JPH0266542A - Heat developable transfer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To assure the uniform superposition of a heat developable photosensitive material and image receiving material and the winding thereof on the outer periphery of a drum and to prevent unequal development and transfer by coating the outer peripheral surface of the drum with a rubber material having >=0.5 coefft. of friction. CONSTITUTION:The heat developable photosensitive material 16 on which images are exposed is crimped between a superposing roller 60 and the drum 34, by which the material is superposed on the image receiving material 32 and is further wound in the superposed state on the outer periphery of the drum 34. The heat developable photosensitive material 16 heated by the drum is thereafter heat-developed and the images are transferred to the image receiving material 21. At least the image range on the outer peripheral surface of the drum 34 is then coated with rubber material having >=0.5 coefft. of friction. The uniform superposition is executed in this way and the generation of the uneven development and transfer is obviated at the time of crimping the heat developable photosensitive material 16 and the image receiving material 32 by the superposing roller 60.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a heat development transfer device, in particular, a heat development transfer device in which a heat development photosensitive material on which an image has been exposed is superimposed on an image receiving material and heated while being wrapped around the outer circumference of a drum. The present invention relates to a thermal development transfer device that thermally develops a photothermographic material and transfers an image to an image-receiving material.

[Prior Art] An image is exposed onto a heat-developable photosensitive material, and the heat-developable photosensitive material is superimposed on an image-receiving material and heated, whereby the heat-developable photosensitive material is thermally developed and the image is transferred to the image-receiving material. 2. Description of the Related Art Heat development transfer devices for obtaining images are known.

This type of thermal development transfer device is equipped with a heating drum and an endless pressure belt that is in pressure contact with the outer periphery of the heating drum.Furthermore, near the endless pressure belt, there is a rubber overlapping belt that is in contact with the outer periphery of the heating drum. A matching roller is arranged. The image-exposed photothermographic material is superimposed on the image-receiving material by the superimposing roller, and then fed between the heating drum and the endless pressure belt.

Each material is conveyed between a heating drum heated to about 90°C and an endless pressure belt for a predetermined period of time in a stacked state, whereby the photothermographic material is thermally developed and The image exposed on the developing photosensitive material is transferred to the image receiving material.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, the heating drum is made of aluminum material, and its outer peripheral surface (pressing surface of the endless pressure welding belt) is coated with Teflon or coated with an oxide film (so-called (anodized aluminum). For this reason,
Even if a heat-developable photosensitive material or an image-receiving material coated with water as an image-forming solvent is wrapped around it, it will not corrode.

However, since the outer circumferential surface of the heating drum was subjected to surface treatment as described above, this outer circumferential surface had an extremely low coefficient of friction and became slippery. On the other hand, since the overlapping roller is made of rubber and has a large friction coefficient, the photothermographic material and the image-receiving material overlapped by the overlapping roller (between the overlapping roller and the outer peripheral surface of the heating drum).
Wavy wrinkles occurred at the time of overlapping.

For this reason, when an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material is transferred to an image-receiving material, uneven development and transfer occurs, and a good image may not be obtained.

In consideration of the above-mentioned facts, the present invention makes it possible to uniformly overlap the image-exposed photothermographic material and the image-receiving material and wrap them around the outer periphery of the drum, thereby producing a good image without causing uneven development transfer. The purpose is to obtain a thermal development transfer device that can obtain the following.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A thermal development transfer device according to the present invention superimposes an image-receiving material and a heat-developable photosensitive material arranged on the outer periphery of a drum and having an image exposed thereon by sandwiching the image-receiving material between the drum. A superimposing roller that supplies the photothermographic material and the image receiving material to the outer circumference of the drum, and a pressure contact means that wraps and presses the supplied photothermographic material and image receiving material around the outer circumference of the drum, and heats the supplied photothermographic material and image receiving material in the wound state to thermally develop the material. This is a thermal development transfer device that thermally develops a photosensitive material and transfers an image to an image-receiving material, in which at least an image area on the outer peripheral surface of the drum is covered with a rubber material having a friction coefficient μ of 0.5 or more.

Further, in the heat development transfer device according to the present invention, the range of the rubber material covered on the drum is such that the dimension along the axial direction of the drum is shorter than the width direction dimension of the heat development photosensitive material and It is longer than the width direction dimension and has the entire circumference of the drum in the circumferential direction, and furthermore, a peeling claw is arranged outside this covering range to peel off the photothermographic material and the image receiving material wound around the outer circumference of the drum from the drum. You may.

[Function] In the thermal development transfer device having the above configuration, the photothermographic material on which the image has been exposed is sandwiched between the overlapping roller and the drum, thereby being overlaid on the image-receiving material. Furthermore, the photothermographic material and the image receiving material that have been superimposed are wound around the outer periphery of the drum while remaining in the superimposed state.

Thereafter, the photothermographic material is thermally developed by being heated by the drum, and the image is transferred to the image-receiving material.

In this case, at least the image area on the outer peripheral surface of the drum is covered with a rubber material having a friction coefficient μ of 0.5 or more, so that there is no slippage when the photothermographic material and image receiving material are sandwiched between the overlapping rollers. They can be layered evenly and wrinkles will not occur.

Therefore, when each material is superimposed and supplied to the outer periphery of the drum and then heated, thereby thermally developed and an image is transferred, a good image can be obtained without uneven development and transfer.

Furthermore, the covering range of the rubber material is set such that the dimension along the axial direction of the drum is shorter than the widthwise dimension of the photothermographic material and longer than the widthwise dimension of the exposed image, and is made to cover the entire circumference of the drum. By arranging a peeling claw that peels off the heat-developable photosensitive material and image-receiving material wrapped around the outer circumference of the drum on the outside of this covering area, wear of the rubber material is eliminated and there is no problem in the image area. This eliminates the need for heat radiation, making it even more effective.

[Example] The present invention will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 1 shows an image recording apparatus 10 to which a thermal development transfer device according to the present invention is applied.

A magazine 14 is disposed on the machine base 12 of the image recording apparatus 10, and a roll-shaped photothermographic material 16 is housed within the magazine 14.

As shown in FIG. 2, in this embodiment, the widthwise dimension of the photothermographic material 16 is 254 mm.

The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is pulled out from its outer periphery, cut into a predetermined length by a cutter 18, and then wound around the outer periphery of a rotating drum 20 in the six directions of arrows. An exposure head 22 is disposed corresponding to the outer periphery of the rotating drum 20, and rotates the rotating drum 20 at high speed to expose an image onto the wound photothermographic material 16. In this case, the widthwise dimension of the image (area C in FIG. 2) exposed onto the photothermographic material 16 is 230 mm.

After exposure, the photothermographic material 16 is transferred to the rotating drum 20 (
direction of arrow B), the scraper 24 rotates the rotating drum 20.
After being peeled off from the film and being coated with water as an image forming solvent in a water application section 26, it is sent to a heat development transfer section 28, which is a heat development transfer device.

In the thermal development transfer section 28, a heating drum 34 and an endless pressure belt 36 serving as pressure contact means are arranged.

The heating drum 34 is made of aluminum, and has an outer diameter of 140 mm and an axial length of 30 Qrnm, as shown in FIG. silicone rubber 5
The covering width of 0 is 234 mm, which is approximately the same as the widthwise dimension of the image exposed on the photothermographic material 16.

This silicone rubber 50 has conductivity, and furthermore,
Friction coefficient μ is 0.5 to 0.6 or more, rubber hardness is 40 to 9
0 degree, thickness t is 0.2 to 3 mm (preferably Q, 5 mm
before and after).

A halogen lamp 38 is arranged inside the heating drum 34, and the heating drum 34 is heated by this halogen lamp 38.
The outer periphery of is heated to about 90°C.

The endless pressure belt 36 is wound around a tension roller 37, 39, 41, 43 having an outer diameter of 20 mm, and its endless outer side is pressed against the outer periphery of the heating drum 34.

The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 coated with water is transferred to a heating drum 34
The heating drum 34 is supplied between the
It is designed to be sandwiched and conveyed over approximately 2/3 of the circumference and thermally developed.

The m-end pressure belt 36 is wrapped around the tension roller 37 near the part where the overlapping roller 60 is wrapped around the heating drum 34.
It is placed in a state where it is pressed against the outer periphery of. This overlapping roller 60 is a rubber roller with an outer diameter of 25 mm.

On the other hand, a tray 30 disposed below the thermal development transfer section 28
Inside, the specified dimensions (width dimension is 297 mm, length dimension is A)
4 size has a total length of 210mm, and A3 size has a total length of 42mm.
A plurality of image-receiving materials 32 trimmed to 0 mm) are stored. The image-receiving material 32 is sequentially taken out sheet by sheet by a supply roller 44 disposed on the side of the tray 30 and sent to the thermal development transfer section 28.

The image receiving material 32 sent to the thermal development transfer section 28 is transferred by the overlapping roller 60 arranged in contact with the outer periphery of the heating drum 34 (between the overlapping roller 60 and the outer peripheral surface of the heating drum 34). It is superimposed on the photothermographic material 16 and is supplied between the heating drum 34 and the endless pressure belt 36 .

When the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is heated in a superimposed state with the image-receiving materials 3 and 2 in the heat-developable transfer section 28, it is thermally developed and the image is transferred to the image-receiving material 32, so that an image is obtained on the image-receiving material 32. It is now possible to

A pair of peeling claws 48 are arranged on the sides of the thermal development transfer section 28 . As shown in FIG. 2, the peeling claw 48 is disposed so as to correspond to the outside of the area covered by the silicone rubber 50 on the outer peripheral surface of the heating drum 34, and its tip slightly contacts the outer peripheral surface of the heating drum 34. There is.

The peeling claw 48 moves together with the heating drum 34 and engages with the photothermographic material 16 located inside, thereby peeling the photothermographic material 16 together with the image-receiving material 32 from the outer periphery of the heating drum 34. ing.

A pair of separation rollers 50 are arranged below the peeling claw 48 and correspond only to both ends of the image receiving material 32 in the width direction.
Furthermore, a conveyor belt 52 is wound around the separation roller 50. A conveyance belt 52 wound around this separation roller 50 engages only at both ends of the image receiving material 320 in the width direction, and separates the image receiving material 32 from the photothermographic material 16 and conveys it in a bent manner.

The separated photothermographic material 16 is stored in a waste photosensitive material storage box 5.
The image-receiving material 32 is dried by a heater 54 and then delivered onto a take-out tray 56 formed at the top of the machine base 12.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

When the photothermographic material 16 pulled out from the magazine 14 is cut by the cutter 18 and wound around the outer periphery of the rotating drum 20, the rotating drum 2o rotates at high speed, and the width of the photothermographic material 16 is adjusted by the exposure head 22. The image is exposed in the center of the direction.

After exposure, the photothermographic material 16 is peeled off by a scraper 24, coated with water by a water coating section 26, and sent to a thermal development transfer section 28.

On the other hand, the image receiving material 32 in the tray 30 is taken out one by one by the supply roller 44, and further, the image receiving material 32 is taken out one by one by the supply roller 44, and
The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is superimposed on the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 by the superimposing roller 60 disposed in
will be supplied between.

In this case, the image area on the outer circumferential surface of the heating drum 34 is covered with a silicone rubber 50 having a large friction coefficient μ of 0.5 to 0.6 or more. 32 can be overlapped uniformly without slipping when sandwiching them, and wrinkles will not occur.

The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 and the image-receiving material 32 sent to the heat-develop transfer unit 28 are transferred to a heating drum 34 and an endless pressure belt 36, which are heated to about 90'tll' by a halogen lamp 38 while still being superimposed. heating drum 34 between
The photothermographic material 16 is pinched and conveyed over approximately 2/3 of the circumference to be thermally developed, and the image recorded on the photothermographic material 16 is transferred to the image receiving material 32.

In this case, since both materials are overlapped uniformly by the overlapping roller 60 without wrinkles, each material is overlaid and wound around the outer periphery of the heating drum 34 and then heated, thereby thermally developing and creating an image. When transferring, a good image can be obtained without uneven development and transfer.

After the transfer, a peeling claw 48 moves with the heating drum 34 and engages with the photothermographic material 16 located inside, thereby peeling the photothermographic material 16 together with the image-receiving material 32 from the outer periphery of the heating drum 34.

In this case, since the peeling claws 48 are arranged so as to correspond to the outside of the area covered by the silicone rubber 50 on the outer circumferential surface of the heating drum 34 (in other words, the tip ends are located on the outer circumferential surface of both ends of the heating drum 340 in the width direction). (Because they are only in contact and do not interfere with the silicone rubber 50), the silicone rubber 50 is not worn out, and durability is improved. Furthermore, unnecessary heat dissipation caused by the contact of the peeling claw 48 in the image area is eliminated (that is, heating is uniformly performed), and uneven development and transfer does not occur, making it even more effective.

The image receiving material 32 peeled off from the outer periphery of the heating drum 34 is
It is separated from the photothermographic material 16 by a conveyor belt 52 wrapped around a separation roller 50 and taken out to a takeout tray 56 via a heater 54 . On the other hand, the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is sent to a waste photosensitive material storage box 59.

[Effects of the Invention The thermal development transfer device according to the present invention has the following effects.

In the thermal development transfer device according to claim (1), the image-exposed photothermographic material and the image-receiving material can be uniformly overlapped and wrapped around the outer periphery of the drum, thereby preventing uneven development transfer. A good image can be obtained without any problems.

Further, in the thermal development transfer device according to claim (2), unnecessary heat radiation in the image area is eliminated, and development transfer unevenness is further reduced, and wear of the rubber material is also eliminated.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an image recording device to which a heat development transfer device according to the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 shows the dimensional relationship between the heating drum of the heat development transfer device, the heat development photosensitive material, and the image receiving material. It is a schematic sectional view. 10 ・ 16 ・ 28 ・ 32 ・ 34 ・ 36 ・ 48 ・ 50 ・ 60 ・ Image recording device, photothermographic material, thermal development transfer section, image receiving material, heating drum, endless pressure belt, peeling claw, silicone rubber, overlapping roller.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A superimposing roller that sandwiches a photothermographic material and an image-receiving material arranged on the outer periphery of the drum to which an image has been exposed and superimposes them on the drum and supplies them to the outer periphery of the drum, and the supplied heat Thermal development includes a pressure contact means for wrapping a photothermographic material and an image-receiving material around the outer periphery of a drum and pressing them against each other, and heats the photothermographic material in the wound state to thermally develop the photothermographic material and transfer an image to the image-receiving material. 1. A thermal development transfer device, characterized in that the outer peripheral surface of the drum is covered with a rubber material having a friction coefficient μ of 0.5 or more. (2) The range of the rubber material coated on the drum is such that the dimension along the axial direction of the drum is shorter than the width direction dimension of the photothermographic material and longer than the width direction dimension of the exposed image, and the drum circumference is 2. The heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a peeling claw for peeling the photothermographic material and the image receiving material wound around the outer circumference of the drum from the drum. Development transfer device.