JPH04185476A - Recorder for forming image through application of voltage on recording material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce ink on an image part of a plate and to realize more flexible ink film thickness control by bringing a recording material feed roller fed with a recording material into contact with a plate and then applying a recording material collecting voltage thereon thereby collecting the recording material except a part thereof adhered to the image part. CONSTITUTION:An ink film on an ink bearing roller 1 comes into contact with an ink film thickness regulating roller 4 thus forming an ink film only on a conductive pattern. At that time, the ink film is about 52mum thick. The ink 2 is present on a pattern occupying about 15% of the entire area and then it is passed through a roller 5 and brought into contact with an ink feed roller 6 to form an ink film of 4mum thick thereon which is further rolled to form an ink film of 3mum thick on the plate 8 of a plate cylinder 9 and the film comes into contact with a conductive blanket 10. Consequently, an ink film of 2mum thick is formed on the conductive blanket 10 and an image is recorded with ink film thickness of 1mum onto a recording paper 17.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a recording apparatus to which an image forming method using a recording material whose adhesion changes depending on the polarity of an applied voltage is applied.

[Prior Art] Desktop publishing (DTP) has been attracting attention in recent years, and various recording devices have been used as output means. The typical conventional devices are listed below.
These include thermal transfer printers, impact printers, laser beam printers, fully automatic stencil printing machines (plate making to printing), offset printing machines, etc.

These conventional devices each have the following problems when considering medium-scale printing formats such as in-house printing.

(1) Thermal transfer printers, impact printers, and laser beam printers do not have fast printing speeds, so they cannot increase the number of prints and increase running costs.

(2) Fully automatic all-in-one stencil printing machines have poor image quality.

(3) Although offset printing machines can achieve high speed, high-volume printing, low running costs, and high image quality, they have a complicated device configuration (especially the inking roll), require a dedicated operator, and require cleaning. There are problems, and it is difficult to say that it is preferable as a DTP output means.

Therefore, an invention filed by the present applicant in order to solve these problems is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-316288.

5 to 10 briefly explain the basic principle of the invention described in the above publication.

FIG. 5 shows an enlarged sectional view of the image forming section, and shows the electrode a.
The recording material C is sandwiched between the pair of electrodes a and b, and the insulating part d is disposed on the electrode.

FIG. 6 shows a pair of electrodes a and b constituting this image forming section.
The figure shows a state where one electrode a is used as an anode and the other electrode is used as a cathode and a voltage is applied.

FIG. 7 shows a situation in which the opposing positions of electrodes a and b are separated from each other while a voltage is still applied between the pair of electrodes a and b, and the electrodes are in contact with the recording material C. is recording material C
The recording material C selectively adheres to the insulating portion d on the electrode without adhering to the recording material C. As a result, an image by the recording material C is formed on the insulating pattern d of the electrode.

FIG. 8 shows a situation in which the polarity of the voltage applied between a pair of electrodes a and b is reversed from that in FIGS. 6 and 7, and a voltage is applied with electrode A as an anode and electrode A as a cathode.

FIG. 9 shows a situation where the opposing positions of electrodes a and b are separated from each other while voltage is still applied between the pair of electrodes a and b, and the recording material C is adhered onto the electrodes.

FIG. 10 shows that without applying voltage between a pair of electrodes a and b,
The figure shows electrodes a and b separated from each other, and recording material C is attached to both electrode a and electrode b.

The image forming apparatus described in the above publication using this principle is configured as follows.

The ink carrying roller is supplied with ink as a recording material having a constant thickness onto the roll surface by a coating roll. On the other hand, the plate cylinder mounted with the plate brings the plate into contact with ink on the ink supply roll, and causes the ink to adhere to the image pattern formed on the plate.

If a blanket cylinder is provided, the plate is brought into contact with a planket attached to the blanket cylinder, and the ink image on the plate is transferred to the blanket, or if a blanket cylinder is not provided, pressure is applied directly. It works with the cylinder to record images on recording paper.

Furthermore, this device can form high-quality images without distortion at high speed and with excellent environmental stability.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, conventionally, in the above-mentioned image forming apparatus, images were formed by a method of supplying ink only to the image area of the plate.
Efforts to create a clearer image by using less ink on the image area were only made prior to the process of applying ink to the plate.

An object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus that can reduce the amount of ink on the image area of a plate even in processes other than those described above, and can more flexibly control the ink film thickness.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The recording device of the present invention has a recording material on a roll surface whose adhesion changes depending on the polarity of the voltage applied to the pair of electrodes when the recording material is sandwiched between a pair of electrodes. Supplied with a predetermined thickness,
A rotating recording material carrying roll, a plate driving device that supports and drives a plate whose surface is formed with conductive portions and non-conductive portions according to the image to be recorded, and a film thickness setting means from the recording material carrying roll. A recording material supply roll that receives a certain thickness of recording material on the roll surface as it rotates, supplies a part of the received recording material onto the image area of the driven plate, and returns the remainder to the recording material carrying roll. , a voltage supply means applying a voltage for collecting recording material between the plate and the recording material supply roll and between the recording material supply roll and the recording material carrying roll; A recording device having a transfer means for transferring an image to a recording material.

[Function] The recording material supply roll, which has been supplied with recording material of a certain thickness on the roll surface, brings the received recording material into contact with the plate, but since the recording material recovery voltage is applied from the voltage supply means, Only a part of the recording material attached to the image area of the plate is left on the plate, and the rest is collected and returned to the recording material carrying roll.

[Example] Next, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the recording apparatus of the present invention.

Note that the ink that is the recording material used in this example adheres to the positive electrode side between the positive and negative electrodes.

Specifically, it is a mixture of glycerin, lithium borofluoride, water, colloidal hydrated silicate, and a coloring material (for example, carbon black), and has conductive properties.

The present embodiment is roughly divided into three parts: an inking section, a paper feeding section, and a recording section.

The inking section consists of ink 2 supplied in a pool shape, an ink carrying roll 1 provided with a blade 3, an ink film thickness regulating roll 4, a leveling roll 5, and an ink supply roll 6. Paper roll 13, paper feed guide 14, guide 38 with slit 15, weight 16, recording paper 17, guide 18, table 19, timing roll 20, cam 21
, spring 22.

The recording section includes a plate cylinder 9 provided with a plate 8 and a conductive blanket 1.
The printer is made up of a blanket cylinder 11 on which 0 is disposed, a cleaning roll 26, an impression cylinder 12, and a paper discharge tray 23.

Further, each of the above parts is supported by side plates 24 and a bottom plate 25. Further, each roll rotates in the direction of the arrow.

First, let's talk about the paper feed section.

The recording paper 17 is aligned in the guides 18 provided on the left, right and rear sides of the table 19 and the guide 38 provided in the front, and the weight 16 is placed on the recording paper 17. are in close contact with each other from top to bottom. A slit 15 is provided in the front guide 38, and the distance between the slits 15 on the table 19 is larger than the thickness of one sheet of recording paper 17 and smaller than the thickness of two sheets. Also, timing roll 20
The surface is chloroprene rubber (rubber hardness 200-400)
The recording paper 17 is in contact with the recording paper 17 at the lowest position by a spring 22 or the like.

The timing roll 20 includes a plate cylinder 9, a blanket cylinder 11,
Each time the impression cylinder 12 rotates, the timing is adjusted,
The cylindrical cam 21 and the like is configured to reciprocate back and forth by 20 to 30 mm once. Therefore, the recording paper 17 at the lowest position passes through the slit 15 on the table 19 and is sent to the pair of paper feed rolls 13. At this time, a one-way clutch (not shown) provided on the timing roll 20 prevents the timing roll 20 from rotating in the paper feeding direction A, and feeds the recording paper 17 using frictional force. It rotates in the return direction B to perform a smooth return so that the surface of the recording paper 17 is not damaged. A pair of paper feed rolls 13 include a plate cylinder 9, a blanket cylinder 11, and an impression cylinder 1.
Circumferential speed 10 C) ~ 1000 mm/s, which is almost the same as that of No. 2.
The recording paper 17 is rotated by the paper feeding guide 14.
It is conveyed into a predetermined nip between the blanket cylinder 11 and the impression cylinder 12 via the blanket cylinder 11 and the impression cylinder 12.

Next, the inking section will be described.

The ink carrying roll 1 is a conductive rubber roll, and is made of a rubber hardness of 30 to 50'' made of silicone rubber with carbon dispersed in a stainless steel core material connected to a power source V2 (V2 = 15 to 20 V) and a CD positive and positive electrode connected. The blade 3 rotates with the supplied ink 2 attached to the surface, and the blade 3 limits the thickness of the ink 2 attached.

The ink film thickness regulating roll 4 is powered by a power supply V, (v+ = 15 to 2
A non-conductive pattern (eg, ultraviolet curable resin, etc.) is provided on a metal roll made of stainless steel, copper, etc., which is connected to the positive electrode of 0 V) and the negative electrode of the power source v2. For example, if the roll diameter is about φ40 mm, this pattern has a pitch of about 2 mm and a pattern width of 0.7 so that the area ratio is about 36%.
It is said to be about mm. Figure 2 (a), (b).

(C) shows three examples of patterns. Therefore, a certain amount of ink on the non-conductive pattern of the ink film thickness regulating roll 4 is supplied to the ink supply roll 6 via the leveling roll 5. The leveling roll 5 is constructed by covering a stainless steel core material with chloroprene rubber, silicone rubber, or the like. Further, the ink supply roll 6 has the same structure as the ink carrying roll 1, and the core material is connected to the positive electrode of the power source 1. The remaining ink on the ink supply roll 6 after contacting the plate 8 is removed by the power supply v applied between the ink carrying roll 1 and the ink supply roll 6.
Due to the polarity of 2, it adheres to the ink carrying roll 1 and is collected.

Next, we will discuss the recording section.

The plate 8 has a non-conductive area formed by photopolymerizing an ultraviolet curable resin corresponding to a predetermined image area on a copper plate having a thickness of about 0.1 mm, and a conductive area serving as a non-image area. Plate 8 has a diameter of φ60
~100mm metal plate cylinder 9 such as aluminum or stainless steel
It is removably attached to by a chucking means (not shown).

Further, since the positive terminal of the power source v1 is connected to the ink supply roll 6 and the negative terminal to the plate cylinder 9, the ink 2 supplied from the leveling roll 5 to the ink carrying roll 6 is transferred to the plate attached on the plate cylinder 9. A portion (approximately the same thickness) adheres to the non-conductive portion forming the image No. 8, and does not adhere to the conductive portion. The conductive blanket 10 (it does not need to be conductive if the cleaning roll 26 is not provided) is made of approximately 2 mm of rubber such as urethane or ethylene propylene with carbon, etc. dispersed therein. It is configured to add this and reduce deformation. The conductive blanket 10 is made of aluminum with a diameter of 6 o to 100 mm.
It is removably attached to a blanket cylinder 11 made of metal such as stainless steel by a chucking means (not shown).

As the blanket cylinder 11 rotates, the image formed by the ink adhering to the non-conductive portion of the plate 8 is transferred to the conductive blanket 1.
transferred onto 0. Impression cylinder 12 has a diameter of φ6o~100mm
It is made of metal such as aluminum or stainless steel, and cooperates with the blanket cylinder 11 to press and record the image transferred onto the conductive blanket 10 onto the recording paper 17.

The plate cylinder 9, the blanket cylinder 11, and the impression cylinder 12 have the same diameter, and are connected to each other by gears (not shown) so that their circumferential speeds are the same.

The cleaning roll 26 has the same configuration as the ink carrying roll 1 and the ink supply roll 6, is removably attached to the side plate 24, and is powered by a power source V, (v, = 1
5~20v) is connected to the positive pole. In addition, the cleaning roll 26 is normally separated from the blanket cylinder 11 connected to the negative terminal of the power source 3, and the cleaning roll 26 is only used when an instruction signal is received (for example, when a switch is operated to change the printing color). Blanket 1 on body 11
0 and rotate to clean any remaining ink on the blanket. The ink on the cleaning roll 26 may be collected or discarded by a collection means (not shown) at an appropriate time.

Next, an example of controlling the ink film thickness in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 when the transfer rate between the rolls when no current is applied is set to 50% will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

Note that the numbers circled in FIG. 3 represent the ink film thickness, and the unit is μm.

A stop for ink 2 is formed on the ink carrying roll 1, and the ink 2 is coated onto the ink carrying roll 1 to a thickness of about 100 μm using a metal blade 3. Next, the ink carrying roll 1 comes into contact with the ink supply roll 6, and collects ink from the ink supply roll 6 using the principle of the current recording method. In this process, the ink film thickness becomes approximately 103 μm.

Next, the ink film on the ink carrying roll 1 comes into contact with the ink film thickness regulating roll 4, and an ink film is formed only on the non-conductive pattern using the principle of the current recording method. At this time, the ink film thickness is approximately 52 μm. This ink 2 has an area ratio of approximately 1
Since it is on a pattern of 5%, after being leveled by the leveling roll 5, the peripheral speed of the leveling roll 5 when the ink film becomes about 8 μm on the leveling roll 5 is 2 of the ink regulating roll 4. - Operate at 3 times faster speed and leveling roll 5
10 to 10 times in the axial direction at a rate of one reciprocation for every 5 to 10 rotations.
It is effectively leveled by swinging with a width of 20 mm. Next, the ink on the leveling roll 5 contacts the ink supply roll 6, and the ink film thickness on the ink supply roll 6 is 4 μm.
m, and furthermore, the ink film thickness becomes 3 μm on the plate 8 of the plate cylinder 9 and comes into contact with the conductive blanket 10. Then, the ink film thickness becomes 2 μm on the conductive blanket 10, and an image is recorded on the recording paper 17 with an ink film thickness of 1 μm.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention, and unlike the plate attached to the plate cylinder of the embodiment of FIG.
is attached to a flat plate table 27.

The plate 8 is moved in the direction of arrow C together with the plate table 27, and an ink film is formed on the image pattern of the plate 8 in the same manner as in the first embodiment. Thereafter, the image is transferred to the blanket 10 and formed on the recording paper 17 by the impression cylinder.

After the plate 8 transfers the conductive blanket 10 (which may not be conductive if the cleaning roll 26 is not provided),
The blanket 1o moves away from the ink supply roll 6 (in the direction of the arrow), moves in the feeding direction (in the direction of the arrow E), and comes into contact with the blanket 10 and the ink supply roll 6 again (in the direction of the arrow E). One sheet of recording paper 17 corresponds to these one cycle.
The timing is adjusted so that the paper is fed and recorded.

The other configurations and functions are the same as those of the first embodiment.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention allows the recording material to be attached to the image area of the plate on the recording material supply roll to form an image, and
By collecting the recording material that is not needed for image formation and returning it to the recording material carrying roll, the number of parts can be reduced and the roll configuration can be simplified, and the deterioration of the recording material can be prevented by actively circulating the recording material. This has the effect of making it possible to reduce the number of images, which in turn makes it possible to obtain high-quality images.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the recording apparatus of the present invention, and FIGS. 2(a), (b), and (c) are diagrams showing examples of non-conductive patterns of an ink film pressure regulating roll, respectively. , Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of ink control in the embodiment of Fig. 1, Fig. 4 is a configuration diagram showing the second embodiment, and Figs. 5, 6, -, 10 are conventional examples. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the principle of recording material adhesion in FIG. l... Ink carrying roll, 2... Ink, 3...
Blade, 4... Ink film thickness regulation roll, 5... Leveling roll, 6... Ink supply roll, 8... Plate, 9... Plate cylinder, 10...
・Blanket, 11... Blanket body, 12
... impression cylinder, 13 ... paper feed roll, 14
...Paper feed guide, 15...Slit, 16.
...Weight, 17...Recording paper, 19...
Table, 26... Cleaning roll, 27... Print table. Patent applicant Representative of Canon Co., Ltd. Patent attorney Tadashi Kuwai

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A recording material whose adhesion changes depending on the polarity of the voltage applied to the pair of electrodes when sandwiched between the pair of electrodes is supplied to the roll surface with a predetermined thickness, and the recording material is rotated. a plate driving device that carries and drives a plate whose surface is formed with conductive portions and non-conductive portions according to the image to be recorded; , a recording material supply roll that receives a certain thickness of recording material on the roll surface as it rotates, supplies a part of the received recording material onto the image area of the driven plate, and returns the remainder to the recording material carrying roll; a voltage supply means applying a recording material recovery voltage between the plate and the recording material supply roll and between the recording material supply roll and the recording material carrying roll; and a recording material in contact with the plate and on the plate. A recording device having a transfer means for transferring an image to a recording material.