JP4363278B2 - Heating device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a heating device, and more particularly to a heating device that heats an object to be heated while transporting it in a predetermined transport direction.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is known a heating device that heats an object to be heated while being transported by a planar heater configured by sealing a nichrome wire with ceramics, for example.
In such a heating apparatus, when heating an object to be heated having a large dimension (width dimension) in the direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction, it is necessary to use a planar heater having a width dimension equal to or larger than the width dimension of the object to be heated. However, a planar heater having a large width is difficult to perform fine temperature control according to the position on the surface (heating surface) facing the object to be heated, and is difficult to manufacture and expensive.

  Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, a technique in which a plurality of planar heaters 1 each having a rectangular heating surface is arranged in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction is generally widespread. When a plurality of planar heaters 1 are arranged in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction, the adjacent planar heaters 1 are shown in FIG. 7 in order to absorb dimensional errors and assembly errors of the respective planar heaters 1. Such a gap is formed.

  However, in the prior art, since a gap extending in a direction that coincides with the conveyance direction of the object to be heated is formed, the amount of heat applied to the portion of the object to be heated that continues to face the gap is less than that of the other parts. As a result, there was a problem that uneven heating occurred.

  Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a heating apparatus capable of uniformly heating an object to be heated even when a plurality of planar heaters are used.

  In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the heating device according to claim 1 is a heating device that heats an object to be heated while conveying the object to be heated in a predetermined conveying direction, and a plurality of planar heaters facing the object to be heated. Each of which has a heater group arranged with a gap, and a plurality of planar heaters are arranged so that the conveying direction does not coincide with the direction in which the gap extends, and the heater group has a planar shape at a portion facing the object to be heated. A heater group is provided by arranging a plurality of planar heaters so that the total dimension of the heater in the transport direction is substantially equal at any location.

  The heating device according to claim 2 is the heating device according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of planar heaters has a surface facing the member to be heated having the same shape and the same size, and the plurality of planar heaters A heater group is provided by arranging a plurality of planar heaters such that the opposing surfaces are staggered.

  In addition, the “total dimension in the conveyance direction of the planar heater” of the present invention means the total dimension in the conveyance direction of each planar heater at a location where a plurality of planar heaters are arranged in the conveyance direction. In a location where one planar heater is disposed in the direction, the dimension in the transport direction of the planar heater is referred to.

  In the heating apparatus according to claim 1, the direction in which the gap extends is shifted from the conveyance direction so that the object to be conveyed does not have a portion that continues to face the gap of the planar heater, and is opposed to the object to be heated in the heater group. By providing the heater group so that the total dimension of the planar heater in the conveying direction is substantially equal at the portion where the heating is performed, the amount of heat given from the heater group is substantially uniform regardless of the position on the surface of the object to be heated facing the heater group. Become. Accordingly, the entire surface of the object to be heated facing the heater group can be heated uniformly, and uneven heating can be suppressed.

  In the heating apparatus according to the second aspect, the heater group is provided by arranging a plurality of planar heaters each having an opposing surface of the same shape and the same size so that the opposing surfaces are staggered. Thus, by using a plurality of planar heaters having the same shape and the same size as the surface to be heated, the heater group can be easily provided, and the labor required for assembling and the cost can be reduced.

  According to this invention, even if it is a case where a some planar heater is used, a to-be-heated material can be heated uniformly.

Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings, a case will be described in which the heating device of the present invention is applied to a printing system and a printing material used in the printing system is heated as an object to be heated.
1 and 2, a printing system 10 includes a controller 12 that controls the operation of each component of the printing system 10, a printing unit 14 that forms an image on the printing material P, and a printing material P that has been imaged. A heat fixing unit 16 for heating is included.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a controller 12 such as a general-purpose computer (personal computer) includes an input unit 18 such as a keyboard and a mouse for an operator to input data and instructions, a GUI (Graphical User Interface), and a print material. A display unit 20 for displaying an image to be formed on P is connected. The controller 12 is connected to a scanner 22 that operates in accordance with instructions from the controller 12 and acquires a frame image formed on a photographic film as image data.

  Such a controller 12 controls the operations of the print unit 14 and the thermal fixing unit 16 connected to the controller 12. In this embodiment, the heating device of the present invention is constituted by the controller 12 and the thermal fixing unit 16.

  In the printing system 10, the printing material P is conveyed in a predetermined conveying direction (arrow A direction) from the printing unit 14 configured to be separable from each other to the heat fixing unit 16, and image processing is performed on the printing material P by the printing unit 14. Heat treatment is performed by the heat fixing unit 16. A loop forming unit (not shown) is disposed between the print unit 14 and the thermal fixing unit 16. The loop forming unit absorbs the difference between the conveyance speed of the printing material P in the printing unit 14 and the conveyance speed of the printing material P in the thermal fixing unit 16.

  With reference to FIG. 2, the printing material P used in the printing system 10 is formed by sequentially laminating a fixing layer P2 and a permeation layer P3 on a flexible film-like substrate P1. The substrate P1 is made of PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) or the like, and the fixing layer P2 is made of a polyvinyl alcohol-based resin or a polyvinyl acetal-based resin, which is a resin having affinity for sublimable ink. The permeation layer P3 is made of a fluororesin or a silicon resin that has no affinity for the sublimation ink, and is formed on the fixing layer P2 so as to be peelable. The print material P configured in this way is configured as a flexible sheet as a whole.

  Instead of the print material P, a material having affinity for the sublimable ink may be used for the base material, and a print material that can use the surface of the base material as the fixing layer may be used.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the print unit 14 includes a winding section 24 that winds the long print material P in a roll shape. The print material P unwound from the winding unit 24 is conveyed in the direction of arrow A by a plurality of conveyance roller pairs provided in the print unit 14. A printer head 26 is disposed on the transport path of the print material P in the print unit 14.

  The printer head 26 includes an ink cartridge that contains sublimable inks of, for example, cyan (C), light cyan (LC), magenta (M), light magenta (LM), yellow (Y), and black (K). Each of the six sublimation inks accommodated in the ink cartridge of the printer head 26 starts sublimation from the permeation layer P3 (see FIG. 2) at about 80 ° C., and the fixing layer P2 without difficulty at about 170 ° C. to 200 ° C. (See FIG. 2).

In the print unit 14, the sublimation ink is discharged from the printer head 26 while moving the printer head 26 in the main scanning direction (the direction of the arrow B perpendicular to the arrow A direction: see FIG. 4). Ink is applied to form an image based on image data acquired by the scanner 22, for example, on the permeation layer P3.
The print material P on which the image is formed on the permeation layer P3 is supplied to the heat fixing unit 16 via the loop forming unit.

Next, the heat fixing unit 16 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
The thermal fixing unit 16 includes a case 28. The case 28 is provided with an introduction port 28a for introducing the supplied printing material P into the inside and a discharge port 28b for discharging the printing material P in the case 28.

  In the case 28 of the heat fixing unit 16, a pair of transport rollers 30 and transport rollers 32 a to 32 c are sequentially provided in the arrow A direction. Two driven rollers 34 are provided in each of the transport rollers 32a to 32c. The conveyance roller pair 30 and the conveyance rollers 32a to 32c are respectively rotated by a stepping motor or the like. The print material P introduced into the case 28 from the introduction port 28a is conveyed in the direction of arrow A by the conveyance roller pair 30 and the conveyance rollers 32a to 32c.

  A heating base 36a for supporting the print material P to be conveyed is provided between the conveyance rollers 32a and 32b. Similarly, a heating base 36b is provided between the conveyance rollers 32b and 32c. Above the heating base 36a, two rollers 38 are provided to contact the printing material P supported by the heating base 36a from above and assist in conveyance. Similarly, two rollers 38 are provided above the heating base 36b.

  The heating bases 36a and 36b are held in a state of being separated from the bottom surface of the case 28 by a plurality of support members 40, respectively. Heater groups 46a and 46b each comprising a plurality of planar heaters 44 are provided on the bottom surfaces (surfaces opposite to the surface supporting the print material P: see FIG. 4) 42 of the heating bases 36a and 36b.

Here, with reference to FIG. 4, the arrangement | positioning aspect of the planar heater 44 which comprises the heater groups 46a and 46b, and the several planar heater 44 in the heater groups 46a and 46b is demonstrated.
The heater groups 46a and 46b provided on the bottom surfaces 42 of the heating bases 36a and 36b are configured by a plurality (seven here) of planar heaters 44 having the same shape and the same dimensions. Each planar heater 44 is configured as a far-infrared planar heater by sealing a heat source made of nichrome wire or the like with ceramics or the like, and has an upper surface and a bottom surface formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape.

  The planar heaters 44 of the heater groups 46a and 46b generate heat when power is supplied from a power supply unit (not shown) that operates in accordance with instructions from the controller 12, and the heating bases 36a and 36b, and thus the heating bases 36a and 36b. The upper print material P is heated. Therefore, the upper surface of the planar heater 44 fixed to the bottom surface 42 substantially becomes a surface (heating surface) facing the printing material P of the planar heater 44.

  Each planar heater 44 of the heater group 46a is fixed to the bottom surface 42 of the heating base 36a so that the diagonal line coincides with the arrow A direction. In other words, each planar heater 44 of the heater group 46a is fixed to the bottom surface 42 while being inclined by 45 ° with respect to the heating base 36a. The same applies to each planar heater 44 of the heater group 46b.

  On the bottom surface 42 of the heating base 36a, of the seven planar heaters 44 of the heater group 46a, three planar heaters 44 are arranged in the direction of arrow B on the conveyance roller 32a side (upstream side of the conveyance path), and four surfaces are arranged. The heaters 44 are arranged in the direction of arrow B on the transport roller 32b side (downstream of the transport path). The three sheet heaters 44 on the conveyance roller 32a side and the four sheet heaters 44 on the conveyance roller 32b side are arranged at equal intervals in the arrow B direction. Further, the sheet heater 44 is arranged on the conveyance roller 32b side so as not to be positioned on a diagonal line of the sheet heater 44 when the sheet heater 44 on the conveyance roller 32a side is viewed. Accordingly, six gaps S are formed between the three sheet heaters 44 on the transport roller 32a side and the four sheet heaters 44 on the transport roller 32b so as to extend at an angle of 45 ° with respect to the arrow A direction.

  Thus, the heater group 46a is provided by arranging the seven planar heaters 44 on the back surface 42 of the heating base 36a in a staggered manner. In other words, the heater group 46a is provided by fixing the opposing surfaces of the seven planar heaters 44 to the back surface 42 of the heating base 36a in a staggered manner. The same applies to the heater group 46b.

  In addition, as shown by the one-dot chain line in FIG. 4, the dimension L between the diagonal lines that coincide with the arrow A direction of the two planar heaters 44 that form both ends of the heater groups 46a and 46b in the arrow B direction is at least the printing material P. Is set to be larger than the dimension in the arrow B direction. As a result, the total dimension of the sheet heater 44 in the direction of arrow A is substantially equal at any location in the portion facing the print material P across the heating bases 36a, 36b of the heater groups 46a, 46b. Specifically, as indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 4, the total dimension of the planar heaters 44 in the heater groups 46 a and 46 b in the direction of arrow A is the maximum dimension of the diagonal line of the planar heater 44, and the minimum is planar. This is the dimension obtained by subtracting the dimension of the gap S in the direction of arrow A from the dimension of the diagonal line of the heater 44.

  Returning to FIG. 3, an air heating unit 48 is provided above the print material P conveyed in the case 28. The air heating unit 48 includes an air heating case 50, and an air heating heater 52 and a cross flow fan 54 are provided in the air heating case 50.

  In the air heating unit 48, the air is heated by the air heater 52, and the heated air is circulated by the cross flow fan 54. Air heated by driving the cross flow fan 54 is discharged from the discharge port 50a of the air heating case 50 to the upper side of the heating base 36b, and from above the heating base 38a to the introduction port 50b of the air heating case 50. It is guided. By circulating the air heated by the air heating unit 48, the ambient temperature above the print material P is maintained at a predetermined temperature (for example, about 180 ° C.).

  In the heat fixing unit 16 configured as described above, the heating bases 36a and 36b are heated by the heater groups 46a and 46b while the air heating unit 48 maintains the upper portions of the heating bases 36a and 36b at a predetermined atmospheric temperature. The print material P is conveyed.

  When the printing material P is heated, each planar heater 44 of the heater group 46a generates heat so that the heating base 36a is about 130 ° C., and the heating base 36b is about 180 ° C. Each planar heater 44 of the group 46b generates heat.

  The print material P that has been heat-treated in the case 28 is discharged from the discharge port 28b. Thereafter, the permeation layer P3 of the heated print material P is peeled off, whereby a clear image appears on the fixing layer P2.

  In such a thermal fixing unit 16 of the printing system 10, the gap S is inclined by 45 ° with respect to the arrow A direction so that the extending direction is shifted from the arrow A direction, and the arrow of the planar heater 44 is opposed to the print material P. By providing the heater groups 46a and 46b so that the total dimension in the A direction is substantially equal, the amount of heat applied from the heater groups 46a and 46b is substantially irrespective of the position on the surface of the print material P facing the heater groups 46a and 46b. It becomes uniform. Therefore, the conveyed printing material P can be heated uniformly, and uneven heating can be suppressed, and hence uneven sublimation of the sublimable ink can be suppressed.

  Further, by using a plurality of planar heaters 44 having the same shape and the same dimensions, a plurality of planar heaters 44 can be easily arranged in a staggered manner, and heater groups 46a and 46b can be provided. Cost can be reduced.

  In addition, the shape of the planar heater which comprises a heater group, and the arrangement | positioning aspect of the several planar heater in a heater group are not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, in addition to the sheet heater 44, sheet heaters 44a formed in a triangular prism shape whose upper and bottom surfaces are right-angled isosceles triangles are further arranged on the upstream side and the downstream side of the conveyance path. Thus, the heater group 46c may be provided. Further, as shown in FIG. 6A, the heater group 46d may be provided by arranging a plurality of planar heaters 44b formed in a rectangular column whose top and bottom are rhombuses in a staggered manner. Further, as shown in FIG. 6B, a plurality of planar heaters 44c whose top and bottom surfaces are formed in a triangular prism shape with an isosceles triangle are used so that the adjacent planar heaters 44c are reversed. The heater group 46e may be provided by arranging a plurality of planar heaters 44c.

  In the above-described embodiment, the case where the heater groups 46a and 46b are configured by the seven planar heaters 44 has been described. However, the number of planar heaters in the heater group can be arbitrarily set.

  Furthermore, although the above-mentioned embodiment demonstrated the case where the far-infrared planar heater comprised by sealing a nichrome wire with ceramics was used, the planar heater of arbitrary structures can be used. For example, a planar heater in which a sheathed heater or a halogen heater is used as a heat source can be used.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a printing system to which a heating device of the present invention is applied. It is a side view solution figure which shows an example of the printing material used for the printing system of FIG. It is a side view solution figure which shows the component in the case of a heat fixing unit. It is a bottom view solution figure which shows an example of the arrangement | positioning aspect of the planar heater which comprises a heater group, and the several planar heater in a heater group. It is a bottom view solution figure which shows the other example of the arrangement | positioning aspect of the planar heater which comprises a heater group, and the several planar heater in a heater group. It is a bottom view solution figure which shows the other example of the arrangement | positioning aspect of the planar heater which comprises a heater group, and the several planar heater in a heater group, (a) comprises a heater group by the planar heater whose upper surface and bottom face are rhombus (B) shows the case where a heater group is composed of planar heaters whose top and bottom surfaces are isosceles triangles. It is an illustration figure which shows the arrangement | positioning aspect of the several planar heater in the heating apparatus of a prior art.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Print system 12 Controller 14 Print unit 16 Heat fixing unit 30 Conveying roller pair 32a, 32b, 32c Conveying roller 36a, 36b Heating base 42 Bottom surface 44, 44a, 44b, 44c Planar heater 46a, 46b, 46c, 46d, 46e Heater group P Print material

Claims (2)

A heating device for heating an object to be heated while conveying it in a predetermined conveying direction,
A plurality of planar heaters facing the object to be heated are each provided with a heater group arranged with a gap,
The plurality of planar heaters are arranged so that the transport direction does not coincide with the direction in which the gap extends, and the total dimension of the planar heaters in the transport direction is a portion of the heater group facing the object to be heated. A heating apparatus in which the heater group is provided by arranging the plurality of planar heaters so that they are substantially equal at any location. The plurality of planar heaters are arranged so that the surfaces facing the member to be heated have the same shape and the same dimensions, and the plurality of planar heaters are arranged in a staggered manner. The heating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heater group is provided.

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