JPH05169796A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce power consumption and to shorten a warming-up time by providing a heating resistor in a recording body having a recording layer lowered in its sweepback contact angle upon the contact with a liquid under heating as an image removing heating means. CONSTITUTION:A belt like recording body 1 having a surface (recording layer) lowered in its sweepback contact angle upon the contact with a liquid in a heating state is constituted of a flexible recording substrate 10 and short strip like heating resistors 9. The belt like recording body 1 is stretched over supporting and driving rollers 3, 4 to be driven and a thermal head (h) and image removing electrodes 6, 6' are parallelly arranged. Both ends of heating resistors come into contact with the electrode 6 at an image removing position to supply a current to the resistors through the electrode 6. The heating resistors 9 successively receive the supply of a current along with the running of the recording body by always applying an electric field to the electrode 6 to remove an image.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus using a recording body having a surface which has a receding contact angle which decreases when heated and brought into contact with a liquid.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The present applicant has previously used a recording medium having a surface whose receding contact angle is reduced when it is heated and brought into contact with a liquid. Selectively select the surface of the recording material by heating it in contact with a contact material selected from liquid or solid that generates liquid or vapor at a temperature below the temperature at which the receding contact angle of the recording material begins to decrease. By making contact with the contact material in a state of being heated, a region showing a receding contact angle according to the heating temperature (a desired pattern region, called a latent image or a latent image region) is formed on the surface of the recording medium. A recording method characterized by the above, and selectively in a state where a surface of a recording material whose receding contact angle decreases when heated and in contact with a liquid, and a recording material containing a color developing material are in contact with each other. Heat or
A recording method has been proposed in which a visible image corresponding to the heating temperature is formed on the surface of the recording material by bringing the surface of the recording material into contact with the recording material while selectively heating the surface (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3).
-178,847).

That is, the invention described in the above publication uses as a recording body a member having a surface which has a receding contact angle which is low (increases liquid adhesion) when heated and brought into contact with a liquid. The present invention provides a recording method capable of selectively or selectively and reversibly forming a desired pattern area (latent image area) on the surface of a recording medium, and further containing a developer in the pattern area. If a recording agent (for example, liquid ink) is supplied, a good visible image can be obtained from the beginning, and this visible image can be fixed on the surface of the recording medium as it is, or the visible image can be transferred to plain paper without fixing. It is intended to provide a recording method which is fixed so that a clear image having gradation can be obtained. Further, according to the above-mentioned invention, in all the steps of forming / erasing a desired pattern area, visualizing, transferring, etc., a recording material having excellent storage stability and stability is used to reversibly perform the steps a plurality of times. A recording method that can be performed is provided.

As described in detail in the above publication, the recording medium has a low receding contact angle when heated and brought into contact with a contact material such as liquid or vapor (liquid adhesion is high. However, when the recording material surface is heated in the absence of the contact material, it does not interact with the contact material and returns to the original receding contact angle to erase the latent image. (Image removal). Therefore, by providing a means for heating in the state of contact with the contact material and a means for heating in the absence of the contact material, it is possible to form a recording device that can easily perform recording and erasing.

[0005]

Here, FIG. 4 shows an example of a recording apparatus using the recording method described in the above publication, and 21 in the figure has the above-mentioned property on the surface of a drum-shaped support. A recording medium having a recording layer, 22 is a recording material 23
Is a thermal head having a holding portion of 24, a ceramic heater for image removal, 25 is recording paper, and 26 is a transfer roller. In FIG. 4, in this recording apparatus, a recording material containing a color developing material is heated by the thermal head 22 while being in contact with the surface of the recording body 21, and a visible image corresponding to the heating temperature is formed on the surface of the recording body 21. Then, this visible image is transferred to the recording paper 25 and recorded. A ceramic heater 24 is used as the heating means for removing the image after the transfer, and the recording medium 2 is used.
The ceramic heater 24 is directly contacted with the back surface of the heating element 1 to heat it, or as shown in the figure, the ceramic heater 24 is arranged close to the surface of the recording layer of the recording body 21 and heated by air conduction. However, such a heating method has a problem that it takes time until the ceramic heater 24 reaches a constant temperature, and a long warm-up time is required. Furthermore, the ceramic heater must be constantly driven during use of the device, which consumes power. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is provided with a heating unit capable of reducing the power consumption required for the conventional heating during image removal and also shortening the warm-up time for heating. An object is to provide a recording device.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention of claim 1 comprises a recording medium having a surface whose receding contact angle decreases when it is heated and brought into contact with a liquid. A latent image is formed on the heating part by a method of selectively heating a contact member made of a liquid or a vapor or a solid that becomes a liquid or a vapor by heating in contact with the surface of the body to form a receding contact angle according to the heating temperature. To form a visible image (development) by contacting the latent image with a recording material containing a developer, and transfer (transfer) the visible image to recording paper. In a recording device that erases (removes) a latent image on a recording medium by heating the recording medium in the presence of
A heating resistor is provided inside the recording body.

Further, the invention of claim 2 is provided with a recording body having a surface whose receding contact angle is reduced when it is in a heated state and brought into contact with a liquid, and a recording containing a developing material on the surface of the recording body. The agent is heated in a contact state, a visible image corresponding to the heating temperature is formed on the heating portion, the visible image is transferred (transferred) to recording paper, and thereafter, the recording medium is formed in the absence of a contact member. In a recording apparatus that erases (removes) a latent image on a recording medium by heating the recording medium, a heating resistor is provided inside the recording medium.

[0008]

According to the inventions of claims 1 and 2, since the heating resistor is provided inside the recording body, the recording body itself can be heated by the heating resistor, and the problem at the time of image removal can be solved. it can.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1A and 1B are views showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a schematic configuration diagram of a recording device, and FIG. 1B is a partial perspective view of the recording device showing an enlarged portion A of FIG. .. Figure 1
In (a), reference numeral 1 is a recording body having a surface (recording layer) in which a receding contact angle is reduced when heated and brought into contact with a liquid, and the recording body 1 is formed in a belt shape, It is adapted to be rotated by supporting / driving rollers 3 and 4 which are interlocked with a driving device such as a motor. Further, reference numeral 2 in the drawing is a thermal head for heating recording,
The heating element portion of the thermal head 2 is provided with a holding portion for holding a recording material (liquid ink or the like) containing a latent image forming liquid or a color developing material, or a means for supplying the latent image forming liquid or the recording material. The surface of the body 1 can be heated while a recording agent containing a latent image forming liquid or a color developer is in contact therewith. Further, in the figure, reference numeral 5 is a cleaner for removing the recording agent remaining on the recording body 1, 6 is an image removing electrode arranged on both sides of the recording body 1, and 6'is arranged opposite to the electrode 6. The support roller 7 is a recording sheet for transferring a visible image, and 8 is a transfer roller.

In the recording medium 1, as shown in FIG. 1B, a strip-shaped heating resistor 9 is provided on a flexible recording medium substrate 10 in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the recording medium. On top of this,
The recording layer 11 is formed so that both ends of the heating resistor 9 are left. Therefore, in the recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1A, the electrode 6 is provided at the image removing position, and both ends of the heat generating resistor 9 of the recording body 1 are in contact with the electrode 6 at the image removing position. .. In this case, an electric field is always applied to the electrodes 6, and the heating resistors 9 are brought into contact with the electrodes 6 one after another as the recording body 1 moves during recording, and the electrodes 6 are heated to be in an energized state, so that the recording layer 11 in that portion is heated. Is to be removed.

If the strip-shaped heating resistors 9 are arranged at intervals, the number of times of energization is reduced and the power consumption is reduced. Further, at the time of non-recording, if the electrode 6 and the heating resistor 9 are stopped at a position where they do not come into contact with each other, electricity is not supplied, and power consumption is reduced. Further, in the recording apparatus of the present invention, the heating resistor 9 is provided inside the recording body 1, so that the recording body itself generates heat. Therefore, it is necessary to warm up as compared with the conventional heating by heat conduction from the outside. There is no. If a conductive member is arranged downstream of the position of the electrode 6 in the moving direction of the recording medium and the heating resistor 9 is heated and then brought into contact with the conductive member, the heat is immediately conducted. Since it is conducted to the conductive member, there is no concern about heat accumulation in the recording body 1 during repeated recording. As a method of contacting the heating resistor 9 and the electrode 6 in the recording medium, the roller-shaped electrode 6 is supported by a spring member or the like so as to be pressed against the supporting roller 6 ′, and exposed at the end of the recording medium. There is a method in which both ends of the heat generating resistor 9 are passed between the roller-shaped electrode 6 and the support roller 6'and the electrode 6 is pressed against the heat generating resistor 9. Further, heating between the strip-shaped heating resistors is performed by heat conduction.

The strip-shaped heat generating resistor 9 is preferably formed on the recording body 1 by a PVD method such as vapor deposition or sputtering, or a coating method of a conductive member such as screen printing.
The substrate 10 is preferably insulative. The width and interval of the strip-shaped heating resistors 9 differ depending on the thickness of the recording body 1 and the recording density of the image, and the shape is designed according to each case. Further, the shape of the strip-shaped heat generating resistor 9 is not limited to the rectangular shape, and the uneven shape as shown in FIG.
The zigzag shape as described above may be used, and the uniform heating becomes possible by adopting such a shape. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the electrodes 6 may be arranged at a plurality of positions in the moving direction of the recording body 1 so that the electrodes 6 and the heating resistors 9 are contacted with each other a plurality of times. In the illustrated embodiment, the recording body is formed in the shape of a belt, but the recording body may be in the shape of a drum (cylindrical), and a heating resistor can be provided inside the recording body by the same method.

Now, in the recording apparatus having the configuration of FIG.
At the time of recording, the recording body 1 is rotated by the supporting / driving rollers 3 and 4, and the surface of the recording body 1 is selectively heated by the thermal head 2 while the recording material containing the color developing material is in contact with the heating temperature. A latent image and a visible image are formed on the heating portion by a method of forming a receding contact angle according to the above. When the latent image is formed and then developed, a latent image forming liquid such as pure water is used for the heating contact portion, and a developing device is arranged downstream of the thermal head 2 (not shown). After the image is formed, a visible image is formed by bringing the latent image into contact with a recording material containing a developing material by a developing device. The visible image thus formed on the recording body 1 is
The transfer roller 8 transfers the recording paper 7 to the recording paper 7 which is conveyed at the same speed as the recording body 1 and is fixed on the recording paper 7. The recording material remaining on the surface of the recording material after transfer is removed by the cleaner 5,
After that, the recording body 1 is heated by the heating resistor 9 as described above, the latent image is removed, and the initial state is restored.

Next, a concrete embodiment of the recording apparatus according to the present invention will be described. How to make a recording. Recording layer material: Fluorine-containing acrylate material Viscoat 17
F (Osaka Organic Chemical Industry). Synthesis method: solution polymerization ... Solution: 1-1-1 trichloroethane. Recording substrate: A polyimide film cylinder having a diameter of 100 mm. Strip-shaped heating resistors were formed on the cylinder by screen printing at a width of 2 mm and at intervals of 0.5 mm so as to fill the width of the cylinder. Carbon black was used for the heating resistor. Coating method: Solution-polymerizing a fluorine-containing acrylate material as a recording layer material with a 1-1-1 trichloroethane solution, and then diluting the purified polymer with Freon 113,
The cylindrical substrate after the heating resistor was formed was dip-coated.
Then, it dried at 130 degreeC for 1 hour. Ink used: Water-based black ink Latent image forming liquid: Pure water Energization condition during image removal: 50V, 2A As a result of recording with the above configuration, a good visible image was obtained and the warm-up time was the same as in the past. No longer needed, and power consumption could be reduced.

[0015]

As described above, in the inventions of claims 1 and 2, since the heating resistor is provided inside the recording body,
Since the recording body itself can be heated by the heating resistor, the power consumption required for heating during image removal can be reduced, and the warm-up time for heating can be greatly shortened. The power consumption can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A and 1B are diagrams showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a schematic configuration diagram of a recording device, and FIG. 1B is a partial perspective view of the recording device showing an enlarged portion A of FIG. is there.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are plan views showing configuration examples of heat generating resistors provided inside a recording medium.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram in the case of disposing a plurality of electrodes for energizing a heating resistor.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of a conventional recording apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Recording body 2 ... Thermal head 3,4 ... Supporting / driving roller 5 ... Cleaner 6 ... Image removing electrode 6 '... Supporting roller 7 ... Recording paper 8 ... Transfer roller 9 ... Heating resistor 10 ... Recording substrate 11 ... Recording layer

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A recording medium having a surface whose receding contact angle decreases when it is in a heated state and brought into contact with a liquid, and the surface of the recording medium is made of a liquid or a vapor or a solid which becomes a liquid or a vapor by heating. A contact member is selectively heated to form a receding contact angle according to the heating temperature to form a latent image on the heating portion, and the latent image is contacted with a recording agent containing a developer. Then, a visible image is formed (developed), this visible image is transferred (transferred) to the recording paper, and then the recording medium is heated in the absence of the contact member to erase the latent image on the recording medium. A recording apparatus for (image removal), wherein a heating resistor is provided inside the recording body. 2. A recording medium having a surface in which a receding contact angle decreases when heated and brought into contact with a liquid, and a recording medium containing a color developer is heated on the surface of the recording medium. Then, a visible image corresponding to the heating temperature is formed on the heating part,
In the recording apparatus, the visible image is transferred (transferred) onto a recording paper, and then the latent image on the recording medium is erased (deimaged) by heating the recording medium in the absence of a contact member. A recording apparatus having a heating resistor provided therein.