JPS62149454A - Printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide printing method by which high quality characters and images can be printed and printing energy can be minimized by designing in such a way that ink and a medium to be transferred on the non-recording part of said ink and using a magnet head as a means to generate magnetic attraction force. CONSTITUTION:The titled method is a printing technique for transferring the recording part of ink to a medium to be transferred 14 using magnetic attraction force with the controlled application of heat energy employing a means 11 to apply heat energy to the recording part 13 of thermoplastic magnetic ink and a means to generate magnetic attraction force in ink. The ink and the medium to be transferred do not contact with each other at the non-recording part 12 of the ink, and a magnet head is used as a means to generate magnetic attraction force. Ink transfer is performed by the deformation of the recording part of the ink or its flight by magnetic attraction force under an ink thermals activation state. Because of non-contact state between the ink and paper to be transferred, no heat escape occurs from the ink to the paper to be transferred due to heat conduction and thereby application energy for melting the ink can be reduced significantly. Further it is possible to widen a transfer margin thanks to the employment of a magnet as a magnetic attraction means.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a non-impact printing device, and more specifically, the present invention relates to a non-impact printing device, and more specifically, the present invention relates to a non-impact printing device.
9. It pertains to the printing method for obtaining both parts.

[Conventional technology]

Many compact, low-cost, non-impact printing methods using magnetic ink have been proposed.

For example, a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 52-9654F uses magnetic ink as the ink of the fusion thermal transfer method, and uses a magnetic attraction means provided separately from the heat supply means to apply a magnetic attraction force to the ink corresponding to the thermal image. It acts and transfers. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the thermal head 51-
The ink medium 52 - transfer paper 55 - magnet 56 are installed in this order, and the thermoplastic magnetic ink 54 of the ink medium is brought into contact with the transfer paper when heat is applied from the surface of the base film 53 by the thermal head (directly below the head), and is melted. After adhering the ink to the paper to be transferred, the ink medium is peeled off from the paper to transfer the ink. Furthermore, the magnetic attraction force increases the probability of molten ink contacting the transfer paper, and the ability to peel off the ink medium increases the transfer rate to paper, making it possible to improve rough paper with poor surface smoothness. This system was also developed to print nine images of characters with high quality.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, when the ink medium is peeled off, the ink in the recording area to be transferred comes into contact with the base film and the ink in the non-recording area.
The force required to peel off the ink in the recording area that has been fused and adhered to the transfer paper together with the base film from the transfer paper has been a cause of poor transfer.

That is, in general thermal transfer recording including the above-mentioned conventional technology, in FIG. ), and 7B (ink cohesive force and ability to prevent transfer), and ? If the following relationship always holds between n (coupling force between recording part ink and non-recording part ink): 711, IF M)) IFo, 70, the transfer is performed perfectly.

In the figure, 41 is a base film, 42 is recording part ink, 45 is non-recording part ink, and 44 is transfer paper.

Furthermore, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, when the ink melts, the ink in the recording section is attracted towards the transfer paper by the magnetic attraction force, so the probability of contact with the transfer paper increases, that is, as shown in FIG. Increasing the number of 7 μm had the effect of increasing the transfer efficiency to some extent. However, when the ink medium is peeled off, the base film - ink -
Because the transfer paper is glued, IPO and 7 in the WX4 diagram
D exists. Therefore, especially when transferring to paper with very poor surface smoothness, 1mm<70 or shim<1
The problem occurred at a cram school, and there was a problem of poor transfer.

Furthermore, in the conventional technology, when thermal energy is applied to the ink in the recording section to melt the ink, the ink and the transfer paper are in contact with each other, so heat escapes from the ink to the transfer paper, that is, heat conduction occurs. This method has the disadvantage of slow printing speed due to large heat loss and the large amount of energy required to melt the ink.

The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and its purpose is to transfer paper with very poor surface smoothness or with very poor affinity with ink. It would be advantageous to provide a printing method that can print very high-quality character images on film, and that can use less printing energy than before.

[Means for solving problems]

The printing method of the present invention, as shown in FIG. This is a printing method in which the recorded portion of the ink is transferred to the transfer medium 14/\\ by magnetic attraction force by controlling energy application, and the ink and the transfer medium are connected to the non-recorded portion 12 of the ink (Via is a magnetic attraction vector). The means for generating a magnetic attraction force without contact in the electromagnetic head 7% force and the J-9 position (Function) According to the above structure of the present invention, the thermoplastic magnetic ink and the The transfer medium is not in contact with the non-recorded portion of the ink, and therefore, the ink is transferred by deforming or flying the ink-recorded portion due to the magnetic attraction force while the ink is activated by heat. That is, the application of thermal energy to the ink and the imprinting onto the receiving paper are completed at the same time, and the process of peeling off the ink medium of the prior art is unnecessary. That is, in FIG. 4, the transfer is completed completely because the ink medium 70 and FD which were obstructing the transfer are not present when the ink medium is peeled off in FIG.

Furthermore, since the ink and the transfer paper are not in contact with each other, there is no loss of heat due to heat conduction from the ink to the transfer paper, and the energy applied to melt the ink can be greatly reduced. Furthermore, since an electromagnet is used as the magnetic attraction means, the magnetic attraction force can be set arbitrarily, and the transfer margin can be widened.

〔Example〕

The printing method in this example is shown in Figure 2 (α) and (C).
). 21 is a thermal head, 22 is an ink medium,
23 is a transfer paper, 24 is a 1Ji magnetic head, 25 is an ink medium support layer, and 26 is magnetic ink. As shown in the figure, in the present invention, the magnetic ink of the ink medium and the transfer paper are placed in a non-contact manner. Furthermore, as shown in Figure 2 Ch), the U & pull longitudinal direction of the electromagnetic head is determined by the length of the thermal element array of the thermal head, that is, the length of the printing section.
It is desirable to make it long. This is to apply magnetic attraction force uniformly to the recording area of the magnetic ink.

The recording mechanism is shown in FIGS. 2(b)-1 to 2(b)-4. 25 is a support layer, 26 is magnetic ink, 23 is transfer paper, 24 is an electromagnetic head, and 21 is a thermal head. The shaded area of the magnetic ink is the area heated by the thermal head in accordance with the image signal. (b)-1 shows the heat application process, (b)-2 shows the suction deformation process, (b)-5 shows the flying process, and (b)-4 shows the transfer completion process. According to the observation of the transfer mechanism in this example, (b)-1→(
b)-2→(b)-4 and (b)-1→(b)-3→(
There were two possible processes, b)-4, and both were excellent in terms of printing quality. In other words, there were no transfer defects as seen in the printing of the conventional contact type (Fig. In the present invention, the magnetic ink and the transfer paper are not in contact with each other.
It has a big influence.

Figure 2C shows the main cross-sectional view of the electromagnet head in this embodiment.
d), (ε), (1), and (y).

The core 29 has a tapered tip 29'.

The material of the core is a high permeability material, namely We.

We-8i, T! e-ML, Mu-Zu7z Tito, Ni-Zu ferrite, etc. are suitable. Further, it is more effective to use a high saturation magnetic flux density material such as F 13-00 at the tip of the core.

FIG. 5(α) shows the magnetic field distribution at the tip of the electromagnet head, and FIG. 3Cb) shows the attenuation curves of the magnetic field strength in the two directions shown in FIG. 5(α). xi (i=1.z, s) and Hi (i=1.2.3) in both figures correspond to each other. 31 in FIG. 3(α) indicates the magnetic ink in the recording section, and the magnetic attraction force (1F).

The head is pulled in the direction of the head 32 by the puller. A magnetic H air suction cuff is expressed as y = M O/2. Here, M is the magnetization strength of the ink, and 2H72 is the magnetic field gradient in the X direction. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3-(b), the magnetic attraction force is 1p, (?, ri?.

increases in the order of When the magnetic ink recording part is heated and has fluidity, the magnetic ink is heated and becomes fluid.
As shown in Figure (b)-5, in order to deform or fly and be transferred to paper, the magnetic attraction force must exceed a threshold. The threshold value also depends on the magnetization strength and flow characteristics of the magnetic ink. As a result of the study in this example, the desirable shape of the electromagnet head is B1 in FIG. 2, that is, the gap at the tip is 1000 μm or less, preferably 500 μm or less, and A1 in FIG. 2, that is, the electromagnet head -The distance between magnetic inks is 1000 μm
Hereinafter, it was concluded that the thickness is desirably 500 μm or less.

Furthermore, the magnetomotive force N of the electromagnet (N is the number of turns, N is the current) is 5
00 or more, preferably 1000 or more.

Furthermore, as shown in FIGS. 2(1) and 2(y), if an auxiliary magnetic pole 27 is provided on the opposite side of the magnetic ink from the electromagnetic head, it is possible to increase the magnetic field gradient at the recording section ink 28 position. It is effective in increasing the magnetic attraction force.

As the material for the auxiliary magnetic pole, the above-mentioned high magnetic permeability materials and high saturation magnetic flux density materials are suitable.

Example 1) An electromagnetic head shown in FIG. 2(d) was used as the magnetic attraction means. Permendur (coso) was used for the core, and the magnetomotive force N was set to 3000. The gap CB) at the tip was set to 400 μm, and the resolution 1 was used as the heat application means.
An 80DP thin film thermal head was used.

The ink medium used was a 4 μm thick PK'l' (polyethylene terephthalate) film coated with a magnetic ink having the composition shown below by a hot melt method so that the ink thickness was 6 μm.

[Magnetic ink composition]

1, 7 Gnetite fine particles 40wt%Z Carnauba wax 20wt%5 Paraffin wax 30wt%4, Ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer SW t%5, Dispersant
1wt% & dye
4 vrt % A block diagram of the printing method according to this embodiment is shown in FIG. 2 (α). 21 is a thermal head, 22 is an ink medium, 23 is a transfer paper (Beck smoothness 2
24 is an electromagnetic head. The ink medium is PI
It is composed of a T film 25 and magnetic ink 26.

Ink transfer was performed using the above elements and configuration.

Table 1 shows the printing conditions and transfer efficiency evaluation results at this time.
Shown below.

The evaluation result of the transfer efficiency was expressed as a percentage of the amount of ink transferred to the transfer paper with respect to the ink equivalent to the area of the thermal element of the thermal head (thermal element area x ink thickness) ffl.

Example 2) Ink transfer was performed using the same elements and configuration as in Example 1) but with different printing conditions as shown in Table 1.

Example 3) In Example 1), the N work of the electromagnet head was 5000
Ink transfer was performed under different printing conditions as shown in Table 1.

Example 4) In Example 1, the tip gap of the electromagnet head (
B) was set to 300 μm, and ink transfer was performed under the same conditions as shown in Table 1.

Comparative Example 1) Using the same elements as in Example 1), in the configuration shown in Fig. 2 Ch), the magnetic ink and the transfer paper were made to come into contact when thermal energy was applied, that is, at 4 directly below the thermal head. The ink transfer was performed under the same conditions as in Example 1).

Comparative Example 2) In the same configuration as Comparative Example 1), ink transfer was performed under the same printing conditions as in Example 2).

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention includes a means for applying thermal energy to a recording portion of thermoplastic magnetic ink and a means for generating a magnetic attraction force to the ink, and by controlling the application of thermal energy, In a printing method in which a recorded portion of ink is transferred to a transfer medium using magnetic attraction force, the ink and the transfer medium are configured so that they do not come into contact with each other in the non-recorded portion of the ink. This eliminates the need for the process of peeling off the ink, and it is possible to greatly increase ink transfer efficiency. Therefore, it is possible to form high-quality characters and images even on paper with extremely poor surface smoothness, film with poor affinity with ink, and the like. Furthermore, since thermal energy can also be reduced, printing speed can be increased. Furthermore, by using an electromagnet as the magnetic attraction means, the attraction force can be controlled, and by turning off the power when not transferring, it is possible to prevent magnetic dust, ink, etc. from adhering to the electromagnetic head. can.

Further, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, but is effective for all printing methods in which a recorded portion of thermoplastic magnetic ink is transferred to a transfer medium by magnetic attraction by controlling thermal energy.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure @1 is a diagram showing the principle of the printing method of the present invention. @2 i! I (α) and (c) are configuration diagrams of embodiments of the present invention. Figures 2 (b)-1 to (A)-4 are diagrams showing the ink transfer mechanism according to the printing method of the present invention. Figure 2 Cd) ~
(da) is a main cross-sectional view of the electromagnetic head according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3 (α) is a diagram showing the magnetic field distribution of the electromagnetic head of this embodiment. FIG. 3(A) is a diagram showing the attenuation curve of the magnetic field strength of the electromagnetic head of FIG. A diagram showing the various forces acting on the ink. Figure 5 is a diagram showing the conventional printing method. Applicant Seiko Epson Corporation (Q) Figure 2 Figure 2 (d) l4 (e) Figure 2 ( f) Figure 2 Figure 3 A FB Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] It has means for applying thermal energy to the recording portion of the thermoplastic magnetic interlayer and means for generating magnetic attraction force to the ink, and by controlling the application of thermal energy, the recording portion of the ink is transferred to the transfer medium by the magnetic attraction force. 1. A printing method in which the ink and the transfer medium do not come into contact with each other in a non-recorded portion of the ink, and the means for generating magnetic attraction force is an electromagnetic head.