JPS5867493A - Regenerator for ink carrier in heat transfer recorder - 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 The present invention relates to an apparatus for regenerating an ink carrier in a thermal transfer recording apparatus.

A thermal transfer recording device requires a film coated with hot bath-meltable ink, but in order to be able to use this ink film repeatedly, it is made into an endless belt and coated on top of it. A device has already been proposed that reproduces the ink by transferring the ink onto the recording paper and then applying new ink onto the collar. There are generally two methods for this regeneration, one that applies liquid ink and one that applies solid ink pieces, but both rely on a simple mechanism installed inside the recording chamber. In this case, the amount of ink applied cannot be controlled sufficiently, and the recording
It has some problems such as the difference in shading.

In order to solve this problem, the present applicant uses a mesh-like or porous ink carrier,
A technique has already been proposed in which the film thickness of ink is controlled by utilizing this thickness. The purpose of this invention is to provide a new reproducing apparatus that allows more accurate power coating amount control, and its details will be described below based on the illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an ink carrier regeneration device according to the present invention. An ink carrier in the form of a shape, as shown in Fig. 3, is constructed by weaving stainless steel fibers 1a with a wire diameter of several μm to 100 μm to form a mesh body finer than the printing density, or as shown in Fig. 4. , 80 mm vertically connected by a 150 μm thick steel plate coated with silicon oxide
A lattice 1b made by intersecting lattice materials of 40 μm width at every μm interval, or a circular hole of 80 μm diameter with an aperture ratio of about 67 cm in a film made of polyester resin etc. with a thickness of about 5[104°C] A perforated plate 1c (FIG. 5) formed by punching at intervals of RJ, or a thin perforated plate formed by slicing an aluminum block formed into a honeycomb shape, etc. are used. Reference numeral 2 denotes a heating table that maintains a temperature of, for example, 100°C, which is placed close to one side of the ink carrier 1, and presses it against the other side of the ink carrier 1 with a contact pressure of about 109/cr/I, so that the applied melting point is For example 85
It is made up of a stick shape. 4.4 is a pair of squeeze rollers arranged behind the heating table 2 described above, and a 150W II thermal heater 4a is installed inside.
These pair of rollers 4 made of silicone rubber with a diameter of 5.
4 rotates in the moving direction of the ink carrier 1 by a driving force from an external drive source and slides into contact with this surface with a pressure of about 25 Fd to scrape off excess ink applied on the ink carrier 1. It is composed of In the figure, reference numeral 5 indicates an ink scraping scraper of the squeeze roller 4, and 6 indicates a collected ink receiver.

In the embodiment described above, a pair of squeeze rollers 4,
4 is a porous ink carrier 1 which melts the ink applied to its surface by its own heat while rotating at a linear velocity different from that of the ink carrier 1, and forms a mesh of the softened ink again; According to the above recorded information, unevenly distributed ink missing holes are evenly filled and any remaining ink is removed. Moreover, during this operation, these rollers 4, 4 are in contact with the ink carrier 1 and maintain a clearance gap depending on its thickness, so that the ink in the eye regulated by these rollers 4, 4 is equally leveled to a thickness corresponding to the thickness of the ink carrier 1.

Figure 2 shows an example of application to a regenerating device called a jab dipping type. For example, the hot bath melting ink whose melting temperature is 70°C↓ is behind the ink bath melting 1a7 which is heated to 120°C and liquefied. A pair of stainless steel squeeze rollers 4/, 4/ covered with urethane rubber with a rubber hardness of 45 degrees are applied with rotational driving force to press K 25 E/crl onto the ink carrier 1. It is arranged so that it can rotate in the direction of movement while being pressed by force. In the case of Jin's device, the ink carrier 1 is sufficiently heated in the ink melting tank 7, so even if the squeeze roller 4' does not have a built-in heat source, the leveling effect of the ink will not be affected. . This device can also be configured so that the ink collected by the squeeze roller 4' is returned to the ink melting tank 7 through a filter.

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the pair of squeeze members disposed behind the ink supply means are made to contact and roll on both sides of the ink carrier configured as a porous body. The gap between the pair of squeeze members is controlled by the thickness of the ink carrier, and the thickness of the ink filled into the porous body is always maintained at a thickness determined by the thickness of the ink carrier and the speed difference between this and the squeeze member. This makes it possible to maintain uniformity, and it is possible to always transfer a recorded image with a constant density onto the recording medium regardless of the ink application method.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1.2 are schematic configuration diagrams showing an apparatus for regenerating an ink carrier according to the present invention, and FIGS. 3 to 5 are diagrams showing embodiments of the ink carrier. 1... Ink carrier, Mi... Solid ink, 4,4
′...Squeeze roller, 7...Ink melting tank agent Patent attorney Kei Nishikawa Jirod 1st picture 2nd figure 7' Hand 50 /

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a thermal transfer recording device that transfers heat-melting ink on an ink carrier onto a recording medium according to recorded information,
The ink carrier is constituted as an endless porous body that circulates between the recording means and the ink carrier, and a pair of squeeze members are provided on both sides of the ink carrier at the rear of the ink supply member. A reproducing device for an ink carrier in a thermal transfer recording device IK, which is made to contact and roll so as to create a speed difference between the ink carrier and the ink carrier.