JPH0259064B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Application of the Invention) The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printing device that performs printing with a thermal transfer ribbon heated by a thermal head, and particularly to one that prevents the ribbon from meandering.

(Prior Art) In this type of printing device, a ribbon is heated by heat generated by a selected heating element of a thermal head.
This heating melts the printing material of the ribbon and transfers the desired pattern onto the printing paper. Therefore, the printed portion becomes a state in which the ribbon and printing paper are slightly integrated by the melted printing material, and the transferred portion of the ribbon shrinks due to heating by the thermal head.

With such a printing device, area B can be printed in FIG.
If printing is performed only on one side S1 in the width direction of the printing paper 1 as shown in FIG. 1, the ribbon 2 will meander. The first cause of this meandering is that the ribbon 2 and the printing paper 1 are integrated on one side S1 and separated on the other side S2.
This is also due to the fact that the other side S2 of the ribbon 2 slips slightly when the printing paper 1 is transported. The second cause is that only one side S1 of the ribbon 2 shrinks due to thermal transfer.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and is configured such that when printing is performed only on one side of the printing paper in the width direction, an appropriate auxiliary pattern on the other side is additionally printed. An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer printing device that can prevent ribbon meandering by maintaining the overall printing balance.

(Example) Next, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

FIG. 2 shows a printing paper 1 printed by the printing device according to the present invention, and the printing paper 1 is made by continuously temporarily attaching labels 4 for tags onto a mount 3. A label band is illustrated. The marks displayed on each label 4 are detected portions 5 to be detected by a photoelectric detector 28, which will be described later, and are printed in advance when the printing paper 1 is manufactured.

On the front portion of the label 4 in the transport direction indicated by area A, a bar code indicating the contents of the shipper, etc. is printed over the entire width in the width direction by the printing device according to the present invention. In the rear part in the transport direction indicated by area B, the shipper is printed on one side S1 in the width direction, and since there is no information to be printed on the other side S2, a rectangle is placed at the position corresponding to each character on one side S1. auxiliary pattern B is additionally printed. This auxiliary pattern P does not have any meaning as information, but is used to maintain the print balance on both sides S1 and S2, so it may be a pattern other than a rectangle. Note that in the blank area C corresponding to the center and the other side S2 in the width direction, information such as the shipping destination will be written later using a rubber stamp or handwriting.

Next, the structure of a printing device for printing the above content will be explained with reference to FIG.

A strip-shaped printing paper 1 as shown in FIG. 2 is wound and held on a printing paper holding roller 11 provided on a main body 10 of the printing apparatus. The printing paper 1 supplied from the printing paper holding roller 11 is appropriately transported by a transport mechanism 12 and then wound up by a printing paper winding roller 15. Further, the thermal transfer ribbon 2 wound and held by the ribbon supply roller 17 is configured to be transported together with the printing paper 1 by the transport mechanism 12 and then wound up by the ribbon take-up roller 18 . This thermal transfer ribbon 2
The printing paper 1 is heated by selective heat generation of a heat generating element included in a thermal head 27, which will be described later, to print on the printing paper 1.

The transfer mechanism 12 includes a drive roller 1 which is rotationally driven by a pulse motor 19 via a belt 20.
3 and a driven roller 14 pressed against the drive roller 13, the printing paper 1 and the ribbon 2 are
is transported while being sandwiched between these driving rollers 13 and driven rollers 14. The printing paper take-up roller 15 is connected via a belt 21 to a constantly rotating motor 22, and the ribbon take-up roller 1
8 is connected to a pulse motor 19 via a belt 23, and since both rollers 15 and 18 can slip on their respective belts 21 and 23, the amount of coal transferred by the transfer mechanism 12 is The printing paper 1 and the ribbon 2 are respectively wound up and the excess rotation is caused to slip.

A head support member 24 is rotatably supported on the main body 10 by a shaft 25, which is biased toward the drive roller 13 by biasing means (not shown). This head support member 24 supports an arm 26 that pivotally supports the driven roller 14, and
A thermal head 27 having a plurality of heat generating elements is fixedly mounted opposite the drive roller 13. The thermal head 27 performs printing while being pressed against the drive roller 13 with the ribbon 2 and printing paper 1 sandwiched between them. It also functions as a platen roller. The reference number 28 is a reflection type photoelectric detector that detects the detected portion 5 of the printing paper and outputs a signal, and 29,
Reference numerals 30, 31 and 32, 33, 34, and 35 are guide rollers that guide the printing paper 1 and the ribbon 2, respectively.

The circuit shown in FIG. 4 is for controlling the entire printing apparatus, and the CPU 40 is connected to each circuit by a bus line 41. ROM
42 has a program storage section 42a and a character generator 42b, and a RAM 43
is used as buffer memory.

The input section 44 includes a keyboard 45. This keyboard 45 is used to input data corresponding to printing information, the number of labels to be produced, etc., and the input contents are stored at a predetermined location in the RAM 43. Further, the print control circuit 46 is for controlling the printing by the thermal head 27 according to the print information stored in the RAM 43, and the motor drive circuit 47 is for controlling the printing by the thermal head 27 according to the print information stored in the RAM 43. This is for driving the motor 19 appropriately.

Next, the operation of the printing apparatus will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, after the initial set is made, it is determined in step 52 whether or not there is input data from the input unit 44. If there is, data such as printing information and the number of labels to be produced are input and stored in a predetermined location in the RAM 43. Ru. Of the data stored in the RAM 43, data corresponding to printing information is converted into a printing pattern based on the character generator 42b, and this converted printing pattern data is stored at another address in the RAM 43.

Next, data corresponding to the contents of the bar code shown in area A in FIG. After the content has been printed for one dot line and the printing paper 1 and ribbon 2 have been transferred,
A determination is made as to whether printing of the barcode is complete. These steps 56 and 57 are repeated to complete barcode printing.

Then, in step 58, out of the print pattern data, data corresponding to the content of the characters shown in area B in FIG. is added. Addition of data corresponding to this auxiliary pattern P is performed according to the program in the ROM 42.

Note that if the device is fixed to the printing format as shown in Fig. 2, the auxiliary pattern P
All you need to do is create a program that always adds data corresponding to . In addition, if the device is capable of printing in various printing formats, it will be determined whether or not it will be printed on only one side in the width direction, and data corresponding to the auxiliary pattern P will be added to the other side only if it is printed on only one side. You can create a program that does this.

When the data corresponding to the character content and the data corresponding to the auxiliary pattern P are set, the step
Steps 59 and 60 are repeated to complete printing of character data.

When printing for one sheet is completed as described above,
Set the number of prints set in RAM to “-1”
Then, it is determined whether printing of the required number of sheets has been completed. As a result, if printing of the required number of sheets has not been completed, the process returns to step 55 to print on the next label 4, and if printing of the required number of sheets has been completed, printing ends.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the thermal transfer printing device according to the present invention is capable of additionally printing an appropriate auxiliary pattern on the other side when printing is performed only on one side in the width direction of the printing paper. It is composed of

In this way, since printing is performed in a well-balanced manner on one side and the other side in the width direction, there is no meandering of the ribbon caused by slipping or shrinking only on one side or the other side, unlike in the past.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of printed paper printed by a conventional device, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of printed paper printed by the device according to the present invention,
FIG. 3 is a side view showing the structure of the device according to the present invention;
4 is a block diagram of a circuit for driving the device shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operating state of the circuit shown in FIG. 4. In the drawings, 1...Printing paper, 2...Thermal transfer ribbon, 12...Transfer mechanism, 27...Thermal head, P...Auxiliary pattern.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A fixed thermal head having a plurality of heat-generating elements, a thermal transfer ribbon that is heated by selective heat generation of the heat-generating elements of this thermal head to print on printing paper, and transporting this ribbon and printing paper as appropriate. In a thermal transfer printing apparatus equipped with a transfer mechanism, when printing is performed only on one side in the width direction of the printing paper, the apparatus is configured to additionally print an appropriate auxiliary pattern on the other side. A thermal transfer printing device featuring: