Leather coloring apparatus

Abstract: Provided is a leather coloring process for carrying out coloring on a natural leather or a natural leather having been subjected to degreasing, the process comprising the step of carrying out ink-jet coloring on at least a partial area of the natural leather.

Description: The present invention relates to a leather coloring apparatus, that enables highly minute image formation on leather and makes their operation simple and high-speed. Leathers are commonly produced according to the following processes. First, raw hide or skin obtained by skinning animals is subjected to a preliminary, beamhouse process comprised of soaking, fleshing, unhairing, liming, splitting, scudding, washing, reliming, deliming and bating subsequently to a tanning process to carry out tanning by the use of a tanning agent of various types such as chromium compounds and vegetable tannin in order to impart softness and thermal resistance to the hide or skin, and thereafter a dyeing and fatliquoring process comprised of neutralizing, dyeing and fatliquoring (or stuffing), finally followed by a finishing process comprised of sammying, setting-out, drying, conditioning, staking, stretch drying, trimming, grain correcting, coating, and measuring, where durability, fastness and the like are improved. Having been subjected to these processes, leather products are obtained as final products. Leather products are utilized in a great variety of fields, making the most of the handle (or hand) inherent in leathers. For example, they are utilized in a vast range of footware such as shoes, clothes, personal ornaments such as gloves and belts, traveling goods such as bags, trunks (or suitcases) and purses, industrial parts such as belts and gaskets, and furniture such as chairs and automobile seat sheets, as well as horse gear, musical instruments, kendo (Japanese style fencing) goods, and so forth. In such respective fields, hide or skin of various animals and various tanning methods are used. For such uses, hitherto in addition to dyeing it in specified color in whole, at a finishing step, varieties in surface shapes as in embossing leather and suede are provided to make a sort of leather products abundant and to exhibit a feeling of high-grade. Under such circumstances, the coloring on leather by conventional dyeing or coating is carried out using dyes or pigments. Almost all of these coloring materials are those employed from dyes or pigments hitherto used in the dyeing of textiles, and coloring processes suitably selected according to the kind of raw hide or skin, the manner of tanning and the uses have been used. For example, there are processes such as battick dyeing, dip dyeing and textile printing. Under actual circumstances, however, since the leather has various properties according to its kinds, actual operation still largely depends on experience. Even when the leather is colored in monochrome, the coloring on some kinds of leathers takes a long time for its operation, requires complicated operation steps, or makes it necessary to repeat the same step many times. Hence, it has been very difficult to mass-produce dyed products of the same design or to dye leather to form highly minute images or multi-color images. Meanwhile, the surface of leather, in particular, what is called the grain side of natural leather has irregularities or large concavities because of follicle mouths (pores of the skin) or various wrinkles originally present in raw hide or skin. If the leather is dyed in that state, dyeing agents may conspicuously gather to that part to cause highly deep-colored portions. Also when the leather is dyed after it has been smoothened to eliminate irregularities or large concavities in treating steps, it is difficult to perfectly smoothen the surface, so that the leather may be non-uniformly colored or non-colored at the first operation. To overcome such disadvantages, it is often necessary to reform many steps or to repeat the operation of dyeing and rinsing several times. Namely, it is difficult to obtain the desired state of dyeing and the desired color tones. As a result, it tends easy to providing only leather products with varied color tones. On the contrary, in the general trends of eager wish to have products with a sense of high grade in everyday living goods and ornaments, leather products can also more highly enjoy the sense of high grade inherent in leather if products with highly minute images formed on the surface can be readily obtained, and also it is possible to intend an application of leather products in a wider range if it becomes possible to form multi-color images or to carry out partial printing on leathers with ease. However, as previously stated, the hitherto known dyeing and coating processes requires a large number of steps and hence take a long time for their operation, in order to maintain color density and fastness. Moreover, leathers are hitherto mostly dyed in monochrome, and hence, in order to represent multi-color images on leather, it has been necessary to stick or stitch sheet by sheet a plurality of leathers dyed in different colors. There has been also a limit in number even if some kinds of colors can be represented on the same leather. At any event, the manner of dyeing or coating may often differ for each color and also the dyeing or coating has been manually operated in many instances, so that the experience can not avoid showing as a great factor. Thus, in the past, the dyeing on leathers has been mostly supported by know-how, and hence it has been difficult to automate it, resulting in a high cost. Thus, it will be complicated in processes and take huge costs to express minute image and multi-color image and further make a partial image formation only by improving conventional dyeing methods. US-A-4 680 058 discloses ink-jet printing of leather. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention was made taking account of the above problems in the prior art. An object thereof is to provide an apparatus that makes it possible to color on leathers at a low cost and also through simple steps, and to produce highly minute images, multi-color images or partial dyeings and the like on leathers. An ink-jet printing apparatus as defined in claim 1 is therefore proposed. What is meant by "coloring" (leather coloring) generally embraces terms such as dyeing, coating and coloring in monochromes and multi-colors as hitherto commonly used as technical terms. Hence, it includes all modes such as a mode wherein, after the leather coloring, coloring materials serving as color sources have permeated in the inside of leather, a mode wherein they have adhered to, or partly permeated in, only the surface layer of leather or in the vicinity thereof and a mode wherein they are superimposed in layers on the surface of leather. An ink-jet system is to provide an image formation with integration of dots by moving an ink-jet head integrally arranged with a plurality of orifices according to a desired image signal and by ejecting an ink as droplets containing a coloring material from the orifices. Accordingly, it is very effective for attaining objects for obtaining high precise images, multi-color images and partial colorings, by making an orifice density in arranging high or ejecting inks of different colors from a plurality of ink-jet heads. The present invention is defined in claim 1 and provides an ink-jet leather coloring apparatus comprising a means for changing the quantity of ink, when ink-jetted according to printing signals, in accordance with the type of a natural leather to be subjected to leather coloring; an ink-jet means; and a transport means for transporting the natural leather to a coloring zone of the ink-jet means in the state of non-contact with the ink-jet means. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 illustrates a procedure for leather treatment carried out in Example 1. Fig. 2 illustrates the main constitution of an ink-jet leather coloring apparatus used in Example 1. Fig. 3 illustrates the constitution of an ink-jet head that can be used in the present invention. Fig. 4 illustrates the constitution of a color ink-jet head that can be used in the present invention. Fig. 5 illustrates the main constitution of an ink-jet leather coloring apparatus used in Example 2. Fig. 6 conceptionally illustrates ink-jet leather coloring in Example 3. Fig. 7 is comprised of Figs. 7A and 7B conceptionally illustrating a system of ink-jet leather coloring in Example 4 of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A practical mode of the apparatus of the present invention, the invention is an ink-jet leather coloring apparatus comprising a means for changing the quantity of ink, when ink-jetted according to coloring signals, in accordance with the type of a natural leather to be subjected to leather coloring; an ink-jet means; and a transport means for transporting the natural leather to a coloring zone of the ink-jet means in the state of non-contact with the ink-jet means. According to the present invention, the quantity of the ink imparted to leather can be changed to an appropriate quantity, and hence the leather coloring can be in a more improved state. As an improved mode of the invention concerning the apparatus, which can achieve automation and multi-color coloring, the present invention is an ink-jet leather coloring apparatus comprising a host computer which outputs multi-color information necessary for leather coloring on a natural leather; a multi-color ink-jet means; a means for changing the quantity of ink, when ink-jetted according to multi-color coloring signals, in accordance with the type of a natural leather to be subjected to leather coloring; and a transport means for transporting the natural leather to a coloring zone of the ink-jet means in the state of non-contact with the ink-jet means. The leather referred to in the present invention chiefly means a natural leather, obtained by unhairing a hide or skin, followed by tanning. The raw hides or skins serving as starting materials are utilized as by-products after animals have been treated for meet, and hence those commonly available in a large quantity are hides or skins of mammals such as bovines, pigs, horses, goats, sheep and deers. Besides, skins of birds such as ostriches and the reptiles such as sea turtles, giant lizards, pythons and crocodiles are also used as leathers. The present invention by no means place limitations among these. With regard to tanning methods also, there are various methods in those having been hitherto employed, from which suitable tanning methods are selected according to the form and purpose of products obtained as final leather products. As the tanning methods, those prevalent at present are chrome tanning and vegetable tanning. In addition to these, various methods as described below are available. The tanning methods are first roughly grouped into methods making use of inorganic type mineral tanning agents, as typified by the chrome tanning, methods making use of organic type vegetable or synthetic tanning agents, as typified by the vegetable tanning, and methods making use of fat and oil type tanning agents. Besides, combination tanning carried out in combination of some of these tanning methods are widely used at present. Among the above tanning methods, the methods making use of mineral tanning agents include chrome tanning, aluminum tanning, zirconium tanning, titanium tanning and ferric salt tanning. The methods making use of organic type tanning agents include vegetable tanning and aldehyde tanning. The methods also include tanning making use of synthetic tanning agents such as naphthalene type synthetic tanning agents, phenol type synthetic tanning agents and resin tanning agents, and fat and oil tanning as typified by Chamois leather. Now, in the ink-jet system as the ink-jet means used in the present invention, images are constituted of dots. densely divided into 300 dpi, 360 dpi or much more 600 dpi, and these individual dots can be caused to impact against the natural leather serving as a medium, in the form of colored droplets jetted from minute nozzles, and hence coloring per dot can be sharply carried out. Moreover, a uniform color tone can be obtained, and hence it is possible to obtain uniform images as a whole. Also, since the ink-jet coloring system is a coloring system to carry out the coloring in non-contact with the medium, it is not always necessary to keep strict uniformity in the smoothness of the surface of leather and in the support on the back of leather, and also plural colors of droplets can be made to adhere in one step, so that the time for leather treatment subsequently carried out can also be very much shortened. In the ink-jet coloring system, the leather coloring is carried out while a plurality of nozzle arrays of the ink-jet means are moved in a relative fashion with respect to the leather at the same time with ink jetting, where the dot density can be made higher and the sharpness of leather colored areas can be improved. Moreover, according to the present invention, on account of the ink-jet system, the images or marks in monochromes or composite colors to be formed by ink jet can be formed in specific colors only in specific partial areas on the leather surface, and hence the partial specific areas can be formed as emphasized areas or color-softened areas. In particular, the step of pretreatment applied only to the partial specific areas can be made different using a mask or the like, whereby the ink-jet leather colored areas can be more emphasized. As an additional advantage in the ink-jet leather coloring on the leather surface, even when non-smooth portions such as follicle mouths and wrinkles are present on the leather surface, the quantity of ink jet can be controlled also at that portions so that neither non-uniform coloring nor non-coloring may occur in relation to other portions (smooth portions or peripheral areas). If, on the other hand, the leather surface is uniform, the quantity of ink to be imparted can be adjusted or changed by programming or by image processing on a host computer of the system, whereby the desired density distribution or gradation can be obtained and the disadvantages in the conventional leather printing can be all eliminated. The ink-jet system mentioned above intends to hitherto principally recording on a plain paper. However, when recording is carried out using plain paper, the maximum shot-in ink quantity is limited in view of decrease in resolution, bleeding (between colors), strike-through, increase in fixing time and so forth. Hence, in usual instances, the maximum shot-in ink quantity is commonly so designed as to be within the range of from 16 to 28 nl/mm 2 in the case of water-based inks. However, in the case of the leather coloring process as in the present invention, there may be a preferable case to impart ink in a larger quantity, depending on a sort of origin animals or conditions of tanning. Numerically stated, the shot-in ink quantity is twice or more than usual cases, and about 16 to 50 nl/mm 2 . When the ink receiving layer is present, the leather coloring can be made higher in grade and more stable. More improvements can be achieved especially when high-density printing is carried out at a lower printing speed than the printing speed corresponding to the frequency in the printing carried out as leather coloring, e.g., double-density printing is carried out at a coloring speed of 1/2, when the printing is superimposingly carried out on the same recording area by repeating record scanning several times, or when the drive of an ink-jet head is controlled so as to increase the quantity of ink ejection. Inks used in ink-jet coloring systems are hitherto imparted to paper, and commonly contain water in a large quantity. In the present invention, inks are not limited to such inks, and may appropriately be inks having suitable components, including inks containing a non-volatile solvent, according to the type of leather and the properties thereof varied depending on treatment carried out before coloring. As the ink-jet system, any of a charge control type, a jet system coloring using a piezoelectric device, and a jet system using an exothermic device may be employed. Among these, the jet system using an exothermic device is preferable since the coloring head can be assembled in a high density. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus may further comprise the constitution, step or means of accelerating the fixing of ink in leather. Stated specifically, the leather surface may be made to have a lower wettability, the leather coloring areas may be degreased to a higher level, or an ink receiving layer may be added. Any one of these or combination of some of these enables improvement in leather coloring efficiency. As materials for the ink receiving layer, water-soluble resins such as polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl pyrrolidone and cellulose are preferable in the case when ink solvents used are of aqueous types. Such an ink receiving layer may be formed of a single material or a mixture of two or more materials, or may be provided in a single layer or in two or more layers. The ink receiving layer can be provided by various methods such as a method in which an aqueous solution thereof is coated by means of a bar coater, a roll coater, a doctor blade or the like, a method of screen coloring, and a method in which any of the above materials formed into a film is contact bonded. To make the leather surface have a lower wettability, it is preferable to provide a heating means. In the case of the present invention, low-temperature heating is preferred in order to prohibit the decomposition of constituents such as protein of the leather. In particular, the decomposition of collagen attributable to the representation of a sense of high grade of leather tends to cause shrinkage, a change in properties and a lowering of texture, making it necessary to further treat products in subsequent steps to improve properties of leather. Hence, in the above invention where the heating is carried out, the leather is heated so as for the leather itself to be kept at a temperature of 60°C or below, and preferably about 50°C, at maximum before and after the ink-jet leather coloring or in the course of the leather coloring. As the heating means used in the present invention, it is possible to use a method in which the leather is heated with a heating plate from the side opposite to the side on which the leather coloring is carried out (the leather coloring side), a method in which the leather is heated with a heating roller from the leather coloring side, or a heating method provided with an air blowing means having a temperature control function that can maintain the above preset temperature. In the present invention, a protective layer may be formed on the colored surface of the leather having been subjected to the ink-jet leather coloring. As a material therefor, polyamide is commonly used as a top coat. This is also preferable in the present invention. It is preferable to provide a protective layer capable of prohibiting a coloring material of ink from migrating, and preferably capable of exhibiting light fastness and corrosion resistance. As coloring materials for coloring, dyes and pigments conventionally available may be used. Among them, pigments have been more commonly and also effectively used in a finishing step in the conventional dyeing of leathers. In the case of the leather coloring carried out by the ink-jet coloring system, the coloring materials need not be limited to either dyes or pigments. Since, however, pigments are usually insoluble in solvents and have no coloring properties to leather itself, they may preferably be brought into dispersions in the form of emulsions with synthetic resins, when used. On the other hand, in the case of dyes, most of them are readily soluble in water or alcohol, and can be used with ease. Dyes that can be used may include various types, and can be used relatively with ease so long as they are dyes widely used for protein fibers. For example, acid dyes, metal complex salt dyes, basic dyes, mordant dyes, acidic mordant dyes and soluble vat dyes are widely used also in the conventional coloring of leathers. Besides these, it is also possible to use direct dyes, cationic dyes, sulfur dyes, naphthol dyes, oxidation dyes, disperse dyes and reactive dyes mainly used for fibers of cellulose or polyester types. When, however, these are used in the coloring of leathers, importance is attached to properties such as water resistance, perspiration resistance, solvent resistance and fastness to sunlight. Hence, of these dyes, metal complex salt dyes are particularly preferred. For other dyes, in order to satisfy these properties, a dye fixing treatment may be applied after coloring or a treatment to decrease activity of dyes may be added. Also, in order to bring out these properties, dyes and pigments may be used in combination. Example 1 Fig. 1 illustrates an example of the procedure for leather treatment employed in the first embodiment of the present invention, which is comprised of a procedure wherein raw hide or skin is subjected to a beamhouse process, a tanning process, a coloring process and a finishing process until a leather product is obtained. Fig. 2 illustrates the main constitution of a leather coloring means in a apparatus used in the ink-jet leather coloring. The leather coloring of the present Example will be described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2, which is carried out according to the following procedure. In the production of leather used as a coloring medium, it is prepared through a tanning process conventionally carried out. The steps up to this stage can be roughly described as follows: First, a starting raw hide or skin of animals such as bovines, horses and pigs is treated to remove dirts, subcutaneous connective tissue, and hair, and then subjected to splitting to split the hide or skin in the desired thickness, followed by removal (scudding) of grease and pigment matter and thereafter washing with water to clean the pelt. Such a beamhouse process thus carried out is subsequently followed by a tanning process, where the hide or skin is tanned after removal of lime (deliming) and washing with water and also after soaking in a mild acidic aqueous medium. Methods for tanning are roughly grouped into chrome tanning and vegetable tanning, which provide different affinities for dyes according to their ionic properties. In general, in the case when chrome tanning has been carried out, the treated product has an affinity for anionic dyes, and in the case when vegetable tanning has been carried out, an affinity for cationic dyes. These types of tanning may be appropriately selected according to the state of a finished leather and the kinds of dyes used in coloring. In the present Example, horse hide was used as a raw hide. The hide was subjected to the above beamhouse process, and thereafter treated by chrome tanning, followed by coloring pretreatment comprised of dewatering, shaving and depickling neutralization to obtain a hide for coloring. In order to ensure affinity of a coloring material in the subsequent ink-jet coloring, the hide was further subjected to filling treatment using a urea solution of casein. A filler used in this step was a solution commonly used in leather dyeing. It is also possible to use a solution of acrylate or urethane. The hide thus treated was divided by cutting in size to have dimensions corresponding to long sides of A3-size, and thereafter made into a leather 1 so formed as to be passable through a coloring medium transport path of an ink-jet leather coloring apparatus 3. Leather coloring subsequently carried out on the leather thus obtained will be described here. The leather 1 having cut as described above is set on the upstream side of the transport direction of paired transport rollers (a transport drive roller 23 and a transport following roller 24) serving as a means for transporting the leather coloring medium in the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus 2. After the ink-jet leather coloring has been made ready and the coloring step is started, first the transport drive roller 23 and the transport following roller 24 that follows the former begin to rotate, and the leather 1 set end-to-end with the transport drive roller 23 is drawn into the pressure contact portion of the paired transport rollers rotating, so that the leather 1 is automatically fitted to the transport means. Then, in synchronization with the transport of the leather 1, an ink-jet coloring assembly 22 provided on the transport path is operated to carry out coloring on the leather 1 in accordance with image data. The colored leather 1 delivered out of the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus after the coloring has been completed is naturally dried. The leather 1 colored through such steps is thereafter subjected to fatliquoring using fat and oil such as fish oil or vegetable oil, whereupon the coloring step is completed. The step of fatliquoring carried out here may follow any methods conventionally employed. In the present Example, using a drum, the fatliquoring was carried out at 55°C for 30 minutes, with a solution prepared by mixing olive oil was mixed. Thus, a leather endowed with softness and strength was obtained. The colored leather produced in this way is further transferred to a finishing process comprised of setting-out, trimming and glazing, followed by processing necessary for various purposes to obtain a leather product. The ink-jet leather coloring apparatus 2 used in the present invention will be described below. Fig. 2 illustrates the main part of an example of the constitution of the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus used in the present Example. In Fig. 2, a carriage 26 is mounted with an integral coloring head cartridge 22 integrally made up with four ink tanks 21 respectively filled with black, cyan, magenta and yellow, four color inks, and four ink-jet coloring heads 3 for respectively ejecting the four color inks. These ink tanks are filled with inks (A) to (D) shown below. In the following, "%" is "% by weight" unless particularly noted. Preparation of ink (A): Acid dye (C.I. Acid Brown 13) 2 % Acid dye (C.I. Acid Orange 67) 1.5 % Acid dye (C.I. Acid Blue 92) 0.5 % Thiodiglycol 5 % Isopropyl alcohol 3 % Potassium sulfate 0.01 % Sodium metasilicate 0.001 % Ferric sulfate 0.0005 % Nickel sulfate 0.0003 % Zinc sulfate 0.0003 % Water balance All the above components were mixed, and the mixture obtained was adjusted to pH 8.2 with sodium hydroxide, and then stirred for 2 hours, followed by filtration using Fluoropore Filter FP-100 (trade name; available from Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., this is to be the same in the following) to obtain ink-jet leather coloring ink (A). Preparation of ink (B): Acid dye (C.I. Acid Blue 185) 9 % Thiodiglycol 23 % Triethylene glycol monomethyl ether 6 % Potassium chloride 0.05 % Sodium metasilicate 0.001 % Ferric chloride 0.0005 % Zinc chloride 0.0003 % Water balance All the above components were mixed, and the mixture obtained was adjusted to pH 8.3 with sodium hydroxide, and then stirred for 2 hours, followed by filtration using Fluoropore Filter FP-100 to obtain ink-jet leather coloring ink (B). Preparation of ink (C): Acid dye (C.I. Acid Red 266) 7 % Thiodiglycol 15 % Diethylene glycol 10 % Tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether 5 % Potassium chloride 0.04 % Sodium sulfate 0.01 % Sodium metasilicate 0.001 % Ferric chloride 0.0005 % Nickel chloride 0.0002 % Water balance All the above components were mixed, and the mixture obtained was adjusted to pH 7.9 with sodium hydroxide, and then stirred for 2 hours, followed by filtration using Fluoropore Filter FP-100 to obtain ink-jet leather coloring ink (C). Preparation of ink (D): Acid dye (C.I. Acid Yellow 110) 7 % Thiodiglycol 24 % Diethylene glycol 11 % Potassium chloride 0.004 % Sodium sulfate 0.002 % Sodium metasilicate 0.001 % Ferric chloride 0.0005 % Water balance All the above components were mixed, and the mixture obtained was adjusted to pH 8.4 with sodium hydroxide, and then stirred for 2 hours, followed by filtration using Fluoropore Filter FP-100 to obtain ink-jet leather coloring ink (D). The ink-jet leather coloring apparatus of the present Example is operated as described below. In the present Example, as shown in Fig. 2, in order to stably feed to the ink-jet coloring zone the leather 1 having been subjected to tanning and cut to the given size, an inclined feed tray 25 is provided, so that it is just inserted between the transport drive roller 23 and the transport following roller 24. In this state, as the transport drive roller 23 is rotatingly driven in the direction of an arrow A, the leather 1 is led through the contact pressure portion of the paired transport rollers and successively forwarded to the ink-jet leather coloring zone. The carriage 26 is so designed as to stand by at the home position (not shown), when no coloring is carried out or the ink-jet coloring head is operated for its restoration. Before the coloring is started, the carriage 26 standing at the position (home position) shown in the drawing is moved along a carriage guide shaft 27 by command of coloring start, during which the four color inks are ejected from multiple nozzles of the ink-jet coloring head in accordance with coloring signals while timing on the basis of reading signals of a linear encoder. Thus, a print is made in a coloring width d on the coloring surface. With this coloring scan, inks impact on the coloring surface in the order of black ink, cyan ink, magenta ink and yellow ink to form dots. Once ink discharge due to the image data have completed up to the end of the coloring surface, the carriage 26 is returned to the home position, and the ink ejection is again carried out on a next line. After this first coloring is completed and before the second-time coloring is started, the transport drive roller 23 is rotated to transport the leather 1 by the coloring width d. In this way, the coloring by the ink-jet coloring head in the coloring width d for each scan of the carriage and the transport of leather are repeated until the image formation on the coloring surface is completed. At the time the coloring has been completed, the colored leather is delivered out by the transport means and at the same time a platen 28 having formed a plane coloring surface during the coloring is inclined in the direction of delivery so that it helps the delivery at the rear end of the apparatus. In order to help the delivery, a means such as spur rollers may be provided at the downstream side of the coloring zone. In the case of leathers, their thickness may be in variety depending on the kinds of raw hide and the manners taken in the beamhouse process and tanning process. Hence, it is more effective to provide a mechanism that can variously set the distance between the ink ejection face of the integral head cartridge 22 and the platen 28 in accordance with the thicknesses of leathers on which the coloring is being carried out. Fig. 3 illustrates the constitution of the ink-jet head 3 from which the inks are ejected. One end of a wiring substrate 30 is mutually connected with the wiring portion of a heater board 31. At another end of the wiring substrate 30, a plurality of pads are provided, corresponding with electric energy-heat energy converters for receiving electric signals sent from the main-body apparatus. Thus, the electric signals sent from the main-body apparatus can be supplied to the respective electric energy-heat energy converters. A support 32 made of metal, for supporting the back of the wiring substrate 30 on plane serves as a bottom plate of the ink-jet coloring unit. A press spring 33 i) has a member formed to have a bend substantially U-shaped in its cross section in order to linearly elastically press the area in the vicinity of an ink ejection outlet of a grooved top plate 34 provided with grooves to become an inner wall of nozzle, ii) claws hooked utilizing relief holes provided in the support 32 made of metal, and iii) a pair of rear legs for receiving on the metal support 32 the force acting on the spring. On account of the force of this spring, the wiring substrate 30 is fitted in pressure contact with the grooved top plate 34. To the support, the wiring substrate 30 is fitted by sticking them with an adhesive or the like. At the end of an ink feed pipe 35, a filter 36 is provided. An ink feed member 37 is made by molding, and the grooved top plate 34 is integrally provided with flow paths leading to an orifice plate 341 and ink feed openings. The ink feed member 37 can be simply fixed to the support 32 by making two pins (not shown) project through two holes 38 and 39, respectively, of the support 32 and thermally fusing them. When they are fixed, the gap between the orifice plate 341 and the ink feed member 37 is sealed and also the gap between the orifice plate 341 and the front end of the support 32 is perfectly sealed through grooves 321 provided in the support 32. Fig. 4 shows the structure of a four-head integral ink-jet cartridge 22 in the state that its ink tanks have been removed, where the above four heads 3 that can respectively eject the black, cyan, magenta and yellow four inks are integrally assembled with a frame 50. The four heads are fitted in the frame 50 at given intervals, and also fixed in the state their positions in the nozzle array direction have been adjusted. In the present Example, their positions are adjusted using a mechanical standard plane of the head so that mutual ink-droplet impact positions for the respective colors can be in an improved precision. To more improve the precision, the mutual ink-droplet impact positions for the respective colors may be directly adjusted on the basis of data obtained by measuring the ink-droplet impact positions while actually ejecting inks in the state the heads are provisionally fitted to the frame. Reference numeral 51 denotes a cover of the frame; and 53, connecters for connecting the pads provided on the wiring substrate 30 with the electric signals sent form the main-body coloring apparatus. The integral assemblage of the four heads is not only advantageous in handling but also effective for improving the mutual ink-droplet impact positions of the heads as stated above, and is also greatly effective for decreasing the number of signal line connection with the main-body coloring apparatus. For example, signal lines such as GND lines common to the four heads can be made common on a connector substrate 52 to directly decrease the number of lines. Also, coloring signal lines can also be made common if an integrated circuit substrate is provided so that the heads are time-divisionally driven for each head. Such a decrease in the number of the electrical connection is effective in apparatus having many signal lines as in coloring machines or multi-nozzle high-speed coloring machines. As described above, the conventional step of dyeing is carried out using the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus, so that the dyeing that most takes time among the dyeing and fatliquoring process including dewatering, shaving and depickling neutralization in a conventional manner, which has hitherto taken almost a day, can be completed in only several ten minutes, and also multi-color finishing has become possible without using plates. Example 2 Fig. 5 illustrates another form of the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus, and shows an example of an apparatus that makes it unnecessary to cut the leather in a standard size. Leathers have different size depending on the kinds of starting raw hide or skin, and many of them have a larger area than the A3-size. Now, in the present Example, an ink-jet leather coloring apparatus 6 that can carry out leather coloring without regard to the size of the leather serving as a leather coloring medium is provided. In the apparatus shown in Fig. 5, the basic operation for dyeing is the same as that in the leather coloring apparatus described in Example 1, except that a large-sized ink-jet head 60 having a number of orifices and a large-sized ink feeding assembly 61 so designed that inks can be fed in large quantities are provided on a carriage 62 and a carriage 63, respectively, in the ink-jet leather coloring zone in order to make the apparatus adaptable to large-sized coloring mediums (leathers). These are connected through a tube 64 so that the inks are fed from the ink feeding assembly 61 to the ink-jet head 60. According to signals sent from a transmitter to the ink-jet head 60, the two carriages are reciprocatingly moved to scan in the directions of arrows C shown in the drawing, along a guide rail 67 and a guide rail 68, respectively, fitted to a frame 66, and at the same time the jetting of inks from the ink-jet head 60 in accordance with image signals is started, and thus coloring can be made on a leather 7. Leather coloring carried out using this ink-jet leather coloring apparatus is operated as described below. First, using bovine hide as a raw hide, the hide is treated up to the stage prior to the dyeing in the same manner as in Example 1 to prepare a leather for leather coloring. One end of the back of the leather is set fittingly to a platen 69 (its fitting portion is now shown). Thereafter, ink-jet timing signals for each orifice of the ink-jet head are produced from image signals supplied to the transmitter 65 from an image signal generator separately provided, and inks for coloring are jetted to the leather 7. Then, every time the ink-jet head has scanned once, the leather is moved in the direction of an arrow B by the width a coloring has been thus made. With subsequent repetition of this operation, colored areas 71 successively appear on the leather 7, and finally extend over the whole surface of the leather 7, where the coloring is completed. Leathers coming out of the tanning process are commonly not uniform in shape, and also their edges are not formed in straight lines. Thus, if the leather is passed as it is, through the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus shown in Fig. 5, the ink to form images may be jetted outside the leather face. As a result, it follows that the inks are jetted onto the platen 69 to contaminate the surface of the platen. If such a phenomenon occurs, the back of the coloring surface may be stained when a next leather is passed to make subsequent coloring, or the inks jetted on the platen become dry and may form deposits thereon to hinder a smooth movement of leather on the platen, causing a faulty transport of the leather. In order to prevent such difficulties, a sheet of paper coated with an adhesive readily separable after the coloring has been completed may be stuck to the non-coloring surface of a leather before the leather is set on the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus. It is also effective to add processing such that the ends of a leather on the platen are detected at every scan of the carriage during the operation of coloring so that the image data are deleted from its portions extending out of the edges. The leather 7 gone through the coloring is subjected to fatliquoring in the same manner as in Example 1, and then transferred to the finishing process so as to be processed into a leather product. According to the example described above, it is unnecessary to cut leather in standard size after tanning, so that the coloring step can be made more efficient and rapid. It is also possible to treat leathers in free form. Example 3 Fig. 6 schematically illustrates a process where the fatliquoring after the leather coloring is also carried out by applying the present invention, using an ink-jet coloring apparatus. Here, the steps up to the step prior to the coloring, i.e., the beamhouse process, the tanning process, and dewatering, shaving, up to depickling neutralization, are the same as those in Example 1, and the description thereon is omitted. The leather for coloring, having been subjected to up to the depickling neutralization, is cut in A3-size, and is lead to a leather coloring zone 1001 where the coloring is carried out by ink-jet coloring. The leather coloring at this leather coloring zone 1001 may be carried out using the same apparatus as used in Example 1. The leather subjected to the coloring using the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus and delivered out of it, is subsequently sent into a dryer 1002, and dried there at 50°C for 1 minute to carry out fixing of the image formed by coloring. Thereafter, the leather is transferred to a fatliquoring device 1003, and subjected to fatliquoring. When ink-jet is utilized here, fats and oils must be caused to fly and the dot density need not be set finer than the case when images are formed. On account of these points, an ink-jet system employing an electric energy-heat energy converter, i.e., an ink-jet system where ink droplets are caused to fly by means of a piezoelectric device is preferred to the ink-jet coloring system employing an electric energy-heat energy converter, described in the previous coloring. In this fatliquoring device, drum treatment is carried out after application of fats and oils. According to the present example, treating solutions used in this fatliquoring may preferably be those having a relatively low viscosity, taking account of the performance when jetted. In this example, castor oil having a viscosity of 100 cP at 25°C was used. The leather having been subjected to this fatliquoring is subsequently sent to the finishing process, and thus a leather product is obtained. As described above, since the processes of dyeing and fatliquoring are carried out using an ink-jet leather coloring apparatus, the time taken for the coloring and fatliquoring can be shortened as a matter of course, and the steps concerning the dyeing can be automated with ease as a continuous flow, to bring about a process cost reduction. Example 4 Figs. 7A and 7B show an example of a system in which the present invention is applied so that various kinds of leathers can be processed in the same apparatus in the step of leather coloring. In this example, three kinds of ink-jet leather coloring apparatus are set up in combination so that the coloring on many kinds of leathers can be carried out in one system. First, in respect of leathers intended for leather coloring, the data necessary for the leather coloring, i.e., the kind of raw hide or skin, the method of tanning employed in the tanning step, the thickness of leather, the method of treating the coloring surface (filling treatment), carrier out before the leather coloring, the size or area of the coloring surface, the temperature and humidity at the time of the leather coloring and so forth, are preset by means of a leather properties data preset unit 1011 while a user operates the apparatus through a keyboad or switches on a panel. Based on the data thus preset, a procedure most suited for the leather coloring is automatically determined in an arithmetic unit 1012. To this arithmetic unit 1012, a CPU 1014 is connected so that its processing can be controlled. The data already preset in the leather properties data preset unit 1011 are stored in a RAM 1016. This data, the content of a ROM 1015 in which data of suitable processing methods having been programmed according to conditions of various leathers, and the data of a coloring image storage unit 1017 are used to carry out arithmetic operation, and the results obtained are outputted to a coloring method decision unit 1013. In the coloring method decision unit 1013, the drive conditions including the manner of leather fitting at the time of leather coloring, the kinds of ink-jet heads used for the leather coloring and the scanning times of the ink-jet heads, the manner of scanning for coloring (in the case of multi-color coloring, the order of colors, the distances at which the respective color inks are ejected, etc.), the basic constituent units of coloring images, the kinds of coloring materials used in the leather coloring (the type of dyes or pigments and the type of coloring solutions containing them), and so forth are decided and outputted therefrom. The decision of these is transmitted to power sources necessary for operating the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus, and at the same time the contents thereof are displayed on a CRT 1019 so that the user can make confirmation. Here, for the case when the coloring method must be changed by the user, a feed back circuit is added so that data can be further inputted through a keyboard 1018 to change the preset data. In accordance with the leather coloring process decided as described above, signals are sent out to any of the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus 1020 to 1022. The leather is suitably set on the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus thus decided, so that the leather coloring is carried out on the leather in the best manner. These ink-jet leather coloring apparatus are constituted as respectively described below. The ink-jet leather coloring apparatus 1020 is operated in the manner as described in Examples 1 and 2, and its details are omitted. The ink-jet leather coloring apparatus 1021 is an apparatus in which the leather is set stationary and ink-jet heads are moved and scanned over its coloring surface to carry out coloring, and is an apparatus adapted to leathers whose coloring surfaces have complicated shapes or no flatness. The ink-jet leather coloring apparatus 1022 is an apparatus matched to the coloring on large-sized leathers, where a leather is stereoscopically set stationary outside the apparatus and, after brought into a form feasible for coloring, the apparatus is driven. This can be used also when the leather could not be well treated before the leather coloring. These apparatus can be applied similarly in either monochromatic coloring or multi-color coloring. Also, a series of ink-jet leather coloring steps may be carried out plural times on the same leather. The leather on which the ink-jet leather coloring has been completed using any of the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus 1020 to 1022 is passed through a drying section 1023 and a fatliquoring section 1024 and thereafter transferred to the finishing process, where it is processed into a final product. In the examples described above, the coloring process can be automatically selected, and hence the leather coloring can be arbitrarily carried out on many kinds of leathers. Thus, the manufacture in small lots according to demands can be achieved at a low cost. In the examples described above, an image fixing treatment may be further applied after the ink-jet leather coloring, where dye fixing agents and so forth used in textile printing may be used in a step after the completion of leather coloring and before the fatliquoring. In order to rapidly carry out drying after the leather coloring, the ink-jet leather coloring apparatus may be optionally further provided with a heating means or a hot air blowing means at its colored leather delivery outlet. Also, in order to accelerate the adhesion of coloring materials before the leather coloring, cationizing treatment or alkali treatment commonly carried out may be applied according to the properties of coloring materials, and also leathers may be moistened right before the leather coloring. These are effective means. The apparatus according to the invention is designed so that the shot-in ink quantity can be adjusted and selected according to the types of leathers in the ink-jet leather coloring zone. Stated additionally, the step of ink-jet leather coloring has been described above giving examples where the heads are scanned for coloring once.

Claims: A leather coloring apparatus comprising an ink-jet means for applying a certain amount of ink to leather at a coloring zone, and a transport means adapted for transporting a natural leather to the coloring zone, characterized in that the apparatus further comprises a means adapted for adjusting and selecting the shot-in ink quantity to be applied to the leather according to the type of natural leather transported to said coloring zone. The leather coloring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means adapted for adjusting and selecting the amount of the ink to be applied in accordance with the type of natural leather comprises a leather properties data preset unit (1011), a mode selection unit, an arithmetic unit (1012) to which a CPU (1014) is connected, a RAM (1016) in which the leather properties data is stored, a ROM (1015) in which data suitable for processing methods according to conditions of various leathers is stored, a coloring image storage unit (1017), and a coloring method decision unit (1017).

Inventors: AKIYAMA YUJI, FUJITA MIYUKI, HIRABAYASHI HIROMITSU, KUWABARA NOBUYUKI, OHTA TOKUYA, SUGAMA SADAYUKI, TAKATORI YASUSHI, AKIYAMA, YUJI, FUJITA, MIYUKI, HIRABAYASHI, HIROMITSU, KUWABARA, NOBUYUKI, OHTA, TOKUYA, SUGAMA, SADAYUKI, TAKATORI, YASUSHI
Applicants: CANON KK, CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1995
Main classification: B41M1
IPC codes: B41J2