JPS63231347A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate flawing of the surface of image receiving paper and to reproduce a high-quality image by maintaining the angle at which a photosensitive recording material and the image receiving paper join at <=80 deg. at the time of joining and superposing said material and the image receiving paper via a guide part. CONSTITUTION:The photosensitive material A subjected to a heat developing process is then carried by a Y-shaped guide plate 72 and a 1st feed path 72a via a 5th roller pair 44e into a superposing part 19. The material A and the image receiving paper C are joined and pressed with and to each other in such a manner. The material A is flawed and uneven images are induced if the joining angle thereof is about 90 deg.. The joining angle theta deg. is set at <=80 deg. and the superposing part is so constituted that either of the material A or the paper C advances rectilinearly to the superposing part and the other enters the same at <=80 deg. angle in order to eliminate such formation of the uneven image. The flawing of the material A and the paper C is thereby prevented.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image recording device that records an image using a light-sensitive pressure-sensitive material, and more specifically, relates to an image recording device that records an image using a light-sensitive pressure-sensitive material, and more specifically, the present invention relates to an image recording device that records an image using a light-sensitive pressure-sensitive material. The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus that obtains high-quality images by pressing the recording material against an image-receiving material.

[Prior Art] As an example of an image recording material using microcapsules encapsulating a photosensitive composition, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-179
A photosensitive material using a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colorant precursor is known as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 836. In this photosensitive material, the microcapsules are imagewise cured by exposure to light, and then the uncured microcapsules are ruptured by applying pressure.
A color image is formed from the released colorant precursor, and a high quality image can be obtained by simple dry processing. Of course,
It has been pointed out that this light-sensitive material has a disadvantage in that it has significantly lower photosensitivity than light-sensitive materials using silver halide such as photographic emulsions.

Therefore, by improving these drawbacks and achieving high photosensitivity,
A new photosensitive material that makes it possible to obtain high-quality images through simple dry processing has been developed and a patent application has been filed by the present applicant (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-275742).

In this light-sensitive material, at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming substance are coated on a support, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image-forming substance are coated on a support. It is enclosed in a capsule.

Regarding image recording devices that record images using such photosensitive materials, the applicant's patent application No. 60
It is disclosed in detail in No.-287492. That is,
In this image recording apparatus, first, imagewise exposure is performed to form a latent image on the photosensitive material. Next, this photosensitive material is subjected to a development process by heating, and the polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image is present is polymerized to produce a high molecular compound, thereby hardening the microcapsules.

Finally, this photosensitive material and an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to which a color image-forming substance can be transferred are stacked and pressed together to rupture at least a portion of the microcapsules in areas where no latent image exists, thereby forming a color image. A forming substance is transferred to the image receiving material to form a visible image.

By the way, in the image recording apparatus, in order to transfer a color image forming substance onto an image-receiving material, the photosensitive material and the image-receiving material are merged at the entry portion of a pair of pressure rollers, and in an overlapping state, the photosensitive material and the image-receiving material are transferred to the pair of pressure rollers. It is pressurized at high pressure. In this case, in order to ensure that the photosensitive material and the image-receiving material can be easily separated after pressure transfer, the two materials are merged and overlapped with a slight shift.

However, in this case, if the angle of confluence of the photosensitive material and the image-receiving material is approximately right angle, for example, the end face of the image-receiving material may scratch the photosensitive material, or vice versa. Since the end surface of the image receiving material is scratched, there is a risk that unevenness or scratches may occur in the image at the scratched area, which may impair the image quality.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention has been made to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages, and includes coating a material on a support to which an image produced by imagewise exposure is fixed by pressure. In an image recording apparatus that imagewise exposes a photosensitive material, then merges the photosensitive material and an image-receiving material, overlaps the image-receiving material, and transfers and forms an image by pressing the photosensitive material onto the image-receiving material using a pressure roller, By setting the merging angle of the photosensitive material and the image-receiving material at a predetermined angle or less, images can be suitably transferred without causing damage to the image-receiving material by the photosensitive material or damage to the photosensitive material by the image-receiving material. An object of the present invention is to provide an image recording device that can obtain high-quality images.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a method in which an image recorded on the photosensitive recording material is transferred to the photosensitive recording material in a state in which an image receiving paper is brought into contact with the photosensitive recording material and overlapped with the photosensitive recording material. In an image recording apparatus that performs transfer formation on image-receiving paper, the photosensitive recording material and the image-receiving paper are characterized in that when the photosensitive recording material and the image-receiving paper are merged and overlapped via a guide member, the angle of the merge is set to be 80'' or less.

Note that the photosensitive material that can be used in the image recording device according to the present invention is of the type that obtains a visible image by transferring an image exposed on the photosensitive material to a transfer material (image receiving material). It can be anything.

For example, there are so-called photothermographic materials in which an image obtained by thermal development is transferred onto an image-receiving material by heating. In this heat-developable photosensitive material, a mobile dye is released in an image form by heating, and the mobile dye is transferred to an image-receiving material (dye-fixing material) having a mordant using a solvent such as water. , transfer to the image receiving material using a high boiling point organic solvent, transfer to the image receiving material using a hydrophilic thermal solvent contained in the image receiving material, or the mobile dye is thermally diffusible or sublimable, Those that transfer to dye-receiving materials such as supports are known, and specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,079, U.S. Pat.
No. 478927, No. 4507380, No. 5400
No. 626, No. 4483914, JP-A-Shotsutsu 58-14
No. 9046, No. 58-149047, No. 59-1
No. 52440, No. 59-154445, No. 59-
No. 165054, No. 59 to No. 180548, No. 59
-168439, same No. 59-174832, same No. 5
It is disclosed in No. 9-174833, No. 59-174834, No. 59-174835, etc.

Another example is a so-called photosensitive pressure-sensitive material in which a visible image is obtained by transferring an image generated by imagewise exposure to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer using pressure. As this photosensitive and pressure sensitive material, for example, a polymerizable compound is imagewise cured by imagewise exposure as disclosed in JP-A No. 57-179836 filed by the present applicant, and then an image-receiving material is used. There is a type that obtains a visible image by applying pressure over the image. This photosensitive and pressure sensitive material has a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colored precursor supported on a support.

Further, there is a type in which a latent image generated by imagewise exposure is subjected to preliminary heat development or wet development, and then overlaid with an image-receiving material and pressure is applied to obtain a visible image. Examples of such materials include Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-100001-61, filed by the present applicant.
There is one disclosed in No. 278849.

This material is used to obtain an image on the image-receiving material by transferring a color image-forming substance to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer after thermal development.
A reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming substance are coated, and the polymerizable compound and color image-forming substance are encapsulated in the same microcapsule.

[Embodiments] Next, preferred embodiments of the image recording apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 indicates an image recording apparatus according to this embodiment. In this case, the housing 12 constituting the image recording device 10 includes a photosensitive material supply section 13 that stores the photosensitive material A, an image reading section 15 that reads image information carried on the document S, and a heating section for heating the photosensitive material A. A heat developing section 17 performs processing, an overlapping section I9 that superimposes image receiving paper C on photosensitive material A, a pressure transfer section 21 that presses photosensitive material A and image receiving paper C, and transfers image receiving paper C from photosensitive material A. A peeling section 23 for peeling and a fixing section 25 for fixing the image receiving paper C are provided, respectively.

A transparent document support glass plate 14 on which a document S is placed is disposed on the upper surface of the housing 12, and the image reading section 15 is disposed below this document support glass plate 14. That is, the image reading section 15 includes a light source 18 that integrally scans the entire surface of the document supporting glass plate 14, an assembly 30 of a mirror 20a and an imaging lens/filter unit, and the light source 1 described above.
Mirrors 20b, 20c and fixed mirrors 20d, 20e, 20 that move in the same direction by 1/2 of the scanning distance of 8th class.
f, which are surrounded by the partition wall 22 and cut off from other parts. However, in this case, the partition wall 22 has an exposure opening 3 of the photosensitive material A in a portion through which the optical axis 32 of the image reading section 15 reflected by the fixed mirror 20f passes.
4 is defined.

The photosensitive material supply section 13 is provided on the left side of the housing 12 and is held in a light-tight manner by a partition wall 40 .

This photosensitive material supply section 13 is loaded with a removable photosensitive material magazine 42 in which photosensitive material A is wound.

The photosensitive material A has at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming substance coated on a support, in which at least the polymerizable compound and the color image-forming substance are the same. It is encapsulated in microcapsules.

The photosensitive material supplying section 13 transports the photosensitive material A from the magazine 42 to the image reading exposure opening 34.
0-RA pairs 44a to 44d.

In this case, a cutter 45 for cutting the photosensitive material A into predetermined lengths is disposed between the first and twentieth pair 44a, 44b. Also, the third and 40th-ra pairs 44c, 44d
The guide plate 46 disposed therebetween has the exposure opening 34 defined at the bottom of the partition wall 22 surrounding the image reading section 15.
is coming.

A heat developing section 17 surrounded by a heat-insulating partition wall 48 is disposed in front of the photosensitive material supplying section 13 (hereinafter, "front" refers to the downstream side in the traveling direction of the photosensitive material, etc.). The photosensitive material A is transferred to the heat developing section 17 via a guide plate 46 to a roller 50 and guide rollers 52a, 52.
It is carried in via a guide member 56 between the endless belt 54 that is hung on the belt b. The heat developing section 17 includes a hollow cylindrical heating drum 60 containing a halogen lamp.
and an endless belt 65 which is supported by four belt support rolls 62, 64, 66, and 68 and slides into contact with the outer periphery of the heating drum 60, and the photosensitive material A is held and conveyed in a heated state.

The photosensitive material A carried out from the heat developing section 17 is placed on the guide plate 7.
0 and is conveyed to the overlapping section 19 via the 50th pair 44e. The overlapping portion 19 has a Y-shaped guide plate 72, and this Y-shaped guide plate 72
- the first carry-in path 72a close to the pair 44e;
- A second carry-in path 72b close to the pair 44f and the first and second carry-in paths 72a, 72b merge to form the 70th-
It is composed of an ejection path 74 adjacent to the pair 44g.

On the other hand, a cassette 76 for storing image-receiving paper C is loaded on the right side of the housing 12. In this case, a paper feed roller 78 is disposed above the cassette 76, and the image receiving paper C is transferred to the 80th-ra pair 44 by this paper feed roller 78.
Y-shaped guide plate 72 from the 60th pair 44f through h
is supplied to the second carry-in path 72b. In addition, housing 1
2, a manual feed port 80 is defined at the upper part of the cassette 76, and it is also possible to supply the image receiving paper C from this manual feed port 80 to the second carry-in path 72b via the 90th-ra pair 44i. be.

A pressure unit 82 including a pressure transfer section 21 and a peeling section 23 is disposed in front of the 70th pair 44g. This pressure unit 82 includes a pair of pressure rollers 84.86 rotationally driven by a rotary drive source (not shown) and a backup roller 88.90 for equalizing the pressure force of the pressure rollers 84.86 in the axial direction. is provided.

On the other hand, a blade 92 rotatably supported on a support plate (not shown) is disposed between the 70th roller pair 44g and the pressure roller 84. The other end of the blade 92 is pulled by a spring 94 so that one end comes into sliding contact with the pressure roller 84 .

A peeling section 23 is provided in front of the pressure transfer section 21 . The peeling section 23 includes a guide member 96, a connecting rod 98 coaxially supported by a tenth roller pair 44j and one roller of the tenth roller pair 44j, and a peeling roller 100 fixed to the other end of the connecting rod 98. It consists of.

Further, in front of the tenth roller pair 44j, there are first and second discharge paths 102a formed in a Y-shape by a guide plate.
, 102b are arranged.

A waste tray 104 disposed below the heat developing section 17 is connected to the first discharge path 102a via a 110th pair 44k. In this case, the photosensitive material A is carried into the waste tray 104. Further, in front of the second unloading path 102b, an unloading tray 106 disposed at a lower corner of the housing 12 is connected to the unloading tray 106 via the 12th to 140th pairs 4i to 44n. The receiving paper C is derived.

Note that a fixing section 25 having an ultraviolet lamp 108 is disposed between the 12th and 130th pairs 441.44 m.

This apparatus further includes a photosensitive material supply section 13, an image reading section 15, a drive system (not shown) for the image reading section 15, an assembly 30 of an imaging lens/filter unit, and a heat developing section 1.
7. A system control device (not shown) that is connected to the pressure transfer section 21, the peeling section 23, and the fixing section 25 and controls the entire apparatus.
is provided.

The image recording apparatus according to this embodiment is basically constructed as described above, and its operation and effects will be explained next.

First, the original S carrying image information is placed on the original supporting glass plate 14 . In this case, the light source 18 is turned on in the image reading section I5, and the light source 18 and the mirror 20a transport the document S in a sub-scanning direction below the document S. At this time, mirrors 20b and 20c are transported a distance of 172 in the same direction as mirror 20a.

Therefore, the entire surface of the document S is irradiated with illumination light emitted from the light source 18.

On the other hand, the photosensitive materials A loaded in the photosensitive material supply section 13 and pulled out from the magazine 42 are stored in the first to 40th pairs 44a.
to 44d, and moves along the exposure opening 34 of the image reading section 15 on the temporary guide 46 at the same speed as the light -fi 18.

Therefore, the reflected light from the image information carried on the document S is irradiated in the main scanning direction of the photosensitive material A from the exposure opening 34 through the imaging lens/filter unit assembly 30. A latent image is formed. Note that the photosensitive material A pulled out by a predetermined amount from the magazine 42 is transferred to the cutter 4.
5 to be cut appropriately.

Next, the photosensitive material A that has undergone the exposure process is carried into the heat developing section 17 via the roller 50 and guide rollers 52a and 52b. In the heat development section 17, the photosensitive material A is conveyed while being held between a heating drum 60 and an endless belt 65, and during this time, a heat development process is applied to the photosensitive material A using a halogen lamp 58. As a result,
The polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image is present is polymerized to harden the predetermined microcapsule.

The photosensitive material A that has been subjected to the heat development process is then subjected to the 50th
- It is carried into the overlapping part 19 from the first m entrance path 72a of the Y-shaped guide plate 72 via the pair 44e. On the other hand, a cassette 76 containing image-receiving paper C is loaded in the image recording device 10, and the image-receiving paper C is fed to the Y-shaped guide plate 72 through the 80th-ra pair 44h by the paper feeding roller 78. It is carried into the overlapping section 19 from the 1 m entry path 72b.

As a result, the image receiving paper C comes into contact with the upper surface of the photosensitive material A at the overlapping portion 19.

In this case, the overlapping state of the leading edge of the photosensitive material A is adjusted so that it protrudes forward from the image receiving paper C, for example. The reason for this is that after the transfer, the photosensitive material A and the image receiving paper C are separated by being struck by a roller at the misaligned ends of the overlapped sheets. Therefore, in this case, the photosensitive material A and the image-receiving paper C merge and come into contact with each other. If the angle of convergence is approximately 90'', for example, the photosensitive material A is brought into contact with the apical end of the image-receiving paper C. It has been confirmed through tests that this causes damage to the merging angle θ0, resulting in image unevenness.To solve this problem, the merging angle θ0 must be set to 80° or less, as shown in Figure 1, or As shown in a and b, the overlapping portion is covered with photosensitive material A or receiver paper C.
Damage can be prevented by configuring the system so that one of the systems goes straight and the other enters at an angle of 80° or less, or by configuring it so that a part of the side surface of the two loading paths has a common part J at the overlapping area. It has been confirmed through experiments by the inventors that this is possible. In this case, preferably the merging angle is 456 or less. The image-receiving paper C may be supplied to the stacking section 19 by an operator from a manual feeding port 80 opened on the side of the housing 12 via the 90th pair 441.

The photosensitive material A and the image-receiving paper C, which are carried out in a stacked state from the carrying-out path 74 of the stacking section 19, are transferred to the 70th-ra pair 4.
4g, it is carried into the pressure transfer section 21. in this case,
In the pressure transfer section 21, the photosensitive material A and the image receiving paper C are introduced between these pressure rollers 84 and 86. In addition,
Since the end of the blade 92 is brought into contact with the outer periphery of the pressure roller 84 by a spring 94, the superimposed photosensitive material A and image receiving paper C are preferably placed between the pressure rollers 84 and 86 without peeling. enter.

When the superimposed photosensitive material A and image-receiving paper C are pressed together by pressure rollers 84 and 86, the microcapsules in the portions of the photosensitive material A where no latent image is present are ruptured, and the color image forming substance is transferred to the image-receiving paper C. is transferred to form an image. Here, the pressure rollers 84 and 86 are pressed by the backup roller 88.9°.

It is known that there is a relationship shown in FIG. 3 between the pressure applied to the photosensitive material A and the image-receiving paper C and the density of the image transferred onto the image-receiving paper C by the pressure. There is. That is, the density of the image transferred onto the image-receiving paper C increases approximately in proportion to the pressure applied, but it does not change when a pressure equal to or greater than a predetermined amount is applied. Therefore, based on this relationship, the backup roller 88.90
An optimal pressing force can be applied to the photosensitive material A and the image receiving paper C by adjusting a spring (not shown) that is engaged with the photosensitive material A and the image receiving paper C. In this case, by setting the elastic force of the spring so that the pressure rollers 84 and 86 are uniform in the longitudinal direction, it is possible to obtain an optimal image without unevenness, and also to Image unevenness caused by unevenness in the materials of the material A and the image-receiving paper C is eliminated, and the effect that the photosensitive material A and the image-receiving paper C are conveyed normally without meandering can also be obtained.

Next, the photosensitive material A and the image receiving paper C that have been pressed in the pressure transfer section 21 are carried into the peeling section 23 .

In the peeling section 23, a peeling operation between the photosensitive material A and the image receiving paper C is performed by a peeling roller 100. In this case, the photosensitive material A is transported toward the first output path 102a, while the image-receiving paper C is separated from the photosensitive material A by the peeling roller 100 and transported toward the second output path 102b.

The image receiving paper C conveyed to the second discharge path 102b is the 120th-
The image is carried into the fixing section 25 by the roller pair 441, and the image transferred to the surface thereof is fixed by the ultraviolet lamp 108. Next, this image-receiving paper C is carried out to the take-out tray 106 by the 13th and 140th-ra pairs 44m and 44n. On the other hand, the photosensitive material A transported to the first unloading path 102a
is carried out to the waste tray 104 by the 110th pair 44k.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, after a latent image corresponding to image information is formed on a photosensitive and pressure sensitive recording material, and before an image receiving paper is pressed onto this photosensitive material using a pressure roller. As a process, the angle of convergence of the photosensitive material and image receiving paper is adjusted to 8
It is set to 0° or less. Therefore, the apical contact portion of the photosensitive material can suitably transfer the image without damaging the surface of the image-receiving paper (or vice versa) and reproduce an even, high-quality image.

Although the present invention has been described above by citing preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments (
Of course, various improvements and changes in design are possible without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image recording device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of another embodiment of the overlapping section in the image recording device according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an image recording device according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a characteristic diagram showing the relationship between pressurizing force and image density in the apparatus. 10... Image recording device 12... Housing 1
3...Photosensitive material supply section 14...Original support glass plate 15...Image reading section 17...Heat developing section 18...Light source 19...Overlapping section 21...Pressure transfer section 23...Peeling part 25.
... Fixing section 30 ... Imaging lens/filter unit assembly 44
a~44n...Roller pair 45-...Cutter 58...
・Halogen lamp 60... Heating drum 72...
Y-shaped guide plate 76...Cassette 78...Paper feed roller 82...Pressure unit 84.86...
・Pressure roller 8th, 90...Backup roller A...Photosensitive material C...Receiving paper S...Original

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In an image recording apparatus that transfers and forms an image recorded on the photosensitive recording material onto the image receiving paper in a state where the image receiving paper is in contact with the photosensitive recording material and overlapped, the photosensitive recording material and the image receiving paper An image recording apparatus characterized in that when the two are merged and superimposed via a guide member, the merge angle is set to 80° (degree) or less. (2) In the apparatus according to claim 1, the guide member is configured in a Y-shape having two entrance passages and one exit passage for the photosensitive material and the image receiving paper, and An image recording apparatus configured such that at least a portion of opposing sides of two entrance passages substantially share a common portion at a communication portion between the entrance passage and the exit passage.