JPH0667576A - Decoloring device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a decoloring device which can efficiently decolor photochemically removable toner, is short in decoloring time per sheet and, in addition, is light in weight and small in size. CONSTITUTION:The decoloring device 1 is composed of a pair of heat roller consisting of a heat roller 10 and a pressure roller 11, a light source 12 such as a halogen lamp, reflecting mirrors 13a and 13b, heat-resistant glass plates 14 and 15, sheet feed rollers 31 and 33 for feeding a sheet 2, carry rollers 34, 35, 38 and 39, sheet ejection rollers 22 and 23, guide members 33, 36, 37, 40, 41, 16 and 17, exhaust ducts 61, 65, 63, and 67; and exhaust fans 62 and 66.

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, in order to protect the earth's resources, the reuse and recycling of used papers and plastics has been reviewed, but 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 incinerated 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 copying is performed using such a 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.

An object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight and compact erasing apparatus which can efficiently erase erasable photochemically erasable toner, and which has a short erasing time per sheet. .

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a heating roller for heating a photochemically decolorizable toner fixed on a sheet member to at least a glass transition temperature of a binder resin of the toner. A pair, a light source for irradiating the toner with near-infrared rays, and a light collecting means for collecting light from the light source and forming a light collecting section on the discharge side of the heating roller pair. Is a decoloring device.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that a heat resistant glass plate is provided between the light source and the light condensing section.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the first guide member provided on the discharge side of the pair of heating rollers comprises a plurality of linear members.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the surface of the second guide member provided on the discharge side of the heating roller pair is a mirror surface.

The present invention further comprises a heat roller and a pressure roller for heating the photochemically decolorizable toner fixed on the sheet body to at least the glass transition temperature of the binder resin of the toner or higher. A erasing device, comprising: a light source for irradiating the toner with near-infrared rays; and the sheet body being carried in in proximity to the heat roller.

The present invention is also characterized in that the sheet body is discharged while being close to the pressure roller.

[0012]

According to the present invention, a pair of heating rollers for heating a photochemically decolorizable toner to a predetermined temperature, a light source for irradiating the toner with near infrared rays, and a light from the light source are provided. By collecting and collecting light on the discharge side of the heating roller pair to form a light collecting unit, the light use efficiency of the light source is improved and the entire light source is downsized.
In addition, it is possible to eliminate the temperature decrease from the time when the sheet body heated by the heating roller pair to the predetermined temperature is discharged from the heating roller pair to the condensing portion.

Further, by providing the heat-resistant glass plate between the light source and the light collecting portion, the air heated to a high temperature due to the heat generated from the light source moves toward the heating roller pair and its peripheral members and the sheet body. In addition, the air flow between the heating roller pair and the light source becomes smooth.

Further, since the first guide member provided on the discharge side of the heating roller pair is composed of a plurality of linear members,
The sheet discharged from the heating roller pair is smoothly conveyed, and the light from the light source is hardly blocked by the first guide member, so that the light collecting efficiency in the light collecting unit can be improved.

Further, since the surface of the second guide member provided on the discharge side of the heating roller pair is a mirror surface, the light radiated to the second guide member can be concentrated on the condensing portion, and the light of the light source is emitted. Utilization efficiency can be improved.

Further, a heat roller and a pressure roller for heating the photochemically decolorizable toner to a predetermined temperature, and a light source for irradiating the toner with near infrared rays are provided, and the sheet body has the heat. When the sheet is carried in close to the roller, the contact time between the sheet body and the heat roller becomes long, and the heating efficiency for the toner is improved.

Further, since the sheet member is discharged while being close to the pressure roller, the incident angle of the light irradiating the sheet member approaches the direction of the normal line, so that the light irradiation density can be increased.

[0018]

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 sensitizer The details of the decoloring action of the toner of each composition example and the like are described in Japanese Patent Application No. 3-277725. Therefore, in the following examples, several examples of 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).

[0020]

[Chemical 1]

[0021]

[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 shown in (Chemical Formula 3) below is used.

[0023]

[Chemical 3]

Next, the erasing device according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a front view showing the configuration of an erasing apparatus which is an embodiment of the present invention. The erasing device 1 includes a heating roller pair including a heat roller 10 and a pressure roller 11, a light source 12 such as a halogen lamp, reflecting mirrors 13a and 13b having concave surfaces, heat-resistant glass plates 14 and 15, and a paper sheet. Paper feeding rollers 31 and 32, conveying rollers 34, 35, 38 and 39, and discharging rollers 22 and 23 for conveying the sheet body 2 such as a plastic sheet, and a guide member 33 for smoothly guiding the sheet body 2, 36, 37, 40, 41, 1
6, 17 and exhaust ducts 61, 6 for discharging heat from the heating roller pairs 10, 11 and the light source 12 to the outside.
3, 65, 67 and exhaust fans 62, 66 and the like.

The sheet cassette 2 accommodates the sheet body 2 to which the photochemically decolorizable toner as described above is fixed. The sheet members 2 are taken out one by one by the sheet feeding rollers 31 and 32, and are guided along the one-dot chain line in the figure.
3, 36, 37, 40, 41 and conveyance rollers 34, 3
It is conveyed to the heating roller pair 10, 11 by 5, 38, 39.

The heat roller 10 is a hollow cylindrical roller made of metal or glass whose surface is coated with fluororesin or the like, and has a heater 10a such as a halogen lamp incorporated in the shaft center portion thereof. The current is applied to heat the surface to a predetermined temperature. The pressure roller 11 is a metal roller whose surface is thickly coated with silicon rubber. The pressure roller 11 is urged by a predetermined pressure against the heat roller 10 to move along the outer peripheral shape of the heat roller 10. The silicon rubber is elastically deformed to secure a predetermined contact area.

By passing the sheet body 2 while being sandwiched by the pair of heating rollers 10 and 11, the toner is heated to the glass transition temperature of the binder resin or higher.

On the discharge side of the heating roller pair 10 and 11, the light including the near infrared rays emitted from the light source 12 is reflected by the reflecting mirror 1.
3a, 13b, etc., form a condensing portion that is efficiently collected and has a high light irradiation density. Therefore, when the sheet body 2 is ejected from the heating roller pair 10 and 12, the near-infrared light is immediately irradiated, so that the color of the toner is efficiently erased. The decolored sheet body 2 is guided by the guide members 16 and 17, discharged to the outside by the discharge rollers 22 and 23, and placed on the discharge tray 42. The guide member 16 is composed of a plurality of linear members formed by bending such as wire, and is arranged at a predetermined interval along the conveying direction of the sheet body.

In this way, the sheet body 2 once recorded with the toner is erased efficiently and quickly by the time the sheet body 2 is conveyed from the paper feed cassette 30 to the paper discharge tray 42.

The heating roller 10 and the pressure roller 11 of the heating roller pair are in contact with the cleaning rollers 20 and 21 impregnated with a mold release agent such as silicon oil. By moistening the surface with a release agent, the adhesion of the toner fixed on the sheet body 2 and the winding of the sheet body 2 are prevented. Further, the separation claws 24 and 25 are in contact with the vicinity of the discharge side of the heat roller 10 and the pressure roller 11, respectively, and even when the sheet body 2 is in close contact with the heating roller pair 10 and 11, the separation claws 24 and 25 are formed. The tip of the sheet body 2 can peel off the sheet body 2, and the sheet body 2 is prevented from being wound.

At various places in the conveying path of the sheet body 2 (one-dot chain line in the figure), for example, the upper part of the guide member 36 and the discharge rollers 22,
Sheet body detection sensors 51 and 52 such as photocouplers and microswitches are installed on the discharge side of 23 as required to perform timing control and jam occurrence detection. In addition, at various places on the conveying path of the sheet body 2 and at various places of each roller, for example, the surface of the pressure roller 11 or the discharge roller 2
Static elimination brushes 56 and 57 are provided on the discharge sides of 2 and 23 to prevent the occurrence of electrostatic attraction of the sheet body 2.

A temperature sensor 53 such as a bimetal or thermistor is provided on the surface of the heat roller 10.
The temperature of the heat roller 10 is controlled. Further, a point where the temperature rises significantly, for example, the surface of the heat roller 10,
The reflecting mirror 13b and the guide member 17 have a thermal fuse 54,
55 and 56 are provided to prevent the occurrence of abnormally high temperature.

The heating roller pair 10, 11 and the light source 12
Since a large amount of heat is generated in the vicinity of, the exhaust ducts 61 and 65 are installed on both sides of the conveying path of the sheet body 2, and the exhaust fans 62 and 66 such as sirocco fans forcibly exhaust the exhaust ducts 63 and 67 and the ventilation. By releasing the gas through the ports 64 and 68 to the outside, the temperature rise in the device is prevented.

FIG. 2 is a cutaway side view showing a schematic structure of the erasing apparatus 1 of FIG. The heat roller 10, the pressure roller 11, and the cleaning rollers 20, 21 are rotatably supported with respect to the casing 6 and the auxiliary side plate 7, and the heater roller 10 has a heater such as a halogen lamp at its axis. 10a is provided. Therefore, when replacing each of the rollers 10, 11, 20, and 21, it is sufficient to remove only the auxiliary side plate 7 without disassembling the entire casing 6, so that the maintenance workability is improved.

As shown in the broken central portion of FIG. 2, the paper discharge rollers 22 and 23 are axially supported at predetermined intervals along the width direction of the sheet body. Similarly, the tips of the separation claws 24, 25 provided at a predetermined interval along the width direction of the sheet body 2 are in contact with the respective surfaces of the heat roller 10 and the pressure roller 11 while being biased with a predetermined pressure. The coil springs 24a and 25a are attached. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, one end of the coil spring 24a for urging the separation claw 24 is extended to the axis of the paper discharge roller 22 and bent into a smooth curve so that it can also serve as the guide member 16. You can The paper discharge fan 62 is driven by the motor 62a.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a state where the light source unit 70 in the erasing apparatus 1 of FIG. 1 is opened around the shaft 71. When the sheet body 2 is jammed at the subsequent stage of the heating roller pair 10 and 11, that is, when a so-called jam occurs, after the paper discharge tray 42 is removed in the state of FIG.
By manually moving the locking member 72 provided on the upper part of 0, the engagement between the claw 73 of the locking member 72 and the hole 74 formed in the housing 5 is released. And the light source unit 7
By tilting 0 to the outside, the heating roller pair 10, 11
A large space is formed on the discharge side of the light source, and the inside of the light source unit 70 can be easily seen, and the jam removal work by the user can be performed very safely and easily.

When the jam removing work is completed, the light source unit 70 is pushed into the housing 5 so that the locking member 72 is released.
The engagement between the claw 73 and the hole 74 of the housing 5 is easily restored.
In this way, by opening and closing the light source unit 70,
The jam removal work is simplified.

FIG. 4 is a partial block diagram showing the optical system of the light source 12 and the light condensing unit P. Some of the light emitted from the light source 12 reaches the light condensing part P directly, but most of the light is reflected by the reflecting mirrors 13a, 13b, 13c, and the reflecting mirror 1
The light reflected by 3b is directed to the condensing part P, while the reflection mirror 13
The light reflected by a and 13c is directed to the guide member 17 whose surface is a mirror surface, and is reflected there again to be collected in the light condensing unit P. In addition, the light guide 12 and the light condensing portion P are formed by forming the guide member 17 into a mirror-like shape and having a triangular cross-section.
By setting and in the regular reflection direction, the light collection efficiency can be further improved. Therefore, the guide member 17
Plays a role of smooth conveyance of the sheet body 2 and improvement of light collection efficiency. Even when the sheet body 2 passes over the guide member 17, the light from the light source 12 passes through the sheet body 2 while being attenuated to some extent, so that the light condensing action by the guide member 17 is continued. . Further, when the output of the light source 12 is large, the resin separation claw 24 may be overheated and deformed. Therefore, it is preferable to provide the metal protective cover 18 in front of the separation claw 24. Further, as indicated by the one-dot chain line in the figure, as the sheet body 2 is ejected while approaching the pressure roller 11, the incident angle of the light irradiating the sheet body 2 approaches the normal direction, so that The irradiation density can be increased and the erasing time can be shortened.

FIG. 5 shows a light source 12 and a heating roller pair 1.
It is a partial block diagram which shows the exhaust heat state of 0 and 11 vicinity. In order to erase the color of the decolorable toner efficiently and quickly, it is conceivable that the output efficiency of the light source 12 is increased and the output power of the light source 12 is increased in addition to the improvement of the light collection efficiency from the light source 12 to the light collecting portion P. It is necessary to exhaust the temperature-elevated air to the outside of the device while reducing the influence on the member. The light source 12 emits light having a wavelength distribution from visible light to far infrared and generates a large amount of heat. The temperature of the member that directly receives the light from the light source 12 rises due to light absorption, so that the temperature of the air near the light source 12 and the heating roller pair 10 and 11 becomes high. Therefore, the exhaust duct 61 connected to the exhaust fan 62 is provided near the upper portion, and the exhaust duct 65 connected to the exhaust fan 66 is provided near the lower portion. Further, by providing the heat-resistant glass plates 14 and 15 between the light source 12 and the light condensing unit P, it is possible to smooth the air flow without blocking the light from the light source 12 so much. It is possible to prevent the accumulation of internal air. Further, ventilation efficiency is improved by exhausting air from both sides of the conveyance path of the sheet body 2, and deformation of the sheet body 2 such as warpage and corrugation due to the exhaust pressure difference on both sides of the sheet body 2 is prevented. It is possible to suppress the jam occurrence rate.

FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged view showing the contact area between the heating roller pairs 10 and 11. As shown by the broken line, when the sheet body 2 is conveyed horizontally by the rotation of the heating roller pairs 10 and 11, the sheet body 2 moves to the heating roller pair 10 and 1.
The area in contact with 1 is represented by the nip width L. On the other hand, as shown by the solid line, when the sheet body 2 is conveyed in the state of being close to the heat roller 10, in addition to the above-mentioned nip width L, the contact area Y between the sheet body 2 and the heat roller 10 is increased. To do. Therefore, when the conveying speed of the sheet body 2 is the same in both cases, the latter makes the heating time for the sheet body 2 longer and the heating efficiency can be improved. In order to convey the sheet body 2 in the state of being close to the heat roller 10, as shown in FIG. 1, the outlets of the guide members 40 and 41 on the loading side of the heating roller pair 10 and 11 are directed toward the heat roller 10. It is achieved by approaching.

[0041]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
Since it is possible to improve the heating efficiency and the light irradiation efficiency to the sheet body, it is possible to perform the toner erasing process efficiently and quickly, the erasing time per sheet is shortened, and the size is small. It is possible to provide a lightweight and decoloring device. Therefore, when the sheet body is to be reused, a large-scale facility is not required, and the reuse in each company can be easily implemented.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a cutaway side view showing a schematic configuration of the erasing device 1 of FIG.

3 is a front view showing a state in which a light source unit 70 in the reading device 1 of FIG. 1 is opened around a shaft 71. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a partial configuration diagram showing an optical system of a light source 12 and a condensing unit P.

FIG. 5 is a partial configuration diagram showing a heat exhaust state in the vicinity of a light source 12 and a pair of heating rollers 10 and 11.

FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged view showing a contact area between heating roller pairs 10 and 11.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Decoloring apparatus 2 Sheet body 10 Heat roller 11 Pressure roller 12 Light source 13a, 13b, 13c Reflecting mirror 14, 15 Heat-resistant glass plate 16, 17, 33, 36, 37, 40, 41 Guide member 18 Protective cover 20, 21 Cleaning roller 22,23 Paper discharging roller 24,25 Separation claw 31,32 Paper feeding roller 30 Paper feeding cassette 34,35,38,39 Conveying roller 42 Paper discharging tray 61,63,66,67 Exhaust duct 62,66 Exhaust fan 70 Light source unit

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Katsumi Murofushi 5-1, Ogimachi, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Showa Denko KK Chemicals Research Laboratory (72) Kiichi Hosoda 5-1, Ogimachi, Kawasaki-ku, Kanagawa Prefecture Showa Denko Chemicals Laboratory Co., Ltd.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A heating roller pair for heating a photochemically decolorizable toner fixed on a sheet member to at least a glass transition temperature of a binder resin of the toner, and a near infrared ray to the toner. An erasing device, comprising: a light source for irradiating the light source; and a light collecting means for collecting the light from the light source and forming a light collecting portion on the discharge side of the heating roller pair. 2. The erasing device according to claim 1, further comprising a heat-resistant glass plate provided between the light source and the light condensing unit. 3. The erasing device according to claim 1, wherein the first guide member provided on the discharge side of the heating roller pair is composed of a plurality of linear members. 4. The erasing device according to claim 1, wherein the surface of the second guide member provided on the discharge side of the heating roller pair is a mirror surface. 5. A heat roller and a pressure roller for heating at least the photochemically decolorizable toner fixed on the sheet body to a glass transition temperature of the binder resin of the toner or more, and the toner. And a light source for irradiating near-infrared rays, and the sheet body is carried in close to the heat roller. 6. The erasing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the sheet body is discharged while being close to the pressure roller.