JP3437210B2 - Image forming method, image forming apparatus and transparent film - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

The present invention relates to an image formed on a transparent film as a transparent recording medium for projection by an overhead projector (OHP), which can be used in image forming apparatuses such as electrophotography, electrostatic recording and thermal transfer recording. The present invention relates to an image forming method for forming an image, an image forming apparatus, and a transparent film used therefor, more specifically, a marking for optically detecting the position of the transparent film in the image forming apparatus, or the image forming apparatus. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an image forming method and an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a transparent film having an opaque portion which serves as a marking for optically detecting the conveyed state of the transparent film inside, and a transparent film used for them.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Forming an image on an OHP sheet with a recording apparatus such as electrophotography, ink jet, and thermal transfer recording has been widely used, and it is considered that its importance will increase more and more in the future.

As an OHP sheet, generally 100-
A resin sheet such as PET having a thickness of about 150 μm is often used, and a desired recording image holding layer is provided on the resin sheet for the purpose of improving the fixing property, the holding property or the resolution of the image as necessary. ing.

For the purpose of using the opaque recording paper in the image forming apparatus, an opaque mark is previously provided on the transparent film, and the opaque mark is detected by the optical sensor of the image forming apparatus to make it transparent. The detection of the position of the film is often performed.

Further, opaque ink is often used as an instruction to show the user how to use the transparent film, such as the method of inserting the transparent film into the image forming apparatus.

The fixing roller 31 is a metal pipe whose surface is coated with silicon rubber and fluororubber, and the pressure roller 32 is a metal roller whose surface is coated with silicon rubber and is attached to the surface. Thermistor 3
6 and a temperature control circuit (not shown)
a and 32b are controlled, and the surface temperature is controlled to a constant value suitable for fixing. The oil applying device 33 moves the silicon oil in the oil sump 33a toward the applying roller 33d via the scooping rollers 33b and 33c, abuts on, separates from, and can rotate the fixing roller 31. Silicon oil is applied onto 31 and the application amount is controlled by the control blade 33e.

The cleaning devices 34 and 35 are cleaning webs 34a and 3 which are strip-shaped cleaning members.
5a, pressing rollers 34b and 35b for pressing the cleaning webs 34a and 35a against the fixing roller 31 or the pressure roller 32, and cleaning webs 34a and 3
Unwinding rollers 34c and 35c for feeding 5a
And the take-up rollers 34d and 35d for sequentially taking up the cleaning webs 34a and 35a whose cleaning ability has deteriorated and which have been used.
Since the toner is more likely to adhere to the fixing roller 31 side than the pressure roller 32, the cleaning web 35a on the pressure roller 32 side is made of a felt using a non-woven fabric of a normal aromatic polyamideimide. On the other hand, the cleaning web 34a on the fixing roller 31 side is
The felt is composed of a web having a large cleaning ability, which is obtained by electrolytically plating nickel on the contact surface side of the felt with the fixing roller 31.

When the recording material S carrying the toner image T on the fixing roller 31 side is conveyed toward the fixing device 30, the applying roller 33d of the oil applying device 33 comes into contact with the fixing roller 31. Silicon oil is applied to the fixing roller 31. Then, when the recording material S is conveyed while being sandwiched between the fixing roller 31 and the pressure roller 32, the toner image T on the recording material S is heated and pressed during that time and melted and fixed on the recording material S. Is established.

However, since the opaque mark for detecting the position of the transparent film remains after the image formation, it remains as an image unrelated to the recorded image.
When projected with, the image is extremely unsightly, and further, there is a problem that the image becomes invisible when it overlaps with the recorded image.

Conventionally, in an apparatus such as an electrophotographic apparatus which forms an image on a recording material such as a plain paper or a resin film with ink particles having a coloring material such as a toner, the conveyance status of the recording material inside the apparatus is monitored. It is equipped with a so-called jam detection sensor for doing so, and it can be said that such a sensor is essential for the purpose of early detection of a paper jam called JAM and preventing damage to the machine caused thereby.

Such a jam detection sensor can be easily installed by a combination of a mechanical lever and a photo coupler if the recording material conveying path in the apparatus is a simple one such as a substantially straight line. Is.

However, in recent years, in the image forming apparatus as described above, the recording material conveying path has become complicated due to the downsizing of the machine or the multifunctionalization thereof. In addition, due to the diversification of the types of recording materials used, it is possible to directly control the transport status of recording materials from mechanical sensors to optical sensors, that is, by optical reflection and transmission of the recording materials. We are heading towards sensors that can detect.

In the case of directly detecting the optical light reflection and the light transmission of the recording material as described above, it is difficult to detect with a transparent film such as used for OHP. Therefore, a part of the transparent film is printed for detection. (Marking) is performed to form an opaque portion.

However, even when these films, which are printed for optically detecting the conveying condition of the recording material inside the apparatus, are projected by OHP,
This printed portion (mark) itself is also projected, which is very unsightly. Further, there is a disadvantage that an image cannot be formed on the opaque portion where the printing for detection is performed.

On the other hand, a proposal has been made to attach a peelable opaque member for detection, which can detect the conveying condition, to a part of a transparent film as a marking, and peel off the marking before use. There is.

However, this method has a problem that the film may be broken or scratched unless the user carefully peels it off when the opaque member is peeled off.

Further, there is a problem that glue for adhering an opaque member for detection may remain on the film, and a dirty image is presented when projected by OHP.

As an example of a general image forming apparatus, FIG.
A laser beam printer capable of forming a full-color image shown in 6 will be described.

The printer has four image forming stations each having a charging device, a developing device, a cleaning device, and a scanning optical device around a photosensitive drum as an image carrier, and a recording material is moved to each image forming station. A transfer device that transfers the toner image from the photosensitive drum to the transfer device, a paper feeding device that supplies the recording material to the transfer device, and a fixing device that fixes the toner image on the recording material. There is.
Each of the magenta, cyan, yellow, and black image forming stations PM, PC, PY, and PK has a photosensitive drum 410M, 410C, 41 that rotates in a predetermined direction.
0Y and 410K are provided, and the photosensitive drums 410M,
Charger 411 around 410C, 410Y and 410K
M, 411C, 411Y and 411K, scanning optical device 4
12M, 412C, 412Y and 412K, developing unit 41
3M, 413C, 413Y and 413K, and cleaning devices 414M, 414C, 414Y and 414K are arranged, respectively.

The transfer device moves in the direction of the arrow in the figure to transfer the recording material S to the photosensitive drums 410M, 410C, 410Y and 410K of the image stations PM, PC, PY and PK.
Endless transfer belt 420, which is moved toward, and the photosensitive drums 410M and 410M via the transfer belt 420.
It is formed by transfer chargers 421M, 421C, 421Y and 421K arranged below C, 410Y and 410K. The sheet feeding device includes a sheet feeding cassette 422, a sheet feeding roller 423, and a registration roller 424.

That is, in the magenta image station PM, when the photosensitive drum 410M uniformly charged by the charger 411M is exposed to the magenta image light L from the scanning optical device 412M, a magenta image is formed on the photosensitive drum 410M. An electrostatic latent image is formed. The electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing device 413M having magenta toner,
It is visualized as a magenta toner image. The toner image is transferred onto the transfer sheet S on the transfer belt 420 via the transfer charger 421M, and the photosensitive drum 410 after the transfer is completed.
The residual toner of M is cleaned by the cleaning device 414M and is prepared for the next image formation.

Similarly, in the other cyan, yellow, and black image forming stations PC, PY, and PK, a cyan image, a yellow image, and a black image are formed on the photosensitive drums 410C, 410Y, and 410K with a slight time lag from each other. An image toner image is formed, and the toner images are sequentially and multiple-transferred onto the recording material S on the transfer belt 420 via transfer chargers 414C, 414Y, and 414K.

On the other hand, the recording material S in the paper feeding cassette 422 is taken out one by one by the paper feeding roller 423 and then sent to the registration roller 424, and the registration roller 424.
After being timed, the sheet is conveyed onto the transfer belt 420. The transfer sheet S positioned and supported on the transfer belt 420 is moved by the transfer belt 420 toward the photosensitive drums 410M, 410C, 410Y and 410K of the image forming stations PM, PC, PY and PK, respectively. Photosensitive drums 410M, 410C, 410
After receiving the toner images transferred from Y and 410K, the toner images are sent to the fixing device 430, and the fixing device 430 fixes the toner images transferred in multiple.

As shown in FIG. 35, the fixing device 430 has halogen heaters 431a and 43 as heat sources inside.
A fixing roller 431 having 2a and rotating in pressure contact with each other.
And a pressure roller 432, an oil application device 433 for applying silicone oil as a release agent to the fixing roller 431, and cleaning devices 434 and 435 for cleaning the toner attached around the fixing roller 431 and the pressure roller 432. Has been done.

When an image is formed on the transparent film by the image forming apparatus as described above, a mechanical type, a light reflection and a light transmission sensor are used at the time of feeding the film.
A mechanical type is not used for a conveyance failure during the process of forming an unfixed image on a transfer belt, and therefore a light reflection or light transmission sensor is often used. When a recording material coated with a specific function-imparting coating layer only on one side is used in order to obtain a recording material having high image quality and high function at low cost, the image forming apparatus requires front and back detecting means. As for the detection means at this time, some sensors are required as in the case of the paper feeding. As described above, if the recording material itself is completely transparent to the recording material for which various detecting means are required, the optical sensor cannot be used. In order to solve this, the shape of the recording material is made asymmetrical, front and back detection is performed, printing is performed on the non-image area of the recording material, or paper or film is pasted to create an optically asymmetrical shape. It was

For example, as an example of a conventional transparent film, as shown in FIG. 34, a gray print having a width of about 10 mm is applied to one end of the recording material in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction from the center to either the left or the right. Things are used. In this printing, the transmittance of infrared light having a wavelength of 800 to 1000 nm is 10% or less. As a result, light having a wavelength of 800 to 1000 nm is hardly transmitted through the width of about 10 mm on either side of the recording material, which makes it possible to detect the recording material.

A case where a transparent film as shown in FIG. 34 is detected by using a recording material detecting means as shown in FIG. 33 will be described. FIG. 33 shows a recording material detecting means having a mechanical sensor 434 and a light transmission type optical sensor (a light emitting element 444 and a light receiving element 445). In FIG. 33, before the transparent film shown in FIG. 34 is fed and passes the registration roller 446, the mechanical sensor 443 is tilted by the conveying force of the recording material, and it is detected here that the paper is fed. At the same time, the recording material is conveyed between the light emitting element 444 and the light receiving element 445 of the light transmissive optical sensor, so that the front and back sides and the type of the recording material are detected.

For example, the light from the light emitting element 444 that has reached the light receiving element 445 is conveyed to the recording material, reflected by the gray printing portion, and after not reaching the light receiving element 445, after a certain period of time, the transparent laminated portion of the recording material is changed again. Light receiving element 4 through
When the number reaches 45, the image formation on the regular transparent laminated film is detected, and when the front and back sides of the recording material are opposite, the printing section does not pass the optical sensor section, so that light is always transmitted to the light receiving element 445. And the opposite is detected. Further, the light is constantly reflected and the light receiving element 44
If it does not reach 5, it can be judged as plain paper. Thus, conventionally, the front and back of the transparent film and the type of the recording material have been detected.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, since the front and back detection marks remain after the image is output, there is a problem that the handleability and the aesthetics at the time of viewing the image are impaired.

Further, as the translucent recording material used in the above-mentioned image forming apparatus, in addition to the OPH film,
A recording material (so-called label paper) or a semi-sticker which is capable of sticking the film on the recording surface side after the image recording by applying the heat-resistant binder between the two films and applying the binder. Transparent film A recording material for electric decoration that allows light to be projected from the opposite side to the visual direction of the image formed, and a layer for holding an image forming agent (developer) on a transparent (or colored) base material film. There is a large number of recording materials on which a mirror image of the desired image is formed and which is viewed from the opposite side.

When an optical sensor is used as the means for detecting the size of the translucent recording material, some special mark is previously provided for each size of the translucent recording material.
Further, in order to determine the size only by the mechanical sensor, a part of the translucent recording material is changed to a special shape, or the number of sensors equal to the number of kinds of the size of the recording material is provided. It was Further, a method of manually inputting the size of the translucent recording material to the operation panel without using a sensor has been used.

However, since the translucent recording material such as the above-mentioned OHP film allows light to pass therethrough, the front and back sides and the position thereof are detected by the optical detecting means generally used in the case of paper. There was a problem that it was difficult to do.

That is, since the image formation on the translucent recording material is usually not performed on the back surface thereof but only on the front surface thereof,
Some surfaces have been subjected to special processing such as coating. In this case, it is necessary to identify the front and back.
In order to accurately maintain the position of image formation on the translucent recording material, it is indispensable to supply the transparent film at an accurate timing when the toner image is transferred. If the recording material is paper, there is often no need to distinguish between the front and back.
An optical sensor is used to detect the position effectively by utilizing the fact that the paper blocks the light. However, this is not possible with a translucent recording material that allows light to pass through. As measures against this, for example, a transparent film is formed asymmetrically and detected by a mechanical sensor, or a mark that can be detected by an optical sensor is provided on the transparent film. In case of forming asymmetrically, the transparent film requires extra processing, the detection accuracy is low, and if the transparent film has a mark that can be detected by an optical sensor, the final product In addition, there was a problem that unnecessary and rather harmful marks remained.

[0034]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming method, an image forming apparatus and a transparent film which solve the above problems.

That is, according to the present invention, even when an image is formed on a transparent film, a high-quality transparent recorded image in which an unnecessary opaque portion other than the formed image is not present in the obtained transparent film is obtained. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming method and an image forming apparatus capable of performing the same, and a transparent film as a recording material used therefor.

[0036]

The above objects can be achieved by the following constitution of the present invention.

[0037]

The present invention optically detects the opaque portion of a transparent film constituted by an optically transparent sheet-like member having an opaque portion due to diffused reflection in at least a part thereof, and the surface of the transparent film. An image forming method in which an image is formed on the upper surface and the opaque portion is made transparent by heating.
Ri, opaque portions by the irregular reflection has a release agent absorbing layer formed on the resin layer and the resin layer having a porous structure, the light by heating a resin layer having a porous structure The present invention relates to an image forming method characterized by making transparent by reducing irregular reflection.

[0039]

Further, the present invention is an optically transparent sheet having at least a portion of an opaque portion due to diffuse reflection having a resin layer having a porous structure and a release agent absorbing layer formed on the resin layer. A detection means for optically detecting the opaque portion of the transparent film formed by a sheet-shaped member, an image forming means for forming an image on the surface of the transparent film, and a resin layer having the porous structure. An image forming apparatus having a transparentizing means for making transparent by reducing diffuse reflection of light by heating.
Te, opaque portions by the irregular reflection has a release agent absorbing layer formed on the resin layer and the resin layer having a porous structure, and, to the resin layer is heated with a porous structure The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, which is made transparent by reducing diffused reflection of light.

[0041]

[0042] Further, the present invention is a transparent film composed of an optically transparent sheet member having at least a portion of the opaque portion by irregular reflection, opaque portions by said Ranhan <br/> morphism Has a resin layer having a porous structure and a release agent absorbing layer formed on the resin layer , and heating the resin layer having the porous structure reduces diffused reflection of light. The present invention relates to a transparent film for image formation, which is intended to be transparent.

In the transparent film of the present invention, an opaque portion (mark) is provided on at least a part of the transparent sheet-like member, and the opaque mark is detected by the optical detecting means of the image forming apparatus. It is possible to detect the position of the film, the front and back, and the transport status. Further, the opaque portion (mark) can instruct the user how to insert the film.

Further, since the transparent film of the present invention makes the opaque portion provided on at least a part of the transparent sheet-like member transparent by heating, when the image-formed transparent film is actually projected by OHP. The opaque portion (mark) does not appear as an image in the image.

As a first embodiment of the transparent film of the present invention, a transparent film capable of separating and removing an opaque portion of an optically transparent sheet-like member by heating will be described.

As the opaque portion which can be separated and removed by heating used in the transparent film of the present invention, the opaque portion which can be thermally separated and removed and which is opaque on at least a part of the transparent sheet-shaped member is used. Any opaque member capable of forming the above may be used.

As one example, for example, a polyester resin or ester wax having a relatively low melting point and a low viscosity at a relatively low temperature in which a colored pigment or dye is dispersed, or carnauba wax and ester wax. Preferably, a metal foil such as an aluminum foil is laminated on the layer of the mixture to form the opaque portion. Using these opaque members, the desired opaque parts (marks) on the transparent sheet
If you provide the detection of the position of the transparent sheet,
The user can be instructed how to use the sheet, such as how to insert it.

On the other hand, in such an opaque member, the resin is easily softened by heating, and the viscosity becomes low to produce tackiness, so that the opaque member is transferred to the fixing roller and the opaque portion is transferred from the transparent sheet member. It is peeled off and removed. As a result, an opaque portion (mark) formed of these opaque members does not remain in the obtained recorded image, and a high-quality transparent recorded image can be obtained.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, in the transparent film 110 of the present invention, the sensing mark 111 is formed by using the anchor coat layer 112 on the surface of the transparent sheet-like member 113.
It is also possible to form the opaque portion by forming the.

As the transparent sheet-like member 113, any conventionally known one can be used, and specifically, polyester resin, diacetate resin, triacetate resin, polystyrene resin, polyethylene resin, polycarbonate resin, polymethacrylate resin, cellophane. ,celluloid,
Examples thereof include plastic films, plates or glass plates such as polyvinyl chloride resin and polyimide resin. The thickness of these sheet-like members may be any, but it is generally about 1 to 5,000 μm, preferably 70 to 150 μm.
m is good.

A preferred embodiment of the sensing mark 111 for increasing the haze value before the fixing process is one constituted by a resin layer having a porous structure having cracks or communicating holes therein, and transparent by heating and / or pressing. It can be transformed. The sensing mark 111 for satisfying the above characteristics is mainly composed of resin particles and a binder.

Such a sensing mark 111 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the sheet-shaped member 1 of the transparent film 110.
It can be formed by applying thermoplastic resin powder (resin particles) and emulsion in layers on 13 and can be fused and uniformed by heating and / or pressing.

Examples of the resin powder include polyethylene, polymethacrylate, elastomer, ethylene-vinyl acetate polymer, styrene-acryl copolymer, polyester, polyacryl and polyvinyl ether, and at least one of them is used. The above can be used.

The resin particles used in the present invention are not limited to the above resin powders, but are non-binding to the recording material, the transparent film and the toner for forming an image on the transparent film. Other well-known materials can be used as long as they are transparent and can be made transparent. The binder used has a function of binding the resin particles to each other and / or the sheet-like member, and is preferably non-binding to the toner like the resin particles.

As a preferable material for the binder, any conventionally known material can be used as long as it has the above-mentioned function. For example, polyvinyl alcohol, acrylic resin,
Styrene-acrylic copolymer, polyvinyl acetate, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, starch, polyvinyl butyral, gelatin, casein, ionomer, gum arabic, carboxymethyl cellulose, polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyacrylamide, polyurethane, melamine resin, epoxy resin, Examples thereof include styrene-butadiene rubber, urea resin, phenol resin, α-olefin resin, chlorobrene, and nitrile rubber, and at least one of them can be used.

Furthermore, in order to improve the above-mentioned function as the sensing mark 111, various additives are added if necessary,
For example, a surfactant, an optical brightening agent, a preservative, an antifungal agent, a penetrant, and a crosslinking agent may be added.

Regarding the mixing ratio (weight ratio) of the resin particles and the binder, if the amount of the binder is large, the sensing mark 11
The number of cracks and communication holes of No. 1 is reduced, and the pre-fixing phase is lowered. If the resin particles are too much in the mixing ratio, the resin particles are not sufficiently adhered to the sheet-shaped member and the resin particles, and the sensing mark 111 is easily peeled off.

The thickness of the sensing mark 111 depends on the apparatus conditions such as the required phase value and the amount of the release agent, but it is preferably 1 to 200 μm, and more preferably 3
˜50 μm.

As a method of forming the sensing mark 111 as a surface layer on the sheet-like member 113, the above-mentioned materials are dissolved or dispersed in an appropriate solvent to prepare a coating solution, and the coating solution is prepared. It is applied on the sheet-like member 113. At this time, the sheet-shaped member 113 is formed by forming the adhesion adjusting layer 112 on the sheet-shaped member 113 in advance.
It is preferable that the adhesiveness between the sensor mark 111 and the sensing mark 111 is proper, and the layer is applied by a known method such as a roller coating method, a rod bar coating method, or a spray coating method, and then dried quickly.

In the adhesion adjusting layer, when the material solubility parameters of the sheet-like member 113 and the sensing mark 111 are different, the adhesion between the sheet-like member 113 and the sensing mark 111 is increased, On the contrary, when the material solubility parameters of the sheet-shaped member 113 and the sensing mark 111 are the same or too close to each other, the sheet-shaped member 11
3 is a layer that acts to reduce the adhesion between the sensing mark 111 and the sensing mark 111.

At the time of separating and removing the sensing mark 111, the adhesive force between the sheet-like member 113 and the adhesion adjusting layer 112 is A, the adhesive force between the adhesive adjusting layer 112 and the sensing mark is B, and the sensing mark is It is preferable that the following condition is satisfied, where C is the adhesive force with the roller (pressure roller in the fourth embodiment) that offsets the sensing mark.

Adhesive force A <Adhesive force B <Adhesive force C Further, when the sensing mark is composed of resin particles and a binder, the adhesive force of the resin particles by the binder in the opaque portion is D by the binder. When, it is preferable that the following conditions are satisfied.

Adhesive force A <Adhesive force B <Adhesive force D <Adhesive force C As the resin used for the adhesiveness adjusting layer 112, specifically, polyvinyl alcohol, acrylic resin, styrene-
Acrylic copolymer, polyvinyl acetate, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, starch, polyvinyl butyral, gelatin, casein, ionomer, gum arabic, carboxymethylcellulose, polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyacrylamide, polyurethane, melamine resin, epoxy resin, styrene- Examples thereof include butadiene rubber, urea resin, phenol resin, α-olefin resin, chlorobrene, and nitrile rubber, and it is preferable to use at least one of them so as to satisfy the above conditions.

In the present invention, as the removing means for removing the sensing mark 111 forming the opaque portion of the transparent film 6, the fixing device 7, which is most frequently used in the electrophotographic method, that is, pressure and heat are used together. Although the method is suitable, a pressure fixing method may be used instead, and a fixing method using only heating such as warm air fixing and flash fixing, or a fixing method using a heater and a heat resistant belt instead of a heat roller. As described above, a separate separation / removal unit may be separately provided in association with the one that can realize the condition that the toner is appropriately fixed on the recording material 110.

Using such a fixing device, the transparent film 1
When the toner image formed on the surface of 10 is fixed by using the heat roller fixing device, the amount of the release agent applied to the pressure roller that the sensing mark which is the opaque portion of the transparent film 6 contacts is used at the time of normal fixing. The sensing mark 1 can be controlled by controlling the coating amount to be less than the specified amount.
11 is offset to the pressure roller to form the transparent film 11
The sensing mark 111 may be separated and removed from 0.

The amount of the release agent applied to the pressure roller when the sensing mark 111 is offset to the pressure roller needs to be appropriately selected depending on the configuration of the material used. For example, in Example 4 described later. In the case of the material configuration as shown (that is, (i) H on the surface of the aluminum core material
A pressure roller having a lower layer of TV silicone rubber and further coated with polytetrafluoroethylene as a surface layer, (ii) 3
Mold release agent with 00 centistokes dimethyl silicone oil and (iii) thermoplastic elastomer resin emulsion / ionomer resin emulsion / sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (mixing ratio 100/12
/0.3), the amount of the release agent applied to the fixing roller contacting the pressure roller is preferably 40 μg / cm ² or less, more preferably 20 μg. / Cm ² or less, and the offset may be offset to the pressure roller in a state where most of the release agent is not absorbed by the pressure roller.

As a second embodiment of the transparent film of the present invention, a transparent film capable of making an opaque portion of an optically transparent sheet-like member transparent by heating will be described.

The transparent film capable of making the opaque portion of the transparent film transparent by heating has a diffuse reflection layer which diffusely reflects when light is transmitted, and this layer is made into a smooth film shape by heating. When the light passes through, it becomes transparent without diffuse reflection. As a specific example of the layer that diffusely reflects when transmitting the light, for example, an opaque portion is formed by roughening a part of the surface of a transparent sheet-like member, and the opaque portion is formed by heat treatment. The opaque portion is made transparent by melting and smoothing.

When the toner image on the recording material such as plain paper is visually observed, the reflected image of the light irradiated on the fixed image is visually observed. Therefore, even if some granularity remains on the toner surface, the image quality is not affected. Few. However, when observing or projecting a toner image on a screen with transmitted light like OHP, if the residual shape due to the toner particles is clear, the light scattering causes deterioration of the transparency. Therefore, a transparent laminated film for a color toner is widely used in which the granularity of the toner after fixing is reduced and the translucency is improved. This is formed from a transparent resin that has compatibility with the binder resin in the toner powder that should be used for color image formation on the first transparent resin layer having heat resistance and that has different heat melting characteristics at the fixing temperature from the binder resin. It is a laminated film having a second transparent resin layer formed thereon, which will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 19, reference numeral 441 denotes a base film as a transparent sheet-like member which is the first transparent resin layer of the transparent film, and the base film 441 undergoes remarkable thermal deformation due to heat fixing or heating during heat and pressure fixing. It must have heat resistance. Specifically, base film 4
Examples of 41 include polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyamide or polyimide, which has a heat distortion temperature of 145 ° C. or higher and a heat resistance of 100 ° C. or higher. Among them, polyethylene terephthalate is particularly preferable in terms of heat resistance and transparency. The thickness of the base film 441 needs to be such that wrinkles do not occur even when the film becomes soft due to heating during fixing, and in the case of the above-mentioned resin, it may be 50 μm or more. Even with a transparent film, the transmittance decreases as the thickness increases, so the thickness of the base film 441 is 50 to 200 μm, preferably 70 to 150 μm.

In FIG. 19, reference numeral 442 denotes an overcoat layer for forming a second transparent resin layer for improving the translucency of the color image after fixing. The overcoat layer 442 is compatible with the binder resin of the toner forming the color image at the temperature at the time of heat fixing, and is a main resin used in the toner (50% by weight based on the binder resin). The solubility parameter of the overcoat layer 442 is within ± 1.5, preferably within ± 1.0, centered on the solubility parameter of the main resin contained above. The solubility parameter of the resin is described in publications such as Polymer Handbook. For example, when a polyester resin is used as the binder resin of the toner, the value of the solubility parameter is 1
Since it is around 1.0, the resin of the layer 442 has a solubility parameter in the range of 11.0 ± 1.5, such as polyester resin, polymethylmethacrylate resin, epoxy resin, polyurethane resin, vinyl chloride resin, vinyl chloride resin.
It is possible to use a thermoplastic resin such as a vinyl acetate copolymer, and generally, a resin of the same kind as the main resin of the toner is widely used.

The resin used for the overcoat layer 442 has a temperature of 1
60 ° C storage elastic modulus (G ') is 100 to 10,000 dyn
/ Cm ² is used. When a resin having a storage elastic modulus (G ′) at a temperature of 160 ° C. of less than 100 dyn / cm ² is used for the overcoat layer 442, an offset phenomenon is likely to occur when the toner image is fixed by the hot pressing roller, and the overcoat layer The base film 441 is partially peeled off from the base film 441 and is easily damaged. On the other hand, when a resin having a storage elastic modulus (G ′) at a temperature of 160 ° C. of more than 10000 dyn / cm ² is used for the overcoat layer 442, even if the toner image is fixed by the heat-pressing roller, the toner image will not be obtained.
Since the degree of penetration into 42 is extremely small, the projected image has a gray tone as a whole. Here, the storage elastic modulus (G ') of the resin used for the overcoat layer 442 is manufactured by Rheometrics Inc.
DynamicSpectrometer RDS77
It can be measured using 00 series II. The thickness of the overcoat layer 442 varies depending on the particle size of the toner to be fixed, but it is preferably 3 to 30 μm and used.

As a method of roughening the transparent film to form an opaque portion, the surface of the transparent film, particularly preferably the second transparent resin layer on which the toner is to be fixed, by using a polishing means such as sandpaper. Can be carried out by adding minute scratches to the overcoat layer.

As another example of the irregular reflection layer, which diffusely reflects when the light forming the opaque portion of the transparent film is transmitted,
It is possible to use a transparent film having the same structure as that used for the transparent film capable of separating and removing the opaque portion of the transparent film shown in FIG. 1 by heating.

That is, the sensing mark 1 composed of resin particles or emulsion particles and a binder as an opaque portion on the surface of the transparent sheet-like member 113.
11 is provided, if necessary, via an adhesion adjusting layer.

In this transparent film, since resin particles or emulsion particles are fixed on the surface of the sheet-like member, an opaque portion is formed by diffuse reflection when light is transmitted, and the opaque portion is formed by the resin particles or emulsion. Since the particles are softened and smoothed by heating, a transparent film-shaped coating layer is formed on the surface of the transparent sheet-shaped member, so that diffuse reflection of light is eliminated and the particles are made transparent.

The adhesion adjusting layer is a layer which acts to improve the adhesion between the sheet-like member 113 and the sensing mark 111.

The resin particle binder and the adhesion control layer of this transparent film are made of the same material as the material described for the transparent film capable of separating and removing the opaque portion of the transparent film shown in FIG. 1 by heating. Among these, it is preferable to select and use a combination of materials that enhances the adhesion between the sheet-shaped member and the opaque portion.

The melting temperature of the resin forming the sensing mark 111 needs to be lower than the softening temperature of the sheet-like member 113. Usually, when a polyethylene terephthalate film which is preferably used is used as the sheet-shaped member 113, the temperature at which the sheet-shaped member is softened is 150
It must be transparent when the temperature is below ℃.

Further, when the opaque portion is made transparent by heating, the amount of the release agent applied to the pressure roller is increased as compared with the case where the opaque portion of the transparent film is removed by heating. It suffices not to offset the sensing mark 111 as an opaque portion on the pressure roller.

The amount of the release agent applied to the pressure roller when the sensing mark 111 is made transparent by heating needs to be appropriately selected depending on the configuration of the material used. For example, as shown in Examples described later. (I) a pressure roller having a lower layer of HTV silicone rubber on the surface of an aluminum core material and further coated with RTV silicone rubber as a surface layer, (ii) dimethyl silicone oil of 300 centistokes Releasing agent and (iii) thermoplastic elastomer resin emulsion / ionomer resin emulsion / sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (mixing ratio 100/12 / 0.3)
For the opaque member composed of the composition A having the composition A), the amount of the release agent applied to the fixing roller contacting the pressure roller is preferably 100 μg / cm ² or more, more preferably 1
The pressure may be 50 μg / cm ² or more, and the opaque portion may be made transparent while the release agent is sufficiently absorbed by the pressure roller.

As a third embodiment of the transparent film of the present invention, a transparent film capable of making an opaque portion of an optically transparent sheet-shaped member transparent by heating and / or irradiation with light will be described.

The opaque portion of the transparent film of the present invention may be formed by using a printing ink, and as the printing ink, a dye formed by a material that sublimates or changes its structure by heating and / or light irradiation. Alternatively, any one may be used as long as it uses a pigment. For example, as such an ink, an ink using a coloring material such as a sublimation dye or a cationic dye is preferably used.

The transparent film of the present invention has an opaque portion formed by printing on a transparent sheet-like member using the above ink. These printing inks are sublimated by heating and / or light irradiation, or are formed by dyes or pigments that cause structural changes. Therefore, the printing inks are sublimated by heating and / or light irradiation in a later step in the device described later. And / or a structural change occurs and the color disappears, and OH
It has no effect on the projected image by P.

FIG. 2 illustrates the form of the opaque portion printed on the film 100.

Conventionally, in order to prevent the influence on the projected image,
An opaque portion for detection was formed on a small part of the end surface of the film as shown by 101. For this reason, only a small signal can be obtained from the reading sensor, and there are strict requirements on the density and surface property of the printing itself of the opaque portion (mark) for detection.

However, in the transparent film of the present invention, since the opaque portion for detection is formed by printing with the decolorizable ink, the opaque portion for detection is formed in a large area in the center of the film as in 102. It is also possible to form a large area at the end like 103. Further, although not shown, there is no problem even if the opaque portion is formed by printing on the entire surface of the film. The thickness of the print layer to be formed is preferably about 0.5 to 10 μm.

Further, it is preferable that the opaque portion is formed on the surface of the transparent film opposite to the surface on which the toner image is fixed.

The optically transparent sheet-like member used in the transparent film of the present invention may be any one as long as it is used for OHP, such as a film made of polystyrene terephthalate. ,
For the purpose of improving transportability, it is preferable to apply a water-soluble polyester resin containing silica or an antistatic agent to a layer thickness of 1 to 20 μm, preferably 1 to 5 μm. As a coating method, any conventionally known method may be used, and the surface to be coated may be either the front surface or the back surface, or both surfaces.

The antistatic treatment agent may be added if necessary, but in a full-color copying machine which performs multiple transfer, the temperature should be 2
A more preferable form is to adjust and add so as to have a surface specific resistance of 5 × 10 ^{7 to} 5 × 10 ¹⁰ Ω at 0 ° C. and a humidity of 60% RHF.

An image forming apparatus that can use the transparent film of the present invention will be specifically described.

First, with reference to FIG. 20, an outline of a four-color full-color copying machine will be described as an example of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

Four image forming portions, that is, image forming portions Pa, Pb, Pc and Pd are arranged in order from the upstream side (right side in the figure) in the main body of the copying machine.
Images of four different colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) are formed through processes such as exposure, development and transfer. The image forming portions Pa, Pb, Pc, and Pd are respectively provided with dedicated image carriers, in this embodiment, electrophotographic photosensitive drums (hereinafter simply referred to as "photosensitive drums") 1a and 1.
b, 1c and 1d are provided, and the toner images formed on these photosensitive drums are carried and conveyed by the recording material carrier 8 which moves adjacent to each image forming portion. The recording material 6 which has been transferred onto the recording material 6 and further onto which the toner image has been transferred is heated and pressed by the fixing portion 7 to fix the toner image, and then discharged to the outside of the apparatus.

Next, the latent image forming section will be described in order. The photosensitive drums 1aA1b, 1c and 1 are rotatably arranged.
The exposure lamps 21a, 21b, 21 are provided around and above d.
c and 21d, chargers 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d, a light source device (not shown), a polygon mirror 17 for scanning light emitted from the light source device, and a potential sensor 22aA.
22b, 22c and 22d are provided. First, the photosensitive drum 1 is charged by the chargers 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d.
A, 1b, 1c and 1d are uniformly charged. An fθ lens (a laser beam emitted from a light source device (not shown) is scanned by a rotatable polygon mirror 17 and the scanning light deflected by a reflection mirror is focused on the generatrix of the photosensitive drums 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d ( Irradiation (not shown),
A latent image corresponding to an image signal is formed on each photosensitive drum.

The developing devices 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d are filled with a predetermined amount of developer (toner) of each color of cyan, magenta, yellow and black by a supply device (not shown). The developer is applied to the developing devices 3a, 3b, 3
c and 3d form a visible image (toner image) on the photosensitive drums 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d according to the latent image formed by the scanning light.

The recording material 6 to which the toner image is transferred is contained in the recording material cassette 60, and the paper feeding roller 13 is used.
a, the photosensitive drums 1a, 1b, 1c carried on the belt-shaped recording material carrier 8 via the registration rollers 13b.
And 1d. Here, the recording material carrier 8 is a polyethylene terephthalate resin film sheet (PET).
Sheet), a polyvinylidene fluoride resin film sheet, or a dielectric resin film such as a polyurethane resin film sheet, both ends of which are overlapped and bonded to each other to form an endless shape, or with a seam. A non-use (seamless) belt is used. (In the case of a belt having a seam, a means for detecting the seam position may be provided, and the toner image may not be transferred on the seam in some cases. ). The recording material carrier 8 is stretched over the upstream rollers 11 and 11 and the downstream roller 10, and when the recording material carrier 8 starts rotating, the recording material 6 is transferred from the registration roller 13b to the recording material carrier. It is transported onto the body 8. At this time, the image writing signal is turned on, and an image is formed on the most upstream photosensitive drum 1a at a certain timing. And the photosensitive drum 1
In the lower part of a, the transfer charger 4a applies an electric field under a uniform pressure condition by the transfer pressing member 41a,
The toner image on the photosensitive drum 1a is transferred onto the recording material 6. The recording material 6 is held on the recording material carrier 8 by electrostatic attraction, and then conveyed to the next image forming portion Pb, and similarly to the above, this time, the photosensitive drum 2b causes the magenta toner. The image is transferred. Hereinafter, yellow and black toner images are transferred by the photosensitive drums 1c and 1d, respectively, by the same method as described above. The recording material 6 on which the four color toner images have been transferred is neutralized by the separation charging device 14 and the peeling charging device 15, and the electrostatic attraction force is attenuated,
The recording material is detached from the recording material carrier 8 and conveyed to the fixing unit 7.

The fixing section 7 includes a fixing roller 71, a pressure roller 72, heat-resistant cleaning members 73 and 74 for cleaning each of them, heaters 75 and 76 for heating each of the rollers 71 and 72, and a releasing mold such as dimethyl silicon. An oil application roller 77 for applying the agent oil to the fixing roller 71, an oil sump 78 for supplying the oil,
A thermistor 79 for controlling the fixing temperature is provided. The recording material 6 conveyed from the recording material carrier 8 to the fixing unit 7 is heated and pressed with a toner image, and is fixed on the surface of the recording material 6. The recording material 6 on which the toner image has been fixed is then discharged outside the apparatus.

After the transfer, that is, the photosensitive drums 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d having no toner image, the developing agent remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drums 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d is removed by the cleaning units 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d, and the operation is continued. Prepare for the next latent image formation. Further, the developer remaining on the recording material carrier 8 is discharged by the belt charge eliminator 12 to remove the electrostatic attraction force, and then scraped into the collection chamber 9 by the rotatable fur brush 16. As another means for removing the developer, a blade or a non-woven fabric and a combination thereof are also used.

The image forming apparatus and the image forming method of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 21 shows an example of a full-color electrophotographic apparatus which is an image forming apparatus of the present invention to which the above-mentioned transparent film of the present invention can be applied.

In this full-color electrophotographic apparatus, 207
The recording material such as paper stored in the cassette of 205
Of the photosensitive drum 2
In accordance with the electrostatic latent image formed on 01, four developing devices 2
The magenta, cyan, yellow, and black toner images developed by 04M, 204C, 204Y, and 204B are sequentially transferred onto the recording material to form a full-color image. After that, the recording material is conveyed again to the thermal curl fixing device 209, and the toner is melted by heating here and the full-color image is fixed.

In this full-color electrophotographic apparatus,
The light reflection type sensor that detects the transport status of the recording material is 211
It is provided at three locations a, 211b, and 211c.
These sensors are, for example, 9
LED capable of irradiating near infrared light around 80 nm
221 and a photodiode 222 for detecting the light reflected by the opaque portion (mark) 231 of the recording material 230 for detection and returned.

Especially, in order to detect the reflected light from various kinds of paper efficiently, it is preferable that the above optical system is appropriately designed, but it is not possible to utilize the diffused reflection of the LED light. Is a more preferable embodiment.

The image forming apparatus of the present invention makes the opaque portion transparent by smoothing the opaque portion or reducing diffuse reflection of light by means of heating for forming an arbitrary image on the transparent film of the present invention as described above and heating. It is characterized by having means.

As described above, any known method can be used as a means for forming an arbitrary image on the transparent film.

As means for removing the opaque portion by heating, the transparent film of the present invention is heated to soften the opaque member forming the opaque portion to cause peelability and tackiness, and this is applied to a fixing roll. Alternatively, the opaque portion can be peeled off by adhesion or transfer, or the opaque portion can be offset by the pressure roller by reducing the coating amount of the release agent on the pressure roller to separate and remove from the transparent film.

As means for making the opaque portion transparent by heating, the opaque portion formed by roughening the surface of the transparent film is made smooth by heating to make it transparent, or thermoplastic resin particles or The opaque portion formed by coating the emulsion particles in a layered form is melted by heating to make the particle shape into a film, thereby making the opaque portion transparent.

As means for making the opaque portion transparent by heating and / or light irradiation, the printing ink forming the opaque portion is sublimated by heating or the structure is changed by light irradiation to make the opaque portion transparent. It

As a means for making the opaque portion optically transparent, there is a method of irradiating the opaque portion with a halogen lamp or a semiconductor laser.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on examples, but the present invention is not limited thereto.
In the formulations of the examples, "parts" and "%" all represent "parts by weight" and "% by weight".

[0111]

EXAMPLE (Example 1) FIG. 3 is a plan view of the transparent film of the present invention used in Example 1, where 1 is an opaque portion 105 provided on the surface of a transparent sheet member 104 by an opaque member. Indicates. Figure 4
Shows a schematic sectional view of the transparent film in the A direction.

As shown in FIG. 4, the melting temperature was 70 ° C. on a transparent sheet member 104 obtained by cutting polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with a thickness of 150 μm into A4 size.
The paraffin wax of 4 μm thick was applied, and a polyester resin having a softening temperature of 140 ° C. with a color pigment (blue) dispersed at about 8 wt% was applied to a thickness of 5 μm to form an opaque portion 105. .

The transparent film having the above structure was applied to the electrophotographic color image forming apparatus of the present invention shown in FIG. 23, and a transparent recorded image was formed as follows.

The electrophotographic color image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 23 includes a transfer material conveying system I provided from one side (right side in FIG. 23) of the apparatus main body to substantially the center of the apparatus main body, and the apparatus main body. A latent image forming portion II provided near the transfer drum 309 constituting the transfer material conveying system I, and a latent image forming portion II near the latent image forming portion II. Developing means, that is, a rotary developing device III, and a developer replenishing means arranged in the vicinity of the rotary developing device III,
That is, it is composed of the developer supply device 302.

The transfer material conveying system I is provided with transfer material supply trays 320a and 320b which are detachable from an opening formed on one side of the apparatus main body (right side in FIG. 23), and a paper feed roller 306. Paper feed guides 305a and 305b,
The contact roller 308, the gripper 307, the transfer material separating charger 314 are provided in the vicinity of the paper feed guide 305b in the vicinity of the outer peripheral surface thereof from the upstream side to the downstream side in the rotational direction.
A transfer drum 309 having a separation claw 315, a transfer charger 310, and a transfer material separating charger 313 disposed on the inner peripheral side and rotatable in the direction of the arrow in FIG.
A conveyor belt 316 provided in the vicinity of the separating claw 315, and a conveyor belt 316 disposed in proximity to the end side of the conveyor belt 316 in the conveyance direction and detachable from the apparatus body extending outside the apparatus body. It is composed of an ejection tray and a fixing device 317 provided in the vicinity of the ejection tray.

The latent image forming section II has an outer peripheral surface abutting on the outer peripheral surface of the transfer drum 309 and is rotatable in the direction of the arrow in FIG. A charger 311 for static elimination, which is disposed in the vicinity of the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 303 from the upstream side to the downstream side in the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 303, and the cleaning unit 3.
12 and a primary charger 304, and an image exposure unit and an image exposure reflection unit such as a laser beam scanner for forming an electrostatic latent image on the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 303.

The rotary developing device III is provided with a rotatable rotating body 301 and a rotatable rotating body 301, respectively.
A magenta developing device 301M for visualizing (developing) the electrostatic latent image formed on the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 303 at a position facing the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 303,
It has a cyan developing device 301C, a yellow developing device 301Y, and a black developing device 301BK.

Further, the developer replenishing devices 302 are arranged adjacent to each other, and hold the developer for each color supplied from the outside for each color by a yellow hopper 302.
Y, magenta hopper 302M, cyan hopper 302C,
It is equipped with a black hopper 302BK.

The paper feeding section 32 of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG.
Set the A4 size transparent film shown in FIG. At this time, the surface on which the opaque portion 105 is provided is set so as to face upward, and the surface is arranged so as to be opposite to the surface on which the toner rides.

Reference numeral 317 is a heat and pressure fixing section composed of a fixing roller 317a and a pressure roller 317b, and is fixed at a linear velocity of 60 mm / sec. At this time, the surface temperature of the fixing roll was controlled to be 150 to 160 ° C.

In the heat and pressure fixing section 317, the surface of the opaque portion 105 of the above-mentioned transparent recording medium of the present invention is softened and becomes tacky, and the adhesive force with the surface of the pressure roller 317b is exhibited. Since the lower paraffin wax layer is also melted to a low viscosity, the opaque portion 105 loses its adhesive strength with the completely transparent sheet-like member 104, and the entire surface pressure roller 3 is pressed.
Transferred to 17b.

The resin layer forming the opaque portion 105 transferred to the pressure roller 317b is removed from the roller surface by the cleaning wave indicated by 317c. The cleaning wave 317c is formed by using a non-woven fabric having a surface smoothness of about 10 seconds, and is rotated by a roller at a linear velocity of 5 mm / sec in the counter direction and wound up.

The recorded image obtained as described above is one in which the image is formed on a film which is entirely transparent, and does not leave an unsightly opaque portion (mark) unlike the conventional case. On the other hand, in the apparatus, since the position of the sheet is accurately detected by the opaque portion (mark), highly accurate registration can be ensured.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 24 is a schematic view of an electrophotographic color image forming apparatus of the present invention in a mode different from that of Embodiment 1 used in Embodiment 2.

As shown in FIG. 24, in this device, C,
Below the full multi-bubble jet print head 251, which is arranged in the order of M, Y, and Bk, the electrostatic adsorption belt 25
The recording medium is conveyed by 2 to form a color image, and then the dryer 253 blows warm air against it to dry the ink.

The recording medium which has undergone the above steps is 100
Since it is heated to ℃ ~ 120 ℃, cleaning web 25
When 5 is conveyed at the same speed as the recording medium, the opaque portion made of the heat-melting opaque member can be removed from the transparent film as the recording medium.

FIG. 5 shows the transparent film used in this case. On a transparent sheet-like member 106 made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) having a thickness of 100 μm, a 6 μm-thick product in which titanium oxide as a white pigment is dispersed in an ester wax having a melting point of 60 ° C. is applied for detection. An opaque portion (mark) 107 was formed.

When the leading edge of such a recording medium approaches the separating portion 256 shown in FIG. 24, the conveying speed is set to 130.
The heating was started by dropping from mm / sec to 20 mm / sec. As a result, a high-quality transparent recorded image was obtained in which the opaque portion formed of the heat-melting opaque member was removed by the cleaning wave 255 without being transferred to the suction conveyance belt 254, and the unsightly opaque portion did not remain. .

(Example 3) FIG. 6 shows a laminated structure of a transparent film having the transparent sheet-like member 108 used in Example 3 and an opaque portion 109 made of an opaque member provided thereon. .

Reference numeral 108 denotes a transparent polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film having a thickness of 150 μm, and 109a
Is a mixture of carnauba wax and ester wax having a melting point of 60 ° C, and at 50 ° C at 75 ° C. P. The following is a transparent layer having a low viscosity, and 109b is an aluminum foil layer having a thickness of 10 μm.

FIG. 25 is an apparatus diagram used in this embodiment, which is an example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention. 257a is a thermal head, 257b is an ink transfer sheet having a transfer start temperature of 90 ° C., and 257e is a reflective optical sensor for detecting the opaque portion 109 of the transparent film. In the image forming apparatus, the transparent film is attached to the opaque portion 10.
9 is used so that the surface on which the 9 is not formed is in contact with the ink transfer sheet, and the sheet position is reflected by the aluminum reflected light from the aluminum layer 109b of the opaque portion 109 provided on the transparent film as described above. It was accurately read by the mold light sensor 257e.

Roll 257c heated to 75 ° C.
The silicone rubber removing roller 257d facing the roller was rotated at a higher speed than the roll 257c. As a result,
The transparent layer 109a has a low viscosity due to the influence of heat from the roll 257c, and the removal roller 257 rotating at high speed.
It is the opaque portion 109 shown in FIG. 6 provided on the surface of the transparent sheet by pulling the aluminum foil 109b constituting the opaque portion 109 by d.
It was possible to remove 109a and 109b, and as a result, a high-quality transparent recording image without an unsightly opaque portion (mark) remaining was obtained.

Example 4 As shown in FIG. 1, a polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 100 μm was used as the transparent sheet-like member 113, and the following composition A as the opaque portion 111 was formed on the sheet-like film 113. Use a bar coater to apply a dry film thickness of 30 μm and dry it in a drying oven at 140
The transparent film 110 was obtained by drying at 6 ° C. for 6 minutes.

Composition A Thermoplastic Elastomer Resin Emulsion (Chemi Pearl A
-100, manufactured by Mitsui Petrochemical Industry, solid content 40%) 100
Ionomer Resin Emulsion (Chempearl SA-10
0, Mitsui Petrochemical Industry, solid content 35%) 12 parts sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (Perex O
TP, manufactured by Kao, solid content 70%) A transparent film 110 coated with the composition A having a composition of 0.3 parts or more.
The opaque portion 111 of No. 1 was white opaque and showed about 70% when measured using a direct reading haze meter.

As shown in FIG. 2, in the transparent film 110 of this constitution, when the image forming surface is the front surface side, the coated surface of the opaque portion 111 of the composition A is on the opposite back surface side. 20 is inserted into the copier of FIG. 20, and the above-mentioned image forming portions Pa, Pb,
After the toner image is transferred by Pc and Pd, the toner image is fixed by the fixing device having the following configuration.

Fixing roller 71: Surface layer RTV silicone rubber 200 μm thick Lower layer HTV silicone rubber 4 mm thick Core material aluminum Pressure roller 72: Surface layer polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) 20 μm thickness Lower layer HTV silicone rubber 0.5 mm thickness Core material aluminum Separated Molding agent 78: dimethyl silicone oil 300 centistokes Amount of releasing agent applied to the fixing roller at the time of fixing: 32 μg / cm ² or more on the fixing unit 7 constituted by the transparent film 110.
However, when the roller temperature is 160 ° C., the fixing pressure is 3 kg / cm ² , and the fixing speed is 35 mm / sec, the releasing agent 78 is hardly applied on the pressure roller.
Since the composition A and the pressure roller 72 have poor releasability, the opaque portion 111 is peeled off from the sheet-like member 113 in a film form,
Offset to pressure roller 72 and press it
The cleaning device 74 is used for cleaning. At this time, more preferably, the recording amount of the heat-resistant non-woven fabric forming the cleaning device 74 is increased during recording of the transparent film 110 described above than during recording of a recording material such as normal paper to improve cleaning performance. Good to improve.

Here, in order to reduce the coating amount of the release agent 78 on the back surface of the sheet-like film 110 and increase it on the image forming surface of the front surface, the coating agent 77 applied to the release agent 78 and the fixing roller 71. The timing of applying the toner to the fixing roller 71 may be slightly delayed from the timing when the leading end of the recording material 6 is conveyed to the contact portion (nip portion) between the fixing roller 71 and the pressure roller 72 when the recording material 6 is conveyed. For example, assuming that the leading edge at the time of image recording is 10 mm at the leading edge of the recording material 6 as a margin portion where no image is formed, the outer peripheral surface of the oil-coated fixing roller 71 is transparent when 2 mm at the leading edge passes through the nip portion. It may be in contact with the surface of the film 110.

(Example 5) In Example 4, the coating layer of the composition A was the transparent film 1
Although the case where it is formed on the back surface of 10 has been described, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as described above, when the release agent application timing is changed, the image front end of the transparent film 110 is 10 mm from the recording material front end, and the opaque portion 111 is 3 mm from the recording material front end to about 6 mm, and the width is 2 mm. When it is formed on the image forming surface on the front surface side in a line shape of up to 3 mm, the application timing of the release agent 78 should be adjusted so as to be applied stably from the opaque portion 111 to the leading edge of the image. Has the same effect. However, unlike the fourth embodiment, since the roller that offsets the opaque portion 111 is the fixing roller 71 having a good releasability, the fixing temperature is preferably set to 1.
It is better to raise it to about 80 ° C.

(Embodiment 6) FIG. 26 shows a case where a dedicated pressure roller cleaning blade 80 is provided in the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 20, corresponding to the case where the recording material 110 shown in FIG. 1 is used. FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional view of a fixing unit 7. Usually, a nonwoven fabric is often used for roller cleaning, but the recording material 11 as shown in FIG.
At 0, the layer of the composition A is offset in the form of a film on the roller, which deteriorates the cleaning property of the non-woven fabric, and in order to compensate for this, a large amount of winding is required, which increases the consumption amount of the non-woven fabric. It also leads to an increase in running costs. Therefore, a dedicated blade 80 having a pressure releasing mechanism
The above problem can be solved by arranging

Further, in addition to the blade 80 described above, FIG.
A good effect can also be obtained by cleaning with the brush-shaped rotating body 81 as shown in FIG. in this case,
The rotation direction of the rotating body 81 is the same as the rotation direction of the pressure roller 72, that is, in the contact portion between the two, the two are moved in opposite directions, which shows better cleaning property.

Example 7 Using the transparent film 110 used in Example 4, the toner image was fixed on the transparent film in the same manner as in Example 4 except that the constitution of the fixing device was changed as follows. .

Fixing roller 71: Surface layer RTV silicone rubber 200 μm thickness Lower layer HTV silicone rubber 4 mm thickness Core material aluminum Pressure roller 72: Surface layer RTV silicone rubber 200 μm thickness Lower layer HTV silicone rubber 1 mm thickness Core material Aluminum Release agent 78: Dimethyl silicone oil Amount of release agent to the fixing roller at 300 cst fixing: 160 μg / cm ² or more, and the transparent film 110 is attached to the fixing unit 7.
When the toner is conveyed at a roller temperature of 160 ° C., a fixing pressure of 3 kg / cm ² , and a fixing speed of 35 mm / sec, the release agent 78 is applied to the fixing roller in a large amount, so that the absorption of oil to the pressure roller is sufficiently maintained. Since the pressure roller has excellent releasability,
The composition A and the pressure roller have good release properties, and since the resin particles are smoothed by heating and pressing, a transparent smooth film-like coat layer is formed on the surface of the transparent sheet-like member 113. As a result, the haze value of this transparent film measured with a direct-reading haze meter (Toyo Seiki Seisakusho) was about 70% before the fixing process, but was about 10% after the fixing process. It was possible to use.

Example 8 As described above, the recording material 110 used in the present invention is not limited to the composition in which the composition A is applied to the back surface, and the composition A is applied to the image forming surface side by the toner. Good. Furthermore, the composition A is not limited to the composition A for forming the opaque portion. For example, the following composition B can be used.

Composition B Styrene-acrylic copolymer resin (Pongcoat PP-1
000, manufactured by Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, solid content 45%) 10
0 parts polyvinyl alcohol (PVA-117, made by Kuraray, 1
0% aqueous solution) 30 parts Surfactant (Peletex OT-
P, manufactured by Kao, solid content 70%) 0.3 part or more of the composition B is applied with a bar coater and then at 80 ° C. for 1
When dried in a drying oven for 0 minutes, the same effect as in Example 7 was obtained.

Example 9 By providing a transparent film with an absorbing layer 114 for absorbing moisture or a release agent as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8,
It is possible to prevent the handling property from being deteriorated due to the adhesion of the release agent, and it is particularly preferable in a color copying machine using the release agent.

In the transparent film 115 shown in FIG. 7, a moisture or release agent absorbing layer 114 is formed on the adhesion adjusting layer 112 on the surface of the transparent sheet-like member 113, and the surface is the same as in Example 4. The sensing mark 111 (white coat layer) is formed as an opaque portion by the composition A. As the sheet-like film 113 having the absorption layer 114 of the moisture or the release agent, a film (Pictrico: manufactured by Asahi Glass Co., Ltd.) which is commercially available as a water-absorbing transparent film having an absorption layer of silica-based porous particles is used. Then, the sensing mark 111 as an opaque portion was formed on the surface of this film by the composition A of Example 4.

Using this transparent film, a toner image was fixed on the transparent film in the same manner as in Example 7. The haze value of the opaque portion was about 70% before the fixing treatment, whereas after the fixing treatment. , About 15%.

Image recognition as an OHP film is possible if it is 20% or less, but preferably 10% or less. It is considered that the reason why the haze in FIG. 7 is as high as 15% is that the release agent particles in the sensing mark 111 cause irregular reflection. FIG. 8 shows that the composition A of the sensing mark 111 used in FIG. 7 is formed in the lower layer, the amount of the binder is increased so as not to absorb the releasing agent so much, and the upper layer is covered with a bar coater to absorb the releasing agent. The layer 114 was formed. The material of the release agent absorbing layer depends on the release agent, but is made water-insoluble by crosslinking treatment of hydrophilic polymer such as ion-modified polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinylpyrrolidone, or porous using silica and alumina. It may be particles. In this example, after the lower layer was formed and dried, the cation-modified polyvinyl alcohol-based absorption layer was applied by a bar coater. As a result, the haze value of the opaque area is
Before the fixing process was about 65%, after the fixing process,
It became about 10%.

Example 10 In the same manner as in Example 4, using the composition A on the polyethylene terephthalate film 113, the size mark 132 was formed as an opaque portion as shown in FIG.
Got

Sensing mark 1 comprising the composition A
FIG. 9 shows an example in which 11 is applied as the size mark 132 on the transparent film 117.

FIG. 9 shows a transparent film 13 as a recording material.
The size mark 132 is coated on the transparent film 13
0 is set along the paper feed guide 131 of the paper feed unit 130. In this figure, the mechanical sensor 1
The recording materials 11 and 20 are always linked with the paper feed guide.
It is configured so that it can be recognized whether the sheet 7 is in contact with the sheet feed guide 131. Detailed operation will be described later.

On the other hand, in the optical sensors 121 and 122, the optical sensor 121 is located at a position away from the central position of the sheet feeding by A, and is not equal to the symmetrical position A ′ with respect to the central position (in the figure, the central position is more than A ′) The optical sensor 122 is located at B) (away from the position).

FIG. 9 shows the case where the recording material 117 is A4 size, and FIG. 10 shows the case where the recording material size is A3. Below, A4 and A for each configuration of FIG. 9 and FIG.
An example of a 3 size detection method will be described.

In a general electrophotographic recording apparatus such as a copying machine, when a recording material other than plain paper which is usually used is used,
Often, a manual paper feed cassette is used. In this case, unlike a paper cassette for exclusive use of the same size, it is not known what kind of recording material of which size will be prepared.
That is, in the former cassette of the same size, when the cassette is attached to the recording apparatus, size detection can be easily performed by the shape of the cassette as is conventionally done. However, such detection cannot be used during manual paper feeding. If such detection is not possible, the function of the device is to automatically scale the image to be output to the output recording material size automatically, and other functions such as image movement and various conversions cannot be done manually, or the size is incorrect. When the image size is fed, the image size is larger than the recording size, and in the copying machine as shown in FIG. 20, the image is recorded on the recording material carrier 8, which promotes contamination inside the machine. Furthermore, it leads to a problem of inducing poor cleaning. Therefore, in FIG. 9 and FIG.
The width of 7 is detected by the spread of the paper feed guide 131, and the mechanical sensors 120 and 123 detect whether or not the recording material 117 is appropriately prepared for the paper feed guide width. for that reason,
As described above, the mechanical sensors 120 and 123
Must move in conjunction with the paper feed guide 131. Conventionally, the transparent film 117 requires front and back detection, and if an image is recorded on the back, there is a case where a conveyance failure occurs during fixing or an image failure occurs. An optical sensor 121 was used for this detection.

As shown in FIG. 9 or FIG. 10, the size mark 132 or 133 of the composition A also serves as front and back detection, and if this is the opposite, the optical sensor 121 shows a reaction. On the other hand, in the case of the table, light is transmitted (when the optical sensor 121 is a transmissive sensor), which is the same as a state in which nothing is detected. When the reaction is carried out in this manner, the case 1 is shown, and when the reaction is not carried out like the latter, it is shown as 0, and FIG. 9, FIG. 10, A4, A3
The detection is as follows.

A4 = (sensor 121, sensor 122) = (0,1) A3 = (sensor 121, sensor 122) = (0,0) If there is only A4 or A3, then either sensor 121 or sensor 122 Always indicates 0. At this time, the transparent film 117 and the plain paper can be distinguished from each other by setting the transparent film if either one is 0, and the plain paper when both are 0, so that the recording material is ready for manual feeding, whether the transparent film or the plain paper, or the transparent film. By recognizing the front and back surfaces of 117, and further the size, and by forming the sensing mark 111 of the composition A, it is possible to make size marks inconspicuous on the recording material 117 after recording and outputting.

(Embodiment 11) In Embodiment 10, the width of the recording material 117 is detected by the width of the paper feed guide 131, and the size mark 132 or 133 is detected.
Is used for auxiliary size detection. However,
In the case of the present invention, it is possible to detect all by the shape of the size mark 134 or 135 like a barcode. 11 and 12 show an example in which the size is detected by the optical sensors 125, 126 and 127 in the state in which the recording material 117 is set in the paper feed guide 131 as described above. The optical sensor 124 in FIGS. 11 and 12 functions the same as the optical sensor 121 in FIGS. 9 and 10. Sizes can be distinguished depending on the reaction of the areas of sensors 125, 126 and 127 shown in FIGS. At this time, the sensors 125, 126, and 127 recognize the signal level of 0 or 1 as in the tenth embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to such a sensor, and for example, a CCD line sensor can be used as a substitute for the sensors 125, 126 and 127, or a density level signal can be used instead. When detecting by the density level, if no size detection mark is recognized in the detection area, the density level is 00.
(H), FF (H) if all are occupied by detection marks,
If it is half occupied, it indicates 7F (H) or 80 (H). In this way, it can be distinguished as 00 (H) for A4 horizontal feed, 80 (H) for A4 vertical feed, and FF (H) for A3.

As described above, if the recording material size can be recognized in the state where the recording material is set in the paper feeding cassette, not only the various conversions described above are smoothly performed, but also the case where the size cannot be known until the recording material is once conveyed is different. Inconvenience that size detection is not in time for a high-speed recording device does not occur.

(Embodiment 12) The present invention is not limited to providing the size detection mark as described above on a part of the transparent film 117. For example,
As shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, size detection marks 136 and 137 are formed on the opposite side so that the recording material 117 can be detected even if the insertion direction is reversed. The present invention is not limited to this, and even if it is provided at four corners, it is no exception to the present invention. Moreover, in the case of the present invention, since the size detection mark does not remain after recording, there has been a disadvantage that the image forming area is narrowed if it is provided in several places like this, but the problem is solved by using the present invention. Therefore, the effect of the present invention is not only to improve the handling property of the recording material 117 after image recording, but also to improve the handling property when the recording material 117 is set in the apparatus. Furthermore, in the state where the recording material 117 is set. Since the size can be immediately recognized by the recording apparatus, the operability of various functions in the recording apparatus such as automatic scaling and automatic image movement is also improved.

(Embodiment 13) A case will be described in which front and back detection is performed using the configuration of the sensing mark 111 and the fixing method described above. In FIG. 15, as an example, an opaque part coated with an A4 size polyethylene terephthalate film (PET: manufactured by Toray) is shown in black. Since the PTE is transparent, the light transmissive sensor for front and back detection shows no reaction in the uncoated portion and only the coated opaque portion responds to the fixing agent (before transparentization) (from light emitting element to light receiving element). Block the light between).

The method of detecting the front and back sides will be described for the case where one mechanical sensor and two light transmission type sensors are used. The configuration is such that the left side of FIG. 15 is the main body of the image recording apparatus and the mechanical sensor is M
₁ , and light transmission type sensors P ₁ and P _{2 on the} left and right sides, respectively.
To provide. In this configuration, the mechanical sensor M ₁ detects the presence or absence of the recording material 117. Also, the recording material 117 is plain paper or a transparent film (OHP film, label paper,
It is the light transmission type sensor P that recognizes whether or not
If both ₁ and P ₂ react, it is plain paper, and if they do not react, the transparent film 117 is erroneously prepared (in FIG. 15, it is inserted from the side without the tip detector). ), Or a recording material that is too small is inserted.

Therefore, in this case, the recording device does not accept it, and an erroneous operation is displayed on the operation unit. Similarly, when the light transmissive sensor P ₁ is not responding and the light transmissive sensor P ₂ is not responding, it means that the transparent film 117 is prepared upside down. I do. Further, when the light transmission type sensor P ₁ does not react and the light transmission type sensor P ₂ does react, the transparent film 1
Since 17 has been prepared as usual, the recording operation of the transparent film 117 is started. Here, since the sensing mark 111 of FIG. 15 is formed on the back surface of the image forming portion, it does not matter if an image is formed on the sensing mark 111. As described above, when the sensing mark 111 absorbs the release agent 78, the haze may not be sufficiently lowered, but if this is a concern, make the sensing mark 111 transparent and wipe it with a soft cloth or paper. It can be peeled off and the image is not disturbed even at this time.

Example 14 Conventionally used translucent recording materials or known translucent recording materials have various coatings on their surfaces in order to improve image quality and handleability. There are many. In the case of the present invention, it is possible to apply while utilizing such conventional coating. Furthermore, like label paper,
When the film on the back side is peeled off after the image is output and the film is used by being attached to another part, the sensing mark 111 for detection is not left on the image side to be attached and is formed on the back film side. It never happens. For example, silica-based porous particles may be used as the absorption layer 11
4, the release agent 78 is absorbed, and the recording material 117 is output.
There are some that improve the handling of.

FIG. 16 is a sectional view thereof. In addition, it has been proposed to coat the sensing mark 111 with alumina-based porous particles with a certain orientation. Even if the present invention is applied to such a recording material 117, good effects were obtained.

Fifteenth Embodiment The present invention is not limited to front and back detection by making the coated opaque portion asymmetrical to the left and right. FIG. 17 shows an example of this case. Similar to FIG. 15, the configuration is such that the left side of the figure is the image recording apparatus main body side, one light transmission sensor P ₁ is provided, and _two mechanical sensors M ₁ and M 2 are provided. In this configuration, the presence / absence of the recording material 117 is recognized by the light transmission sensor P.
₁ , mechanical sensors M ₁ and M ₂ are used as front and back sensors.

For the sake of simplification of description, the light transmission sensor has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, a reflection sensor may be used, and the number of sensors is not limited to three in total. For example, mechanical sensors are provided at both ends of the recording material in order to detect whether or not the recording material presence / absence is an appropriate size.
It is no exception to detect the presence / absence of three materials, or to eliminate the presence / absence of recording material and use the front / back detection instead.

Example 16 In Example 5 to Example 9, a colorless and transparent sheet-like film 113 was coated (hereinafter referred to as “printing”) with a substance that was smoothed by heating and pressing to roughen the initial surface. , The method of forming the light-detecting diffused reflection surface of the optical sensor is described, but the printing for light detection is not the surface of the printing layer,
The present invention also contemplates a method in which a diffuse reflection layer is provided inside and the diffuse reflection state is eliminated by heating. That is, a printing surface is formed so as to contain a low-molecular organic compound that is substantially incompatible with the printing resin that constitutes the sensing mark, for example, a resin acid, and a void composed of a fatty acid is formed inside the printing surface. . Such a void is
By heating to a certain temperature S ₁ or higher, preferably for 10 to 30 seconds and maintaining the temperature S ₁ or higher for cooling at room temperature, the liquid becomes cloudy and immediately heated to a temperature S ₂ lower than S ₁ , and immediately. It becomes transparent by cooling at room temperature.
The printing resin that meets this purpose may include at least polyester, polyvinyl chloride, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, vinyl acetate, vinyl chloride copolymer, and vinylidene chloride copolymer. Substances that fill voids inside the printing resin are alkanols, alkanediols, halogenalkanols, or halogenalkanediols, alkylamines, alkanes, alkenes, alkyls,
Halogen alkane, Halogen alkene, or halogen alkyne, cycloalkane, cycloalkene, or cycloalkyne, saturated or unsaturated mono- or dicarboxylic acid or ester or amide or ammonium salt thereof, saturated or unsaturated halogen fatty acid or ester thereof, Amide or ammonium salt, allylcarboxylic acid or ester thereof, amide, or ammonium salt, halogenallylcarboxylic acid or these,
Any one selected from an ester, an amide or an ammonium salt, a thioalcohol, a thiocarboxylic acid, or an ester, an amide or an ammonium salt thereof, a carboxylic acid ester of a thioalcohol, or a compound thereof may be used.

As a method of preparation, a monomer of printing resin,
Alternatively, the intended coating material can be obtained by mixing the prepolymer and the above internal dispersion substance and then polymerizing the mixture. Alternatively, a desired printing can be obtained by preparing a printing resin solution, mixing the dispersion substance therein, and then applying the solution to the coating.

The printing paints obtained by the above two methods are
It is applied to the required portions of the resinous sheet-like film 113 described in the fifth to ninth embodiments. further,
When heated to the temperature S ₁ described above, the printed portion becomes cloudy and the desired light detection is possible.

Next, an example will be given. After mixing and stirring a THF 5% solution of docosanoic acid in a THF 30% solution of a vinylden chloride-acrylonitrile copolymer at a ratio of 1: 1, a sheet-shaped film 113 was applied to a polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 100 μm in a band shape with a thickness of 10 μm. To do. After heating the obtained film to 74 ° C., 2
After holding at this temperature for 0 seconds and cooling at room temperature, a white print was obtained on the leading edge of the film. The printed film was fixed under the same fixing conditions as in Example 4 except that the fixing speed was 450 mm / sec.
Sufficient characteristics were obtained as a P film.

When it is desired to further lower the fixing speed, the white layer is insulated by covering the surface of the print with a polyester transparent film having a thickness of 25 to 50 μm, and it becomes possible to make it transparent at a desired temperature.

Example 17 FIG. 18 shows a transparent film which is an example of the present invention.
In this embodiment, the transparent laminated film is 2
A polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film having an axially stretched thickness of 100 μm and a heat distortion temperature of 152 ° C. and a maximum working temperature of 150 ° C. has a storage elastic modulus (G ′) of 1000 dyn / cm ³ at 160 ° C. and a softening point of 11
6 ° C polyester resin (solubility parameter about 1
A transparent film was used in which a solution prepared by dissolving 1) in acetone was applied by a bar coater method, and an overcoat layer was formed so that the thickness after drying was 16 μm. In the past, the recording material front / back detection mark 460 was printed on top of this, but the present invention is characterized in that the recording material front / back detection is performed without this printing. That is, the portion 460 on the overcoat layer 442 (FIG. 19) that has been conventionally printed is roughened with sandpaper to an appropriate roughness (hereinafter referred to as MAT treatment), and due to the minute scratches, the light emitting element 444 of the optical sensor is removed. The front and back of the recording material is detected by scattering the above light and blocking the transmitted light.

Appropriate roughness means that the thickness of the top coat layer (16 μm in this embodiment) is not transmitted between pitches of minute scratches.
An appropriate range is a degree not exceeding m). As the range, the pitch interval is 50 μm or less, and the surface roughness is Rz1 to Rz1.
10 μm is preferable, and if the value is in the range, it is possible to suppress the transmittance to an appropriate value.

Using the full-color image forming apparatus as shown in FIG. 36, the MAT processing was performed, and the transparent laminated film of this example having a changed transmittance in the infrared region of 800 to 1000 nm was fed. FIG. 28 shows the detection rates detected as the front surface of the transparent laminate film in the same recording material detection mark portion. According to it, the transmittance is 0-40
%, That is, 60% to 100% of the light was blocked, it could be detected as the front surface of the transparent film. When the transmittance becomes greater than 40%, the light is always received by the light receiving element 4
It reached 5, and was erroneously detected as the opposite of the front and back, so it was unusable. Further, a color image was formed on a transparent film with a sharp melt toner containing a polyester resin having a softening point of 105 ° C. as a main component, and heat pressure fixing was performed in a fixing device shown in FIG.

As the fixing conditions, when the surface temperature of the fixing roller is 180 ° C., the peripheral speed of the fixing and pressure roller is 45 mm /
A good image could be obtained in sec. At this time, since the softening point of the polyester resin of the overcoat layer of the transparent laminate film is 116 ° C., this overcoat layer 442 is also softened at the same time as the toner during fixing, and the MAT processing section (detection mark section) for detecting the recording material is also formed. After fixing, smoothes, M
The recording material detection mark 460 disappeared after fixing because a portion of the overcoat layer that was not subjected to AT treatment was the same, and a sufficient effect was obtained. The present invention may be configured by using the belt-shaped recording material carrier of the present embodiment, a system in which one photosensitive drum is multiple-transferred multiple times, and may be either analog or digital, and a black single-color single-transfer system.

Example 18 In this example, the overcoat layer 442 as a transparent laminate film had a solubility parameter value of 10.5, a weight average molecular weight of 20,000, and a storage elastic modulus (G ′) at 160 ° C. An epoxy resin having a softening point of 800 dyn / cm ³ and a softening point of 114 ° C. dissolved in methyl ethyl ketone was applied and the thickness after drying was set to 15 μm, which was applied on the same PET film as in Example 17. Then, as in Example 17, MAT processing was performed on the recording material detection mark portion to change the transmittance of infrared light of 800 to 1000 nm, and image formation was performed in a full-color image forming apparatus as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 29, the detection rate detected as the front surface of the transparent film in the same recording material detection unit as in the related art showed almost the same results as in Example 17, although there were some errors. Ie 80
When the transmittance of infrared light of 0 to 1000 nm was 40% or less, that is, when the light of 60% to 100% was blocked, it could be normally detected as the front surface of the transparent film.

Further, the same toner as in Example 18 was used to form a color image on this transparent film, and heat fixing was carried out using the same fixing device. When the surface temperature of the fixing roller was 180 ° C., fixing and Peripheral speed of pressure roller 4
A good image could be obtained at 0 mm / sec. Then, the recording material detection mark 60 after fixing was melted as in Example 17.

(Example 19) The present invention is characterized in that the transparent laminate film used in Examples 17 and 18 is detected by using a reflection type optical sensor as shown in FIG. The reflection type optical sensor will be described. In FIG. 30, 444 is a light emitting element 445 is a light receiving element, light from the light emitting element 444 is applied to the recording material, and the reflected light is received by the light receiving element 445 for detection. When the transmissive laminated film used in Examples 17 and 18 in which the recording material detection mark portion 460 was MAT-processed to the same roughness was fed, the front surface of the transparent laminated film and the reflective optical Indicates the detection rate detected by the sensor. According to this, when the reflectance was 20% or more, it could be detected as the front surface of the transparent laminate film. When this reflectance was less than 20%, it was erroneously detected as the opposite of the front and back, and it was not usable. Examples 17 and 1
A color image was formed on this transparent film using the same toner as in No. 8, and heat fixing was performed using the same fixing device, and a good image was obtained under the same fixing conditions as in Examples 17 and 18. Was completed. Then, the recording material detection mark 460 after fixing was melted as in Examples 17 and 18.

(Example 20) In this example, a color image was formed on the same transparent film as in Examples 17 and 18 by using the film type heat fixing device as shown in FIG. 32 will be described in detail below.

Reference numeral 447 denotes a heat-resistant fixing film in the form of an endless belt, which includes a left driving roller 448, a right driven roller 449, a driving roller 448 and a driven roller 4.
The three members 448, 449, and 4 of the low-heat-capacity linear heating element 450 as heating elements arranged below
It is suspended between 50.

The driven roller 449 also serves as a tension roller for the endless belt-shaped fixing film 447. The fixing film 447 is rotated at a predetermined peripheral speed in the clockwise direction with the clockwise rotation of the driving roller 448, that is, not shown. The unfixed toner image T conveyed from the image forming section side is rotationally driven at the same peripheral speed as the conveying speed of the transfer material sheet S as a recording material having the upper surface carried thereon without wrinkles, meandering or speed delay.

Reference numeral 451 denotes a pressure roller as a pressure member having a rubber elastic layer having a good releasability such as silicone rubber. The pressure roller 451 sandwiches the film portion on the descending side of the endless belt-shaped fixing film 447 and heats it. For example, the lower surface of the body 450 is pressed against the lower surface of the body 450 by an urging means (not shown) with a total pressure of 4 to 7 kg, and rotates in the forward counterclockwise direction in the conveying direction of the transfer material sheet P. The pressure roller 451 of the present embodiment is a silicone rubber roller having an outer diameter of 30 mm and a wall thickness of 7 mm formed concentrically and integrally on the outer periphery of a cored bar.

The heating element 450 is a linear heating element having a low heat capacity and having a longitudinal direction in a direction intersecting the plane moving direction of the fixing film 447 (the width direction of the film), and includes a heater substrate 452 and an energization heating resistor (heating element) 453. , A temperature measuring element 454, and is fixedly supported by being attached and held on a heater support 455.

When the recording material having the unfixed toner image on its upper surface is conveyed between the fixing film 447 and the pressure roller 451 in the film type heating and fixing device having such a structure, it is heated by the heating member 450. Fixing is done.

When a color image forming apparatus as shown in FIG. 36 having a fixing device having such a structure is used to form an image, the recording material is detected in the same manner as in Examples 17 and 18 during sheet feeding. . In fixing, when the temperature of the heating element 450 is 180 ° C., the speed of the fixing film 447 is 25
A good image was obtained at mm / sec, and the recording material detection mark 460 after fixing was melted as in Example 17.

Example 21 On a 100 μm thick A4 size polystyrene terephthalate film (trade name: Lumirror, manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.), silica was used to improve the transportability of the film, and an antistatic agent was used by a known method. A water-soluble polyester resin containing a treatment agent is applied on both the front and back sides to a thickness of 5 μm.

The addition amount of the antistatic treatment agent was 20
The surface resistivity is adjusted to 5 × 10 ^{7 to} 5 × 10 ¹⁰ Ω at a temperature of 60 ° C. and a humidity of 60% RH, and then added.

Next, using a printing ink in which a sublimation dye kayak manufactured by Dainippon Explosives Co., Ltd. is dispersed in a polyester resin, as shown in FIG.
A printed layer 103 of an opaque portion having a width of m × 10 cm and a thickness of about 1 μm was formed.

By applying the transparent film of the present invention thus obtained to the full-color electrophotographic apparatus shown in FIG. 21, diffuse reflection light by the printing layer was obtained without any problem,
It was possible to detect the transport status of the film in the device.

Further, when the film was passed through the heat fixing device 209 in the subsequent step, the fixing roller temperature was 180 ° C. and the heating time was 5
It was confirmed that the dye in the printing ink in the opaque portion 102 sublimated sufficiently in the range of 0 to 200 msec to make the printed portion transparent.

Example 22 The same polyethylene terephthalate film as in Example 21 that had been subjected to matt treatment and antistatic treatment was used as a sheet-like film.

As a printing ink for forming an opaque portion,
A compound having a structure represented by the following formula (IR820
B: Showa Denko KK) and a mixture of tetrabutylammonium / butyltriphenylborate [mixing molar ratio, 100: 0.3 (preferably used in the range of 100: 0.1 to 100: 50). ] Was kneaded with a styrene resin to prepare a powder hot melt printing ink.

[0193]

[Outer 1]

Next, the powder thus formed was electrostatically coated on the above film, heated to 150 ° C., and then slightly pressed to print on the film to form a blue opaque portion. . The print thickness was 6 μm.

Next, in the full-color electrophotographic apparatus shown in FIG. 21, especially the light detection sensors 211aA211b and 21a
By using a white tungsten lamp as the light source of 1c and passing a film on which the above-mentioned opaque portion is printed, sufficient diffused reflected light of ink is obtained, and it is possible to accurately detect the transport state. done.

Further, on the transport path T after image formation shown in FIG. 21, a halogen lamp 213 used for image exposure is used.
Light is condensed by the lens 212 using the mirror 214,
When projected onto the printing layer, which is an opaque portion, blue was decolorized, and the film on which the toner image was fixed by the fixing roller did not have this printing layer, and a good full-color trapene film was obtained.

In this case, the light irradiation amount of the halogen lamp 213 is determined by the film transport speed.
It is sufficient to apply an amount exceeding 1 mW / cm ² per unit area, but at least 0.2 mW / cm ² or more is necessary.

Example 23 In place of IR820B used in Example 22, a cationic dye having a structure represented by the following formula (2) was used, and a mixture of this cationic dye and an organic boron ammonium salt [mixed Molar ratio, 100: 0.3 (100: 0.1-1
It is preferably used in the range of 00:50. )] Was dispersed in styrene as a printing ink, and a transparent film was obtained in the same manner as in Example 22.

[0199]

[Outside 2]

Next, this film was applied to the apparatus shown in FIG. In this case, the opaque portion formed by the above ink can be erased by using a near infrared light semiconductor laser (Ga-As-Al semiconductor laser) instead of the halogen lamp.

In recent years, digital copying machines using this semiconductor laser have been put on the market by many manufacturers, and the above printing ink is a more effective ink in practical use.

In other words, upon erasing, it is only necessary to allow the laser to irradiate the printing surface by using an exposure path different from the image exposure. Therefore, several collapsible mirrors and shutters are provided on the optical path. It becomes possible to erase the color by simply adding a class.

In such a system, if it is necessary for printing for detection, it is possible to add characters and image information with the above laser. For example, if printing of an opaque portion is provided on the entire surface, OHP is possible. It is also possible to easily make a frame for the film.

[0204]

As described above, according to the present invention, an opaque portion which can be detected by an optical sensor and can be easily eliminated (removed or made transparent) by a predetermined process is formed on a transparent sheet-like member. By attaching a transparent film (translucent recording material) to the transparent film, the opaque portion of the transparent film can be used to accurately detect the size and the front and back during image formation. After the image is formed, the opaque portion disappears so that the opaque portion does not appear as an image on the screen when applied to an OHP device, for example.

When the image forming apparatus has an optical sensor for detecting an opaque portion and an erasing means for eliminating (removing or making transparent) the opaque portion, the size and the front and back of the transparent recording material are detected and unnecessary. The opaque part that became can be easily erased.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of a transparent film of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a printing form of an opaque portion of the transparent film of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a plan view of the transparent film of the present invention used in Example 1.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the transparent film shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows a cross-sectional view of the transparent film of the present invention used in Example 2.

FIG. 6 shows a sectional view of the transparent film of the present invention used in Example 3.

FIG. 7 shows a cross-sectional view of the transparent film of the present invention used in Example 9.

FIG. 8 shows a cross-sectional view of the transparent film of the present invention used in Example 9.

FIG. 9 is a top view illustrating the operation of the tenth embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a top view illustrating the operation of the tenth embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a top view illustrating the operation of the eleventh embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a top view illustrating the operation of the eleventh embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a top view illustrating the operation of the twelfth embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a top view illustrating the operation of the twelfth embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a top view illustrating the operation of the thirteenth embodiment.

16 shows a cross-sectional view of the transparent film of the present invention used in Example 14. FIG.

FIG. 17 is a top view illustrating the operation of the fifteenth embodiment.

18 shows a plan view of the transparent film of the present invention used in Example 17. FIG.

FIG. 19 shows a sectional view of a transparent film.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram of a four-color full-color copying machine as an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is an explanatory view of a copying machine in which the transparent film of the present invention can be used.

FIG. 22 shows an example of a method for detecting the transport state of the transparent film of the present invention.

23 is a schematic sectional view of the electrophotographic color image forming apparatus used in Example 1. FIG.

FIG. 24 is a schematic view of an electrophotographic color image forming apparatus used in Example 2.

FIG. 25 shows a schematic view of the image forming apparatus used in Example 3.

FIG. 26 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the fixing unit of the image forming apparatus used in Example 6.

FIG. 27 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the fixing unit of the image forming apparatus used in Example 26.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing the relationship between the transmittance and the detection rate of the transparent film of the present invention.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing the relationship between the transmittance and the detection rate of the transparent film of the present invention.

FIG. 30 shows a schematic view of a detection means for detecting a transparent film.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing the relationship between the reflectance and the detection rate of the transparent film of the present invention.

FIG. 32 shows a schematic view of a film type fixing device.

FIG. 33 shows a schematic view of detection means for detecting a transparent film.

FIG. 34 shows a plan view of a conventional transparent film.

FIG. 35 shows a schematic sectional view of a roller fixing device.

FIG. 36 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional color image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a, 1b, 1c, 1d Image carrier (photosensitive drum) 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d Latent image forming means (charging device) 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d Developing means (developing device) 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d Transfer Means (Transfer Charger) 6 Transparent Film (Recording Material) 7 Separation / Removal Means or Clearing Means (Fixer) 11a, 11b, 11c Light Detection Sensor 100 Transparent Films 101, 102, 103 Printed Opaque Portion 111 Opaque Portion 121 , 122, 124, 125, 126, 127 Optical sensor 430 Roller type fixing device 431 Fixing roller 432 Pressure roller 433 Oil applying device 434, 435 Cleaning device 436 Thermistor 437 Blade 438 Entrance guide 439 Discharge guide 440a Discharge roller 440b Discharge Paper roller S Recording material T Toner 441 First resin layer (base layer Film) 442 second resin layer (overcoat layer) 443 mechanical sensor 444 light emitting element 445 light receiving element 446 registration roller 447 fixing film 448 driving roller 449 driven roller 450 heating body 451 pressure roller 452 motor substrate 453 heating element 454 temperature measuring element 455 Motor support 460 Transparent laminated film detection mark

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Jiro Ishizuka 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56) Reference JP-A-3-170944 (JP, A) (58) Survey Fields (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G03G 7/00

Claims (13)

(57) [Claims] 1. An opaque portion of a transparent film constituted by an optically transparent sheet-like member having an opaque portion due to diffused reflection in at least a part thereof is optically detected, and the transparent film is provided on the surface of the transparent film. An image forming method in which an image is formed and the opaque portion is made transparent by heating.
Ri, opaque portions by the irregular reflection has a release agent absorbing layer formed on the resin layer and the resin layer having a porous structure, the light by heating a resin layer having a porous structure An image forming method characterized by making transparent by reducing irregular reflection. 2. The image forming method according to claim 1, wherein the resin layer having the porous structure is formed of resin particles or emulsion particles. 3. The release agent absorbing layer formed on the resin layer,
It is formed of ion-modified polyvinyl alcohol or polyvinylpyrrolidone.
Or the image forming method described in 2. Wherein the opaque part is any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that optically detected by an optical sensor that reads detects transmission quantity or amount of reflected light as a detection means for detecting optically Or the image forming method described above. 5. An image is formed by fixing a toner image on the surface of the transparent film by a fixing means, and the opaque portion is for fixing the toner image in contact with the surface of the transparent film. by the heated fixing roller or the pressure roller in the unit, the image forming method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 is clarified by smoothing the porous structure. 6. An optically transparent sheet-like member having at least a portion of an opaque portion due to diffuse reflection having a resin layer having a porous structure and a release agent absorbing layer formed on the resin layer. Detecting means for optically detecting the opaque portion of the transparent film, image forming means for forming an image on the surface of the transparent film, and heating the resin layer having the porous structure. Te image forming apparatus odor having a transparent means for transparent by reducing the irregular reflection of light, the opaque portion by the irregular reflection, the formed release agent absorbed in the resin layer and the resin layer having a porous structure has a layer, and characterized in that the resin layer having a porous structure, is intended to diffuse reflection of light is transparent by reducing by heating Image forming apparatus. 7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the resin layer having the porous structure is formed of resin particles or emulsion particles. 8. The release agent absorbing layer formed on the resin layer,
It is formed by ion-modified polyvinyl alcohol or polyvinylpyrrolidone.
Alternatively, the image forming apparatus according to item 7. 9. The detection means of claim 6 to 8, characterized in that the optical sensor for reading detects the amount of transmitted or reflected amount of light is a means for detecting the opaque part optically The image forming apparatus according to any one of the above. 10. A transparent film composed of an optically transparent sheet member having at least a portion of the opaque portion by irregular reflection, opaque portions by the diffused reflection, the resin layer having a porous structure and It has a release agent absorbing layer formed on the resin layer, and is for making the resin layer having the porous structure transparent by reducing diffuse reflection of light by heating. A transparent film for image formation, which is characterized by being present. 11. The resin layer having a porous structure is formed of resin particles or emulsion particles, and the opaque portion is transparent because the resin particles or emulsion particles are softened and smoothed by heating. The transparent film for image formation according to claim 10 , wherein the transparent film is formed into a film. 12. Formed on the resin layerRelease agent absorption layer
Is an ion-modified polyvinyl alcohol or polyvinyl
Claims characterized by being formed by loridone
Term10Or11The transparent film for image formation as described above. 13. opaque portion, the transparent image forming it according to any one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that the image of the transparent film is formed on the non-image forming region is not formed film.