JPS6032687A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the unnecessary movement of a winding core to the axial direction thereof in mounting the same to a cassette by rapidly and certainly performing the attachment and detachment of a transfer material, by providing a winding core energizing means for energizing the winding core in the transfer material cassette to the axial direction thereof. CONSTITUTION:The winding cores 31, 32 of a ribbon cassette mounted to a cassette mounting part 40 are always energized to the axial direction thereof by a winding core energizing means 47 to restrict the unnecessary movement thereof to the axial direction thereof. A spring member 50 is attached to the back surface of a door body 49 for opening and closing an insert and discharge port 48 and the positional determination of the winding cores 31, 32 is performed to the cassette mounting part of a coupling 45 and the spring member 50.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a transfer type image forming apparatus that forms an image by transferring a colorant of a transfer material such as a thermal transfer material to a transfer target material.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

For example, thermal transfer image forming devices are small, inexpensive, noiseless, and capable of forming images on plain paper, and have recently been put into practical use not only for recording the output of computers and word processors, but also for copying devices. .

However, conventionally, in this type of image forming apparatus, the transfer material used does not have a case, etc., and is wound at both ends around two cores, and the user sets it independently. (1) Transfer Replacing materials is very troublesome and time consuming.

(11) I sometimes got my hands dirty with the colorant from the transfer material.

011) When setting, the transfer material slacks and wrinkles occur, leading to defective image formation.

4-cut: The dedicated space required to install the transfer material is large.

There were other problems.

Therefore, in recent years, a method has been developed that solves the above problems by using a transfer material cassette in which the transfer material is integrated into a case to form a cassette.

However, if there is unnecessary movement of the core in the axial direction when the core is made into a cassette like this, wrinkles may occur in the transfer paper, or the end surface of the core may come into contact with the case, causing the so-called It is conceivable that warping may occur, leading to rotational failures, making it impossible for the transfer material to be fed smoothly, and causing changes in the tension of the transfer material, causing wrinkles, breakage, and galling.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made based on the above circumstances, and its object is to use a transfer material cassette that allows the loading and unloading of transfer materials without dirtying hands, and moreover, can be carried out quickly and reliably. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that reliably prevents unnecessary movement of the winding core in the axial direction when a transfer material cassette is attached, and that enables stable image formation.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve this object, the present invention is provided with a winding core zero force means for changing the winding core in the transfer material cassette in the axial direction.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 16. FIG. 1 shows the external appearance of an image forming apparatus. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is the main body of the apparatus. An operation panel section 1a is formed at the front of the upper surface of the main body 1, and the left side part of the main body 1 is used for original documents. There is a document scanning section 4 that scans a document 3 set on a table 2, and an image forming section 5 on the right side.

A display section 6, a numeric keypad 2, . . . , a keypad 8, etc. are arranged in the operation section 1a. In addition, the document scanning section 4
As shown in FIG. 2, the movable scanning section 9 of the exposure optical system reciprocates along the lower surface of the document table 2 to optically scan the document 3 set on the document table 2, and this optical information is transmitted. The image is photoelectrically converted and input to the image forming section 5.

Further, the image forming section 5 has a configuration as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. That is, 5- A platen 10 is disposed approximately at the center of the image forming section 5, and a thermal head 11 as a recording head is located in front of the platen 10 (towards the left in the state of FIG. 3).
is located.

The thermal head 11 is attached to a heat dissipation plate 13 integrally formed on the rear end surface of the holder 12, and a thermal transfer material cassette (hereinafter simply referred to as a ribbon written as cassette)1
4 is attached, and a thermal transfer tongue 15 as a transfer material is interposed between the thermal platen 11 and the platen 1°.

Further, a paper feed roller 16 is provided diagonally below the platen 10, and is configured to sequentially take out sheets of paper P as a transfer material stored in a paper feed cassette 17 one by one. The leading edge of the taken out paper P is aligned by a pair of registration rollers 18 disposed diagonally above the paper feed roller 16, and then transferred toward the platen 10, and pressed against the platen 6 by pressing rollers 19 and 20. The paper is wound into 10 rolls and sent accurately.

On the other hand, is Thermal Herad 1 a thermal transfer material?
The paper P is pressed against the platen 10 via the pin 15.
Heat transfer as shown in Figure 4? The ink 21 as a colorant on the paper 715 is heated and melted and transferred onto the paper P.

The thermal transfer ribbon 15 has approximately the same size as the paper P, as shown by range A in FIG. 5, and has yellow, magenta, and cyan ink portions 21a.

21 b r J 1 c or as shown by the range opening, yellow, magenta, cyan, black ink portions 21h,
21b, 21c, and 21d are arranged side by side, and 1
After transferring the colors one by one, the paper P't- is returned to its original state, and the sheets are accurately stacked one after another.

Thermal transfer ribbons containing the black ink portion 21d are used when it is desired to produce black clearly, and even those without the black ink portion 21d can produce intertwining points by overlapping three colors.

In this way, the paper P is reciprocated by the number of colors by the rotation of the platen 10, but the path of the paper P at that time is the first and second guides 23 arranged sequentially along the lower surface of the paper output tray 22. .24.

That is, the explanation will be made with reference to FIGS. 6(a) to 6).

First, the paper P fed from the paper feed cassette 17 passes through the registration roller pair 18 and the arrangement portion of the first distribution guide 25, and is wound around the platen 10. (6th
(See Figure (a)) Next, the platen 10 rotates using a pulse motor (not shown) as a drive source to transport the paper P at a predetermined speed, and a thermal head formed in a line tod shape along the axial direction of the platen 10. 11 heating elements (
(not shown) generates heat according to the image information, and the thermal transfer ribbon 1
The ink 21 of No. 5 is transferred onto the paper P.

Furthermore, the leading edge of the paper P that has passed through the platen 10 is located at the second
The paper is sent onto a first guide 23 provided along the lower surface of the paper discharge tray 22 by a sorting guide 26 . (See FIG. 6(B)) In this way, the paper P onto which the ink 21 of one color has been transferred is transported backwards by reversing the platen 10, and the paper P is transferred to the first distribution guide 25. Due to the rotational displacement operation, it is sent onto a second guide 24 provided along the lower surface of the first guide 23. (See FIG. 6(c)) By reciprocating the paper P a plurality of times in this manner, several colors are transferred.

Finally, the paper P to which all the colors of ink 21 have been transferred is
The paper is guided by the second sorting guide 26 to the pair of paper discharge rollers 21 and discharged onto the paper discharge tray 22 . (See FIG. 6(b)) The image forming apparatus also includes an original scanning unit 4 as shown in FIG.
, a color conversion section 28, a memory section 29, an image forming section 5, and an overall control section 30f.

Then, the green (G) detected by the original scanning unit 4
), yellow (A), and cyan (C) are converted by the color converter 28 into the color magenta (
The colors are converted into (9), yellow (A), and cyan (C), and these color converted values are stored in the memory section 29 for each color along with position information on the document. In the image forming section 5, magenta (B), yellow (2), and cyan (C) are selected based on the values read out from the memory section 29.
, M (B) (black is magenta (B), yellow (A), cyan (C), AND output output part print medium is paper P
Transfer on top. Note that the overall control section 30 includes the document scanning section 4,
The color conversion section 28, memory section 29, and image forming section 5 are all controlled.

Also, a pair of paper ejection rollers 27, a paper ejection tray 22, a first and a second
The guides 23, 24 are formed into a unit, and this unit can be removed if necessary.

Also, Su? As shown in FIG. 8 and FIG.
It has book cores 31 and 32f, and the middle part of the thermal transfer ribbon 15 is connected to the platen 10 and the thermal platen 11.
In case 3, a part of it is exposed to be interposed between the
It has a structure that is encapsulated by 3.

10- A slit 34 is formed between the winding core accommodating parts 33a and 33b of the case 33 along the axial direction of the winding core 31 and 32, and the slit 34 is open from one end side.
Driving force receiving end of winding core 31, 32 on the open end side: 91a+
32a is provided.

Further, the case 33 of the ribbon cassette 14 is integrally attached to the rear end surface of the holder 2 between the back surface of the exposed portion of the thermal transfer ribbon 15 and the case 33, as shown in FIGS. 8, 10, and 11. A cross section forming a space for accommodating the formed heat sink 13 and the thermal head 11 attached to the heat sink 13 is formed in a U-shape.

Heat transfer rehabilitation? The width tR of the winding 15 (see FIG. 10) is larger than the maximum winding diameter 1B (see FIG. 8) of the winding core 31, 32, and the cutting depth of the slit 34 formed in the case 33 is 1. (See FIG. 10) is the thermal transfer ribbon 150.
More than half of the width dimension tR, that is, tB > 2 tH
is set to .

As described above, the ribbon cassette 14m is composed of the range LA where the upper and lower parts are connected, and the range tB which is divided into upper and lower halves by the slit 34, assuming that the entire length of the case 33 is tc. Further, the width dimension δ of the slit 34 is set to be slightly wider than the thickness dimension δH of the holder 12, and the cutting depth tB of the slit 34 is set to be approximately the same as the width dimension tH of the holder 12. There is.

Therefore, when installing the ribbon cassette 14, the holder 12
Ribbon cassette 14'lr: its longitudinal direction (in the axial direction of the platen)
The holder 12 and the slit 34 may be engaged with each other by pushing the holder 12 along the slit 34 as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, and when removing the holder 12, the slit 34 may be pulled out in the opposite direction.

Further, the driving force receiving end portion 31a of the winding core 31.32.

32m is exposed to the outside through a through hole formed in the end face of the case 33, and four retaining parts 35 and 35 are formed at the tip thereof as shown in Fig. 14. .

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
0 is provided with core drive means 41 and cassette positioning means 42 for applying a driving force to the core 31 when the ribbon cassette 14 is attached.

In other words, a coupling 45 driven by a motor 44 and stoppers 46 and 46 are disposed on the front surface of a frame 43 attached to one end surface of the head holder 12.

As shown in FIG. 16, when the reset cassette 14 is completely installed in the predetermined position, the coupling 45 engages with the engagement recess 35 of the winding core 31, and the case 33
The end face of the case 33 comes into contact with the stop horn f46.46, and the positioning of the case 33 itself is facilitated.

On the other hand, the winding cores 31 and 32 of the ribbon cassette 14 mounted in the cassette mounting section 40 are always pushed in the axial direction and at the driving force receiving ends 31m and 32 by a winding core biasing means 47, which will be described later.
13- is biased toward the h side, and unnecessary horizontal movement in the axial direction is regulated.

That is, a spring member 50 is attached to the back surface of a door body 49 that opens and closes a cassette insertion/ejection port 48 formed on the right side surface of the apparatus main body 1. This spring member 50 is composed of a plate spring with both ends bent respectively, and when the door body 49 is closed as shown in FIG. 16, the both ends 50 m,
50b suppresses the pressing force receiving portions 31b and 32bf formed on the side opposite to the driving force receiving end side of the winding core 31, 32. The pressing force receiving portion 31b.

32b is a small-diameter protrusion that also serves as a support shaft and has its tip protruded outside the case 33 through a bearing hole formed on the end surface of the case 33. It is designed not to be given.

Thus, the winding cores 31 and 32 are positioned with respect to the cassette mounting part 40 by the coupling 45 provided on the device main body 1 side and the spring member 50 as the winding core biasing means 42. 33 is a cassette mounting part 401
By contacting the 14-stop A46.46 provided in 1C, the winding core 31.3
Positioning can be done independently of 2. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 16, unnecessary movement of the winding cores 31 and 32 in the axial direction is prevented by forming gaps δl and δ8 between the mutually facing surfaces of the case 33 and the winding cores 31 and 32 in the axial direction. can be prevented,
The thermal transfer ribbon 15 may be wrinkled or the winding core 31°3
It is possible to prevent rotation failure due to contact between the end face of the case 33 and the case 33, and stable image formation can be performed.

In the above embodiment, the winding core biasing means 47 is attached to the back surface of the door body 49 for opening and closing the cassette insertion/ejection port 48, but the present invention is not limited to this. As shown in FIG. 19, a spring member 50 may be attached to the end face of the case 33 of the ribbon cassette 14, and as shown in FIGS. The spring member 50' may be constructed from the elastic support tongues 33d, 33, which are integrally formed with the end plate portion 33°.

Although the paper feed cassette 17 is attached to and removed from the front side of the apparatus main body 1 and a part thereof protrudes from the front side of the apparatus main body 1, the present invention is not limited to this. As shown in the figure, a type in which the entire paper feed cassette 17 is accommodated within the apparatus main body 1 may be adopted, or as shown in FIG. However, it is not necessary to use a cassette type. In short, it goes without saying that the present invention may be applied to any image forming apparatus that forms a predetermined image by transferring the colorant of the transfer material to the transfer material.

In addition, it goes without saying that the present invention can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist of the invention.

In the description of the other embodiments (FIGS. 17 to 24), the same parts as those of the embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed explanations thereof will be omitted.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a core biasing means for biasing the core in the transfer material cassette in the axial direction is provided. Therefore, we use a transfer material cassette that allows you to load and remove transfer materials quickly and reliably without getting your hands dirty. This has the effect of reliably preventing unnecessary movement of the image and forming stable images.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 and FIG. 16 show an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an image forming apparatus, FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway schematic perspective view, and FIG. The figure is a schematic longitudinal side view.
Fig. 4 is a perspective view to explain the transfer operation state, Fig. 5 is a plan view showing the ink application state of the thermal transfer ribbon, and Figs. 6 (a) to 6) explain the movement of paper during multicolor transfer. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main parts, and FIG.
Diagram? Vertical side view of the connector cassette, Figure 17-9 is also a vertical front view, Figures 10 and 11 are beams. Schematic perspective views of the link cassette, FIGS. 12 and 13
Figure 14 is a front view of the driving force receiving end of the winding core, Figure 15 is a perspective view of the beam bin cassette attachment section, and Figure 16 is the beam cassette installed. 17 to 19 show a first other embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 17 is a schematic perspective view of the ribbon cassette, and FIG. 18 is a sectional view of the main part, and FIG. FIG. 19 is a partially cutaway side view, and FIGS. 20 to 22 show a second other embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 20 is a schematic perspective view of the beam cassette, Fig. 21 is a cross-sectional view, also partially cut away, Fig. 22 is a side view, also partially cut away, and Figs. 23 and 24 are the main parts. 1A and 1B are schematic longitudinal sectional side views of image forming apparatuses of different configurations to which the invention can be applied. 14... Transfer material cassette (ribbon cassette), 15.
... Transfer material (thermal transfer printer), 21... Coloring material, 18- 31.32... Winding core, 33... Case, 31a. 32m... Driving force receiving end, 31b, 32b ... Pressing force receiver (protrusion), 47 ... Winding core biasing means, 48.°
・Cassette insertion/ejection port, 49... Door body, 50850'...
- Spring members, 33d, 33e...elastic support tongue pieces. Applicant's Representative Patent Attorney Takehiko Suzue 19- Report 4 110 6 6 8 9 32 33b 10 11

Claims (8)

[Claims] (1) An image is formed by transferring the colorant of the transfer material to the transfer material, and the transfer material is wound entirely around a core at both ends, and then wrapped in a case and placed in a cassette. An image forming apparatus having a removable cassette, further comprising a core biasing means for biasing the core of the transfer material cassette in the axial direction. (2) The soft image forming apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the core biasing means is configured to bias the core toward the driving force receiving end. (3) A patent claim characterized in that the winding core biasing means is constituted by a spring member that elastically presses a pressing force receiving portion formed on the side opposite to the driving force receiving end side of the winding core. range 1
The image forming apparatus according to item 1 or 2. (4) The pressing force receiving portion of the winding core is comprised of a protruding portion whose tip protrudes outside the case.
The image forming apparatus described in . (5) The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the core biasing means is attached to a case of a transfer material cassette. (6) The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the core biasing means is attached to a door body that opens and closes an insertion/ejection opening of the transfer material cassette. (7) The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the spring member is a leaf spring. (8) Feature 1fl characterized in that the spring member is constituted by an elastic supporting tongue integrally molded with the case - Claim 3
The image forming apparatus described in .