JPH0672006A - Recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] An object of the present invention is to provide a recording method capable of recording with a simple structure when used for personal printing. [Structure] The present invention has a liquid supply part 18B and a heating part 1 inside.
The latent image is written and confirmed by changing the receding contact angle of the liquid on the recording medium according to the heating under the contact with the liquid by the pen 10 provided with 3. The feature is that the processed product is transferred onto the recording paper 22 to obtain a printed matter.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording method, more specifically, a recording medium having a specific surface, which is selectively or selectively and reversibly provided with a receding contact angle according to a heating temperature. The present invention relates to a recording method using the method of forming the area shown.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, offset printing using lithographic printing without water (fountain solution) as one of means for dividing a surface into a liquid-adhesive area and a non-liquid-adhesive area for image formation. There is.

However, in such offset printing, it is difficult to incorporate the process from the original plate to the plate making process and the printing process from the printing plate into one device, and it is necessary to miniaturize the device relating to the plate making and printing. Was often difficult.

Therefore, as a method for solving such a problem, in particular, as a recording method capable of forming a liquid adhering region and a non-liquid adhering region on the surface and capable of being repeatedly used, The photoconductive layer having a hydrophilic property is externally subjected to the steps of charging, exposing, and developing to separately form the hydrophobic part and the hydrophilic part, and the aqueous developer is adhered only to the hydrophilic part. A water-based development method that allows it to transfer to paper. (2) A method that uses the optical reaction of the photochromic material by irradiating the photochromic material with ultraviolet light and modifying the irradiated portion into a hydrophilized photochromic compound. (3) Amorphous state and crystalline state are formed by physical change,
A method utilizing the action of an internal biasing force for forming a region where liquid ink is attached / not attached has been proposed.

However, in such a system, many steps are required (aqueous developing system), or reaction time and recording time are lengthened or stabilized due to poor quantum efficiency. Property (method utilizing the optical reaction of photochromic material), the physical structure state before recording becomes unstable due to temperature change, and there is a problem in storage stability, and it is complicated when erasing the recorded information pattern. There was a problem such as that there is a property (method using internal biasing force).

Therefore, in order to deal with such a problem,
The present inventors have proposed the following image recording method. That is, in this method, the surface of the recording medium is heated in a state of being in contact with a liquid, or a vapor, or a solid that changes into a liquid by heating, and the receding contact angle with respect to the liquid is changed according to the heating temperature to wet the liquid Is used to form a latent image, and the latent image is brought into contact with a recording material containing a color developing agent to transfer the visible image to the recording paper (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-178478). Issue). In this way,
It is possible to form a latent image according to the image by utilizing the fact that the liquid easily gets wet without being repelled at the position where the receding contact angle is reduced by heating according to the image signal. By increasing the receding contact angle by heating without heating, the surface of the recording medium is returned to the liquid repellent state, and the image can be recorded selectively or selectively and reversibly. it can.

Now, an example of a recording apparatus using this method will be described below with reference to FIG. Figure 7
The apparatus shown in (1) has a structure for performing development after latent image formation. That is, the recording apparatus 1 has a recording body 2, a latent image forming section 3, a developing section 4, a transfer section 5 and a cleaning section 6 as main components.
Provides a layer on the surface of a drum-shaped substrate that forms a support, which has a property that when heated in contact with a recording material, that is, a liquid, the receding contact angle is reduced and the liquid easily adheres. It is configured. Then, the latent image forming unit 3
Is a solution tank 3A containing an aqueous solution and the recording body 2
And a thermal head 3B that heats the aqueous solution in contact with the thermal head 3B. Also, the developing unit 4
Is provided with a developing tank 4A containing a developing ink containing a colorant which is a color developer, and a developing roller 4B in which a part of the peripheral surface is immersed in the developing tank 4A. The roller is composed of a sponge made of urethane foam material, and the developing ink is drawn up toward the recording body 2 by a capillary phenomenon. The transfer unit 5 is composed of rollers capable of sandwiching and conveying the recording paper so as to face the recording body 2, and the cleaning unit 6 includes a cleaner 6A for removing ink and an image removing heater 6B.
It consists of and. Therefore, the liquid adhering to the position where the receding contact angle corresponding to the heating temperature is lowered under the contact with the liquid forms a visible image by the ink supplied in the developing unit 4, and the visible image is formed in the transfer unit 4. , Recording paper S
Is transcribed to. On the other hand, the recording body 2 that has completed the image transfer has the residual ink removed by the cleaner 6A, and the recording layer has liquid repellency by the image removing heater 6B that heats the recording body 2 without being in contact with the liquid. Restored to its original state. Therefore, in the case of a printing press-like usage mode,
The latent image is not erased by the image removing heater 6B, the latent image has a memory-like function, and development and cleaning are repeated so that a plurality of sheets can be printed. In this case, the image is removed by the image removing heater 6B and a latent image is formed again, so that development, transfer, and cleaning based on the latent image having new contents are repeated.

[0008]

Although an apparatus using such a recording method is convenient for obtaining a relatively large amount of printed matter such as a printing machine or a printer as described above, on the other hand, It can be used for personal printing of a large number of products in relatively small quantities such as New Year's cards and postcards, but in this case the device tends to be too large and expensive, making it difficult to obtain. There is fear. Therefore, even in the case of personal printing, steps such as latent image formation, development and transfer are necessary.
It is desirable to manually perform these steps to simplify the structure of the device and thereby reduce the cost.

On the other hand, for personal use, it is desired that a latent image is formed at the time of writing so that it can be confirmed as in the case of general handwriting. Therefore, in order to meet such a demand, in the means used for writing, a simple writing means capable of forming a latent image in a state in which the content can be confirmed by heating while being in contact with the surface of the recording medium is required. Become.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a recording method capable of recording with a simple structure when the above-mentioned conventional recording method is used, particularly when it is used for personal printing.

[0011]

In order to achieve this object, the invention according to claim 1 makes a surface of a recording medium contact with a liquid or a vapor or a solid which is changed into a liquid by heating. The latent image formed by heating and changing the receding contact angle to the liquid according to the heating temperature is contacted with a recording material containing a color developer to form a visible image, and the visible image is recorded on a recording paper. The recording method for transferring is characterized in that the latent image is formed by a pen having the heating unit and the liquid supply unit inside.

The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that a recording body having a recording layer made of a recording material formed on both front and back surfaces of a substrate is used.

[0013]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the heating section and the liquid supply section are arranged inside the pen, and the heating section and the liquid supply section of the pen are brought into contact with the recording body, so that the surface of the recording body becomes a liquid. It is possible to record by handwriting by selectively heating by the heating unit under the contact of. In the invention of claim 2, the direction of the latent image formed on the recording layer on the side facing the heating portion and the liquid supply portion of the pen is reversed so that a so-called reversed latent image is formed on the heating portion. Also, when the reverse image is formed on the surface opposite to the side facing the liquid supply unit and transferred to the recording material, the direction of the image becomes a normal image aligned with the direction of the image at the time of writing. To be converted.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows the writing means used to carry out the recording method according to the invention. This writing means has a shape similar to that of a commonly used writing ball-point pen, and this pen 10 has an inner cylinder 10B in which a liquid L is filled inside a cylindrical resin outer cylinder 10A. A ball 12 is provided at the tip of the inner cylinder 10B, and the liquid L flows out from the gap between the ball 12 and the inner surface of the inner cylinder by the rotation of the ball 12. The liquid L filled in the inner cylinder 10B contains a coloring agent in this embodiment so that the content can be confirmed at the time of writing. On the other hand, the inner cylinder 10
A heater 13, which is a heating member, is provided near the ball 2 located at B while surrounding the outer circumference of the inner cylinder 10B. The heater 13 is fixed to the outer cylinder 10A via a heat insulating material 14 arranged on the outer peripheral surface thereof.
The heat insulating material 14 performs heat insulation between the heater 13 and the outer cylinder 10A, and has a cushioning function between the outer cylinder 10A, the inner cylinder 10B, and the heater 13 described above. The elastic body of is used.

Further, the outer cylinder 10A is provided with a control circuit 16 connected to the power supply circuit 15 and a switch 17, of which the switch 17 is used when a person grips the pen 10 and pushes it in. By setting an energization path from the power supply circuit 15 to the heater 13 only in the first part, the energization is performed only in the writing so as to suppress burns due to heat generation and unnecessary power consumption in the non-writing.

In the pen 10 having such a structure, the switch 17 is pushed in to heat the liquid L in the inner cylinder 10B by the heater 13, and in this state, the pen 10 is pressed to the position to be written on the recording medium. The heated liquid L is caused to flow out from the inside of the cylinder 10B. Therefore, on the recording body, a heated state is obtained under the contact of the liquid, and the latent image is formed by utilizing the fact that the receding contact angle with respect to the liquid is different from that on the other recording bodies. Note that the above-described writing procedure is quick in terms of the rise of the temperature of the liquid L by heating the liquid in advance and then bringing the liquid into contact with the recording medium. However, the writing procedure is not limited to this. The liquid L may be caused to flow out by pressing on the recording medium, and then the switch 7 may be pressed to heat the recording medium under contact with the liquid via the liquid L.

On the other hand, FIG. 2 shows a recording body when the above-described pen 10 is used, and the recording body 18 is heated on a resin substrate 18A such as polyethylene in contact with a liquid. Is provided with a recording layer 18B coated with a recording material such as a fluorine-containing acrylate material having the property of changing the receding contact angle with respect to the liquid.

Therefore, when writing with the above-mentioned pen 10 using such a recording body 8, for example,
When the heater 13 is energized and comes into contact with the liquid set to a temperature of 80 ° C., the receding contact angle with respect to the liquid is lowered, and a latent image is formed on a portion where the adhesion of the liquid is increased. Can be seen.

Next, the above-mentioned pen 10 and recording body 18
When a latent image is formed by using, it is necessary to transfer the latent image on the recording medium to, for example, a postcard to obtain a printed matter. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining this case, and in this case, a drum 19 around which the recording body 18 is wound.
A transfer drum 20 that can contact the recording body 18 on the drum 19 is used. In this structure, the latent image on the recording medium 18 is subjected to a visible image processing by the ink roller 21 formed of a sponge roller or the like for supplying the developer such as ink while being wound on the drum 19. And is transferred onto the transfer drum 20. The reason why the visible image is transferred to the transfer drum 20 is that the direction of the visible image written on the recording medium 18 by the pen 10 is reversed, and the reversed image is transferred again to the recording paper such as postcard by reverse transfer. By doing so, the orientations of the written image and the finally transferred image are matched. Therefore, the transfer drum 20
The visible image transferred onto the recording paper 22 such as a postcard placed on the substrate forms a visible image in the same direction as when written. Become. The structure of the apparatus for executing the printing process shown in FIG. 3 is shown in FIG. That is, in FIG. 4, the holder indicated by the reference numeral 23 arranges the transfer drum 20 and the ink roller 21 at positions facing each other with the drum 19 around which the recording body 18 is wound, and rotatably supports these rollers. This holder 23 has a grip bar 24.
By being gripped, it is possible to move the recording paper 22 while applying pressure, corresponding to the transfer step. Next, another example of the recording method using the pen 10 shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The method shown in FIG. 5 is characterized by eliminating the transfer drum shown in FIG. That is, in addition to the above-mentioned recording layer 18B, the recording layer 18C is formed on the opposite surface of the recording body 18, and the pen 10 shown in FIG. Are to be abutted against each other
(See FIG. 5 (A)). When writing with the pen 10 on the recording body 18, the other recording layer 8C of the recording body 18 is brought into contact with the sponge plate 25 impregnated with the liquid contained in the pen 10. (See FIG. 5 (B)).
The liquid impregnated in the sponge plate 25 does not need to intentionally contain a coloring agent like the liquid contained in the pen 10. Thus, with the pen 10 abutting on one recording layer 18B and the sponge plate 15 abutting on the other recording layer 18C, the liquid heated to 80 ° C. by the pen 10 is applied onto the recording layer 18B. As a result, writing is performed in a state in which the latent image can be confirmed. On the other hand, when the latent image is written on the recording layer 18B, the latent image is also formed on the other recording layer 18C by heat transfer from the one recording layer 18B. That is, the other recording layer 18C
Then, under the contact of the liquid from the sponge plate 25, the latent image is formed at the same position as the writing position of the pen 10 by heating by heat transfer. The direction of the latent image formed on the other recording layer 18C is the same as that of the other recording layer 18C.
When viewed from C, a state in which the direction of the image formed on one recording layer 18B is reversed is obtained. Then, in the recording medium 18 that has finished writing, the above-described ink roller 21 forms the latent image on the other recording layer 18C in a state where the recording layer is reversed.
The recording layer 18 is processed by the visible image processing (see FIG. 5C).
The recording paper 22 such as a postcard is brought into contact with C, and the pressure roller 26
A visible image is transferred by applying pressure (Fig. 5).
(See (D)). Then, the printing process is completed by peeling the recording paper 22 from the recording body 8 (see FIG. 5 (E)). Figure 5
The configuration of an apparatus for executing the printing process shown in FIG. 6 is shown in FIG. That is, in FIG.
The holder shown by 7 has an ink roller 21 arranged facing the drum 19 around which the recording medium 18 is wound, and rotatably supports these rollers. The holder 27 holds a grip bar 28. As a result, the drum 19 can be moved while being pressed against the recording paper 22.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, a printed image is obtained by the step of forming a latent image by utilizing the difference in receding contact angle of liquid, and transferring the latent image after the visible image processing. In this case, a writing means having a liquid supply section and a heating section for heating under the contact of this liquid built in the pen is used in the latent image forming step, and further, a latent image obtained by heating under the contact of the liquid is formed. I made it possible to check,
When obtaining a relatively small amount of printing, printing with a writing means having a simple structure becomes possible. Further, in the recording medium on which a latent image is formed by the above-mentioned writing means, recording layers are provided on both front and back surfaces so that an image in which the direction of the written latent image is reversed can be obtained. It is possible to obtain a printed image in which the direction and the written image are aligned only by transfer onto a recording paper without requiring a means for inverting the direction, and a simple printing process can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining a structure of a writing unit used in a recording method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining a recording method using the writing unit shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a schematic configuration of a recording device using the writing means shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view schematically showing the overall configuration of the recording apparatus shown in FIG.

5A to 5E are schematic diagrams for explaining steps according to another embodiment of the recording method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view for schematically explaining the overall configuration of the recording apparatus used in the process shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is an arrangement diagram for explaining a schematic configuration of a recording apparatus used for executing a processing step which is a premise of the recording method according to the present invention.

[Explanation of Codes] 10 Pen 10A Outer cylinder 10B Inner cylinder forming liquid supply section 12 Ball 13 Heating section 17 Switch 18 Recording body 18B, 18B Recording layer 19 Drum 20 Transfer drum 21 Ink roller 22 Recording paper 23, 26 Holder 24, 27 grip stick

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Masatoshi Sato 3-1, Shinmei-do, Nakameisei, Shibata-cho, Shibata-gun, Miyagi, Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A recording medium is formed by heating a surface of a recording medium with a liquid or a vapor or a solid that changes into a liquid by heating, and changing a receding contact angle with respect to the liquid according to a heating temperature. In a recording method of forming a visible image by bringing a recording material containing a color developer into contact with the latent image and transferring the visible image to a recording paper, a pen having the heating section and the liquid supply section inside A recording method, wherein the latent image is formed by the method. 2. The recording method according to claim 1, wherein the recording body has a recording layer formed of a recording material on both front and back surfaces of a substrate.