JPS60253566A - Printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to apply printing to large recording paper, by making a moving stand, to which a line head and a supply mechanism of an ink film corresponding to the printing width of said line head are mounted, movable in the arrangement direction of the heat generator of the line head. CONSTITUTION:A moving stand 7 can be revolved around a main shaft 2 along with a swinging frame 5 in the direction shown by the arrow D and allowed to be moved along the main shaft 2 and an auxiliary shaft 6 to enable the arbitrary setting of a printing position. Recording paper 32 is closely contacted with a back roll 4 by a press roll 30 and moves to the direction shown by the arrow F as the back roll 4 is rotated with the supply of a current to a motor B22 and the position in the F-direction can be arbitrarily controlled. A thermal transfer ink film 14 is provided on the moving stand 7 and has a width equal to that of a small thermal line head 11. Therefore, by making the feed amount of the moving stand equal to the width of main scanning, a large picture can be printed on the recording paper 32, for example, in a state successively divided as shown by printings K43, L44, M45, N46.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] - The present invention relates to a thermal printer, and particularly to a printing mechanism using a thermal line head, which is suitable for printing large-area or large-sized photographic paper.

[Background of the invention]

Conventionally, in printers using thermal line heads,
As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5B-8670, a thermal line head, an ink paper supply mechanism, etc. are positioned with respect to the main frame as the general framework of the apparatus, and only the recording paper to be printed is placed. A movable configuration was common. For this reason, printers that print large areas or print on large recording paper must be equipped with a thermal line head and ink film that are sized according to the area to be printed and the width of the photographic paper. This required larger thermal line heads and larger ink films. As is well known, thermal line heads are becoming more expensive due to an increase in the number of heating elements arranged in a line, a decrease in yield in the thermal head manufacturing process, and an increase in the number of wires to the heating elements. There is a drawback that it has no choice but to be. Furthermore, when the size of the ink film becomes large, problems such as waving occur.

For this reason, as is well known, large screens are printed by so-called serial scanning. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of Norial type scanning using a thermal head.

In FIG. 1, a thermal head 51 having a plurality of heating elements 50 over a length IVc moves in the direction of arrow J to print or print a width l (hereinafter, this is referred to as main scanning).
First, the recording paper moves by l in the direction of the arrow. (Hereafter, this is referred to as sub-scanning.) By repeating this operation,
Obtain a print of the desired size. In this case, a relatively small thermal head can be used, but when an image is printed using this, streaks in the main scanning direction inevitably occur every sub-scanning l.

[Object of the Invention] An object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the conventional examples described above, to print on large-sized recording paper using a small thermal line head, and to provide a large-area printing device. It's about doing.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, a thermal line head and a supply mechanism for a thermal ink film corresponding to the printing process are placed on a moving table, and the moving table is connected to a heating element of the thermal line head. It is now possible to move in the line direction.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Examples will be explained below.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the first embodiment of the invention. In the first embodiment, the main frame 14.1b [main shaft 2, roll thinner or not] is used. A cylindrical bank roll 4 made of an elastic material such as rubber is provided on the roll shaft 5. In the main shaft 21fC, the swing frame 5 is
a, N), and a sub-shaft 6 parallel to the main shaft 2 is rotatably penetrated through the swing frame 5. The inner portions of the swing frame 5 including the main shaft 2 and the sub-shaft 6 are prismatic as shown in the figure, and are penetrated by both shafts to form a movable table 7. of the moving table 7,
A bearing 8 having a square center hole, for example, is also formed in the penetrating portion of the main shaft 2 and the sub-shaft 6, and the moving table 7 is connected to the main shaft 2.
, is slidable in the axial direction of the counter shaft 6, and the movable table 7
The main shaft 411111 and the sub shaft 6 are rotatable no matter where they are located.

Inside the moving table 7, a main shaft 2 passes through a square hole 9, and a head arm 1 is slidable relative to the main shaft 2 and whose rotation is restricted.
0 and 9, heads 1-11]K are heat-sensitive line heads 11ρ1 in which a plurality of heating elements are arranged in a row on the back side of the position indicated by the broken line A on the figure.

The moving stage 7 has a supply shaft 12 for supplying the thermal transfer ink film 14.
and a winding shaft 16 are provided parallel to the main shaft 2 and rotatably opposite to each other with respect to the heating element. The width of the thermal transfer ink film 14 is large.

Approximately equal to the length of the heating elements.

A worm foil A15 was provided at the end of the main body 12 and was fixed to a chassis (not shown).

It meshes with a worm A17 driven by a motor A16. In addition, both ends of the subshaft 3 are sufficiently extended,
Bearings 18, 1 are located at the positions where they come into contact with the main frames Ia, 1b.
9 is provided, and the swing frame 5 is stabilized in the position shown. Note that 20 is a stripper for the secondary shaft 6, which is also attached to the main frame 1b side, and restricts rotation of the main shaft 2 of the swing frame 5 after stabilization.

Further outside the bearing 19 of the subshaft 6 is a worm wheel B.
21 is provided and meshes with a worm B23 driven by a motor B22. Furthermore, stripper 2
By removing 0, the shaft @6 rotates around the main shaft 24, but at this time, the worm wheel B21 and the worm B2
The engagement with 3 is released.

Further, a worm foil C24 is provided at the end of the roll shaft 3 at a position facing the worm B25 so as to constantly engage with the worm B23.

A small pulley 25 with a square hole is provided in the part of the movable table 7 through which the sub-shaft 6 passes, and moves as the movable table 7 moves and rotates as the sub-shaft 6 rotates. . The small pulley 25 is rotated by a belt 26 and a large boot 9 with teeth on the outer periphery.
27, it is transmitted to the winding shaft 13 via a clutch 28 having teeth on the outer periphery.

In addition, 29 is a rotatable ink film peeling roll provided at the tip of the head arm 1o, and 30 is a rotatable pressure bonding roll provided approximately in contact with the back roll 4. The shaft 31 is also formed around the shaft 31.

The operation of the above embodiment will be explained. When the motor A16 is energized, the main shaft 2 rotates via the worm A17 and the worm wheel A15, and the thermal head 11 rotates. In this case, the stroke of the thermal head 110 is as follows in the direction of arrow E:
g until the thermal head contacts the bank roll 4, and until the helad arm 10 contacts the subshaft 6 in the direction of the arrow, and the stopper 20 is regulated by a pit switch, photocoupler, etc. (not shown). In the detached state, the movable table 7 can rotate together with the swing frame 5 around the spindle 2 in the direction of the arrow. , the thermal transfer input/f shim 14 can be easily attached to the supply shaft 12 and the take-up shaft 13, and the movable table 7 (11-1 main shaft 2 and sub-shaft 6
The printing position can be set arbitrarily by moving the printer.

The recording paper 32 is wound around the back roll 4,
The crimping roll 301C is in close contact with the back roll 4, and as the motor B22 is energized, the punch roll 40
As it rotates, it moves in the direction of arrow F. Motor L12
By using a DC motor with an encoder or a step motor for 2, the position of the recording paper 32 in the direction of arrow F can be controlled arbitrarily.

According to this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, a print G66, a print H34, a printmaker 35, etc. can be printed at any position on the recording paper 62. It is also possible to print between each print using a normal tie writer or print printer, but by driving the thermal line head 11 in the printing mechanism according to the present invention with print data, it is possible to print only with this mechanism. It can also be printed using

In this embodiment, a transmission mechanism such as a worm gear, a belt, or a gear is used, but the same configuration can be obtained by combining a spur gear, a bulge gear, or the like.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the invention. Figure 4 shows the second
In the embodiment shown in the figure, the main shaft 2 is connected to the feed screw 40y-
, a feed screw 4 with a bearing 8 mounted on the moving table 7
This is a modification in which the movement of the movable table 7 in the direction of the arrow is performed by a granger 42 provided on the movable table 7.

According to this embodiment, the rotation of the motor A16 is caused by the rotation of the worm A
17. The speed is decelerated through the worm wheel A15 and transmitted to the feed screw 40, and the movable table 7 can be sent in the direction of arrow J via the feed screw 41. That is, the first embodiment is provided with an automatic feeding mechanism for the moving table 7. Therefore, in this embodiment as well, by appropriately controlling the motor A16, it is possible to obtain a printing result as shown in FIG. 3.

Furthermore, according to the present embodiment, by making the feed amount of the movable base equal to the main scanning width, the recording paper 6 can be moved as shown in FIG.
For example, 43 degrees L44, N45, for printing on 2.
Like the N46, the large screen can be sequentially divided and printed.

Furthermore, in the case of the second embodiment, since the automatic feed mechanism has a large reduction ratio, it is possible to move the movable table 7 minutely. Normally, when printing using a thermal line head, as shown in FIG. 6, the print is made based on the arrangement pitch p of the heating elements and the feed pitch in the sub-scanning direction. Pixels 47α, h arranged in a grid pattern according to
.

... IAI' ... is configured by... Feed pitch? can be set arbitrarily, and in practice, pixels 47.
Although the gap between pixel 47a and pixel 47A can be filled, the alignment pitch p is limited by the thermal line head itself, and at the same time, a gap remains between pixel 47α and pixel 47b, degrading the image quality of the print. In this example, after the first printing,
By moving the moving table by +p and making a second print overlapping the first print, it is possible to fill in the gap between pixel 474 and pixel 47A, and it is also possible to improve the image quality of the print. be.

In the case of this embodiment, it is possible to precisely control the position of the moving table 7 by using the motor A16++1 (a suog motor), but as shown by the broken line in FIG. Rotary encoder 48 on the shaft extension
Detection methods such as

It is also possible to detect the rotation of the feed screw 40, that is, the movement of the moving table 7.

In both the first and second embodiments, the thermal transfer ink film 14 is placed on the movable table 7 and has the width of the small thermal line head 11. Therefore, when the thermal transfer ink film 14 is transported in the downward direction of the arrow, wrinkles are less likely to occur, and when printing as shown in FIG. 3 is performed, the amount of the thermal transfer ink film 14 used can be kept to the minimum necessary. I can do it.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 7, the thermal transfer ink film 14 is coated with a plurality of colors, for example, cyan (Cy),
By applying three colors of ink, such as magenta and yellow, and printing the same spot on the recording paper 32 five times with each ink, a power/color print can be obtained. However, at this time, by moving the movable table by -p each time each color is printed, it is also possible to obtain brightly colored prints with fewer overlapping marks of each color.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to print an image without streaks in the main scanning direction for each sub-scanning at any position on a large-sized recording paper using a small thermal line head, and It is possible to obtain large prints by combining multiple prints, or by shifting the pitch of the heating elements by half and printing them one on top of the other, it is possible to obtain prints with good image quality without pixel gaps. It is. Furthermore, according to the present invention, since the ink film moves in the width direction with the movement of the thermal line head, the width of the ink film is smaller than the width of a large recording paper, and the width of the thermal line head is sufficient, so it is economical. It also has the effect of increasing

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram of the principle of Norial type transfer recording, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the first embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the printing result according to the first embodiment, and Fig. 4 is the invention of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the second embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the second embodiment. θ 謬 20th 4th n 4 4.5'

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A thermal line head in which a plurality of heating elements are arranged in a row, a back roll that the heating elements come into contact with, and a thermal transfer ink film having a width approximately equal to the length of the row of heating elements between the heating elements and the back roll. Ink film supply mechanism and thermal transfer. In a thermal transfer printer equipped with a recording paper supply mechanism that supplies recording paper between the ink film and the back roll, the thermal line head and the ink film supply mechanism are provided on a movable table that can be moved in the direction in which the heating elements are arranged. A printing device with a 45F symbol. (2. In the printing device according to claim 1,
A printing device characterized by having an automatic feeding mechanism for a movable table on which a thermal line head and an ink film supply mechanism are mounted.