JPS6166673A - Picture forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a medium to be transfered from being shifted by holding the medium to be transfered to a platen with biassing during a recording head is separated from the platen, and providing a biassing means which releases the biassing when a color medium is transfered to the medium to be transfered. CONSTITUTION:The levers 31, 32 constituting a biassing means are provided rotablly supported on the supporting shafts 31a, 32a at the upper and lower sections of a platen 10. The levers 31, 32 are separated from the platen 10 with themselves are rotated as showed in solid lines when an ink 21 of a thermal transfer ribbon 15 is transfered to a blank P, the blank P is holded on the platen 10 with pressures, with the levers are rotated as showed in a broken line when a thermal head 11 is separated from the platen 10, and the blank P is separated from the thermal transfer ribbon 15 positively.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a transfer type image forming apparatus that forms an image on the surface of the transfer material by transferring, for example, a colorant of a thermal transfer material to the transfer material. .

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Thermal transfer image forming devices are small and inexpensive, make little noise, and can use plain paper as the transfer material, so they have recently become popular not only for recording the output of computers, word processors, and screens. It is also being put into practical use as a copying device.

Typically, this type of image forming apparatus includes a platen and a thermal head that moves toward and away from the platen.
A thermal transfer member and paper are interposed between the thermal head and the platen, and the heat generated by the thermal head causes the ink of the thermal transfer IJ member to be transferred to the paper to form an image.

Further, the paper introduced between the platen and the thermal head is guided by a guide roller that is rolled into contact with the circumferential surface of the platen, and the paper is trapped so that the ink is transferred while being wrapped around the platen.

However, in the conventional method, the paper is simply guided by a rotatable guide roller, which may cause the paper to shift when the thermal head is separated from the f latin, resulting in poor transfer. Since the guide roller is provided, the structure is complicated and the cost is high.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been developed in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that has a simple table structure and is capable of preventing transfer misalignment.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a pressing means that presses and holds the transfer material against the platen when the recording head is separated from the platen, and releases the pressure when the colorant is transferred to the transfer material. This is to prevent the transfer material from shifting.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the external appearance of the image forming apparatus, and FIG. 2 shows its schematic configuration. In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a main body of an image forming apparatus, and an operation panel section 1a is formed on the upper front surface of the apparatus main body 1. As shown in FIG. Further, on the upper surface of the apparatus main body 1, a document table 2 having a document cover 3 on the left side is provided.
The lower side is a document scanning section (scanner section) 4 that scans the document set on the document table 2, and the right side of the apparatus main body 1 is an image forming section (printer section) 5.

On the operation panel section 1&, a copy number setting section 7 consisting of a display section 6 and a numeric keypad 7, buttons 8, etc. are arranged.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the document scanning section 4 is scanned onto the document table 2 by the movable scanning section 9 of the exposure optical system reciprocating along the lower part of the document table 2.

The scanned original is optically scanned, and this optical information is photoelectrically converted and input to the image forming section 5.

Further, the image forming section 5 has a configuration as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. That is, the platen 1° is located approximately at the center of the image forming section 5, and the thermal head 11 as a recording head is located in front of the platen 100 (toward the left in the state of figure g3) with respect to the f platen 10. It is arranged so that it can be moved in and out.

Further, a thermal transfer pin 15 as a transfer material is interposed between the thermal platen 11 and the platen 10.

Then, with this thermal transfer plate 1715 interposed, the MP
is pressed against the platen 10, and in this state, the line of the thermal head 11, a T-shaped heating element (not shown) generates heat according to the image information, and the colorant (ink) on the ink 15 is thermally transferred. ) is heated and melted and transferred onto the paper P.

Further, a paper feed roller 15 is provided diagonally below the platen 10, and is adapted to sequentially take out sheets of paper P as a transfer material stored in a paper feed cassette 1F one by one. The taken out paper P is fed diagonally upward at -216° (after its leading edge is aligned by the disposed registration rollers 18, it is transported towards the Grataire 10 and wound around the platen 10). ) be sent accurately.

On the other hand, Thermal Herad 11 is a thermal transfer material used as a transfer material.
715 to press the paper P against the platen 10],
As shown in FIG. 4, the ink 21 as a colorant on the thermal transfer ribbon 15 is heated and melted and transferred onto the paper P.

Further, the thermal transfer margin 15 has yellow (Y), magenta (goods), cyan (Ol) ink portions 21a, 21b, approximately the same size as the paper P, as shown by range A in FIG.
21c are arranged side by side, or each ink portion 21a of yellow (to), magenta (to), cyan (C), and black) is provided as shown by the range opening.

21b, 21c, and 21d are arranged side by side.

Thermal transfer glasses containing the black ink part 21d are used when it is desired to produce black clearly, and even those without the black ink part 216 can produce almost black (by overlapping three colors).

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the thermal transfer line 15 is
It is wound around cores 25 and 26 and housed in a case 27 to form a cassette. After transferring the first color to the paper P, this thermal transfer IJ z-15 transfers the first color to the paper P and then transfers the first color to the paper P.
By rotating in forward and reverse directions, the paper is wound up in advance and placed on standby prior to transfer for -colors.

Further, the paper P is reciprocated by the forward and reverse rotation of the platen 10, and the ink 21 of the thermal transfer member 15 is transferred on each of the forward and backward passes.

As shown in Figure 3, the path of the reciprocating movement of the paper P is as follows. Second
On the f-id 13.14 of the first. The second distribution is id 19,
It is designed to be guided by 20 rotational operations. Note that 22 in the figure is a paper ejection roller.

In addition, the thermal head 1 has a spatula V moving mechanism 23V.
c) It is a trap so that it is moved and brought into contact with and away from the platen 10. That is, the thermal head 11 is connected to the connecting rod 3.
The rotary lever 371C is connected to the shaft 3 through the shaft 371C, and the rotary lever 37 is connected to the shaft 3 by the operation of a drive motor (not shown).
8, the connecting rod 36 is operated and the thermal head 11 is moved.

On the other hand, the upper and lower parts of the platen 10 constitute one pressing means as shown in FIG.
1*, 32aK, supported and rotatably provided. These x31゜32 are driven by a drive mechanism (not shown).
It is designed to be rotated. In other words, thermal transfer to paper P? When the ink 21 is transferred from the platen 15, the levers 31 and 32 are rotated as shown by the solid line, and the levers 31 and 32 move toward the platen 1.
When the thermal head 11 is separated from the platen 10, it is rotated as shown in FIG. 7 to press and hold the paper P against the platen 10.

Also, the support shaft 31a of the lever 31.32.

32a is located on the outer side of the platen 10 and the tangents S and S of the lead-in guide 33, and the levers 31 and 32 pull the paper P from the transfer site to the back side when pressing the paper P.)
VC so that it can be pressed and held in close contact with f Latin 10.
&ing.

When forming an image on paper P, first, as shown in FIG. introduced in between. Then, the thermal head 11 generates heat in accordance with the image information, and the ink 21 of the thermal transfer ribbon 15 is transferred onto the paper P, thereby forming the first color image. After the color has been transferred in this way, the levers 31 and 32 are rotated to move the paper P as shown by the solid line in FIG.
is held pressed against the platen 10I/C, and from this state the thermal head 11 is separated from the grating 10. Thereafter, the winding cores 25 and 26 are rotated and wound in the direction of the arrow for one color, and the thermal head 1 is again wound as shown in FIG.
1 is advanced and comes into pressure contact with the platen 10, and the levers 31 and 32 are rotated as shown by solid lines to release the paper P from being held under pressure. From this state, the platen 10 is rotated in the opposite direction, and the thermal transfer member 15 is moved in the opposite direction to transfer the three-color image (by the heat generated by the thermal head 11).

When this transfer is completed, the levers 31 and 32 are rotated as shown by solid lines in FIG. 11 to press and hold the MP, and from this state the thermal head 11 is separated from the grating 10.

Thereafter, the three colors and the fourth color are sequentially transferred onto the paper P in a similar manner.

The MP on which the image has been formed in this way is discharged to a paper discharge tray 35 via a paper discharge roller 34 shown in FIG.

According to this embodiment, when the thermal head 11 is separated from the platen 10, the levers 31 and 32 are used to move the paper P.
Since the paper P is held under pressure against the platen 10, the paper P is reliably separated from the thermal transfer member 15, and does not adhere to the thermal transfer member 15 and shift. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of transfer misalignment, and to prevent the paper P from shifting unlike the conventional method. Since no f-id roller is required, there is an advantage that the structure can be simplified.

Moreover, as shown in FIGS.
Even if the paper P floats up, it depends on the trajectory of the levers 31 and 32)
The paper can be pressed along the platen 10 naturally, and there is no gap between the platen 10 and the paper P.Furthermore, since there is no need to return the paper P, There is no misalignment, and since the transfer is performed each time the paper P moves back and forth, gaps and negatives can be corrected during each reciprocation, and misalignment of the paper P can be prevented more reliably.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention includes a pressing means that presses and holds the transfer material against the platen when the recording head is separated from the platen, and releases the pressure when the colorant is transferred to the transfer material. The coloring material can be transferred without shifting the coloring material, thereby making it possible to perform good transfer, and since the rotary type does not require an idle roller, the structure is simplified and the cost is reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an image forming apparatus, FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway schematic perspective view, and FIG. 3 is a schematic longitudinal side view. , FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining the transfer operation state, FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the ink application state of the thermal transfer printer, and FIGS. 6 and g7.
The figure is an explanatory view showing the operation of the pressing means, FIGS. 8 to 11 are explanatory views showing the process during image formation, and FIG. 12 is an explanatory view showing the idle state of the paper P by the lever. 10...Platen, P.-Paper (transferring material), 15.
・Thermal transfer printer (transfer material), 11...-Thermal head (recording head), 21-・Ink C colorant), 31゜3
2...Lever (pressing means). Applicant's Representative Patent Attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 1 Figure 4 Figure 5 A Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 1 Bow Figure 9 1ζ Figure 10 1 Figure 11 1ζ Figure 12

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A recording head that approaches and separates from a platen via a transfer material and a transfer material transfers the colorant of the transfer material to the transfer material to form an image, in which An image forming apparatus comprising: a pressing means that presses and holds the transfer material against the platen when separated, and releases the pressure holding when colorant is transferred to the transfer material. (2) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer material is transported back and forth by forward and reverse rotation of the platen, and the colorant of the transfer agent is transferred each time the transfer material is reciprocated. (3) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the pressing means presses and holds the transfer material while applying a tensile force in a direction in which the transfer material comes into close contact with the platen.