JPH11249346A - Continuous paper recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform double-sided printing by one printer consisting of a pair of printing units by cutting the middle of continuous paper whose front surface has been printed, temporarily taking it up, and automatically introducing it to a printing means again so that the back surface thereof may be printed. SOLUTION: The continuous paper 5 whose front surface has been printed is taken up to a take-up roll 341 in a paper partway housing means 34. The paper 5 is cut by a cutter 6 being a paper cutting means in optional timing partway through operation, and the paper 5 whose front surface has been printed is perfectly taken up to the roll 341. Then, the paper 5 taken up is automatically introduced into a paper carrying means 31 via a paper loop carrying means 35 shown by a broken line again at high speed in a state where the point P of the edge cut by the cutter 6, that means, the trailing edge of the paper 5 taken up is set as the head. At the place of the carrying means 35, the front surface of the paper 5 where a toner image is recorded is the upper surface of the paper 5, and the back surface is the lower surface.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and more particularly to a printing apparatus suitable for printing on both sides of continuous paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a typical method of double-sided printing using a conventionally known electrophotographic technique, when recording paper is cut paper, one or a plurality of photoconductors are used, and the recording paper is moved from the photoconductor to the front of the recording paper. After the toner image has been transferred to the surface and then fixed once, the recording paper is turned upside down and returned to the upstream side of the photoreceptor, and the toner image is transferred from the photoreceptor to the back of the recording paper and fixed again. Are known.

When the recording paper is continuous paper, two printers are used as shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-321062, and the front side of the recording paper is printed by the first printer. Turn the recording paper upside down with the turn unit,
A method of printing the back side of a recording sheet by a second printer is known. However, this method is expensive due to the use of two printers, and requires a large installation area.

As a method of performing double-sided printing with one printer, for example, as shown in US Pat.
2. Description of the Related Art A method is known in which two sets of printing units are used in one printer, and the front and back sides of a recording sheet are sequentially printed. However, this method also requires essentially the same components as the method using two printers in that it also uses two sets of printing units, and is also expensive because the size of one printer increases. Yes, take place.

[0005] As an apparatus for performing double-sided printing with one printer including one set of printing units, Nipson-7 manufactured by Nipson uses a so-called magnetography recording system.
Og's Pag using 000 or electrophotography
eStream-210 DSC has been commercialized. In these devices, the printing unit is divided into two parts in the horizontal direction,
After printing the front side of the recording paper with the half of the divided printing unit, the toner image is fixed, the front and back of the fixed recording paper are reversed, and the recording paper is returned to the upstream side of the printing unit. Print the back side of the recording paper with the other half. However, this method has a problem that only a narrow recording sheet corresponding to half of the printing unit can be used.

For example, as shown in JP-A-7-72776, four sets of color printing units for cyan, magenta, yellow and black are used as one set for color printing, and two sets of color printing units for front and back printing are set. There is known a method in which printing units are arranged to face each other, a recording sheet, which is continuous paper, is conveyed therebetween, and a color image is printed on both sides of the recording sheet in one process. However, this method also has a problem that a total of eight photoconductors are used in two sets of color printing units.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a continuous paper double-sided printing apparatus for recording on both the front and back sides of a recording paper which is a continuous paper, and a set of printing units. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording apparatus capable of performing double-sided printing without limiting the width of the recording paper to a single printer composed of a single printer. Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus capable of performing two-color or full-color double-sided printing with a smaller number of photoconductors than the conventional system.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a continuous paper printed on a front surface is cut off in the middle by a printing means, and temporarily wound and wound. The continuous paper is automatically introduced into the printing means again and the back side is printed.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration example of an electrophotographic apparatus for double-sided mono black printing using continuous paper according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The recording apparatus 1 basically includes a paper supply unit 2, a duplex printing unit 3, and a paper storage unit 4. Roll continuous paper 5, which is recording paper stored in the paper supply unit 2, is pulled out from the paper supply unit 2 and supplied to the duplex printing unit 3. Next, the toner image conveyed by the paper conveying means 31 and formed on the photoconductor 321 of the printing unit 32 is transferred onto the front surface of the continuous paper 5.

The printing process in the printing unit 32 will be described. The drum-shaped selenium-based photoconductor 321 positively charged by the charger 322 rotates clockwise, forms an electrostatic latent image by irradiation with a laser beam 323 modulated by image information, and then conveys it to the developing unit. It is. The electrostatic latent image is reversely developed by a positively charged black toner of the developing device 324 to form a toner image 325 on the surface of the photoconductor 321. This is electrostatically transferred to the continuous paper 5 by transfer means 326 which is a corona discharger. The residual charge on the surface of the photoconductor 321 is removed by an eraser 327, and the residual toner is removed by a cleaner 328.

The toner image printed on the front side of the continuous paper 5 is fixed by a fixing device 33 including a heat roll 330 and a backup roll 331. Next, the continuous paper 5 is wound up by a winding roll 341 in the paper intermediate storage means 34. At the end of the work to be printed, as well as at an arbitrary timing during the work, the continuous paper 5 is cut by the cutter 6 serving as a paper cutting means, and the continuous paper 5 on which the front side is printed is completely wound up. Roll 341. Then, the wound continuous paper 5 is automatically indicated by a broken line with the end P point cut by the cutter 6, that is, the trailing end of the continuous paper 5 being wound, as indicated by a broken line. And is re-introduced into the paper transporting means 31 at high speed. At the location of the paper loop transporting means 35, the front surface of the continuous paper 5 on which the toner image is recorded is the upper surface of the continuous paper 5 and the rear surface is the lower surface, as is apparent from the drawing. Therefore, the continuous paper 5 re-introduced into the paper transport means 31 is printed on the back side by the printing unit 32 and is fixed by the fixing device 33. The continuous paper 5 on which the front and back sides, that is, both sides are printed, is conveyed to the paper storage unit 4 and taken up by the take-up storage device 41, or cut into cut paper by the storage unit cutter 42, and is cut into the stacker 43. Is stored.

Next, the continuous paper 5 stored in the paper supply unit 2 is automatically supplied again to the duplex printing unit 3 with the end cut by the cutter 6 as a head, and the same duplex printing operation is repeated. This repetition of the double-sided printing operation is performed until the scheduled work is completed. Accordingly, a series of double-sided printing operations are performed without substantially stopping until the operation is completed.

According to the present embodiment, printing can be continuously performed on both sides of the continuous paper 5 without substantially stopping the printing operation by one printer including one set of printing units. Also, there is no restriction that only narrow recording paper can be used for recording paper.

A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

For simplicity, the printing unit 32 is represented by a photoreceptor represented by a relatively large circle and a developing device represented by a small circle. The paper storage unit 4 is also shown in a simplified rectangular form. In this embodiment, the first printing unit 132 for red printing and the second printing unit 23 for black printing are used.
2 printing units are used. The rolled continuous paper 5 stored in the paper supply unit 2 is pulled out from the paper supply unit 2 and supplied to the duplex printing unit 3. Then, the first printing unit 132
The red toner image formed on the photoconductor 321 is transferred to the front side of the continuous paper 5. Next, the second printing unit 2
By transferring the black toner image formed on the 32 photoconductors 321 to the front surface of the continuous paper 5, two red and black toner images are printed. The two-color toner image printed on the front side of the continuous paper 5 is fixed by the fixing device 33.
Next, the continuous paper 5 is wound up by a winding roll 341 in the paper intermediate storage means 34. The continuous paper 5 is cut by the cutter 6 at an arbitrary timing of the operation to be printed, and the continuous paper 5 is completely wound up on the winding roll 341. Next, the wound continuous paper 5 is automatically re-introduced into the paper transport means 31 via the paper loop transport means 35. The continuous paper 5 re-introduced into the paper transport means 31 is again printed in two colors on the back side by the first printing unit 132 for red printing and the second printing unit 232 for black printing, and is fixed by the fixing device 33. You. The continuous paper 5 on which two colors are printed on the front and back sides, that is, both sides, is stored in the paper storage unit 4. This two-color double-sided printing operation is automatically repeated.

According to this embodiment, there is an advantage that two colors can be continuously printed on both sides of the continuous paper 5 without substantially stopping the printing operation by one printer including two printing units.

A third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, two developing machines, a first developing machine 1324 for red printing and a second developing machine 2324 for black printing, are mounted on one set of printing units 32. In the printing unit 32, as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-48-37148, an intermediate potential region is provided between the potentials of the charged region and the discharge region of the photosensitive member, and the photosensitive member is rotated during one rotation of the photosensitive member. It employs a printing process in which a two-color toner image is formed on the body surface. The rolled continuous paper 5 stored in the paper supply unit 2 is pulled out from the paper supply unit 2 and supplied to the duplex printing unit 3. Then, paper transporting means 3
1, the toner image of the two colors red and black is printed by transferring the toner image of the two colors red and black formed on the photoconductor 321 of the printing unit 32 to the front surface of the continuous paper 5. Two-color red and black toner printed on the front side of continuous paper 5
The image is fixed by the fixing device 33. Next, the continuous paper 5 is wound up by a winding roll 341 in the paper intermediate storage means 34. The continuous paper 5 is cut by the cutter 6 at an arbitrary timing of the operation to be printed, and the continuous paper 5 is completely wound up on the winding roll 341. Next, the wound continuous paper 5 is re-introduced into the paper transport means 31 via the paper loop transport means 35. The continuous paper 5 re-introduced into the paper transport means 31 is again printed in two colors by the printing unit 32, and is fixed by the fixing device 33. The continuous paper 5 on which two colors are printed on the front and back sides, that is, both sides, is stored in the paper storage unit 4. This two-color double-sided printing operation is automatically repeated.

According to the present embodiment, a printing process for forming a two-color toner image on the surface of the photoreceptor while the photoreceptor makes one rotation is adopted, and a set of printings equipped with two developing machines is adopted. There is an advantage that two-color printing can be continuously performed on both sides of the continuous paper 5 without substantially stopping the printing operation by one printer including the unit.

A fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, a first printing unit 132 for cyan (C) corresponding to full color printing, a second printing unit 232 for magenta (M), yellow (Y)
Four printing units, a third printing unit 332 for black and a fourth printing unit 432 for black (B) are used. First, a full color image is printed on the front side of the continuous paper 5 by passing the continuous paper 5 through the four printing units. Next, the sheet is re-introduced into the sheet transporting means 31 via the sheet intermediate storage means 34 and the paper loop transporting means 35, and the full color image is printed on the back surface.

According to this embodiment, there is an advantage that full color printing can be continuously performed on both sides of the continuous paper 5 without substantially stopping the printing operation by one printer including four printing units. On the other hand, in order to perform full-color printing on both sides of continuous paper in the conventional method, two printers each having four sets of printing units must be used continuously or one printer must have eight sets of printing units. Is required.

A fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

This embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that folding paper is used instead of roll paper as the continuous paper 5 as recording paper. The continuous paper 5, which is folding paper, stored in the paper supply unit 2 is pulled out from the paper supply unit 2 and supplied to the duplex printing unit 3. Then, the photosensitive member 321 of the printing unit 32 is conveyed by the paper conveying means 31.
Is transferred to the front side of the continuous paper 5. The toner image printed on the front side of the continuous paper 5 is fixed by the fixing device 33, and the continuous paper 5 is stored in the intermediate paper storage unit 3.
Stack up at 4.

The continuous paper 5 is cut by the cutter 6 at an arbitrary timing during the operation as well as at the end of the operation to be printed, and the continuous paper 5 is completely stacked. Subsequently, the stacked continuous paper 5 is pulled out starting from the end P of the paper, that is, the rear end of the stacked continuous paper 5, and automatically passes through the paper loop conveying means 35 indicated by a broken line. The paper is re-introduced into the paper transport means 31 at high speed. At the location of the paper loop transporting means 35, the front surface of the continuous paper 5 on which the toner image is recorded is the upper surface of the continuous paper 5 and the rear surface is the lower surface, as is apparent from the drawing. Therefore, the continuous paper 5 re-introduced into the paper transport means 31 is printed on the back side by the printing unit 32 and is fixed by the fixing device 33. The continuous paper 5 on which the front and back sides, that is, both sides are printed, is stored in the paper storage unit 4. Next, the continuous paper 5 stored in the paper supply unit 2 is automatically again supplied to the duplex printing unit 3 with the end cut by the cutter 6 as a head, and the duplex printing operation is repeated. Therefore, a series of double-sided printing operations are performed without substantially stopping.

According to the present embodiment, printing can be continuously performed on both sides of the continuous paper 5 which is a foldable paper without substantially stopping the printing operation by one printer including one printing unit. . Although the continuous paper 5 is cut by the cutter 6 in this embodiment, a mechanism for separating the continuous paper 5 at the perforation by pulling both sides of the perforation of the folded portion without using a cutter which is a blade may be used. Good. In general, a fixed number of sheets of folding paper constitute one unit, so that it is not necessary to cut with a cutter when using the recording paper until the end.

A sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

This embodiment is different from the fifth embodiment in that a first developing unit 1324 for red printing and a second developing unit for black printing are provided in one set of printing units 32 as in the third embodiment. That is, two developing machines of the printer 2324 are mounted, and the leading end point Q of the sheet at the bottom of the continuous paper 5 stacked in the sheet intermediate storage means 34 is pulled out. The continuous paper 5 which is a foldable paper stored in the paper supply unit 2 is pulled out from the paper supply unit 2 and supplied to the duplex printing unit. Then, the sheet is conveyed by the sheet conveying means 31. At the time of the first front side printing, the first developing device 1324 for red printing of the printing unit 32 operates, and the second developing device 2324 for black printing is retracted from the photoconductor 321. The red toner image formed on the photoconductor 321 is transferred to the front surface of the continuous paper 5 to print the red toner image. The red toner image printed on the front side of the continuous paper 5 is fixed by the fixing device 33. Then continuous paper 5
Are stacked in the sheet intermediate storage means 34.

The continuous paper 5 is cut by the cutter 6 at an arbitrary timing during the operation as well as at the end of the operation to be printed, and the continuous papers 5 are completely stacked. Subsequently, the stacked continuous paper 5 is pulled out with the leading end Q of the paper at the bottom of the continuous paper 5 as the head, and automatically passed through the paper loop transporting means 35 shown by a broken line to the paper transporting means 31.
Re-introduced fast. At the place of the paper loop transporting means 35, the front surface of the continuous paper 5 on which the red toner image is recorded is the lower surface of the continuous paper 5 and the rear surface is the upper surface, as is apparent from the drawing. Therefore, the continuous paper 5 re-introduced into the paper transporting means 31 has its front side printed again by the printing unit 32. When reprinting, the printing unit 32
The second developing device 2324 for black printing is operating, and the first developing device 1324 for red printing is retracted from the photoconductor 321. By transferring the black toner image formed on the photoconductor 321, the black toner image is superimposed on the front surface of the continuous paper 5 on which the red toner image is already printed, and a two-color image is printed. Become. The continuous paper 5 is fixed again by the fixing device 33 and stored in the paper storage unit 4. Next, the continuous paper 5 stored in the paper supply unit 2 is automatically supplied to the duplex printing unit 3 again with the end cut by the cutter 6 as a head. Perform color printing continuously.

A two-color toner image is formed on the surface of the photoreceptor during one rotation of the photoreceptor. In the printing process shown in the third embodiment, the red toner image already formed on the photoreceptor is blackened. It is difficult to print at high speed because the red toner image is disturbed by rubbing with the developer of the developing machine for printing. However, in this embodiment, the first and second developing machines operate independently one by one. There is an advantage that high image quality can be achieved without being limited by the printing speed.

According to the present embodiment, the front side of the continuous paper 5 is continuously and substantially not stopped by one printer including one set of printing units on which two developing machines are mounted. The advantage is that stable two-color printing can be performed.

As in the sixth embodiment, the front side printing is performed at the time of reprinting. In the present invention, the continuous paper 5 stored in the paper intermediate storage means 34 is pulled out, re-introduced into the paper transport means 31, and re-printed. When printing, both back side printing and front side printing can be made possible. For example, even when roll paper is used as the continuous paper 5 instead of folding paper in the sixth embodiment, the rear end P point of the continuous paper 5 stored in the paper intermediate storage means 34 is held and pulled out, and the paper 2 is removed. The paper is passed through a turn unit that is bent at a right angle to reverse the front and back of the paper, and then re-introduced into the paper transporting means 31 via the paper loop transporting means 35, thereby re-introducing the roll paper on the front surface. It becomes possible to print. Therefore, in the present invention, the front and back sides of the recording paper at the time of reprinting are not limited, regardless of roll paper or folding paper, and any of them is possible.

In the embodiment of the present invention, an electrophotographic method using a photosensitive member and toner has been described as a printing method.
The present invention relates to the conveyance of continuous paper, which is a recording sheet, and does not essentially depend on a recording method. For example, a so-called magnetography recording system in which a magnetic latent image is developed with a magnetic toner, a charge pattern is formed on a dielectric by ion emission, and the toner is formed.
A so-called ionography-recording method of developing with an ink jet recording method of spraying ink onto a recording paper for recording;
In addition, the present invention can be applied to a normal offset printing method and the like.
Also in the electrophotographic system, the printing process and the type and form of the photoconductor are not limited to those described in the embodiments of the present invention, and there are many variations. Further, in the recording apparatus of the present invention, the paper supply unit, the duplex printing unit, and the paper storage unit may be integrated, or each may be separated and independent.

[0035]

According to the present invention, in a continuous paper double-sided printing apparatus for recording on both the front and back sides of a recording paper, which is a continuous paper, the recording is performed particularly by one printer including one set of printing units. There is the effect that double-sided printing can be performed without limiting the width of the paper. Also, there is an effect that two-color, full-color double-sided printing can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a printing apparatus showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a printing apparatus showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a printing apparatus showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a printing apparatus showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a printing apparatus showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Recording device, 2 ... Paper supply part, 3 ... Double-sided printing unit, 4 ... Paper storage part, 5 ... Continuous paper, 6 ... Cutter, 31 ...
Paper transport means, 32 printing unit, 33 fixing device,
34: paper intermediate storage means, 35: paper loop transport means.

Claims (5)

[Claims] A sheet supply unit for supplying continuous paper that is a recording sheet; a unit for cutting the continuous sheet supplied from the sheet supply unit; a sheet conveying unit for conveying the continuous sheet supplied from the sheet supply unit; Printing means for printing on continuous paper, paper intermediate storage means for cutting and temporarily winding or stacking the continuous paper printed by the printing means, and paper transport for continuous paper wound or stacked by the paper intermediate storage means 2. A continuous paper recording apparatus, comprising: a paper loop conveying means for reintroducing the paper into the means; and a paper storage unit for storing continuous paper reprinted by the printing means. 2. The continuous paper recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when reprinting the continuous paper, printing is performed on both sides of the continuous paper by printing a surface opposite to a printed surface of the continuous paper. . 3. The continuous paper recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said printing means performs printing using toner which is a colored resin powder. 4. The continuous paper recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein roll paper is used as said continuous paper. 5. The continuous paper recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing means is provided with a printing function using a plurality of colors to print a color image on both sides of the continuous paper.