JPH05147349A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a recording apparatus capable of always applying required recording to a recording medium having a display part composed of a low molecular/high molecular composite film recording material repeatedly showing both opaque and transparent states by temp. history. CONSTITUTION:A recording apparatus is equipped with at least a feed system feeding a recording medium 10 having a display part capable of repeatedly displaying and erasing a visible image by the control of heat energy, a display part opacifying means 6 heating the display part of the fed recording medium 10 to opacify the same and a thermal recording means 3 forming a visible image to the opacified display part of the recording medium 10. The display part opacifying means 6 is constituted of a resistance heating head 4 and a heating control means 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, and more particularly to a recording apparatus for performing required recording / erasing on a recording medium having a display section capable of repeatedly displaying / erasing a visible image by heat.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional hard copy recording or recording apparatus forms a required image by selectively attaching (adhering) ink or toner from the outside onto a recording medium such as paper, or A recording medium such as a thermal recording paper having a recording layer provided on the surface of a base material such as paper is used, and a permanent image is recorded by forming a visible image on the recording layer of the recording medium. However, the consumption of these recording media is rapidly increasing with the construction of various network networks, the spread of facsimiles and copying machines, and the increase in the consumption of these recording media is caused by the problem of natural destruction such as deforestation, It causes social problems such as garbage disposal. In order to deal with these problems, there is a strong demand for reduction of recording medium consumption such as reproduction of recording paper (recording medium), and recording media that can be repeatedly recorded and erased have attracted attention for many problems, and many There is interest.

As a recording medium capable of repeating recording and erasing as described above, it has been proposed to use a recording material capable of reversibly converting both a transparent state and a turbid state depending on a temperature applied to the recording medium (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 61-96). 55-154198 publication). When the temperature is raised from T ₁ to T ₃ in the transparent state, the recording material changes from the transparent state to the cloudy state and maintains the cloudy state even when the temperature returns to T ₁ . And
When the temperature of the recording material is raised from T ₁ to T ₂ (T ₂ <T ₃ ) and then returned to T ₁ , the cloudy state is changed to a transparent state and the transparent state is maintained (solid line), and this change is repeatedly reproduced. It is possible. From this point of view, studies on deterioration of resolution in repetitive recording when recording with a thermal head using this type of recording material have also been reported (Proceedings of the 4th Non-Impact Printing Technology Symposium, 3-2, P57 ( 1987)).

Further, a display changing device has been proposed in which display / erasure on a display body containing a thermoreversible recording material can be repeated (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 2-19568). This display changing device is provided with an erasing means for thermally erasing the display on the display body and a printing means for thermally printing. Specifically, the thermoreversible display of the floppy disk cartridge is displayed on the heater head (erasing). It is erased by means of means), and the display is written by using a moving thermal head (printing means). Furthermore, an apparatus for erasing / recording a display by using a heat roller (erasing means) and a thermal head (printing means) on an information recording card having a thermoreversible recording layer has also been developed (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 2-3876). Bulletin). As this type of thermoreversible recording material, there is also known a recording material using a leuco dye that gives a reversible color tone change only by controlling thermal energy (Japan Hardcopy 1990, NIP-2, P147 (199).
0)).

[0005]

The recording apparatus using the recording material capable of repeating recording / erasing as described above can be said to solve the problems of the conventional recording apparatus. In particular, recording media that use a low molecular weight / polymer composite film recording material that repeatedly shows both cloudy and transparent states depending on the temperature history can be recorded / erased with a thermal head that is widely used in conventional thermal recording devices. Therefore, it can be said that it has many advantages in terms of practicality.

However, according to the experiments by the present inventors, when the image recorded on the low molecular weight / polymer composite film recording material is erased, in other words, when the recorded image is erased and new recording is performed, It has been found that the recorded image becomes difficult to be erased with the erasing time interval. Therefore, in a normal use state of the recording apparatus in which the time interval between recording and erasing cannot be specified, an image to be erased remains unerased, which causes a problem of a newly recorded image. In addition, there is a problem that the degree of remaining unerased differs depending on the time interval between recording and erasing, and it cannot be said to be sufficiently satisfactory in practice.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and always relates to a recording medium having a low molecular weight / polymer composite film recording material which repeatedly shows both cloudy and transparent states depending on temperature history as a display unit. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording device capable of surely performing required recording.

[0008]

A recording apparatus according to the present invention comprises a recording medium conveying system for conveying a recording medium having at least a display unit capable of repeatedly displaying and erasing a visible image by controlling thermal energy. The display unit of the conveyed recording medium is heated to be clouded by a display unit, and the thermal recording unit forms a visible image on the display unit of the clouded recording medium. It is characterized in that the display portion whitening means is composed of a resistance heating element and a heat generation control section.

That is, in the recording apparatus according to the present invention, the recording is repeatedly performed on the recording medium having the display portion composed of the low molecular weight / polymer composite film recording material which repeatedly shows both cloudy and transparent states depending on the temperature history. A recording device for erasing, comprising a heating element section and a heating control section, which generate heat while the heating element section contacts the recording material to make the recording area cloudy, and then record an image by the thermal recording means. With this configuration, the visible image to be erased is reliably and stably erased without being left unerased, and the above problems are solved.

[0010]

In the recording apparatus according to the present invention, the temperature history characteristic of the recording material forming the display portion (recording portion) of the recording medium is used to make at least the recording medium when performing required recording by repeating recording and erasing. After the recording area of is activated to the cloudy state, the required visible image is recorded. That is, prior to the recording of a new visible image, the recorded information recorded in the recording area is easily erased without leaving any unerased portion, so that the desired recorded information can be reliably recorded.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a recording apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic structure of a main part of a recording apparatus according to the present invention. Reference numeral 1 is a recording material (display section) which repeats both opaque and transparent states depending on the temperature history of the recording medium. In addition, a thermal head having a heating resistor for applying heat energy for making the recording material transparent (recording), 2 is a thermal head drive circuit for controlling energization to the heating resistor included in the thermal head 1. The thermal head thermal recording means 3 is composed of the both 1 and 2. The thermal head 1 is a so-called line recording head having a configuration in which a plurality of heating resistors are arranged in a line in a direction orthogonal to the recording medium conveyance direction. Reference numeral 4 denotes a heating element head having a heating resistor that applies heat energy for clouding to the recording material of the recording medium, and 5 denotes a heating element head drive that controls energization of the heating resistor included in the heating element head 4. It is a circuit, and these both 4 and 5 constitute the display portion clouding means 6. further,
7 is a position detection sensor for detecting the position of the recording medium, 8 is a platen roller, and 9 is a pair of conveying rollers. The platen roller 8 and the transport roller 9 are configured to interlock with each other by a drive system (not shown), and transport the recording medium (recording sheet) at a constant speed.

In the construction of the recording apparatus, the heating element head 4 constituting the display portion clouding means 6 is shown, for example, in a plan view in FIG. 2 and in a sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. It is configured. That is, the heating element head 4
Is, for example, on a ceramic substrate 4a surface with a thickness of 1 mm,
mm thick, thick film heating resistor 4b with a thickness of 20 μm
The power supply electrode 4c is formed on both ends of the power supply electrode 4c, and a protective film 4d made of crystallized glass is applied to the surface excluding the power supply electrode 4c to improve the surface property and to provide abrasion resistance. It has formed the structure. Then, by supplying required electric power to the heating element head 4, the heating resistor (thick film heating resistor) 4b is caused to generate heat, and the heating element head 4 is heated.
For recording material that repeats both white turbidity and transparent state depending on the temperature history that forms the display part of the recording medium that moves while contacting the surface,
It has the function of giving heat energy that can turn cloudy.

On the other hand, the recording medium (recording sheet) 10 is
As shown in FIG. 4 which is a cross-sectional view of the main structure of the supporting substrate 10,
On one main surface of a, a colored layer 10b, a recording layer 10c made of a recording material having the characteristics as shown in FIG. 8 reversibly showing two states of transparent and cloudy, and a protective layer 10d are sequentially laminated. The configuration consists of And in this example,
With the recording layer 10c being transparent and the colored layer 10b being the background color, recording is performed with the clouded state as a visible image. Also,
The visible image is erased by making the recorded cloudy image transparent. Recording medium used in this example
Ten recording layers 10c are transparentized at about 70 ° C to about 100 ° C, and
White turbidity is saturated at 0 ° C or higher. Here, the upper limit of the heating temperature is determined by the heat resistance of the protective layer 10d or the recording layer 10c, and was about 180 ° C. in the case of the recording material forming the recording layer 10c of the recording medium 10.

Next, the rewriting operation of recording on the recording medium 10 by the recording apparatus will be described. FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b) show the recording device having the above-described configuration, in which the character "N" recorded on the recording medium (recording sheet) 10 as the background color and the cloudy state as the recording image state 6 schematically shows the recording operation when rewriting to "T". First, FIG.
(a) shows an operation state in which the display portion of the recording medium 10 is clouded by the heating element head 4, and
The recording medium 10 on which the character “N” is recorded is conveyed to the heating element head 4 via the position detection sensor 7. Here, in the heating element head 4, the recording medium 10 is provided with thermal energy capable of making the display portion cloudy in accordance with the timing based on the output signal of the position detection sensor 7, and the display portion (recording layer) is recorded. The entire surface is opaque regardless of the presence or absence of an image (visible image).

FIG. 5 (b) shows an operation state in which recording is performed by the recording thermal head 1 on the recording medium 10 which is made entirely opaque by the heating element head 4, and the recording medium which is made completely opaque. In the display portion (recording layer portion) of 10, the portion corresponding to the space dot which does not form the image "T" by the recording thermal head 1 is selectively heated to the clearing temperature to change from the cloudy state to the transparent state. That is, in the recording layer portion that is not heated by the recording thermal head 1, the clouded state is maintained as it is, and thus the clouded image “T” is recorded. In the recording apparatus according to the present invention,
Rewritable recording is performed.

The heating element head 4 provided in the recording apparatus according to the present invention is heated by a pulse current to generate a heating resistor.
By heating 4b to heat the recording medium 10 and modulating the pulse width of the recording medium 10, the temperature of the display portion (recording layer 10c) of the recording medium 10 is controlled to be cloudy. That is, in synchronization with the recording timing based on the output signal of the position detecting sensor 7, immediately before the recording medium 10 reaches the position of the heating element head 4, the heating element head drive circuit causes the heating element head 4 to turn the heating element head 4 into the clouding temperature T _3. (110 ° C ~ 1 in this example)
Rapidly heat to 80 ℃. When the recording medium 10 reaches the position of the heating element head 4, it has reached the clouding temperature T ₃ (110 ° C. to 180 ° C. in this example). Recording medium given to 4
The 10 recording layers 10c are made cloudy. FIG. 6 shows how the temperature of the heating element head 4 changes due to the energizing pulse. In this embodiment, the recording head is started by continuously energizing (t) for 0.6 sec at the start of recording, and the temperature becomes the clouding temperature. By the way, constant heating was performed with the energization period of 10 ms (C) and the energization time (P) of 9 ms, and the energization was terminated when the energization pulse for the length of the recording medium 10 appeared.

As described above, the characteristic feature of the recording apparatus according to the present invention is that the recording area is temporarily made cloudy before rewriting recording on the recording medium. The usefulness of this recording operation and the circumstances leading to the present invention will be further described below. It is desirable that the recording of the image on the recording medium (recording sheet) 10 and the erasing of the image on the recording medium 10 can be repeated under the same recording and erasing conditions regardless of the usage history of the recording medium. Therefore, the present inventors have found that the following phenomenon often occurs in the low molecular weight / polymer composite film recording material forming the recording layer 10c of the recording medium 10. That is, as indicated by a circle in FIG. 7, when the clouded image is made transparent (erasing operation) under the same erasing condition after a certain period of time, the erasing condition becomes high depending on the standing time from image recording to erasing. It was found that the phenomenon of shifting to the energy side often occurs. In FIG. 7, the reflection density of the transparent image is high,
The reflection density of the cloudy image is low. This change is because the erasing condition optimally shifts to the high-energy side as the standing time of the cloudy image becomes longer, and the maximum value of the transparent density also decreases. Then, in such a state, when the erasure recording is performed under the same condition, the image to be erased cannot be completely erased, and there is a disadvantage that it remains as a ghost image together with the newly recorded image.

As a result of research on conditions under which the image recording apparatus can be erased / recorded under the same conditions irrespective of the standing time of the image recording apparatus, the present inventors have made the recording layer cloudy and then rewritten and recorded. As shown by the symbol Δ in FIG. 7, the present invention has been completed by finding that a cloudy image can be erased (made transparent) under the same erase condition regardless of the length of the standing time after the formation of the cloudy image. .. It is not clear why clouding before erasing rewrites eliminates the dependence of erasing conditions over time, but it is a weak force that contributes to stabilizing the cloudy / transparent state over time. It is considered that the state of being weakened by the energy of clouding is initialized.

In the above-described embodiment, the recorded image state is set when the recording layer (display section) 10c of the recording medium 10 exhibits a cloudy state. However, the transparent state is set as the recorded image state, and rewriting is performed by the thermal head thermal recording means 3. It can also be recorded. For example, in the above example, the character "N" is recorded with the cloudy state as the background color and the transparent state as the recorded image state.
Will be described as a recording operation for rewriting the character "T". The recording medium 10 on which the letter “N” is recorded by the carrying roller 9 is used for the heating element head 4 from the position detection sensor 7.
Is transported to the position. At the position of the heating element head 4,
In accordance with the timing based on the output signal of the position detection sensor 7, heat energy that can cause clouding is applied to the recording medium 10, and the entire recording layer (not shown) of the recording medium 10 is clouded regardless of the presence or absence of an image. It Then, the recording medium 10 having the entire recording layer opaque due to the above is sent (conveyed) to the position of the recording thermal head 1, and the recording thermal head 1
As a result, the recording layer portion forming the image "T" is heated to the clearing temperature, and the cloudy state is changed to the transparent state. That is, since the recording layer of the recording medium 10 heated by the recording thermal head 1 is selectively (partially) made transparent, the transparent image “T” is recorded. Even in this recording operation, the entire recording layer of the recording medium 10 is made cloudy before the character recording, and the recorded characters are completely erased regardless of the elapsed time after the character recording. The same effect as the case of the example was recognized.

In the above configuration example, the heating resistor 4b of the heating element head 4 of the display portion clouding means 6 is formed as a thick film type, but it may be a thin film type. The shape or structure thereof is not limited to the above-exemplified one as long as it is an electric resistance heating element capable of making the white turbid. Further, the energization for the clouding is not limited to the pulse method illustrated above, but the energization pulse method is preferable in terms of temperature control.

[0022]

According to the present invention, when rewriting to a recording medium (recording sheet) having a recording layer (display section) which repeats recording and erasing of a visible image by repeating clouding and transparency depending on temperature history, Regardless of the usage history of the recording medium,
It is possible to completely and completely erase the image to be erased and to rewrite the visible image easily and surely. That is, it can be said that the recording apparatus can always record a clear image in the repetition of recording and erasing of the visible image, and has many practical advantages in combination with the resource saving of the recording medium.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a main part of a recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a configuration example of a cloudy thermal head provided in the recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration example of a main part of a recording medium used in the recording apparatus according to the present invention.

5A and 5B are schematic diagrams for explaining different recording operation examples of the recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of energization pulses applied to the cloudy thermal head provided in the recording apparatus according to the present invention and changes in temperature thereof.

FIG. 7 is a curve diagram for explaining the characteristics of the recording operation of the recording apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Recording thermal head 2 ... Recording thermal head drive circuit 3 ... Thermal head thermal recording means 4 ... Heating element head 4a ... Ceramic substrate 4b ... Thick film heating resistor 4c ... Power supply electrode 4d ... Protective layer 5 ... Heating element head drive circuit 6 ... Display unit (recording layer) whitening means 7 ... Position detection sensor 8 ... Platen 9 ... Conveying roller 10 ... Recording medium 10a ... Support substrate
10b ... Colored layer 10c ... Recording layer (display section) 10d ...
Protective layer

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A recording medium conveying unit for conveying a recording medium having a display unit capable of repeatedly displaying and erasing a visible image by controlling thermal energy, and a display unit of the recording medium conveyed by the conveying unit. And a thermal recording means for forming a visible image on the display part of the turbid recording medium, wherein the display part opaque means is a resistance heating element and a heat generator. A recording device comprising a control unit. 2. The recording device according to claim 1, wherein the display portion clouding means controls a thin-film or thick-film heating resistor formed on a heat-conductive substrate, and a current-carrying controller for controlling current flow to the heating resistor. A recording device comprising: