JPS608081A - End surface type thermal head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the titled thermal head capable of being miniaturized and manufactured at a low cost, by a method wherein the heating element is provided on the end surface of the heating element substrate of plate state, and the heating element substrate is, in an united body, arranged by making it by the base plate and sandwiching it via an elastic member between the base plate and the attaching measures. CONSTITUTION:By forming the heating element 9a in a line state on the end surface of heating element substrate 9 and attaching the attaching measures 11 to the base plate 10 with an attaching screw 20, the heating element substrate 9 is sandwiched via the base plate 10, attaching measures 11 and elastic member 18 and held under pressure between them. The end surface of heating element substrate 9 is extruded by an amount of (h). The attaching measures 11 cover the heat driving semicoductor element by providing an escape of concave state 11a to the heating element driving conductor part, and by injectin heat conductive compound materials thereinto, the attaching measures mechnically protect the heating element driving semiconductor element to become the heat dissipating plate, too.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Use The thermosensitive recording method is easy to maintain and is therefore used as printers for many terminals including facsimile machines.

Furthermore, in recent years, two thermal transfer methods have been developed, making it possible to perform multicolor or full-color recording, and opening the door to new recording equipment. The present invention relates to a thermal head used in this heat-sensitive recording method.

Conventional configuration and its problems A conventional thermal head will be explained below.

Figure 1 shows a thermal transfer recording device using a conventional thermal head, where 1 is an image receiving paper, 1b is a transfer paper, and 2 is a thermal transfer recording device using a thermal head.
3 is a paper feed roller, and 3 is a thermal head.The thermal head 3 has a heating element row 3b formed on one of the two main planes of the heating element substrate 3a. I'll call it Rad.

In FIG. 1, the transfer paper 1b and the receiver paper 1 are moved by the paper feed roller 2.
When the heating element array 3b is heated in accordance with the image signal while being brought into pressure contact with the heating element array 3b of the thermal head 3 and being fed in the direction of the arrow, recording can be performed on the image receiving paper 1a. If a direct coloring type thermal recording paper is used instead of the image receiving paper 1a and the transfer paper 1b, normal direct thermal recording can be obtained. In such a 3-page method, the thermal head 3 has a semiconductor element connected to each heating element or a common electrode part of the heating element on the side where the heating element 3b is formed to facilitate heating of the heating element 3b. An electrode protection cover 4a and a semiconductor protection cover 4b were respectively provided to mechanically protect the lead wires. Receiving paper 1a, transfer paper 1b or d: The paper feed roller 2 must be prevented from contacting anything other than the heating element 3b, which increases the size of the heating element substrate 3a, increasing the size of the thermal head and increasing costs. There was a problem.

In FIG. 2, the thermal head 5 is constructed by forming a heating element 5b on the top of a semicylindrical heating element substrate 5a. The heating element substrate 5a was attached to the base 5c, and was provided in the vertical direction of the apparatus. Hereinafter, the head having the configuration shown in FIG. 2 will be referred to as an end-face type thermal head.

As can be seen from a comparison between FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, it is possible to configure the apparatus so that the recorded state can be viewed somewhat more quickly in FIG. 2. In the case of thermal recording, it is necessary to uniformly contact the heating element 5a, the image receiving paper 1a, and the transfer paper 1b in the main scanning direction (the direction in which the heating elements 5a are arranged), and it is necessary to improve the processing accuracy with the semicylindrical portion. The cost was going up.

Furthermore, it is difficult to form a high-density pattern on a semicylindrical surface, and there are problems in increasing the density, and attempts to increase the density increase costs. Furthermore, it is necessary to increase the thickness t of the heating element substrate 5a or the base 5C from the viewpoint of mechanical strength, which causes an increase in cost.

There is also a rod-shaped heating element substrate 5a, but this is also the second type.
A semicylindrical heating element board 51 that had the same problem as shown in the figure.
The same applies to L, but since the electrodes are formed on a curved surface, it is difficult to connect the electrodes to the curved surface, which increases the cost of the thermal head.

By the way, when performing color recording using thermal recording, the recording section can be configured to reduce color shift of multicolor transfer dots by a method as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 3, the image receiving paper 1a is wound and fixed around a rotating drum 2', and in this state, the pages of the image receiving paper 1a5 are pressed against the heating element row 5b of the thermal head 5 via the transfer paper 1b, and are rotated. As the drum 2' rotates, the image receiving paper 1b
Send in the direction of the arrow. For example, cyan, yellow, magenta, and black transfer layers (not shown) are applied onto the image-receiving paper 1b, with a unit length approximately equal to the outer circumference of the rotating drum 2. Therefore, color recording can be obtained by transferring each color of cyan, yellow, magenta, and black (heating the heating element according to the image signal) every rotation of the rotary drum 2'. In this case, the overlapping position of each color is
It is adjusted by the rotational position of the rotating drum 2'. Even if the planar head shown in FIG. 1 is used, it is possible to construct a recording section as shown in FIG. 3. However, in this case, the length of the outer circumference of the rotating drum 2' must be at least longer than the short side of the recording screen, and as a matter of course, the length of the outer circumference of the rotating drum 2' must be longer than the short side of the recording screen, and as a matter of course, the length of the outer circumference of the rotating drum 2' must be longer than the short side of the recording screen. Drum 2' becomes larger. Therefore, the electrode protection cover 41 of the thermal head 3. In order to prevent the rotating drum 2' from coming into contact with the semiconductor protection cover 4b, it is necessary to increase the size of the heating element substrate 3a by a considerable amount of 6 pages, which increases the size of the thermal head and significantly increases the price.

From such a simple comparison, the usefulness of the edge type thermal head in the thermal recording system is clear. However, in the thermal recording method, a planar thermal head is generally used. This is generally considered to be because planar heads are easier to manufacture than end face heads, and there are fewer factors that increase the price. Conventional edge-type thermal heads use semicylindrical or rod-shaped heating element substrates, and there are problems with the processing of the electrodes provided on both sides of the heating element and the method of attaching the heating element substrate to the base. This led to an increase in the size of the thermal head and an increase in price.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a small and inexpensive end-face type thermal head in which a heating element is formed on the end face of a plate-shaped substrate.

Structure of the Invention Page 7 The present invention provides a heating element substrate in which heating elements are formed in rows on the end face and image signal electrodes and a common electrode are formed on two main planes, a base, and a heating element substrate on the base. This is a thermal head equipped with a mounting means that elastically presses and clamps the heating element board, and by forming a sandwich structure between the base and the mounting means, the small plate-shaped board has mechanical strength and thermal This allows the head to be made smaller and lower in cost.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS FIG. 4 shows an example of a thermal recording apparatus using an edge type thermal head according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fourth
In the figure, 6 is a colored recording paper, 7 is a paper feed roller,
8 is a thermal head, which feeds the recording paper 6 to the paper feed roller 7.
, and while rotating the paper feed roller 7 to feed the recording paper 6 in the direction of the arrow,
Recording can be performed by generating heat according to both signals.

The end face type thermal head of the present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional perspective view of the thermal head 8. FIG.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a heating element substrate, which is composed of a ceramic plate on which heating elements 9a are formed in rows on the end face as shown by dashed lines, and a picture signal electrode is formed on one side of two main planes, and a common electrode is formed on the other side. ing. In order to improve thermal characteristics, a glass glaze layer (not shown) is provided on the end surface, and a heating element 9 is placed on top of the glass glaze layer (not shown).
It constitutes 1L. In this case, since the end face and main plane are substantially flat, it is possible to form the heating element and electrode pattern in the same process as for the flat type, and it is possible to form the heating element and electrode pattern on curved surfaces such as concave shapes and round bars. Needless to say, this is easier than forming a pattern. Further, the end face forming the heating element can be finished with good flatness by ordinary processing before glazing, and it is easy to form a curved surface with high precision at low cost. Therefore, the heating element 9a and the recording paper 6
It is possible to make uniform contact with the recording material, thereby improving the printing quality of the record.

Reference numeral 1o denotes a base, which is a main plane on which nine pages of common electrodes of the heating element substrate 9 are formed, and is in contact with the heating element substrate 9 via an insulating material such as polyimide (not shown).

The base 1o is provided with a recessed relief portion 102L as shown in FIG. 6, in which the plate-shaped common electrode lead wire 13 is provided, as shown in FIG. 12 is a P board for wiring and base 1o
It is attached to the 14 is a semiconductor element for driving a heating element, which is integrated with a film carrier and has one end connected to a heating element substrate e.
It is connected to the upper image signal electrode, and the other end is connected to the wiring P board 12. A connector 15 is connected to the wiring P board to electrically connect the device and the end face type thermal head 8. The common electrode lead wire 13 has a comb shape as shown in FIG. 7, and has one end connected to the common electrode of the heat generating substrate 9 and the other end connected to the P board 12 for wiring. 16
is a position regulating plate for the heating element substrate 9 and wiring P board 12, which also serves as a heat dissipation plate for the heating element driving semiconductor element 14;
0 with flat head screws 17. The base 10 has a sixth base on both sides.
As shown in the figure, a convex portion 1ob is provided, and the position regulating plate 1
6 and the convex portion 10b of the base 1o, the heating element substrate 1o page 9 and the wiring P board 12 can be automatically positioned and attached in the front and rear and left and right directions, respectively.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a mounting means which presses and clamps the heating element substrate 9 to the base 10 via an elastic member 18 made of silicone rubber, and attaches the common electrode-shaped main plane of the heating element substrate via an insulating material of polyimide. It is configured so that it follows. At this time, the end surface of the heat generating substrate 9 is made to protrude by an amount h as shown in FIG. The protrusion of the convex portion 10b of the base 1o is made slightly smaller than the sum of the thickness of the heating element substrate 9 and the thickness of the elastic member 18, and the attachment means 11 can be attached to the base 10 with the attachment screws 20. As a result, the heating element substrate 9 is automatically sandwiched and pressed between the base 1o, the mounting means 11, and the elastic member 18.

Reference numeral 19 denotes an elastic member made of silicone rubber, and the heating element substrate 9
Similarly, the wiring P board 12 is configured to be elastically held between the base 10 and the mounting means 11. Mounting means 1
1r/'i Heating element driving semiconductor part 11 A recessed relief part 11a is provided on the page to cover the heating element driving semiconductor element, and a thermally conductive compound material (
(not shown) is injected to mechanically protect the semiconductor element for driving the heating element and also serves as a heat sink. The additional issue means 11 is configured to have slightly lower rigidity than the base 1o so that the base 9 is less susceptible to deflection in the longitudinal direction when pressed and clamped. This is because when the base 9 bends, the heating element board also bends together with the base 9, and the paper feed roller γ
Or the recording paper 6 and the heating element 91! This is because the contact state with L differs in the main scanning direction and causes uneven printing, and this is to prevent this.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the electrodes and the heating element can be easily formed on the end face and main plane of the plate-shaped heating element substrate in the same manner as in the conventional planar thermal head, thereby reducing the size of the heating element substrate. By adopting a sand inch configuration, sufficient mechanical strength can be provided. Furthermore, the semiconductor element for driving the heat generating element and the protective cover for the common lead can also be constructed integrally, making it possible to reduce the size and cost of the thermal head.

In this embodiment, the heating element substrate 9 and the base 1o are not bonded to each other, but it goes without saying that adhesive means such as elastic double-sided tape or the like may be provided with insulation properties. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the convex portions 10& are integrally formed on both sides of the base 1o, but the convex portions 10& may be constituted by separate members.
On the contrary, it goes without saying that the position regulating plate 16 may be constructed integrally with the base 10.

Effects of the Invention The end-face type thermal head of the present invention includes a heating element provided on the end face of a plate-shaped heating element substrate, the heating element substrate being placed along the base, and an elastic member interposed between the base and the mounting means. By integrally providing the end face type thermal head in a sandwiched manner, it is possible to reduce the size and cost of the end face type thermal head, and the practical effects thereof are significant.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 shows a thermal transfer device using a conventional planar thermal head, Fig. 2 shows a thermal transfer device using a conventional edge-type thermal head, Page 13, Fig. 3 d: Conventional edge surface FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a direct thermal recording device using the edge-type thermal head of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the edge-type thermal head of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the base, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the common electrode lead wire. 9...Heating element board, 9a...Heating element,
10...Base, 11...Mounting means, 1
8...Elastic member. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person -@
Satoshi Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] A plate-shaped heating element substrate formed by forming a plurality of heating elements in a row on the end face and extending a picture signal electrode on one of two main planes and a common electrode on the other side, and the heating element substrate. a base that is attached to the common electrode surface of the base via an insulating member;
At least a portion of the image signal electrode surface of the heat generating body substrate is made of an insulating elastic material so that the end face on which the heat generating body is formed protrudes from the base, and the common electrode forming surface of the heat generating body substrate is aligned with the base. An end-face type thermal head comprising: mounting means for clamping and holding the heating element substrate to the base via a member.