JPH06238926A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To aim at easy realization of a device without imposing a burden upon a user as means absorbing a change of a printing result by a change of ink properties since the ink whose printing density is high with little quantity of energy is being developed. CONSTITUTION:Data of a quantity of energy received by a CPU 1 through an SCS 5 is stored in an EEPROM 4, data of the quantity of energy designated by an ink classification code which is coincident with output of an ink classification sensor 9 is read out through the EEPROM 4, the energy is supplied to a thermal head 11 along with print data stored beforehand in an RAM 2 through the SCS 5 by an energy control part 10, the ink is melted and transferred to paper, through which printing is performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printing apparatus for printing ink applied to an ink sheet on a sheet by thermal transfer, and in particular, even if the same amount of energy is supplied depending on the type of applied ink. The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printing apparatus that eliminates print color fluctuations caused by the fact that the above ink is not transferred.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Ink sheets used in a thermal transfer printing apparatus using a thermal head often use black for monochrome and yellow, magenta and cyan for color. Ink of each of these colors is applied to the ink sheet, and the ink sheet conveyed onto the paper is pressed against the paper by the thermal head. After this, energy is supplied to the multiple heating elements of the thermal head to generate heat,
The ink on the ink sheet is melted and transferred to the paper.

At this time, the amount of ink transferred to the paper differs depending on the color of the ink, even if the same amount of energy is applied. As a result, when many colors are printed by combining each color, there is a problem that the target color and the printed color are different.

To solve this problem, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-64869, a table storing the amount of energy to be supplied for each color of ink is stored in the ROM to detect the color of the ink sheet. Then, the energy amount for this color is read from the ROM and supplied to the thermal head to solve the above problem.

However, not only ink sheets having different characteristics of the ink itself are prepared depending on the medium to be transferred, such as paper and OHP film, but even for the same paper, high characteristics are required to improve the characteristics. Ink sheets coated with inks with different densities and hues have been developed. Even if these ink sheets are used and energy is supplied in the same manner, different colors of ink will result in different printed colors. This problem could not be solved by the prior art.

[0006]

Regarding the characteristics of the ink applied to the ink sheet, the ink characteristics are improving year by year between ink sheet manufacturers and even among the same manufacturers. Since it is necessary to replace the ROM in the printing apparatus every time these ink sheets are supplied, the use of the apparatus is temporarily interrupted and the user is inconvenient. The problem to be solved by the present invention is to obtain an optimum printing result with a newly supplied ink sheet without burdening the user and without interrupting the use.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, it is sufficient to have a table defining the respective energy amounts of all inks. However, in addition to the enormous capacity required, it is necessary to modify this table depending on the characteristics of the ink to be developed in the future. Therefore, by storing this table in a rewritable memory and a storage device that retains the contents even when power is not supplied, and rewriting the table of the amount of energy to be used according to the type of ink, It can be easily applied to ink.

Alternatively, the ink sheet is replaced for each ink cartridge, and an energy amount table according to the type of ink used is stored in this ink cartridge, and the energy amount is read from this table to execute printing. By doing so, it is possible to obtain a result in which the print color does not change even if the type of ink is different.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the energy amount table instructed by the ink type determination device sent to the thermal transfer printing device via the interface is recorded in the re-recordable nonvolatile storage device, and the energy amount data is recorded from this table at the time of printing. It works like reading and printing. Even if the power is turned off and then turned on again, the energy amount table is stored in the non-volatile storage device, so there is no need to transfer it again via the interface, and it matches the output of the ink type determination device. Since the energy amount data is read from the energy amount table and printed, there is no malfunction.

Further, even when the energy amount table is stored in the ink cartridge, the energy amount data stored in the ink cartridge is read and printing is performed in the same manner, so that no malfunction occurs.

[0011]

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.

Central processing unit (CPU) 1, random access memory (RAM) 2, read only memory (ROM) 3, electrically erasable ROM (EEPROM) 4, SCSI (Small Computer System)
Interface) 5, motor controller 6, ink sheet controller
7, a color sensor 8, an ink type sensor 9, an energy control unit 10, a thermal head 11, a paper drive motor 12, and an ink sheet drive motor 13.

RAM2, ROM3 and EEPROM4 are C
It is connected to the address bus, data bus, and control bus of PU1. Also, SCSI 5, motor control unit 6, ink sheet control unit 7, color sensor 8, ink type sensor
9. The energy control unit 10 is connected to the data bus and control bus of the CPU 1.

The ink sheet used in this embodiment has the structure shown in FIG. The ink sheet 100 has four colors of inks of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black applied in order,
A color mark 101 indicating this color and an ink type mark 102 indicating the ink type are applied on the boundary of each color. Color mark 101
Indicates the color of the ink to be printed next, which is detected by the color sensor 8 in FIG. The ink type mark 102 indicates the type of ink applied and detected by the ink type sensor 9 of FIG. The color sensor 8 and the ink type sensor 9 are composed of photo sensors, and light is applied to the ink sheet from the opposite side of the ink sheet by a light emitting diode, the transmitted light is detected by the sensor, and a color mark is determined by the presence or absence of the transmitted light. Detect the ink type mark. The photo sensor outputs "1" when light is transmitted and "0" when light is not transmitted. As for the color sensor, three photo sensors are arranged, and by this output, "100" indicates yellow, "110" indicates magenta, "101" indicates cyan, and "000" indicates black ink. In addition, the ink type sensor 9 has four photo sensors,
With this output, "0100" is the ink type code in the example of FIG.

The operation procedure is shown below. CPU1 is RO
According to the program stored in M3, data is exchanged with an external host computer (not shown) via SCSI5. The CPU 1 sequentially stores the print data received via the SCSI 5 in the RAM 2. This print data has a configuration in which one color is represented by four colors of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black. When the CPU 1 receives the print execution command via the SCSI 5, it sends data to the motor control 6 to drive the paper to the printable position by the motor 12, and the motor 13 is driven by the ink sheet control unit 7 so that the color sensor 9 causes the yellow ink. The ink sheet is driven until is detected. Subsequently, the CPU 1 causes the ink type sensor 9
In order to read the ink type code by, the data is sent to the ink sheet control unit 7 and the ink sheet 100 is driven by the motor 13. At this time, the output of the ink type sensor 9 is monitored, and when the ink type code is read, the driving of the ink sheet 100 is stopped by the ink sheet control unit 7. The CPU 1 searches the ink type registration table stored in the EEPROM 4 and checks whether or not the ink type code that matches the read ink type code is registered. In this embodiment, the ink type registration table 401 and the energy amount table 402 have the structure shown in FIG. The ink type registration table 400 is a variable length table, and has a structure in which a maximum of 254 ink type codes and data addresses can be registered. The ink type code FF (hexadecimal number) is a delimiter mark indicating the end of the ink type registration table 401. The data address following the ink type code indicates the address where the energy amount data for this ink type is stored.

Now, when the code read by the ink type sensor 9 is 04 (hexadecimal number), it is understood that the energy amount data for this ink is stored from the address 2. Therefore, the CPU 1 reads the yellow print data from the RAM 2 and the energy control unit 1
At the same time, the yellow energy amount data is sent from the address 3 in the EEPROM 4 to the energy control unit 10. The energy control unit 10 determines the amount of energy to be supplied to the thermal head 11 from these data, presses the thermal head 11 against the ink sheet 100 to supply the amount of energy for one line, and transfers the ink to the paper.

The amount of energy supplied to the thermal head 11 is given by the product of applied power and applied time. Therefore,
To control the amount of energy, there are a method of controlling applied power, that is, an applied voltage, and a method of controlling application time. In this embodiment, the application time is controlled, and the energy amount data is composed of data in which the application time is defined for each gradation of each color. Therefore, the energy control unit 10 executes the transfer by energizing each pixel of one line of the thermal head 11 for the application time defined by the gradation of each print data.

At this time, the motor control unit 6 and the ink sheet control unit 7 drive the motors 12 and 13, respectively, and simultaneously convey the paper and the ink sheet 100 (not shown) while the next print data and energy amount data are sequentially supplied to the energy control unit. Send to 10. This operation is repeated for one page, and when the printing of the yellow data is completed, the motor control 6 and the motor 12
Set the paper to the rewinding print start location. Similarly, magenta is detected by the color mark 101 of the ink sheet 100, the magenta data and the magenta energy amount data are sent to the energy control unit 10 to perform printing, and then the printing is repeated in the same manner as for cyan and black to eject the paper, To complete the printing operation.

Ink sheets coated with inks having different characteristics are loaded in the printing apparatus, and the ink type sensor
If the code read by 9 is not registered in the ink type registration table 401 stored in the EEPROM 4, the CPU 1 cancels printing because the energy amount data is not registered in the host computer (not shown) via the SCSI 5. Send error information to the effect. This error indicates that the printing device of the invention cannot print using the correct energy amount data.

In order to cancel this state and execute printing with the correct energy amount data, the following processing is performed.

Upon receiving this error information, the host computer transfers the energy amount data and ink type code for this ink prepared in advance together with the ink type registration command via SCSI5. Upon receiving the ink type registration command, the CPU 1 adds the ink type code received together with the command to the ink type registration table 401, stores the received energy amount data in the empty area of the EEPROM 4, and sets the start address of this area to the ink type. Store in registration table 401. As a result, when the print execution command is received again, printing is executed with the correct amount of energy. FIG. 4 shows a state in which energy amount data having an ink type code of 0 A (hexadecimal number) is registered in the EEPROM 4. The terminator FF (hexadecimal number) is updated, a new ink type code and data address 4 are added to the ink type registration table 401, and energy amount data is added to the energy amount table 402.

As another method for registering a new ink type code and energy amount in the ink type registration table 401, the following method is possible.

When the CPU 1 receives the command for reading the ink type registration data via SCSI 5, the EEPR
The ink type registration table 401 stored in OM4 is transferred to an external host computer. The host computer checks the ink type code registered in the ink type registration table 401, and returns the unregistered ink type code and energy amount data together with the ink type registration command to the SC
The new ink type code and energy amount data are stored in the EEPROM by transferring via SI5.

Since the data once stored does not disappear even if the power supply is cut off, if the power supply is turned on again, the already registered ink should be printed using the correct energy amount. You can

In this embodiment, an example in which the ink type mark 102 is applied to the ink sheet has been shown. However, the ink of the same color is not used in plural kinds in one ink sheet, and the ink sheet is replaced. And the ink cartridge as shown in FIG.
Ink type mark 203 is attached to 201, and ink type sensor
The same effect can be obtained by configuring 9 to detect this mark. In this case, the ink sheet 202 is installed in the ink cartridge 201 as shown in FIG. 5, and the color mark 101 is applied to the ink sheet 202 as in FIG. Color sensor 8
Detects the mark in the same way as described above, and the ink type sensor 9
Detects the ink type mark 203 of the ink cartridge 201 with a photo sensor.

In this embodiment, the EEPROM is used as the re-recordable non-volatile memory device, but it is obvious that the same effect can be obtained by using the battery-backed RAM, flash memory, hard disk, and floppy disk. . The data structure in the EEPROM is not limited to that described in the present embodiment, and it is sufficient that the ink type and the energy amount data corresponding thereto can be associated with each other.

Further, SCSI is used as an interface.
I used a Centronics interface, GP
It is obvious that the same effect as this embodiment can be obtained if the interface such as IB and EtherNet is capable of exchanging commands and data with the outside. The second embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG.

CPU 1, RAM 2, ROM 3, ink cartridge interface 20, SCSI 5, motor control unit 6, ink sheet control unit 7, color sensor 8, energy control unit 10, thermal head 11, paper drive motor 12,
The ink sheet drive motor 13 is used.

The RAM 2, ROM 3, and ink cartridge interface 20 are connected to the address bus, data bus, and control bus of the CPU 1. Also, SCSI
5, the motor controller 6, the ink sheet controller 7, the color sensor 8, and the energy controller 10 are connected to the data bus and control bus of the CPU 1.

As shown in FIG. 7, the ink cartridge used in this embodiment has an ink sheet 202 loaded in the ink cartridge 201, and an energy ROM 301 storing energy amount data and an interface 302 incorporated in the ink cartridge 201. And The ink sheet 202 loaded in the ink cartridge 201 includes the color mark 101 among the ink sheets shown in FIG. 2 of the first embodiment.
Only applied. This ink cartridge 201
When loaded in a printing device (not shown), the interface 302 of the ink cartridge 201 and the ink cartridge interface 20 shown in FIG. 6 are connected, and the CPU 1 reads energy amount data from the energy ROM 301 of the ink cartridge 201. be able to. Since the energy amount data stored in this energy ROM 301 is the energy amount data according to the characteristics of the ink applied to the ink sheet 202 loaded in the ink cartridge 201, the CPU 1 simply uses this energy amount data. Perform printing.

Similar to the first embodiment, the print data received via SCSI5 is stored in the RAM2. After that, when the CPU 1 receives the print execution command via the SCSI 5, it sends data to the ink sheet control unit 7, and the motor 13 first displays the yellow color mark to the color sensor 8
The ink sheet 202 is conveyed until is detected. When the yellow color mark is detected, the conveyance of the ink sheet 202 is temporarily stopped, and the paper (not shown) is fed to the motor control unit 6 to be fed to the print start position by the motor 12.
Thereafter, the yellow print data is read from the RAM 2 and transferred to the energy control unit 10, and the energy amount data is read from the energy ROM 301 via the ink cartridge interface 20 and the interface 302 and transferred to the energy control unit 10. The energy control unit 10 executes the transfer by energizing each pixel of one line of the thermal head 11 for an application time defined by the gradation of each print data. Therefore, the transfer density, which changes depending on the characteristics of the ink applied to the ink sheet, has energy amount data for each ink cartridge in which the ink sheet is loaded, and the optimum printing result can be obtained simply by replacing the ink cartridge. There is an effect that can be. Therefore, the user can execute printing without being aware of what ink sheet is loaded.

Further, by combining the first embodiment and the second embodiment, it is easy to realize a printing apparatus which realizes both the method of exchanging only the ink sheet and the method of exchanging the ink sheet together with the ink cartridge. Can be guessed.

[0033]

According to the present invention, it is possible to absorb a change in print density due to a change in characteristics of ink applied to an ink sheet,
This can be easily realized without changing the hardware parts replacement or forcing the user to suspend the use of the printing apparatus. Therefore, maintenance free of the device can be realized,
There is a ripple effect that it becomes possible to eliminate the built-in obstacles caused by parts replacement and to perform maintenance by the user himself.

In the present invention, an example in which four colors of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black are used as the color printing apparatus has been described, but the same effect can be obtained in three-color printing with yellow, magenta, cyan, and black and white printing. It is clear that it will be obtained. It is also clear that the ink has the same effect whether it is a melt type or a sublimation type.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an ink sheet.

FIG. 3 is a first energy amount data storage explanatory diagram.

FIG. 4 is a second energy amount data storage explanatory diagram.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of an ink cartridge according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of an ink cartridge according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... CPU, 2 ... RAM, 3 ... ROM, 4 ... EEPROM, 5 ... SCSI, 6 ... Motor control unit, 7 ... Ink sheet control unit, 8 ... Color sensor, 9 ... Ink type sensor, 10 ... Energy control unit, 11 ... Thermal head, 12, 13 ... Motor, 20 ... Ink cartridge interface, 100, 201 ... Ink sheet, 101 ... Color mark, 102, 203 ... Ink type mark, 201 ... Ink cartridge, 301 ... Energy ROM, 302 ... Interface , 401 ... Ink type registration table, 402 ... Energy amount table.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of ink sheets of different colors are used, a required ink sheet is selected based on an output result of an ink sheet color discrimination means, and the melt type or sublimation type ink of the selected ink sheet is thermally converted. In a thermal transfer printing apparatus that melts using a head and transfers the ink onto a sheet for printing, an ink type determination unit that determines the type of ink applied to an ink sheet, and An energy amount indicating device for designating the amount of energy supplied to the heating element of the thermal head is composed of a re-recordable nonvolatile storage device, and an interface for exchanging information with the outside of the thermal transfer printing device is provided. An amount of energy defined for each color of the sheet is stored in the rewritable nonvolatile storage device via the interface. When the ink is transferred onto the paper for printing, the amount of energy stored in the rewritable non-volatile storage device of the ink type that matches the output of the ink type determination means is supplied to the heating element of the thermal head. A thermal transfer printing device. 2. A rerecordable non-volatile storage device stores an energy amount defined for each ink sheet for a plurality of ink sheets, and an ink sheet that matches the output according to the output of the ink type detecting means. 2. The thermal transfer printing according to claim 1, wherein the selected amount of energy is selected and the selected amount of energy is supplied to the heating element of the thermal head when printing is performed by transferring the ink onto the paper. apparatus. 3. An ink sheet is loaded in an ink cartridge, the ink cartridge is made detachable in a printing apparatus, a required ink sheet is selected based on the output result of an ink sheet color discrimination means, and the selected ink sheet is selected. In a thermal transfer printing apparatus that melts melted or sublimated ink of an ink sheet using a thermal head and transfers the ink onto paper to perform printing, a mark indicating the type of ink is provided on the ink cartridge, and an interface is provided. A rewritable non-volatile storage device via which the amount of energy defined for each color of the ink sheet that matches the output result of the ink type determination means for detecting the mark is transferred onto the paper and printed. When performing, the amount of energy stored in the rewritable nonvolatile storage device is applied to the heating element of the thermal head. The thermal transfer printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the thermal transfer printing apparatus is supplied. 4. An ink sheet of a plurality of colors is used, a required ink sheet is selected on the basis of the output result of the ink sheet color discrimination means, and the melt type or sublimation type ink of the selected ink sheet is thermally selected. In a thermal transfer printing apparatus that melts using a head and transfers the ink onto paper to perform printing, the ink sheet is replaced by attaching and detaching the ink cartridge to and from the thermal transfer printing apparatus. An energy amount indicator for designating the amount of energy to be supplied to the heating element of the thermal head is provided in the ink cartridge for each type and ink sheet color,
When the ink cartridge is loaded in the thermal transfer printing device, an energy amount reading means for reading the energy amount from the energy amount designating device in the ink cartridge is provided, and when the ink is transferred onto the paper to perform printing, the energy is stored. A thermal transfer printing apparatus, characterized in that the amount of energy read by an amount reading means is supplied to a heating element of the thermal head.