JPH0647988A - Recording and erasing apparatus for recording material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the title apparatus for making the writing and erasure of a recording material reversibly changed in its visible state by heating repeatedly usable. CONSTITUTION:A sheet or card like recording material is constituted of a thermal material reversibly changed in its visible state by heating and an apparatus for recording and erasing the recording material is equipped with a recording part 2 having a writing member for writing data on the recording material and an erasing part 3 having an erasing member 22 uniformly heating the recording material in order to erase the data written on the recording material by the writing member. A magazine part 4 storing the recording material is partitioned into two sections, that is, a front section 4A storing the recording material in order to erase the data written of the recording material and a rear section 4B storing the recording material after the erasure of data and the erasing member 22 uniformly heating the recording material is arranged at a position where the recording material passes across two sections of the magazine part 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium, which can be applied to a printer, a digital copying machine, a facsimile, etc. A reversible thermosensitive material that changes reversibly (for example, cloudy and transparent state, or colored and decolored state) is used, and the thermosensitive material is applied to a resin sheet as a sheet-shaped or card-shaped recording body, The present invention relates to a recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium for enabling repeated writing and erasing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, heat-sensitive materials which change their opaque and transparent states or their colored and decolored states and their visible states are described in JP-A-55-154198 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2-414438. There is. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 57-89993 discloses a recording and erasing device for a heat-sensitive image display body, a heating recording device for recording information on the heat-sensitive body, and a heat roller for erasing the recorded information. There is a description of the device provided with and. Further, Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-11630 describes that a heating element and a cooler for erasing the belt-shaped reversible heat-sensitive element on the non-display surface side are provided. This reversible thermosensitive material utilizes the thermal hysteresis characteristic, and the display surface side is constantly heated in order to maintain the visible two-level display state of the thermal hysteresis characteristic. To erase information, the writing and heating process is started by passing two uniform visible states of the heat-sensitive material by heating and cooling. Also,
Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 58-123479 discloses an apparatus in which a reversible heat-sensitive element is formed in a sheet shape with a material utilizing the same thermal hysteresis characteristics as described above, and a heating element for printing and a heat retaining element are installed.

[0003]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention
A recording material composed of a heat-sensitive material whose visible state reversibly changes upon heating with a document sheet size up to A3,
No proposal has been made yet for an optimum device for writing information that matches the characteristics and erasing the written information. There are differences in the temperature conditions for writing and erasing on the recording medium, and accurately applying these temperature conditions to the recording medium determines the image quality when information is written on the recording medium. Also, since the recording material can be reused,
Ease of operation is also required when returning the collected recording body to an apparatus for writing information and erasing information. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to be capable of repeating writing and erasing of information (thermochromic), which is made of a thermosensitive material whose visible state reversibly changes by heating. A sheet-shaped or card-shaped recording medium, and heating the recording medium to provide a temperature necessary for writing information and erasing information to ensure recording and erasability of the recording medium; Is always in a state where information is erased and waiting when writing information, and the operating procedure is simplified and the operability is improved. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium that can satisfy various conditions such as reduction.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is such that a sheet-shaped or card-shaped recording material is composed of a heat-sensitive material whose visible state is reversibly changed by heating. A recording section having a writing member for writing information on the recording body; and an erasing section having an erasing member for uniformly heating the recording body to erase information on the recording body on which information has been written by the writing member. In the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium, the storage unit for storing the recording medium is divided into two sections, and the erasing member for uniformly heating the recording body passes the recording body between the two sections of the storage section. The two sections of the storage section, which is arranged at a position to store the recording medium, store the recording body in which information is written (hereinafter referred to as the front section) and the recording body in which the information is erased. Division (hereinafter, rear division) It is characterized in that.

Here, in the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium, the recording medium passes through an erasing member for uniformly heating the recording medium, and heat is recorded before the information-erased recording medium is stored. In order to lower the temperature of the body, a cooling member that comes into contact with the recording body is arranged (claim 2).
Further, in the recording / erasing device for a recording medium, after the power switch of the device is turned on, the storage of the recording medium is detected in the section for storing the information to erase the recording medium,
It is characterized in that whether or not to energize the heating element in the apparatus for uniformly heating the recording body is determined (claim 3).

Further, in the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium, when the power switch of the apparatus is turned off, the storage of the recording medium is detected in the section for storing the recording medium for erasing the recording medium, and the recording is performed. The present invention is characterized in that the continuity of energization to the heating element in the device for uniformly heating the body is determined, and the drive of the entire device is stopped and the power is cut off after the recording medium is no longer stored (claim 4). Further, in the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium, when the recording medium is inserted into a storage section for erasing the recording medium in which information is written, of the two sections of the storage section for storing the recording medium, the recording medium is recorded. The erasing device having an erasing member for uniformly heating the body starts to move, and the erasing device continues to operate until there is no recording medium stored in the storage unit (claim 5).

[0007]

8 (a) and 8 (b) show the state of visible change of a sheet-shaped or card-shaped recording medium made of a heat-sensitive material capable of repeatedly writing and erasing information. In the graph of FIG. 8A, the vertical axis indicates the state of visible change of transparency and cloudiness, and the horizontal axis indicates the temperature at which the heat-sensitive material is heated. First, when the temperature of the recording medium in the cloudy state A is raised from room temperature to the temperature T ₁ , the heat-sensitive material becomes transparent state B. When the heat-sensitive material at the temperature T ₁ is lowered to room temperature, the transparent state B is maintained. Further, if the temperature of the heat-sensitive material is further raised from the temperature T ₁ to the temperature T ₂ and then the temperature of the heat-sensitive material is lowered to around room temperature, the temperature becomes a cloudy state A or lower at the temperature T ₀ or below, and the cloudy state A is reached at room temperature. Is retained. Therefore, after raising the temperature of the heat-sensitive material to the temperatures T _{1 to} T ₂ , the temperature of the heat-sensitive material returns to room temperature and two visible states can be secured.

Another characteristic of the heat sensitive state is shown in FIG. In the graph of FIG. 8B, the vertical axis represents the visible change state of decolorization and color development, and the horizontal axis represents the temperature at which the heat-sensitive material is heated. First, when the temperature of the recording medium in the decoloring state D is raised from room temperature to T ₂ 'through the temperature T ₁ ', the heat-sensitive material enters the coloring state C. Then, when the heat-sensitive material at the temperature T ₂ 'is lowered to room temperature, the coloring state C is maintained. Further, 'the heat-sensitive material in the colored state C near room temperature or less, the temperature T _0' temperature T ₀ when the temperature is raised to a temperature T ₁ 'passes through, becomes decolorized state D lowers the concentration with a broken line state, When the temperature of the heat-sensitive material is lowered to room temperature again, the decolored state D is maintained. Further, when the temperature is further raised from the temperature T ₁ ′ to T ₂ ′, the heat-sensitive material is in the coloring state C, and the coloring state C is maintained even if the temperature is lowered to room temperature.

The heat-sensitive material exhibiting such characteristics forms a heat-sensitive material layer by using a polymer / low molecule as a dispersion film to form particles having low molecule of 0.1 μm to 5 μm. If the crystal state of the particles is polycrystal, the incident light is scattered by the polycrystal and the cloudy state A
become. If the crystalline state of the particles becomes a relatively large crystal,
The incident light is in the transparent state B without being scattered by the crystal. Further, the state in which decolorization and color development are repeated with another heat-sensitive material is composed of a color former, a color developer and a decolorizer, and a binder.

As described above, in the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium of the present invention, when the temperature of the heat-sensitive material is raised, the heat-sensitive material undergoes a visible change, and even if the heat-sensitive material is lowered to around room temperature, a visible change occurs. A sheet-shaped or card-shaped recording material (hereinafter referred to as a recording material) is used as the heat-sensitive material to be held, and an existing thermal head printer or the like is used to write information on the recording material. Since an erasing section having an erasing member that uniformly heats the recording medium for erasing the information is provided, it is possible to freely record and erase information on the recording medium. Further, in the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium of the present invention, the storage section for storing the recording body is partitioned into two sections, and the erasing member for uniformly heating the recording body is provided between the two sections of the storage section. The two sections of the storage unit, which is arranged at a position through which the recording medium passes and which stores the recording medium, include a division (hereinafter referred to as a front section) for storing the recording medium in which the information is written and a recording medium in which the information is erased. It is characterized in that it is a compartment for storing the following (hereinafter referred to as the rear compartment). By thus forming the storage section into two compartments, the front compartment and the rear compartment, the insertion of the recording medium into the device can be simplified, Each operation such as recording and erasing can be performed.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below based on the illustrated embodiments. As a recording medium used in the device of the present invention,
FIG. 2 shows an example of a structure in which the heat-sensitive material is a sheet-shaped or card-shaped recording body. The recording medium 1 of FIG. 2 is obtained by coating a heat-sensitive material (heat-sensitive layer) having a visible reversibility on a resin support having a thickness of 20 μm to 0.5 μm in a thickness of 2 μm to 20 μm, and laminating a layer thereon. An adhesive layer, a resin layer such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and a heat resistant layer are further provided, and a laminate layer and a heat resistant layer form a layer of 5 μm or less. In addition, a coloring layer such as ink, a metal layer such as aluminum (Al) or a light absorbing layer is provided between the support layer and the heat sensitive layer of the recording body 1, a heating method for writing characteristics and information of the heat sensitive material, and a purpose. It is provided according to. It is also possible to print characters and patterns on the heat-resistant layer by screen printing.

An embodiment of the present invention using the recording medium shown in FIG. 2 will be described below. 1 (a) and 1 (b) are perspective views of a recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium showing an embodiment of the present invention.
In the figure, reference numeral 2 is a recording unit, 3 is an erasing unit, 4 is a storage unit, 5 is a tray, 6 is a recording medium discharge port, 7 is a display unit, 8 is a discharge port cover, 9 is a recording medium receiver, and 10 is a personal computer. It is a connection cable to a facsimile or the like. Here, FIG.
(A) shows a state in which the recording apparatus is set and information can be written in and erased from the recording medium. The locations 4A and 4B separated by solid lines in the drawing show the configuration of the present invention.
The front section) 4A and the storage section after erasing (hereinafter referred to as the rear section) 4B are configured in upper and lower two stages, and on both sides thereof, a recording unit 2 for writing information on a recording medium and erased written information. The erasing unit 3 for the above is arranged. Further, above the front section 4A, a tray also serving as an upper lid (hereinafter, tray) for stocking the recording medium discharged from the recording medium discharge port 6 of the recording unit 2
There is 5. A discharge port cover 8 is provided on the discharge port 6 for directing the recording medium discharged from the discharge port 6 on the tray 5 so as to direct the recording medium in the tray direction. Further, the recording medium receiver 9 is for receiving the recording medium so that the recording medium does not drop from the tray when the tray 5 is opened and closed as shown in FIG. 1B. Incidentally, FIG.
(B) shows a state in which the tray 5 above the apparatus is opened. The tray 5 is opened when a recording medium from which information is erased or a new recording medium is set in the front section 4A. .

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line EE 'of FIG. The broken line in the figure shows the state in which the tray 5 is opened, and the arrow indicates the moving direction of the recording medium. The broken line arrow indicates the recording body in the storage unit 4.
It is in a state of being placed in the upper front section 4A. In FIG.
The recording bodies that entered the front section 4A are sequentially recorded from the recording body on the upper surface,
The erasing unit discharge roller 20 sends the erasing unit inlet 21 to the erasing member (heating element) 22 side. The leading end of the recording medium that has passed through the erasing member 22 reaches the erasing section feed roller 23, is fed from the rear compartment inlet 35 to the rear compartment 4B, and is sequentially stacked from the bottom. The recording bodies stored in the rear section 4B are sequentially sent to the recording section 2 from the recording section discharge roller 11 from the rear section exit 13 to the recording section 2 from the lower recording section, and the guide roller 1 of the recording section 2 is provided.
4 and the guide plate 15 send the information to the thermal head 16 for writing. Then, recording is performed by the thermal head 16 at the position of the pressure contact plate 17, and the recording medium after recording travels toward the discharge port 6 by the discharge port roller 18, is sent out from the discharge port 6, and the direction is trayed by the discharge port cover 8. 5 and stocked in tray 5. At this time, there is a step between the discharge port 6 and the tray 5, and even if a large number of recording bodies are stocked in the tray 5, the recording bodies coming out from the discharge port 6 are not blocked. In the figure, reference numeral 12 is a pressure contact member, 19 is a lifting plate, 24 is an air cooling fan, and 26 is an erasing section passage.

Next, the erasing member in the erasing section 3 and the recording body 1
The erasing condition will be described with reference to FIG. 4 in which the erasing unit is enlarged. As described above, the recording body 1 stored in the front section 4A is sent to the erasing member 22 from the erasing section inlet 21 by the erasing section discharge roller 20. In this figure, the erasing member 2
Reference numeral 2 is composed of two upper and lower flat heating elements, and is designed to sandwich the recording body 1. The upper heating body is moved up and down in order to sandwich the recording body being sent. It has become. The timing at which the recording medium 1 is caught is after the leading end of the recording medium reaches the erasing section feed roller 23, and the recording body travels by the erasing section feed roller 23. The function of the erasing member 22 can be achieved not only by the combination of the heat generating elements facing each other but also by the combination of the heat generating element and the pressing member of the heat resistant material. Further, if the pressing member is a roller that rotates, the operation of pinching the recording medium is not necessary.

The heating element 22 has the structure shown in FIG.
When a recording body made of a heat-sensitive material having the characteristics of (b) is running, the temperature of the recording body is adjusted to T ₁ ,
Set the temperature to T ₂ , T ₁ ′, T ₂ ′. Further, as the material of the planar heating element, a metal such as nickel chrome or stainless is electrodeposited or used as a metal foil, a conductive polymer, a ceramic semiconductor to which a trace amount of a rare earth element is added and solidified in a furnace, Indium oxide (ITO) or the like can be used. Also, using ceramics as a substrate, a metal oxide film that can be applied by screen printing or the like is formed on the substrate,
A heating element formed by forming a protective layer and sintering can be used. After the power switch of the apparatus is turned on, whether or not the recording body 1 is stored in the front section 4A is detected by the recording body detector 28 and the detection signal is used to determine whether the heating element 22 is energized or de-energized. When the power switch of the apparatus is turned off, the storage of the recording body 1 in the front section 4A is detected by the recording body detector 28, and if the recording body 1 is stored, it is determined whether the heating element 22 is continuously energized. Continue to drive the device. And
When the storage of the recording medium is exhausted, stop the drive of the whole device,
The power is cut off. At this time, although the power switch is turned off, the fact that the recording medium is being erased is displayed on the display unit 7 shown in FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 4, in order to detect the temperature of the heating element 22 in the erasing section 3, temperature detectors a and b are attached at positions that do not interfere with the running of the recording material.
Of these, the upper and lower heating elements 2 are connected by the temperature detector a.
After the recording medium is caught in step 2, the number of revolutions of the erasing section feed roller 23 that determines the traveling speed of the recording medium is controlled so that the temperature of the heating element does not fall below the specified temperature. That is,
When the temperature of the heating element 22 becomes lower than the specified value, the number of revolutions of the erasing section feed roller 23 is reduced to reduce the traveling speed, and when the temperature of the heating element 22 becomes equal to or higher than the specified value, the number of rotations of the erasing section feed roller 23 is increased. Speed up. Here, the temperature regulation of the heating element 22 means that when the cloudy state is a bare state in the recording medium having the characteristics shown in FIG. 8A, the entire layer of the recording medium and / or the heat-sensitive layer of the recording medium reaches the temperature T ₂ . Is the temperature. The temperature is T ₁ for the transparent state. Further, in the recording medium having the characteristics shown in FIG. 8B, when the decolored state is the background state, the temperature of the entire layer of the recording medium and / or the heat-sensitive layer of the recording medium becomes the temperature T ₁ ′, and the coloring state Is the temperature at which the temperature becomes T ₂ '. The temperatures of these T ₁ , T ₂ , T ₁ ′, and T ₂ ′ are 10 ° C. to 30 ° C. because the temperature range for making each state is
The control of the rotation speed of the erasing section feed roller 23 described above is executed within the temperature range. The reason why the rotation speed of the erasing section feed roller is controlled while keeping the temperature of the heating element 22 constant is that the heating element consumes most of the power consumption of the apparatus, so that the distribution of the power consumption of the entire apparatus is constant. is there. That is,
If it is driven with less power consumption than the allocated power consumption, it will save power.

In the case where the heating element 22 is the above-mentioned planar heating element, if the amount of heat stored in the heating element is small and the amount of heat taken by the recording element is large, an amount of electric power commensurate with it is supplied to maintain the temperature of the heating element. . For this reason, when the voltage application is started, the heating element is in a no-load state (a state in which nothing is in contact with the heating element).
A voltage at a temperature of 0 ° C. to 400 ° C. is applied to start up. Further, the applied voltage becomes a higher voltage in order to shorten the temperature rise time. However, in this case, the heating element is heated to 200 ° C. to 400 ° C. in a no-load state, and therefore, for example, as a trouble during the operation of the apparatus, when the recording body 1 is not delivered from the front section 4A, heat is generated in a short time. When the temperature of the body 22 becomes high and approaches the temperature at which the support layer of the recording body 1 is softened, when the recording body is delivered at the next timing, the tip of the recording body undergoes thermal deformation. Become. In order to prevent this trouble, in order to lower the temperature of the heating element that has reached a high temperature, a contact member 27 that removes heat from the surface of the heating element that is not in contact with the recording body is provided and brought into contact with that surface. After contacting the contact member 27, the contact member 27 is separated from the heating element at a temperature at which no trouble occurs in the recording body. The material of the contact member 27 is, for example, a metal plate such as aluminum, and the surface thereof is coated with a slippery resin if necessary, or the surface of the contact member 27 is roughened or hollow so as to increase heat storage in order to prevent heat accumulation. To
The series of movements in which the contact member 27 comes into contact with the heating element 22 can be moved by a crank mechanism or the like using a motor, a solenoid or the like as a drive source.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of control means for controlling the number of revolutions of the erasing section feed roller from detection of the temperature of the heating element. The temperature detectors of the temperature detectors a and b may be of the thermistor type, thermocouple type, resistance temperature detector type of contact type or non-contact type, and the measurement circuit corresponding to the detector is connected. It A temperature detection signal from the measurement circuit is sent to the CPU, and the CPU sends a drive signal through a motor driver to a stepping motor for rotating the erasing section feed roller to control the rotation speed according to a control program and control data. As shown in FIG. 4, the mounting position of the temperature detector of the temperature detecting portion b is arranged at a position immediately after the recording body comes out of the heating element 22. The temperature detection at this position can also be used to control the rotation speed of the erasing section feed roller, similarly to the temperature detector of the temperature detecting section a attached to the heating element described above. Also in this case,
There is no change in setting the temperature of the recording medium to T ₁ , T ₂ , T ₁ 'and T ₂ '.

Further, one of the changeover switch group of FIG. 5 is a means for changing over the power consumption and the set temperature of the heating element.
The changeover of the changeover switch sets the temperature states of T ₁ , T ₂ , T ₁ ′, T ₂ ′, changes the thickness of the support layer of the recording medium,
Used when the heat capacity changes. Further, one of the changeover switch groups is a changeover switch having a selection function for operating only one of the recording unit or the erasing member to write information on the recording medium, or one of them. In addition, one of the changeover switch groups is that when the recording body 1 is inserted into the front section 4A of the storage section 4, each member of the erasing section automatically starts operating, and the recording section stored in the front section 4A is automatically operated. It is a switch for switching between the function of continuing the operation of the erasing device until it disappears or the function after the power switch is turned on.

Since the erasing section feed roller 23 is run in contact with the recording medium 1, the heat accumulated in the recording medium is taken by the feeding roller 23, and the temperature of the feeding roller 23 rises.
When the recording body 1 is continuously run, the temperature of the heating element 22 approaches. In this case, the recording medium 1 is transferred to the erasing section passage 26.
If it passes through the above and is stocked in the rear section 4B, the temperature of the storage section 4 also rises due to the heat accumulated in the recording body 1. In order to suppress this phenomenon, it is necessary to have a cooling function of lowering the heat accumulated in the recording medium in the erasing section feed roller 23 or the erasing section passage 26 to near room temperature. As this method, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, an air-cooling fan 24 is installed in the erasing unit 3 and the erasing unit feeding roller 23 and the erasing unit passage 26 are air-cooled by the fan 24, or the erasing unit feeding roller 23 is provided with the cooling unit. For example, a cooling member such as a heat pipe may be passed through, the outside of the passage plate of the erasing portion passage 26 may be uneven or corrugated to provide a heat dissipation effect, and the erasing portion passage itself may have a cooling function. Try to increase the cooling effect.

The erasing section has been described above. Next,
The recording unit will be described. 3 and 4, the erasing unit 3
The recording medium 1 from which the information has been erased at is sent from the rear compartment entrance 25 to the rear compartment 4B and stacked from below. Rear section 4B
The recording mediums stacked on the recording medium are sequentially sent from the recording mediums below to the recording unit 2 from the rear section outlet 13 by the recording unit discharge roller 11, and are sent to the thermal head 16 for writing information by the guide roller 14 and the guide plate 15. . In the vicinity of the exit 13 of the rear section, there is a detector for detecting the presence or absence of the recording medium, and the recording medium is checked at the time of recording. If there is no recording medium, the operator can judge the purpose of the display unit 7, Allows the body to be replenished in the stowage 4.

When writing information, in the recording medium having the characteristics shown in FIG. 8A, when the cloudy state is the background state and the information is transparent, the temperature raised by the thermal head 16 is the temperature T ₁ . . When the transparent state is the background state and the information becomes cloudy, the temperature raised by the thermal head 16 becomes the temperature T ₂ . Further, in the recording medium having the characteristics shown in FIG. 8B, when the color erasing state is the background state and the information is in the color developing state, the temperature raised by the thermal head 16 is the temperature T ₂ ′. The voltage applied to the thermal head 16 is a single pulse voltage or a plurality of single pulse voltages for forming one dot.
As for the surface of the recording body 1 in contact with the thermal head 16, the laminate layer side in FIG. 2 is advantageous in terms of thermal efficiency. Further, the condition of the voltage applied to the thermal head is also determined by this contact condition. In the description of FIG. 2 above, it is stated that printing can be performed on the heat-resistant layer. However, since the surface of the recording body 1 can be specified by a marker by printing, the surface contacting the thermal head 16 is the recording body. It is possible to detect the heat-resistant layer side or the support layer side of the recording medium detector by the recording medium detector, and set the applied voltage of the thermal head corresponding thereto.

Next, FIGS. 6A and 6B are examples in which laser light is used as a heating source for writing. That is, instead of the above-mentioned thermal head, laser light is used as a heat source in the heat mode. 6A and 6B show an example in which the laser light source 29, the polygon mirror 30 for scanning the laser light, and the optical system are arranged on the upper side of the storage unit 4 and on the lower side. In the figure, reference numerals 31, 32, 33 and 34 are mirrors, and 28 is a recording material pressing roller. In the case of writing with a laser beam, the recording body has a metal layer such as Al or a carbon layer provided between the support layer and the heat sensitive layer as the light absorbing layer in the description of FIG. Further, the support layer becomes a transparent body. Further, similarly to the case of the thermal head, the condition of the output level of the laser light can be changed depending on whether the surface to which the laser light is irradiated is from the laminate layer or the support layer of the recording medium.

Next, FIGS. 7A to 7C show a recording medium for contacting the recording medium 1 with the thermal head of the recording unit 2 or irradiating a light beam in a fixed direction. Is an example of a device for correcting the orientation of the. The point of the method of correcting the orientation of the surface of the recording medium is to insert the recording medium 1 into the front section 4A so that the surface of the recording medium discharged to the tray is upside down. FIG. 7 shows an example of the apparatus. Shows.
In FIGS. 7A to 7C, only the vicinity of the discharge port of the recording unit is depicted. In FIG. 7A, when the recording body 1 is discharged from the discharge port 6 of the recording unit, it is discharged to the tray 5. The surface of the recording body is turned upside down to show that the member for inserting the recording body in the front section 4A is in the standby state. The member for inserting the recording body 1 from the tray 5 into the front section 4A is composed of a receiving table 36, a reversing roller 37, and a reversing passage 35. The movement of each member is shown in FIGS. 7 (b) and 7 (c).

FIG. 7B shows a recording medium detector (not shown) in the recording unit or in the vicinity of the exit of the rear section.
Is determined to be unsuitable for contact with the thermal head, the recording medium is discharged by the discharge roller 18 from the discharge roller 1.
At the same time as the tray 6 is discharged from the tray 6 to the tray 5,
Is tilted in the horizontal direction, so that the rear end of the recording body 1 is placed on the pedestal 36. Then, as shown in FIG. 7C, the reversing roller 37 moves toward the horizontal pedestal 36 side so as to sandwich the rear end of the recording body of the pedestal 36. At this time, the reversing roller 37 is prevented from kicking the recording body 1 from the pedestal 36. After the reversing roller 37 moves, the reversing roller 37 rotates so as to send the recording medium 1 into the reversing passage 35. Then, from the inversion passage 37 to the front section 4
The recording body 1 is inserted into A. To change from the state of FIG. 7C to the standby state of FIG. 7A, the reversing roller 37 moves the recording body 1 on the receiving table 36 in the direction of the reversing path 35 while moving toward the standby position, When the recording medium detector (not shown) on the table 36 detects that the recording medium has been fed, the reversing roller 37 returns to the standby position, and the receiving table 36 is also returned from the horizontal to the vertical standby state. The series of operations described above can be performed by using a motor or a solenoid as a drive source and moving the crank mechanism or the like.

[0026]

As described above, in the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium according to the present invention, when the temperature of the heat-sensitive material is raised, the heat-sensitive material undergoes a visible change, and even if the heat-sensitive material is lowered to around room temperature, it is visible. In order to erase information on the recording medium, a sheet-shaped or card-shaped recording medium is used as a heat-sensitive material that retains various changes, and an existing thermal head or the like is used to write information on the recording medium. By providing the erasing section having the erasing member for uniformly heating the recording medium, it is possible to freely record and erase information on the recording medium. Further, in the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium of the present invention, the storage section for storing the recording body is partitioned into two sections, and the erasing member for uniformly heating the recording body is provided between the two sections of the storage section. The two compartments of the storage section, which is arranged at a position where the recording medium passes and which stores the recording medium, include a front compartment for storing the recording body in which the information is written and a rear compartment for storing the recording body in which the information is erased. And the storage section is divided into two sections, the front section and the rear section,
Since the insertion of the recording body into the apparatus can be simplified and each work such as recording and erasing can be automatically performed, the operation of the operator can be facilitated.

In the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium of the present invention, the temperature of the accumulated recording medium is lowered before the recording medium in which information has been erased by passing through the erasing member is stored in the rear section. By arranging the cooling member in contact with the recording body, temperature rise due to heat accumulation of a large number of recording bodies can be prevented, the heat resistance of the device can be reduced and the heat storage material can be reduced, and the product cost can be reduced. it can. Further, in the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium of the present invention, since recording / erasing is performed without applying a temperature at which an abnormality occurs in the recording medium, the recording medium can be used for a long time and the running cost can be reduced. it can. Further, since the temperature of the erasing member (heating element) can be controlled promptly, the processing speed of the recording material can be improved and the productivity can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A and 1B are perspective views of a recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1A showing a state when a tray is closed, and FIG. It is a figure showing the state where it is.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration example of a recording body.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the recording / erasing apparatus for the recording medium shown in FIG.

4 is a cross-sectional view of an essential part of an erasing section of the recording / erasing apparatus for the recording medium shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a control unit for controlling the temperature of the heating element of the erasing unit, the rotation speed of the erasing unit feed roller, and the like.

6A and 6B are cross-sectional views of the main parts of the recording / erasing apparatus when a laser beam is used as a heating source for writing in the recording section.

7A to 7C are explanatory views of the configuration and operation of a recording unit of a recording / erasing device including a device that corrects the orientation of a recording medium and inserts it in the front section.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a visible change state of a sheet-shaped or card-shaped recording material made of a heat-sensitive material capable of repeating writing and erasing of information, and (a) is transparent to a heating temperature; Graph showing the visible change of cloudiness,
(B) is a graph showing a visible change state of decoloring and coloring with respect to heating temperature.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 ... Recording medium 2 ... Recording unit 3 ... Erasing unit 4 ... Storage unit 4A ... Storage region before erasing (front region) 4B ... Storage region after erasing ( Rear section) 5 ... Tray 6 ... Recording medium discharge port 7 ... Display unit 8 ... Discharging port cover 9 ... Recording medium receiver 10 ... Connecting cable 11 ... Recording unit discharging roller 12 ... Pressure contact member 13 ... Rear section exit 14 ... Guide roller 15 ... Guide plate 16 ... Thermal head (writing member) 17 ... Pressure contact plate 18 ... Discharge port roller 19 ... ..Lifting plate 20 ... Erase section discharge roller 21 ... Erase section inlet 22 ... Erase member (heating element) 23 ... Erase section feed roller 24 ... Air cooling fan 25 ... Rear compartment inlet 26 ... Erasing section passage 27 ... Contact member 28 ... Recording body retainer 29 ... laser light source 30 ... polygon mirror 31, 32, 33, 34 ... mirror 35 ... inversion path 36 ... cradle 37 ... reversing roller

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A sheet-shaped or card-shaped recording medium is composed of a heat-sensitive material whose visible state reversibly changes upon heating, and a recording section having a writing member for writing information on the recording medium, and writing. In a recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium, comprising: an erasing unit having an erasing member for uniformly heating the recording medium in which information is written by a member, a storage unit for storing the recording medium. The erasing member for uniformly heating the recording body is arranged at a position where the recording body passes between the two compartments of the storage section, and the two sections of the storage section for storing the recording body are A recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium, characterized in that the recording medium has a section for storing the recorded medium to be erased and a section for storing the recording medium with information erased. 2. The recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium passes through an erasing member for uniformly heating the recording medium, and before the information is erased, the recording medium is stored. A recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium, characterized in that a cooling member is arranged in contact with the recording medium in order to lower the temperature of the accumulated recording medium. 3. The recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium according to claim 1, wherein after the power switch of the device is turned on, the storage of the recording medium is detected in a section for storing the information to which the recording medium is erased. Then, the recording / erasing apparatus for a recording body, which is characterized by determining whether the heating element in the apparatus for uniformly heating the recording body is energized or de-energized. 4. The recording / erasing device for a recording medium according to claim 1, wherein when the power switch of the device is turned off, the storage of the recording medium is detected in a section for storing the recording medium to erase information. Then, it is determined whether or not to continue energizing the heating element in the apparatus that uniformly heats the recording body, and after the recording body is no longer stored, the drive of the entire apparatus is stopped and the power supply is cut off. Recording / erasing device. 5. The recording / erasing apparatus for a recording medium according to claim 1, wherein a recording medium is stored in a storage section for erasing the recording medium in which information is written, out of two sections of a storage section for storing the recording medium. Is inserted, the erasing device having an erasing member for uniformly heating the recording medium starts to move, and the erasing device continues to operate until there is no recording medium stored in the storage section. Recording / erasing device for recording media.