JP2007260912A - Thermal transfer recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thermal transfer recorder capable of preventing leakage of personal information without lowering a processing speed by concurrently performing printing on recording paper and welding of a used thermal transfer ribbon. <P>SOLUTION: Pressure/vibration applying rollers 7a, 7b are brought into contact with an external circumference of a thermal transfer ribbon 2 by a roller drive motor 13, vibration from a vibration generator 8 is applied to an ink removed portion of the used thermal transfer ribbon 2, and then the vibration applied portion is welded to a resin of an already wound ink ribbon substrate. The welded wound ribbon is not able to be unwound. When the wound ribbon is forcedly unwound, the ribbon is broken so that the printed results (inverted images) are not able to be deciphered. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording apparatus that selectively transfers and prints ink on a thermal transfer ribbon (ink ribbon) onto a recording paper, and in particular, thermal transfer that prevents personal information and internal information from leaking to other people from a used ink ribbon. The present invention relates to a recording apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art A thermal transfer recording apparatus (thermal printer) is an apparatus that melts a thermal transfer ribbon (ink ribbon) by the heat of a thermal head and transfers ink onto recording paper, and is widely used in the world.

When printing on paper or labels using a thermal transfer method that uses such a thermal transfer ribbon, the printed thermal characters such as printed characters, images, and barcodes remain on the used thermal transfer ribbon as a negative reversal image. There is a risk that information such as printed characters, images, and barcodes can be read by rewinding the heat transfer ribbon and visually observing the print marks.

That is, a reverse image corresponding to printed characters or the like remains on the used thermal transfer ribbon (ink ribbon), and there has been a problem that personal information and internal information leak to others.

As methods for solving such problems, for example, JP-A-10-86424, JP-A-2004-34317, and the like are known.

There are various contents (information) such as printed characters, images, barcodes, etc., but there may be information that needs to be prevented from leaking information such as personal information that is confidential. In some cases, the used thermal transfer ribbon was buried as industrial waste so as not to be seen by the human eye, or was incinerated to prevent information leakage.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-86424 JP 2004-34317 A

However, since the thermal transfer ribbon is a film of PET or the like coated with a composition such as wax, synthetic resin, or carbon ink, when the used thermal transfer ribbon is disposed of in landfill, it will spoil even if it is landfilled.・ Because it is difficult to disassemble and print marks remain indefinitely, there is a risk that information will leak if dug up. In addition, the used thermal transfer ribbon can be incinerated because it is made of a combustible material. However, since it is wound in a roll shape, it takes much time for incineration and is not very desirable from the viewpoint of environmental friendliness.

In the case of the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-86424, a rewinding time for erasing the recording is necessary, and there is a problem that productivity is lowered. Further, since the double length of the ribbon recording length is brought into frictional contact with the thermal head, the life of the head is halved. In addition, since the entire surface is printed in black at the time of erasure, the duty of the head heating element is drastically reduced, resulting in ultra-low speed processing. In addition, there have been problems such as a decrease in electrical life and a dedicated platen head for erasing, such as saturation of molten ink and lack of durability.

In addition, in the case of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-34317, it is a so-called ink melting / diffusion erasing method using a dedicated heater roller, and is a complete post-printing ribbon post-processing device. Therefore, it was difficult to perform processing in parallel with the printing operation.

In the present invention, by performing printing and thermal transfer ribbon welding in parallel processing, the winding ribbon after the transfer is welded without slowing down the processing speed, and leakage of personal information and internal information can be surely prevented. It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal transfer recording apparatus that can be used.

In order to achieve the above object, a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a thermal head is disposed between two axes of a thermal transfer ribbon having a supply shaft and a winding shaft, a platen roller is disposed opposite the thermal head, and thermal transfer is performed. In a thermal transfer recording device configured to selectively transfer and print ribbon ink onto recording paper, the thermal transfer ribbon after transfer is wound around a winding shaft and vibration is applied to the outer periphery of the wound thermal transfer ribbon. The thermal transfer ribbons after the transfer are brought into contact with each other are brought into contact with each other.

In order to achieve the above object, the thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 2 is characterized in that in the thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 1, the vibration intensity for welding the thermal transfer ribbons of the roller to which vibration is applied can be changed depending on the type of the thermal transfer ribbon. And

In order to achieve the above object, the thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 3 is the thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the thermal transfer recording apparatus passes through the thermal head and is wound on the winding shaft until the winding shaft is wound. It is characterized by comprising a roller for blocking vibration from the roller to which vibration is applied.

As described above, by performing printing and thermal transfer ribbon welding in parallel processing, the thermal transfer recording apparatus according to the present invention has the following remarkable effects.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, printing and erasing operations can be performed continuously without reducing the productivity of thermal transfer recording, increasing the load on the thermal head, and increasing the temperature in the apparatus.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, optimum welding settings can be made for the types of thermal transfer ribbons having various color tones, the types of thermal transfer ribbon base materials, and the thermal transfer ribbon width set in the apparatus.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, even when high-quality printing is performed, the vibration generated from the welded portion is blocked from being transmitted to the thermal transfer portion (platen roller and thermal head), and a good transfer image quality can be obtained. Become.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of drive means for actually driving ink ribbon welding.

Referring to FIG. 1, the thermal transfer recording apparatus 1 of the present embodiment is supported by an unwinding shaft (also referred to as a supply shaft) 3 that pivotally supports a roll-shaped thermal transfer ribbon 4 before printing, and an unwinding shaft 3. It comprises a winding shaft 5 for winding the thermal transfer ribbon 4 before printing, and a welding portion (adhering portion) 6 for winding the thermal transfer ribbon 2 after printing and welding it by vibration (vibration) and pressure. The part (adhering part) 6 includes a pressurizing / vibrating roller 7a, 7b that presses against the outer periphery of the ink ribbon, a vibration oscillator 8 that applies vibration to the pressurizing / vibrating roller 7a, 7b, and load matching for synchronization. It comprises a device 22 and a high-frequency cable 23 for high-frequency transmission.

Here, welding is preferably performed using a high frequency, and the oscillation frequency is preferably in the range of 6 MHz to 40 MHz.

The thermal transfer recording apparatus 1 includes a winding shaft driving motor 9 that rotationally drives the winding shaft 5, and a ribbon winding diameter by a torque limiter 10 installed in a drive system between the winding shaft driving motor 9 and the winding shaft 5. Absorbs the difference in ribbon winding speed due to changes. A vibration roller drive motor 13 that rotationally drives the pressure adjustment mechanism 12 of the pressure and vibration rollers 7a and 7b, a vibration oscillator 8 that applies vibration to the pressure and vibration rollers 7a and 7b, and a vibration roller drive A drive control unit 14 that controls the motor 13 and the vibration oscillator 8 to set the pressure and vibration strength of the vibration rollers 7a and 7b, and the winding speed, pressure, and pressure of the vibration oscillator 8 and the used thermal transfer ribbon 2 The input unit 15 inputs information such as the applied pressure / vibration strength of the vibration rollers 7a and 7b and the ink ribbon type as thermal transfer recording conditions, and has a configuration in which the welding conditions are extracted from the welding condition storage unit 16 based on the recording conditions. .

The unwinding shaft 3 is a shaft that pivotally supports the roll-shaped thermal transfer ribbon 4 before printing. A predetermined frictional force is applied to the rotation of the unwinding shaft 3 by brake means (not shown), and a predetermined tension is applied to the thermal transfer ribbon 4 before being unwound.

The take-up shaft 5 is a drive shaft that takes up the pre-printing thermal transfer ribbon 4 supported by the unwind shaft 3 after printing, and is driven to rotate by a take-up shaft drive motor 9. A torque limiter 10 exists in the rotational drive transmission system of the take-up shaft 5, and the take-up occurs due to the difference between the constant speed take-up speed of the take-up shaft drive motor 9 and the take-up diameter of the used thermal transfer ribbon 2. Absorbs the speed difference.

The pair of guide rollers 18a and 18b prevent the vibration of the pressure and vibration rollers 7a and 7b from being transmitted to a printing unit such as a thermal head (transfer head). It can be omitted in a transfer mechanism that does not require high accuracy. In the printing mechanism having ultra-high accuracy, the guide rollers 18a and 18b can be used as capstan rollers to drive and realize high-precision feeding.

The pressure and vibration rollers 7a and 7b are brought into contact with the outer periphery of the ribbon by the roller driving motor 13, and the vibration from the vibration oscillator 8 is pressed and vibrated on the ink removal surface of the used thermal transfer ribbon 2 so as to be already wound. It is made to weld with resin which is a used ink ribbon base material.

FIG. 2 shows a first embodiment of the welded portion. At the time of welding, two electrodes are required, and the high frequency from the vibration oscillator 8 is transmitted to the load matching circuit 22 by the high frequency cable 23. The output of the load matching circuit 22 is connected to the pressurizing / vibrating rollers 7a and 7b, which are rotatable, and brought into contact with the outer periphery of the used thermal transfer ribbon 2 to perform vibration.

FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the welded portion. As shown in the figure, the vibration roller 7b may be brought into contact with the outer periphery of the used thermal transfer ribbon 2, and the pressure roller 7a may be provided on the outer periphery of the tube of the used thermal transfer ribbon 2 to perform welding.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a state in which a print mark is welded to an adjacent ribbon base by the pressure and vibration rollers 7a and 7b shown in FIG.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, the roll-shaped pre-printing thermal transfer ribbon 4 is set on the unwinding shaft 3, and the thermal transfer ribbon 2 after printing is guided to the guide roller 18a, the guide roller 18b, the pressure and vibration roller 7a, 7b and the winding shaft 5 are passed through in this order. The direction of the thermal transfer ribbon 2 after printing passes so that the non-ink surface is in contact with the pressure and vibration rollers 7a and 7b.

Next, by inputting the thermal transfer recording condition, that is, the type of the thermal transfer ribbon 4 before printing, from the input unit 15, conditions for the pressure, the pressure applied to the vibration roller 7, and the vibration force are set from the storage unit 16. The start of welding operation is instructed together with the start of thermal transfer. Here, the type of thermal transfer ribbon refers to thermal transfer ribbons having different colors, external additives, and the like.

Simultaneously with the printing operation, when a welding operation start instruction is input from the input unit 15, the pressurizing / vibrating roller driving unit 20 starts to press the vibrating rollers 7 a and 7 b by the pressurizing motor. Further, vibration is applied by a vibrator.

Simultaneously with the start of printing, when the pressure and vibration rollers 7a and 7b reach the pressure and vibration strength of the pressure and vibration rollers 7a and 7b input from the input unit 15, the winding shaft drive motor 9 takes up the winding force. The shaft 5 is rotationally driven to wind up the used thermal transfer ribbon 2. At this time, the used thermal transfer ribbon 2 is pressed from the storage unit 16 with the welding conditions that meet the conditions input from the input unit 15, and the ribbons are welded at the optimum pressure and vibration strength by the vibration roller 7. Let

FIG. 5 shows an example in which the surface of the pressure and vibration rollers 7 a and 7 b pressed against the used thermal transfer ribbon 2 is in contact with and vibrates the used thermal transfer ribbon 2.
As shown in FIG. 5, the ink surface of the used thermal transfer ribbon 2 composed of residual ink that has not been used for printing and print marks (blank portions that have been thermally transferred) comes into contact with the pressure and vibration rollers 7a and 7b. The ribbon base material of the print mark (the blank portion which has been thermally transferred) is pressed and vibrated to directly contact with the already wound base material and is strongly welded by vibration. About the residual ink part, the welding intensity | strength is determined by the resin component mix | blended with an ink. The wound ribbon after welding cannot be unwound, and if it is forcibly peeled off, it will be broken and the print mark (reverse image) cannot be decoded.

Further, the weldability can be further improved by changing the surface of the pressurizing / vibrating rollers 7a and 7b to a material to which the welded film is difficult to adhere, or by making it to an appropriate roughness.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the pressure and vibration rollers 7a and 7b are pressed against the outer periphery of the used thermal transfer ribbon 2, and the thermal transfer ribbon is melted and used for high frequency welding. It is possible to completely weld the print marks remaining on the heat transfer ribbon 2 that has already been printed, and to prevent leakage of information such as printed characters, images, and barcodes.

Furthermore, according to the present embodiment, the welding conditions, the pressure, the contact pressure of the vibration rollers 7a and 7b, and the vibration strength can be changed, so that different types of used thermal transfer ribbons 2 can be respectively used. Optimum conditions can be set, print marks can be reliably welded on any kind of used thermal transfer ribbon 2, and information leakage of printed characters, images, barcodes, etc. can be prevented Can do.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it is obvious that the embodiments can be appropriately changed within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. In addition, the number, position, shape, and the like of the constituent members are not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be set to a suitable number, position, shape, and the like in practicing the present invention. In each figure, the same numerals are given to the same component.

1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to the present invention. It is a figure which shows 1st Embodiment of a welding part. It is a figure which shows 2nd Embodiment of a welding part. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the drive means to weld (adhere). It is explanatory drawing of a mode that a printing trace is welded (fixed) by the vibration roller.

Explanation of symbols

1 Thermal transfer recording device 2 Used thermal transfer ribbon 3 Unwinding shaft (supply shaft)
4 Thermal transfer ribbon 5 before printing 5 Winding shaft 6 Welding part (adhering part)
7a, 7b Pressure, vibration roller 8 Vibration oscillator 9 Winding shaft drive motor 10 Torque limiter 11 Pressure spring 12 Pressure adjustment mechanism 13 Roller drive motor 14 Drive control unit 15 Input unit 16 Storage unit 17 Platen roller 18 a, 18b Guide roller 19 Recording paper 20 Pressure / vibration roller drive unit 21 Capstan roller drive unit 22 Load matching circuit 23 High-frequency cable

Claims (3)

A thermal head is arranged between two axes of a thermal transfer ribbon having a supply axis and a take-up axis, a platen roller is arranged opposite to the thermal head, and the ink of the thermal transfer ribbon is selectively transferred and printed on a recording sheet. In the thermal transfer recording apparatus configured as described above, the thermal transfer ribbon after the completion of the transfer is wound around the winding shaft, and a roller having vibration applied to the outer periphery of the wound thermal transfer ribbon is brought into contact with the thermal transfer recording apparatus. A thermal transfer recording apparatus characterized in that the thermal transfer ribbons are welded together. 2. The thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a vibration intensity at which the roller to which the vibration is applied welds the thermal transfer ribbons can be changed according to a type of the thermal transfer ribbon. The roller for interrupting the vibration from the roller which provided the said vibration was comprised on the said thermal transfer ribbon path | route until it winds around the said winding shaft after passing the said thermal head, The 1 or 2 characterized by the above-mentioned. The thermal transfer recording apparatus according to any one of the above.

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