JPH04166381A - Thermal transfer recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily and rapidly perform the replacing work of a film by providing a support means to an apparatus main body in a freely detachable manner and supporting a film supply roll and a film taking-up roll on the support means in a freely detachable manner. CONSTITUTION:A film supply roll 2, a film taking-up roll 7 and guide rolls 9, 10 are supported between a pair of supports 26, 26 constituting a support means 25 in a rotatable manner by the shafts fitted in the slits 26A of the supports and the supports 26,26 are provided within an apparatus main body 1 in a freely detachable manner and also provided so as to be freely detachable with respect to the respective rolls. After the supply of the film from the film supply roll 2 is completed, a lid 30 is opened to take out the respective rolls to the outside of the apparatus main body 1 along with the supports 26, 26. The left and right positions of the supports 26, 26 are converted to again set the supports in the apparatus main body 1. That is, the action of the film supply roll 2 is converted to that of the film taking-up roll and the action of the film taking-up roll 7 is converted to that of the film supply roll.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording device, and particularly to a thermal transfer recording device using a reusable ink ribbon.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, thermal transfer recording devices have been known that print on plain paper by using an ink ribbon made of a polyester film coated with heat-melting ink.

By the way, recent thermal transfer recording devices are low cost, low noise,
As applications in various fields become more popular by taking advantage of the characteristics of high resolution, there is a need to reduce the running costs associated with ink ribbons, so we use heat-resistant film and ink with heat-melting ink after printing. There is a proposal to regenerate it by applying it by melting it with a roller.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, the heat-resistant film must be replaced periodically because it is damaged by the heat of the thermal head or the mechanical stress of the running system during long-term running.However, the heat-resistant film must be replaced periodically. In order to replace the roller, it is necessary to remove the roller of the traveling system from the longitudinal direction of the main body of the apparatus, which has the disadvantage that the replacement work is difficult and cannot be done easily by the operator.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer recording device that allows film replacement work to be performed easily and quickly.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an ink layer on a film via an inking device, and locally heats this ink layer with a thermal head to print a predetermined character. The thermal transfer recording apparatus is characterized in that a support means is provided on the main body of the apparatus, and a film supply roll and a film take-up roll are removably supported on the support means.

Furthermore, the film supply roll and the film winding are provided so as to be interchangeable with respect to the support means.

Further, in order to exchange positions, the positions of both rolls can be exchanged with respect to the apparatus main body by changing the mounting position of the supporting means itself relative to the apparatus main body.

[Function] When replacing the film supply roll and the film take-up roll with respect to the support means, the rolls are removed from the support means and then replaced. At this time, it is convenient to carry out the replacement work with the support means removed from the main body of the apparatus in order to perform the replacement work more simply and quickly.

Further, by changing the positions of both ends of the support means with respect to the main body of the apparatus, it becomes possible to replace the rolls without touching each roll.

[Embodiments of the Invention] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the accompanying drawings.

1 and 2 show a thermal transfer type recording apparatus according to this embodiment. In these figures, a film supply roll 2 and a heat-resistant film 3 supplied from the film supply roll 2 are disposed inside the main body 1 of the thermal transfer recording apparatus.
A film winding roll 7 is provided to wind the film between the thermal head 5 and the platen 6. Between these rolls 2.7 there are guide rolls 9,
10.11 are arranged, and the guide roll 9
．． An inking device 12 is disposed between 11 and 11 .

The heat-resistant film 3 is an ink film in which a heat-melting ink 15 is applied to the outer surface of a polyimide or polyaramid film via an inking device 12. The inking device 12 has a thermofusible ink 15
an inking roller 17 and a sub-inking roller 17 which are arranged on the container 16 and whose outer peripheral surface is in contact with the heat-resistant film 3 and whose surface has been roughened by processing such as sandblasting. roller 1
8 and a heater 19 provided on the bottom side of the container 16. This heater 19 is connected to the heat-melting ink 1
The temperature is maintained at a temperature slightly higher than the melting point of No. 5, thereby allowing the hot-melt ink 15 to melt.

Further, a film end sensor 21 is disposed between the guide roller 9 and the thermal head 5, and the thermal spatula l-'5 is configured so that a predetermined head pressure can be obtained by a head spring 22.

As shown in FIG. 3, the film supply roll 2, the film take-up roll 7, and the guide roll 9. It is now possible to do so.

The supports 26, 26 are provided removably within the apparatus main body 1, and are also removably provided with respect to each roll.

The supports 26 and 26 each have the same shape and are formed to be symmetrical with respect to the central axis perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, and the film supply roll and the guide roll 9 The pair of film winding rolls 7 and the pair of guide rolls 10 are arranged symmetrically.

Note that in FIG. 1, reference numeral 29 indicates recording paper, and reference numeral 30 indicates a lid.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

When a drive signal is applied to the thermal head 5 from a control circuit (not shown), the thermal head 5 is heated, and the heat-melting ink 15 applied to the heat-resistant film 3 is transferred to the recording paper 2.
9 is transferred. At this time, the platen 6 rotates in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1 with respect to the printing direction, and the heat-resistant film 3 is sequentially wound onto the film winding roll 7.

When the heat-resistant film 3 is supplied from the film supply roll 2, the heat-resistant film 3 is in contact with the inking roll 17 so as to be wound around it, so the inking roll 17 is rotated by the contact force. The heat-melting ink 15 adhering to the surface is sequentially applied to the heat-resistant film 3.

The layer of heat-melting ink 15 applied by the inking roll 17 will have unevenness because the surface of the inking roll 17 is grained, but it will be smoothed by the sub-inking roll 18. The ink layer is smoothed to form a smooth ink layer.

Heat resistant film 3 supplied from film supply roll 2
When the film runs out, the film end sensor 21 detects this, and an alarm (not shown) or the like is activated in response to the detection signal.

After the film has been supplied from the film supply roll 2 in this way, the lid 30 is opened as shown in FIG. reference).

Then, the left and right positions of the supports 26 and 26 are changed, and the support bodies 26 and 26 are set in the apparatus main body 1 again. That is, at this time, the film supply roll 2 functions as a film take-up roll, and the film take-up roll 7 functions as a film supply roll.

In addition, when the heat-resistant film 3 is damaged by the heat of the thermal head 5 and the mechanical stress of the running system caused by each roll due to long running, the printing quality may deteriorate, or the heat-resistant film 3 may be cut or wrinkled. If this occurs, the film will be replaced with a new one.

According to such an embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.

That is, the support means 25 is constituted by a pair of supports 26.26 having a bilaterally symmetrical shape, and these supports 26.26 are detachable from the inside of the apparatus main body 1, and the film supply roll 2 and the guide roll Since the pair 9 and the pair of film winding roll 7 and guide roll 10 are arranged symmetrically, the left and right positions of the support 26.26 are changed and the support 26.26 is inserted into the apparatus main body 1 again. It is possible to change the functions of the film supply roll 2 and the film take-up roll 7 just by setting the film, and the film position can be changed easily and quickly, and even operators who are inexperienced with such work will not experience any problems. It has the effect of never happening.

Next, other embodiments of the present invention will be explained based on FIGS. 4 to 6, and the same or substantially the same parts as those described above will be denoted by the same reference numerals, and the explanation will be omitted or simplified. Make it.

This embodiment is basically the same as the previous embodiment in that a pair of supports 26 and 26 are used as the support means 25, but the film supply roll 2, the film take-up roll 7 and the guide The main difference lies in the arrangement of the rolls 9 and 10.

In the case of this embodiment, although it is not possible to change the functions of the film supply roll 2 and the film take-up roll 7 by changing the left and right positions of the support means 25, the support means 25 as a whole can be removed from the inside of the apparatus main body 1. The present invention is completely the same as the above-mentioned embodiment, and therefore, the effect of easily performing the work can still be maintained in that each roll position can be replaced outside the main body 1 of the apparatus.

Therefore, it can be expected that particularly effective effects will be exhibited when there are mechanical constraints that prevent the rolls from being arranged symmetrically with respect to the support means 25.

Other functions and effects are similar to those of the previous embodiment.

Although the illustrations and description have been made assuming that the supports 26.26 are provided with the slits 26A, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the present invention may simply be provided with bearings that pivotally support each roll. No problem.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, according to the present invention, since the supporting means is provided so as to be removable from the main body of the apparatus, the work of changing the positions of the film supply roll and the film winding roll can be performed more easily and quickly. There is.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing an embodiment of the thermal transfer recording device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 showing a state with the lid open, and FIG. FIGS. 4 to 6 are perspective views showing a supported mode, and are views showing other embodiments. 1... Apparatus body, 2... Film supply roll, 3... Heat resistant film, 7...
・Film winding roll, 12...Inking device, 15...Thermofusible ink, 25...
- Supporting means, 26...Support body. Applicant Nihon Denki Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney Isamu Takahashi Figure 1 Figure 3 26 --- Support Figure 4 Figure 6

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In a thermal transfer recording device in which an ink layer is provided on a film via an inking device and the ink layer is locally heated by a thermal head to perform predetermined printing, a support that is detachable from the device body is used. In addition to providing means,
A thermal transfer recording device characterized in that a film supply roll and a film take-up roll are detachably supported on this support means. (2) A thermal transfer type recording device according to claim 1, wherein the film supply roll and the film take-up roll are provided so that their positions can be exchanged with each other. (3) The thermal transfer type recording device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the film supply roll and the film take-up roll are provided so as to be able to be mutually exchanged in position as a pair with a support means.