JPH04247976A - Image output device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To ensure that an image of appropriate is obtained even after image coating process by providing an image processing device which corrects image data previously or a recording energy control device which corrects the amount of image recording energy previously. CONSTITUTION:Time required for application of a recording voltage in an image recording part 2 for obtaining a specified recording density after coating process becomes varied due to the state of an image coating part 3 (amount of coating energy, type of a coating medium and coating curvature). The conceivable optimal recording energy required by the image recording part 2 for obtaining a recording density of 1.0 after coating process is generated by applying a recording voltage for 4.4msec. which is calculated on assumption that the second curve is selected by control information supplied to a recording energy control part 220 from an image coating part 3. The image recording part 2 drives a thermal head based on recording energy information to control the recording density properly.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Purpose of the invention]

0001

[Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image output device used in printers, facsimile machines, copying machines, etc.
In particular, the present invention relates to an image output device that covers and outputs the image surface of a recorded image.

0002

[Background Art] When outputting high-definition images onto recording paper using an image output device such as a video printer, a film such as a transparent plastic sheet is placed on the image surface after recording to protect the recorded image. A so-called lamination process is performed in which the shaped protective members are laminated together.

[0003] This lamination process not only protects the valuable image surface, but also has the advantage that the effects of humidity and ultraviolet rays are alleviated, and the recording color material can be stored for a long time due to improved weather resistance. In the lamination process, for example, a heat-fusible adhesive is interposed between the recorded image surface and the transparent plastic sheet, and thermal energy is applied to bond the recorded image surface and the transparent plastic sheet. At this time, if heat melt ink, heat sublimation ink, or toner ink for electrophotographic recording used in ordinary copying machines is used as the recording color material, the density and hue of the image or ink adhesion may change before and after lamination. There was a drawback that the area fluctuated. This is because the ink that forms the recorded image is heated during the lamination process, which may change the shape of the individual ink at the recorded image point, causing variations in the adhesion area and apparent density, or due to chemical This is because the reaction causes a change in composition at the molecular level, resulting in a change in hue and density.

[0004] Fluctuations in density, line width of characters, or hue greatly affect the quality of recorded images. In particular, when high-definition recording pixels are required or faithful color reproduction is required, such as in full-color recording, it is desirable to avoid even minute fluctuations.

For example, in the case of thermal transfer recording using heat sublimable dye ink, L* a*
The variation in chromaticity (color difference) on the b* (CIE1976) color space is about ΔEab* = 2 to 4 or more, and this value is within the range that can be perceived by human vision. Such variations pose a problem in applications that require high-quality recorded images, in which the images are clearly judged as different.

[0006]Furthermore, variations in the line width of characters have the problem of causing reading errors in applications such as OCR reading of recorded characters, and variations in the line width in gray scale images may affect the sharpness of the image when output from, for example, a color copying machine. There was a problem that spoiled the feeling.

[0007]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the above-mentioned image output device, the density, hue, line width, etc. of the image fluctuate during the so-called lamination process that covers the image surface of the recorded image after recording and outputting, resulting in a problem that This has the disadvantage that the image displayed is different from the desired image. The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and provides an image output device that performs image covering processing to cover the image surface to improve image protection and storage stability, and that can obtain the required high-quality images. The purpose is to provide. [Structure of the invention]

0
008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention includes an image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium such as a recording paper, and an image covering means for covering the image surface of the recorded image, and also has a density of the recorded image. Either the image processing means is equipped with an image processing means that corrects the image data in advance, or the image recording energy amount is corrected in advance, taking into account the fluctuations in the color, hue, dot adhesion area, etc., depending on the amount of image covering energy during image covering. By being equipped with a recording energy control means, this image output device can obtain an image of appropriate quality even after image coating processing.

[0009]

[Operation] In this way, since the correction of image data and the amount of recording energy are changed according to the amount of coating energy, it is possible to appropriately compensate for variations in density, hue, pixel adhesion area, etc. due to coating processing. By performing an image covering process, a recorded image with excellent storage stability can be obtained. Furthermore, by providing means for selecting whether or not to perform image covering processing, when performing image covering processing, image data correction and recording energy amount correction can be performed compared to when image covering processing is not performed. By doing so, an appropriate recorded image can be obtained regardless of whether image covering processing is performed or not.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image output device according to the present invention. This apparatus includes an image processing section 1 that corrects image quality fluctuations in image covering processing, an image recording section 2 that forms an image on a recording medium such as recording paper based on an image signal, and an image that covers the image surface after recording. It consists of a covering part 3.

[0012] The image processing unit 1 is for pre-correcting changes in image quality caused by the image covering process in the image covering unit 3.
As shown by the arrow line from the image covering section 3 to the image processing section 1 in the figure, information from the image covering section 3 is supplied to the image processing section 1, and based on this information, information such as whether or not processing is to be performed and the extent to which it should be processed, etc. is under control.

Changes in image quality before and after image covering processing are as follows:
There are various cases depending on the combination of the configuration of the image recording section 2 and the configuration of the image covering section 3. For example, various image recording methods such as a silver halide photography method, an electrophotographic method, or a thermal recording method can be applied as the image recording section 2, and a so-called lamination method such as a heat pressing method or a microwave heating method can be used as the structure of the image covering section 3. Applicable. Although it is desirable to select a combination of these methods with a small change in image quality as a method for constructing an apparatus/system, it is often impossible to achieve a combination that meets the desired requirements due to various limiting conditions. In this example, the recording method used was a thermal dye sublimation recording method that produced compact and high-quality color recorded images, and the image coating method used was a heat-pressing lamination method that enabled reliable image coating processing with a simple configuration. Let me explain the case.

In the case of this embodiment, the change in image quality due to lamination is caused by the effects of heat and pressure, and the following two symptoms mainly occur. The first problem is that the density characteristics change and the color reproduction characteristics change accordingly, and the second problem is that the sharpness of the edge portions of the image is lost and the overall image becomes blurred. FIG. 23 is an example showing changes in density characteristics before and after lamination, where the solid line corresponds to before lamination and the broken line corresponds to after lamination. In the high density area, the recording density changes by 0.1 or more before and after lamination. This change in density characteristics varies depending on conditions such as the temperature of the laminate, the pressure applied, and the pressure applied time, and also varies depending on the recording medium used for image recording in the image recording section 2. In addition, the sublimation thermal transfer recording used in this example outputs a color image using three color materials: yellow, magenta, and cyan, and the amount of change in the density characteristics of each of the three color materials also differs. . For this reason, the color reproduction characteristics reproduced by superimposing the three colors also change, which appears as a shift in hue. The image processing section 1 receives information from the image coating section 3 about the factors that affect these image changes, such as the laminate temperature, pressurizing force, pressurizing time, recording color material, etc., and takes appropriate measures to address changes in these characteristics. Make corrections.

The image processing section 1 includes a scanner (not shown),
Image signals containing grayscale information are input in the form of digital signals from video cameras, image memories, pattern generators, demodulation/decoding circuits of transmission systems, and the like. Depending on the input form of the image signal, this image output device can be applied to system configurations such as a color printer, a color copying machine, a color facsimile, and the like. The image signal input at this time is supplied in accordance with the basic specifications of the image recording section 2, such as image size, recording density, gradation characteristics, color characteristics, etc.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main parts of the image processing section 1, which includes a color density characteristic correction circuit for correcting the density and color characteristics shown in FIG. 22(a), and a spatial filter shown in FIG. It consists of a circuit. The color density characteristic correction circuit has a function of correcting density characteristics that change due to lamination processing performed by the image covering section 3, which will be described later. Usually ROM
and RAM. By using a ROM or RAM configuration, it is possible to easily respond to changes in the configuration and parameters of the image recording section 2 and image covering section 3, and also,
In particular, it is possible to deal with cases where the change in characteristics becomes non-linear. This embodiment also employs a ROM configuration, and its contents include an LUT (look) that selects the optimal value from a plurality of correction curves in order to perform optimal correction processing on the input signal and data from the image covering section 3. Up table) is adopted. That is, in addition to the image signal as input data, a control amount signal, which is information provided from the image covering section 3, and color-specific signals (Y, M, C) of the input image signal are given,
After image covering processing, an image signal with optimal density characteristics and color characteristics is output. Here, the control amount signal provided from the image covering section 3 is given as 2-bit information, and the degree of processing is controlled in four stages for each color, including the case where no correction processing is performed. FIG. 24 is an example of a correction curve for one predetermined color,
It shows an output image signal with respect to an input image signal to the color density characteristic correction circuit. In the figure, the broken line shows the case where the correction process is not performed, and the other solid lines show the case where the correction process is performed. By selecting different correction curves for each of the three colors of the image signal, it is possible to correct the color characteristics reproduced by combining the three colors.

The spatial filter circuit shown in FIG. 22(b) constitutes a high-frequency emphasis circuit that emphasizes the edge portions of the input image. In this embodiment, processing is performed using a filter size of 3×3 pixels. First, a high-frequency component q of the input image signal is calculated using a Laplacian filter (HPF) 5 consisting of a low-pass filter 6 and an adder. Next, a high frequency modulation processing section 7 consisting of a multiplier multiplies the high frequency component q by a constant K and adds it to the original input image. An overflow processing unit 8 performs overflow processing to take effective digits into consideration, and a high frequency emphasized signal is obtained. Generally, by increasing the constant K, an image signal with increased sharpness can be obtained. That is, by changing the value of the constant K, the degree of high frequency emphasis can be controlled. The degree of high frequency enhancement is determined by the control amount signal provided from the image covering section 3 and the color-specific signals (Y, M, C) of the image signal in the enhancement amount setting section 9.
Judging from the mutual relationship with , a constant K is set so that the sharpness of the image is optimal after the image covering process. Although the emphasis amount setting section 9 can be constructed from a ROM, the setting of the amount of high frequency emphasis is normally performed via a CPU (not shown).

The color density characteristic correction circuit and the spatial filter circuit described above can be applied sequentially in sequence, but depending on the situation, only one of them may be used. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the case where the input image signals are yellow, magenta, and cyan ink amount signals has been explained.
For example, it can also be applied when handling red, green, and blue light intensity signals. In that case, yellow, yellow,
A color conversion circuit for converting into magenta and cyan ink amount signals may be added.

Furthermore, the image characteristic correction processing shown in this embodiment employs a method in which color characteristic correction is performed using a matrix calculation circuit, and further includes basic image processing functions such as a color conversion function and an MTF correction circuit. In the case of existing devices and systems, it is possible to integrate these functions.

Further, the control amount information provided from the image covering section 3 for determining the degree of image processing described above does not need to be supplied from the image covering section 3 in real time depending on the case. In particular, when various parameters that affect image quality fluctuations in the image covering section 3 are uniquely determined,
The relationship between the amount of image quality variation and the degree of image processing in the image processing section 1 is determined in advance, stored in the CPU or ROM, and used as information from the image covering section 3 in the color density characteristic correction circuit and the spatial filter circuit. Bye. That is, in the example of the color density characteristic correction circuit described above, if a correction curve for each color that optimizes the color density characteristic after the image covering process is obtained in advance and stored in a ROM, the correction curve from the image covering section 3 can be obtained. The information line that provides the control amount can essentially be omitted. These matters are not limited to this embodiment, and may be applied to other embodiments described below without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Next, the image recording section 2 will be explained. In this embodiment, a thermal dye sublimation recording method is used as the image recording means. FIG. 25 shows the configuration of the main parts of the image recording section 2, in which a thermal head 300 is provided with a heating resistor (not shown) as an example, and a drive circuit 301 for driving the thermal head.
, yellow 302, magenta 303, cyan 30
Ink film 305 in which sublimable dyes of three colors are coated on a base sheet such as polyethylene terephthalate.
, recording paper 306 , and platen roller 307 . The recording paper 306 is usually made of a resin base material such as polyester on which an image-receiving layer with a thickness of several to several tens of microns is formed, but plain paper may also be used as the base material.

In this recording method, the thermal head 300
The dye inks 302 , 304 , 304 applied to the ink film 305 in approximately proportion to the amount of heat of the recording paper 30
6 and is suitable for full color recording.

The image signal output from the image processing section 1 is supplied to the drive circuit 301, where it is converted into a pulse width for controlling the energy (recording energy) applied to the heating resistor element of the thermal head 300, and is It is supplied to the head 300. The thermal head 300 presses the recording paper 306 against the platen roller 307 side via the ink film 305 with a constant pressure, and heats and sublimates the dye ink by selectively applying current to heating resistive elements arranged in a line. Transfer onto recording paper 306. The recording paper 306 and the ink film 305 are sequentially conveyed in the direction of the arrow in the figure by conveyance means such as a motor (not shown), and the transferred ink forms a recorded image. When the image recording of the first color, yellow, is completed, only the recording paper 306 is conveyed to the same image recording start position as that of the first color, and the image of the second color, magenta, is recorded overlapping the recording area of the first color. When the third color cyan image recording is completed by a similar operation, a full color image is formed on the recording paper 306.

The full-color image obtained here is image-processed by the image processing unit 1 as described above to correct the density characteristics, color reproduction characteristics, sharpness of the image, etc. Only after passing step 3 does a full-color image of the desired image quality become available.

Next, the image covering section 3 will be explained. FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating the main part configuration and operation of the image covering section 3, which includes a heat roller 310, a pressure roller 311, and a laminate film made of a transparent resin film with a thickness of 10 to 200 μm coated with a thermosetting adhesive. 31
2, a pair of cutters 313, etc.

The recording paper 306 on which a full-color image has been recorded in the image recording section 2 is conveyed to just before the cutter 313 by a first conveyance means (not shown). At this time, the tip of the laminate film 312 wound into a roll is also at the cutter position, and this state is shown in FIG. 26(a). Next, by a second conveying means (not shown), the laminate film 312, which is approximately the width of the recording paper, starts to be conveyed in the same direction as the recording paper 306, and the recording image surface of the recording paper 306 and the adhesive-applied surface of the laminate film 312 are brought together. The recording paper 306 and the laminate film 312 are conveyed between the heat roller 310 and the pressure roller 311 at the same speed, with the recording paper 306 and the laminate film 312 facing each other and also aligned in their widthwise positions. The heat roller 310 and the pressure roller 311 are at least the recording paper 30.
6 and the laminate film 312, it rotates while maintaining a constant pressing pressure. The heat roller 310 uniformly distributes the heat from the heater stored inside the laminate film 312 and the recording paper 3 from the surface of the heat roller 310.
Give to 06. The recording paper 306 and the laminate film 312 are bonded together using an adhesive applied to the laminate film 312. This state is shown in the same figure (b).
Shown below. When the adhesion operation further advances and the rear end of the recording paper 306 passes the cutter 313 , the cutter 313 is engaged by a biasing means (not shown) and the laminate film 312 is cut. At the same time, the feeding operation of the laminate film 312 by the second conveying means (not shown) is stopped. As a result, the laminate film 312
The tip of will be the initial position for the next laminating operation. Thereafter, the recording paper 306 and the laminate film 312 are discharged in the direction of the arrow in the figure while the bonding operation is progressed by the rotation of the heat roller 310 and the pressure roller 311. This intermediate state is shown in FIG. 2(c). In addition, a pair of rollers or the like is usually provided for discharging the laminated recording paper.

[0027] In this way, the image surface of the recorded image is covered with the transparent resin film, thereby providing the effects of protecting the image surface from damage and improving the long-term storage performance of the image coloring material. In some cases, this also has the effect of preventing falsification of the image surface.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing another schematic structure of the image covering section 3 and its operation. A laminate film 314 in which an adhesive layer is formed on the inside of a folded transparent resin film larger than the recording paper 306 is made into a shell-like shape, and then loaded onto the heat roller 310 by a loading means (not shown).
and the pressure roller 311 , and feed the recording paper 306 to the inner surface of the laminate film 314 . This state is shown in FIG. 27(a). When the recording paper 306 is fed as it is to the heat roller 310 side, the leading edge of the recording paper 306 is folded in half and folds into the laminate film 31.
4, the recording paper 306 and the laminating film 314 are inserted together between the heat roller and the pressure roller, and a laminating operation is performed. This state is shown in the same figure (b). With this configuration, there is no need to use the cutter shown in the example above, and the front and back sides of the recording paper are also covered, so
The effects of the above-mentioned laminate are further enhanced. Furthermore, if the size of the laminate film 314 is made sufficiently larger than the size of the recording paper 306, the adhesion area between the laminate films stacked one above the other will be expanded, resulting in an increase in adhesive strength and a higher lamination effect.

As described above, the image quality of the recorded image whose image surface has been coated varies due to the image coating.
Including the correction processing performed by the image processing section 1, the recorded image is of optimal image quality.

Next, as another embodiment, a case will be described in which the amount of image quality variation due to image covering is corrected by controlling the amount of recording energy during image recording. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image output device according to this embodiment. This device consists of an image recording section 2 that forms an image on a recording medium such as paper based on an image signal, an image covering section 3 that covers the image surface after recording, and a recording energy source that corrects image quality fluctuations in image covering processing. It consists of a control section 220. Figure 2
The image recording section 2 and the image covering section 3 shown in FIG. 1 can have almost the same configuration as each section shown in FIG.

Normally, the image recording section 2 in FIG. 2 is supplied with an image signal that is input to the image processing section 1 in FIG. However, for example, in order to correct the decrease in sharpness in the image covering area,
An image signal that has been processed by the image processing section 1 shown in FIG. 1 may also be supplied.

As shown in FIG. 23, the density of the image recorded by the image recording section 2 varies due to the image covering process in the image covering section 3. As shown in FIG. Therefore, the recording energy control section 220 controls the recording energy based on information from the image covering section 3 in order to supply recording energy such that the density after the image covering process is appropriate. This recording energy control section 220 can be composed of a ROM or the like, and is often integrated inside the image recording section 2. Further, depending on the case, an arithmetic circuit via a CPU may be used. In this embodiment, the recording energy can be equivalently controlled by the application time of the recording voltage supplied to each heating element of the thermal head. To explain this with reference to FIG. 28, the application time of the recording voltage in the image recording section 2 to obtain a predetermined recording density after the image coating process is determined by the state of the image coating section 3 (coating energy amount, type of coating medium, etc.). There are multiple cases depending on the difference in the covering curve, etc.). Now, if we consider the optimal recording energy in the image recording section 2 to obtain a recording density of 1.0 after image coating processing, the second Assuming that the curve is selected, the recording voltage application time is calculated to be 4.4 milliseconds. In the image recording section 2, the thermal head is driven based on this recording energy information, and recording density is appropriately controlled.

Next, an embodiment in which a means for selecting and switching whether or not to perform image covering processing is provided will be described with reference to FIG. This embodiment shows a configuration in which the embodiments shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are simultaneously realized.

[0034] Whether or not to perform the image covering process is selected depending on the user's designation or the selection function of the system. That is, when performing image covering processing, CP
By the operations described in the above embodiments based on switching signals such as U231, optimum image quality of the recorded image can be obtained after the image covering process. On the other hand, when image covering processing is not performed based on a switching signal from the CPU 231 or the like, correction processing for image quality fluctuations in image covering processing is not performed in the image processing section 1 and the image recording section 2 via the recording energy control section 220. . In this case, the recorded image has optimal image quality at the time it is output from the image recording section 2. Then, the recorded image outputted from the image recording section 2 is outputted by the conveyance direction switching means 230 and a conveyance means (not shown) without going through the image covering section 3, or it is outputted to the image covering section even though it passes through the image covering section 3. The recorded image is simply ejected without performing the processing operation 3, and a recorded image without image coverage is obtained.

Generally, image coating processing has many advantages such as improving the storage stability of recorded images, but on the other hand, it has disadvantages such as processing time for image coating and the need for consumables such as transparent resin films. There is also. The present embodiment focuses on this point and adds a switching means that can select whether or not to use the image covering portion depending on the purpose of the recorded image. In other words, the above configuration has the effect of saving consumables associated with image covering processing, and can be applied both when image covering is performed and when not performed in one image output device. be able to. Next, as another embodiment, a bankbook issuing device 11 to which the image output device of the present invention is applied will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 2.

The passbook issuing device 11 shown in FIG.
A passbook-like sending means 12 that stores passbooks (deposit passbooks) P (details will be described later) as shown in a) and (b) in a folded state and sends them out one by one; A turning means 13 takes in the coming passbooks P, performs page turning processing, and sends them to the next stage, and the passbooks P whose pages have been turned by this turning means 13 are processed from character information, sub-seals, and signatures, details of which will be described later. a printing means 14 that prints the information necessary for issuing passbooks P consisting of information and sends the printed passbooks P to a subsequent stage, and this printing means 1
Adhesive means 15 takes in passbooks P sent from 4 and performs a polymerization adhesion process as described below, and this adhesive means 1
It has a stacking processing means 16 that performs folding processing and stacking processing on the passbooks P after polymerization and adhesion according to 5.

[0037] Here, the passbooks P handled by this device 11 are
This will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b). This passbook P is constructed by binding a cover 17, an inner paper 18, and a laminate piece 19, which is a transparent member made of transparent plastic, interposed between the cover 17 and the inner paper 18, and folds it at the binding part. It is possible.

Next, details of each component of the passbook issuing device 11 will be explained in detail. In this embodiment, the passbook sending means 12, the turning means 13, and the printing means 14
Of these, the character printing section 14A is referred to as a first stage, the sub seal/signature printing section 14B of the printing means 14 is referred to as a second stage, and the adhesive means 15 and the accumulation means 16 are referred to as a third stage.
The following explanation will be given as a stage.

As shown in FIG. 8, the passbook delivery means 12 includes a square cylindrical hopper 20 and a hopper 20.
A backup plate 21 that presses down a large number of folded passbooks P stored therein to correct bulges and deformations, and a feeding mechanism part 2 disposed at the lower opening of the hopper 20.
2, a takeout port 23 provided at the bottom end of one end of the hopper 20 through which only one passbook P can pass, a gate member 24 forming the takeout port 23, and a passbook at the bottom end of the hopper 20. It includes a feed roller 25 for conveying the kind P toward the take-out port 23, and a first conveyance roller pair 26 disposed outside the take-out port 23. The feeding mechanism section 22 has a claw 27 that has a size equivalent to one book of bankbooks P.
The feeder 27 has a feeding member 27 having a diameter of 1.a, and the feeding member 27 is reciprocated in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. The turning means 13 includes a page mark detection section 30 that detects page marks (barcodes 203, etc.) of each passbook P sent from the passbook sending means 12, and turns each page of the passbooks P. It is equipped with a cover/page turning section 31. The page mark detection section 30 includes a second conveying roller pair 32 and an optical reading section 33.

As shown in FIG. 9, the cover/page turning unit 31 includes a third and fourth pair of conveying rollers 34 and 35, and
A turning mechanism section 36 and a bankbook warping section 37 are provided between the pair of transport rollers 34 and 35.

The turning mechanism section 36 includes both conveying roller pairs 34.
, 35, and a support shaft 38 disposed below the center of the support shaft 3.
a switching arm 39 whose one end side is pivotally supported by 8 and whose other end side faces an intermediate position between both conveyance rollers 34 and 35;
, a turning roller 40 that is pivotally supported on the other end side of this switching arm 39 , a rotating roller 41 and a rotating roller 42 that are pivotally supported by the support shaft 38 , and the turning roller 4 .
A rotary drive pulley 43 (the drive pulse motor is not shown) disposed above the shaft 38 and a rotary drive pulley 44 (the drive pulse motor is not shown) disposed on the side of the support shaft 38. a first belt 45 stretched between the dynamic pulley 41 and the rotation drive pulley 43; a second belt 46 stretched between the rotation roller 42 and the rotation drive pulley 44;
A third belt 47 is provided that is stretched between the rotating roller 42 and the turning roller 40. The bankbook warp section 37 includes a push-up swing lever 48 attached to the switching arm 39.

As shown in FIG. 9, the rotary drive pulley 43 is rotated counterclockwise by a pulse motor (not shown), and this rotational force is applied to the first belt 45, the rotary roller 41, and the support shaft 38. The switching arm 39, the turning roller 40, and the push-up swing lever 48 are moved to the normal turning position shown with "A" in FIG. 9. The displacement angle at this time is θ1.

In addition, the rotation drive pulley 43 is rotated clockwise by a pulse motor (not shown), and the switching arm 39, the turning roller 40, and the push-up swinging lever 48 are moved in a manner indicated by "B" in FIG. It is designed to be displaced to the reverse flip position shown in the attached figure. The displacement angle at this time is θ2.

In the normal state, the switching arm 39 is on standby at the position shown by the solid line in FIG. It is designed to be held in a stable state without shaking from side to side.

Further, at the stage when the turning roller 40 has been displaced to the normal turning position "A" as described above, the pulse motor on the rotational drive roller 44 side rotates the rotational drive roller 44.
is rotated in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG.
The pages of the bankbook P are turned over by applying a rotational force in the direction of the arrow to the turning roller 40 via the rotating roller 42 and the third belt 47. The operation at the reverse turning position "B" is the same as that described above except that the direction of rotation of the turning roller 40 is reversed. In addition, in FIG. 9, 49a and 49b are a light emitting source and a light receiving element, and these constitute the bulge detection section 49.

Next, the printing means 14 will be explained. The character printing section 14A in the printing means 14 includes a head receiving roller 51 and a character printing head 50, as shown in FIG.
a fifth pair of conveying rollers 52, and a character printing head 5.
0, the name 2 is written on the inner paper 18 as shown in FIG. 5(a).
04, guide information 205, etc. are printed, and character information such as branch name 206, telephone number 207, bank name 208, etc. is printed on the cover 17.

As shown in FIG. 11, the sub-seal/signature printing unit 14B in the printing means 14 is arranged between the sixth and seventh pair of conveyance rollers 55, 56 and both pairs of conveyance rollers 55, 56. a platen roller 57, a laminate piece turning section 59 supported by a shaft 58 of the platen roller 57, a thermal head mechanism section 60 disposed with its head surface in pressure contact with the outer periphery of the platen roller 57, and a ribbon feed section 62 including a ribbon 61 that runs between the ribbon 61 and the outer periphery of the platen roller 57; a chucking section 63 attached to the platen roller 57;
A light emitting source 64 disposed further to the side of the conveying roller pair 56
a passbook stop detection unit 64 consisting of a light receiving element 64b;
A sorting gate 76 for sorting passbooks P is provided.

The laminate piece turning section 59 includes an arm 65 whose one end is supported by the shaft 58, and a rubber turning roller 66 having a high friction coefficient attached to the other end of the arm 65. As shown at 11, the laminated piece 19 of the bankbook P is turned over by applying a rotational force in the direction of the arrow by a drive motor (not shown). Further, after the laminate piece 19 is turned over, it can be retracted below the platen roller 57 so as not to interfere with the printing operation of the thermal head mechanism section 60 on the laminate piece 19. The platen roller 57 has a surface made of rubber, and is rotated at a constant speed by a pulse motor and a drive system (not shown).

The thermal head mechanism section 60 includes a thermal head 68 rotatably supported by a support shaft 67 and a spring 69 that presses the head surface of the thermal head 68 against the platen roller 57.

The ribbon field section 62 includes a take-up reel 70 that is intermittently driven by a drive source (not shown), and a supply reel 71 equipped with a brake that feeds out the ribbon 61.
and three guide rollers 72 that guide the ribbon 61,
73 and 74.

Note that the ribbon 61 has yellow (Y),
Three colors, magenta (M) and cyan (C), are applied in sequence, and the three colors described above are transferred one by one onto the laminate piece 19 by the thermal head 68. Note that at this time, the thermal head 68
A platen roller 57 is used for each color by a drive mechanism (not shown).
It is designed to be driven so that it repeatedly presses into and retreats. The chucking section 63 is connected to the platen roller 57.
It is equipped with a chucking claw 75 built into the outer surface of. This chucking claw 75 is rotationally driven by a drive means (for example, an electromagnetic solenoid) not shown, and its tip portion comes into contact with the surface of the platen roller 57.

Normally, the chucking pawl 75 waits on the surface of the platen roller in an open state, and when the tip of the laminate piece 19 is sent to a position where it can be chucked by the pair of conveying rollers 56, it is moved by the above-mentioned driving means. By rotating the chucking claw 75, the tip of the laminate piece 19 is clamped between it and the surface of the platen roller 57.

After that, the chucking claw 75 also rotates as the platen roller 57 rotates, so the laminate piece 19
is wrapped around the outer periphery of the platen roller 57, and
It reaches the head surface of the thermal head 68 without any positional deviation. Next, the adhesive means 15 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 13 to 15.

This adhesive means 15 includes a lamination detection section 80 for detecting passbooks P sorted and conveyed by the sorting gate 76 of the sub-seal/signature printing section 14B, and a pair of eighth and ninth conveyance rollers. 81, 82, and the laminate part 8 disposed between both roller pairs 81, 82.
3. As shown in FIG. 13, the laminate detection section 80 includes a light emitting source 80a and a light receiving element 80b.

The laminate 83 includes a heat roller 84 that is hollow and has a substantially D-shaped cross-section, and
The heat roller 84 has a pressure roller 85 whose outer periphery facing the heat roller 84 is covered with silicone rubber having excellent heat resistance, and a heater whose heat source is an infrared lamp 86 disposed in the hollow part of the heat roller 84. In addition, the heat roller 84
For example, "TOKYO" is written on the outer periphery of the
Embossed characters 87 are provided.

Although not shown, the temperature of the heater is controlled by thermistors attached to both ends of the heat roller 84, so that the surface temperature of the heat roller 84 is kept constant. Further, the edge portion 84a of the heat roller 84 is driven and controlled so as to stop at a position slightly retracted upward from the conveyance area of the passbook P in the standby state. Next, the accumulation processing means 16 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 16 and 17.

The accumulation processing means 16 includes a detecting section 91 that detects whether the printing state of the passbooks P is normal or abnormal, a folding section 92 that performs folding processing of the passbooks P, and a folding section 92 that detects whether the printing state of the passbooks P is normal or abnormal, and a folding section 92 that performs folding processing of the passbooks P. It has a sorting/accumulating section 93 that separates and accumulates passbooks P into normal and abnormal ones. The detection section 91
is a tenth conveying roller pair 94, a reading optical system 95 that reads the printed information on the cover page 17, inner paper 18, and laminated piece 19 of the passbook P conveyed by the tenth conveying roller pair, and a reading optical system 95. A support roller 96 having a backup function is provided opposite to the system 95.

The folding portion 92 is shown in FIG. 16(a), (
As shown in b), the eleventh pair of conveying rollers 100 and a predetermined interval below the extension line of the conveying path formed by the eleventh pair of conveying rollers 100 (approximately the total length of the passbook P in the open page state) A pair of support shafts 101 arranged with
a, 101 b, and both support shafts 101 a, 101 b
A pair of support arms 102a, 102b are supported in a symmetrical manner opposite to each other, and both support arms 102a,
Folding rollers 103a and 103b are each rotatably attached to the protruding end of 102b, and the support arm 1
Pressing arms 104 a and 104 b that rotate integrally with 02 a and 102 b, and this pressing arm 104
a, 104 rotatably attached to b, and
Pressing rollers 105 a and 105 b are brought into contact with the folding rollers 103 a and 103 b, respectively, and folding rollers 10 are placed in contact with both pressing rollers 105 a and 105 b.
3 A, 103 Biasing spring 1 that applies pressing force to the b side
06 a, 106 b, and the folding roller 103
A pair of pressure rollers 107a and 107b are provided at an intermediate position below the rollers 107a and 103b. The support arms 102a, 102b and the pressing arms 104a, 104b are each integrally arranged as shown in FIG.
It is designed to be rotationally driven in the directions of arrows α1 and α2 shown in (a). Next, referring also to FIG.
I will explain about it. This sorting/accumulating section 93 is the final stage of the third stage and is arranged below the folding section 92.

This sorting and accumulation section 93 has an upper cover plate 111 facing the pressure rollers 107a and 107b mentioned above.
a, 111b, and a rotatable storage box 110 that faces the gap formed by the upper cover plates 111a, 111b and is located directly below the contact portion of the pressure rollers 107a, 107b. A classification gate 112 and
This bottom plate 11 is placed below the bottom plate 110a of the storage box 110.
A guide bar 113 arranged along the guide bar 113, a guide body 114 slidably attached to the guide bar 113, a lower end portion attached to the guide plate 114, and an elongated hole provided in the bottom plate 110a on the upper side. A feeding plate 115 extends through the partition gate 112 to the vicinity of the dividing gate 112.
0 is divided into a normal passbook accumulation section 116a and an abnormal passbook accumulation section 116b.

[0060] The sorting/accumulating section 93 also has an end pressing plate 117a and a spring 1 on the side of the normal passbook accumulating section 116a.
18a is provided with an end pressing plate 117b and a spring 118b on the side of the abnormal passbook accumulation section 116b.

Further, the sorting/accumulating section 93 has presser levers 119 a, 119 arranged vertically symmetrically on the side of the normal passbook accumulating section 116 a and rotatable in the direction of pushing in the normal passbooks P.
In addition, the abnormal bankbook accumulating section 116b side is also provided with press levers 120a and 120b arranged vertically symmetrically and rotatable in the direction of pushing in the abnormal bankbook P. The division gate 112 is rotatably driven by an electromagnetic solenoid (not shown), and is rotated to the solid line position and the dashed-dotted line position shown in FIG. 17.

That is, when the detecting section 91 detects that the printing state of the passbook P is normal, the sorting gate 1
12 is driven to the solid line position shown in FIG. 17, and the passbooks P are distributed to the normal passbook stacking section 116a side.

Further, when the detection unit 91 detects that the printing condition of the passbook P is abnormal, the sorting gate 112
is driven to the position shown in the dashed line shown in FIG. 17,
Abnormal bankbooks are distributed to the abnormal bankbook accumulating section 116b.

[0064] The guide body 114 and the feed plate 115
The dividing gate 112 is driven by a driving means (not shown).
The passbook P is pushed in by being driven in the direction of arrow X1 or X2 shown in FIG. 17. Next, with reference to FIG. 6, the control system of the passbook issuing device 11 will be explained. This control system consists of the overall control section 1
21 , a first stage section 122 , a second stage section 123 , and a third stage section 124 .

[0065] Overall control section 121 and each stage section 122
, 123 and 124 respectively refer to the interface section 1.
25 and communication lines, and each stage section 122, 123, 124 operates while transferring data such as operation commands and responses (operation results).

The overall control section 121 includes a main control section 126 that performs overall control, a memory 127 that stores an operating program for this device 11, and the interface section 1.
25 and an operation panel 128 for inputting operation information.
It is equipped with.

The first stage section 122 includes a first stage control section 130 connected to the interface section 125 , a character generator 131 and a mechanism control section 132 controlled by the first stage control section 130 .
, a head control unit 133 that takes in the character information to be printed generated by the character generator 131 and controls the character print head 50; the feeding mechanism unit 22, the page mark detection unit 30, and the cover which are controlled by the mechanism control unit 132; - A page turning section 31 is provided.

The second stage section 123 includes a second stage control section 134 connected to the interface section 125 , a head control section 135 and a mechanism control section 136 that are controlled by the second stage control section 134 .
and the thermal head 68 connected to the head control section 135 , the thermal head mechanism section 60 controlled by the mechanism control section 136 , a ribbon feed section 62 , a chucking section 63 , and a platen roller 57 . There is. The third stage section 124 includes a third stage control section 137 connected to the interface section 125 , a mechanism control section 138 controlled by the third stage control section 137 , and the detection section 91 .
The device includes the laminating section 83, folding section 92, and sorting/accumulating section 93 that are controlled by the mechanism control section 138, and a reading optical system 95 that constitutes a part of the detecting section 91. Next, the operation of the device 11 having the above configuration will be explained.

[0069] Among the many folded passbooks P stored in the hopper 20 of the passbook delivery means 12 of this device 11, the lowest passbook P is moved by the claw provided on the feeding member 27 of the feeding mechanism section 22. 27a, and by the feeding operation of this feeding member 27, the first conveying roller pair 2 is
Sent out on 6th.

Then, the sent out passbook P passes through the position of the page mark detection section 30 of the turning means 13 by the rotation of the first pair of transport rollers 26 in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. Second and third conveyor roller pair 32, 3
The cover 17 is turned over by the operation of the turning mechanism section 36 of the cover/page turning section 31 fed out by the step 4. Furthermore, this passbook P is conveyed to the position of the character printing head 50 by the conveyance operation of the third and fourth conveyance roller pairs 34 and 35, and here, the head control unit 133
The character printing head 50 operating under the control of FIG.
As shown in a), the branch name 206, telephone number 207, bank name 208, etc. are printed.

After printing is completed, the third and fourth conveying roller pair 3
4 and 35 transport the bankbook P back to the position of the cover page turning section 31, where only the laminated piece 19 is turned over by the operation of the turning mechanism section 36.

The passbook P with the laminated piece 19 turned over is transported back to the page mark detection section 30 by the third pair of rollers 34, where the bar code pre-printed on the inner paper 18 is read by the optical reading section 33. 203 is read to confirm that the page is turned correctly.

Thereafter, the passbook P is transferred again to the character printing section 14A by the third and fourth pair of transport rollers 34 and 35, and here, the character printing head 50 prints the name 204 and guide information on the inner paper 18. 205 etc. are printed.

Furthermore, this passbook P is transported back to the position of the cover page turning section 31 by the third pair of rollers 34, where the laminated piece 19 is turned over again so that the laminated piece 19 overlaps the inner paper 18 side. becomes. Thereafter, the passbook P is transported to the sub-seal/signature printing section 14B by the fourth and fifth transport roller pairs 35 and 52. here,
The operation of the cover/page turning section 36 described above is shown in FIG. 10(a).
) to (h).

For example, when the cover 17 is turned right, the passbook detector 49
When C is detected, the fourth pair of conveyance rollers 35 stops, and the passbook P also stops accordingly. This state is shown in Figure 10(a).
Shown below.

Next, the rotary drive pulley 43 is rotated counterclockwise by a pulse motor (not shown), and this rotational force is applied to the first belt 45, the rotary roller 41, and the support shaft 38.
The signal is transmitted to the switching arm 39 via the switching arm 39, the turning roller 43, and the push-up swing lever 48.
is displaced to the right-turning position shown with "A" in FIG. At this time, the push-up swing lever 48 is rotated to the left to warp the approximate center of the passbook P upward, and in this state, the pulse motor is stopped. As a result, the rear part of the cover 17 of the passbook P comes into pressure contact with the turning roller 40, making it easier to turn over. This state is shown in FIG. 10(b).

At the stage when the turning roller 40 is displaced to the correct turning position "A" as described above, the rotational driving roller 44
This rotary drive roller 44 is driven by a pulse motor on the side as shown in FIG.
The turning roller 4 is rotated in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG.
By applying a rotational force in the direction of the arrow to 3, the cover 17 of the passbook P is turned over. This state is shown in Figure 10(c).
Shown below.

When the turning roller 40 further rotates in the direction of the arrow from this state, the cover 17 and the inner paper 18 swell up and block the optical path of the bulge detection section 49. When the bulge is detected by the bulge detector 49, the pulse motor is controlled to stop the rotation of the turning roller 40. This state is shown in FIG. 10(d). Next, the rotation drive pulley 43
The side pulse morse is rotated clockwise to return the switching arm 39 to the neutral position, and the push-up swinging lever 4
Return 8 to horizontal position. As a result, the rotational force of the turning roller 40 is no longer transmitted to the inner paper 18, and only the cover 17 rises up. This state is shown in FIG. 10(e). Next, turn roller 4
0 is rotated counterclockwise by a pulse motor, and the bulging cover 17 is completely turned over. This state is shown in FIG. 10(f).

Next, while keeping the turning roller 40 rotating counterclockwise, the second and third conveying roller pairs 32 and 34 are rotated in the arrow directions shown in FIGS. P
The entire body is moved to the left in the figure. As a result, the cover 17 changes from a flipped-up state to a completely open state.

[0080] Above, we have explained the normal turning operation and the turning over of the cover 17, but mechanically the operation is exactly the same when turning over the thin inner paper 18. In this case, Fig. 10 (
The rotation angle θ1 of the switching arm 39 shown in b) is rotated shallowly by controlling the number of pulses of the pulse motor. In this way, the amount of push-up of the push-up swing lever 48 attached to the same axis of the switching arm 39 becomes smaller.
Since the pressing force of the turning roller 40 against the inner paper 18 of the passbook P is reduced, it is possible to easily turn the passbook P with less frictional force.

[0081] Also, in the case of reverse turning operation, it is exactly the same,
The rotation of the switching arm 39 is determined by the rotation angle θ2 on the right side of FIG.
This can be easily done by rotating the turning roller 40 clockwise.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, the driving source of the switching arm 39 of the turning roller 40 is a pulse motor, and the turning roller 4 is switched after the bulge is detected.
After the rotation of the roller 40 is stopped and the pulse motor is used to ensure that it returns to the neutral position, the turning roller 40 is rotated again. Furthermore, since the rotation angle of the switching arm 39 is controlled to be variable by a pulse motor depending on the thick cover (high rigidity) and thin inner paper (low rigidity), reliable turning operation is performed regardless of the rigidity of the passbook P. be able to. Next, the operation of the secondary seal/signature printing section 14B will be explained.

[0083] The passbooks P sent from the character printing section 14A and spread open are transferred to the sixth and seventh conveyor roller pairs 55, 5.
As shown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12(a), the cover 1 is
7 is transferred until it reaches the passbook stop detection section 64, and is stopped at this position by the detection operation of the passbook stop detection section 64. At this position, the turning roller 66 of the laminate piece turning section 59 is rotated in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 12(a), and the laminate piece 19 is turned over.

From this state, the seventh transport roller pair 56 is rotated in the direction of the arrows shown in FIGS. 11, 12(a) and 12(b) to transport the passbook P in the reverse direction. Thereby, the laminate piece 19 is automatically guided to the opening of the chucking claw 75.

Next, the chucking claw 75 is rotated,
The platen roller 57 is rotated while the tip of the laminate piece 19 is clamped between the outer peripheral surface of the platen roller 57, and the laminate piece 19 is transferred to a position where the printing start position corresponds to the head surface of the thermal head 68. At this time, the turning roller 66 is retracted to below the platen roller 57 due to the rotation of the arm 65. This state is shown in Figure 12(c)
).

Next, the thermal head 68 is lowered by the operation of the thermal head mechanism section 60, and while pressing the ribbon 61 and the laminate piece 19 against the platen roller 57, yellow (Y) color is first printed. This state is shown in Figure 12(d).
, shown in (f).

When the yellow (Y) color printing is completed, the thermal head 68 is once raised, and the ribbon feed section 62 feeds the ribbon 61 to the magenta (M) color. When this operation is completed, the thermal head 68 is lowered again and magenta (M) is printed over the yellow (Y) printed on the laminate piece 19. Cyan (C
) Color printing is performed in exactly the same manner as described above.

[0088] In this manner, the information of the sub-seal E and the signature S, which are made of three colors, are printed on the laminate piece 19. In this case, by appropriately controlling three colors of printing, for example, the sub-seal E can be made red and the signature S black.

When the above-described printing operation is completed, the platen roller 57 is reversed, the chucking claw 57 is released, and the sixth and seventh conveying roller pairs 55 and 56 are rotated.
The passbooks P are sent to the sorting gate 76 by the conveyance operation, and sent out toward the adhesive means 15 by the sorting operation of the sorting gate 76. Next, the action of the adhesive means 15 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 13(a) and 13(b), FIGS. 14 and 15.

The passbook P with the cover 17 and the laminated piece 19 in the opened state is first detected by the laminate detection section 80 and is then conveyed through the sorting gate 76 to the eighth and ninth pair of conveying rollers 81. , 82 is shown in Figure 13.
By rotating in the direction of the arrow shown in (a), the inner paper 18 is first brought between the heat roller 84 and the pressure roller 85. Further, as shown in FIG. 13(b), the heat roller 84 rotates synchronously so that the edge portion 84a matches the binding part of the passbook P, and the pressure from the pressure roller 85 and the heat generated on the surface of the heat roller 84 are generated. As a result, the laminate pieces 19 are sequentially laminated onto the cover 17 from the stitched portion toward the end. At this time, the embossed characters 87 provided on the heat roller 84
comes into contact with the laminate piece 19, and as a result, FIGS.
As shown in FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b), concave embossed letters "TOKYO" are formed on the laminate piece 19.

[0091] Through the above operations, the laminate piece 19 becomes
It can be polymerized and adhered to the cover 17 without wrinkles or bubbles, and the deviation L between the edge of the laminate piece 19 and the edge of the cover 17 can be suppressed to an inconspicuous level (for example, 0.3 mm or less). can.

In this way, the passbook P with the laminated piece 19 laminated on the cover 17 is detected by the first detection unit 91.
The printing information on the inner paper 18, the laminate piece 19, and the cover 17 is read by the reading optical system 95 by the pair of transport rollers 94 of 0, and the normality or abnormality of the printing state is detected.

Furthermore, the passbook P is transferred to the eleventh conveying roller pair 1.
00 into the folding part 92, and as shown in FIG.
Folding rollers 103a as shown in a) and (b),
103b and the pressing rollers 105a, 105b, the paper is folded up and reaches the pressure rollers 107a, 107b, where it is completely folded with the stitched portion at the top and placed in the sorting/accumulating section. 93 is sent to the classification gate 112.

[0094] When the detection unit 91 determines that the passbook P is normal, the classification gate 112 detects this detection unit 91.
Based on the signal from , the passbook P is rotated to the solid line position shown in FIG. 17, and the passbook P at this time is sent to the normal passbook stacking section 116a.

At this stage, the feed plate 115 interlocked with the sorting gate 112 is driven in the direction of arrow X1, and the passbooks P
is pushed toward the end holding plate 117 side while contacting the holding levers 119a and 119b.

[0096] Passbook P is pressed by lever 119a, 11
When the rotation area of 9b is exceeded, the holding lever 119a
, 119b return to their initial positions, thereby preventing the once held passbooks P from accidentally returning to the sorting gate 112 side. The back and forth feed plate 115 is shown in Fig. 1.
It is driven back to the initial position shown in 7.

On the other hand, when the detecting section 91 determines that the passbook P is abnormal, the sorting gate 112 rotates to the position shown in the dashed dot line in FIG. 17 based on the signal from the detecting section 91. Passbooks P are stored in abnormal passbook accumulation section 1
16 Distribute to side b. Thereafter, the feed plate 115 is driven in the X2 direction, contrary to the case described above, and performs the pushing operation of the bankbook at this time. By the above-described operation, normal passbooks P and abnormal passbooks P are stored in the storage box 110 in a clearly separated state, making it easier to handle the passbooks when issuing them.

The outline of the passbook issuing device, which is one embodiment of the present invention, has been described above. Next, the main parts of the present invention will be explained in more detail. In the passbook issuing device of the present invention, an electrical transfer recording device is used in the character recording section 14 of the first stage. FIG. 18 shows a front view (a) and a side view (b) of the current transfer recording apparatus. Heat is applied to the ink applied to the ink ribbon from the recording head (50) to soften and melt it and transfer it to recording paper to form an image. It is a type of thermal transfer recording device. The difference from normal thermal transfer recording is that the ink ribbon itself generates heat. Generally, when recording is performed using a thermal transfer recording device, a portion of the ink penetrates into the recording paper, but most of the remaining ink is recorded on the recording paper. Branch name 206, telephone number 207, and bank name 20 recorded on the cover 17 using an electric transfer recording device
Character data such as 8 is heated again by the heat roller 84 together with the laminate piece 19 when passing through the adhesive means 15. Since these character data are recorded with ink that softens and melts with heat, the quality of the recorded image changes before and after lamination.

FIG. 19 shows an example of a change in recording line width before (solid line) and after lamination (broken line). Resolution 240d
This figure shows a recording line in which one line width is made up of three pixels using a pi recording head. In order to make these data machine readable using OCR-B font,
In high-definition mode, the recording line width must be within the range of 350±80 μm. Before lamination (solid line), the line width is exactly 3 when the recording energy is E0.
It was 50 μm. However, when the line width after lamination (broken line) was examined, it was found that in this case it had become thicker to about 440 μm, which exceeded the allowable width. Considering the change in line width before and after lamination, Figure 1
In the case of 9, it is optimal to record with the recording energy of E1. This corresponds to a more specific example of FIG.
In this book, the recording energy in the image recording section 2 is controlled by controlling the recording energy from the original recording energy E0 to E1 in the recording energy control section 4, taking into account the thickening of the line width due to the lamination of the image dots in the image covering section 3. In the embodiment, characters with appropriate line widths are recorded by controlling the recording energy supplied to the electrical transfer printer. By doing this, it is possible not only to optimize the line width, but also to save recording energy by E0-E1. More specifically, based on the pattern generated by the character generator 131 in FIG. 6, the recording head controller 133 controls the recording energy so that the line width is optimized. A more specific example is shown in FIG. Figure 20(a)
is the actual recording pattern before lamination;
) is the recording pattern after lamination. Before lamination (a), even when recording a straight line, for example, the recording energy is controlled as shown in the figure so that the recording is not a continuous line. However, in the recording pattern (b) after lamination, the ink is reheated and melted, and the image dots are smoothly connected and a straight line can be recorded.

Next, a method for realizing the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 by optimizing the recording pattern by pixel arrangement processing will be described. In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 21, the pattern to be recorded is optimized in advance, taking into consideration that the pixel will become thicker after lamination. Specifically, when recording a rectangular pattern composed of a plurality of pixels and shown by a solid line as shown in FIG. 21(b),
This is a method of recording a pattern in which one pixel is removed one by one, rather than recording all pixel points as shown in FIG. Even when recording in this way, the ink spreads due to lamination, so
After lamination, a pattern in which the ink spreads uniformly is recorded as shown in FIG. 21(b). Corresponding to the case of FIG. 6, the pattern generated by the character generator 131 is changed to the pattern shown in FIG. 21(a), taking into consideration that the pixel will spread after lamination. There is. In other words, the image processing unit 1 in FIG. 1 is the character generator 131 in FIG.
This corresponds to

Next, a specific example including a switching means for selecting whether or not to use the image covering means will be described with reference to FIG. In the passbook issuing device of this embodiment, the cover 1 of the passbook P is
The characters recorded on the back of 7 will be reheated by laminating, but the name and date of birth 204 will also be printed on the inner paper 18.
etc. are recorded and read by machine, but this data is used without being laminated. In other words, although characters are recorded using the same recording device within a single passbook, some parts are laminated and others are not. And both need to be machine readable. The line width required for machine reading is approximately 350 μm as shown in Figure 19.
Then, it is necessary to record with a recording energy of E1 when laminating, and with a recording energy of E0 when not laminating. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, it is necessary to use a CPU or the like to determine whether lamination is to be performed or not, and the recording energy or recording pattern must be switched in each case.

The present invention has been described above in detail using the character recording portion of the passbook issuing device as an example. The present invention is not limited to the character recording portion, but is similarly applicable to the sub-seal E/signature S recording portion. Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to passbook issuing devices.

[0103] In this embodiment, only the ink whose area expands when reheated for lamination has been described, but it is also possible to use heat-shrinkable ink. In this case, all changes in the area of ink described above should be considered in reverse.

Further, in FIGS. 1 to 3, information from the image covering section 3 is fed back to the image processing section, etc., but this feedback does not necessarily have to be performed in real time. None of the examples of passbook creation devices described above provide real-time feedback. However, the environmental temperature of the image recording section 2,
If the temperature of the laminator is not stable, real-time feedback is required because the size of the recorded pixel and the amount of spread of the pixel after lamination change.

As described above, the scope of application of the image output device according to the present invention is wide, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the claims of the present invention. For example, as for the configuration and method of the image covering section, although lamination processing is described in the above embodiment, the image covering means according to the present invention is not limited to lamination processing. That is, instead of coating with a normal transparent resin film, for example, US Patent No. 4,7
As shown in No. 38,555, means such as transferring a medium with excellent light transmittance in accordance with the image recording operation can also be applied. In such a case, the image recording section has a configuration that includes the function of an image covering section.

[0106]

As described above, by using the image output device according to the present invention, it is possible to perform image covering processing that protects recorded images and allows them to be stored for a long period of time, and it is possible to obtain recorded images of appropriate quality after the image covering processing. It will be done.

Furthermore, by adding means for selecting and switching whether or not to perform image covering, it is possible to output both an image with image covering and an image without image covering with one device, and moreover, it is possible to output both an image with image covering and an image without image covering. Recorded images of optimal image quality can be provided, increasing device utilization efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image output device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image output device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image output device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic layout diagram of the embodiment device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view and a front view of passbooks issued by the device of this embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the control system of the device.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of the first stage section in the same apparatus.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual cross-sectional view of the passbook sending means of the same device.

FIG. 9 is a schematic front view of the turning mechanism section of the device.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the turning mechanism section.

FIG. 11 is a schematic front view of the secondary seal/signature printing section of the device.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of operation and a three-color printing state.

FIG. 13 is a schematic front view and an operation explanatory diagram of the bonding means in the same device.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram of the heat roller of the adhesive means.

FIG. 15 is a perspective view and a front view showing a printing state on a laminate piece.

FIG. 16 is a schematic front view and a schematic front view of the folding section.

FIG. 17 is a schematic front view of the sorting and accumulation section.

FIG. 18 is a front view and a side view of an electrical transfer recording device used in the character recording section of the passbook issuing device of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating changes in line width before and after lamination.

[Figure 20] Considering the thicker line width in lamination,
The figure which shows the Example which recorded by controlling the recording energy.

[Figure 21] Considering the thicker line width in lamination,
The figure which shows the Example which recorded by controlling the recording pattern.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing an image processing unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 23 is a diagram for explaining image density.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing a correction curve.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing an image recording section.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing an image covering part.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an image covering part.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating recording density versus application time.

[Explanation of symbols]

11...Passbook issuing device 12... Passbook sending means 13...Turning device 14...Printing means 15...Adhesive means 16...Integration processing means

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium based on image data, and an image for covering the image surface of the image obtained by the image recording means with a coating material by applying a predetermined amount of coating energy. An image output device comprising a covering means and an image processing means for correcting image data to be recorded in advance according to the amount of covering energy of the image covering means. 2. The image output device according to claim 1, wherein the image processing means performs high frequency enhancement processing on the image. 3. The image output device according to claim 1, wherein the image processing means performs pixel arrangement processing to change the pixel arrangement of the image. 4. Image recording means for recording an image on a recording medium by applying a predetermined amount of recording energy based on an image signal, and applying a predetermined amount of energy to cover the image surface of the image obtained by the image recording means. What is claimed is: 1. An image output device comprising: an image covering means for covering a covering object; and a recording energy amount control means for controlling the amount of recording energy in accordance with the amount of energy applied by the image covering means.