JPH0648009A - Recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the transferability and fixing properties of a developed image by providing a primary development part and a secondary development part and using a specific developer. CONSTITUTION:A primary development part 12 and a secondary development part 13 are equipped with a sponge roller which supplies a developer after coming in contact with a recording medium 10 respectively. The developer supplied to the primary development part 12 has an affinity for a recording agent such as a colorant contained in a visible image to be transferred, and is characteristic in that it forms a film which is easily stripped off from the recording medium 10, if dried to become hardened. The developer is based on a resin having the described properties is dispersed or dissolved. The developer supplied to the secondary development part 13 is highly viscous to a recording sheet, if dried to become hardened, and has properties such that it adheres to the recording sheet satisfactorily as the so-called ink. The developer is based on a resin having the described properties which is dispersed or dissolved. In addition, the primary developer has a high affinity to the resin and also excellent wetting properties.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, and more specifically, to the surface of 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 apparatus using the method for 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 specific 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 be transferred 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.

An example of a recording apparatus using this method will now be described with reference to FIG. Figure 6
The recording apparatus shown in (1) has a configuration capable of performing visible image processing with a recording agent after forming a latent image utilizing the difference in wettability of liquid. That is, the recording apparatus 1 has a recording body 2, a recording unit 3, a developing unit 4, a transfer unit 5 and a cleaning unit 6 as main components, and in the drawing, as the recording body 2, on the surface of a base body which is a support, A belt-shaped film provided with a recording layer, that is, a layer having a property that a receding contact angle is reduced and a liquid is easily attached to the recording layer in contact with a liquid, is used. Then, the recording unit 3
It is composed of a solution tank 3A containing an aqueous solution and a thermal head 3B arranged in the aqueous solution and having a heating surface facing the recording body 2. The aqueous solution is provided between the recording body 2 and the heating surface of the thermal head 3B. The recording medium 2 is soaked in and kept in contact with the liquid. The developing unit 4 is provided with a developing tank 4A containing a recording material such as a developing ink in which a color developer is dispersed, and a developing roller 4B capable of supplying a liquid by partially immersing the developing ink in the developing ink. , And the transfer unit 5 is
It is composed of a roller that faces the image carrier 2 with the recording paper S sandwiched therebetween. Further, the cleaning unit 6 is composed of a cleaner 6A and a slow image heater 6B.

Therefore, the liquid adheres to the position where the receding contact angle corresponding to the heating temperature is lowered under the contact with the liquid, and the developing ink adheres to the liquid to form a visible image. The image is transferred to the recording paper S in the transfer unit 4. On the other hand, with respect to the recording body 2 that has completed the image transfer, the remaining liquid is removed by the cleaner 5A,
The recording layer is restored to the original state having liquid repellency by the image removing heater 5B which is heated without being in contact with the liquid.

[0009]

By the way, in the recording apparatus described above, the present inventors have conducted this visible image processing step when, for example, a recording agent such as developing ink is attached after the latent image portion is formed. A method was also proposed in which the S / N ratio was increased by dividing the process into two steps, in which resin was attached to the latent image portion in the primary development and ink was attached to the resin in the secondary development. However, in such a method, it is possible to improve the gradation of the image area by improving the wettability of the ink to the latent image area, but
In the transfer process, as in the past, a method that depends only on the adhesiveness of the ink to the recording paper sandwiched between the transfer roller and the transfer roller has been adopted. Therefore, depending on the relationship of the wettability among the resin, the ink, and the recording paper, the transfer of the ink may not be smoothly performed, causing a transfer failure, or
Alternatively, there is a problem that the transferred ink has a poor fixing property.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus capable of improving the transferability and fixing property of a developed image in view of the above-mentioned problems in the conventional image forming apparatus.

[0011]

In order to achieve this object, the present invention according to claim 1 relates to the surface of a recording medium,
A recording agent containing a developer in a latent image formed by heating a liquid or vapor or a solid that changes into a liquid by heating in a state of contact, and changing the receding contact angle with the liquid according to the heating temperature. A developing device that forms a visible image by contacting the recording material with a recording medium, which is a primary developing unit. And a secondary developing unit, the primary developing unit exhibits wettability with a recording agent after the latent image is formed, and when solidified, has good releasability from the recording medium. A primary developing solution containing a resin constituting the film is used, and the secondary developing section shows wettability to the resin in the primary developing solution adhering to the latent image section in the primary developing section, and when solidified, the tackiness is increased. Secondary developer containing increasing resin It is characterized by using.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the surface of the recording medium is heated in a state in which a liquid, a vapor, or a solid that changes into a liquid by heating is brought into contact with the surface of the recording medium, and the receding contact angle with respect to the liquid according to the heating temperature. A recording material containing a color developer is brought into contact with the latent image formed by the method of changing the visible image to form a visible image, and the visible image is transferred to a recording paper and transferred,
After the transfer, in the recording apparatus that executes an image removing process for removing the image on the recording medium, the developing unit that contacts the recording medium with the recording medium to form a visible image includes a primary developing unit and a secondary developing unit. In the recording apparatus including a developing unit, the primary developing unit forms a film having good releasability from the recording medium by being wettable with a recording agent after the latent image formation and solidifying. A primary developing solution containing a resin is used, and the secondary developing section contains a resin which shows wettability to the resin in the primary developing solution adhering to the latent image section in the primary developing section and which becomes sticky when solidified. It is characterized by using the secondary developer described above.

The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the latent image forming means and the primary developing portion are integrated.

The invention according to claim 4 is characterized by comprising a means for heating the recording paper at the time of transfer.

[0015]

According to the present invention, in the latent image portion formed on the recording medium, a layer having good peelability from the recording medium and a layer having good adhesion to the recording paper are formed.

Further, according to the present invention, by heating the recording paper at the time of transfer, the drying of the ink is accelerated, the tackiness of the ink is increased, and the transfer and fixing performance is improved.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. The same components as those shown in FIG. 6 are designated by the same reference numerals. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining the principle of the recording apparatus of the present invention. In the drawing, the recording apparatus of the present invention is, for example, along a moving direction of a belt-shaped recording medium 10 that forms a recording medium. , Latent image forming unit 1
1, a primary developing section 12, a secondary developing section 13, and a transfer section 5 and a cleaning section 6 similar to those shown in FIG. 6 are arranged. Similar to the case shown in FIG. 6, the recording body 10 is composed of a substrate and a recording layer, and the recording layer is heated under the contact of the liquid to reduce the receding contact angle with respect to the liquid and to collect the liquid. It has the property of making it easy to attach.

In the latent image forming section 11, a thermal head 11A (not shown) located on the solution tank side is arranged so as to face the recording body 10, and the liquid is made to adhere to the latent image section by heating according to an image signal. To form.

On the other hand, the primary developing section 12 and the secondary developing section 1
3 includes sponge rollers that come into contact with the recording body 10 and supply the developing solution, and the developing solution supplied by the sponge rollers has the following characteristics. That is, the primary developing solution used in the primary developing section 12 has an affinity for a recording material such as a coloring material contained in the transferred visible image and, when dried and solidified, has a releasability from the recording body 10. The characteristics of forming a good film are set, and the resin having this characteristic is dispersed or dissolved. As the resin mentioned above,
A material that is not easily torn when it is modified into a film and has a weak adhesion to the recording body 10 is selected and contained in the liquid. Incidentally, in the present embodiment, for example, ethylene
A vinyl acetate copolymer, butyral resin, polyvinyl alcohol, acrylic resin, vinyl chloride, rubber latex or the like having a glass transition point (Tg) of 0 ° C. or higher is preferable.

Further, the secondary developing solution used in the secondary developing section 13 is set to have a property that when it is dried and solidified, the adhesiveness to the recording paper becomes high, that is, the so-called ink has good adhesion to the recording paper. It is configured by dispersing or dissolving a resin having this characteristic. In this embodiment,
As an example of the resin, an ethylene / acetic acid copolymer, butyral resin, polyvinyl alcohol, acrylic resin, vinyl chloride, rubber latex or the like having a low glass point (Tg) is selected. In this case, the glass transition point (Tg) is preferably lower than 0 ° C, more preferably lower than -10 ° C. Since the secondary developer is laminated on the resin layer formed in the primary development, it is needless to say that the secondary developer must have a high affinity with the resin of the primary developer. The receding contact angle should be 0 ° with respect to the resin layer of the developer.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the resin layer of the primary developing solution is adhered onto the recording medium 10, and then the secondary development is carried out, so that the resin layer of the primary developing solution is coated on the recording material. A resin of the next developing solution, a so-called ink layer, is laminated. This state is shown enlarged in FIG.

On the other hand, the above-mentioned primary development on the latent image portion can be carried out simultaneously with the formation of the latent image. FIG. 4 shows an example of this case. That is, the latent image forming unit 11
A latent image forming liquid is formed by using a primary developer in a liquid that contacts the recording layer of the recording body 10. The thermal head responds to an image signal in a state where the latent image forming liquid is in contact with the recording body 10. By the heating of 2A, the latent image is formed and the primary development is executed at the same time to deposit the primary developer. Then, in the secondary developing section 13, the resin of the secondary developing solution forming the ink is laminated.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the recording body 10 in which the ink layer is laminated on the resin layer of the primary developing solution is transferred to the recording paper at the transfer portion 14, and at this time, FIG. As shown in (1), since the peelability from the recording body 10 is good and the adhesive force to the recording paper is strong, transfer residue can be eliminated. Here, the adhesiveness of the ink is increased by heating the transfer paper, which also improves the transferability and the fixability to the recording paper.

[0024]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below, but the present invention is not limited thereto. Moreover,% illustrated below is a weight ratio.

(Example 1) Recording material: Fluorine-containing acrylate material TG-702 (manufactured by Daikin Industries) was diluted 3 times with Freon 113 and coated on a polyimide film (manufactured by Toray DuPont), and then at 130 ° C. Let dry for 30 minutes. Primary developer: Polyvinyl alcohol 10 wt% dissolved in water. Ink: 4 wt% dye of the following structural formula + ethylene / vinyl acetate copolymer emulsion S-753 (Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., Tg = -15)
℃) 10wt%, the rest is water.

[0026]

[Equation 1]

Device configuration: The configuration shown in FIG. Results: When recording was performed with the configuration shown in FIG.
Good transfer with no transfer residue was obtained.

Example 2 Recording Body: Same as Example 1. Primary developer: Ethylene / vinyl acetate copolymer emulsion S-752 (Sumitomo Chemical, Tg = 15 ℃) 10wt
%, The rest is water. Ink: CI DBK154 4 wt% + ethylene special vinyl ester copolymer S-950 (Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., Tg = -30 ° C) 10 wt
%, The rest is water. Device configuration: The configuration shown in FIG. Results: When recording was performed with the configuration shown in FIG.
Similar to Example 1, good transfer without transfer residue could be performed.

Example 3 Recording Material: Same as Example 1. Primary developer: Ethylene / vinyl acetate copolymer emulsion S-752 (Sumitomo Chemical, Tg = 15 ℃) 10wt
% And polyvinyl butyral (Sekisui Chemical's BW-1) 10 wt% dissolved in water. Ink: 5% by weight of CI DBK168 + ethylene / acrylic ester copolymer S-920 (Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., Tg = -40 ° C)
10wt%, the rest is water. Device configuration: The configuration shown in FIG. Result: When the latent image formation and the primary development were simultaneously performed by the configuration shown in FIG. 4 and further heating (60 ° C.) was performed at the time of transfer,
Good transfer was possible without transfer residue.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, in order to satisfy the characteristics of good releasability with respect to a recording material and good adhesiveness with respect to a recording paper in the developing section, In the development, a primary developer was used that was modified by drying and solidification to improve the peelability from the recording medium. Further, in the secondary development, the adhesiveness to the recording paper was improved when it was dry and solidified. By adopting the double development method using the secondary developing solution, both transferability and fixability can be made good at the same time.

Further, according to the present invention, the structure required for the above-mentioned double development can be simplified.

Further, according to the present invention, by heating at the time of transfer, it is possible to promote the drying of the ink layer and improve the transferability and the fixability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a basic configuration of a recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing operations by a primary developing unit and a secondary developing unit having the basic configuration shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view illustrating a state of a latent image portion by primary development and secondary development shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a partially modified example of the basic configuration shown in FIG.

5 is a schematic diagram showing a state in the transfer portion shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a conventional recording apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Recording Body 11 Latent Image Forming Section 12 Primary Development Section 13 Secondary Development Section 14 Transfer Section

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method in which a liquid, or vapor or a solid that changes into a liquid by heating is heated in contact with the surface of a recording medium, and the receding contact angle with respect to the liquid is changed according to the heating temperature. A recording device for forming a visible image by contacting a recording agent containing a color developer with the formed latent image, and transferring the visible image to a recording paper. The developing unit that forms a visible image is a recording device that includes a primary developing unit and a secondary developing unit, wherein the primary developing unit exhibits wettability to a recording agent after the latent image is formed, A primary developing solution containing a resin that forms a film having good releasability from the recording material by solidification is used, and the secondary developing section is the primary developing solution adhering to the latent image section in the primary developing section. Shows wettability to the resin and sticks when solidified A recording apparatus characterized by using a secondary developing solution containing a resin having improved properties. 2. A method in which a liquid or vapor or a solid that changes into a liquid by heating is heated in contact with the surface of a recording medium and the receding contact angle with respect to the liquid is changed according to the heating temperature. A recording material containing a color developer is brought into contact with the formed latent image to form a visible image, the visible image is transferred to a recording paper and transferred, and after transfer, the image on the recording medium is removed. In a recording apparatus that executes an image process, a developing unit that forms a visible image by contacting the recording material with a recording medium is a recording apparatus that includes a primary developing unit and a secondary developing unit. The developing section uses a primary developing solution containing a resin that shows wettability to a recording agent after forming the latent image and solidifies to form a film having good releasability from the recording medium. The secondary developing section is the same as the latent image section in the primary developing section. A recording apparatus characterized by using a secondary developing solution containing a resin which exhibits wettability to the resin in the adhered primary developing solution and whose tackiness increases when solidified. 3. A recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the latent image forming means and the primary developing section are integrated. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 1,
A recording apparatus equipped with means for heating recording paper during transfer.