JPH04185478A - Recorder for forming image through application of voltage onto recording material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize flexible ink film thickness control by a constitution wherein a film thickness regulating roller adheres a recording material on a recording material bearing roller to a roller surface only when it is brought to same potential as the recording material bearing roller by means of a voltage applying unit. CONSTITUTION:An ink stop is formed on an ink bearing roller 1 which is coated with the ink 2 by means of a blade 3. The ink bearing roller 1 comes into contact with an ink collecting roller 7 and the ink is collected. The ink 2 is divided substantially equally only at a time when the ink 2 on an ink feed roller 6 is collected and brought into contact with an ink film thickness regulating roller 4 which thereby brought into same potential as the ink bearing roller 1, and thus divided ink is then adhered onto the ink film thickness regulating roller 4. That ink 2 is then made smooth by means of a smoothing roller 5. Ink on the smoothing roller 5 then comes into contact with the ink feed roller 6 thence with a plate 8 and a conductive blanket 10 thus recording an image onto a recording paper 17.

Description

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

[Conventional technology]

Desktop publishing (DTP) has attracted attention in recent years, and various recording devices are used as its 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 hard to say that it is preferable as a means of generating DTP.

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 electrodes.

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

FIG. 7 shows a situation where the opposing positions of electrodes a and b are separated while the voltage is still applied between the pair of electrodes a and b, and the part where the electrodes were in direct contact with the recording material C is shown. Since the recording material C does not adhere to the insulating pattern d of the electrode and the C recording material selectively adheres to the insulating part d on the electrode, an image is formed by the recording material C on the insulating pattern d of the electrode.

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

FIG. 9 shows a situation where the opposing positions of m poles a and b are separated while the voltage is still applied between a pair of electrodes a and b as shown in FIG. 8, and the recording material C is placed on top of the electrodes. adhere to.

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 blanket attached to the blanket cylinder, and the ink image on the plate is transferred via the blanket, or if a blanket cylinder is not provided, the plate is transferred to the blanket. The image is directly recorded on the recording paper in cooperation with the impression cylinder.

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

(Three problems to be solved by the invention) However, conventionally, in the above-mentioned image forming apparatus, the film thickness regulating roller attached the recording material in a pre-fixed pattern to control the film thickness of the recording material. To change the film thickness, the pattern had to be replaced, which was not easy.The present invention uses a film thickness regulating roll that does not rely on a fixed pattern as in the past, and allows for more flexible ink printing. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a recording device that can control film thickness.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In the recording device of the present invention, when sandwiched between a pair of electrodes, a recording material whose adhesion changes depending on the polarity of the voltage applied to the pair of electrodes is attached to the roll surface. A recording material carrying roll that is supplied with a predetermined thickness and rotates; a plate driving device that supports and drives a plate whose surface is formed into conductive portions and non-conductive portions according to the image to be recorded; and a roll surface that is A conductive film thickness regulating roll that contacts the J recording material on the recording material carrying roll, and a voltage of a polarity that prevents the recording material on the recording material carrying roll from adhering to the film thickness regulating roll, and a voltage that is at the same potential as the recording material carrying roll. a voltage applying device that alternately applies the voltage to the film thickness regulating roll; a leveling roll that contacts the recording material on the film thickness regulating roll and smoothes the recording material on the film thickness regulating roll and adheres it to the roll surface; an image forming means for receiving the recording material from the leveling roll in contact with the recording material adhered to the leveling roll, and forming an image by depositing the received recording material on the image area of the driven plate; It has a transfer means for transferring an image made of a recording material on a plate to a recording material.

[Effect]

The film thickness regulating roll allows the recording material on the recording material carrying roll to adhere to the roll surface only when the voltage application device makes the film thickness regulating roll have the same potential as that of the recording material carrying roll. The amount of recording material attached increases or decreases depending on the length of time that the potential is maintained at the same potential.

(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 includes ink 2 supplied in a pool shape, an ink carrying roll 1 provided with a blade 3, an ink film thickness regulating roll 4. It consists of a leveling roll 5, an ink supply roll 6, and an ink collection roll 7.

The paper feed section includes a paper feed roll 13, a paper feed guide 14, a guide 38 with a slit 15, a weight 16, a recording paper 17, a guide 18, a table 19, a timing roll 20, and a 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 on the table 19 within the guides 18 provided on the left, right and rear sides, and the guide 38 provided in the front, and the weight 16 is placed on the recording paper 17. The recording paper 17 is placed in close contact with the top and bottom.

A slit 15 is provided in the front guide 38,
The distance between the slits 15 on the table 19 is 1
The thickness of one sheet of No. 7 is greater than the thickness of two sheets. In addition, the surface of the timing roll 20 is covered with chloroprene rubber (rubber hardness 20° to 40°).
It is brought into 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 make one reciprocation back and forth by 20 to 301111 times. 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,
Due to a one-way clutch (not shown) provided on the timing roll 20, the timing roll 20 does not rotate in the paper feeding direction A, and feeds the recording paper 17 using frictional force. In the return direction B, the recording paper 17 is rotated and returned smoothly.
The surface is protected from damage. The pair of paper feed rolls 13 have a circumferential speed of 100 to 1000 m/s, which is approximately the same as the circumferential speed of the plate cylinder 9, blanket cylinder 11, and impression cylinder 12.
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 the power supply V 2 (V 2 = 15 to 20 V) (7) The stainless steel core material connected to the positive electrode is made of silicone rubber with carbon dispersed in the rubber hardness of 30 to 30. 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 made of metal (stainless steel, copper, etc.)
A voltage as shown in FIG. 2(a) is applied by a voltage applying device i28. That is, the voltage application device 28 applies a pulse voltage to the ink film thickness regulating roll 4 at a period T. In period T of period T, voltage v1 is applied, and in period T2, voltage V, +V2 is applied. Since the voltages V and +V2 are applied to the ink carrying roll 1, the ink 2 does not transfer to the ink film thickness regulating roll 4 side in period T1 because the potential is higher on the ink carrying roll 1 side. In the period T2, the ink carrying roll 1 and the ink film thickness regulating roll 4
and have the same potential, and the ink on the ink carrying roll 1 is almost equally divided between both rolls. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2(b), the distance 111 corresponding to the period T, , T2 of the rotation distance 1 during which the ink film thickness regulating roll 4 rotates during the period T.
J2+.

12, non-adhesion and adhesion of the ink 2 occur, respectively, and an ink pattern is formed on the ink film thickness regulating roll 4.

For this ink pattern, for example, the circumferential speed of the ink film thickness regulating roll 4 is 250 mm/sec, the period T I,
When T2 is 8 m5ec and 3m5ec, respectively, an ink pattern with an area ratio of about 36% with I=about 21 mm and 12=about 0.7 mm is formed. A certain amount of ink placed in a pattern on the ink film thickness regulating roll 4 is supplied to an ink supply roll 6 via a leveling roll 5.

The smoothing 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 power supply V+ (V+=15 to
20■) is connected to the negative pole of the terminal. The ink on the ink supply roll 6 after contacting the plate 8 is transferred to the ink carrying roll 1
and the power supply voltage V, + applied between the ink supply roll 6 and the ink supply roll 6.
Due to the polarity of V2, the ink is reliably attached to the ink carrying roll 1 and collected.

Next, we will discuss the recording section.

Plate 8 is made by photopolymerizing an ultraviolet curable resin according to a predetermined image on a copper plate with a thickness of about 0.1 mm, and has a non-conductive area that serves as an image area and a conductive area that serves as a non-image area. . The plate 8 is removably attached to a plate cylinder 9 made of metal such as aluminum or stainless steel and having a diameter of 60 to 100 mm by a chucking means (not shown).

In addition, since the positive pole of the power supply "+ (V+ = 15 to 20 V) is connected to the ink collection roll 7 and the negative pole to the plate cylinder 9, the plate cylinder 9 and the ink supply roll 6 are at the same potential, and the leveling roll 5 Approximately half of the thickness of the ink 2 supplied to the ink supply roll 6 adheres as a uniform layer to the plate 8 mounted on the plate cylinder 9.The plate cylinder 9 and the ink recovery roll 7 Since power supplies V and V2 are applied between the ink collecting roll 7 and the ink carrying roll 1, the ink 2 in the conductive area, which is the non-image area on the plate 8, is transferred to the ink collecting roll 7 and the ink carrying roll 1. 7 and is further collected on the ink carrying roll 1. On the other hand, about half of the thickness of the ink 2 in the non-conductive area, which is the image area on the plate 8, remains as an image, and the ink 2 is collected on the plate cylinder 9 and the blanket cylinder. Conductive blanket 1 on blanket cylinder 11 according to rotation of 11
Moved to 0. The conductive blanket 10 is made of approximately 2 mm of rubber such as urethane or ethylene propylene in which carphone or the like is dispersed, and reinforcing fibers are added inside to reduce deformation. The conductive blanket 10 is removably attached to a blanket cylinder 11 made of metal such as aluminum or stainless steel and having a diameter of 60 to 100+em by a chucking means (not shown).

The impression cylinder 12 is made of metal such as aluminum or stainless steel and has a diameter of 60 to 100 mm, and works together with the blanket cylinder 11 to transfer the image transferred onto the blanket 10 to the recording paper 17.
Press up to record.

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 peripheral 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 connected to a power source V3 (V3 =
15-20V) is connected to the positive electrode. Further, the cleaning roll 26 is normally separated from the conductive blanket 10 of the blanket cylinder 11, and is only connected to the conductive blanket 10 when an instruction signal is received (for example, when a switch is operated to change the printing color). The ink remaining on the conductive blanket 10 is cleaned while contacting and rotating. 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 retainer 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 plate 3. Next, the ink carrying roll 1 comes into contact with the ink collecting roll 7, and collects ink from the ink collecting roll 7 using the principle of the current recording method. In this process, the ink film thickness is
It is approximately 103 μm. Furthermore, the ink carrying roll 1 is
The ink carrying roll 1 is brought into contact with the ink 2 on the ink supply roll 6 and recovered in the same manner, with a film thickness of about 109 μm. Next, the ink carrying roll 1 is brought into contact with the ink film thickness regulating roll 4, and using the principle of the current recording method, Only when the ink film thickness regulating roll 4 has the same potential (Vl+V2) as the ink carrying roll 1, the ink 2 is approximately equally divided and deposited on the ink film thickness regulating roll 4. At this time, the ink film thickness is about 55 μm. Since this ink 2 has a pattern with an area ratio of about 36%, it is smoothed by a smoothing roll 5, and an ink film of about 20 μm is formed on the smoothing roll 5. At this time, the peripheral speed of the leveling roll 5 is set to be 2 to 3 times faster than that of the ink film thickness regulating roll 4, and the axis is rotated once every 5 to 10 rotations of the leveling roll 5. It is effectively leveled by swinging in the direction with a width of 10 to 20 a+m. Next, the ink on the leveling roll 5 comes into contact with the ink supply roll 6,
The ink film thickness on the ink supply roll 6 is 10 μm,
The ink film thickness is temporarily 6 μm on the plate 8 roughly attached to the plate cylinder, and then reduced to 3 μm by the ink recovery roll 7.
In contact with the conductive blanket 10. Then, the ink film thickness becomes 2 μm on the conductive blanket 10, and the recording paper 1
An image is recorded on 7 with an ink film thickness of 1 μm.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.
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 is transferred to the blanket 10 (which does not need to be conductive if the cleaning roll 26 is not provided),
Away from the blanket 10, ink supply roll 6, and ink recovery roll 7 (in the direction of the arrow), and in the feeding direction (in the direction of the arrow E)
, move to blanket 10 and ink supply roll 6 again.
, comes into contact with the ink collection roll 7 (in the direction of arrow F). The timing is adjusted so that one sheet of recording paper 17 is fed and recorded in accordance with one cycle of these.

The ink film thickness regulating roll 4, voltage application device 28, and other structures and functions are the same as those in the first embodiment.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention applies a voltage to periodically transfer the recording material to the conductive film thickness regulating roll that is in contact with the recording material on the recording material carrying roll, thereby recording information on the film thickness regulating roll. By forming a pattern using the material, the film thickness can be flexibly controlled with a simple configuration by changing the period and time of the applied voltage, which has the effect of allowing high-quality images to be recorded.

[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) and 2(b) show a voltage application device applied to the ink film thickness regulating roll of the embodiment of FIG. 1, respectively. 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; FIG. 5, FIG. 6, to FIG. 1O are diagrams showing the principle of recording material adhesion in conventional examples. 1--ink carrying roll, 2--ink, 3-blade, 4--ink film thickness regulation roll, 5--leveling roll, 6--ink supply roll,
7-ink collection roll, 8--plate, 9-plate cylinder, 10--blanket, 11-
Blanket cylinder, 12--Impression cylinder, 13--Paper feed roll, 14--Paper feed kite, 15--Slit,
16--Weight, 17--Recording paper,
18.38--Kite 219--Table, 2
6...Cleaning roll, 27--plate table,
28... Voltage application device. Patent applicant Canon Co., Ltd.

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 supports and drives a plate whose surface is formed with conductive portions and non-conductive portions according to the image to be recorded; A voltage of a polarity that prevents the recording material on the recording material carrying roll from adhering to the film thickness regulating roll and a voltage having the same potential as that of the recording material carrying roll are alternately applied to the film thickness regulating roll. a voltage application device that contacts the recording material on the film thickness regulating roll, and a smoothing roll that smoothes the recording material on the film thickness regulating roll and adheres it to the roll surface; an image forming means that receives a recording material from a leveling roll in contact with the plate and forms an image by attaching the received recording material to an image area of a driven plate; A recording device comprising a transfer means for transferring onto a recording material.