JPH0315087A - Method and device for reproducing electrostatic image - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an image with high definition and high gradation by electrically or optically reading an electrostatic latent image from a charge holding medium, inputting the read image signal to a sublimating transfer printer or a molten transfer printer and printing it out on recording paper. CONSTITUTION:Reflected light obtained by scanning the charge holding medium 3 is decomposed by colors R, G and B with mirrors 113a - 113c through a half mirror 111, each decomposed light is converted to an electronic signal by photoelectric converters 115a - 115c and stored in a memory 117. Then, the stored signals are converted to color signals Y, M and C by a complementary color converter 121 and converted to serial signals at every line by a parallel/serial converter 123. The serial signals are added to a driver 125, thermal head 127 is drive-controlled and the serial signals are transferred to image receiving paper 131 from a thermosensitive sublimating transfer film 130. A molten type thermosensitive transfer film may be also used. Thus, the recording image of the charge keeping medium 3 is printed out with the high-definition and the high gradation on the recording paper 131.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an electrostatic image reproducing method and apparatus for reading and printing out an electrostatic image recorded on a charge holding medium.

[Conventional technology]

The present applicant records an electrostatic latent image on the insulating layer by arranging a photoconductive layer having electrodes and an insulating layer having electrodes facing each other, and performing image exposure with a voltage applied between both electrodes. We have already proposed a method.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining such an electrostatic image recording method, and in the figure, l is a photoreceptor, 3 is a charge retention medium, 5 is a photoconductive layer support, 7 is a photoreceptor electrode, and 9 is the photoconductive layer, I+
1 is an insulating layer, 13 is a charge retention medium electrode, 15 is an insulating layer support, and 17 is a power source.

In FIG. 5, exposure is performed from the photoreceptor l side, and first, a transparent photoreceptor electrode 7 made of ITO with a thickness of 1000 mm is formed on a photoconductive layer support 5 made of glass with a thickness of lem, A photoconductive layer 9 of about 10 μm is formed on this to constitute a photoreceptor 1. For this photoreceptor 1, IO
The charge retention medium 3 is arranged with a gap of approximately μm in size interposed therebetween.

The charge retention medium 3 is made by forming an AI electrode 13 with a thickness of 1000 by vapor deposition on an insulating layer support 15 made of glass with a thickness of 1 layer, and an insulating layer 11 with a thickness of IO μm on this i-pole 13. .

First, as shown in FIG. 5(a), 1
The charge retention medium 3 is set through a gap of about 0 μm,
As shown in FIG. 5(b), the electrodes 7 and 13 are
A voltage is applied between them. In a dark place, since the photoconductive layer 9 is a high-resistance material, no change occurs between the electrodes. When light enters from the photoreceptor L side, the leading cage layer 9 in the part where the light enters exhibits conductivity, and a discharge occurs between the insulating layer 11 and the insulating layer III. : Charge is accumulated.

After the exposure is completed, the voltage is turned off as shown in Figure 5 (Cl).
The electrostatic latent image formation is completed by setting the FF to FF and then taking out the charge holding medium 3 as shown in FIG. 5(d).

Note that the photoreceptor l and the charge holding medium 3 may be of a contact type instead of a non-contact type as described above, and in the case of a contact type, a positive or negative charge is applied from the photoreceptor electrode 7 side to the exposed portion of the photoconductive layer 9. A charge is injected, this charge is attracted to the electrode 13 on the side of the charge holding medium 3, passes through the photoconductive layer 9, and stops moving when it reaches the surface of the insulating layer l1, and the injected charge is accumulated at that location. be done. Then, when the photoreceptor 1 and the charge holding medium 3 are separated, the insulating layer 11 is separated while still storing charges.

When this recording method is used for planar analog recording, high resolution can be obtained similar to silver halide photography, and the shape of the insulating layer l
The surface charge on l is exposed to the air environment, or air has good insulating performance, so it can be exposed to the light environment. It can be stored for a long time without discharging, regardless of the dark.

The charge storage period on this insulating layer 11 is determined by the properties of the insulator, and is influenced not only by the insulating properties of air but also by the load-trapping properties of the insulator. In the above explanation, the charge is described as a surface charge, or the injected charge may simply be accumulated on the surface, or microscopically it may penetrate inside the insulator near the surface and form a cage or a cage within the structure of the material. In some cases, holes may be trapped, resulting in long-term storage. Further, in order to prevent physical damage to the charge holding medium and discharge when humidity is high, the surface of the insulating layer l1 may be covered with an insulating film or the like for storage.

Furthermore, it is possible to record a color image by arranging a color filter 20 on the front surface of the photoreceptor l and exposing it to light as shown in FIG. 6 (al), and as shown in FIG. , G, and B separated to form one frame, or as shown in Figure 6 (C), arrange them as R, G, and B images on one plane and make one frame with I seven notes. It can also happen.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a fine color filter, for example,
The resist-coated film is exposed to light using a mask pattern to form R, G, and B stripe patterns. G. It can be formed by B dyeing, or by recording 1,000 R, G, and B stripes on a hologram recording medium, which are generated by passing color-separated light using a prism or the like through narrow slits. Alternatively, a mask is brought into close contact with the photoconductor and exposed, and an electrostatic latent image is formed. Forming a B stripe pattern,
This is formed by a method of developing the toner and transferring it three times to combine the colors and form a toner stripe. The R, G.
One pixel is formed using Bl pixels, for example, the l pixel is 10μmfM.
Make it more minute. By using this filter as filter 20 in FIG. 6, a color electrostatic latent image can be formed. In this case, the filter may be placed separately from the photoreceptor or may be formed integrally with the photoreceptor.

[Problem to be invented or solved]

As mentioned above, it has not yet been developed whether extremely high-resolution analog recording is possible on the cargo-holding medium, or whether an appropriate method for expressing this image in high definition and gradation on recording paper has been developed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an electrostatic image reproducing method and a reproducing apparatus that can print out recorded images on a charge holding medium on recording paper with high definition and high gradation. .

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention provides a photoreceptor having a photoconductive layer provided with an electrode;
An electrostatic latent image is recorded on the charge holding medium by placing an electrode and a charge holding medium having an insulating layer thereon facing each other, applying a voltage between both electrodes and exposing the image to light. It is characterized by reading the cylinder image signal electrically or optically, inputting the read cylinder image signal to a sublimation transfer printer or a melt transfer printer, and outputting the image on recording paper.

[Effect]

The present invention electrically or optically reads an electrostatic latent image from a charge-holding medium, inputs the read image signals to a sublimation transfer printer or a melt transfer printer, and prints them out on recording paper, thereby producing high-resolution images. It is possible to obtain a high-definition, high-gradation output image corresponding to an electrostatic image.

〔Example〕

Examples will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The electrostatic image recording method according to the present invention uses the method explained in FIG. 5, so the details thereof will be omitted below.

FIGS. 1 to 3 are diagrams showing an example in which an optically read color image is output to a sublimation transfer printer.

In the figure, +01 is a laser, 103a is a reflection mirror, l03
bS 103c is a dichroic mirror, 105 is a reflection mirror, 107 is a scanning system, +09 is a reflection mirror II1
are half mirrors 113a and 113b are dichroic mirrors, I13c is a reflective mirror, +15 is a photoelectric converter, 1
17 is a memory, 119 is an image processing device, 121 is a complementary color converter, 123 is a parallel-to-serial converter, 125 is a driver +27
129 is a head, 129 is a platen roller, and 131 is an image receiving paper.

In FIG. 1, the R, G, and B lights from the laser 101 are
Reflection mirror 103a, dichroic mirror 103b,
103c, and scans the charge holding medium 3 via the reflecting mirror 105, the scanning system 107, the reflecting mirror 109, and the half mirror Ill. The charge retention medium 3 is an R.I. It is assumed that the G and B separated images are developed with toner and colored. The scanning system 107 includes a galvanometer mirror l0 that scans in the X and Y directions.
It consists of 7a and 107b. In this way, the reflected light obtained by scanning the surface of the cargo holding medium is reflected by the half mirror 111.
The signals are color-separated into R1G and B by a mirror +13, converted into five-key signals by a photoelectric converter, and stored in a memory +17.

And image processing equipment if necessary! +19 performs pixel density conversion, color correction, gradation correction, etc., which is converted into Y, M, and C color signals by a complementary color converter 121 for printing, and is converted into Y, M, and C color signals by a parallel-to-serial converter 123 for each line. The signal is converted into a signal and applied to the driver 125, and the thermal head 127 is driven and controlled at a duty ratio corresponding to the Y and M1C color signals to transfer from the thermal transfer film 130 to the image receiving paper +31.

At the same time as complementary color conversion if necessary, in addition to YSM and C, BK
(black) signal may be generated. In that case, a black heat-sensitive transfer film is also used for heat-sensitive transfer recording,
By recording in four colors, the dynamic range of the hard copy can be expanded.

FIG. 2 shows the transfer mechanism from the transfer film to the receiver paper.

The transfer film includes a heat-resistant slipping layer 130a, a transfer base material 1
30b, a sublimation transfer layer 130c is laminated with a primer interposed therebetween in order to improve adhesion of the coating material to the base material. The heat-resistant slipping layer 130a is made of a mixture of polyvinyl butyral, polyisonoir, and phosphoric acid ester, the transfer base material 130b is made of polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide, etc., and the sublimation transfer layer 130c is made of:
It consists of sublimable dyes such as indoaniline, pyrazolone, and azo dyes, and binders such as polyhinyl acetal and cellulose.

The image-receiving paper 131 has an image-receiving layer 13lb, an image-receiving paper base material 131a, and a back layer 131c layered with a primer interposed therebetween.The image-receiving layer 13lb is saturated polyester, vinyl chloride, etc., and the base material 13la is synthetic paper, foam The back layer of polycastel, foamed polypropylene, etc. consists of a binder, a lubricant, a coating agent, etc.

An image-receiving layer 13lb and an image-receiving paper 13l consisting of an image-receiving paper base material 131a are wound around the platen roll 129, and a transfer film 130 is superimposed on this in close contact with the image-receiving layer 13lb, and the thermal head +33 is placed on the back side of the transfer film 130'. By contacting and heating, the sublimation transfer dye is heated and sublimated, and is attached to and dyed on the image receiving layer 13lb. In addition, in the above example, the signal read from the charge holding medium is digitally processed, or the sublimation transfer device vaporizes the dye by the amount of heat applied and transfers it to the image receiving layer, so each pixel dot is divided into stages according to the amount of heat. Therefore, it is possible to directly print out the output of a charge holding medium, which is used for analog recording, without having to perform halftone processing or the like. As described above, the sublimation transfer printer is very suitable for application of the present invention because it is possible to express the image signal of a charge holding medium on which high-resolution analog recording is performed in gradation in units of dots.

Recording of the ephemeris image of a charge-holding medium is extremely accurate because it can be done with the resolution of the charge size, but at present no readout method with comparable accuracy has been developed. However, even at present, 1μmXlμm
An image with 21 gradations was obtained. This is lcmXlc
The m(7) charge retention medium has a storage capacity of 100 MB, and can store enough color print image data for two A4 size sheets. In the above example, the charge holding medium on which the toner has been developed is read optically, but it goes without saying that the image potential of the charge holding medium may be read out electrically.

Figure 3 shows an example of a sublimation transfer film pattern, C,
M and Y dyes are applied sequentially on each surface, and the dyes are wrapped around a drum and coated with an image-receiving layer.
If one color (black (Bk)) is also added by rotation, printing is completed by applying a total of four times.

In addition, a melt-type heat-sensitive transfer film may be used in the information recording and reproducing process of the present invention.

As shown in Fig. 4, melt-type thermal transfer uses a rubber roll +
41 and the transfer film 147, and when the thermal head 143 heats the transfer film according to the image data, the transfer base film! If the amount of heat applied to the melting transfer layer (wax) applied to 47b is greater than a predetermined value, it will be melted and transferred to plain paper +45; if it is less than a predetermined value, it will not be transferred, and in pixel dot units it will be a binary value. digitized and recorded. Therefore, unlike in the case of sublimation transfer, the gradation is expressed by the ratio of the number of recorded dots to the number of dots constituting one pixel.

In addition to this, an inkjet printer may be used, for example, which ejects and flies ink into minute droplets and attaches ink dots to a recording paper in a pattern corresponding to an image.

It is also applicable to a microcapsule method. This is a μm containing monomer, leuco dye, and reaction initiator.
A thin layer of custom-made microcapsules is coated on paper, irradiated with ultraviolet light or visible light, and a receiver coated with acid clay is layered on top of the microcapsules. The capsules do not collapse, and the microcapsules that receive little light irradiation are crushed and the leuco dye comes out from the capsule and sticks to the acid clay to dye it. In this case, the microcapsules are R,G
, If you use a B color material and make sure that the leuco dye placed inside is in a complementary color relationship with the capsule, for example, when R light is irradiated, the R capsule will polymerize the monomer inside. It does not collapse, so C does not come out of the capsule, while the G and B capsules collapse and the M and Y dyes come out and mix, so they are dyed R. Therefore, color images can be obtained using such microcapsules.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, an electrostatic latent image is electrically or optically read from a charge holding medium, the read image signal is input to a sublimation transfer printer or a melt transfer printer, and a recording paper is By printing out an image, it is possible to obtain a high-definition, high-gradation output image corresponding to a high-resolution electrostatic image.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1, 2, and 3 are diagrams showing an embodiment in which electrostatic images are output using a sublimation transfer printer, and Figure 4 is a diagram showing another embodiment using a melt transfer printer. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an electrostatic image recording method, FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a color recording method, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a color filter. 101...Laser, 103a...Reflection mirror 103
b, l03c...dichroic mirror, 107...
・Scanning system, I. I l...Half mirror 113a
, 113b... Dichroic mirror, 115... Photoelectric converter, +17... Memory, +19... Image processing device, +21... Complementary color converter, 123... Parallel-to-serial converter, ! 25...driver, 127...head, 12
9...Platen roller, 131... Image receiving paper. Figure 2 M4 (147 Transfer film Figure 5 (a) Figure 5 (b) Figure 5 (c) Figure 5 (d) Figure 6 Figure 7

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A photoreceptor having a photoconductive layer provided with electrodes and a charge holding medium having an insulating layer provided with electrodes are arranged facing each other, and a voltage is applied between both electrodes to perform image exposure, thereby charging A method of reproducing an electrostatic image recorded on a charge holding medium, in which the electrostatic latent image is electrically or optically read from the charge holding medium, the read image signal is input to a sublimation transfer printer or a melt transfer printer, and the image is recorded. An electrostatic image reproduction method characterized by outputting an image on paper. (2) A photoreceptor having a photoconductive layer provided with electrodes and a charge holding medium having an insulating layer provided with electrodes are arranged facing each other, and a voltage is applied between both electrodes to perform image exposure, thereby charging A device for reproducing an electrostatic image recorded on a charge holding medium, which includes means for electrically or optically reading the electrostatic latent image from the charge holding medium, and a recording head of a sublimation transfer printer or a melt transfer printer using the read image signal. An electrostatic image reproducing device comprising: means for driving and controlling the electrostatic image reproducing device.