Incremental printing of symbolic information – Light or beam marking apparatus or processes – Scan of light
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-06
2004-01-27
Pham, Hai (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Light or beam marking apparatus or processes
Scan of light
C347S254000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06683640
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording method and a recorder for recording information such as image information and text information and in particular to an art of using a record head comprising a two-dimensional array of recording elements to record information with high quality.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 21
shows a schematic configuration of a record rotation drum
110
and a record head
114
of a recorder
100
in a related art. In the recorder
100
, the record rotation drum
110
shaped roughly like a cylinder is supported on a base for rotation and enables a record medium
112
to be fixed on the outer peripheral surface of the drum. The rotation direction of the record rotation drum
110
corresponds to the main scanning direction.
The record head
114
is fixed onto a move stage
116
so that it can be moved along a guide member of the move stage
116
. The move direction of the record head
114
with the move stage
116
corresponds to the subscanning direction. The record head
114
comprises a plurality of laser diodes (LDs) put side by side, for example, so that it can emit a plurality of laser beams.
As shown in
FIG. 22
, the record medium
112
consists of a toner sheet
10
of a color material sheet and an image receiving sheet
12
, and the toner sheet
10
comprises a photothermo conversion layer
14
and a toner layer
15
deposited on each other on the image receiving sheet side of a support
11
. The image receiving sheet
12
comprises an image receiving layer
18
deposited via a cushion layer
17
on the toner sheet side of a support
16
.
A substance to allow a laser beam to pass through, such as a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) base, a TAC (triacetylcellulose) base, or a PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) base, can be used as the support
11
. Carbon, black material, infrared absorption pigment, specific wavelength absorption material, etc., can be named as the photothermo conversion layer
14
, but the photothermo conversion layer
14
may be any if it converts laser energy into heat efficiently. The toner layer
15
may be a color, called a special color, such as gold, silver, brown, gray, or green in addition to each color of K, C, M, and Y. To record, the toner layer
15
is brought into intimate contact with the image receiving layer
18
of the image receiving sheet
12
and is transferred to the image receiving layer
18
of the image receiving sheet
12
by heating of laser beam application from the record head
114
.
A similar substance to the support
11
of the toner sheet
10
or a base not to allow light to pass through is used as the support
16
. To record, the image receiving layer
18
is brought into intimate contact with the toner layer
15
and the heated portion of the toner layer
15
is transferred. When a plurality of thicknesses of toner sheets
10
are transferred, the cushion layer
17
absorbs the level difference between the deposited toners.
Next, an example of a record process of a color image for each of K, C, M, and Y will be discussed with reference to FIG.
23
. However, to execute lamination treatment, a lamination step is inserted preceding a laser record step.
1) An image receiving sheet
12
is wound around the outer peripheral surface of the record rotation drum.
2) A K toner sheet
10
is wound around the image receiving sheet
12
.
3) A laser beam is applied based on K image, text data for recording on the image receiving sheet
12
in K.
4) The K toner sheet
10
is peeled from the image receiving sheet
12
.
5) A C toner sheet is wound around the image receiving sheet
12
.
6) A laser beam is applied based on C image, text data for recording on the image receiving sheet
12
in C.
7) The C toner sheet is peeled from the image receiving sheet
12
.
8) An M toner sheet is wound around the image receiving sheet
12
.
9) A laser beam is applied based on M image, text data for recording on the image receiving sheet
12
in M.
10) The M toner sheet is peeled from the image receiving sheet
12
.
11) A Y toner sheet is wound around the image receiving sheet
12
.
12) A laser beam is applied based on Y image, text data for recording on the image receiving sheet
12
in Y.
13) The Y toner sheet is peeled from the image receiving sheet
12
.
14) After the steps 1) to 13) are executed, the colors of K, C, M, and Y may or may not be superposed on the image receiving sheet
12
to provide any desired color image.
15) The provided color image is transferred to paper.
To execute lamination treatment to enhance intimate contact at the recording time, a thermal transfer sheet is pressed by a pressurization roller, a heating roller, etc., just before laser recording for each color, whereby the thermal transfer sheet can be brought into intimate contact with the image receiving sheet.
The above-described recording by laser application is executed in a laser beam spot arrangement, for example, as shown in FIG.
24
. That is, the arrangement is an arrangement of five rows along the main scanning direction and three columns along the subscanning direction, namely, a 15-spot arrangement of the first spot to the fifteenth spot.
Throughout the specification, the arrangement of the spots will be called the basic spot arrangement. The spot in the first column from the right end and in the first row from the bottom will be called the first spot and the spots in the first column will be called the second spot, the third spot, the fourth spot, . . . in order starting at the first spot. The basic arrangement in the specification is represented by numbering the spots in the above-described manner even if a recording element is not placed at each spot position. If the laser beam of the above-described spot arrangement is used and light is emitted from all spots at the same time along the main scanning direction for recording (a solid image), a recorded area hatched in
FIG. 25
is provided.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
By the way, in the recording method of the recorder in the related art described above, all spots are recorded in the same record output in the same spot form.
However, if all spots are turned on at the same time for recording the solid image shown in
FIG. 25
, at the spot positions on both ends, the outside of the two-dimensional spot arrangement largely receives the effect from the ambient temperature and thus becomes comparatively low temperature as compared with the inner spot positions. That is, the temperature at the inner spot positions is higher than the ambient temperature because of left and right record spots, and is relatively higher than that at the spot positions on both ends. This means that the line recorded at the spots on both ends becomes comparatively thin and that the line recorded at the inner spots becomes comparatively thick. Consequently, it is feared that a slight gap may occur in the recorded image every revolution of the drum shown in
FIG. 26
(in this case, every 15 lines). This also applies if the light emission timing at each spot is adjusted
25
and a horizontal line image shown in
FIG. 27
is recorded; it is feared that a slight gap may occur in the horizontal line image every revolution of the drum.
Further, if all spots are turned on at the same time for recording the solid image shown in
FIG. 25
, exposure is first started at the preceding spot positions (in
FIG. 25
, 1 ch, 6 ch, and 11 ch), thus the preceding spots become comparatively low temperature as compared with other spot positions (2 to 5 ch, 7 to 10 ch, and 12 to 15 ch). That is, at other spot positions (2 to 5ch, 7 to 10 ch, and 12 to 15 ch), exposure is always started first at contiguous ch, thus other spot positions are at higher relatively temperature than the tip spot positions because of the heat effect. This means that the line recorded at the preceding spots becomes comparatively thin and that the line recorded at the spots other than the preceding spots becomes comparatively thick. Consequently, it is feared that a slight gap may occur in the recorded im
Sasaki Yoshiharu
Sawano Mitsuru
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Pham Hai
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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