JP3547598B2 - Recording device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that performs printing processing on a recording medium by pressing a recording medium on a platen roller with a thermal head through a transfer film.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, for example, a relatively thick and hard card such as a cash card, an employee card, a membership card, or a prepaid card is used as a recording medium, and when printing a picture or a character on the card, the card is transported on a platen roller. Printing is performed by pressing a thermal head against the card via a transfer film.
[0003]
FIG. 6 shows such a recording apparatus 1, 2 is a platen roller, 3 is a thermal head, 4 is a bracket holding the thermal head 3, 5 is a guide roller rotatably mounted on the bracket 4, 6, 7 Are guide rails as a pair of guide members for guiding the bracket 4 integrally with the thermal head 3 by rolling the guide roller 5, and 8 is a leaf spring interposed between one guide rail 6 and the bracket 4. It is. The upper surface of the bracket 4 is brought into contact with a pressing means (not shown) biased toward the platen roller 2, thereby pressing the thermal head 3 toward the platen roller 2. .
[0004]
The leaf spring 8 urges the bracket 4 toward the guide rail 7 with the entire inner wall surface of the guide rail 7 as a reference plane, whereby the tip of the thermal head 3 and the axis of the platen roller 2 are parallel. That is, the thermal head 3 is set so as to be uniformly pressed against the platen roller 2 (toward the card).
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the recording apparatus 1 described above, when an assembling error occurs in the platen roller 2, the guide rails 6, 7, the leaf spring 8, and the like, the bracket 4 is moved toward the guide rail 6 as shown in FIG. Is allowed by the elasticity of the leaf spring 8, the bracket 4 is tilted toward the guide rail 6 so that the thermal head 3 is uniformly pressed against the platen roller 2 when the above-described assembly error occurs. Although it is possible to correct the bracket 4 so that the reference surface is straight in the guide direction of the guide rail 7, the bracket 4 guides the bracket 4. It was impossible to incline toward the rail 7 side.
[0006]
In addition, when the above-described assembly error occurs in the guide rail 7, the reference surface is inclined. Therefore, in particular, even when the assembly error of the guide rail 7 occurs in the direction in which the bracket 4 inclines toward the guide rail 7, the error occurs. No correction was possible.
[0007]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a recording apparatus capable of easily ensuring the parallelism of a thermal head with respect to a platen roller.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the object, the invention according to claim 1 is a bracket for holding the thermal head in a printing apparatus for printing on a recording medium by pressing a thermal head on a recording medium on a platen roller via a transfer film. A plurality of rollers rotatably held at a predetermined portion of the bracket, and a predetermined number of rollers arranged on opposite sides of the bracket to print the thermal head on a recording medium by guiding the plurality of rollers . A pair of guide members for guiding to a position, an elastic body provided on each of the pair of guide members, and a reference surface provided at one lower portion of the guide members, and provided on the reference surface side. One of the elastic bodies is formed of a swing member biased toward one of the plurality of rollers, and the other of the elastic bodies abuts on one of the plurality of rollers. A swinging portion, and a biasing portion protruding so as to abut one of the plurality of rollers, so that the biasing direction of the roller abutting on the swinging portion is directed to the reference surface. The gist of the present invention is as follows.
[0009]
In the invention described in claim 2, the urging portion is provided from substantially the center to the lower portion of the other elastic body , and the swinging portion is provided from the substantially center to the upper portion of the elastic body. Is the gist.
[0010]
The gist of the invention described in claim 3 is that the urging portion and the swinging portion are made of a plate spring integrally formed.
[0011]
The gist of the invention described in claim 4 is that the swing member is provided in an upper portion of one of the guide members on which the reference surface is disposed, above the reference surface.
[0012]
The gist of the invention described in claim 5 is that the swing member is made of a leaf spring and the reference surface is made of a guide groove with which one of the rollers comes into contact.
[0013]
The invention according to claim 6 includes a pressing unit that presses the thermal head toward the recording medium via the transfer film, and a peripheral end surface of each of the plurality of rollers is pressed by the pressing force of the pressing unit. The gist is that the bracket is guided along the guide means in contact with the swing member, the swing portion, the urging portion, and the reference surface, and the thermal head is positioned at a predetermined position. I do.
[0014]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Next, an embodiment of the recording apparatus of the present invention is applied to a sublimation type full-color printer of an image forming apparatus, and will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0015]
In FIG. 1, a sublimation type full-color printer 10 (hereinafter, simply referred to as “printer 10”) includes a substantially rectangular parallelepiped housing 20.
[0016]
The housing 20 includes a cover body 30 having an opening 31 above, and a lid 40 that opens and closes the opening 31 of the cover body 30.
[0017]
On one side wall of the cover main body 30, a card supply device 50 for supplying a plurality of superimposed cards C to the inside of the cover main body 30 is mounted on the upper side thereof, and a reject port 32 of the defective card C is provided on the lower side thereof. Is provided. Further, the other side wall of the cover body 30 is provided with a discharge port 33 for the card C after the printing process is completed. Further, inside the cover main body 30, a first transport path 60 for transporting the card C supplied from the card supply device 50, a printer unit 70 located in the middle of the first transport path 60, and a first transport path A second transport path 80 located below the second transport path 60; an encoding unit 90 that is provided at the end of the second transport path 80 and writes magnetically encoded information on a magnetic recording layer provided on the back surface of the card C; It has.
[0018]
Note that a discharge tray (not shown) is provided below the discharge port 33 when there is no post-processing on the card C after the printing process, and when post-processing is performed on the card after the printing process, the post-processing is performed. A device (for example, an overcoat fixing device that covers the surface of the card with a coat film such as a hologram coat film) or the like is attached or installed adjacently.
[0019]
As shown in FIG. 2, the lid 40 rotates about a shaft 41 fixed to the cover main body 30 as a fulcrum, and engages with a rack 34 provided on the upper inside of the other side wall of the cover main body 30. A gear 43 rotatably mounted on a shaft 42, and an engaging member engaged with an engaging shaft 35 fixed to the cover body 30 to maintain the opened state when the opening 31 is opened by the lid 40. A stopper 44 having a concave portion 44a and a tension coil spring 47 having one end engaged with the back surface of the lid 40 and the other end engaged with a pressing member 46 which rotates about a support shaft 45 as a fulcrum.
[0020]
When the opening 31 is closed, the closed state of the lid 40 is maintained by the hook portion 36 a of the lock device 36 provided on the cover body 30 engaging with the shaft 42. Further, the shaft 42 is provided with a torque limiter 48 for regulating at least the rotation of the shaft 42 in the opening direction of the lid 40, whereby the lock device 35 provided on the cover body 30 is operated to operate the lid When the closed state of 40 is released, the gear 43 is gently rotated and meshes with the rack 34, so that the urging of the tension coil spring 47 prevents the lid 40 from being rapidly opened.
[0021]
The pressing member 46 is biased by a tension coil spring 47 so as to resiliently contact the upper surface of the printing means 71 of the printer unit 70 when the opening 31 is closed by the lid 40. A contact roller 46a for elastically contacting the upper portion of 71 is provided. The pressing member 46 has a contact roller 46b. The contact roller 46b contacts an elliptical roller 73 that rotates about a shaft 72 so as to lift the contact roller 46a upward against the urging of the tension coil spring 47 in conjunction with the supply state of the card C. contact. The card supply device 50 includes mounting tables 51 and 52 located on both sides upstream and downstream in the transport direction such that a plurality of cards C are superimposedly mounted, and a pair of right and left regulating tables 53 for positioning the left and right edges of the card C. , 54, a delivery roller 55 that abuts on the downstream surface of the card C in the transport direction, an approximately half-moon-shaped separating roller 56 that can abut on the upstream bottom surface of the card C in the transport direction, and the mounting table 52. A gate 58 that forms a gate gap 57 through which the card C passes, and a gate that is provided on the upper surface of one of the regulating tables 54 and that displaces the gate 58 so as to vary the interval of the gate gap 57 according to the thickness of the card C Adjusting means 59.
[0022]
The first transport path 60 transports the card C from the gate gap 57 to the discharge port 33. The first transport path 60 transports the card C introduced from the gate gap 57 to the downstream side in the transport direction. And a plurality of transport roller bodies 62 that enable the transfer of the card C.
[0023]
The rotary transport body 61 includes two pairs of transport roller bodies 63, a belt 64 that synchronously rotates a driving roller 63 a of the two pairs of transport roller bodies 63, a tension roller 65 that drives the belt 64, The rotating plate 66 includes a rotating plate 66 that detects a rotational position of the transport body 61 and a sensor 67 that detects one of a plurality of protrusions 66a provided on the rotating plate 66.
[0024]
Further, the rotary transport body 61 is rotated in the clockwise direction by 90 degrees and 270 degrees from the state shown in FIG. The transfer of the card C to and from the transport path 80 becomes possible. Similarly, the card C can be turned over by rotating it 180 degrees from the state shown in the figure. Then, in the state shown in the figure and the state rotated by 180 degrees, the card C introduced from the gate gap 57 can be received and transported to the printer unit 70.
[0025]
The printer unit 70 guides the platen roller 74 located below the printing means 71 on the path of the first transport path 60, the ink ribbon cassette 76 around which the sublimation type color ribbon 75 is wound, and the vertical movement of the printing means 71. And a guide rail 77 as a guide member.
[0026]
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the printing means 71 is rotated by a bracket 71a with which the contact roller 46a contacts, a thermal head 71b held by the bracket 71a, and a flange 71c protruding from both sides of the bracket 71a. A pair of upper and lower rollers 71d, 71e, 71f, 71g which are held so as to be held are provided.
[0027]
The guide rail 77 includes a rail 77b having a guide groove 77a for guiding the rollers 71d and 71e, and a rail 77d having a guide groove 77c for guiding the rollers 71f and 71g.
[0028]
In the guide grooves 77a, 77c, leaf springs 78, 79 each having one end fixed to the cover main body 30 so as to be located between the rail 77b and the roller 71d and between the rail 77d and the rollers 71f, 71g. It is interposed. At the lower end of the guide groove 77a, there is provided a reference surface 77e with which the peripheral end surface of the roller 71e is in contact, and the leaf spring 78 is set so as not to be interposed between the reference surface 77e and the roller 71e. I have.
[0029]
The leaf spring 78 is a swing member that is biased (elastically set) toward the roller 71d. The amount of protrusion of the intermediate portion of the leaf spring 78 is set so that the roller 71d projects toward the roller 71d from the reference surface 77e when the roller 71d is not in contact with the leaf spring 78.
[0030]
The leaf spring 79 includes a swinging portion 79a as a swinging member to which the roller 71f abuts from substantially the center to the upper portion thereof, and a biasing protruding toward the roller 71g so that the roller 71g abuts from the substantially center to the lower portion thereof. And a biasing portion 79b as a means.
[0031]
The swinging portion 79a is curved so that its substantially central portion protrudes toward the roller 71f. In particular, by pushing the roller 71f downward toward the rail 77b below the curved portion, the roller 79a The biasing direction of 71f is directed to the reference surface 77e.
[0032]
By the way, the urging forces of the leaf spring 78 and the oscillating portion 79a on the respective rollers 71d and 71e are set to be substantially the same, so that even if an error occurs when the platen roller 74 or the guide rail 77 is assembled, the reference surface 77e. The guide 71 guides the bracket 71a so that the thermal head 71b abuts on the platen roller 74 in parallel (indirectly via the sublimation type color ribbon 75 and the card C) with reference to FIG.
[0033]
The second transport path 80 has a rotary transport body 81 located below the rotary transport body 61. The rotating transport body 81 includes two pairs of transport roller bodies 82, a belt 83 that rotates the driving roller 82 a of the two pairs of transport roller bodies 82 in synchronization, a tension roller 84 that drives the belt 83, The rotating plate 85 includes a rotating plate 85 that detects the rotational position of the transport body 81, and sensors 86 and 87 that detect two of the plurality of protrusions 85 a provided on the rotating plate 85.
[0034]
The rotary transport body 81 rotates clockwise in synchronization with the rotary transport body 61. Like the rotary transport body 61, the card C is held by two pairs of transport rollers 82 (or is empty). The card C can be transferred to and from the first transport path 60 when the card C is rotated 90 degrees and 270 degrees clockwise from the state shown in the figure. Similarly, when the card is rotated 180 degrees C can be conveyed to the encoding unit 90 or the reject port 32.
[0035]
In the above configuration, the unrecorded cards C superimposed on the card supply device 50 are introduced into the cover main body 30 from the gate gap 57 one by one by the supply roller 55 while being cut by the cut roller 56. .
[0036]
As shown in FIG. 5, the card C introduced into the cover main body 30 is first conveyed to the printer unit 70 through the rotary conveyance body 61, and is held between the printing means 71 and the platen roller 74. Occasionally, an image such as a character, a design, or an owner photograph is printed and recorded in black or color by the sublimation type color ribbon 75 based on the image information, and passes through the printer unit 70 in the case of single color printing. In the case of multi-color printing, reciprocation is performed a plurality of times around the printing means 71, and printing is performed at the time of the reciprocation (the same in the transport direction of the sublimation type color ribbon 75). The card C is transferred to the second transport path 80 if the card C is a magnetic card (steps S7 to S8). If the card C is not a magnetic card, the card C is discharged from the discharge port 34.
[0037]
When the card C is a magnetic card, the card C on which an image has been recorded by the printer unit 70 is reversely fed through the first transport path 60 and is transferred from the rotary transport body 61 to the rotary transport body 81 (step S8). Then, the information is sent from the rotary conveyance body 81 to the encoder unit 90 on the second conveyance path 80, and information encoded magnetically by a magnetic recording head built in the encoder unit 90 is recorded on the magnetic recording layer on the back surface of the card C. (Steps S9 to S10).
[0038]
The card C, for which the magnetic recording has been completed, is checked for the printing state of the printer unit 70 and the magnetic recording state of the encoder unit 90 (step S11). If there is no problem, the transfer is performed from the rotary transport body 81 to the rotary transport body 61, and the process is shifted to the first transport path 60 (step S12). After the operation, the sheet is discharged from a discharge port 33 formed at the end of the first conveyance path 60.
[0039]
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part of the image forming apparatus with a cover body opened.
FIG. 3A is a front view of the printing unit, and FIG. 3B is a side view of the printing unit.
FIG. 4 is a plan view of the printing unit.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by the image forming apparatus.
FIG. 6 is a front view of a conventional recording apparatus.
[Explanation of symbols]
C: Card (recording medium)
46 pressing member 46a contact roller (pressing means)
71 printing means 71a bracket 71b thermal head 74 platen roller 77 guide rail (guide member)
77b ... rail (the other guide rail)
77d ... rail (one guide rail)
77e: Reference surface 78: Leaf spring (supporting member)
79: leaf spring 79a: support portion (support member)
79b: urging unit (urging means)

Claims (6)

In a recording apparatus for printing on a recording medium by pressing a thermal head on a recording medium on a platen roller via a transfer film,
A bracket for holding the thermal head, a plurality of rollers rotatably held at predetermined portions of the bracket, and opposingly arranged on both sides of the bracket, and guiding the plurality of rollers to a recording medium by guiding the plurality of rollers. A pair of guide members for guiding to a predetermined position for printing, an elastic body provided on each of the pair of guide members, and a reference surface disposed at one lower portion of the guide members , One of the elastic bodies provided on the reference surface side is formed of a swing member biased toward one of the plurality of rollers, and the other of the elastic bodies is one of the plurality of rollers. And a biasing portion protruding so as to abut one of the plurality of rollers. The biasing direction of the roller abutting on the swinging portion is directed toward the reference plane. It was configured to Kawaseru Recording apparatus characterized and. 2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the urging portion is provided from substantially the center to a lower portion of the other elastic body , and the swinging portion is provided from a substantially center to an upper portion of the elastic body. 3. Recording device. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the urging portion and the swinging portion are formed of a plate spring integrally formed. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the swinging member is provided on an upper portion of one of the guide members on which the reference surface is disposed and above the reference surface. 4. 5. The recording apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the swing member is formed of a leaf spring, and the reference surface is formed of a guide groove with which one of the rollers abuts. A pressure contact means for pressing the thermal head toward the recording medium via the transfer film; and a pressure contact force of the pressure contact means causes the peripheral end faces of the plurality of rollers to rotate with the swing member, the swing parts, abutting the bracket is guided along the guide means to the biasing portion and the reference plane, a recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the thermal head is characterized in that it is positioned in a predetermined position .

Images