Minolta Company, Ltd.

Takaji Kurita

Hiroshi Mizuno

Masahiko Matsuura

Keyaki Yogome

Hidetoshi Miyamoto

Akihito Ikegawa

Masaharu Kanazawa

Shuji Iino

Toshimitsu Fujiwara

Masashi Yamamoto

Denji Nota

Kenji Otokawa

An initial resin substrate is formed by laminating resin layers, and one surface of the initial substrate is heated and pressed by a molding die to mold a projected and dented surface such that substantially no deformation occurs on the resin layer providing a surface opposed to the one surface of the initial substrate. A reversible image display medium is produced by a method comprising the steps of accommodating a dry developer into the concavities and fixing a second substrate to the first substrate using an adhesive. Alternatively a reversible image display medium may be produced by, e.g., a method comprising the steps of providing a first substrate having one surface including concavities, spreading the dry developer over the one surface, removing the excess developer while accommodating the developer into the concavities, and fixing a second substrate to the one surface, or alternatively forming a cell sheet having the cells and accommodating a dry developer therein by use of supersonic oscillation, magnetic force or vacuum suction force.

Method for producing resin-molded substrate and method for producing reversible image display medium

Disclosed is a reversible image display medium which can be repeatedly used and can display high quality images, in which cells between the two substrates accommodate a dry developer containing at least two kinds of frictionally chargeable dry developing particles having different chargeable polarities and different optical reflection densities; images are displayed by forming an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the image to be formed on one of the two substrates to drive the developing particles in an electrostatic field based on the electrostatic latent image; a developer-facing surface of one of the substrates has a surface resistivity of at least 1&#xd7;10ohm/square; a developer-facing surface of the opposite substrate has a surface resistivity from 1&#xd7;10ohm/square to 1&#xd7;10ohm/square; a developer-facing surface of one of the substrates has a surface average median roughness Ra of 0.2 &#x3bc;m to 0.5 &#x3bc;m; and an external surface of the substrate on image observation side has a surface average median roughness Ra of 0.2 &#x3bc;m to 0.7 &#x3bc;m.

Reversible image display medium

An image forming apparatus including first and second image forming portions, and a device for detecting a type of an image display medium, image formation by the first image forming portion being allowed when the medium type is a normal image display medium (PP), and image formation by the second image forming portion being allowed when the medium type is a reversible image display medium (TP). Another image forming apparatus including first and second image forming portions, and an image formation element setting switching device, image forming elements being set in a standard mode to a standard state for forming an image on a medium for the standard mode, and being switched in a non-standard mode to a non-standard state for forming an image on a medium for the non-standard mode.

Image forming apparatus capable of forming images on rewritable and reversible display media

A method of displaying information about an image forming apparatus comprising a first image forming portion for forming an image on a normal image display medium and a second image forming portion for forming an image on a reversible image display medium and capable of forming an image on the normal image display medium through the first image forming portion and of forming an image on the reversible image display medium through the second image forming portion, wherein the information about the image forming apparatus (information about the state of a predetermined item in the image forming apparatus) and (or) information about a setting state for image formation in the image forming apparatus) is displayed on a display device in the image forming apparatus and (or) a display device in an image information input apparatus transmitting image data to the image forming apparatus depending on the information, and an image forming apparatus capable of executing the method.

Image forming apparatus and method of displaying information about image forming apparatus

A method and apparatus capable of displaying a high-quality image using a reversible image display medium in which a cell(s) formed between two substrates accommodates at least two kinds of frictionally chargeable dry developing particles having different chargeable polarities and different optical reflection densities in image display, an electric field strength of, e.g., 0.3 V/&#x3bc;m to 3.0 V/&#x3bc;m is applied to the developer. An oscillating force (e.g. oscillating magnetic filed) is applicable and the oscillating force is substantially stopped during application of the electrostatic field. After completion of the electrostatic field, the surface of the medium on the image observation side may be charged to a potential holding the displayed image. Optionally, before image display, an alternating electric field may be applied to stir the developer for initialization of the medium.

Image displaying method and image forming apparatus utilizing a reversible image display medium having a high resolution image display

Image forming apparatus

A non-fixing type image receiving sheet to which toner particles are made adhere in a removable manner and an image forming apparatus. The image receiving sheet has a large number of concave portions accepting toner particles and a large number of convex portions protecting toner particles are formed on a surface of the image receiving sheet. The image forming apparatus has a sheet charging apparatus which charges the surface of the image receiving sheet to a polarity opposite to a charged polarity of toner particles, in advance of a transferring process.

Non-fixing type image receiving sheet, image forming method and image forming apparatus

A reversible image display medium accommodates a dry developer in each cell formed between two substrates. The developer contains at least two kinds of frictionally chargeable dry developing particles having different chargeable polarities and different optical reflection densities. An image display can be achieved by forming an electrostatic latent image on one of the substrates to drive the developing particles in an electric field based on the electrostatic latent image. The developing particles are set to an average charge quantity of 1.0 &mgr;C/g to 10 &mgr;C/g to achieve good image display. Optionally at least one kind of the developing particles are magnetic developing particles having a coercive force of 50 oersteds to 250 oersteds, and optionally having an optical reflection density of 1.0 or more. An amount of small-size developing particles and/or an addition of a third component may be adjusted and volume average particle size ratio of developing particles may be controlled.

An image forming apparatus is provided which forms images on both a concavo-convex sheet having a concavo-convex surface on which is formed many concavities capable of receiving toner and from which toner can be removed, and a general-purpose sheet which is not specially processed. The image forming apparatus has a first mode for forming an image on a general-purpose sheet, and a second mode for forming an image on a concavo-convex sheet. In the first mode, a general-purpose sheet receives a transferred toner image in the image forming region, and thereafter is guided to a fixing unit, where the toner is fixed on the sheet. In the second mode, a concavo-convex sheet receives a transferred toner image in the image forming region, and thereafter does not pass through the fixing unit but is guided to a convexity cleaning unit, where toner adhered to the convexities of the concavo-convex sheet during transfer is removed.

Image forming apparatus and method thereof

A toner is formed on an image receiving sheet S. The image receiving sheet S has an irregular surface s &prime; provided with continuous groove-like concavities R for accommodating toner. The toner T is removably adhered to the concavities R of the image receiving sheet irregular surface s &prime; for forming the toner image. Ridges P extending along the continuous groove-like concavities R protect the toner T adhered to the concavities R. The toner image formation surface may be covered with a peelable protective sheet CF (CF&prime;). When the image receiving sheet S carrying the toner image is to be reused, the toner is separated and removed from the image receiving sheet, and the image receiving sheet and/or the toner after removal of the toner are reused.

Image forming method, image forming apparatus, toner removing device and image receiving sheet

An image forming apparatus including a first image forming portion for forming an image on a normal image display medium; a second image forming portion for forming an image on a reversible image display medium; and a medium type detecting device for detecting the type of the image display medium to be subjected to the image formation, wherein the image forming portion corresponding to the image display medium of the type detected by the medium type detecting device is allowed to perform the image formation when the medium type detecting device detects the image display medium of the same type as that selected by an operator, and inhibition of the image formation on the medium of the detected type, image formation on the image display medium of another type or discharge of the medium of the detected type without image formation is performed when the detected type is different from the selected type.

A reversible image display medium including two sheets; one or more developer accommodating cells formed between the two sheets, and each having a periphery surrounded by a partition wall; and dry developer contained in each of the cell(s), wherein the dry developer contains at least two kinds of frictionally chargeable dry developer particles having different chargeable polarities and different optical reflection densities. The image is displayed by forming a predetermined electrostatic field for each pixel in accordance with the image to be displayed and thereby moving the developer particles in a frictionally charged state. The image formed on the reversible image display medium can be erased, e.g., by an image erasing device.

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Osakasayama, Japan

Takaji Kurita