JPH06312524A - Printer using thermal head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printer device using a thermal head wherein same printing on two thermosensitive recording mediums can be executed at the same time, minimizing is possible, and reliability is high. CONSTITUTION:Receipt paper 42 and journal paper 43 are conveyed with its close contacting state with a thermal head 47a by rotation of paper feeding rollers 52a, 52b. By giving the same controlling signal to heating resisors 44a, 44b on both faces of the thermal head 47a, responding heating elements of the heating resistors 44a, 44b generate heat selectively and at the same time, the same printing images are formed on the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43 at the same time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus using a thermal head for driving a heating element to perform thermal printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a printer mechanism unit 1 of an electronic register which is one of conventional printing devices using a thermal head, and FIG. 8 is a printer mechanism unit 1 shown in FIG.
4 is a perspective view of thermal heads 4, 5 and paper feed rollers 12a, 12b provided inside a portion A surrounded by a broken line in FIG. The thermal head 4 and the thermal head 5, and the paper feed rollers 12a and 12b are formed in the same structure.

The electronic cash register (electronic cash register) is provided with a printer mechanism section 1 for printing a product name and its amount for producing receipts on receipt paper 2 and journal paper 3. The receipt paper 2 is a receipt given to a customer by a person who receives the amount of money, and the journal paper 3
Is stored by the person on the store side who gave the receipt as a copy of the receipt. Therefore, the print content of the receipt paper 2 and the print content of the journal paper 3 are the same.

The thermal head 4 for receipt paper 2 and the thermal head 5 for journal paper 3 have heating resistors 7a, 7b composed of a plurality of heating elements arranged along the scanning line.
Is formed, and the control signal and power from the control board are applied to the heating elements of the heating resistors 7a and 7b through the connector 17 and the wirings 6a and 6b. The receipt roll paper 8 and the journal roll paper 9, which are recording media such as thermal paper, are set on the roll base 10, and the paper feed roller 1
By rotating 2a and 12b, they are conveyed at the same speed while closely contacting the heating resistors 7a and 7b of the thermal heads 4 and 5, respectively.

During the printing operation of the thermal heads 4 and 5, the heating elements selectively generate heat in response to a control signal from the control board, and the receipt paper 2 and the journal paper 3 are in the L direction shown in FIG. Then, a printed image is formed on the receipt paper 2 and the journal paper 3. At this time, since the control signals given to the heating resistors 7a and 7b are controlled to be the same,
The printed images on the receipt paper 2 and the journal paper 3 are the same as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

The receipt paper feed motor 15 is a drive motor for rotating the paper feed roller 12a, and is supplied with electric power through the connector 18 and the motor cable 19. The journal paper feed motor 16 is a drive motor for rotating the paper feed roller 12b, and is supplied with electric power via the connector 20 and the motor cable 21.

When the paper pressing lever 22 is pressed, the paper feeding rollers 12a and 12b move in the S direction shown in FIG. 8, and the thermal heads 4 and 5 and the paper feeding roller 12 are moved.
The distance between a and 12b becomes wider. Therefore, the receipt paper 2 and the journal paper 3 are the paper feed rollers 12a, 1
It is no longer pressed by 2b and the thermal heads 4 and 5. From the above, when the journal roll paper 8 and the receipt roll paper 9 are initially set, the receipt paper 2 and the journal paper 3 are moved to the thermal heads 4 and 5 and the paper feed roller 12 by pressing the paper pressing lever 22.
The position of the paper is set by passing it between a and 12b. Next, return the paper pressing lever 22 to its original position, and
And the journal paper 3 is brought into close contact with the thermal heads 4 and 5 and the paper feed rollers 12a and 12b.

FIG. 9 shows a heating resistor 7a shown in FIG.
It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of the control circuit of 7b.
The control circuits of the heating resistor 7a for the receipt paper 2 and the heating resistor 7b for the journal paper 3 have the same circuit configuration, and the heating resistors 7a and 7b are composed of a plurality of heating elements R1 to Rk. One side of the heating elements R1 to RK is commonly connected to the power supply V, and the other side is connected to the corresponding drive element 32.

One line of print data for printing on a recording medium such as receipt paper 2 or journal paper 3 is input to the shift register 30 in synchronization with the clock signal CLOCK by the serial input signal SI. With this,
The data in the shift register 30 is stored in the shift register 30.
Is output as an output signal SO. The input print data is converted into parallel data by the shift register 30 and output to the latch circuit 31. The parallel print data input to the latch circuit 31 is stored in the latch circuit 31 by setting the latch signal inversion LATCH to low level. Next, the recording medium is moved to a printing position, and strobe signal inversions STR1 to STR are made.
While n is sequentially set to the low level, the output of each drive element 32 corresponding to the strobe signal is turned ON / OFF based on the print data stored in the latch register. In response to the output of each drive element 32, a current can be selectively passed through the heating elements R1 to Rk, and the heating element in which the current is flowing generates Joule heat. Therefore, a print image based on the print data is formed on the recording medium. here,
The reason why the heating elements are driven into a plurality of groups by the strobe signal inversion STR is to reduce the instantaneous power consumed by the heating elements. Further, since the control signals given to the heating resistors 7a and 7b of the thermal heads 4 and 5 are the same, the same print image is simultaneously formed on the receipt paper 2 and the journal paper 3.

[0010]

As described above, in the conventional printing apparatus such as the electronic register, the thermal heads 4 and 5 and the paper feed roller 12a are used to print on both the receipt paper 2 and the journal paper 3 at the same time. , 12b, and two sets of control circuits for controlling them, respectively. Therefore, the structure of the printer mechanism unit 1 of the electronic register becomes complicated, and it is difficult to reduce its size.

Further, the thermal head 4 for the receipt paper 2
Since the control circuit of the above and the control circuit of the thermal head 5 for the journal paper 3 have two sets with the same circuit configuration, for example, even if the same control signal is given to these control circuits, if any of the control circuits fails. , The printed contents will be different.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to use a thermal head which can perform the same printing on two thermal recording media at the same time, can be miniaturized, and has high reliability. The present invention is to provide a printing device.

[0013]

According to the present invention, a heating resistor having a plurality of heating elements arranged side by side is formed on a flat plate-shaped substrate, and the heating elements are provided on both sides in the thickness direction of the substrate. The thermal head to which the heat of 2 and the two thermal recording media are brought into close contact with each other on both sides in the thickness direction of the substrate, and are conveyed to each heating element based on the image information to be printed. A printing apparatus using a thermal head, comprising: a control unit that controls a flowing current.

[0014]

According to the present invention, the thermal head is constructed by forming a heating resistor formed by arranging a plurality of heating elements side by side on a plate-shaped substrate, and the heating elements from the heating elements are formed on both sides in the thickness direction of the substrate. Heat is conducted. The transport means transports the two thermal recording media in a state of being in close contact with each other on both sides in the thickness direction of the substrate, and the control means controls the current flowing through each heating element based on the image information to be printed.

Therefore, heat is generated in each of the heating elements by the current controlled by the control means based on the image information to be printed, and the heat is conducted to each of the two heat-sensitive recording media, and two heat-sensitive elements are synchronized with it. The recording medium is conveyed to the next position to be printed by the conveying means. By repeating the above process, the same print content based on the image information is simultaneously formed on the two thermal recording media.

[0016]

1 is a perspective view of a printer mechanism section 40 of an electronic register which is a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a perspective view of a thermal head 47a and paper feed rollers 52a and 52b provided in a portion B surrounded by a broken line of the printer mechanism unit 40 shown in FIG.

The thermal head 47a is provided with heating resistors 44a and 44b composed of a plurality of heating resistor elements Ra and Rb arranged along the scanning line as shown in FIG. From the control board through the connector 57 and the wiring 46, the heating resistors 44a, 4a
It is given to the heating elements Ra and Rb of 4b.

As shown in FIG. 1, a roll paper 48, which is a heat-sensitive recording medium such as a heat-sensitive paper, is formed by stacking receipt paper 42 and journal paper 43 on top of each other.
It is installed on 0. The receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43 wound around the roll paper 48 are rotated simultaneously with the paper feed rollers 52a and 52b, so that the heating resistors 44a formed on both sides of the thermal head 47a as shown in FIG. , 44b, and the heating resistor 4
They are conveyed in the M direction at the same speed while closely contacting with 4a and 44b.

During the printing operation of the thermal head 47a, by a control signal from the control board,
The heating resistor elements Ra and Rb selectively generate heat, and the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43 are conveyed in the M direction, and a print image is formed on the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43. At this time, the same print image is simultaneously formed on the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43 as shown in FIG.

The paper feed motor 55 includes a paper feed roller 52.
It is a drive motor for rotating a and 52b, and electric power is supplied via a connector 58 and a motor cable 59.

When the paper pressing lever 62 is pressed, the paper feeding rollers 52a and 52b are moved to S1 shown in FIG.
By moving in the S2 direction, the distance between the thermal head 47a and the paper feed rollers 52a and 52b becomes wider. Therefore, the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43 are
It is no longer pressed by a, 52b and the thermal head 47a. From the above, when setting the roll paper 48 for the first time, the paper pressing lever 62 is pushed down and the receipt paper 4
2 and the journal paper 43 with the thermal head 47a,
The position of the paper is set by passing it between the paper feed rollers 52a and 52b. Next, the paper pressing lever 62 is returned to the original position, and the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43 are brought into close contact with the thermal head 47a and the paper feed rollers 52a and 52b.

FIG. 3A is a perspective view of the thermal head 47a in the printer mechanism section 40 shown in FIG.
FIG. 3B is a sectional view thereof. Thermal head 47a
A plurality of heat generating elements R on both sides of the substrate 60a constituting the
a and Rb are arranged at equal intervals along the scanning line, and the heating resistor 4
4a and 44b are formed. This heating resistor 44a,
44b is a substrate 60a with an electrically insulating substrate 60a interposed therebetween.
The heating elements Ra and Rb are formed so as to face each other, and one of the heating elements Ra and Rb is commonly connected to the power source side by the conductor 61a, and the other is the conductor 6
A control signal is supplied via 2a and the wiring 46a.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43 are the paper feed rollers 52a,
It is conveyed while being in close contact with the heating elements Ra and Rb by 52b. Therefore, Joule heat is generated in the heating elements Ra and Rb by applying a control signal to the heating elements Ra and Rb and selectively passing a current through the heating elements Ra and Rb.
A printed image can be formed on the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43. At this time, since the same control signal is applied to the heating elements Ra and Rb facing each other with the substrate 60a interposed therebetween, the same print image is simultaneously formed on the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43.

In this case, the printing surface of the journal paper 43 and the heating element Rb are in close contact with each other, but the printing surface of the receipt paper 42 is not in close contact with the heating element Rb due to the thickness of the paper. Therefore, during the printing operation, the Joule heat generated in the heating element Rb is hard to be conducted to the printing surface of the receipt paper 42. Therefore, it is necessary to set the amount of Joule heat generated in the heating element Ra during the printing operation to be larger than the amount of Joule heat generated in the heating element Rb so as to be conducted to the printed image on the receipt paper 42. . In this case, for example, the resistance value of the heating element Rb is set to the heating element Ra.
It may be formed so as to have a larger resistance value than that of the heating element Ra, and the current flowing through the heating element Ra may be controlled to be larger than the current flowing through the heating element Rb.

FIG. 4A is a perspective view of a thermal head 47b of another embodiment in the printer mechanism section 40 shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4B is a sectional view thereof. In the thermal head 47b, a plurality of heating elements Rc are arranged at equal intervals along the scanning line to form the heating resistor 44c. The heating resistor 44c includes a heating element Rc and a heating element Rc.
And the heat conduction layers 65a and 65b sandwiching the heat conduction layer 65a and 65b. The heat conduction layers 65a and 65b are formed in order to efficiently conduct the Joule heat generated from the heating element Rc during the printing operation. Therefore, the Joule heat generated from the heating element Rc is conducted to both surfaces of the heating resistor 44a, that is, the opposite print areas on the thermal head 47b via the heat conduction layers 65a and 65b. One of the heating elements Rc is commonly connected to the power supply side by a conductor 61b on an electrically insulating substrate 60b, and the other is supplied with a control signal via a conductor 62b and a wiring 46b.

As shown in FIG. 4B, the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43 are the paper feed rollers 52.
It is conveyed while being in close contact with the heating resistor 44c by a and 52b. Therefore, by applying a control signal to the heating element Rc and selectively passing a current through the heating element Rc, Joule heat is generated in the heating element, and as described above, the heating resistor 44a passes through the heat conduction layers 65a and 65b. The Joule heat is conducted to both sides of the sheet, and the same printed image can be simultaneously formed on the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43.

At this time, although the printed surface of the journal paper 43 and the heating resistor 44b are in close contact with each other, the receipt paper 42
The printed surface of does not adhere to the heating resistor 44b due to the thickness of the paper. Therefore, the Joule heat of the heating element Rc during the printing operation is difficult to be conducted to the printing surface of the receipt paper 42.

Therefore, the Joule heat generated in the heating element Rc is larger than that of the journal paper 43 side in the receipt paper 42.
It is necessary to set it so that it conducts more to the side. In this case, the thermal conductivity of the thermal conduction layer 65a is made larger than that of the thermal conduction layer 65b by forming the thermal conduction layers 65a and 65b by changing their respective thicknesses and materials. Set so that the Joule heat is also conducted to the printed image.

FIG. 5 shows the thermal head 4 shown in FIG.
It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of the control circuit of the heating resistors 44a and 44b of 7a. A heating resistor 44a and a heating resistor 44b are formed on both sides of the thermal head 47a, a plurality of identical heating elements Ra1 to Rak are formed on the heating resistor 44a, and a plurality of heating resistors 44b are formed on the heating resistor 44b. The same heating elements Rb1 to Rbk are formed.
The heating resistors 44a and 44b are formed to face each other with the substrate 60a interposed therebetween. Therefore, the heating element Ra1
And heating element Rb1, heating element Ra2 and heating element Rb2
The heating element Rak and the heating element Rbk are formed to face each other with the substrate 60a interposed therebetween. One of the two heat generating elements facing each other is connected to power sources V1 and V2, respectively.
The other is commonly connected to the corresponding drive element 80.
Therefore, a single control signal output from each drive element 80 allows a current to flow through the two opposing heating elements at the same time. Further, the values of the power sources of the power sources V1 and V2, the heating elements Ra1 to Rak, and the heating elements Rb1 to Rb.
By arbitrarily setting the resistance value of k, the amount of Joule heat generated in each heating element can be changed.

The print data for one line for printing on a recording medium such as receipt paper 42 or journal paper 43 is
Clock signal CLOCK by serial input signal SI
Are input to the shift register 80 in synchronism with. Along with this, the data in the shift register 30 is output from the shift register 30 as an output signal SO. The input print data is converted into parallel data by the shift register 81 and output to the latch circuit 82. The parallel print data input to the latch circuit 82 is set by setting the latch signal inversion LATCH to low level,
It is stored in the latch circuit 82. Next, the recording medium is moved to a printing position, and strobe signal inversions STR1 to ST
By sequentially setting Rn to the low level, each drive element 8 is generated based on the print data stored in the latch circuit 82.
Turn the output of 0 ON / OFF, and face 2 as described above.
Heating elements Ra1 and Rb1, ..., Heating element Rak
And Rbk can be selected at the same time to allow current to flow. Therefore, the same print image based on the print data is simultaneously formed on the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43. Here, the reason why the heating elements are driven by being divided into a plurality of groups by the strobe signal inversion STR is to reduce the instantaneous power consumed by the heating elements.

FIG. 6 shows the thermal head 4 shown in FIG.
It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of the control circuit of the heating resistor 44c of 7b. A plurality of identical heating elements Rc1 to Rck are formed on the heating resistor 44c of the thermal head 47b. When the drive element 85 is turned on, a current flows through the corresponding heating elements Rc1 to Rck to generate Joule heat, and the Joule heat is generated by the heating resistor 44c as described above.
Is transmitted to both sides of. Therefore, the drive element 85 is selectively turned on / off based on the input signal SI including the print data.
When turned off, the same printed image is simultaneously formed on the receipt paper 42 and the journal paper 43 that are in close contact with both surfaces of the heating resistor 44c. Since the operation contents of the shift register 86, the latch circuit 87, and the driving element 85 of the control circuit shown in FIG. 6 are the same as the operation contents of the control circuit shown in FIG. 5, the description thereof will be omitted.

5 and 6, in the present embodiment, the thermal head is provided with only the heating resistor composed of the heating element, but the entire control circuit shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 may be provided. Further, as long as the thermal head is capable of forming a print image on the thermosensitive recording medium facing each other across the thermal head by the heating element formed on the thermal head, the thermal head described in the present embodiment can be used. It does not have to be the same.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, the current flowing in the heating element of the heating resistor is controlled based on the image information to be printed, and the heat generated in each heating element is controlled by the current. Is transferred to two heat-sensitive recording media that are in close contact with each other on both sides in the thickness direction, and the two heat-sensitive recording media are conveyed to the position where the next printing is performed in synchronization with it. Therefore, by repeating the above-described processing, the same print image based on the image information is simultaneously formed on two thermal recording media in one thermal head.

As a result, the same printing can be performed on two thermal recording media at the same time, and it is possible to obtain a printing apparatus using a thermal head which can be miniaturized and has high reliability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a printer mechanism unit 40 of an electronic register that is a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a thermal head 47a and paper feed rollers 52a, 5 provided in the printer mechanism section 40 shown in FIG.
2b is a perspective view of FIG.

3A and 3B are a perspective view and a sectional view of a thermal head 47a in the printer mechanism unit 1 shown in FIG.

4A and 4B are a perspective view and a cross-sectional view of a thermal head 47b which is another embodiment of the printer mechanism unit 1 shown in FIG.

5 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a control circuit for the heating resistors 44a and 44b shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a control circuit for the heating resistor 44c shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a printer mechanism unit 1 of a conventional electronic register.

8 is a perspective view of heating resistors 7a and 7b and paper feed rollers 12a and 12b of the printer mechanism unit 1 shown in FIG.

9 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a control circuit for the heating resistors 7a and 7b shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 40 printer mechanism section 42 receipt paper 43 journal paper 44a, 44b, 44c heating resistor 47a, 47b thermal head 48 paper roll 52a, 52b paper feed roller 55 paper feed motor 58 connector 59 wiring 60a, 60b substrate 61a, 61b conductor 62a, 62b Conductor 65a, 65b Heat conductive layer 80,85 Driving element 81,86 Shift register 82,87 Latch circuit Ra, Rb, Rc Heating element

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location B41J 3/62 B41J 3/20 114 B 3/56

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A thermal head having a heating resistor formed by arranging a plurality of heating elements arranged side by side on a plate-shaped substrate, and heat from the heating elements being conducted to both sides in the thickness direction of the substrate. A transport means for transporting the two thermal recording media in close contact with each other on both sides in the thickness direction of the substrate, and a control means for controlling a current flowing through each heating element based on image information to be printed. A printing device using a thermal head, which includes: