JPH11334128A - Thermal head of multicolor simultaneous print type and thermal printer using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thermal head and a thermal printer that can print and generate two or more colors at high speed. SOLUTION: This thermal head of a multicolor simultaneous print type has a heat-generating element 5 for directly applying a heat energy to a heat- sensitive paper and a heat energy determination circuit 3 which determines the heat energy for every print color from print color data transmitted from a host device and calculates a feed voltage for every print color to be fed to the heat-generating element 5 and an application pulse width for every print color on the basis of the determined heat energy. Moreover, the thermal head includes voltage feed terminals 6, 7 for supplying the feed voltages of a count for each print color, application pulse feed terminals 8, 9 for supplying application pulses of a count for each print color and a drive circuit 4 for driving the heat-generating element 5 based on the feed voltages and application pulses.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a multicolor simultaneous printing type thermal head and a thermal printer using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional thermal head, an external circuit determines an applied energy to perform printing and coloring in order to perform printing by directly applying heat of the thermal head to thermal paper as a means for performing printing and coloring. I was

In recent years, thermal papers have been developed that develop two or more colors on a single thermal paper from the one-color-developed characteristics, and develop two or more colors within the range that can be printed in one printing operation. Is required. To meet this demand, conventional thermal heads determine the thermal energy for each color in an external circuit, control the thermal head, and perform the printing operation in the same printing range as many times as the number of colors, thereby producing two or more colors. Has been possible.

[0004]

A problem with this conventional thermal head is that the printing speed is reduced. The reason is that the conventional thermal head is
As shown in (1), there is no logic circuit for determining the heat energy, and since there are no plurality of voltage supply terminals 6 and application pulse supply terminals 8, the applied energy of the heating element 5 cannot be determined independently. The number of colors that can be developed by operation is fixed at one color. Therefore, in order to form two or more colors in the same printing range, the application data is stored in the application data register 1 for each color that develops in the same printing range.
0, the thermal energy required for the color development is determined by an external circuit, and the control of the applied pulse or the supply voltage of the thermal head needs to be repeated several times. It is necessary to perform the same number of application operations as.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-color simultaneous printing type thermal head capable of printing two or more colors at high speed, and a thermal printer using the same.

[0006]

A multi-color simultaneous printing type thermal head according to the present invention comprises a heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to thermal paper which develops a color in response to a given thermal energy, and a thermal element transmitted from a host device. A heat energy determination circuit that determines the thermal energy for each print color from the print color data to be applied and calculates a supply voltage for each print color corresponding to an application pulse of a predetermined width to be supplied to the heating element based on the thermal energy; And a drive circuit for driving the heating element based on the applied pulse and the supply voltage, provided with an application pulse supply terminal for supplying the supply voltage and a voltage supply terminal for the number of printing colors for supplying the supply voltage.

The thermal printer according to the present invention further comprises a heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to the thermal paper which develops a color in accordance with the applied thermal energy, and a print color for each print color based on print color data transmitted from a host device. A heat energy determination circuit that determines heat energy, and calculates a supply voltage for each printing color corresponding to an application pulse having a predetermined width to be supplied to the heating element based on the thermal energy; an application pulse supply terminal that supplies the application pulse; A thermal head comprising a voltage supply terminal for supplying the supply voltage and a drive circuit for driving the heating element based on the applied pulse and the supply voltage; and a transport for transporting the thermal paper Means.

The multi-color simultaneous printing type thermal head of the present invention further comprises a heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to the thermal paper which develops a color according to the applied thermal energy, and a print color data transmitted from a host device. A thermal energy determining circuit that determines the thermal energy for each print color, and calculates an applied pulse width for each print color corresponding to a predetermined supply voltage to be supplied to the heating element based on the thermal energy; and a voltage supply that supplies the supply voltage. A drive circuit that is provided with a terminal and an application pulse supply terminal that supplies the application pulse and that drives the heating element based on the supply voltage and the application pulse.

The thermal printer according to the present invention further comprises a heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to the thermal paper which develops a color in accordance with the applied thermal energy, and a printing color for each printing color based on printing color data transmitted from a host device. A heat energy determining circuit for determining heat energy and calculating an applied pulse width for each printing color corresponding to a predetermined supply voltage to be supplied to the heating element, a voltage supply terminal for supplying the supply voltage, and the applied pulse A drive circuit for driving the heating element based on the supply voltage and the applied pulse, and a transport unit for transporting the thermal paper.

Further, the multi-color simultaneous printing type thermal head of the present invention comprises a heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to the thermal paper which develops a color according to the applied thermal energy, and a printing color data transmitted from a host device. A thermal energy determination circuit that determines the thermal energy for each print color, and calculates a supply voltage for each print color and an applied pulse width for each print color to be supplied to the heating element based on the determined thermal energy, and supplies the supply voltage. A drive circuit that has a voltage supply terminal and an application pulse supply terminal that supplies the application pulse, and that drives the heating element based on the supply voltage and the application pulse.

The thermal printer according to the present invention further comprises a heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to the thermal paper which develops a color in response to the applied thermal energy, and a printing color for each printing color based on printing color data transmitted from a host device. A heat energy determination circuit that determines heat energy and calculates a supply voltage for each print color and an applied pulse width for each print color to be supplied to the heating element based on the heat energy, a voltage supply terminal that supplies the supply voltage, A thermal head comprising an application pulse supply terminal for supplying an application pulse, a drive circuit for driving the heating element based on the supply voltage and the application pulse, and a transport unit for transporting the thermal paper are provided.

[0012]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1 showing a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, a multi-color simultaneous printing type thermal head according to this embodiment directly applies heat energy to a heat-sensitive paper which develops color in accordance with applied heat energy. A heating element 5 for applying
Heat energy is determined for each print color from print color data transmitted from a higher-level device (not shown), and based on the heat energy, a supply voltage for each print color to be supplied to the heating element 5 and an applied pulse width for each print color are calculated. An energy determination circuit 3, voltage supply terminals 6 and 7 for supplying a supply voltage for each printing color, and application pulse supply terminals 8 and 9 for supplying an application pulse for each printing color are provided. And a drive circuit 4 for driving the heating element 5 based on the control signal.

The color data register 1 stores printability information transmitted from the host device, and the color data register 2 stores color designation information transmitted from the host device for each heating element 5. The thermal energy determination circuit 3 determines thermal energy for each heating element 5 from the printing color data obtained from the coloring data registers 1 and 2, and supplies a supply voltage and a printing color for each printing color to be supplied to the heating element 5 based on the thermal energy. Another applied pulse width is calculated.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the coloring characteristics of the thermal paper used in this embodiment. In FIG. 2, the horizontal axis represents the thermal energy generated by the heating element of the thermal head,
The vertical axis represents the color density of the thermal paper. As shown in FIG. 2, the red color of the heat-sensitive paper is colored by heat energy in an area lower than the heat energy required for black coloration. The color development characteristics of the thermal paper used in this embodiment need not be only those shown in FIG. 2, but it is sufficient that the color development characteristics of red or black are separated by the applied thermal energy.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, the logic for determining the thermal energy of the thermal energy determination circuit 3 of the thermal head will be described with reference to FIG.

In the thermal head, when the resistance value of the heating element 5 is determined, the thermal energy is determined by the following equation. Heat energy = ((supply voltage) ² × applied pulse time) / resistance value of heating element (Equation 1) The heat energy determination circuit 3 obtains print color data from the color data registers 1 and 2. Since the thermal energy for each color is determined by the coloring characteristics of the thermal paper, the thermal energy is determined by a combination of the information stored in the coloring data registers 1 and 2. The supply voltage and the applied pulse width supplied to the drive circuit 4 are calculated from the determined thermal energy. On the basis of this, in the case of two-color printing, the supply voltage and the applied pulse width may be two types, respectively. Therefore, the thermal energy determination circuit 3 selects the supply of the supply voltage terminals 6, 7 to the drive circuit 4 and supplies the applied pulse The supply of the terminals 8 and 9 to the drive circuit 4 is selected. Since each heat energy determination circuit 3 operates independently, the heat energy of the heating element 5 can be individually set by one application operation, and two or more colors can be printed by one application operation. .

According to another embodiment of the present invention, even if only one of the voltage supply terminals 6 and 7 is selected and only the applied pulse supply terminals 8 and 9 are selected and supplied to the drive circuit 4, the supply voltage of the formula 1 can be reduced. Only fixed, printing of two or more colors is possible. Conversely, one application pulse supply terminal and one voltage supply terminal 6,
Even if only 7 is selected and supplied to the drive circuit 4, only the applied pulse time of Equation 1 is fixed, and printing of two or more colors is possible. Also, by increasing the number of color data registers, the number of supply voltage terminals, and the number of application pulse supply terminals, respectively, the set amount of heat energy increases, so it goes without saying that various colors can be set by one application operation. Absent.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and it is obvious that the embodiments can be appropriately modified within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the thermal energy of each heating element can be controlled by one application operation, a thermal head realizing multicolor high-speed printing is provided.

Further, a thermal printer which realizes high-speed multicolor printing by using the above-mentioned thermal head for a printer is provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a color developing characteristic of a thermal paper used in this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 color data register 2 color data register 3 thermal energy determination circuit 4 drive circuit 5 heating element 6 voltage supply terminal 7 voltage supply terminal 8 applied pulse supply terminal 9 applied pulse supply terminal

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to thermal paper that develops color in accordance with the applied thermal energy, and the thermal energy is determined for each printing color from a printing color data transmitted from a host device. A thermal energy determining circuit for calculating a supply voltage for each printing color corresponding to an application pulse having a predetermined width to be supplied to the heating element based on the application pulse; an application pulse supply terminal for supplying the application pulse; and the printing for supplying the supply voltage. A multi-color simultaneous printing type thermal head, comprising: a voltage supply terminal for each color; and a drive circuit for driving the heating element based on the applied pulse and the supply voltage. 2. A heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to thermal paper that develops color in accordance with the applied thermal energy, and the thermal energy is determined for each printing color from printing color data transmitted from a host device. A thermal energy determining circuit for calculating a supply voltage for each printing color corresponding to an application pulse having a predetermined width to be supplied to the heating element based on the application pulse; an application pulse supply terminal for supplying the application pulse; and the printing for supplying the supply voltage. A thermal head comprising a drive circuit for driving the heating element based on the applied pulse and the supply voltage, provided with a voltage supply terminal of a different number of colors, and a transport unit for transporting the thermal paper. And a thermal printer. 3. A heating element that directly applies the thermal energy to the thermal paper that develops color in accordance with the applied thermal energy, and the thermal energy is determined for each printing color from printing color data transmitted from a host device. A thermal energy determining circuit for calculating an applied pulse width for each printing color corresponding to a predetermined supply voltage to be supplied to the heating element based on the voltage; a voltage supply terminal for supplying the supply voltage; and an application pulse supply terminal for supplying the application pulse And a drive circuit for driving the heating element based on the supply voltage and the applied pulse. 4. A heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to the thermal paper that develops color in accordance with the applied thermal energy, and the thermal energy is determined for each printing color from printing color data transmitted from a higher-level device. A thermal energy determining circuit for calculating an applied pulse width for each printing color corresponding to a predetermined supply voltage to be supplied to the heating element based on the voltage; a voltage supply terminal for supplying the supply voltage; and an application pulse supply terminal for supplying the application pulse A thermal head comprising a drive circuit for driving the heating element based on the supply voltage and the applied pulse, and a transport means for transporting the thermal paper. 5. A heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to the thermal paper that develops color according to the applied thermal energy, and the thermal energy is determined for each printing color from printing color data transmitted from a host device. A thermal energy determining circuit for calculating a supply voltage for each printing color and an application pulse width for each printing color to be supplied to the heating element based on the voltage; a voltage supply terminal for supplying the supply voltage; and an application pulse for supplying the application pulse A multi-color simultaneous printing type thermal head, comprising: a supply terminal; and a drive circuit for driving the heating element based on the supply voltage and the applied pulse. 6. A heating element for directly applying the thermal energy to the thermal paper that develops color in accordance with the applied thermal energy, and the thermal energy is determined for each printing color from printing color data transmitted from a host device. A thermal energy determining circuit for calculating a supply voltage for each printing color and an application pulse width for each printing color to be supplied to the heating element based on the voltage; a voltage supply terminal for supplying the supply voltage; and an application pulse for supplying the application pulse A thermal printer, comprising: a thermal head including a supply terminal and a drive circuit that drives the heating element based on the supply voltage and the applied pulse; and a transport unit that transports the thermal paper.