JPS592025B2 - Kiroku Fukushiya Souchi - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a recording/copying apparatus that can print out high-quality graphic and character information from a computer or the like and also make it possible to obtain copies as a general copying apparatus.

More specifically, a light beam is deflected and modulated to form a first light image by controlling the deflection and modulation based on graphical and textual information from an electronic computer, etc., and this recorded image is converted into an image in another format, etc. A second light image for overlaying information is applied to the same recording surface of a recording device for combined recording, or the first light image or the second light image is recorded or copied independently. This relates to recording/copying devices. In recent years, as the performance of electronic computers has improved, there has been a demand for the development of high-speed, high-quality output devices for graphic and character information.

In addition, there is an increasing demand for multi-purpose recording, such as the desire to combine the output form with a predetermined format and print it, or the desire to make multiple copies. Conventionally, devices that exclusively output character information at high speed include drum-type mechanical impact line printers, multi-stylus electrostatic printers, and CRTs that combine CRT (mainly OFT) and electrophotography.
RT printer etc. were installed. However, mechanical impact line printers have drawbacks such as limited speed, high noise, and poor reliability.

Multi-stylus electrostatic printers have drawbacks such as limited resolution and the need to use expensive electrostatic recording paper. In CRT printers, CRT
1) Due to the stability of the drive circuit, it is difficult to maintain high quality printing for a long time. Therefore,
Conventional character information output devices using various methods have had various difficulties in outputting high-quality characters (particularly Chinese characters) at high speed. Furthermore, conventional devices that exclusively output graphic information include mechanical X-Y plotters, drafters, multi-stylus electrostatic plotters, and display CR
There were CRT plotters that optically recorded the graphical information displayed on the T, but mechanical X-Y plotters and drafters
Multi-stylus electrostatic plotters have the disadvantage of very slow recording speed, multi-stylus electrostatic plotters have low resolution and special recording paper, and CRT plotters have the disadvantages of low resolution and poor stability of the CRT itself. However, it has drawbacks such as insufficient amount of light. In addition, in the conventional method of recording information by combining it with a predetermined format, the format is printed on recording paper in advance, and the output information of a computer is recorded on the printed recording paper in one step. It was a waste of rice. However, such conventional methods have the inconvenience of having to print the format of character frames, ruled lines, ornamental patterns, fixed character information, etc. on recording paper in advance, and furthermore, once printed, the format cannot be easily changed. It has the disadvantage that it cannot be used. In addition, there may be cases where you want to make multiple copies of recorded material, but preparing a separate copying machine not only takes up space, but also costs money and requires a lot of effort to manage and maintain the equipment. be.

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate such drawbacks of the conventional method, and it is possible to obtain first information (corresponding to output information from a computer, etc.) by a laser beam, and second information (original document in a standard format, etc.). The invention is characterized by the use of an electrophotographic process to record and copy information that enables the composite recording of . The first invention of the present application provides a photoreceptor whose basic components are a conductive support, a photoconductive layer, and an electrically insulating layer, a primary charging means for uniformly charging the surface of the photoreceptor, and a uniformly charged photoreceptor. a first exposure means for irradiating a first optical information image onto the surface; a means for performing AC static neutralization or secondary charging with a polarity opposite to the primary charging simultaneously with, immediately before, or after the first exposure means; Abstract: A recording/copying apparatus comprising: a second exposure means for irradiating an optical information image; a full surface exposure means; and a means for selectively switching and controlling the second exposure means and the full surface exposure means. shall be.

The second invention of the present application provides a photoreceptor whose basic components are a conductive support, a photoconductive layer, and an electrically insulating layer, a primary charging means for uniformly charging the surface of the photoreceptor, and a uniformly charged photoreceptor. a first exposure means for irradiating a first optical information image onto a surface; a means for performing AC static neutralization or secondary charging of opposite polarity to the primary charging simultaneously with, immediately before, or after the first exposure means; a second exposure means that selectively irradiates second light information to a first exposure position of the photoreceptor where the exposure means acts and a second exposure position of the photoreceptor after the action of the AC charge eliminating or secondary charging means; and full-surface exposure. The present invention provides a recording/copying apparatus characterized in that it has a control means for operating the entire surface exposure means in accordance with the selection of the first exposure position irradiation of the second exposure means.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view of the same embodiment. 1 and 2, a laser beam oscillated by a laser oscillator 1 is guided to an input aperture of a deflection/modulator 3 via a reflection mirror 2. In FIG.

The reflecting mirror 2 is inserted to bend the optical path in order to reduce the space of the apparatus, and is removed if unnecessary. For the deflection/modulator 3, an acousto-optic deflection/modulation element using a known acousto-optic effect or an electro-optic element using an electro-optic effect is used. In the deflection/modulator 3, the laser beam is subjected to intensity modulation and deflection according to the input signal to the deflection/modulator 3. In addition, when the laser oscillator is a semiconductor laser, or when using an internal modulation type laser such as a gas laser that can perform current modulation or a type that incorporates a modulation element in the oscillation optical path, the deflection modulator 3 is used. The explanation will be omitted and the explanation will go directly to the beam expander 4. The beam diameter of the laser beam from the modulator 3 is expanded by a beam expander while it remains a parallel beam.

Furthermore, the laser beam with enlarged beam diameter cuts the mirror surface by 1
The light is incident on the polyhedral rotating mirror 5, which has one or more polyhedral rotating mirrors. The polyhedral rotating mirror 5 is mounted on a shaft supported by a high-precision bearing (for example, an air bearing), and is driven by a motor 6 that rotates at a constant speed (for example, a hysteresis synchronous motor, a DC servo motor). Scanned horizontally. This scanning may be performed using galvano mirrors. The laser beam horizontally scanned by the polyhedral rotating mirror 5 is imaged as a spot on the photosensitive drum 20 by the imaging lens 7 having f-θ characteristics.

In a general imaging lens, when the incident angle of a light ray is θ, the image forming position r on the image plane is r−f−Tanθ
There is a relationship as follows (1) (f: focal length of the imaging lens), and as in this embodiment, the laser beam 8 reflected by the polyhedral rotating mirror 5 of constant rotation is reflected by the imaging lens.
Therefore, the moving speed of the imaged spot position on the photosensitive drum 20, which is the image surface, changes non-linearly and is not constant.

That is, the moving speed increases at the point where the angle of incidence increases. Therefore, when a row of spots is drawn on the photosensitive drum 20 by turning the laser beam ON at regular time intervals, the distance between the spots will be wider at both ends than at the center. In order to avoid this phenomenon, the imaging lens 7 is configured such that r=f・θ・
...(2) It is set to have the following characteristic.

Such an imaging lens 7 is called an f-θ lens.

Furthermore, when collimated light is imaged into a spot by an imaging lens, the minimum diameter Dmin of the spot is λDmin-f
− ・・・・・・{3) A However, f; focal length λ of the imaging lens; wavelength A of the light used; given by the entrance aperture of the imaging lens; if f and λ are constant, increasing A A smaller spot diameter Dmin is obtained.

The beam expander 4 mentioned above is used to provide this effect. Therefore, if the required Dmin can be obtained by the beam diameter of the laser oscillator, the beam expander 4 is omitted. The beam detector 9 consists of a small entrance slit and a photoelectric conversion element (for example, a PIN diode) with a fast response time.

The beam detector 9 detects the position of the swept laser beam 8, and uses this detection signal to signal the start of a horizontal scanning input signal to the modulator 3 for providing desired optical information on the photosensitive drum. Decide on timing. As a result, it is possible to greatly reduce errors in the division accuracy of each reflecting surface of the polygonal rotating mirror 5 and synchronization deviations in the horizontal signals due to uneven rotation, and not only can high quality images be obtained, but also the polygonal rotating mirror 5 Moreover, the tolerance range of accuracy required for the drive motor 6 is increased, and the drive motor 6 can be manufactured at a lower cost. As described above, the laser beam 8 modulated by the external signal is exposed onto the photosensitive drum 20 from the first exposure position, which will be described later.

On the other hand, a document 11 in a standard format or the like is placed on a document table 10 that can be moved in synchronization with laser exposure, and is illuminated by a document exposure lamp 12. The photosensitive drum 20 is bent toward the second exposure position by the reflecting mirror 15 and the reflecting mirror 18, and the photosensitive drum 20 is exposed. As described above, the laser image of the first exposure and the document image of the second exposure are combined on the photosensitive drum. Next, when there is no external signal and only copying of the original is performed, only the second exposure of the original image is performed and the first exposure is not performed.

Further, when only external information is to be recorded, the entire surface of the photoreceptor 20 is irradiated with the entire surface exposure lamp 23 at the second exposure position without exposing the original image. At this time, in this embodiment, the entire surface exposure lamp 23 is used for irradiating the entire surface.
However, instead of this, the light from the document exposure lamp may be irradiated by a reflective surface provided on the document table at the stop position of the document table 10. Next, the printing section shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described.

In the electrophotographic process applied to this embodiment, a first corona charger 2 is placed on the surface of the electrically insulating layer of an electrophotographic photoreceptor 20, which basically includes a conductive support, a photoconductive layer, and an electrically insulating layer.
1, uniformly primary charging is carried out positively or negatively in advance, and charges of opposite polarity to the charged polarity are captured at the interface between the photoconductive layer and the electrically insulating layer or inside the photoconductive layer, and then the charged electricity The laser beam 8 is applied to the surface of the insulating layer.
Simultaneously with or before and after the irradiation, the second corona discharger 22 performs alternating current corona discharge or secondary discharge of opposite polarity to the primary charging, and then performs positive image exposure of the document light 19 in a standard format, etc. A surface potential difference is created between the laser beam exposed area of the photoconductor, the dark area of the original, and the other areas by light stimulation to form a composite electrostatic image. After being developed and visualized by the developing means 24, the transfer material 2 such as paper
5, the visible image is transferred using an internal or external electric field, and then the transferred image is fixed by a fixing means 27 such as an infrared lamp or a hot plate to obtain an electrophotographic print image 28. After this, the surface of the electrically insulating layer is cleaned by a cleaning means 29 to remove remaining charged particles, and the photoreceptor 20 is used repeatedly. The above-mentioned combined latent image formation and phenomenon will be explained in more detail. In FIG. 3, a primary charge 33 is uniformly applied to the surface of the electrically insulating layer 32 of the photoreceptor 20 using a corona charger (Figure a). In this case, if the photoconductive layer 31 is an N-type semiconductor, it is If it is P type, negative charging is possible.

In the illustrated example, positive charging is performed, and in response to this positive charging charge 33, negative charges 34 of opposite polarity are captured in a portion of the photoconductive layer 31 near the electrically insulating layer 32.

Next, when AC corona static elimination is performed while performing the first exposure A with a laser beam (Figure b), the photoconductive layer 31 becomes conductive due to optical stimulation in the bright area AL of the photoreceptor 20, and the captured charges 34 is easily released to the conductive support 30, so that all or most of the electrical charges 33 on the surface of the electrically insulating layer are easily eliminated together with the corresponding captured charges 34 by the neutralizing action of the AC corona. .

On the other hand, in the dark area AD, the resistance value of the photoconductive layer 31 is high and the captured charges 34 are not released to the conductive support 30, so that due to this influence, the rate of charge removal by AC corona of the charged charges 33 on the surface of the electrically insulating layer decreases. is smaller than in the above AL. However, there is not much difference in the surface potential (electrostatic contrast) of AL and AO. Then a second exposure B with a fixed form
When this is done (Figure c), since there is no light stimulation in the dark area BD, the charged state is maintained as it is, and no change occurs in the surface potential. Furthermore, even if the bright area AL of the first exposure of the bright area BL is exposed to light again, the state of the photoconductive layer 31 does not change much, so the potential on the surface of the electrically insulating layer does not change either. A surface potential approximately equal to that of the dark area BL is maintained.

On the other hand, in the bright areas BL other than those areas BD and AL, the photoconductive layer 31 becomes conductive for the first time due to optical stimulation, so the captured charges 34 are transferred to the charged charges 33 on the surface of the electrically insulating layer.
Except for the amount of charge equivalent to , the rest is all conductive support 3.
It is emitted to 0 and disappears. As a result, the external field rapidly increases in the electrical charges 33 on the surface of the electrically insulating layer, and the surface potential increases, resulting in a large surface potential difference between the bright area AL of the first exposure and the dark area BD of the second exposure. occurs, forming a high-contrast latent image. The surface potential distribution of the photoreceptor 20 at this time is expressed as shown in FIG. 3d. That is, only the portion that was a dark portion in the first exposure and a bright portion in the second exposure has a high potential of 0-1, and the other portions have a potential of approximately zero.

Therefore, when this photoreceptor 20 is developed with toner, a composite image of the first exposure and the second exposure is visualized.

Figure e shows a case where development is performed with a toner 36 having a polarity opposite to that of the first charge, that is, a negative polarity, and the toner 36 is attached to dark areas in the first exposure and bright areas in the second exposure. It is well known that reversal development, that is, development with toner 37 of the same polarity as the primary charge, is also possible, and development is performed in the opposite direction to that of normal development, and that even better development can be achieved if a development electrode is used. That's right. Similar image composition can be achieved by applying secondary charging with the opposite polarity to the primary charging together with the first exposure instead of the AC corona static elimination performed together with the first exposure in the steps in the process described above.

When the photoreceptor 20 shown in FIG. 3a is subjected to first exposure with a laser and is subjected to negative secondary charging with a polarity opposite to the primary charging (FIG. 3f), the photoconductive layer 31 is exposed to light in the bright area AL (FIG. 3f). Because the stimulation makes it conductive and the captured charge 34 is easily released to the conductive support 30, the primary charge 3 on the surface of the electrically insulating layer
3 is completely neutralized together with its corresponding captured charge 34 due to the neutralization of the secondary charges of opposite polarity, and subsequently, the charged polarity is reversed by the secondary charges on the surface of the electrically insulating layer, and the polarity is reversed to negative again. charged 33' and correspondingly positive trapped charge 34
1 occurs.

On the other hand, in the dark area AD, the resistance value of the photoconductive layer 31 is high and the captured charges 34 are not released, so that due to this influence, the primary charges 33 on the surface of the electrically insulating layer are completely or mostly eliminated by secondary charges of opposite polarity. However, it is extremely rare for the light to be recharged negatively as in the bright area AL.

In this way, the electric insulating layer surface charges in both the light and dark areas AL and AO are negative in the bright area AL, whereas the dark area AD is either uncharged or has a positive charge, but the surface potentials of both AL and AD are negative. There is not much difference. In other words, the dark area AD has the same negative trapped charge 3 as the charge polarity of the electrically insulating layer surface of the bright area AL.
Since a large amount of 4 remains, even if some positive charges remain on the surface of the electrically insulating layer in the dark area AD, the negative electric field due to the captured charge 34 acts strongly as an external field, and the surface potential eventually becomes bright. The relationship between the part potential and the dark part potential is approximately equal. Next, the second exposure B of the standard format image
When you do this (Figure g), you will see the dark area B. Since there is no optical stimulation, the charged state remains unchanged and no change occurs in the surface potential. Furthermore, even if the bright area AL of the bright area BL that was exposed to the first exposure is exposed to light again, the charge 34' of the photoconductive layer 31 no longer attenuates much, and therefore the surface potential approximately equal to that of the dark area BD is maintained. be done. On the other hand, part B of them. , bright area BL other than AL
At this point, it becomes electrically conductive for the first time due to photostimulation, so the captured charge 34 remains on the surface of the electrically insulating layer, leaving an amount of charge equivalent to the positive charge 33 remaining, and all other charges are transferred to the conductive support. It is released and disappears. As a result, the negative external field due to the trapped charge 34 is rapidly attenuated, the surface potential of the electrically insulating layer increases, and if a positive charge remains on the surface of the electrically insulating layer, the surface potential is reversed to a positive one. A large surface potential difference is generated between the BD and AD portions, which maintain a negative surface potential, and a high-contrast latent image is formed. The surface potential of the photoreceptor at this time is as shown in diagram h, and a potential difference is generated between the first exposed dark area and the second exposed bright area and the other areas. When this is developed with toner of the same polarity as the primary charge as shown in figure i, toner 3 is applied to the first exposed light area and the second exposed dark area.
7, and if toner 36 of opposite polarity is used, the development will be reversed. The specific synthetic image formation used in the above embodiment is as follows. Example 1 A photosensitive material obtained by adding 107 vinyl chloride to cadmium sulfide 907 activated by copper and mixing with a small amount of thinner was placed on a 40μ thick aluminum substrate about 100μ thick.
A photosensitive plate consisting of a photoconductive layer coated to a thickness of 25 μm and an electrically insulating layer of polyethylene terephthalate of 25 μm was uniformly primary charged to +1800 V using a corona discharger, and then charged with He at an exposure dose of 1 μj/Clrt. At the same time as the -Ne laser exposure, AC corona charge removal was performed, followed by exposure of a positive image in a standard format at an exposure dose of 2 lux seconds.

When this photosensitive plate is immediately immersed and developed with positively charged toner,
An extremely clear composite positive image of the laser image and standard format image was developed. Example 2 A Te layer with a thickness of about 1μ is vacuum deposited on an aluminum substrate, and a layer of Se containing 5% Tel is vacuum deposited to a thickness of usually 50μ to form a photoconductive layer, and a photoconductive layer is formed on the surface of the Te layer with a thickness of about 30μ. A photoreceptor was prepared by applying a thick layer of transparent insulating resin and curing it.

The surface of the electrically insulating layer of this photoreceptor was uniformly primary charged to -1000 V using a corona discharger, and then secondary charged to +1000 V at the same time as HeCd laser exposure at an exposure dose of 2 μj/Cd for 15 lux seconds. A positive image was exposed at an exposure amount of .

When this photosensitive plate was developed with a magnetic brush using negatively charged toner, an extremely clear composite positive image of a laser negative image and a standard format positive image was developed, and when positively charged toner was used, an extremely clear composite negative image was developed. . Through the above electrophotographic process, the first exposure image of the laser beam (Figure a) and the second exposure image of the standard format original (Figure b) are obtained as shown in Figures 4 to 8.
If the images (Fig.) are synthesized and developed with toner of opposite polarity to the primary charge, an image as shown in Fig. d will be obtained, and if developed with toner of the same polarity as the primary charge, a composite image as shown in Fig. c will be obtained. It will be done. In FIGS. 4 to 8, since the shaded areas in FIGS. a and b are dark areas, it is generally the system shown in FIG. 5 that is actually used for image synthesis. In the system of FIG. 5, a copied image is obtained when only the second exposure of the original image is performed without the first exposure of the laser beam. Further, if the first exposure and the second exposure are performed by irradiating the entire surface, only the recorded image by the external signal is obtained.
This control is performed by a print control section shown in the block diagram of FIG. In FIG. 8, a signal control section 41 performs signal processing on an external input signal 39 and outputs command signals 42 and 43 to a first exposure control section 44 and a second exposure control section 45, respectively. According to this signal, the first exposure 46, the second exposure, the original exposure 47, and the entire surface exposure 48 are controlled. Next, another embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.

In addition to the previous embodiment, this embodiment has means for switching the original image between the first exposure and the second exposure, so that in addition to composite recording, reverse copying is also possible with one device.

In FIGS. 9 and 10, the image of the original 11 is guided by the optical path switching reflector 15 to either the fixed reflector 16 or 18, and is placed at the first exposure position or the second exposure position. The photoreceptor 20 is selected and exposed.

By this switching means, a normal and reversed image can be easily obtained.
Among the combinations of the laser beam image and the original image, the combination using the first exposure and the second exposure has been explained in the above embodiment, so the combination using the first exposure will be explained with reference to FIGS. 11 to 13. A
, b are either a laser beam image or an original image, respectively. The two images A and B are simultaneously irradiated, and the entire surface is irradiated at the second exposure position, and when developed, a composite image as shown in Figures C and d is obtained. Figure c shows normal development, and figure b shows reverse development. In this case, the system shown in FIG. 13 is common. If the developed image shown in FIG. 13B is compared with FIG. 5, it will be seen that even with the same developer, normal/reversal composition and copying can be easily obtained by switching the exposure position.

As explained above, the present invention provides a new and groundbreaking device that can easily perform recording, combining, and copying with the same device at high speed and with high quality.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the same embodiment, FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the image forming step of the present invention, and FIGS. 4 to 7 are first exposure images. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the control for carrying out the synthesis of the second exposure image and the second exposure image, and FIGS.
1 to 13 show respective examples of composition in the first exposure. 1...Laser oscillator, 2...Reflector,
3... Deflection/modulator, 4... Beam...
Expander, 5...Polyhedral rotating mirror, 6...
...Rotating mirror 1 driver, 7...f-θ lens,
8...Laser beam, 9...Beam detector, 10...Original table, 11...Original, 12...Original exposure Lamp, 13...
・Original reflector, 14...In-mirror. Lens, 15...Reflector, 16...Reflector for first exposure, 17...First exposure bundle, 18...
...Reflector for second exposure, 19...Second exposure bundle, 20...Photosensitive drum, 21...
First corona charger, 22...Second corona charger, 23...Full exposure lamp, 24...
Developing device, 25...Transfer material, 26...Transfer charger, 27...Fixing device, 28...-
Print image, 29...Cleaning device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A photoreceptor whose basic components are a conductive support, a photoconductive layer, and an electrically insulating layer, a primary charging means for uniformly charging the surface of the photoreceptor, and a uniformly charged photoreceptor. A first exposure means for irradiating a first optical information image onto the body surface, and simultaneously with, immediately before, or immediately after the first exposure means, the surface of the photoreceptor is subjected to AC neutralization or secondary charging with a polarity opposite to the primary charging. a second exposure means that irradiates the surface of the photoreceptor with second optical information after the AC static elimination or secondary charging; and an entire surface exposure unit that exposes the entire surface of the photoreceptor to light after the AC static elimination or secondary charging. and the second
1. A recording/copying apparatus comprising: means for selectively switching and controlling exposure means and full-surface exposure means. 2. A photoreceptor whose basic components are a conductive support, a photoconductive layer, and an electrically insulating layer, a primary charging means for uniformly charging the surface of the photoreceptor, and a first charging means for uniformly charging the surface of the photoreceptor. a first exposure means for irradiating an optical information image; a means for applying alternating current charge removal or secondary charging with a polarity opposite to the primary charging on the surface of the photoreceptor at the same time as the first exposure means, or immediately before or after the first exposure means; and a first exposure means. a second exposure means for selectively irradiating second light information onto a first exposure position of the photoreceptor where the means acts and a second exposure position of the photoreceptor after the action of the AC charge removal or secondary charging means; It is characterized by having a full-face exposure unit that exposes the entire surface of the photoreceptor to light after static elimination or secondary charging, and a control unit that operates the full-face exposure unit in accordance with the selection of the first exposure position irradiation of the second exposure unit. Recording and copying equipment.