JPH0616049U - Small screen printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To reduce waste by narrowing the width of the ink ribbon of the thermal transfer printer. [Structure] The stage plate 3 is movable in the width direction of the recording medium C in the lower case. In this moving mechanism, a screw screw 31 and a guide rod 32 are installed in parallel between a pair of support plates 30 and 30 separated in the width direction, and the stage plate 3 is screwed onto the screw screw 31 and attached to the side surface of the stage plate 3. The small roller 33 is placed on the guide rod 32, and the handle 34 is operated to rotate the screw screw 31 to move the stage plate 3 to an arbitrary position in the width direction of the recording medium C along the guide rod 32. I have to. The ink ribbon cassette 1 and the thermal head 2 are also movable by the same mechanism.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a device for color-printing a face photograph or the like on a part of a recording medium such as an ID card or a business card.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 As a printing apparatus in which a sublimable or meltable ink impregnated in an ink ribbon is transferred to the surface of a recording medium such as a card by the heat of a thermal head, JP-A-1-208193 or 64-64368 is known. Those described in the official gazette are known.

[0003]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 In the conventional printing device described above, the width of the ink ribbon, the width of the thermal head, and the stage plate are all approximately the same as the width of the recording medium so that color printing can be performed on any part of the recording medium. There is. However, in the case of a recording medium such as an ID card or a business card, it is rare that color printing is performed on the entire surface, and normally, color printing is performed only on a part such as a facial photograph portion. Even when color printing is performed on only a part of the recording medium, if the ink ribbon having the same width as that of the recording medium is used, many ribbon portions are not used, which is wasteful. Further, since the width of the thermal head is determined according to the width of the ink ribbon, the weight of the entire apparatus becomes large.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to solve the above problems, the present invention sets a recording medium on a stage plate, presses an ink ribbon on the recording medium surface with a thermal head, and transfers the ink of the ink ribbon to the recording medium surface by the heat of the thermal head. In the printing apparatus thus configured, the width of the ink ribbon and the thermal head is made smaller than the width of the recording medium, and the printing head is movable along the width direction of the recording medium.

[0005]

[Action]

 The width of the ink ribbon and the thermal head is made smaller than the width of the recording medium, and these are moved to a portion required for color printing to perform printing.

[0006]

【Example】

 Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Here, FIG. 1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of a small screen printing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of the small screen printing apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the small screen printing apparatus. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the small screen printing apparatus with an ink ribbon cartridge removed, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a stage plate of the small screen printing apparatus, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an ink ribbon cassette.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the small screen printing apparatus is mainly composed of an ink ribbon cassette 1, a thermal head 2 and a stage plate 3, and a supply roll 11 and a take-up roll 12 in the ink ribbon cassette 1 are provided. An ink ribbon 13 impregnated with yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) sublimable or meltable inks in a face-sequential manner is stretched between them, and the width of the ink ribbon 13 is such as that of a card. The width is smaller than the width of the recording medium C.

Further, the thermal head 2 can be moved up and down to press the ink ribbon 13 against the surface of the recording medium C by the heat generating portion 21, and its width is made smaller than the width of the recording medium C like the ink ribbon 13. There is.

Next, a specific structure of the small screen printing apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6. The outside of the small screen printing apparatus is constituted by a lower case 4 having a width substantially the same as the width of the recording medium C, and an upper case 6 swingably attached to the lower case 4 via a shaft 5, and the inside of the lower case 4 is illustrated. 4, a stage plate 3 is arranged, a thermal head 2 is attached to an upper case 6, and an ink ribbon cassette 1 is replaceably arranged between the lower case 4 and the upper case 6 as shown in FIG. It

The stage plate 3 is movable in the lower case 4 in the width direction of the recording medium C. In this moving mechanism, as shown in FIG. 5, a screw screw 31 and a guide rod 32 are installed in parallel between a pair of support plates 30 and 30 which are separated in the width direction, and the stage plate 3 is screwed onto the screw screw 31. The small roller 33 attached to the side surface of the stage plate 3 is placed on the guide rod 32, and the handle 34 is operated to rotate the screw screw 31 to move the stage plate 3 along the guide rod 32 to an arbitrary position. I am trying.

As shown in FIG. 6, the ink ribbon cassette 1 holds the supply roll 11 and the take-up roll 12 between the two plates 14 and 14 so that the supply roll 11 and the take-up roll 12 and the shafts 11a and 12a are slidable. The supply roll 11 is supported by the parts 11b and 12b, is biased in the return direction by a spring incorporated therein, and the take-up roll 12 is rotated by a gear 15 driven by a motor. . The width of the ink ribbon cassette 1 is set smaller than the width of the recording medium C, and also smaller than the length of the recording medium C. Ink is taken up at the same time when the stage plate 3 is moved. The ink ribbon cassette is also moved laterally so that a predetermined recording position can be set.

Further, the thermal head 2 is also movable in the length direction of the recording medium C in the lower case 4 by the same mechanism as the ink ribbon cassette.

In order to perform color printing on a predetermined place such as an ID card, the handle 34 is operated to move the stage plate 3 in the width direction of the recording medium C to a position corresponding to the predetermined place. The thermal head 2 is pressed against the ink ribbon 13, and the heat of the thermal head 2 transfers the ink of the ink ribbon 13 onto the surface of the recording medium C.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another embodiment. In this embodiment, the thermal head 2 is configured to be movable by one color in the ink ribbon cassette 1, and a magnet (magnetic material) 16 is provided beside the cassette 1. If the holding unit 17 is a movable magnetic plate, the print recording medium can be clamped and fixed between the cassette and the magnetic plate at an arbitrary position on the print recording medium. It can reciprocate and print. In this case, the ink ribbon 13 may be wound up for each color printing. In this way, printing can be performed at any place regardless of the size of the print recording medium C.

[0015]

[Effect of device]

 As described above, according to the present invention, since the width of the ink ribbon is made smaller than the width of the recording medium, the ink ribbon can be used over the entire width without waste, and the width of the thermal head is also made smaller, so that the printing can be performed. The weight of the device can be reduced. In particular, in the case of image recording / printing, considering that the number of times of data transfer is remarkably increased as compared with the case of character recording, if the width of the thermal head is reduced, the number of times of data transfer is reduced and printing is required. The time can be greatly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of a small screen printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of the small screen printing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the small screen printing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the same small-screen printing apparatus with an ink ribbon cartridge removed.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a stage plate of the small screen printing apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an ink ribbon cassette.

FIG. 7 is a front view similar to FIG. 1, showing another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Ink ribbon cassette, 2 ... Thermal head, 3 ...
Stage plate, 4 ... Lower case, 6 ... Upper case, 13 ... Ink ribbon, 16 ... Magnet, 17 ... Holder,
21 ... Heat generating part, 30 ... Support, 31 ... Screw screw,
32 ... Guide rod, C ... Recording medium.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toshio Hirano 3-12 Moriya-cho, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Japan Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (72) Shigeru Kato 3--12 Moriya-cho, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama Address inside Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An ink ribbon impregnated with a sublimable or meltable ink, which is smaller than the width of the recording medium and is movable along the width direction of the recording medium, and the ink ribbon is pressed against the surface of the recording medium. A small screen printing apparatus comprising: a thermal head that is smaller than the width of the recording medium and is movable along the width direction of the recording medium.