JP2010228156A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer to which laminate coating can be applied at the same time as printing, and which can complete a printing time within the time nearly same as for printing without laminate coating while being of compact size. <P>SOLUTION: The printer includes a printing medium feed zone for feeding a printing medium, an ink ribbon feed zone for feeding an ink ribbon, and a print head for performing the printing in the printing medium fed from the printing medium feed zone using the ink ribbon fed from the ink ribbon feed zone. The print head includes a heating means for performing a heating when the ink ribbon is made to meet the printing medium. An ink layer specifying the printing surface of the ink ribbon keeps the surface covered with a laminate layer. The laminate layer is heated by the heating means and used for the coating of the printing surface. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer, and more particularly to a printer for making a print protected with a laminate resin.

  Printing by a thermal transfer printer uses an ink ribbon cassette or the like containing an ink ribbon, and heats the ink ribbon from behind with a thermal head to transfer the melted or softened ink onto a recording sheet.

However, hard copies printed by thermal transfer printing are susceptible to external impacts and are easily scratched because the ink has heat melting properties. Because prints are exposed, storage stability is poor. By the way, in the case of print images of characters and graphics that are often performed, even if scratches are scarce, it is almost not a problem, but in the case of natural image prints such as landscapes, if scratches are attached, This scratch may catch your eyes and damage your aesthetics.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the printing described in Patent Document 1, an ink ribbon in which an ink area to which ink is applied and a laminate resin area to which a laminate resin is applied is formed in a predetermined order is used. To the recording paper, heat from behind with a thermal head, transfer the ink to the recording paper, and then face the laminate resin area to the recording paper and heat from behind with a thermal head to protect the ink It is disclosed that a laminate resin is transferred to a recording paper.

  In the printing described in Patent Document 2, a preprint ribbon is applied to a cover film, a transparent ink layer is thermally transferred, an image is printed on the transparent ink layer using a thermal transfer ribbon, and then printing is applied. It is disclosed that an image surface of the cover film is superimposed on a body and laminated to produce a printed matter.

JP-A-7-251575 JP 2008-119986 A

  However, in the printing described in Patent Document 1, since the ink is once again protected with the laminating resin at the portion where the ink is transferred to the recording paper, the printing time is about 2 as compared with the printing not protected with the laminating resin. The problem is that it takes twice as much.

  Further, in the printing described in Patent Document 2, a preprint ribbon, a thermal transfer ribbon, and the like are separately required, and the ribbon and the printing mechanism are increased in size and complexity, thereby increasing the size of the printer device itself. Occurs.

  Accordingly, the present invention provides a printer capable of applying a laminate coating at the same time as printing, and capable of completing the printing time in the same time as printing without a laminate coating, and having a compact printer. For the purpose.

  The printer of the present invention includes a print medium supply unit that supplies a print medium, an ink ribbon supply unit that supplies an ink ribbon, and an ink ribbon that is supplied from the ink ribbon supply unit to a print medium that is supplied from the print medium supply unit. A print head that performs printing, and the print head is provided with heating means for heating when the ink ribbon faces the print medium, and the ink layer that defines the print surface of the ink ribbon is The surface is covered with a laminate layer, and the laminate layer is heated by a heating means to coat the printing surface.

  According to the present invention, since the laminate coating can be performed simultaneously with the printing, there is an effect that the printing time can be completed in approximately the same time as the printing without the laminate coating.

  Further, according to the present invention, since the laminate coating can be performed simultaneously with the printing, the size of the printer device can be realized in a compact size as compared with the conventional printer having the laminate coating function. There is an effect that can be done.

1 is a schematic diagram of a thermal transfer printer embodying the present invention. The cross-section figure of an ink ribbon. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional structure diagram of a printed print medium.

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

  FIG. 1 shows a main part of the thermal transfer printer. The platen 1 is rotated in the direction of the arrow by a pulse motor (not shown), and conveys the ink ribbon 2 and the print medium 3.

  A thermal head 6 is provided at a location extending along the axial direction of the platen 1. The thermal head 6 heats the ink ribbon 2 from behind to transfer the melted or softened ink to the printing medium 3.

  The ink ribbon 2 is stored in the supply reel 5a and the take-up reel 5b. The ink ribbon 2 drawn out from the supply reel 5a passes through a guide roller (not shown) near the thermal head 6 and is taken up on the take-up reel 5b. When the ink ribbon 2 passes between the guide rollers at the same speed as the printing medium 3, the thermal head 6 presses and heats the printing medium 3.

  FIG. 2 schematically shows a cross-sectional structure of the ink ribbon 2.

  The ink ribbon 2 includes a base substrate 21, a laminate layer 22, an ink layer 23, and an adhesive layer 24.

  The laminate layer 22 is peeled from the base substrate 21 at a low temperature. As a material for the laminate layer 22, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester, and polycarbonate are used. The temperature at which the above peeling occurs (hereinafter, abbreviated as peeling temperature) is about 50 ° C.

  The ink layer 23 is composed of a solvent that develops color at a high temperature, and the temperature at which this color develops is assumed to be about 80 ° C. to 100 ° C. Such a solvent has been developed by material manufacturers and the like, so it is necessary to select a solvent that can set a temperature higher than the peeling temperature of the laminate layer 22.

  The adhesive layer 24 is fixed to the print medium 3 at a certain temperature. This temperature may be set to the same temperature as the peeling temperature of the laminate layer 22. As for the base substrate 21, a low friction layer may be formed on the base substrate 21 in FIG. This is because the ink ribbon 2 is supplied to the thermal head 6 without resistance from a state where the reel is wound.

  Next, the operation of the embodiment described above will be described with reference to FIGS. After the print medium 3 is mounted on the platen 1, a pulse motor (not shown) is driven to rotate the platen 1. The rotation of the platen 1 moves the leading end of the print medium 3 to a recording start position that faces the thermal head 6.

  Simultaneously with the rotation of the platen 1, the take-up reel 5 b rotates and the leading end of the ink ribbon 2 is set on the thermal head 6. When the leading edge of the print medium 3 is set on the thermal head 6, the thermal head 6 is moved toward the platen 1 and the ink ribbon 2 is pressed against the print medium 3.

  While the print medium 3 and the ink ribbon 2 are moved in close contact with each other, the heating elements arranged in a line are heated. These heating elements heat the ink ribbon 2 from behind and transfer it to the print medium 3.

  Here, by adjusting the temperature at which the ink ribbon 2 is heated, the ink layer 23 is colored and the laminate layer 22 is printed on the label 32, or the ink layer 23 is not colored and the laminate layer 22 is labeled. 32 can be executed.

  First, when the thermal head 6 is heated to a high temperature (80 ° C. to 100 ° C.), the ink ribbon 2 is heated from behind and transferred to the printing medium 3, the ink layer 23 is colored and the laminate layer 22 is printed on the label 32. be able to. This is shown in area 42 of FIG. A portion 33 colored black on the ink layer 23 can be recognized.

  Further, when the thermal head 6 is set to a low temperature (about 50 ° C.), the ink ribbon 2 is heated from behind and transferred to the printing medium 3, the ink layer 23 is not colored, and the laminate layer 22 is simply printed on the label 32. is there.

  Further, the portion without the label 32 and only the label mount 31 conveys the ink ribbon 2 and the print medium 3 without heating from the thermal head 6. Then, the laminate layer 22 and the ink layer 23 remain in close contact with the base substrate 21, and no printing is performed on the print medium 3. Such temperature adjustment is determined depending on the presence / absence of a label on the printing medium 3 and what kind of data is printed. Such a temperature adjustment command is transmitted from a host computer (not shown) to the thermal transfer printer shown in FIG.

  FIG. 3 shows a cross-sectional structure diagram of a printed print medium. Since the ink layer is covered by the laminate layer, it is possible to prevent damage. Further, since the ink layer 23 of the ink ribbon 2 is printed on the label 32, all the data included in the ink layer 23 is printed on the label 32. There is no remaining data. Therefore, data remaining on the conventional used ink ribbon may be a security problem, but in the present invention, such a problem does not occur.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Platen 2 Ink ribbon 3 Print medium 4 Print medium reel 5a Ink ribbon supply reel 5b Ink ribbon take-up reel 6 Thermal head 21 Base substrate 22 Laminate layer 23 Ink layer 24 Adhesive layer 31 Label mount 32 Label

Claims (3)

A print medium supply unit for supplying a print medium;
An ink ribbon supply unit for supplying the ink ribbon;
A print head that performs printing using the ink ribbon supplied from the ink ribbon supply unit to the print medium supplied from the print medium supply unit;
In a printer having
The print head includes a heating unit that heats the ink ribbon when the ink ribbon faces the print medium.
The surface of the ink layer defining the printing surface of the ink ribbon is covered with a laminate layer,
The printer, wherein the laminate layer is heated by the heating means to coat the printing surface. The printer according to claim 1,
The heating means has a function of adjusting the temperature in multiple stages,
The laminate layer is adjusted to a first temperature at which the printing surface is coated and a second temperature at which a predetermined portion of the ink layer is colored and the lamination layer coats the printing surface. And printer. The printer according to claim 1 or 2,
The ink ribbon includes the ink layer defining the printing surface;
A laminate layer covering the surface of the ink layer;
A base substrate supporting the laminate layer;
An adhesive layer formed on the opposite surface of the ink layer from the laminate layer;
It has the ink ribbon of the laminated structure which consists of.

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