JPS62232653A - Pressing image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a small-sized and simple pressure image forming device which can obtain a distinct image by fixing exactly an image obtained by executing a heat development after an image exposure to a photosensitive and pressure sensitive heat developing material, to an image receiving layer, by providing a pair of pressure rollers, and a heating device of the pressure roller. CONSTITUTION:A heat developing device 40 for heating and developing an exposed photosensitive material S is placed in front of an exposed photosensitive material supporting roller 26. The heat developing device 40 is provided with a development housing 42 having a heat insulating action, a heating roller 44 which is placed in the development housing 42, and heated to about 120 deg.C, an endless belt 50 which is supported by four belt supporting rollers 46-49, and wound to the outside periphery of a circular arc of about 270 deg. of the heating roller 44, and a nip roller 52 which has been pressed against the supporting roller 46. On the lower part of a photosensitive material and image receiving paper superposing device 70, a pressure image forming device, namely a transfer device 88 consisting of a pair of pressure rollers 80, 82, and backup rollers 84, 86 for equalizing the pressure of the pressure rollers 80, 82 in the axial direction is provided.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides a support having a photosensitive material coated thereon, which is developed by heating and the resulting image is fixed by pressure. After imagewise exposure to the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat developing material Gimme 1,
The present invention relates to a pressure image forming apparatus for fixing an image obtained by heat development using pressure.

[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 by the fact 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 can obtain high-quality images through simple dry processing has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 1986-2001 filed by the present applicant.
1) Disclosed in the specification of No. 7089. This recording material is a photosensitive and pressure-sensitive thermal development 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 and the color image forming substance are coated on a support. The color imaging material consists of a photosensitive composition encapsulated in identical microcapsules.

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. In this way, when a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material is subjected to imagewise exposure and heat development to fix an image obtained on the -ζ image-receiving layer by pressure, in order to form a clear image, it is necessary to It becomes necessary to apply uniform pressure under certain conditions.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and provides a clear image by reliably fixing an image obtained by performing heat development on the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material after imagewise exposure to an image-receiving layer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a pressurized image forming apparatus that is small and easy to obtain.

[Means to solve the problem]

The structural features of the pressure image forming apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object are that the support has photosensitivity, and development is performed by heating, and the resulting image is A pressure image forming apparatus that fixes an image obtained by performing heat development after imagewise exposure on a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat development material coated with a substance that is fixed by pressure,
A pair of pressure rolls and a heating device for the pressure rolls are provided.

Note that the photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material of the present invention is obtained by transferring a color image-forming substance to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 121284/1984 filed by the applicant mentioned above. It may also be of the type that obtains an image on an image-receiving material by using the image-receiving material. It may also be of the type in which a color image is obtained on a photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material.

〔Example〕

Below, a pressurized image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be assembled.
The integrated image recording device will be explained based on the drawings. The image recording apparatus of this embodiment uses a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat developing material of the type that forms an image on an image receiving material, and as shown in a cross-sectional view in FIG. 2 is attached so as to be slidable back and forth in the direction of arrow 4. That is, the glass plate 2 is placed 7a with the original facing down.
It slides between the position shown by the solid line and the position shown by the imaginary line in the figure.

At the bottom of the glass plate 2, there is a reflecting mirror 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 drawing rolls 22.22
They move away from each other as shown by imaginary lines to facilitate the advance of the photosensitive material S. Magazine connection 1) A cutter unit 23 for cutting the photosensitive material S and a guide plate 24 are arranged in front of the nine boxes 20 (hereinafter, "front" refers to the downstream side in the direction of travel of the photosensitive material, etc.). ing.

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 3o
Imagewise exposure of the original is performed by o.

A heat developing device 40 that heats and develops the exposed photosensitive material S is arranged in front of the exposed photosensitive material support roll 26 . The heat developing device 40 includes a developing housing 42 having a heat insulating effect, and is disposed within the developing housing 42, and has a diameter of about 120 mm.
A heating roll 44 that is heated to a temperature of 0.degree. It has a 2.7 roll 52 pressed against it.

The heat developing device 40 further includes an exposed light-sensitive material support roll 2G.
A guide device that guides the photosensitive material S fed from the heating roll 44 onto the heating roll 44 and also allows the photosensitive material S to be removed from the heating roll 44 after being heated and developed. 1.54, and a vertical guide device 58 for guiding the developing photosensitive material S fed by the support roll 49 and the nip roll 52 to an exit 56, and the exit 56 is provided with a sensor 60 for detecting the leading edge of the photosensitive material.

Directly below the outlet 56, a pair of pressure rolls 62, 64,
The nip roll 66 is pressed against the pressure roll 64, and r=a is sent by the pressure roll 64 and the nip roll 66.
(A guide member 68 that guides the ticket Mc-(:) to the contact portion of the pressure rolls 62 and 64 is disposed.

An image-receiving paper supply device 72 is disposed on the side of the photosensitive image-receiving paper stacking device 70 . The image-receiving paper supply device 72 includes an image-receiving paper supply cassette 74 that protrudes from the housing 1 and is removably attached, an image-receiving paper take-out roll 76 for taking out the image-receiving paper C in the cassette 74, and a take-out roll 76. The output image-receiving paper C is pressed into contact with the roll 64.
541) guide to the contact part of the nip roll 66
It consists of Here, the width of the image-receiving paper C is about 6 cm smaller than the width of the photosensitive material S, and the width of the image-receiving paper is
At f70, the image receiving paper C is superimposed on the photosensitive material S in the center in the middle direction.

A pair of pressure rolls 80, 82 and a hack-up roll 8 for making the pressure of the pressure rolls 80, 82 uniform in the axial direction are provided below the photosensitive image paper stacking device 70.
A pressure image forming device or transfer device 88 consisting of 4.86 is provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, the transfer device 88 is generally U-shaped and has a shaft support 300 and an adjustment arm portion 302 in a direction perpendicular to a plane including U-shaped portions 301 at both ends.
A pair of bases 304 are provided, and the bases 30.1 are mutually supported by pins 306 in the pivot support 300.

Pressure rolls 80 and 82 are attached to the U-shaped portion 301 in parallel with the axis of the pin 306, and female screws 310 provided therein are attached to the portion of the U-shaped portion 301 parallel to the axis of the pin 306. Bank up pressure adjustment screw 3 [2 is integrated. As shown in FIG. 3, a flange 313 that is in contact with a coil spring 315 is attached to the tip side of the backup pressure adjustment screw 312, and the other end of the coil spring 315 is in contact with a backup roll support member 314. In addition, the flange 313 of the backup pressure adjustment screw 312
A protruding shaft (not shown) that prevents the coil spring 315 from moving laterally is located at the tip of the coil spring 31.
It protrudes into the coil of 5. A backup roll 84 or 86 is attached to the backup roll support member 314. Roll pressure adjustment screws 320 for bringing the pressure rolls 80, 82 into contact with each other are attached to a corresponding pair of adjustment arms 302 of the base 304. The distal end of the roll pressure adjustment screw 320 is threaded into a female thread in a hole provided in one adjustment arm 302 and passes through a hole provided in the other adjustment arm 303. Then, the head 320' of the pressure adjustment screw 320 and the adjustment arm 1, 3
A compression spring 340 is disposed between 03 and 03.

Therefore, by rotating the roll pressure adjustment screw 320, the pressure of the pressure roll 80.82 on the thermal development material S and image receiving paper C sandwiched by the pressure roll 80.82 can be adjusted to a desired level, for example, 200 kg/-. By rotating the backup pressure adjustment screw 312, the backup pressure at the axially intermediate portion of the pressure roll 80.82 can be adjusted to increase the axial pressure of the pressure roll 80.82. Pressure can be equalized.

The pressure roll 80.82 is further provided with a halogen lamp heater 352 for heating the pressure roll 80.82 itself in a pore 350 provided at its axial position, and the pressure roll 80.82 is activated. The temperature is maintained at 30 to 150°C, preferably 50 to 100°C.

A photoreceptor paper peeling device 90 is provided below the transfer device 88 . The sensitive material receiving paper peeling device 90 includes a guide member 92, a first feed roll 94, a second feed roll 9G, and a first feed roll 9G.
It consists of a peeling bell (102) wrapped around guide rolls 98 and 100 so as to be in pressure contact only with the photosensitive material S at both outer end portions on the feed roll 94.

:h++ On one side of the disturbance device 90, there is a sensitive material disposal section 10.
4 is provided, and a fixing device 106 is provided on the other side. The photosensitive material disposal unit 104 includes a guide member 108, a pair of feed rolls 1)0, 1)2, and a waste box 1)4, and the photosensitive material S sent from the peeling device 90 is sent to the feed rolls 1)0, 1)4. 1) Dive into the disposal box 1) 4 by 2.

The fixing device 106 includes a guide member 120 and a reflective member +2.
2 ultraviolet irradiation lamps 124 and a pair of feed r:+-
/L/126.128, '? +I Mt+ The image receiving paper C sent from the device 90 and guided by the guide member 120 is irradiated with ultraviolet light for about 5 seconds to perform fixing.

A take-out tray 130 for receiving the image-receiving paper C is attached to the front of the fixing device 106 and protrudes from the housing l.

The image recording device further includes a control device (not shown) connected to the illumination lamp 8, the power/7 terminal unit 23, the document support glass plate 2, the sensitive material leading edge detection sensor 60, and the sensitive material receiving paper stacking device 70. is provided, and the following operations are performed. That is, in the operation preparation stage of the image recording apparatus, 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 in 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 exposed and cut photosensitive material S is transferred to a heat developing device 10.
, and is pressed against the heating roll 44 by the 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 bad phase receiving paper stacking device 70, the small and medium receiving paper C is located at the center in the width direction of the larger [1] photosensitive material S, and the leading edge of the photosensitive material S is aligned with the leading edge of the receiving paper C. Aligned or aligned so that they are several millimeters ahead of each other,
The image is sent to a transfer device 88 and is pressed with a pressure of about 150 kg/cut to be transferred onto image receiving paper.

The photosensitive material S after transfer is peeled off in the peeling device 90)
The photosensitive material is peeled off from the image receiving paper C by 102 and sent to the waste 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 8 with a reflector in the above embodiment may be any lamp that emits radiation including visible light, and specifically includes a strobe, a flash, a halogen lamp such as a tungsten lamp, a mercury lamp, an iodine lamp, and a xenon lamp. , laser beams, CR'I' light sources, plasma light sources, fluorescent tubes, light emitting diodes can be used as light sources. Also,
It can also be configured by combining a microshack array using an LCD (liquid crystal) or PLZT (lanthanum-doped lead titanium zirconate) with a linear light source or a planar light source.

In the above embodiment, the photosensitive material S is exposed to light by forming an original image directly on the photosensitive material S using the fiber lens array 10. However, a spherical lens can also be used instead of the fiber lens array 10. In addition, the exposure of the photosensitive material S is controlled by the CRT, F
OT (Fiber optic tube), L C
A (1,1quid 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, it becomes possible to perform processing on the image signal for gradation correction, color correction, scaling, editing, etc. of the projected image.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the scanning of the original is performed using the original f.
? ) and the photosensitive material and the optical system is fixed, but a method in which either the original 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, held heating, heating by a thermal head formed by arranging heating elements in a line, electrical heating, fibrous wave or infrared rays. Depending on the photosensitive material S, it is also possible to heat the photosensitive material S using an overcurrent generated by electromagnetic induction. Fluorine-based liquids may be heated in a heated bath.The heating temperature in these cases is generally 80°C.
It is in the range of 100'C to 200C, preferably 100'C to 160C.

In the above embodiment, pressure transfer is performed by overlapping the image receiving paper C on the developing material S after the development process. It can also be suitably applied to an image recording apparatus configured to perform processing and then pressure transfer. Further, in the above embodiment, the pair of pressure rolls 80, 82 are parallel to each other, but the present invention can also be effectively applied when both are twisted.

Further, in the above embodiment, a halogen lamp heater 352 is used as a heating device for the pressure roll, but an infrared heater, a nichrome wire heater, a ceramic heater, etc. can be used instead. Alternatively, a 3A conductive coil may be provided inside the pressure roll 80.82, an alternating current voltage may be applied to the coil, and a short circuit current may be passed through the pressure roll 80.82 to heat the pressure roll 80.82 using Joule heat generated thereby. can.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat developing material and the image receiving material 1'
4 or only the photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material can be heated and pressurized while being brought into contact with a heated pressure roll, which has the advantage that transfer can be carried out efficiently and a clear image can be obtained. In other words, when trying to perform transcription under certain conditions,
The pressurized image forming apparatus has the advantage that it is possible to use a small pressurizing force and to have a compact and simple structure, and more efficient transfer can be performed with the same pressurizing force.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural explanatory diagram of an image recording apparatus incorporating a transfer device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the transfer device, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a pressure mechanism using a backup roll. S...Photosensitive pressure sensitive thermal development material C...Receiving paper 1...Housing 2...Document support glass 8...Illumination lamp 14 ...Sensitive material cartridge 40...Heat developing device 70...Sensitive material receiving paper overlapping device 72...
... Receiving paper supply device 80.82 ... Pressure roll 84.86 ... Hack up roll 88 ...
. . . Transfer device 90 . ...Base 312...Backup pressure adjustment screw 320.
...Roll pressure adjustment screw 352...Halogen lamp heater Figure 3

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) After imagewise exposure to a light-sensitive and pressure-sensitive heat-developable material having a support coated with a substance that has photosensitivity and is developed by heating, and the resulting image is fixed by pressure, the material is heated. A pressurized image forming apparatus that fixes an image obtained by developing with pressure, the pressurized image forming apparatus comprising a pair of pressurizing rolls and a heating device for the pressurizing rolls. . (2) The pair of pressure rolls has a pair of backup rolls that have a shorter axial width than the pressure rolls and act on at least one of the pressure rolls, and the pressure roll and the backup roll The pressurized image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pressurized image forming apparatus has a pressurizing force adjusting device that operates independently of each other. (3) The pressurized image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the backup roll includes a plurality of rolls. (4) The pressure image forming apparatus according to claim (1), wherein the pair of pressure rolls are twisted with respect to each other.