JPH0596773A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the corrosion of a recording head caused by an electrochemical react ion. CONSTITUTION:In the construction of a recorder, a recording head 8 in a retracted state comes into contact with a projected part 12a of a conductive carriage cover 12, and electric charges are emitted from the cover 12 to the ground of a device body through an earth plate 14 and an earth cable 15a. In addition, a leaf spring 20 to come into contact with an ink layer is mounted on an ink ribbon cassette A, whereby electric charges are emitted from the leaf spring 20 to the ground through an earth spring 21, the carriage cover 12, and the earth cable 15a when the cassette A is loaded. Therefore, the recording head 8 and an ink ribbon 1 can be electrically discharged without wiring a lead wire within a carriage.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus for recording on a recording material, and more particularly to a recording apparatus capable of preventing corrosion of the recording head due to an electrochemical reaction and extending the life of the head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Today, various recording apparatuses have been developed. Among them, a thermal recording apparatus that uses a recording head that generates heat in accordance with an image signal is either a thermal recording system or a thermal transfer recording system. It is widely used because it can be easily miniaturized and has excellent noise reduction.

When these thermal recording devices have been used for a long time, the electrodes of the recording head may be destroyed and the heating resistors may not be energized. There are various causes for this. For example, in a thermal transfer recording apparatus, when the ink ribbon and the recording head come into contact with each other, an electric charge charged in the ink ribbon flows into the recording head, and an electrochemical reaction occurs in the head electrode portion. This is because the head electrode is corroded and cut. This is also because in the thermal recording apparatus, electric charges due to frictional charging between the recording head and the thermal paper flow into the recording head, and the head electrode is corroded and cut in the same manner as described above. Further, it is considered that not only the above-mentioned charging, but also electrostatic discharge occurs from the recording paper or the finger of the user to the recording head, which also causes an electrochemical reaction to corrode and cut the electrode.

In order to prevent this, for example, the surface charge of the ink ribbon is released to the carriage, or via the ground of a cable connected to the recording head.

[0005]

However, it is not possible to sufficiently eliminate the static electricity by only letting the charge escape to the carriage, and it is not possible to completely prevent the corrosive cutting of the electrode due to the electrochemical reaction.

In addition, in the structure in which the cable escapes through the gland, the cost of the cable is high, and therefore the shape of the cable is limited to a shape that is advantageous for material removal, and the mounting position of the conductive member connected with the cable is limited. Is determined by prioritizing connection with a cable whose shape is limited. For this reason, the position of the conductive member in the cassette is limited, and the ink ribbon pancake in the cassette cannot be sufficiently secured, or the lead wire connecting the conductive member and the cable in the carriage is not provided. It had to be routed around, hindering the miniaturization of the carriage.

Further, the charge removal of the recording head is not sufficient just by removing the charge of the ink ribbon, and if the static electricity that has fallen on the head is discharged to the surroundings, noise may be generated in the electric circuit of the main body and the device may malfunction. There is.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus capable of completely preventing an electrochemical reaction exerted on a recording head without arranging lead wires inside a carriage.

[0009]

Means for Solving the Problems A first means for achieving the above object is to generate heat in accordance with an image signal,
A recording head that can swing according to a recording operation, a carriage that mounts the recording head and is movable in the recording direction, a conductive plate member attached to the carriage, and the conductive plate member and the apparatus main body. It is characterized in that it has a connecting member for electrically connecting to the ground portion, and is configured such that the conductive plate member and the recording head come into contact with each other when the recording head is in the non-recording state.

As a second means, a cassette that accommodates a transfer medium and that has a contact member that contacts the transfer layer side of the transfer medium, and the transfer layer of the transfer medium are selectively transferred onto a recording material. A recording head for mounting the recording head, a carriage that is loaded with the cassette and is movable in the recording direction, a conductive plate member attached to the carriage, the conductive plate member, and the apparatus main body. It is characterized in that it has a connecting member for electrically connecting to a grounding part, and the contact member comes into contact with the conductive member when the cassette is loaded in the carriage.

[0011]

In the first means, when the recording head is in the non-recording state, it contacts the conductive plate member. Therefore,
Since the electric charge charged in the recording head is removed from the conductive plate member to the ground portion via the connecting member, corrosion cutting due to an electrochemical reaction of the recording head is prevented. Further, in the second means, the charges charged on the transfer medium are discharged from the contact member to the ground portion via the conductive plate member and further the connecting member.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention in which the above means is applied to a thermal transfer recording apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS.
1 is a perspective view of the thermal transfer recording apparatus, FIG. 2 is an internal view of the ink ribbon cassette, and FIG.

First, the overall construction of the apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. A is an ink ribbon cassette that contains an ink ribbon 1 that is a transfer medium, and is a state in which an ink ribbon 1 in which a thermal transfer ink is applied in layers on a long base film is wound around a supply reel 2a and a take-up reel 2b. It is stored in.

Reference numeral B is a main body of the apparatus for carrying out thermal transfer recording by loading the ink ribbon cassette A, and the carriage 3
The engaging recess 3a and the protruding portion 3b of the cassette A are fitted into the engaging pin 4a and the recess 4b of the cassette A, respectively, and the cassette A is loaded on the carriage 3. When the cassette A is further loaded on the carriage 3, the take-up shaft 5 provided so as to project on the carriage 3 engages with the take-up reel 2b, and the arrow c
The supply reel 2a is driven by the drive of the winding shaft 5 that rotates in the direction.
The ink ribbon 1 pulled out from the reel is wound on the take-up reel 2b. The carriage 3 is connected to a timing belt 6c that is stretched between pulleys 6a and 6b. When the carriage motor 6d connected to the pulley 6a rotates forward and backward, the carriage 3 reciprocates along the carriage rail 7. Is configured.

Further, the carriage 3 is equipped with a recording head 8 in which a plurality of heating elements 8a which individually generate heat according to an image signal are arranged in a vertical line. The recording head 8 swings in the directions of arrows a and b in FIG. 1 by driving a solenoid (not shown). That is, at the time of recording, the solenoid is turned on, so that the recording head 8 heads down in the direction of arrow a, and the ink layer surface of the ink ribbon 1 and the back surface of the platen 9
The recording material 10 supported by is pressed. On the other hand, when the recording is not performed, the solenoid is turned off, so that the recording head 8
Is moved up in the direction of arrow b by a spring (not shown) to separate from the ink ribbon 1.

Therefore, during recording, the carriage 8 moves in the direction of arrow d in FIG. 1 with the recording head 8 head down, and the heating element 8a generates heat in response to an image signal in synchronization with this movement, and the ink ribbon 1 is supply reel 2
The ink is sequentially drawn from a and heated in an image pattern, and the ink melted by this heating is transferred and recorded on the recording material 10. When one line recording is completed in this way,
While the recording head 8 is moving up, the carriage 3 returns to the home position, and the conveying roller pairs 11a, 11
b rotates to convey the recording material 10 by one line in the direction of arrow e in FIG. 1, and recording is performed for the next and subsequent lines in the same manner as described above.

Next, the static elimination structure of the recording head 8 in the recording apparatus will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, a carriage cover that is a conductive plate member is provided on the upper surface of the carriage 3.
12 is attached with screws 13a. The carriage cover 12 covers substantially the entire upper surface of the carriage 3 and has a convex portion 12a formed at a position facing the recording head 8. The relationship between the convex portion 12a and the recording head 8 is
When the recording head 8 is in a non-recording state, that is, when the head is up, the recording head 8 comes into contact with the convex portion 12a, and when the head is down, it is separated from the convex portion 12a. When the recording head 8 goes down, the two 8 and 12a are separated from each other to the extent that static electricity is not released.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, a ground plate 14 made of a conductive elastic member is mounted in the carriage 3 with screws 13b. One end of the ground plate 14 is configured to come into contact with the back surface of the carriage cover 12, and the other end is a solder exposed surface of a ground cable 15a branched from a signal cable 15 for transmitting an image signal to the recording head 8. It is screwed so that it will come into contact.

The earth cable 15a constitutes a connecting member for releasing electric charges to the ground.
It is integrated with 15. That is, the signal cable 15 is formed by patterning the image signal transmission line and the ground line, the end portion of which is connected to the connector 17 of the electric circuit board 16, and the image signal transmission line is supplied with the head energization signal and grounded. The wire is grounded to the ground of the board 16.

Therefore, when static electricity is blown to the recording head 8 from the user's finger or the like, the electric charge is generated from the carriage cover 12 via the ground plate 14 and the ground cable 15a when the recording head 8 heads up. Is released to. Therefore, the charge of the recording head 8 is surely removed,
No secondary discharge will occur.

Next, a structure for discharging the electric charges charged in the ink ribbon 1 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the ink ribbon 1 is guided from the supply reel 2a to the guide rollers 18a to 18f, exposed once in the cassette recess 19, and then guided by the guide rollers 18g to 18i and wound around the take-up reel 2b. When the ink ribbon 1 is transferred to the recording material 10 by the heat generated by the recording head 8, the ink layer of the transferred portion is removed, and the ink layer of the removed portion is divided. Further, although the ink layer may be applied in a plurality of layers, the melt-divided ink layer is melted and mixed, and the electrical characteristics of the ink layer surface portion are changed to such an extent that the charged electric charge is discharged. The conductivity is improved.

Therefore, in this embodiment, a conductive leaf spring 20 constituting a contact member is formed on the ink layer surface side of the ink ribbon 1 after recording, that is, between the guide rollers 18g and 18h as shown in FIG. Is attached. The leaf spring 20 has its tip bent in a mountain shape, and the bent crest 20a is in contact with the ink layer side of the ink ribbon 1 over the entire width.

The leaf spring 20 is exposed from the bottom surface of the cassette,
When the cassette A is loaded on the carriage 3, the exposed portion comes into contact with the bent crests 21a of the conductive earth spring 21 screwed to the carriage cover 12, as shown in FIG.

Therefore, the electric charge charged on the ink ribbon 1 is discharged from the leaf spring 20 through the earth spring 21 and the carriage cover 12 to the ground of the apparatus through the earth cable 15a. This can prevent the electric charge charged on the ink ribbon 1 from adversely affecting the recording head 8.

In the above-described embodiment, the ground spring 21 is fixed to the carriage cover 12 with a screw. However, this does not necessarily have to be a separate component, and is constructed integrally with the carriage cover 12. Is also good.

Similarly, the ground plate 14 that contacts the carriage cover 12 does not necessarily have to be a separate component.
May be integrated with the carriage cover 12.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the charge removal of the recording head 8 and the charge removal of the ink ribbon 1 are performed by different configurations, but a sufficient charge removal effect can be obtained by only one of these configurations. You can Therefore, the static elimination structure of the recording head 8 is effective not only for use in a thermal transfer recording apparatus but also for a thermal recording apparatus.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the electric charge is discharged from the conductive plate member attached to the carriage through the connecting member, it is not necessary to provide a lead wire for discharging electricity in the carriage. Moreover, a signal cable or the like can be freely connected, which does not hinder the downsizing of the device. Further, since the contact with the conductive plate member is made only when the recording head is in the non-recording state, no load is applied to the operation of the recording head. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the recording head from being damaged by an electrochemical reaction with a low-cost and compact structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective explanatory view of a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an internal configuration of an ink ribbon cassette.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a main part of a static elimination configuration of an ink ribbon.

[Explanation of symbols]

A ... Ink ribbon cassette B ... Recording device 1 ... Ink ribbon 2a ... Supply reel 2b ... Take-up reel 3 ... Carriage 3a ... Locking recess 3b ... Projection 4a ... Locking pin 4b ... Recess 5 ... Winding shaft 6a, 6b ... Pulley 6
c ... Belt 6d ... Carriage motor 7 ... Carriage rail 8 ... Recording head 8a ... Heating element 9 ... Platen 10 ... Recording material 11a, 11b ... Conveying roller 12 ... Carriage cover 12a ... Projection 13 ... Screw 14 ... Ground plate
15 ... Signal cable 15a ... Ground cable 16 ... Electric circuit board 17 ... Connector 18a-18i ... Guide roller 19 ...
Cassette recess 20 ... Leaf spring 20a ... Bend peak 21 ... Earth spring 21a ... Bend peak

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A recording head that generates heat in response to an image signal and can swing in response to a recording operation; a carriage that mounts the recording head and is movable in a recording direction; and a conductive member attached to the carriage. A plate member, and a connecting member that electrically connects the conductive plate member and a ground portion of the apparatus body, and when the recording head is in a non-recording state, the conductive plate member and the recording head A recording device, characterized in that it is configured so as to come into contact with each other. 2. A cassette having a contact member for accommodating a transfer medium and contacting a transfer layer side of the transfer medium, and a recording head for selectively transferring the transfer layer of the transfer medium onto a recording material. A carriage that mounts the recording head, loads the cassette, and is movable in the recording direction, a conductive plate member attached to the carriage, an electrically conductive plate member, and a ground portion of the apparatus main body are electrically connected. And a connecting member that is connected to the recording medium, and the contacting member contacts the conductive member when the cassette is loaded in the carriage.