JP2534854B2 - Recording device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Field of Industrial Application> The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that can be used in a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile, or the like.

<Prior Art> In recent years, various information processing systems have been developed along with the rapid development of the information industry, and a recording device suitable for each information processing system has been developed.

There is a thermal transfer recording device as one of the recording devices.
In this method, recording is performed on recording paper using an ink ribbon obtained by applying a hot-melt ink obtained by dispersing a coloring agent in a hot-melt binder to a ribbon-shaped support.

That is, the ink ribbon is superimposed such that the heat-meltable ink layer is in contact with the recording paper, and the ink ribbon and the recording paper are transported between a thermal head and a platen. By applying pulsed heat corresponding to the image signal and pressing the two together to transfer the melted ink to the recording paper, an ink image corresponding to the applied heat is recorded on the recording paper. .

The recording apparatus has been widely used in recent years because the apparatus to be used is small and light, has no noise, and can perform recording on plain paper.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, the conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus is not without its problems.

This is because in the conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus, the transfer recording performance, that is, the image quality is greatly affected by the surface smoothness of the recording paper, and good image recording is performed on the recording paper with high smoothness, but recording with low smoothness is performed. In the case of paper, the image recording quality may deteriorate.

Further, in the conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus, when an attempt is made to obtain a multicolor image, it is necessary to repeat the transfer to superimpose the colors. For this purpose, it is necessary to provide a plurality of thermal heads or to perform complicated movements such as stopping and reversing the recording paper, which not only inevitably causes color misregistration but also complicates the entire apparatus. There is a problem.

<Means for Solving Problems> Therefore, the present applicant uses a photothermally sensitive material, and when heat energy and light energy are applied, the reaction of the material rapidly progresses and the transfer characteristics are irreversibly changed. We proposed a recording apparatus for forming an image according to the difference in the characteristics according to an image signal and transferring the image onto a recording medium (Japanese Patent Application No. 60-150597).

According to this recording device, it is possible to record a high-quality image even on a recording medium having a low surface smoothness, and when applied to multicolor recording, the recording medium is caused to make a complicated movement. It is possible to obtain a multicolored image without any trouble.

It is an object of the present invention to further develop the above recording apparatus, and to provide a recording apparatus capable of forming a clear image with a constant heating position or light irradiation position on the transfer recording medium.

A means therefor is an apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium using a transfer recording medium having a transfer recording layer whose transfer characteristics are changed by application of light energy and heat energy. Transporting means for transporting
A recording unit having a heating unit for applying thermal energy to the transfer recording medium and a light irradiation unit for applying optical energy, the recording unit being provided along the transfer recording medium transporting route by the transporting unit; By setting the relative position of at least one of the transfer unit for transferring the image formed on the transfer recording medium in the recording unit to the recording medium and the heating unit or the light irradiation unit to the transfer recording medium to be constant, It is characterized in that a position determining means for accurately applying light or heat energy to the transfer recording medium according to a signal is provided.

<Operation> According to the above means, when the transfer recording medium and the recording medium are set and recorded in the apparatus, predetermined heat energy and light energy are applied to the transfer recording medium in the recording section to form an image. Then, the image is transferred onto the recording medium at the transfer portion.

Further, when the transfer recording medium is set, the relative position of the heating means or the light irradiating means with respect to the transfer recording medium is set to be constant, so that the light or heat energy is accurately recorded on the transfer recording medium according to the image signal. And a clear image is formed.

<Example> Next, an example of the present invention to which the above means is applied will be described in the case of applying thermal energy and light energy as a plurality of types of energy.

FIG. 1A is a schematic cross-sectional view of the recording apparatus, and FIG. 1B is a perspective view.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a long sheet-shaped transfer recording medium, which is wound into a roll and accommodated as a supply roll 2 in a transfer recording medium accommodating cassette 14 as shown in FIG. It is detachably incorporated into the main body M.

A reader 15 is connected to the end of the transfer recording medium 1 pulled out from the delivery port 14a of the cassette 14,
The end of 15 is connected to the winding shaft 6a. Further, a boss 14b capable of detachably holding the winding shaft 6a is provided near the delivery port 14a of the cassette 14.

Therefore, when the winding shaft 6a is removed from the boss 14b and pulled out, the leader 15 and the transfer recording medium 1 are pulled out. The leader 15 and the transfer recording medium 1 drawn out there are passed through the guide roller 12a, the recording head 3a and the guide roller 12b, and the peeling roller 5 from between the transfer roller 4a and the pressure roller 4b.
Then, the guide roller 12c is deflected and the winding shaft 6a is attached to the winding joint 17. After that, the take-up joint 17 is driven and rotated by a well-known driving means, so that the transfer recording medium 1 is drawn out in the direction of the arrow a and is sequentially taken up on the peripheral surface of the take-up shaft 6a.

During the winding, a constant back tension is applied to the supply roll 2 by, for example, a hysteresis brake (not shown), and this transfer force and the guide rollers 12a and 12b cause the transfer recording medium 1 to move to the recording head 3a.
And at a constant pressure and at a constant angle.

Next, the configuration of each of the above parts will be individually described. First, as shown in FIG. 3, the transfer recording medium 1 has a transfer recording layer 1b having a property capable of forming an image when both thermal energy and light energy are applied onto a sheet-like support 1a. It will be.

Explaining one example thereof, as shown in FIG. 3, the transfer recording layer 1b uses the components shown in Tables 1 and 2 as the cores 1c and 1d, and a microcapsule-shaped image forming element is prepared by the following method. Formed.

That is, 10 g of the components shown in Tables 1 and 2 were first mixed with 20 parts by weight of methylene chloride, and a surfactant having a HLB value of at least 10 such as a cation or a nonion was mixed with gelatin 1
g was dissolved in 200 ml of water, and the mixture was emulsified by stirring at 8,000 to 10,000 rpm with a homomixer while heating at 60 ° C.
26 μm oil droplets are obtained.

Stirring is further continued at 60 ° C. for 30 minutes to distill off methylene chloride to make the average particle size 10 μm. To this, add 20 ml of water in which 1 g of gum arabic is dissolved, while cooling slowly.
A microcapsule slurry is obtained by adding NH ₄ OH (ammonia) water to adjust the pH to 11 or more, and 1.0 ml of a 20% aqueous solution of glutaraldehyde is slowly added to harden the capsule wall.

After that, solid-liquid separation was performed with a Nutsch filter, and 35
After drying at 10 ° C. for 10 hours, a microcapsule-shaped image forming body was obtained.

This image forming element has cores 1c and 1d shown in Tables 1 and 2.
Is a microcapsule coated with shell 1e and has a particle size of 7 ~
It is formed to have a size of 15 μm and an average particle size of 10 μm.

The image forming element formed as described above is attached to the support 1a with the adhesive 1f to form the transfer recording medium 1.

This will be described in more detail. A polyester adhesive Polyester LP-02 manufactured by Nippon Synthetic Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.
An adhesive 1f made by dissolving 2 cc of toluene (solid content 50%) in 3 cc of toluene is applied on a support 1a made of a polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 6 μm. Then, the solvent was dried and removed, and the thickness was measured and found to be about 1 μm. Since the glass transition point of this adhesive 1f is -15 ° C,
Even at room temperature, a delicate tack remains, so that the image forming element formed as described above can be easily attached to the support 1a.

Next, the microcapsule-shaped image forming element having the core material shown in Tables 1 and 2 obtained as described above was used as 1:
The mixture was mixed at a ratio of 1 and sprinkled to adhere. After that, when the excess image-forming element was removed, the image-forming element was arranged on the adhesion layer in approximately 1 layer and 90%.

Thereafter, a pressure of about 1 kg / cm ² and a thermal energy of about 80 ° C. are applied to firmly fix the image forming body on the support 1a to form the transfer recording medium 1.

The photoinitiator in the image forming element shown in Table 1 is
In the light absorption characteristics of the figure, the reaction starts by absorbing the light in the band of graph A, and becomes a magenta color at the time of image formation, and the photoinitiator in the image forming element shown in Table 2 is The light in the band shown in the graph B is absorbed to start the reaction, and becomes blue at the time of image formation.

Next, the recording unit 3 will be described. The recording unit 3 is composed of heating means and light irradiation means.

The heating means is a line-type heating element array 3b of A-4 size of 8 dots / mm having a width of 0.2 mm which generates heat according to an image signal on the surface of the recording head 3a, and the transfer recording as described above. The support 1a side of the medium 1 is configured to come into pressure contact with the heating element array 3b with a predetermined pressure due to back tension during transportation. Therefore, the heating element row 3b
The thermal energy is accurately applied to the transfer recording medium 1 which is in contact with. The image signal is emitted from a control unit (not shown) such as a facsimile, an image scanner, or an electronic blackboard, depending on the application.

On the other hand, on the side of the transfer recording layer 1b facing the recording head 3a,
Two fluorescent lamps 3c and 3d, which are light irradiating means having spectral characteristics as shown in the figure, are arranged, and the light irradiates the area directly above the heating element array of the transfer recording medium 1 in pressure contact with the recording head 3a. As described above, it is housed in the housing 3f having the slit 3e having the opening width of 1.2 mm, and the slit 3e is arranged so as to hold the distance of 0.5 mm from the transfer recording medium 1.

In the present embodiment, one fluorescent lamp 3c having the spectral characteristics shown in the graph A of FIG. 5 is manufactured by Toshiba Corporation.
The fluorescent lamp FL20SE for 20 W health line is used, and the other fluorescent lamp 3d having the spectral characteristics shown in Graph B is the fluorescent lamp FL10A70E39 manufactured by Toshiba Corporation.

Next, the transfer unit 4 will be described. The transfer section 4 is arranged downstream of the recording section 3 in the conveyance direction of the transfer recording medium 1, and is a transfer roller 4a which is driven and rotated in a direction of an arrow b as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B and the transfer roller 4a. The pressure roller 4b is in pressure contact with the roller 4a. The transfer roller 4a
Is an 800 W built-in aluminum roller whose surface is 1 mm thick and covered with silicon rubber with a hardness of 70 degrees.
The surface is kept at 90 to 100 ° C. by the halogen heater 4c.

The pressure roller 4b is an aluminum roller coated with silicon rubber having a hardness of 70 degrees to a thickness of 1 mm, and the pressing force with the transfer roller 4a is 6 to 7 kgf / cm by a pressure means (not shown) such as a spring. It is set.

Further, the recording paper 8 which is a recording medium stacked in the cassette 7 is fed to the transfer section 4 by a feeding roller 9 and a pair of register rollers 10a and 10b so as to be overlapped with the image area of the transfer recording medium 1. It is configured as described. A one-way clutch is provided on the shaft of the registration roller 10a that is driven to rotate among the pair of registration rollers so that the registration roller 10a can freely rotate in the direction of the transfer portion 4.

The transfer recording medium 1 is sequentially conveyed through the recording unit 3 and the transfer unit 4 having the above-described structure. A cassette loading unit 16 for loading a member that constitutes a transfer path of the transfer recording medium 1, that is, a cassette 14. , Guide roller 12a, recording head 3
The unit 18, the a, the guide roller 12b, the transfer roller 4a, the peeling roller 5, and the winding joint 17 are provided.
The unit 18 is pivotally attached to the apparatus main body M by a shaft 19, rotates about 95 degrees in the direction of arrow c as shown in FIG. 6 (A), and can be opened and closed with respect to the apparatus main body M. .

When the unit 18 is opened with respect to the apparatus main body M, the heating means and the light irradiating means in the recording section 3 are separated as shown in FIG. 6, but when the unit 18 is closed, the relative positions of both are in position. The determining means 20 is configured to maintain a constant interval.

The position determining means 20 is constructed as shown in FIGS. 7 (A) and 7 (B). Incidentally, FIG. 7 (B) is a plan view of FIG. 7 (A). The structure will be described. The housing 3f attached to the apparatus main body M side is configured to be rotatable around a pin 20a attached to the lower end, and is biased in the direction of arrow f by a spring 20b that presses near the upper portion. ing. Further, positioning pins 20c are attached near both ends of the slit 3e in the longitudinal direction.

Further, V is provided in the vicinity of both ends in the longitudinal direction of the heating element array 3b of the recording head 3a and at a position facing the positioning pin 20c.
A groove 20d is provided, and the positioning pin 20c is fitted in the V groove 20d.

By fitting the positioning pin 20c into the V-shaped groove 20d as described above, the heating element array 3b of the recording head 3b and the housing 3f.
The slit 3e has a constant space.

Next, the case of using the recording apparatus configured as described above will be described.

First, when the transfer recording medium 1 is loaded into the apparatus main body M, as shown in FIG. 6 (A), the unit 18 is rotated in the direction of arrow c to be opened. In this way, the space between the recording head 3a and the housing 3e in the recording unit 3 and the space between the transfer roller 4a and the pressure roller 4b in the transfer unit 4 are largely opened. In this state, the cassette 14 accommodating the transfer recording medium 1 is loaded into the cassette loading section 16 so as to be inserted from the front to the back in FIG. 6A, and the winding shaft 6a is removed from the boss 14b and pulled out. The leader 15 and the transfer recording medium 1 are pulled out. The leader 15 and the transfer recording medium 1 are passed through the guide roller 12a, the recording head 3a, the guide roller 12b, the transfer roller 4a, and the peeling roller 5, and the winding shaft 6a is moved to the arrow d.
Assemble to the winding joint 17 as shown in. Next, as shown in FIG. 6 (B), the unit 18 is rotated in the direction of the arrow e to be closed, and the unit is closed by a latch mechanism (not shown).
When 18 and the apparatus main body M are latched, the transfer recording medium 1 is loaded in the apparatus as shown in FIG.

When the unit 18 is separated from the apparatus main body M as described above,
Since the conveyance path of the transfer recording medium 1 is largely opened from the apparatus main body M and a sufficient working space is secured, the loading of the transfer recording medium 1 becomes extremely easy.

When the unit 18 moves to the latched position, the housing 3f escapes in the direction of arrow g as shown in FIG.
When the unit 18 is latched, the positioning pin 20c becomes the V groove 20d.
And the relative positional relationship between the heating element array 3b and the slit 3e is kept constant. As a result, the heating position and the light irradiation position with respect to the transfer recording medium 1 conveyed along the heating element array 3b are held constant.

Next, a case where the transfer recording medium 1 is conveyed to record an image will be described. In the embodiment described below, heat is applied according to an image signal and light is applied uniformly.

A motor (not shown) is driven to sequentially feed the transfer recording medium 1 from the supply roll 2, and light and heat are applied to the transfer recording layer 1b of the transfer recording medium 1 in the recording unit 3 according to an image signal to form an image. To be done.

That is, since the transfer recording layer 1b has a property that the softening point temperature rises when light and heat of a predetermined wavelength are applied and the transfer recording layer 1b is not transferred to the recording paper 8, as shown in the timing chart of FIG. At the time of magenta color recording, the heating element corresponding to magenta of the image signal is not energized in the heating element array 3b, and 25 is applied to the portion corresponding to white of the image signal (the recording paper 8 is white).
The energization is performed for ms, and the fluorescent lamp 3c is uniformly irradiated with a delay of 5 ms. The irradiation time at this time is 45 ms.

Next, at the time of blue recording, 50 ms after the end of the irradiation, that is, 100 ms after the energization time, this time, the heating element corresponding to the blue of the image signal in the heating element row 3b is not energized and the image signal of Energize for 25ms to the part corresponding to white, 5m
After s, the fluorescent lamp 3d is uniformly irradiated. At this time, the irradiation time is also 45 ms as described above.

In the manner described above, the recording head 3a is controlled in accordance with the blue, magenta, and white image signals to form a negative image on the transfer recording layer 1b, and the transfer recording medium 1 is synchronized with a repetition cycle of 200 ms / line. Is transported.

When the transfer recording medium 1 is conveyed to the transfer section 4 together with the recording paper 8, the transfer recording layer 1b and the recording paper 8 are heated while being pressed against each other, and an image of two colors, blue and magenta, is transferred to the recording paper 8. It Further, the transfer recording medium 1 and the recording paper 8 which have passed through the transfer section 4 are separated by a separating roller 5, and the recording paper 8 on which an image of a desired color is recorded is discharged to a discharge tray 11 by a pair of discharge rollers 13a and 13b. Then, the transfer recording medium 1 is wound around the winding roll 6.

 Two-color recording is completed in one shot as described above.

<Other Embodiments> First, another embodiment of the recording unit 3 will be described. In the above-described embodiment, the transfer recording layer 1b side of the transfer recording medium 1 is uniformly irradiated with light having a predetermined wavelength corresponding to a desired color. In addition, the structure was such that heat was applied from the support 1a side according to the image signal, but as another embodiment, heat is applied uniformly and predetermined light is emitted according to the image signal. May be.

If the support 1a is made of a translucent material, the support 1a
The structure may be such that light is applied from the side and heat is applied from the transfer recording layer 1b side.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, light irradiation and heat application were performed with the support 1a sandwiched between them. However, image formation is also possible by separately performing light irradiation and heat application from one side of the support 1a. .

As the heating means, in addition to the above-described method using the recording head 3a, a method of selectively heating using a YAG laser and a polygon mirror may be used.

Further, as the light irradiation means, in addition to the method using the above-mentioned fluorescent lamps 3c and 3d, for example, a method using an LED array or a method using a xenon lamp and a filter suitable for the light absorption characteristics of the material can be used.

In the above-described embodiment, the light energy and the heat energy are applied to the transfer recording layer 1b at the same time. However, even when the light energy and the heat energy are applied separately, both energy are consequently obtained. What is necessary is just a structure provided.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the example of two-color recording is explained, but as the applicant of the present application has made clear in Japanese Patent Application No. 61-128814, the kinds of the colorant and the photoinitiator constituting the image forming element are appropriately selected. It is also possible to obtain a monochromatic, multi-colored image of three or more colors or a full-color recorded image by selecting a light source having a wavelength that reacts with the photoinitiator and using the process disclosed in the above application.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, an example in which an image is transferred and recorded on the recording paper by the change of the softening point temperature of the transfer recording layer 1b of the material containing the colorant by the light energy and the heat energy is shown. An image may be transferred and recorded depending on the adhesive property to paper or the sublimation property. Alternatively, the recording paper is provided with a color developing property, a layer that changes the coloring properties of the recording paper is provided on the transfer recording medium, and the image formed on the transfer recording medium is transferred to the recording paper, thereby recording the image. You may be comprised so that it may obtain.

Explaining another embodiment of the transfer recording medium 1, as the material of the support 1a, in addition to the above-mentioned polyethylene terephthalate, for example, polyamide, polyimide, condenser paper, cellophane paper or the like can be used.

As the transfer recording layer 1b, a material having properties such as heat melting property, heat softening property, or heat sublimation property can be appropriately selected and used.

Further, the recording medium is not limited to the recording paper described above, and may be, for example, an overhead projector (OH
Of course, plastic sheets for P) can also be used.

 Next, another embodiment of the positioning means 20 will be described.

In the above-described embodiment, the transfer recording medium 1 is conveyed along the recording head 3a, and the positional relationship between the recording head 3a and the housing 3f is kept constant, so that the heating position and the light irradiation position on the transfer recording medium 1 are changed. Although an example in which both are positioned is shown, in this embodiment, if at least the positional relationship between the transfer recording medium 1 and the recording head 3a is determined,
If the position of the light irradiation means with respect to the transfer recording medium 1 is within a certain range (about 15 to 35 mm from the transfer recording medium 1),
Clear image recording is possible.

Also, as shown in FIG. 9, an optical head using an optical fiber
In the case where the image is formed by applying light energy corresponding to the image signal to the transfer recording medium 1 by 21a and uniformly applying thermal energy to the transfer recording medium 1 by the heater 21b, at least the transfer is performed. If the light irradiating means (optical head 21a) contacts the recording medium 1 as shown in FIG. 9 and the positions of both are determined, the position of the heating means (heater 21b) relative to the transfer recording medium 1 does not necessarily have to be determined. Instead, it may be arranged at a position where a certain amount of heat energy can be applied to the light irradiation portion of the transfer recording medium 1.

Next, the transfer unit 4 is not limited to the roller-shaped members such as the transfer roller 4a and the pressure roller 4b, and may be any structure such as a rotary belt that can obtain a desired pressure.

If necessary, a fixing unit for fixing the image of the recording medium transferred by the transfer unit 4 may be provided in the conveying direction of the recording medium and on the downstream side of the peeling roller 5.

<Advantages of the Invention> As described above, the present invention uses a transfer recording medium whose transfer characteristics change when a plurality of types of energy are applied, thereby forming a multicolor image without causing complicated movement of the recording medium. You can get it.

Further, since the position determining means accurately determines the relative position of the heating means or the light irradiating means with respect to the transfer recording medium, the energy necessary for image formation can be accurately applied to a predetermined area, and the image formation is stabilized. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a high quality recorded image.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A is a schematic sectional view of the recording apparatus, FIG. 1B is a perspective explanatory view thereof, FIG. 2 is a perspective explanatory view of a cassette, FIG. 3 is a structural explanatory view of a transfer recording medium, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a graph showing the light absorption characteristics of the transfer recording medium, FIG. 5 is a graph showing the spectral characteristics of the light irradiation means, and FIGS. 6 (A) and 6 (B) are cross-sectional explanatory views with the unit opened from the apparatus main body. FIG. 7 (A) is a structural explanatory view of the positioning means, FIG. 7 (B) is a plan explanatory view thereof, FIG. 8 is a timing chart for applying heat and light, and FIG. 9 is a recording unit of another embodiment. It is explanatory drawing at the time of setting. 1 is a transfer recording medium, 1a is a support, 1b is a transfer recording layer, and 1c, 1
d is a core, 1e is a shell, 1f is an adhesive, 2 is a supply roll,
3 is a recording unit, 3a is a recording head, 3b is a heating element array, and 3c and 3d.
Is a fluorescent lamp, 3e is a housing, 4 is a transfer portion, 4a is a transfer roller, 4b is a pressure roller, 4c is a heater, 5 is a peeling roller, and 6
Is a take-up roll, 6a is a take-up shaft, 7 is a cassette, 8 is recording paper, 9 is a feeding roller, 10a and 10b are register rollers, 1
1 is a discharge tray, 12a, 12b, 12c are guide rollers, 13a, 13b
Is a discharge roller, 14 is a cassette, 14a is an outlet, 14b is a boss, 15 is a leader, 16 is a cassette loading section, 17 is a take-up joint, 18 is a unit, 19 is a shaft, 20 is positioning means, 20a is a pin, 20b is a spring, 20c is a positioning pin, 20d is a V groove, 21a is an optical head, and 21b is a heater.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G03D 13/00 7416-2H B41M 5/26 T

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. An apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium by using a transfer recording medium having a transfer recording layer whose transfer characteristics are changed by application of light energy and heat energy. A transporting means for transporting, a heating means for applying thermal energy to the transfer recording medium provided along the transporting path of the transfer recording medium transported by the transporting means, and a light irradiating means for applying light energy. And a transfer unit for transferring an image formed on the transfer recording medium by the recording unit to the recording medium, and a relative position of at least one of a heating unit and a light irradiation unit with respect to the transfer recording medium is fixed. By
A recording apparatus comprising: a position determining unit for accurately applying light or heat energy to a transfer recording medium according to an image signal. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the position determining means is configured so that the positions of the heating means and the light irradiation means are constant. 3. A member constituting a transfer recording medium conveying path is configured as a unit so as to be capable of being opened and closed with respect to an apparatus main body, and heating means of a recording section is provided on the unit side and light irradiation means is provided on the apparatus main body side. The recording device according to claim 2. 4. A recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the unit and the main body of the apparatus can be opened and closed by rotating about a shaft.