Seiko Instruments Inc

Hidenori Fujioka

Shigeru Inagaki

Saburo Imai

Yuji Hosoi

Tatsuji Saigo

Kazuo Wakabayashi

Takashi Maeda

Kensuke Moritan

A printer has a printer body, a carriage for undergoing scanning movement over a print paper in a scanning direction, and a cassette removably connected to the printer body for storing print paper and having a code element indicative of photosensitive characteristics of the print paper. The print paper contains photosensitive microcapsules encapsulating a color developing material and a photo-curing material and has an image receiving layer for developing color by a reaction of the color developing material with the image receiving layer. The carriage has a light emitting element for emitting light of a preselected wavelength to which the photosensitive microcapsules are exposed to thereby form a latent image on the print paper. A photosensitive characteristics identifying mechanism is disposed on the carriage for reading the code element of the cassette to identify the photosensitive characteristics of the print paper. A light emission controller controls the intensity or the time period of emission of the light emitted by the light emitting element in accordance with the photosensitive characteristics of the print paper identified by the photosensitive characteristics identifying mechanism. A pressurizing mechanism applies mechanical pressure to the print paper after a latent image has been formed thereon to collapse the photosensitive microcapsules which were not exposed to the light emitted by the light emitting element and thereby develop the latent image by reaction of the color developing material in the photosensitive microcapsules with the image receiving layer.

Printer, printing system, and printing method using print paper with photosensitive microcapsules applied thereto

A printing apparatus of a photosensitive microcapsule type comprises a chassis, a cassette for storing printing paper containing photosensitive microcapsules, a printing paper feeding device for intermittently feeding the printing paper in a feeding direction, and a printing paper pickup device for feeding the printing paper from the cassette to a preselected location from which the printing paper is intermittently fed by the printing paper feeding device. A scan shaft is mounted on the chassis for undergoing rotation about a rotational axis extending generally perpendicular to the feeding direction of the printing paper. A first spiral groove is formed in the scan shaft along a clockwise direction and has opposite ends. A second spiral groove is formed in the scan shaft along a counterclockwise direction and has opposite ends each connected to a respective end of the first spiral groove so that the first and second spiral grooves form a loop. A carriage is slidably mounted on the scan shaft for undergoing reciprocal movement along the scan shaft during rotation of the scan shaft. Light emitting diodes are disposed on the carriage for selectively irradiating onto the printing paper light corresponding to image data when the carriage is reciprocated along the scan shaft. A pressurizing device applies pressure to the printing paper to which light is irradiated by the light emitting diodes to collapse the photosensitive microcapsules contained in the printing paper to form an image on the printing paper.

Printing apparatus of photosensitive microcapsule type and image processing system using the same

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Chiba, Japan

Hidenori Fujioka