JP4836636B2 - Printing device or copying device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printing apparatus or copying apparatus using a thermal head and an ink sheet, and more particularly to an ink cassette attaching / detaching mechanism.

In a conventional thermal transfer type printer, the method of attaching and detaching the ink cassette is, for example, by manually pulling out the ink cassette drawer tray provided in the printer body or manually opening the storage lid in order to mount the ink cassette. After inserting the ink cassette into the positioning portion arranged there, the operation of closing the ink cassette drawer tray or the storage lid was performed.
As an improvement measure for easily performing this attaching / detaching operation, a pair of inclined portions as a moving means for smoothly removing the ribbon cassette is provided on the side wall portions on both sides of the ribbon frame for holding the ribbon cassette (ink cassette). When removing the ribbon cassette, a technique is disclosed in which a component force in the detaching direction works from the inclined portion by pulling up one of the ribbon cassettes so that the ribbon cassette can be removed smoothly (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
In addition, a drive clutch is formed in a winding mechanism for detachably mounting the ribbon cassette, and a biasing member for biasing the drive clutch in the disengagement direction is provided, and when the ribbon cassette is stored, the drive clutch There is disclosed a thermal transfer printer having a pushing member that is pushed in an engagement direction against an urging force to engage with a driven clutch. Since the pushing member is provided on the storage lid side, the engagement is released when the storage lid is opened, so that the ink cassette can be attached and detached smoothly (for example, see Patent Document 2). .

JP-A-9-323467 (second page, FIG. 1) JP 2001-38995 A (second page, FIG. 1)

  In the printer disclosed in Patent Document 1, when the ribbon cassette is attached or detached, the user needs to open the cover, grasp the ribbon cassette by hand, and insert or remove the ribbon cassette to close the cover. . Also in the case of the thermal transfer printer shown in Patent Document 2, it is necessary to open the storage lid, attach or remove the ribbon cassette to / from the frame, and close the storage lid. As described above, in the conventional printer, when the ink cassette (ribbon cassette) is attached to or detached from the printer main body, a plurality of operations are involved, and the attachment / detachment operation to the ink cassette holder is troublesome.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus or copying apparatus in which an ink cassette can be mounted and held easily or quickly or removed. To do.

The printing apparatus or copying apparatus according to the present invention has an ink cassette holding portion that detachably holds an ink cassette containing an ink sheet, and the ink sheet fed from the ink cassette is heated by a thermal head and transferred to a recording sheet. In the thermal transfer type printing apparatus or copying apparatus, the ink cassette holding part is engaged with an engaging part provided on both sides of the ink cassette and a pair of guide members provided with guide grooves for guiding the ink cassette to a predetermined position, and an ink a pinion for transporting along the guide grooves rack meshed with the ink cassette is provided in the cassette to a predetermined position, and synchronously driven gear for transmitting the driving force from the driving source to the pinion, by a driving force transmitted from the drive synchronized gear Bei a conveying roller, and an insertion detecting means of the ink cassettes conveyed along the rotation and ink cassette guide groove , The insertion detecting means detects the insertion of the ink cassette is driven transport roller and the pinion, the initial stage of the conveyance by the conveying roller, the pinion from the middle, the ink cassette is transported to a predetermined position along the guide groove holding It is what is done.

According to the printing apparatus or the copying apparatus of the present invention, insertion of the ink cassette is detected by the insertion detecting means, the transport roller and the pinion are driven, and the initial stage of the transport is performed by the transport roller, and the ink cassette is removed by the pinion from the middle. Since the ink is transported and held to a predetermined position along the guide groove of the guide member, the ink cassette can be easily mounted and held.
Even an ink cassette having a long transport stroke can be easily attached and detached.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an ink cassette holding portion of a thermal transfer printing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. 2 is a detailed view of the main part of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the ink cassette, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the ink cassette being installed, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the ink cassette being installed.

As a thermal transfer type printing apparatus, for example, a platen roller is rotatably supported by a frame constituting the printing apparatus, and a thermal head is disposed at a position facing the platen roller so as to be able to contact and separate from the platen roller. In addition, an ink cassette around which the ink sheet is wound is detachably mounted on the frame body, and the ink sheet is drawn out between the platen roller and the thermal head. A recording sheet to be printed is sandwiched between the ink sheet and the platen roller. That is, the ink sheet and the recording paper are sandwiched between the thermal head and the platen roller, and the ink is transferred from the ink sheet to the recording paper by appropriately giving a signal to the thermal head. It is configured.
Since the present invention relates to a transport mechanism for attaching and detaching an ink cassette in the printing apparatus as described above, the transport mechanism will be mainly described, and the configuration of the entire printing apparatus will be omitted.

The ink cassette holding unit and the transport mechanism will be described with reference to FIG.
In the ink cassette holding part 1, a pair of guide members 3a and 3b are arranged in parallel on the left and right sides of an insertion slot 2 into which an ink cassette described later is inserted, from the front side toward the back side. Guide grooves 4 for guiding the ink cassette to a predetermined position are provided on the inner side surfaces of the guide members 3a and 3b. A transport roller 5 for transporting the ink cassette along the guide groove 4 is provided at an upper portion on the front side of the guide members 3a and 3b so as to be orthogonal to the guide members 3a and 3b. Further, auxiliary rollers 6 a and 6 b are provided on the inner side surfaces of the guide members 3 a and 3 b below the transport roller 5.

The shaft of the transport roller 5 is disposed on the other end side of the pressurizing arms 7a and 7b whose one end side is rotatably supported. Biasing springs 8a and 8b are provided on the rotating ends of the pressure arms 7a and 7b, and are biased downward. For this reason, the transport roller 5 is constantly acting toward the auxiliary rollers 6a and 6b.
A drive gear 9 is fastened to one end of the shaft of the transport roller 5 and is driven from the drive gear 9 through the idle gear 10 to a rotation center gear 11 provided at the rotation center of the pressure arm 7b. A column is configured. Further, the rotation center gear 11 is connected to the drive synchronous gear 14b through the rotation direction adjusting idle gear 12.
The drive synchronization gear 14b is disposed orthogonal to the guide members 3a and 3b and is pivotally attached to one end portion of the synchronization shaft 13, and the drive synchronization gear 14a is also provided at the other end portion. The drive synchronization gear 14a is connected to a drive motor 15 with a self-locking worm as a drive source through a gear train in the middle.

Pinions 16a and 16b that mesh with racks provided in an ink cassette (described later) penetrate through the synchronization shaft 13 close to the inside of the drive synchronization gears 14a and 14b.
2A and 2B are cross-sectional views and FIG. 2B are exploded perspective views showing details of the drive synchronous gear and the pinion portion. As shown in the figure, recesses are formed on opposite sides of the drive synchronization gear 14a and the pinion 16a, and the drive synchronization gear 14b and the pinion 16b, and a torsion spring 17 is interposed between the both recesses. One end side of the torsion spring 17 is locked to the drive synchronization gears 14 a and 14 b, and the other end is locked to the pinions 16 a and 16 b, and the rotational force of the drive synchronization gears 14 a and 14 b is transmitted via the torsion spring 17 to the pinion pinion 16 a, 16b is transmitted.
Further, the coupling with the synchronous shaft 13 is fixed to the synchronous shaft 13 on the drive source side (left side in the figure) with the pinion 16a by the pin 18 and on the opposite side (right side in the figure) with the drive synchronous gear 14b by the pin 18. .

With such a configuration, the rotational force of the drive motor 15 is transmitted to the left drive synchronization gear 14a via the left gear train of the guide member 3a. Next, when transmitted to the pinion 16a via the torsion spring 17, the synchronous shaft 13 fastened to the pinion 16a and the right drive synchronous gear 14a rotate. The turning force is also transmitted to the right pinion 16b via the torsion spring 17.
From the drive synchronization gear 14b, the power is transmitted to the rotation direction adjusting idle gear 12, the rotation center gear 11, the idle gear 10, and the drive gear 9, and the conveyance roller 5 is rotated.

  As shown in FIG. 1, an ink cassette insertion detection sensor 19 serving as an ink cassette insertion detection means is provided in the vicinity of the insertion port 2, and a cassette position detection for detecting the insertion position of the ink cassette is provided on the back side. An ink cassette position detection switch 20 is provided as means.

Next, the ink cassette will be described with reference to FIG.
The ink cassette 21 includes a supply bobbin storage unit 23 in which a supply bobbin around which the ink sheet 22 is wound is stored, and a take-up bobbin storage unit 24 in which a take-up bobbin that takes up the sent ink sheet 22 is stored. , And are integrally formed with a predetermined interval. The width of the ink cassette 21 is such that it fits between the left and right guide members 3a, 3b of the ink cassette holding portion 1, and the engaging portions 25 provided on both side surfaces of the ink cassette 21 are guide members 3a, 3b. It is adapted to engage with the guide groove 4 provided in the. Further, racks 26a and 26b that mesh with the above-described pinions 16a and 16b are formed on the upper sides of both side surfaces. A handle 27 is provided on the front side.

Next, the operation of attaching / detaching the ink cassette 21 to / from the ink cassette holding part 1 having the above-described transport mechanism will be described with reference to FIGS.
When mounting the ink cassette 21, the operator holds the handle 27 of the ink cassette 21 and inserts it from the insertion port 2 to the vicinity of the transport roller 5. When the ink cassette insertion detection sensor 19 detects the insertion of the ink cassette 21, the drive motor 15 is driven and the transport roller 5 and the pinions 16a and 16b rotate in the transport direction. Since the conveyance roller 5 is urged downward by the urging springs 8 a and 8 b, after the ink cassette 21 abuts the conveyance roller 5, the conveyance roller 5 is driven to engage the engagement portion 25 of the ink cassette 21. Is automatically conveyed to the state shown in the cassette mounting intermediate view of FIG. 4 while being guided by the guide groove 4.

Next, the ink cassette 21 transported to the state shown in FIG. 4 by the transport roller 5 starts to engage the racks 26a and 26b provided on the upper surfaces of both ends with the pinions 16a and 16b in the transport path. At this time, as described with reference to FIG. 2, one pinion 16 a is directly connected to the synchronous shaft 13, and the other pinion 16 b is transmitted with a driving force via a torsion spring 17, so that meshing starts. Sometimes, even if there is a slight phase shift between the left and right, it can mesh smoothly.
After meshing with the pinions 16a and 16b, it is further conveyed to the back side by the driving force to reach a predetermined position, and a state as shown in FIG. 5 is obtained.

When the predetermined position is reached, the ink cassette position detection switch 20 is activated. Then, the torsion spring 17 interposed between the drive synchronization gear 14a and the pinion 16a stops the drive motor 15 at a position where it is twisted by a predetermined angle and stops the rotation of the drive synchronization gear 14a. The holding state is obtained when a certain spring force is applied through the pinions 16a and 16b.
In this way, only by inserting the ink cassette 21 from the insertion port 2, thereafter, the ink cassette 21 is automatically conveyed to a predetermined position and held.

  When the ink cassette 21 is discharged, the drive motor 15 is rotated in the reverse direction so that the ink cassette 21 is driven in the opposite direction and can be easily discharged.

Up to this point, the description has been given of the case where the transport roller 5 and the pinions 16a and 16b are provided on the ink cassette holding portion side in order to drive the ink cassette, and the transport is performed by the two-stage operation. May be omitted. For example, in FIG. 1, the gear train that drives the transport roller 5 is omitted, the operator inserts the ink cassette 21 halfway (up to the state of FIG. 4), and the insertion detection means 19 detects the insertion. The pinions 16a and 16b may be driven, and the ink cassette 21 may be conveyed to a predetermined position and held by the same operation as described above.
If the dimension of the ink cassette 21 in the depth direction is short, the pinions 16a and 16b may be provided near the insertion port, and the entire stroke may be conveyed by the pinions 16a and 16b and the racks 26a and 26b.

  In the above description, the ink cassette attaching / detaching mechanism used in the printing apparatus has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the printing apparatus, and is similarly applied to the ink cassette attaching / detaching mechanism portion of the thermal transfer type copying apparatus. can do.

  As described above, according to the invention of the present embodiment, the ink cassette holding portion is engaged with the engaging portions provided on both sides of the ink cassette and is provided with a pair of guide grooves that guide the ink cassette to a predetermined position. A guide member, a pinion that meshes with a rack provided in the ink cassette and conveys the ink cassette to a predetermined position, a drive synchronization gear that transmits a driving force from a driving source to the pinion, and an ink cassette insertion detection means, When the insertion detection means detects the insertion of the ink cassette, the pinion is driven and the ink cassette is transported and held to a predetermined position along the guide groove so that the ink cassette can be mounted and held easily and quickly. An apparatus and a copying apparatus can be provided.

  Further, in addition to the above, a conveyance roller that is driven by the driving force from the drive synchronous gear and conveys the ink cassette along the guide groove is provided, and when the insertion detecting means detects the insertion of the ink cassette, the initial stage of conveyance is the conveyance Since the ink cassette is transported and held along the guide groove to a predetermined position by a roller and a pinion from the middle, the ink cassette can be automatically mounted and held, and even an ink cassette with a long transport stroke is easy. A detachable printing apparatus and copying apparatus can be provided.

  Furthermore, a torsion spring for power transmission interposed between the drive synchronization gear and the pinion and cassette position detecting means for detecting the position of the ink cassette are provided, and the cassette position is detected when the ink cassette is conveyed to a predetermined position. After detecting by the detecting means, the drive synchronous gear is driven and stopped until the torsion spring is twisted by a predetermined angle. In addition to the above effects, the ink cassette is operated with the spring force of the torsion spring applied. Since it can hold | maintain, it can hold | maintain reliably in a predetermined position.

It is a perspective view which shows the ink cassette holding | maintenance part of the printing apparatus or copying apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a principal part detail drawing of FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the ink cassette of the printing apparatus or copying apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the state in the middle of mounting | wearing of the ink cassette of the printing apparatus or copying apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the state of completion | finish of mounting | wearing of the ink cassette of the printing apparatus or copying apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ink cassette holding part 2 Insertion port 3a, 3b Guide member 4 Guide groove 5 Conveyance roller 6a, 6b Auxiliary roller 7a, 7b Pressing arm 8a, 8b Energizing spring 9 Drive gear 10 Idle gear 11 Rotation center gear 12 Rotation direction Adjustment idle gear 13 Synchronous shaft 14a, 14b Drive synchronous gear 15 Drive motor 16a, 16b Pinion 17 Torsion spring 18 Pin 19 Ink cassette insertion detection sensor 20 Ink cassette position detection switch 21 Ink cassette 22 Ink sheet 23 Sending bobbin storage 24 Winding Bobbin storage part 25 Engagement part 26a, 26b Rack 27 Handle.

Claims (2)

In a thermal transfer type printing apparatus or copying apparatus having an ink cassette holding section for detachably holding an ink cassette containing an ink sheet, and heating the ink sheet fed from the ink cassette with a thermal head and transferring it to a recording sheet ,
The ink cassette holding portion includes a pair of guide members provided with guide grooves that engage with engaging portions provided on both sides of the ink cassette and guide the ink cassette to a predetermined position; a rack provided on the ink cassette; a pinion for transporting the meshed with said ink cassette to the predetermined position along the guide groove, and synchronously driven gear for transmitting the driving force from the driving source to the pinion, rotating by a driving force transmitted from the drive synchronized gear A transport roller that moves and transports the ink cassette along the guide groove; and an insertion detection means for the ink cassette,
When the insertion detecting means detects the insertion of the ink cassette, the transport roller and the pinion are driven, and the ink cassette is moved along the guide groove by the transport roller in the initial stage of transport and by the pinion from the middle. A printing apparatus or a copying apparatus, wherein the printing apparatus or the copying apparatus is conveyed to and held by the predetermined position. 2. The printing apparatus or copying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising cassette position detecting means for detecting a position of the ink cassette by interposing a torsion spring for power transmission between the drive synchronizing gear and the pinion. After the cassette position detecting means detects that the cassette has been transported to the predetermined position, the drive synchronization gear is driven and stopped until the torsion spring is twisted by a predetermined angle. Printing device or copying device.

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