JPH04163069A - Tape feeder in tape printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the number of component parts and improve a printing quality by a method wherein a drive gear is provided coaxially with a guide roller of a tape feed body, and this gear is engaged with a driven gear provided coaxially with a platen roller to feed a tape without a slip. CONSTITUTION:By the forked top part of a substrate 43, a platen roller 35 and a driven gear 49 are rotatably supported. On the other hand, a drive gear 47 capable of engaging with the driven gear 49 is integrally formed on a tape feed body 37 on a printer side. In this manner, when a tape guide roller 17 and the platen roller 35 are brought into pressure contact with each other at the peripheral surfaces thereof, the gear 47 rotated integrally with the tape feed body 37 is engaged with the gear 49, and the rotation of the tape feed body 37 is transmitted to the platen roller 35. Therefore, an adhesive double coated tape 13 and a transparent film tape 3 are fed out in a clamped state in conjunction with the roller 17. Therefore, a thermal transfer ribbon 7, the film tape 3, and the adhesive double coated tape 13 are positively fed without the occurrence of a slip between the roller 17 and the roller 35.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a tape printing device, and more particularly to a tape feeding device of a thermal print type tape printing device in which printing and tape feeding are performed using a platen roller.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, there has been a tape printing device as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-106555. To explain using FIG. 5, the tape storage cassette 1 includes a film tape spool 5 around which a transparent tape 3 is wound, a ribbon supply spool 9 around which a thermal transfer ribbon 7 is wound with its ink side facing inside, and a ribbon A ribbon take-up spool 11 winds up the thermal transfer ribbon 7 pulled out from the supply spool 9, and the double-sided tape 13, which has the same width as the film tape 3 and has a release paper adhered to only one side, is wound with the release paper on the outside. A rotated double-sided tape spool 15 and a tape guide roller (alignment roller) 17 for aligning the double-sided tape 13 and the film tape 3 are housed. Tape storage cassette 1
A thermal head 23 and a tape feeder 37 are provided on the side of the printing device to which the printer is attached. A support body 43 is rotatably attached to a shaft 43a provided on the printing device side, and a platen roller 35 and a tape feed roller 42 are installed on the support body 43. The support body 43 is urged against the thermal head 23 by a pressing spring (not shown), and the platen roller 35 presses the thermal head 23 with the thermal transfer ribbon 7 and film tape 3 sandwiched therebetween. At the same time, the tape feed roller 42 presses the tape feed roller 17 while sandwiching the double-sided tape 13 guided by the tape guide roller 17 and the film tape 3 sent out from the thermal head 23 . Tape feeder 37
is rotated by a drive source (not shown), and rotates the tape guide roller 17 and tape feed roller 42. The film tape 3 and the double-sided tape 13 are conveyed and bonded together by the rotation of both. Therefore, by conveying the film tape 3, the thermal transfer ribbon 7 is conveyed and the platen roller 35 is rotated.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, as described above, two rollers are required to convey and attach the thermal transfer ribbon 7, film tape 3, and double-sided tape 13, resulting in a complicated structure. The problem is that the cost increases. Furthermore, since the conveyance of the film tape 3 causes the conveyance of the thermal transfer ribbon 7 and the rotation of the platen roller 35, slippage occurs between the film tape 3 and the platen roller 35, or between the film tape 3 and the thermal transfer ribbon 7, resulting in the printing There is also the problem of degrading quality.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to provide a tape feed system for a tape printing device that can reduce the number of parts and reduce costs, as well as improve printing quality. We are in the process of providing equipment.

[Means for Solving the Problems] To achieve this object, the tape feeding device of the tape printing device of the present invention comprises a platen and a plurality of heating elements arranged in a row in a direction perpendicular to the printing direction, and a thermal head corresponding to the platen; a thermal transfer ribbon that is thermally melted and transferred by the thermal head; a first tape to which the ink of the thermal transfer ribbon is transferred; an alignment roller provided and rotated; and a second alignment roller provided on the alignment roller.
In the tape printing apparatus, the first tape and the second tape supplied to the alignment roller are aligned and conveyed. It is provided so that it can be pressed into contact with and separated from it.

[Function] In the tape feeding device of the tape printing apparatus of the present invention having the above configuration, the platen comes into pressure contact with both the thermal head and the alignment roller to convey the thermal transfer ribbon, the first tape, and the second tape.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example embodying the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Components that are the same as those in the conventional example shown in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the tape printing apparatus of this embodiment performs reverse printing on a transparent film tape 3 using a thermal transfer ribbon 7, and then attaches double-sided tape 13 to the printed surface to print characters. Used to create printed printing tape. For this reason, in the tape storage cassette 1, a space for storing the thermal head 23 is provided on the outer and inner peripheries of the four parts 25 for storing the thermal head 23 shown in FIG. 1 fixed on the printing device side. guide plate 2
7 and 29 are erected. Incidentally, FIG. 1 shows the state in which the tape storage cassette 1 is attached to a printing device, and the following explanation will be centered on this FIG. 1.

The film tape 3 and the thermal transfer ribbon 7 are connected to the guide pin 3
1, the thermal transfer ribbon 7 is guided to the recess 25 while facing each other via the ink surface, so that the guided film tape 3 and thermal transfer ribbon 7 close the space necessary to accommodate the thermal head 23. So that there is no
The guide plates 27 and 29 restrict the travel path of the film tape 3 and the thermal transfer bong 7. Note that the guide plate 29 erected on the inner periphery of the recess 25 has a
A plate spring 33 is provided which urges the film tape 3 and the thermal transfer ribbon 7 guided up to 5 in an outward direction, thereby ensuring a space for storing the thermal head 23.

Therefore, when the tape storage cassette 1 is installed in a printing device, the thermal head 23 is placed on the back side of the thermal transfer ribbon 7. The film tape 3 and the thermal transfer ribbon 7 can be moved by a platen roller 35 (described later)
is pressed against the thermal head 23 to print desired inverted characters on the film tape 3.

Next, the thermal transfer ribbon 7 that has passed through the recess 25 is wound onto the ribbon take-up spool 11 via the end 29a of the guide plate 29, and the film tape 3 is wound onto the tape guide roller 17.
is guided to the outside of the cassette via. The tape guide roller 17 and the ribbon take-up spool 11 are fitted into a tape feeder 37 and a ribbon take-up body 39 on the printing device side, which are rotated in opposite directions to each other by a drive motor and a power transmission mechanism (not shown) when attached to the printing device. and is rotated in the directions of arrows A and B through these parts. For this reason, the thermal transfer ribbon 7 and the film tape 3 are caused to travel along the travel path of the guide bin 31 - the guide plate 27 - the recess 25 due to this rotational drive, but due to the inertia caused by this rotational drive, the thermal transfer ribbon 7 and If the film tape 3 is pulled out excessively from each spool and the thermal transfer ribbon 7 and the film tape 3 become loose in the recess 25, it will not be possible to properly perform reverse printing on the film tape 3. 1, a plate spring 40 is provided that presses and biases the thermal transfer ribbon 7 and film tape 3 from the outside at the guide bin 31 position, thereby applying pack tension to the thermal transfer ribbon 7 and film tape 3, so that the thermal transfer ribbon 7 is This also prevents the film tape 3 from becoming loose.Also, during this traveling route, the ink on the thermal transfer ribbon 7 is prevented from coming loose on the film tape 3.
A separator film 41 is also provided to block these parts from adhering to each other. The film tape 3 and the thermal transfer ribbon 7 are connected to the separator film 4.
1 and the leaf spring 40, mutually independent pack tensions are applied, so that even if one of the film tape 3 or the thermal transfer ribbon 7 is pulled out for some reason, the running of the other is not affected. has been done.

Next, the tape guide roller 17 as an alignment roller not only aligns the film tape 3 and the double-sided tape 13, but also a platen roller 35 (provided on the printing device side) that can move toward and away from the tape guide roller 17. This is for joining the double-sided tape 13 by pressing the adhesive side of the double-sided tape 13 onto the printed surface of the film tape 3, and as shown in Figure 4, the width of both tapes is Flanges 17a and 17b for regulating directional movement are formed perpendicular to the roller surface. A shaft 43a is installed in the frame F on the printing device side, a support body 43 is rotatably supported by the shaft 43a, and the platen roller 35 is rotatably supported by the support body 43. After the tape storage cassette 1 is installed in the printing device, the support body 43 is urged in the direction of arrow C by the urging member 45, so that the platen roller 35 presses the film tape 3 and the thermal transfer ribbon 13 against the thermal head 23 at the same time. , the film tape 3 and the double-sided tape 13 are pressed against the roller surface of the tape guide roller 17 to join these tapes. The platen roller 35 is made of an elastic material such as rubber so as not to damage the film tape 3 when pressed and to obtain a predetermined resistance and frictional force.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the tip of the support body 43 is formed into a bifurcated shape, and a pin 51 to which the platen 35 and the driven gear 49 are fixed is attached to the bifurcated portion. Rotatably supported.

On the other hand, a drive gear 47 that can mesh with the driven gear 49 is integrally provided on the tape feeder 37 on the printing device side. Therefore, when the tape guide roller 17 and the platen roller 35 are in pressure contact with each other on their outer peripheral surfaces, the drive gear 47, which is rotated together with the tape feeder 37 on the printing device side, and the driven gear 49 The rotation of the tape feeder 37 is transmitted to the platen roller 35. At this time, since the tape guide roller 17 is rotated by the tape feeder 37, the double-sided tape 13 and the transparent film tape 3 are fed out while being sandwiched in cooperation with the platen roller 35. Therefore, the thermal transfer ribbon 7, film tape 3, and double-sided tape 13 are reliably conveyed without slipping between the tape guide roller 17 and the platen roller 35.

In this way, in the tape feeding device of this embodiment, the tape feeding roller 4 is separate from the platen roller 35 as in the conventional case.
2 was provided and pressed against the tape guide roller 17, only the tape feed roller 42 was driven, and the platen roller 35 was rotated as a result of conveying the film tape 3, which caused slippage between the film tape 3 and the thermal transfer ribbon 7. never occurs. Alternatively, there is no need to provide a complicated power transmission device to transmit the drive of the tape feed roller 42 to the platen roller 35, and with a simple mechanism and inexpensive component configuration, printing work and feeding work of thermal transfer ribbon, film tape, and double-sided tape can be performed. It is possible to apply the film tape and double-sided tape together. Therefore, the effect of improving printing quality is significant.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and for example, instead of driving the drive gear 47, the driven gear 4
9 may be driven. Alternatively, the driven gear 49 is not provided, the tape guide roller 17 is rotated by rotating the tape feeder 37 provided integrally with the drive gear 47, and the rotation of the tape guide roller 17 is applied to the platen by pressing the outer peripheral surface of the tape guide roller 17. The roller 35 may also be rotated. Of course, the drive gear 47
A gear 49 that rotates synchronously with the platen roller 35 without providing
may be provided, and the gear 49 may be driven to rotate the tape guide roller 17 in the same manner as described above.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the detailed description above, according to the present invention, the thermal transfer ribbon, the first tape, and the second tape can be conveyed at low cost with a simple component configuration, and The first tape and the second tape may be aligned. In addition, since no slipping occurs between the platen, the thermal transfer ribbon, and the first tape, the printing quality can be improved, which is a very excellent practical effect.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 4 show an embodiment embodying the present invention. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the tape storage cassette attached to the printing device, and FIG. 2 is a tape feeding cassette. Figure 1 is a side view seen from the direction of the arrow, and Figure 3 is a side view showing the engagement between the drive gear of the tape feeding body and the platen roller drive gear. FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the tape storage cassette, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional example. In the figure, 3 is transparent film tape (first tape), 7 is thermal transfer ribbon, 13 is double-sided tape (second tape), 1
7 is a tape guide roller (alignment roller), 23 is a thermal head, and 35 is a platen roller.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A platen, a thermal head having a plurality of heating elements arranged in a row in a direction perpendicular to the printing direction and corresponding to the platen, and a thermal transfer ribbon that is thermally melted and transferred by the thermal head. , a first tape to which the ink of the thermal transfer ribbon is transferred, and a first tape that is lower than the thermal head.
An alignment roller provided on a tape sending side and rotated, and a second tape supplied onto the alignment roller, the first tape and the second tape supplied to the alignment roller being What is claimed is: 1. A tape feeding device for a tape printing device that aligns and conveys a tape, wherein the platen is provided so as to be able to come into pressure contact with and separate from both the thermal head and the alignment roller.