JPH01186367A - Thermal transfer serial printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To achieve improvement of a printing quality by establishing a control means for controlling a ribbon motor so that an ink ribbon is driven by a preliminarily determined length after stop of printing. CONSTITUTION:A printer has a spacing motor 1 for driving a carriage on which a thermal printing head is mounted, a ribbon motor 2 for driving an ink ribbon head, a head motor 3 for driving the printing head between a printing position and a non-printing position, and a control part (CPU) for controlling operations of those motors 1-3. At the same time when a carriage feed and an ink ribbon feed come to an end in response to a printing stop command, the head motor 3 is controlled and the printing head is returned to the non-printing position from the printing position. Then, when the printing head completely reaches the non-printing position, a command is emitted from a CPU 4 to the ribbon motor 2, and the ribbon is so controlled as to be wound by a predetermined certain length. Therefore, a part fused by remaining heat of the ink ribbon head can be removed from a next printing start position, and improvement of a printing quality can be achieved.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a thermal transfer serial printer, and more particularly to a thermal transfer serial printer capable of bidirectional printing.

2. Description of the Related Art Various printers are widely used as output devices for computer systems used in the information processing field. Among these printing methods, the printing method that expresses character patterns using a dot matrix has become rapidly popular recently because it is more flexible than type printers when it comes to adding or changing types of printed characters. In particular, thermal transfer serial printers have a simple structure, low noise, and are inexpensive, so demand is increasing for personal use such as terminal systems.

In conventional thermal transfer serial printers of this type, when printing is completed, the carriage and ribbon stop, and when the thermal transfer print head returns to a non-printing position, the ink ribbon may remain stuck to the print head. In this state, the ink ribbon melts due to residual heat, resulting in a decrease in print quality in the next printing operation.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art, and its purpose is to provide a thermal transfer serial printer with improved printing quality.

Structure of the Invention According to the present invention, a thermal transfer ink ribbon, a ribbon motor for driving the ink ribbon, and a control means for controlling the ribbon motor so that the ink ribbon is driven by a predetermined amount after printing is stopped. There is obtained a thermal transfer serial printer characterized by having the following.

Embodiment Next, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the drawings showing an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, one embodiment of the present invention includes a spacing motor 1 for driving a carriage on which a thermal transfer print head is mounted, a ribbon motor 2 for driving an ink ribbon head, and a spacing motor 1 for driving a carriage on which a thermal transfer print head is mounted; a ribbon motor 2 for driving an ink ribbon head; A head motor 3 that drives between the print position and these motors 1 to 3
It has a control unit (CPU) that controls the operation of the CPU.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing an example of the operation of the blocks in FIG. 1, in which carriage feeding and ink ribbon feeding are completed in response to a printing stop command. At the same time, the head motor 3 is controlled to return the print head from the printing position to the non-printing position.

When the print head completely reaches the non-printing position as indicated by point a in the figure, a command is issued from the CPU 4 to the ribbon motor 2. Incidentally, the time T required for the print head to completely return to the non-printing position. Since this is already known, it is assumed that this is stored in the CPU 4 in advance.

By commands from the CPU 4 to the ribbon motor 2, the ribbon is controlled to be wound by a predetermined amount. By doing this, even if the ink ribbon sticks to the print head, a certain amount of the ink ribbon is wound up at the non-printing position of the print head, so even if the ink ribbon melts due to the residual heat of the head, that part will not be damaged. Since it is wound up, there is no deterioration in print quality without causing the same problem with the next print.

Effects of the Invention As shown above, according to the present invention, after printing has stopped and the print head has completely reached the non-printing position, the ink ribbon is driven by a certain amount and wound up, so that the head residual heat of the ink ribbon is reduced. The melted portion can be removed from the next printing start position, which has the effect of improving printing quality.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a time chart showing the operation of the blocks in FIG. Explanation of symbols of main parts 1... Spacing motor 2... Ribbon motor 3... Head motor 4... CPU

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A thermal transfer ink ribbon, a ribbon motor for driving the ink ribbon, and a control means for controlling the ribbon motor so that the ink ribbon is driven by a predetermined amount after printing has stopped. A thermal transfer serial printer.