JPH11245463A - Thermal printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve good printing in a simple constitution to a sheet-like medium to be printed by arranging a downward transfer roller, a platen roller and a discharge roller nearly parallel and linearly, making peripheral velocities of the rollers equal, and inclining downward a transfer face at the downstream side of the discharge roller in a transfer direction. SOLUTION: Similar to a transfer roller 8, a platen roller 15 is rotated at an equal velocity with a transfer roller 7 by driving of a motor 9 via a known transmission means such as a gear or the like. An ink ribbon is set inside an ink ribbon cassette 16, which is wound by driving of the transfer motor 9. A transfer roller 17 is set at the downstream side of the platen roller 15 to be nearly parallel to the transfer roller 7 and platen roller 15 and rotated by driving of the transfer motor 9 via a known transmission means such as a gear or the like, similar to the transfer roller 7. A transfer face 18 of a medium P to be printed at the upstream side of the transfer roller 17 is constituted to be nearly horizontal and a transfer face 19 at the downstream side of the transfer roller 17 is inclined slantwise downward.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal printing apparatus provided with a thermal head which is provided so as to be able to advance and retreat toward a plate-shaped print medium conveyed in a predetermined feed direction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a card printer has been known as such a thermal printing apparatus. As shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-125271, the transport system of this card printer is configured to print a relatively hard and non-curved card made of plastic or the like. Were linearly arranged, and the cards were transported linearly.

[0003]

A thermal printing apparatus for printing characters, images, and the like on a plate-like printing medium such as a card has a complicated structure because it has a pair of rollers before and after a thermal head. Furthermore, when transporting plate-shaped print media having different thicknesses, it is necessary to provide a mechanism for changing the distance between the pair of transport rollers in addition to changing the position of the thermal head (to maintain an appropriate head pressure). As the number of roller pairs increases, the structure becomes more complicated, which leads to an increase in the size of the apparatus and an increase in cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal printing apparatus capable of performing good printing on a plate-shaped printing medium with a simple configuration in view of such a problem.

[0005]

A thermal printing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a pair of upper and lower transport rollers for transporting the upper surface of a plate-like print medium as a printing surface, and a plate-like transporter transported by the transport roller pair. A thermal head movably provided to the print medium, an ink ribbon supply means for supplying an ink ribbon to the thermal head, a platen roller facing the thermal head, and a discharge provided near the downstream side of the platen roller in the transport direction. Rollers, a lower transport roller of the transport roller pair, a platen roller, and a discharge roller are arranged substantially in parallel and linearly, and the peripheral speeds of these rollers are made equal, and the transport direction of the discharge roller is downstream Characterized in that the sheet-side print surface is inclined downward, and further comprising a sheet-like print medium supply means for supplying a sheet-like print medium. To.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A thermal printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view of a thermal printing apparatus. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a print system including print data input means. FIG. 3 is a plan view of the thermal printing apparatus. 4 to 7 are enlarged front views of a printing area for explaining a printing state.

The printing apparatus 1 prints character data and format data transferred from a personal computer 2 (hereinafter referred to as "PC 2") as an external device as a print data input means shown in FIG. When printing on a plate-shaped print medium P such as a card or a sheet-shaped print medium P ′ such as a label sheet indicated by a dotted line based on data, and printing on the plate-shaped print medium P Is supplied manually by the operator, and when the sheet-shaped print medium P 'is printed, the print medium P' wound in a roll is
It is mounted on a pair of mounting rollers 4a and 4b, and its tip is pulled out and supplied.

A conveying guide 5 is provided in the printing apparatus 1 in a slightly leftward direction in the center of FIG. 1, and the conveying guide 5 has a pair of left and right guide plates 5a and 5b facing each other as shown in FIG. It is provided so as to be freely movable as it is, and is moved so as to move in the direction of contact and separation centering on the center of the portion sandwiched between the guide plates 5a and 5b by a connecting member (not shown). It is supposed to. A sensor 6 detects the position of the guide plate 5a,
This is for detecting the width of the printing medium P.

A transport roller 7 and a pair of cleaning rollers 8 are provided downstream of the transport guide 5 in the transport direction (rightward in FIG. 1). The transport roller 7 rotates by the drive of the transport motor 9 to transport the print medium P, and the cleaning roller 8 removes dust and dirt on the print surface of the print medium P. An end of a swing member 12 supported and urged toward the transport roller 7 by the tension of a spring 11 is rotatably provided at an end portion of the swing member 12 even when a medium P having a different thickness is transported. It is possible to convey by swinging 12. The load of the cleaning roller 8 on the transport roller 7 by the bias of the spring 11 is set to 600 gf.

The thermal head 13 is arranged such that the longitudinal direction of the row of heating elements of the thermal head 13 is perpendicular to the direction in which the print medium P is conveyed. It is provided on the angle 14. By swinging the head angle 14, a platen roller 15 provided at a position facing the thermal head 13 is provided.
And prints with a head load of 8 kgf on the print medium P conveyed by the conveying roller 7 and the cleaning roller 8.

The load applied to the thermal head 8 is applied to a plate-shaped print medium such as a hard plastic, and the thermal print apparatus cannot print on the entire surface unless the print surface is smooth, such as when the print medium is curved. Therefore, printing is performed by correcting the printing surface of a plate-shaped printing medium that is curved by being pressed from above by a thermal head.

The platen roller 15 rotates at the same speed as the transport roller 7 by driving a motor 9 through a known transmission means such as a gear, similarly to the transport roller 8. The ink ribbon cassette 16 has an ink ribbon 16 a therein, and is wound by driving the transport motor 9.

The transport roller 17 is provided on the downstream side of the platen roller 15 so as to be substantially parallel to the transport roller 7 and the platen roller 15. Similarly to the transport roller 7, a transport motor is provided via a known transmission means such as a gear. 9 rotates.

The upstream transport surface 18 of the transport roller 17 for the medium P to be printed is substantially horizontal.
The downstream side transfer surface 19 is inclined obliquely downward.

Next, the printing state will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 4 to 7. When the operator places the plate-shaped print medium P between the transport guides 5 such that the leading ends thereof are in contact with the transport roller 7 and the cleaning roller 8 and subsequently inputs a start of printing, first, the transport rollers 7 and The print medium P is conveyed toward the thermal head 13 by rotation of the platen roller 15 and the conveyance roller 17.

The thermal head 13 descends at the timing when the leading edge of the printing medium P passes, and the ink ribbon 16
a is conveyed and print data is supplied and printing is performed as the thermal head 13 presses the print medium P.

If the rear end of the print medium P passes between the transport roller 7 and the cleaning roller 8 during printing, the print medium is transported by the rotation of the platen roller 15, the movement of the ink ribbon 16 a, and the transport roller 17. The rotation is performed.

When the printing is completed and the printing is completed until the printing medium P shown in FIG. 5 is finished, the feeding of the printing medium P is temporarily stopped. Subsequently, the thermal head 13 is raised as shown in FIG. Due to the rise of the thermal head 13, the print medium P tilts rightward and downward about the contact line with the transport roller 17 as shown in FIG.

Subsequently, the transport roller 17 rotates again, and the plate-shaped transport medium P is transported rightward using the transport by the rotation of the transport roller 17 and gravity, and as shown in FIG. When the rear end passes the transport roller 17, the transport stops, and the rotation of the transport roller 17 also stops. In addition,
As shown in FIG. 7, the state of the print medium P that has passed through the transport roller 17 is below the extension of the transport direction by the transport roller 7, the platen roller 15, and the transport roller 17, so that the next plate-like medium The next printing medium P can be continuously printed without hindering the transport of P.

In this embodiment, the load on the transport roller of the cleaning roller, which is the pair of transport rollers on the upstream side of the thermal head, is set to 600 gf. However, the present invention is not limited to this. And the material of the transport roller and the material of the medium P to be printed. The medium is a plastic hard plate medium having a smooth surface and a width of 10 to 100 mm and a length of 30. ~ 500m
m, 400 if the thickness is about 0.3-3mm
If it is about 1000 gf, it can be transported between the thermal head and the platen roller.

Here, when the rear end of the printing medium P conveyed by the pair of conveying rollers, the thermal head, and the platen roller passes through the pair of conveying rollers (the state shown in FIGS. 4 and 5), the shock is also affected. In order to reduce
It is preferably set to be not more than 00 gf.

The load of the thermal head on the printing medium P is set to 8 kgf. This value is for printing a plate-shaped printing medium such as a hard plastic, and is curved and smooth. This is set so that the missing plate-shaped print medium is pressed from above by a thermal head to print a curved state. Therefore, the load applied to the thermal head is appropriately set depending on the material and size of the medium to be conveyed and the size of the thermal head, and is not limited thereto.

If the length of the thermal head is 45 mm (the length of the heating element is 40 mm) and the plate-shaped medium to be printed has a plastic width of about 50 mm, a length of about 100 mm, and a thickness of about 1 mm, the thermal head 4
If it is set to about kgf, transport printing can be performed. It is preferable that the load is larger than the load of the transport roller pair to be 7 kgf or more in order to ensure the transport printing of the large plate-shaped print-receiving medium and to suppress the influence of the de-shock when passing through the transport roller pair.

Further, the thermal printing apparatus of the present embodiment not only conveys and prints a plate-shaped print medium P 'but also conveys and prints a sheet-shaped print medium P'. The sheet-form print medium P 'is in a continuous form, and can be sufficiently conveyed with the conveying roller pair on the downstream side of the thermal head. In addition, the present invention has a configuration suitable for sheet-shaped printing which is a different form.

Also, in the present embodiment, the plate-shaped print medium P
Although the transport is temporarily stopped at the rear end to raise the thermal head, the invention is not limited to this, and the thermal head may be raised without stopping the transport of the plate-shaped print medium.

[0026]

According to the present invention, a plate-shaped medium to be printed is conveyed and printed with a simple structure including only a thermal head, a platen roller, a pair of upper and lower conveying rollers on the upstream side and a conveying roller on the downstream side. Can be. In particular, even after passing through the upstream conveying roller pair, the thermal head, the platen roller, the downstream conveying roller, and the conveying surface on the downstream side of the conveying roller can convey the plate-shaped print medium to the rear end. . Further, only one of the transport rollers on the upstream side of the thermal head is required to move the transport roller to cope with the plate thickness, so that the apparatus can be further reduced in size and cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a thermal printing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a print system including print data input means.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the thermal printing apparatus (an ink ribbon cassette is omitted).

FIG. 4 is an enlarged front view of a printing area for explaining a printing state.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged front view of a printing area for explaining a printing state.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged front view of a printing area for explaining a printing state.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged front view of a print area for explaining a print state.

[Description of sign]

 Reference Signs List 1 printing device 2 data input means 5 guide member 7 transport roller 8 cleaning roller 9 transport motor 10 shaft 11 spring 12 swing member 13 thermal head 14 head angle 15 ink ribbon cassette 15a ink ribbon 16 platen roller 17 transport roller 18 transport surface 19 transport surface

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A pair of upper and lower transport rollers for transporting a plate-shaped print medium with the print surface facing upward, and a thermal head provided to be able to advance and retreat toward the plate-shaped print medium transported by the transport roller pair. And an ink ribbon supply means for supplying an ink ribbon to the thermal head; a platen roller facing the thermal head; and a discharge roller provided near a downstream side of the platen roller in the transport direction. The roller, the platen roller, and the discharge roller are arranged substantially in parallel and linearly, the peripheral speeds of these rollers are set to be constant, and the transfer surface of the discharge roller on the downstream side in the transfer direction is inclined downward. Thermal printing device. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sheet-shaped print medium storing unit that stores the sheet-shaped print medium.
A thermal printing device according to item 1.