JPH1058664A - Ink jet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize high quality recording with low energy consumption while suppressing blur and eliminating color mixing at the time of multicolor printing. SOLUTION: In an ink jet recorder where the ink of an ink image formed on an intermediate transfer body is changed in quality through action being accompanied with chemical reaction in the way of carrying passage and transferred to a recording medium, e.g. a paper, an ink reactor is formed of an anionic ion-exchange resin layer on the uppermost layer of the intermediate transfer body wherein the ink contains a dye having quaternary ammonium salt in the side chain. The ink of the ink image reacts on the ink reactor as shown by formula when it is carried through the intermediate transfer body and the hydrophilicity thereof is lowered and the transfer properties to the recording medium is enhanced before the ink is transferred to the recording medium.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, an FA
O that incorporates a hard copy device such as X, word processor, etc.
A, information devices, and the like, and further a combination thereof. More specifically, in a device used in the above field, a recording image according to an electric signal is printed on a recording medium such as paper through an intermediate transfer member. The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus configured to perform transfer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional ink-jet recording apparatus is called an ink-jet apparatus, and performs recording by directly attaching ink to a recording medium such as paper.

Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 62-92749, ink is ejected from an ink droplet ejecting means, adheres to an intermediate transfer member, and the ink is evaporated and condensed. An ink jet recording apparatus for transferring is disclosed.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-133746, ink is ejected from an ink droplet ejecting means, adheres to an intermediate transfer member, and the ink is thickened by ultraviolet irradiation or heating and then pressed against a recording medium. Thus, an ink jet recording apparatus that transfers ink has been disclosed.

FIG. 4 is an example of JP-A-1-133746, in which an image is formed on a quartz glass drum 31 by a drop-on-demand type ink jet head 34 and an ultraviolet lamp provided inside the quartz glass drum 31. The ink image whose viscosity has been increased by 33 is transferred to the printing paper 35 under pressure, and the ink remaining on the drum is removed by the cleaning roller 32.

FIG. 5 shows another example in which an aluminum drum 4 is used.
1 and the heater 43, the ink is cured by heating, and the ink is transferred and recorded as in the previous example.

[0007]

In the above-mentioned prior art, according to the ink jet recording apparatus for directly recording on a recording medium such as paper, recording on a recording medium having a large unevenness on the surface is possible. Was one of the characteristics,
On the other hand, the ink dot diameter is not stable due to the difference in paper quality, and high quality printing cannot be realized unless the type of the recording medium is selected.

[0008] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-92949 discloses an ink jet recording apparatus capable of performing stable ink transfer by forming an image on an intermediate transfer member and then evaporating the ink.

However, according to this ink jet recording apparatus, the amount of heating energy required to exert a physical action on the ink such as evaporation of a solvent or a dispersion medium constituting the ink is considerably large, and It is an inkjet recording device that is difficult to use as equipment.

For example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-92949, the amount of ink reduction by evaporation is 9
Heating to 0% usually requires a heating time of several seconds to several tens of seconds, and in order to shorten this time, heating at a high temperature is inevitable, but this shortens the life of the intermediate transfer member. As a result, in any case, the inkjet recording apparatus is difficult to use as a general-purpose device.

In order to improve the above-mentioned drawbacks, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei.
No. 133746 discloses an ink jet recording apparatus capable of transferring a stable ink from an intermediate transfer body by using an ultraviolet curable ink to increase the viscosity of the ink by irradiating or heating with ultraviolet light. I have.

However, according to the heat curing method,
Heating by using a heater of several hundred watts usually requires a heating time of several seconds to several tens of seconds.
As in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-92949, the problem of energy consumption,
Further, high-temperature heating for increasing the recording speed not only involves deformation of the intermediate transfer member but also results in decomposition of the dye of the ink itself.

On the other hand, according to the ultraviolet curing method, a quartz glass drum is used as an intermediate transfer member, so that the apparatus cost is overwhelmingly high, and the brittleness of quartz glass is extremely high, so that it is added during pressure transfer to paper. There was a problem that the pressure could not be set high.

Therefore, in the present invention, low energy consumption which can be applied to the equipment frequently used in the above-mentioned industrial application fields, furthermore, there is little bleeding regardless of the paper quality, and even in the case of multicolor printing, It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording apparatus and a recording method capable of performing high-resolution and high-quality recording by forming fine dots without color mixing and further having excellent weather resistance of the obtained recorded matter.

[0015]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet recording apparatus which forms an image on an intermediate transfer member by causing ink droplets to fly by ink droplet ejecting means. After formation, the intermediate transfer is performed in an ink jet recording apparatus in which the ink is transformed by an action accompanied by a chemical reaction in the course of being transported by the intermediate transfer body and is then transferred to a recording medium such as paper. On the body,
Without receiving external energy, the ink reacts with the ink to alter the quality of the ink, thereby reducing the hydrophilicity of the ink to form an ink reactant that increases the transferability to a recording medium.

In the above-described ink jet recording apparatus, the ink of the ink image formed on the intermediate transfer member by the ink droplet ejecting means reacts with the ink reactant during the transportation by the intermediate transfer member to decrease the hydrophilicity, and the recording is performed. Improves transferability to media,
Thereafter, the image is transferred to a recording medium.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the ink jet recording apparatus, the ink reactant is an anion-based ion exchange resin layer formed on at least the outermost surface layer of the intermediate transfer member, and the ink used is a quaternary ammonium salt. This is an ink containing a dye having in the side chain.

In the above-described ink jet recording apparatus, since a flexible ion-exchange resin layer is formed on the outermost surface layer of the intermediate transfer member, the pressure which can be applied during the pressure transfer to the recording medium should be set high. And transfer to a recording medium can be reliably performed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the ink jet recording apparatus, the intermediate transfer member uses an endless intermediate transfer member such as a drum or a belt, and ink is transported by the intermediate transfer member.
A heating unit is provided for heating the intermediate transfer member after the transfer to the recording medium is performed.

In the above-mentioned ink jet recording apparatus, the intermediate transfer member is heated by the heating means after the transfer of the ink image to the recording medium, so that the intermediate transfer member can be used repeatedly.

[0021]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing the basic structure of an ink jet recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

The ink image 3 recorded on the intermediate transfer member 2 by the recording head 1 is transported to a position where the ink image 3 contacts the recording medium 5 by the movement of the intermediate transfer member 2, and is transferred by pressure or heat. Thereafter, the intermediate transfer member 2 is further moved and heated by the heating means 4 to return to the original position, and recording is performed again. Foreign matter and the like adhering to the intermediate transfer member 2 are cleaned by the cleaning blade 6.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of the recording head of the present invention. The recording head 1 is provided with a plurality of ink ejection ports 11, and the intermediate transfer body 2 and the opposing electrode 12 are arranged to face each other. The distance D between the ink ejection port 11 and the surface of the intermediate transfer member 2 is 30 to 200 μm, and the bias voltage Vb is 1 to 2.
5 kV. A channel selection signal is applied to a channel for discharging ink. This is a pulse signal of 250 V, and has a circuit configuration in which the potential difference between the ink of the discharge channel and the counter electrode increases in accordance with the recording information.

The ink of the channel selected in this way is sucked onto the intermediate transfer body 2 by electrostatic attraction,
Form an image. In this case, the diameter of the formed dots can be reduced to 1/6 to 1/30 even with ink ejection ports of the same size as compared with the head internal pressure generation type ink jet, and a high quality image can be obtained. can get.

As the material of the surface layer of the intermediate transfer member 2, an anion-based ion-exchange resin membrane having the structure shown in Chemical Formula 1 is used.
As the ink, a dye having a quaternary ammonium salt in a side chain as shown in Chemical Formula 2 is used.

[0026]

Embedded image

[0027]

Embedded image

The ink ejected by the recording head 1 is recorded as an image 3 on the intermediate transfer member 2, at which time the chemical formula 2
Is replaced by -COOH in the surface layer of the intermediate transfer body 2 represented by the chemical formula 1 by the reaction represented by the chemical reaction formula 3, whereby the hydrophilicity of the ink is reduced, and the ink is easily separated from the intermediate transfer body 2. Transferability to the recording medium 5 is increased.

[0029]

Embedded image

After the transfer to the recording medium 5 is performed, the intermediate transfer body 2 is conveyed to a position facing the heating means 4 and is heated so that the surface layer of the intermediate transfer body 2 is reacted by the reaction represented by the chemical reaction formula 4. From the vaporized NH ₃ and returned to the original state.

[0031]

Embedded image

FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which the recording heads 1 for ejecting four color inks of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (B) have four recording heads, respectively.
Has a pair. These recording heads are sequentially arranged in the direction in which the intermediate transfer body 2 moves.

According to the second embodiment, even when a plurality of heads for multicolor printing are provided, there is no need to provide a plurality of heating means 4, and after the recorded image is transferred to paper, the intermediate transfer member 2 It is only necessary to provide one means for heating the heat.

In addition to the above-described embodiment, as a material used for the intermediate transfer member 2, a commercially available material such as NAFION manufactured by DuPont can be used. The structure of this material is shown in Chemical Formula 5.

[0035]

Embedded image

[0036]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, an image is formed on an intermediate transfer member by causing ink droplets to fly by ink droplet ejecting means, and the image is transferred to a recording medium such as paper. In an ink jet recording apparatus, the ink droplets ejected from the recording head adhere to the intermediate transfer member, and when the image is formed, the quality of the ink is changed and the transferability of the image is improved. Transfer is performed, and high-quality recorded material with little bleeding can be obtained. Further, since heating means and ultraviolet irradiation means as means for causing deterioration of ink are not required, these can be realized at a low apparatus cost. Can be enabled. In particular, when performing multi-color printing using multiple recording heads, it is possible to prevent color mixing without using special means, and it is possible to obtain high-quality recorded matter with a cheaper device It can be.

According to the ink jet recording apparatus of the second aspect, in addition to the effect of the first aspect, by using a flexible resin material as the intermediate transfer body, the pressure which can be applied during the pressure transfer to the recording medium is achieved. Can be set high, so that recording on a recording medium having large surface irregularities can be performed. In addition, since a versatile material is used, the cost of the recording device and consumables can be reduced.

According to the ink jet recording apparatus of the third aspect, in addition to the effect of the second aspect, by heating the intermediate transfer body once required for recording, the intermediate transfer body can be used repeatedly. Therefore, an endless belt-like or drum-like intermediate transfer body can be used, and the cost of the recording apparatus and consumables can be further reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a first embodiment of an inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the basic configuration of FIG.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing the recording head of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a second embodiment of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the basic configuration of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of a conventional ink jet recording apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing another example of a conventional inkjet recording apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Recording head 2 Intermediate transfer body 3 Ink image 4 Heating means 5 Recording medium 6 Cleaning blade 11 Ink ejection port 12 Counter electrode

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image is formed on an intermediate transfer member by causing ink droplets to fly by an ink droplet ejecting means, and after the image is formed, a chemical reaction is involved in a route along which ink is conveyed by the intermediate transfer member. In an ink jet recording apparatus which is transferred to a recording medium such as paper after being transformed by an action, the ink is transformed by the reaction with the ink without receiving external energy, An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein an ink reactant that reduces the hydrophilicity of the ink and increases the transfer property to a recording medium is formed. 2. The ink reactant is an anion-based ion-exchange resin layer formed on at least the outermost surface layer of the intermediate transfer body, and the ink used contains a dye having a quaternary ammonium salt in a side chain. 2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ink is an ink. 3. The intermediate transfer member uses an endless intermediate transfer member such as a drum or a belt, and heats the intermediate transfer member after the ink is conveyed by the intermediate transfer member and transferred to a recording medium. 3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a heating unit.