JPS63208044A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an adequate swelling rate (solvent coating amt.) of a heat developable photosensitive material or image receiving material by controlling a solvent heating means, rotating speed of a coating roller and conveying speed of a conveying means in accordance with the temp. of a solvent for image formation. CONSTITUTION:Water 345 is controlled at a constant temp. of 25 deg.C by a heater 346 prior to coating of water, but when the water temp. exceeds 25oC by the influence of an atmospheric temp., etc., a water temp. detector 347 detects such temp. and sends a detection signal to a control part 348. Then, the control part 348 stops the operation of the heater 346 and controls a driving means 350 to drop the rotating speed of the coating roller 343. The length of a bead 351 formed between the coating roller 343 and the heat developable photosensitive material 16 decreases its length and the swelling rate decreases when the rotating speed of the coating roller 343 drops. The increase in the swelling rate (water coating amt.) by a rise of the water temp. is canceled by a decrease in the swelling rate by decreasing the rotating speed of the coating roller 343, by which the specified swelling rate is maintained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image recording device that obtains an image by transferring an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material to an image-receiving material in the presence of an image-forming solvent. .

[Conventional technology]

Heat-developable photosensitive materials are well known in this technical field, and for more information on heat-developable photosensitive materials and their processes, see, for example, 242 of Basics of Photographic Engineering (Published by Corona Publishing, 1982).
Pages 255 to 255, 40 pages of video information published in April 1978, Neblett's Handbook of Photography and Reprography (Neblett's Hand
book of Photography and Re
prography) 7th Ed,) Van Nostrand Reinhold Company (Van
No5trand Re1nhold Compan
y) on pages 32-33.

Furthermore, many methods have been proposed for obtaining a color image by heat development.

There is also a method in which a mobile dye is released in an image form by heating, and the mobile dye is transferred to a dye fixing material with a mordant using an image forming solvent such as water; A method in which the dye is transferred to a dye fixing material using a hydrophilic heat solvent built into the dye fixing material, and a method in which the mobile dye is heat diffusible or sublimable and is transferred to a dye receiving material such as a support are proposed. has been done.

(U.S. Pat. No. 4.4.63.079, U.S. Pat. No. 4,474)
．． No. 867, No. 4,478,927, No. 4,50
No. 7,380, same No. 4. 500. No. 626, No. 4
, No. 483.914; JP-A No. 58-149046, No. 58-149047, No. 59-152440, No. 5
No. 9-154445, No. 59-165054, No. 59
-180548, 59-168439, 59-
No. 174832, No. 59-174833, No. 59-1
No. 74834, No. 59-174835, etc.) As an apparatus for carrying out this type of image forming method, an exposure head is used in an exposure section as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 75247/1983. After exposing a color image to a heat-developable photosensitive material, the color image is sent to a heat-developing section, an image-receiving material is brought into close contact with the heat-developable photo-sensitive material after heat development, and the image is sent to a transfer section, where the image is transferred to the image-receiving material. Image recording devices that perform thermal transfer have been proposed.

In this type of image recording apparatus, before the image-receiving material or photothermographic material is sent to the transfer section, a transfer aid such as water (a water tank is provided between the images) is used in advance to improve transfer efficiency.
A part of the coating roller is immersed in a water tank, the conveying roller and the coating roller are rotated, and while the conveying roller conveys the photothermographic material or image-receiving material, the upper surface of the coating roller is brought into contact with the lower surface of the photothermographic material or image-receiving material. Water is applied to the image-receiving material as an image-forming solvent.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Swelling amount of the heat-developable photosensitive material or image-receiving material to which water is applied (
The amount of water applied varies depending on the temperature of the water and the time that the photothermographic material or image-receiving material passes through the bead. For example, when the ambient temperature of the coating device changes, the water temperature changes and the rate at which the photothermographic material or image-receiving material swells changes. If it passes through the medium at a constant speed, there is a problem that an appropriate amount of swelling cannot be obtained and therefore good transfer cannot be guaranteed. (See Figure 3) Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to solve the above problem, and to maintain the amount of solvent applied to the photothermographic material or image-receiving material at an appropriate value even if the temperature of the image forming solvent changes. An object of the present invention is to provide an image recording device that can be controlled.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] The above-mentioned object of the present invention is to provide an image recording system in which an image is obtained by transferring an image recorded on a photothermographic material to an image-receiving material in the presence of an image-forming solvent. The apparatus includes an application roller that applies an image forming solvent to a heat-developable photosensitive material or an image-receiving material, a conveying means that conveys the heat-developable photosensitive material or image-receiving material onto the applicator roller, and a temperature of the solvent that is detected. a detection means, a heating means for heating the solvent, a drive means for rotationally driving the application roller, and control for controlling heating by the heating means and driving by the drive means based on the solvent temperature detected by the detection means. This is achieved by an image recording device characterized by having means.

That is, when the temperature of the image forming solvent becomes lower than the temperature required to obtain an appropriate swelling amount (solvent coating amount), the image forming solvent is heated by a heating means to raise the temperature to an appropriate level and maintain a constant temperature. to control. In addition, when the temperature of the image forming solvent is higher than the temperature required to obtain an appropriate amount of swelling, the application roller drive means lowers the rotation speed of the application roller to shorten the length of the formed bead. To cancel the increase in swelling amount so that a constant swelling amount can be obtained.

Further, the above object of the present invention is an image recording apparatus that obtains an image by transferring an image recorded on a photothermographic material to an image receiving material in the presence of an image forming solvent, which an application roller that applies an image-forming solvent to an image-receiving material; a conveying means that conveys the photothermographic material or the image-receiving material onto the application roller; a detection means that detects the temperature of the solvent; and a heating device that heats the solvent. The present invention can also be achieved by an image recording apparatus comprising: a control means for controlling the conveying speed of the conveying means and the heating by the heating means based on the solvent temperature detected by the detecting means.

That is, when the temperature of the image forming solvent becomes lower than the temperature required to obtain an appropriate swelling amount (solvent coating amount), the image forming solvent is heated by a heating means to raise the temperature to an appropriate level and maintain a constant temperature. to control. In addition, when the temperature of the image forming solvent is higher than the temperature required to obtain an appropriate amount of swelling, the conveying speed of the conveying means is increased to shorten the length of the formed bead and cancel the increase in the amount of swelling caused by the rise in temperature. An appropriate amount of swelling (solvent coating amount) can be obtained in the photothermographic material or image-receiving material by heating it, lowering the rotational speed of the coating roller, or increasing the transporting speed of the transporting means.

In addition, as the heat-developable photosensitive material and image-receiving material in the present invention, for example, U.S. Pat.
No. 83914, No. 4500626, No. 45031
No. 37, JP-A-59-154445, JP-A-59-1
No. 65054, JP-A-59-180548, JP-A-5
9-218443, JP 60-120356, JP 59-209563, JP 60-79709, JP 60-169585, JP 60-2448
The heat-developable photosensitive materials (thermally developable photosensitive elements) and image-receiving materials (dye-fixing elements) described in No. 73 and the like 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. These include additives containing various additives such as additives, development accelerators, and development stoppers.

[Embodiment]

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the accompanying drawings, taking as an example a heat-developable photosensitive material having a photosensitive layer and a dye fixing layer on separate supports.

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

In this image recording device 10, the magazine 14 is placed on the machine base 12.
is mounted and accommodates a photothermographic material 16. This heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is pulled out from the magazine 14, cut into a required length by a cutter 18, wound around the outer periphery of an exposure drum 20 installed in the machine stand 12 (in the direction of the arrow), and then cut into a required length by an exposure head 22. After being exposed, the exposure drum 20
The water application part 34 is peeled off by the scraper 24 due to the reversal of the
This is the configuration sent to.

In the water application section 34, the water in the tank 65 is applied to the heat-developable photosensitive material 1.
The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 coated with water is sent to the overlapping section 26.

On the other hand, the image-receiving paper 32 is supplied in a state housed in the cassette 30, and is sent to the stacking section 26 from the top layer thereof.

The photothermographic material 16 and the image-receiving paper 32 are superimposed on each other in the superposition section 26 and then sent to the heat development/transfer section 28 . A stripping section 36 is provided downstream of the heat development/transfer section 28, and the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is sent to a disposal tray 38 downstream of the stripping section 36, and the image-receiving paper 32 passes through a drying section 40 to a take-out tray. 42.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the applicator 34.

Conveying rollers 341 and 342 are arranged at regular intervals, and the photothermographic material 16 is conveyed in the direction of arrow B. A water application roller 343 is disposed between the conveyance roller 341 and the conveyance roller 342, partially immersed in water 345 in a water tank 344, and rotates in the direction of arrow C. Application roller 343
The upper surface of the photothermographic material 16 is disposed close to the conveyance path of the photothermographic material 16 conveyed by the conveyance rollers 341 and 342. Therefore, when the application roller 343 is rotated, water 345 adheres to the surface of the application roller 343, and the water 345 is applied to the lower surface of the photothermographic material 16 passing through the transport path.

A heater 346 is provided outside the water tank 344, and a water temperature detector 347 is immersed in water 345 inside.
The detection signal is supplied to the control section 348. Further, the application roller 343 is rotationally driven by a driving means 350 around a shaft 349 . Then, the control unit 348 controls the operation of the heater 346 and the driving means 350 based on the detection signal of the water temperature detector 347.

The amount of swelling of the photothermographic material 16 varies depending on the water temperature as shown in FIG. Set to .

Prior to water application, the water 345 is heated to 25°C by a heater 346.
The water temperature is controlled at a constant temperature of ℃, but due to the influence of atmospheric temperature etc.
When the temperature exceeds 5° C., the water temperature detector 347 detects this and sends a detection signal to the control unit 348. Then, the control section 3
48 stops the operation of the heater 346 and controls the driving means 350 to reduce the rotational speed of the application roller 343. When the rotational speed of the application roller 343 decreases, the length of the bead 351 formed between the application roller 343 and the photothermographic material 16 becomes shorter, and the amount of swelling decreases.

In this way, the amount of swelling (amount of water applied) due to the upper limit of water temperature
The increase in the amount of swelling is canceled out by the decrease in the amount of swelling caused by lowering the rotational speed of the application roller 343, thereby maintaining a constant amount of swelling.

As described above, the control unit 348 controls the heater 346 and the driving means 350, and the heater 346
The control is 0N-O so that the water temperature is constant at 25℃.
FF control is performed, and the control of the driving means 350 is to maintain the application roller 343 at a predetermined rotational speed when the water temperature is 25° C. or lower, and to maintain the application roller 343 at a predetermined rotation speed when the water temperature is 25° C. or higher.
This is to reduce the rotation speed of the application roller 343.

The first embodiment described above shows the image recording device according to the first invention of the present application, but next, the second embodiment of the image recording device according to the second invention of the present application is described. I will explain about it. In the first embodiment described above, the rotation speed of the application roller is controlled, but the rotation speed of the application roller is always kept constant, and instead, the conveyance speed of the conveyance means is controlled. It may be configured as follows. That is, in the second embodiment, the rotation of the application roller is not controlled, and when the water temperature reaches a predetermined temperature or higher, the control means increases the conveyance speed of the conveyance means accordingly, and the other configurations are as follows. This is the same as the first embodiment.

In the above-described embodiment, the reference water temperature for control was set at 25° C., but the reference water temperature can be changed as appropriate depending on the swelling characteristics of the photothermographic material.

Further, in the embodiment described above, water is applied to the heat-developable photosensitive material before transfer, but it is also possible to apply an image forming solvent to the image-receiving material before transfer. A structure may be adopted in which an image forming solvent is applied to both the developing photosensitive material and the image receiving material.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the rotational speed of the solvent heating means and the coating roller and the conveyance speed of the conveyance means are controlled based on the temperature of the image forming solvent applied to the heat-developable photosensitive material or the image-receiving material. Swelling of the image-forming solvent to the material or image-receiving material can be kept constant. That is,
Even if the temperature of the image-forming solvent changes due to the ambient temperature, etc., the amount of swelling of the image-forming solvent on the photothermographic material or image-receiving material can be kept constant and the image-forming solvent can be applied uniformly.
Good transfer is guaranteed. Further, according to the present invention, when the temperature of the image forming solvent exceeds a predetermined temperature and the amount of swelling increases, the rotation speed of the application roller or the conveyance speed of the conveyance means can be controlled without using a means for cooling the solvent. Since the amount of swelling is controlled by a simple configuration, the configuration of the image recording device is simple and miniaturization is possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the image recording apparatus, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the water-applied portion, and FIG. 3 is a graph showing swelling characteristics. Codes in the figure: 10...In the image recording bag 12...Machine base 14...
Magazine 16... Heat-developable photosensitive material 18...
Cutter 20...Exposure drum 22...Exposure head 24...Scraper 26...Overlapping section 28...Thermal development/transfer section 30...Cassette 32...Image receiving section 34...Water Application part
36... Peeling part 38... Waste tray 40.
... Drying section 42 ... Take-out tray 341, 342 ... Conveyance roller 343 ... Application roller 344 ... Water tank 345 ...
・Water 346...Heater 347...Water temperature detector 348...Control unit 349...Axis 3
50... Drive means 351... Bead (3 idiots) Figure 1 Figure 2 L Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) An image recording device that obtains an image by transferring an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material to an image-receiving material in the presence of an image-forming solvent, the device comprising: a photothermographic material or an image-receiving material; an application roller for applying an image-forming solvent to the application roller; a conveyance means for conveying the photothermographic material or the image-receiving material onto the application roller; a detection means for detecting the temperature of the solvent; and a heating means for heating the solvent. , an image recording apparatus comprising: a drive means for rotationally driving the application roller; and a control means for controlling heating by the heating means and driving by the drive means based on the solvent temperature detected by the detection means. . 2) An image recording device that obtains an image by transferring an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material to an image-receiving material in the presence of an image-forming solvent, the image-forming solvent being transferred to the heat-developable photosensitive material or the image-receiving material. A coating roller for coating, a conveyance means for conveying the photothermographic material or the image receiving material onto the coating roller, a detection means for detecting the temperature of the solvent, a heating means for heating the solvent, and a detection means for the detection by the detection means. an image recording apparatus comprising: a control means for controlling the conveying speed of the conveying means and the heating by the heating means based on the solvent temperature.