JPS635960A - Thermal recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a high-speed heat radiation and cooling without making a radiating member large in size, by providing a flexible radiating member which is disposed on at least one plane of a thermal head so that one end thereof is brought into close contact therewith and a fixing member which brings the other end of the radiating member into close and secure contact with a device body. CONSTITUTION:In recording, a recording paper 15 is fed in the direction A by a platen roller 8 and pinch rollers 9, 10, and heating elements 1a of a thermal head 1 are conducted to heat selectively an ink sheet 16 coated with an ink layer according to a recording signal, whereby the ink is melted and transferred to the recording paper 15. At this time, the heat energy which was not effectively used in the recording is built up on a heating-element substrate 2 of the thermal head 1 as the recording advances; however, the heat is transferred to a radiating member 4 through a base 3 to be radiated. The radiating member 4 consisting of a plurality of metal foils etc. allows a high-speed heat conduction from the base 3 because air layers are formed between the respective foils and a sufficient and rapid heat radiation can be effected because a large heat- radiation area is provided to contact with air.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to printer equipment for facsimiles and various terminals using a thermal recording method including a thermal transfer recording method, which records an image using a thermal head.

2. Description of the Related Art A glaze layer 21a as shown in FIG.
There is a thermal head having a so-called planar structure in which a heat generating element array 20 is formed on a substrate 21 which has been subjected to the above-described process.

In addition, in recent years, the development of thermal transfer recording methods has made it possible to perform multi-tone recording and full-color recording even with thermal recording methods.
As a thermal head suitable for such multi-color/multi-gradation recording, an end-face type thermal head, as shown in FIG. 8, has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication, in which a heating element row 23 is formed on the end face of a substrate 24 on which a glaze layer 24a is applied. This method has been proposed in Publication No. 138661/1983.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In both the above-mentioned flat type and edge type thermal heads, when the heating element is made to generate heat, the heat that is not effectively used as recording energy is stored in the glaze layer near the heating confectionery. For example, when thermal transfer recording was performed, the heat accumulation phenomenon caused the printed characters to collapse and cause smearing.

For this reason, in the conventional thermal head, as shown in Fig. 7, the substrate 21 on which the heating element 2o is provided is fixed to the metal base 22 of A/, etc. By providing 25 etc.
The heat accumulated in the glaze layer 21a was radiated to cool the heating element.

However, in the conventional thermal head cooling configuration as described above, in order to ensure sufficient cooling capacity even when performing high-speed recording or continuous recording, it is necessary to
This leads to an increase in the size of the thermal head 2 and the cooling fins 25, making it impossible to reduce the size and weight of the thermal head and a device using the same.

Incidentally, in the field of recording equipment using a thermal recording method using a thermal head, there has been an increasing demand in recent years for compact and lightweight equipment capable of high-speed, multi-color, multi-gradation recording. In addition, particularly in the case of full-color image recording, subtle gradation expressiveness is required, and in order to meet these demands, it is necessary to avoid deterioration of recorded image quality due to heat accumulation in the thermal head, in other words, to improve heat dissipation and cooling characteristics. A good thermal head was needed. In addition, from the equipment configuration perspective, the thermal head cooling member has been made compact and the equipment has been made smaller and more compact.
It was necessary to reduce the weight.

The present invention is directed to 1. solving the above-mentioned problems and demands, and an object of the present invention is to provide a compact and lightweight thermal recording device with excellent heat dissipation and cooling characteristics of a thermal head.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a platen roller, a thermal head facing the platen roller and forming a heating element, and one end of the thermal head tightly attached to at least one plane. By providing a flexible heat dissipating member provided with a flexible heat dissipating member and a fixing member that tightly fixes the other end of the heat dissipating member to the device housing, the heat generated on the thermal head during recording can be transferred to the heat dissipating member. This constitutes a compact and lightweight thermal recording device that can rapidly dissipate and cool heat without increasing the size of the device.

By configuring as described above, the heat generated on the thermal head during recording is quickly radiated through the flexible heat radiating member, and the heat generated on the thermal head due to recording is quickly radiated through the heat radiating member. Because heat is transferred to the housing for heat dissipation and cooling, the cooling structure of the thermal head can be made compact, and since the heat dissipation member is flexible, there is a large degree of freedom in the arrangement of the heat dissipation member. -Marheso h”
Hey, -! It is possible to reduce the size and weight of a heat-sensitive recording device using a 1l-marhesotowo.

As described above, the present invention not only ensures sufficient cooling capacity even during high-speed or continuous recording or multi-color and multi-tone recording, but also provides a compact and lightweight thermal transfer recording system with a high degree of freedom in equipment configuration. It is possible to provide a thermal recording device including the following.

EXAMPLE Hereinafter, the configuration and apparatus of a thermal head according to an example of the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a side sectional view of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 show a perspective view of a thermal head, and FIG. 4 shows a side view.

In FIGS. 2 to 4, a substrate 2 (hereinafter referred to as a heating element substrate) on which a heating element 1a constituting a part of the thermal head 16 is provided is a glass glaze layer 2a provided on a plate-shaped substrate made of ceramic or the like. , a heating element 1a provided on the glass glaze layer 2a, and an electrode 2b for supplying electricity to the heating element 1a.

The heating element substrate 2 is a flat surface 3 of a base 3 made of a metal plate such as A1.
It is held on a. Further, a flexible heat dissipating member 4 is attached to the flat surface 3b of the base 3 by a fixing member 6. The heat dissipation member 4 is made of copper (Cu) or aluminum (An).
It is made of materials with excellent heat dissipation and cooling properties, such as multiple metals with good thermal conductivity, such as silicone, etc., or polymer materials, such as silicone, with excellent thermal conductivity, and is made of multiple foils tied together to ensure flexibility. The number of foils can be increased or decreased according to the needs of heat dissipation design.

The tip of the foil constituting the heat dissipating member 4 is bent by a fixing member 6 and fixed to the device housing 14.

At this time, the plurality of metal foils may be placed in close contact with each other, but as shown in Figure 4, the length of each metal foil may be varied so as to form 7 air spaces around the seedlings. You can also fix it with

A thermal recording device using a thermal head configured as described above (in the embodiments of the present invention, a thermal transfer recording device using an ink sheet is shown, but a direct thermal device using a thermal recording paper also has basic recording principles and The operation is the same.

) The device configuration, operation, and heat dissipation/cooling conditions when recording is performed will be explained below.

In FIG. 1, the thermal head 1 is arranged at a position facing a platen roller 8 provided on a machine frame 7, and a pinch roller 9 is disposed on the outer periphery of the platen roller 8.
and 1o are pressed together.

The machine frame 1 is rotatably provided around a support shaft 11,
Ink sheet guide 12 and convex recording paper guide member 1
3 is provided.

An ink sheet cassette 17 containing a recording paper 16 and an ink sheet 16 is provided in the housing machine 14 provided with the thermal head 1.
is removably provided.

The recording paper 16 and the ink sheet 16 are in pressure contact with the thermal head 1 on the platen roller 8.

When recording, the recording paper 16 is conveyed in the direction of arrow A by the platen roller 8 and pinch rollers 9 and 10, and the heating element 1a of the thermal head 1 is energized to record the ink sheet 16 coated with the ink layer. By selectively heating the ink in accordance with a signal, the ink is melted and transferred onto the recording paper 16, thereby forming an image on the recording paper.

At this time, thermal energy that was not effectively used during recording is accumulated on the heating element substrate 2 of the thermal head 1 as a result of recording. However, this heat is transferred to the heat radiating member 4 via the base 3 and is radiated.

This is because the heat dissipation member 4 is composed of a plurality of metal foils, etc., and an air layer is formed in each of the metal foils, so that heat conduction from the base 3 is carried out quickly and Since the heat dissipation area in contact with the air is large, heat can be dissipated sufficiently and quickly.

Furthermore, when performing high-speed recording or multi-color, multi-gradation recording, it is necessary to increase the heat dissipation capacity from the heat dissipation member 4 in order to reduce the heat accumulation phenomenon on the heat generating element substrate 2 that accompanies recording. However, in the thermal head according to the present invention, this can be addressed by increasing the number of metal foils, etc. that constitute the heat dissipating member 4.

Furthermore, even in cases where it is difficult to increase the number of metal foils, etc. that make up the heat dissipation member 4 due to constraints on the equipment configuration, the metal foils, etc. are folded and tightly fixed to the equipment casing machine frame 14. Since the housing machine frame 14 is used as a part of the heat radiating member, the heat radiating ability can be ensured without increasing the number of metal foils and the like.

As described above, according to the configuration of the present invention, the heat unnecessary for recording generated on the heating element substrate of the thermal head is transmitted to the flexible heat radiating member, and the heat is radiated from the heat radiating member itself, and at the same time, the heat is transmitted through the heat radiating member. This allows heat to be transferred to the housing and machine frame, and heat is also radiated from the housing and machine frame surface, making it possible to reduce the range of temperature rise in the thermal head caused by recording, and to prevent image distortion due to heat accumulation. High quality recorded images with little deterioration can be obtained.

Furthermore, since the thermal head and the device housing are connected by a flexible heat dissipating member, there is no possibility that this will affect the separation between the thermal head platen during recording or the rotational movement of the head when loading paper. Therefore, there is no restriction on the configuration or design of the equipment, and it can contribute to making the equipment smaller and lighter.

In addition, since the heat dissipation member is made of a flexible member such as metal foil, there is a large degree of freedom in the shape and arrangement of the heat dissipation member.For example, the heat dissipation area can be further increased by processing the metal foil etc. into a bellows shape. It is.

5 and 6 show a second embodiment of the present invention in which a plurality of holes 18 and slits 19 are provided in a heat dissipating member such as a flexible metal foil.
By configuring as described above, the air flows through the heat radiating member 4 smoothly, and the heat radiating ability of the heat radiating member 11 l − can be improved. In this case, as shown in the first embodiment of the present invention, there is no need to form an air layer between heat dissipating members such as metal foil, which further increases the degree of freedom in device configuration and contributes to space savings. .

In any of the embodiments, it goes without saying that the heat dissipation member can be attached to the thermal head and the machine frame at any position on the plane as long as a certain contact area can be secured. .

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, a flexible heat dissipation member is provided in close contact with at least one plane of the thermal head, and one end of the heat dissipation member is closely attached to the device housing with a fixing member. By configuring the heat dissipating member to be installed in parallel, it is possible to increase the heat dissipating surface area and improve the heat dissipating capacity without increasing the size of the heat dissipating member.Also, since the heat dissipating member is flexible, there is greater freedom in the arrangement and configuration of the heat dissipating member. It is small and lightweight and can quickly dissipate unnecessary heat generated during recording through the heat dissipation member and the device casing, as the heat dissipation capacity is easy to adjust and design. It is possible to provide a thermal recording device suitable for high-speed recording and multi-color/multi-gradation recording.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a thermal recording device according to an embodiment of Inventor 1, FIGS. 2 and 3 are perspective views of a thermal head in an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a side view of the same, and FIGS. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a thermal head in a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIGS. 8 and 9 are perspective views of conventional thermal heads. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Heating element, 2... Substrate, 3... Base, 4... Heat dissipation member, 6... Fixing member, 8...
...Platen roller, 14...Housing machine frame. Name of agent Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person

Claims (1)

[Claims] A platen roller, a thermal head facing the platen roller and forming a heat generating element, a flexible heat radiating member having one end in close contact with at least one plane of the thermal head, and the other end of the heat radiating member. A heat-sensitive recording device, comprising: a fixing member that tightly fixes the device to a housing of the device.