JPH05338227A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make void characters unreadable which are left in a printed character form on an ink film used for printing. CONSTITUTION:A paper sheet 11 is printed with a thermal head 1 through an ink film 2, and simultaneously the heating of a heater 4 is started. When a void part in a printed character form on an ink film 2 comes just under the heater, the heater 4 is slided onto a transfer line. The ink of a part not used for printing melts and spreads over the void part.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a thermal transfer printer of this type has a mechanism of simply winding up an ink film after printing on a roll.

[0003]

Since the above-mentioned conventional thermal transfer printer has a mechanism of merely winding the ink film after printing on a roll, the printed characters of the used ink film can be read. . Therefore,
When the used ink film was discarded, there was a drawback that important matters were leaked by a third party.

[0004]

In the thermal transfer printer mechanism of the present invention, a heater disposed after the print head heats a portion of the ink film that is no longer needed for printing to melt the ink and print the character. Make the white blank characters unreadable.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention. Thermal head 1, ink film 2, platen roller 3, heater 4, transport rollers 5a, 5b, 6a, 6
b, film rollers 7a and 7b, paper feed roller 8, cassette 9, and sensor 10.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, the paper feed roller 8 is rotated to feed out only one sheet 10 from the cassette 9, and the paper feed roller 5a,
5b (FIG. 2).

Next, when the sensor 10 detects the type of use 11, the ink film 2 and the platen roller 3 are rotated (FIG. 3).

The paper sheet 11 detects the sensor 10 and prints the print data received from the control unit (not shown) after a fixed time when the paper sheet 11 is conveyed immediately below the thermal head 1 (FIG. 4). .

The heater 4 starts to be heated when printing is started (FIG. 5).

Next, when the blank portion of the first printed character on the ink film 2 comes immediately before the heater 4, it is slid on the transport line (FIG. 6).

Here, a blank portion having a character shape because it is used for printing on the ink film 2 is connected to the heater 4 over the entire width of the ink film 2. For this reason, the residual ink in the portion of the ink film 2 that was not used for printing is melted, and the heater is in contact with the film 2, so that the melted ink spreads over the white part (FIG. 7). After the last character is printed, the ink film 2 and the platen roller 3 stop rotating.

Next, after the last printed character passes through the heater 4, the heater 4 is slid back to its original position (FIG. 8).

Finally, the paper sheet 11 is carried out by the carrying rollers 6a and 6b (FIG. 4).

As described above, the sheets fed from the cassette by the sheet feeding roller are printed by the thermal head and the platen roller via the ink film, and at the same time, the heater is started to be heated. When the character portion of the character shape that is blank due to printing on the ink film comes directly under the heater, the heater is slid on the transport line. Since the ink on the part of the ink film that was not used for printing is required and the heater is in contact with the film, the melted ink spreads to the white part. For this reason, the ink is laid on the white spots of the printed character, which makes the printed character unreadable.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, the paper fed from the cassette by the paper feed roller is printed by the thermal head and the platen roller via the ink film, and at the same time, the heater is started to be heated. When the part of the character that is white in the character shape due to printing on the ink film comes directly under the heater, the heater is slid on the transport line. The ink on the ink film, which was not used for printing, melted and the heater was in contact with the film, so the melted ink spreads over the blank areas. For this reason, there is an effect that the ink gets on the blank areas of the printed character and thus the printed character becomes unreadable.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a state in which paper sheets are delivered from the cassette according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a state in which a sheet is detected by a sensor during conveyance according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing how printing is started on a paper sheet according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5: Start printing on a paper sheet according to an embodiment of the present invention,
It is a side view which shows a mode that heating of a heater is started.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing a state in which a heater is slid on a transfer line according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a state in which a blank portion used for printing on an ink film in an embodiment of the present invention melts and spreads a portion not used for printing.

FIG. 8 is a side view showing a state where the heater is slid to the retracted position in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a side view showing a state in which paper sheets are discharged by the transport lara.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Thermal Head 2 Ink Film 3 Platen Roller 4 Heater 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b Conveying Rollers 7a, 7b Film Roller 8 Paper Feeding Roller 9 Cassette 10 Sensor

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location B41J 35/38 9012-2C

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A portion of the ink film used for printing is heated by a heater disposed behind the thermal head to melt the ink of the portion not used for printing and spread it on the ink film to form white characters on the ink film. A thermal transfer printer characterized by making it unreadable.