JP2000043358A - Transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate alignment of a flange fixed to a ribbon core on the supply side and a flange fixed to a ribbon core on the winding side in the breadthwise direction of sheet. SOLUTION: Ribbon cores 20, 21 on the supply side and winding side for supporting an ink ribbon under a state being wound from the opposite sides are fixed, respectively, with flanges 22, 23 for positioning the ink ribbon in the axial direction of the ribbon cores 20, 21. Diameter of the flanges 22, 23 being fixed to the ribbon cores 20, 21 is substantially equal to the distance between the center of rotation of the ribbon cores 20, 21 and a microgap is formed between the outer circumferential surface of the flanges 22, 23. Since the flanges 22, 23 are arranged proximately through a microgap between the outer circumferential surfaces, a decision can be made easily whether the flanges 22, 23 are aligned in the breadthwise direction of sheet or not.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a transfer printer for transferring ink from an ink ribbon, such as a bar code printer, onto paper and printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A transfer printer is a printer having a thermal head and printing by heating a thermal transfer film such as an ink ribbon and transferring ink onto paper.

[0003] Among such transfer printers, some ink ribbons used in particularly large transfer printers are supported by two ribbon cores disposed inside the printer in parallel with the paper width direction. FIG. 3 shows a label printer 1 as an example of a conventional transfer printer.

[0004] The label printer 1 is separable into an upper unit 3 and a lower unit 4 sandwiching a paper transport path 2 formed from the back side to the front side. In the upper unit 3,
A thermal head 5, a ribbon core 6 on the supply side, and a ribbon core 7 on the winding side are provided.

The ribbon cores 6 and 7 have flanges 8 and 7 for positioning the position of the ink ribbon in the paper width direction, respectively.
9 is attached. On the outer peripheral surfaces of the ribbon cores 6 and 7,
Latches (not shown) are arranged in the axial direction, and claws (not shown) that engage with the latches are formed on the inner periphery of the flanges 8 and 9. When the pawl is engaged with an arbitrary position of the latch, the flanges 8 and 9 are positioned in the axial direction of the ribbon cores 6 and 7, that is, in the paper width direction.

The diameter of the conventional flanges 8, 9 is smaller than the distance between the centers of rotation of the ribbon cores 6, 7, and there is a large gap between the outer peripheral surface of the flange 8 and the outer peripheral surface of the flange 9. I have.

[0007]

In the transfer printer, it is necessary to dispose the ink ribbon in parallel with the sheet conveying direction. The reason for this is that if the ink ribbon is not conveyed correctly, wrinkles will occur in the extremely thin ink ribbon and printing will not be performed correctly. Therefore, in order to dispose the ink ribbon in parallel with the paper transport direction, the position of the flange 8 attached to the supply-side ribbon core 6 in the paper width direction and the flange 9 attached to the take-up ribbon core 7 are determined.
Must be the same in the paper width direction.

In the label printer 1 shown as an example of the conventional transfer printer in FIG. 3, since the gap between the outer peripheral surfaces of the flanges 8 and 9 is large, whether the positions of the flanges 8 and 9 in the paper width direction are the same or not. It cannot be judged visually and there is a disadvantage that it is difficult to position the flanges 8 and 9 with each other. In particular, since the frame to which the ribbon cores 6 and 7 are attached is located at the back in the label printer 1, it is difficult to position the frame.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to facilitate alignment of a flange attached to a supply-side ribbon core and a flange attached to a take-up ribbon core in the paper width direction.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transfer printer including two ribbon cores on a supply side and a winding side, and a flange attached to each of the ribbon cores has an ink ribbon attached to the axis of the ribbon core. In the transfer printer positioned in the direction, the diameter of the flange is substantially equal to the distance between the rotation centers of the two ribbon cores, and the flange is attached to the ribbon core on the supply side and attached to the ribbon core on the winding side. A small gap is formed between the flange and the flange.

Therefore, since the outer peripheral surfaces of the flanges are close to each other with a small gap therebetween, it can be visually determined whether the positions of the flanges in the paper width direction are the same.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A label printer as an embodiment of a transfer printer according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, FIG.
FIG. The label printer 11 of the present embodiment includes a roll paper holder 12 for supporting a roll paper such as a label roll R on the back side, and an issuing port 13 for issuing printed label paper L on the front side. It has. And, from the back side to the front issue port 13,
A paper transport path 14 through which the label paper L is transported is formed. The label printer 11 can be separated into an upper unit 11a and a lower unit 11b sandwiching the paper transport path 14.

On the upstream side of the issuing port 13 in the paper transport direction,
A thermal head 15 is disposed above the paper transport path 14 and a platen 16 is disposed below the thermal head 15. Further, a paper detection sensor 17 is provided on the upstream side, and a pair of transport rollers 18 are further provided on the upstream side.

The lower unit 11a is provided with a take-up core 19 for taking up the mount D after the label paper L has been peeled off.

The upper unit 11a has an ink ribbon I
Are provided. The ribbon core 20 is on the supply side, and the ribbon core 21 is on the winding side. Each of the ribbon cores 20 and 21 is provided in parallel with the paper width direction. The ink ribbon I is supported in a state where it is wound from both ends by the ribbon cores 20 and 21, and the thermal head 1 is transferred from the ribbon core 20 on the supply side.
5 around the ribbon core 21 on the winding side.

Flanges 22 and 23 for positioning the ink ribbon I in the axial direction of the ribbon cores 20 and 21 are attached to the ribbon cores 20 and 21. The diameter of the flanges 22 and 23 in the present embodiment is substantially the same as the distance between the rotation centers of the ribbon cores 20 and 21.

FIG. 2 is an axial sectional view showing the flanges 22 and 23 attached to the ribbon cores 20 and 21. The ribbon cores 20 and 21 are rotatably supported in the label printer 11 at one end, which is a support end. The other ends of the ribbon cores 20 and 21 are open ends that are opened when the ink ribbon I is replaced.

On the supporting end sides of the ribbon cores 20, 21, latches 24 are formed so as to be arranged in the axial direction. Here, the latch 24 is formed of a stopper surface 24a orthogonal to the axial direction of the ribbon cores 20 and 21 and facing the open end side, and a guide inclined surface 24b connecting the valley and the mountain of the adjacent stopper surface 24a. .

A claw member 26 having a claw 25 that engages with the latch 24 is rotatably attached to the flanges 22 and 23. The claw 25 is fixed to the ribbon cores 20, 21 in a state perpendicular to the axial direction and in contact with the stopper surface 24 a while being attached to the latch 24, and the guide slope 24.
and a sliding slope 25b in contact with b. The claw member 26 is rotatable in a direction in which the claw 25 comes into contact with and separates from the latch 24, and is moved in a direction in which the claw 25 meshes with the latch 24 by a spring portion 27 formed on the flanges 22 and 23. Being energized.

The ribbon cores 20 and 21 are provided with a scale 28 which is used as a guide for positioning when the flanges 22 and 23 are attached.

In such a configuration, the flange 22,
Reference numerals 23 are attached to the ribbon cores 20 and 21, respectively, and position the ink ribbon I in the axial direction of the ribbon cores 20 and 21. The flanges 22, 23 are connected to the ribbon core 20,
In order to attach the ribbon core 21 to the support 21, the pawl member 26 is rotated against the bias of the spring portion 27 to release the pawl 25 from the latch 24, and the flanges 22 and 23 are moved from the open ends of the ribbon cores 20 and 21 to the support ends. And fit it. Then, with the claw 25 engaged with the latch 24, the flange 22,
23 is slid to an arbitrary position on the ribbon cores 20 and 21.

The flanges 22 and 23 are connected to the respective ribbon cores 2.
Since it is a member for determining the mounting position of the ink ribbon at 0, 21, it must be mounted at the same position in the paper width direction in each ribbon core 20, 21, but the diameter of the flanges 22, 23 in the present embodiment is Since the distance between the rotation centers of the ribbon cores 20 and 21 is substantially equal to that of the ribbon cores 2,
When they are attached to 0 and 21, respectively, they approach each other with a minute gap formed between their outer peripheral surfaces. That is, the flange 22 and the flange 23 come close to each other with only a small gap left.

Therefore, when positioning the flanges 22 and 23, it can be visually determined whether or not the position of the flange 22 in the paper width direction is the same as the position of the flange 23 in the paper width direction. Flanges 22 and 23
Can be aligned. Also, since the gap between the outer peripheral surface of the flange 22 and the outer peripheral surface of the flange 23 is small, the finger is inserted into the gap between the outer peripheral surfaces of the flanges 22 and 23 from the side of the flat surface where the ends of the ink ribbons of the flanges 22 and 23 come into contact. By touching and touching, it is also possible to determine whether the positions of the flange 22 and the flange 23 in the paper width direction are the same.

In the present embodiment, a label printer has been described as an example of a transfer printer. However, in the present embodiment, the present invention may be applied to a transfer printer other than a label printer.

[0025]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the diameter of the flange is substantially equal to the distance between the respective rotation centers of the two ribbon cores, and the flange is attached to the flange attached to the supply-side ribbon core and to the take-up side ribbon core. Since a small gap is formed between the flange and the flange, the outer peripheral surfaces of each flange are close to each other with a small gap, so it is visually checked whether the positions of the flanges in the paper width direction are the same. Thus, the positions of the flanges 22 and 23 can be easily adjusted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical right side view showing an embodiment of a transfer printer of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an axial sectional view showing a flange attached to a ribbon core.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional right side view showing an example of a conventional transfer printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Transfer printer 10 Flange 11 Flange 12 Ribbon core 13 Ribbon core

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Shunji Shimozato 570 Ohito, Oni-cho, Tagata-gun, Shizuoka Prefecture F-term in the Tech Ohi Works (reference) 2C068 AA02 AA06 AA15 AA22 BD45 BD46 EE03 GJ04 MM03 MM21

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transfer printer comprising two ribbon cores on a supply side and a winding side, wherein a flange attached to each ribbon core positions an ink ribbon in an axial direction of the ribbon core, wherein the diameter of the flange is A minute gap is formed between the flange attached to the ribbon core on the supply side and the flange attached to the ribbon core on the winding side, substantially equal to the distance between the respective rotation centers of the two ribbon cores. A transfer printer, characterized in that: