JPH0734689Y2 - Thermal head type tube printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of use] The present invention relates to an improvement of a thermal head type tube printer for printing identification characters, symbols, etc. for identifying an electric wire on a tube used by covering the electric wire. Is.

[Conventional technology]

The thermal head type tube printer includes a platen through which a tube to be printed passes, a thermal head that prints on the tube by sandwiching the tube with the platen, and a head elevating means that elevates and lowers the thermal head with respect to the platen. , Tube guide means for guiding the tube.

The tube to be printed is fed onto the platen through the tube guide means, and the thermal printer descends on the platen for printing (for example, JP-A-2-78572).
(See the official gazette).

In prior art printers, the tube guide means is
One guide member is fixed in the width direction, and the other guide member is formed so as to be movable in the width direction.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

However, in such a printer, the heat generation position of the thermal head is changed so that the tube is centered on the thermal printer each time the diameter of the tube to be printed is changed, or the support plate for supporting the tube guide means or the thermal printer. Since the position has to be adjusted, there is a drawback that the adjustment is complicated and the adjusting mechanism is complicated and expensive.

In the related art, a printer provided with a material guide unit that adjusts the width of a pair of guides according to the width of the material (paper) to be printed around the center line of the position to be printed has been proposed and implemented ( See JP-A-61-282228).

This prior art material guide means supports a pair of guides on the material guide surface slidably via a guide bar to the left and right, and a pair of ropes that interconnect these guides via pulleys. Made of articles.

However, the material guide means of this prior art does not always displace both guides by the same amount of displacement due to the pulling force of the rope striking the sliding friction of the guides with respect to the guide bar. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to guide you.

Therefore, when this prior art material guide means is applied to a tube printer in which the material to be printed is a narrow print tube, the pair of guides will be displaced symmetrically with respect to the centerline of the position to be printed. Since it cannot be ensured, the tube tends to deviate from the center to print,
In particular, since the printing width of the tube is narrow, if the tube is printed off the center even slightly, the printing misalignment will be significantly increased.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal head type tube printer capable of avoiding the above-mentioned drawbacks and centering a tube to be printed on a thermal head with high accuracy by a simple structure and operation.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a platen through which a tube to be printed passes, a thermal head that prints on the tube by sandwiching the tube with the platen, and a thermal head that moves back and forth with respect to the platen. In a thermal head type tube printer provided with a head elevating means for elevating and lowering and a tube guide means for guiding a tube, the tube guide means is at least a pair of laterally displacing and displaced around a center line in the width direction of the thermal head. A guide member, a pair of support members for supporting the pair of guide members, and a gap adjusting screw rod having a reverse screw threadedly connected to the pair of support members,
The present invention provides a thermal head type tube printer characterized by comprising a drive unit for rotationally driving this interval adjusting screw rod.

[Action]

In this way, the tube guide means is displaced left and right about the center line of the thermal head to be displaced at least 1.
If it consists of a pair of guide members, it will be in a state of being centered on the thermal head simply by adjusting the interval of the guide members according to the diameter of the tube to be printed, so the heat generation position of the thermal head can be changed, There is no need to adjust the position of the tube guide means itself, and the center of the tube can be centered on the tube with a simple structure and operation. As a result, the left and right sides are forcibly displaced with exactly the same amount of displacement, so the left and right distribution displacements of the pair of guide members are performed with high accuracy, and the tube with a narrow print width is surely centered with respect to the thermal head. You can print it.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1 and 2 show a thermal head type tube printer 10 according to the present invention. The thermal head type tube printer 10 is a tube to be printed. Platen 12 passes
14, a thermal head 16 that prints on the tube 12 by sandwiching the tube 12 with the platen 14, a head elevating means 18 that elevates and lowers the thermal head 16 so as to advance and retract with respect to the platen, and a tube guide that guides the tube 12. And means 20.

In the illustrated embodiment, the platen 14 comprises a roller having an elastic layer on at least its surface.

The thermal head 16 has a linear print edge on its tip surface, and is composed of a resistor that thermally converts an electric current to generate heat at the print edge. As shown in FIG. 1, a guide piece 24 for guiding the marking tape 22 to the printing edge is attached to the front surface of the thermal head 16 by a screw 26.

As shown in FIG. 1, the head elevating means 18 includes a fixed frame 28 fixed to a machine body of a printer (not shown) and the fixed frame 28.
A head mounting movable frame 30 slidably mounted via a ball slide bearing (not shown), and the thermal head 16 is fixed to the head mounting movable frame 30. A screw rod is attached to the head mounting movable frame 30.
32 is screwed in, the screw rod 32 is rotatably supported by the upper plate 34 of the fixed frame 28, and the knob 36 is fixed to the upper end thereof. A compression spring around the screw rod 32
A compression spring 38 is provided between the upper plate 34 of the support frame 28 and the movable frame 30, and normally biases the head mounting movable frame 30 downward.

The tube guide means 20 is composed of at least a pair of guide members 40, 40 'which are laterally distributed and displaced about the center line of the thermal head 16 in the width direction. These guide members 40, 40 'are a pair of support members 42, 42', respectively.
In the embodiment shown in the drawing, it is composed of two pairs of front and rear guide rollers. A pair of support members 42, 42 '
As shown in FIG. 3, the screw rods 44a, 44a 'have screw holes 42a, 42'a through which the gap adjusting screw rods 44 having opposite screws 44a, 44a' cut are inserted. An adjusting knob (driving part) 46 for rotating the screw rod 44 is attached to the. A pair of guide rods 48, 48 'are a pair of support members 42, 4
2'through the tube guide means 20
The whole is mounted by supporting these guide rods 48 and 48 'on a machine body of a printer (not shown).

Next, when the thermal head type tube printer of the present invention is used, the tube 12 to be printed is supplied to the platen 14 via the tube guide means 20 by the tube conveying mechanism (not shown), and the marking tape 22 is
The tape is conveyed below the printing edge of the thermal head 16 by a tape conveying mechanism (not shown). Tube guide means 20
Turns the adjusting knob 46 to adjust the distance between the guide members 40 and 40 'according to the diameter of the tube 12. In this case, since the guide members 40, 40 'move equidistantly so as to approach or separate from each other by the rotation of the interval adjusting screw rod 44,
The tube 12 is adjusted with the thermal head 16 aligned with the center line. Printing on the tube 12 is performed by lowering the thermal head 16 by the head elevating means 18 and pressing the printing edge of the thermal head 16 onto the tube 12 via the marking tape 22. The thermal head 16
Characters to be printed by an input device (not shown), predetermined characters by receiving a print signal from a storage medium into which a symbol or the like is input,
Print the symbol on tube 12.

Of particular note is that the tube 12 to be printed is always centered on the thermal head 16 when adjusting the spacing of the guide members 40, 40 'in accordance with its diameter. That is, it is not necessary to change the heat generation position of the head 16 according to the diameter of the tube. Of course, it is not necessary to adjust the position of the tube guide means 20 itself with respect to the printer body.

In addition, the pair of guide members 40, 40 'includes a space adjusting screw rod 44
Since the reverse screws 44a and 44a 'are forced to be displaced in the opposite directions, they are distributed to the right and left about the center line of the thermal head 16 with exactly the same displacement amount. It is possible to print with 16 centered securely.

[Effect of device]

According to the present invention, as described above, the tube guide means for guiding the tube to be printed to the printing position is composed of at least one pair of guide members which are displaced left and right around the center line of the thermal head. Since the tube is always kept aligned with the center line of the thermal head, it is only necessary to adjust the interval between the guide members according to the diameter of the tube. There is a merit that it is possible to print on the center of the tube with a simple structure and operation without having to adjust the position itself.

Also, since the pair of guide members are forcibly displaced in the opposite direction about the center line of the thermal head by the rotation of the reverse screw of the interval adjusting screw rod, the tube having a narrow print width is used for the thermal head. It is possible to print with high accuracy by surely centering on.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 and 2 are respectively a perspective view and a schematic top view of a main part of a thermal head type tube printer according to the present invention,
FIG. 3 is a sectional view of an essential part of the tube guide means used in the present invention. 10 …… Thermal head type tube printer, 12 …… Tube, 14 …… Platen, 16 …… Thermal head, 18 ……
Head raising / lowering means, 20 ... Tube guide means, 40, 40 '
... Guide members, 42, 42 '... Support members, 42a, 42'a
...... Screw hole, 44 …… Spacing adjusting screw rod, 44a, 44a ′ …… Reverse screw, 46 …… Adjusting knob.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A platen through which a tube to be printed passes, a thermal head that prints on the tube by sandwiching the tube together with the platen, and a head elevating means that elevates and lowers the thermal head with respect to the platen. A thermal head type tube printer provided with a tube guide means for guiding the tube, the tube guide means includes at least a pair of guide members which are laterally distributed and displaced about a center line in a width direction of the thermal head. A pair of support members for supporting the pair of guide members, and a gap adjusting screw rod having a reverse screw threaded through the pair of support members.
A thermal head type tube printer comprising: a drive unit that rotationally drives the interval adjusting screw rod.