially single phase with the carrier liquid at elevated temperatures. Contains. The liquid toner image is concentrated to a given percentage of the non-volatile solids provided by densifying the solid portion and removing the carrier liquid from the solid portion, and transferring the liquid toner image to an intermediate transfer member. Heating the liquid toner image on the member to an elevated temperature such that the toner particles and the polymer portion of the carrier liquid form at least a substantially single phase at the given percentage of solids, and form the heated liquid toner image. An imaging method comprising the step of transferring to a final substrate is provided.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a liquid toner image is transferred from the image forming surface to an intermediate transfer member and subsequently transferred to a final substrate. A liquid toner image includes a liquid portion containing a carrier liquid and a solid portion containing toner particles. Compacting the solid portion of the liquid toner image, removing the carrier liquid, concentrating the image to have between 20% and 35% non-volatile solids, transferring the liquid toner image to an intermediate transfer member, An image forming method including a step of transferring the liquid toner image to a final substrate is provided.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the step of performing the concentrating comprises simultaneously applying an electric field to compact the solid portion of the image and a pressure to remove liquid from the image.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the percentage of non-volatile solids can be made about 20%, 25% or 35% or more after the concentration step.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the single phase is a liquid phase. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, different from or in addition to the foregoing, the concentration step is operable to increase the percent of solids to a value at which phase separation cannot occur.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention also includes a carrier liquid and a pigmented polymer toner particle substantially insoluble in the carrier liquid at room temperature and a polymer portion that forms a substantially single phase with the carrier liquid at elevated temperatures. An apparatus is provided that uses a liquid developer, the apparatus using the liquid developer to form a liquid toner image having a liquid portion containing a carrier liquid and a solid portion containing toner particles. An image forming apparatus for forming on a forming surface; a concentrating apparatus for concentrating a solid portion of the liquid toner image to remove a carrier liquid from the liquid toner image to condense the liquid toner image to a given percentage of a non-volatile solid; A transfer device for transferring a liquid toner image to an intermediate transfer member after concentration of the liquid toner image, and transferring the liquid toner image on the intermediate transfer member to toner particles and a carrier. It includes substantially a transfer device for transferring the liquid toner image to the final substrate after the heating apparatus and heating is heated to a high temperature so as to form a single phase at the concentration given polymer portion of the over the liquid.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an imaging device using a liquid developer, the imaging device comprising an imaging surface, a liquid portion containing a carrier liquid using the liquid developer and a toner. An image forming apparatus for forming a liquid toner image having a solid portion containing particles on the image forming surface, wherein the solid portion of the liquid toner image is densified and carrier liquid is removed therefrom to densify the liquid toner image. A device for increasing the percentage of non-volatile solids of a liquid toner image between 20% and 35%, a transfer device for transferring a liquid toner image to an intermediate transfer member, and a transfer device for transferring the liquid toner image from the intermediate transfer member to a final substrate. And a densification device including a transfer device for transferring the image to a recording medium.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the concentrator includes a device that simultaneously applies an electric field that compacts the solid portion of the image and a mechanical pressure that removes liquid from the image. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the concentrator includes a charging squeeze roller pressed against the imaging surface.

In a preferred embodiment of the present application, the single phase is a liquid phase. Alternatively or additionally, the concentrator is operable to increase the percentage of solids to a value such that no phase separation can occur.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the imaging device also includes a light emitting device for discharging both the image and the background area prior to transferring the image to the image transfer member. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the light emitting device includes at least one light emitting diode. In a preferred embodiment, the light emitting device includes at least two radiation sources that emit light of different colors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will be more fully understood and appreciated by the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which: FIG. 1 is constituted by a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a simplified cross-sectional view of an operable electrophotographic apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a partial simplified typical state diagram for a preferred liquid toner for the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which shows an operable electrophotographic imaging apparatus constructed and operated in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The present invention is described for a liquid developer device having negatively charged toner particles and a negatively charged photoconductor, that is, a device that operates in a reversal mode. For other toner particle and photoconductor polarity combinations, the value and polarity of the voltage is varied according to the principles of the present invention.

The present invention can be practiced using a variety of liquid developer types, but the carrier polymer and pigment polymers that are substantially insoluble in the carrier liquid at room temperature, but solvate in the carrier liquid at elevated temperatures It is particularly useful for liquid developers containing toner. This is U.S. Pat.
No. 4,651, the properties of the liquid developer of Example 1, the description of which is incorporated herein by reference. A simplified phase diagram of a typical toner of this type is shown in FIG. This state diagram shows the state of the polymer portion of the toner particles and the carrier liquid. The pigment in the particles is generally only a small fraction of the process, and the "single phase" and "solvation" herein indicate the state of the polymer portion of the toner particles along with the carrier liquid.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the liquid developer comprises 10
130 parts by weight of Elvax II 5950 (AI Dupont) and 5 parts by weight of Isopearl L (Exxon)
Prepared by mixing for 1 hour in a jacketed double planetary mixer connected to an oil heating unit set at 0 ° C. 2.5 parts by weight of Mogul L
A mixture of carbon black (Cabot) and 5 parts by weight of Isopearl L was then added to the mixture in the double planetary mixer, and the resulting mixture was blended at high speed for an additional hour. 20 parts by weight of Isopearl L, preheated to 110 ° C., were added to the mixture and the mixing was continued at high speed for 1 hour. The heating unit was removed and mixing continued until the temperature of the mixture dropped to 40 ° C.

The resulting 100 g of material was mixed with 120 g of Isopearl L, and the mixture was crushed in an attritor for 19 hours to obtain a diffuser of particles. This material was diffused into Isopearl L to a solids content of 1.5% by weight.

A preferred liquid developer prepared is U.S. Pat.
It contains a number of fibrous extensions or curly shaped toner particles as described in No. 1,
The description of this patent is incorporated herein by reference. Preferred liquid developers have a significant, approximately exponential, increase in material viscosity as the concentration of toner particles increases above 20%.

Humidity Tolerant Charge Directing Agent (ch) filed on April 22, 1989 by the assignee, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
arg director) U.S. Patent Application No. 354,121, pending
The charge directing agent prepared according to Example 1 of the item is added to the diffuser in an amount equal to about 3% by weight of the solids in the developer.

As in a conventional electrophotographic apparatus, the apparatus of FIG. 1 typically includes a drum 10 arranged to rotate about an axis 12 in a direction generally indicated by an arrow 14.
The drum 10 has a cylindrical photoconductive surface 16 formed thereon.

A corona discharge device 18 is operable to charge the photoconductive surface 16 with a negative charge absolutely uniformly. This drum
10 subsequent rotations will lens this charged photoconductive surface 16
Moved in image-receiving relationship with an exposure unit containing 20, this lens focuses the image on a charged photoconductive surface 16 and selectively discharges this surface to produce an electrostatic latent image on this surface. Is done. The latent image includes an image area portion of a given range of potential and a background area portion of a different potential. This image can be created by a laser, as when printed by a computer, or it can be an original image, as in a copier.

Subsequent rotation of drum 10 carries charged photoconductive surface 16 carrying the electrostatic latent image to developing unit 22, which develops a solid portion containing toner particles with pigment and a liquid portion containing carrier liquid. The contained liquid developer is applied and acts to develop the electrostatic latent image. The developed image includes an image area having toner particles containing pigment and a background area. Developing unit 22 can be any conventional type of single color developing device, or it can be a number of single color developing devices for producing full color images as known in the art. Alternatively, full color images can be created by replacing the liquid toner in the developing device when the color to be printed is changed. Alternatively, highlight color development can be utilized as is known in the art.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, after applying toner to photoconductive surface 16, typically charged rotating roller 26, which preferably rotates photoconductive surface 16 in the direction indicated by arrow 28 It is passed through. Normal photoconductive surface 16
The spatial separation of this roller 26 from is about 50 microns. This causes the roller 26 to act as a metering roller as is known in the art, reducing the amount of carrier liquid in the background area and reducing the amount of liquid above the image.

It is preferable that the potential of the roller 26 is intermediate between the potential of the latent image area and the potential of the background area. Typical approximate voltage is roller 26: -500V, background area: -1000V
And the latent image area: -150V.

The liquid toner image passed through the roller 26 must be free of photopigment particles except in the area of the latent image.

Preferably, a fixing roller 30 is provided downstream of the roller 26. The fusing roller 30 preferably has only natural conductivity or is formed of an elastic polymer material, such as polyurethane, which can be filled with carbon black to increase conductivity.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the roller 30 is adapted to be pressed against the photoconductive surface 16 by a mounting spring (not shown). The surface of roller 30 typically moves in the same direction and speed as the photoconductive surface to remove liquid from the image.

Preferably, a pressed squeegee described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,039, the description of which is incorporated herein by reference, is used as roller 30. The roller 30 is biased to a potential of at least several hundred volts and up to several thousand volts relative to the potential of the developed image on the photoconductive surface 16 so that the roller repels the charged pigment particles, These pigment particles more closely approach the image area of the photoconductive surface 16 and thus the image is compacted and fixed.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the fuser roller 30 has a diameter of 20 mm and comprises a 4 mm thick carbon filled polyurethane coating having a Shore A hardness of about 30-35 and a volume resistivity of about 10 ⁸ ohm / cm. Includes a coated aluminum core. The roller 30 is preferably pressed against the photoconductive surface 16 by a pressure of about 40-70 g per cm of contact line extending along the length of the drum. The core of this fuser roller 30 is energized in the range of about -1800 to -2800 volts, preferably between about 1600 and 2700 volts between the core and the photoconductive surface in the image area. Is to give. Voltage differences as low as 600 volts are also useful.

After fusing at these conditions, the percentage of solids in the image portion relative to the preferred toner is as high as 35% or more when the carrier liquid absorbed as a plasticizer is considered as part of the solid portion. it is conceivable that.
It is preferred to have an image with at least 25-30% after fusing. When the percentage of solids is calculated on the basis of non-volatile solids, the percentage of solids is preferably 20% or more, usually 30%.
% Or less. A value of 25% has been found to be particularly useful. At such a concentration, the material has a paste-like concentration.

Unlike this, carbon-filled polyurethane is about 3x
It can be replaced by unfilled polyurethane having a volume resistivity of 10 ¹⁰ and its volume can be adjusted to give the correct fixation.

On the downstream side of the fixing roller 30, a number of light emitting diodes (LE
D) 29 is provided to discharge the photoconductive surface and balance the potential between the image and the background area. For process color devices where yellow, magenta and cyan toners are used, both red and green LEDs are provided to provide the developed image and the photoconductor area behind the background area. Is to be discharged.

An intermediate transfer member 40 is provided downstream of the LED, and rotates in a direction opposite to the direction of the photoconductive surface 16 as indicated by an arrow 41. The intermediate transfer member is operable to receive the toner image from the photoconductive surface and subsequently transfer the toner image to an image receiving substrate such as paper.

Various types of intermediate transfer members are known, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,238, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, and of the assignee's U.S. Pat.
U.S. Patent Application No. 293,456 entitled "Imaging Method and Apparatus Using an Intermediate Transfer Member of Date Application" and U.S. Patent Application No. 30 entitled "Imaging Apparatus with Fusing Device and Intermediate Transfer Member"
No. 6,076.

Generally, the intermediate transfer member 40 is configured to be pressed against the photoconductive surface 16. One of the fixing operations described above is to prevent image collapse and other distortions caused by the pressing force generated by the pressing operation. This fixing action is particularly accentuated by the sharp increase in viscosity with concentration for the preferred toner.

The transfer of the image to the intermediate transfer member 40 is preferably assisted by applying an electrical bias to the intermediate transfer member 40 to attract the charged toner thereto, but may utilize other methods known in the art. You can also. Substrate
Subsequent transfer of the image to 42 is preferably assisted by heat and pressure, which pressure is provided by support rollers 43, although other methods known in the art may be utilized.

If the high negative voltage negatively biased squeeze roller of U.S. Pat.No. 4,286,039 is used as roller 30, the intermediate transfer member and the photoconductive material required to transfer the image to the intermediate transfer member are used. The voltage difference between the surfaces is sharply reduced. Such a decrease is presumably due to the current flow which tends to equilibrate and discharge the potential of the image and background areas on the image support surface. LED 29 discharges both of these image and background areas and serves to further reduce this voltage difference.

For the specific illustrative example described here,
The voltage of the intermediate transfer member is between -300V and 0V when the pre-transfer LED is not used and between + 200V and + 500V when the pre-transfer LED is used.

Following transfer of the toner image to the intermediate transfer member, the photoconductive surface 16 is engaged with a cleaning roller 50, which typically rotates in the direction indicated by arrow 52, and the roller is operatively engaged. The surface of this roller is adapted to move in a direction opposite to the movement of the mating adjacent photoconductive surface 16.
The cleaning roller 50 operates to rub the surface 16 for cleaning. A cleaning material, such as toner, may be provided to cleaning roller 50 through conduit 54. A wiper blade 56 completes cleaning of the photoconductive surface.
Any remaining charge on photoconductive surface 16 is removed by illuminating the photoconductive surface with light from lamp 58.

In a multicolor device, the operation cycle for one color is completed following the completion of the operation cycle for one color, which in turn causes the other colors to sequentially transfer from the photoconductive surface 16 to the intermediate transfer member 40. It is transcribed to. These monochromatic images can be sequentially transferred to the paper in registration, or alternatively, can be superimposed on an intermediate transfer member and transferred to the substrate 42 as a group.

Details of the structure of the surface layer of the preferred intermediate transfer member are set forth in U.S. Pat. Is incorporated into the book.

Generally, the image is heated on intermediate transfer member 40 to facilitate transfer to substrate 42. This heating is desirably above the threshold temperature for substantial solvation of the carrier liquid within the toner particles.

As shown in FIG. 2, as the image is heated, the state of the image, ie, the polymer portion of the toner particles and the carrier liquid, depends on several factors, primarily the temperature of the intermediate transfer member and the concentration of the toner particles. You do it. Thus, when the percentage of toner particles is "A" and the temperature of the intermediate transfer member is "Y", the liquid phase separates into two phases, one of which is a substantially solvated polymer / liquid. The carrier is a single phase, and the other phase is mainly composed of the carrier liquid (corresponding to a region represented by “(solvated liquid and solid) phase + liquid phase” in FIG. 2). On the other hand, if the percentage of the toner particles is "B" at the same temperature, the phase where the liquid and solid phases solvate to form a single phase, ie, the polymer / A single phase of the liquid carrier will be present (Figure 2, "(Solvated liquid and solid) phase").
). Separation of the polymer / liquid carrier single phase and the liquid phase (corresponding to the region represented by “(solvated liquid and solid) phase + liquid phase” in FIG. 2), for example, when the concentration is “C” It is considered that it is preferable not to occur to a considerable extent as in

It is believed that this type of phase separation is undesirable for intermediate transfer members. The lack of this type of substantial phase separation in the image on the intermediate transfer member is believed to provide improved image quality, including improved line uniformity.

It should be understood that heating the image on the intermediate transfer member does not imply complete drying of the image, although some evaporation of the carrier liquid occurs. Rather, the image on the intermediate transfer member remains as a viscous liquid until transfer to the final substrate.

The invention has been described by way of a specific embodiment using an electrical squeeze roller to concentrate the liquid toner image on the photoconductive surface. However, in contrast, if the image is to be concentrated to the required degree, another method of concentrating the image, that is, removing the liquid by densifying the solid portion of the toner image can be used. These methods include the use of separate solid part compaction devices and liquid removal devices as described in U.S. Patent Application No. 306,076, which is incorporated herein by reference. Alternatively, the apparatus may use a solid partial densification apparatus in which an intermediate transfer member that is pressed against the photoconductor to remove liquid from the image is disposed. In yet another variation, a replaceable intermediate transfer member described in U.S. Patent Application No. 306,076 is used to densify solids and remove liquid immediately prior to transferring to the intermediate transfer member. be able to.

Further, the concentration step can be performed on the intermediate transfer member after transferring the liquid toner image to the intermediate transfer member and before heating the image.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention is not limited to what has been shown and described above. On the contrary, the scope of the present invention is limited only by the claims that follow.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (31) Priority claim number 446,877 (32) Priority date December 6, 2001 (12.6 December 1989) (33) Priority claim country United States (US) (31) Priority claim number 508,287 (32) Priority date April 13, 1990 (1990.4.13) (33) Priority claim country United States (US) (31) Priority claim number PCT / NL90 / 00048 ( 32) Priority date April 17, 1990 (April 17, 1990) (33) Priority claiming country World Intellectual Property Organization (WO) (72) Inventor Landa, Benzion T5 Jay 0 Jay 0, Canada Alberta, Edmonton, Onehanded Red and Nineteens Street 10010 (72) Inventor Nib, Yehuda 76 100, Rehoboth, Shdelotto Chen, Israel 76 100 (72) Labon, Amiran 59 100 Bat Yam, Balfour Street 143/5 (72) Inventor Pinjas, Hannah 58 100, Holon, Spu-Linzak Street, 20 (72) Inventor Adam, Yoshi 76100 Rehoboth, Israel Derek Jabne, 57 (72) Inventor Krumberg, Jakob 76100 Rehoboth, Miller Street 21/13, Israel (56) References JP-A-55-153971 (JP, A) JP-A-1-155376 (JP) , A)

Claims (23)

(57) [Claims] 1. A transfer method for transferring a liquid toner image, including a liquid portion containing a carrier liquid and a solid portion containing pigmented polymer toner particles substantially insoluble in said carrier liquid at room temperature, from an imaging surface to a final substrate. Wherein the solid portion is densified and the carrier liquid is removed to concentrate the liquid toner image to a given nonvolatile solids%, and transfer the liquid toner image to an intermediate transfer member; Heating the liquid toner image on the member to a given elevated temperature at least as high as the temperature at which the given percent solids of the toner particles and the carrier liquid form a single phase; Transferring from a transfer member to a final substrate. 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said single phase is a solvated liquid and solid phase. 3. The step of concentrating the liquid toner image, wherein the liquid and solid phases forming a single phase by solvating the liquid toner image are phase separated from an unsolvated liquid or solid phase. The method according to claim 1, which serves to increase to a value that cannot occur. 4. The method of claim 1 wherein said percent solids is greater than about 20%. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the concentration of the liquid toner image is performed before the step of transferring the liquid toner image to the intermediate transfer member. 6. A method for transferring a liquid toner image including a solid portion and a liquid portion from an imaging surface to a final substrate, wherein the image has between 20 and 35% non-volatile solids. Concentrating the liquid toner image by densifying the solid portion of the liquid toner image and removing the carrier liquid; transferring the liquid toner image to an intermediate transfer member after the concentration step; Heating the toner image to a temperature at least as high as the temperature at which the carrier liquid and the toner particles form a substantially single phase, and transferring the liquid toner image from the intermediate transfer member to a final substrate. Transfer method. 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein said concentrating step comprises the simultaneous application of an electric field to compact the solid portion of the image and a mechanical pressure to remove liquid from the image. The described method. 8. The method of claim 6, wherein said% solids is less than about 30%. 9. The method according to claim 6, wherein said% solids is about 25%.
Item 9. The method according to any one of Items 8 to 8. 10. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the step of irradiating the image with light radiation. 11. The light radiation comprising radiation from at least two radiation sources emitting light beams of different colors.
The method described in 10. 12. An imaging apparatus using a liquid developer comprising a carrier liquid and polymer toner particles containing a pigment that is substantially insoluble in said carrier liquid at room temperature, wherein said carrier is formed from said liquid developer. An image forming surface (16) having on its surface a liquid toner image having a liquid portion composed of a liquid portion and a solid portion composed of toner particles; and making the solid portion of the liquid toner image tighter, and converting the carrier liquid from the liquid toner image. A concentration device (28, 30) for concentrating the liquid toner image by removing to form a liquid image having a given nonvolatile solids percentage; and transferring the image after the concentration of the liquid toner image; An image transfer member (40) that is then transferred to a final substrate (42); and a liquid toner image on the image transfer member, wherein toner particles and carrier liquid are provided at the given solids%. Qualitatively imaged and a heating device for heating at least the same high temperature as the temperature for forming a single phase device. 13. The method according to claim 1, wherein said single phase is a liquid phase.
Device as described in paragraph 12. 14. The concentrator according to claim 1, wherein the liquid and solid phases that solvate the solids% to form a single phase can cause a phase separation between the unsolvated liquid and solid phases. Claims 12 or 13 which serve to increase the value to no
The device as described in paragraph. 15. The apparatus according to any one of claims 12 to 14, wherein said% solids is greater than about 20%. 16. An image forming apparatus using a liquid developer, wherein a liquid toner image formed on the liquid developer and having a liquid portion composed of a carrier liquid and a solid portion composed of toner particles is provided on the surface thereof. An image forming surface (16), and a device (28,30) for concentrating the solid portion of the liquid toner image and removing the carrier liquid to concentrate the liquid toner image, comprising: A concentrating device (28, 30) including a device for increasing the percentage of solids between about 20% and 35%; and an intermediate transfer member (40) on which the image is transferred before the image is transferred to a final substrate. Forming the liquid toner image on the intermediate transfer member such that the toner particles and the carrier liquid comprise about 20% to 35% non-volatile solids;
A heating device for heating to a temperature at least as high as a temperature at which a single phase is formed. 17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said concentrating device is operable to provide an electric field for compacting a solid portion of said image and a mechanical pressure for removing liquid from said image. Apparatus according to any of the preceding claims. 18. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the concentrating device includes a charged squeeze roller pressed against the image forming surface. Equipment. 19. The apparatus according to any one of claims 12 to 18, wherein said% solids is less than about 30%. 20. The method according to claim 1, wherein said percent solids is about 25%.
Item 20. The apparatus according to any one of Items 12 to 19. 21. A light radiation source (29) for discharging both the image and the background area prior to transferring the image to the image transfer member. The device as described in paragraph. 22. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said light emitting source includes at least one light emitting diode. 23. Apparatus according to claim 21 or claim 22, wherein said light radiation source comprises at least two radiation sources emitting light of different colors.