JPH0834128A - Color recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a color recording apparatus capable of applying good printing even to recording paper inferior to surface smoothness. CONSTITUTION:A transfer belt 5 is stretched over a thermal transfer recording part 2, an electrophotographic recording part 3 and a transfer fixing part 4. An ink ribbon 7 having yellow, magenta and cyan color layers and a thermal head 8 are mounted on the thermal transfer recording part 2 and printing of respective yellow, magenta and cyan colors is applied to the transfer belt 5. Black toner is received in the electrophotographic recording part 3 and black printing is applied to the transfer belt 5. A heating roller 30 and a pressure roller 31 are arranged to the transfer fixing part 4 and recording paper P is brought into contact with the transfer belt 5 under pressure and the ink image and toner image transferred to the transfer belt 5 are transferred to the recording paper P to be fixed thereto.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color recording apparatus for recording a multicolor image on a medium, and more particularly to a color recording apparatus having both an electrophotographic recording section and a thermal transfer recording section.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a color recording apparatus having an electrophotographic recording section and a thermal transfer recording section is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-22.
There are those described in JP-A-3768 and JP-A-64-56552. The techniques described in these publications form images of different colors in the electrophotographic recording section and the thermal transfer recording section,
Each is to be transferred onto a recording paper.

[0003]

Generally, an image can be formed on a recording paper having a relatively poor surface smoothness in the electrophotographic recording section, but if a recording paper having a poor surface smoothness is used in the thermal transfer recording section, ink adheres. It is difficult to do so, and as a result, the amount of ink bleeding increases, resulting in poor quality image recording. If you use a dedicated recording paper with good surface smoothness, this kind of problem does not occur, but the dedicated recording paper is expensive and you can record good image quality even on ordinary recording paper with poor surface smoothness. Is desirable.

[0004]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an electrophotographic recording means for forming an image of one color, a thermal transfer recording means for forming an image of a plurality of colors other than the one color, and A transfer belt, which is movably passed over the electrophotographic recording means and the thermal transfer recording means, and on which an image is transferred by the electrophotographic recording means and the thermal transfer recording means; The image forming apparatus includes a transfer fixing unit that transfers and fixes the image on a recording medium and a medium supplying unit that supplies the recording medium to the transfer fixing unit.

It is preferable that the transfer / fixing means includes a heat roller for heating and melting the image on the transfer belt, and a pressure roller for pressing the heat roller so as to be separable from the heat roller.

[0006]

According to the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, when a plurality of color images are formed on the moving transfer belt by the thermal transfer recording means and one color image is formed by the electrophotographic recording means,
The transfer belt moves, and the image forming portion on the transfer belt reaches the transfer fixing unit. A recording medium is supplied to the transfer fixing unit by a medium supplying unit, and the transfer fixing unit transfers and fixes the image on the transfer belt onto the recording medium.

When a heat roller and a pressure roller are provided as the transfer and fixing means, the recording medium is pressed against the image forming surface of the transfer belt by the pressure roller, so that the image fused by the heat roller on the transfer belt is It is possible to perform good recording even on a recording medium that is almost completely transferred to the recording medium and has poor surface smoothness.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that elements common to the drawings are given the same reference numerals. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a color recording apparatus of an embodiment according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the color recording apparatus 1 of this embodiment is mainly composed of a thermal transfer recording section 2, an electrophotographic recording section 3, a transfer fixing section 4 and a transfer belt 5 stretched between them. . First, the thermal transfer recording unit 2 will be described.

The thermal transfer recording section 2 includes a platen roller 6, a thermal transfer ribbon 7, a thermal head 8, a coil spring 9, a ribbon guide shaft 10, and a ribbon peeling shaft 1.
1 and 1. The thermal transfer ribbon 7 is wound around the supply spool 12 and the take-up spool 13, is unwound from the supply spool 12, is guided so as to pass between the platen roller 6 and the thermal head 8, and is taken up in the take-up spool 1.
It is designed to be wound up in 3. Take-up spool 13
Is driven in a clockwise direction by a motor described later. Further, the peeling shaft 11 is movable. The transfer belt 5 is wound around the platen roller 6 and rotates in synchronization with the moving speed of the transfer belt 5. Coil spring 9
Holds the thermal transfer ribbon 7 and the transfer belt 5 in between and presses the thermal head 8 against the platen roller 6. A ribbon sensor 14 for detecting each color on the heat-sensitive transfer ribbon 7 is disposed between the supply roller 12 and the guide shaft 10 with the heat-sensitive transfer ribbon 7 interposed therebetween.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the thermal transfer ribbon 7. In the figure, the thermal transfer ribbon 7 has colored ink layers 7Y, 7M, and 7C applied at regular intervals in the order of yellow, magenta, and cyan on a substrate made of a thin synthetic resin film. Detection marks 15Y, 15M, and 15C are provided near the colored ink layers 7Y, 7M, and 7C. The detection marks 15Y, 15M, and 15C are read by the ribbon sensor 14 described above.

In FIG. 1, the electrophotographic recording section 3 comprises an image forming section 16, an LED head 17 and a transfer roller 18. The image forming unit 16 rotates in a clockwise direction around a shaft 19 to form a toner image on the surface thereof, a charging roller 21 that uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 20, and the photosensitive drum 20. The developing unit 22 develops an electrostatic latent image. The developing unit 22 includes a toner storage unit 23, a developing roller 24, a sponge supply roller 25, a stirring shaft 26, a developing blade 27, and a case 28. It The toner 29 accommodated in the toner accommodating portion 23 is a black non-magnetic one-component toner, reaches the developing roller 24 via the agitating shaft 26 and the supply roller 25, and the developing blade 27 causes the developing roller 24 to rotate around the circumference thereof. Thinned on the surface. The thinned toner 29 is attached to the surface of the photosensitive drum 20. Further, the toner 29 is strongly rubbed by the developing blade 27 at the time of forming the thin layer, and is triboelectrically charged. The supply roller 25 sends the toner 29 sent from the stirring shaft 26 to the developing roller 24 in an appropriate amount. The developing roller 24 is made of a semiconductive rubber material.

The LED head 17 comprises an LED array, a substrate on which a driver IC for driving the LED array is mounted, a SELFOC lens array for collecting the light of the LED array, etc., and is input from an interface section described later. The surface of the photosensitive drum 20 is exposed by emitting light from the LED array in response to the image data signal. As a result, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 20. Toner 29 on the developing roller 24 adheres to the electrostatic latent image by electrostatic force to form a visible image.

The transfer belt 18 is wound around the transfer roller 18, and rotates together with the transfer belt 5. A high voltage is applied to the transfer roller 18, and the toner image on the photosensitive drum 20 is transferred onto the transfer belt 5 by this high voltage.

The transfer / fixing section 4 includes a heat roller 30 around which the transfer belt 5 is wound, and a pressure roller 31 which is provided so as to face the heat roller 30 and move toward and away from the heat roller 30. , And a spring 32 that presses the pressure roller 31 against the heat roller 30.
The heat roller 30 has a heater 33 therein, and the heater 33 melts toner or ink on the transfer belt 5. The pressure roller 31 is in pressure contact with the heat roller 30 with the transfer belt 5 and the recording paper P interposed therebetween.

The transfer belt 5 is a flexible endless belt whose surface is coated with fluorine or silicon, which has good releasability, and which is made of polyimide or the like and has good heat resistance.

A cleaning blade 34 is provided so as to contact the heat roller 30 via the transfer belt 5. The cleaning blade 34 scrapes off the toner or ink remaining on the transfer belt 5,
The toner or ink is prevented from remaining on the transfer belt 5 and can be brought into contact with or separated from the transfer belt 5. The cleaning blade 34 is made of heat-resistant plastic or the like. Below the cleaning blade 34, a tank 35 for storing the toner or ink to be scraped off is provided.

Near the transfer belt 5 between the heat roller 30 and the platen roller 6, a static eliminator 36 and a home sensor 3 are provided.
7 are provided. The static eliminator 36 neutralizes the charged transfer belt 5. The thermal head 8 is protected by removing the charge before the transfer belt 5 contacts the thermal head 8. Further, the home sensor 37 is arranged so as to sandwich the transfer belt 5, and detects the home mark provided on the transfer belt 5.

A paper cassette 38 is arranged above the apparatus 1. The paper cassette 38 accommodates the recording paper P, and a feed roller 39 is rotatably provided at the leading end of the paper cassette 38. A paper guide 40 is provided between the paper cassette 38 and the transfer / fixing section 4, and guides the recording paper P fed from the paper cassette 38 between the transfer belt 5 and the pressure roller 31. A stacker 41 is provided on the side opposite to the paper guide 40 with respect to the transfer / fixing unit 4. The stacker 41 accommodates the recording paper P on which the toner or ink is transferred and fixed by the transfer / fixing unit 4.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the control system of the color recording apparatus of this embodiment. In the figure, the control circuit 51
Is a microprocessor and controls the entire operation of the apparatus 1. The control circuit 51 includes memories 52Y, 52M and 5M.
2C and 52K are connected. The memory 52Y is a memory for storing yellow print data printed by the thermal head 8, the memory 52M is a memory for storing magenta print data printed by the thermal head 8, and the memory 52C is printed by the thermal head 8. The memory 52K is a memory for storing cyan print data, and the memory 52K is a memory for storing black print data to be printed by the LED head 17.

An LED head print controller 53 is connected to the memory 52K, and the LED head print controller 53 is
LE according to the print data sent from the memory 52K
The LED array of the D head 17 is driven and controlled. A thermal head print control unit 54 is connected to the memories 52Y, 52M, 52C, and the thermal head print control unit 5 is connected.
Reference numeral 4 drives and controls each heating element of the thermal head 8 in accordance with print data sent from the memories 52Y, 52M and 52C.

The interface 55 inputs print data of each color from an external host computer and stores it in any of the memories 52Y, 52M, 52C and 52K according to the color data.

Motor drive circuit 5 connected to the control unit 51
A drive motor 57, a feed motor 58, a blade drive motor 59, an up / down motor 60, a ribbon drive motor 61, and a roller drive motor 62 are connected to the drive roller 6. The drive motor 57 rotates the platen roller 6, the transfer roller 18, the photosensitive drum 20, the developing roller 24, the supply roller 25, the stirring shaft 26, and the heat roller 30 in the directions of the arrows shown in FIG. Also rotate in the direction of the arrow. The feed motor 58 rotates the feed roller 39 of the paper cassette 38 to feed the recording paper P. Blade drive motor 5
Reference numeral 9 is for rotating the cleaning blade 34 between the solid line position and the dotted line position shown in FIG. 1, and contacts the transfer belt 5 when the cleaning blade 34 comes to the solid line position. The up / down motor 60 uses the thermal head 8
It is a motor for moving in and out of. The ribbon drive motor 61 is a motor that drives the ink ribbon 7 by rotating the take-up spool 13 and taking up the ink ribbon 7 on the take-up spool 13. The roller drive motor 62 is a motor that moves the pressure roller 31 between the solid line position and the dotted line position shown in FIG.

The ribbon sensor 14 and the home sensor 37 are connected to the sensor driver receiver 63 and receive detection signals from these sensors 14, 37. The heater 33 in the heat roller 30 is connected to the heat roller driver 64, and controls the heater 33 to be heated and kept at a constant temperature.

Further, the control circuit 51 includes a static eliminator power source 65,
A transfer roller power supply 66, a charging roller power supply 67, a developing roller bias power supply 68, and a supply roller bias power supply 69 are connected. These power supplies apply a predetermined high voltage to each location.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, when the power of the color recording apparatus 1 is turned on, the control circuit 51 rotationally drives the blade drive motor 59 and the roller drive motor 62 via the motor drive circuit 56 to drive the cleaning blade 34 and the pressure roller 31 respectively. The transfer belt 5 is moved to the positions indicated by the dotted lines in FIG. Further, the control circuit 51 rotationally drives the up / down motor 60 via the motor drive circuit 56, moves the thermal head 8 in the direction of arrow A shown in FIG. 1, and separates it from the platen roller 6 and the transfer belt 5. Next, the control circuit 51 issues a command to the heat roller driver 64 to heat the heater 33 in the heat roller 30 and keep the heat roller 30 at a constant temperature.

When the interface 55 receives print data from the external host computer in this state, the interface 55 separates the print data by color, stores the yellow print data in the memory 52Y, and stores the magenta print data in the memory 52M. , The cyan print data is stored in the memory 52C, and the black print data is stored in the memory 52K. When all the print data is stored, the control circuit 51 turns on the charging roller power supply 67, the developing roller power supply 68, and the supply roller power supply 69, and then the ribbon drive motor 61 via the motor drive circuit 56.
To rotate. As a result, the ink ribbon 7 is fed, and when the ribbon sensor 14 detects the detection mark 15Y corresponding to the yellow colored ink layer, the control circuit 51 stops the ribbon drive motor 61. Further, the drive motor 57 is rotated to rotate the platen roller 6, the transfer roller 18, and the photosensitive drum 2.
0, developing roller 24, supply roller 25, stirring shaft 2
6 and the heat roller 30 are respectively rotated, and the transfer belt 5 is also moved in the arrow B direction. As the transfer belt 5 starts moving, the home sensor 37 monitors the transfer belt 5, and when the home position of the transfer belt 5 is detected, this detection signal is sent to the control circuit 51 via the sensor driver receiver 63.

When the home position of the transfer belt 5 is detected,
The control circuit 5 drives the up-down motor 60 to move the thermal head 8 up in the direction of arrow C, and press-contact the platen roller 6 with the ink ribbon 7 and the transfer belt 5 interposed therebetween. The pressure contact force in this case is given by the coil spring 9. In this state, when the yellow print data is transmitted from the memory 52Y to the thermal head print controller 54, the yellow print data is converted into a printable form by the thermal head 8 and printed on the transfer belt 5 by the thermal head 8. . Since the length of one circumference of the transfer belt 5 is longer than that of the recording paper P, all the print data of yellow for one page is printed on the transfer belt 5. The transfer belt 5
Since the surface of the ink ribbon has a good releasability, the ink of the ink ribbon 7 may be hard to adhere to the transfer belt 5, but the ink is removed from the ink ribbon 7 by bringing the position of the ribbon peeling shaft 11 closer to the platen roller 6. Transfer belt 5
It is possible to increase the contact range of the ink and to improve the adhesion of the ink to the transfer belt 5. Ink ribbon 7
The ink may be selected so that it easily adheres to the transfer belt 5. When the printing of the yellow print data is completed, the up-down motor 60 is driven via the motor drive circuit 56, and the thermal head 8 is moved down in the arrow A direction.

When the home position of the transfer belt 5 is detected by the home sensor 37, the up / down motor 60 is driven via the motor drive circuit 56 to raise the thermal head 8 in the direction of arrow C, and the thermal head 8 is moved to the ink ribbon 7. Then, the transfer belt 5 is sandwiched and pressed against the platen roller 6. In this state, when the magenta print data is transmitted from the memory 52M to the thermal head print controller 54,
The magenta print data is converted into a printable form by the thermal head 8 and printed on the transfer belt 5 by the thermal head 8. When the magenta print data for one page is printed, the up / down motor 60 is moved down the thermal head 8 via the motor drive circuit 56.

Next, the transfer belt 5 is moved by the home sensor 37.
When the home position of the thermal head 8 is detected, the up-down motor 60 is driven via the motor drive circuit 56.
Up in the direction of arrow C, and the thermal head 8 is pressed against the platen roller 6 with the ink ribbon 7 and the transfer belt 5 sandwiched therebetween. In this state, when the cyan print data is transmitted from the memory 52C to the thermal head print controller 54, the cyan print data is converted into a printable form by the thermal head 8 and printed on the transfer belt 5 by the thermal head 8. . When the cyan print data for one page is printed, the thermal head 8 is moved down by the up / down motor 60 via the motor drive circuit 56, and the thermal head 8 is separated from the platen roller 6.

The used ink ribbon 7 that has passed through the thermal head 8 is taken up by the take-up spool 13 while the respective print data of yellow, magenta, and cyan are printed. At the end of printing the yellow print data and the end of the magenta print data, the ribbon drive motor 61 is continuously driven, and the detection marks 15M and 15C of the next colored ink layer are transferred via the sensor driver receiver 63. By the way, the ribbon drive motor 61 is stopped when detected by the ribbon sensor 14.

As described above, each print data of yellow, magenta, and cyan is printed on the transfer belt 5 in the thermal transfer recording section 2. The printing on the transfer belt 5 is determined based on the home position of the transfer belt 5, so
The printing position does not shift.

When the home position is detected by the home sensor 37 after the printing of the cyan print data is completed, the black print data is LED-displayed from the memory 52K after a predetermined time.
It is transmitted to the head print controller 53. The predetermined time is a time required for the head of the printing position on the transfer belt 5 to reach the contact position between the transfer roller 18 and the photosensitive drum 19 of the electrophotographic recording unit 3, and is set in advance. The LED head print control unit 53 uses the sent print data for the LED head 1
It is converted into a form that can be exposed by 7 and sent to the LED head 17.
The LED head 17 turns on the LED corresponding to the sent print data and exposes the surface of the photosensitive drum 19. By this exposure, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 19, and then the developing roller 24 attaches toner.
The color of this toner is black. By the rotation of the photosensitive drum 19, the adhered toner reaches the contact portion with the transfer roller 18, and is electrostatically transferred onto the transfer belt 5 by the high voltage of the transfer roller 18. In this way, black print data is further overlapped and printed on the positions on the transfer belt 5 where the yellow, magenta, and cyan print data are printed.

The recording paper P is fed from the paper cassette 38 by the feed roller 39 in synchronization with the arrival of the leading position of the printing position on the transfer belt 5 at the contact position between the heat roller 30 and the pressure roller 31. Transfer belt 5
The top of the upper printing position is the heat roller 30 and the pressure roller 3.
When the contact position with 1 is reached, the roller drive motor 6
2 is driven to move the pressure roller 31 from the position indicated by the dotted line to the position indicated by the solid line, and the recording paper P and the transfer belt 5 are pressed against each other by the heat roller 30.

The transfer belt 5 is pressed against the recording paper P and is heated by the heat roller 30 so that the yellow ink transferred on the transfer belt 5 in an overlapping manner.
The magenta ink, the cyan ink and the black toner are melted and transferred and fixed on the recording paper P. In this way, the pressure roller 31 moves the recording paper P onto the transfer belt 5
The ink image and the toner image on the transfer belt 5 melted by the heat roller 30 by being pressed against the surface are transferred following the uneven surface of the recording paper P, so that almost all the ink image and the toner image are transferred. It As described above, the transfer belt 5 is coated with fluorine or silicon, which has a good releasability on the surface,
The ink image and the toner image are more easily transferred from the transfer belt 5 to the recording paper P. The melting temperature of the toner and the melting temperature of the ink are almost the same.

The blade drive motor 59 is driven to bring the cleaning blade 34 into contact with the transfer belt 5. The cleaning blade 34 scrapes off a small amount of ink or toner remaining on the transfer belt 5 after the ink image and the toner image have been transferred and separated from the recording paper P. The scraped-off ink or toner is stored in the tank 35. On the other hand, the recording paper P on which the ink image and the toner image have been transferred and fixed is separated from the transfer belt 5 and drops onto the stacker 41.

When printing is completed, the pressure roller 31 is returned to the dotted line position by the roller drive motor 62, and the cleaning blade 34 is also returned to the dotted line position by the blade drive motor 59. Further, all the high voltage power supplies 66 to 69 are turned off, and the drive motor 57 is also stopped.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, one thermal transfer recording section 2 and one electrophotographic recording section 3 are used, that is, the running cost is low, the mechanism is small and simple, and full-color printing is performed. You can On the transfer belt 5, yellow,
Since the magenta and cyan inks and the black toner are superposed and transferred and then collectively transferred onto the recording paper P, highly accurate color matching is possible. Further, according to the present embodiment, since it is not necessary to convey the recording paper P in the apparatus in a complicated manner, there is an effect that the conveying system of the recording paper P becomes extremely simple.

In this embodiment, when printing only black, the thermal transfer recording part 2 does not perform the printing operation, but the electrophotographic recording part 3 performs black printing.
In general, black-only printing is frequently used, and black-only printing that is frequently used is exclusively used for the electrophotographic recording unit 3.
By doing so, high-speed printing becomes possible and running cost becomes low.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but various modifications can be made. For example, in the above-described embodiment, one thermal transfer recording unit 2 prints three colors of yellow, magenta, and cyan, but a thermal head is provided for each color along the transfer belt 5, and each thermal head is provided with each thermal head. A single color ink ribbon may be attached and printing of each color may be performed sequentially. By doing so, full-color printing can be performed by one rotation of the transfer belt 5, and the printing speed is significantly increased. Further, since the ink ribbon can be used according to the print data of each color, the ink ribbon is not wasted.

[0041]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the recording medium is pressed against the transfer belt on which the image is transferred by the transfer fixing means, and the image is transferred and fixed on the recording medium. Therefore, the image on the transfer belt is almost completely transferred to the recording medium, and good recording can be performed even on the recording medium having poor surface smoothness.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a color recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a heat-sensitive transfer ribbon of an example.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control system of the color recording apparatus of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Color Recording Device 2 Thermal Transfer Recording Part 3 Electrophotographic Recording Part 4 Transfer Fixing Part 5 Transfer Belt 6 Platen Roller 7 Ink Ribbon 8 Thermal Head 18 Transfer Roller 30 Heat Roller 31 Pressure Roller 34 Cleaning Blade 36 Static Electrifier P Recording Paper

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical indication H04N 1/23 102 C B41J 3/20 117 C

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An electrophotographic recording means for forming an image of one color, a thermal transfer recording means for forming images of a plurality of colors other than the one color, and a movably bridged over the electrophotographic recording means and the thermal transfer recording means. A transfer belt to which an image is transferred by the electrophotographic recording means and the thermal transfer recording means, and a transfer fixing means for pressing a recording medium onto the transfer belt to transfer and fix the image on the transfer belt onto the recording medium. And a medium supply unit for supplying a recording medium to the transfer fixing unit. 2. The color recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the one color is black. 3. The transfer belt is endless.
The thermal transfer recording means along the moving direction of the transfer belt,
The color recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the electrophotographic recording unit and the transfer fixing unit are arranged in this order. 4. A charge removing unit for removing the charge of the transfer belt and a detecting unit for detecting the home position of the transfer belt are arranged between the transfer fixing unit and the thermal transfer recording unit. Color recording device. 5. The color according to claim 1, wherein the transfer fixing unit includes a heat roller that heats and melts an image on the transfer belt, and a pressure roller that presses the heat roller so as to be separable from the heat roller. Recording device.