JPS62148956A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain full-automatically pictures having high quality with a dry simple processing by using photosensitive and pressure-sensitive heat development materials where a material, which has photosensibility and has an image developed thermally and has the developed image fixed by pressure, is coated on a supporting body. CONSTITUTION:In this image recorder, photosensitive and pressure-dersitive heat devel opment materials S and used where the material, which has photosensibility and has an image developed thermally and has the developed image fixed by pressure, is coated on the supporting body. An exposure device which exposes the image to form a latent image on photosensitive and pressure-sensitive heat development materials S and consists of an illuminating lamp 8, a fiber lens array 10, etc., a heat development device 40 which hardens a part corresponding to the formed latent image on develop ment materials S to make this part immobile, a transfer device which puts image reception materials C on developed development materials S to pressure them and consists of pressing rolls 62 and 64, a photosensitive image reception paper superposing device 70, etc., and a fixing device 106 which projects light or applies pressure or heat to fix image reception materials C to which the image is transferred are provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus that records an image using a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material.

More specifically, using a photosensitive and pressure sensitive thermal development material having a support coated with a substance that is photosensitive and is developed by heating, and the resulting image is fixed by pressure,
The present invention relates to an image recording device in which the photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material is subjected to imagewise exposure, then heat-developed, and then superimposed on an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer and pressurized to obtain an image on the image-receiving material by transfer.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Examples of image recording materials using microcapsules encapsulating a photosensitive composition include, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 57-179,
A system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 836 is known in which a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colorant precursor is carried on a support. The image recording method using this system is to imagewise harden the microcapsules by exposure to light, rupture the unhardened microcapsules by applying pressure, and obtain a color image from the released colorant precursor. The method is characterized in that high quality images can be obtained through simple dry processing.

However, this system has the drawback of significantly lower photosensitivity than systems using silver halide.

A new recording material that improves these drawbacks, has high photosensitivity, and is capable of obtaining high-quality images through simple dry processing has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 1986-2001 filed by the present applicant.
It is disclosed in the specification of No. 117089. This recording material is a photosensitive and pressure-sensitive heat-developable material, in which at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming substance are coated on a support, and at least the polymerizable compound is coated on a support. The compound and the color imaging material are comprised of a photosensitive composition encapsulated in the same microcapsule.

Regarding the image recording method of recording an image using this light-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material, the patent application No. 6 filed by the present applicant
0-121284. This image recording method first performs imagewise exposure to form a latent image, and then develops it by heating to polymerize the polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image exists to form a polymer compound and form microcapsules. Let it harden. Then, the image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to which the color image-forming substance can be transferred is stacked and pressurized to rupture at least a portion of the microcapsules in the area where the latent image does not exist, and the color image-forming substance is transferred to the image-receiving material. to obtain an image on an image-receiving material.

However, using the photosensitive and pressure-sensitive heat-developable material, this heat-developable material is subjected to imagewise exposure, heat development is performed, and then it is superimposed on an image-receiving material and pressurized to transfer them to obtain an image on the image-receiving material automatically. There has not yet been a completed image recording device that uses this method.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and provides an image recording device that uses a new photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material and is capable of fully automatically performing the process from exposing an image to obtaining an image on an image-receiving material. The purpose is to provide

A further object of the present invention is to provide an image recording device that is capable of efficiently carrying out a coloring reaction of an image-receiving material onto which an image has been transferred, and of stabilizing the colored image to obtain a high-quality image. do.

[Means to solve the problem]

The structural features of the image recording device according to the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object are that the support is photosensitive, development is performed by heating, and the resulting image is fixed by pressure. An image recording apparatus using a photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material coated with a substance to be applied to the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material, the exposure device forming a latent image by imagewise exposing the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material; a heat development device that hardens and immobilizes a portion corresponding to the latent image formed on the heat development material; a transfer device that superimposes an image receiving material on the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material of the development method and presses them; The present invention includes a fixing device that irradiates, pressurizes, or heats the image-receiving material onto which the image has been transferred.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in the sectional view of the image recording apparatus of the embodiment, a document supporting glass plate 2 is attached to the upper surface of a housing 1 so as to be slidable back and forth in the direction of arrow 4.

That is, the glass plate 2 is slid between a position shown by a solid line and a position shown by an imaginary line in the figure, with the document placed face down.

At the bottom of the glass plate 2, there is a reflector 6 for illuminating the original.
An additional illumination lamp 8 is provided, and a fiber lens array 10 is provided for forming an original image on a photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material S (hereinafter referred to as "photosensitive material") at a predetermined position.

A photosensitive material cartridge 14 containing a photosensitive material roll 12 wound with a photosensitive material S is removably attached to the side of the housing 1. At the outlet 16 of the photosensitive material S of the photosensitive material cartridge 14, a pair of photosensitive material take-out rolls 22,22 housed in the magazine connection dark box 20 are arranged, whereby the photosensitive material S wound on the photosensitive material roll 12 is removed. It is pulled out to a certain length at a predetermined time.

When the leading edge of the photosensitive material S advances, the photosensitive material take-out rolls 22.22 move in a direction away from each other as shown by the imaginary lines to facilitate the advance of the photosensitive material S. A cutter unit 23 for cutting the photosensitive material S and a guide plate 24 are disposed in front of the magazine connection dark box 20 (hereinafter, the term "front" refers to the downstream side in the traveling direction of the photosensitive material, etc.).

In front of the guide plate 24, an exposed photosensitive material support roll 26 and two photosensitive material nip rolls 28, 30 pressed against the exposed photosensitive material support roll 26 are arranged. The photosensitive material S guided by the guide plate 24 is brought into close contact with the exposed photosensitive material support roll 26 by the photosensitive material nip rolls 28.30.
Fiber lens array 1 at position 32 between 30
0 provides imagewise exposure of the original.

In front of the exposed photosensitive material support roll 26, a heat developing device 40 is arranged which heats and develops the exposed photosensitive material S.

-゛ The heat developing device 40 includes a developing housing 42 having a heat insulating effect, a heating roll 44 disposed within the developing housing 42 and heated to approximately 120°C, and four belt support rolls 46, 47.
．． 48.49 and about 2 of the heated rolls 44
An endless belt 50 wrapped around the outer circumference of a 70° arc,
A nip roll 52 is pressed against a support roll 49.

The heat developing device 40 further includes an exposed light-sensitive material support roll 26.
A guide device 54 guides the photosensitive material S fed from the heating roll 44 onto the heating roll 44 and separates the photosensitive material S from the heating roll 44 after being heated and developed; It has a vertical guide device 58 for guiding to the exit 56, and the exit 56 is provided with a sensor 60 for detecting the tip of the sensitive material.

Directly below the outlet 56, a pair of pressure rolls 62 and 64;
A photosensitive material receiving paper stacking device comprising a nip roll 66 pressed against a pressure roll 64, and a guide member 68 that guides the photosensitive material S sent by the pressure roll 64 and the nip roll 66 to the contact portion of the pressure rolls 62 and 64. 70 are arranged.

An image receiving paper feeding device 7 is provided on the side of the photosensitive image receiving paper stacking device 70.
2 is placed. The receiving paper supply device 72 is connected to the housing 1
A receiving paper supply cassette 74 protrudes from and is detachably attached, a receiving paper feeding roll 76 for feeding out the receiving paper C in the cassette 74, and a pressure roll for pressing the receiving paper C drawn out by the feeding roll 76. 64 and a guide plate 78 that guides the nip roll 66 to the contact portion. Here, the width of the image-receiving paper C is about 5 mm smaller than the width of the photosensitive material S, and the image-receiving paper C is stacked in the photosensitive material stacking device 70 so that the image-receiving paper C is in the center of the photosensitive material S in the width direction. Ru.

A pair of pressure nip rolls 80.82 and a pressure nip roll 80.82 are provided below the photosensitive image receiving paper stacking device 70
A transfer device 88 is provided which includes backup rolls 84 and 86 for making the pressure uniform in the axial direction. Pressure nip roll 80.82 is approximately 200kg/C
They are pressed together by the pressure of III.

A photoreceptor paper peeling device 90 is provided below the transfer device 88 . The sensitive image receiving paper peeling device 90 includes a guide member 92, a first feed roll 94, a second feed roll 96, and a first
It consists of a peeling belt 102 wrapped around guide rolls 98 and 100 so as to come into pressure contact only with the photosensitive material S at both outer end portions on the feed roll 94.

A sensitive material disposal section 104 is provided on one side of the peeling device 90, and a fixing device 106 is provided on the other side. The sensitive material disposal section 104 includes a guide member 108, a pair of feed rolls 110, 112, and a disposal box 114.
The photosensitive material S sent from the peeling device 90 and guided by the guide member 108 is put into the waste box 114 by the feed rolls 110 and 112.

The fixing device 106 includes a guide member 120 and a reflective member 12.
2 ultraviolet irradiation lamps 124 and a pair of feed rolls 1
26 and 128, and the image receiving paper C sent from the peeling device 90 and guided by the guide member 120 is irradiated with ultraviolet light for about 5 seconds to fix it.

A take-out tray 130 for receiving the image receiving paper C is attached to the front of the fixing device 106 so as to protrude from the housing 1 .

The image recording device further includes an illumination lamp 8, a cutter unit 23, a document support glass plate 2, and a sensitive material leading edge detection sensor 6.
0, and a control device (not shown) connected to the photosensitive image receiving paper stacking device 70, which performs the following operations. That is, in the operation preparation stage of the image recording apparatus, the so-called copy preparation stage, the leading end of the photosensitive material S is placed near the cutting part of the cutter unit 23 or inside the magazine connection dark box 20.

Next, press the copy start button (not shown).
The photosensitive material take-out roll 22 is operated to feed the photosensitive material S, and just before the leading end of the photosensitive material S reaches a position 32, the illumination lamp 8 is turned on to illuminate the original.

When the leading end reaches position 32, the document supporting glass plate 2 moves, and the photosensitive material S is fed accordingly, and the document image is projected onto the photosensitive material S and exposed. On the other hand, when the photosensitive material S is fed by a distance equal to the length of the document in the moving direction, the cutter unit 23 is activated to cut the photosensitive material S.

The cut and exposed photosensitive material S is sent to a heat developing device 40, pressed against a heating roll 44 by an endless belt 50, heated at about 120° C., and developed. The passage of the leading edge of the developed photosensitive material S through the outlet 56 is detected by the sensitive material leading edge detection sensor 60 .

On the other hand, in the image-receiving paper supply device 72, the image-receiving paper C is fed out in synchronization with the pressing of the copy start button or the timing of exposure start, and the leading end of the image-receiving paper C is brought out by the pressure roll 6.
4 and the nip roll 66, the image receiving paper C is stopped.

In the photosensitive image receiving paper stacking device 70, the small and medium receiving paper C is located at the center of the wider photosensitive material S in the width direction, and the leading edge of the photosensitive material S is aligned with the leading edge of the image receiving paper C. Alternatively, they are superposed one on top of the other by a few millimeters in advance, and sent to the transfer device 88 where they are pressed with a pressure of about 200 kg/cut and transferred onto image receiving paper.

The photosensitive material S after transfer is peeled off from the image receiving paper C by a peeling belt 102 in a peeling device 90 and sent to a photosensitive material disposal section 104.
sent to. On the other hand, the image receiving paper C is sent to the fixing device 106, where it is irradiated with ultraviolet light for about 5 seconds to be fixed.
After that, the feed rollers 126 and 128 take out the tray 1.
Sent to 30.

The illumination lamp with a reflector in the above embodiments may be any lamp that emits radiation including visible light, and specifically includes strobes, flashes, halogen lamps such as tungsten lamps, mercury lamps, and iodine lamps, xenon lamps, Laser beams, CRT light sources, plasma light sources, fluorescent tubes, light emitting diodes can be used as light sources. Also, LCD
It can also be configured by combining a micro-shutter array using (liquid crystal) or PLZT (lanthanum-doped lead titanium zirconate) with a linear light source or a planar light source.

In the embodiment described above, the photosensitive material S is exposed by forming an original image directly on the photosensitive material S by the fiber lens array 1'0. However, fiber lens array 10
A spherical lens can also be used instead. In addition, the exposure of the photosensitive material S is controlled by the CRT, F
OT (Fiber optic tube), L
CΔ (Liquid crystal array)
, an electro-optical element array, a combination of a laser, a modulator and a scanner, a combination of an LED and a scanner, etc. In this case, the image signal is
It becomes possible to perform processing for gradation correction, color correction, scaling, editing, etc. of the projected image.

Further, in the above embodiment, when scanning a document, both the document and the photosensitive material are moved and the optical system is fixed, but a method in which either the document or the photosensitive material and the optical system are moved is also possible.

Further, in the above embodiment, the heat developing device 40 is heated by the heating roll 44, but instead of this, belt heating, heating by a thermal head formed by arranging heating elements in a line, electrical heating, microwave or infrared irradiation can be used. It is also possible to form it so that it does. In addition, photosensitive material S
In some cases, heating can also be performed using overcurrent generated by electromagnetic induction. The photosensitive material S may be heated in a bath in which an inert liquid, such as a fluorine-based liquid, is heated. The heating temperature in these cases is generally 80℃
The temperature range is from 100°C to 160°C, preferably from 100°C to 160°C.

The transfer device 88 may employ a skew roller, a crown roller, or the like in which two rollers intersect and contact each other instead of the pressure nip rolls 80 and 82 with backup rollers 84 and 86.

Further, the fixing device 106 of the above embodiment may be configured to simply perform heating or pressurization.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, using the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat development material, it is possible to automatically perform the process from exposure to obtaining an image on an image receiving material by heat development and pressure transfer, and also a simple dry process. This has the effect that higher quality images can be obtained with a smaller and cheaper device.

Furthermore, the action of the fixing device efficiently causes the coloring reaction of the image receiving paper after the image has been transferred, and the colored image has excellent properties in terms of adhesion resistance, stain resistance, water resistance, smear prevention, etc. Obtainable.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figure is a structural explanatory diagram of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. S...Photosensitive pressure sensitive thermal development material C...Receiving paper 1...Housing 2...Document support glass 8...Illumination lamp 14 ...Sensitive material cartridge 40...Heating developing device i 70...Sensitive material receiving paper stacking device 72...
. . . Receiving paper supply device 90 . . . Sensitive material receiving paper peeling device 106 . . . Fixing device

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) Use of a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material having a support coated with a material that is photosensitive, develops by heating, and fixes the resulting image by pressure. An image recording device comprising: an exposure device for forming a latent image by imagewise exposing the light-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material; and an exposure device for curing a portion corresponding to the latent image formed on the light-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material. a heat developing device that immobilizes the image-receiving material, a transfer device that superimposes an image-receiving material on the developed photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material and applies pressure thereto, and at least irradiates, pressurizes, or heats the image-receiving material onto which the image has been transferred. An image recording apparatus comprising: a fixing device that performs any of the following. 2) The photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material has at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image forming substance coated on a support, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image forming material are coated on a support. The image recording device according to claim 1, wherein the forming substances are encapsulated in the same microcapsule. 3) The image recording device according to claim 2, wherein the heat developing device cures the microcapsules by polymerizing the polymerizable compound in the portion corresponding to the latent image. 4) The exposure device includes an image reading section that forms an image signal of the document, an image processing section that performs image signal processing to perform processing such as image enlargement, reduction, and color correction, and an image signal after the processing. 3. The image recording apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an exposure section for exposing a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material.