JP2513030B2 - Color thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a color thermal transfer printer, and more particularly to a color thermal transfer printer having a function of recognizing a ribbon of a portion which is once printed.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, an ink ribbon in this type of color thermal transfer printer is formed with an ink dye zone and a color identification code.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are a state diagram of an ink ribbon and a diagram of an ink ribbon and a bar code, respectively, for explaining a conventional example.

As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the conventional ink ribbon has a plurality of dye zones C on one ink ribbon 3.
It has a bar code d for identifying these dye zones, and superposed printing is performed a plurality of times in order to print arbitrary colors.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

The conventional color thermal transfer printer described above has a drawback in that a large amount of unused ink portion must be wasted and discarded because an undesired dye zone is idled and wound until a color required for printing appears. There is. Further, the used ink ribbon of the conventional color thermal transfer printer has a drawback in that, when it is rewound or inverted, it cannot be identified whether it can be used. Therefore, when the used dye zone is reprinted, there is a defect that a print defect occurs.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a color thermal transfer printer which improves the efficiency of use of such an ink ribbon and does not cause print defects even when the ink ribbon is reused.

[Means for solving the problem]

The color thermal transfer printer of the present invention is provided with an ink ribbon having a plurality of dye zones for performing multicolor printing and a color identification barcode for performing color identification between the dye zones, and for recognizing the color identification barcode. In the thermal transfer printer having the barcode recognition sensor of the above, as the color identification barcode of the ink ribbon, an unused or used identification code zone is provided in addition to the color identification zone, while the ink ribbon A bar code rewriting head for rewriting an unused code into a used code, and a bar code rewriting head opposed to the bar code rewriting head with respect to the code zone for unused or used identification. The barcode recognition sensor identifies the unused or used identification code zone of the color identification barcode. The Rukoto, when changing writing the dirty using the bar code rewrite head, is characterized by having a transfer roller to receive ink to be removed from the code zone for unused or spent identification.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part of a color thermal transfer printer showing an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the present embodiment, a ribbon motor 2 for winding an ink ribbon 3, a print head 8 for transferring ink onto a sheet 9 to print characters, and a barcode recognition sensor 5 for reading a barcode 4. And a bar code rewriting head 6 for transferring a part of the bar code to the roller 7, and a controller 1 for controlling these.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are a diagram of an unused ink ribbon and a barcode used in FIG. 1 and a diagram of an used ink ribbon and a barcode, respectively. Incidentally, (a)
In both the figure and the figure (b), electric signals sent from the barcode recognition sensor to the control section are shown as A1 to H1 below.

As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the dye zone c,
f, a color identification code d indicating the color of the dye zones c and f, and an unused code e indicating that the dye zone c is unused or a used code g indicating that the dye zone f has been used. And are one set, and eight types of barcodes A to H are combined. Where d in the barcode
The part shows the color of the pigment part c or f depending on the length of the black band and the blank area. Further, the e part and the g part are the dye part c or f.
Indicates whether it is unused or used by the presence / absence of a black band. The e part indicates the case where the c part is unused, and the g part indicates that the f part is used. .

The dye zone and the bar code of the completely unused ink ribbon 3 are repeated in the order of A, B, C and D, and continue as shown in FIG. 3 (a) described in the above-mentioned conventional example. The dye zone and the barcode of the partially used ink ribbon 3 are sequentially followed by A or E, B or F, C or G, D or H.

Next, in such a color thermal transfer printer, an operation for printing in black will be considered.

First, the control unit 1 operates the ribbon motor 2 that drives the ribbon winding unit, and the ink ribbon 3 is fed in the direction of arrow A. At this time, when the barcode 4 on the ink ribbon 3 passes through the barcode recognition sensor 5, the sensor 5 outputs a signal A corresponding to the barcode A, B, C, D or E, F, G, H.
1, B1, C1, D1 or E1, F1, G1, H1 are sent to the control unit 1.
Therefore, the control unit 1 determines that the received signal is B1, C1, D1, E1, F1, G
In the case of 1, H1, the ink ribbon 3 is continuously fed as it is. However, when the received signal becomes the unused black signal A1, the control unit 1 operates the bar code rewriting head 6,
The ink of the unused code e portion of the barcode A is transferred to the roller 7, and the black portion barcode A of the unused ink ribbon 3 is transferred.
Is rewritten to the used ink ribbon black area bar code E, and the print head 8 is operated to print characters on the paper 9.

In this way, when the ink ribbon 3 is completely wound around the ribbon motor 2, the ink ribbon 3 can be rewound and used again, and all barcodes are changed from A, B, C, D to E, F, G, H. Can be used up to.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, in the color thermal transfer printer of the present invention, by rewriting the bar code of the code portion of the ink ribbon which has been used once, the unused portion of the ink ribbon which is only partially used can be repeatedly used. Since it can be used over the entire ink ribbon, there is an effect that the use efficiency of the expensive ink ribbon can be improved and the printing cost which has been expensive until now can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part of a color thermal transfer printer showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b) respectively show an unused ink ribbon and a bar code used in FIG. FIGS. 3A and 3B are an ink ribbon state diagram and an ink ribbon and bar code diagram, respectively, for explaining an example of the related art. 1 ... Control unit, 2 ... Ribbon motor, 3 ... Ink ribbon, 4 ... Bar code, 5 ... Bar code recognition sensor, 6 ... Bar code rewriting head, 7 ... Roller, 8
...... Print head, 9 ... Paper, c ... Ink dye zone, d ... Color identification zone, e ... Unused code, f ...
Used ink pigment part, g ... Used code, A ... Unused ink ribbon black part barcode, B ... Unused ink ribbon yellow part barcode, C ... Unused ink ribbon red part barcode, D …… Unused ink ribbon blue area barcode, E …… Used ink ribbon black area barcode,
F: Used ink ribbon yellow part barcode, G ... Used ink ribbon red part barcode, H ... Used ink ribbon blue part barcode, A1 ... Unused black signal, B1
...... Unused yellow signal, C1 ...... Unused red signal, D1 ...... Unused blue signal, E1 ...... Used black signal, F1 ...... Used yellow signal, G1 ...... Used red signal, H1 ...... Used blue signal.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An ink ribbon having a plurality of dye zones for performing multicolor printing and a color identification barcode for performing color identification between the dye zones, and a barcode for recognizing the color identification barcode. In a thermal transfer printer having a recognition sensor, as the color identification barcode of the ink ribbon, in addition to the color identification zone, an unused or used identification code zone is provided, while the unused or used of the ink ribbon is used. With respect to the used identification code zone, a bar code rewriting head for rewriting an unused code into a used code, and the bar code rewriting head are arranged to face each other with the ink ribbon interposed therebetween, By identifying the unused or used identification code zone of the color identification barcode with a code recognition sensor, When replacing written to spent with keycode rewrite head, a color thermal transfer printer characterized by having a transfer roller to receive ink to be removed from the code zone for unused or spent identification.