JP2003200629A - Cassette - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve such a problem wherein printing or a laminate process cannot be carried out well if an ink ribbon color type is mistaken or the mode is left without being switched to a laminate process mode after a laminate ribbon is set when either of cassettes which store the ink ribbon and the laminate ribbon is set into a printer thereby necessitating changing a pressure for pressing a printing head 22 to a medium via the ribbon 7 or changing a heating value of the printing head 22. <P>SOLUTION: Window holes are opened to a rear face 61 of the cassette 6 by a combination proper to the color and variety the ribbon 7 among four points corresponding to four microswitches 5 set at the printer side. The color and variety of the set ribbon 7 can be detected at the printer 1 side from an on off state of the microswitches 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cassette which is detachably attached to a printing apparatus in a state where an ink ribbon or the like is stored.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a printing apparatus having a thermal transfer type print head, a print head is pressed against a medium, which is an object to be printed, via an ink ribbon at a predetermined pressure to print on the medium surface. The content printed on the surface of the medium is supplied as print data from a personal computer or the like to the printing device. Upon receiving the print data, the printing apparatus performs printing by transferring the ink deposited on the ink ribbon to the surface of the medium while transporting the medium at a constant printing speed.

On the other hand, since the transferred ink is exposed on the surface of the medium when it is still printed, the ink is gradually scraped off from the surface of the medium depending on the usage condition of the medium, and the printed content is faded. There is. By laminating the surface of the printed medium, it is possible to prevent such fading of printed contents.

In the laminating process, a base material similar to the ink ribbon is coated with a transparent laminating agent instead of ink, and the print head is pressed against the surface of the medium through the laminating ribbon to print a range. It is performed by applying a laminating agent to the entire area. In this way, the laminating process can be performed in a step very similar to the printing, and therefore the laminating ribbon can be attached to the printing device instead of the ink ribbon, and the laminating process can be performed using the printing device.

In the laminating process, the laminating agent may be transferred to the entire printed area, so that it is not necessary to input data such as print data from the outside to the printing apparatus. If the front end position and the width dimension of the medium can be detected, the printing apparatus automatically sets the printing area and performs the laminating process on the printing area.

The ink applied to the ink ribbon has various color types other than black. Since the physical properties of ink differ for each color type, it is necessary to adjust the amount of heat generated by the print head and the pressing force on the medium for each color type when printing on the medium surface. Therefore, the print data input from a personal computer contains color type data, and when changing the color type equivalent to the characters or symbols to be printed, the amount of heat generated from the print head installed in the printing device or the pressing force. Is adjusted according to the color type.

[0007]

In the above-mentioned conventional printing apparatus, when a laminating ribbon is attached to the printing apparatus instead of the ink ribbon to perform a laminating process on a printed medium, a mode changeover switch provided in the printing apparatus. Must be operated to switch to a laminating process mode that does not require print data from the outside. However, even if the laminating ribbon is attached to the printing device, if the mode changeover switch is forgotten to be switched to the laminating process, the laminating process cannot be performed and the laminating ribbon is attached when the print data is input. Nevertheless, there is a problem that the printing mode is activated.

Further, when an ink ribbon of a color type different from the color type data included in the print data from the outside is attached to the printing apparatus when printing is performed, printing cannot be performed under proper conditions, and thus printing quality is improved. And the amount of heat generated by the print head is not sufficiently transmitted to the ink ribbon, the print head overheats and the life of the print head is shortened.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cassette that does not cause the above-mentioned problems.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a cassette according to the present invention is a cassette detachably attached to a printing apparatus having a thermal transfer type print head, in which an ink ribbon and a laminating ribbon are provided. One of the two types is stored, and the type of the stored ribbon is displayed so that the type of the ribbon can be detected by the ribbon type detection means provided in the printing device when attached to the printing device. It is characterized in that a display unit is provided.

If the type of the ribbon stored in the cassette is displayed, the printer reads the type of the ribbon from the display when the cassette is attached to the printing device. For example, the printing mode is performed with the laminated ribbon attached. As a result, the printing device is prevented from operating.

When the ink ribbon has a plurality of color types, the color types are displayed on the display unit so that the ink ribbon of a color type different from the color type data included in the print data is attached. Printing is prevented from occurring.

When the ribbon type detecting means is constituted by a plurality of micro switches arranged in parallel at a constant pitch, the on / off state of which is reversed when the ribbon type detecting means is pushed in the mounting direction of the cassette. The type or color of the ribbon in the cassette may be indicated by a combination of the display holes formed at the positions where the micro switches are brought into contact with each other when attached to the cassette.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a printing apparatus, which is connected to a personal computer PC by a cable 11 in the present embodiment, receives print data from the personal computer PC, and prints it on a surface of a medium. Print. The printing apparatus 1 is opened when setting a medium and is opened when replacing or attaching a cover 12 that is always opened during printing and a cassette that stores an ink ribbon or a laminating ribbon, and is closed during printing. The cover 13 is provided.

Referring to FIG. 2, when the cover 12 is opened, the recessed medium setting position 2 appears. In the illustrated case, a strip-shaped tape R wound in a roll is set as a medium. The tape R is in contact with the rotating roller 20, and is configured so that the rotating roller 20 rotates to feed the tape R to the left side in the drawing at a constant speed.

The tape R sent out in this manner is pressed against the pinch roller 21 from above and is conveyed to the print head 22 at a constant conveying speed. A platen roller 22a is provided below the print head 22, and the tape R
Is printed on the surface while being pressed by the print head 22 against the platen roller 22a with a predetermined pressure. Although not shown in FIG. 2, the print head 22 and the tape R are
An ink ribbon is sandwiched between and, and the ink applied to the ink ribbon is transferred to the surface of the tape R by the heat generated by the print head 22.

The tape R thus printed is ejected by the ejection roller 23. In addition, such a tape R
The leading edge detection sensor 3 is attached on the upstream side of the print head 22 in the middle of the conveyance path of. The leading edge detection sensor 3 detects the leading edge position of the medium being conveyed, and when the leading edge of the medium detected by the leading edge detection sensor 3 is conveyed to the print head 22, it is retracted upward. The print head 22 moves down and presses the medium surface via the ink ribbon. Although not shown, the tape R and other media are positioned by being sandwiched by a pair of positioning rails in the left-right direction with respect to the transport direction. The distance between these positioning rails is detected by the sensor,
The width dimension of the medium is detected from the distance between the positioning rails.

When the width of the medium is narrow, both ends of the heat generating portion provided at the lower end of the print head 22 do not come into contact with the medium. It is controlled not to let.

The ink ribbon is housed in a cassette and attached to the printer 1 as an ink ribbon cassette. The ink ribbon is wound around one of a pair of bobbins provided in the cassette, and is wound on the other bobbin in synchronization with the medium transport speed during printing. A winding shaft 41 is engaged with the other bobbin when the cassette is attached. Further, the one bobbin is engaged with the brake shaft 42 in order to exert a constant tension on the ink ribbon. 5 is a switch group which is a ribbon type detecting means, and 4
Two micro switches are arranged at regular intervals.

As shown in FIG. 3, the switch group 5 is of a push type and is of a type that is turned on when pushed. Reference numeral 6 is a cassette in which a ribbon 7 is stored. When the cassette 6 is set in the printer 1, the rear surface of the cassette 6 pushes the switch group 5.

However, as shown in FIG.
The display portion 8 is formed at a position corresponding to the switch group 5. The display portion 8 is set so that a window hole 81 can be formed at a position where the cassette 6 contacts the four micro switches of the switch group 5 when the cassette 6 is attached to the printer 1. When the ribbon 7 is an ink ribbon, the four window holes 81 have different patterns to be opened for each color type, and when the ribbon 7 is a laminate ribbon, a pattern adopted when the ribbon 7 is an ink ribbon is used. It can be opened with a different pattern.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, six types of ink ribbons and seven types of laminated ribbons can be identified by the opening hole 81 opening pattern. Therefore, when the cassette 6 is attached to the printing apparatus 1, the micro switch is pressed and turned on in the position where the window hole is not opened, and the micro switch is not pressed in the position where the window hole 81 is opened and therefore is not turned on. . Printer 1
The control unit (not shown) built into the cassette is installed from the on / off state of this micro switch to the attached cassette 6
It is possible to identify the type of the ribbon 7 contained in the.

For example, when the attached cassette 6 contains a laminated ribbon, the printer 1
Detects that the laminating ribbon is attached from the opening pattern of the display portion 8 of the cassette. Then, the control mode is automatically switched to the laminating processing mode.
This laminating processing mode means that even if external print data is input, the print data is ignored, and the width of the medium detected from the width of the leading edge detection sensor 3 and the guide rail determines the print area on the surface of the medium. To calculate. Then, when the head of the print area reaches the print head 22, the print head 22 is lowered to transfer the laminating agent applied to the laminating ribbon to the entire printing area, and the laminating process is performed. At this time, the heat generation amount and the pressing force of the print head 22 are automatically adjusted to the optimum values for the laminating process.

When the attached cassette 6 contains an ink ribbon, the printer 1 reads the color type of the ink ribbon from the display portion 8 of the cassette 6, and determines the pressing force and heat generation amount of the print head 22. The value is automatically adjusted according to the color type. Although the pressing force and the heat generation amount may be automatically adjusted based on the color type data detected from the display unit 8 as described above, the color type data included in the input print data and the detected color type may be automatically adjusted. If they do not match, printing may be stopped and an error may be displayed.

By the way, in the above embodiment, the continuous tape-shaped medium is used, but a die-cut label in which the labels are arranged at a constant pitch on the continuous tape-shaped mount may be used as the medium. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, a plate-shaped plate material P can be used as a medium.

[0026]

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, a cassette containing an ink ribbon or a laminated ribbon is provided with a display section for displaying the type and color of the incorporated ribbon. When the cassette is attached, the printing device can read the display content of the display unit and perform appropriate control without manually switching the operation mode of the printing device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printing apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of the printing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a mounting state of a cassette.

FIG. 4 is a view showing the rear surface of the cassette.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a display unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which another medium is set in the printing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 printing device 2 Media setting position 3 Tip detection sensor 5 switch group 6 cassettes 7 ribbon 8 Display

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A cassette detachably attached to a printing device having a thermal transfer type print head, wherein either one of an ink ribbon and a laminating ribbon is housed inside and is attached to the printing device. When
A cassette, which is provided with a display section for displaying the type of the ribbon to be stored so that the type of the ribbon can be detected by the ribbon type detecting means provided in the printing apparatus. 2. The cassette according to claim 1, wherein there are a plurality of types of ink ribbons having different color types, and the display unit displays the color type of the ink ribbon. 3. The ribbon type detecting means is constituted by a plurality of microswitches which are turned on / off when pushed in the mounting direction of the cassette and arranged in parallel at a constant pitch. The cassette according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the type or color of the ribbon in the cassette is displayed by a combination of display holes formed at positions where the microswitches are brought into contact with each other in the above state.