JPS63168379A - Thermal transfer type printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent an operation from being continued in an abnormal printing condition and maintain excellent printing quality, by detecting skewing of an ink ribbon, and immediately stopping a printing operation of a printer upon the generation of skewing. CONSTITUTION:A sensor part comprises sensors 7 and 8 provided respectively on the upper side and the lower side of printing electrodes 6 provided on a printing head 5. When an ink ribbon 4 is positionally deviated to the upper or lower side of the electrodes 6 due to skewing, the sensor 8 or 7 located on the outer side comes off the ink ribbon, so that an output signal from the sensor part is accordingly changed. A detecting part detects 11 whether skewing of the ink ribbon has occurred, based on the signal from the sensor part 1. While skewing of the ink ribbon does not occur, a normal printing operation and detection of the feeding condition of the ink ribbon are continued 12. When it is detected that skewing of the ribbon has occurred, the printing operation is stopped.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer that performs printing by transferring ink from an ink ribbon onto printing paper by energizing electrodes of a print head.

[Conventional technology]

Thermal transfer printers print by transferring the ink from the ink ribbon that is in contact with the printing electrode onto the printing paper by energizing the printing electrode installed in the print head to generate heat. It only allows the feeder to feed, but does not have a function to specifically detect skew feeding.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

As mentioned above, conventional thermal transfer printers do not detect skewed feeding of the ink ribbon, so if skewed feeding of the ink ribbon occurs during printing, the print may become unclear or a portion of it may become unclear. There is a drawback that the printing operation continues in an abnormal printing state such as deletion.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of conventional thermal transfer printers, and to make it possible to detect when an ink ribbon skews and stop the printing operation of the printer. To provide a thermal transfer printer with excellent print quality that prevents abnormal printing.

[Means for solving problems]

The thermal transfer printer of the present invention detects the state of the output signal when the ink ribbon, which is provided at the upper and lower parts of the current-carrying electrodes of the print head and runs in contact with the print head, travels obliquely and shifts upward or downward. a sensor unit having a sensor for changing the ink ribbon; a detection unit that inputs an output signal from the sensor unit to detect the running state of the ink ribbon and sends a control signal when the ink ribbon is skewed; and the detection unit and a printing control section that stops the printing operation when a control signal is input from the printer.

[Example〕 Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main parts of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a front view showing details of the sensor section in FIG. 1.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a sensor section, 2 is a detection section, and 3 is a print control section. The sensor section 1 monitors the running state of the ink ribbon and sends this as an electrical signal to the detection section 2.

The detection unit 2 electrically detects whether or not the ink ribbon is skewed based on the signal sent from the sensor unit 1, and sends a control signal to the print control unit 3 when it detects that skew has occurred. . The print control section 3 inputs this control signal and controls the continuation or stop of the printing operation of the printer.

As shown in FIG. 2, the sensor unit 1 has sensors 7 and 8 provided above and below a printing electrode (electrode) 6 provided in a print head 5, and an ink ribbon 4. When the ink ribbon deviates above or below the electrode 6 due to skew, the sensor 8 or 7 located outside of the ink ribbon is removed from the ink ribbon, and the output signal is changed accordingly.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, the detection section 2 detects whether or not the ink ribbon skew occurs based on the signal from the sensor section 1 (reference numeral 11).While the ink ribbon skew does not occur, Normal printing operation and detection of the running state of the ink ribbon are continuously performed (reference numeral 12), and when it is detected that the ink ribbon has skewed, the printing operation is stopped (reference numeral 13).

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention detects the skewed feeding of the ink ribbon, and when skewed feeding occurs, it is possible to immediately stop the printing operation of the printer. This has the effect of preventing the printer from continuing its operation, and therefore provides a thermal transfer printer that can maintain excellent print quality.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view showing details of the sensor section in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment in FIG. 1. It is. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Sensor part, 2... Detection part, 3... Print control part, 4... Ink ribbon, 5... Print head, 6...
...electrode, 7.8...sensor. Figure 2 Ward 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] a sensor section having a sensor provided above and below a current-carrying electrode of a print head and changing the state of an output signal when an ink ribbon running in contact with the print head is skewed and shifted upward or downward; , a detection section that inputs the output signal from the sensor section to detect the running state of the ink ribbon and sends out a control signal when the ink ribbon is skewed; and a detection section that receives the control signal from the detection section and prints. 1. A thermal transfer printer, comprising: a print control unit that stops operation.