JPS58203084A - Transfer-type color printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To record at a high speed with a simple construction, by a method wherein an ink ribbon comprised of a plurality of layers of different colors is disposed perpendicularly to the feeding direction of a recording paper, and a plurality of transfer elements faced respectively to the layers of the ink ribbon are provided. CONSTITUTION:A recording head 8 is fitted to a carriage 9, and can be slidden along a guide rod 10. A heat-sensitive transfer ink ribbon 11 is divided into four layers of a black layer 11K, a cyan layer 11C, a magenta layer 11M and a yellow layer 11Y. The head 8 is divided into four groups of heating elements which are placed on a straight line so as to be faced respectively to the four layers of the ink ribbon 11, wherein the heating elements in each of the groups provide N dots. Accordingly, recording can be effected in N lines for each color by one- time scanning of the head 8. A picture comprised of XN lines can be recorded in colors by scanning the head 8 for (X+6) times.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a transfer type color printer.

A conventional color printer was a device like the one shown in Figure 1. In the figure, (1) is a recording head;
This is mounted on the carriage (2) and rests on the force-id rod (3) so that it can be moved.

(4) is an ink ribbon υ, this is cyan! (4
C).

The three layers are the yellow layer (4Y) and the magenta layer (4M). The ink ribbon (41) is hung on the guide wheel (5).
) is inserted into the plunger (6), and the shaft (5a) is pushed upward by a spring (not shown) in the plunger (6) when no current is applied. Further, a shaft (6a) fixed to the plunger (6) is inserted into the plunger (7), and the shaft (6a) is inserted into the plunger (7).
5λ), it is pushed to one side when not energized.

Further, the plunger (7) is fixed.

Next, the operation will be explained.

First, when the plungers (6) and +71 are set to the normal state, the magenta layer (4M) of the ink ribbon (4) faces the recording head (1), so the recording head (1)
Dots corresponding to magenta are recorded on recording paper (not shown) while main-scanning the dot 1 in the horizontal direction in FIG.

Then, when the recording head (1) is returned to its original position and only the plunger (6) is energized, the recording head (
In step 1), the ink ribbon (4) moves in one direction so that its yellow layer (4Y) faces, so that dots corresponding to yellow can be recorded on the recording paper on which magenta has been recorded. Then, dots corresponding to cyan are recorded in the same manner as above. After overprinting the three colors in three main scans in this way, the recording paper is sent upward in the figure by the length of the recording head, and then the unused part of the ink ribbon (4) comes onto the recording paper. Wind up the ink ribbon (4) as shown. Then, repeat the above procedure nine times to record one screen.

Conventional color printers are configured as shown above, and main scan the same area three times, so it takes a large number of scans to record one screen of color, and the recording time is long. In addition, a complicated mechanism was required to move the ink ribbon (4) in the recording paper feeding direction using plungers +6) and +7). In addition, if you want to record a trade bear of usage interference, you need to hit all three colors 1-1.
However, there were drawbacks such as poor image quality due to the misalignment of the housings.

This invention was made to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional ink ribbon, and an ink ribbon consisting of a plurality of different colored ink ribbons is provided perpendicularly to the recording paper feeding direction, and each layer of the ink ribbon is By providing a recording head having a plurality of opposing transfer elements so as to be able to scan in the ink ribbon feeding direction, and providing a drive circuit that causes the recording head to scan and selectively drives the transfer elements, the structure is simple and short. The objective is to provide a color printer that can record high-quality images in a record amount of time.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. 5, taking as an example a thermal transfer method. In FIG. 2, (8) is a thermal head as a recording head, which is attached to a carriage (9) and guide rods 00, 1.
It is possible to paste in the left and right direction in the same figure, that is, main scanning is possible. (11) is a thermal transfer ink ribbon.
.

It is separated into four layers: a magenta layer (IIM) and a single yellow layer (IIY). The ink ribbon (11) is fixed to a rotatable guide shaft 02 (K hook is rotated) in the recording paper feeding direction (vertical direction in the PJ diagram).

As shown in FIG. 3, the thermal head (8) has the following characteristics:
(IIM), (IIC), and (11K), respectively, and 4 groups of emitters (sY) arranged on a straight line
, (8M), (8C), and (sK), and the heating elements in each group are N dots, and their effective length is d. The spacing is d. Here, the width of one layer of the ink ribbon aIJ is 2d, and the reason why the effective length of the group of heating elements is fid as above and a distance d is left between each element is that if the distance is . For example, the effective length of each element is 2d.
In this case, each layer of the ink ribbon must face each heating element with high precision, resulting in
The width of one eyebrow of the ink ribbon 7-011 requires very high precision, and in Figure 2, the ink ribbon (li) is hung on the kite shaft (12+ and ink ribbon (11)).
This is because high precision is also required for tensioning. Note that α3) is a recording paper, which has a recording paper feeding structure (not shown) that can feed it in the vertical direction in FIG. 2, that is, it can perform sub-scanning.

Although not shown in the drawings, the transfer type color printer of this embodiment is provided with a recording head drive circuit, which causes the thermal head (8) to scan in the direction of feeding the ink, and Heating element (sy), (
8M), (sc) + (8K) are selectively driven to transfer the color of the ink 1 nobon □1) to a desired position on the recording paper α3j.

Next, the detailed operation of this invention is shown in FIG. 4, which shows the correspondence between the head raw scanning number and the recording line of each heating element of the thermal head (8), and shows the relationship between the thermal head (8) and the recording paper 03). This will be explained using FIG.

The group of heating elements of the thermal head (8) has an effective length d and the head has N dots, so one main scan of the thermal head (8) records N lines per color. Can be done.

In FIG. 4, 1. Q is energization to the thermal head (8);
Non:li indicates a turtle. The first thermal head (8
), the main set meal time of )] (l, the second and subsequent meals are sequentially time '2 + t3 +...1m, and the head return time is [, then the recording paper 03) 1 heating element is shown in Figure A5 (a). (8)
, black lines 1 to N are recorded on the recording paper u3+ at time [1] as shown in the positional correspondence of the ink point IJ1'r,
At time [, the heating head (8) is returned to the initial position 1 of the line. Furthermore, at the same time t, the length of the recording paper day is df? : At the same time, the ink ribbon circle is wound up and the new part is aligned with the recording surface, so that the state shown in FIG. 5(b) is obtained.

Then, at time t2, black lines N+1 to 2N are recorded. Also, at time [3], the state will be as shown in Figure 5 (C), so the black 2N+1~3N line and the cyan 1~3N line will appear.
N lines are recorded simultaneously and sequentially in the same way, and at time tm the black (m-1)N+1~mN line and the cyan (m-3)N+1~(m-2)N7in line. ,
11~(m-4)N line to magenta (m-s), -i, 10- (m-7)N+, control: l= (m
-6) N line is recorded simultaneously, 5th-(d)
The state shown in is reached.

In this way, the screen consisting of XN lines will be (X+
6) Color recording of one screen can be performed by main scanning the head twice. FIG. 5(e) shows the respective positional relationships in this state.

As described above, according to the transfer type color printer of this embodiment, 1, the ink ribbon Oυ is separated into 4 layers, and 1 group of N thermal heads (8) each having 4N heating elements divided into 4 groups is installed. Since it is configured to be able to record four colors simultaneously: yellow, magenta, cyan, and black, there is no need for a mechanism to feed the ink ribbon (111) in the recording paper feed direction. Furthermore, by controlling the electric signal applied to the thermal head (8) as shown in FIG. 4, color hard copies can be made.

Furthermore, move the heat-sensitive heater pad (8) in the main scanning direction and the recording paper a3.
Since a hard copy can be created by sequentially moving the head in the sub-scanning direction, it is possible to make a hard copy of any size simply by controlling the movement of the head. In addition, if the number N of heating elements in each group of thermal heads (8) is increased and the width of the ink ribbon customer base is increased accordingly, higher speed color printing will be possible.

Although the above embodiment has been described assuming a thermal transfer type color printer, the present invention is not limited to this, and similar effects can be achieved even when used in an impact type printer such as a wire tod printer.

As described above, in the transfer type color printer according to the present invention, an ink ribbon having a plurality of layers of different colors is disposed perpendicular to the recording paper feeding direction, and a plurality of ink ribbons are arranged opposite to each layer of the ink ribbon. A recording head having a transfer element is provided so as to be able to scan in the ink ribbon feeding direction, and a recording head drive circuit is provided that scans the recording head and selectively tightens the transfer element. This has the effect of providing a transfer type color printer that can record high-quality images within a recording time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the thick part of a conventional color printer;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the mounting part of a color printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4(a) to 4(d) are time chart diagrams showing the operation of each heating element group of the thermal head of the above embodiment.
Figures (a) to (e) are configuration diagrams for explaining the relationship between the number of main scans and sub-scans. (8) Recording head (heat generating head), (8YX8M
) (8C) (8K)...Transfer element (heating element), 01
)... Ink ribbon, (13)... Recording paper. Agent Makoto Kuzuno - 1st m 3rd degree figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Recording paper fed by a recording paper feeding mechanism, and ink having a plurality of layers of different colors arranged perpendicular to the feeding direction of the recording paper and fed in a direction perpendicular to the recording paper feeding direction. a ribbon, a recording head having a plurality of transfer elements facing each layer of the ink ribbon and provided so as to be able to scan along the ink ribbon feeding direction; and a recording head configured to scan the ink ribbon in the ink ribbon feeding direction. A transfer type color printer, which is patented in that it has a recording head h driving circuit which selectively drives the transfer element to transfer the color of the ink ribbon to a desired position on the recording paper.