JPH10333259A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an image recorder constituted so that dust or dirt is prevented from being attached to a reflection mirror arranged by facing upward and set for reflecting and guiding image light from an original and image data with excellent quality can be recorded. SOLUTION: This recorder 10 is provided with a first carriage 214 and a second carriage 220 for scanning the original. A light source 210 and the first mirror 212 are assembled to the carriage 214. A second mirror 216 and a third mirror 218 are assembled to the carriage 220 and the carriage 220 is provided with a dust-proof cover 217. The cover 217 is positioned just over the mirror 212 so as to cover it when the carriages 214 and 220 are set at a standby position. Thus, since the dust or the dirt is prevented from being attached to the mirror 212, the image data with the excellent quality can be recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus, and more particularly to an image recording apparatus having a reflection mirror for guiding image light from a document to a predetermined optical path.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is known an image recording apparatus provided with an image reading optical system for irradiating an original image with light and capturing the reflected or transmitted light with a CCD sensor.

[0003] This type of image recording apparatus is provided with a halogen lamp (light source) for irradiating the original with light and a reflection mirror for guiding image light from the original to a predetermined optical path. As these halogen lamps and the reflecting mirror move along the document, light is emitted from the halogen lamp, and image light (reflected or transmitted light) from the document is reflected by the reflecting mirror, and the lens is moved in a predetermined optical path. The image light guided through the lens and transmitted through the lens is picked up by a CCD sensor to record image data.

By the way, in such a conventional image recording apparatus, the reflecting mirror for first reflecting and guiding the image light (reflected or transmitted light) from the document is arranged to face upward. There was a drawback that dust and dust easily adhered. If dust or dirt adheres to such a reflection mirror, it may cause a hindrance to image quality. Therefore, measures to prevent this have been desired.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In consideration of the above fact, the present invention prevents dust and dirt from adhering to a reflection mirror which is arranged upward and reflects and guides image light from a document. It is an object of the present invention to obtain an image recording apparatus capable of recording high-quality image data.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image recording apparatus comprising: a reflecting mirror which is arranged upward and guides image light from the original to a predetermined optical path while moving along the original; In the image recording apparatus, a dust cover that is located immediately above the reflection mirror and covers the reflection mirror is provided corresponding to a standby position of the reflection mirror outside an image recording area.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the reflection mirror arranged upward is covered with the dustproof cover at a standby position outside the image recording area (ie, in a state other than during image recording processing). . Therefore, it is possible to prevent dust and dirt from accumulating and adhering to the reflection mirror, and to record high-quality image data.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a schematic overall configuration diagram of an image recording apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The image recording apparatus 10 includes a scanner unit SCN as an image reading unit and a printer unit PRT for recording an image based on the read image data. Are arranged. The printer unit PRT is arranged inside the machine base 12. (Scanner Unit SCN) FIG. 1 shows a scanner unit SCN according to the present embodiment.

The scanner unit SCN has a box-shaped casing 20.
0, a rectangular opening is provided at the center of the upper surface, and a transparent platen glass 202 is fitted therein. The platen glass 202 has a function as a flat document placing table, on which a document on which a flat image is recorded is placed downward.

On the platen glass 202, a holding cover 204 that can be opened and closed is provided. The holding cover 204 is hinged to the casing 200 at the back of the casing 200, and is rotatable around the hinge.

Accordingly, when the holding cover 204 is in the closed state, the original can be pressed and held in the direction of the platen glass 202 from above.

An operation / display panel (not shown) is provided on the front side of the upper surface of the casing 200 so as to instruct various functions and display an operation state in the apparatus.

A scanning section 208 is provided in the casing 200. The scanning unit 208 includes a controller 209
Is controlled by The scanning unit 208 includes a first carriage 214, a second carriage 220, and a fixed unit 228.

As shown in detail in FIGS. 2 and 3, the first carriage 214 has a halogen lamp 211 and a reflector 213 extending in the width direction (main scanning direction) of the original image.
And a light source 210 provided with
A first mirror 212 as a reflection mirror, which extends in the width direction of the document image and is arranged upward as in the case of 0, is incorporated. The first carriage 214 reciprocates in the sub-scanning direction along the original surface below the platen glass 202, and at this time, irradiates light from the light source 210 to the original placed on the platen glass 202. The first mirror 212 deflects the reflected light (light with a hanging optical axis) by 90 ° and guides the reflected light to the second carriage 220.

The second carriage 220 has a second
Mirror 216 and a third mirror 218 are incorporated. The second mirror 216 has a reflecting surface facing and parallel to the first mirror 212. When the second mirror 216 receives light from the first mirror 212, it is deflected by 90 ° by the second mirror 216, Further, the light is deflected by 90 ° by the third mirror 218. The light finally collimated by the third mirror 218 with the surface of the platen glass 202 is transmitted to the fixed unit 228.
It is coming to.

Further, a dustproof cover 217 is provided on the second carriage 220. This dust cover 21
Reference numeral 7 corresponds to the first mirror 212 of the first carriage 214. When the first carriage 214 is at a standby position outside the image recording area, the first carriage 212 is positioned right above the first mirror 212. It has a role to cover this.

On the other hand, the fixed unit 228 is
2. A filter group 224 composed of four filters including a color adjustment filter and an ND filter, and a lens 226 for imaging.
It is constituted by. The fixed unit 228 includes a stop 222 (variable stop mechanism) and a filter group 224.
The light amount is adjusted by the ND filter (described later),
Further, each color balance is adjusted by the color adjustment filters of the filter group 224. Further, the lens 226 forms a document image on the light receiving surface of the CCD line sensor 230.

The first carriage 214 and the second carriage 220 in the scanning unit 208 having the above configuration reciprocate in the sub-scanning direction along the original surface below the platen glass 202. At this time, the original reflection position The second carriage 220 moves in the same direction at half the transport speed of the first carriage 214 in order to always keep the optical path length from the first carriage 214 to the light receiving section of the CCD line sensor 230 constant. One reciprocating operation of the first carriage 214 and the second carriage 220 is scanning for one image (image reading at the time of forward movement).
02 can be read.

Here, as shown in FIG. 3, when the first carriage 214 and the second carriage 220 are reciprocating in the sub-scanning direction along the document surface, the first carriage 214 (first The mirror 212) is separated from the dust cover 217 provided on the second carriage 220, but at a standby position where the first carriage 214 and the second carriage 220 are out of the image recording area as shown in FIG. In some cases, the dustproof cover 217 provided on the second carriage 220 is located just above the first mirror 212 so as to cover it.

On the upper surface of the casing 200, a proof light source unit 232 that moves in the main scanning direction with a predetermined gap above the platen glass 202 is provided. The proof light source unit 232 is used as a light source when a transparent original is placed on the platen glass 202.

That is, the proof light source unit 2
The light source unit driving section 23 has one end (rear side of the apparatus) connected to the light source unit driving section 234.
By the driving force of No. 4, the same operation as that of the first carriage 214 is performed.

Here, when scanning a transparent original, the proof light source unit 232 operates in synchronization with the first carriage 214. At this time, the light source 210 of the first carriage 214 is turned off, and the light source (not shown) in the proof light source unit 232 is turned on, so that the first mirror 212 can obtain a transparent original image. Subsequent operations are the same as those for the reflection original. (Printer Unit PRT) FIG. 1 shows the printer unit PRT in the machine base 12 of the image recording apparatus 10.

A photosensitive material magazine 14 for storing a photosensitive material 16 is disposed inside the machine base 12, and the photosensitive material 16 extracted from the photosensitive material magazine 14 is exposed (exposed).
The light-sensitive material 16 is placed in the light-sensitive material magazine 14 such that the surface faces left.
It is wound up in a roll.

A nip roller 18 and a cutter 20 are disposed in the vicinity of the photosensitive material outlet of the photosensitive material magazine 14, so that the photosensitive material 16 can be cut out after the photosensitive material 16 is drawn out of the photosensitive material magazine 14 by a predetermined length. The cutter 20
For example, it is a rotary type cutter including a fixed blade and a movable blade. The movable blade can be moved up and down by a rotary cam or the like to cut the photosensitive material 16 by meshing with the fixed blade.

A plurality of transport rollers 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, and 34 are sequentially arranged on the side of the cutter 20, and a guide plate (not shown) is provided between the transport rollers. . The photosensitive material 16 cut to a predetermined length is first conveyed to an exposure section 22 provided between conveying rollers 24 and 26.

An exposure device 38 is provided on the left side of the exposure section 22. The exposure device 38 is provided with three types of LDs, a lens unit, a polygon mirror, and a mirror unit (all are not shown). Are exposed.

It is also possible to employ a configuration in which LEDs are arranged in the main scanning direction and one line is exposed at the same time, without using a configuration in which the LD is scanned by a polygon mirror like a pendulum.

Above the exposure section 22, there are provided a U-turn section 40 for transporting the photosensitive material 16 in a U-shaped curve and a water application section 50 for applying an image forming solvent. In the present embodiment, water is used as the image forming solvent.

The photosensitive material 16 ascended from the photosensitive material magazine 14 and exposed at the exposure unit 22 is nipped and conveyed by conveyance rollers 28 and 30, respectively, and is applied with water while passing through a conveyance path near the upper side of the U-turn unit 40. It is sent to the unit 50.

On the other hand, a receiving material magazine 106 for storing an image receiving material 108 is arranged at the upper left end of FIG. A dye fixing material having a mordant is applied to the image forming surface of the image receiving material 108.
The image receiving material 108 is wound around a material receiving magazine 106 in a roll shape so that the image forming surface of the image receiving material 108 pulled out from the sheet 6 faces downward.

A nip roller 110 is disposed in the vicinity of the image receiving material take-out port of the material receiving magazine 106 so that the image receiving material 108 can be pulled out from the material receiving magazine 106 and the nip can be released.

The cutter 11 is provided beside the nip roller 110.
2 are arranged. The cutter 112 is, for example, a rotary type cutter including a fixed blade and a movable blade, similar to the above-described photosensitive material cutter 20, and the movable blade is moved up and down by a rotating cam or the like to engage with the fixed blade. Thereby, the image receiving material 108 drawn out from the receiving material magazine 106 is cut into a shorter length than the photosensitive material 16.

On the side of the cutter 112, the transport roller 13
2, 134, 136, 138 and a guide plate (not shown) are arranged, and the image receiving material 108 cut to a predetermined length is provided.
Can be conveyed to the thermal development transfer unit 120 side.

The thermal development transfer section 120 has a pair of endless belts 122 and 124 which are wound around a plurality of winding rollers 140, respectively, and formed into a loop with the longitudinal direction being the longitudinal direction. Therefore, when one of these winding rollers 140 is driven and rotated, the pair of endless belts 122 and 124 wound around these winding rollers 140 are respectively rotated.

In the figure, the heating plate 12 formed in a flat plate shape whose longitudinal direction is the longitudinal direction is provided in the loop of the endless belt 122 on the right side of the pair of endless belts 122 and 124.
6 is disposed facing the inner peripheral portion on the left side of the endless belt 122. A linear heater (not shown) is disposed inside the heating plate 126, and the heater can heat the surface of the heating plate 126 to a predetermined temperature.

Accordingly, the photosensitive material 16 is fed between the pair of endless belts 122 and 124 of the thermal development transfer section 120 by the last transport roller 34 in the transport path. Further, the image receiving material 108 is transported in synchronization with the transport of the photosensitive material 16,
In a state where the photosensitive material 16 is advanced by a predetermined length, the photosensitive material 16 is fed between the pair of endless belts 122 and 124 of the thermal development transfer unit 120 by the last transport roller 138 in the transport path, and is superposed on the photosensitive material 16.

In this case, the image receiving material 108 is the photosensitive material 16
Both the width dimension and the longitudinal dimension are smaller than that of the photosensitive material 16, so that the periphery of the photosensitive material 16 is overlapped with all four sides protruding from the periphery of the image receiving material 108.

As described above, the pair of endless belts 122, 12
Photosensitive material 16 and image receiving material 1
08 is nipped and conveyed by a pair of endless belts 122 and 124 while being superposed.
Further, the superposed photosensitive material 16 and image receiving material 108
However, when completely stopped between the pair of endless belts 122 and 124, the pair of endless belts 122 and 124 stop rotating once, and the sandwiched photosensitive material 16 and image receiving material 108 are heated by the heating plate 126. The photosensitive material 16 is heated by the heating plate 126 via the endless belt 122 at the time of the nipping conveyance and at the time of stopping, and the movable dye is released with the heating, and at the same time, the dye is transferred to the image receiving material 108.
Is transferred to the dye fixing layer, and an image is obtained on the image receiving material 108.

Further, a pair of endless belts 122, 124
On the downstream side in the material supply direction, a peeling claw 128 is arranged.
Of the photosensitive material 16 and the image receiving material 108 nipped and transported between the endless belts 2 and 124, only the leading end of the photosensitive material 16 is engaged, and the leading end of the photosensitive material 16 protruding from between the pair of endless belts 122 and 124. It can be peeled off from the image receiving material 108.

The photosensitive material discharge roller 1 is located on the left side of the peeling claw 128.
The photosensitive material 16, which is moved leftward while being guided by the peeling claw 128, can be further transported to the waste photosensitive material container 150 side.

The waste photosensitive material container 150 has a drum 152 around which the photosensitive material 16 is wound, and a belt 154 partially wound around the drum 152. Further, the belt 154 includes a plurality of rollers 15.
The belt 154 is rotated by the rotation of the rollers 156, and the drum 1
52 rotates.

Therefore, when the photosensitive material 16 is fed while the belt 154 is rotated by the rotation of the roller 156, the photosensitive material 16 can be accumulated around the drum 152.

On the other hand, receiving material discharge rollers 162, 164, 166, 168, and so on, so that the image receiving material 108 can be conveyed leftward from below the pair of endless belts 122 and 124.
170 are arranged in order, and a pair of endless belts 12 are provided.
The image receiving material 108 discharged from the second and second transfer rollers 124, 164, 166, 168, 170
And discharged to the tray 172.

The operation of the present embodiment will be described below. First, the reading control of the document image in the scanner unit SCN will be described.

Before the image recording process is started, as shown in FIG. 2, the first carriage 214 and the second carriage 220 are located at standby positions (home positions) outside the image recording area. The dustproof cover 217 provided on the second carriage 220 is located right above the first mirror 212 and covers it. Therefore, it is possible to prevent dust and dirt from accumulating and adhering not only to the second mirror 216 and the third mirror 218 of the second carriage 220 but also to the first mirror 212 arranged upward.

When an original is placed on the surface of the platen glass 202 in order to perform an image recording process, the pressing cover 204 is closed, and reading is instructed by a key operation on the operation / display panel, scanning starts. .

In this scanning, in the case of a reflection original, the light source 210 is turned on and the first carriage 214 and the second carriage 214 are turned on.
The operation is started by synchronizing the carriage 220 of FIG. That is, the first carriage 214 and the second carriage 2
20 reciprocates in the sub-scanning direction along the document surface. At this time, the conveying speed V ₁ of the first carriage 214, the relationship between the conveying speed V ₂ of the second carriage 220, V ₁
= 2V ₂ . By maintaining this, the optical path length from the document image surface to the light receiving surface of the CCD line sensor 230 can always be kept constant.

For this reason, during scanning, as shown in FIG.
12) is separated from the dustproof cover 217 provided on the second carriage 220. Therefore, the image light from the original is not blocked by the dust cover 217 and is reliably reflected by the first mirror 212.

The image data obtained by the CCD line sensor 230 receiving the light by scanning is recorded in a RAM memory or a hard disk of a personal computer or the like, subjected to predetermined image processing, and sent to the printer unit PRT.

Next, the operation of the printer unit PRT will be described. After the photosensitive material magazine 14 is set, the nip roller 18 is operated, and the photosensitive material 16 is moved to the nip roller 18.
Drawn by. When the photosensitive material 16 is pulled out by a predetermined length, the cutter 20 operates to cut the photosensitive material 16 into a predetermined length, and transports the photosensitive material 16 to the exposure unit 22 with its photosensitive (exposure) surface facing left. Is done. Then, the exposure device 38 is operated simultaneously with the passage of the photosensitive material 16 through the exposure unit 22, and the image is scanned and exposed on the photosensitive material 16 located at the exposure unit 22. The exposure device 38 includes the scanner S
The image data read by the CN unit is image-processed and input by a personal computer. Based on the input data, the light amount of the light source is controlled, and the image is scanned and exposed. When a laser (semiconductor laser) is used as a light source, main scanning is performed by reciprocating the optical axis of a laser beam whose light amount is controlled by duty control like a pendulum, and movement of the photosensitive material 16 is sub-scanning. And it is sufficient.

When an LED array is used as a light source and arranged in the main scanning direction such as an LED, the amount of light is controlled by controlling the current or voltage of the LED light source so that one main scan is performed at the same time. do it.

When the exposure is completed, the exposed photosensitive material 16 is exposed.
Is sent to the water application unit 50. The photosensitive material 16 to which water as an image forming solvent has been applied in the water application section 50 is
The sheet is fed between the pair of endless belts 122 and 124 of the thermal development transfer section 120 by the conveying roller 34.

On the other hand, as the photosensitive material 16 is scanned and exposed, the image receiving material 108 is also drawn out of the material receiving magazine 106 by the nip roller 110 and transported. When the image receiving material 108 is pulled out by a predetermined length, the cutter 112 operates to cut the image receiving material 108 into a predetermined length.

After the operation of the cutter 112, the cut image receiving material 108 is transported by the transport rollers 132, 134, 136 and 138 while being guided by the guide plate. When the leading end of the image receiving material 108 is nipped by the transport roller 138, the image receiving material 108 is transferred to the heat development transfer unit 120.
Is in a standby state just before.

As the photosensitive material 16 is fed between the pair of endless belts 122 and 124 by the conveying rollers 34 as described above, the conveyance of the image receiving material 108 is restarted, and the pair of endless belts 122 and 124 are provided. The image receiving material 108 is fed integrally with the photosensitive material 16 between them.

As a result, the photosensitive material 16 and the image receiving material 108
Are stacked, and the photosensitive material 16 and the image receiving material 108 are nipped and conveyed while being heated by the heating plate 126, and are subjected to thermal development transfer to form an image on the image receiving material 108.

Further, a pair of endless belts 122, 124
When these are discharged from the photosensitive material 16, the peeling claw 128 engages with the leading end of the photosensitive material 16 which is conveyed ahead of the image receiving material 108 by a predetermined length, and the leading end of the photosensitive material 16 is brought into contact with the image receiving material 10.
Peel from 8. The photosensitive material 16 is further conveyed by a photosensitive material discharge roller 148 and is disposed in the waste photosensitive material storage unit 1.
50. At this time, since the photosensitive material 16 dries immediately, it is not necessary to further provide heaters for drying the photosensitive material 16.

On the other hand, the image receiving material 108 on which a predetermined image has been formed (recorded) by thermal development transfer processing sandwiched between the pair of endless belts 122 and 124 is used as the endless belt 12.
After being discharged from the trays 2 and 124, the sheet is nipped and conveyed by a plurality of receiving material discharge rollers 162, 164, 166, 168 and 170 and discharged to a tray 172 outside the apparatus.

When a plurality of image recording processes are performed, the above steps are sequentially performed.

As described above, in the image recording apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, the first mirror 212 of the first carriage 214 is at the standby position outside the image recording area (that is, at the standby position).
In a state other than the time of image recording processing), the dust cover is covered with the dustproof cover 217, so that dust and dust are prevented from falling and adhering to the first mirror 212 arranged upward, and high-quality image data is recorded. be able to.

In the above embodiment, the dust cover 217 is provided on the second carriage 220. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
It is also possible to adopt a configuration that is fixedly provided on the.

[0063]

As described above, in the image recording apparatus according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent dust and dirt from adhering to the reflecting mirror which is arranged upward and reflects and guides image light from a document. And has an excellent effect that high-quality image data can be recorded.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic overall configuration diagram of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a first example of the image recording apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the carriage and the second carriage viewed from the front when they are located at a standby position (home position).

FIG. 3 illustrates a first example of the image recording apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view corresponding to FIG. 2 during scanning, showing details of a carriage and a second carriage.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 image recording device SCN scanner unit PRT printer unit 208 scanning unit 210 light source 212 first mirror (reflection mirror) 214 first carriage 216 second mirror 217 dust cover 218 third mirror 220 second carriage 228 fixing unit 230 CCD line sensor

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image recording apparatus comprising: a reflection mirror disposed upward and guiding image light from the document to a predetermined optical path while moving along the document; An image recording apparatus, wherein a dust cover that covers the reflection mirror is provided corresponding to a standby position of the reflection mirror that is out of an image recording area.