JPS62233269A - Electrothermal recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an electrothermal printing head capable of being adapted for higher density and a multiple-electrode construction, by providing small-type electrothermal heads shorter than the width of a paper to be used, and arranging the electrothermal heads in parallel over the entire range of the width of the paper. CONSTITUTION:Each electrothermal head 26 constituting an electrothermal transfer head 1 comprises two current-controlling ICs 32 on a flexible printed board, and a current-passing part 36 comprising electrode patterns 34 corresponding to a printing resolution for printing on a paper 5 which part 36 is provided at the tip of the head 26. When being supplied with a code signal through a connection part 38, each of the ICs 32 analyzes a code, and passes currents to the electrode patterns 34. When each of the electrothermal heads 26 receiving a driving controlling signal from an electronic controller 20 through a connector 15 passes the currents to the corresponding electrode patterns 34, an electric current flows through a closed circuit comprising an electrothermal transfer sheet 9 and a return electrode roller 13 at the current-supplied part, thereby effecting local heat generation in the sheet 9 and transfer to the paper 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an energization recording device that performs printing using heat generated by energization.

[Prior Art] The 70 head that performs energized printing (including 7δ transfer) is prone to wear because its tip, which serves as an energizing electrode, runs in pressure contact with electrically resistive energizing printing paper or energizing ribbon.・10There was a problem that it was easily damaged. In order to prevent this, conventionally, electrode portions have been made of special metals with high hardness and low resistance that are excellent in heat resistance and abrasion resistance, such as tungsten and molybdenum.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, the current printing head using such a metal for the electrode portion has the following problems, and drastic improvements have been desired.

(1) High fI with excellent wear resistance and heat resistance! ! Polymer metals are generally difficult to process, making it difficult to accommodate high-density and multi-electrode current-carrying print heads, making it difficult to manufacture heads with a wide range of line types.

(2) In addition, when replacing a worn-out electrode at the tip, it would be wasteful to replace the entire driver that energizes the electrode.On the other hand, if you try to replace only the electrode, it will take a lot of effort to finely align the electrode. This has to be done at high viscosities, which is extremely difficult and rare.

This problem cannot be overlooked, especially in the case of heads equipped with a large number of electrodes, such as the current-carrying print heads of Sea-Tor type or line type printing devices. This will lead to increased costs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and provides an energized print head capable of achieving higher density and multiple power supplies.

Structure of the Invention [Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the energization recording device of the present invention has the following structure as a means for solving the problems. That is, in an energization recording device that energizes a conductive layer formed on an energized ribbon, paper, etc. via a supply electrode and a return electrode, and prints by utilizing the heat generated by the energization, the supply electrode may be used as the supply electrode to adjust the printing resolution. A plurality of current-carrying heads each having a length shorter than the width of the sheet of paper and having an electrode pattern provided in accordance with the width of the sheet and a control unit that controls a current flowing through the electrode pattern are arranged in parallel, and the electrode pattern covers the entire width of the sheet of paper. It was constructed as follows/8:1jJ.

[Function] The energization recording device of the present invention has the above-mentioned small 111 composition.
A current-carrying head that supplies current to a conductive layer such as a current-carrying ribbon or paper from an electrode pattern that is set in accordance with the printing resolution is formed as a small device shorter than the width of the paper, and a plurality of these current-carrying heads are formed. By arranging these in parallel over the entire paper width, a so-called line-type energization recording device is constructed. Therefore, in the energization recording device of the present invention, each energization head is capable of drawing an electrode pattern set corresponding to a printed dot and a control section for controlling the current flowing to the electrode pattern. mechanically minute eJ
i is configured, and together they perform one line-type energized printing.

[Examples] In order to further clarify the configuration of the present invention described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described next. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an energization recording apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the energization recording apparatus of this embodiment includes a line-type energization transfer head 1, a platen 7 that feeds paper 5 to the energization transfer head 1 together with two paper feed rollers 2 and 3, and a line-type energization transfer head 1; l＼A current-carrying transfer sheet 9 interposed between the rad, a return electrode roller 13 that clamps and conveys the current-carrying transfer sheet 9 together with the feed rubber roller 11, and a connector 1.
It is comprised of an electronic control device 20, etc., which is connected to the energized transfer head 1 via the energizing transfer head 5 and controls its driving.

The current-carrying transfer head 1 is rotatably rotated at a rotation angle 1122; a reinforcing plate 24 is provided, and a large number of current-carrying transfer heads are arranged in parallel across the width direction of the paper 5 on the reinforcing plate 24, as will be described later. It is composed of a head 26. In addition, the reinforcing plate 24
is biased in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1 by a spring 27, and the energizing head 26 is pressed against the energizing transfer sheet (-) with a predetermined biasing force.

2 and 3 are detailed structural explanatory diagrams of this energized transfer head 1. FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, one energizing head 26 constituting the energizing transfer head 1 has two energizing current control ICs 32 mounted on the thin flexible print 1 to the base plate, and the tip thereof is attached to the sheet 5. An energizing section 36 in which an electrode pattern 34 corresponding to the printing resolution to be printed is formed.
It is equipped with The current carrying part 36 is made by pasting a tungsten film with excellent wear resistance on a polyimide film.
As described above, resist film formation and chemical etching were performed on this in order to generate the electrode pattern 34 corresponding to the printing resolution. Each IC32 has connection part 3
When a code signal is input from 8, =1-code analysis is performed,
Electricity is applied to the electrode pattern 34 according to the analysis result.

The four holes 40 drilled in the current-carrying head 26 are shown in FIG.
As shown in A), a large number of energizing heads 26 are mounted on the reinforcing plate 24.
This is for positioning when installing them in parallel. Figure 3 (A> is a plan view of the energized transfer l\\t concavity, and Figure 3 (B) is a side view of the stone. As shown in the figure, in this example (5 energized heads 268 to 26F are partially overlapped so that the respective current-carrying parts 36 are closely arranged.When superimposed in this way, the lower-layer current-carrying head 26 and the upper-layer current-carrying head 26 Since the positioning holes 40 are aligned with each other, although it is a simple structure, it is possible to arrange the current-carrying part 36 in a straight line without any gaps.

Further, when placing the energizing heads 26 on the reinforcing plate 24, an insulating elastic material 42 such as silicone rubber is interposed between the energizing part 36 of each energizing head 26 and the reinforcing plate 24,
The current-carrying part 36 is made to have some degree of flexibility. In this way, each energizing head 26A is arranged in an orderly manner on the reinforcing plate 24.
26E are fitted onto the common board 50 and electrically connected to the connector 15, allowing drive control signals from the electronic control device 20 to be input as described above. Note that reliability can be improved by covering each of the energizing heads 26A to 26E with a dustproof cover 54 to protect them from floating dust and the like.

According to the energization recording device of this embodiment configured as described above, the drive control signal from the electronic control device 20 is transmitted to the connector 1.
If each of the energizing heads 26△ and 26F that receive the energizing head 26 through 5 conducts current to the corresponding \i-pole pattern 34, the current flows through the closed circuit consisting of the energizing transfer sheet 9 and the return electrode roller 13 in the portion 4; Local heat generation of the energized transfer sheet 9 and transfer to the paper 5 are performed. The used energized transfer sheet 9, which has been transferred in this way, is then wound up by a take-up roller 60, and the portion that comes into contact with the energized transfer head 1 is always a new portion.

Moreover, even in the case of the current-carrying recording device that is capable of printing wide lines as described above, the part that requires fine pattern processing with a low yield during manufacturing is an assembly of small-width current-carrying heads 26, and the fine pattern processing that is permissible depending on the production technology. It is constructed while maintaining a balance between the yield and the increase in man-hours when forming in a line shape.

Furthermore, as mentioned above, the current-carrying head 26 is a so-called consumable item that constantly rubs against the current-carrying transfer sheet 9, but some of the current-carrying heads 26 that are subject to severe wear and tear may be replaced with new ones.
This completes maintenance and achieves a running cost reduction of 1~. Furthermore, this energizing head 26 has a positioning hole 4.
0, it can be easily arranged on the reinforcing plate 24, and it can be easily connected by the common board 50, so maintenance and service can be done in a short time.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment in any way. For example, it may be possible to use an energized printing paper instead of an energized transfer sheet, or a shuttle-type energized print head. It goes without saying that the invention can be implemented in various forms without departing from the gist of the invention, such as a configuration as shown in FIG.

Effects of the Invention As detailed above, the current-carrying print head of the present invention has the excellent effect of realizing high electrode density and multi-electrode, and suitably performing current-carrying printing. . Further, no matter how large the line type head is constructed, the yield will not be reduced, and efficient production at low cost is possible.

Furthermore, since the current-carrying heads are mechanically independent, when a current-carrying head becomes worn out, only that current-carrying head needs to be replaced, and there is no need to replace the entire board, so there is no wastage of resources.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a printing device equipped with an energized transfer head as an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a detailed explanatory diagram of the energized head constituting the energized transfer head, and FIG.
A>, (B) is a detailed plan view of the energized transfer head, and J:
and a side view. 1... Current-carrying unit head 5... Paper 9... Current-carrying transfer sheet 1-13... Return electrode roller 20... Electronic control unit 24... Reinforcement plate 26... Current-carrying head

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In an energization recording device that energizes a conductive layer formed on an energized ribbon, paper, etc. via a supply electrode and a return electrode, and prints by utilizing heat generated by the energization, the supply electrode comprises: A plurality of current-carrying heads each having a length shorter than the length covering the paper width are arranged in parallel, each of which includes an electrode pattern provided in accordance with the printing resolution and a control unit that controls the current flowing through the electrode pattern, and the electrode pattern is arranged in parallel with a length shorter than the length covering the paper width. An energization recording device characterized in that it is configured to cover the entire area.