Image forming apparatus
An image-forming apparatus for forming an image on a long flexible recording medium carried continuously in a specified transportation direction, including: at least two rollers over which the long flexible recording medium is stretched; a tension setting portion for stretching the long flexible recording medium horizontally by keeping the tension of a portion extending between the two adjacent rollers constant; and an image-forming unit for forming a two-dimensional pattern on the long flexible recording medium stretched between the two adjacent rollers horizontally.
1 . An image-forming apparatus for forming an image on a long flexible recording medium, comprising:
at least two rollers over which the long flexible recording medium is stretched;
a tension setting portion for stretching the long flexible recording medium horizontally by keeping the tension of a portion extending between the two adjacent rollers constant; and
an image-forming unit for forming a two-dimensional pattern on the long flexible recording medium stretched between the two adjacent rollers horizontally.
2 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a lower supporting portion for maintaining the flatness of the flexible recording medium is disposed at the back side of the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers to form an image with the image-forming unit.
3 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the lower supporting portion is a flat sliding guide member.
4 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an alignment unit, the alignment unit being provided on the side of a surface, on which the image is formed, or a surface, on which the image is not formed, of the flexible recording medium at a position at an upstream side of the image-forming unit in the transportation direction with respect to the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
5 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 2 , further comprising an alignment unit, the alignment unit being provided on the side of a surface, on which the image is formed, or a surface, on which the image is not formed, of the flexible recording medium at a position at an upstream side of the image-forming unit in the transportation direction with respect to the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
6 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 3 , further comprising an alignment unit, the alignment unit being provided on the side of a surface, on which the image is formed, or a surface, on which the image is not formed, of the flexible recording medium at a position at an upstream side of the image-forming unit in the transportation direction with respect to the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
7 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 1 , comprising plural image-forming units, the image-forming units being provided on both surface sides of the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
8 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 2 , comprising plural image-forming units, the image-forming units being provided on both surface sides of the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
9 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 3 , comprising plural image-forming units, the image-forming units being provided on both surface sides of the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
10 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising an alignment unit, the alignment unit being provided at the upstream side of at least one of the image-forming units provided on both surface sides of the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
11 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising an alignment unit, the alignment unit being provided at the upstream side of at least one of the image-forming units provided on both surface sides of the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
12 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising an alignment unit, the alignment unit being provided at the upstream side of at least one of the image-forming units provided on both surface sides of the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
13 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising plural alignment units, the alignment units being provided at the upstream side of the image-forming units provided on both surface sides of the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
14 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising plural alignment units, the alignment units being provided at the upstream side of the image-forming units provided on both surface sides of the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
15 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising plural alignment units, the alignment units being provided at the upstream side of the image-forming units provided on both surface sides of the long flexible recording medium stretched horizontally between the two adjacent rollers.
16 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image-forming unit comprises a laser exposure device.
17 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image-forming unit modulates a light beam with a spatial optical modulation device to execute exposure processing in a two-dimensional pattern.
18 . The image-forming apparatus of claim 1 , wherein after the image-forming unit modulates a light beam with a spatial optical modulation device, the beam is focused on the long flexible recording medium by means of an auto focus mechanism to project the two-dimensional pattern.