JPH01312542A - Image recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To achieve accurate transfer processing by fixing a heat developing photosensitive material to an image receiving material with pressure by means of pressurizing rolls and after that heating them in a state where they are inserted between a heating drum and a belt sliding along a drum. CONSTITUTION:An exposure room 16a is provided with an exposure part 18, a part 20 where water is applied, the heat developing photosensitive material F, a cutter 22, a drum 24, an exposure head 26 and the image receiving material P. A developing transfer room 16b has nip rolls 40a and 40b, and the heating drum 60, an endless belt 62, a heat source 64 and a temperature sensor 66 as a heat developing transfer part 42. Fixing with pressure is performed by the pressurizing rolls 40a and 40b in a state where the heat developing photosensitive material F in which image information is recorded by exposure is overlapped with the image receiving material P. The overlapped materials are inserted between the heating drum 60 and the belt 62 sliding along the heating drum 60, and heated at a specified temperature for a specified time, thereby developing of the image information and transferring it to the image receiving material P. Thus, the image information can be transferred quite accurately and an image of high quality without irregularity can be obtained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image recording device, and more specifically, a method for applying an image-receiving material to a heat-developable photosensitive material on which image information has been exposed and recorded using a pressure roller. The present invention relates to an image recording device that can accurately transfer image information to an image receiving material by pressing the material and wrapping it around a heating drum.

[Background of the Invention] Recently, image recording apparatuses have been developed that can obtain high-quality images through simple wet processing using heat-developable photosensitive materials. In this device, for example, an LED is used in the exposure section.
exposure and recording of image information on a heat-developable photosensitive material using a light-emitting element such as the like, and then applying dampening water to the photothermally-developable material and superimposing it on the image-receiving material, followed by heat development treatment in a heat-developable transfer section. The image information is developed and transferred onto the image-receiving material.

In this case, in order to accurately transfer the image information recorded by exposure on the heat-developable photosensitive material to the image-receiving material, these materials are pressed together with a uniform pressure of approximately 2 kg/cm2) and heated at a predetermined temperature (approximately 90°C). ) for a predetermined period of time (approximately 20 seconds).

By the way, in a conventional image recording apparatus, for example, a thermal development transfer section is constructed of a plurality of roller pairs arranged in a line, and a heating means for heating the roller pairs or a guide plate disposed between the roller pairs. ing. The heat-developable photosensitive material and the image-receiving material are introduced between the rollers and pressed and heated for a predetermined period of time, thereby performing the development and transfer process of image information.

However, in this case, it has been pointed out that the overlapped materials are temporarily released from the pressing force between the pair of rollers, resulting in uneven pressure and inaccurate transfer of image information.

Therefore, for example, it is possible to strengthen the adhesion of the materials by increasing the pressure applied by each pair of rollers.
In this case, the rollers are required to have considerable strength, resulting in an expensive device.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in order to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages.The present invention has been made in order to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages. An object of the present invention is to provide an image recording device that enables accurate heat development transfer processing of image information by heating a material sandwiched between a heating drum and a belt that is in sliding contact with the heating drum. do.

[Means for Achieving the Object] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a pressure roller that presses and presses a heat-developable photosensitive material and an image receiving material on which image information is exposed and recorded in a superimposed state; Thermal development transfer involves sandwiching the material pressed by a pressure roller between a heating drum and a belt that slides on the heating drum and heating it at a prescribed temperature for a prescribed period of time to develop image information and transfer it to an image-receiving material. It is characterized by comprising a section.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the pressure roller be constituted by a pair of nip rollers that are brought into pressure contact with each other by an elastic member.

Further, in the present invention, it is preferable that the pressure roller be constituted by a pressure roller that is brought into pressure contact with the heating drum by an elastic member.

Further, in the present invention, it is preferable that the pressure roller is constituted by a support roller that supports a belt and presses against the heating drum via the belt.

[Embodiment] The heat-developable photosensitive material used in the present invention basically comprises a support containing photosensitive silver halide, a binder, a dye-donating compound, and a reducing agent (the dye-donating compound may also serve as a reducing agent). ), and may further contain organic silver salts and other additives as required.

The above-mentioned heat-developable photosensitive material may be one that gives a negative image upon exposure to light, or one that gives a positive image. Methods that provide positive images include methods that use a direct positive emulsion as a silver halide emulsion (there are two types: a method that uses a nucleating agent and a method that uses light fogging), or a method that emits a diffusive dye image in a positive manner. There is a method using a dye-providing compound.

The heat-developable photosensitive material of the present invention transfers this diffusible dye to a dye-fixing element, that is, an image-receiving material. There are various methods for transferring the diffusible dye, for example, by using an aqueous solvent such as water. A method of transferring to a dye-fixing element, a method of transferring to a dye-fixing element using a high boiling point organic solvent, a method of transferring to a dye-fixing element using a water-soakable hot solvent, a method of transferring a dye to a dye-fixing element using the thermal diffusivity or sublimation property of a diffusible dye. A method of transferring to a dye-fixing element having a receptive polymer has been proposed, and the heat-developable photosensitive material of the present invention may be applied to any of these methods.

A document specifically describing the heat-developable photosensitive material and image-receiving material that can be used in the present invention is U.S. Patent No. 4.4.
No. 63.079, No. 4.474.867, No. 4.
No. 478.927, No. 4.507.380, No. 4
, No. 500.626, No. 4.483.914, No. 58-149046, No. 58-149047, No. 59-152440, No. 59-154445
No. 59-165054, No. 59-18054
No. 8, No. 59-168439, No. 59-1748
No. 32, No. 59-174833, No. 59-174
No. 834, No. 59-174835, No. 62-65
No. 038, No. 61-23245, European Patent Publication No. 2
10.660A2, 220.746A2, etc.

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

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 indicates the main body of the image recording apparatus according to this embodiment. The main body 10 is surrounded by a casing 12, and its interior is divided by a partition wall 14 into a lower exposure chamber 16a and an upper development transfer chamber 16b.

The exposure chamber 16a is provided with an exposure section 18 and a water application section 20. In the exposure section 18, the photothermographic material F stored in a roll in a film magazine 21 is transferred to the cutter 2.
2.

The exposure unit 18 includes a drum 24 that rotates at high speed in the six directions of arrows (main scanning direction), and an exposure radar 2 that is arranged close to the peripheral side of the drum 24 and moves in a direction perpendicular to the figure (sub-scanning direction).
6. Note that the exposure head 26 is equipped with a plurality of light-emitting elements that color the heat-developable photosensitive material F with cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) dyes, and these light-emitting elements Image information is recorded on the heat-developable photosensitive material F by exposure.

The water application section 20 has a dampening roller 32 to which dampening water W fed from the water supply section 28 via a pipe 30 is applied.

In this case, the heat-developable photosensitive material F transferred from the exposure section 18
After the dampening water W is applied to the exposed surface by the dampening roller 32, it is fed to the development transfer chamber 16b via the superimposing rollers 34a and 34b. Note that the exposure chamber 16a is loaded with a paper feed magazine 36 containing the image receiving material P.
The image receiving material P is transferred to the superimposing roller 3 by the paper feed roller 38.
By being fed between 4a and 34b, it overlaps with the photothermographic material F carried out from the water application section 20.

The development transfer chamber 16b includes nip rollers 40a and 40b that press the heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P fed in an overlapping state from the exposure chamber 16a with a predetermined pressing force, and rollers 40a and 40b for pressing the photothermographic material F and the image receiving material P, which are fed in an overlapping state from the exposure chamber 16a, and A heat development transfer section 42 for performing heat development transfer processing is provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, the nip roller 40a has a support shaft 4.
A motor 46 is attached via the motor 4.
6 rotates the nip roller 46a in the direction of arrow B. On the other hand, bearing plates 50a and 50b having long holes 48a and 48b extending toward the nip roller 40a are fixed on the partition wall 14 of the casing 12. By fitting both ends, the nip roller 40b is rotatably supported. Further, a first support body 54a, which is connected to both ends of the support shaft 52 protruding from the elongated holes 48a and 48b via bearings (not shown),
54b is attached. The first supports 54a and 54b include a second support 56a15 whose one end is fixed on the partition wall 14.
The other ends of springs 58a and 58b that abut against spring 6b are attached. In this case, the spring 58a158b is
Supports 54a, 54b and second supports 56a, 56b
The nip roller 40b is compressed between the nip rollers 40b and 40b, and acts to press the nip roller 40b toward the nip roller 40a in the direction of arrow C with a predetermined pressure.

The thermal development transfer section 42 includes a hollow cylindrical heating drum 60 and an endless belt 62 that slides into contact with the heating drum 60 so as to cover approximately half of the circumferential side of the heating drum 60 . A heat source 64 made of a halogen lamp or the like is disposed in the hollow portion of the heating drum 60, and the circumferential side portion is heated to approximately 90° C. by this heat source 64. Note that the temperature of the heating drum 60 is maintained constant by being detected by a temperature sensor 66 disposed close to the circumferential side thereof. The endless belt 62 is made of, for example, a steel belt with a smooth surface or a thin film belt made of nickel or the like, and is supported in tension by four rollers 68a to 68d. In this case, the peeling roller 70 is in sliding contact with the roller 68d,
These rollers 68d and 70 separate the heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P which have been superimposed.

The image receiving material P peeled off from the photothermographic material F by the roller 68d and the peeling roller 70 is removed from the casing 12.
It is carried out to a take-out tray 72 provided on the upper surface of the . Further, the photothermographic material F is carried out into a waste magazine 74 loaded in the casing 12. Note that between the peeling roller 70 and the take-out tray 72 and between the peeling roller 70 and the waste magazine 74, there is a heat source 76 such as a halogen lamp for drying the image receiving material P and the photothermographic material F; 78 are provided respectively.

The image recording apparatus in this embodiment is basically constructed as described above, and its operation and effects will be explained next.

First, the heat-developable photosensitive material F stored in the film magazine 21 is delivered to the exposure section 18, and when a predetermined amount has been delivered, the rear end is cut by the cutter 22. Next, the heat-developable photosensitive material F transferred to the exposure section 18 is
4, the light emitting device is exposed to light by a plurality of light emitting elements (not shown) attached to the exposure plate 26. In this case, the drum 24 is rotating at high speed in the direction of arrow A (main scanning direction), and the exposure head 26 moves in the direction perpendicular to FIG. Image information is recorded two-dimensionally.

Next, the photothermographic material F on which image information has been recorded is transferred to the water application section 20 by rotating the drum 24 in a direction opposite to the direction of arrow A. The heat-developable photosensitive material F transferred to the water application section 20 comes into sliding contact with the dampening roller 32, so that the dampening water W supplied from the water supply section 28 is applied to the exposure surface, and the dampening water W supplied from the water supply section 28 is applied to the exposed surface. development transfer chamber 16
sent to b. On the other hand, the superimposing rollers 34a, 34
In b, the image receiving material P stored in the paper feed magazine 36 is fed into sheets by the paper feed roller 38. Therefore, the photothermographic material F is superimposed on the image receiving material P between the superimposing rollers 34a and 34b, and sent to the development transfer chamber 16b.

The photothermographic material F and the image receiving material P transferred to the development transfer chamber 16b are transferred to the nip roller 40a, in a superimposed state.
Enters between 4 Ob. In this case, the nip roller 40b is pushed toward the nip roller 40a with a predetermined pressure in the direction of arrow C by the elastic force of the springs 58a and 58b. Therefore, the heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P are supplied to the heat-developable transfer section 42 by the motor 46 while being uniformly pressed together with a desired pressure between the nip rollers 40a and 40b. Then the superimposed materials F and P
is inserted between a heating drum 60, which constitutes the heat development transfer section 42 and rotates at a predetermined speed in the direction of the arrow, and an endless belt 62, and the image information recorded by exposure on the heat development photosensitive material F is developed and received. Transferred to material P.

Here, in order for the image information to be accurately transferred to the image-receiving material P, as mentioned above, the photothermographic material F and the image-receiving material P must be heated at a temperature of about 90° C. with uniform pressure for about 20 seconds. It is necessary to maintain it. Therefore, in this embodiment, the heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P are compressed by nip rollers 40a and 40b and conveyed to the heat-develop transfer unit 42, and at least one of the LJ-rollers 68a to 68d is elastically bonded. By displacing the endless belt 62 using a member, the pressing force of the endless belt 62 against the heating drum 60 is ensured. In this case, the heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P are applied with a uniform pressing force (approximately 2
kg/cm') in the thermal development transfer section 42.
After being carried into the container, the entire surface thereof is uniformly pressed by the endless belt 62 and the heating drum 60, so that an even and close contact state is maintained. Note that the end 1 nose belt 62 is made of a material with a surface of 50 to 10 with less unevenness.
By using a steel belt with a thickness of about 0 μm or a thin film belt made of nickel or the like, more uniform adhesion can be achieved. Then, the heat-developable photosensitive material F and image-receiving material #4 are carried into the heat-developable transfer section 42. P is a heating drum 6 heated to a temperature of about 90°C by a heat source 64 such as a halogen lamp.
0 for about 20 seconds to develop and transfer the image information. As a result, the image information is evenly and accurately transferred to the image receiving material P.

The image-receiving material P to which the image information has been transferred in the manner described above is conveyed out of the heat-developable photosensitive material F together with the heat-developable photosensitive material F, and is then peeled off from the photothermographic material F by the peeling roller 70 that comes into contact with the roller 68d. be done. In this case, the image-receiving material P onto which the image information has been transferred is dried by a heat source 76 such as a halogen lamp, and then transported to a take-out tray 72 disposed on the upper surface of the casing 12. Also,
After the heat-developable photosensitive material F is dried by the heat source 78, it is carried out into a waste magazine 74 loaded in the casing 12.

Note that in the embodiment described above, two nip rollers 40a
, 40b, the heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P are suitably pressed together and transported to the heat-developable transfer section 42. On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
0 to the heating drum 60 by springs 82a and 82b.
The suppression roller 80 and heating drum 60
It is also possible to suitably press these materials F and P by inserting the photothermographic material F and the image receiving material P between them. In this case, the materials F and P are carried into the thermal development transfer section 42 by the rotation of the heating drum 60, so the motor 46 shown in FIG. 2 is not required. In addition, only one pressing roller 80 is required, and therefore the configuration can be extremely economical.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, among the rollers 68a to 68d that tension the endless belt 62, the roller 68a at the portion where the photothermographic material F and the image receiving material P enter is moved to the heated drum by springs 84a and 84b. It is also possible to configure it so that it is pressed to 60 degrees. In this case, the roller 68a supports the endless belt 62 and the material F.
, P have the crimping action, so that the - layer can have a simple structure.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, an image is formed by bringing an image-receiving material into close contact with a heat-developable photosensitive material on which image information has been exposed and recorded using a pressure roller, winding it around a heating drum, and heating it. Performs information development and transfer processing. In this case, since the heat-developable photosensitive material and the image-receiving material are suitably pressed together by the pressure roller, image information is transferred to the image-receiving material very accurately. As a result, an even, high-quality image can be obtained.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.
Of course, various improvements and changes in design are possible without departing from the gist of the invention.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image recording apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the main part configuration of the image recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are an image recording apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a main part configuration in another embodiment of the present invention. lO...Main unit 16a...Exposure chamber 1
6b... Development transfer chamber 18... Exposure section 20.
...Water application section 24...Drum 26...
Exposure heads 40a, 40b...nip rollers

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A pressure roller that presses and presses a photothermographic material and an image receiving material on which image information is exposed and recorded in a superimposed state;
Heat development in which the material pressed by the pressure roller is sandwiched between a heating drum and a belt that slides on the heating drum and heated at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined time to develop image information and transfer it to an image-receiving material. An image recording device comprising: a transfer section.