JPS60264276A - Thermal transfer multicolor printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the reading of a character or a mark wherein the three primary colors are superposed every time each line is printed, by sending a thermal transfer film to the direction crossing the advance direction of a thermal head at a certain arbitrary angle. CONSTITUTION:The feed direction of a thermal film 13 is set so as to cross the advance direction of a thermal head 12 at a certain arbitrary angle. The thermal film 13 is divided into three parts in the lateral direction and a color forming agent for developing the three primary colors of cyan C, magenta M and yellow Y is applied to respective three parts. Resistance heat generator groups 12a- 12c are formed to the thermal head 12 at constant intervals in the lateral direction and respectively made exclusive as ones for developing cyan C, magenta M and yellow Y. When a current is supplied to the resistance head generator groups 12a-12c while the thermal head 12 is sent to the direction shown by the arrow 21, during the printing of one line, magenta is printed on yellow and cyan on magenta.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (a) Industrial Field of Application The present invention relates to a serial dot type thermal printer used as an output device for various electronic devices, and particularly relates to a dye for a thermal transfer film (hereinafter abbreviated as thermal film). This invention relates to the configuration of a thermal transfer multicolor printer that transfers images onto plain paper.

Thermal printers, which generate color by melting pigment capsules coated on printing paper or thermal film with heat, can in principle print only a single color, but when printing in multiple colors, the three primary colors are printed in the same place. The following methods are used.

Therefore, the printing speed of multicolor printing is generally slower than that of monochrome printing, and it is important to improve the speed of multicolor printing and to make it possible to read characters and figures made by overlapping the three primary colors immediately after printing. .

lb) Conventional technology Fig. 2 is an example of a conventional serial dot type thermal transfer multicolor printer, Fig. 2 fal is a perspective view showing the configuration of the main part of the device, and Fig. 2 fbl is a diagram for explaining the operation. It is a diagram.

In the conventional serial dot type thermal transfer multicolor printer, as shown in Figure 2 (al), a cassette 2 containing a reel wound with a thermal film 1 is mounted on a stand 4 on which a thermal head 3 is attached, and the thermal film is 1 is located between the thermal head 3 and the printing paper 6 held by the platen 5.

Further, the stand 4 is held by a main shaft 7 so as to be slidable perpendicular to the feeding direction of the printing paper 6 and parallel to the printing paper 6, and is placed on the thermal head 4 while moving the stand 4 to the left or right. When the resistive heating element group is energized, the portion of the thermal film 1 facing the resistive heating element develops color, and the dye is transferred to the printing paper 6 on the opposite side.

The thermal film 1 is divided into three parts in the width direction as shown in FIG.
A coloring agent containing microcapsules that develops three different primary colors, M) and yellow (Y), is coated.

On one side of the printing press 3, resistance heating element groups 38 to 3c are formed at positions corresponding to the dots constituting three lines of printing, respectively, and the resistance heating element group 3a is for coloring cyan (C); The resistance heating element group 3b is dedicated to producing a magenta (M) color, and the resistance heating element group 3c is dedicated to producing a yellow (Y) color.

In such a mechanism, while the thermal head 3 is sent along with the thermal film 1 in the direction of the arrow 8, the resistance heating element group 3
When power is applied to 8 to 3c, cyan is printed on the row corresponding to the resistance heating element group 3a, magenta is printed on the row corresponding to the resistance heating element group 3b, and yellow is printed on the row corresponding to the resistance heating element group 3c. .

Next, when the printing paper 6 is printed one line in the direction of the arrow 9, magenta is printed on top of yellow, and cyan is printed on top of magenta.

That is, color printing is completed by printing three times on the same line. Therefore, when printing one page of documents continuously, the resistance heating element group 3c is aligned with the first row, and the previous two rows are printed until the three colors of yellow, magenta, and cyan are printed in layers on that row. Printing for this portion is incomplete as color printing, and if this portion is used as blank printing, complete color printing can be performed for each line thereafter.

(cl) Problems to be Solved by the Invention As mentioned above, according to the conventional thermal transfer multicolor printer, when each line is printed continuously without skipping in the middle, it is possible to print in complete color for each line.

However, in order to print computer output data that is output intermittently in such a way that the characters and figures made up of the three primary colors can be read immediately after printing, a group of resistive heating elements is placed on the printing start line each time.
It is necessary to align c and print two blank lines.

(di Means for solving the problem) The above problem is solved by a thermal film divided into three parts in the width direction and coated with pigments of three primary colors, and rows of heating elements dedicated to each color arranged at regular intervals. A thermal transfer multicolor printer that is equipped with a thermal head having a thermal head and that transfers dyes from a thermal film onto plain paper, the thermal transfer printer is characterized in that the thermal film is fed in a direction that intersects the direction of travel of the thermal head at a specific angle. Solved by multicolor printer.

(el) By feeding the thermal film in a direction that intersects the traveling direction of the thermal head at an arbitrary angle, it is possible to read characters and symbols in which the three primary colors are superimposed each time each line is printed.Also, one line's worth of resistance heat generation Since it can be configured as a group, positioning with respect to the printing start line becomes easy, and furthermore, it becomes unnecessary to print two blank lines for each printing start line, and an improvement in printing speed can be expected.

lf) Example Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a thermal transfer multicolor printer according to the present invention. (C) is a diagram for explaining the operation.

Note that the same objects as in FIG. 2 are represented by the same symbols.

In FIG. 1+a) and FIG. 1(b), the head section includes a head mount 11, a thermal head 12, reels 14 and 15 wound with thermal film 13, an L-shaped member 16, and a rotation driven by a motor 17. It is composed of a shaft 18, a camp 19, and a spacer 20.

The head mounting base 11 is held by the main shaft 7 so as to be able to slide perpendicular to the feeding direction of the printing paper 6 and parallel to the printing paper 6.The head mounting base 11 is held slidably in parallel with the printing paper 6 by the main shaft 7. When electricity is applied to a group of resistance heating elements disposed on a thermal head 12 fixed to a table 11, the portion of the thermal film 13 facing the resistance heating element develops color.
The dye is transferred to the printing paper 6 on the opposite side.

Further, reels 14 and 15 wound with thermal film 13 are attached to a rotating shaft 18, but only reel 15 is locked to the rotating shaft 18 via a camp 19 and is driven by a motor 17. One end of the thermal film 13 pulled out is folded back by the L-shaped member 16, passed between the thermal head 12 and the printing paper 6, and wound onto the reel 15.

Note that the direction in which the thermal film 13 is fed is configured to intersect with the advancing direction of the thermal head at an arbitrary angle.

Further, a rotational force in the opposite direction is applied to the reel 14 by a reel 15 via a spacer 20 to apply appropriate tension to the thermal film 13.

In the TCI shown in FIG.
A coloring agent containing microcapsules that develops three different primary colors, M) and yellow (Y), is coated.

On one side of the heating element 12, groups of resistance heating elements 12a to 12c are formed side by side at regular intervals.
Resistance heating element group 12a is for cyan (C) coloring, resistance heating element group 12b is for magenta (M) coloring, resistance heating element group 1.
2c is dedicated for producing yellow (Y).

In this mechanism, when the thermal head 12 is fed along with the thermal film 13 in the direction of the arrow 21 and electricity is applied to the resistive heating element groups 12a to 12c, the dots corresponding to the resistive heating element group 12a are colored cyan, and the dots corresponding to the resistive heating element group 12b are colored cyan. Magenta is printed on the dots corresponding to the resistive heating element group 12c, and yellow is printed on the dots corresponding to the resistance heating element group 12c. While one line is printed, madenta is printed on the yellow and cyan is printed on the madenta, completing color printing. do.

That is, according to the thermal transfer multicolor printer of the present invention, it is possible to read characters and symbols in which three primary colors are superimposed each time each line is printed. In addition, since it can be configured with a group of resistance heating elements for one line, alignment with respect to the print start line is facilitated, and furthermore, blank printing for two lines for each print start line is not required, and an improvement in printing speed can be expected.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a thermal transfer multicolor printer that has a high printing speed and can read characters and figures in which three primary colors are superimposed immediately after printing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 1 ial is a front view of the head part, Fig. 1 ial is a side view before the thermal film is attached to the head part, Fig. 1 (C) 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation, FIG. 2 is an example of a conventional thermal transfer multicolor printer, and FIG. This is a diagram for In the figure, 11 is a head mounting base, 12 is a thermal head, and 12a
=c is a resistance heating element group, 13 is a thermal film, 14.
15 is a reel, 16 is an L-shaped member, 17 is a motor,
18 is a rotating shaft, 19 is a camp, and 20 is a spacer.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A thermal transfer film divided into three parts in the width direction and coated with pigments of three primary colors, and a thermal head having rows of heating elements dedicated to each color arranged at regular intervals, A thermal transfer multicolor printer that transfers dyes from the thermal transfer film onto plain paper, the thermal transfer multicolor printer being characterized in that the thermal transfer film is fed in a direction that intersects the advancing direction of the thermal head at an arbitrary angle.