JPH02160565A - Thermal transfer device and thermal transfer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow only characters or patterns of an image to be marked simply and clearly by causing carbon toner contained in an image on a copy to absorb more heat than any other part of the copy and melting the color ink of a part corresponding to the image and transfer the molten color ink. CONSTITUTION:A paper contact roller provided at the bottom of a case for a main unit of the subject device and an arc-like protrusion are arranged on a copy 12. A thermal transfer head 4 is pushed downward with a coil spring for a connection member, and a color ink tape 22 is pressed against an image 31 on the copy 12 with the lower end surface of a thermal transfer head 4. Next, a specified voltage rectified of a cell 32 is supplied to a clock generator 34 and an energization time control section 35 to cause the heat generating element 36 of the thermal transfer head 4 to generate heat. Next, carbon toner contained in an image 31 on the copy 12 is caused to absorb heat through the color ink tape 22. Consequently, the part of the image 31 on the copy 12 becomes hotter than any other part, a thermosensitive adhesive 29 on a part corresponding to the image 31 melts and a color ink layer 28 is transferred to only the image 31.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] This 9. The present invention relates to a thermal transfer device and a thermal transfer method.

[Prior Art] In recent years, images can be easily copied using electrostatic copying machines. Such a copy is displayed only in black because the copy image is made of carbon toner. Therefore, in order to make such copies easier to see, a portion of the copied image is marked. This marking is generally done with a highlighter or the like.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, with such a marking method using a highlighter pen, etc., it is difficult to mark only the text or design portion of an image formed with carbon toner, and it is difficult to mark only the text or design portion of the image formed with carbon toner. There is a problem in that the entire document appears dirty, which is not desirable.

This also applies to printed matter 1 such as documents, magazines, newspapers, etc. using carbon ink.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer device and a thermal transfer method that can easily and effectively mark only the characters and patterns of an image containing carbon toner.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The thermal transfer device of the present invention includes a contact roller 9 that is provided in a main body case and rolls on a document surface on which an image containing carbon toner is formed; A take-up shaft that rotates as the main body case rotates, a color ink tape that moves over the image of the document while being sequentially taken off by the take-up shaft, and a color ink tape that extends for a predetermined length in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the main body case. The main body case is equipped with a thermal transfer head that has an ejected heating element and thermally transfers the colored ink of the colored ink tape only to a portion corresponding to the image of the document.

Further, the thermal transfer method of the present invention includes pressing a thermal transfer head having a heating element of a predetermined width onto a document on which images such as letters and designs are formed using a material containing carbon toner, with a colored ink tape interposed therebetween. In this method, the thermal transfer head is moved along the surface of the original document to generate heat at a predetermined temperature, thereby transferring the color ink of the color ink tape only to the portion corresponding to the image.

[Function] According to the present invention, when a thermal transfer head is pressed against a document on which an image has been formed with a colored ink tape interposed therebetween, and the thermal transfer head is moved along the surface of the document while generating heat at a predetermined temperature. , the heat from the thermal transfer head is transferred to the document side via the colored ink tape, but since the image on the document contains carbon toner, this carbon toner absorbs more heat from the thermal transfer head than other parts of the document. . Therefore, since only the color ink in the portion corresponding to the image is melted, the color ink can be transferred only to the portion corresponding to one image. Therefore, unlike conventional methods, the entire area corresponding to the image is not filled in.

The entire document does not look dirty and can be marked neatly. Moreover, such markings are made by pressing a colored ink tape onto the document using a thermal transfer head.
Since it is only necessary to move the thermal transfer head along the document surface while generating heat at a predetermined temperature, operability is good and marking can be performed simply and easily.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

FIG. 1 shows a thermal transfer device according to the present invention. This thermal transfer device is a handy type, and includes a paper contact roller 2, a take-up shaft 3, and a paper contact roller 2 in a main body case 1. A thermal transfer head 4 and the like are incorporated, a tape cassette 5 is removably housed, and electronic components such as a battery and a circuit board (not shown) are also incorporated. Each member will be explained in order below.

The main body case l has a vertically elongated box shape, and has a battery storage section 6 and a switch 7 on its upper side, and a contact roller 21 and a winding shaft 3 on its lower side. A thermal transfer head 4 and the like are provided.

That is, a battery M8 that closes the battery storage section 6 is detachably attached to the top surface of the main body case 1, a switch 7 is provided at the upper left corner of the front surface, and a cassette lid 9 is provided below the switch 7 so that it can be opened and closed. ing. Further, an opening lO is formed on the bottom of the main body case l toward the right, and an arcuate sliding protrusion 11 is formed on the left end of the lower surface.

In this case, the battery storage section 6 is for storing batteries,
A circuit board, etc. (not shown) is provided below. The switch 7 is a push button switch that also serves as a power source and a transfer start switch. The cassette M9 is opened and closed when the tape cassette 5 is installed in the main case l, and its left end is rotatably attached to the main case l.

The paper contact roller 2 rolls on a document 12, which will be described later, and is rotatably attached to the lower right side of the main body case l, and a part of it is attached to an opening 1 formed at the bottom of the main body case l.
The protruding portion protrudes downward from 0, and this protruding portion rolls onto the original 12. In this case, a drive roller 13 is provided at the back end of the paper contact roller 2 .

The winding shaft 3 rotates with the rotation of the paper contact roller 2, and is located approximately in the middle of the main body case l, and its base end is rotatably attached to the back inner wall of the main body case l. A spool 14 is provided at the tip, and a driven roller 15 is provided at the base end. In this case, driven roller 1
5 is a drive roller 13 by two intermediate rollers 16 and 17.
The rotation of the winding shaft 3 is transmitted to the contact roller 2.
It rotates with the rotation of.

The thermal transfer pad 4 has a width of, for example, about 81 cm, has a heating element extending over almost the entire length in the width direction on the lower surface side, and also holds a ceramic substrate 4a covered with iIgl. This ceramic substrate 4a
As the heating element, which has a structure in which it is attached to a metal support plate, in addition to nichrome wire, thin film resistors such as tantalum nitride, polysilicon, etc. used in thermal heads can be used. The thermal transfer pad 4 has a thick plate shape as a whole, and is located near the left side of the paper contact roller 2, with its lower end located within the opening 10 at the bottom of the main body case 1, and its upper end connected to the connecting member 18. It is attached to a mounting plate 19 via 18. In this case, the mounting plate 19 is attached to the inner wall on the back side of the main body case l, and the connecting member 18.
Radiation 4 is attached to the thermal transfer via 18. The connecting member 18.18 consists of a holding member that holds the rad 4 on the thermal transfer plate so as to be able to move up and down, and a coil spring that elastically pushes down the rad 4 on the thermal transfer plate. Push the lower end surface of the spatula 4 downward from the bottom opening lO, and then
Press it onto 2.

Further, a thermistor 20 is provided on the side surface of the thermal transfer plate 4. This thermistor 20 is connected to the thermal transfer head 4
The thermal transfer head 4 is maintained at a predetermined temperature based on the detection data of the thermistor 20.

The tape cassette 5 has colored ink tapes 22 stored in a cassette case 21, and is detachably installed in the main body case 1. That is, the cassette case 21 has a square box shape, and has an rUJ-shaped notch 23 formed in its lower part, and a take-up reel 24 and a supply reel 25 are rotatably provided inside. In this case, the take-up reel 24 has a cylindrical shape, is inserted into the take-up shaft 3, and is rotationally driven by the take-up shaft 3.

The supply reel 25 is rotated by the color ink tape 22 wound on the take-up reel 24 and supplies the color ink tape 22. The cassette case 21 has a notch 23 in which the thermal transfer head 4 is fitted, as shown by the dashed line in FIG.

By inserting the winding shaft 3 into the cylindrical winding wheel 24, it is detached from the main body case l.

The color ink opening 22 is placed on the supply reel 25 inside the cassette case 21! ! The other end side or cassette case 21
The leading end of the cassette case 21 is introduced from the lower left end of the cassette case 21 into the inside of the cassette case 21, and is attached to the take-up reel 24 as the main body case l moves. The winding shaft 3 rotates, and the winding material is sent out from the supply reel 25 and wound onto the winding reel 24. As shown in FIG. 2(A), this color ink tape 22 has a color ink layer 28 of red, green, blue, yellow, gold, silver, etc. formed on the lower surface of a base film 26 via a release agent 27.
A heat-sensitive adhesive 29 is provided on the lower surface of this colored ink layer 28. In this case, the heat-sensitive adhesive 29 is attached to the image 3 of the original 12.
When the carbon toner contained in No. 1 is melted, it adheres thereto. Note that the original 12 is paper 3 such as plain paper.
Characters and letters are printed on the top surface of 0 using a material containing carbon toner.
An image 31 such as a design is formed thereon, and is, for example, a copy made by an electrostatic copying machine, or a printed matter such as a document, magazine, or newspaper printed with carbon ink.

FIG. 3 shows a circuit configuration of a thermal transfer apparatus. In FIG. 6, numeral 32 is a battery for power supply, and the voltage of this battery 32 is applied to a regulator 33 via a switch 7. A predetermined current rectified by this regulator 33 is supplied to a clock pulse generator 34 and an energization time control section 35. The clock pulse generator 34 generates a clock pulse for driving the energization time control section 35.
Reference numeral 5 is for driving the heating element 36 to generate heat, and controlling the state of the heat generation.
5 includes a heating element 36 provided from the A/D converter 37.
A conversion table for determining the printing pulse width to be supplied to the heating element 36 based on the temperature data is pre-installed. The A/D converter 37 is constantly given temperature data from the thermistor 20 that detects the temperature of the heating element 36.

Next, a case will be described in which marking is performed on the original 12 using the thermal transfer device configured as described above.

First, the tape cassette 5 is installed inside the main body case 1.

That is, inside the cassette case 21, as shown in FIG. It is guided downward, straddles the lower side of the notch 23 of the cassette case 21, is introduced into the inside from the lower left end of the cassette case 21, and is wound around the take-up reel 24. When the tape cassette 5 containing the colored ink tapes 22 is installed in the main body case l in this manner.

Open the cassette lid 9 of the main body case 1, and open the cassette case 2.
The color ink tape 22 corresponds to the thermal transfer head 4 in the notch 23 of 1 and is exposed on the lower side of the cassette case 21.
is placed below the thermal transfer head 4, and the take-up shaft 3 is inserted into the take-up reel 24 inside the cassette case 21. As a result, when the cassette lid 9 is closed, the main body case l
A tape cassette 5 is installed inside.

Next, the thermal transfer device with the tape cassette 5 mounted in this manner is placed on the document 12. Then, the contact roller 2 and the arcuate sliding protrusion 11 provided at the lower part of the main body case L are placed on the original 12, and the thermal transfer pad 4 is pushed down by the coil spring of the connecting member 18.18. As shown in FIG. 2A, the lower end surface of the thermal transfer head 4 presses the color ink tape 22 against the image 31 of the original 12. As shown in FIG. In this state, when the switch 7 provided at the top of the main body case 1 is turned on, the power supply voltage of the battery 32 is applied to the regulator 33, as shown in FIG. 3, and the predetermined voltage rectified by this regulator 33 is Clock generation! I3
4 and the energization time control section 35, and the energization time control section 35 causes the heating element 36 of the thermal transfer head 4 to generate heat. When the heating element 36 of the thermal transfer head 4 generates heat in this way, the heat is transmitted to the image 31 of the original 12 through the one-color ink tape 22 as shown in FIG. Since No. 31 contains carbon toner, this carbon toner absorbs heat well.

Therefore, the temperature of the image 31 part of the document 12 becomes higher than other parts, so the heat-sensitive adhesive 29 in the part corresponding to the image 31 melts, and the melting of the heat-sensitive adhesive 29 causes the colored ink layer 28 to melt. As shown in FIG. 2CB), the image is transferred only onto the image 31. In this case, the one-color ink layer 2B has a release agent 2
Since it is provided on the base film 26 via 7,
It is easily peeled off from the base film 26 and transferred to the image 31.

In this state, when the main body case 1 is moved in the direction of the arrow, the sliding protrusion 11 of the main body case L slides on the document 12, and the contact roller 2 rolls on the document 12, so that the first As shown in the figure, the rotation of the paper contact roller 2 is transmitted to the driven roller 15 of the take-up shaft 3 by the drive roller 13 and intermediate rollers 16, 17, thereby causing the take-up shaft 3 to rotate.

When the winding shaft 3 rotates in this way, the spool 14 at the tip
As a result, the winding wheel 24 in the tape cassette 5 rotates.
Since the colored ink tape 22 is wound up, the colored ink tape 2
2 moves over the image 31 of the original 12 in accordance with the movement of the main body case l. Therefore, a new portion of the color ink tape 22 is always pressed onto the image 31 of the document 12 by the thermal transfer head 4, so that the thermal transfer head 4 sequentially transfers a new color ink layer 28 onto the image 31.

Note that when the main body case l moves in this way and the RAD 4 sequentially transfers to the thermal transfer, the RAD 4 heats up the thermal transfer and the temperature becomes high, but the temperature is sequentially detected by the thermistor 20 and transferred to the A/ Since it is given to the energization time control section 35 via the D conversion section 37, the heating element 36 of the thermal transfer pad 4 is controlled by the energization time control section 35, thereby maintaining the thermal transfer pad 4 at a predetermined temperature. . Therefore, uniform marking can always be performed.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the thermal transfer head is heated at a predetermined temperature while the thermal transfer head is pressed against the document on which one image has been formed with a colored ink tape interposed therebetween. The heat from the thermal transfer head is transferred to the document side through the colored ink tape, but
Because the original image contains carbon toner, this carbon donor absorbs more heat from the thermal transfer head than other parts of the original. Therefore, since only the color ink in the portion corresponding to the image is melted, the color ink can be transferred only to the portion corresponding to one image. Therefore, unlike in the past, the entire area corresponding to the image is not filled in, so
The entire document does not look dirty and can be marked neatly. Moreover, such markings are made by pressing colored ink tape onto the document using a thermal transfer head.
Since it is only necessary to move the thermal transfer head along the document surface while generating heat at a predetermined temperature, operability is good and marking can be performed simply and easily.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 3 show an embodiment of this invention. Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view of a part of the thermal transfer device;
FIG. 2(A) is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part when marking is performed using a thermal transfer device, FIG. 2(B) is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of a marked document, and FIG. 3 is a circuit configuration diagram of the thermal transfer device. 1...Body case, 2...Paper contact roller, 3...Take-up shaft, 4...Thermal transfer head, 12...Document , 22...Color ink tape, 28...Color ink layer, 31...
image.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A main body case that moves over a document on which an image containing carbon toner is formed; a contact roller that is rotatably provided on the main body case and rolls on the surface of the document; and a contact roller that is attached to the main body case. and a color ink tape that is removably attached to the main body case and that moves over the image of the document while being sequentially wound by the take-up shaft. , having a heating element extending a predetermined length in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the main body case, the colored ink tape is brought into pressure contact with the document surface, and the colored ink of the colored ink tape is combined with the image of the document. A thermal transfer device comprising: a thermal transfer head that thermally transfers only to a corresponding portion; (2) A thermal transfer head having a heat generating element of a predetermined width is pressed onto a document on which images such as letters and designs are formed using a material containing carbon toner, with a colored ink tape interposed therebetween, and the thermal transfer head is pressed against the document. A thermal transfer method characterized in that the color ink of the color ink tape is transferred only to a portion corresponding to the image by causing the heating element to generate heat at a predetermined temperature while moving along a surface.