JPH06297810A - Plain paper regenerating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a device capable of regenerating plain paper printed with characters and graphics by an electrophotographic copying machine or the like in a simple and easy manner within a short time without dependence on an organization for a sorted recovery. CONSTITUTION:A transport means 60 is provided with a rotating drum 24. On the peripheral surface of the rotating drum 24, a heating and fretting means 30, an applying means 40, and a drying means 50 are disposed in the rotating direction thereof. With the rotation of the rotating drum 24, plain paper is transported. The heating and fretting means 30 is provided with a thermal head 31. The thermal head 31 melts and frets a toner on the plain paper by coming into slide contact with the plain paper rotating together with the rotating drum 24. The applying means 40 provided with an application roller 45 and a transfer roller 44 applies an opaque coating material to a copying surface of the plain paper by transferring the opaque coating material between the application roller 45 and the transfer roller 44.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plain paper recycling apparatus, and more particularly to a plain paper recycling apparatus suitable for playing back plain paper on which characters and figures are copied by an electrophotographic copying machine or the like. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, ordinary paper on which characters and figures (including pictures) have been copied by an electrophotographic copying machine is collected, melted and recycled as deinked pulp (for those handled as confidential documents, Although the cut pieces are collected and subjected to the same treatment and recycled), the amount is very small, and most of them are incinerated or transported to a garbage disposal site and disposed of.

Further, there has been proposed an invention of a reproducing apparatus which can be used by cleaning special paper (erasable paper) having a release treatment on its surface (for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. Hei 4- (See Japanese Patent No. 64472).

[0004]

Problems to be Solved by the Invention The copied plain paper is
As mentioned above, it is often incinerated or transported and wasted, which is a waste of valuable resources. In addition, recently, the disposal space has become smaller due to the increase in paper consumption accompanying OA. It's starting. It is recommended to separate and recycle the waste to solve these problems, but it requires a lot of labor and becomes expensive, so it depends on a large company for collection, or in a specific area or a specific building. It has only been implemented by forming a collection organization in general households in local governments that are active in the effective use of multiple companies and resources of Has not arrived. As a result, there is a need for recovery and recovery, and although encouraged, the situation is lacking.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to recycle plain paper on which characters and figures are copied by an electrophotographic copying machine or the like easily and easily in a short time without depending on the organization for separate collection. It is to provide a paper recycling apparatus.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a plain paper recycling apparatus according to the present invention comprises a heating rubbing means for heating and rubbing a copying surface of plain paper which has been copied, and a heating rubbing means by the heating rubbing means. The application means for applying the opaque paint to the copy surface of the prepared plain paper, the drying means for drying the opaque paint applied by the applying means, and the heating rubbing means, the applying means and the drying means are provided between the means. It is provided with a conveying means for sequentially conveying plain paper.

The above-mentioned conveying means is provided with a rotating drum, and each means of said heating scraping means, coating means and drying means is arranged in the drum rotating direction around this rotating drum,
It is effective to convey and recycle plain paper as the rotary drum rotates.

Further, it is preferable that the heating and rubbing means is provided with a thermal head, and the thermal head contacts and slides on the plain paper rotating together with the rotary drum to melt and scrape the toner on the plain paper.

Further, it is preferable that the application means includes an application roller and a transfer roller, and the opaque paint is transmitted by transfer between the application roller and the transfer roller to apply the opaque paint to the copy surface of the plain paper.

[0010]

[Operation] When plain paper that has been copied is loaded into the machine, the thermal head, which constitutes the heating scraping means, slides in contact with the plain paper that rotates with the rotating drum, and the paper surface of the plain paper is fused. The toner is heated to a temperature above the glass transition temperature at which its physical properties change drastically and rubbed where it has melted fluidity, so that the toner is spread on the paper surface and the contour of the original image is lost to make it unreadable. After that, an opaque paint (ink) is applied to make the surface of the paper blank, and the paper is reused. Since the paper can be recycled as it is without being subjected to the dissolution treatment, no large-scale systematic collection work is required, and when the paper is desired to be recycled at the workplace or at home, it can be immediately and easily regenerated in a short time. By changing the color of the opaque paint, the recycled paper can be converted to a desired color tone.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a plain paper recycling apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a plain paper recycling device 20 includes a heating rubbing means 30 for heating and rubbing a copy surface of a copied plain paper, and an application for applying an opaque paint to the copying surface of the plain paper heated and rubbed by the heating rubbing means 30. A means 40, a drying means 50 for drying the opaque coating material applied by the applying means 40, and a conveying means for sequentially conveying the plain paper between the heating rubbing means 30, the coating means 40 and the drying means 50. Means 60 are provided.
The conveying means 60 is provided with a rotating drum 24, and the heating scraping means 30, the coating means 40, and the drying means 50 are arranged in the drum rotating direction around the rotating drum 24. With the rotation, the printed plain paper A is conveyed and the recycled paper B is obtained.

Of these, the heating scraping means 30 is a thermal head 31 incorporating an electric heater, and the thermal head 3
It is equipped with a coil spring 32 for urging the thermal head 1 to bring the thermal head 31 into contact with the rotary drum 24. Thus, the thermal head 31 slides in contact with the plain paper rotating with the rotary drum 24 to melt and scrape the toner on the plain paper. In order to reuse the copied plain paper, it is necessary to process the original image (visual image such as characters and pictures) into an unreadable state. In this respect, in particular, if the rubbing of a confidential document is insufficient, inconvenience occurs, so it is important to surely perform the heating rubbing by the heating rubbing means 30. A toner used in an electrophotographic copying machine or the like is fine particles in which a pigment such as carbon black is dispersed in a hot-melt resin, and the fine particles are fused to the surface of paper to form an image. For this reason, the fused toner on the paper surface is rubbed when heated to a temperature above the glass transition temperature (90 to 120 ° C.) at which its physical properties change rapidly to impart melt fluidity to spread the toner on the paper surface. The outline of the original image is lost to make it unreadable. After that, in the next step, an opaque paint is applied to make the paper surface blank (no image is present) for reuse.

The coating means 40 is a plain paper recycling device 2
0, a paint reservoir 41 for accommodating the opaque paint (ink), a roller 42 for stirring the opaque paint in the paint reservoir 41, and a paint roller partially immersed in the opaque paint. The roller 43, a transfer roller 44 for transferring an opaque coating material from the coating roller 43 to the coating roller 45, and a doctor blade 46 for scraping off the residual coating material attached to the coating roller 43. Thus, the opaque paint is transferred by the transfer between the rollers to apply the opaque paint to the copy surface of the plain paper, and the paper surface is left blank for reuse.

The transfer roller 44 and the coating roller 45 are constructed so that their axial centers can be moved slightly to the right in FIG. 1, and by moving the transfer roller 44, the coating roller 44 is moved. The coating roller 45 can be separated from the roller 43 and the coating roller 45, and accordingly, the coating roller 45 can be separated from the rotary drum 24. By moving the transfer roller 44, the distance between the drum 24 and the coating roller 45 is adjusted to control the thickness of the opaque coating material applied to the conveyed plain paper. At that time, the opaque paint is 5-10
It should be applied at about g / square meter. As the opaque paint, a white pigment such as titanium dioxide or calcium carbonate mixed with an adhesive may be used.

Further, the drying means 50 includes a fan and a heater.
It is configured such that warm air (not shown) is discharged from the outlet 51.

The outer plate 2 in the plain paper recycling apparatus 20.
0a has a feed tray containing plain paper for recycling on one end surface-2
1. Receipt tray 22 that receives plain paper that has just been recycled
You can attach and detach. The supply tray-21
The plain paper is stored with the copy side down. The rotary drum 24 is rotatably supported by the frame of the apparatus main body in the center of the inside of the plain paper recycling device 20, and as described above, around the rotary drum, a supply means 26, which will be described later, and A plurality of rollers constituting the heating scraping means 30, the coating means 40, the drying means 50, and the carrying means 60 for carrying plain paper.
60a to 60n are provided. Further, inside the plain paper recycling apparatus 20, a control unit 70 for controlling the driving of each of these means is provided.

The supply means 26 is the supply tray-21.
Feeding rotor 27 for pulling out the lowest one of the plain papers for recycling stored through the lower opening of the front end of the sheet by friction.
a, transport rotor 27b, motors for driving these rotors
And a belt 29.

The plain paper recycling apparatus 20 as a whole performs the plain paper recycling process based on the turning on and off of the power switch on the operation panel (not shown) operated by the user. Although not shown for simplification, the above-mentioned supply tray-2
1 or the presence / absence of the receiving tray 22, the presence / absence of plain paper in the supplying tray-21, the full paper full condition in the receiving tray-22, the amount of paint in the paint reservoir 41, and the rotating drum 2.
Sensors for detecting plain paper being conveyed around 4 are installed at the front and rear of each means and at the boundary, and the sensor output which detects the loading / unloading of plain paper by each means is sent to the control unit 70. Based on the information, the control unit 70 controls the power supply of the drive motor 28 and the thermal head 31 to be turned on and off, and operates the transfer roller 44 to operate the stirring roller 4.
2 to contact the coating rollers 45, and further, hot air is ejected from the air outlet 51. When the plain paper is carried out from each means, the operation is interrupted until the next plain paper is carried into each means.

Reference numeral 90 is a plain paper recycling apparatus 2 according to the present invention.
0 is a table for the office room, and a tray 91 for storing the used recycled plain paper on the shelf 91 and a tray 9 for storing the recycled plain paper on the plain paper recycling device 20.
3 and 3 are placed.

Next, the reproduction of plain paper will be described in association with plain paper conveyance. Now, when a power switch (not shown) is turned on, the presence / absence of the supply tray-21 and the reception tray-22, the presence / absence of plain paper in the supply tray-21, the reception tray-22
The sensor checks the plain paper full condition, the amount of paint in the paint reservoir 41, etc., and if the amount of paint is reduced, for example, a warning lamp installed together with the power switch on the operation panel (not shown) is turned on.

When the preparatory conditions are satisfied, for example, by replenishing the paint, first, the drive motor 28 is used to feed out.
The paper 27a is rolled to feed plain paper from the supply tray 21. Since the transport rotor 27b is in contact with the rotary drum 24, the plain paper A is sandwiched between them and the plain paper A is sent to the heating scraping means 30 in accordance with the rotation speed of the rotary drum 24.

In the heating scraping means 30, electric power is supplied to the thermal head 31 at the same time when the drive motor 28 is started, and the heating head 31 is controlled to a predetermined temperature higher than the glass transition temperature of the toner. The thermal head 31 lightly contacts the copy surface of the plain paper A to melt the toner of the image. In addition, rubbing is automatically performed by transporting plain paper, and the image becomes unclear. Figure 2 (a)
Is an image of plain paper before passing through the heating scraping means 30, and FIG.
(B) shows images of plain paper after passing. The feeding rotor 27a continues feeding one by one as long as plain paper is present in the feeding tray-21.

In the coating means 40, the rollers 42 to 45 are rotated shortly before the plain paper arrives so that the thickness of the opaque paint on the coating roller 45 is made uniform. At this time, the opaque paint is applied to the rotary drum 24, but since it is immediately dried by the hot air discharged from the air outlet 51, the paint applying portion of the rotary drum 24 rotates and comes into contact with the back surface of the new plain paper. Even if it does not cause any problems. The coating roller 45 uniformly applies the paint to the copy surface of the plain paper on which the image has become unclear to hide the residual toner image.

The opaque paint on the plain paper is immediately dried by the hot air discharged from the air outlet 51. The heat applied to the paper surface by the thermal head 31 also contributes to the drying. Then, while being conveyed to the receiving tray 22 by each of the conveying rotors 60a to 60n, a pressing force is applied, and when the recycled paper B is obtained, the surface is smoothed.

Even if the confidential contents are copied, the toner is melted and spread by heat to make the contents unreadable, and the opaque paint is applied, so that the original image cannot be grasped at all, and the confidential contents are kept. You can adhere strictly.

Even if the plain paper has wrinkles, it is moistened with the opaque paint, and then hot air is applied to the plain paper so that the wrinkles disappear and a recycled paper similar to a new one is obtained.

If the processing paper of the supply tray-21 is exhausted,
In each means, the sensor detects the carry-out as the last sheet of paper passes, so that the operation of the motor 28, the thermal head 31, etc. is sequentially stopped, and wasteful power consumption is suppressed.
In addition, the warning lamp that the processing paper is out lights up on the operation panel,
Replenishment is encouraged. When the receiving tray 22 is full, the processing work is continued, but feeding of new processed paper is stopped, the full warning lamp is turned on, and removal of recycled paper is prompted. When the removal is confirmed, the process is automatically restarted. When the user presses the stop switch, the entire plain paper recycling device 20 is stopped at the time when the last recycled paper being processed is discharged, as in the case where the receiving tray 22 is full.
For safety, the power switch is finally opened by the user.

The above control is a simple sequence control, and the control unit 70 can be configured by a relay or the like, but it may be configured by a software program of a microprocessor. As mentioned above, the control is simple and no special logic decisions are used, so the soft flow diagram is omitted for simplicity.

As described above, the plain paper recycling device 20 is arranged at the corner of the room without depending on the organization for the separate collection, the paper is set, and the power switch is pressed down. Plain paper on which characters and figures (including pictures) are copied can be easily and easily reproduced in a short time. Further, since labor is not required, the reproduction can be performed as if printing. Furthermore, the recycling can be repeated many times as long as the paper is not damaged, and the resources are effectively used.

Depending on the color of the opaque paint, the color of the paper can be changed during reproduction. In order to make the color tone pure, after removing the opaque paint from the paint reservoir 41, the paint roller 43 and the like are rotated for a while, and the paint blade 43 is attached to the paint roller 43. The opaque paint present on the rotary drum 24 may be removed.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to obtain a plain paper recycling apparatus that can easily and easily recycle plain paper on which characters and figures are copied by an electrophotographic copying machine or the like without depending on the organization for separate collection.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a plain paper recycling apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an image state of plain paper before and after passing through a heating scraping means constituting the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 Plain Paper Recycling Device 21 Supply Tray 22 Receiving Tray 24 Rotating Drum 26 Supplying Means 27a Feeding Rotor 27b Conveying Rotor 28 Driving Motor 29 Belt 30 Heat Rubbing Means 31 Thermal Head 32 Coil Spring 40 Coating Means 41 Paint reservoir 42 Agitation roller 43 Paint roller 44 Transfer roller 45 Application roller 46 Doctor blade 50 Drying means 51 Air blowout port 60 Conveying means 60a-60n Rotor 70 Control part

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location B41J 31/09 Z 9012-2C B41M 5/26 6956-2H B41M 5/18 101 A

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A heating rubbing means for heating and rubbing a copy surface of a copied plain paper, an applying means for applying an opaque coating on the copying surface of the plain paper heated and rubbed by the heating rubbing means, and an application by the applying means. A plain paper recycling apparatus comprising: a drying unit that dries the opaque coating material and a transport unit that sequentially transports the plain paper between the heating rubbing unit, the coating unit, and the drying unit. 2. The conveying means comprises a rotating drum, and the heating rubbing means, the coating means and the drying means are arranged in the drum rotating direction around the rotating drum, respectively.
The plain paper is conveyed along with the rotation of the rotary drum, and the heating rubbing means includes a thermal head, and the thermal head contacts and slides on the plain paper rotating together with the rotary drum to melt and abrade the toner of the plain paper. 2. The plain paper reproduction according to claim 1, wherein the applying means includes an applying roller and a transfer roller, and transfers the opaque paint by transfer between the applying roller and the transfer roller to apply the opaque paint to the copy surface of the plain paper. apparatus.