Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Kakuji Murakami

Kiyofumi Nagai

Tamotsu Aruga

Hitoshi Arita

Akihiko Gotoh

Kiyoshi Tanikawa

Nobutaka Osada

Tetsuya Kaneko

Masaru Shimada

Hiroyuki Uemura

Toshiyuki Kawanishi

Tomoko Maeda

Tadashi Saito

Eiichi Akutsu

Yasuo Katano

Nobuyuki Yanagawa

Akiko Bannai

Masayuki Koyano

Tadashi Fujii

Aino Noguchi

Tomoko Takahashi

Toshiaki Tokita

Satoru Tomita

Yasuo Miyoshi

Mitsuo Hasebe

Toshio Kawakubo

Shigeru Fujita

Toshiroh Tokuno

Tadashi Saitoh

Akiko Konishi

Masatoshi Saitoh

Tomoyuki Yamaguchi

Hiroshi Tamura

Masaaki Yamada

Toshiaki Takahashi

Yoshikazu Akiyama

Eiichi Kawamura

Masato Igarashi

Hazime Machida

Takeshi Iijima

Toshiyuki Mutoh

Sotohiro Tsujihara

Tomiko Kawakami

Mitsuru Ohminato

Hiroko Uenozono

A peeling member to be used in an image remover configured to peel off and remove an image by thermal transfer from a recording material on which the image is formed of a thermoplastic image forming substance is disclosed that includes a base body; a rubber elasticity layer provided on the base body, the rubber elasticity layer being formed of a material having rubber elasticity; an organic polymer compound layer provided on the rubber elasticity layer, the organic polymer compound layer presenting no plasticity at a heating temperature for peeling off and removing the image on the recording material by the thermal transfer and having a Young fs modulus of 400 MPa to 6000 MPa at normal temperature; and a thermoplastic composition layer formed on the surface of the organic polymer compound layer so as to serve as an outermost surface layer presenting adhesion to the thermoplastic image forming substance.

Peeling member, member for forming peeling member, method of manufacturing peeling member, image remover, image forming and removing system, and image removing method

An image removing method including heating a recording material having thereon an image to a temperature so that the image has a plasticity; pressure-contacting an uppermost stream peeling member with the recording material while the image maintains a plasticity; separating the uppermost stream peeling member from the recording material to transfer at least a portion of the image to the uppermost stream peeling member; and repeating the heating, pressure-contacting and separating steps at least one more time using at least one downstream peeling member, wherein the uppermost stream peeling member has a first outermost layer which does not have a plasticity when being pressure-contacted with the recording material, and at least one of the at least one downstream peeling member has a second outermost layer which has a plasticity when being pressure-contacted with the recording material.

Method and apparatus for removing image from recording material, and image peeling member for peeling image from recording material

A disclosed image removing device includes a roller peeling member onto which a recording material with the image forming substance having thermoplastic properties is superposed; a heating unit configured to heat the image forming substance; a pressurizing unit configured to apply pressure to the roller peeling member and the recording material superposed thereon to cause the image forming substance heated by the heating unit to adhere to the roller peeling member; a separating unit configured to separate the recording material from the roller peeling member after the image forming substance has adhered to the roller peeling member; and a removing unit configured to remove, from the roller peeling member, the image forming substance that has been transferred from the recording material to the roller peeling member. The removing unit is driven in such a manner that the removing unit and the roller peeling member pressurize/contact/slide against each other.

Image removing device, image removing method, and image forming/removing system

A method for reusing a recording medium forms an image on the recording medium by use of an image forming material, and removes the image forming material from the recording medium through thermal transfer by use of a peeling member. The recording medium is paper produced by applying a treatment liquid at a size pressing after paper making and then drying the treatment liquid. The treatment liquid includes a water-soluble or water-dispersible polymer having an alkyl group with carbon atoms at its side chain as an image-repellant substance. The image forming material includes a thermoplastic resin, and the adhesive strength between the peeling member and the image forming material is higher than the adhesive strength between the recording medium and the image forming material.

Method for reusing recording medium, reusable recording medium, method for producing reusable recording medium and image forming apparatus

A disclosed image formation apparatus includes: a manual paper feed unit supplying a recording material; an image formation unit receiving the recording material from the manual paper feed unit; an image removal device removing an image recorded on the recording material; an installation unit detachably installing the image removal device on the image formation apparatus; and a switching unit switching whether the recording material fed from the manual paper feed unit is supplied to the image removal device installed using the installation unit or to the image formation unit.

Image formation apparatus

Disclosed is an electrophotographic recording medium that contains a support and an olefin-maleic anhydride copolymer, wherein the olefin-maleic anhydride copolymer exists at least near the surface of the electrophotographic recording medium on which an image is recorded, and the electrophotographic recording medium is reusable; and a method for producing an electrophotographic recording medium, an image forming method, a method for repeatedly using an electrophotographic recording medium, and a method for repeatedly using an electrophotographic recording medium.

Reusable electrophotographic recording medium and method for producing the same, image forming method, and method for repeatedly using electrophotographic recording medium

An ink for ink jet recording which is used for an ink jet printer in which at least a portion of a member being in contact with the ink is formed by any one of a borosilicate glass, a soda lime glass, a photosensitive glass, single crystal silicon, polysilicon, a silicon oxide film, a titanium nitride film, a zirconium film, a titanium oxide film, and a silicon nitride film, wherein a corrosion inhibitor is contained, and a phosphonium ion represented by the general formula (Formula 1) described below is contained: (wherein in Formula 1, Ra, Rb, Rc and Rd represent a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a hydroxyalkyl group, a halogenated alkyl group and a substituted or non substituted phenyl group, and Xrepresents a counter ion) is provided.

Ink for ink jet recording, ink jet recording method, ink cartridge and ink jet recording apparatus

An image forming apparatus is capable of forming an image on any of an image-erasable recording medium having recording-medium identification information and a recording medium and is capable performing image formation according to a first mode for forming an erasable image and according to a second mode for forming an inerasable image arbitrarily. The apparatus includes an image-forming unit, a detecting unit, and a control unit, feeds the image-erasable recording medium to the image-forming unit and allows the same to carry out image formation according to the first image-forming mode, when the first image-forming mode is selected, the detecting unit detects a recording medium having the recording medium-identification information, and the mode-control unit determines that image formation on an image-erasable recording medium can be carried out and does not prohibit image formation according to the first image-forming mode.

Apparatus for forming erasable and inerasable images and/or for detecting and erasing erasable images

An apparatus and method for recording an image using a transfer-type recording mechanism are such that a layer of an intermediate transfer element is removably formed on a surface of an intermediate transfer medium. The intermediate transfer element includes an ultraviolet stabilizer and a powder mixture. The intermediate transfer layer is capable of being dissolved and swelled by applying an ink liquid on the intermediate transfer medium and enables a viscosity of the ink liquid residing thereon to be increased. An image is produced on the intermediate transfer medium by supplying the ink liquid thereon. The image is then transferred to the recording medium, so that a high quality image is produced without any blurring, mixing or penetration of the ink liquid.

Recording method and apparatus with an intermediate transfer medium based on transfer-type recording mechanism

An image recording method including: applying a pretreatment liquid on a surface of a recording material; and discharging a recording ink according to image signals to form an ink image on the pretreatment liquid on the surface of the recording material before the pretreatment liquid applied to the recording material has dried, wherein the recording ink includes a solvent and a component dispersed or dissolved in the solvent, wherein the pretreatment liquid includes a compound depressing at least one of the dispersibility and solubility of the component in the recording ink in an amount of 10 to 80% by weight based on total weight, and wherein the pretreatment liquid has a viscosity of from 100 to 10,000 mPa&#xb7;s at 25&#xb0; C.

Pretreatment liquid for recording material and image recording method using the pretreatment liquid

An ink composition including a colorant; and a solvent, wherein a zeta potential 2 between the colorant and a material selected from the group consisting of silicon, glass, silicon oxide, titanium oxide, chromium oxide, titanium nitride, silicon nitride, zirconium and polyimide is from 0 to &#x2212;50 mV at a pH of from 6.5 to 11.5. A corrosion inhibitor is preferably added to the ink composition to adjust the zeta potential 2. An ink cartridge containing the ink which optionally includes a recording head discharging the ink to form an image on a recording material, wherein the zeta potential 2 between the colorant in the ink and a material of the recording head contacting the ink is from 0 to &#x2212;50 mV at a pH of from 6.5 to 11.5. An inkjet recording apparatus including the ink cartridge and a carriage carrying the ink cartridge.

Ink composition and inkjet recording method and apparatus using the ink composition

An ink for ink jet recording which is used for an ink jet printer in which at least a portion of a member being in contact with the ink is formed by any one of a borosilicate glass, a soda lime glass, a photosensitive glass, single crystal silicon, polysilicon, a silicon oxide film, a titanium nitride film, a zirconium film, a titanium oxide film, and a silicon nitride film, wherein a corrosion inhibitor is contained, and a phosphonium ion represented by the general formula (Formula 1) described below is contained:(wherein in Formula 1, Ra, Rb, Rc and Rd represent a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a hydroxyalkyl group, a halogenated alkyl group and a substituted or non substituted phenyl group, and Xrepresents a counter ion) is provided.

An image recording method including: applying a pretreatment liquid on a surface of a recording material; and discharging a recording ink according to image signals to form an ink image on the pretreatment liquid on the surface of the recording material before the pretreatment liquid applied to the recording material has dried, wherein the recording ink includes a solvent and a component dispersed or dissolved in the solvent, wherein the pretreatment liquid includes a compound depressing at least one of the dispersibility and solubility of the component in the recording ink in an amount of 100 to 80% by weight based on total weight, and wherein the pretreatment liquid has a viscosity of from 10 to 10,000 mPa&middot;s at 25&deg; C.

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Atsugi, Japan

Kakuji Murakami