JPH1152739A - Liquid developer supply method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the consumption of liquid developer, and also, to prevent the composition change of the liquid developer by adjusting the solid ratio of the liquid developer. SOLUTION: The high-viscosity liquid developer is supplied to an electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor 1 through a developing belt 43 so as to develop the electrostatic latent image. After the electrostatic latent image is developed, the liquid developer remaining on the developer belt 43 is recovered by a recovering blade 46. The solid ratio of the recovered liquid developer after being used for developing is detected by a solid ratio detecting part 47. The liquid developer whose solid ratio has been already detected is applied on the developing belt 43 by a solid ratio adjusting/controlling part 48, and the device is controlled so as to develop for adjusting the solid ratio at an image area ratio in accordance with the detected solid ratio, and then, the solid ratio of the liquid developer after being used for developing is adjusted and reused.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid developer supply method for supplying a high-viscosity liquid developer to an electrostatic latent image via a developer carrier, and more particularly, to a liquid remaining on a developer carrier after a developing process. It relates to the reuse of the developer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a developing apparatus for developing an electrostatic latent image on a latent image body using a liquid developer in which toner is dispersed at a high concentration in a dielectric carrier liquid, a high-viscosity liquid developer is carried on the developer. The developer is applied in a thin layer, the liquid developer on the developer carrier is transferred to an electrostatic latent image on the latent image body, and the electrostatic latent image on the latent image body is developed.

Since the liquid developer has a high viscosity, it is difficult for the liquid developer to freely move on the developer carrier, and the liquid developer is removed from the developer carrier only in a portion corresponding to the electrostatic latent image of the latent image body. In other portions on the developer carrier, the liquid developer remains. When the liquid developer is further applied to the developer carrying member in a state where the liquid developer remains partially, the thickness of the liquid developer layer on the developer carrying member is difficult to become uniform, and the developer is It is necessary to provide and control a plurality of application rollers for applying to the carrier, and to swing the developer carrier, which complicates the device configuration.

On the other hand, as a method of simplifying the apparatus configuration, there is a method of removing the liquid developer remaining on the developer carrier after development from the developer carrier, and thereafter applying a new liquid developer. . At this time, if the liquid developer removed from the developer carrier is discarded, the cost increases,
It is preferable to reuse the liquid developer removed from the developer carrier.

[0005]

However, the composition of the liquid developer remaining on the developer carrier after development often differs from that of the liquid developer before the development processing.

When the composition of the liquid developer changes and the amount of toner in the liquid developer changes, the viscosity of the liquid developer changes,
Even when the liquid developer is applied to the developer carrier by the same mechanism, the layer thickness of the liquid developer on the developer carrier changes, and the image density after development changes.

Further, when the composition of the liquid developer changes and the amount of toner in the liquid developer changes, even if a liquid developer layer having the same thickness is formed on the developer carrying member, the developed image can be removed. A change will occur in the concentration.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a disadvantage, and has as its object to reduce the consumption of the liquid developer and prevent a change in the composition of the liquid developer.

[0009]

According to a liquid developer supply method according to the present invention, a high-viscosity liquid developer in which a toner is dispersed in a dielectric carrier liquid is applied to the surface of a latent image member through a developer carrier. Developing the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the latent image by supplying it to the electrostatic latent image,
Recovering the liquid developer remaining on the developer carrier after developing the electrostatic latent image, detecting the solid content of the recovered liquid developer after use, and detecting the solid content of the liquid developer. The developer is applied to the developer carrier, and development for adjusting the solid content is performed at an image area ratio corresponding to the detected solid content, and the solid content of the liquid developer after the use of the developing process on the developer carrier. Is adjusted and reused to prevent a change in the concentration of the liquid developer when reused.

Another method of supplying a liquid developer is to supply a high-viscosity liquid developer in which toner is dispersed in a dielectric carrier liquid to an electrostatic latent image on the surface of a latent image body via a developer carrier. To develop the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the latent image body, collect the liquid developer remaining on the developer carrier after developing the electrostatic latent image, and collect the solid content of the collected liquid developer after use. After detecting the solid content rate, a part of the used liquid developer is applied to the developer carrier, and the solid content rate is adjusted according to the image area rate according to the detected solid content rate. After the development, the solid content of the liquid developer on the developer carrier is adjusted and then collected. The liquid developer before the solid content adjustment after the development process is used and the liquid developer after the solid content adjustment are used. Mix to make the solid content ratio the same as the solid content ratio of the liquid developer before use in the development process, and then recycle to further ensure To prevent the concentration of the liquid developer changes.

Further, the solid content of the liquid developer after use of the developing process collected from the developer carrier is calculated from the image area ratio of the developed electrostatic latent image.

Further, a layer having a predetermined thickness is formed by using the liquid developer after the use of the developing process collected from the developer carrier, and the liquid developer after the use of the developing process having the layer formed thereon is exposed to light. To detect the amount of light transmitted through the liquid developer after the use of the developing process, and calculate the solid content of the liquid developer after the use of the developing process based on the detected amount of light.

The solid content of the liquid developer before the use of the developing process is multiplied by the average amount of the liquid developer per unit area on the developer carrier after the developing process and 100, and the resulting value is used for the developing process. Divided by the amount of the average liquid developer per unit area on the developer carrier before the developing process and the solid content ratio of the developer before the development processing, and subtracting the value from 100 to perform the development for the solid content ratio adjustment When the calculated image area ratio is negative, the image area ratio when developing for adjusting the solid content is set to zero.

Further, when the solid content of the liquid developer after the use of the developing process is lower than the solid content of the liquid developer before the use of the developing process, the image area ratio is set to zero percent and the development for adjusting the solid content is performed. Do.

Further, when the solid content of the liquid developer after the use of the developing process is higher than the solid content of the liquid developer before the use of the developing process, the image area ratio is set to 100% and development for adjusting the solid content is performed. Do.

Further, if the next developing process is not performed even if a predetermined period of time has elapsed after the end of the previous developing process, the liquid developer after use of the developing process is applied to the developer carrier. Adjust the solid content.

Further, after performing development for adjusting the solid content, the liquid developer is recovered from the latent image body and reused.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A liquid developer supply method according to the present invention is directed to a method of forming an image in accordance with an electrophotographic process, for example, in a printer device, a copying machine, a facsimile device, or the like. The present invention relates to a method of supplying and developing an electrostatic latent image, and particularly to a method of collecting a liquid developer remaining on a developer carrier after developing an electrostatic latent image and reusing the liquid developer in a solid state. Some prevent a change in fraction. Here, the solid content ratio is a mass ratio of the toner in the liquid developer.

According to the liquid developer supply method of the present invention, a high-viscosity liquid developer in which toner is dispersed in a dielectric carrier liquid is supplied to an electrostatic latent image on the surface of a latent image body via a developer carrier. Developing the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the latent image body, collecting the liquid developer remaining on the developer carrier after developing the electrostatic latent image, and recovering the solid content of the liquid developer after use of the developing process. The liquid developer after detecting the solid content rate is applied to the developer carrying member, and the development for adjusting the solid content rate is repeatedly performed at an image area ratio according to the detected solid content rate, thereby carrying out the developer carrying. The solid content of the liquid developer after use of the developing process on the body is adjusted and reused. Here, the image area ratio is an area ratio of an electrostatic latent image portion to an area in a range where an electrostatic latent image on the surface of a latent image body can be formed. As described above, since the solid content of the collected liquid developer is adjusted to keep the solid content of the liquid developer constant, the consumption of the liquid developer can be reduced, and the developed image density changes. Can be prevented.

As described above, the solid content of the liquid developer after development is calculated, for example, from the image area ratio of the developed electrostatic latent image.

[0021]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image forming apparatus using a liquid developer supply method according to the present invention. The image forming apparatus includes, for example, a photoconductor (latent image body) 1, a charging roller 2, an exposure unit 3, a developing device 4, a transfer roller 5, a cleaning blade 61, and a cleaning tank 62. The photoconductor 1 is charged by the charging roller 2 and forms an electrostatic latent image on the surface by exposure of the exposure unit 3.

The developing device 4 includes a liquid developer tank 41, a coating roller 42, a developing belt (developer carrier) 43, two developing rollers 44a and 44b, and three tension rollers 45.
a, 45b, 45c, a collecting blade 46, a solid content rate detecting section 47, a solid content rate adjusting control section 48, and a collecting liquid tank 49. The liquid developer tank 41 stores a high-viscosity liquid developer 90a in which a toner is dispersed at a high concentration in a dielectric carrier liquid. The application roller 42 applies a thin layer of the liquid developer 90 a stored in the liquid developer tank 41 to the developing belt 43. The developing belt 43 contacts the photosensitive member 1 while maintaining a constant tension by two developing rollers 44a, 44b and three tension rollers 45a, 45b, 45c, and a voltage applied by the developing rollers 44a, 44b. Thus, the liquid developer 90a carried on the surface is transferred to the electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 1. Here, the liquid developer 90a on the developing belt 43 moves only to the image portion of the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor 1,
The liquid developer 90b corresponding to the non-image area is
Remain on top. For example, when the rotation speeds of the developing belt 43 and the photoconductor 1 are the same, a negative image of the liquid developer remains on the developing belt 43. This is the liquid developer 9
This is because Oa and 90b have a high viscosity and therefore do not easily move on the developing belt 43.

Here, the liquid developer 9 on the developing belt 43
The operation when Oa moves to the image portion of the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor 1 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. Here, in FIG. 2, for simplicity of description, the developing roller will be described as one developing roller 44. For example, when the image area ratio is 0%, as shown in FIG. 2A, all the toner 92 components of the liquid developer 90a remain on the developing belt 43 and a part of the dielectric carrier liquid 91 of the liquid developer 90a. Moves to the photoconductor 1. In this case, the solid content of the liquid developer 90b on the developing belt 43 after the developing process is higher than the solid content of the liquid developer 90a on the developing belt 43 before the developing process. On the other hand, when the image area ratio is 100%, as shown in FIG. 2B, all the toner 92 components of the liquid developer 90a move to the photoconductor 1, and the dielectric carrier liquid of the liquid developer 90a A part of 91 remains on the developing belt 43.
In this case, the solid content of the liquid developer 90b on the developing belt 43 after the development processing is zero. As described above, the liquid developer 9 on the developing belt 43 after the developing process is performed according to the image area ratio.
The solids content of Ob changes. In the following description, the liquid developer 9 that has been developed for adjusting the solid content rate as described above
0c is described as the liquid developer 90d.

The two developing rollers 44 a and 44 b apply a voltage to the developing belt 43 to transfer the liquid developer 90 a on the developing belt 43 to an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member 1. The collecting blade 46 scrapes and collects the liquid developer 90b remaining on the developing belt 43 after the developing process. Based on the image area ratio of the developed electrostatic latent image, the solid content detection unit 47 detects the liquid developer 90 on the developing belt 43 after the development processing.
Calculate the solid content of b. Developing belt 43 before developing processing
The mass of the liquid developer 90a per unit area above is mb,
The mass of the liquid developer 90b per unit area on the developing belt 43 after the development processing is ma, the solid content ratio of the liquid developer 90a before the development processing is sb, and the solid content of the liquid developer 90b after the development processing is used. Assuming that the ratio is sa, the solid content ratio of the liquid developer 90b after use of the developing process is sa = sa = sb × mb /
ma percent. When an image having an image area ratio of 100% is developed, sa = 0. However, the image area ratio is 100%
And there is almost no case where the image area ratio is 0%, so that 0 <sa <sb × mb / ma. Here, assuming that the image area ratio is X, the solid content ratio sa of the liquid developer 90b after using the developing process is sa = − {(ma × sb) / (100 × ma)} × X +
It can be represented by mb × sb / ma.

The solid content ratio adjustment control unit 48 calculates an image area ratio X corresponding to the solid content ratio detected by the solid content ratio detection unit 47, and performs development for adjusting the solid content ratio based on the calculated image area ratio X. Liquid developer 9 on the developing belt 43 after use of the developing process
The solid content of Ob is adjusted to make the solid content the same as the solid content of the liquid developer 90a before use in the developing process. The solid content rate of the liquid developer 90a before the development processing for solid content rate adjustment is s
B, when the solid content rate of the liquid developer 90d after the development processing for solid content rate adjustment is sA, the image area ratio X is X = 100 − {(100 ×
sA × ma) / (sB × mb). By calculating the image area ratio X in this manner, the relationship between the solid content ratio sa of the liquid developer 90d after the solid content ratio adjustment and the image area ratio X is as follows.
It is inversely proportional as indicated by the line A in FIG. However, since the image area ratio X may be less than 0 in the above equation,
In that case, the image area ratio X is set to 0. The collection liquid tank 49 temporarily stores the liquid developer 90b collected by the collection blade 46.

The transfer roller 5 transfers the toner image on the photosensitive member 1 to the transfer paper 10 by a transfer bias. The cleaning blade 61 scrapes off the remaining liquid developer 90c from the portion of the photoconductor 1 after the transfer of the toner image. The cleaning tank 62 stores the liquid developer 90c scraped off by the cleaning blade 61.

The operation in the case where the liquid developer 90b after the development processing is reused in the image forming apparatus having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The application roller 42 applies the liquid developer 90a stored in the liquid developer tank 41 to the developing belt 43 to form a thin layer of the liquid developer 90a on the surface of the developing belt 43 (Step S1). After the charging roller 2 charges the photoconductor 1, the exposure unit 3 exposes the photoconductor 1 to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoconductor 1. The developing belt 43 develops the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor 1 using the liquid developer 90a carried on the surface to form a toner image on the photoconductor 1 (step S2). Here, on the surface of the developing belt 43 after the developing process, a portion of the liquid developer 9 corresponding to the non-image portion on the photoconductor 1 is provided.
0b remains. The collection blade 46 scrapes and collects the liquid developer 90b remaining on the development belt 43 from the development belt 43, and temporarily stores the liquid developer 90b in the collection liquid tank 49 (Step S).
3).

A certain amount of the liquid developer 90b is stored in the collection liquid tank 49.
Is accumulated (step S4), the image forming apparatus temporarily suspends the image forming process to empty the liquid developer tank 41 (step S5), and then the liquid developer 90b in the collection liquid tank 49.
Is put into the liquid developer tank 41 (step S6). The solid content detection unit 47 calculates the solid content of the liquid developer 90b after the development processing from the average of the image area ratios of the electrostatic latent images developed so far as described above (step S7). The solid content rate adjustment control unit 48 calculates the image area rate based on the solid content rate of the liquid developer 90b after the development processing (Step S).
8). The solid content ratio adjustment control unit 48 controls the exposure unit 3 and the like to perform an image forming process for adjusting the solid content ratio of the liquid developer 90b after the development process at the calculated image area ratio (step S9). ). Here, in the image forming process for adjusting the solid content of the liquid developer 90b after the developing process, the transfer roller 5 is separated from the photoconductor 1 so that the transfer process is not performed.

The solid content ratio adjustment control section 48 controls the liquid developer tank 41 in order to perform the development process for adjusting the solid content rate on all the liquid developers 90b after the development processing in the liquid developer tank 41. The developing process for adjusting the solid content rate is repeated until the liquid developer 90b in the inside runs out (step S10).

When the solid content ratio of the liquid developer 90a before the developing process and the liquid developer 90d after the solid content ratio adjusting process become the same, the solid content ratio adjustment control unit 48 causes the liquid developer previously drained from the liquid developer tank 41 to be discharged. The developer 90a is mixed with the liquid developer 90d after the solid content ratio is adjusted, and the liquid developer 90d after the solid content ratio is adjusted.
Is reused (step S11). Thus, the solid content of the liquid developer 90b after the development processing can be made the same as that of the liquid developer 90a before the development processing, and the image density after the phenomenon can be prevented from changing.

Here, in the above embodiment, when a fixed amount of the liquid developer is accumulated in the collecting liquid tank 49, the image forming process is temporarily interrupted to perform the process for adjusting the solid content.
The process for adjusting the solid content may be performed when an instruction to perform the next development process is not input even after a predetermined period of time elapses after performing the development process. This makes it possible to perform a process for adjusting the solid content ratio when printing is not performed for a long time, such as at night. Furthermore, when printing is not performed for a long time, the user may input an instruction to that effect, and if an instruction is input from the user, a process for adjusting the solid content may be performed.

In the above embodiment, the solid content ratio of the liquid developer 90b after the development processing is calculated from the average of the image area ratios of the electrostatic latent images developed up to that time. The liquid developer 90b may be irradiated with a certain amount of light, and the solid content of the liquid developer 90b after the use of the developing process may be calculated based on the amount of light transmitted through the liquid developer 90b after the use of the developing process. . The solid content ratio detecting section 47 includes a cell 471, a light source section 472, and a light receiving element 473 as shown in FIG. The cell 471 is made of a colorless and transparent member, has a predetermined constant interval, and allows the liquid developer 90b after use of the developing process to pass therethrough. The light source unit 472 includes, for example, a halogen lamp or a xenon lamp, and
Irradiate the liquid developer 90b sandwiched between 71 with a predetermined constant light amount. The light receiving element 473 detects light transmitted through the liquid developer 90b sandwiched between the cells 471. The solid content of the liquid developer 90b after the development processing is calculated based on the amount of light detected by the light receiving element 473. As described above, since the solid content can be detected with a simple configuration, the solid content can be accurately detected, and the device configuration can be prevented from becoming complicated.

In the above embodiment, the liquid developer tank 41 is emptied when performing the process for adjusting the solid content rate, and then the liquid developer 90b in the collection liquid tank 49 is transferred to the liquid developer tank 41. However, the capacity of the recovery liquid tank 49 is made substantially the same as the capacity of the liquid developer tank 41, and after the liquid developer tank 41 is almost emptied by the normal development processing, the development processing in the recovery liquid tank 49 is started. The used liquid developer 90b may be put in the liquid developer tank 41.

Further, the solid content of the liquid developer 90b collected after the use of the developing process is detected, and a part of the liquid developer 90b after the detection of the solid content is applied to the developing belt 43.
The solid content of the liquid developer 90b on the developing belt 43 is adjusted after the development for adjusting the solid content is performed at the image area ratio according to the detected solid content, and the solid content is adjusted after the development process is used. The liquid developer 90b before and the liquid developer 90d after the solid content ratio adjustment are mixed to make the solid content ratio the same as the solid content ratio of the liquid developer 90a before use in the development processing, and then reused. Is also good.

In this case, the image area ratio is determined according to the solid content of the liquid developer 90b collected after the use of the developing process and the liquid developer 90a before the use of the developing process. For example, when the solid content of the liquid developer 90b after the use of the developing process is lower than the solid content of the liquid developer 90a before the use of the developing process, the solid content of the liquid developer 90b after the use of the developing process in the solid content ratio adjusting process. Since it is necessary to increase the fraction, the development for adjusting the solid content is performed with the image area ratio set to zero percent. On the other hand, when the solid content ratio of the liquid developer 90b after the use of the developing process is higher than the solid content ratio of the liquid developer 90a before the use of the developing process, the image area ratio is set to 100% and the development for adjusting the solid content ratio is performed. Perform This eliminates the need to perform the process for adjusting the solid content for all the liquid developers 90b after the use of the developing process, and can shorten the solid content ratio adjustment processing time. Here, of the liquid developer 90b collected after the use of the developing process, the liquid developer 90b for which the solid content ratio adjusting process is performed and the liquid developer 9 for which the solid content ratio adjusting process is not performed.
0b is the ratio of the liquid developer 9 collected after using the developing process.
0b and the solid content of the liquid developer 90a before use in the developing process.

Further, the image forming apparatus may reuse the liquid developer 90c collected by using the cleaning blade 61 and the cleaning tank 62.

The liquid developer 90 collected by using the cleaning blade 61 and the cleaning tank 62 as described above.
When c is reused, paper powder or the like may be mixed in, so that it takes time to reuse. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, a toner blade 63, a toner tank 64, a carrier blade 65, and a carrier tank 66 are provided, and the toner blade 63 and the carrier blade 65 are used for development for adjusting the solid content. Is brought into contact with the photoreceptor 1 to recover the liquid developer 90c. In general, in the case of a developing process, the toner blade 63 and the carrier blade 65 are separated from the photoreceptor 1, and the cleaning blade 61 is brought into contact with the photoreceptor 1 to expose the photosensitive member 1. The cleaning of the body 1 may be performed. For example, when the development for adjusting the solid content is performed at the image area ratio of 0% as described above, the dielectric carrier 91 may be stored in the carrier tank 66 using the carrier blade 65.

Although the developing belt 43 is used as the developer carrying member in the above embodiment, a roller may be used instead of the developing belt 43.

[0040]

As described above, the present invention supplies a high-viscosity liquid developer in which a toner is dispersed in a dielectric carrier liquid to an electrostatic latent image on the surface of a latent image body via a developer carrier. To develop the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the latent image body, collect the liquid developer remaining on the developer carrier after developing the electrostatic latent image, and collect the solid content of the collected liquid developer after use. The liquid developer after detecting the solid content rate is applied to the developer carrier, and the developer carrier is subjected to development for adjusting the solid content at an image area ratio according to the detected solid content. Since the solid content of the liquid developer after the use of the above developing process is adjusted and reused, the consumption of the liquid developer can be reduced, and the image density changes due to the change in the concentration of the liquid developer. Can be prevented.

Further, a high-viscosity liquid developer in which toner is dispersed in a dielectric carrier liquid is supplied to the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the latent image via a developer carrying member to supply the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the latent image. After the image is developed and the electrostatic latent image is developed, the liquid developer remaining on the developer carrier is collected, and the solid content of the collected liquid developer after use in the developing process is detected. A part of the used liquid developer after the development processing after detection is applied to the developer carrier,
The solid content ratio of the liquid developer on the developer carrier is adjusted after performing development for the solid content ratio adjustment at the image area ratio according to the detected solid content ratio, and then collected, and the solid content ratio after the development process is used is adjusted. The liquid developer before mixing with the liquid developer after adjusting the solid content ratio is mixed, and the solid content ratio is made the same as the solid content ratio of the liquid developer before using the developing process. It is not necessary to perform development for adjusting the solid content of all of the liquid developer after use, so that the concentration of the liquid developer can be prevented from changing, and the time for adjusting the concentration of the liquid developer can be reduced. Can be shortened.

Further, since the solid content of the liquid developer collected from the developer carrier after use of the developing process is calculated from the image area ratio of the developed electrostatic latent image, the solid content can be reduced with a simple structure. Can be calculated.

Further, a layer having a predetermined thickness is formed with the liquid developer after the use of the developing process collected from the developer carrier, and the layer of the liquid developer after the use of the developing process is exposed to light. Detects the amount of light that has passed through the liquid developer after the use of the developing process and calculates the solid content of the liquid developer after the use of the developing process based on the detected amount of light. Fraction can be calculated.

The solid content of the liquid developer before use in the development process is multiplied by the average amount of the liquid developer per unit area on the developer carrier after the development process and 100. Divided by the solid content of the developer and the amount of the average liquid developer per unit area on the developer carrier before the development process, and subtracting the value from 100 to perform the image development for adjusting the solid content. If the calculated image area ratio is negative, the image area ratio when developing for solid content ratio adjustment is set to zero, so that the solid content ratio can be accurately adjusted.

Further, when the solid content ratio of the liquid developer after the use of the developing process is lower than the solid content ratio of the liquid developer before the use of the developing process, the image area ratio is set to zero percent and development for adjusting the solid content ratio is performed. Therefore, the solid content ratio can be adjusted more quickly in such a case.

Further, when the solid content ratio of the liquid developer after the use of the developing process is higher than the solid content ratio of the liquid developer before the use of the developing process, the image area ratio is set to 100% and development for adjusting the solid content ratio is performed. Therefore, the solid content ratio can be adjusted more quickly in such a case.

Further, if the next developing process is not performed even if a predetermined period of time has elapsed after the end of the previous developing process, the liquid developer after use of the developing process is applied to the developer carrier. Since the solid content ratio is adjusted, the solid content ratio can be efficiently adjusted using the idle time.

Further, since the liquid developer is recovered from the latent image after the development for adjusting the solid content rate and reused, the consumption of the liquid developer can be further reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus using a liquid developer supply method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating transfer of toner.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a solid content rate and an image area rate.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a solid content ratio detection unit.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram when a liquid developer on a photoconductor is reused.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 photoconductor 2 charging roller 3 exposure unit 4 developing device 41 liquid developer tank 42 coating roller 43 developing belt 46 collection blade 47 solid content ratio detecting unit 48 solid content ratio adjustment control unit 5 transfer roller 61 cleaning blade 62 cleaning bath 63 toner Blade 64 Toner tank 65 Carrier blade 66 Carrier tank 90 Liquid developer 91 Conductive carrier liquid 92 Toner

Claims (9)

[Claims] A high-viscosity liquid developer in which toner is dispersed in a dielectric carrier liquid is supplied to an electrostatic latent image on the surface of a latent image body via a developer carrier, and the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the latent image body is supplied. Develop the image,
In the liquid developer supply method for collecting and reusing the liquid developer remaining on the developer carrier after developing the electrostatic latent image, the solid content ratio of the collected liquid developer after use is detected. The liquid developer after detecting the solid content rate is applied to the developer carrier, and development for adjusting the solid content rate is performed at an image area ratio according to the detected solid content rate. A liquid developer supply method, wherein a solid content of a used liquid developer is adjusted and reused. 2. An electrostatic latent image on a latent image surface by supplying a high-viscosity liquid developer in which toner is dispersed in a dielectric carrier liquid to a latent image surface via a developer carrier. Develop the image,
In the liquid developer supply method for collecting and reusing the liquid developer remaining on the developer carrier after developing the electrostatic latent image, the solid content ratio of the collected liquid developer after use is detected. A part of the liquid developer after detecting the solid content is applied to the developer carrier, and development for adjusting the solid content is performed at an image area ratio corresponding to the detected solid content on the developer carrier. After the solid content of the liquid developer is adjusted, the liquid developer is collected, and the liquid developer before the solid content adjustment after use of the developing process is mixed with the liquid developer after the solid content ratio adjustment, and the solid content is developed. A method for supplying a liquid developer, wherein the liquid developer is reused after the liquid developer has the same solid content ratio as before use. 3. The liquid developer according to claim 1, wherein a solid content of the used liquid developer collected from the developer carrier after use of the developing process is calculated from an image area ratio of the developed electrostatic latent image. Supply method. 4. A layer having a predetermined thickness is formed by using a liquid developer after use of the developing process collected from the developer carrier, and a light is applied to the liquid developer after the use of the developing process in which the layer is formed. The liquid development according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the amount of light transmitted through the liquid developer after use of the developing process is detected, and the solid content of the liquid developer after use of the development process is calculated based on the detected amount of light. Agent supply method. 5. The solid content of the liquid developer before the use of the development processing is multiplied by the average amount of the liquid developer per unit area on the developer carrier after the development processing and 100, and the value obtained by the development is multiplied. Divide by the solid content of the developer after use and the amount of the average liquid developer per unit area on the developer carrier before the development process, and subtract the value from 100 to perform development for adjusting the solid content. 3. The liquid developer supply method according to claim 1, wherein the image area ratio at the time of development is negative, and when the calculated image area ratio is negative, the image area ratio at the time of performing development for solid content ratio adjustment is set to zero. 6. When the solid content of the liquid developer after the use of the developing process is lower than the solid content of the liquid developer before the use of the developing process, the image area ratio is set to zero percent and the development for adjusting the solid content is performed. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method is performed. 7. When the solid content of the liquid developer after the use of the developing process is higher than the solid content of the liquid developer before the use of the developing process, the image area ratio is set to 100% and the development for adjusting the solid content is performed. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method is performed. 8. If the next development process is not performed even if a predetermined period of time has elapsed since the end of the previous development process,
3. The liquid developer supply method according to claim 1, wherein the liquid developer after use of the developing treatment is applied to the developer carrier to adjust the solid content. 9. The liquid developer supply method according to claim 1, wherein the liquid developer is recovered from the latent image body after the development for adjusting the solid content, and is reused.