JPS6311385A - Multicolor thermal transfer type printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To achieve the effective use of an ink ribbon and the miniaturization of an apparatus, by a method wherein rectangular patterns repeatedly printed and applied to an ink sheet at every m-colors (m>=3) are set to an arbitrary paper size An or Bn of an A- or B-system standard and continuous rectangular patterns are transferred to a material to be transferred having an An+1 or Bn+1 size m-times two at a time. CONSTITUTION:Ink rectangular patterns 12, 14, 16 of cyan, magenta and yellow are continuously printed and applied to an ink sheet in predetermined order in the longitudinal direction and each of them has a standard size (herein, an A4 size) and the long side thereof is set to the lateral direction of the ink sheet. Numerals 18, 20 respectively show the supply and take-up sides of the ink sheet. When a three-color pattern of 'A' is printed on paper 22 having an A3 size, first printing transfer is performed on the basis of two rectangular patterns because the pattern of each color is an A4 size. In a second printing transfer, the yellow color signal of the 'A' pattern with respect to the first half of the paper is sent to a head 56 from a printing signal memory 36 to print an yellow color on a first cyan color and, in the same way, the 'A' pattern of the cyan color is printed on a magenta color with respect to the latter half of the paper. Hereinafter, third printing is performed in an overlapped state in the same way.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a multicolor thermal transfer printer that performs multicolor printing using an ink sheet coated with ink of m colors (m≧3).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In recent years, the demand for printers as information terminal output devices has increased significantly, and thermal transfer printers, which are characterized by quiet printing, reliability, and high speed, are becoming established in a wide range of fields from personal use to office use. Previous characters,
The demand for multicolor printing for CAD terminals, digital color copiers, etc. is emerging from the need for black and white printing of numbers only, and future growth in multicolor thermal transfer printers is expected. As the demand for printers increases, the running costs of ink sheets for thermal transfer printers, which are consumables, are attracting attention. Particularly in the case of a multicolor thermal transfer printer, since ink sheets of multiple colors are stacked and printed on a transfer medium such as a single sheet of paper, it is important to make effective use of the ink sheets. There is also a high demand for printing on various paper sizes using a single printer without any troublesome modifications.

The conventional multicolor thermal transfer printer will be explained below with reference to FIG. 4, and problems will be summarized. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 40 denotes a multi-color ink sheet (which runs in the direction of the arrow 1 from the co-supply side 42 to the winding side 44). A rectangular pattern of ink 52, 54, 55 (three colors in FIG. 5) of multiple colors is repeatedly printed and applied in the longitudinal direction of the ink sheet on the surface facing the paper (here, paper). 56 is thermal transfer. It has a length that allows line printing in the width direction of ink sheets 1 to 40 with a line head for printing, and dot-shaped heating elements that generate heat independently are formed with the necessary pinch, and the drive circuit 5
Heat generation and cooling are repeated individually according to the drive signal from 7. 58 is a platen roller, and an ink sheet 1-4.0 is placed between it and the above-mentioned head 56.

The paper 50 is held in a pressure-bonded manner. The paper 50 is attached to the capstan 46. It is pinched by the pinch roller 48 and arrow 2 is displayed during printing.
driven in the direction. At this time, the ink sheet 40 travels together with the paper 50 in the direction of the arrow due to frictional force. When the paper 50 finishes printing the first one color, the capstan 46
．． By the reverse rotation of the pinch roller 48, it travels in the three directions of the arrow and is sent back to the initial printing start position. At this time, the platen roller 58 is no longer pressed against the head 56. The process of multicolor printing in the above configuration will be briefly explained.

If the first color is a 522 rectangular pattern, the transfer start position of the rectangular pattern 52a and the start position of the paper 50 are matched, and the paper 50 is sent in the two directions of the arrow by the capstan 46 and the pinch roller 48. At the same time, the drive circuit 57 is operated to generate heat in the head 56 so that predetermined characters can be printed.

(Here, the pattern rAJ is printed). At this time, the ink sheet 10 travels in the direction of arrow 1 together with the paper 50 until the transfer of the rectangular pattern 52 is completed. When the first color is completed, the pressure of the platen roller 58 to the head 56 is temporarily released, and the capstan 46. pinch roller 4
8 and pull the paper 50 back in the direction of arrow 3 to the initial starting point. Next, the second color rectangular pattern 54 a
The ink of the first color is printed in the same way as the first color, and the ink of the third color rectangular pattern 55a is also printed on the paper 50 in a similar manner.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In conventional multicolor thermal transfer printers, when cut paper is used, the maximum paper size that the printer can print on is the size of one rectangular pattern printed on an ink sheet. Two limits were set.

That is, for example, if the rectangular pattern is A4 size, it can only be printed on paper up to A4 size.

Therefore, if you wish to print out on A3 size paper 60 as shown in FIG.
2.64.66 is printed and coated on a large area inksee I~
Therefore, in order to use the ink sheet 68, it is time-consuming to open the device and replace it with the ink sheet 68. Also, if you use this large multicolor thermal transfer printer that uses the ink sheet 68, it is naturally possible to print on A4 size paper, but at this time, only half of the rectangular pattern for each color on the ink sheet is used. However, the remaining half was not used at all and was thrown away, which was extremely unsatisfactory in terms of efficient use of the ink sheet.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and aims at effective use of ink sheets and miniaturization of the apparatus.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an ink sheet with m
An arbitrary paper size A whose size of a rectangular pattern of ink that is repeatedly printed and applied in each color (m≧3) is standardized into A or B series. Or B.

An+1 or Bn+t
Continuously apply the above to a transfer target such as paper of the same size.

The rectangular pattern is transferred m times, two at a time.

Effect The present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, so that approximately A or Bn (n=o
, 1, 2.・・・・・・）Using an ink sheet on which a rectangular pattern of the same size is printed and coated continuously, 1
Rank "- Δ, +1 or Bn, (n-0, 1, 2
,...) size paper can be printed. Also, using the conventional method, of course A. Alternatively, printing on B0 size (n=o, l, 2...) paper is also possible. Further, there is no loss of ink sheet usage when printing on any paper, and this is effective in reducing the size of the printer device.

EXAMPLE Hereinafter, a multicolor thermal transfer printer according to an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a multicolor thermal transfer printer of the present invention. Since there are many parts in common with the conventional multicolor thermal transfer printer shown in FIG. 4, parts having the same functions as the parts shown in FIG. 4 share the same part numbers, and detailed explanations will be omitted.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes an ink sheet, and ink consisting of three colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow forms a rectangular pattern 12.
14.16 and printed and coated. The three colors of ink are continuously and repeatedly printed and applied in the longitudinal direction of the ink sheet 10 in a predetermined order. The size of the rectangular patterns 12, 14゜16 is the standardized size (
Here, it is A4 size), and its long side is located in the width direction of the ink sheet 10. 18 is a supply side of the ink sheet 10, and 20 is a winding side of the ink sheet 10.

56 is a thermal transfer line head, 58 is a platen roller,
57 is a drive circuit for the head 56, 46 is a capstan, 4
8 is a pinch roller, and 22 is paper. The size of the paper 22 is assumed to be A3 size cut paper in FIG.

In FIG. 2, various parts attached around the multicolor thermal transfer printer shown in FIG. 1 will be explained. That is, FIG. 2 is a simplified principle diagram of the multicolor thermal transfer printer shown in FIG. 1. 24 is an encoder for detecting the rotation angle of the platen roller 58, which rotates in conjunction with the movement of the paper 22. 26 is a sensor for detecting the starting edge of the paper 22; 28 is an ink sheet 10;
This is a position detection sensor in the ink sheet movement direction of rectangular patterns 12, 14, and 113. 30 is for multicolor printing,
This is a switch means for switching signals from print signal memories 32, 34 and 36 corresponding to each color.

Next, a printing process of an embodiment of the multicolor thermal transfer printer of the present invention having the configuration shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described. According to the present invention, the ink sheet 10 shown in FIG. 1 is used to print A3 size paper.

Printing can be performed on any A4 size paper without wasting the ink sheet 10. FIG. 1 shows printing on A3 size paper 22. In FIG. Zunawara,
An example is shown in which a pattern formed by overlapping three colors called rAJ is printed on the paper 22 of Δ3" size.As mentioned earlier, the pattern number of each color of the ink sheet 10 is 11.
Since the size is Δ4, in the present invention, one print transfer is performed using two rectangular patterns on the paper 22 which is 3 sizes larger. In Figure 2, the first
When starting printing for the first time, paper 22 and ink sheet 1 are
Since the positional relationship of the rectangular pattern 0 is important, the starting edge detection sensor 26 and the rectangular pattern position detection sensor 28.
Capstan 46. The starting position is secured by the pinch roller 48 and the ink sheet feed as shown in FIG. From this position, the platen roller 58 is pressed against the head 56, and the capstan 46. The paper 22 is moved in the direction of arrow 2 and the ink sheet 10 is moved in the direction of arrow 1 by the feeding of the pinch roller 48, and the ink applied to the paper 22 in a rectangular pattern on the ink sheet 10 is printed and transferred by the head 56. The traveling position of the paper 22° ink sheet 10 is measured by an encoder 24. In the example of FIG. 1, first, the rectangular pattern 12a made of cyan is A3.
The rAJ pattern signal from the print signal memory 32 corresponding to cyan is sent to the head 56 for the front half of the large size paper 22 from the starting edge to the middle, and the head 56 is driven to print on the paper 22. And then, "Encoder 2"
4 detects that printing has progressed to the middle of JTI ILC 22, it operates switch means 30 to switch to a signal from print signal memory 34 corresponding to magenta color.

At this time, the rectangular patterns on the ink sheet 10 range from cyan rectangular pattern 12a to magenta rectangular pattern 14.
The period has changed to a.

Then print the rAJ pattern on 3 size paper 22.
Print in magenta color on the second half of the page. The first printing on the paper 22 is completed when two rectangular patterns have finished advancing. This situation is shown in FIG. 3 fa). Next, the paper 22
Before starting the second printing, the paper 22 is fed in the three directions of the arrows as described above and returned to the same state as the first start, as shown in FIG. At this time, if the ink sheet 10 is misaligned, the rectangular pattern position detection sensor 28 detects this and corrects the ink sheet 10 to an appropriate position.

In this state, the second printing 1] starts.

That is, a signal corresponding to the yellow color of rAJ Butter I is sent from the print signal memory 36 to the head 56 for printing on the front half of the paper 22. The printing at this time is the first
A yellow rAJ pattern is printed on the cyan rAJ pattern of the second printing. Similarly, paper 22
In the second half of the pattern, a cyan rAJ pattern is printed on top of the first magenta pattern. This situation is shown in Figure 3 (bl
Shown below.

Thereafter, a third printing is performed on the paper 22 in the same manner. This situation is shown in FIG.
2a1 dark blue color 16a, magenta color 14b in that order, and magenta color 14a in the rear half.

Printing is performed on the "A" pattern in the order of cyan color 12b and yellow color 16b.

In Figure 1, the paper 22 is changed to A4 size and A4
When printing a color pattern made by overlapping three colors on size paper, the multicolor thermal transfer printer according to the embodiment of the present invention described above can be used to change the ink sheet or open the printer device and replace parts. You can do it as described above without doing it. That is, it is clear that one goal can be achieved by printing and transferring the rectangular patterns on the ink sheet 10 one by one and repeating the printing three times.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described from beginning to end using thermal transfer heads, it is clear that the same effects can be obtained even when the present invention is applied to an electric transfer method or the like.

Also, regarding the ink sheet, we have shown an example in which three colors of ink are repeatedly and continuously printed and applied, but when the ink of color 2 (I (: natural number) is divided into the first and second groups, 1st group.

The present invention is also effective even if an ink sheet is used which is repeatedly printed and coated in the order of the second group, the second group, and the first group.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, when the ink sheet 1~ is kept constant, it is possible to print on two different sizes of paper without any loss in the use of the ink sheet, and it contributes to miniaturization of the device. It has extremely effective features such as scales.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a multicolor thermal transfer printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a simplified principle diagram of the multicolor thermal transfer printer shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an embodiment of the present invention. Ink sheet and print sample diagram used for multicolor thermal transfer printer, No. 4
This figure is a perspective view of a conventional multicolor thermal transfer printer, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view of another conventional multicolor thermal transfer printer. 10... Ink sheet, 12.14.16...
...Ink rectangular pattern, 22...Paper,
24...Encoder, 26...Starting edge detection sensor, 28...Position detection sensor, 30
...Switch means, 32°34.36...
... Color print signal memory, 46 ... Capstan, 48 ... Pinch roller, 56 ... Thermal transfer head.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) At least m colors (
A multi-color thermal transfer printer uses an ink sheet in which m ink (an integer of m≧3) is continuously printed and applied in a rectangular pattern for each color, and the size of the rectangular pattern of the ink sheet is A. Or any paper size A_n or B_n (n=0, 1, 2
, ...), and the long side of the rectangular pattern is positioned in the width direction of the ink sheet, and the above-mentioned continuous pattern is applied to a transfer medium such as A_n_+_1 or B_n_+_1 size paper. 1 rectangular pattern
A multicolor thermal transfer printer that is characterized by transferring m times, 2 times at a time. (2) A multicolor thermal transfer printer according to claim (1), which uses an ink sheet on which three primary colors, cyan, magenta, and yellow, are repeatedly printed and applied in a fixed order.