JPS63286850A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To maintain the temperature of an applying liquid of a solvent for picture formation, such as water, at a constant and at simultaneously, to uniformly apply the liquid, by causing an applying roller to produce heat or heating the roller. CONSTITUTION:So as to cause an applying roller 52 to produce heat or heat the roller 52, a heater 55 having a cross section which is concentric to that of a rotary shaft 54 is provided. Then the temperature of water to be applied is detected with a temperature sensor 56 which is provided so that the sensor 56 is brought into contact with the roller 52 and the detecting signal of the sensor 56 is sent to a control circuit so as to control the current supplied to the heater 55. When the water 70 is supplied to a main tank 72, the roller 52 whose temperature rises to a prescribed level starts to rotate and the water 70 sticks to the peripheral surface of the roller 52. Since beads 70A are formed from the water between the roller 52 and a photosensitive material 16, the temperature of the water 70 is maintained at a prescribed set temperature. Therefore, the temperature of the water to be applied can be maintained at constant and the water can be applied uniformly.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (1) Background Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus used to obtain an image by thermal development.

Prior art and its problems As an image forming apparatus for obtaining a color image using a heat-developable photosensitive element, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-75247, a heat developing section is used after exposing the heat-developable photosensitive element. It is known that an image receiving element is brought into close contact with the photosensitive element after thermal development, and an image is transferred to the image receiving element through a transfer process.

In this case, before the photosensitive element or image receiving element is sent to the transfer section, a transfer aid (image forming solvent) such as water is usually applied in advance to improve transfer efficiency. .

This application of water mainly consists of a tank for containing water and an application roller disposed in this tank for applying the contained water to the photosensitive element or image receiving element. It is done using

It is usually preferable to control the temperature of the water before applying it, and it is recommended to install a heating means such as a heater in the tank for storing the water so that the temperature of the water accumulated in the tank remains constant. Bye.

However, even if the temperature is kept constant in the tank in this way, the temperature of the applied water changes when it adheres to the circumferential surface of the roller and comes into contact with the photosensitive element or image receiving element.
This is because the temperature of the contact area during application is extremely susceptible to environmental temperature such as room temperature if only the water temperature in the tank is managed.

In such a case, it is possible to install a thermocouple on the photosensitive element or image receiving element, which is the object to be coated with water, to detect the temperature, thereby keeping the water temperature in the tank constant. The work involved in manufacturing the image receiving element becomes complicated, which is disadvantageous in terms of cost.

II. OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to be able to keep the temperature of a coating liquid of an image forming solvent such as water constant, especially the temperature during actual coating, and to quickly increase the temperature. Another object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that has high heating efficiency and is capable of uniform coating.

III Disclosure of the invention Such objects are achieved by the invention described below.

That is, the present invention includes a tank containing an image-forming solvent, and an application roller disposed in the tank for applying the solvent to a photothermographic element or an image receiving element, and a solvent applied by the application roller. An image forming apparatus that obtains an image by transferring an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive element to an image receiving element in the presence of an image forming apparatus, characterized in that the application roller is configured to generate or heat the application roller. be.

■Specific structure of the invention The specific structure of the present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing one embodiment of an image forming apparatus 10 of the present invention.

In this image forming edge device 10, the magazine 14 is placed on the machine base 12.
is mounted and accommodates a heat-developable photosensitive material (thermally developable photosensitive element) 16. The photosensitive material 16 in the magazine 14 is pulled out from its outer periphery, cut into a predetermined length by a cutter 18, and then wound around the outer periphery of the exposure drum 20 (in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1). An exposure head 22 is disposed opposite to the outer periphery of the exposure drum 20, and after exposure, the exposure drum 20 is reversed and the photosensitive material 16 is peeled off by a scraper 24 and sent to a thermal development/transfer section 28 via a water coating section 34. It is now possible to

On the other hand, the image receiving material (image receiving element) 3 accommodated in the tray 30
The photosensitive material 2 is sent to the thermal development/transfer section 28 and overlapped with the photosensitive material 16, and then heated by a heater in the thermal development/transfer section 28. As a result, the photosensitive material 16 is developed, and the developed image is transferred to the image receiving material 32.

After the transfer is completed, the photosensitive material 16 passes through a peeling section 36 and is stored in a discontinued tray 38, and the image receiving material 32 passes through a drying section 40 and is delivered to a take-out tray 42.

In the illustrated example, the image-receiving material 32 is in the form of a cut sheet, but it may be in the form of a roll. In this case, a cutter may be provided at a predetermined position to cut the image-receiving material 32.

FIG. 2 shows the water applicator 34 in the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of conveyance rollers 44 and 46 are arranged in the water application section 34 to sandwich the photosensitive material 16 being conveyed, and a pair of conveyance rollers 44 and 46 are arranged downstream of these conveyance rollers 44 and 46. The rollers 48 and 50 are arranged to nip and convey the photosensitive material 16.

These rollers are configured to send out the photosensitive material 16 in the direction of arrow B to the thermal development/transfer section 28 by receiving the driving force of a motor (not shown). Furthermore, guide plates 51A and 51B are provided between these conveyance rollers, corresponding to both ends of the photosensitive material 16 being conveyed, and guide the photosensitive material 16 from between the conveyance rollers 44 and 46 to between the conveyance rollers 48 and 50. It is designed to guide you.

A coating roller 52 as a coating member is provided between the conveyance roller 46 and the conveyance rollers 5 and 0, facing the center of the back surface (emulsion side) of the photosensitive material 16. The application roller 52 has its rotating shaft 54 supported by the machine stand 12 .
A motor (both not shown) is connected to the rotation shaft 54 via a shaft coupling, and the application roller 52 is rotated in the direction of arrow C by the driving force of this motor.

A portion of the coating roller 52 is immersed in a main tank 72 filled with water 70, which is an image forming solvent, so that when the coating roller 52 rotates, the water 70 is brought out on its circumferential surface.

The water 70 taken out by the application roller 52 is applied to the photosensitive material 16.
A bead portion OA is formed between the
In this state, the photosensitive material 16 is
The coating water is supplied to the back side of the plate.

In this case, the conveyance speed of the photosensitive material 16 is 5 to 25 mm.
/s.

In the present invention, the temperature of the application water is controlled by configuring the application roller 52 to generate heat or heat it. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, a heater 55 whose cross section is concentric with the cross section of the rotating shaft 54 may be provided inside the rotating shaft 54. Part 7
There is no particular restriction as long as it is installed to uniformly heat the temperature at 0A, and it may be installed outside the rotating shaft, such as by configuring it to cover the rotating shaft 54 or placing it inside the roller. You may.

Usually, the material of the application roller 52 is aluminum or the like.
The inside thereof is hollow except for the rotating shaft 54. When the heater 55 is provided as described above, it is necessary to use a thermally conductive material for the rotating shaft 54 and the roller 52.

The applicator roller 52 has a diameter of about 10 to 50 mm and a thickness of about 0.5 to 3.0 mm. For example, when aluminum is used as the material, the coating roller 52 has a thickness of about 1.5 mm.

As the heating means, any of the known parts can be used, and the roller can be constructed so that the inside of the roller generates heat.

The temperature of the application roller 54 is controlled by a heater 55, a temperature sensor 56, and a control circuit (not shown). That is, the temperature sensor 56 installed in contact with the application roller 54 is configured to detect the temperature of the water to be applied,
The detection signal is sent to the control circuit to control the heater current.

In this case, the temperature sensor 56 is preferably of a waterproof type.

When water 70 is supplied into the main tank 72 by a predetermined means, the application roller, which has reached a predetermined temperature, starts rotating in a predetermined direction (direction C in the figure) and deposits the water 70 on the circumferential surface.

A bead 70A is formed between this water 70 and the photosensitive material 16, and the bead 70A is held at a predetermined set temperature.
It will be applied to the photosensitive material 16.

The set temperature can be any temperature in the range of 25 to 50°C, and the temperature at the bead 70A can be controlled to ±1.0°C.

In this case, the amount of water applied to the photosensitive material is 5 to 20 m i
/ m”. Also, the volume of water put into the main tank is about 10 to 100 mJ2.

In this way, by controlling the temperature of the application roller, the temperature of the water to be applied can be kept constant.

Further, the main tank 72 may also be provided with heating means such as a heater.

A supply vibrator 74 that supplies water 70 and a discharge vibrator 76 that discharges water 70 from the main tank 72 are attached to the main tank 72 filled with water 70, and a pump 81 is installed in the middle of the supply vibrator 74. installed. Also,
A replenishment tank 82 is installed at one end of the supply vibe 74, so that by driving the pump 81, water can be supplied from the replenishment tank into the main tank 72 as needed.

A solenoid valve 8o is attached to the middle part of the discharge pipe 76,
Normally, this solenoid valve 80 is closed, and the main tank 7
The amount of water in 2 is maintained constant. Here, solenoid valve 8
When 0 is opened, water 0 in the main tank 72 is guided to a waste liquid tank 84 installed at one end of the discharge pipe 76. Note that the discharge pipe 76 can also be connected to the replenishment tank 82 and used for circulation. This method will be described later.

These pump 81 and solenoid valve 8o are each operated by a microcomputer 86.

The microcomputer 86 has a counting circuit (not shown) disposed therein. A signal line 90 of a sensor 88 that sends a signal to the coefficient circuit every time the photosensitive material 16 is conveyed is connected to a part of the microcomputer 86.

Further, a power line 92 from a drive circuit for operating the pump 81 and the electromagnetic valve 80 is connected to another part of the microcomputer 86, and a counting circuit is interposed in the middle of the power line 92.

As a result, a minute current flows to the counting circuit every time a signal is transmitted from the sensor 88, and the internal switch of this circuit becomes conductive, allowing power to be supplied to the pump 81 and the solenoid valve 80. Accordingly, the pump 81 is operated and the solenoid valve 80 is opened.

The operation timing of the pump 81 and the solenoid valve 80 is such that the pump 81 is activated after the solenoid valve 80 is closed again for a predetermined period of time.

The main tank 72 contains water 7 that is filled into the main tank 72.
An overflow vibe 78 is attached for discharging the surplus of zero. The opening 78A of this overflow pipe:j78 is arranged at a predetermined height from the bottom surface 72A of the main tank 72, and the water 7 supplied from the supply vibrator 74 is
0 reaches above this opening 78A, the water 70 is discharged to the outside of the main tank 72, so that the amount of water (water surface height) in the main tank 72 can be kept constant.

The opening 78B on the opposite side of the overflow vibe 78 is connected to a solenoid valve 80 in the discharge pipe 76 and a waste liquid tank 8.
It is piped between 4 and 4.

Note that the water surface in the main tank 72 is about 1/3 of the coating roller 52.
It is preferable that the level is the same as the height of the immersion.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the applicator roller 52 has a gap between the outer periphery of the applicator roller 52 and the right side wall 72B of the main tank 72 (second dimension). The gap size between the left side wall 72C and the left side wall 72C (dimension M in FIG. 2) is smaller than that of the left side wall 72C.

This minimizes the amount of water required in the tank. Note that the M dimension needs to be 1 mm or more, and is particularly preferably 3 mm.

By doing so, the amount of water can be reduced as described above.

The image forming apparatus 10 of the present invention is preferably configured so that the water 70 in the main tank 72 is supplied and replaced every time the water 70 is applied to one sheet of the photosensitive material 16.

The supply method will be explained in detail below.

Since the photosensitive material 16 is sequentially conveyed at predetermined intervals, the water 70 is repeatedly lifted up by the coating roller 52 and returned to the main tank 72. The number of times this is repeated is proportional to the number of sheets of photosensitive material 16 transported, and the sensor 88 sends a signal to the counting circuit of the microcomputer 86 each time the photosensitive material 16 is transported, and this causes a small current to flow through the counting circuit. .

In response to this current, the pump 81 is operated and the main tank 7
Water is supplied into the tank 2 from a replenishment tank 82. After the coating is completed, the solenoid valve 80 is opened, and the water 70 in the main tank 72 is collected into the waste liquid tank 84 via the discharge vibrator 76.

Note that water is supplied into the main tank 72 from the replenishment tank 82 at the same time as the operation of pulling out the photosensitive material 16 from the magazine 14 begins, or before that, or when the remaining water is collected after the previous coating is completed. It is preferable to start immediately after the

By supplying water to the main tank 72 early in this manner, the temperature distribution of the water supplied into the tank can be made as uniform as possible.

In particular, if a heater is provided not only in the application roller 52 but also in the main tank 72 to control the temperature of the water in the main tank to be constant, water should be supplied to the main tank 72 early. It is necessary to keep the water temperature constant.
In this way, it is possible to further prevent uneven thermal development and transfer due to non-uniform temperature distribution of water.

As mentioned above, since the water in the main tank 72 is replaced every time the photosensitive material 16 is coated, the surface condition of the coating roller 52 is prevented from becoming gradually contaminated by gelatin peeled off from the photosensitive material 16. There is no uniformity, and it is possible to prevent the occurrence of step unevenness, etc.

Further, there is no need to periodically clean the application roller 52 and the main tank 72, and the amount of water 70 consumed is reduced.

Further, even if the conveyance gap between the photosensitive materials 16 is large, the surface of the application roller 52 will not dry out and no dirt will stick to it.

Here, it is preferable that the amount of replenishment and the amount of drained water be the same, but since an overflow vibrator 78 is attached to the main tank 72, if the amount of replenishment water is slightly larger than the amount of drained water, this difference will be covered by the overflow pipe 78. Since the main tank 72 is drained, a constant amount of water can be maintained in the main tank 72.

In the embodiment described above, the replenishment tank 82 is attached to the supply vibrator 74, and the waste liquid tank 84 is attached to the discharge vibrator 76, so that the water 70 is disposable. However, as shown in FIG. A circulation tank 94 to which both ends of the vibrator 76 are attached is provided to collect the water 70.
The circulation tank 94 may be replaced periodically depending on the number of sheets of photosensitive material 16 to be processed.

In this case, it is preferable to install a filter 96 or the like in the middle of the discharge vibrator 76 and filter the once used water 70 when returning it to the circulation tank 94.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the photosensitive material 16 is coated with water has been described, but the present invention is similarly applicable to the case where the image receiving material 32 is coated with water.

In the above embodiment, the heat development section that heat develops the exposed heat-developable photosensitive material is the same as the transfer section that heats the heat-developed photosensitive material and image-receiving material by overlapping them and transferring the image to the image-receiving material. In other words, those equipped with a heat development/transfer section that overlaps and heats the exposed heat-developable photosensitive material and image-receiving material to perform heat development and heat transfer at the same time. A developing section and a thermal transfer section may be provided separately to perform thermal development and thermal transfer separately.

Further, in the above embodiment, a photosensitive material and an image receiving material (dye fixing material) in which a photosensitive element and an image receiving element are respectively formed on separate supports are used as photographic materials, but the photosensitive element and the image receiving element are They may be formed on the same support. Furthermore, although the example is of a type in which both are peeled off after thermal development and thermal transfer, it may be a type that does not require peeling. Examples of such photographic materials (photographic elements) include, for example, U.S. Pat.
No., JP-A-59-154445, JP-A-59-165
No. 054, JP-A-59-180548, JP-A-59-
218443, JP 60-120356, JP 61-88256, JP 60-79709, JP 60-169585, JP 60-244873, etc. and an image-receiving material (dye-fixing material), and any of these can be used.

In the above embodiments, water is mentioned as the image forming solvent required for image formation, but other low boiling point organic solvents (alcohols, ketones, amides, etc.) or surfactants are added to these solvents. Examples include those to which various additives such as a development accelerator and a development stopper are added.

(2) Specific Effects of the Invention The photosensitive material 16 housed in the cassette 14 is cut into a predetermined length, wound around the exposure drum 20, exposed by the exposure drum 22, and then sent to the water coating section 34.

The coating roller 52 rotates in the direction of the arrow C in FIG. 2, brings out the water 70 in the main tank 72 by adhering it to its surface, and forms a bead 70A between it and the back surface (emulsion surface) of the photosensitive material 16. This is applied to the back side of the photosensitive material 16.

When the rear end of the photosensitive material 16 passes the application roller 16,
The bead 70A is returned to the main tank 72 by its own weight.

The photosensitive material 16 coated with water in the water coating section 34 is sent to the thermal development/transfer section 28 . The image receiving material 32 taken out from the tray 30 is sent to the thermal development/transfer section 28 and is overlapped with the photosensitive material 16. Here, heat development is carried out in the presence of water, and at the same time the formed dye image is heat-transferred to the emulsion surface of the image-receiving material 32.

In this transfer state, the photosensitive material 16 is already kept at a constant temperature and has been properly supplied with the required amount of water, so that an extremely good transfer operation can be performed.

After the transfer, the photosensitive material 16 and the image receiving material 32, which remain in close contact with each other, are sent from the thermal development/transfer section 28 to the peeling section 36.
The photosensitive material 16 is stored in the accumulating device 38 and 1. Image receiving material 3
2 is sent to the take-out section 40 and taken out.

At this time, in the present invention, the application roller 16 is configured to generate or heat the application roller 16. Therefore, the temperature of the solvent coating liquid on the bead 70A can be kept constant, and uniform coating is possible. Also, the temperature rises quickly,
The heating efficiency is high. As a result, extremely uniform and good images can be obtained.

Furthermore, by configuring the main tank 72 to exchange the solvent each time the image forming solvent is applied to the photographic material by the application roller 16, it is possible to prevent the solvent from becoming dirty as the application roller applies the solvent.

(2) Specific Examples of the Invention The effects of the present invention will be explained in detail below by showing specific examples starting from scratch.

Embodiment As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 10 of the present invention having the water coating section 34 of the type that heats the coating roller 52 is used to produce the photosensitive material and dye fixing material described in Japanese Patent Application No. 73714/1982. (imaging material).

In addition, the volume of water put into the main tank 72 in the water application section 34 is 35 m1t, and the L dimension is 3 mm% and the M dimension is 5 mm.
mm. The coating roller 52 had a diameter of 30 mm and a width of 236 mm, and was made of A1 material with a thickness of 1.5 mm.

The heater 55 used had a circular cross section (diameter tomm). The conveyance speed of the photosensitive material was 12 mm/sec, and the rotation speed of the coating roller was 200 rpm.

The photosensitive material 16 pulled out from the magazine 14 and cut into a predetermined length is wrapped around the exposure drum 20, exposed for one second using G%R, IR light emitting diodes, and then sent to the water application section 34. Water was applied to the emulsion surface.

In this case, in the water application section 34, three
The water 70 set at 5° C. is taken out by the application roller 52, and the water temperature (1
/1) was measured by changing the environmental temperature (t a /''C).

In addition, in the water application section 34, the water temperature of the bead 70A was measured in the same manner as described above, except that the conventional method of heating the main tank 72 and not heating the application roller was applied.

These results are shown in FIG.

From the results shown in FIG. 4, it can be seen that in the conventional tank heating power set, the bead water temperature is largely influenced by the environmental temperature, whereas in the system of the present invention, the bead water temperature is not influenced by the environmental temperature.

In this way, 10 mj of water is applied to the photosensitive material 16! It was applied at a ratio of /R. This photosensitive material 16 is transferred to a heat development/transfer section 28.
Here, the image-receiving material 32 sent out by a predetermined method is
and heated with a heater in the thermal development/transfer section 28. In this case, the temperature of the membrane that absorbed water was adjusted to 90 to 95° C. and heated for 25 seconds.

Thereafter, it was conveyed to a peeling section 36 and the image receiving material 32 was peeled off from the photosensitive material 16.

With the image forming apparatus of the present invention, a uniform, clear image without unevenness was obtained on the image-receiving material.

On the other hand, in the conventional image forming apparatus, although an image was obtained, unevenness occurred in the image.

Further, when the image forming apparatus of the present invention having a water application section 34 as shown in FIG. 3 was used, results similar to those obtained when using the above-described apparatus of the present invention were obtained.

Furthermore, results similar to those described above were obtained when the image forming solvent was used other than water.

From the above, the effects of the present invention are clear.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing one embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention. FIGS. 2 and 3 are cross-sectional views showing a water application section constituting both image forming apparatuses of the present invention, respectively. FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the temperature of bead water formed in the water application section and the environmental temperature in the image forming apparatus of the present invention and the conventional image forming apparatus. Explanation of symbols 10... Image forming device, 16... Photosensitive material, 32...
...Image receiving material, 34...Water application section, 52...Application roller, 55...Heater, 56...Temperature sensor, 70...Water, 70A...Bead, 7
2...Main tank FIG, 1 1゜

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) It has a tank containing an image-forming solvent and a coating roller disposed within the tank and coating the solvent onto a heat-developable photosensitive element or an image-receiving element, and in the presence of the solvent applied by the coating roller. An image forming apparatus that obtains an image by transferring an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive element to an image receiving element, characterized in that the application roller is configured to generate or heat the application roller.