JP2939400B2 - Thermal transfer printer and ribbon cassette - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer and a ribbon cassette, and more particularly to a thermal transfer printer and a thermal transfer printer for performing desired printing by melting and transferring ink of an ink ribbon to predetermined paper by a heating element of a thermal head. The present invention relates to a ribbon cassette suitable for a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there have been many thermal transfer printers which use a thermal transfer printer having a predetermined ink layer formed thereon, melt the ink of the ink ribbon by a thermal head, and transfer the ink to a predetermined recording medium to perform desired printing. Used.

FIG. 10 shows a conventional general thermal transfer printer. A flat platen 2 is disposed substantially at the center of a frame 1 of the printer so that its printing surface is substantially vertical. A carriage shaft 3 is provided below the frame 1 on the front side below the platen 2 in parallel with the platen 2. A flange-shaped guide portion 4 is formed at the front edge of the frame 1. A carriage 5 reciprocates along the carriage shaft 3 and the guide portion 4 on the carriage shaft 3 and the guide portion 4. It is movably mounted. A thermal head 6 is attached to the leading end of the carriage 5 so as to face the platen 2. An ink ribbon is stored on the upper surface of the carriage 5, and the ink ribbon is attached to the thermal head 6 and the platen 2. 2 and a ribbon cassette (not shown) for guiding between them. Further, on the upper surface of the carriage 5, a take-up bobbin 7 for winding the ink ribbon of the ribbon cassette and a delivery bobbin 8 for sending out the ink ribbon are provided.

A paper insertion port 9 for feeding paper (not shown) to the front of the platen 2 is formed behind the platen 2, and the paper insertion port 9 is formed at a predetermined speed in the paper insertion port 9. A paper feed roller 10 for transporting the paper is provided. Below the paper feed roller 10, a pressure roller 11 that is pressed against the paper feed roller 10 is rotatably disposed. The paper feed roller 10 and the pressure roller 1
1, the paper inserted from the paper insertion port 9 is nipped and conveyed.

Further, a transmission gear group 12 connected to the paper feed roller 10 is disposed on one side surface of the frame 1, and the transmission gear group 12 is driven to rotate. A paper feed motor 13 for driving the paper feed roller 10 to rotate is connected.

In the conventional printer, paper is inserted from the paper insertion slot 9, the paper is sandwiched between the paper feed roller 10 and the pressing roller 11, and the paper feed motor 13 is driven to transmit the paper. By rotating the paper feed roller 10 through the gear group 12, the paper is conveyed at a predetermined speed in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the carriage 5. On the other hand, the thermal head 6 is pressed against the paper with a predetermined pressing force. In this state, the carriage 5 is moved, and the winding bobbin 7 is rotated to wind the ink ribbon of the ribbon cassette. By driving the thermal head 6 based on a desired printing signal, desired printing is performed on the paper.

In recent years, the printing speed has been increased by increasing the number of dots of the thermal head 6 and printing a plurality of lines by one reciprocation.

[0008]

However, in the above-described conventional thermal transfer printer, the power consumption of the thermal head 6 is significantly increased due to the increase in the number of dots of the thermal head 6, and such a large amount of power is consumed. Therefore, it is necessary to install a large-capacity and expensive power supply to supply the power, which causes a problem of increasing the product cost.

In recent years, the present applicant has developed an ink ribbon having a reduced thickness dimension. According to this ink ribbon, heat transfer efficiency with respect to ink is improved. If you do
Even if the output of the thermal head 6 of the thermal transfer printer is small, the ink can be appropriately melt-transferred, and as a result, the power consumption of the thermal head 6 can be reduced.
A power supply having a small capacity can be used.

However, in the above-described thermal transfer printer, when printing is performed using the ink ribbon,
Although there is no problem, when printing is performed directly on thermal paper without using an ink ribbon, the thermal head 6 needs to be driven at the same high output as before, so that the power consumption of the thermal head 6 is reduced. In addition, there is a problem that the power supply capacity of the thermal head 6 cannot be reduced due to the necessity of performing such high-output printing, and the product cost cannot be reduced.

Further, in the thermal transfer printer,
The take-up bobbin 7 for taking up the ink ribbon of the ribbon cassette is always driven at the time of printing. Therefore, even when printing is performed directly on thermal paper without using an ink ribbon, conventionally, In addition, the winding bobbin is driven, and thus the driving power of the winding bobbin 7 is wasted, so that there is a problem that power saving of the thermal transfer printer cannot be achieved.

In the conventional thermal transfer printer, a ribbon end detecting device (not shown) is provided on the carriage 5, and a marker formed at the end of the ink ribbon of the ribbon cassette by the ribbon end detecting device. When it is detected, the printing operation is stopped, the ribbon cassette is replaced, and then printing is performed again.
Since the ribbon end detecting device is disposed near the thermal head 6 and the ink ribbon end is detected near the thermal head 6, the end of the ink ribbon is immediately located at the printing position after the end of the ink ribbon is detected. Is conveyed, and printing cannot be performed immediately after the end detection. Therefore, when the end of the ink ribbon is detected during printing of one line, and printing of the same line is restarted after replacement of the ribbon cassette, the accuracy of the structure of the ribbon cassette causes an error between before and after replacement of the ribbon cassette. There is a problem that the printing position may be shifted.

Moreover, since the end of the ink ribbon is detected by the ribbon end detecting device even during printing, the print signal must be processed and the end detection signal of the ink ribbon must be sequentially processed. for that reason,
When processing the end detection signal of the ink ribbon, the print signal cannot be processed, and the processing of the print signal requires a waiting time. However, there is a problem that is reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and can reduce power consumption of a thermal head, can be manufactured at low cost, can save power of a thermal transfer printer, and can perform printing. An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer printer and a ribbon cassette that can improve the speed and can perform appropriate printing even when the end of the ink ribbon is detected.

[0015]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a thermal transfer printer including a thermal head having a plurality of heating elements formed on a carriage reciprocating along a platen. By detachably mounting a ribbon cassette in which an ink ribbon is wound around and housed in the carriage, and by driving each heating element of the thermal head based on a predetermined print signal while moving the carriage, a desired printing is performed. In a thermal transfer printer for performing printing, a detection device for detecting the presence or absence of a ribbon cassette is provided on the carriage, and when the detection device detects that the ribbon cassette is mounted, the heating element of the thermal head is set to a low output. And the detection device detects that the ribbon cassette is not mounted. Sometimes and is characterized in that a control device for driving and controlling the heating elements of the thermal head to reduce the number of driving the dot heating elements of the thermal head at a high output.

[0016]

Further, the ribbon cassette according to the second aspect of the present invention stores the ink ribbon wound around a pair of reels inside a cassette case detachably mounted on the upper surface of a carriage, In a ribbon cassette having a concave portion into which a thermal head of a thermal transfer printer is inserted and a notch into which a detection sensor for detecting an end detection marker formed on the ink ribbon is inserted, the ink ribbon is provided with a plurality of ink ribbons. A color ink ribbon in which color ink portions are continuously formed in the longitudinal direction and identification markers detected by the detection sensors are formed between the ink portions of the respective colors, and the amount of the ink portions of the respective colors is drawn. From the length of the maximum printing area of one line, the amount of movement of the thermal head during the movement of one line should be within the range. It is characterized in that there was boss.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a thermal head having a plurality of heating elements is mounted on a carriage which reciprocates along a platen, and the ink ribbon is wound around the carriage and housed therein. A cassette is detachably mounted, a detection sensor for detecting the end of the ink ribbon is provided on the carriage, and each heating element of the thermal head is driven based on a predetermined print signal while moving the carriage. Thus, in a thermal transfer printer that performs desired printing, the amount of routing of the ink ribbon of the ribbon cassette from the printing position by the thermal head to the end detection position by the detection sensor is determined by the length of the maximum printing area, It is set within the range of the movement amount, and the detection sensor is set when the carriage is slowed up. It is characterized in that the control device is disposed to control so to operate only when the fine slow down to detect the end of the ink ribbon.

[0019]

According to the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, the output of the thermal head is reduced by using a thin ink ribbon, and when the detection device detects that the ribbon cassette is not mounted, the thermal head is controlled by the control device. Since the number of drive dots of the heating element is reduced and the heating element of the thermal head is driven and controlled at a higher output than when the ribbon cassette is mounted, power consumption during printing can be significantly reduced. Thus, a low-capacity and inexpensive power supply can be used, and the product cost can be significantly reduced.

According to the ribbon cassette of the present invention,
Set the amount of ink for each color of the color ink ribbon to 1
From the maximum print area length of the line, one line of the thermal head
It is set to be within the range of the movement amount when moving
Thus, the ink ribbon does not end during the printing of one line, and the printing of one line can be performed reliably.
It is possible to reliably prevent the occurrence of printing deviation or the like in the line printing range.

Further, since the detection of the end of the ink ribbon by the detection sensor is performed only when the carriage is slowed up and slowed down and the end of the ink ribbon is not detected during printing, the end of the ink ribbon is detected during the printing signal processing. As a result, the waiting time for the processing of the print signal is not required, the print data processing time can be reduced, and the printing speed can be significantly increased.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a carriage portion of a thermal transfer printer according to the present invention. A carriage 5 reciprocally movable along a platen (not shown) has a thermal head 6 attached to the platen. A support shaft 14 is formed on the upper surface of the carriage 5 to protrude from the upper surface of the carriage 5 and serves as a center of the operation of the thermal head 6. Also, on the upper surface of the carriage 5,
A take-up bobbin 7 and a delivery bobbin 8 are provided rotatably. A second take-up bobbin 15 and a second delivery bobbin 16 are provided on the upper surface of the carriage 5 so as to be rotatable. I have. Further, three detection switches 17, 17,... Are provided at the corners of the upper surface of the carriage 5 at an angle, and near the support shaft 14 on the upper surface of the carriage 5, an ink ribbon for use is provided. A detection sensor 18 for detecting the end detection marker and for detecting the color detection marker of the color ink ribbon is provided.

An ink ribbon 21 is wound inside a cassette case 20 of a ribbon cassette 19 mounted on the carriage 5, and is engaged with the delivery bobbin 8 and the take-up bobbin 7 of the carriage 5, respectively. A delivery reel 22 and a take-up reel 23 are housed, respectively.
A pair of guide rollers 24, 24, which are engaged with the second delivery bobbin 16 and the second winding bobbin 15 of the carriage 5, and guide the ink ribbon 21, are provided.
A concave portion 25 into which the thermal head 6 is inserted while being mounted on the carriage 5 is formed at a central portion of one side of the cassette case 20. Are formed with notches 26, 26 into which the support shaft 14 is inserted.

Further, a plurality of portions are provided between the delivery reel 22, the take-up reel 23 and the guide rollers 24, the concave portions 25, and the notch portions 26 inside the cassette case 20, respectively. Guide member 27,
27 ... are provided.

The ink ribbon 2 wound around the delivery reel 22 at the corner of the cassette case 20
The three detection holes 28, 28
Are formed obliquely with respect to the end face of the cassette case 20 so as to correspond to the detection switch 17 of the carriage 5. By forming the detection hole 28 at an angle in this manner, a space for forming is formed. It can be secured large. Each of these detection holes 28
Is a specific detection hole 28 according to the type of the ink ribbon 21.
Is closed by a seal or the like, and the closed detection hole 28 is
The type of the ink ribbon 21 can be detected by pressing the detection switch 17 mounted on the carriage 5, and when the ribbon cassette 19 is not mounted on the carriage 5, Since the detection switch 17 is not pressed, it is possible to detect that the ribbon cassette 19 is not mounted.

Further, in the present embodiment, the ink ribbon 21 accommodated in the ribbon cassette 19 is formed so as to have a smaller thickness dimension than the conventional one. Since the heat transfer efficiency with respect to the ink is improved, the energizing power of each dot of the thermal head 6 is reduced, for example, from 0.5 W / dot to 0.4 W / dot in the related art. For example, a heating element of 160 dots is formed on the thermal head 6 so that a plurality of lines can be printed by one reciprocating movement of the carriage 5.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a control device for driving and controlling the thermal transfer printer of the present invention.
The carriage 5 is provided with a take-up motor 29 for rotating and driving the take-up bobbin 7, and the printer body is provided with a carriage motor 30 for reciprocating the carriage 5 and a predetermined sheet. Paper feed motors 13 are provided for the respective operations. The winding motor 29, the carriage motor 30, the paper feed motor 13 and the thermal head 6
Drive circuits 29 and 30 and a drive circuit 31 for controlling the drive of the thermal head 6 are connected. The detection switch 17 mounted on the carriage 5 is connected to a signal processing circuit 32 for determining the presence / absence of the ribbon cassette 19 and the type of the ink ribbon 21 by ON / OFF operation of each detection switch 17. The signal processing circuit 32 sends a drive control signal to the drive circuit 31 based on the determination signal from the signal processing circuit 32.
A host circuit 33 such as U is connected.

In this embodiment, when a signal indicating that the ribbon cassette 19 is not mounted on the carriage 5 is sent from the signal processing circuit 32 to the host circuit 33 by the detection switch 17, this host Circuit 3
A drive control signal is sent to the drive circuit 31 through 3 to control printing so that the number of dots used by the thermal head 6 when printing using the ink ribbon 21 is smaller than the number of dots used, and energizing each dot. The time is controlled to be long. Further, when the ribbon cassette 19 is not mounted, the winding motor 29 is controlled so as not to be driven.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, the detection switch 17 of the carriage 5 is pressed to detect whether or not the ribbon cassette 19 is mounted on the carriage 5, and the detection holes 28 of the ribbon cassette 19 are closed. When the detection switch 17 corresponding to the detection hole 28 is pressed, the ink ribbon 2 inside the ribbon cassette 19 is pressed.
One type is detected. That is, when the detection switch 17 is pressed, the ON / OFF signal is output to the signal processing circuit 32.
A determination signal is sent to the host circuit 33 by determining the presence / absence of 9 and the type of the ink ribbon 21.

When a signal indicating that the ribbon cassette 19 is mounted on the carriage 5 is sent to the host circuit 33 by the signal processing circuit 32, the host circuit 33 controls the drive circuit 31. The driving circuit 31 outputs a signal to the thermal head 6 such that all the heating elements of 160 dots formed on the thermal head 6 output 0.4 W per dot, The drive control is performed with a power-on time of 100 μs. Thereby, conventionally, for example,
Printing is performed with an output of 0.5 W per dot, and the power consumption when driving all the dots is 26.7 W
However, in this embodiment, the power consumption is 21.3 W. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the power consumption can be reduced by about 20% as compared with the conventional one.

The discrimination signal indicating that the ribbon cassette 19 is not mounted on the carriage 5 is sent to the host circuit 33.
If it is sent to the thermal paper, it is determined that printing is to be performed directly on the thermal paper, and the drive circuit 31 reduces the number of energized dots of each heating element of the thermal head 6 from 160 dots to 128 dots, and At a power of 0.4 W, printing is performed with a power-on time of 125 μs. Further, in the present embodiment, the drive circuit 31 controls the winding motor 29 to stop.

As a result, the power consumption is 21.3 W, which is lower than the conventional one.
Further, since the winding motor 29 is stopped, the driving power of the winding motor 29 is not required. In this case, the energizing time of the thermal head 6 is set to 100 μs, and
Even if the output per dot is set to 0.5 W, the power consumption can be similarly reduced.

For example, when high-sensitivity thermal paper is used as the thermal paper, the same control as that for the ink ribbon 21 can be performed.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the output of the thermal head 6 is reduced by using the thin ink ribbon 21 and the driving dots of the thermal head 6 are used when printing is performed directly on the thermal paper without using the ink ribbon 21. Since the number is reduced, the power consumption during printing can be significantly reduced, which makes it possible to use a low-capacity and inexpensive power supply, thereby significantly reducing the product cost. it can.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the ribbon cassette according to the present invention, in which an ink ribbon 21 is wound inside a cassette case 20 of a ribbon cassette 19 and disposed on a carriage. The delivery reel 22 engaged with the delivery bobbin and the take-up bobbin, respectively.
And a take-up reel 23 are accommodated therein. The ribbon cassette 19 is arranged such that the take-up reel 23 is located on the thermal head 6 side and the delivery reel 22 is located on the front side of the take-up reel 23. It is designed to be mounted vertically.

Further, on one side of the delivery reel 22 and the take-up reel 23 of the ribbon cassette 19,
A pair of guide rollers 24, 24 which are engaged with a second delivery bobbin (not shown) and a second winding bobbin (not shown) of the carriage and guide the ink ribbon 21 are provided.
At the front and rear ends of the cassette case 20, recesses 25 into which the thermal head 6 is inserted while being mounted on the carriage are formed. In this embodiment, since the multi-time ink ribbon 21 which can be used by turning over the ribbon cassette 19 is used, the concave portion 2 is used.
5 is formed at a symmetrical position, but when a so-called one-time ink ribbon 21 is used, the recess 25 may be formed at only one place.

For example, as shown in FIG. 7, in the color ink ribbon 21, a ribbon coated with ink of each color of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (B) is used. Each of the ink ribbons 21 is repeatedly and continuously formed with a predetermined length via the color detection marker 34, and an end detection marker 35 is formed at the end of the ink ribbon 21. The end detecting marker 35 of the ink ribbon 21 and the color ink ribbon 2
A detection notch 36 is formed to allow the detection sensor 18 for detecting one color detection marker 34 to face the ink ribbon 21, and a not-shown carriage detection Switch 1
7, three detection holes 28 are formed.

Further, the delivery reel 22, the portion between the take-up reel 23 and each guide roller 24 inside the cassette case 20, the front end portion of the concave portion 25 and the portion near the periphery of the cassette case 20 are respectively provided. A plurality of guide members 27, 27,... Are provided.
And is exposed to the outside from the concave portion 25 of the non-printing portion along the guide member 27, is again guided by the other side portion inside the cassette case 20, is exposed from the concave portion 25 for printing, and is guided through the guide roller 24. It is arranged to be wound around the take-up reel 23.

In this embodiment, the distance of the ink ribbon 21 from the detection sensor 18 to the heating element of the thermal head 6 is, as shown in FIG. ), The maximum thermal head 6
Is set within the range of the amount of movement of the ink ribbon 21. Thus, even when the end of the ink ribbon 21 is located in the vicinity of the detection sensor 18, a length for printing one line is secured. Will be. In the case of the color ink ribbon 21, the length of each color is the amount of the maximum printing area (1).
(The amount of line printing) is set within the range of the maximum moving amount of the thermal head 6.

In the present embodiment, the operation of detecting the end of the ink ribbon 21 and each color is performed in a slow-up area until the carriage moves at a constant speed and a slow-down area until the carriage stops moving at a constant speed. The operation is performed only during the slack removal operation of the ink ribbon 21 when the thermal head 6 is raised, and the detection of the ink ribbon 21 is not performed during the printing operation.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the carriage is operated based on the print operation signal, and the detection sensor 18 is operated during the slow-up operation of the carriage to detect the end of the ink ribbon 21.
When the first end detection marker 35 is detected, the printing operation is terminated, the ribbon cassette 19 is turned over or replaced, and printing is continued again. If the end detection marker 35 is not detected, desired printing is performed while operating the thermal head 6 based on the print signal. In this case, in this embodiment, the ink ribbon 2 is used.
Since the length from the first detection sensor 18 to the printing position by the thermal head 6 is formed to be longer than the length of one line of printing, the end of the ink ribbon 21 is located near the detection sensor 18. However, it is possible to properly print one line.

When printing of one line is completed, the end of the ink ribbon 21 is detected by operating the detection sensor 18 during the slowdown operation until the carriage is stopped, and the end of the ink ribbon 21 is detected. Terminates the printing operation and, if the end is not detected, raises the thermal head 6 to perform the slack removal operation of the ink ribbon 21 and also detects the end of the ink ribbon 21 during the slack removal operation. . Similarly, when the end of the ink ribbon 21 is detected, the printing operation is terminated. When the end of the ink ribbon 21 is not detected, the paper is fed by one line, and the carriage is returned to operate the next line. Printing is performed.

When the ink ribbon 21 is a color ink ribbon 21, when performing color printing, the detection sensor 18 detects the color detection marker 3 of the ink ribbon 21.
In the present embodiment, the length of each color of the ink ribbon 21 is set within the range of the moving amount of the thermal head 6 from the printing of one line. Therefore, when the detection sensor 18 detects the color detection marker 34, the leading end of the color is located at the printing portion of the thermal head 6, and the ink ribbon 2 is detected when the color detection marker 34 is detected.
Printing can be started as it is without performing the idle feeding of 1. As a result, cueing of each color becomes easy,
Rapid and efficient color printing can be performed.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the amount of the ink ribbon 21 drawn inside the ribbon cassette 19 is set within the range of the maximum thermal head 6 movement amount from the maximum print area amount. It is possible to reliably print one line without the ink ribbon 21 being terminated during the printing of one line, and it is possible to reliably prevent the occurrence of a printing shift or the like in the one-line printing range. it can. Further, the ink ribbon 2 by the detection sensor 18 is used.
1 is detected only when the carriage is slowed up or slowed down and during the slack removal operation of the ink ribbon 21, and the end is not detected during printing. There is no need to process the detection signal, and as a result, the waiting time for the processing of the print signal becomes unnecessary, so that the print data processing time can be shortened and the printing speed can be significantly increased.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified as needed.

[0049]

Thermal transfer printer according to the present invention as described above, according to the present invention, when the ribbon cassette is not mounted, driving by decreasing the number of driving the dot heating elements of the thermal head
The power consumption at the time of printing can be significantly reduced because of the
Inexpensive power supplies can be used, and product costs can be significantly reduced. Further, since the detection of the end of the ink ribbon by the detection sensor is performed only when the carriage is slowed up and slowed down and the end of the ink ribbon is not detected during printing, the processing of the end detection signal of the ink ribbon during the print signal processing is performed. This eliminates the necessity of performing the processing. As a result, the waiting time for processing the print signal becomes unnecessary, so that the print data processing time can be reduced, and the printing speed can be significantly increased.

Further, in the ribbon cassette of the present invention, since the amount of ink ribbon drawn is set to be longer than that for one-line printing, the ink ribbon does not end in the middle of one-line printing. Can print one line at a time,
This produces effects such as the occurrence of printing deviation or the like in the one-line printing range can be reliably prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a carriage and a ribbon cassette portion of a thermal transfer printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing one embodiment of the ribbon cassette of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a control device applied to the thermal transfer printer of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a control operation of the printer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing power consumption of the present invention and a conventional power consumption.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing one embodiment of the ribbon cassette according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a color ink ribbon used in the ribbon cassette of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 shows the maximum printing of one line according to the thermal transfer printer of the present invention .
Explanatory diagram showing the area and the amount of movement of the thermal head with respect to the area

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a control operation by the thermal transfer printer of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a conventional general thermal transfer printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 5 carriage 6 thermal head 7 take-up bobbin 8 send-out bobbin 17 detection switch 18 detection sensor 19 ribbon cassette 21 ink ribbon 22 send-out reel 23 take-up reel 24 guide roller 25 recess 31 drive circuit 32 signal processing circuit 33 host circuit 34 color Detection marker 35 End detection marker

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-61-172778 (JP, A) JP-A-3-47778 (JP, A) JP-A-2-208088 (JP, A) JP-A-57-47685 (JP) JP-A-60-145875 (JP, A) JP-A-2-111555 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 2/325 B41J 32/00 B41J 35/36

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] A thermal head having a plurality of heating elements is mounted on a carriage reciprocating along a platen, and a ribbon cassette in which an ink ribbon is wound and housed is detachably mounted on the carriage. In a thermal transfer printer that performs desired printing by driving each heating element of the thermal head based on a predetermined print signal while moving a carriage, a detection device that detects the presence or absence of a ribbon cassette is provided on the carriage. ,
When the detection device detects that the ribbon cassette is mounted, the heating element of the thermal head is driven at a low output, and when the detection device detects that the ribbon cassette is not mounted, the thermal head is activated. A thermal transfer printer, comprising: a control device for reducing the number of driving dots of the heating element of the head and controlling the driving of the heating element of the thermal head with high output. 2. An ink ribbon wound around a pair of reels is accommodated in a cassette case detachably mounted on an upper surface of a carriage, and a thermal head of a thermal transfer printer is inserted into an outer portion of the cassette case. In a ribbon cassette formed with a recess and a notch into which a detection sensor for detecting an end detection marker formed in the ink ribbon is inserted, ink portions of a plurality of colors are continuously formed in the ink ribbon in a longitudinal direction. A color ink ribbon in which an identification marker detected by the detection sensor is formed between the ink portions of the respective colors, and the amount of the ink portions of the respective colors is drawn from the length of the maximum printing area of one line to the thermal head. The ribbon cassette is set so as to be within the range of the movement amount during one line movement of the ribbon cassette. 3. A thermal head provided with a plurality of heating elements is mounted on a carriage reciprocating along a platen, and a ribbon cassette in which an ink ribbon is wound and accommodated is detachably mounted on the carriage. A thermal transfer printer for performing desired printing by disposing a detection sensor for detecting the end of the ink ribbon on a carriage and driving each heating element of the thermal head based on a predetermined printing signal while moving the carriage. In the above, the amount of routing of the ink ribbon of the ribbon cassette from the printing position of the thermal head to the end detection position of the detection sensor is set within the range of the moving amount of the thermal head from the length of the maximum printing area, The detection sensor is operated only when the carriage is slowed up and slowed down. And a control device for controlling to detect the end of the ink ribbon.