JPS62160247A - Printing head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a miniaturized high-speed printer by providing heating elements and light emitting elements opposed to each other and arranging the heating elements in the forward of a printing direction. CONSTITUTION:A printing head 2 has a heating element block 3 provided in the forward of an arrow-indicated printing direction and a light emitting element block 4 in the backward. The heating element block 3 consists of heating elements 3a arranged linearly in a direction crossing a printing direction at right angles. In the meantime, the light emitting element block 4 is made up of light emitting diodes 4a arranged in a single line against each heating element 3a. The printing head 2 moves in an arrow direction against a thermosensitive paper 1. At that time, the heating element block 3 is energized and a printing image is generated on the paper by the heating elements 3a. Then the image had the light emitting element blocks 4 set sequentially in an opposite position to the former by the movement of the printing head 2 and then is fixed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a print head used in a printing device such as a thermal printer that performs thermal printing on fixing type thermal paper.

<Conventional technology> Such a fixed type! 5! Printing devices that use thermal paper as printing paper generally use a print head called a thermal head as a means of applying thermal energy to the thermal paper, and this print head is a thin film type that generates Joule heat for printing. Or it has a configuration in which thick film resistors are arranged,
Based on the information to be printed, only the required resistors are energized to generate heat, and the heat-sensitive medium of thermal paper that comes into contact with the heated resistors develops color to generate an image. In order to permanently stabilize these images, light energy is applied to the images to fix them. As the energy irradiation means, the wavelength and intensity of the irradiation light that give the best fixing efficiency are selected, and a lamp or the like that matches the wavelength and intensity is used.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Therefore, it is necessary to provide light energy irradiation means separately from the heat generation means by the print head. This is a factor that hinders both the increase in printing speed and the miniaturization of devices.

(Objective of the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a print head that can simultaneously achieve high speed and miniaturization of a printing device. It is.

<Means for Solving the Problems> In order to achieve the above object, the print head of the present invention generates an image such as a single character image using thermal energy of the print head generated in response to information to be printed. In the printing head of the printing device using a fixing type thermal paper that fixes the image by irradiating the image with light energy, the printing head includes a heating element section in which heating elements for printing are arranged, and a light emitting section facing the heating element section. The gist of the present invention is that the heating element portion is disposed on the front side in the printing direction.

<Operation> With the above configuration, an image is generated on the fixing type thermal paper by the heating element of the print head, and as the print head moves in the printing direction, the image is positioned behind the heating element with respect to the printing direction. The light emitters of the print head sequentially face the image generated on the thermal paper, and the image is irradiated with light energy from the light emitters to fix the image.

<Example> Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

In FIG. 1, a print head 2 for printing on fixing type thermal paper 1 is provided with a heating element part 3 on the front side with respect to the printing direction shown by the arrow, and a light emitting element part 4 on the rear side. ing. As shown in FIG. 2, the heating element section 3 has a structure in which heating elements 3a, which are small rectangular resistors made of thin or thick films, are linearly arranged in a direction orthogonal to the printing direction.

Further, the light emitting body section 4 has a structure in which light emitting diodes 4a are arranged in a line corresponding to each of the heating elements 3a.

Next, to explain the effect, as shown in Figure 3,
The print head 2 moves relative to the thermal paper 1 in the direction of the arrow, and at this time, the heating element 3 moves while contacting the photosensitive surface of the thermal paper 1, thereby being energized and generating heat according to the print information. A printed image is generated on the paper surface by the heating element 3a. Then, as the print head 2 moves, the light emitter section 4 sequentially faces the printed image, and the image is irradiated with the light energy of the light emitter section 4, thereby fixing the image.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and for example, the light-emitting body section 4 is not limited to the light-emitting diode 4a, and other light-emitting bodies such as lamps may be used.

Further, if necessary, a light shielding means or the like may be provided to prevent the irradiation of light energy to the lens or the non-printing portion of the photosensitive paper.

<Effects of the Invention> As explained above, according to the print head of the present invention, the heating element section for printing and the light emitting section for fixing are arranged side by side in front and back positions with respect to the printing direction. After generating a printed image using only the head, this image can be fixed, and it is possible to simultaneously achieve miniaturization of the applicable printing device and increased printing speed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Each drawing shows an embodiment of the print head of the present invention, with FIG. 1 being a perspective view, FIG. 2 being a front view, and FIG. 3 being a plan view. 1--Fixing type thermal paper 2--Print head 3--Heating element section 3a--Heating element 4--Light emitter section 4a--Light emitting diode

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A printing device that uses fixing type thermal paper that generates images such as characters and images using the thermal energy of the print head generated in response to the information to be printed, and fixes the images by irradiating the images with light energy. The print head is characterized in that a heating element section in which printing heating elements are arranged and a light emitting section facing the heating element section are disposed such that the heating element section is positioned on the front side in the printing direction. print head. (2) The print head according to claim 1, wherein the light emitting body section has a structure in which light emitting diodes are arranged facing each of the heat generating elements.