JPH11305560A - Electrophotographic printing method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To perform good printing without misalignment on an object to be printed such as an optical disk D. SOLUTION: A print image P is formed on a transfer belt 1 circulating.
At the same time, a mark image M is created. The mark image M is detected by the photoelectric sensor 19 at the fixed position, and a start signal of the transport operation is output. In response to this signal, the sequencer 15
Starts the conveyance of the optical disc D by the conveyance table 14 by operating the servo motor 17, conveys the optical disc D to the transfer position by the transfer belt 1, and transfers the print image P on the transfer belt 1 to the optical disc D. .

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic printing method and apparatus for printing a label or the like on the surface of an object to be printed such as an optical disk.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an optical disk, a label or an index is screen- or offset-printed in order to know the recorded contents by appearance. However, this method requires preparation of a plate in advance, and is inefficient for various kinds of small-quantity printing. Therefore, it has been proposed to use an electrophotographic method that does not require plate making (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 5-212857).

[0003]

In a normal copying machine, the printing material is paper, and a slight deviation can be ignored. The printing medium is not particularly positioned with respect to the toner image. For this reason, when electrophotographic printing is performed on an optical disk by using a normal copying machine, the label or the like may be slightly shifted in the transport direction, which has an effect on the merchantability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrophotographic printing method and apparatus for performing printing without misalignment on a printing material such as an optical disk.

[0005]

According to the electrophotographic printing method of the present invention, a toner image is formed on a transfer member, and the printing material is conveyed to a transfer position by the transfer member. An electrophotographic printing method for transferring an image, wherein a mark image for positioning is formed on the transfer body together with the print image as the toner image, and the mark image on the transfer body is fixed at a fixed position with respect to the transfer body. Is detected, and the conveyance of the printing medium is controlled in synchronization with the detection of the mark image.

[0006] The electrophotographic printing apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
Transfer body, an image forming apparatus that creates a toner image on the transfer body, a transport device that transports the print material to a transfer position by the transfer body and transfers the toner image on the transfer body to the print material,
An electrophotographic printing apparatus comprising: on the transfer body, as the toner image, together with a print image, a mark image creating means for creating a mark image for alignment, provided in the image forming apparatus, Mark image detecting means for detecting a mark image on a transfer body at a fixed position, and transport control means for controlling a transport operation of the transport device in synchronization with detection of the mark image by the detecting means are provided.

Here, it is preferable that the mark image is formed at a position on the transfer body where the mark image is not transferred to the printing object, while maintaining a predetermined positional relationship with the print image.

[0008]

According to the first or third aspect of the present invention, a mark image created together with a print image on a transfer body is detected, and the printing medium is conveyed in synchronization with the detection of the mark image. Is controlled, the print medium can be accurately positioned with respect to the print image on the transfer body, and favorable electrophotographic printing without displacement can be performed.

According to the second or fourth aspect of the present invention, a mark image is formed at a position on the transfer body where the image is not transferred to the print object, and the mark image is formed. Is changed, it is easy to detect the mark image, and the controllability can be improved.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. Here, an optical disc will be described as an example of a printing target to be printed. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention. The printing apparatus includes a transfer body (transfer belt) 1 that circulates, an image forming apparatus 2 that forms a toner image on the transfer belt 1, and a transfer position of the optical disk D by the transfer belt 1 (the transfer position is guided by a transfer roll 10). Transport device 13 for transporting the toner image on the transfer belt 1 to the optical disc D by transporting the toner image to the optical disc D.

The image forming apparatus 2 includes a photosensitive member (photosensitive belt) 3 that circulates in synchronization with the transfer belt 1 while being in contact with the transfer belt 1 at one position.
A charging device (not shown), an exposure device, a developing device, and an electrostatic transfer device are provided. An electric charge is applied to the surface of the photosensitive belt 3 by the charging device, and the charged surface of the photosensitive belt 3 is exposed by the exposure device.
The charge in the exposed portion is eliminated by a photoconductive phenomenon to form an electrostatic latent image. Exposure is controlled by a signal output from a computer in accordance with a pre-stored print pattern, but it can be read from a print pattern original by a scanner, or separately created and input as image data, or May be created.

The developing device applies a charged colored powder toner (negative charge) to the surface of the photosensitive belt 3 to develop the electrostatic latent image (by attracting the toner by the electric field of the electrostatic latent image), thereby forming a visible image. Is formed. The electrostatic transfer device electrostatically transfers the toner image formed on the photosensitive belt 3 to the transfer belt 1.
The electrostatic transfer is performed, for example, by applying a voltage (positive voltage) having a polarity opposite to that of the toner from the back surface of the transfer belt 1. This allows
A toner image is created on the transfer belt 1.

The transfer belt 1 is guided by a transfer roll 10 at a lowermost position, and a transfer to an optical disk D described later is performed at the position of the transfer roll 10. In addition, the photosensitive belt 3
The transfer belt 1 is provided with a cleaning device (not shown). The transport device 13 has a transport table 14 that receives the supply of the optical disc D from a supply device (not shown), places the optical disc D thereon, and transports the optical disc D to a transfer position by the transfer belt 1 (a position guided by the transfer roll 10). .

The transfer here is performed by pressing the surface of the optical disc D against the transfer belt 1 guided by the transfer roll 10 while applying a charge having a polarity opposite to that of the toner to the surface of the optical disc D on the transport table 14. This is performed by electrostatically transferring the toner image on the belt 1 to the surface of the optical disc D. After the transfer, the transport table 14 further transports the optical disc D, fixes the toner image transferred to the optical disc D by a fixing device (not shown), and discharges the optical disc D by a discharge device (not shown). Then, it returns to the original supply position.

The transport table 14 controls a servomotor 17 via a motor controller 16 based on a signal output from the sequencer 15 and moves the feed screw 18 by the servomotor 17. Here, the image forming apparatus 2 is provided with mark image forming means for forming a mark image M for positioning (register) together with the print image P as the toner image on the transfer belt 1. The mark image M is formed on the transfer belt 1 at a position not transferred to the optical disc D, for example, near the widthwise end of the transfer belt 1 while maintaining a predetermined positional relationship with the print image P.

As a specific preparation method, when a print pattern is stored in a computer (not shown) for controlling an exposure apparatus, a mark image is added to a document of the print pattern together with a print image, and the document is read by a scanner. It is sufficient to input the image data of the mark image together with the print image when separately creating the image data, or to create the mark image together with the print image on the computer.
As a result, the mark image M is created on the transfer belt 1 together with the print image P.

At a fixed position in front of the transfer roll 10 with respect to the circulating transfer belt 1, a photoelectric sensor 19 having a light-projecting / light-receiving device is disposed as mark image detecting means for optically detecting the mark image M. . Then, the mark image detection signal of the photoelectric sensor 19 is input to the sequencer 15 as a transport control unit as a start signal of the transport operation of the transport device 13.

According to such a configuration, the mark image M is formed together with the print image P as a toner image on the transfer belt 1 by the image forming apparatus 2, and the print image P and the mark image M are determined by the circulation movement of the transfer belt 1. Is reached, the mark image M is detected by the photoelectric sensor 19, and a mark image detection signal is output. This mark image detection signal is transmitted to the transport device 1
3 is input to the sequencer 15 as a start signal for the transfer operation, and in response thereto, the sequencer 15 starts the rotation of the servomotor 17 via the motor controller 16 and transfers the transfer table 14 via the feed screw 18. Start operation.

Accordingly, if the distance by which the print image P moves to the transfer position and the distance by which the optical disk D moves to the transfer position by the transport table 14 from the point in time when the mark image M is detected are equal to each other, The print image P can be transferred without displacement. According to the method and apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to perform electrophotographic printing without displacement, and if a label or the like is printed by the method and apparatus of the present invention, a high-quality optical disc can be obtained.

In the above-described embodiment, a mark image for alignment is created at a position on the transfer body where the image is not transferred to the print object while maintaining a predetermined positional relationship with the print image.
Although the detection of the mark image is easy regardless of the change of the print image, a part of the print image may be a mark image that can be optically distinguished from other print images.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 transfer member (transfer belt) 2 image forming device (including mark image creating means) 3 photosensitive member (photosensitive belt) 10 transfer roll 13 transfer device 14 transfer table 15 sequencer (transport control means) 16 motor controller 17 servo motor 18 feed Screw 19 Photoelectric sensor (mark image detecting means) D Optical disk P Print image M Mark image

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI G03G 15/00 518 G03G 15/22 103Z 15/22 103 B41J 3/00 F 21/14 G03G 21/00 372

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electrophotographic printing method for forming a toner image on a transfer body, transferring the print material to a transfer position by the transfer body, and transferring the toner image on the transfer body to the print material, comprising: Above, as the toner image, together with a print image,
While creating a mark image for alignment, the mark image on the transfer body is detected at a fixed position with respect to the transfer body,
An electrophotographic printing method for controlling the conveyance of a printing material in synchronization with the detection of the mark image. 2. The electrophotographic printing method according to claim 1, wherein the mark image is formed at a position on the transfer body where the mark image is not transferred to a printing medium while maintaining a predetermined positional relationship with a print image. 3. A transfer member, an image forming apparatus for forming a toner image on the transfer member, and a transfer member for transferring a printing material to a transfer position by the transfer member and transferring the toner image on the transfer material to the printing material. An electrophotographic printing apparatus comprising: a device, on the transfer body, as the toner image, together with a print image,
Mark image forming means for forming a mark image for alignment provided in the image forming apparatus, mark image detecting means for detecting a mark image on the transfer body at a fixed position with respect to the transfer body, and mark image by the detecting means An electrophotographic printing apparatus comprising: a conveyance control unit that controls a conveyance operation of the conveyance device in synchronization with the detection of the image. 4. The mark image creating means creates an alignment mark image at a position on the transfer body where the image is not transferred to a printing material, while maintaining a predetermined positional relationship with respect to a print image. An electrophotographic printing apparatus as described in the above.