JPH0355277A - Method and apparatus for forming image - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify handling and to enhance environmental stability by holding an insulating member impregnated with ink whose adhesiveness changes according to the polarity of applied voltage across a pair of electrodes and applying voltage across the electrodes to form the adhesion image of the ink on one electrode. CONSTITUTION:A cylindrical member 1 is used as an anode and a conductive base material 2 having desired insulating patterns 3 formed from a photoresist is used as a cathode and ink 4 to be used has characteristics showing adhesiveness in a voltage non-applied state but eliminated or reduced in its adhesiveness by the application of voltage. The cylindrical member 1 and the base material 2 are connected to a DC power supply to apply voltage to both of them and the cylindrical member 1 is pressed to an insulating member 5 to be rotated thereon and, at the same time, the insulating member 5 is released to leave the ink 4 on the insulating patterns 3. By this method, the ink 4 is infiltrated in the insulating member 5 to prevent leakage and a stable image is obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an image forming method using ink that is adhesive or opaque depending on the polarity of an applied zero voltage, and an image forming apparatus that can be used in the method. .

(Prior technology) Lithographic printing, letterpress printing, gravure printing, etc. are used in printing technology, but they require complicated processes to create plates and require dampening water to butter the ink. It was extremely troublesome to handle. In addition, the adhesion of the ink was easily affected by air flow and humidity, and it lacked environmental stability. For this reason, there are many difficulties in applying conventional printing techniques to recording peripheral devices such as computers.

As a recording peripheral device for computers, etc., printers using various recording methods are known, such as laser beam printers, inkjet printers, thermal transfer printers, wire dot printers, and daisy foil printers. However, there was a problem in that it was not suitable for the large-volume printing achieved by the above-mentioned printing technology in terms of cost and the like.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and is an image forming method that is easy to handle, does not require much maintenance, has excellent environmental stability, and has high image quality performance. , and to provide an image form or device.

(Detailed Description of the Invention) The present invention comprises sandwiching an insulating member impregnated with ink whose adhesion changes depending on the polarity of an applied voltage between at least a pair of electric buckets, applying a voltage between the electrodes, An image-forming method comprising the step of forming an ink adhesion image on either one of the electrodes; The image forming apparatus includes at least a pair of electrodes for sandwiching a member, and a power source for applying a voltage between the electrodes.

In the present invention, in particular, since an ink having the above-mentioned specific adhesion characteristics and an insulating member impregnated with the ink are used, leakage between the above-mentioned electrodes is unlikely to occur, and handling, maintenance, environmental stability, etc. are excellent. .

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

In the example shown in FIG. 1(a), a cylindrical member 1 is used as an anode, and a conductive base material 2 on which a desired insulation pattern 3 formed by photoresist or the like is formed is used as a cathode. The ink 4 used has the property of being adhesive when no voltage is applied, and disappearing or decreasing its adhesiveness when heavy pressure is applied. Furthermore, the insulating member 5 impregnated with the ink 4 is made of a layered material. As shown in FIG. 1(b), the cylindrical member 1
A DC power supply is connected to the base material 2 and a voltage is applied, and the cylindrical member 1 is rolled onto the insulating member 5 while being pushed. At the same time, when the insulating member 5 is peeled off, ink 4 remains on the insulating pattern 3E.

This is because no voltage is applied to the ink 4 on the insulating pattern 3, which has its original adhesive properties, and as the cylindrical member 1 moves, it is pushed out from the insulating member 5 and adheres to the pattern 3L. Further, since a voltage is applied to areas other than the pattern 3, the adhesion of the ink 4 disappears and it does not remain on the common material 2. Therefore, ink 4 selectively remains only on pattern 3. If this is transferred onto plain paper or the like, a desired image can be obtained satisfactorily.

The shape of the anode member is not limited to a cylindrical shape, but may be a flat plate shape or a block shape. Further, there are no particular limitations regarding the material as long as it can function as an anode, or a conductor whose surface portion in contact with the insulating member 5 is made of a metal such as stainless steel is preferred. More preferably, the surface is plated with a noble metal such as gold, platinum, or rhodium. There are no particular limitations on the materials of the guide base material 2 and the insulating pattern 3 that constitute the cathode.

In other words, the conductive base material 2 may be made of aluminum, copper, stainless steel, platinum, gold, chromium, nickel, steel copper, carbon, etc., or a 4-electric polymer or various polymers in which metal filler is dispersed. It will be done. As the material for the insulating pattern 3, thermal transfer ink material (mainly wax or resin), electrophotographic toner, vinyl polymer, natural or synthetic polymer, etc. are used.

Next, the insulating member 5 impregnated with the ink 4 will be described.

This insulating member 5 may be of any material as long as it can appropriately impregnate and retain ink 4, which will be described later. As the insulating member 5, for example, a porous body with continuous pores is preferably used.

Examples of the open-pore porous materials include sponges, filtration materials (Beleater (manufactured by Rokubo Co., Ltd.), etc.), abrasive materials, water-absorbing materials, water supply materials, and wiping materials (Bertalin (manufactured by Kanebo Co., Ltd.)).
), non-woven cloth, cheesecloth, cotton, acetate, polyester, woven fabrics made of nylon, glass filters, ceramic filters, etc. are preferable. In the present invention, the insulating member 5 is impregnated with the ink 4 in advance.
Alternatively, a step and means for impregnating the insulating member 5 with the ink 4 may be provided.

Next, ink 4 will be described. The ink 4 has an adhesive property when no voltage is applied, and has a property that the adhesive property disappears when a voltage is applied.

The mechanism by which the adhesion of the ink changes due to the application of a pressure of 7 mm is considered to be that the ink electrolyzes and generates gas due to the application of voltage, resulting in a change from adhesion to non-adhesion.

In this case, the ink generates gas near the electrode due to the voltage application, and this gas prevents the ink from adhering to the electrode.

In order for the ink to electrolyze and generate gas, water, alcohol, glycol-based solvents,
Alternatively, it contains a solvent in which an electrolyte such as sodium chloride or potassium chloride is dissolved. +it resistance of ink is
The lower the better, and it is preferable that the volume resistivity is 10':''Ω・cm or less. If the volume resistivity exceeds 105 Ω・cm, the throughput will decrease, or the volume resistivity will be increased to prevent the decrease in the throughput. A voltage is required.Furthermore, in the part of the ink layer to which the voltage is applied, almost the entire thickness is transferred (hereinafter referred to as bulk movement).

The ink that uses the mechanism described in E will be described below.

When the ink used in the present invention is a low-viscosity liquid such as water or alcohol, the cohesive force is weak and suitable adhesion cannot be obtained. Therefore, the viscosity is 25℃210 r a d /
1Ol to 1oIO Boas in s preferably 104
~10a boaz is good.

The ink used in the present invention is 5. For example, when the ink is applied to a platinum-plated stainless steel plate vertically upright to a thickness of 2 mm, the ink is substantially absorbed at a temperature of 25°C and an i boundary of 4°C and 60%. It is preferable that it be of such a level that it can be held by the platinum-plated stainless steel plate 7. Further, ink was sandwiched between the two platinum-plated stainless steel plates with a thickness of 2 mm, and the two platinum-plated stainless steel plates were moved at a rate of 5 cm/sec to each other with no voltage applied. It is preferable that the ink adhere to both plates to the same extent when they are pulled apart at a speed of .

The L ink is composed of, for example, a dispersion medium and inorganic or organic fine particles. The fine particles in the ink make it easier to cut the ink and improve the resolution of the image. The ink used in the present invention is amorphous and non-Newtonian in fluidity.

Liquid dispersion media used in the ink include ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, diethylene glycol, tri-triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol,
Polyethylene gisocol (weight 4 average molecular weight, about 100~
1000), ethylene glycol monomethyl ether,
Ethylene glycol monoethyl ether, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, methyl carbitol, ethyl carbitol, butyl carbitol, ethycarbitol acetate I, diethyl carbitol, triethylene glycol monomethyl ether, ]-lyethylene glycol monoethyl ether, bro Bilene glycol monomethyl ether, chrycerin, triethanolamine, formamide, dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, 1,3-dimethylimidazolicinone, N-methylacetamide, ethylene carbonate, acetamide 1. , succinonitrile, dimethyl sulfoxide, sulfolane, furfuryl alcohol,
N,N-dimethylformamide, 2-ethoxyethanol, hexamethylphosphoric triamide (hexamethylphosphoric triamide), 2-nitrobroban, nitroethane, γ-butyrolactone, propylene carbonate,! , 2.6-hexanetriol, dibrobylene glycol, hexylene glycol, and the like can be used alone or in combination of two or more of them.

The 7-night body dispersion medium is 40 to 9 parts per 100 parts of the ink.
The content is preferably 5 parts by weight, more preferably 60 to 85 parts by weight.

Furthermore, as a liquid dispersion medium, water, methanol,
Alcohols such as ethanol, solvents with hydroxyl groups such as glycerin, ethylene glycol, and brobylene glycol, or solvents in which electrolytes such as sodium chloride and potassium chloride are dissolved are preferably used. In particular, it is preferable to use water or a liquid containing water as the liquid dispersion medium because gas is likely to be generated on the cathode side. When water and other relative dispersion media are mixed, the water content is 10% of the ink.
1 part by weight or more per 0 tfiffi part, and even 5 parts by weight
It is preferably at least 99 parts by weight.

In addition, as fine particles contained in the ink, metal (Au
,A1;. Cu, etc.) particles, sulfides (zinc sulfide, ZnS.
Antimony mide Sb2S3, potassium sulfide K2S,lt
Calcium chloride CaS, germanium sulfide GeS, cobalt sulfide CoS, tin i-ide SnS, iron sulfide FeS. fi
Copper chloride Cu2S. manganese sulfide MnS, molybdenum sulfide M0253, etc.) particles, silicic acid (orthosilicic acid H4S)
i○,,, Metasilicic acid H2SiO,,, Mesonicic acid H
2Si20・. Mesotrisilicate H4Si30. , mesotetrasilicic acid}16si. +o++ nato) particles, polyamide resin particles, polyamide imite resin particles, iron hydroxide particles,
Aluminum hydroxide particles, fluorinated mica particles, polyethylene particles, montmorillonite particles, fluororesin, syria,
Carbon fluoride, titanium oxide, carbon black, etc. can be used. Further, polymer particles containing various load control agents used as toners for electrophotography can also be used.

The above-mentioned fine particles have an average particle f-diameter of 100 μm or less, preferably 0.1 μm to 20 μm, especially 0.1 μm.
Fine particles with a particle size of 10 μm or more can be used, and such fine particles can be contained in the ink at 1% per 100 parts of ink.
It can be contained in an amount of at least 3 parts by weight, preferably 3 parts by weight to 90 parts by weight, and more preferably 51 parts by weight to 60 parts by weight. In a preferred embodiment of the ink, in view of the viscoelastic properties of the ink, it is preferable to use swellable fine particles capable of retaining the above-mentioned liquid dispersion medium in all or part of the fine particles. Examples of such swelling fine particles include Na-montmorillonite, Ca-montmorillonite, 3-octahedral synthetic smectite, Na-hectite,
There are fluoride mica, synthetic cloud F, silica, etc. with Li-hekuI, light Na-teniolite, Na-tetrasilicic myriki and Li-teniolite. The above-mentioned mica fluoride can be represented by the following general formula (1).

General formula (1) W+ ~I/3 (X, Y) 25 ~3 (Z
4 0 +o) F 2 (wherein W is Na or Li.
X and Y are Mg”, Fe”, Ni”, Mn”, AJ
6-coordinated ions such as 2"Fe" and "Li", Z is AJ2
"SR"Ge'. Represents a cation with a coordination number of 4, such as Fe'', B3◆, or a combination thereof (An''/Si''').〉 The average particle diameter of the swollen fine particles A is o.i ~ 204 m in the dry state.
Even 0.8 to 15 μm. 8 to 8 μm is preferable. "Containment of swelling fine particles" 11 may be the same as the above-mentioned content of fine particles, but the ink xoo
It is preferably 8 parts by weight to 60 parts by weight based on parts mffi.

It is also preferable to use swellable fine particles having ':E charges on their surfaces.

In addition, in order to control the viscosity of the ink, the above-mentioned polymer soluble in the liquid dispersion medium is added to the ink in an amount of 1 to 901{j parts, more preferably 1 to 50 parts by weight, per 100.1 parts of the ink material. , especially in a proportion of 1 to 20 parts by weight. Such polymers include plant-based polymers such as guar gum, locust bean gum, gum arabic, taragant, carakinano, vectin, mannan, and starch; microbial polymers such as xanthancum, dextrin, succinoglucan, and curdlan, and seratin. Animal-based polymers such as , casein, albumin, and kolaken:
Cellulose polymers such as methyl cellulose, ethyl cellulose, and hydroxyethyl cellulose; starch polymers such as soluble starch, carboxymethyl starch, and methyl tenbune; alginic acid polymers such as brobylene glycol alginate and algine Pa salt; and other polysaccharide derivatives. Semi-polymerization or polymers such as bovinyl alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyvinyl methyl ether, carboxyvinyl polymer 2 Vinyl polymers such as sodium polyacrylate; Other polyethylene glycol, ethylene oxide, brobylene oxide block copolymers, Synthetic polymers such as alkyd resins, phenolic resins, epoxy resins, aminoalkyd resins, polyester resins, polyurethane resins, acrylic resins, polyamide resins, polyamideimide resins, polyesterimide resins, silicone resins, etc., singly or in combination of two or more. It can be used as It is also possible to use greases such as silicone grease and liquid polymers such as polybutene.

The ink may contain colorants such as carbon black and other dyes and pigments that are generally used in the fields of printing and recording, if necessary. When the ink contains a coloring material, the amount fi' of the coloring material is preferably 0.1 to 40 parts by weight, more preferably 1 to 201 parts by weight, per 100 parts by weight of the coloring material. Alternatively, or together with the colorant, a color-forming compound that develops color upon application of voltage may be contained. In addition, the ink may contain electrolyte 2 thickeners, thinners, surfactants, etc. that impart conductivity. Further, it is also possible to cause the above-mentioned fine particles themselves to also function as a coloring material.

In order to obtain the ink described above, for example, a liquid dispersion medium and fine particles may be mixed by a conventional method.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail using Examples.

Example 1 The apparatus shown in FIG. 1(a) was prepared. In addition, the cylindrical member 1
A stainless steel roller was used, a copper plate was used as the base material 2, and the pattern 3 was formed of photoresist.

The insulating member 5 was made of eight pieces of paper. Ink 4 contains 200g of glycerin and lithium deniolite (
LiJ2L (Si.+0+o) F2, average particle size 2.5
μm) 140g in a homogenizer at a rotation speed of 10.0
After kneading at 00 rpm for 30 minutes, a gray amorphous ink prepared by adding 200 g of water and mixing in a roll mill was used.

After impregnating 8 layers of gauze (insulating member 5) with ink 4 according to the recipe L using a spatula,
As shown in Figure (a), it was sandwiched between a printed board and a cylindrical member 1. If you roll the cylindrical member 1 without pushing it by hand and simultaneously peel off the insulating member 5, the cylindrical member l
The ink 4 pushed out from the insulating member 5 with the movement of
As shown in FIG. 2, it adhered to both substrate 2 and pattern 3, and no image was formed.

Next, as shown in the zi diagram (b), the base material 2 having the pattern 3 is used as a cathode, and the cylindrical member 1 is used as an anode. l? E
While applying pressure, the cylindrical member 1 was scraped by hand, and immediately after that, the insulating member 5 was peeled off. Then, a reaction occurs that is believed to be due to the mechanism described in ]}1, and at the portion where the base material 2 and the ink 4 in the insulating member 5 are in contact,
The ink 4 changed from adhesive to non-adhesive, and no ink 4 remained on the substrate 2. On the other hand, since the ink 4 still has adhesive properties on the pattern 3, an image 6 corresponding to the pattern 3 was formed. Immediately after this, the plain paper was pressed against the pattern 3 side of the base material 2 and then peeled off, and an image corresponding to the pattern 3 was reversed and formed on the plain paper 7.

Note that the DC voltage applied at this time depends on the form of the ink 4 (
Although it depends on the formulation), the material of the insulating member 5, and the jeopardy, it is practically 3 to 100V, and even 5 to 80V.
is preferable, and in this example, a DC voltage of 10N30V was applied.

Example 2 A small 11 apparatus as shown in FIG. 3(a) was prepared as follows. A flexible printed circuit board having a pattern 3 formed using a photoresist on the conductive base material 2-A was attached to the cylindrical member 1 using a commercially available double-sided tape. In addition, the conductive base material 7
Belklin GSA manufactured by Kinbo Co., Ltd. was provided as the insulating member 5 on the stainless steel plate as the insulating member 5. This insulating member 5 was impregnated with the ink 4 used in Example 1 by rubbing it in with a spatula.

Next, when the cylindrical member 1 is pushed and rolled by hand, ink is pushed out from the insulating member 5 as the cylindrical member 1 moves, and as shown in FIG. It adhered to the entire member 1.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3(b), the cylindrical member 1 was pushed and rolled by hand while being energized. Then, Example 1
Similarly, ink adhered to the pattern 3, but no ink adhered to the second surface of the electric power base material. The applied voltage at this time is 20~
It was set to 35V. Thereafter, when the paper was rolled on the cylindrical member L'eW, an image corresponding to pattern 3 was obtained inverted.

Comparative example 1. A layer of only ink 4 was formed on base material 1 without using insulating member 5, and image forming was performed under all other conditions as in Example 1. Here, leakage occurred due to contact between the conductive base material 2 (cathode) and the circular member 1 (anode), and there were some parts where an image corresponding to the pattern was not formed.

Example 4. An example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be explained using FIG. 5.

In the Is diagram, the roller 101 around which the insulating member 104 is wound has a cylindrical shape and extends 20 mm in the eight arrow directions.
It is a member that rotates at /second. The roller 101 is Afl
, Ctt, stainless steel, or other conductive material. In this example, stainless steel was used. roller 10
An insulating member 104 is pasted onto the surface (cylindrical surface) of 1 with conductive double-sided tape (manufactured by Ozu Sangyo).

The insulating member 104 is impregnated with ink 105.
Any member can be used without particular limitation as long as it is a holding member. More specifically, a porous body with continuous pores is preferably used. As the continuous pore porous body, those exemplified above are preferably used. In this example, Belklin GSA manufactured by Kanebo Co., Ltd. (thickness 1.0 mm)
was used. Further, the ink 105 used in this example was formulated in the same manner as in Example 1.

20mm/sec. in the direction of arrow B. Roller 1 rotating with
02 is for supplying and impregnating the ink 105 in the ink reservoir 103 into the insulating member 104. There is no restriction on the material, but materials that are difficult to deform such as metal and hard rubber are preferred. In this embodiment, stainless steel is used. was used. roller 10
The distance between 1 and the roller 102 is 5 of the thickness of the insulating member 104.
-100%, more preferably 20-99%. In this example, it was set to 0.9 mrn (90%).

In addition, in this embodiment, in order to maintain the above-mentioned interval, the roller 1
02 is fixed in advance, but pressure urging means may be provided.

The ink 105 impregnated into the insulating member 104 is
It is conveyed with the rotation of 01 and moves 20mm/
sec. printing plate 107 on plate roller 106 rotating at
The ink of the ink 105 is transferred to the image area of the printing plate 107 to form an f-ink image. At this time, the printing plate 107 is composed of a conductive part and an insulating part, and by applying a voltage between the printing plate 107 and the roller 101, the ink becomes unadhesive in the conductive part of the plate, and the ink sticks only to the insulating part. do. Note that the plate used in this example is the same as that in Example 2.

Next, a plan roll 109l rotates in the direction of arrow D while being in pressure contact with the printing plate 107 to transfer the ink image on the printing plate 107hi.
Further, the ink image on the blanket 110 is transferred to a temporary recording medium 112 (paper, Japanese, (metal sheet, etc.) -L, and an image corresponding to the above-mentioned ink image is formed on the recording medium 1-12.

In some cases, the ink image on the plate 107 may be directly transferred to the recording medium ii2-1 without providing the plan roll 109 and the blanket 110; however, if the plan roll 109 and the blanket 110 are provided, Depending on the material, wear and deterioration of the plate can be prevented, and an image with the same pattern as the plate can be obtained on the recording medium.

The blade 113 is used to clean the ink layer of the blanket 110-1 after printing is completed, and in this embodiment, a general scraping plate was used.

The aforementioned voltage is applied to the printing plate 107 as a cathode, and the roller 10 as a cathode.
1 is a positive plug, and is supplied by DC power fill3.

The voltage of the power supply is practically 3 to 100V, and even 5 to 8V.
0V is preferable. In this example, the voltage was 25V.

Using the apparatus of this example as described above, a good image was obtained on plain paper (recording medium 1 1 2 ) -}=.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, a stable image can be obtained by impregnating the insulating member with ink to prevent leakage. Another effect is that the device configuration is extremely simple.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 4 are schematic cross-sectional views showing an example of the image forming method of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention. 1... Cylindrical member 2.7... Conductive base material 3...
Insulating pattern 4... Ink 5... Insulating member 10
4...Insulating member

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) An insulating member impregnated with ink whose adhesion changes depending on the polarity of the applied voltage is sandwiched between at least a pair of electrodes,
An image forming method comprising the step of applying a voltage between the electrodes to form an ink adhering image on one of the electrodes. 2) An image forming method comprising the step of forming a deposited image of the ink according to claim 1 and then transferring the deposited image. 3) Claim 1 or 2, wherein an image-like insulation pattern is formed on at least one of the pair of electrodes.
The image forming method described. 4) At least an insulating member impregnated with ink whose adhesion changes depending on the polarity of an applied voltage, at least a pair of electrodes for sandwiching the insulating member, and a power source for applying a voltage between the electrodes. An image forming apparatus having: 5) The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising means for impregnating the insulating member with ink whose adhesion changes depending on the polarity of the applied voltage. 6) Claim 4 or 5, further comprising means for transferring the attached image.
The image forming apparatus described above. 7) The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein an image-like insulation pattern is formed on at least one of the pair of electrodes.