JPH0737141B2 - Recording device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Field of Industrial Application> The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that can be used in a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile, or the like.

<Prior Art> In recent years, various information processing systems have been developed along with the rapid development of the information industry, and a recording device suitable for each information processing system has been developed.

There is a thermal transfer recording device as one of the recording devices. In this method, recording is performed on a recording paper using an ink ribbon formed by coating a ribbon-shaped support with a heat-meltable ink prepared by dispersing a colorant in a heat-meltable binder.

That is, the ink ribbon is superposed so that the heat-meltable ink layer contacts the recording paper, and the ink ribbon and the recording paper are conveyed between the thermal head and the platen, and the thermal head is moved from the support side of the ink ribbon. In addition to applying pulsed heat according to the image signal, the two inks are pressed into contact with each other to transfer the melted ink to the recording paper, thereby recording an ink image on the recording paper according to the heat application. .

The above-described recording apparatus has been widely used in recent years because the apparatus used is small and lightweight, has no noise, and can record on plain paper.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, the conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus is not without problems.

In the conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus, the transfer recording performance, that is, the image quality is greatly affected by the surface smoothness of the recording paper.
Although good image recording is performed on recording paper having high smoothness, image recording quality may be deteriorated in the case of recording paper having low smoothness.

Further, in the conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus, when an attempt is made to obtain a multicolor image, it is necessary to repeat the transfer to superimpose the colors. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a plurality of thermal heads, or to make a complicated movement such as stopping and reverse feeding on the recording paper, and not only color misregistration is unavoidable, but also the entire device becomes large and complicated. There is a problem.

<Means for Solving Problems> Therefore, the applicant of the present invention uses a photothermosensitive polymer material, and when heat energy and light energy are applied, the reaction of the polymer rapidly advances and the transfer characteristics are irreversible. A recording apparatus has been proposed (Japanese Patent Application No. 60-150597) which uses a transfer recording medium that changes in a dynamic manner, forms an image according to the difference in the characteristics according to an image signal, and transfers the image to a recording medium.

According to this recording device, it is possible to record a high-quality image even on a recording medium having a low surface smoothness, and when applied to multicolor recording, the recording medium is caused to make a complicated movement. It is possible to obtain a multicolored image without any trouble.

The present invention is a further development of the recording device, comprising:
An object of the present invention is to provide a recording device capable of easily exchanging a transfer recording medium.

A means therefor is an apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium by using a transfer recording medium having a transfer recording layer whose transfer characteristics are changed by applying plural kinds of energy. It is characterized in that the members constituting the transport path are unitized to be separable from the apparatus main body.

<Operation> According to the above means, when the transfer recording medium is set, if the unit is separated from the apparatus main body, the transfer recording medium conveyance path is widely opened, so that the setting can be easily performed.

Further, when a plurality of types of energy such as light energy and heat energy are applied to the transfer recording medium according to image information, an image is formed, and a transfer image can be obtained by transferring the image to the recording medium.

<Example> Next, an example of the present invention to which the above means is applied will be described in the case of applying thermal energy and light energy as a plurality of types of energy.

FIG. 1A is a schematic cross-sectional view of the recording apparatus.
FIG. 3B is a perspective explanatory view.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a long sheet-shaped transfer recording medium, which is wound into a roll and accommodated as a supply roll 2 in a transfer recording medium accommodating cassette 14 as shown in FIG. It is detachably incorporated into the main body M.

A leader 15 is connected to the end of the transfer recording medium 1 drawn out from the delivery port 14a of the cassette 14, and the leader 15
Is connected to the winding shaft 6a. Further, a boss 14b capable of detachably holding the winding shaft 6a is provided near the delivery port 14a of the cassette 14.

Therefore, when the winding shaft 6a is removed from the boss 14b and pulled out, the leader 15 and the transfer recording medium 1 are pulled out. The leader 15 and the transfer recording medium 1 drawn out there are passed through the guide roller 12a, the recording head 3a and the guide roller 12b,
The peeling roller 5 and the guide roller 12c change the direction between the transfer roller 4a and the pressure roller 4b, and the winding shaft 6a is attached to the winding joint 17. After that, the take-up joint 17 is driven and rotated by a well-known driving means, so that the transfer recording medium 1 is drawn out in the direction of the arrow a and is sequentially taken up on the peripheral surface of the take-up shaft 6a.

During the winding, a constant back tension is applied to the supply roll 2 by, for example, a hysteresis brake (not shown), and the transfer recording medium 1 is moved to the recording head 3a by this tension and the guide rollers 12a and 12b. It is configured to be conveyed while being pressed against it at a constant pressure and at a constant angle.

Next, the configuration of each of the above parts will be individually described. First, as shown in FIG. 2, the transfer recording medium 1 has a transfer recording layer 1b having a property capable of forming an image when both thermal energy and light energy are applied onto a sheet-like support 1a. It will be.

To explain one example thereof, as shown in FIG. 2, the transfer recording layer 1b uses the components shown in Tables 1 and 2 as the cores 1c and 1d, and a microcapsule-shaped image forming element is prepared by the following method. Formed.

That is, a mixture of 10 g of the components shown in Tables 1 and 2 was first mixed with 20 parts by weight of methylene chloride, and then a cation or nonionic surfactant having an HLB value of at least 10 or more and 1 g of gelatin.
Was mixed with 200 ml of dissolved water and stirred by a homomixer at 60 ° C with stirring at 8,000 to 10,000 rpm to emulsify and the average particle size
A 26 μm oil drop is obtained.

Further, stirring is continued at 60 ° C. for 30 minutes to distill off methylene chloride so that the average particle diameter becomes 10 μm. To this, add 20 ml of water in which 1 g of gum arabic is dissolved and slowly cool with NH.
Microcapsule slurry is obtained by adding ₄ OH (ammonia) water to pH 11 or above, and 1.0 ml of 20% glutaraldehyde aqueous solution is slowly added to harden the capsule wall.

After that, solid-liquid separation is performed with a Nutche filter and the vacuum dryer is used for 35
After drying at ℃ for 10 hours, a microcapsule-shaped image forming element is obtained.

This image-forming element is a microcapsule in which the cores 1c and 1d in Tables 1 and 2 are coated with the shell 1e, and the particle size is 7 to 15
The average particle size is 10 μm.

The image forming element formed as described above is attached to the support 1a with the adhesive 1f to form the transfer recording medium 1.

To explain this in more detail, Nippon Synthetic Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.
An adhesive 1f made by dissolving 3 cc of toluene in 1 cc of polyester adhesive Polyester LP-022 (solid content 50%) manufactured by the company is applied on a support 1a made of a polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 6 μm. Then, the solvent was dried and removed, and the thickness was measured and found to be about 1 μm. The adhesive 1f has a glass transition point of −15 ° C., so that a slight tack remains at room temperature, and the image forming element body formed as described above can be easily attached to the support 1a.

Then, the transfer recording medium 1 is constituted by applying a pressure of about 1 kg / cm ² and heat energy of about 80 ° C. to firmly fix the image forming element on the support 1 a.

The photoinitiator in the image forming element shown in the above Table 1 starts the reaction of absorbing the light in the band of graph A in the light absorption characteristics of FIG. 3, and becomes a magenta color at the time of image formation. The photoinitiator in the image forming element shown in Table 2 absorbs light in the band shown in the graph B of FIG. 3 to start the reaction, and becomes blue during image formation.

Next, the recording unit 3 will be described. The recording unit 3 is composed of heating means and light irradiation means.

The heating means is composed of a line-type heating element array 3b having a width of 0.2 mm and 8 dots / mm of A-4 size and a line type heating element array 3b arranged on the surface of the recording head 3a to generate heat according to an image signal. The support 1a side of the medium 1 is configured to come into pressure contact with the heating element array 3b with a predetermined pressure due to back tension during transportation. The image signal is emitted from a control unit (not shown) such as a facsimile, an image scanner, or an electronic blackboard according to the purpose.

On the other hand, on the side of the transfer recording layer 1b facing the recording head 3a, two fluorescent lamps 3c and 3d which are light irradiating means having spectral characteristics as shown in FIG. 4 are arranged, and the light is pressed against the recording head 3a. A housing 3 having a slit with an opening width of 0.5 mm and arranged at a distance of 0.5 mm from the transfer recording medium 1 so as to irradiate an area directly above the heating element array of the transfer recording medium 1
It is stored in e.

In this embodiment, as one of the fluorescent lamps 3c having the spectral characteristics shown in the graph A of FIG.
The W health line fluorescent lamp FL20SE is used, and the other fluorescent lamp 3d having the spectral characteristics shown in Graph B is a 20W fluorescent lamp FL10A70E39 manufactured by Toshiba Corporation.

Next, the transfer unit 4 will be described. The transfer section 4 is arranged on the downstream side of the recording section 3 in the conveying direction of the transfer recording medium 1, and is in press contact with the transfer roller 4a which is driven and rotated in the direction of arrow b as shown in FIG. It is composed of a pressure roller 4b. The transfer roller 4a has a surface of 1 mm.
It is composed of an aluminum roller covered with a thick silicon rubber having a hardness of 70 degrees, and the surface thereof is maintained at 90 to 100 ° C. by a built-in 800 W halogen heater 4c.

The pressure roller 4b is made of silicone rubber with a hardness of 70 degrees.
It consists of an aluminum roller coated with a thickness of 1 mm, and the pressing force against the transfer roller 4a is 6 by a pressing means (not shown) such as a spring.
It is set to ~ 7kgf / cm.

Further, a recording paper 8 which is a recording medium loaded in the cassette 7 is provided.
By the feeding roller 9 and the register roller pair 10a, 10b,
It is configured to be fed to the transfer section 4 in synchronization with the image area of the transfer recording medium 1 so as to overlap with the image area. A one-way clutch is provided on the shaft of the registration roller 10a so that the registration roller 10a can freely rotate in the transfer portion 4 direction.

Here, a unit for loading the transfer recording medium 1 will be described.

In the unit 18, a member forming a transfer path of the transfer recording medium 1, that is, a cassette loading unit 16 for loading a cassette 14, a recording head 3a, guide rollers 12a and 12b, a transfer roller 4a, a peeling roller 5, and a winding roller. A joint 17 is provided. The unit 18 is rotatably attached to the apparatus main body M by a shaft 19, rotates about 95 degrees in the direction of arrow c as shown in FIG. 6, and can be opened and closed with respect to the apparatus main body M.

Next, the case of using the recording apparatus configured as described above will be described.

First, when the transfer recording medium 1 is loaded in the apparatus main body M,
As shown in FIG. 6, the unit 18 is rotated in the direction of arrow c to be opened. By doing this, the transfer roller in the transfer unit 4 between the recording head 3a and the housing 3e in the recording unit 3
The space between 4a and the pressure roller 4b is largely opened. In this state, the cassette 14 accommodating the transfer recording medium 1 is loaded into the cassette loading section 16
6 is loaded by inserting it from the front side to the back side in FIG. 6, and when the winding shaft 6a is removed from the boss 14b and pulled out, the leader 15 and the transfer recording medium 1 are pulled out. The reader 15 and the transfer recording medium 1 are connected to a guide roller 12a,
The winding shaft 6a is attached to the winding joint 17 via the recording head 3a, the guide roller 12b, the transfer roller 4a, and the peeling roller 5. Next, as shown in FIG. 7, the unit 18
Is closed by rotating in the direction of arrow e, and the unit 18 and the apparatus main body M are latched by a latch mechanism (not shown).
As shown in FIG. 3A, the transfer recording medium 1 is loaded in the apparatus.

When the unit 18 is separated from the loading main body M as described above, the transport path of the transfer recording medium 1 is largely opened from the apparatus main body M, and a sufficient working space is secured, so that the loading of the transfer recording medium 1 becomes extremely easy. .

Next, a case where the transfer recording medium 1 is conveyed to record an image will be described. In the embodiment described below, heat is applied according to an image signal and light is applied uniformly.

A motor (not shown) is driven to sequentially feed the transfer recording medium 1 from the supply roll 2, and light and heat are applied to the transfer recording layer 1b of the transfer recording medium 1 in the recording unit 3 according to an image signal to form an image. To be done.

That is, since the transfer recording layer 1b has a property that the softening point temperature rises when light and heat of a predetermined wavelength are applied and the transfer recording layer 1b is not transferred to the recording paper 8, as shown in the timing chart of FIG. At the time of magenta color recording, the heating element corresponding to magenta of the image signal is not energized in the heating element array 3b, and the portion corresponding to white of the image signal (recording paper 8 is white) is 25 ms.
Then, the fluorescent lamp 3c is uniformly irradiated with a delay of 5 ms. The irradiation time at this time is 45 ms.

Next, at the time of blue recording, 50 ms after the end of irradiation, that is, 100 ms after the energization time, this time, the heating element corresponding to blue of the image signal in the heating element row 3b is not energized and the image signal of Energize for 25ms to the part corresponding to white, and 5ms
After that, the fluorescent lamp 3d is uniformly irradiated. The irradiation time at this time is also 45 ms as described above.

As described above, the recording head 3a is controlled according to the blue, magenta, and white image signals to form a negative image on the transfer recording layer 1b, and the transfer recording medium 1 is synchronized at a repeating cycle of 200 ms / line. Transport.

When the transfer recording medium 1 is conveyed to the transfer section 4 together with the recording paper 8, the transfer recording layer 1b and the recording paper 8 are heated while being pressed against each other, and an image of two colors, blue and magenta, is transferred to the recording paper 8. It Further, the transfer recording medium 1 and the recording paper 8 which have passed through the transfer section 4 are separated by a separating roller 5, and the recording paper 8 on which an image of a desired color is recorded is discharged to a discharge tray 11 by a pair of discharge rollers 13a and 13b. Then, the transfer recording medium 1 is wound around the winding roll 6.

Two-color recording is completed in one shot as described above.

<Other Embodiments> In the above embodiments, the transfer recording layer 1b side of the transfer recording medium 1 is uniformly irradiated with light having a predetermined wavelength corresponding to a desired color, and the support 1a side outputs an image signal. Although the heat is applied in accordance with the above, the heat may be applied uniformly as another embodiment, and a predetermined light may be applied according to the image signal.

If the support 1a is made of a light-transmissive material, the support 1a may be irradiated with light and heat may be applied from the transfer recording layer 1b side.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, light irradiation and heat application were performed with the support 1a sandwiched between them. However, image formation is also possible by separately performing light irradiation and heat application from one side of the support 1a. .

As the heating means, in addition to the method of using the recording head 3a described above, a method of selectively heating using a YAG laser and a polygon mirror may be used.

As the light irradiation means, in addition to the method using the fluorescent lamps 3c and 3d described above, for example, a method using an LED array or a method using a xenon lamp and a filter matching the light absorption characteristics of the material can be used.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the light energy and the heat energy are applied to the transfer recording layer 1b at the same time. However, even if the light energy and the heat energy are applied separately, as a result, both energy Any configuration may be used as long as it is provided.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the example of two-color recording is explained, but as the applicant of the present application has made clear in Japanese Patent Application No. 61-128814, the kinds of the colorant and the photoinitiator constituting the image forming element are appropriately selected. It is also possible to obtain a monochromatic, multi-colored image of three or more colors or a full-color recorded image by selecting a light source having a wavelength that reacts with the photoinitiator and using the process disclosed in the above application.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the transfer recording layer 1b made of a polymer material containing a coloring agent by light energy and heat energy.
Although the example in which the image is transferred and recorded on the recording paper by the change of the softening point temperature is described, the image may be transferred and recorded depending on the adhesive property to the recording paper or the sublimation property. Alternatively, an image can be recorded by providing a layer on the transfer recording medium that gives the recording paper a color forming property and changes the color forming characteristics of the recording paper, and transferring the image formed on the transfer recording medium to the recording paper. It may be configured to obtain.

The plurality of types of energy applied to the transfer recording layer 1b are not limited to the heat and light energy described above, and an image may be formed by other energy such as pressure energy.

Further, as the material of the support 1a, in addition to the above-mentioned polyethylene terephthalate, for example, polyamide, polyimide, condenser paper, cellophane paper or the like can be used.

As the transfer recording layer 1b, a material having properties such as heat melting property, heat softening property, or heat sublimation property can be appropriately selected and used.

Further, the recording medium is not limited to the above-mentioned recording paper, and may be an overhead projector (OH
Of course, plastic sheets for P) can also be used.

Next, the transfer unit 4 is not limited to the roller-shaped members such as the transfer roller 4a and the pressure roller 4b, and may be any structure such as a rotary belt that can obtain a desired pressure.

If necessary, a fixing unit for fixing the image of the recording medium transferred by the transfer unit 4 may be provided in the conveying direction of the recording medium and on the downstream side of the peeling roller 5.

<Advantages of the Invention> As described above, the present invention uses a transfer recording medium whose transfer characteristics change when a plurality of types of energy are applied, thereby forming a multicolor image without causing complicated movement of the recording medium. You can get it.

Further, since the member constituting the transfer recording medium conveying path is separable from the main body of the apparatus, the conveying path is largely opened when the transfer recording medium is loaded, and a sufficient working space can be secured. Therefore, it is possible to extremely easily load and replace the transfer recording medium.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIGS. 1 (A) and 1 (B) are schematic explanatory views of one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a structural explanatory view of a transfer recording medium, and FIG. 3 is an absorption characteristic of a photoinitiator in the transfer recording medium. Explanatory drawing showing
FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing the spectral characteristic of the light irradiation means, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the cassette, FIGS. 6 and 7 are sectional explanatory views of the unit opened from the apparatus main body, and FIG. It is a timing chart which gives light. 1 is a transfer recording medium, 1a is a support, 1b is a transfer recording layer, and 1c, 1
d is a core, 1e is a shell, 1f is an adhesive, 2 is a supply roll,
3 is a recording unit, 3a is a recording head, 3b is a heating element array, and 3c and 3d.
Is a fluorescent lamp, 3e is a housing, 4 is a transfer portion, 4a is a transfer roller, 4b is a pressure roller, 4c is a heater, 5 is a peeling roller, and 6
Is a take-up roll, 6a is a take-up shaft, 7 is a cassette, 8 is recording paper, 9 is a feeding roller, 10a and 10b are register rollers, 1
1 is a discharge tray, 12a, 12b, 12c are guide rollers, 13a, 13b
Is a discharge roller, 14 is a cassette, 14a is an outlet, 14b is a boss, 15 is a leader, 16 is a cassette loading section, 17 is a take-up joint, 18 is a unit, and 19 is a shaft.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location B41J 29/00 B41J 29/00 B

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium by using a transfer recording medium having a transfer recording layer whose transfer characteristics are changed by applying plural kinds of energy.
A recording apparatus, wherein a member constituting a transfer recording medium conveyance path is a unit and is separable from the apparatus main body. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording apparatus and the apparatus main body are configured to be separable by rotating about a shaft. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of types of energy are composed of thermal energy and light energy.