JPS62244646A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To suppress an instantaneous electric power, to reduce the power source of a recording apparatus and to relieve the deterioration of the life of a thermal head, by driving two thermal heads arranged in close vicinity to each other by the same signals timewise shifted. CONSTITUTION:In performing printing, at first, a current is made to flow to a row of the heat generators 2a, 2b, 2c of a thermal head 1 on the basis of a driving signal 15 to generate heat therefrom and the ink held in the fine pores or fine recessed parts 9 of a film 8 is preheated. Next, the film 8 is sent by a film driving roll 10 so that the ink holding parts 9 are overlapped with a row of heat generators 3a, 3b, 3c. At this time, the heat generators 3a, 3b, 3c are supplied with a current on the basis of a drive signal 16 to generate heat. The generated heat further heats the preheated ink to generate bubbles in the ink and the ink is injected by the pressure of said bubbles to be adhered to paper 13. By applying the same drive signals timewise shifted to the thermal head, instantaneous power is suppressed and printing is performed at a high speed without deteriorating the life of the thermal head.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus for recording characters, figures, etc.

[Summary of the invention]

This invention supplies ink to a large number of micropores or microscopic depressions formed in the film, generates bubbles in the ink due to the heat generated by a thermal head placed in contact with the film, and uses the bubbles to oppose the film. In a recording device that prints by ejecting ink onto a paper surface placed at
By driving two rows of heating element groups with the same drive signal that is time-shifted, instantaneous power is suppressed and the cost of the device is reduced.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, it is well known that the inkjet method prints by intermittently spraying minute amounts of ink using pressure from the tip of a fine nozzle. However, with this method, the nozzle has a very small hole diameter of 0.1 to 0.5 mm, so ink clogging is a major problem, and although various measures have been taken to prevent this, management This is a very expensive device, and there is also the problem that it cannot be offered to the market at a low price due to the high precision of parts such as the nozzle. Therefore, with the aim of solving ink clogging and reducing costs using the same inkjet method, we developed an inkjet recording device that has a film-like member with a large number of microscopic holes or microscopic recesses.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-71260 has been invented.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the conventional technology, the instantaneous power given to the thermal head is extremely large, so there are drawbacks such as an increase in the power supply and a reduction in the lifespan of the thermal head, resulting in a device with high equipment costs and management costs. was.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention drives one thermal head consisting of two adjacent heating element groups, or two thermal heads arranged adjacent to each other, using the same temporally shifted signal. As a result, the above problems were resolved.

[Effect]

When the ink held in any of the fine pores or fine recesses of the film-like member reaches the place where it is to be printed, it is first heated by the first heating element group or a predetermined heating element of the thermal head. When the fine hole or fine recess passes through the second heating element group or thermal head, it is heated again by the same time-shifted signal,
For the first time, bubbles are generated in the ink, the ink is ejected onto the paper, and printing is performed. Here, the time-shifted signals are set in advance so as to supply the heating element with a current that generates slightly lower heat than that required to generate bubbles in the ink. When the ink is heated in this way, the energy is divided into two parts and applied, thereby suppressing the instantaneous power, making it possible to reduce the power supply of the device and to alleviate the deterioration of the life of the head.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings. 1st V! Ja and b show examples of thermal heads according to the present invention. 1st rI! In Ja, l is a thermal head, 2a, 2b, 2C are heating elements,
They are arranged in a line and insulated from each other. Further, adjacent to each of these, 3a, 3b, and 3c are similarly formed in a row in parallel. FIG. 1 shows a thermal head 4 having heating elements 5a, 5b, 5c formed in a row, and heating elements 7a, 7b, 7 also formed in a row.
The thermal heads 5 having c are arranged close to each other in parallel,
This is a configuration similar to that shown in FIG. 1a.

FIG. 1C shows the thermal head drive signal, and drive signal 1
5 is the heating element group of 2a, 2b, 2c or 6a, 5b, 5
It is applied to the group of heating elements c. Drive signal 16 is drive signal 1
5 to time 1. heating element group 3a,
3b, 3c or heating element groups 7a, 7b, 7c at 0 time 1. is a group of two adjacent heating elements (2a, 2b,
2c and 3a, 3b, 3c or 5a, 5b, 5c and 7a
, 7b.

7e) is preset to the time the film moves.

FIGS. 2a and 2b show an example of a recording apparatus according to the basic principle of the present invention. In FIG. 2a, 8 is a film having a large number of fine holes or fine recesses 9. In FIG. Second
In the figure, IO is a film drive roll, which is arranged so that one side of the film 8 is in contact with the thermal head 1. 1) is an ink supply tank filled with liquid ink. Reference numeral 12 designates the print head section and the film drive port.

-ru 1G, thermal head 1. It consists of an ink supply tank 1) and a film 8. Reference numeral 13 denotes paper, and the film 8 of the print head section 12 is conveyed by the paper feed roll 14.
is placed so as to face the

Next, the operating state of the device will be explained. Figure 2 a, b
, printing is first performed using the thermal head 1 2a, 2
b, 1st V in a row of 2C! Drive signal 15 shown in Ja
A current is applied to generate heat, and the ink held in the micropores or micro-recesses 9 of the film 8 is preheated.

Next, the film 8 is moved to the film drive roll 1o, and the above-mentioned preheated ink holding portion is heated by the heating element 3a.

It is sent by a drive mechanism (not shown) such as a gear so that it overlaps the rows 3b and 3c. At this time, the heating element 3a.

3b and 3c are supplied with current by the drive signal 16 and generate heat. The emitted heat further heats the previously preheated ink, so that bubbles are generated in the ink, and the pressure causes the ink to be ejected and adhered to the paper 13, thereby performing a printing operation. When the second heating is being performed, the heating element 2a.

Columns 2b and 2c have already been preheated for the next printing. The current value driven by the drive signals 15 and 16 is set smaller than the value that generates the heat necessary to generate bubbles in the ink. After that, when the film 8 passes through the ink supply tank 1), the numerous micropores or micro-recesses 9 formed in the film 8 are filled with ink again, and the film 8 comes into contact with the thermal head l at the next ink holding section. . At the same time, the print head section 12 is also moved to the next printing location by a drive mechanism (not shown) such as a belt. While repeating the above operation, press the paper feed roll 1 again.
4 by a drive mechanism (not shown) such as a gear,
In the above-described printing operation in which printing is performed at an arbitrary location by moving the paper 13, each driving signal 15. At 16, the drive signal 16 for the heating elements 3a, 3b, and 3c that are driven for the second time is used to transfer the drive signal 15 that drives the heat generating elements 2a, 2b, and 2c that are driven for residual heat to a delay line, a shift register, etc. This can be obtained simply by delaying it using the delay circuit used. In the above explanation, we have described a recording device realized with a thermal head having the configuration shown in Figure 1a. It is easy to imagine that a similar operation can be achieved by arranging the

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, two thermal heads having seven or - rows of heating element groups are arranged close to each other in parallel to a thermal head composed of two adjacent rows of heating element groups. By applying the same time-shifted driving signal to the configured thermal heads, instantaneous power consumption is suppressed, and a recording device with low device costs and management costs that prints at high speed without deteriorating the life of the thermal head is created. can get.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1a and 1b show an embodiment of a thermal head according to the present invention. FIG. 1C is a diagram showing a drive signal for the thermal head. FIG. 2a is a plan view of a film, and FIG. 2a is an embodiment of a recording apparatus according to the present invention. 1...Thermal head 2a, 2b, 2c...Heating element 3a, 3b, 3C...Heating element 4.5...Thermal head 6a, 6b, 6cm--Heating element 7a, 7b, 7cm-- Heating element 8...Film 9...Minute hole or minute recess 10...Film drive roll 1)...Ink supply tank 12...Print head section 13...Paper 14...Paper feed roll Above is Figure 1 b Fumaru Drop Kan 1 is a signal funeral. Figure 1 C Film plan view Figure 2 a Implementation of recording device? 1 'P12 Figure b

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A film-like member having a large number of micropores or micro-recesses, a mechanism for winding up or feeding the film-like member, an ink supply section that supplies ink to the film-like member, and the film-like member It consists of a thermal head in contact with the thermal head and a drive circuit that drives the thermal head,
generating bubbles in the ink held on the film-like member by heat generated by the thermal head driven by the drive circuit on a sheet of paper provided facing the film-like member at a constant distance; A recording device for recording characters, figures, etc. by ejecting the ink onto the paper surface using the pressure, wherein the thermal head is comprised of two adjacent rows of heating elements. (2) The recording device according to claim 1, characterized in that it is constituted by two adjacent thermal heads.