JPS6362769A - Ribbon feed mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the consumption of an ink ribbon, by providing a stop means for forcibly stopping the feed operation of the ink ribbon temporarily at the time of the printing of a space. CONSTITUTION:With the movement of a carrier 7, a printing head 5 presses an ink ribbon 1 and printing paper 8 to a platen 9 to perform printing operation. Printing data is imparted to the printing head 5 from CPU and, when said printing data shows a non-printing part (space etc.), an electromagnetic stopper 6 is driven to temporarily stop the feed operation of the ink ribbon 1 and the ink ribbon 1 stops between a feed roller 4 continuing rotation and a pinch roller 3. By temporarily stopping ribbon feed, the feed quantity of the ink ribbon is made less than the moving quantity of the carrier 7 to make it possible to reduce the ribbon consumption.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]! ! ! BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a ribbon feeding mechanism, and more particularly to a ribbon feeding mechanism for a thermal transfer printer that prints on printing paper by melting ink on an ink ribbon.

BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, in this type of thermal transfer printer, the ribbon was fed in conjunction with the movement of a carrier on which an ink ribbon cartridge was mounted, and the ribbon was fed by the same amount of m as the amount of movement of the carrier.

In such conventional thermal transfer printers, the ribbon was fed in conjunction with the movement of the carrier, so even in non-printing areas (spaces, etc.), the small necessary ribbon feed was carried out in conjunction with the movement of the rear. Moreover, since the ink ribbon can be used for printing only once, the ink ribbon is consumed more than the actual printing area on the ink ribbon, resulting in an increase in ribbon consumption m.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention was made in order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional ones, and an object of the present invention is to provide a ribbon feeding mechanism that can reduce the consumption of ink ribbon.

Composition of the Invention The ribbon feeding mechanism according to the present invention is a ribbon feeding mechanism for a thermal transfer printer that prints on printing paper by melting the ink of an ink ribbon, and the ribbon feeding mechanism of the ink ribbon when printing a space among the printing. The present invention is characterized in that a stopping means is provided for strongly temporarily stopping the feeding operation.

Embodiment Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention where iJ<jJ 4'S.

In the figure, an ink ribbon 1 is housed in a ribbon cartridge 2, and is held between a pinch roller 3 and a feed roller 4.
The ink ribbon 1 is sequentially drawn out from the ribbon cartridge 2 by rotation with the ribbon cartridge 2, and a ribbon feeding operation is performed. This ribbon feeding operation is performed in conjunction with the movement of the carrier 7,
As the carrier 7 moves, the pinch roller 3 and the feed roller 4 are rotated.

As the carrier 7 moves, the print head 5 presses the ink ribbon 1 and printing paper 8 against the platen 9 to perform a printing operation. Print data is given to the print head 5 from a CPU (Central Processing Unit) not shown, and when this print data indicates a portion that will not be printed (such as a space), the electromagnetic stopper 6 is driven and the ribbon feeding operation is temporarily stopped. be done. During this time, the pinch roller 3 and the feed roller 4 are rotated by the movement of the carrier 7, but since the stopping force by the electromagnetic stopper 6 is designed to be larger than the ribbon feeding force, the ribbon feeding operation is temporarily stopped. The ink ribbon 1 stops between a feed roller 4 and a pinch roller 3, which continue to rotate.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the relationship between the ink ribbon 1 and the printing results on the printing paper 8. As shown in FIG. FIG. 2(a) shows the printing result printed on the printing paper 8, FIG. 2(b) shows the ribbon consumption ff1L1 of the conventional ink ribbon 1 for this printing result, and FIG. 2(C) shows the printing result printed on the printing paper 8. Ink ribbon 1 according to an embodiment of the invention
The ribbon consumption port L2 is shown in FIG.

In the figure (at X, the ribbon consumption ML1 is equal to the moving base of the carrier 7 that was moved to obtain the printing result of the printing paper 8,
Ribbon eraser RIL2 is a system in which the ribbon feed of the ink ribbon 1 in the non-printed areas (spaces, etc.) of the print result of the printing paper 8 is forcibly stopped temporarily by the electromagnetic stopper 6, so that the movement of the carrier 7 is made smaller than the movement 1. be. The difference between the ribbon consumption amount L and the ribbon consumption r11L2 corresponds to the risk of ribbon slipping of the feed roller 4.

In this way, by forcibly stopping the ribbon feeding of the ink ribbon 1 in areas where printing is not performed (spaces, etc.) during the printing operation of print data using the electromagnetic stopper 6, the ribbon feeding can be made faster than the movement m of the carrier 7. The amount of ribbon consumed can be reduced compared to the conventional method.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the ribbon feeding is temporarily stopped at f.
f1la stopper 6 is used, but feed roller 4
may be stopped. However, in this case, there are design difficulties in controlling the drive of the feed roller 4 to stop.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, as described in detail, the ribbon consumption can be reduced by forcibly temporarily stopping the ribbon feeding in the portion where printing is not performed during the printing operation. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2(a)
-(C) are diagrams showing the relationship between the ink ribbon and the printing results on the printing paper. Explanation of symbols of main parts 1... Ink ribbon 3... Pinch roller 4... Feed roller 6... Electromagnetic stopper 7... Carrier

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A ribbon feeding mechanism of a thermal transfer printer that prints on printing paper by melting ink on an ink ribbon, which forcibly temporarily stops the ribbon feeding operation of the ink ribbon when printing a space among the printing. A ribbon feeding mechanism characterized by being provided with a stopping means for stopping the ribbon. (2) An electromagnetic stopper is used as the stopping means, and the ribbon feeding operation is forcibly stopped temporarily even during the ribbon feeding operation.
Ribbon feeding mechanism.