JPS62223755A - Image recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To remove useless consumption of a photosensitive/pressure sensitive heat developing material and an image receiving material and to improve the workability of a device by stopping new image recording when either one of the sensitive material and the light receiving material is lacking. CONSTITUTION:When an absence signal for a light receiving material is outputted, the preceding process from the photosensitive part 3 is stopped so that the delivering of the sensitive material 8 and the movement of the original are not executed even if a new copying signal is outputted. Even if the material 12 in a feeding cassette 13 is removed, the material 12 for the sensitive material 8 already stored in the processing process is delivered from the feeding cassette 13 and helt at a waiting state or an auxiliary delivering material 12 is additionally prepared. When an absence signal for the material 8 is outputted, the preceding process from the exposure part 3 is not driven even if a new recording signal is outputted. However a material 8 in exposing or an exposed material 8 is applied to a prescribed process.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to an image recording device for recording an image, and more specifically, the present invention relates to an image recording device that records an image, and more specifically, an image recording device that records an image on a support that is photosensitive and that is developed by heating. A photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material coated with a substance that is fixed by pressure is imagewise exposed to the rough photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material, and then heat development is performed, and an image of the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material is formed by applying pressure. The present invention relates to an image recording device that fixes an image on a developing material.

(Technical background of the invention and its problems) As an example of an image recording material using microcapsules containing a photosensitive composition, 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 has the advantage of being able to obtain high quality images 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 can obtain high-quality images through simple dry processing is proposed by the applicant in 1986-
No. 117089 or Japanese Patent Application No. 121284/1982). 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.

To record an image using this photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material, first, a latent image is formed by @-like exposure, and then development is performed by heating to remove the polymerizable compound in the area where the # image exists. The microcapsules are hardened by polymerizing to produce a polymer compound. Then, the color image forming material is overlapped with an image receiving material to which the color image forming substance can be transferred and pressure is applied to rupture at least a portion of the microcapsules in the areas where no latent image exists, thereby forming a color image 1.
An image-forming substance is fixed to the image-receiving material to obtain an image on the image-receiving material.

However, this apparatus requires at least a predetermined amount of time, especially for the heat development treatment of the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material, and it takes a relatively long time to complete the entire processing step. In addition, since the photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material and the image-receiving material are superimposed, there is a problem that if one of the materials becomes different first, the processing steps will be wasted. In particular, in the case of the above-mentioned photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material, the problem of light shielding must be taken into consideration when detecting the remaining amount thereof.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and provides an image recording device using a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material and an image-receiving material. The purpose is to eliminate waste and provide a device with good workability.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The above-mentioned object of the present invention is to coat a support with a material that is photosensitive and is developed by heating, and the resulting image is fixed by pressure. a storage section for storing the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material, an exposure section for imagewise exposing the photo-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material fed out from the storage section; a heat developing section that performs heat development; a supply section for an image-receiving material that is superimposed on the developed photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat developing material to transfer an image; and a feeding section for feeding the developed photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat developing material from the supply section. In an image recording apparatus equipped with a pressure unit that presses the image-receiving material by overlapping the image-receiving material, the light-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material detecting means provided in the storage unit detects that the photo-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material has run out. is detected, or when the image-receiving material detecting means provided in the supply section detects that the image-receiving material is running out, a new image recording is not started based on either one of these detection signals. This is achieved by an image recording device that is characterized in that it is controlled.

Embodiments of the present invention illustrated in the drawings will be described in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the device of the present invention. The image recording device f1 is made of the above-mentioned photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat development material (hereinafter simply "
The image-receiving material supply section 2 includes a photosensitive material supply section 2, an exposure section 3, a heat development section 4, a pressure section 5, a fixing section 6, and an image-receiving material supply section 7, and there are rolls and guides between these sections. A transport system made up of members is provided. The photosensitive material supply section 2 is provided with a long photosensitive material 8 wound into a roll and housed in a light-shielding magazine 9. It is held on a roll 11. On the other hand, the image receiving material 12 is set in its supply cassette 13.

By pressing the start button of the device 1 above, the photosensitive material 8
When the leading edge of the photosensitive material reaches the exposure section 3, the exposure section 3, which is provided with, for example, a light source 3a, a lens 3b, a drive roll 15, etc., is activated.

Then, while the photosensitive material 8 and the original 16 move in synchronization, the original [
The photosensitive material 8 is exposed to light in an image pattern 16, and is cut by a cutter 17 when it moves in accordance with the length of the document. The leading end of the magazine-side photosensitive material cut by the cutter 17 is pulled back into the magazine connection dark box 10.

In other words, consideration has been taken to ensure that the photosensitive material 8 does not have any adverse effects such as path light capri. The imagewise exposed photosensitive material 8 is transported to the heat developing section 4 by a transport system including a guide member 18 and the like, and is heated while being held between a heating roll 19 and a belt 20 and moving. The heating temperature at this time varies somewhat depending on the properties of the sensitive material, but is generally 80°C to 200°C, preferably 100°C to 160°C.

The photosensitive material 8 that has been heat-developed is superimposed on the image-receiving material 12. At this time, the timing of sending out the image-receiving material 12 is controlled using, for example, a sensor 24 that detects the leading edge of the photosensitive material 8 or a timer. It can be performed.

The superimposed pieces are then applied with one or more pairs of pressure rolls 21 of the pressure unit 5, for example, under a linear pressure of 100k.
The microcapsules are ruptured by applying pressure at g/crrL, and the image on the photosensitive material 8 is transferred to the image receiving material 12. after that,
The photosensitive material 8 and the receiver material 12 are separated and conveyed separately.

Then, the image receiving material 12 is irradiated with ultraviolet rays by the ultraviolet ray irradiation device 22 or the like to fix the image, and the series of processing steps is completed.

In the above case, the photosensitive material 8 and the image receiving material 12 are present, and if either of them becomes comfortable, the device 1 operates as follows.

When a signal indicating that the image-receiving material 12 has run out is issued, even if a signal to perform a new copy (operation of an operation button, etc.) is issued, the exposure section is Stop the steps before step 3. However, the photosensitive material 8 that is already being exposed or has been exposed can be processed through a predetermined process. That is, even if the image-receiving material 12 in the supply cassette 13 becomes a can, the image-receiving material 13 corresponding to the photosensitive material 8 that is already in the processing process is
For example, the image-receiving material 12 is configured to be fed out from the supply cassette 13 and placed in a standby state, or is configured to be provided with a separate image-receiving material 12 for auxiliary feeding. It goes without saying that the indication that the image-receiving material 12 has run out is displayed on the operating section of the apparatus.

Furthermore, when a signal indicating that the photosensitive material 8 has run out is issued, even if a signal to perform a new recording is issued, the process before the photothermal section does not operate as in the case where the image receiving material 12 has run out. . However, when the bubble number with no photosensitive material 8 was issued,
The photosensitive material 8 that has been processed into a photosensitive material or #4 is processed through a predetermined process. That is, since the supply of the image-receiving material 12 to the photosensitive material 8 that is already being processed can be controlled, for example, by the above-mentioned detection sensor 24 at the tip of the photosensitive material, empty feeding of the image-receiving material 12 does not occur. , the apparatus 1 is configured to be stopped after all of the photosensitive material 8 in the middle of processing has been sent out.

The photosensitive material 8 stored in the magazine 9 is in the form of a roll wound around the core 23 as described above.
To detect the remaining amount of P, for example, as shown in Figure 1,
One end of the arm 30, which is configured to be rotatable about a point, is brought into contact with the roll-shaped portion of the photosensitive material 8, and as the remaining amount of the photosensitive material 8 decreases, the arm 30 rotates ( (in the direction of arrow A), and the other end outputs a signal indicating "no photosensitive material 8" by pressing a microswitch 31, for example.

Further, the remaining amount of the photosensitive material 8 may be detected by, for example, a structure in which a dancer roll 40 is provided on the back of the magazine-connected dark box 10, as shown in FIG. This is the feed roll 11
Normally, the tension applied to the photosensitive material 8 being sent out is within a certain range, but the tension applied to the photosensitive material 8 is
It is an ipL structure that takes advantage of the fact that the tension changes when the tension disappears.

That is, since the end of the photosensitive material 8 is fixed to the winding core 23, the wound photosensitive material 8 disappears, and the tensile force of the delivery roll 11 is applied to the photosensitive material 8 between the winding core 23 and the delivery roll 11. When the tension increases, normally it is biased with a constant force and the dancer at the position shown in the figure [(Bl)
The roll is pushed and rotated in the direction of arrow C, and this movement is detected by, for example, a microswitch 41, and the photosensitive material 8 is
It can be configured to transmit a signal indicating that there is no photosensitive material 8 and to display that there is no photosensitive material 8.

Further, the remaining amount of the photosensitive material can be detected by, for example, installing an infrared reflection sensor so that the infrared rays of the cell/suction are directed toward the winding core 23 from above the roll portion, and detecting when the winding core 23 is exposed. A signal may also be issued. Also, by utilizing the fact that the rotational speed of the core 23 increases as the remaining amount of the photosensitive material 8 decreases, when the rotational speed of the core 23 reaches a certain level or higher, this is detected and a signal is generated. It can also be configured to issue

Furthermore, the remaining amount of the photosensitive material 8 can be detected by using an infrared photoelectric sensor, for example, to detect a notch, hole, mark, etc. provided near the end of the photosensitive material on the winding core side, and output a signal. Ru.

Furthermore, the remaining amount of the photosensitive material can be detected by, for example, the photosensitive material delivery roller 11.
A device that calculates the cumulative length of the photosensitive material by integrating the moving distance of the photosensitive material calculated by the encoder attached to the roller. Or, by providing a device that multiplies the number of times the photosensitive material is fed out by the feed length of the photosensitive material set using a setting button such as an operation panel, etc., to add up the value. It is also possible to determine the integrated length of the photosensitive material and to output a signal when this integrated length exceeds a certain value.

The remaining amount of the image-receiving material 12 may be detected by the same means as for detecting the remaining amount of the photosensitive material 8, for example, by using a microswitch to detect the presence or absence of the image-receiving material using transmitted light or reflected light. Good too. As a light source, visible light may be used in addition to infrared rays.

As in each of the above embodiments, when either photosensitive material #8 or image-receiving material 12 is used up, new image recording is stopped, and those that are already in the middle of the processing process are configured so that the final processing can be carried out without any problem. Therefore, not only the photosensitive material 8 or the image receiving material 12 is not wasted, but also the work is not wasted.

In the above embodiment, an original moving type apparatus has been described, but the present invention may be of a fixed original type, and the structure of each of the other processing sections is not limited to that shown in FIG.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the image recording apparatus of the present invention detects the remaining amount of the photosensitive material or the image receiving material and is controlled so that the empty feeding of either material does not occur. , waste of materials and waste of work can be prevented. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image recording apparatus that is economical and has excellent workability.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of main parts of another embodiment of the present invention. 1... Image recording device 2... Sensitive material supply section 3...
・Exposure section 3a...Light source 3b...Lens 4...Heat developing section 5...Pressure transfer section
6...Fixing section 7...Image receiving material supply section 8...
・Sensitive material 9...Magazine 10...Magazine connection dark box 11...Sensitive material delivery roll 12...Receive IM! Material 13... Supply cassette 15... Drive roll 16... Document 17... Cutter 18
...Guide member 19...Heating roll 20.
... Belt 21 ... Pressure roll n ... Ultraviolet irradiation device 23 ... Core 30 ... Arm
31, 41...Micro switch 40...Dancer roll 24...Tip detection sensor 25...Photoelectric sensor 111--6

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) A photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-sensitive material in which a material that is photosensitive, is developed by heating, and the obtained image is fixed by pressure is coated on a support. a storage section that stores a developing material; an exposure section that imagewise exposes the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat development material sent out from the storage section; and a heat development section that heats and develops the exposed photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat development material. , a supply section of an image-receiving material onto which the developed photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material is superimposed and an image is transferred; and an image-receiving material fed out from the supply section and the developed photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat development material are overlapped. In an image recording apparatus equipped with a pressure unit that applies pressure together, when the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material detecting means provided in the storage unit detects that the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material is running out; Alternatively, when the image-receiving material detecting means provided in the supply section detects that the image-receiving material is running out, one of the detection signals indicates that a new image recording is controlled not to be started. Features of the image recording device. 2) The light-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material detection means is configured to output the detection signal by tilting a rotatable arm in contact with the light-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material wrapped at a certain angle. An image recording apparatus according to claim 1. 3) The photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material detection means is provided with an infrared reflection sensor extending from the outside of the outer periphery of the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material wound around the winding core toward the winding core, and detects the winding core by the sensor. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image recording apparatus is configured to detect and output the detection signal. 4) The photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material detection means detects that the rotational speed of the winding core of the light sensitive pressure sensitive heat development material wound around the winding core exceeds a certain level, and outputs the detection signal. An image recording apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the image recording apparatus is configured as follows. 5) The photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material detecting means uses a dancer roll provided in the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material conveying system to detect movement of the roll due to an increase in tension due to the disappearance of the wrapped photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material. 2. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image recording apparatus is configured to detect and output the detection signal. 6) The photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material detection means is configured to detect a notch, hole, mark, etc. provided near the end of the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material and output the detection signal. An image recording device according to claim 1. 7) The photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material detection means is configured to detect that the cumulative length of the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material sent out from the storage section exceeds a certain value and output the detection signal. An image recording device according to claim 1, characterized in that: