JPS59146887A - Thermal transfer type printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the titled printer capable of automatically positioning both an ink film comprising 3 basic color inks and an ink film comprising 4 basic color inks, provided with two detectors for respectively detecting a right half width of and a left half width of an ink film. CONSTITUTION:The detector 12 is provided at the first part where a printing paper 10 and the ink film 11 are laminated integrally with each other, and the detector 12 is constituted of two photosensors 12a, 12b to enable to detect discrimination parts each of which has a size equal to one half width in the transverse direction of the ink film 11. Both the ink film 2 comprising 4 basic color inks and the ink film 3 comprising 3 basic color inks are the same with each other in the length (a) of a basic color ink part, the length (b) of the discrimination part and the width (c) of the inked part, and a color B of full width is provided on the forward side of color Y, color B of a left half width is provided on the forward side of color M, color B of a right half width is provided on the forward side of color C, and color B is provided on the forward side of color B.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (1) Technical field of the invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer rectangular printing apparatus.

(2) Background of the technology A thermal conversion rectangular printing device heats an ink film coated with a reference color and thermally transfers it to printing paper, printing out the required reference color.
The desired color is printed by thermal transfer. The ink film is usually cyan (hereinafter referred to as C) and magenta (hereinafter referred to as M).

It consists of three standard colors: yellow (hereinafter abbreviated as Y),
These are replaced by 4M quasi-colors with black (hereinafter abbreviated as B) added. If these positions are out of order, for example, if a place that should be thermally transferred with 6 colors is now thermally transferred with M color, the desired color printing will not be possible. Therefore, the alignment of these reference color inks must be performed correctly.Also, head alignment is possible for any of the above two ink films, and for that purpose, calibration is required. There is a need for a thermal transfer type color printing device that requires a minimum amount of excavator.

(3) Prior Art and Problems Conventionally, there have been separate systems for four-standard color ink films using three sensors, and for three-standard color ink films using two sensors. However, the one using the sensor 31 directly cannot align the head ffB of the three reference color ink films, and the one used inside the sensor 21 cannot align the head IMf of the four reference color ink film.

(4) Purpose of the Invention The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, allows the user to use both types of ink films without having to perform any selective operations, and reduces the number of detector points to J. 'i/J.

(5) Structure of the Invention In the present invention, an ink film in which a number of sheets of reference color ink are applied over a predetermined length separated by identification portions in the longitudinal direction, and these are continuously provided 11111 times, is heated, In the heat-transfer type printing device for color-compositing and printing the reference colors, first and second detectors are provided for detecting the entire right and left half widths of the ink film, and the first and second detectors detect the entire width of the right and left half widths of the ink film. The signal is used to ink a first ink film containing three reference color inks or a second ink film containing four reference color inks.
There is provided a heat transfer selvage printing device (d) characterized in that the reference color head image is detected and aligned for both ink films.

(0) Embodiment of the Invention An embodiment of the invention will be described below with reference to accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a thermal transfer color printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. The paper 10 to be printed is unwound from the printing paper roll 14, printed via the platen 16, and then pulled upwardly. On the other hand, the ink film 11 coated with the reference color ink is returned to the ink film roll], 5 empty winding @, and the film is wound up onto the roll 17 via the platen 16. printing paper 1
0 and the ink film 11 are overlapped in front of a platen 16, and on the platen 16, a reference color of 9F is transferred onto printing paper by heating of the print head 13. I will discuss color composition later.

A detector 12, in this example a reflective photosensor, is provided at the first portion where the printing paper 10 and the ink film 11 are integrated into a dish (3). The second side view
As shown in the figure. As shown in FIG. 4(a), the photosensor is
21 and 12a so that half-width portions can be detected in the width direction of the ink film.

12b is provided.

Thermal transfer printer 1 also has 1itil? =lIL<
fM 18 and printing paper 10 (not shown). A stepping motor and the like for conveying the ink film 11 are provided.

FIG. 4 shows two ink films 2.3 as an example.

Ink film 2 has Y color, 1M color, and 0 color.

The ink film consists of B color, that is, four reference colors, and an identification portion is provided between these reference colors.

The ink film 3 is a three-color ink film (consisting of colors) without B color.Reference color ink manager &, &ti14
The separate section b1 and ink length C are the same for both. Further, the reference color ink length a is larger than the length of 1001 sheets of printing paper 9, and the width C is also larger than the width of 100 sheets of printing paper υ.

(4) Thermal transfer printing and color mixing are performed as follows. 10 printing paper to 1
At the same time, the ink film 2 is fed to the platen 16 with the head position of the Y color aligned with the printing paper 10. These feeds are performed by a stepping motor (not shown) 9 based on commands from the control device 18. First of all, Y color print is a must-buy item: 10 pieces of printing paper and 1 piece of ink film.
The pY color is thermally transferred to the printing paper 10 by heating from the thermal head 13 of the printer while simultaneously feeding the printing paper 10. ■When the thermal transfer of Y color is completed for the sheet, the printing paper 10 is back-fed for one sheet, and the head position of the M color of the ink film 2 is aligned, and as above, the thermal transfer is performed for the necessary areas. It is done. The same applies to other reference colors.

Ink film 3) - also IT - ''. From low color experiments, it is suitable to combine 7 colors, 2M colors, and 0 colors with j ridges. By mixing these colors, it is possible in principle to mix seven colors. In the case of ink film 2, B
Because it has a color, there is no need to overlap when printing only black, and when printing in deep color, it is possible to print 7 colors in 1M.
It is possible to print black, which is better than mixing C color. However, in the case of only black mark ntll, Figure 4 (
An ink film of only B color such as c) can be used.

When the film 2 or 3 is loaded, the positions 3a and 3b are constant, so in principle the stepping motor can be accurately aligned61, and the position of each reference color can be accurately moved. However, if a slight deviation occurs during feeding, the deviation will accumulate and, for example, the B color may be thermally transferred instead of the Y color. Also, the previous heat transfer was M
I finished with color for a long time, and this time I have to start with color Y.
In some cases, it is necessary to identify the reference color and align the head position from both the so-called initial value adjustment and image adjustment.

Further, one feature of the present invention is to perform head position alignment for both ink films 2 and 3 using the same determination method and the smallest detection device.

The head position is detected using the printing paper 10 as a background as shown in FIG. A detection circuit using the reflective photosensor 12 is illustrated in FIG. Conceptually, the sensor 12 irradiates the film 11 with light from a photodiode, receives the reflected light with a phototransistor, uses a comparator 20 to perform threshold judgment on the electricity No. 41 that responds to the received light signal, and then The result is sent to the 7 lip flop 21. The output of the flip-flop 21 is applied to the control unit 18 for selective use, and is also output by the control unit 18 for instruction.

When reflective photosensor 12 (i: used), Y color.

Most of the light from the photodiode passes through the M and C color ink areas and is reflected by the printing paper 10, and the reflected light passes through these ink areas again and is received by the phototransistor. In other words, it is not possible to identify the ink itself using the seven colors, 1M color, and C color.

On the other hand, most of the B color is absorbed. In short, only the QB color can be constructed. For this purpose, a printing section is provided.

That is, in front of the Y color, there are 8 full-width colors, in the front of the 1M color, the left half-width B color, in the front of the C color, the right-handed B color, and (7) in the case of film 2, the B color. B color is provided on the front.

The identification section provided in this way is the sensor 12a.

12b, and these detection signals are discriminated by the control devices W and 18 to locate the beginning of both the films 2 and 3.

The identification length of the film is determined as shown in FIG. When the detection diameter of the sensor 12 is d and the width of one pitch of the feed is p, color B can be detected if the feed is made every pitch, and the color B can also be detected if the feed is made every two pitches. The length of b is determined as follows. The determination of the sensor signal is also performed taking this situation into account.

Determination of the reference color and its head positioning will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4 and 6.

The logic when the sensors 12a and 12b detect color B is as follows.
1", and other colors are "0".

The detection of Y color will be described with reference to FIG. 6(,). Y color is from FIG. 4 (IL) (b), both sensors 12a, 12b
After detecting color B, the outputs of both sensors become logic “0” (8
It can be detected by tingling. Therefore, both films 2 and 3 are first fed until the outputs of both sensors become (1, 1) (steps 100 to 102). Next, one pitch feed is performed, and when the value becomes (0, 0), it can be considered that the Y color ink area has been reached, and printing is performed for the Y color (steps 103 to 105 and 107). On the other hand, even if the outputs of both sensors are <1, 1>, as shown in Fig. 4 (
In the case of the head of the B color part of film 2 in a), even if the pitch is increased by one pitch, it is still B color (Figure 4 (a) lower part),
Feed until <0, 0> (step 105
．． 106, 103.104). In this case, <1.1> cannot exist in principle, so <i, i
If a detection other than > is performed, it is determined as an error (step 108).

Once the Y color is detected as described above and aligned by feeding, printing is performed for the Y color. Since the 1m reference color is initialized by the Y color head positioning, the M and C color head positioning is performed using the film 2.
, 3 can be performed using the determination logic shown in FIGS. 6(C) and 6(d), and thermal transfer is performed for them.

Also, for the color of film 20B, it is performed using the Kaashii Ronosoku shown in FIG. 6(b).

In FIG. 6, C and F are check flags for determining the logic of the sensor, L and F are line feeds, and n in step 206 of FIG. 6(b).
indicates n-pitch line feed.

Furthermore, as mentioned with reference to Fig. 5, ll'Q b is 2
It is designed to be compatible with Pituchi's feed, so
When each pitch is fed, the same state of the sensor detection signal occurs twice. In the present invention, these cases are also handled in consideration of the food pitch in the control device.

The present invention can take various modifications other than those described above. For example, film 2, 30 standard color III
B (Introduction) Even if the eight-color pattern of the identification section changes, the reference color detection and head part 1d alignment can be performed by only slightly changing the determination logic.

(7) Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, by simply installing two detectors, the alignment can be automatically adjusted no matter which of the two ink films is used. It is possible to prevent color blurring from occurring in printing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a thermal transfer thick printing apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the detector shown in FIG. 1, and FIG.
The figure shows an example of a reference color detection circuit using the detector shown in Fig. 2, Figs. 4 (a) to (C) show an example of an ink film, and Fig. Enlarged view of identification part, No. 6
Figures (a) to (d) are diagrams showing one embodiment of the determination logic. (Explanation of symbols) 1... Thermal transfer printer 1j, 10... Printing paper, 11
... Ink film, 12 ... Fo) sensor, 1
3...Print head, 14...Printing paper roll, 1
5... Ink film roll, 16... Platen,
17...Film winding is a roll, 18...1 device on open side〇(11) Fig. 1 (12) 4th victory Fig. 5 p, 7'.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A plurality of reference color inks are separated by identification portions in the longitudinal direction and applied over a predetermined length, and an ink film in which these are successively provided is heated, and the reference colors are color-synthesized. In a thermal transfer rectangular printing apparatus that prints with The reference color head position is detected and aligned for both the first ink film containing color ink and the second ink film containing four reference color inks.
'Thermal transfer printing equipment.