JP2002144616A - Thermal transfer line printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thermal transfer line printer in which an ink ribbon can be cold stripped surely from a sheet through a simple arrangement. SOLUTION: A ribbon stripping member 10 is fixed to a head fixing member 5 through a thermal insulation material 11 or a thermal insulation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer line printer, and more particularly to a thermal transfer line printer suitable for peeling off an ink ribbon from paper in a state where the melted ink of the ink ribbon used for printing is cooled to some extent. The present invention relates to a thermal transfer line printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a line thermal head having a length capable of facing a printing area in a vertical direction or a horizontal direction of a sheet through a wide ink ribbon such as an ink film or an ink sheet and a sheet is brought into contact with a platen. While the ink ribbon and the paper are being conveyed in this abutting state, a plurality of heating elements for a printing width, which are arranged and arranged in the longitudinal direction of the platen of the line thermal head, are selectively driven based on the printing information. 2. Related Art A thermal transfer line printer that transfers ink from an ink ribbon to paper to perform printing by causing heat to generate heat is known.

In such a conventional thermal transfer line printer, in order to peel off the ink ribbon from the paper at a cold time, a ribbon peeling member made of a rigid metal material is provided downstream of the line thermal head in the paper feeding direction. Then, the ribbon peeling member is brought into contact with the ink ribbon provided for printing, and the ink ribbon provided for printing is peeled off from the paper at a cold time.

[0004] The ribbon peeling member is attached downstream of the head mounting member integrally formed of a metal material such as an aluminum alloy to which the line thermal head is attached in the paper feed direction.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional thermal transfer line printer, there has been a problem that the temperature of the peeling plate rises and the cold peeling cannot be performed reliably.

That is, the heating element of the line thermal head is selectively driven every time the printing operation is performed, and the heat generated by the driven heating element is lightweight, and a metal material such as an aluminum alloy excellent in heat dissipation (thermal conductivity) is used. As a result, heat is transferred to the ribbon peeling member via the head mounting member integrally formed, and the temperature of the ribbon peeling member used for cold peeling of the ink ribbon increases. This rise in the temperature of the ribbon peeling member becomes remarkable when the thermal transfer line printer is used continuously.

[0007] The rise in the temperature of the ribbon peeling member may cause the distance between the peeling position and the printing position when the thermal transfer line printer is downsized to be large, or may increase the paper feed speed, which is the paper transport speed. This is also remarkable when the cooling time of the ink ribbon is shortened, for example, when the ink ribbon is formed.

Incidentally, in order to deal with such a problem,
Although it is conceivable to arrange the ribbon peeling members individually,
In order to dispose the ribbon peeling members individually, a contact / separation mechanism for separating the ribbon peeling member from the ink ribbon when exchanging the ink ribbon or the like is required, which complicates the structure and increases the cost.

Therefore, there is a demand for a thermal transfer line printer capable of reliably separating the ink ribbon from the paper with a simple configuration at a cold time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to provide a thermal transfer line printer capable of reliably separating an ink ribbon from paper at a low temperature with a simple structure.

[0011]

A feature of the thermal transfer line printer according to the present invention to achieve the above object is that a ribbon peeling member is fixed to a head attaching member via a heat insulating material. And, by adopting such a configuration, the heat insulating material acts to block the conduction of heat from the head mounting member to the ribbon peeling member, so that a rise in the temperature of the ribbon peeling member can be prevented. With a simple configuration,
The ink ribbon can be reliably peeled off from the paper when cold.

Further, by providing a heat sink to the ribbon peeling member of the thermal transfer line printer according to the present invention, the cooling efficiency of the ribbon peeling member can be increased, so that the ink ribbon can be more reliably cooled from the paper. When can be peeled.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a first embodiment of a thermal transfer line printer according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a front view showing a configuration of a main part in a printing state, and FIG. It is a top view shown seen from above.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a thermal transfer line printer 1 according to the present embodiment includes
A platen roller 2 as a platen is rotatably provided. Above the platen roller 2, a line thermal head 3 as a print head has a printing surface 3a.
Are disposed so as to face the outer peripheral surface of the platen roller 2. The line thermal head 3 extends in a direction parallel to an axial direction which is a longitudinal direction of the platen roller 2. The print surface 3a of the line thermal head 3 has a dimension perpendicular to the paper feed direction, which is the transport direction of the paper 4 indicated by an arrow A in FIG. A plurality of heating elements (not shown) are arranged over a corresponding length (print width).

The line thermal head 3 is mounted on the lower surface of a head mounting base 5 as a head mounting member. This head mount 5 is lightweight and has heat dissipation (thermal conductivity).
It is integrally formed of a metal material such as an aluminum alloy which is excellent in quality. At both ends of the head mounting base 5 in the longitudinal direction, distal ends of a pair of head levers (only one is shown) are attached.
A support shaft 7 is pivotally mounted. By rotating the head lever 6 about the support shaft 7 with a driving force from a driving source (not shown), at least the platen roller 2 shown in FIG. 2 and a head-up position separated from the platen roller 2 (not shown).

The contact position between the line thermal head 3 and the platen roller 2 in the head down state shown in FIG. 1 in which the line thermal head 3 is pressed against the platen roller 2 with a predetermined contact force is determined by the ink of the ink ribbon 5. Is transferred to the paper 4 for printing.

As shown in FIG. 1, between the platen roller 2 and the line thermal head 3 in the head down state, the paper 4 and the ink ribbon 8 are supplied in order from the platen roller 2 side. .

The left side of the platen roller 2 (print position P
On the left side of P), a paper feed roller 9 as a paper feed means is provided. The paper feed roller 9 is formed so as to be rotatable with the driving force of a drive motor (not shown), and a pressure contact roller 10 driven by the paper feed roller 9 rotates above the outer peripheral surface of the paper feed roller 9. Have been. By rotating the paper feed roller 9, the paper 4 is formed so that the paper 4 can be sandwiched between the paper feed roller 9 and the pressure roller 10 and fed.

That is, the paper 4 in the thermal transfer line printer 1 of this embodiment is fed from the left to the right in FIG. 1, and during a printing operation, as indicated by an arrow A from the right to the left in FIG. The paper is fed in the paper feeding direction shown.

The paper feed roller 9 and the pressure roller 1
0 may be disposed to the right of the platen roller 2 (to the right of the printing position PP) so that the paper feeding direction of the paper 4 and the paper feeding direction during the printing operation are the same.

On the downstream side of the head mounting table 5 in the paper feeding direction shown on the left side in FIG. 1, the ink ribbon 8 used for printing is separated from the paper 4 at a cold time via a heat insulating material 11 formed in a flat shape. Plate 12 is provided as a ribbon peeling member. The peeling plate 12 is formed of a rigid metal material. Further, the peeling plate 12 is formed in a flat plate shape having a vertically long rectangular cross section, and a lower end surface thereof is formed in a downwardly convex arc shape. Then, the lower end surface of the peeling plate 12 in the head down state has the ink ribbon 8 used for printing.
Is in contact with the back surface, which is the surface opposite to the ink surface carrying the ink, and the position where the lower end surface contacts the ink ribbon 8 is the peeling position SP where the ink ribbon 8 is peeled from the paper 4. .

The material of the heat insulating material 11 can be selected from conventionally known various materials. However, a material which can be supplied stably, has excellent productivity and is low in cost, such as resin and double-sided tape, can be used. preferable. The peeling plate 12 may be attached to the head mount 5 via a heat insulating layer such as an air layer instead of the heat insulating material 11.

The ink ribbon 8 has a width corresponding to a printing width (printing width) which is a dimension of the printing range of the paper 4 in the row direction. The ink ribbon 8 is mounted on a ribbon cartridge 13. And the ink ribbon 8
When the printing operation is performed, the platen roller 2 is moved along with the movement of the paper 4.
Of the platen roller 2 and is sequentially wound on the left winding side of the platen roller 2.

When the ink ribbon 8 is to be replaced, the line thermal head 3 is largely separated from the platen roller 2 by rotating the head lever 6 largely in the clockwise direction. 8, or by replacing the ribbon cartridge 13 with the ink ribbon 8 attached thereto, the cartridge can be replaced with a new one.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described.

According to the thermal transfer line printer 1 of the present embodiment, the heat insulating material 11 blocks the conduction of heat from the head mounting base 5 as the head mounting member to the peeling plate 12 as the ribbon peeling member in the printing state. Therefore, the temperature rise of the peeling plate 12 can be easily and reliably prevented.

Therefore, according to the thermal transfer line printer 1 of the present embodiment, the ink ribbon 8 can be reliably separated from the paper 4 at a cold time with a simple configuration.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a thermal transfer line printer 1A according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Further, in the thermal transfer line printer 1A of the present embodiment, the heat sink 14 is provided on the peeling plate 12 as the ribbon peeling member of the thermal transfer line printer 1 of the above-described first embodiment. The heat sink 14 is disposed on an upper side of the left side surface of the peeling plate 12 which is located downstream in the paper feeding direction and which is apart from the ribbon path of the ink ribbon 8. In addition, the heat sink 14 of the present embodiment includes:
The plurality of fins 14 a having a rectangular shape in a plane are separated from the peeling plate 12.
Are formed by arranging them along the longitudinal direction. Further, the heat sink 14 of the present embodiment is formed integrally with the peeling plate 12. As a method of integrally forming the peeling plate 12 with the heat sink 14,
A manufacturing method of die-casting an aluminum alloy can be exemplified.

The other configuration is the same as that of the above-described thermal transfer line printer 1 of the first embodiment.
Detailed description is omitted.

According to the thermal transfer line printer 1A of this embodiment having such a configuration, the same effects as those of the above-described thermal transfer line printer 1 of the first embodiment can be obtained, and the heat sink 14 provided on the peeling plate 12 can be used. Since the cooling efficiency of the peeling plate 12 as the ribbon peeling member can be easily increased, the ink ribbon 8 can be more reliably peeled from the paper 4 in the cold state.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but can be variously modified as needed.

[0033]

As described above, according to the thermal transfer line printer of the present invention, with a simple structure, an extremely excellent effect can be achieved such that the ink ribbon can be surely peeled off from the paper in a cold state.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a configuration of a main part of a first embodiment of a thermal transfer line printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the vicinity of a ribbon peeling member of the thermal transfer line printer shown in FIG. 1 as viewed from above.

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1, illustrating a configuration of a main part of a second embodiment of the thermal transfer line printer according to the invention.

4 is a view similar to FIG. 2, showing the vicinity of a ribbon peeling member of the thermal transfer line printer shown in FIG. 3 as viewed from above.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 1A Thermal transfer line printer 2 Platen roller (as a platen) 3 Line thermal head 4 Paper 5 Head mounting base (as a head mounting member) 8 Ink ribbon 9 Paper feed roller 11 Heat insulating material 12 Peeling (as a ribbon separating member) Plate 14 Heat sink 14a Fin A Paper feed direction PP Printing position SP Peeling position

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Mitsuo Makino 1-7 Yukitani Otsukacho, Ota-ku, Tokyo Alps Electric Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 2C065 AA01 DA22 DA32 2C068 AA02 AA06 HH01 HH17

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A platen and a heating element for a printing width, which is attached to a head mounting member so as to face the platen and partially melts ink of an ink ribbon, are arranged in the longitudinal direction of the platen. A thermal transfer line printer comprising: a line thermal head formed as described above; and a ribbon peeling member abutting on an ink ribbon used for printing and peeling the ink ribbon from paper at a cold time. A thermal transfer line printer fixed to the head mounting member via a layer. 2. The thermal transfer line printer according to claim 1, wherein a heat sink is provided on the ribbon peeling member.