JP5176638B2 - Thermal transfer sheet cassette - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a thermal transfer sheet cassette that accommodates a thermal transfer sheet.

Various thermal transfer sheet cassettes that are used by being mounted on a printer have been proposed. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses the following. The thermal transfer sheet cassette of this document is composed of a winding core, a supply core, a core holding part in which the thermal transfer sheet is stored, and two lids covering each core.
JP 2005-81668 A

  In the above cassette, the thermal transfer sheet fed out from the supply core is thermally transferred to the printing paper by the thermal head of the printer, and then wound around the take-up core. The path of the thermal transfer sheet is guided by pressing the thermal transfer sheet. For this reason, friction may occur at the contact portion between the lid and the thermal transfer sheet, and abnormal noise may occur.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer sheet cassette capable of preventing the generation of abnormal noise during printing.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, a feeding core, a thermal transfer sheet wound around the feeding core, a winding core that winds up the thermal transfer sheet fed from the feeding core, A guide shaft disposed in the path of the thermal transfer sheet from the feeding core to the take-up core and rotatably supported to change the traveling direction of the thermal transfer sheet to a predetermined direction, both the cores, the thermal transfer sheet, and the guide A cassette body that houses a shaft, a second housing part that is formed in the cassette body and houses the winding core, and a second cover that detachably covers the second housing part in the cassette body, The cassette body is provided with a pair of first bearing members that rotatably supports both ends of the guide shaft, Receiving member includes first and second opposed portions which are opposed so as to cover the guide shaft from both sides in the radial direction, is constructed in a U-shape comprising a bottom portion for connecting the opposing portions, between said opposing portions Is formed to be larger than the diameter of the guide shaft disposed between the facing portions, and the second cover is paired with the first bearing member so as to rotatably hold both end portions of the guide shaft. Each of the second bearing members is disposed opposite to the bottom of the first bearing member, and includes a first pressing portion that sandwiches the guide shaft, and a second opposing portion. And a second pressing portion that is disposed opposite to the first facing portion and sandwiches the guide shaft .

  According to this configuration, the guide shaft for changing the traveling direction of the thermal transfer sheet to a predetermined direction is provided, and the guide shaft is driven to rotate as the thermal transfer sheet proceeds. Therefore, friction between the thermal transfer sheet and the guide shaft can be reduced, and as a result, generation of abnormal noise when using the cassette can be prevented.

  In particular, in the present invention, the guide shaft is rotatably supported by the first and second bearing members as described above, but the second pressing member of the second bearing member is the first bearing member. It is arranged opposite to the first opposing portion at a position closer to the second opposing portion. For this reason, the guide shaft is disposed between the second pressing member and the first opposing portion without rotating in contact with the second opposing portion during rotation. Accordingly, since the guide shaft does not come into contact with all the parts of the first and second bearing members, the contact area with each bearing member can be reduced, thereby reliably preventing the generation of noise due to friction. Can do. In addition, although the 1st bearing member is formed in the U-shape, it becomes possible to position a guide shaft before attaching the cover at the time of an assembly, and can assemble easily.

  In the said cassette, the retaining part of the guide shaft which protrudes in the 1st opposing part side can be provided in a 2nd opposing part. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the guide shaft inserted into the first U-shaped bearing member from being detached from the first bearing member during assembly. Therefore, since the guide shaft can be reliably positioned, assembly is further simplified.

  The tension of the thermal transfer sheet with respect to the guide shaft can be configured to act toward the second bearing member. With this configuration, at the time of printing, the guide shaft mainly comes into contact with the second bearing member due to the tension of the thermal transfer sheet, so that the friction can be further reduced and the generation of abnormal noise can be more reliably prevented.

  According to the thermal transfer sheet cassette of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the generation of abnormal noise during printing.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a thermal transfer sheet cassette according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a plan view (a) and a side view (b) of the cassette body, FIG. 2 is a plan view (a) and a side view (b) of the first cover, and FIG. 3 is a plan view (a) of the second cover. And a side view (b). FIG. 1B also shows the state of assembly.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the cassette includes a feeding core 2 around which the thermal transfer sheet 1 is wound, and a winding core 3 that winds up the thermal transfer sheet 1 fed out from the feeding core 2. Is accommodated in the cassette body 4. The cassette body 4 houses a guide shaft 5 for guiding the traveling direction of the thermal transfer sheet 1. The cassette body 4 includes a first storage portion 41 for storing the feeding core 2 and a second storage portion 42 for storing the take-up core 3, and the storage portions 41, 42 include the cores 2, 3. Are arranged so that their axes are parallel. More specifically, the storage units 41 and 42 are arranged at a predetermined interval, and both ends of the storage units 41 and 42 are connected to each other by a connecting member 43. A gap U is formed between the storage units 41 and 42, but the thermal transfer sheet 1 advances from the first storage unit 41 to the second storage unit 42 while passing through the clearance U. As shown in FIG. 1B, the first cover 6 and the second cover 7 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are detachably attached to the storage portions 41 and 42, respectively. Cover. The cassette body 4 and the covers 6 and 7 can be made of, for example, a resin material.

  In the second storage part 42, a core storage part 421 in which the take-up core 3 is stored and a shaft storage part 422 in which the guide shaft 5 is stored are arranged adjacent to each other. The shaft storage portion 422 is formed in an L-shaped cross section including a wall body 4221 in contact with the gap U and a bottom surface portion 4222 on which the guide shaft 5 is disposed. The thermal transfer sheet 1 traveling downward from the upper end portion of the wall body 4221 through the wall body 4221 proceeds to the core housing section 421 while changing the traveling direction by about 90 degrees by the guide shaft 5 at the bottom surface section 4222. It has become. And it is wound up by the winding core 3 in the core storage part 421.

  Next, a bearing for supporting the guide shaft 5 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 1A, and is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the bearing portion. FIG. 4A is a view before assembly, and FIG. 4B is a view after assembly. As shown in FIG. 4, the bearing of the guide shaft 5 includes a pair of first bearing members 8 provided at both ends of the shaft storage portion 422 of the second storage portion 42 and a pair of second cover 7. The second bearing member 9 is configured to support both end portions of the guide shaft 5. That is, when the second cover 7 is attached to the cassette body 4, the guide shaft 5 is rotatably supported by the two bearing members 8 and 9, as shown in FIG.

  Each first bearing member 8 is formed in a U-shaped cross section including first and second opposing portions 81 and 82 arranged to face each other and a bottom portion 83 connecting them. The first facing portion 81 is disposed in parallel to the bottom surface portion 4222 side (lower side) of the shaft storage portion 422, and the bottom portion 83 is disposed to face the wall body 4221. The guide shaft 5 is housed between the facing portions 81 and 82 from the side opposite to the wall body 4221. At this time, the interval S between the opposing portions 81 and 82 is formed larger than the diameter D of the guide shaft. Further, a retaining portion 84 that protrudes toward the first facing portion 81 is formed at the tip of the second facing portion 82, whereby the guide shaft 5 accommodated in the first bearing member 8 is detached. Is preventing.

  Next, the second bearing member 9 will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, each second bearing member 9 includes a first pressing member 91 that faces the bottom 83 of the first bearing member 8 when the second cover 7 is attached to the cassette body 4, It is formed in an L shape comprising a second pressing member 92 facing the facing portion 81. At this time, each second bearing member 9 is disposed closer to the end portion in the axial direction than each first bearing member 8. When the second cover 7 is attached, the second pressing member 92 faces the first facing portion 81 at a position closer to the second facing portion 82 of the first bearing member 8. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 4B, the guide shaft 5 does not contact the second facing portion 82, and is held between the second pressing portion 92 and the first facing portion 81. Similarly, the guide shaft 5 is sandwiched between the first pressing member 91 and the bottom 83. At this time, the guide shaft 5 and each member of the bearing, that is, the first pressing portion 91, the first facing portion 81, the second pressing member 92, and the bottom portion 83, so that the guide shaft 5 can smoothly rotate. A slight gap is formed between them.

  Next, the operation of the thermal transfer sheet cassette configured as described above will be described. First, assembly of the cassette will be described. First, the feeding core 2 and the winding core 3 are accommodated in the cassette body 4 together with the thermal transfer sheet 1 wound around them. Next, the guide shaft 5 is disposed in the shaft storage portion 422. At this time, as shown in FIG. 4A, both end portions of the guide shaft 5 are inserted into the U-shaped openings of the first bearing members 8. As a result, the guide shaft 5 is positioned in the cassette body 4. The guide shaft 5 once inserted is prevented from being detached by the retaining portion 84 of the second facing portion 82. Subsequently, the first and second covers 6 and 7 are attached to the first storage portion 41 and the second storage portion 42, respectively. At this time, each second bearing member 9 of the second cover 7 closes the U-shaped opening of the first bearing member 8 and covers the guide shaft 5 from above. Thereby, as shown in FIG.4 (b), the both ends of the guide shaft 5 are surrounded by the 1st and 2nd bearing members 8 and 9 in the outer periphery, and the position is hold | maintained.

  The cassette assembled in this way is used as follows. First, a thermal transfer sheet cassette is mounted on a printer (not shown). As a result, the end portions of the feeding core 2 and the winding core 3 exposed from the end portions of the core storage portions 41 and 42 are engaged with the drive shaft of the printer. In addition, a thermal head is disposed in the gap U between both the core storage portions 41 and 42, and the thermal transfer tote 1 and the thermal head passing through the gap U are opposed to each other.

  When printing is started, the drive shaft of the printer rotates, and accordingly, the thermal transfer sheet 1 is fed out from the feeding core 2 toward the winding core 3. The thermal transfer sheet 1 passing through the gap is held between the thermal head and the printing paper, and the ink on the thermal transfer sheet 1 is transferred to the printing paper by the heat of the thermal head. In this way, printing is performed by repeating the thermal transfer.

  As described above, while the thermal transfer sheet 1 is being fed out, the core transfer portion 1 is inserted into the second storage portion 42 in the cassette body 4 while the angle of about 90 degrees is changed by the guide shaft 5. 421 enters and is taken up by the take-up core 3. At this time, since tension acts on the thermal transfer sheet 1 in the traveling direction, the guide shaft 5 is pulled by the thermal transfer sheet 1 and pressed toward the second bearing member 9 as shown in FIG. 4B. . Accordingly, the guide shaft 5 rotates mainly in contact with the second bearing member 9.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the guide shaft 5 is provided in which the thermal transfer sheet 1 is advanced in a predetermined direction, and the guide shaft 5 is driven to rotate as the thermal transfer sheet 1 advances. Therefore, friction between the thermal transfer sheet 1 and the guide shaft 5 can be reduced. As a result, it is possible to prevent the generation of abnormal noise when using the cassette.

  In particular, in the present embodiment, the guide shaft 5 is rotatably supported by the first and second bearing members 8 and 9, but the second pressing member 91 of the second bearing member 9 is the first bearing. The member 8 is disposed opposite the first facing portion 81 at a position closer to the second facing portion 82. Therefore, the guide shaft 5 is disposed between the second pressing member 92 and the first opposing portion 81 without contacting the second opposing portion 82 during rotation. Therefore, the contact area between the guide shaft 5 and each bearing member can be reduced, and this can reliably prevent the generation of abnormal noise due to friction. In this embodiment, the first bearing member 8 is arranged with the U-shaped sideways, but the direction is not particularly limited as long as the guide shaft 5 can be supported between the first bearing member 8 and the second bearing member 9.

It is the top view and side view of a cassette main body which concern on one Embodiment of this invention. It is the top view and side view of the 1st cover of the cassette for thermal transfer sheets. It is the top view and side view of the 1st cover of the cassette for thermal transfer sheets. It is the sectional view on the AA line of Fig.1 (a).

Explanation of symbols

1 Thermal Transfer Sheet 2 Feeding Core 3 Winding Core 4 Cassette Body 5 Guide Shaft 7 Second Cover (Cover)
8 First bearing member 81 First opposing portion 82 Second opposing portion 83 Bottom 9 Second bearing member 91 First pressing member 92 Second pressing member

Claims (3)

With the feeding core,
A thermal transfer sheet wound around the feeding core;
A winding core for winding the thermal transfer sheet fed from the feeding core;
A guide shaft that is disposed in a path of the thermal transfer sheet from the feeding core to the winding core, and is rotatably supported to change the traveling direction of the thermal transfer sheet to a predetermined direction;
A cassette body that houses both the cores, the thermal transfer sheet, and the guide shaft;
A second storage portion formed in the cassette body for storing the winding core;
A second cover that detachably covers the second storage portion in the cassette body,
The cassette body is provided with a pair of first bearing members that rotatably support both ends of the guide shaft,
Each of the first bearing members is configured in a U-shape including first and second opposing portions that are arranged so as to cover the guide shaft from both sides in the radial direction, and a bottom portion that connects the opposing portions, The interval between the facing portions is formed larger than the diameter of the guide shaft disposed between the facing portions,
The second cover is provided with a pair of second bearing members that rotatably hold both end portions of the guide shaft together with the first bearing member,
Each of the second bearing members is disposed to face the bottom of the first bearing member, and is disposed to face the first facing portion at a position closer to the first pressing portion that sandwiches the guide shaft and the second facing portion. A cassette for thermal transfer sheet , comprising a second pressing portion sandwiching the guide shaft . 2. The thermal transfer sheet cassette according to claim 1, wherein the second opposing portion is provided with a retaining portion for the guide shaft that protrudes toward the first opposing portion. The thermal transfer sheet cassette according to claim 1, wherein a tension of the thermal transfer sheet with respect to the guide shaft is configured to act toward the second bearing member.

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