JP2683835B2 - Thermal transfer recording device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording apparatus capable of multicolor printing and the like.

<Prior Art> This type of multicolor thermal transfer recording apparatus includes a carriage on which a recording head is mounted and which reciprocates in the scanning direction, a cassette base on which a plurality of ink ribbon cassettes are polymerized and mounted above the carriage, and a recording head. An elevating device for elevating and lowering the cassette table with respect to the carriage so as to select a desired ink ribbon from the plurality of ink ribbon cassettes so as to face the recording head during scanning a plurality of times.

Then, by raising and lowering the cassette table, a desired ink ribbon can be made to face the recording head and printed on the recording paper. At this time, if three color ink ribbons of yellow, magenta, and cyan are used for a plurality of ink ribbon cassettes, black, blue, cyan, green, yellow, red, Magenta,
Eight colors of white (paper color) are obtained, and a multicolor recorded image is obtained.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, in the above-mentioned conventional technique, since there is no means for detecting even if the ribbon of any stage is finished, the recording head is directly energized, printing is continued, and the desired Color printing may not be possible.

Further, even if the user recognizes the end of the ribbon and stops printing, the carriage must be returned to a predetermined position in order to replace the ink ribbon. Therefore, when printing is restarted, manually moving the carriage to the previous ribbon stop position and restarting printing requires a complicated operation, and accurate positioning is difficult because it is performed manually.

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal transfer recording apparatus capable of detecting the end of an arbitrary ribbon and smoothly restarting printing after ink ribbon replacement.

<Means for Solving the Problem> The problem solving means according to the present invention is a carriage 23 on which the recording head 22 is placed, and a carriage driving device for moving the carriage 23 in the scanning direction orthogonal to the feeding direction of the recording paper 74. 32, a cassette table 25 on which a plurality of ink ribbons 26 of different colors are superposed and mounted, an elevating device 27 for elevating the cassette table 25 with respect to the carriage 23, and a ribbon for winding the ink ribbon 26 during printing. Take-up reel rotation drive mechanism 40
And a ribbon sensor 45 that performs discrimination for selecting the ink ribbon 26 and detection of the ribbon end, and the ribbon sensor 45.
Carriage 23 associated with printing based on 45 ribbon end signal
Stop moving the carriage to the ink ribbon replacement position.
Drive stop means 83b for moving the carriage, a carriage stop position by the drive stop means 83b and a ribbon position storage means 83c for storing a print color when the drive is stopped, and an informing means for informing the end of the ink ribbon 26 (ribbon end display means). 83a),
The carriage 23 is moved to the carriage stop position stored in the ribbon position storage means 83c based on the print restart signal after replacement of the ink ribbon 26, and the ink ribbon 26 is matched or mismatched so as to match the print color at the time of interruption. It is provided with a printing resuming means 83d which raises and lowers the cassette table 25 while checking and selects the matching ink ribbon 26 to resume printing.

<Operation> In the above problem solving means, the elevating device 27 is actuated by the recording command to select which color ink ribbon is used for printing. In the color printing operation, printing is first started from the ribbon (yellow) on the upper stage. Next, the ribbon cassette 24 is raised by one step, and the ribbon (red) in the middle step is printed on the same line. Next, the ribbon cassette 24 is raised by one step, and the lower ribbon (blue) is printed on the same line.

In this way, color printing is realized by transferring the yellow, red, and blue colors on a line-by-line basis.

When the printing ribbon (yellow, red, blue) is wound during this printing, if the ribbon sensor 45 detects the ribbon end (FIG. 6), the drive stopping means 83b moves the carriage 23 with the printing. To stop the printing operation at that position, move the carriage 23 to the ink ribbon replacement position, and then notify the end of the ribbon. Further, the ribbon position storage means 83c stores the carriage stop position and the printing color during the interrupted printing.

Then, after the user replaces the ribbon with a new ribbon, if the user specifies to continue printing, the print resuming means 83d moves the carriage 23 to the stored carriage stop position. The cassette table 25 is moved up or down while checking whether the ink ribbons match or not so as to match the printing color at the time of interruption.
Then, the ribbon that matches the interrupted printing color is selected and printing is restarted. In addition, according to the detection result of the ribbon sensor 45,
Since it is possible to confirm whether or not the print mode and the attached ribbon are the same, it is possible to prevent the ink ribbon having a different color from the ribbon used from being attached. Also, the cassette stand 25
Even if the order of the ink ribbons to be placed on is different from that before the replacement, the ink ribbons can be directly handled without re-mounting.

By this operation, even if the printing ribbon is used up during printing, the color printing can be continued and the printing can be continued.

<Embodiment> Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the same control unit, FIG. 3 is a similar control flow chart, and FIG. 4 is a cassette mounting of the thermal transfer recording apparatus. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the state, FIG. 5 is a plan view of the carriage, FIG. 6 is a view showing an end portion of the ink ribbon, and FIG.
Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the scanning part of the carriage, Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the thermal transfer recording device, Fig. 9 is a side view of the carriage, Fig. 10 is a front view of the elevating part of the cassette part, and Fig. 11 is its side view. FIG. 12 and FIG. 12 show a rotary drive device for the recording head.

As shown in the figure, the thermal transfer recording apparatus according to the present invention has a recording head 22 mounted on a main body 21 of the apparatus, and a carriage 23 that reciprocates in a scanning direction orthogonal to the paper feeding direction, and a plurality of upper and lower carriages 23. A cassette table 25 on which the ink ribbon cassette 24 is superposed and placed, and a desired ink ribbon 26 among the plurality of ink ribbon cassettes 24 is sequentially selected while the recording head 22 is scanned a plurality of times to face the recording head 22. For this purpose, an elevating device 27 for elevating the cassette table 25 with respect to the carriage 23 is provided.

As shown in FIGS. 4, 9 and 11, the carriage 23 has a box shape, and a sliding hole 30 is formed in the front portion 23a in the scanning direction, and a guide rod 31 of the apparatus main body 21 is formed in the sliding hole 30. Are fitted.

In order to move the carriage 23 in the scanning direction, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the drive device 32 includes a pair of left and right pulley gears 33 arranged at both ends in the scanning direction, and the carriage 23 wound around the pulley gear 33. It is composed of an endless timing belt 34 that fixes the front portion 23a, and a scanning motor 35 that rotationally drives the pulley gear 33.

The recording head 22 mounted on the carriage 23 is a thermal head, and as shown in FIGS. 7, 9 and 12, the recording head 22 is rotatable about the shaft 22a at the lower end thereof toward the front side (toward the platen 20). It is supported by the front part 23a of 23.

The rotation drive device 22A for the recording head 22 includes a head drive cam 22b that rotates from a motor shaft 22d of a motor (not shown).
And the head drive cam fixed to the lower end of the recording head 22.
The driven piece 22c is in contact with the cam surface of 22b. Further, the recording head 22 is energized by an energizing circuit 22e (see FIGS. 1 and 2), and a peeling lever 36 is arranged in the vicinity of the recording head 22 in the scanning direction. This peel lever 36
Similar to the recording head 22, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 12, the carriage 23 is rotatably supported by the carriage 23 about the lower end shaft 22a in the front direction (platen direction). 36A includes a peeling angle variable cam 36a fixed to the outer periphery of the drive cam 22b, and a peeling lever 3
The driven piece 36b is in contact with the cam surface of a variable cam 36a fixed to the lower end of 6. This peeling lever 36
The rotation allows the peeling angle of the ink ribbon to be adjusted according to the printing speed.

Further, the carriage 23 is provided with a first paper guide plate 37 and a second paper guide plate 38 on both left and right sides of the recording head 22 and the peeling lever 36. The first paper guide plate 37 has its upper end curved in the platen direction (front side) in order to prevent the paper after printing from being bent toward the recording head 22 side.
It is fixed to.

The second paper guide plate 38 is for preventing the recording head 22 from being bent toward the recording head 22 side and for preventing the paper from swelling at the time of printing. The upper end side is curved in the platen direction (front side), and the side end on the printing direction side is It is curved in the platen direction (front side) and is fixed to the carriage 23.

A take-up reel 39 is rotatably supported on the carriage 23 so as to penetrate the cassette table 25 at the rear side of the recording head 22. As shown in FIG. 7, the rotation driving mechanism 40 of the take-up reel 39 has a rack 41 arranged in the scanning direction on the rear side of the carriage 23 and a rack 41 which meshes with the rack 41 in response to the rotation of the recording head 22. It is composed of a pinion 43 (see FIG. 9) that rotates in response to movement and transmits this rotational force to the take-up reel 39. In FIG. 9, reference numeral 44 is a carriage supporting roller, which slides on the upper surface of the toothless slide base 41a of the rack 41.

Further, a ribbon sensor 45 is arranged on the front part of the carriage 23. This ribbon sensor 45 is a color ribbon,
It detects the black ribbon and the end of the ribbon, and consists of an optical coupling device. The detection result of the ribbon sensor 45 is displayed on the display unit 45a by the ribbon end display means 83a, whereby the print mode and the mounted ribbon match,
The discrepancy can be confirmed and the end of the ribbon can be notified.

The second paper guide plate 38 faces the ribbon sensor 45.
A reflector plate 46 is provided in the. According to the optical signal reflected from the reflection plate 46 to the ribbon sensor 45, for example, the color ribbon and the black ribbon are discriminated by the high level (color) and low level (black) signals of the reflected light. The ribbon end is identified by a signal from the striped pattern of the ink ribbon 26.

As shown in FIGS. 9 to 11, the ink ribbon cassette base 25 is of an open top type surrounded by side walls, and in this example, the cassette base 25 has three different colors, yellow, red and blue. Ink ribbon cassette 24 is polymerized. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 47 is a cassette retainer having elasticity and preventing the ink ribbon cassette 24 from shaking.

The lifting device 27 has a pin 5 at one end as shown in FIGS.
The link mechanism 55 is connected to the carriage 23 by 1,52 and the other end is connected to the cassette base 25 by the pins 53 and 54 respectively, and the cam surface is rotatably supported by the carriage 23 via the drive shaft 56 and the cassette base is the cassette base. Actual size cam 57 that abuts the bottom surface 25a of 25
And a drive mechanism 59 for rotationally driving the actual size cam 57.

The link mechanism 55 is a pantograph mechanism which is arranged on both left and right sides of the cassette table 25, and on each side, a first link 61 and a second link 62 are connected by a pin 63 at the center thereof. The upper end pin 54 of the first link 61 is attached to the cassette base 25.
The lower end pin 52 of the second link 62 is fitted in the lateral groove 65 of the carriage 23. Also the second link
At the upper end of 62, the link mechanism 55 on both the left and right sides of the cassette base 25
A link 66 that connects the two is provided.

The actual size cam 57 has a ratio of the cam stroke to the stroke of the cassette base 25 to be moved of 1: 1, and as shown in FIG. 10, the drive shaft 56 passed to the left and right walls of the carriage 23.
The cassette table 25 is supported by the cassette holder 25, and has a shape capable of moving up and down in three steps.

The drive mechanism 59 of the actual size cam 57 includes a worm wheel 68 fitted and fixed to the drive shaft 56, and the worm wheel 68.
The worm 69 that meshes with the 68, and the worm 69 is connected to the gear mechanism 70a.
And a stepping motor 70 that is rotationally driven via the.

In FIG. 8, 71 is a feed roller, and 72 is a motor for rotationally driving the feed roller 71. In FIG. 4, 73 is a guide plate and 74 is a recording paper.

Then, a printer drive circuit 81 including the carriage drive device 32, the cassette platform elevating device 27, the recording head rotation drive device 22A, the recording paper conveyance motor 72, and the ribbon take-up reel rotation drive mechanism 40, and the recording head energization circuit 22e. , Display section 45a
A control device 82 is provided to control the.

This control device 82 is a ribbon end display means 83a for notifying the display unit 45a of the ribbon end based on the ribbon end signal.
And a drive stopping means 83b for stopping the movement of the carriage 23 associated with printing based on the ribbon end signal of the ribbon sensor 45 and moving the carriage 23 to the ink ribbon replacement position.
And a ribbon position storage means 83c for storing the carriage stop position by the drive stopping means 83b and the interrupted print color, and a print restart switch 85 of the input section 84 after the ink ribbon 26 is replaced.
Ribbon position storage means 83c based on the print restart signal by
Carriage 23 to the carriage stop position stored by
And a print resuming means 83d for resuming printing by selecting an ink ribbon matching the interrupted print color.

The control circuit 83 including the ribbon end display means 83a, the drive stop means 83b, the ribbon position storage means 83c, and the print restart means 83d is composed of a general one-chip microcomputer as shown in FIG. R
It has an OM, a CPU, and an input / output circuit (I / O).

In the above structure, the elevating device 27 is activated by the recording command to select which color ink ribbon is used for printing. In the lifting device 27, first, when the stepping motor 70 is driven, the gear mechanism 70a, the worm 69 and the worm wheel 68 rotate, and the rotation of the drive shaft 56 causes the actual size cam 57 to move.
For example, it rotates from the lowered posture to the raised posture. Actual size cam 57
When is rotated, the cassette table 25 that is in contact with the cassette is pushed up, and the link mechanism 55 raises the cassette table 25 while keeping at least the left and right horizontal states.

When the desired ink ribbon cassette 24 is located at the printing position, the drive motor 35 rotates the pulley gear 33, drives the timing belt 34, and scans the carriage 23. Then, the recording head 22 melts the ink in the ink ribbon cassette 24 to thermally transfer the ink to the sheet on the platen side.

In the color printing operation, printing is started from the upper ribbon (yellow) first, but after pressing the recording head 22 against the paper, the carriage 23 is moved to move the ribbon cassette at the same time.
The upper printing ribbon in 24 is wound up by the reel 39, the yellow print data is transferred to the recording head 22, and then a printing command is issued to heat the recording head 22 to transfer the ink of the printing ribbon to the recording paper. By doing so, yellow is printed.

Next, the ribbon cassette 24 is raised by one step, and the ribbon (red) in the middle step is printed on the same line.

Next, the ribbon cassette 24 is raised by one step, and the lower ribbon (blue) is printed on the same line.

In this way, color printing is realized by transferring the yellow, red, and blue colors on a line-by-line basis.

During this printing, reel 39 prints ribbon (yellow, red,
If the sensor 45 always detects the end of printing bar code 26a (Fig. 6) when winding (blue), and the ribbon end signal emitted from the sensor 45 during printing is detected by the microcomputer 83, printing operation Is stopped at that position, the color code being printed is recorded, the carriage 23 is moved to a position where the ribbon cassette 24 is replaced, and the user is informed that the printing ribbon is finished. If the user specifies to continue printing after exchanging with a new ribbon, the microcomputer detects the previously stopped position, ups or downs the ribbon cassette, selects the previously completed ribbon, and restarts printing from that position. To do.

By this operation, even if the printing ribbon is used up during printing, the color printing can be continued and the printing can be continued.

This control will be described in more detail with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 3. After the start of printing, the recording head 22 is pressed against the recording paper 74 as shown by the chain line in FIG. 5, and the carriage 23 is moved in the A direction. Then, the printing ribbon 26 is wound up by the reel 39. Next, after outputting the print signal (yellow component), the sensor 45 detects the bar code 26a, and when there is no ribbon end signal on the microcomputer side, the yellow, red, and blue components are line by line in the upper, middle, and Print with the lower ribbon and repeat until printing is complete.

If there is a ribbon end signal during printing, the carriage 23 and ribbon take-up are stopped and the recording head 22 and recording paper
After further pulling up, the carriage 23 is moved to a position for exchanging the ribbon.

It should be noted that since printing is in progress, one line of data currently being printed is saved, and a color code (yellow, red, or blue) and the position where printing has stopped are stored in the microcomputer. Then, to indicate to the user that the ribbon is finished, the ribbon finished display is displayed.

After the user replaces a new ribbon with the carriage 23 and specifies print start, the microcomputer reads the position of the previously stopped print and the ribbon type matching the color code from RAM and moves the carriage 23 to that position. And then select the ribbon that matches the color code.
After the cassette stand 25 of 23 is up or down, the color data is transferred from the previously stopped place to the recording head 22,
Output the print signal and print. This operation is repeated until printing is completed.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it goes without saying that many modifications and changes can be made to the above-described embodiment within the scope of the present invention.

<Effects of the Invention> As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the carriage movement accompanying printing is stopped based on the ribbon end signal of the ribbon sensor, the carriage is moved to the ink ribbon replacement position, and the carriage stop. The interrupted print color is stored together with the position, the carriage is moved to the stored stop position based on the print restart signal after ink ribbon replacement, and the cassette stand is used to select the ink ribbon that matches the interrupted print color. Since printing is resumed by moving up and down, even if the ink ribbon runs out during printing, the ink ribbon of the printing color when stopped will be correctly selected, and color printing can be continued without missing. Moreover, there is an excellent effect that the work of replacing the ink ribbon can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the same control unit, FIG. 3 is a similar control flow chart, and FIG. 4 is a cassette mounting of the thermal transfer recording apparatus. FIG. 5 is a plan view of the carriage, FIG. 6 is a view showing the end of the ink ribbon, FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the scanning portion of the carriage, and FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the thermal transfer recording apparatus. FIG. 9 is a side view of the carriage, FIG. 10 is a front view of the elevating part of the cassette part, FIG. 11 is a side view of the same, and FIG. 12 is a rotation drive device of the recording head. 22: Recording head, 23: Carriage, 24: Ink ribbon cassette, 25: Cassette stand, 26: Ink ribbon, 27: Lifting device, 45: Ribbon sensor, 83b: Drive stop means, 83c: Ribbon position storage means, 83d: Printing Resuming means.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A carriage on which a recording head is mounted, a carriage driving device for moving the carriage in a scanning direction orthogonal to the feeding direction of the recording paper, and a plurality of ink ribbons of different colors are superposed and mounted. A cassette table, an elevating device for elevating the cassette table with respect to the carriage, a ribbon take-up reel rotation drive mechanism for winding an ink ribbon during printing, and a discrimination for selecting an ink ribbon and a ribbon end detection are performed. A ribbon sensor, drive stopping means for stopping the carriage movement associated with printing based on a ribbon end signal of the ribbon sensor, and moving the carriage to an ink ribbon replacement position, and a carriage stop position and an interruption by the drive stopping means. Ribbon position storage means for storing the printing color at the time of printing, notification means for notifying the end of the ink ribbon, and Based on the print restart signal after replacement of the ribbon, move the carriage to the carriage stop position stored in the ribbon position storage means, and check the matching and non-matching of the ink ribbon to match the printing color at the time of interruption. And a print resuming means for resuming printing by selecting the matching ink ribbon.