Regenerating method and apparatus of image holding supporting member

In a regenerating method and apparatus of a recorded material in which at least a portion of the recorded material in the vicinity of a surface thereof on an image forming side is wet and expands with a liquid, the wet and expanding liquid (also called an image removing accelerating liquid in the following description) is provided to the recorded material so that the portion of the recorded material in the vicinity of the surface thereof is wet and expands with this liquid. A separating member comes in contact with an image forming substance having a film shape and a thermoplastic or thermally melted property and formed in the vicinity of the surface of the recorded material in a state in which joining force between the image forming substance and the recorded material is reduced. An image in the vicinity of the surface of the recorded material is transferred onto the separating member so that the image forming substance on the recorded material is removed therefrom. The image removing accelerating liquid is provided to the same recorded material plural times.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
1. Technical Field 
The present invention relates to a regenerating apparatus of a recorded 
material in which an image having a film shape is formed and recorded in 
the vicinity of a surface of the recorded material in an image recording 
method such as an electrophotographic method, a thermal transfer method, 
an ink jet method using hot melt-ink, a printing method, etc., and an 
image forming substance is removed from the unnecessary recorded material 
so that the recorded material is regenerated in a reusable state. 
The regenerating method and apparatus of the recorded material in the 
present invention can be applied to various kinds of fields in which 
foreign matters are removed from the surface of a member such as an 
electronic blackboard, etc. capable of automatically erasing an image. 
2. Prior Art 
A large amount of printer paper and copying paper has been used by recent 
office automation (OA). Therefore, a large amount of paper is uselessly 
dumped from offices in main cases at the present time. It takes much cost 
to dispose this paper. Simultaneously, a regional environment becomes 
worse by dumping processing of this paper. Further, a global environment 
has recently become worse by deforestation for producing paper. 
In a general treatment for solving this problem and recycling paper, ink is 
removed from a sheet of paper once used and this paper is decomposed into 
cellulose fibers and is again filtered and is reused as regenerated paper. 
This treatment requires a large-scale plant for regenerating the used 
paper. Further, it is necessary to arrange sorting, collecting and 
conveying processes, etc. with respect to the used paper until the 
regenerated paper is obtained. Furthermore, in this method, paper fibers 
are damaged in a regenerating operation so that paper can be regenerated 
about two times at most when the same paper fibers are used. 
Recently, new paper has been developed. A character image is removed from 
this paper once used by cleaning and this paper can be used to make a copy 
or print. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laying Open (KOKAI) 
No. 4-67043, mold-releasing processing is performed with respect to a 
surface of a sheetlike supporting member, especially, only one face of the 
supporting member. A mark is provided to this mold-released supporting 
member to discriminate this supporting member from (ordinary) plain paper. 
However, this supporting member is special paper so that it is difficult 
to fix an image onto this special paper. Accordingly, there is a problem 
when this supporting member is used as a sheet of general copying paper. 
Each of Japanese Patent Application Laying Open (KOKAI) Nos. 1-101576 and 
1-101577 shows a method for removing an image from an image forming 
supporting member. In this method, an image forming substance (toner) is 
removed from the image forming supporting member by supersonic processing 
within an organic solvent for dissolving this image forming substance. 
However, this method has problems about pollution, ignition and toxicity 
by the organic solvent. Accordingly, there are problems about use in 
general offices and homes. Japanese Patent Application Laying Open (KOKAI) 
No. 1-297294 shows a cleaning method for separating an image from an image 
forming supporting member. In this cleaning method, the image forming 
supporting member is formed by plastic, a metal, paper or ceramic having 
low liquid permeability, etc. The image formed on the supporting member is 
heated through a thermally melted separating member and is separated from 
the supporting member. However, a sheet of special paper having a 
mold-released surface must be used in this cleaning method. 
In Japanese Patent Application No. 5-202557, the inventors of this patent 
application proposed an ink separating method. In this method, a recorded 
material is constructed by a chartaceous layer. At least one portion of 
this chartaceous layer is constructed by cellulose fibers as a main 
component. This recorded material is impregnated with a liquid including 
water so that adhesive force between the chartaceous layer and ink is 
weakened. In this weakening state, the recorded material and a separating 
member come in press contact with each other so that thermally flexible 
ink is separated from the chartaceous layer. This method is excellent 
since an image formed on paper usually used can be separated therefrom and 
this paper can be regenerated as a recorded material and there are no 
problems about safety, etc. In Japanese Patent Application No. 5-96619, 
the inventors of this patent application proposed an apparatus 
construction for embodying the regenerating method proposed in Japanese 
Patent Application No. 5-202557. Further, it has been found from a 
subsequent consideration that the regenerating method of this Japanese 
Patent Application No. 5-202557 is effective if the recorded material is 
not necessarily constructed by cellulose fibers as a main component, but 
has a layer expanding with a liquid including water in the vicinity of a 
layer surface on an image forming side. The inventors of this patent 
application already proposed the recorded material about this technique 
and a method and an apparatus for regenerating this recorded material. 
Concrete examples and disadvantages of the regenerating method and 
apparatus of the recorded material proposed by the inventors of this 
patent application in Japanese Patent Application Nos. 5-96619 and 
5-202557 will next be described. In the following description, these 
regenerating method and apparatus are also respectively called a general 
method of the inventors of this patent application and an apparatus for 
executing this general method of the inventors of this patent application. 
In these proposed method and apparatus, a liquid (an image removing 
accelerating liquid) including water is provided to the recorded material 
recorded in the above recording method so that adhesive force between the 
recorded material and an image forming substance is weakened. After 
adhesive force between the recorded material and an image having a film 
shape is weakened, the recorded material comes in contact with a 
separating member having adhesive force about the image forming substance 
stronger than the adhesive force between the recorded material and the 
image forming substance. Then, the recorded material and the separating 
member are pressurized and/or heated so that the image forming substance 
is transferred from the recorded material to the separating member. Thus, 
the image forming substance is removed from the recorded material. 
FIG. 1 shows an example of the apparatus construction for executing the 
general method of the inventors of this patent application. A recorded 
material is guided from a paper feed tray 1 to a separating member roller 
5 through a guide plate 3 by a paper feed roller 2 and a conveying roller 
4. A surface of the separating member roller 5 is coated with an image 
removing accelerating liquid 7 by a liquid supplying roller 6. The 
recorded material conveyed from the conveying roller 4 is coated and 
impregnated with the image removing accelerating liquid 7. The recorded 
material coated and impregnated with the image removing accelerating 
liquid 7 and coming in contact with the separating member roller 5 comes 
in press contact with a heating roller 8 and is heated by this heating 
roller 8. Thereafter, the recorded material is separated from a separating 
member by a separating claw 9. An image forming substance on the separated 
separating member is removed from the surface of the separating member 
roller 5 by a cleaning portion 1F. Thus, the surface of the separating 
member roller 5 is again coated with the image removing accelerating 
liquid. In contrast to this, the recorded material separated by the 
separating claw 9 is guided onto a drying belt 1B by conveying rollers 1A 
and is dried. The dried recorded material is then discharged onto a paper 
discharging tray 1C by the conveying rollers 1A. The image forming 
substance is removed from a surface of the discharged recorded material so 
that the recorded material can be reused. 
With respect to one of disadvantages of such a general regenerating 
apparatus, when paper usually used is used as the recorded material, it is 
necessary to separate the image forming substance from the recorded 
material by providing a relatively large amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material to such an extent that this 
paper is approximately saturated with the image removing accelerating 
liquid. When such a large amount of the image removing accelerating liquid 
is provided to the recorded material, it is necessary to dry the provided 
liquid so as to finish the recorded material as a reusable material. 
Accordingly, energy for regenerating the recorded material is increased 
and no recorded material can be processed at a high speed. When general 
paper is used as the recorded material, this paper is wet and expands with 
water included in the image removing accelerating liquid so that strength 
of this paper is reduced. Accordingly, when a large amount of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material, a 
flexing strength of this paper is reduced in a certain case. In this case, 
it is difficult to convey the recorded material within the regenerating 
apparatus for removing the image forming substance from the recorded 
material. Further, the size of an entire finished paper sheet is greatly 
changed. To provide the large amount of the image removing accelerating 
liquid, it is necessary to hold a container according to this liquid 
amount within the regenerating apparatus so that the regenerating 
apparatus is large-sized. Further, when the large amount of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material and the 
recorded material is dried after removal of the image forming substance, a 
large amount of water as a component of the image removing accelerating 
liquid is evaporated from the recorded material in accordance with the 
providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid. Accordingly, 
the concentration (humidity) of a liquid component around the regenerating 
apparatus is abnormally increased. The liquid component (water) is 
coagulated within the regenerating apparatus so that troubles about 
electric circuits are caused. 
When the recorded material is continuously regenerated in the regenerating 
apparatus for executing the general method of the inventors of this patent 
application, coating irregularities are caused in a coating state of the 
image removing accelerating liquid. Further, when the image removing 
accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material, the recorded 
material is curled and deformed in a wavy shape so that the recorded 
material is insufficiently conveyed within the regenerating apparatus. 
Accordingly, no recorded material can be regenerated at any time with high 
reliability. 
In addition to the above disadvantages, when the same recorded material is 
repeatedly regenerated and reused by the general method of the inventors 
of this patent application, a component of the image removing accelerating 
liquid is accumulated in the recorded material so that various kinds of 
problems are caused. For example, a surfactant as a component of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is accumulated on a surface of paper 
repeatedly regenerated. Therefore, a device for recording an image is 
polluted and a fixing property of the image is reduced. Further, there is 
a case in which a coefficient of friction of a roller is reduced so that 
paper is slipped on this roller within the device for recording an image 
and is insufficiently conveyed. 
OBJECTS 
An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems 
and disadvantages of the general technique. Namely, one object of the 
present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for efficiently 
regenerating a recorded material without making this recorded material 
dirty in which an image is formed in a film shape on a surface of the 
recorded material in an image recording method such as an 
electrophotographic method, a thermal transfer method, an ink jet method 
using hot melt-ink, a printing method, etc. 
Another object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned 
problems about the regenerating method of the recorded material in the 
above Japanese Patent Application No. 5-202557 proposed by the inventors 
of this patent application and the regenerating apparatus in Japanese 
Patent Application No. 5-96619. More concretely, another object of the 
present invention is to reduce regenerating energy, increase a processing 
speed of the recorded material, improve reliability of conveyance of the 
recorded material, reduce a change in size of the recorded material, make 
the regenerating apparatus compact, and remove troubles inside and outside 
the regenerating apparatus caused in evaporation of a large amount of an 
image removing accelerating liquid by improving the regenerating method 
and apparatus proposed by the inventors of this patent application and 
reducing an amount of the image removing accelerating liquid required to 
regenerate the recorded material. 
Another object of the present invention is to improve separating 
characteristics of the recorded material and a separating member, increase 
reliability of conveyance of the recorded material during regenerative 
processing, and reduce the restrictions of kinds of regenerable recorded 
materials and kinds of image forming substances. 
Another object of the present invention is to increase the number of 
repeatable cycles for regenerating and reusing the same recorded material.

CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF THE INVENTION 
In the above method proposed by the inventors of this patent application, a 
method for impregnating a recorded material with an aqueous solution 
including a surfactant of relatively low concentration, etc. in one 
process is used as a liquid providing means for providing an image 
removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material so as to reduce 
adhesive force between the recorded material and an image forming 
substance. In comparison with this method, the inventors of this patent 
application have found that the image forming substance can be preferably 
removed from the recorded material with smaller amount of the image 
removing accelerating liquid and more reliability by a method for 
providing the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material 
plural times. 
A construction and an operation of the regenerating method and apparatus of 
the recorded material in accordance with the present invention will next 
be explained in detail. 
Many methods for forming an image as a so-called hard copy on the recorded 
material are generally proposed. For example, there are an 
electrophotographic method using dry type toner and wet type toner, a 
thermal transfer method using a thermally melted ink sheet, a thermal 
diffusive transfer method using thermal diffusive dyes, an ink jet method, 
a heat sensitizing recording method using a material colored by heat, a 
silver salt photographic method, a printing method using offset printing, 
intaglio, relief printing, hole printing, etc. In these image forming 
methods generally used, the recorded material relative to the regenerating 
method of the present invention uses a thermoplastic or thermally melted 
image forming substance normally used in the electrophotographic method, 
the thermal transfer method, the ink jet method using hot melt-ink, the 
printing method, etc. The image forming substance is formed and recorded 
in a film shape in the vicinity of a surface of the recorded material. In 
this case, the film shape does not necessarily mean that an entire image 
forms one film. The film shape also means simply that no image forming 
substance deeply permeates the interior of the recorded material. The film 
shape further means that no image forming substance almost attains a state 
in which the image forming substance is adsorbed to the recorded material 
at a molecular level such as a printing case of water-soluble ink 
including dyes. Accordingly, for example, when an image is printed by the 
electrophotographic method using dry type toner and is cut (broken) within 
one character and one toner particle attains an independently existing 
state, this image is considered as the film-shaped image as an object of 
image removal in the regenerating method of the present invention from a 
removing principle thereof when this particle does not permeate the 
recorded material until a deep interior of the recorded material. The 
present invention relates to a method and an apparatus capable of 
regenerating and reusing the recorded material recorded by an image 
forming method in which the image is formed in a film shape in the 
vicinity of a surface of the recorded material. 
The recorded material used in the present invention may be constructed by 
laminating chartaceous layers with each other on at least an image forming 
face of a plastic film and a sheet of general recording paper having 
cellulose fibers as a main component in the vicinity of at least a surface 
of the recorded material having the image forming substance to be removed. 
The recorded material in the present invention may be also constructed by 
arranging a layer showing a wet expanding property with respect to the 
image removing accelerating liquid in the vicinity of a surface of the 
recorded material. A sheet of paper commercially sold and having about 20 
to 200 .mu.m in thickness among these recorded materials is cheap in price 
and is easily obtained so that this paper sheet is preferable as the 
recorded material in the present invention. 
A separating member used in the present invention is a member for 
transferring and separating the image forming substance from the recorded 
material by making the image forming substance on the recorded material 
adhesive to this separating member. It is necessary to construct the 
separating member by a material having adhesive and heat resisting 
properties to a certain extent with respect to the image forming 
substance. For example, the material of the separating member can be 
constructed by using synthetic rubber such as isoprene rubber, Neoprene 
rubber, chloroprene rubber, silicon rubber, butadiene rubber, fluorine 
rubber, etc., natural rubber, epoxy resin such as bisphenol 
epichlorohydrin condesate, etc., alkyd resin, amino resin such as urea 
formaldehyde resin, butyl urea formaldehyde resin, butyric melamine 
formaldehyde resin, benzoguanamine formaldehyde resin, etc., phenol 
thermosetting resin such as terpene phenol resin, phenol ether resin, 
phenol resin, etc., polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, vinyl 
polymer such as vinylidene chloride-acrylonitrile copolymer, vinyl 
chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, 
ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene copolymer, polyvinylidene fluoride, vinyl 
copolymer polyvinyl butyral, polyvinyl formal, polypropylene, 
polyethylene, etc., acrylic resin such as polybutyl acrylate, 
polymethacrylic acid, polymethyl methacrylate, etc., polyimide, polyamide 
such as 6, 6-nylon, 6-nylon, etc., polycarbonate, polyether sulfone, 
polyether ether ketone, polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene 
naphthalate, polyester such as aromatic polyester, etc., thermoplastic or 
thermosetting synthetic resin such as polyphenylene sulfide, polyparabanic 
acid, polyether nitrile, aramid, etc., a metal such as nickel, iron, 
aluminum, etc., an oxide thereof, Ni-steel, stainless steel, a metallic 
alloy such as a Fe-Ni alloy, a Co-Al alloy, Monel, Inconel, duralumin, 
etc. 
The above thermoplastic or thermosetting synthetic resin may be used 
independently or may be used in mixture. Additives such as titanium oxide 
particles, silica particles, carbon particles, etc. can be included in 
this synthetic resin. For example, a ceramic material, etc. can be 
included in this synthetic resin. These materials can be used 
independently, but can be also laminated and alloyed to improve 
durability, separating characteristics, etc. These materials can be 
further used in mixture by adding other additives such as glass fibers, 
whiskers, carbon, silica, titanium oxide, etc. to these materials. 
An optimum material of the separating member should be selected by a kind 
of the image forming substance to be separated, a process condition for 
removing the image forming substance, etc. It is advantageous to 
repeatedly use the separating member in view of various kinds of points 
such as a reduction in regenerating cost, etc. In this case, a relatively 
high heat-resisting property and a stable surface property of the 
separating member are required. For example, in consideration of image 
removing characteristics and durability, the separating member is 
preferably constructed by polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene 
naphthalate, polyether ether ketone, polyphenylene sulfide, polyparabanic 
acid, polyether nitrile, aramid, polyimide, polyether imide, stainless 
steel, nickel, anodized aluminium, etc. 
The image forming substance can be separated from the recorded material by 
holding a water-soluble polymer in the recorded material instead of making 
the image forming substance come in direct contact with the separating 
member. In this case, the recorded material, the image forming substance, 
the water-soluble polymer and the separating member sequentially come in 
contact with each other so that the image forming substance can be also 
separated from the recorded material by adhesive force of the 
water-soluble polymer. 
The present invention can be executed by forming the separating member in 
any one of a sheet shape, a block shape and a drum or roller shape. 
In the present invention, the liquid (the image removing accelerating 
liquid) provided to the recorded material is a liquid for making a 
material portion near a surface of the recorded material wet and expand 
and reducing adhesive force between the recorded material and the image 
forming substance. Otherwise, the image removing accelerating liquid is a 
liquid having an auxiliary action in which permeation of a liquid for 
making the recorded material wet and expand is accelerated, etc. It is 
considered that the image removing accelerating liquid is constructed by 
various kinds of organic solvents such as ethanol, methanol, glycerol, 
diethylene glycol, etc. However, it is preferable to use a liquid having 
water as a main component since this liquid is safe with respect to a 
human's body and do not burn easily and there is no fear of fire, and a 
sheet of paper as the recorded material most generally used is preferably 
wet and expanded with this liquid. 
When the image removing accelerating liquid is divisionally provided to the 
same recorded material plural times, it is not necessary to include water 
in the image removing accelerating liquid provided to the recorded 
material each of the plural times at any time. However, a liquid including 
water is preferably provided to the recorded material at least one time 
among the plural times. 
When the image removing accelerating liquid obtained by the same 
prescription is divisionally provided to the recorded material plural 
times, it is preferable to use the image removing accelerating liquid set 
such that surface tension of the image removing accelerating liquid is 
adjusted to 50 mN/m or less. When the image removing accelerating liquid 
having the adjusted surface tension equal to or smaller than 50 mN/m is 
used, wettability of the image removing accelerating liquid with respect 
to the recorded material and the image forming substance on this recorded 
material is increased so that a permeating speed of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the vicinity of a surface of the recorded material 
is increased. Therefore, it is possible to process the recorded material 
at a high speed and make a processor of this recorded material compact. 
The surface tension of the image removing accelerating liquid will next be 
described further. A static surface tension of the image removing 
accelerating liquid is preferably adjusted to 50 mN/m or less. However, to 
cope with the high speed processing of the recorded material, for example, 
a dynamic surface tension of the image removing accelerating liquid 
measured by a vibrating jet method, a liquid drop weighting method, a 
bubble pressure method, etc. is further preferably adjusted to 50 mN/m or 
less. For example, it is possible to adjust and manufacture an image 
removing accelerating liquid usable in the present invention in which the 
surface tension of the image removing accelerating liquid is adjusted to 
50 mN/m or less by adding the following surfactant to water. 
Namely, the image removing accelerating liquid of the present invention can 
constructed by using any one of the following anionic, cationic, nonionic, 
amphoteric surfactants. 
For example, the nonionic surfactant is constructed by polyoxyethylene 
alkylether class, polyoxyethylene alkylphenyl ether class, polyoxyethylene 
alkylester class, polyoxyethylene alkylsorbitan ester class, 
polyoxyethylene alkylamine class, glycerol fatty acid ester class, 
decaglycerol fatty acid ester class, polyglycerol fatty acid ester class, 
sorbitan fatty acid ester class, propylene glycol fatty acid ester class, 
polyethylene glycol fatty acid ester class, polyoxyethylene 
polyoxypropylene alkyl ether class, polyoxyethylene polyoxypropylene block 
polymer class, perfluoroalkyl phosphate class, polyoxyethylene denatured 
polydimethyl cyclohexane class, etc. 
The anionic surfactant is constructed by higher fatty acid salt, N-acyl 
amino acid salt, polyoxyethylene alkyl ether carboxylate, acylated 
peptide, alkyl sulfonate, alkyl benzene sulfonate, alkyl naphthalene 
sulfonate, mono or dialkyl sulfo succinate, .alpha.-olefin sulfonate, 
N-acyl sulfonate, alkyl sulfate, polyoxyethylene alkyl ether sulfate, 
polyoxyethylene alkyl allyl ether sulfate, alkyl amide sulfate, monoalkyl 
phosphate, dialkyl phosphate, trialkyl phosphate, monopolyoxyethylene 
alkyl ether phosphate, bispolyoxyethylene alkyl ether phosphate, 
trispolyoxyethylene alkyl ether phosphate, polyoxyethylene alkyl allyl 
ether phosphate, perfluoroalkyl carboxylate, perfluoroalkyl sulfonate, 
perfluoroalkenyl allyl sulfonate, N-perfluorooctane sulfonyl glutamate, 
perfluoro alkyl-N-ethyl sulfonyl glycine salt, 
3-(.omega.-fluoroalkanoyl-N-ethyl amino)-1-propane sulfonate, 
perfluoroalkyl ethyl phosphate, carboxylic acid denatured polydimethyl 
cyclohexane, sulfonic acid denatured polydimethyl cyclohexane, etc. 
The cationic surfactant is constructed by higher alkyl amine salt, higher 
alkyl quaternary ammonium salt, alkyl benzene amine salt, alkyl benzene 
quaternary ammonium salt, alkyl heterocyclic quaternary ammonium salt, 
etc. 
The amphoteric surfactant is constructed by betaine, amino carboxylic acid, 
etc. 
Each of the above surfactants may be constructed by one kind of mixture, 
two or more kinds of mixtures. 
A surfactant is not necessarily used to reduce the surface tension of the 
image removing accelerating liquid or improve its wettability with respect 
to the recorded material and the image forming substance. For example, 
effects similar to those of the surfactant can be obtained by adding an 
alcohol class such as methanol, ethanol, etc., and a water-soluble organic 
compound such as acetone, carbitol, sorbitol, etc. to the image removing 
accelerating liquid. 
It is also preferable to add a water-soluble polymer to the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the present invention. The water-soluble polymer 
can provide an adhesive property of the image forming substance to the 
separating member as mentioned above. Further, the water-soluble polymer 
has effects of improving a finishing quality of the recorded material by 
improving rigidity of the recorded material after the image forming 
substance is separated from the recorded material. 
A concrete example of the water-soluble polymer compound usable as the 
image removing accelerating liquid in the present invention can be 
constructed by carboxymethyl cellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, starch, alginic 
acid salt, gum arabic, gelatin, polyacrylate, polymethacrylate, hydrolysis 
compound salt of stylene-maleic anhydride copolymer, hydrolysis compound 
salt of stylene-isobutylene-phthalimide copolymer, hyaluronic acid, 
jerangum, condensate of naphthalene sulfonic acid and formalin, polyvinyl 
allyl sulfonate, water-soluble polyamide, hydroxyethyl cellulose, 
polyvinyl pyrrolidone, polyacrylic amide, etc. 
When only the image removing accelerating liquid substantially obtained by 
only one prescription is provided to the recorded material, contents of 
the surfactant or the water-soluble polymer within the image removing 
accelerating liquid provided to the recorded material plural times are 
approximately equal to each other. In a method using such a surfactant or 
water-soluble polymer, the surfactant and/or the water-soluble polymer is 
preferably added to the image removing accelerating liquid such that the 
contents of the surfactant and/or the water-soluble polymer range from 
0.01 to 20 wt % of the image removing accelerating liquid. In particular, 
the contents of the surfactant and/or the water-soluble polymer preferably 
range from 0.1 to 2 wt % of the image removing accelerating liquid. 
When the contents of the surfactant and/or the water-soluble polymer are 
equal to or smaller than 0.01 wt % of the image removing accelerating 
liquid, the image removing accelerating liquid slowly permeates the 
recorded material so that it is difficult to regenerate the recorded 
material at a high speed. Further, no image removing accelerating liquid 
permeates an interface between the image f orm ing substance and the 
recorded material. Therefore, removing characteristics of the image 
forming substance, etc. are reduced. In contrast to this, when the 
contents of the surfactant and/or the water-soluble polymer are equal to 
or greater than 20 wt % of the image removing accelerating liquid, a 
component of the image removing accelerating liquid is accumulated into 
the recorded material by repeatedly regenerating the recorded material. 
Therefore, rerecording characteristics of the regenerated recorded 
material are reduced and it is difficult to dry the recorded material 
after an image is removed from the recorded material. 
In the present invention, it is preferable to provide the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material at plural stages. The image 
removing accelerating liquid may be divisionally provided to the recorded 
material at plural stages according to providing objects of the image 
removing accelerating liquid. However, normally, a reproducing operation 
and the regenerating apparatus become complicated and there is no great 
difference in the following effects even when the stages are divided into 
many stages. Accordingly, it is most preferable to divisionally provide 
the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material at two 
stages. 
In a method for divisionally providing the image removing accelerating 
liquid obtained by the same prescription to the recorded material plural 
times, it is possible to obtain effects of reducing a providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid required to remove the image 
forming substance in comparison with only a single providing case of the 
image removing accelerating liquid. The reasons for these effects are not 
necessarily apparent. However, it is presumed that the recorded material 
is wet and expands with the image removing accelerating liquid first 
provided to a certain extent. Therefore, cracks are caused in the image 
forming substance on the recorded material. Further, a small clearance is 
caused between a lower portion of the image forming substance and the 
recorded material. Therefore, the next provided image removing 
accelerating liquid easily permeates efficiently a contact portion between 
the image forming substance and the recorded material. It is presumed that 
this efficient permeation contributes to the above reduction in providing 
amount of the image removing accelerating liquid. The recorded material 
and the image forming substance attain a state in which surfaces of the 
recorded material and the image forming substance are easily wet with the 
image removing accelerating liquid as another action by providing the 
first image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material. Accord 
ingly, it is presumed that the image removing accelerating liquid 
uniformly permeates a relatively shallow portion of the recorded material 
so that the image forming substance can be preferably removed from the 
recorded material by a small amount of the image removing accelerating 
liquid. Ordinary paper is an ununiform recorded material in which 
cellulose fibers entwine each other. Therefore, when the image removing 
accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material at one time, the 
image removing accelerating liquid permeates the paper ununiformly in its 
depth direction until a deep depth of the paper by irregularities of 
wettability of the paper. Wet and expansion of the recorded material in 
the vicinity of a contact portion between the image forming substance and 
the recorded material contribute to a reduction in adhesive force between 
the image forming substance and the recorded material. 
The providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid can be 
reduced by increasing wettability of the image removing accelerating 
liquid with respect to the recorded material and the image forming 
substance by the first provided image removing accelerating liquid. 
Accordingly, if this effect can be sufficiently obtained by the first 
provided image removing accelerating liquid, a sufficient permeating speed 
can be obtained even when surface tension of the next provided image 
removing accelerating liquid is relatively high and wettability of this 
image removing accelerating liquid is low. Accordingly, it is possible to 
reduce the concentration of a surfactant within the image removing 
accelerating liquid provided in a subsequent process. No unnecessary 
surfactant is provided to the recorded material when the concentration of 
a surfactant within the image removing accelerating liquid provided in a 
subsequent process is reduced. Accordingly, it is possible to solve 
various kinds of problems about a reduction in writing characteristics of 
the regenerated recorded material, a reduction in quality of a recorded 
image at a rerecording time, a reduction in fixing property of the image 
forming substance, a bad influence on a recorder, etc. When the image 
removing accelerating liquid provided in the subsequent process has lower 
wettability, this image removing accelerating liquid permeates the 
ununiform recorded material such as paper uniformly and shallowly. 
Therefore, the image forming substance can be preferably removed from the 
recorded material by an action similar to the above-mentioned action with 
a smaller amount of the image removing accelerating liquid in comparison 
with a case in which the image removing accelerating liquid having the 
same wettability is provided to the recorded material. 
In the above description, the image removing accelerating liquid is 
divisionally provided to the recorded material plural times such that a 
surfactant concentration of the image removing accelerating liquid is 
reduced as the image removing accelerating liquid is provided to the 
recorded material in a later process. Thus, preferable removing 
characteristics of the image forming substance can be obtained even when 
the providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid is reduced. 
In this method, it is also effective to provide the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the same recorded material three times or more 
while the image removing accelerating liquid having the surfactant 
concentration changed at three stages or more is used and this surfactant 
concentration is gradually changed every coating process. However, the 
inventors of this patent application have found that the image forming 
substance can be sufficiently removed from the recorded material by 
normally combining two kinds of liquids composed of a liquid including a 
surfactant of high concentration and a liquid including a surfactant of 
low concentration or including no surfactant. The construction of a liquid 
providing device is simplified by using only two kinds of liquids composed 
of a high concentration liquid and a low concentration water-soluble 
liquid so that the regenerating operation of the recorded material is 
preferably simplified. 
The high concentration liquid preferably includes a surfactant of high 
concentration ranging from 5 to 100 weight % in the providing method of 
the image removing accelerating liquid in which the surfactant-including 
concentration of the image removing accelerating liquid divisionally 
provided to the same recorded material plural times is reduced as the 
image removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material in 
a later process. When the surfactant concentration in the high 
concentration liquid is equal to or smaller than 5 weight %, no sufficient 
effects of preferably removing the image forming substance from the 
recorded material can be obtained when a small amount of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material in the 
present invention. The surfactant concentration of the high concentration 
liquid particularly ranges from 5 to 50 weight % so as to preferably 
remove the image forming substance from the recorded material, and obtain 
suitable values of physical properties for providing the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material, and repeatedly perform the 
regenerating operation many times by image formation and removal of the 
image forming substance using the same recorded material. 
In contrast to this, the low concentration water-soluble liquid includes a 
surfactant of concentration equal to or smaller than 5 weight % or 
includes no surfactant. For example, the low concentration water-soluble 
liquid preferably uses a water-soluble polymer, an aqueous solution 
including only an antiseptic mildewproofing agent, or a liquid constructed 
by only water. When the surfactant concentration within the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid is equal to or greater than 5 weight %, 
characteristics of the regenerated recorded material are changed although 
there are conditions capable of separating the image forming substance 
from the recorded material. Further, writing characteristics of the 
recorded material are reduced and an image quality at a recopying time is 
reduced. Furthermore, wrinkles of the recorded material tend to be caused 
at the recopying time and the number of regenerable times of the recorded 
material is reduced. In particular, a preferable concentration range of 
the surfactant as the low concentration water-soluble liquid is equal to 
or smaller than 1 weight % so as to sufficiently remove the image forming 
substance preferably from the recorded material, and provide a preferable 
quality of the above regenerated recorded material, and repeatedly 
regenerate and use the recorded material. 
When general wood free paper (fine quality paper) is used as the recorded 
material, the high concentration liquid is provided onto at least a 
holding face of the recorded material holding the image forming substance 
in a range from 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 to 1.6 mg/cm.sup.2 (0.01 to 1 g per size 
A4). Thereafter, the low concentration water-soluble liquid or water is 
provided onto this holding face in a range from 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 to 3.2 
mg/cm.sup.2 (0.01 to 2 g per size A4). Thus, a very preferable recorded 
material can be regenerated. When a providing amount of the high 
concentration liquid is equal to or smaller than 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 (0.01 g 
per size A4) and a providing amount of the low concentration water-soluble 
liquid or water is equal to or smaller than 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 (0.01 g per 
size A4), it is impossible to sufficiently separate the image forming 
substance from the recorded material. 
In contrast to this, when the providing amount of the high concentration 
liquid is equal to or greater than 1.6 mg/cm.sup.2 (1 g per size A4), the 
image forming substance can be preferably separated from the recorded 
material. However, characteristics of the regenerated recorded material 
are changed so that writing characteristics of the recorded material are 
reduced. Further, an image quality is reduced when an image is again 
formed on the recorded material regenerated by making a copy, etc. 
Further, when a copy is again made by a copying machine, wrinkles tend to 
be caused in the recorded material. Further, the number of regenerable 
times of the recorded material is reduced. Furthermore, when a large 
amount of the high concentration liquid is provided to the recorded 
material, a paper strength of the recorded material is reduced so that a 
paper jam is easily caused. Therefore, there is a case in which separating 
characteristics of the image forming substance are reduced in a certain 
kind of used surfactant. 
When the providing amount of the low concentration water-soluble liquid or 
water is equal to or greater than 3.2 mg/cm.sup.2 (2 g per size A4), the 
paper strength of the recorded material is reduced so that a paper jam is 
easily caused and wrinkles are also caused easily in the recorded 
material. Further, similar to the case of providing a large amount of the 
image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material at one stage, 
a large amount of power consumption is required and the recorded material 
tends to extend. 
Here, an action of effects obtained by using two kinds of image removing 
accelerating liquids composed of the high concentration liquid and the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid or water will next be explained in 
detail. For this explanation, a phenomenon caused by providing the high 
concentration liquid onto an image holding face of the recorded material 
holding the image forming substance will first be explained briefly with 
reference to FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2, a surfactant molecule is 
generally constructed by a hydrophilic group 201 and a hydrophobic group 
(lipophilic group) 202. An image forming substance 203 shows a hydrophobic 
property. Accordingly, when a surfactant concentration of an image 
removing accelerating liquid 20 is low, no image removing accelerating 
liquid 20 is easily attached or adsorbed onto the image forming substance 
203 when the image removing accelerating liquid 20 is particularly 
constructed by a solution mainly having water. Accordingly, the image 
removing accelerating liquid 20 tends to be repelled on the image forming 
substance 203. Therefore, for example, in liquid provision at one time, as 
shown in FIG. 3(a), the image removing accelerating liquid permeates a 
recorded material 10 in a nonexisting portion of the image forming 
substance 203 until a deep portion of the recorded material 10. 
Accordingly, no image removing accelerating liquid exists on a surface of 
the image forming substance 203 and an interface between the recorded 
material 10 and the image forming substance 203. In particular, when an 
attaching amount of the image removing accelerating liquid 20 provided to 
the recorded material 10 is changed in accordance with a permeating speed 
as in a coating case of the image removing accelerating liquid 20 using a 
roller, the permeating speed in a texture portion of the recorded material 
is higher than that in an image portion. Accordingly, a large amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid 20 permeates only the texture 
portion which does not contribute to a reduction in adhesive force between 
the image forming substance 203 and the recorded material 10. Therefore, 
the large amount of the image removing accelerating liquid 20 must be 
provided to the recorded material 10 to such an extent that the image 
removing accelerating liquid 20 approximately permeates the entire 
recorded material 10 so as to make the image removing accelerating liquid 
20 approximately permeate the interface between the image forming 
substance 203 and the recorded material 10. In contrast to this, when the 
image holding face is coated with a small amount of the high concentration 
liquid, as shown in FIG. 3(b), the hydrophobic group of the surfactant is 
adsorbed to the image forming substance so that the recorded material 10 
and the image forming substance 203 are entirely wet with the high 
concentration liquid. It is presumed that viscosity of the high 
concentration liquid is relatively high and fluidity of the high 
concentration liquid is relatively low so that the high viscosity and the 
low fluidity also contribute to the uniform provision of the high 
concentration liquid on the recorded material 10. There is a possibility 
that a slight amount of the high concentration liquid approximately 
reaches the interface between the image forming substance 203 and the 
recorded material 10 through a clearance of the image forming substance 
203. This possibility can be presumed by confirming from observation of a 
microscope, etc. that a full image having a large area has a structure 
having many holes in its interior. When the high concentration liquid is 
provided to the recorded material and the low concentration water-soluble 
liquid or water is then provided to the recorded material, the high 
concentration liquid exists on the image forming substance 203 in advance 
so that the low concentration water-soluble liquid is not repelled, but is 
approximately uniformly provided onto surfaces of the recorded material 10 
and the image forming substance 203. As mentioned above, water 
approximately permeating the interface of the recorded material 10 and the 
image forming substance 203 contributes to a reduction in adhesive force 
between the recorded material 10 and the image forming substance 203. 
However, the image forming substance can be preferably separated from the 
recorded material by providing the image removing accelerating liquid to 
the recorded material in the regenerating method of the present invention 
using the above-mentioned action with a small amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in comparison with a case in which the entire recorded 
material 10 is impregnated with the image removing accelerating liquid. 
In the method using two kinds of image removing accelerating liquids 
composed of the high concentration liquid and the low concentration 
water-soluble liquid, a large amount of the surfactant within the provided 
image removing accelerating liquid distributes to a material portion near 
a surface of the recorded material in comparison with the general 
providing method in which the image removing accelerating liquid is 
provided to the recorded material at only one time. Therefore, when the 
image forming substance comes in press contact with a separating member 
and is adhered and transferred to the separating member in a certain kind 
of surfactant used in the image removing accelerating liquid, this 
surfactant takes an action for preventing the image forming substance once 
transferred onto the separating member from being again transferred 
(reattached) to the recorded material. It is presumed that this action is 
one of the reasons causing effects of improving removing characteristics 
of the image forming substance as mentioned above. 
When the recorded material uses a bulky material having a permeating 
property such as paper (a liquid can permeate from a front face of the 
recorded material to a rear face thereof, or can permeate from the rear 
face of the recorded material to the front face thereof), the inventors of 
this patent application have found that the image forming substance can be 
effectively separated from the recorded material by providing the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid from a face (image non-holding face) 
opposite to the image holding face of the recorded material after the high 
concentration liquid is provided to this image holding face of the 
recorded material. In particular, there is a case in which it is difficult 
to make the image removing accelerating liquid pass and permeate the image 
forming substance since an attaching amount of the image forming substance 
is large and the image forming substance is completely formed in a film 
shape. In this case, the image forming substance can be more preferably 
removed from the recorded material by providing the low concentration 
water-soluble liquid from the non-image face in comparison with a case in 
which the low concentration water-soluble liquid is provided from the 
image holding face of the recorded material. When the recorded material is 
thick and a liquid having low permeability is used as the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid, it is not necessarily preferable to 
make the low concentration water-soluble liquid permeate from the 
non-image holding face. However, when a sheet of plain paper having a 
thickness equal to or smaller than 100 microns is used, the image forming 
substance can be more preferably removed from the recorded material by 
providing the low concentration water-soluble liquid from the non-image 
face in comparison with a case in which the low concentration 
water-soluble liquid is provided to the recorded material from the image 
holding face thereof by adding a suitable permeating agent to the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid. 
In a method for providing this low concentration water-soluble liquid from 
a rear face of the recorded material, the high concentration liquid 
preferably includes a surfactant of high concentration ranging from 5 to 
100 weight %. When the surfactant concentration within the high 
concentration liquid is equal to or smaller than 5 weight %, it is 
impossible to obtain effects capable of sufficiently removing the image 
forming substance preferably from the recorded material by providing a 
small amount of the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded 
material. A preferable surfactant concentration of the high concentration 
liquid particularly ranges from 5 to 50 weight % so as to preferably 
remove the image forming substance from the recorded material, and obtain 
suitable values of physical properties for providing the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material, and repeatedly perform the 
regenerating operation many times by image formation and removal of the 
image forming substance using the same recorded material. 
In contrast to this, the low concentration water-soluble liquid preferably 
uses a water-soluble liquid having high permeability and including a 
surfactant concentration ranging from 0.05 to 2 weight %. When the 
surfactant concentration of the low concentration water-soluble liquid is 
equal to or smaller than 0.05 weight %, it is difficult to preferably 
remove the image forming substance from the recorded material. In contrast 
to this, when the surfactant concentration of the low concentration 
water-soluble liquid is equal to or greater than 2 weight %, the image 
forming substance can be preferably separated from the recorded material. 
However, characteristics of the regenerated recorded material are changed 
and writing characteristics of the recorded material are reduced and an 
image quality at a recopying time is reduced. Further, wrinkles of the 
recorded material are easily caused at the recopying time and the number 
of regenerable times of the recorded material is reduced. In particular, a 
preferable concentration range of the surfactant as the low concentration 
water-soluble liquid ranges from 0.2 to 1 weight % so as to sufficiently 
remove the image forming substance preferably from the recorded material, 
and provide a preferable quality of the above regenerated recorded 
material, and repeatedly regenerate and use the recorded material. 
In this method, with respect to a suitable providing amount of the high 
concentration liquid, the high concentration liquid is provided onto a 
holding face of the recorded material holding the image forming substance 
in a range from 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 to 1.6 mg/cm.sup.2 (0.01 to 1 g per size 
A4). With respect to a suitable providing amount of the low concentration 
water-soluble liquid, the low concentration water-soluble liquid is 
provided onto this holding face in a range from 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 to 3.2 
mg/cm.sup.2 (0.01 to 2 g per size A4). When the providing amount of the 
high concentration liquid is equal to or smaller than 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 
(0.01 g per size A4) and the providing amount of the low concentration 
water-soluble liquid is equal to or smaller than 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 (0.01 g 
per size A4), it is impossible to sufficiently separate the image forming 
substance from the recorded material. In contrast to this, when the 
providing amount of the high concentration liquid is equal to or greater 
than 1.6 mg/cm.sup.2 (1 g per size A4), or when the providing amount of 
the low concentration water-soluble liquid is equal to or greater than 3.2 
mg/cm.sup.2 (2 g per size A4), problems similar to those caused in the 
above case of providing both the high concentration liquid and the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid to the recorded material from the image 
face are caused. 
In the method for providing the low concentration liquid to the recorded 
material from its rear face by using at least two kinds of image removing 
accelerating liquids composed of the high concentration liquid and the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid, it is effective to add a wetting agent 
into prescription of the high concentration liquid so as to improve 
removing characteristics of the image forming substance and reduce 
required amounts of the image removing accelerating liquids, etc. 
Here, the wetting agent means a compound having excellent compatibility 
with respect to water and having a vapor pressure lower than that of 
water. Concretely, for example, such a compound is constructed by a 
polyhydric alcohol class such as ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, 
triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol, 1,5-pentane 
diol, 1,6-hexane diol, propylene glycol, dipropylene glycol, glycerol, 
etc., an ether class of polyhydric alcohol such as ethylene glycol 
monoethyl ether, ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, ethylene glycol 
monobutyl ether, diethylene glycol monomethyl ether, triethylene glycol 
monomethyl ether, tetraethylene glycol monomethyl ether, propylene glycol 
monomethyl ether, ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol monoethyl ether, 
triethylene glycol monoethyl ether, tetraethylene glycol monoethyl ether, 
propylene glycol monoethyl ether, etc., a heterocylic compound such as 
N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, 1,3,-dimethyl imidazolidinone, 
.epsilon.-caprolactam, etc., an amine class such as monoethanol amine, 
diethanol amine, triethanol amine, etc. The above wetting agent can be 
used as one kind of mixture, or two or more kinds of mixtures. 
Addition of the wetting agent into prescription of the high concentration 
liquid is effective for the following reasons in the method for 
particularly providing the low concentration liquid to the recorded 
material from its rear face. Namely, when the recorded material is heated 
to transfer the image forming substance, water within the low 
concentration liquid evaporated by this h eating is absorbed into the 
wetting agent and attains a state in which moisture is condensed in the 
vicinity of the image holding face of the recorded material. It is 
presumed that this water weakens adhesive force between the image forming 
substance and the r ecorded material and takes an acti on for preventing 
the image forming substance from being refixed onto the recorded material 
when the image forming substance is transferred to the separating member. 
In the present invention, the recorded material and the separating member 
come in press contact with each other and the image forming substance is 
separated from the recorded material in a state in which the image 
removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material and the 
adhesive force between the recorded material and the image forming 
substance is weakened. In this method, as mentioned above, it is 
preferable to provide adhesive force between the image forming substance 
and the separating member in a heating state of the image forming 
substance. It is also preferable to separate the recorded material from 
the separating member in the heating state of the image forming substance. 
When a sheet of paper normally used is used as the recorded material and 
this paper sheet is regenerated by removing an image obtained by a normal 
electrophotographic method from the paper sheet so as to reuse this paper 
sheet, the image forming substance is heated until a temperature at which 
the image forming substance is softened or plasticized. Thus, the recorded 
material and the separating member come in press contact with each other 
so that the image forming substance is separated from the recorded 
material. Thus, the image forming substance can be preferably removed from 
the recorded material. After the image removing accelerating liquid is 
provided to the paper sheet, it is difficult to completely remove the 
image forming substance from the recorded material with out heating the 
image forming substance until its softening or plasticizing temperature 
when an image is separated from the recorded material by using, for 
example, an adhesive tape. This is because paper is usually porous and the 
surface of a chartaceous layer is separated from the recorded material 
together with the image forming substance entering into holes of this 
paper when the image forming substance is removed from the paper sheet 
without heating. 
After the high concentration liquid in the present invention is provided to 
the image holding face of the recorded material, the recorded material is 
regenerated by using a providing method of the image removing accelerating 
liquid in which the low concentration water-soluble liquid is provided to 
the recorded material. When paper is used as the recorded material in this 
regenerating method of the recorded material, the recorded material is 
heated until the softening or plasticizing temperature of the image 
forming substance after the image removing accelerating liquid is provided 
to the recorded material. The recorded material and the separating member 
come in press contact with each other. The image forming substance is 
adhered and transferred to the recorded material so that the image forming 
substance is preferably separated from the recorded material. In 
particular, in the above method for providing the low concentration liquid 
to the recorded material from its rear face, preferable separating 
characteristics can be obtained by heating the recorded material such that 
a temperature of the recorded material on its image holding face side is 
lower than that on a non-image holding face side of the recorded material. 
This is because it is presumed that a moisture density on a recording face 
side is increased by setting the temperature of the recorded material on 
its non-image holding face to a high temperature since water within the 
image removing accelerating liquid existing in the vicinity of the 
non-image holding face side of the recorded material is moved onto the 
recording face side on a low temperature side by evaporation. 
In the general method of providing a large amount of an aqueous solution 
having a surfactant of relatively low concentration to the recorded 
material, a large amount of the image removing accelerating liquid is 
consumed in regeneration of the recorded material so that there are 
problems about maintenance of acquisition, replenishment, etc. of the 
image removing accelerating liquid. When water is used as the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid in the above method using two kinds of 
image removing accelerating liquids composed of the high concentration 
liquid and the low concentration water-soluble liquid, a user can use the 
regenerating apparatus by supplying only the high concentration liquid 
from a maker to the user since water can be easily obtained relatively in 
any place. In this method, acquisition and replenishment frequencies of 
the image removing accelerating liquid can be reduced and supply cost of 
the image removing accelerating liquid can be effectively reduced. In 
particular, maintenance frequency of the user can be extremely reduced by 
directly taking city water into the regenerating apparatus. When only 
water is used, there is a fear of generation of various kinds of troubles 
caused by decomposition of water. Accordingly, for example, it is useful 
to arrange a mechanism for automatically adding a slight amount of 
antiseptic mildewproofing agent to a tank for holding the city water 
within the regenerating apparatus. 
A construction and an operation of the regenerating apparatus of the 
recorded material in the present invention will next be explained. 
The regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in the present 
invention has a means for providing the image removing accelerating liquid 
to the same recorded material plural times. Various kinds of regenerating 
methods and devices already proposed by the inventors of this patent 
application are basically used in a transfer portion for separating the 
image forming substance from the recorded material to the separating 
member and a finishing portion for smoothly finishing and drying the 
recorded material from which the image forming substance is removed. 
For example, a providing device of the image removing accelerating liquid 
provides this image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material 
by making a roller or a belt attaching the image removing accelerating 
liquid thereto come in close contact with the recorded material. The 
providing device of the image removing accelerating liquid also provides 
the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material by 
generating a mist liquid drop as in a sprayer, a humidifier, etc. The 
providing device of the image removing accelerating liquid further 
provides the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material 
by generating a liquid drop having a relatively large momentum as in an 
ink jet method. 
An example of a device for providing the image removing accelerating liquid 
to the recorded material by rollers is shown more concretely in FIG. 4. In 
FIG. 4, each of these rollers is rotated in an arrow direction. A recorded 
material 10 is moved in an arrow direction between a coating roller 23 and 
a pressing roller 24 for pressing the recorded material 10 from an upper 
face thereof with constant weighting. A roller 22 as a drawing-up roller 
is arranged within a container 21 storing an image removing accelerating 
liquid 20 therein such that a portion of the drawing-up roller 22 is 
dipped into the image removing accelerating liquid 20. For example, a 
surface of this drawing-up roller 22 is formed by an elastic material 
having high wettability such as chloroprene rubber or a metal. The image 
removing accelerating liquid 20 is attached to the drawing-up roller 22 
and is drawn up by rotating this drawing-up roller 22. An amount of the 
drawn-up image removing accelerating liquid 20 is measured (drawn) and 
adjusted to a constant amount by a gap or nip between the drawing-up 
roller 22 and a coating roller 23. This coating roller 23 comes in contact 
with the drawing-up roller 22, or is arranged in a state in which a slight 
gap is formed between the drawing-up roller 22 and the coating roller 23. 
The coating roller 23 is formed by an elastic material such as chloroprene 
rubber, etc., or is formed by a metallic material. The image removing 
accelerating liquid 20 weighted and attached onto the coating roller 23 is 
provided to the recorded material conveyed between the pressing roller 24 
and the coating roller 23. In FIG. 4, a guide plate 25 is attached to 
support the recorded material 10 before and after the image removing 
accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material 10. This guide 
plate 25 may be replaced with a conveying belt to improve conveyance of 
the recorded material. A method for forming concave and convex portions 
such as a groove, etc. in one of the drawing-up and coating rollers and 
changing the above wettability by surface processing is effective to 
adjust the providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid 
provided to the recorded material to a desirable amount. It is desirable 
to arrange an unillustrated means for detecting a surface of the image 
removing accelerating liquid such that this liquid surface is 
approximately located in a constant position at any time. It is also 
desirable to arrange a liquid supplying means 260 according to this 
detecting means. 
FIG. 5 shows an example of a device for supplying the image removing 
accelerating liquid 20 to the recorded material 10 by liquid dropping. In 
this device, the image removing accelerating liquid is pumped up by a pump 
260 from a tank 261 and is pressurized. The pressurized image removing 
accelerating liquid 20 is injected from a nozzle arranged in a liquid 
injecting unit 27 through an accumulator 271 and a valve 270. In this 
case, pressurizing force of the image removing accelerating liquid 20 
suitably ranges from 0.5 to 10 kgf/cm.sup.2. A diameter of this nozzle 
suitably ranges from 1 to 50 .mu.m. The number of nozzles, a nozzle 
density, etc. are suitably selected and used in accordance with a 
desirable providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid. 
All liquid drop forming devices used in a so-called ink jet recording 
method in addition to a liquid pressurizing system using the above pump 
can be used as the device for providing the image removing accelerating 
liquid 20 to the recorded material 10 by liquid dropping. For example, the 
image removing accelerating liquid providing device is constructed by a 
device in which a heating element is arranged within a liquid chamber and 
the image removing accelerating liquid is guided to this liquid chamber 
and is boiled by heating the heating element so that bubbles are generated 
to fly the image removing accelerating liquid. The image removing 
accelerating liquid providing device may be also constructed by a device 
in which a vibrating plate arranged within a liquid chamber is operated by 
an electric mechanical coupling element such as PZT, etc. so that the 
image removing accelerating liquid flies by a change in volume of the 
liquid chamber and a pressure wave. The image removing accelerating liquid 
providing device may be also constructed by a device in which vibration 
generated by an electric mechanical coupling element such as PZT, etc. is 
converged by an acoustic lens and a mist of the image removing 
accelerating liquid is generated from a face thereof. The image removing 
accelerating liquid providing device may be further constructed by a 
device in which a liquid drop of the image removing accelerating liquid is 
absorbed by electrostatic force using a high electric field to fly the 
image removing accelerating liquid. 
The image removing accelerating liquid 20 is provided to the recorded 
material 10 by one of these devices. A desirable number of these devices 
may be arranged to provide the image removing accelerating liquid to the 
recorded material plural times. The above roller coating device and the 
liquid drop forming device can be used in a suitable combination. FIG. 6 
shows an apparatus construction for providing the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material by arranging roller coating 
parts at four stages. These parts may have the same construction. 
Otherwise, constructions of these parts may be changed in accordance with 
characteristics of the image removing accelerating liquid 20, etc. 
FIG. 7 shows an apparatus construction in which a coating belt 231 and a 
pressing belt 290 are respectively used instead of the coating roller 23 
and the pressing roller 24 shown in FIG. 6. Each of these belts also 
functions as a conveying belt at the next stage in the apparatus 
construction using the coating belt 231 and/or the pressing belt 290 so 
that conveyance of the recorded material is improved. FIG. 8 particularly 
shows an example in which a supplying source (tank) of the image removing 
accelerating liquid 20 is commonly used when the image removing 
accelerating liquid 20 is processed by the same prescription and is used 
at each of stages. It is easy to perform a maintaining operation of the 
regenerating apparatus such as liquid supply by commonly using the tank. 
In the regenerating apparatus shown in FIG. 8, a pump 260 is arranged 
every liquid providing part. When the image removing accelerating liquid 
20 overflowing from a liquid container 21 is recollected to the tank 261, 
stable separating characteristics of the recorded material can be obtained 
since liquid prescriptions in the respective liquid providing parts are 
approximately equal to each other at any time even when composition of the 
image removing accelerating liquid is changed by evaporation of liquid 
components, etc. When the liquid providing parts are arranged at many 
stages, tanks at second and subsequent stages may be commonly used if, for 
example, a high concentration liquid is provided to the recorded material 
at a first stage and a low concentration water-soluble liquid or water 
obtained by the same prescription is provided to the recorded material at 
the second and subsequent stages instead of a structure using the image 
removing accelerating liquid 20 provided by the same prescription in all 
liquid providing means. 
In the liquid providing device shown in FIG. 4, the pressing roller becomes 
wet with the image removing accelerating liquid in a construction for 
making the coating and pressing rollers come in contact with each other 
when no liquid is provided to the recorded material, i.e., when there is 
no recorded material between the coating roller 23 and the pressing roller 
24. Therefore, when the recorded material is conveyed, the image removing 
accelerating liquid is provided to a front end of the recorded material 
from both front and rear faces thereof. The image removing accelerating 
liquid attached to the pressing roller is transferred to the recorded 
material. Accordingly, no image removing accelerating liquid is provided 
to a rear face side of the recorded material, i.e., a pressing roller side 
at a certain distance from the front end of the recorded material. A 
providing distance of the image removing accelerating liquid provided to 
both the front and rear faces of the recorded material is determined by a 
diameter of the pressing roller, a contact pressure between the pressing 
and coating rollers, surface roughnesses of the pressing and coating 
rollers, etc. 
A curling amount of the recorded material in a front end portion thereof in 
conveyance is reduced by coating at least both front and rear faces of 
this front end portion with the image removing accelerating liquid. 
Accordingly, it is clear that this coating of the image removing 
accelerating liquid provides great effects for improving conveying 
reliability of the recorded material in the regenerating apparatus. 
Namely, probability of a jam caused within the regenerating apparatus can 
be greatly reduced by coating both the faces of the recorded material in 
its front end portion with the image removing accelerating liquid. 
When at least two liquid providing means composed of means for providing 
the high concentration liquid and the low concentration liquid are 
arranged as a providing means of the image removing accelerating liquid in 
the regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in the present 
invention, it is preferable to set the providing means of the image 
removing accelerating liquid such that the high concentration liquid is 
provided to the recorded material at an earlier stage as mentioned above. 
In particular, a providing device of the low concentration liquid 
preferably uses a liquid providing means for providing the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material by the above liquid dropping. 
This is because, when a liquid providing system using a roller or a belt 
is used in the provision of the low concentration liquid, a component of 
the high concentration liquid flows into the low concentration liquid from 
the recorded material having the provided high concentration liquid and is 
mixed with the low concentration liquid so that composition of the low 
concentration liquid is changed. The liquid providing means for providing 
the image removing accelerating liquid by the liquid dropping can easily 
cope with constructions in which the low concentration liquid is provided 
to the recorded material from its rear face. The low concentration liquid 
has low viscosity so that the low concentration liquid is suitable for the 
liquid providing device using the liquid dropping as physical properties 
of this liquid. As mentioned above, the low concentration liquid is 
preferably provided to the recorded material in a range from 16 
.mu.g/cm.sup.2 to 3.2 mg/cm.sup.2 (0.01 to 2 g per size A4). The above 
liquid providing means using the liquid dropping is suitable for this 
providing amount of the low concentration liquid. 
In contrast to this, the high concentration liquid has suitable physical 
properties. It is possible to obtain a providing amount of the high 
concentration liquid provided to the recorded material in a preferable 
range from 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 to 1.6 mg/cm.sup.2 (0.01 to 1 g per size A4). 
Accordingly, the high concentration liquid can be uniformly provided 
stably to the recorded material by each of a roller system and a belt 
system. 
In the above description, the device having the providing parts of the 
image removing accelerating liquid at many stages is illustrated when the 
image removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material by 
the liquid providing means plural times. When the image removing 
accelerating liquid obtained by the same prescription is provided to the 
recorded material plural times, plural liquid providing means are not 
necessarily required. In this case, the image removing accelerating liquid 
can be provided to the recorded material plural times by arranging a 
conveying means such that the recorded material passes through the same 
liquid providing means plural times. 
FIGS. 10 and 11 show constructional examples of such a device. In this 
device, a front end of a branching claw 293 is located on the side of a 
coating belt 231 so as to rotate the recorded material 10 until a 
circumferential rotating number required to obtain a desirable liquid 
providing amount is provided. The front end of the branching claw 293 is 
located on the side of a pressing belt 290 when the desirable 
circumferential rotating number is provided. Therefore, a means for 
detecting passage of the recorded material 10 and a means for storing the 
number of passages of the recorded material 10 are arranged although these 
means are not illustrated in FIGS. 10 and 11. 
In the liquid providing unit of FIG. 10, a movement of the recorded 
material 10 is controlled by a compressed air from an air compressor 294 
such that the recorded material 10 is preferably conveyed along the 
branching claw 293 and the pressing belt 290. It is desirable to change a 
blowing direction of the compressed air in a branching portion of the 
recorded material 10 in association with an operation of the branching 
claw. The other compressed air generators 294 are preferably turned on and 
off in accordance with passing positions of the recorded material 10. 
FIG. 11 shows another example of the device having a conveying means set 
such that the recorded material passes through the same liquid providing 
means plural times. In the liquid providing device shown in FIG. 11, a 
front end of the recorded material 10 is fixedly supported by a clamp 296 
of a drum 295 having a clamping means. The drum 295 has a position 
detecting means such as a rotary encoder, etc. At a clamping time, a 
position of the front end of the recorded material 10 is set to be 
synchronized with a position of the clamp 296. The recorded material is 
circumferentially rotated along the drum 295. In the meantime, the drum is 
rotated by a set rotating number. Thus, the image removing accelerating 
liquid is provided to the recorded material plural times. After the image 
removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material 
desirable times, the clamp 296 is operated such that a front end of the 
recorded material is released. 
When the recorded material passes through the same liquid providing device 
plural times as shown in each of FIGS. 10 and 11, the liquid providing 
device can be made compact in comparison with a liquid providing device in 
which roller coating units are arranged at many stages. Further, in the 
liquid providing device for passing the recorded material therethrough 
plural times, a providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid 
can be easily changed by controlling the number of passages of the 
recorded material when this liquid providing amount is changed in 
accordance with, for example, the number of regenerative processings of 
the recorded material. 
In particular, in the device of FIG. 11, the image removing accelerating 
liquid is provided to the recorded material while the recorded material 
comes in close contact with the drum. Accordingly, when the recorded 
material is curled and wrinkles by the liquid provision, the image 
removing accelerating liquid can be stably provided to the recorded 
material without causing any defect in conveyance such as a jam, etc. 
In the above method using at least two kinds of image removing accelerating 
liquids composed of the high concentration liquid and the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid, water is used as the low concentration 
water-soluble liquid and maintenance of the regenerating apparatus is 
improved and running cost of the regenerating apparatus can be reduced by 
particularly using city water. 
For example, a device for executing this method is constructed by arranging 
an intake port of city water directly connected to the tank 261 in the 
device of FIG. 4. In this case, this executing device has a means for 
flowing the city water into the tank by opening a valve when a liquid 
amount within the tank is equal to or smaller than a constant amount. 
FIG. 12 shows a modified example of the unit for coating the recorded 
material with the image removing accelerating liquid in the regenerating 
apparatus of FIG. 9. A device for providing the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material by liquid dropping instead of 
the roller coating is arranged as the providing device of the image 
removing accelerating liquid at a second stage. 
FIG. 13 shows an example similar to FIG. 12. In FIG. 13, a portion of the 
unit for providing the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded 
material in the regenerating apparatus of the recorded material shown in 
FIG. 9 has a construction different from that of FIG. 9. In this 
apparatus, the image removing accelerating liquid at a second stage is 
provided to the recorded material from both sides of an image holding face 
and an image non-holding face of the recorded material 10. The image 
removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material from 
both the faces of the recorded material by using such an apparatus so that 
it is possible to prevent curl of the recorded material caused when the 
image removing accelerating liquid is provided onto only one face of the 
recorded material. 
The providing device at the second stage in the providing unit of the image 
removing accelerating liquid shown in FIG. 13 will be further explained. 
The providing device at the second stage in the providing unit of the 
image removing accelerating liquid shown in FIG. 13 approximately has the 
same basic construction as the providing device of a roller system shown 
in FIG. 4. The recorded material is conveyed such that the recorded 
material is supported between a rear face coating roller 280 and a front 
face coating roller 23. A liquid supplying roller 282 for rear face 
coating is arranged such that this liquid supplying roller 282 comes in 
contact with the rear face coating roller 280. A liquid supplying nozzle 
281 for rear face coating is arranged such that the image removing 
accelerating liquid drops between the rear face coating roller 280 and the 
liquid supplying roller 282 for rear face coating. A rear face coating 
valve 283 for controlling supply of the image removing accelerating liquid 
is arranged between the liquid supplying nozzle 281 for rear face coating 
and a liquid supplying means 260. 
The rear face coating valve 283 is opened by a detecting signal from an 
unillustrated detecting means for detecting a front end of th e recorded 
material in timing in which the front end of the recorded material reaches 
a roller coating unit. The recorded material is then transmitted to the 
rear face coating roller 280. A liquid supplying amount of the recorded 
material is determined by a sending pressure from the liquid supplying 
means 260 and an opening time of the valve. The image removing 
accelerating liquid can be provided to both faces of the recorded material 
only in a front end portion thereof in accordance with objects. Otherwise, 
the image removing accelerating liquid may be provided onto an entire face 
of the recorded material. The image removing accelerating liquid drops 
onto the liquid supplying roller 282 for rear face coating from a nozzle. 
A rear face of the recorded material 10, namely, a non-image holding face 
side thereof is coated from the rear face coating roller 280 with an 
amount of the image removing accelerating liquid according to a nip width 
or a gap width between the liquid supplying roller 282 for rear face 
coating and the rear face coating roller 280. 
The image removing accelerating liquid is provided to both the faces of the 
recorded material, etc. in the providing device of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second and subsequent stages. Such a device is 
particularly suitable for a regenerating apparatus of the recorded 
material using two or more kinds of image removing accelerating liquids 
composed of the high concentration aqueous solution and the low 
concentration aqueous solution. This is because there is no great problem 
about curl of the recorded material in provision of the high concentration 
aqueous solution, but there is a problem about curl caused by providing 
the low concentration water-soluble liquid since the high concentration 
aqueous solution includes a small amount of water and a suitable providing 
amount of the high concentration aqueous solution is smaller than that of 
the low concentration water-soluble liquid. 
FIG. 14 shows a constructional example of the regenerating apparatus in 
which the image removing accelerating liquid at a second stage is provided 
to the recorded material from a face opposite to a holding face of an 
image forming substance 11, namely, from an image non-holding face side of 
the recorded material. A providing device of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in this regenerating apparatus has a construction 
similar to that of the rear face coating roller, etc. for coating a 
non-image face shown in FIG. 13. However, no drawing-up roller is attached 
to the providing device of the image removing accelerating liquid at the 
second stage so as not to provide the image removing accelerating liquid 
to an image face of the recorded material. 
FIG. 15 also shows a constructional example of the regenerating apparatus 
in which the image removing accelerating liquid at a second stage is 
provided to the recorded material from a face opposite to the holding face 
of an image forming substance 11, namely, from a non-image holding face 
side of the recorded material. This providing device of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the regenerating apparatus has a device for 
providing the image removing accelerating liquid at the second stage as a 
liquid drop to the recorded material. The providing device of the image 
removing accelerating liquid at th e second stage as a liquid drop is 
particularly suitable for a regenerating apparatus of the recorded 
material using two or more kinds of image removing accelerating liquids 
composed of the high concentration liquid and the low concentration 
aqueous solution for the above-mentioned reasons. 
FIG. 16 shows an example of the providing unit of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the regenerating apparatus. This providing unit has 
a means for judging whether or not the recorded material 10 is 
regeneratively processed before regenerative processing. Plural conveying 
paths of the recorded material 10 are arranged such that the number of 
liquid provisions with respect to the regeneratively processed recorded 
material (the regenerated recorded material) is set to be different from 
that with respect to an unregenerated recorded material. 
In FIG. 16, a recorded material 10 fed from a paper feed tray 12 is 
transmitted below a regenerative processing number judging means 15 and is 
guided to a liquid providing unit through a conveying roller pair 16. For 
example, the regenerative processing number judging means 15 may be 
constructed by a sensor capable of reading a mark showing regeneration of 
the recorded material 10 at a regenerative processing time. Otherwise, the 
regenerative processing number judging means 15 may be constructed by a 
sensor capable of reading a hole, concave and convex portions formed in 
the recorded material by a punch, etc. at the regenerative processing 
time. Concretely, the regenerative processing number judging means 15 is 
constructed by judging the mark from a difference in reflected light 
amount between a mark portion and the other portions using a photoelectric 
switch of each of reflecting and transmitting types, etc. A signal from 
this regenerative processing number judging means 15 is used in position 
control of a branching claw 293 arranged within a liquid providing unit. 
In FIG. 16, when the mark is detected, i.e., when the regenerated recorded 
material is fed, a front end of the branching claw 293 is moved in the 
direction of a lower guide plate so that the recorded material 10 is 
guided to an upper side conveying path. The upper side conveying path is 
connected to a normal conveying path before a second stage such that 
liquid provision of the recorded material 10 at a first stage is skipped 
and the liquid provision of the recorded material 10 is started from the 
second stage. An auxiliary roller 253 may be arranged on the upper side 
conveying path to support conveyance of the recorded material. When a high 
concentration liquid is used as the image removing accelerating liquid at 
the first stage and a low concentration liquid is used as the image 
removing accelerating liquid at the second stage i n the regenerating 
apparatus of FIG. 16, no high concentration liquid is provided to the 
processed recorded material. In such a construction, it is possible to 
prevent a component of the image removing accelerating liquid such as a 
surfactant, etc. from being accumulated in the recorded material even when 
the recorded material is repeatedly regenerated and reused. 
In the regenerating apparatus for switching conveying paths of the recorded 
material as shown in FIG. 16, it is possible to reliably prevent an 
unnecessary image removing accelerating liquid from being attached onto 
the recorded material so as to change the number of provisions of the 
image removing accelerating liquid in accordance with the number of 
regenerative processings of the recorded material. In the device for 
providing the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material 
by using a roller as shown in FIG. 10, the image removing accelerating 
liquid remaining in its container 21 and attached to the roller is 
attached to the recorded material even when the operation of a liquid 
supplying means (pump) is stopped and the image removing accelerating 
liquid is discharged from the image removing accelerating liquid container 
21. Therefore, it is difficult to reliably prevent the unnecessary image 
removing accelerating liquid from being attached to the recorded material 
by only an electric control means, a mechanical means for slightly moving 
only one portion of the providing device of the image removing 
accelerating liquid, etc. 
However, it is effective for simplification of the regenerating apparatus 
to control turning-on and turning-off operations of the providing means 
and switch the number of liquid provisions by using only the electric 
control means, the mechanical means for slightly moving only one portion 
of the providing device of the image removing accelerating liquid, etc. In 
this case, the turning-on and turning-off operations are performed and the 
number of liquid provisions is switched in accordance with the detected 
number of regenerative processings to change the number of provisions of 
the image removing accelerating liquid in accordance with the number of 
regenerative processings of the recorded material. If the image removing 
accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material by a providing 
device using liquid dropping similar to an ink jet, the turning-on and 
turning-off operations of the providing means can be easily performed by 
electric control. 
FIG. 17 shows an example of a device constructed such that city water is 
used as the low concentration water-soluble liquid. In FIG. 17, a drain 
pipe 262 is connected to a general water supply and the city water is 
guided to an auxiliary tank 265 through a valve 263. The low concentration 
water-soluble liquid is supplied from the auxiliary tank 265 such that a 
liquid level within a liquid container is constant. In the liquid supply, 
a quality of the low concentration water-soluble liquid may be improved by 
mixing an additive such as an antiseptic agent, a mildewproofing agent, 
etc., into the auxiliary tank from a container 264 holding this additive. 
The above description relates to the regenerating method of the recorded 
material and the liquid providing means for providing the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material in the present invention. In 
the following description, the entire regenerating apparatus of the 
recorded material in the present invention will next be described in 
accordance with its concrete example with reference to FIG. 9. 
The regenerating apparatus of the recorded material illustrated in FIG. 9 
is constructed by five units. A paper feed unit feeds sheets of paper as a 
recorded material 10 by a paper feed roller 13 from an uppermost sheet. In 
this case, holding faces of images of the paper sheets to be removed are 
directed downward and these paper sheets are stacked on a paper feed tray 
12. An unillustrated separating mechanism separates recorded materials 
from each other such that no recorded materials overlap each other. Thus, 
the separating mechanism feeds out only one recorded material 10 by a 
resist roller pair 14 for making a timing adjustment and a skew 
correction. Concrete construction and operation of the paper feed unit are 
similar to those of a paper feed mechanism in an electrophotographic 
copying machine, etc. Accordingly, a detailed explanation of the 
construction and operation of the paper feed unit is omitted here. 
A providing unit of an image removing accelerating liquid as an example is 
constructed by two coating units using rollers shown in FIG. 4. The 
recorded material 10 fed from the paper feed unit is guided between a 
coating roller 23 and a pressing roller 24 at a first stage through a 
guide plate 25. An image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage 
is provided to this recorded material. Thereafter, the recorded material 
is further guided to a roller coating unit at a second stage through the 
guide plate 25 arranged between both the roller coating units. An image 
removing accelerating liquid at the second stage is provided to the 
recorded material in this roller coating unit. The recorded material is 
then conveyed to the next image removing unit. Detailed construction and 
operation of the coating device of these image removing accelerating 
liquids are already explained. Accordingly, these construction and 
operation are omitted here. Adhesive force between the recorded material 
and an image forming substance thereon is reduced by providing the image 
removing accelerating liquids to the recorded material by the providing 
unit of each of the image removing accelerating liquids. 
The recorded material 10 having each of the image removing accelerating 
liquids provided by the providing unit is next guided to a separating unit 
of the image forming substance. The separating unit has a separating 
member belt 30, a heating roller 32 and a pressurizing roller 31. A heater 
310a is constructed by a halogen lamp, an infrared lamp, etc. for heating 
the recorded material 10 and is arranged within the heating roller 32. The 
heating roller 32 has a heat resisting rubber layer on its surface and is 
made of aluminum. The pressurizing roller 31 is opposed to the heating 
roller 32 and pressurizes the separating member belt 30 and the recorded 
material 10. Similar to the heating roller 32, the pressurizing roller 31 
has a heat resisting rubber layer on its surface. A heater is not 
necessarily arranged within the pressurizing roller 31. However, when the 
image forming substance is removed from the recorded material a high 
speed, etc., it is possible to preferably prevent a heating temperature of 
the recorded material from being reduced by arranging a heater 310b. Both 
the heating roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31 have not necessarily 
elastic layers such as the rubber layers. For example, the heating roller 
32 can be constructed by aluminum having a thin layer of a surface 
material such as polytetrafluoroethylene, etc. onto which no image forming 
substance is easily adhered. The pressurizing roller 32 is rotated by an 
unillustrated driving means. 
The separating member belt 30 having an endless shape is supported by the 
pressurizing roller 31, a belt supporting roller 34, a cleaning member 
supporting roller 42 and a tension roller 37 and is moved. The tension 
roller is pressed against the separating member belt by an unillustrated 
biasing means such as a spring, etc. The tension roller is constructed 
such that tension is applied to the separating member belt. 
The recorded material 10 is guided such that an image holding face of the 
recorded material 10 is located on a side of the separating belt 30 
between the heating roller 32 and the separating belt 30. The recorded 
material 10 is heated and pressurized in a nipping portion formed between 
the heating roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31. This heating is 
controlled by an unillustrated temperature detector of the rollers and a 
control means of a heater input such that a temperature of the image 
forming substance 11 on the recorded material is equal to or higher than a 
softening temperature of this image forming substance. It is desirable to 
set a rising temperature obtained by this heating in the range of a 
temperature equal to or higher than a softening point of the image forming 
substance 11 and showing that the image forming substance 11 is not 
completely melted and no elasticity of the image forming substance is 
lost. When the image forming substance 11 is completely melted and the 
elasticity of the image forming substance is lost, the image forming 
substance 11 is easily separated onto sides of the recorded material 10 
and the separating belt 30 when the recorded material 10 and the 
separating member belt 30 are separated from each other. Therefore, the 
image forming substance is left on the recorded material. Further, when 
the image forming substance 11 is excessively heated, the image removing 
accelerating liquid provided to the recorded material 10 is dried when the 
recorded material passes through the nipping portion formed between the 
heating roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31. Accordingly, adhesive 
force of the image forming substance 11 to the recorded material 10 is 
strengthened in comparison with a case in which the recorded material 10 
is wet. Therefore, it is difficult to separate the recorded material 10 
and the separating member belt 30 from each other. Accordingly, 
temperatures of the heating roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31 are 
controlled and set to be lower than constant temperatures such that the 
image removing accelerating liquid is suitably left in the recorded 
material passing through the nipping portion formed between the heating 
roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31 and the recorded material 10 is 
preferably separated from the separating member belt 30. 
A pair of separating claws 36 are arranged such that the separating claws 
36 come in contact with surfaces of the heating roller 32 and the 
separating member belt 30. After the recorded material 10 has passed 
through the nipping portion form ed between the heating roller 32 and the 
pressurizing roller 31, the image forming substance 11 is adhered to the 
separating member belt 30. The recorded material 10 is separated from the 
separating member belt 30 and the heating roller 32 by the separating 
claws 36. 
A rotating cleaning member 40 is arranged in a position opposite to the 
cleaning member supporting roller 42. The image forming substance 11 
transferred to the separating member of the separating member belt 30 
comes in frictional contact with the cleaning member 40 so that this image 
forming substance 11 is removed from the separating member belt 30. It is 
possible to clean the separating member belt 30 by a cleaning means every 
separating operation. However, the separating member belt 30 may be not 
necessarily cleaned every separating operation. For example, the 
separating member belt 30 may be cleaned every suitable using number and 
using time. Shearing force can be applied as the cleaning member 40 to the 
image forming substance on the separating member. The cleaning member 40 
may be constructed by any material capable of scraping off the image 
forming substance. In a preferable concrete example of the cleaning member 
40, a roll-shaped brush member implanting hair of brass, stainless steel, 
etc. therein may be used. In the above description, a means for rotating 
the cleaning member is used as an example of the cleaning means. However, 
the cleaning means can be constructed by using a means for fixing a 
blade-shaped member made of brass, stainless steel, etc. to the separating 
member belt and sliding the separating member belt such that the 
blade-shaped member comes in press contact with the separating member 
belt. These cleaning means may be used independently, or some cleaning 
means may be combined with each other and used. 
The recorded material 10 separating the image forming substance 11 
therefrom is separated from the separating member belt and the heating 
roller. This recorded material 10 is then guided to a drying 
paper-discharging unit. The drying paper-discharging unit is constructed 
by heaters 51, a pair of recorded material conveying belts 52, etc. formed 
by a gas permeable material such as a cloth, a porous plastic net, etc. In 
the drying paper-discharging unit, excessive moisture within the recorded 
material 10 is evaporated and the recorded material is finished in a 
smooth surface state by a heating press contact from both sides of the 
recorded material. 
A paper receiving unit has a paper discharging tray 61 for receiving the 
recorded material 10 discharged from the drying unit and has a paper 
discharging conveying guide plate 62 for guiding the recorded material to 
the paper discharging tray 61. 
This regenerating apparatus of the recorded material also has a detecting 
means for detecting whether there is a recorded material 10 or not on a 
paper feed base, an overlapping feed detecting means of the recorded 
material 10 fed from the paper feed unit, a liquid amount detecting means 
within a liquid container 21, a jam detecting means of the recorded 
material 10, a lighting control means of the heaters, a full detecting 
means within a collecting box 41 of the image forming substance, a 
separating belt offset detecting means, a correcting means, etc. However, 
these means are not illustrated in FIG. 9. 
A regenerating apparatus of the present invention having a construction 
different from the above apparatus construction will next be further 
explained. 
In the regenerating apparatus of a recorded material shown in FIG. 18, a 
surface of the recorded material holding an image forming substance is 
thinly coated with a high concentration liquid 904" by a coating roller 
904 and a conveying roller 904' in a first process from a paper feed tray 
901 through a guide plate 903 using a paper feed roller 902. This recorded 
material is then guided to a separating member roller 905. A surface of 
the separating member roller 905 is coated with a low concentration 
water-soluble liquid or water 907 by a coating roller 906 in a second 
process. The recorded material conveyed from the above first coating 
roller 904 is coated and impregnated with the low concentration 
water-soluble liquid or water 907 through the separating member roller 
905. After the recorded material is coated and impregnated with the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid or water 907 and the recorded material 
coming in contact with the separating member roller 905 comes in press 
contact with the heating pressurizing roller 908 and is heated by this 
heating pressurizing roller 908, the separating member roller 905 and the 
recorded material are separated from each other by a separating claw 909. 
The separating member roller 905 separated from the recorded material is 
cleaned from its surface by a toner cleaning portion 910. This surface of 
the separating member roller 905 is again coated with an image removing 
accelerating liquid. In contrast to this, the recorded material separated 
by the separating claw 909 has no image forming substance on its surface. 
Accordingly, the recorded material attains a state in which a recopy can 
be made and characters can be reprinted. The recorded material is guided 
onto a drying belt 912 by a conveying roller 911 and is dried. The dried 
recorded material is discharged onto a paper discharging tray 913 by a 
conveying roller 911 so that a recorded material able to make a recopy and 
reprint characters is obtained. 
EMBODIMENT 1 
The recorded material is regenerated by using the regenerating apparatus 
shown in FIG. 9. 
An alkyl sulfo succinic acid-including surfactant (trade name MA-80: 
manufactured by MITSUI SAIANAMIDO) 1.0 weight % aqueous solution is used 
as the image removing accelerating liquid 20. An image is formed on a 
sheet of wood free paper (fine quality paper) of size A4 commercially sold 
by a PPC copying machine (manufactured by RICOH, trade name FT2200). 
A roller coating unit is used and the image removing accelerating liquid 20 
is provided to the recorded material 10. A liquid providing amount of one 
roller coating unit is equal to 1.1 g. Two roller coating units are 
arranged as shown in FIG. 5 and the same liquid is provided to the 
recorded material so that the liquid providing amount is equal to 2.5 g. 
From this liquid providing state, separating processing of the recorded 
material is performed in a separating condition of linear velocity 30 
mm/sec and a surface temperature 95.degree. C. of the heating roller. 
Polycarbonate is used as the separating member belt. 
In this separating processing, all images formed on the paper sheet are 
separated therefrom. No phenomenon of separation and drop of paper fibers, 
etc. from plain paper is seen. In the following description, this 
phenomenon is called paper tear. 
An image is again formed on a sheet of regenerated paper and regenerative 
processing is again performed with respect to this paper sheet. This image 
formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed ten 
times. Similar to the above case, an image is formed on this regenerated 
paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image having a quality 
approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no paper sheet is 
used. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 1 
Only one roller coating unit shown in the Embodiment 1 is used. Similar to 
the Embodiment 1, the liquid provision and the separating processing are 
executed except that a providing amount of the image removing accelerating 
liquid is changed by adjusting irregularities of a roller surface and gaps 
between rollers. 3 g or more of the image removing accelerating liquid is 
required to perform preferable image separation. 
No image is sufficiently separated from the paper sheet by providing 2.5 g 
of the image removing accelerating liquid capable of performing the image 
separation in the Embodiment 1. Therefore, the image is left on the paper 
sheet. 
EMBODIMENT 2 
The liquid provision and the separating processing are performed by using a 
regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in which the liquid 
providing unit of the regenerating apparatus shown in FIG. 9 is replaced 
with the liquid providing unit of FIG. 8. Operations similar to those in 
the Embodiment 1 are performed except that this liquid providing unit is 
used. 
The liquid providing unit in this Embodiment 2 has four roller coating 
portions. A measured liquid providing amount of the recorded material in 
each of the roller coating portions ranges from 0.3 to 0.4 g. When the 
recorded material passes through all the four coating portions, a measured 
liquid providing amount of the recorded material ranges from 1.5 to 2.0 g. 
When the regenerative processing using this liquid providing amount is 
performed, all images formed on a paper sheet are separated therefrom so 
that no paper tear is seen. 
In this Embodiment 2 and the Embodiment 1, the image removing accelerating 
liquid 20 is divisionally provided to the same recorded material 10 plural 
times. When this plural liquid provision is compared with single liquid 
provision, it is shown that the recorded material is preferably 
regenerated by a smaller providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid. It is sufficiently effective to provide the image 
removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material at two stages as 
shown in FIG. 9. However, it has been confirmed that the providing amount 
of the image removing accelerating liquid can be further reduced when the 
image removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material at 
three stages or more. 
EMBODIMENT 3 
The regenerating operation is performed by using the regenerating apparatus 
of FIG. 18. 
An image is formed by a PPC copying machine (manufactured by RICOH, trade 
name IMAGIO 320 FP1) on a sheet of PPC copying paper which is not used and 
is not regeneratively processed in advance. An aqueous solution of 50 
weight % surfactant BT-7 (manufactured by NIKKO CHEMICALS, trade name) is 
prepared as a high concentration liquid. In the coating roller 904 at a 
first stage in the regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18, about 0.4 g/size A4 
of the high concentration liquid is provided to the above recorded 
material. Next, about 0.5 g/size A4 of water is provided by the coating 
roller 906 at a second stage to the recorded material having the above 
provided high concentration liquid. In this state, the separating member 
roller 905 comes in contact with an image face of the recorded material. 
The recorded material comes in press contact with the heating roller 908 
and is heated by this heating roller 908. Thereafter, the separating 
member roller and the recorded material as an image holding supporting 
member are separated from each other by the separating claw 909. The 
recorded material is then guided onto the drying belt 912 by the conveying 
roller 911 and is dried. 
An image is removed from a processed surface of the paper sheet as the 
recorded material. When this processed paper sheet is reused in the above 
copying machine, a clear image can be obtained on this paper sheet. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times. Similar to the above case, an image is formed on this 
regenerated paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image having a 
quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no paper 
sheet is used. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 2 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 3 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, a 1 weight % BT-7 
surfactant aqueous solution is directly provided to the paper sheet by the 
coating roller 906 at the second stage such that a providing amount of 
this aqueous solution is equal to 0.5 g/size A4. Thereafter, in this 
state, the separating member roller 905 comes in contact with an image 
face of the recorded material. The recorded material is then heated and 
pressurized by the heating pressurizing roller 908. Thereafter, when the 
separating member roller and the recorded material are separated from each 
other by the separating claw 909, no image is almost separated from the 
recorded material and a surface portion of the paper sheet as the recorded 
material is damaged and broken. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 3 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 3 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, a 1 weight % BT-7 
surfactant aqueous solution is directly provided to the paper sheet by the 
coating roller 906 at the second stage. The providing amount of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is changed by adjusting irregularities of a 
surface of the coating roller 906 at the second stage and gaps between 
rollers. The recorded material having this providing amount of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is prepared. Similar to the Embodiment 3, an 
image face of the recorded material comes in contact with the separating 
member roller 905. The recorded material then comes in press contact with 
the heating roller 908 and is heated by this heating roller 908. 
Thereafter, the recorded material as an image holding supporting member is 
separated from the separating member roller by the separating claw 909. 
It is necessary to provide about 3 g or more/size A4 of the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material so as to preferably separate 
an image from the recorded material. 
The image can be separated from the recorded material by providing 3 g or 
more/size A4 of the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded 
material. However, in the same drying condition as the Embodiment 3, the 
discharged paper sheet as the recorded material is still wet. Accordingly, 
it has been clearly confirmed that large energy is required to dry the 
paper sheet in comparison with the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the Embodiment 3. 
EMBODIMENT 4 
An aqueous solution of surfactant BT-7 at the first stage in the Embodiment 
3 is replaced with an ethanol solution. Further, water at the second stage 
is replaced with an aqueous solution of starch as a 1 weight % 
water-soluble polymer. A regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 3 except for these replacements. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 4 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 4 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, 0.5 g/size A4 of 
mixing liquid is directly provided to the paper sheet by the coating 
roller 906 at the second stage. In this mixing liquid, an amount of a 
starch aqueous solution as a 1 weight % water-soluble polymer is equal to 
that of an aqueous solution of 1 weight % surfactant BT-7. In this state, 
an image face of the recorded material comes in contact with the 
separating member roller 905. The recorded material is then heated and 
pressurized by the heating pressurizing roller 908. Thereafter, when the 
recorded material is separated from the separating member roller by the 
separating claw 909, no image is almost separated from the recorded 
material and a surface portion of the paper sheet as the recorded material 
is damaged and broken. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 5 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 4 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, a mixing liquid is 
directly provided to the paper sheet by the coating roller 906 at the 
second stage. In this mixing liquid, an amount of a starch aqueous 
solution as a 1 weight % water-soluble polymer is equal to that of an 
aqueous solution of 1 weight % surfactant BT-7.The providing amount of the 
image removing accelerating liquid is changed by adjusting irregularities 
of a surface of the coating roller 906 at the second stage and gaps 
between rollers. The recorded material having this providing amount of the 
image removing accelerating liquid is prepared. Similar to the Embodiment 
4, an image face of the recorded material comes in contact with the 
separating member roller 905. The recorded material then comes in press 
contact with the heating roller 908 and is heated by this heating roller 
908. Thereafter, the recorded material as an image holding supporting 
member is separated from the separating member roller by the separating 
claw 909. 
It is necessary to provide about 3 g or more/size A4 of the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material so as to preferably separate 
an image from the recorded material. 
The image can be separated from the recorded material by providing 3 g or 
more/size A4 of the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded 
material. However, in the same drying condition as the Embodiment 4, the 
discharged paper sheet as the recorded material is still wet. Accordingly, 
it has been clearly confirmed that large energy is required to dry the 
paper sheet in comparison with the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the Embodiment 4. 
EMBODIMENT 5 
An aqueous solution of 0.02 weight % surfactant BT-7 is used instead of 
water at the second stage in the Embodiment 3. The regenerating operation 
is similar to that in the Embodiment 3 except for this usage. In this 
embodiment, about 0.5 g/size A4 of the image removing accelerating liquid 
at the second stage is provided to the recorded material. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 6 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 5 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, an aqueous solution of 
0.02 weight % surfactant BT-7 is directly provided to the paper sheet by 
the coating roller 906 at the second stage such that a providing amount of 
this aqueous solution is equal to 0.5 g/size A4. In this state, the 
separating member roller 905 comes in contact with an image face of the 
recorded material. The recorded material is then heated and pressurized by 
the heating pressurizing roller 908. Thereafter, when the separating 
member roller and the recorded material are separated from each other by 
the separating claw 909, no image is almost separated from the recorded 
material and a surface portion of the paper sheet as the recorded material 
is damaged and broken. 
EMBODIMENT 6 
An ethanol solution of BT-12 (manufactured by NIKKO CHEMICALS, trade name) 
is used instead of the surfactant BT-7 aqueous solution at the first stage 
in the Embodiment 3. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 3 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.05 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 7 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 6 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, an aqueous solution of 
1 weight % surfactant BT-7 is directly provided to the paper sheet by the 
coating roller 906 at the second stage such that a providing amount of 
this aqueous solution is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. In this state, the 
separating member roller 905 comes in contact with an image face of the 
recorded material. The recorded material is then heated and pressurized by 
the heating pressurizing roller 908. Thereafter, when the separating 
member roller and the recorded material are separated from each other by 
the separating claw 909, no image is almost separated from the recorded 
material and a surface portion of the paper sheet as the recorded material 
is damaged and broken. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 8 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 6 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, an aqueous solution of 
1 weight % surfactant BT-7 is directly provided to the paper sheet by the 
coating roller 906 at the second stage. The providing amount of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is changed by adjusting irregularities of a 
surface of the coating roller 906 at the second stage and gaps between 
rollers. The recorded material having this providing amount of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is prepared. Similar to the Embodiment 6, an 
image face of the recorded material comes in contact with the separating 
member roller 905. The recorded material then comes in press contact with 
the heating roller 908 and is heated by this heating roller 908. 
Thereafter, the recorded material as an image holding supporting member is 
separated from the separating member roller by the separating claw 909. 
It is necessary to provide about 3 g or more/size A4 of the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material so as to preferably separate 
an image from the recorded material. 
The image can be separated from the recorded material by providing 3 g or 
more/size A4 of the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded 
material. However, in the same drying condition as the Embodiment 3, the 
discharged paper sheet as the recorded material is still wet. Accordingly, 
it has been clearly confirmed that large energy is required to dry the 
paper sheet in comparison with the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the Embodiment 4. 
EMBODIMENT 7 
An aqueous solution of BT-12 is used instead of the surfactant BT-7 ethanol 
solution at the first stage in the Embodiment 4. The regenerating 
operation is similar to that in the Embodiment 4 except for this usage. At 
this time, the providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid 
at the first stage is equal to about 0.05 g/size A4. The providing amount 
of the image removing accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to 
about 0.5 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 9 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 7 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, an aqueous solution of 
1 weight % surfactant BT-12 is directly provided to the paper sheet by the 
coating roller 906 at the second stage such that a providing amount of 
this aqueous solution is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. In this state, the 
separating member roller 905 comes in contact with an image face of the 
recorded material. The recorded material is then heated and pressurized by 
the heating pressurizing roller 908. Thereafter, when the separating 
member roller and the recorded material are separated from each other by 
the separating claw 909, no image is almost separated from the recorded 
material and a surface portion of the paper sheet as the recorded material 
is damaged and broken. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 10 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 7 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, an aqueous solution of 
1 weight % surfactant BT-12 is directly provided to the paper sheet by the 
coating roller 906 at the second stage. The providing amount of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is changed by adjusting irregularities of a 
surface of the coating roller 906 at the second stage and gaps between 
rollers. The recorded material having this providing amount of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is prepared. Similar to the Embodiment 7, an 
image face of the recorded material comes in contact with the separating 
member roller 905. The recorded material then comes in press contact with 
the heating roller 908 and is heated by this heating roller 908. 
Thereafter, the recorded material as an image holding supporting member is 
separated from the separating member roller by the separating claw 909. 
It is necessary to provide about 3 g or more/size A4 of the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material so as to preferably separate 
an image from the recorded material. 
The image can be separated from the recorded material by providing 3 g or 
more/size A4 of the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded 
material. However, in the same drying condition as the Embodiment 3, the 
discharged paper sheet as the recorded material is still wet. Accordingly, 
it has been clearly confirmed that large energy is required to dry the 
paper sheet in comparison with the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the Embodiment 4. 
EMBODIMENT 8 
BT-12 is used instead of the surfactant BT-7 at the first stage in the 
Embodiment 5. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 5 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.05 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 11 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 8 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, an aqueous solution of 
0.02 weight % surfactant BT-12 is directly provided to the paper sheet by 
the coating roller 906 at the second stage such that a providing amount of 
this aqueous solution is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. In this state, the 
separating member roller 905 comes in contact with an image face of the 
recorded material. The recorded material is then heated and pressurized by 
the heating pressurizing roller 908. Thereafter, when the separating 
member roller and the recorded material are separated from each other by 
the separating claw 909, no image is almost separated from the recorded 
material and a surface portion of the paper sheet as the recorded material 
is damaged and broken. 
EMBODIMENT 9 
Surfactant MA-80 (manufactured by MITSUI SAIANAMIDO, trade name) is used 
instead of surfactant BT-7 at the first stage in the Embodiment 3. The 
regenerating operation is similar to that in the Embodiment 3 except for 
this usage. At this time, the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to about 0.08 g/size A4. 
The providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid at the 
second stage is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 12 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 8 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, an aqueous solution of 
0.2 weight % surfactant MA-80 is directly provided to the paper sheet by 
the coating roller 906 at the second stage such that a providing amount of 
this aqueous solution is equal to 0.6 g/size A4. In this state, the 
separating member roller 905 comes in contact with an image face of the 
recorded material. The recorded material is then heated and pressurized by 
the heating pressurizing roller 908. Thereafter, when the separating 
member roller an d the recorded material are separated from each other by 
the separating claw 909, no image is almost separated from the recorded 
material and a surface portion of the paper sheet as the recorded material 
is damaged and broken. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 13 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 9 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, an aqueous solution of 
0.2 weight % MA-80 is directly provided to the paper sheet by the coating 
roller 906 at the second stage. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid is changed by adjusting irregularities of a surface of 
the coating roller 906 at the second stage and gaps between rollers. The 
recorded material having this providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid is prepared. Similar to the Embodiment 9, an image 
face of the recorded material comes in contact with the separating member 
roller 905. The recorded material then comes in press contact with the 
heating roller 908 and is heated by this heating roller 908. Thereafter, 
the recorded material as an image holding supporting member is separated 
from the separating member roller by the separating claw 909. 
It is necessary to provide about 3 g or more/size A4 of the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material so as to preferably separate 
an image from the recorded material. 
The image can be separated from the recorded material by providing 3 g or 
more/size A4 of the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded 
material. However, in the same drying condition as the Embodiment 4, the 
discharged paper sheet as the recorded material is still wet. Accordingly, 
it has been clearly confirmed that large energy is required to dry the 
paper sheet in comparison with the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the Embodiment 4. 
EMBODIMENT 10 
An aqueous solution of 50 weight % surfactant MA-80 is used instead of an 
ethanol aqueous solution of surfactant BT-7 at the first stage in the 
Embodiment 4. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 4 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.10 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 14 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 10 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, a mixing solution is 
directly provided to the paper sheet by the coating roller 906 at the 
second stage such that a providing amount of this mixing solution is equal 
to 0.5 g/size A4. In this mixing solution, an amount of a starch aqueous 
solution as a 1 weight % water-soluble polymer is equal to that of an 
aqueous solution of 1 weight % surfactant MA-80.In this state, the 
separating member roller 905 comes in contact with an image face of the 
recorded material. The recorded material is then heated and pressurized by 
the heating pressurizing roller 908. Thereafter, when the separating 
member roller and the recorded material are separated from each other by 
the separating claw 909, no image is almost separated from the recorded 
material and a surface portion of the paper sheet as the recorded material 
is damaged and broken. 
COMISON EXAMPLE 15 
No liquid is provided to a paper sheet having an image obtained as in the 
Embodiment 10 by the coating roller 904 at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 18. In this example, a mixing solution is 
directly provided to the paper sheet by the coating roller 906 at the 
second stage. In this mixing solution, an amount of a starch aqueous 
solution as a 1 weight % water-soluble polymer is equal to that of an 
aqueous solution of 1 weight % surfactant MA-80. The providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid is changed by adjusting 
irregularities of a surface of the coating roller 906 at the second stage 
and gaps between rollers. The recorded material having this providing 
amount of the image removing accelerating liquid is prepared. Similar to 
the Embodiment 6, an image face of the recorded material comes in contact 
with the separating member roller 905. The recorded material then comes in 
press contact with the heating roller 908 and is heated by this heating 
roller 908. Thereafter, the recorded material as an image holding 
supporting member is separated from the separating member roller by the 
separating claw 909. 
It is necessary to provide about 3 g or more/size A4 of the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material so as to preferably separate 
an image from the recorded material 
The image can be separated from the recorded material by providing 3 g or 
more/size A4 of the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded 
material. However, in the same drying condition as the Embodiment 3, the 
discharged paper sheet as the recorded material is still wet. Accordingly, 
it has been clearly confirmed that large energy is required to dry the 
paper sheet in comparison with the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the Embodiment 4. 
EMBODIMENT 11 
An ethanol solution is used instead of the 50 weight % surfactant MA-80 
aqueous solution at the first stage in the Embodiment 9. Further, a 0.2 
weight % surfactant MA-80 aqueous solution is used instead of water at the 
next stage. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 9 except for these usages. At this time, the providing amount 
of the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.15 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 12 
Surfactant RBS-25 (manufactured by JYNSEI KAGAKU, trade name) is used 
instead of surfactant BT-7 at the first stage in the Embodiment 3. The 
regenerating operation is similar to that in the Embodiment 3 except for 
this usage. At this time, the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to about 0.3 g/size A4. 
The providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid at the 
second stage is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 13 
Surfactant RBS-25 (manufactured by JYNSEI KAGAKU, trade name) is used 
instead of surfactant BT-7 at the first stage in the Embodiment 4. The 
regenerating operation is similar to that in the Embodiment 4 except for 
this usage. At this time, the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to about 0.3 g/size A4. 
The providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid at the 
second stage is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 14 
A 20 weight % surfactant BT-7 aqueous solution is used instead of the 50 
weight % surfactant BT-7 aqueous solution at the first stage in the 
Embodiment 3. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 3 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.06 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 15 
A 20 weight % surfactant BT-7 aqueous solution is used instead of the 50 
weight % surfactant BT-7 ethanol solution at the first stage in the 
Embodiment 4. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 4 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.05 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 0.7 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 16 
A 20 weight % surfactant BT-12 aqueous solution is used instead of the 50 
weight % surfactant BT-7 aqueous solution at the first stage in the 
Embodiment 3. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 3 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.06 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 0.7 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 17 
A 20 weight % surfactant BT-12 aqueous solution is used instead of the 50 
weight % surfactant BT-7 ethanol solution at the first stage in the 
Embodiment 4. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 4 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.06 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 0.7 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 18 
A 20 weight % surfactant MA-80 aqueous solution is used instead of the 50 
weight % surfactant BT-7 aqueous solution at the first stage in the 
Embodiment 3. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 3 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.03 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 0.6 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried, When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 19 
A 20 weight % surfactant MA-80 aqueous solution is used instead of the 50 
weight % surfactant BT-7 ethanol solution at the first stage in the 
Embodiment 4. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 4 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.03 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 0.6 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 20 
A 20 weight % surfactant RBS-25 aqueous solution is used instead of the 50 
weight % surfactant BT-7 aqueous solution at the first stage in the 
Embodiment 3. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 3 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.08 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 1.0 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 21 
A 20 weight % surfactant RBS-25 aqueous solution is used instead of the 50 
weight % surfactant BT-7 ethanol solution at the first stage in the 
Embodiment 4. The regenerating operation is similar to that in the 
Embodiment 4 except for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to 
about 0.08 g/size A4. The providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to about 1.2 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 22 
An aqueous solution of 20 weight % surfactant SH3746 (manufactured by TOHRE 
DAUCONING, trade name) is used instead of the 50 weight % surfactant BT-7 
aqueous solution at the first stage in the Embodiment 3. The regenerating 
operation is similar to that in the Embodiment 3 except for this usage. At 
this time, the providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid 
at the first stage is equal to about 0.05 g/size A4. The providing amount 
of the image removing accelerating liquid at the second stage is equal to 
about 0.7 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is s separated from the separating 
member by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the 
recorded material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to 
the drying belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet 
discharged through a drying process has been dried. When the discharged 
paper sheet having no image is reused by the above copying machine, it is 
possible to obtain a sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 23 
An aqueous solution of 20 weight % surfactant TSF4771 (manufactured by 
TOSHIBA SILICON, trade name) is used instead of the 50 weight % surfactant 
BT-7 ethanol solution at the first stage in the Embodiment 4. The 
regenerating operation is similar to that in the Embodiment 4 except for 
this usage. At this time, the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to about 0.05 g/size A4. 
The providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid at the 
second stage is equal to about 0.7 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 24 
100 weight % surfactant SH3746 is used instead of the 50 weight % 
surfactant BT-7 aqueous solution at the first stage in the Embodiment 3. 
The regenerating operation is similar to that in the Embodiment 3 except 
for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to about 0.06 g/size A4. 
The providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid at the 
second stage is equal to about 0.8 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 25 
100 weight % surfactant TSF4771 is used instead of the 50 weight % 
surfactant BT-7 ethanol solution at the first stage in the Embodiment 4. 
The regenerating operation is similar to that in the Embodiment 4 except 
for this usage. At this time, the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the first stage is equal to about 0.25 g/size A4. 
The providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid at the 
second stage is equal to about 0.5 g/size A4. 
As a result, after the recorded material comes in press contact with the 
separating member roller 908 and is heated by this separating member 
roller 908, the recorded material is separated from the separating member 
by the separating claw 909. There is no image on a surface of the recorded 
material. The paper sheet as the recorded material is guided to the drying 
belt 912 by the conveying roller 911. The paper sheet discharged through a 
drying process has been dried. When the discharged paper sheet having no 
image is reused by the above copying machine, it is possible to obtain a 
sheet of copying paper having a clear image. 
The image formation and the regenerating operation are repeatedly performed 
ten times by similar operations. Thereafter, similar to the above case, an 
image is formed on the paper sheet. It is thus possible to obtain an image 
having a quality approximately equal to an image quality obtained when no 
paper sheet is used. 
EMBODIMENT 26 
An image removing accelerating liquid made by the following prescription is 
prepared as the high concentration liquid. 
Surfactant polyoxyethylene alkyl 20 weight % phenyl ether 
antiseptics dehydropotassium acetate 0.3 weight % ion-exchanged water the 
remaining amount 
An image removing accelerating liquid made by the following prescription is 
prepared as the low concentration liquid. 
Surfactant dodecyl benzene sodium 0.4 weight % sulfonate 
antiseptics dehydropotassium acetate 0.3 weight % ion-exchanged water the 
remaining amount 
A sheet of copying paper (regenerative wood free paper) commercially sold 
is used as the recorded material. An image is formed on this paper sheet 
by a copying machine (manufactured by RICHO, trade name FT5840) 
commercially sold. This paper sheet is regenerated by the following 
method. The regenerating apparatus is constructed by using the apparatus 
construction shown in FIG. 15. A polyester film having 75 .mu.m in 
thickness is used as the separating member belt. 
A providing portion of the image removing accelerating liquid at the first 
stage in the regenerating apparatus of FIG. 15 is filled with the above 
high concentration liquid. This high concentration liquid is provided to 
the recorded material such that a providing amount of the high 
concentration liquid is equal to 0.08 g/size A4. A providing portion of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the second stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 15 is filled with the above low 
concentration liquid. This low concentration liquid is provided to a rear 
face of the recorded material such that a providing amount of the low 
concentration liquid is equal to 0.9 g/size A4. An image is separated from 
such a recorded material having the provided image removing accelerating 
liquids at a linear velocity of 20 mm/sec while temperatures of the 
heating roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31 are controlled such that 
these temperatures of the heating roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31 
are respectively equal to 120.degree. C. and 105.degree. C. Namely, the 
image is separated from the recorded material having the provided image 
removing accelerating liquids at the linear velocity of 20 mm/sec by 
holding temperatures of the recorded material such that the temperature of 
an image holding face of the recorded material is lower than that of the 
rear face of the recorded material. As a result, an image forming 
substance can be preferably separated from the recorded material so that 
no image is left on the recorded material. 
In contrast to this, separating processing similar to the above image 
separating processing can be performed while the temperatures of the 
heating roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31 are controlled such that 
the temperatures of the heating roller 32 and the pressuring roller 31 are 
respectively equal to 105.degree. C. and 120.degree. C. Namely, separating 
processing similar to the above image separating processing can be 
performed by holding the temperatures of the recorded material such that 
the temperature of the image holding face of the recorded material is 
higher than that of the rear face of the recorded material. In this case, 
an image is slightly left on the recorded material. 
EMBODIMENT 27 
An image removing accelerating liquid made by the following prescription is 
prepared as the high concentration liquid. 
Surfactant polyoxyethylene alkyl 20 weight % phenyl ether 
wetting agent N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone 20 weight % antiseptics 
dehydropotassium acetate 0.3 weight % ion-exchanged water the remaining 
amount 
A providing portion of the image removing accelerating liquid at the first 
stage in the regenerating apparatus of FIG. 15 is filled with the above 
high concentration liquid. This high concentration liquid is provided to 
the recorded material such that a providing amount of the high 
concentration liquid is equal to 0.08 g/size A4. An image removing 
accelerating liquid made by the same prescription as the Embodiment 26 is 
used as the low concentration liquid. A providing portion of the image 
removing accelerating liquid at the second stage in the regenerating 
apparatus of FIG. 15 is filled with this low concentration liquid. This 
low concentration liquid is provided to a rear face of the recorded 
material such that a providing amount of the low concentration liquid is 
equal to 0.5 g/size A4. An image is separated from such a recorded 
material having the provided image removing accelerating liquids at a 
linear velocity of 20 mm/sec while temperatures of the heating roller 32 
and the pressurizing roller 31 are controlled such that these temperatures 
of the heating roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31 a re respectively 
equal to 120.degree. C. and 105.degree. C. Namely, the image is separated 
from the recorded material having the provided image removing accelerating 
liquids at the linear velocity of 20 mm/sec by holding temperatures of the 
recorded material such that the temperature of an image holding face of 
the recorded material is lower than that of the rear face of the recorded 
material. As a result, an image forming substance can be preferably 
separated from the recorded material so that no image is left on the 
recorded material. 
A similar test is made by replacing N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone with ethylene 
glycol, diethylene glycol and diethylene glycol monoethyl ether in the 
wetting agent in the high concentration solution prescription. The image 
forming substance can be preferably separated from the recorded material 
when any one of these we tting agents is used. No image is left on the 
recorded material. 
An image is slightly left on the recorded material when the high 
concentration liquid in the Embodiment 26 is used and the providing amount 
of the low concentration liquid is equal to 0.5 g/size A4 and the 
regenerating operation is similarly performed. Accordingly, effects of 
adding the wetting agent to the image removing accelerating liquid have 
been confirmed. 
EMBODIMENT 28 
An image removing accelerating liquid made by the following prescription is 
prepared as the high concentration liquid. 
Surfactant polyoxyethylene alkyl 20 weight % phenyl ether 
antiseptics dehydropotassium acetate 0.3 weight % ion-exchanged water the 
remaining amount 
An image removing accelerating liquid made by the following prescription is 
prepared as the low concentration liquid. 
Surfactant dodecyl benzene sodium 0.4 weight % sulfonate 
antiseptics dehydropotassium acetate 0.3 weight % ion-exchanged water the 
remaining amount 
A sheet of copying paper (regenerative wood free paper) commercially sold 
is used as the recorded material. An image is formed on this paper sheet 
by a copying machine (manufactured by RICHO, trade name FT5840) 
commercially sold. This paper sheet is regenerated by the following 
method. The regenerating apparatus is constructed by using the apparatus 
construction shown in FIG. 15. A polyester film having 75 .mu.m in 
thickness is used as the separating member belt. 
A providing portion of the image removing accelerating liquid at the first 
stage in the regenerating apparatus of FIG. 15 is filled with the above 
high concentration liquid. This high concentration liquid is provided to 
the recorded material such that a providing amount of the high 
concentration liquid is equal to 0.08 g/size A4. An image removing 
accelerating liquid made by the same prescription as the Embodiment 26 is 
used as the low concentration liquid. A providing portion of the image 
removing accelerating liquid at the second stage in the regenerating 
apparatus of FIG. 15 is filled with this low concentration liquid. This 
low concentration liquid is provided to a rear face of the recorded 
material such that a providing amount of the low concentration liquid is 
equal to 0.5 g/size A4. An image is separated from such a recorded 
material having the provided image removing accelerating liquids at a 
linear velocity of 20 mm/sec while temperatures of the heating roller 32 
and the pressurizing roller 31 are controlled such that these temperatures 
of the heating roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31 are respectively 
equal to 120.degree. C. and 105.degree. C. Namely, the image is separated 
from the recorded material having the provided image removing accelerating 
liquids at the linear velocity of 20 mm/sec by holding temperatures of the 
recorded material such that the temperature of an image holding face of 
the recorded material is lower than that of the rear face of the recorded 
material. As a result, an image forming substance can be preferably 
separated from the recorded material so that no image is left on the 
recorded material. 
A similar test is made by replacing N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone with ethylene 
glycol, diethylene glycol and diethylene glycol monoethyl ether in the 
wetting agent in the high concentration solution prescription. The image 
forming substance can be preferably separated from the recorded material 
when any one of these wetting agents is used. No image is left on the 
recorded material. 
An image is slightly left on the recorded material when the high 
concentration liquid in the Embodiment 26 is used and the providing amount 
of the low concentration liquid is equal to 0.5 g/size A4 and the 
regenerating operation is similarly performed. Accordingly, effects of 
adding the wetting agent to the image removing accelerating liquid have 
been confirmed. 
EMBODIMENT 29 
An image removing accelerating liquid made by the following prescription is 
prepared as the high concentration liquid. 
Surfactant polyoxyethylene alkyl 10 weight % phenyl ether 
surfactant dialkyl sulfo sodium 10 weight % succinate 
antiseptics potassium sorbate 0.3 weight % ion-exchanged water the 
remaining amount 
A sheet of copying paper (wood free paper) commercially sold is used as the 
recorded material. An image is formed on this paper sheet by a copying 
machine (manufactured by RICHO, trade name FT6500) commercially sold. This 
paper sheet is regenerated by the following method. In the regenerating 
apparatus, the providing unit of the image removing accelerating liquid 
shown in FIG. 10 is replaced with the providing unit of the image removing 
accelerating liquid shown in FIG. 5. A polyester film having 75 .mu.m in 
thickness is used as the separating member belt. A providing portion of 
the image removing accelerating liquid at the first stage in the 
regenerating apparatus of FIG. 10 is filled with the above high 
concentration liquid. This high concentration liquid is provided to the 
recorded material such that a providing amount of the high concentration 
liquid is equal to 0.25 g/size A4. A providing portion of the image 
removing accelerating liquid at the second stage in the regenerating 
apparatus of FIG. 16 is filled with an aqueous solution obtained by 
dissolving a 0.3 weight % potassium sorbate as antiseptics into water. 
This aqueous solution as the low concentration liquid is provided to a 
rear face of the recorded material such that a providing amount of this 
aqueous solution is equal to 0.8 g/size A4. 
An image is separated from such a recorded material having the provided 
image removing accelerating liquids at a linear velocity of 20 mm/sec 
while temperatures of the heating roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31 
are controlled such that these temperatures of the heating roller 32 and 
the pressurizing roller 31 are respectively equal to 120.degree. C. and 
105.degree. C. Namely, the image is separated from the recorded material 
having the provided image removing accelerating liquids at the linear 
velocity of 20 mm/sec by holding temperatures of the recorded material 
such that the temperature of an image holding face of the recorded 
material is lower than that of the rear face of the recorded material. As 
a result, an image forming substance can be preferably separated from the 
recorded material so that no image is left on the recorded material. 
In the above regenerating operation, a small black mark point is stamped by 
a stamp on the recorded material regenerated after dry so that 
regenerative processing of the recorded material can be recognized. An 
image is again formed on the above recorded material as a regenerated 
paper sheet by the above copying machine. When this paper sheet is 
regeneratively processed, the copying machine detects this mark showing 
the regenerative processing. In this case, the copying machine is adjusted 
such that the recorded material is conveyed to the guide plate 252 in FIG. 
10 and does not pass through the providing portion of the image removing 
accelerating liquid at the first stage. When an image is formed on the 
above regenerated paper sheet and this paper sheet as the recorded 
material is processed by this copying machine, the image forming substance 
can be preferably separated from the paper sheet by providing only water 
to the paper sheet without providing no high concentration liquid to the 
paper sheet in the second or subsequent regenerative processing. No image 
is left on the recorded material. 
EMBODIMENT 30 
An image removing accelerating liquid made by the following prescription is 
prepared. 
Surfactant BT-7 1 weight % surfactant perfluoroalkyl ammonium 1 weight % 
carboxylate 
wetting agent glycerol 1.5 weight % antiseptics 2-pyridine thiol-1-0.2 
weight % sodium oxide salt 
ion-exchanged water the remaining amount 
A sheet of copying paper (wood free paper) commercially sold is used as the 
recorded material. An image is formed on this paper sheet by a copying 
machine (manufactured by RICHO, trade name FT6500) commercially sold. This 
paper sheet is regenerated by the following method. In the regenerating 
apparatus, the providing unit of the image removing accelerating liquid 
shown in FIG. 11 is replaced with the providing unit of the image removing 
accelerating liquid shown in FIG. 5. A polyester film having 75 .mu.m in 
thickness is used as the separating member belt. The above image removing 
accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material clamped on the 
drum 295 by the image removing accelerating liquid providing unit shown in 
FIG. 11. In this case, the providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid is adjusted to 0.4 g/size A4 every one rotation of the 
drum 295. 
When an image is recorded onto a sheet of unused paper and this paper sheet 
is processed as the recorded material, the regenerating apparatus is 
adjusted such that the drum 295 passes through a liquid providing means 
two times. The image is separated from the recorded material having the 
provided image removing accelerating liquid at a linear velocity of 20 
mm/sec while temperatures of the heating roller 32 and the pressurizing 
roller 31 are controlled such that these temperatures of the heating 
roller 32 and the pressurizing roller 31 are respectively equal to 
120.degree. C. and 105.degree. C. Namely, the image is separated from the 
recorded material having the provided image removing accelerating liquid 
at the linear velocity of 20 mm/sec by holding temperatures of the 
recorded material such that the temperature of an image holding face of 
the recorded material is lower than that of a rear face of the recorded 
material. As a result, an image forming substance can be preferably 
separated from the recorded material so that no image is left on the 
recorded material. 
In the above regenerating operation, a small black mark point is stamped by 
a stamp on the recorded material regenerated after dry so that 
regenerative processing of the recorded material can be recognized. An 
image is again formed on the above recorded material as a regenerated 
paper sheet by the above copying machine. When this paper sheet is 
regeneratively processed, the copying machine detects this mark showing 
the regenerative processing. The regenerating apparatus of FIG. 11 is 
adjusted such that the drum 295 passes through a liquid providing means 
only once. Similar to the above case, the image forming substance is then 
separated from the paper sheet. In this case, the image forming substance 
can be preferably separated from the recorded material so that no image is 
left on the recorded material. Accordingly, it has been confirmed that the 
image forming substance can be preferably separated from the 
regeneratively processed recorded material even when the number of 
provisions of the image removing accelerating liquid is reduced, i.e., 
even when the providing amount of the image removing accelerating liquid 
is small. 
Concrete embodiment modifications of the present invention are shown as 
follows. 
1. A regenerating method of a recorded material characterized in that at 
least a portion of the recorded material in the vicinity of a surface 
thereof on an image forming side is wet and expands with a liquid; 
the wet and expanding liquid (also called an image removing accelerating 
liquid in the following description) is provided to the recorded material 
so that the portion of the recorded material in the vicinity of the 
surface thereof is wet and expands with this liquid; 
a separating member comes in contact with an image forming substance having 
a film shape and a thermoplastic or thermally melted property and formed 
in the vicinity of the surface of the recorded material in a state in 
which joining force between the image forming substance and the recorded 
material is reduced; and 
an image in the vicinity of the surface of the recorded material is 
transferred onto the separating member so that the image forming substance 
on the recorded material is removed therefrom; 
said image removing accelerating liquid being divisionally provided to the 
same recorded material plural times. 
2. The above first regenerating method of the recorded material, wherein 
the image removing accelerating liquid is substantially made by the same 
prescription. 
3. The above second regenerating method of the recorded material 
characterized in that the image removing accelerating liquid is 
divisionally provided to the recorded material two times. 
4. The above second or third regenerating method of the recorded material 
having at least one coating process in which both front and rear faces of 
the recorded material in at least a front end portion thereof are coated 
with the image removing accelerating liquid. 
5. The first, second or third regenerating method of the recorded material, 
wherein the image removing accelerating liquid is constructed by an 
aqueous solution including water, a surfactant and/or a water-soluble 
polymer; and 
a content of the surfactant and/or the water-soluble polymer in the aqueous 
solution ranges from 0.01 to 20 weight %. 
6. The above first, second, third or fourth regenerating method of the 
recorded material in which the image removing accelerating liquid includes 
an agent for reducing surface tension, for example, an alcohol class such 
as methanol, ethanol, etc., a water-soluble organic compound such as 
acetone, carbitol, sorbitol, etc. 
7. The above first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth regenerating 
method of the recorded material in which surface tension of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is adjusted to 50 mN/m or less. 
8. The above first regenerating method of the recorded material in which an 
inc luding concentration of the surfactant of the image removing 
accelerating liquid divisionally provided to the recorded material plural 
times is reduced as the image removing accelerating liquid is provided to 
the recorded material in a later process; 
a high concentration liquid having the surfactant of a high concentration 
ranging from 5 to 100 weight % is provided onto at least a holding face of 
the recorded material holding the image forming substance in a range from 
16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 to 1.6 mg/cm.sup.2 (0.01 to 1 g per size A4); and 
a low concentration water-s oluble liquid or water including the surfactant 
of a concentration equal to or smaller than 5 weight %, preferably 0.05 to 
2 weight %, more preferably 0.2 to 2 weight % is then provided to the 
recorded material in a range from 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 to 3.2 mg/cm.sup.2 
(0.01 to 2 g per size A4). 
9. The above eighth regenerating method of the recorded material in which 
the recorded material is constructed by general wood free paper. 
10. The above seventh or eighth regenerating method of the recorded 
material in which the low concentration water-soluble liquid is 
constructed by a liquid including the surfactant of a concentration equal 
to or smaller than 5 weight %, or including no surfactant such as an 
aqueous solution including only a water-soluble polymer and an antiseptic 
mildewproofing agent, or a liquid composed of only water. 
11. The above eighth, ninth or tenth regenerating method of the recorded 
material in which the low concentration water-soluble liquid is provided 
to the recorded material from a rear face (an image non-holding face) 
thereof. 
12. The above eighth, ninth, tenth or eleventh regenerating method of the 
recorded material in which the high concentration liquid has excellent 
compatibility with respect to at least one kind of water and includes a 
wetting agent as a compound having a vapor pressure lower than that of 
water. 
13. The above eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh or twelfth regenerating method 
of the recorded material in which the recorded material having the 
provided image removing accelerating liquid is heated such that the 
temperature of an image forming substance holding face of the recorded 
material is lower than that of a rear face thereof. 
14. A regenerating apparatus of a recorded material comprising at least: 
means for providing a liquid (an image removing accelerating liquid) for 
making wet and expanding a portion of the recorded material in the 
vicinity of a surface thereof to the same recorded material plural times; 
and 
means for transferring an image forming substance on the recorded material 
to a separating member by pressurizing and/or heating the recorded 
material and the separating member after the recorded material having the 
provided liquid is joined to the separating member. 
15. The above fourteenth regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in 
which the regenerating apparatus further comprises plural mechanisms for 
providing the image removing accelerating liquid to the recorded material; 
and 
the image removing accelerating liquid substantially made by the same 
prescription is divisionally provided to the same recorded material plural 
times. 
16. The above fifteenth regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in 
which the regenerating apparatus further comprises a tank for commonly 
storing the image removing accelerating liquid provided to the recorded 
material. 
17. The fourteenth regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in which 
the regenerating apparatus further comprises means for conveying the 
recorded material such that the recorded material passes through the same 
liquid providing means plural times; and 
the image removing accelerating liquid substantially made by the same 
prescription is provided to the same recorded material. 
18. The above seventeenth regenerating apparatus of the recorded material 
in which the conveying means for conveying the recorded material through 
the same liquid providing means plural times is constructed by recorded 
material clamping means arranged in a roller for fixing a front end of the 
recorded material, and means for rotating the roller having the clamping 
means. 
19. The above fourteenth regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in 
which the regenerating apparatus further comprises: 
at least two liquid providing means composed of liquid providing means for 
providing a high concentration liquid including the surfactant of a high 
concentration ranging from 5 to 100 weight % to the recorded material such 
that a providing amount of this high concentration liquid ranges from 16 
.mu.g/cm.sup.2 to 1.6 mg/cm.sup.2 (0.01 to 1 g per size A4); and 
liquid providing means for providing a low concentration water-soluble 
liquid including the surfactant of a concentration equal to or smaller 
than 5 weight % to the recorded material such that a providing amount of 
this low concentration water-soluble liquid ranges from 16 .mu.g/cm.sup.2 
to 3.2 mg/cm.sup.2 (0.01 to 2 g per size A4); and 
conveying means for conveying the recorded material to the high 
concentration liquid providing means such that the high concentration 
liquid is provided to a holding face of the image forming substance to be 
removed; 
the conveying means conveying the recorded material to the providing means 
of the low concentration water-soluble liquid or water after the recorded 
material is conveyed to the high concentration liquid providing means. 
20. The above nineteenth regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in 
which the providing means of the low concentration water-soluble liquid 
uses city water. 
21. The above nineteenth or twentieth regenerating apparatus of the 
recorded material in which at least the providing means of the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid among the providing means of the high 
concentration liquid and the low concentration water-soluble liquid 
provides the low concentration water-soluble liquid to the recorded 
material by liquid dropping. 
22. The above nineteenth, twentieth or twenty-first regenerating apparatus 
of the recorded material in which at least the providing means of the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid or water among the providing means of 
the high concentration liquid and the low concentration water-soluble 
liquid is constructed such that both front and rear faces of the recorded 
material in at least a front end portion thereof are coated with the low 
concentration water-soluble liquid. 
23. The above nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first or twenty-second 
regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in which the regenerating 
apparatus further comprises means for heating and pressurizing the 
recorded material and the separating member such that the temperature of a 
holding face of the recorded material holding the image forming substance 
to be removed is lower than the temperature of a rear face of the recorded 
material; and 
this means transfers the image forming substance from the recorded material 
to the separating member. 
24. The above nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first, twenty-second or 
twenty-third regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in which the 
regenerating apparatus further comprises means for judging the number of 
regenerative processings performed before regenerative processing of the 
recorded material; and 
control means for changing the number of provisions of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in accordance with the number of regenerative 
processings. 
25. The above twenty-fourth regenerating apparatus of the recorded material 
in which the regenerating apparatus further comprises control means for 
controlling the number of provisions of the high concentration liquid in 
accordance with the number of regenerative processings performed and 
judged before the regenerative processing. 
26. The above twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth regenerating apparatus of the 
recorded material in which the selective control means for changing the 
number of provisions of the image removing accelerating liquid in 
accordance with the number of executed regenerative processings controls 
an operation of the providing means of the image removing accelerating 
liquid. 
27. The above twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth regenerating apparatus of the 
recorded material in which the control means having plural conveying paths 
of the recorded material for changing the number of provisions of the 
image removing accelerating liquid and changing the number of provisions 
of the image removing accelerating liquid in accordance with the number of 
executed regenerative processings selects the plural conveying paths of 
the recorded material. 
EFFECTS 
1. A required amount of an image removing accelerating liquid can be 
reduced in comparison with a case in which the image removing accelerating 
liquid is provided to a recorded material at only one time. As a result, 
it is possible to solve problems caused when the image removing 
accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material at only one time. 
Namely, it is possible to prevent an increase in power consumption for 
heating the recorded material at separating and drying times of the 
recorded material. It is also possible to prevent a conveying property of 
paper from being reduced by a reduction in paper strength after the 
recorded material is coated with the image removing accelerating liquid. 
Further, a paper jam can be prevented within a regenerating apparatus and 
it is possible to prevent wrinkles in the recorded material from tending 
to be caused. Furthermore, it is possible to prevent paper from tending to 
extend at a regenerative processing time. The image removing accelerating 
liquid is provided to the recorded material at many stages. Accordingly, 
when coating irregularities of the image removing accelerating liquid are 
caused at each of liquid providing times, the image removing accelerating 
liquid can be provided to the recorded material averagely and uniformly as 
a whole so that reliability in provision of the image removing 
accelerating liquid can be improved. 
2. The image removing accelerating liquid made by the same prescription is 
divisionally provided to the recorded material plural times. Accordingly, 
it is possible to prevent generations of curl, wavy deformation and 
wrinkles of the recorded material caused when the recorded material is 
coated with a large amount of the image removing accelerating liquid at 
one time. An image forming substance on the recorded material is cracked 
by providing the image removing accelerating liquid at a previous 
providing stage to the recorded material using many divisional liquid 
providing stages. Therefore, the image removing accelerating liquid 
provided at a later providing stage easily permeates the image forming 
substance. Accordingly, the image forming substance can be preferably 
removed from the recorded material even when a providing amount of the 
image removing accelerating liquid is small. Further, copying 
characteristics of the recorded material are excellent after the recorded 
material is repeatedly regenerated. Further, since the image removing 
accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material at many stages, 
the image removing accelerating liquid can be provided to the recorded 
material averagely and uniformly as a whole even when coating 
irregularities of the image removing accelerating liquid are caused at 
each of the liquid providing times. 
3. No image forming substance can be sufficiently separated from the 
recorded material when the content of a surfactant or/and a water-soluble 
polymer is equal to or smaller than 0.01 weight %. 
In contrast to this, when this content is equal to or greater than 20 
weight %, there is a condition in which the image forming substance can be 
separated from the recorded material. However, characteristics of the 
regenerated recorded material are changed so that writing characteristics 
of the recorded material are reduced and an image quality at a recopying 
time is reduced. Further, wrinkles tend to be caused at the recopying time 
and the number of regenerable times is reduced. 
4. A surfactant concentration is reduced as the image removing accelerating 
liquid is provided to the recorded material in a later process. 
Accordingly, the providing amount of the image removing accelerating 
liquid can be reduced. Further, since no unnecessary surfactant is 
provided to the recorded material, it is possible to prevent 
characteristics of the regenerated recorded material from being changed so 
that no writing characteristics of the recorded material are reduced and 
no image quality at a recopying time is reduced. Further, no wrinkles tend 
to be caused at the recopying time and the number of regenerable times is 
not reduced. 
5. A low concentration water-soluble liquid is provided to the recorded 
material from a rear face (non-image holding face side) thereof. 
Accordingly, the image removing accelerating liquid tends to permeate an 
interface between the recorded material and the image forming substance so 
that adhesive force between the recorded material and the image forming 
substance can be effectively weakened. 
When the image forming substance is completely formed in a film shape and 
an image having a wide area such as a full image is formed on the recorded 
material, it is difficult to separate the image from the recorded material 
when the low concentration liquid is provided to the recorded material 
from its image holding face. It is particularly effective to separate such 
an image from the recorded material by providing the low concentration 
liquid to the rear face of the recorded material. 
6. The high concentration liquid includes a wetting agent. Accordingly, 
when the image forming substance is transferred from the recorded 
material, the low concentration water-soluble liquid or water is trapped 
in the wetting agent even when the recorded material is heated. Therefore, 
the image forming substance can be preferably removed from the recorded 
material even when a providing amount of the low concentration 
water-soluble liquid or water is small. 
7. The image forming substance can be preferably transferred to the 
separating member from the recorded material by using the regenerating 
method of the invention after the image removing accelerating liquid is 
provided to the recorded material by using each of the above regenerating 
methods. Further, the image forming substance can be separated from the 
recorded material by a small providing amount of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in comparison with a case in which a temperature 
gradient of the recorded material is reverse. 
8. A regenerating apparatus has a mechanism for preferably regenerating the 
recorded material and divisionally providing the image removing 
accelerating liquid to the recorded material plural times. Accordingly, a 
required amount of the image removing accelerating liquid can be reduced 
in comparison with the case of a single liquid providing process. As a 
result, it is possible to provide a regenerating apparatus of the recorded 
material for solving problems caused when the single liquid providing 
process is used. Namely, it is possible to prevent an increase in power 
consumption for heating the recorded material at separating and drying 
times of the recorded material. It is also possible to prevent a conveying 
property of paper from being reduced by a reduction in paper strength 
after the recorded material is coated with the image removing accelerating 
liquid. Further, a paper jam can be prevented within the regenerating 
apparatus and it is possible to prevent wrinkles in the recorded material 
from tending to be caused. Furthermore, it is possible to prevent paper 
from tending to extend at a regenerative processing time. 
9. When composition of the image removing accelerating liquid is changed by 
evaporation of a liquid component, etc., the image removing accelerating 
liquid in each of liquid providing parts is commonly provided to the 
recorded material so that the composition of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in each of the liquid providing parts becomes 
constant. Accordingly, the image forming substance can be stably separated 
from the recorded material. For example, when water in the image removing 
accelerating liquid is evaporated so that the composition of the image 
removing accelerating liquid is changed, it is possible to provide a 
regenerating apparatus of the recorded material in which a device for 
supplying water by its evaporating amount, etc. is easily arranged. 
10 When the image removing accelerating liquid made by the same 
prescription is divisionally provided to the recorded material plural 
times, the apparatus construction can be made compact and liquid providing 
effects at many stages can be obtained by a simple construction of the 
regenerating apparatus of the recorded material. 
11. A high concentration liquid and a low concentration water-soluble 
liquid or water are sequentially provided to the recorded material in the 
regenerating apparatus. Thereafter, the image forming substance is 
separated from the recorded material. 
12. The low concentration water-soluble liquid or water is provided to the 
recorded material in non-contact so that no high concentration liquid 
component is mixed into the low concentration liquid. Accordingly, the 
composition of the image removing accelerating liquid is excellently 
stabilized with the passage of time. Therefore, there is no scatter of the 
liquid providing amount and the image forming substance is stably 
separated from the recorded material. Further, a constant amount of the 
image removing accelerating liquid can be provided to the recorded 
material irrespective of absorbing characteristics of the recorded 
material with respect to the image removing accelerating liquid. 
Therefore, when many kinds of recorded materials are regeneratively 
processed, separating characteristics of the image forming substance are 
stably obtained by the regenerating apparatus of the recorded material 
without changing any liquid providing condition. 
13. A providing means of the low concentration water-soluble liquid 
provides the low concentration water-soluble liquid to both front and rear 
faces of the recorded material in at least a front end portion thereof. 
Accordingly, it is possible to provide a regenerating apparatus of the 
recorded material capable of reducing a curling amount of the recorded 
material in the front end portion, a paper jam, generation of wrinkles, 
etc. 
14. The image removing accelerating liquid easily permeates an interface 
between the recorded material and the image forming substance so that 
adhesive force between the recorded material and the image forming 
substance can be effectively weakened. Therefore, the image forming 
substance can be effectively separated from the recorded material by the 
regenerating apparatus of the recorded material with a small amount of the 
image removing accelerating liquid. 
15. When the regenerative process ing of the recorded material is executed 
plural times, it is possible to reduce an increasing rate of an 
accumulating amount of an image removing accelerating liquid component 
within the recorded material. Accordingly, a change in characteristics of 
the recorded material can be reduced so that the number of reusable times 
of the recorded material can be increased in the regenerating apparatus of 
the recorded material. 
16. No high concentration liquid is provided to the recorded material in 
the regenerative processing of the recorded material regeneratively 
processed once by using the high concentration liquid and the low 
concentration liquid. Accordingly, accumulation of the image removing 
accelerating liquid in the recorded material caused by repetition of the 
regenerative processing can be greatly reduced. Therefore, the effects of 
the invention can be further improved and the number of reusable times of 
the recorded material is greatly increased. 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
FIG. 1 is a view showing one example of a general apparatus for 
regenerating a recorded material and proposed by the inventors of this 
patent application. 
FIG. 2 is a view for explaining an action of a surfactant with respect to 
an image forming substance. 
FIG. 3(a) is a view for explaining an action of the image removing 
accelerating liquid when a surfactant concentration is low; and 
FIG. 3(b) is a view for explaining an action of the image removing 
accelerating liquid when the surfactant concentration is high. 
FIG. 4 is a view showing a coating portion in which the image removing 
accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material by a coating 
roller. 
FIG. 5 is a view showing a liquid drop providing portion in which the image 
removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material by 
liquid dropping. 
FIG. 6 is a view showing a coating section constructed by four units of 
coating portions each shown in FIG. 4. 
FIG. 7 is a view showing a coating portion in which the image removing 
accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material by using a 
coating roller and a pressing belt. 
FIG. 8 is a view showing supplying and coating portions of the image 
removing accelerating liquid which have a means for divisionally providing 
the image removing accelerating liquid made in the same prescription to 
the same recorded material plural times by commonly using a supplying 
source (tank) of the image removing accelerating liquid. 
FIG. 9 is a view showing one example of an entire regenerating apparatus of 
the recorded material in the present invention. 
FIG. 10 is a view showing a coating portion of the image removing 
accelerating liquid which has a conveying means constructed such that the 
recorded material passes through the same image removing accelerating 
liquid providing means plural times. 
FIG. 11 is a view showing another modifying example of the coating portion 
of the image removing accelerating liquid which has the conveying means 
constructed such that the recorded material passes through the same image 
removing accelerating liquid providing means plural times. 
FIG. 12 is a view showing a regenerating apparatus in which the image 
removing accelerating liquid is provided to the recorded material by 
liquid dropping instead of a roller coating system at a second stage in 
the regenerating apparatus shown in FIG. 9. 
FIG. 13 is a view showing a regenerating apparatus in which the image 
removing accelerating liquid at the second stage in the regenerating 
apparatus shown in FIG. 9 is provided to the recorded material from b oth 
sides of an image holding face and an image non-holding face. 
FIG. 14 is a view showing a regenerating apparatus in which the image 
removing accelerating liquid at the second stage in the regenerating 
apparatus shown in FIG. 9 is provided to the recorded material from its 
image non-holding face side by a roller system. 
FIG. 15 is a view showing a regenerating apparatus in which the image 
removing accelerating liquid at the second stage in the regenerating 
apparatus shown in FIG. 9 is provided to the recorded material from its 
image non-holding face sid e by liquid dropping. 
FIG. 16 is a view showing a regenerating apparatus in which plu ral 
conveying p aths of the image removing accelerat ing liquid are arranged 
such that liquid providing numbers can be set to be different from each 
other in accordance with existence and nonexistence of experience of 
regenerative processing of the recorded material and the number of 
experiences of the regenerative processing. 
FIG. 17 is a view showing a regenerating apparatus constructed such that 
city water is used as a low concentration water-soluble liquid. 
FIG. 18 is a view showing a regenerating apparatus used in Embodiment 3. 
EXPLANATION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS 
1 - - - paper feed tray, 2 - - - paper feed roller, 3 - - - guide plate, 4 
- - - conveying roller, 5 - - - separating roller, 6 - - - coating roller, 
7 - - - separating liquid, 8 - - - heating roller, 9 - - - separating 
claw, 1A - - - conveying roller, 1B - - - drying belt, 1C - - - paper 
discharging tray, 1D - - - conveying rib, 1E - - - collecting container of 
collective thermally flexible ink, 1F - - - toner cleaning portion, 10 - - 
- recorded material, 11 - - - image forming substance, 12 - - - paper feed 
tray, 13 - - - paper feed roller, 14 - - - resist roller pair, 15 - - - 
regenerative processing number judging means, 16 - - - conveying roller 
pair, 20 - - - image removing accelerating liquid, 201 - - - hydrophilic 
group, 202 - - - hydrophobic group, 203 - - - image forming substance, 21 
- - - image removing accelerating liquid container, 22 - - - drawing-up 
roller, 23 - - - coating roller, 231 - - - coating belt, 232 - - - coating 
belt supporting roller, 24 - - - pressing roller, 25 - - - guide plate, 
251 - - - lower guide plate, 253 - - - auxiliary roller, 260 - - - liquid 
supplying means (pump), 261 - - - tank, 262 - - - drain pipe, 263 - - - 
valve, 264 - - - additive container, 265 - - - auxiliary tank, 27 - - - 
liquid injecting unit, 270 - - - valve for liquid injecting unit, 271 - - 
- accumulator, 280 - - - proller for rear face coating, 281 - - - liquid 
supplying nozzle for rear face coating, 282 - - - liquid supplying roller 
for rear face coating, 283 - - - valve for rear face coating, 290 - - - 
pressing belt, 291 - - - pressing belt supporting roller, 292 - - - guide 
for circumferential rotation, 293 - - - branching claw, 294 - - - 
compressed air generator, 295 - - - pressing roller with clamp , 296 - - - 
clamp, 30 - - - separating member belt, 31 - - - pressurizing roller, 310a 
- - - heater, 310b - - - heater, 32 - - - heating roller, 33 - - - 
conveying belt, 34 - - - belt supporting roller, 36 - - - separating claw, 
37 - - - tension roller, 40 - - - cleaning member (scraper blade), 41 - - 
- foreign matter collecting box, 42 - - - cleaning member supporting 
roller, 51 - - - heating roller, 52 - - - drying belt, 61 - - - paper 
discharging tray, 62 - - - guide plate for discharging paper, 901 - - - 
paper feed tray, 902 - - - paper feed roller, 903 - - - guide plate, 904 - 
- - coating roller, 904' - - - conveying roller, 904" - - - high 
concentration liquid, 905 - - - separating roller, 906 - - - second 
process coating roller, 907 - - - low concentration liquid, 908 - - - 
heating roller, 909 - - - separating claw, 910 - - - toner cleaning 
portion, 911 - - - conveying roller, 912 - - - drying belt, and 913 - - - 
paper discharging tray