JPH08295047A - Optical scanning recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain an optical scanning recording apparatus highly ensuring the dynamic range of the irradiation quantity of light per one pixel or the resolving power of the control of quantity of light to record an image of high quality at a high speed in relatively low cost. CONSTITUTION: An a recording light source, a light source such as a laser diode array 30C emitting a large number of laser beams LC1 , LC2 , LC3 ...LCn arranged above a recording material in a main scanning direction is used and multiple irradiation is applied to one point on the recording material 15 with a time lag accompanied by main scanning by a large number of laser beams LC1 -LCn to write one pixel.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical scanning recording apparatus for recording an image on a recording material mainly and sub-scanned by a modulated light beam. The present invention relates to an optical scanning recording device in which one point is multiply irradiated to perform writing of one pixel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are various optical scanning recording devices which modulate a light beam emitted from a light source based on an image signal and mainly and sub-scan a recording material by the light beam to record an image on the recording material. Are known.

In this type of optical scanning recording apparatus, the light beam is modulated by directly modulating a semiconductor laser (laser diode) used as a light source, or externally using an acousto-optical modulator or an electro-optical modulator. The optical modulator is used, and as the modulation method, intensity modulation, pulse width modulation, pulse number modulation, etc. are often applied.

In order to record a high-quality image using such an optical scanning recording device, it is necessary to increase the dynamic range of the irradiation light amount per pixel and the resolution of the light amount control. In order to meet such a requirement, a high-output recording light source may be used, or the one-pixel writing period may be set long so that the pulse width and the number of pulses can be modulated over a wide range.

[0005]

However, there is a limit to increase the output power of the recording light source, and especially when a semiconductor laser is used, a sufficiently satisfactory output is rarely obtained. Conventionally, it has been attempted to combine the light beams emitted from a plurality of semiconductor lasers into one beam to increase the irradiation light amount, but in that case, a combining optical system that requires a high degree of alignment accuracy is required. Therefore, there arises a problem that the cost of the device is high.

On the other hand, if the one-pixel writing period is set to be long, it is inevitable that the recording speed will decrease.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. It is possible to record a high-quality image at high speed by ensuring a high dynamic range of irradiation light amount per pixel and a high resolution of light amount control. An object of the present invention is to provide an optical scanning recording device that can be formed at a relatively low cost.

[0008]

An optical scanning recording apparatus according to the present invention modulates a light beam emitted from a light source on the basis of an image signal as described above, and main and sub-scans a recording material by the light beam. In the optical scanning recording apparatus for recording an image on the recording material, as the light source, a light source such as a laser array that emits a plurality of light beams arranged in the main scanning direction on the recording material is used. It is characterized in that one point on the recording material is irradiated with the light beam of multiple times with multiple irradiation to write one pixel.

[0009]

As described above, if one point on the recording material is multiply irradiated with a plurality of light beams to record one pixel, the dynamic range of the irradiation light amount per pixel increases, and By controlling the light amount of each of the plurality of light beams, the resolution of the light amount control is also increased. Therefore, according to the optical scanning recording apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to record a high quality image.

On the other hand, since the plurality of light beams are applied to one point on the recording material with a time difference from each other, the one-pixel writing period becomes long, but the plurality of light beams arranged in the main scanning direction are recorded on the recording material. Since irradiation is performed and a plurality of points on the recording material are simultaneously written, the overall recording does not cause a decrease in recording speed due to multiple irradiation. Since the irradiation light quantity per pixel can be secured high by the multiple irradiation, the one-pixel writing period can be set short, so that the optical scanning recording apparatus of the present invention can also perform high-speed recording.

Further, since the optical scanning recording apparatus of the present invention utilizes a plurality of light beams while being aligned in the main scanning direction on the recording material, the above-mentioned multiplexing optical system is unnecessary. Therefore, it can be formed at a relatively low cost.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. 1 and 2 respectively show a main part of an optical scanning recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 3 and 4 respectively show a front shape and a perspective shape of the entire optical scanning recording apparatus. ing.

As shown in FIG. 4, the optical scanning recording device 10
Is formed in a box shape as a whole, and a front door 12 and a side door 13 are attached to its machine base 11. These doors 12
By opening and 13, the inside of the machine base 11 can be exposed.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, a photosensitive material magazine 14 is loaded in the machine base 11 of the optical scanning recording apparatus 10, and the photosensitive material 15 is wound around the photosensitive material magazine 14. It is stored. The photosensitive material 15 is arranged with its photosensitive surface facing downward at the portion pulled out at the uppermost position.

The sensitive material magazine 14 has a mark (for example, a bar code, etc.) according to the type and lot of the photosensitive material 15 stored therein.
(Notches, protrusions, etc.) are provided.
A sensitive material detection sensor 16 for detecting this mark is attached. The sensitive material detection sensor 16 is connected to an overall control device that controls the drive of the entire device.
Depending on the signal from 16, whether or not the photosensitive material magazine 14 is loaded,
In addition, the type and lot of the photosensitive material 15 stored can be discriminated.

A nip roller 17 and a cutter 18 are arranged near the photosensitive material outlet of the photosensitive material magazine 14.
By these, the photosensitive material 15 is pulled out from the photosensitive material magazine 14 and cut into a predetermined length. A plurality of conveying rollers 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and a guide plate 24 are arranged from the side to the upper side of the cutter 18, and the photosensitive material 15 cut to a predetermined length is conveyed to the exposing section 25 by them. To be done. Exposure unit 25
Is located between the transport roller 21 and the transport roller 22 as the sub-scanning means, and the photosensitive material 15 is exposed when passing through it.

A laser scanning unit is provided directly above the exposure unit 25.
26 are provided. This laser scanning unit 26 is shown in FIG.
As shown in the side view and the front view in FIG. 2, a laser beam LC for C (cyan) color development, for example, with a wavelength of 750 nm.
Emitting laser diode array 30C, M (magenta)
A laser diode array 30M for emitting a laser beam LM having a wavelength of 680 nm, for example, and a laser beam LY having a wavelength of 810 nm for Y (yellow) coloring, for example.
It has a laser diode array 30Y for emitting light. 1 and 2, the polygonal mirror (rotary polygonal mirror) 33 for main scanning of the laser beam is shown with the bending of the beam optical path neglected.

The laser diode arrays 30C, 30M,
Each of 30Y has a plurality (n pieces) of laser diodes arranged in a one-dimensional direction at a predetermined pitch. Laser beams LC and L in a divergent light state emitted from these laser diode arrays 30C, 30M, and 30Y, respectively.
M and LY are collimated by a collimator lens 31, collimated by a cylindrical lens 33 so as to converge only in the sub-scanning direction, and reflected and deflected by a polygon mirror 33.

Next, the laser beams LC, LM and LY are F
The light enters the scanning optical system 34 including a θ lens, is condensed, and is converged on the upper surface of the photosensitive material 15. The deflected laser beams LC, LM, and LY perform main scanning on the upper surface of the photosensitive material 15 in a direction (horizontal direction in FIG. 1) substantially perpendicular to the photosensitive material conveying direction, that is, the sub-scanning direction.

The laser beams LC, LM and LY which are deflected out of the effective main scanning area are reflected by the mirror 38,
It is incident on the starting point detection sensor 39. The starting point detection sensor 39 is composed of a photodiode, etc.
The signals output from M and LY when they are detected are used for timing main scanning and sub scanning (photosensitive material conveyance).

As shown in FIG. 1, the laser diode array 30C includes n laser beams LC ₁ , LC ₂ ,
LC ₃ ... LCn are arranged on the photosensitive material 15 so as to be aligned in the main scanning direction. The same applies to the other two laser diode arrays 30M and 30Y. Further, the laser beams LC, LM, and LY emitted from the laser diodes at the same position in the longitudinal direction of the laser diode arrays 30C, 30M, and 30Y, that is, the laser diode arraying direction, are mutually exposed to the photosensitive material 15.
It converges at the same position above.

Next, referring to FIG. 5, a control device for controlling the driving of the laser diode arrays 30C, 30M and 30Y will be described. The control device 100 has a main control unit 101 composed of a microcomputer, a memory and the like. When the main controller 101 is functionally divided, for example, a look-up table 102 that converts input 8-bit image data into recording 12-bit image data.
And an APC control unit 103 for performing APC (automatic power control) control, which will be described later, and a control unit 104 for controlling these operations.

The main controller 101 is connected to n pulse width modulation circuits 105 C, 105 M and 105 Y, respectively. Each pulse width modulation circuit 105 C is a laser drive circuit 106 C
Is connected to one laser diode LDC of the laser diode array 30C via each pulse width modulation circuit 105M.
Is connected to one laser diode LDM of the laser diode array 30M via the laser drive circuit 106M, and each pulse width modulation circuit 105Y is connected to the laser drive circuit 106Y.
Is connected to one laser diode LDY of the laser diode array 30Y. In FIG. 5, only one of the n pulse width modulation circuits 105 C, 105 M and 105 Y and the laser drive circuits 106 M and 106 Y is shown.

Each pulse width modulation circuit 105 C includes an integration circuit 11
0 and a D / A converter 111. Integrating circuit 110
A clock signal for each pixel output from the main control unit 101 is input to the D / A converter 111, and 12-bit image data output from the lookup table 102 is input to the D / A converter 111. The output terminal of the integrator circuit 110 is connected to one of the two input terminals of a comparator (comparator) 112. From the integrator circuit 110 to the comparator 112, a triangular waveform signal obtained by integrating the pixel clock is output. Is entered. Also D /
The output terminal of the A converter 111 is connected to the other input terminal of the comparator 112, and an analog signal corresponding to image data is input from the D / A converter 111 to the comparator 112.

The comparator 112 compares the levels of the two input signals, and becomes a high level when the level of the signal from the integrating circuit 110 exceeds the level of the signal from the D / A converter 111. Is output. This comparator 11
The output end of 2 is connected to the gate circuit 113, and the output end of the gate circuit 113 is connected to the laser drive circuit 106C. Therefore, a signal whose pulse width is modulated according to the value of each pixel of the image data, that is, the image density is input to the laser drive circuit 106 C via the gate circuit 113.

From the look-up table 102, 12-bit image data corresponding to each input image data of each color is output n times for each pixel. The n kinds of image data per pixel indicating the C (cyan) density are sequentially input to the n pulse width modulation circuits 105 C at a predetermined timing. Then, one of the n pulse width modulation circuits 105 C is
On the other hand, when the image data for the i-th pixel in the main scanning direction is input, the other pulse width modulation circuit 105 C
For (i + 1) th, (i + 2) th, ... (i-1) th, (i-2) th ... (n-1) pixels adjacent to each other in the main scanning direction. Image data of is input. The above points are related to the image data indicating the M (magenta) density and the pulse width modulation circuit 105 M, and the image data indicating the Y (yellow) density and the pulse width modulation circuit 105 Y.
Is also the same.

Further, each pulse width modulation circuit 105 C is provided with a white detection circuit 114, and this white detection circuit 114 also has
Image data from the lookup table 102 is input. The white detection circuit 114 detects image data corresponding to white in the input image data, and outputs a signal for closing the gate of the gate circuit 113 while the signal corresponding to this image data is output from the comparator 112. To do. As a result, the pulse signal output from the gate circuit 113 becomes low level during the above period, and the pulse corresponding to the white pixel is removed.

The other two pulse width modulation circuits 105 M and 105
Since Y also has the same configuration as the pulse width modulation circuit 105 C, the description thereof will be omitted.

On the other hand, each of the laser drive circuits 106 C has a D / A converter 120. This D / A converter 12
0 is connected to the APC control unit 103 of the main control unit 101, and from this APC control unit 103 to the D / A converter 120,
Digital drive current control data indicating the level of the drive current of the laser diode array 30C is input. The D / A converter 120 converts the input drive current control data into an analog signal and inputs it into the constant current circuit 121. Constant current circuit
The 121 outputs a drive current of a constant level according to the level of the input analog signal.

The drive current output from the constant current circuit 121 is input to the modulation circuit 122. The modulation circuit 122 is connected to the pulse width modulation circuit 105C and the laser diode array 30C. Modulation circuit 122
Changes the value of the drive current according to the pulse width of the pulse signal input from the pulse width modulation circuit 105C, and supplies the drive current thus modulated to the laser diode array 30C.

A photodetector 40C such as a photodiode for detecting the intensity of the laser beam LC emitted from the laser diode array 30C is provided integrally with or separately from each laser diode LDC. The output current of the photodetector 40C is input to the current-voltage conversion circuit 123 provided in the laser drive circuit 106C. The current-voltage conversion circuit 123 converts the input current signal into a voltage signal and inputs it into the A / D converter 124. A / D converter 124
Converts the analog voltage signal into a digital signal and inputs it to the APC control unit 103.

The other two laser drive circuits 106 M and 106 Y
However, since it has the same configuration as that of the laser drive circuit 106C, description thereof will be omitted. Further, photodetectors 40M and 40Y similar to the photodetector 40C are provided for the laser diodes LDM and LDY of the laser diode arrays 30M and 30Y, respectively.
Their output currents are respectively laser drive circuits 106 M and 106 Y.
Is input to

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, a switchback section 50 is provided on the side of the exposure section 25, and
A water application section 51 is provided below the exposure section 25. The photosensitive material 15 that has risen to the side of the photosensitive material magazine 14 and has been exposed by the exposure unit 25 is once fed to the switchback unit 50, and then is conveyed below the exposure unit 25 by the reverse rotation of the conveyance roller 23. It is sent to the water application section 51 via the route. Water is supplied to the water application unit 51 by a plurality of pipes. Water application part 51
A heat-development transfer section 52 is disposed on the side of, and the photosensitive material 15 coated with water is fed therein.

On the other hand, on the side of the photosensitive material magazine 14, a receiving material magazine 53 is arranged in the machine base 11, and the receiving material magazine 53 stores the image receiving material 54 in a wound state. The image forming surface of the image receiving material 54 is coated with a dye fixing material having a mordant, and the image receiving material 54 is arranged so that the image forming surface faces upward in the portion pulled out at the lowest position. There is.

Like the photosensitive material magazine 14, the receiving material magazine 53 is composed of a body portion and a pair of side frame portions fixed to both end portions of the body portion. In the width direction of the taken image receiving material 54, it can be drawn out to the front side of the paper surface of FIG.

The receiving material magazine 53 has a mark (for example, a bar code, etc.) according to the type and lot of the image receiving material 54 stored therein.
(Notches, protrusions, etc.) are provided, and the loading section 10B has
A receiving material detection sensor 55 that detects this mark is attached. The material receiving detection sensor 55 is connected to the overall control device described above, and a signal from the material receiving detection sensor 55 determines whether or not the material receiving magazine 53 is loaded, and the type of the received image receiving material 54 and Lot is to be discriminated.

A nip roller 56 and a cutter 57 are arranged near the image receiving material outlet of the receiving magazine 53,
By these, the image receiving material 54 is pulled out from the receiving material magazine 53 and cut into a predetermined length. An image receiving material transport unit 58 is provided from the side of the cutter 57 to the side of the photosensitive material magazine 14. The image receiving material conveying section 58 includes a plurality of conveying rollers 5.
An image receiving material 54, which is composed of 9, 60, 80, a guide plate 81, etc. and is cut into a predetermined length, is conveyed to the heat development transfer section 52.

Photosensitive Material 15 Conveyed to Thermal Development Transfer Section 52
Is fed between the bonding roller 61 and the heating drum 62. On the other hand, the image receiving material 54 is conveyed in synchronism with the conveyance of the photosensitive material 15 in a state in which the front end thereof is behind the front end of the photosensitive material 15 by a predetermined length, and is conveyed between the bonding roller 61 and the heating drum 62. It is sent and superposed on the photosensitive material 15.

A pair of halogen lamps 63 and 64 are arranged inside the heating drum 62, and the peripheral surface of the heating drum 62 is heated by these halogen lamps 63 and 64. Further, five winding rollers 65, 66, 67, 68 and 69 are provided so as to surround the outer circumference of the heating drum 62, and an endless pressure contact belt 70 is wound around these winding rollers 65 to 69. The outer peripheral surface of the pressure contact belt 70 is in pressure contact with the peripheral surface of the heating drum 62.

On the downstream side of the pressing belt 70 in the material conveying direction, a bending guide roller 71 and a peeling claw 72 are arranged in this order in the vicinity of the heating drum 62 along the conveying direction. The peeling claw 72 is rotatably supported around a rotation shaft 72A and is driven by a cam 73. Below the peeling claw 72, there is provided a sensitive material conveying system 77 which is constituted by known rollers and a guide plate, and which guides and conveys the photosensitive material 15 peeled from the heating drum 62 by the peeling claw 72 to the waste photosensitive material storage box 76. It is arranged.

A peeling roller 74 and a peeling claw 75 for peeling the image receiving material 54 from the heating drum 62 are arranged in this order along the conveying direction in the vicinity of the heating drum 62 on the side of the bending guide roller 71. There is. Below the peeling roller 74 and the peeling claw 75, a receiving material conveying system 79 configured by known rollers and a guide plate for guiding and conveying the image receiving material 54 peeled from the heating drum 62 to the tray 78 is arranged. ing.

The operation of the optical scanning recording device 10 having the above structure will be described below. In this apparatus, color misregistration correction of the optical scanning recording apparatus is performed prior to image recording. That is, since the optical paths of the laser beams LC, LM, and LY emitted from the laser diode arrays 30C, 30M, and 30Y are different, if they are turned on at the same time, the irradiation positions of the laser beams LC, LM, and LY on the photosensitive material 15 will be described. Shifts in the main scanning direction. Color misregistration correction is performed by using laser diode arrays 30C, 30
This is a correction process for illuminating M and 30Y by shifting them by a predetermined time from each other, and based on the time shift of the detection signals of the laser beams LC, LM, and LY that are input from the start point detection sensor 39 to the control unit 104, Pulse width modulation circuit 105 C, 10
This is done by shifting the phases of the pixel clock signals input to 5M and 105Y from each other.

A specific method for this color misregistration correction is described in detail in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-5591, and the method disclosed therein can be applied to the present invention.

When a processing start command is input to the overall control unit at the time of image recording, the nip roller 17 first operates to pull out the photosensitive material 15 from the photosensitive material magazine 14. When the photosensitive material 15 is pulled out by a predetermined length, the cutter 18 operates and the photosensitive material 15 is cut into a predetermined length.

The cut photosensitive material 15 is conveyed by a conveying roller 19 or the like, and is sent to the exposure section 25 with its photosensitive (exposure) surface facing upward. Then, the laser scanning unit 26 operates in synchronization with the operation of the conveying rollers 21 and 22 that also serve as sub-scanning means, and the laser beam emitted from the laser scanning unit 26 exposes the photosensitive material 15. This exposure will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

The starting point detection sensor 39 is a laser beam LC, L
Detecting M and LY, the output signal is APC control unit 103
Is input to APC, APC control is performed. This APC control is performed by the laser diode arrays 30C, 30M, 30 so that a constant light output can be obtained for a certain constant image data.
It controls the drive current of each Y laser diode, and is specifically performed as follows. APC control unit 10
When receiving the output of the starting point detection sensor 39, 3 turns off each laser diode of the laser diode arrays 30C, 30M and 30Y at that time, and then controls each of these laser diodes with a drive current that indicates a target value of optical output. The light is turned on for a short predetermined time (for example, 100 μsec) based on the data, and the output of each of the n photodetectors 40C, 40M, and 40Y at that time is captured, and the optical output indicated by each of these outputs matches the above target value. The value of the drive current control data is changed so that

This APC control is performed every time the starting point detection sensor 39 detects the laser beams LC, LM, LY, and exposure for one main scanning line is performed within the period of this detection. That is, from the look-up table 102, each of the n pieces of pulse width modulation circuits 105 C, 105 for recording image data is recorded.
Each of the n pulse width modulation circuits 105 C, 105 M, 105 Y is supplied to the M and 105 Y to generate a pulse width modulated signal according to the image data of each pixel, and these signals are respectively laser-driven. Input to the circuits 106 C, 106 M, 106 Y. The laser driving circuits 106 C, 106 M and 106 Y respectively modulate the laser driving current based on the input signal,
The laser diodes are supplied to the laser diode arrays 30C, 30M, and 30Y.

As described above, the light intensity of each of the n laser beams LC, LM, and LY is modulated according to the image data of each pixel, and these laser beams LC, LM, and LY are deflected by the polygon mirror 33. Then, the upper surface of the photosensitive material 15 is main-scanned. At the same time, the photosensitive material 15 is conveyed, that is, sub-scanned while being synchronized with the main scanning, so that the photosensitive material 15 is two-dimensionally exposed by the laser beams LC, LM, and LY.

Here, each of the n laser beams LC,
Exposure of the photosensitive material 15 with LM and LY will be described with reference to FIG. In this description, the exposure with the laser beam LC is taken as an example, and the eight laser beams LC ₁ and L
Assuming that C ₂ , LC ₃ ... LC ₈ are used. Further, for ease of explanation, in this case, in order to record a high density portion, each point on the photosensitive material 15 is subjected to multiple irradiation of eight times (that is, eight laser beams LC _{1 to} LC).
_{Some of the eight} are not cut by the modulation).

Eight laser beams LC ₁ , LC ₂ and LC
_{3 At} a certain timing when the photosensitive material 15 is irradiated with LC ₈ , the laser beams LC _{1 to} LC ₈ are first irradiated in the state shown in (1) of FIG. The black circles in the figure indicate pixels that have been written, the shaded circles indicate pixels that are in the middle of writing, and the dashed-dotted circles indicate unwritten points on the photosensitive material 15. Considering one point P on the photosensitive material 15, this point is irradiated with the _first laser beam LC ₁ .

Eight laser beams LC ₁ to
When LC ₈ shifts by one pixel pitch and becomes the state of (2) in the figure, the above point P becomes the second laser beam LC ₂ next.
Of the laser beams LC _{1 to} LC ₈
When the pixel pitch shifts and the state of (3) in the figure is reached, the point P is next irradiated with the _third laser beam LC ₃ . As described above, the point P is finally irradiated with the laser beam 8 times, and the laser diode array 30C
Since the drive current of each laser diode LDC is controlled as described above, the irradiation light amount for this point P becomes in accordance with the image data, and the writing of one pixel is completed.

The conveying roller 23 starts driving when the exposure by the above-mentioned exposure device 26 is started, and once sends the photosensitive material 15 onto the switchback section 50. Then, when the rear end of the photosensitive material 15 is separated from the conveying roller 22 after the exposure is completed, the conveying roller 23 is rotated in the reverse direction, whereby the photosensitive material 15 is applied to the water coating section 51.
Sent to.

The photosensitive material 15 is coated with water as an image forming solvent by the water coating section 51, and passes through the water coating section 51 while the excess water is removed by the squeeze roller 82. The photosensitive material 15 thus coated with water is sent to the thermal development transfer section 52 by the squeeze roller 82.

On the other hand, when the exposure of the photosensitive material 15 is started,
The image receiving material 54 is also pulled out from the material receiving magazine 53 by the nip roller 56. When the image receiving material 54 is pulled out by a predetermined length, the cutter 57 operates and the image receiving material 54 is cut into a predetermined length. The image receiving material 54 cut in this manner is conveyed by the image receiving material conveying section 58, and is placed in a standby state immediately before the heat development transfer section 52.

When it is detected by the squeeze roller 82 that the photosensitive material 15 is fed between the laminating roller 61 and the heating drum 62, the image receiving material conveying section 58 receives the image receiving material.
The conveyance of 54 is restarted, the image receiving material 54 is sent to the laminating roller 61, and the heating drum 62 also rotates counterclockwise in FIG.

A guide plate 83 is arranged between the laminating roller 61 and the squeeze roller 82, and the photosensitive material 15 delivered from the squeeze roller 82 is reliably guided to the laminating roller 61 by its action. It

The photosensitive material 15 and the image receiving material 54, which are superposed by the laminating roller 61, are sandwiched between the heating drum 62 and the pressure contact belt 70 as they are, and the heating drum 62 is wound about 2/3 of a round (wrapped around). (Between the roller 65 and the winding roller 69). Thereby, the photosensitive material 15 and the image receiving material 54 are heated, the movable dye released from the photosensitive material 15 is transferred to the dye fixing layer of the image receiving material 54, and a color image is recorded there.

After that, when the photosensitive material 15 and the image receiving material 54 are nipped and conveyed to reach the lower surface of the heating drum 62, the peeling claw 72 is driven by the cam 73 and is conveyed by a predetermined length ahead of the image receiving material 54. This peeling nail is attached to the tip of the photosensitive material 15.
72 is engaged, and the photosensitive material 15 is peeled off from the heating drum 62. Furthermore, a pinch roller (not shown) presses the photosensitive material 15 by the returning movement of the peeling claw 72, and the pressed photosensitive material 15 is wound around the bending guide roller 71 and moves downward. The photosensitive material 15 that has moved downward is transported by the photosensitive material transport system 77 while being dried by a drying device (not shown), and is stored in the waste photosensitive material storage box 76.

Separately from the photosensitive material 15, a heating drum
The image receiving material 54 that moves while being in close contact with the 62 is peeled from the heating drum 62 by the peeling claw 75 driven by the cam 73, is wound around the peeling roller 74, and moves downward.
The image receiving material 54 that has moved downward is conveyed by the material receiving conveying system 79 while being dried by a drying device (not shown),
It is discharged onto the tray 78.

In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the sub-scanning direction on the photosensitive material 15 is
The laser beams LC, LM, and LY are not separated from each other and converge at the same position.
M and LY may be converged at positions separated by a predetermined distance in the sub-scanning direction.

Although the optical scanning recording apparatus of the above embodiment records a color image, the optical scanning recording apparatus of the present invention is configured to record a monochrome image by using a plurality of monochromatic light sources. Of course, it is also possible.

Further, in the present invention, a surface emitting laser array can be preferably used as the laser diode array. In addition to such a laser diode array, a light emitting diode array or the like can be used. Further, instead of using the three one-dimensional laser diode arrays 30C, 30M, and 30Y as in the above-described embodiment, light emitting portions of three colors are arranged in the sub-scanning direction, and a plurality of light emitting portions are arranged in the main scanning direction for each color. It is also possible to use a two-dimensional array arranged side by side.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a main part of an optical scanning recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing a main part of the optical scanning recording apparatus.

FIG. 3 is an overall front view of the optical scanning recording device.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an appearance of the optical scanning recording apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an electric circuit of the optical scanning recording apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating multiple irradiation of a light beam in the optical scanning recording apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Optical scanning recording device 15 Photosensitive material 21, 22 Conveying roller (sub scanning means) 26 Laser scanning unit 30C, 30M, 30Y Laser diode array 33 Polygon mirror (main scanning means) 40C, 40M, 40Y Photodetector 101 Main control section 102 Look-up table 103 APC control unit 105 C, 105 M, 105 Y pulse width modulation circuit 106 C, 106 M, 106 Y laser drive circuit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Minoru Morimoto, 798 Miyadai, Kaidai-cho, Kaisei-cho, Ashigarashami-gun, Kanagawa Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. Within the corporation

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An optical scanning recording apparatus which modulates a light beam emitted from a light source based on an image signal and mainly and sub-scans a recording material by the light beam to record an image on the recording material. A light source that emits a plurality of light beams arranged in the main scanning direction on the recording material is used. With the main scanning, one point on the recording material is multiple-irradiated with a time shift by the plurality of light beams. An optical scanning recording apparatus, which is configured to write pixels. 2. As the light source, each set emits a plurality of light beams arranged in the main scanning direction on the recording material,
Three sets of light sources having different light beam wavelengths are used for each set, and light beams emitted from the three sets of light sources having different wavelengths are collected so as not to be separated from each other in the sub-scanning direction on the recording material. The optical scanning recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the optical scanning recording apparatus is configured to be irradiated with light to record a color image on the recording material. 3. As the light source, each set emits a plurality of light beams arranged in the main scanning direction on the recording material,
Three sets of light sources having different light beam wavelengths are used for each set, and the light beams emitted from the three sets of light sources having different wavelengths are separated by a predetermined distance in the sub-scanning direction on the recording material. The optical scanning recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the optical scanning recording apparatus is configured to be condensed and record a color image on the recording material. 4. The optical scanning recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light source is a semiconductor laser array.