JPH03144640A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a photosensitive paper from being exposed when it is rewound by interrupting an optical path which leads to an exposing part by a shutter at the time of rewinding the unused part of the photosensitive paper which passes the exposing part to a core side. CONSTITUTION:The shutter 35 which opens and closes an aperture part 27 is provided on the upper surface of the horizontal part 26a of a partition 26. As soon as a rewinding action for the photosensitive paper 5 is started, an actuation shaft 37 is rotated by a motor and the shutter 35 is moved from a retreating position to a closing position with the rotation of the shaft 37. In a state where the shutter 35 is moved to the closing position, the optical path which leads to the exposing part 10 through the aperture part 27 is interrupted by closing the aperture part 27. Thus, the photosensitive paper is prevented from being exposed when it is rewound in a device where the effective utilization of the photosensitive paper is accomplished by rewinding the unused part of the photosensitive paper which passes the exposing part to the core side.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention provides a method for forming an image-forming paper by overlapping the photo-sensitive paper and the image-forming paper and applying pressure after exposing the photo-sensitive paper to light. The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms images, and particularly relates to an image forming apparatus that rewinds unused portions of photosensitive paper after image formation.

(Prior art) In an image forming apparatus, a roll of photosensitive paper is wound around a core, passed through an exposure section, a pressure section, and a separation section in order, and passed around a take-up shaft. The paper is exposed to light in the exposure section, and an image of the photosensitive paper is formed on the image forming paper by pressing the photosensitive paper and the sheet-like image forming paper in a superimposed state in the pressing section, and then the separating section It is known that the image-forming paper is separated from the photosensitive paper at a step and the used portion of the photosensitive paper is wound up on a winder.

In this type of device, the portion of the photosensitive paper between the trailing edge of the exposed area and the leading edge of the next exposed area does not contribute to image formation and is fed in an unused state. Since the photosensitive paper was wound onto a take-up shaft, there was a problem in that the effective utilization rate of the photosensitive paper was low.

Therefore, in order to deal with this problem, after each image forming operation, after separating the image forming paper from the photosensitive paper, the unused portion of the photosensitive paper that has passed through the exposed part is rewound to the core side. The idea is to reduce as much as possible the unused parts that do not contribute to formation.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, when the cover of the document table is opened to replace the document during the rewinding operation of the photosensitive paper, external light enters the main body of the apparatus from the document table. There is a risk that the light will irradiate the photosensitive paper located in the exposure area and expose unused areas of the photosensitive paper, and a clear image will not be obtained from the exposed areas when the next image forming operation is performed. The problem arises that it disappears.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned "1f" situation, and its purpose is to rewind the unused portion of the photosensitive paper that has passed through the exposed area to the core side, thereby making effective use of the photosensitive paper. To provide an image forming apparatus capable of preventing photosensitive paper from being exposed to light when unrolling the photosensitive paper.

[Structure of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems)] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention separates the image-forming paper from the photosensitive paper and then removes the unused portion of the photosensitive paper that has passed through the exposed area. In a device provided with a rewinding means for rewinding to the core side, a feature is provided in that a shutter is provided to block the optical path leading to the exposure section when the rewinding means rewinds.

(Function) When the photosensitive paper is rewound, the light path leading to the exposed area is blocked by the shutter, so even if the cover of the photosensitive paper is opened when the photosensitive paper is rewound, external light will not reach the exposed area. The photosensitive paper placed in the area will not be exposed to light.

(Example) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, in FIG. 1 showing the overall configuration of the apparatus, on the top surface of the apparatus main body 1, there is a glass stand 2 on which a document (not shown) is placed, and a cover 3 that covers this glass stand 2, which is movable in the left and right directions in the figure. It is set in.

A storage section 4 is provided in the upper part of the central part of the apparatus main body 1, and an unused photosensitive paper 5 is stored in the storage section 4. The photosensitive paper 5 is made up of numerous microcapsules containing a photosensitive resin, a dye precursor, a polymerization initiator, etc., which hardens upon exposure to light, on one side of the photosensitive surface 5a. It is rolled in the form of a roll on the outside, and the core 6 is removably attached to a paper feed shaft 7 serving as a rewinding means. The photosensitive paper 5 is taken out from the storage section 4, passed through the exposure section 10 via a pair of feed rollers 8 and 9, and then passed through a pair of pinch rollers 11 and a dancer roller 12. It passes through the pressure section 13 having the Kae roller 13a, and further includes the guide roller 14, the separation roller 15 serving as the separation section, and the guide rollers 16 and 17.
It is stretched around the winding shaft 18 through the winding shaft 18, so that the used (exposed) portions are sequentially wound around the winding shaft 18. The winding shaft 18 is rotated in the direction of arrow A by a motor (not shown) during winding, and the paper feed shaft 7 is rotated in the direction of arrow B by a motor (not shown) when rewinding the photosensitive paper 5, which will be described later. It has become.

A light irradiation chamber 19 is located on the right side of the storage section 4 inside the main body of the device.
In this light irradiation chamber 19, a lamp 20 made of, for example, a halogen lamp and a reflecting mirror 21 for irradiating light onto the original through the glass table 2 are disposed.

The light reflected by the original passes through a filter 22 and a lens 23 sunk below one of the light irradiation chambers, as shown by the dashed-dotted arrow, and is redirected by reflecting mirrors 24 and 25.
The light is irradiated toward the exposure section 10 through the opening 27 formed in the horizontal section 26a of the partition 926 in the apparatus main body 1, and the light is irradiated onto the photosensitive paper 5 positioned in the exposure section 10, thereby exposing it to light. The paper 5 is exposed.

Further, a paper feed cassette 28 is provided below the pressurizing section 13 in the apparatus main body 1, and a color developer paper 29, which is image forming paper, is accommodated in this paper feed cassette 28. Developing paper 2
One is in the form of a rectangular sheet, and a color developer that reacts with the inclusions of the microcapsules of the photosensitive paper 5 is coated on the image forming surface 29a.

The developer paper 29 is sent out from the paper feed cassette 28 by a half-moon roller 30, then sent upward by a pair of feed rollers 31, and is overlapped with the exposed photosensitive paper 5, and then transferred to the pressure section 1.
3. The color developer paper 29 supplied to the pressure unit 13 is pressed by the pressure roller 13a in a state where it is overlapped with the photosensitive paper 5, and is separated from the photosensitive paper 5 by the separation roller 15 and sent to the heating device 32. , and sent out to the tray 33. The pressure roller 13a of the pressure unit 13 is in a state where it presses the two color developing papers when they pass over the photosensitive paper 5, and is in a non-pressure state otherwise.

On the other hand, one of the feed rollers 9 located near the exposure section 10 of the transport path from the storage section 4 to the exposure section 10 for the photosensitive paper 5 carries the photosensitive paper according to the amount of rotation of the feed roller 9. An encoder 34 for detecting the rewind amount of 5 is provided. This encoder 34 counts the number of pulses generated based on the rotation of the feed roller 9, and detects the amount of rewinding of the photosensitive paper 5 when the number of pulses reaches the number of sliding pulses.

A shutter 35 for opening and closing the opening 27 is provided on the upper surface of the water lower part 26a of the partition M26. The specific structure of this shutter 35 portion is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.
As shown in the figure. The shutter 35 has a plate shape large enough to close the opening 27, and is supported movably in the left and right directions in FIGS. 1 and 2 by a pair of support shafts 36 provided on the horizontal portion 26a! ,′j has been done. An operating shaft 37 is disposed below the horizontal portion 26a so as to be perpendicular to the support shaft 36, and both ends of the operating shaft 37 are connected to a support wall 3 provided in the device main body 1.
8 through three bearings respectively.

Furthermore, a pinion 41 that engages with a rack 40 provided on the shutter 35 is attached to both ends of the operating shaft 37 so as to rotate together with the operating shaft 37, and a support wall 38 is attached to one end of the operating shaft 37. A gear 42 is mounted on the outside, and the rotational force of a motor (not shown) capable of forward and reverse rotation is transmitted to the gear 42. Then,
The shutter 35 is rotated by the pinion 41 as the operating shaft 37 rotates.
and the rack 40, it is reciprocated between a retracted position in which the opening 27 is open, as shown by the solid line in FIG. It is normally located at the retracted position, and is moved to the closed position when the photosensitive paper 5 is rewound, which will be described later.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained.

To start the image forming operation, first, place a document face down on the glass stand 2, cover it with the cover 3, and operate a start switch (not shown). Then, the glass table 2 on which the original is placed is moved together with the cover 3 to the right in FIG. With the light on, the glass stand 2 is moved to the left, and the document is irradiated with light accordingly. At the same time as the glass table 2 starts moving leftward, the feeding of the photosensitive paper 5 toward the take-up shaft 18 is also started.

At this time, light emitted from the lamp 20 and reflected by the original passes through the opening 27 and is irradiated onto the photosensitive surface 5a of the photosensitive paper 5 in the exposure section 1o, thereby performing exposure. Note that the lamp 20 is turned off as the glass stand 2 is moved leftward by a predetermined amount.

The exposed photosensitive paper 5 is sequentially sent to the pressure unit 13 side, and along with this, the developer paper 29 sent out from the paper feed cassette 28 by the half-moon roller 3o is sent to the pressure unit 13 side by the feed roller 31. The developer paper 29 is superimposed on the photosensitive paper 5 and is pressed by the pressure roller 13a. As a result, the image exposed on the photosensitive paper 5 is made visible on the two color developing papers to form a color image. When the developer paper 29 passes the pressure roller 13a, the pressure roller 13a is returned to the non-pressure state. Then, the color developing paper 2 is transferred to the separation roller 15.
9 is separated from the photosensitive paper 5, and the separated developing paper 29 is sent to the heating device 32, where the image 1 is fixed by heating, and then sent to the tray 33. Meanwhile, the used photosensitive paper 5 is The portions are sequentially wound up on the winding shaft 18, and
The winding by the winding shaft 18 is stopped when the winding shaft 18 is separated.

Here, when the separation of the developer paper 29 from the photosensitive paper 5 is completed, the rear end of the exposed area of the photosensitive paper 5 has been sent to a point slightly beyond the separation roller 15, that is, to the 0 point.
In order to return the 0 point, which is the rear end of the exposed area of the photosensitive paper 5, to the point D of the exposure section 10, the paper feed shaft 7 is rotated in the direction of arrow B to rewind the photosensitive paper 5. At this time, the amount of rewinding of the photosensitive paper 5 is detected by the encoder 34 provided on the feed roller 9, and the detected value reaches the specified rewinding amount, that is, the length of the photosensitive paper 5 from point 0 to point D. Then, the rewinding operation is stopped. As a result, the 0 point, which is the rear end of the exposed area of the photosensitive paper 5, is returned to the D point of the exposure section 10.

Further, at the same time as the rewinding operation of the photosensitive paper 5 is started, the operating shaft 37 is rotated by a motor (not shown), and the shutter 35 is moved from the retracted position to the closed position (second position).
(see the two-dot chain line in the figure). When the shutter 35 is moved to the closed position, the opening 27 is closed, thereby blocking the optical path leading to the exposure section 10 through the opening 27. Therefore, when the photosensitive paper 5 is rewound, the cover 3 is opened, for example, to replace the original.
Even if external light enters the apparatus main body 1 through the glass stand 2, that light will not reach the exposure section 10.
The photosensitive paper 5 is not exposed to the light. When the rewinding operation of the photosensitive paper 5 is completed, the shutter 3
5 is moved to the retracted position again.

In the above-described embodiment, the opening 27 is closed by the shutter 35 only when the photosensitive paper 5 is being rewound. If the period between 0 and 0 is relatively long, the opening 27 may be closed by the shutter 35 after the exposure is completed. Further, although the shutter 35 is provided near the exposure section 10 in the optical path leading to the exposure section 10, if the shutter 35 can block the optical path, the exposure section
It may be a part far from 0.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the unused portion of the photosensitive paper that has passed through the exposed area is rewound to the core side, thereby making effective use of the photosensitive paper. Since the optical path leading to the exposure area is blocked by a shutter in the unwinding area, even if the cover of the document table is opened during rewinding, the photosensitive paper will not be exposed to light. It has excellent effects.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal 1tfr front view of the entire device, FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional front view of the main part, and FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional side view of the main part. In the drawing, 2 is a glass stand, 3 is a cover, 5 is photosensitive paper, 6 is a winding core, 7 is a paper feed shaft (rewinding means), 10 is an exposure section, 1
3 is a pressure unit, 15 is a separation roller (separation unit), 18 is a winding shaft, 20 is a lamp, 27 is an opening, 2 is a developer paper (image forming paper), 32 is a heating device, 34 is an encoder, 35 is a shutter, and 7 is an operating axis.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A photosensitive paper wound in a roll around a core is provided so as to pass through an exposure section, a pressure section, and a separation section in order and then hung around a winding shaft, and the photosensitive paper is exposed in the exposure section. After forming an image on the photosensitive paper on the image forming paper by applying pressure to the photosensitive paper and the sheet-like image forming paper in the overlapping state in the pressing section, the image forming paper is removed in the separating section. In an image forming apparatus in which a used portion of the photosensitive paper is separated from the photosensitive paper and wound up on the take-up shaft, the image forming paper is separated from the photosensitive paper and then passes through the exposed portion of the photosensitive paper. An image forming apparatus comprising: a rewinding means for rewinding an unused portion to the core side; and a shutter for blocking an optical path leading to the exposure section when the unused portion is rewinded by the rewinding means.