JPH068597A - Thermal transfer ink ribbon and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To selectively use an unused color section and to economically use an ink ribbon without deteriorating printing quality by providing a thermal mark showing a used or unused state to a surface coated with transfer ink. CONSTITUTION:In a multicolor ink ribbon 2 used in a thermal transfer printer equipped with a serial head, a thermal marker 4 coated with thermal ink showing a used or unused state is provided to an ink color changing-over part. Prior to the printing of each line, the aforementioned thermal ink is discolored to investigate a used or unused state and an unused color section is selectively used. As a result, the ink ribbon can be economically used without deteriorating printing quality.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multicolor ink ribbon used in a thermal transfer printer and a printer equipped with the multicolor ink ribbon.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A serial head type thermal transfer printer using a multicolor ink ribbon is widely used in a printing device for a word processor, an image printing device for a color image processor, and the like. As shown in FIG. 3, the ink ribbon 2 is equally divided in the longitudinal direction, and the four color inks 3y, 3m, 3c, and 3b are sequentially and repeatedly applied, and the boundaries of each color are the transparent portion and the markers 4y, 4m, and 4c,
4b is applied.

When color printing is performed in a serial head type thermal transfer printer using such a multicolor ink ribbon, the color of the ink ribbon is switched four times for each printing line, and overlapping printing is performed, but if all four colors are used depending on the line. However, if there is a color section that is not used, the ribbon in that color section is fed in the air.

[0004]

In the conventional apparatus for multicolor printing by such a method, not all four colors are used for each line as described above, but an unused color section is formed on the ribbon. In many cases, discarding the ink ribbon after only one use is very wasteful, wasting valuable resources, and is high in running cost.

For this reason, the recycling of used ink ribbons has been studied and various methods have been announced, but there is no definitive method and it is still unsolved.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and detects an unused color section on an ink ribbon that has been used once and uses it for printing to make the ink ribbon. To improve the utilization rate of.

That is, a thermal transfer ink ribbon characterized in that thermal ink is applied to the ink color switching portion, and a printer using the ink ribbon and transferring the ink applied to the ink ribbon for printing or printing. In addition, it has a detection means for detecting the discolored state of the thermal ink applied to each ink color switching portion of the multicolor ink ribbon, and is not used by the detection means before printing each line. The thermal transfer printer is characterized in that only the color section confirmed to be used is used for printing, and when the color section is used, the thermal ink section is changed in color by the thermal head.

[0008]

When the ink ribbon is reused, the marker indicating the use of the color section provided in the color section switching section of the thermal transfer ink is read, and it is checked whether the color section following the marker has been used. Therefore, only the unused color section can be selected and used.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an ink ribbon of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing section of an embodiment of a color printer.

In FIG. 1, an ink ribbon 2 is wound around a pair of reels 6 and 7 housed in a cartridge 1 and its width is more than twice the height of the print. It is possible to turn the cartridge over and use it.

On the ink ribbon 2, yellow, magenta, cyan, and black inks have a predetermined color section 3 having a predetermined length.
y, 3m, 3c, and 3b, and color markers 4a and 4b for discriminating the colors applied to the ribbons and thermosensitive color-changing ink for indicating whether or not they have been used are provided in the switching section of each color section. The coated heat-sensitive markers 4c are provided at predetermined intervals, and the markers 4a and 4b have two widths, large and small, arranged in accordance with predetermined bar codes.

The color printer printing section shown in FIG. 2 has a marker detecting means 11, a print head 12 composed of heat-sensitive elements in which resistors are arranged in a line, a printing paper 13 and a platen 1.
4 and the ink ribbon 2 and the like, and the color image signals separated into four colors supplied to the print head 12 and the ink colors of the ink ribbon 2 are made to correspond to each other and are printed on the photographic paper 13 in an overlapping manner. .

Next, the flow of color printing will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. When printing is started (step 301), first N = 1 (yellow) is set (step 30).
2), color markers 4a, 4 indicating the ink color of the ink ribbon
The ink ribbon is fed until b indicates yellow (step 303), whether yellow is printed on the line (step 305), and whether the color section has been used is checked by the thermal marker 4c (step 306),
If it is not printed and it is not used, M (N) = 1 is set and the process moves to the next color (step 307).

If it has been printed and has been used (step 308), it is rewound if M (N) = 1 is set (step 310), and is not used if M (N) = 0 is set. The ribbon is fed until a color section of the same color is found (step 304).

When an unused color section is found, the thermal ink is energized to the print head to change the color and it is recorded that the color section has been used, and M (N) = 0 is set (step 311). Print lines (step 31)
2).

This operation is repeated until printing of four colors is completed (step 314), and the process moves to the next line (step 316). The above work is repeated until printing of all lines is completed (step 315), and the process is completed (step 317).

In the above description, the heat-sensitive marker 4c merely indicates whether or not it has been used. However, the degree of ink use is calculated from the print signal corresponding to the line to indicate a predetermined step. However, this may be detected to further increase the reuse rate.

[0018]

As described above, since the ink ribbon 2 is provided with the heat-sensitive marker 4c for indicating whether or not it has been used, the color sections which are not in use are provided on the coating surfaces of the transfer inks 3y, 3m, 3c and 3b. It is possible to use the ink ribbon economically without deteriorating the printing quality by selectively using.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an ink ribbon of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a printer.

FIG. 3 shows a printing flow of an example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Ink Ribbon Cartridge 2 Ink Ribbon 3y, 3m, 3c, 3b Thermal Transfer Ink 4a, 4b Color Marker 4c Thermal Marker 5 Winding Means 6, 7 Spool 11 Marker Detecting Means 12 Print Head 13 Printing Paper 14 Platen

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A multicolor ink ribbon used in a thermal transfer printer having a serial head, wherein a thermal ink is applied to an ink color switching portion. 2. A serial head type thermal transfer color printer, which uses the multicolor ink ribbon according to claim 1 to print necessary ink colors on a line-by-line basis, wherein the multicolor ink is printed prior to printing each line. Thermal transfer characterized by selectively changing the color of the thermal ink applied to each ink color switching portion of the ribbon and detecting the color change state of the thermal ink applied to each ink color switching portion of the multicolor ink ribbon. Printer.