JP3285688B2 - Image carrier processing method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image carrier for removing an image forming material from an image carrier stably adhered by an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile, a printer or a printing machine. More specifically, the present invention relates to a processing method and an apparatus therefor. More specifically, when there is an image that may be abused, such as a seal imprint, on an image holding object to be processed, an image holding member capable of performing effective processing for preventing abuse is provided. The present invention relates to a processing method and an apparatus therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various methods and apparatuses for removing an image forming substance such as toner from a sheet as a recorded image holding member are known. For example, a method using a solvent is disclosed in
No. 1576 discloses that a sheet with toner attached thereto is immersed in a soluble solvent of a toner resin, and ultrasonic vibration is applied thereto.
There is disclosed a method for removing an image forming substance that releases toner dissolved in a solvent from the paper surface. Further, as a method without using a solvent, for example, JP-A-2-55195 discloses a hot-melt ink or toner which is placed on a print obtained by applying a release agent on a support by electrophotography or thermal transfer. An image forming substance removing method is disclosed in which an ink peeling member is overlapped on the printed body, passed between a heating roller and a pressure roller, cooled, and then peeled off, whereby the ink peeling member is attached to and removed from the ink peeling member. ing.

[0003] Further, the applicant of the present invention has previously reported that a water-containing solution, an aqueous solution containing a surfactant,
An aqueous solution containing a water-soluble polymer, and at least one kind of water or an aqueous solution selected from the group consisting of an aqueous solution containing a surfactant and a water-soluble polymer are held, and a peeling member is interposed therebetween to peel off the image forming substance. A method for removing an image forming substance which is separated from an image carrier by heating or pressure bonding to a member has been proposed (for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 4-255916).
No.).

[0004]

Here, depending on the method and apparatus for removing the image-forming substance from the image carrier, it may be stamped with a vermilion mark, a shachihata (trade name) mark, a felt-tip pen, a ball-point pen, a pencil, a red pen, or the like. If the image is formed with a colored pencil or the like, the image forming substance which forms the image by the imprint or the writing may not be removed and may remain on the image carrier. For example, it is difficult to remove these image forming substances by the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 4-255916. However, other images such as imprints made of such difficult-to-remove image forming substances are removed by the above-described method, leaving only imprints and the like on the processed image carrier. obtain.
Then, there arises a possibility that a security problem occurs, or an image carrier in which an unremoved image such as an imprint, a signature, or the like remains is intentionally misused (altered or forged).

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object the misuse or misuse of an image carrier in which an unremoved image remains, and the abuse of an unremoved image such as a seal, a signature, or the like. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for processing an image carrier, which can prevent the occurrence of an image.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is directed to a removing step for removing an image forming substance from an image carrier, and before or after the removing step. After the processing step, a determining step of determining whether an image having a specific feature is formed on the image carrier,
And a discarding step of processing the image carrier so as to be in an unusable state when it is determined in the determining step that an image having a specific feature is formed. .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the method for processing an image carrier according to the second aspect, the determination step is performed before the removal processing step, and an image having specific characteristics is formed in the determination step. If it is determined that the discarding process is performed, the discarding process is performed without performing the removing process.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming substance removing unit for removing an image forming substance from an image carrier, and the removing process is performed before or after the removing process is performed by the image forming material removing unit. Detecting means for detecting whether or not an image having a specific characteristic is present on the image carrier, discarding processing means for processing the image carrier so as to be unusable, and Control means for activating the disposal means when an image having a specific characteristic is detected.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the apparatus for processing an image carrier of the third aspect, the detecting means is configured to detect the image carrier before the removal processing by the image forming substance removing means is performed. And a control unit for prohibiting the operation of the image forming material removing unit when the image having the specific characteristic is detected by the detecting unit.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the apparatus for processing an image carrier according to the third or fourth aspect, the image forming substance removing means comprises:
Destabilizing agent applying means for applying a destabilizing agent to the image holding member to make the state of adhesion between the image holding member and the image forming material unstable, and the image forming material in the unstable state And a peeling means for peeling off the image forming substance from the image holding member by bringing a peeling member into contact therewith.

[0011]

In the present invention, it is determined whether or not an image having a specific feature is formed on the image carrier before or after the removal processing step. Specific features include a seal and a seal that encloses, for example, the character “secret” indicating a secret document, and a feature of an image that is easily misused, such as a handwritten signature. Then, when it is determined in the determination step that an image having a specific feature is formed, processing is performed so that the image carrier becomes unusable. An image carrier determined that an image having such specific characteristics is not formed can be reused after the removal processing.

In particular, the above-mentioned removal treatment is performed by applying a destabilizing agent to the image holding member by a destabilizing agent providing means to make the state of adhesion between the image holding member and the image forming substance unstable. Bringing the release member into contact with the image forming substance in a stable state,
When the image forming substance is peeled off from the image carrier, the image forming substance can be satisfactorily removed from the image carrier.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention is applied to an image holding apparatus for removing a heat-fusible toner (hereinafter, referred to as a toner) as an image forming substance from a transfer paper as an image holding body on which an image is formed by a transfer type electrophotographic copying machine. An embodiment applied to an apparatus for removing an image forming substance from a body (hereinafter, referred to as a toner removing apparatus) will be described.

First, an outline of a toner removing apparatus according to an embodiment will be described. In FIG. 1A, the toner removing device includes a paper feed unit 20 that separates and feeds, one by one, transfer papers 10 on which a toner image stored in a stacked state is formed.
A liquid supply unit 30 for supplying a liquid to the transfer paper 10 sent from the paper supply unit 20, a toner release unit 40 as a release unit for releasing the toner from the transfer paper 10 to which the liquid has been supplied, A drying unit 60 for drying the removed transfer paper 10 and a paper receiving unit 70 for receiving the transfer paper 10 discharged from the drying unit 60 are provided.

The paper feed unit 20 feeds the transfer paper 10 stacked on the paper feed table 21 from the bottom, with the surface on which the toner image is formed (hereinafter referred to as the toner image surface) facing downward. And send it out. Since the specific configuration and operation are the same as those of the paper feeding mechanism in the electrophotographic copying machine,
Detailed description is omitted.

The liquid supply unit 30 includes water as a destabilizing agent, an aqueous solution containing a surfactant for improving the permeability of water to the transfer paper 10, and the close contact between the toner on the paper and the release member. A liquid container 32 for containing a liquid, such as an aqueous solution containing a water-soluble polymer for improving the property, an activator and an aqueous solution containing the water-soluble polymer, is supplied to the transfer paper 10. An application roller 33 that is provided so as to be partially submerged in the liquid in the container 32 and that draws up the liquid by rotation and supplies it to the toner image surface of the transfer paper 10, and faces the application roller 33 across the paper transport path. And a regulating roller 34 for regulating the vertical position of the paper provided as described above. As the application roller 33, a material having a liquid retaining property, for example, a roller made of a hydrophilic porous material or sponge, a roller made of an elastic material such as rubber, or a rigid material such as metal can be used.

The toner peeling unit 40 includes a plurality of belt support rollers (hereinafter, referred to as support rollers) 41 and 4.
A toner offset belt (hereinafter referred to as an offset belt) 44 as a peeling member wound around the belts 2 and 43
And upper and lower heating rollers 45 with built-in heating lamps provided so as to press against each other with the offset belt 44 interposed therebetween.
46 and a belt cleaning device not shown. At least the surface of the offset belt 44 is formed of a material having an adhesive force to the softened toner that is greater than the adhesive force between the surface of the transfer paper 10 and the toner. For example, the belt itself is formed of a metal material such as aluminum, copper, or nickel, or a polymer material such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in which titanium oxide is dispersed.

Among the support rollers for supporting the offset belt 44, a support roller (hereinafter, referred to as a separation roller) 43 around which a belt portion having passed through the pressurizing portions of the upper and lower heating rollers 45 and 46 is wound. A small diameter paper is used to separate the transfer paper 10 from the
Further, a tension roller 49 is also provided.

The drying unit 60 includes, for example, the transfer paper 1
The transfer paper 10 is dried so that the liquid holding amount of 0 is 10% or less of the paper weight. The transfer paper 10 is wound around a heating drum 61 made of, for example, aluminum with a built-in heating lamp 61a and a plurality of support rollers 62. A paper pressing belt 63 that moves endlessly while being wound around the peripheral surface of the heating drum 61 at a fixed angle.
It is composed of In the illustrated example, one support roller 62 also serves as a tension roller. As the material of the paper pressing belt 63, a material having heat resistance and air permeability, for example, cloth such as canvas, cotton, and tetron can be used.

In the above-described configuration, the transfer paper 10 sent from the paper supply unit 20 is supplied with the liquid uniformly on the toner image surface by the liquid supply unit 30, and the toner separation unit 4
Sent to 0. In the toner peeling unit 40, the toner fixed to the transfer paper 10 is softened by heating from the heating rollers 45 and 46, and adheres to the surface of the offset belt 44. When the transfer paper 10 is separated from the offset belt 44 around the separation roller 43, the offset belt 4
4 The toner adhered to the surface is peeled off from the transfer paper 10, whereby the toner is removed from the transfer paper 10. The transfer paper 10 from which the toner has been removed is dried in the drying unit 61,
The paper is discharged to the paper receiving unit 70.

According to the above configuration, the liquid is supplied to the transfer paper 10 to which the toner has adhered, and the toner is peeled off in a state where the liquid has penetrated into the interface of the transfer paper 10 with the toner, thereby damaging the paper fibers. Without removing the toner.

The toner removing device according to this embodiment includes:
In order to prevent an image such as an imprint from remaining on the transfer paper 10 after the toner removal process and being misused, the transfer paper 1
An image detection sensor 80 for detecting an image on the image No. 0 and a cutting unit 90 as a discard processing device are provided. Specifically, the image detection sensor 80 is arranged so as to be able to detect an image of the transfer paper 10 being conveyed along the conveyance path between the paper supply unit 20 and the liquid supply unit 30, and the image detection sensor 80 And liquid supply unit 30
Deflection claw 9 as a conveyance path switching means in the conveyance path between
1a is provided, and the transfer paper, the conveyance direction of which is switched toward the cutting unit 90 by the deflection claw 91a, is
A conveyance roller pair group 91 that conveys to 0 is provided.

As the image detection sensor 80, for example, a CCD sensor having a length corresponding to the width of the recording paper can be used. Instead of detecting the image on the transfer paper 10 before the toner removal processing is performed by the liquid supply unit 30 and the like, the image on the transfer paper 10 after the toner removal processing is performed is detected. When an image having a specific feature is detected by this detection, the transfer paper may be conveyed to the cutting unit 90 therefrom.

As the cutting unit 90, a unit similar to a normal shredder can be used. That is, for example, it is composed of a cutting blade 92 that rotates as shown in the figure and a storage container 93 that receives and stores cut pieces of transfer paper cut by the cutting blade.

A control unit (not shown) determines the presence or absence of a specific feature such as a seal by using the signal of the image detection sensor 80, and removes toner by using the determination result of the determination unit. Control means for controlling the operation of the entire apparatus are configured. As the determination logic of this determination means, in the case of sealing, it is possible to use a logic for determining whether there is a red or substantially circular or elliptical figure such as vermilion. In the case of a signature, it is usually within a certain length range, and if the character is legible, it is judged to be a signature, and conversely, if it is within a certain length range and it is not legible, it is regarded as a signature. To judge. In the case of the former, a dictionary for personal names is recorded in memory in advance,
By comparing with this, it may be determined whether the name is a personal name or not, and if it is a personal name, it may be determined that the signature is a signature. Further, both determination logics may be used in combination.

For example, the presence or absence of a circular or elliptical figure
When judging the presence or absence of the seal,
Turn data is used as a pattern registration unit, for example, ROM
(Read only memory) beforehand.
Digital image data from the image reading device 15;
The judgment circuit is used as a comparison circuit to compare with the pattern data.
The road 19 can be configured. Consider whether the color of the seal is reddish or not
If the image reading device 15
Output color image data using CCD
In addition, color data to be used as a red system color
The pattern is registered in the comparison circuit, for example.
The color of the image extracted as matching the data and the ROM
Is configured to compare with the color data registered in
You.

For example, as a logic circuit configuration of such determination means, a technology for preventing illegal copying, for example, a logic circuit configuration of a determination circuit for recognizing and determining a seal of a bill can be used. However, when detecting the image on the transfer paper after removing the toner as described above, unlike detecting a seal embedded in a complicated figure such as a bill, most of the image is erased and only the seal is detected. In many cases, the presence or absence of a seal or a signature is detected under a special situation that a memo remains, so that it is not necessary to be as complicated as a determination circuit for recognizing and determining the seal of a bill.

FIG. 1B is a flowchart of control using the result of image detection using the image detection sensor 80. After the paper is fed by the paper feed unit 20 (step 1),
A signal from the image detection sensor 80 that the transfer paper 10 can pass through is read (step 2), and using the signal, whether or not an image having important sign features such as imprints and signatures is formed by the determination means. It is determined whether or not it is (step 3). Here, when it is determined that such an image is not formed (N in step 3), the liquid supply unit 3
0, a toner removing process for passing the toner through the toner peeling unit 40 and the drying unit 63 is executed (step 4), and the sheet is discharged to the sighting unit 70 (step 5). on the other hand,
If it is determined that an image having the above characteristics is formed (Y in step 3), the direction of the deflection claw 91a is switched to direct the transfer paper to the conveying roller pair group 91 and the operation of the shredder (shredder). Is started, and the transfer paper sent to the cutting unit 90 is cut and collected in the storage container 93 (step 7).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, whether or not an image such as a seal is formed on a transfer sheet is detected by using the image detection sensor 80, and if the image is formed, the transfer sheet is detected. Since only the cutting process is performed without performing the toner removal process, misuse such as imprinting can be prevented, and unnecessary operation of the device unit for the toner removal process can be omitted. Therefore, useless consumption of the liquid 31, for example, can be prevented, and useless deterioration of the offset belt 44 can be prevented.

[0030]

According to the first to fifth aspects of the present invention, an image carrier determined to have an image having a specific feature such as an imprint is processed so as to be in an unusable state. In addition, there is an effect that misuse or erroneous discard of the image carrier on which the unremoved image remains, and abuse of the unremoved image such as an imprint and a signature can be prevented.

In particular, according to the second or fourth aspect of the present invention, the above-mentioned determination is performed before the removal processing, and when it is determined that an image having a specific feature is formed, Since the discarding process is performed without performing the removing process, there is an effect that execution of useless removing process can be prevented.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the state of adhesion between the image holding member and the image forming material is set to an unstable state, and then the peeling member is brought into contact with the image forming material. Since the image forming substance is peeled off and the image forming substance is removed from the image holding member, the image forming substance can be satisfactorily removed from the image holding member.
For example, even when the image forming substance is removed from the image carrier having a fibrous surface such as paper, the effect of reducing the damage to the fibers on the surface can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a schematic configuration diagram of a toner removing device according to an embodiment. (B) is a flowchart of control of the device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Transfer paper 30 Liquid supply unit 40 Toner peeling unit 44 Offset belt 60 Drying unit 70 Paper receiving unit 80 Image detection sensor 90 Cutting unit 91a Deflection claw 92 Cutting blade

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A removing step for removing an image forming substance from an image carrier, and an image having specific characteristics is formed on the image carrier before or after the removing step. A discriminating step of judging whether or not the image carrier has been formed, and a discarding step of treating the image carrier so as to be unusable when it is determined that an image having a specific feature is formed in the judging step. And a method for processing an image carrier. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining step is performed before the removing step, and when it is determined in the determining step that an image having a specific characteristic is formed, the removing step is not performed. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a discarding process is performed. 3. An image forming substance removing means for removing an image forming substance from an image carrier, and an image holding means before or after the removing processing by the image forming substance removing means is performed. Detecting means for detecting whether or not there is an image having a specific feature on the body; disposal processing means for processing the image carrier so as to be unusable; and having the specific feature by the detecting means. A processing unit for operating the disposal processing unit when an image is detected. 4. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said detecting means is configured to detect the image carrier before the removal processing is performed by said image forming substance removing means, and said detecting means detects an image having said specific characteristic. 4. An apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising control means for prohibiting the operation of said image forming substance removing means when said operation is performed. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said image-forming substance removing means applies a destabilizing agent to said image-holding member, said destabilizing agent causing said image-holding material to adhere to said image-forming material in an unstable state. 5. An image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said image forming material is in an unstable state, and said image forming material is separated from said image holding member. Image carrier processing equipment.