JPH06208317A - Decolorizing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a decoloring device light in weight and compact, which can efficiently decolorize toner capable of being photochemically decolorized while preventing the warpage and the wrinkle of a sheet body and whose decolorizing time per sheet is short. CONSTITUTION:This decolorizing device 1 is constituted of a paper feed cassette 11 housing the fixed sheet body 10 which can be photochemically decolorized, a paper feed roller 12, guiding members 13 and 14, endless belts 15 and 16 for carrying the sheet body 10 while interposing it between both surface sides, a light source 24 for irradiating a toner image on the sheet body with near infrared rays simultaneously with radiating and heating it, a convex mirror 25 condensing light radiated from the light source 24, and a paper ejection tray 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an erasing device for erasing a photochemically erasable toner fixed on a sheet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, the reuse and recycling of used papers and plastics has been reviewed to protect the earth's resources. Regarding the reuse of documents in which highly confidential information is recorded, Since it is difficult to request an outside reclaimer, most of them are amortized or crushed.

[0003]

In order to solve such a problem, the color of ink or toner fixed on the recording medium is erased while maintaining the shape of the recording medium.
Toner that can be reproduced as a plain recording medium,
It is proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 3-277725. When electrostatic radiation is performed using such toner, it is possible to erase the recorded image by irradiating near-infrared rays to the image recorded on a sheet body such as copy paper or the recorded image such as printing. Therefore, the recording medium can be easily reused.

However, there has been a problem that a decoloring device capable of decolorizing a photochemically decolorable toner efficiently and quickly has not been developed so far.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to efficiently erase a photochemically erasable toner, to reduce the erasing time per sheet, and to make it lightweight and compact. It is to provide a color device.

[0006]

The present invention is directed to a light source for irradiating a toner image formed of a photochemically decolorizable toner on a sheet body with near infrared rays, and a light source side of the sheet body. And a light-transparent belt for transporting the sheet body while being in contact with the erasing device.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a second member for conveying the sheet body while being in contact with a side of the sheet body opposite to the light source.
It is characterized by having a belt.

Further, the present invention is characterized by comprising a plurality of light sources for irradiating near-infrared rays from both surface sides of a sheet body on which a toner image is formed by a photochemically decolorizable toner. It is an erasing device.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the light source for irradiating the near infrared rays to the toner image formed by the photochemically decolorizable toner formed on the sheet body and the light source side of the sheet body are in contact with each other, By providing a light-transparent belt for transporting the sheet body, it is possible to perform the decoloring treatment while pressing the sheet body uniformly over the entire surface, so that the stress applied to the sheet body during the decoloring treatment. And its distribution fluctuation are reduced, and it is possible to prevent occurrence of deformation such as warp or wrinkle of the sheet body after the erasing process.

Further, by providing the second belt for conveying the sheet body while contacting the side opposite to the light source of the sheet body, it is possible to perform the erasing process while sandwiching the sheet body from both sides. Therefore, the stress applied to the sheet body during the erasing process and its distribution variation are further reduced, and the deformation of the sheet body can be suppressed.

Further, according to the present invention, a sheet body on which a toner image is formed by a photochemically decolorizable toner is provided with a plurality of light sources for irradiating near infrared rays from both sides of the sheet body. Since the amount of light irradiation on the toner image on the sheet is almost doubled, the time required for the erasing process can be shortened.

[0012]

EXAMPLES First, the toner used in the present invention will be described. The toner is a photochemically decolorizable toner, in particular, a decoloring toner that decolorizes by absorbing near-infrared rays, and examples of a large number of composition examples and other components constituting the toner such as a sensitizer, The details of the appearance of the decoloring action of the toner of each composition example are described in Japanese Patent Application No. 3-27725. Therefore, in this embodiment, several examples of the decolorizable toner will be shown. The present invention is not limited to the examples of this embodiment, but includes a wide variety of modifications in accordance with the spirit of the present invention.

Such an erasable toner is, for example, constituted by dispersing a dye and an organic boron ammonium salt in a styrene resin. The dye is represented by, for example, the following (Chemical formula 1) or (Chemical formula 2).

[0014]

[Chemical 1]

[0015]

[Chemical 2]

The styrene resin is widely used as a binder resin for toner. The above (Chemical formula 1) and (Chemical formula 2)
The dye represented by is one of the cyanine dyes and has a wavelength of 820 when coexisted with an organic boron ammonium salt.
Irradiation with near-infrared rays in the vicinity of nm absorbs the near-infrared rays to cause an irreversible reaction, and the blue color disappears to become colorless. As the organic boron ammonium salt, for example, tetrabutylammonium n-butyltriphenylboron represented by the following (Chemical Formula 3) is used.

[0017]

[Chemical 3]

Next, the erasing device according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of an erasing device 1 which is an embodiment of the present invention. The erasing device 1 includes a sheet feeding cassette 11 for accommodating a sheet body 10 made of paper or plastic on which the photochemically erasable toner is fixed.
A paper feed roller 12 for taking out the sheet body 10 in the paper feed cassette 11, a guide member 13 for guiding the sheet body,
14, 41, 42, endless belts 15, 16 for conveying the sheet body while sandwiching it from both sides, and rollers 17, 18, 19 for mounting the endless belt 15,
Rollers 20, 21 for mounting the endless belt 16
The cleaning rollers 22 and 23 for keeping the surfaces of the endless belts 15 and 16 clean, and the toner fixed on the sheet body to the binder resin of the toner through the endless belts 15. A light source 24 for radiatively heating above the glass transition temperature and at the same time irradiating near infrared rays, and a light source 2.
4, a concave mirror 25 for condensing the light emitted from 4 onto the sheet body located between the endless belts 15 and 16, and a paper discharge tray 3 for receiving the sheet body discharged from the endless belts 15 and 16. It is composed of a housing 2 for holding and storing these.

The endless belt 15 has a light transmitting property capable of passing the radiant heat ray for heating the toner emitted from the light source 24 and the near infrared ray for erasing the toner with a low loss and having a good heat resistance, For example, polysulfone, polyether sulfone, polyarylate (U-polymer), polyamide imide, polyether imide, polyimide, polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate and the like are used, and polyimide having excellent heat resistance is particularly preferable.

The light source 24 is preferably one that can efficiently generate a large amount of near infrared rays and radiant heat rays immediately after energization. For example, a halogen lamp is used.

Next, this operation will be described. The sheet body 10 housed in the paper feed cassette 11 is the paper feed roller 1
2 are taken out one by one and guided by the guide members 13 and 14 along the chain double-dashed line in the figure to form the endless belts 15 and 16
Is sent to the gap. The sheet body is an endless belt 1.
It is sandwiched by 5 and 16 with a uniform and low pressing force over the entire surface, is conveyed at a predetermined speed, and is subjected to radiant heating and near infrared irradiation by the light source 24. Therefore, the stress applied to the sheet body and the variation in the distribution thereof are extremely small, the sheet body can be prevented from being jammed, that is, the so-called jam can be prevented, and the endless belts 15 and 16 having a constant heat capacity can be provided on both sides of the sheet body. Since it exists, the local temperature rise of the seat body is mitigated, and the seat body burning accident can be prevented. In order to increase the density of light power applied to the sheet body, it is preferable that an elliptic mirror is used as the concave mirror 25, and the light source 24 and the sheet conveying path are arranged at respective focal positions of the elliptic mirror. The sheet body that has been subjected to the erasing process is discharged to the paper feed tray 3 via the guide members 41 and 42 by the conveyance of the endless belts 15 and 16. Note that, by making the diameters of the rollers 19 and 21 on the paper discharge side smaller than those of the other rollers 17 and 20, the winding of the sheet body 10 is prevented.

In this way, by the time the sheet body 10 once recorded with the toner is conveyed from the paper feed cassette 11 to the discharge tray 3, the sheet body is prevented from being heated and deformed, and the sheet body is erased efficiently and quickly. To be colored. It should be noted that the sheet body that has not been erased even by one-time erase processing can be erased more reliably by returning it to the sheet feeding cassette 11 again and performing the erase processing many times.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the structure of the erasing apparatus 1 which is another embodiment of the present invention. The erasing apparatus 1 in this embodiment has the same configuration as that shown in FIG. 1, except that the belt 15a for conveying the sheet body 10 is a long belt. The belt 15a is made of a material that is transparent to light and has good heat resistance.
It is wound around 0,51.

Explaining this operation, as in FIG. 1, the sheet bodies 10 accommodated in the sheet feeding cassette 11 are taken out one by one by the sheet feeding roller 12, and are guided along the two-dot chain line in the figure. , 14 and belt 15a
And is delivered to the gap between the endless belt 16. Next, the sheet body is conveyed while being sandwiched between the belt 15a and the endless belt 16, and is subjected to radiant heating and near infrared ray irradiation by the light source 24. The sheet body that has thus been subjected to the erasing process is discharged to the paper discharge tray 3 via the guide members 41 and 42.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the structure of the erasing apparatus 1 which is another embodiment of the present invention. The erasing device 1 in the present embodiment has the same configuration as that shown in FIG. 1, except that another light source 26 and a concave mirror 27 for performing radiant heating and near-infrared irradiation on the sheet body, and an endless The difference is that a roller 28 for mounting the belt 16 is added. In addition, the endless belt 16 is formed of a material having light transparency and good heat resistance, like the endless belt 15.

This operation will be described. As in FIG. 1, the sheet bodies 10 housed in the sheet feeding cassette 11 are taken out one by one by the sheet feeding roller 12, and are guided along the two-dot chain line in the figure. , 14 and is fed into the gap between the endless belts 15, 16. Next, the sheet body
The sheet is conveyed while being sandwiched between the endless belts 15 and 16, and receives radiant heating and near-infrared irradiation by the light sources 24 and 26 from both sides. Since the sheet body is extremely thin such as paper or plastic, it is possible to pass radiant heat rays and near infrared rays with low loss. Therefore, the amount of light irradiation on the toner image on the sheet body is increased by about twice, and the erasing efficiency is significantly improved. The sheet body that has been subjected to the erasing process in this way is discharged to the discharge tray 3 via the guide members 41 and 42 by the conveyance of the endless belts 15 and 16.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the structure of the erasing apparatus 1 which is another embodiment of the present invention. The erasing apparatus 1 in the present embodiment has the same structure as that shown in FIG. 1, but in the light emitted from the light source 24 and the concave mirror 25, the endless belt 15, the sheet body, and the endless belt 16 are arranged in this order. The difference is that a light reflecting member 30 such as a mirror for reflecting the passing light again toward the sheet body, a rod-shaped heater 31 for heating the endless belt 15 itself, and a pressing roller 43 are added. . The rod-shaped heater 31 is composed of a heater unit in which a heating resistance layer and an overcoat layer are formed on an alumina substrate, a thermistor for temperature detection, and the like. We are trying to shorten the temperature and stabilize the temperature.

This operation will be described. As in FIG. 1, the sheet bodies 10 accommodated in the sheet feeding cassette 11 are taken out one by one by the sheet feeding roller 12 and are guided along the two-dot chain line in the figure. , 14 and is fed into the gap between the endless belts 15, 16. Next, the sheet body
It is conveyed while being sandwiched between the endless belts 15 and 16, and is subjected to radiant heating and near-infrared irradiation by the light source 24. Since the endless belt 15 is heated to a predetermined temperature by the rod-shaped heater 31, the endless belt 15 is radiantly heated and irradiated with near-infrared rays by heat conduction from the endless belt 15 to the sheet. Therefore, it is possible to shorten the time required to reach the temperature required for the decoloring process. Further, by radiating the radiant heat rays and the near infrared rays that have passed through the sheet body toward the sheet body again by the light reflecting member 30, it is possible to improve the light utilization efficiency and improve the decoloring processing efficiency. The sheet body that has thus been subjected to the erasing process is discharged to the discharge tray 3 through the guide members 41 and 42 by the conveyance of the endless belts 15 and 16.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the structure of the erasing apparatus 1 which is another embodiment of the present invention. The erasing apparatus 1 in this embodiment has the same structure as that shown in FIG. 1, but a rod-shaped heater 31 and a pressing roller 43 for heating the endless belt 15 itself are added, and the endless belt of FIG. Instead of the sheet conveying system such as the belt-shaped belt 16 and the rollers 20 and 21, the registration rollers 45 and 46 and the guide member 5 are provided.
2, 53, 54, 55, 56 are different.

Explaining this operation, as in the case of FIG. 1, the sheet bodies 10 accommodated in the sheet feeding cassette 11 are taken out one by one by the sheet feeding roller 12 and conveyed along the two-dot chain line in the figure. On the way, it is delivered to the gap between the endless belt 15 and the guide member 55 through the registration rollers 45 and 46 via the guide members 52 and 53. Next, the sheet body is conveyed by a frictional force with the endless belt 15, is carried in between the rod-shaped heater 31 and the pressing roller 43 and heated to a predetermined temperature, and is subsequently conveyed along the guide member 56. Meanwhile, it receives radiant heating and near-infrared irradiation by the light source 24. By forming the surface of the guide member 56 into a light-reflecting mirror surface like the light-reflecting member 30 of FIG. 4, the amount of light irradiation on the toner image on the sheet can be increased. The sheet body that has thus been subjected to the erasing process is conveyed by the roller 47 and is ejected to the paper ejection tray via the guide members 41 and 42.

[0031]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to shorten the heating time and the light irradiation time to the sheet body while preventing the deformation of the sheet body. It is possible to provide a small and lightweight decoloring device, which can be efficiently and quickly performed.

In this way, when the sheet body is reused by using the erasing apparatus according to the present invention, large-scale equipment is not required, and the reuse in each company can be easily carried out.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of an erasing device 1 which is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a color erasing device 1 which is another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a color erasing device 1 which is another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a color erasing device 1 which is another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a color erasing device 1 which is another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Decoloring device 2 Housing 3 Paper discharge tray 10 Sheet body 11 Paper feed cassette 12 Paper feed rollers 13, 14, 41, 42, 52, 53, 54, 55, 5
6 Guide Member 15, 16 Endless Belt 15a Belt 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 47 Roller 24, 26 Light Source 25, 27 Concave Mirror 22, 23 Cleaning Roller 30 Light Reflecting Member 31 Rod Heater 43 Pressing Roller 45, 46 Registration roller 50, 51 Core roller

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kiichi Hosoda 5-1 Ogimachi, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Showa Denko K.K.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A light source for irradiating a toner image formed by a photochemically decolorable toner formed on a sheet body with near infrared rays, and the sheet body while contacting the light source side of the sheet body. An erasing device, comprising: a light-transparent belt for transporting the sheet. 2. The erasing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a second belt for conveying the sheet body while being in contact with a side of the sheet body opposite to the light source. 3. A erasing device comprising a plurality of light sources for irradiating near-infrared rays from both surface sides of a sheet body on which a toner image formed of a photochemically erasable toner is formed. .