JP2008006678A - Double-sided printing thermal printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent interference between a harness of a thermal head and a platen roller from occurring even when a distance between the thermal heads is made small so as to minimize a non-printed region. <P>SOLUTION: The double-sided printing thermal printer is equipped with a first harness 33 set projecting towards the side of a thermal paper feeding part 20 from a first thermal head 31, a first platen roller 32 arranged opposite to the first thermal head 31, a second thermal head 41 arranged opposite to the side of a back face of a paper conveyance path 22, a second hardness 43 set projecting towards the side of the thermal paper feeding part 20 from the second thermal head 41, and a second platen roller 42 arranged opposite to the second thermal head 41. The thermal printer is arranged so that the projecting direction of the first harness 31 is isolated from the paper conveyance path 22 and the projecting direction of the second harness 43 is isolated from the paper conveyance path 22. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a double-sided printing thermal printer that performs printing on both sides of a thermal paper, and more particularly to a printer that minimizes a non-printing area.

  Thermal printers are used for printing on receipts and the like at restaurants and stores. Ordinary receipts are printed on one side, and a large amount of receipt paper is used when there is a lot of information. Therefore, a double-sided printing thermal printer has been proposed that can perform double-sided printing on thermal paper so that more information can be printed on the paper (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  FIG. 2 is a side view schematically showing an example of such a double-sided printing thermal printer 100. The double-sided printing thermal printer 100 is disposed between a housing 101, a thermal paper supply unit 110 accommodated in the housing 101, a first printing unit 120, and the first printing unit 120 and the thermal paper supply unit 110. The second printing unit 130, a driving unit 140 that drives each unit, and a cutter device 150 that cuts the printed thermal paper P are provided.

  In order to print on both sides of the thermal paper P, the first printing unit 120 and the second printing unit are provided with two thermal heads 121 and 131 corresponding to each side.

Platens 122 and 132 are arranged opposite to the thermal heads 121 and 131, respectively. Thermal paper P passes between the thermal heads 121 and 131 and the platens 122 and 132, and is added to the thermal heads 121 and 131. Printing was performed on thermal paper with the generated heat. The thermal heads 121 and 131 are provided with harnesses 123 and 133, respectively. The direction in which the harnesses 123 and 133 protrude from the thermal heads 121 and 131 is arranged to be parallel to the running direction of the thermal paper P.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-286147

  The double-sided printing thermal printer described above has the following problems. That is, in the double-sided simultaneous printing thermal printer, two sets of a thermal head and a platen roller as a printing unit are required. For this reason, since there is a possibility that the harness connected to the rear of the thermal head of one printing unit may interfere with the other platen roller, an interval for preventing the harness from interfering with each other is necessary. For this reason, the space | interval of thermal heads becomes wide and the space | interval will become a non-printing area | region. If this non-printing area is large, there is a problem that the paper feed amount is increased correspondingly and the printing speed is reduced.

  Therefore, the present invention can prevent interference between the platen roller and the harness connected to the adjacent thermal head even when the distance between the thermal heads is reduced in order to minimize the non-printing area. An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal printer capable of simultaneous duplex printing.

  In order to solve the above problems and achieve the object, the duplex printing thermal printer of the present invention is configured as follows.

  A thermal paper supply mechanism that supplies thermal paper along the paper conveyance path; a first thermal head that is provided along the paper conveyance path and is disposed opposite to the first surface of the paper conveyance path; A first harness projecting from the thermal head toward the thermal paper supply mechanism, a first platen roller disposed across the paper conveyance path with respect to the first thermal head, and the paper conveyance path. A second thermal head provided between the first thermal head and the thermal paper supply mechanism and disposed opposite to the second surface side of the paper transport path, and the thermal paper from the second thermal head. A second harness that protrudes toward the supply mechanism; and a second platen roller that is disposed across the sheet conveyance path with respect to the second thermal head, and the protruding direction of the first harness is Paper transport The first thermal head is disposed with respect to the paper transport path so as to be separated from the paper transport path, and the second thermal head is disposed with respect to the paper transport path so that the protruding direction of the second harness is separated from the paper transport path. It is characterized by being arranged.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent interference between a platen roller and a harness connected to an adjacent thermal head even when the distance between the thermal heads is reduced in order to minimize a non-printing area. Is possible.

  FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing a double-sided simultaneous printing thermal printer 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the double-sided simultaneous printing thermal printer 10 includes a housing 11, a thermal paper supply unit 20 accommodated in the housing 11, a first printing unit 30, and a first printing unit 30. 1 includes a second printing unit 40 disposed between the printing unit 30 and the thermal paper supply unit 20, a driving unit 50 that drives each unit, and a cutter device 60 that cuts the printed thermal paper P. .

  The housing 11 is provided with a discharge port 12 through which the printed thermal paper P is discharged.

  The thermal paper supply unit 20 includes a holding unit 21 that holds the thermal paper roll R, and a feed mechanism 23 that transports the thermal paper P from the holding unit 21 to the printing mechanism 30 along the paper transport path 22. The feed mechanism 23 is provided with a damper 24. The damper 24 has a function of applying a constant tension to the thermal paper P.

  The first printing unit 30 includes a first thermal head 31 disposed opposite to the front surface (first surface) P1 side of the thermal paper P conveyed through the paper conveyance path 22, and the paper conveyance path 22 to the first thermal head 31. The first platen 32 and the first harness 33 attached to the first thermal head 31 are provided so as to face each other. The first thermal head 31 is arranged so that the protruding direction of the first harness 33 is separated from the paper transport path 22.

  The second printing unit 40 includes a second thermal head 41 disposed opposite to the back surface (second surface) P <b> 2 of the thermal paper P transported through the paper transport path 22, and the paper transport path 22 through the second thermal head 41. A second platen 42 that is disposed to be opposed to each other and a second harness 43 that is attached to the second thermal head 41 are provided. The second thermal head 41 is arranged so that the protruding direction of the second harness 43 is separated from the paper transport path 22.

  The drive unit 50 includes a drive motor 51 and a gear mechanism (not shown) that transmits the rotational force generated by the drive motor 51 to each unit.

  The double-sided simultaneous printing thermal printer 10 configured as described above performs double-sided printing as follows. That is, the thermal paper P is fed from the holding unit 21 along the paper transport path 22 by the feed mechanism 23. The thermal paper P sent by the feed mechanism 23 is sandwiched between the second thermal head 41 and the second platen roller 42. At the same time, the second thermal head 41 is heated based on the signal input through the second harness 43 to print characters on the back surface P2 of the thermal paper P.

  Next, the thermal paper P is sent from the second printing unit 40 to the first printing unit 30 and is sandwiched between the first thermal head 31 and the first platen roller 32. The first printing unit 30 heats the first thermal head 31 based on a signal input via the first harness 33 and prints characters on the surface P1 of the thermal paper P. The thermal paper P that has been printed is discharged from the discharge port 12.

  When the interval between the first printing unit 30 and the second printing unit 40 is increased, the non-printing area is widened. On the other hand, when the distance is too close, the first harness 33 and the second platen roller 42 interfere with each other. In the double-sided printing thermal printer 10, the first harness is attached to the first thermal head 31 and the second thermal head 41 at an angle with respect to the sheet conveyance path 22, so that the first harness is based on the extending direction of the sheet conveyance path 22. 33 can be shifted to the left in FIG. 1, and the second platen roller 42 can be shifted to the right in FIG. As a result, even if the first thermal head 31 and the second thermal head 41 are brought close to each other, the distance between the first thermal head 31 and the second platen roller 42 can be reduced.

  Thus, the non-printing area can be minimized by reducing the distance between the first printing unit 30 and the second printing unit 40. Further, since the non-printing area is narrowed, the feed amount of the non-printing area is reduced, and the printing speed can be improved.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent interference between a platen roller and a harness connected to an adjacent thermal head even when the distance between the thermal heads is reduced in order to minimize a non-printing area. Is possible.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation implementation is possible in the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention.

1 is a side view schematically showing a double-sided simultaneous printing thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. The side view which shows typically the conventional double-sided simultaneous printing thermal printer.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Duplex printing thermal printer, 20 ... Thermal paper supply part, 22 ... Paper conveyance path, 23 ... Feed mechanism (thermal paper supply mechanism), 31 ... 1st thermal head, 32 ... 1st platen, 33 ... 1st harness, 41 ... 2nd thermal head, 42 ... 2nd platen, 43 ... 2nd harness.

Claims (1)

A thermal paper supply mechanism for supplying thermal paper along the paper transport path;
A first thermal head provided along the paper transport path and disposed opposite to the first surface of the paper transport path;
A first harness projecting from the first thermal head toward the thermal paper supply mechanism;
A first platen roller disposed with respect to the first thermal head across the paper conveyance path;
A second thermal head provided between the first thermal head and the thermal paper supply mechanism along the paper conveyance path, and disposed opposite to the second surface side of the paper conveyance path;
A second harness projecting from the second thermal head toward the thermal paper supply mechanism;
A second platen roller disposed across the paper transport path with respect to the second thermal head,
The first thermal head is arranged with respect to the paper conveyance path so that the protruding direction of the first harness is separated from the paper conveying path, and the protruding direction of the second harness is separated from the paper conveying path. The double-sided printing thermal printer, wherein the second thermal head is disposed with respect to the paper transport path.

Images