JP2008126511A - Thermal transfer type image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thermal transfer type image forming apparatus which can make information left on an ink ribbon after thermal transfer unusable. <P>SOLUTION: The thermal transfer type image forming apparatus carries out printing by a printing head 2 by moving in a direction reverse to a conveyance direction at the time of printing while conveying the ink ribbon downstream. The thermal transfer type image forming apparatus includes a ring 7 which guides downstream the ink ribbon R after thermal transfer while contracting the ink ribbon in a width direction, a heater 8 which is disposed downstream of the ring 7 to heat the ink ribbon, and a winding roll 9 which winds the ink ribbon R passed through the heater 8. A distance between the ring 7 and the heater 8 is set longer than a moving distance at the time of printing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a thermal transfer image forming apparatus that thermally transfers an image using an ink ribbon.

A thermal transfer type printer that prints by thermal transfer by contacting an ink print head with an ink ribbon is used for various applications. For example, as described in Patent Document 1, a photograph using a print sealing machine such as a so-called Prikla (registered trademark) is used. Used for printing.
JP 2000-118077 A

  By the way, in recent years, with the emphasis on protecting personal information, this problem also occurs in the above-described print sealing machine. That is, since information relating to printing remains on the ink ribbon after the thermal transfer, if the ink ribbon is discarded carelessly, there is a problem that personal information is distributed to a third party. Such a problem is not limited to a print seal machine, but is a problem common to thermal transfer printers in which information remains on the ink ribbon, and there is a need for a solution.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a thermal transfer type image forming apparatus capable of disabling information remaining on an ink ribbon after thermal transfer.

  A first aspect of the present invention is a thermal transfer type image forming apparatus that performs printing by a print head by moving an ink ribbon downstream and moving it in a direction opposite to the conveyance direction during printing, and solves the above problems A width-reducing member that guides the ink ribbon after thermal transfer in the width direction while being contracted in the width direction, and a heating unit that is disposed on the downstream side of the width-reducing member and heats the ink ribbon, A take-up roll that winds up the ink ribbon that has passed through the heating means, and the distance between the reduced width member and the heating means is set longer than the moving distance during printing.

  According to this configuration, since the ink ribbon is shrunk in the width direction by the width-decreasing member, it is heated by the heating unit, so that the inks can be bonded to each other in the width direction. Thereby, it is possible to prevent reading of information from the ink ribbon after the thermal transfer. Here, in the apparatus according to the present invention, printing is performed while the ink ribbon is wound up in the direction opposite to the feeding direction, so that the ink ribbon that has been once contracted in the width direction and heated is rewound in the opposite direction. However, as described above, since the distance between the reduced width member and the heating means is set to be longer than the winding distance at the time of printing, the portion of the ink ribbon that is heated in the width direction is heated. It does not pass through the reduced width member again. In other words, since the portion that is shrunk in the width direction and cannot be widened does not pass through the shrunk member, the ink ribbon can be prevented from being damaged.

  The second aspect of the present invention is a thermal transfer type image forming apparatus that performs printing by a print head by moving an ink ribbon downstream and moving it in a direction opposite to the conveyance direction during printing. In order to solve this problem, the ink ribbon after thermal transfer is shrunk in the width direction and is guided to the downstream side, and the heating unit is disposed on the downstream side of the width reducing member and heats the ink ribbon. And a take-up roll that winds up the ink ribbon that has passed through the heating means, and among the ink ribbons that pass through the heating means when the ink ribbon is transported to the downstream side, the rewind distance at the time of printing from the downstream side Only, the heating means is configured not to heat the ink ribbon.

  According to this configuration, the inks of the ink ribbon can be adhered to each other in the width direction as in the first aspect of the invention, so that information cannot be read from the ink ribbon after thermal transfer. In the second invention, among the ink ribbons that pass through the heating means when the ink ribbon is fed out, the heating means is configured not to heat the ink ribbon by the rewind distance at the time of printing from the downstream side. Yes. For this reason, even if the rewound ink ribbon passes through the reduced width member in the opposite direction, since this portion is not heated by the heating means, the ink ribbon can be expanded in the width direction. Therefore, even if the ink ribbon is rewound during printing, damage can be prevented.

  By the way, since the ink ribbon that has passed through the reduced width member as described above is bundled and becomes narrower than the normal width, the thickness also increases. On the other hand, if the take-up roll is configured to be capable of reciprocating in the axial direction, the ink ribbon can be taken up uniformly along the axial direction of the take-up roll, suppressing the bulkiness, The roller can be made compact.

  The reduced width member can have various forms. For example, the reduced width member can be formed in a ring shape having an inner diameter smaller than the width of the ink ribbon so that the ink ribbon passes through the ring shape.

  In addition, the reduced width member can be configured to fold the ink ribbon into two or more folds. Since it is two or more folds, for example, it can be made into three folds, four folds, or the like. In this way, since the ink ribbon is heated before and after folding, when the ink ribbon is folded, the remaining images overlap and become unreadable. As described above, the configuration of the reduced width member is not particularly limited as long as the width of the ink ribbon can be reduced.

  Incidentally, the ink ribbon is not always conveyed. For example, there is a moment when the ink ribbon stops before and after printing. At this time, excessive heat may be applied to the ink ribbon exposed to heat by the heating means, and the ink ribbon may break. Therefore, the heating means can be configured to be close to and separated from the ink ribbon, and can be configured to be separated from the ink ribbon when the progress of the ink ribbon is stopped. Alternatively, the heating means can be configured to have a low heat quantity heat source such as a thermal head. Further, the heating means may be configured to generate an electromagnetic wave such as a microwave so that only the dye layer of the ink ribbon is heated and the other unnecessary portions are not heated. The configuration of the heating means as described above can be used, for example, when the ink ribbon is not heated in the second aspect of the present invention.

  Also, a pair of first transport rollers disposed upstream of the heating means and transporting the ink ribbon downstream while sandwiching the ink ribbon from both surfaces, and disposed upstream of the first transport roller, the ink ribbons are disposed on both surfaces. It is preferable to provide a pair of second transport rollers for transporting downstream while sandwiching from the second transport roller. According to this configuration, since the two transport rollers are arranged, the tension of the ink ribbon can be made different between the area where the ink ribbon cannot be read and the area where printing is performed. The difference can prevent the ink ribbons in both regions from being affected by each other. For example, if the transport speed of the first transport roller is slower than the transport speed of the second transport roller, no tension is applied to the ink ribbon between the two transport rollers. As a result, the ink ribbon can be continuously conveyed from the print area without being affected by the ink ribbon whose width is narrowed on the downstream side.

  The thermal transfer sheet used in the printing method of the present invention is one in which a dye layer is provided on one surface of a substrate sheet, and includes at least a yellow dye layer, a magenta dye layer, and a cyan dye layer as the dye layer.

  As a base material sheet in the said heat transfer sheet, the same base material sheet as what is used for the conventional heat transfer sheets, such as a plastic film, paper, and cellophane, can be used as it is. Although the said base material sheet is not specifically limited, What performed various surface treatments, such as an easily bonding process, may be sufficient. The base sheet may be a composite film in which two or more of the plastic film, paper, and cellophane are laminated.

  The dye layer in the thermal transfer sheet is provided in the surface order on one surface of the base sheet, but the order of the yellow dye layer, magenta dye layer and cyan dye layer is not particularly limited. The dye layer may be a sublimable dye layer or a hot-melt colorant layer.

  The sublimable dye layer is a layer formed by supporting a sublimable dye with an arbitrary binder, and can be formed from a known sublimable dye and a known binder resin by a conventionally known method. The sublimation dye is a dye that diffuses or sublimates by heat and can be used in the present invention as long as it is a dye that is used in a conventionally known sublimation transfer type thermal transfer sheet. The selection is made in consideration of printing sensitivity, light resistance, storage stability, solubility in a binder, and the like. The hot-melt colorant layer can be formed from a known pigment and a hot-melt material such as a known wax by a conventionally known method.

  The wound ink ribbon is discarded by collecting the take-up roll. However, when printing is performed continuously, the take-up roll can be replaced without stopping the transport of the ink ribbon. Need to do. For this purpose, for example, the following ink ribbon processing apparatus can be added.

  That is, this device is a device for processing the ink ribbon after thermal transfer, and a pair of winding rolls that wind up the ink ribbon that has been subjected to thermal transfer, and the winding rolls at both ends thereof are rotatably supported, A positioning member rotatably supported so as to selectively dispose each winding roll at the first and second positions, a cutting means for cutting the ink ribbon, and an ink ribbon upstream from the cutting position. A winding auxiliary means for winding the winding roll in the first position; and a control means for controlling the both winding rolls, positioning member, cutting means, and winding auxiliary means, The control means drives the positioning member to extend the take-up roll that has taken up the ink ribbon in the first position. A second position, driving the take-up assisting means, bringing the stretched ink ribbon into contact with a take-up roll arranged from the second position to the first position; The ink ribbon extending between the first and second take-up rolls is cut by the cutting means, and the ink ribbon on the upstream side from the cutting position is taken up by the take-up roll at the first position.

  According to this configuration, each winding roll can be selectively disposed at the first and second positions by rotating the positioning member that rotatably supports the two winding rolls. In the first position, after winding the ink ribbon after the thermal transfer with one winding roll, the ink ribbon is stretched and moved to the second position by the positioning member, and the first position is moved to the first position. The ink ribbon is cut after arranging the other winding roll. Therefore, if the ink ribbon is taken up by the take-up roll disposed at the first position, printing can be continued. On the other hand, if the ink ribbon is removed from the take-up roll at the second position, the ink ribbon on which information is written can be collected, and the ink ribbon can be prevented from remaining in the printing press. As a result, the ink ribbon can be prevented from passing over to a third party. For example, when such an apparatus is applied to a print sticker, an ink ribbon can be returned to a user together with a printed photograph, and personal information can be protected.

  According to the thermal transfer type image forming apparatus of the present invention, information remaining on the ink ribbon after the thermal transfer can be made unusable.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment in which a thermal transfer image forming apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a sublimation thermal transfer printer will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration diagram of a thermal transfer type image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1, this sublimation type thermal transfer printer uses an ink ribbon R fed from a feed roller 1 and an image receiving paper P fed from a paper feed roll 3 between a print head 2 and a platen roller 4. Then, the printing head 2 is pressed onto the platen roller 4 to thermally transfer the ink on the ink ribbon R onto the image receiving paper P to perform printing. The ink ribbon R used here is a general one configured for sublimation transfer, and a dye layer of cyan C, magenta M, and yellow Y is repeatedly applied in this order in the longitudinal direction of the substrate, On the image receiving paper P, the dyes are sequentially printed and superimposed. At that time, the image receiving paper P is returned to the initial position every time one color is printed by the paper feed roll 3, and is transported after all the dyes are superimposed.

  A pair of upper and lower upstream transport rollers (second transport rollers) 5 that transports the ink ribbon R while sandwiching the ink ribbon R is disposed downstream of the printing head 2, and in synchronization with the feeding roller 1, cyan and magenta Also, it plays the role of positioning the yellow ink position on the print head 2. A pair of downstream conveyance rollers (first conveyance rollers) 6 that convey the ink ribbon R downstream while sandwiching the ink ribbon R from above and below are disposed downstream of the upstream conveyance roller 5. Among these transport rollers 5 and 6, the roller disposed on the upper side is configured to be movable up and down when the ink ribbon is mounted on the printer, and the ink ribbon can be easily mounted on the printer.

  Downstream of the downstream conveying roller 6, a ring (width-reducing member) 7 for bundling the ink ribbon R in the width direction, a heater (heating means) 8 for heating the ink ribbon R, and a take-up roll 9 are arranged in this order. Has been. The ring 7 has an inner diameter smaller than the width of the ink ribbon R, and opens upstream and downstream. Thus, the ink ribbon R conveyed from the downstream conveying roller 6 is guided to the downstream heater while being narrowed and bundled by the ring 7 in the width direction. The heater 8 applies heat (100 ° C. to 120 ° C.) that softens the dye side resin of the ink ribbon R or heat (150 ° C. to 220 ° C.) that softens the ink including the ribbon base material to the ink ribbon. It is configured. In FIG. 1, the heater 8 is configured to heat away from the ink ribbon, for example, a far infrared lamp, but may be configured to directly contact the ink ribbon, such as a heat roller. Here, the distance S between the heater 8 and the ring 7 is set longer than the rewinding distance A of the ink ribbon R described later. The take-up roll 9 is reciprocally movable in the axial direction, and is configured to take up the ink ribbon R whose width is narrowed while reciprocating in the axial direction.

  Next, the operation of the thermal transfer printer configured as described above will be described. First, the printing operation will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in the figure, the ink ribbon R is printed on the image receiving paper in the order of yellow Y, magenta M, and cyan C while being conveyed from upstream to downstream (from left to right in the figure). When printing yellow Y, first, the print head 2 is positioned at the upstream end of yellow Y as shown in FIG. Next, yellow Y is printed while the ink ribbon R is rewound by the feed roll 1 while the ink ribbon R is pressed between the printing head 2 and the platen roller 4. Then, as shown in FIG. 3B, when the print head 2 is disposed on the downstream end of yellow Y, yellow Y printing is completed. That is, the ink ribbon R is rewound by the distance A in one ink print, and the ink is printed on the image receiving paper P during this time. Thus, when the yellow Y printing is completed, the ink ribbon R is conveyed by a predetermined distance B to the downstream side. Then, as shown in FIG. 3C, the print head 2 is positioned at the upstream end of the magenta M, and the magenta M is prepared for printing. While repeating this, an image is formed by sequentially superposing yellow Y, magenta M, and cyan C on the image receiving paper P.

  Next, processing of the ink ribbon after thermal transfer will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the ink ribbon R after the thermal transfer by the printing head 2 is transported downstream by driving the upstream transport roller 5. At the same time, while the ink ribbon R is being transported or fixed by the downstream transport roller 6, the transport of the ink ribbon R by the upstream transport roller 5 is continuously performed. 6 is held without being subjected to tension. By adopting such a transport mode, it is possible to separate a region where printing is performed and a region where ink ribbon R processing described later is performed.

  The ink ribbon R is conveyed downstream by the downstream conveying roller 6 and is bundled in the width direction while passing through the ring 7. Then, the ink ribbon R bundled through the ring 7 is heated by the heater 8, and the dye side resin is softened. As a result, the softened resins adhere to each other, so that it is possible to prevent information from being read from the ink ribbon. In this way, the heated ink ribbon R is taken up by the take-up roll 9.

  At this time, since the ink ribbon R is bundled and has a narrow width, the take-up roll 9 takes up the ink ribbon R having a narrow width while reciprocating in the axial direction. This is because when the width of the ink ribbon R is increased and the thickness of the ink ribbon R is taken up by one place of the take-up roller 9, the thickness increases, and the take-up roll 9 is reciprocated in the axial direction. The ink ribbon R is uniformly wound in the axial direction of the winding roll 9.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, since the ink ribbon R is contracted in the width direction by the ring 7 and then heated by the heater 8, the inks can be bonded to each other in the width direction. Thereby, it is possible to prevent reading of information from the ink ribbon R after the thermal transfer. Here, in the apparatus according to the present embodiment, printing is performed while the ink ribbon R is rewound in the direction opposite to the feeding direction, and thus the ink ribbon R once contracted in the width direction is rewound in the opposite direction. However, as described above, since the distance S between the ring 7 and the heater 8 is set to be longer than the winding distance A at the time of printing, the ink ribbon R is heated while being contracted in the width direction. The part does not pass through the ring 7 again. Therefore, the ink ribbon R can be prevented from being damaged.

  As mentioned above, although one Embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to this, A various change is possible unless it deviates from the meaning.

  Incidentally, the ink ribbon is not always conveyed. For example, there is a moment when the ink ribbon stops before and after printing. At this time, the ink ribbon R exposed to heat by the heater 7 is applied with excessive heat, and the ink ribbon R may break. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, the heater 7 is configured to approach and separate from the ink ribbon R, and when the progress of the ink ribbon R stops, the heater 7 is separated from the ink ribbon R in the vertical direction. (Arrow X). In addition, the heater 7 may be configured to have a low heat source such as a thermal head so that excessive heat is not applied. Furthermore, by configuring the heater 7 to generate electromagnetic waves such as microwaves, it is possible to heat only the dye layer of the ink ribbon and not to heat other unnecessary portions. .

  In the above example, the ring 8 is used as a member for narrowing the width of the ink ribbon R. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the width can be narrowed while guiding the ink ribbon R to the downstream side. Any member having a narrow passage may be used. For example, a member provided with a groove narrower than the width of the ink ribbon can be substituted.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 5, the ink ribbon can be folded. As shown in the figure, in this example, a folding mechanism (width-reducing member), a heat roller 20, and a take-up roll 9 are provided in this order downstream of the downstream side conveyance roller 6. The folding mechanism is constituted by two folding plates that support the lower surface of the ink ribbon R, that is, first and second folding plates 21 and 22 arranged from the upstream side to the downstream side. The first folding plate 21 extends in the vertical direction, and its upper end is formed in a mountain shape having a moderate apex angle (about 120 degrees). The second folding plate 22 also extends in the vertical direction, and the upper end thereof is formed in a mountain shape having a sharper apex angle (about 45 degrees) than the first folding plate 21. Further, the pair of heating rollers 20 and the take-up roll 9 are disposed so as to extend vertically so as to be orthogonal to the downstream-side transport roller 6.

  The ink ribbon R is slightly bent along the mountain shape at the upper end of the first folding plate 21, transported downstream while descending downward, and further bent by the second folding plate 22. And it is wound up by the winding roll 9 while being pinched between a pair of heating rollers 20, being folded in half finally. At this time, the ink ribbons that are folded and overlapped are heated by the heating roller 20, so that the images are overlapped and cannot be further spread, and thus cannot be read.

  By the way, in the above embodiment, when the ink ribbon R is rewound, the distance between the ring 7 and the heater 8 is set so that the heated region of the ink ribbon R does not pass through the ring 7. Although the ink ribbon R is prevented from being damaged by setting it longer than this, it can also be configured as follows.

  That is, among the ink ribbons that pass through the heater 8 when the ink ribbon R is fed out, the heater 8 is configured not to heat the ink ribbon R by the rewind distance A at the time of printing from the downstream side. As shown in FIG. 6A, in the apparatus according to FIG. 1, the ink ribbon R that has passed through the heater 8 is all heated. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. Of the ink ribbon R that has passed through the heater 8 for cueing ink, only the printing distance A from the downstream side is not heated. By doing so, the ink ribbon R can be prevented from being damaged regardless of the distance between the ring 7 and the heater 8. That is, when the ink ribbon R is rewound, even if the rewound ink ribbon R passes through the ring 7 in the opposite direction, since this portion is not heated, the ink ribbon R is moved in the width direction. Can be spread. Therefore, even if the ink ribbon R is rewound during printing, damage can be prevented. In this case, in order to provide a region where the ink ribbon is not heated, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, the heater 8 can be separated from the ink ribbon R to prevent heating.

  Further, the ink ribbon wound up as described above is discarded by collecting the take-up roll 9. However, when continuous printing is performed, the conveyance of the ink ribbon is not stopped. It is necessary to replace the take-up roll 9. For this purpose, for example, the following ink ribbon processing apparatus can be added. Hereinafter, this processing apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS.

  As shown in FIG. 7, a support roller 105 that supports the ink ribbon R from below is provided downstream of the ring 8, and a processing device is disposed downstream of the support roller 105. This processing apparatus is arranged in place of the take-up roll 9 and rotates a pair of take-up rolls 106 and 107 that take up the printed ink ribbon R and the take-up rolls 106 and 107. And a positioning member 108 that is freely supported. The positioning member 108 is formed in a rod shape, and is supported so as to be rotatable about a shaft portion 109 provided at the center in the longitudinal direction. And the winding rolls 106 and 107 mentioned above are arrange | positioned at the both ends, respectively. With this configuration, when the positioning member 108 rotates 180 degrees around the shaft portion 109, the take-up rolls 106 and 107 have a first position for taking up the printed ink ribbon R and an ink ribbon R described later. It arrange | positions so that the 2nd position which performs a process can be taken selectively. In FIG. 7, the left side of the positioning member 108 disposed horizontally indicates the first position, the right side indicates the second position, the first winding roll 106 is disposed at the first position, The second take-up roll 107 is disposed at the position 2.

  As shown in FIG. 7, below the take-up roll 106 in the first position, a contact roll (winding assisting means) 110 that is supported so as to be movable up and down and can come into contact with the take-up roll 106, and A cutter (cutting means) 111 for cutting the ink ribbon is arranged. In addition, two pairs of driven rollers 121 and 122 are provided above and below the positioning member 108 so as to sandwich the positioning member 108. Here, the first and second driven rolls 121 and 122 are referred to from the side closer to the first winding roll, respectively. These first and second driven rollers 121 and 122 are arranged in parallel with the positioning member 108 and are configured to rotate together with the positioning member 108 around the shaft portion 109. The operation of this device is controlled by a control device (control means) (not shown).

  Next, the operation will be described. As shown in FIG. 8, when the positioning member 108 starts to rotate counterclockwise, the ink ribbon R is stretched, and accordingly, the four driven rollers 121 and 122 also rotate around the shaft portion 109. When the rotation further proceeds, as shown in FIG. 9, the first driven roll 121 disposed above the positioning member 108 is bridged over the ink ribbon R. When further rotated from this state, the ink ribbon R is also laid over the second driven roll 122, resulting in the state shown in FIG. That is, while the positioning member 8 is rotated 180 degrees, the ink ribbon R is stretched over the two driven rolls 121 and 122 to extend the path.

  In this state, as shown in FIG. 11, the contact roll 110 is raised, and the ink ribbon R is held between the second take-up roll 107 and the contact roll 110. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 12, the cutter 111 is raised, and the ink ribbon R stretched between the second take-up roll 107 and the second driven roller 122 is cut. Thereafter, the take-up roll 107 in the first position takes up the ink ribbon R after the thermal transfer, and lowers the contact roll 10 and the cutter 11. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 13, in the second position, the take-up roll 106 around which the ink ribbon R is taken up is removed from the positioning member 108 and replaced with a new take-up roll. In this way, while continuously rotating the positioning member 108, the winding of the ink ribbon R at the first position and the collection of the winding roll at the second position are repeated, so that printing is not stopped. The continuous collection of the winding roll becomes possible. If an adhesive such as a double-sided tape is applied to the surface of a new take-up roll disposed at the second position, as shown in FIG. Since the ribbon R is bonded to the take-up roll 107, the winding of the ink ribbon R can be started smoothly.

  In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to a sublimation thermal transfer printer. However, the present invention can also be applied to a melt thermal transfer printer.

1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a thermal transfer image forming apparatus according to the present invention. It is a top view of FIG. It is a figure explaining the printing method in the apparatus of FIG. It is a front view which shows the other example of the thermal transfer type image forming apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the further another example of the thermal transfer type image forming apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure explaining the processing method of the ink ribbon in the further another example of the thermal transfer type image forming apparatus which concerns on this invention. 1 is a front view showing an ink ribbon processing apparatus provided in a thermal transfer type image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the processing apparatus of the ink ribbon shown in FIG. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the processing apparatus of the ink ribbon shown in FIG. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the processing apparatus of the ink ribbon shown in FIG. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the processing apparatus of the ink ribbon shown in FIG. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the processing apparatus of the ink ribbon shown in FIG. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the processing apparatus of the ink ribbon shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

5 Upstream conveying roller (second conveying roller)
6 Downstream transport roller (first transport roller)
7 Heater (heating means)
8 Ring (Reduced width member)
9 Winding roll R Ink ribbon

Claims (9)

A thermal transfer type image forming apparatus that performs printing by a print head by moving an ink ribbon downstream and moving in a direction opposite to the conveyance direction during printing,
A reduced width member for guiding the ink ribbon after thermal transfer in the width direction, and guiding it downstream;
A heating means disposed on the downstream side of the reduced width member for heating the ink ribbon;
A winding roll that winds up the ink ribbon that has passed through the heating means,
The thermal transfer type image forming apparatus, wherein a distance between the reduced width member and the heating unit is set longer than a moving distance at the time of printing. A thermal transfer type image forming apparatus that performs printing by a print head by moving an ink ribbon downstream and moving in a direction opposite to the conveyance direction during printing,
A reduced width member for guiding the ink ribbon after thermal transfer in the width direction, and guiding it downstream;
A heating means disposed on the downstream side of the reduced width member for heating the ink ribbon;
A winding roll that winds up the ink ribbon that has passed through the heating means,
Of the ink ribbons that pass through the heating unit when the ink ribbon is transported to the downstream side, the thermal transfer type is configured such that the heating unit does not heat the ink ribbon by the moving distance from the downstream side during printing. Image forming apparatus.   The thermal transfer image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the take-up roll is configured to be capable of reciprocating in the axial direction.   The thermal transfer image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reduced width member is formed in a ring shape having an inner diameter smaller than a width of the ink ribbon.   The thermal transfer type image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reduced width member is configured to fold the ink ribbon into two or more folds.   The thermal transfer image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating unit is configured to approach and separate from the ink ribbon.   The thermal transfer image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating unit includes a heat source having a low heat quantity.   The thermal transfer image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating unit generates electromagnetic waves. A pair of first transport rollers disposed upstream of the heating means and transporting the ink ribbon downstream while sandwiching the ink ribbon from both sides;
A pair of second transport rollers disposed upstream of the first transport roller and transporting the ink ribbon downstream while sandwiching the ink ribbon from both sides;
The thermal transfer image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

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