JPH07223343A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a thermal transfer printer capable of making printing all over the surface of a recording medium, such as a card, in the printing of the recording medium being transported, enhancing an accuracy in transporting a recording medium, and preventing occurrence of unevenness of color and the like. CONSTITUTION:While the positional shift in transporting a card 204 as a recording medium is prevented by a plurality of pinch rollers and capstan rollers transporting the card 204 in a clamped state therebetween, an image is recorded on the card 204 by a thermal head 103.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer that prints while conveying a recording medium such as a card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a thermal transfer printer is known which prints a color image on a recording medium such as a card by superposing three or four colors by using a sublimation type color ink ribbon. In such a printer, it is necessary to accurately convey the recording medium in order to reduce color misregistration. Especially when the recording medium is a relatively small object such as a card, the front end or the rear end of the card is clamped to accurately convey the card without causing a positional deviation. It is configured to print.

[0003]

In the conventional conveying method using such a clamp, the thermal head cannot contact the portion about several mm from the front or rear end of the clamped card. The image cannot be printed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and when a recording medium such as a card is printed while being conveyed, a thermal transfer printer capable of printing on the front surface of the recording medium is provided. The purpose is to provide.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer printer capable of improving the accuracy of conveyance of a recording medium and preventing color misregistration.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the thermal transfer printer of the present invention has the following constitution. That is, a thermal transfer type printer that records an image on a recording medium by a thermal transfer method, the transport path transporting the recording medium, a first roller group disposed on one surface side of the transport path, The recording medium is held between the second roller group, which is arranged on the other surface side of the transport path so as to face the first roller group, and the first roller group and the second roller group. And at least one of the rollers is rotationally driven to convey the recording medium.

[0007]

In the above construction, the recording medium is conveyed while being prevented from being lifted by the plurality of rollers, and the image is recorded on the recording medium.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic structure of a thermal transfer printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 9 are views showing a printing operation in the thermal transfer printer according to the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 is a control unit for controlling the entire printer, which is a CPU 13 such as a microprocessor.
0, ROM 131 for storing the control program of CPU 130 and various data, R used for the work area of CPU 130 and temporarily storing various data
It has AM and so on. Reference numeral 102 denotes a head driver which inputs print data from the control unit 101 and energizes and drives each heating element of the thermal head 103 in accordance with the print data. The thermal head 103 is a line-type thermal head having at least as many heating elements as can print one line of print data on a recording medium (a card in this embodiment). An up / down drive unit 104 is a state in which the thermal head 103 is separated from the recording medium according to an instruction from the control unit 101 (up).
With this, it is possible to bring the recording medium into contact with the recording medium so that the recording medium can be printed (down).

Each of 105 to 109 is a motor driver, which drives various motors corresponding thereto in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 101. A pickup roller 115 is a roller for taking out a recording medium contained in a cassette described later. A feed roller 116 is a roller for conveying the recording medium taken out by the pickup roller 115. 117
Is a dropping roller for discharging the recording medium, which is printed by the thermal head 103 and conveyed by the feed roller 116, to the stacker.
Each of 110 to 112 is a motor for rotationally driving each of the various rollers described above.

The recording medium is moved to the printing position by the thermal head 103 by the rotation of the feed roller 116 and the pinch roller. Reference numeral 113 is a pinch roller motor for moving the recording medium. Reference numeral 114 denotes an ink take-up motor, which drives a rotary shaft of an ink ribbon take-up roll, which will be described later, to take up the ink ribbon used for printing.

Next, the printing process in the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flow charts of FIGS. 2 to 9 and 10. The process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 10 is executed by the CPU 130, and the control program for executing this process is stored in the ROM 131. Although the recording medium is a card here, the present invention is not limited to this. 2 to 9, the card 204 is held by an upper roller group and a lower roller group, and is conveyed from the right to the left in the drawing by the rotation of these roller groups.

FIG. 2 shows the pickup roller 115 with a plurality of cards 204 set in the cassette 201.
The card at the lowest position is fed out by the rotation of and the double feed prevention rollers 202, 203
It shows a state where the card 204 is conveyed to the position of the pinch roller 313. At this point, the thermal head 103 is in the up state.

Next, in FIG. 3, the card 204 taken out from the cassette 201 as shown in FIG.
02 and the further rotation of the pinch roller 313, the sheet is conveyed leftward in the pinch roller group.

Next, in FIG. 4, after the card 204 passes the leading edge detection sensor 119 by the rotation of the pinch roller group, the card 204 is stopped at the printing start position.

When the card 204 reaches the printing start position and the conveyance is stopped in this way, the thermal head 103 goes down to be in a printable state as shown in FIG. 5, and the card 204 moves in the arrow F direction. Printing is started. At this time, the card 204 is pressed from above by a plurality of capstan rollers and its position is fixed. As a result, it is possible to print at a precise position on the card 204 with high precision. Incidentally, reference numeral 215 indicates a printing position by the thermal head 103.

FIG. 6 shows a state in which printing is performed on the card 204 and the printing position is near the end of the card 204. Even in this state, the card 204
Since it is pressed by a large number of rollers 210 arranged behind the thermal head 103 when viewed from the moving direction of, the printing is performed without the position of the card 204 being displaced.

When the printing is completed in this manner, the state of FIG. 7 is proceeded to, the movement of the card 204 is stopped, and the thermal head 10 is stopped.
Increase 3 After that, the card 204 is further moved to the position of the feed roller 116. Then, as shown in FIG. 8, by rotating the feed roller 116 and the drop roller 117, the printed card 204 is moved to the ejection position.

Then, as shown in FIG. 9, the card 204 is dropped into the stacker 220 by the rotation of the drop roller 117.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The control processing of the CPU 130 corresponding to the above operation will be described.

This process is started when print (printing) data is input from an input unit (not shown), stored in the buffer area of the RAM 132 and ready for printing. It is assumed that the card 204 is accommodated and the thermal head 103 is in the initial state position (up state).

First, in step S1, the motor 110 is driven to rotate and the pickup roller 115 is rotated.
The card 204 is taken out from the cassette 201 (FIG. 2).
Next, in step S2, the double feed prevention roller 2
The card 204 made into one sheet by the rotation of 02 is conveyed to the position of the pinch roller 313 by rotating the feed roller 115 by the motor 111. And card 20
The rotation of the feed roller 115 is stopped at the time when the tip of No. 4 hits the roller 313 (FIG. 3).

Next, in step S3, the pinch roller is further rotated to convey the card 204 to the left. Then, after the front end of the card 204 is detected by the front end position detection sensor 119 placed near the thermal head 103, the card 204 is conveyed to the printing start position and stopped (FIG. 4). In this case, not the tip of the card 204,
The rear end of the card 204 may be detected.

Next, in step S4, a signal is output to the up / down drive unit 104 to bring down the thermal head 103. Then, in step S5, rotation of the pinch roller motor 113 is started to move the card 204, and print data is output to the thermal head 103 via the head driver 102 to perform printing (step S5).
6). In this printing process, the ink winding motor 114 is used.
The ink ribbon that has been used is wound up by rotationally driving. This printing process is repeated until the card 20
When printing on the fourth sheet is completed, the steps S7 to S8 are performed.
Then, the rotation of the pinch roller motor 113 is stopped to stop the movement of the card 204, and the up / down drive unit 104 moves the thermal head 103 up (FIG. 7). It should be noted that the determination as to whether or not the printing process is finished may be made at the end of the print data, or may be made by a sensor or the like depending on whether or not the printing position has reached the end of the card 204.

Next, in step S9, the pinch roller 2
10 is rotated and is conveyed to the feed roller 116. In step S10, the rotation of the pinch roller 210 is stopped and the feed roller 116 is rotated to convey the printed card 104 to the ejection position. And the motor 11
2, the drop roller 117 is rotated, and the printed card 204 conveyed to the discharge position is stacked in the stacker 22.
Drop into 0 (Fig. 9). Thus, one card 20
The print processing for No. 4 ends.

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to print while moving a recording medium such as a card in a stable manner. Therefore, color misregistration, which occurs particularly in the case of color printing, occurs. Can be prevented.

Further, according to the configuration of the present embodiment, since printing can be performed over the entire area of the recording medium, there is an effect that there is no problem that the clamped portion cannot be printed as in the conventional case. is there.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 11 to 13, a recording medium transporting mechanism will be described. The same parts as those in the above-described embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

In FIG. 11, reference numeral 310 is an ink ribbon winding roll, and 311 is an ink ribbon supply roll. A platen roller 314 is provided to face the print surface of the thermal head 103. The plurality of pinch rollers 312 are the floating prevention rollers 21 described above.
0 is provided, and a capstan roller 313 is provided corresponding to each of these pinch rollers 312.

The card 204 conveyed by the rotation of the feed roller 116 is the pinch roller 3
12 and the capstan roller 313 are nipped and conveyed by their rotation. In FIG. 11, card 2
The length of 04 is 83 mm or less, the distance between each pinch roller and each capstan roller is set to 15 mm, and the diameter of the capstan roller 313 is about 7 mm.
The diameter of the platen roller 314 is set to about 10 mm.

Here, the platen roller 314 is free rotating and has a role of supplying printing pressure to the thermal head 103. A capstan roller 313 for reducing the displacement of the feeding position of the card 204 during printing.
The pressing force of the pinch roller 312 and the pinch roller 312 is
The pressure applied by 3 and the tension applied to the ink ribbon,
Further, it is determined by various frictional forces during printing, frictional forces between the capstan roller 313 and the card, and the like. The conveyed card 204 is detected by the sensor 330 provided at the tip of the thermal head 103, and the reference position for starting printing is determined based on this detection. By using such a transport mechanism, it is possible to eliminate the displacement of the transport position of the card and perform printing on the entire surface.

12 and 13 are views for explaining an example of arrangement of these pinch rollers and capstan rollers.

FIG. 12A is a side view and FIG. 12B is a top view. In FIG. 12, the pinch roller 312 and the capstan roller 313 are arranged as in FIG. 11, and they are composed of rollers having substantially the same diameter.

On the other hand, FIG. 13 is a diagram showing another example.
13A is a side view and FIG. 13B is a top view. In this example, the pinch roller 400 and the capstan roller 401
1 is not a roller having a uniform thickness as in the above-mentioned example.
As shown in FIG. 3B, roller portions are partially provided, and the roller portions are arranged so as to complement each other in the transport direction. The capstan roller 401 is also arranged at the same position as the pinch roller 400, and the rollers hold the card 204 and carry it.

Depending on the state of the back surface of the card 204,
By using a roller having a needle-shaped protrusion as the capstan roller, the number of pairs of the pinch roller and the capstan roller can be reduced.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, printing can be performed on the entire surface of the recording medium such as a card, and the conveyance position deviation of the recording medium can be eliminated so that, for example, color deviation or image deviation occurs. There is an effect that can be suppressed.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, when printing is performed while the recording medium is being conveyed, there is an effect that the image can be printed on the front surface of the recording medium.

Further, there is an effect that the accuracy of conveyance of the recording medium can be improved and the occurrence of color shift can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining card transport and printing operations in the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining card transport and printing operations in the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining card transport and printing operations in the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining card transport and printing operations in the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining card transport and printing operations in the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining card transport and printing operations in the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining card transport and printing operations in the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining card transport and printing operations in the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a printing process in the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a recording medium transporting mechanism in a thermal transfer printer of another embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a recording medium transporting mechanism in a thermal transfer printer of another embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining a recording medium transporting mechanism in a thermal transfer printer of another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Control Unit 103 Thermal Head 104 Up / Down Driving Unit 115 Pickup Roller 116 Feed Roller 117 Drop Roller 130 CPU 131 ROM 132 RAM 201 Cassette 204 Card (Recording Medium) 220 Stacker

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A thermal transfer printer for recording an image on a recording medium by a thermal transfer method, comprising a transport path for transporting the recording medium, and a first roller group arranged on one surface side of the transport path. And a second roller group arranged on the other surface side of the transport path so as to face the first roller group, and the first roller group and the second roller group perform the recording. A thermal transfer printer, comprising: a carrying unit that holds the medium and rotationally drives at least one of the rollers to carry the recording medium. 2. The thermal transfer printer according to claim 1, wherein the roller width of each of the first and second roller groups is larger than the width of the recording medium. 3. The roller width of the first and second roller groups is smaller than the width of the recording medium, and the rollers of the first and second roller groups are arranged in a zigzag pattern. The thermal transfer printer according to claim 1, wherein: