JPS5943317B2 - Ion flow modulation board for electrostatic printing - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention The present invention relates to an ion flow modulation method for modulating the ion flow according to a pattern to be printed in an electrostatic printing device that prints using an ion flow generated between electrodes to which a high voltage is applied. Concerning improvements to the board.

Figure 1 simply shows the configuration of the electrostatic printing device described above.
To briefly explain the printing principle using this diagram, first, a high voltage is applied between an anode 1 and a cathode 2 that are arranged opposite each other.
Causes corona discharge. The air around the anode is ionized by this corona discharge, and the generated ions 3 are attracted to the cathode 2 side by the electric field between the anode and the cathode. On the other hand, an ion flow modulation board 4 (hereinafter referred to as an aperture board) called an aperture board is placed between the anode 1 and the cathode 2.
The ion stream is now modulated depending on the pattern to be printed. The aperture board 4 is made of a flexible printed circuit board with a large number of small holes 5 arranged in a staggered manner in the row direction. A common electrode T common to all the small holes is provided on the side. The selection electrode 6 is connected to a switching circuit provided corresponding to each small hole, and a constant voltage is applied to the common electrode T. The ion flow attracted from the anode 1 to the cathode 2 is modulated by the action of the electric field generated in the small hole 5 by the selection electrode 6 and the common electrode T. When the voltage of the selection electrode 6 is increased with respect to the common electrode T,
The electric field inside the small hole 5 acts to allow the ions 3 to pass through. Conversely, when the voltage of the selection electrode 6 is lowered with respect to the common electrode T, the electric field inside the small hole 5 acts to prevent the ions 3 from passing through. . The ions 3 that have passed through the small holes 5 then move into the ink mist generated from the mist tank 8, adhere to the ink particles 9, and are attracted to the cathode 2 as they are. A recording paper 10 that is fed at a constant speed is placed in front of the cathode 2, and a group of ink particles charged by the ions 3 adhere to the recording paper 10 to form a single dot. printed. Although only two holes L are shown in FIG. 1, the above operation is performed for all the holes provided in the row direction, and a large number of holes are placed on the recording paper opposite the selected holes. Raw scores are printed at the same time. This printing operation is repeated every time the recording paper 10 is fed by a certain pitch, and characters, numbers,
Symbols, figures, etc. are printed. Note that there are also devices that print without using ink mist.

In this device, ions 3 that have passed through an aperture board 4 are directly attached to a dry recording paper 10 or a transfer material (for example, Mylar film) to form a raw electrostatic latent image, which is later developed with charged colored particles. do. The present invention provides an improved ion flow modulation board that enables printing of fine cotton and small-sized characters, numbers, symbols, figures, etc. in an anti-static printing device based on the above-described printing principle. That is.

That is, in order to print fine cotton or small characters, it is necessary to reduce the diameter of the dots and increase the number of dots printed per unit area.

To achieve this, it is necessary to increase the resolution of the aperture board 4, but simply reducing the diameter of the small hole 5 and the area of the selection electrode 6 provided around it is difficult due to the manufacturing of the aperture port 4, There are limits to the arrangement of selection electrodes. Therefore, the present invention provides an insulating substrate having a large number of small holes through which ions generated between two electrodes to which a high voltage is applied passes, and has a common electrode common to all the small holes on one side, and a common electrode for each small hole on the other side. In the ion flow modulation board provided with selective electrodes that are separated from each other, the large number of small holes are arranged in a plurality of rows parallel to the printing line direction, and the centers of the small holes are arranged vertically for printing in each row. The common electrode is provided in common for all of the small holes on the same row and separated from the adjacent rows, and the selection electrode is provided separately from the adjacent small holes on the same row and for at least two rows. It is designed to span the small hole. The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

2 and 3 show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the front side of the aperture board 4, and FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the back side of the aperture board 4. . The insulating substrate 11 has a large number of small holes 5a to 5b arranged in rows parallel to the print line direction through which the ions 3 pass.

The center positions of the small holes 5a in the first column and the small holes 5b in the second row are vertically shifted in the width direction of the recording paper. Similarly, the second row of small holes 5b, the third row of tears 5c, and the third row of holes 5c
The center positions of the small hole 5c of tears and the small hole 5d in the fourth row are also shifted by a constant pitch in the printing line direction. Insulating substrate 1
1, a selection electrode 6a1 is provided around each of the small holes 5a to 5d.
~6a5 and 6b1~6b5 are provided.

The selection electrodes 6a, -6a5 and 6b1-6b5 are electrically separated and independent from the adjacent small holes 5 on the same column, and are connected to respective switching circuits. In addition, the selection electrode 6a1 is provided astride the 191st hole and the first small hole 5a from the left in the second row, and the other selection electrodes 6a2 to 6a5 are also provided in the 191st hole and the first hole 5b1 from the left. Second to fifth small holes 5a2 and 5b2 to 5 from the left in the second row
It is provided in common for a5 and 5b5. Similarly, the selection electrodes 6b1 to 6b5 are also provided in common for the first to fifth small holes 5C1 and 5d1 to 5c5 and 5d5 from the left in the third row and the fourth column. On the other hand, on the back side of the insulating substrate 11, four common electrodes 7a to 7d are provided parallel to the print line for each row of small holes 5a to 5d.

The common electrodes 7a to 7d share small holes on the same row, but are divided into rows and provided electrically separated from adjacent rows. Next, ion flow control by the aperture board 4 having the above configuration will be explained using FIGS. 4 and 5.

First, in FIG. 4, a to ii are the common electrodes 7a to 7d.
The time period during which the voltage is applied to each of the selection electrodes 6a1 to 6a5, 6b, and 6b is shown in E and 6.

It is assumed that the recording paper moves from top to bottom in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, common electrodes 7a-7
Voltages are sequentially applied to the common electrodes 7a starting from the first common electrode 7a. If a voltage is applied to the selective electrodes 6a, 6a3 and 6b1 to 6b3 so that the ion flow passes through the small holes 5, then at the time T when the voltage is applied to the common electrode 7a, the ion flow passes through the small holes 5a1 to 5a3. The raw points are printed as shown in Figure 5A, and the time T during which voltage is applied to the common electrode 7b
2, the fifth
As shown in the figure opening, raw points are also printed at adjacent positions on the same line. Similarly, the time T3 during which the voltage is applied to the common electrode 7c and the time T during which the voltage is applied to the common electrode 7d.
4, raw dots are printed on the same line as shown in FIGS.
Also, at time T4, this printed line reaches the positions of the small holes 5b1 to 5b5 of the second stage. Therefore, the selection times of the common electrodes 7c and 7d and the common electrodes 7a and 7b overlap, and the ion flow passes through two or more rows of small holes at the same time, forming multiple lines as shown in FIG. is printed. As explained above, according to the ion flow modulation board of the present invention, the small holes through which the ion flow passes are arranged in a plurality of rows parallel to the width direction of the recording paper, the centers of which are offset from each other in the row direction, and the holes are common to each other. Since the electrodes are divided into columns, it is possible to provide small diameter holes at a high density without particularly reducing the area of the selection electrode, increasing the resolution of the ion flow modulation board and making it possible to create fine lines and This has the effect of making it possible to print small-sized characters.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and the number of small hole rows to which ion flow is applied may be further increased.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a diagram showing the printing principle of an electrostatic printing device to which the present invention is applied, Figure 2 is a plan view showing the front side of the ion flow modulation board of the present invention, and Figure 3 is the back side of the board in Figure 2. FIG. 4 is a time chart showing the voltage application time for each electrode of the ion current modulation board of the present invention, and FIGS. . 1... Anode, 2... Cathode, 3...
...Ion, 4...Aperture board, 5...
...Small hole, 6...Selective electrode, 7...
・Common pole, 8...Mist tank, 9...
... Ink particles, 10 ... Recording paper, 11 ...
...Insulating substrate.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 An ion flow system in which an insulating substrate has a large number of small holes through which ions pass, with a common electrode common to each small hole on one side and selective electrodes separated for each small hole on the other side. In the modulation board, the large number of small holes are provided in a plurality of rows parallel to the print line, the centers of the small holes are shifted in the direction of the print line for each row, and the common electrode is arranged for each small hole on the same row. A method for electrostatic printing characterized in that the selection electrode is provided in common and separately from adjacent rows, and the selection electrode is provided separately from adjacent small holes on the same row and across at least two rows of small holes. Ion flow modulation board.