JPH05293987A - Method of recording thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain excellent printing quality by a method wherein irregularity of a surface of ink transferred to recording paper is smoothed. CONSTITUTION:In a method of recording a thermal transfer printer equipped with a heater 16 of a width broader than a printing width of paper which remelts ink 12 transferred to recording paper 11, after carrying out necessary recording on recording paper 12, the recording paper 12 is returned at least to a position wherein a tip of a recording part is opposed to the heater 16 and thereafter, the ink is remelted with the heater 16 while the recording paper 12 is being sent in the same direction as in recording.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording method of a thermal transfer printer, and more particularly to a recording method of a serial type thermal transfer printer for performing printing so that a gap (stitching) between print lines does not occur.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 shows a conventional general thermal transfer printer, in which a platen 2 on a flat plate is arranged at a substantially central portion of a frame 1 of the printer so that its printing surface is substantially vertical. A carriage shaft 3 is arranged below the front side of the frame 1 and the platen 2 in parallel with the platen 2. A flange-shaped guide portion 4 is formed on the front end edge of the frame 1, and the carriage shaft 3 and the guide portion 4 have
A carriage 5 is reciprocally attached along the carriage shaft 3 and the guide portion 4. A thermal head 6 is attached to the tip of the carriage 5 so as to face the platen 2, and an ink ribbon housed in an ink ribbon cassette (not shown) is thermally mounted on the upper surface of the carriage 5. A take-up bobbin 7 is provided between the head 6 and the platen 2 so as to guide the take-up bobbin 7.

Further, behind the platen 2, a sheet insertion port 8 for feeding recording paper (not shown) to the front of the platen 2.
Is formed, and a paper feed roller 9 that conveys the recording paper at a predetermined speed is disposed in the paper insertion opening 8 portion. A pressure contact roller 10 that is pressed against the paper feed roller 9 is rotatably disposed below the paper feed roller 9, and the paper insertion port 8 is provided between the paper feed roller 9 and the pressure contact roller 10. The recording paper inserted from the inside is held and conveyed.

In the above-mentioned conventional thermal transfer printer, a recording paper is inserted from the paper insertion port 8, the recording paper is sandwiched between the paper feed roller 9 and the pressure contact roller 10, and the paper feed roller 9 is rotationally driven. By doing so, the recording paper is conveyed at a predetermined speed in the direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the carriage 5. On the other hand, the carriage 5 is driven, and while the ink ribbon is being wound by the winding hobbin 7, the thermal head 6 is driven based on a desired recording signal to perform desired recording on the recording paper. ..

However, in the above-described conventional thermal transfer printer, as shown in the figure, for example, when one line is recorded on the recording paper 11 such as OHP paper, the next line is recorded. The rotation of the paper feed roller 9 is controlled so as to adjust the conveyance amount of the recording paper 11 so that a gap is not formed between the inks 12 in the print line, but at the boundary portion 12a of the ink 12 in each print line. , The ink of the next print line overlaps the ink of the previous print line, and this ink 1
There is a problem that unevenness is formed on the surface of the ink 12 at the overlapping portion of the two. As a result, when the boundary 12a is exposed to light, irregularities in the ink 12 cause irregular reflection and refraction of the light.
There is a problem that 2a looks like a black line, which causes a remarkable deterioration of printing quality.

In order to solve such problems, the applicant of the present invention has proposed a thermal transfer printer equipped with an ink remelting device for remelting the ink transferred onto the recording paper.
Filed as No. 3.

[0007]

However, the ink remelting in the thermal transfer printer described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2-80453 described above is performed by driving the ink remelting device with the recording paper stopped moving. Since the method is to control so that the ink recorded in Section 2 is remelted, there is a problem that unevenness is formed on the ink surface at the boundary between the ink that is not melted and the ink that is not melted.

[0008]

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and even after the ink is remelted, the surface of the ink transferred to the recording paper does not have irregularities. An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer printer capable of obtaining good printing quality.A thermal head that melts an ink layer provided on the surface of a supporting substrate to transfer / record ink on a recording paper, At least a head transfer means for reciprocating the thermal head in the printing direction, a paper feeding mechanism for reciprocating the recording paper in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the thermal head, and at least remelting the ink transferred to the recording paper. In a recording method of a thermal transfer printer provided with an ink remelting means having a width equal to or larger than a print width of a paper, after performing necessary recording on the recording paper, at least the recording paper is Returning the tip of the recording portion to a position opposed to the ink remelting unit, then, it is characterized in that remelting of ink by the ink remelting means while feeding the recording paper in the recording time of the same direction.

[0009]

The above-mentioned means operates as follows.

After recording, the recording paper is fed back to the position where the front end of the recording portion faces the ink remelting means, and then the ink is remelted while being conveyed again in the same direction as during recording. Since all parts of the ink are continuously remelted, the boundary between the remelted part and the other part is not formed, and the entire surface of the ink can be a smooth ink without unevenness.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a thermal printer according to the present invention. A platen 2 having a flat plate shape is arranged on a frame 1 of the printer so that its printing surface is substantially vertical. A carriage shaft 3 is arranged below the platen 2 of the frame 1 in parallel with the platen 2. The drive belt 1 is attached to the carriage shaft 3.
A carriage 5 which is reciprocally moved by 4 is attached, and a thermal head 6 is attached to the tip of the carriage 5 so as to face the platen 2. Also,
A ribbon cassette 13 for accommodating an ink ribbon (not shown) guided between the thermal head 6 and the platen 2 is mounted on the upper surface of the carriage 5. Then, the recording paper 1 conveyed between the platen 2 and the thermal head 6
Although not shown, 1 is conveyed by a predetermined amount by a paper feeding mechanism similar to the conventional example.

On the upper side of the platen 2, in other words, on the downstream side of the printing section, a planar heater 16 as an ink remelting device for remelting the ink on the recording paper 11 is arranged with the same width as the platen 2. It is set up. The width of the heater 16 may be at least the same as the recording width of the recording paper 11.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

First, a predetermined paper 11 such as an OHP paper is conveyed between the platen 2 and the thermal head 6, and then the carriage 5 is driven and the thermal head 6 is moved while winding the ink ribbon of the ribbon cassette 13. The recording paper 11 is driven by being driven based on a desired recording signal.
The desired recording is performed. And this recording paper 1
When the desired recording for one page is completed, the paper feeding mechanism is controlled to feed the recording paper 11 backward until the leading end of the recording paper faces the heater 16. After this heater 1
6 is driven to re-melt the ink while continuously feeding the recording paper 11 again in the same direction as when recording. As a result, the ink 12 on the recording paper 11 is continuously softened, and due to the fluidity of the softened ink 12, the ink 12 is discharged.
Surface irregularities are removed and smoothed.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the ink 12 is remelted while the recording paper 11 is continuously conveyed to remove the unevenness of the surface, so that the boundary portion between the remelted ink and the other ink is not. However, since the entire surface is smoothed, irregular reflection and refraction of light can be reliably prevented, and the printing quality can be significantly improved.

[0017]

As described above, in the present invention, the recording paper on which desired recording has been completed is reversely fed once, and then the ink on the recording paper is remelted while being continuously conveyed again. Since there is no boundary between the re-melted ink and the ink that was not on the paper and it is smoothed over the entire surface, irregular reflection and refraction of light can be reliably prevented, and the print quality is significantly improved. There is an effect that it can be done.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a thermal transfer printer showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of a recording method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a conventional general thermal transfer printer.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of a boundary portion of ink transferred onto a conventional recording paper.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 frame 2 platen 5 carriage 6 thermal head 11 recording paper 12 ink 14 drive belt 16 heater

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A thermal head that melts an ink layer provided on the surface of a supporting substrate to transfer / record ink on a recording paper, a head transfer means that reciprocates the thermal head in a printing direction, and the recording paper. A thermal transfer device having a paper feeding mechanism for reciprocating the thermal head in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the thermal head, and an ink remelting means for remelting the ink transferred onto the recording paper, the ink remelting means having a width at least larger than the print width of the paper. In the recording method of the printer, after performing necessary recording on the recording paper, return the recording paper to a position where at least the tip of the recording unit faces the ink remelting unit, and then, move the recording paper in the same direction as when recording. A recording method for a thermal transfer printer, characterized in that the ink is re-melted by the ink re-melting means while being sent to.