Image recording apparatus and system

An image recording apparatus comprising:

• photo-sensitive material supplying means for conveying a thermal developing photo-sensitive material wound on a supplying roll along a linear conveyance path and winding said photo-sensitive material on a winding roll;
• exposure means for giving a linear optical exposure to said photo-sensitive material along a direction perpendicular to said conveyance path in synchronization with conveyance of said photo-sensitive material along said conveyance path;
• solvent applying means, provided along said conveyance path, for applying an image forming solvent to said photo-sensitive material after exposure by said exposure mans;
• image receiving material supplying means for supplying an image receiving material of a predetermined size to said photo-sensitive material after image forming solvent has been applied by said solvent applying means:
• and
• thermal developing means for combining said photo-sensitive material and said image receiving material and heating said combined image receiving material and said photo-sensitive material, to subject said photo-sensitive material to thermal developing to perform a thermal image transferring operation;
• wherein, after said thermal image transferring operation, said photo-sensitive material is wound on said winding roll and said image receiving material thus is separated from said photo-sensitive material.

An image recording apparatus in which an image recorded on a photo-sensitive material is transferred onto an image receiving material to provide a visible image, said apparatus comprising:

• photo-sensitive material supplying means for conveying said photo-sensitive material wound on a supplying roll along a linear conveyance path and winding said photo-sensitive material on a winding roll;
• and
• heating means provided along said conveyance path, for heating said photo-sensitive material and said image receiving material,
• said heating means having a heating position and a standby position with respect to said conveyance path so that, when said heating means is held at the heating position said heating means holds and heats said photo-sensitive material and said image receiving material.