JPS6219474A - Thermal transfer recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily achieve highly accurate paper feeding required for multicolor recording, by providing a guide member for restricting a feeding passage at the part at which a thermal transfer ink sheet and a recording paper comes into contact with each other in the process of being fed to a recording part, for at least one of the ink sheet and the paper. CONSTITUTION:When a drum 1 is driven to rotate in the direction of arrow A for feeding the ink sheet 4 from an ink sheet payout shaft 10 to an ink sheet take-up shaft 9, the leading end of a recording paper 2 supplied between a paper guide 6 and a paper supplying/discharging block 7 by a paper-supplying mechanism is pressed against the drum 1 by a freely rotatable feeding roller 5, and is fed between the guide 6 and the drum 1 in the rotating direction of the drum 1. With an ink sheet guide plate 11 provided, the angle theta of the recording paper 2 to the ink sheet 4 is reduced, and the leading end of the paper 2 is fed conforming to a fixed locus along the guide plate 11, so that the paper 2 is stably fed to a thermal head 3 together with the ink sheet 4.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording device, and in particular, to a thermal transfer recording device that performs multi-color recording on pre-cut recording paper using a long thermal transfer ink sheet. The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording device equipped with an ink sheet and recording paper transport mechanism suitable for various applications.

[Background of the invention]

Currently, there is a desire for an inexpensive, compact printer capable of recording multiple colors. Technical issues for realizing the above printer include: 1. 2. There is no color shift when recording in multiple colors.
5. It has a simple configuration. It is necessary to simultaneously solve three conditions for easy replenishment of ink of multiple colors.

- As one solution to the above technical problem, a combination of a 1°flix 1infeed type paper conveyance mechanism, thermal transfer recording using a 2°7LJk head and an ink sheet, and 3. making an ink sheet into a cassette is considered.

As a conventional example of the above configuration, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 56-6727
The method described in Japanese Patent No. 8 is mentioned, and it is shown that a thermal transfer recording device that is easy to handle, small in size, and inexpensive can be obtained.

However, the above example does not address the problems encountered when recording in multiple colors.

As a multi-color expression method using the configuration of the thermal transfer device described above, a long ink sheet with multiple colors of ink arranged side by side on the ink sheet is used, and the color information of the ink sheet is sequentially recorded on recording paper. is possible. in this case,
The recording paper is conveyed multiple times by a recording paper conveyance mechanism to an information recording area where a thermal head and a drum are in pressure contact, together with an ink sheet having a color corresponding to the information.

The paper conveyance mechanism of the thermal transfer recording apparatus is such that a recording paper and an ink sheet are brought into pressure contact with a drum and a thermal head, and conveyed by rotation of the drum. In the paper transport mechanism described above, the recording paper is not fixed to the drum, so the recording paper is transported without being exposed to the surface of the drum except in the recording paper transport section of the drum. Therefore, the amount of conveyance of the recording paper conveyed together with the ink sheet is
It is affected by the recording paper conveyance capacity of the drum and the recording paper conveyance capacity of the ink sheet.

When the recording paper is conveyed to the recording unit together with the ink sheet, the leading edge of the recording paper that does not touch the drum is guided by the ink sheet.
The conveyance amount is affected by the recording paper conveyance ability of the ink sheet.

At this time, if the tension in the conveying direction of the ink sheet is unevenly distributed in the direction of the rotation axis of the drum, the recording paper conveying ability of the ink sheet will also be unevenly distributed.

The leading edge of the recording paper is conveyed unevenly.

The problem of uneven tension on the ink sheet is often caused by the positional accuracy of the ink sheet supply shaft, f:? It can be solved by #J.

However, the ink sheet supply shaft is a component of the ink cassette, and in order to provide an inexpensive and compact device, it is not desirable to increase the precision of the cassette in order to ensure the positional accuracy of the ink sheet supply shaft.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a printer that is capable of recording multiple colors on pre-cut recording paper using a thermal transfer recording method using a long thermal transfer ink sheet, and which is capable of transporting the paper with high precision required for recording multiple colors. An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer recording device that can easily obtain the following.

[Summary of the invention]

In the present invention, at least one of the thermal transfer ink sheet and the recording paper is provided with a guide member that regulates the conveyance path at a portion where the thermal transfer ink sheet and the recording paper begin to come into contact with each other during the process of being conveyed to the recording section.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a rotatable drum 1 is provided with a heat-sensitive drum 3.
The ink separation roller 8 on the ink sheet take-up shaft 9 side of the thermal head 3 and the ink sheet guide plate 11 on the ink sheet supply shaft 10 side are in contact with the drum 1 via the ink sheet 4, respectively, and the arrow A on the drum 1 The ink sheet 4 can be conveyed by rotating the direction. The above configuration also allows the recording paper 2 to be conveyed together with the ink sheet 4 by the rotation of the drum 10 when the recording paper 2 is between the ink sheet 4 and the drum 1 during recording.

A recording paper guide 6 and a paper feed/discharge block 7 are provided along the drum 1 at intervals that allow the recording paper 2 to be fed. That is, the distance between the recording paper guide surface 6a of the recording paper guide 6 and the recording paper guide surface 7a of the paper feed/discharge block 7 and the drum 1 is small enough to allow the recording paper 2 to be conveyed.

The drum 1 moves the ink sheet 4 from the ink sheet supply shaft 10 to the ink sheet winding shaft 9 by a driving force (not shown).
When the recording paper 2 is rotated in the direction of the arrow A to be conveyed to the drum 1, the leading edge of the recording paper 2 fed by a paper feeding mechanism (not shown) from between the paper guide 6 and the paper feed/discharge block 7 is moved to the feed roller 5 which freely rotates. The recording paper guide 6 and the drum 10 are then conveyed in the rotational direction of the drum 1 .

FIG. 2 shows a state in which the recording paper 2 is conveyed between the recording paper guide 6 and the drum 10 and the leading edge of the recording paper 2 is in contact with the ink sheet 4 in the conventional example. Components that are the same as in FIG. 1 are designated by the same numbers.

If there is no ink sheet guide plate 11, the tension T in the ink sheet conveyance direction is not uniformly distributed in the axial direction of the drum 1, because the ink sheet 4 is generally tangled or has poor positional accuracy of the ink sheet supply shaft 10. It is twisted as shown.

These phenomena are particularly noticeable when the ink sheet supply shaft 10 is housed in an inexpensive and simply constructed cassette (not shown). Furthermore, the positioning of the leading edge of the recording paper 2 in the direction of the drum axis is also unstable.

Therefore, the recording paper 2 and the ink sheet 4 are sent to the thermal head 3 in a state where the conveyance capacity of the recording paper 2 and the tension of the ink sheet 4 are balanced.

The reason why the conveyance amount of the recording paper 2 is greatly influenced by the conveyance capacity of the ink sheet 4 is that the angle θ between the conveyance direction of the ink sheet 4 and the conveyance direction of the recording paper 2 is large, and There are variations in the conveying locus of the leading edge of the recording paper 2 due to the balance between the tension and the force with which the recording paper 2 is fed, and as a result, the recording position shifts each time the recording is repeated.

By providing the ink sheet guide plate 11, the recording paper 2 can reduce the angle θ with respect to the ink sheet 4, and the leading edge of the recording paper 2 can maintain a constant trajectory along the ink sheet guide plate 11. 4 and are stably transported to the thermal head 5.

Therefore, the positional deviation of the recording paper 2 with respect to the position of the recording paper during the previous recording, which is caused by the difference in the conveyance amount of the leading edge of the recording paper 2, does not occur.

In FIG. 1, the ink sheet guide plate 11 includes an ink sheet guide surface 11a and an ink sheet/recording paper guide surface 11.
An angle is set on the two surfaces of b, but if the angle formed by the recording paper 2 and the ink sheet 4 is reduced by providing the ink sheet guide plate 11, and the joint part has a constant trajectory, then the structure shown in FIG.
Even if the ink sheet guide surface 11a and the ink sheet/recording paper guide surface 11b are one plane as shown in FIG. 3(a), they are composed of downwardly convex curved surfaces as shown in FIG. 3(b). Alternatively, it may be a curved surface that is convex upward, as shown by the broken line 11C in the figure.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment in which a guide plate is provided only for the recording paper 2. In place of the ink sheet guide plate 11 having the structure shown in FIG.
Because the ink sheet 4 and the recording paper 2 are in contact with the surface of the drum 1 until just before the joint with the drum 1, the angle formed between the ink sheet 4 and the recording paper 2 is reduced, and the effect of eliminating the influence of the recording paper conveyance capacity of the ink sheet 4 on the recording paper conveyance amount is achieved. be. Further, the position of the recording paper 2 with respect to the drum 1 is also stable because the friction between the drum 1 and the recording paper 2 is large.

In FIG. 4, the cross section of the guide surface of the recording paper guide plate 12 is a straight line, but even if the cross section of the recording paper guide surface 12 is a curved line as in the example shown in FIG. It is possible to reduce the joint angle of the recording paper 2 and increase the friction between the drum 1 and the recording paper 2, which has a similar effect.

6 and 7 show another embodiment in which a rotatable recording paper guide roller 13 is used instead of the recording paper guide plate 12. FIG.

Since the recording paper guide roller 13 presses the recording paper 2 against the surface of the drum 10 immediately before the joining part with the ink sheet 4, the joining angle between the ink sheet 4 and the recording paper 2 can be reduced, and the recording paper 2 This eliminates the influence of uneven tension distribution of the ink sheet 4 on the conveyance amount of the ink sheet, and maintains the frictional force between the recording paper 2 and the drum 1 without increasing the load associated with paper conveyance.

The position of the recording paper row 213 is between the recording paper 2 and the ink sheet 4.
Since it is sufficient that the paper guide 6 is placed immediately before the joint of the paper guide 6 as shown in FIG.
There is no problem even if it is installed outside.

Further, as shown in FIG. 8, even in the embodiment in which the ink sheet guide plate 11 and the recording paper guide plate 12t are provided separately, it is possible to eliminate the influence of tension asymmetry of the ink sheet 4 on the conveyance amount of the recording paper 2. Needless to say, it is possible.

As shown in FIG. 9, when the thermal head 3 is rotatable about the shaft 144, the ink sheet guide plate 11 is attached to the thermal head 3 via an elastic material 15 such as rubber or a plate spring. I can do it. In addition, as shown in FIG. 10 a), the thermal head 3 is provided with a push part 5'.
An ink sheet guide plate 11t or a recording paper guide plate 12t as shown in FIG.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, in a table printer capable of recording multiple colors using a thermal recording method using a long horizontal thermal transfer ink sheet, even if the thermal transfer ink sheet supply shaft is tangled or misaligned, the influence on the recording paper conveyance ability is not affected. By not receiving this, it is possible to provide a thermal transfer recording device Rf that performs paper conveyance with high precision required for multi-color recording.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are side views of the configuration of a first embodiment of the paper conveying section of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a side view showing the shape of the ink paper guide plate, and FIG. 4 is a side view of the paper conveyance unit of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a side cross-sectional view showing the shape of the recording paper guide plate; FIG. 6 is a side view of the configuration of the fifth embodiment of the paper conveyance unit of the present invention. , FIG. 7 is a side view of an example in which the mounting position of the recording paper guide roller is changed, FIG. 8 is a side view of the structure of the fourth embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 9 is a side view of the embodiment of the gs of the present invention. Fig. 10 is a side view of the structure of a sixth embodiment of the present invention. Explanation of symbols 1 Ni drum 2: Recording paper 4: Ink sheet 11: Ink sheet guide plate 12: Recording paper guide plate 13: Recording paper guide roller ■ Expletive 2 old'

Claims (1)

[Claims] A rotatable drum, a thermal recording head in pressure contact with the drum, a long thermal transfer ink sheet that is sandwiched between the thermal recording head and the drum and can be conveyed by rotation of the drum, and a supply section for the thermal transfer ink sheet. , a thermal transfer recording device comprising a guide member positioned around the drum at a minute interval, and a conveyance means for conveying the pre-cut recording paper to the drum within the above-mentioned interval. A guide member for regulating the conveying direction of at least one of the recording paper and the thermal transfer ink sheet is provided close to the drum at a portion where the recording paper and the thermal transfer ink sheet begin to come into contact with each other. A thermal transfer recording device.