JPH01101170A - Manual printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit printing even when a printer is somewhat tilted during printing, by arranging a contact point between a recording medium and a drive roller so as to be in the vicinity of the extension line of a heater row. CONSTITUTION:The tip of a thermal head 1 is slightly extended beyond the outer periphery of a drive roller 6a and abuts on the stop of a frame 1. During printing, the bottom of the printer is pressed on a recording medium to press the top of the thermal head to the recording medium and rotate it around a head holder shaft 4 until it contacts the outer periphery of a drive roller 6a, thus a head press force required for printing being applied by a head press spring 3. If, at this time, a printing surface is tilted with respect to a contact line between right/left drive rollers and a recording medium, the whole headset is raised from a head holder shaft holder 7b and a thermal head tip follows a printing surface, therefore a uniform head press force can be kept in a head width direction. When a printer is moved in the right direction in this state, printing is effected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application] The present invention prints by manual scanning. This article relates to a thermal transfer manual printer.

[Conventional technology]

Many manual scanning printers have been proposed in the past. A representative example thereof is JP-A-60-109866. In this method, an ink ribbon is sandwiched between a drive roller and a printing surface, and is manually scanned to print as it moves.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in this conventional example, since the thermal head and the drive roller are located far apart, printing can only be performed until the drive roller reaches the edge of the recording medium such as a notebook, and the distance between the tip of the thermal head and the drive roller is There were always blank areas that could not be printed, which was extremely inconvenient.

Furthermore, the tip of the thermal head and the drive roller, which are separated from each other, had to be simultaneously moved in parallel without tilting the printer body while keeping them in close contact with the recording medium, which required more attention and force from the user than necessary.

On the other hand, if you are not careful and tilt the main body even slightly, there is a serious problem in that either the thermal head or the drive roller separates from the recording medium and printing becomes impossible.

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate these conventional drawbacks and provide a thermal transfer manual printer with good operability that can print from edge to edge on a recording medium and can print even if the printer body is slightly tilted during printing. It's about doing.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has a thermal head having a row of heating elements arranged in a straight line and a drive roller that drives a detection unit that recognizes the travel distance, and the contact between the recording medium and the drive roller. It is characterized by using a means of arranging the dots so as to be near the extension line of the heating element array.

[Effect]

When the above means is used, the distance between the tip of the thermal head and the drive roller is minimized, so printing can be performed from end to end of the recording medium, and the unprintable area is minimized.

In addition, since the heating element of the thermal head and the contact point between the drive roller and the recording medium are aligned in a straight line, there is one fulcrum.
Even if the printer body is slightly tilted, the thermal head or drive roller will not separate from the recording medium, allowing normal printing.

〔Example〕

1 and 2 are front and side views of a manual printer according to the present invention.

1 is a thermal head, and 2 is a head holder for holding the thermal head 1, which is rotatably engaged with a frame 7 via a head holder shaft 4.

The head holder 2 is biased with a pressing force by a head pressing spring 3, which applies rotational force in the counterclockwise direction in the figure around the head holder shaft 4, and a hook-shaped head holder shaft holding force that is a part of the frame 7. Part 7b to headset 1
．． 2.4 is given a downward force in the figure to prevent it from coming off.

6 a s 6 b 16 c is the drive roller I, 6b
They are arranged on both sides of the thermal head 1 together with a drive roller (2), and are rotatably engaged with the frame 7 by a drive roller shaft 5. At this time, the lowest point A of the drive rollers (2) and (2) in the drawing almost coincides with the position of the tip heating element array of the thermal head 1. The drive roller I includes a rubber roller portion 6a that functions as a wheel in contact with the recording medium, a ratchet portion 6b that allows rotation only in the driving direction, and a gear portion that transmits power to the transfer ribbon feed and detection wheel 12. It consists of 6c. Reference numeral 21 denotes a ratchet pawl that engages with the ratchet portion 6b of the drive roller (2) to prevent the drive roller from rotating backward, and is biased clockwise in the figure by a ratchet pawl spring 21.

Reference numeral 18 denotes a head storage lever, which is rotatably attached to the head holder shaft 4, and is attached to the head holder shaft 4 as shown in FIG.
It engages with a claw-like clutch 2a that is integral with the. Reference numeral 19 denotes a head storage switch that is slidably engaged with the frame 7. When this switch is slid, the head storage lever 18 that is engaged with a pin 19a integrated with the head storage switch 19 rotates, and the head holder 2 and the thermal head 1 are moved. It rotates around the head holder shaft 4 and is stored.

9 is a transmission plate having a gear that engages with the intermediate gear 8;
A ribbon winding shaft 10 and a friction plate 11 made of felt, etc.
It is frictionally engaged with the ribbon winding core 13 via.

The ribbon winding core 13 is press-fitted onto the ribbon winding shaft 10. Reference numeral 14 denotes a cassette take-up spring built into the ribbon take-up core 13, which applies a pressing force to the transmission plate 9. The ribbon winding core 13 is structured to engage with a ribbon cassette core 23 of the ribbon cassette 16.

The ink ribbon 17 built into the ribbon cassette 16 is
First, it is wound around a supply-side ribbon cassette core 24 that is rotatably supported by the ribbon cassette 16, and the load is passed between ribbon pads 18 and 20 made of felt or the like, which are biased by a tensile spring 19. After being given
The ribbon passes around the thermal head 1 and is wound onto the ribbon cassette core 23 on the winding side.

Reference numeral 18b denotes a group of teeth integrally formed with the head storage lever 18, which engages with a gear on the outer periphery of the cassette take-up shaft 10 when the head is stored, making it unrotatable.

12a, 12b, and 15 are detection mechanisms for emitting pulses synchronized with the amount of movement of the main body, which includes a photo-enterer tab 15, a detection plate 12a with an open slit, and a gear unit 1 integrated therewith.
2b.

Next, the operation will be explained.

Initially, the tip of the thermal head 1 is at a position slightly protruding from the outer diameter of the drive roller 6a, as shown in FIG. 3, and is locked at the end of the frame 1 (not shown). When a user presses the bottom of the printer against a recording medium during printing, the tip of the thermal head 1 is first pressed by the recording medium, and the head holder shaft 4 is pressed until the outer periphery of the drive roller 6a comes into contact.
Rotates around. At this time, the head pressing force necessary for printing is applied by the head pressing spring 3. Conversely, if the drive roller 6 is in contact with the recording medium, the head pressing force necessary for printing is obtained. Also, at this time, if the printing surface is inclined as shown in FIG. The tip of the thermal head floats from the hook-shaped head holder shaft holding part 7b which is a part of the head holder 7b, and the tip of the thermal head follows the printing surface as shown in Fig. 6, thereby maintaining a uniform head pressing force in the width direction of the head. Can be done.

If the printer main body is moved to the right in FIG. 4 in the above state, printing will be performed.

First, when the drive roller 6 rotates, rotational force is transmitted to the cassette winding gear 9 through the intermediate gear 8, and further through the winding transmission plate 11 to the cassette winding shaft 10 and the ribbon winding core 1.
3. As a result, the ribbon cassette core 23 in the ribbon cassette 16 is rotated, and the ink ribbon 17 is wound up. At this time, the amount of movement of the ink ribbon 17 is the same as the amount of movement of the printer body, that is, the amount of movement of the ink ribbon 17 between the recording medium and the ink ribbon 1 is the same as that of the printer body.
In order to make the relative speed of the recording medium 7 zero, the sliding torque of the friction plate 11 is set to be small with respect to the frictional force between the ribbon and the recording medium due to the head pressing force.

This prevents overfeeding and slack of the ribbon, and enables correct ribbon feeding.

Next, the detection mechanism will be explained. The cassette take-up gear 9, which rotates due to the rotation of the drive roller, further transmits rotational force to the detection plate 12 through gears. As a result, the photo-enabler 15 recognizes the signal from the slit on the detection plate and transmits a pulse synchronized with it to the arithmetic unit.

Next, the head storage mechanism will be explained.

FIG. 5 shows a state in which the thermal head 1 is housed. When the head storage switch 19 is slid up, the head storage lever 18 moves to the bin 19a that is integrated with the head storage switch.
The head holder is pushed up and rotated around the head holder shaft 4. At this time, as shown in FIG. 7, the claw-like clutch 2a integrated with the head holder 2 and the claw-like clutch integrated with the head storage lever engage, rotating the head holder 2 and the thermal head 1 at the same time. is housed inside the drive roller 6a from the outer diameter thereof. However, if this state remains, the ink ribbon 17 will remain slack.

To prevent this, a group of teeth 18b integrally formed at the tip of the head storage lever engages with a gear on the outer periphery of the cassette take-up shaft 10, rotates it a certain amount clockwise in the figure, and at the same time locks it so that it cannot rotate. do. Through this series of operations, the slack of the ink ribbon 17 is taken up, and even if the drive roller rotates in this state, the ink ribbon is no longer taken up.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the present invention arranges the drive rollers on the left and right sides of the thermal head, it is possible to reduce the size.Furthermore, since the contact point between the drive roller and the recording medium is aligned on the extension line of the heating element row at the tip of the thermal head, it is possible to reduce the size of the thermal head. As shown in Figure 8, printing is possible from end to end of the recording medium. Furthermore, as shown in Figure 9, even if the printer body is tilted, the drive roller and thermal head are always in close contact with the printing medium at the same time, so there is a high degree of freedom for normal printing, and it is easy to operate, which is a requirement for a manual type. The quality has greatly improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1, 2, and 7 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a front view, FIG. 2 is a side view, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the head storage lever clutch section. Figures 3 to 6 show the usage state of the present invention; Figure 3 is during standby, Figure 4 is during printing, Figure 5 is when the head is retracted, Figure 6 (a), etc.) FIG. 3 is a front view and a side view showing the state of the head when the printing surface is not smooth. 8 and 9 are diagrams showing an example of the effect of the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the use of the present invention. 1... Thermal head 2... Head holder 3... Head pressing spring 4... Head holder shaft 5... Drive roller shaft 6... Drive roller 7... Frame 8... Intermediate gear 9...Transmission plate 10...Ribbon winding shaft 11...Friction plate 12...Detection plate 13...Ribbon winding core 14...Cassette winding spring 15...Photo-enabler button 16...・Ribbon cassette 17... Ink ribbon 18... Ribbon pad ■ 19... Tension spring 20... Ribbon pad ■ 21... Ratchet pawl spring 22... Ratchet pawl 23.24... Ribbon cassette Applicant above core Seiko Epson Co., Ltd. Representative Patent Attorney Tsutomu Mogami and 1 other person Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 8 Figure 9

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a thermal transfer manual printer that prints image information by placing the printer body on a recording medium and manually moving it, it drives a thermal head with a linear array of heating elements and a detection unit that recognizes the distance traveled. It has a drive roller that
A manual printer characterized in that a contact point between the recording medium and the driving roller is arranged near an extension line of the heating element array.