JPH0226771A - Thermal recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve workability by discriminating sublimating ink sheet from melting ink sheet of an ink sheet, feeding corresponding recording paper from each housing means in response to the result of the discrimination and conducting recording. CONSTITUTION:A picture signal input terminal is selected automatically or manually, and an input color picture data is stored in an RGB memory 38. A thermal head 130 is abutted against a platen 120, and the initial alignment of an ink sheet 132 is performed. When a mark 16a is detected by a photo-transistor 136, a mark 16b is detected by a photosensor 136-2, and the kind of the ink sheet 132 is discriminated. Recording paper housed in a cassette 201 is distinguished, and the recording paper is fed to the platen 120 side when recording paper for sublimating ink is housed. When plain paper is stored in a cassette 101 on a melting ink sheet, the plain paper is fed to the platen 120 side. Accordingly, workability is improved while the mistake of recording can also be prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a thermal recording device that records on recording paper by thermal transfer using an ink sheet coated with either sublimable ink or meltable ink. It is.

[Prior Art] Color printers that print out color images in color computer graphics, color videos, etc. have been actively developed in recent years.

Among these color printers, thermal transfer color printers using thermal heads use ink sheets coated with yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and even black (Bk) coloring materials. There is a printer that uses a head to transfer images onto recording paper, producing a multi-color, multi-gradation color image.

Typical ink sheets for performing such color recording include a sublimable ink sheet coated with sublimable ink and a fusible ink sheet coated with meltable ink.

In general, sublimation ink sheets are suitable for gradation recording, but require expensive and special recording paper with an ink-receiving layer, whereas fusible ink sheets can be used for recording on inexpensive plain paper, but gradation recording It has the characteristic that it is not suitable for

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Conventionally, thermal transfer recording using sublimable ink sheets and meltable ink sheets has been realized by separate thermal transfer printers. Therefore, in consideration of the type of data to be printed, printing cost, etc., when it is desired to change the ink sheet to be used, it is necessary to prepare at least two printers.

This has placed a heavy financial burden on users. The present invention aims to realize a thermal transfer printer that can be used even when these two types of ink sheets are installed, considering that the components of each thermal transfer printer that prints with these ink sheets installed are almost the same. is cost-effective and cheaper than purchasing two printers.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional examples, and is capable of printing with either a sublimation ink sheet or a melting ink sheet, as well as a thermal printer capable of printing on recording paper corresponding to the type of ink sheet installed. The purpose is to provide a recording device.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the thermal recording device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, it is a thermal recording apparatus that drives a thermal head to generate heat and performs recording via a thermal transfer method via an ink sheet, and includes a determining means for determining whether the ink sheet is a sublimable ink sheet or a meltable ink sheet, and a discriminating means for determining whether the ink sheet is a sublimable ink sheet or a meltable ink sheet; No. 1 that stores recording paper for sheets.
a storage means for storing the recording paper for the fusible ink sheet, a second storage means for storing the recording paper for the fusible ink sheet, and a corresponding recording paper is fed from the first or second storage means in accordance with the determination result of the discrimination means. and means for transmitting and recording.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, the recording paper for sublimable ink sheets is stored in the first storage means, and the recording paper for fusible ink sheets is stored in the second storage means.

Then, it determines whether the ink sheet is a sublimation ink sheet or a meltable ink sheet, and operates to feed the corresponding recording paper from the first or second storage means for recording in accordance with the determination result. .

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Description of Mechanical Sections of Printer (Figs. 1 to 3, and 5) Fig. 1 shows a side sectional view of a thermal transfer printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, and in the figure, 101 denotes a A plain paper cassette 201 is a cassette for storing sublimation ink recording paper. As shown in FIG. 1, the printer can be loaded with two cassettes 101 and 201 at the same time. The cassette 101 contains plain paper used for ordinary thermal transfer using a fusible ink sheet, and the cassette 201 contains, for example, sublimation thermal transfer recording paper having an ink receiving layer from an ink sheet coated with sublimation ink. It is designed to be stored.

If two types of recording paper are of the same size, they may be mistakenly stored in different cassettes. Therefore, in the printer of this example, marks as shown in FIG. 3 are attached to the back sides of the ordinary recording paper 301 and the sublimation type thermal transfer recording paper 302, respectively. The plain paper 301 is
Alternatively, the sublimation type thermal transfer recording paper 302 is detected.

Therefore, the sublimation type thermal transfer recording paper 302 is placed in the cassette 101.
Or, even if the plain paper 301 is incorrectly stored in the cassette 201, or if it is stored upside down, or if plain paper without markings is stored, the photosensor 102 or 202 will not detect the recording paper and will detect that one sheet is missing. Display section 46 (
An appropriate display is made in FIG. 6B).

Each of the recording sheets stored in the cassettes 101 and 201 is transferred to the corresponding pickup roller 103 and 2031.
The paper is fed to the printer main body by separation rollers 104, 105, 204, 205, etc. The drive sources for each of the rollers are motors 106 and 206, and by selectively driving these, plain paper 301 or sublimation thermal transfer recording paper 3o2 is fed into the printer body.

Reference numerals 107 and 108 and 207 and 208 are paper guides, respectively, and the plain paper or sublimation type thermal transfer recording paper fed by the paper feeding mechanism is sent to the platen 120 by these paper guides. Reference numerals 121 and 122 indicate pinch rollers, which are connected to the platen 120 by springs (not shown).
The recording paper is conveyed while sandwiching the recording paper between the platen 120 and the platen 120 . The motor 123 is a stepping motor, and drives the platen 120 via a deceleration mechanism (not shown). , 124 is a paper guide, and 125 is a paper discharge tray for discharging the recorded recording paper.

126 is a paper guide lever;
is attached by a spring and plunger (not shown),
When the plunger is on, it is oriented in the state shown by the solid line in FIG. 1 due to the suction force of the plunger, and when the plunger is off, it is oriented in the state shown by the broken line as shown in the broken line due to the biasing force of the spring.

FIG. 5 shows the positional relationship between the platen 120, the paper guide lever 126, and the width direction of the recording paper. The length of the platen 120 in the longitudinal direction is formed to be slightly narrower than the width of the recording paper, and is long enough to be contacted by the head over the entire recording range indicated by diagonal lines. Further, paper guide levers 126 are disposed on both sides of the platen 120 so as to be within the width of the recording paper, and guide the conveyance of the recording paper.

Therefore, when the paper guide lever 126 is in the position shown by the solid line as shown in FIG. is sent to the recording position. Further, when the paper guide lever 126 is in the position shown by the broken line, the recording paper is guided by the side surface of the paper guide lever 126 on the 12b side, and the recording paper is
0 and is ejected to the paper ejection tray 125.

Next, a mechanism for bringing the head 130 into contact with the platen 120 will be described. 131 is a head up/down motor, and the driving force of the motor 131 moves the head 13.
0 is pressed against the platen 120 via the ink sheet 132 and the recording paper (down state) or separated from the platen 120 (up state). That is, motor 1
The rotation obtained from the worm gear 133 attached to the glaze 31 is transmitted to the gears 19 and 20 shown in FIG. 2 via a speed reduction mechanism (not shown). The head 130 and a rotary plate are integrally attached to the head drive shaft 134 of the gear 20, and both ends of an I return coil spring 23 are fixed to the rotary plate 22 and the gear 21, respectively.

Therefore, when the motor 131 is driven to rotate the gear 20 in the counterclockwise direction shown by the arrow in FIG.
Further, the head 130 is driven in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 1, so that the head 130 comes into contact with the platen 120.

When the motor 131 is driven to rotate the gear 20 counterclockwise, the torsion spring 23 is charged and the head 130 is pressed against the platen 120 by its charge. At this time, by detecting the rotational phase of the gear 20 with a detection mechanism (not shown), the amount of charge of the spring 23 can be detected, and the pressing force of the head 130 against the platen 120 can be controlled in at least two stages. The two-step pressing force referred to here is the optimum pressing force when using plain paper, and the optimum pressing force when using sublimation type thermal transfer recording paper. Furthermore, if the motor 131 is driven in the opposite direction (clockwise) to the above direction, the gear 20 is driven in the opposite direction to the arrow in FIG.
34 in a direction opposite to the direction of arrow A in FIG.

In addition, the head pressing mechanism shown in FIG.
The pressing against the platen 120 by the gear 19.
The mechanism of 20, rotary plate 22, and torsion coil spring 23 is as follows:
They are provided on both of two base plates (not shown) that support the platen 120. In addition, since the worm gear 133 is attached to the shaft of the motor 131, after the spring 23 is charged and the head 130 is pressed against the platen 120, the motor 1
Even when the power to the head 13 is cut off, the shaft of the spring 23 is caused to rotate in the opposite direction, causing the head 13 to rotate in the opposite direction.
0 is never released from being pressed against the platen 120.

[Description of the ink sheet (Fig. 4)] Next, the structure of the ink sheet 132 and its drive! The ll system will be explained. As shown in FIG. 4, the ink sheet 13
2 includes a transparent part molecule provided with a mark 16a for sheet position detection, and a yellow Y for color recording.
, magenta M, and cyan C are formed in succession in this order. The transparent part molecule is a part for synchronizing the colors to be printed, and when this part molecule is detected, it can be detected that the yellow (Y) part will come next.

Furthermore, in the sublimation ink sheet, a sublimation dye is applied to each of the Y and JC parts, and at this time, color recording is performed using the sublimation type thermal transfer paper of the cassette 201.
In the meltable ink sheet, meltable ink is applied to the Y, M, and C portions, respectively, and at this time, the cassette 10
Color recording is performed using plain paper stored in 1. 16b is a mark added only to the sublimable ink sheet, and no mark indicating the type of ink is attached to the meltable ink sheet. Therefore, the sublimable ink sheet is provided with a positioning mark 16a and a mark 16b indicating the type of ink applied, while the meltable ink sheet is provided with only the positioning mark 16a.

Note that the position of the mark representing the type of ink sheet is not limited to this. For example, in the case of a single-color ink sheet, a mark indicating the type of ink sheet is placed at the end of the ink sheet that is not used for recording in the length direction of the ink sheet. A line indicating the type of ink sheet is placed along the line, for example, on the right side of Figure 4 for a sublimation ink sheet, and on the left side for a fusible ink sheet, and the printer determines the position of this line using a photo sensor, etc. The type of ink sheet installed may be determined by reading the information.

In FIG. 1, a stepping motor 139 is the source of the feeding mechanism for the ink sheet 132, and a motor 1390
The rotation is transmitted to the take-up @140 and the ink sheet 132 is taken up in the direction of arrow B.

In addition, since an appropriate friction is applied to the rotation @141 of the roll-shaped ink sheet 132, the winding shaft
When the ink sheet 132 is wound up by 40, 1
IiIII1141 becomes a load on the winder @140,
The ink sheet 132 does not sag, and the head 130 is pressed against the platen 120.
Even if the recording paper and ink sheet 1 are rotated,
The head 130 is attached to the platen 120 so that the ink sheet 132 does not sag due to the frictional force or electrostatic force of the
The force with which it is pressed can be adjusted.

[Detection of marks on ink sheet (Figs. 1 and 4)] In Fig. 1, 135 and 136 are a photodiode and a phototransistor, respectively. The photodiode 135 is attached to the upper part of the thermal head 130, and Together with the phototransistor 136, it constitutes a pair of transmission type photosensors. These are marks 16a or 16b marked on the ink sheet 132.
The one for detecting the mark 16a (135-1, 136-1) and the one for detecting the mark 16b (135-2, 136-2) are arranged in the width direction of the recording paper. Two sets are arranged. Now, when the mark 16a is detected by one set of photosensors with the thermal head 130 down, the ink sheet 13
This means that the initial position for recording start of No. 2 is set.

At this time, the mark 16 is detected by the other set of photosensors.
If b is detected, the installed ink sheet 1
It can be determined that 32 is a sublimation ink sheet, and mark 1
If 6b is not detected, it can be recognized that the attached ink sheet is a meltable ink sheet.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, on the downstream side of the mark 16b of the ink sheet 132, there is a length of 1" from the position of the photosensors 135, 136 in the printer body to the recording position 13a (FIG. 1) by the head 130. Therefore, the mark 16a is located at the photosensor 135 and 1.
36, the Y of the ink sheet is detected.
The leading portion of the ink sheet 132 faces the head 130, which means that the initial position of the ink sheet 132 for starting recording has been set.

Further, the reduction ratio in the reduction system of the stepping motors 123 and 139 is
39 is driven in the same way, the recording position 13 of the head 130
The feeding of the recording paper and the ink sheet at a is set so that the ink sheet is faster, but the winding @140
Since the ink sheet 132 is provided with a slip mechanism (not shown), the same amount of ink sheet 132 as the recording paper is fed by the head or platen is wound up, and the difference is absorbed by the slip mechanism. There is.

[Description of Color Printer (Figure 6)] Figures 6A and 6B are block diagrams showing the circuit configuration of a color printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6B shows a printer section having the mechanism shown in FIG.

In the image processing section 30 , a manually inputted color image is input to the color demodulator 34 from the telephone line input terminal 31 . This color image is demodulated into an NTSC signal or a color difference signal by a demodulator 34, and decomposed into R, G, B<8 by a decoder 35 when the switch 32 is connected to the (b) side.

In addition to the telephone line input terminal 31, the image processing section 30 has a video input terminal 36, and the video signal input to the video input terminal 36 can also be input manually to the decoder 35 by switching the switch 32 to the (a) side. ing. The color image signal decomposed into RGB signals by this decoder 35 is
The D converter 37 converts each RGB signal into multi-value data of 6 bits per pixel, for example, and stores it in the RGB memory 3.
8 is stored.

40 is a color conversion circuit that manually converts RGB signal data into C (cyan), 1M (magenta), and Y (yellow) signals, respectively. The color image data signal converted into YMC signal data by this color conversion circuit 40 is sent to a printer section 41 shown in FIG. 6B.

In addition, each of the above circuit blocks and the switch 32 are connected to the 6th B.
It is controlled by a CPU 42 shown in the figure.

Note that the CPU 42 has a ROM that stores processing procedures and the like that will be described later in the flowchart of FIG. 13, and a RAM that is used as a work area for control.

In the printer unit 41, the image data output from the image processing unit 30 is sequentially stored in the buffer memory 43 for each line of the image to be printed as shown in FIG. , are outputted to the head drive pulse control circuit 44 in synchronization with the recording speed under the control of the CPU 42. The configuration of the head drive pulse control circuit 44 is shown in detail in FIG. 8, and will be explained in detail later. Reference numeral 46 denotes a display unit, and the CPU 42 displays the result of ink sheet discrimination, the presence or absence of recording paper, and various error displays. Note that the printer (1a section) has been described in detail with reference to FIG. 1, so it will not be specifically explained here.

[Description of head drive pulse control circuit and thermal head (FIGS. 8 to 11)] The head drive pulse control circuit 44 has a configuration as shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the configuration of the thermal head 130.

230 is a heat generating resistor element, 233 is a latch circuit, and 234 is a shift register. The serial data input to the shift register 234 is sequentially shifted by the clock pulse CLK, and is transferred to the latch circuit 23 by the latch No. 18 235.
3 and converted to parallel data. In this way, the recording data corresponding to each heating resistor element 230 is held in the latch circuit 233, and the strobe signal 5TB445
The timing and time of voltage application are determined by , and the output transistor 231 of the element where data exists (data is 1'') is turned on, and the corresponding heating resistor element 2 is turned on.
A current flows through 30 to generate heat.

In FIG. 8, 450 is a clock CL of a predetermined frequency.
The oscillator 451 outputs the clock signal CLK,
For example, it is a frequency dividing circuit that outputs a latch signal 235 every time the number of heating elements in one line of the thermal head 130 is counted. 440 transmits gradation data 4 to each register stage of the shift register 234 corresponding to each pixel of manually generated pixel data.
This is a gradation conversion decoder that transfers 44 in synchronization with the CLK signal. Y, M when processing color images.

A gradation conversion decoder 440 performs gradation conversion for each C color.

The gradation counter 441 is a gradation counter that counts up each time the latch signal 235 is manually input, and the gradation conversion decoder 440 compares the counted value from the gradation counter 441 with each manually inputted pixel data, and calculates the pixel data. When the pixel data is larger or equal, "1" is output as the gradation data 444, and when the pixel data is smaller, "0" is output.When the pixel data is 6 bits, this counter 441 outputs "0" as the gradation data 444. It is composed of a 6-bit counter. Therefore, when the gradation counter 441 counts "64" at this time, 1
This means that recording of the line image data has been completed.

The strobe signal generation circuit 442 outputs the strobe signal 5TB445 with a slight delay from the latch signal, thereby driving the heating element and causing the recording to break. 443 is a gradation ROM table that stores adjustment data for the pulse width of the STB signal for sublimable ink sheets, 447 is a gradation ROM table for fusible ink sheets, and S for fusible ink sheets.
Contains adjustment data for the TB signal pulse width. These ROMs contain a temperature correction signal 446 from the head temperature detector.
is manually performed, and correction data is stored based on this temperature correction signal 446 so that optimum gradation characteristics can be obtained for each color. 448 is the installed ink sheet 13
This is a switch that is switched by the CPU 42 in accordance with the 1320 types of ink sheets and outputs gradation correction data corresponding to the 1320 types of ink sheets to the strobe generation circuit 442.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the relationship between the head energization time and the recording density by the thermal head 130. In order to obtain the density of Po, the heating resistor element 230 is heated for a time of (B, +B2+B3+B4+B,).

I'll do what I do. As is clear from FIG. 10, the time for which the head 130 is energized is not proportional to its recording density; for example, in order to obtain a recording density of Pl, approximately (Bl+82) energization time is required for the head 130. be.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing head drive and control pulses during color image recording in a color printer having the current application time and recorded green density characteristics as shown in FIG. 10.

Here, the thermal head 130 is a line head, and
0 skips the data recording timing for one line.

1 which is now input to the gradation conversion decoder 440 in FIG.
If image data per pixel is composed of, for example, 6 bits, then 64 types of data are handled per pixel. Therefore, in this case, N of N gradations is 64''.

First, 1 line of data is stored in the shift register 234.
The gradation data 444 for the second STB signal is transferred and latched into the latch circuit 233 by the latch signal 235. Next, the STB signal B1 is output, and the heating element that outputs data "1" by the pulse width of B1 is driven.

This fever! During the work shift, the next data is transferred to the shift register 23.
4, and when the STB signal falls, the latch signal 2
35, it is latched by the latch circuit 233. Thus, the STB signal is then output for a period of 82. By performing such an operation 64 times (STB signals 31 to B84), recording for one line is completed.

That is, the gradation conversion decoder 440 manually inputs the image data,
When the value of the m-th pixel data of the line to be recorded in the image is "20°," the m-th stage of the shift register 234 corresponding to the position of that pixel data is set to the gradation counter 441. While referring to the values, output data 71 a total of 64 times such that the first 20 pieces of data are "1'°" and the second half 44 (64-20) pieces of data are O. Needless to say, data is set in the other stages of the shift register 234 according to the gradation level of the corresponding pixel.In this way, that pixel is recorded with a density of "20". At this time, each strobe signal STB is set to the first strobe signal STB for the reason shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the pulse width of the STB signal is changed in accordance with the number of times the STB signal is output. The strobe signal generation circuit 442 executes such pulse width adjustment of the STB signal.

[Explanation of operation of color printer (Fig. 12)] Next, the sequence of color printing will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in Fig. 12.

First, in step S1, the image signal input terminal shown in FIG. 6A is selected, that is, the telephone line input terminal 31 or the video input terminal 3.
Enter from 6 automatically or manually.
The color image data input in step S2 is
It is stored in the GB memory 38. Next, in step s3, the thermal head 130 is brought into contact with the platen 120. At this time, by appropriately charging the torsion coil spring 23 by the drive motor 131, the pressing force between the head 130 and the platen 120 that is optimal for thermal transfer printing is achieved.

Next, in step S4, rotation of the platen 120 and winding of the ink sheet 132 are started, and the initial position of the ink sheet 132 shown in FIG. 4 is performed. Here, the phototransistor 136 that detects the A word from the photodiode 135 is 135-1.136-1 for detecting the mark 16a shown in FIG. 4, and 135-2. 136-2, and the ink sheet 132 is moved in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 4 until one of 136-1 and 1313-2 outputs a detection signal in step S5.

In step S5, the mark 16a is the phototransistor 13.
6, it means that the thermal head 130 and the ink sheet 132 are set at a position where they can record with each other, and in step S6 the winding of the ink sheet 132 and the rotational drive of the platen 120 are stopped, and in step S7
The type of ink sheet 132 is determined by detecting the mark 16b using the photosensor 136-2. That is, the mark 16b is detected by the photo sensor 136-2.
If this ink sheet 132 is a sublimable ink sheet, the process proceeds from step S7 to step S8, and if the mark 16b is not detected by the photosensor 136-2, the process proceeds to step Sll as a meltable ink sheet.
Proceed to.

In step S8, it is determined whether recording paper for a sublimation ink sheet is stored in the cassette 201, and
If the recording paper for sublimable ink is stored in 01, the process advances to step S9 to raise the thermal head 130 and move it away from the platen 120, and in step S10, the motor 2
06, the pickup roller 203 and separation roller 20
4 and 205 to feed recording paper from the cassette 201 to the platen 120 side. At this time, the switch 448 in FIG. 8 is switched to the (a) side so that the S T B Iz number for the sublimable ink sheet is output.

On the other hand, if the ink sheet is a fusible ink sheet, it is checked in step S11 if plain paper is stored in the cassette 101. If plain paper is stored in the cassette 101, the process advances to step S12 and the thermal head is separated from the platen 120. Step S13
The pickup roller 103 and separation rollers 104 and 10
5 is driven by the motor 1o6, and the plain paper is transferred to the platen 12.
Feed paper to the 0 side. At this time, the switch 448 in FIG. 8 is switched to the (b) side so that the STB signal for the meltable ink sheet is output. Note that if the corresponding recording paper does not exist in step S8 and step Sll, the process advances to step S14, and processing such as a paper out display is performed. Furthermore, in addition to this paper feeding operation, paper feeding is performed in order to prevent the ink sheet 132 from being fed by the rotation of the platen 120 when the recording paper is moved to the initial setting position (step S15 and step 521) described below. The heads 130 are arranged slightly in front of the platen 120.

Next, in step S15, the platen 12 (not shown)
The rotational position of the platen 120 is detected by the rotational phase angle detector 0, and if it is determined in step 316 that the recording paper is in a recordable position, the thermal head 130 is lowered and placed on the platen 120 in step S17. They are brought into contact, and recording is started in step S18 to record data of one color for one line.

Record the number of minutes. At this time, the pressing force of the head 130 is controlled to the optimal pressing force for each ink sheet, which is predetermined according to the type of the ink sheet 132. Next, in step S19, it is checked whether recording of one page of image data for one color (Y data) has been completed, and if it has not been completed, the process returns to step S18 and winds up the ink sheet 132 by a predetermined amount. Record the image data for the next line. In this way, when it is determined in step S19 that one page of image data for one color has been recorded, the process proceeds to step S20, where the paper ejection lever is turned on and the guide lever 126 is moved to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. let

In this manner, through steps S21 and S22, the recording paper is conveyed to the recording position again by the rotation of the platen 120.

That is, based on the rotational position of the platen 120, the platen 120 is rotated until the recording paper and the ink sheet 132 are placed at the recordable position. Next, color recording is performed in step S23.

In this recording operation, the ink sheet 132 is also driven at the same moving speed as the recording paper to perform recording from the time when the recording paper reaches a position where recording is possible.

In this way, in step 524, when it is determined that recording has been completed for each of the three YMC color data, step S
Proceed to step 25.

In step S25, the paper ejection lever 126 is turned off and the first
the platen 1 in step S26.
The recorded recording paper is discharged onto the tray 125 by the rotation of 20, and the rotation of the platen 120 is stopped in step S27. Next, in the process of step 328, if recording is to be continued, the process returns to step S3 and the above-described operation is performed.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to perform printing with both a fusible ink sheet and a sublimable ink sheet, and the recording paper for both ink sheets can be stored, and the attached ink sheet Since you can select and print on recording paper according to the type of ink sheet, you can always print on the optimal recording paper for the ink sheet you are using.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to determine whether the type of ink sheet installed is a melting ink sheet or a sublimation ink sheet, and to select the recording paper corresponding to the ink sheet. In addition to improving operability,
This has the effect of preventing recording errors such as selecting the wrong recording paper and printing.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a side sectional view of a thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the pressing mechanism of the thermal head shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a marking on recording paper in the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a top view to explain the ink sheet in the example. FIG. 5 is a top view showing the arrangement of the paper guide lever, platen, and recording paper shown in FIG. 1. , 6A and 6B respectively show the image section 31 of the color printer shown in FIG.
FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing the contents of the buffer memory shown in FIG. 6B. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing details of the head drive pulse control circuit shown in FIG. 6B. 9 is a block diagram showing details of the thermal head in the embodiment, and FIG. 10 is the head energization time and image in the embodiment. Q
FIG. 11 is a waveform diagram of signal pulses for driving the thermal head in the printer section of the embodiment, and FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the recording processing procedure in the color printer of the embodiment. In the figure, 16a, 16b... Mark, 30... Image processing unit, 34... Color demodulator, 35... RGB decoder, 38... RGB memory, 40... Color conversion circuit, 41 ...Printer section, 42...CPU, 43...
- Buffer memory, 44... Head drive pulse control circuit, 45... Head driver circuit, 101.201.
...Cassette, 120...Platen, 126...Paper guide lever, 13o...Thermal head, 132...
... Ink sheet, 135 ... Photodiode, 1
36... Phototransistor, 230... Heat generating resistor element, 231... Output transistor, 232... A
ND circuit, 233... Latch circuit, 234... Shift register, 301... Plain paper, 302... Recording droplet for sublimation type thermal transfer, 440... Gradation conversion decoder,
441... Gradation counter, 442... Strobe signal generation circuit, 443... Gradation R for sublimable ink sheet
OM, 444... Gradation data, 445... Strobe signal STB, 447... Gradation ROM for fusible ink sheet, 448... Switch, 450... Gradation conversion decoder, 451... It is a frequency dividing circuit. Canon Co., Ltd. Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 7! ! Figure 8 Figure 10 N1i decline

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A thermal recording device that drives a thermal head to generate heat and performs recording via a thermal transfer method via an ink sheet, comprising: a determining means for determining whether the ink sheet is a sublimable ink sheet or a meltable ink sheet; a first storage means for storing the recording paper for the sublimable ink sheet; a second storage means for storing the recording paper for the meltable ink sheet;
The first or second one corresponds to the discrimination result of the discrimination means.
A thermal recording device comprising means for feeding and recording a corresponding recording paper from a storage means.