JPS6228736A - Method and device for recording picture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To appropriately control the coating quantity of a solvent for forming picture and, at the same time, to coat the solvent only, to a necessary part, by contacting and separating an coating member having a water absorbing property with and from the surface of picture receiving paper and coating the solvent to the paper. CONSTITUTION:To a tank 66 containing the water 72 of a water coating section 34 for coating water which is a solvent for forming picture, a porous felt 74 which is an coating member is provided and, moreover, a rotary arm 60 is fixed to the tank 66. The tank 66 can be moved around a rotary shaft 58 by means of a prescribed motor. When a picture recorded on heat developable phtosensitive material is transferred, the tank 66 is moved to he coating position shown in the figure from its stand-by position synchronously to the transportation of picture receiving paper 32 and, when the transfer is completed, the tank 66 is again moved to the stand-by position by means of the motor. Therefore, the solvent applying length can be changed optionally and the coating quantity of the solvent can be controlled appropriately. In addition, when the width of the felt 74 is changed, the solvent can be applied only to a necessary part.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an image recording method for obtaining an image on an image-receiving material by transferring an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material to the image-receiving material in the presence of an image-forming solvent; Regarding equipment.

[Conventional technology]

As shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 59-75247, an image recording device that obtains a color image using a heat-developable photosensitive material exposes an image to the heat-developable photosensitive material in an exposure section and then sends it to a heat developing section. It is known that an image receiving paper is brought into close contact with a 18 optical material, and an image is transferred to the image receiving paper through a transfer process.

Before this image receiving paper is sent to the transfer section, a transfer aid such as water (ie, an image forming solvent) is applied in advance to improve the transfer efficiency.

For this reason, in the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-75247, water is applied using a roller impregnated with water, but the water application tends to be uneven, causing uneven transfer.

Furthermore, a device has been proposed in which the image-receiving paper is passed through a water tank and coated with water before being sent to the transfer unit, but when the image-receiving paper is passed through the water tank, water is also applied to the back side of the image-receiving paper. As a result, the image receiving paper may curl and the amount of heat required during thermal transfer increases. Furthermore, at this position, water is applied to the entire area of the image receiving paper, so when it is in close contact with the photosensitive material during transfer, excess water oozes out along with the emulsion in the image area, causing stains on the transport roller, developing roller, etc. becomes.

[Purpose of the invention]

In consideration of the above facts, the present invention makes it possible to appropriately control the amount of an image forming solvent such as water applied, and to apply the image forming solvent only to necessary portions of a photothermographic material or an image receiving material. The purpose is to obtain an image recording method and apparatus that can.

[Summary and operation of the invention]

The image recording method according to the present invention is an image recording method in which an image on a heat-developable photosensitive material 1 is transferred to an image-receiving material in the presence of an image-forming solvent. By bringing the water-absorbing application member that holds the solvent into contact and separating it,
It is characterized by applying an image forming solvent.

Further, the image recording apparatus according to the present invention is an image recording apparatus that transfers an image of a heat-developable photosensitive material to an image receiving material in the presence of an image forming solvent, and includes a tank containing the image forming solvent, and one end of which is connected to the tank. A water-absorbing coating member that is inserted into a tank and whose other end protrudes outside the tank and serves as a coating portion for an image forming solvent; and this coating member is used to coat a heat-developable photosensitive material or an image-receiving material with an image forming solvent. The invention is characterized in that it has a drive means for moving between a coating position for applying the coating and a retracted position remote from the coating position.

For this reason, in the present invention, the coating member appropriately controls the coating amount of the image forming solvent, and the coating member is brought into contact with and separated from the photosensitive material or image-receiving material, so that the photosensitive material or image-receiving material can be moved to any position in the feeding direction. It is now possible to apply an image forming solvent.

In addition, in the image recording method of the present invention, the exposed heat-developable photosensitive material is subjected to heat development processing, and then the photosensitive material after heat development and the image-receiving material are overlapped and heated to transfer the image to the image-receiving material. Alternatively, the exposed photothermographic material and the image-receiving material may be overlapped and heated to simultaneously perform thermal development and thermal transfer to obtain an image on the image-receiving material.

The image recording apparatus of the present invention also includes a heat developing section that heat-develops the exposed heat-developable photosensitive material, and a transfer section that heats the heat-developed photosensitive material and image-receiving material by overlapping them and transferring the image to the image-receiving material. The section may be provided separately,
In addition, the heat development section and the transfer section are provided at the same place, that is, the heat development/transfer section that overlaps and heats the exposed photothermographic material and the image receiving material to simultaneously perform thermal development and thermal transfer. may be provided.

In the present invention, the water-absorbing coating member may be any material that is water-absorbing and can retain even a small amount of image forming solvent such as water, such as sponge,
Porous materials such as foam, felt, brushes, etc. can be used.

In the present invention, the image-forming solvent is a solvent required for image formation, such as water, a low-boiling organic solvent (alcohol, ketones, amides, etc.), or a surface-active solvent added to these solvents. [Embodiments of the Invention] The present invention will be described below, taking as an example a case where thermal development and thermal transfer are performed simultaneously. An image recording method and apparatus will be described.

FIG. 1 shows an image recording apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the invention.

In this image recording apparatus 10, a magazine 14 is mounted on a machine stand 12 and stores a photothermographic material 16. This photosensitive material 16 is pulled out from the magazine 14 and cutter 18
After being cut to the required length, it is wound around the outer periphery of the exposure drum 20 installed in the machine stand 12, exposed to light by the rad 22, separated by 711 by the scraper 24, and sent to the overlapping section 26. It is.

Further, the image receiving paper 32 stored in layers in the cassette 30 is supplied via the water application section 34, superimposed on the photosensitive material 16 in the overlapping section 26, and sent to the thermal development/transfer section 28. There is.

A 7.11 separation section 36 is provided downstream of the thermal development/transfer section 28, and the photosensitive material 1 is transferred to the accumulation device 38 downstream of the separation section 36.
6 is fed, and the image-receiving paper 32 is sent to a take-out section 40.

The image receiving paper 32 is stored in the cassette 30 and transferred to the machine base 12.
A driving force is applied by a conveying roller 42 which is pivotally supported on the sheet, and the sheet is sent from the bottom layer to the water application section 34 .

The water application section 34 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4.

In the water coating section 34, a pair of transport rollers 44, 46 that sandwich the transported image receiving paper 32 are arranged close to the cassette 30, and downstream of these transport rollers 44, 46, a pair of transport rollers 48. 50 are arranged to sandwich and convey the image receiving paper 32.

These rollers are configured to receive the driving force of a motor (not shown) and send out the image receiving paper 32 to the overlapping section 26. Further, a guide plate 51 is provided between these transport rollers, corresponding to the back surface (the side opposite to the emulsion) of the image receiving paper 32 being transported.

As shown in FIG. 4, a bracket 52 is mounted between the conveying rollers 44 and 48 in close proximity to the image transfer surface, ie, the emulsion surface, of the image receiving paper 32 being conveyed. A rotating shaft 5 is mounted on this bracket 52 by a pair of bearings 54 and 56.
8 is pivoted.

A rotating arm 60 is fixed to this rotating shaft 58.

The rotating arm 60 is formed of a plate material, has both ends bent at right angles, extends parallel to each other, and is fixed to the rotating shaft 58 at the extended portions.

The end of the rotating shaft 58 protruding from the bearing 56 is connected to a motor 64 via a joint 62, and receives the rotational force of the motor 64 to move the rotating arm 60 between the state shown in FIG. 2 and the state shown in FIG. It is possible to rotate between the two.

A clip 68 whose one end is fixed to the side wall of the tank 66 is fitted into the center of the rotating arm 60, so that the tank 66 is attached to the rotating arm 60. A handle 70 is provided at the top of the tank 6G,
When a worker grasps this handle 70 and lifts it upward from the state shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the clip 68 comes off from the rotating arm 6o, allowing the tank 6G to be taken out. For this reason, clip 68 is preferably made of a temporary spring material.

As shown in FIG. 2, water 72, which is an image forming solvent, is injected into the tank 66, and the water is applied to the surface of the image receiving paper 32 through a porous felt 74. That is, one end of the felt 74 is inserted into the tank 66, and the distal end protruding from the tank 66, that is, the application part, comes into contact with the image receiving paper 32, so that in the state shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. This is the application position where the impregnated water can be applied to the middle part of the surface. Furthermore, in the form shown in FIG. 3, since the felt 74 is separated from the image receiving paper 32, water application is not performed, and this is the retracted position.
is in a state where it is separated from the water 72 in Kunkuro.

In order to accurately stop the tank 66 at the coating position shown in FIG. 2 and the retracted position shown in FIG. All you have to do is set it up.

The shaded area shown in FIG. 4 indicates the application water 76 applied by the felt 74. The width W of the coating water 76 can be arbitrarily adjusted by adjusting the width of the felt 74. In addition to this, the felt 4 may be brought into contact with the surface of the image-receiving paper 32 through a plate-shaped mask that covers the portions of the image-receiving paper 32 that do not need to be coated with water. The conveying roller 4 is
8 has a small-diameter portion 48A in the middle, and is configured to sandwich only the widthwise ends of the image-receiving paper 32.

A guide rod 78 whose axis is vertical at the filtrate application position as shown in FIG. 2 is installed in the tank 66, along which the float 80 can move. A magnet 82 is attached to a part of the float 80, and the float 80 and the float 80 follow changes in the liquid level of the water 72 in the tank 66.

A magnetic sensor 88 fixed to the rotary arm 60 via an attachment device 86 in correspondence with the magnet 82 detects when the magnet 82 reaches a predetermined height at the water application position shown in FIG. Tank 66 with alarm device etc.
It is possible to notify a shortage of water 72 in the tank.

In this case, the operator can supply the required amount of water into the tank 66 or replace the tank 66 with another tank 66.

Various sensors can be used to detect the amount of liquid in the tank 66, and the tank 66 may be made transparent so that the liquid level can be visually observed from the outside.

In the retracted position shown in FIG. 3, the tank 66 is rotated clockwise from the application position and the felt 74 is positioned higher, so the liquid level of the water 72 has not reached the felt 74, and in this retracted position The amount of water 72 that evaporates outside through felt 74 can be reduced.

As shown in FIG. 1, a reversing section 90 is provided downstream of the water coating section 34 for making the emulsion surface of the image receiving paper 32 coated with water correspond to the image surface of the photosensitive material 16. In this reversing section 90, the image receiving paper 32 sent from the water coating section 34 is pushed out onto a tray 96 from its tip by guide rollers 92,94. In this case, the guide roller 92 is separated from the guide roller 94 and rotated in the same direction as the guide roller 94.

After extrusion, the guide roller 92 is brought into contact with the guide roller 94, the tail of the image receiving paper 32 is sandwiched between them, and conversely, the paper is sent from the tail to the overlapping section 26, so that the water-applied surface corresponds to the image surface. ing.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 taken out from the magazine 14 is wound around an exposure drum 20, exposed by an exposure head 22, and then sent to a stacking section 26.

Among the image-receiving papers 32 partially stored in the cassette 30, the lowest layer of the image-receiving paper 32 is sent to the water application section 34 by a conveying roller 42. In the water coating section 34, a motor 64 rotates in synchronization with the conveyance of the image receiving paper 32 to bring the tank 66 to the coating position as shown in FIG. The motor 64 is rotated again after the required amount of water has been applied as the image receiving paper 32 advances, and the tank 66 is filled with water.
Rotate it to the retracted position shown in FIG.

Thereby, as shown in FIG. 4, the length of the coating along the longitudinal direction of the image receiving paper 32 can be arbitrarily controlled.

Moreover, since the width dimension W of the coating water 76 is controlled by the width dimension of the felt 74, the coating water 76 can be applied only to the necessary image transfer area. Application water 7 after application
6 passes along the small diameter portion 48A of the conveyance roller 48, so that the applied water 76 after application is not adversely affected by the conveyance roller 48.

The image-receiving paper 32 coated with water in the compensation cloth section 34 is transferred to the reversing section 9.
After being inverted at 0, the photosensitive material 16 is sent to the overlaying section 26, where it is overlaid on the image surface of the photosensitive material 16, and then transferred to the thermal development/transfer section 2.
Sent to 8. Here, heat development is carried out in the presence of water, and at the same time the formed dye image is heat-transferred to the emulsion surface of the image-receiving paper 32. In this transfer state, the image receiving paper 3 is already
Since the necessary amount of water is appropriately applied to the transfer plate 2, an extremely good transfer operation is performed.

After the transfer, the photosensitive material 1'I 6 and the image receiving paper 32 which are in close contact with each other are sent from the thermal development/transfer section 28 to the female section 36, and the photosensitive material 16 is stored in a stacking unit 38 and the image receiving paper The paper 32 is sent to the take-out section 4o and taken out.

Next, FIG. 5 shows a tank 98 used in the second embodiment of the present invention.
It is shown. In this tank 98, unlike the previous embodiment, a plurality of felts 74 (three in this embodiment) are used. These felts 74 are attached to the advancing receiving paper 3.
2 are arranged in series along the traveling direction of the felt 74, thereby making it possible to reduce coating unevenness due to minute irregularities at the tip portion of the felt 74.

In the above embodiments, the present invention has been described with reference to the case where the image receiving paper 32 is coated with water, but the present invention is similarly applicable to the case where the photosensitive material 16 is coated with water.

Further, in the above embodiment, when moving the felt 74 from the application position to the retracted position, the tank 66 is moved while being rotated by the arm 60, but the tank 66 is not limited to this, and the tank 66 is moved linearly away from the image receiving paper 32. It is also possible to have a configuration in which the Alternatively, only the felt 74 may be made movable relative to the tank 66 so as to be separated from the image receiving paper 32.

In the above embodiment, the felt 74 stopped and the image-receiving paper 32 advanced and the two moved relative to each other.
The two may be moved relative to each other by driving in the two advancing directions.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the image recording method according to the present invention is an image recording method in which an image of a heat-developable photosensitive material is transferred to an image-receiving material in the presence of an image-forming solvent, and the image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive material or the image-receiving material. The image recording apparatus according to the present invention coats a photothermographic material in the presence of an image forming solvent by moving a water-absorbing coating member that holds a solvent for image forming into contact with and separating it from each other. An image recording device for transferring an image to an image-receiving material, comprising: a tank containing an image-forming solvent; and an image-forming solvent sleeve having one end inserted into the tank and the other end protruding outside the tank. a coating member having a water-absorbing property, and a drive for moving the coating member between a coating amount for coating a photothermographic material or an image-receiving material with an image-forming solvent and a retracted position away from the coating position. Since it is characterized by having means, it has an excellent effect of appropriately controlling the application amount of the image forming medium 7 and applying the image forming medium 8 only to the necessary areas. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an image recording apparatus to which the image recording method according to the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is an enlarged view showing the application position of the water application part, and FIG. 3 is a DJ drawing showing the retracted position. , 4th
(21 is a perspective view of the application position of the water application part, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the tank used in the second embodiment of the present invention. - Heat-developable photosensitive material, 32... Image receiving paper, 34... Water application section, 60... Rotating arm, 66... Tank, 72... Water, 74... Felt, 76... Application water, 9th day...tank.

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) In an image recording method for obtaining an image on an image-receiving material by transferring an image recorded on a photothermographic material to an image-receiving material in the presence of an image-forming solvent, the surface of the photothermographic material or the image-receiving material An image recording method characterized in that the image forming solvent is applied by moving a water-absorbing coating member that holds the image forming solvent into and away from the surface. (2) The image recording method according to claim 1, wherein the image forming solvent is applied to a part of the surface of the photothermographic material or the image receiving material. (3) In an image recording apparatus that forms an image on an image-receiving material by transferring an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material to the image-receiving material in the presence of an image-forming solvent, a tank containing the image-forming solvent; , a water-absorbing coating member having one end inserted into the tank and the other end protruding outside the tank and serving as a coating portion for the image forming solvent, and the coating member being used as the photothermographic material or the image-receiving material. An image recording apparatus comprising: a drive means for moving between a coating position for applying an image forming solvent to a substrate and a retracted position remote from the coating position. (4) The application member is provided at a lower part of the tank, and the driving means brings the application member into contact with the image forming solvent in the tank at the application position, and separates the application member at the retraction position. 4. The image recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the image recording apparatus is configured such that the tank can be rotated. (5) The image recording apparatus according to claim 3 or 4, wherein a plurality of the coating members are arranged along the coating direction of the image forming solvent.