JP2009073085A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thermal transfer printer wherein it is unnecessary to replace an ink ribbon, even when the ink ribbon reaches a ribbon-end state, and unnecessary to continuously print in a transfer area from halfway on a recording medium in operation, thereby such the failure is prevented that a printed image in the transfer area is missing. <P>SOLUTION: The thermal transfer printer includes: a platen roller 2; the recording medium; a thermal head 15 disposed facing the platen roller across the recording medium; and the ink ribbon 18. The printer is provided with an ink ribbon-sag formation mechanism 26 for forming sagging of the ink ribbon on the upstream side of the thermal head, then, when the ink ribbon reaches the ribbon-end state, printing to a transfer area on the recording medium is carried out through the use of sagging portions C+D of the ink ribbon formed by the ink ribbon-sag formation mechanism. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer that uses a thermal head to form an image by transferring ink on an ink ribbon to a plurality of transfer areas of a recording medium that is intermittently drawn from a roller.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, thermal transfer printers that use thermal heads to form images by transferring ink ribbon ink to a plurality of transfer areas of a sheet-like recording medium that is intermittently fed from a roller are known (for example, patents). References 1 and 2).

  The above-described thermal transfer printer includes a platen roller, and a plurality of transfer units that transfer ink to the recording medium via the recording medium are installed outside the platen roller. A thermal head is disposed in the transfer section so as to face the platen roller via an ink ribbon.

  When an image is formed on a recording medium in the thermal transfer printer, first, the transfer area of the recording medium is transported to the transfer unit, and the thermal head is pressed against the platen roller via the recording medium and the ink ribbon to record the ink on the ink ribbon. Transfer to media.

  Further, in the above-described thermal transfer printer, when an ink ribbon disposed in any one of a plurality of transfer portions becomes a ribbon end during printing on a recording medium, the rotation of the platen roller is stopped and all Stops energization of the thermal head and interrupts printing on the recording medium. Then, the thermal head at the ribbon end or all the thermal heads are separated from the platen roller, and the ribbon at the ribbon end is replaced with a new ink ribbon. Printing is continued from the middle.

JP 2003-246110 A JP 2003-291388 A

  However, when the ink ribbon becomes the ribbon end as described above, after the ink ribbon that has become the ribbon end is replaced with a new ink ribbon, printing is continuously performed from the middle to the transfer area in the middle of printing on the recording medium. In some cases, the printed image in the transfer area where printing is performed from the middle of the print is lost. This is because, after replacing the ink ribbon, the pressure contact position of the thermal head that is again pressed against the platen roller may slightly deviate from the position before the printing is interrupted.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and even when the ink ribbon becomes a ribbon end, there is no need to replace the ink ribbon and continuously print in the transfer area in the middle of printing on the recording medium from the middle. Another object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer printer that can prevent a printed image in a transfer region from being lost.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a platen roller, a recording medium having a plurality of transfer regions, which is conveyed along the outer peripheral surface of the platen roller by the rotation of the platen roller, and the recording medium. A thermal head disposed so as to face the platen roller, and an ink ribbon that is drawn and conveyed between the thermal head and the platen roller. An ink ribbon slack forming mechanism for forming slack in the ink ribbon is provided on the upstream side, and when the ink ribbon becomes a ribbon end, a slack portion of the ink ribbon formed by the ink ribbon slack forming mechanism is used. Provided is a thermal transfer printer that performs printing on a transfer region of the recording medium.

  According to the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, a slack is formed in the ink ribbon upstream of the thermal head by the slack formation mechanism of the ink ribbon, and when the ink ribbon becomes the ribbon end, the slack portion of the ink ribbon is removed from the thermal head. And the platen roller, printing is performed on the transfer area of the recording medium, so even if the ink ribbon reaches the end of the ribbon, the ink ribbon is replaced and the transfer area in the middle of printing the recording medium continues from the middle. There is no need to print.

  In the present invention, it is appropriate that the amount of slack of the ink ribbon formed by the slack formation mechanism is longer than the length of one transfer area of the recording medium. In this way, it is possible to reliably complete the marking on the transfer area that has been printed when the ink ribbon becomes the ribbon end.

  According to the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, even when the ink ribbon becomes a ribbon end, there is no need to replace the ink ribbon and continuously print on the transfer area in the middle of printing on the recording medium. Can be prevented from being lost.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a thermal transfer printer according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged explanatory view showing an ink ribbon slack formation mechanism of the thermal transfer printer. In FIG. 1, the ink ribbon slack formation mechanism is not shown.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the thermal transfer printer 1 of this example has a cylindrical platen roller 2. The central portion of the platen roller 2 is a rotating shaft 3 to which a driving source (not shown) such as a stepping motor is connected. By rotating the rotating shaft 3 by the driving source, the platen roller 2 is It rotates in one direction (the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1).

  In the vicinity of the platen roller 2, a feeding roller 4 and a take-up roller 5 are disposed. The feeding roller 4 has a long thin transparent resin sheet or transparent resin formed of a material such as polyethylene terephthalate. A recording medium 7 made of a film is wound. The recording medium 7 is guided from the feeding roller 4 along the outer peripheral surface of the platen roller 2 and is wound around the winding roller 5.

  A first guide roller 10 that guides the recording medium 7 in the direction of the outer peripheral surface of the platen roller 2 is rotatably disposed upstream of the platen roller 2 in the conveyance direction of the recording medium 7. A second guide roller 12 for rotatably guiding the recording medium 7 from the outer peripheral side of the platen roller 2 to the take-up roller 5 is disposed downstream of the platen roller 2 in the conveyance direction of the recording medium 7. Yes.

  Further, outside the platen roller 2, a plurality (four in this embodiment) of transfer units 14 for transferring an image onto the surface of the recording medium 7 are arranged at a predetermined interval in the conveyance direction of the recording medium 7. ing. Each of the transfer units 14 has a thermal head 15 that can be pressed against the platen roller 2. The thermal head 15 has a length corresponding to the width of the recording medium 7, and a plurality of heating elements 16 are arranged in parallel on the thermal head 15.

  Each transfer unit 14 is provided with a pair of ribbon rolls 19 around which an ink ribbon 18 is wound. The ink ribbon 18 is interposed between the platen roller 2 and each heating element 16 of the thermal head 15. Guided. Further, inks of different colors are applied to the ink ribbons 18 wound around the respective ribbon rolls 19. In this embodiment, cyan ink is sequentially applied from the most upstream transfer section 14 of the recording medium 7. Color ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink are applied.

  In these transfer portions 14, the thermal head 15 is pressed against the surface of the recording medium 7 via the ink ribbon 18, and each heating element 16 selectively generates heat, whereby an image is formed on the surface of the recording medium 7. Is to be transcribed.

  The transfer unit 14 is provided with a slack formation mechanism for the ink ribbon 18. The slack formation mechanism of the ink ribbon 18 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, 2 is a platen roller, 15 is a thermal head, 18 is an ink ribbon, 19a is a feeding ribbon roll, 19b is a winding ribbon roll, 20 is a first ribbon guide roller, 21 is a second ribbon guide roller, Reference numeral 22 denotes a third ribbon guide roller, 24 denotes a position variable guide roller, and 25 denotes a ribbon end sensor. In FIG. 2, the recording medium is not shown.

  In this embodiment, the ink ribbon 18 fed from the feeding ribbon roll 19a is sequentially guided by the first ribbon guide roller 20, the position variable guide roller 24, and the second ribbon guide roller 21, and then the thermal head 15 and the platen roller. 2, and then guided by the third ribbon guide roller 22 and taken up by the take-up ribbon roll 19 b. In this example, a slack formation mechanism 26 of the ink ribbon 18 is formed by the first ribbon guide roller 20, the position variable guide roller 24, and the second ribbon guide roller 21, as will be described later. The transfer unit 14 is provided.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, when a signal is input to the thermal transfer printer 1, the platen roller 2 is rotated in the direction of arrow A by driving the drive source, and the recording medium 7 is moved to the most upstream side in the transport direction as the platen roller 2 rotates. Is transferred to a predetermined position of the transfer unit 14.

  Subsequently, the thermal head 15 is pressed against the recording medium 7 through the ink ribbon 18 coated with cyan ink. In this state, the heating elements 16 of the thermal head 15 are selectively energized based on the transfer information. As a result, each heating element 16 generates heat, the cyan ink of the ink ribbon 18 is transferred to the surface of the recording medium 7, and the cyan image is transferred to one transfer area of the recording medium 7.

  Next, by rotating the platen roller 2, the recording medium 7 is conveyed to the next transfer unit 14, and the thermal head 15 is brought into pressure contact with the recording medium 7, so that the magenta ink is applied to the surface of the recording medium 7 based on the transfer information. By transferring the image, a magenta image is transferred on the image recorded with cyan ink.

  Similarly, a full-color image is transferred onto the surface of the recording medium 7 by transferring a yellow color image and a black color image respectively at the third transfer portion 14 and the most downstream transfer portion 14.

  In the present embodiment, the position variable guide roller 24 of the slack formation mechanism 26 of the ink ribbon 18 is positioned at the position B in the lower part of the drawing at the time of printing described above, so that the ink ribbon 18 is located upstream of the thermal head 15. To form a slack C + D. In this case, the slack amount C + D of the ink ribbon 18 is longer than the length of one transfer area of the recording medium.

  When the ink ribbon 18 disposed in any one of the four transfer portions 14 becomes a ribbon end, that is, when the ribbon end sensor 25 detects the ribbon end, the ribbon end is obtained. The feeding of the ink ribbon 18 from the feeding ribbon roll 19a that feeds the ink ribbon 18 is stopped. At the same time, the position variable guide roller 24 is moved to an upper position E in the figure, and the slack portion C + D of the ink ribbon 18 is drawn between the thermal head 15 and the platen roller 2 to thereby transfer the recording medium to the transfer area. Print. Thereafter, the rotation of the platen roller 2 is stopped, and energization of all the thermal heads 15 is stopped to stop printing on the recording medium. Then, after the thermal head 15 at the ribbon end or all the thermal heads 15 are separated from the platen roller 2 and the ink ribbon 18 at the ribbon end is replaced with a new ink ribbon 18, the recording medium is transferred. Print on the area. In addition, as a position changing mechanism of the position variable guide roller 24, an appropriate means capable of changing the position of the roller can be used.

  As described above, according to the thermal transfer printer 1 of the present embodiment, even when the ink ribbon 18 becomes a ribbon end, the ink ribbon 18 is replaced and printing is continued from the middle on the transfer area in the middle of printing the recording medium. There is no need to prevent the printed image in the transfer region from being lost. In this case, since the slack amount C + D of the ink ribbon 18 is set to be longer than the length of one transfer area of the recording medium, the printing to the transfer area that has been printed when the ink ribbon becomes the ribbon end is ensured. Can be completed.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, A various change is possible as needed. For example, in the present embodiment, the thermal transfer printer 1 having a plurality of transfer units 14 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may have a single transfer unit.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an embodiment of a thermal transfer printer according to the present invention. It is an enlarged explanatory view showing a slack formation mechanism of the ink ribbon of the thermal transfer printer.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Thermal transfer printer 2 Platen roller 4 Feeding roller 5 Winding roller 7 Intermediate transfer sheet 14 Transfer part 15 Thermal head 16 Heating element 18 Ink ribbon 19 Ribbon roll 19a Feeding ribbon roll 19b Winding ribbon roll 20 First ribbon guide roller 21 Second ribbon guide roller 22 Third ribbon guide roller 24 Position variable guide roller 25 Ribbon end sensor 26 Ink ribbon slack formation mechanism

Claims (2)

A platen roller, a recording medium having a plurality of transfer regions, and being transported along an outer peripheral surface of the platen roller by rotation of the platen roller, and disposed so as to face the platen roller through the recording medium A thermal transfer printer having a thermal head and an ink ribbon drawn and conveyed between the thermal head and the platen roller,
An ink ribbon slack forming mechanism that forms a slack in the ink ribbon upstream of the thermal head is provided, and the ink ribbon slack formed by the slack forming mechanism of the ink ribbon when the ink ribbon becomes a ribbon end. A thermal transfer printer that performs printing on a transfer area of the recording medium using a portion.   The thermal transfer printer according to claim 1, wherein a slack amount of the ink ribbon formed by the slack forming mechanism is set to a length equal to or longer than a length of one transfer region of the recording medium.

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