JPH036575A - Image forming device - 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 [Industrial Field of Application J] The present invention relates to a novel image forming apparatus that forms an image on a recording medium by the action of electrostatic transfer means.

US technology 1 Conventionally, image forming apparatuses using silver halide photography, heat-sensitive recording, or electrophotography are well known.

In the case of silver halide photography, the image quality is good, but the time required to complete the process is long and there are disadvantages in will power. The thermal recording method records images by locally heating thermal paper, which develops color when heated above a predetermined temperature.

Such devices usually use a thermal head in which a large number of heating elements are arranged in a row on a substrate, and the heating elements of the thermal head are brought into sliding contact with thermal paper to selectively generate heat from the heating elements. An image is recorded on thermal paper.

For example, JP-A-59-39589, JP-A-60-
There is also an electric transfer type printer as shown in Japanese Patent No. 129277. The thermal transfer method shown here is such that the transfer medium is a ribbon with an electrically resistive substrate layer and is transferred to the printer.

The board is comprised of a set of electrodes that are selectively driven to apply current to the resistive layer. The heat generated by this current softens the marking material carried on the substrate layer and the material is flowed onto the paper or other medium being printed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in thermal printers, it is difficult to concentrate heat on the ribbon, which is the thermal transfer medium, and thermal efficiency is poor.In addition, in electric transfer printers, the ribbon itself acts as a heating element. Therefore, there were problems such as the resistance layer and the conductive layer being discarded together with the used ink layer, increasing the running cost of the ribbon.

The present invention was made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it transfers an image recording material electrostatically to form an image, and also transfers and records the image onto an arbitrary recording medium by the action of heat. By doing so, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus with low running costs.

Fill! Means for Solving the Problems To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus that records an image based on a method of electrostatically transferring a recording material, in which an image recording material is transferred to an endless belt. a transfer means for selectively transferring; a fixing means for transferring and fixing the image recording material by overlapping the endless belt and an arbitrary recording medium; and a transfer means for transferring the image recording material to the endless belt. It has a conveyance means for conveying the image recording material to the mechanism, and an attachment means for adhering the image recording material to the conveyance means.

[Function 1] According to the present invention having the above configuration, the recording material is electrostatically attached and applied to the entire surface of the conveying means, and the recording material is selectively transferred to the endless belt by the transfer means, thereby forming an image. The image is then transferred onto an arbitrary recording medium by a fixing means.

[Example 1] Hereinafter, an example embodying the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a developing device is an adhering means for transferring heat-melting toner 5, which is an image recording material, onto a conveying drum 2, which is a conveying means. 4 is placed.

Further, a multi-stiff electrode plate 1, which is a transfer means for transferring the toner 5 to an endless belt 7 serving as an image forming medium, is arranged on the conveyance drum 2. The configuration is such that the tI and end belt 7 are passed through the electrode 1 and the transport drum 2. Endless belt 7
In the conveyance direction, there are provided a heat fixing device W16 as a fixing means for transferring and recording an image on an arbitrary image recording medium, and a toner collection case 71 for collecting toner remaining on the endless belt 7. 0 toner 5 for image formation is
The developing sleeve 41 of the toner developing device 4 is brought into contact with the toner and frictionally charged due to agitation as it rotates, and is also charged by the voltage applied to the developing sleeve 41 .

When a positive voltage is applied to the developing sleeve 41, the positively charged heat-melting toner 5 flies from above the developing sleeve 41 to the transport drum 2. At this time, a negative voltage is applied to the counter electrode 42 located opposite the developing sleeve 41 via the transport drum 2. The positively charged toner 5 adheres to the entire surface of the transport drum 2 due to electrostatic force. The conveying drum 2 to which the toner 5 adheres must be an insulating material having a volume resistivity equal to or greater than that of the toner 5.

In order to stabilize the surface potential of the transport drum 2, a corotron may be used to form a surface potential of -1° before the toner 5 is transferred by the developing device 4. When the toner is transferred to the endless belt 7, the electrode head 1 has a low voltage applied to only the part where the toner is transferred to the endless belt 7, or a negative voltage is applied to the other part. is applied with a positive voltage. The electrode head is installed on a line perpendicular to the direction in which the endless belt 7 is transported, and selectively transfers the toner 5 attached to the entire surface of the transport drum 2 to the endless belt 7 side. .

A signal for selecting whether or not to apply a voltage to the electrode 1 is created by a circuit as shown in FIG. Input signals 13 such as image information from a personal computer screen and image information from a CR7 screen are processed by an image processing circuit 12 according to appropriate conditions. The CPU II synchronizes with the conveyance of the other conveyor drums 2 and the endless belt 7, and every time the endless belt 7 advances by one dot, the CPU II sends rads to the electrodes from the top of the image in response to the signal for each line. The driver circuit 10 is energized to apply a voltage to the terminal 1.

The image formed on the endless belt 7 is transported rightward in FIG. 1 as the endless belt transport roller 73 rotates. Further, the toner 5 remaining on the conveying drum 2 is conveyed and mixed with the toner 5 existing in the developing device again.
It is used again as a toner to form images.

The image formed on the endless belt 7 is overlapped with any medium 3 supplied from the cassette 31 and passes between the heat fixing devices 6. When passing through this thermal fixing device 6, the image formed on the endless belt 7 is transferred and fixed onto any medium 3.

The medium 3 on which the image has been recorded is directly ejected from the machine. The toner 5 remaining on the endless belt 7 without being transferred to the medium 3 by the heat fixing device 7 is scraped off from the endless belt 7 by the toner collection blade 72, and the excess toner is collected in the toner collection case 71. be done.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the detailed description above, according to the present invention, toner can be used without wasting it. Furthermore, there are no members such as ink ribbons that are wasted needlessly, and there are excellent effects such as low running costs.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 show an embodiment embodying the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the mechanism of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a signal path up to when a voltage is applied to an electrode head for transferring onto a recording medium. 2... Conveyance drum, 4... Developing device, 6... Heat fixing device, 7... Endless belt.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an image forming apparatus that records an image based on a method of electrostatically transferring an image recording material to a recording medium, a transfer method for selectively transferring the image recording material to an endless belt. means, a fixing means for transferring and fixing the image recording material by overlapping the endless belt and an arbitrary recording medium, and conveying the image recording material to the transfer means for transferring the image recording material to the endless belt. 1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a conveyance means for transporting the image recording material; and an attachment means for adhering an image recording material to the conveyance means.