JPS62244053A - Image recording method and its device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently and exactly execute a pressure transfer by transferring to an image receiving material in a pressured state that is, in a state either a photosensitive and pressure sensitive thermal developing material to which an image is recorded and a development is executed, or the image receiving material is heated. CONSTITUTION:A photosensitive material S which is exposed and cut is fed to a heating developing device 40, pressed against a heating roller 44 by an endless belt 50 and heated to about 120 deg.C, developed, and it is detected by a photosensitive material tip detecting sensor 60 that the tip part of the developed photosensitive material S has passed through an outlet 56. On the other hand, in an image receiving paper supply device 72, image receiving paper C is fed by synchronizing with a timing, fed to a position where its tip part is nipped by a pressure welding roller 64 and a nip roller 66, and the image receiving paper C stops. In a photosensitive material image receiving paper superposing device 70, the image receiving paper C of a small width is in the center of the width direction of the photosensitive material S of a larger width, superposed, fed to a transfer device 88 and pressed by pressure of about 150kg/cm<2>, and a transfer is executed to the image receiving paper.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides image processing using a photosensitive and pressure-sensitive heat-developable material and an image-receiving material that is superimposed on the heat-developable material and onto which an image is transferred by pressure. The present invention relates to an image recording method and apparatus for recording images.

More specifically, a photosensitive and pressure sensitive heat developing material is used, which has a photosensitive substance coated on a support and which is developed by heating and the resulting image is fixed by pressure. The present invention relates to an image recording method and apparatus for image-wise exposing a heat-developable material, subjecting it to heat development, overlapping it with an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer, pressurizing them, and obtaining 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.
1) Disclosed in the specification of No. 7089. 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.

When obtaining an image on an image-receiving material in this manner, in order to obtain a clear image, it is necessary to reliably perform pressure transfer under predetermined conditions.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and the above-mentioned novel photosensitive and pressure-sensitive thermal development material is subjected to imagewise exposure and heat development, and then overlaid with an image-receiving material, and an image is transferred to the image-receiving material by pressure transfer. An object of the present invention is to provide an image recording method and apparatus that can efficiently and reliably perform pressure transfer to obtain a clear image.

Means for Solving Problem E] The structural feature of the image recording method according to the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object is that the image recording method according to the present invention has a photosensitive material on a support that is photosensitive and that can be developed by heating. A photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material coated with a substance to which the resulting image is fixed by pressure, and an image receiving material which is superimposed on the light sensitive pressure sensitive heat development material and onto which the image is transferred by pressure. In the image recording method used, in a state where at least one of the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material and the image-receiving material on which an image is recorded and developed is heated, the photo-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material is heated. The method is to pressurize and transfer an image recorded on the image-receiving material to the image-receiving material.

Further, the structural feature of the image recording apparatus according to the present invention is that a material is coated on the support, which is photosensitive, develops by heating, and fixes the obtained image by pressure. An image recording apparatus using a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material, comprising: an exposure device that imagewise exposes the photo-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material to form a latent image; a heat developing device that hardens and immobilizes a portion corresponding to the developed latent image; a transfer device that superimposes the developed photosensitive pressure sensitive heat developing material and the image receiving material and presses them together; and a heating device disposed on the upstream side for heating at least one of the photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material and the image receiving material.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the image recording method and apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The image recording apparatus of this embodiment has a document supporting glass plate 2 attached to the upper surface of a housing 1 so as to be slidable back and forth in the direction of an arrow 4, as shown in a sectional view in FIG. 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 reflecting mirror 6 for illuminating the original.
An additional illumination lamp 8 is provided, and a fiber lens array 1O is provided for forming an original image on a photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal 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. 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. 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 l at position 32 between 30 and 30;
Imagewise exposure of the original is performed by O.

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, and is disposed within the developing housing 42, and has a diameter of about 120 mm.
An endless belt 50 is supported by a heating roll 44 heated to 0.degree. The nip roll 52 is pressed into contact with the nip roll 52.

The heat developing device 40 further includes an exposed bad phase 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, 64,
A photosensitive material receiving paper stacking device consisting of 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. is placed.

An image receiving paper supply device 72 is disposed on either 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.
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 6 fins smaller than the width of the photosensitive material S, and in the photosensitive image-receiving paper stacking device 70, the image-receiving paper C is stacked in the center of the photosensitive material S in the width direction. Ru.

A pair of pressure rolls 80 and 82 and a backup roll 8 for making the pressure of the pressure rolls 80 and 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 has a pair of generally U-shaped parts having a shaft support 300 and an adjustment arm part 302 in a direction perpendicular to a plane including a U-shaped member 301 at both ends. A base 304 is provided, and the bases 304 are mutually pivotally supported by pins 306 in the pivot support 300 .

Pressure rolls 80 and 82 are attached to the U-shaped member 301 in parallel with the axis of the pin 306, and the U-shaped member 301
A backup pressure adjustment screw 312 is screwed into a female screw 310 provided in a portion parallel to the axis of the first pin 306. As shown in FIG. 3, a flange 313 is provided at the tip end of the backup pressure adjustment screw 312 in contact with a coil spring 315, and the other end of the coil spring 315 is in contact with a backup roll support member 314.

Note that the flange 31 of the bank up pressure adjustment screw 312
3, there is a protruding shaft (not shown) that prevents the coil spring 315 from moving in the lateral direction.
It protrudes into 15 coils. The backup roll support member 314 includes a backup roll 84 or 86.
is installed. Roll pressure adjustment screws 320 for bringing the pressure rolls 80 and 82 into contact with each other are attached to a corresponding pair of the arm sections 302 of the base 304m. The tip of the 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. A compression spring 340 is arranged between the head 320' of the pressure adjustment screw 320 and the adjustment arm 303! be done.

Therefore, by rotating the roll pressure adjustment screw 320, the pressure applied by the pressure rolls 80.82 to the thermal development material S and image receiving paper C sandwiched between the pressure rolls 80.82 can be adjusted to a desired level, for example, 200 kg/an. ! 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, and the pressure roll 80.
Pressure in the axial direction of 82 can be made uniform.

A heating device 190 consisting of a halogen lamp 182 covered by an opaque material, for example a metal tube 180, is arranged in the vicinity of the upstream side of the pressure rolls 80,82. metal tube 1
The metal tube 180 is heated at 30'' to 150°C, preferably 50' to 80°C, by the heat generated by the halogen lamp 182.
The image receiving paper C is heated by contact.

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 consists of a guide member 108, a pair of feed rolls 1) 0.1) 2, and a disposal box 1) 4.
The photosensitive material S sent from the peeling device 90 is sent to the feed roll 1)
0.1)2, put it in the waste box 1)4.

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 apparatus of the present invention further includes a control device (not shown) connected to the illumination lamp 8, the cutter 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, 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 exposed and cut 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 superimposed so as to be several millimeters ahead of each other, and sent to the transfer device 88 where they are pressed with a pressure of about 150 kg/ad 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 roller 126.12B takes out the tray 1.
Sent to 30.

The irradiation 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 beam, CRT light source.

Plasma light sources, fluorescent tubes, emission diodes can be used as light sources. In addition, LCD (liquid crystal) and PLZ
T (lanthanum-doped lead titanium zirconate)
It can also be constructed by combining a micro-shutter array using 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 (Liquid crystal array),
It is also possible to perform this indirectly using 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.

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. A liquid inert to the photosensitive material S, such as a fluorine-based liquid, may be heated in a heated spring. 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.

In the above embodiment, pressure transfer is performed by overlapping the image receiving paper C on the developing material S after the development process, but the development process is not performed after overlapping the image receiving paper on the developing material S before the development process. The present invention can also be suitably applied to an image recording apparatus configured to perform subsequent pressure transfer.

Further, in the above embodiment, the heating device 190 was constituted by a halogen lamp 182 covered by a metal tube 180, but instead of this, a surface heating element is arranged in a non-contact manner very close to the image receiving paper C being conveyed. It can also be configured to do so.

Further, in the embodiment described above, the heating device 190 is provided between the photosensitive material and image receiving paper stacking device 70 and the transfer device 88, and heats the photosensitive material and image receiving paper that have been stacked together from the image receiving paper side. However, heating may be performed from the photosensitive material side or from both sides.

Furthermore, the heating device 190 may be provided between the heat developing device 40 and the sensitive material receiving paper stacking device 70 or between the receiving paper supplying device 72 and the sensitive material receiving paper stacking device 70.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, transfer by pressure is performed after heating at least one of the photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material and the image-receiving material, so that efficient and reliable pressure transfer is possible. Further, since heating is performed in advance when transferring under predetermined conditions, the pressure applied to the transfer device can be reduced, that is, the structure can be made small and simple.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural explanatory diagram of an image recording apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a transfer device, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a pressure mechanism using a backup roll. S...Photosensitive pressure sensitive heat development material, C...
Receiving paper, l...Housing, 2...Original support glass, 8...Illumination lamp, 14...Sensitive material cartridge, 40...・Heat developing device, 70...Sensitive material receiver paper overlaying device, 72...
... Receiving paper supply device, 80.82 ... Pressure roll, 84.86 ... Buffing roll, 88 ...
...Transfer device, 90...Sensitive material image receiving paper peeling device, 104...
... Sensitive material disposal section, 106 ... Fixing device, 180 ... Metal tube, 182 ... Halogen lamp, 190 ... Heating device, 300 ... ...Axis support, 304...Base, 312...Bag amplifier pressure adjustment screw, 320
・・・・・・Roll pressure adjustment screw, 352・・・・・・
Halogen lamp heater. Figure 3

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A photosensitive and pressure-sensitive heat-developable material having a support coated with a substance that is photosensitive and develops by heating and fixes the obtained image by pressure, and the photosensitive and pressure-sensitive material. An image recording method using an image-receiving material that is superimposed on a heat-developable material and onto which an image is transferred by pressure, the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material and the image-receiving material on which an image is recorded and developed. An image recording method characterized in that an image recorded on the photosensitive pressure-sensitive thermal development material is pressure-transferred to the image-receiving material while at least one of the materials is heated. (2) An image recording device that uses a photosensitive and pressure-sensitive heat-developable material on which a support is coated with a material that is photosensitive, develops by heating, and fixes the resulting image by pressure. an exposure device that imagewise exposes the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material to form a latent image; and a heating device that hardens and immobilizes a portion corresponding to the latent image formed on the photo-sensitive pressure-sensitive heat-developable material. a developing device, a transfer device that superimposes the developed photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat developing material and the image receiving material and presses them together; An image recording apparatus comprising: a heating device for heating at least one of the materials. (3) The pressurized image forming apparatus according to claim (2), wherein the heating device is a halogen lamp covered with an opaque material member. (4) The pressure image forming apparatus according to claim (3), wherein the opaque material covering the halogen lamp is arranged so as to come into contact with either the photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat developing material or the image receiving material. .