Incremental printing of symbolic information – Light or beam marking apparatus or processes – Scan of light
Patent
1998-06-08
2000-10-10
Le, N.
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Light or beam marking apparatus or processes
Scan of light
347251, G09G 332
Patent
active
061307009
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an exposure apparatus, an exposure method and a printing apparatus that are capable of forming an image on a photosensitive sheet such as a Cycolor medium.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As a method for forming a color photograph or a color print, there is a method for forming an image, such as a picture or a character, on a photosensitive sheet by exposing the sheet. There are different types of photosensitive sheets, for example, a photosensitive sheet employing a multi-layer color development method, in which sheet three or more layers of photosensitive emulsions with different color sensitivities are layered on a single supportive sheet thus forming a photosensitive member, a photosensitive sheet that employs a film in which each emulsion layer contains a pigment and a developing agent so that the film is capable of being exposed and developed simultaneously, and the like. A still another photosensitive sheet is a so-called Cycolor medium, which employs, as a photosensitive material, microcapsules (cyliths) that contain a chromogenic substance and a photoinitiator. In the Cycolor medium, a thin supportive body formed from, for example, polyester, is coated with numerous cyliths of a very small size. When exposed to light, cyliths harden so that only the cyliths of a specific color are activated, and the cyliths are ruptured by pressurization, thereby forming a predetermined image of a specific color. Other photosensitive sheets have different color development principles, but are exposed to light of the color of an image or its complementary color to form an image.
In widely used methods for exposing a photosensitive sheet as described above, white light is split into three primary colors by a filter or the like, and images are formed using the individual primary colors, and then combined to form an image of predetermined colors or an image of their complementary colors on the photosensitive media. Another technology has recently been developed, as disclosed in Japanese patent application laid-open Nos. Hei 5-211666 and Hei 5-278260, in which LEDs or lasers that emit red, green and blue light are employed as light-emitting sources, and the light-emitting sources are controlled so that an image of predetermined colors is formed on a photosensitive sheet and the sheet is thereby exposed.
Employment of LEDs or the like as light sources (light-emitting elements) for individual colors allows a compact construction of the light sources. Furthermore, provision of the light sources for individual colors enables control of exposure duration, brightness and the like. For a photosensitive sheet employing photosensitive materials having different exposure characteristics for individual colors, a design has been considered in which the exposure duration and brightness can be set appropriately for each color, whereby it will become possible to form images with good color balance and reduced color distortion on a medium in which the photosensitive materials have different exposure characteristics to different colors.
A printing apparatus 10, as shown in FIG. 1, equipped with an exposure apparatus having LEDs or lasers as light-emitting elements, has been developed. In the printing apparatus 10, an exposure head 15 is mounted on a carriage 13, and the carriage 13 is moved along a shaft 12 in scanning directions X. A photosensitive sheet 1, such as a Cycolor medium, is conveyed by a sheet-conveying roller 11 in a predetermined direction (sheet-conveying direction) Y. The photosensitive sheet 1 is thereby moved relative to the light-emitting elements of the exposure head 15, so that the entire photosensitive sheet is exposed to light from the LEDs or lasers of the exposure head 15 to form an image.
FIGS. 2 shows an example of the arrangement of the exposure head 15, especially relating to the exposure head 15 having LEDs 31 for red color (R). In the exposure head 15, exposure is performed by light-emitting sources 21 each having four LEDs 31 for a single color. Each LED
REFERENCES:
patent: 5748225 (1998-05-01), Ziph-Schatzberg
patent: 5818501 (1998-10-01), Ng et al.
patent: 5917535 (1999-06-01), Corona
Ito Fumiyoshi
Murayama Fumitaka
Takizawa Satoru
Cycolor Systems, Inc.
Le N.
Nguyen Lamson D.
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