JPH071411B2 - Colored image forming device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a colored image forming apparatus capable of obtaining images of various colors by using a copying machine or the like.

<Background of the Invention> In a copying machine or the like, a toner mixed with a color pigment is used as a developer for forming a visible image on a sheet. This toner is usually a mixture of a resin or the like that is softened / melted by low-temperature heating with a dye or pigment as a coloring material, and is capable of forming an image such as red or blue in addition to black.
However, in order to form a metallic color image such as gold or silver, the toner must be mixed with a metal, and when the toner is mixed with a metal, a flow of an electrostatic image is generated on the surface of the photosensitive drum. However, the quality of the formed image may be significantly reduced. Therefore, it has been impossible to form an image of metallic color such as gold or silver.

Therefore, in order to obtain a metallic image, a toner image is first formed with the toner having the above-described structure, and this paper and a developing sheet having a metallic color such as gold or silver are overlapped and copied. It is reproduced by sending it to a dedicated heating device separate from the machine. That is, the developing sheet has a structure in which a developing layer made of a coloring material having a metallic color is formed on a thin resin film or the like. Therefore, the colored developing layer of the developing sheet can be fused to the toner on the paper after copying and reproduced in a desired color. Since the colored developing layer is transferred to the paper side by heat, it can be reproduced in that color. Moreover, since the toner on the paper is melted again by the heating device, the colored developing layer is transferred to a portion corresponding to the toner image.

Further, in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 61-35858, a sheet of paper having a toner image formed thereon is passed through a heating roller through a special foil stamp material, so that the toner image is fixed at the same time as the special foil, that is, gold. Alternatively, it is specified to form a silver image. However, with this proposed technique, the entire image formed on the paper can be made into a special color, but only a specific part is made to be a special color, and the image is emphasized and made to stand out, thereby forming a highlight image. I can't. Moreover, although the original function of the copying machine is excluded and an image of a special color can be formed, a normal toner image cannot be obtained.

<Object of the Invention> An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus capable of easily obtaining an image of a metallic special color such as gold or silver.

In addition, according to the present invention, the original function of the image forming apparatus is used as it is without providing a dedicated device for forming a special color, and a normal toner image is obtained, and at the same time, a special part of only a necessary portion is formed. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of conversion into color.

<Structure> The present invention uses a general image forming apparatus provided with a means for forming a toner image and heating and fixing the toner image as it is, and an image of a metallic special color or a toner image A colored image forming apparatus that forms a colored image with a special color in a required area.

Then, a polymer obtained by polymerizing the sheet on which the toner image is formed on the upper surface of the image forming apparatus and the development having the developing layer of the special color formed on the sheet is fed to the sheet conveying means of the image forming apparatus main body. A sheet feeding unit for feeding the sheet is provided, and the heating temperature of the heat fixing unit is set to be high by feeding the polymer from the sheet feeding unit, and at the same time, the sheet conveying unit is driven as it is in the image forming operation. In the configuration, the image forming operation by the image forming means is made inoperative so that the polymer passes through the transfer position, guides the polymer to the heat fixing means, and discharges it to the outside of the image forming apparatus.

<Operation> According to the apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, when it is desired to form an image of a special color, the developing sheet of that color is superposed on a desired portion of the previously formed toner image. By inserting this polymer into the paper feed section, it is sent to the conveyance means in the main body of the image forming apparatus. At this time, the heating temperature of the heating roller, which is the heating and fixing unit, is set high and controlled to that temperature. Then, the polymer passes through the transfer position in a state where the toner image is not formed by the image forming means and is fed to the heat fixing roller, so that the temperature of the toner image portion is changed to a region where another toner image is not formed. Will be higher than. Therefore, the special color developing layer is transferred to the toner image portion where the developing sheet is polymerized, and a highlight image can be obtained with a desired color.

<Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a copying machine which is an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, a photoconductor drum 2 is arranged at a substantially central portion of a copying machine main body 1. Around the photoconductor drum 2, a charging unit 3 for charging the surface of the photoconductor drum 2, a developing unit 5 for attaching a developer to the surface of the photoconductor drum 2, and a developer attached to the surface of the photoconductor drum 2 are transferred to a sheet. The transfer unit 6, the peeling unit 7 for peeling the paper from the surface of the photosensitive drum 2, and the cleaning unit 8 for removing the developer remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 2 are arranged in the above order.

The photosensitive drum 2 rotates in the direction of the arrow in the figure, and the charging unit 3 charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 2. The optical system device 15 irradiates the surface of the charged photosensitive drum 2 with the reflected light of the original document on the original table 16 to form a latent image. The developer is attached to the latent image by the current unit 5 to form a toner image. The charging unit 3, the optical system device
The image forming means for forming the above-mentioned toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 2 is constituted by 15 and the developing unit 5. In parallel with this, the paper feed cassette 9 or the manual paper feed tray 10
The paper fed by the rotation of the paper feed rollers 11 and 12 from the roller 25 is moved to the position of the transfer unit 6 where the toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 2 formed as described above is transferred.
Is conveyed by the action of. The toner image is transferred to the sheet conveyed to the transfer position by the action of the transfer unit 6. After the transfer, the sheet is peeled from the photosensitive drum 2 by the peeling unit 7 and conveyed to the heat fixing device 13. In the fixing device 13, the toner image is heat-fixed on the paper, and the paper is ejected to the outside of the copying machine on a paper ejection tray 14 which is openably and closably provided with respect to the copying machine main body 1. As described above, in the copying machine, when the paper is fed by the paper feed rollers 11 or 12, the paper is fed to the image transfer position by the roller unit 25, and after the transfer of the toner image, the paper is ejected to the outside via the fixing device 13. The sheet forming means is provided together with the image forming apparatus.

The photosensitive drum 2 and the charging unit 3 are integrally housed and fixed in the image forming cartridge body 4.

As shown in the figure, the fixing device 13 includes the upper heating roller 13
The heat fixing roller is composed of 1 and a pressure roller 132 that is pressed against the roller. The heating roller 131 has a heater 133 inside the roller, and the heating roller (heat roller) 131 is controlled by driving the heater 133 by a temperature control means.
The surface temperature is kept at, for example, 180 ° C. when a normal toner image is fixed.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the structure of the developing sheet according to the present invention. The developing sheet 20 is a transparent thin film 21.
Is coated with a colored development layer 22 in which metallic colors such as gold and silver are mixed.
The colored developing layer 22 is formed on the fully heated portion of the film 21.
It is composed of a material that causes more transition. And
An adhesive layer 23 is provided on the surface of the colored developing layer 22. The adhesive layer 23 is composed of an adhesive having an adhesive force (adhesive force) that is lightly adhered to the paper and easily separated from the paper.

In the above-described structure, the copy original is written on the original table 16, and when the copy operation is started, the image of the copy original is formed on the surface of the photoconductor 2. This image (toner image) is appropriately transferred onto a sheet of paper that is fed, and after this transfer, the sheet of paper is peeled off from the photoconductor 2. Then, by passing between the rollers of the fixing device 13, the toner image held by this sheet is heated and fixed,
The paper is ejected to the paper ejection tray 14.

On the copied sheet having the copied image obtained as described above, the developing sheet 20 is overlaid on the area desired to be colored with another color as shown in FIG. If the superposed polymer is placed and inserted in the paper feed section consisting of, for example, the manual paper feed tray 10 and the paper feed roller 12, by driving the paper feed roller 12,
It is sent to the transfer position and the fixing position through the roller portion 25 and the like which constitute the conveying means in the main body of the copying machine. in this case,
The developing sheet 20 is lightly adhered to the copied sheet 30 by the adhesive layer 23, and there is no fear that the developing sheet 20 and the sheet 30 are displaced when passing through the respective rollers.

Further, as described above, when the polymer passes through the conveying path in the copying machine, the charging unit 3, the developing unit 5, the transfer unit 6, and the optical system device 15 arranged around the photoconductor 2 are inactivated. Good. If controlled in this manner, an image is not formed on the rotating photoconductor 2, and only the polymer is formed on the photoconductor 2.
, And is ejected to the outside of the copying apparatus main body via the fixing device 13. At this time, the polymer obtained by stacking the sheet on which the toner image is formed and the developing sheet so that the toner image surface and the colored developing layer surface face each other may be electrostatically adsorbed on the surface of the rotating photosensitive drum 2. Instead, it passes through the transfer position and is more reliably conveyed to the fixing device 13. Therefore,
There is no fear that the developing sheet in contact with the photosensitive drum 2 of the polymer will be separated from the sheet on which the toner image is formed.
It is conveyed as it is polymerized. Further, in this case, even if the above-mentioned units and devices are operated, if the document cover on the document table 16 is left in a white state, an electrostatic image is not formed on the photoconductor 2. Even if the transfer means is operated, the image is not transferred onto the developing sheet 20.

Moreover, even if an image is formed on the developing sheet, the developing sheet passes through the fixing device 13 and is discharged, so that it is not necessary to be separated from the sheet, so that image formation causes less problem. There is no such thing.

When the polymer conveyed to the fixing device 13 passes between the fixing rollers, the toner image 31 portion of the copied paper 30 is particularly heated and melted, and the colored developing layer 22 portion of the developing sheet 20 is toner image 31. It adheres to the upper part and transfers. As a result, when the polymer developing sheet 20 that has passed through the fixing device 13 is peeled off, the toner image 31 portion on the paper 30 is covered with the colored developing layer 22, and an image of a desired color can be obtained.

In the embodiment, the developing sheet 20 is superposed only on a desired area, but this is merely an example,
The developing sheet 20 may be overlaid on the entire sheet to form an image of a desired color. In this case, when the developing sheet 20 is superposed on the paper, the heat taken by the roller 131 increases, the toner image portion is not sufficiently heated, and the colored developing layer 22 becomes the toner image 31.
It is also possible that it does not transfer to the part. Therefore, the surface temperature of the heat roller 131 is controlled to be high by the temperature control means when the polymer is inserted from the manual paper feed tray 10 as described above and is fed by the paper feed roller 12 to the conveyance path in the copying machine. . In this case, if the temperature for fixing the toner image on the ordinary paper is 180 ° C., the surface temperature of the heat roller 131 is heated and controlled to 200 ° C. by the temperature control means.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the developing sheet 20 is superposed only on a desired area of the sheet 30, but there is no fear that the sheet 20 is displaced from the area by the adhesive layer 23. As an alternative to the adhesive layer 23, the sheet 20 may be partially attached to the paper 30 with a cellophane tape or the like. In this case, the cellophane tape needs to be attached to the advancing side of the paper 20.

Furthermore, when the copied sheet 30 and the developing sheet 20 are overlapped with each other, the copied sheet 30 is sent back to the sheet feeding cassette 9 after, for example, discharging, without manually performing the developing sheet 20 from another sheet feeding unit. May be fed together with the copied sheets 30 of the sheet feeding cassette 9 and both sides thereof may be appropriately superposed by the roller portion 25. According to this structure, the labor of superposition can be omitted.

<Effects> According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the functions of the image forming apparatus can be used as they are without using a special apparatus, so that not only a normal toner image can be obtained but also the formed toner image can be obtained. Can be converted to a special color. In particular, by stacking a developing sheet of a desired color on a sheet on which a toner image is formed, conveying the sheet by a sheet conveying unit to a heat fixing roller, passing the roller, and then separating the developing sheet, a desired sheet is obtained. A colored image can be obtained. In this case, a highlight image with emphasis can be easily obtained by converting the toner image into a special color.

Further, since the heating temperature by the heat fixing roller is set to a temperature higher than that at the time of toner image formation, the developing layer of the developing sheet is efficiently transferred to the entire area of the toner image,
At the same time as forming a very easy-to-see image, even when the image forming apparatus is passed again, by leaving the image forming means inoperative, there is no inconvenience that the developing sheet is attracted to the photosensitive member side and separated from the paper, The polymer as it is can be reliably conveyed to the heating and fixing section, and a highlight image can be clearly formed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a structure of a copying machine which is an image forming apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a developing sheet according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a developing sheet and copying paper shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the polymerization state and dislocation state of 1: Copier body, 2: Photoconductor, 5: Development unit, 13: Fixing device (heat fixing roller), 131: Heat roller, 132: Pressure roller, 20: Development sheet, 22: Color development layer, 23: Adhesive layer, 30: Copy paper, 31: Toner image.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kyota Matsui 22-22 Nagaike-cho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Within Sharp Co., Ltd. (56) -122665 (JP, A) JP 56-164373 (JP, A) JP 60-121478 (JP, A) JP 62-201471 (JP, A) JP 58-114067 (JP, A) ) JP-A-58-187358 (JP, A) JP-A-62-47060 (JP, A) JP-A-62-231272 (JP, A) JP-A-63-5362 (JP, A) JP-A-60- 140370 (JP, A) JP 50-43936 (JP, A) JP 50-137547 (JP, A) JP 60-26968 (JP, A) Actual development 61-35858 (JP, U) Actually open 57-40977 (JP, U) Actually open 62-30266 (JP, U) Actually open 51-24296 (JP, U) Special public 55-6899 (JP, B2)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A photoconductor, a toner image forming means for forming a toner image on the photoconductor, a transfer means for transferring the toner image formed on the photoconductor onto a sheet, and a toner image transferred on the sheet is heated. An image provided with a heat fixing roller for fixing, a sheet conveying means for feeding the sheet to the transfer position by the transfer means, and conveying the sheet on which the toner image is transferred to the heat fixing roller and discharging it to the outside of the apparatus. In the forming apparatus, a polymer obtained by stacking a developing sheet having a colored developing layer formed on a film and a sheet having the toner image fixed thereon such that the colored developing layer surface and the toner image surface are opposed to each other is the image forming apparatus. And a surface of the heat fixing roller is set higher than the temperature at which the toner image is fixed, when the polymer is fed from the paper feeding unit. Temperature control means for controlling the temperature, driving of the paper feeding means in the image forming apparatus, which feeds the polymer fed from the paper feeding portion through the transfer position and feeds it to the heat fixing roller, and Copy control means for setting the toner image forming means and the transfer means in an inoperative state when the polymer is conveyed to the transfer position;
The polymer is discharged from the main body of the image forming apparatus through the heat fixing roller, and the discharged developing sheet of the polymer is separated from the paper to color the toner image in the portion where the developing sheets are overlapped. A colored image forming apparatus comprising: