JPH01300256A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent an impact from being generated in a pressure transfer part by providing a means for cutting the tip part and the rear end part of a photosensitive material or an image receiving material at a prescribed angle to a shape of a mountain shape, a valley shape, etc., on a carrying path of the material. CONSTITUTION:A cutting means 58 for cutting the tip part and the rear end part in the carrying direction of a photosensitive material A so that at least a part thereof makes a curve or a prescribed angle theta against the carrying direction is provided on a carrying path of the photosensitive material A and an image receiving material C. That is, the tip part and the rear end part of both the materials A, C which are superposed and carried are out to a mountain shape, a valley shape, etc. Accordingly, it does not occur that the whole area of the tip part of its materials A, C is inserted simultaneously between pressure rollers, and it does not occur either that the whole area of the rear end part of its materials is discharged simultaneously from between the pressure rollers 98, 100. In such a way, a large impact is not generated in the pressure transfer part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is directed to superimposing a photosensitive material having a substance on which an image produced by imagewise exposure is fixed with an image receiving material, so that two images are obtained on the photosensitive material. The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus that transfers an image onto an image receiving material under pressure.

[Conventional technology]

As a recording material that requires a pressure treatment process to obtain an image, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-17 filed by the present applicant
There is a type disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 9836 in which a polymerizable compound is imagewise cured by exposure and then pressure is applied to obtain a visible image.

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

In addition, after containing silver halide and exposing it to light, heat development is performed to develop the silver halide, the polymerizable compound is simultaneously cured in correspondence with this development, and then pressure is applied to obtain a visible image. An example of this type is the material disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-275742 filed by the present applicant. The material disclosed in JP-A No. 61-275742 is a photosensitive and pressure-sensitive thermal developable material that is thermally developed and then transferred to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to form an image on the image-receiving material. A material, wherein 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 contained in microcapsules. It is enclosed in.

An apparatus for recording images using this photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-278849.

This image recording device first performs image-side exposure to form a latent image, and then polymerizes the polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image exists by heating or using light energy during the latent image formation to generate a polymer compound. Harden the microcapsules. Next, it is stacked with an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to which the color image-forming substance can be transferred, and pressurized to rupture at least a portion of the microcapsules in areas where no latent image exists, thereby transferring the color image-forming substance to the image-receiving material. An image is obtained on an image-receiving material.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the image recording apparatus described above, the pressure transfer section includes a pair of pressure rollers and two backup rows for equalizing the pressure force of the pressure rollers in the axial direction. That is, the pressure transfer section has a structure in which four rollers are stacked one on top of the other, and the stacked photosensitive material and image receiving material are inserted into the opening of the pressure roller, and the microcapsules are ruptured by the pressure of the pressure roller to transfer the image. It is something to do. For this reason, the pressure applied by the pressure roller is set to a large force of 500 kg/cnl.

Therefore, when pressure transfer is performed, the photosensitive material and the image receiving paper C are inserted between the pair of pressure rollers against the pressure. A similar impact occurs when the paper is discharged from between the pressure rollers. Then, there is a problem that such an impact has an adverse effect on the pressure transfer section and shortens the life of the pressure transfer section.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to provide an image recording apparatus that prevents the above-mentioned impact during pressure transfer and has excellent durability.

[Means and effects for solving the problem] The above-mentioned object of the present invention is to superimpose a photosensitive material and an image-receiving material having a substance in which an image generated by imagewise exposure is defined by pressure, and to deposit the image onto the photosensitive material. In an image recording apparatus that pressure-transfers an obtained image onto an image-receiving material, a transport path for the photosensitive material and the image-receiving material includes a front end and a rear end in the transport direction of the photosensitive material, at least a portion of which is curved. Alternatively, this can be achieved by an image recording apparatus provided with a cutting means that cuts at a predetermined angle with respect to the conveyance direction.

In other words, by cutting the leading and trailing ends of the materials that are stacked and conveyed into a mountain shape, valley shape, etc., the entire leading end of the material is not inserted between the pressure rollers at the same time, and The entire rear end portion of the material is not ejected from between the pressure rollers at the same time, and therefore no large impact is generated on the pressure transfer section.

In the present invention, forming a predetermined angle means that the entire leading and trailing ends of the photosensitive material are not orthogonal to the conveying direction.

The photosensitive materials used in the present invention include the following.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 57-1798 related to the applicant's application
There is a type of photosensitive material disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 36 in which a polymerizable compound is imagewise cured by imagewise exposure, and then layered with an image-receiving material and pressure is applied to obtain a visible image. This photosensitive material has a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colorant precursor supported on a support.

Another example is a type in which a latent image generated by imagewise exposure is subjected to preliminary heat development or wet development, and then the image-receiving material is overlapped with pressure to obtain a visible image. Examples of such materials include Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1983-1999 filed by the present applicant.
Examples include those disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 278849. The material disclosed in JP-A No. 61-278849 is a material in which a color image-forming substance is transferred to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer after thermal development 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.

[Embodiment]

Next, preferred embodiments of the image recording apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the photosensitive material used is a photosensitive and pressure sensitive material that requires a heat development process and that allows an image to be transferred and formed on an image receiving material having an image receiving layer.

Inside the housing 12 constituting the image recording device, there is a photosensitive material supply section 13 that stores a photosensitive material, an image reading section 15 that reads image information carried on the document S, and a latent image formed on the photosensitive material A. an exposure section 16 for heating the photosensitive material A; a heat development section 17 for heat-treating the photosensitive material A; a superimposition section 19 for superimposing the image receiving paper C on the photosensitive material A; and a pressure application for applying pressure between the photosensitive material A and the image receiving paper C A transfer section 21, a peeling section 23 for stripping the image-receiving paper C from the photosensitive material A, and a post-heating section 25 for heating the image-receiving paper C are provided, respectively.

A transparent document support glass plate 14 on which a document S is placed is arranged on the upper surface of the housing 12, and the image reading section 15 is arranged below this document support glass plate 14. That is, the image reading section 15 includes a light source 18 that integrally scans the front surface of the document support glass plate 14, a mirror 20a, and an imaging lens/filter unit assembly 30, the details of which will be described later.
Further, mirrors 20b, 20c and a fixed mirror 20d that move in the same direction by % of the scanning distance of the light source 18, etc.
20e and 2Of, which are surrounded by a partition wall 22 and optically isolated from other parts. However, in this case, an exposure opening 34 for the exposure section 16 of the photosensitive material A is defined in the partition wall 22 at a portion through which the optical axis 32 of the image reading section 15 reflected by the fixed mirror 20f passes. A shutter device 35 and a shutter control device 36 are arranged in the exposure opening 34 .

On the other hand, the photosensitive material supply section 13 is provided on the left side of the housing 12 and is held in a light-tight manner by a partition wall 52. This photosensitive material supply section 13 is loaded with a removable photosensitive material magazine 54 in which photosensitive material A is wound.

The photosensitive material supply section 13 has roller pairs 56a to 56d for conveying the photosensitive material A from the magazine 54 to the exposure section 16. In this case, roller pair 56a.

A cutter 58 for cutting the photosensitive material A into predetermined lengths is provided between the cutters 56b. Further, the guide plate 60 disposed between the roller pair 56C156d faces the exposure opening 34 defined at the bottom of the partition wall 22 surrounding the image reading section 15.

A heat developing section 17 surrounded by a heat-insulating partition wall 62 is disposed in front of the exposure section 16 (hereinafter, "front" refers to the downstream side with respect to the traveling direction of the photosensitive material, etc.). In the heat developing section 17, the photosensitive material A is passed through a guide plate 60 to a roller 64, an endless belt 68 that is hung around guide rollers 66a and 66b, and a guide member 7.
0. The heating and developing section 17 includes a hollow cylindrical heating drum 74 containing a halogen lamp 72, and four belt support rollers 76 on the outer periphery of the heating drum 74.
．． It includes an endless belt 84 supported by and in sliding contact with 78, 80, and 82, and pinches and conveys the photosensitive material A in a heated state.

The photosensitive material A carried out from the heat developing section 17 is placed on the guide plate 8.
6 through the roller pair 56e.
9. The overlapping portion 19 has a 7-shaped guide plate 88, and this Y-shaped guide plate 88 is connected to the roller pair 5.
6e, and a pair of rollers 56f.
It is composed of a second carry-in path 88b which is close to the roller pair 56g, and a carry-out path 88c which is the confluence of the first and second carry-in paths 88a and 88b and which is close to the roller pair 56g.

On the other hand, a cassette 90 for storing image-receiving paper C is loaded on the right side of the housing 12. In this case, a paper feed roller 92 is disposed at the top of the cassette 90, and the image receiving paper C is transferred from the roller pair 56f to the Y-shaped guide plate 88 via the roller pair 56h by the paper feed roller 92. It is supplied to the second carry-in path 88b. In addition, inside the housing 12,
A manual feed port 94 is defined in the upper part of the cassette 90, and it is also possible to feed the image receiving paper C from this manual feed port 94 to the second carry-in path 88b via the roller pair 56i.

A pressure unit including a pressure transfer 821 and a peeling section 23 is disposed in front of the roller pair 56g. This pressure unit includes a pair of pressure rollers 98 and 100 that are rotationally driven by a rotational drive source (not shown);
Backup rollers 102 and 104 are provided to equalize the pressing force of 100 in the axial direction.

On the other hand, a blade 106 rotatably supported on a support plate (not shown) is disposed between the roller pair 56g and the pressure roller 98. The other end of the blade 106 is pulled by a spring 108 so that one end comes into sliding contact with the pressure roller 98 .

A peeling section 23 is provided in front of the pressure transfer section 21 . The peeler R23 has a pair of rollers 56j and a peeling claw 110 that biases the photosensitive material A to one roller of the pair of rollers 56. In addition, in front of the roller pair 56j, there are first and second discharge paths 116a formed in a substantially A-shape by a guide plate,
116b is provided.

The first unloading path 116a includes roller pairs 56 to 560.
A waste box 11 is placed below the heat developing section 17 via the
8 are arranged in a row. In this case, the photosensitive material A is put into the waste box 118.

In addition, a take-out tray 120 is connected in front of the second take-out path 116b via pairs of rollers 56p to 56q, and the image-receiving paper C is led out to this take-out tray 120. Note that a post-heater n 25 having a pair of heating rollers 122 is disposed between the roller pairs 56'' and 56p, and heats the image receiving paper C to promote color development of the image. Furthermore, roller pairs 56p, 56q
A color density detection unit 124 for detecting the color density of the image on the image receiving paper C is arranged between them. The color density detection unit 1
24 is an illumination device 126 that illuminates the image surface of the image receiving paper C;
It includes a color photosensor 128 that receives reflected light from the image receiving paper C due to this illumination.

The configuration and operation of the image recording apparatus have been explained above, and next, the cutting shape of the photosensitive material and the cutter 58 will be explained.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the cut shape of the photosensitive material A.

When the photosensitive material A is supplied from the photosensitive material supply section 13, it is in the form of a strip as shown in the lower part of FIG. 2, and is cut by the cutter 58 into a rough shape as shown in the upper part of FIG. The cutting angle θ of the photosensitive material A is preferably 4 to 5 degrees.

Then, the cut photosensitive material A is subjected to imagewise exposure as described above, heated and developed, and then transported to the overlapping section 19. Here, the photosensitive material A is cut larger than the image receiving paper C,
In the superimposition B19, the image receiving paper C is superimposed on the photosensitive material A approximately at the center thereof.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the superimposed photosensitive material A and image receiving paper C are inserted between a pair of pressure rollers 98.degree. Therefore, it is inserted between the pressure rollers 98 and 100 from one point. Therefore, during insertion, the pressure rollers 98, 10
The load applied to the pressure transfer section 21 is small, and no impact is generated on the pressure transfer section 21.

As the photosensitive material A is inserted between the pressure rollers 98 and 100, the serum of the photosensitive material A interposed between the pressure rollers 98 and 100 increases. That is, the pressure roller 9
The load applied to 8,100 increases as the photosensitive material A' is inserted.

Next, the image receiving paper C superimposed on the photosensitive material A is inserted between the pressure rollers 98 and 100. here,.

As is clear from FIGS. 2 and 3, since the image receiving paper C is smaller than the photosensitive material A, although a load is applied to the pressure roller 98, 100, the photosensitive material A and the image receiving paper C are inserted at once. The impact is less compared to when

On the other hand, at the end of the pressure transfer, the image receiving paper C is first discharged from between the pressure rollers 98 and 100, but at this stage the photosensitive material A is interposed between the pressure rollers 98 and 100, so the pressure rollers 98 and 100 load does not change significantly.

Further, since the rear end of the photosensitive material A is cut into a valley shape at the angle of 4 to 5 degrees, the area interposed between the pressure rollers 9g and 100 becomes smaller as the photosensitive material MA is inserted. Therefore, when the photosensitive material A is discharged following the discharge of the image receiving paper C, the pressure roller 98°100 is
They do not come into contact with each other all at once with pressure, but come into contact gradually as they are discharged onto the photosensitive material.

According to this embodiment, during pressure transfer, the pressure roller 98.1
Since there is no sudden change in the load applied to the pressure transfer section 21, it is possible to reduce or prevent undesirable impact during image transfer, and the life of the pressure transfer section 21 can be extended.

Next, the cutter 58 for cutting the photosensitive material A will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

The cutter 58 shown in FIG.
A cutting table 204 is formed into a V-shape at an angle of .

When cutting the photosensitive material A, it is detected that the photosensitive material A has been conveyed to the cutting position, and one of the blades 202 is first rotated to cut one side of the tip.

Next, the one blade 202 is moved backward, and the other blade 203 is
Rotate to cut the other side of the tip.

According to the structure of the cutter 58, the leading end and the trailing end of the photosensitive material can be cut into the shape described above in two operations, respectively.

Next, a second example of the cutter 58 will be explained with reference to FIG.

The blade 300 is formed in a V-shape to match the cutting table 204, and is configured to rotate around a fulcrum 301.

When cutting the photosensitive material A, it is detected that the photosensitive material A has been conveyed to the cutting position, and the blade 300 is rotated from the position shown by the imaginary line to the position shown by the solid line.

Therefore, according to the cutter 58, the leading end and trailing end of the photosensitive material A can be cut into the shape described above in one cutting operation.

Note that the cutters 58 each use a plate-shaped blade, but instead of these, two rotary cutters may be used.

Further, the moon shape and cutting method of the cutter 58 may be freely modified according to the cutting shape of the photosensitive material A.

For example, the photosensitive material A can be selected to have a shape as shown in FIGS. 6(a) to 6(6), and the cutter 58 is also changed to match the shape of the cutting portion.

Furthermore, in the embodiment described above, the used photosensitive material A is discarded, so even if the leading and trailing ends of the photosensitive material A are cut into the above shape, there is no effect on the recorded matter. but,
After recording an image on a photosensitive material and superimposing it on an image-receiving material, pressure transfer is performed.For photosensitive materials that do not require peeling, the photosensitive material is shaped into a desired shape as a recorded material after pressure transfer. It is preferable to include a cutter for further cutting.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, a cutting means for cutting the front end and rear end of a photosensitive material or an image-receiving material into a curved, chevron-shaped, valley-shaped, etc. shape at a predetermined angle with respect to the photographing direction of the photosensitive material is provided. By providing it in the conveyance path of the photosensitive material and image-receiving material, when the photosensitive material and image-receiving material are overlapped and the image on the photosensitive material is pressure-transferred, no load is applied to the pressure roller all at once, and the pressure transfer is performed. Since no impact is generated on the pressure transfer section, the life of the pressure transfer section can be extended.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view showing the cut shape of the photosensitive material, Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the insertion state during pressure transfer, and Fig. 4 ( a) and (5) are a front view and a plan view of an example of a cutter, FIGS. 5(a) and (b) are a front view and a plan view of another example of a cutter, and FIGS. 6(a) to (d) is a flat surface showing an example of cutting a photosensitive material. Reference numbers in the figure: 10 Image recording device 12 Housing 13
Photosensitive material supply section 14 Document support glass plate 15 Image reading section 17
Heat development section 18 Light source 19 Overlapping section 21 Pressure transfer section 23 Peeling section
25 Post-heating section 30 Imaging lens/filter unit assembly 32 Optical axis 36 Shutter control devices 56a to 56n Roller pair 58 Cutter 72
Halogen lamp 74 Heating drum 88 Y-shaped guide plate 90 Cassette 92 Paper feed roller 98, 100, 21 (11 Pressure roller 102, 104 Backup roller 124 Color density detection unit 126 Illumination device 128 Color photo sensor 150 Color density control unit 200.201.301 Fulcrum 202, 203.300 Blade A-g Optical material C Receiving paper 1 3 Figure 623 4 Figure 15 LJl (B) Figure 6 Foil (Δ) (B)

Claims (1)

[Claims] An image recording apparatus in which an image-receiving material and a photosensitive material having a substance on which an image generated by imagewise exposure is fixed by pressure are superimposed, and the image obtained on the photosensitive material is pressure-transferred to the image-receiving material. A cutting means is provided on the conveyance path of the photosensitive material and the image-receiving material for cutting the leading and trailing ends of the photosensitive material in the conveying direction so that at least a portion thereof forms a curve or a predetermined angle with respect to the conveying direction. An image recording device.