JPH0436748A - powder coating equipment - 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 Application Field] The present invention relates to a powder coating device for electrostatically coating charged powder onto a support such as plain paper in image recording, etc. .

[Prior Art] Conventionally, as a color copying machine, there is one that exposes microcapsule paper, overlaps it with developer paper, and then develops it under pressure to record a desired image on the developer paper. Although it has been put into practical use, the color developer paper used in this color copying machine is commercially available color developer paper coated with a color developer in advance.

However, since using commercially available color developer paper has poor versatility, the applicant has developed a powder that allows users of color copiers to easily create color developer paper using plain paper, etc. A body coating device is proposed, for example, in the specification and drawings attached to the application of Utility Model Application No. 170660/1982.

In this device, a carrier such as a roller carries a charged powdery color developer, and this carrier is opposed to a support such as plain paper in a non-contact state. Then, an electric field is generated between the carrier and the support, and the electrostatic force generated by the electric field causes the color developer to fly toward the support, thereby coating the color developer on the support.

Furthermore, as shown in the specification and drawings attached to Japanese Patent Application No. 1-83715, concave grooves are formed on almost the entire surface of the carrier, and a large amount of color developer is applied to the carrier. A powder coating device is known that can carry a developer and coat a necessary and sufficient amount of color developer onto a support in a short time. In this device, a blade 41 is provided that regulates the amount of color developer S carried by a carrying roller 40 constituting a carrier. As shown in FIG. 4, this blade 41 is arranged along the tangential direction of the cylindrical surface of the carrier roller 40 so as to be in contact with the cylindrical surface.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, on the cylindrical surface of the carrier roller 40, the heights of the protrusions 40b sandwiched between the two grooves 40a are not necessarily all the same, and the heights of the protrusions 40b between the carrier roller 40 and the blade 41 are not necessarily the same. If the relative position has shifted, as shown in Figure 4, the blade 4
A convex portion 40b with which 1 does not come in contact is generated. The color developer S is carried on the convex portion 40b that does not come into contact with the blade 41, and this portion carries more color developer S than the other cylindrical surface of the carrying roller 40.
will be held. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the tip of the blade 41 enters into the groove 40a and removes the color developer S inside the groove 40a, and the amount of developer S in this portion is smaller than that on the other cylindrical surface of the carrier roller 40. The color developer S will be supported. When the developer S is unevenly supported on the carrier roller 40 in this way, there is a problem in that the developer S is unevenly applied on the support.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a powder coating device that can uniformly carry a large amount of powder on a carrier.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve this object, the present invention includes a carrier having a plurality of grooves formed at regular intervals along its longitudinal direction on its surface,
In a powder coating device that carries electrically charged powder on this carrier, flies this powder toward a support, and electrostatically coats the powder onto the support, a contact that comes into contact with the surface of the carrier is used. comprising a regulating member having a surface and regulating the amount of powder carried by the carrier, the width of the contact surface being wider than the width of the groove;
It is narrower than the width of one protrusion sandwiched between two grooves plus the width of a full two grooves.

[Function] According to the powder coating device of the present invention having the above configuration, the contact surface of the regulating member always comes into contact with one or two convex portions when it comes into contact with the carrier. As a result, the color developer is not supported on the convex portions, and the color developer is supported only inside the grooves. Further, since the tip of the regulating member does not enter the inside of the groove, each groove carries the color developer uniformly.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example embodying the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

First, the configuration of a color image recording apparatus M equipped with a powder coating apparatus of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, the color image recording apparatus M is roughly divided into an exposure device WL1, a powder coating device 2, and a pressure developing device 3.
and a heat fixing device 4.

An exposure device 1 is provided at the top of a casing C of a color image recording device M. This exposure device 1 includes a halogen lamp 8 for exposing microcapsule paper 7, a rotatable color separation filter 9 for the three primary colors of light, and a rotatable color separation filter 9 located below the halogen lamp 8; The document tray 11 is located at the document table 11 and includes a document table 11 on which a document 10 is placed. A latent image is formed on the microcapsule paper 7 by exposure using the exposure device M1.

In the central part of the casing C of the color image recording device M,
A powder coating device 2 is provided. A paper feed cassette 18 is provided on the right side of the powder coating device M2, which stores a plurality of stacked sheets of plain paper P constituting a support. It is inserted into 2. The inserted plain paper P is electrostatically coated with powdered color developer S to become color developer paper. The developing paper discharged from the outlet 28 is conveyed by the guide roller 13, and then superimposed on the microcapsule paper 7 on which the latent image has been formed, and supplied into the pressure developing device 3, where it is subjected to pressure development.

A pressure developing bag Wt3 is provided below the exposure device 1. Microcapsule paper 7 exposed with exposure bag W1
is conveyed through the guide roller 12 into the pressure developing device 3, superimposed on the color developing paper. This pressure developing device 3
consists of a pair of pressure rollers 14 that sandwich the superimposed developer paper and microcapsule paper 7 and develop them under pressure.

Pressure developing bag fl! 3, a heat fixing device 4 is provided, and the developing paper after pressure development is transferred to a guide roller 15.
The image is conveyed to the heat fixing device 4 by the image forming apparatus.

The heat fixing device 4 heats and fixes the recorded image on the color developing paper on which the recorded image has been formed. On the downstream side of the thermal fixing device 4, a guide roller 16 is provided for transporting the color developing paper on which the image has been fixed to the outside of the color image recording device M.

The microcapsule paper 7 is supplied from the paper feed roll 5, passed through each guide roller and the pressure roller 14, and then wound onto the take-up roll 6.

Next, the powder coating device 2 will be explained in detail with reference to FIG. 2.

The powder coating device 2 includes a carrier roller 22, an electrode roller 23 disposed apart from the carrier roller 22 by a predetermined distance d, and the electrode roller 23 and guide rollers 25a, 2.
5b is provided with a conveyor belt 24 that extends over the belt. The powder case 20 is arranged such that a part of the carrier roller 22 is located inside the powder case 20. The carrying roller 22 is grounded, while the electrode roller 23 is connected to a DC power source 26. This allows both rollers 22.
A coating electric field is generated between 23 and 23. A large number of grooves 22a parallel to the axial direction of the supporting roller 22 are formed at equal intervals on the cylindrical surface of the supporting roller 22. Further, the carrying roller 2
A rotatable supply roller 21 is provided on the upstream side with respect to the rotation direction of the carrier roller 22 so as to be in pressure contact with the circumferential surface of the carrier roller 22 . Inside the developer case 20, a granular developer S constituting a powder is stored, and an agitator 31 is rotatably provided. This agitator 31
is rotated by a drive device (not shown) to stir the color developer S.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a hollow guide 33 having approximately the same length as the carrier roller 22 is provided at the upper end of the powder case 20 between the supply roller 21 and the application area 27. A plate-shaped blade 30 having approximately the same length as the carrier roller 22 is slidably disposed within the guide 33 . This blade 30 constitutes a regulating member. The blade 30 is urged in a direction toward the axis of the carrying roller 22 by a pressure spring 32 housed in a guide 33, and is in contact with the cylindrical surface of the carrying roller 22 at a contact surface 30a at its tip. .

The width of this contact surface 30a is wider than the width of the groove 22a, and narrower than the sum of the width of two grooves 22a and the width of one protrusion 22b sandwiched between the two grooves 22a. There is. As a result, the contact surface 30a of the blade 30 is always in contact with one or two convex portions 22b, and the amount of color developer S carried on the carrying roller 22 is regulated.

The operation of the color image recording apparatus M configured as above will be explained.

After placing the original 10 on the original table 11, the user presses a start switch (not shown). This starts image recording. First, the halogen lamp 8 lights up,
Color correction is performed by rotating the color separation filter 9, and a latent image of the original 10 is formed by exposure on microcapsule paper (photosensitive pressure sensitive paper) 7 running between the paper feed roll 5 and the take-up roll 6. The microcapsule paper 7 exposed by the exposure device 1 is conveyed toward the pressure developing device 3 by a guide roller 12.

On the other hand, the color developer S is agitated and charged by the agitator 31, and is supplied to the carrier roller 22 by the supply roller 21, and the amount carried by the blade 30 is regulated. At this time, the contact surface 30a of the blade 30 is always in contact with the upper surface of one or two convex portions 22b while being biased by the pressure spring 32 in the direction toward the axis of the carrier roller 22. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the blade 30 removes the color developer S carried on the convex portion 22b, and
A developer S is filled into the groove 22a. As a result, a large amount of the color developer S is uniformly carried in all the grooves 22a of the carrying roller 22.

In this way, the charged color developer S adheres to the carrier roller 22 and is conveyed to the coating area 27. Further, the plain paper P stacked in the paper feed cassette 18 is transported by a guide roller 19.
is inserted into the powder coating device 2 through the insertion port 29.

The inserted plain paper P is conveyed to the coating area 27 by the conveyor belt 24. Further, the plain paper P stacked in the paper feed cassette 18 is inserted into the powder coating device 2 through the insertion port 29 by the guide roller 19. The inserted plain paper P is conveyed to the coating area 27 by the conveyor belt 24. An electric field suitable for the polarity of the charged developer S is applied between the rollers 22 and 23 by the DC power supply 26. Due to the electrostatic force generated by this electric field, the charged color developer S flies from the carrier roller 22 toward the plain paper P, and the color developer S is electrostatically applied to the plain paper P in a layer.

At this time, since the carrier roller 22 carries the developer S uniformly in all the grooves 22a, the developer S is electrostatically applied uniformly to the entire upper surface of the plain paper P without uneven coating. be done.

Plain paper P coated with color developer as described above is removed from the outlet 28.
After being discharged from and conveyed by the guide roller 13,
It is superimposed on the microcapsule paper 7 on which the latent image has been formed and is supplied into the pressure developing bag W3. The microcapsule paper 7 and plain paper P supplied to the pressure developing device 3 are sandwiched between a pair of pressure rollers 14 and subjected to pressure development, and a color image is recorded on the plain paper P. The plain paper P subjected to pressure development by the pressure development device 3 is conveyed to the heat fixing device 4 by the guide roller 15. The plain paper P is heated by the thermal fixing device 4, and the recorded image on the plain paper P is fixed.

Since the color developer S is electrostatically applied uniformly to the entire upper surface of the plain paper P, this recorded image is of high quality without any image loss due to uneven application of the color developer S. . The plain paper P on which the image has been fixed is further conveyed by a guide roller 16 and discharged to the outside of the color image recording device fM.

As described in detail above, in the powder coating device 2 of this embodiment, the blade 30 is urged in the direction toward the axis of the carrier roller 22, and the width of the contact surface 30a is larger than the width of the groove 22a. It is wide and narrower than the sum of the width of two grooves 22a and the width of one protrusion 22b sandwiched between two grooves 22a, so the contact surface Boa of the blade 30 always has one or two It contacts the convex portion 22b. As a result, a convex portion 22b is formed with which the blade 30 does not come into contact unlike in the conventional device, and the color developer S is supported on this convex portion 22b, and the tip of the blade 41 is grooved as shown in FIG. The color developer S carried on the convex portions 22b is removed without causing uneven loading of the color developer on the carrier roller 22 due to the color developer S entering into the groove 22a and removing the color developer S inside the groove 22a. At the same time, a large amount of the color developer S can be evenly carried in all the grooves 22a, and a uniform layer of the color developer S can be formed on the plain paper P. Therefore, in the color image recording apparatus M equipped with the powder coating device 2, image loss due to uneven application of the color developer does not occur.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various changes can be made without departing from the spirit thereof.

For example, instead of applying color developer S onto plain paper P,
It may also be applied onto microcapsule paper 7 on which a latent image has been formed.

Furthermore, an inexpensive configuration in which the blade 30 is pressed against the developer carrying roller 22 by its own weight without using a pressing spring is also possible.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the detailed description above, the powder coating device of the present invention can coat a large amount evenly even if the manufacturing accuracy of the carrier and the relative positional accuracy between the carrier and the regulating member are excellent. In addition, the color developer can be uniformly supported on the carrier, and a large amount of the color developer can be uniformly coated on the support, which is an industrially advantageous effect.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 3 show examples embodying the present invention, FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a color image recording device to which the powder coating device of the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a powder coating device. FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the blade portion, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are enlarged sectional views of the blade portion of a conventional powder coating device. In the figure, 22 is a support roller, 22a is a groove, 22b is a convex part,
30 is a blade, 30a is a contact surface, S is a color developer, and P is plain paper.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A carrier is provided with a plurality of grooves formed at equal intervals along its longitudinal direction on its surface, charged powder is carried on the carrier, and the powder is directed toward the support. A powder application device that electrostatically applies powder onto a support by flying the powder, comprising a regulating member having a contact surface that contacts the surface of the support and regulating the amount of powder supported by the support, Powder coating characterized in that the width of the contact surface is wider than the width of the groove and narrower than the width of two grooves plus the width of one convex portion sandwiched between the two grooves. Device.