JP2008080681A - Tray for printing and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tray for printing and a printer which can prevent a smudge made by an ink from adhering to an optical disk even when the ink is ejected to the outside of the printable area. <P>SOLUTION: The tray for printing 1 which is installed in an inkjet printer 2 and holds the optical disk 100 which is a medium to be printed and conveys the disk to a predetermined printing position comprises: a tray body 11 where the optical disk is placed; and an ink absorber 7 which is installed in the tray body 11 and absorbs the ink ejected outside the printable area 105 of the optical disk 100 placed in the tray body 11. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing tray provided in an inkjet printing apparatus that performs printing on a label surface of an optical disk such as a CD (Compact Disc), a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), and a Blu-ray Disc (registered trademark). The present invention relates to a printing apparatus.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an inkjet printer as an example of a printing apparatus is configured such that desired label printing can be performed on a label surface by ejecting ink droplets directly onto the label surface of an optical disk placed on a dedicated tray. There are some (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Since the optical disk is composed of a polycarbonate substrate having poor ink receptivity, an ink receiving layer for receiving ink is provided on the label surface of the optical disk used for such label printing.

Incidentally, in recent years, in the case of photographic prints or the like, so-called “borderless printing” is performed in which printing is performed without margins on the edge of the printing paper. There is an increasing demand for “rimless printing” on the label side of optical discs. In order to meet this demand, printing is performed by expanding the data area of the print data over the entire printable area of the label surface.
JP 2006-192837 A

However, since the printable area on the label surface of the optical disk generally has a disk shape, printing in the printable area without a blank space is performed while transporting the optical disk in the sub-scanning direction using a dedicated tray for optical disk printing. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly control the width of the area in which the ink is ejected by the ink head. In some cases, the ink may be ejected outside the printable area. As described above, since the substrate of the optical disk is formed of polycarbonate resin having poor ink receptivity, the ink ejected outside the printable area and attached to the substrate such as the side edge of the optical disk is difficult to dry. There is a risk that the optical disk may be soiled by touching it with hands.
An object of the present invention is to provide a printing tray and a printing apparatus that can prevent dirt from being attached to an optical disk by ink even when ink is ejected outside the printable area.

In order to solve the above problems, a printing tray of the present invention is a printing tray provided in an ink jet printing apparatus, which holds an optical disk as a printing medium and conveys it to a predetermined printing position. A tray main body, and an ink absorber that is provided in the tray main body and absorbs ink ejected outside the printable area of the optical disk mounted on the tray main body. To do.
According to the above configuration, since the ink absorber is provided in the tray body, and the ink ejected outside the printable area of the optical disc is absorbed by the ink absorber, the outside of the printable area on the label surface of the optical disc is absorbed. Even when ink is ejected, it is possible to prevent the ink from being contaminated by this ink. In addition, even when printing is performed over the entire printable area without margins, even if ink is ejected to the edge (edge) of the printable area, the ink ejected outside the printable area is absorbed by the ink absorber. Therefore, so-called “edgeless printing” can be excellently performed on the label surface of the optical disk.

In the above configuration, it is preferable that the ink absorber covers an outer peripheral portion of the optical disc outside the printable area.
According to the above configuration, when the optical disk is placed on the tray body, the outer periphery of the optical disk outside the printable area of the optical disk is covered with the ink absorber, so that the ink discharged outside the printable area is absorbed by the ink. It can be absorbed by the body and the optical disk can be prevented from being stained by this ink, and borderless printing can be performed excellently.

The ink absorber may protrude beyond the printable area on the label surface of the optical disc.
By configuring in this way, when the optical disk is placed on the tray body, the area outside the printable area of the label surface of the optical disk protrudes from the ink absorber, and ink discharge is prevented by the ink absorber. Ink ejected outside the printable area is absorbed by the ink absorber to prevent the optical disk from being ejected outside the printable area, and borderless printing can be performed excellently.

In the above configuration, it is preferable that the ink absorber is in close contact with a side edge of the optical disc.
According to the above configuration, the ink absorber is brought into close contact with the side edge portion of the optical disc, so that it is possible to prevent ink from adhering to the side edge portion of the optical disc.

Further, in the above configuration, the ink absorber is made of an elastically deformable material, and has an accommodating recess for accommodating the optical disc. It is preferably smaller than the outer periphery of the optical disk.
According to this configuration, the ink absorber is made of an elastically deformable material, and has an accommodating recess for accommodating the optical disc, and the inner periphery of the accommodating recess is smaller than the outer periphery of the optical disc when the optical disc is not accommodated. Therefore, the ink absorber can be brought into close contact with the side edge of the optical disk accommodated in the accommodation recess, and ink can be prevented from adhering to the side edge of the optical disk.

The printing apparatus of the present invention is an ink jet printing apparatus that performs printing on a label surface of an optical disc, and is characterized in that a printing tray having any one of the above-described configurations can be mounted or incorporated. .
According to this configuration, since the printing tray is provided, the ink is ejected outside the printable area by placing the optical disk on the printing tray and performing printing on the label surface. In addition, the ink can be absorbed by the ink absorber, and the optical disk can be prevented from being stained by the ink.

  According to the present invention, since the ink absorber that absorbs the ink ejected outside the printable area of the optical disk is provided in the tray body of the printing tray, the optical disk remains in the ink even if the ink is ejected outside the printable area. It is possible to prevent contamination.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an external perspective view of a printing tray 1 and a printing apparatus 2 according to the present embodiment. However, FIG. 1 shows a state where the outer case of the printing apparatus 2 is removed. FIG. 2 shows a side sectional view of the printing apparatus 2.
The printing apparatus 2 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is an ink jet printer, and can perform printing on a printing paper P such as a cut sheet, and by using a printing tray 1 dedicated to the optical disk, The label surface 101 can be printed.

  First, a schematic configuration of the printing apparatus 2 will be described. The printing apparatus 2 is transported to a predetermined printing position, a paper feeding unit 20 that feeds the printing paper P, a transport unit 30 that transports the printing paper P supplied to the paper feeding unit 20 to a predetermined printing position, and A recording unit 40 that performs printing on the printing paper P and a discharge unit 50 that discharges the printed printing paper P are provided.

  The paper feed unit 20 is a paper feed tray 21 on which the print paper P is placed in an inclined posture, and a feed mechanism for feeding the print paper P placed on the paper feed tray 21 toward the transport unit 30. 22. The feeding mechanism 22 includes a hopper 23, a feeding roller 24, a retard roller 25, and the like. The hopper 23 is a plate-like body configured to be swingable around an upper swing fulcrum (not shown), and is disposed at the base end portion 21 a of the paper feed tray 21. As the hopper 23 swings, the printing paper P placed on the paper feed tray 21 is pressed against or separated from the feeding roller 24. The feeding roller 24 has a substantially D shape in a cross-sectional view, and is pressed against the retard roller 25 at an arc portion 24a. By the action of the feeding roller 24 and the retard roller 25, the printing paper P placed on the paper feeding tray 21 is sequentially fed to the transport unit 30 one by one through the guide roller 26.

  The transport unit 30 includes a transport drive roller 31 that is rotationally driven by a motor (not shown), and a transport driven roller 32 that is driven to rotate while being pressed against the transport drive roller 31. The transport drive roller 31 and the transport driven roller 32 are provided. , The printing paper P is fed by a predetermined amount, and the printing paper P is conveyed to a predetermined printing position.

  The recording unit 40 prints on the printing medium by ejecting ink droplets of a predetermined color at predetermined coordinate positions of the printing medium such as the printing paper P and the optical disk 100 while scanning the recording head 41 in the main scanning direction. A recording head 41, a paper guide 42 provided so as to face the recording head 41, a carriage 43 that holds the recording head 41 and reciprocally moves the recording head 41 in the main scanning direction are provided. . The recording head 41 is provided at the bottom of the carriage 43, and the carriage 43 is driven to reciprocate in the main scanning direction by a drive motor (not shown) while being guided by a carriage guide shaft 44 extending in the main scanning direction. The carriage 43 is equipped with an independent ink cartridge for each of a plurality of colors, and supplies ink to the recording head 41.

  The paper guide 42 is provided with a rib on the surface facing the recording head 41 and a recess (not shown) for discarding ink droplets. By soaking ink droplets into the recesses, so-called “borderless printing” is performed in which printing is performed without margins on the edge of the printing paper P.

The printing paper P printed by the recording unit 40 is guided by the guide roller 46 and fed to the discharge unit 50.
The discharge unit 50 includes a discharge drive roller 51 that is rotationally driven by a motor (not shown), and a discharge driven roller 52 that rotates in contact with the discharge drive roller 51. By the action of the discharge driving roller 51 and the discharge driven roller 52, the printing paper P after printing is discharged to a stacker (not shown).

As described above, the printing apparatus 2 configured as described above can perform printing by ejecting ink droplets onto the label surface 101 of the optical disc 100 by using the printing tray 1 dedicated to the optical disc. ing. The optical disc 100 is supported while being placed on the printing tray 1 and is transported to a printing position. The printing tray 1 is configured separately from the printing apparatus 2, and is supported by a tray guide 27 provided in the printing apparatus 2, while the printing apparatus 2 starts from the front side (the discharge unit 50 side) of the printing apparatus 2. Is manually inserted into the tray conveyance path and is sub-scanned by the conveyance unit 30. The tray guide 27 is for restricting the insertion position of the printing tray 1 in order to correctly set the printing tray 1 in the printing apparatus 2.
Here, the optical disc 100 will be described prior to the description of the configuration and the like of the printing tray 1. As shown in FIG. 3, the optical disk 100 used for ink jet printing has a disk shape, and a center hole 102 is provided at the center thereof.

One surface of the optical disc 100 is a light incident surface 103 that is irradiated with a laser beam during data recording / reproduction, and the back surface of the light incident surface 103 is a label surface 101.
The light incident surface 103 is made of, for example, a transparent plastic substrate such as a polycarbonate resin substrate. However, the configuration of the optical disc 100 main body can be configured in accordance with standards such as CD, DVD, Blu-ray disc, HD DVD and the like. Here, the details of the configuration of the optical disc 100 main body are omitted.

  An ink receiving layer 104 is provided on the label surface 101, and a printable area 105 is formed by providing the ink receiving layer 104. The ink receiving layer 104 is configured using, for example, an ink swelling type component mainly composed of a polymer or a gap absorption type component mainly composed of an inorganic pigment. As described above, the optical disc 100 is composed of a plastic substrate or the like having poor ink receptivity as described above. Thus, by providing the ink receiving layer 104 that forms the predetermined printable area 105 on the label surface 101 as described above, the user can perform inkjet recording. A desired image, character, or the like can be printed using a printer or the like.

  However, the ink receiving layer 104 may be formed by directly applying a coating material containing the above components to the label surface 101, and the printable area 105 may be provided on the optical disc 100, or the ink containing the above components. The printable area 105 may be provided on the optical disc 100 by attaching a label sheet having the receiving layer 104 to the label surface 101.

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the printable area 105 extends from the label surface 101 of the optical disc 100 to substantially the end of the label surface 101 except for a predetermined area 106 around the center hole 102. Provided. However, the ink ejected outside the printable area 105 when printing on the label surface 101 adheres to a plastic substrate having poor ink receptivity. For this reason, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, an ink absorber 7 for absorbing ink ejected outside the printable area 105 is provided in the printing tray 1.

Next, the configuration of the printing tray 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, the printing tray 1 includes a tray main body 11 formed in a substantially rectangular shape in plan view, and the ink absorber 7 placed on the tray main body 11. The tray body 11 is used to transport the optical disk 100 as a printing medium to a predetermined printing position. The tray body 11 has a plate shape that can be nipped by a transport driving roller 31 and a transport driven roller 32, and transports the optical disk 100. The optical disk 100 can be sub-scanned by rotation of the drive roller 31. Here, the end portion 12 on the side of the tray body 11 attached to the printing apparatus 2 is configured so that the thickness gradually decreases toward the tip, and between the transport driving roller 31 and the transport driven roller 32. It can be easily inserted and mounted.

  The tray body 11 is formed with a substantially rectangular recess 13 in a plan view, and an ink absorber 7 formed in a substantially rectangular shape is placed so as to be fitted into the recess 13. The ink absorber 7 is made of a sponge-like material that can absorb ink and can be elastically deformed, and the ink absorbed on the surface of the ink absorber 7 is immediately sucked into the inside. ing.

  In addition, an accommodating recess 71 for accommodating the optical disc 100 is formed at a substantially central position of the ink absorber 7. The accommodating recess 71 has substantially the same shape as the optical disc 100 in plan view, and the inner periphery of the accommodating recess 71 is configured to be slightly smaller than the outer periphery of the optical disc 100 when the optical disc 100 is not accommodated. The depth D of the housing recess 71 is configured to be substantially the same as the thickness (approximately 1.2 mm) of the optical disc 100 (including the ink receiving layer 104) or deeper than the thickness of the optical disc 100. Therefore, when the optical disc 100 is accommodated in the accommodating recess 71, the side edge portion 107 of the optical disc 100 is in close contact with the ink absorber 7 (inner peripheral wall surface 71a) on the inner peripheral wall surface 71a of the accommodating recess 71. . Further, by making the depth of the accommodating recess 71 deeper than the thickness of the optical disc 100, the upper part on the inner peripheral wall surface 71 a side of the accommodating recess 71 protrudes to an area outside the printable area 105 of the label surface 101, and the printable area 105. The outer periphery 108 of the outer optical disc 100 can be covered. For this reason, at the end of the printable area 105, ink is discarded into the ink absorber 7 so that printing is performed without a margin up to the end of the printable area 105 of the label surface 101 of the optical disc 100. Can be executed on the label surface 101 of the optical disc 100.

  However, in the above description, the outer peripheral portion 108 outside the printable area 105 of the optical disc 100 includes the side edge portion 107 of the optical disc 100. As shown in FIG. 3, if the outer peripheral portion 108 has an area on the upper surface of the label surface 101 on the outer peripheral side of the optical disc 100 where the ink receiving layer 104 is not formed, this ink receiving An area outside the printable area 105 where the layer 104 is not provided is included.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a through hole 73 through which the convex portion 14 formed integrally with the tray main body 11 passes is formed in the bottom portion 72 of the accommodating concave portion 71. The optical disc 100 is accommodated in the accommodating recess 71, and the center hole 102 is fitted in the convex portion 14, and is placed on the tray body 11 via the ink absorber 7.

Next, a procedure for printing on the label surface 101 of the optical disc 100 using the printing apparatus 2 and the printing tray 1 configured as described above will be described.
First, the optical disk 100 is fixed to the printing tray 1. At this time, the optical disc 100 is accommodated in the accommodating recess 71 formed in the ink absorber 7 so that the label surface 101 of the optical disc 100 faces upward, and the convex portion 14 is fitted in the center hole 102 to fix the optical disc 100. To do. Next, the end 12 on the mounting side of the printing tray 1 to which the optical disc 100 is fixed is inserted between the transport driving roller 31 and the transport driven roller 32, and the end 12 of the printing tray 1 is connected to the printing device 2. Attach to.

  Then, the user designates printing data such as characters and images to be printed on the label surface 101 of the optical disc 100 using a personal computer connected to the printing apparatus 2, and prints the printing apparatus 2 together with a print instruction. When the printing data is transmitted, the printing apparatus 2 records the printing tray 1 by the carriage 43 while conveying the optical disk 100 to the printing position by a predetermined amount in the sub-scanning direction by the action of the conveyance driving roller 31 and the conveyance driven roller 32. The head 41 is scanned in the main scanning direction, and ink droplets of a predetermined color are ejected at predetermined coordinate positions of the printable area 105 provided on the label surface 101 according to the printing data.

  Ink droplets ejected outside the printable area 105 are absorbed by the ink absorber 7 that covers the outer peripheral portion 108 of the optical disc 100 outside the printable area 105.

  As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, the ink absorber 7 is provided in the tray main body 11, and the outer periphery 108 of the optical disk 100 outside the printable area 105 is covered by the ink absorber 7, and the outside of the printable area 105 is covered. Since the ink ejected on the optical disc 100 is absorbed, even if ink is ejected outside the printable area 105 of the label surface 101 of the optical disc 100, it is possible to prevent the dirt from adhering to the side edge 107 of the optical disc 100. be able to. In addition, even when printing is performed over the entire printable area 105 without a margin, when ink is ejected to the end of the printable area 105, the ink ejected outside the printable area 105 is absorbed by the ink absorber 7. Therefore, so-called “borderless printing” can be excellently performed on the label surface 101 of the optical disc 100.

  Further, according to the above embodiment, the ink absorber 7 includes the accommodating recess 71 having substantially the same shape as the optical disc 100, and the inner periphery of the accommodating recess 71 is larger than the outer periphery of the optical disc 100 when the optical disc 100 is not accommodated. Since the ink absorber 7 can be brought into close contact with the side edge 107 of the optical disc 100, ink can be prevented from adhering to the side edge 107 of the optical disc 100, and at the time of printing. The optical disc 100 can be fixed.

However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it is needless to say that the present invention can be appropriately changed without departing from the gist of the present invention.
For example, the printing apparatus 2 shown in the above embodiment is only one aspect of the present invention and is not limited to the above configuration. In the above embodiment, the printing tray 1 is interposed between the conveyance driving roller 31 and the conveyance driven roller 32. However, the method for mounting the printing tray 1 on the printing apparatus 2 according to the present invention ( The assembling method is not limited to the above embodiment, and the printing tray 1 supports the optical disc 100 and transports the optical disc 100 as a printing medium to a predetermined printing position of the printing apparatus 2. If so, that's fine. Further, the printing tray 1 is not limited to a structure that is manually inserted into the tray conveyance path, and may be a structure that is fixed to the printing apparatus 2 and cannot be easily removed.

  Further, in the above embodiment, the ink absorber 7 is provided so as to be fitted in the recess 13 formed in the rectangular shape in plan view formed in the printing tray 1. Etc. is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, an accommodation portion 15 for accommodating the optical disc 100 is provided in the printing tray 1 itself, and the side edge portion 107 of the optical disc 100 accommodated in the accommodation portion 15 and the wall surface portion of the accommodation portion 15 are provided. It is good also as a structure which provides the ink absorber 8 so that it may interpose in the clearance gap between 15a. At this time, the ink absorber 8 is formed in an annular shape in plan view as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, and the inner periphery of the ring is smaller than the outer periphery of the optical disc 100 when the optical disc 100 is not mounted. Then, when the optical disc 100 is mounted, it is preferable that the optical disc 100 is in close contact with the side edge portion 107 of the optical disc 100. Similarly to the above embodiment, by making the thickness of the ink absorber 8 larger than the thickness of the optical disc 100, the ink absorber 8 is attached to the optical absorber 100 when the optical disc 100 is mounted on the ink absorber 8. The label surface 101 can be projected to an area outside the printable area 105 so as to cover the outer peripheral portion 108 of the optical disc 100 outside the printable area 105. Note that the ink absorber 8 may be configured to cover the light incident surface 103 side of the optical disc 100. Further, it is not always necessary to provide the ink absorber 7 with the bottom portion 72 that covers the light incident surface 103 side of the optical disc 100.

  Further, when the area outside the printable area 105 on the outer peripheral side of the optical disc 100 is large on the upper surface of the label surface 101, the area outside the printable area 105 in the ink absorber 8 or the ink absorber 7 is defined. A covering portion for covering may be provided on the ink absorbers 7 and 8.

  In the above embodiment, an inkjet printer has been described as an example of the printing apparatus 2 to which the printing tray 1 according to the present invention is attached. However, the printing tray 1 is, for example, an optical disk 100 duplicating apparatus that duplicates the optical disk 100. You may apply to the printing apparatus 2 with which it is equipped. However, the optical disc 100 duplicating apparatus is a disc drive capable of writing predetermined data on the optical disc 100 by irradiating the recording surface of the optical disc 100 with a laser beam, and the optical disc 100 based on predetermined printing data. The label surface 101 is provided with a printing apparatus 2 that performs printing with ink, and the printing tray 1 described in the above embodiment is mounted or incorporated in the printing apparatus 2.

1 is an external perspective view illustrating an example of a printing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a side sectional view showing an example of the printing apparatus of the present invention. The top view (a) of an example of the optical disk of this invention, and A-A 'sectional drawing (b). The top view (a) and B-B 'sectional drawing (b) of an example of the printing tray of this invention. The top view (a) and C-C 'sectional drawing (b) of the modification of the ink absorber of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printing tray, 2 ... Printing apparatus, 7 ... Ink absorber, 8 ... Ink absorber, 11 ... Tray main body, 71 ... Storage recessed part, 100 ... Optical disk, 101 ... Label surface, 105 ... Printable area, 107 ... Side edge, 108 ... outer periphery.

Claims (6)

A printing tray that is provided in an ink jet printing apparatus, holds an optical disk as a printing medium, and transports it to a predetermined printing position,
A tray body on which the optical disk is placed;
An ink absorber that is provided in the tray body and absorbs ink ejected outside the printable area of the optical disc placed on the tray body;
A printing tray comprising: The printing tray according to claim 1,
The ink absorber covers an outer periphery of the optical disc outside the printable area;
Tray for printing. The printing tray according to claim 1,
The ink absorber sticks out of the printable area of the label surface of the optical disc;
Tray for printing. In the printing tray according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The ink absorber is in close contact with a side edge of the optical disc;
Tray for printing. The printing tray according to claim 4,
The ink absorber is made of an elastically deformable material, and has an accommodating recess for accommodating the optical disc,
The inner periphery of the receiving recess is smaller than the outer periphery of the optical disc when the optical disc is not received;
Tray for printing. An ink jet printing apparatus that performs printing on a label surface of an optical disc,
The printing tray according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is configured to be mounted or assembled.
A printing apparatus characterized by the above.

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