Nippon Steel Corporation

Research Laboratories of Australia Pty Ltd.

Hiroyuki Nakagoshi

Tsutomu Sasaki

Masahiko Itaya

Yoshiyuki Tanaka

Toshihiro Saito

Tai Hasegawa

Liquid developing method

A liquid developing method and a liquid developing apparatus that use a highly-concentrated liquid developing agent to develop an electrostatic latent image A highly-concentrated liquid developing agent with a viscosity of 100 to 1,000 mPa.s can be used. Therefore, a film of developing agent from 5 to 40 .mu.m thick can be formed on the surface of the developing roller or developing belt (510) and this provides a soft contact with the photosensitive member surface where the electrostatic latent image has been formed. If the surface of the photosensitive member does not have good release properties, a film of pre-wet liquid can be formed on the surface of the photosensitive member (10). A gap which is larger than the thickness of the liquid developing agent film and smaller than the sum of the thicknesses of the liquid developing agent film and the pre-wet liquid film is maintained between the surfaces of the photosensitive member and the developing roller or other developing agent bearing member such that the pre-wet liquid is always interposed between the two surfaces. Extremely good copies can be obtained if a 5 to 40 .mu.m thin film of liquid developing agent with a viscosity of 100 to 10,000 mPa.s and containing toner with an average particle size of 1 to 5.0 .mu.m at a concentration of 5 to 40% is used with a 30 .mu.m or less thin film of pre-wet liquid with a viscosity of 0.5 to 5.0 mPa.s and the gap between the photosensitive member and the developing agent roller or other developing agent bearing member is set at 5 to 60 .mu.m.

Liquid developing method and liquid developing apparatus

An electrostatic printing apparatus is arranged to generate an electrostatic latent image on an image supporting medium having an insulating releasing layer and a resin thin film layer formed successively on an electrically conductive substrate, to generate a toner image on the resin thin film layer by developing the electrostatic latent image with a toner solution, and to transfer the toner image together with the resin thin film layer to a recording medium by superposing the recording medium on the resin thin film layer of the image supporting medium with the toner image formed on the resin thin film layer and pressing and heating at a temperature higher than the glass transition temperature of the resin thin film layer.

Electrostatic printing apparatus

The electrostatic recording head includes an air introducing path for introducing an air, an ion exhaust path, an array of a large number of pin electrodes provided near the ion exhaust path within the air introducing path, an opposing electrode disposed opposite to the pin electrode array so that when a predetermined voltage is applied to the pin electrodes, corona discharge is caused between the pin electrodes and the opposing electrode, thereby ionizing the introduced air, and an array of control electrodes for selectively controlling flow of the ionized air through the ion exhaust path.

Electrostatic recording head

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Hiroyuki Nakagoshi