JPH02173626A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance workability in recording an image and to make the gradation of the image appropriate by providing a means for discriminating the kind of an original, setting sub exposure based on the discriminated result and controlling the sub exposing. CONSTITUTION:A photosensitive material 16 drawn out of a magazine 14 is cut and conveyed to an exposing part 20. The mark of the original 32 is detected by a sensor 82 and the detected result is supplied to a control part 80. The control part 80 sets the necessity of the sub exposing and the sub exposure at the time of being required based on the kind and the density of the original 32 and displays them on a display part 84, then changes the stop quantity of a diaphragm slit 23. Next, the photosensitive material 16 is inverted in an inversion part 72 and conveyed to the exposing part 20 again. Then, an exposing device 22 is actuated so that light may irradiate along the original 32 to perform main exposing to the photosensitive material 16. Meanwhile, a light source 21 for sub exposing is actuated just before the exposing part 20 to directly perform the sub exposing to the photosensitive material 16 and the density of the image in a high density part is lowered.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides a method of scanning an original to expose a photosensitive material to light, in addition to main exposure, and performing sub-exposure in an amount corresponding to the density of the original to obtain an appropriate exposure state. The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus that records an image on the image-receiving material by tightly wrapping the exposed photosensitive material and the image-receiving material around the outer periphery of a drum.

[Prior art]

2. Description of the Related Art An image recording apparatus is known that irradiates light onto an original such as an original film, exposes a photosensitive material to the reflected light or transmitted light, and thereby records an image on the original.

This type of image recording apparatus includes a light source and a lens optical system, and these components are movable along the document. When exposing an image on an original, the light source and lens optical system are moved along the original while the light source emits light, and the reflected or transmitted image light is applied to the photosensitive material using the lens optical system. (main exposure).

By the way, images of originals recorded on photosensitive materials have different gradations, and therefore it is preferable to use photosensitive materials that are compatible with this. For example, in the case of printed manuscripts, text manuscripts, etc., good exposure conditions can be obtained by using a photosensitive material with a characteristic of hard gradation (so-called high T).
In the case of photographs, etc., it is known that good exposure conditions can be obtained by using a photosensitive material having soft gradation (so-called low T) characteristics.

However, in this regard, in conventional image recording apparatuses, the image of the document is exposed onto a photosensitive material using light emitted from a single light source, and the characteristics of the photosensitive material are also uniform. Therefore, regardless of the gradation of the original image, changes in the exposure amount corresponding to the dark edges of the original are constant, and therefore, depending on the original image, a good exposure state may not be obtained. In order to solve this problem, it has been proposed to expose the photosensitive material separately from the main exposure according to the gradation of the original image so that it can correspond to the gradation of different originals (sub-exposure). Depending on the document to which the sub-exposure is applied, whether or not to execute the sub-exposure is determined, and if it is executed, the amount of sub-exposure such as illuminance and color correction is set. Thereby, it is possible to perform good exposure corresponding to the gradation of the original image regardless of the characteristics of the photosensitive material.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, the operator must visually check the document to determine whether or not to perform sub-exposure, and if it is determined that sub-exposure should be performed, the illuminance and The sub-exposure amount for color correction etc. must be set each time, resulting in poor workability. Further, since the set value is left to the judgment of the operator, it may vary depending on the operator's preference, and it may not be possible to obtain an appropriate sub-exposure amount.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above facts, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image recording device that can automatically determine the necessity of sub-exposure and, if determined to be necessary, automatically set the sub-exposure amount. .

[Means to solve the problem]

The image recording apparatus according to the present invention scans an original to expose a photosensitive material to light, in addition to main exposure, performs sub-exposure in an amount corresponding to the density of the original to achieve an appropriate exposure state, and the exposed photosensitive material and image-receiving device. The image recording apparatus records an image on the image-receiving material by tightly wrapping the material around the outer periphery of a drum, the image recording device comprising: a document discriminating means for discriminating the type of the document; and a document discriminating means for discriminating the type of the document; The apparatus includes a sub-exposure amount setting means for setting a sub-exposure amount, and a control means for controlling the sub-exposure based on the set sub-exposure amount.

Examples of ways to change the sub-exposure amount include changing the arrangement of a slit plate and a filter placed on the optical path from the light source, or changing the speed at which the photosensitive material is transported.

[Effect]

According to the present invention, first, the type of document to be applied is determined by the document determining means. The sub-exposure amount setting means sets the necessity of sub-exposure and the sub-exposure amount if it is determined to be necessary, depending on the determined type. The control means executes sub-exposure in addition to main exposure based on the set sub-exposure amount.

That is, the operator only needs to determine the type of document to which the method is applied, and there is no need to determine the illuminance during sub-exposure or the degree of color correction each time, improving work efficiency. Further, since the sub-exposure amount is constant compared to the case where it is set manually by the operator, proper image recording can be performed.

Here, when changing the sub-exposure amount during sub-exposure by changing the slit width of the slit plate and the insertion state of the filter, there is no need to change the existing control system.

Further, when changing the conveyance speed to change the amount of sub-exposure during sub-exposure, there are no additional parts for sub-exposure, leading to cost reduction.

In this publication, a photosensitive material is any material that can produce a visible image by developing, transferring, fixing, etc. a latent image obtained by imagewise exposure. It's okay.

For example, black and white photographic materials using silver halide,
X-ray photographic materials, photosensitive materials for plate making, conventional color photographic materials (negative film, reversal film, color photographic paper, etc.), color diffusion transfer materials,
Examples include heat-developable photosensitive materials and photosensitive and pressure-sensitive materials. Regarding the above heat-developable photosensitive material, U.S. Patent No. 4.46
No. 3.079, No. 4, No. 474.867, No. 4.4
No. 78.927, No. 4.507.380, No. 4.
500.626, 4.483.914, JP-A-58-149046, JP-A-58-149047, JP-A-5
No. 9-152440, No. 59-154445, No. 59
-165054, 59-1.80548, 59
-168439, 59-174832, 59-
No. 174833, No. 59-174834, No. 59-1
No. 74835, No. 62-65038, No. 61-232
45, European Patent Publication No. 210.66OA2, European Patent Publication No. 220
．． No. 746A2, etc.

Regarding photosensitive and pressure sensitive materials, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-1798
No. 36, No. 61-275742, No. 61-27884
No. 9, No. 62-209444, etc.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of an image recording apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A photosensitive material magazine 14 is arranged in the image recording apparatus 100 machine 12, and a photosensitive material 16 is wound up into a roll and stored therein. The photosensitive material 16 has a photosensitive silver halide, a binder, a dye-donating substance, and a reducing agent on a support.

A cutter 18 is arranged near the photosensitive material magazine 14, and is adapted to cut the photosensitive material 16 pulled out from the photosensitive material magazine 14 into a predetermined length. The cut photosensitive material 16 is conveyed to an exposure section 20.

An exposure device 22 is provided directly above the exposure section 20.

The exposure device 22 includes a main exposure light source 24 as a main exposure means.
, a plurality of fixed mirrors 26, and a first moving mirror 27A that moves together with the main exposure light source 24.

A second movable mirror whose relative position is variable with respect to the first movable mirror 27A.
A moving mirror 27B and a lens unit 28 are arranged, and a mounting plate 30 is provided above these parts on the machine stand 12.

The main exposure light source 24, the first movable mirror 27Δ, and the second movable mirror 27B are movable along the mounting plate 30, and the light emitted from the main exposure light source 24 is directly irradiated onto the original 32. It looks like this.

A branching section 70 and a reversing section 72 are arranged downstream of the exposure section 20 (on the left side in FIG. 1).

A flapper 74 is rotatably arranged at the branching portion 70 . This flapper 74 has the role of entering into one of the bifurcated transportation paths for the photosensitive material 16 and changing the transportation path for the photosensitive material 16.

Note that the photosensitive material 16 immediately after being pulled out from the photosensitive magazine 14 is guided to the upper conveyance path in FIG. The guided photosensitive material 16 is reversed at a reversing section 72 and conveyed to the exposure section 20 again. This causes the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive material to face upward in FIG.

Here, when exposing the photosensitive material 16, the main exposure light source 24
While moving the first movable mirror 27A, the second movable mirror 27B is moved to follow at a predetermined speed, the emitted light is irradiated along the document 32, and the reflected image light is exposed using the lens unit 28. Photosensitive material 16 located in section 20
It is designed to perform scanning exposure. Note that the recording magnification on the photosensitive material 16 can be changed by changing the tracking speed of the second movable mirror 27B. In the case of this embodiment, the second movable mirror 27B has the same magnification as the speed of the main exposure light source 24.
It is.

A slide mirror 76 is arranged below the fixed mirror 26 in FIG. 1 on the optical path from the fixed mirror 26 to the photosensitive material 16. The slide mirror 76 is designed to be removed from this optical path during the scanning exposure (the first
(see figure). That is, pre-scanning is performed before the scanning exposure, and the light from the fixed mirror 26 during this pre-scanning is reflected at a substantially right angle and guided to the photodetection sensor 78.

The photodetection sensor is capable of measuring the density of the image on the document 32. Photodetection sensor 78 is connected to control section 80 .

Here, a mark for specifying the type of document is attached in advance to the document applied to the image recording apparatus 10 of this embodiment.

This mark is, for example, a bar code, characters, or symbol, and is attached by the operator based on visual judgment of the document.

The mark attached to this original 32 (
For example, ASB.

A mark detection sensor 82 is attached to detect CSD...). Mark detection sensor 82 is connected to control section 80 .

The memory of the control unit 80 stores a map showing the characteristics of the density, document type, and sub-exposure amount (see FIG. 3). Therefore, when the density is measured by pre-scanning and the type of document is detected by the mark detection sensor 82, the control unit 80 can set whether or not sub-exposure is necessary and the amount of sub-exposure when necessary. Note that the control section 80 is connected to a display section 84 that displays the presence or absence of sub-exposure and the amount of sub-exposure.

As shown in FIG. 2, a sub-exposure light source 21 is arranged, together with an aperture slit 23 and an ND filter 25, directly above the photosensitive material transport path between the exposure section 20 and the branch section 70. The sub-exposure light source 21 is a halogen lamp that emits white light, and the white light emitted from the sub-exposure light source 21 is irradiated onto the photosensitive material 16 after the amount of light is limited to a predetermined value by an aperture slit 23 and an ND filter 25. The illuminance reached by the main exposure light source 24 is 1/10 to 1/100 (preferably 1/20 to 1150).
The photosensitive material 16 is irradiated with light at an illuminance of ). Therefore, after the photosensitive material 16 is exposed to a predetermined amount of light, the exposed portion 2
The image is exposed at 0.

The sub-exposure light source 21 can be turned on and off based on the sub-exposure conditions set by the control section 80, and the aperture amount of the aperture slit 23 and the ND filter 25 can be changed. photosensitive material 16
It is possible to change the amount of sub-exposure irradiated to.

The photosensitive material I6 that has been scanned and exposed in the exposure 820 is conveyed inverted, and is coated with water as an image forming solvent by the water coating section 36.

A squeeze roller 37 is arranged in the water application section 36, and a heat development transfer section 38 is arranged on the side of the squeeze roller 37, which removes excess water applied to the photosensitive material 16. There is. The thermal development transfer section 38 is composed of a heating drum 40 and an endless pressure belt 42.

The surface of the heating drum 40 is coated with Teflon. Furthermore, a halogen lamp 4 is provided inside the heating drum 40.
4 is arranged, and the outer circumferential surface is heated to about 90°C.

The endless pressure welding belt 42 is made of aromatic polyamide fiber (for example, Kevlar or Nomex: both duP
It has a structure in which a heat-resistant material such as (registered trademark of Ont Inc.) is coated with carbon-containing silicone rubber, and has electrical conductivity.

On the other hand, a receiving material magazine 46 is arranged below the photosensitive material magazine 14, and an image receiving material 48 is wound up into a roll and stored therein. The image forming surface of the image receiving material 48 is coated with a dye fixing material having a mordant.

A cutter 50 is also arranged near this receiving material magazine 46, and the image receiving material 4 pulled out from the receiving material magazine 46 is cutter 50.
8 to a predetermined length. The cut image receiving material 48 is conveyed to the thermal development transfer section 38.

A bonding roller 52 is arranged near the heating drum 40 on the upstream side of the endless pressure belt 42 in the material supply direction. The laminating roller 52 overlaps the transported photosensitive material 16 and image-receiving material 48 and presses them to the outer periphery of the heating drum 40, and guides them between the heating drum 40 and the endless pressure belt 42 while keeping the overlapping state. , the material is sandwiched and conveyed over approximately 2/3 of the circumference of the heating drum 40 and thermally developed. Thereby, the photosensitive material 16 emits a mobile dye, and at the same time, this dye is transferred to the dye fixing layer of the image receiving material 48 to obtain an image.

A peeling claw 56 is arranged below the heating drum 40 on the downstream side of the endless pressure belt 42 in the material supply direction. Further, a peeling roller 5 is provided between the peeling claw 56 and the endless pressure belt 42.
8 is placed.

The tip of the peeling claw 56 is normally in contact with the heating drum 40, and when the photosensitive material 16 is conveyed, it engages with the tip of the photosensitive material 16 and removes the photosensitive material 6 from the image receiving material 48.
Further, the peeling roller 58 presses the photosensitive material 16 onto the heating drum 40, and the peeling claw 56 winds the peeled photosensitive material 16 and bends it downward. It looks like this.

The separated photosensitive material 16 is sent to a waste photosensitive material storage box 60 provided below the heating drum 40.

On the other hand, a peeling roller 62 and a peeling pawl 64 are arranged above the peeling pawl 56 and near the heating drum 40, and peel the image receiving material 48, which is separated from the photosensitive material 16 and moves together with the heating drum 40, from the outer periphery of the heating drum 40. It looks like this. The image receiving material 48 peeled off from the outer periphery of the heating drum 40 is collected on a tray 66.

The operation of this embodiment will be explained below.

The photosensitive material 16 pulled out from the photosensitive material magazine 14 is cut by a cutter 18 and then conveyed to the exposure section 20. At the same time, the document placed on the placement plate 30 is pre-scanned. During this pre-scanning, the mark detection sensor 82 detects the mark attached to the document 32, and the detection result is supplied to the control section 80. In the preliminary scanning, the scanned light is directed to the first moving mirror 27A.

The second movable mirror 27B1 reaches the light detection sensor 78 via the fixed mirror 26 and the slide mirror 76. The light detection sensor 78 detects the concentration from this light, and the control unit 80
supply to The control section 80 sets the necessity of sub-exposure and the amount of sub-exposure when necessary based on the type and density of the document and the map shown in FIG. A case where it is determined that sub-exposure is necessary will be described below. When it is determined that sub-exposure is necessary, the control unit 80 displays on the display unit 84 the fact that sub-exposure will be performed and the sub-exposure amount, and changes the aperture amount of the aperture slit 23. Further, a display prompting the user to change the ND filter 25 is displayed on the display unit 84 as necessary.

When the photosensitive material 16 is reversed in the reversing section 72 and reaches the exposure section 20 again with the exposed surface facing up, the exposure device 22 is activated and the main exposure light source 24 and movable mirror 27 are not moved until the mounting plate 3
Light is irradiated along the original 32 placed on the original 32, and the reflected image light is scanned and exposed onto the photosensitive material 16 located in the exposure section 20 by the lens unit 28 (main exposure).

On the other hand, the sub-exposure light source 21 operates immediately before the exposure section 20,
The emitted light is directly irradiated onto the photosensitive material 16 (sub-exposure).

Therefore, the amount of reflected light is small in portions of the document with high color density, and the amount of reflected light is large in portions with low color density. The resulting image is designed to develop color at low density at high light intensity and at high density at low light intensity, so if the image-exposed photosensitive material 16 is further sub-exposed with a certain amount of light, the high light intensity area (i.e. original In low-light areas (high-density areas of the original), the ratio of sub-exposure light amount to the total light amount is small, so the decrease in color density is slight. Significant decrease in color density. By performing the sub-exposure in this manner, the density of the high-density portion of the resulting image can be lowered compared to the case where the sub-exposure is not performed, and so-called γ can be reduced.

Therefore, by operating this sub-exposure light source 21 according to the gradation of the image on the original 32, the characteristics of the photosensitive material 16 can be set to a state according to the gradation of the image on the original 32, and the image on the original 32 Good exposure corresponding to the gradation can be performed.

For example, in the case of printed originals, text originals, etc., the sub-exposure light source 21 is deactivated or the aperture slit 23 and ND
By changing the filter 25, the amount of light irradiated onto the photosensitive material 16 can be reduced, thereby achieving a good exposure condition.

On the other hand, in the case of photographs, soft gradation (so-called low γ)
By activating the sub-exposure light source 21 or changing the aperture slit 23 and the ND filter 25, the amount of light irradiated onto the photosensitive material 16 is increased so that the characteristics are as follows, thereby achieving a good exposure condition. be able to.

In this case, the aperture slit 23 and the ND filter 2
5 may be used not only in combination, but also in a configuration in which only one of them is used. Furthermore, a halogen lamp, a white fluorescent lamp, or the like can be used as the sub-exposure light source 21.

The exposed photosensitive material 16 is reversed and conveyed to the water coating section 3.
Water is applied by a roller 6, excess water is removed by a squeeze roller 37, and then the paper is conveyed to a thermal development transfer section 38.

On the other hand, the image-receiving material 48 is also ejected from the receiving-material magazine 46 and cut into a predetermined length by the cutter 50, and then sent to the thermal development transfer section 38, overlapping with the photosensitive material I6.

In the thermal development transfer section 38, a bonding roller 5 is installed near the heating drum 40 on the upstream side of the endless pressure belt 42 in the material supply direction.
2 is arranged, and the photosensitive material 16 and the image receiving material 48 are supplied to this bonding roller 52.

The photosensitive material 16 and the image-receiving material 48 supplied to the laminating roller 52 are uniformly overlapped by the laminating roller 52, and guided and supplied between the heating drum 40 and the endless pressure belt 42 in the overlapping state. be done.

When the photosensitive material 16 is heated while being overlapped with the image receiving material 48 in the thermal development transfer section 38 (between the heating drum 40 and the endless pressure belt 42), it releases mobile dye,
This dye is transferred to the dye fixed layer of the image receiving material 48 to obtain an image.

In this case, since the endless press-contact belt 42 is electrically conductive, generation of static electricity due to friction between the heating drum 40 and the endless press-contact belt 42 or the photosensitive material 16 or the image-receiving material 48 is prevented, and the generation of static electricity is prevented from occurring on the image-receiving material 48. There is no fogging in the image.

When the photosensitive material 16 and the image-receiving material 48 are sandwiched and conveyed and reach the lower part of the heating drum 40 , the peeling claw 56 engages with the tip of the photosensitive material 16 and separates the photosensitive material 16 from the image-receiving material 48 . While peeling from the outer periphery, the peeling roller 5
8 presses the photosensitive material 16 onto the heating drum 40, wraps the photosensitive material 16 in a peeled state with the peeling claw 56, and bends and guides it downward.

The separated photosensitive material I6 is sent to a waste photosensitive material storage box 60 provided below the heating drum 40.

On the other hand, the image receiving material 48, which is separated from the photosensitive material 1G and moves together with the heating drum 40, is moved by the peeling roller 62 and the peeling claw 64.
The tray 6 is peeled off from the outer periphery of the heating drum 4o by
6.

In this embodiment, the sub-exposure light source 21 is arranged together with the aperture slit 23 and the ND filter 25 between the exposure section 20 and the photosensitive material magazine 14, that is, on the upstream side of the exposure section 20 in the photosensitive material transport direction. , not limited to this,
The sub-exposure light a21 may be arranged after the main exposure light source 24 exposes the image of the original 32, that is, on the downstream side of the exposure section 20 in the photosensitive material conveyance direction. Further, the main exposure light source 24 may be used to perform sub-exposure simultaneously with the main exposure.

Further, in this embodiment, the photosensitive material 16 is exposed to the reflected image light after being irradiated onto the original 32, but the present invention is not limited to this. A configuration in which the photosensitive material 16 is exposed to transmitted image light is also applicable.

In addition, in this embodiment, the sub-exposure amount is adjusted by the aperture slit 23 and the N
Although this change was made using the D filter 25, it may also be done by changing the conveyance speed of the photosensitive material 16.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the mark previously attached to the document is used as the detection mark detecting means for the document discriminating means, but the operator may manually enter the type of document each time using keys on the keyboard. Further, a device may be provided that reads the image of the document through a BPF (band pass filter) and infers the type of document.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the image recording device according to the present invention has the excellent effect of automatically determining the necessity of sub-exposure, and automatically setting the sub-exposure amount when it is determined that it is necessary. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 3 is a map showing the relationship between density and sub-exposure amount depending on the type of original. 10... Image recording device, - Photosensitive material, - Exposure unit, - Sub-exposure light source, - Exposure device, - Aperture slit, - Main exposure light source, - ND filter, - Image receiving material, - Light detection sensor, - Control unit , ・Mark detection sensor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In addition to the main exposure that scans the original and exposes the photosensitive material, sub-exposure is performed in an amount corresponding to the density of the original to achieve an appropriate exposure state, and the exposed photosensitive material and image-receiving material are placed around the outer periphery of the drum. An image recording device that records an image on the image-receiving material by tightly wrapping it around the image-receiving material, the image recording device having a document discriminating means for discriminating the type of the document, and setting the sub-exposure amount based on the discrimination result of the document discriminating means. An image recording apparatus comprising: a sub-exposure amount setting means; and a control means for controlling the sub-exposure based on the set sub-exposure amount.