CN110228301B

CN110228301B - Slide printing device

Info

Publication number: CN110228301B
Application number: CN201910724038.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 平起; 周进
Original assignee: Shanghai Taohan Medical Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Taohan Medical Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-08-07
Filing date: 2019-08-07
Publication date: 2019-12-06
Anticipated expiration: 2039-08-07
Also published as: CN110228301A; WO2021023256A1

Abstract

the invention provides a slide printing device, which comprises a slide discharging unit for providing a slide to be printed, a slide conveying unit for conveying the slide, a printing head unit for printing the slide, a printing positioning unit for positioning the slide to be printed in the printing conveying unit, a color ribbon unit for providing a color ribbon required by printing and a slide collecting unit for collecting the printed slide, wherein the slide discharging unit is arranged to allow the slide to be stacked laterally rather than flatly, namely the printable surface or the back surface of the slide is parallel to the gravity direction of the slide or forms an angle smaller than 45 degrees. The slide printing device can meet the requirements of quick and high-quality printing of slides.

Description

Slide printing device

Technical Field

The invention is used in the technical field of biomedical experimental instruments, and particularly relates to a slide printing device.

Background

The slide is a transparent carrier commonly used in the biomedical field, generally made of materials such as glass and the like, has good light transmittance, and is usually placed under a microscope to carry a cell or a biological sample slice for a researcher or equipment to observe, read and analyze. Slide bearing samples typically require multiple passes of solvent immersion treatment prior to analysis to achieve better viewing. The slide is generally divided into a sample-bearing area for placing a cell-bearing or biological sample and a labeling area for adding a label to record related information.

During the experimental operation, researchers often need multiple slides for the same sample to perform parallel contrast analysis, and different slides need to be marked for distinguishing. In medical pathological diagnosis, a large number of slides are applied to tissue examination, blood analysis, cytology analysis and the like, and information markers are needed to be effectively distinguished among different patients and different samples, so that sample flow transmission or long-term retention storage of entities is facilitated.

Slide printing refers to a technology of adding information marks on a mark area of a slide and ensuring that mark information is reliably stored for a long time. The current marking methods can be divided into traditional marking methods and automatic marking methods. The traditional marking method is that related information is manually filled by personnel, a tool often adopts a pencil (because some samples may need to be processed in an organic solvent, especially in the medical field), and the traditional marking method has the defects that the requirements of slide marking are difficult to meet due to difficult uniform writing specification, easy blur of handwriting, difficult trouble and labor, easy writing errors and the like; the automatic marking method is a method for marking on a slide marking area by adopting automatic equipment, and mainly comprises laser coding, mechanical engraving, ink-jet printing, ribbon printing and the like at present. Laser coding is to form a mark by vaporizing the surface coating of the marking area with laser, mechanical engraving is to form a mark by mechanical abrasion on the surface of the slide or by processing the surface coating of the marking area, both methods have certain requirements on the marking area, for example: the surface of the ground glass cannot be an uncoated ground glass surface, the coating is sensitive to the absorption of the used laser, the adhesive force of the coating is enough, the coating is not easy to peel off, and the like, and the printing is a negative film effect, the contrast is poor, and the practicability is limited; the ink-jet printing needs a special photocuring process to increase the processing time, and the adhesive force of the marking surface to the ink-jet is not good, so that the printing resolution is not easy to improve, and the application range is limited. Ribbon printing uses a heated print head in conjunction with a specific ribbon to print information onto the slide label area. Ribbon printers on the market at present are often applied to slides with specific specifications, have low universality, are not subjected to fine control design in ribbon control, and are easy to cause ribbon winding or breaking.

CN107284045A relates to a slide printing apparatus, which comprises a preheating mechanism, a printing mechanism, a slide conveying mechanism, a delivery stacking mechanism, etc., and prints after preheating the slide, so as to improve the printing quality. The sheet taking mechanism of the device adopts an up-down stacking arrangement mode, and the slide conveying mechanism takes out the slide at the bottommost end from the bottom end of the sheet taking bin each time. The slide is pressed in the slide taking bin by the gravity of the laminated slides, and when a large number of slides are stored in the bin, the slide at the bottommost end is difficult to take out due to the large gravity; when a small amount of glass slides are stored in the bin, the glass slide at the bottom end is loosened and positioned due to low pressure, and the fault that the slide taking and positioning are inaccurate or even the slide is stuck easily occurs.

CN108189564A relates to a slide printer, which comprises a conveying device, an ink jet device and a curing device, and uses a heat curing process to print on a slide marking area; the slide taking mechanism is also arranged in an up-and-down stacking mode, but a weight reducing mechanism is added, and the number of the slides above the bottommost slide is controlled so as to optimally control the slide taking pressure; and an inclined mechanism is added, so that the slide can conveniently enter the conveying device after being taken out of the bin. The device increases and subtracts heavy mechanism at the convertible of getting piece storehouse both ends, easily takes place the risk of pressing from both sides garrulous slide when resetting again after increasing the slide down.

CN105082782A relates to a slide glass printing device and method, which includes a carbon ribbon feeding mechanism, a slide glass horizontal conveying mechanism, a printing head fixing component, a printing head horizontal driving mechanism, a printing head vertical driving mechanism and a moving seat. Although the device ensures the slide horizontal conveying mechanism to be static during printing, in the positioning bin of the slide trolley, the slide still slides due to the clearance for placing the slide, so that the printing quality is not high or the carbon tape is broken. The ribbon drive control always requires repeated adjustment of the ribbon prior to printing, reducing the efficiency of operation.

CN103201115A relates to a color printer system for organizing specimen slides, which comprises a specimen receiving structure, an ink receiving device, a print head, a drive mechanism and a control system, which employs special multi-color grid color bands to achieve the effect of color printing. However, the slide pushing cabin of the device adopts a slide up-down stacking arrangement mode, and the slide is taken out only by the friction force between the rubber wheel and the bottom slide, so that the situation of difficult slide taking is easy to occur. The slide is transported by a conveyor belt after being printed, which is very complicated.

CN108068470A relates to a slide writing appearance, and it includes slide box, printing device, conveying mechanism and transmission mouth, and the device is beaten the printer head at the slide and is printed the back, adopts four-bar linkage's conveying mechanism to carry the slide to finally receiving the piece mouth, and link mechanism motion needs to rely on the pulley of conveying mechanism bottom to drive, and slide transmission speed is slower, and interval time is longer between the continuous printing, and printing efficiency is not high.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention provides a slide printing apparatus for solving the above-described problems, which can satisfy the demand for quick, high-quality printing of slides.

Specifically, the invention provides a slide printing device, which comprises a slide discharging unit for providing a slide to be printed, a slide conveying unit for conveying the slide, a printing head unit for printing the slide, a printing positioning unit for positioning the slide to be printed in printing and conveying, a color ribbon unit for providing a color ribbon required by printing and a slide collecting unit for collecting the printed slide, and is characterized in that the slide discharging unit is set to allow the slide to be stacked laterally instead of in a flat manner, namely the printable surface or the back surface of the slide is parallel to the gravity direction of the slide or forms an angle smaller than 45 degrees.

In one or more embodiments, the slide delivery unit is provided with a slide magazine assembly provided with front, back, left, right, and bottom five-sided magazine members constituting a slide storage space, referred to as front side magazine member, back side magazine member, left side magazine member, right side magazine member, and bottom side magazine member, respectively; the front side bin piece comprises a left bin piece and a right bin piece which are separated by a certain distance, and the back of the printable surface of the side glass slide is limited on the left side and the right side respectively; the front end part of the bottom chamber part is propped against or is not propped against the left chamber part and the right chamber part of the front chamber part completely to form a channel for the slide to slide downwards; the front side bin part and the rear side bin part are connected with the left side bin part, the right side bin part and the bottom side bin part to form a whole slide bin assembly.

In one or more embodiments, the ejection unit further comprises: the glass slide pre-pressing device comprises a glass slide bin pre-pressing component, a pre-pressing guide component and a pre-pressing power component, wherein the glass slide bin pre-pressing component is used for limiting and positioning a markable surface of a glass slide and keeping a certain pressure on the surface and pushing the glass slide to move forwards; the prepressing guide component and the prepressing power component conduct guiding and driving force transmission in one or more modes of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, gear and rack transmission and linear guide rail transmission.

In one or more embodiments, the slide magazine pre-compression assembly includes a pre-compression pusher for constraining and maintaining a pressure on a markable face of a positioned side stack slide; the prepressing guide assembly comprises a sliding block, a sliding guide rail matched with the sliding block and a sliding block connecting block used for fixing the sliding block and connected with the prepressing push block; the prepressing guide assembly is connected with the slide glass bin prepressing assembly through the sliding block connecting block; the pre-compaction power pack is including the motor and the drive power conveyer that produce drive power, wherein, drive power conveyer includes hold-in range and hold-in range fixed block, hold-in range fixed block respectively with slider connecting block and hold-in range are connected, convey the drive power that the motor produced to slide glass storehouse pre-compaction subassembly via the hold-in range.

In one or more embodiments, the slide discharging unit further comprises one or more of an encoder for recording the operation state of the analysis motor and/or calculating the number of slides in the current slide compartment assembly, a slide sliding auxiliary arranged on the bottom compartment and/or the left and right compartment and in direct contact with the side-stacked slides for assisting in carrying the slides and reducing the frictional resistance to slide, a temperature control unit for temperature-rising preheating the slides, and an optical sensor for detecting the slide placing direction.

In one or more embodiments, the slide transport unit includes a print transport unit for transporting slides from the ejection unit, before printing, and during printing; and a slide conveying unit for connecting the printing conveying unit and the film collecting unit and conveying the slide glass loaded in the printing conveying unit to the film collecting unit.

In one or more embodiments, the print delivery unit includes a slide transport assembly, a delivery guide assembly, a delivery power assembly, and an encoder; the conveying guide assembly and the conveying power assembly conduct guiding and driving force transmission in one or more modes of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, gear and rack transmission and linear guide rail transmission.

In one or more embodiments, the slide transport assembly is a slide carrier for loading and transporting slides, slides on a transport path defined by the transport guide assembly, and includes a slide print cartridge for carrying slides, a transport stop for positioning and restraining a back side of slides within the slide magazine assembly, and a transport fixture for securing or engaging the slide print cartridge and coupled to the transport stop; wherein, the slide conveying assembly is connected with the conveying guide assembly and the conveying power assembly through the conveying fixing piece;

The conveying guide assembly is connected with the slide conveying assembly, limits the sliding path of the slide conveying assembly, and comprises a sliding block, a sliding guide rail matched with the sliding block and a conveying support piece for fixing the sliding rail; wherein, the conveying guide component is connected with the conveying power component through the conveying branch component;

The conveying power assembly is used for providing driving force for the movement of the slide conveying assembly and comprises a motor for generating the driving force and a driving force transmission device, and the driving force transmission device is connected with the slide conveying assembly through the conveying fixing piece;

The encoder is used for controlling the motor to control the movement speed of the slide conveying assembly to keep constant during slide printing, and the conveying assembly, the slide and the color ribbon in the color ribbon unit are kept relatively static.

In one or more embodiments, the slide transport unit is in a slide out-of-cassette position of the slide transport unit, including a slide member and an out-of-cassette member; the ejection component is used for pushing the slide in the slide printing box to eject the slide from the printing and conveying unit and enter the sliding and conveying unit; the slide way piece is used for forming a slide way of the conveying path of the sliding conveying unit.

In one or more embodiments, the printhead unit includes a printhead for printing on a marking area of a slide, a printhead support assembly supporting the printhead, a printhead guide assembly controlling a drive direction of the printhead support assembly, a printhead power assembly providing a drive force for the printhead support assembly; the printing head guide assembly and the printing head power assembly are guided and power-driven through one or more of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, gear and rack transmission and linear guide rail transmission.

In one or more embodiments, the printhead support assembly is coupled to the printhead guide assembly and includes a corrector assembly aperture, an angle aperture, and a support plate connection end, wherein the corrector assembly aperture has a counter-bore for mounting a printhead corrector assembly; the angle hole is used for limiting the angle which can be automatically corrected by the printing head; the connecting end of the supporting plate is used for fixing a connecting slide block fixing block of the printing head guide assembly; the printing head guide assembly is connected with the printing head support assembly and controls the movement direction of the printing head support assembly, and comprises a sliding guide rail, a sliding block and a sliding block fixing block, wherein the sliding guide rail is matched with the sliding block to slide, and the sliding block fixing block is used for fixing the sliding block and is fixedly connected with the connecting end of the support plate; the printing head power assembly comprises a motor for generating driving force and a power transmission device, and the power transmission device is connected with the printing head guide assembly through a sliding block fixing block.

In one or more embodiments, the printing head correction assembly is arranged between the printing head and the printing head support assembly, and after the printing head is contacted with the slide, the printing head is swung within a certain angle range under the pressure of the printing head power assembly, so that the contact angle with the slide is automatically corrected, and the gap between the printing plane of the printing head and the surface of the slide is eliminated.

In one or more embodiments, the printhead corrector assembly includes a printhead mounting plate, a corrector end piece, a shim, an inner race, a rubber ring, a gland, and a mounting hole; the printing head fixing plate is provided with a convex correcting end piece and an angle screw, and the printing head is directly assembled on the printing head fixing plate; the protruding part of the angle screw is positioned in the angle hole and used for controlling the angle capable of being automatically corrected; the inner ring is a hollow cylindrical part, the inner side of the inner ring is sleeved on the correcting end part, and the surface of the outer ring of the inner ring is matched with the inner hole of the rubber ring; the surface of the outer hole of the rubber ring is matched with a counter bore of the printing head correction assembly; the gaskets are respectively arranged between the printing head fixing plate and the correction assembly hole and between the gland and the correction assembly hole; and the gland is contacted with the correcting end piece and is pressed by a screw in the fixing hole.

In one or more embodiments, the print head unit is further provided with an optical sensor for detecting a placement direction of the slide in the slide print cartridge; and/or the printing head unit is also provided with a servo system comprising an encoder for controlling the motor to output the movement speed of the printing head supporting component and the pre-pressure required during printing.

In one or more embodiments, the print positioning unit includes a positioning wheel and a positioning wheel shaft, wherein the positioning wheel rotates around the positioning wheel shaft, the positioning wheel is tangent to a slide conveying path of the slide printing box and can be contacted with the slide and maintain a certain pressure, and the positioning wheel rolls on a slide contacting surface when the slide in the slide printing box is conveyed and keeps the slide positioned without sliding.

In one or more embodiments, the print positioning unit further comprises a positioning wheel swing assembly for controlling the positioning wheel to move closer to and away from the transport path of the slide transport unit; the positioning wheel swinging assembly comprises a swinging external member, a swinging central member and a swinging power member, the positioning wheel swinging assembly rotates by taking the swinging central member as a center, the swinging external member and the swinging power member are respectively positioned at two sides of a swinging fulcrum of the swinging central member, the swinging external member and the positioning wheel shaft are concentrically positioned, and the swinging power member provides driving force required by swinging.

In one or more embodiments, the print positioning unit further includes a positioning wheel damper for providing some damping to rotation of the positioning wheel, ensuring friction between the positioning wheel and slides within the slide print cartridge, facilitating positioning of the slides within the slide print cartridge without random relative sliding.

In one or more embodiments, the ink ribbon unit includes a take-up assembly and a pay-off assembly for controlling the take-up and pay-off of the ink ribbon, and optionally a pay-off guide assembly and a take-up guide assembly for controlling the ink ribbon drive path during pay-off and the ink ribbon drive path during take-up, respectively.

In one or more embodiments, the ribbon take-up assembly includes a take-up pulley and a take-up power assembly providing a driving force for the take-up assembly to recover the ribbon, and the ribbon pay-off assembly includes a take-off pulley and a ribbon pay-off power assembly providing a driving force for the ribbon pay-off assembly to release the ribbon, wherein the take-up power assembly and the ribbon pay-off power assembly are guided and power driven by one or more of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, rack and pinion transmission, and linear guide transmission.

In one or more embodiments, the ribbon unit further includes an encoder for controlling the motors of the take-up and pay-off power assemblies, calculating a thickness radius of the ribbon on the pay-off assembly to determine the amount of ribbon on the pay-off assembly, and/or determining whether the ribbon is broken based on an abrupt change in the angular velocity of the take-up and/or pay-off assemblies.

in one or more embodiments, the slide receiving unit comprises a slide receiving bin assembly, the slide receiving bin assembly comprises a slide receiving bin and a structural member forming the slide receiving bin, and a space capable of containing a plurality of slides is arranged in the slide receiving bin.

In one or more embodiments, the slide collecting bin assembly further comprises a slide collecting stop block for positioning, limiting slide movement and assisting slide collection, a slide collecting push block assembly for bearing slides in the slide collecting bin, a slide collecting guide assembly for controlling the driving direction of the slide collecting push block assembly, and a slide collecting power assembly for providing driving force for the slide collecting push block assembly, wherein the slide collecting guide assembly and the slide collecting power assembly are used for guiding and power transmission in one or more modes of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, gear rack transmission and linear guide rail transmission.

In one or more embodiments, the take-up unit is further provided with an encoder for controlling a motor in the take-up power assembly to drive the take-up unit.

In one or more embodiments, the slide printing apparatus further comprises a system general control unit, which is used for controlling the slide printing apparatus to operate according to a preset scheme, and implementing the functions of real-time monitoring, data acquisition and effective feedback, including a control circuit and user software.

in one or more embodiments, the system general control unit further comprises a display for displaying the operation state of the device in real time, optionally providing an operation interface directly to the user.

Drawings

FIG. 1a is a schematic diagram showing a slide printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 1b is a schematic view showing a slide loading position of the slide printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a slide glass.

Figure 3 is a front view showing an embodiment of a slide printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a slide printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the back side of an embodiment of the slide printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a slide discharging unit of the slide printing system according to the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a structural view showing a print conveying unit of the slide glass printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the slide transport unit and the slide receiving unit of the slide printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a print head unit of the slide printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view A-A showing the print head unit of the slide printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a print positioning unit of the slide printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a B-B cross-sectional view showing a print positioning unit of the slide printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a schematic view showing the tape deck assembly of the ink ribbon unit of the slide printing system of the present invention.

Figure 14 is a block diagram illustrating another capture unit of the slide printing system of the present invention.

Detailed Description

It is understood that within the scope of the present invention, the above-described technical features of the present invention and the technical features described in detail below (e.g., the embodiments) can be combined with each other to constitute a preferred technical solution.

In the description of the present invention, the orientation or positional relationship referred to with the related terms "front", "rear", "left", "right", "upper", "lower", "horizontal", "vertical", etc., is based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and is only for convenience of description and simplification of description, and does not indicate or imply that the referred device or element must have a specific orientation, be constructed in a specific orientation, and be operated, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

The invention provides a slide printing device, which aims at four steps of taking, transmitting, printing and receiving in the slide printing process and comprises a slide outlet unit, a slide conveying unit, a printing head unit, a printing positioning unit, a ribbon unit and a slide receiving unit. The slide discharge unit of the device has a side-folding slide magazine assembly that allows the slide to be placed in a direction such that the markable face of the slide or its back face is parallel or at a small angle, e.g., 0-45 °, to the direction of gravity of the slide itself. The slide bin pre-pressing assembly arranged on the slide discharging unit provides pressure for the side folding slide to be perpendicular to the slide printing surface, so that the slide is guaranteed to be taken under constant pressure, and the accurate control of the slide taking of the slide bin assembly is realized. In order to realize that the content of the glass slide can be prevented from corrosion after the glass slide is subjected to content marking in the marking area and the glass slide is soaked in organic solvents such as ethanol, xylene and the like for a long time, the device adopts a color band unit to be matched with the glass slide to rapidly print under a printing head unit. In the printing device, the printing head bracket of the printing head unit can be automatically adjusted, so that the gap between the printing plane of the printing head and the marking plane of the glass slide can be eliminated, and the printing head and the glass slide are ensured to be tightly attached; the ribbon device can respectively control the retraction driving coordination between the ribbon retraction assembly and the ribbon release assembly, so that the ribbon can be accurately retracted and released during printing, and the ribbon amount of the ribbon release assembly and the condition whether the ribbon is disconnected or not can be automatically fed back; in the printing process, the printing positioning unit positions the slide which is being printed, so that the slide and the slide conveying unit are ensured to be relatively static; after printing is finished, the slide conveying unit quickly transfers the slide to the slide collecting unit capable of automatically stacking and collecting the slide by means of the conveying slide. Besides the units, the device can also comprise related sensors, a temperature control and system master control unit, monitors, collects and effectively feeds back the whole printing process, and has the advantages of automatic operation, good stability, high printing quality and high working efficiency.

Accordingly, the novel slide printing system of the present invention comprises: the device comprises a sheet discharging unit, a slide conveying unit, a printing head unit, a printing positioning unit, a color ribbon unit, a sheet receiving unit and a system general control unit for monitoring and controlling the units. The components of the slide printing system of the present invention are described below. It is to be understood that such description is merely illustrative and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

Sheet discharging unit

The sheet discharging unit is used for storing the slide to be printed. The slide discharging unit is designed to allow the slides to be stacked in the slide storage space in a side-by-side rather than flat manner, i.e. the markable surface or the back surface of the slide is parallel to the gravity direction of the slide or forms a small angle, such as 0-45 degrees.

The sheet discharging unit comprises a slide bin assembly, a slide bin prepressing assembly, a prepressing guide assembly and a prepressing power assembly.

The slide magazine assembly is for storing slides to be printed and allowing the stored slides to collectively slide within the magazine. The slide bin assembly is provided with a space for storing slides. Typically, the space can accommodate at least 150 slides, such as 150-200 slides.

The glass sheet bin assembly is provided with bin pieces which form the front, the back, the left, the right and the bottom of a glass sheet storage space of the glass sheet bin assembly and are respectively called as a front side bin piece, a back side bin piece, a left side bin piece, a right side bin piece and a bottom side bin piece. The bottom side bin part bears the bottom sides of the slides which are stacked laterally; the left bin piece and the right bin piece assist in positioning the end faces at two sides of the side glass slide; the front bin piece comprises a left bin piece and a right bin piece, and the left bin piece and the right bin piece limit the back surfaces (namely the back surfaces of the marking surfaces) of the side glass folding pieces on the left side and the right side respectively. The front side bin part and the rear side bin part are used for connecting the left side bin part, the right side bin part and the bottom side bin part to form the whole slide bin assembly. The front end part of the bottom bin part is pressed against or not pressed against the left and right bin parts of the front bin part at all so as to leave a channel for the slide to slide downwards. Typically, the channel is only adequate for a slide to slide down. The left bin piece and the right bin piece of the front side bin piece are spaced by a certain distance, and the left bin piece and the right bin piece are both provided with a certain thickness, so that a slide taking groove for sliding a slide conveying assembly of a slide conveying unit is formed between two opposite surfaces of the left bin piece and the right bin piece. The slide bin assembly can keep a certain small-angle inclination, so that the side-folding slides and the front side bin piece are conveniently limited and positioned, and the inclination angle can be between 0 and 45 degrees, preferably 0 to 30 degrees, and more preferably about 10 degrees.

The slide bin assembly can also be internally provided with slide sliding accessories, and can be arranged on the bottom side bin piece and/or the left side bin piece and the right side bin piece and directly contact with the side overlapped slides. The slide sliding auxiliary part can be used for assisting the slide in the bearing bin, reducing the sliding friction resistance of the slide and facilitating the sliding of the side-overlapped slide. The slide sliding auxiliary part can be a cylindrical guide rail or a square guide rail and the like, and the surface of the contact slide is preferably hardened to increase the wear resistance and prolong the service life, so that the slide of the side-folded slide is convenient.

Still can be provided with the temperature control unit in the slide storehouse subassembly, can set up in bottom side storehouse spare and/or set up on left side storehouse spare and right side storehouse spare, it carries out the temperature rise to the slide in the storehouse and preheats, improves the temperature of slide when printing. The temperature control unit can adopt heating plates, semiconductors and the like, and the system master control unit is used for monitoring the temperature. A commercially available temperature control unit may be used.

still can be provided with optical sensor in the slide storehouse subassembly, can set up on the front side storehouse spare and/or the rear side storehouse spare in the slide storehouse subassembly for detect the direction of placing of interior slide of storehouse. The optical sensor identifies the difference of the energy after the light transmission and reflection according to the markable area and the non-marked area in the slide. The optical sensor may be a reflective photosensor or a combined transmissive photosensor. A photosensor is typically composed of two parts, a light source and a receiver. Commercially available optical sensors may be used.

The slide bin pre-pressing assembly is used for limiting the marking surface of the positioning side slide stack and keeping a certain pressure on the marking surface. The slide bin prepressing assembly comprises a prepressing push block, and the prepressing push block is abutted against the markable surface of the slide and keeps a certain pressure. The inner side of the bin is folded with the glass slide and slides to the supporting surface of the glass slide transmission assembly of the glass slide conveying unit under the action of the glass slide bin prepressing assembly, the back surface of the side folded glass slide is contacted with the front side bin piece at the moment, the markable surface is contacted with the prepressing push block of the glass slide bin prepressing assembly, the side folded glass slide is pressed and attached to the glass slide transmission assembly under the pressure of the glass slide bin prepressing assembly, and the side folded glass slide is always kept in a pressing state. When the slide at the foremost end is discharged, the side-overlapped slides are wholly and parallelly moved forward by the distance of one slide under the pushing of the slide bin prepressing assembly.

The pre-pressing guide assembly is connected with the glass bin pre-pressing assembly and controls the movement direction of the glass bin pre-pressing assembly. The prepressing power assembly is used for providing power for the movement of the slide bin prepressing assembly. The prepressing guide component and the prepressing power component can adopt single or combined modes of screw-nut transmission, belt transmission, gear-rack transmission, linear guide rail transmission and the like for guiding and transmission. The power source of the prepressing power assembly is a motor.

The pre-pressing guide assembly may include a sliding guide rail, a slider, and a slider connecting block. The pre-pressing power assembly may include a motor for generating power and a power transmission device including, but not limited to, gears, bearings, a timing belt fixing block, and the like.

The sliding guide rail plays a role in sliding guide and is used for controlling the sliding direction of the sliding block, so that the sliding direction of the glass bin prepressing assembly is controlled. The sliding block is fixed on the sliding block fixing block, is matched with the sliding guide rail and can slide along the sliding guide rail under the driving of power generated by the motor. The sliding block connecting block is used for fixing the sliding block and is connected with the pre-pressing push block. The sliding block connecting block is also matched with a synchronous belt fixing block in the power transmission device to fix and press a synchronous belt between the sliding block connecting block and the power transmission device. The power that the motor produced passes through hold-in range and slider connecting block transmission to pre-compaction ejector pad.

The pre-pressing power assembly can transmit power generated by the motor to the pre-pressing push block in a single or combined mode of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, gear and rack transmission, linear guide rail transmission and the like. For example, in certain embodiments, the power transmission device includes a motor gear, a transition gear shaft, a transition gear bearing, a tread belt gear shaft, a tread belt gear bearing, a primary tread pulley, a secondary tread pulley shaft, a secondary tread pulley bearing, a timing belt fixing block, and the like. The two ends of the synchronous belt can be fixed between the main step belt wheel and the auxiliary step belt wheel, the auxiliary step belt wheel is fixed on the auxiliary step belt wheel shaft, the bearing inner ring of the auxiliary step belt wheel bearing is matched with the auxiliary step belt wheel shaft, and the bearing outer ring is matched with the support panel of the printing system. The main belt wheel and the step belt gear can be fixed on a step belt gear shaft, a bearing inner ring of a step belt gear bearing is matched with the step belt gear shaft, and a bearing outer ring is matched on a support panel of the printing system. The step belt gear is fixed on the step belt gear shaft through a pin key and the like. The belt gear is rotated together with the belt gear shaft and the main belt pulley when receiving a driving force. The motor gear is arranged on a motor shaft of the motor, the transition gear is arranged between the motor gear and the step belt gear shaft, and the power of the motor gear is transmitted to the step belt gear in a transition mode. The transition gear can comprise two sections of gears which are respectively meshed with the motor gear and the step belt gear shaft; the transition gear shaft is fixed on the supporting panel by adopting connection modes such as screw threads, pins and the like. The motor may also be provided with an encoder for motor control. The power that the motor produced is in proper order via motor gear, transition gear shaft, transition gear bearing, step belt gear shaft, step belt gear bearing, main step band wheel, vice step band wheel shaft, vice step band wheel bearing and hold-in range fixed block conveying to the synchronizing belt, again via hold-in range and slider connecting block transmission to pre-compaction ejector pad.

The sheet outlet unit is also provided with an encoder, and the encoder and the motor are independently arranged or arranged on or fused on the motor and are used for converting motor driving signals. The encoder can also record and analyze the motor operating state and calculate the number of slides in the current slide bin assembly, thereby automatically counting the side stack slides in the slide bin assembly. In addition, the output torque of the motor can be directly controlled by the encoder, thereby allowing a constant pressure output to be controlled for side stacks in the slide magazine assembly.

The sheet discharging unit further comprises a front end connecting piece located at the front end of the slide bin assembly and a rear end connecting piece located at the rear end of the slide bin assembly. The front end connecting piece is used for connecting the sheet discharging unit and the slide conveying unit, and the rear end connecting piece is used for fixing the sheet discharging unit on the supporting panel.

Slide transport unit

the slide conveying unit is used for conveying slides and comprises a printing conveying unit and a sliding conveying unit. The printing and conveying unit is used for loading the slide glass from the slide discharging unit and conveying the slide glass before and during printing. The sliding conveying unit is used for connecting the printing conveying unit and the film collecting unit and conveying the printed slide glass conveyed in the printing conveying unit into the film collecting unit.

The printing and conveying unit comprises a slide conveying assembly, a conveying guide assembly and a conveying power assembly.

The slide transport assembly is a carrier for loading and transporting slides and includes a slide print cartridge for carrying slides to be printed and a transport fixture. The slide print cartridge is coupled or connected to the transport fixture. The slide printing box is provided with a space for accommodating a slide on the side opposite to the slide, and the length, the width and the depth of the space are matched with those of the slide, so that the next slide can be accommodated. The side of the slide that can be marked in the slide print cartridge faces the print head. The slide conveying assembly is also provided with a conveying stop block which is fixedly connected to the conveying fixing part, is positioned above the slide printing box and is used for positioning and limiting the back surface of a slide in the slide bin assembly in the slide taking groove, and is matched with the slide bin pre-pressing assembly to respectively bear the back surface and the markable surface of the slide in the slide bin assembly. In certain embodiments, the transport block forms a portion of a slide print cartridge, the underside of which forms one side of a space on the slide print cartridge that holds slides. The transport stop is located on a side of the slide transport assembly adjacent the slide with the slide print cartridge disposed thereon.

When the slide is not taken, the conveying stop block is tightly attached to the back surface of the slide, and the slide is prevented from entering the slide printing box and entering the slide sliding channel. Typically, the delivery stop projects a distance into the interior of the slide magazine assembly to accomplish this stopping; this distance is typically the thickness of a slide, i.e. typically the thickness of the channel through which the slide slides. At this time, the slide print cassette is positioned between the left and right magazine members of the front magazine member, and the space for accommodating the slide is not opposed to the slide, and there is a certain misalignment, and the bottom surface of the space is substantially parallel to the inner side surfaces of the left and right magazine members (i.e., the side constituting the slide magazine assembly). When the slide is taken, the slide conveying assembly moves upwards to enable the conveying stop block to move away from the position, and the complete space of the slide printing box is exposed, so that the slide enters the slide printing box under the thrust action of the prepressing push block of the slide discharging unit, and the slide discharging is completed. When the slide conveying assembly conveys the slide into the slide printing box, the conveying stop block moves along with the slide printing box and slides against the back surface of the slide at the foremost end of the slide discharging unit to prevent the slide from moving forwards.

The slide transport assembly slides on a transport path defined by the transport guide assembly. The transport path includes three specific positions, a slide loading position, a slide printing position, and a slide out-of-the-cassette position. The slide loading position is a position where a slide enters the slide printing box from the slide outlet unit; the slide printing position is a position where the slide starts to print under the printing head unit; the slide out of the cassette position is where the slides are disengaged from the slide print cassette. When the slide conveying assembly slides to the slide loading position according to the conveying direction of the conveying guide assembly, the conveying stop block releases the limitation on the back surface of the slide at the moment, the slide printing box is right opposite to the slide stacking slide discharging position, the slide bin prepressing assembly pushes the slide stacking slide to slide towards the slide printing box, and the slide at the forefront end is loaded into the slide printing box; after the slide loading is completed, the slide transport assembly continues to slide as a whole toward the slide printing position.

The transport guide assembly is coupled to the slide transport assembly and controls a path of movement of the slide transport assembly. The conveying power assembly is used for providing power for the movement of the slide conveying assembly. The conveying guide assembly and the conveying power assembly can guide and transmit in a single or combined mode of screw-nut transmission, belt transmission, gear-rack transmission, linear guide rail transmission and the like. The power source of the power transmission assembly is a motor.

The conveying guide assembly comprises a sliding guide rail, a sliding block and a conveying support. The power transmission assembly comprises a motor for generating power and a power transmission device, including but not limited to gears, bearings, synchronous belts, synchronous belt fixing blocks and the like.

The sliding guide rail is fixedly connected to the conveying support part, plays a role in sliding guide and is used for controlling the sliding direction of the sliding block, so that the sliding direction of the slide conveying assembly is controlled. The sliding block is fixedly connected to the conveying fixing piece, is matched with the sliding guide rail and can slide along the sliding guide rail under the driving of power generated by the motor. The transport leg can also fixedly attach the entire slide transport unit to a support panel of the printing system.

The conveying power assembly can transmit power generated by the motor to the slide conveying assembly through a single or combined mode of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, gear and rack transmission, linear guide rail transmission and the like. For example, in certain embodiments, the power transmission device includes a motor gear, a transition gear shaft, a transition gear bearing, and a rack. The rack is fixedly connected and/or combined on the conveying fixing piece. The motor is fixed on the conveying support. The motor gear is arranged on a motor shaft of the motor, and the transition gear is arranged between the motor gear and the rack and transmits the power of the motor gear to the rack in a transition manner. The transition gear can comprise two sections of gears which are respectively meshed with the motor gear and the rack; the transition gear shaft is fixed on the conveying support member by adopting connection modes such as threads, pins and the like. The power generated by the motor is transmitted to the rack and the conveying fixing piece through the motor gear, the transition gear shaft and the transition gear bearing in sequence.

The slide conveying unit is also provided with an encoder which is arranged independently or arranged on or fused with the motor. The power output by the motor can be controlled by the encoder to control the speed of movement of the slide transport assembly, and in particular to control the speed of movement of the slide transport assembly to remain constant at the slide print position. In the slide printing position, the slide transport assembly, the slide and the ribbon all remain relatively stationary (the ribbon is adhered to the slide under pressure from the print head and print head unit), moving together at a constant speed of the slide transport assembly. The ink ribbon is also wound and unwound in the winding assembly and the unwinding assembly at the same speed as described above, and the speed of winding and unwinding the ink ribbon is kept constant.

The sliding conveying unit comprises a slideway piece and a box discharging piece. The slide transport unit receives the ejected slide at a slide out-of-cassette position of the slide transport unit and transports it to the slide receiving unit. The ejection member is adapted to push a position of a slide in the slide print cartridge to eject the slide from the print delivery unit into the slide member. The slide member includes a slide forming a slide transport path.

The slide way can be an arc slide way, and can slide in the slide way to the slide receiving unit by other power or only by adopting the speed and gravity when the slide is ejected. The slide way of the slide way piece is an arc-shaped surface similar to a slide, and the sliding friction resistance of the slide can be reduced by the surface, so that the slide can slide quickly. The surface of the slide contacting the slide is preferably hardened to increase wear resistance and longevity. The slide way piece can also comprise a supporting piece for supporting the slide way and sliding flanges with two sides for limiting the sliding direction of the slide glass in the slide way piece.

Printing positioning unit

The printing positioning unit is used for positioning the slide to be printed in the printing conveying unit and comprises a positioning wheel and a positioning wheel shaft, and the positioning wheel rotates around the positioning wheel shaft. The wheel surface of the positioning wheel is tangent to the conveying path of the slide printing box, is in contact with the slide and keeps a certain pressure, and when the slide in the box is conveyed, the positioning wheel rolls on the contact surface of the slide and keeps the slide positioned without sliding.

The printing positioning unit further comprises a positioning wheel core and a fixing pin. The positioning wheel is vulcanized or bonded and fixed on the positioning wheel core by materials such as rubber or resin, and the fixing pin keeps the positioning wheel and the positioning wheel core from rotating around a shaft on the positioning wheel shaft. The positioning wheel is connected with the positioning wheel shaft.

The print positioning unit further includes a positioning wheel swing assembly for controlling the positioning wheel to move toward and away from the transport path of the slide transport unit. When the slide is conveyed and printed, the positioning wheel swinging assembly controls the positioning wheel to be close to and contact with the slide, and generates and maintains certain pressure on the slide; when the slide is ejected from the slide print cartridge, the positioning wheel is controlled away from the slide to release pressure from the slide. The positioning wheel swing assembly can also adjust the swing stroke of the positioning wheel contacting the slide according to different specifications (especially different thicknesses) of the slide, so as to ensure that the positioning wheel contacts the slide and maintains certain pressure.

The positioning wheel swinging assembly consists of a swinging external member, a swinging central member and a swinging power member, wherein the swinging external member is connected with a positioning wheel shaft, the positioning wheel swinging assembly rotates around the swinging central member, and the swinging external member and the swinging power member are respectively positioned at two sides of a swinging fulcrum of the swinging central member. The swing external member is used for fixing the positioning wheel shaft and driving the positioning wheel to swing. The swinging sleeve member may include a pair of bearings fixed to the positioning wheel shaft for driving the positioning wheel to swing. The swing central piece is a swing fulcrum of the positioning wheel swing assembly. The swing center piece may include a bushing screw and a bushing, the bushing is tightly fitted in a bushing hole of the swing sleeve, and the bushing screw passes through an inner hole of the bushing and is fixedly mounted on a support panel of the system. The swing power piece provides driving force required by swing. The swinging power member may be a motor, a spring, etc., such as a tension spring. In some embodiments, the swinging power member includes a tension spring and a spring member, the spring being secured to the spring member at one end and the swinging kit member at the other end to provide the desired tension.

The printing positioning unit can also comprise a positioning wheel damping part which is used for providing certain damping for the rotation of the positioning wheel and ensuring the friction force between the positioning wheel and the slide in the box, so that random sliding cannot occur. The positioning wheel damping member may include a blade spring, a damping blade, and a blade. The damping sheet is made of high polymer material with low friction force, such as nylon, POM, PTFE and the like. The tabletting spring is arranged between the swinging sleeve and the damping sheet and provides a certain pressure; the pressing sheet is tightly attached to the other side surface of the damping sheet, the pre-pressing state of the pressing sheet spring is kept, and the pressing sheet spring does not slide relative to the positioning wheel shaft. When the positioning wheel shaft rotates along with the positioning wheel, the pressing sheet and the damping sheet also rotate along with the positioning wheel shaft, the swinging sleeve member is static, and the friction force between the damping sheet and the swinging sleeve member provides rotary damping. The damping of the positioning wheel ensures the friction between the positioning wheel and the slide in the box, which is beneficial to the positioning of the slide in the slide printing box without random relative sliding.

Print head unit

The printing head unit is a core component for printing on the markable area of the slide and comprises a printing head, a printing head supporting assembly, a printing head guide assembly, a printing head power assembly and a printing head correcting assembly. The ribbon is arranged between the printing head and the slide, and the printing head needs to keep a certain pre-pressure to press the ribbon on the slide during printing, so that the marking material of the ribbon can be adhered on the slide after the printing head locally heats the ribbon. The printhead is a common printhead component on the market, and the printhead is mounted on a printhead support assembly.

The print head support assembly is used for supporting a print head and has a corrector assembly aperture, an angle aperture and a support plate attachment end. The corrector assembly bore has a counterbore for mounting the printhead corrector assembly. The angular aperture is used to limit the angle at which the printhead can automatically correct. The supporting plate connecting end is used for fixedly connecting a sliding block fixing block of the printing head guide assembly.

The printing head guide assembly is connected with the printing head supporting assembly and controls the movement direction of the printing head supporting assembly. The printing head power assembly is used for providing motion power of the printing head supporting assembly. The printing head guide assembly and the printing head power assembly can be guided and driven in a single or combined mode of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, gear and rack transmission, linear guide rail transmission and the like. The power source of the printing head power assembly is a motor.

The printing head guide assembly may be provided with a sliding guide rail, a slider and a slider fixing block. The printhead power assembly may be provided with a motor, a motor gear and a rack push rod. The slide rail defines a print head movement direction. The sliding block is fixed on the sliding block fixing block, is matched with the sliding guide rail and slides on the sliding guide rail. The sliding block fixing block is used for fixing the sliding block and the rack push rod and is fixedly connected with the connecting end of the supporting plate of the printing head supporting component. The motor gear is arranged on a motor shaft of the motor. The motor may be provided with an encoder which may be motor controlled. The rack push rod is meshed with the motor gear to transmit the power of the motor gear to the sliding block fixing block in a transition mode.

The printhead corrector assembly is disposed within the corrector assembly aperture of the printhead support assembly and may be disposed between the printhead and the printhead support assembly. The printing head correcting assembly can allow the printing head to swing within a certain angle range under the pressure of the printing head power assembly after the printing head is contacted with the slide, so that the contact angle between the printing head and the slide is automatically corrected, the gap between the printing plane of the printing head and the surface of the slide is eliminated, and the printing quality is improved. The printing head correcting component can be made of materials such as a spring, a rubber elastic cushion and the like; a modified pivot and angle stop may also be included to allow small angular rotation of the printhead. In certain embodiments, a printhead corrector assembly includes a printhead mounting plate, a corrector end piece, a shim, an inner ring, a rubber ring, a gland, and a mounting hole. The print head is directly mounted on the print head mounting plate. The correcting end piece is a raised part on the printing head fixing plate. The inner ring is a hollow cylindrical part, the inner ring of the inner ring is sleeved on the correcting end part, and the surface of the outer ring is matched with the rubber ring. Gaskets are arranged between the printing head fixing plate and the correction assembly hole and between the pressing cover and the correction assembly hole; the gland is contacted with the correcting end piece, is compressed by a screw in the fixing hole and ensures a certain pressure. The gasket and the inner ring are made of high polymer materials with low friction force, such as nylon, POM, PTFE and the like; the rubber ring material adopts elastic rubber, silica gel and the like. The printing head fixing plate is also provided with an angle screw, and the protruding part is arranged in the angle hole to control the angle capable of automatically correcting.

The printing head unit can also be provided with an encoder, and the encoder can be arranged independently or arranged on the motor or integrated on the motor. The encoder may be used to control the speed of movement of the motor output to the print head support assembly and the pressure required during printing.

The print head unit may also be provided with an optical sensor for detecting the placement direction of the slide in the slide print cassette. The optical sensor recognizes the difference in reflected energy of light transmission between the markable and non-markable regions of the slide. The sensor is a reflection type photoelectric sensor or a combined transmission type photoelectric sensor, and the photoelectric sensor consists of a light source and a receiver.

Color tape unit

The ribbon unit provides ribbon required for printing and comprises a ribbon take-up assembly and a ribbon pay-off assembly which are used for controlling the ribbon take-up and pay-off.

The belt collecting assembly comprises a belt collecting wheel and a belt collecting power assembly. The take-up pulley is used for taking up or winding the ribbon. The ribbon take-up power assembly is used for providing a driving force for recovering the ribbon. The belt take-up power assembly can comprise a motor and a power transmission device, such as a belt take-up wheel shaft, a bearing fixing piece, a bearing inner ring fixing piece, a belt wheel gear, a transition gear shaft, a transition gear bearing, a motor gear and the like. The transition gear is arranged between the motor gear and the belt wheel gear and transmits the power of the motor gear to the belt wheel gear in a transition mode. The outer ring of the transition gear bearing is matched with a transition gear, and the inner ring of the transition gear bearing is matched with a transition gear shaft. The transition gear shaft can be fixed on a support panel of the printing system by adopting connection modes such as threads, pins and the like. The belt wheel gear and the belt take-up wheel shaft are connected in a matching way by threads, pins and the like. The inner ring of the bearing is tightly matched on the belt-retracting wheel shaft, and has no relative sliding between the belt-retracting wheel shaft and the belt-retracting wheel shaft, and the outer ring of the bearing is tightly matched on the bearing fixing piece, and has no relative sliding between the belt-retracting wheel shaft and the belt-retracting wheel shaft. The bearing inner ring fixing piece limits the axial sliding of the bearing inner ring. The take-up pulley can be fixed on the transition gear shaft by adopting connecting modes such as pins, buckles and the like.

the belt releasing assembly comprises a belt releasing wheel and a belt releasing power assembly. The unwinding wheel is used for releasing the ink ribbon to be printed. The ribbon unwinding power assembly is used for providing a driving force for controlling ribbon to be released. The belt releasing power assembly may include a motor and a power transmission device, such as a belt releasing wheel shaft, a bearing fixing member, a bearing inner ring fixing member, a belt wheel gear, a transition gear shaft, a transition gear bearing, a motor gear, etc. The transition gear is arranged between the motor gear and the belt wheel gear and transmits the power of the motor gear to the belt wheel gear in a transition mode. The outer ring of the transition gear bearing is matched with a transition gear, and the inner ring of the transition gear bearing is matched with a transition gear shaft. The transition gear shaft can be fixed on a support panel of the printing system by adopting connection modes such as threads, pins and the like. The belt wheel gear and the belt releasing wheel shaft are connected in a matching way by threads, pins and the like. The inner ring of the bearing is tightly matched on the belt wheel shaft without relative sliding between the inner ring and the belt wheel shaft, and the outer ring of the bearing is tightly matched on the bearing fixing piece without relative sliding between the inner ring and the belt wheel shaft. The bearing inner ring fixing piece limits the axial sliding of the bearing inner ring. The belt releasing wheel can be fixed on the transition gear shaft by adopting connecting modes such as pins, buckles and the like.

The ribbon take-up power assembly and the ribbon release power assembly are matched with each other, when printing is carried out, the printing head of the printing head unit presses the ribbon on the glass slide, the glass slide conveying assembly, the glass slide and the ribbon move at the same speed, and the ribbon release power assembly of the ribbon release assembly generates a torque opposite to the movement direction of the ribbon to form a ribbon release damping, so that the ribbon of the ribbon release part is always kept in a ribbon straightening state; the ribbon take-up power component of the ribbon take-up component generates a torque which is the same as the movement direction of the ribbon to form the tension of the ribbon take-up, thereby ensuring that the ribbon take-up part always keeps the ribbon straightening state. The two sections of the color ribbons are wound and unwound to be straightened, so that the color ribbons are prevented from being bent or stacked during printing, and the printing quality is improved.

the color ribbon is wound on the color ribbon coil, the color ribbon coil provided with the color ribbon is arranged on or fused with the take-up wheel and the unreeling wheel of the unreeling component, the color ribbon is a common carbon ribbon on the market, comprises a wax-based carbon ribbon, a mixed-based carbon ribbon, a resin-based carbon ribbon and the like, and is preferably a resin-based carbon ribbon with better solvent resistance.

The ribbon unit can also be provided with a ribbon winding guide component and a ribbon releasing guide component which are respectively used for controlling a ribbon transmission path during ribbon winding and a ribbon releasing, so that the carbon ribbon is closer to the surface of the glass slide when the glass slide is printed, the stroke of the printing head for pushing the ribbon to the printing position is reduced, and the printing efficiency is improved.

The ribbon unit may also be provided with an encoder, which may be provided separately, or may be mounted on the motor, or may be incorporated into the motor. The encoder is used for controlling motors of the belt winding power assembly and the belt unwinding power assembly. The ribbon unit can automatically judge the number of the ribbons on the ribbon unwinding assembly and automatically judge whether the ribbons are disconnected, which can be realized by an encoder. Specifically, the encoder can calculate the thickness radius of the ribbon on the current ribbon unwinding assembly by reading the angular velocity value, and automatically judge the number of the ribbons on the ribbon unwinding assembly. When the ribbon is not thick enough, the user is prompted to change the ribbon on a man-machine exchange interface of the system general control unit (formula 1). The encoder may automatically determine whether the ribbon is broken based on a sudden change in the angular velocity of the take-up and/or pay-off assemblies.

Equation 1:

L represents an arc length value, mm, namely a printing length value of the ribbon, and is a fixed value after the equipment is set;

Representing the degree of the angle arc of the circle center;

R represents the ribbon radius value, mm.

Film collecting unit

The film collecting unit comprises a film collecting bin assembly. The sheet collecting bin assembly comprises a sheet collecting bin and a structural member forming the sheet collecting bin, and a space capable of containing a plurality of slides is arranged in the sheet collecting bin.

The slide collecting bin assembly is also provided with a slide collecting stop block for positioning and limiting the movement of the slide and assisting in collecting the slide. When the slide is conveyed to the slide receiving unit by the slide conveying unit of the slide conveying unit, the slide receiving stop block positions one side of the slide and the slide is received in the slide receiving bin.

The slide collecting bin assembly can also be provided with a slide collecting push block assembly, a slide collecting guide assembly and a slide collecting power assembly which are used for bearing slides in the slide collecting bin. The sheet receiving guide assembly is connected with the sheet receiving push block assembly and controls the movement direction of the sheet receiving push block assembly; the sheet collecting power assembly is used for providing power for movement of the sheet collecting push block assembly. The slide receiving guide assembly and the slide receiving power assembly control the movement direction and power of the slide receiving push block assembly so as to ensure that the slide receiving bin can contain a larger number of slides. The sheet collecting guide assembly and the sheet collecting power assembly can adopt single or combined modes of screw-nut transmission, belt transmission, gear-rack transmission, linear guide rail transmission and the like for guiding and transmission. The power source of the sheet collecting power assembly is a motor. The piece collecting guide assembly can comprise a sliding rail and a sliding sleeve, and the sliding rail is fixed on the bottom surface of the piece collecting bin. The sheet collecting power assembly can comprise a screw rod, a screw rod nut and a motor. The sheet-collecting push block assembly can comprise a push sheet carrying surface and positioning openings on two sides, wherein a sliding sleeve is tightly arranged in the positioning opening on one side, and a screw rod nut is fixedly connected in the positioning opening on the other side. The screw rod is connected or combined on the motor shaft, and the screw rod nut is matched with the screw rod. When the motor drives the screw rod to rotate, the screw rod nut drives the sheet collecting push block assembly to slide in the guiding direction of the sheet collecting guiding assembly.

The film collecting unit can also be provided with an encoder, and the encoder can be arranged independently, or arranged on the motor, or fused on the motor. The encoder is used for directly controlling the driving of the motor of the film collecting unit.

System general control unit

The system master control unit is used for controlling the slide printing system to operate according to a preset scheme, implementing the functions of real-time monitoring, data acquisition and effective feedback, and comprises a control circuit and user software. The control system of the system master control unit can also be set to preset standard technical index numerical values and corresponding processing schemes for users, and the system can automatically select and execute the processing schemes according to the sensor feedback and the real-time data of the driver/encoder information, so that the culture is automatic and intelligent. In certain embodiments, the system general control unit includes a display for controlling the operation of the slide printing system according to a predetermined set scheme and displaying the operation state of the system in real time, and the display can also directly provide an operation interface for a user. In some embodiments, the system master control unit further comprises a camera/scanner for capturing data input for recording external information.

Thus, in certain embodiments, the slide printing system herein comprises a slide out unit, a slide transport unit, a print head unit, a print positioning unit, a ribbon unit, and a slide take-up unit, as well as a system overhead control unit that monitors and controls each of the aforementioned units.

examples

FIGS. 1a and 1b show one embodiment of a patented slide printing system of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the slide printing system of the present invention includes a sheet discharging unit 2, a slide conveying unit (including a printing conveying unit 3 and a slide conveying unit 4), a printing positioning unit 5, a print head unit 6, a ribbon unit 7, and a sheet collecting unit 8, where M denotes a driving power assembly of each of the above units. . The slide 1 is placed in the discharge unit 2. The slide printing system further includes a system overall control unit 9 that monitors and controls the above-described units. These units may be arranged, mounted or housed within the housing of the support portion of the system or the rack 10 (including the support panel 10A and the base plate 10B) and may be mounted and secured using conventional techniques.

FIG. 2 shows a glass slide 1, typically made of glass, with standard dimensions of 76.2mm long, 25.4mm wide, 0.8-1.0 mm thick, with a small amount of error in the slide dimensions over a certain range. The slide 1 has a markable side and a back side thereof, the markable side having a markable region 101 and a carrier region 102, the markable region 101 of the slide 1 being generally a frosted glass side or a specially markable coating.

As shown in fig. 6, the slide discharging unit 2 includes a slide magazine assembly 20, a slide magazine prepressing assembly 21, a prepressing guide assembly 22, a prepressing power assembly 23, a front end connector 25, and a rear end connector 26. The slide magazine assembly 20 is used to store slides 1 to be printed and to allow the stored slides 1 to slide collectively within the magazine. The interior of the slide bin assembly 20 is provided with a space for storing the slide 1, the slide 1 is stacked laterally, namely, the marked surface or the back surface of the slide 1 is parallel to the gravity direction of the slide 1 or forms a certain small angle with the gravity direction of the slide 1, and the slide is placed in the slide bin assembly 20, and the slide placing direction ensures that the gravity direction of the slide 1 is parallel to the slide taking direction or forms a certain small angle with the slide taking direction, such as 0-45 degrees, preferably 0-30 degrees, and more preferably about 10 degrees. Typically, the slide magazine assembly 20 holds at least 150 slides 1. The front end connecting piece 25 is used for connecting the sheet discharging unit 2 and the slide conveying unit 3; the rear end connector 26 is used to fix the ejection unit 2 to the support panel 10A (fig. 4).

The slide magazine assembly 20 is comprised of front, rear, left, right, and bottom five-sided magazine components, referred to as front magazine component 204, rear magazine component 203, left magazine component 201, right magazine component 202, and bottom magazine component 200, respectively. The bottom side bin member 200 carries the bottom sides of the slides 1 placed side by side; the left bin part 201 and the right bin part 202 assist in positioning the end faces of the two sides of the side laminated slide 1; the front chamber member 204 includes left and right pieces for respectively connecting the left chamber member 201 and the right chamber member 202, providing a slide exit and limiting the position of the slide 1 at the time of discharge. Between the opposing faces of the left 201 and right 202 magazine members are slide access slots for sliding the slide transport assembly. Slide magazine subassembly 20 can keep the slope of certain small angle, and the side of being convenient for is folded the slide and is utilized the gravity of self to go out the piece, and inclination can be between 0 ~ 45, preferably 0 ~ 30, more preferably about 10. The slide magazine assembly 20 also includes a barrier 205 for blocking dust and debris.

A slide sliding aid 24 can be arranged in the slide magazine assembly 20 for reducing the sliding frictional resistance of the slide 1 and facilitating the slide discharge of the side-stacked slide 1. The slide sliding aid 24 includes two bottom rails 242 provided on the bottom tray member 200, a left rail 241 provided on the left tray member 201, and a right rail 243 provided on the right tray member 202. The bottom rail 242 carries the intra-bay slide 1, and the left 241 and right 243 rails confine the slide 1 on both sides. Each rail of the slide sliding aid 24 may be a cylindrical rail, the surface of which contacting the slide is hardened to increase wear resistance and service life.

the slide magazine preload assembly 21 includes a preload push block 210 for limiting the positioning of the side stack 1 markable area and maintaining a pressure on that face. The slide glass 1 inside the chamber slides to the supporting surface of the slide glass transmission component 3 under the action of the slide glass chamber prepressing component 21, the markable area is contacted with the slide glass chamber prepressing component 21, the pressure of the slide glass chamber prepressing component 21 presses and attaches the slide glass 1 on the conveying stop block 34 of the slide glass transmission component 3, and the slide glass 1 is always kept in a pressing state. When the foremost slide is discharged, the side-stacked slide 1 is pushed by the slide magazine prepressing assembly 21 to move forward by a distance of one slide in parallel as a whole.

the prepressing guide assembly 22 is connected with the slide bin prepressing assembly 21 and controls the movement direction of the slide bin assembly 20; the prepressing power assembly 23 is used for providing power for the movement of the slide bin prepressing assembly 21. The pre-pressing guide assembly 22 includes a sliding guide 220, a slider 221 and a slider connecting block 222. The pre-pressing power assembly 23 includes a motor 230 and a driving force transmitting means, and includes a motor gear 231, a transition gear 232, a transition gear shaft 232a, a transition gear bearing 232b, a belt gear 233, a belt gear shaft 233a, a belt gear bearing 233b, a main belt pulley 234, a sub belt pulley 235, a sub belt pulley shaft 235a, a sub belt pulley bearing 235b, a timing belt 236, and a timing belt fixing block 237.

The sliding guide 220 is mounted on the right cartridge member 202 and cooperates with the slider 221. The sliding block connecting block 222 not only fixes the sliding block 221, but also is connected with the pre-pressing push block 210; the slider connecting block 222 is matched with the timing belt fixing block 237, and fixes and tightly presses the timing belt 236 between the slider connecting block and the timing belt fixing block. Two ends of the synchronous belt 236 are fixed between the main step pulley 234 and the auxiliary step pulley 235, the auxiliary step pulley 235 is fixed on the auxiliary step pulley shaft 235a, the bearing inner ring of the auxiliary step pulley bearing 235b is matched with the auxiliary step pulley shaft 235a, and the bearing outer ring is matched with the support panel 10A; the main belt wheel 234 and the belt gear 233 are fixed on the belt gear shaft 233a, the inner ring of the bearing 233b of the belt gear is fitted to the belt gear shaft 233a, and the outer ring of the bearing is fitted to the support panel 10A; the belt gear 233 is fixed to the belt gear shaft 233a by a pin key or the like. The belt gear 233 receives a driving force and rotates together with the belt gear shaft 233a and the main belt pulley 234.

A motor gear 231 is assembled on a motor shaft of the motor 230, and the motor is provided with an encoder 2301 capable of controlling the motor; the transition gear 232 is arranged between the motor gear 231 and the belt gear shaft 233a, and transmits the power of the motor gear 231 to the belt gear 233 in a transition manner, and the transition gear 232 comprises two sections of gears which are respectively meshed with the motor gear 231 and the belt gear shaft 233 a; the transition gear 232 is matched with the outer ring of the transition gear bearing 232 b; the transition gear shaft 232a is fitted to an inner race of the transition gear bearing 232b, and the transition gear shaft 232a is fixed to the support panel 10A by means of connection means such as a screw, a pin, and the like.

The sheet discharging unit 2 further comprises a temperature control unit 27 mounted on the bottom side chamber member 200 for temperature-rising preheating of the slide glass in the chamber to raise the temperature of the slide glass 1 during printing. The temperature control unit 27 can adopt a heating plate, a semiconductor and the like, and the system master control unit 9 monitors the temperature. Also included in the slide magazine assembly 20 is an optical sensor 28 mounted on the front side magazine member 204 for detecting an incorrect orientation of the slide 1 placement within the magazine.

The slide conveying unit includes a print conveying unit 3 and a slide conveying unit 4. The printing and conveying unit 3 is used for loading the slide glass 1 from the sheet discharging unit 2 and conveying the slide glass 1 before and during printing; the slide transport unit 4 is used to connect the print transport unit 3 and the slide receiving unit 8, and transports the slide 1 loaded in the print transport unit 3 into the slide receiving unit 8.

As shown in fig. 7, the print delivery unit 3 includes a slide delivery assembly 31, a delivery guide assembly 32, and a delivery power assembly 33. The print conveying unit 3 loads the slide glass 1 from the slide magazine assembly 20 of the ejection unit 2 and conveys the slide glass 1 to a position where printing is required. The slide transport assembly 31 is a carrier for loading and transporting slides 1 and includes a slide print cassette 30 for directly carrying slides 1 to be printed and a transport fixture 310. The direction in which the slide faces the print head 60 in the slide print cartridge 30 is marked with a field 101. The slide print cartridge 30 is formed on the transport fixture 310.

The slide transport assembly 31 slides on a transport path of the transport guide assembly 32 that includes three specific positions, a slide loading position, a slide printing position, and a slide out of the cassette position. The slide loading position is a position where the slide 1 enters the slide print cassette 30 from the slide discharge unit 2; the slide printing position is a position where the slide 1 starts printing under the print head unit 6; the slide out-of-cassette position is a position where the slide 1 is detached from the slide print cassette 30. The print conveying unit 3 further includes a conveying stopper 34 fixed to the conveying fixture 310. A transport stop 34 is provided above the slide print cartridge 30 for locating and restraining the back side of the slides 1 in the slide magazine assembly 20, which cooperates with the slide magazine preload assembly 21 to carry the back and markable side of the slides 1 in the slide magazine assembly 20, respectively.

The transport guide assembly 32 is coupled to the slide transport assembly 31 and controls the direction of movement of the slide transport assembly 31. The transport power assembly 33 is used to provide power for movement of the slide transport assembly 31. The conveyance guide assembly 32 includes a slide rail 320, a slider 321, and a conveyance branch 35. The transmission power assembly 33 includes a motor 330, a motor gear 331, a transition gear 332, a transition gear shaft 332a, a transition gear bearing 332b, and a rack 333. The rack 333 and the slider 321 are fixed to the conveyance fixture 310.

The transport support 35 is fixed to the support panel 10A and connected to the ejection unit 2 by the front end connector 25. The conveying support 35 may be fixed with not only the motor 330 but also the slide rail 320. The slide rail 320 is engaged with the slider 321 to slide up and down. A motor gear 331 is assembled on a motor shaft of the motor 330, and the motor is provided with an encoder 3301 capable of controlling the motor; the transition gear 332 is positioned between the motor gear 331 and the rack 333, and is used for transitionally transmitting the power of the motor gear 331 to the rack 333, and the transition gear 332 comprises two sections of gears which are respectively kept in gear engagement with the motor gear 331 and the rack 333; the transition gear 332 is matched with the outer ring of the transition gear bearing 332 b; the transition gear shaft 332a is matched with the inner ring of the transition gear bearing 332b, and the transition gear shaft 332a is fixed on the conveying support 35 by adopting connection modes such as threads, pins and the like. The rack 333 is mounted on the slide transport assembly 31 for common up and down sliding movement along the transport path under a driving force.

the transport guide assembly 32 has a transport direction parallel to the direction in which the slide 1 is placed, and the transport block 34 is disposed with the slide print cassette 30 on the side of the slide transport assembly 31 that abuts the slide. When the slide is not taken, the conveying stop block 34 is always tightly attached to the back surface of the slide 1 to stop the slide 1 from entering the slide printing box 30; when taking the slide, when the slide conveying assembly 31 slides to the slide loading position 11 according to the conveying direction, the conveying stop block 34 moves away from the position where the slide conveying assembly is located, the slide conveying stop block is not in contact with the slide 1, the limitation on the back surface of the slide 1 is removed, the complete space of the slide printing box 30 is exposed, the space is right opposite to the slide discharging position of the side-stacked slide 1, the slide bin prepressing assembly 21 pushes the side-stacked slide 1 to slide towards the slide printing box 30, and the slide 1 at the front end is loaded into the slide printing box 30 to finish the slide discharging; the slide transport assembly is then slid in its entirety toward the slide print position, i.e., in the opposite direction. The slide feed assembly 31 moves at a constant speed and the take-up assembly 72 and the take-off assembly 71 also take up the ink ribbon 70 at the same constant speed, keeping the slide feed assembly 31, the slide 1 and the ink ribbon 70 relatively stationary at the slide printing position so that at this position the ink ribbon 70 adheres to the slide 1 under the pressure of the print head 60 and the print head unit 6.

As shown in fig. 8, the slide conveying unit 4 includes a chute member 40 and a magazine-out member 41. The slide conveying unit 4 is disposed between the print conveying unit 3 and the slide receiving unit 8, and ejects and conveys the slide 1, on which printing is completed at the slide printing position 12, from the slide printer cassette 30 to the slide receiving unit 8. The ejection member 41 is used to push the slide 1 in the slide print cassette 30, so that the slide 1 is ejected from the slide print cassette 30 into the slide transport unit 4. The chute member 40 comprises a chute forming a sliding transport path. The slide member 40 further includes a support 44 for supporting the slide and left and right slide ribs 42, 43 on both sides for limiting the sliding direction of the slide 1 within the slide member. The slide member 40 is an arc-shaped slide similar to a slide, and slides in the slide 40 into the slide receiving unit 8 depending on the speed and gravity when the slide 1 is ejected. The surface of the slide member 40 may be hardened to provide less frictional resistance to slide movement, increased wear resistance, and increased durability. The slide conveying unit 4 is fixed to the base plate 10B (fig. 4).

As shown in fig. 11 and 12, the printing positioning unit 5 includes a positioning wheel 50 and a positioning wheel shaft 51, and the positioning wheel 50 rotates around the positioning wheel shaft 51 for positioning the slide 1 to be printed in the printing delivery unit 3. The positioning wheel 50 further comprises a positioning wheel core 501 and a fixing pin 502, the positioning wheel 50 is vulcanized or bonded and fixed on the positioning wheel core 501 by adopting materials such as rubber or resin, and the fixing pin 502 keeps the positioning wheel 50 and the positioning wheel core 501 from rotating around the positioning wheel shaft 51. The face of the positioning wheel 50 is tangential to the path of travel of the slides 1 in the slide print cartridge 30, and is in contact with and maintains a pressure on the slides 1. The positioning wheel 50 rolls on the slide 1 contact surface while the slide 1 in the slide print cassette 30 is being transported, and keeps the slide 1 positioned without slipping.

The print positioning unit 5 also includes a positioning wheel swing assembly 52 for controlling the positioning wheel 50 towards and away from the transport path. The positioning wheel swing component 52 is close to the slide 1 when the slide printing box 30 carries and prints the slide, and controls the positioning wheel 50 to generate and maintain a certain pressure on the slide; the positioning wheel 50 is controlled to move away from the slide and to release pressure from the slide at the slide out of the cassette position. The positioning wheel swing assembly 52 can also adjust the swing stroke of the contact slide 1 according to different specifications (especially different thicknesses) of the slide 1, so as to ensure that the positioning wheel 50 is in contact with the slide 1 and maintains a certain pressure, and is suitable for printing slides with multiple specifications.

The positioning wheel swing assembly 52 comprises a swing sleeve 520 connected with a positioning wheel shaft, a swing central piece 53 and a swing power piece 54, the positioning wheel swing assembly 52 rotates around the swing central piece 53, and the swing sleeve 520 and the swing power piece 54 are respectively positioned at two sides of a swing fulcrum of the swing central piece 53. The swing assembly 520 is fixed on the positioning wheel shaft 51 by a pair of bearings 520a and drives the positioning wheel 50 to swing; the swing center 53 is a swing fulcrum of the positioning wheel swing assembly 52, and includes a bushing screw 530 and a bushing 531, the bushing 531 is tightly fitted in a bushing hole of the swing sleeve 520, and the bushing screw 530 passes through an inner hole of the bushing 531 and is fixedly mounted on the support panel 10A. The swing power member 54 provides a driving force required for swing, and includes a tension spring 540 (fig. 11) and a spring member 541 (fig. 5), wherein the tension spring 540 is fixed to the spring member 541 at one end and fixed to the swing set member 520 at the other end to provide a required tension. The print positioning unit 5 further comprises a positioning wheel damping member for providing a certain damping of the rotation of the positioning wheel. The friction between the positioning wheel and the slide 1 in the slide print cartridge 30 is ensured, and the mutual random sliding can not occur. The printing and positioning unit 5 comprises a pressing spring 523, a damping sheet 521 and a pressing sheet 522, wherein the damping sheet 521 is made of a high polymer material with low friction force, such as nylon, POM, PTFE and the like, the pressing spring 523 is arranged between the swinging sleeve 520 and the damping sheet 521 and provides a certain pre-pressure; the pad 522 remains pre-stressed and does not slip relative to the retainer hub 51. When the positioning axle 51 rotates, the pressing piece 522 and the damping piece 521 also rotate along with the positioning axle 51, while the swinging sleeve 520 is stationary, and the friction between the damping piece 521 and the swinging sleeve 520 provides the rotational damping. The positioning wheel damping ensures friction between the positioning wheel 50 and the slide 1 in the slide print cartridge 30, facilitating positioning of the slide 1 in the slide print cartridge 30 without random slippage.

As shown in fig. 9 and 10, printhead unit 6 includes a printhead 60, a printhead support assembly 61, a printhead guide assembly 62, a printhead power assembly 63, and a printhead correction assembly 64. The print head 60 is a core component for printing on the markable area 101 of the slide 1. The ribbon 70 is located between the print head 60 and the slide 1, and the print head 60 needs to keep a certain pressure to press the ribbon 70 on the slide 1 during printing, so as to ensure that the marking material of the ribbon adheres to the slide 1 after the print head heats the ribbon locally. The printhead 60 may be a conventional printhead.

The printhead support assembly 61 supports the printhead 60. Printhead support assembly 61 has a corrector assembly aperture 610, an angled aperture 611, and a support plate attachment end 612, corrector assembly aperture 610 having a counterbore for mounting printhead corrector assembly 64; the angle hole 611 is used to limit the angle at which the print head 60 can be automatically corrected; the supporting plate connecting end 612 is used for fixedly connecting the slider fixing block 622.

The printing head correcting assembly 64 is arranged between the printing head 60 and the printing head supporting assembly 61, and after the printing head 60 is allowed to contact with the slide glass 1, the printing head swings within a certain angle range under the pressure of the printing head power assembly 63, so that the contact angle with the slide glass 1 is automatically corrected, the gap between the printing plane of the printing head and the surface of the slide glass 1 is eliminated, and the printing quality is improved. Printhead corrector assembly 64 includes printhead mounting plate 640, corrector end piece 641, shim 642, inner ring 643, rubber ring 644, gland 645, and mounting holes 646. The print head 60 is directly mounted on the print head fixing plate 640; the printhead mounting plate 640 also has a raised revision end piece 641 thereon; inner ring 643 is a hollow cylindrical member with an inner ring fitting over correction end piece 641 and an outer ring surface mating with rubber ring 644; gaskets 642 are arranged between the printing head fixing plate 640 and the correction assembly hole 610 and between the gland 645 and the correction assembly hole 610; the gland 645 is in contact with the correction end piece 641, is compressed by the screw in the fixing hole 646, and guarantees a certain pressure. The gasket 642 and the inner ring 643 are made of high polymer materials with low friction force, such as nylon, POM, PTFE and the like; the rubber ring 644 is made of elastic rubber, silica gel, etc. The print head fixing plate 640 is further provided with angle screws 647, which protrude in the angle holes 611, controlling the automatically modifiable angle.

printhead guide assembly 62 is coupled to printhead support assembly 61 and controls the direction of movement of printhead support assembly 61. Printhead power assembly 63 is used to provide power for movement of printhead support assembly 61. The head guide assembly 62 includes a slide rail 620, a slider 621, and a slider fixing block 622. Printhead power assembly 63 includes a motor 630, a motor gear 631, and a rack push rod 632. The sliding guide 620 is matched with the sliding block 621 for sliding; the slider fixing block 622 can be used to fix the slider 621 and the rack push rod 632, and can also be fixedly connected with the supporting board connecting end 612. A motor gear 631 is arranged on a motor shaft of the motor 630, and the motor is provided with an encoder 6301 capable of controlling the motor; the rack push rod 632 keeps gear engagement with the motor gear 631, and transfers the power of the motor gear 631 to the slider fixing block 622 in a transition manner.

The head unit 6 further includes an optical sensor 65 mounted on the head support assembly 61 for detecting whether the slide 1 is placed in the slide print cassette 1 in the wrong orientation before the slide 1 is printed. The optical sensor recognizes the difference in reflected energy of light transmission between markable and non-markable regions in the slide 1. The sensor may be a commercially available optical sensor.

As shown in fig. 3, 4, 5 and 13, the ink ribbon unit 7 includes an ink ribbon 70, a ribbon unwinding assembly 71 and a ribbon winding assembly 72 for controlling the unwinding and winding of the ink ribbon 70. The ink ribbon 70 is wound around a ribbon roll, and the ribbon roll with the ink ribbon mounted thereon is mounted on a ribbon feeding assembly 71 for feeding the ink ribbon 70 to a slide printing position; the collected ink ribbon roll 721a of the ink ribbon 70 is placed on a take-up roll, and the printed ink ribbon 70 is collected. The color ribbon 70 may be a commercially available ribbon, including a wax-based ribbon, a mixed-based ribbon, a resin-based ribbon, and the like, and is preferably a resin-based ribbon having high solvent resistance.

The ribbon unit 7 may include a ribbon unwinding guide assembly 73 and a ribbon winding guide assembly 74, which are respectively used to control a ribbon unwinding and ribbon winding path, so that the ribbon 70 is closer to the surface of the slide 1 at the slide printing position, the stroke of the print head 60 pushing the ribbon 70 to the printing position is reduced, and the printing efficiency is improved.

in fig. 13, taking the tape unwinding assembly 71 as an example, the tape unwinding assembly 71 includes an ink ribbon 70, a tape unwinding wheel 711, a tape unwinding wheel shaft 711a, a bearing fixing member 712, a bearing 713, a bearing inner ring fixing member 714, a pulley gear 715, a transition gear 716, a transition gear shaft 716a, a transition gear bearing 716b, a motor gear 717, a tape unwinding motor 718, and a motor encoder 7180.

The belt collecting assembly 72 and the belt releasing assembly 71 are consistent in structural components. As shown in fig. 3, 4 and 5, the take-up assembly 72 includes an ink ribbon 70, a take-up pulley 721, a take-up pulley shaft 721a, a bearing mount 722, a bearing 723, a bearing inner race mount 724, a take-up pulley gear 725, a transition gear 726, a transition gear shaft 726a, a transition gear bearing 726b, a motor gear 727, a take-up motor 728 and a motor encoder 7280.

a motor shaft of the tape releasing motor 718 is provided with a motor gear 717, and the motor is provided with an encoder 7180 capable of controlling the motor; the transition gear 716 is positioned between the motor gear 717 and the belt wheel 715, and transmits the power of the motor gear 717 to the belt wheel 715 in a transition way; the outer ring of the transition gear bearing 716b is matched with the transition gear 716, and the inner ring is matched with the transition gear shaft 716 a; the transition gear shaft 716a is fixed on the support panel 10A by adopting connection modes such as threads, pins and the like; the belt wheel gear 715 is matched and connected with the belt wheel releasing shaft 711a by pins and the like; the inner ring of the bearing 713 is tightly matched on the belt wheel placing shaft 711a and has no relative sliding between the two, and the outer ring of the bearing 713 is tightly matched on the bearing fixing piece 712 and has no relative sliding between the two; bearing inner race anchor 714 limits axial sliding of the inner race of bearing 713; the ink ribbon 70 is an ink ribbon on the ribbon unwinding assembly 71, the ribbon unwinding wheel 711 is an ink ribbon wheel of the ink ribbon 70, and the ribbon unwinding wheel 711 is fixed on the transition gear shaft 716a by adopting a connection mode such as a pin, a buckle and the like.

The tape releasing assembly 71 and the tape winding assembly 72 are matched with each other, when printing is carried out, the printing head 60 of the printing head unit 6 presses the ink ribbon 70 on the slide 1, the slide conveying assembly 31, the slide 1 and the ink ribbon 70 move at the same speed, and the tape releasing motor 718 of the tape releasing assembly 71 generates a torque opposite to the moving direction of the ink ribbon 70 to form tape releasing damping, so that the ink ribbon 70 of the tape releasing part is always kept in an ink ribbon straightening state; the take-up motor 728 of the take-up assembly 72 generates a torque in the same direction as the ink ribbon 70, creating a take-up tension, thereby ensuring that the take-up section is always maintained with the ink ribbon 70 straightened. The two sections of ribbon are taken up and down and straightened, so that the ribbon 70 is prevented from being bent or stacked during printing, and the printing quality is improved.

The motor encoder 7180 is a motor that controls the tape unwind assembly 71 and the tape wind-up assembly 72. The ribbon unit 7 can automatically determine the number of the ribbons 70 on the ribbon releasing assembly 71, the encoder calculates the thickness radius of the ribbon 70 on the current ribbon releasing assembly 71 by reading the angular velocity value, and prompts the user to replace the ribbon on the man-machine interface of the system main control unit 9 when the ribbon thickness is not enough. The ink ribbon unit 7 may also automatically determine whether the ink ribbon is disconnected, by each encoder, based on an abrupt change in the angular velocity of the unwind assembly 71 and/or the wind-up assembly 72.

As shown in fig. 3, 4, 5 and 8, the take-up unit 8 includes a take-up magazine assembly 80. The slide collecting bin assembly 80 comprises a slide collecting bin and structural members forming the slide collecting bin, namely peripheral outer wall members, and a space capable of containing a plurality of slides 1 is arranged in the slide collecting bin. The take-up magazine assembly 80 also includes take-up stops 81 for positioning to limit movement of the slides 1 and to assist in taking up the slides. When the slide 1 is conveyed to the slide receiving unit 8 by the slide conveying unit 4, the slide receiving stopper 81 positions one side of the slide 1 and stores the slide in the slide receiving chamber.

Figure 14 shows another embodiment of the slide receiving unit 8 that may be capable of holding a large number of slides 1. The sheet collecting unit 8 comprises a sheet collecting bin assembly 80, a sheet collecting stop 81, a sheet collecting push block assembly 82, a sheet collecting guide assembly 83 and a sheet collecting power assembly 84. The film collecting guide component 83 comprises a slide rail 830 and a slide sleeve 831, and the slide rail 830 is fixed on the bottom surface of the film collecting bin; the sheet-receiving power assembly 84 comprises a lead screw 842, a lead screw nut 841 and a motor 840. The slide receiving and pushing block assembly 82 is used for bearing a slide 1 and comprises a slide pushing and loading surface 820 and positioning ports 821 and 822 at two sides; a sliding sleeve 831 is tightly arranged in the positioning opening 821 at one side and slides up and down on the fixed sliding rail 830; a lead screw nut 841 is fixedly connected in the positioning hole 822 on the other side. The lead screw 842 is connected or coupled to a crankshaft of the motor 840, and the lead screw nut 841 is engaged with the lead screw 842. When the motor 840 drives the lead screw 842 to rotate, the lead screw nut 841 drives the sheet-receiving pushing block assembly 82 to slide in the guiding direction of the sheet-receiving guiding assembly 83. The lead screw motor 840 is provided with an encoder 8400 which can perform motor control.

The system master control unit 9 is used for controlling the slide printing system to operate according to a preset scheme, implementing the functions of real-time monitoring, data acquisition and effective feedback, and comprises a control circuit and user software, wherein the system monitors the printing process through a sensor, acquires signals fed back by a motor encoder, and analyzes and displays the real-time operating state of the system. The control system of the system master control unit 9 can also be set to preset standard technical index values and corresponding processing schemes for users, and the system can automatically select and execute the processing schemes according to the sensor feedback and the real-time data of the encoder information, so that the cultivation is automated and intelligent.

The system total control unit 9 may include a display for controlling the slide printing system to operate in accordance with a predetermined set scheme and displaying the operation state of the system in real time. The display may also provide an operator interface directly to the user. The system total control unit 9 may further include a camera 91 for shooting data input for recording external information.

Specific examples

The glass slide 1 is made of glass, and the markable area 101 is ground glass. The color tape 70 is a resin-based carbon tape having good solvent resistance. A plurality of slides 1 have been placed in the slide magazine assembly 20 and the power assembly of each unit returns the system to the initial state.

When the preset printing is carried out, the motor 230 in the slide discharging unit 2 drives the slide magazine pre-pressing assembly 21 to move from the initial zero position to press the slide 1, at the moment, the encoder 2301 of the motor 230 records the distance from the initial zero position to the pressing position of the analysis motor 230, and the number of the slides 1 in the current slide magazine assembly 20 is calculated; and the slide discharging unit 2 maintains a constant pressure on the slide magazine preloading assembly 21. At this time, the temperature control unit 27 on the bottom chamber member 200 warms up and preheats the slide glass 1 in the chamber, and raises the temperature of the slide glass 1 at the time of printing. The optical sensor 28 on the front side chamber member 204 preliminarily detects whether the direction of placing the slide 1 in the chamber is wrong, and if so, the user is reminded. The camera 91 records data input of external information.

Before printing is started, when the motor 330 of the conveying power assembly 33 of the printing and conveying unit 3 drives the slide conveying assembly 31 to move from the zero position to the slide loading position 11 according to the conveying direction, at this time, the conveying stop block 34 releases the limitation on the back surface of the slide 1, the slide printing box 30 is right opposite to the sheet discharging position of the slide 1 stacked on the side, the slide cabin prepressing assembly 21 pushes the slide 1 stacked on the side to slide towards the slide printing box 30, and the slide 1 at the foremost end is loaded into the slide printing box 30; after the slide 1 is loaded, the slide transport unit 31 is slid to the slide printing position. When the slide print cassette 30 is no longer facing the ejection position of the stacked slide 1, the transport block 34 resumes the restricting positioning of the back surface of the slide 1. The ribbon unwinding assembly 71 and the ribbon winding assembly 72 of the ink ribbon unit 7 cooperate to adjust the ink ribbon 70; the head power assembly 63 of the head unit 6 is driven to the printing standby position.

In the slide printing position, the optical sensor 65 on the print head supporting assembly 61 first detects whether the slide 1 in the slide printing cassette 30 is placed in the wrong direction, and if so, the slide 1 is ejected by moving to the slide discharging position. After the detection is correct, the printing head 60 moves towards the markable area 101 of the slide 1 and keeps a certain pressure to press the ink ribbon 70 on the markable area 101 of the slide 1; the printing head correction assembly 64 swings in a certain angle range under pressure, automatically corrects the contact angle of the printing head 60 and the slide 1, and eliminates the gap between the printing plane of the printing head 60 and the slide 1. At this time, the marking material of the ink ribbon adheres to the slide 1 after the ink ribbon 70 is locally heated by the print head 60; while all three of the slide transport assembly 31, the slide 1 and the ribbon 70 are moving together at the same constant speed (the ribbon 70 is adhered to the slide 1 under pressure from the print head 60 and the print head unit 6).

The ink ribbon 70 is also fed and received at the same speed as described above in the feeding and receiving assemblies 71 and 72, and the feeding and receiving speed is kept constant. The ribbon releasing motor 718 of the ribbon releasing assembly 71 generates a torque opposite to the moving direction of the ink ribbon 70 to form a ribbon releasing damping, so that the ink ribbon 70 of the ribbon releasing part is always kept in a ribbon straightening state; the take-up motor 728 of the take-up assembly 72 generates a torque in the same direction as the ink ribbon 70, creating a take-up tension, thereby ensuring that the take-up portion of the ink ribbon 70 remains straightened. The two sections of the color ribbons are straightened, so that the color ribbons are prevented from being bent or stacked during printing, and the printing quality is improved. After printing is completed, the print head power assembly 63 of the print head unit 6 drives the recovery print head 60 to a print standby position. The transport power unit 33 of the print transport unit 3 drives the slide transport unit 31 in the transport direction to the slide out-of-cassette position.

At the slide out-of-cassette position 13, the out-of-cassette piece 41 of the slide transport unit 4 ejects the slide 1 from the slide print cassette 30 into the slide member 40 of the slide transport unit 4, slides in the slide 41 into the slide receiving unit 8 depending on the speed and gravity at which the slide 1 is ejected, and completes printing of the slide 1.

The conveying power assembly 33 of the printing and conveying unit 3 drives the slide conveying assembly 31 to return to the initial zero position according to the conveying direction; the ribbon unwinding assembly 71 and the ribbon winding assembly 72 complete the replacement and recovery of the waste ribbon. The printing can be repeated subsequently.

Claims

1. A slide printing device comprises a slide outlet unit for providing a slide to be printed, a slide conveying unit for conveying the slide, a printing head unit for printing the slide, a printing positioning unit for positioning the slide to be printed in printing and conveying, a ribbon unit for providing ribbon required for printing and a slide receiving unit for recovering the printed slide, and is characterized in that: the slide discharging unit is arranged to allow the slide to be stacked laterally instead of being stacked flatly, namely the printable surface or the back surface of the slide is parallel to the gravity direction of the slide or forms an angle smaller than 45 degrees; the slide conveying unit comprises a printing conveying unit used for loading the slide from the slide discharging unit, and conveying the slide before and during printing; and a slide conveying unit for connecting the printing conveying unit and the film collecting unit and conveying the slide glass loaded in the printing conveying unit to the film collecting unit.

2. The slide printing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said slide delivery unit is provided with a slide magazine assembly, said slide magazine assembly being provided with magazine members defining five front, rear, left, right and bottom faces of the slide storage space, referred to as front, rear, left, right and bottom magazine members, respectively; the front side bin piece comprises a left bin piece and a right bin piece which are separated by a certain distance, and the back of the printable surface of the side glass slide is limited on the left side and the right side respectively; the front end part of the bottom chamber part is propped against or is not propped against the left chamber part and the right chamber part of the front chamber part completely to form a channel for the slide to slide downwards; the front side bin part and the rear side bin part are connected with the left side bin part, the right side bin part and the bottom side bin part to form a whole slide bin assembly.

3. The slide printing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said ejection unit further comprises: the glass slide pre-pressing device comprises a glass slide bin pre-pressing component, a pre-pressing guide component and a pre-pressing power component, wherein the glass slide bin pre-pressing component is used for limiting and positioning a markable surface of a glass slide and keeping a certain pressure on the surface and pushing the glass slide to move forwards; the prepressing guide component and the prepressing power component conduct guiding and driving force transmission in one or more modes of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, gear and rack transmission and linear guide rail transmission.

4. slide printing apparatus as claimed in claim 3,

The slide bin prepressing assembly comprises a prepressing push block, a positioning side slide stacking block and a positioning side slide stacking block, wherein the prepressing push block is used for limiting a markable surface of a positioning side slide stacking block and keeping a certain pressure on the surface;

The prepressing guide assembly comprises a sliding block, a sliding guide rail matched with the sliding block and a sliding block connecting block used for fixing the sliding block and connected with the prepressing push block; the prepressing guide assembly is connected with the slide glass bin prepressing assembly through the sliding block connecting block;

The pre-compaction power pack is including the motor and the drive power conveyer that produce drive power, wherein, drive power conveyer includes hold-in range and hold-in range fixed block, hold-in range fixed block respectively with slider connecting block and hold-in range are connected, convey the drive power that the motor produced to slide glass storehouse pre-compaction subassembly via the hold-in range.

5. The slide printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the slide discharging unit further comprises one or more of an encoder for recording an operation state of the analyzing motor and/or calculating the number of slides in the present slide magazine assembly, a slide sliding aid provided on the bottom side magazine and/or the left side magazine and the right side magazine in direct contact with the side-stacked slides to assist in carrying the slides and reducing a frictional resistance to slide sliding, a temperature control unit for temperature-raising and preheating the slides, and an optical sensor for detecting a slide placing direction.

6. The slide printing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the print delivery unit includes a slide delivery assembly, a delivery guide assembly, a delivery power assembly, and an encoder; the conveying guide assembly and the conveying power assembly conduct guiding and driving force transmission in one or more modes of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, gear and rack transmission and linear guide rail transmission.

7. The slide printing apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the slide transport assembly is a slide carrier for loading and transporting slides and slides along a transport path defined by the transport guide assembly, and includes a slide print cartridge for carrying slides, a transport stop for positioning and restraining a back side of slides within the slide magazine assembly, and a transport fixture for securing or engaging the slide print cartridge and coupled to the transport stop; wherein, the slide conveying assembly is connected with the conveying guide assembly and the conveying power assembly through the conveying fixing piece;

8. The slide printing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the slide transport unit is in a slide out-of-cassette position of the slide transport unit, including a slide member and an out-of-cassette member; the ejection component is used for pushing the slide in the slide printing box to eject the slide from the printing and conveying unit and enter the sliding and conveying unit; the slideway piece is used for forming a slideway of a conveying path of the sliding conveying unit; wherein the slide print cartridge is disposed in a slide transport assembly of the print transport unit for carrying slides.

9. The slide printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print head unit includes a print head for printing on a marking area of the slide, a print head support assembly supporting the print head, a print head guide assembly controlling a driving direction of the print head support assembly, a print head power assembly providing a driving force for the print head support assembly; the printing head guide assembly and the printing head power assembly are guided and power-driven through one or more of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, gear and rack transmission and linear guide rail transmission.

10. The slide printing apparatus as claimed in claim 9,

The printing head supporting assembly is connected with the printing head guiding assembly and comprises a correcting assembly hole, an angle hole and a supporting plate connecting end, wherein the correcting assembly hole is provided with a counter bore for installing the printing head correcting assembly; the angle hole is used for limiting the angle which can be automatically corrected by the printing head; the connecting end of the supporting plate is used for fixing a connecting slide block fixing block of the printing head guide assembly;

The printing head guide assembly is connected with the printing head support assembly and controls the movement direction of the printing head support assembly, and comprises a sliding guide rail, a sliding block and a sliding block fixing block, wherein the sliding guide rail is matched with the sliding block to slide, and the sliding block fixing block is used for fixing the sliding block and is fixedly connected with the connecting end of the support plate;

the printing head power assembly comprises a motor for generating driving force and a power transmission device, and the power transmission device is connected with the printing head guide assembly through a sliding block fixing block.

11. The slide printing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the printhead correction assembly is disposed between the printhead and the printhead support assembly to allow the printhead to oscillate within a range of angles under pressure of the printhead power assembly after contact with the slide to automatically correct the angle of contact with the slide to eliminate a gap between the print plane of the printhead and the slide surface.

12. The slide printing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the printhead corrector assembly includes a printhead mounting plate, a corrector end piece, a shim, an inner race, a rubber ring, a gland, and a mounting hole;

The printing head fixing plate is provided with a convex correcting end piece and an angle screw, and the printing head is directly assembled on the printing head fixing plate; the protruding part of the angle screw is positioned in the angle hole and used for controlling the angle capable of being automatically corrected;

The inner ring is a hollow cylindrical part, the inner side of the inner ring is sleeved on the correcting end part, and the surface of the outer ring of the inner ring is matched with the inner hole of the rubber ring;

The surface of the outer hole of the rubber ring is matched with a counter bore of the printing head correction assembly;

The gaskets are respectively arranged between the printing head fixing plate and the correction assembly hole and between the gland and the correction assembly hole; and

The gland contacts the correcting end piece and is pressed by a screw in the fixing hole.

13. Slide printing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the print head unit is further provided with an optical sensor for detecting the placement direction of slides within a slide print cartridge, wherein the slide print cartridge is provided in a slide transport assembly of the print transport unit for carrying slides; and/or the printing head unit is also provided with a servo system comprising an encoder for controlling the motor to output the movement speed of the printing head supporting component and the pre-pressure required during printing.

14. the slide printing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the print positioning unit comprises a positioning wheel and a positioning wheel shaft, wherein the positioning wheel rotates around the positioning wheel shaft, the positioning wheel is tangential to a slide transport path of the slide print cartridge and is capable of contacting and maintaining a pressure on the slide, the positioning wheel rolls on the slide contact surface and keeps the slide positioned without slipping while the slide is transported in the slide print cartridge, and wherein the slide print cartridge is disposed in a slide transport assembly of the print transport unit for carrying the slide.

15. The slide printing apparatus of claim 14, wherein the print positioning unit further comprises a positioning wheel swing assembly for controlling the positioning wheel to move toward and away from the transport path of the slide transport unit;

The positioning wheel swinging assembly comprises a swinging external member, a swinging central member and a swinging power member, the positioning wheel swinging assembly rotates by taking the swinging central member as a center, the swinging external member and the swinging power member are respectively positioned at two sides of a swinging fulcrum of the swinging central member, the swinging external member and the positioning wheel shaft are concentrically positioned, and the swinging power member provides driving force required by swinging.

16. The slide printing apparatus of claim 14, wherein the print positioning unit further comprises a positioning wheel damper for providing some damping to rotation of the positioning wheel to ensure friction between the positioning wheel and slides in the slide print cartridge to facilitate positioning of slides in the slide print cartridge without random relative sliding.

17. The slide printing apparatus of claim 1 wherein the ink ribbon unit includes a take-up assembly and a pay-off assembly for controlling the take-up and pay-off of the ink ribbon, optionally a pay-off guide assembly and optionally a take-up guide assembly for controlling the ink ribbon drive path during pay-off and optionally the ink ribbon drive path during take-up, respectively.

18. The slide printing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the take-up assembly includes a take-up pulley and a take-up power assembly providing a driving force for the take-up assembly to take up ribbon, and the unwind assembly includes a unwind pulley and an unwind power assembly providing a driving force for the unwind assembly to release ribbon, wherein the take-up and unwind power assemblies are guided and powered by one or more of lead screw nut drive, belt drive, rack and pinion drive, and linear guide drive.

19. The slide printing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the ribbon unit further comprises an encoder for controlling the motors of the take-up and unwind power assemblies, calculating a thickness radius of the ribbon on the unwind assembly to determine the amount of ribbon on the unwind assembly, and/or determining whether the ribbon is broken based on an abrupt change in the angular velocity of the take-up and/or unwind assembly.

20. The slide printing apparatus of claim 1 wherein the slide receiving unit includes a slide receiving bay assembly, the slide receiving bay assembly including a slide receiving bay and a structural member defining the slide receiving bay, the slide receiving bay having a space therein for receiving a plurality of slides.

21. The slide printing apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein the slide receiving chamber assembly further comprises a slide receiving stop for positioning, limiting movement of the slide and assisting in receiving the slide, a slide receiving pusher assembly for carrying the slide in the slide receiving chamber, a slide receiving guide assembly for controlling a driving direction of the slide receiving pusher assembly, and a slide receiving power assembly for providing a driving force to the slide receiving pusher assembly, wherein the slide receiving guide assembly and the slide receiving power assembly are guided and power-driven by one or more of screw nut transmission, belt transmission, rack-and-pinion transmission and linear guide transmission.

22. The slide printing apparatus as claimed in claim 21 wherein the take-up unit is further provided with an encoder for controlling a motor in the take-up power assembly to drive the take-up unit.

23. The slide printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a system general control unit for controlling the slide printing apparatus to operate according to a predetermined scheme, and performing functions of real-time monitoring, data acquisition and effective feedback, including control circuitry and user software.

24. the slide printing apparatus as claimed in claim 23, wherein said system general control unit further comprises a display for displaying an operation state of the apparatus in real time; optionally, the display is further configured to provide an operator interface directly to a user.