JPH08115019A - Method and device for removing image forming substance from image holding body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To improve the separation of an image holding body from a peeling member by cooling a part corresponding to the leading edge of the image holding body out of the surface of a member performing heating in a state where the image holding body is brought into contact with the peeling member in a device for removing an image forming substance from the image holding body by using the peeling member. CONSTITUTION: A cooling device consisting of a heat pipe 20 is provided to be opposed to a heating roller 10 heating while press-contacting the transfer paper 1 to a peeling belt. The heat pipe 20 can be moved between a contact position and a retreat position with respect to the roller 10. The part of the roller 10 coming in contact with the leading edge of the transfer paper 1 is cooled by contacting with the heat pipe 20 in order to separate the transfer paper 1 from the belt 9 even in the case toner adheres even to the leading edge of the transfer paper 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image-forming substance removing apparatus for removing an image-forming substance forming an image from an image-holding member on which an image is formed by an image-forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a printer or a printing machine. A method and an apparatus thereof.
More specifically, the peeling member capable of exerting an adhesive force to the image forming substance adhering to the surface of the image carrier is brought into contact with the image forming substance on the surface of the image carrier to remove the image forming substance. In a method and apparatus for removing an image-forming substance from an image carrier, the image-forming substance is peeled and removed from the surface of the image carrier by heating and pressing, and then separating the separating member and the image carrier. The present invention relates to an improvement for preventing defective separation between a peeling member and an image carrier.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are known various image forming substance removing methods and devices for removing an image forming substance such as toner from a sheet as a recorded image carrier. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-55195, a heat-meltable ink or toner placed on an electrophotographic system or a thermal transfer system is applied to a printed body having a release agent coated on a support, and an ink release body is superposed on the printed body. By passing between the heating roller and the pressure roller, cooling it and peeling off the ink peeling body,
An image forming substance removing method is disclosed in which the ink removing member is attached and removed.

The applicant of the present invention previously mentioned that the recorded image carrier has water as a destabilizing solution and an aqueous solution containing a surfactant,
At least one kind of water or an aqueous solution selected from the group consisting of an aqueous solution containing a water-soluble polymer and an aqueous solution containing a surfactant and a water-soluble polymer is held, and a peeling member is interposed to remove the image-forming substance. A method for removing an image-forming substance is proposed, in which the member is heated or pressure-bonded to a member and peeled from the image carrier (for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 4-255916).
No., Japanese Patent Application No. 5-239075). According to this,
Only the image-forming substance can be removed without relatively damaging the paper quality of the image carrier.

[0004]

However, as described above, the peeling member capable of exerting the adhesive force to the image forming substance adhered to the surface of the image carrier (the above-mentioned JP-A-2-55195).
In JP-A No. 2003-242242, the ink peeling body) is heated and pressed with the image forming substance on the surface of the image holding member, and then the peeling member and the image holding member are separated. Therefore, when the image-forming substance is peeled off from the surface of the image carrier and removed, the following problems may occur. That is, the peeling member and the image carrier can be separated by utilizing the rigidity of the image carrier itself. However, if the image-forming substance adheres to the edge at the separation start side end of the image carrier, the strength of the waist or the like loses the adhesive force between the image-forming substance at the edge and the surface of the image carrier. Therefore, it may become inseparable. As a result, not only the image-forming substance cannot be removed from the image carrier, but also a problem occurs that a conveyance defect (jam) of the image carrier occurs in the apparatus.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to use the above-mentioned peeling member, and to carry out good separation of the peeling member and the image carrier. A method and apparatus for removing an image-forming substance from the body.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the method for removing an image-forming substance from an image carrier according to claim 1 is applied to the image-forming substance attached to the surface of the image carrier. By bringing the peeling member capable of exerting the force of contact into contact with the image forming substance on the surface of the image carrier, heating and pressurizing the image forming substance, and then separating the peeling member and the image carrier. A method for removing an image-forming substance from an image-holding member by peeling and removing the image-forming substance from the surface of the image-holding member, wherein heating of the image-forming substance is performed on the end of the image-holding member on the separation start side. Is not performed or is performed weaker than the other portions of the image carrier.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for removing an image forming substance from an image carrier, wherein a peeling member capable of exerting an adhesive force to the image forming substance adhered to the surface of the image carrier is provided on the surface of the image carrier. The image forming substance is heated and pressed in a state of being in contact with the image forming substance, and then the peeling member and the image holding member are separated, thereby peeling and removing the image forming substance from the surface of the image holding member. A device for removing an image-forming substance from an image carrier,
Due to the heating, the surface of the image carrier is heated to a high temperature, and the heating member driven to be moved endlessly so as to pass through the area of contact or separation with the image carrier, and the tip of the image carrier are In synchronization with entering the area, of the heating member surface,
And a cooling device that cools a portion corresponding to the tip portion.

An image-forming substance removing device for an image carrier according to a third aspect of the present invention is the image-forming substance removing device for an image carrier according to the second aspect, which determines whether or not the image-forming substance is attached to the tip portion. And a controller for operating the cooling device when detecting that the image forming substance is attached to the tip based on the detection result of the tip detector. It is a feature.

[0009]

The peeling member capable of exerting an adhesive force to the image forming substance adhering to the surface of the image carrier is brought into contact with the image forming substance on the surface of the image carrier to remove the image forming substance. When the image forming substance is peeled and removed from the surface of the image holding member by heating and pressurizing and then separating the peeling member and the image holding member, the image forming substance adhered on the image holding member is removed. Appropriate heating conditions differ depending on the adhesion density. Usually, the heating condition is set according to the average attachment density. According to this, as described above, the image carrier in which the image-forming substance is attached to the edge at the end on the separation start side. About, the separation failure occurs. According to the research conducted by the present inventor, heating in a state where the image carrier and the peeling member are in contact with each other is performed weaker than normal heating for the end portion on the separation start side, With respect to the image carrier having the image-forming substance adhered to the edges of the edges, the image carrier and the peeling member could be well separated.

Therefore, in the present invention, the image forming substance is not heated or weaker than the other portions of the image holding member at the end of the image holding member on the side where the separation is started. Good separation of the holder and the peeling member.

[0011]

EXAMPLES In the following, the present invention is applied to a heat-softening electrophotographic toner (hereinafter, referred to as an image forming substance) from a transfer paper as an image carrier on which an image is formed by a transfer type electrophotographic copying machine.
An embodiment applied to an image forming substance removing device (hereinafter, referred to as a toner removing device) from an image carrier for removing the toner will be described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of a toner removing device according to this embodiment, FIG. 2 (a) is a partially enlarged view of a peeling unit of the toner removing device, and FIG. 2 (b) is a diagram of the peeling unit. It is a partial left side view. In FIG. 1, the toner removing device serves as a liquid applying unit that applies a liquid to the transfer paper 1 sent from a paper feeding unit (not shown) and a peeling unit that peels the toner from the transfer paper 1 to which the liquid has been applied. A toner peeling unit and a finishing unit as a finishing unit that dries the transfer paper 1 from which the toner is removed to finish the surface in a flat state are provided. First, the description of each unit and the operation of the entire toner removing device will be described.

The liquid application unit applies the treatment liquid 2 as a destabilizing liquid, such as water or an aqueous solution containing a surfactant for improving the permeability to the transfer paper 1, to the transfer paper 1. is there. In the illustrated example, a liquid container 3 for containing a liquid
And a liquid supply roller 4 which is provided so as to be partially submerged in the liquid in the liquid container 3 and which pumps the liquid by rotation and applies the liquid to the toner image surface of the transfer paper 1, with the paper feed path sandwiched therebetween. The liquid supply / conveyance roller 5 is provided so as to face the liquid roller 4. As the liquid supply roller 4, a material having a liquid retaining property, for example, a roller made of a hydrophilic porous material, sponge, or a roller made of an elastic body such as rubber or a rigid body such as metal can be used.

In the toner peeling unit, the peeling belt 9 as a peeling member is wound around the heating block 8 having the support rollers 6 and 7 and the heating lamp 8a built therein, and is pressed against the heating block 8 with the peeling belt 9 interposed therebetween. The heating roller 10 as a heating member having the built-in heating lamp 10a and the rotating brush roller 11 that removes toner from the surface of the peeling belt 9 are provided. At least the surface of the peeling belt 9 is applied to the transfer paper 1 against the softened toner.
Is formed of a material having an adhesive force greater than the adhesive force between the surface of the toner and the toner. For example, the belt itself is aluminum,
It is formed of a metal material such as copper-based or nickel-based material, or a polymer-based material such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in which titanium oxide is dispersed. The heating block 8 and the heating roller 10 are for softening the toner on the transfer paper 1. The heat of the heating block 8 and the heating roller 10 is transferred to the transfer paper 1 via the peeling belt 9 and the transfer paper 1. By being transferred to the upper toner, the toner on the transfer paper 1 is heated and softened.

Further, a bending portion having a predetermined radius of curvature that rapidly changes the moving direction of the peeling belt 9 downward is formed in the heating block 8 downstream of the pressure contact portion with the heating roller 10 in the belt moving direction. Then, the curvature of the transfer paper 1 from the peeling belt 9 is separated at this bent portion.

The finishing unit is, for example, one paper weight unit.
Transfer paper 1 containing 0% to 100% of processing liquid 2
Is for drying the transfer paper 1 so that the amount of the liquid held therein is 10% or less, a drum member (hereinafter, referred to as a heating drum) 12 as a finishing member having a built-in heating lamp 12a and made of, for example, aluminum, and a plurality of supports. A belt member (hereinafter referred to as a paper pressing belt) 14 as a finishing member that is wound around a roller 13 and moves endlessly while being wound around the peripheral surface of the heating drum 12 at a constant angle. In the illustrated example, one support roller 13 also serves as a tension roller. As a material of the paper pressing belt 14, a material having heat resistance, air permeability and water supply property, for example, cloth such as canvas cloth, cotton cloth, Tetoron cloth, etc. can be used.

In the toner removing device having the above-mentioned structure, the transfer paper 1 sent from the paper feed unit (not shown) is uniformly supplied to the toner image surface by the liquid supply roller 4, and sent to the toner peeling unit. In this toner peeling unit, the toner adhered to the transfer paper 1 is softened by heating from the heating block 8 and the heating roller 10 and adheres to the surface of the peeling belt 9. When the transfer paper 1 and the peeling belt 9 are separated from each other at the bent portion of the heating block 8, the toner adhering to the surface of the peeling belt 9 is separated from the transfer paper 1, whereby the toner is removed from the transfer paper 1. The transfer paper 1 from which the toner has been removed is dried by the finishing unit and discharged to a paper receiving unit (not shown). Thus, the liquid is supplied to the transfer paper 1 to which the toner adheres, and the toner is peeled off in a state where the liquid permeates the interface of the transfer paper 1 with the toner, so that the toner can be removed without damaging the paper fiber.

Next, a structure for improving the separability between the transfer paper 1 and the peeling belt 9 which is the main part of this embodiment will be described. In the present embodiment, the heating of the leading edge of the transfer paper 1 is weakened as compared with the heating of other portions of the transfer paper, and even when toner is attached to the leading edge of the transfer paper 1, the peeling belt is also used. In order to make it separable from 9, a cooling device for cooling the portion of the heating roller 10 that comes into contact with the tip portion is provided. Then, the heating roller 1 is synchronized with the arrival of the leading end of the transfer paper 1 by a control unit (not shown).
The operation of this cooling device is controlled so as to cool the zero portion. Here, the arrival of the leading end of the transfer paper 1 can be detected by providing a transfer paper sensor on the transfer paper 1 conveyance path and utilizing a signal from this. Further, whether or not the toner has adhered to the edge of the front end of the transfer paper is detected by using a reflection type optical sensor or the like, and the cooling device is operated only when the toner adheres to this part. You can

Regarding the degree of cooling by such a cooling device, for example, in the device of FIG. 1, the heating block 8 is used.
When the temperature of the heating roller 10 is 110 ° C, the toner removal rate is 60%.
%, When the temperature of the heating roller 10 is 130 ° C., the toner removal rate is 100%. If the temperature of the heating roller 10 is lowered to 110 ° C. at which the toner removal rate becomes 60%, the peeling belt 9 can be satisfactorily used even when the toner adheres to the edge of the leading edge of the transfer paper. The transfer paper 1 could be separated.

In the illustrated example, the cooling heat pipe 20 is provided so as to face the surface of the heating roller 10, and the heating pipe 20 is provided on the surface of the heating roller 10 as indicated by an arrow B in FIG. 2A. The cooling device is configured by a moving mechanism (not shown) that moves between the contact position and the position separated from the surface. At one end of the heat pipe 20, there is a heat dissipation portion 21 provided with fins. It is desirable to set the position of the cooling unit 21 at a place where an air flow is generated by a blower fan (not shown) that is usually provided for air circulation inside the device or exhaust to the outside of the device. Further, instead of such a portion, it may be set in the liquid container 3, preferably in the liquid therein. Then, in synchronization with the arrival of the transfer paper 1, the heat pipe 20 is attached to the portion of the heating roller 10 that comes into contact with the leading end of the transfer paper 1.
The control unit drives and controls the moving mechanism so as to bring the above into contact. This heat pipe 20
The cooling device using does not particularly require energy for cooling, so energy can be saved.

3 and 4 show modifications of the cooling device. In the example of FIG. 3, a cooling device is configured by using a pipe 30 which is connected to an air flow generator (not shown) and has a slit-shaped blow-out port at a portion facing the surface of the heating roller 10. The airflow C from this outlet is blown onto the surface of the heating roller 10 to cool it. The degree of temperature decrease may be adjusted by changing the spray amount.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, a cooling device is constructed by using a pipe 40 which is connected to a liquid supply device (not shown) and has a slit-shaped discharge port at a portion facing the surface of the heating roller 10. It is a thing. By dropping the droplet 41 from the discharge port onto the surface of the heating roller 10 portion,
It is designed to cool. The treatment liquid 2 in the liquid container 3 can be used as this liquid. The degree of temperature decrease may be adjusted by changing the dropping amount of this liquid. Here, for example, even when water is used as the liquid, since the heat of evaporation thereof is sufficiently large, a sufficient cooling effect can be obtained with a small amount.

Various other device configurations can be used as the cooling device. For example, a metal block may be used instead of the heat pipe 20 or the like. Also,
In the above-described embodiment, the cooling device is used to improve the separability of the leading end of the transfer paper 1. However, in order to prevent the toner removal from only a predetermined portion of the transfer paper 1,
Such a cooling device may be used. According to this, it is possible to partially erase or leave a predetermined area.

[0024]

According to the inventions of claims 1 to 3, the image forming substance is not heated at the separation start side end of the image carrier, or the other part of the image carrier is not heated. Image forming from the image carrier, which can prevent jams and the like due to poor separation between the image carrier and the peeling member, because the separation of the image carrier and the peeling member can be performed favorably. A method for removing a substance or an apparatus therefor can be provided.

In particular, according to the third aspect of the present invention, whether or not the image forming substance is attached to the tip portion is detected by the tip detector, and based on the detection result, the image forming substance is attached to the tip portion. When it is detected that the particles are attached, the cooling device is operated by the control device, so that the cooling operation can be performed only when necessary. Therefore, extra operation can be omitted.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of a toner removing device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2A is a partially enlarged view of a peeling unit of the toner removing device. (B) is a partial left side view of the peeling unit.

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged view of a peeling unit according to a modification.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged view of a peeling unit according to another modification.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Transfer Paper 1a Identification Mark 12 Heating Drum 12a Heating Lamp 14 Paper Pressing Belt 20 Heat Pipe 30 Air Flow Pipe 40 Droplet Pipe

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a peeling member capable of exerting an adhesive force to an image forming substance adhered to the surface of an image holding member, in contact with the image forming substance on the surface of the image holding member. A method for removing an image-forming substance from an image holding body, which comprises heating and pressing a substance, and then separating the peeling member and the image holding member to peel and remove the image-forming substance from the surface of the image holding member. The image from the image carrier is characterized in that the image forming substance is not heated or weaker than the other part of the image carrier at the end of the image carrier at the separation start side. Forming substance removal method. 2. The image forming method in which a peeling member capable of exerting an adhesive force to the image forming substance adhered to the surface of the image carrier is brought into contact with the image forming substance on the surface of the image carrier. An apparatus for removing an image-forming substance from an image carrier, which removes the image-forming substance from the surface of the image carrier by separating the image-forming member from the peeling member by heating and pressurizing the substance. The heating member is driven so that the surface is heated to a high temperature due to the heating and is moved endlessly so as to pass through the area of contact or separation with the image carrier, and the tip of the image carrier, An image forming substance device from an image carrier, comprising: a cooling device that cools a portion of the surface of the heating member corresponding to the tip portion in synchronization with entering the area. 3. A tip detector for detecting whether or not an image forming substance is attached to the tip portion, and an image forming substance is attached to the tip portion based on a detection result of the tip detector. 4. An image forming material device from an image carrier according to claim 3, further comprising a control device for activating the cooling device when it is detected.