JPH09193438A - Thermal transfer recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To contrive the arrangement of heating resistance element on a thermal head and simplify a driving method by an energization control means. SOLUTION: This thermal transfer recording device is composed of a thermal head 12 comprising heating resistance element equal to the number of lines of a printing dot matrix which are offset at a row pitch not wider than the line pitch (p) in the order of lines and arranged in two zigzag rows, CPU 14 which controls the energization of two rows of heating resistance element in the order of rows from the rear row to the front row, and driver circuits 15e, 15o. Since the energization history of the heating resistance element set at an obliquely lengthwise position does not affect the drive of the thermal head, the energizing operation has only to be repeated by each row depending upon the presence of an energized state. In addition, a complicated circuit for thermal correction and thereby, a manufacturing cost is saved, although a plural number of phases complying with the number of lines have to de driven.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording apparatus in which the arrangement of heat generating resistance elements of a thermal head is devised so as to simplify the driving method by the energization control means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a printing technique for so-called hard copy, which prints or prints an image on a recording sheet, various recording methods have been studied in parallel with the development of a recording medium. Among them, the thermal head 1 shown in FIG. The thermal transfer recording apparatus using is evaluated for reliability and high print quality. This thermal transfer recording apparatus is for performing thermal transfer recording on recording paper by a thermal head 1 pressed against the ink ribbon. For example, a printing pattern is formed on an ink ribbon in which a black dye is applied on a base material of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film. According to the above, heat is applied to transfer the melted black dye onto the printing paper, or thermal transfer recording can be performed by directly pressing the thermal head onto the thermal recording paper.

A CPU called a central processing unit centrally controls the thermal transfer recording. After the print data to be printed is stored in the memory, a plurality of heating resistance elements R are arranged in a vertical line. Thermal transfer recording according to No. 1 is performed. The plurality of heat generating resistance elements R constituting the thermal head 1 are vertically arranged with a row pitch p of a print dot matrix and are vertically spaced apart from each other, and only the heat generating resistance elements R at locations corresponding to dots to be printed are arranged. The driver circuit energizes to generate heat.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus, printing is performed by the thermal head 1 in which a plurality of heating resistance elements R are arranged in one vertical column, and therefore, it corresponds to a dot to be printed (target dot). In controlling the energization pattern to the heating resistance element R, it is very important whether the dots adjacent in the row (left and right) direction are printed immediately before, and whether the dots adjacent diagonally above and below are printed immediately before. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a history correction circuit and a skew correction circuit for each direction of the adjacent dots and switch the energization contents for the target dot according to the print history of the adjacent dots. In this case, regarding the skew history, as shown in FIG. 6, there is a case (A) in which none of the dots positioned diagonally above and below the target dot at the time of previous energization were non-printing, and the case where dots positioned diagonally above and below were not printed. There are three cases (B) in which one of them is printed and (C) in which both dots that are diagonally above and below are printed, and the energization content to the target dot must be switched and controlled according to each case. The control content was very complicated because it had to be done. Also,
The skew history correction circuit requires corrections including parameters such as ambient temperature and manufacturing tolerances of the thermal head in addition to the dot printing history in the diagonally upward and downward directions. There was a problem such as becoming expensive.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and the heating resistor elements for the number of rows of the print dot matrix are offset in the row order with a column pitch smaller than the row pitch and are arranged in parallel in a plurality of columns. By using such a thermal head, it is possible to perform energization control that is not affected by the print history of adjacent dots.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object and solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention offsets the heating resistor elements for the number of rows of the print dot matrix in a row order with a column pitch less than the row pitch. The thermal heads are arranged in parallel in a plurality of rows, and energization control means for energizing and controlling the plurality of rows of heat generating resistance elements in the order from the last row to the front row.

According to the present invention, the thermal head is
It is characterized in that a plurality of heat generating resistance elements are offset by a column pitch corresponding to almost half of the row pitch and arranged in a zigzag arrangement in two columns.

Still further, according to the present invention, the energization control means issues a energization command to the heating resistance elements corresponding to the print dots in synchronization with the same number of polyphase strobe signals as the number of rows, and the CPU. And a driver circuit which is provided between the heat generating resistor element and each of the heat generating resistor elements and which is activated by the strobe signal to energize the heat generating resistor element.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a thermal transfer recording apparatus of the present invention, FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an array pattern of the thermal head shown in FIG. 1, a print pattern, and an energization pattern thereof.

The thermal transfer recording apparatus 11 shown in FIG. 1 divides a plurality of heating resistance elements arranged in a column direction with a row pitch p into two rows, an odd dot row Re and an even dot row Ro, and divides them into odd dot rows Re. On the other hand, the even-numbered dot rows Ro are offset in the column direction by ½ of the row pitch p, and the adjacent heating resistor elements Re1, Ro1, Re2, Ro2. . . The thermal head 12 is arranged in a zigzag arrangement. The CPU 13 integrally controls the thermal transfer recording.
The print data necessary for printing is stored in the memory 14 and then used for thermal transfer recording by the thermal head 12.

Heating resistor elements Re1, Re2. . . The driver circuit 15e for
Operated by the strobe signal φe having the period Tp, the CPU 1
In response to the print command from 3, the heating resistance elements Re1 and Re
2. . . Is energized. Further, the heating resistance elements Ro1, Ro2. . . The driver circuit 15o for is operated by the strobe signal φo whose phase is 180 ° different from that of the strobe signal φe.
Heat generating resistance elements Ro1 and Ro according to the print command from
2. . . Is energized. The period of the strobe signals φe and φo corresponds to a half period of the period Tp of the strobe signal supplied to the conventional vertical single-row type thermal head 1.

The thermal head 12 shown in this embodiment
As shown in FIG. 2A, since the odd-numbered dot row Re and the even-numbered dot row Ro are arranged in two rows in a staggered arrangement, the odd-numbered dot row Re and the even-numbered dot row Ro are energized at the same time. It is not possible. Therefore, the thermal head 1
When viewed along the movement direction of 2, the even dot row Ro, which precedes the odd dot row Re by 1/2 of the row pitch p, is first printed by the strobe signal φo, and then the thermal head is printed. When 12 moves by p / 2, a printing method is adopted in which the odd dot row Re is printed by the strobe signal φe. As a result, for example, even when printing a straight line that extends vertically in a straight line, odd-numbered dots and even-numbered dots do not form a zigzag-shaped print pattern in which they are offset by ½ of the row pitch in the column direction. The same print pattern as that of the thermal head 1 of the mold can be obtained. As the row pitch p, a pitch of, for example, about 1/80 inch is used as in the conventional case. Therefore, the thermal head 12 is required to be processed with a column pitch of 1/160 inch, but the rows are arranged in a staggered manner in two rows. Since the CPU 13 energizes the even dot row Ro and the odd dot row Re with the pair of strobe signals .phi.o and .phi.e having mutually opposite phases, the skew history correction circuit conventionally required can be eliminated.

The CPU 13 controls the two rows of heating resistance elements from the last row (even dot row Ro) to the front row (odd dot row R).
Since the energization is controlled in the column order toward e), the energization sequence of the even dot row Ro and the odd dot row Re is always maintained. Therefore, for example, the print pattern is shown in FIG.
As shown in, when printing a total of 5 rows of right-angled triangle patterns arranged with 5 dots, 4 dots, 3 dots, 2 dots, and 1 dot from the uppermost end, first of all, for the first row, the even dot row Ro When the heating resistance elements Ro1 and Ro2 are energized and then the thermal head 12 moves by p / 2, the heating resistance elements Re1, Re2 and Re3 of the odd dot row Re with respect to the same first row are energized, and thereby Complete the printing of one row. Similarly, the printing of the second and subsequent rows is performed in the order of the even dot row Ro and the odd dot row Re, and finally the print pattern of the dot array shown in FIG. 2B is completed.

In this case, as is clear from the energization history whose horizontal axis is the time axis shown in FIG. 2 (C), the energization cycle Tp is observed for all the heating resistance elements, and moreover, they are adjacent diagonally in the vertical direction. The heating resistance element is not energized at the same time, and is energized after a time of Tp / 2. Therefore, unlike the conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus in which it is necessary to correct the applied power when the heating resistance elements adjacent to each other at a row pitch p in the vertical direction are energized simultaneously, the skew correction circuit is unnecessary. For this reason, it is necessary to devise a circuit for driving the odd-numbered dot row Re and the even-numbered dot row Ro in two phases, but since a complicated correction circuit is not necessary, the manufacturing cost of the entire device can be reduced. You can

It should be noted that, as shown in FIG. 3 (B), the print pattern is a right-angled triangle in a total of 5 rows in which 5 dots, 4 dots, 3 dots, 2 dots, and 1 dot are arranged with 1 dot from the uppermost end. Even when the pattern is printed, the heating resistance elements Ro1 and Ro of the even dot row Ro are also included in the first row.
2, Ro3 is energized, and when the thermal head 12 moves by p / 2, an odd dot row Re
The heating resistor elements Re2 and Re3 are energized, and the printing of the first row is completed. Further, the second and subsequent rows are printed in the order of the even dot row Ro and the odd dot row Re, as shown in FIG.
The dot array print pattern shown in (B) is completed.
In this case, the energization history shown in FIG. 3 (C) is slightly different from the energization history shown in FIG. 2 (C), but there is no change in the pattern itself even if the print pattern is shifted by one line, and eventually. Similarly, the heating resistor element of No. 2 has the energization period of Tp, and is not energized at the same time as the heating resistor elements which are diagonally adjacent to each other in the vertical direction.

As described above, the thermal transfer recording apparatus 11 described above
Is complicated in that the applied power is corrected in consideration of the energization history of the heating resistor elements R vertically adjacent to each other as in the conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus using the thermal head 1 in which a plurality of heating resistor elements R are arranged in a line in the vertical direction. Since energization control is not necessary and energization according to the presence / absence of energization may be simply repeated for each row Re and Ro, driving of a plurality of phases according to the number of rows is required, but for thermal correction. The manufacturing cost can be reduced as much as a complicated circuit is unnecessary, and it is particularly suitable for a word processor, a printer, or the like that requires a thermal head that requires high-speed printing with high resolution.

Further, since the thermal head 12 is formed by staggering a plurality of heat generating resistance elements by a column pitch corresponding to half of the row pitch p in a zigzag arrangement in two rows, the heat generating resistance elements Ro1, Ro2 in even columns are also arranged. ． . . After energizing
When the heating resistor elements Re1, Re2. . . By energizing, even in the case of printing a straight line extending vertically, it is possible to perform printing with the same printing pattern as in the conventional case in which odd dots and even dots are arranged in a straight line. The zigzag line will not be offset by 2 and the simplest arrangement, a staggered arrangement that corresponds to two rows of odd and even rows, will maximize the benefits of eliminating the need for a thermal correction circuit. At the same time, it is possible to print with high quality while maintaining consistency with the conventional print pattern.

Furthermore, the driver circuits 15e and 15o are also provided.
However, the energization command can be gated by the same number of multi-phase strobe signals as the number of rows, and the energization can be accurately performed only to the heating resistance elements corresponding to the print dots. Compared with the method of processing the energization command, the load on the CPU 13 can be reduced, and it is possible to easily deal with a word processor, a printer device, or the like that uses a print head that has high resolution and requires high-speed printing.

In the above embodiment, the thermal head 12 is constructed by staggering a plurality of heat generating resistance elements in two rows, the odd dot row Re and the even dot row Ro.
As in the thermal heads 22 and 32 shown in (A) and (B), it is also possible to divide the plurality of heat generating resistance elements R into three rows and arrange them in a serrated shape or in a zigzag manner. Similarly, the number of columns is not limited to two or three, but 4
The number of columns may be more than the above.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A thermal head in which the heating resistor elements for the number of rows of the print dot matrix are arranged in parallel in a plurality of columns by offsetting the row pitch at a column pitch less than the row pitch, and the plurality of columns of heating resistor elements are arranged from the last column to the front column. Since the energization control means for controlling the energization in the column order toward the column is provided, the energization of the heating resistor elements vertically adjacent to each other as in the conventional thermal transfer recording apparatus using the thermal head in which a plurality of heating resistor elements are arranged in one vertical line is conducted. There is no need for complicated energization control such as correcting the applied power in consideration of history, and it is sufficient to repeat energization according to the presence / absence of energization for each column.Therefore, driving of multiple phases according to the number of columns is required. However, the manufacturing cost can be reduced by eliminating the need for a complicated circuit for heat correction, and a thermal head that requires high-speed printing with high resolution is especially required. Excellent effects etc. is suitable for de processor and a printer device, or the like.

Further, according to the present invention, since the thermal head is constructed by staggering the plurality of heating resistance elements by the column pitch corresponding to almost half of the row pitch in two rows in a zigzag arrangement, the last row is the even row. After energizing the heating resistor element of
By energizing the heating resistance elements in the odd-numbered row, which is the front row, when moving by almost half of the row pitch, even in the case of printing a vertically extending straight line, the same printing pattern as in the past where odd and even dots are arranged in a straight line Printing is possible, so odd and even dots are half the line pitch.
The zigzag line will not be offset just by itself, and the staggered arrangement that corresponds to two rows of odd dot rows and even dot rows will provide the maximum benefit of eliminating the need for a thermal correction circuit. At the same time, there are effects such as high-quality printing that is consistent with the conventional printing pattern.

Furthermore, the present invention further comprises an energization control means,
CP that issues an energization command to the heating resistor elements corresponding to the print dots in synchronization with the same number of polyphase strobe signals as the number of columns
U and a driver circuit provided between the CPU and each heating resistance element and activated by a strobe signal to energize the heating resistance element. Therefore, an energization command is issued by the same number of multi-phase strobe signals as the number of columns. It is possible to accurately energize only the heating resistance element corresponding to the printing dot by gate, and it is possible to reduce the load on the CPU compared to the method of processing the energization command in the CPU according to the row to which the printing dot belongs. Therefore, it is possible to easily cope with a word processor, a printer device, or the like that uses a print head having high resolution and high speed printing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a thermal transfer recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an array pattern of the thermal head shown in FIG. 1, a print pattern, and an energization pattern thereof.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an array pattern of the thermal head shown in FIG. 1, another printing pattern, and an energization pattern thereof.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an array pattern of another thermal head used in the thermal transfer recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an arrangement pattern and a printing pattern of a conventional thermal head.

6 is a diagram showing a combination of energization patterns of the thermal head shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 thermal transfer recording device 12 thermal head 13 CPU 15e, 15o driver circuit Re odd dot row Ro even dot row Re1, Re2. . . , Ro1, Ro2. . . Heating resistor element

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A thermal head in which heating resistor elements corresponding to the number of rows of a print dot matrix are arranged in parallel in a plurality of columns by offsetting them in a row order with a column pitch smaller than a row pitch, and the plurality of columns of heating resistor elements. A thermal transfer recording apparatus comprising: an energization control unit that controls energization in order from the last row to the front row. 2. The thermal transfer recording according to claim 1, wherein the thermal head comprises a plurality of heating resistance elements offset in a column pitch corresponding to almost half of a row pitch and arranged in a zigzag arrangement in two rows. apparatus. 3. The energization control means issues a energization command to the heating resistance elements corresponding to the print dots in synchronization with the same number of polyphase strobe signals as the number of columns, and the CP.
2. The thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a driver circuit provided between U and each of the heating resistance elements, the driver circuit being activated by the strobe signal to energize the heating resistance element.