JPS63200150A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely fix the image on an image receiving material transferred from a photosensitive material by providing a fixing device which projects ultraviolet or visible rays to the image on the image receiving material. CONSTITUTION:At lest one of a photosensitive material S and an image receiving material C has a photopolymerizable substance sensitive to ultraviolet or visible rays and the image obtained on the photosensitive material S is transferred to the image receiving material C by a pressure. This image recorder is provided with a fixing device 106 which projects ultraviolet or visible rays to the image of the image receiving material C. That is, ultraviolet or visible rays are projected to the transferred image having the substance, which is hardened by irradiation of ultraviolet or visible rays, to surely fix the transferred image on the image receiving material. Thus, the image is satisfactorily preserved, and discoloration and removal and diffusion of coloring matters are eliminated, and the writability is improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a photosensitive material in which a support is coated with a substance on which an image formed by imagewise exposure is fixed by pressure. The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus that presses and transfers an image obtained on a photosensitive material by overlapping a material and an image-receiving material onto the image-receiving material.

(Technical background of the invention and its problems) An example of an image recording material using microcapsules encapsulating a photosensitive composition is, for example, JP-A-57-1798.
It is disclosed in Publication No. 36. Systems are known in which a synthetic polymer resin-walled capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photoinitiator, and a colorant precursor is supported on a support. The image recording method using this system is to imagewise harden the microcapsules by exposure to light, rupture the unhardened microcapsules by applying pressure, and obtain a color image from the released colorant precursor. The method is characterized in that high quality images can be obtained through simple dry processing. However, this system has the drawback of significantly lower photosensitivity than systems using silver halide.

A new recording material that improves these drawbacks, has high photosensitivity, and is capable of obtaining high-quality images through simple dry processing has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 1986-2001 filed by the present applicant.
It is disclosed in the specification of No. 1170811. In this recording material, at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming substance are coated on a support, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image-forming substance are encapsulated in the same microcapsule. It consists of a photosensitive composition.

Regarding the image recording method of recording images using this photosensitive material, Japanese Patent Application No. 60-1212 filed by the present applicant
It is disclosed in the specification of No. 84. This image recording method is
First, a latent image is formed by imagewise exposure, and then development is performed by heating, and the polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image exists is polymerized to produce a high molecular compound, thereby hardening the microcapsules. Then, it is overlapped with an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to which the color image-forming substance can be transferred, and pressurized to rupture at least a portion of the microcapsules in the areas where no latent image exists, and the one-color image-forming substance is transferred to the image-receiving material. to obtain an image on an image-receiving material.

Then, using the above-mentioned photosensitive material, this photosensitive material is subjected to imagewise exposure, heat development is performed, and then the image recording material is overlaid with an image-receiving material and pressed, and an image is obtained on the image-receiving material by transfer, which is automatically performed. An example of such a device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 51896/1989 filed by the present applicant.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, when an image is recorded using the above photosensitive material, the image obtained on the image-receiving material contains a large amount of unpolymerized monomer, so the image is not reliably fixed to the image-receiving material, and the dye is in a state where it is easy to leave. Therefore, when the image-receiving material is laminated or touched after an image has been recorded, there is a problem that the dye is transferred and the image quality is impaired, and that the dye adheres to the contact material and stains it. Furthermore, there is a problem in that the dye fades during image storage, resulting in deterioration of image quality.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to provide an image recording apparatus that can reliably fix an image transferred from a photosensitive material onto an image-receiving material.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] The above object of the present invention is that at least one of the photosensitive material and the image receiving material has a photopolymerizable substance sensitive to ultraviolet or visible light, and This is achieved by an image recording apparatus that transfers the obtained image to the image-receiving material by pressure, and is characterized by having a fixing device that irradiates the image on the image-receiving material with ultraviolet or visible light. .

That is, by irradiating ultraviolet or visible light to a transferred image containing a substance that hardens upon irradiation with ultraviolet or visible light, the transferred image is reliably fixed to the image-receiving material.

To irradiate an image on an image-receiving material with ultraviolet and visible light, it is preferable to use, for example, a xenon flash lamp that can instantaneously provide high-intensity ultraviolet and visible light illuminance with a relatively small device. It is preferable that the light source is disposed at a position to irradiate the image from above the image-receiving material to prevent it from falling and adhering to the image-receiving material.

Further, the irradiated light may be visible light, but from the viewpoint of fixing efficiency, ultraviolet light or light with a high proportion of ultraviolet light is preferable.

In the present invention, the light-sensitive material or image-receiving material has a substance that hardens upon irradiation with ultraviolet or visible light, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 61-3025 filed by the present applicant.
Materials disclosed in the patent specification can be used.

Furthermore, the substance that is cured by ultraviolet or visible light may be coated on at least one of the light-sensitive material and the image-receiving material.

Furthermore, a photosensitive material refers to a material for obtaining a visible image by applying pressure to a latent image generated by imagewise exposure.

An example of such a material is a type of material in which a polymerizable compound is imagewise cured by imagewise exposure, and then a visible image is obtained by applying pressure, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-1991 filed by the present applicant. The material disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 179836 is mentioned. This material has a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colorant precursor supported on a support.

Alternatively, after containing silver halide and giving imagewise exposure, heat development is performed to develop the silver halide, the polymerizable compound is simultaneously cured in correspondence with this development, and then pressure is applied to form a visible image. One of the materials disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 121284/1984 filed by the present applicant is a material of the type that can be obtained by heat development. After that, a color image-forming substance is transferred to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to obtain an image on the image-receiving material, and at least photosensitive silver halide,
reducing agent.

Coated with a polymerizable compound and a color image-forming substance,
At least the polymerizable compound and the color image forming substance are encapsulated in the same microcapsule.

[Embodiment] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The image recording apparatus includes a document supporting glass plate 2 mounted on the upper surface of a housing 1 so as to be slidable back and forth in the direction of arrow A. That is, the glass plate 2 is moved back and forth in the direction of the arrow with the document placed face down.

At the bottom of the glass plate 2, there is a reflecting mirror 6 for illuminating the original.
An additional illumination lamp 8 is provided, and a fiber lens array 10 for forming an original image on a photosensitive material S at a predetermined position is provided.

A photosensitive material cartridge 14 containing a photosensitive material roll li wound with a photosensitive material S is removably attached to the side of the housing 1. At the outlet 16 of the photosensitive material S of the photosensitive material cartridge 14, a pair of photosensitive material feeding rollers 21 and 22 housed in the magazine connection dark box 20 are arranged, whereby the photosensitive material S wound around the photosensitive material roll 12 is moved to a predetermined position. Sometimes it is extended a certain length and then retracted as desired.

When the photosensitive material feeding rollers 21 and 22 advance toward the leading end of the photosensitive material S, they move in a direction away from each other as shown by imaginary lines to facilitate the advance of the photosensitive material S. A photosensitive material S is placed in front of the magazine connection dark box 20 (hereinafter, "front" refers to the downstream side in the direction of travel of the photosensitive material, etc.).
Cutter unit 23 for cutting. Furthermore, a guide plate 24 is arranged.

In front of the guide plate 24, an exposed photosensitive material support roller 26 and two photosensitive material nip rollers 28 and 30 that are pressed against the exposed photosensitive material support roller 26 are arranged. The photosensitive material S guided by the guide plate 24 is brought into close contact with the exposed photosensitive material support roller 26 by the photosensitive material nip rollers 28 and 30, and
Imagewise exposure of the document is made by the fiber lens array 10 at a position 32 between 8 and 3G.

In front of the exposed photosensitive material support roller 26, a heat developing device 40 that heats and develops the exposed photosensitive material S is arranged. The heat developing device 40 includes a developing housing 41 having a heat insulating effect, and a developing housing 41 disposed within the developing housing 41 for storing a photosensitive material S.
A transport drum 42 that carries and transports
It has a heating plate 43 which is pressed against the outer periphery of an arc of about 240 degrees by a spring 48, and the photosensitive material S is conveyed between the conveying drum 42 and the heating plate 43 while being heated and developed. The developing device 40 further includes a pair of conveyance rollers 44 and a guide member 45 that guide the photosensitive material S to the conveyance drum 42, and a peeler that peels the photosensitive material S from the conveyance drum 42 and guides it to the contact portion of the conveyance roller 46. It has a claw 47.

In front of the conveyance roller 46, a pair of pressure rollers 60,
A guide member 61 guides the photosensitive material S conveyed by the conveyance roller 46 to the contact portion of the pressure roller 60 , and a guide member 61 guides the image receiving paper C supplied from the image receiving paper supply device 72 and conveyed by the conveyance roller 62 to the contact portion of the pressure roller 60 . A photosensitive material receiver paper stacking device 7 comprising a guide member 63 that guides the paper to the contact portion.
0 is placed.

The receiving paper supply device 72 includes a receiving paper cassette 73 that is attached to the side of the housing 1 and stores the receiving paper C, and a feeding roller 74 that supplies the uppermost receiving paper C in the receiving paper cassette 73 to the transport roller 62. It consists of a guide member 75.

A pair of pressure nip rollers 80 and 82, and pressure nip rollers 8G and 8 are provided in front of the photosensitive image receiving paper stacking device [70].
A transfer device 88 is provided which includes backup rollers 84 and 86 for uniformizing the pressure applied to the rollers 2 in the axial direction. The pressure nip rollers 80 and 82 are approximately 500 kg/
They are pressed together by the pressure of af.

Transfer device! In front of 88, a photosensitive image receiving paper peeling device W190 is provided. The sensitive material receiving paper peeling device 90 includes a guide member 9
2, a feed roller 94, and a peeling belt 102 wrapped around guide rollers 98 and 100 so as to press only the photosensitive material S at the outer end portion of the surface on the feed roller 94.

A sensitive material disposal section 104 is provided in front of one side of the peeling device 90 . The sensitive material disposal section 104 has a guide member 108 .

A pair of feed rollers 110, 112 and a waste box 11
4, and is sent from the peeling device 90 to the guide member 10.
The photosensitive material S guided by 8 is sent to the feed roller 11O11.
12 into the waste box 114.

A reversing device 140 for reversing the image receiving paper C so that the image surface of the image receiving paper C faces upward is provided in front of the other side of the peeling device 90.1 The reversing device 140 includes a pair of feed rollers 141 and a curved guide member 142. It consists of.

A fixing device 106 is provided in front of the reversing device 140,
The fixing device 106 includes a guide member 120 and a reflecting member 12.
2 ultraviolet irradiation lamps 124 and a pair of feed rollers 1
The ultraviolet irradiation lamp 124 irradiates the image receiving paper C sent from the peeling device 90 and guided by the reversing device 140 with ultraviolet rays for about 5 seconds from above for fixing. A xenon flash lamp, which can easily emit ultraviolet light and visible light, is preferred.It is well known that a flash discharge tube such as a xenon flash lamp is used for heat fixing of electrophotography; It uses infrared rays of light emission.

The flash of a xenon flash lamp has sufficient luminous intensity in the ultraviolet region, and experiments have shown that it is particularly effective for fixing single materials. It is also possible to use a small, low-pressure mercury lamp with low energy consumption.

In front of the fixing device 1106, a take-out tray 130 for receiving the image receiving paper C is attached to the housing 1.

The method for producing the photosensitive material and image-receiving paper will be explained below.

Halogenated gelatin 40. and potassium bromide are dissolved in 3 parts of water, and 5 parts of potassium bromide are dissolved.
Heat to 0℃ and add 34g of silver nitrate to 22g of water while continuing to stir.
00- was added over 10 minutes. Thereafter, 3.3 g of potassium iodide dissolved in 100 parts of water was added over 2 minutes. After adjusting the pH of the silver iodobromide emulsion thus obtained, allowing it to settle, and removing excess salt,
PR was adjusted to 6.0, and a silver iodobromide emulsion with a yield of 400° was obtained.

100 g of trimethylolpropane triacrylate, 0.40 g of the following copolymer, 10 g of Pargus Script Red 1-6-B (manufactured by Ciba-Geigy) and 10 g of Irgacure 651 (photopolymerization initiator, manufactured by Ciba-Geigy)
g was dissolved. To the above solutions ia, oo g, 0.61 g of the following hydrazine derivative (reducing agent) and the following developer (reducing agent) 1.22. methylene chloride 1.80g
A solution dissolved in was added. Further, 4.06 g of the silver halide emulsion prepared as described above was added and stirred for 5 minutes at 15,000 revolutions per minute using a homogenizer to obtain a photosensitive composition (emulsion average grain size: approximately 1 μm). *(Copolymer) Qchi (hydrazine derivative) (Developer) u Add 10.51 g of a 1.86% aqueous solution of isopane (manufactured by Kuraray ■) containing halogen microcapsules to 48.56 g of a 2.89% aqueous solution of pectin. .

An aqueous solution whose pH was adjusted to 4.0 using 10% sulfuric acid was obtained, and the photosensitive composition described above was added to this aqueous solution.

Stir at 7000 rpm for 2 minutes using a homogenizer,
The above photosensitive composition was emulsified in an aqueous solvent (emulsion average particle diameter: 8 μm).

To 72.5 g of this aqueous emulsion, add 8.3 g of urea 40% aqueous solution.
2 g, 11.3% resorcinol aqueous solution 2.82 g, formalin 37% aqueous solution 8.56 g, ammonium sulfate 8
．． Add 2.74 g of 76% aqueous solution one by one and add 6.0 g while stirring.
Heating was continued for 2 hours at 0°C. Thereafter, pi was adjusted to 7.0 using a 10% aqueous sodium hydroxide solution, and 3.62 g of a 30.9% aqueous solution of sodium bisulfite was added to disperse photosensitive microcapsules having an outer shell made of amino formaldehyde resin. A liquid was prepared.

To 10 g of the microcapsule liquid prepared as described above,
The following base precursors 0.4, , and copper oxide (
1) 1g of 5% by weight aqueous solution of polyvinyl alcohol lo
A coating solution was prepared by adding 0.03 g of the dispersed solution to 100 g.

This coating solution was applied onto a polyethylene terephthalate film using a #30 coating rod and dried to produce a photosensitive material according to the present invention.

(Base precursor) 40% sodium hexametaphosphate aqueous solution in water of SOO, 11. was added, and further 34 g of zinc 3,5-di-α-methylbenzylsalicylate and 55% calcium carbonate slurry 82. were mixed and coarsely dispersed using a mixer. The liquid was dispersed using a Dynamyl disperser, and 6 g of 50% SBR latex and 165 g of a 10% polyvinyl alcohol aqueous solution were added to 200 g of the obtained liquid and mixed uniformly. This mixed solution was uniformly applied onto art paper weighing 43 gIrd using a coating rod #40, and then dried to prepare an image receiving paper.

Then record an image using the above-mentioned photosensitive material and image receiving paper,
The image on the image receiving paper was irradiated with ultraviolet rays once from a distance of 5C using a xenon flash lamp (300M/5sac) to fix the image on the image receiving paper. The image surface of this image receiving paper is superimposed on plain paper, and a pressure roller is applied to
When the interleaving paper was peeled off after applying the pressure of al, the dye of one image was not transferred to the plain paper, and there was no disturbance of the image.

Recording an image using the above-mentioned photosensitive material and image receiving paper,
When the same pressure was applied by overlapping the image receiving surface and plain paper without irradiating the image on the receiving paper with ultraviolet rays, the pigment in the image was transferred to the plain paper and the image density on the receiving paper was reduced by almost half. , the resolution was further reduced.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, an image is recorded using a photosensitive material or an image-receiving material having a substance that is hardened by ultraviolet or visible light, and the image is fixed on the image-receiving material by irradiating the image on the image-receiving material with ultraviolet or visible light. Therefore, the storage stability of one image is good, and fading, separation and diffusion of dyes are eliminated.

Furthermore, since the image is hardened, writability is improved.

Furthermore, by using a xenon flash lamp or a low-pressure mercury lamp as the ultraviolet or visible light source, the energy consumption during ultraviolet or visible light irradiation can be reduced.

Further, by providing the fixing device so that the ultraviolet or visible light source irradiates the image with ultraviolet light from above, dust does not fall and adhere to the light source, and a decrease in irradiation efficiency can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Symbols in the figure: S...Photosensitive material C...Receiving paper 1.
...Housing 2...Glass plate 6...
・Reflection-8...Illumination lamp 10...Fiber lens array 12...Sensitive material roll 14...Sensitive material cartridge 16...Outlet 20...Magazine connection dark box 21.22...Sensitive material Feeding roller 23...Cutter unit 24...Guide plate 26
...Exposed sensitive material support roller 28.30...Sensitive material nip roller 32...Exposure position 40...Heat developing device [
41...Developer housing 42...Transport drum
43...Heating plate 44.46...Conveyance roller 45...Guide member 47...Peeling claw
48... IJ' 60... Pressure roller 61.63... Guide member 62...
- Conveyance roller 70...Sensitive material image-receiving paper stacking device 72...Image-receiving paper supply device! 73... Image receiving paper cassette 74... Feeding roller 75... Guide member 80.82... Pressure nip rollers 84, 86... Backup roller 88... Transfer device 90... Sensitive material image receiving paper Peeling device 92...Guide member 94...
Feed roller 98.100...Guide roller 1
02... Peeling belt 104... Sensitive material disposal section
106... Fixing device, 108... Guide member
110.112...Feed roller 114.
...Waste box 120...Guide member 1
22... Reflective member 124... Lamps 126, 128... Feed roller 130...
Take-out tray 140... Reversing device 14
1...Feed roller 142...Guide member (3 other people)

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) At least one of the light-sensitive material and the image-receiving material has a photopolymerizable substance sensitive to ultraviolet or visible light, and an image obtained on the light-sensitive material by imagewise exposure is transferred to the light-sensitive material by pressure. An image recording apparatus that transfers an image onto an image-receiving material, the image-recording apparatus comprising a fixing device that irradiates an image on the image-receiving material with ultraviolet or visible light. 2) The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the fixing device has a xenon flash lamp. 3) The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the fixing device includes a low-pressure mercury lamp. 4) The image recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the fixing device is arranged to irradiate the image from above the image-receiving material.