JPH0717120A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively eliminate the slackening of an ink ribbon at the time of the completion of printing by controlling a taking-up driving motor so that the taking-up driving motor is once rotated at a reduced speed after the completion of printing is detected by a detection means to be stopped. CONSTITUTION:When the printing to a sheet S to be printed due to a printing head 5 is completed, this state is detected by a completion detection means 10. The detection means 10 controls a taking-up driving motor M so that the taking-up driving motor M is once rotated at a reduced speed after the completion of printing is detected to be stopped. The taking-up driving motor M is not stopped instantaneously when the completion of printing is detected and once subjected to additional rotation at a reduced speed before stopped. Therefore, the taking-up operation of a ribbon taking-up means 7 is not instantaneously stopped and additional taking-up operation is performed in a reduced speed state. As a result, the slackening of an ink ribbon 2 newly caused by the rotation due to the inertial force of a ribbon sending-out means 3 can be prevented.

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 using a take-up type ink ribbon, and more particularly to a method for effectively eliminating and preventing the slack of the ink ribbon at the end of printing. Is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a thermal transfer printing apparatus generally used today, a pulse for performing a rotational displacement of an ink ribbon take-up reel by an amount proportional to an input control pulse frequency (PPS: pulse number / second). Some are driven by a motor. FIG. 4 shows an example of the basic configuration of a thermal transfer printing apparatus used in, for example, automatic ticket issuing for air tickets and ticket issuing machines. The ink ribbon 2 is guided from the delivery reel 3 to the plurality of guide rollers 4 while the thermal head 5
It is set so as to be wound on the take-up reel 7 through between the platen 6 and the platen 6. The take-up reel 7 is rotationally driven by a pulse motor M via, for example, an endless belt 8 and takes up the ink ribbon 2 in accordance with the rotational displacement of the pulse motor M. Also,
The delivery reel 3 follows the winding operation of the ink ribbon 2 by the take-up reel 7 and delivers the ink ribbon 2.

More specifically, the printed sheet S to be printed
Is fed by an unillustrated feed roller or the like.
And the platen 6. In response to this,
The thermal head 5 moves from the standby position to the printing position where the ink ribbon 2 is brought into contact with the print target sheet S, and then the ink of the ink ribbon 2 is transferred onto the print target sheet S by heat, whereby Desired information is printed on the print sheet S. Along with this, the pulse motor M is displaced according to a control pulse signal having a preset frequency (since the displacement per constant unit time is the rotation speed, the pulse motor M depends on the frequency of the control pulse). It can also be called the rotation speed). In this way, the take-up reel 7 winds the ink ribbon 2 by an amount corresponding to the rotational displacement amount of the pulse motor M (counterclockwise direction in FIG. 4). At this time, the platen 6 rotates in a direction opposite to the winding direction of the ink ribbon 2. When the printing on the print-receiving sheet S is completed in this way, the thermal head 5 retreats to the initial standby position where it is separated from the ink ribbon 2 that was in contact therewith, while the speed according to the control pulse signal until then. The pulse motor M, which has been rotating at 1, is stopped, so that the winding operation of the ink ribbon 2 by the winding reel 7 is also stopped. At this time, the ink ribbon 2 which has been pushed by the thermal head 5 is slackened to a considerable extent as the thermal head 5 retreats.

[0004]

By the way, in the prior art, at the same time as the printing on the printing sheet S is completed, the rotation of the pulse motor M, which has been rotating until then, is immediately stopped. In FIG. 5, the pulse motor M, which was rotating at a rotation speed of, for example, 500 PPS immediately before the end of printing, is immediately stopped at the same time as the end of printing, so that the winding operation of the ink ribbon 2 by the winding reel 7 is also immediately stopped. An example of the stop control operation of the conventional pulse motor M is shown. In this figure, the hatched area indicates the winding amount of the ink ribbon 2 that is proportional to the rotation speed of the pulse motor M, and it is shown that the winding amount of the ink ribbon 2 instantly becomes zero after printing is completed. ing.

As described above, the winding amount of the ink ribbon 2 instantly becomes zero after the printing is completed, so that the slack generated by the retreat of the thermal head 5 is not eliminated in the ink ribbon 2 as described above. To remain. More importantly, the delivery reel 3 that rotates following the take-up reel 7 is self-evolving even after the take-up operation by the take-up reel 7 has stopped, especially if it has a large diameter. Continues to rotate a little due to the inertial force of. In this way, the slack due to the inertia of the delivery reel 3 is added to the slack associated with the retreat of the thermal head 5 described above. There will be a large amount of slack in contact with. The slackened ink ribbon 2 may remain attached to the platen 6 and may not be separated due to the action of static electricity or the like. If the printing operation as described above is performed for the next sheet S to be printed in this adhering state, serious troubles such as the ink ribbon 2 being entangled in a complicated manner around the platen 6 or being damaged may occur. become.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to provide a thermal transfer printing apparatus capable of effectively eliminating and preventing the slack of the ink ribbon at the end of printing.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the thermal transfer printing apparatus according to the present invention is an ink ribbon adapted to be wound from a ribbon feeding means (3) to a ribbon winding means (7). (2), a print head (5) for printing desired information on a print target sheet (S) by the ink ribbon (2), and the print head (5)
A thermal transfer printing apparatus comprising a winding drive motor (M) for driving the ribbon winding means (7) for winding the ink ribbon (2) according to the progress of printing by The end detection means (10) for detecting the end of printing on the sheet (S) and the winding drive motor (M) once perform deceleration rotation and stop after the detection of the print end by the detection means (10). And a motor control means (10) for controlling the ribbon winding means (7) so that the ribbon winding means (7) performs additional winding in a decelerated state after printing is completed.

[0008]

When the print head (5) finishes printing on the printing target sheet (S), the end detecting means (10) detects this. The motor control means (10) decelerates and rotates once the winding drive motor (M) has detected the end of printing by the detection means (10), and then stops the winding drive motor (M). ) Control. In this way, the winding drive motor (M)
When the end of printing is detected, it does not stop instantly but temporarily stops by additional deceleration rotation. Therefore, the winding of the ribbon winding means (7) is not stopped instantaneously, and an additional winding operation is performed in a decelerated state. Therefore, the slack of the ink ribbon (2) newly generated by the rotation of the ribbon feeding means (3) by the inertial force is prevented. In addition, by the additional winding operation of the ribbon winding means (7), for example, when the print head (5) retreats from the printing position to the standby position at the end of printing, the ink ribbon (2) is generated. The slack can be eliminated. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent various troubles caused by the slack of the ink ribbon (2) at the end of printing, which has occurred conventionally.

It is preferable that the winding drive motor (M) is stopped while gradually decelerating after the printing end is detected. By doing so, the winding operation for eliminating and preventing the slack of the ink ribbon (2) can be smoothly performed without substantial impact. Further, in particular, when the amount of the decelerated rotation of the winding drive motor (M) is accurately set to an amount that only eliminates the slack of the minimum necessary ink ribbon (2), the amount of ink ribbon (2) The slack can be eliminated, and the consumption loss (waste) of the ink ribbon (2) due to additional winding of the ink ribbon can be minimized. As an optimal plan for realizing this, the winding drive motor (M) is decelerated to a predetermined reduction speed (that is, drastically reduced in one step) and rotated after the end of printing is detected, and then, after that. May be stopped. That is, in this case, the slack of the ink ribbon is generated at a certain moment, but in the end, the slack of the ink ribbon is completely removed, and the waste of the ink ribbon is also minimized, so that two effects are obtained. Can be achieved at the same time. As the winding drive motor (M), a pulse motor or another motor whose rotational speed can be variably controlled can be used.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration example of a thermal transfer printing apparatus to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, the components designated by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 4 perform the same functions as those of the conventional device shown in FIG. The overall control of this thermal transfer printing device is the CPU
11, a data and program ROM 12, and a control unit 10 configured by a microcomputer including a data and working RAM 13. The control unit 10 includes a common bus 14
Via the paper feed driving circuit 15, the head moving circuit 16,
The head drive circuit 17, the motor drive circuit 18, etc. are connected.

The paper feed drive circuit 15 feeds a print target sheet S such as paper to be printed between the ink ribbon 2 and the platen 6 via a feed roller or the like (not shown), and the printing by the thermal head 5 progresses. According to the printed sheet S
For advancing, and further discharging the printing target sheet S thus printed out of the apparatus. The head moving circuit 16 moves the thermal head 5 to
The ink ribbon 2 is moved between a standby position in which it is separated from the ink ribbon 2 and stands by, and a printing position in which the ink ribbon 2 is brought into contact with the print target sheet S in order to perform printing on the print target sheet S (thermal in FIG. 1). Head 5 is in the standby position).

The head drive circuit 17 of the thermal head 5 is controlled by the control unit 10 in accordance with the desired print information stored in the working RAM 13 and the data input by the user through any input means. The function of selectively heating (that is, driving) the dot matrix is performed. By driving the thermal head 5 as described above, the printing ink of the ink ribbon 2 is melted and transferred to the print target sheet S, whereby the desired print information is printed on the print target sheet S. .

Further, the motor drive circuit 18 gives a control pulse signal MP to the pulse motor M in accordance with the progress of printing by the thermal head 5 under the control of the control section 10. The pulse motor M receives the frequency (PP
It rotates at the displacement amount corresponding to S), that is, the rotation speed. Due to such rotational displacement of the pulse motor M, the take-up reel 7 takes up the ink ribbon 2 in accordance with the progress of printing via the endless belt 8, for example. When the printing on the printing target sheet S is completed, the motor drive circuit 18 stops the supply of the control pulse signal MP to the pulse motor M, so that the winding of the ink ribbon 2 by the winding reel 7 is stopped. It has become.

In this embodiment, when the printing on the printing sheet S is finished, the winding operation of the ink ribbon 2 by the take-up reel 7 is decelerated stepwise after the printing is finished, not instantaneously. However, it is stopped so that additional winding is performed in which the printing speed is gradually reduced after printing is completed. For this purpose, the table TBL of the data and program ROM 12 stores in advance a stop control pattern for stopping the pulse motor M, which has been rotating until then, while gradually decelerating it at the end of printing. A plurality of types of stop control patterns are stored corresponding to the frequency of the control pulse signal MP given to the pulse motor M immediately before the end of printing, that is, the rotation speed of the pulse motor M immediately before the end of printing. ing.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example of a stop control pattern for stopping the pulse motor M while gradually decelerating the pulse motor M in this embodiment. This stop control pattern is a pattern read from the table TBL when the pulse motor M is rotating at a rotation speed of, for example, 500 PPS immediately before the end of printing. In accordance with the read stop control pattern, when the control unit 10 detects the end of printing, the rotation speed of the pulse motor M is first reduced to 400 PPS (slow down).
Then, the control is performed to decelerate to 200 PPS after a further fixed time, and to zero after a further fixed time. In addition,
When the pulse motor M is rotating at the rotational speed of 400 PPS immediately before the end of printing, the control unit 10 reads another stop control pattern corresponding to the immediately previous rotational speed of 400 PPS from the table TBL, and the stop control is performed. Control will be performed according to the pattern.

By thus stopping the pulse motor M while gradually decelerating and rotating it in accordance with the stop control pattern, the take-up reel 7 that has been rotating for winding the ink ribbon 2 up to then is also printed. After the completion, additional winding is performed while gradually decelerating. By the additional winding in the deceleration state, the slack of the ink ribbon 2 caused by the retraction of the thermal head 5 to the standby position at the end of printing is eliminated, and a new rotation is generated by the inertial force of the delivery reel 3. It is possible to prevent the ink ribbon 2 from being distorted.

Next, an example of the basic procedure of the printing process executed by the control unit 10 in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. It is assumed that the thermal head 5 is in the standby position in the initial state. The printing target sheet S to be printed is the ink ribbon 2 and the platen 6.
When it is detected that the thermal head 5 has been sent to the printer, the thermal head 5 is moved to the printing position by the head moving circuit 16 (step 20). By this movement, the ink ribbon 2 is brought into contact with the print target sheet S. Then, the data and each data indicating the information to be printed are read from the working RAM 13, and according to the read data, the head drive circuit 17 performs thermal transfer printing on the print target sheet S by the thermal head 5 (step 2).
1). On the other hand, according to the progress of printing, the motor drive circuit 18
The pulse motor M is rotated in accordance with a control pulse having a predetermined frequency, thereby winding the ink ribbon 2 by the take-up reel 7 (step 22).

After that, when it is detected that the printing on the printing target sheet S is completed (step 23), first,
The head moving circuit 16 retracts the thermal head 5 to the standby position (step 24). Next, the rotational speed (PPS) of the pulse motor M immediately before the end of printing is checked (step 25), and the pattern table TBL
From this, the stop control pattern (for example, the one shown in FIG. 2A) corresponding to the rotation speed immediately before the end of the printing is read (step 26). In this way, according to the read stop control pattern, control is performed to stop the pulse motor M while gradually decelerating and rotating it.
An additional winding operation is performed by the winding reel 7 in a decelerated state (step 27). That is, as indicated by hatching in FIG. 2A, the ink ribbon 2 is continuously wound by the take-up reel 7 even after printing is completed.

The rotation of the pulse motor M after the completion of printing as described above, that is, the additional winding of the ink ribbon 2 in a stepwise decelerated state, causes the ink ribbon to retreat when the printing is completed. The slack of the ink ribbon 2 can be eliminated, and the slack of the ink ribbon 2 caused by the inertia of the delivery reel 3 can be prevented. When the slack of the ink ribbon 2 is eliminated as described above, the printed sheet S that has been printed is discharged to the outside of the apparatus,
In preparation for printing the next print target sheet S (step 28).
By eliminating and preventing the slack of the ink ribbon 2 in this way, the conventionally occurring trouble that the ink ribbon 2 sags and entangles with the platen 6 at the end of printing can be prevented.

FIG. 2B shows an example of changing the stop control pattern. The stop control pattern shown in FIG. 2A is a pattern for controlling the rotation speed of the pulse motor M to zero while gradually decelerating the rotation speed in a plurality of stages, whereas this stop control pattern is The pattern for controlling the rotation speed of the pulse motor M to be zero after being relatively greatly reduced in one step (hereinafter referred to as a saving pattern for convenience). This saving pattern exemplified here is also read from the table TBL when the rotation speed of the pulse motor M immediately before the end of printing is, for example, 500 PPS. of course,
When the rotation speed of the pulse motor M immediately before the end of printing is different from this, another saving-type pattern corresponding to the rotation speed is read. According to the saving pattern illustrated here, at the time when the end of printing is detected, the thermal head 5 starts to retreat to the standby position, and at the same time, the rotation speed of the pulse motor M decreases from 500 PPS to 100 PPS. The speed will be drastically reduced. Then, a predetermined time after the thermal head 5 has retreated to the standby position, the pulse motor M
The rotation speed of is set to zero. Therefore, the additional winding of the ink ribbon 2 by an amount corresponding to 100 PPS is performed at a predetermined time after the printing is completed, as indicated by hatching. By using such a saving pattern, it is possible to minimize the amount of the ink ribbon 2 wound in order to eliminate and prevent the distortion of the ink ribbon 2 at the end of printing, and thus the ink The consumption loss of the ribbon 2 can be minimized.

As long as the stop control pattern used in the present invention can appropriately eliminate and prevent the slack of the ink ribbon at the end of printing, as in the above embodiment, a plurality of steps or one step. The pattern is not limited to a pattern that changes linearly, and may be a pattern that changes linearly. The motor for winding the ink ribbon in the present invention is not limited to the pulse motor as described above, but may be any other motor whose rotational speed is variably controlled by the resistance control method or other control method. It may be.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the take-up drive motor is temporarily decelerated and stopped even after the printing on the printing sheet is completed, so that the ink ribbon is additionally decelerated in the decelerated state. Since the winding is performed, the slack of the ink ribbon at the end of printing can be effectively eliminated and prevented, which is an excellent effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration example of a thermal transfer printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating a stop control pattern of a pulse motor used in the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a basic procedure of a printing process executed by the control unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a basic configuration example of a conventional thermal transfer printing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a stop control operation of a pulse motor that has been conventionally used.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Ink ribbon 3 Sending reel 5 Thermal head 7 Take-up reel 10 Control unit 17 Head drive circuit 18 Motor drive circuit M Pulse motor

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An ink ribbon (2) wound up from a ribbon feeding means (3) to a ribbon winding means (7), and a print target sheet (S) by the ink ribbon (2). Print head (5) for printing desired information
And a winding drive motor (M) for driving the ribbon winding means (7) for winding the ink ribbon (2) according to the progress of printing by the print head (5). A thermal transfer printing apparatus, wherein an end detection means (10) for detecting the end of printing on the sheet (S), and the winding drive motor (M) are the detection means (10).
After the end of printing is detected by (1), the motor is controlled to perform decelerating rotation and then stop, so that the ribbon winding means (7) performs additional winding in a decelerated state after printing is completed. A thermal transfer printing device comprising means (10). 2. The winding drive motor (M) is controlled by the control means (10) so as to stop while gradually decelerating after the end of printing is detected. Thermal transfer printing device. 3. The control means (10) so that the winding drive motor (M) decelerates to a predetermined reduction speed all at once after the printing end is detected, continues to rotate, and then stops.
The thermal transfer printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the thermal transfer printing apparatus is controlled by: