JP2009248496A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer improving printing quality when using an adapter. <P>SOLUTION: This printer transfers a printing image on a printing surface by pressing and sticking an intermediate transfer sheet 42 having a printing image formed thereon on a printing surface of a printing medium 100 by a heat roller 58 and a separation roller 60 and relatively moving the printing medium 100 in a predetermined direction. At this time, if the heat roller 58 falls in a boundary groove 70 formed between the adapter 14 and a printing tray 12, the transfer speed rapidly changes, and printing quality is deteriorated. The printing tray 12 and the adapter 14 are placed, therefore, so that in top view, at least one of a tray side boundary face 32 and an adapter side boundary face 26 passes the boundary groove 70 and crosses a straight line parallel to a rotary shaft of the heat roller 58. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that transfers a print image to a print surface by causing a print sheet on which the print image is formed to be pressed against a print surface of a print medium with a roller and relatively moving the print medium in a predetermined direction. .

  2. Description of the Related Art A printing apparatus that prints on a printing medium that is thicker and harder than paper or the like, for example, a recording medium such as an optical disk is known. In such a printing apparatus, the print medium is supported and conveyed by a print tray. Conventionally, the print tray is often formed with a recess for accommodating a print medium. The concave portion has a shape corresponding to the print medium, and the print medium is appropriately positioned and suitable print processing is executed by accommodating the print medium in the concave portion. In recent years, it has been proposed to form a recess in an adapter that can be attached to and detached from the print tray instead of the print tray in order to cope with print media of various shapes. For example, in Patent Documents 1 to 3 below, a plurality of adapters having recesses having different shapes are prepared, and the adapter is alternatively selected from the plurality of adapters according to the shape of the print medium to be printed. The technology of a printing apparatus to be used is disclosed. According to such a technique, it is possible to handle print media of various shapes with a single printing apparatus.

  By the way, among printing apparatuses, there is known a transfer type printing apparatus that presses and transfers a printed image formed on a sheet to a printing surface of a printing medium. Such a transfer type printing apparatus is provided with a transfer roller or the like for pressing a sheet on which a printed image is formed against a printing surface. At the time of printing, the print tray that supports the print medium moves relative to the transfer roller and the like.

JP 2000-344352 A JP 2004-338338 A JP 2005-104112 A

  Here, in the transfer-type printing apparatus, when the adapter described above is used, a transfer roller or the like that moves relative to a groove formed in a boundary portion between the adapter and the print tray temporarily falls, and a printed image is formed. The transfer speed (transfer speed) may change abruptly. This rapid change in transfer speed has caused problems such as deterioration in print quality. In other words, conventionally, when an adapter is used in a transfer-type printing apparatus, there has been a problem that print quality is deteriorated.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus that can further improve the printing quality when an adapter is used.

  The printing apparatus of the present invention transfers the print image to the print surface by causing the print sheet on which the print image is formed to be pressed against the print surface of the print medium with a roller and relatively moving the print medium in a predetermined direction. A printing apparatus, comprising: an adapter having an accommodation recess for accommodating the print medium; and a tray having a placement surface on which the adapter is placed and recessed by an amount corresponding to the thickness of the adapter, A printing tray that is relatively movable in a predetermined direction, and the printing tray and the adapter face each other when the adapter is placed on the mounting surface, and form a boundary groove therebetween. Each of the printing tray and the adapter has a straight line that passes through the boundary groove and is parallel to the rotation axis of the roller in a top view. Wherein at least one tray side boundary surface and the adapter side boundary surface has a shape which intersects, it is characterized.

  In a preferred aspect, the tray-side boundary surface and the adapter-side boundary surface have a line-symmetric shape with respect to a straight line that bisects the roller in the direction of the rotation axis when viewed from above. In addition, it is desirable that the tray-side boundary surface and the adapter-side boundary surface have shapes that do not have corners when viewed from above. Further, the adapter is attached to the print tray by causing the adapter-side boundary surface to contact the tray-side boundary surface obliquely from the upper side and then rotating downward about the contact position as a rotation axis. It is desirable that

  According to the present invention, when the printing tray and the adapter are viewed from above, at least one of the tray-side boundary surface and the adapter-side boundary surface intersects a straight line that passes through the boundary groove and is parallel to the rotation axis of the roller. Due to the shape, the relatively moving roller is prevented from temporarily falling into the boundary groove. As a result, a rapid change in the transfer speed is prevented, and the print quality can be further improved.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a printing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of the printing apparatus 10. The printing apparatus 10 is an apparatus that performs a printing process on a relatively hard and thick print medium 100 such as an optical disk or a magnetic disk.

  The print medium 100 is supported by the print tray 12 and conveyed. However, in order to be able to handle the print medium 100 having various shapes, in the present embodiment, the print medium 100 is supported via the adapter 14. A plurality of adapters 14 are prepared for each shape type of the print medium 100, and the user selectively selects the adapter 14 corresponding to the print medium 100 to be printed from the plurality of adapters 14, and the print tray 12. Attach to and use. The print medium 100 supported on the print tray 12 via the adapter 14 is subjected to a printing process by a thermal transfer method by a printing unit 18 provided inside the housing 16. Hereinafter, each part of the printing apparatus 10 will be described in detail.

  The print tray 12 is a tray that supports the print medium 100 via the adapter 14. The print tray 12 can freely advance and retreat in a direction (X direction in FIGS. 1 and 2) substantially orthogonal to a rotation axis of a heat roller 58 described later. Then, when the print tray 12 moves back and forth, the print medium 100 supported by the print tray 12 is conveyed into and out of the housing 16.

  An adapter 14 is placed on the print tray 12. When the adapter 14 is placed, a step corresponding to the thickness of the adapter 14 is formed on the print tray 12 so that the upper surface 20 of the print tray 12 and the upper surface 31 of the adapter 14 have substantially the same height. Has been. In other words, the placement surface 22 on which the adapter 14 is placed in the print tray 12 is lower than the upper surface 20 of the print tray 12 by the amount corresponding to the thickness of the adapter 14.

  The mounting surface 22 has a pin hole 24 into which a positioning pin 36 provided on the adapter 14 is inserted. An insertion groove 28 into which an insertion rib 34 provided on the adapter 14 is inserted is formed on the tray-side boundary surface 26 that is a vertical end surface formed by the steps. Both the pin hole 24 and the insertion groove 28 are used for positioning of the adapter 14 and the like, which will be described in detail later.

  The adapter 14 is a substantially flat plate-like member that is detachably attached to the print tray 12, and a concave portion (hereinafter referred to as “accommodating concave portion 30”) corresponding to the outer peripheral shape of the corresponding print medium 100 is formed at the approximate center thereof. Since the print medium 100 is placed and accommodated in the accommodation recess 30, misalignment or the like of the print medium 100 is prevented.

  As described above, a plurality of types of adapters 14 are prepared for each shape type of the print medium 100. Specifically, for example, as illustrated in FIGS. 3A to 3D, a plurality of types of adapters 14 having different shapes of the housing recesses 30 are prepared. 3A to 3D are examples of the adapter 14 that is suitable when the 12 cm CD, the 8 cm CD, the rectangular CD, and the rectangular magnetic card are the print medium 100, respectively. The plurality of types of adapters 14 have substantially the same configuration except that the shape of the housing recess 30 formed in the center thereof is different, and all of them are detachable from the print tray 12. The user selects and uses the adapter 14 according to the shape type of the print medium 100 to be actually printed from the plurality of types of adapters 14. By using the interchangeable adapter 14 in this way, it becomes possible to handle a plurality of types of print media 100 with one printing apparatus 10, and the versatility of the printing apparatus 10 can be improved.

  A positioning pin 36 is formed so as to protrude from the bottom surface of each adapter 14. The positioning pins 36 are inserted into the pin holes 24 formed in the printing tray 12 to regulate the position of the adapter 14 with respect to the printing tray 12. Further, the positioning pin 36 may be used for determining the type of the adapter 14. That is, the position and the number of the positioning pins 36 are made different for each type of the adapter 14, and a sensor for detecting the position and the number of the positioning pins 36 is provided on the print tray 12 side. The control unit of the printing apparatus 10 may determine the type of the adapter 14 placed on the print tray 12 based on the detection result of this sensor, and use it for subsequent control. Moreover, you may form a positioning pin and a pin hole reversely. That is, a positioning pin may be formed on the print tray 12 and a pin hole may be formed on the bottom surface of each adapter 14. Further, apart from the positioning pin 36, an identification pin used for determining the type of the adapter 14 is formed on the adapter 14 or the printing tray 12, and an identification pin hole into which the identification pin is inserted is formed on the printing tray 12 or the adapter 14. You may make it form.

  Further, an insertion rib 34 is formed to protrude from the adapter-side boundary surface 32 that is the back end surface of the adapter 14. The insertion rib 34 is a rib that is inserted into the insertion groove 28 formed in the tray-side boundary surface 26 and is used for attaching and detaching the adapter 14.

  Here, how the adapter 14 is mounted on the print tray 12 will be briefly described with reference to FIG. When the adapter 14 is mounted on the print tray 12, the user first inserts the insertion rib 34 into the insertion groove 28 obliquely from the upper side as shown in FIG. Against the tray side boundary surface 26. If the position of the adapter 14 with respect to the print tray 12 is roughly defined by this pressing, the adapter 14 is rotated downward about the pressing position as a rotation center, and the adapter 14 is moved downward. Is mounted on the mounting surface 22. At this time, since the position of the adapter 14 with respect to the print tray 12 has already been roughly adjusted by the pressing operation, the positioning pin 36 is smoothly inserted into the corresponding pin hole 24. In other words, according to the present embodiment in which the procedure of pressing and turning is followed, the adapter 14 can be mounted at an appropriate position very easily. On the other hand, in the present embodiment in which the procedure of pressing rotation is followed, the width of the boundary groove 70 formed between the adapter 14 and the print tray 12 is widened in order to allow the adapter 14 to rotate. Cheap.

  Here, depending on the shape of the wide boundary groove 70, the print quality may be deteriorated. For this reason, in this embodiment, the boundary groove 70 (and hence the tray-side boundary surface 26 and the adapter-side boundary surface 32) has a special shape, which will be described in detail later.

  Next, the printing unit 18 provided inside the printing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The printing unit 18 according to the present embodiment performs printing by a thermal transfer method in which the ink transferred from the ink ribbon 40 is transferred to the intermediate transfer sheet 42 and then the ink transferred to the intermediate transfer sheet 42 is transferred to the printing surface of the printing object. A plurality of colors, for example, four colors of ink, are repeatedly arranged in the ribbon longitudinal direction on the ink ribbon 40. The ink disposed on the ink ribbon 40 includes melt-type ink and sublimation-type ink. Regardless of which is used, there is no great difference in the configuration of the printing apparatus 10 and the transfer process. Here, a case where melt-type ink is used will be described as an example. The ink ribbon 40 is delivered from a ribbon delivery bobbin 46, guided by a plurality of guide rollers 62, and sequentially taken up by a ribbon take-up bobbin 44. In the ribbon winding path process, a thermal head 48 is provided to melt the ink on the surface of the ink ribbon 40 while bringing the ink ribbon 40 into close contact with the intermediate transfer sheet 42. A plurality of heating elements (not shown) are provided inside the thermal head 48. The thermal head 48 selectively heats the plurality of heating elements in accordance with an instruction from a control unit (not shown) to partially melt the ink on the ink ribbon 40. The ink ribbon 40 partially melted with ink is pressed against the intermediate transfer sheet 42, whereby the molten ink is transferred to the intermediate transfer sheet 42.

  The intermediate transfer sheet 42 is delivered from the sheet delivery bobbin 50, guided by a plurality of guide rollers 62, and taken up on the sheet take-up bobbin 52. A platen roller 54 that receives pressure from the thermal head 48 is provided in the process of winding the intermediate transfer sheet 42. When the thermal head 48 presses the ink ribbon 40 toward the platen roller 54, the ink melted by the heat of the thermal head 48 is transferred to the intermediate transfer sheet 42 fed along the platen roller 54. .

  Here, as described above, a plurality of colors of ink are repeatedly arranged on the surface of the ink ribbon 40 in the longitudinal direction of the ribbon. When printing a full color image, it is necessary to transfer all of the plurality of color inks to the intermediate transfer sheet 42. Therefore, in the case of full-color printing, the intermediate transfer sheet 42 is rewound onto the sheet delivery bobbin 50 every time the transfer of one color ink adhered to the surface of the ink ribbon 40 is completed. Then, the sheet is taken up again from the sheet delivery bobbin 50 to the sheet take-up bobbin 52, and the next color ink is transferred. By repeating this ink transfer and sheet rewinding for the number of ink colors of the ink ribbon 40, a full-color printed image is formed on the surface of the intermediate transfer sheet.

  The full-color print image formed on the intermediate transfer sheet 42 is finally transferred to the print surface of the print medium 100 by the transfer assembly 56. The transfer assembly 56 is a member in which a heat roller 58 having a heat generating element therein and a peeling roller 60 positioned on the downstream side of the heat roller 58 are connected. During execution of ink transfer from the ink ribbon 40 to the intermediate transfer sheet 42, the transfer assembly 56 is raised to a position where the intermediate transfer sheet 42 and the print medium 100 do not contact each other. On the other hand, when the ink transfer from the ink ribbon 40 to the intermediate transfer sheet 42 is completed and a full-color print image is formed on the intermediate transfer sheet 42, the transfer assembly 56 descends and prints the intermediate transfer sheet 42. Press-bonded to the printing surface of the medium 100 Here, the heat roller 58 and the peeling roller 60 are arranged so that the lower end heights thereof are substantially the same. For this reason, when the transfer assembly 56 is lowered, the intermediate transfer sheet 42 positioned between the heat roller 58 and the peeling roller 60 comes into contact with the printing surface. In other words, the intermediate transfer sheet 42 is pressure-bonded to the printing surface in a planar shape.

  During the pressure bonding, the heat roller 58 melts the ink transferred to the intermediate transfer sheet 42 by a built-in heating element. Further, during the pressure bonding, the printing tray 12 moves in the same direction and at the same speed as the intermediate transfer sheet 42. In other words, the printing tray 12 moves relative to the transfer assembly 56 during the press bonding. The full-color print image formed on the intermediate transfer sheet 42 is finally transferred to the printing surface by the operation of the heat roller 58 and the print tray 12, and image printing is realized.

  Here, at the time of final transfer of the print image, the print medium 100 is required to be pressed evenly. This is because if the pressing force applied from the heat roller 58 or the like is not uniform at the time of final transfer, unevenness occurs in the transfer state and print quality deteriorates. In order to prevent such uneven pressing force, in the present embodiment, the print tray 12 that finally receives the applied pressure has a substantially flat surface.

  That is, in some conventional printing apparatuses 10, the housing recess 30 is formed in the printing tray 12 itself, and the adapter 14 is placed and housed in the housing recess 30 on the printing tray 12. For example, an accommodation recess 30 for accommodating a 12 cm CD is formed in the print tray 12, and when printing on an 8 cm CD, an adapter for 8 cm CD is placed inside the accommodation recess 30 for the 12 cm CD, There was a printing apparatus 10 configured to be accommodated (for example, Patent Documents 1 to 3). Thus, even if the receiving recess 30 is provided in the print tray 12 itself, it is possible to handle the print medium 100 having various shapes by devising the shape of the adapter 14. However, in the configuration in which the adapter 14 with the other housing recess 30 formed is placed on the printing tray 12 with the housing recess 30 formed in this manner, the rigidity of the print tray 12 becomes uneven, As a result, there is a problem that unevenness is easily generated in the pressing force applied to the print medium 100. In this embodiment, in order to avoid such a problem, a recess is formed only in the adapter 14 so that the surface of the print tray 12 is flat.

  In order to improve the print quality, it is also important that the print tray 12 smoothly moves relative to the transfer assembly 56. If the relative movement of the print tray 12 is hindered and the relative movement speed is suddenly changed, the continuous transfer operation of the print image is hindered, resulting in a problem that the print quality is deteriorated. In the present embodiment, the boundary groove 70 between the adapter 14 and the print tray 12 is special in order to prevent a decrease in print quality due to a sudden change in transfer speed. This will be described in detail below.

  First, problems with the conventional print tray 12 and adapter 14 will be briefly described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 8A, the conventional print tray 12 and adapter 14 have their boundary surfaces 26 and 32 substantially parallel to the rotation axis of the heat roller 58 in a top view. In other words, the boundary surfaces 26 and 32 of the printing tray 12 and the adapter have a shape that passes through the boundary groove 70 and does not intersect with a straight line parallel to the rotation axis of the heat roller 58. In the case of such a shape, the print quality is likely to deteriorate due to a sudden change in the final transfer speed.

  That is, as described above, during the final transfer, the print tray 12 moves from the upstream side to the downstream side (from the left side to the right side in FIG. 8). In other words, during the final transfer, the transfer assembly 56 is relatively moved from the front end side to the back side of the print tray 12. Consider a case where the heat roller 58 passes through the boundary groove 70 due to this relative movement. In this case, the rotation axis of the heat roller 58 is substantially parallel to the boundary groove 70. Therefore, when passing through the boundary groove 70, the heat roller 58 temporarily falls into the boundary groove 70. Due to the temporary drop of the heat roller 58, the speed of the relative movement of the transfer assembly 56 with respect to the print tray 12 changes suddenly. Here, when the heat roller 58 passes through the boundary groove 70, the peeling roller 60 located on the downstream side of the heat roller 58 is still in contact with the printing surface of the print medium 100. Thus, if the speed of relative movement changes suddenly in a state where the peeling roller 60 is in contact with the printing surface, the smooth transfer operation is hindered, and the printing quality is greatly deteriorated. In particular, the print quality at the contact portion of the peeling roller 60 when the heat roller 58 passes through the boundary groove 70 is significantly reduced.

  In the present embodiment, in order to avoid such a problem, at least one of the adapter-side boundary surface 32 or the tray-side boundary surface 26 is always in a straight line that passes through the boundary groove 70 and is parallel to the rotation axis of the heat roller 58. The shape intersects. More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 5, in this embodiment, the adapter-side boundary surface 32 and the tray-side boundary surface 26 are each arranged in two directions aligned in the rotational axis direction of the heat roller 58 in a top view. It is shaped like a semicircle connected by a straight line. By adopting such a shape, the heat roller 58 always comes into contact with the upper surface 20 of the print tray 12 or the upper surface 31 of the adapter 14, and the drop into the boundary groove 70 is prevented. As a result, a sudden change in the relative movement speed due to the drop and, in turn, a sudden change in the final transfer speed of the printed image is prevented.

  Moreover, in this embodiment, the boundary surfaces 26 and 32 are made into the shape which connected the two semicircle and the straight line with the circular arc by the top view. In other words, the boundary surfaces 26 and 32 have a shape with no corners (edges) when viewed from above. This is to prevent damage to the outer peripheral surface of the heat roller 58 and the like. That is, the outer peripheral surface of the heat roller 58 or the like is usually made of an elastic material such as rubber. When corner portions are present on the boundary surfaces 26 and 32, the corner portions may come into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the heat roller 58 and damage the outer peripheral surface. In the present embodiment, in order to avoid such a problem, the boundary surfaces 26 and 32 have a shape with no corners (edges) when viewed from above.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the boundary surfaces 26 and 32 have a line-symmetric shape with respect to a straight line C that bisects the heat roller 58 in the major axis direction when viewed from above. By adopting such a line-symmetric shape, unevenness in the pressing force applied from the heat roller 58 or the like can be easily prevented, and as a result, the print quality can be further improved.

  Although the configuration and effects of the present embodiment have been described above, the shapes of the boundary surfaces 26 and 32 of the print tray 12 and the adapter 14 described so far are examples. Therefore, any other shape may be used as long as the boundary surface 26 or the boundary surface 32 intersects the straight line passing through the boundary groove 70 and parallel to the rotation axis of the heat roller 58. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the boundary surfaces 32 and 26 may have an arc shape extending from one end of the print tray 12 and the adapter 14 toward the other end. Even in this case, the heat roller 58 can always contact the upper surface 20 of the print tray 12 or the upper surface 31 of the adapter 14. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the heat roller 58 from dropping and, as a result, a sudden change in the transfer speed, and obtain a suitable print quality.

  Furthermore, as another form, as shown in FIG. 7A, the boundary surfaces 32 and 26 may have a linear shape inclined with respect to the rotation axis of the heat roller 58. Furthermore, as another form, as shown in FIG. 7B, the boundary surfaces 32 and 26 may have a bent line shape including a portion inclined with respect to the rotation axis of the heat roller 58. In any case, at least one of the adapter-side boundary surface 32 and the tray-side boundary surface 26 must always intersect the straight line passing through the boundary groove 70 and parallel to the rotation axis of the heat roller 58. Any shape is possible.

1 is a perspective view of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic block diagram of a printing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of another adapter. It is a figure which shows the mode of mounting | wearing of an adapter. It is a figure which shows the mode at the time of final transcription | transfer. It is a figure which shows an example of another printing tray and an adapter. It is a figure which shows an example of another printing tray and an adapter. It is a figure which shows the mode at the time of the last transfer by the conventional printing tray and an adapter.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Printing apparatus, 12 Print tray, 14 Adapter, 16 Housing | casing, 18 Printing unit, 22 Loading surface, 26 Tray side boundary surface, 30 Storage recessed part, 32 Adapter side boundary surface, 40 Ink ribbon, 42 Intermediate transfer sheet, 48 Thermal head, 54 platen roller, 56 transfer assembly, 58 heat roller, 60 peeling roller, 70 boundary groove, 100 print medium.

Claims (4)

A printing apparatus for transferring the print image to the print surface by relatively moving the print medium in a predetermined direction while pressure-bonding the print sheet on which the print image is formed with a roller.
An adapter having an accommodation recess for accommodating the print medium;
A tray having a mounting surface on which the adapter is mounted and having a recess corresponding to the thickness of the adapter, the printing tray being relatively movable in the predetermined direction;
With
The printing tray and the adapter have a tray-side boundary surface and an adapter-side boundary surface that face each other and form a boundary groove therebetween when the adapter is placed on the mounting surface,
The printing tray and the adapter have a shape in which at least one of the tray-side boundary surface and the adapter-side boundary surface intersects with a straight line passing through the boundary groove and parallel to the rotation axis of the roller in a top view.
A printing apparatus characterized by that. The printing apparatus according to claim 1,
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tray-side boundary surface and the adapter-side boundary surface have a line-symmetric shape with respect to a straight line that bisects the roller in the rotation axis direction when viewed from above. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tray-side boundary surface and the adapter-side boundary surface have shapes having no corners when viewed from above. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The adapter is attached to the print tray by causing the adapter-side boundary surface to contact with the tray-side boundary surface obliquely from the upper side and then rotating downward about the contact position as a rotation axis. A printing apparatus characterized by that.

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