Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Shoichi Nagata

Kunio Ohashi

Masatsugu Nakamura

Tadashi Tonegawa

Kazuki Wakita

Takashi Hayakawa

Katsuhiro Nagayama

Toshiaki Kobayashi

Shiro Narikawa

Hiroshi Mori

Yoshikazu Fujiwara

Yoshikazy Fujiwara

Shiro Narukawa

An image forming apparatus makes use of a photosensitive sheet having a surface coated with microcapsules encapsulating a light-curable agent and a colorless dye and an image transfer sheet having one surface coated with a developing agent having an chromogenic effect on the encapsulated colorless dye. These sheets are superposed one on top of the other and pressed together by a compression device to selectively rupture the microcapsules on the photosensitive sheet, forming a visible image on the image transfer sheet which is thereafter heated by a heating device. Either the speed at which the image transfer sheet is passed through the compression device or the temperature at which the image transfer sheet is heated by the heating device is controlled according to a characteristic of the image transfer sheet such as its thickness, electrostatic capacity and light transmissivity.

Image forming apparatus

A photosensitive body for electrophotography has as its principal constituent a photoconductive layer having amorphous silicon with hydrogen, a surface layer having a greater optical band gap than the photoconductive layer formed on a photoconductive base member, and an intermediate layer sandwiched therebetween.

Photosensitive body for electrophotography containing amorphous silicon

Image-forming light from a light source is projected to form a latent image with color information on a photosensitive sheet having a surface coated with microcapsules each containing a light-curable agent sensitive to light in a wavelength range corresponding to blue, green or red and a specified chromogenic agent which produces yellow, magenta or cyanic. An image transfer sheet with a surface coated with a developing agent having chromogenic effects on these encapsulated chromogenic agents is superposed on such a photosensitive sheet with a latent image formed thereon by selectively hardened microcapsules and these sheets are compressed together to rupture only those of the microcapsules which have not been hardened. The emission characteristics of the lamp used as the light source are such that the emission intensity is concentrated in wavelength ranges where the light-curable agents have peak photosensitivities.

Method of image formation

Quality of images formed electrophotographically on a photoreceptor is improved by controllingly switching on and off a heater for the photoreceptor such that the photoreceptor temperature remains higher than the measured ambient temperature by several .degree.C. to 20.degree. plus several .degree.C. At the same time, the output of the charger for the photoreceptor or brightness of an image forming lamp is controlled according to the measured surface temperature of the photoreceptor.

Heat control for photoreceptor

An image forming apparatus stores inside a light-shielding container a photosensitive sheet having a surface coated with microcapsules encapsulating a light-curable agent and a colorless dye. After this photosensitive sheet is pulled out of the container and exposed to image-forming light to form a latent image thereon, an image transfer sheet having one surface coated with a developing agent having an chromogenic effect on the encapsulated colorless dye is superposed on the photosensitive sheet and pressed together to selectively rupture unhardened ones of the microcapsules. After a jam detected inside the apparatus is removed, double exposure of the microcapsules is prevented by advancing the photosensitive sheet by an appropriate distance depending on whether exterior light is detected by sensors inside the apparatus and whether the jam occurred during an image forming operation.

An image forming apparatus of a static exposure type uses a static exposure-type optical system to expose a photosensitive sheet to form a latent image thereon such that a visible image is produced from such a latent image. An exposure detector detects the amount of light energy to which the photosensitive sheet is exposed and the exposure of the photosensitive sheet to image forming light is continued by a control device until the cumulative light energy as measured by the exposure detector reaches a preset value.

A photoreceptor for an image formation apparatus has a photosensitive layer of a multi-layer structure each having the characteristic of increasing its electrical resistance at a different rate upon expose to light. An image-carrying beam of reflected light from an original to be copied is made incident on the photoreceptor to form a resistance image. An electrostatic latent image is formed therefrom either on the photoreceptor itself or on a transfer medium placed in contact therewith and a visible toner image is formed by applying toner on such an electrostatic image but the resistance image on the photoreceptor remains undisturbed during such image transfer processes. Thus, a plurality of copies of a single original can be produced without exposing the photoreceptor to reflected light therefrom for each copy to be printed.

Electrophotographic image formation apparatus with two bias voltage

An image forming apparatus of a type using a light receiving sheet coated with pressure-rupturable microcapsules encapsulating a colorless dye and a radiation-curable material is provided not only with a supplementary exposure device with which the sheet may be supplementarily exposed to light so as to have its radiation-curability characteristics corrected but also with an input device through which a command can be inputted whether or not the sheet should be supplementarily exposed and a driving mechanism which drives or does not drive the supplementary exposure device, depending on the command from the input means.

Image forming device with supplementary exposure device

A photoconductive device including a conductive substrate, a photoconductive layer of amorphous silicon containing at least hydrogen and a surface protection layer applied on the photoconductive layer a dopant is added in the photoconductive layer at least near the interface with the surface protection layer, and the concentration of the dopant increases in the direction perpendicular to the interface. The surface protection layer has an optical energy gap larger than that of the photoconductive layer. A further photoconductive device comprising a conductive substrate; a photoconductive layer of amorphous silicon applied on the conductive substrate and a surface protection layer of amorphous silicon applied on said photoconductive layer wherein the surface protection layer contains oxygen, and is doped with a IIIb element.

Doped amorphous silicon photoconductive device having a protective

A photoconductive device comprising a conductive substrate and a photoconductive layer applied on the conductive substrate, which photoconductive layer is made of amorphous silicon containing at least hydrogen, wherein the photoconductive layer contains hydroxy radicals. Another photoconductive device comprising a conductive substrate, a photoconductive layer of amorphous silicon containing at least hydrogen and a surface protection layer applied on the photoconductive layer; wherein a dopant is added in the photoconductive layer at least near the interface with the surface protection layer, and the concentration of the dopant increases in the direction perpendicular to the interface and the surface protection layer has an optical energy gap larger than that of the photoconductive layer. A further photoconductive device comprising a conductive substrate; a photoconductive layer of amorphous silicon applied on the conductive substrate and a surface protection layer of amorphous silicon applied on said photoconductive layer wherein the surface protection layer contains oxygen, and is doped with a IIIb element.

Growing community of inventors

Nara, Japan

Shoichi Nagata