JPH0284372A - Ink ribbon cassette - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print in high quality on a recording sheet having low smoothness by providing means for displacing a guide member for guiding an ink ribbon. CONSTITUTION:A protrusion 2 for delaying peeling of an ink ribbon is so provided as to be brought into contact with a recording sheet 4 through an ink ribbon 1 when a cassette C is charged in a printer body 3. The protrusion 2 may be brought into contact with the sheet 4 through the ribbon 1, and its size is not particularly limited. Its longitudinal length may be of the width or more of the ribbon 1. Thus, after ink melted by the heat from a printing head 5 is sufficiently transferred to the sheet, it is peeled, and the transfer of the ink to the sheet can be improved as compared with conventional one.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an ink ribbon cassette used in a thermal transfer recording device such as a facsimile, electronic typewriter, or printer, which stores an ink ribbon and is detachable from the main body of the device. .

[Prior art and problems to be solved by the invention] In recent years, thermal transfer recording methods have been developed and used as information processing systems.

This heat-sensitive transfer recording method generally uses a heat-sensitive transfer material formed by melt-coating a heat-transferable ink comprising a colorant dispersed in a heat-melting binder onto a ribbon-shaped support. Then, this thermal transfer material is superimposed on a recording sheet so that its thermal transferable ink layer is in contact with the recording sheet, and heat is supplied from the support side of the thermal transfer material by a thermal head to transfer the melted ink layer to the recording sheet. In this way, a transfer ink image is formed on the recording sheet according to the shape of heat supply. According to this method, it is possible to maintain the above-mentioned advantages of the heat-sensitive recording method, use plain paper as a recording sheet, and also solve the above-described problems associated with the use of heat-sensitive recording paper.

However, the conventional thermal transfer recording method is not without its problems. The reason is that in conventional thermal transfer recording methods, the transfer recording performance, that is, the print quality, is greatly affected by the surface smoothness. Good printing is performed on highly smooth recording sheets, but when recording sheets with low smoothness are used, The problem is that the print quality may deteriorate. However, even when using paper, which is the most typical recording sheet, highly smooth paper is rather special, and ordinary paper has various degrees of unevenness due to entangled fibers. Therefore, in the case of paper with large surface irregularities, the hot melted ink cannot penetrate into the fibers of the paper during printing and only adheres to the convexities on the surface or the vicinity thereof, resulting in sharp edges of the printed image. If the image is not printed correctly, or part of the image is missing, there is a risk that the print quality will deteriorate. Additionally, in order to improve printing quality, it is possible to use a heat-melting binder with a low melting point, but in this case, the heat-transferable ink layer becomes sticky even at relatively low temperatures, resulting in poor storage stability. This causes inconveniences such as deterioration and staining of non-printing areas of the recording sheet.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink ribbon cassette that can print with good quality even on recording sheets with low smoothness.

[Failure to solve the problem]

The present invention, which achieves the above object, is characterized in that a cassette that stores an ink ribbon and is detachable from the main body of the apparatus is provided with means for displacing a guide member capable of guiding the ink ribbon. .

〔Example〕

An ink ribbon cassette to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied is a cassette that stores an ink ribbon, and when the cassette is loaded into an apparatus main body, the cassette is located downstream of a print head (with respect to the traveling direction of the ink ribbon) and The ink ribbon is characterized in that a protrusion is provided on the surface facing the recording sheet to delay the separation of the ink ribbon from the sheet.

Embodiments to which the present invention is applied will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an ink ribbon cassette C that houses an ink ribbon I and has a fixed protrusion 2 that delays the peeling of the ink ribbon. The protrusion 2 that delays the separation of the ink ribbon is provided so as to come into contact with the recording sheet 4 via the ink ribbon 1 when the cassette C is loaded into the apparatus main body 3. The protrusions 2 that delay peeling need only be in contact with the recording sheet 4 via the ink ribbon 1, and there are no particular limitations on their size. Further, the length in the vertical direction may be at least the width of the ink ribbon 1. To give a specific example, the protrusion amount of protrusion 2 is 2 mm, and the printing speed is 18.38 c.
When the time to peeling was 45 msec, good printing was obtained.

FIG. 2 shows an ink ribbon cassette in which a protrusion 6 is provided in front of the print head 5, that is, on the printing direction side of the print head 5, and on the surface facing the recording sheet 4 of the ink ribbon cassette C, in order to improve the smoothness of the recording sheet 4. It is an external perspective view of set C. The shape of the protrusions 6 is not limited to the shape shown in the figure, but any curved surface may be provided so as not to damage the surface of the recording sheet. Note that the lengthwise size of the protrusion 6 only needs to be larger than the size of the print. Further, the size in the radial direction can be determined in the same manner as the protrusion 2 that retards the peeling of the ink ribbon. There are no particular restrictions on these dimensions. Furthermore, the position of the protrusion 6 is preferably close to the print head 5.

Next, the printing operation in the above configuration will be explained.

In the above configuration, printing is performed on the ink ribbon cassette body C.
This is performed when moving in the direction of arrow a (printing direction). The ink ribbon 1 moves from left to right in the figure, but as shown in FIG. 3, the time it takes for the ink ribbon 1 to peel off from the recording sheet 4 after printing can be delayed by using the projections 2. As a result, the ink melted by the heat from the print head 5 is sufficiently transferred to the recording sheet and then peeled off, making it possible to improve the transferability of the ink to the recording sheet compared to the conventional method.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, if a cassette C provided with protrusions 6 is used, better printing can be obtained even on a recording sheet with low smoothness by increasing the smoothness with the protrusions 6 immediately before printing.

If the ink ribbon cassette of this embodiment is used in this way,
Good quality printing can be obtained even on recording media with low smoothness.

Furthermore, other examples will be shown.

In this embodiment, a rotatable roller is provided in place of the fixed protrusion that delays the peeling.

FIG. 4 is an external perspective view of an ink ribbon cassette C that stores the ink ribbon 1 and has a roller 7.

This roller 7 is rotatable around a shaft 7a and is provided so as to be in contact with the recording sheet 4 via the ink ribbon 1.

FIG. 5 shows an ink ribbon cassette in which a fixing protrusion 8 is provided in front of the print head 5, that is, on the printing direction side of the print head 5, and on the surface of the ink ribbon cassette C facing the recording sheet so as to make contact with the recording sheet so as to improve the smoothness of the recording sheet. It is an external perspective view of C. Note that the shape of the protrusion 8 is not limited to the shape shown in the figure, but any curved surface may be provided so as not to damage the surface of the recording sheet. Note that the size of the protrusion 8 in the vertical direction only needs to be larger than the size of the print. Further, the size in the radial direction can be determined in the same manner as the roller 7, and there are no particular restrictions on these dimensions. Furthermore, the position of the protrusion 8 is preferably close to the print head 5.

According to this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, after printing, the rollers 7
It can be delayed by using As a result, the ink melted by the heat from the print head is sufficiently transferred to the recording sheet and then peeled off, making it possible to improve the transferability of the ink to the recording sheet compared to the conventional method. Also, by using a roller, the load when the ink ribbon moves backward can be reduced.

Furthermore, other examples will be shown.

FIG. 7 shows a movable roller 9 containing an ink ribbon l.
FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of an ink ribbon cassette C having the following.

This roller 9 is provided so as to be in contact with the recording sheet via the ink ribbon 1.

This roller 9 is movable in the printing direction a, but is adjusted using, for example, a spring 10 so that it always contacts the recording sheet via the ink ribbon l.

Note that the diameter of the roller 9 and the strength of the spring are sufficient as long as the roller 9 is in contact with the recording sheet. Further, the length of the roller in the vertical direction may be at least the width of the ink ribbon.

In FIG. 8, a fixing protrusion 11 is provided in front of the print head 5, that is, on the side of the print head 5 in the printing direction a, and on the surface of the ink ribbon cassette C facing the recording sheet 4 so as to contact the recording sheet so as to improve the smoothness of the recording sheet. FIG. 3 is an external perspective view of an ink ribbon cassette C. The shape of the protrusion 11 is not limited to that shown in the figure, but it may be rounded so as not to damage the surface of the recording sheet 4. Note that the size of the projection 11 in the vertical direction only needs to be larger than the thickness of the print. Further, the radial size can be determined in the same manner as the roller 9. Further, the position of the protrusion 11 is preferably close to the print head 5.

Furthermore, when the ink ribbon cassette C of this embodiment is used,
The time taken for the ink ribbon 1 to peel off from the recording sheet after printing can be adjusted by changing the position of the movable roller 9 by moving the roller moving claw 12.

This makes it possible to determine the perfect peeling position for inks with different cohesive forces and recording sheets with different degrees of smoothness. For example, when using ink with a large cohesive force or a recording medium with high smoothness, the roller 9 may be moved closer to the print head 5 to speed up the separation, as shown in FIG. 9(a). In addition, when using ink with low cohesive force or recording medium with low smoothness, the roller 9 is moved downstream from the print head 5 (with respect to the moving direction of the ink ribbon) as shown in FIG. 9(b). It is better to delay the peeling.

Further, if a cassette C provided with projections 11 as shown in FIG. 8 is used, better printing can be obtained even on a recording sheet with low smoothness by increasing the smoothness with the projections 11 immediately before printing.

Still another example will be shown.

The ink ribbon cassette of this embodiment is a cassette loaded with an ink ribbon, in which a second roller is provided in the ink ribbon cassette, which is provided with a roller behind the print head and on the surface of the cassette facing the recording sheet. be.

FIG. 10 is an external perspective view of the ink ribbon cassette C of this embodiment loaded with the ink ribbon I. FIG. A roller 9 movable in conjunction with the movement of the claw 12 is provided so as to be in contact with the recording sheet via the ink ribbon 1. Further, the second roller lO, which is movable in conjunction with the movement of the claw 12a, is located closer to the ink ribbon 1 traveling direction than the first roller 9, and supports the ink ribbon 1. The first roller 9 is movable in the printing direction a, but is adjusted using a spring 10 so that it is always in contact with the recording sheet via the ink ribbon l. The second roller 13 is movable in a direction perpendicular to the printing direction a, and supports the ink ribbon 1 moving from the first roller 9 so as to form a certain angle with the first roller 9. There are no particular limitations on the strength of the first and second rollers and springs. Further, the length in the vertical direction may be as long as the width of the ink ribbon.

FIG. 11 shows a projection that is in front of the print head of the ink ribbon cassette C of this embodiment, that is, on the printing direction side of the print head, and that contacts the surface of the ink ribbon cassette C that faces the recording sheet so as to improve the smoothness of the recording sheet. 14 is an external perspective view of an ink ribbon cassette C provided with an ink ribbon cassette C. The shape of the protrusion 14 is not limited to the shape shown in the figure, but it may be provided with a curved surface so as not to damage the surface of the recording sheet.

The vertical size of the protrusion may be larger than the size of the print. Further, there is no particular restriction on the size in the radial direction.

Furthermore, the position of the protrusion is preferably close to the print head.

According to the ink ribbon cassette of this embodiment, the position of the first roller 9, which is movable during the time it takes for the ink ribbon to peel off from the recording sheet after printing, can be adjusted by the roller moving claw 12, and the position of the first roller 9 can be adjusted using the roller moving claw 12. The movable roller 11 can also be adjusted with the claws 12a, and the angle at which the recording sheet and the ink ribbon are separated can also be changed. This makes it possible to obtain high-quality prints even if there are differences in ink or smoothness of the recording sheet. Further, the effect can be further enhanced by using an ink ribbon cassette provided with protrusions 14 that smooth the recording sheet. Note that 15 is an ink ribbon unwinding shaft, and 16 is an ink ribbon winding shaft.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an ink ribbon cassette that can perform high-quality printing even on recording sheets with low smoothness. Furthermore, by performing printing according to the properties and types of the ink ribbon, it is possible to provide an ink ribbon cassette that can improve print quality.

[Brief Description of the Drawings] Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an ink sheet cassette to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied, Fig. 2, Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Fig. 7, and Fig. 8.
10 and 11 are perspective views of other embodiments, respectively, and FIGS. 3, 6, 9(a), and 9(b) are top views. In the figure, 1... Ink ribbon, 2... Protrusion, 5
...Print head, 6, 8, 11-14...Protrusion, 7
...Roller, 9/13...Movable roller, 10...
・Spring, 12...1 claw I type Shimi-m--[a-77--~

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] (1) An ink ribbon cassette that can be loaded into a recording device for recording on a recording sheet using an ink ribbon having ink, the ink ribbon having ink and the ink ribbon being able to be wound. a first winding part, a second winding part capable of winding the ink ribbon, a guide member capable of guiding the ink ribbon from the first winding part to the second winding part, and the guide. An ink ribbon cassette comprising: holding means for holding a member; and means for displacing the guide member held by the holding means. (2) The ink ribbon cassette according to claim (1), wherein the ink is thermofusible and melts by heat. (3) The ink ribbon cassette according to claim 1, wherein the ink ribbon has a support coated with a heat transferable ink containing a colorant in a heat-melting binder. (4) The ink ribbon cassette according to claim 1, wherein the guide member delays the time from when the ink ribbon is heated until it is separated from the recording sheet. (5) The guide member is capable of adjusting the time until the ink ribbon is heated.
The ink ribbon cassette described in item 1). (6) The ink ribbon cassette has a concave portion in which a recording head provided in the recording device is positioned when the ink ribbon cassette is loaded into the recording device, and the guide member is arranged on the downstream side of the concave portion (the ink ribbon The ink ribbon cassette according to claim 1, wherein the ink ribbon cassette is provided in the direction of movement of the ink ribbon cassette. (7) The ink ribbon cassette has a housing that houses the ink ribbon, and the housing has an outlet and an inlet for once exposing the built-in ink ribbon to the outside and then guiding it inside. The ink ribbon cassette according to claim 1, wherein the guide member is capable of contacting the exposed ink ribbon extending from the outlet to the inlet. (8) The ink ribbon cassette has a casing that houses the ink ribbon, and the guide member is provided on a side of the casing. set. (9) The ink ribbon cassette has a housing that houses the ink ribbon, and the housing has an outlet and an inlet for once exposing the built-in ink ribbon to the outside and then guiding it inside. The ink ribbon cassette according to claim 1, wherein the guide member is provided slightly upstream of the inlet (with respect to the moving direction of the ink ribbon). (10) The ink ribbon cassette has a recess in which a recording head provided in the recording apparatus is positioned when the ink ribbon cassette is loaded into the recording apparatus, and the guide member is provided separately from the recess. Claim No. 1 (1)
) Ink ribbon cassette as described in section. (11) The ink ribbon cassette according to claim (1), wherein the guide member includes a roller for lightly contacting or pressing the ink sheet against the recording sheet immediately after being heated by the head. (12) The guide member has a roller for lightly contacting or pressing the ink ribbon against the recording sheet immediately after being heated by the head, and the roller is rotatably attached to a shaft. The range of (
The ink ribbon cassette described in item 1). (13) The ink ribbon cassette according to claim (1), wherein the guide member is movable along the moving direction of the ink ribbon. (14) The ink ribbon cassette according to claim (1), wherein the guide member is provided at a corner of the ink ribbon cassette. (15) The guide member has a roller for lightly contacting or pressing the ink ribbon against the recording sheet immediately after being heated by the recording head, and the length of the roller is longer than the width of the ink ribbon. An ink ribbon cassette according to claim (1). (16) The guide member has a roller for lightly contacting or pressing the ink ribbon against the recording sheet immediately after being heated by the recording head, and the roller uses a biasing force of a spring to move the ink ribbon toward the recording sheet. The recording device according to claim 1, wherein the recording sheet is brought into light contact with or pressed against the recording sheet. (17) The ink ribbon cassette according to claim 1, wherein the guide member adjusts the peeling angle of the ink ribbon from the recording sheet after heating. (18) The ink ribbon cassette according to claim (1), wherein the guide member performs recording according to the characteristics of the ink ribbon by being displaced. (19) The ink ribbon cassette according to claim (1), wherein the guide member is displaced to enable recording even on a recording sheet with low smoothness. (20) The ink ribbon cassette according to claim 1, wherein the guide member is in contact with the ink ribbon extending from the first winding part to the second winding part. (21) An ink ribbon cassette removably attached to a thermal recording device that records on the recording sheet by transferring the ink to the recording sheet by heating the ink ribbon containing the ink with a thermal head, the ink ribbon cassette having thermal transferable ink. an ink ribbon, a frame body for housing the ink ribbon therein, an outlet for temporarily exposing the built-in ink ribbon to the outside, and an ink ribbon exposed to the outside from the outlet. an entrance for entering the frame, a first winding part around which the ink ribbon can be wound, a second winding part around which the ink ribbon can be wound, and a first winding part around which the ink ribbon can be wound. Among the ink ribbons passing through the outlet and the inlet from the ink ribbon to the second winding part, the ink ribbon from the outlet to the inlet can be guided, and A guide roller provided to be located upstream of the guide roller, a holding means for holding the guide roller, and a means for displacing the guide roller held by the holding means. Ink ribbon cassette. (22) An ink ribbon cassette removably attached to a thermal recording device that records on the recording sheet by transferring the ink to the recording sheet by heating the ink ribbon containing the ink with a thermal head, the ink ribbon cassette having thermal transferable ink. an ink ribbon; a frame for storing the ink ribbon; the frame has a recess in which a thermal head provided in the thermal recording device is positioned when the ink ribbon is loaded in the thermal recording device; a first winding part around which the ink ribbon can be wound, a second winding part around which the ink ribbon can be wound, and an ink ribbon extending from the first winding part to the second winding part. a defining member for defining the transport path of the ink ribbon, provided to protrude further than a position across the recess; a holding means for holding the defining member; and a holding means for holding the defining member; An ink ribbon cassette, comprising: means for displacing the regulating member that has been adjusted. (23) The guide member includes a first roller and a second roller for guiding the ink ribbon, as set forth in claims (1), (21), and (22). ink ribbon cassette.