Incremental printing of symbolic information – Light or beam marking apparatus or processes – Scan of light
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-14
2004-11-09
Pham, Hai (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Light or beam marking apparatus or processes
Scan of light
C347S264000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06816183
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a package containing a recording medium having an image-receiving sheet and transfer sheets and, more particularly, to a technique for facilitating and ensuring loading a recording apparatus with a set of recording media.
This invention relates to a preset cassette containing a set of recording media consisting of an image-receiving sheet and a plurality of transfer sheets and more particularly to a manner for easily and securely setting recording media in a recording apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of methods for recording images, letters, etc. comprises fixing an image-receiving sheet as a recording medium combined with a transfer sheet as another recording medium on a rotating drum and exposing the combination to laser light. In this recording system, the image-receiving sheet is wound around the drum with its image-receiving layer outside, while the transfer sheet is superposed thereon with its toner layer in contact with the image-receiving layer. A recording head for exposure reciprocates in the direction parallel with the axis of rotation of the drum while emitting a single laser beam or a plurality of laser beams for scanning exposure. The direction of drum rotation is the main scanning direction, and the moving direction of the recording head is a secondary scanning direction. The drum's rotary motion and head's linear motion are combined appropriately to make a quick scan of the transfer sheet thereby to transfer a desired image onto the image-receiving sheet.
In this recording system, one kind of an image-receiving sheet R and a plurality of kinds of transfer sheets, such as K (black), C (cyan), M (magenta), and Y (yellow), are used. These recording media have been supplied in packages of about 20 to 100 sheets of a kind. For example, as shown in
FIG. 36
, a stack of about 25 sheets 1 of a kind are vacuum-packed in a packaging material
3
, such as a bag of a synthetic resin, e.g., polyethylene, and the bag is packed into a container, such as a paperboard box
5
, to make a package
7
.
Before starting recording, five packages
7
of different kinds, i.e., an image-receiving sheet R and transfer sheets K, C, M and Y, are opened, and a sheet is taken out of every package and stacked in a cassette in reverse order of recording, e.g., in order of a transfer sheet Y, a transfer sheet M, a transfer sheet C, a transfer sheet K, and an image-receiving sheet R. Thus the cassette has a set of the recording media stacked in order of the image-receiving sheet and the transfer sheets K, C, M and Y from the top. In making a plurality of sets of the recording media, the above operation is repeated.
The cassette
9
having a set of the recording media is fitted to a recording apparatus shown in FIG.
37
. The apparatus has a pickup mechanism
13
, which picks up the top sheet of the set in the cassette by means of a rubber roller or by suction. The recording medium picked up by the pickup mechanism
13
is transported by a guide plate or roller, etc. (not shown) and fixed on a rotating drum
15
.
Upon switching on the recording apparatus
11
, the image-receiving layer, which is the top sheet of the set, is fed to the rotating drum
15
and fixed thereon with its image-receiving layer outside. The transfer sheet K is then fed and fixed on the image-receiving sheet with its toner layer facing the image-receiving layer of the image-receiving sheet. Thus, the image-receiving layer of the image-receiving sheet and the toner layer of the transfer sheet are brought into contact. Data of color K are recorded on the combined recording media through a recording head (not shown). After completion of the recording, the transfer sheet K is stripped off the drum
15
and discharged out the recording apparatus
11
. These operations of feeding, recording and discharging the recording medium are repeated in succession using each of the transfer sheets C, M and Y to complete transfer of a full-color image to the image-receiving sheet.
Since every recording medium should be taken out of the respective opened packages and stacked in a cassette for making every set of recording media as stated, they are unavoidably exposed to the external environment and are therefore liable to contamination with foreign matter. Contamination with foreign matter can result in a failure of normal recording or formation of image defects such as white spots or ring unevenness.
Besides the problem of contamination, the above work for making a set of recording media, being done manually, involves the possibility of making a set in an erroneous order. Where, for example, the sheets must be stacked in order of RKCMY from the top, an erroneous set of sheets stacked in order of RKCYM results in erroneous recording of data M in color Y and of data Y in color M. Such an error causes a waste of not only material (the erroneously recorded image-receiving sheet) but time. When the recording media are erroneously stacked in order of KRCYM, for another example, the transfer sheet K is used as an image-receiving sheet, which results in absolute failure of recording and waste of material and time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a package of recording media which saves the trouble for opening all the packages of different recording media used for recording, excludes the manual work for making a set of recording media and, as a result, incurs no image defects due to adhesion of foreign matter nor recording failures due to human errors in making a set of recording media.
The present invention provides a package containing at least one set of recording media consisting of an image-receiving sheet having an image-receiving layer which is fed to a recording medium holding member and a plurality of transfer sheets each having a toner layer which are successively fed to the recording medium holding member so that the toner layer of each transfer sheet may be brought into contact with the image-receiving layer of the image-receiving sheet, the image-receiving sheet and the transfer sheets being stacked in order of feed to the recording medium holding member.
The package of recording media according to the present invention contains a set of recording media which are stacked in order of feed to a recording medium holding member. After the package is opened, the recording media stacked in a set are disposed in a recording apparatus at a time. By use of the package, there is no need any more to manually stack recording media one by one in a recording apparatus. That is, an operator can put a set of recording media in a recording apparatus without touching all of the recording media. As a result, the possibility of each recording medium's being contaminated with foreign matter is reduced to reduce resultant image defects. Further, a recording failure due to an erroneous order of recording never occurs. The package also brings about saving of labor for preparing a set of recording media.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the top sheet of the set of stacked recording media is the image-receiving sheet. When the set of recording media according to this embodiment is put into a recording apparatus, it is the image-receiving sheet that is fed first to a recording medium holding member. Thereafter, the remaining transfer sheets are successively and selectively fed to be superposed on the image-receiving sheet held on the holding member.
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the package contains a plurality of sets of recording media, each set consisting of recording media stacked in order of feed to the recording medium holding member. The package of this embodiment makes it possible to load a recording apparatus with a plurality of sets of recording media at a time. On completion of one recording cycle (feed of an image-receiving sheet to a recording medium holding member, transfer of images from each transfer sheet to the image-receiving sheet, and discharge
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Pham Hai
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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