JP3326886B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly, to a printer suitable for printing a relatively thick paper material having a small width such as a business card or a postcard.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional printer used for print output of a personal computer or a word processor aims at printing on thin paper of a certain size or less, and wraps printing paper around a cylindrical platen before printing. Also,
In the serial printer, printing is sequentially performed while moving the print head in the horizontal direction of the platen.

[0003]

As described above, in the conventional example, it is necessary to wind the printing paper around the platen.
If you use paper of a certain thickness, such as business cards and postcards,
Before printing, the paper material was curled, causing printing unevenness. Further, there is a problem that the paper is too thick to easily pass through the paper transport path, and printing often fails.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printer that solves such a problem.

[0005]

According to the present invention, the printing head is fixed at a predetermined distance away from the platen where one printing sheet can pass and inclined with respect to the sheet conveying path on the upstream side of the platen. I do. The print head means has a print width that includes at least the paper width to be printed.

According to the present invention, a storage means for storing a plurality of sheets, a platen having a length at least as long as the width of the sheet, and a sheet for taking out the sheet stored in the storage means and transporting the sheet to the platen Feeding means, a print head having a printing width including a width to be printed on the paper, and guiding the paper so that the paper feeding direction by the paper feeding means is slightly inclined, and connecting the printing head to the platen. A guide and fixing means for fixing the sheet at a predetermined distance through which one sheet can pass is provided.

[0007]

According to the above-mentioned means, the paper can be held at a stable position with respect to the print head means or the print head without having to strongly wind the paper around the platen. As a result, even with thick paper such as business cards and postcards, printing without printing unevenness can be obtained.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view mainly showing a sheet conveying system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a relatively small and relatively thick paper piece such as a business card, a small card, or a postcard to be printed, which is stacked in a stocker 14 on a carrier 12 and on which a weight 16 is placed. ing. At the lower part of the stocker 14, one sheet 10
Is provided with a gap 14a through which the holes can pass without fail.

At the bottom of the stocker 14, a pickup roller 18 that rotates counterclockwise is arranged. Due to the counterclockwise rotation of the pickup roller 18, the lowest one piece of paper 10 in the stocker 14 is pushed laterally (to the left in FIG. 1) from the gap 14a.

A two-sheet insertion preventing roller 20 is disposed downstream of the gap 14a of the stocker 14 and between the sheet 14 and the surface of the transport table 12 with a sufficient width to allow passage of only one sheet of paper. The two-sheet insertion preventing roller 20 rotates forward (rotates counterclockwise in FIG. 1) when an excessive load is applied, and reversely rotates (rotates clockwise in FIG. 1 by a torque limit roller in FIG. 1). This prevents two pieces of paper 10 from being conveyed together.

Downstream of the two-sheet insertion preventing roller 20, a paper feed roller 22 is disposed on the side of the transport table 12, and a paper feed guide plate 24 is disposed above the transport table 12. The paper feed roller 22 is driven to rotate counterclockwise. The paper sheet 10 that has been surely made one by the two-sheet insertion prevention roller 20 is conveyed toward a platen 26 by a paper feed roller 22 and a paper feed guide plate 24. The platen 26 has at least a length equal to or greater than the width of the paper sheet 10 (width in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 1).

A sheet sensor 28 for detecting the front end of the sheet 10 is disposed upstream of the platen 26, in the present embodiment, near the middle point of the sheet guide plate 24. Paper sensor 28
, For example, optically, mechanically or electrically detects the front end of the paper sheet 10. The output of the sheet sensor 28 is applied to a print control circuit (not shown) as a print start control signal. In this sense, the paper piece sensor 28 can also be called a print start sensor.

Numeral 30 denotes a thermal head for printing,
The sheet 10 is separated from the platen 26 by a distance that allows one sheet 10 to pass, and
And is fixedly arranged with a slight inclination with respect to the transport direction.
That is, the thermal head 30 has a function of bringing the sheet 10 conveyed to the platen 26 into close contact with the platen 26.

The thermal head 30 has a heat generating element having a width sufficient to print the printing range in the width direction of the paper piece 10 at a time. This not only eliminates the need for a mechanism for moving the thermal head 30 along the platen 26, but also allows the platen 2 to move when the thermal head 30 is moved.
A mechanism for holding the paper piece 10 so as not to move on the paper 6 becomes unnecessary.

Reference numeral 32 denotes a supply reel for supplying an ink ribbon 34 for thermal transfer printing by the thermal head 30, and reference numeral 36 denotes a take-up reel for winding the ink ribbon 34 drawn from the supply reel 32. As is well known, the ink ribbon 34 drawn from the supply reel 32 moves between the thermal head 30 and the platen 26, and between the thermal head 30 and the sheet 10 when the sheet 10 is on the platen 26. It is wound up on the take-up reel 36.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the periphery of the platen 26 and the thermal head 30 when the paper sheet 10 is located between the platen 26 and the thermal head 30. As shown in FIG. 2, the sheet of paper 10 is slightly curved,
It is stably held between the thermal head 30 and the platen 26. The thermal head 30 prints on the sheet 10 at the slightly curved point.

The printed paper piece is discharged into a paper discharge stocker 42 by a paper discharge roller 38 and its auxiliary roller 40 which are driven to rotate counterclockwise. At the downstream side of the platen 26, a front end of the paper sheet 10 is detected at a position separated from the platen 26 by a distance corresponding to the length direction of the paper sheet 10 (downstream of the paper discharge roller 38 and the auxiliary roller 40 in this embodiment). A paper piece sensor 44 is provided. The paper sheet sensor 44 detects the front end of the paper sheet 10 optically, mechanically, or electrically, for example. Since the detection of the front end of the sheet 10 from the platen 26 by the sheet sensor 44 means the end of printing on the sheet 10, the sheet sensor 44 is also a print end sensor.

The conveyance path of the paper sheet 10 from the stocker 14 to the paper discharge stocker 42 is shown by a two-dot chain line 46.

The operation of this embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, a number of paper pieces 10 are stacked in a stocker 14, and a weight 16 is placed thereon. When the operator starts printing, the pickup roller 18 and the paper feed roller 22 rotate counterclockwise. Pickup roller 1
8 and the paper feed roller 22 automatically stop after rotating for a required period.

When the pickup roller 18 rotates counterclockwise, the lowest one or two pieces of paper 10 in the stocker 14 are pushed out from the gap 14a of the stocker 14. 2
Even if a sheet of paper 10 is taken out of the stocker 14, only one sheet of paper 10 is fed between the paper feed roller 22 and the paper feed guide plate 24 by the two-sheet insertion preventing roller 20. Will be returned.

Paper feed roller 22 and paper feed guide plate 24
The paper sheet 10 fed between them is conveyed toward the platen 26 by the counterclockwise rotation of the paper feed roller 22, and is sent between the platen 26 and the thermal head 26.

When the sheet sensor 28 detects the front end of the conveyed sheet 10, the control circuit (not shown) rotates the platen 26 and the sheet discharge roller 38 in a counterclockwise direction according to the detected output, and a predetermined delay Under the condition, a print signal is applied to the thermal head 30.

The platen 26 and the thermal head 30 are spaced only as far as one sheet 10 can pass, and the thermal head 30 is slightly moved with respect to the moving direction of the sheet 10. As the platen 26 is rotated counterclockwise, the paper sheet 10
As shown in the figure, the thermal head 3
It is transported closely to zero. This piece of paper 10 is
A print signal is applied to the thermal head 30 at a timing close to the head 30. In this embodiment, the paper sheet 10
Is very slight, so that printing unevenness hardly occurs.

As the paper sheet 10 moves between the thermal head 30 and the platen 26, the ink ribbon 34
Is pulled out from the supply reel 32. In order to prevent the pulled out ink ribbon 34 from sagging between the take-up reel 36 and the take-up reel 36, a light clockwise rotating force is applied to the take-up reel 36 by a rotation driving means (not shown).

The paper piece 10 printed by the thermal head 30 is sent between the paper discharge roller 38 and the auxiliary roller 40 by the rotation of the platen 26 in the counterclockwise direction, and is discharged by the rotation of the paper discharge roller 38 in the counterclockwise direction. Paper stocker 42
Is discharged into

When the sheet sensor 44 detects the front end of the sheet 10 that has passed through the discharge roller 38, the detection output indicates
A control circuit (not shown) stops the rotation of the platen 26 and removes the next piece of paper 10 from the stocker 14.
The rotation of the pickup roller 18 and the paper feed roller 22 is started counterclockwise. The control circuit also stops the rotation of the discharge row 38 after a certain period of time for ensuring discharge.

In the above embodiment, a thermal head has been described as an example of a print head, but it is obvious that an ink jet system may be used.

[0030]

As can be easily understood from the above description, according to the present invention, business cards, postcards, various cards, etc.
It is possible to print on a small and relatively thick paper material without causing printing unevenness.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional structural view of a sheet conveying system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view around a platen.

[Explanation of symbols]

10: Sheet of paper 12: Carrier 14: Stocker 14a:
Gap 16: Weight 18: Pickup roller 2
0: Two-sheet insertion prevention roller 22: Paper feed roller 24:
Paper feed guide plate 26: Platen 28: Sheet sensor
30: Thermal head 32: Supply reel 34: Ink ribbon 36: Take-up reel 38: Discharge roller 40: Auxiliary roller 42: Discharge stocker 44: Sheet sensor 46: Transport path of sheet 10

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/00-1/00 108 B41J 11/00-13/32 B41J 2/32-2/375

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing head means is fixed at a predetermined distance away from a platen through which one printing sheet can pass, and inclined with respect to a sheet conveyance path on the upstream side of the platen.
A printer according to claim 1, wherein said print head means has a print width including at least a paper width to be printed. 2. A storage means for storing a plurality of sheets, a platen having a length at least equal to the width of the sheets,
A sheet feeding unit that takes out the sheet stored in the storage unit and conveys the sheet to the platen, a print head having a printing width including a width to be printed on the sheet, and a sheet conveyance direction by the sheet feeding unit. A printer comprising: a guide and fixing means for guiding a sheet so as to be inclined, and fixing the print head at a predetermined distance between the platen and the platen so that one sheet can pass therethrough.