JPH07111575B2 - Image recorder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] An image recording apparatus for superimposing an image receiving material on an imagewise exposed photosensitive material to obtain an image on the image receiving material, and in particular, a plurality of materials for the image receiving material. And an image recording apparatus using the same.

[Background technology and its problems]

As an example of the image recording material using the photosensitive composition, there is one disclosed in JP-A-61-275742, which is an application of the present applicant. This recording material has at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound and a color image forming substance coated on a support, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image forming substance are encapsulated in the same microcapsule. It is composed of a known photosensitive composition.

As an image recording apparatus for recording an image using this light-sensitive material and image receiving material, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
Some are disclosed in the specification of 62-147461. This image recording apparatus first performs imagewise exposure to form a latent image, and then develops it by heating to polymerize the polymerizable compound in the portion where the latent image exists to generate a polymer compound, thereby forming a microcapsule. Cure. Then, pressure is applied to the image receiving material having an image receiving layer capable of transferring the color image forming substance so as to rupture at least a part of the microcapsules where the latent image does not exist, and transfer the color image forming substance to the image receiving material. To obtain an image on the image receiving material.

In the above-mentioned image recording apparatus, since the image receiving material has only one surface as the image receiving layer, when the surface without the image receiving layer and the exposed surface of the photosensitive material are erroneously overlapped, the image cannot be transferred at all. Furthermore, since the image receiving layer acts like an adhesive and the image receiving material winds around and adheres to the pressure member (eg roller), it is very difficult to treat the paper jam, and the image receiving layer after the paper jam treatment is also difficult. There is a problem in that the pressure member is soiled by the chemicals, so that the cleaning process must be performed. Moreover, the image receiving layer is usually
It is almost colorless and transparent, and therefore it is difficult to visually distinguish between the surface of the image receiving material and the surface of the image receiving layer which is not.

Therefore, we propose a method of distinguishing the front and back by the difference in the reflectance of the front and back ultraviolet regions by the fluorescent whitening agent mixed to make white in the image receiving layer, and a method of distinguishing by the difference in the gloss of the front and back. Has been done.

However, when a transparent material such as a sheet for OHP (Overhead Projector) is used for the support of the image receiving material, the fluorescent whitening agent is not mixed in, so the fluorescence in the ultraviolet region as described above. The reflectance change peculiar to the whitening agent cannot be used.

In addition, when normal paper is used as the support of the image receiving material, the surface that is not the image receiving surface has a different amount of moisture absorption due to differences in humidity, etc. Unreliable.

Therefore, in order to discriminate between the front and back of the transparent sheet for OHP (over head projector) or the like and the image receiving material using the plain paper, it is necessary to provide two detecting portions.

[Object of the Invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an image recording apparatus which discriminates between the front and back of various image receiving materials by a single detecting section.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The apparatus of the present invention is an image recording apparatus for obtaining a transferred image by superimposing a photosensitive material imagewise exposed and an image receiving material,
A light source for irradiating the image-receiving material before superposition with light having an ultraviolet component, a light-receiving means for receiving reflected light at a position other than a specular reflection direction of light of the light source with respect to the image-receiving material, and a light-receiving amount of the light-receiving means Discriminating means for calculating reflectance and comparing front and back by comparing with a preset boundary value according to the type of image receiving material, and the result of the discriminating means is reversed depending on the type of image receiving material. It is configured to have switching means for switching and conveyance control means for stopping the supply of the image receiving material based on the discrimination result of the discrimination means.

That is, in the image receiving material whose reflectance in the ultraviolet region is different on the front and back sides, usually, the surface which is the image receiving surface contains a fluorescent whitening agent and the like, and since it absorbs in the vicinity of a certain wavelength of ultraviolet rays,
The reflectance of the surface is reduced. Utilizing this, the determination means determines that the case where the reflectance is higher than the boundary value is the back side, and stops the supply of the image receiving material.

On the other hand, in a transparent material such as an image receiving material for an OHP (over head projector), the support itself is transparent and has good flatness, but the surface of the image receiving layer is not so flat and rough. Therefore, as described above, when the light receiving means is arranged in a device other than the specular reflection direction of light from the light source,
Since the amount of specular reflection on the back surface increases due to the flatness of the support itself, the amount of incidence on the light receiving means is small. In addition, the amount of light scattered from the light source increases on the image receiving surface, which is the surface, and the light is largely incident on the light receiving means.

Here, since the opposite result is obtained as compared with the case where the absorption in the ultraviolet region is used, the judgment of the judging device when the absorption in the ultraviolet region is used is switched to the opposite by the switching device, and the conveyance control device changes the image receiving material Control supply.

In the present invention, the light-sensitive material may be of any type as long as it is of a type in which an image exposed on the light-sensitive material is transferred to a material to be transferred (image receiving material) to obtain a visible image.

For example, there is a so-called photothermographic material in which an image obtained by performing heat development is transferred to an image receiving material by heating. In this photothermographic material, a movable dye is imagewise released by heating, and the movable dye is transferred to an image receiving material (dye fixing material) having a mordant with a solvent such as water. , That is transferred to the image receiving material by a high-boiling organic solvent, that is transferred to the image receiving material by a hydrophilic thermal solvent incorporated in the image receiving material, or the movable dye is heat diffusible or sublimable, What is transferred to a dye receiving material such as a support is known, and specifically, U.S. Pat.Nos. 4,463,079, 4,474,867, and 4,
No. 478,927, No. 4,507,380, No. 4,500,626, No.
4,483,914; JP-A-58-149046, JP-A-58-149047,
59-152440, 59-154445, 59-165054,
59-180548, 59-168439, 59-174832, 59
-174833, 59-174834, 59-174835, and the like.

Further, as another example, there is the above-mentioned light and pressure sensitive material which obtains a visible image by transferring an image generated by imagewise exposure to an image receiving material having an image receiving layer by pressure.

For example, as the light and pressure sensitive material, a polymerizable compound is imagewise cured by imagewise exposure disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-179836 of the applicant of the present invention, and thereafter, the polymerizable compound is superposed on the image receiving material and pressure is applied thereto. There is a type that obtains a visible image by adding. This light and pressure sensitive material comprises a support carrying a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colored precursor.

Further, a latent image produced by imagewise exposure is preliminarily heat-developed or wet-developed, and then a pressure is applied over the image-receiving material to obtain a visible image. As an example of such a material, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-
There is one disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 278849. This material is for obtaining an image on the image-receiving material by transferring a color image-forming substance to the image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer after thermal development, and at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, The polymerizable compound and the color image-forming substance are coated, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image-forming substance are encapsulated in the same microcapsule.

[Embodiment]

Hereinafter, the embodiment of the present invention will be described by taking as an example a case where a photosensitive material of a type in which heat development is performed before pressure transfer is used, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the image recording apparatus of the present invention.

A transparent support glass plate 2 on which an original is placed is provided on the upper surface of the housing 1, and an exposure device 3 is provided below the glass plate 2. The exposure device 3 is fixed in the housing 1, and the glass plate 2 is reciprocally moved on the exposure device 3 in the horizontal direction indicated by an arrow A by a driving unit (not shown).

The photosensitive material S is wound into a roll and stored in the magazine 4, and is pulled out from the magazine 4 by a pair of feeding rollers 5. The attachment / detachment of the magazine 4 is carried out after the upper cover 37 is pivoted around its right end to open it. The photosensitive material S drawn out from the magazine 4 is conveyed by the conveying rollers 7, 8, 9
Is conveyed to the exposure unit by the cutter, and is cut into a predetermined length by the cutter 6 while being exposed.

The photosensitive material S having an exposure image and cut into a sheet shape is subsequently conveyed to the heat developing device 12 by the conveying rollers 10 and 11.

The heating and developing device 12 includes a heat-insulating housing 13, a hollow cylindrical heating roller 14, four belt supporting rollers 15,
Stretched around the support roller 15 and about 240 ° around the heating roller
Endless belt 16 wound at an angle of
Is conveyed while being sandwiched between the belt 16 and the heating roller 14, and the halogen lamp 17 provided in the heating roller 14 allows
It is heated at 120 °.

The photosensitive material S that has been heat-developed by the heat-developing device 12 and sent out from the housing 13 is conveyed to the superposing section 19 by the conveying roller 18, and is transferred from the image receiving paper cassette 20 to the nip roller.
The sheet is superposed on the image receiving sheet C supplied by 74 or from the manual feed section 21 by the transport roller 72 and transported by the transport roller 76 to the superposing section 19, and is transported to the pressure transfer device 22.

The pressure transfer device 22 is composed of a pair of pressure rollers 23 in pressure contact with each other, and a backup roller 24 in pressure contact with each pressure roller 23, and a blade 70 for preventing wrinkles of the photosensitive material S and the image receiving paper C is an inlet. Is provided in the section, and the tip end thereof is elastically in contact with the pressure roller 23. Overlaid photosensitive material S
And the image receiving paper C are pressed at a pressure of about 550 kg / cm ² . Then, when the image recorded on the photosensitive material S is transferred to the image receiving paper C, the photosensitive material S and the image receiving paper C which are superposed are separated by the peeling device 25.
Be transported to.

The peeling device 25 includes a conveying roller 26 and a peeling claw 27. When the peeling claw 27 swings downstream of the conveying roller 26, the leading end of the peeling device enters between the photosensitive material S and the image receiving paper C and separates them. .

Photosensitive material S peeled from image receiving paper C by peeling device 25
Is transported to the discard tray 31 by the transport rollers 28, 29, 30 and is discarded and stored. On the other hand, the image receiving paper C on which the image has been transferred is peeled from the photosensitive material S,
It is conveyed to the post-heating device 33 by 32. Then, the image-receiving paper C is heated by, for example, a halogen lamp 34 provided in the post-heating device 33 to promote color development, and then is conveyed onto the take-out tray 36 by the conveying roller 35.

A discriminator 80 shown in FIG.
Are arranged.

In the discrimination device 80, when the supply of the image receiving paper C is caught by the image receiving paper sensor SW ₁ on the conveying path on the image receiving paper cassette 20 side or the image receiving paper sensor W ₂ on the conveying path on the manual feed section 21 side, it is judged. Discrimination is disclosed after a certain time after the image receiving paper C is conveyed to the position of the device 80.

Here, the image receiving paper C ₁ supplied from the image receiving paper cassette 20 uses plain paper as a support. And the image receiving layer has 12
To 5 g of water was added 11 g of 40% sodium hexametaphosphate aqueous solution, and further mixed with 34 g of 3,5-di-α-methylbenzyl salicylate 34 g and 82 g of 55% calcium carbonate slurry,
Coarse-dispersed with a mixer. Disperse the solution with Dynamill disperser, and 6% of 50% SBR latex for 200g of the obtained solution.
And 55 g of 8% polyvinyl alcohol were added and mixed uniformly. 40 μ of this mixed solution on 43 / m ³ art paper.
The image receiving paper C is prepared by uniformly applying a wet film thickness of m and drying.

On the other hand, the image receiving paper C ₂ supplied from the manual feed section 21 is mainly OHP.
For (over head projector), PE
An image receiving layer is applied to a transparent film such as T.

The front and back reflectances of the two types of image receiving paper are compared in FIG. The reflection spectral characteristics of the image receiving surface and the back surface of the image receiving paper C ₁ are comparisons of the reflectances around the wavelengths of 300 to 400 nm because the reflectances of light around the wavelengths of 300 to 4400 nm are remarkably different.

As shown in the figure, in image-receiving paper C ₁ (which utilizes the difference in reflectance in the ultraviolet region), the one with a large reflectance is the back surface that absorbs less light in the ultraviolet region, and image-receiving paper C ₂ (for OHP, etc.) (In which the transparent film is used), the reflectance in the directions other than the specular reflection direction is large on the image receiving surface which is rough due to the coating of the image receiving layer and has relatively low flatness.

Further, the same boundary value can be set between the front and back reflectances of the image receiving paper C _{1 and} the front and back reflectances of the image receiving paper C ₂ .

Returning to FIG. 2, when the image receiving paper C ₁ is caught by the sensor SW ₁ , the front / back discrimination is started. A light source containing light components with wavelengths around 300 to 400 (eg xenon flash lamp) 81
The light emitted from is reflected by the image receiving paper C ₁ and has a wavelength of 300 to 400 nm.
Only the light necessary for the determination passes through the filter 82 which transmits only the light in the vicinity, and enters the light sensor 83 (for example, a silicon single crystal or a photodiode). And optical sensor
The signal from 83 is amplified by the sensor output amplifier 84,
Input to the discriminator 85.

In the discriminator 85, the above-mentioned boundary value is set in advance, and discrimination for the image receiving paper C ₁ (using the difference in reflectance in the ultraviolet region) is performed. Therefore, the signal from the sensor output amplifier 84 is compared, and when the signal is larger than the boundary value, the discriminator 85 sends a signal for determining that the reflecting surface is not the image receiving surface to the paper feeding control device 90 to control the paper feeding. The device 90 immediately stops the supply of the image receiving paper. If the signal from the sensor output amplifier 84 is smaller than the boundary value, the discriminator 85 determines that the reflecting surface is the image receiving surface, and the image receiving paper is supplied and transferred.

On the other hand, when the image receiving paper C ₂ (which uses a transparent film for OHP or the like) is conveyed, it is caught by the sensor SW ₂ and the front / back discrimination is disclosed. Then, the same discrimination as the above-mentioned image receiving paper C ₁ is made, but the discriminator 85 is connected to the switching device 86, the discrimination is reversed by turning on the sensor SW ₂ , and the signal from the sensor output amplifier 84 is If it is smaller than the boundary value, it is determined that the reflection surface is the back surface,
Stops the supply of image receiving paper.

Therefore, in this embodiment, for two types of image receiving paper,
The front and back can be discriminated by one sensor.

The composition of the image-receiving layer and the support in the present embodiment are as described above, but the present invention is applicable to other compositions or supports as long as they have unique spectral reflection characteristics.

It is obvious that the discrimination device 80 can perform both analog processing and digital processing.

Further, although the switching device 86 is operated by the image receiving paper sensors SW ₁ and SW ₂ , it may be switched when the type of image receiving paper is set by the control panel.

Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the image recording method by pressure transfer is taken as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can also be used in an image recording method of a type in which development and transfer are simultaneously performed by heating.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, by utilizing the different surface characteristics of each image receiving material and reversing the determination result when a certain image receiving material is supplied, it is possible to determine the front and back of different image receiving materials with one sensor. Therefore, it is possible to prevent contamination of the transfer portion and the like caused by putting the image receiving material inside out.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an image recording device, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a (discrimination) device, and FIG. 3 is a graph showing a spectral reflection characteristic of an image receiving paper. Reference numerals in the figure: 1 ... Housing, 2 ... Glass plate, 3 ... Exposure device 4 ... Magazine, 5 ... Delivery roller, 6 ... Cutter 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 ... Conveying roller 12 ... Heat developing device, 13 ... Housing 14 ... Heating roller, 15 ... Belt support roller 16 ... Belt, 17 ... Halogen lamp 18 ... Conveying roller, 19 ... Stacking section 20 ... Image receiving paper cassette, 21 ... Manual feed section 22 ... Pressure transfer device, 23 ... Pressure roller 24 ... Backup roller, 25 ... Peeling device 26 ... Conveying roller, 27 ... Peeling claw 28,29,30 ... Conveying roller, 31 ... Waste tray 32 ... Conveying roller, 33 ... Post heating device 34 ... UV lamp, 35 ... Conveying roller 36 ... Take-out tray, 37 ... Top cover 70 ... Blade, 72, 76 ... Conveying roller 74 ... Nip roller, 80 ... Discriminating device 81 ... Light source, 82 ... Filter, 83 ... Optical sensor 84 ... Sensor output amplifier, 85 ... Discriminator 86 … Switching device, 90… Paper feed control device S… Feel _{Material, C (C 1, C 2} ) ... image receiving paper SW _1, SW ₂ ... image receiving sheet sensor

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image recording apparatus for obtaining an image by superimposing an imagewise exposed light-sensitive material and an image-receiving material on each other, and a light source for irradiating the image-receiving material before overlaying with light having an ultraviolet component, Light receiving means for receiving the reflected light at a position other than the specular reflection direction of the light from the light source with respect to the image receiving material, and a reflectance calculated from the amount of light received by the light receiving means and a boundary value preset according to the type of the image receiving material. Discriminating means for discriminating between the front and the back, and a switching means for switching so that the discrimination result of the discriminating means is reversed depending on the type of the image receiving material,
An image recording apparatus comprising: a conveyance control unit that stops the supply of the image receiving material based on the determination result of the determination unit. 2. At least two image receiving material inlets for each surface characteristic provided for supplying various types of image receiving materials having different surface characteristics, and image receiving material detecting means provided at each image receiving material inlet. And (1) wherein, based on the detection result of the detection means, the switching means performs switching so that the determination result of the determination means is reversed.
The image recording device described in 1.