JPH0679173B2 - Ion flow control plate - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an ion flow control plate in an electrostatic recording device by ion flow writing.

[Conventional technology]

9 and 10 show an example of the construction of a conventional ion flow control plate of this type, and FIG. 11 shows an example of its use. FIG. 9 is a plan view (top view) of the ion flow control plate of FIG. 11 as seen from the corona ion generating wire side, and FIG. 10 is a plan view (bottom view) of the same as the dielectric recording medium side. .

In these figures, 1 is an upper electrode, 2 is an ion flow passage opening (hereinafter simply referred to as an opening), 3 is a lower electrode, 4
Is an insulating substrate, and these constitute the ion flow control plate 5. 6 is a recording medium made of a dielectric material, 7 is a conductive substrate, 8 is a corotron shield case, 9 is a corona ion generating wire, 10 is an ion flow control pulse, and 11, 12 and 13 are power supplies.

The arrow attached to the recording medium 6 indicates the moving direction.

First, a method of forming an electrostatic image using an ion flow will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 11, when a high voltage of several KV is applied between the corona ion generating wire 9 and the corotron shield case 8 from the power source 11, the ions generated near the corona ion generating wire 9 are It reaches the recording medium 6 through the opening 2 formed in the flow control plate 5. At this time, the corona ion generating wire 9 and the upper electrode 1
An electric field (forward electric field) for advancing ions from the corona ion generating wire 9 to the recording medium 6 is always provided between the lower electrode 3 and the conductive substrate 7 between the power sources 11 and 13.
Has been added by. At this time, the amount of ions passing through the opening 2 is controlled by slightly changing the potential of the lower electrode 3 to control the electric field between the upper electrode 1 and the lower electrode 3. The electric field in the opening 2 is controlled by the power supply 12 and the ion flow control pulse 10.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In this type of ion flow control plate 5, the openings 2 are generally arranged in a two-dimensional array in order to realize a high recording dot density. The arrangement of the portion 2 is, for example, as shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, simply arranged in an obliquely shifted manner from the end, so that it corresponds to solid black printing particularly in electrostatic image formation. When the electrostatic image is formed, the locus of the ion stream to be irradiated next is bent by the Coulomb force (repulsive force) due to the electrostatic image charges previously formed in the same row on the recording medium 6, and the result is As a result, there is a drawback that an electrostatic image is nonuniformly formed on the recording medium 6 and uneven recording occurs.

FIG. 12 shows the locus of ion flow when an electrostatic image of a solid black recording portion is formed by using the ion flow control plate 5 having the arrangement of the openings 2 as shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. The process of uneven formation of an electrostatic image due to deflection is schematically shown, where 14 is an electrostatic image charge and 15 is an ion flow locus.

In FIG. 12, formation of an electrostatic image on one recording line parallel to the recording medium traveling direction on the recording medium 6 (parallel to the corona ion generating wire 9) (during solid black recording) is (1) → (8). It is performed in order. At this time, for example, the ion current from the opening 2 in the second row in FIG. 10 is irradiated ((2) in FIG. 12).
In the process of, the ion flow locus 15 becomes the opening 2 of the first row.
Bending under the influence of the non-uniform electric field formed by the electrostatic image charge 14 already formed by the ion flow from
An electrostatic image is formed at a position slightly deviated from immediately below the opening 2 of the row. Thereafter, the same process is performed in the order of (3) → (8) in FIG. 12, and the final electrostatic image charge 14 has a non-uniform distribution on the recording medium 6 as shown in FIG. After that, a stripe pattern is formed in a portion which should be solid black (see JP-A-55-14244).

The present invention has been made in order to eliminate these drawbacks, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ion flow control plate which prevents deflection of the ion flow trajectory irradiated on a recording medium.

[Means for solving problems]

The ion flow control plate according to the present invention is provided with a large number of openings on four rows perpendicular to the moving direction of the recording medium, and the first row is the recording dot pitch to be finally obtained on the recording medium. The openings are arranged at a pitch four times larger than that of the first row in the second row.
The openings are arranged at the same pitch as the first row and on the vertical bisector of the line segment that connects the two openings on the first row, and the third row has the same pitch as the first row. Place each opening on the line that vertically divides the line segment that connects the two adjacent openings on the first row into either 1: 3 or 3: 1 distance. The line segment that connects the two adjacent openings on the first row at the same pitch as the first row is vertically set to 3:
Each of the openings is arranged on a line that divides into a distance that is not the same as the third row in the ratio of 1 or 1: 3.

Another invention according to the present invention is that the openings are provided on eight rows.

[Action]

In the present invention, the openings in the next row are sequentially arranged at positions where a large number of openings always symmetrically divide the distribution of electrostatic image charges already formed by the openings in the previous row and before the print line. Because of the array, the irradiated ion flow receives the same Coulomb force on the left and right and goes straight to record on the recording medium.

Further, according to another invention of the present invention, the ion flow goes straight through the openings on the eight rows to perform recording on the recording medium.

〔Example〕

1 to 4 are views for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a top view of an ion flow control plate 5 according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a bottom view. 1 to 6 and 14, 15 are the same as those shown in FIGS. 11 and 12.

FIG. 3 shows a process of forming an electrostatic image of a solid black recording portion by using the ion flow control plate 5 having the arrangement of the openings 2 for passing the ion flow shown in FIGS. Similar to FIG. 12, the process is divided into 8 steps for each ion flow irradiation process by each row of the openings 2, and the electrostatic image is formed by (1) in FIG.
It is performed in the order of (8).

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the distribution of the electrostatic image on the recording medium 6 which is finally formed by the process of FIG.

Since the ion flow control plate 5 has the arrangement of the openings 2 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the electrostatic image is formed without deflection of the ion flow locus 15 as shown in FIG. The electrostatic image charge 14 is formed immediately below the opening 2, and the final electrostatic image charge 14 has a uniform distribution as shown in FIG.
Even after development, a uniform and even image can be obtained.

The reason why the deflection of the ion flow locus 15 does not occur in FIG. 3 will be explained. For example, in the step (2) of FIG. 3, the irradiation of the ion flow is performed by the electrostatic image already irradiated in the step (1) of FIG. Since it is performed through the opening 2 located directly above the center of the distribution interval, the ion flow at this time receives Coulomb force of the same magnitude from the electrostatic images on the left and right in the figure, and as a result, the ion flow trajectory 15 does not deflect to the right or left in the figure.
Similarly, in the steps (3) to (8) in FIG. 3, the position of the opening 2 for irradiating the ion current is always the same on the same recording line on the recording medium 6 due to the electrostatic image already formed. The ion flow trajectory 15 is not deflected because it is set to receive a large Coulomb force.

The arrangement condition of the openings 2 for preventing the deflection of the ion flow locus 15 is specifically shown in FIG. 3 when a certain ion flow locus 15 is observed in any of the processes (1) to (8). On the recording medium 6, the ion flow locus 15 and the ion flow locus
Ion flow locus 15 which is a problem due to electrostatic image charge 14 existing up to ion flow locus 15 immediately to the right of 15 and electrostatic image charge 14 also existing up to ion flow locus 15 to the immediate left of 15 It has a symmetrical distribution centered on.

In this way, when all the openings 2 are in the ion flow passing state, the distribution of the electrostatic image charges 14 already formed by the openings 2 before the previous row is always symmetrically divided into the positions of the next row. Setting the arrangement of the openings 2 on the ion flow control plate 5 according to the rule of arranging the openings 2 is a condition of the ion flow control plate 5 that prevents the deflection of the ion flow trajectory 15. Although this rule cannot be observed at the right end portion and the left end portion of the ion flow control plate 5 as a result, there is no problem by arranging the other portions according to the regularity.

The arrangement of the openings 2 satisfying such a condition is as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 when the openings 2 are arranged in 8 rows as shown in FIGS.
There are other arrangements than the arrangement shown in FIG. This will be described below.

5 and 6 are views for explaining various arrangements of the openings 2 including the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 shows an ion flow in which the openings 2 are arranged in 8 rows. FIG. 6 is a view for explaining the position of the opening 2 on the upper surface of the control plate 5, and FIG. 6 is a table for specifying the position of the opening 2 in FIG.

The position of the opening 2 on the ion flow control plate 5 is 8
In the case of arranging in rows, the positions are determined by designating the positions of the eight openings 2 corresponding to the eight continuous recording dots on the print line, and the positions of the other openings 2 are determined by repeating the same pattern. .

FIG. 5 shows the part of the ion flow control plate 5 which provides its eight openings 2. The position of the opening 2 in FIG. 5 is designated by FIG. 6, and the designated position can be a total of 16 combinations as shown in FIG.

From the viewpoint of FIGS. 5 and 6, for example, the position of the opening 2 in the first row is selected from one of the lines shown by in FIG. 5 to, but, for example, the combination No. in the table of FIG. Looking at the case of (1), the number "1" is written in the column corresponding to the first column, which is designated by the vertical line on the horizontal line in the first column in FIG. It means that the opening 2 of the first row is set at a position where the number "5" in the column of the second row is the vertical line on the horizontal line of the second row in FIG. Second at the position specified by
This means setting the opening 2 of the row (these positions are indicated by dotted circles). Similarly, if you look at the No. (1) column of the combinations in the table of FIG. 6 to the right on the 3rd to 8th rows, the positions of the openings 2 on the 3rd to 8th rows are all numbers. It is specified. The ion flow control plate 5 is configured in accordance with the position of the opening 2 that specifies the combination No. (1) in FIG. 1 and 2, the positions of the openings 2 are horizontally reversed.

The combinations No. (1) to No. (16) shown in FIG. 6 can be collectively expressed with reference to FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, if the spacing between adjacent openings 2 in the first row is 8 l and the spacing between the center lines of the openings 2 in each row (recording pitch) is l, there are many openings. Two
Are eight columns perpendicular to the moving direction of the recording medium 6, that is, the first column
The rows 8 to 8 are provided, and the first row has a pitch 8l which is 8 times the recording dot pitch l to be finally obtained on the recording medium 6.
The openings 2 are arranged in the same manner as the first row and the same pitch 8l is provided in the second row, and each opening is on the perpendicular bisector of the line segment connecting the two openings 2 that are adjacent to each other in the first row. 2 are arranged, and the third row has the same pitch 8l as the first row and the second row, and the line segment connecting the two openings 2 which are adjacent to each other on the first row is vertically 1: 3 (2
l: 6l) or 3: 1 (6l: 2l), each opening 2 is placed on a line that divides into only one distance, and in the 4th row,
The same pitch 8l as the second and third rows, and the line segment connecting the two adjacent openings 2 on the first row is vertically 3: 1 (6l: 2l) or 1: 3 (2l: 6l) Each opening 2 is arranged on a line that divides into a distance that is not the same as the third row, and the fifth row has the same pitch 8l as the first row and also becomes the first row.
The line segment connecting the two openings 2 is 1: 7 (1l: 7l), 3: 5 (3
l: 5l), 5: 3 (5l: 3l), and 7: 1 (7l: 1l), each opening 2 is arranged on a line that divides only one, and the sixth row is The same pitch 8l as the first row, and each opening 2 is arranged on the vertical bisector of the line segment connecting the two openings 2 adjacent to each other in the fifth row, and the same as the first row in the seventh row. Pitch 8l and divide the line segment connecting the two adjacent openings 2 on the 5th row vertically to either 1: 3 (2l: 6l) or 3: 1 (6l: 2l). Arrange each opening 2 on the line, and
The first row has the same pitch 8l as the first row, and the line segment connecting the two adjacent openings 2 on the fifth row is vertically 3: 1 (6l: 2l).
Alternatively, each opening 2 is arranged on a line that divides into a distance that is not the same as that of the seventh row in the ratio of 1: 3 (2l: 6l).

Although the above-described embodiments have been described as examples in which the openings 2 are two-dimensionally arranged in eight rows, an embodiment in which the openings 2 are two-dimensionally arranged in four rows is also possible. 7 and 8 show the opening 2
FIG. 3 is a top view of two examples of the ion flow control plate 5 in the case of arranging in four rows, which corresponds to FIG. 1.

The case of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 can be summarized as follows.

That is, in the case of FIG. 7, assuming that the recording dot is 1 as in the case of FIG. 1 and the distance between the openings 2 in the same row is 4 l, in the embodiment of FIG. Are provided on four rows perpendicular to the moving direction of the recording medium, and the openings 2 are arranged in the first row on the recording medium 6 by the pitch 4l which is four times as large as the recording dot pitch to be finally obtained. Eyes have the same pitch 4l as in the first row and are on the first row 2
Each opening 2 on the vertical bisector of the line segment that connects the two openings 2
And the line 3 connecting the two openings 2 on the first row, which are the same pitch 4l as the first row on the third row, is vertically at a distance of 1: 3 (1l: 3l). Each opening 2 is arranged on the dividing line, and in the 4th row, the same pitch 4l as the 1st row is used, and the line segment connecting the two openings 2 that are adjacent to each other on the 1st row is vertically 3: 1. The openings 2 are arranged on a line dividing the distance (3l: 1l).

Further, in the embodiment of FIG. 8, a large number of openings 2 are provided on four rows perpendicular to the moving direction of the recording medium 6, and the first row is to be finally obtained on the recording medium 6. The openings 2 are arranged with a pitch 4l which is four times as large as the recording dot pitch l, and the second row has the same pitch 4l as the first row, and a line segment connecting two adjacent openings 2 on the first row. The openings 2 are arranged on the vertical bisectors, and the third row has the same pitch 4l as the first row, and the line segment connecting the two openings 2 that are adjacent to each other on the first row is vertically 3: Arrange each opening 2 on a line that divides into a distance of 1 (3l: 1l), and connect the two openings 2 that are the same pitch 4l as the first row in the fourth row and are adjacent to each other on the first row. Line segment vertically
There is also one in which each opening 2 is arranged on a line dividing into a distance of 1: 3 (1l: 3l).

The arrangement rule of the openings 2 according to the present invention including the above embodiments is generally shown as follows.

The first row of the openings 2 for passing the ion stream is regularly arranged in parallel with the print line at an interval of {(recording dot l to be finally obtained on the recording medium 6) × (total number of rows)}. Deploy.

One of the line segments perpendicular to the line segment from the position where the line segment that connects the two openings 2 that are adjacent to each other in the previous column is divided into 2n (n: integer) from the second column onwards. The position of the opening 2 is determined so that it does not cross the position of the opening 2 in the previous row and is on any one of the lines that minimizes n, and is parallel to the print line and is the same as the first row. The openings 2 are regularly arranged at intervals. However, the total number of columns (number of columns) shall be 2k (k: integer).

According to the above general rule, in the present invention, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, ..., 2
All the arrangement methods when the openings 2 are arranged two-dimensionally in k (k: integer) are shown.

In the above embodiment, the front and back of the ion flow control plate 5 can be reversed and used. Further, in the above-described embodiments, the common electrode is arranged on one surface of the ion flow control plate 5, and the individual electrodes individually wired to the respective openings 2 are arranged on the other surface, but in the present invention, the openings 2 are arranged. The arrangement itself is essential, and the shape of the electrode pattern may be any other shape. For example, an electrode pattern shape in which two or more openings 2 are grouped together on one surface of the ion flow control plate 5 and an electrode pattern shape in which two or more openings 2 are grouped together on the other surface in a combination different from the previous surface Alternatively, an ion flow control signal may be applied to each surface to control the passage of the ion flow through the individual openings 2, so that the electrodes may have a so-called matrix configuration.

Furthermore, in the above description, the moving direction of the recording medium 6 coincides with the sub-scanning direction, and the direction perpendicular to this moving direction indicates the main scanning direction. Therefore, it is needless to say that the term "vertical" is not strictly defined and has a large width.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the present invention provides a large number of openings on a plurality of rows perpendicular to the moving direction of the recording medium, and the arrangement is such that all openings are in the ion flow passage state. Since the distribution of electrostatic image charges already formed by the opening in the front row and the distribution of the electrostatic image charge that is already formed with respect to the print line perpendicular to the moving direction on the recording medium is always symmetrically divided, the following openings are sequentially arranged. When the electrostatic latent image is formed, the deflection of the ion flow trajectory is unlikely to occur, the electrostatic image is formed uniformly, and there is an advantage that an image with little recording density unevenness can be obtained especially when recording a solid black portion.

Further, according to another invention of the present invention, since the openings are provided on eight rows, it is possible to easily obtain an array of openings having a large number of combinations. Therefore, it is easy to manufacture and at the same time, the openings are compared with the recording pitch, that is, resolution. Since an opening having a large area (usually the hole diameter of the opening) can be arranged, it is easy to secure a large ion flow passage amount, and as a result, an ion flow control plate that can easily obtain a sufficient recording density even at a high recording speed. There are advantages that can be realized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top view showing a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the same, and FIG. 3 shows an ion flow control plate of the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a process of forming an electrostatic image by using the ion flow control plate of the first embodiment of the present invention, which shows a uniform charge distribution obtained as a result of forming an electrostatic image. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing an example, FIG. 5 is a view for explaining various positions of the opening of another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a view showing a table for designating the position of the opening in FIG. , 7th
FIG. 8 is a top view showing still another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 9 is a top view of a conventional ion flow control plate.
10 is a bottom view of the same, FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of an example of using a conventional ion flow control plate, and FIG. 12 is an explanatory view of a process of forming an electrostatic image using the conventional ion flow control plate. FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a non-uniform charge distribution obtained as a result of forming an electrostatic image using the conventional ion flow control plate. In the figure, 1 is an upper electrode, 2 is an opening, 3 is a lower electrode, 4 is an insulator substrate, 5 is an ion flow control plate, and 1 is a recording dot pitch.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) Reference JP-A-55-55878 (JP, A) JP-A-58-72162 (JP, A) JP-A-59-55764 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An upper electrode and a lower electrode are provided on the upper surface and the lower surface of an insulating substrate on which a large number of openings for passing an ion flow are formed, and the upper electrode and the lower electrode are provided so as to overlap with the opening of the insulating substrate. In an ion flow control plate for controlling an ion flow by controlling an electric potential applied to an upper electrode and a lower electrode to form an electrostatic image, the plurality of openings are arranged at four equal intervals perpendicular to a moving direction of a recording medium. On the recording medium, the openings are arranged at a pitch four times as large as the recording dot pitch to be finally obtained on the recording medium, and the second row is the same as the first row. Arrange each opening on the vertical bisector of the line segment that connects the two openings that are adjacent to each other at the pitch,
The third row has the same pitch as the first row, and the line segment connecting the two adjacent openings on the first row is vertically set to 1: 3 or 3: 1.
Each of the openings is arranged on a line that divides only one of the distances, and the fourth row has the same pitch as the first row and the first row.
Vertically connect the line segment that connects the two adjacent openings on the line 3: 1
Alternatively, the ion flow control plate is characterized in that each opening is arranged on a line that divides into a distance that is not the same as the third row in the ratio of 1: 3. 2. An upper electrode and a lower electrode are provided on the upper surface and the lower surface of an insulating substrate on which a large number of openings for passing an ion flow are provided, and the respective opening portions are provided so as to overlap with the opening portion of the insulating substrate. In an ion flow control plate that controls an ion flow by controlling an electric potential applied to an upper electrode and a lower electrode to form an electrostatic image, the multiple openings are provided at eight equal intervals perpendicular to a moving direction of a recording medium. On the first row, the openings are arranged at a pitch of 8 times the recording dot pitch to be finally obtained on the recording medium, and the first row is arranged on the second row.
The openings are arranged at the same pitch as the first row and on the vertical bisector of the line segment that connects the two openings on the first row, and the third row has the same pitch as the first row. Place each opening on the line that vertically divides the line segment connecting the two adjacent openings on the first row to either 1: 3 or 3: 1, and on the fourth row The line segment connecting the two adjacent openings on the first row at the same pitch as the first row is vertically divided into a distance of 3: 1 or 1: 3 which is not the same as the third row. The openings are arranged on the line, and the line segment connecting the two openings that are adjacent to each other at the same pitch as the first column in the fifth column is vertically 1: 7,3: 5,5. Arrange each opening on a line that divides only one of the ratios: 3,7: 1,
In the sixth column, the openings are arranged at the same pitch as in the first column and on the perpendicular bisector of the line segment connecting the two adjacent openings on the fifth column, and in the seventh column Place each opening on the line that divides the line segment that connects the two openings on the fifth row that have the same pitch as the first row and that is adjacent to each other vertically to either 1: 3 or 3: 1 However, the 8th row has the same pitch as the 1st row, and the line segment connecting the two adjacent openings on the 5th row is vertically aligned with the 7th row in the ratio of 3: 1 or 1: 3. An ion flow control plate characterized in that each opening is arranged on a line that divides into a distance that is not.