JPH0321471A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a printing quality deterioration in using a tape and to automatically change over a tape printing and a plain paper printing by loading/ unloading a printer on/from a tape unit by producing a transparent printing tape provided with an adhesive layer on the printing surface of the tape which has been reversely printed. CONSTITUTION:A printer part body 1 is provided with a detection means 16 for conducting a change-over control between a normal character and a reversed character. By loading the printer part body on a tape unit 20, a switch is turned ON, and a reversed character is selected by a head control means to be printed on a transparent tape 3. An adhesive double coated tape 5 taken up around a roller 4 is fed from the position of a guide roller 27 in combination with the transparent tape 3, thereafter being bonded to the transparent tape 3 by a pressing roller 28. A printing layer is sealed on the transparent tape 3 by a tape substrate and an adhesive member bonded on the adhesive double coated tape 5. Then, the printer part body 1 is separated from the tape unit, and a drive roller 11 and a thermal head 13 are pressed on plain paper or the like and traveled. In this manner, characters, graphics, or the like can be printed directly.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing device comprising a handy type printer main body and a tape unit for printing on transparent tape.

[Conventional technology] Conventionally, this type of technology generally involved placing an ink ribbon between a thermal head or daisy wheel placed opposite the tape surface, transferring ink to the tape surface, and printing. .

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Since these conventional printing devices print on the surface of a transparent tape, there is a problem in that printing is easily smeared or characters are missing due to rubbing of the tape surface.

It is an object of the present invention to improve these conventional printing devices, and to provide a printing device that prints on transparent tape without causing printing stains or missing characters, and in which printing is possible. An object of the present invention is to provide a small-sized printing device in which a copy can be removed from a main body of the printing device and printed.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention relates to a printer section of a handy printer having at least a print head and a head control means for controlling the print head in a printing apparatus that prints characters and symbols etc. by manual scanning. a main body, a tape unit that is removably engaged with the printer main body of the handy printer and holds a tape-shaped printing medium, and a detection means that detects attachment and detachment of the printer main body, and the head control means This is a printing apparatus characterized by having a switching means for selecting printing of upright characters and inverted characters according to the detection result of the detection means.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a printing apparatus according to the present invention, in which 1 is a printer main body, 20 is a tape unit, 3 is a transparent tape, and 5 is a double-sided adhesive tape. It shows. FIG. 2(a) is an explanatory diagram of the overall configuration shown in a schematic sectional view of the embodiment of FIG. 1, and FIG. 2(b) is a top view of the tape.

In the main body 1 of the printer section, a thermal head 13, which is a type of print head, is arranged between a driving roller 11 that is pressed against a flat plate and rotationally driven by manual linear movement, and an auxiliary roller 12. The ink ribbon 15 runs between the thermal head 13 and the platen, and the ink ribbon 15 runs between the thermal head 13 and the platen.
The film is wound up on a winding roller 14 that is linked to the rotation of the film. The winding roller 14 is connected by a drive belt 7. This rotational motion is further transmitted to the rotation detection plate 6a of the encoder 6, and a timing signal for printing is output from the photodetector 6b. 8 is a rotation detection plate 6a and a winding roller 1
This is a belt that connects 4.

21 is a transparent tape holding means, 22 is a platen, 23 is a double-sided adhesive tape holding means, and the ink ribbon 1
The transparent tape 3 running parallel to the tape 5 is installed in a rolled state 31, and is surrounded by walls 21a, 2lb, and 21c for protecting the tape to prevent the tape from spreading.

A plurality of heating elements are arranged in a row in the thermal head 13. After inputting the print information, the drive roller 11 is rotated by pulling out the tape from the tape outlet 9 in the direction of arrow B, and the thermal head 13 is selectively heated by the head control means described later, so that the tape is opposed to the thermal head 13. Arranged platen 22 and thermal head 1
The ink ribbon 15 is placed on the transparent tape 3 that runs between the
The ink is transferred and characters, symbols, etc. are printed.

On the surface of the main body 1 of the printer section is a display input section that integrates a liquid crystal display section and a touch panel for data input, which will be described later, and allows character data to be input and input data to be confirmed.

The printer main body 1, which can be attached and detached from the platen 22, has a detection means 16 that detects attachment and detachment in order to control switching between upright character printing and inverted character printing, which will be described later. A protrusion 26 is provided. The detection means 16 is a mechanical switch, and by installing the main body of the printer section on the tape unit, the switch is turned on and the reversed characters are selected by the head control means, so that reversed characters and symbols can be easily printed on the transparent tape 3. It becomes.

A double-sided adhesive tape 5 suspended from a roller 4 with a shaft 4a suspended in a groove 23a on the opposite wall of the tape running path is placed on the running path of the transparent tape 3 printed by the thermal head 13. . After the double-sided adhesive tape 5 runs parallel to the printed transparent tape 3 from the position of the guide roller 27,
It is adhered to this transparent tape by a pressure roller 28. The printing layer on the transparent tape 3 consists of the tape base material and the double-sided adhesive tape 5.
Since the tape is sealed by the adhered member, it is possible to prevent print stains and print chips from rubbing or scratching from the tape surface.

FIG. 6 is a detailed view of the pressure-bonded portion of the double-sided adhesive tape and the transparent tape. The transparent tape 3 and the double-sided adhesive tape 5 are bonded by a pressure bonding means consisting of a spring 29, a pressure roller 28, and a lever 30 for applying pressure in a direction perpendicular to the tape running path.
This makes the adhesion more secure. The double-sided adhesive tape consists of a double-sided adhesive part 5b and a separator 5a, and the separator 5a can be easily peeled off from the double-sided adhesive part. The sebarator 5a of the double-sided adhesive tape 5 improves the handling of the transparent tape 3 after printing by forming a protective structure for the adhesive layer while the double-sided adhesive tape 5 is adhered to the transparent tape 3. The inverted characters printed on the transparent tape can be seen as upright characters by pasting them on various objects using the adhesive portion formed on the printed surface.

The tape unit 20 is composed of a platen 22, a transparent tape holding means 21, and a double-sided adhesive tape holding means 23 as main components.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of an example of a thermal head used in the present invention.

Reference numeral 40 denotes a base material of the thermal head, on the surface of which a glazed portion 41 is formed, and furthermore, a heating element 42 is provided near the top of the glazed portion 41.
are arranged in rows. 43 is an electrode connected to a heating element; 44 is a thermal head; a drive IC for driving; 4
Reference numeral 5 indicates a sealing material for sealing the IC, and reference numeral 46 indicates an electrode connected to the drive IC. This thermal head is fixed to a heat sink or the like and installed in the main body of the printer section.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the head control means of the printer main body 1, which includes a detection means 16 for detecting attachment/detachment, a thermal head 13, a CPU 81, ROMs 82 and 83, and a RAM 84.
is the main component.

The ROM 82 stores a program for controlling the entire printer, and the ROM 83 stores font data such as characters and symbols.

C. The PU 81 detects the state of the detection means 16 and selects whether to print upright characters or inverted characters.

Figures 5 (a) and 5 (b) are explanatory diagrams showing examples of printing font data, (a) shows the data arrangement when printing upright characters, and (b) shows the data when printing reverse characters. It shows the array of . CPU81 uses data d for upright characters.
The data from d1 to dl8 is directly transferred to the corresponding heating element on the thermal head, and when the character is an inverted character, the data from d1 to d16 is inverted and transferred to the thermal head. Arrow A
indicates the relative movement direction of the thermal head. The CPU 81, ROMs 82 and 83, RAM 84, and detection means 16 form a switching means 80 for selecting upright characters and inverted characters.

The main body of the printer section is composed of head control means including the switching means 80, the thermal head 13, and the ink ribbon 15 as main components.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the appearance and operation of the printer main body 1. Separate the printer main body 1 from the tape unit of the printing apparatus according to the present invention, press it against flat plain paper or a transparent resin sheet so that the drive roller 11 and the thermal head l3 are one, and move it in the direction of arrow A. Characters and figures can be printed directly on transparent resin sheets.

Reference numeral 17 in the main body 1 of the printer section is a display input section which is a combination of a liquid crystal display section and a touch panel for data input, and allows input of print data and confirmation of input data by handwritten character recognition.

In this embodiment, a transparent tape holding means 21, a platen 22,
This is a printing device in which the double-sided adhesive tape holding means and the pressing means for the transparent tape 3 and the double-sided adhesive tape 5 are integrated, but the transparent tape holding means, the double-sided adhesive tape holding means, and the pressing means are detachable. But you can get the same effect.

Although the detection means 16 was explained as a mechanical switch,
A reflective photo sensor that detects a reflective plate installed in the tape unit may also be used.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, by creating a transparent printed tape that forms an adhesive layer on the printed surface of a reverse-printed tape, stains caused by rubbing of the printing when the tape is used can be prevented. This is an extremely effective means for protecting against print quality deterioration such as scratches, print defects, etc. In addition, since it has become possible to configure the printed tape with a base material, an ink layer, an adhesive layer, and a separator, an ink layer with erect character printing is formed on the adhesive layer holding tape with a separator, and a coating layer is formed on the top of the ink layer. By realizing a simple tape structure, the cost of the tape has been reduced.

The present invention provides a low-cost printing device that can automatically switch between tape printing and plain paper printing by attaching and detaching the tape unit, and also expands the uses of handheld printers.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a printing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2(a) is an explanatory view of the overall configuration of the printing apparatus of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in a schematic cross-sectional view, and FIG. 2(b) is a top view of the tape after printing. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of an example of a thermal head used in the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the head control means of the printer main body according to the present invention. FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b) are explanatory diagrams showing examples of printing font data. FIG. 6 is a detailed view of the pressure-bonded portion of the double-sided adhesive tape and the transparent tape. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the appearance and operation of the main body of the printer section according to the present invention. 1...Printer main body 3...Transparent tape 5...Double-sided adhesive tape 13...Thermal head 16...Detection means for detecting attachment/detachment 20...Tape unit 21...Transparent tape Holding means 22...Platen 23...Double-sided adhesive tape holding means 80...Switching means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) In a printing device that prints characters, symbols, etc. by manual scanning, there is provided a main body of a printer section of a handy printer having at least a print head and a head control means for controlling the print head. , a tape unit that removably engages with the printer main body of the handy printer and holds a tape-shaped print medium, and a detection means that detects attachment/detachment of the printer main body, and the head control means includes the 1. A printing device comprising switching means for selecting printing of upright characters and inverted characters according to the detection result of the detection means. 2) The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print head is a thermal head.