JPH01133774A - Thermal recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To contrive a higher recording speed, by taking up the whole length of a multi-strike ribbon to one side, then recording in the reverse direction while taking up the ribbon in the opposite direction, and repeating these operations. CONSTITUTION:An ink ribbon is taken up in a forward direction concurrently with rightward recording, and each time recording in one line is finished, a returning operation is conducted, and rightward recording is again conducted. This series of operation (I) is repeated, and when a ribbon end is detected (II) by a sensor upon recording to the tail end of a line, the returning operation is not conducted, and leftward recording (II) is conducted while taking the ribbon in the reverse direction for the next and latter lines. When the ribbon end is detected (IV) by the sensor during the recording, a head is turned up at that position, and is caused to skip (V) to the tail end of the line. Then, the head is turned down at the tail end of the line, the last part of the line is recorded (VI) leftward, and leftward recording is conducted while taking up the ribbon in the reverse direction for the next and latter lines. Thus, wasting of the ribbon is obviated, and favorable operability is ensured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a serial thermal recording method that uses a multi-ink ribbon and performs thermal transfer recording on a sheet while scanning the sheet with a thermal head.

[Conventional technology]

A recording device such as a printer or facsimile is a device that records on a sheet (recording medium such as paper or a thin plastic plate) by driving a recording head based on a print data signal. Serial types are widely used.

Furthermore, there are various recording methods such as an inkjet method, a wire dot method, and a thermal method.

Among these, thermal type (thermal recording device)
A dot forming means consisting of a plurality of electrothermal transducers (heating elements) is provided on the front surface of the recording head (thermal head), and the dot forming means is pressed against the sheet and slides on the sheet, and is driven based on a print data signal. The device is configured to perform heating recording by heating.

In addition, as this type of thermal recording device, a heat-sensitive sheet (
There are two types of thermal transfer methods: one is a thermal transfer method that uses a sheet that develops color when heated and records without an ink ribbon, and the other is a thermal transfer method that uses an ordinary sheet and transfers and records via an ink ribbon. There are cases where a one-time ink ribbon is used, which allows printing once, and a multi-ink ribbon, which allows printing repeatedly, for example, 10 times, is used.

The present invention relates to a method of operating a serial type thermal recording apparatus using the above multi-ink ribbon.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, the operating method (thermal recording method) of a recording device using a conventional multi-ink ribbon is generally as follows.
Similar to the case of one-time ink ribbons, a method was adopted in which unidirectional recording was performed while winding only in one direction.

However, in this one-way recording, it is necessary to unwind the entire length of the ink ribbon each time the entire length of the ink ribbon is wound, and this unwinding takes time and has a problem in that the recording speed is low. There is also a method in which an operator manually turns the cassette upside down after winding the entire length, but this method has a problem in that it is not automatic.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal recording method that can realize an increase in the speed of recording operations using a multi-ink ribbon.

The present invention uses a multi-ink ribbon capable of repeated recording7, and when recording while moving a thermal head along a sheet, the entire length of the multi-ink ribbon is wound to one side, and then the ribbon is rolled in the opposite direction. By recording in the opposite direction while winding up, and repeating this from now on,
This aims to achieve the above objectives. .

〔Example〕

The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows the main parts of a thermal recording apparatus suitable for carrying out the method of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, a thermal head 4 mounted on a carriage 3 is attached to a sheet 2 backed up on a platen 1.
It is configured to record. Note that the illustrated platen 1 has a roller shape and also serves as a sea I-conveying roller.

The carriage 3 is movably mounted along a guide shaft 5 installed parallel to the platen 1, and is wound around a stamping motor 6, a driving pulley 7, a driven pulley 8, and their boars, and coupled to the carriage 3. It is reciprocated by a drive system consisting of a heald 9.

The thermal head 4 has a plurality of heating elements (for example, 18 x 2 elements arranged in two vertical rows or 36 resistors arranged in one vertical row), and has two positions: a down position where it is in pressure contact with the sheet, and an amplifier position where it is away from the sheet. It is mounted so that it can swing between the two.

A ribbon cassette 10 for feeding a multi-ink ribbon to the front surface of the thermal head 4 is removably set on the carriage 3.

The multi-ink ribbon in the ribbon cassette 10 is wound in a predetermined direction in synchronization with the movement of the thermal head 4 by a ribbon drive shaft (not shown) provided on the carriage 3 during recording.

FIG. 3 illustrates the structure of the multi-ink ribbon, in which a heat-resistant porous net-like absorption layer 12 is attached to a base 11 made of polyester film, etc., and this absorption layer is impregnated with heat-melting ink to form an ink layer. is formed. thus,
The number of times the same part of ink N12 is used (for example, about 10 times)
An ink ribbon capable of repeated recording is constructed.

During recording, the thermal head 4 is moved in a press-contact state, and recording is performed while driving the plurality of heating elements based on print data signals, and the sheet 2 is conveyed at a predetermined pitch in the direction of arrow P to perform line breaks.

The recording operation in this case is to wind the multi-ribbon while recording by scanning the recording head from left to right in the same way as with the regular 1-time ribbon, and immediately after winding the entire length of the multi-ribbon. , From now on, the ribbon will be wound in the opposite direction while recording in the opposite direction (from right to left). By repeating this operation thereafter, it is possible to automatically continue recording up to the number of recordable repetitions of the multi-ribbon without manual operation by an operator.

Here, as an example of ribbon end detection, a method can be adopted in which silver ribbons with high reflectance are attached to both ends of a multi-ribbon, and this is detected by a sensor provided on a carriage. In this case, two sensors are required to detect both the right and left ribbon ends.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a recording operation in the present invention.

(A) in FIG. 1 shows a recording operation when a dust-bond end occurs after recording exactly to the end of a certain line. While recording from left to right, wind the ink ribbon in the forward direction, and after recording one line, return and record from left to right again, repeating this operation (■) until a certain line is reached. If the sensor detects the end of the ribbon after printing to the end (II), the ink ribbon is not returned and is printed from right to left from the next line (III), winding the ink ribbon in the opposite direction.

(B) in FIG. 1 shows the recording operation when the ribbon end is reached in the middle of recording a certain line. When a certain line is being recorded during forward direction recording (I), if the sensor detects the ribbon end midway (■), the ribbon is moved at that position and skipped to the end of the line (V). Then head down at the end of the line and record the end of the line from right to left (
Vl) Return ■) From the next line onwards, the ink ribbon is wound up in the opposite direction while recording from right to left.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control system for implementing the thermal recording method described above.

In FIG. 4, a CPU (microprocessor) 20 of the recording apparatus is connected to a host 21 such as a computer or a word processor, and receives print data signals and necessary command signals.

The CPU 20 operates via a driver (drive circuit) 22 to a motor 23 for driving the carriage 3, a motor 24 for conveying the sheet, a motor 25 for driving the thermal head 4 in an amplified down manner, and a motor for driving the ribbon or winding the ribbon. It controls various drive systems such as the mechanism operating means 26 and the like, and also drives the dot forming means (heating element) of the thermal head 4 based on the print data signal from the host 21.

The recording operation is controlled based on a program stored in a ROM attached to the CPU 20.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the recording operation in the present invention.

In FIG. 5, when a recording operation (for example, forward printing from left to right) is started in step 100, step 100
In step 1, check whether recording of that line has finished or not.
While determining whether or not the ribbon end is detected in step 02, steps 101 and 102 are looped to record one line. Once the line has been recorded in step 101,
Proceeding to step 103, it is determined whether or not all recording has been completed. If it has been completed, the process advances to step 108 and stops. If not, recording of the next line is started in step 104, and after that, the process proceeds to step 103. Returning to loops 101 and 102, the lines are recorded.

When the ribbon end is detected in the middle of recording a certain line,
(Step 102), proceeding to Step 105 and recording the rest of the row from the opposite direction (in this case, from the cloth to the left). If all recording has not been completed in step 106, step 1
At 07, reverse recording (in this case, the recording direction is from right to left) is started, and the process returns to loops 101 and 102 to continue recording. If all recording has been completed in step 106, step 10
Proceed to step 8 and stop.

According to the embodiment described above, when a multi-ink ribbon capable of repeated recording is used and the thermal head is moved along the sheet for printing, if the entire length of the multi-ink ribbon is wound up, the reverse will occur immediately. The multi-ink ribbon is wound in one direction and recorded in the opposite direction, and then this process is repeated, so the multi-ink ribbon can be used in the same way as regular printer ribbons, and the ribbon can be used without waste, maintaining ribbon economy. In addition, once the ribbon cap is attached, the ribbon force can be reversed or replaced until the multi-ink ribbon's repeatability limit (for example, 10 times) is reached.
Alternatively, it is possible to automatically feed the ribbon for a long time without having to go to the trouble of rewinding the ink ribbon, thereby providing a thermal recording method with excellent operability.

In the above embodiment, two sensors are used to detect the ribbon end.
However, if a ribbon end sign (such as a bar code) that does not affect printing is provided on the back side of the ribbon, the number of sensors can be reduced to one.

In addition, a counter is installed to count each time the ribbon end is detected, and when the count reaches the predetermined repeatability of the multi-ink ribbon (for example, 10 times), a message to replace the ribbon end is issued. By doing so, the operability can be further improved.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, recording is performed in the forward direction while winding the multi-ink ribbon in the forward direction, and when the entire length of the multi-ink ribbon is wound to one side, the multi-ink ribbon is wound in the opposite direction. Since recording is performed in the reverse direction while winding the multi-ink ribbon in the same direction, and this process is repeated thereafter, ribbon wastage in a serial type thermal transfer recording device using a multi-ink ribbon is eliminated, and
A thermal recording method with excellent operability can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the recording operation according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of main parts of a serial type thermal recording device suitable for carrying out the present invention, and FIG. 3 shows the structure of a multi-ink ribbon. FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view, FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control system suitable for implementing the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of recording operation in the present invention. 2------- Sheet, 3--------- Carriage, 4--------- Thermal head, 10------
-----------Ribbon cassette, 20------
--- CPU. Agent Patent Attorney Yasutake Ooto

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Using a multi-ink ribbon that can be repeatedly recorded,
In a thermal recording method in which recording is performed while moving a thermal head along a sheet, if the entire length of the multi-ink ribbon is wound to one side, then reverse direction recording is performed while winding the multi-ink ribbon in the opposite direction. A thermal recording method characterized by repeating this process.