JPS61195877A - Ink ribbon printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the number of times of replacement of an ink ribbon, reduce the size of an ink ribbon cassette and also the size of a printer and contrive higher printing quality, by a method wherein printing and rewinding of a used ink part of an ink ribbon are not conducted in the final backward stroke in the number of times the ribbon can be used for printing. CONSTITUTION:A ribbon portion paid out from the payout core 12 is taken up by a take-up core 13, and in a backward printing operation, the ink part used in forward printing and taken up by the core 13 is rewound onto the core 12, followed by the next forward printing in which the ink part used in printing in the preceding line is again used. This procedure is based on the use of an ink ribbon 10 which can be used plural times for printing, and the operations are repeated a set number of times. In the final backward stroke, the printing operation is not conducted, and rewinding of the ribbon 10 onto the payout core 12 is not conducted.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an ink ribbon printer using an ink ribbon capable of printing multiple times, and particularly to a printer that prints ink on a printing medium using heat or pressure. .

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in order to reduce the number of replacements of the ink ribbon, as shown in Figure 4, the ink ribbon 1 is widened in the 8 width direction ((approximately 16 fi), and the ink surface is divided into three stages a, b, and c, and both ends of the ink ribbon 1 are The ink ribbon 1 is wound around a source core 3 and a take-up core 4, and is pressed onto a recording paper (not shown) by a print head 2 installed so as to straddle the ink ribbon 1 in the width direction. It is known that printing is performed by independently driving the corresponding heating elements 2a to 2c.However, in the above case, even when printing on a specific ink surface, the ink ribbon uses the print head to print on the entire ink surface. are pressed onto the recording paper at the same time,
There was a problem in that the ink surface other than the printed area was also rubbed by the recording paper, causing fog. Also, since the ink ribbon was wide, the ribbon base had to be thick (
The sensitivity was low, which caused problems with print quality, and as the cassette became larger, the printer itself also became larger.
There were various problems.

Furthermore, in addition to the above method, a printing method using an ink ribbon that can be printed multiple times is also disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 59-212287, but in this method, the part that has been printed - times is once rolled up completely and then When the ink is rewound and reused, there is a problem in that the so-called blocking phenomenon occurs in which the ink sets off onto the ink base, deteriorating print quality.

[Purpose of the invention]

This invention is intended to solve the above problems all at once.
Using an ink ribbon that can be printed multiple times, a certain range is repeatedly used for the number of times that can be printed, and after that number of uses, the unused ink area is fed out again, reducing the number of times the ink ribbon needs to be replaced. In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink ribbon printer that is designed to reduce the size of the ink ribbon cassette, thereby reducing the size of the printer and improving printing quality.

[Structure of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is an ink ribbon printer in which a cassette containing an ink ribbon that can be printed multiple times is mounted on a carriage and moved back and forth, and is used for printing in the past and back. The same ink part that was rewound can be used for the 9th previous printing by rewinding the ink part during the return process, and the same ink part can be used for printing and using the ink part when returning to the final printable number of ink ribbons. The structure is such that no rewinding is performed.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 3.

In the figure, 10 is an ink ribbon, and the ink ribbon 1
0 has both ends wound around a source winding core 12 and a winding core 13 which are rotatably supported at left-right symmetrical positions within the cassette body 11, and the intermediate portion is outside from a recess 14 provided at the center of the front surface of the cassette body 11. exposed to. The ink ribbon 10 is capable of printing the same portion multiple times, and its width is the width of a conventional seven-ink ribbon (usually 6.35 to 8.0 mm for 9 days or less).
Note that if the gap between the width of the ink ribbon IO and the upper and lower inner surfaces of the cassette main body 11 is too narrow, the ribbon will rub against the upper and lower surfaces of the cassette main body 11 during printing, resulting in one winding. If the ribbon is too wide, the ribbon will be blown apart during running, causing poor running, so make this gap as narrow as possible and insert a slipping sheet (not shown). is preferable, 15
The plane interposed between the source winding core 12 and the winding core 13 is approximately V.
With letter-shaped leaf springs.

The base end is fixed to a support rod 16 supported on the lower surface of the cassette main body 11, and each tip is pressed against the outer periphery of the ink ribbon 10 wound around both cores 12 and 13 to prevent the ink ribbon from loosening during running. ing.

17.17' is a concave portion 14 that exposes the ink ribbon 10.
A guide roller 18° 18' provided in the inner part of the passage window for the ink ribbon 10 provided on the outside of the ink ribbon 10 has its proximal end connected to the support pin 1.
9.19', the leaf spring 18.18
' is for applying a certain tension to the exposed portion of the ink ribbon 10.

20 is a window for detecting the end of the ink ribbon 10;
0 is provided corresponding to the ribbon passage 21 on the side surface of the cassette body 11.

22 is a carriage on which the cassette main body 11 is mounted;
The upper surface of the carriage 22 is provided with a projection 23.23' into which the front and rear recesses 14.14' of the cassette body 11 fit. 24 is a print head fitted between the ink ribbon 10 and the recess 14 where it is exposed;
The base end of the ink ribbon 10 is rotatably supported by a carriage 22, and the ink ribbon 10 is tilted by a suitable tilting means (not shown) to press the ink ribbon 10 onto recording paper (not shown) for printing. . It is fitted between the front recess 14 of the print head main body 10 and the exposed part of the ink ribbon a, and its tilting presses the ink ribbon a onto a recording paper (not shown) to print. The printing operation of this print head 24 is performed when the carriage 22 moves to the right (forward) and to the left (return).
It is now held together.

Reference numerals 25 and 26 denote a winding shaft and an unwinding shaft protruding from the upper surface of the carriage 22. They are located so as to be able to be coupled to the recessed holes 13a provided in the lower end surface of the wound core 13, respectively. 27 is a motor that drives the endless belt 28 connected to the carriage 22; 29;
is the guide shaft of Carifge 22.

30 is a rank arranged parallel to the traveling path of the carriage 22; 31
is a pinion that meshes with the rank 30 and rotates as the carriage 22 travels. The winding shaft 25 and the unwinding shaft 26 are gear-coupled to the pinion 31, and when the carriage 22 moves to the right, the winding shaft 25 rotates in the winding direction of the ink ribbon 10, while the first unwinding shaft 26 rotates freely. When the carriage 22 moves to the left, the take-up shaft 25 rotates freely, and the rewind shaft 26 can rotate the ink ribbon IO in the rewind direction. ! p, the ink ribbon 1
0 is used in the past when the carriage 22 is moving forward, and when the printing operation of the rad 24 is performed, the amount of the two parts fed out from the core 12 is wound up on the take-up core 13, and when the carriage 22 is moving backward, the part that is fed out from the core 12 is taken up by the winding core 13.
The ink portion wound on the winding core 13 is rewound onto the original winding core 12, so that the portion used during printing of the previous line is used again at the time of the first line. This is because the ink ribbon 10 is capable of printing multiple times, and the number of times the ink ribbon 10 is used is determined in advance empirically, so the above operation is repeated for the set number of times. During the final return, the printing operation is not performed and the ink ribbon 10 is not rewound onto the single-roll core 12. As a method of detecting this final time, for example, the position of the carriage 22 at the home position is detected by a detection means (not shown) such as a micro switch or a photo sensor, and a signal is generated when the carriage reciprocates and returns to the home position. is sent to a counter (not shown), the counter counts the number of times, and if the set number of times is N, the tilting means of the print head and the drive mechanism of the rewinding shaft 26 of the carriage 22 are activated for the Nth return. What is necessary is to output a signal to the control unit to prevent such occurrence.

In addition, a pulse motor is used to drive the carriage.

It may be controlled by the number of pulses, or a microcombeater may be used.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be explained based on FIG.

In the figure, ■ indicates the starting point of the cassette body 11 for the first time. When the cassette main body 11 moves to the right as shown in ■-■', the print head 24 tilts and the ink ribbon 1
Press and print o on the recording paper. During this printing operation, the unused portion 10a of the ink ribbon 1° is connected to the sequential winding core 1.
2, and an amount equivalent to the amount of the feed is wound up by the winding core 13. When the cassette body 11 reaches ■', the ink portion 10 used for printing the first line
b (shown by the dotted line) is wound onto the take-up core side, the print head 24 is separated from the ink ribbon 10, and the recording paper is fed by one line.
→ Go left as shown in ■. In this case as well, the print head 24 tilts, presses the ink ribbon 10 onto the recording paper, and uses the ink portion 10b used for printing in ■-■'.
It is rewound onto the sequentially wound core 12 during this period. In this way, when the cassette main body 11 reaches ■, the print 7 de 24 separates from the ink ribbon IO again, and after the recording paper is fed by one line, (IJ! moves and moves toward ■'). The second printing starts.For this printing, the same ink portion 10b used for printing the first line is again fed out from the original winding core 12, printed in an overlapping manner, and wound onto the first winding core 13.Therefore, (1) The state of ′ is exactly the same as the state of ■′, and when moving left, ■′−■
is the same as In other words, after the third time, ink ribbon 1
The last time ■-■' for the number of printable times of 0 is the above ■
−■′, ■′−■ will be repeated, but when the final episode returns■
In '-■'', the ink portion lOb used in the previous line is not wound up, and the process returns to ■'' without being printed. That is, the state of ■'' is the same as the state of ■', and the unused portion 10a
This will be the starting point for the first time.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention provides an ink ribbon printer in which a cassette containing an ink ribbon that can be printed multiple times is mounted on a carriage and moved back and forth so that printing can be performed both forward and backward.

The ink portion used for previous printing is rewound during printing, and the same ink portion rewound can be used for the ninth previous printing.

The ink ribbon is characterized by a structure that does not rewind the printing and used ink portions when the ink ribbon returns to its final printing limit, so the ink ribbon can print the same ink portion within a certain range for the maximum number of times it can be printed. After being used repeatedly, the unused ink portion is fed out again, allowing the use of several times as many ink ribbons as possible, reducing the number of ink ribbon replacements, and reducing consumable material costs. can save significantly. Also.

Unlike conventional ink ribbons that use two wide ink ribbons, the small size of the ink ribbon cassette contributes to the miniaturization of printers, and multiple printings are performed on a certain area of the ink ribbon, so the entire ink ribbon can be rolled up. It has various excellent effects, such as eliminating the profking phenomenon that occurs when the paper is rewound and then used, and an improvement in printing quality can be expected.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 3 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the relationship between the carriage and the ink ribbon cassette, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the ink ribbon cassette, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the operating state. . FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a conventional example. 10-- Ink ribbon 1 T-cassette body 1
2 - Original winding core 13 - - Winding core 17 - Winding shaft 18 - - - Rewinding shaft Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an ink ribbon printer, a cassette containing an ink ribbon that can be printed multiple times is mounted on a carriage and moved back and forth so that printing can be performed both forward and backward, and the ink used for previous printing is rewound and printed during backward printing. death,
The same ink portion that has been rewound can be used for the next previous printing, and the ink portion that was used for printing is not rewound when the ink ribbon reaches its final printing limit. Ink ribbon printer with special features.