JPH054414A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printer which can print a plenty of information at a time without increasing the occupation area of printer and with no sacrifice in the operability of information processor. CONSTITUTION:A printer 1 comprises a mounting section 2 and a printing section 3. The mounting section 2 has an area corresponding to A4 size and an information processor 100 is mounted thereon. The mounting section 2 incorporates a paper stocker 6 stocking a plurality of sheets of print paper. A print signal is delivered from the information processor 100 through a connector 5 to the printer 1. According to the constitution, a plenty of information can be printed at a time and occupation area of the printer can be limited. Furthermore, operability of keyboard is ensured even when the information processor 100 is mounted on the printer 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device for printing a document or image information created by a computer or a word processor on a recording paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, computers and word processors have been remarkably miniaturized, and portable personal computers whose occupied area is close to A4 size have already been developed and sold.

Accordingly, even in the field of word processors, in which a printer device for printing a document or image information on a recording sheet has conventionally been integrated, the printer device is separated so that Portable word processors are becoming popular. In addition, these personal computers and word processors (hereinafter referred to as "information processing device")
(Referred to as) is becoming smaller, and so is the printer device.

For example, “Nikkei Mechanical” 1991.2.4 P54
The printer device introduced in is about A4 size that allows the information processing device to be mounted on the device as it is, and the occupied area has been improved to a sufficiently satisfactory size. However, such a small-sized printer device has a drawback that it is not suitable for the purpose of printing a large amount of information at one time (mainly for commercial use) because the printing paper has to be supplied by hand. .

Further, since the thickness of the information processing device and the printer device overlapped with each other becomes large, it is not suitable for operating the keyboard while the information processing device is placed on the printer device, which is convenient. Improvements from are needed.

On the other hand, so-called automatic paper feeders have become widespread as a means for printing a large amount of information at one time. However, the automatic paper feeding device is basically a separate body from the printer device, and when it is attached to the printer device, it will project to the rear of the printer device. Therefore, the area occupied by the printer device is not improved, but rather deteriorated.

[0007]

As described above, in the conventional printer apparatus, when printing a large amount of information, the area occupied by the apparatus must be increased.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to print a large amount of information at a time without increasing the area occupied by the apparatus and to improve the operability of the information processing apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer device that is not damaged.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, according to the present invention, a printing unit for printing information from an information processing device on a printing paper, a plurality of the printing papers, and the information processing. A printer device having a printing paper storage unit on which the device can be placed.

[0010]

With this structure, a plurality of printing sheets can be secured in the printing sheet storage section. Therefore, it is possible to print a large amount of information at one time. Further, the area occupied by the printer device can be reduced as compared with the case where the automatic paper feeding device is attached.

Furthermore, since the height (thickness) of the entire apparatus does not increase so much even if the information processing device is placed in the printing paper storage unit, the keyboard is left with the information processing device placed on the printing paper storage unit. -It can be operated.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Each embodiment of the printer device of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 are perspective views showing the printer device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the printer device according to the first embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printer device 1 includes a storage unit 2 (print paper storage unit) having an area of about A4 on which an information processing device 100 such as a book-type word processor or a computer can be mounted. Section) and a printing section 3 having therein various printing devices (described later) such as a photosensitive drum and a fixing device.

Since the height of the placing portion 2 is set smaller than that of the printing portion 3, a step portion 4 is formed, and the step portion 4 is brought into contact with the rear surface of the information processing apparatus 100. Therefore, it is possible to position the information processing device 100.

Further, in this embodiment, the connector 5 is attached to the step portion 4.
Is provided, and an information signal related to printing and the like can be taken in from the information processing apparatus 100 placed and positioned on the placing section 2. Further, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which electric power is taken from the printer device 1 side to the information processing device 100 side via the connector 5.

A cable (not shown) may be interposed between the connector 5 and the printer 1. With this configuration, even when the position of the connector on the information processing device side is different (for example, when there is a connector on the side surface of the information processing device), it is possible to reliably connect the both. The cable is preferably housed in the printing unit 3 so that it can be pulled out as needed.

The placing portion 2 has a height (thickness) of about 10 mm to 15 mm, and a paper stocker 6 for stocking the printing paper group P is provided inside thereof. As shown in FIG. 2, the paper stocker 6 can be pulled out in the front direction (user direction) of the information processing apparatus 100.

A partition wall 6a is provided in the paper stocker 6. By storing the printing paper group P in the partition wall 6a so that the sides of the printing paper group P are aligned with each other, the printing paper group P of various sizes such as A4 or B5 can be stocked depending on the application. Subsequently, a printing process by the printer device 1 will be described. In this embodiment, the electrophotographic method is used for the printing process. The electrophotographic printing process has advantages of high printing speed and excellent print quality.

First, in FIG. 3, one sheet of printing paper p is taken out from the top of the printing paper group P stocked in the paper stocker 6 by the take-out means including the take-out roller 7. Then, it is sent to the nip portion between the photosensitive drum 8 and the transfer roller 9.

The photosensitive drum 8 is rotationally driven at a constant speed in the direction of the arrow in the figure. The surface of the photosensitive drum 8 is coated with a photoconductor layer such as an organic photoconductor that causes a photoconductive phenomenon when irradiated with light.

The surface of the photosensitive drum 8 is uniformly charged by a charging charger 16 which applies a high voltage to a thin wire to cause corona discharge. Charging charger 16 in this embodiment
Negatively charges the surface of the organic photoconductor with a negative charge.

The optical line head 10 irradiates the surface of the photosensitive drum 8 with light so as to correspond to printed characters and images. In this embodiment, an LED light emitting element is used as the optical line head 10.
(Dot / inch) LED heads arranged in a line are used.

Each light emitting element of the optical line head 10 blinks according to the printed character / image information and irradiates the charged surface of the photosensitive drum 8 with light. Then, carriers are generated in the photosensitive layer in the light-irradiated portion, and the charge charged on the surface is eliminated through the ground line connected to the conductive portion of the photosensitive drum 8, and the surface potential is almost 0V. And a positive surface potential difference occurs between the charged surface and the surface. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 8 by this electrostatic action.

The developing device 11 visualizes the electrostatic latent image with a developer such as a toner. In this embodiment, a non-magnetic toner having a particle size of 8 to 10 μm is contained in the developing device 11 and a developing roller 12 made of conductive rubber is negatively biased.
Further, by sliding the surface of the developing roller 12 with the rubber blade 13, the charging toner of a uniform thickness is formed on the surface of the developing roller 12.
Form the layers. The toner charged negatively on the surface of the developing roller 12 comes into contact with the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 8 and adheres only to the light-irradiated portion. This developing method is called a one-component non-magnetic developing method.

The electrostatic latent image, that is, the toner image visualized by the developing device 11 is transferred onto the printing paper p by the transfer roller 9. In this embodiment, the transfer roller 9 is made of conductive rubber or conductive sponge, and the toner image adhering to the photosensitive drum 8 is transferred onto the printing paper p by applying a positive bias.

On the surface of the photosensitive drum 8 after the toner image is transferred, there is no residual toner if the transfer efficiency of the transfer roller 9 is 100%, but in reality, some toner remains. Therefore, in this embodiment, the static elimination lamp using the LED is used.
The surface potential is made uniform by 14 and a memory removal brush 15 which is positively biased, and then charged by a charger 16.
The optical line head 10 blinks according to the character / image information to form an electrostatic latent image, but the slight transfer residual toner remaining in the unexposed area is attracted to the potential difference with the developing roller 12. Collected in the developing device 11. At the same time, toner adheres to the exposed portion. As a result, a simultaneous development cleaning process is adopted in which no character / image memory due to the residual toner is generated without providing an element for cleaning the residual toner after transfer.

On the other hand, the toner image transferred onto the printing paper p is sent to the fixing device 17. The fixing device 17 has a heat insulating structure,
Inside the heat sink, the surface of which was kept at a predetermined temperature by electricity.
A roller 18 and a pressure roller 19 that rotates in contact with the roller 18 are arranged. Since the surface of the printing paper p is conveyed between the heater roller 18 and the pressure contact roller 19, the toner is melted and further pressed onto the surface of the printing paper p to fix the toner image as a permanent character / image. To do. Then, the printing paper p that has passed through the fixing device 17 is ejected from the rear portion of the printing unit 3 by the paper ejection roller 20. The above is a series of printing processes in this embodiment. Next, the operation of the printer device of the present invention will be described.

In this printer device 1, as shown in FIG. 2, a placing portion 2 for placing the information processing device 100 is provided above the paper stocker 6. The thickness of commonly used printing paper is
Since it is about 0.1 mm, 50 sheets of printing paper are placed in the paper stocker 6.
The thickness of the paper stocker 6 can be set to about 10 mm even when the number of sheets is stocked. Therefore, a large amount of information can be printed with one operation.

Further, since the thickness of the paper stocker 6 can be sufficiently suppressed, even if the information processing apparatus 100 is placed above the paper stocker 6 and the keyboard is operated, the height of the entire apparatus ( Thickness does not matter so much. Therefore, the thickness of the paper stocker 6 has almost no influence on the keyboard operation.

The paper stocker 6 can be pulled out in the front direction of the information processing apparatus 100 as described above. As a result, the paper can be fed to the paper stocker 6 on the front side, so that the paper feeding operation can be performed easily even when the paper is used on a narrow desk. Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In the printer device 21 shown in FIG. 4, the placing portion 22 has hinges 23a and 23b at its front end portion,
22a is rotatably connected. A support member 24 is provided on the back side of the placement surface 22a and is locked in the holding groove 25. The holding groove 25 is provided at multiple places,
Mounting surface 22a by locking 24 into an appropriate holding groove
Can be set to a desired angle.

According to such a printer device 21, since the angle of the keyboard of the information processing device 100 can be set arbitrarily, the operability of the information processing device 100 can be further improved. Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

The printer device 31 shown in FIG. 5 is configured such that the mounting portion 32 and the printing portion 33 can be connected / separated.
Further, the mounting surface 32a of the mounting portion 32 is a removable lid.

When replenishing printing paper in such a printer device 31, first, the printer device 31 is placed on the mounting portion 32.
To separate. Next, remove the mounting surface 32a from the mounting section 32,
Add printing paper. In other words, in this embodiment, the placing section 32 itself constitutes a paper stocker. Although the respective embodiments of the printer apparatus according to the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.

For example, although the electrophotographic method is used for the printing process in the present embodiment, it can be applied to a printer that employs another printing method such as an ink jet method and a thermal transfer recording method. In addition to the optical line head using LEDs and the electrophotographic recording using the one-component non-magnetic developing method, for example, exposure by laser scanning or two-component developing method may be adopted. Further, in the above embodiment, the printing section is provided behind the information processing apparatus,
It is also possible to design so that the printing unit is arranged beside the information processing apparatus.

Further, in the present embodiment, the printing paper is discharged horizontally from the rear portion of the printing section, but it is of course possible to adopt a structure in which the paper discharging direction is upward or downward. is there.

[0037]

As described above, according to the printer device of the present invention, since a plurality of printing sheets can be secured in the printing sheet storage section, it is possible to print a large amount of information at one time. Further, the area occupied by the printer device can be reduced as compared with the case where the automatic paper feeding device is attached. Furthermore, since the height (thickness) of the entire apparatus does not increase so much even if the information processing device is placed in the printing paper storage unit, the keyboard can be operated while the information processing device is placed in the printing paper storage unit. You can

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a printer device according to a first embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a printer device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, in which an information processing device is mounted.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the printer device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a printer device according to a second embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a printer device according to a third embodiment of the invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,21,31 Printer device 2,22,32 loading section (printing paper storage section) 3,33 Printing department 5 connector 6 Paper stocker 100 Information processing equipment P, p printing paper

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Hideki Nukada             1st Komukai Toshiba-cho, Sachi-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa             Inside the Toshiba Research Institute (72) Inventor Yuji Kubota             1st Komukai Toshiba-cho, Sachi-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa             Inside the Toshiba Research Institute

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A printing unit that prints information from an information processing device on a printing sheet, and a printing sheet storage unit that stores a plurality of the printing sheets and on which the information processing device can be placed. Printer device. 2. The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising a connector for receiving an information signal from the information processing device. 3. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the printing paper storage portion includes means for changing an angle of a mounting surface of the information processing device. 4. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit and the printing paper storage unit are configured to be connectable / separable.