JPS62151390A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To correct the zig-zag advancing movement of a carbon ribbon due to wrinkles and also the occurrence of wrinkles by a method in which each time printing for a given content is ended, a platen is separated from a thermal head. CONSTITUTION:A head supporter 24 is provided on one side of a pivotal shaft 23 and a thermal head 25 is integrally provided near the tip of the supporter 24. An L-shaped lever 26 whose tip is contacted with a cam 18 is also fixed to the other side of the supporter 24 and physically energized toward a cam 16 and also the head 25 is pushed toward the direction of contacting with a platen 20. During the period when the cam 18 turns at 90 deg., the lever 26 is pressed by the corner of the cam 18, and the lever 26 is counterclockwise turned and again returned to its initial position by the force of a spring 27. Since the supporter 24 is also counterclockwise turned as the lever 26 turns counterclockwise, the head 25 is separated from the platen 20 and they come into contact with each other again at the time when the 90 deg. turning of the cam 18 is ended.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Application of the Invention) The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer, and particularly to one that can always perform highly accurate printing by preventing wrinkles and meandering of a carbon ribbon.

(Prior art) A thermal transfer printer presses a platen and a thermal head relative to each other with a printing medium such as a continuous bill and a thermal transfer carbon ribbon in between, and each heating element of the thermal head generates heat according to a desired print pattern signal. At the same time, printing is performed while appropriately transporting the printing medium and the carbon ribbon.

The carbon ribbon used in printers of the 1-1 method is
Carbon or other materials are mixed with wax and coated on a very thin base material, such as a synthetic resin film, with a thickness of several microns to several tens of microns, and the carbon heated by a thermal head is coated. It is transferred to a print medium. However, since the base material is an extremely thin material, the portion heated by the thermal head shrinks and wrinkles occur, which tends to adversely affect printing accuracy. Also,
There was also a problem that the entire carbon ribbon meandered due to these wrinkles. In particular, when printing is performed off-centered to one side in the width direction of the printing medium, and then printed off-centered to the other side, the neck of the carbon ribbon shrinks and changes significantly, causing more wrinkles and meandering. It's easy to do.

In order to solve this problem, conventional methods have been to increase the tension of the carbon ribbon to prevent wrinkles and meandering.
There are some that are designed to do this. However, there is a problem in that increasing the tension of the carbon ribbon places a large mechanical load on the entire printer.

(Object of the invention) The present invention has been made in view of the problems mentioned above.
To provide a thermal transfer printer capable of correcting wrinkles and meandering occurring in a carbon ribbon without applying particularly large tension, and capable of always printing high 1 & [.

(Summary of the Invention) The thermal transfer printer according to the present invention corrects wrinkles generated in the carbon ribbon and meandering caused by the wrinkles by separating the platen and the thermal head every time printing of a predetermined content is completed. It is.

(Example) Hereinafter, specific examples of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to each of the four aspects.

The bills constituting the continuous bill as a printing medium include labels, tags, tickets, etc., and in this embodiment, a label as shown in FIG. 3 is exemplified. That is, in this continuous bill 1, a large number of labels 3 are temporarily attached to the surface of a strip-shaped mount 2 in a removable state, and a mark 4 for position detection is printed on the back side of the mount 2 for each label 3. has been done.

Next, the structure of a thermal transfer printer according to the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

of. A mounting plate 11 is erected on (stand 10), and a pulse motor 13 is fixed by a motor support stand 12. Two one-way rotation clutches 15 and 16 are attached to the rotating shaft 14 of the pulse motor 13, one clutch 15 is provided with a pulley 17, and the other clutch 16 is provided with a square cam 18, respectively. . One clutch 15 connects the rotary shaft 14 and pulley 17 only when the Nockles motor 13 rotates clockwise in FIG. The rotating shaft 14 and the cam 18 are connected only when the rotating shaft 14 rotates.

A rotating shaft 19 is rotatably supported on the mounting plate 11 . A platen 20 on a roll is fixed to one side of the rotating shaft 19 with the mounting plate 11 in between, and a pulley 21 is fixed to the other side. And this pulley 21
A belt 22 is placed between the belt 22 and a pulley 17 provided on the clutch 15, so that the platen 20 is driven to rotate when the pulse motor 13 rotates clockwise in FIG. .

Further, a pivot shaft 23 is rotatably supported on the mounting plate 11. A head support member 24 is fixed to one side of the pivot 23 with the mounting plate 11 in between.
A thermal head 25 is integrally disposed near the tip of 4. Also, on the other side of the pivot 23, a cam 18 is provided at the tip.
An L-shaped lever 26 that abuts is fixed. A spring 27 is provided between this lever and the mounting plate 11.
is tensioned, and the lever 26 is connected to the cam 16 by this spring 27, and the print head 25 is connected to the platen 20.
are biased in the direction of pressing into contact with each other.

Further, the mounting plate 11 rotatably supports a continuous bill supply shaft 30 that winds and holds the above-mentioned continuous bills 1. The continuous bills 1 supplied from this supply shaft 30 are transported to a guide roller 3
5, 36, 37, and platen 20 while being guided at 38.
After passing between the printing head 25 and the printing head 25, the continuous bill winding shaft 32 rotatably supported by the mounting plate 11 winds up the continuous bill as appropriate. Further, a ribbon supply shaft 33 is rotatably supported on the mounting plate 11, and the thermal transfer carbon ribbon 5 is wound and held on this ribbon supply shaft 33. The carbon ribbon 5 supplied from the ribbon supply shaft 33 passes between the platen 20 and the thermal head 25 while being in contact with the continuous bill 1 while being guided by guide rollers 36, 37, 39, and then is placed on the mounting plate 11. The ribbon is configured to be appropriately wound around a rotatably supported ribbon winding shaft 34. Note that the continuous bill winding shaft 32 and the ribbon winding shaft 34 are configured to be rotationally driven by a drive means (not shown), and the continuous bill 1 is transferred while being held between the platen 20 and the print head 25. Then, the carbon ribbon 5 is appropriately wound up by the transferred amount. Further, reference number 40 in FIG. 1 is a reflection type photoelectric detector for detecting the mark 4 printed on the back side of the above-mentioned continuous bill l.

Next, the drive circuit of the thermal transfer printer is shown in Figures 4 to 4.
This will be explained with reference to FIG.

The CPU 50 that controls the entire circuit includes a ROM 51, R
AM52 and I10 ports 53 are connected. The I10 port 53 has a print head drive circuit 54 for driving the print head 25, a pulse motor drive circuit 55 for driving the pulse motor 13, a print data input circuit 56 consisting of a keyboard or external computer, etc., and a photoelectric detector 40. It is connected.

As shown in FIG. 5, the ROM 51 has a program storage section 51a in which the overall operating wishes are stored, and a fixed value storage section 51b in which predetermined values and data are stored. This fixed value storage section 51b includes
Kl is the number of dot lines for one character, 2 is the number of lines for one item to be printed, and 3 is the number of steps of the pulse motor 13 required to move between each printing line. 4 is stored in step 11 of the pulse motor 13 necessary to rotate the cam 18 by 90 degrees, and data for driving the pulse motor 13 using the two-phase excitation method is stored at address A-A+3. ing. That is, address A contains data for exciting the first and second poles of the pulse motor 13 shown in FIG. 4, and address A+1 contains data for exciting the second and third poles of the pulse motor 13. Data, data for exciting the third and fourth poles of the pulse motor 13 are stored at address A+2, and data for exciting the fourth and first poles of the pulse motor 13 are stored at address A+3. There is.

Note that in this embodiment, one item refers to one type of printed content printed on the label 3, and normally, multiple items, that is, multiple types of printed content are printed on multiple labels 3.
is printed on.

In addition, the RAM 52 includes an input data storage section DM that stores data for required items inputted by the print data manual circuit 56, and inputs and stores data for items to be printed from this input data storage section DM. A print data storage part PM that stores the number of prints of the print data recorded in the print data storage part PM, a print number storage part PN that stores the number of prints of the print data recorded in the print data storage part PM, and a dot line marking t! ! Section DI, Line number storage section CI, Interline step number storage section LF, Reverse step number storage section HU, RO
An address storage section PP for storing any address from A-A+3 of M51 is provided.

Next, the 71st article regarding the printing operation of the above-mentioned thermal transfer printer.
This will be explained with reference to FIG.

Note that before starting printing, print data corresponding to the required items to be printed is input into the print data storage circuit 56,
The input print data is stored in the input data storage section DM of the RAM 52. This print data includes multiple lines of character data and print number data for each item.

When the required print data is input, the printing operation starts.
First, an initial set is made in step Sl. In this initial set, the dot line fiK1 of one character stored in the fixed value storage section 51b of the ROM 51 is set to the number of dot lines DL of the RAM 51, and 2 is set to the number of rows of the item in the row number storage section CL of the RAM 52. be done.

Then, in step S2, it is determined whether a print start key (not shown) has been operated.

When the print start key is operated, in step S3, among the print data for a plurality of items stored in the input data storage section DM, data for the item to be printed first is taken into the print data storage section PM. Further, in step S4, the number of print sheets n corresponding to this print data is set in the print number storage section PN, and then in step S5, 1
The print data for the dot line is sent to the print head drive circuit 54.
It is supplied to the print head 25 through the print head 25, and printing for one line and three lines is performed. When printing for one dot line is completed, it is determined in step S6 whether DL=O, that is, whether all dot lines corresponding to one line of characters have been printed.If DL=O, it is determined in step S7. Proceed to the subroutine for pulse motor forward rotation operation.

In this forward rotation operation of the pulse motor, as shown in FIG. 8, first, in step S26, it is determined whether the address data stored in the address storage section PP of the RAM 52 is A+3. In this judgment, if FP=A+3, the contents of the address storage section are set to A, and if PP=A+3, the value of PP is added by rlJ, and then step S29
Move to. In step S29, data corresponding to the address stored in the address storage section PP is transferred to the pulse motor drive circuit 5.
Output to 5. As a result, the pulse motor 13 rotates forward by l steps. The forward rotation of the pulse motor 13 rotates the platen 20, and the continuous bill 11 and the carbon ribbon 5 are transferred by one dot line by the rotation of the platen 20.

Then, the process returns to step S8 in FIG. 7, and after the content of the dot line number storage unit DL is subtracted by "1", step s
Move on to 5. By repeating steps S5 to S8 in this manner, when printing of all dot lines of one line of characters is completed, DL=O, and the process moves to step S9.

In this step S9, the number of dot lines Kl of the character is set again in the dot line tα10L, and in step 510 it is determined whether CL=O, that is, whether printing of all lines corresponding to one label 3 has been completed. A judgment is made.

If CL=O, the contents of the line number storage CL are
1” and the fixed value storage section 51b of the ROM 51.
Step S
The process moves to a subroutine for normal rotation of the pulse motor, indicated by 13. When the pulse motor 13 is driven by one step in step S13, the contents of the line spacing step number storage section are subtracted by rlJ in step SL4, and in S15 LF=O
A judgment will be made as to whether If LF=O is not the case, steps 313 to 315 are repeated, and the continuous bill 1 and carbon ribbon 5 are transferred by the number of steps of 3. As a result, LF=0, and the process returns to step S5.

As described above, by repeating steps $5 to $315, content corresponding to l item or one label 3
CL=0 is determined in step 310. If it is determined in step S10 that CL=O, in step 316 the number of lines for one item is set to 2 and RA is
After setting in the line number storage section CL of M52, step 51
The pulse motor moves to normal rotation operation as indicated by 7. Step S
When the pulse motor S13 is driven one step in step 17, it is determined in step 318 whether the photoelectric detector 40 has been turned on, that is, whether the photoelectric detector 40 has detected the mark 4 on the continuous bill 1. When the photoelectric detector 40 is not turned on, the normal rotation of the pulse motor 13 is repeated and the consecutive labels 1 and the carbon ribbon 4 are transferred one step at a time, and when the photoelectric detector 40 is turned on, the next label 3 is transferred. It is assumed that the first printing position is set to the position of the printing pad 25, and the process moves to step S19. In step 319, it is determined whether PN=O, that is, whether printing of the required number n of sheets corresponding to the item being printed has been completed. If PN=O, the content of the print number storage section PN is subtracted by rlJ, and then the process returns to step S5.

By repeating the operations of steps S5 to S20 in this manner, printing of all n sheets corresponding to the first item is completed. When all printing corresponding to one item is completed in this way, it is determined that PN=0 in step SL9, and the process moves to step S21. R at step S21
After the value of 4 for the number of reverse rotation steps of the pulse motor 13 stored in the fixed value storage section 51b of the OM 51 is set in the number of reverse rotation step storage section HU of the RAM 52, step 5 is set.
The process moves to a pulse motor reversal subroutine indicated by 22.

As shown in FIG. 9, this pulse motor reversal subroutine first determines in step 530 whether the address data stored in the address storage section PP of the RAM 52 is A. If the data stored in this address storage unit PP is A, the data stored in the address storage unit PP is A+.
After setting 3, if it is not A again, set PP to rlJ
After subtracting the value, the process moves to step 333. This step S
33 outputs data corresponding to the address stored in the address storage section PP to the pulse motor drive circuit 55. As a result, the pulse motor 13 is reversed by one step. Due to this reverse rotation of the pulse motor 13, the platen 20 does not rotate, but the cam 18 is rotated by an angle corresponding to one step.

Then, the process returns to step S23 and the number of reverse rotation steps HU is set to "
After subtracting by 1'', it is determined in step 324 whether HU=O, that is, whether the cam 18 has been rotated by 90 degrees. If HU=O, steps 522 to 324 are repeated to drive the pulse motor 13 in the reverse direction one step at a time, and when the cam 18 has been rotated 90 degrees, the lever 26 comes into contact with the next surface of the cam 18. .

While the cam 18 rotates 90 degrees in this manner, the lever 26 is pressed by the corner of the cam 18, and as a result, the 8-26 rotates counterclockwise as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. Then, due to the biasing force of the spring 27, it returns to the initial position shown by the solid line. As the lever 26 rotates counterclockwise, the head support member 24 also rotates counterclockwise, so the print head 25 and platen 20 are separated, and when the cam finishes rotating 90 degrees, the head support member 24 rotates counterclockwise. Pressed. Due to the separation between the print head 25 and the platen 20, the wrinkles and meandering that have begun to occur in the carbon ribbon 5 are removed from the ribbon supply shaft 33.
This is corrected by the tension set between the ribbon winding shaft 34 and the ribbon winding shaft 34.

In this way, all contents corresponding to print data for l items are printed, and the print hand 25 and platen 20
When the separation operation from the RAM is completed, in step S25 the RAM
It is determined whether printing of print data corresponding to all items stored in the input data storage unit DM 52 has been completed. If not completed, step S
Returning to step 3, printing is started after the print data corresponding to the next item is taken into the print data storage part PM, and the number n of prints corresponding to that item is set in the print number storage part PN. Furthermore, if printing of print data corresponding to all items has been completed, the printing operation is completed.

In the above embodiment, the time period during which the print head 25 and the platen are connected for 1# is from step S22 to step S324.
This is the time obtained by multiplying the operation time of 2 by the value of HU, but this time apart can be set in various ways. For example, when the cam 18 rotates 45 degrees, that is, when the lever 26 and the head support member 24 are rotated most counterclockwise, the drive of the pulse motor 13 is stopped for the required time.
It is also possible to change the shape of the cam 18 by electrically controlling it so that it can move, or by making the shape of the cam 18 not a square but a regular triangle or a polygon of regular pentagon or more.

Further, the separation operation between the print head 25 and the platen 20 is performed when printing of one item is completed, that is, when it is determined that PN=O in step S19 in FIG. 7, but for example, in step S6, When it is determined that DL=0, that is, when printing of characters corresponding to one line is completed, or when CL=O at step SIO.
It is also possible to perform the printing at the time when printing on one label 3 is completed. - Step 321 to
It is sufficient to perform S24 after it is determined that DL=0 in step S6, or if it is performed every time printing on one label is completed, the operations in steps 521-324 are determined to be CL=O in step 310. You can do this after the

Further, although the thermal head 25 and the butt ten 20 are brought into contact and separated from each other by driving the thermal head 25 side, it is also possible to do so by driving the platen 20.

(Effects) As described above, the thermal transfer printer according to the present invention is configured to separate the platen 20 and the thermal head 25 every time printing of a predetermined content is completed. Therefore, the wrinkles and meandering that have started to occur on the carbon ribbon 5 are caused by the platen 2.
Since this is corrected by the separation between 0 and the thermal head 25, it is possible to always print clearly. Especially the third
Wrinkles on the carbon ribbon 5 that are likely to occur when printing is performed that is offset to the width direction of the label 3 as shown by R1 in the figure, and then is printed that is offset to the other side as shown by R2. And meandering can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

[Side 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 1 is a diagram showing a schematic structure of the entire thermal transfer printer, Figure 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II' in Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a printed state. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the control circuit.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of the ROM, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the contents of the RAM, and FIGS. 7 to 9 are flowcharts for explaining the operation. In the drawing ■・EE consecutive bills 5・Fist・Carbon ribbon 13・・
・Pulse motor 15.16. ,,One-way rotation clutch 18--fist/cam 2o--platen 24...Head support member 251/thermal head 26Φ fist/lever 50...Fight CPU 51--ROM52--RAM 54...Printing Head drive circuit 55...Pulse motor drive circuit 56...Print data input circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A platen, a thermal head that is relatively pressed against the platen with continuous bills and a thermal transfer carbon ribbon sandwiched therebetween, a transfer mechanism that transfers the continuous bills and the carbon ribbon, and the platen and the thermal head. The printer comprises a contact/separation mechanism for bringing the platen and the thermal head into contact with each other, a drive means for driving the contact/separation mechanism, and a control means for controlling the drive means to separate the platen and the thermal head each time printing of a predetermined content is completed. A thermal transfer printer featuring (2) a platen, a thermal head that is relatively pressed against the platen with continuous bills and a thermal transfer carbon ribbon sandwiched therebetween, a transfer mechanism that transfers the continuous bills and the carbon ribbon, and the platen and the thermal head; A contact/separation mechanism for bringing the contact/separation into contact, a driving means for driving the contact/separation mechanism, a data storage means for storing print data, and a drive means for each time printing of a predetermined content of the print data stored in the data storage means is completed. Thermal transfer characterized in that it is equipped with a determining means for determining whether or not to complete the process, and a control means for controlling the driving means to separate the platen and the thermal head each time the determining means determines whether to complete the process. printer. (3) a platen, a thermal head that is relatively pressed against the platen with continuous bills and a thermal transfer carbon ribbon sandwiched therebetween, a transfer mechanism that transfers the continuous bills and the carbon ribbon, and the platen and the thermal head. a motor for driving the transfer mechanism and the contact and separation mechanism; a first transmission means for transmitting power to the transfer mechanism when the motor rotates in a first direction; a second transmission means that transmits power to the contact/separation mechanism when rotating in a second direction; and a second transmission means that rotates the motor in the second direction every time printing of predetermined content is completed to connect the platen and the thermal head. A thermal transfer printer comprising: a control means for separating the printer.