JPH02277664A - Manual printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print correctly and positively at a desired printing position by providing a row of heat generating resistance bodies outside and rearward of the side face in the back of a scanning direction of a printer casing body. CONSTITUTION:A covering body 1 of a printer is a square pillar, making it easy for a user to hold the same and difficult to drop the same. The user, holding the body 1 by his or her hand 70, presses the printer in touch with a printing surface 61 and moves and scans in a direction by an arrow A for printing. A thermal head 2 is provided at such a position that a row of heat generating resistance bodies 3 is projected a distance (d) from a rear end face 1a in the scanning direction (shown by the arrow A) of the printer. Therefore, the thermal head is visible during actual printing, and the user can visually and directly confirm the printing spot. Accordingly, it becomes possible to print correctly and positively at a desired printing position.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a thermal transfer manual printer that prints by manual scanning.

[Conventional technology]

Many manual printers using manual scanning have been proposed in the past. An example of this is JP-A-60-109866.
There was also Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-244670. In all of these, the printer is placed on the printing surface and printed by manual scanning, and the thermal head is installed between a drive roller and an auxiliary roller that supports the printer.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in these conventional examples, since the heating resistor array of the thermal head is provided inside the side surface of the printer housing, when attempting to print at a printing target position such as a ruled line, Depending on the printing target, the printable range may be extremely low, resulting in a significant decrease in operability, such as the printing position being misaligned, making it impossible to print accurately at the desired position, or requiring skill to print accurately at the desired position. The curriculum was narrowly limited.

Therefore, the present invention is intended to solve these problems, and its purpose is to be able to print accurately and reliably at a desired printing position, to be easy to operate, and to not limit the printing range to be printed. It is a place that provides manual printers.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the manual printer of the present invention includes a printer housing, a thermal head, and a heating resistor array of the thermal head, and the heating resistor array is connected in the scanning direction of the printer housing. It is characterized by being installed outside and rearward from the rear side end surface.

Furthermore, the apparatus further includes a link mechanism such as a lever that engages with the thermal head, and the heating resistor array is installed outward from the rear side end surface of the printer housing in the scanning direction only during manual scanning. It is characterized by

[Effect]

As described above, the present invention is characterized in that the heating resistor array is installed outside and behind the side end surface of the printer housing on the rear side in the scanning direction, so that the thermal head that performs actual printing becomes visible. Since the user can directly visually check the printing site, printing can be performed accurately and reliably at the desired printing position. Furthermore, since the printer can be handled in the same way as a conventional writing instrument, anyone can use it immediately, improving operability. Furthermore, since printing is possible even on the edges of the printing object, the printing object and the printing range of the printing object are no longer limited.

〔Example〕

1 and 2 are schematic configuration diagrams of an embodiment of a manual printer according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is an external view of an example of use of an embodiment of the manual printer according to the present invention, and FIG. 8 to 8 are configuration diagrams of other embodiments, and all the same numbers indicate the same parts, which will be explained below.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes the exterior cylinder of the printer, which has a prismatic shape so that it can be easily held by a user and not easily dropped. The user holds this housing 1 in the hand 70 as shown in the example of use in FIG. 3, brings the printer into contact with the printing surface 61, and prints by moving and scanning in the direction of arrow A. It is. Reference numeral 2 denotes a thermal head, and a row of heating resistors 3 is provided in a row at the end thereof.

The thermal head 2 is fitted and held in a head holder set 42, and the head holder set 42 is pivotally supported on a shaft 41 so as to be rotatable in the direction of arrow G and in a direction perpendicular thereto, so that the head holder set 42 is always connected to the printing surface 61. It is designed to be brought into contact with a similar pressure.

43 is a torsion coil spring that applies a pressing force to the thermal head 2 via the head holder set 42; one end engages with a bin 45 provided in the printer housing 1, and the other end engages with the head holder set 42. It matches. Reference numeral 44 denotes a stopper that restricts the rotation of the thermal head 2. It is in contact with the thermal head 2 when not printing, but since the thermal head 2 is in contact with the printing surface 61 during printing, the stopper 44 is in contact with the thermal head 2 when not printing.
It does not come into contact with. In this way, the thermal head 2 is provided with the heating resistor 3 protruding from the printer housing 1 at a position that protrudes a distance ad rearward from the rear end surface of the printer in the scanning direction of the printer (direction of arrow A). .

Further, since the ink ribbon 31 is wound around the tip 2a of the thermal head 2 under tension and passes through it while sliding, it has a cylindrical shape and is made of a material with a small coefficient of friction such as glass to avoid getting caught.

When the ink ribbon 31 is wound around a large corner, a small roller may be rotatably supported and attached to the tip end portion 2a. Reference numeral 31 denotes a thermal ink ribbon, which is installed so as to run from an unused ink ribbon spool 32 through a ribbon pack tension spring 33, a ribbon cleaner 34, and a ribbon cassette roller 38 to a heat generating resistor 3, and is connected to the heat generating resistor 3 during printing by manual scanning. 3, the ink is melted or sublimated and transferred to the printing surface 61, and at the same time, scanning in the direction of arrow A generates frictional force between the ink surface and the printing surface, the back coat surface, and the heating resistor 3.
It is sent out due to the difference in the frictional force generated between the
Thermal head tip 2a, ribbon cassette roller 39
The film is then wound up by a winding core 36. Unused ribbon spool 32, ribbon pack tension spring 33, ribbon cleaner 34, ribbon cassette rollers 38 and 39
, is housed in a ribbon cassette case 37, and is removably secured to the exterior housing 1 of the printer or the printer body using a snap fit or the like.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 denotes a drive roller which is in contact with the printing surface 61 and supported by a shaft 41 so as to be rotatable only in the direction of arrow B by a built-in one-way clutch or the like. The drive roller 10 has a high friction coefficient such as rubber on the outer periphery, and is provided with a textured surface for excellent durability.
When contacting and scanning the print surface 61, the print surface 61 is pressed against the print surface 61.
Frictional combination with 1. During manual scanning, the drive roller 10 rotates by the amount of relative movement without slipping on the printing surface 61.

The shaft 41 also serves as a rotational support shaft for the drive roller 10 and a rotational support shaft for the thermal head 2, and when the user brings the printer into contact with the printing surface 61 for manual scanning and printing, the housing 1 The printing surface 61 and the thermal head 2 are always held at a constant angle even if the printing surface 61 and the thermal head 2 are brought into contact at any angle within the stopper 44 . Further, a gear 11 is attached to the drive roller 10 and engages with an intermediate gear A12 to transmit rotational force and rotational displacement.

Further, the intermediate gear A12 is connected to the detection gear 13 and the intermediate gear B15.
and rotates in the direction of arrow C, transmitting rotational displacement and rotational force to each of them. The detection gear 13 is attached integrally with the detection slit 21, and rotates in the direction of arrow E to block and transmit infrared light from the photointerrupter 22, thereby generating a reference pulse according to the amount of movement of the printer. let Further, the intermediate gear B15 further engages with the take-up gear 14, rotates in the direction of the arrow, and transmits the rotational force from the intermediate gear A12 to the take-up gear 14.

The take-up gear 14 is frictionally engaged with the take-up core 36 by a felt or a spring clutch, and rotates in the direction of arrow F to remove the used ink ribbon 35 from the take-up core 36 while sliding.
A constant force (torque) necessary for winding up the ink ribbon 31 and peeling the ink ribbon 31 from the printing surface 61 is transmitted. The winding core 36 winds up the used ink ribbon 35 and at the same time applies a constant tension to the ink ribbon 31 at all times. This prevents the ink ribbon 31 from loosening) and flowing out of the printer, and provides a force for peeling the ink ribbon 31 from the printing surface 61.

Reference numeral 51 denotes a circuit board on which a waveform shaping device for detection signals, a head drive IC, a buzzer, etc. are mounted. 51 is further connected to an external control device by a cable 91.

A cable 91 supplies print information and power to the printer, and transmits information such as printer status and reference pulses for control to the control device main body. A print start button (switch) 81 is used by the user to issue a print start command to the printer.

FIG. 3 is an example of the use of an embodiment of a manual printer according to the present invention. In this figure, the user holds the pudding casing 1 with a hand 70 in a posture similar to that of holding a conventional writing instrument, and moves it to the desired printing position on the ruled lines 63 and 64 of the printing surface 61. After visually aligning and abutting the thermal head 2 and pressing the print start button 81, continue in the direction of arrow A while directly checking the printing status until the buzzer sounds to notify the end of printing. By scanning at a high speed, the print information 62 is printed at a desired position on the print target 61. Here, the printing target 61 is not limited to a sheet-like object as shown in the drawing, but may be the inside of a booklet such as a book or a form bound at one end. Further, the area of the printing target 61 is not limited to that shown in the drawing, but may have an infinite area. Further, the material to be printed is not limited to paper, plastic film, etc., and may be any solid material ranging from high hardness to low hardness.

4 to 8 are block diagrams of the printing mechanism portion of another embodiment of the manual printer according to the present invention. This embodiment is configured such that the heating resistor 3 on the thermal head 2 comes out from the side surface 1a of the printer housing 1 only during manual scanning, and the other configurations are the same as the previous embodiments. are the same.

Therefore, the structure, operation, effects, etc. of the parts that are different from the above-mentioned embodiments will be mainly described.

In FIG. 4, the head holder set 42 includes a head pressing plate 42a that is biased with a pressing force by a torsion coil spring 43, a head holder 46 that slidably holds the thermal head 2, and a head pressing plate 42a. It consists of a head holder shaft 42b that pivotally supports the head holder 46. The thermal head 2 is mounted on the side of the head holder 46.
A groove is provided to guide the A guide bin 2b attached to the thermal head 2 is engaged with this guide groove, and the guide bin 2b guides the thermal head 2 in the direction of arrow H. Furthermore, two brush springs 2C attached to the thermal head 2, connected to the head FPC 2d, and configured in series with the print start button 81 are in parallel contact with this guide groove, and are fixed on the inner side surface of the groove. energizing the pressure. Further, the groove side surfaces have recesses 46a and 46b that engage with the brush spring 2C.

5 and 6 are detailed configuration diagrams showing the operation of the thermal head in the printing mechanism section. FIG. 5 shows a state in which the thermal head 2 is located in the printing state. At this time, the heating resistor 3 is located outside the side surface 1a of the printer housing 1. A metal or conductive material 46c is attached to the slope of the groove side recess 46a by means of plating or the like.

During printing, the guide bin 2b comes into contact with the contact 46d at each groove end for positioning the thermal head 2, and the brush spring 2C engages with the slope of the groove side recess 46a, and the guide bin 2
The thermal head 2 is fixed at the position shown in the figure by applying a force to the contact 46d at each groove end through the groove b. Also, at this time, the two brush springs 2C are electrically connected by the conductor 46c, and printing can be started by pressing the print start button 81. This is because the brush spring 2C and the print start button 81 are configured in a series circuit so that the print start command will not be input to the circuit board 51 unless both are electrically connected. In other words, when the thermal head 2 is at a position other than the intended position, printing is disabled so that printing is not performed inadvertently.

FIG. 6 shows that the thermal head 2 is in the non-printing position (n
It shows the state of B. At this time, the heating resistor 3 is located inside the side surface 1a of the printer casing 1 and is housed within the printer casing 1.

In the illustrated state, the rear end portion 2d of the thermal head is in contact with the groove end contact 46e for positioning the thermal head 2 in the storage position, and the brush spring 2C is in contact with the groove side recess 46e.
The thermal head 2 is fixed at the indicated position by engaging with the slope of the groove 6b and applying a force that presses the rear end 2d of the thermal head against the groove end 46e. Also, at this time, since the two brush springs 2C are not electrically connected, it is impossible to print even if the print start button 81 is pressed.

7 and 8 show another embodiment of the manual printer according to the present invention, in which a link is provided to project the heating resistor 3 of the thermal head 2 toward the rear side of the printer housing 1 only during manual scanning. This shows the mechanism. FIG. 7 is a schematic side view of the configuration of a printing mechanism portion of another embodiment as viewed from the side.

Reference numeral 84 denotes a lever link, which is rotatably supported on the shaft 41, has an elongated hole 84b at its lower end and engages with the guide pin 2b of the thermal head 2, and has the other end connected to the lever 83. are fitted at the joint portion 84c. lever 83
One end fits into a lever link 83, and the other end protrudes from the outside of the printer housing 1 through an elongated hole 1b, and is provided with a manual knob 82 for manually moving the thermal head 2. . FIG. 8 is a detailed diagram of the structure of the thermal head slide link mechanism portion of another embodiment. To perform printing by manual scanning, when the knob 82 is manually moved in the direction of the arrow, the lever link 84 rotates around the shaft 41 with 84a as a fulcrum, and the thermal head 2 moves the bin 2b in the direction of the arrow. Move in H° force direction. At this time, the guide bin 2b of the thermal head 2 moves while slightly sliding along the elongated hole 84b of the lever link 84, and moves the thermal head 2 to the set position for printing. Conversely, if it is moved in the direction of arrow I° in the opposite direction of the force direction in the printable state, the above-mentioned series of operations will move and rotate in the opposite direction.
The thermal head 2 is housed within the printer housing and is in a non-printing state.

In the above-described embodiment, the thermal head 2 is moved by manually moving the manual knob 82, but a link mechanism may be constructed that utilizes the power generated by vertical movement when the printer is brought into contact with the printing surface.

In this way, by making the heating resistor 3 of the thermal head 2 protrude from the side end surface 1a on the rear side in the direction of movement of the printer housing 1 only when printing by manual scanning, in addition to the effects of the above-mentioned embodiment, This has various effects such as prolonging the life of the printer without inadvertently destroying the thermal head 2, and saving space and making it convenient to carry. Become.

The present invention has been described above through two embodiments. By installing the heating resistor row 3 of the thermal head 2 on the outer side and rear of the rear side end surface of the printer housing 1 in the scanning direction, the desired printing position can be set. The series of configurations, operations, and effects that make it possible to accurately print, significantly improve operability, and eliminate any limitations on the printing range of the printing target are not limited to these one embodiment of the present invention.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, an extremely simple and inexpensive structure in which the heating resistor row of the thermal head is installed outside and rearward of the side end surface on the rear side in the scanning direction of the printer housing enables manual thermal transfer The operability of the printer has been significantly improved to the point where it is equivalent to writing with a conventional writing instrument, and it is now possible to print at the desired printing position relative to the printing target such as ruled lines, and it is also possible to print from the edge of the printing target. To make it possible to completely eliminate restrictions on the printing range of a printing target. Furthermore, it becomes possible to print while directly checking the printing process visually, increasing reliability of printing and improving the quality of the printer itself.

As described above, the manual printer according to the present invention brings about various practical effects and is extremely convenient.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the configuration of an embodiment of a manual printer according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the configuration of the wheel train portion of an embodiment of the manual printer according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is an external view of an example of use of an embodiment of the manual printer according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the printing mechanism portion of another embodiment of the manual printer according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a detailed view showing the head position in the printing state of another embodiment of the manual printer according to the invention. FIG. 6 is a detailed view showing the standby position of the head in a non-printing state in another embodiment of the manual printer according to the present invention. FIG. 7 is a schematic side view of a printing mechanism portion of another embodiment of the manual printer according to the present invention, viewed from the side. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the thermal slide link mechanism portion of another embodiment of the manual printer according to the present invention. FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a conventional manual printer. 1... Printer housing 2... Thermal head 3... Heat generating resistor 10... Drive roller 21... Detection slit 31... Thermal ink ribbon 41... Shaft 51... Electric circuit 61...Printed surface 70...Hand 84...Links and above Applicant Seiko Epson Co., Ltd. Representative Patent Attorney Kizobe Suzuki and 1 other person Figure 1 Figure 4 Figure 3 Figure 7

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a thermal transfer manual printer that prints information on the printing surface by manual scanning, the printer housing and
1. A manual printer comprising a thermal head and a heat generating resistor array of the thermal head, wherein the heat generating resistor array is installed outside and rearward of a rear side end surface of the printer casing in the scanning direction. (2) A link mechanism such as a lever that engages with the thermal head, and the heating resistor array is installed outward from the rear side end surface of the printer housing in the scanning direction only during manual scanning. The manual printer according to item 1, characterized in that: