JPH02261660A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form an image at low cost by using the title recorder repetitively several times by a method wherein in an image recorder which forms the image on a base material by thermal transfer or sublimation of colored powder onto a carrier, colored powder of required color is successively adhered on a carrier and is transferred to the base material with a supersonic head. CONSTITUTION:By rotatively driving a sleeve roller, colored powder 3 stored in a storing case 4 is positively charged, and is adhered to be supplied outside. When negative voltage is impressed to a counter electrode 7 with a DC power source 6, the colored powder 3 is electrostatically attracted to be coated uniformly on an upper surface of a carrier 1. The coated part is moved to a supersonic head 10 part with guide rollers 2. By driving a magnetostrictive vibrator 8 of the supersonic head 10 based on an image signal herein, electric vibration is converted to mechanical vibration. Vibration is applied to the coated part from a metallic horn 9, and the colored powder is transferred onto the base material 12 held with a platen roller 11 by controlling. A required image is formed thereby.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image recording device, and particularly to an image recording device that forms an image on a support by thermally transferring or sublimating colored powder.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, based on desired image information, paper or OHP
2. Description of the Related Art Image recording apparatuses that form monochrome or color images on a support such as a sheet are often used.

There are various types of such image recording devices. For example, thermal transfer type and sublimation type image recording devices use an ink ribbon uniformly coated with wax or heat-sublimable dye. , the thermal head is arranged so as to be in contact with the support body with the ink ribbon sandwiched therebetween. Then, by selectively heating the thermal head based on desired image information, the dye etc. of the ink ribbon is transferred or sublimated,
A desired image is formed on the support.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the above conventional image recording apparatus, when forming an image on a support, the ink ribbon is moved by operating the thermal head with the ink ribbon in contact with the support. Since dyes and the like are transferred and sublimated, in the case of monochrome, the area of the ink ribbon needs to be approximately equal to the area of the output image, and in the case of full-color image formation, e.g. Since the basic colors of , yellow, magenta, cyan, and black are required, the area of the ink ribbon is four times the area of the output image. This ink ribbon cannot be used repeatedly and is very expensive, so the running cost when forming an image becomes extremely high, making it uneconomical. There is.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image recording apparatus that can form images at low cost without using an ink ribbon.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, an image recording device according to the present invention includes:
Paper or OH by selectively driving the transfer device
In an image recording device that transfers or sublimates colored powder onto a support such as a P sheet to form a desired monochrome or color image, an endless conveyor is disposed to circulate and move freely. , a coating device for electrostatically uniformly applying the colored powder stored inside the storage case to the surface of the carrier is disposed near the surface of the carrier, and the carrier is moved from the coating device. It is characterized in that an ultrasonic head for transferring the colored powder to the support by vibration is disposed on the downstream side in the direction.

[Effect]

According to the present invention, colored powder stored in a storage case is electrostatically applied onto a conveying body by a coating device, and after the conveying body is moved to the transfer device portion, a predetermined image signal is applied. The above-mentioned ultrasonic head is driven to form a desired image by controlling and transferring the colored powder applied to the conveying body onto the support by vibration, and furthermore, after the colored powder has been transferred, the conveying body is It will be moved further.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which an endless conveyor 1 is connected to four guide rollers 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, . ... 2, and is arranged in an inverted trapezoidal shape, and the conveying body 1 is movable by circulating clockwise in the figure by driving the guide rollers 2 by a drive device (not shown). Moreover, a storage case 4 is disposed above the carrier 1, the bottom of which is open, and the colored powder 3 is stored inside.
A grounded sleeve roller 5 is rotatably disposed in the open portion of the storage case 4.

The colored powder 3 is a solid ink made by mixing a pigment and wax, etc., which has been conventionally used as a thermal transfer material, or a powdered sublimation dye, which is used as a sublimation recording material, such as nigrosine. It is created by adding a charge control material such as an electron-donating dye or a quaternary ammonium salt. Further, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of storage cases 4 are arranged in parallel according to the color type of the colored powder 3, and each storage case 4 is arranged in parallel. , can be selectively moved to a position corresponding to the carrier 1.

Further, a counter electrode 7 as a coating device connected to a DC power source 6 is disposed on the upper and lower surface side of the carrier 1 so as to face the sleeve roller 5 of the storage case 4. By applying a negative voltage to 7 from the DC power supply 6, the colored powder 3 positively charged by the sleeve roller 5 can be attracted. On the upper surface side of the lower part of the carrier 1, there is a magnetostrictive vibrator 8.
An ultrasonic head 10 consisting of a metal horn 9 connected to the magnetostrictive vibrator 8 is disposed so that the tip of the metal horn 9 comes into contact with the carrier 1. A platen roller 11 is rotatably disposed at a position corresponding to the ultrasonic head 10 on the lower surface side. This platen roller 11 and the conveyor 1
A belt-shaped support 12 such as paper or an OHP sheet is arranged between the lower surface of the carrier 1 and the support 12, which is brought into contact with the lower surface of the conveyor 1 by the platen roller 11. It is configured to be moved in synchronization with the movement of the carrier 1.

Furthermore, a cleaning device 13 for removing the colored powder 3 remaining on the carrier 1 is disposed downstream of the ultrasonic head 10 of the carrier 1 in the transportation direction. A receiving member 14 is provided to collect the removed colored powder 3. The cleaning device 13 uses, for example, an electrostatic brush or an electrode to which a voltage of opposite polarity to that of the colored powder is applied.
The colored powder 3 remaining on the conveyor 1 is scraped off with the electrostatic brush, and the colored powder 3 remaining on the conveyor 1 is scraped off by the above-mentioned t'! The particles are electrostatically attracted to the electrodes and removed.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

First, by rotating the sleeve roller 5,
The colored powder 3 stored in the storage case 4 is positively charged by frictional charging with the sleeve roller 5, and this positively charged colored powder 3 is attached to the sleeve roller 5 and is stored in the storage case 4. Supplied externally. Next, when a negative voltage is applied to the counter electrode 7 by the DC power supply 6, the colored powder 3 is separated from the sleeve roller 5 and moved to the counter electrode 7.
It is drawn electrostatically towards the side and is evenly applied to the upper surface of the carrier 1. Thereafter, by driving the guide roller 2, the conveying body 1 is moved until the part to which the colored powder 3 is applied is located in the part of the ultrasonic head 10.

Here, based on a predetermined image signal, the magnetostrictive vibrator 8 of the ultrasonic head 10 is driven to convert this electrical vibration into mechanical vibration, and vibration is applied to the surface of the carrier 1 from the metal horn 9. As a result, a desired image is formed by controlling and transferring the colored powder 3 electrostatically applied to the conveying body 1 onto the support 12 held by the platen roller 11. be.

Furthermore, after the colored powder 3 has been transferred, the conveying body 1 is further moved, and the colored powder 3 remaining on this conveying body 1 without being transferred is
is removed from the carrier 1 by the cleaning device 13, and the receiver is collected onto the member 14.

Then, the conveying body 1 from which the colored powder 3 has been removed by the cleaning device 13 is sent to the position of the sleeve roller 5, and by repeating the above operation, image formation can be performed again.

Therefore, in this embodiment, colored powder 3 of a desired color is sequentially deposited on the conveying body 1 during image formation,
This colored powder 3 is transferred onto a support 12 by an ultrasonic head 10, and by coating the colored powder 3, the conveying body 1 has a function as an ink ribbon. Since the body 1 can be used repeatedly, there is no need to use expensive ink ribbons, images can be formed at low cost, and economical efficiency can be significantly improved. Furthermore, since the colored powder 3 is transferred to the support 12 by the ultrasonic head 10, the responsiveness can be significantly improved compared to the case where transfer is performed using heat, and the device becomes high temperature due to heat accumulation. This can be prevented.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and examples, and can be modified in various ways. For example, the charging property of the colored powder 3 may be made negative, or the DC power source 6 may not be used. Alternatively, the electric field may be controlled by an AC power supply.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, in the image recording apparatus according to the present invention, colored powder of a desired color is sequentially deposited on the conveying body, and this colored powder is transferred to the support body by the ultrasonic head. By applying colored powder, the carrier has the function of an ink ribbon, and the carrier can be used many times, eliminating the need to use expensive ink ribbons and making it inexpensive. image formation can be carried out, and economical efficiency can be significantly improved. In addition, since the colored powder is transferred using an ultrasonic head, the responsiveness can be significantly improved compared to transfer using heat, and it is possible to prevent the device from becoming hot due to heat accumulation. It has the effect of being able to do things.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an image recording apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of the storage case portion of FIG. 1. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Conveyance body, 2... Guide roller, 3... Colored powder, 4... Storage case, 5... Sleeve roller,
6... DC power supply, 7... Counter electrode, 8... Magnetostrictive vibrator, 9... Metal horn, 10... Ultrasonic head, 11... Platen roller, 12... Support body, 13
...Cleaning device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Paper or OH by selectively driving the transfer device
In an image recording device that transfers or sublimates colored powder onto a support such as a P sheet to form a desired monochrome or color image, an endless conveyor is disposed to circulate and move freely. , a coating device for electrostatically uniformly applying the colored powder stored inside the storage case to the surface of the carrier is disposed near the surface of the carrier, and the carrier is moved from the coating device. An image recording apparatus characterized in that an ultrasonic head for transferring the colored powder to the support by vibration is disposed on the downstream side in the direction.