JPS61182962A - Thermal transfer recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To contrive higher printing quality, by a construction wherein heating resistors are constituted of horizontal resistor elements and vertical resistor elements, which are provided independently from each other. CONSTITUTION:The heating resistors 5 are constituted of linear horizontal resistor elements 5A extended in the moving direction of a printing head (direction of arrows A-A') and linear vertical resistor elements 5B located on the front end side of the elements 5A and extended in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the head, the elements 5A, 5B being provided independently from each other. Individual lead wires 6 and a common lead wire 7 are connected to the elements 5A, 5B. When electric currents are supplied, the temperature of the entire body of the elements 5A, 5B is uniformly raised, so that unsatisfactory transfer of an ink to a paper is obviated, and dots are printed clearly.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Technical Field] The present invention relates to the structure of a thermal transfer recording device, and more particularly to a contact type thermal transfer recording device that performs all dot printing by sequentially transferring ink on an ink ribbon to paper. .

[Prior art]

A type of recording device that thermally transfers ink via an ink IJ gun, such as a thermal transfer printer, prints the ink on the ink ribbon by energizing multiple heating resistors mounted on the print head in accordance with the print/zeta 7 signal. The structure is such that ink is transferred to paper to perform dot printing. Further, the paper surface (recording surface of paper) is not a completely smooth surface, but when viewed under magnification, there are considerable unevenness, although there are varying degrees of degree.

Incidentally, in a conventional recording apparatus of this type, a print head is formed as shown in FIG.

That is, a plurality of (8 in the illustrated example) top heat resistors 2 are arranged in a vertical row on the surface of a ceramic substrate 1, and each of these heat generating resistors 2 is connected to an individual lead wire 3 and a common lead. By connecting the wires 4 and supplying current through these lead wires according to print/turn signals, a desired heating resistor 2 is driven.

Each heating resistor 2 is formed in a layered manner on the surface of the ceramic substrate 10 together with the lead wire 3.4, and is formed into a rectangular shape as shown in the figure.

However, in such a conventional structure, the temperature of the heating resistor 2 does not rise evenly during energization, and there is a tendency for heat to be generated from the center toward the periphery. There was a problem in that the ink in the peripheral area was not sufficiently transferred and the print became unclear.

Therefore, various proposals have been made to uniformly raise the temperature of the heat generating resistor during energization. For example, there is a structure in which the photothermal resistor is formed into a "mouth" shape, but when such a heat generating resistor is used in a contact type thermal transfer recording device, the ink does not adhere well to the paper. However, there was a drawback that the quality of dot printing deteriorated.

〔the purpose〕

An object of the present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal transfer recording device that can improve print quality.

[bite]

The present invention uses a heating resistor as a linear horizontal resistor element extending in the direction of movement of the print head and a linear longitudinal resistor element extending in the direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the printing head. The object of the present invention is to achieve the above object by adopting a structure in which the transverse resistor elements and the longitudinal resistor elements are formed independently.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of a print head of a thermal transfer recording device according to the present invention. This print head has a plurality of heating resistors 5 arranged on the printing pressure contact surface of a ceramic substrate 1, and each heating resistor 5 has an individual lead. The basic structure is the same as that in FIG. 1 in terms of connecting the wire 6 and the common lead wire 7, but a new structure is adopted for the shape of each heating resistor 5. That is,
As shown in FIG. 3, the photothermal resistor 5 includes a linear lateral resistor element 5A extending in the print head movement direction (arrow AA' direction), and a linear lateral resistor element 5A formed to extend in the print head movement direction (arrow AA' direction). It is composed of a linear longitudinal resistor element 5B located on the front end side and formed to extend in a direction perpendicular to the print head movement direction, and these horizontal resistor elements 5A and longitudinal resistor elements 5B.
are structures that are formed separately and independently. The configuration is such that individual leads II6 and a common lead wire 7 are connected to these horizontal resistor elements 5A and vertical resistor elements 5B.

Therefore, when dot printing is performed using a structure such as 5 or more, the print head is first swung in a predetermined direction to press against the paper, and then the heating resistor 5 is energized to transfer ink to the paper. However, the lateral resistor element 5 of the photothermal resistor 5
Since the longitudinal resistor elements A and 5B are each formed in a linear shape, when energized, the transverse resistor element 5A and the longitudinal resistor element 5
B heats and rises uniformly over the entire surface, so there is no possibility that the ink will not be sufficiently transferred to the paper and the dot printing will not become unclear.

Also, the lateral resistor element 5A,! In the method of heating the resistor element 5B, for example, after heating the horizontal resistor element 5A indicated by ■ and ■ in FIG. 3 and the longitudinal resistor element 5B indicated by ■ at the same time, If the current is turned off and the current is turned on to this vertical resistor element 5B after a certain period of time,
The ink in the portion surrounded by the horizontal resistor elements s A and the vertical resistor elements 5B of (1), (2), and (2) is transferred to the slave layer in almost the same shape as it is to the paper, and the printing quality can be improved. Furthermore, in the present invention, the lateral resistor elements 5A, w
By arbitrarily changing the energization time to the antibody element 5B, it can be made to correspond to the size of the depressions (craters) on the paper, and the printing quality can be improved. Also,
For example, if fL is to print thick lines in dots, it is only necessary to energize the horizontal resistor element 5A and the vertical resistor element 5B in Figure 3.
Since it is not necessary to energize A, it is possible to save energy by that much.

Although the above-described embodiment shows a structure in which the longitudinal resistor element 5B is disposed on the front end side of the lateral resistor element 5A, the structure is not limited to this, and the longitudinal resistor element 5
B is the intermediate part of the lateral resistor element 5A + 11 (see Fig. 4 N
Of course, it is also possible to have a structure in which the force (), or the force (force) is disposed at the end position (see FIG. 5, II).

〔effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a predetermined ink is uniformly transferred onto paper, and it is possible to provide a thermal transfer recording table [it] that can improve printing quality.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the main part structure of a conventional i:I)-shaped head, FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating the main part structure of a print head of a thermal transfer recording device according to the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged front view, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are partially enlarged front views showing other embodiments of the print head. 5...Heating resistor, 5A...Horizontal resistor element, 5B...
...Longitudinal resistor element. Agent: Yasushi Oto, Patent Attorney Figure 1Φ Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a thermal transfer recording device that has a plurality of heat generating resistors on the pressure contact surface of the print head and transfers ink on an ink ribbon to paper by driving the heat generating resistors, the heat generating resistors are moved in the print head movement direction. The structure consists of a linear horizontal resistor element formed to extend in the direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the print head, and a linear longitudinal resistor element formed to extend in the direction perpendicular to the print head movement direction. A thermal transfer recording device characterized in that elements are formed independently.