JPH04135887A - Thermal transfer recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively suppress the transfer of ink to the rear of a film by setting the width of the ink layer formed on an ink ribbon by an ink replenishing means so as to make the same smaller than the width of the ink ribbon. CONSTITUTION:Since an ink replenishing member 25 is made eccentric with respect to the cylindrical shaft of a cylinder part 20A, hot-melt ink 12 is forcibly extruded from the interior of the ink replenishing member 25 by the change of pressure distribution. At this time, the ink 12 is present between the ink replenishing member 25 and an ink ribbon and the ink replenishing member 25 follows the running of the ink ribbon by the viscosity and adhesion of the ink to rotate. Therefore, it becomes unnecessary to rotationally drive the ink replenishing member 25 by a drive apparatus. The width (d) of the outflow area of the hot-melt ink 12 extruded from the ink replenishing member 25 is formed so as to become narrower than the width D of a heat-resistant film 11 by the action of the vane wheel 23 and bush 26 of a reinking mechanism I. Therefore, it can be suppressed that the hot-melt ink 12 is transferred to the rear of the heat-resistant film 11 from the end surface thereof.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording device using a thermal head and an ink ribbon, and more particularly to a thermal transfer recording device equipped with a thermal head and an ink ribbon.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, there is a thermal transfer recording device that prints on plain paper by using an ink ribbon having a film coated with heat-melting ink. On the other hand, this type of ink ribbon has the disadvantage of high running costs because the ink ribbon can only be used once.

However, as recent thermal transfer recording devices have become more popular in various fields, taking advantage of their characteristics of low cost, low noise, and high resolution, there has been a demand for reductions in the running costs associated with ink ribbons. For this reason, a method has been proposed in which an endless film is used and, after printing, heat-melt ink is melt-applied using an inking roller to regenerate the film.

[Problem that the invention sought to solve]

However, in the conventional method described above, since the ink replenishment member has a grained shape, rotating the ink replenishment member causes scratches on the ink ribbon surface and end face, shortening the life of the ink ribbon. There are other inconveniences such as. Furthermore, a drive device (for example, a motor and gears) is required to drive the ink replenishing member, which increases the cost and has the disadvantage of generating noise due to the drive mechanism.

In addition, in many cases, if more ink than necessary comes out on the ink refilling member, the ink will be surrounded by the back side of the heat-resistant film from the end face, increasing the friction coefficient of the film and making the film run unstable. was there.

[Purpose of the invention]

It is an object of the present invention to improve the disadvantages of the conventional example, and in particular to effectively suppress the encircling of ink on the back side of the film even if more ink than necessary bulges out on the ink replenishing member. The objective is to fold down a thermal transfer recording device that stabilizes printing operations.

[Means to solve the problem]

In the present invention, the side that contacts the recording paper ↓ has an endless 1' ink ribbon coated with heat-fusible ink, an ink replenishment means for applying heat-fusible ink to this ink ribbon, and a downstream side of this ink replenishment means. It is equipped with a thermal head installed on the side. The width of the ink layer formed on the ink ribbon by the ink replenishing means is set to be smaller than the width of the ink ribbon. This is an attempt to achieve the above-mentioned purpose.

[First Embodiment] Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 to 7.

FIG. 1 shows a plan view of a serial type thermal transfer recording device having a reinking mechanism (1) according to an embodiment, and FIG.
It is a detailed cross-sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in the figure and showing the inside of the inking mechanism.

In these FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 indicates an ink ribbon. This ink ribbon 1 is made of an endless heat-resistant film 1 made of polyimide or polyaramid.
1, and a heat-melting ink 12 coated on the outer surface of the heat-resistant film 11. This hot-melt ink is made by mixing wax and resin with carbon black. A part of the outer surface of the ink film 11, that is, the heat-melting ink 12 side is pressed by the thermal head 3 and brought into contact with the recording paper 2. Reference numerals 41 to 47 indicate guide rollers that guide the movement of the ink ribbon l. Further, the reference numeral 7 indicates a capstan roller. This capstan roller 7 is rotated by an external drive mechanism S (not shown) in order to feed the ink ribbon 1 pressed by the pinch roller 8. code 1
A tension arm 5 is biased by a spring 16 for applying appropriate tension to the ink ribbon 1 so that the ink ribbon 1 does not shift vertically.

Figure 2 shows the reinking mechanism ■- in Figure 1.
■It is a sectional view taken along the line. In FIG. 2, an ink storage section 20 is made of a metal such as aluminum that has good thermal conductivity, and stores heat-fusible ink 12 therein. Also base 2
1 is also made of the same material as the ink storage section 20 and holds the ink storage section 20. Here, a heater 30 that maintains a certain temperature slightly higher than the melting point of the heat-melting ink 12 is fixed to the side surfaces of the ink storage section 20 and the base 21. As a result, the heat-melting ink 12 in the ink storage portion 20 is dissolved into a liquid state.

Reference numeral 23 is an impeller, and as shown in FIG. 3, the blades are provided in a spiral shape. The ink replenishing member 25 is made of stainless steel or bronze powder sintered and hardened by sintering, and its mensch has a diameter of about 20 to 100 [μm] so that it can filter fine particles. This ink replenishing member 25 is fixed on the impeller 23. A bushing 26 is fixed to the upper part of the ink refilling member 25, and is rotatable around the cylinder portion 2OA of the ink storage portion 20. Here, the ink replenishing member 25 is attached to the impeller 2 so as to be eccentric with respect to the cylindrical axis of the cylinder 2OA.
3 and bushing 26. Further, a sub-inking roller 27 is provided near the ink replenishing member 25.

Next, we will explain the operation of the above configuration.

A drive signal is applied to the thermal head 3 by a control circuit (not shown). A part of the ink ribbon 1 is heated by the heat, and the heat-melting ink 12 is transferred onto the recording paper 2. At this time, the thermal head 3 moves in the printing direction (in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1), and the ink ribbon 1
is sequentially wound up by a capstan roller.

And ink film 1 from which some of the heat-melting ink has escaped
is conveyed to the wine king mechanism through guide rollers 40, 46, and 47.

In this reinking mechanism I, the ink ribbon 1 is wound around an ink replenishing member 25.

Therefore, the ink replenishing member 25 rotates in unison with the traveling of the ink ribbon 1.

Inside the ink storage section 30 , the hot-melt ink 12 melted on the liquid passes through the hole at the bottom of the ink storage section 20 and reaches the impeller 23 .
flowing down on top. Since the impeller 23 is rotating together with the ink refilling member 25, the spiral blades provided on the impeller 23 supply the hot-melt ink 12 to the gap between the ink replenishing member 25 and the cylinder portion 20A. do. As described above, the ink replenishing member 25 is connected to the cylinder portion 2.
Since it is eccentric with respect to the cylindrical axis of 0A, the heat-fusible ink 12 is forcibly pushed out from the inside of the ink replenishment material 25 by the change in pressure distribution as shown in FIG. At this time, ink 12 is present between the ink replenishing member 25 and the ink ribbon, and due to the viscosity and adhesion of the ink, the ink film rotates as the ink film travels. Therefore, it is not necessary in this embodiment to rotate the ink replenishing member using a drive device as shown in the conventional example.

Further, the width d of the outflow area of the heat-melting ink 12 pushed out from the ink replenishing member 25 is determined by the action of the impeller 23 and the pump 26 of the inking mechanism I, as described above.
As shown in the figure, the width is narrower than the width of the heat-resistant film 11. Therefore, in this embodiment, the disadvantage that the heat-melting ink 12 wraps around from the end surface to the back surface of the heat-resistant film 11 is significantly suppressed.

The ink layer on the surface of the ink ribbon 1 supplied by the ink replenishing member 25 has unevenness in the transferred ink layer because the surface of the ink replenishing member 25 is grained. For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 6, before the heat-melting ink 12 solidifies, a sub-inking roller 27 with a smooth surface is
(which also supplies heat) rubs the surface of the ink layer to form a smooth ink layer.

This ink layer is then supplied to the thermal head 3 again through guide rollers 41 to 44, and the heat-melting ink 12 is transferred onto the recording paper 2.

D. Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment will be described based on FIGS. 7 and 8.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, an ink ribbon IA is used as the ink film, with an ink-phobic material 1° 1 □ coated in advance on both ends. This ink ribbon IA has a base film 11 made of a heat-resistant material.
Polyimide (thickness: 12.5 μm) was used as the ink-phobic material 1. on both ends of one side. , 12, for example, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl acetate, polymethyl metatalate.

Polyacrylonitrile-polyvinyl alcohol copolymer, polyacrylonitrile-polyvinyl acetate copolymer, polyethylene-polyvinyl alcohol copolymer, polyethylene-polyvinyl acetate copolymer, polyvinyl chloride-polyvinyl alcohol copolymer, polyvinyl chloride- It is formed by applying a polyvinyl acetate copolymer or the like to a thickness of about 0.1 to 1 [μm] on the outer surface of the inkable area and fixing it.

In addition, the ink replenishment member used in the reinking mechanism ■ is a cylindrical member that is processed so that the ink oozes into the area corresponding to the intermediate position where the ink-phobic material II, 1□ is applied. Ink replenishment member 25A is used. To be more specific, this ink replenishment member 25A
An ink extracting portion 25a having a predetermined width is provided corresponding to the area other than the fixed area where the ink-phobic material 11, 1□ is applied, and an ink blocking portion 26b for preventing ink extraction is provided at both ends of the opening side. It is provided. The other configurations are the same as the conventional example described above.

Even in this case, as in the case of the first embodiment described above, there is no ink around the back of the ink ribbon, there is no dirt on the roller and head, and as a result, it is possible to obtain commercial quality image quality without transfer defects. is possible.

5. Effects of the Invention: As described above, according to the present invention, the width of the ink layer formed on the base film is set to be smaller than the width of the base film, so that if more ink than necessary is released from the ink replenishing member. Even if the ink ribbon is extruded and applied to the base film, it is possible to effectively avoid the inconvenience of the ink ribbon protruding from the end face and wrapping around to the back side.This makes the running of the ink ribbon stable and, therefore, it is possible to obtain high-quality print output. It is possible to provide a thermal transfer recording device that is unprecedented and excellent.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a schematic plan view showing one embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 shows the impeller installed in Fig. 2. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the ink refilling member in FIG. 2, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the ink ribbon in FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a joint sectional view showing an example of the winking mechanism in the second embodiment, and FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a part of the ink ribbon in FIG. 7. 1.1A... Ink ribbon, 11.1□...
... Ink sparse material, 2 ... Recording paper, 3 ...
... Thermal head, 11 ... Heat-resistant film as a heat film, 12 ... Heat-melting ink, 25.25A ... Ink replenishment means, ■.
...Reinking mechanism. Figure 1 2 (Mr. Imoman) Figure 2 Applicant Japan Electric Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney Isamu Takahashi (Hane-) Figure 2

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) An endless ink ribbon with heat-fusible ink coated on the side that contacts the recording paper, an ink replenishment means for applying the heat-fusible ink to the ink ribbon, and a downstream side of the ink replenishment means. A thermal transfer recording device, comprising: a thermal head equipped with the ink ribbon, wherein the width of the ink layer formed on the ink ribbon by the ink replenishing means is set to be smaller than the width of the ink ribbon. (2) An endless ink ribbon with heat-fusible ink coated on the side that contacts the recording paper, an ink replenishment means for applying the heat-fusible ink to the ink ribbon, and a downstream side of the ink replenishment means. an ink-phobic material is coated on both end portions of the surface of the ink ribbon to which the heat-melting ink is applied, and an inner portion of the ink ribbon surrounded by the ink-phobic material is coated with an ink-phobic material. . A thermal transfer recording device, characterized in that an ink layer is applied by the ink replenishing means. (3) The thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the ink replenishing means is driven by the running force of the ink ribbon.