JPH0193742A - Heating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To uniformize the temperature distribution on the outside peripheral surface of a heating drum as much as possible by providing a power transmission member in the end part of the drum to properly suppress the radiation of heat from the end part of the drum. CONSTITUTION:A device 1 which thermally develops a sensitive material where an image is exposed is provided with a heating drum 2 having a hollow part 3 and a heat source 7 in the vicinity of the center of the part 3. This drum 2 consists of a cylinder part 4 and end parts 5a and 5b in both sides of this part 4 and is rotatably supported on a housing side plate 101. A gear 8 as the power transmission member is adhered to the end face of the end part 5a. By this constitution, the surface area of the part where heat is radiated from the gear 8 is reduced. The end part may be constituted by the gear and gears may be provided on both sides of the drum and a pulley or the like may be used as said member.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to an apparatus for heating an object to be heated, and more particularly to a heating apparatus for heating and developing a photosensitive material after imagewise exposure.

<Prior art and its problems> Various image notation methods involving thermal development have been developed, and various types of thermal development apparatuses for thermally developing photosensitive materials that have been imagewise exposed are also available depending on the photosensitive materials, image forming methods, etc. are being developed.

For example, as a photosensitive material, Japanese Patent Application No. 60-117089
There is a photosensitive, engineered heat-developable material disclosed in the patent specification. In this product, at least photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming substance are coated on a support such as paper, and at least the polymerizable compound and color image-forming substance are in the same microcapsule. It is coated as a photosensitive composition encapsulated in. Using this product, we applied for a patent application in 1986-1212.
Specification No. 84 states that a photosensitive material is first imagewise exposed to form a latent image, then developed by heating, and a polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image is present is polymerized to produce a high molecular compound. By this, the microcapsules are hardened.

Next, an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to which a color image-forming substance can be transferred is stacked on this photosensitive material and pressure is applied to rupture at least a portion of the microcapsules in areas where no latent image exists, thereby receiving the color image-forming substance. An image recording method has been proposed in which an image is transferred onto a material to obtain an image on an image-receiving material. An image recording apparatus that carries out such an image recording method is one that automatically performs everything from imagewise exposure to image formation as described in Japanese Patent Application No. 61-51896 or Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-147461. A device has been proposed that does this.

As shown in FIG. 6, the heating device (thermal developing device) in this case includes, for example, a heating drum 2 whose cylindrical portion is heated to about 120° C., and four belt support rollers 11, 12.
．． 13.14, and an endless belt 15 that is wound around the outer periphery of the cylindrical portion of the heating drum 2 over an arc of about 270°, and the photosensitive material S is sandwiched and conveyed between the heating drum 2 and the endless belt 15. A device that performs heating is used.

The structure of the second heating device 1' will be explained in more detail based on FIG. A heat source 7 is installed, and the heat radiated from the heat source 7 heats the cylindrical portion 4 of the heating drum 2.
The photosensitive material S held between the outer peripheral surface 41 of the endless belt 15 and the endless belt 15 is heated. The heating drum 2 also includes a cylindrical portion 4 having an outer circumferential surface 41 as a heating surface;
End portions 5a and 5b constituted by axial end surfaces on both sides thereof, and a shaft portion 51a formed at the center of the end surfaces of both end portions 5a and 5b.
, 51b, and the heating drum 2 is connected to the housing side plate 10 by bearings 6.6 at the shaft portions 51a and 51b.
1.101. Furthermore, at one end of the heating drum, the heating drum 2
A gear 8 is attached to transmit a driving force for rotationally driving the heating drum 2, and the heating drum 2 is rotationally driven by an arbitrary driving source, driving gear, etc. (not shown).

By the way, the heating drum is made of a metal material with relatively high thermal conductivity, such as aluminum, in consideration of shortening heat-up time, temperature distribution, and temperature maintenance. The challenge is to suppress the amount of heat dissipated. In particular, on the side where the gear 8 is located,
Heat is conducted through the end portion 5a and the shaft portion 51a, and is radiated from the front and back surfaces of the gear 8.

Since the gear 8 plays the role of a heat sink in this way, the temperature of the heating surface 41 of the heating drum is particularly low near the end 44a on the gear side.

If the temperature distribution of the cylindrical portion (heating surface 41) of the heating drum becomes uneven in this manner, there is a drawback that uniform heating is not performed over the entire surface of the photosensitive material, resulting in uneven development.

In addition, as a method of making the temperature distribution of the cylindrical portion 4 of the heating drum uniform, a method of changing the light distribution of a halogen lamp, which is a heat source, has been proposed. That is, the amount of emitted light (heat amount) of the halogen lamp 7 is increased near both ends, especially near the end on the side where the gear 8 is located, compared to the central part in the longitudinal direction, and the cylindrical part 4 is
Both ends 44a, 44b, especially the end 4
The purpose is to increase the amount of heat given to 4a to raise its temperature.

However, with this method, the amount of heat generated near both ends of the halogen lamp increases, so the temperature of the seals at both ends of the halogen lamp (especially the end on the side where gear 8 is located) increases, and its deterioration shortens the life of the lamp. This causes the inconvenience of being shortened.

Therefore, there is a limit to the ability to make the temperature distribution uniform in the cylindrical portion of the heating drum by adjusting the light distribution of such a halogen lamp.

l <Object of the Invention> The object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art described above, to make the temperature distribution on the heating surface of the heating drum as uniform as possible, and to prevent the occurrence of uneven development of photosensitive materials. The purpose is to provide a heating device that can.

<Brief Description of the Invention> In order to achieve such an object, the present inventors have conducted intensive research on means for adjusting the temperature distribution of the cylindrical portion (heating surface) of the heating drum to be uniform. It was discovered that a power transmission member such as the gear is provided at at least one end of the motor, leading to the present invention.

That is, the present invention includes a heating drum having a hollow part, a heat source installed near the center of the hollow part, and a power transmission member for rotationally driving the heating drum. A heating device that heats a cylindrical portion of the heating drum with heat and heats an object to be heated using the outer surface of the cylindrical portion as a heating surface, the power transmission member being provided at at least one end of the heating drum. The present invention provides a heating device characterized by the following.

The power transmission member is preferably bonded to an end surface of the heating drum.

Alternatively, the end portion of the heating drum may be configured by the power transmission member.

The power transmission member is preferably a gear or a pulley.

Further, the object to be heated is a photosensitive material, particularly a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material having a photosensitive layer on a support so that an image formed by heat development after imagewise exposure is fixed by pressure. It is good to be.

Further, it is preferable that the image of the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material is formed by a distribution of microcapsules having different degrees of curing after the heat development.

<Specific Structure of the Invention> Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the heating device of the present invention shown in the accompanying drawings will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are partial longitudinal cross-sectional views each showing a configuration example of a heating device of the present invention.

As shown in these figures, the heating device 1 of the present invention includes a heating drum 2 having a hollow section 3 inside, and a heat source 7 installed near the center of the hollow section.

The heating drum 2 includes a cylindrical portion 4 having an outer circumferential surface 41 as a heating surface, and end portions 5a and 5b consisting of axial end surfaces on both sides of the cylindrical portion 4.
and a shaft portion 51a151b formed at the center of the end surface of both end portions 5a, 5b, respectively.
1b, the heating drum 2 is rotatably supported on the housing side plate 101.101 by bearings 6.6.

Note that it is preferable to use an adiabatic bearing as the bearing 6.6 in order to suppress heat transfer.

Such a heating drum 2 is made of, for example, aluminum, copper,
It is made of a metal material with relatively high thermal conductivity, such as iron or an alloy containing iron.

The heat source 7 can be, for example, a halogen lamp or an infrared lamp, and is inserted into both shaft parts 51a and 51b, with both ends suspended, and placed near the axial center of the heating drum 2. installed without contact.

The heat radiated from the heat source 7 spreads in the hollow portion 3 in the radial direction of the heating drum 2 and heats the cylindrical portion 4 of the heating drum.

The outer circumferential surface 41 of the cylindrical portion 4 is used as a heating surface to heat the object to be heated (for example, to heat and develop a photosensitive material to be described later).

The heating device 1 of the present invention is provided with a power transmission member that transmits a driving force for rotationally driving the heating drum at at least one end of the heating drum, and the temperature distribution on the outer circumferential surface 41 of the cylindrical portion which is the heating surface is adjusted. It is characterized by being constructed to be as uniform as possible.

In the configuration example shown in FIG. 1, a gear 8 as a power transmission member
is adhered to the end surface of the end portion 5a of the heating drum.

In the configuration example shown in FIG. 2, a flange is provided on one end surface of the heating drum, teeth are formed on the peripheral surface of the flange, and the end 5
a is made up of the gear 8 itself.

In the conventional heating device 1' shown in FIG. 5, as mentioned above, the gear 8 acts as a heat sink, so the temperature of the end 44a of the cylindrical part 4 on the side where the gear 8 is located is lower than that of other parts, especially The temperature becomes lower than that of the central portion 43, and the temperature distribution of the heating surface 41 becomes non-uniform. In contrast, in the heating device 1 of the present invention, the surface area of the portion of the gear 8 where heat is dissipated can be reduced by bonding the gear 8 to the end 5a of the heating drum or by forming the end 5a from the gear a itself. Since it is possible to suppress a decrease in temperature at the end 44a of the cylindrical portion 4 on the side where the gear 8 is located, the temperature distribution on the heating surface 41 becomes more uniform.

The constituent material of the gear 8 may be the same as or different from the constituent material of the heating drum, such as metal materials such as aluminum, iron, copper, or alloys containing these, heat-resistant resins such as fluororesin, various ceramics, etc. These materials may be appropriately selected in consideration of strength, heat resistance, heat insulation, cost, etc. In particular, it is preferable if the gear 8 is made of a material having a lower thermal conductivity than the constituent material of the heating drum described above, since heat radiation from the gear 8 can be further suppressed. Examples of such materials include heat insulating resins such as fluororesins, ceramics, and the like.

In the configuration example shown in FIG. 1, the gear 8 is directly bonded to the end 5a of the heating drum, but the present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. For example, an intervening material such as a heat insulating material 27 may be provided between the gear 8 and the end portion 5a and between the gear 8 and the shaft portion 51a as shown in FIG.

In the configuration shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the gear 8 is provided on one side of the heating drum 2, but in the present invention, the gear may be provided on both sides of the heating drum. The configuration shown can be applied bilaterally.

In addition, when the gear 8 is provided on one side of the heating drum 2, the amount of heat released from the heating drum end 5a on the side where the gear 8 is provided and the heating drum end 5b on the side where the gear 8 is not provided is equal or approximated. It is preferable to keep it. As a method, for example, the volume or heat capacity of the end portion 5b is determined by the volume or heat capacity of the end portion 5a.
Alternatively, the material of the end portion 5b may be the same as that of the gear 8 (in the case of FIG. 1) or the gear 8 (in the case of FIG. 2), or the material of the end portion 5b may be the same as that of the gear 8.

The gear 8 generally meshes with a drive-side gear (not shown), and the rotational force of this gear is transmitted to the gear 8 to rotate the heating drum 2. For the side gears, it is preferable to use a material having heat insulating properties (for example, a heat insulating resin such as fluororesin, ceramics, etc.) because heat dissipation from the meshing portion of the gear 8 can be suppressed.

In each of the configuration examples described above, a case has been described in which the gear 8 is used as the power transmission member, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to use a pulley, a sprocket, or the like as the power transmission member. When a pulley is installed at the end of the heating drum, a belt is looped between this pulley and the drive-side pulley, and the rotational force of the drive-side pulley is transmitted to the heating drum-side pulley via the belt.
The heating drum rotates.

Additionally, when installing a sprocket at the end of the heating drum, a chain is hooked between this sprocket and the driving sprocket, and the rotational force of the driving sprocket is transmitted to the heating drum sprocket via the chain. ,
The heating drum rotates.

The type, structure, etc. of the heated object to be heated by the heating device of the present invention are not particularly limited, but it is preferably a photosensitive material, particularly a photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material described below.

Next, a configuration in which the heating device 1 of the present invention is applied to thermal development of a photosensitive material will be specifically described.

As shown in FIG. 6, the heat developing section 9 includes a developing housing 10 having a heat insulating effect, and a cylindrical portion 4 of the developing housing 10 disposed inside the developing housing 10, which is heated by heat radiated from a heat source 7.
For example, the heating drum 2 is heated to 140 to 160°C.
and supported by four belt support rollers 11, 12, 13, and 14, and approximately 240
Endless belt 15 wrapped over the arc of @
and a nip roller 16 that is pressed against the support roller 14. A guide 1 guides the imagewise exposed photosensitive material S sent from upstream onto the heating drum 2 and separates the photosensitive material S from the heating drum 2 after heat development.
7, and a vertical guide 18 that guides the developing section photosensitive material S sent by the belt support roller 14 and the nip roller 16 to an outlet 19, and a photosensitive leading edge detection sensor 20 is provided at the outlet 19.

The photosensitive material S enters the developing housing 10 guided by the front side of the guide 17, and is sandwiched between the endless belt 15 and the cylindrical portion 4 of the heating drum 2, which is driven to rotate clockwise in FIG. 2 is heated and developed while rotating approximately 240 degrees. The photosensitive material S in the developing section is
It separates from the heating drum 2 by the back side of the guide 17, passes between the belt support roller 14 and the nip roller 16, is guided by the vertical guide 18, and is inserted into the developer housing 1 from the outlet 19.
0 Go outside. Then, when the tip of the developed photosensitive material S passes through the outlet 19, a photosensitive material tip detection sensor 20
Detected by

As described above, since the gear 8, which is a power transmission member, is provided at the end of the heating drum 2, heat radiation from the heating drum end 5a on the side where the gear 8 is located is appropriately suppressed.
This prevents the temperature of the end 44a of the cylindrical portion 4 from decreasing, and makes the temperature distribution on the heating surface 41 of the cylindrical portion 4 as uniform as possible, so that the photosensitive material S is heated at a uniform temperature and uneven development is prevented. Does not occur.

In addition, in the heating device 1 of the present invention, the gear 8
Since there is no need for a space (see FIG. 5) for attaching the heating drum to the tip of the shaft portion 51a of the heating drum, the device can be downsized.

Examples of the photosensitive material heated by the heating device of the present invention include known heat-developable photosensitive materials.

For example, as a type of product in which a polymerizable compound is imagewise cured by imagewise exposure and then pressure is applied to obtain a visible image, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-179836 filed by the applicant of the present invention discloses
The materials disclosed in the above publication may be mentioned. This material has synthetic polymer resin-walled microcapsules containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colorant precursor supported on a support.

Alternatively, if the photosensitive material contains silver halide, it is subjected to imagewise exposure and then thermally developed to develop the silver halide, and at the same time, the polymerizable compound is cured in correspondence with this development. , and then apply pressure to obtain a visible image, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 60-12128 filed by the present applicant.
The materials disclosed in the specification of No. 4 may be mentioned.

The material disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application No. 121284/1984 is
After thermal development, a color image-forming substance is transferred to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to obtain an image on the image-receiving material. An image forming substance is coated thereon, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image forming substance are encapsulated in the same microphone capsule.

The above-mentioned photosensitive material is particularly suitably developed by the heating device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows the heat developing section 9 including the heating device 1 of the present invention.
, Japanese Patent Application No. 1983-51896, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-1
FIG. 4 is a block diagram when applied to an image recording device as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 47461.

Note that this image recording device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 62-121284.
This method automatically performs the image forming method as disclosed in the patent specification. In this case, first perform imagewise exposure to form a latent image, then develop by heating), and polymerize the polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image exists to generate a high molecular compound. to harden the microcapsules. Next, the image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to which the color image-forming substance can be transferred is overlapped with the image-receiving material and pressure is applied to rupture at least a portion of the microcapsules in the areas where no latent image exists, thereby transferring the color image-forming substance to the image-receiving material. to obtain an image on the image-receiving material.

The image recording apparatus shown in FIG.
1S, an imagewise exposure section 22 that imagewise exposes the photosensitive material S carried out from the storage section 21S, a heat development section 9 that heats and develops the imagewise exposed photosensitive material, and an image-receiving material storage section 2.
1C, a pressure transfer device 23 that superimposes the heat-developed photosensitive material S and the image-receiving material and transfers them under pressure; It has a photosensitive material image receiving and peeling device 24 for removing images, a photosensitive material disposal section 25 provided downstream thereof, and a fixing device 26 for fixing the image receiving material.

In the above description, a heating device is described for heating a photosensitive material that is developed by heating, but the scope of application of the present invention is not limited to this. It can be applied to the following fields.

<Effects of the Invention> According to the heating device of the present invention, since the power transmission member for rotationally driving the heating drum is provided at at least one end of the heating drum, the side where the power transmission member is located is heated. Heat radiation from the drum end is moderately suppressed. This makes the temperature distribution on the outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical portion of the heating drum, that is, on the heating surface, as uniform as possible, so that, for example, when a photosensitive material is thermally developed, uniform development is possible without uneven development.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4 are partial longitudinal cross-sectional views each showing a configuration example of the heating device of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a partial vertical sectional view showing an example of the configuration of a conventional heating device. FIG. 6 is a partially cross-sectional side view showing an example of the configuration of a heat developing section using the heating device of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an image recording apparatus equipped with the heating device of the present invention. Explanation of disadvantages 1... Heating device, 1'... Conventional heating device, 2... Heating drum, 3... Hollow part, 4... Cylindrical part, 41... Outer peripheral surface (heating surface), 43... Central part, 44a, 44b... End part, 5a, 5b... End part of heating drum, 51a, 51b... Shaft part, 6... Bearing, 7... Heat source, 8... Gear, 9... Heat developing section, 10... Developer housing, 101... Housing side plate, 11.12.13.14... Belt support roller, 15... Endless belt , 16... Nip roller, 17... Guide, 18... Vertical guide, 19... Exit, 20... Sensitive material tip detection sensor, 21S, 21C... Accommodating section, 22... Image 23... Pressure transfer device, 24... Sensitive material image receiving and peeling device, 25... Sensitive material disposal section, 26... Fixing device, 27... Heat insulating material ○ FIG, 7 FIG.6

Claims (8)

[Claims] (1) It has a heating drum having a hollow part, a heat source installed near the center of the hollow part, and a power transmission member for rotationally driving the heating drum, and the heat radiated from the heat source is used to generate the heating drum. A heating device that heats a cylindrical portion of a heating drum and heats an object to be heated using the outer surface of the cylindrical portion as a heating surface, wherein the power transmission member is provided at at least one end of the heating drum. Characteristic heating device. (2) The heating device according to claim 1, wherein the power transmission member is bonded to an end surface of the heating drum. (3) The heating device according to claim 1, wherein an end portion of the heating drum is constituted by the power transmission member. (4) The heating device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the power transmission member is a gear. (5) The heating device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the power transmission member is a pulley. (6) The heating device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the object to be heated is a photosensitive material. (7) A patent claim in which the photosensitive material is a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material having a photosensitive layer on a support so that an image formed by heat development after imagewise exposure is fixed by pressure. The heating device according to item 6. (8) The heating device according to claim 7, wherein the image of the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material is formed by a distribution of microcapsules having different degrees of curing after the heat development.