JPS60189460A - Thermal transfer-type recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To arrange so that the unit may be miniaturized by thermally fixing record information to be thermally transferred to a recording paper through the travelling of a thermal treatment part provided on a carriage in an opposed position to the shift line position of a printing head. CONSTITUTION:A thermal fixing part 8 where record information 7 right after thermal surface is thermally fixed is provided on a carriage 1 in an opposed position to the printing line of a printing head. The thermal fixing part 8 is installed upright with an arm 10 where a heating roller 9 is basically attached 12 to a carriage 1 and also with a support axis 11. The thermal fixing part 8 is kept apart from the surface of a recording paper 6 by a spring 13 with a basic attachment 12 as a fulcrum and presses a position for record information 7 of a recording paper by magnet action. The thermal fixing part is turned by the carriage 1 to carry out thermal treatment and obtain a fixing information 7a. Thus it is made possible to miniaturize the thermal transfer-type recording device and increase the clearness of thermally transferred information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording apparatus that thermally transfers information onto recording paper using thermal transfer recording or electrical transfer recording means.

Conventional means for thermally transferring and recording information onto recording paper include thermal transfer recording or electrical transfer recording.

However, with this thermal transfer recording means, when recording information transferred using a thermal head or an electric head, even if the transfer pressure of the head is increased, if the surface smoothness of the recording paper is low, the transferred information such as characters may be rubbed off. and concentration spots are likely to occur,
There is a problem that print quality tends to deteriorate.

On the other hand, as a solution to the above problem, it is possible to add a fixing process that further heats and melts the information thermally transferred to the recording paper to eliminate the blurring and density spots. There is a dispute as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-124674.

However, the method described in the above publication transfers the information thermally transferred onto the recording paper in the line feed direction, and then heat-processes the transferred information separately for each print line of the width of the paper.
The heating processing means is large in size because it requires the size of the printing line, and the power consumption also increases, and the heating processing means is attached to the recording device separately from the carriage that holds the thermal head. Therefore, there are many problems such as the thermal recording device 2 itself becoming large in size.

J-Year-Year This invention has solved such problems, and in thermal transfer recording by thermal transfer or electric transfer, the heat fixing process of transferred information on recording paper with poor smoothness is performed as the print head moves. The printing line can be instantly made in two seconds,
In addition, the heat fixing process can be performed almost simultaneously by scanning the printing line, and thereby,
The object of the present invention is to make it possible to greatly improve the miniaturization of a thermal transfer type recording device equipped with a heat fixing processing means and the reduction in power consumption.

1-11 Next, the present invention will be explained based on an embodiment shown in the drawings.

In Figures 1 and 2, the symbol (1) indicates:
This is a carriage of a serial type thermal transfer recording device equipped with a thermal transfer print head (2) and a ribbon cassette (4) that accommodates a thermal transfer ribbon (3).

1- This carriage (1) is shown in simplified form in Figure 1, but as is well known, it moves back and forth in the line direction along the platen (5) and is positioned between the print head (2) and the platen (5). The ink portion of the ribbon (3) is thermally transferred and recorded on a recording paper (6) by a print head (2) activated by a print signal.

In the above, the print head (2) uses, for example, a thermal head when the thermal transfer recording device is thermal transfer recording, and uses, for example, a multi-stylus head when the device uses electrical transfer recording.

Therefore, in the case of thermal transfer, the ribbon (3) usually has a thickness of 5 to 10
An ink layer having a thickness of 3 to 5 μm and a melting point of 60° C. to 80° C. is used on the surface of a Mylar base having a thickness of 3 μm.

In addition, in the case of electric transfer, the surface of the base, which can be energized with a thickness of usually 10 to 15μ, has a softening point of 70℃ to 12μ and a thickness of 4 to 8μ.
An ink layer having a temperature of 0° C. is used.

The application time per dot in the print head (2) is 0.5 to 2 mS in the case of thermal transfer, whereas it is 0.1 to 0.5 mS in the case of electric transfer.

Thus, when printing information is added to the print head (2),
As is well known, as the carriage (1) moves in the line direction, the information recorded by the print head is transferred to the surface of the recording paper (6) via the ribbon (3) as character or pattern information using heat or electric signals. be done.

In this case, if the recording paper (6) has low smoothness, the recorded information obtained by the transfer of the print head (2) described above will have poor image quality, as shown by symbol (7) in Figure 2. It doesn't get scratched and easily comes off.

On the other hand, the carriage (1) according to the present invention is arranged opposite to the print line position of the print head (2), and the recorded information (7) immediately after being thermally transferred by the print head is transferred to the carriage (1) as the carriage (1) moves. Additionally, a heat treatment section (8) capable of heat fixing processing is provided.

In this embodiment, the heat treatment section (8) records information (7)
At the same line position, a heating roller (9) with a length and height that allows heat treatment for fixing is attached to the arm (10) and the support shaft (
11), and the arm (10) is pivotally attached (12) to the carriage (1). The heating roller (9) of 25-9- is usually separated from the surface of the recording paper (6) by thinning of the spring (13) using the pivot (12) as a fulcrum, and is separated from the surface of the recording paper (6) by the thinning of the spring (13). ), the heating roller (9) can be pressed against the surface of the recording paper (6) on which the recorded information (7) is located. The heating roller (9) has an elastic material such as silicone rubber on its surface, and a heat generating element such as a small lamp or a suitable heater in its core. sign (
15) is the stopper of the arm (10).

Therefore, this heat processing section (8) is integrated with the carriage (1), and when performing the heat fixing process, the recording paper carrying the recorded information (7) in the same line immediately after the information is recorded and transferred. A heating roller (9) is pressed against the surface (6), and this heating roller (9) freely rotates as the carriage (1) moves. Note that reference numeral (7a) indicates fixing processing information that has been heat-processed by scanning in the heat-processing section (8).

In addition, in the case of the above embodiment, the heat processing section (8) heats the recorded information (7) immediately after transfer, so that the heat processing section (8) is connected to the print head (2) in the serial printing direction at 6-. The heating processing unit (8) is located on the same line and is placed on the left side of the line, and after recording and transferring the transfer information on one line of the same line at the same position on the carriage (1), the heating processing unit (8) ) may be heated during the return movement. In this case, the heat treatment section (8
) performs heat-fixing processing of the recorded information (7) in the backward movement direction of the carriage (left direction in the figure), so the heat treatment section (8) is placed in front of the print head (2) (the print head in Fig. 1). It may be placed on the right side of (2). Also,
The heat treatment section (8) is configured to heat the print head (2) as needed.
) may be placed both before and after the heat fixing process.

On the other hand, the heat processing section (8) is shown in the above embodiment as a heat roller type, but this heat treatment section (8) is, for example, a non-contact heating heat fixing process in which hot air or hot rays are radiated onto the recorded information (7). It can also be used as a means.

Since the apparatus of the present invention is as described above, the recording information thermally transferred to the recording paper is thermally fixed, and the recording information immediately after the thermal transfer is printed at the same time as the carriage is moved along with the movement of the print head. It can be processed quickly at the same line position.

Therefore, this means that the thermal transfer recording device can be made much smaller than the conventional device with a line-type heat-fixing processing mechanism, and distributed scanning is sufficient for heat-fixing processing pressure. Therefore, low pressure is sufficient.

On the other hand, the following table shows a comparison of the heat fixing processing conditions of the conventional example and the example of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, the heat processing section can be significantly downsized, thereby reducing the size of the thermal transfer recording device, reducing pressure during heat fixing, and improving energy saving of the heat processing section. This can greatly improve the quality (clarity) of thermally transferred information.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the main parts showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is an enlarged front view of the heat treatment section. (1) Carriage (2) Print head (6) Record paper (7) ...Record information (8) ...Heat treatment section patent applicant Ricoh Co., Ltd. agent Patent attorney Shunsuke Nakao 9- 8-

Claims (1)

[Claims] In thermal transfer recording paper, recorded information transferred to a recording paper by thermal transfer recording or electrical transfer recording is gradually attached to the recording paper using a heat treatment means. 1. A thermal transfer type recording apparatus, characterized in that heat fixing processing of recorded information is carried out by scanning a heating processing section provided on a carriage opposite to the moving line position of the print head.