JPS6046275A - Image-forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent wasting of a transfer material, interruption of operation or the like from occurring and efficiently form an image, by a method wherein the width of a transfer material is set to be larger than that of a transfer recording material, and an information-recording part for recording information on the transfer material is provided. CONSTITUTION:The width lR of a thermal transfer ribbon 15 used as a transfer material is set to be slightly larger than the width L of a transfer paper P used as a transfer recording material, a coloring agent non-transfer region 15a having a width W is provided along one side edge of the ribbon 15, and is used as the information-recording part 44 for recording information on the ribbon 15. Information 41a-41d indicating the colors of the coloring agents 21a-21d is previously recorded in an outer-side track of the information-recording part 44, while ink use completion information 42 consisting of a transparent part 52 and near-end information 43 consisting of a transparent part 53 are recorded in an inner-side track. The coloring agent color information 41a-41d, the coloring agent use completion information 42 and the near-end information 43 can be detected by detecting the transparent parts 48..., 52..., 53 on the ribbon 15 by information-detecting parts 51, 58.

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 apparatuses are small, inexpensive, noiseless, and capable of forming images on plain paper, and have recently been put into practical use not only for recording output from computers and word processors, but also for copying machines.

Usually, in a thermal transfer color image forming apparatus, for example, a color solinta, a thermal transfer material (ink film) K, t
Coloring agents (inks) of four colors, yellow, magenta, cyan, and black, are applied, thermal transfer is performed in this order onto a transfer material (transfer paper), and each color is superimposed to obtain a color copy.

If the order of overlapping the colorants of each color is different, the overlaid colors will change, so at the start of thermal transfer, it is necessary to set the thermal transfer material of a certain color so that it faces the transfer section.

Therefore, in this type of image forming apparatus, it is necessary to know the color of the colorant, whether the colorant is used or not, and whether the thermal transfer material is nearing its end. There is no effective method for this, and for this reason, the thermal transfer material must be moved and fed continuously while visually confirming the color until it reaches a certain color, which is cumbersome, wastes the thermal transfer material, and damages the thermal transfer material. There is a problem in that the print operation may run out during the process and the printing operation may have to be interrupted.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made based on the above-mentioned circumstances, and its objectives include, for example, determining the position on a transfer material such as a thermal transfer material, the color of the coloring agent, and whether or not the coloring agent has been used. You can reliably obtain information such as whether the transfer material is nearing completion.
Reliable power while preventing waste of transfer material and interruption of work.
An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that can form images more efficiently.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the object of the present invention, the width of the transfer material is made larger than the width of the transfer material, and the colorant non-transfer area is used as an information recording part for recording information on the transfer material. Information detecting means for detecting information recorded on this information recording section is provided.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 19. 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.

The operation section 1a has a display section 6, a numeric keypad 7, etc., and keys? Tongue 8 etc. are arranged. In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, a movable scanning section 9 of the exposure optical system is mounted on the lower surface of the document table 2 and moves back and forth to optically scan the document 3 set on the document table 2. This optical information 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, a platen 10 is arranged approximately in the center of the image forming section 5, and a thermal head 11 as a recording head is arranged in front of the platen 10 (towards the left in the state of FIG. 3). .

The thermal head 11 is attached to a heat dissipation plate 13 that is integrally formed on the rear end surface of the holder 12, and is connected via the holder 12 to a thermal transfer reden cassette (hereinafter simply referred to as a transfer material cassette). written as cassette)1
4 is installed, and the thermal head 11 and platen 10
A thermal transfer gun 15 as a transfer material is interposed between the two.

Further, a paper feed row 216 is provided diagonally below the silatin 10, and is configured to sequentially take out the sheets P on the transfer material stored in the 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 transported toward the platen 10 and wound around the platen 10 by pressing rollers 19 and 20. It will be hung and sent accurately.

On the other hand, is thermal head 1 a thermal transfer material?
The paper P is pressed against the platen 10 via the pin 15.
As shown in FIG. 4, the ink 21 as a colorant on the thermal transfer ribbon 15 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.

21b, 21c or yellow as indicated by range mouth;
Magenta, cyan, and black ink sections 21a, 21b, 2
1c and 21d are arranged side by side, and after transferring one color at a time, the paper P is returned to its original position and accurately overlapped one after another.

A thermal transfer ribbon containing a black ink portion 21d is used when it is desired to produce a clear black color, and even a ribbon without a black ink portion 21d can produce a nearly black color 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 this time is the first one that is sequentially arranged along the lower surface of the paper output tray 22. It will be guided over the second guide 23,24.

That is, the explanation will be made with reference to FIG. 6 0) 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 bracket 0 [6th
See figure (a)].

Next, the platen 10 is rotated using an unillustrated printer as a driving source to transport the paper P at a predetermined speed, and a heating element of a thermal head II formed in a line tread shape along the axial direction of the platen 10 is rotated. (not shown) generates heat according to the image information, and the ink 2 of the thermal transfer resin 15
is transferred onto the paper P.

Furthermore, the leading edge of the paper P that has passed through the 10 parts of Silaten is placed in the second
The paper is sent by the sorting guide 26 onto the first guide 23 provided on the underside of the paper output tray 22 (see Fig. 6).
(See 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 first distribution guide 25 is rotated and displaced.
The second guide 2 provided along the lower surface of the guide 23 of
4 (see FIG. 6(c))." By reciprocating the paper P a plurality of times in this manner, a plurality of 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 a pair of paper discharge rollers 27 and discharged onto the paper discharge tray 22 (see FIG. 6).

The image forming apparatus also includes an original scanning section 4 as shown in FIG.
Two-color conversion section 28. The configuration includes a memory section 292, an image forming section 5, and an overall control section 30.

Then, the green (G) detected by the original scanning unit 4
], yellow (Y), and cyan (C), the color conversion unit 28 converts the color magenta (
M), yellow [Y], and cyan (C), and the color-converted values are stored in the memory unit 29 for each color together with position information on the document. Image forming section 5
Now, based on the value read from the memory section 29, magenta (
M), yellow (Y), cyan (C), black [B] [Black is magenta (M).

AND output of yellow (Y) and cyan (C)] is transferred onto the paper P.The overall control section 30 controls the document scanning section 49, color conversion section 28, memory section 29, and image forming section 5. It is designed to control the whole thing.

In addition, a pair of paper ejection rollers 27. Paper ejection tray 22° 1st. Second
The guides 23, 24 are unitized, and this unit can be removed if necessary.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the ribbon cassette 14 has two parallel cassettes around which both ends of the thermal transfer cartridge 15 are wound.
It has book cores 31 and 32, and the middle part of the thermal transfer reden 15 is connected to the silane 10 and the thermal head 11.
In case 3, a part of it is exposed to be interposed between the
It has a structure that is encapsulated by 3.

A slit 34 is formed between the core accommodating portions s3m and 33b of the case 33, and is slit in the axial direction of the core 31, 32 and is open at one end.
The driving force receiving end portions 31h, 3 of the winding core 31.32 are located on the open end side of the winding core 31.
The structure is such that 2m is provided.

Furthermore, the above? The case 33 of the hook set 14 is attached to the thermal transfer reden 1 as shown in FIGS. 8, 10 and 11.
A heat sink 13 integrally formed on the rear end surface of the holder 12 between the back surface of the exposed portion of the heat sink 5 and the case 33, and a thermal head 11f attached to the heat sink 13: A space for accommodating the thermal head 11f is formed. The cross section is shaped like a box.

The width dimension tR (see FIG. 10) of the thermal transfer IJ, lrn 15 is larger than the maximum winding diameter t8 (see FIG. 8) by the winding core 31, 32, and the width of the slit 34 formed in the case 33 is Depth 1B (see Figure 11) is the thermal transfer IJ,
More than half of the width dimension tR of l''n 15, that is, tB>
-i: Set to tR.

As described above, if the total length of the Reden cassette 14aF1 case 33 is tc, it consists of a range 1A where the upper and lower parts are connected and a range tB which is divided into two by the slit 34 into upper and lower parts. Further, the width dimension δC of the slit 34 is set to be slightly wider than the thickness dimension δ□ of the holder 2, and the cutting depth tB of the slit 34 is set to be slightly wider than the thickness dimension δ□ of the holder 2.
The width dimension L8 is set to be approximately the same as the width dimension L8.

However, when installing the reden cassette 14, the holder 2
The opening end face of the slit 34 is made to face the end face of the slit 34. All you have to do is press the hook set 14 in its longitudinal direction (the axial direction of the Silaten) to engage the holder 2 and the slit 34 as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, and when removing it, pull it in the opposite direction. All you have to do is pull it out.

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 an engaging recess 35.35 is formed at the tip thereof as shown in FIG. .

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
What is it? When the hook set 14 is installed, the winding core 3
A winding core drive means 37 for applying a driving force to the winding core 1 is provided.

A coupling 40 driven by a motor 39 is disposed on the front surface of the frame 38 attached to one end surface of the head holder 12 .

When the reden cassette 14 is completely installed in a predetermined position, the coupling 40 engages with the engagement recess 35 of the winding core 31 and becomes rotatable.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 16 and 17, the width tR of the thermal transfer reden 15 as a transfer material is formed to be slightly wider than the width of the transfer paper P as a transfer material, tR>H.
Colorant non-transfer area 15a (hatched area in the figure) f having width W: is formed along the negative side edge thereof. Then, this colorant non-transfer area 15. Heat transfer h as shown in Figure 18? Information 41d for section 15.

The information recording section 44 is configured to record 42.43.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 16, a resistor group (heating element group) is provided on the thermal head 11 along the axial direction of the platen 10, and the resistor group includes an image section resistor group 45 and a signal section resistor group. It is formed by a resistor group 46. The signal portion resistor group 46 is a portion outside the portion where the thermal transfer redden 15 and the transfer paper P overlap (the portion where the image portion resistor group 45 faces). A driver cover 42 is further provided on the thermal head 11 to cover the thermal head driver IC.

In addition, the information recording section 44 of the thermal transfer IJ gun 15 is divided into two tracks, and the outer track is preliminarily coated with a colorant.
Information 41a to 41d indicating the colors No. to No. 21d are recorded.

That is, one transparent portion 48 is provided in the yellow (Y) portion, and one transparent portion 48 is provided in the magenta (M) portion.
8, two transparent parts 48 are provided in the cyan color (C) part, and transparent parts 48 are provided in four places in the black color (7d) part. These transparent portions 48 are made by not applying a coloring agent to only the transparent portions 48 when manufacturing the thermal transfer men 15, or by applying a coloring agent to the entire surface and then creating the transparent portions 48 by thermal transfer.

These transparent parts 48 are optically detected by an information detection means 51 consisting of a combination of a light emitting diode 49 and a phototransistor 50. In other words, is the amount of light from the light emitting diode 49 other than the transparent part 48 due to thermal transfer? The output of the phototransistor 50 is in an off state because it is attenuated by the coloring material of the pin 15.

In the transparent portion 48, the amount of light received by the phototransistor 50 is large, so the phototransistor 50 is turned on. If the spaces between the colorants of each color are made transparent and synchronized with the drive unit of the thermal transfer ribbon 15, the number of times the transparent portion 48 is detected within a certain period of time after detecting the transparent portion between the colorants is counted.
You can see the color of the colorant in that area. For example, when the transparent portion 48 is counted twice, the color of the colorant is magenta (CM). In this way, a set of light emitting diodes 49. The color of the colorant can be accurately detected by the phototransistor 50.

The thermal transfer rehan 15 is normally conveyed in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 17, but may be conveyed in the opposite direction. Even in this case, by counting the number of times the transparent portion 48 is detected within a certain period of time after detecting the transparent portion between each coloring agent, the color of the coloring agent in that portion can be known.

Next, information 4 in the inner track of the information recording section 44
2.43 will be explained. In the inner track, used information 42 consists of a transparent part 52 indicating that ink has been used.
Near-end information 43 consisting of a transparent portion 53 indicating near end of the ribbon is recorded. If a coloring agent of a certain color, for example, a coloring agent in a yellow (Y) portion of the thermal transfer ribbon 15, is transferred to the transfer paper P by the heat of the thermal head 11, the thermal head will move at a certain position in the yellow (Y) portion. As shown in FIG. 17, the ink is transferred to the colorant transfer area 54 of the platen 10 by heating the signal resistor group 46 of 11, and the ink area 5 is transferred to the colorant transfer area 54 as shown in FIG.
5 is formed. As a result, a transparent portion 52 is formed, indicating that this transparent portion 52 has been used. This transparent part 52 is connected to a light emitting diode 56 and a phototransistor 5 provided on the winding part side of the thermal transfer ribbon 15.
The information is optically detected by an information detection means 58 consisting of 7 combinations. The detection method is the same as the color detection described above, and it is possible to detect whether or not the colorant part is used depending on whether the transparent part 52 is present or not. At this time, if the area of the transparent part 52 is made small, there is no problem even if a large number of colorants are transferred to the colorant-transferred part 54. Further, only the colorant transfer receiving portion 54 may be made replaceable.

Also, is the transparent portion 53 forming the near-end information 43 thermally transferred? Information 41 indicating the above-mentioned color when manufacturing the bottle 15
It is formed in the same manner as in the case of forming the transparent parts 48 .

In addition, the positioning of each color of the thermal transfer resin 15 is necessary when the power switch (not shown) is turned on, and the cover (not shown) is opened for inspection etc. (the cover switch (not shown) is turned off), and the cover is closed after the inspection. When it closes (
(cover switch on) is also required. At this time, the core drive device 37 is driven to perform thermal transfer. 15f, move it. At this time, in Fig. 17, the thermal head rad 11
is separated from the platen 10 by means such as a solenoid or motor, and the thermal transfer H? This makes it easier for Men 5 to move around.

In response to the movement of the thermal transfer ribbon 15, an information detection means 51 consisting of a combination of a light emitting diode 49° and a phototransistor 50, and a light emitting diode 56. Thermal transfer is performed by the information detection means 58 consisting of a combination of phototransistors 57? Transparent parts 48..., 52... on the tube 15
By detecting 53, the color information 41a to 41d of the colorant is obtained.
One-color agent used information 42 and near-end information 43 can be detected.

However, is it possible to perform thermal transfer based on these information signals?
The feed control of the ribbon 15 can be performed automatically and reliably, and there is no need to waste money due to empty feeding of the thermal transfer ribbon 15 due to manual confirmation as in the past. It is possible to prevent the printing operation from being interrupted due to the cylinder 15 being lost in the cylinder, and the image forming operation can be carried out reliably and efficiently.

In the above embodiment, thermal transfer IJ, l? N1
Although the color information 41a to 4Jd of No. 5, colorant used information 42, and near-end information 43 are recorded in separate tracks in the information recording section 44, the present invention is not limited to this. It may be provided above.

Further, although the paper feed cassette 17 is attached and detached 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. It may also be applied to, and it does not have to be 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 addition, the other embodiments described above (Figures U'9 and 20)
In the description, parts that are the same as those in the previous embodiment are given the same reference numerals, and detailed description will be omitted.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, in an image forming apparatus that forms an image by transferring a colorant of a transfer material to a transfer material, the width of the transfer material is made larger than the width of the transfer material, The colorant non-transfer area is used as an information recording section for recording information on the transfer material, and an information detecting means is provided for detecting information recorded on this information recording section. Therefore, it is possible to reliably obtain certain information such as the position in a transfer material such as a thermal transfer material, the color of the colorant, whether the colorant is used or not, and whether the transfer material is nearing completion. This brings about the effect that image formation can be performed reliably and efficiently while preventing waste of transfer materials, interruption of work, etc.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 18 show an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an image forming unit, FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway schematic perspective view, and FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway schematic perspective view. 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.
Figure 9 is a longitudinal front view of the beam cassette, Figures 10 and 11 are schematic perspective views of the beam cassette, and Figures 12 and 13 are perspective views showing the installed state of the beam bin cassette. 14 is a front view of the driving force receiving end of the winding core, FIG. 15 is a schematic perspective view of the cassette mounting section, and FIG. 16 is an image forming apparatus of different forms that can be used excluding the area around the platen. FIG. P... Transferred material (transfer paper), 11... Thermal head, 15... Transfer material (thermal transfer material), 15h... Colorant non-transfer area, 21... Colorant (ink), 41h~41
d, 42.43...information, 44...information recording section,
51.54... Information detection means. Figure 4 Figure 5 A1 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 81!1 Figure 10 Figure 16 Figure 17 Figure 18

Claims (8)

[Claims] (1) In an image forming apparatus that forms an image by transferring a colorant of a transfer material to a transfer material, the width of the transfer material is made larger than the width of the transfer material, and the colorant non-transfer area is transferred. An image forming apparatus comprising: an information recording section for recording information on a material; and an information detecting means for detecting information recorded on the information recording section. (2) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer material is a thermal transfer material and the information is recorded on the information recording portion via a thermal head. (3) The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the width of the heat generating portion of the thermal head is set to be smaller than the width of the transfer material, and is equal to or smaller than the width of the transfer material. (4) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the information recorded on the information recording portion is recorded at the beginning of each coloring material application area. (5) Claim 1, characterized in that the information recorded on the information recording section indicates whether the transfer material has been used.
The image forming apparatus according to item 1 or 4. (6) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 4, wherein the information recorded on the information recording section indicates the color of the colorant of the transfer material. (7) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 4, wherein the information recorded on the information recording section indicates the end of the transfer material. (8) Claims characterized in that when the power switch or cover switch of the apparatus is turned on, the transfer material is transported until the information recorded in the information recording section is detected by the information detection means. @The image forming apparatus described in item 1.