JPH0872231A - Ink jet recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent the lowering of the throughput related to the formation of data for emitting a treatment soln. in recording for obtaining the water resistance of a recorded image is performed using a treatment soln. insolubilizing an ink colorant in an ink jet recording apparatus. CONSTITUTION: When data to be recorded is allowed to correspond to the respective divided blocks of the recording region of a material P to be recorded, a treatment soln. is not emitted to the block 2 where the recording data is not present but emitted to the blocks 1, 3, 4 where the recording data is present on the basis of uniform emission data. By this constitution, it becomes unnecessary to form the emission data of the treatment soln. on the basis of the emission data of each ink corresponding to the recording data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus, and more particularly to an ink jet recording apparatus for ejecting a treatment liquid for insolubilizing a coloring material in ink to a solvent onto a recording material. The present invention can be applied to all devices using recording materials such as paper, cloth, non-woven fabric, and OHP paper, and specific devices include, for example, office equipment such as printers, copiers, facsimiles, and mass production equipment. be able to.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Ink jet recording methods are widely used in printers, copying machines, etc., because they have the advantages of low noise, low running cost, downsizing of the apparatus and easy colorization.

However, when an image or the like is recorded on a recording material, which is so-called plain paper, by these recording apparatuses to which the ink jet recording method is applied, the water resistance of these recorded images or the like is insufficient, or If a large amount of ink is added to achieve a high-density color image,
Feathering occurs due to the permeation of the ink coloring material into the recording material, while bleeding between colors occurs when the permeation of the ink coloring material is suppressed to achieve a high-density image. The image quality was remarkably degraded.

As a method of improving the water resistance of an image, an ink in which a coloring material contained in the ink has water resistance has been put into practical use in recent years. However, its water resistance is still inadequate, and since it is an ink that is difficult to dissolve in water after drying in principle, nozzle clogging of the recording head easily occurs, and in order to prevent this, the device configuration becomes complicated. There was a problem such as unavoidable.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-84992 discloses a method in which a material for fixing a coloring material is coated on a recording paper in advance. However, in this method, it is necessary to use a specific recording paper, and in order to apply the material for fixing the coloring material in advance, it is inevitable that the apparatus becomes large in size and cost is increased. There is a problem that it is difficult to stably apply the material with a predetermined film thickness.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-202328 discloses a technique in which a treatment liquid for insolubilizing a coloring material in a solvent is applied uniformly on a recording paper by a roller in advance. However, in this method, the treatment liquid that makes the coloring material insoluble in the solvent is applied to the region where the ink containing the coloring material is not adhered, so that the consumption amount increases and the cost increase cannot be avoided. Also, the number of times of liquid replenishment increases,
In addition, the recording paper may be wrinkled easily.

In addition, JP-A-64-63185 discloses a technique of ejecting and adhering a treatment liquid for insolubilizing a coloring material in a solvent by an ink jet recording head onto recording paper. However, in the method disclosed in this publication, the treatment liquid is attached only to the position where the ink containing the color material is attached. Therefore, the data of the position where the ink containing the color material is attached is detected, and the software is detected. The data of the position to which the treatment liquid is attached is created by the method, and the treatment liquid is discharged. Therefore, there is a problem in that it takes time to create data and throughput decreases.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art,
The purpose of this is to record data showing better water resistance than conventional ones even on plain paper using the above-mentioned treatment liquid that makes the coloring material insoluble in the solvent, and to create data for discharging this treatment liquid. It is an object of the present invention to provide an inkjet recording apparatus capable of suppressing a decrease in throughput as much as possible.

[0009]

Therefore, according to the present invention,
Inkjet recording for recording by using an inkjet head for ejecting ink and an inkjet head for ejecting a treatment liquid for insolubilizing or aggregating color materials in the ink ejected by the inkjet head In the apparatus, for each predetermined area of the recording material, a data presence / absence determining means for determining whether or not there is data to be recorded in the area, and an area in which the data presence / absence determining means determines that the data is present. for,
Ejection control means for ejecting the treatment liquid from the ink jet head in a predetermined uniform ejection pattern.

[0010]

With the above arrangement, the treatment liquid that insolubilizes the color material of the ink is determined for each predetermined area of the recording material to determine whether there is data to be recorded in that area, and if the data exists. , Is ejected in a uniform pattern on the area. As a result, it is not necessary to create the treatment liquid ejection data in correspondence with the ink ejection data, and it is possible to output the uniform pattern data by hardware, for example.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of an ink jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the vicinity of the carriage in FIG. 1.

In these figures, the ink jet cartridges 1Y, 1M, 1C, 1BK and 1S integrally have an upper ink tank portion and a lower ink jet head, respectively, and further signals for driving the ink jet head and the like. A connector is provided for receiving the. Ink cartridges 1S, 1BK, 1
In the C, 1M, and 1Y ink tanks, treatment liquids that insolubilize the color materials of the following inks, black ink, cyan ink, magenta ink, and yellow ink are stored, and the respective inkjet heads correspond to them. The treatment liquid or ink is ejected. Carriage 2
Is the above-mentioned five ink jet cartridges 1S, 1
The BK, 1C, 1M and 1Y are positioned and mounted, and a connector holder for connecting the above connector of the inkjet cartridge is provided to enable the inkjet head and the apparatus main body to be electrically connected.

A scanning rail 3 extends in the main scanning direction of the carriage and slidably supports the carriage, and a driving belt 4 transmits a driving force for reciprocating the carriage. Further, 5 is a conveying roller which is arranged before and after the recording position by the ink jet head to convey the recording material, 6 is a roller which presses the recording material against the conveying roller 5 to generate a conveying force, and P is a paper sheet. And the like, and is pressed against a platen 10 that regulates the recording surface of the recording material P to be flat. At this time, the inkjet head portion of the inkjet cartridge mounted on the carriage is located below the carriage 5 and the recording material conveying roller 5 by projecting downward from the carriage, and the ejection port forming surface 11 of the inkjet head is guided by the platen. The recording material P, which is pressed against the surface, faces the recording material P in parallel.

3 (a) and 3 (b) are explanatory views for explaining the generation of ejection data of the treatment liquid for insolubilizing the coloring material in the ink jet recording apparatus of this embodiment.

The ejection data of the treatment liquid is based on image data transmitted from a host device such as a computer connected to the ink jet recording device by an external cable or the like.
It is created by the hardware of the inkjet recording device. That is, since the data transmitted from the host device is, for example, the ejection data of each recording ink of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, the ejection data of the processing liquid is created based on the ejection data of these recording inks.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams showing image data or ejection data in correspondence with the recording area of the recording material P. As shown in FIG. 3A, main scanning of the carriage is performed. The recording range by is divided into a predetermined number of blocks, and it is checked whether or not there is recording ink ejection data in each of the divided blocks. If there is, it is preset in the hardware. The ejection data of the treatment liquid is created in a pattern. Here, as an example, 4
An example of division into one block is shown, and blocks 1, 3, 4
Each of them has character string data. In this case, as shown in FIG. 3B, the processing liquid is discharged to the blocks 1, 3 and 4 in a pattern set by hardware, and the processing liquid is not discharged to the block 2.

As described above, after the ejection data of the treatment liquid is created from the ejection data of the recording ink, in the ink jet recording apparatus shown in FIGS. The recording material P is conveyed on the platen 10 by the conveying roller 5, and the processing liquid and the ink are ejected from the inkjet head of the inkjet cartridge that is scanned by the carriage 2 in the main scanning direction during the recording. That is, during scanning, the treatment liquid is first ejected onto the recording material from the ink jet head of the ink jet cartridge 1S, and then the respective recording inks are ejected from the ink jet cartridges 1BK, 1C, 1M and 1Y.

The details of the discharge pattern of the processing liquid at this time are shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, a 4 × 4 dot matrix is used as one pattern, and the black portions in the figure represent the positions where the treatment liquid is ejected. The processing liquid is discharged at.

Although FIG. 4 shows the discharge pattern of the processing liquid with the duty of 50%, if the discharge pattern of 25% to 100% is taken into consideration when the penetration of the processing liquid into the recording material is taken into consideration. The effect of the treatment liquid can be fully exerted.

In this ink jet recording apparatus, the treatment liquid for insolubilizing the coloring material in the ink in the solvent such as water is ejected from the treatment liquid head onto the recording material prior to each ink, and ejected from the ink jet head. The ink is brought into contact with the recording material to make the coloring material water resistant. Since the coloring material in the ink reacts with the treatment liquid on the recording material to be insolubilized instantly, not only the water resistance can be improved, but also bleeding between colors can be prevented.

In the above description, the treatment liquid is ejected prior to the ejection of each ink, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, after each ink ejection,
Alternatively, the treatment liquid may be ejected during the ejection of each ink.

The ejection data may be created not only by hardware but also by software.

The above-mentioned colorless treatment liquid (hereinafter, also simply referred to as liquid) which makes the ink dye insoluble can be obtained as follows, for example.

That is, after mixing and dissolving the following components,
Further, after pressure filtration with a membrane filter having a pore size of 0.22 μm (trade name: Fluoropore filter, manufactured by Sumitomo Electric Co., Ltd.), pH can be adjusted to 4.8 with NaOH to obtain a colorless liquid Al.

[Component of Al] Low molecular component of cationic compound Stearyl trimethyl ammonium chloride 2.0 parts (trade name; Electrostop QE, manufactured by Kao) High molecular component of cationic compound Polyamine sulfone (average molecular weight: 5000) 3 0.0 parts (trade name; PAS-92, manufactured by Nitto Boseki Co., Ltd.) Thiodiglycol 10 parts Water balance The following may be mentioned as suitable examples of the ink which is insolubilized by mixing with the colorless liquid.

That is, the following components are mixed, and further pressure-filtered with a membrane filter (trade name: chloropore filter, manufactured by Sumitomo Electric Industries) having a pore size of 0.22 μm, and yellow, magenta, cyan, and black inks Y are mixed.
1, M1, C1, K1 can be obtained.

Y1 C. I. Direct Yellow 142 2 parts Thiodiglycol 10 parts Acetylenol EH (Kawaken Fine Chemicals) 0.05 parts Water balance M1 Dye I. Acid Red-289; C1 dye having the same composition as Y1 except that 2.5 parts was used. I. Acid Blue 9; Same composition as Y1 except that 2.5 parts was used. I. Food Black 2; Same composition as Y1 except that 3 parts are replaced with each other. In the mixing of the colorless liquids and inks shown above, in the present invention, the above-mentioned colorless liquids and inks are printed on a printing material or a printing material. As a result of mixing at the permeated position, among the cationic substances contained in the colorless liquid as the first step of the reaction, the low molecular weight component and the water-soluble dye having an anionic group used in the ink are An ionic interaction causes association, and instantaneously causes separation from the solution phase.

Next, in the second step of the reaction, the above-mentioned dye-low molecular weight cationic substance association product is adsorbed by the polymer component contained in the colorless liquid. The size of the agglomerates becomes even larger, making it difficult for the aggregates to enter the gaps between the fibers of the print material, and as a result, only the liquid portion that has undergone solid-liquid separation will soak into the recording paper, making print quality and fixability compatible. To be achieved. At the same time, since the aggregate formed by the low molecular weight component of the cationic substance, the anionic dye and the cationic substance generated by the mechanism as described above has a high viscosity and does not move with the movement of the liquid medium, Even if adjacent ink dots are formed of different color inks as in image formation, they do not mix with each other and bleeding does not occur. Further, the above-mentioned aggregates are essentially water-insoluble, and the water resistance of the formed image is perfect. Further, it also has the effect of improving the light fastness of the image formed by the shielding effect of the polymer.

Further, in carrying out the present invention, it is not necessary to use a cationic polymer substance having a large molecular weight or a polyvalent metal salt as in the prior art, or even if it is necessary to use the present invention, Since it is only necessary to supplementarily use it to further improve the effect, the amount used can be minimized. As a result, the reduction of the color developability of the dye, which is a problem when trying to obtain the water resistance effect using the conventional cationic polymer substance or polyvalent metal salt, is eliminated. Can be listed as the effect of.

The material to be printed used for carrying out the present invention is not particularly limited, and so-called plain paper such as conventionally used copy paper and bond paper can be preferably used. Of course, a coated paper specially prepared for inkjet printing and a transparent film for OHP can also be suitably used, and general high-quality paper and glossy paper can also be suitably used.

(Second Embodiment) A second embodiment of the present invention will be described below. The ink jet recording apparatus of this embodiment is the same as that of the above-mentioned first embodiment, and its explanation is omitted.

5 (a) and 5 (b) are explanatory views for explaining the discharge of the processing liquid in this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 5A, it is assumed that the character strings abc, efg, and ijk are ejected by the recording ink into the recording area on the recording material P for recording. At this time, the treatment liquid is ejected in a uniform pattern over the entire recording area regardless of the ejection position of the recording ink. Figure 5
As an example thereof, (b) shows an example in which ejection data uses a houndstooth check pattern. In addition, this FIG.
A houndstooth pattern is shown in (b).
Similarly, the duty pattern may be 25% to 100%. However, if there is no print data in the print area, the treatment liquid is not discharged to the print material, and the print material is discharged.

In the case of this embodiment, the treatment liquid ejection pattern is set in advance in the hardware of the ink jet recording apparatus, and it is necessary to prepare the treatment liquid ejection data in accordance with the recording ink ejection data. Since it does not exist, it is possible to prevent a decrease in throughput.

In carrying out the present invention, the ink to be used is not particularly limited to the dye ink, and a pigment ink in which a pigment is dispersed may be used, and the treatment liquid to be used is one in which the pigment is aggregated. Can be used. The following may be mentioned as an example of the pigment ink that causes aggregation by mixing with the above-mentioned colorless liquid A1. That is, as described below, yellow, magenta, and pigment containing a pigment and an anionic compound, respectively,
Cyan and black inks Y2, M2, C2 and K2 can be obtained.

Black ink K2 anionic polymer P-1 (styrene-methacrylic acid-ethyl acrylate, acid value 400, weight average molecular weight 6,0)
00, an aqueous solution with a solid content of 20%, a neutralizing agent: potassium hydroxide) was used as a dispersant, and the following materials were charged into a batch type vertical sand mill (made by AIMEX) and 1 mm diameter glass beads were filled as a medium. The dispersion treatment was performed for 3 hours while cooling with water. The viscosity after dispersion was 9 cps and the pH was 10.0. This dispersion was centrifuged to remove coarse particles, to prepare a carbon black dispersion having a weight average particle diameter of 100 nm.

(Composition of carbon black dispersion) -P-1 aqueous solution (solid content 20%) 40 parts-Carbon black Mogul L (manufactured by Cablack) 24 parts-Glycerin 15 parts-Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether 0.5 parts- Isopropyl alcohol 3 parts / water 135 parts Next, the dispersion obtained above was sufficiently dispersed to obtain a pigment-containing black ink K2 for inkjet. The solid content of the final preparation was about 10%.

Yellow ink Y2 anionic polymer P-2 (styrene-acrylic acid-methyl methacrylate, acid value 280, weight average molecular weight 1
1,000%, an aqueous solution with a solid content of 20%, a neutralizing agent: diethanolamine) was used as a dispersant, and the following materials were used to carry out a dispersion treatment in the same manner as in the production of the black ink K2. A 103 nm yellow color dispersion was prepared.

(Composition of yellow dispersion) 35 parts of P-2 aqueous solution (solid content 20%) C.I. I. Pigment Yellow 180 24 parts (Novapalm Yellow PH-G, manufactured by Hoechst) -Triethylene glycol 10 parts-Diethylene glycol 10 parts-Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether 1.0 part-Isopropyl alcohol 0.5 parts-Water 135 parts Obtained as above The yellow dispersion was sufficiently diffused to obtain an inkjet yellow ink Y2 containing a pigment. The solid content of the final preparation was about 10%.

Cyan ink C2 The same dispersion treatment as in the case of the carbon black dispersion described above using the anionic polymer P-1 used in the preparation of the black ink K2 as the dispersant and the following materials. Then, a cyan color dispersion having a weight average particle diameter of 120 nm was produced.

(Composition of cyan color dispersion) P-1 aqueous solution (solid content 20%) 30 parts C.I. I. Pigment Blue 15: 3 24 parts (Fast Gemble-FGF, Dainippon Ink and Chemicals) ・ Glycerin 15 parts ・ Diethylene glycol monobutyl ether 0.5 parts ・ Isopropyl alcohol 3 parts ・ Water 135 parts Cyan color dispersion obtained above Was sufficiently stirred to obtain a cyan ink C2 for ink jet containing a pigment. The solid content of the final preparation was about 9.6%.

Magenta Ink M2 The anionic polymer P-1 used in the preparation of the black ink K2 was used as the dispersant, and the following materials were used to carry out the same dispersion treatment as in the case of the carbon black dispersion described above. Then, a magenta color dispersion having a weight average particle diameter of 115 nm was produced.

(Composition of magenta color dispersion) P-1 aqueous solution (solid content 20%) 20 parts C.I. I. Pigment Red 122 (Dainippon Ink and Chemicals Inc.) 24 parts-Glycerin 15 parts-Isopropyl alcohol 3 parts-Water 135 parts Magenta ink for ink jet containing a pigment by sufficiently diffusing the magenta color dispersion obtained above. M2
I got The solid content of the final preparation was about 9.2%.

[0045]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the processing liquid for insolubilizing the color material of the ink has data to be recorded in each predetermined area of the recording material. If it is determined that the data exists, the area is ejected in a uniform pattern. As a result, it is not necessary to create the treatment liquid ejection data in correspondence with the ink ejection data, and it is possible to output the uniform pattern data by hardware, for example.

As a result, it is possible to perform the recording in which the water resistance of the recorded image is good and there is no bleeding at the boundary of different colors without lowering the throughput due to the generation of the ejection data of the treatment liquid.

Further, for example, by ejecting the treatment liquid in an ejection pattern determined by the hardware, it is possible to obtain the effect of reducing the curl and wrinkles of the recording material due to the concentration of the ink at a specific position. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side sectional view of an inkjet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view around the carriage shown in FIG.

3 (a) and 3 (b) are explanatory views for explaining discharge of the processing liquid in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a discharge pattern of a processing liquid in the first embodiment.

5 (a) and 5 (b) are diagrams for explaining the discharge of the processing liquid in the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of Codes] 1S, 1BK, 1C, 1M, 1Y Inkjet cartridge 2 Carriage 3 Scan rail 4 Drive belt 5 Conveyor roller 10 Platen

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Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet head for ejecting ink and an ink jet head for ejecting a treatment liquid for insolubilizing or aggregating a color material in the ink ejected by the ink jet head are used to eject the ink and the treatment liquid on a recording material. In an inkjet recording apparatus for recording, for each predetermined area of a recording material, data presence / absence determining means for determining whether or not there is data to be recorded in the area, and the data presence / absence determining means has the data. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: an ejection control unit for ejecting the treatment liquid from the ink jet head in a predetermined uniform ejection pattern to the area determined as above. 2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined area is each block formed by dividing the recording area on the recording material into a plurality of blocks. 3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined area is the entire recording area on the recording material. 4. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined uniform ejection pattern is a thinning pattern. 5. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined uniform ejection pattern is set by hardware. 6. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the treatment liquid contains a low molecular weight component and a high molecular weight component of a cationic substance, and the ink contains an anionic dye. . 7. The treatment liquid contains a cationic substance of a low molecular component and a high molecular component, and the ink contains an anionic compound and a pigment. The inkjet recording device according to item 1. 8. An ink jet head for ejecting ink and an ink jet head for ejecting a treatment liquid for insolubilizing or aggregating a color material in the ink ejected by the ink jet head are used to eject the ink and the treatment liquid on a recording material. In an inkjet recording method for recording, for each predetermined area of a recording material, it is determined whether or not there is data to be recorded in the area, and based on the determination, for the area for which it is determined that there is data, An ink jet recording method comprising various treatments for ejecting a treatment liquid from the ink jet head in a predetermined uniform ejection pattern.