JPH02274585A - Thermal transfer serial printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate a wasteful use of ribbon by a construction wherein in the execution of home positioning, when the loading of either ribbon cassette is detected by a switch, only a thermal transfer ink ribbon in the appropriate ribbon cassette is driven for the removal of slack. CONSTITUTION:With the actuation of a printer, a thermal transfer print head 1 is pressed against paper 6 wound on a platen 5 by an instruction from a host device and starts printing with the feeding of a thermal transfer ribbon 2. If the ribbon 2 in, e.g., a right ribbon cassette 3 is used up, the ribbon cassette 3 is replaced by a new ribbon cassette 3. At this time, a control part 9 detects the loading of the ribbon cassette 3 by a switch 8, thereby in the execution of home positioning making a thermal transfer ink ribbon 2 in the ribbon cassette 3 drive for the removal of slack only on the side of loading the ribbon cassette 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a thermal transfer serial printer, and more particularly to a non-impact, ie, thermal transfer, serial printer in which a print pattern is formed by a dot matrix.

[Prior Art] In computer systems used in the information processing field, various printers are widely used as output devices. Among these, printers that use a printing method that expresses character patterns using dot matrices have become rapidly popular recently because they are flexible and easy to handle.

In particular, thermal transfer serial printers have a simple structure, low noise, and are inexpensive, so demand is expanding for personal use such as terminal systems and personal computers. However, in such thermal transfer type serial printers, so-called "throughput" has become a major problem. Therefore, in recent years, attention has been paid to printers that use two thermal transfer print heads to print in both directions.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the conventional thermal transfer serial printer capable of printing in both directions as described above, a home positioning operation is performed when the ribbon cassette is set on the platen.

At this time, conventional thermal transfer serial printers have the disadvantage that the ribbon is wound unconditionally, resulting in wasted ribbon.

[Means for Solving the Problems] An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art described above, and to remove slack by driving only the ribbon of the attached/detached ribbon cassette when performing home positioning. To provide a thermal transfer type serial printer in which ribbon is not wasted by not driving the ribbon when it is not being attached or detached.

The present invention includes a pair of thermal transfer printheads, a pair of ribbon cassettes containing thermal transfer ink ribbons each having an identifiable barcode, a pair of sensors capable of recognizing the barcode of each thermal transfer ink ribbon, and each In a thermal transfer serial printer that is capable of printing in both directions and has a pair of switches that can each recognize the attachment or detachment of a ribbon cassette, when the switch detects that one of the ribbon cassettes has been attached or detached during home positioning, that ribbon cassette is It is characterized by having a control section that removes slack by driving only the thermal transfer ink ribbon inside.

[Example] Hereinafter, a thermal transfer serial printer according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a control system in an embodiment of a thermal transfer type serial printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of essential parts of an embodiment of a thermal transfer serial printer according to the present invention.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the thermal transfer serial printer according to the present invention houses a pair of thermal transfer print heads 1.1 and a thermal transfer ink ribbon 2 each having an identifiable barcode. A pair of ribbon cassettes 3.3, a pair of sensors 7.7 (not shown) capable of recognizing the barcode of each thermal transfer ink ribbon 2, and a pair of switches 8.8 capable of recognizing attachment/detachment of each ribbon cassette 3, respectively. When performing home positioning, when the switch 8.8 detects that one of the ribbon cassettes 3 is attached or detached, the control unit 9 drives only the thermal transfer ink ribbon 2 in that ribbon cassette 3 to remove slack.
It is configured with

Next, the operation of the thermal transfer serial printer according to the present invention will be explained.

When the thermal transfer serial printer is activated, the thermal transfer print head 1 is pressed against the paper 6 wrapped around the platen 5 according to an instruction from a host device, and printing begins while feeding the thermal transfer ink ribbon 2. For example, assume that the thermal transfer ink ribbon 2 in the ribbon cassette 3 on the right side has been used. In that case, a new ribbon cassette 3 is replaced, but at that time, the control unit 9 detects attachment/detachment of the ribbon cassette 3 using the switch 8, and when performing home positioning, the ribbon cassette 3 is inserted only on the side where the ribbon cassette 3 has been attached/detached. The thermal transfer ink ribbon 2 in 3 is driven to remove slack.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the thermal transfer serial printer of the present invention, when the control unit detects that one of the ribbon cassettes is attached or detached by the switch during home positioning, the ribbon cassette is Since only the thermal transfer ink ribbon in the cassette is driven to remove slack, the thermal transfer ink ribbon is not driven when the ribbon cassette is not being attached or removed, thereby eliminating wasted thermal transfer ink ribbon. be.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a control system in an embodiment of a thermal transfer serial printer according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view of essential parts of an embodiment of a thermal transfer serial printer according to the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A pair of thermal transfer printheads, a pair of ribbon cassettes containing thermal transfer ink ribbons each having an identifiable barcode, a pair of sensors capable of recognizing the barcode of each thermal transfer ink ribbon, and a pair of sensors capable of attaching and detaching each ribbon cassette. In a thermal transfer serial printer that is capable of printing in both directions and has a pair of switches that can each be recognized, when the switch detects that one of the ribbon cassettes is attached or detached during home positioning, the thermal transfer in the ribbon cassette is A thermal transfer serial printer characterized by having a control section that removes slack by driving only an ink ribbon.