JPH0113439B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a multicolor thermal transfer printer capable of recording multicolor images using an ink ribbon.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a multicolor thermal transfer printer that improves multicolor image recording speed while suppressing wasteful consumption of ink ribbons.

The present invention will be described in detail below based on drawings of embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention.
This is an example of a thermal transfer printer. An ink ribbon cartridge 1 is mounted on a carrier 2 of a thermal transfer printer, and the ink ribbon 3 in the cartridge is wound around a supply reel 4 and is distributed between printing paper 6 on a platen 5 and a thermal head 7. After passing through the gap, it is wound onto the take-up reel 8. While the carrier 2 travels in the direction of arrow A in the figure, the ink ribbon 3 is sent in the direction of arrow B, and printing is performed with the thermal head 7 pressing the ink ribbon 3 against the printing paper 6.

An identification portion 9 is formed at the rear of the case of the ink ribbon cartridge 1 to identify the color of the stored ink ribbon. This identification part 9 is formed by providing a notch at a desired position depending on the color of the ink ribbon.
The notches are provided in the following order: 0, non-notch 11, and notch 10. A detector 12 having a 3-bit configuration, that is, three microswitches arranged in parallel, is placed in front of the identification section 9, and a total of eight types of identification are possible. In this embodiment, the identification portion 18 is provided with a notch, but a protrusion may be used instead, and the detector may be an optical sensor.
Furthermore, in addition to changes in shape such as undulations, a bar code, a silver screen, etc. may be attached, and an optical sensor may be used to detect changes in light reception. The color signal of the ink ribbon detected by the detector 12 is stored in the color memory 13.

The keyboard 14 shown in FIG. 2 is used to input the data to be printed.
Character key group 1 for inputting numbers, kanji and other symbols, etc.
5, and color key group 1 that specifies the color of the characters to be printed.
It consists of 6. Print data consisting of character data and color data input from the keyboard 14 is sequentially stored as a character code and color code in the character code storage section 17A and color code storage section 17B of the print memory 17, which is a RAM. When inputting print data, for example, when inputting frequently used character data, for example, black, it is possible to save the black color data by operating the next character key without operating the color key. It gets easier. When a print command signal is input, print data consisting of character codes and color codes is sequentially transferred from the print memory 17 to the buffer memory 1 in response to a read signal from the control circuit 18.
9 and is temporarily stored.

The comparison circuit 20 compares the color data of the ink ribbon 3 of the ink ribbon cartridge 1 stored in the color memory 13 with the color data in the print data transferred from the print memory 17 and stored in the buffer memory 19, Only when there is a match, the character data is transferred to the character generator 21, and the character generator 21 transfers the character pattern corresponding to the character code of the transferred character data to the control circuit 1.
Transfer to 8. The control circuit 18 energizes the thermal head 7 based on the character pattern transferred from the character generator 21 to print. After printing, the carrier 2 moves one digit in the direction A, and the color code of the next print data is compared with the content stored in the color memory 13.

If the color data of the print data stored in the buffer memory 19 and the color of the ink ribbon 3 detected by the detector 12 do not match, printing in that digit is prohibited and printing in the next digit is Move to. That is, the print data is transferred to the print memory 17 again and stored again. At the same time, blank data
The blank pattern is transferred to the CG 21, and the CG 21 transfers the blank pattern to the control circuit 18. The control circuit 18 does not energize the thermal head 7 when a blank pattern is transferred, and furthermore, although not shown in the figure, the ink ribbon 3
The movement of a drive motor or similar device is stopped, and the carrier 2 is moved by one digit in the A direction without sending the ink ribbon 3. In this way, the ink ribbon 3 is fed only when printing is performed, and is not fed in blank areas where printing is not performed, so that the ink ribbon 3 is not fed idly.

The above operations are performed one after another, and only printing corresponding to the color of the ink ribbon of the ink ribbon cartridge 1 currently mounted on the carrier 2 is printed on each corresponding digit of the printing paper out of the print data of all digits. After that, the control circuit 18 issues a command to the print memory 17 to replace the ink ribbon cartridge with a different color if there is unprocessed print data.
It is displayed on the display device 21 to notify the operator.

When the ink ribbon cartridge is replaced, the shape of the identification portion 9 of the ink ribbon cartridge 1 is detected by the detector 12 as described above, and the color of the ink ribbon 3 is stored in the color memory 13. after that,
The print data remaining in the print memory 17 is processed and printed in the same manner as described above.

The above operations are repeated until all print data in the print memory 17 has been printed. In the above description, the display device 22 simply displays the cartridge replacement, but the control circuit 18
Accordingly, it is also possible to read the color data included in the print data group in the print memory 17 and display that a cartridge of a specific color is to be installed.

The above-mentioned embodiment is equipped with means for prohibiting printing when the current color information of the removably loaded ink supply means and the color information instructed from the keyboard do not match, so that the desired color can be printed without error. In addition to being able to print, the ink supply means can also be replaced based on the color information specified from the keyboard.
The ink supply means can be used effectively, which is effective in reducing costs.

As described above, the present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer capable of recording multicolor images using an ink ribbon, and improves the multicolor image recording speed while suppressing wasteful consumption of the ink ribbon. Furthermore, the present invention has an identification means for identifying the color of the ink ribbon in a recordable state mounted on the mounting part, and the color information of the ink ribbon identified by the identification means and the color information are stored in the storage means. The system compares the color information of the recorded information to be recorded next, and executes image recording and controls the conveyance stop of the ink ribbon according to the comparison result, so that the desired image recording can be performed without error. Ru. In addition, since recording information of the same color as the ink ribbon mounted on the mounting section is automatically identified and recorded, operability can be improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 2 is a configuration diagram of the keyboard. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Ink ribbon cartridge, 2... Carrier, 3... Thermal transfer ink ribbon, 4... Supply reel, 5... Platen, 6... Print paper, 7... Thermal head, 8... Take-up reel, 9... Identification section, 10
...notch, 11...non-notch, 12...detector, 13
...Color memory, 14...Keyboard, 15...Character key group, 16...Color key group, 17...Print memory, 18...
Control circuit, 19... Buffer memory, 20... Comparison circuit, 21... Character generator, 22... Display device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In order to transfer ink from the ink ribbon onto a print sheet, a recording head is provided that acts on the ink ribbon, and the recording head and the print sheet are relatively moved via the ink ribbon. A multicolor thermal transfer printer that sequentially records images on the print sheet, comprising: a mounting section into which an ink ribbon can be mounted; an ink ribbon transport means for transporting the ink ribbon mounted on the mounting section; Identification means for identifying the color of the ink ribbon mounted and in a recordable state; Storage means for storing record information having image information and color information together with record information having different color information; and the identification means. a comparison means for comparing the color information of the ink ribbon identified by the ink ribbon with the color information of the recording information to be recorded next stored in the storage means, and the color information of the ink ribbon identified by the identification means When the color information of the ink ribbon matches the color information of the recording information to be recorded next stored in the storage means, the recording head is energized according to the image information to record an image, and the recording head is energized according to the image information to record an image. In a portion where an image is recorded in a color other than the image color of the ink ribbon mounted on the mounting section and in a recordable state, the drive of the ink ribbon conveying means is stopped and the next same image is recorded while the ink ribbon is stopped. and a control means for controlling the movement to an image recording position where image recording is to be performed in color, and sequentially recording images in portions where image recording is to be performed in the same image color over a predetermined area of the printing sheet. A multicolor thermal transfer printer that is characterized by the ability to: