JPH0741730B2 - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer capable of automatically erasing a trace left on an ink ribbon after printing.

[Prior art]

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the structure of a conventional thermal transfer printer. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an ink ribbon having an upper surface coated with a heat-melting ink or a heat-subliming ink, which is sent out from a supply roller 2, passes through a printing unit 3, and is wound around a winding roller 4. The printing unit 3 is composed of a platen roller 5 and a thermal head 6, and the ink ribbon 1 passes between the platen roller 5 and the thermal head 6 from below.

Then, at the time of printing, the paper 7 is superposed on the upper surface of the ink ribbon 1, and while these are gradually advanced, the thermal head 6 is heated to melt the ink applied on the upper surface of the ink ribbon 1, and this ink is Transfer to paper 7.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

By the way, in the above-mentioned thermal transfer printer, since the recording marks such as characters printed on the paper 7 remain on the ink ribbon 1, when a secret document is printed, the printing is started from the used ink ribbon 1 and then printed. There was a possibility that the contents would be leaked.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer printer that can automatically erase recording marks left on an ink ribbon.

[Means for solving problems]

To achieve the above object, the present invention drives an erasing device including an erasing device including a heating element and an ink cleaner, which are arranged to face each other with an ink ribbon in between, between a printing unit and a winding roller. It is characterized by comprising a drive means and a control means for selectively controlling the drive means according to the print content.

[Work]

When the predetermined erasing instruction data is added to the print data, or when the erasing instruction means is operated, the ink ribbon after printing is reheated by the heating element to melt the applied ink, Erase the recorded traces with a cleaner.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the mechanism of a thermal transfer printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The same parts as those of the prior art are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted. In this figure, an erasing device 10 has a cylindrical heating element 11 whose axial length is slightly longer than the width of the ink ribbon 1 and a heating element.
11 and a rod-shaped brush (hereinafter referred to as an erasing brush) 12 having substantially the same length in the axial direction, the heating element 11 is disposed between the printing unit 3 and the winding roller 4 in the longitudinal direction of the ink ribbon 1. Is arranged so as to be orthogonal to the ink ribbon 1 and is in contact with the lower surface of the ink ribbon 1, and the erasing brush 12 is also arranged so as to be orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the ink ribbon 1, and heat is generated from the upper surface of the ink ribbon 1 at an appropriate pressure. Energized by body 11.

A heater 13 is provided inside the heating element 11, and when the heater 13 is energized, the heating element 11 generates heat to melt the ink applied to the upper surface of the ink ribbon 1. There is.

Further, the erasing brush 12 is driven by a driving device (not shown).
The ink ribbon 1 is rotationally driven in association with the movement of the ink ribbon 1. That is, printing is started and the ink ribbon 1 starts to move toward the take-up roller 4, and at the same time, the ink ribbon 1 rotates in the direction of the arrow Y in the drawing to rub the upper surface of the ink ribbon 1.
When the printing is completed and the progress of the ink ribbon 1 is stopped, the rotation of the ink ribbon 1 is stopped.

Next, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the thermal transfer printer. In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes an interface, which receives print data D supplied from an external controller (not shown) and supplies it to the control unit 21. Control unit 21
Is composed of a CPU (central processing unit), a ROM (read only memory), a RAM (random access memory), etc., and develops the print data D supplied from the interface 20 into a dot configuration, which is the best The lines are sequentially supplied to the printing unit 3 line by line, and printing is performed. When the print data D is important confidential data, an erasing code is added to the beginning of the data. When the erase code is detected at the head of the print data D, the control unit 21 outputs a heater ON command to the heater controller 22. If the dot data is supplied to the printing unit 3 and the dot data of the bottom line is supplied to the printing unit 3 as described above, a heater off command is issued to the heater controller 22 after a predetermined time has elapsed.
Output to. Further, the heater on / off command can be output even by a manual operation by a staff member. That is, when the clerk turns the erase switch 24 provided on the operation unit 23 described later on and off, this switch information is supplied to the control unit 21, and the control unit 21 determines that the erase switch 24 is turned on. , Heater on command,
If the erase switch 24 is turned off, a heater off command is output to the heater controller 22.

When the heater-on command is output from the control unit 21, the heater controller 22 energizes the heater 13 described above to generate heat.
When the controller 21 generates heat and a heater off command is output from the control unit 21, the energization is stopped. The heater controller 22 is provided with an overheat prevention device, and the temperature of the heater 13 is detected by a thermometer (not shown) to control the energization to keep the temperature of the heater 13 constant.

In addition to the erase switch 24, the operation unit 19 is provided with a line feed switch, a form feed switch, etc., and the operation unit 23 controls the switch information when these switches are operated. Supply to part 21. The erasing switch 24 is mainly used when a staff member recognizes that erasing is necessary for print data to which an erasing code is not added.

In the above configuration, when print data requiring confidentiality is supplied from the external controller, the print data is received by the interface 20 and supplied to the control unit 21. The control unit 21
The erase code added to the head of the print data is detected, and a heater on command is output to the heater controller 22. As a result, energization of the heater 13 is started, and the heating element 11
Heats up, and the ink applied to the upper surface of the ink ribbon 1 melts. Next, the control unit 21 develops the print data into dots and supplies it to the printing unit 3. Then, the platen roller 5 rotates, and the thermal head 6 starts printing. At the same time, the ink ribbon 1 starts moving toward the take-up roller 4, and along with this, the erasing brush
12 rotates to melt the ink ribbon 1 and rub the ink. As a result, the recording traces left on the ink ribbon 1 become unreadable. When the bottom dot line is printed in the printing unit 3, the ink ribbon 1 stops moving, and at the same time, the erasing brush 12 stops rotating. The control unit 21 outputs a heater off command to the heater controller 22 when a predetermined time has elapsed after outputting the dot data of the bottom line. By this,
The power supply to the heater 13 is stopped and the heating element 11 cools.

On the other hand, if the print data does not require confidentiality, the erase code is not added to the beginning of the data, and therefore the heater 13 is not energized to perform printing and the ink is reheated. There is no such thing. As a result, dirt on the erasing brush 14 can be suppressed to a minimum and electric power required for the heater 13 can be saved. Even when the heater 13 is not energized and printing is being performed, the clerk turns on the erasing switch 24 provided on the operation unit 23 to erase the recording trace formed on the ink ribbon 1. be able to. That is, by turning on the erasing switch 24, a heater-on command is output from the control unit 21, and the heater 13 is energized.

When the confidential data is printed in this way, the recording traces left on the ink ribbon 1 can be automatically erased.

Next, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the construction of the thermal transfer printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The thermal transfer printer according to the second embodiment is different from the thermal transfer printer according to the first embodiment described above in the following points.

The heater controller 30 is independent of the control unit 21.

The heater controller 30 is independent of the control unit 21,
Therefore, regardless of whether or not the print data is confidential data, when the printing is started, the heater 13 is energized, and when the printing is completed, the energization is stopped.

 The erasing brush 12 moves up and down.

Both ends of the erasing brush 12 are rotatably supported by one ends 31a, 32a of two arms 31, 32 arranged in parallel,
Both arms 31 and 32 are rotatably supported by a support shaft 33. In addition, the other end 31b of the arm 31 and the other end 32b of the arm 32
Is a fixed shaft 34 that has the same axial length as the erasing brush 12.
The arms 31 and 32 are always fixed in parallel by this. A drive member 35 is rotatably fitted in the fixed shaft 34.
The solenoid 35 is driven up and down by the solenoid 36. That is, when a current is supplied to the solenoid 36, it is excited and the driving member 35 is pulled up, and when the supply of the current is stopped, the driving member 35 descends by its own weight. In this case, as the drive member 35 moves up and down, the arms 31 and 32 rotate about the support shaft 33, and when the drive member 35 is pulled up, the ends 31a and 32a of the arms 31 and 32 descend. While the erasing brush 12 attached to this portion comes into contact with the ink ribbon 1, when the driving member 35 descends, the ends 31a and 32a of the arms 31 and 32 rise, and the erasing brush 12 separates from the ink ribbon 1. ing. The solenoid
The solenoid driver 37 is driven by a solenoid driver 37.
When the solenoid on command is output, the solenoid is energized, and when the control unit 21 outputs the solenoid off command, the energization is stopped. The solenoid on / off command corresponds to the heater on / off command in the first embodiment described above.

With such a configuration, the recording trace formed on the ink ribbon 1 can be automatically erased when confidential data is printed.

The erasing brush used in the first and second embodiments may be a roller made of paper or cloth, a pad, a ribbon, or the like.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, an erasing device including a heating element and an ink cleaner, which are arranged to face each other with an ink ribbon in between, is provided between the printing unit and the winding roller. It is designed to drive selectively by automatically or manually issuing an erase instruction according to the content, so when important data with confidentiality is printed,
The recording trace formed on the ink ribbon can be automatically erased, and the print content can be prevented from leaking from the recording trace. Further, since only the recording trace of the print content having the confidentiality is selectively erased, the stain on the ink cleaner can be suppressed to the minimum and the durability thereof can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a mechanical diagram showing the structure of a thermal transfer printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the electrical structure of the thermal transfer printer, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the structure of the thermal transfer printer according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the structure of the conventional thermal transfer printer. 1 ... Ink ribbon, 2 ... Supply roller, 3 ... Printing section, 4 ... Take-up roller, 7 ... Paper, 10 ... Erase device,
11 …… Heating element, 12 …… Erasing brush (ink cleaner),
21 ... Control unit (control means), 22 ... Heater controller, 36 ... Solenoid, 37 ... Solenoid driver (above 22, 36, 37 are drive means).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A thermal transfer printer that performs heat generation printing on a sheet that moves in parallel with the ink ribbon while moving the ink ribbon in the order of supply roller → printing unit → winding roller, comprising: (a) the printing unit and the printing unit. It is provided between the take-up roller and
An erasing device including an ink cleaner that is in contact with the ink surface of the ink ribbon and a heating element that is arranged to face the ink cleaner with the ink ribbon sandwiched between them; (b) drive means for driving the erasing device; c) a control means for controlling the driving means based on predetermined erasing instruction data added to the print data, a thermal transfer printer.