JPH02206581A - Serial printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance an economical efficiency by a method wherein an ink supply means is composed of two vertical boards kept at the melting temperature of a solid ink, a gap between the two boards is filled with the melted solid ink, and an ink holding body is passed through the ink loaded in the gap. CONSTITUTION:In an inking device 106, an solid ink contained in an ink tank 108 is melted by a heater 109, the melted ink 111 is raised by the surface tension of a thin layer part 113 to form an ink layer 115 between a hot plate 112 and a back plate 114, and the ink is penetrated into holes 102 of a screen belt 101, which is passed through the layer 115. Then, the ink in the holes 102 is set and held, and the belt 101 and paper are clamped between a thermal head 118 and a platen. The application of a recording signal to the head 118 results in a heater part 122 of the head 118 generating heat by the amount corresponding to the recording signal application. The dissolution of the solid ink in the holes 102 positionally corresponding to the heater part 122 proceeds to the surface abutting on the paper, and the ink is penetrated into the paper, cooled, and set.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a serial printer capable of recording on plain paper using a thermal head.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in a serial printer using a thermal transfer recording method that can record on plain paper using a thermal head, as shown in Figure 6, the image is printed on a film base made of materials such as polyester paper, cellophane paper, and capacitor paper. An ink ribbon 201 coated with an ink with a relatively low melting point made by mixing a coloring material with a heat-melting material (e.g., wax) as a base is wound up in advance from a supply reel 202 to a heat-generating resistor via a guide roller 104. The body is sandwiched between a plurality of thermal heads 118 arranged in series and the paper 121, and appropriate pressure is applied to the platen 120 and the thermal head 118.
The heating resistor is heated in accordance with the print signal applied to the thermal head 118, melts and transfers the ink on the ink ribbon 201, records it, and winds the recorded ink ribbon around the reel 8203. take.

Further, such a thermal transfer recording method has the feature that printing can be performed not only on plain paper but also on resin-based materials such as polyester such as OHP film as a recording medium.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, the ink ribbon 201 cannot be used again after the ink has been transferred to the recording medium.

Therefore, in addition to the supply reel 202 around which an unused ink ribbon is wound as described above, a reel 203 for winding up a used ink ribbon is essential.

This configuration is uneconomical in that ink remains on the ink ribbon 201 in areas other than those that have been thermally transferred, and the ink ribbon 201 is wound onto the reel 203 without being used.

Furthermore, the printed characters remain on the used ink ribbon in an inverted form, which can be easily identified by a third party, which poses a problem in terms of confidentiality.

Furthermore, the number of characters that can be printed at one time is also extremely small compared to other printing methods such as wire tod printers.

These problems make this type of printer very expensive to use.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a serial printer that efficiently transfers ink to a recording medium, is inexpensive to use, and has high economic efficiency.

[Means to solve the problem]

According to the present invention, ``a flexible endless belt-shaped ink holder having a large number of holes that runs in the length direction, a solid ink having a low melting point is melted by a heating means,
an ink supply means for filling holes in the ink holder; and an ink holder between the ink holder and the recording paper with the holes holding the solid ink in the ink holder facing the recording surface of the recording paper. and a thermal head that melts the solid ink held in the hole and transfers it to the recording paper according to a recording signal, and the ink supply means has a thermal head that is maintained at a melting temperature of the solid ink. It consists of two upright plates, and the two plates are placed so as to create a gap equal to or greater than the plate pressure of the ink holder, so that the molten solid ink fills the gap by capillary action. A "serial printer" characterized in that the ink in the gap is passed through the ink holder and the holes of the ink holder are filled with the ink is obtained.

[Effect]

According to the present invention, first, solid ink is filled and held in a large number of holes provided in an endless belt-shaped ink holder by the ink supply means. The solid ink is melted by a thermal head that is held between the head and generates heat in response to a recording signal, and a portion of the ink held in the ink holder penetrates into the recording paper due to the surface tension of the ink. be transferred. Furthermore, since the ink holder is in the shape of an endless belt and is run in the longitudinal direction, it returns to the position of the ink supply means and solid ink is replenished into the holes that have become hollow due to the transfer. .

Therefore, since the consumed ink can be replenished and reused, only the necessary amount can be consumed.

〔Example〕

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, in one embodiment of the present invention, the ink holder is a screen belt 101 made of metal such as stainless steel or nickel, or made of heat-resistant and abrasion-resistant material such as polyimide or tetrafluoroethylene. As shown in FIG. 2, holes 102 with a diameter of 10 to 100 μm are formed in a thin film made of a certain resin with a thickness of 10 to 100 μm by means such as etching or electroforming to resist the resistance heating of the thermal head described later. A plurality of them are arranged and formed so as to straddle one element of a certain heater section 112, and are configured into an endless belt shape. As shown in FIG. 1, the endless screen belt is stretched around a drive pulley 103 and a plurality of guide rollers 104, and a rotating means such as a motor (not shown) is used.
causes the drive pulley 103 to rotate so that the screen belt 101 runs longitudinally at the same speed as the carriage 105 moving along the guide rail 124.

For resins such as wax-based resins that have a relatively low melting point of about 60 to 150°C and are plastic even at room temperature,
An inking device 106 is provided that supplies solid ink with dye added to the holes 102 of the screen belt 101.

As shown in the partially cutaway perspective view of FIG. 3, this inking device ff106 includes an ink melting plate 110 and a hot plate 1, which are constantly maintained at the solid ink melting temperature by a heater 109 inside an ink tank 108 of a frame 107.
12, the solid ink put into the ink tank 108 is melted. As shown in the side cross-sectional view of FIG.
A back plate 114 is provided opposite to the hot plate 112 , and the molten ink 111 stored in the ink tank 108 is lifted by the force of surface tension by the thin layer portion 113 of the back plate 114 , and an ink layer is formed between the hot plate 112 and the back plate 114 . 115
The screen belt 1 passes through an ink layer 115 sandwiched between two plates 112 and 114 forming a
Ink is allowed to penetrate into the holes 102 of 01.

The portion of the screen belt 101 to which ink is supplied is injected outside the inking roller and cooled.

As a result, the ink in the holes 102 of the screen belt 101 is coagulated and retained.

When the ink in the ink tank 108 of the inking device 106 is consumed and ink cannot be supplied to the hole 102 of the screen belt 101, the ink is transferred from the inking device 1,06 to the thermal pad 118 as shown in FIG. An optical ink sensor 119 consisting of a light emitting body and a light sensor is provided in the middle of the path of the screen belt 101 to detect the presence or absence of the screen belt and issue a warning such as by sounding a buzzer to notify the operator of the ink pellets. All you have to do is encourage replenishment.

The screen belt 101 holding the solid ink in the holes 102 in this way is sandwiched between the paper 121 by the thermal head 118 and the platen 120, and when a recording signal is applied to the thermal head 118, the fifth As shown in the figure, the heater section 122 of the thermal head 118 generates heat by the amount that the recording signal is applied, and the solid ink at the hole corresponding to that position, 102, is heated by the heater section 122 as shown by ■ in the figure. The dissolution starts from the surface in contact with the paper 121, and as shown in (2), the dissolution progresses toward the surface in contact with the paper 121.

Next, when the heater section 122 is turned off, the melted ink begins to solidify, but due to residual heat, the melting progresses further as shown in (■) and (■) in the figure, and the ink permeates into the paper due to its surface tension. The ink that permeates the paper immediately
Heat is removed by the liquid, causing it to cool and solidify. And V in the figure,
As shown in (2), the ink is transferred due to the adhesion of the solidified ink. As explained in Fig. 2, each pixel of the transferred ink is formed by a plurality of dots represented by double diagonal lines in Fig. 2. Even when ink cannot be filled, the ink held in the remaining holes can form pixels, making it difficult for printers to suffer from missing recording dots, which can be fatal, resulting in highly reliable recording. can be realized.

The portion of the solid ink 123 that has not been transferred remains attached to the receptacle 102 of the screen belt 101. The ink then returns to the inking device 106 again, and ink is replenished by the amount transferred in the above-described manner.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, an economically efficient serial printer is provided that solves the economic problems of conventional thermal transfer recording type serial printers and can efficiently transfer ink to recording paper. can.

cuprate, 8...Thermal head.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A flexible endless belt-shaped ink holder having a large number of holes running in the length direction, a solid ink having a low melting point melted by heating means,
an ink supply means for filling holes in the ink holder; and an ink holder between the ink holder and the recording paper with the holes holding the solid ink in the ink holder facing the recording surface of the recording paper. and a thermal head that melts the solid ink held in the hole and transfers it to the recording paper according to a recording signal, and the ink supply means has a thermal head that is maintained at a melting temperature of the solid ink. It consists of two upright plates, and the two plates are placed so as to create a gap equal to or greater than the plate thickness of the ink holder, and the molten solid ink fills the gap by capillary action. A serial printer characterized in that the ink in the ink holder is passed through an ink holder to fill holes in the ink holder.