JP3951575B2 - Printing device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus used for continuously printing information such as a manufacturing date and a lot number at regular intervals on a continuous belt-like or tube-like printed material such as resin or paper.
[0002]
[Prior art]
A conventional printing apparatus of this type will be described with reference to the drawings, taking as an example a printing apparatus having a capacitor outer tube (made of resin) as a substrate. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a conventional printing apparatus, FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of the main part of the drawing, in which 21 is an exterior tube as a printing material, and 22 is this exterior tube 21. An external tube feeding roller for intermittently conveying the ink, 23 is an ink ribbon for transfer for printing on the external tube 21, 24 is an ink ribbon supply unit for supplying the ink ribbon 23 wound around a reel, and 25 is the above This is an ink ribbon winding unit that winds up the ink ribbon 23.
[0003]
Reference numeral 26 denotes a printing unit. The printing unit 26 is configured by detachably mounting a plurality of marks 28 formed with characters such as numerals and alphabets on a main body in which a heater 27 is incorporated. It is attached to the apparatus main body 30 with which it can be moved up and down.
[0004]
In the conventional printing apparatus configured as described above, the printing unit 26 is moved down to bring the ink ribbon 23 into contact with the outer tube 21, whereby numbers and letters such as alphabets formed on the stamp 28 heated by the heater 27. Is transferred to a predetermined position of the outer tube 21 via the ink ribbon 23, and the outer package after one printing is completed (generally referred to as “hot printer system”). The tube 21 was intermittently conveyed by a feed mechanism (not shown) and configured to perform predetermined printing at regular intervals continuously to the outer tube 21.
[0005]
Further, the outer tube 21 that has been printed in this way is supplied by being connected to a capacitor assembly line, and is sequentially covered with the outer case of the capacitor to assemble a series of capacitors.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, since the above-described conventional printing apparatus has a configuration in which the printed outer tube 21 is connected and supplied to the capacitor assembly line, a printing apparatus is required for each capacitor assembly line, resulting in an increase in equipment cost. In addition, there was a problem that the equipment was enlarged. Further, since the printing unit 26 is composed of a plurality of markings 28, the printing stamp 26 must be replaced when changing a part of the printing contents, and the marking 28 heated by the heater 27 at that time is replaced. Since the operation is usually performed after the heater 27 is turned off, for example, when changing the date display which is a part of the print content, the above-described operation is performed. For this reason, the production line has to be stopped once, and therefore, there is a problem that the production efficiency is not very high because production by continuous unattended cannot be performed.
[0007]
In addition, even if the printing position for the printing material is continuous or intermittent, it consumes a running cost that is wasteful to consume the ink ribbon 23 having the same length as the printing pitch of the printing material, which is uneconomical. It had a problem that it was a bad thing.
[0008]
Furthermore, since the printing unit 26 is fixed at a position where an appropriate interval determined by the thickness of the printing object and the transfer ink ribbon 23 is secured, if the thickness of the printing object changes, the change will occur. The printing unit 26 could not follow and had a problem that print quality deteriorated.
[0009]
The present invention solves such conventional problems, and provides a printing apparatus that can achieve downsizing by enabling downsizing and continuous unmanned operation, and that can stably perform high-quality printing. It is for the purpose.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention described in claim 1 of the present invention particularly includes a substrate supply unit for supplying a plurality of substrates, an ink ribbon unwinding unit for supplying an ink ribbon, and the substrate. A printing unit that is provided in the middle of the ink ribbon transport path so as to be able to contact and separate, and that prints by printing the ink ribbon elastically against the substrate via the print head only during printing, and intermittently feeds the substrate downstream of the printing unit. A substrate feeding section, a tension applying section that applies tension so that the ink ribbon is pulled at a predetermined tension downstream of the printing section, an ink ribbon winding section that winds up the ink ribbon downstream from the tension applying section, and A control unit for controlling the printing material, wherein the printed material feeding unit is configured to independently feed a plurality of printed materials, respectively, a feeding roller that feeds the printed material, a feeding motor that drives the feeding roller, and A feed selection lever having a roller and a pressing portion to be driven, a feed selection cylinder for controlling the feed selection lever, and a cradle for receiving a printed material are disposed. is obtained by the configuration of the printing device approaching and moving away from the roller feeding the printed material, thereby, the size of the production facilities in order to be able to perform printing for a plurality of the substrate at one print device The effect that cost reduction can be realized simultaneously is obtained.
[0011]
In addition, the feed selection unit includes a feed roller that feeds the print product, a feed motor that drives the feed roller, and a feed selection unit that includes a roller and a pressing unit so as to independently drive a plurality of prints. a lever, a feed selected cylinder for controlling the feed selection lever, arranged a cradle for receiving the printing material, which is by Uni configuration approaching and moving away from the roller feeding any of the substrate by a roller of the feed selection lever As a result, it is not necessary to supply (cannot supply) capacitor assembly depending on the operation status of the line when printing multiple substrates at the same time and supplying them individually to multiple capacitor assembly lines. It is now possible to arbitrarily print only the printed materials connected to the line, and it is possible to perform printing work without loss. Use effect is obtained.
[0015]
Further, portions unwound ribbon for supplying ink ribbon, effect that by configured to provide a predetermined amount of the ink ribbon by the encoder and the pulse motor, it is possible to accurately supply a predetermined amount of the ink ribbon Is obtained.
[0017]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
(Embodiment 1)
Hereinafter, the first aspect of the present invention will be described with reference to the first, second, third, fourth and sixth aspects of the present invention.
[0018]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a printing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part showing a feed selection mechanism of the apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a print for explaining the printing state. In the first embodiment, a printing apparatus using a capacitor outer tube (made of resin) as an object to be printed will be described as an example.
[0019]
1 to 3, reference numeral 1 denotes an outer tube as a substrate to be printed, which is wound around a reel 1 a and a plurality of (in the first embodiment, four examples are shown) are arranged adjacent to each other. An exterior tube feed roller 2 for feeding the exterior tube 1 is driven by an exterior tube feed motor 3 connected through a belt.
[0020]
4 is a feed selection cylinder, and 5 is a feed selection lever, which is used to select which of the plurality of exterior tubes 1 is to be printed. Reference numeral 6 denotes a transfer ink ribbon for printing on the outer tube 1, and the ink ribbon 6 is set to a size that can be simultaneously printed on the plurality of outer tubes 1 arranged in multiples. . Reference numeral 7 denotes an unwinding pulse motor for feeding out the ink ribbon 6, and 8 is a winding diameter detecting encoder for detecting the feed amount of the ink ribbon 6 sent from the unwinding pulse motor 7 and controlling it with high accuracy.
[0021]
Reference numeral 9 denotes an ink ribbon dancer provided for applying a predetermined tension to the ink ribbon 6, and 10 denotes an ink ribbon winding unit for winding the ink ribbon 6. 11 is a thermal head constituting the printing unit, 12 is a thermal head lever to which the thermal head 11 is attached, 12a is a lever fulcrum for swingably attaching the thermal head lever 12, and 13 is the thermal head lever 12. It is a lever drive motor for driving. Reference numeral 14 denotes a platen roller, which is provided so as to face the conveyance path of the outer tube 1 and the ink ribbon 6 and is configured to be driven by a platen roller driving motor 15 via a belt.
[0022]
Next, the operation of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment configured as described above will be described.
[0023]
First, the outer tube 1 wound around the reel 1 a and arranged in quadruple is supplied by a predetermined amount by the outer tube feed roller 2 driven by the outer tube feed motor 3. Further, the transfer ink ribbon 6 for printing on the outer tube 1 is supplied by a predetermined amount by an unwinding pulse motor 7 controlled by a winding diameter detecting encoder 8.
[0024]
The external tube 1 and the ink ribbon 6 supplied in this way are the thermal head 11 attached to the tip of the thermal head lever 12 driven by the lever drive motor 13 and the ink ribbon 6 is attached to the external tube 1 on the platen roller 14. 3, printing is performed on the outer tube 1 as shown in FIG. 3, and the outer tube 1 that has finished this printing continues to the assembly process (not shown) of the connected capacitors. It is comprised so that it may be supplied.
[0025]
Further, since the thermal head 11 is configured to be able to contact with and separate from the ink ribbon 6 by the thermal head lever 12 that swings through the lever fulcrum 12a, the thermal head 11 is pressed against the platen roller 14 only during printing. The outer tube 1 and the ink ribbon 6 are simultaneously fed to perform printing. After the printing is finished, the thermal head 11 is opened, the outer tube 1 is fed by a predetermined pitch by the outer tube feeding roller 2, and the ink ribbon 6 is Minimum (for example, about 0.5 to 1.0 mm) so that the used part (the part to which the ink ribbon 6 has been thermally transferred by printing) is not drooled by the unwinding pulse motor 7 controlled by the winding diameter detection encoder 8. The running cost is reduced by performing the idle feed.
[0026]
Further, when printing cannot be performed simultaneously on the exterior tubes 1 arranged in multiples (only the exterior tube 1 cannot be printed (cannot be printed)), the feed selection cylinder 4 and the feed selection lever 5 is used so that the switching can be performed arbitrarily. That is, the feed selection lever 5 is tilted to the A side with the fulcrum C as an axis as shown in FIG. 2, and the outer tube 1 is gripped between the roller 5a at the tip of the feed selection lever 5 and the outer tube feed roller 2, By rotating the exterior tube feed roller 2 in this state, the exterior tube 1 corresponding to the amount of rotation is delivered.
[0027]
When stopping the feeding of the outer tube 1, the feeding selection lever 5 is tilted to the opposite B side with the fulcrum C as an axis, and between the pressing portion 5 b of the feeding selection lever 5 and the outer tube receiving base 16. By gripping the outer tube 1, the outer tube 1 is not fed out even if the outer tube feed roller 2 rotates.
[0028]
In addition, simply selecting whether or not to send the outer tube 1 in this way causes the same part of the outer tube 1 to be printed every time by the print feeding operation of the printing unit, and quality abnormalities such as multiple printing occur. Therefore, as a means for preventing this, the outer tube 1 for stopping the feeding avoids multiple printing by preventing the portion of the thermal head 11 from generating heat even during printing feeding. As can be seen, the printing apparatus according to the present invention first receives an electric signal to determine whether or not to send the outer tube 1, and based on this, instructs the feed selection lever 5 of the feed mechanism and the thermal head 11 of the printing unit. It is comprised so that the instruction | indication of the heat_generation | fever location may be performed.
[0029]
(Embodiment 2)
Hereinafter, the invention according to claim 5 of the present invention will be described using the second embodiment.
[0030]
In the second embodiment, the thermal head of the printing unit in the printing apparatus shown in the first embodiment is attached via a spring, and other configurations are the same as those in the first embodiment. Therefore, the same reference numerals are given to the same parts and the description thereof is omitted, and only different parts will be described below.
[0031]
4A and 4B are a front view and a side sectional view showing a printing unit of a printing apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention, in which 17 is a thermal head, 18 is the thermal head 17 and FIG. A spring 20 provided between the bracket 19 and a guide plate 20.
[0032]
In the printing apparatus according to the second embodiment configured as described above, the thermal head 17 follows the change in thickness by the elastic force of the spring 18 even when the thickness of the outer tube 1 that is the printing object changes. As a result, not only the uniform outer tube 1 having a small thickness crossing but also the outer tube 1 having a large thickness and crossing can be used to perform high-precision printing that is not affected by changes in thickness. It will be able to.
[0033]
(Embodiment 3)
The third aspect of the present invention will be described below with reference to the seventh embodiment.
[0034]
In the third embodiment, in the printing apparatus shown in the first embodiment, a manufacturing date is displayed on at least one of the items to be printed on the substrate and a timer is connected to the printing unit. The configuration is such that the date display of the print head is automatically changed, and the configuration other than this is the same as in the first embodiment.
[0035]
By adopting such a configuration, it becomes possible to continuously work without stopping the printing work, so that continuous unmanned operation is possible and production efficiency can be greatly improved. is there.
[0036]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, the printing apparatus according to the present invention can efficiently perform printing on independent multiple printed materials at the same time, or can select and print only arbitrary printed materials if necessary. Even if the printing position is intermittent, the conventional problem of always consuming the same length of the ink ribbon as the substrate to be printed can be solved and the running cost can be greatly improved. is there. In addition, since the thermal head is able to follow changes in the thickness of the substrate, stable and accurate printing is always possible even when the substrate thickness increases or the dimension crossing increases. It can be done and its industrial value is great.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part showing a feed selection mechanism of the apparatus. FIG. FIG. 4A is a front view showing a configuration of a printing unit of a printing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5B is a side sectional view of the same. FIG. 5 is a configuration of a conventional printing apparatus. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the main part showing the printing unit.
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Outer tube 1a Reel 2 Outer tube feed roller 3 Outer tube feed motor 4 Feed selection cylinder 5 Feed selection lever 5a Roller 5b Holding part 6 Ink ribbon 7 Unwinding pulse motor 8 Winding diameter detection encoder 9 Ink ribbon dancer 10 Ink ribbon winder Portions 11 and 17 Thermal head 12 Thermal head lever 12a Lever fulcrum 13 Lever drive motor 14 Platen roller 15 Platen roller drive motor 16 Exterior tube pedestal 18 Spring 19 Bracket 20 Guide plate

Claims (1)

A substrate supply unit for supplying a plurality of substrates to be wound and arranged adjacent to each other; and an ink ribbon unwinding unit for supplying an ink ribbon having a size capable of printing on the plurality of substrates simultaneously. A printing unit that is detachably provided in the middle of the conveyance path of the printed material and the ink ribbon, and that prints with the ink ribbon elastically contacting the printed material via the print head only during printing, and a printed material downstream of the printing unit. A substrate feeding section for intermittently feeding a printed material, a tension applying section for applying tension to pull the ink ribbon at a predetermined tension downstream of the printing section, and an ink ribbon winding for winding the ink ribbon downstream of the tension applying section. A take-up section and a control section for controlling them, wherein the substrate feed section feeds a feed roller for feeding the print, a feed motor for driving the feed roller, and a plurality of marks to be printed A feed selection lever having a roller and a pressing part, a feed selection cylinder for controlling the feed selection lever, and a cradle for receiving the printed material are arranged so as to independently drive the objects individually. printing device and configuration approaching and moving away from the roller feeding any of the substrate by a roller of the selector lever.

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