Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-16
2003-03-04
Yao, Sam Chuan (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S240000, C156S247000, C427S146000, C427S148000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06527896
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image transfer apparatus in which an image bearing sheet, on which an image is formed by a thermal transfer printer or a laser thermal transfer printer (or any type of a printer such as an ink jet printer etc. which can transfer an image on a sheet to be transferred), and the sheet to be transferred are laminated and the two sheets thus laminated are passed between a pair of heat rollers thereby to transfer the image formed on the image bearing sheet on the sheet to be transferred.
2. Description of the Related Art
When preparing a printing plate from a color manuscript and forming many printed sheets based on the printing plate, proof print is performed to confirm the finished image and then the formal printing is performed. In this case, a color proof is prepared in the proof printing process and the finished image is confirmed. Such a color proof etc. is obtained in a manner that an image is thermally transferred on an image bearing sheet by a thermal printer etc. and the image formed on the image bearing sheet is transferred on a sheet on which the image is to be transferred (hereinafter called an image transfer sheet) by an image transfer apparatus.
FIG. 10
shows a conventional image transfer apparatus. In the figure, a reference numeral
1
depicts an image transfer apparatus. The image transfer apparatus
1
is provided with a pair of heat rollers
41
,
42
disposed in an opposed manner along the vertical direction, and nip rollers
51
,
52
disposed at the downstream side of the heat rollers in an opposed manner along the vertical direction. A heat cover
4
surrounds the heat rollers
41
,
42
to prevent the heat dissipation from the heat rollers
41
,
42
. A protecting transfer cover
5
surrounds the outer side of the heat cover and the nip rollers
51
,
52
. An insertion table
2
is provided at the inlet side of the image transfer apparatus
1
and an ejection table
3
is provided at the ejection side thereof.
The heat rollers
41
,
42
are formed by aluminum material etc., for example, and the outer peripheral surfaces thereof are covered by covering layers made of rubber etc. A heater is provided at the center portion of each of the heat rollers
41
,
42
. One (for example, the lower side roller) of the heat rollers
41
,
42
disposed in an opposed manner along the vertical direction is a driving roller and the other thereof (the upper side roller) is a driven roller. Laminated two sheets of an image bearing sheet and an image transfer sheet are passed between the upper and lower heat rollers
41
,
42
while being heated and pressed, so that an image of the image bearing sheet is transferred on the image transfer sheet. Thereafter, the image bearing sheet is manually peeled from the image transfer sheet, thereby to obtain the sheet on which the image is transferred.
Conventionally, the image transfer apparatus
1
has been employed in the following two manners so as to transfer an image.
1) One of the methods is arranged as shown in
FIG. 11
in a manner that an image bearing sheet R is laminated on an image transfer sheet P, then the laminated sheets are passed as they are between the heat rollers
41
,
42
while being heated and pressed thereby to transfer an image of the image bearing sheet R on the image transfer sheet P, then the laminated sheets are conveyed by the nip rollers
51
,
52
and ejected from the ejection table
3
. However, in this case, when the laminated sheets.are passed between the heat rollers, the image bearing sheet and the image transfer sheet are bent to form uneven wrinkles (hereinafter referred to wrinkles) thereon caused by the difference of amounts of expansion or shrinkage, the difference of thermal expansion coefficients, the difference of the coefficients of moisture absorption etc. between the image transfer sheet P and the image bearing sheet R due to the difference of the materials thereof.
2) In order to obviate such a problem, the other method using a carrier for the image transfer apparatus has been employed.
FIG. 12
shows the laminating method using the image transfer apparatus carrier.
In the figure, a reference numeral
9
depicts the image transfer apparatus carrier which is configured by a carrier board
91
formed by aluminum etc. with a thickness of 0.3 mm, a cover sheet
92
formed by polyimide etc. with a thickness of 0.2 mm which covers only the vicinity of the tip portion of the carrier board
91
at the moving direction side thereof, and a heat-resistant tape
93
for fixing the cove sheet
92
to the carrier board
91
.
The image transfer apparatus carrier
9
is employed in the following manner. First, the cover sheet
92
is opened, then laminated sheets of an image transfer sheet P and an image bearing sheet R are inserted between the cover sheet
92
and the carrier board
91
, and the cover sheet
92
is closed thereby to sandwich the laminated two sheets from the major surface of the image bearing sheet and the rear surface of the image transfer sheet by the cover sheet and the carrier board. Then, in this state, the laminated two sheets held by the cover sheet and the carrier board are conveyed in a manner that the heat-resistant tape
93
side thereof is conveyed as the head toward and inserted between the heat rollers
41
,
42
.
When the image transfer apparatus carrier is employed in this manner, both the image transfer sheet P and the image bearing sheet R are sandwiched between the carrier board
91
and the cover sheet
92
and passed between the heat rollers
41
,
42
while being held by the image transfer apparatus carrier
9
. Thus, both the sheets can be prevented from causing the wrinkles.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However, although the wrinkles can be prevented from being caused by using the image transfer apparatus carrier
9
, since the heat is absorbed by the aluminum board, the heat transmission efficiency to the laminated sheets is degraded, so that it is required to lower the conveying speed of the laminated sheets to about {fraction (1/10)} of that of the conventional method. Otherwise, it is required to set the temperature of the heat rollers at the value higher than.that of the conventional method. Thus, there arises such a problem that the consumption of electricity increases, the heat insulated structure becomes exaggerative, and the heat-resistant temperature of the members to be used is required to be raised, or the like.
The invention has been made in view of the aforesaid problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image transfer method and an image transfer apparatus which can transfer an image on a sheet on which an image is to be transferred at a normal sheet conveying speed and with normal consumption amount of electricity without using an image transfer apparatus carrier and without causing wrinkles.
In order to attain the aforesaid object, an image transfer method according to the first aspect of the invention is arranged in a manner that in an image transfer method wherein an image bearing sheet on which an image is formed and a sheet on which an image is to be transferred are laminated, and the two sheets thus laminated are passed between a pair of heat rollers from an insertion table thereby to transfer the image formed on the image bearing sheet on the sheet on which the image is to be transferred, the method comprising the steps of:
placing the image bearing sheet on the insertion table;
laminating the sheet on which an image is to be transferred on the image bearing sheet; and
inserting the two sheets thus laminated between the pair of heat rollers.
According to such an arrangement, since the sheet on which an image is to be transferred likely absorbing moisture is placed on the image bearing sheet, the moisture contained in the sheet on which an image is to be transferred will be evaporated therefrom upward and so both the sheets can be prevented from causing image transfer failure such as wrinkles. Further, such a phenomenon scarcely occ
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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