JPH0615252B2 - Ink paper end processor - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly, to an ink paper terminating processing and detection device suitable for a thermal transfer printer using a frame-sequential ink paper.

[Background of the Invention]

In a thermal transfer printer, an ink paper coated with a sublimable or fusible ink is superposed on a recording paper, and the ink is selectively thermally transferred to the recording paper by a thermal head for printing. In general, ink paper is wound around a supply shaft in a roll shape for convenience of handling, and then wound around a take-up shaft via a thermal head. In such a printer, if the ink paper runs out during printing, recording is interrupted halfway, which is inconvenient. Therefore, in the conventional device, as described in JP-A-57-69093, a mark for detecting the end is provided at a position at a predetermined distance from the end of the ink paper, and by detecting and displaying the mark, A method of notifying the operator of the time to replace the ink paper or changing the ink application state only near the end of the ink paper and changing the printed result as described in JP-A-57-129774 It was a system to inform the operator when to replace the ink paper.

However, in general, when ink is applied to a long medium such as a roll-shaped ink paper and is wound around a supply shaft by a predetermined amount, the length of the ink paper processed in a series of coating steps is wound around the supply shaft. Much longer than quantity. Further, in general, ink is applied continuously and in a cycle of the circumferential length of the plate cylinder by using a plate cylinder having a constant diameter as in a normal printing process. Therefore,
It is practically difficult to provide a mark for detecting the end or change the ink application state for each length wound around the supply shaft.

Further, when the above-mentioned conventional example is applied to an ink paper for colors in which inks of a plurality of colors such as cyan, magenta, and yellow are sequentially and sequentially applied to obtain a color print, the latter example is an ink paper. It is inconvenient because the density or color changes near the end of the mark. In the former example, in order to complete the recording that was being performed at the time when the mark was detected, the mark was changed to the actual ink paper. It is necessary to provide a distance longer than the length of one cycle of a plurality of colors of ink from the end, before the actual end, which is inconvenient in the above-described ink paper manufacturing process. Therefore, when terminating the ink paper, it is desirable that the ink paper does not have a specific mark or the like for detecting the ink end.

As a method for detecting the end of a ribbon-shaped carrier which is wound between two shafts and has no specific mark for detecting the end, a method of monitoring the tension of the ribbon-shaped carrier is known. However, in this case, it is necessary to provide a movable mechanism portion such as a tension arm and the winding path of the ribbon-shaped carrier between the two shafts is bent, which makes it difficult to load the ribbon-shaped carrier, which is not preferable. .

In addition, the end of the ink paper is detected without any trouble in printing in the last cycle of the ink paper without any change in image quality such as density and hue in the print result. It is desirable that this is done without delay after the paper is discharged.

From the above, the detection of the end of the ink paper does not affect the periodicity of the ink application cycle for the ink paper, the image quality does not change in the print result, and the function is immediately after the last one plate is printed. It's horrible to be done.

[Object of the Invention]

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned inconvenience and to provide a termination processing circuit for ink paper on which ink is applied at a constant cycle.

[Outline of Invention]

In the present invention, the above-described object is achieved by focusing on the configuration / arrangement of the printer and the periodicity of ink application, and by specifying the relationship between these and the end position of the ink paper. That is, the present invention is characterized in that a controller is provided which detects the end of the ink paper by performing the presence / absence of rotation of the supply shaft of the ink paper and the presence / absence of the leading marker to give a warning.

Example of Invention

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to examples. FIG. 1 is a development view of the ink paper 1 used in the present invention, which is cyan (Cy),
Transfer ink 2 of three colors of magenta (M) and yellow (Ye), which has heat sublimation property and heat melting property, is applied. This application surface is cyclically repeated to form a plurality of surfaces, forming a band shape. There is. A head marker 3 that can be detected optically or magnetically is provided at the head of one cycle.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a printer using the above-mentioned ink paper 1.
The layout is shown. The ink paper 1 is wound around the supply shaft 4,
It is wound around the winding shaft 6 via the thermal head 5. The thermal head 5 presses the ink paper 1 against the transfer paper 8 wound around the platen 7 and transfers the transfer ink 2 to the transfer paper 8 by heat generation according to information to perform printing. Close to the thermal head 5, the winding head 6 side of the thermal head 5
The detector 9 of the leading marker 3 is provided at a position at a distance C from. The detector 9 outputs "1" when the head marker 3 is detected, and outputs "0" in other cases.

A friction member 14 fixed to a chassis (not shown) is in contact with the supply shaft 4, and applies a pack tension to the ink paper 1 when the ink paper 1 is conveyed. Supply shaft 4 and friction member
14 and 14 constitute an ink paper supply mechanism 15. The distance between the supply mechanism 15 and the detector 9 is A. A rotary plate 11 having a notch 10 is connected to the supply shaft 4,
Along with the rotation of 11, the notch 10 is detected by the notch sensor 12 and outputs a pulse train. Reference numeral 20 is a determination circuit for determining the presence or absence of pulse train output, which outputs "1" when present and "0" when not present. The rotating plate 11, the notch 10, the notch sensor 12, and the determination circuit 20 constitute a monitoring device 13 that monitors the operation of the supply mechanism 15. The notch 10 is appropriately provided by optical / magnetic means or the like, and the notch sensor 12 may be a photocoupler, a magnetoresistive element, a Hall element, or the like depending on the means.

The take-up shaft 6 applies front tension to the ink paper 1 from the drive source 16 via the speed reduction mechanism 17, the transport mechanism 19 including the clutch 18, and the ink paper 1 advances in the direction of arrow D.

The platen 7 is rotated in the arrow E direction at a speed corresponding to the information to be printed by a rotation mechanism (not shown).

The operation of the above configuration will be described. FIG. 2 shows a state immediately after the printing of one screen is completed and the recording paper 8 is taken out. In this state, the leading marker 3 provided on the ink paper 1 is closer to the supply mechanism 15 than the thermal head 5. The printed recording paper 8 is taken out by a paper discharge mechanism (not shown), and one print is completed.

Next, the cueing of the ink paper 1 will be described.

Since the ink paper 1 is continuously coated with the three types of ink as described above, accurate color reproduction cannot be performed unless the leading positions are aligned before printing. Therefore, the head alignment is performed using the head marker 3 and the detector 9 immediately after the printing is completed or immediately before the printing.

The controller 21 sends a drive signal to the drive source 16 to convey the ink paper 1 in the D direction. At this time, the detector 9 does not detect the leading marker, and thus outputs "0". On the other hand, the judgment circuit
20 detects the rotation of the supply shaft 4 and outputs a signal of "1".

Next, when the ink paper 1 is conveyed and the leading marker 3 reaches the position of the detector 9 as shown in FIG. 3, the output of the detector 9 is inverted to "1". The controller 21 detects the reversal of the detector 9 from “0” to “1”, determines that the cueing is completed, and stops the rotation of the drive source 16.

This completes the cueing work of the ink paper 1. Next, the case where the printing is repeated and the end of the recording paper is reached will be described.

When cueing is performed in the same manner as described above, as shown in FIG. 4, the trailing edge 1a of the ink paper 1 separates from the supply shaft 4 and is rotated by being pulled by the ink paper 1 and rotating. Is stopped by the friction member 14, and the output of the notch sensor is inverted from "1" to "0".

At this time, the distance B from the leading marker 3 of the ink paper 1 to the terminal end 1a is set smaller than the distance A between the supply roller / detector. That is, since B <A, the output of the detector 9 is still "0" when the terminal end 1a is separated from the supply shaft 4.

When the controller 21 detects that the output of the detector 9 is “0” and the output of the determination circuit 20 is inverted from “1” to “0”, the controller 21 stops the rotation of the drive source 16 and outputs a warning device.
22 warns the end of ink paper.

Here, stopping the rotation of the drive source 16 at the end detection is
This is to prevent the ink paper 1 from being wound around the take-up shaft 6 and being damaged by the thermal head 5 directly contacting the recording paper 8 and the platen 7.

When the determination circuit 20 determines the presence / absence of a pulse train, a time delay T may occur. In such a case, the transport speed of the ink sheet 1 by the transport mechanism 19 is set to V, and even if the ink sheet 1 reaches the end and the supply shaft 4 stops, the ink sheet 1 will not be processed until the above determination is established. , At least the distance VT is transported. Therefore, when VT is large, B <A-VT can be set to perform accurate determination.

In this embodiment, the rotation of the supply roller 4 is detected and the leading marker is detected. Therefore, even if the ink paper is broken in the middle, a warning can be issued similarly. When the ink paper breaks, the supply shaft 4 stops rotating, so that the controller 21 issues a warning in the same manner as the end detection.

At the end of cueing, the output of the determination circuit 20 is "0" and the output of the detector 9 is "1". Therefore, it is possible to display the end of cueing by determining this condition.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, the front tension of the transport mechanism is set to be larger than the back tension of the supply mechanism, so that the ink paper 1 can be transported. When it is separated from the back tension, the back tension becomes 0, and the moving speed V of the ink paper 1 becomes high, which may cause a practical inconvenience when the leading marker 3 is detected. In such a case, the front tension must be set smaller than the back tension. When the front tension is smaller than the back tension as described above, the thermal head 5 is pressed against the platen 7 via the ink paper 1 and the platen 7 is rotated in the arrow E direction even when the ink paper 1 is conveyed. By doing so, it is transported. In this case, even if the trailing edge 1a of the ink paper 1 is separated from the supply mechanism 13 and the back tension is removed, the ink paper 1 is not removed from the platen
The head marker 3 can be stably detected by being conveyed at a predetermined speed with the rotation of the ink paper 1.
Even if the transport mechanism of 1 includes a thermal head and a platen, if the distance C between the thermal head 5 and the detector 9 is larger than the distance B between the leading marker 3 and the end 1a of the ink paper 1, When the end 1a of the ink paper 1 is separated from the thermal head 5, the force applied to the ink paper 1 is only the front tension, and the moving speed V of the ink paper 1 increases.
Not preferable. That is, by setting B so that C <B, the end can be stably determined.

Although the head marker 3 is shown as an area different from the ink 2 in the above-described embodiment, when the ink 2 of a plurality of colors is cyclically applied to the ink paper 1, the head marker 3 within one cycle is The tip of the ink applying section is detected by a phono coupler provided with a filter of a complementary color to the head color. Alternatively, it is possible to substitute a means other than the marker 3 that can determine the periodicity, such as increasing the clearance of the coating portion for each cycle and detecting the clearance passage time.

Further, when the ink is a single color, a periodic clearance is provided in the application portion, and this clearance can be used as the leading marker 3.

In addition, although the ink paper 1 is illustrated as a linear shape in this embodiment,
Depending on the shape of the thermal head 5, the arrangement of various mechanisms, and the like, the transport path of the ink paper may be appropriately formed in a polygonal line shape by a roller or the like.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the end position of the ink paper can be reliably determined by specifying the distance from the leading end of the cycle without impairing the periodicity of the ink paper to which ink is applied periodically or sequentially. The end of ink paper can be detected. Therefore, from a long continuous ink paper, it is possible to cut the ink paper into a length of an arbitrary number of cycles,
For example, the ink paper for 20-sheet printing and the ink paper for 50-sheet printing can be applied without any distinction at the time of ink application, which is highly economical in manufacturing ink paper.

In addition, since the periodicity of ink application is not impaired until just before the end is detected, it is possible to obtain a print with no change in color or density until the end when used.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a developed view of ink paper, FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing the end of printing one screen in a printer to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 3 is an ink paper for the next print. FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a state in which the leading edge of the ink sheet is printed, and FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a state in which the ink paper reaches the end. 1 ... Ink paper, 3 ... Leading marker, 4 ... Supply axis, 6
...... Winding shaft, 5 ...... Thermal head, 9 ...... Detector, 13 ......
Custody device, 21 …… Controller.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masashi Yoshida 1410 Inada, Katsuta City, Ibaraki Prefecture Tokai Plant, Hitachi, Ltd. (56) References JP 60-168688 (JP, A) Actual 60- 51037 (JP, U) Actually opened 59-75066 (JP, U)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A thermal head, a belt-shaped ink paper on which transfer ink of at least one color is periodically applied, a supply shaft around which the ink paper is wound, and a winding shaft around which the ink paper is wound. ,
A printer provided with a transport mechanism for transporting the ink paper from the supply shaft to the take-up shaft, a head marker periodically provided on the ink paper, a detection unit for detecting the presence or absence of the head marker, Rotation detection means for detecting the presence or absence of rotation of the supply shaft; and a controller for detecting the end of the ink paper when the rotation detection means detects a stop from rotation when the detection means does not detect the leading marker, An end treatment device for ink paper, which is characterized in that: