TW201617234A - Printer featuring reuse of paper and printing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A printer featuring reuse of paper comprises a machine body, a paper tray, an ink cartridge, a print head and a plurality of rollers. The paper tray receives and holds a piece of paper to be printed. The ink cartridge provides ink to the print head. The rollers are arranged inside the machine body for transferring the piece of paper to be printed to the print head for printing, and in addition, the ink accommodated in the ink cartridge is a kind of thermochromic ink, wherein when a temperature of the thermochromic ink is higher than a fading temperature, the color of the thermochromic ink becomes transparent. The printer further comprises a heating device disposed within one of the rollers to form a heating roller for heating a surface of the piece of paper to be printed, thereby making the temperature of the surface to be printed higher than the fading temperature.

Description

Reusable paper printer and its printing method

The present invention relates to a printer using a thermochromic ink; in particular, to a printer that uses a heating method to make a thermochromic ink transparent to a reusable paper.

The invention of printing technology has enabled the rapid development of knowledge dissemination. In the past few years, because of the rapid development of electronic technology, printing has entered a period of electronic control and automation, followed by the popularity of printers. Today's society, whether in the office or in the general family, will use printers, especially in the office, printers are already indispensable photocopying equipment, including laser printers and inkjet The use of printers is also the most used by printers, and the use of photocopying papers is increasing. The problem is that paper waste is becoming more and more serious.

Whether it is a laser printer or an inkjet printer, it can only be photocopied or printed on both sides of the paper. After the image is printed on both sides of the paper, it cannot be photocopied or printed again. Most of the subsequent photocopying paper will be discarded, resulting in waste of resources and a huge impact on the environment.

To make one metric ton of paper (about five thousand newspapers), it is necessary to consume twenty logs of eight meters high and 16 centimeters in diameter. Each tree grows to this length, and it takes about 20 to 40 years on average. The growth time, cutting down the virgin forest will likely cause damage to the ecological environment.

Therefore, there is a need to provide a printer that can reuse paper to increase the number of times the photo paper is used, and to solve the aforementioned problems.

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printer that can reuse paper to reduce paper waste.

In order to achieve the above object, the printer for reusable paper of the present invention comprises a body, a stack of paper, an ink cartridge, a print head and a plurality of rollers for placing a paper to be printed. The ink cartridges provide ink to the printing heads, and the rollers are disposed in the body for transferring a paper to be printed to the printing head for printing, and the ink contained in the ink cartridge is a thermochromic ink, wherein the temperature of the thermochromic ink becomes greater than a fading temperature, the color of the thermochromic ink becomes transparent; and the printer further includes a heating device disposed in one of the rollers to form a heating roller for heating one of the sheets to be printed, such that the temperature of the surface to be printed is greater than the fading temperature.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention further provides a printing method for a printer using a thermochromic ink, which becomes transparent when the temperature is higher than a fading temperature; the printing method The method includes the following steps: a, providing a paper to be printed to enter the printer; b, heating the paper to be printed, so that the temperature of the to-be-printed surface of the paper to be printed is greater than the fading temperature; and c, spraying the thermal color Printing ink on the surface to be printed for printing; thereby, when the surface to be printed has a thermochromic ink, the thermochromic ink is converted into a transparent color in step b to facilitate the printing of step c .

The effect of the invention is that the printer capable of reusing paper and its printing method can increase the number of times of use of the paper and reduce the waste of paper.

100‧‧‧Printer

101‧‧‧Printed paper

102‧‧‧ Coolant

103‧‧‧O-ring

104‧‧‧Support frame

110‧‧‧ body

111‧‧‧ paper basket

112‧‧‧ paper exit

120‧‧‧Roller

130‧‧‧heating roller

140‧‧‧Printing nozzle

141‧‧‧Ink 匣

150‧‧‧ heating device

160‧‧‧Cooling roller

161‧‧‧heat conducting sleeve

162‧‧‧ hollow tube

170‧‧‧Cooling equipment

171‧‧‧ 容箱

172‧‧‧Circulation device

173‧‧ ‧ motor

174‧‧‧ water inlet

175‧‧‧Outlet

200‧‧‧Printer

204‧‧‧Support frame

210‧‧‧ Heat sink

260‧‧‧Cooling roller

261‧‧‧heat conducting sleeve

262‧‧‧ inner management

270‧‧‧Cooling equipment

271‧‧‧ pipe body

271a‧‧‧

271b‧‧‧After

S110~S140‧‧‧Steps

1A to 1D are reusable papers according to a first embodiment of the present invention; A schematic diagram of the printer of Zhang, and shows the action flow of the printing method of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the cooling drum of the first embodiment.

Figure 3 is a schematic view of a printer for reusable paper according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the cooling drum of the second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more <RTIgt;

Please refer to Figure 1A. A printer 100 for reusable paper according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The printer 100 can be composed of a body 110, a stack 111, an ink cartridge 141, a print head 140, and a plurality of rollers 120. The paper cassette 111 is used to place a paper 101 to be printed. The ink cartridge 141 is configured to supply ink to the print head 140 to enable the print head 140 to perform a printing operation. The rollers are disposed in the body 110 for conveying a sheet of paper 101 to be printed in the body 110 and transporting the sheet 101 to the printing head 140 for printing. In addition, the ink can be a thermochromic ink. The thermochromic ink means that when the temperature of the ink is greater than a fading temperature (for example, above 60 degrees Celsius), the color of the thermochromic ink becomes transparent (for example, red becomes transparent), and then, when the temperature of the ink is less than a fading At temperatures (eg between 10 and 50 degrees Celsius), the color of the ink remains transparent. The thermochromic ink can be a reversible thermochromic ink. Reversible thermochromic ink means that when the ink is at the fading temperature, the color of the ink becomes transparent. Then, when the temperature of the ink drops from the fading temperature to a recovery temperature (for example, below -10 degrees Celsius), the color of the ink will return. The reversible thermochromic ink is the original color (for example, red) For detailed technical content of water, please refer to Taiwan Patent Publication No. TW201336980

The arrangement of the paper cassette 111, the ink cassette 141, the printing head 140, and the rollers 120 may be different according to the size and requirements of the body 110, and is a conventional technique, and will not be described herein. The following is the focus of the invention: In the present invention, the ink contained in the ink cartridge 141 is the thermochromic ink.

The printer 100 further includes a heating device 150 disposed in one of the rollers to form a heating roller 140. The heating roller 140 is adjacent to a paper cassette 110 and sandwiches the paper 101 to be printed (as shown in FIG. 1B) with the adjacent roller 120, and conveys the paper 101 to be printed in the direction of the printing head 140. While the paper 101 to be printed is being conveyed, the heating device 150 heats the surface to be printed of the paper 101 to be printed, so that the temperature of the surface to be printed is greater than the fading temperature. In the present invention, the fading temperature is 60 degrees Celsius. When the thermochromic ink is on the surface to be printed, the color of the thermochromic ink on the surface to be printed becomes transparent, so that when printing, the image can be clearly printed without being imaged by the previous image. Interference. The heating device 150 can be a heating tube or a heating wire for setting the heating roller 130 to a stable temperature.

Preferably, the printer 100 further includes a cooling device 170 coupled to one of the rollers in the body 110 to form a cooling drum 160. The cooling drum 160 may be located between the heating roller 130 and the printing head 140, and sandwich the paper 101 to be printed with the adjacent roller 120, and convey the paper 101 to be printed in the direction of the printing head 140 ( As shown in Figure 1C). When the heating roller 140 is heated to be printed, the cooling roller 160 can be used to cool the paper 101 to be printed after being heated by the heating roller 140, so that the temperature of the paper to be printed 101 is to be printed. Less than the fading temperature (for example, the temperature of the surface to be printed is less than 50 degrees Celsius In order to prevent the printing head 140 from printing on the paper 101 to be printed, the thermochromic ink contacts the surface to be printed which is larger than the fading temperature, so that the color becomes transparent.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, the cooling device 170 includes: a receiving box 171 and a circulation device 172. The accommodating case 171 is disposed in the body 110 and can be attached to the body 110. The accommodating box 171 has an accommodating space for storing a cooling liquid. The coolant 102 can be general water or oil, but is not limited thereto. The receiving box 171 can be a square box made of metal, which can quickly dissipate the coolant.

The circulation device 172 is connected to the accommodating case 171 and the cooling drum 160 to circulate the cooling liquid 102 in the cooling drum 160 and the accommodating case 171. The circulation device 172 includes a motor 173, an inlet pipe 174, and an outlet pipe 175. The motor 173 has a water outlet and a water inlet. When the motor 173 is operated, a fluid can be entered by the water inlet and left by the water outlet. The water outlet of the motor 173 communicates with the accommodating case 171 to allow the coolant 102 to enter the accommodating case 171. The two ends of the inlet pipe 174 are respectively connected to the receiving box 171 and the cooling drum 160, so that the coolant 102 can flow into the cooling drum 160 from the receiving box 171 to absorb the temperature on the cooling drum 160. The two ends of the water outlet pipe 175 are respectively connected to the cooling drum 160 and one of the water inlets of the motor 173. The operation of the motor 173 causes the coolant 102 in the cooling drum 160 to flow back into the receiving box 171. The box 171 is made of metal and has a better heat dissipation capability, so that the coolant 102 can dissipate heat more quickly.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the cooling drum 160 can include a heat conducting sleeve 161 and a hollow tube 162 . The heat conducting sleeve 161 is sleeved on the outer surface of the hollow tube 162. The outer surface of the hollow tube 162 is a recess, and the heat conducting sleeve 161 is sleeved in the recess so that the heat conducting sleeve 161 does not get detached from the hollow tube 162 by rotation. The heat conducting sleeve 161 can be a metal pipe, which has the characteristics of thin thickness and fast heat absorption. The hollow tube 162 has a first-class road with two ends The water inlet pipe 174 and the water outlet pipe 175 are respectively connected to allow the coolant 102 to flow in and out from the flow path. An O-ring 103 can be used between the hollow tube 162 and the inlet pipe 174 and between the hollow pipe 162 and the outlet pipe 175 to prevent the coolant 102 in the hollow pipe 162 from being between the hollow pipe 162 and the inlet pipe 174. And a gap between the hollow tube 162 and the outlet pipe 175 flows out. The waterproof structure is not limited to the use of the O-ring in the above. A support frame 104 may be respectively disposed at both ends of the hollow tube 162 to fix the cooling drum 160 in the body 110.

In a second embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the difference from the printer 100 of the first embodiment lies in the design of the cooling drum and the cooling device. The cooling device 270 includes a tubular body 271 with its ends closed. One of the front sections 271a of the tubular body 271 is S-shaped and is located in the drum of the cooling drum 160. The rear section 271b of the tubular body 271 is also S-shaped, located outside the drum of the cooling drum 160, and attached to a heat sink 210 to effectively dissipate heat by enlarging the heat dissipating surface area thereof. The heat sink 210 can be fixed in the body 110.

The tube body 271 is additionally filled with a predetermined amount of liquid refrigerant. The height of the front section 271a of the tubular body 271 needs to be lower than the height of the rear section 271b of the tubular body 271 to concentrate the liquid refrigerant in the front section 271a of the tubular body 271. When the liquid refrigerant is filled, the tube body 271 is first evacuated, and the liquid refrigerant is loaded into the tube body 271.

The cooling drum 260 includes a heat conducting sleeve 261 and an inner tube 262. The surface of the inner tube 262 is a groove, and the heat conducting sleeve 261 is sleeved in the groove. The inner tube 262 has an accommodating space for accommodating the front portion 271a of the tube body 271. To accommodate the shape of the front section 271a of the tubular body 271, the accommodating space is also an S-shaped accommodating space and is in close contact with the front section 271a of the tubular body 271 to quickly absorb the temperature on the heat conducting sleeve 261. The ends of the inner tube 262 are closed and have an opening at one of the ends (Fig. The tube 271 can be extended outward from the opening. A support frame 204 may be respectively disposed at both ends of the inner tube 262 to fix the cooling drum 260 in the body 110.

When the printer 200 is started, the high temperature on the paper 101 to be printed is transferred to the heat conducting sleeve 261, and then the heat is transmitted to the tube body 271 via the inner tube 262, so that the refrigerant in the tube body 271 absorbs heat and evaporates. In the gaseous state, in which the inside of the pipe body 271 is evacuated and then the refrigerant is charged, the refrigerant vaporized by the heat absorption is rapidly rushed to the rear portion 271b of the pipe body 271 in a gaseous state, and then the heat is dispersed through the heat sink 210. In the air, the heat is dissipated. At this time, a fan (not shown) can be used to further enhance the heat dissipation performance by using the airflow. The gaseous refrigerant originally flowing into the rear section 271b of the pipe body 271 is condensed into a liquid state after being cooled by heat dissipation, and then flows back into the front section 271a of the pipe body 271 to perform a cycle of heat absorption, gasification, heat dissipation, and condensation.

The printer of the invention heats the surface to be printed by the heating roller, so that the surface to be printed becomes a blank surface, and then the use of the cooling device reduces the temperature of the surface to be printed, thereby avoiding the thermochromic ink during the printing. It becomes transparent, but in another embodiment, if the temperature of the external environment is low enough and the ventilation environment is good, since the heat of the paper to be printed itself is fast enough, without using a cooling device, the heating roller can be During the printing of the print head, the temperature of the paper to be printed is reduced to less than the fading temperature.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. This printing method can be performed by the printer of the first embodiment or the second embodiment described above. In the present embodiment, the printer 100 of the first embodiment is taken as an example. The printing method includes the following steps:

Step S110: providing a paper to be printed, and using a thermochromic ink on the surface to be printed. In this step, the paper to be printed enters the printer 100 from the paper cassette 111.

Step S120: heating the surface to be printed so that the temperature of the surface to be printed is greater than A fade temperature and the thermochromic ink becomes transparent. Referring to FIG. 1A at the same time, in this step, the paper 101 to be printed placed on the paper cassette 111 of the body 110 is transferred between the heating roller 130 and the adjacent roller 120 by a roller (refer to FIG. 1B). In addition to the rotation, the heating roller 130 simultaneously heats the surface to be printed of the printing paper 101, and the heating temperature is greater than the fading temperature, so that the thermochromic ink becomes transparent.

Step S130: Decrease the temperature of the surface to be printed so that the temperature on the surface to be printed is less than the fading temperature. Referring to FIG. 1C at the same time, in this step, the paper 101 to be printed is transferred between the cooling drum 160 and the adjacent drum 120. While the paper 101 to be printed is being conveyed in the direction of the printing head 140, the cooling drum 160 cools the surface to be printed, so that the temperature on the surface to be printed is lowered, and the temperature on the surface to be printed is less than the fading temperature.

If the printer 100 of the first embodiment is used, the cooling liquid 102 is circulated in the cooling drum 160 and the receiving box 171 by the circulating device 172 to take away the cooling drum 160 and the surface to be printed. Thermal energy to lower the temperature of the surface to be printed

When the printer 200 of the second embodiment is used, the temperature of the cooling drum 160 and the surface to be printed is lowered by evaporation of the liquid refrigerant to a gaseous state.

Step S140: spraying the thermochromic ink on the surface to be printed. Referring to FIG. 1D, in this step, when the paper 101 to be printed is transferred to the printing head 140, the printing head 140 sprays the thermochromic ink on the surface to be printed to form an image for printing. And the paper 101 to be printed is sent out from the paper exit 112.

The printing method of the present invention is mainly applied to a printer using a thermochromic ink, and it can be seen from the above steps that when the to-be-printed surface of the paper to be printed has a thermochromic ink, the thermochromic ink is converted in step S120. It is transparent to facilitate printing in step S140.

In summary, the paper printer and the printing method thereof can be used repeatedly, which can increase the number of times of paper use and reduce paper waste. In addition, the use of the cooling device, in addition to speeding up the temperature drop of the surface to be printed, can also speed up the printing of the paper to be printed by the printer.

The above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and equivalent changes to the scope of the present invention and the scope of the patent application are intended to be included in the scope of the present invention.

100‧‧‧Printer

101‧‧‧Printed paper

110‧‧‧ body

111‧‧‧ paper basket

112‧‧‧ paper exit

120‧‧‧Roller

130‧‧‧heating roller

140‧‧‧Printing nozzle

150‧‧‧ heating device

160‧‧‧Cooling roller

170‧‧‧Cooling equipment

171‧‧‧ 容箱

172‧‧‧Circulation device

173‧‧ ‧ motor

174‧‧‧ water inlet

175‧‧‧Outlet

Claims (10)

A printer for reusable paper consisting of a body, a stack of paper, an ink cartridge, a print head and a plurality of rollers for placing a sheet of paper to be printed, the ink cartridge providing ink to the sheet Printing the nozzles, the rollers are disposed in the body for transferring a paper to be printed to the printing head for printing, wherein the ink contained in the ink cartridge is a thermochromic ink, wherein the ink is When the temperature of the thermochromic ink is greater than a fading temperature, the color of the thermochromic ink becomes transparent; and a heating device is disposed in one of the rollers to form a heating roller for heating the paper to be printed One of the surfaces to be printed is such that the temperature of the surface to be printed is greater than the fading temperature, and if the thermochromic ink is to be printed on the surface to be printed, the thermochromic ink becomes transparent. A printer for reusable paper according to claim 1, further comprising a cooling device coupled to one of the rollers to form a cooling roller, the cooling roller being located at the heating roller and the printing Between the nozzles, the paper to be printed heated by the heating roller is cooled, so that the temperature of the surface to be printed is less than the fading temperature. The reproducible paper printer of claim 2, wherein the drum of the cooling drum comprises a heat conducting sleeve and a hollow tube; the heat conducting sleeve is sleeved on an outer surface of the hollow tube. The printer of the reusable paper according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the cooling device comprises: a receiving box disposed in the body for storing a cooling liquid; a motor, comprising a water inlet and a water outlet, the water outlet is connected to the receiving box; an inlet pipe, the two ends of which are respectively connected to the receiving box and the cooling drum; and an outlet pipe, the two ends of which are respectively A drum connecting the cooling drum and the water inlet of the motor. The reproducible paper printer of claim 2 or 3, wherein the cooling device comprises: a tube body having a closed state at both ends, wherein a front portion of the tube body is S-shaped and located at the cooling roller The drum is filled with a predetermined amount of liquid refrigerant. A printer for reusable paper according to claim 5, wherein one of the closed tubes has an S-shaped rear section and is disposed outside the drum of the cooling drum and attached to a heat sink. A printing method applied to a printer using thermochromic ink, the thermochromic ink becomes transparent when the temperature is higher than a fading temperature; the printing method comprises the following steps: a, providing a paper to be printed Zhang, to enter the printer; b, heating the paper to be printed, so that the temperature of the to-be-printed surface of the paper to be printed is greater than the fading temperature; and c, spraying the thermochromic ink on the surface to be printed for column Therefore, when the to-be-printed surface of the paper to be printed has a thermochromic ink, the thermochromic ink is converted into a transparent color in step b to facilitate the printing of step c. The printing method of claim 7, wherein the step b and the step c further comprise the step of lowering the temperature of the surface to be printed such that the temperature of the surface to be printed is less than the fading temperature. The printing method of claim 8, wherein the step of reducing the temperature of the surface to be printed comprises: providing a cooling drum, a receiving box and a circulation device, wherein the storage tank stores a coolant, and The circulation device circulates the cooling liquid in the cooling drum and the accommodating tank, so that the cooling drum lowers the temperature of the surface to be printed. The printing method of claim 8, wherein the step d further comprises the steps of: providing a cooling drum and a pipe body, wherein a front section of the pipe body is disposed in the cooling drum in an S-shaped structure, the pipe body In a rear stage, a heat sink is attached in an S-shaped structure, and the tube body is additionally filled with a predetermined amount of liquid refrigerant, so that the cooling drum lowers the temperature of the surface to be printed.