JPH0338370A - Ink film feed system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase the effective speed of a printer and to enhance the use efficiency of a multicolor ink film by providing a mechanism capable of independently feeding a plurality of independent ink films and also mounting a mechanism capable of switching and moving the arbitrary one among the respective ink films to a printing position. CONSTITUTION:When printing operation is performed from the left to the right, an ink film selection mechanism selects an ink film 1a and film feed operation is performed by a film feed mechanism 2a simultaneously with printing operation. When printing operation is completed, the film is switched by a film switching mechanism 3 to move an ink film 1b to a printing position and paper feed operation is also performed. Continuously, printing is performed from the right to the left and, at this time, the ink film 1b is simultaneously fed by a film feed mechanism 2b. Herein, when paper feed operation and film switching operation are performed, the initial state is restored and, by repeating the above-mentioned operation, bidirectional printing or the shortest distance printing can be performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an ink film feeding system for a printer that uses an ink film that can be used one time or several times multi-time.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in printers that use ink film that can be used one-time or multi-time within a fixed number of uses, such as thermal transfer printers and electric transfer printers, the ink film supply section and storage section do not move at the same time as the print head. In printers with a type of ink film feeding mechanism, printing operations cannot be performed at the same time during the so-called film feeding operation, which is the operation of storing the used ink film surface and supplying a new unused surface. The disadvantage is that the effective printing speed is lower than the original printing speed.

To avoid this, it has been proposed to divide one ink film into multiple tracks and print by switching between each track to reduce the frequency of film feeding operations and reduce the drop in effective printing speed. .

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

It is not possible to eliminate the time during which printing is not possible due to the film feed operation. Furthermore, among printers that use similar ink films, printers that have an ink film feeding mechanism in which the ink film supply section and storage section move together with the print head can perform film feeding operations at the same time as printing operations. Although there is no printing inoperable time associated with the film feeding operation, since the printing direction is not independent of the film feeding direction, printing can only be performed in one direction, which also has the drawback of lowering the effective printing speed. Furthermore, multicolor printing is possible by dividing one film into multiple tracks and using different ink colors for each track, or by periodically changing the ink color on one film. In addition to the above-mentioned drawbacks, printers that use the same printers have the disadvantage that even though one color of film can still be used, the film must be advanced in order to print in a different color, which reduces the efficiency of ink film usage. It also has drawbacks.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention eliminates the printing failure time associated with film feeding, enables bidirectional printing and shortest distance printing, and furthermore, eliminates unnecessary film feeding when using multicolor ink film. The present invention provides a film feeding method that solves these drawbacks and makes it possible to improve the effective speed of a printer and improve the efficiency of using multicolor ink films.

That is, it is characterized by having a mechanism that can feed a plurality of independent ink films independently, and also having a mechanism that can switch and move any one of the ink films to the printing position. Ink film feeding method. Multiple ink films can be of the same color,
It doesn't matter if it's a different color. Moreover, all the films may be fed in the same direction, or any film may be fed in the opposite direction.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a printer having an ink film feeding mechanism in which the ink film supply section and storage section do not move together with the print head. 1a is an ink film in a printing position, 1b is an ink film in a standby position, 2a and 2b are feeding mechanisms that accommodate and supply each ink film, 3 is a film switching mechanism 4 that can move any film to a printing position, and is a print head; 5 indicates a carriage, and 6 indicates paper. Figure 2 (a
) to (d) show the operation of the embodiment.

First, the state shown in FIG. 2(a) is taken as a base point. Print head 4
When the printer performs a printing operation, the state shown in FIG. 2(b) occurs. At this point, paper feed and ink film switching are performed. That is, the first
The film switching mechanism shown in the figure moves the ink film la that has been in the printing position to the standby position, and moves the ink film lb that has been in the standby position to the printing position. This state is shown in FIG. 2(c). Subsequently, the print head 4 performs a printing operation on the ink film lb, but at this time, the ink film la in the standby position is simultaneously fed. This state is shown in FIG. 2(d). The printing operation and the film feeding operation are completed during the printing operation, so the status after the printing operation is as follows.
The state is similar to that shown in FIG. 2(b). Therefore, by repeating the same procedure, it is possible to perform the printing operation continuously without being interrupted by the film feeding operation.

Furthermore, the ink film la and the ink film 1b may be of different colors. In this case,
When printing in the color of the ink film la, the ink film 1a is used for printing, the film feeding operation is performed only for the film 1a, and the ink film 2
When printing in the color a, printing is performed using the ink film 1b, and the film feeding operation is performed only on the film 1b.

An embodiment of a printer having an ink film feeding mechanism in which an ink film storage section and a supply section move together with the print head is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4P. The ink film 1a can be independently fed from right to left by the feeding mechanism 2a, and the ink film 1b can be fed from left to right by the feeding mechanism 2b. These are the film switching mechanism 3
It can be moved up and down in one piece, and any ink film can be moved to the printing position. The film switching mechanism 3 and the print head 4 are fixed to a carriage 5 and can be moved left and right as a unit. This embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. First, when printing from left to right as shown in Figure 5(a),
The ink film la is selected as the ink film, and simultaneously with the printing operation, the film transport mechanism 2a performs the film transport operation.

When the printing operation is completed (FIG. 5(b)), the film is switched by the film switching mechanism 3, the ink film 1b is moved to the printing position, and the paper feed operation is also performed (FIG. 5(b)).
C)) Next, the printing operation is performed from right to left as shown in FIG. 5(d), and at the same time, the film feed
2b feeds the ink film 1b. Here, when the paper feeding operation and the film switching operation are performed, the state returns to the state shown in FIG. 5(a), and by repeating the above, bidirectional printing or shortest distance printing can be performed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention has the effect of improving the effective printing speed of the printer by eliminating the time during which printing is disabled due to film feeding operation and by enabling printing in both directions or at the shortest distance. Furthermore, in the case of a multi-color printer in which all ink films are not of the same color, in addition to the above effect, there is an effect of improving the usage efficiency of ink films.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the fourth operation.

la, lb... Ink film, 2 a, 2
b...Film feeding mechanism, 3...Film switching mechanism, 4...Print head, 5...
... Carriage, 6... Paper.

Claims (1)

[Claims] The present invention includes a mechanism capable of feeding a plurality of independent ink films independently, and a mechanism capable of switching the position of the ink film so that printing can be performed using any one of these ink films. Characteristic ink film feeding method.