TWI261031B - Thermal printer apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A thermal printer apparatus (1) includes a thermal head (27), an elevating motor (30) for lifting and lowering the thermal head (27), and a paper detection sensor (S1) positioned upstream of the thermal head (27). When a leading end of paper being transported along a paper transport path is detected by the sensor (S1), the paper is transported a distance L1 before the thermal head (27) is lowered. The leading end thus reaches a recording position at the same time that a heating head portion of the thermal head (27) comes in direct contact with the leading end at a recording position P. The foregoing arrangement eliminates the need for the paper to be halted at the recording position, thereby allowing processing time to be shortened.

Description

1261031 IX. Description of the Invention: [Technical Field] The present invention relates to the use of a heat-sensitive head using a colorless reversible thermal recording material or other sensible material using a colorless recessive dye (1 euc hiccup developer) Thermal printing for image recording [Prior Art] There have been many proposals for performing a thermal imaging device for contacting a thermal sensing head with a thermal recording material, and some forms of sensible heat φ, for example, using a leuco-recessive dye and reversible A retrograde thermal recording material of a coloring agent (for example, Patent Document 1) 'Performs a thermal imaging type printing apparatus, which is a state in which image recording can be performed by using a thermal sensor to erase an image using an erasing roller (for example, refer to Patent Document 1) Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 2 0 0 4 _ 1 0 6 3 0 8 Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2 0 0 2 - 3 3 1 6 9 7 [Invention] (Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the above-described thermal printing apparatus, if a structure is formed in which the heat is constantly brought into contact with the roller or the like with respect to the printing head, the thermal induction is erroneously driven during the passage. At the head, the thermal sensing head is applied to the roller, which causes the performance of the roller or the thermal sensing head to deteriorate. Therefore, it is designed to lower the thermal sensing head when the paper is transported to the thermal sensing head position when image recording is performed on the paper. Lifting device that raises the print head. 312XP/invention manual (supplement)/94-08/94]] 1436 dye) and heat-recordable material device. Image-like printing type hair color can be recorded And the patent document inductive head is formed by the heat of the paper, but only the rest is 1261031. However, if the paper is not to be lowered when the paper is transported to the recording position, the paper is transported to When recording a position, it is necessary to temporarily stop the conveyance of the paper. The present invention provides a thermal printing apparatus which can smoothly perform the uninterrupted paper conveying operation. (Means for Solving the Problem) The present invention is provided with: paper for conveying paper Transport path

a heat-sensing head for performing image recording on the paper conveyed on the paper transport path; a lifting device for lifting and lowering the heat-sensitive head; and a paper detecting device disposed on the upstream side of the heat-sensitive head to detect the conveyance of the paper to a specific position And a sensor that drives the lifting device to start the lowering of the thermal head according to the detection timing when the paper detecting sensor detects that the paper has been transported to a specific position. According to the present invention, if the paper detecting sensor detects that the paper has been transported to a specific position, the lifting device is driven according to the detecting timing, and the thermal sensing head is lowered. Thereby, since the timing at which the paper reaches the recording position and the timing at which the thermal head is lowered to the position can be matched, the paper does not need to be temporarily stopped at the recording position. Therefore, the conveyance of the paper will be smooth and the processing time can be shortened. The specific position is, for example, the front end position of the paper. When the control unit of the present invention is changed in the paper transport speed utilization mode, the timing at which the thermal pickup starts to fall can be controlled. For example, except image 6 312XP / invention manual (supplement) /94-08/94] 1 ] 436 1261031

In addition to the thermal head for recording: there is a device for erasing the roller, and the thermal sensing head after erasing the image with the erasing roller can be selected to perform the image recording mode (erasing/recording mode). However, the paper transport speed in this mode and the paper transport speed in the image recording mode (recording mode) are performed only by the thermal head without performing erasing, because the paper heat storage is different, so it is formed. Need to change the status of the two transfer speed. Here, in the control unit, by controlling the timing at which the thermal pickup starts to descend in accordance with the paper conveyance speed in this case, the timing at which the paper reaches the recording position and the timing at which the thermal head is lowered to the same position are often maintained. Consistent state. Further, in the control unit of the present invention, when the trailing end of the paper is present, the number of remaining print lines is calculated, and the 俾 is formed in a state in which the sheet passes, and the heat is not applied by the thermal head. In other words, when the paper end detecting sensor detects the trailing end of the paper, the number of remaining printing lines performed by the thermal sensing head and the number of lines printable up to the end of the paper (ie, from the recording position) Compare the length of the sensor at the end of the paper. When the current one is larger than the latter, the number of remaining print lines is set to be less than the number of printable lines. Thereby, when the thermal sensing head reaches the trailing end of the paper, since the number of remaining printing lines will be zero, the thermal sensing head can be raised at this time. By raising the thermal head, it is possible to prevent the thermal head from coming into contact with the rotating roller and causing damage. In addition, the paper end detection sensor can be used as a paper detection sensor that detects a specific position of the paper. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the heat-sensitive head and the erasing roller for erasing an image on the paper are provided. The erasing roller is disposed in the above-mentioned thermal sensing 7 312XP / invention manual (supplement) / 94-08/9411 436 1261031 on the upstream side of the transport path 5 and the paper detecting sensor is configured with the thermal sensing head and the above Wipe off between the rollers. Then, the paper is formed by printing and erasing the reversible thermosensitive paper (e.g., a color-developing thermosensitive recording material using a colorless recessive dye and a reversible color developing agent) by the cooling rate after the heating by the borrowing. In this embodiment, the recording mode in which the three modes (recording mode, (2) erasing/recording mode, and (3) erasing mode are implemented is that the erasing roller is not heated. (2) erasing/ After the recording right erases the image on the paper, the thermal sensor φ is lowered, and the image recording on the paper is performed. (3) The erase roller only removes the image on the paper by removing the roller. The thermal sensing head is kept in the upper state. In addition, if the thermal sensing head is used to apply energy to each pixel, the pixel is rapidly cooled after the printing head passes. On the other hand, if the large amount of the erasing roller is used for the paper The heating is performed as a whole, because the paper accumulates heat, so that after passing through the roller, each pixel will be gradually cooled by this process, and the recording of each pixel can be performed by the thermal sensing head and the entire paper can be applied by using the erasing roller. except.

According to the present invention, if the paper is transported to a special place on the upstream side of the heat-sensitive head, since the paper drop of the heat-sensing head is started by the lifting device, the timing at which the paper reaches the recording can be made even if the paper conveyance is not stopped. In accordance with the timing at which the thermal sensor head is lowered to the same position, it is not necessary to temporarily stop the paper at the recording position, so that the paper can be smoothly conveyed, and the processing time can be shortened. [Embodiment] 3] 2XP / invention manual (supplement) / 94-08/94111436 on the change record reversible 1) record. (1) Under the head of the system, the heat capacity of the column is lifted up. To locate the position of the sheet. Figure 8 shows the appearance of the thermal printing device according to the embodiment of the present invention. .

This thermal printing device 1 is provided with a thermal sensing head 27 and a wiping roller 23 belonging to the printing head. The thermal printing apparatus 1 prints, by the thermal sensing head 27, an image received from a host (not shown) on a chromogenic reversible heating recording using, for example, a colorless recessive dye and a reversible color developing agent. The paper is formed on the paper 60 (see Fig. 2), and the image of the heated recording paper that has been printed is erased by the above-described wiping roller 2 3 to be in a reusable state. Among them, the color-developable reversible thermal recording material is composed of, for example, a substrate, a reversible thermal layer composed of a leuco-recessive dye and a reversible color developer, and a protective layer. The reversible thermal layer is described, for example, in Patent Document 1. The properties of the reversible sensible thermal layer are as follows. In other words, as shown in Fig. 18, after the heat sensitive layer is heated to a molten state (heated to a state exceeding the melting point of 1 0 1), if it is rapidly cooled, a coloring state 1 0 is formed along the path 1 0 3 . 2. On the other hand, after being heated to a molten state, if it is slowly cooled, a decolored state of 1 0 5 is formed along the path 104. In the chromonic state 1 0 2, even if it is kept at a temperature slightly lower than the melting point 1 0 1 , the decolored state will be formed along the path 1 0 6 . By using the above-mentioned paper 60, if energy is applied to each pixel by the thermal sensing head 27, the pixel will be cooled rapidly after passing through the printing head, and if the roller 2 3 is used for the paper with a large heat capacity 60 0 overall heating, because the paper 60 will accumulate heat as a whole, so after passing through the roller, each pixel will slowly cool. By this process, each pixel recording performed by the thermal sensing head 27 and the paper 9 312XP/invention manual (supplement)/94-08/9411] 436 1261031 performed by the erasing roller 23 are performed. 6 0 overall erase.

In FIG. 1, the thermal printing apparatus 1 is provided with a tray 2 on which the paper 60 is placed on the upper end side (upper supply side), and is disposed on the front side (lower end discharge side) of the lower end of the thermal printing apparatus 1 Between the paper feed cassette 2 and the paper output cassette 5, a paper transport unit is disposed in the apparatus body, and along the paper transport unit, a heat-sensing head 27 and an erasing roller 2, which will be described later, are disposed. . Further, a top cover 3 that can be closed is provided at the upper end of the apparatus body, and an operation portion 4 is further disposed on the right side of the top cover 3. The operation unit 4 can select any one of three modes: (1) recording mode, (2) erasing/recording mode, and (3) erasing mode. The recording mode is a mode in which only image recording is performed on the paper 60, the erasing mode is a mode in which only the image recorded on the paper 60 is erased, and the erasing/recording mode is an image recorded on the paper 60. After erasing, the mode of the image is recorded again. The paper transport speed V in each mode is different. In other words, for the same speed V system recording mode > erase / record mode (= erase mode). Fig. 2 is a structural view showing a paper conveying portion as seen from the side. The paper conveying unit disposed between the paper feed cassette 2 and the paper discharge cassette 5 is disposed from the upstream side toward the downstream side, and is arranged in order: the paper feed roller 20, the paper conveyance path 2, and the erase processing unit 2 The cooling fan 25, the recording processing unit 29, the thermal head lifting position detecting sensor 33, and the thermal head lifting cam 3 2 are provided. The erasing processing unit 28 includes a heating lamp 53, a wiping roller 2 3 made of an aluminum tube, and a roller that is disposed to face the roller 23 with the sheet conveying path 2 2 interposed therebetween. twenty four. Further, the recording processing unit 29 is provided with a thermal sensor head 27 and a jacket 10 3 ] 2 ΧΡ / invention manual (supplement) / 94-08/9411 436 1261031 paper transport path 2 2 and Among the members in which the heat-sensitive heads 27 are disposed opposite to each other, the member located above the paper conveyance path 22 is housed in the movable portion 21, and the movable portion 21 is configured to have the end on the paper feed side as a fulcrum. A configuration in which the paper discharge side end portion is rotatable toward the upper side. By the rotation of the fulcrum by the movable portion 2 1 described above, the paper jam phenomenon on the transport path can be easily eliminated.

The top of the paper transport path 2 2 is the top cover 3, and the lift motor 30 for raising and lowering the heat-sensitive head 27 and the LF (short for line feed) motor 3 for transporting the paper 60 are disposed below. 1. When the cooling fan 25 is in the erasing/recording mode, forced air cooling is performed on the entire sheet 60 that has passed through the erasing roller 23 so that the recording image density is not lowered by the thermal head 27. The sensor type is provided with: a cover closing sensor S 4 that detects the closing of the top cover 3, and is disposed along the paper conveying path 2 2 and disposed on the heat sensing head 27 and the erasing roller 2 3 In the meantime, it is detected that the paper 60 has been transported to the paper detecting sensor S1 of the specific position state. Specifically, the sensor detects the front end of the paper to be conveyed. Further, as will be described later, the trailing end of the paper 60 will also be detected. Further, although not shown, an ambient temperature detecting sensor for detecting the temperature α around the device is also provided. The lift motor 30 is coupled to the lift cam 32, and when in the erase mode, the heat sensor head (not shown) housing the heat sensor head 27 is raised, and when recording mode or erasing/recording In the mode, the thermal sensing head is lowered. Abutting the elliptical shape lifting cam 3 2 on the thermal sensing head base, using 11 312 ΧΡ / invention manual (supplement) /94-08/94111436

1261031 Rotating the long-diameter portion to the upper angle, the heat-sensing head holder is lifted up, and by rotating the short-diameter portion toward the upper angle, the hot-head joint is pressed by the spring and its own weight. decline. The rotation angle of the lifting cam is detected by the lifting position sensor 3 of the two thermal sensing heads 27 disposed at right angles. The paper detecting sensor S1 is used for both the front end detection of the paper 60 and the end detection of the paper. When the leading end of the paper 60 is detected, the detection signal is sent to the control circuit 50, and the control circuit 50 starts the lowering of the thermal sensor head 27. In addition, when detecting the trailing end of the paper 60, the signal is transmitted to the circuit 50, and the control circuit 50 is in the number of printable lines when the remaining number of print lines is greater than the end of the paper 60 (according to the sensing When the number of rows of the device S 1 and the recording position by the thermal head is changed, the number of remaining prints is set to be less than the number of printable lines. The thermal sensor head 27 is internally provided with a temperature sensor (not shown), and the sensor output is monitored by the control circuit 50. Further, a temperature sensor which wipes the roller 23 from the i-tube is also provided, and the sensor output forms a state monitored by the control circuit 50. Figure 3 is a block diagram of the control unit. The control circuit 50 outputs a print material or the like for recording to the thermal sensor 27, and outputs a drive signal to the lift motor 30 and the motor 3 1, via the drives 51 and 52. The drive unit 52 that outputs a drive signal to the L F motor outputs a speed V 1 in the recording mode, a motor drive pulse, and a motor drive pulse at the speed V 2 in the erasing/recording mode or in the erasing mode. Further, the heating lamp 53 composed of the element lamps disposed in the erasing roller 2 3 outputs a driving signal via the driving unit 54. 312XP / invention manual (supplement) /94-08/94111436 and feel the tension of the Zhang Chuan control 27 line measurement with the head LF 3 1 degree halogen 12 1261031 heat sensor head 2 7 series has: print head 2 7 a, a drive unit 2 7 b, and a recording control unit 2 7 c, and a temperature sensor S 2 for monitoring the temperature of the print head 2 7 a. The temperature detecting signal of the temperature sensor S 2 is input to the control circuit 50. Similarly, in the erasing roller 23, a temperature sensor S3 for detecting the surface temperature is provided, and the sensor is provided. The output will be input to the control circuit 50.

Further, the control circuit 50 is connected to the interface 55, and is connected to the operation unit 4, various sensors S, and the host. When the host performs the printing device driving to cause the host to generate a print command for the image data, the image data is input to the control circuit 50 via the interface 55. Furthermore, the control circuit 50 is connected to the tables T B 1 T T B 3 , respectively. The print pulse pattern table T B1 sets a table of print pulse patterns of an average of 1 pixel (dot) (one pixel) in accordance with the conveyance speed of the paper 60. The transport speed is set to the recording mode faster than the erase/record mode. When the transport speed is faster, when the printing of a certain line is performed, since the thermal influence degree at the time of printing the previous line is large, the energy applied to the one line must be set to be smaller, so generally the transport speed V will be The print pulse pattern at a faster time is set to have a shorter pulse width. Figure 4 shows the above-described print pulse pattern for 1 pixel. The horizontal axis is time and the vertical axis is 0N/0FF of the print pulse. The pulse width of the printed pulse pattern shown in the figure is TE. Further, the print pulse pattern is constituted by a 1 to 20 control section, and as will be described later, the data (1 or 0) of each control section is transmitted from the control circuit 50 to the thermal sensing head 27 via D Μ A for recording control. Department 2 7 c. The timing value table T B 2 shown in Fig. 3 is based on the above-mentioned control area 13 312 ΧΡ / invention specification (supplement) / 94-08/94111436 1261031 T (i.e., timing value) according to the ambient temperature α. Since the larger the control interval T値, the wider the pulse width Τ E will be, and thus the applied energy of the average 1 image point will become larger. Therefore, by using the transport speed V and the ambient temperature α, the amount of energy applied to the average of 1 image point will be changed. In this example, the parameter for determining the amount of energy applied to the average 1 image point is set to the transport speed V and the ambient temperature α, but may be set to other parameters. Further, the heater temperature control table Τ Β 3 connected to the control circuit 50 is a temperature control table of the heater lamp 53, and sets the target set temperature and the forced OFF time based on the ambient temperature φ α at the start of driving. Relevant use The detailed control actions of these tables are described later. The recording control unit 2 7 c provided in the thermal head 2 7 controls the printing pulse pattern of the current image point after recording in accordance with the image points 0 N / 0 F F on the same line in the transport direction. Fig. 5 shows the operation of the recording control unit 27c.

In Fig. 5 (A), the paper sheet 60 is conveyed in the sheet conveying direction indicated by the vertical axis arrow in the drawing, and the heat sensing head 27 is located on the horizontal axis. If attention is paid to the A to C pixels on the print line to be printed, the previous image A1 of the A system and the previous image A 2 are not printed. The previous image point Β1 of the B system and the previous image point B2 are printed. Regarding the previous image point C 1 of the C system, the previous image C 2 was not printed. Here, as shown in FIG. 5(C), if the printing control unit 2 7 c inputs the printing pulse pattern selected by the printing pulse pattern table Τ 1 (refer to FIG. 3 ), Figure 5 (B) - A, A is applied to maintain the energy of the pulse width TE state of the input print pulse pattern, and the image point of B, because from the front 14 312XP / invention manual (supplement) / 9 ^ 08/94111436 1261031 Once the image point B 1 and the energy applied by the previous image point B 2 will have thermal energy residual, the energy of 70% of the force applied to A will be performed as shown in Fig. 5(B)-B. For C, as shown in Fig. 5 (B) - C, since the energy is applied from the energy applied to the previous image point C 1 , the energy of π 8 5 ° / ◦ is applied. According to this, the recording control unit 2 7 c controls the current energy application amount based on the previous ON and the previous energy ON/OFF recording. In this way, the correct energy can be applied to the image points of this time. Next, the detailed operation of the control circuit 50 is performed with reference to the flowchart.

Description. Fig. 6 is a flow chart showing the operation when the recording mode is selected. This recording mode is implemented when the recording mode is selected or the erasing/recording mode is selected. When the image data to be recorded is received from the host (S T 1 ), the "waiting for cooling" of the thermal sensor head 27 is executed in S T 2 . When the temperature of the thermal sensing head 27 is lowered in S T 2, the paper 60 is transported to the recording position in S T 3 , and the control of "thermal head drop" is performed in ST4.

Next, print pulse pattern selection (S T 5 ) in one pixel is performed. The selection of the print pulse pattern is carried out in accordance with the paper transport speed V at this time with reference to the print pulse pattern T B1 . In other words, when the recording mode is selected, it will be the speed V 1, and the selection of the erase/record mode will be the speed V 2 (V 2 < V 1 ) ^ so it is convenient to use the set mode to record the mode, or erase / Record mode, select the respective print pulse pattern. Next, the print data of the start line is transferred from the control circuit 50 to the print head 2 7 a (S T 6 ). Next, in step ST7, the timing value table TB 2 is executed with reference to the setting of the timing value 1515 3 ] 2XP/invention specification (supplement)/94-08/94111436 1261031: the timing value T is based on the ambient temperature at this time. Set by α'. The fixed β-value system is illustrated in Figure 4 and is the control interval for determining the print pulse pattern. Next, in S Τ 8, the recording control unit 2 7 c executes D Μ Α (direct memory access) of the print pulse pattern (including the timing value) determined in S Τ 5 to S Τ 7 In other words, since the control interval is 1 to 2 0, the data (0 or 1) corresponding to each control section T will perform 20 的 D Μ A transmission to the recording control unit 2 7 c. Since the control circuit 50 has a D Μ A φ control unit built therein, when the S Τ 8 performs D Μ Α transmission, the control circuit 50 (actually the CPU) can perform the D Μ A setting because it is set here. After that, the CPU will be open immediately and other processing can be performed. Therefore, it is very efficient and helps to speed up. In the above S T 9, the print head 2 7 a of the thermal sensor head 7 is transferred to the print data of the next line (preparation of the next line). Next, in S T 1 0, the paper 60 is fed into the first step, and the "paper end processing" described later is executed in S Τ1 1 . If the printing of all the lines has not been completed (S Τ 1 2 ), the processing after ^ST7 is executed again. If the printing of all the lines has been completed, the thermal head 2 7 is raised (S Τ 1 3 ), and the paper 60 is discharged to end (S Τ 1 4 ). Fig. 7 shows the "waiting for cooling" control operation of the above ST2. In S T 2 0, the upper limit temperature flag is confirmed, and if it is in the reset (r e s e t ) state, no action is performed. This upper limit temperature mark is a mark set by "temperature detection" described later. If this flag is set, it is convenient to read the temperature of the thermal head 27 (S T 2 1 ) with the temperature sensor S 2 and wait for the temperature to drop below 65 ° C (S T 2 2 ). If it is below 6 5 °C, clear the upper temperature mark 16 312XP / invention manual (supplement) /94-08/9411 ] 436 1261031 [S Τ 2 3 ) and return. As shown in Fig. 8, the "temperature detection" control operation is executed at regular intervals in response to a timer interruption. First, the temperature of the thermal sensing head 27 is read by the temperature sensor S 2 (ST 3 0 ), and it is judged whether it is above 68 ° C (ST 3 1 ). If it is lower than 6 8 ° C, the upper limit temperature is marked. Clear (ST 3 2 ) and return. If it is above 6 8 °C, set the upper limit temperature mark (S T 3 3 ) and return. Next, the "heat sensor head drop" of ST4 of Fig. 6 will be described.

Fig. 9 is a schematic view showing the operation of "heat sensor head down". If the paper detecting sensor S 1 detects the leading end of the paper 6 transported on the paper transport path 2 2, the detection signal is transmitted to the control circuit 50, and is determined by the control circuit 50 according to the detection timing. The driving timing of the motor 30 is raised and lowered, and the lowering of the thermal sensor head 27 is started. Figure 9 (A) shows when the paper detecting sensor S 1 detects the leading end of the paper 60. Fig. 9(B) shows a state in which the paper 60 is further conveyed and the distance L1 is further advanced. At this point, the thermal sensing head 27 will begin to drop. As shown in Fig. 9(C), when the sheet 60 reaches the recording position P, the head heating portion of the thermal head 27 is brought into contact with the leading end of the sheet 60 at the same time. Then, the image printing operation by the thermal sensor head 27 is performed along with the conveyance of the paper 60. The above distance L 1 will change in accordance with the conveying speed of the paper 60. The faster the transfer speed, the shorter L 1 will be. Figure 10 shows the control action of "heat sensor head down". In ST 40, if the paper detecting sensor S1 detects the leading end of the paper 60, the number of pulses until the thermal sensing head 27 starts to fall is set. 17 312XP/Invention Manual (supplement)/94-08/94111436 1261031 (corresponding to the number of transport steps of the paper 60, corresponding to the distance L 1 ) N. Further, since the number of pulses N is different between the recording mode and the paper transport speed of the erase/record mode, it will change depending on the modes. The transport speed in the recording mode is 50 m m / s, and the transport speed in the erase/record mode is 30 m m / s. The recording mode in which the number of pulses N is relatively fast is set to a large value. Here, in this ST4 1, the mode set by the Si combination is set to the number N of pulses. in

5 □ 4 2, S T 4 3, wait for the set number of pulses N to become 0, when it becomes N two, the thermal sensing head 27 starts to fall. The state of N = 0 is as shown in Fig. 9 (B). According to the above operation, at the recording position P, the head heating portion of the thermal head 27 and the leading end of the sheet 60 can be correctly aligned, and the sheet 60 does not need to be temporarily stopped at the recording position P. In addition, since the control circuit 50 knows that the leading end of the paper 60 reaches the recording position P, and at this time, the thermal head 2 7 prints the head heating portion to abut the timing of the leading end of the paper, so the thermal sensing head 2 is activated from this point 2 7 The printing energy is applied based on the image data, thereby preventing energy from being applied to the thermal sensing head 27 in a no-load state, and preventing the thermal sensing head 27 from coming into contact with the rotating roller 26. Next, the operation of S T 5 to S T 9 in Fig. 6 will be described with reference to Fig. 11 . In ST 5, the print pulse pattern in the 1 dot will be selected according to the print pulse pattern table TB 1 (refer to FIG. 3), and in ST6, the print data of the start line will be transmitted to the thermal head. 2 7 print head 2 7 a. In Figure 11, the horizontal axis is the time axis. The print data of the above start line corresponds to A of "Print Data Transfer". In addition, the transport speed of the paper 60 will be set at 50 mm / s in this example, so that it will be as shown in Fig. 11. Every 2 . 5 n〗 s 18 312XP / invention manual (supplement ) /94-08/94 ] 11436 1261031 A timed interrupt occurs and motor feed is performed. If the print data shown in A of "Print Data Transfer" is transferred to the print head 27a and latched, the print power is turned on at the timing of (a) of Fig. 11. In other words, in S T 8 , the D Μ A transmission of the print pulse pattern will be performed. At the same time as this D Μ A transmission [(b) Timing], the printed data of the next line (represented by B) will be transmitted. At the timing of the above (a), the print pulse portion of the D Μ A transmission is applied to the recording control unit 2 7 c of the thermal sensor head 27, and the print pulse pattern table TB 1 and the timing value table TB are referred to as described above. 2. Set with ST 5 φ and ST 7. Further, the example shown in the figure divides the printing energization interval into the right half and the left half of the thermal sensing head 27. In this case, by performing the D Μ A transfer of the print pulse pattern at time (a), since the CPU of the control circuit 50 will be able to immediately transfer from the relevant print pulse pattern to the soft load after the (a) timing. Release, so you can perform other actions. Therefore, high speed processing can be formed. Next, the "paper end processing" of S T 1 1 of Fig. 6 will be described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2 .

The paper detecting sensor S 1 shown in Fig. 1 1 detects the state of the trailing end of the paper 60. In the memory image data memory 80 included in the control circuit 50, the memory is printed by the image data of the thermal sensor head 27 and updated every page. Further, the remaining number of print lines R performed by the heat sensing head 27 is memorized in R A Μ. When the number of remaining print lines R becomes zero, the printing of the thermal sensor head 27 is ended. In Fig. 12, the interval Q between the sensor S1 and the recording position 系 refers to the number R of printable lines up to the end of the paper 60. In this state, as shown in Figure 12 19 312 ΧΡ / invention manual (supplement) /94-08/94111436 1261031

Remaining? The number of lines printed is rewritten as R — . Therefore, π will be described later on the end of the paper 6 and the end passes through the position ρ, and the memory of the image data memory 8 G remains in the image of the c贡: the thermal sensor head 2 '<乃7 It is said that no energy is applied to the thermal sensing head 2 7 from here, and the rotating roller 26 will no longer contact the thermal sensing head 27 . Fig. 13 is a flow chart showing the control operation of "paper terminal processing".

In ST 50, if the paper detection sensor S 1 detects the trailing end of the paper 60, the judgment of R &gt; Q is performed, and if it is R &gt; Q, the R is set to Q (ST 5 2 ). . When the printing operation is performed as described above, if all the lines have been printed (ST 1 2 in FIG. 6), the heating motor 30 is driven by the control circuit 50 to drive the heat-sensing head 27 (ST of FIG. 6). 1 3 ). Next, the operation at the time of erasing mode will be described. This erase mode is performed in erase mode and erase/record mode. Figure 14 shows the flow chart of the control actions in this erase mode. Execute "Erase the wheel to start powering" in S T 60. Next, the surface temperature of the erasing roller 23 is measured by the temperature sensor S3, and the heater temperature control table TB3 is referred to in ST62, and the set temperature to be the control target is set in accordance with the temperature (the temperature at the start) at this time. With forced OFF time. If referring to the heater temperature control table T B 3, for example, if the temperature at the beginning is above 100 °C, the set 値 is 1 4 7 °C, and the forced 〇F F time ij is 1 0 0 m s. Furthermore, when the temperature at the beginning is between 20 °C and 100 °C, the set 値 is 1 4 5 °C, and the forced 〇F F time is 50 m s. Second, proceed toward ST63 and execute the "starting 20 312XP / invention manual (supplement) / 94-0S / 94111436 with a timed interrupt.

1261031 Broken erase." In ST64, it is judged whether or not the target temperature has been reached, and if it is reached, the conveyance of the paper 60 is started in S T 6 5 . In addition, the thermal head 27 will rise at this time. When the erasing/recording mode is reached, if the front end of the 60 reaches the paper detecting sensor S1, the thermal sensing head 27 is lowered. Figure 15 shows the diagram and waveform diagram of the "Erasing roller starts energizing" of S T 60. The commercial power source 70 is supplied to a heat lamp 53 composed of an element lamp via a reactor 7 1 and a bidirectional body (ΐ r i a c ) 7 2 . The triode 7 2 performs zero crossing (c r 〇 s s ) control using the zero crossing control circuit 7.3, and the control pulse is input from the driver 54 in the zero crossing control circuit 73. The zero-crossing control circuit 7.3 performs a zero-control circuit that treats the 0N/0FF timing of the bidirectional body 72 as a zero-crossing timing of the power supply voltage, and by performing this zero-crossing control, the occurrence of a current surge current can be prevented. Further, as shown by the zero-crossing control circuit 7 3, 1 5 ( C ), the control pulse for increasing the zero-crossing control is slowly input from the start of energization. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 15(B), the energization time of the triac 72 can be gradually lengthened while performing the cross control, so that the current does not flow through the heating lamp 53. It can prevent deterioration or damage of parts due to the flow of current, and can also adversely affect the surrounding electronic equipment. Figure 16 shows an illustration of the set temperature and forced time set in the relevant S T 6 2 . The horizontal axis is the time axis, and the vertical axis is the wiper roller temperature. The energization of the lamp 5 3 is 0 N / 0 F F. When the temperature of the wiper wheel when the heating lamp 53 starts to be energized is lower and higher respectively, it will follow the subsequent energization, and the temperature 312XP/invention specification (supplement)/94-08/94111436 has reached the lower structure of the induction paper. In the case of a bidirectional zero-moving three-pole crossover, the figure is generated during the period of zero-turn, preventing the OFF and the force-extracting from rising. 21 1261031

The process will also be different. In other words, if the heat capacity of the wiping roller 23 is large, since the temperature rise is changed later than the heating temperature, when the target temperature is confirmed by the temperature sensor, even if the power is turned off, the short period will still be Continue to increase the temperature. In addition, when the temperature of the erasing roller when the heating lamp 53 starts to be energized is lower and higher, the temperature rise degree will be different. Therefore, when the heating lamp 53 is energized, the set temperature is slightly higher than the target temperature, and the temperature at the start of energization of the heater lamp 5 3 (the temperature of the roller 2 3 is erased) is used. Change the set temperature (the set temperature when the temperature is higher at the start of the increase in force π). Then, when the set temperature is reached, the power supply is stopped. Further, from the time when the set temperature is reached, a forced OFF time is set, and after the OFF time elapses, the temperature control can be performed, and the forced OFF time is based on the temperature at the start when the heating lamp 53 starts to be energized. Change its length. The reason for the above control is that when the temperature at the start of energization of the heating lamp 53 is high, the amount of heat stored in the erasing roller 23 is large, so it is preferable to set the setting temperature to be high or to force The OFF time is set to be longer. Here, the force of Figure 3 is shown. As shown in the heat exchanger temperature control table TB3, when the temperature is 20 °C to 1 0 0 °C at the beginning, it is set to the set temperature 1 4 5 °C, forced 0 FF time 50 ms, when starting When the temperature is above 1 0 0 °C, the set temperature is set to 1 4 7 C and the forced 0 FF time is 1 0 0 ms. Figure 17 shows the timing interrupt operation of "Start Interrupt Wipe" of S T 6 3 in Figure 14. In ST 70, whether or not there is a decision to set a strong 0 FF flag is performed, but 22 3] 2XP/invention specification (supplement) /94-08/94 ]]] 436 1261031 and then in S Τ 7 1 The measurement of the erasing roller 2 3 is performed in the sensor S 3 . When the temperature is abnormal (S T 7 2 ), an error flag (e flag) is set (ST73), and the heat lamp 53 (ST74) is turned off and returned. In the above S T 7 2, when the measured temperature is normal, it is convenient for S T 7 5 to perform a determination as to whether or not the measured temperature exceeds the set 値. This setting is set in the S T 6 2, and the value obtained by referring to the heater temperature control table T B 3 does not exceed the set value, and the heating lamp 5 3 is turned on in S T 7 6 and returned. In ST 7 5, if the setting 超过 is exceeded, it is convenient to set the forced φ mark in ST 7 7 and set the forced OFF time 于 in ST78, and turn off the addition (S Τ 7 9 ) ° in the above S Τ 7 0, If the forced 0 FF flag is set, it will be decremented by 1 unit time (here, 2 5 ms) from S Τ 8 0 from the forced 0 FF time. In ST 8 1, the judgment is whether or not Μ = 0, when Μ When = 0, the FF mark (S Τ 8 2 ) is cleared. When it is not the case of Μ2, wear and turn off the heater towards S Τ 7 4 . Therefore, if the forced OFF flag is set, the power to the heater lamp 5 3 is turned OFF only within the set forced time F F Μ. Accordingly, in the erasing mode and the erasing in the recording/erasing mode, the temperature control slightly higher than the target temperature setting temperature is performed on the heating lamp 53 of the erasing roller 23, and in FIG. In ST 6 4, it waits for the temperature to reach 5, and when the target temperature is reached, the paper 60 is transported. • According to this control, the heat capacity of the roller 23 is removed, and the target temperature is corrected. In the present embodiment, the following control can be performed. 3 ] 2XP / invention manual (supplement) /94-08/9411 ] 436 temperature r r〇r , B 1 4 . If the inverter is in the heat exchanger, and in addition to the strong force, the ST78 should be the target of the period 23 2361031], in order to protect the thermal sensing head 2 7, convenient to use the thermal sensing head 2 7 lifting position sensing The device 3 3 constantly monitors the rising and falling state of the thermal sensing head 27, and does not apply to the thermal sensing head 27 in the state where the thermal sensing head 27 is in the raised position (standby position) or in the state of not contacting and the roller 26 The drive signal is output and the driving voltage to the thermal head 27 is blocked. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the application of energy to the thermal sensing head 27 by mistake when the thermal sensing head 27 is in the raised position.

Secondly, when energy is applied to the thermal sensor head 27 and the printing operation is performed, it is convenient to use the paper detecting sensor S1 and other sensors provided on the transport path (not shown) to monitor whether or not the paper 60 clip occurs. Paper condition. When the paper jam occurs, the energy application to the thermal head 27 is stopped immediately. Thereby, the temperature of the heat-sensitive head 27 can be prevented from rising excessively. Thirdly, in ST 7 2 of Fig. 17, it is judged whether or not the thermometer of the erasing roller 23 is abnormal. This determination is made when the measured temperature itself is abnormal, of course, the previous measurement temperature 値 occurs. Abnormal changes (larger differential enthalpy) are also considered abnormal and detected. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is an external view of a thermal printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a structural view of the periphery of a paper conveying path. Fig. 3 is a structural diagram of a control unit. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a related print pulse pattern. 5(A) to (C) are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the related recording control unit. Fig. 6 is a flow chart showing the control operation in the recording mode. Fig. 7 is a flow chart showing the control operation of "waiting to cool down". Fig. 8 is a flow chart showing the control operation of "temperature detection". 24 312XP/Invention Manual (Supplement)/94-08/94 ]] 1436 1261031 Figure 9 (A) to (C) are explanatory diagrams of the control when the relevant thermal head is lowered. Figure 10 is a flow chart of the control action of "heat sensor head down". Figure 11 shows the timing waveform of the print power and print data transfer. Fig. 12 is an explanatory diagram of the operation contents of the related "paper terminal processing". Figure 13 is a flow chart showing the control operation of "Paper Terminal Processing". Figure 14 is a flow chart of the control actions in the erase mode. Fig. 1 5 (A) to (C) are structural diagrams and operation diagrams for energizing the erasing roller.

Figure 16 is an explanatory diagram of the relevant set temperature and forced 0 F F time. Figure 17 is a flow chart of the timing interrupt action in the erase mode. Fig. 18 is a graph showing the relationship between the color development density and the temperature of the heat sensitive paper reversible heat sensitive layer which can be used in the above thermal printing apparatus. [Main component symbol description] 1 Thermal printing device 2 Tray

4 Top cover operation section 5 Paper exit 进 20 Paper feed roller 2 1 Movable part 22 Paper conveyance path 23 Wipe off roller 24 Roller 25 Cooling fan 3 2 XP/Invention manual (supplement) /94-08/94111436 25 1261031 2 6 Roller 27 Heat sensor head 2 7a 歹1j Print head 27b, 51, 52, 54 Drive unit 27c 28 2 9 30

3 2 33 50 53 55 60

7 2 7 3 80 Recording Control Section Erase Processing Section Recording Processing Section Lifting Motor LF Motor Thermal Induction Head Up Thermal Induction Head Up Control Circuit Heating Light Interface Paper Commercial Power Reactor Bidirectional Triode Zero Crossing Control Memory Image Sublimation Cam Down position detection sensor 101 melting point 1 0 2 color status 103, 104, 106 way 105 decolorization state circuit material memory diameter 312XP / invention manual (supplement) / 94-08/941 ] 1436 26 1261031

P s 51 52 53 54 TB 1 • TB2 TB3 TE

Forced 0 FF time recording position sensor paper detection sensor temperature sensor temperature sensor cover body off sensor print pulse pattern table time value table heater temperature control table pulse width 3 ] 2XP / invention manual (supplement) /94-08/9411 ] 436 27

Claims (1)

1261031 X. Patent application scope: 1. A thermal printing device, characterized in that: a paper conveying path for conveying paper; a heat sensing head for recording images to be transported to the paper conveying path; a paper lifting device that lifts and lowers the heat sensing head; a paper detecting sensor disposed on an upstream side of the heat sensing head to detect that the paper is conveyed to a specific position; The control unit drives the lifting device to start the lowering of the thermal head based on the detection timing when the paper detecting sensor detects that the paper has been transported to the specific position. 2. The thermal printing device according to the first aspect of the invention, wherein the control unit is configured to set a conveying speed of the paper conveyed on the paper conveying path, and to set the paper according to the paper conveying speed setting means. The transport speed controls the start-down timing of the thermal head. 3. The thermal printing device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the paper detecting sensor detects a state in which the leading end of the paper is conveyed to a specific position. 4. The thermal printing device according to claim 1, wherein a paper tail end detecting sensor is disposed on an upstream side of the heat sensing head, and detects a tail end of the conveyed paper; The control unit compares the number of remaining print lines performed by the thermal sensing head with the number of printable lines that are worn to the trailing end of the paper when the paper end detecting sensor detects the trailing end of the paper. According to the above 28 312XP / invention manual (supplement) /94-08/941 η 43 6 1261031 the number of remaining printing lines performed by the thermal sensing head is greater than the number of printable lines as of the end of the paper, the remaining The number of print lines is set below the number of printable lines described above. 5. The thermal printing device of claim 1, wherein the paper is composed of a reversible thermal recording paper that can be printed and erased by changing a cooling rate after heating; a roller disposed on a transport path on an upstream side of the thermal head, wherein the paper is heated by heating, and the image on the φ paper is erased by heating; the paper detecting sensor is disposed in the heat The sensing head is between the above-mentioned erasing roller. 29 3 ] 2XP/invention manual (supplement) /94-08/941] 1436