JPH01140158A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accelerate transfer from photosensitive material to image receiving material and image coloring, and to form an excellent image of high density by heating the photosensitive material and the image receiving material, all of which are overlapped after they are pressurized and transferred. CONSTITUTION:An original supporting glass plate 2 is fitted to the upper surface of a housing 1 in an image recorder, and an image forming lens movable exposing device 200 is arranged on the lower part. A photosensitive magazine 14 housing a photosensitive roller 12 wound with a photosensitive, pressure-sensitive, developing color material S is fitted to the side. The material S is fed to an exposure sensitive material supporting roller 26 by means of photosensitive material feeding rollers 21 and 22 in a magazine connection black box 20, pushed to the roller 26 by photosensitive nip rollers 28 and 30, and developed and exposed by the device 200. The exposed material S is heated by a heating and developing device 40, and carried to a photosensitive material/image receiving material overlapping device 70 through a guide member 63. The image receiving sheet C from the device 70 is carried to the device 70 by means of a guide member 62, sent to a transfer device 88 from the device 70, heated in the device 88 by overlapping it with the photosensitive material, and ultimately transferred.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is directed to imagewise exposure of a photosensitive material containing a substance on which an image is fixed by pressure, and then superimposing the photosensitive material and an image-receiving material on the photosensitive material. The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus for pressure-transferring an image obtained on the image-receiving material.

[Conventional technology]

An example of a photosensitive material that requires at least a pressure treatment step is the one disclosed in JP-A-57-179836, which contains a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colorant precursor on a support. A capsule supported by a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule is known. The image recording method using this photosensitive material is to imagewise harden the microcapsules by exposure to light, rupture the unhardened microcapsules by applying pressure, and obtain a color image from the released colorant precursor. This method has the feature that high quality images can be obtained through simple dry processing.

In addition, a novel photosensitive material that has high photosensitivity and can obtain high quality images through simple dry processing is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1983-278849 filed by the present applicant. There is. In this photosensitive material, at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming substance are coated on a support, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image-forming substance are encapsulated in the same microcapsule. It consists of a photosensitive composition.

Regarding the image recording method of recording an image using this photosensitive material, please refer to the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-27 filed by the present applicant.
It is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 8849.

This image recording method first performs imagewise exposure to form a latent image, then develops it by heating, and polymerizes the polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image exists to form a macromolecular compound to form microcapsules. harden. Then, the image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to which the color image-forming substance can be transferred is stacked and pressurized to rupture at least a portion of the microcapsules in the area where the latent image does not exist, and the color image-forming substance is transferred to the image-receiving material. to obtain an image on an image-receiving material.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In order to obtain a good image using the above-mentioned image recording method, it may be possible to heat the photosensitive material and the image-receiving material in a superimposed state to promote transfer and color reaction.
Japanese Patent No. 232653 discloses an apparatus that performs heating at the same time as pressurization.

However, if the photosensitive material and image-receiving material are heated during pressurization, reverse transfer occurs in which the image transferred onto the image-receiving material is further transferred to the photosensitive material, resulting in a problem that the image density of the image-receiving material decreases.

In particular, if the film is heated to a temperature of 50° C. or higher during pressurization, reverse transfer will occur significantly, making it impossible to obtain a good image.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to provide an image recording apparatus that can obtain good images without a decrease in image density.

[Structure of the invention]

The above-mentioned object of the present invention is to imagewise expose a photosensitive material having a substance that fixes an image by pressure, and then overlap the photosensitive material and an image-receiving material to transfer the image obtained on the photosensitive material to the image-receiving material. This is achieved by an image recording apparatus that performs pressure transfer and is characterized by having a heating means for heating the photosensitive material and image receiving material that are superimposed after pressure transfer.

That is, by heating the photosensitive material and image-receiving material after pressure transfer while they are overlapped, a good image can be obtained on the image-receiving material without the above-mentioned reverse transfer occurring.

The light-sensitive material used in the present invention may be, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 179836/1983 filed by the present applicant, in which a polymerizable compound is imagewise cured by imagewise exposure, and then overlaid with an image-receiving material. There is a type that obtains a visible image by applying pressure.

This photosensitive material has a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colored precursor supported on a support.

Further, there is a type in which a latent image generated by imagewise exposure is subjected to preliminary thermal development or wet development, and then overlaid on an image-receiving material and pressure is applied to obtain a visible image. Examples of such materials include Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-27 filed by the present applicant.
Examples include those disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 8849. The material disclosed in JP-A No. 61-278849 is a material that is thermally developed and then transferred to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to obtain an image on the image-receiving material. is coated with at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming substance, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image-forming substance are encapsulated in the same microcapsule. be. Also,
The image-receiving material may be transfer paper onto which a toner image has been transferred by electrophotography, or any recording material on which an image obtained by imagewise exposure can be fixed by pressure. There may be.

[Embodiment]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the image recording apparatus. In this embodiment, the photosensitive material has wavelengths of 425nm and 532nm.
Photosensitive and pressure-sensitive heat-developable color photosensitive materials having effective sensitivities in the vicinity of m, 660 nm, and 850 nm are used. The image recording apparatus includes a housing 1 and a document supporting glass plate 2 attached to the upper surface thereof. Below the glass plate 2,
A well-known imaging lens moving type exposure device 200 is arranged.

The exposure device 200 includes an illumination lamp 208 that scans the entire surface of the glass plate 2 with its body, a mirror 210, and an assembly 216 of a 5-nit imaging lens/filter, and further comprises a scanning distance of 2 times the illumination lamp 208, etc. Mirrors 212, 214 moving in the same direction, and fixed mirrors 218, 22
It consists of 0.222.

Inside the housing 1, a portion including the exposure device 200 is separated from other portions by a partition wall 224. Optical axis 22 of exposure device 200 reflected by fixed mirror 222
An opening 228 is provided in the portion through which the passage of the opening 22
8 includes a shutter device 240 and a shutter control device 241.
is placed.

A photosensitive material magazine 14 containing a photosensitive material roll 12 wound with a photosensitive and pressure sensitive heat-developable color photosensitive material S (hereinafter referred to as photosensitive material) is removably attached to the side of the housing 1. At the outlet 16 of the photosensitive material S of the photosensitive material magazine 14, a pair of photosensitive material feeding rollers 2L22 housed in the magazine connection dark box 20 are arranged, whereby the photosensitive material S wound around the photosensitive material roll 12 is delivered at a predetermined time. It is cut out to a certain length.

When the leading edge of the photosensitive material S advances, the photosensitive material feeding rollers 21 and 22 move away from each other as shown by imaginary lines to facilitate the advance of the photosensitive material S. A cutter unit 23 for cutting the photosensitive material S and a guide plate 24 are disposed in front of the magazine connection dark box 20 (hereinafter, the term "front" refers to the downstream side in the traveling direction of the photosensitive material, etc.).

In front of the guide plate 24, an exposed photosensitive material support roller 26 and two photosensitive material nip rollers 28, 30 pressed against the exposed photosensitive material support roller 26 are arranged. The photosensitive material S guided by the guide plate 24 is brought into close contact with the exposed photosensitive material support roller 26 by the photosensitive material nip rollers 28.30.
Imagewise exposure is performed by exposure device 200 at a position 32 between 30 and 30 .

In front of the exposed photosensitive material support roller 26, a heat developing device 40 that heats and develops the exposed photosensitive material S is arranged.

The heat developing device 40 includes a hollow cylindrical heating drum 43 in a heat insulating housing 41, four belt support rollers 47, and is stretched around the support rollers 47, and has an approximately 270° angle around the outer periphery of the heating drum 43. It is equipped with an endless belt 45 wound at an angle, and the photosensitive material S is transferred between the belt 45 and the heating drum 4.
3, and heated to about 140° C. by a halogen lamp 48 provided in a heating drum 43. Then, the temperature detector 42 detects the surface temperature of the heating drum 430, and the halogen lamp 430 is used to stabilize the temperature.
It controls the operation of 8.

The heat developing device 40 further includes a conveying roller 44 for conveying the photosensitive material S, a peeling claw 50 for peeling the photosensitive material S from the heating drum 43, and a conveying roller 46 for conveying the photosensitive material S.

In front of the conveyance roller 46, a pair of pressure rollers 60,
A guide member that guides the photosensitive material S transported by the transport roller 46 to the contact portion of the pressure roller 60 , and a guide member that guides the photosensitive material S transported by the transport roller 46 to the contact portion of the pressure roller 60 , and the image receiving paper C supplied from the image receiving paper supply device 72 and transported by the transport roller 62 are brought into contact with the pressure roller 60 . A photosensitive image receiving paper stacking device 70 is disposed, which includes a guide member 63 that guides the paper to the photosensitive material receiving paper.

The receiving paper supply device 72 includes a receiving paper cassette 73 that is attached to the side of the housing 1 and stores the receiving paper C, and a feeding roller 74 that supplies the uppermost receiving paper C in the receiving paper cassette 73 to the transport roller 62. It consists of a guide member 75.

In front of the photosensitive paper stacking device 70, a pair of pressure nip rollers 80.82 and a pressure nip roller 80.8 are provided.
A transfer device 88 including backup rollers 84 and 86 is provided to equalize the pressing force of the two in the axial direction. Pressure nip rollers 80,82 are solid carbon steel cylinders with a diameter of 40 mm and are pressed together with a pressure of approximately 500 kg/cd.

A pair of nip rollers 150.1 are provided in front of the transfer device 88.
52, and at least one of the nip rollers 150° 152 is, for example, a heating roller having a heater inside.
The 111 aluminum cylinder has a Teflon coating on its surface and is equipped with a halogen lamp in the center. As the other nip roller, it is preferable to use a rubber roller in which silicone rubber having a hardness of 40° to 60° is wrapped around a metal cylinder. These nip rollers 150 and 152 heat the superposed photosensitive material S and image receiving paper C after pressure transfer while nipping and conveying them. Preferably, the nip roller 150 on the image receiving paper C side is a heating roller and heats the image receiving paper C.

Here, 1. The photosensitive material S and the image receiving paper C may be heated by an infrared heater, a hot air blower, a thermal head, etc., and the heating means are not limited.

In front of the nip rollers 150 and 152, a photosensitive image receiving paper peeling device 90 is provided. The photosensitive image receiving paper peeling device 90 includes a guide member 92, a feed roller 94, and a peeling device that is hooked and rotated by guide rollers 98 and 100 so as to press only the photosensitive material S at both outer end portions on the feed roller 94. belt 10
It consists of 2.

A photosensitive material disposal section 104 is provided in front of one side of the release bag W190. The sensitive material disposal section 104 includes a guide member 108, a pair of feed rollers 110 and 112, and a disposal box 114.
The guide member 108 is sent from the peeling device 90.
The photosensitive material S guided by the feed rollers 110 and 11
2, it is thrown into the waste box 114.

A fixing device 106 is provided in front of the other peeling device 90 . The fixing device 106 includes a guide member 120, an ultraviolet irradiation lamp 124 made of a reflective member, and a pair of feed rollers 1.
26 and 128, and the image receiving paper C sent from the peeling device 90 and guided by the guide member 120 is irradiated with ultraviolet light for about 5 seconds to fix it.

A take-out tray 130 for receiving the image-receiving paper C is attached to the front of the fixing device 106 so as to protrude from the housing 1 .

FIG. 2 is a table showing the image densities obtained by heating the photosensitive material S and image receiving paper C simultaneously with pressure transfer, and the image densities obtained by heating them after pressure transfer as described above. The image density obtained by heating the image receiving paper C to 45°C during pressurization is 1.3, and the image density obtained by heating it to 120°C is 1.2.
The image density obtained by heating the image receiving paper C to 45°C after applying pressure is 1.1, and the image density obtained by heating it to 120°C is 1.
It is ゜4. The image density obtained without heating during and after pressurization was 0.9. From this result, a high-density image can be obtained by heating the image-receiving paper C to a high degree after applying pressure, and high heating during pressurization causes reverse transfer and a decrease in image density.
It can be seen that high heating after pressurization promotes color development of the image.

In this embodiment, the photosensitive material and image receiving paper described below were used.

[Creation of photosensitive material]

A photosensitive material was prepared as follows.

Preparation of silver halide emulsion (A) Adding an aqueous gelatin solution (containing 14 g of gelatin and 0.5 g of sodium chloride in 1200 ml of water and keeping it at 70°C) while stirring, an aqueous solution containing 70 g of potassium bromide 3
00ml and a silver nitrate aqueous solution (0.0ml of silver nitrate in 300mj of water!
59 mol dissolved) were simultaneously added at equal flow rates over 30 minutes. 5 minutes after this was completed, an aqueous solution 5 containing 4.0 g of potassium iodide was added.
and a silver nitrate aqueous solution (0.024 mol of silver nitrate dissolved in 50 ml of water) were simultaneously added at equal flow rates over 5 minutes. In this way, a monodispersed 14-hedral silver iodobromide emulsion having an average grain size of 0° and 19 μm was prepared.

After washing the emulsion with water to desalt it, 62 ml of a 1% methanol solution of the following sensitizing dye (a) was added to obtain a /'% silver halide emulsion (A) with a yield of 600 g.

(Sensitizing dye a) Benzo) Adjustment of IJ azole silver emulsion Add 30 g of gelatin and 17 g of benzotriazole to 300 g of water.
Dissolved in 0ml. This solution was stirred while being maintained at 40° C., and a solution of 17 g of silver nitrate dissolved in 100 ml of water was added over 2 minutes. Excess salt was precipitated and removed by adjusting the pH of the resulting emulsion. Then the pH was adjusted to 6,
30 to obtain a benzotriazole silver emulsion. The yield of emulsion was 400 g.

Preparation of Photosensitive Composition (A) 100 g of trimethylolpropane triacrylate, 0.2 g of the following copolymer, and the following color image forming substance (a)
1 g and 0.3 g of Emmalex NP-8 (manufactured by Nippon Emulsion ■) were dissolved. To 18 g of the above solution, add 0.3 g of the following reducing agent (■) and 0.3 g of reducing agent (II).
A solution of 8 g dissolved in 1.8 g methylene chloride was added.

Furthermore, the silver halide emulsion (A
)Ig.

Then, 0.3 g of benzotriazole silver emulsion was added thereto and stirred for 5 minutes at 15,000 revolutions per minute using a homogenizer to obtain a photosensitive composition (A).

(Copolymer) (Color image forming substance a) (Reducing agent I) Add 50 g of a 2.5% aqueous solution of pectin to 9.0 g of a 20% aqueous solution of isopane (manufactured by Kuraray ■), and adjust the pH to 4 using 10% sulfuric acid. The above photosensitive composition (A) was added to the aqueous solution adjusted to .0 and stirred for 2 minutes at 7000 rpm using a homogenizer to emulsify the above photosensitive composition (A) in the aqueous solvent.

8.0 g of a 40% urea aqueous solution was added to this aqueous emulsion.

3.0 g of resorcinol 10% aqueous solution, 8.0 g of formalin 37% aqueous solution, 3.0 g of ammonium sulfate 8.0% aqueous solution
g were added one after another, and heating was continued at 60° C. for 2 hours while stirring. After that, pH was adjusted using 10% sodium hydroxide aqueous solution.
was adjusted to 7.0, and 4.0 g of a 30% aqueous solution of sodium bisulfite was added to prepare a microcapsule liquid (A).

Preparation of microcapsule liquid (B) In the preparation of microcapsule liquid (A), the following steps were taken: except for using the sensitizing dye (b) and color image forming substance (b) shown below. Microcapsule liquid (B) was prepared by performing the same operation.

(Sensitizing dye b) (Sensitizing dye b) In preparing the microcapsule liquid (A), except for using the sensitizing dye (c) and color image forming substance (C) shown below, the microcapsule liquid (A) ) Microcapsule liquid (C) was prepared by performing the same operation as in the preparation of (C).

(Sensitizing dye C) (Color image forming substance C) Microcapsule liquid (A) prepared as above, (
A coating solution for forming a photosensitive layer was prepared by adding 3 g each of B) and (C), 1.0 g of a 1% aqueous solution of anionic surfactant described below, and 2 g of a 10% aqueous solution of sodium bicarbonate.

[Anionic surfactant]

co4coocH, -cH(c2H3)c4o.

NaO*S CHCOOCH2CH(C2H5)C4
H9 Apply this coating solution on one side of polyethylene terephthalate (support) at a rate of 50 g per ml,
A photosensitive layer was formed by drying at room temperature. In this way, a photosensitive material consisting of a support and a photosensitive layer was prepared in this order.

Preparation of receiver paper 11 g of 40% sodium hexametaphosphate aqueous solution was added to 125 g of water, and further mixed with 34 g of zinc 3.5-di-α-methylbenzylsalicylate and 82 g of 55% by weight calcium carbonate slurry, and coarsely dispersed with a mixer. did. The dispersion was further dispersed using a Dynamyl disperser. To 200 g of the obtained dispersion, 6 g of 50% by weight SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber) latex and 55 g of 8% by weight polyvinyl alcohol were added and mixed uniformly.

Pour this mixture onto art paper with a basis weight of 43 g/rrl.
After uniformly coating the film to a wet film thickness of μm, it was dried to prepare an image-receiving paper.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, by heating the superposed photosensitive material, material, and image receiving material after pressure transfer, the transfer of the image from the photosensitive material, material to the image receiving material and the color development of the image are promoted, Good images with high density can be obtained. In addition, since the transfer roller has a large heat capacity, it cannot reach the specified temperature unless it is heated for a long time with a large-capacity heater, but with the device of the present invention, it can be heated to the specified temperature in a short time with a small-capacity heater, reducing the warm-up time. This will lead to a reduction in For example, to heat the transfer roller from 20℃ to 45℃, 700W
However, in order to heat the nip roller according to the embodiment of the present invention from 20° C. to 120° C., it is only necessary to heat the nip roller for 5 minutes with a 100 W heater.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a table showing the density of the obtained images. Symbols in the figure: 1 Housing 2 Document support glass plate 12 Photosensitive material roll 14 Photosensitive material magazine 16 Outlet 20 Magazine connection dark box 21.22 Photosensitive material feed roller 23 Cutter unit 24 Guide plate 26 - Exposure photosensitive material support roller 28.30 Photosensitive material Nip roller 32-exposure device 40
Heat developing device 41 Housing 42-Temperature detector
43 Heating drum 44.461 Feed roller 45 Endless belt 47-
Belt support roller 48 - Halogen lamp 50 Peeling claw 60 Pressure roller 61 Guide member 62 Conveyance roller 63 Guide member 70 Photosensitive image receiving paper stacking device 72 - Image receiving paper supply device 73 - Image receiving paper cassette 74
Feeding roller 75 Guide member 80.82 Pressure nip roller 84.86--Backup roller 88 Transfer device 90/Sensitive image paper peeling device 92 Guide member 94 Feed roller 98.100-Guide roller 102/Peeling belt 104
- Sensitive material disposal section 106 Fixing device 108 - Guide member
110.112-Feed roller 114--Disposal box
120・Guide member 122−Reflection member 124 Lamp 126.128・・Feed roller 130 Takeout tray 150.152・Nip roller 200 Exposure device 208−Illumination lamp 210.212
,214,216,218°220.222...Mirror

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an image recording apparatus that imagewise exposes a photosensitive material having a substance that fixes an image by pressure, then overlaps the photosensitive material and an image-receiving material, and transfers the image obtained on the photosensitive material to the image-receiving material under pressure. . An image recording apparatus comprising a heating means for heating the photosensitive material and the image receiving material which are overlapped after pressure transfer.