JPH0281644A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain sufficient printing quality even when the complicated control of heat history is not performed by constituting a laser oscillator emitting laser beam on the basis of data, a scanner for scanning an ink ribbon by laser beam and a transparent head chip for pressing the ink adhesion surface of the ink ribbon to a recording medium while permitting laser beam to transmit. CONSTITUTION:When printing data is inputted from a higher rank apparatus such as a computer, a laser oscillator 1 emits laser beam 6 toward a scanner 2 on the basis of data and the laser beam 6 is reflected by the reflecting mirror 7 of the rotating scanner 2 to be guided to a head chip 3. The laser beam 6 further passes through the transparent head chip 3 to scan an ink ribbon 4 in the direction vertical to the feed of said ribbon 4 to heat the same and the ink on the ink ribbon 4 is melted. The molten ink is pressed to a recording medium 5 by the pressure receiving from the head chip 3 to perform transfer printing. The fed-out ink ribbon 4 is released from the recording medium 5 by utilizing the edge of the head chip 3 to make transfer more perfect.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printer used in computers, data terminals, and the like.

[Conventional technology]

Conventional thermal transfer printers generate heat by energizing a heat-generating resistor formed on a ceramic substrate based on data from a host device such as a computer, thereby producing a solid material attached to the surface of an ink ribbon. Printing is performed by heating and melting the ink and transferring the ink to a recording medium.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional thermal transfer printer described above, in order to heat the ink, it is first necessary to heat the print head, which consists of a heating resistor with a large heat capacity and a ceramic substrate, and the ink cannot be rapidly heated and melted. This hinders the improvement of printing speed, and since a print head with such a large heat capacity takes time to cool down, the print quality is adversely affected by heat accumulation, and complex thermal history control is required. This has the drawback of increasing costs.

An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer printer that solves the above problems.

[Means to solve the problem]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a thermal transfer printer that heats and melts ink on the surface of an ink ribbon and transfers it onto a recording medium. , a scanner that scans the laser beam onto the ink ribbon, and a transparent head chip that transmits the laser beam and presses the ink-attached surface of the ink ribbon against the recording medium.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained using the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, a transparent head chip 3 is installed so as to press the ink-applied surface of an ink ribbon 4 onto a recording medium 5, and is driven to rotate about an axis parallel to the printing surface of the recording medium 5. The scanner 2 is installed in front of the head chip 3, and the laser oscillator 1 is installed facing the mirror surface of the scanner 2.

The scanner 2 has a plurality of reflecting mirrors 7, 7 . The laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator 1, which is configured in a polygonal shape, is irradiated onto one of the mirror surfaces of the scanner 2, and the reflected light is irradiated toward the head chip 3. It is.

In the embodiment, when print data is input from a host device such as a computer, the laser oscillator 1 emits laser light 6 toward the scanner 2 based on the data. Laser light 6
is reflected by the reflecting mirror 7 of the rotating scanner 2 and guided to the head chip 3.

The laser beam 6 further passes through the transparent head chip 3, scans the ink ribbon 4 perpendicular to its feeding, heats it, and melts the ink on the ink ribbon 4. The molten ink is pressed against the recording medium 5 by the pressure received from the bed chip 3, and is transferred and printed.

On the other hand, the sent-out ink ribbon 4 is peeled off from the recording medium 5 using the edge of the head chip 3, thereby making the transfer more complete. 6 In the present invention, since the ink is directly heated and melted by the laser beam 6, Unlike the conventional case in which ink is indirectly heated and melted by heating a heating resistor, there is no need to control the thermal history due to heat accumulation in the heating resistor or the like.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, since the ink is directly heated, there is no need to heat an extra substance, and therefore, the ink can be rapidly melted in a heating bath, and
There is no heat accumulation, sufficient print quality can be obtained without complicated thermal history control, and there is an effect that a high-speed, high-quality thermal transfer printer can be realized at a very low cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a thermal transfer printer of the present invention. 1...Laser oscillator 3...Head chip 5...Recording medium 7...Reflector 2...Scanner 4...Ink ribbon 6...Laser beam 3Head chip Mg Fig. 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A thermal transfer printer that heats and melts ink on the surface of an ink ribbon and transfers it onto a recording medium includes a laser oscillator that emits a laser beam that heats and melts the ink based on data, and a laser beam that emits the laser beam onto the ink ribbon. 1. A thermal transfer printer comprising: a scanner for scanning; and a transparent head chip that transmits the laser light and presses the ink-attached surface of the ink ribbon against a recording medium.