JPS584156A - Image recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a color image, by uniformly charging a photoconductive toner held on a drum surface, and transferring the part of the toner destaticized through imagewise exposure onto paper. CONSTITUTION:Photoconductive yellow, magenta, and cyan color toners 23 are photosensitive to lights of the complementary colors, such as blue, green, and red, of each toner color. Bias voltage 30 is applied between a developing electrode 24 and a drum 21 to hold the toners on the drum surface. The toner layer 33 are exposed to a light image 26, while the layer 33 is charged with an opposite electrode 25. The toner image selectively charged is transferred onto paper 27 with a transfer charger 28. The drum surface need not be cleaned, and the next toner layer 33 is successively formed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an image recording device that uses photoconductive toner and can be relatively easily colored.

Conventionally, electrophotography uniformly charges the photoreceptor drum entrance surface.
Subsequently, imagewise exposure is carried out and selective Klk electrolysis is performed to form an electrostatic latent image, which is then coated with a V-adhesive toner or the like at 1A, and then transferred and fixed onto recording paper. However, this method has the disadvantage that cleaning is required to remove the toner V remaining on the photosensitive drum every time an image is formed.

Furthermore, in order to perform color recording, the recording process is repeated for each pot color, and the toner image formed for each color is
It is necessary to obtain a color image by transferring and synthesizing it onto the primary recording paper, which has the disadvantage that the color electrophotographic apparatus becomes extremely large.

In addition, a method using "C" conductive toner has been proposed as a method that is relatively far from coloring. Figure 1 shows one such conventional example, where 1 is the upper electrode. ,
2 is a glass plate, I is a transparent conductive layer, 4 is a recording paper, S is an inlaid space, and 6 is a photoconductive toner. The photoconductive toner 6 is uniformly scattered and rolled over the upper surface of the transparent conductive layer 3. When a voltage is applied between the upper electrode Ic1 and the transparent conductive layer 3, an electric field is formed in the space between them. When the optical image T is projected onto the photoconductive toner 60 layer, the photoconductive toner S in the irradiated area is charged and separated from the transparent conductive layer 3, forming a positive image on each of the transparent conductive layer 3 and the upper electrode 1. , form a negative at' on the other side.

However, in this method, it is necessary to form a uniform layer V of photoconductive toner 6 on the transparent conductive layer 3, which is not a convenient product and tends to complicate the device configuration.

Further, there were drawbacks such as difficulty in obtaining sufficient contrast between the light irradiated area and the non-irradiated area.

The present invention has a uniform layer of photoconductive toner formed from charged photoconductive toner, and its purpose is to realize an image placement device V having a relatively simple construction.

Another object of the present invention is to realize color recording using a relatively simple device configuration. Below is this release
4 will be explained in detail based on the drawings.

[2vA indicates the recording principle of hard axis light, 8 is a conductive support electrode, $ is the first counter electrode, 10 is the photoconductive toner particle (hereinafter simply referred to as toner), 11 is the second A counter electrode, 12 a recording paper such as paper or film, and 1s a corona charger.

Toner 1e is made of photoconductive materials such as zinc oxide and polyvinylcarbazole. Minato @k.

It is manufactured by mixing various sensitizers, etc., and has the property of being insulating in the dark, but conductive in the light. To record an image using this @@ image recording device using 10 volts of toner, first, the toner 10 is charged in a dark place. Toner 101 - Corner charging, frictional charging, and other methods can be used to charge the toner 101.

Subsequently, it is attached to the surface of the charged) f-1 (lt-conductive support electrode).For this purpose, various conventionally known means for challenging the electrostatic fII image can be applied.

For example, a voltage is applied between the conductive support electrode S and a counter electrode 1s1 provided on the body to cause an electric rise in the area between these two electrodes. The charged toner 1 is placed in this area.
0, the toner 10 adheres to the surface of the conductive support electrode a by the electrostatic force caused by the electric field, forming a uniform layer of the toner 10 as shown in FIG. 2(s). The 100 layer of toner formed at Ω 5 is retained on the surface of the conductive support electrode Sf by the Pan der Waals force or similar force even when the first opposing electric field Iis and the applied electric field are removed. - Subsequently, the layer of the toner 10 is irradiated with the optical image T while applying an electric field. For this purpose, it is sufficient to irradiate a light image through the 21st glass, or it is not necessarily necessary to use Nesa glass. It is also possible to use the slit aperture sv for exposure. In this case, the conductive support electrode S
The eighth counter electrode 14 is exposed while moving relatively in the direction indicated by the arrow ISK and scanning. When the layer of charged toner 1o is irradiated with light *7t-, the toner 1 becomes conductive in the areas irradiated with the light.

As shown in FIG. 2(b) K, it becomes the same potential as the voltage applied to the conductive support electrode 11, or in other words, it is charged to the same polarity. Note that if the voltage applied by the power source 1@ is too large during irradiation of a light image, the toner 10 charged to the same polarity as the conductive support electrode a will be affected by the electric field between the second opposing electrode 11 and the image. t-Toner 1 may be disturbed.
0 is separated from the conductive support electrode 6 and is the counter electrode 11 of the rattan 2.
It is better not to move too much in the direction of . In this way, the polarity of the charge on the toner 1e is reversed between the light irradiated area and the non-irradiated area, and an electric impact image corresponding to the particle 11 is formed on the toner 1@ layer.

Next 2, jl 2vA(e) Kshowf yo5 K,)su-
10f) The layer is charged with a charger 13 which is brought into contact with a sheet of II1 paper and coated from the back. The toner 11 charged to the opposite polarity to the charged polarity (positive fi4 & in FIG. 2(c)) adheres to the paper 12 on the machine side.

Note that when the single charge is extremely negative, the positively charged toner adheres to the recording paper 120 side.

In this case, since the second opposing electrodes 11&- are provided, the toner charging polarity in the light irradiated area and the non-light irradiated area is different, so that an attractive force is exerted on the toner of one polarity against the recording paper 1z. At this time, a repulsive force acts on the toner of the other polarity, which has the advantage of increasing contrast and reducing fog. Furthermore, although the electric field for transfer is applied by the charger 13 in Figure I2, it may be applied to the edge of the electric field 111v to which a voltage is applied, as shown in Figure 4.

No. SWA shows one embodiment of the present invention, 21 is a conductive drum, 22 is a toner supply device, 2s is photoconductive toner particles mixed with a carrier (hereinafter simply referred to as toner).
), 24 is a first counter electrode, 25 is a second counter electrode, 2
6 is an exposure light, 21 is a recording paper, 2I is a charger for transfer, and 28 is a fixing device. The 2-cho paper can be made of tatami paper (plalm pap@r) without any special processing, but it may be slightly processed for other purposes to improve its quality.

To operate this, the conductive drum ztva is rotated while irradiating a light image with the exposure light 26.

A power source s is connected between the conductive drum 21 and the first counter electrode 140.
A voltage due to O is applied, and an electric charge is formed in the empty space 1IIls1. The 3iJ developer container 32 contains toner 23 mixed with a carrier such as glass beads.

The toner supply 41122 has a structure similar to that normally used in cascades, and transports the toner 2s mixed with carrier to the top and drops it through the sky 1111$14-. The toner 23 is electrically charged (positive polarity in the slQ) due to friction with the carrier, and normally adheres to the carrier, but is attracted to the conductive drum 21 due to strong electric charge in the air 1181 and adheres to it. 3
3v is formed. When the toner layer 3s passes under the second opposing electrode 2s due to the rotation of the conductive drum 21, a light image is irradiated by the leading light 2s. In the case of a copying machine, the light image may be irradiated onto the toner layer 33 through the *t' lens of the original, and in the case of a scanning arrangement such as a facsimile, a laser light source or a one-dimensionally arranged light-relaxing diode can be used. can be used as a light source for optical image irradiation. The part of the toner layer s3 irradiated with light by the light image irradiation becomes conductive and discharges positive charges, and negative charges are induced by the electric field between the counter electrode 2s of the string 2 and the conductive drum 21. . Further, as the conductive drum 210 rotates, the toner layer Ss passes under the transfer printer charger 1. Between the toner layer s3 and the transfer corona charger 2S is placed g27 &- the back side of the paper 2T is recorded by the transfer copy charger 921 while passing through it.
Positive charging is performed from the surface opposite to the n layer 33). As a result, the negatively charged toner on the toner layer 33,
That is, the toner irradiated with light is attracted by the applied electric field due to the Cop charge and the charge Kll charged by 1iK on the back side of the recording paper 2T due to the Cop charge and adheres thereto. After the placement paper 2TIt is separated from the conductive drum 21, it is heated by the fixing 1121.
It is fixed by pressure or other means to obtain a permanent stain. The conductive drum 21 is further rotated, and a uniform toner layer s3 is regenerated by the toner 23 supplied by the toner supply device 22. The recording paper 2T stored in the stacker 14 is fed out from the feeding p-ra 3sK and used.

In FIG. 5, in addition to the toner supply device 22, various means for supplying toner are used. For example, toner V charged by corona charging or frictional charging may be blown out in the form of a mist and passed through the empty portion 31 to form a layer of toner S31'*. Further, in order to remove the influence and removal of afterimages due to repeated image formation, it is also possible to add a cleaning tool to the toner on the conductive drum 21 once every seven times of image formation.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the invention.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 6 is a case of a color recording device, and the embodiment shown in FIG.
There is no major difference in construction compared to the black-and-white three-value recording device shown in FIG.

As photoconductive toner particles, the three primary colors, yellow and magenta, are used as photoconductive toner particles.
Use cyan and cyan toners. Below, the following 3
A case where color toner is used will be explained.

(1) Yellow toner with photoconductivity against blue light (2)
Magenta toner photoconductive to edge colors - cyan toner photoconductive to red light Toner particles of these three toners mixed with carrier 121v) Toner supply 1122 to conductive drum 2
1 and a uniform toner layer IS of toner particles 121
1 & form. In this case, the toner single-layer ISI forms a layer in which yellow, magenta, and cyan colors are uniformly mixed.

The patient is exposed to light using three color light sources: red, edge, and blue.

As the three-color light source, there may be a method using three-color light emitting diodes, or a method using a single white light source and changing the color of the irradiated light using a filter. In the case of yellow recording, only the yellow toner becomes conductive when irradiated with blue light, and the charge polarity is reversed by the same effect as explained in the case of the white JlZ value of the 5th m, and the transfer corner impedance occurs during the transfer process. Only the yellow toner is transferred to the recording paper 2T by the action of the electronic device 2T, and the yellow device is performed. To perform a magenta color Ie sickle and a cyan color light, it is sufficient to perform light irradiation using green and red light, respectively.

Furthermore, in order to arrange a color that is a mixture of these colors in scanning recording such as a fufushi 1, it is sufficient to control the intensity of each red color light according to its hue and brightness. In this way, by controlling the intensity of each light source for blue, edge, and red light image exposure, it is possible to control each color toner of yellow, mainter, and cyan to obtain an arbitrary color, and color recording is possible. become.

In the above embodiment, a conductive supporting electrode formed of a cylindrical drum was used, but it may be formed into a flat plate.

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform electrophotographic printing on plain paper that does not require cleaning of the conductive support electrode, and it is also possible to print in natural colors using a component-based device configuration. Therefore, if it is applied to a factor 4 or the like, it has the advantage of being a relatively dirty and high-speed color facsimile t-*.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a principle explanatory diagram showing an example of a conventional device using photoconductive toner, swA is a principle explanatory diagram of the present invention, and 3a
No. 11 is a diagram showing another example of exposure light, No. 411 is a diagram showing another transfer means, FIG. FIG. In the figure, the mouth is the conductive support electrode, ■ is the first counter electrode, tU
t) Na, 11 is the second counter electrode, 1 is the record paper, 13
16 is a power supply, 1T is a toner, 21 is a conductive drum, 22 is a toner supply machine, 23 is a toner, 24
is the first counter electrode, 25 is the second counter electrode, 26 is the exposure light, 21 is the placement paper, 2I is the corner bud electric device for transfer, 2■ is the power supply for the fixing device 30, 31 is the empty wis%st is am agent ll
33 is a toner layer, and 34 is a stacker. Figure 1 Figure 2 (a) (b) 1 [

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A means for charging photoconductive toner particles whose conductivity changes upon irradiation with light, and an opposing array comprising a conductive support electrode and a voltage applied between the conductive support electrode. supplying the charged photoconductive toner particles between an electrode, the conductive support electrode and the first counter electrode to form a uniform layer of the photoconductive toner particles on the conductive support electrode; means for forming a light image on the layer of photoconductive toner particles while applying a voltage between the conductive support electrode and a second counter electrode to reduce the electrical charge on the photoconductive toner particles; means for selectively changing the photoconductive toner particles on the conductive support electrode; 41. An image recording device having means for transferring onto paper.