JPS63312864A - Printing of thermal printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To substantially equalize the areas of a thermally transferred ink in the present printing line and contrive higher printing quality, by a method wherein heating resistors not exothermically driven in printing in the preceding line are driven for heat generation to such an extent as not to cause melting and transfer of the ink after the end of printing in the preceding line. CONSTITUTION:In the first operation, heating resistors 22A corresponding to dots to be printed are exothermically driven, and in the second operation, only heating resistors 22B corresponding to dots not printed are exothermically driven to such an extent as not to cause melting and transfer of ink. As a result, there is no temperature difference between the heating resistors 22A relevant to the thermal transfer and the heating resistors 22B irrelevant to the thermal transfer. Therefore, when both of the heating resistors 22A and 22B are exothermically driven in the next dot line, the peak temperature Tmax of the resistors 22A and that Tmax of the resistors 22B are approximately equal, so that no difference is generated between the areas of the transferred ink, ad the area of the thermally transferred ink can be made appropriate and substantially constant. Accordingly, favorable printing quality can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing method for a thermal transfer type thermal printer device.

[Prior Art] Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of the main parts of a thermal printer device. In the figure, (1) is a thermal head, in which a plurality of heating resistors (22) are arranged in a row. There is. (5) is a platen roller that winds the recording paper (4) and rotates the recording paper (4) and ink sheet (2) in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the heating resistors (22) are arranged. to move it. (3) is the ink adhered to the ink sheet (2), which is melted by the Joule heat generated when the heating resistor (22) is energized, and is thermally transferred to the recording paper (4) side. , predetermined characters, figures, etc. are printed.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of a conventional thermal printer device, in which (6) indicates a CPU,
(7) is a ROM, (8) is a RAM, and (9) is an input circuit, which is connected to an external host computer (not shown) via a data input signal line (25).

(10) is counter l, (eye) is counter 2, (12)
are parallel-to-serial conversion groups, which are connected to the address data bus (13).

(1) is the above Sarmahet, and the cyst register (1
6), latch (18), multiple NAND gates (20)
, a heating resistor (22), the serial output (14) of the parallel-to-serial converter (12) is connected to the serial input terminal of a shift register (16), and each register output of this shift register (16) (7) or latch (18), and each output (1
9) and a plurality of NAND gates (20), and the outputs (21) of these NAND gates (20) are connected to the heating resistors (22) arranged in a row.

(23) is a clock generator, and its output clock (24
) is manually input to the parallel-to-serial converter (12) and the shift register (16).

Next, the operation of configuration 1 will be explained.

Data input signal line (25
), the input image dot data is converted into serial data by a parallel-to-serial converter (12), and a clock input from a clock generator (23) is input. (2
4) is input to the shift register (16) of the thermal head (1). When all 1,895,912 worth of serial data has been manually input to the shift register (16), the data is latched into the latch (18) by the output signal of counter 2 (11), and the NAND gate ( 20) to control the heating time of the heating resistor (22), and among the image dot data sent from the host computer,
The ink (3) of the ink sheet (2) is thermally transferred to the recording paper (4) for only the data of "1".

In this way, when 1895912 minutes of thermal transfer is completed, the platen roller (5) is rotated and the ink sheet (
2) and the recording paper (4), and input the data for the next one dot line into the thermal head (1) in the same manner as above to perform thermal transfer.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the heating resistor (22) and dots printed on it, and FIG. adjacent 2
Let the two heating resistors be (22A) and (22B). In addition, the same figure (b) shows the two heating resistors (22A),
(22B) shows ink dots thermally transferred due to heat generation, and the shaded area is the natural transfer area.

In the first line, one heating resistor (
22A) only to generate heat, and dot l on the first line.
Only (28) is thermally transferred, and the other heating resistor (22B)
Dot 2 (29) of the first line corresponding to 2 is not thermally transferred.

In the second line, a reheat resistor (22A).

(22B) are both driven to generate heat to thermally transfer dots 3 (:lO) and dots 4 (:11) of the second line.

Figure 8 shows the reheating resistor (
22A) and (22B), the temperature E increase value of the 1 heating resistor (22B) is lower than the temperature increase value of the heating resistor (22A). ) The length of time during which the thermal transferable temperature is reached (tl)
As shown in Figure 7, the heating resistor (22
1I) and the second line of dots 3 (:
The thermal transfer ink area of dot 1 (lO) and dot 4 (:lO) is smaller than that of the other dots 1 (28) and dot 3 (:lO), and in some cases, the prescribed thermal transfer may not be possible. .

[15i! Problem 1 to be Solved As mentioned above, according to the printing method of the conventional thermal printer device, the heating resistor that is driven to generate heat in the previous line stores heat, whereas the heating resistor that is not driven to generate heat in the previous line stores heat. Since the heating resistors do not store heat and have a low initial temperature at the start of the heating drive, a temperature difference occurs between the heating resistors. As a result, thermal transfer cannot be performed or sufficient thermal transfer cannot be performed for one area, and the printing quality as a whole tends to deteriorate.

This invention was made to solve the above problems, and eliminates the temperature difference between each heating resistor.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing method for a thermal printer device that can obtain good printing quality with a constant dot area.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The printing method of the thermal printer device related to this IJJ is to print only the heating resistors corresponding to the dots that were not thermally transferred in the previous line by ink melting transfer or the length of time during which no thermal transfer occurs. It is characterized by being driven by heat over the entire range.

[Function] According to this invention, 9. in the front line. By driving the heat-generating resistor, which is not thermally driven and therefore does not store heat, for a short period of time, the temperature difference between the heat-generating resistor and the heat-generating resistor that is driven to generate heat and has heat storage in the previous line is eliminated, and the thermal transfer ink of the current printing line is heated. The areas can be made almost equal.

[Embodiment of the Invention] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of a thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the same components as those of the conventional thermal printer shown in FIG. 5 are given the same reference numerals. Therefore, detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.

In Figure 1, (33) is a data selector, its first
The serial output (3Z) of the parallel-serial converter (12) is connected to one select input terminal (34), and the output of the inverter (36) is connected to the other select input terminal (35). . The input of this inverter (36) is connected to the serial output terminal (37) of the shift register (16) in the thermal head (1).

In addition, the select output (3) of the data selector (33)
8) is connected to the serial input terminal of the shift register (16).

Next, a printing method using the thermal printer device having the above configuration will be explained.

Data input signal line (25
), the image dot data is input to the input circuit (9), the input image dot data is converted into serial data by the parallel-serial converter (12), and the data is input from the clock generator (23). The signal is input to the shift register (16) of the thermal head (1) in synchronization with the clock (24). At this time, the select input terminal (34) and select output terminal (38) of the data selector (33) are connected. When all of the serial data for 912 L dots has been input to the shift register (16), the data is latched into the latch (18) by the output signal of counter 2 (11), and the heating resistor (22
) is controlled by a NAND gate (20) controlled by the output of counter 1 (10), and the ink (3) on the ink sheet (2) is thermally transferred onto the recording paper (4). Here, among the image dot data sent from the external host computer, only the output of the NAND gate (20) corresponding to "1" data becomes "0", and the heating resistor ( 22A) is driven to generate heat, and a corresponding portion of the ink (13) is thermally transferred onto the recording paper (4).

Next, switch the data selector (33).

Select input terminal (35) and select output terminal (38)
Connect with. In this state, the shift register (16) of the thermal head (1) is synchronized with the clock (24).
) The print data outputted from the serial output terminal (37) is inverted via the inverter (36) and inputted again to the shift register (16).

After inverting all the serial data for 912 L dots and re-inputting them into the shift register (16),
The data is latched in the latch (18) by the output signal of the counter 2 (tt), and the 9! , the thermal time is controlled by the NAND gate (20) controlled by the output of the counter 1 (10), and the thermal resistor (22B) 9, which was not driven to generate heat during the thermal transfer for one dot line, is driven to generate heat. . The heat generation drive time at this time is
The time is set to such a short time that the ink (3) on the ink sheet (2) is not melted and transferred.

As shown in the figure below, the first time the heating resistor (22A) corresponding to the dot to be printed is driven to generate heat, and the second time 11 is driving only the heating resistor (22B) corresponding to the dot that is not printed. By driving heat for a short time, the reheating resistor (22^) shown in FIG.

As is clear from the temperature change graph (22B), the temperature difference between the heat-generating resistor (22A) that has been thermally transferred and the heat-generating resistor (22B) that has not been thermally transferred is eliminated. Therefore, in the fifth-order dot line, both of the heating resistors (228),
(22B) when both are driven to generate heat, the peak temperature (Tm
ax) are almost the same, and there is no difference in the area of transferred ink.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the output signal from the serial output terminal (37) of the shift register (16) of the thermal head (1) is used, or as shown in FIG. A register (39) may be provided.

Further, the present invention may be applied to a heat-sensitive type thermal printer device.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the heating resistor that was not driven to generate heat in the previous line is driven to generate heat to such an extent that melted transfer of ink does not occur after the printing of the previous line is completed. The temperature difference between the heat generating resistor that has accumulated heat from the heat generating drive in the previous line and the heat generating resistor that has not been driven to generate heat in the previous line can be eliminated or greatly reduced, so it is possible to use both heat generating resistors. The appropriate area of thermal transfer ink when printing is performed by simultaneously driving heat generation 11 (
Moreover, it can be kept more or less constant. With this, it is possible to improve the printing quality.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of a thermal printer device 2t according to one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a graph showing the temperature characteristics of a heating resistor, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of a thermal printer device. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of the main part of a thermal transfer type thermal printer device. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of a conventional thermal printer device. Figure 6(a)
, (b) is a diagram for explaining the printed dots using the arrangement of the heating resistor as an example, 7th [g] is a graph showing the temperature characteristics of the heating resistor of the conventional example, and Figure 8 shows the area of the printed dots. It is a figure for explaining. (1)...Thermal head, (1o)...Counter l, (11)...Counter 2, (12)...Parallel-serial converter, (16) = shift register, (20)-N A N D circuit, (22)...heating resistor, (33)...data selector, (36)-
...Inverter. Note that the same reference numerals in the figures indicate the same or corresponding parts. Agent Masuo Oiwa Figure 4 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Prisoner

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A thermal head having a plurality of heating resistors arranged side by side in a row, and a control means for driving the heating resistors to generate heat based on image dot data to sequentially perform predetermined thermal transfer, dots to be thermally transferred. and a step of driving only the heating resistors corresponding to the dots that were not thermally transferred after the end of the heating driving step to generate heat for a period of time during which ink melting transfer does not occur. Printing method of thermal printer device.