JPS60190378A - Recording paper selector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent heat transfer to the places where no recording paper exists by detecting the width and length thereof at each line of recording in a heat transfer line printer to limit the recording range to match the width and the length thereof. CONSTITUTION:In a heat transfer line printer so designed that a heat transfer ink sheet 6 and a recording paper 1 are fed between a thermosensitive head 7 having a number of heating elements arranged in trains and the platen 3 to perform a heat transfer recording, for example, a number of light emitting diodes 4 and light receiving elements 5 are arranged separately in trains on the upstream of a paper feed roller 2 and detect the width and length of the recording paper 1 fed and the position of the fed paper to generate heat of the heating elements at the head 7 by driving corresponding thereto.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a recording paper selection device, and in particular to recording (printing) by driving a thermal head to thermally transfer heat-fusible ink on a transfer paper onto the recording paper. The present invention relates to a recording paper selection device applied to a thermal transfer printing device that performs.

(Prior Art) In recent years, various printing devices such as wire dot type, inkjet type, shuttle type, and thermal transfer type have been developed as computer terminal printers (hard copy devices).

Among these, thermal transfer printing devices are widely used because they have a simpler mechanism, faster recording speed, and are easier to handle than the other printing devices mentioned above. It is.

In this thermal transfer recording, a transfer paper (ink sheet) coated with heat-melting ink is placed on top of the recording paper, and a platen roller and a group of thermal heads (one line of thermal heads arranged in a line) are used. ), a current is passed through a heating resistor provided in a thermal head (thermal head) to melt the heat-melting ink coated on the transfer paper and adhere it to the recording paper to form a predetermined image. Record (print) signals
Was. Then, after each printing operation for one line, the platen roller is rotated by a small angle to record the next line (
(Printing) is being carried out sequentially.

When printing in this way, the size of the recording paper on which you want to record (print) is determined by the serrations of the transfer paper and is constant.For example, if the size of the recording paper is smaller than the size of the transfer paper, However, there were problems such as the heat-melting ink applied on the transfer paper adhering to the platen roller.

(Objective of the Invention) The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and to improve the recording paper so that, depending on the size of the recording paper, thermal transfer recording is performed only within the range of the recording paper. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording paper selection device that automatically selects (sets) the size.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the object -1-, the present invention overlaps a transfer paper and a recording paper and sandwiches them between a platen roller and a group of thermal heads, and the platen In a thermal transfer printing device that sequentially records (prints) one line by moving the transfer paper and the recording paper by rotating a roller and driving the group of thermal heads, the width and length of the recording paper are To provide a recording paper selection device characterized in that the recording range is determined in accordance with the width and length of the recording paper with one stroke of detection for each recording of one line.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the recording paper selection device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the recording paper 3g selection device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram of FIG. 1 viewed from L.

In FIG. 1, a recording paper 1 is sent to a platen roller 3 by a paper feed roller 2, and a light emitting diode 4 is placed in front of the paper feed roller 2 at J3 in the paper feeding direction of the recording paper 1.
A predetermined number of CQ elements (for example, n+[!11; n is a natural number) are arranged in a line with the light-receiving elements 5 and 5 facing each other.
(2nd illustration). Then, when the recording paper 1 passes between the light emitting diode 4 and the light receiving element 5 and covers it, the first light emitting diode 4 is turned on and the light is emitted at 1, and this light is received by the light receiving element 5. The size (width and length) of the recording paper 1 is detected for each recording (printing) of one line.

That is, when the recording paper 1 passes, the light receiving element 53- is turned OFF without receiving light, and when the recording paper 1 does not pass, the light receiving element 5 receives light and is turned ON.

Then, the state g3 detected by this light receiving element 5<i.e.
When the recording paper 1 passes, it is in the OFF state, and when the recording paper 1 does not pass, it is in the ON state).The information about the size, width, and length of the recording paper 1 is stored in the memory. In this case, it goes without saying that the OFF state and the ON state may be reversed.

Next, the recording paper 1 sent to the platen roller 3 by the paper feed roller 2 is overlapped with a transfer paper (ink sheet) 6 on which hot-melt FfA ink is coated, and and thermal head 7
Predetermined information No. 11 is generated by passing an electric current through a heat-generating resistor provided in the thermal head 7 and melting the heat-melting ink applied to the transfer sheet M6 and adhering it to the recording paper 1. Recording (printing) is performed. Then, the platen roller is rotated by a small angle every time one line of printing is performed, and the next one line of recording (printing) = 4- is sequentially performed.

At this time, current is supplied only to the heating resistors within the size range of the recording paper 1 based on the information on the large serrations (width, length) of the recording paper 1 stored in the memory. , the data in this memory is sent as a strobe signal to the thermal head 7.

In this way, by detecting the size of the recording paper 1 and controlling the current supplied to the thermal head 7 according to the size, the heat-melting ink applied to the transfer paper 7 can be transferred to the platen roller 3. It is possible to print by making the heat-melting ink applied to the transfer paper 7 adhere only to the recording paper 1 without adhering to the recording paper 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the circuit configuration of the recording paper selection device according to the present invention.

In the figure, the light from the light emitting diode 4 is transmitted to the light receiving element 5.
This OFF or ON information signal 9 is supplied to a data selection circuit 9 via an inversion circuit 8. This is the same for all the n light receiving cables 5 arranged in a line. When the data selection circuit is supplied with a selection pulse, which will be described later, it outputs an information signal for one line for selecting a range of recording paper from among the recording data. This output is then supplied to memory 10.

Furthermore, when the next selection pulse is supplied in the same manner, an information signal for selecting the range of the next one line of recording paper is outputted and supplied to the memory 10.

On the other hand, a start signal that causes a current to flow through the heating resistor of the thermal head to start printing is sent to an X-direction address signal generation circuit 11 that controls the X address of the memory 10 corresponding to the lateral direction (x direction) of the thermal head. When the X-direction address signal generation circuit 11 supplies the selection pulse to the data selection circuit 9, the X-direction address signal generation circuit 11 supplies the selection pulse to the data selection circuit 9.
1 to n) are supplied to the memory 10.

Further, when printing starts in response to a start signal and printing for one line is completed, the motor drive pulse generation circuit 12 generates a drive pulse that controls the stepping motor that rotates the platen roller. Memory 10 corresponding to the vertical direction (Y direction) of the round head
When supplied to the Y-direction address signal generation circuit 13 that controls the Y address of , the one-direction address signal generation circuit 13 supplies the Y address (1 to m) to the memory 10 .

The memory 10 receives an information signal Dc for selecting the range of recording paper in the memory 10 using the X address and Y address.
) (Goo1-Pulse) is supplied to one terminal of the NAND circuit 14 for each recording (printing) operation for one line. Also,
The other terminal of the NAND circuit 14 is supplied with a recording data signal Di for recording (printing) on recording paper.

As shown in FIG. 4, the NAND circuit 14 receives a recording data signal Di (pulses R1 to Rx) supplied to one terminal.
A signal between the ribs to which the information signal DO is supplied is output, and this output is passed through the inverting circuit 15 to the recording data signal D.
o (pulses R2 to RX-+).

Record data signal DO, which is the output of NAND circuit 14, is supplied to shift register 16. The output beam of this shift register 16 is supplied to each heating resistor R1-RX of the round head 7 41, and depending on the size of the recording paper, thermal transfer is performed only within the range of the recording paper A. record(
There are now 4 lines (Print).

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the recording paper selection and loading system according to the present invention, and particularly shows the paper feeding mechanism for recording paper.

In the figure, 17 and 18 are trays for aligning the left and right positions of the recording paper 1, respectively, and 19 is a tray for aligning the upper side of the recording paper 1 according to the length of the recording paper 1. This is a tray for positioning between the two. Also, 20.
Reference numerals 21 and 22 correspond to one tray 17, 18 and 19, respectively, and are mechanical counters that operate in conjunction with the positional movement of each tray.

As shown in Figure 5, depending on the width of recording paper 1,
~Shift the trays 17, 18 and the upper tray 19 by - to match their positions to the size of the recording paper 1 by 1L. At this time, mechanical counters 20, 21 and 22 operate in conjunction with the positional movement of trays 17, 18 and 19, respectively, to obtain position information of 1 to 100 rays, that is, 8-0000 yen width of recording paper 1. , length) is stored. Then, the position information of the mechanical counter 20 is used as the star 1 to m months for passing current through the heat generating resistor of the thermal head 7, and the position information of the mechanical counter 21 is used as the star 1 to m months for passing current through the heat generating resistor of the thermal head 7. An end signal for stopping the position information of the mechanical counter 22, and an end signal for stopping the flow of current J to the heating resistor of the thermal head 7 in the direction of printing of the recording paper 1. shall be.

Each of the above-mentioned mechanical counters may include a potentiometer that operates in conjunction with each tray, a photo sensor that reads the position code of each 1-ray, etc. If configured in this way, the third
The memory 10 in the figure can be omitted.

If the size of the recording paper 1 is detected in this manner and the current supplied to the thermal head 7 is controlled according to the detected size, the current applied to the transfer paper 7 can be controlled as in the previous embodiment. It is possible to print only on the recording paper 1 without the heat-melting ink applied to the transfer paper 7 adhering to the platen roller 3.

Further, in FIG. 1, the light emitting diode A-1 and the light receiving element 5
If it is configured so that printing is performed while detecting the length and width of the recording paper wound around the platen roller 3 using can be omitted.

Furthermore, instead of detecting the length and width of the recording paper, the data selection circuit 9 of FIG. 3 is used to set the image frame to be printed on the recording paper.
Of course, it is also possible to use the memory 10 or the trays and mechanical counters shown in FIG. In other words, set the specified image frame of the recording paper.
(direction) and vertical direction (Y direction) are recorded in (q).
Print) J Runiuni is fine.

(Effects of the Invention) Since the recording paper selection device of the present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, thermal transfer recording is performed only within the range of each recording paper, depending on the size of the recording paper. : 1゜ has features such as being able to automatically select (set) the size of the recording paper.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 shows an embodiment of the recording paper selection S and Oka according to the present invention. A diagram showing an example of the circuit configuration of the paper selection device, FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram for explaining the operation of the circuit diagram in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the recording paper selection device according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing, in particular, a portion of a paper feeding mechanism for recording paper. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Recording paper, 2... Paper feed roller, 3... Platen roller, 1... Light emitting diode, 5... Light receiving element, 6... Transfer paper (ink sheet), 7...・Thermal head (Remal head), 8.15... Inversion circuit,
9...Data selection circuit, 10...Memory, 11.
...X direction address signal generation circuit, 13...Y direction address signal generation circuit, 14...NΔAND circuit, 1G.
...Schiff I~Register, 17-19...Tray, 20
~22...Mechanical counter. Continued from page 1 0 authors: Shigeru Kato 0 authors: Tsutomu Kiuchi 0 authors: Kanazuki, Yokohama 0 authors: Hiroshi Kitamura, Kanazuki, Yokohama

Claims (1)

[Claims] A transfer paper and a recording paper are stacked and sandwiched between a platen roller and a group of thermal heads, and the transfer paper and the recording paper are moved by the rotation of the unrolling roller to form one line by driving the group of thermal heads. In a thermal transfer printing device that sequentially records (prints) minutes, the width and length of the recording paper are detected for each recording of one line, and the recording range is determined according to the width and length of the recording paper. A recording paper selection device characterized by ().