JPH0463396B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image display device that is capable of reversibly recording and erasing image information by heating, and that is capable of storing recorded image information without maintaining the heated state. .

Conventionally, CRT displays have been widely used as display devices for office computers, word processors, etc., but because the CRT displays have a structure in which display pixels are formed by electron beam scanning, the input/output speed is slow. Although fast and high-brightness images can be obtained, the equipment is large and expensive, and the image quality lacks clarity.
Since image information is displayed on a fixed screen,
Due to its structure, there are problems such as the inability to record displayed image information and take it out of the device for storage, and the image display capacity to be limited.

In response, a reusable heat-sensitive image display material has been developed that uses a reversible chemical substance that develops color when heated and disappears when cooled, and also has hysteresis characteristics with respect to temperature. Due to the above-mentioned properties, this display body displays image information by utilizing a phenomenon in which two states, coloring and decoloring, can coexist at a certain temperature, but in order to maintain the display state of image information, The display body must always be kept at a temperature at which the above two states can coexist. Therefore, in an image display device that displays image information using the image display body, a heating device for keeping warm is essential, and a cooling device for erasing is also required, making the device complicated. . Moreover, it also has the problem of consuming a large amount of energy.

Furthermore, in this image display body, in order to take out the display surface on which image information is displayed and store it outside the device, it is generally difficult to keep the display surface in a heated state at all times.

On the other hand, in recent years, heat-sensitive materials have been discovered that can reversibly repeat a cloudy state and a transparent state depending on a difference in heating temperature, and can stably maintain either state below a certain temperature.

This heat _- sensitive material consists of a matrix material made of thermoplastic resin or the like and an organic low-molecular substance dispersed in the matrix material. has the property of changing. That is, this heat-sensitive material has two state transition temperatures _{t 1 and} t ₂ (t ₁
< t ₂ ), and after heating and holding at t ₂ or higher, t ₀
When cooled below, it becomes cloudy and reaches maximum light shielding state.
On the other hand, when this cloudy heat-sensitive material is heated and maintained at a temperature range of t ₁ or more and less than t ₂ and then cooled to t ₀ or less, the heat-sensitive material becomes transparent.

In addition, when the cloudy heat-sensitive material is heated and maintained at a temperature range of t ₀ or more and less than t ₁ and then cooled to t ₀ or less, as the heating holding temperature increases from t ₀ to t ₁ , the cooling time increases. The white turbidity of the heat-sensitive material exhibits a continuous intermediate white turbidity from the maximum light shielding state to transparency.

This state change of the heat-sensitive material is mainly based on a change in the organic low molecular weight substance in the heat-sensitive material.

A heat-sensitive recording material in which image information can be repeatedly recorded and erased using the heat-sensitive material has been proposed, but no specific product has been disclosed.

In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a conventional CRT display, a heat-sensitive image display device, etc. using a heat-sensitive material having hysteresis characteristics between color density and temperature by using the heat-sensitive recording material. Instead, it is possible to record and erase image information, and it is also possible to save the display body on which image information is recorded.
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image display device which has a simple mechanism and is inexpensive, and which can record, display, and erase image information continuously.

The image display device of the present invention has two state transition temperatures t ₁ and t ₂ (t ₁ <t ₂ ) higher than room temperature (hereinafter referred to as "temperature t ₀ "), and the temperature t is higher than or equal to the temperature t ₁ . an image display body comprising a heat-sensitive material that becomes transparent when heated to a temperature of less than _{t 2} and then cooled to a temperature of t ₀ or less, and becomes cloudy when heated to a temperature of t ₂ or more and then cooled to a temperature of t ₀ or less; a roller capable of supporting and rotating the image display body; a heating device that uniformly heats the image display body to a temperature of t ₁ or more and less than t ₂ or a temperature of t ₂ or more; and a stage downstream of the heating device in the rotational movement direction of the image display body. a cooling region that cools the image display body to a temperature below t ₀ to make the image display body a uniform transparent surface or a cloudy surface; and a cooling region downstream of the cooling region with respect to the rotational movement direction of the image display body. image information by heating the image display body to a temperature of t ₀ or more and less than t ₂ or t ₂ or more; a heating recording device equipped with a thermal head capable of recording on the image display body, and a heating recording device that is downstream of the heating recording device with respect to the rotational movement direction of the image display body, and cooling the image display body to a temperature of t ₀ or less. , and a display unit that displays image information on an image display body.

The surface of the heat-sensitive image display used in the present invention is made of a heat-sensitive material made of the above matrix material and an organic low-molecular substance with a film thickness of 5 to 50 μm, preferably 10 to 30 μm.
It is made by laminating it on a base material such as plastic or thin metal plate.

The mixing ratio of the heat-sensitive matrix material and the organic low-molecular substance is preferably 3:1 to 16:1 by weight.

The matrix material includes polyester,
One or more polymers selected from thermoplastic resins such as polyamide, polyacrylate, polymethacrylate, polystyrene, silicone resin, polyvinyl chloride, vinylidene chloride-vinyl chloride copolymer, vinylidene chloride-acrylonitrile copolymer, etc. Can be used.

The organic low-molecular substances include saturated or unsaturated mono- and dicarboxylic acids or their esters, amides and ammonium salts; saturated or unsaturated halogenated fatty acids or their esters, amides and ammonium salts; arylcarboxylic acids or their esters; Among amide and ammonium salts, one or more substances selected from organic compounds having 10 to 30 carbon atoms can be used. Particularly preferred substances include linear saturated higher fatty acids such as palmitic acid, stearic acid, arachidic acid, and behenic acid, or their esters;
Amides and ammonium salts may be mentioned.

In this specification, the term "organic low molecular weight substance" means an organic compound having a molecular weight of 100 to 700.

The base material is preferably a flexible material such as plastic or thin metal paperboard that allows the image display to be formed into a sheet. In addition, a colored base material is preferable in order to add contrast to an image.

Incidentally, if the heat-sensitive material itself can sufficiently maintain its solid shape by using a large amount of a matrix material and an organic low-molecular substance, it is also possible to construct an image display body without using a base material.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the image display device of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to this embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image display body used in the present invention.

For example, the above-mentioned heat-sensitive material 2 is coated on a polyester film base material 1 by a casting method or the like to a film thickness of 5 to 50 μm, preferably 10 to 30 μm, and
An elongated sheet-like image display body 3 having a structure on which a heat-sensitive material 2 is laminated is created. Next, this image display body 3 is formed into an endless shape.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of the image display device of the present invention.

The image display body 3 is wound between a pair of rollers 4, 5 and 4', 5' having two different diameters, and a platen roller 6. the roller 4,
5 and a platen roller 6 are installed in a horizontal position at an appropriate interval below the image display device, while another set of rollers 4', 5' It is installed at the top of this display device, vertically above it. That is, these rollers are positioned at each vertex of a right triangle, and the display body 3 is adapted to move around them.

The display 3 wound between the rollers is longer than the circumference connecting the rollers, and the longer portion is stored between the rollers 4 and 5 and the rollers 4' and 5'.

The large diameter rollers 4, 5 and 4', 5' are connected to AC motors 7 and 7', respectively, and rotate at a constant speed.

On the other hand, the platen roller 6 is connected to a pulse motor 8 and rotates intermittently, and the display body 3 is held and moved by a heating recording device 9 connected to the platen roller 6.

The heating recording device 9 has a plurality of thermal heads whose temperature can be controlled, and records image information on the display body 3 by selectively heating the thermal heads according to image information. There is.

A heating device 10 is provided between the rollers 4 and 5 and the platen roller 6 for uniformly heating the display body 3 to make the surface of the display body 3 uniform. As shown in FIG. 3, this heating device 10 includes two heating elements 11 such as nichrome heaters facing each other with a certain space between them, a temperature detection element 12 such as a thermistor for controlling the heating temperature, and a temperature control device. 13, the display body 3 is passed between two heating elements 11 that maintain a constant heating state.
to a uniform state.

the platen roller 6 and roller 4';
5' is a display section for image information, and inside the display body 3 wound by each roller, a colored board 14 is installed along the display body 3. It's summery.

Further, each of the above-mentioned members is housed in a casing 15 having an opening in the display section. A transparent protection plate 16 is fitted into the opening.

Next, the operation of the image display device of this embodiment will be explained.

First, a case will be described in which image information is recorded transparently on the display body 1 having a cloudy surface.

The roller 4 is always rotated clockwise and the roller 4' is rotated counterclockwise at a faster speed than the platen roller 6.

The display body 3 is held between the platen roller 6 and the heating recording device 9 with pressure stronger than the pressure applied by the rollers 4 and 5. Next, when the platen roller 6 is rotated to the left, the display body 3 moves in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2 while maintaining tension between the roller 4 and the platen roller 6. Further, the display body 3 between the roller 4' and the platen roller 6 similarly maintains a tensioned state because the roller 4' is rotating in the same direction at a faster speed than the platen roller 6.

At the same time as the display body 3 starts moving, the heating device 10 is turned on.
Heating to a temperature above _t2 at which the surface of the display becomes cloudy,
The display body 3 that has passed through the heating device is made uniformly cloudy.

When the cloudy display body 3 reaches the position of the heating recording device 9, the thermal head of the heating recording device 9 selectively raises the transparency temperature of the display body 3 from t1 _{to t2} according to the image information.
heated to less than When the display body 3 is heated to a predetermined temperature by the heating recording device, the display body 3 is moved by the action of the platen roller 6 and cooled to room temperature. The heated portion of the cooled display body 3 becomes transparent, and image information is recorded as a transparent portion on the cloudy surface.

Note that by setting the transparentization temperature to t ₀ or more and t ₁ or less, it is also possible to form an intermediate cloudy part and record image information.

The display body 3 on which image information has been recorded is viewed visually through the transparent protection plate 16 at the display section, and then moved to the rollers 4',
5' and is stored in the space between the rollers 4 and 5.

When the display body 3 on which this image information has been recorded further passes through the rollers 4 and 5 and reaches the heating device 10, it is uniformly heated again and becomes cloudy, and the image information is erased.

Further, when recording image information in a cloudy state on the transparent display body 3, recording and erasing of image information can be achieved by simply changing the heating temperature and performing other operations in the same manner as described above. .

Furthermore, if you want to re-display image information that has already been displayed, a code signal indicating the position of the recorded information should be recorded on the display 3, and a recording position reading device that reads this signal should be installed. This makes it easy to search for recorded locations.

In the embodiment described above, when recording image information with the heating recording device, a code signal indicating the position corresponding to the image information is recorded on the side edge of the display body 3. Further, a recording position reading device 17 is installed just before the display body 3 on which image information is recorded reaches the display section.

The code signal is recorded as a transparent part on the display body 3 according to the image information as shown in FIG.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
9-1, 19-2, and 19-3, and read the recording position of the corresponding image information depending on the presence or absence of transmitted light.

When the recorded image information is redisplayed by rotating the platen roller 6 clockwise, the recording position reading device 1 detects that the desired image has come to the display position.
It is possible to make a determination by reading the code signal at step 7, stop the platen roller 6, and display the image information again.

As described above, the image display device of the present invention has the ability to memorize image information, and can easily store the display body on which the image information is recorded without keeping it in a heated state. Moreover, the structure is simple and inexpensive, and the energy consumption is extremely low. It is also possible to create a display with a larger screen than ever before.
Furthermore, by providing a recording position reading device, it is extremely easy to search for a re-display section when re-displaying image information.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image display body used in the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of the image display device of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a heating device used in the present invention, FIG. 4 is a code signal indicating a recording position of image information, and FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view of a recording position reading device. 1... Base material, 2... Heat sensitive material, 3... Image display body, 4, 4', 5, 5'... Roller, 6... Platen roller, 9... Heat recording device, 10... Heating device , 17... Information reading device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. It has two state transition temperatures t 1 _and t ₂ (t ₁ <t ₂ ) higher than room temperature (hereinafter referred to as "temperature t ₀ "), and the temperature t ₁ or higher is t _{2 .} an image display body comprising a heat-sensitive material that becomes transparent when heated to a temperature below t ₀ and then cooled to a temperature t ₀ or below, and becomes cloudy when heated to a temperature t ₂ or above and then cooled to a temperature t 0 or below; a roller capable of supporting and rotating the image display body, a heating device that uniformly heats the image display body to a temperature of t ₁ or more and less than t ₂ or a temperature of t ₂ or more; a cooling region that cools the image display body to a temperature below t ₀ to make the image display body a uniform transparent surface or a cloudy surface; is disposed so as to be able to come into contact with an image display body having a uniform transparent surface or a cloudy surface, and displays image information by heating the image display body to a temperature of t ₀ or more and less than t ₂ or a temperature of t ₂ or more. a heating recording device equipped with a thermal head capable of recording on the image display body; and a heating recording device downstream of the heating recording device with respect to the rotational movement direction of the image display body, cooling the image display body to a temperature below _t0 ; An image information recording device comprising a display unit that displays image information on an image display body. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image display body is brought into contact with air at room temperature in the cooling area and the display section.