JPS6052366A - Flat plate type thermal head and printing method therewith - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the abrasion of heating elements, lengthen the life of a flat plate type thermal head, and permit printing on small-size thin papers by a method in which heating elements are set in uniformly arranged line and rows on the surface of a flat substrate, and the ends of the common lines and common rows are connected to the output terminal of IC for driving in a proportion of 1:1. CONSTITUTION:Heating elements 3 are set on the surface of a flat substrate 2 in a uniformly distributed manner with respect to density. Each of the elements 3 is connected in line unit in the direction of line by a common line 4, and their ends are connected to the output terminal of IC6 for driving in a proportion of 1:1. Even for the common row 5, connection is made in row unit in the direction of the rows, and their ends are connected to the output terminal of IC7 for driving in a proportion of 1:1. A flat plate type thermal head 1 is contacted with the printing area of a paper to be printed, common lines 4 connected to IC6 for driving are orderly driven from the first line, all of common rows crossing the lines 4 is scanned at one time by IC7, and heating elements at crossing points with the common rows driven among one line are heated to form necessary dots.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a thermal head in which a large number of heating elements for forming dots are arranged on one plane, and a printing method using the same.

Conventional thermal heads are line-shaped with multiple dot-forming heating elements arranged in a row, and printing is performed when thermal paper passes over the head, which is fixed at a fixed position. .

Although such a line-type head has a simple structure and requires only a small number of heating elements, the heat-sensitive paper rubs against the heating elements during printing, resulting in severe wear of the elements. In addition, in order to form clear dots one after another as the thermal paper moves, it is necessary to reduce the thermal inertia of the heating element and the entire head. However, with a line type head, each heating element is used frequently, so is easy to accumulate.

Furthermore, since the dots are formed by the instantaneous heat generation during the passage of the thermal paper, printing tends to be incomplete.

And, although the printing form is continuous thermal paper,
It is extremely unsuitable for use with small paperboards such as relatively small labels, price tags, or tags.

The present invention solves these difficulties. The explanation will be given below based on the figures.

In FIG. 1, a flat thermal head 1 has a substrate 2 with a flat surface, a heating element 8, a common row line 4 and a common column 1115 connecting these to a matrix, and each commonality #j.
! 4 and a drive mechanism 07 for each common column line 5. Note that the symbol 8.9 is an input terminal for the drive 106.7.

The substrate 2 must be a glass plate, a ceramic plate, or the like, and must be sufficiently polished to have an almost completely flat surface. As in the illustrated embodiment, the substrate 2 may have a multi-layer structure in which a common row line or a common column line is interposed between several layers.

The heating element 8 is constructed by fixing a resistance layer on the surface of the substrate, and connecting the common row line and the common column line to both ends, respectively. Further, the element 8 can also be formed by a combination of metal vapor deposition, sputtering, printing, etc. and etching in the same manner as in step 0.

The distribution of the heating elements 8 on the surface of the substrate 2 is “row” (
It is common to have a grid pattern with rows (horizontal) and r columns (vertically), but also checkerboard patterns with every other row and column, or rows and columns. It is conceivable that there will be every other unit.

In any case, the distribution of the heating elements δ is assumed to be uniform with no difference in density on the plane.

The common row line 4 and the common column line 5 have already been described, but the common row line 4 connects the aligned heating elements 8 in the row direction and on a row-by-row basis, and the end thereof is connected to the drive 10.
It is connected to the output terminal of 6 at a ratio of 1:1. Similarly, the common column line 1 is one in which each of the heating elements 8 is connected in the column direction and in units of columns, and its end is connected to the output terminal of the drive IC 7 at a 1:1 line.
connected with.

However, for - heating elements, the connection points of both wires 4.6 are located at different positions (usually opposing positions).

It is not impossible to form the wiring for the common row line 1 and the common column line 5 on the substrate 2 together with the heating element 8, but considering that the wiring space is small and the mutual thermal influence with the heating element is taken into consideration. Very difficult to design and manufacture. This difficulty becomes particularly noticeable when the distribution of the elements 8 is arranged in a lattice pattern, but when the substrate 2 is made into a multilayer structure as described above and wiring is made between them,
Alternatively, the problem can be solved by forming a through hole 10 in the substrate 2 as shown in FIG. 2, and passing either the common row line 4 or the common column line 5 to the back surface of the substrate 2 through this hole.

Drive 06, F is the input terminal 8.9 from the printer body.
The circuit configuration is such that when a printing signal (row signal, column signal) is received through the circuit, it drives the required common row line or common column line.

Incidentally, as shown in FIG. 8, the terminal positions of the commonality 114 or the common column line 5 can be distributed to the left and right, respectively, and driving mechanisms 06' and 1 can be added to each side. In this way, it is possible to obtain various operational printing modes by changing the way the common row lines and common column lines are distributed, and by driving the distributed common row lines or common column lines simultaneously. I can do it.

In addition, a sursistor function is provided on the substrate 2 or in the heating element 8 to maintain an appropriate printing temperature, and this allows the temperature of the substrate 2 to be kept constant and the supply time of the power supplied for heat generation to be fixed. Alternatively, it is necessary to control power (voltage).

In the present invention, the flat thermal head 1 as described above employs a printing method in which predetermined heating elements 8 are driven sequentially in "rows" or "columns" sequentially. That is, after the flat thermal head 1 is brought into contact with the printing surface area (area where printing can be performed) of the base paper on which printing is to be performed, the common row line 4 connected to the drive mechanism 06 is All of the common column lines that are sequentially driven from the first row and orthogonal to each row are simultaneously scanned by the driver 07, and the common column lines that are driven (to which power is applied) in one row are connected to each other. In this method, the heating elements at the intersections are heated to form the required dots. Of course, in order to form dots in such an operation, it is necessary that the printing surface area of the base paper 6 is made of thermal paper, or that thermal transfer paper or the like is interposed between the head l and the printing surface area. .

Note that this printing method is not limited to regular paper, but due to the structure of the head 1, even when continuous paper is used, intermittent feeding is performed.

Furthermore, a heating element 8 in the head facing the printing surface area
must be equally suppressed and contacted in the area.
1. Furthermore, by using the flat thermal head l shown in FIG. 8, it is possible to perform "row" sequential or "column" sequential operation at twice the speed. The present invention is as described above, and has the following effects.

■ Since it is a flat thermal head equipped with heating elements in a matrix, it is possible to perform scanning printing in "row" sequence, and there is no relative movement between the base sheet and the rad during printing.

Therefore, the heat generating element 8 may be worn out due to friction.
There is no fault.

■ Even if a large amount of power is not applied to the heating element in a short period of time to raise the temperature to a high temperature, the paper will feel the heat sufficiently because the contact time with the paper is long. Therefore, no force (electrical) is placed on the element. Furthermore, compared to a line type head, the number of drives per element decreases in inverse proportion to the number of rows, so it is not unreasonable from this point of view as well. These extend the life of the head.

■ Since the flat thermal head prints in a badge type manner, it is particularly suitable for printing on small-sized sheets of paper, such as labels, price tags, and tags.

As mentioned above, the printing operation is of the scanning type, so the printing speed is high, as it is possible to print over blank areas without printing.

■ If the contact time between the paper and the head is arbitrarily selected, incomplete printing due to insufficient heating time will not occur. On the other hand, it is also possible to create unique effects in printing by impregnating dots by overheating.

(2) Since the head itself has a flat plate shape, the surface area is large, and heat dissipation is good during operation, which is convenient for controlling the temperature of the heating element 8.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a flat thermal head. FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged perspective view. FIG. 8 is a perspective view of another embodiment. 1: Flat thermal head 2: Substrate 8: Heat generating element 4 : Common row line ri = common column line 6, F: Drive line 0 8.9: Input terminal

Claims (8)

[Claims] (1) Heat generating elements for forming dots are uniformly fixed on the surface of a flat substrate in rows and columns, and one end of each heat generating element is connected by a common row line for each row. In addition, other terminals are connected with common column lines for each "column" to form a matrix.
The end of each common row line and the end of each common column line are respectively connected to the output ends of two or more circuits including 0 groups of drive circuits disposed on the substrate in a 1=1 manner, and the two or more A flat thermal head characterized by having the input terminals of the circuit fixedly mounted on the circuit board. (2) A patent claim characterized in that the distribution of the heating elements in each "row" and each "column" is every other, and when viewed from the entire board, the distribution of the heating elements is a uniform checkerboard pattern. A flat thermal head described in Range 1. (3) The substrate has a multilayer structure, and the heating elements are formed in multiple layers on the surface of the substrate so that at least one of the common row lines or common column lines is located between the laminates forming the multilayer. 3. A planar thermal head according to claim 1, characterized in that: (4) The flat plate type thermal head according to claim 1, wherein the common row line or the common column line is formed on the back surface of the substrate via a through hole. (5) Claims 1 to 8 or 4, characterized in that the heating elements and/or the common row lines and the common column lines are formed by vapor deposition, sputtering, or printing. flat plate thermal head 0 (6) "Rows" and "columns" for the printed area of paperboard
Printing using a flat thermal head that prints by aligning heating elements that are aligned evenly and facing each other, and then driving the specified heating elements to generate heat in "row" sequential or "column" sequential according to the print signal. Method. (7) The printing method according to claim 6, wherein the printing surface area of the paperboard is thermal paper. (8) The printing method according to claim 6, characterized in that during the printing operation, thermal transfer paper is interposed in the printing surface area of the board.