JPH03260665A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form a clear image with low impressed voltage by arranging an electrode body near a developer carrier and a recording electrode, giving alternating electric field to it and making developer fly so that the developer may be transferred and stuck to a recording medium with bias electric field in accordance with a recording signal. CONSTITUTION:The electrode body 3 is obtained by making an electrode plate 301 tightly adhere on an insulating substrate 300 and the leading edge of the body 3 is arranged to come close to or come in contact with the developer 4 on the developer carrier 1. By driving the carrier 1, the recording medium 9 also tightly adheres on the peripheral surface of the recording electrode 5 to be moved and guided in the same direction. The developer supplied to the outer peripheral surface of the carrier 1 is charged by a regulating charging member 2 and applied on the surface of the carrier 1 as a thin layer 4. When the thin layer 4 comes to the position of the electrode body 3, it is powdered to be cloud by the alternating electric field of the electrode body 3, flies from the leading edge of a developing area R and is transferred and stuck to the medium 9 in response to the recording signal, thereby visualizing a desired image pattern. Thus, the clear image is formed even when the voltage impressed between the carrier 1 and the electrode body 3 is made low.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (1) The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an information recording apparatus and an information display apparatus that electrostatically records and displays information.

This type of image forming apparatus uses a recording signal to be sent to a recording electrode, as opposed to an electrostatic image forming type that forms an electrostatic latent image on a recording medium and visualizes this latent image using a developer. A toner direct drive type is known in which a visible image (toner image) is directly formed on a recording medium by applying an electric field according to the toner image.

A toner direct drive type image forming apparatus uses conductive toner, applies a voltage to a needle-shaped recording electrode, inductively charges the conductive toner near the recording medium, and uses the electric force to attach the conductive toner to the recording medium. There is a system in which the recording electrode is placed on the toner side, for example, US Pat. No. 391,477.
For example, there is the device described in No. 1, and US Pat. No. 4,396,927 in which recording electrodes are arranged on the recording medium side.

Also, U.S. Pat.
No. 6570 uses a control member as a recording electrode that controls the passage and blocking of charged toner, and applies an electric field according to a recording signal to the control member to control the passing and blocking of the charged toner, thereby causing the charged toner to pass and be blocked onto the recording medium. An image forming apparatus that forms a visible image is disclosed.

However, the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,771 suffers from the structural complexity of arranging a large number of minute needle-like recording electrodes, and also has the disadvantage that toner is directly attached to the needle-like recording electrodes. , so there are problems with maintainability and reliability. Further, in the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,927, since the recording electrodes are arranged on the recording medium side, the applied voltage must be set high, and the recording medium must also be in the form of a belt. However, there is a problem in that the degree of freedom in configuration is reduced. Furthermore, since both devices use conductive toner, electrostatic transfer is difficult, and it is thought that there are difficulties in color printing.

Further, in the apparatus described in US Pat. No. 3,689,935, toner is not supplied uniformly, which tends to cause unevenness in the image on the recording medium, making high-speed recording difficult. Further, the toner causes clogging of the control member, making it difficult to put it into practical use. On the other hand, the apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-96570 also has an inherent problem of a complicated structure.

As described above, these conventional image forming apparatuses are structurally complex, require high applied voltages, and use conductive toner, so electrostatic transfer is not efficient.
It can be seen that there are various problems such as difficulty in applying it to color recording.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus which has a relatively simple structure, functions satisfactorily with a relatively low applied voltage, is highly reliable, and can be sufficiently applied to color recording. It is.

This objective for obtaining = can be fully achieved by the configuration of the invention described below. In summary, the present invention provides a developer carrier on which a thin layer of charged developer is formed, and a recording device that is disposed opposite to the developer carrier and that moves and guides a recording medium along the outer peripheral surface of the leading end of the developer carrier. an electrode, an electrode body disposed near a position where the developer carrier and the recording electrode face each other, and whose end portion is disposed close to or in contact with a developer layer on the developer carrier; Apply an electric field to the body,
an alternating electric field applying means for causing the developer to fly;
The image forming apparatus is characterized in that it has an electric field applying means for transferring and adhering the flying developer to the recording medium according to a recording signal.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, a drum-shaped developer carrier 1 is rotatably provided and is disposed in a development area R facing a recording electrode 5. As shown in FIG. As the recording electrode 5, a stylus electrode well known to those skilled in the art, which is used in electrostatic recording, is preferably used. The developer carrier 1 is placed in a developer container (not shown), and the surface of the developer carrier 1 is supplied with the developer in the developer container.

The developer carrier l is driven to rotate in the direction of arrow A, and as it rotates, it carries the developer on its surface and transports it in the six directions of arrows.
At the regulating charging member 2 disposed upstream of the development area R,
The developer on the developer carrier 1 is regulated to a predetermined thin layer thickness and is charged to a desired polarity.

Also, with the tip facing the development area R,
An electrode body 3 is disposed on the upstream side of the developer layer 4 of the developer carrier l in close proximity to or in contact with the developer layer 4 of the developer carrier l. The electrode body 3 is connected to an alternating electric field applying means for applying a voltage between the electrode body 3 and the developer carrier 1, that is, an AC power source 6.

On the other hand, a recording medium 9 is supplied to the outer circumferential surface of the tip of the recording electrode 5 and is transported along the circumferential surface of the tip of the recording electrode 5 in the direction of arrow B. Further, a switch means 7 and means for applying a developing bias electric field, that is, a DC bias power supply 8 are arranged between the recording electrode 5 and the developer carrier l.

In addition, in this embodiment, the regulating charging member 2 is
4-43038, JP 60-83648, JP 60-73649, JP 61-138
Using a blade such as a metal blade or a rubber blade as seen in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 967 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-24282, the blade is pressed against the developer carrier 1, and the developer carrier, developer, and blade are pressed against the developer carrier 1. It is constructed by taking into consideration the effects of mutual frictional force and frictional charging, thereby forming a thin layer of developer with a predetermined thickness on the developer carrier l, and at the same time reducing the charge of the developer. It is something to do.

The developer carrier 1 is selected in relation to the developer and the regulating charging member 2 as described above, and is generally made of metal such as Aβ or SUS or semiconductive plastic, and has a surface coated with 0. It is preferable to use a material having an unevenness process of 1 to several tens of microns.

Further, the electrode body 3 is constructed by, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, an electrode plate 301 is closely attached to an insulating substrate 300.

At this time, it is preferable that the tips of the substrate 300 and the electrode plate 301 are aligned on the same plane, and these tips are arranged close to or in contact with the developer layer 4 on the developer carrier l.

The control switch 7 connected to the recording electrode 5 is composed of a plurality of switch elements corresponding to the plurality of styluses of the recording electrode 5, and the switch element at the position corresponding to the recording signal is connected to the time stamp corresponding to the recording signal. configured to be energized.

With this configuration, the developer carrier 1 is driven in the direction of arrow A, and the recording medium 9 is also moved and guided in the same direction in close contact with the circumferential surface of the recording electrode 5. Developer is supplied to the outer circumferential surface of the developer carrier 1, and is carried as the developer carrier 1 moves. The developer is charged to a desired polarity by a regulating charging member 2, and at the same time is regulated to a desired thickness, and is applied as a thin layer 4 on the surface of the developer carrier 1. If desired, in order to further equalize the developer layer 4, the developer carrier 1 may be
It is also possible to swing the electrode body 3.

When the developer thin layer 4 comes to the position of the electrode body 3, the electrode plate 3
The powder is formed into a powder cloud by the action of the electric field generated in the development area R, and is diffused and flown from its tip. The flying and diffused developer transfers and adheres to the recording medium 9 due to the electric field action of the bias power supply 8 generated by the stylus of the recording electrode corresponding to the switch element turned on in response to the recording signal, and is transferred to the recording medium 9 and attached to the recording medium 9. The corresponding desired image pattern is visualized.

The image on the recording medium 9 is fixed as necessary, but the image may be transferred to another medium and fixed on this different medium before fixing.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention. This embodiment shows the configuration of a color image forming apparatus.

In this embodiment, a plurality of recording electrodes 501, 502, and 503 are arranged in parallel, and in this embodiment, three recording electrodes 501, 502, and 503 are arranged, and developer carriers 101, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, and 10 recording electrodes are arranged in parallel.
2.103 is provided. Developer carrier 101.102
．． Developers of different colors are supplied to 103 and rotated in the direction of the arrow. Further, the recording medium 901 is moved and guided in the same direction C through the deflection roller 14 while being in close contact with the recording electrodes 501, 502, and 503.

Further, as in the embodiment described in connection with FIG. Recording electrodes 501.502.5 with the help of rollers 14
For the recording medium 901 moving along the surface of 03,
A visible image corresponding to the recording signal is sequentially formed. As a result, multicolor development (color development) is realized. This multicolor image is fixed onto the recording medium 901 by the fixing device 10.

A more specific example of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention having such a configuration is as follows.

Example 1 In the image forming apparatus of the example shown in FIG. 1, a developer comprising a polyester resin, a charge control agent, a coloring pigment, etc. and having an average particle diameter of 12 μm was used.

A SUSG roller with a diameter of 20 mm is used as the developer carrier 1, and its circumferential surface is sandblasted to give it a JISIO point average roughness rating (JI 5-B).
A roughening process of 1 to 2 μm was performed using O610).

The charge regulating member 2 is made of urethane rubber with a thickness of 2 mm and a hardness of 40", and the electrode body 3 is made of urethane rubber with a thickness of 12.5 μm.
An electrode plate 301 made of phosphor bronze and having a thickness of 20 μm was adhered to a PET substrate 300 having a thickness of 20 μm.

The developer carrier 1 rotated at a circumferential speed of 100 mm/sec, and the charge regulating member 2 was pressed against the developer carrier 1 with a pressure of about 100 g/cm to form a charged developer thin layer 4. The thickness of the developer thin layer 4 was about 2 to 3 layers of developer.

The electrode body 3 is supplied with 5KHz from an AC power source 6.

A sine wave of 500Vp-p is applied, and approximately 15V is applied from a bias power source 8 between the developer carrier l and the electrode H.
A DC voltage of 0V was applied in response to the recording signal.

With this configuration, a visible image corresponding to the recording signal was obtained on the recording medium 9. At this time, the recording medium 9 had a weight of 80 g/rd.
Plain paper was used, and the position of the recording electrode 5 was set so that the distance between the recording medium 9 and the developer carrier L was about 300 μm in the development area R.

Example 2 In the image forming apparatus of the example shown in FIG. 3, the color tones are red, blue,
Developer carrier 101.102.10 with black developer
3 were arranged and operated under the same conditions as in Example 1.

With this configuration, a three-color recorded image was obtained.

Note that these embodiments can be modified in various ways, and suitable conditions are set depending on the materials used and the configuration. For example, as a power source that provides an alternating electric field between the developer carrier and the electrode body, 100 to 1000 Vp-p, l to I 0 KHz,
It can be a triangular wave, a rectangular wave, a pulsating wave, a pulse train wave, or other distorted waves, and it is also possible to use a superimposed direct current component.

As detailed above, the present invention, as described in detail above, turns the developer into a powder cloud using the electrode body, brings it to the development area, and transfers it to the recording medium using a DC bias electric field corresponding to the recording signal from the recording electrode. Since it is configured to transfer and adhere the developer,
Even if the voltage applied between the developer carrier and the electrode body is relatively low, sufficiently sharp images can be formed, and the overall structure is simple and reliability is improved. Furthermore, since the present invention employs a non-magnetic and insulating developer, it has the advantage that it can be fully applied to multicolor image formation.

be.

1: Developer carrier 2: Regulated charging member 3: Electrode body 4: Developer thin layer 5: Recording electrode 6: AC power supply 7. Switch 8: DC bias power supply 9. Recording medium

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of the electrode body. FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A developer carrier on which a thin layer of charged developer is formed, a recording electrode that is disposed opposite to the developer carrier and moves and guides a recording medium along the outer circumferential surface of its tip, and the developer an electrode body disposed near a position where the agent carrier and the recording electrode face each other, and whose end portion is disposed close to or in contact with a developer layer on the developer carrier; and applying an electric field to the electrode body. An image forming method comprising: an alternating electric field applying means for causing the developer to fly; and an electric field applying means for causing the flying developer to transfer and adhere to the recording medium in accordance with a recording signal. Device.