JPS63309488A - Printing method for thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance printing quality through preventing an ink layer transferred onto a recording paper from being pulled by ink layer parts left untransferred, by releasing an ink ribbon from the recording paper in the condition where the cohesive power of an ink of the ink layer is not lowered. CONSTITUTION:When an ink ribbon 6 is heated by the heat generated by beat generating elements of a thermal head 8, a part of a release layer 22 having a melting point higher then that of an ink layer 21 which part faces the heat generating elements is also melted by the best generated by the head 8. Therefore, the release layer 22 thus melted can be easily released from a base layer 20, and by releasing an ink ribbon 6 from a recording paper 19 while an ink is in a solid solution state having cohesive power, the ink of a transferred part is prevented from being pulled by the ink of a non-transferred part of the ink layer 21 being in a discontinuous phase, and printing with favorable printing quality can be achieved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a printing method for a thermal transfer printer used in an output device 2 such as a computer or a word processor, and particularly relates to a printing method for a thermal transfer printer used in an output device 2 such as a computer or a word processor. The present invention relates to a printing method for a thermal transfer printer that improves ink drainage.

[Conventional technology]

Generally, as shown in FIG. 2, a thermal transfer printer has a cylindrical support shaft 3 extending in the longitudinal direction of the platen 1 at the lower front side of the platen 1, on which a platen rubber 2 is stretched.
A carriage 4 movable in the longitudinal direction of the platen 1 is disposed along this support 1hb3.

A ribbon cassette 5 containing an ink ribbon 6 as an example of a thermal transfer medium is mounted on the V-shaped ridge 4, and a thermal head 8 supported by a head mounting member 7 is integrally mounted on the platen 1 with the carriage 4. It is arranged so that it moves and hangs in the direction of the eldest. The head mounting member 7 is swingably supported by the support shaft 3, and a guide plate 9 projecting rearward is provided on the head mounting member 7. A U-shaped portion 12 at the tip of a rotating shaft 11 that is swingably supported by a bottle 10 is fitted to the guide plate 9 so as to be relatively movable. The spring 13 constantly biases the head mounting member 7 in the direction in which the thermal head 8 comes into pressure contact with the platen 1 via the rotating shaft 11 and the guide plate 9. A solenoid 14 is connected to J3, and when this solenoid 14 is driven, the head mounting member 7 rotates clockwise in FIG. 2 against the spring force of the spring 13, and the 4F-maru head 8 The state of connection with platen 1 is released.

FIG. 3 shows a specific example of the ribbon cassette 5 mentioned above.
'b, the ink ribbon 6 stored in the ribbon cassette 5 has its middle part led out to the outside from a ribbon outlet 5Δ formed on the curved surface of the ribbon cassette 5, and the ink ribbon located outside The ribbon 6 is drawn into the ribbon inlet 5B from the ribbon inlet 5B. The ink ribbon 6 is caused to travel by rotation of the rotary drum 15 in the direction of the arrow. Furthermore, a recess 16 is formed in the ribbon force sets 1 to 5 on the back of the ink ribbon 6 facing the outside, and the thermal head 8 faces into the recess 16. Furthermore, YV
1.7, the carriage 4 moved along the support shaft 3 in FIG. 2 is formed with a recess 18 into which the head mounting member 7 is fitted. is moved toward and away from the platen 1 by the action of a spring 13 and a solenoid 14 shown in FIG.

According to the above-described structure, when the drive of the solenoid 14 is stopped, the head mounting member 7 swings in one direction in the opposite direction in FIG. 2 due to the action of the spring 13, and the head mounting member 7 in FIG. from the state located in the recess 18 to the fifth
The head mounting portion 7 shown in the figure moves to a state where it protrudes toward the platen 1 side, and at this time, the cut-off head 8 moves to the state where the ink ribbon 6
A3 and a recording paper 19 (FIG. 2) are sandwiched between the platen 1 and the ink at a predetermined position on the ink ribbon 6 is transferred onto the recording paper 19 by the heat of the thermal head 8.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, as shown in FIG. 6, the conventional ink ribbon 6 includes a base layer 20 made of a material such as polyethylene terephthalate (PEETP), and an ink layer 21 on the IR. This ink li'2i21
is formed by adding carbon black to wax. In order to transfer this ink layer 21 to the recording paper 19, the ink layer 21 at a predetermined position of the ink ribbon 6 is melted by the heat of the thermal head 8, and the ink layer 21 is melted at a predetermined position on the ink ribbon 6. The surface of the layer 21 is adhered to the recording paper 19, and the ink ribbon 6 is peeled off from the recording paper 19 while the ink layer 21 is still in a molten state.

However, in such a conventional ink ribbon 6, when the ink ribbon 6 is peeled off from the recording paper 19, the ink layer 21 in the transferred area that is still in a molten state is adjacent to the ink layer 21 in the area that is not transferred and is in a solid state. ink F
It may be pulled by i21. Then, the portion of the ink layer 21 of the ink ribbon 6 transferred to the recording paper 19 at the rear end in the direction of movement of the thermal head 8 becomes the ink layer 2 of the portion remaining on the ink ribbon 6 that is not transferred.
1, unevenness is formed along the left edge of the vertical line of the ink layer 21 transferred to the recording paper 19 as shown in FIG. 7, resulting in poor printing quality.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems with the conventional methods, and improves print quality by preventing the ink layer transferred to the recording paper from being pulled by the remaining ink layer. The purpose of this paper is to provide a printing method using a thermal transfer printer that can perform printing using a thermal transfer printer.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an ink in which a release layer having a melting point 8 higher than the ink layer is interposed between the base layer and the ink layer, and the ink layer is formed as a discontinuous phase in a solid state. Using a ribbon, the ink layer and release layer are melted by the heat of the thermal head so that the ink layer forms a continuous phase, and the cohesive force of the ink does not decrease to prevent the ink ribbon from peeling from the recording paper. It is characterized by being carried out in

[For production]

According to the present invention having the above-described structure, the ink layer consisting of a discontinuous phase is melted by the heat of the thermal head to become a continuous phase, and the ink layer in the portion that has become the continuous phase is transferred to the recording paper, and the ink layer is transferred to the recording paper. The ink ribbon of a thermal transfer printer is peeled from the paper when the release layer, which has a higher melting point than the ink layer, is melted and the ink is in a solid solution state that does not lose its cohesive force, so that it does not transfer to the recording paper. The printed ink layer is no longer pulled by the ink layer remaining on the ink ribbon, and printing quality is improved.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained by way of examples not shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an ink ribbon 6 used in the printing method of a thermal transfer printer according to the present invention. 20, and a release layer 22 is laminated on this base layer 20. This release layer 22 has a softening point of about 1
The release layer 22 is formed by mixing 70% by weight of amide wax with a thickness of about 3 μm at 00°C and 30% by weight of low molecular weight polyethylene having a melt viscosity of 100 mPa -S at 100°C. 21 are stacked. This ink layer 21 has a softening point of about 9 at about 60°C.
80ff3ffi% polyamide with a thickness of μm and 100
Carbon black 1 with a melt viscosity of 1 Pa-8 at °C
A discontinuous phase of various sizes is formed by mixing 8)% of a dispersant and 5,000% of a dispersant.

Next, a printing method of the thermal transfer printer of the present invention using the above-mentioned ink ribbon 6 will be explained.

When the ink ribbon 6 is heated by the heat of the heat generating thread of the thermal head 8, this heat passes through the pace N20 and the release layer 22 to a portion facing the heat generating element of the normal head 8. This ink layer 21 is melted to form a continuous phase of ink. On the other hand, due to the heat generated by the thermal head 8, the part of the release layer 22 which has a higher melting point than the ink layer 21 and which faces the heat generating element is also melted.
The ink layer 21 is made into a discontinuous phase by peeling the ink ribbon 6 from the recording paper 19 in a solid solution state in which the ink ribbon 2 is molten and can be easily peeled off from the base layer 20, and the ink has a cohesive force. Good quality printing can be performed without the ink in the transfer area being pulled by the ink in the non-transfer area.

Further, specific embodiments of the above-mentioned invention will be explained. In this embodiment, the softening point of the release layer 22 is exceeded by 10
The release layer 22 melted on a hot plate heated to 0° C. or higher was coated on the base layer 20 by hot melt coating using a wire bar, and 3=1-propertool and 2-propertool were added as solvents. The material for the ink layer 21 is dissolved in the mixture in step 7, and the ink ribbon 6 is coated on the release layer 22 by solvent coating using a wire bar and dried at a temperature of 50°C. Distance 11x between the top of the partial glaze layer and the end surface of the V plate on the rear side in the printing direction (the position where the ink ribbon 6 is peeled off from the recording paper 19)
The one where X=0.5m was used.

On the other hand, the following three examples were used as comparative examples for this example.

Comparative example 1: Ink ribbon 6...Same as Example X=0.3# Comparative example 2: Ink ribbon 6...Same as Example X=0.7a Comparative example 3: Release layer 22 of ink ribbon 6 ...Ink layer 21 of the same ink ribbon 6 as in the example...Solvent coating was performed with a wire bar using 1-propatool as a solvent, and dried at 80°C. X = 1.0 g Examples of the present invention described above In Comparative Examples 1 to 3, the energy applied to the thermal head 8 was 45 mj/Td,
The moving speed of the thermal head 8 is 540Hz, and the recording paper 19
When printing was performed with a surface roughness (surface smoothness) of 10 s, the print quality was magnified with a microscope and visually judged, and the results were as follows.

In Comparative Example 1, there are relatively few irregularities in the printing, but X=0.3
ttxx and the ink layer 21 was not cooled much, so bubbles were generated during printing.

Comparative example 2 has a large release layer 2 of x-0,7IIIl.
2 was too cool and released If! The mold release effect of 122 was reduced, resulting in printing with many irregularities.

In Comparative Example 3, the ink layer 21 formed a continuous phase even in the same shape, resulting in printing with many unevenness.

In contrast to Comparative Examples 1 to 3, which have such drawbacks, according to the present example, good printing with less unevenness (and no bubbles) was obtained.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the ink layer 21 of the ink ribbon 6 is made of a discontinuous phase that melts into a continuous phase, and the ink ribbon 6 is heated by the heat of the thermal head 8.
The ink layer 21 of is melted to form the ink in the transfer part into a continuous phase, and the release layer 22 is also melted, and the ink layer 21 is in a solid solution state and the cohesive force of the ink is not reduced, and the ink is removed from the recording paper 19. By peeling off the ink ribbon 6, it is possible to print with a palatable print quality with few irregularities and no generation of air bubbles.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various changes can be made as necessary.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform printing of good quality without unevenness and without generation of bubbles.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a side view of the main parts showing an embodiment of the ink ribbon used in the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic side view of a general thermal transfer printer, and Fig. 3 is a ribbon used in the thermal transfer printer of Fig. 2. A plan view of the cassette, FIGS. 4 and 5 are schematic plan views showing the operation of the thermal transfer printer of FIG. 2, respectively;
FIG. 6 is a side view of the main parts of a conventional ink ribbon, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the unevenness of printing in the conventional method. 1... Platen, 3... Support shaft, 4... Carriage, 5... Ribbon cassette, 6... Ink ribbon,
8... Thermal head, 13... Spring, 14...
solenoid, 19... recording paper, 20... base layer,
21... Ink layer, 22... Release circle. Applicant's agent Shunsuke Nakao Figure 1 Figure 6 Figure 7 One figure Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] A release layer with a higher melting point than the ink layer is interposed between the base layer and the ink layer, and an ink ribbon is used in which the ink layer is formed into a discontinuous phase in a solid state, and the ink layer and release are released using the heat of the thermal head. A printing method for a thermal transfer printer, characterized in that the ink layer is melted to form a continuous phase, and the ink ribbon is peeled from the recording paper in a state where the cohesive force of the ink in the ink layer is not reduced.