JPH07101130A - Card printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an ink ribbon particularly having a simple structure capable of saving a device cost which is placed between a print head and a paper, and an ink thereon is transferred to a position on the paper corresponding to heated resistors in the print head. CONSTITUTION:In an ink ribbon 10 on which colors of yellow(Y), magenta(M) and cyan(C) are coated in order, transparent sections I-III in respective boundary sections between them are formed having different widths L1-L3. A light emitted from a photosensor 17 is reflected by a silver tape 18 and a detection time of the reflection light is detected so that a position of the transparent section is discriminated, thereby it is possible to detect the boundary sections of respective colors in a markedly simple structure.

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 on paper by controlling heat generation of a heating resistor formed on the print head, and more particularly, it is interposed between the print head and the paper and heated. The present invention relates to an ink ribbon that transfers ink to the position of the paper corresponding to the heating resistor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A thermal transfer printing apparatus having a print head (a so-called thermal head) incorporated therein, which controls heat generation of a large number of heating resistors formed at the tip of the print head according to image data, and transfers ink to a sheet for printing. It has been known. In such a thermal transfer printing apparatus, printing is performed on the paper by controlling heat generation of the heating element formed on the print head, and therefore an ink ribbon coated with ink between the print head and the paper is used.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an ink ribbon used for the above-mentioned application (this ink ribbon is referred to as a conventional ink ribbon). In addition to the ink ribbon, the drawing also shows the arrangement of the print head, rollers for conveying paper, and photosensors. As shown in the figure,
The ink ribbon 1 is formed by sequentially coating three colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) on a thin base film 1 '. In addition, the marking portion 4 is provided between each color of yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C).
Is formed, and each marking portion 4 is colored with a predetermined color. A large number of heating resistors (not shown) are arranged on the lower surface of the print head 2 in a line in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the ink ribbon 1 (the direction of arrow a).

In this state, the take-up reel 6 of the ink ribbon 1 is rotated in the direction of arrow A ', and at the same time, the paper P (not shown) is drawn.
When the conveying roller is driven, the ink ribbon 1 and the paper P are
Are conveyed in the arrow A direction and the arrow B direction, respectively.
Then, the ink ribbon 1 and the paper P move immediately below the print head 2 while being sandwiched between the lower surface of the print head 2 and the roller 3, and when a voltage according to image data is applied to the print head 2 at a predetermined timing. The heating resistor formed on the lower surface of the print head 2 selectively generates heat, and the ink of the ink ribbon 1 that moves to a position directly below the heated heating resistor is melted and transferred to the paper P for image recording. .

The marking unit 4 is detected by the photosensor 5 each time the above-described one-color printing process is completed, and the paper P is returned to the printing start position by a roll (not shown). For example, three times corresponding to three colors are performed. The printing process is repeated to perform so-called full-color printing.

On the other hand, the ink ribbon 7 shown in FIG. 6 (this ink ribbon is referred to as a conventional ink ribbon) shows an ink ribbon having a configuration different from that described above.
The ink ribbon 7 shown in the figure is different from the ink ribbon 1 shown in FIG. 4 in the configuration of the marking portion. That is, the marking portion 8 is formed by attaching a reflecting member to one end of the transparent portion formed between the respective colors, and the attaching position is not all the transparent portions formed between the respective colors but, for example, three colors. In the case of the ink ribbon 7 having the configuration, a reflecting member is attached to every third transparent portion. Then, the ink ribbon 7 is conveyed while the photosensor 5 emits light, and the reflected light of the marking portion 8 is detected to detect a predetermined position of the paper P. Also in this conventional example, the configuration of the print head 2, the take-up roller 6 and the like is the same as that of the ink ribbon 1 shown in FIG. 5 (ink ribbon of the conventional example).

[0007]

The following problems occur in the ink ribbon having the conventional structure as described above.

First, in the conventional ink ribbon, it is necessary to mark each color applied to the ink ribbon 1 with ink of a predetermined color, which wastes ink and complicates the construction of the ink ribbon. It also causes the cost increase.

On the other hand, in the conventional ink ribbon, a reflecting member having a high reflectance must be attached to one end of the transparent portion formed between the colors of the ink ribbon 7. Moreover,
This reflecting member must be attached to every predetermined number of transparent parts formed on the ink ribbon 7 (every three transparent parts in the above-mentioned example), which is an extremely complicated structure, which increases the cost of the apparatus. Cause.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ink ribbon having a simple structure and not increasing the cost of the apparatus.

[0011]

The present invention is applied to an ink ribbon used in a thermal transfer printing apparatus provided with a heating resistor, the ink ribbon having at least two different colors of ink coated on a base film, Ink is not formed between the respective colors and transparent portions are formed, and the lengths of the respective transparent portions are different from each other.

[0012]

According to the present invention, for example, in an ink ribbon coated with two or more colors of ink such as yellow (Y), magenta (M) and cyan (C), a transparent portion where no ink is coated is formed between the respective colors. The length of this transparent portion is made different for each color, for example, the detection time of the reflected light of the light emitted from the photosensor is measured, the position where ink is not applied is detected, the ink application start position, or the ink application It is possible to detect the boundary position of each color with an extremely simple configuration.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the ink ribbon of this embodiment. In the figure, an ink ribbon 10 is arranged in a thermal transfer printing apparatus (not shown), and is stretched between a feed roll 11 and a take-up roll 12. The arrangement of the ink ribbon 10 is wound around the feed roll 11. Is wound around the take-up roll 12 in accordance with the rotation of the take-up roll 12 in the direction of arrow C '. The take-up roll 12 is configured such that its rotational force is transmitted from a motor (not shown) to the take-up tube 12 ', and the take-up roll 12 rotates in the arrow C'direction as described above. It is assumed that the rotation speed of the motor is constant.

The ink ribbon 10 is formed by applying inks of respective colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M) and cyan (C) on an extremely thin base film 10 'having a thickness of about 5 μm. The width of the ink ribbon 10 is A
It is possible to print on 4 size paper, for example 210m
The width is equal to or larger than m (width in the lateral direction of A4 size paper). Further, the boundary between the inks applied with the yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) inks is
The transparent base film 10 'is exposed as it is, and forms transparent portions I, II, and III. That is, the transparent portion I is formed at the boundary between cyan (C) and yellow (Y),
II is formed at the boundary between yellow (Y) and magenta (M), and the transparent portion III is formed at the boundary between magenta (M) and cyan (C). And, these transparent parts I, II,
Each III has a different formation width. That is, as shown in the figure, the width of the transparent portion I is L1, the width of the transparent portion II is L2, and the width of the transparent portion III is L3. The width L1 of these transparent portions I to III
The relationship between .about.L3 and the length thereof will be specifically described later from the relationship with the transport speed of the ink ribbon 10.

On the other hand, the ink ribbon 10 having the above structure.
On the other hand, the arrangement relationship between the print head and the paper is configured as shown in FIG. That is, the print head 13 is arranged above the ink ribbon 10, and the paper P is conveyed below the ink ribbon 10. Immediately below the print head 13, the print head 13-ink ribbon 10-paper P-paper conveyance. The rollers 14 are closely arranged at a predetermined pressure in this order, and the ink ribbon 10 and the paper P are printed by the print head 13 and the paper transport roller 14.
It is configured to be conveyed in the same direction while being sandwiched between them.

The print head 13 provided above the ink ribbon 10 is specifically provided on a head substrate (not shown), and a large number of heating resistors are formed in a line on the lower surface of the print head 13. Has been formed. Further, the disposing direction of the heating resistor (not shown) is a direction orthogonal to the moving direction (arrow C direction) of the ink ribbon 10. The width of the print head 13 is slightly smaller than the width of the ink ribbon 10 described above, and the width is 210 mm or more so that A4 size paper can be printed.

Further, below the ink ribbon 10, there is provided a paper carrying mechanism for carrying the paper P as described above.
This paper transport mechanism is composed of the above-described paper transport rollers 14, a pair of forward / reverse transport rolls 16, various rolls (not shown), a transport guide plate, and the like. The sheet conveying roller 14 applies a predetermined pressure to the upper side immediately below the print head 13, and
The paper P is conveyed in the direction of the arrow. In addition, the paper transport roller 1
Reference numeral 4 is made of an elastic material such as rubber so that the ink ribbon 10 and the paper P come into close contact with each other. On the other hand, the forward / reverse transport roll 16
Is a roll that applies a driving force for transporting the paper P, for example, when the forward / reverse transport roll 16 rotates forward, the paper P is fed in the direction of the arrow (forward feed direction), and when it rotates in the reverse direction The paper P is fed in the direction (reverse feed direction).

On the other hand, a structure for detecting the positions of the transparent portions I to III of the ink ribbon 10 is provided near the print head 13. This structure includes a photo sensor 17 and a silver tape 18. FIG. 2 is a diagram for specifically explaining this arrangement configuration, and is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA ′ of FIG. 1. The photo sensor 17 includes a light emitting portion such as a light emitting diode (LED) and a light receiving portion such as a phototransistor, and outputs the light emitted from the light emitting portion to the silver tape 18, or yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C). ) Is applied to the ink application surface, the light reflected from these is detected, and the passage of the transparent portions I to III is detected. That is, the amount of received light is largely different between the reflected light from the silver tape 18 and the reflected light from the ink application surface such as yellow (Y) and magenta (M). As shown in FIG. Can be detected as a difference in collector output current from the light receiving portion regardless of the distance. Therefore, in this embodiment, the collector output current at the light receiving portion of the photo sensor 17 is detected to determine the positions of the transparent portions I to III.

In the ink ribbon 10 having the above structure,
The specific operation of this embodiment will be described below. First, based on print data supplied from an external host computer or the like, a control circuit (not shown) in the thermal transfer printing apparatus converts the print data into pattern data in the bitmap format and prints an image for each line on the print head 13. Output as data. Further, in synchronization with this output, the take-up reel 12 is driven, the ink ribbon 10 is moved in the arrow C direction, and at the same time, the forward / reverse transport roll pair 16 is driven in the forward rotation to transport the paper P in the arrow direction. During this period, a voltage according to the image data is applied to the print head 13 to selectively generate heat from the heating resistor on the lower surface of the print head 13. At this time, since the ink ribbon 10 is sandwiched between the lower surface of the print head 13 and the paper transport roller 14, the ink of the ink ribbon 10 located directly below the heat-generating resistor that has generated heat is melted and transferred onto the paper P. For example, if the magenta (M) ink application surface of the ink ribbon 10 is located immediately below the print head 13 as shown in FIG. 1, the paper P will be printed with magenta (M) according to the image data. Color printing is performed.

After that, when the printing process of magenta (M) color is completed, the photo sensor 17 arranged downstream of the print head 13 detects the reflected light from the silver tape 18, and the transparent portion.
Know that III has passed just above the photo sensor 17.
When the control circuit (not shown) knows the position of the transparent portion III from the output signal from the photo sensor 17, the drive of the take-up roll 12 is stopped and the movement of the ink ribbon 10 is stopped, and the forward / reverse transport roll pair 16 is reversed. The sheet P is driven to rotate and returned to the print start position, and the same print processing as described above is performed on the next cyan (C) ink application section. That is, the forward / reverse transport roll 16 is driven to rotate in the forward direction to transport the paper P in the direction of the arrow, and at the same time, the drive of the take-up roll 12 is restarted and a voltage according to the image data is applied to the print head 13 to drive the paper P. The cyan (C) color is printed according to the image data.
After that, when the photo sensor 17 detects the transparent portion I, the pair of forward / reverse transport rolls 16 is again driven to rotate backward, the paper P is returned to the print start position, and the third color yellow (Y) print processing is performed. In this way, the printing process is performed three times, and when the printing process for each color is completed according to the image data, the full-color image is formed on the paper P. Further, during the above-described printing process, since the formation width of each transparent portion I to III is different from L1 to L3, the photo sensor 17 also detects the formation width,
It is also possible to judge what color is the boundary between the colors.

However, when the above-described printing process is repeated, the ink ribbon 10 after the printing process is gradually wound around the winding roll 12, and the outer shape (diameter) of the winding roll 12 becomes thick. Here, as described above, the rotation speed of the motor is constant. Therefore, when the ink ribbon 10 is wound around the take-up roll 12, the substantial diameter of the take-up roll 12 becomes thick and the ink ribbon 10 is conveyed. The speed becomes faster. Therefore, the more the ink ribbon 10 is used, the larger the diameter of the take-up roll 12 becomes, and the faster the conveyance speed of the ink ribbon 10 becomes. Therefore, a configuration is required to perform the detection operation of the transparent portions I to III without error from the start to the end of use of the ink ribbon 10. The conditions for this will be examined below.

In order to examine this condition, the winding tube 1
The diameter 2'is set to d as shown in FIG. 4, and the diameter of the winding roll 12 in a state in which a certain amount of the ink ribbon 10 is wound is set to D. Further, θ shown in the figure is the winding roll 1
2 shows the rotation angle which rotates in a predetermined time.

First, the time required for each transparent portion I, II, and III to pass over the photosensor 17 is T1, T2, and T, respectively.
If the value is 3, the minimum value of the passage time is when the maximum amount of the ink ribbon 10 is wound on the winding roll 12 because the rotation angle θ is constant. Therefore,

[0024]

[Equation 1]

On the other hand, the maximum value of the transit time of each transparent portion I, II, III is conversely the winding roll 12 and the ink ribbon 10
Is not wound, that is, the take-up tube 12 '
When the diameter is d. Therefore,

[0026]

[Equation 2]

Here, for example, the boundary condition at which the times T1 and T2 cannot be distinguished is T1max = T2min, so

[0028]

[Equation 3]

[0029] Similarly, the boundary condition that makes the times T2 and T3 indistinguishable is T2max = T3min.

[0030]

[Equation 4]

It is Here, the above equations (3) and (4)
From the formula and

[0032]

[Equation 5]

Therefore, in order that the times T1 to T3 are always recognized as different values from the above, if L1 is used as the reference value,

[0034]

[Equation 6]

It will be understood that the following is sufficient. As described above, according to this embodiment, the transparent portions L1 to L1 formed on the ink ribbon 10 are formed.
The length of L3

[0036]

[Equation 7]

It may be constructed so as to satisfy the condition of.
In this embodiment, the ink colors formed on the ink ribbon 10 are yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C).
Although it is composed of colors, it is not limited to 3 colors, but 2 colors, 4 colors, 5 colors, ...
.. may be an ink ribbon composed of.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, in an ink ribbon having a structure in which two or more colors of ink are applied, the length of the transparent portion formed between the colors may be different for each color. Therefore, the ink ribbon of the present invention can be implemented with a very simple structure.

Further, the transparent portion can be formed by simply not applying the ink on the base film of the ink ribbon. From this point as well, the ink ribbon can be formed with an extremely simple structure, and the cost of the apparatus is reduced. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an ink ribbon according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A ′ of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a difference in collector output current based on reflected light from a silver tape and each color ink.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a diameter of an ink ribbon wound on a winding roll and a diameter of a raw tube.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional ink ribbon.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conventional ink ribbon.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Ink Ribbon 11 Feeding Roll 12 Winding Roll 13 Print Head 14 Paper Conveying Roller 16 Forward / Reverse Conveying Roll Pair 17 Photo Sensor 18 Silver Tape Y Yellow M Magenta C Cyan

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ink ribbon used in a thermal transfer printing apparatus provided with a heating resistor, wherein the ink ribbon has at least two different colors of ink applied on a base film, and between the colors applied with the ink. An ink ribbon, wherein transparent portions are formed and the lengths of the respective transparent portions are different.