Search

EP-4523921-B1 - IMAGE FORMING SYSTEM

EP4523921B1EP 4523921 B1EP4523921 B1EP 4523921B1EP-4523921-B1

Inventors

  • MATSUDA, TOMOKI
  • TAKAGI, KENJI

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20240912

Claims (13)

  1. An image forming system (100) comprising: an image forming apparatus (1) configured to form an adhesive toner image on a recording material; and a booklet generation apparatus (300) configured to generate a booklet including a recording material to be a front cover (P 0 ), a recording material to be a back cover (P j ), and two or more recording materials to be middle pages (P 1 , P 2 , P j-1 ) between the front cover and the back cover, the booklet generation apparatus including thermal compression bonding means (51) for heating and pressing an adhesive toner image portion in a state where a plurality of recording materials each with the adhesive toner image formed thereon is stacked in order to bond the plurality of recording materials together, wherein the booklet is generated so that the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together, the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together, and the adhesive toner image (T 1 ) bonding the middle pages together overlap when viewed from the direction perpendicular to the surface of the recording material, characterised in that each adhesive toner image is formed so that at least one of the adhesive toner image (T0') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and the adhesive toner image (Tj-1) bonding the back cover and the middle page together is greater in area than the adhesive toner image (T1) bonding the middle pages together when viewed from a direction perpendicular to a surface of the recording material.
  2. The image forming system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together are formed in a rectangular shape so that a longer side of the rectangular shape is aligned with a longer or shorter side of the recording material.
  3. The image forming system (100) according to claim 2, wherein each adhesive toner image is formed so that at least one of a shorter side of the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and a shorter side of the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together becomes longer than a shorter side of the adhesive toner image (T 1 ) bonding the middle pages together.
  4. The image forming system (100) according to claim 2, wherein each adhesive toner image is formed so that at least one of a longer side of the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and a longer side of the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together becomes longer than a longer side of the adhesive toner image (T 1 ) bonding the middle pages together.
  5. The image forming system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together are formed in a rectangular shape in a corner portion formed by longer and shorter sides of the recording material.
  6. The image forming system (100) according to claim 5, wherein each adhesive toner image is formed so that at least one of a shorter side of the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and a shorter side of the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together becomes longer than a shorter side of the adhesive toner image (T 1 ) bonding the middle pages together.
  7. The image forming system (100) according to claim 5, wherein each adhesive toner image is formed so that at least one of a longer side of the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and a longer side of the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together becomes longer than a longer side of the adhesive toner image (T 1 ) bonding the middle pages together.
  8. The image forming system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together are formed in a triangular shape in a corner portion formed by longer and shorter sides of the recording material.
  9. The image forming system (100) according to claim 8, wherein the adhesive toner image (T 1 ) bonding the middle pages together is formed in a triangular shape in the corner portion formed by the longer and shorter sides of the recording material.
  10. The image forming system (100) according to claim 1, wherein at least one of a shape or area of the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and a shape or area of the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together is changed based on a type of the recording material.
  11. The image forming system (100) according to claim 1, wherein at least one of a shape or area of the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and a shape or area of the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together is changed based on an operating environment of the booklet generation apparatus.
  12. The image forming system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus (1) is configured to form a toner image in a region other than a region where the adhesive toner image is formed on the recording material, wherein the booklet generation apparatus (300) includes an alignment roller (32) configured to align the plurality of recording materials, and wherein at least one of a shape or area of the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together and a shape or area of the adhesive toner image (T j-1 ) bonding the back cover and the middle page together is changed based on at least one of an image pattern on a portion of the toner image other than the adhesive toner image formed on the recording material and a printing rate of the portion, the portion being in contact with the alignment roller (32).
  13. The image forming system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the booklet is generated so that the adhesive toner image (T 1 ) bonding the middle pages together entirely overlaps with the adhesive toner image (T 0 ') bonding the front cover and the middle page together when the generated booklet is viewed from a direction perpendicular to a surface of the front cover.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming system including a booklet generation apparatus that generates a booklet by applying heat and pressure to an adhesive toner formed on a plurality of recording materials and bonding the plurality of recording materials together. Description of the Related Art There are a booklet generation apparatus and an image forming system for forming adhesive toner images on recording materials using an electrophotographic process and bonding the recording materials together to generate a booklet as discussed in JP2010-111025-A. However, the image forming apparatus including the booklet generation apparatus as discussed in JP2010-111025-A may worsen the appearance and quality of a booklet for the following reasons. For example, there may be a case where recording materials set in a sheet feed cassette by a user are not regulated properly in a width direction depending on the force applied by the user and each recording material is fed and conveyed in a state of being misaligned in the width direction. Further, the recording materials may be misaligned due to various causes during bonding. In a case where such issues occur, a booklet may be generated with an adhesive toner image formed at a misaligned position on each recording material. In a case where a booklet is generated with an adhesive toner image formed at a misaligned position on each recording material, when the generated booklet is viewed from a front or back cover, the adhesive toner image for bonding inner recording materials of the booklet may become transparently visible outside the adhesive toner image bonding the front or back cover, which worsens the appearance and quality of the booklet. Other examples of conventional image forming systems are provided in EP0015153-B1, WO96/09935-A1, US9110425-B2 and EP2465694-B1. The present invention is directed to preventing the appearance and quality of a booklet from worsening even in a case where an adhesive toner image is formed at a misaligned position on each recording material. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming system as specified in claims 1 to 13. Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the attached drawings. Each of the embodiments of the present invention described below can be implemented solely or as a combination of a plurality of the embodiments or features thereof where necessary or where the combination of elements or features from individual embodiments in a single embodiment is beneficial. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an image forming apparatus and a booklet generation apparatus according to a first embodiment.Figs. 2A to 2B are diagrams illustrating positions of adhesive toner images on recording materials according to the first embodiment.Figs. 3A to 3D are diagrams illustrating a recording material alignment method of the booklet generation apparatus according to the first embodiment.Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a thermal compression bonding unit of the booklet generation apparatus according to the first embodiment.Figs. 5A to 5C are diagrams illustrating an adhesive toner image pattern of a long-side bound booklet according to a comparative example.Figs. 6A to 6C are diagrams illustrating an adhesive toner image pattern according to the first embodiment.Figs. 7A to 7C are diagrams illustrating an adhesive toner image pattern of a corner bound booklet according to a comparative example.Figs. 8A to 8C are diagrams illustrating an adhesive toner image pattern according to a second embodiment.Figs. 9A to 9D are diagrams illustrating adhesive toner images according to a modified example of the second embodiment.Fig. 10 is a diagram illustrating an adhesive toner image pattern according to a third embodiment.Fig. 11 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an image forming apparatus and a booklet generation apparatus according to a modified example of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a cross section of an image forming apparatus 1 and a booklet generation apparatus 300 forming an image forming system 100 according to the first embodiment. The image forming system 100 may include a configuration in which a booklet generation function is partially or entirely embedded in the image forming apparatus 1. First, the image forming apparatus 1 will be described in detail below. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the image forming apparatus 1 includes a recording material cassette 8, a top sensor 4, an image forming unit 1e, a fixing device 6, and a housing 19. The recording material cassette 8 stores recording materials. The to