JPS61144377A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make feasible to control the angle of separating an ink ribbon from a recording paper following the thermal transfer priting cycle by regulating the distance between an ink ribbon separating guide sliding along a slit in a thermal printing head carrier, and a thermal printing head. CONSTITUTION:Loosening a setscrew 18 renders practical to properly slide an ink ribbon separating guide 13 along a slit 14 provided in a thermal printing head carrier 12, starting from the set position of a thermal printing head 11, wherein the ink ribbon separating guide is allowed only to turn in direction C given by a arrow in which said guide rotates with the aid of a bearing 15, wherein thermal transfer printing is effected while subsequently separating an ink ribbon 21 from a recording paper 22 in a manner as if the ink ribbon is frictionally caught by said guide after fed out from an unwinding roll 24, and further wherein the thermal printing head starts travelling in the H-direction given by an arrow to return to an initiation part B of the printing paper when said printing head completes one cycle of thermal transfer printing in one line, whereby quality thermal transfer printing is assured possible with the angle of separating the ink ribbon controlled optimally according to the kind of ink ribbon.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to improvement of a thermal transfer printer, and in particular, to improve thermal transfer printers, and in particular to reduce the amount of tension between the ink ribbon and recording paper when the ink ribbon and recording paper are separated after transfer. This invention relates to a thermal transfer printer whose peeling angle can be adjusted.

A heat-melting ink made of a dye and a low-melting point material is applied to a stone wall-like void constructed from a filler such as carbon black on a base material such as a polyester film via an intermediate adhesive layer such as a polyester resin. A filled ink layer is provided to form an ink sheet. Thermal transfer recording in which a predetermined heating element presses a selectively heated thermal print head based on the information printed on the ink sheet, selectively heats the ink sheet, and transfers and records the ink melted by heating onto the recording paper. This method has recently come to be used in offices and other places that require a quiet environment as a non-impact printer that does not generate any noise when recording and is quiet when printing.

[Conventional technology]

The main parts of a conventional thermal transfer printer will be explained with reference to a plan view of the main parts in FIG. 4 and a perspective view of FIG. 5, which is an enlarged view of the main parts in FIG.

As shown in the figure, an ink ribbon 4 is placed on a recording paper 2 wound around a platen 1. The ink ribbon 4 is pressed by the thermal print head 6 installed on the inner rear 5 of the head, and while the thermal print head 6 is moved in the direction of arrow A, a heating element (not shown) is attached based on the print information. Printing is performed by selectively heating the paper.

The operation of recording a print on the recording paper 2 using such a thermal transfer printer will be described. First, the thermal print head 6 is installed at one end B of the recording paper 2, moves in the direction of arrow A while pressing the ink ribbon 4, and depending on the print information, a large number of heating elements (not shown) forming the thermal print head 6 are installed. ) is selectively heated, and this heating element melts the heat-melting ink on the ink ribbon 4 to transfer and record printed dots onto the recording paper 2.

After the transfer, the ink ribbon 4 is transferred from the recording paper 2.
The recording paper 2 is peeled off using peeling guides 7A and 7B installed on the head carrier 5. When one line of characters or symbols is printed on the recording paper 2, the thermal print head 6 reaches the other end C of the recording paper 2. At this point, the lid 6 for thermal printing is moved back in the direction of the arrow using a cam (not shown) or the like, and then the platen 1 is rotated in the direction of the arrow E to move the recording paper 2 by a predetermined amount.

Next, the thermal print head 6 is moved to the position of point B on the recording paper 2, and at the same time the ink ribbon 4 is peeled off by the guide 7.
Sandwiched between A and spring 9, a friction clutch (not shown)
The film is wound up using a winding roller 8 with a mark. Then, the recording operation for the next line is started.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, in this way, the ink ribbon 4 is supplied from the ink ribbon supply roller 3, the ink is transferred to the recording paper 2 by moving only the thermal print head, and the ink ribbon 4 after the transfer is peeled off from the recording paper 2 by the guide 7A, 7B was used to continuously peel it off. If the peeling angle θ of the ink ribbon 4 with respect to the recording paper 2 is not optimal, in a multi-transfer ink ribbon, peeling transfer may occur in which the filler is peeled from the ink layer onto the recording paper and transferred to the recording paper 2. It has been experimentally found that an ink ribbon that is discarded after one transfer causes a problem in that the ink in the ink layer is not transferred uniformly onto the recording paper.

Therefore, there is a need for a thermal transfer printer that can control the peeling angle of the ink ribbon and recording paper.

[Means for solving problems]

The above method involves pressing the recording paper on the platen and the ink ribbon with a thermal print head, and heating a predetermined heating element of the thermal print head to melt the heat-melting ink and transfer it onto the recording paper. The problem is solved by the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, which has a mechanism that allows the peeling angle for peeling off the recording paper and the ink ribbon after recording to be arbitrarily changed.

[Effect]

That is, in the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, a groove parallel to the moving direction of the thermal print head is provided in the head carrier in which the thermal print head is installed, and a guide for peeling off the ink ribbon that moves along this groove is provided, and the thermal transfer printer By adjusting the distance from the print head to the installation position of this guide, the peeling angle of the ink ribbon and recording paper after transfer can be adjusted.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a plan view of the main parts of the thermal transfer printer of the present invention,
FIG. 2(a) shows a plan view of the main parts of the head carrier of the printer, FIG. 3 shows a plan view of FIG. A cross-sectional view taken along the line m-m' of a) is shown.

As shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2(a), FIG. 2(b), and FIG. A groove 14 is provided as a guide that allows the head to move parallel to the moving direction of the head. Further, this peeling guide 13 is composed of a cylindrical rotating body 16 that is rotated by a bearing 15 that rotates only in one direction along the clockwise direction, and a central axis I7 of this rotating body 16 has a screw 1B is inserted. This screw 18 passes through a groove 14 provided in the head carrier 12 in which the peeling guide 13 is installed, and is inserted into the fixing plate 20 held by a guide plate 19 provided at the bottom of the head carrier 12. By moving this screw 18 upward and loosening it, the peeling guide 13 can be moved appropriately in the direction of arrow F along the groove 14.

The operation of peeling off the ink ribbon after transfer from the recording paper using such a peeling guide 13 will be explained.

First, by loosening the screw 18 of the peeling guide 13,
The peeling guide 13 is appropriately moved along the groove 14 provided in the head carrier 12 from the installation position of the thermal print head 11.

This peeling guide is moved by the arrow G by the bearing 15.
It only rotates in the direction (clockwise). The ink ribbon 21 after transfer, supplied from the supply roller 24, is caught on this peeling guide 13 by friction so that the recording paper 2
Transfer recording is performed while peeling off from 2.

When one line of transfer recording is completed, the thermal print head 11 moves in the direction of arrow H and returns to the end B of the recording paper 22. At this time, the ink ribbon 21 is fed so as to be caught by friction on the peeling guide 13 which rotates only in the direction of arrow G, and is wound up by the take-up roller 23.

In this case, an experiment was conducted using an ink ribbon capable of multi-transfer using carbon black as a filler as the ink ribbon 21.
When the peeling angle θ with 2 was 20 degrees, the filler of the ink ribbon 21 was peeled off and transferred to the recording paper, causing peeling transfer, but when the peeling angle θ was 40 degrees, peeling transfer occurred. Good multi-transfer recording was achieved without any problems.

In the above embodiments, the peeling guide is a rotating body, but it does not necessarily have to be a rotating body, and the shape may not be a cylindrical shape, but may be, for example, a triangular pyramid shape. It is sufficient to adopt a structure in which the relative distance from the position of the thermal print head can be adjusted and the peeling angle between the recording paper and the ink ribbon can be simply adjusted.

Furthermore, although a multi-transfer type ink ribbon capable of repeated transfer recording is used as the ink bomb, an ink ribbon that is discarded after one transfer may also be used.

Furthermore, it will be more convenient if the scale is attached near the groove 14 so that the peeling angle can be easily adjusted.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, the peeling angle between the recording paper and the ink ribbon after transfer can be arbitrarily adjusted, so that the optimum peeling angle can be obtained depending on the type of ink ribbon, resulting in a good This has the effect of providing a thermal transfer printer that can perform transfer recording.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the main parts of the thermal transfer printer of the present invention;
FIG. 2(a), middle of FIG. 2) is a plan view showing the main parts of the head carrier of the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, and FIG.
Fig. 4 is a plan view showing the main parts of a conventional thermal transfer printer, and Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of the main parts of Fig. 4. 11 is a thermal print head, 12 is a head carrier, 13 is a peel-off guide, 14 is a groove, 15 is a bearing, 16 is a rotating body, 17 is a central shaft, 18 is a screw, 19 is a guide plate, and 20 is a fixing plate. , 21 is the ink ribbon, 22 is the recording paper, 23 is the take-up roller, 24 is the supply roller, θ is the peeling angle, B is the edge of the recording paper, F is an arrow indicating the moving direction of the peeling guide, and G is the The arrow H indicates the direction of rotation of the peel-off guide, and the arrow H indicates the direction of movement of the thermal print head. 1f!1 2F!IJ(α) 28<b) Fig. 3 Fig. 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a thermal transfer printer that presses a recording paper on a platen and an ink ribbon with a thermal print head, and heats a predetermined heating element of the thermal print head to melt the heat-melting ink and transfer it onto the recording paper. A thermal transfer printer characterized in that it has a mechanism that allows the peeling angle for peeling off the recording paper and the ink ribbon to be arbitrarily changed after recording.