JPH09314922A - Recorder using thermal head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make possible high-definition recording which allows enlargement by executing recording with the first thermal head and the second thermal head which is supported in such a manner that allows heating resistor to contact when forced to contact a recording medium with a pitch staggered by a half pitch in relation to an arranged pitch. SOLUTION: The first thermal head 7 supported in such a manner that a heating resistor 21 may contact when forced to contact a recording medium 4 and the second thermal head 8 supported in such a manner that a heating resistor 22 may touch when forced to touch the recording medium 4 with a pitch staggered by a half pitch in relation to the arranged pitch of heating resistive elements of the first thermal head 7 when the heating resistor 21 approaches, in a thermal head mechanism. Recording is performed by the first and second thermal heads 7, 8. High-definition recording can be made to a flat recording medium according to this constitution.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording device using a thermal head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the construction of a recording apparatus using this type of thermal head. In the figure, 1 is a thermal head portion, 3 is a platen roller, and 4 is a recording medium. In the recording apparatus shown in the drawing, a thermal recording paper 4 which is a recording medium is wound around a part of the peripheral surface of the platen roller 3, and the heating resistor 2 is brought into contact with the surface of the thermal recording paper 4 so that the thermal head unit The heat sensitive recording paper 4 is conveyed by pressing 1 and rotating the platen roller 3, and a desired image is formed by selectively driving the heat generating resistor 2 to generate heat. In the device shown,
When a medium that does not have flexibility such as thermal recording paper or a thick recording medium is used, the platen roller 3 is used.
Since the recording medium 4 cannot be wound around, the problem that recording cannot be performed occurs.

Therefore, as an apparatus for recording on such a recording medium, there is an apparatus shown in FIG. The apparatus shown in the figure is provided with a flat bed 5 on which the recording medium 4 is placed, and the recording medium 4 is placed on the flat bed 5.
Recording is performed by fixing and moving the thermal head 1 while pressing the recording medium 4 and selectively driving the heat generating resistor 2 to generate heat. Further, in this type of recording apparatus, a so-called end face type thermal head in which the heating resistor 2 is formed on the end face shown in FIG. 5A, or very close to the end face of the head shown in FIG. 5B. A so-called near-edge type thermal head in which the heating resistor 2 is formed in a portion is used, and the heating resistor 2 is attached to the recording medium 4.
Are configured to make good contact with each other.

[0004]

In the case of the above-mentioned device, in the end face type thermal head, the individual electrodes and the heat generating resistor must be formed in a narrow space.
It is difficult to construct a large one because it requires high technology for its formation. Further, in the near-edge type thermal head, since the individual electrodes and the heating resistors are formed on the flat surface portion, they can be formed by the printing method, and the head can be easily enlarged. Since it has to be formed as close as possible to the edge of the substrate, the density of the unit heating resistance elements is reduced due to the problem of the shape of the electrode pattern, and it is difficult to obtain a high resolution head.

The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and is a recording apparatus using a thermal head for recording on a planar recording medium capable of high-definition recording which can be easily enlarged. The purpose is to provide.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in a recording apparatus using the thermal head of the present invention, the thermal head mechanism is contacted with a heating resistor when being pressed against the recording medium. The first thermal head supported by the first thermal head and the heating resistor of the first thermal head are close to the heating resistor, and the heating resistor element of the first thermal head is arranged at a half pitch. The second thermal head, which is so supported as to be in contact with the heating resistor when being pressed against the recording medium, is supported, and recording is performed by these first and second thermal heads. did.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A recording apparatus using a thermal head of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a recording unit in the recording apparatus of the present invention, and the same or equivalent structures as those of the above-described conventional apparatus are designated by the same reference numerals.

As shown in the drawing, the thermal head portion of the recording apparatus of the present invention is a near-edge type first thermal head 7 in which a heating resistor 21 is provided near the end portion of the head.
Similarly, the near-edge type second thermal head 8 in which the heating resistor 22 is provided in the vicinity of the end portion of the head is attached to the heat dissipation plate 10 so that the heating resistors 21 and 22 are close to and face each other. It is installed and configured. The heat dissipation plate 10 is moved in the direction in which the heat dissipation plate 10 is pressed against and separated from the recording medium 4 (flat bed 5), and the head support mechanism 6
Attached to. The head support mechanism 6 includes a head support member 60 that supports the heat dissipation plate 10 of the thermal head unit 1 via a pressing spring 63, and the head support member 60.
Is constituted by a motor 61 as a driving means for vertically moving the arm. Also in the recording apparatus of the present invention, similarly to the above-described conventional recording apparatus shown in FIG. 4, the head support mechanism 6 is moved by the moving mechanism (not shown) in the longitudinal direction of the thermal heads 7 and 8 (heating resistor 2).
The head supporting member 60 is lowered to press the thermal head unit 1 against the recording medium 4 during the recording operation. By moving the head support mechanism 6 and selectively driving the heating resistor 2 to generate heat, a desired image is formed on the recording medium 4, and the head support member 60 is raised in the recording standby state. The thermal head unit 1 is configured to be separated from the recording medium 4.

Further, as shown in the drawing, in the recording apparatus of the present invention, when the head supporting member 60 is lowered, the end portions on the side where the heating resistors 21 and 22 are provided are in pressure contact with the recording medium 4. Thus, the first and second thermal heads 7 and 8 are supported so as to be inclined with respect to the flat bed 5, respectively.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the thermal head unit 1 and the control unit 9. The first thermal head 7 is
A first heating resistor 21 formed linearly on one end side of a ceramic substrate 70 which is an insulating substrate, and parallel to the heating resistor 21 on the end side of the substrate further than the first heating resistor 21. Thus, the common electrode 71 is arranged, and the common electrode and the two heating resistors are connected by a plurality of power supply side lead conductors 72 extending in the sub-scanning direction and arranged at equal intervals in the main scanning direction. . In addition, the first heating resistor 7
A plurality of individual electrodes 73 extending in the sub-scanning direction are provided in the middle of adjacent power supply side lead conductors 72 and are connected to the first heating resistor 21, respectively. The individual electrode 73 is connected to a drive circuit 74 including a switching element having a shift register, and the drive circuit 74 is connected to a connection pattern portion 75.

The first heating resistor 71 is composed of individual electrodes 73.
A unit heating resistance element is formed by being divided by the power-source-side lead conductors 72 adjacent to each other, and the individual electrode 73 connected to each unit heating resistance element is selected by the drive circuit 74 and grounded to form a heating resistance element. Energy is supplied from a power source to drive heat generation.

The second thermal head 8 is also constructed in the same manner as the above-mentioned first thermal head, and the end portion side where the second heating resistor 22 is provided is the first thermal head 7.
The second heating resistor 81 so that the second heating resistor 81
However, the unit heating resistance element formed by being divided by the power supply side lead conductor 82 adjacent to each individual electrode 83 is a half pitch in the main scanning direction with respect to the heating resistance element row of the first thermal head 7. It is attached to the heat dissipation plate 10 in such a manner as to be displaced, so that the density of the unit heating resistance elements in the main scanning direction is increased.

The control unit 9 is composed of a controller 90, a memory control circuit 91, an energization time control circuit 92, a frame memory 93, a distribution circuit 94, and a delay circuit 95.

When recording is performed in the recording apparatus of the present invention, first, the controller 90 creates raster data for each line from the recording data created by a higher-level device such as a computer, and the created recording data The lines are sequentially stored in the frame memory 93.

In the recording operation, the controller 90
Moves the head support mechanism 6 in the direction of arrow C in the drawing by a moving mechanism (not shown), and
Recording data is transmitted to the thermal head unit 1 via 1 to selectively drive the heat generating resistance element to perform recording on the recording medium 4. That is, the memory control circuit 91 reads the recording data for one line from the frame memory 93 and transmits it to the distribution circuit 94. In the distribution circuit 94, the recording data for one line is recorded with odd-numbered dot recording data and even-numbered dot recording data. The recording data of the odd dots is transmitted to the drive circuit 74 on the first heating resistor 21 side in the direction A in the figure through the connection pattern portion 75, and the recording data of the even dots is It is transmitted to the delay circuit 95 including a memory. Based on the clock signal transmitted from the memory control circuit 91, when the recording data for one line is transmitted from the memory to the drive circuit 74 including the switching element with the shift register, the controller 90 outputs the latch signal as the first signal. Send to the thermal head 7. At this timing, each drive circuit 74 switches the individual electrodes 73 to the energized state, that is, the grounded (on) or non-energized (off) state in accordance with the recording data transmitted from the memory, and the energization time control circuit 92 transmits the data. The heating resistance element in the energized state is driven according to the strobe signal.

The heating resistor 22 of the second thermal head 8
Is the recording resolution in the sub-scanning direction and each heating resistance from the heating resistor 21 of the first thermal head 7 on the upstream side with respect to the moving direction of the thermal head portion (sub-scanning direction, direction of arrow C in the figure). The recording timing is controlled to be delayed by a predetermined time corresponding to the distance between the bodies, so that the recording by the respective heating resistors on the recording paper coincides. That is, in this apparatus, the record data of the even-numbered dots of each line, which is the record data of the second heating resistor 22, is transmitted from the distribution circuit 94 and sequentially transmitted to the delay circuit 95 including the line memory for each line. Once stored. In the illustrated apparatus, the delay amount of the recording timing corresponds to the recording timing of 16 lines by the first heating resistor 21, so the controller 90
Synchronizes with the timing at which the even-numbered dot recording data for one line is transmitted from the distribution circuit 94 to the drive circuit 74 of the first thermal head 7, and records the odd-numbered dot recording data of the line in line memory 95. The recording data of the odd dots 16 lines before the line is read from the line memory 95 and sequentially transmitted to the drive circuit 83 of the second thermal head 8 in the B direction in the figure. That is, the recording data of the odd dots for one line read from the frame memory 93 is transmitted to the driving circuit 74 of the first thermal head 7, and the recording data of the driving circuit 83 of the second thermal head 8 is transmitted to the frame. The recording data of even lines for one line, which is read 16 lines before the line read from the memory and is stored in the line memory 95, is simultaneously transmitted, and the controller 90 is transmitted respectively. The recorded data is latched, and the heating resistance element is driven based on the strobe signal transmitted from the energization time control circuit 92. As a result, the recording by the two heating resistors is made to match.

In the recording apparatus of this embodiment, the first and second thermal heads 7 and 8 are attached to the single heat dissipation plate 10.
The flatbed 5 is mounted so as to be inclined, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a thermal head similar to the conventional device shown in FIG. Two heating resistor elements may be provided so as to face each other and the arrangement pitches of the respective heating resistance elements are shifted by a half pitch.

[0018]

As described in detail above, in the recording apparatus using the thermal head of the present invention, the thermal head mechanism is supported so that the heating resistor is brought into contact with the recording medium when it is pressed against the recording medium. 1 thermal head and this 1st
When the heating resistor is close to the heating resistor of the thermal head and is displaced by a half pitch from the pitch of the heating resistor elements of the first thermal head, the heating resistor is pressed against the recording medium. Since the second thermal head which is supported so as to be in contact with the body is supported and recording is performed by these first and second thermal heads, it is possible to perform high-definition recording on a planar recording medium. There is an effect that can be.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a thermal head unit and a control unit in the recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a conventional recording apparatus.

FIG. 4 is an external view showing a recording apparatus using this type of thermal head.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a recording unit of this type of recording apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Thermal Head Section 2 Heating Resistor 3 Platen Roller 4 Recording Medium 5 Flat Bed 6 Head Support Mechanism 7 First Thermal Head 8 Second Thermal Head 9 Control Section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A recording medium supported in a planar manner by a recording device, a heating resistor linearly formed near one end side of an insulating substrate, connected to the heating resistor, and the heating resistor. A thermal head composed of individual electrodes forming a plurality of unit heating resistance elements by arranging a plurality of elements at a predetermined pitch in the longitudinal direction of the thermal head, and supporting the thermal head so as to face the recording medium. The thermal head mechanism is provided so that the heating resistor is selectively brought into contact with the recording medium by being selectively brought into pressure contact with or separated from the recording medium, and is moved relative to the recording medium. In a recording apparatus using a thermal head, which moves a resistor in contact with a recording medium and selectively heats it to form a desired image on the recording medium. In the above thermal head mechanism, a first thermal head is supported so that the heating resistor contacts with the recording medium when it is pressed against the recording medium, and the heating resistor is attached to the heating resistor of the first thermal head. The second heating element is supported so as to be close to the first heating element and to be displaced by a half pitch with respect to the arrangement pitch of the heating elements of the first thermal head so that the heating elements come into contact with each other when being pressed against the recording medium. A thermal head, and recording is performed by the first and second thermal heads.