JPH0222070A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain good image quality reduced in color shift or pitch irregularity and to magnify the recording possible region on a recording medium by providing a recording control means for allowing a recording means to start recording after a recording medium is fed by predetermined quantity in a recording direction by a feed means to be brought to a tensioned state. CONSTITUTION:Image receiving paper 1 and an ink sheet 2 are fed in a draw- out direction from the pressure contact point of a recording means 3 and a platen roller 4 for a predetermined time by feed means 5, 6 operated on the basis of the order from a recording control means 18. In such a state that the image receiving paper 1 is tensioned by this feed, the operation of the recording means 3 is started by the order from the recording control means 18 to perform desired recording on the image receiving sheet 1. Since recording is started in such a state that the image receiving paper 1 is tensioned as mentioned above, almost no color shift or pitch irregularity is generated and, further, a printable region can be magnified up to the vicinity of the rear end of the image receiving paper 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION The present invention relates to a recording device that is useful for hard copying images of televisions, video systems, etc. and can easily provide high image quality.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the spread of new media and new AV, there has been an increasing demand for colorization and higher image quality for recording devices that perform hard copies.

It is thought that thermal transfer type recording devices will become more popular in the future due to their image quality and cost.

Generally, when color recording is performed using a thermal transfer method, as shown in FIG. transport.

At this time, while conveying the image-receiving paper 3I\101 in the direction of arrow A, the thermal head 103 in which the heating elements 103a are linearly arranged is used to convey the image-receiving paper 1 and the ink sheet 102, in which each color surface is sequentially coated with three-color ink.
01 to the platen roller 104,
03a selectively generates heat to ink sheet 102.
Record the ogling. Thereafter, the thermal head 103 is separated from the platen roller 104, and the image receiving paper 101 is conveyed in the direction of arrow B and returned to the same position as before recording. Then, the thermal head 103 is pressed again to record the second color in the same manner as the first color. The third color is recorded in the same manner, and the three-color ink is superimposed on the same location on the recording medium to complete the recording for one screen.

However, when recording is performed with such a configuration, the image receiving paper 101 is transported in the direction of arrow B (return operation) after each color recording is completed.
At this time, in order to convey the image receiving paper 101 without sagging or folding, it is necessary to rely on the rigidity of the image receiving paper 101 itself, which poses problems such as limitations on the material and thickness of the image receiving paper 101 and the inability to ensure reliability. was there.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, a platen suppressing roller 107 is brought into pressure contact with the platen roller 104, and when the receiving paper 101 is transported back and forth in the direction of arrow A1 and arrow B, at least a part of the receiving paper 101 is always pressed against the platen roller 104. The platen roller 104 is configured to be held between rollers 1070, and the platen roller 104 is configured to rotate freely when conveying the image receiving paper 101 in the direction of the arrow B, and to rotate freely when conveying the image receiving paper 101 in the direction of the arrow B by means of a driving force transmission means such as a gear or a clutch (not shown). During the return operation), the receiving paper 1 is rotated in the direction of arrow C by interlocking with the capstan roller 105.
A method has been proposed to prevent the image receiving paper 101 from loosening at a time when the return operation of 01 is completed.

Problem to be Solved by the Invention However, with such a configuration, the platen pressing roller 107
In addition, the platen roller 104 and the capstan roller 105
The device is complicated as it requires driving force transmission to link with the
Become larger. Furthermore, even at the end of conveyance of the image receiving paper 101 in the direction of arrow A, the image receiving paper 101 must be held between the platen roller 104 and the platen pressing roller 107, and the image receiving paper 101
If the paper is sheet-fed, the platen roller 1
From the pressure contact point 104a with the thermal head 103 on 04 to the pressure contact point 104b'' with the platen suppression roller 107! ,
There is also a problem in that the length between is the length of the unrecordable portion of the image receiving paper 101.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus that has a simple configuration, allows recording to be performed with the image receiving paper under tension, and can provide a sufficiently large recordable area.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention is characterized by a configuration in which the recording means starts a recording operation after the image-receiving paper is conveyed for a predetermined time in a direction in which it is pulled out from a pressure contact point between the recording means and the platen roller.

Function: The present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, and the recording means is connected to the plastic 6.
When the image-receiving paper and ink sheet are conveyed for a predetermined period of time before recording starts while being in pressure contact with the note roller, the frictional load between the ink sheet I- and the recording means and the rotational load of the platen roller apply back tension to the image-receiving paper, which causes the image-receiving paper to It is possible to remove the slack in the image receiving paper between the transport means and the recording section, and it is possible to obtain good image quality with less color shift and pitch unevenness with a simple configuration. The possible area can be expanded.

Embodiment Hereinafter, the configuration of a recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be explained based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the basic configuration of a recording apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a partial schematic diagram illustrating some of the components in FIG. 2. In Figure 2,
1 is a sheet of image-receiving paper having a predetermined shape; 2 is an ink sheet; 3 is a thermal head (recording means) in which heating elements 3a are arranged approximately linearly; the surface layer is made of an elastic member such as rubber; The platen roller (
platen member). 5 is a capstan roller, 6 is a pinch roller that presses against the capstan roller 5 through the image receiving paper 1, and 1 is a pulse smoker that rotates the capstan roller 5 in forward and reverse directions.

8 is a sheet supply reel for winding the unused ink sheet 2; 9 is a sheet take-up reel for fixing the leading end of the ink sheet 2; and 10 is a sheet take-up reel for winding the unused ink sheet 2; This is a sheet motor that rotates and winds up the recorded ink sheet 2. Further, 11 is a sheet guide that guides the ink sheet 2, 12 is a sheet sensor that detects the position of the ink sheet 2 with the sheet guide 11, and 3p and 13 are the sheets that move the thermal head 3 to the platen roller 4.
Head contact/separation means such as a motor or solenoid that presses and separates the head. Further, 14 is a pulse smoke drive circuit that drives the pulse motor 7 to transport the image receiving paper 1 in the direction of arrow A or C, 15 is a head drive circuit that drives the head contact/separation means 13, and 16 is a drive circuit that drives the input image signal data. This is a heating element drive circuit that causes the heating element 3a of the thermal head 30 to generate heat in synchronization with the conveyance speed of the image receiving paper 1 by the pulse motor 7, and the sheet driving circuit that drives the sheet motor 1Q based on the detection signal of the sheet sensor 12. A motor drive circuit, and 18 a recording control means for controlling these.

Here, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the basic structure of the ink sheet 2 and its positional relationship with the sheet sensor 12.
Yellow 2b, magenta 2c on a.

Ink for the area of each recorded image is applied in the order of cyan 2d. For older children and older, three colors constitute one set, with a mark 2e indicating the beginning of the seventh color, a mark 2f indicating the beginning of the second color (magenta), and a mark 2q indicating the beginning of the third color (cyan).
As the ink sheet travels in the direction of arrow d, each mark is disposed at a position in the main scanning direction in order to face the sheet sensor 12 in the sheet guide 11 section. Here, the sheet sensor 12 transmits the irradiated light from the light emitting part 12a through the transparent base +12- to the sheet guide 1.
1 and the light receiving section 12b detects the mark, and the mark is detected when the reflected light is blocked by the marks 2e, 2f, and 2g.

The operation of the recording apparatus of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained using FIGS. 1 to 3.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the printing operation controlled by the recording control means 1 of the recording apparatus in FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG. That is, initially, the recording start position of the image receiving paper 1 is at a position facing the heating element 3a, and from this state,
In order to locate the first color (yellow) of the ink sheet 2, the sheet motor 10 drives the sheet take-up reel until the sheet sensor 12 detects the sheet mark 2e.
The ink sheet 2 is driven in the direction of arrow d. When the sheet sensor 12 detects the sheet mark 2e, the sheet motor 1o
to stop. At this time, the recording start position of the yellow ink 2b is at the position facing the heating element 3a of the ink sheets 1 and 2 (sheet cueing operation).

Next, the head contact/separation means 13 is driven to press the thermal head 3 into contact with the platen roller 4 via the ink sheet 2 and the image receiving paper 1. Then, the pulse motor 7 transports the image receiving paper 1 in four lines in the direction indicated by the arrow, and at the same time, the sheet motor 10 is also driven to wind up the ink sheet 2 carried out together with the image receiving paper 1 from the head pressure contact point 3A so that it does not loosen (the image receiving paper slack-removal operation).

Thereafter, while conveying the image-receiving paper 1 and the ink sheet 2 in the same manner, the heating element 3a is selectively energized to generate heat, thereby transferring the ink 2b on the ink sheet 2 onto the image-receiving paper 1. That is, the heating element 3a records one line in response to one pulse of feed by the palnumota 7 of the image receiving paper 1, and this is repeated m times to complete the recording of one page with the yellow ink 2b ( recording operation for one color).

Even after the recording with the yellow ink 2b is completed, the image-receiving paper 1 and the ink sheet 2 are similarly conveyed by the pulse smoke 7 for n lines, and the recording end positions of the image-receiving paper 1 and the ink sheet 2 are as follows.
It passes through the peeling point 3B of the image receiving paper 1 and the ink sheet 2 (peeling operation).

After that, the head driving means 13 moves the thermal
・＼−・ The printer 3 is separated from the platen roller 4 and the image-receiving paper 1, and the image-receiving paper 1 is conveyed in the direction of arrow C (, d+m+n) to return to the position before recording.

In this way, the recording of the second color (magenta) and the third color (cyan) is performed in the same way, and the three-color ink is superimposed and recorded within one screen on the image receiving paper 1, and the colors for one page are recorded in the same way. Complete recording. Thereafter, the image receiving paper 1 is discharged in the direction indicated by the arrow, thereby completing the series of recording operations in the recording apparatus of the present invention.

Here, when the thermal head 3 is in pressure contact immediately before starting recording of each color, the pressure contact point 5A between the pinch roller 6 and the cabnut tongue roller 5 is
and pressure contact point 3 between thermal head 3 and platen roller 4
Even if there is slack in the image receiving paper 1 between the image receiving paper 1 and the image receiving paper 1, the image receiving paper 1 is kept stretched by the four-line conveyance described above.
, When recording starts thereafter, recording is always started from the same position on the image receiving paper 1. However, it goes without saying that the transport distance for four lines is set to be sufficiently larger than the maximum possible slack length of the image receiving paper 1.

As described above, according to this embodiment, after the thermal head 3 is brought into pressure contact with the platen roller 4, the image receiving paper 1 is conveyed a predetermined length during the start of recording, thereby reducing the slack in the image receiving paper 1. By removing this, it is possible to reduce variations in the conveyance pitch of the image receiving paper 1 and dot misalignment in overlapping three colors caused by slack. Indeed, it is also possible to perform recording up to near the rear end 1a of the image receiving paper 1.

Therefore, with a simple configuration, the quality of recorded images can be improved and the recordable area can be expanded.

Further, in this embodiment, the recording method is a thermal transfer method, but other methods such as a heat-sensitive method or an electric heat-sensitive method may be used, and the recording colors are yellow or magenta.

Although cyan is used, the same effect can be achieved even if the colors are used in a different order, with different colors, or with other colors including a single color. moreover,
Although the image-receiving paper is conveyed by being held between a capstan and a pinch roller, the same effect can be obtained by clamping one end of the image-receiving paper and sliding it.

As described in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the F gutter pitch and color dot misalignment to 13 mm/-7 at best with a simple configuration, and to extend the printing area to near the rear edge of the receiver paper. , it is possible to provide a compact, low-cost, high-quality recording device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a printing operation in a recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a basic configuration diagram of the same recording device, and FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration of the ink sheet 2 and its surroundings in FIG. 2. The perspective view shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 are schematic configuration diagrams of a conventional recording apparatus. 1... image receiving paper, 2... ink sheet,
3...Therma) V head (recording means), 4.
...Platen roller (platen member), 5...
. . . Capnun roller, 6 . . . Pinch roller, 18 . . . Recording control means.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A platen member extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the conveyance direction of a recording medium, a recording means that presses against and separates from the platen member via a recording medium and performs recording when pressed, and the recording means are brought into pressure contact with each other. and a recording control means for causing the recording means to start recording after the conveyance means has conveyed the recording medium by a predetermined amount in the recording direction. Characteristic recording device. (2) It consists of a platen member extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of conveyance of the image-receiving paper, and a plurality of heating element elements arranged in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of conveyance of the image-receiving paper; a thermal head that presses against and separates from the platen member through the press, and drives a heating element during press contact to perform recording;
An image receiving paper conveying means conveys the image receiving paper at least in the recording direction while the thermal head is in pressure contact with the thermal head, a sheet conveying means conveys the ink sheet in the recording direction, and the image receiving paper conveying means positions the image receiving paper in the recording direction. A recording apparatus comprising: a recording control means for causing the thermal head to start recording after the thermal head has been conveyed in a fixed amount.