JPH0422949A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a pressure roller from being contaminated by a substance exuded from a microcapsule because the rupture of the microcapsule which does not contribute to image forming is caused by providing an exposing device, a heat developing device and a pressurizing transfer device on a consecutive belt photosensitive member. CONSTITUTION:The consecutive belt photosensitive member which has photosensitivity and is coated with the substance by which an image obtained by being developed by heating is transferred to a sheet-like image receiving material with pressure is superposed on the sheet-like image receiving material after exposure and heat development on a supporting body. Immediately after the leading edge of the image receiving material passes a plane including two shafts of the pressure roller, it is pressed and unloaded just before the trailing edge passes. The position of a transfer member is detected by a detector set near the pressure roller. Thus, the surface of the pressure roller is prevented from being contaminated, which occurs because the microcapsule which does not contribute to image forming is pressed and ruptured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus that records an image using a photosensitive heat-developable material.

More specifically, a photosensitive material is coated on a support with a substance that is photosensitive and is developed by heating, and the resulting image is transferred by pressure, and the photosensitive material is subjected to imagewise exposure. It then relates to an image recording apparatus in which heat development is carried out, and then an image is obtained on the image-receiving material through transfer by superimposing the image-receiving material on the image-receiving material and applying pressure thereto.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

As an example of an image recording material using microcapsules encapsulating a photosensitive composition, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-1798
A system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 36 is known in which a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colored precursor is supported on a support. The image recording method using this system is to imagewise harden the microcapsules by exposure to light, rupture the unhardened microcapsules by applying pressure, and obtain a color image from the released colored precursor. The method is characterized in that high quality images can be obtained through simple dry processing.

However, this system has the drawback of significantly lower photosensitivity than systems using silver halide.

A new recording material that improves these drawbacks, has high photosensitivity, and can obtain high-quality images through simple dry processing is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1983-1992 filed by the present applicant.
It is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 275742. This recording material is a photosensitive heat-developable material, in which at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image forming substance are coated on a support. The forming material consists of a photosensitive composition encapsulated in identical microcapsules.

Regarding the image recording method of recording images using this photosensitive material, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-2788 filed by the present applicant
It is disclosed in Publication No. 49. In this image recording method, first, imagewise exposure is performed to form a latent image, and then the polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image exists is polymerized by heating to generate a polymer compound and the microcapsules are hardened. The color image-forming substance is then placed on an image-receiving material onto which the color image-forming substance can be transferred, and pressure is applied to rupture at least a portion of the microcapsules in areas where no latent image exists, thereby transferring the color image-forming substance to the image-receiving material. This is to obtain an image. On the other hand, regarding a method of polymerizing a polymerizable compound in a portion where a latent image is not formed, and an image forming method using the same, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6281635 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1-541.
It is described in Publication No. 01.

Apparatuses capable of obtaining images using these recording materials are described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 147461/1983. These devices mainly consist of an exposure section, a roll-shaped heat development section, and a transfer section that uses a pressure roller. Conventionally, the pressure applied to the pressure roller was kept at a constant value after the initial value was set. . This is because conventional equipment cuts a continuous strip of photosensitive material into sheets, and then
This is because the above method did not cause any inconvenience because the image was transported through the exposure section and the thermal development section, and then overlapped with the image receiving member and passed through the pressure roller.

However, if a continuous band of photosensitive members is transported as is without being cut, the above method will apply pressure to areas where there is no image receiving member, leading to the rupture of microcapsules that do not contribute to image formation, and the pressure roller A problem arose in that the microcapsules were contaminated by substances exuding from the microcapsules.

This was a particular problem in the present system, which is heated by a thermal developer roll and then passed through a pressure roller.

[Means for solving problems]

In the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, a material is coated on a support, which is photosensitive and is developed by heating, and the resulting image is transferred to a sheet-like image receiving material by pressure. After exposing and thermally developing the continuous band photosensitive member, it is overlapped with a sheet-shaped image-receiving material, and immediately after the leading edge of the image-receiving material passes a plane containing the two axes of the pressure roller, pressure is applied, and immediately before the trailing edge passes. It is characterized by unloading. The position of the transfer member can be detected by a detector installed near the pressure roller.

As a result, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent microcapsules that do not contribute to image formation from being ruptured by pressure and contaminating the surface of the pressure roller.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Image recording using a continuous band photosensitive member having a support coated with a photosensitive substance that is developed by heating and the resulting image is transferred to a sheet-like image receiving material by pressure. an exposure device that imagewise exposes the continuous band photosensitive member to form a latent image; and a roll-shaped heat development device that heats and develops the continuous band photosensitive member to imagewise harden the continuous band photosensitive member. A sheet-like image-receiving material is superimposed on the developed member, and pressure is applied immediately after the leading edge of the image-receiving material passes through a plane containing the two axes of the pressure roller, and the load is released just before the trailing edge passes. An image recording device comprising a transfer device.