JPH04284265A - Surface polishing device for thermal print head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a surface of a projected part of a resistor in a thermal printing head to be smoothly finished by polishing without causing irregurality in polishing. CONSTITUTION:A narrow width tape like abrasive sheet 12 is pushed against a projected part 6 of a resistor in a thermal printing head 1 with a head component 21 equipped with a soft elastic material 22 such as rubber and the like and the head component 21 above-mentioned is reciprocally vibrated in a direction almost parallel with a surface of the thermal printing head 1 above- mentioned.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a surface polishing apparatus for polishing the surface of a protective film layer made of glass or the like to a smooth surface when manufacturing a thermal print head.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art In general, this type of thermal print head 1, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, has a pattern layer 3 of various electrode wirings formed on the surface of a strip-shaped insulating substrate 2. It is manufactured by forming a narrow resistor 4 so as to extend in a straight line on the upper surface of the pattern layer 3, and then forming a protective film layer 5 of glass or the like on the entire surface of the resistor 4. When forming the protective film layer 5, the surface of the protective film layer 5 is uneven. By the way, this thermal print head 1 has the narrow resistor 4.
is printed by generating heat while the paper is in contact with the raised portion 6 of the resistor 4. Therefore, the surface of the portion of the protective film layer 5 that covers the resistor 4 and the raised portion 6 of the resistor 4 are printed. If the surface is uneven, problems such as uneven printing will occur.

Therefore, when manufacturing the thermal print head 1, after forming the protective film layer 5 of glass or the like, the surface of the portion of the protective film layer 5 that covers the resistor 4, that is, the raised The surface of the portion 6 is polished to make it smooth.

[0004] Conventionally, when polishing the surface, a polishing apparatus constructed as shown in FIGS. 10 to 12 has been used. That is, the conventional surface polishing device has a wide polishing sheet 8 approximately equal to the length L of the thermal print head 1 on the outer peripheral surface of a roller 7 made of a soft elastic material such as rubber.
The polishing sheet 8 is pressed against the surface of the resistor raised part 6 in the thermal print head 1 while being fed and moved in the direction of the arrow by the rotation of the roller 7, thereby polishing the surface of the resistor raised part 6. It is configured to be polished.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in this conventional surface polishing device, the polishing sheet 8 is made into a wide shape that is approximately equal to the length L of the thermal print head 1, and the polishing sheet 8 is made into a wide shape that is approximately equal to the length L of the thermal print head 1. Since the contact area with the thermal print head 1 is large, the pressing force per unit area is low, and therefore the amount of polishing per unit time is small.
Since it takes a long time to polish the entire resistor raised portion 6 in the thermal print head 1, the polishing efficiency is quite low, and the wide polishing sheet 8 is partially worn out. In this case, the entire polishing sheet 8 must be replaced with a new one, and the running cost required to replace the polishing sheet 8 increases considerably.This, combined with the low polishing efficiency,
There was a problem in that the cost required for polishing increased significantly. Moreover, when the polishing sheet 8 is pressed against the resistor raised portion 6 of the thermal print head 1 by the rotating soft elastic rubber roller 7, the polishing sheet 8 is pressed against the resistor raised portion 6 of the thermal print head 1. Although the surface of the resistor raised portion 5 on the front side with respect to the moving direction of the polishing sheet 8 is surely pressed, the surface of the resistor raised portion 5 with respect to the moving direction of the polishing sheet 8 is surely pressed. With respect to the front surface, as shown in FIG. 12, the base of the resistor raised portion 6 tends to rise and the base of the resistor raised portion 6 cannot be polished sufficiently.
There is also a problem in that the entire surface of the resistor raised portion 5 cannot be polished equally, resulting in uneven polishing on the surface of the resistor raised portion 5.

[0006] The technical object of the present invention is to provide a surface polishing device which can solve these problems and can perform surface polishing at low cost and without causing polishing unevenness. It is something to do.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve this technical object, the present invention provides a method for applying a polishing sheet in the form of a narrow tape intermittently along the longitudinal direction of the protrusion in the resistor of a thermal print head. A head member equipped with a soft elastic body such as rubber is disposed in the transfer route so that the soft elastic body in the head member comes into contact with the back surface of the polishing sheet, and this head member is used to transfer the polishing sheet to the polishing sheet. configured to press the sheet against the surface of the thermal print head;
Furthermore, the head member is connected to a vibration generating means that causes the head member to reciprocate in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the thermal print head.

[0008]

[Operation] In this configuration, when the narrow tape-shaped abrasive sheet is stopped being transported, it is pressed against the surface of the thermal print head by the head member that is in contact with the back surface of the abrasive sheet, and then the abrasive sheet is pressed against the surface of the thermal print head. The head member is
The abrasive sheet can be rubbed against the surface of the thermal print head by reciprocating vibration in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the thermal print head by a vibration generating means connected to the abrasive sheet. The surface can be polished. In this case, since a soft elastic body such as rubber is interposed between the head member and the polishing sheet, the head member cannot be pressed against the resistor protrusion in the thermal print head. By this pressing, the polishing sheet can be pressed against the entire surface of the resistor raised portion. By reciprocating the polishing sheet in this state, it is possible to reliably polish the entire surface of the resistor protrusion up to the base of the resistor protrusion. In addition to the polishing being carried out with the narrow tape-shaped polishing sheet being pressed against the raised portion of the resistor so as to extend in the longitudinal direction thereof, the polishing is being carried out by reciprocating vibration of the head member. Since the polishing amount per unit time is large, the prescribed polishing of the resistor raised portion can be completed in a short time. When the prescribed polishing is completed in this way, the reciprocating vibration of the head member is stopped, the pressing of the polishing sheet by the head member is released, and the narrow tape-shaped polishing sheet is adjusted to an appropriate size (correctly, the head member is The new polishing surface of the polishing sheet is transferred to the head member by moving the polishing sheet by a length of , and then the above operation is repeated.

[0009]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reliably polish the entire surface of the raised portion of the resistor in the thermal print head, evenly and without polishing unevenness, all the way to its base. The time required for polishing can be significantly reduced. Moreover, the present invention uses a narrow tape-shaped polishing sheet, and performs polishing while renewing the polishing surface by transporting the narrow tape-shaped polishing sheet by an appropriate length in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, compared to the conventional method that uses a wide-width polishing sheet,
Since the running cost required for replacing the polishing sheet can be significantly reduced, this, together with the ability to shorten the polishing time as described above, has the effect of significantly reducing the cost required for polishing.

0010

[Example] Below, examples of the present invention are shown in the drawings (Figs. 3 to 8).
I will explain about it. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes thermal print heads 1 placed in a row on the upper surface, with an appropriate length in the longitudinal direction (in detail, a head member 2 to be described later).
1. This shows a transfer means that intermittently transfers by a length dimension slightly shorter than the length dimension S of 1. Reference numeral 11 indicates a support frame erected on the side of the transfer means 10, and on the upper front surface of the support frame 11 there is a feed reel 13 around which a narrow tape-shaped abrasive sheet 12 is wound, and a feed reel 13 with a narrow tape-shaped abrasive sheet 12 wound thereon; A take-up reel 14 for the shaped abrasive sheet 12 is provided, and the abrasive sheet 12 fed out from the feed reel 13 is attached to the distal end of a lever 16 whose base end is pivoted to the support frame 11 and biased by a spring 15. a tension roller 17 and a pair of feed rollers 18,
19, and is wound around the take-up reel 14, and is rotated by the pair of feed rollers 18 and 19 to have an appropriate length dimension (more specifically, a length dimension approximately equal to the length dimension S of the head member 21, which will be described later). It is configured to be transferred intermittently. In this case, a certain brake is applied to the feed reel 13 to prevent the polishing tape 12 from being fed out, while the polishing sheet 12 is placed at the tension roller 17 attached to the tip of the lever 16. A tape break detection sensor 20 is provided, which the tension roller 17 comes into contact with when the tape breaks.

Reference numeral 21 designates a head member disposed between the tension roller 17 and the pair of take-up rollers 18 and 19 so as to be in contact with the back side of the polishing sheet 12. A soft elastic body 22 such as rubber is attached to a portion of the polishing sheet 21 where the polishing sheet 12 comes into contact with the head member 21 . This head member 21 has a narrow width, and its length S is shorter than the length L of the thermal print head 1. It is attached via a vibration generating means 24 to a vertically movable member 23 which is mounted so as to move up and down by means not shown in the figure. It is configured to reciprocate in a direction that is substantially parallel to the surface of the thermal print head 1 and substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the raised portion 5 of the thermal print head 1 . A pair of front and rear guide members 25a, 25b, 26a, 26b are provided at both ends of the head member 21 to prevent the polishing sheet 12 from coming off the lower surface of the head member 21.
are installed respectively.

In this configuration, the head member 21 is pressed against the surface of the thermal print head 1 by the downward movement of the vertically moving member 23 while the transfer of the thermal print head 1 and the polishing sheet 12 is stopped. Then, the abrasive sheet 12 is pressed against the resistor raised portion 6 of the thermal print head 1 via the soft elastic body 22 such as rubber attached to the lower surface of the head member 21, and thereby the resistor The entire surface of the raised portion 6 is contacted. Therefore, by reciprocating the head member 21 with the vibration generating means 24, the polishing sheet 12
Since it is rubbed against the surface of the resistor raised portion 6, the entire surface of the resistor raised portion 6 can be reliably polished down to the base of the resistor raised portion 6.

When this polishing is completed, the head member 21 is raised and the thermal print head 1 is intermittently transferred by a length slightly shorter than the length S of the head member 21, and then Polishing is performed again, and in this case, if the polishing surface of the polishing sheet 12 is worn, the polishing sheet 12 is adjusted to the length dimension S of the head member 21 while the head member 21 is raised. The polishing surface is updated by intermittently transferring the polishing surface by approximately equal length dimensions.

Note that the head member 21 is not limited to reciprocating vibration in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the resistor raised portion 6 in the thermal print head 1, but also reciprocates along the longitudinal direction of the resistor raised portion 5. It may be configured to vibrate or to reciprocate in both the direction perpendicular to the resistor raised portion 5 and the longitudinal direction of the raised portion 5. Also, during the polishing described above, the thermal print head 1
By supplying water from the nozzle 27 or by supplying water in a spray form between the surface of the polishing sheet 12 and the polishing sheet 12, polishing can be performed in a so-called wet state, and the polishing speed can be improved. It also has the advantage of preventing dust from scattering around. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 9, the head member 21 is attached to the vibration generating means 24 via a plate spring 28, so that the plate spring 28 presses against the thermal print head 1. It may be configured.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a thermal print head.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line V-V in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a side view taken along VI-VI in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line VII-VII in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the head member.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing another embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a conventional example.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along line XI-XI in FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is an enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 11;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Thermal print head 2
Insulating substrate 4 Resistor 5 Protective film layer 6 Resistor raised portion 10
Thermal print head transport means 11
Support frame 12 Narrow tape-shaped polishing sheet 13
Payout reel 14 Take-up reels 18, 19 Feed roller 21 Head member 22 Soft elastic body 23 Vertical movement member 24 Vibration generating means

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A head member provided with a soft elastic material such as rubber is installed in a path for transporting a narrow tape-shaped abrasive sheet along the longitudinal direction of a raised portion of a resistor of a thermal print head. A soft elastic body is disposed so as to be in contact with the back surface of the polishing sheet, and the head member is configured to press the polishing sheet against the surface of the thermal print head, and the head member further includes:
A surface polishing device for a thermal print head, characterized in that the head member is connected to vibration generating means configured to vibrate reciprocatingly in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the thermal print head.