JPH0611793Y2 - Thermal head support for small printers - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a thermal head supporting device for a small-sized printer used manually.

[Prior Art and Problems Thereof] Generally, a thermal transfer printer is often used for a printer having a printing function such as a word processor.

However, conventionally, in the thermal transfer type printer of this type, the print head is applied to the printing paper fed along the platen to perform printing. As such a head, a flat thermal head is used. Is used.

Such a thermal head is supported by a supporting device as shown in FIG. That is, in this device, a flat thermal head 3 is rotatably provided on a shaft 2 arranged along the platen 1, and such a thermal head 3 is brought into contact with the platen 1 by a biasing force of a spring (not shown). Let
Printing is performed on the paper surface on the platen 1.

By the way, recently, as a printer, a manual thermal transfer type printer has been considered which performs printing by moving a print head side along a print sheet. That is, in such a printer, the printer itself is held by hand and the print head is applied to the paper surface, and in this state, the print head is moved along the paper.

However, with such a manual operation, it is difficult to keep the contact angle of the print head with respect to the paper surface, particularly the inclination in the direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the print head constant, so that it is difficult to maintain the same angle as in the conventional head support device. The configuration in which the head is contacted only in the direction has a drawback that the head surface cannot be stably applied to the paper surface and good printing cannot be expected.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is directed to a small-sized printer in which a thermal head can be always brought into contact with a print medium in a stable state and good printing can be expected. An object is to provide a thermal head support device.

According to the present invention, according to the present invention, a head support member is movably provided in the guide member in the connecting direction connecting the printer body and the print medium, and the head support member is arranged from the printer body side to the print medium side. While being elastically urged by an elastic member,
The main point is that a thermal head is rotatably attached to the head support member in a direction orthogonal to the connection direction.

[Embodiment of the Invention] An embodiment of the invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a manual printer having a word processor function. In the figure, 10 is the printer body,
The main body 10 has a relatively thick rectangular shape. An end surface type thermal head HA is provided on one end surface of the printer body 10.

A mode selector switch 11 is provided on the side surface of the printer body 10.
Is provided. In this case, the mode selector switch 11
Power off (OFF) mode, word processor (WP) mode,
The printer (PR) mode can be switched. In the illustrated example, the printer (PR) mode is set.

In addition, a key input unit 12 and a display unit 13 are provided on the front surface of the printer body 10. Here, the key input unit 12
Is an input key 1 for "A"-"N", "Space", etc.
4, edit key 15 such as "insert", "delete", "invariant", "shift", "execute" key 16, "←" and "→" cursor keys 17, "conversion" for kanji conversion Key 1
8. “Next gen” key 19 and display 13 for selecting the next candidate
Selection key 2 to select multiple next candidates displayed in
0a to 20f, and "PRIN" for printing operation.
It has a “T” key 21. On the other hand, the display unit 13 displays the input content input by the input key 14 and edited by the editing key 15. Further, the display unit 13 also displays a plurality of next candidates facing the selection keys 20a to 20f when selecting the next candidate.

And such a printer body 10 is "PRINT".
Printing is performed on the paper A by pressing the key 21 and moving the end surface of the thermal head HA against the paper A in the X direction.

Next, FIG. 2 shows a cassette loading chamber 30 of a manual printer, and a ribbon cassette 40 is loaded in such a cassette loading chamber 30. In the figure, 31 and 32 are rollers, and these rollers 31 and 32 are the printer main body 10.
To smoothly move the sheet along the surface of the sheet A. A print head, here, an end surface type thermal head HA is provided between the rollers 31 and 32.

The thermal head HA is supported by the head support device 33 according to this invention. In this case, such a head supporting device 33, as shown in FIG.
A base body 331 is provided on the bottom surface of 0. The base body 331 is provided on the arm 33 in a direction perpendicular to the bottom surface of the cassette loading chamber 30.
1a is formed. An FPC retainer 332 having an arm portion is provided on the upper surface of the arm portion 331a so as to sandwich an FPC (flexible printed circuit board) 337 described later. Further, the arm portion 331a is attached to the FPC retainer 332.
The arm width is larger than the arm width and the end face is curved, and the FPC 337 is laid along the curved portion. Furthermore, a pair of guide rods 333a and 333b are implanted as guide members in the arm portion 331a. These guide bars 333a and 333b are arranged in parallel along the bottom surface of the cassette loading chamber 30. And these guide rods 33
A head support member 334 is provided so as to be linearly movable in the vertical direction along 3a and 333b. In this case, the guide rod 3
Compression springs 335a and 335b are provided at 33a and 333b, and the head support member 334 is always biased downward. Here, 333c is a stopper that regulates the downward movement of the head support member 334. In addition, the head support member 334 includes the guide rod 3
Through holes 334a and groove portions 334b, through which 33a and 333b are inserted, are provided, and the guide rods 333a and 333 are provided.
The positioning between b is made easy.

The head support member 334 has a through hole 334c at the center. Then, the end surface type thermal head HA is rotatably supported in the through hole 334c. In this case, the plate surface of the thermal head HA has a screw hole ha. Then, the rotary shaft 336 is inserted through the through hole 334c of the head support member 334, and the screw portion 336a at the tip of the rotary shaft 336 is screwed into the screw hole ha on the plate surface of the thermal head HA. As a result, the thermal head HA
Is supported by the head support device 33 and can move up and down along with the head support member 334 along the guide rods 333a, 333b due to the biasing force of the compression springs 335a, 335b. Rotating shaft 33
The thermal head HA is rotatably supported in the direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the thermal head HA.

Incidentally, 337 is an FPC for giving a control signal to the thermal head HA, and this FPC 337 is the above-mentioned FP.
It is fixed by the C presser 332 and connected to an electric circuit (not shown) in the printer body 10. In this case, FPC33
7 is laid through the curved portion of the arm portion 331a of the base body 331, so that the FPC 3 can be moved with respect to the movement of the thermal head HA.
No load is applied to cause damage to 37.

Returning to FIG. 2, the roller 31 is integrally formed with the gear 311 and the rotation of the roller 31 is transmitted from the gear 311 to the gear 35 via the gear 34. This gear 35
A gear 351 having a larger diameter than this is integrally provided, and the rotation of the gear 351 is transmitted to the movement amount detection unit 36 and is transmitted to the ribbon winding unit 38 via the gear 37. In this case, these gears 311, 34, 35, 37
Are arranged along the bottom surface of the cassette loading chamber 30.

The movement amount detection unit 36 is composed of a rotary encoder, and has an encoder disc 361 having a large number of slits formed at equal intervals along the peripheral edge thereof, and a light emitting / receiving unit 362 for detecting the slits of the disc 361. Here, the light emitting / receiving unit 362 has an LED and a photo sensor arranged so as to face each other via a slit of the encoder disk 361, and the light from the LED is received by the photo sensor via the slit. ing. And
The amount of movement of the printer body 10 is detected from the rotation of the encoder disk 361. The encoder disk 361 is adapted to rotate by 6.4 slits for 6.4 dots / mm and 8 slits for 8 dots / mm with respect to the rotation of the roller 31 per mm.

Further, the ribbon winding unit 38 has a gear 381 to which a rotational force is applied by the gear 37 and a winding drive shaft 382 connected to the gear 381 via a clutch mechanism (not shown). Here, the winding drive shaft 382 has an engaging portion 383 at a tip end thereof, which is engaged with a winding shaft 42 of the ribbon cassette 40 described later.

Reference numeral 39 denotes an opening / closing lid of the cassette loading chamber 30, which is a hinge 3
It is supported by 91 so that it can be opened and closed.

Next, FIG. 4 shows a ribbon cassette 40 loaded in such a cassette loading chamber 30. In the figure, reference numeral 41 denotes a cassette body, and the cassette body 41 has an opening 41a into which the above-mentioned end surface type thermal head HA is inserted. An ink ribbon take-up shaft 42 is provided above the opening 41a. The winding shaft 42 has a tubular shape, and is engaged with the engaging portion 383 of the winding driving shaft 382 of the winding portion 38 to be rotationally driven. The ink ribbon delivery shaft 4 is moved in the moving direction of the printer body 10 with respect to the opening 41a.
3 are installed side by side. Then, the ink ribbon 44 from the delivery shaft 43 is transferred to the thermal head HA of the opening 41a.
It is configured to be delivered to the winding shaft 42 via the end surface of the.
In this case, the delivery shaft 43 is rotatably supported by the cassette body 41 so that the ink ribbon 44 can be delivered smoothly. 441 and 442 are ribbon cassettes 40.
Is a fixing tool for fixing the to the predetermined position of the cassette loading chamber 30.

Next, the operation of the embodiment thus configured will be described.

First, create a sentence using the word processing function. in this case,
The mode selector switch 11 is switched to the word processor (WP) mode. Then, while inputting characters with the input keys 14 and editing with the editing keys 15, sentences are created. Here, in the process of creating a document, when performing Kanji conversion, when the "conversion" key 18 is operated, a plurality of next candidates are displayed on the display unit 13. In this case, if there is no corresponding next candidate, operate the "next symptom" key 19,
The next plurality of next candidates are displayed on the display unit 13. Then, if there is a corresponding next candidate, a desired Kanji conversion is performed by operating the "execute" key 16 together with the corresponding keys 20a to 20f.

Next, a case of creating a document and printing the document will be described. In this case, the ribbon cassette 40 is loaded in the cassette loading chamber 30. Here, the thermal head HA is accommodated in the opening 41a of the cassette body 41, and the engaging portion 383 of the winding drive shaft 382 of the winding portion 38 is engaged with the winding shaft 42.

From this state, while pressing the "PRINT" key 21 of the printer body 10 and moving the thermal head HA to the paper A in the X direction, the printer body 10 is smoothly moved on the paper A by the rollers 31 and 32. It
Then, the rotation of the roller 31 is transmitted from the gear 311 to the gear 35 via the gear 34, and further, the rotation of the gear 351 formed integrally with the gear 35 is transmitted to the movement amount detection unit 36 and the gear 37. It is transmitted to the winding unit 38 via the.

As a result, when the encoder disc 361 is rotated in the movement amount detection unit 36, the slits cause the slits to emit light.
Detected by 62, the amount of movement of the printer body 10 is detected, print data to the thermal head HA is controlled according to this output, and printing on the paper A is executed. In this case, the ink ribbon 44 interposed between the thermal head HA and the paper A has a larger frictional resistance with the paper A than the frictional resistance with the thermal head HA. Depending on, it comes to be pulled out to the opposite side to the moving direction. At the same time, when the rotational force of the gear 37 is applied to the gear 381 of the winding section 38, the rotational force of the gear 381 is applied to the winding drive shaft 382 via the clutch mechanism, and the engaging section 383 is engaged. Through this, the winding shaft 42 of the ribbon cassette 40 is driven, and the ribbon 44 is wound around the winding shaft 42.

By the way, in such a small printer, printing is performed by applying the thermal head HA to the printing paper A and moving it along the surface of the printing paper A as described above.
In this case, the thermal head HA includes the head support device 33.
And the head support member 334 together with the guide rod 33 under the biasing force of the compression springs 335a and 335b.
It can move up and down along 3a and 333b, and is rotatably supported by the head support device 33 via a rotary shaft 336 in a direction orthogonal to the direction in which the thermal head HA is moved. As a result, when the thermal head HA is moved along the surface A of the paper, it is always brought into contact with the surface A of the paper with a constant pressing force due to the vertical movement with respect to the surface A of the paper and the biasing force of the compression springs 335a and 335b. Moreover,
During this movement, even if the head HA tilts in the direction perpendicular to the movement direction, the rotation of the head HA itself causes the paper A to rotate.
Since it is possible to maintain a constant posture with respect to the surface, that is, it is possible to maintain the followability with respect to the paper A surface,
The head HA can always be applied to the surface of the sheet A in a stable state, and good printing can be performed.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and can be implemented by appropriately modifying it without changing the gist.

[Advantages of the Invention] According to the present invention, the head support member is movably provided in the guide member in the connecting direction connecting the printer body and the print medium, and the head support member is arranged from the printer body side to the print medium side. While being elastically urged by an elastic member,
Since the thermal head is attached to the head support member so as to be rotatable in the direction perpendicular to the connection direction, the head support member is movable in the connection direction connecting the printer body and the print medium. The thermal head can be smoothly and rotatably supported in the direction orthogonal to the connection direction regardless of the movement of the head support member in the connection direction.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view showing a manual printer to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a cassette loading chamber of the manual printer, and FIG. 3 is a head supporting device of the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the ink ribbon cassette of the same embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional thermal head supporting device. 10 ... Printer main body, 11 ... Mode selection switch,
12 …… Key input section, 13 …… Display section, 21 …… 「PR
"INT" key, HA ... Edge thermal head, A ...
Paper, 30 ... Cassette loading chamber, 31, 32 ... Roller, 33 ... Head support device, 331 ... Base body, 332
...... EPC presser foot 333a, 333b …… Guide rod, 3
34 ... Head support member, 335a, 335b ... Compression spring, 336 ... Rotating shaft, 337 ... FPC, 36 ...
Moving amount detecting section, 38 ... Winding section, 40 ... Ribbon cassette, 41 ... Cassette body, 41a ... Opening section, 42 ...
... Ink ribbon winding shaft, 43 ... Ink ribbon feeding shaft,
44 ... Ink ribbon.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A small printer for performing printing by moving a thermal head on a print medium while bringing the thermal head into contact with the print medium, and a printer body mounted on the print medium, and the printer body. A base member fixed to the base member, a guide member provided on the base member, a head supporting member movably provided with respect to the guide member in a connecting direction connecting the printer body and the print medium, and a head supporting member. An elastic member that elastically urges the member from the printer body side to the print medium side, and a guide member provided to prevent the head support member from moving due to the elastic urging of the elastic member. A movement preventing member; and a mounting member for mounting the thermal head on the head supporting member so as to be rotatable in a direction orthogonal to the connection direction. Thermal head support device for small printers.