JPH06227028A - Electrostatic recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform electrostatic recording with a high density by a recorder having a relatively simple structure by a method wherein a common electrode is so disposed as to be opposed to a control electrode in a pair with a positional shift by a predetermined amount. CONSTITUTION:An electric field is generated from an ion generation part 13 toward a charge image-receiving medium 2. Positive ions generated in the ion generation part 13 move toward the charge image-receiving medium 2 as an ion flow. Where V1 is an electric potential of a control electrode 113 mounted on a left insulating base 11 of a recording head 1, V2 is an electric potential of a control electrode 113 mounted on a right insulating base 11, and V3 is an electric potential of common electrodes 141 provided on the both sides of a substrate 14, the electric potential V1 is set equal to the potential V3 and the electric potential V2 is set higher than the potential V3. In this manner, positive ions can pass without any influence through an ion flow path formed by the left control electrode 113 and the left common electrode 141 to adhere to the charge image-receiving medium 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrostatic recording apparatus for forming a desired image by forming an electrostatic charge image (electrostatic latent image) on a charge receiving medium, and particularly to a charge receiving image. The present invention relates to improvement of a method for forming an electrostatic latent image on a medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional electrostatic recording apparatus of this type,
There was a device using the so-called ion flow system. For example, in the device described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-305474, a first member having a plurality of control electrodes arranged in an array,
The second member on which the common electrode is formed is assembled so that the respective electrodes face each other to form an ion flow path, and the ions from the ion generating unit are configured to move to the charge receiving medium through the gap. ing. Then, according to the recording signal, the plurality of control electrode groups are selectively actuated to allow or block the passage of the ions to form an electrostatic latent image.

[0003]

Such a conventional electrostatic recording device has a drawback that the recording density depends on the array density of the control electrodes. Therefore, in order to perform high-density recording, there is a drawback that the control electrodes of the recording head need to be finely formed, which makes manufacturing difficult.
In order to deal with such a point, it is possible to prepare a plurality of sets of recording heads configured as described above and shift the control electrode positions of each by a predetermined distance to adopt a so-called staggered arrangement type. However, there is a problem in that it is necessary to prepare a plurality of sets of the same recording head. The present invention improves on these points, and provides an electrostatic recording device having a relatively simple structure and capable of high-density recording.

[0004]

Therefore, in the present invention, therefore, the ion generating portion, the first member having a plurality of control electrodes arranged in a row, and the plurality of control electrodes arranged in a row. And a second electrode formed by controlling the first and second members so that their control electrode groups face each other and the positions of the control electrodes are shifted by a predetermined amount. A common electrode arranged between the control electrode groups facing each other of the control electrode structure, and a charge receiving medium arranged close to the control electrode structure, which are generated in the ion generating part. The control ions of the control electrodes and a common electrode disposed between the control electrodes are selectively attached to the charge image receiving medium to form an electrostatic charge image on the charge image receiving medium. did.

[0005]

Since the common electrode is formed between the control electrode pairs which are opposed to each other and are displaced from each other by a predetermined amount, the common electrode is formed between one control electrode and the central common electrode and the other. Ion flow paths are formed between the control electrode and the central common electrode. Further, the two control electrodes forming these ion flow paths are in a so-called staggered arrangement in which the individual control electrodes are displaced from each other by a predetermined amount. The electrostatic latent image includes a first electrostatic latent image formed by ions that have passed through one ion flow path and a second electrostatic latent image that has passed through the other ion flow path (for example, the first electrostatic latent image). It is deviated from the latent image by a half pitch.). The first electrostatic latent image and the second electrostatic latent image have a positional offset, but are electrically compensated when the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the moving charge receiving medium. .

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments of the drawings. 1 is a side view of a recording head of an electrostatic recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an essential part of the recording head shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a side view of the recording head concerned, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining latent image formation by the recording head shown in FIG. 3, and FIG.
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating latent image formation by the recording head of the electrostatic recording apparatus according to the example. In the figure, 1 is a recording head, 11 is an insulating substrate, 12 is an insulating plate, 13 is an ion generator, and 14 is a support.

An electrostatic recording apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The recording head 1 has the following configuration. A control IC 111 is mounted above the insulating substrate 11 and the control I
A conductor pattern 112 for input / output of C111 is formed. A plurality of control electrodes 113 each connected to the conductor pattern 112 are formed below the insulating substrate 11. As shown in FIG. 2, these control electrodes 113 are each formed as a conductor pattern and are sequentially arranged at a predetermined pitch in the longitudinal direction. Next, a pair of this insulating substrate 11 is prepared. Then, a control electrode structure is formed in such a manner that a corotron 13 as an ion generating part is sandwiched in the substantially central part of these insulating substrates 11 via an insulating plate 12. The corotron 13 is composed of a shield plate 131 and a corotron wire 132, and a large amount of positive ions are generated by applying a positive high potential VH to the corotron wire 132. In this case, the control electrode groups 113 are arranged to face each other and the control electrodes 13 formed on the insulating substrate 11 are offset by half a pitch. Therefore, this control electrode configuration is a so-called zigzag arrangement configuration in which the control electrodes 113 facing each other are displaced by a half pitch. The recording head 1 is formed by disposing the support 14 having the common electrodes 141 formed on both sides between the pair of control electrodes having such a control electrode configuration which face each other. In the apparatus of this embodiment, the charge receiving medium 2 has a negative electric potential and is configured to be movable in a predetermined direction by a feeding device (not shown).
Therefore, in the electrostatic recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1, an electric field is generated from the ion generating unit 13 toward the charge receiving medium 2, and the positive ions generated in the ion generating unit 13 move toward the charge receiving medium 2. A stream is formed.

Now, the potential of the control electrode 113 attached to the insulating substrate 11 on the left side of the recording head 1 is V1, and the potential of the control electrode 113 formed on the insulating substrate 11 on the right side is V2.
The potential of the common electrode 141 formed on both sides of the support 14 is V3. Here, V1 = V3, V2> V3, that is, the potential V1 of the control electrode 113 on the left side of the recording head 1 is set to the same potential as the potential V3 of the common electrode 141, and the recording head 1
When the potential V2 of the control electrode 113 on the right side of the above is made higher than the potential V3 of the common electrode 141, positive ions pass through the ion flow path formed by the control electrode 113 on the left side and the common electrode 141 on the left side without any influence. , Adhere to the charge receiving medium 2.
On the other hand, an electric field running from right to left is generated in the ion flow path formed by the right control electrode 113 and the right common electrode 141, and positive ions from the ion generating portion are absorbed by the common electrode 141, and the charge receiving medium 2 Does not form a charge image (latent image) on.
The common electrode 141 is a solid electrode extending in the longitudinal direction of the recording head 1, and a plurality of control electrodes 113 are arranged at predetermined intervals as shown in FIG. Forming a predetermined electrostatic latent image on the charge receiving medium 2 by making the potential of the control electrode the same as that of the common electrode 141 and making the potentials of the other control electrodes 113 higher than that of the common electrode 141. You can In this way, the electrostatic latent image formed on the charge receiving medium 2 is developed by a predetermined method to form a visible image.

FIG. 3 relates to the apparatus of the second embodiment of the present invention, in which the recording head 1 of FIG. In this case, the control electrodes A, D, E, and H provided on each insulating substrate 11 are displaced from each other by a half pitch, as shown in FIG. Here, each of B, C, F and G is a common electrode group. As shown in FIG. 4, the dual recording head 1 configured in this manner has control electrode groups (A, D, E, H) and common electrodes (B,
C, F, G) are arranged. Now, the recording signal is simultaneously applied to each control electrode group. Here, the control electrode group A is taken as an example to describe the recording status of this apparatus.
The recording signal given to the control electrode group A is performed at two timings. At the first timing, a recording signal is given to every other control electrode shown by the solid line arrow in FIG. A dot-on signal (a signal that has the same potential as the potential of the corresponding common electrode) is sent to the control electrode that should perform recording among these control electrodes.
A dot-off signal (a signal having a potential higher than that of the common electrode) is applied to the control electrodes that do not require recording. Further, at this time, all the control electrodes indicated by the broken line arrow are
A signal equivalent to the dot-off signal is given all at once. By controlling in this way, at the first timing, an electrostatic latent image is formed by the control electrode shown by the solid arrow. Next, the recording operation at the second timing is performed. At the second timing, a recording signal (dot-on signal or dot-off signal) is applied to the control electrode indicated by the broken line arrow.
Then, a signal equivalent to the dot-off signal is simultaneously given to the control electrodes indicated by the solid line arrow. As a result, at this second timing, an electrostatic latent image can be formed by the control electrode as viewed from the broken line arrow. Other control electrode groups (D, E,
F), the same timing as the control electrode group A, the first
And a second recording is performed. As described above, this recording head has four rows of control electrodes which are shifted from each other by half a pitch, and can perform high resolution recording. In the figure, the hatched portion shows the electric field formed by the dot-off signal of the control electrode, and shows the state in which positive ions passing between them are absorbed and blocked by the common electrode. Further, although each control electrode group has a positional offset, it is electrically compensated by delaying the application timing of the recording signal according to this offset amount.

FIG. 5 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. The difference from the previous embodiment is that between the control electrodes of each control electrode group (A, D, E, H). An off electrode SO is provided. A signal equivalent to the dot-off signal described above is always applied to the off electrode SO. Therefore, as shown in the figure, an electric field for absorbing moving ions is constantly generated between the OFF electrode and the common electrode facing the OFF electrode, and electrostatic fields are generated according to ON / OFF of the recording signal applied to each control electrode. A latent image is formed.
Therefore, the apparatus of this embodiment has an advantage that it is not necessary to divide the recording timing into two. A recording signal (dot-on signal or dot-off signal) may be simultaneously applied to each control electrode.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention, the common electrode is sandwiched in the area where the control electrode groups face each other, and the control electrodes of the control electrode groups which face each other are offset by a predetermined pitch. It is possible to realize an electrostatic recording device having a relatively simple structure and high resolution.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main part configuration diagram of an electrostatic recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the recording head shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of essential parts of an electrostatic recording apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a recording method of the recording apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a recording explanatory view according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: recording head 2: charge receiving medium

Front page continuation (72) Koichi Kinabata 503-10 Shinanomachi, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture Graphtec Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ion generator, and a first member having a plurality of control electrodes arranged in a row.
A plurality of control electrodes are arranged in a row and formed of a second member, and the first member and the second member are arranged so that their respective control electrode groups face each other and the positions of the respective control electrodes are set. A control electrode structure formed by shifting a predetermined amount, a common electrode arranged between the control electrode groups facing each other of the control electrode structure, and a charge image receiving medium arranged close to the control electrode structure. The charge receiving medium has the ions generated in the ion generating section selectively adhered to the charge receiving medium by each control electrode group having the control electrode configuration and a common electrode arranged between them. An electrostatic recording device characterized in that an electrostatic charge image is formed on the electrostatic recording device.