JPS631560A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To record a high-quality image even on a medium to be transferred having a low surface smoothness and obtain a multicolor image without setting the medium to be transferred in a complicated operation, by wherein an image to be transferred is formed on a transfer recording medium by imparting at least one energy of light and heat according to a recording information, and is transferred onto a medium to be transferred. CONSTITUTION:A light of a wave length to which an image-forming element 31 reacts is emitted sequentially to the entire area of a heating part of a thermal head 2 superimposed on a transfer recording medium 1. When a light of wave length lambda(Y) is emitted to a transfer recording layer 1a to cause thermal resistors 2b, 2d-2f to heat, an image- forming element 31 to which a heat and the light of wave length lambda(Y) are given, hardens among other image-forming elements 31 containing yellow coloring materials. Next when lights of wave lengths lambda(M), lambda(C) and lambda(K) are sequentially emitted to the transfer recording layer 1a, and at the same time, a selected thermal resistor is allowed to heat, an image-forming element 31, to which a light and heat are applied, hardens, and finally an image to be transferred is formed on the transfer recording layer 1 by an image-forming element 31 which has not hardened. This image to be transferred is transferred to recording paper 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Industrial Application Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image recording device that can be applied to printers, copying machines, electronic typewriters, facsimile machines, and the like.

BACKGROUND ART In recent years, with the rapid development of the information industry, various information processing systems have been developed, and recording methods and devices suitable for each information processing system have also been developed and adopted. As one of such recording methods, the thermal transfer recording method uses a light, compact, and noiseless device.
It has excellent operability and maintainability, and has been widely used recently.

This thermal transfer recording method generally uses a thermal transfer medium formed by blocking a thermal transfer ink made of a heat-melting binder with a colorant dispersed on a sheet-like support. The thermal transferable ink layer is superimposed on the transfer medium so as to be in contact with the transfer medium, and heat is supplied from the support side of the thermal transfer medium by a thermal head to transfer the melted ink layer to the transfer medium. A transfer ink image is formed on a medium according to the shape of heat supply.

According to this method, plain paper can be used as the transfer medium.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, conventional thermal transfer recording methods are not without problems. This is because in the conventional thermal transfer recording method, the transfer recording performance, that is, the print quality, is greatly affected by the surface smoothness of the transfer medium. In the case of a transfer medium, the image recording quality may deteriorate.

In addition, when trying to obtain multicolor images using conventional thermal transfer recording methods, it is necessary to install multiple thermal heads, or to perform complicated functions such as reverse feeding and stopping of the transfer medium, which requires the entire device. There are problems such as the data becomes large and complicated, and the recording speed decreases.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the problems of the conventional apparatus and record high-quality images even on transfer media with low surface smoothness. Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording device that can obtain multicolor images without requiring a transfer medium to perform complicated functions.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention solves the above problems by providing a transfer recording layer whose physical properties governing the transfer characteristics change when applied with light energy and thermal energy, Along a transportable path of a transfer recording medium having a supporting support,
a light source provided on the transfer recording layer side for applying light energy to the transfer recording medium; a heat source provided on the support side for applying thermal energy to the transfer recording medium; The apparatus is characterized in that it has a transfer means for transferring and fixing the image formed on the transfer recording medium to the transfer medium.

Embodiments> First, an image forming method applied to an image recording apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1a to 1d. 1st
The time axes (horizontal axes) of the graphs in Figures a to 1d correspond to each other. In addition, as a sensitive component in the transfer recording layer,
It contains polymerization components including a reaction initiator and a crosslinking agent, which will be described later. FIG. 1a shows the rise in the surface temperature of the heating element and the subsequent temperature drop when the heating means such as a thermal head is driven for a period of time 0-t3.

The transfer recording medium that is in pressure contact with the heating element exhibits a temperature change as shown in FIG. 1b as the temperature of the heating element changes. That is, the temperature rises with a time delay of t1, reaches the maximum temperature at time t4, which is also delayed from t3, and thereafter decreases. This transfer recording layer has a glass transition point Tgo, and rapidly softens and decreases in viscosity in a temperature range above Tgo. This situation is shown by curve A in FIG. 1c. T at time t2
After reaching go, the viscosity continues to decrease until time t4 when the maximum temperature is reached, and as the temperature decreases, the viscosity increases again and shows a rapid increase until time t6 when it drops to Tgo. In this case, the physical properties of the transfer recording layer are basically unchanged from before heating.
If it is heated to a temperature higher than Tgo in the next transfer step, the same viscosity phenomenon as described above will occur. Therefore, if the transfer recording layer is brought into pressure contact with the transfer medium and heated to a temperature necessary for transfer, for example, above Tgo, the transfer recording layer will be transferred for the same reason as the transfer mechanism of conventional thermal transfer recording. is the first
As shown in Figure d, when light is irradiated at the same time as heating from time t2, the reaction initiator contained in the transfer recording layer is activated and the temperature rises enough to increase the reaction rate. The reaction initiator acts on the crosslinking agent to generate an activated crosslinking agent, and the probability of crosslinking to the crosslinkable prepolymer increases dramatically, so that curing progresses. When heating and light irradiation are performed simultaneously in this manner, the transfer recording layer exhibits a behavior as shown by curve B in FIG. 1c.

As the crosslinking reaction progresses, the glass transition temperature rises and changes from Tgo to Tg' at time t5 when crosslinking ends. This situation is shown in Figure 1d. Therefore, when heated in the next transfer step, there will be a difference in properties between the part that has changed to Tg' and the part that has not changed. So, for example, T go
< T r <'I' If the heating is performed to a value of Tr, there will be a difference between a portion where the viscosity has decreased and a portion where the viscosity has not decreased, and only the portion where the viscosity has decreased will be transferred to the transfer medium. Although it depends on the temperature stability accuracy of the transfer process, at this time T
g'-Tgo is preferably about 208C or higher.

In this way, a transfer image can be formed by controlling heating or non-heating according to the image signal and simultaneously irradiating light.

Furthermore, if the glass transition point changes, the softening temperature and melting temperature also change in a similar manner, so the softening temperature and melting temperature can be controlled using the fluctuation range of the glass transition point as a guide. In addition, the heating temperature in the transfer image forming step is preferably 70° C. or higher for the image forming element in order to speed up the reaction rate at which the physical properties governing the transfer characteristics change and to perform the reaction stably. Setting the temperature to 80°C or higher gives good results.

The principle of this image forming method can of course be applied to monochrome image formation, but first a multicolor image forming method to which the above-described principle of the image forming method is applied will be described. FIGS. 2a to 2d are partial views showing the relationship between the multicolor transfer recording medium and the thermal head. Thermal energy modulated according to the image recording signal is applied together with light energy of a wavelength selected according to the color tone of the image forming element whose physical properties governing the transfer characteristics are desired to be changed. Note that "modulation" here refers to changing the position where energy is applied according to the image signal, and "both" refers to applying light energy and thermal energy at the same time. It is also possible to apply energy separately.

Further, in this example, in order to improve the light irradiation efficiency, light energy is applied from the transfer recording layer side of the transfer recording medium.

In the figure, a multicolor transfer recording system 1 is a base film l.
It is configured by providing a transcription record report la on top of b. The transfer recording layer 1a is a layer in which minute image forming elements 3I are distributed, and each image forming element 3l exhibits a different color tone. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2a to 2c, each image forming material 31 has cyan (C). Magenta (M). Yellow (Y) color. Contains one of the coloring materials. However, the coloring material contained in each image forming material 3l is not limited to cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, and any coloring material may be used depending on the purpose. In addition to the coloring material, each image forming element 31 contains a sensitive component whose physical properties governing transfer characteristics change rapidly when light and heat energy is applied.

The sensitive component of each image forming element 3l has wavelength dependence depending on the coloring material it contains. That is, when heat and light of wavelength λ(Y) are applied to the image forming element 3l containing the yellow coloring material, crosslinking rapidly progresses and the image forming element 3l is cured. Similarly, the image forming element 31 containing magenta coloring material receives heat and light of wavelength λ(M), and the image forming element 3l containing cyan coloring material receives heat and light of wavelength λ(C). , the image forming element 3l containing black coloring material undergoes crosslinking and hardening when heat and light of wavelength λ(I<<) are respectively applied. Even when the cured image forming element 3l is heated in the next transfer step, the viscosity does not decrease and it is not transferred to the transfer medium. Heat and light are applied depending on the recorded information.

Now, in this multicolor image forming method, the transfer recording medium 1 is placed on the thermal head 2, and light is irradiated so as to cover the entire heat generating part of the thermal head 2. The irradiated light has a wavelength that the image forming element 3l reacts to, and is sequentially irradiated. for example,
When the image forming element 3l is colored cyan, mazetan, yellow, or black, the wavelength λ(C)
, λ(M), λ(Y) and λ(IO) are sequentially irradiated.

That is, first, the transfer recording layer 1a of the multicolor transfer recording medium 1 is irradiated with light of wavelength λ(Y), and the heating resistors 2b, 2d, 2e, and 2f of the thermal head 2, for example, are caused to generate heat. Then, of the image forming element 3l containing the yellow coloring material, the image forming element 31 (the hatched part in FIG. 2a) to which both heat and light of wavelength λ(Y) is applied. , the cured image forming element is shown by hatching) is cured.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2b, the wavelength λ is recorded on the transfer record FJ1a.
(M) while irradiating the heating resistors 2a and 2e.
When 2f and 2f are heated, of the image forming element 3l containing the magenta coloring material, the image forming element 3l to which heat and light of wavelength λ(N1) have been applied is cured. Furthermore, FIG. 2c,
As shown in FIG. 2d, when a desired heating resistor is heated while being irradiated with light of wavelength λ(C) and light of λ(K), the image forming element 31 to which light and heat have been applied is After being cured, a transfer image is formed on the transfer recording layer 1 by the image forming element 3l that has not been cured. This transferred image is transferred to the recording paper 11 in the next transfer step as shown in FIG. 2d.

In the transfer process, the transfer recording medium on which the transferred image has been formed is brought into contact with the transfer medium, and the transferred image is selectively transferred to the transfer medium by heating from the transfer recording medium or the transfer medium side to form an image. do. Therefore, the heating temperature at this time is determined so that only the transferred image is selectively transferred with respect to the physical properties that govern the transfer characteristics. Further, in order to perform the transfer efficiently, it is also effective to apply pressure at the same time. This is particularly effective when applying pressure to a transfer medium with low surface smoothness. Furthermore, if the physical property that governs the transfer characteristics is the viscosity at room temperature, transfer is possible only by applying pressure.

Next, an example of a monochrome image forming apparatus to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIG. The transfer recording medium 1 used in the apparatus of this embodiment is obtained by dispersing an image forming element 3l made of the components shown in Table 1 below during a bagging process, and dispersing the image forming element 3l on a base material 1b made of a polyester film with a thickness of 6 μm. It was established in The sensitizer in this image forming element is 5
It absorbs light in the band of 00 to 600 nm and starts a reaction.

In addition, as the material for the base material lb, in addition to polyester film, condenser paper, glassine paper, etc. can be considered.

Table 1 Also, since this sensitizer has a magenta tinge, it mixes with the cyanine green mixed as a coloring agent and becomes black during image formation. The elongated transfer recording medium 1 thus produced was wound into a roll and incorporated into the apparatus as a supply roll 7. That is, this supply roll 7 is loaded onto a rotatable shaft 7a. Therefore, the leading edge of the transfer recording medium l is placed on the supply roll 7.
is supplied from the guide bar 5a and the thermal head 2.
Via the guide par 5b, the direction from between the transfer roller 10 and the pressure roller 9 is changed by the idle bars 5C and 5d, and reaches the take-up roll 8, and by locking the tip of the roll to the roll 8, this roll By the rotation of 8, the recording medium 1 is sequentially wound around the circumferential surface of the roll 8. Here, the winding roll 8 is driven and rotated by known means.

Here, the transfer recording medium 1 is moved by the guide bar 5.
It is conveyed by the transfer roller 10 so that the winding angle with respect to the thermal head 2 is constant.

The thermal head 2 is provided on the side of the support lb of the recording medium 1, and has a plurality of heating elements 2a disposed at its tip, and the heating elements 2a are controlled to generate heat according to the image cover information. Furthermore, this supply roller has a hysteresis brake (not shown) whose value is 1.8 to 2.0K.
It is brought into contact with the heating element of back 2 under a constant pressure such that gf is constant.

On the other hand, the thermal head 2 was placed apart with the transfer recording medium 1 in between. This fluorescent lamp uses a high performance, green fluorescent lamp with the spectral characteristics shown in the graph shown in Fig. 4, and the fluorescent material is (La, Ce, Tb) 203-0.2 with Tb"10 activity.
Use SiO2-0.9P205. (Ce,Tb)MgA1+oO+c+ activated by Tb3+ as other photoreceptor
, Y2SiOs: Although Ce and Tb lamps can also be used, the above-mentioned phosphor was used in terms of practical efficiency and working characteristics.

Further, the transfer/fixing section T includes a transfer roller 10 and a pressure roller 9 that are provided facing each other with the transfer recording medium l in between.
It is made up of. This transfer roller IO is an aluminum roller having a diameter of 40 mm and coated with Teflon to a thickness of 25 μmq.

In addition, the pressure roller 9 is an aluminum roller with a diameter of 30 mm coated with silicone rubber with a thickness of 5 mm.
Furthermore, it is coated with Teflon to a thickness of 30 μm and has a hardness of 4.
0° (JISA hardness) was used. Further, the transfer roller 10 and the pressure roller 59 are compressed to approximately 35 g/mrr by a pressure means (not shown). It was set so that it would be pressure-welded.

Further, the transfer roller 10 is connected to a built-in heater 1 in order to transfer and fix the transferred image on the transfer recording medium 1 formed by the thermal head 2 onto the recording paper 11 by heating and pressure.
The surface temperature is controlled to be about 110°C by 0a. In addition, the transfer medium has a surface smoothness of about 10
1 liter of second recording paper was used. Note that this recording paper 11 is
It is sent out from the cassette 12 by the rotation of the feeding roller 6. The fed paper 1l is once passed through the register roller l.
5, and then sent between rollers 9 and 10 by this register roller 15 in synchronization with the transfer report on the recording medium l. Note that l6 is a guide. Furthermore, the casing l4 houses the power supply and control circuit for this image forming apparatus.

Now, FIG. 5 shows a schematic block diagram of the control circuit.

In the figure, circuit 60 is a sequence control circuit. This circuit 60 includes a drive circuit 61 that turns on the fluorescent lamp 3, a drive circuit 63 that energizes a step motor 62 that operates the feed roller 6, and a step motor that operates the transfer roller 10 that conveys the transfer recording medium l. A drive circuit 65 that energizes the transfer recording medium 1 , a drive circuit 67 that energizes the hysteresis brake 66 that applies pack tension to the transfer recording medium 1 , and a signal from the temperature sensor 73 of the transfer roller 10 that energizes the heater 100 to a predetermined temperature. A drive circuit 72, an image signal processing circuit 68 that receives an external image signal 69, processes image signal data to be provided to the thermal head 2, and controls a drive circuit that energizes the heating element of the thermal head 2.
, and control the operating panel black indicators in sequence.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the above-mentioned apparatus will be explained.

First, recording is started by turning on a switch (not shown) on the operation panel 7o of the apparatus. The sequence control circuit 60 receives a drive signal from the operation panel 70 and energizes the drive circuit 63 to drive the step motor 62.

As a result, the roller 6 starts rotating and feeds out one sheet of recording paper 11 from the cassette l2 until the leading edge of the recording paper reaches an alignment sensor 71 (not shown) (installed near the pressure contact part of the register roller 15). continue.

When the alignment sensor 7l detects the recording paper 1l, the hysteresis brake 66 and the transfer roller 10 (not shown) are activated at a predetermined timing to convey the transfer recording medium l and also to activate each heating element 2a of the thermal head 2 according to the image signal. is energized. Further, while the thermal head 2 is energized, at least the fluorescent lamp 3 is turned on.

That is, with the above-described configuration, heat from the thermal head 2 is applied to the recording layer 1a through the support 1b, and light from the fluorescent lamp 3 is applied directly to the recording layer 1a.

Transfer images corresponding to the image signals are sequentially formed on the transfer recording medium 1 conveyed by this for every l line. The transfer image formed on the recording medium 1 in this way is transferred to the transfer roller 10.
The recording paper l1 is also carried to the pressure contact part T of the pressure roller 9 at the same time as the transferred image by the register roller l5, which rotates in synchronization as described above, and the transferred image is transferred between the rollers 9 and lO. The image is transferred onto the recording paper l1 by pressure contact force. The recording paper that has been transferred is placed in the output tray L3.
is discharged.

In addition, the mark signal (black) is used to energize the thermal head 1.
In this case, it does not turn on, but when it is not a mark signal (white), it turns on and generates heat. That is, the energizing energy for negative recording is 0.8 W/dot×2. It was set as omsec.

Further, FIG. 6 shows a drive timing chart of this embodiment.

First, the heating resistor corresponding to the black of the image signal is not energized, but the portion corresponding to the white of the image signal is energized at 2 msec, and at the same time, the high color rendering green fluorescent lamp 3 is uniformly irradiated. . This irradiation time is 4 hours from the start of energization to the heating resistor.
The period was set as m s e C. After 1 msec has passed after the end of irradiation, that is, 5 msec after the start of energization, recording of the next line is performed in the same way. By sequentially repeating this operation, a transferred image is formed.

With the image forming apparatus described above, the image obtained on the recording paper is very clear, and a high-quality image with good fixability can be obtained.

Next, an example will be described in which the image forming method used in the present invention is applied to a multicolor image forming apparatus.

As already explained using FIGS. 2a to 2d, each is sensitive to four different wavelengths and has different color tones.
That is, a transfer recording medium 1 in which image forming elements 3l exhibiting yellow, magenta, cyan, and black are provided on a support lb.
By using , multicolor recording is possible. Such a transfer recording medium 1 is one in which the image forming elements 3l shown in Tables 2 to 4 are dispersed in a binder and disposed on a base material 1b made of a polyester film with a thickness of 6 μm. Using. The photoinitiators in the image forming element shown in all Tables 2 to 5 are approximately 340 nm to 380 nm in order from Table 2.
, about 380 to 450 nm, about 450
It absorbs light in the ~600 nm band and starts the reaction. The colors used during image formation are cyan, yellow, and magenta, in that order.

Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 7 shows the packaging for obtaining multicolor images using this transfer recording medium l.
As shown in the figure.

The difference from the monochrome image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 3 is that four light sources 3a, 3b, 3c, and 3d having different wavelengths are arranged.

These fluorescent lamps include a high color rendering green fluorescent lamp 3a, a diazo copying machine fluorescent lamp 3b, and a black light 3c. In particular, a sharp cut filter L-3818 was placed in front of the fluorescent lamp 3b for the diazo copying machine in order to obtain desired spectral characteristics corresponding to the image forming element.

FIG. 8 shows the spectral characteristics of the fluorescent lamp in this example.

Next, the process until a color image is obtained according to the image signals corresponding to yellow, magenta, cyan, and black will be explained according to the recording timing chart of the multicolor image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment shown in FIG. .

First, the heating resistor corresponding to the yellow color of the image signal is not energized, but the portion corresponding to the white color of the image signal is energized for 2 msec, and at the same time, the diazo copying machine fluorescent lamp 3b is uniformly irradiated. The irradiation time was 4 msec. 1mse after the end of irradiation
After c elapsed, the heating resistor corresponding to the magenta of the image signal is not energized, and the part corresponding to the white of the image signal is turned on for 2 msec.
At the same time as the current was turned on, the high color rendering green fluorescent lamp 3a was uniformly irradiated. The irradiation time is 4 as in the case of yellow.
m sec. Similarly, for cyan, use black light 3C, and for black, use health line lamp 3d.
By irradiating with , latent image formation of all four colors is completed. Therefore, it takes 15 m to form an image of l line.
Requires sec.

By repeating the above process line by line, a full color image can be obtained on the recording paper.

The setting conditions for the parts other than the light source are the same as in the monocolor embodiment, and the conveyance of the recording paper 11 and transfer recording medium 1 is the same as in the monocolor embodiment.

In this way, the full-color image obtained on the recording paper is a high-quality image with no color shift, high chroma, clearness, and good fixability.

As described above, in this embodiment, at least one type of light and heat is applied to a transfer recording medium having a transfer recording layer whose physical properties governing transfer characteristics change when light and heat energy is applied. An image forming apparatus having a step of forming a transferred image by applying the light and heat energy under conditions of applying energy corresponding to recorded information, and a step of transferring the transferred image to a transfer medium. It is possible to achieve the objectives of the term.

That is, in the image forming apparatus according to this embodiment, the formation of a transferred image and the transfer process are separated, and in the transfer process, since the transferred image has already been formed, the restriction on image-wise selective energy application is lifted. Therefore, the energy necessary to transfer and form a clear image can be applied to the transfer recording medium according to the surface properties of the transfer medium. In addition, the transferred image formed as a pre-process is not a mere property-change image such as a heat-fused image, but an image formed by changing the physical properties that govern the transfer characteristics, so the difference in the physical properties before and after the change is reflected in the transfer process. By using this method, transfer can be achieved reliably, and the transferred image can also be faithfully transferred. For example, when a thermally fused image is used as a transferred image, it is desirable to maintain the thermally fused image completely from the transfer image formation process to the transfer process. Blurring of the image due to heat conduction to the surroundings is unavoidable. However, in the case of this embodiment, the physical properties that govern the transfer characteristics, such as the melting point, softening point, and viscosity at the same temperature of the transfer recording layer, are changed image-wise to form the transferred image. As long as the transfer process is memorized and energy that changes the physical properties is not applied after the transfer image forming process, no deterioration in the transferability of the transferred image or image blurring will occur. For this reason, even if the surface smoothness of the transfer medium is low, it is possible to form an image with high image quality, and it is also possible to transfer the image to the transfer target without deteriorating the image quality of the transferred image. .

Furthermore, in the image forming apparatus according to this embodiment, the application of signalized energy for forming a transferred image and the application of uniform energy for transfer are functionally separated. Compared to the case where the signaled energy must be used as energy for transfer at the same time, the conditions for applying energy are relaxed, for example,
The amount of energy for forming a transferred image only needs to cause a change in the physical properties of the transfer recording layer, and the energy for transfer can be uniform energy without being converted into a signal, so the desired transfer speed can be adjusted. It can be increased according to the amount of time, and high-speed recording can be easily realized.

In addition, the thermal response speed of the thermal heads used in conventional thermal transfer recording devices is 1 to 5 m even for the fastest one.
It is about sec. Therefore, if you try to drive at a faster repetition cycle than that, the temperature will not rise or fall sufficiently within one cycle, resulting in insufficient heating or, conversely, the temperature not being able to drop completely, and the effect of heat accumulation will affect the image quality. appear. This is one of the biggest factors hindering speed-up, but if multiple types of energy are used as in this example, for example by combining a thermal head and light irradiation, the heating state will be effective even if heat is accumulated. This occurs only during light irradiation, so by irradiating light only during a limited time period near the peak temperature, it is possible to make it less susceptible to the temperature drop rate after the peak temperature, which was the case in the past. Even if a conventional thermal head is used, it is possible to perform a recording operation with a shorter repetition period, which facilitates high-speed recording.

In addition, since the image forming apparatus according to this embodiment forms a transferred image by applying multiple types of energy, it requires less energy to form a transferred image compared to the conventional case where a transferred image is formed using only heat. Since there are a plurality of seeds, the degree of change in physical properties that forms a transferred image can be adjusted in stages. In addition, even if heat is used for multiple types of energy, other energies such as light that have a quick response and whose intensity can be easily adjusted in stages are also used, so images with intermediate tones can be created. This makes it easier to form. For example, by setting the intensity or time of light irradiation in three stages and combining it with heating, it is possible to express gradation in four stages (three stages, ten and non-heating).

Furthermore, although it is desired that such control be performed at high speed, the ability to use energy with a quick response such as light in combination also enables high-speed halftone recording.

Furthermore, in the image forming method according to this embodiment, the transferred image is formed by changing the physical properties that govern the transfer characteristics, but these physical properties are arbitrarily determined depending on the type of transfer recording medium used. For example, in the case of a transfer recording medium in which the transferred image is transferred in a thermally molten state, it is the melting temperature, softening temperature, glass transition point, etc.
In the case of a transfer recording medium in which the transferred image is transferred in an adhesive state or in a permeable state to the transfer medium, the viscosity is the same at the same temperature.

Effects of the Invention> As described above, the present invention provides a recording device that can record high-quality images even on transfer media with low surface smoothness.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1a to 1d are explanatory diagrams for explaining the principles of transfer and formation when a transferred image is formed using light and thermal energy. Figures 2a to 2d are multicolor transfer recording media and thermal heads. Figure 2e is a partial diagram showing the relationship between the multicolor recording medium and the transfer medium, Figure 3 is a configuration diagram of a monochrome image forming apparatus, and Figure 4 is a monochrome image forming apparatus. Figure 5 is a control circuit block diagram of a monochrome image forming apparatus; Figure 6 is a timing chart for applying photothermal energy to a monochrome image forming apparatus; Figure 7 is a diagram showing the spectral characteristics of a light source used for multicolor image formation. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the spectral characteristics of a fluorescent lamp used in the multicolor image forming apparatus; FIG. 9 is a timing chart for applying light and thermal energy to the multicolor image forming apparatus. In the figure,

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Along a transportable path of a transfer recording medium that has a transfer recording layer whose physical properties governing transfer characteristics change when applied with light energy and thermal energy, and a support that supports the transfer recording layer. , a light source provided on the transfer recording layer side for applying optical energy to the transfer recording medium; a heat source provided on the support side for applying thermal energy to the transfer recording medium; An image recording apparatus comprising: a transfer means for transferring and fixing an image formed on a recording medium to a transfer medium. (2) Thermal energy from the heat source is applied to the transfer recording medium according to image information.
The image recording device described in .