JPH0347783A - Printing ribbon - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the necessity interrupting printing operation on the way even when a ribbon left-quantity-little mark is detected by the ribbon left- quantity-little mark detection mechanism of a printer and to perform printing up to the end of a line by providing the ribbon left-quantity-little mark to the base member of a ribbon on this side separated from the ink terminal of the ribbon over the length of the line capable of being printed by the printer or more. CONSTITUTION:A lead tape part 2 is formed to the end part of the printing ribbon 1 of a serial printer and an ink surface is formed only to the single surface of the printing ribbon up to the position of the ink terminal part 3 becoming the boundary of the lead tape part 2. A ribbon left-quantity-little mark 5 is provided on the ribbon base member opposite to the ink surface at a place on this side separated from the ink terminal part 3 over the length of the line capable of being printed by a printer, that is, the length of a line printable tape part 4 or more. By using this printing ribbon, even when the mark 5 is detected by a ribbon left-quantity-little mark detection mechanism, since the space (tape part 4) corresponding to the length of the printing line or more is provided, it is unnecessary to immediately stop printing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing ribbon, and more particularly to a printing ribbon used in a serial printer.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, a printing ribbon in such a serial printer has an ink member on one side, and a lead tape portion having no ink member at the end.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a printing ribbon showing an example of such a conventional printing ribbon.

As shown in FIG. 3, a conventional printing ribbon 1 has a lead tape portion 2 formed at its end, and a ribbon end mark 8 at a position where it borders the lead tape 2. As shown in FIG.

Further, FIG. 4 is an enlarged plan view of the vicinity of the ribbon end mark portion shown in FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 4, this state is a state in which the end mark 8 is detected while the letter A is being printed using the ribbon 1.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The conventional printing ribbon mentioned above has a ribbon end mark at the end of the ribbon, so when the printer detects the ribbon end with the ribbon end detection mechanism, the printer stops printing at that point and replaces the ribbon. The structure is designed to encourage the following.

For example, in FIG. 4, when printing the letter "A", if ribbon end mark 8 is detected at location X, the printing operation is stopped at location X, while the print head unit (not shown) It stopped after a while.

After that, when replacing the ribbon with a new one and continuing printing,
The print head runs up from the location before location X and resumes printing from location X onward, but conventional printing has the disadvantage that the continuity of the character line at location X cannot be maintained.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printing ribbon that can eliminate such interruptions in the middle of a line and maintain the continuity of character lines in a line.

[Means to solve the problem]

The printing ribbon of the present invention is a printing ribbon for a serial printer in which a lead tape portion is formed at the end and an ink surface is formed on only one side, and the printing ribbon has a ribbon remaining mark indicating that there is little ribbon remaining. It is configured to be provided on the ribbon base member in front of the ink terminal end that forms the boundary with the lead tape section and at a distance of at least the length of a line that can be printed by the printer.

〔Example〕

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

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a printing ribbon showing an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, in this embodiment, a lead tape part 2 is formed at the end of a printing ribbon 1 of a serial printer, and the ink terminal part 3, which is the boundary of this lead tape part 2, is An ink surface is formed on only one side. Further, the ribbon remaining mark 5 is provided on the ribbon base member opposite to the ink surface in front of the ink terminal end 3 and at a distance of at least 14 line lengths that can be printed by the printer. It is being

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the ribbon shown in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG.
A cross section of the vicinity is shown, and numeral 6 indicates the base material of the ribbon, and numeral 7 indicates the ink member.

By using such a printing ribbon, even if the mark 5 is detected by the ribbon remaining mark detection mechanism (not shown), printing can be performed immediately because the space (tape portion 4) is larger than that required for printing. There's no need to stop. Therefore, the continuity of character lines can be ensured.

In addition, when implementing this example with a thermal transfer printer, the base material side is heated by head heat generation to melt and transfer the ink, so a material with excellent thermal conductivity is used as the ribbon remaining mark, and In order to maintain the flexibility of the ribbon, a thin film such as metal vapor deposition may be used.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the printing ribbon of the present invention, the ribbon remaining mark is provided on the base member in front of the ink terminal end of the ribbon and at least the length of the line that can be printed by the printer. Even if the printer detects a ribbon remaining mark by the remaining mark detection mechanism, there is no need to interrupt the printing operation in the middle of a line, and printing can be performed to the end of the line. Therefore, there is an effect that the continuity of the lines of characters in a line is not impaired.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a printing ribbon showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the ribbon shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is an enlarged plan view of the vicinity of the end mark portion of the ribbon shown in FIG. 3. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Ribbon, 2... Lead tape part, 3... Ink end part, 4... Line printable tape part, 5... Ribbon remaining mark, 6... Ribbon base material, 7 ...Ink parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printing ribbon for a serial printer in which a lead tape portion is formed at the end and an ink surface is formed on only one side, a ribbon remaining mark indicating that there is little remaining ribbon is placed at the boundary with the lead tape portion. A printing ribbon characterized in that it is provided on a ribbon base member in front of an ink terminal end and at a distance of at least the length of a line that can be printed by a printer.