JP3326702B2 - Electrophotography - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic method, and more particularly, it is particularly useful for making an electric wiring circuit for transferring a conductive toner to a specific substrate (transfer member), and of course, it can also be used for general copying. Related to electrophotography.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method for producing an electric wiring circuit, a method of printing a wiring circuit with a conductive ink on a polymer film or a ceramic substrate as an insulating substrate has been mainly used. In such a conventional printing system, a mask on which an original drawing is drawn is required to create a wiring circuit, and the manufacturing process is complicated, which has caused an increase in cost. Specifically, in a wiring pattern printing process, printing is performed using a mask for each layer, and a different mask must be created and used for a different wiring circuit.

[0003] However, it is more advantageous in terms of work and cost to perform such a circuit by an electrophotographic method than to form a wiring circuit on an insulating substrate by such a printing method. Many proposals have been made as described in the following (1) to (9). (1) Chargeable powder for wiring boards having a structure in which conductive metal particles are coated with a hot-melt resin, and a charge control agent powder is fixed to the surface of the outer wall (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-237062). (2) Chargeable particles for circuit printing in which an organoaluminum compound, a metal powder, and a charge control agent are dispersed in a resin binder (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-237063). (3) Charged particles for printing in which a metal powder and a charge control agent are dispersed in a resin that does not soften at a temperature and pressure, and the particles are coated with a resin that softens at a temperature (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-237064). (4) Sorting of charged particles is performed using a specific device. By using this, a circuit having a low resistance and a high density can be produced (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 4-237065). (5) a step of hot-melt kneading and pulverizing the conductive metal powder, the resin, and the charge control agent at least once each to obtain a first powder; and re-kneading the first powder, followed by pulverization and dispersion. A method for producing a chargeable powder for a wiring board, comprising a step of obtaining a second powder by the method (JP-A-4-237066). (6) A wiring pattern is transferred and formed on a base material using a toner composed of an active material containing a resin and a metal chloride as main components (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 54-126958). (7) A circuit board is manufactured by transferring a wiring pattern onto a substrate with a toner composed of an active material mainly composed of resin and metal chloride, and then plating the wiring pattern (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 54-126959). ). (8) 0.05 to 1.0 w of an organic solvent in an aqueous alkali solution
A 1,2-quinonediazide-based developer for radiation sensitivity to which t% is added is used. This is effective as a photoresist in an integrated circuit production process (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-15 / 1985).
8461). (9) A printed circuit board is manufactured by transferring conductive metal powder onto a flexible printed circuit board to which an adhesive has been applied (JP-A-63-88893).

[0004] Of these documents, (1) (2) (3)
(4) and (5) relate to a method for producing a dry toner using conductive metal particles. Also,
(6) The methods described in (7), (8) and (9) relate to a method for forming a wiring pattern, a method for manufacturing a circuit board, a radiation-sensitive applied developer, a printed circuit board coated with an adhesive, and the like. In these documents, there is no description about a specific transfer member as in the present invention.

Further, conventional plastic substrates and ceramic substrates have problems such as poor transfer of toner images in a transfer step in electrophotography, resulting in defects in wiring circuits and poor conduction, and in addition, resolution. And the crosstalk was also low.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks and solves the following problems (a), (b), (c) and (d).
The goal is to ensure performance. (A) To faithfully reproduce a complicated electric circuit with a high resolution of a wiring circuit. (B) To prevent conduction defects due to defects in the wiring circuit without causing transfer unevenness. (C) A wiring circuit can be created by a simpler method than the conventional printing method. (D) Both the substrate and the conductive toner have flame resistance.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an electrophotographic method which is particularly effective for producing an electric wiring circuit for developing an electrostatic latent image with a developer by an electrophotographic method and transferring the toner image to a transfer member. Further, a conductive toner image (including a wiring circuit) containing a metal or an oxide thereof is formed on a transfer member mainly containing talc and a metal silicofluoride.

[0008] Typical examples of the metal fluorosilicate in the transfer member include sodium fluorosilicate, potassium fluorosilicate, and zinc fluorosilicate. Further, the transfer member of the present invention can also be prepared by applying talc and metal silicofluoride to a required thickness on paper, plastic film, cellophane, metal surface and the like. On the other hand, typical examples of the metal or its oxide in the conductive toner include copper, copper oxide, cuprous oxide, bismuth oxide, aluminum oxide, silver vanadium, platinum, molybdenum, and tungsten. These can be used alone or as a mixture thereof.

Some of the methods for preparing the transfer member used in the method of the present invention are as follows. (Production Example 1 of Transfer Member) 85 parts by weight of talc, 12 parts by weight of sodium silicate and 3 parts by weight of magnesia chloride are mixed well, and placed in an electric furnace and heat-treated at 980 ° C. for 4 hours to obtain a powder. Was. After dissolving and dispersing 15 parts by weight of the heat-treated powder in 85 parts by weight of water, the mixture was placed in a mold to obtain a transfer member containing water. This is dried at 60 ° C. to 100 ° C., and a transfer member (thickness of about 60 μm,
A smoothness of 87 and an electric resistance of 3 × 10 ¹⁴ Ω · cm) were obtained. In addition, the smoothness was measured by Oken-type smoothness tester (Kumagaya Riki Co., Ltd., KY
-55) (the same applies hereinafter).

(Transfer Member Production Example-2) A transfer member (about 72 μm thick, smoothness 32, electric resistance 1) was prepared in the same manner as in Production Example 1 except that calcium silicate was used instead of sodium silicate. 0.5 × 10 ¹⁴ Ω · cm).

The electrophotographic toner used in the method of the present invention includes a dry electrophotographic toner and a wet electrophotographic toner, and the use of a wet toner is desirable. The developer contains a metal or an oxide thereof and a resin as main components. In some cases, a charge control agent and a dispersion medium are added and kneaded to adjust the toner particle diameter to 0.01 to 10 μm, preferably 0.1 to 5 μm. And This is to increase the resolution and transferability. In the case of a dry toner, the particle size is 3 to 15 μm, preferably 5 to 10 μm.
μm.

The transfer member according to the present invention is made of talc and metal silicofluoride, has a high electric resistance, improves the transferability of the conductive toner, and provides high resolution. Also,
The metal or metal oxide of the conductive toner according to the present invention is desirably 0.01 to 10 parts by weight per 1 part by weight of the resin.
If it is less than 0.01 part, the conductivity becomes insufficient, and if it is more than 10 parts by weight, the resolution is reduced. Also, the adhesiveness between the toner layer and the transfer member is poor. The transfer member and the toner according to the present invention both have an advantage that they do not burn even at a high temperature. Of course, the conductive toner in the method of the present invention may be used for ordinary image copying.

[0013]

Next, the method of the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to examples.

Example 1 100 parts by weight of nickel powder and stearyl methacrylate
100 parts by weight of methacrylic acid copolymer, Isopar L50
0 parts by weight was dispersed with a homomixer for 3 hours to prepare a wet toner. Using a wet electrophotographic copying machine (Ricoh 5085, manufactured by Ricoh Co., Ltd.), a copy was formed on the transfer member obtained in Production-1. The resolution is 5.6 lines / m
m, electric resistivity (value measured according to JIS C-3001, the same applies hereinafter) was 12.4 μ · Ω · cm, and had a function as an electric wiring circuit.

Example 2 A conductive toner was prepared in Example 1 using copper powder instead of nickel powder. Subsequently, a copy was made in the same manner as in Example 1. The resolution of this is 6.3 lines / mm,
The electric resistivity was 3.2 μ · Ω · cm, and had a function as an electric wiring circuit. Also, the quality was practically acceptable even when used for general copying.

Example 3 10 parts by weight of tungsten powder, methyl methacrylate /
2-ethylhexyl methacrylate / maleic acid = 50
500 parts by weight of a / 40/10 (wt%) copolymer and 500 parts by weight of Shell sol 71 were charged into an attritor and dispersed at 250 ° C. for 4 hours to produce a wet toner. Production example with electrophotographic copying machine (Recopy 5085)
The copy was made on the same transfer member used in Example 1. This has a resolution of 7.9 lines / mm and an electrical resistivity of 1.8 μΩ · c.
m, it had a sufficient function as an electric wiring circuit.

Example 4 In Example 3, the transfer member of Production Example 2 was used instead of the transfer member of Production Example 1. As a result, the resolution was 5.6 lines / mm, the electric resistivity was 2.4 μΩ · cm, and the film had a function as an electric wiring circuit.

Example 5 350 parts by weight of an ethylene / butyl methacrylate = 80/20 (wt%) copolymer was kneaded with 100 parts by weight of silver vanadium powder in a kneader at 120 ° C., and then kneaded with two rollers.
At 2 ° C. for 2 hours, pulverized to an average particle size of about 5.2 μm.
m of dry conductive toner was prepared. Using an electrophotographic copying machine (Ricoh 4060, manufactured by Ricoh Co.), the image was copied on the same transfer member as in Production Example 1, and the resolution was 6.3 lines / m.
m, the electric resistivity was 1.2 μΩcm, and it had a sufficient function as an electric wiring circuit.

Example 6 In Example 5, the transfer member of Production Example 2 was used in place of the transfer member of Production Example 1. As a result, the resolution was 5.0 lines / mm, the electrical resistivity was 1.9 μΩcm, and the device could be used as an electric wiring circuit. In addition, it was recognized that even a general copy had a good image and did not burn even when put into a fire.

[0020]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a printed circuit board having a particularly high resolution and a low electric resistivity can be produced. According to the invention of claim 2, further improvement in resolution is recognized. According to the third aspect of the present invention, the use of the developer containing a metal or a metal oxide makes it possible to produce a printed circuit board having a low electric resistivity.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Hidemi Uematsu 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Company, Limited (56) References JP-A-4-237063 (JP, A) JP-A-Hei 4-237062 (JP, A) JP-A-4-346359 (JP, A) JP-A-56-135846 (JP, A) JP-A-57-43493 (JP, A) JP-A-5-80578 (JP, A) A) JP-A-5-19522 (JP, A) JP-A-61-35590 (JP, A) JP-A-61-110486 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) ) H05K 3/12 G03G 9/08 G03G 13/16

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. An electrophotographic method in which an electrostatic latent image is visualized with a conductive toner and the image is transferred to a transfer member, wherein the toner includes a metal or an oxide thereof.
An electrophotographic method, wherein a material mainly composed of talc and a metal silicofluoride is used as the transfer member. 2. The electrophotographic method according to claim 1, wherein the metal silicate is at least one of sodium silicate, potassium silicate, and zinc silicate. 3. The developer according to claim 1, wherein the metal or the oxide thereof is copper,
2. The electrophotographic method according to claim 1, wherein the electrophotographic method is selected from copper oxide, cuprous oxide, bismuth oxide, aluminum oxide, silver vanadium, platinum, molybdenum and tungsten, or a mixture thereof.