JPS63194262A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow image receiving materials to certainly correspond to exposed photosensitive materials by detecting the number of exposed photosensitive materials and automatically stopping exposure when the detected number coincides with the number of image receiving materials in a package unit. CONSTITUTION:A certain number of image receiving papers C are wrapped with a packing sheet 51 into a package unit 50 and are loaded to an image receiving paper cassette 73. Meanwhile, an image recorder is provided with a counter circuit constituting a detecting means which detects the number of exposed photosensitive materials S. This counter circuit is reset when the package unit 50 is set, and this counter circuit is provided with a backup circuit which holds counted contents even at the time of turning off the power source of the recorder. When the counted value of the counter circuit coincides with the number of image receiving papers in the package unit 50, the image recorder automatically stops the operation of a part, which supplies photosensitive materials to the exposure process, not to exposure photosensitive materials. Thus, trouble that image receiving materials are not sufficient for exposed photosensitive materials is evaded.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a photosensitive material in which a support is coated with a substance that is fixed by pressure to an image formed by imagewise exposure. The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus that presses and transfers an image obtained on a photosensitive material by overlapping a material and an image-receiving material onto the image-receiving material.

(Technical background of the invention and its problems) As an example of an image recording material using microcapsules containing a photosensitive control composition, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-179
A system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 836 is known in which a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colorant precursor is carried on a support. In this image recording method using cystene, the microcapsules are imagewise cured by exposure, and the uncured microcapsules are ruptured by pressure to 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.
It is disclosed in the specification of No. 117089. This recording material includes at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, and
Coated with a polymerizable compound and a color image-forming substance,
At least the polymerizable compound and the color image forming substance are
It consists of a photosensitive composition encapsulated in microcapsules.

Regarding the image recording method of recording images using this photosensitive material, Japanese Patent Application No. 6042128 filed by the present applicant
It is disclosed in Specification No. 4. This image recording method first performs imagewise exposure to form a latent image, then develops it by heating, and polymerizes the polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image exists to form a macromolecular compound to form microcapsules. 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.

Then, using the above-mentioned photosensitive material, this photosensitive material is subjected to imagewise exposure, heat development is performed, and then the image recording material is overlaid with an image-receiving material and pressed, and an image is obtained on the image-receiving material by transfer, which is automatically performed. The device is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application No. 51896/1989 filed by the present applicant.

In this type of apparatus, as is clear from the above-mentioned range, the photosensitive material undergoes at least an exposure step and a heating step, while the image-receiving material does not undergo any processing steps. Therefore, the length of the transport path from feeding the photosensitive material to the mount point where the two materials are superimposed is longer than the length of the transport path from feeding the image-receiving material to the mount point. For example, if the image-receiving material runs out during continuous copying of an original, even if exposure is stopped, there will be a shortage of image-receiving material for the photosensitive material that has already been exposed and is present in the conveyance path. This causes the inconvenience of being lost.

It seems that the above problem can be solved by stopping the conveyance of the exposed photosensitive material when the image receiving material runs out.
In such a method, serious defects that are undesirable especially in the processing of the photosensitive material in the conveyance path occur, and if the conveyance of the photosensitive material is continued, there will be no corresponding image-receiving material and the photosensitive material will only be wasted. Otherwise, various problems such as the photosensitive material sticking to the pressure roller and jamming occur.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to provide an image recording apparatus that is configured so that an image-receiving material can always correspond to an exposed photosensitive material.

(Structure of the Invention) An object of the present invention is to use a photosensitive material in which a substance on a support is coated with a substance on which an image generated by imagewise exposure is fixed by pressure, and to superimpose the photosensitive material and an image-receiving material. , an image recording device that pressure-transfers an image obtained on a photosensitive material to an image-receiving material, and a means for detecting the number of exposures of the photo-sensitive material whose count is reset when a packaging unit consisting of a certain number of image-receiving materials is loaded. This can be achieved by an image recording apparatus characterized in that the image recording apparatus is configured to automatically stop exposure when the number of sheets detected by the detection means matches the number of image receiving materials in the packaging unit.

In other words, by being configured so that it is not possible to expose more than the number of image-receiving materials set in the apparatus,
Even if an exposure signal is issued, the exposure is automatically stopped, thereby eliminating problems such as waste of photosensitive material and jamming, and ensuring reliable operation of the image recording apparatus.

In the present invention, the photosensitive material refers to a material for obtaining a visible image by applying pressure to a latent image generated by imagewise exposure.

Further, the present invention can be applied to both a system in which the exposed portion is polymerized and hardened, and a system in which the exposed portion is depolymerized and softened.

An example of such a material is a type of material in which a polymerizable compound is imagewise cured by imagewise exposure, and then a visible image is obtained by applying pressure, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-1991 filed by the present applicant. The material disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 179836 is mentioned. This material has a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colorant precursor supported on a support.

Alternatively, after containing silver halide and giving imagewise exposure, heat development is performed to develop the silver halide, the polymerizable compound is simultaneously cured in correspondence with this development, and then pressure is applied to form a visible image. The material disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 121284/1984 filed by the present applicant is cited as a material of the type obtained by heat development. After that, a color image-forming substance is transferred to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to obtain an image on the image-receiving material, and at least photosensitive silver halide,
A reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming substance are coated, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image-forming substance are encapsulated in the same microcapsule.

[Embodiment]

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The image recording apparatus includes a document supporting glass plate 2 mounted on the upper surface of a housing 1 so as to be slidable back and forth in the direction of arrow A. That is, the original is placed face down on the glass plate 2, and the arrow A
Move back and forth in the direction.

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 for forming an original image on a photosensitive material S at a predetermined position is provided.

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 18 of the photosensitive material S of the photosensitive material cartridge 14, a pair of photosensitive material feeding rollers 21 and 22 housed in the magazine connection dark box 20 are arranged, whereby the photosensitive material S wound around the photosensitive material roll 12 is moved into a predetermined position. Sometimes it is extended a certain length and then retracted as desired.

When the leading end of the photosensitive material S advances, the blank material delivery rollers 21 and 22 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 roller 26 and two photosensitive material nip rollers 28, 30 pressed against the exposed photosensitive material support roller 26 are arranged. The photosensitive material S guided by the guide plate 24 is brought into close contact with the exposed photosensitive material support roller 26 by the photosensitive material nip rollers 28 and 30, and
Imagewise exposure of the document is made by the fiber lens array 10 at a position 32 between 8.30 and 30.

In front of the exposed photosensitive material support roller 26, a heat developing device 40 that heats and develops the exposed photosensitive material S is arranged. The heat developing device 40 includes a developing housing 41 having a heat insulating effect, and a developing housing 41 disposed within the developing housing 41 for storing a photosensitive material S.
An endless belt 16 stretched over a heating roll 42 and a plurality of support rolls 15 for supporting and conveying is provided. A heat source such as a halogen lamp 17 is provided in the heating roll 42, and the roll surface is treated with, for example, Teflon coating. Bell)
16 is wound around the circumferential surface of the heating roll 42 over an angle of about 240', and is made of, for example, silicone rubber.For example, four support rolls 15 are provided.
Preferably, at least one of them is a drive roll.

The heat developing device 40 further includes a pair of transport rollers 44 and a guide member 4 that guide the photosensitive material S to the heating roll 42.
5, and a peeling claw 47 that peels off the photosensitive material S from the heating roll 42 and guides it to the contact portion of the conveyance roller 46.

In front of the conveyance roller 46, a pair of pressure rollers 60,
A guide or member 61 guides the photosensitive material S transported by the transport roller 46 to the contact portion of the pressure roller 60 , and a guide or member 61 guides the image receiving paper C supplied from the image receiving paper supply device 72 and transported by the transport roller 62 to the contact portion of the pressure roller 60 . A photoreceptor paper stacking device 70 is disposed, which includes a guide member 63 that guides the paper to the contact portion.

The receiving paper supply device 72 includes a receiving paper cassette 73 that is attached to the side of the housing 1 and houses a packaging unit 50 for receiving paper C, and a receiving paper cassette 73 that is attached to the side of the housing 1 and stores a packaging unit 50 for receiving paper C.
It consists of a feed roller 74 that supplies the feed to the conveyance roller 62 and a guide member 75.

Layered photosensitive paper! In front of 70, a pair of pressure nip rollers 80.82 and a pressure nip roller 80.8 are provided.
A transfer device 88 is provided which includes backup rollers 84 and 86 for uniformizing the pressure applied to the rollers 2 in the axial direction. Pressure nip roller 80.82 has a weight of approximately 500 kg/
They are pressed together by a pressure of c+J.

A photoreceptor paper peeling device 90 is provided in front of the transfer device 88 . The sensitive material receiving paper peeling device 90 includes a guide member 92
, a feed roller 94 , and a guide roller 9 so as to press only the photosensitive material S at the outer end portion of the surface on the feed roller 94 .
8. It consists of a peeling belt 102 wrapped around 100.

A sensitive material disposal section 104 is provided below one side of the peeling device 90, and a fixing device 106 is provided in front.

The photosensitive material disposal unit 104 consists of a guide member 108 , a pair of feed rollers 110 , 112 , and a waste box 114 , and the photosensitive material S sent from the peeling device 90 and guided by the guide member 108 is transferred to the feed rollers 110 , 112 .
and throws it into the waste box 114.

The fixing device 106 includes a guide member 120 and a reflecting member 1.
It consists of an ultraviolet irradiation lamp 124 with a 22 attached and a pair of feed rollers 126.12B, 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. conduct. Note that instead of the ultraviolet irradiation lamp 124, for example, a xenon flash lamp may be used.

A take-out tray 130 for receiving the image-receiving paper C is attached to the front of the fixing bag W106 and protrudes from the housing 1.
It is configured so that the image-receiving paper C on which an image has been formed can be easily taken out.

Although the image recording apparatus is generally configured as described above, the parts related to the present invention will be further explained.

The image-receiving paper C is fed one by one from the image-receiving paper cassette 73 by the feeding roller 74, stops once on the guide member 75, and is intermittently fed by the conveying roller 62. This is done in accordance with the detection signal of a sensor SW provided at an appropriate location for detecting the leading edge of the paper S, so that, for example, the photosensitive material S is superimposed slightly ahead of the image receiving paper C. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, this image-receiving paper C is packaged in a packaging unit 50 in which a certain number of sheets are wrapped in wrapping paper 51. When loading the image-receiving paper cassette 73, the image-receiving paper The wrapping paper is set after removing the wrapping paper end 52 which is configured in advance so that the end C1 of the wrapping paper can be easily removed so that the end C1 of the wrapping paper is exposed. ing.

Furthermore, if the wrapping paper 51 is made so that it is possible to distinguish between the front and back sides of the image-receiving paper C, it is possible to prevent the image-receiving paper C from being placed upside down.

On the other hand, the image recording device includes a counter circuit (not shown) constituting a detection means for detecting the number of exposed photosensitive materials S.
is provided. This counter circuit has a count that is reset when the above-mentioned packaging unit 50 is set, and is equipped with a backup circuit that can maintain the count even when the power of the device is turned off. and,
When the count by the counter circuit matches the number of image-receiving sheets in the packaging unit 50, the image recording device automatically stops the operation of the part that supplies the exposure process (including the part that supplies the photosensitive material S) so as not to perform new exposure. ), but the other parts continue to operate, and for the photosensitive material S that has already been exposed, for example, the photosensitive material S that has not reached the interleaving point B (the pressure roller 60) due to continuous copying. Even if there are a plurality of sheets, the receiving paper C can always be used, and the operation continues until all of the processing steps are completed. The conveyance path of the photosensitive material S and the image-receiving paper C is provided with sensors SW and l at appropriate locations, so that the conveyance state of the photosensitive material S and the image-receiving paper C can be monitored as appropriate.

Therefore, as in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the conveyance distance of the exposed photosensitive material S to the interleaving paper point B is longer than the conveyance distance of the image receiving paper C to the interleaving paper point B, and during continuous copying, Even if there are a plurality of exposed photosensitive materials S7'+<< which have not reached the interleaving point B, overlapping of the image receiving paper C with respect to the photosensitive material S can be guaranteed.

In the present invention, it is desirable to detect the photosensitive material S being exposed and count the number of sheets, and the sensor S W z for this detection is placed close to the photosensitive material nip roller 30, for example, as shown in FIG. It can be installed anywhere. Further, the image recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied is of course configured to display that the receiving paper cfJ<is gone, and this display is, for example, when the receiving paper cassette 7
This can be carried out by detection by a sensor S W s provided within or near the sensor S W s 3 .

Furthermore, the packaging unit 50 according to the present invention is not limited to the one shown in FIG. 2, but can be modified as necessary.In short, any configuration that can guarantee accurate operation of the counter circuit can be used. Bye.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the image recording apparatus according to the present invention uses a means for detecting the number of exposed sheets of the photosensitive material to control the exposure so that the number of exposed sheets of the photosensitive material cannot be exposed to more than the remaining number of sheets of the image receiving material (image receiving paper) set in the apparatus. Since it is configured to stop at an appropriate time, it is possible to avoid troubles such as a shortage of image-receiving material for the exposed photosensitive material, and problems such as jamming of the exposed photosensitive material caused by a shortage of image-receiving material are eliminated. A highly reliable image recording device can be provided.

Furthermore, according to the image-receiving material packaging unit of the present invention, it is possible to easily distinguish between the front and back sides of the image-receiving material, so even when using an image-receiving material that is difficult to distinguish between front and back, it is possible to accurately load the image-receiving material. can be guaranteed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
1 is a perspective view showing a packaging unit for image receiving paper loaded into the image recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1. FIG. Symbols in the figure: S...Photosensitive material C...Receiving paper SW+,
S WZ, S Wa, S Wa, S w,, S W
a, S W5SW8... Sensat... Housing 2... Glass plate 6... Reflector B... Illumination lamp 10... Fiber lens array 12... Sensitive material roll 14... Sensitive material cartridge 15... Support roll 16... Belt 1
7...Halogen lamp 18...Exit 20...
Magazine connection dark box 21, 22...Sensitive material feeding roller 23...Cutter unit 24...Guide plate 26
...Exposed sensitive material support roller 28.30...Sensitive material nip roller 32...Exposure position 40...Heating developing device 41...Developing housing 42...Heating roll 4
4.46... Conveyance roller 45... Guide member 4
7... Peeling claw 50... Packaging unit 5
1... Wrapping paper 52... Wrapping paper end 60
. . . Pressure roller 61. 63 . . . Guide member 62 . . . Conveyance roller 70 . Roller 75...Guide member 80.82...Pressure nip roller 84.86...Back unroller 88...Transfer device 90...Sensitive material image receiving paper peeling device 92...Guide member 94...・Feed roller 98.100...Guide roller

Claims (1)

[Claims] Using a photosensitive material whose support is coated with a substance that fixes the image produced by imagewise exposure under pressure, the photosensitive material and the image-receiving material are superimposed, and the image obtained on the photosensitive material is transferred to the image-receiving material. An image recording apparatus that performs pressure transfer, and includes a detection means for detecting the number of exposed sheets of a photosensitive material whose count is reset when a packaging unit consisting of a fixed number of image-receiving materials is loaded, and the number of sheets detected by the detection means is determined by An image recording apparatus characterized in that the image recording apparatus is configured to automatically stop exposure when the number of image-receiving materials matches the number of sheets of image-receiving material.