JPH03164273A - Wet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable recording to be performed on a plurality of sheets by a small sized device without using a photosensitive material since a charged pigment particle forms a toner image by a method wherein ions are selectively heaped up by an ion flow control means on a surface of liquid toner applied onto a conductive image carrier by a liquid toner application means. CONSTITUTION:Liquid toner 18 is applied uniformly to a conductive image carrier 1 with a liquid toner application roller 2. Ions 45 are stuck selectively to a liquid toner surface with an ion flow controller 3. Pigment particles having a positive charge in the liquid toner form a toner image 46 on a surface of the conductive image carrier 1. The toner image is fixed to the surface of the conductive image carrier 1 by a heating means 5 (heat roll fixing) to form a block copy. Anion 48 are irradiated uniformly onto the conductive image carrier 1 to which the toner image is fixed. Excess toner on a non-image area is removed with an excess toner remover 4. A second toner image 49 on the conductive image carrier 1 is transferred electrostatically to recording paper 9, and is fixed onto the recording paper with a fixing part 10. Recording of a same image on a plurality of sheets can be performed.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a recording device, and more specifically, the present invention relates to a recording device that creates a block copy while an image carrier makes one revolution, and records multiple sheets of the same image from the second revolution onwards. The present invention relates to a wet recording device.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, as a recording device capable of recording multiple copies of the same image, a copying device using a film-like photoreceptor and dry toner is known. This conventional device wraps a photoreceptor around a drum once and creates a printing plate through the steps of charging, image exposure, development, and flash fixing.When recording multiple sheets, charging, full-surface exposure, development, transfer, and fixing are performed. (Masami Yoshino, Proceedings of the 4th Non-Impact Printing Technology Symposium, P113) The photoreceptor must be wound around the drum, and each time the photoreceptor is used, it must be wound up and prepared for forming the next image. Since this process is carried out automatically, there is a problem in that the apparatus is large. In addition, since a photoreceptor is used, the cost is high, and the structure of the device requires light shielding, making the device complicated and expensive.

Therefore, the present invention aims to solve these problems.
The purpose is to provide a recording device that does not use a photoreceptor, has a simple configuration, is small, and is capable of recording multiple sheets.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The wet recording device of the present invention is a recording device that creates a printing plate while the conductive image carrier makes one revolution, and records a plurality of identical images from the second revolution onwards. a liquid toner applying means for applying liquid toner in which a charged colorant is dispersed in a dispersion medium to the conductive image bearing member; and ions are applied to the conductive image bearing member coated with the liquid toner by the applying means. ion flow control means for selectively adhering to form a colorant image; heating means for heating and fixing the colorant image formed by the ion flow control means; and conductive means for fixing the colorant image by the heating means. The image forming apparatus is characterized by comprising a charging means and a developing means for uniformly irradiating the image carrier with ions to form a second colorant image on the colorant image. Also, if you do not want to record multiple copies of the same image,
It is characterized in that the heating means is not operated.

[Function] According to the above structure of the present invention, when ions are selectively deposited by the ion flow control means on the surface of the liquid toner applied on the conductive image carrier by the liquid toner application means, the ions in the liquid toner are The charged pigment particles undergo electrophoresis to form a toner image according to an image pattern. Then, when the image is heated by a heating means, the decomposition medium evaporates and becomes fixed,
A copy is created. When the prepared printing plate is uniformly irradiated with ions of opposite polarity to the charged polarity of the toner using a charging means, the toner acts as an insulator and charges are deposited on the areas where the toner is attached, increasing the surface potential. However, since the areas to which toner is not attached are conductive, no charge is deposited. When development is performed in this state, liquid toner adheres to the toner-adhered portion by electrophoresis, forming a second toner image. Then, only the second toner image can be fixed on the recording paper by normal transfer and fixing. By repeating uniform ion irradiation, development, transfer, and fixing, it is possible to record multiple sheets without a photoreceptor.

[Example] Hereinafter, details of the present invention will be explained using specific examples with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a wet type recording apparatus showing a first embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a liquid toner application roller 2, an ion flow control device 3, an excess toner removal device 4, a heating device 5, a cleaning device 6, and a charging device are arranged around a hollow drum-shaped conductive image carrier 1 made of metal. The recording paper 9 is sent out by a paper feed roller (not shown), and after the color material image is transferred, it is sent to a fixing device 10 consisting of a heat roller and a pressure roller. It is configured. The liquid toner developer storage tank 11 is connected via a pump 12 so as to supply an appropriate amount of liquid toner 18 to the liquid toner application device 2, and also collects the liquid toner removed by the excess toner removal device 4. It's perfectly connected.

The liquid toner 18 is composed of a positively charged resin containing a pigment dispersed in an insulating carrier solvent. The liquid toner application roller 2 is a roll having grooves on its surface, and applies the liquid toner 18 to the surface of the conductive image carrier 1 . The coating thickness is controlled by the depth and pitch of the grooves and the regulating plate 13. The configuration of the ion flow control device 3 is shown in FIG.

An opening 22 is provided in the center of an insulating substrate 21 with a thickness of 0.1 mm.
A common electrode 24 is provided on one side, and a common electrode 300 is provided on the other side.
The control electrodes 23 are formed at a pitch of dots per inch (dpi). An ion generator using a corotron is installed at the top. i.e. diameter 0.0
The structure is such that a 5 mm tungsten wire 25 is shielded with a stainless steel housing 26 at a distance of about 5 mm. wire 25 of the ion flow control device 3;
The housing 26, the common electrode 24, and the control electrode 23 are connected to power sources 33, 34, and 35, respectively, as shown in FIG. 3, and a potential difference is provided between them and the conductive image carrier 1.

By connecting the switch 30 to the terminal 3■, the ion flow of positive ions generated within the ion generator is blocked, and by connecting the switch 30 to the terminal 32, the positive ion flow is transferred to the liquid toner on the conductive image carrier 1. It is adapted to be selectively deposited onto the layer. In this embodiment, the power supply 33 is 3Kv,
The power source 34 is set to 200 V and the power source 35 is set to 1000 V, and predetermined ion flow control is performed so that positive ions generated around the wire 25 pass through the opening 22 and reach the liquid toner surface.

The excess toner removing device 4 (shown in FIG. 1) rotates a squeeze roller 14, which rotates at a relative speed while maintaining a small gap with the conductive image carrier 1, at an outer peripheral speed different from that of the conductive image carrier 1. let

As a result, a force due to fluid viscosity is applied to the liquid toner in the minute gap, and the toner is peeled off from the conductive image carrier 1. A peeling plate 15 comes into contact with the surface of the squeeze roller 14 and peels off the adhered excess toner. The heating means 5 uses a heat roll system having a heat lamp inside. The cleaning device 6 includes a urethane blade 16 and a sponge roller 17 that are swingably attached to the cleaning device 6 and come into contact with the conductive image carrier 1 during cleaning to peel off the color material image.

Next, block preparation and multi-sheet recording will be explained using FIG. 4. The production of the block goes through the processes shown in (a) to (d) in the same figure. First, the liquid toner application roller 2 applies 5 to 50
Liquid toner 18 is uniformly applied to the conductive image carrier 1 with a thickness of μm.
((a) in the same figure). Next, the ion flow control device 3 selectively causes ions 45 to adhere to the liquid toner surface (FIG. 4(b)). Then, since the dispersion medium of the liquid toner is insulating, the positive ions remain on the surface of the liquid toner layer and form an electric field between it and the conductive image carrier 1.

The positively charged pigment particles in the liquid toner move toward the surface of the conductive image carrier 1 by electrophoretic force due to the electric field, and form a toner image 46 on the surface of the conductive image carrier 1. form.

Further, the polarity of the ions controlled by the ion flow control device 3 may be different from the charged polarity of the liquid toner. That is, the positively charged pigment particles in the liquid toner are
Due to the electric field generated by the negative ions adhering to the surface of the liquid toner layer, the negative ions are moved toward the surface of the liquid toner layer by an electrophoretic phenomenon due to electrostatic force. As the pigment particles adhere to each other, the conductive image carrier 1
A toner image can be formed on the surface of. Excess toner in the non-image area is removed from the conductive image carrier 1 by passing through the excess toner removing device 4 (see FIG. 1).
A toner image 46 corresponding to the image pattern is formed (FIG. 4(C)). After passing through the excess toner removing device, the toner image is fixed on the surface of the conductive image carrier 1 by the heating means 5 (thermal roll fixing) (FIG. 4(d)) to create an L-format image.

Multiple-sheet recording goes through the processes shown in FIGS. 4(e) to 4(h).

When the conductive image carrier 1 on which the toner image is fixed is uniformly irradiated with negative ions 48 by the charging device 7, the toner acts as an insulator on the areas where the toner is attached, and the ions are deposited, increasing the surface potential. However, since the area to which toner is not attached is conductive, no ions are deposited (see figure (e)).
). When negative ions 48 are deposited on the fixed toner image and developed with the liquid toner 18, a second toner image 49 is formed on the fixed toner image by electrophoresis, and the excess toner removing device 4 removes the non-image area. Excess toner is removed ((f) in the same figure). The second toner image 49 on the conductive image carrier 1 is electrostatically transferred to the recording paper 9 (FIG. 9(g)),
The image is fixed onto the recording paper by the fixing device 10 ((h) in the figure). By repeating the above processes (e) to (h), it is possible to record a plurality of approximately 1000 sheets of the same image.

After recording a plurality of images, the first toner image fixed on the conductive image carrier 1 is peeled off by the cleaning device 6 in order to create another image. When multiple sheets of the same image are not required to be recorded, such as single sheet recording, a toner image corresponding to the image pattern can be formed on the conductive support 1 and then transferred and fixed onto the recording paper. At this time, the heating means 5 does not operate because the lamp is inoperative. In this embodiment, the device is configured to serve as both a developing device and a liquid toner applying device.

Next, FIG. 5 shows the structure of a wet type recording apparatus showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a conductive elastic rubber drum 52 is used as the conductive image carrier.

The printing plate creation process and the multiple-sheet recording process are the same as in the first embodiment, but the toner image is transferred onto the recording paper by pressing the pressure roller 53 against the recording paper 9 while applying pressure from the back side. Since the conductive elastic rubber drum 52 has elasticity, even if the surface of the recording paper 9 has low smoothness, the toner image can be transferred onto the recording paper by pressure without causing any image deterioration. recording is possible.

In addition to the configurations of the first and second embodiments, the ion flow control means used in the present invention includes a stylus-shaped electrode placed close to and facing the surface of the conductive image carrier to select the nearby electric field. Alternatively, the liquid toner may be deposited under controlled control.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, since a reusable conductive image carrier is used, there is no need for a mechanism for winding or winding a film-like photoreceptor around a drum. be.

Furthermore, since selective ion flow deposition is utilized for image formation, there is no need for light shielding due to the structure of the apparatus, and a recording apparatus capable of recording a large number of sheets can be realized with a simple configuration. Furthermore, the running cost is low, and since liquid toner is used, images with bright colors and high resolution can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a wet type recording apparatus showing a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of an ion flow control device used in a wet recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the electrical relationship of an ion flow control device used in a wet recording device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 4(a) to 4(h) are diagrams showing the recording process of the wet type recording apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of a wet type recording apparatus showing a second embodiment of the present invention. 1... Conductive image carrier 2... Liquid toner application roller 3...
..... Ion flow control device 4 ..... Surplus toner removal device 5 ..... Heating means 52 ..... Conductive elastic rubber drum 53 ...・・・
・Press roller 18...Liquid toner or more

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Create a block copy while the conductive image carrier rotates once,
A recording apparatus that records a plurality of identical images from the second rotation onwards, the apparatus comprising: a liquid toner applying means for applying liquid toner in which a charged coloring material is dispersed in a dispersion medium to the conductive image carrier; Ion flow control means for selectively attaching ions to form a colorant image on a conductive image carrier coated with liquid toner, and heating and fixing the colorant image formed by the ion flow control means. a heating means; a charging means and a developing means for uniformly irradiating ions onto the conductive image carrier to which the colorant image is fixed by the heating means to form a second colorant image on the colorant image; A wet recording device characterized by comprising: (2) The wet type recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating means is not operated when a plurality of identical images are not recorded.