JP3029268B2 - Corona ion recorder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a corona ion for performing electrostatic recording by controlling a corona ion flow.

(Prior Art) A corona ion recording apparatus that obtains an electrostatic latent image by controlling corona ions has a corona ion generation source disposed behind an accelerating electrode having a corona ion flow passage hole corresponding to a recording pixel, and performs recording. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the insulating recording medium by controlling the corona ions by turning on / off the accelerating electrode according to the information. The principle of this recording will be briefly described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 12 is a schematic sectional view of a solid-state corona ion recording apparatus 100 shown in US Pat. No. 4,160,257. In FIG. 1, a corona ion generating electrode 103 for corona ion generation and an induction electrode 102 are provided on both surfaces of an insulating substrate 101. The corona ion generating electrode 103 is provided with an electric field concentration hole 104 for easily generating corona ions.

When an AC voltage 105 is applied between the electrodes 102 and 103, a high alternating electric field is generated in the electric field concentration hole 104, and positive and negative high-density corona ions are generated. By applying the control bias voltage 106 to the corona ion generating electrode 103, only the negative corona ions generated in this way are selected and moved toward the recording medium 107.

The corona ions are supplied to the recording medium 107 and the ion generating electrode 1
It is accelerated by the high voltage 109 applied to the accelerating electrode 108 provided between 03 and reaches the insulating recording medium 107 to form an electrostatic latent image.

In the case of a corona ion recording apparatus that drives a large number of corona ion flow passage holes, as shown in FIG. 13, the induction electrodes 120-1, 2, 3, 4
And the corona ion generating electrodes 121-1, 2, 3, and 4 are arranged in a matrix. This figure is a view of the corona ion generation source viewed from the corona ion generation electrode side. A large number of induction electrodes 120 are sequentially selected by a switch 122, and an AC voltage 123 is applied. In FIG. 13, the voltage is applied to the second induction electrode from the top. At this time, the switch 1 of the corona ion generating electrode 121 is
A switch 24 is turned on / off by image data corresponding to a recording pixel. Corona ion generating electrode 121 has holes 125, which are corona ion generating areas, corresponding to each recording pixel.
Is provided.

Conventionally, when a recording head is formed by arranging a plurality of corona ion flow passage holes in this corona ion recording apparatus, as shown in FIG. 14, the corona ion source 130 and a member 134 having a corona ion accelerating electrode are formed separately. . The corona ion generation source 130 forms an induction electrode 131 and a corona ion generation electrode 132 on an insulating substrate 132 such as glass or ceramics by means such as vapor deposition and etching. The accelerating electrode 135 is deposited on another insulator 136, and is etched to form a corona ion flow passage hole. A corona ion recording apparatus is manufactured by bonding a corona ion generating source 130 and a member 134 having a corona ion accelerating electrode formed by these two parts with an adhesive.

When a high-resolution corona ion recording apparatus is manufactured by such a manufacturing method, processing of the hole 137 which is a corona ion generation region as shown in FIG. 15 becomes a problem. For example, the diameter of the hole 137 is set to 65 μm in order to produce a corona ion recording device of 400 dpi. Assuming that the thickness of the corona ion generating electrode is 20 μm, the diameter of the hole 137 is smaller than the thickness of the corona ion generating electrode 138 at the time of etching.
Without circulation, the bottom of the hole 137 becomes round as shown in FIG. Since corona ions are generated at the junction between the corona ion generation electrode 138 and the insulating substrate 139,
When the bottom of the hole is rounded as shown in FIG. 15, the concentration of the electric field is weakened, and corona ions are reduced or no longer generate.

As described above, with the shape of the corona ion source of the conventional corona ion recording apparatus, when manufacturing a high-resolution recording apparatus, the end of the hole which is the corona ion generation area cannot be formed sharply.

Next, another conventional example is shown in FIG. In this conventional example,
The corona ion source is the same as the previous
An induction electrode 141 and a corona ion generation electrode 142 are formed on the surface of 140. And an AC voltage between the two electrodes
143 is applied to generate corona ions. However, the signal of each recording pixel is applied to a corona ion control electrode 144 which is an acceleration electrode. In the example of FIG. 16, when the switch 145 is connected to the positive corona ion control voltage 146, the negative corona ions are accelerated by the electric field between the corona ion control electrode 144 and the corona ion generation electrode 142, and To the recording medium 147. Turning switch 145 to ground potential turns off corona ion flow. In the corona ion recording apparatus having such a recording principle, if the hole between the corona ion generation electrodes 142 is made approximately the same as the diameter of the corona ion flow passage hole 148 as in the related art, the AC voltage 143 for corona ion generation is reduced. Since the generated useless electric field leaks to the corona ion flow passage hole 148, a high voltage is required for the corona ion control voltage 146. For example, the diameter of the hole between the corona ion generating electrodes 142 is 150 μm, and the distance between the corona ion control electrode 144 and the corona ion generating electrode 142 is 200 μm.
When a voltage of 10 V and a peak voltage of 900 V is applied to the corona generating AC voltage 143 at a frequency of 10 kHz, the corona ion control voltage 146 requires 600 V. It is difficult to make a switch that turns on and off such a high voltage at high speed into an IC.
It has become impossible to manufacture small corona ion recording devices.

In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to narrow the interval between the corona ion generating electrodes, reduce the diameter of the hole 149 which is the corona ion generating region, and weaken the useless electric field flowing to the corona ion flow passage hole 148 side. Conceivable. However, as described in the prior art, when the diameter of the hole 149 is reduced, the liquid for etching the hole 149 does not circulate, and the bottom of the hole 149 is rounded. As a result, corona ions are reduced or are not generated.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In a method of manufacturing a corona ion recording apparatus in which a corona ion generating source and a member having a corona ion flow passage hole are separately formed and then the two are bonded, a method for producing a high resolution image is used. If the diameter of the hole, which is the corona ion generation region, is reduced, the bottom of the hole is rounded in the etching process. as a result,
Corona ions are reduced or not generated at all.

In addition, in a corona ion recording device that has a recording principle in which the accelerating electrode acts as a corona ion control electrode and turns the corona ion current on and off, the voltage applied to the corona ion control electrode is high, and the control voltage is reduced to lower the voltage. To
It was difficult to make IC. To solve this problem, it is necessary to reduce the diameter of the hole, which is the corona ion generation area, to weaken the wasteful electric field leaking to the corona ion flow passage hole side. If the diameter of the hole as the generation area is reduced, the bottom of the hole is rounded.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a corona ion recording apparatus capable of manufacturing a high-resolution corona ion recording apparatus. A further object is to lower the control voltage for turning on and off the corona ion current and operate the switch.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a corona ion recording device which is made into an IC and is downsized.

[Constitution of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention relates to an insulating substrate, an induction electrode provided on the insulating substrate, and a strip-shaped surface provided on a surface of the insulating substrate facing the induction electrode. A corona ion recording apparatus having a corona ion generation source composed of a corona ion generation electrode and a plurality of control electrodes having a corona ion flow passage hole through which corona ions generated from the corona ion generation source pass, wherein A corona ion recording apparatus, wherein the corona ions generated from the side portions of the corona ion flow generation electrode are passed through respective corona ion flow passage holes formed in the plurality of control electrodes.

(Operation) According to the present invention, since the corona ion generating electrode is a strip-shaped electrode, the bottom of the slit can be sharply formed by etching. As a result, a corona ion recording device for high resolution is made possible.

In addition, by using a single band-shaped corona ion generating electrode, it is possible to widen the allowable error in joining the corona ion generating source and the member having the corona ion flow passage hole.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention is described based on a drawing.

First, a corona ion recording apparatus using the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a printer. Data supplied from a signal source (not shown)
It is input to the corona ion recording device 1. Before the cylindrical recording medium 2 is irradiated with corona ions, the charge on the surface is removed by a conductive charge eliminating roller 3. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the recording medium 2 where the image point is printed by the corona ion recording apparatus 1. This electrostatic latent image is visualized by a developing device 4 containing a developer in which a toner, which is a charged colored particle, and a carrier are mixed. The developing method of this developing device may be regular development or reversal development. A well-known developing method can be used and is not directly related to the present invention, so that a detailed description is omitted. The visualized toner image is applied to the paper by the discharger 5 from the back of the paper by the discharger 5, and is transferred to the paper. The toner remaining on the recording medium is removed by the cleaning blade 6. Then, the recording medium 2
The charge on the surface is removed by the static eliminator 3 and the state returns to the initial state. The paper to which the toner image has been transferred is fixed to the paper by a fixing device (not shown).

Next, the corona ion recording device 1 used in this example
Will be described. In this embodiment, the components of the corona ion source at each pixel are the same as those shown in FIG. But,
The corona ion generation region provided on the corona ion generation electrode has a slit shape, and the slits are provided continuously as shown in FIG.

In the corona ion recording apparatus of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, when viewed from the corona ion flow passage hole 7 side, two joints 10 between the corona ion generating electrode 8 and the insulating substrate 9 can be seen. We are designing a corona ion generating electrode.
With such an electrode configuration, the corona ion source 11
When joining the member 12 with the corona ion flow passage hole and
The allowable range of the position error is widened. In this embodiment, the diameter of the corona ion flow passage hole 7 was 100 μm, and the interval between the two corona ion generating electrodes 8 on the insulating substrate was 30 μm. At this time, when the corona ion source 11 and the member 12 having the corona ion flow passage hole 7 are joined, the joint between the insulating substrate and the corona ion generation electrode is not hidden by the adhesive or the insulator 13 even if it is shifted by about 30 μm. Absent. As a result, there is no variation in the amount of corona ions from each corona ion flow passage hole,
In addition, the production yield of the corona ion recording device is improved.

Further, in the above embodiment, the corona ion generation source has only one slit which is the corona ion generation region, but the present invention is not limited to this. FIG. 4 shows a configuration in which the corona ion generating electrode has two slits.
The three corona ion generating electrodes have the same potential, and corona ions are generated at the junction between the insulating substrate 9 and the corona ion generating electrode 8. As described above, the number of locations where corona ions are generated is doubled as compared with the previous embodiment, so that the amount of corona ions generated per unit area is doubled. As a result, the moving speed of the recording medium can be increased, and high-speed recording can be performed.

The number of corona ion generating electrodes may be one. As shown in FIG. 5, if the number of corona ion generating electrodes 8 is one, the number of the joints 10 where corona ions are generated is reduced, so that the amount of corona ions generated per unit area is reduced, making high-speed recording impossible. Become. However, as can be seen from FIG.
A wide tolerance in joining the corona ion source 11 and the member 12 having the corona ion flow passage hole can be obtained. Assuming that the diameter of the corona ion flow passage hole is 100 μm, it may be shifted by about 40 μm.

In the above description, the corona ion generating electrode is a linear electrode, but is not limited to this. For example, the sixth
Even if the corona ion generating electrode 8 is jagged as shown in the figure, the same effect as in the above embodiment can be obtained. Also,
It is known that in such a jagged corona ion generating electrode, the junction where corona ions are generated becomes longer, and corona ions are always generated at the place where the electric field is concentrated.Therefore, corona ions can be stably obtained at any time. Can be

Next, another embodiment which enables low voltage driving will be described. First, regarding the configuration of the corona ion recording apparatus, the seventh
This will be described with reference to the drawings.

This corona ion recording apparatus includes a corona ion source 35 provided in common, and a corona ion control electrode 36 having a corona ion flow passage hole provided for each recording pixel. This corona ion generation source is provided with a corona ion generation electrode 38 and an induction electrode 39 on both surfaces of an insulating substrate. The corona ion source of this corona ion recording apparatus has an induction electrode 39 and a corona ion generation electrode 38 on the surface of an insulating substrate 37 as in the above-described embodiment, and an alternating voltage 43 is applied between the two electrodes. Have been.
Then, corona ions are generated at the junction between the corona ion generation electrode 38 and the insulating substrate 37. In order to shield a useless electric field generated by the AC voltage 43 for corona ion generation, the slit 40 between the corona ion generation electrodes 38 is narrow, and when viewed from the corona ion flow passage hole, the corona ion generation electrode 38
The junction between the substrate and the insulating substrate 37 can be seen. The slit width is determined by the voltage value of the AC voltage 43 and the distance between the corona ion generating electrode and the corona ion control electrode. In this embodiment, the slit width is set to 50 μm. Further, in this corona ion recording apparatus, the signal of each recording pixel is applied to a corona ion control electrode 36 constituting a corona ion flow passage hole.

Next, a recording operation using this corona ion recording apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. First, the conductive substrate
An electric charge is generated by using a positive corona ion stream generated by a corona ion generator 24 on a recording medium 23 provided with an insulator layer 22 on 21.
25 is given uniformly before recording. The corona ion generator 24 is provided with a corona ion generating electrode 28 having a sharply cut slit 27 for concentrating an electric field for corona ion generation on one surface of the insulating substrate, and a slit 27 on the other surface. And an induction electrode 29 for forming an electric field.

A corona ion generating AC voltage 30 having a peak voltage of 900 V and a frequency of 20 kHz is applied between these electrodes 28 and 29, whereby positive and negative corona ions are generated. The corona ion generating electrode has a positive bias voltage 31 (+) substantially equal to the surface potential applied to the recording medium.
600V), only the positive corona ions move toward the recording medium, and corona charges are accumulated on the recording medium. As a result, the surface potential Vs of the recording medium becomes 600V. Thus, the recording medium having a uniform surface potential Vs
It reaches below the corona ion recording device consisting of each element provided corresponding to each recording pixel conveyed in the direction of 33.

In the corona ion recording device 35, the corona ion generating electrode
38 has a + 38V bias voltage 4 to block corona ion flow
2 is applied, and an AC voltage 43 of 1800 V between peaks and 10 kHz for generating corona ions in synchronization with the signal voltage is applied between the induction electrode and the corona ion generation electrode. On the other hand, a signal voltage 44 of +38 V is applied to the corona ion control voltage 36 having a corona ion flow passage hole.

At this time, the same effect can be obtained even if the corona ion generating electrode 38 is set to the earth potential and the signal voltage of the control electrode 36 is biased to -38V.

In this way, only positive and negative corona ions generated from the corona ion generating electrode are selected by the control electrode to which the signal is applied, and are accelerated at a surface potential of +600 V on the recording medium to reach the recording medium. , Lowering the surface potential to +200 V or less.

Thus, in this recording method, the driving voltage is +38 V
With such a low voltage, an inverted electrostatic latent image having a high electrostatic contrast of 400 V or more can be obtained. This corona ion recording apparatus is arranged in 1 in FIG. 2 and can be used for an image recording apparatus such as a printer as in the previous embodiment.

Next, FIGS. 8, 9, and 10 are schematic views of a corona ion head by a recording method capable of driving at a low voltage, in which a number of corona ion flow passage holes are provided in the width of the recording medium corresponding to the recording image points.
FIG. 8 shows the corona ion head viewed from the corona ion flow passage hole side. Unlike the recording type corona ion recording apparatus of the previous embodiment, each pixel data is inputted to the corona ion control electrode 36 constituting the corona ion flow passage hole. FIG. 9 is a view of the corona ion head viewed from the induction electrode 39 side. An AC voltage 43 is constantly applied between the induction electrode 39 and the corona ion generation electrode. FIG. 10 is a schematic perspective view of a corona ion head. The corona ion head of this configuration also has an induction electrode 39 and a corona ion generation electrode 38.
And a member having a corona ion control electrode 36 are separately formed, and these two are later joined.

A feature of the corona ion recording apparatus of this embodiment is that a useless electric field generated by the corona ion generation AC voltage 43 is shielded in the corona ion generation slit 40. In this embodiment, the width of the slit 40 is reduced as shown in FIG. As described above, the present invention can be applied to the corona ion source having this configuration.

In the above-described embodiment, the slit width is reduced. However, the same effect can be obtained even if a new electrode is provided to shield a useless electric field due to the corona ion generation AC voltage as shown in FIG. Can be This will be described briefly. In the example of FIG. 11, the shielding electrode 48 for shielding a useless electric field has the same potential as the corona ion generating electrode 38. Other electrical connections and recording operations are the same as in FIG. The corona ion recording apparatus having this configuration includes an insulating substrate 37, which is a corona ion generation point, and a corona ion generation electrode 38.
-Since the junction with the shielding electrode 48 is doubled, the AC voltage for generating the required amount of corona ions can be reduced, and as a result, a useless electric field leaking into the corona ion flow passage hole is reduced. have.

In the above embodiment, the shape of the corona ion passage hole is circular, but the present invention is not limited to this. The corona ion passage hole may be elliptical, square or polygonal.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the present invention relates to a corona ion recording apparatus using a solid corona ion source in which an induction electrode and a corona ion generation electrode are provided on both surfaces of an insulating substrate. The corona ion generation region is formed in a slit shape.

Thus, the joint between the corona ion generating electrode and the insulating substrate can be sharply processed, and a narrow slit can be processed, so that a high-resolution corona ion recording apparatus can be manufactured.

In addition, in a corona ion recording device that has a recording principle of turning the corona ion current on and off by using the accelerating electrode as a corona ion control electrode, the corona ion control voltage that turns on and off the corona ion current is reduced to a low voltage. Is made into an IC, and the size of the corona ion recording apparatus can be reduced.

Furthermore, by making the width of the slit smaller than the diameter of the corona ion flow passage hole, the tolerance for alignment in manufacturing the corona ion recording device is widened, and the yield is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing the structure of a corona ion recording apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a view showing an embodiment in which the corona ion recording apparatus of the present invention is applied to an image recording apparatus, and FIG. The figure which shows the shape of the slit provided, 4th
FIGS. 5, 5 and 6 show other structures of the corona ion recording apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the corona ion recording apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 9 is a view showing a corona ion control electrode of the corona ion recording apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 9 is a view for explaining a corona ion source of the corona ion recording apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a structure of the corona ion recording apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 11 illustrates another structure of a corona ion recording apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 12 illustrates a configuration of a conventional corona ion recording apparatus, and FIG. 13 illustrates an induction electrode in the corona ion recording apparatus. FIG. 14 is a view showing the configuration of a conventional corona ion recording apparatus, and FIG. 15 is a view showing a processed cross section of a hole which is a corona ion generation area, and FIG. Is another conventional corona ion recorder It will be described in Fig. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Corona ion recording device 7 ... Corona ion flow passage hole 8 ... Corona ion generating electrode 9 ... Insulating substrate 10 ... Junction 11 ... Corona ion generating source 13 ... Insulator 15 ... Hole 36 … Corona ion control electrode 37… Insulating substrate 38… Corona ion generation electrode 39… Induction electrode 45… Corona ion 46… Electrostatic latent image 48… Shielding electrode 100… Corona ion recording device 102… … Induction electrode 103… Corona ion generation electrode 107… Recording medium 108… Acceleration electrode 110… Insulator 112… Corona ion flow passage hole 114… Insulation layer 115 …… Conduction layer

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-62-94353 (JP, A) JP-A-61-185457 (JP, A) JP-A-2-32872 (JP, A) JP-A 62-94372 181161 (JP, A) JP-A-64-56560 (JP, A) JP-A-2-81650 (JP, A) JP-A-63-298358 (JP, A) JP-A-3-234555 (JP, A) JP-A-61-229567 (JP, A) JP-A-2-20357 (JP, A) JP-A-1-122942 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 2/415

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A corona ion generating source comprising: an insulating substrate; an induction electrode provided on the insulating substrate; and a strip-shaped corona ion generating electrode provided on a surface of the insulating substrate facing the induction electrode; A corona ion recording device having a plurality of control electrodes having a corona ion flow passage hole for passing corona ions generated from a corona ion generation source, wherein the corona generated from a side of the single corona ion flow generation electrode A corona ion recording apparatus, wherein ions are passed through respective corona ion flow passage holes formed in the plurality of control electrodes. 2. The corona ion recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a precharge means for uniformly charging the recording medium in advance.