JPH02167761A - Image recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image recording method for recording an image by forming an image on an intermediate recording medium and transferring the image onto a transfer material.

In the image recording method used in electrophotographic copying machines and the like, generally a photoreceptor, which is an intermediate recording medium, is charged,
A toner image is formed through each step of image exposure and development, and the toner image is transferred onto a transfer material using a corona charger or the like, and then image recording is performed after fixing.

However, in this method, (1) the number of steps is large and the configuration of the single image recording device is complicated; (2) electrostatic force is mainly used to form a visualized image on the intermediate recording medium. (3) Particularly in the charging process and the transfer process, a corona charger etc. must be used, which not only requires a high voltage of 5 to 7 KV, but also reduces NOx and 03 generates unpleasant odor substances such as

There are many problems, including:

U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,556, etc., uses a drum having a dielectric layer on its surface as an intermediate recording medium, forms an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the drum according to an image information signal, and uses a toner developer to generate an electrostatic latent image. An image recording method is disclosed which comprises visualizing the image WI to form a toner image, bringing a transfer sheet into contact with the toner image by a transfer roller, and transferring the toner image from the drum surface onto the transfer sheet by pressure. ing.

This method has the advantage that it requires fewer steps and does not require a photoreceptor than the electrophotographic method described above.

However, in addition to the problem of using an electrostatic latent image that is fundamentally highly dependent on the environment, an ion head is required to form the electrostatic latent image. There are problems such as the difficulty of creating a multi-head for high-speed recording, and it has not been possible to supersede the electrophotographic method.

All of the conventional methods described above use an intermediate recording medium, but various methods using an inkjet printer are known to directly form a visible image on a recording medium without using an intermediate recording medium.

However, this method has a major drawback in that the ink containing colored substances such as dyes and pigments is ejected from nozzles with microscopic holes, and the nozzles are easily clogged. That is, the ink present in the nozzle when not in use becomes elii due to evaporation of the solvent, which causes the nozzle to become clogged, making it impossible to eject ink when in use. In addition, the quality of the recorded image largely depends on the ink absorbency, surface smoothness, etc. of the recording medium, and especially when recording the image on plain paper, dots may be crushed, resulting in high image quality. It was difficult to obtain images of

From the above, the configuration of a single image recording device is simple,
It is desired to develop an image recording method that has the characteristics of being able to obtain high-quality images with less environmental dependence and without generating unpleasant odor substances such as NOx and 03.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image recording method having the above-mentioned characteristics.

The above object is achieved by an image recording method according to the present invention. To summarize, the present invention causes a recording head to adhere and hold a liquid substance on an intermediate recording medium according to an image signal, forms a latent image of an image using the liquid substance, and injects a colored substance into the latent image of the image. This image recording method is characterized in that the latent image of the image is visualized by applying the same function to the transfer material, and then the visualized image is transferred onto a transfer material to record one image.

According to the present invention, a latent image of an image is formed by a liquid substance on an intermediate recording medium, and W! The image is recorded by visualizing the image with a colored substance and transferring it onto a transfer material.
High quality image recording can be easily obtained. In addition, by attaching and holding a liquid substance on the intermediate recording medium, an Hg image is formed using the liquid substance, so there is little environmental dependence, and there is no need for charging the intermediate recording medium or image exposure, so image recording is possible. The configuration of the device is simple and labor-saving, and since a corona charger or the like is not required for image recording, unpleasant odor substances such as NOx and 03 are not generated.

The present invention will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of an image recording apparatus for carrying out the present invention.The image recording apparatus is for recording a single color image.

1, an intermediate recording medium 2 disposed on the negative side, a developing roller 3 and a developing container 4 disposed on the other side of the intermediate recording medium 2, and a transfer material 5 placed under the intermediate recording medium 2. It consists of a transfer roller 6 arranged as shown in FIG.

In the present invention, first, the recording head l of such an apparatus forms and flies droplets 7 of a liquid substance in accordance with an image signal, and one droplet 7 is held on the intermediate recording medium 2. As a result, a latent image 8 of an image made of a liquid substance is formed on the intermediate recording medium 2.

Here, as the recording head 1, a recording head that is normally adopted in the so-called inkjet recording method may be used.
For example, the teletype system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,060,429, U.S. Pat.
Sweet method disclosed in No. 0, etc., No. 341615
The Hertz method disclosed in No. 3, the stem method disclosed in No. 3747120, and the static control method (No. 4)
Non-impact printing symposium 4-5
(1987)), etc. 1 Any recording head that can form and fly droplets 7 according to the image value number can be used. t4
Although there is a method for controlling the charge of the droplet 7, the present invention does not require that the droplet 7 be electrically charged.

JP-A-59-936 discloses a bubble jet type recording head, which has a simple structure and can easily be made into a multi-nozzle.

Since high-speed recording is possible, it is particularly suitable for use in the present invention. FIG. 2 shows an example of a valve jet recording head.

As shown in FIG. 2, this recording head 11 has a plurality of ink ejection passages 13 in a head main body 12, and electrothermal transducers 14 of each ink ejection passage i3 are formed on the basis of an image signal.
(only one is shown in the figure), the discharge path 1
3, the droplets 7 of the liquid substance are formed and flown, and the dots of the droplets 7 are deposited and held in a predetermined image pattern on the intermediate recording medium 2. As a result, an image of the liquid substance is formed on the intermediate recording medium 2L. Form a latent image.

Liquid substances are mainly composed of colorless liquid and additives are added to this, and do not contain dyes or pigments.Water is one of the main liquids, but there are Examples include methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, n-propyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol, 5eC-butyl alcohol, tert-butyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, pentyl alcohol, hexyl alcohol, heptyl alcohol, octyl alcohol, nonyl alcohol,
[411-10 alkyl alcohols such as decyl alcohol; Hydrocarbon solvents such as hexane, octane, cyclopentane, benzene, toluene, and quidylol; Halogenated hydrocarbons such as carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethane, dichlorobenzene, etc. Ether solvents such as ethyl ether, butyl ether, ethylene glycol diethyl ether, and ethylene glycol monoethyl ether; Ketone solvents such as acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl oleketone, methyl amyl ketone, and cyclohexanone; ethyl formate, methyl Examples include ester solvents such as acetate, propyl acetate, phenylacetate, and ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate; alcohol solvents such as diacetone alcohol; petroleum hydrocarbon solvents, and the like.

The liquid that is the main component of these liquid substances can be determined depending on the visualization method, colored substance, and characteristics of the intermediate recording medium 2, which will be described later.
They may be appropriately selected and used, and two or more types can also be used in combination.

Additives such as viscosity modifiers, surface tension modifiers, and wetting agents can be added to the liquid substance for the purpose of more pronounced recording properties of the layer.

Among these additives, the viscosity modifier and the surface tension modifier are mainly used to ensure that the liquid substance can flow through the nozzle of the recording head l at a sufficient flow rate depending on the recording speed, and that the liquid substance flows around the nozzle orifice. It is added for the purpose of preventing 1hL from being crowded, and preventing bleeding (expansion of the diameter of the substrate 7) when the droplets 7 of the liquid substance are deposited on the intermediate recording medium 2.

Suitable examples of the viscosity modifier include polyvinyl alcohol, hydroxypropylcellulose, carboxymethylcellulose, hydroxyethylcellulose, methylcellulose, water-soluble acrylic resin, polyvinylpyrrolidone, and gum arabic starch.

Examples of surface tension modifiers include anionic, cationic, and nonionic surfactants. in particular,
Anionic examples include polyethylene glycol ether sulfuric acid, ester salts, etc., cationic examples include poly2-vinylpyridine derivatives, poly4-vinylpyridine derivatives, etc., nonionic examples include polyoxyethylene alkyl ether, polyoxyethylene alkyl phenyl ether, etc. ,
polyoxyethylene sorbitan monoalkyl ester,
Examples include polyoxyethylene alkylamine and the like. In addition to these surfactants, jetanolamine,
Amine acids such as propatoolamine morpholinic acid, basic substances such as ammonium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, N-
Substituted pyrrolidones such as methyl-2-pyrrolidone can also be effectively used as surface tension modifiers.

As wetting agents, 1. Many commonly known agents can be used. 6. For example, polyalkylene glycols such as polyallene glycol and polypropylene glycol; examples include alkylene glycols such as ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, butylene glycol, hexylene glycol, etc. 2~
Alkylene glycols containing 6 carbon atoms; lower alkyl ethers of ethylene glycols such as ethylene glycol methyl ether, ethylene glycol ethyl ether, diethylene glycol methyl ether, diethylene glycol ethyl ether; glycerin; e.g. methoxytriglycol, ethoxytriglycol lower alkoxy triglycols such as; N-vinyl-
Examples include 2-pyrrolidone oligomer.

The liquid substance is not preferable whether it wets the intermediate recording medium 2 easily or not easily. If it gets wet easily, the dots of 掖＠7 will spread and the resolution of the image will decrease. On the other hand, if it becomes too wet, the adhesion force of the droplets 7 to the intermediate recording medium 2 becomes weak, causing problems such as the droplets 7 moving on the surface of the medium 3 (image deletion).

The wettability of such a liquid substance can be evaluated using the contact angle θ of the droplet 7 with respect to the surface of the intermediate recording medium 2 as a measure. In order to prevent the dots of the liquid tF47 described above from spreading and to prevent image blur due to the flow of the droplet 7, in the present invention, the contact angle θ of the droplet 7 is set to 15 to 13.
It is desirable that the angle is 0 degrees, preferably within the range of 30 to 120 degrees. Therefore, the type of liquid substance, the surface material and surface roughness of the intermediate recording medium 2, etc. need to be appropriately selected in consideration of the relationship with the contact angle θ of the droplet 7. Note that the surface tension of the liquid substance is preferably 30 dyne/cm or more, preferably 50 dyne/cm or more.

The intermediate recording medium 2 does not absorb the liquid substance, and the liquid f47
It is necessary to be able to maintain the shape of the material, and the material should be aluminum or the like. If an anodic oxide film is formed on the surface of an aluminum substrate, and a resin having low surface free energy such as fluorine-based or silicon-based resin is sealed in the micropores of this film, it is used as the intermediate recording medium 2. Clearer images can be obtained. If, for example, a medium in which micropores in an oxide film on the surface of an aluminum substrate are sealed with fluorine-based PFA is used as the intermediate recording medium 2, compared to a medium made of aluminum alone,
The average dot diameter of the droplet 7 on the surface of the medium 2 is about 1
0% smaller, the dot shape can be made clearer, and image deletion does not occur.

If a medium having a polymer layer of polyimide, polystyrene, polyethylene, Teflon, etc. provided on the surface of the substrate is used as the intermediate recording medium 2, the surface free energy of the medium 2 can be lowered.

Similarly, clear images can be obtained.

Next, once the latent image 8 of the image is formed by the liquid substance on the intermediate recording medium 2I-, the colored substance in the developer container 4 is applied to the latent image 8 by the developing roller 3 to make the latent image 8 visible. . For this visualization, it is possible to use the development methods used in normal electrophotography, such as the one-component development method using magnetic toner and non-magnetic toner, or the two-component development method such as the cascade method and magnetic brush method. The latent image 8 can be visualized by adhering a powder colored substance to the droplets 7 of the liquid substance forming the latent image 8. In this case, in order to make the colored substance adhere well to the droplets 7, the liquid substance has a viscosity of at least 0.2g
r,/cmasec is preferable, and from that point of view, it is preferable to add a thickener such as ethylene glycol to the liquid substance.

It is also possible to visualize the latent image 8 by vaporizing a sublimable dye (for example, Halanyl Yellow 5 manufactured by BASF) and attaching it to the droplet 7 and dyeing it.

In this case, the intermediate recording medium 2 is made of aluminum or the like. According to such an intermediate recording medium 2, 'j
Since the adhesion force of the dye is weaker than that to the droplet 7,
Similarly, only the latent image 8 can be visualized using a dye that can be elevated.

Once the latent image 8 on the intermediate recording medium 2 has been visualized as described above, the visualized image 9 is then brought into contact with the transfer paper 5 by the transfer roller 6 and transferred onto the transfer paper 5. In this case, by performing pressure transfer while applying pressure with the transfer roller 6, fixing can be performed at the same time as the transfer.
If the image 10 thus transferred onto the transfer material 5 is fixed by air drying or by known means using a hot solvent, the transfer material 5 with the image IO recorded thereon can be obtained. Then, recording of the image ftl0 on the transfer material 5 is completed.

When recording a large number of images 10 as described above, when recording under high humidity, etc., there may be paper dust on the intermediate recording medium 2, dust inside the image recording device, remaining droplets 7 after transfer, etc. remains, making it impossible to obtain a good image. For this purpose, 1. A cleaning means (not shown) is provided between the head 1 and the transfer roller 6 on the upstream side of the medium 2, and after the image 1o is transferred by the transfer roller 6, the surface of the medium 2 is cleaned by the cleaning means. It is preferable to cause the recording disk 1 to form a latent image 8 on the medium 2, h.

As a cleaning means, a metal blade, web, felt, etc. may be provided so as to be in contact with the surface of the intermediate recording medium 2. By cleaning the surface of the intermediate recording medium 2 in this way, the surface of the intermediate recording medium 2 can be constantly maintained even at high humidity T1. Enables stable, high-quality image recording. Note that cleaning also has the effect of removing colored substances remaining on the intermediate recording medium 2 after the image 10 has been transferred.

Although the above description has been made by taking as an example the case of recording an image in one color, the present invention can also be applied to the case of recording an image in multiple colors including full color. FIG. 3 shows an example of an image recording apparatus for recording multicolor images according to the present invention.

The image recording device shown in FIG.
a, 15b, L5c and 15d, and each of the intermediate recording media 15a, 15b, 15c and 15d has a recording head 16a, 16b, 16c and 16d.
However, the developing capacities 17a, 17b, 17c and 17d
is installed. The transfer material 18 is attached to each intermediate recording medium 15.
transfer rollers 19a, 15b, 15c and 15d;
19b, L9c and 19d, the visualized image is transferred at the same time as it is conveyed via the belt 20.

A latent image of an image is formed by a liquid substance on the intermediate recording medium 15a according to the image signal by the recording head 16a, and the latent image is visualized with a cyan colored substance in the developer container 17a. An Hg image is formed on the lsb and visualized with a magenta colored substance, a latent image is formed on the medium 15c and visualized with a yellow colored substance, and a latent image is formed on the medium 15d to visualize it with a black colored substance. By visualizing the image using a colored substance and sequentially transferring and superimposing the visualized images of each color onto the transfer material 18, a full-color image can be recorded on the transfer material 18.11.

Example Examples of the present invention will be described below.

Example 1 One color image recording was carried out according to the invention.

As the image recording device, a device similar to that shown in FIG. 1 was used. The intermediate recording medium 2 of the apparatus consisted of an aluminum drum. The liquid substance used was water with 15 wt % of diethylene glycol added as a wetting agent, and a latent image 8 was formed on the intermediate recording medium 2.

The latent image 8 was visualized by a -component development method using a pressure fixing toner as a coloring substance. An alternating current 14 with a frequency of 1800 Hz is applied between the intermediate recording medium 2 and the developing roller 3 (including the magnet roller inside the sleeve).
A developing bias consisting of 00V and 300V DC was applied to adhere a colored substance to the latent image 8 and visualize it. At this time, the distance between the intermediate recording medium 2 and the developing roller 3 is approximately 25 mm.
0 gm, the height of the droplet 7 was about 50 pm, and the layer thickness of the colored substance on the developing roller 3 was about 30 pm. Note that the latent image 8 on the intermediate recording medium 2 and the colored material layer of the developing roller 37 were kept in a non-contact state to visualize the latent image 8. This is because it has the advantage of preventing the magnetic brush of the developing roller 3 from coming into direct contact with the latent image 8 and disturbing it.

The visualized image 9 was pressure-transferred onto the transfer material 5, whereby the image 9 was transferred to the transfer material 5 and fixed at the same time. At this time, the contact pressure between the transfer roller 6 and the intermediate recording medium 2 is 15 per unit length in the longitudinal direction of the transfer roller 6.
It was set at kg/cm.

In this way, the transfer material 5 on which the image 10 was recorded was obtained. The image 10 has high image quality that is sharp and clear,
The same was confirmed by numerous records.

Furthermore, since the transfer efficiency is 99% or more, the intermediate recording medium 2 can be easily cleaned without cleaning the intermediate recording medium 2 with a cleaning means.
It was confirmed that it was sufficiently durable for use.

Example 2 After forming a latent image 8 using a liquid substance on the intermediate recording medium 2 in the same manner as in Example 1, this time a sublimable dye was used as the coloring substance. lff image 8 was visualized.

Sublimation dyes include color, index, dispersion,
Yellow 7 (HALANIL YELLOW 5RX manufactured by BASF)
) was heated and sublimated at about 140° C. in the developing container 4. Then, rotate the intermediate recording medium 2 loosely,
By passing through the developing container 4, a sublimable dye was attached to the latent image 8, and the WJ image 8 was visualized.

The thus obtained visualized image 9 was then contact-transferred onto the transfer material 5 by a rubber transfer roller 6, and the transferred image 1O was fixed by air drying.

As in Example 1, the image IO recorded on the transfer material 5 was sharp, clear, and of high quality.

Example 3 A full-color image was recorded according to the present invention using the image recording apparatus shown in FIG.

The latent image of the image formed by the liquid substance on the intermediate recording medium 15a is formed using cyan toner (Canon CL) as the coloring substance.
Similarly, the latent image on the medium 15b is visualized using magenta toner (magenta toner for Canon CLC-1) as a coloring substance. , visualized in magenta color, medium 15c
The upper latent image is visualized in yellow using yellow toner (yellow toner for Canon CLC-1) as the coloring substance, and the Ng image on the medium 15d is visualized using black toner as the coloring substance. (Canon CLC-1 River black toner) was used to visualize in black. These visualized images of each color were sequentially transferred onto the transfer material 18 as they were visualized.
I was able to record sharp, clear, high-quality, full-color images on the camera.

As described above, according to the present invention, an Ng image of an image is formed using a liquid substance on an intermediate recording medium.

Since one image is recorded by visualizing the latent image with a colored substance and transferring it onto a transfer material, high-quality image recording can be easily obtained. In addition, by attaching and holding a liquid substance on the intermediate recording medium, the W! Since an image is formed, there is little environmental dependence, and there is no need for charging an intermediate recording medium or image exposure, so image recording'? The installation structure is simple and labor-saving.Furthermore, since a corona charger is not required for image recording, unpleasant odor substances such as NOx and 03 are not generated. Since it does not contain dyes or pigments, clogging or scorching of the recording head may occur. +9a: Liquid 8: Drain 19b, +9c 18d: No transfer roller.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of one embodiment of an image recording apparatus for performing one-color image recording according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the main parts of a recording head suitable for use in the present invention. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing one embodiment of an image recording apparatus for recording multicolor images according to the present invention. Il, lea, IElb, lee, 18
d: To record 17 do 15a, 15b, 15c,
15d: Intermediate recording medium developing rollers 17a, 17b, 17c, 17d: developing container 18: transfer material

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A liquid substance is deposited and held on an intermediate recording medium by a recording head in accordance with an image signal to form a latent image of an image using the liquid substance, and a colored substance is applied to the latent image of the image. Let it work,
An image recording method characterized by visualizing a latent image of the image and then transferring the visualized image onto a transfer material to record the image. 2) The image recording method according to claim 1, wherein the visualized image is transferred and fixed simultaneously by pressure-transferring the visualized image onto a transfer material. 3) The image according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of intermediate recording media are used, and the visualized images on each intermediate recording medium are sequentially transferred onto a transfer material to record a multicolor image. Recording method.