JPS61238645A - Thermal transfer type recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To aim at miniaturizing a printing device and at making the same lightweight, by parallely arranging a guide member which is effective upon discharging of a recording medium and a guide member for the recording medium, which is reversely fed during the reversely fed during the reverse rotation of a platen roller to reduce the transfer distance of the recording medium upon multi-color printing. CONSTITUTION:A first guide member 20 having a guide function of discharging a transferred paper sheet P after recording by means of a roller 27 driven by a motor 35 is laid parallely with a second guide for guiding the transferred paper sheet P in the direction reverse to the paper feed direction by reversely rotating a platen roller 17 during multicolor recording. With this arrangement, the distance of the transfer path of the paper sheet P may be reduced during multi-color printing so that the longitudinal length of the printing device may be shortened even if the size of the transferred paper sheet is increased, thereby it is possible to miniaturize the device and to make the same lightweight. Further, since no transferred paper sheet is transferred to the discharge port during multi-color printing, it is possible to eliminate such a risk that the user erroneously takes out the transferred paper during recording.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording device used in terminal equipment and the like.

[Background of the invention]

Conventionally, this type of recording device consists of a thermal head equipped with a heating element, a platen roller disposed opposite to the thermal head, etc., and transfer paper and paper transported between the thermal head and the platen roller. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-32678 discloses a method in which recording information is recorded on the transfer paper by applying a pressing force to the transfer paper.

In this recording device, the transfer paper such as ink film is integrated into the case and made into a cassette, so the transfer paper can be replaced easily in a short time. Paper jam in the paper transport path (
If a jam) occurs, it will interfere with its maintenance.

Furthermore, since the transfer paper after recording is ejected above the apparatus, it is difficult to downsize the entire apparatus.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-140267 discloses a recording apparatus that prevents wrinkles from occurring in an ink film of a transfer material.

This recording device is partially folded into an upper lid section that includes an ink film and a thermal head, and a bottom section that includes a roll of transfer paper and a platen roller.

However, this recording apparatus records on roll-shaped transfer paper, and is not suitable for recording on transfer paper such as cut paper.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer recording device which is mainly designed to be smaller and lighter.

[Summary of the Invention] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a first guide which has a notch on the upper side of the recording medium storage member and on the side of the platen roller, and which guides the recording medium when the recording medium is ejected. member, and a second guide for guiding the recording medium, which is conveyed through the notch of the first guide member during multicolor recording on the recording medium, and is conveyed backward through the notch when the platen roller is reversed. The feature is that the parts are arranged side by side.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

1 and 2 are schematic cross-sectional views of a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The external dimensions of the device are as follows: 1. Lower frame 2 and upper frame 3
The separated lower frame 2 and upper frame 3 are integrally connected by a hinge pin 4 at the rear of the device, and the upper frame 3 can be opened and closed in the vertical direction using the hinge pin 4 as a fulcrum. ing.

On the bottom plate 1, there is a lower frame 2. The mechanism section is fixed via a power source 5, a control circuit stem 6, and a spacer 7.

This mechanism section is composed of a paper feed section, a film section, and a thermal head section, and the details of each of these sections will be explained below.

The paper feed unit includes a paper feed tray 8 which is a cassette for storing transfer paper P such as a cut sheet of a recording medium to be recorded, and a roller 9 that takes out the transfer paper P one by one from the paper feed tray 8.
Rollers 10, 11 for preventing two sheets of transfer paper P from being fed. Intermediate rollers 12, 13, guides 14, 15, 16, a platen roller 17 that conveys the transfer paper P during recording, a transfer paper P between the platen roller 217 and the platen roller 217 in order to obtain the conveyance force for the transfer paper P. Pressure rollers 18 and 19 pressurize the paper P after recording, and a roller 27 driven by a motor 35
The first guide 20 has a guiding function for ejecting the paper to the outside via the first guide 20, and during multicolor recording, guides the transfer paper P in a direction opposite to the paper feeding direction by rotating the platen roller 17 in the opposite direction during recording. It is composed of a second guide 21.

A notch 47 is provided on the platen roller 17 side of the first guide 20 to convey the transfer paper P to the second guide 21 side only during recording, and this notch 47 is shown in FIG. As shown, a guide plate 49 operated by a rotary solenoid 48 closes (solid line shown in the drawing) or releases the seal (dotted chain line shown). The guide plate 49 also has the function of ejecting the transfer paper P to the outside after being pressed against the roller 27 and recorded.

The ink film portion includes an ink film 22 of a transfer sheet having yellow, magenta, and cyan ink materials coated in a solid form on the film;
2, an ink film take-up roller 24 for winding up the ink film 22 after recording, and rollers 25 and 26 for transporting the ink film without forming wrinkles on the ink film 22.

The thermal head section includes a large number of heat generating elements, and includes a thermal head 28 for recording by transferring the ink coloring material of the ink film 22 from the back side of the ink film 22 to the transfer paper P by thermal melting by the heat generating elements, and this thermal head. 28 to the ink film 22 and platen row 2
a spring 29 that applies a pressing force for pressing against 17; 30% spring that applies a force to separate the thermal head 28 from the platen roller 17 against the pressing force of the spring 29; the spring force of the bar 31 and the spring 30 that transmits the spring force applied by this spring 30 to the spring 29; Spring 30 to par 31 against
A direct-acting solenoid that applies a spring force or releases a spring force 32) A link par 33 and a link,
It is composed of a hinge 34.

The thermal head 28 and rollers 25 are provided on the upper frame 3 side, and the others are provided on the lower frame 2 side.

Further, 38 is a sensor that detects that the transfer paper P has been conveyed to just before the platen roller 17, 39 is a sensor that detects that the transfer paper P has been conveyed from the platen roller 17, and 40 is an ink film 22. A sensor 41 detects the boundary between yellow ink, magenta ink, and cyan ink applied on top of the thermal head 28
42 is a guide that guides the transfer paper P conveyed between the front and pillar rollers 12 and 13. The tip of this guide 42 is formed into a mountain by the guide 21 It is formed in the shape of
The apex of this mountain shape is located at a position 111iI to the left (on the roller 18 side) from the tangential direction of the roller 17°18.

Also, the rollers 9, 10, 11.14 of the paper feeding section are driven by the motor 3.
5 simultaneously, and Norate 10-La 17 are driven by forward and reverse 1.
It is driven by a rotatable motor 36, and this motor 36 is provided with an encoder that detects the rotation angle of the motor.

Reference numeral 43 indicates the insertion opening of the paper feed tray 8 of the storage member, 44 indicates the transfer paper Pt1 on which recording has been completed - the discharge 1 to be discharged, and the ink film winding roller 24 of the ink film unit.
is driven by a motor 37 via a belt (not shown).

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
An electromagnetic brake 5o is attached to the end of the ink film 22, and this brake 5o applies a tensile force to the supply side of the ink film 22. On the other hand, the ink film winding row 22
Electromagnetic type at the end of 4.

A friction type clutch 51 is provided to apply a tensile force to the winding side of the ink film 22.

Furthermore, the rollers 9, 10, 12, and 27 are provided with one-way clutches (not shown) that transmit rotational force only for rotation in one direction.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

When recording on the transfer paper P, the rows 29 and 10.12 are rotated simultaneously by operating the square motor 35. The transfer paper P is taken out from the paper feed tray 8 by the rotation of these rollers, and is transferred to the rollers 12 and 13 via the guides 14 and 16 due to the frictional force between the rollers 10 and 11.
The sheet is then conveyed to a point between rollers 12, 13 and guides 15, 42, and is brought into contact between roller 18 and platen roller 17 from below roller 18.

(Situation in Fig. 5) At this time, when the sensor 38 detects the passage of the transfer paper P (point A in the figure), the motor 35 obtains the feed length t of the transfer paper P based on this detection signal. When the motor 35 rotates by the required number of pulses and reaches BA, the motor 35 stops and conveyance of the transfer paper P is stopped.

Next, the solenoid 32 is actuated to move the link lever 33 around the link hinge 34.

The spring 30 is expanded to release the lever 31 and the link lever 33.
lower. At this time, the thermal head 28 presses the ink film 22 and the transfer paper P against the platen row 217 by the force of the spring 29 . (The state shown in FIG. 6) Next, the motor 36 is activated and the platen roller 17 is rotated. By this rotation of the platen roller 17, the transfer paper P
The ink film 22 is sandwiched between the platen low 217 and the roller 18 due to the frictional force with the roller 17, and after death, the ink film 22
At the same time, the transfer paper P is conveyed in the rotational direction of the platen roller 17, and is further conveyed from the row 519 through the notch 49 of the first guide 2o to the second guide 21.

At this time, the guide plate 49 provided on the guide 20
As shown in FIG. 7, the p-tally solenoid 48 raises the notch 47 and releases the sealing of the notch 47.
p is conveyed to the guide 21 via the notch 47. Then, when the sensor 39 detects the leading edge of the transfer paper P, the motor 36 stops.

At this time, the ink film 22 is wound up by the winding roller 24 by the drive of the motor 37. This ink film 2
The winding speed of No. 2 is set higher than the circumferential speed of the platen roller 1717 to prevent the ink film 22 from sagging. Then, when the position of the mark provided at the tip of the ink film, for example, yellow ink coloring material, is detected, the motor 37 is stopped.

Further, the ink film 22 and the transfer paper P are separated by a pawl 45 provided near the platen row 217 at the tip of the thermal head 28. The separation angle 2 between the ink film 22 and the transfer paper separated by this pawl 45 is 9
Set to 00 or higher.

In the state shown in FIG. 6, recording on the transfer paper P is started.

In accordance with recording information supplied from a control device (not shown), an ink coloring material corresponding to yellow is transferred from the ink film 22 to the transfer paper P by the heat generated by the heating element of the thermal head 28. At this time, the transfer paper P and the ink film 22 are moved to the platen roller 17 by the platen roller 217 driven by the motor 36. Thermal head 28.
The ink film 22 is conveyed between the rollers α and 18 and 19, and the area of the ink film 22 and the recording area of the transfer paper P are overlapped and recorded. Also, when starting yellow recording, the trailing edge of the transfer paper is placed on the roller 9.
, 10 and 12, respectively. However, since these rollers 9, 10.degree. 12 are provided with one-way clutches, each roller idles when the transfer paper P is conveyed.

Then, when yellow recording is completed on the transfer paper P,
After the sensor 38 detects the rear end of the transfer paper P, this detection signal causes the motor 36 to rotate the platen roller 17 so that the transfer paper P is conveyed by a length t. The rotation angle is detected by an encoder provided on the motor 36, and the t is defined by a count value of the encoder.

At this time, the rear end of the transfer paper P is located closer to the platen roller 17 than the top 46 of the mountain-shaped guide.

When recording the next color, for example magenta, on the transfer paper P, first the thermal head 28 is moved to the platen roller 1.
7, the ink film 22 is conveyed to the next magenta area, and the transfer paper pt is moved from the conveyance path by the guide 21 to the notch 47.7 as shown in FIG. roller 1
9. Platen roller 17. Guide 21 via roller 18
The recording paper P is transported backwards to the conveyance path, and the recording area and the magenta area of the transfer paper P are overlapped, and then the thermal head 28 is pressed against the platen roller 17 to perform recording.

That is, the operation of the solenoid 32 is released, and the bar 31 and link lever 33 are pulled upward by the spring 30 (indicated by the dashed line shown in the figure), as shown in FIG.
The thermal head 28 is separated from the platen roller 17.

Then, the ink film 22 is wound up by the winding roller 24 until the magenta region is detected by the sensor 41.

On the other hand, the transfer paper P is reversely conveyed along the guide 21 from below the platen roller by rotating the motor 36 in the opposite direction (in the direction of the arrow in the figure). During this reverse conveyance of the transfer paper P, the mountain-shaped tops 46 formed at the leading ends of the guides 42 and 21 are brought into contact with the platen roller 17 and the roller 18 #i! as shown in FIG. (A in the figure) This is made possible by positioning the roller on the crawler 18 side. Then, when the front end (recording direction side) of the transfer paper P is detected by the sensor 39 and the motor 36 is stopped, the reverse conveyance of the transfer paper P is also stopped.

At this time, the recording area of the transfer paper P and the magenta ink area coincide, and magenta recording is performed in the same procedure as the yellow recording.

In this magenta recording as well, the notch 47 is open as in the case of yellow, and the transfer paper P is conveyed from the notch 47 toward the guide 21 side.

Finally, when performing cyan recording from magenta recording, after the sensor 39 detects the rear edge (leading edge in the case of recording) of the transfer paper P, the rear edge of the transfer paper P is position(
The platen roller 17 is reversely rotated until the transfer paper P reaches a position where the platen roller 17 and the roller 19 are no longer engaged with each other, so that the transfer paper P is sent back to the second guide side. Then, when the reverse feeding of the transfer paper P is completed, the guide plate 49 descends in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure due to the ON state of the rotary linenoid 48, and temporarily closes the notch 47. Next, recording of cyan is started in the same manner as described above with the thermal head 28 in pressure contact with the platen roller 17 as shown in FIG. Thereafter, the recorded transfer paper P is conveyed in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure while being guided by the first guide 20. Then, the rear end of the transfer paper P (the leading edge in the case of reverse feeding) is placed on the platen roller 17.
When moving away from the roller 19, the rotary solenoid 48
In the OFF state, the guide plate 49 rises and comes into pressure contact with the paper discharge row 227.

At this time, the transfer paper P is sandwiched between the guide plate and the rollers as shown in FIG.
is discharged to the outside from the discharge port 44 due to the rotation of .

According to this embodiment, there is a first guide on the upper side of the paper feed tray that guides the transfer paper when it is ejected, and a cutout provided in the first guide when recording on the transfer paper. Since it is configured to be installed in parallel with the second guide that guides the entire recording medium that is conveyed and reversely conveyed through the notch when the platen roller reverses, the distance of the conveyance path of the transfer paper during multicolor recording is reduced. Since the length of the apparatus is shortened, even if the size of the paper to be transferred becomes large, the longitudinal direction of the apparatus is shortened and miniaturization becomes possible. Furthermore, since the transfer paper is not transported to the discharge port during multicolor recording, there is no possibility that the user will accidentally remove the transfer paper during recording.

Furthermore, since the upper frame in which the thermal head is disposed, the platen roller, conveyance system for transferred paper, ink film, etc. are disposed and is divided into lower frames, handling becomes easier for the user. That is, with the upper frame lifted, it is possible to easily check for paper jams in the paper feed and conveyance system. Furthermore, the reliability of the thermal head is improved because the user can replace the ink film without hitting the thermal head with anything or damaging it. In addition, in the device of the present invention, the ink film can be replaced as shown in FIG. It is also possible to use the supply roller 23 and take-up roller 24 of 22 as cassettes 52 and 53.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the thermal transfer paper recording device of the present invention, the first guide member, which has a notch on the platen roller side and guides the recording medium when the recording medium is ejected, is provided on the upper side of the recording medium storage member; The recording medium is conveyed through the notch of the first guide member during multicolor recording, and the second guide member guides all of the recording medium that is conveyed backward through the notch when the platen roller reverses rotation.
Since the guide members are arranged in parallel, the distance of the conveyance path of the recording medium during multicolor recording is shortened, and the longitudinal direction of the apparatus is shortened, making it possible to reduce the size and weight of the apparatus.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of the thermal transfer recording device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of the device shown in FIG. 1 with the upper frame opened, and FIG. 3 is a schematic side view of the device shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining the mechanism for applying constant tension to the film system in the device of the present invention, and FIGS. 5 to 9 show the recording operation state of the device of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a schematic side view showing another embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention. ■)... Transfer paper, 2... Lower frame, 3... Upper frame. 8...Paper feed tray, 17...Platen roller%20
...First guide, 21...Second guide, 22...
Ink film, 47... Notch, 49... Guide plate.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Between a thermal head equipped with a heating element and a platen roller disposed opposite to this thermal head,
Thermal transfer involves stacking a transfer sheet and a recording medium, applying pressure to a platen roller to record information on the recording medium, and then reversing the platen roller to transport only the recording medium backwards and recording on the recording medium again. In the recording apparatus, a first guide member is provided on the upper side of the recording medium storage member and has a notch on the platen roller side and guides the recording medium when the recording medium is ejected; A thermal transfer recording characterized in that a recording medium is conveyed through a notch of the guide member, and a second guide member is arranged in parallel to guide the recording medium that is conveyed backward through the notch when the platen roller reverses rotation. Device. 2. Thermal transfer according to claim 1, further comprising a guide plate that seals or releases the notch of the first guide member and has a function of ejecting the recording medium by being pressed against a roller. Recording device. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, comprising an upper frame including the thermal head and a lower frame including a platen roller and a recording medium storage member, and these upper and lower frames are rotatably connected. Thermal transfer recording device. 4. The thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the insertion port of the recording medium storage member and the discharge port of the recording medium are disposed on the same side. 5. The thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium storage member is a cassette-shaped paper feed tray. 6. The thermal transfer recording device according to claim 1, wherein the transfer sheet is an ink film formed into a cassette.