JPH10142834A - Toner, and method for reclaiming image substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To remove a formed image without requiring a wet process and to reclaim an image substrate by incorporating a shape memory resin into a binder and controlling the toner fixing temp. within the range for shape recovery temp. and lower than the shape memory temp. SOLUTION: The binder contains a shape memory resin and the toner fixing temp. is controlled within the range of shape recovery of the shape memory resin and lower than the shape memory temp. Namely, a toner 1a preliminarily treated to have the memory of the particulate shape is deposited on an image substrate 2 (II). The toner 1a is fixed (A) by a fixing roller 3 while heated higher than the shape recovery temp. so that the shape of the toner is changed into a toner 1b to form a toner image (III). Then the toner 1b is subjected to the shape recover treatment (B) by heating with a heating roller 4 at the shape recover temp. so that the toner is changed into the toner 1a having the particulate shape (IV). Then the toner 1a is peeled (C) by a peeling roller 5 from the image substrate 2 to reclaim the image substrate 2 (I).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a toner used for copying by an electrophotographic method, and further relates to a method for reproducing an image support using the toner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in resource saving and recycling, and a technique for recycling and recycling paper is desired. Is being developed. For example, after holding a liquid such as an aqueous solution containing water and a surfactant on an image support having an image formed of a hot-melt ink on a paper layer, the hot-melt resin of the ink forming the image is retained. After the image exfoliated body containing the same resin layer as the component or the resin layer having the same or similar SP value as the hot-melt resin and the image support forming the image are bonded by heating, the ink is melted by heat. A method has been proposed in which the image is peeled off from the image support while the image is being removed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 6-250).
569).

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned method, since the immersion operation for holding the liquid on the image support is performed, the operation is relatively complicated and maintenance of the immersion liquid is required. Was. The present invention provides a toner capable of reproducing an image support without removing a wet operation when the image support is reproduced by removing an image formed on the image support by an electrophotographic method. Aim. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for regenerating an image support by peeling an image formed using the toner from the support.

[0004]

The toner of the present invention comprises a colorant and a binder as main components, the binder contains a shape memory resin, and the toner fixing temperature is controlled by the shape of the shape memory resin. It is within the recovery temperature range and lower than the shape memory temperature of the shape memory resin. The method for regenerating an image support according to the present invention is characterized in that the toner containing a shape memory resin storing a particle shape as a binder is deformed and fixed by pressing at a shape recovery temperature of the shape memory resin. Is heated to the shape recovery temperature of the shape memory resin to recover the toner to its original particle shape, and then the toner is peeled from the image support.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The toner of the present invention is characterized in that the binder constituting the toner contains a shape memory resin. The shape memory resin is a thermoplastic elastomer having a softening temperature equal to or higher than room temperature, and the shape can be reversibly changed by two operations shown in the following (1) and (2). (1) A certain shape is stored in the shape memory resin in advance by molding, and the resin is deformed into another shape by applying stress to the resin while being heated to a softening temperature or higher, and the deformed state is fixed by cooling to room temperature. . (2) Heating the resin to a temperature equal to or higher than the softening temperature without applying stress restores the shape to the original stored shape. In the shape memory resin, the molding temperature for storing the shape in advance is the shape memory temperature, and the temperature required for recovering the shape from the deformed state is the shape recovery temperature, which corresponds to the softening temperature of the resin.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the toner according to the present invention. The toner 1a is deformed into the toner 1b by performing the operation (1) on the toner 1a in a state where the particle shape is stored in advance. By performing the operation (2) in this state, the original toner particle shape is restored. The operation of forming an image on an image support by an electrophotographic method is such that after attaching the toner on the image support, the toner was softened by heating the toner to the fixing temperature of the binder resin, and simultaneously softened. The toner image is fixed by pressing the toner against the image support. In the present invention, to store the particle shape as a binder, and to use a shape memory resin whose fixing temperature is within a shape recovery temperature range,
From the state in which the toner is pressed and fixed on the image support in the shape of the toner by the operation (1), the operation of the operation (2) recovers the particle shape of the toner, and the adhesion between the toner and the image support is weakened. The toner can be easily peeled off from the image support.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a method for reproducing an image support according to the present invention. In the state (I) where no image is formed on the image support 2, the toner 1 a in which the particle shape is stored in advance is attached to the image support 2 (II), and the toner 1 a is heated to a shape recovery temperature or higher. The fixing operation (A) in which the fixing roller 3 is pressed while heating to
The toner image is formed by deforming the shape of the toner 1b (III). In the state (III) in which the image is formed, a shape recovery operation (B) of heating the toner 1b to the shape recovery temperature by the heating roller 4 is performed, and the toner 1 having the particle shape is formed.
Restore the shape to (a). Then, peeling roller 5
Then, a peeling operation (C) for peeling the toner 1a from the image support 2 is performed, and the image support 2 is reproduced (I).

As the shape memory resin used in the binder of the toner of the present invention, any resin can be used as long as it is a thermoplastic elastomer having a shape recovery temperature of room temperature or higher. If the shape recovery temperature is low, the storage stability of the image may be degraded. Therefore, the shape recovery temperature is preferably 40 ° C. or higher. On the other hand, the shape memory temperature is not particularly limited as long as it is a temperature at which resin can be easily molded. In addition, as long as the binder has a shape memory function, the binder can be formed by mixing the shape memory resin with another resin. Specific examples of the shape memory resin include polynorbornene (manufactured by Nippon Zeon), trans polyisoprene (manufactured by Kuraray), styrene-butadiene copolymer (manufactured by Asahi Kasei Kogyo), polyurethane (manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), polyester alloy (Manufactured by Zeon Corporation). For the mixing ratio of the colorant and the binder to the colorant of the toner of the present invention, a colorant used in a general toner can be applied.

In the method of regenerating an image support using the toner of the present invention, the shape stored in advance in the toner may be the particle shape of a generally produced toner, and has a sufficient effect on the releasability in the peeling step. . Therefore, a mechanical pulverization method, which is a usual toner granulation method, can be applied to the production of the toner of the present invention. In this case, since the melting and kneading operation of the binder and the colorant is performed at or above the shape memory temperature of the shape memory resin, the shape stored before kneading can be temporarily erased, and the granulated toner shape is used as it is. be able to.

The operation for fixing the toner of the present invention may be a method in which pressure is applied while heating with a hot roll, which is usually performed. In order for the toner to be deformed by the fixing operation, the fixing temperature needs to be within the shape recovery temperature range of the shape memory resin. Further, the fixing temperature needs to be equal to or lower than the shape memory temperature so that the stored shape is not lost by the toner fixing operation. The operation to recover the shape of toner is
The fixing is performed by heating the fixed toner to a temperature equal to or higher than the shape recovery temperature without applying stress. As a heating method, a method of heating the surface of the image support opposite to the surface to which the toner is attached with a heat roller,
There is a method of heating the surface to which the toner is attached with hot air. Examples of the toner peeling operation include a method in which a resin roll having affinity for the toner is brought into close contact with the surface of the image support to peel the toner, and a method in which the toner is peeled with a brush or a blade. The toner of the present invention is generally used P
It can be applied to a PC copier as it is. In this case, the image support is reproduced using a dedicated device for performing the peeling operation. Further, the copying function and the peeling operation can be performed by an integrated device.

[0011]

Example: Styrene-butadiene copolymer (manufactured by Asahi Kasei Corporation, shape memory temperature of 120 ° C. or higher, shape recovery temperature of 60 to
90 ° C.) 95 parts by weight of carbon black and 5 parts by weight of carbon black are melt-kneaded at 150 ° C. using a twin-screw extruder, pulverized into particles by a jet mill, and particle size of 10 to 20 μm by a classifier.
Was obtained. The obtained toner was applied to an ordinary PPC copier to form an image on an image support made of plain paper. After heating this image support to 80 ° C. in a thermostat,
A shape recovery operation was performed by rapid cooling. After that, when the peeling operation was performed with a cleaning brush, the toner on the surface of the image support could be easily wiped off,
The image support was able to be reproduced by erasing the toner image. Next, using the regenerated image support, a toner image was formed in the same manner, a shape recovery operation and a peeling operation were performed, and the image support was regenerated again.

[0012]

As described above, the toner of the present invention can easily form an image by fixing to an image support and regenerate the image support by peeling from the image support in a dry manner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a reversible change of toner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image forming process using the toner and a process of regenerating an image support.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a Toner having particle shape 1b Deformed toner 2 Image support 3 Heating roller 4 Heating roller 5 Peeling roller

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A colorant and a binder as main components, the binder containing a shape memory resin, a toner fixing temperature within a shape recovery temperature range of the shape memory resin, and the shape memory. A toner characterized by having a temperature lower than a shape memory temperature of a resin. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: deforming a toner containing a shape memory resin storing a particle shape as a binder by applying pressure at a shape recovery temperature of the shape memory resin and fixing the toner. A method for regenerating an image support, wherein the toner is recovered from the image support after heating the toner to an original particle shape by heating to a shape recovery temperature.