JPH03294855A - Method for controlling temperature of solvent for forming image - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily control the temperature of solvent for forming an image by replenishing the solvent for forming an image whose temperature is lower than a set temperature to a coating part when the solvent for forming an image in the coating part arrives at the set temperature. CONSTITUTION:When the solvent for forming an image in the coating part arrives at the set temperature, the solvent for forming an image whose temperature is lower than the set temperature is replenished to the coating part. Therefore, the temperature of the solvent for forming an image in the coating part can be rapidly lowered. Besides, when the solvent for forming an image is cooled and it becomes less than the set temperature, it is heated by actuating a heating means. In such a way, the temperature of the solvent for forming an image in the coating part is easily controlled by the cooling with the aid of the replenishment of the low temperature solvent for forming an image and the heating with the aid of the heating means.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to recording materials such as photosensitive materials and image-receiving materials that obtain images by performing processing such as development, transfer, and fixing in the presence of an image-forming solvent. The present invention relates to a method for controlling the temperature of an image forming solvent for coating on an image forming solvent.

[Conventional technology]

An image forming device that exposes a photosensitive material to reflected or transmitted light of the light irradiated on the original, or light converted from image information, and transfers the image obtained on the photosensitive material to an image-receiving material to obtain an image on the image-receiving material. It has been known.

To obtain an image on an image-receiving material, the image-wise exposed photosensitive material is heated and developed, and the photosensitive material is superimposed on the image-receiving material for transfer. Photosensitive materials and image-receiving materials are known in which development is accelerated by applying an image-forming solvent to at least one of the photosensitive material and the image-receiving material prior to heat development.

Structures for applying an image forming solvent to a photosensitive material or an image receiving material (hereinafter referred to as recording materials) include a structure in which a coating roller impregnated with an image forming solvent contacts the image forming surface of the recording material, and a structure in which a coating roller impregnated with an image forming solvent contacts the image forming surface of the recording material. There is a configuration in which the recording material is immersed in a solvent. The recording material coated with the image-forming solvent swells, and the image-forming layer on the recording material has an appropriate moisture content, thereby facilitating the subsequent heat development process.

The image forming solvent applicator stores the image forming solvent in a sealed tank to prevent dust from getting into the image forming solvent, and when the image forming apparatus starts operating, the image forming solvent is transferred to the solvent applying part through a solvent flow pipe. It is preferable to supply the image-forming solvent by a pump or the like for coating, and it is preferable to collect the solvent into the tank after the operation is completed.

In order to keep the swelling amount of the recording material constant, the temperature of the image forming solvent applied to the recording material is set to, for example, around 35°C. For this purpose, the image forming solvent is supplied to the coating section at the start of operation of the apparatus, and then heated to a predetermined temperature by a heating means to adjust the temperature.

Furthermore, the heating means operates intermittently to maintain the image forming solvent at a constant temperature even while the image forming apparatus is in operation.

In order to adjust the temperature of the image forming solvent, for example, a temperature detecting means is provided by being immersed in the image forming solvent, and when the detected solvent temperature reaches a set temperature, the operation of the heating means is stopped and the solvent is There is a method of starting the operation of the heating means when the temperature falls below a set temperature.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The image forming apparatus is provided with driving means such as a motor for driving each operating mechanism, and the temperature inside the image forming apparatus rises due to heat generated by the driving means.

Further, as described above, in an image forming apparatus using a recording material that requires heating during image formation, the temperature around the heating means increases.

Therefore, unless the image forming solvent application section is insulated from other processing sections, the air around the image forming solvent application section will rise due to the effects of heat generated by the driving means, heating means, etc. The solvent used is in a high temperature atmosphere.

Although the temperature of the image forming solvent is adjusted by being heated by a heating means provided in the application section, it is also heated by the high temperature atmosphere, so that the temperature of the image forming solvent rises above the set temperature. In other words, the image-forming solvent is heated when the heating means is activated, and is naturally cooled when the heating means is not activated. However, if the image-forming solvent is heated to a higher temperature atmosphere than the heat dissipated by natural cooling, the temperature of the image-forming solvent will not decrease. rise without Therefore, the temperature of the image forming solvent cannot be easily controlled, and it is difficult to maintain the set temperature.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to provide an image-forming solvent temperature control method that can easily control the temperature of an image-forming solvent with a simple configuration.

[Means and Effects for Solving the Problems] The above object of the present invention is to detect the temperature of the image forming solvent contained in the image forming solvent applicator for applying to the recording material by heating means. In an image forming solvent temperature control method in which the image forming solvent is heated to control the solvent temperature, when the image forming solvent in the coating section reaches a set temperature, the image forming solvent at a temperature lower than the set temperature is heated. This is achieved by a method for controlling the temperature of an image forming solvent, which comprises replenishing the temperature of the image forming solvent.

That is, when the image forming solvent in the coating section reaches the set temperature, the temperature of the image forming solvent in the coating section is adjusted by replenishing the coating section with an image forming solvent that is lower than the set temperature.
can be drastically reduced.

Also, when the image forming solvent is cooled and falls below the set temperature,
The heating means is activated to heat the image forming solvent. Therefore, the temperature of the image forming solvent in the coating section can be easily controlled by cooling by replenishing the low-temperature image forming solvent and heating by the heating means.

The image forming solvent to be replenished into the coating section may be one that is replenished when the image forming solvent decreases due to coating, evaporation, leakage, etc., and the means for replenishing this may also be a regular replenishing means, especially for temperature control. There is no need to provide supplementary means. Therefore, the temperature of the image-forming solvent can be easily lowered simply by controlling the operation of the replenishing means, and the temperature of the image-forming solvent in the application section can be easily controlled with the hour wheel configuration.

The set temperature of the image forming solvent in the present invention includes an upper limit set temperature and a lower limit set temperature that are permissible within a range that does not adversely affect image formation, and the set temperature that is the reference for cooling and heating of the image forming solvent is not necessarily the same. It is not necessary to do so.

The recording material used in the present invention includes a photosensitive material and an image-receiving material that forms an image by overlapping the photosensitive material.

Such light-sensitive materials and image-receiving materials are those in which a latent image obtained by imagewise exposure is subjected to processing such as development, transfer, and fixation in the presence of an image-forming solvent to obtain a visible image. It can be anything.

For example, the photosensitive material includes a heat-developable photosensitive material. Regarding the heat-developable photosensitive material, U.S. Patent No. 4,50
No. 0,626, No. 4,483゜914, No. 4,4
No. 30,415, No. 4゜503.137, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5
No. 9-154445, No. 59-180548, No. 59
-165054, 61-88256, 60-1
No. 20356, No. 59-218443, No. 6m-23
It is disclosed in No. 8056 and the like.

The above-mentioned heat-developable photosensitive material basically consists of photosensitive silver halide, a binder, a dye-providing compound, a reducing agent (
In some cases, the dye-donating substance also serves as a reducing agent), and if necessary, organic silver salts and other additives may be contained.

The heat-developable photosensitive material may be one that gives a negative image or one that gives a positive image when exposed to light. Direct positive emulsion as a silver halide emulsion (there are two types: a method that uses a nucleating agent and a method that uses light fogging) to provide a positive image.
Either a method using a dye-donating compound or a method using a dye-donating compound that emits a positively diffusible dye image can be adopted.

Furthermore, the image forming solvent used in diffusion transfer includes, for example, water, and this water is not limited to so-called pure water, but includes water in the widely customary sense.

Alternatively, a mixed solvent of pure water and a low boiling point solvent such as methanol, DMF, acetone, or diisobutyl ketone may be used. Furthermore, a solution containing an image formation accelerator, an antifoggant, a development stopper, a hydrophilic heat solvent, etc. may also be used.

Further, the image forming solvent may be a developing solution, a bleaching solution, a bleach-fixing solution, a fixing solution, or a stabilizer, and the present invention can also be applied to an automatic developing device.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus 10. As shown in FIG.

A photosensitive material magazine 14 is disposed on the machine base 12 of the image forming apparatus 10, and a photosensitive material 16 is stored therein in a wound form. The photosensitive material 16 has a photosensitive silver halide, a binder, a dye-donating substance, and a reducing agent on a support.

A cutter 18 is arranged near the photosensitive material magazine 14, and is adapted to cut the photosensitive material 16 pulled out from the photosensitive material magazine 14 into a predetermined length.

The cut photosensitive material 16 is conveyed to an exposure section 20.

An exposure device 22 is provided directly above the exposure section 20.

The exposure device 22 includes a main exposure light source 24 as a main exposure means.
, a plurality of fixed mirrors 26, a first movable mirror 27A that moves together with the main exposure light source 24, and the first movable mirror 2.
A second movable mirror 27B and a lens unit 28 whose relative position relative to the mirror 7A is variable are arranged, and a mounting plate 30 is further provided on the upper part of the machine stand 12 above these parts. Main exposure light #24, first moving mirror 27A, second
The movable mirror 27B is movable along the mounting plate 30, so that the light emitted from the main exposure light source 24 is directly irradiated onto the original 32.

A branching section 70 and a reversing section 72 are arranged downstream of the exposure section 20 (on the left side in FIG. 1).

A flapper 74 is rotatably arranged at the branching portion 70 . This flapper 74 has the role of entering into one of the bifurcated transport paths for the photosensitive material 16 and changing the transport path for the photosensitive material 16 . It should be noted that the photosensitive material 16 immediately after being pulled out from the photosensitive material magazine 14 is guided to the lIl feeding path on the upper side of FIG. The guided photosensitive material 16 is reversed at a reversing section 72 and conveyed to the exposure section 20 again. This causes the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive material to face upward in FIG.

Here, when exposing the photosensitive material 16, the main exposure light source 24
While moving the first movable mirror 27A, the second movable mirror 27B is moved at a predetermined speed to irradiate the emitted light along the document 32, and the reflected image light is exposed using the lens unit 28. The photosensitive material 16 located in the section 20 is scanned and exposed. Note that the recording magnification on the photosensitive material 16 can be changed by changing the tracking speed of the second movable mirror 27B. In this embodiment, the same magnification is the second
The speed of the moving mirror 27B is 1/2 that of the main exposure light source 24.

The photosensitive material 16 that has been scanned and exposed in the exposure section 20 is conveyed in an inverted state, and is coated with water at about 35.degree. C. as an image forming solvent by a water coating section 36.

A squeeze roller 37 is arranged in the water application section 36 to remove excess water applied to the photosensitive material 16.

A thermal development transfer section 38 is arranged on the side of the squeeze roller 37. The thermal development transfer section 38 is composed of a heating drum 40 and an endless pressure belt 42.

The surface of the heating drum 40 is coated with Teflon. Furthermore, a halogen lamp 4 is provided inside the heating drum 40.
4 is placed, which causes the outer peripheral surface to reach approximately 78°C.
is heated to.

The endless crimping belt 42 has a structure in which a heat-resistant material such as aromatic polyamide fiber (for example, Kepler or Nomex, both registered trademarks of DuPont) is coated with carbon-containing silicone rubber, and has electrical conductivity. have.

On the other hand, a receiving material magazine 46 is arranged below the photosensitive material magazine 14, and contains an image receiving material 48 wound in a roll. The image forming surface of the image receiving material 48 is coated with a dye fixing material having a mordant.

A cutter 50 is also arranged near this receiving material magazine 46, and the image receiving material 4 pulled out from the receiving material magazine 46 is cutter 50.
8 to a predetermined length. The cut image-receiving material 48 is conveyed to a thermal development transfer section.

A bonding roller 52 is arranged near the heating drum 40 on the upstream side of the endless pressure belt 42 in the material supply direction. The laminating roller 52 overlaps the transported photosensitive material 16 and image-receiving material 48 and presses them to the outer periphery of the heating drum 40, and guides them between the heating drum 40 and the endless pressure belt 42 in the overlapping state. , the material is sandwiched and conveyed over approximately 2/3 of the circumference of the heating drum 40 to be thermally developed. Thereby, the photosensitive material 16 emits a mobile dye, and at the same time, this dye is transferred to the dye fixing layer of the image receiving material 48 to obtain an image.

A peeling claw 56 is arranged below the heating drum 40 on the downstream side of the endless pressure belt 42 in the material supply direction. Further, a peeling roller 5 is provided between the peeling claw 56 and the endless pressure belt 42.
8 is placed.

The tip of the peeling claw 56 is normally in contact with the heating drum 40, and when the photosensitive material 16 is conveyed, it engages with the tip of the photosensitive material 16 and separates the photosensitive material 16 from the image receiving material 48.
Further, the peeling roller 58 presses the photosensitive material 16 onto the heating drum 40, and the peeling claw 56 wraps the peeled photosensitive material 16 around it and bends it downward. It looks like this. The separated photosensitive material 16 is sent to a waste photosensitive material storage box 60 provided below the heating drum 40.

On the other hand, a peeling roller 62 and a peeling pawl 64 are arranged near the heating drum 40 above the peeling pawl 56, and the image-receiving material 4 separates from the photosensitive material 16 and moves together with the heating drum.
8 from the outer periphery of the heating drum 40. The image receiving material 48 peeled off from the outer periphery of the heating drum 40 is collected on a tray 66.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the water application section 36. As shown in FIG.

The water application section 36 includes a guide 80 that accommodates water and guides the photosensitive material, and a heater 8 that is watertightly fixed below the guide 80.
1, and water contained in a tank 82 is appropriately supplied onto the guide 80 from a supply port 83 provided in the heater 81. A thermistor 85 for detecting water temperature is provided on the upper surface of the heater 81 near the supply port, and the heater 81 and thermistor 85 are electrically connected to a control device 87 .

Then, the control device 87 controls the operation of the heater 81 based on the water temperature detected by the thermistor 85.

The tank 82 includes a water suction pipe 84 whose lower end is submerged in water, a strainer 86 that removes coarse dust from the water, an active adult filter 88 that removes fine dust from the water, and sucks up the water in the tank 82 and supplies it to the guide 80. The first flow pipe 92a is connected to the heater 81 via a pump 90.

The tank 82 also includes a second tank 82 for collecting overflow water from the water storage portion 80a of the guide 80 into the tank 82.
It is connected to the guide 80 by a flow pipe 92b. The first flow pipe 92a and the second flow pipe 92b are connected through a bypass pipe 92c, and a valve 94 is connected to the bypass pipe 92c.
is provided.

The tank 82 contains a larger amount of water than the amount of water that can be accommodated on the guide 80, and the amount of water that can be supplied from the tank 82 onto the guide 80 by the pump 9o is limited by the amount of water that can be supplied from the water surface to the water suction pipe 8.
4, that is, the amount up to the water level shown by the dotted line in the figure. The amount of water from the water surface in the tank 82 to the lower end of the water suction pipe 84 is greater than the amount of water accommodated on the guide 80, and when the water on the guide 8o decreases due to application, evaporation, etc. Water is provided.

Here, since the lower end of the water suction pipe 84 is located apart from the bottom surface of the tank 82, even if dust settles in the tank 82, the dust will not be sucked up.

When the power of the image forming apparatus 10 is turned on, water in the tank 82 is supplied by the pump 90 onto the guide 8° with the valve 94 blocking the flow path of the bypass pipe 92c. At this time, the water supplied onto the guide 80 is transferred to the strainer 86
and filtered by a filter 88 to remove dust.

After the pump 90 operates a predetermined number of times to supply water onto the guide 80 and stops, the image forming process is started. Water that overflows from above the guide 80 during water supply falls into the tank 82 through the second supply pipe 92b and is collected.

When the image forming apparatus finishes operating, the valve 94 operates to open the flow path of the bypass pipe 92c, and the water contained on the guide 80 passes through the first flow pipe 92a, the bypass pipe 92c, and the second flow pipe 92b. and collected in the tank 82.

Next, a method of controlling the water temperature in the water application section 36, which is an embodiment of the present invention, will be explained.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a device for controlling the water temperature of the application section 36, and FIG. 4 is a timing chart of the control.

As shown in FIG. 3, the control device 87 is, for example, a CPU, and is electrically connected to a thermistor 85, a heater 81, a solenoid valve 94, a pump 90, and a timer 102, and the water temperature is controlled by the control device 87. It is done by controlling. When the image forming apparatus starts operating, the water temperature in the tank 82 is approximately equal to room temperature, and after the image forming apparatus starts operating, the water in the tank 82 is supplied to the water application section 36 to adjust the water temperature.

Below, temperature control after the start of operation when the room temperature is 15°C will be explained.

When the heater 81 is energized and starts generating heat, the heater temperature rises, and as the heater 81 heats the water, the water temperature rises above 15°C. The control device 87 controls the energization so that when the temperature detected by the thermistor 85 reaches 34°C, the continuous heat generation operation of the heater 81 is stopped and the intermittent heat generation operation of the heater 81 is started. Further, when the temperature detected by the thermistor 85 reaches 35° C., the energization is controlled so that the intermittent heat generation operation of the heater 81 is stopped. Even when the heater 81 stops generating heat, the water temperature slightly increases due to heating overshoot.

On the other hand, the heating drum 40 in the thermal development transfer 38 is approximately 78 cm
The temperature is adjusted to .degree. C., and the heat radiated from the heating drum 40 reaches the water application section 36. Although not shown, a heater and a fan are provided below the thermal development transfer section 38 as means for supplying warm air to the image receiving material 48 after image transfer to dry the image receiving material 48. Water application part 3
Reach 6. Therefore, the atmosphere in the water application section 36 becomes higher than the set water temperature. Furthermore, the temperature of the water in the water application section 36 rises due to the influence of the high temperature atmosphere, and even if the operation of the heater 81 is stopped, the water temperature continues to rise and exceeds 35°C.

In this embodiment, the upper limit temperature of water that can be tolerated is 37°
The water temperature is controlled so that it does not exceed 37°C.

Therefore, when the water temperature reaches 37° C., the pump 90 is activated and a predetermined amount of water is supplied from the tank 82 to the water application section 36. Here, the tank 82 is installed at a distance from the heat development transfer section 38 and the drying means so as not to receive heat radiation from the heat development transfer section 38 and the drying means below the heat development transfer section 38, and the water temperature in the tank 82 is Almost equal to room temperature. When the pump 90 operates and the water applicator 36 is replenished with low-temperature water at about room temperature, the water temperature in the water applicator 36 rapidly decreases from 37°C. Therefore, an excessive rise in water temperature in the water application section 36 can be easily prevented.

By replenishing the low-temperature water, the water temperature in the water application section 36 begins to drop, and when the water temperature drops to 34° C., the heater 81 is energized again to continuously generate heat.

Pump 90 is then deactivated to stop refilling the cold water in tank 82 when the water temperature drops to 33°C. As a result, the water temperature rises again due to the operation of the heater 81, and the above control is repeated.

Note that although the above control is a method of controlling the start and stop of operation of the pump 90 based on the water temperature, the implementation of the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the control may be such that after starting the operation of the pump 90 by detecting the set upper limit temperature of the water temperature, the timer 102 measures the pump drive time and stops the operation of the pump 90 after a predetermined period of time has elapsed. Further, if the pump 90 is of a pulse drive type, the control may be such that the operation of the pump 90 is stopped by counting the number of drive pulses using a counter instead of the timer 102. Furthermore, the amount of cooling water to be replenished by the pump 90 may be set, the amount of replenishment may be measured by a measuring means at the time of replenishment, and the operation of the pump 90 may be stopped when the amount of replenishment reaches the set amount. good.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, when the image forming solvent in the coating section reaches a set temperature, the temperature of the image forming solvent in the coating section is rapidly increased by replenishing the coating section with an image forming solvent at a temperature lower than the set temperature. can be lowered. Further, when the image forming solvent is cooled down to a temperature lower than the set temperature, the heating means is activated to heat the image forming solvent. Therefore, the temperature of the image forming solvent in the coating section can be easily controlled by cooling by replenishing the low-temperature image forming solvent and heating by the heating means.

The image forming solvent to be replenished to the application section may be one that is replenished when the image forming solvent decreases due to coating, evaporation, leakage, etc., and the means for replenishing this may also be a regular replenishing means.
In particular, there is no need to provide replenishment means for temperature control. Therefore, the temperature of the image-forming solvent can be easily lowered simply by controlling the operation of the replenishing means, and the temperature of the image-forming solvent at the coating section can be easily lowered with a simple configuration without the need for additional cooling means. can be controlled.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the image forming apparatus, Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the water application section, Figure 3 is a block diagram of the water temperature control device for the water application section, and Figure 4 is water temperature control for the water application section. This is a timing chart. Codes in the figure: 10 - Image forming device 14 - Window material magazine 16 - Photosensitive material 20 - Exposure section 21 - Sub-exposure light source
22-Exposure device 36-Water applicator 46-Receiving material magazine 7〇-Branch portion 81-・Heater 83-Supply port 85-=-Thermistor 87-Control device 90-Pump 92 c-Bypass pipe 102--Timer 8- Thermal development transfer section 8 - Receiving paper 0 - Guide 2 - Tank 4 - Water suction pipe 6 - Strainer 8 - Filter 2 a - b - - Distribution pipe 4 - Solenoid valve

Claims (1)

[Claims] Image-forming solvent temperature control that controls the temperature of the image-forming solvent by heating the image-forming solvent with a heating means while detecting the temperature of the image-forming solvent contained in the image-forming solvent application section for coating on the recording material. A method for controlling the temperature of an image forming solvent, characterized in that when the image forming solvent in the application section reaches a set temperature, the image forming solvent at a temperature lower than the set temperature is replenished into the application section.