JP4205542B2 - Curl correction method and curl correction apparatus for image receiving paper for sublimation transfer - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a curl straightening method of the sublimation transfer ink receiving image paper.

The sublimation transfer printer over uses an image-receiving sheet of the conventional paper and a plastic film and a bonding was 200 microns or more thick in order to achieve in print photograph-like texture. Such an image receiving paper has a problem of ease of winding habits caused by laminating with a film and supplying in a roll state.

  As a technique for correcting the curl of such roll paper, a technique has been proposed in which a part of the roll paper is pressed and bent in a direction opposite to the curl in a state in which the roll paper is pulled out and tension is applied (for example, patent document). 1-5).

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-51655 Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-51846 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-247045 JP-A-8-2766 JP-A-8-32748

  However, such an image receiving paper is inherently high in rigidity, so that it is difficult to correct the curl because, for example, wrinkles are generated when the curl is forcibly removed.

  For this reason, when making such image-receiving paper into a roll form, it is necessary to make the diameter of the core core as large as possible within the range where curling does not become a problem. As a result, the diameter of the roll paper becomes large, and there is a problem in downsizing and handling of the printer. was there.

  If the core diameter of the image receiving paper is reduced in order to cope with the above problem, the curling of the image receiving paper is very strong in the direction of the winding core, and the curl of the output printed matter is strong, so that it is difficult to see the entire image as it is. There was a problem that it looked distorted. In addition, there is a problem that it is difficult to stick on the mount. In addition, when a large number of prints are made, there is a problem that it is difficult to hold them in a stacked manner. Also, if you try to correct the curl by curling the curl in the opposite direction by hand, the curl cannot be corrected more than expected, or if the force is applied too much, the image surface may be wrinkled. There was a problem.

The present invention has been made in view of these problems, realizes a reduction in the diameter of the roll paper winding core, contributes to downsizing of the roll image receiving paper, and further downsizing of the printer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a curl correction method for image-receiving paper for sublimation transfer , which makes it possible to obtain a printed product having good image quality and handleability.

  The present invention will be described below. In order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, reference numerals in the accompanying drawings are appended in parentheses, but the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiments.

The curl correction method of the present invention is a method of correcting the curl of the image receiving paper by passing the image receiving paper for sublimation transfer (100) drawn from the roll through the gaps (4a, 5a) of the guide (3), The guide is provided with a first guide part (4) and a second guide part (5) in which the gap is formed by two parallel planes, and the second guide part is used to feed the image receiving paper. The second guide portion is provided upstream of the first guide portion so as to be fed while being bent in a direction opposite to the curling direction of the image receiving paper with respect to the second guide portion. The first guide section and the second guide are arranged so that the change in the feeding direction of the image receiving paper from the guide section to the first guide section is opposite to the curling direction of the image receiving paper. part arranged, the first guide portion and the second guide The angle (C) formed by part set to 45 ° or more 145 ° or less, by passing the image-receiving sheet to said guide after printing, and correcting the curl of the image receiving paper, to solve the problems described above .

According to mosquito Lumpur correcting method of the present invention, by passing the image receiving paper into the gap formed by the two parallel planes to each other, it is possible to correct the curl of the image receiving paper. As a result, it is possible to correct the curl of the image-receiving paper having a high rigidity, and it is possible to reduce the diameter of the image-receiving paper and contribute to downsizing the printer and reducing running costs.

Sublimation transfer-receiving sheet is prepared by bonding a film and paper, it has the advantage of high rigidity and texture when compared to paper of the same thickness. On the other hand, if the force for bending the image receiving paper for sublimation transfer exceeds a certain level, the compressive stress tends to concentrate only on the surface layer, and buckling is likely to occur. Therefore, the present invention capable of correcting the curl so as not to cause wrinkles is particularly effective for the image receiving paper for sublimation transfer.

In Ca Lumpur correcting method of the present invention, as an image receiving sheet, JIS L1085, JIS sublimation transfer image receiving sheet of 2500mg from a direction parallel stiffness 500 to the printing measured in L1096 (100) is used, the first guide The length (A) of the part may be 10 mm or more and 100 mm or less, more preferably 10 mm or more and 92 mm or less. If the first guide portion is too short, the correction force is small and the curl cannot be corrected sufficiently. On the other hand, if the first guide portion is too long, the correction force becomes large and causes wrinkles. Within the above range, it is possible to preferably correct the curl of the image receiving paper. Note that the length of the guide portion is a length that effectively functions to correct the image receiving paper. The direction parallel to the print (print flow direction) is the direction in which the image receiving paper is pulled out from the roll (image receiving paper feed direction). In the curl correcting method of the present invention, the curl of the image receiving paper may be corrected so that the corrected curl amount becomes an appropriate value. However, when the sublimation transfer image receiving paper having the above-mentioned rigidity is used as the image receiving paper, when the curl amount is corrected to be −10 to 10 mm, the printed matter is a natural image in which the curled image distortion is not felt visually. It will be a nice finish. In addition, even when printing on a large amount of image receiving paper, it is easy to stack the prints on the stacker, and the handling of the prints is improved. In this specification, the curl amount is defined as four corners by placing an image receiving paper having a length (direction parallel to the print) of 89 mm and a width (direction perpendicular to the print) of 127 mm on a flat table with the convex direction down. This is the average value of the distance measured between the corner and the platform. When the image receiving surface is on the upper side, the value is positive (+) when curled in the convex direction, and negative (-) when curled in the concave direction. However, the above-mentioned length 89 mm and width 127 mm specify the size of the image receiving paper to be used as a reference when measuring the curl amount, and the size of the image receiving paper applied in the curl correction method of the present invention. It is not intended to limit. When the size of the image receiving paper to which the present invention is applied is other than 89 mm long and 127 mm wide, the curling amount can be measured by cutting the image receiving paper to 89 mm long and 127 mm wide.

In Ca Lumpur correcting method of the present invention, the first guide portion of the gap (a) is 1mm or 7mm or less, more preferably, it may be 2mm or more 5mm or less. If the gap between the first guide portions is too small, the correction force becomes large and causes wrinkles. It also causes paper jams in the guide. Conversely, if the gap between the first guide portions is too large, the correction force is small and the curl cannot be corrected sufficiently. Within the above range, it is possible to preferably correct the curl of the image receiving paper.

In Ca Lumpur correcting method of the present invention, the second guide portion of the gap (b) is 0.3mm or more 7mm or less, more preferably, may be 0.5mm or more 5mm or less. If the gap between the second guide portions is too small, the correction force becomes large and causes wrinkles. It also causes paper jams in the guide. Conversely, if the gap between the second guide portions is too large, the correction force is small and the curl cannot be corrected sufficiently. Within the above range, it is possible to preferably correct the curl of the image receiving paper.

In the curl correction method of the present invention, the angle (C) formed by the first guide portion and the second guide portion is set to 45 ° or more and 145 ° or less as described above , and more preferably 55 ° or more. It may be 135 ° or less. If this angle is too small, the correction force becomes large and causes wrinkles. It also causes paper jams in the guide. Conversely, if this angle is too large, the correction force is small and curling cannot be sufficiently corrected. Within the above range, it is possible to preferably correct the curl of the image receiving paper.

In the onset bright curl correcting method, the length of the second guide portion (B) is 5mm or more, more preferably, it may be 5mm or more than 100mm. If the second guide portion is too short, the correction force is small and the curl cannot be corrected sufficiently. In addition, it is difficult to guide the image receiving paper to the first guide unit, which may cause a paper jam. Within the above range, it is possible to preferably correct the curl of the image receiving paper.

The curl correction apparatus (1) of the present invention passes a sublimation transfer image receiving paper (100) drawn from a roll through gaps (4a, 5a) of a guide (3) to correct curling of the image receiving paper. In the apparatus, the guide is provided so as to guide the image receiving paper after printing, and the guide includes a first guide portion (4) and a second guide in which the gap is formed by two parallel planes. The second guide portion is provided on the upstream side of the first guide portion in the feeding direction of the image receiving paper, and the guide portion (5) is provided with respect to the second guide portion. A change in the feeding direction of the image receiving paper from the second guide portion to the first guide portion is caused to be fed while being bent in a direction opposite to the curling direction of the image receiving paper. In the direction opposite to the curling direction In so that the first guide portion and the second guide part is arranged, the angle formed by the first guide portion and the second guide portion (C) is set to 145 ° or less 45 ° or more Therefore, the above-described problems are solved.

The curl correction method according to claim 1 can be realized by feeding the image receiving paper to the curl correction apparatus of the present invention.

In the curl straightening device of mosquitoes Lumpur straightening method and the present invention of the present invention, correction of the image receiving paper it is performed after printing. When the curl is corrected after printing, the printer can be made simpler than when the curl is corrected before printing. When correcting the curl of the image receiving paper before printing, the curled state of the printed material becomes uniform if printing is performed continuously. However, if the printer enters a resting state, etc., and the image-receiving paper in the middle of curl correction stays in the curl correction device, when the next printing is started from that state, the curled state of the printed matter And different from other parts. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to provide the printer with a mechanism for the curl correction device to escape when the printing is stopped, or to provide a control mechanism for rewinding the image receiving paper before entering the curl correction device. On the other hand, if the correction is performed after printing, the above-described mechanism is not necessary, and the printer can be downsized and the running cost can be reduced.

  According to the curl correcting method of the present invention, curling is performed by bending the image receiving paper in the reverse curl direction while passing the image receiving paper through the guide. As a result, it is possible to correct the curl of the image-receiving paper having a high rigidity, and it is possible to reduce the diameter of the image-receiving paper and contribute to downsizing the printer and reducing running costs.

  Fig.1 (a) is sectional drawing of the correction apparatus 1 to which the curl correction method of this invention is applied. The correction apparatus 1 includes a feed roller 2 that can send out the image receiving paper 100 for sublimation transfer after printing, and a guide 3 that guides the image receiving paper 100 sent out from the feed roller 2.

  The guide 3 has a first guide part 4 and a second guide part 5. The first guide portion 4 is formed by mutually paralleling plates 6 and 7 wider than the image receiving paper 100 in parallel with each other, and the second guide portion 5 is also formed as a plate 8 wider than the image receiving paper 100. 9 are formed by facing each other in parallel. Accordingly, linear passages 4a and 5a having gaps a and b between the plates are formed in the first guide portion 4 and the second guide portion 5, respectively. The passage 4a and the passage 5a are connected so as to form a corner 10 having an angle C. The length of the first guide portion 4 is defined by the length A from the outer corner 10a of the corner 10 to the outlet 4b of the passage 4a. The length of the second guide portion 5 is defined by the length B from the corner 10b inside the corner 10 to the inlet 5b of the passage 5a. The passage 5a does not have to be horizontal. Further, the angle C does not have to be a right angle, and may be smaller than the right angle or larger than the right angle as indicated by a dotted line s1.

  The image receiving paper 100 is fed into the inlet 5b by the feed roller 2 with the surface curling convexly upward. Then, the image receiving paper 100 is bent at the corner 10 in the direction opposite to the curl direction. Thereby, the curl of the image receiving paper 100 is corrected. Thereafter, the image receiving paper 100 is discharged from the outlet 5b. By setting the parameters A, a, b, and B to appropriate values, it is possible to appropriately correct the curl of the image receiving paper 100 without causing wrinkles in the image receiving paper 100.

  In addition, as shown in FIG.1 (b), you may provide the feed roller 2 between the 1st guide part 4 and the 2nd guide part 5. As shown in FIG. In this case, parameters A, a, and b are defined in the same manner, but parameter B is defined by the length of the plate 9.

  The curl correction method of the present invention corrects curl for an image receiving paper having a stiffness measured by JIS L1085 and L1096 of 500 to 2500 mg. The stiffness may be measured according to JIS L1085 and L1096. For example, a Gurley type flexibility tester manufactured by Toyo Seiki Seisakusho Co., Ltd. can be used.

  With reference to FIG. 2, an outline of a Gurley type testing machine will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the Gurley type testing machine 50 includes a movable arm 51, a chuck 52 attached to the movable arm 51, a pendulum 53, and a scale plate 54.

  First, five test pieces 60 each having a length Lmm and a width dmm are sampled in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. The collected test piece 60 is attached to the chuck 52, and the chuck 52 is fixed in accordance with a predetermined position (L / 25.4) on the scale on the movable arm 51. Next, scales when the movable arm is rotated at a constant speed by attaching appropriate weights 55a, 55b, 55c from the fulcrum f of the pendulum 53 to the lower weight attachment holes 53a, 53b, 53c, and the test piece 60 is separated from the pendulum 53. Read scale RG on board 54. The stiffness (flexibility) is calculated by the following formula, the average value in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction is obtained, and rounded to the first decimal place.

  The curl of the image-receiving paper printed using a sublimation transfer printer S-2045 manufactured by Shinko Electric was corrected. In the printer, the curl amount when the curl is not corrected is as shown in Table 1. This table shows the curl amount when the stiffness of the image receiving paper is 1500 mg. As described above, the curl amount is measured based on the size of the image receiving paper having a length of 89 mm and a width of 127 mm. As shown in FIG. 3, the stiffness of the image receiving paper was measured using a test piece 60 that was cut out with a length of 3.5 inches and a width of 1 inch parallel to the printing flow direction.

  The image receiving paper was prepared by pasting paper with a plastic film. By setting the thickness of the paper as the core material to 60 microns, 120 microns, 160 microns, 200 microns, and 260 microns, image receiving papers having a stiffness of 65 mg, 500 mg, 1500 mg, 2500 mg, and 3000 mg were prepared. As the image receiving paper, roll paper having an outer surface receiving image surface was used.

  The curl correction was evaluated by evaluating the curl amount, wrinkle, and jam (clog of paper) of the image receiving paper.

  The curl amount was evaluated as “◯” when the curl amount was −10 to 10 mm, “Δ” when the curl amount was −12 to 12 mm, and “X” when the curl amount was −12 mm or less, or 12 mm or more. In general, a slightly convex (+) curl amount on the upper side of the image receiving surface is considered to be good, but a curl amount having no problem in practical use is set to −10 to 10 mm.

  The curl amount was evaluated when the core diameter was 50 mm or more and when the core diameter was 30 mm or more. The purpose of the case where the core diameter is 50 mm or more and 30 mm or more is that the present invention aims to reduce the core diameter of the image receiving paper. It is what.

  In the evaluation of wrinkles, the case where clear wrinkles occurred at the time of curling correction was evaluated as “X”, the case where a fine float was seen as a pre-wrinkle stage was evaluated as “Δ”, and the case where there was no lift was evaluated as “◯”.

  In the evaluation of jam, the number of occurrences of jam when 10 sheets are continuously printed is “x” when the number is 5 or more, Δ when the number is 1 or more and less than 5, and “◯” when the number is 0.

  Table 2 shows examples and comparative examples in which the stiffness of the image receiving paper is fixed to 1500 mg, the parameter B is fixed to 10 mm, and the parameters A, a, b, and C are changed. In this table, the evaluation of the curl amount is-when the image receiving paper is bent due to a jam and the curl amount cannot be measured.

  In Table 2, paying attention to parameter A, when parameter A is 100 mm or less, the evaluation of the curl amount of the image receiving paper having a winding core diameter of 30 mm or more or 50 mm or more is Δ or more, and curling of the image receiving paper can be corrected. Can be confirmed. Further, for example, when Comparative Example 1 is compared with Example 6 in which the parameter A is different from 100 mm and 92 mm and other conditions are the same, the wrinkle evaluation in Comparative Example 1 is x. Then, it is ◯, and it can be confirmed that the parameter A is more preferably 92 mm or less.

  Focusing on the parameter a, when the parameter a is 1 to 7 mm, the evaluation of the curling amount of the image receiving paper having a winding core diameter of 30 mm or more or 50 mm or more is Δ or more, and it can be confirmed that the curling of the image receiving paper can be corrected. . For example, when Comparative Example 7 is compared with Example 8 where the parameter a is different from 7 mm and 5 mm and the other conditions are the same, in Comparative Example 7, the evaluation of the curl amount with a core diameter of 50 mm is x. As a result, it is Δ in Example 8, and it can be confirmed that the parameter a is more preferably 5 mm or less. Further, for example, when Example 11 in which the parameter a is different from 2 mm and 1 mm and the other conditions are the same is compared with Comparative Example 13, the wrinkle evaluation in Example 11 is Δ. Then, it is x, and it can be confirmed that the parameter a is more preferably 2 mm or more.

  Focusing on the parameter b, when the parameter b is 0.3 to 7 mm, the evaluation of the curl amount of the image receiving paper having a winding core diameter of 30 mm or more or 50 mm or more is Δ or more, and the curl of the image receiving paper can be corrected. I can confirm. Further, for example, when Comparative Example 8 is compared with Example 13 where the parameter b is different from 7 mm and 5 mm and the other conditions are the same, in Comparative Example 8, the evaluation of the curl amount with a core diameter of 50 mm is x. Somewhere, it is Δ in Example 13, and it can be confirmed that the parameter b is more preferably 5 mm or less. Further, for example, when Example 18 in which the parameter b is different from 0.5 mm and 0.3 mm and other conditions are the same is compared with Comparative Example 12, the evaluation in Example 18 is Δ. In Comparative Example 12, it is ×, and it can be confirmed that the parameter b is more preferably 0.5 mm or more.

  Paying attention to parameter C, when parameter C is 45 to 145 °, the evaluation of the curl amount of the image receiving paper having a winding core diameter of 30 mm or more or 50 mm or more is Δ or more, and it is confirmed that the curling of the image receiving paper can be corrected. it can. Further, for example, when Example 10 is compared with Example 10 in which the parameter C is different from 45 ° and 55 ° and the other conditions are the same, the wrinkle evaluation in Comparative Example 10 is x. In Example 11, it is Δ, and it can be confirmed that the parameter C is more preferably 55 ° or more. Further, for example, when Example 13 in which parameter C is different from 135 ° and 145 ° and the other conditions are the same is compared with Comparative Example 9, in Example 13, the curl amount with a core diameter of 50 mm is evaluated. Where Δ, it is x in Comparative Example 9, and it can be confirmed that the parameter C is more preferably 135 ° or less.

  Table 3 shows examples and comparative examples in which the stiffness of the image receiving paper is 1500 mg, the parameters a, b, and B are fixed to 2 mm, 2 mm, and 10 mm, respectively, and the parameters A and C are changed.

  From this table, it can be confirmed that when the parameter A is 10 mm or more, the evaluation of the curl amount of the image receiving paper having a winding core diameter of 30 mm or more or 50 mm or more is Δ or more, and the curling of the image receiving paper can be corrected.

  Table 4 shows examples and comparative examples in which the stiffness of the image receiving paper is 1500 mg, the parameters A and B are fixed to 10 mm and 10 mm, respectively, and the parameters a, b and C are changed.

  Table 4 is common to Table 2 in that the stiffness of the image receiving paper is fixed to 1500 mg, the parameter B is fixed to 10 mm, and the parameters a, b, and C are changed. On the other hand, in Table 2, the parameter A is set to a relatively large value of 100 mm or 92 mm, whereas in Table 4, the parameter A is set to a relatively small value of 10 mm. Is different. From this table, it can be confirmed that the same knowledge as in Table 1 can be obtained for the parameters a, b, and C even when the parameter A is 10 mm.

  Table 5 shows examples and comparative examples in which the parameters A, a, b, and B are fixed to 92 mm, 2 mm, 0.5 mm, and 10 mm, respectively, and the stiffness of the image receiving paper and the parameter C are changed. Table 6 shows examples and comparative examples in which the parameters A, a, b, and B are fixed to 10 mm, 5 mm, 5 mm, and 10 mm, respectively, and the stiffness of the image receiving paper and the parameter C are changed. The combinations of parameters A, a, b, and B in Table 5 are combinations in which the probability of occurrence of wrinkles and jams is higher than the combinations in the other embodiments. The combinations of parameters A, a, b, and B in Table 6 are combinations in which the probability that the curl cannot be sufficiently corrected is higher than the combinations in the other embodiments.

  From these tables, even with a combination of parameters A, a, b, and B having a relatively high probability of occurrence of wrinkles, jams, etc., it is possible to correct the curl of the image receiving paper having a stiffness of 500 to 2500 mg. I can confirm that.

  Table 7 shows examples and comparative examples in which the stiffness of the image receiving paper is 1500 mg, the parameters a and b are fixed to 2 mm and 2 mm, respectively, and the parameters A, C and B are changed.

  From this table, it can be confirmed that the curl can be corrected when the parameter B is 5 to 100 mm.

Sectional drawing of the curl correction apparatus to which the curl correction method of this invention is applied. The figure which shows the outline | summary of a Gurley type | mold flexibility testing machine. The figure which shows the test piece used for the rigidity measurement by the Gurley-type flexibility testing machine of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Straightening device to which the curl straightening method of this invention is applied 2 Feed roller 3 Guide 4 1st guide part 5 2nd guide part A Length of 1st guide part a Gap of 1st guide part B 2nd The length of the guide portion b The gap between the second guide portions C The angle between the first guide portion and the second guide portion 100 Image receiving paper

Claims (11)

A method of correcting the curl of the image receiving paper by passing the image receiving paper for sublimation transfer drawn out from a roll through a gap between the guides,
The guide is provided with a first guide portion and a second guide portion in which the gap is formed by two planes parallel to each other,
The second guide portion is provided on the upstream side of the first guide portion in the image receiving paper feeding direction,
The image receiving paper is fed from the second guide portion to the first guide portion so as to be fed to the second guide portion while being bent in a direction opposite to the curling direction of the image receiving paper. The first guide part and the second guide part are arranged so that the change in the feeding direction is opposite to the curled direction of the image receiving paper,
The angle formed by the first guide part and the second guide part is set to 45 ° or more and 145 ° or less,
A curl correction method comprising correcting the curl of the image receiving paper by passing the image receiving paper through the guide after printing.   The image receiving paper is an image receiving paper for sublimation transfer having a stiffness of 500 to 2500 mg in a direction parallel to a print measured by JIS L1085 and JIS L1096, and the length of the first guide portion is 10 mm or more and 100 mm or less. The curl correction method according to claim 1, wherein   The curl correction method according to claim 2, wherein a length of the first guide portion is 10 mm or more and 92 mm or less.   The curl correction method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein a gap between the first guide portions is 1 mm or more and 7 mm or less.   The curl correction method according to claim 4, wherein a gap between the first guide portions is 2 mm or more and 5 mm or less.   The curl correction method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein a gap between the second guide portions is 0.3 mm or more and 7 mm or less.   The curl correction method according to claim 6, wherein a gap between the second guide portions is 0.5 mm or more and 5 mm or less. The curl correction method according to claim 1, wherein an angle formed by the first guide part and the second guide part is 55 ° or more and 135 ° or less.   The curl correction method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the length of the second guide portion is 5 mm or more. The curl correction method according to claim 9 , wherein a length of the second guide portion is 5 mm or more and 100 mm or less. A curl correcting device for correcting the curl of the image receiving paper by passing the image receiving paper for sublimation transfer drawn out from a roll through a gap between the guides,
The guide is provided to guide the image receiving paper after printing;
The guide is provided with a first guide portion and a second guide portion in which the gap is formed by two planes parallel to each other,
The second guide part is provided on the upstream side of the first guide part in the feeding direction of the image receiving paper,
The image receiving paper is fed from the second guide portion to the first guide portion so as to be fed to the second guide portion while being bent in a direction opposite to the curling direction of the image receiving paper. The first guide portion and the second guide portion are arranged so that the change in the feeding direction is opposite to the curled direction of the image receiving paper ,
The curl correction apparatus, wherein an angle formed by the first guide portion and the second guide portion is set to 45 ° or more and 145 ° or less .

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