JP2000289902A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To record images highly precisely via a simple structure by delivering recording image carriers highly precisely. SOLUTION: The end of a support shaft 52 for a group 36 of rollers is shaped into a taper surface 82. The tapered end is fitted, in a clearance-free fashion, in a taper hole 72 bored in a large pulley 40 for transmitting the driving force of a drive motor, so that the support shaft 52 and the large pulley 40 are axially aligned with high precision. The group 36 of rollers can be thus rotated evenly.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a two-dimensional image forming apparatus, in which a light beam modulated in accordance with image information is main-scanned on an image record carrier held in a sub-scanning manner by being sandwiched by a pair of rollers. The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus that records images on a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a digital image signal of an image read using a scanner or the like is subjected to desired image processing, and then a laser beam is modulated according to the digital image signal to form an image recording carrier made of a photosensitive material. An image recording apparatus has been developed which records an image by irradiating the image.

In such an image recording apparatus, an image recording medium conveyed in the sub-scanning direction is irradiated with a laser beam in the main scanning direction to record an image two-dimensionally. If the transport speed is uneven, the recorded image will be uneven in the main scanning direction.

[0004] In order to avoid the above situation, it is necessary to manufacture the transport system with high precision. However, for example,
When a driving member for transmitting a driving force is fitted to the rollers constituting the transport system, there is an unavoidable gap between them, and when these are fastened, the center of the shaft is shifted, and the driving member due to eccentricity There is a problem that blur occurs. Therefore, if the drive motor is servo-controlled in such a state, there is a possibility that the rotation of the roller will have uneven speed.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to avoid the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to convey an image recording carrier with high accuracy and to record an image with high accuracy by a simple structure. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image recording apparatus capable of performing the following.

[0006]

An image recording apparatus according to the present invention performs a main scan of a light beam modulated in accordance with image information on an image record carrier nipped by a pair of rollers and conveyed in a sub-scanning manner. When an image is recorded two-dimensionally, the end of a support shaft of a driving roller forming a roller pair is formed in a tapered shape, and this end is formed in a taper formed in a pulley for transmitting a driving force from a driving motor. By engaging and connecting the holes in the shape of a circle without any gap, the axis of the drive roller and the axis of the pulley can be matched with high accuracy, and the drive roller can be rotated evenly. In addition, since the static balance of the driving roller is improved, stable servo control can always be performed.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an image recording apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment.
At 0, an automatic developing device 12 for developing a color photographic printing paper F (image recording carrier) on which an image is recorded is provided.

The image recording apparatus 10 is formed in a light-tight manner by a casing 14, in which a roll-shaped color photographic printing paper F is stored. The conveying path of the color photographic printing paper F conveyed in the sub-scanning direction (the direction of the arrow Y) includes two pairs of rollers 18 and 20, a cutter 22 for cutting the color photographic printing paper F to a fixed size, and a cut color. Roller pairs 24 for transporting the photographic printing paper F to the automatic developing device 12 are arranged in order. In addition, the cutter 22 is connected to the roller pair 1.
8, the cut color photographic printing paper F may be supplied between the pair of rollers 18 and 20. A guide plate 26 is disposed between the roller pairs 18 and 20. A laser beam L modulated in accordance with image information is supplied to the upper portion of the guide plate 26 via a reflecting mirror 28 on a color photographic printing paper F. And a laser recording unit 30 for main scanning is provided.

The roller pair 18 disposed on the upstream side is composed of a roller group 32 as a driving roller disposed at a lower part and a roller group 34 disposed at an upper part. Similarly,
The roller pair 20 disposed on the downstream side includes a roller group 36 disposed at a lower part and a roller group 38 disposed at an upper part. The roller group 36 includes a large pulley 40 having a large diameter.
Are connected coaxially. A small pulley 44 having a small diameter is connected to the large pulley 40 via a metal belt 42. A drive motor 46 is connected to the small pulley 44. Further, the roller group 32 and the roller group 36 are connected by a chain 48.

FIG. 2 shows a group of rollers 32, 34, 36, 38.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the configuration of FIG. The roller groups 32 and 36 arranged at the bottom have four metal rollers 54a to 54d and 56a to 56d integrally formed with the support shafts 50 and 52.
54d and 56a to 56d are arranged at equal intervals in the main scanning direction (the direction of the arrow X).

[0011] Metal rollers 54a-54d and 56a-
56d, a plurality of screw-shaped grooves 58a to 58d and 60a to 60d are formed on the outer peripheral surface which comes into contact with the color photographic paper F.
Is formed. In this case, the groove portions 58a, 58b, and 60a formed on the outer peripheral surfaces of the two metal rollers 54a, 54b, 56a, and 56b on the right side in the sub-scanning direction (the arrow Y direction) that is the transport direction of the color photographic printing paper F. , 60
b is set to be inclined rightward from the center of the color photographic printing paper F toward the downstream in the transport direction. Also, the left 2
Grooves 58c, 58d and 60c formed on the outer peripheral surface of the three metal rollers 54c, 54d and 56c and 56d,
60d is set to be inclined leftward from the center of the color photographic printing paper F toward the downstream side in the transport direction.

On the other hand, the roller groups 34 and 38 arranged on the upper side have four rubber rollers 66a to 66d and 68a to 68d supported by the support shafts 62 and 64, and the metal groups forming the roller groups 32 and 36 are formed. Rollers 54a-
Arranged at equal intervals in the main scanning direction (arrow X direction) so as to abut on 54d and 56a to 56d.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are views showing in detail the connection structure between the large pulley 40 and the support shaft 52 of the roller group 36. FIG.
The large pulley 40 has a tapered hole 72 in which the support shaft 52 is engaged with the central boss 70. The tapered hole 72 is configured such that the inner peripheral surface is gradually reduced in diameter. In the boss 70, screw holes 78, 80 through which the set screws 74, 76 are screwed through the tapered hole 72 are formed so that their axes are orthogonal to each other. On the other hand, at the end of the spindle 52 engaged with the tapered hole 72 of the large pulley 40, the outer peripheral surface is gradually reduced in diameter, and a tapered surface 82 having the same shape as the tapered hole 72 is formed.

The support shaft 52 of the roller group 36 has a tapered surface 82
Is engaged with the tapered hole 72 of the large pulley 40 and the screw hole 7
The support shaft 52 and the large pulley 40 are connected and fixed by screwing setscrews 74 and 76 into the positions 8 and 80.

The image recording apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment is basically configured as described above, and its operation and effect will be described next.

First, a schematic operation of the image recording apparatus 10 will be described. The color photographic printing paper F wound in a roll shape is moved by a pair of rollers 18 and 20 in the sub-scanning direction (arrow Y).
Direction), a laser beam L output from the laser recording unit 30 and modulated in accordance with image information is emitted in the main scanning direction (arrow X direction) to record an image as a latent image. Is done. The color photographic printing paper F on which the image is recorded is cut by the cutter 22 at predetermined intervals, and then supplied to the automatic developing device 12 via the roller pair 24 to be subjected to a developing process.

Next, the operation and effect during image recording will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 2, the color photographic printing paper F includes roller groups 32 and 3 forming the roller pair 18.
While the upstream side is nipped by 4 and the downstream side is nipped by the roller groups 36 and 38 constituting the roller pair 20, the sheet is transported in the sub-scanning direction (the direction of the arrow Y).
That is, the driving force of the driving motor 46 is
The roller group 36 is rotated by being transmitted to the support shaft 52 via the metal belt 42 and the large pulley 40. In this case, the rotation of the drive motor 46 is decelerated by the large pulley 40 constituting the deceleration means and transmitted to the support shaft 52.
The roller group 32 and the roller group 36 are connected to a chain 48.
, The roller group 32 rotates with the rotation of the roller group 36. As a result, the color photographic printing paper F is transported in the sub-scanning direction (arrow Y direction).

The metal rollers 54a to 54d and 56a to 56d constituting the roller groups 32 and 36 have screw-shaped grooves 58a to 58d and 60a to
60d are formed. These grooves 58a to 58d
And 60a-60d, metal rollers 54a, 54b
And grooves 58 formed on the outer peripheral surfaces of 56a and 56b
a, 58b and 60a, 60b are set to be inclined rightward from the center of the color photographic printing paper F toward the downstream side in the transport direction of the color photographic printing paper F. Also, grooves 58c, 58d and 60c, 60d formed on the outer peripheral surface of the metal rollers 54c, 54d, 56c, 56d
Is toward the downstream side in the transport direction of the color photographic printing paper F,
The color photographic printing paper F is set to be inclined leftward from the center.

In this case, the color photographic printing paper F has grooves 58a to 58d and 60a to 60d formed to be inclined with the metal rollers 54a to 54d and 56a to 56d.
The sheet is conveyed in a state where it is securely held by the rubber rollers 66a to 66d and 68a to 68d. Therefore, the main scanning direction (arrow X direction) and the sub-scanning direction (arrow Y direction)
It is transported with high precision without slipping. The screw-shaped grooves 58a to 58d and 60a to 60d move toward the center of the color photographic printing paper F with the rotation of the metal rollers 54a to 54d and 56a to 56d. The paper F is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction (arrow Y direction) so as to be relatively pulled to both sides in the main scanning direction (arrow X direction). Therefore, there is no blur in the main scanning direction (arrow X direction).
There is no uneven conveyance in the sub-scanning direction (arrow Y direction), and no wrinkles are generated on the color photographic printing paper F during the conveyance.

On the other hand, the support shaft 52 constituting the roller group 36
4, is fixed to the large pulley 40 by engaging the tapered surface 82 at the end with the tapered hole 72.
In this case, when the tapered surface 82 is engaged with the tapered hole 72, no play occurs between them. Accordingly, when the set screws 74 and 76 are screwed into the screw holes 78 and 80, the support shaft 52 is not eccentrically fixed to the large pulley 40 due to the tightening force, and the shaft centers always coincide with each other. It will be fixed in the state where it was done. With such a connection, when the large pulley 40 is rotated, its rotational force is transmitted to the roller group 36 without unevenness.

As a result, the roller group 36 is
The rotation of No. 6 is transmitted to the color photographic printing paper F with high precision, and the color photographic printing paper F is conveyed with extremely high precision in the sub-scanning direction (the direction of the arrow Y). Therefore, the color photographic paper F
Image information is recorded with high accuracy.

If the moment of inertia of the large pulley 40 is set large, a more stable rotation can be realized by the inertia force. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the apparatus for recording an image on the color photographic printing paper F has been described.

[0023]

According to the present invention, the end of the support shaft of the drive roller constituting the roller pair is formed in a tapered shape, and this end is formed in the taper formed in the pulley for transmitting the driving force from the drive motor. By engaging and connecting the holes in the shape of a circle without any gap, the axis of the drive roller and the axis of the pulley can be matched with high accuracy. As a result, the eccentricity of the drive roller and a decrease in the static balance are not caused, and the image recording carrier can be transported with high accuracy with a simple configuration.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the overall configuration of an image recording apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a configuration perspective view of a roller pair in the image recording apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a configuration perspective view of a roller group and a mechanism for driving the roller group in the image recording apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a connection structure between a roller group and a large pulley in the image recording apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Image recording device 12 ... Automatic developing device 18, 20 ... Roller pair 30 ... Laser recording part 32, 34, 36, 38 ... Roller group 40 ... Large pulley 50, 52 ... Support shaft 54a-54d, 56a-56d ... Metal Rollers 58a to 58d, 60a to 60d, 84, 86 ... groove 72 ... tapered hole 82 ... tapered surface F ... photosensitive film L ... laser beam

Claims (2)

[Claims] An image recording apparatus for two-dimensionally recording an image by main-scanning a light beam modulated in accordance with image information on an image recording carrier nipped by a pair of rollers and conveyed in a sub-scanning manner. In the above, a pair of rollers is formed, and a driving roller having an end portion of a spindle formed in a tapered shape is formed in a tapered shape in which the end portion of the spindle formed in a tapered shape is engaged with no gap. And a pulley having a hole formed therein and transmitting a driving force from a driving motor to the driving roller. 2. An image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said pulley is a speed reducing means for reducing the rotation of said drive motor and transmitting said rotation to said drive roller.