JP2003251902A - Ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism of thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism of a thermal transfer printer capable of holding an ink ribbon cassette fixed to a thermal transfer printer surely. <P>SOLUTION: A first slide member 4 for moving a platen roller 2 and a print head 3 relatively in the pressing direction or receding direction, and a second slide member 15 disposed under an ink ribbon cassette 8 to interlock with the first slide member 4 are provided on the thermal transfer printer body 1. The second slide member 15 is provided with parts 18 and 19 engaging with the ink ribbon cassette 8 when the first slide member 4 moves the platen roller 2 and the print head 3 in the pressing direction from the receded state. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism for strongly holding an ink ribbon cassette in a thermal transfer printing machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in order to indicate the type and function of an electric wire incorporated in an electric equipment such as a switchboard, a tube is printed with characters or symbols and the tube is attached to the electric wire. Further, it has been practiced that a tape indicating the title and contents is attached to the spine of a book or binder, and this tape also has characters or the like printed on the surface.

In either case, printing is performed by a thermal transfer printing machine. In the thermal transfer printing machine, a printing material such as a tube or tape is provided with a platen roller and a printing head having an ink ribbon inside. It is sandwiched between and pressed to heat the print head to melt the ink in the ink ribbon, and the characters and symbols are thermally transferred to a tube or tape.

By the way, when the ink ribbon cassette is mounted on the thermal transfer printing machine, the ink ribbon cassette must be held so as not to move. for that reason,
Conventionally, the elasticity of a synthetic resin member has been used to press and engage the ink ribbon cassette to hold it.

[0005]

However, in the ink ribbon cassette, a part of the cassette container is notched so as to engage with the ink ribbon shaft so that the internal ink ribbon does not rotate freely when not mounted. There are some that form a detent. In a cassette provided with this kind of detent, when mounted on the printer body, the tape reel rotation shaft provided in the printer body pushes up the detent to release the engagement of the tape reel. Has become. According to this method, since the pushing force applied to the ink ribbon cassette at the time of releasing is large, it cannot be sufficiently held by the conventional holding mechanism using the synthetic resin member.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and provide an ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism for a thermal transfer printer that can reliably hold an ink ribbon cassette mounted on the thermal transfer printer.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism of a thermal transfer printer according to the present invention has a platen roller and a print head which are relatively pressed or separated from each other in the thermal transfer printer main body. And a second slide member that is arranged below the ink ribbon cassette and that interlocks with the first slide member. The second slide member includes the first slide member. It is characterized in that the platen roller and the print head are provided with an engaging portion that engages with the ink ribbon cassette when the platen roller and the print head move in the pressing direction from the separated state.

The engaging portion is formed in an inverted L shape from an upright piece standing upright from the second slide member and an engaging claw laterally projecting from a tip of the upright piece, and engaging. It is preferable that an inclined portion that is inclined from the base portion to the tip is formed inside the claw, and the inclined portion is engaged with the bottom wall of the ink ribbon cassette.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 indicates a thermal transfer printer main body. The thermal transfer printer main body 1 is provided with a platen roller 2 and a print head 3. The platen roller 2 is fixed at a fixed position. The print head 3 is provided in the printer body so as to be rotatable in the horizontal direction, and is biased by a spring (not shown) so as to be separated from the platen roller 2. In addition, the print head 3 includes the first slide member 4
Is engaged with the upright piece 5. Therefore, when the first slide member 4 slides, the print head 3 can move in a direction in which it is pressed against or separated from the platen roller 2.

The platen roller 2 and the print head 3 may be moved in a direction in which they are relatively pressed or separated from each other. Therefore, the platen roller 2 is interlocked with the first slide member 4, and the platen roller 2 is fixed to the fixed print head 3.
May be configured to move in the pressing and separating direction.

Next, the thermal transfer printer main body 1 is provided with two rotary shafts 6 and 7, and an ink ribbon cassette 8 is mounted on these rotary shafts 6 and 7. An ink ribbon 9 and a take-up reel 10 for the ink ribbon 9 are provided inside the ink ribbon cassette 8.
Are stored. In addition, as shown in FIG.
Near the bottom wall 11 of the cassette 8, the side walls at both ends correspond to the line P that crosses between the ink ribbon 9 and the take-up reel 10. The engagement receiving portions 12 and 13 are formed by cutting out the side walls. A through hole 14 is formed at one end.

A plate-shaped second slide member 15 is arranged below the ink ribbon cassette 8. Second
The slide member 15 is preferably made of a material having high strength such as metal, and as shown in FIG.
A pair of engagement portions 18 and 19 are formed at both ends on one side thereof. These engaging portions 18 and 19 each include an upright piece 16 and an engaging claw 17 that is formed to project laterally from the tip of the upright piece 16, and the upright piece 16 and the engaging piece 17 form an inverted L shape. Has been formed. Inside each of the engaging claws 17, an inclined portion 20 that inclines from the base portion to the tip is formed. The second slide member 15 has a tension spring 21.
Is always urged to move to the first slide member 4 side.

The engagement receiving portions 12 and 13 at both ends of the ink ribbon cassette 8 have a second slide member 15 when mounted.
It is formed so as to be mounted at a position corresponding to the engaging portions 18, 19.

Further, a substantially triangular hole 22 is formed on the tip side of the second slide member 15 as shown in FIG.
A projecting shaft 23 formed at the tip of the first slide member 4 is engaged with the triangular hole 22. This makes the first
The second slide member 15 is configured to interlock with the slide member 4 and slide in a certain range. The slide amount of the first slide member 4 is set to about twice the slide amount of the second slide member 15.

In the above structure, when the ink ribbon is replaced, the first slide member 4 is slid to the right side in the drawing by an appropriate means, and the platen roller 2 and the print head 3 are connected to each other as shown in FIGS. Move them so that they separate from each other.

By the way, when the first slide member 4 is slid in this way, the protruding shaft 23 is shown in FIG. 4 in front of the triangular hole 22 of the second slide member 15, that is, on the side of the first slide member 4. Since it is located in the part, the protruding shaft 23 is in the triangular hole 2 until it is slid about half the amount.
The second slide member 15 does not move, because it only moves inside 2. When the first slide member 4 exceeds half the sliding amount, the projecting shaft 23 comes into contact with the inner wall of the triangular hole 22 shown in FIG. 5, and when it is further moved, the projecting shaft 23 becomes the second sliding member. The second slide member 15 is also interlocked with the first slide member 4 against the spring force of the tension spring 21 by pushing 15 and moves to the position of FIG.

Next, the ink ribbon 9 is pulled out from between the platen roller 2 and the print head 3, the used ink ribbon cassette 8 is removed, and a new ink ribbon cassette 8 is mounted on the rotary shaft of the thermal transfer printer main body 1 through the new ink ribbon cassette 8. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3A, one of the engaging portions 18 of the second slide member 15 passes through the through hole 14 of the bottom wall 11 of the ink ribbon cassette 8 up to the middle thereof. Further, after setting a print target material (not shown) between the print head 3 and the platen roller 2, the first slide member 4 is slid in the opposite direction to press the print head 3 against the platen roller 2. To move.

When the first slide member 4 is slid, the projecting shaft 23 is located deep inside the triangular hole 22 of the second slide member 15 as shown in FIG. As shown in (b), the second slide member 15 is urged by the spring force of the tension spring 21 so as to always move to the first slide member 4 side. The second slide member 15 also moves in conjunction with it. When the second slide member 15 moves due to the spring force, the engaging portions 18 and 19 also move in the same direction, and the inclined portion 20 of the engaging claw 17 of the engaging portions 18 and 19 causes the bottom wall 11 of the ink ribbon cassette 8. The bottom wall 11 is pressed downward by the inclined portion 20 of the engaging claw 17, but the ink ribbon cassette 8 is firmly held.

At the time of such engagement, the second slide member 15 stops at the position shown in FIG. 5 and does not move any further. On the other hand, since the first slide member 4 moves further, the protruding shaft 23 moves to the front side of the triangular hole 22 as shown in FIG. 4, and the print head 3 is pressed against the platen roller 2. This enables printing.

As described above, since the second slide member 15 moves together with the first slide member 4 and engages with the ink ribbon cassette 8, the second slide member 15 is made of a high-strength material such as metal. By doing so, the ink ribbon cassette 8 can be reliably held by the second slide member 15. Therefore, when the ink ribbon cassette 8 is attached to the printer main body, as shown in FIG. 3B, the rotation shafts 6 and 7 provided on the printer main body push up the detent 25 of the ink ribbon cassette 8 to prevent the detent. Even when the release is released, the ink ribbon cassette 8 can be held sufficiently firmly.

Further, since the holding of the ink ribbon cassette 8 is completed in the first half of the stroke of the second slide member 15 and the mechanical contact with the first slide member 4 is cut off thereafter, the holding of the ink ribbon cassette 8 is prevented. Therefore, the second slide member 15 does not press the print head 3, and the print head 3 is pressed by the platen roller 2 with a constant pressure.
The print quality is not affected because it is pressed by.

The above-mentioned first slide member 4 and second
The movement of the slide member 15 of the ink ribbon cassette 8
Not only this, but also when exchanging consumables such as printing tubes and tapes.

Also, an engaging portion of the ink ribbon cassette,
The part of the second slide member that engages with this engaging portion is not limited to the above example.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a main part of a thermal transfer printing machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the ink ribbon cassette as seen from the bottom.

3A and 3B are cross-sectional views showing a mounting mode of an ink ribbon cassette.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view showing a sliding manner of a first slide member and a second slide member.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view showing a sliding manner of a first slide member and a second slide member.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view showing a sliding manner of a first slide member and a second slide member.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the printer body when replacing the ink ribbon.

[Explanation of symbols]

4 First slide member 8 Ink ribbon cassette 15 Second slide member 18, 19 Engagement part

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A first slide member for relatively pressing or moving a platen roller and a print head in a thermal transfer printer main body, and a first slide member arranged below the ink ribbon cassette and interlocking with the first slide member. And a second slide member that engages with the ink ribbon cassette when the first slide member moves in the pressing direction from the separated state of the platen roller and the print head to the second slide member. An ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism for a thermal transfer printing machine, which is characterized in that a portion is formed. 2. The engaging portion is formed in an inverted L shape from an upright piece standing upright from the second slide member and an engaging claw laterally projecting from a tip of the upright piece, and engaging 2. The ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism for a thermal transfer printing machine according to claim 1, wherein an inclined portion that is inclined from the base portion to the tip is formed inside the claw, and the inclined portion is engaged with the bottom wall of the ink ribbon cassette.