JPH01247163A - Preparation of electrostatic printing plate - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily and economically prepare a printing plate, by closely bring ing a printing plate material and a printing manuscript into contact with each other under heating and releasing the electric insulating substance layer part bonded to a toner image part to expose the conductive surface part correspond ing to a toner image to a substrate. CONSTITUTION:A printing manuscript 3 wberein a thermoplastic toner image part 2 is formed on a support 1 and a printing plate material 7 wherein an electric insulating substance layer 6 is provided on a support 4 through a conduc tive member layer 5 are prepared. Subsequently, the printing plate material 7 is superposed on the printing manuscript 3 so that the electric insulating substance layer 6 is brought into contact with the surface of the toner image part 2 to closely bring both of them into contact with each other under heating. The electric insulating substance layer part 8 bonded to the toner image part 2 by hot close contact is released from the conductive surface 5 of a substrate to expose the conductive surface part 5 corresponding to a toner image to a substrate and the negative pattern corresponding to the image mark data of a reversed image is formed to the insulating substance layer 6 to prepare an electrostatic printing plate 9.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an electrostatic printing master plate.

[Conventional technology]

An electrostatic printing master plate is prepared by providing a pattern made of an electrically insulating material on a conductive substrate, and an electric charge is applied to the insulating pattern by corona discharge or other charge adding means, and after toner development, the toner on the printing medium is There is a method of transferring a pattern, fixing it, and repeating the same operation to electrostatically print a large number of sheets.

There are various proposals for producing an electrostatic printing master plate. For example, there is a method in which an electrostatic printing master plate is prepared by forming an image pattern by a heat-sensitive transfer method on a transfer sheet having an insulating heat-melting ink layer on a conductive surface using a -component toner (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-1999). -152889).

Since this method utilizes a thermal transfer recording method, it is possible to easily produce an electrostatic printing plate.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

When the toner is transferred directly from the electrostatic printing plate to the printing material, the printing plate image is printed on the printing material as a mirror image, so when performing normal image printing, the pattern on the printing plate is an inverted reverse image image signal. It must correspond to the information.

However, when a printing plate is manufactured by directly applying a method using a thermal transfer recording method to an existing output device such as a personal computer or a word printer, the pattern of the obtained printing plate becomes a normal image. In addition, in order to create printing plates using existing image output machines, the printing mechanism needs to be designed to perform image transfer twice, like an offset printing type, which makes the process and equipment complicated and expensive. I have no choice but to.

Furthermore, in order to output a printed manuscript containing photographs or the like using a personal computer, a word processor, etc., an expensive attached device such as a reading device is required.

This invention was made based on the above-mentioned background, and its purpose is to produce printed matter from existing inexpensive output devices such as personal computers and word processors, and to add photographs and handwritten figures to the printed matter and synthesize it. It is possible to easily and economically produce printing plates using printed materials, handwritten manuscripts, etc., which have been copied using electrophotographic copying machines that use widely used heat-fixing toner, as printing manuscripts. The purpose is to provide a method.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above problems are solved by the method of manufacturing an electrostatic printing plate of the present invention.

That is, in the method for manufacturing an electrostatic printing plate according to the present invention, a printing plate material in which an electrically insulating material layer is provided on the conductive surface of a substrate and a printing original on which an image is formed using thermoplastic toner are electrically heated. The insulating material layer and the toner surface are overlapped so as to be in contact with each other, and the electrically insulating material layer portion adhered to the toner image area by hot adhesion is peeled off from the conductive surface of the substrate. This method is characterized in that a conductive surface portion corresponding to the toner image is exposed on the substrate.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the electrically insulating material layer can be easily peeled off from the conductive surface of the substrate by external force.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the printing plate material can have a conductive member layer provided between the conductive surface of the substrate and the electrically insulating material layer.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the printing member has a layer structure including a support having an electrically insulating surface, a conductive layer provided on the electrically insulating surface, and a heat-sensitive adhesive provided on the surface of the conductive layer. It may consist of layers.

In another preferred specific embodiment of the present invention, the layer structure of the printing member may include a support that is a thin metal plate or a conductive sheet, and a heat-sensitive adhesive layer provided on one side of the support. .

The invention will be explained in more detail below.

Printing Plate Material The printing plate material is provided with an electrically insulating material layer on the electrically conductive surface of a substrate, and the substrate is electrically conductive on at least one surface thereof. Specifically, such substrates include those consisting of a support having an electrically insulating surface and a conductive layer provided on the electrically insulating surface, and those consisting of a support that is a thin metal plate or a conductive sheet. There is.

This support exhibits at least the mechanical and thermal properties of a printing plate. Examples of such materials include paper, plastic film, metal foil or thin plate, sheet, and composite materials of these and insulating layers. Plastic film materials that can be used here include:
For example, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, polystyrene, ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer, ethylene-methacrylic acid, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, ethylene-α-olefin copolymer elastomer, acid-modified polyolefin , styrene
butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymer, polyamide, polycarbonate, polysulfone, polyacetal,
Polymethyl methacrylate, polyphenylene oxide,
Examples include polyurethane, polyethylene terephthalate, polybutadiene terephthalate, nylon, polyimide, and others, single substances or mixtures thereof (such as coextruded films), and laminates.

The size and shape of the support will depend on the manner of application of heating and pressure,
It can be selected and changed as appropriate depending on the type of printing plate, usage, etc.

The conductive layer provided on the surface of the support has conductivity, and examples of such materials include gold, silver, copper,
Platinum, lead, zinc, cadmium, nickel, cobalt, tin, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, beryllium, lithium, gallium, selenium, tellurium, chromium,
Examples include manganese, antimony bismuth, or alloys thereof, conductive polymers, conductive particle kneaded materials, and conductive oxides such as tin oxide and indium oxide. This conductive layer can be formed by pasting a foil of the above-mentioned conductive material on the support surface, or can be formed by a vacuum evaporation method, a sputtering method, or an ion-blating method, or it can be formed from a conductive paste. It can be formed by applying a conductive paint.

An insulating resin is used as the electrically insulating material layer formed on the conductive surface of the substrate. Examples of such resins include natural waxes such as spermaceti wax, carnauba wax, candelilla wax, wood wax, beeswax, montan wax, and lanolin wax, paraffin wax, microcrystalline wax, ester wax, oxidized wax, low molecular weight polyethylene wax, and chlorinated paraffin. Synthetic waxes such as lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid, higher fatty acids such as stearic acid, fromenic acid, behenic acid, higher alcohols such as stearyl alcohol, behenic alcohol,
Esters such as sucrose fatty acid ester and sulbitan fatty acid ester, amides such as stearinamide and oleinamide, vinyl resins such as polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, polystyrene, and polyvinyl acetate;
Vinyl chloride-polyvinyl acetate copolymer, ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer, ethylene-methacrylic acid, ethylene-
Copolymers such as vinyl acetate copolymer, styrene-butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymer, ethylene-α-olefin copolymer elastomer, saponified ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, cellulose resins such as ethyl cellulose and cellulose acetate, polyethylene , thermoplastic resins such as polypropylene, acid-modified polyolefin, polyamide, polycarbonate, polysulfone, polyacetal, polymethyl methacrylate, polyphenylene oxide, polyurethane, polyethylene terephthalate, polybutadiene terephthalate, rubbers such as synthetic rubber, chlorinated rubber, natural rubber, Other examples include epoxy resins, polyurethane resins, acrylic resins, petroleum resins, phenol resins, polyethylene waxes, montan waxes, partially saponified ester waxes, Fichatrobousch waxes, and oil waxes.

In this invention, a release agent layer may be provided between the conductive surface of the substrate and the heat-sensitive adhesive layer, if necessary, so that the heat-sensitive adhesive layer portion is easily transferred to the document surface when forming the printing pattern. good.

Further, in the present invention, the electrically insulating material layer can be easily peeled off from the conductive surface of the substrate by external force.

In this invention, the printing plate material can have a conductive member layer provided between the conductive surface of the substrate and the electrically insulating material layer, so that in the peeling step, the conductive member The structure is destroyed to ensure that the conductive parts are exposed.

Printed original The printed original that can be used in the present invention has a thermoplastic toner image area that softens and becomes sticky when heated. Specifically, for example, an image is formed on paper or the like using heat-fixing toner used in printing devices such as personal computers and word processors, and electrophotographic copying machines.

By using such printed manuscripts, it is possible to print out prints from existing output devices such as word processors, prints that are synthesized by adding photos and handwritten figures to those prints, and copies made using widely used electrophotographic copying machines. Objects, etc. can be used as printing manuscripts.

Method for manufacturing an electrostatic printing plate In the method for manufacturing an electrostatic printing plate of the present invention, an image is first formed using a printing plate material having an electrically insulating material layer provided on the conductive surface of a substrate and a thermoplastic toner. Prepare the printed manuscript.

In the manufacturing method of the present invention, the printing plate material and the printing original are then placed one on top of the other so that the electrically insulating material layer and the toner surface are in contact with each other, and brought into close contact with each other while being heated.

In this manufacturing method, hot adhesion between the printing plate material and the printing original can be achieved in various ways, such as by applying xenon or infrared flash while pressing with a heat roller or a flat hot plate, or pressing with a transparent flat plate such as glass. This can be done by, for example,

In this invention, the toner image area softens and becomes sticky due to hot adhesion, and the toner image area adheres to the electrically insulating material layer. At the same time as or after the hot adhesion, the printing document is separated from the printing plate material, and the electrically insulating material layer that has been adhered to the toner image area is peeled off from the conductive surface of the substrate, and the conductive material corresponding to the toner image is applied to the substrate. Revealing the sexual part.

In the obtained printing plate material, a pattern corresponding to the image symbol information of the reverse image is formed by the exposed conductive layer, and thereby an electrostatic printing plate is manufactured. This peeling method is arbitrary.

The obtained electrostatic printing plate therefore consists of a substrate with a conductive surface and an electrically insulating material layer provided on the conductive surface side, and is exposed in a pattern corresponding to the image symbol information of the reverse image. It has an exposed conductive surface.

Next, an embodiment of the method for manufacturing an electrostatic printing plate according to the present invention will be specifically explained using the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing each step of an embodiment.

A printing original 3 having a thermoplastic toner image area 2 formed on a support 1; a printing plate material 7 having an electrically insulating material layer 6 formed on a support 4 via a conductive material layer 5; (Figure 1A).

Next, the printing plate material 7 and the printing original 3 are placed on top of each other so that the electrically insulating material layer 6 and the toner surface 2 are in contact with each other, and are brought into close contact with each other under hot conditions (FIG. 1B).

The electrically insulating material layer portion 8 adhered to the toner image area 2 by hot adhesion is peeled off from the conductive surface 5 of the substrate to expose the conductive surface portion 5 corresponding to the toner image on the substrate. An electrostatic printing plate 9 is manufactured by forming a negative pattern corresponding to image symbol information of an inverted reverse image on the layer 6 (FIG. 1C).
).

The illustrated embodiment is for a better understanding of the invention and is not intended to be limiting.

Electrostatic printing method The electrostatic printing method using the electrostatic printing plate according to the present invention involves charging the electrostatic printing plate described above to form an electrostatic latent image, developing it with toner, and then transferring the toner image. It consists of transferring to a medium and fixing it.

Charging of the electrostatic printing plate 9 generally imparts a positive or negative charge on the insulating negative pattern by corona discharge or the like, and then toner development attracts and adheres toner particles of the same polarity as the charge on the insulating pattern. (Figure 2).

This toner development method can be roughly divided into two component development methods that use a toner carrier and a one-component development method that does not use a toner carrier. Currently, among the commonly used one-component developing methods, there are a fur brush developing method, a pressure developing method, a magnetic toner developing method, a charge developing method, and others.

The magnetic toner used in the magnetic toner development method contains a magnetic pigment, and is developed using a magnetic brush.

This magnetic toner includes conductive toner and insulating toner, and either type of toner can be used in the electrostatic printing of the present invention.

This conductive toner has a problem in that it is difficult to transfer this toner image onto a printing medium and that it is difficult to obtain high-quality printed matter because the conductive toner is developed by inducing charges of opposite polarity to the latent image charges in the toner. However, after applying an electric charge to the printing plate, a printing medium with appropriate insulation is placed over the printing medium, only the charge is transferred to the printing medium, and then the latent image charge on the printing medium is developed to perform printing. Can be done.

On the other hand, insulating toner is developed by forming a toner charge by frictional charging or the like, and is transferred to a printing medium electrostatically.

The toner on the printing medium can usually be fixed by heating or pressure, and this process can be repeated to print a large number of sheets.

[For production]

This invention configured as described above operates as follows.

A printing plate material having an electrically insulating material layer provided on the conductive surface of the substrate and a printing document on which an image is formed using thermoplastic toner are placed in such a manner that the electrically insulating material layer and the toner surface are in contact with each other. When the thermoplastic toner is overlapped and heated and pressed, the thermoplastic toner is heated and softened to develop tackiness or adhesion. Due to this adhesive property, the surface of the toner image portion and the surface of the electrically insulating material layer are bonded at the contact points. Next, when the printing document is separated from the printing plate material, the bonded electrically insulating material layer portion is peeled off toward the toner image area. If the image symbol information of the toner image area of the printing document is a normal image, the insulating material layer exposed at the conductive surface portion is reversed to form a negative pattern corresponding to the image symbol information of the reverse image.

On the surface of the electrostatic printing plate, a conductive surface exposed in a pattern corresponding to the image symbol information of the reverse image is formed on the insulating material layer, so electrostatic printing can be performed using the printing plate. For example,
The image symbol information of the normal image is transferred and recorded on the printed material.

〔Example〕

This invention will be specifically explained by the following examples.

An apparatus 30 schematically shown in FIG. 3 was used to produce an electrostatic printing plate of the present invention, and the printing plate was used for electrostatic printing.

First, a roll 32 for printing plate material and a take-up shaft 33 for winding up used printing plates are installed in the rotating drum 31, and the printing plate material 7 taken out from the roll 32 is placed on the circumference of the drum. It is wound around the winding shaft 33 so that the heat-sensitive insulating layer 6 of No. 7 is on the outside.

A printing original 3 on which a toner image containing a thermoplastic resin is formed is inserted between a heat roller 34 and a guide roller 35 so that the toner image portion 2 overlaps the heat-sensitive insulating layer 6, and the leading edge of the printing original 3 is placed on the drum. When the printing plate material 7 contacts a predetermined position, the printing original 3 and the printing plate material 7 are brought into close contact with each other by the heat roller 34, and the heating roller 34 and the drum 31 are rotated at the same time, so that the entire surface of the printing original 3 is heated. is hot-packed onto the printing plate material 7.

After the hot contact, the printing original 3 is peeled off from the printing plate material 7, and an inverse image of the toner image of the printing original is formed on the printing plate material 7 moving together with the drum.

Next, the printing plate surface on which the inverse image of the toner image has been formed is charged with a corona charger. By this charging process, as shown in FIG. 2, only the insulating pattern layer, which is a negative image, is charged, and the conductive surface is not charged.

Next, the toner charged to the same polarity as that charged by the insulating pattern layer is covered with the toner charged to the same polarity as that charged by the insulating pattern layer.
Remove unattached toner and perform toner development.

A transfer medium such as paper 36 is placed on the toner-developed printing plate, and the paper is charged from the back side with a corona charger 37 to transfer the toner onto the paper.

The transferred image is fixed on a transfer medium such as paper using heat, pressure, or the like.

After the transfer, the printing plate is returned to the charging process and the printing process is repeated for a predetermined number of sheets.

After printing a predetermined number of sheets, the printing plate is wound up on the take-up shaft 33 in the drum, and the apparatus is used for manufacturing the next printing plate.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The following effects can be obtained by this invention.

As judged from the above configuration and operation, and as demonstrated by the examples, it is possible to easily and quickly obtain a large number of printed materials. In addition, in the printing plate production process, prints from existing inexpensive output devices such as computers and word blocksers, prints made by adding photos and handwritten figures to the prints, and handwritten manuscripts are widely used as print manuscripts. You can use copies made with an electrophotographic copying machine that uses heat-fixing toner.
Printing plates can be manufactured easily and economically.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing each step of producing an electrostatic printing plate according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the state of toner development of the electrostatic printing plate according to the present invention in electrostatic printing, and FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an apparatus for manufacturing an electrostatic printing plate and performing electrostatic printing of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Support body, 2... Toner image area, 3... Print original, 4... Support body, 5... Conductive member, 6...
Electrically insulating material layer, 7...-Printing plate material, 8... Peeling insulating layer, 9... Printing plate, 30... Electrostatic printing device, 31
...Drum, 32...Printing plate material roll, 33...
Winding shaft, 34... Heat roller, 35... Guide roller, 36... Paper, 37... Corona charger. Applicant's agent Mr. Sato

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printing plate material in which an electrically insulating material layer is provided on the conductive surface of a substrate, and a printing original on which an image is formed using thermoplastic toner, are connected to the electrically insulating material layer. The electrically insulating material layer that is adhered to the toner image area by hot adhesion is peeled off from the conductive surface of the substrate, and the toner image is applied to the substrate in accordance with the toner image. A method for producing an electrostatic printing plate characterized by exposing a conductive surface portion. 2. The method for producing an electrostatic printing plate according to claim 1, wherein the electrically insulating material layer is easily peeled off from the conductive surface of the substrate by external force. 3. The method for producing an electrostatic printing plate according to claim 1, wherein the printing plate material has a conductive member layer provided between the conductive surface of the substrate and the electrically insulating material layer. 4. The printing member according to claim 1, wherein the layer structure includes a support having an electrically insulating surface, a conductive layer provided on the electrically insulating surface, and a heat-sensitive adhesive layer provided on the surface of the conductive layer. Method of manufacturing electrostatic printing plates. 5. The method for producing an electrostatic printing plate according to claim 1, wherein the printing member has a layer structure comprising a support which is a thin metal plate or a conductive sheet, and a heat-sensitive adhesive layer provided on one side of the support.