JPH06143809A - Heat sensitive recording material and heat sensitive printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To the tip end of a heat sensitive recording material to pass enable through a paper transportation path, and also enable the thermal head to be cleaned automatically by providing a movable leader on the optical tip end of a rolled heat sensitive recording material. CONSTITUTION:The color heat sensitive recording material 10 is wound and made into a rolled shape. A leader 12 is connected to the tip end of the heat sensitive recording material 10 via a sliced tape 11. The leader 12 is set with a longer length than the distance of a pair of transportation rollers so as to be positively transported within the paper transportation of a heat sensitive printer. The leader 12 is made of a black plastic sheet mixed with black dyestuff as a light shielding material, and is a returnable member having a light shielding property and movability. By this construction, even a wide and thin heat sensitive recording material can be set on the transportation path without the occurrence of creases or crimps.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal recording material and a thermal printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Thermal printers include a thermal recording type and a thermal transfer recording type. However, the thermal recording type tends to be widely used because it does not generate waste and has a low running cost. Most facsimiles incorporate a monochrome thermal recording device.

[0003]

In the above thermal printer, when the recording material is set in the sheet conveying path, the leading end of the recording material must be passed through the conveying path. However, when the recording material to be used is wide and thin, there is a problem that wrinkles or folds occur when the leading end is passed through the transport path, making it difficult to set. Further, since the thermal head becomes dirty and hardens, it needs to be cleaned from time to time. In addition, although this cleaning needs to be performed regularly, in practice, there are problems that the cleaning is forgotten and the cleaning work is performed separately from the printing, which is troublesome. Further, if the recording material has a photosensitive property, when exposed to external light before use, there is a risk that the first recording surface will be exposed to light, making it unusable.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to easily pass the leading end of a roll-shaped heat-sensitive recording material through a sheet conveying path, and also to automatically clean the thermal head. An object of the present invention is to provide a heat-sensitive recording material and a heat-sensitive printer which can be used. Also provided is a material which is excellent in storability and can be heat-sensitively recorded in a fixed state without waste.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention described in claim 1 is a thermosensitive recording material provided with a flexible leader at the tip thereof. According to the invention described in claim 2, the reader is constituted by a light shielding member. According to the third aspect of the invention, the leader is provided with the polishing layer on the same surface as the surface on which the thermal recording layer of the thermal recording material is provided. In the invention described in claim 4, the leader is constituted by a polishing sheet.

A thermal printer according to a fifth aspect of the invention comprises means for detecting the leader of the thermal recording material and means for pressing the thermal head against the leader when the leader is detected. Further, in the heat-sensitive recording material according to claim 6, the light-shielding region of the reader has a wavelength of 3
It is in or included in the ultraviolet region of 00 to 450 nm.

[0007]

1 is a perspective view showing a heat-sensitive recording material of the present invention. The color thermosensitive recording material 10 is wound into a roll form. A leader 12 is connected to the tip of the thermosensitive recording material 10 via a splice tape 11. The reader 12 is set to have a length equal to or greater than the interval between the pair of transport rollers so that the reader 12 can be reliably transported by the pair of transport rollers in the sheet transport path of the thermal printer described later.
The leader 12 uses a black plastic sheet in which a black dye is mixed as a light shielding material, and is a flexible member having light shielding properties and flexibility.

FIG. 2 shows a reader 1 according to another embodiment of the present invention.
5 is shown. A base sheet 13 made of a black plastic sheet in which the same black dye as that of the leader 12 is mixed is provided with a polishing layer 14 having an abrasive. Here, the polishing layer 14 is used as the thermal recording material 10.
Is provided on the same surface as the surface on which the heat-sensitive recording layer is provided.

FIG. 3 shows a leader 15 having the above polishing layer.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a color thermal printer using the color thermal recording material 20 joined by the splice tape 16 in FIG. The leader 15 is drawn into the transport path by the first transport roller pair 31 and sent to the second transport roller pair 32. A platen roller 35 is provided between the pair of transport rollers 31 and 32, and a vertical thermal head 36 is provided above the platen roller 35. A heating element array 40 is provided at the lower end of the thermal head 36. As is well known, the heating element array 40 is formed long in the direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the thermal recording material 20, and is composed of a plurality of heating elements arranged in a line.

The thermal head 36 is provided with a pressing portion 41. Further, a polishing mark detection sensor 42 is provided on the upstream side of the thermal head 36, which detects a polishing mark formed on the reader 15 and sends this mark detection signal to the pressing portion 41. The pressing portion 41 lowers the thermal head 36 at the time of detecting a polishing mark and at the time of thermal recording so that the thermal head 36 is lowered to the reader 15 or the thermal recording material 20.
Press on. The polishing mark allows the printer side to detect that the reader 15 has a polishing function, and is composed of, for example, a small hole.

A magenta fixing lamp 45 is provided between the first conveying roller pair 31 and the platen roller 35. Further, a yellow fixing lamp 46 is provided between the platen roller 35 and the second conveying roller pair 32. The yellow fixing lamp 46 has an emission peak of about 420.
The magenta fixing lamp 22 is an ultraviolet lamp having an emission peak of about 365 nm. Since each of the lamps 45 and 46 is arranged in the lamp house 47, the thermal head 36 reliably shields the light. Therefore, the thermosensitive coloring layer of that color is not optically fixed before thermal recording.

A cutter 50 is provided on the outlet side of the second conveying roller pair 32. The cutter 50 cuts the thermosensitive recording material 20 pulled out from the roll form into a sheet shape, and discharges it to the paper receiving plate 51. Further, when setting the thermal recording material 20, the reader 15 is set to the thermal recording material 2
Separate from 0.

The conveying roller pairs 31 and 32 are adapted to rotate forward and backward in synchronization, whereby the thermal recording material 20 is reciprocated at the thermal head 36, and 3
It heat-sensitively records and optically fixes yellow, magenta, and cyan images using the pass method.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the color thermosensitive recording material 20. The cyan thermosensitive coloring layer 6 is formed on the support 61.
2, magenta thermosensitive coloring layer 63, yellow thermosensitive coloring layer 6
4 and the protective layer 65 are sequentially provided in layers. These thermosensitive coloring layers 62 to 64 are layered from the surface in the order of thermal recording. For example, in the case of thermal recording in the order of magenta, yellow, and cyan, the yellow thermosensitive coloring layer and the magenta thermosensitive coloring layer. And are interchanged. These thermosensitive coloring layers 62 to 64 have higher coloring thermal energy as they are deeper, so that the three coloring thermosensitive coloring layers 62 to 64 can be selectively recorded by changing the coloring thermal energy.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. When the thermal recording material 20 is set, it is put in the storage portion 55. Then, the reader 15 is inserted into the nip portion of the pair of conveying rollers 31 while the pair of conveying rollers 31 and 32 are rotated. As a result, the leader 15 causes the conveyance roller pair 31
And is sent to the platen roller 35 side. Since the leader 15 is made of a flexible plastic sheet, it is strong and does not wrinkle or break during transportation.

While the leader 15 is being sent, the leader 15
When the polishing mark is detected, the thermal head 36 is lowered by the pressing portion 41. As a result, the heating element array 40 is pressed against the polishing layer 14 (see FIG. 2) of the reader 15, and the dirt attached to the heating element array 40 is removed by polishing and cleaned. When the leader 15 comes out of the cutter 50, the cutter 50 operates to separate the leader 15 from the thermal recording material 20. This completes the setting of the thermal recording material 20 in the printer.

In the above embodiment, the polishing layer 14 is layered on the base member 13 to form the leader 15 having a polishing function. However, instead of this, the leader may be formed of a polishing sheet. Further, a polishing sheet may be provided between the leader and the heat-sensitive recording material. Alternatively, the transparent leader, the polishing sheet, and the light shielding sheet may be sequentially joined and then joined to the heat-sensitive recording material. Further, in the above embodiment, the leader 15 is attached to the thermal recording material 10, 2 with the splice tape 12.
In addition to this, the leader 15 may be bonded to the heat-sensitive recording materials 10 and 20 by using an adhesive agent.
Further, when cleaning the thermal head 36 with the polishing layer, the reader 15 may be appropriately reciprocated to ensure the cleaning.

Further, in the above embodiment, the thermal head 3
A yellow fixing lamp 46 is arranged on the downstream side of 6 and a magenta fixing lamp 45 is arranged on the upstream side of the thermal head 36 so that magenta thermosensitive recording and optical fixing are performed when the thermosensitive recording material 20 is returned. An optical fixing lamp and a yellow optical fixing lamp may be arranged on the downstream side of the thermal head, and magenta thermosensitive recording and optical fixing may be performed in sequence. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the color thermal recording is performed by the 3-pass 1-head method, but in addition to this, a thermal head may be provided for each color to perform the color thermal recording by the 1-pass 3-head method. Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the color thermal recording type is used, but the monochrome thermal recording type and the thermal transfer type may be applied.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since a flexible leader is provided at the tip of the roll-shaped heat-sensitive recording material, since this heat-sensitive leader guides the heat-sensitive recording material to the conveyance path of the printer, even if it is wide and thin, It can be reliably set on the transport path without causing wrinkles or breaks.

Further, since the leader is made of the light-shielding material, the heat-sensitive recording material is stored in the light-shielded state by winding the leader around the heat-sensitive recording material. As a result, even if it is left in the state before use, the heat-sensitive recording material having the property of being fixed by ultraviolet rays without being fixed or exposed by sunlight or the like can be surely shielded from light.

In addition, the leader is provided with a polishing layer,
Since a means for detecting the reader on the thermal printer side and a means for pressing the thermal head against the polishing layer at the time of detecting the reader are provided, by pressing the thermal head against the polishing layer when setting the thermal recording material, each thermal recording material is set. The thermal head can be cleaned. As a result, the thermal head is automatically cleaned regularly and reliably. Further, by setting the length of the polishing layer corresponding to the length of the heat-sensitive recording material and setting it longer when the heat-sensitive recording material is longer, the polishing amount can be controlled according to the usage time of the thermal head.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a heat-sensitive recording material of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a layer structure of a leader of the same thermosensitive recording material.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a color thermal printer.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a layer structure of a color thermosensitive recording material.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 20 Thermal recording material 12, 15 Leader 14 Polishing layer 35 Thermal head 40 Heating element array 41 Pressing part 42 Polishing mark detection sensor

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location 8305-2H B41M 5/26 J

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A heat-sensitive recording material in the form of a roll, wherein a flexible leader is provided at the tip of the heat-sensitive recording material. 2. The heat-sensitive recording material according to claim 1, wherein
A heat-sensitive recording material characterized in that the leader is composed of a light-shielding member. 3. The heat-sensitive recording material according to claim 1, wherein the leader has a polishing layer formed on the same surface as the surface of the heat-sensitive recording material on which the heat-sensitive recording layer is provided. 4. The heat-sensitive recording material according to claim 1, wherein
A heat-sensitive recording material characterized in that the leader is composed of a polishing sheet. 5. A thermal printer using a thermal recording material equipped with a leader having a polishing function, comprising means for detecting the leader of the thermal recording material and means for pressing a thermal head against the leader when the leader is detected. A thermal printer characterized by having. 6. The heat-sensitive recording material according to claim 1, wherein the light-shielding region of the reader is in or includes the ultraviolet region having a wavelength of 300 to 450 nm.