JPH06155841A - Recording carrier loading structure of recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively miniaturize the whole of a recording apparatus and to easily and certainly mounting a recording carrier wound in a roll form. CONSTITUTION:Mounting parts 24 supporting the shaft parts 22 attached to both ends of an optical fixing type thermal film 20 wound in a roll form in a freely rotatable manner and the guide parts 26 receiving the shaft parts 22 to guide them to the mounting parts 24 are provided. The mounting parts 24 and the guide parts 26 are integrally provided to holder members 28 and the guide parts 26 are terminated in the vicinity of the position where an opening part 26 is closed by a lid body 14 and upwardly inclined toward the mounting parts 24.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording carrier loading structure of a recording device for loading a thermal film wound in a roll shape into a thermal printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in the medical field, various printers have been adopted to record an image of an affected area as a hard copy on a record carrier. Among the printers of this type, there is known a thermal printer using a so-called thermal film having a layer of a thermal recording material that develops color by heat.

In this thermal printer, a thermosensitive film is wound in a roll shape and accommodated in a loading section, the thermosensitive film is sent to a printing section, and a thermal head having a plurality of heating elements in the main scanning direction is provided. An image is two-dimensionally recorded on the thermosensitive film by being nipped by the platen roller and conveyed in the sub-scanning direction. Then, the heat-sensitive film is cut into a predetermined length by cutter means and accumulated on the discharge tray.

In this case, when the thermal film is loaded on the thermal printer, the lid provided on the thermal printer is opened and the loading section is opened to the outside.
The thermal film is inserted in the loading section.

[0005]

By the way, the above-mentioned loading section is provided inside the thermal printer, and the operator does not work to hold the heat-sensitive film wound in a roll and store it in this loading section. It is quite complicated. In particular, if the size of the loading section is set to roughly correspond to the widthwise dimension of the thermal film in order to reduce the size of the thermal printer as a whole, the operator's hand or finger cannot enter the thermal printer. Therefore, there is a problem in that the work of loading the heat-sensitive film cannot be simplified and made efficient.

The present invention solves this kind of problem and enables the entire recording apparatus to be effectively miniaturized, and the recording carrier wound in a roll can be easily and surely loaded. It is an object of the present invention to provide a record carrier loading structure of a recording device capable of recording.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is a record carrier loading structure for loading a record carrier wound in a roll into a recording device, wherein And a loading section for rotatably supporting the shaft section attached to both sides of the record carrier wound around the guide section, and a guide section for mounting the shaft section and guiding the shaft section to the loading section. The guide portion is configured to end in the vicinity of the closed position of the lid body that constitutes the recording apparatus and to open the loading portion to the outside, and extends toward the loading portion side.

[0008]

In the record carrier loading structure of the recording apparatus according to the present invention, the operator first holds the roll-shaped record carrier while the lid is opened and the loading section is opened to the outside. It is placed on the end portion of the guide portion connected to this loading portion. When the record carrier is pressed toward the loading section, the record carrier is reliably guided to the loading section along the inclination of the guide section, and is rotatably supported by the loading section. Therefore, the operator does not have to directly load the record carrier into the loading section inside the recording apparatus, and in particular, even if the dimension of the loading section is configured to be compact corresponding to the width of the record carrier,
The record carrier can be easily and quickly loaded into the loading section.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A record carrier loading structure of a recording apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 and 2, reference numeral 10
Shows a thermal printer (recording apparatus) that employs the record carrier loading structure according to the present embodiment. The thermal printer 10 includes a casing 12, and a front cover of the casing 12 is provided with a lid body 14 that can swing from a vertical direction to a substantially horizontal direction. An opening 16 opened and closed by the lid 14
A record carrier loading structure 18 according to the present embodiment is provided in the.

The recording carrier loading structure 18 develops color by heat wound into a roll and spools 21 attached to both sides of a photo-fixing type heat-sensitive film (recording carrier) 20 fixed by irradiation of ultraviolet light. A loading portion 24 for rotatably supporting the shaft portion 22, and a loading portion 24 on which the shaft portion 22 is placed.
And a guide portion 26 for guiding up to. The loading section 24 and the guide section 26 are integrally provided on the holder member 28 (see FIG. 1), and the guide section 26 is configured such that the lid 14 closes the opening 16 as shown in FIG. It is terminated near the position to be tilted and is inclined upward toward the loading portion 24 side.

A printing unit 30 is arranged below the loading unit 24 in the casing 12. The printing unit 30 includes a platen roller 32 made of synthetic rubber, which is connected to a rotary drive source (not shown), and a thermal head 34 that is engageable with the platen roller 32. The thermal head 34 includes a plurality of heating elements in the main scanning direction (direction of arrow A in FIG. 1), and the thermal head 34 is fixed to the bracket 36 (see FIG. 2). The bracket 36 is configured to be swingable via a shaft 38, and presses the thermal head 34 toward the platen roller 32 side under the elastic action of the coil spring 40.

From the printing section 30 to the photofixing type thermal film 20.
A cutter portion 52 for cutting the photofixing type thermosensitive film 20 into a predetermined length is provided at the downstream side in the conveying direction (arrow B direction). The cutter unit 52 includes a fixed cutter 54 and a movable cutter 56. The movable cutter 56 operates under the action of a drive source (not shown) to provide a pin 58.
It is configured to be swingable around the fulcrum.

A fixing unit 60 is arranged in the vicinity of the downstream side of the cutter unit 52. The fixing unit 60 includes a lamp holder 62, and the light reflection surface 62 a of the lamp holder 62.
The ultraviolet lamps 64a and 64b are held in parallel on the side.
A pressure roller 66 is provided between the ultraviolet lamps 64a and 64b, and a drive roller 68 is disposed so as to face the pressure roller 66. The drive roller 68 is rotationally driven under the action of a rotary drive source (not shown), and the drive roller 68 and the pressing roller 66 cause the optical fixing type heat-sensitive film 2 to rotate.
It is configured to hold 0 and convey it in the direction of arrow B. A guide plate 69 is disposed near the drive roller 68. A high reflectance layer is formed on the surface of the guide plate 69 by plating or the like, and the fixing efficiency of the fixing unit 60 adopting the one-sided fixing structure can be improved through the reflection function of the high reflectance layer. .

A discharge port 70 is formed in the lower part of the front surface of the casing 12 close to the downstream side of the fixing unit 60, and a discharge tray 72 is detachably attached to the discharge port 70.
The discharge tray 72 is provided with a step portion 74 that is inclined downward at a portion substantially corresponding to the discharge port 70. A stacking portion 76 is provided from the end of the step portion 74 in the horizontal direction, and the stacking portion 76 is provided. The locking portion 78 is inclined upward from the end of 76
Is formed.

A control unit (not shown) is disposed in the rear of the inside of the casing 12, while the casing 12 is provided.
Power switch 80, key panel 82 and LE on the front of the
And a D display section 84 (see FIG. 1).

Next, the record carrier loading structure 1 according to the present embodiment.
8 will be described in relation to the operation of the thermal printer 10.

First, as shown in FIG. 3, when the lid 14 is opened, the loading portion 24 provided on the holder member 28 is opened to the outside. Therefore, after the operator grips the light-fixing type heat-sensitive film 20 wound in a roll shape and places it on the end portion of the guide portion 26 constituting the holder member 28, the light-fixing type heat-sensitive film 20 is loaded into the loading portion. Press on the 24 side. Therefore, the photo-fixing type heat-sensitive film 20 is reliably guided to the loading section 24 along the inclination of the guide section 26 and is rotatably accommodated in the loading section 24 (see a chain double-dashed line in FIG. 3).

In this case, in this embodiment, the guide portion 26 terminates near the closed position of the lid body 14, so that the operator can open the end portion of the guide portion 26 to the outside with the lid body 14 opened. It can be easily seen from. Therefore, the operator may temporarily mount the photo-fixing type thermosensitive film 20 on the end portion of the guide portion 26 exposed to the outside and then press the photo-fixing type thermosensitive film 20 toward the loading section 24 side. The loading operation of the fixing type thermosensitive film 20 can be simply and quickly performed at once. Further, since it is not necessary for the operator to directly load the light fixing type heat-sensitive film 20 into the loading portion 24 inside the casing 12, the size of the loading portion 24 corresponds to the width of the light fixing type heat sensitive film 20. The thermal fixing film 20 can be easily and efficiently loaded even if the loading unit 24 does not have a space for inserting a hand or finger of an operator, and the thermal printer 10 as a whole is compact. It is possible to easily reduce the size of the device.

Moreover, in this embodiment, the guide portion 26 is
Since the end of the thermal printer 10 is inclined upward toward the loading section 24, the overall size of the thermal printer 10 in the height direction can be effectively set small. That is, the light fixing type thermosensitive film 20 is oriented in the horizontal direction and the loading section 2
4, it becomes easy for the light fixing type thermosensitive film 20 to come into contact with the bent portion 81 provided on the upper front surface of the casing 12 as shown in FIG.
This is because it is necessary to set a large size in the height direction of the entire thermal printer 10. Therefore, in this embodiment,
The dimensions of the thermal printer 10 in the width direction and the height direction can be made as small as possible, and the effect that the entire thermal printer 10 can be made compact at once is obtained.

After the photo-fixing type heat-sensitive film 20 is accommodated in the loading section 24, the leading end of the photo-fixing type heat-sensitive film 20 is pulled out and separated from each other by the platen roller 32.
It is sandwiched between the driving roller 68 and the pressing roller 66 by passing between the thermal head 34 and the thermal head 34. Then, after the lid 14 is closed, the key panel 82 is operated,
The platen roller 32 is moved to the position shown in FIG.
Inside, it is rotated in the direction of the arrow. Therefore, the photofixing type thermal film 20 includes the platen roller 32 and the thermal head 34.
While being sandwiched by and conveyed in the sub-scanning direction (the direction of arrow B), a plurality of heating elements provided in the thermal head 34 are selectively driven to two-dimensionally move to the light fixing type heat-sensitive film 20. The coloring action is performed and the desired image is recorded.

At this time, the tip of the photo-fixing type heat-sensitive film 20 is driven by the driving roller 68 under the rotating action of the driving roller 68.
The ultraviolet lamps 64 a and 64 b that are sandwiched between the pressing roller 66 and the pressing roller 66 and are conveyed in the direction of the arrow B and that constitute the fixing unit 60.
Is turned on, and ultraviolet rays are emitted from the ultraviolet lamps 64a and 64b to the base side of the photofixing type heat-sensitive film 20. As a result, the fixing operation of the light fixing type heat-sensitive film 20 is performed.

After the photo-fixing type heat-sensitive film 20 is sent out in the direction of the arrow B by a predetermined length, the movable cutter 56 constituting the cutter portion 52 swings around the pin 58 as a fulcrum, and the movable cutter 56 is moved. The fixed-type cutter 54 cuts the light-fixing type heat-sensitive film 20. Next, the cut light-fixing type thermosensitive film 20 is accommodated in the discharge tray 72 through the discharge port 70.

In this case, the light fixing type heat sensitive film 20 is
Since it is wound in a roll shape in advance, when it is cut by the cutter portion 52 and discharged to the discharge tray 72, the central portion thereof is curved upward. Here, the discharge tray 72
Since the stacking portion 76 is provided below via the step portion 74, both ends of the light fixing type thermosensitive film 20 discharged from the discharge port 70 are supported by the step portion 74 and the locking portion 78. In this state, a plurality of sheets are stacked and housed in the stacking unit 76 (see FIG. 4).

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the light-fixing type heat-sensitive film 20a, which is cut into a relatively long length, has its rear end side supported by the step portion 74 and its front end side mounted on the locking portion 78. Placed and held. Therefore, various photo-fixing type heat-sensitive films 20a having different sizes can be reliably and easily stacked and accommodated in the discharge tray 72.

[0026]

According to the record carrier loading structure of the recording apparatus of the present invention, the following effects and advantages can be obtained.

With the lid opened and the loading section open to the outside, the end portion of the guide section connected to the loading section is exposed to the outside, and the operator can record in a roll shape. The carrier can be easily and surely loaded by merely placing the carrier on the guide portion and pressing it toward the loading portion. Moreover, it is not necessary to directly load the recording carrier into the loading unit inside the recording device, and the size of the loading unit can be made compact to substantially correspond to the width of the recording carrier, which facilitates downsizing of the entire recording device. Will be possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a record carrier loading structure according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a schematic configuration of a recording device incorporating the record carrier loading structure.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory view of the record carrier loading structure.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a discharge tray that constitutes the recording apparatus.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for accommodating a long-sized record carrier in a discharge tray which constitutes the recording device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Thermal printer 12 ... Casing 14 ... Lid 16 ... Opening 18 ... Record carrier loading structure 20, 20a ... Optical fixing type thermal film 24 ... Loading section 26 ... Guide section 28 ... Holder member 30 ... Printing section 32 ... Platen roller 34 ... Thermal head 52 ... Cutter part 60 ... Fixing part 70 ... Discharge port 72 ... Discharge tray 74 ... Step part 76 ... Stacking part 78 ... Locking part

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A record carrier loading structure for loading a roll-wound record carrier into a recording device, comprising shaft parts attached to both sides of the roll-shaped record carrier. A loading unit that rotatably supports, and a guide unit that places the shaft unit and guides the loading unit to the loading unit, the guide unit configuring the recording device and opening the loading unit to the outside. A record carrier loading structure for a recording apparatus, which is terminating in the vicinity of a closed position of a lid for allowing the lid to extend toward the loading section side. 2. The record carrier loading structure according to claim 1, wherein the loading part and the guide part are integrally formed.