JPS6247262A - Laser heating recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve safety by providing a means to travel a carriage, a means that detects the abnormal travelling of the carriage and a means that terminates instantly the irradiation of a laser beam when the abnormal travelling of the carriage is detected. CONSTITUTION:When abnormality is occurred in the travelling of a carriage 7 by the termination of a dividing motor 22, the terminating state of a slit circular plate 20 is converted to an output signal by a slit sensor 21, and the output signal is transferred to a rotation abnormality detector 24. And the abnormality of the rotation of the driving motor 22 is detected and a detecting signal is sent to a protection circuit 23, and the protection circuit 23 outputs a signal to terminate instantly the irradiation of the laser beam based upon the detecting signal and send it to a laser driving circuit 6. Thus, while the driving motor 22 is terminated, the irradiation of the laser beam is terminated to prevent that the energy of the laser beam is concentrated in the same space for a long period.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a laser heating recording device using a laser beam.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, various types of laser heating recording devices of this type have been implemented, but for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1989-1984, -84
The one described in Publication No. 254 is known.

In Figure 2, multiple semiconductor laser elements are mounted on a carriage, and the thermal recording paper is irradiated with a laser beam whose light intensity is modulated according to an image signal while the carriage continuously moves in the horizontal direction. A schematic diagram of a laser heating recording device that colors a portion using the thermal energy of a laser beam is shown, and FIG. 3 shows details of the laser array and imaging element shown in FIG. 2.

Reference numeral 1 indicates a laser array in which a plurality of semiconductor laser elements 2 are arranged in an array. Reference numeral 3 designates a rod-shaped lens as an imaging element that images the laser beam from the laser array 1 onto the thermosensitive recording paper 4.

When the image signal is transferred from the control circuit 5 to the laser drive circuit 6, the semiconductor laser element 2 corresponding to the image signal generates a laser beam. The generated laser beam is directed to the imaging element 3
Accordingly, image configuration -1 = light is focused to a required pixel size and irradiated onto the surface of the thermosensitive recording paper.

A laser array 1 and an imaging element 3 are mounted on the carriage 7, and a laser drive signal is transferred from a laser drive circuit 6 to the laser array 1 via a flexible cable 8 connected to the laser array 1. .

The gear ridge 7 is fixed to the non-black belt 90~, and is driven in the horizontal direction by a drive motor 1o driven in accordance with a command from a motor drive circuit 110 following the control circuit 5.

There are two methods for controlling the timing of laser beam irradiation and carriage 7 travel.

[]] After the gear ridge 7 has stopped, the laser beam is irradiated.

[2] Irradiate the laser beam while the gear ridge γ is moving.

In either method, as the carriage 7 moves, an image formed by a plurality of raw points is recorded line by line.

Reference numeral 12 indicates a guide shaft of the carriage 7 fixed in the running direction. Reference numeral 13 denotes a platen, which is made of a mirror or river surface made of a material with a small infrared absorption coefficient in order to increase the heating efficiency of the recording paper.

As mentioned above, a laser beam is irradiated onto recording paper to record an image.In the heating recording device, a protective cover is used to prevent the laser beam from inadvertently hitting the human body during operation. 14, and further provided with an ink lock switch 15 as means for detecting opening/closing of the protective cover 14, and a protection circuit 16 that immediately stops irradiation of the laser beam when it is detected that the protective cover 14 is opened. .

However, in this case, there was a drawback that the image immediately after recording could not be confirmed.

In order to improve this, as in another conventional example shown in FIG. A part of the cover 14 is made of a transparent or translucent plastic member so as not to impair visibility.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in such conventional devices, even if the protective cover 14 and the protective circuit 16 are provided, the protective cover 14 or the opening/closing detection means 15 may malfunction, or the protective circuit 16 may malfunction, resulting in loss of control. There was a risk that the laser beam would leak outside.

Furthermore, if the drive motor 22 of the gear ridge 7 fails and the carriage 7 stops at the same location, the recording paper is irradiated with the laser beam for a long time, and there is a risk that the recording paper will eventually catch fire.

Therefore, the present invention has been made to eliminate the above-mentioned problems, and focuses on the fact that the influence of a laser beam on the human body size or equipment is proportional to the product of the laser beam intensity and its light reception time. In addition to protective measures, the system monitors the operation of the carriage carrying the laser array and immediately stops laser beam irradiation if abnormal operation is detected, preventing continuous laser beam irradiation into the same space. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a laser heating recording device with improved safety.

[Means to solve the above problem]

The structure of the present invention that achieves the above object includes means for moving the carriage, means for detecting abnormality in the carriage's movement,
The gist of the present invention is to provide a means for immediately stopping the laser beam irradiation when an abnormality in the running of the carriage is detected.

[Effect]

In the above configuration, when an abnormality occurs in the carriage traveling, this is detected and the laser beam irradiation is immediately stopped. This prevents the energy of the laser beam from being concentrated in the same space for a long time.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Note that the same members and portions as in the conventional example are given the same reference numerals and their explanations will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the laser heating recording apparatus of the present invention.

The carriage 7 includes a laser array 1 in which nine semiconductor laser elements are arranged in a vertical line, and a corresponding imaging element 3.
is mounted, and the rotation of the drive motor 22 causes the second
Similar to the prior art shown in the figure, a pulsed laser beam is irradiated onto the thermal recording paper 4 while traveling from side to side via a synchro belt 9 to record an image consisting of a plurality of pixels.

In addition to the traveling means for the gear ridge 7, a drive motor 22
A slit sensor 21 consisting of a slit disk 20 that rotates in synchronization with the output 1 of the slit disk 20 and a pair of light-emitting and light-receiving elements that read the slit provided in the slit disk 20 is provided to detect abnormal running of the carriage 7. It is now detectable.

The slit sensor 21 is installed so that the laser beam irradiation can be stopped when an abnormality in the carriage 70 is detected.
A rotational abnormality detection circuit 24 is provided which monitors the rotational state of the drive motor 22 using an output signal from the drive motor 22 and transmits information to a protection circuit 23 which immediately stops laser beam irradiation if a rotational abnormality is detected. There is.

Next, the effect will be explained.

In the above configuration, if an abnormality occurs in the traveling of the carriage 7 due to the stop of the drive motor 22, the slit disk 2
The stop state of 0 is converted into an output signal by the slit sensor 21, and the output signal is transferred to the rotation abnormality detection circuit 24. Here, an abnormal rotation of the drive motor 22 is detected, a detection signal is sent to the protection circuit 23, and the protection circuit 23 immediately outputs a signal to stop the laser beam irradiation based on the detection signal, and the protection circuit 23 outputs a signal to immediately stop the laser beam irradiation to the laser drive circuit 6. send. In this way, the laser beam irradiation is stopped while the drive motor 22 is stopped, and it is possible to prevent the energy of the laser beam from being concentrated in the same space for a long time.

In other words, the drive motor 22 may fail and stop rotating, causing the carriage 7 to stop at the same location, or the jammed paper may stop traveling in the carriage 7 due to paper feeding failure, and the drive motor 22 may become unable to rotate. Even if something like that happens,
The effects on the human body and equipment can be minimized.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the invention.

This embodiment has almost the same configuration as the first embodiment, but to explain the different parts, the means for detecting abnormality in the running of the carriage shear is a linear slit fixed over the entire length of the carriage 7. Board 25
and a slit sensor 26 provided on the carriage γ side with a pair of light-emitting and light-receiving elements for reading the slit provided in the temporary slit 25.

Since the operation of this embodiment is substantially the same as that of the previous embodiment, the explanation thereof will be omitted.

Regarding the control of the timing of laser beam irradiation and carriage travel, the above example is based on the case where the laser beam is irradiated while the carriage 7 is moving, but the case where the laser beam is irradiated after the gear ridge 7 has stopped has been described. too,
When the drive motor is excited to move the carriage after laser beam irradiation, the running condition of the gear ridge is monitored using the method described above, and if there is an abnormality, the next laser beam irradiation is stopped. You can also do this.

Alternatively, instead of thermal recording paper, a combination of an ink ribbon for thermal transfer recording, in which ink is melted and transferred by laser beam irradiation, and plain paper may be used.

Furthermore, if the first drive motor is a servomotor subjected to speed feedback control, it goes without saying that signals from the tacho generator, encoder, etc. used therein can be used as a carriage travel monitoring monitor.

〔effect〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, there is provided a means for moving the carriage, a means for detecting an abnormality in the carriage, and a means for immediately stopping the laser beam irradiation when the abnormality in the carriage is detected. Since the structure is equipped with means, in the unlikely event that the carriage stops or its movement speed decreases due to an obstacle during laser beam irradiation, this can be immediately detected and the laser beam irradiation can be stopped. . As a result, the laser beam does not irradiate the same part of the human body or the device for a long period of time, which has the effect of improving safety.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the laser heating recording device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a conventional laser heating recording device, and FIG. 3 shows the laser array and imaging element shown in FIG. 2. Side view showing details of the child, Figures 4 (A) and (B)
5 is a plan view and a side view showing another conventional example, and FIG. 5 is a side view showing main parts of a second embodiment of the present invention. 1... Laser array 3... Imaging element 5... Control circuit 6... Laser drive circuit 7... Carriage
11... Motor drive circuit 15... Interlock switch 20 - Slit disk 21... Slit sensor 22... Drive motor 23... Protection circuit 24
... Rotation abnormality detection circuit 25 ... Slit plate 26
...Slit sensor. Patent Applicant: Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. Representative Patent Attorney Mr. Kanakura Block diagram of the laser heating recording device according to the first embodiment @
1 l Laser array and imaging element in Figure 2 (IllI side view 3 BO (A) CB) Side view showing the main parts of the second embodiment 5 Wataru Plan view showing the main parts of another conventional example and side view @ 4 fig.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A laser heating recording device that performs recording by running a carriage equipped with a semiconductor laser element that generates a laser beam, which includes a means for moving the carriage, a means for detecting abnormality in the carriage, and a means for detecting abnormality in the carriage. A laser heating recording device comprising means for immediately stopping laser beam irradiation when a running abnormality is detected.