JPH0469273A - Thermal transfer recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a peeling sound to be lessened and to enable photographic printing to be prevented from shearing by a method wherein a guide shaft arranged to a downstream in carrying direction of a thermal transfer ribbon is so installed as to be elastically forced on a surface of a platen roller. CONSTITUTION:A reversed L formed leaf spring 8 is attached to a bottom of a head unit 6. A guide shaft 5b is annexed along central shaft 0 of a crest of the reversed L formed leaf spring 8. A thermal transfer ribbon 3 to be carried via the guide shaft 5b is so installed as to be forced elastically on the surface of a platen roller 1. The transfer ribbon 3 after transfer of ink, when wound in a winding core 9b direction via the guide shaft 5b, is wound in the winding core direction below the guide shaft 5b along the guide shaft 5b forced on the platen roller side with the leaf spring 8. Since the thermal transfer ribbon 3 is peeled off from transfer paper 2 thereby, a peel off angle is large, and the thermal transfer ribbon 3 can be easily peeled off against bonding force between a substrate 3a and the ink 3b.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an improvement of a thermal transfer recording device, and more specifically, the present invention relates to an improvement in a thermal transfer recording device, and more specifically, to transfer a thermal transfer ribbon after ink transfer from an image recording material to a container. The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording device that can be peeled off.

(Prior Art) As shown in FIG. 5, the thermal transfer recording device 10 has conventionally
The transfer paper 2 and the thermal transfer ribbon 3 are transferred so as to be overlapped between the platen roller 1 and a thermal head 4 provided on one side (lower side in FIG. 5) of the platen roller 1. An image is formed by applying heat from the side via a thermal head 4 in accordance with an image signal and transferring ink to the transfer paper 2. The thermal transfer ribbon 3 after the transfer is wound up onto the core 9b via the downstream guide shaft 5b, and the transfer paper 2 on which the image has been transferred is separated from the guide shaft 5b and moved along the platen roller 1 side (downward). direction) was being transported.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the thermal transfer ribbon 3, as shown in FIG. 6, the heat-melting or heat-rising ink 3b is usually coated on the base material 3a. Against the adhesive force with the ink 3b and the cohesive force of the ink (indicated by an arrow),
The thermal transfer ribbon 3 is peeled off from the transfer paper 2 as an image recording material via a guide shaft 5b disposed on the downstream side in the conveyance direction. When this thermal transfer ribbon is peeled off, a peeling sound is generated, which may cause discomfort to people around, and at the moment of peeling off, the thermal transfer ribbon pulls the transfer paper 2, making the holding of the transfer paper unstable and causing print misalignment. There was something wrong with me.

Therefore, this invention was made in order to eliminate the disadvantages of the conventional thermal transfer recording device described above.
An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer recording device that reduces the peeling sound generated when a thermal transfer ribbon is peeled off from an image recording material after ink transfer, and that does not cause instability in holding the transfer paper when the thermal transfer ribbon is peeled off. It is something to do.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a method for recording images between a platen roller and a thermal head disposed on one side of the platen roller. The material and the thermal transfer ribbon are layered and transported, heated by a thermal head from the thermal transfer ribbon side,
In addition to transferring ink to the image recording material to form an image,
In a thermal transfer recording device in which a thermal transfer ribbon after ink transfer is peeled from an image recording material via a guide shaft disposed downstream in the conveying direction, the guide shaft is arranged so as to elastically press against the surface of a platen roller. be.

(Function) As described above, since the guide shaft placed downstream in the conveyance direction of the thermal transfer ribbon is provided so as to elastically press against the surface of the platen roller, the thermal transfer ribbon is pressed against the surface of the platen roller by the guide shaft, and When the thermal transfer ribbon is peeled off from the recording material, the image recording material is stably supported, the resulting peeling noise is low, and the discomfort caused to the surroundings can be reduced. Furthermore, since the image recording material is also pressed against the surface of the platen roll and held stably, there is almost no occurrence of printing displacement due to separation of the thermal transfer ribbon.

(Example) Next, a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to an example of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a main part showing a schematic configuration of a thermal transfer recording apparatus 10a of this embodiment. That is, platen roller 1
A thermal head 4 is disposed on the lower surface side, and between the platen roller 1 and the thermal head 4, the thermal transfer ribbon 3, which is fed out from the winding core 9a via the left guide shaft 5a and whose head is positioned in advance, is fed. The transfer paper 2 conveyed from a paper device (not shown) is fed so as to be overlapped with the transfer paper 2 .

Then, to the heating element (not shown) of the thermal head 4,
Electricity is applied in response to a signal corresponding to the required image data from a scanner or a control device (not shown), and the generated heat coats the ink layer (3a in FIG. 2) on the base material of the thermal transfer ribbon 3. , 3b) is melted and the ink is transferred onto the conveyed transfer paper 2 to form an image in accordance with the above-mentioned signals. After the ink has been transferred, the thermal transfer ribbon 3 passes through the downstream (right side) guide shaft 5b and is wound around the winding core 9b disposed below the guide shaft 5b. It's peeling off.

As shown in FIG. 1(b) in an enlarged manner, the thermal head 4 and the guide shirt 5b described above are mounted in a head unit 6 having a U-shaped cross section, and are mounted on a platen roller 1 by a spring 7. The head unit 6 is elastically pressed against a surface and attached so as to be movable up and down, and an inverted cedar leaf spring 9 is attached to the bottom of the head unit 6. A guide shaft 3b is attached along the central axis 0 at the top of this reverse cedar leaf spring 9, so as to elastically press the thermal transfer ribbon 3 conveyed via the guide shaft 5b against the surface of the platen roller 1. When the attached thermal transfer ribbon 3 after ink transfer is wound up in the direction of the winding core 9b via the guide shaft 5b, it is rolled along the guide shaft 5b pressed against the platen roller side by the leaf spring 8. 5b is wound downward toward the core, and the thermal transfer ribbon 3 is peeled off from the transfer paper 2, so the peeling angle is large, and as shown in FIG. The thermal transfer ribbon 3 can be easily peeled off against the adhesive force between the thermal transfer ribbon 3, the peeling noise is low, and the retention of the transfer paper 2 is not affected.

Furthermore, since the guide shaft is pressed against the surface of the platen roller by the leaf spring 8, compared to a method in which the guide shaft 3b is supported by a rigid body, the head unit 6 is pushed down, the head pressure of the thermal head is reduced, and the transfer paper There is no reduction in the transfer performance of the ink.

The above-mentioned image forming method has been described using a -color image forming method as a typical example, but in the case of multicolor image formation using a plurality of colors, it is formed as follows. That is, after the first color image formation described above, the platen roller 1
After the pressure between the transfer paper 2 and the thermal head 4 is released, the transfer paper 2 is reversely fed in the direction shown in FIG. 1B and returned to the image recording start position. Next, the reversely fed transfer paper is conveyed downward again, and is once again superimposed on the thermal transfer ribbon 3 that has been warmed for the two-color edge, following the same process as in the case of -color.
Performs two-color image formation. By repeating the above operations for each of a plurality of colors for which a color image is to be formed, a desired multicolor image can be formed.

Next, as a second embodiment of the present invention, a thermal transfer recording apparatus [10b] as shown in FIG. 3(a) may be used.

This device 10b covers the outer circumferential surface of the guide shaft 5b on the right side in the figure of the thermal transfer ribbon 3 with a buffer member 5c such as foamed rubber, and attaches a positioning member 9b to the head unit 6 (see FIG. 1(b)). A buffer member 5C attached to cover the circumferential surface of the guide shaft 5b hits the surface of the platen roller 1, and is placed in such a position that the surface of the buffer material is partially distorted.

According to the thermal transfer recording device 110b having such a configuration, the cushioning material 5c attached to the circumferential surface of the guide shaft 5b elastically presses against the circumferential surface of the platen roller in a manner that causes strain. Since the thermal transfer ribbon is peeled off via the buffer material 5c), the angle at which the thermal transfer ribbon is peeled off becomes large (see Figure 4), and the adhesive force between the ink layer 3b on the thermal transfer ribbon 3 and the base material 3a is minimal. The transfer paper 2 is peeled off, the peeling noise is reduced, and the retention of the transfer paper 2 is not affected.

Furthermore, since the cushioning material 5C has elasticity, dimensional accuracy can be reduced compared to when pressing against a rigid guide shaft.

Further, the thermal head pressure caused by the guide shaft pressing can be reduced, and printing deviations in the formed images are less likely to occur.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, the thermal transfer recording device according to the present invention has a guide shaft 1 elastically pressed against the surface of the platen roller. It is possible to significantly reduce the peeling noise that occurs when the thermal transfer ribbon is peeled off from the image recording material, and it also stabilizes the retention of the image recording material even when the thermal transfer ribbon is peeled off, eliminating problems such as print misalignment. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1(a) is a vertical cross-sectional view of a main part showing a schematic configuration of a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
Fig. 2 is an explanatory cross-sectional view of the main part to show the effect of the thermal transfer recording device shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 (a) is a thermal transfer recording device according to another embodiment of the present invention. 3(b) is an enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 3(a), and FIG. 4 is a main part showing the effect of the thermal transfer recording device shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a main part showing the schematic structure of a conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing the effect of the thermal transfer recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1... Platen roller 2... Transfer paper (image recording material) 3... Thermal transfer ribbon 4... Thermal head, 5a, 5b... Guide shaft 5C... Cushioning material 6... Head unit Soto 8...Plate springs 9a, 9b...Coiling core 10 of thermal transfer ribbon...Conventional thermal transfer recording device

Claims (1)

[Claims] The image recording material and the thermal transfer ribbon are conveyed in a superimposed manner between a platen roller and a thermal head disposed on one side of the platen roller, and the thermal transfer ribbon is heated from the thermal transfer ribbon side by the Searl head. In a thermal transfer recording device that transfers ink to an image recording material to form an image and peels off the thermal transfer ribbon after the ink transfer from the image recording material via a guide shaft disposed downstream in the conveying direction, the guide shaft is moved to a platen roller. A thermal transfer recording device characterized in that it is arranged so as to elastically press against a surface.