JPH02206582A - Serial printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance an economical efficiency by a method wherein an ink supply means is composed of two vertical, rotatable, and cylindrical bodies, a gap between the aforesaid two cylindrical bodies is filled with a melted solid ink, and an ink holding body is passed through the ink loaded in the gap. CONSTITUTION:In an inking device, an solid ink 111 contained in an ink tank 108 is melted by a heater 109, and the melted ink 111 is transferred all over the cylindrical surfaces of two vertical inking rollers 112 by the surface tension of a thin layer part 113 formed between the rollers 112 to form an ink layer 114. The ink is penetrated into holes 102 of a screen belt 101, which is passed through the layer 114, and an excess ink applied on the surface of the belt 101 is scraped off by doctor blades 117. In this manner, both the belt 101 holding the solid ink in the holes 102 and paper 121 are clamped between a thermal head 118 and a platen roller. The application of a recording signal results in the ink in the holes 102 corresponding to the position being penetrated into the paper 121.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a serial printer capable of recording on plain paper using a thermal head.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in a serial printer using a thermal transfer recording method that can record on plain paper using a thermal head, as shown in Figure 5, a film is printed on a film base made of materials such as polyester paper, cellophane paper, or capacitor paper. An ink ribbon 201 coated with an ink with a relatively low melting point made by mixing a coloring material with a heat-melting material (e.g., wax) as a base is wound up in advance from a supply reel 202 to a heat-generating resistor via a guide roller 104. The body is sandwiched between a plurality of thermal heads 118 arranged in series and the paper 121, and appropriate pressure is applied to the platen 120 and the thermal head 118.
The heating resistor is heated in response to the print signal applied to the thermal head 118, and the ink on the ink ribbon 201 is melted, transferred and recorded, and the recorded ink ribbon is transferred to the reel B2O3. Wind it up.

Further, such a thermal transfer recording method has the feature that printing can be performed not only on plain paper but also on resin-based materials such as polyester such as OHP film as a recording medium.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, the ink ribbon 201 cannot be used again after the ink has been transferred to the recording medium.

Therefore, in addition to the supply reel 202 around which an unused ink ribbon is wound as described above, a reel 203 for winding up a used ink ribbon is essential.

This configuration is uneconomical in that ink remains on the ink ribbon 201 in areas other than those that have been thermally transferred, and the ink ribbon 201 is wound onto the reel 203 without being used.

Furthermore, the printed characters remain on the used ink ribbon in an inverted form, which can be easily identified by a third party, which poses a problem in terms of confidentiality.

Furthermore, the number of characters that can be printed at one time is extremely small compared to other printing methods such as wire dot printers.

These problems make this type of printer very expensive to use.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a serial printer that efficiently transfers ink to a recording medium, is inexpensive to use, and has high economic efficiency.

[Means to solve the problem]

According to the present invention, ``a flexible endless belt-shaped ink holder having a large number of holes that runs in the length direction, a solid ink having a low melting point is melted by a heating means,
an ink supply means for filling holes in the ink holder; and an ink holder between the ink holder and the recording paper with the holes holding the solid ink in the ink holder facing the recording surface of the recording paper. and a thermal head that melts the solid ink held in the hole and transfers it to the recording paper according to a recording signal, and the ink supply means includes two rotating upright rotatable cylinders. The two cylindrical bodies are placed so as to create a gap equal to or greater than the plate thickness of the ink holder, and the molten solid ink fills the gap by capillary action. A serial printer J is obtained, which is characterized in that ink is passed through an ink holder to fill holes in the ink holder.

[Effect]

According to the present invention, solid ink is first filled and held in a large number of holes provided in the endless belt-shaped ink holding body by the ink supply means. Next, the ink holder and the recording paper are sandwiched between the platen and the thermal head, and the solid ink is melted by the thermal head that generates heat in response to the recording signal, and the surface tension of the ink causes the ink holder to melt. A portion of the ink held in the recording paper permeates and is transferred to the recording paper. Furthermore, since the ink holder is in the shape of an endless belt and is run in the longitudinal direction, it returns to the position of the ink supply means and solid ink is replenished into the holes that have become hollow due to the transfer. .

Therefore, since the consumed ink can be replenished and reused, only the necessary amount can be consumed.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings showing one embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, in one embodiment of the present invention, the ink holder is a screen belt 101 made of metal such as stainless steel or nickel, or made of heat-resistant and abrasion-resistant material such as polyimide or tetrafluoroethylene. As shown in FIG. 2, holes 102 with a diameter of 10 to 100 μm are formed in a thin film made of a certain resin with a thickness of 10 to 100 μm by means such as etching or electroforming to resist the resistance heating of the thermal head described later. A plurality of them are arranged and formed so as to straddle one element of a certain heater section 112, and are configured into an endless belt shape. As shown in FIG. 1, the endless screen belt is stretched around a drive pulley 103 and a plurality of guide rollers 104, and a rotating means such as a motor (not shown) is used.
causes the drive pulley 103 to rotate so that the screen belt 101 runs longitudinally at the same speed as the carriage 105 moving along the guide rail 124.

An inking device that supplies solid ink, which is made by adding dye to a wax-based resin that has a comparatively low melting point of about 60 to 150°C and is plastic even at room temperature, to the holes 102 of the screen belt 101. 106 are provided.

As shown in the side cross-sectional view of FIG. 3(a), this inking device 106 operates by controlling the ink tank 108 by a heater 109 provided on the back side of the bottom of the ink tank 108 of the frame 107.
The bottom part generates heat so as to melt the ink pellets 110, which are solid ink lumps put into the container. The molten ink 111 is supplied to an ink supply section 116 via a passage 115. As shown in the cross-sectional view seen from above in FIG. The thin layer part 113 has a gap equal to or slightly wider than the thickness of the plate, and the thin layer part 113 allows the molten ink 111 to spread over the entire cylindrical surface of the upright inking roller 112 by the force of surface tension. The ink is transferred to form an ink layer 114 between both inking rollers 112. Ink layer 1 sandwiched between both inking rollers 112
Hole 102 of screen belt 101 passing through 14
The ink is allowed to permeate into the surface of the screen belt 101, and the excess ink adhering to the surface of the screen belt 101 is scraped off by the doctor blade 117.

The portion of the screen belt 101 to which ink is supplied is injected outside the inking roller and cooled.

As a result, the ink in the holes 102 of the screen belt 101 is coagulated and retained.

When the ink in the ink tank 108 of the inking device 106 is consumed and ink can no longer be supplied to the holes 102 of the screen belt 101, the screen belt 101 extending from the inking device 106 to the thermal head 118 as shown in FIG. An optical ink sensor 119 consisting of a light emitting body and a light sensor is installed in the middle of the path of the ink belt, and detects the presence or absence of the screen belt and issues a warning, such as by sounding a buzzer, to prompt the operator to replenish the ink pellet. Just do it like this.

The screen belt 101 holding the solid ink in the holes 102 in this way is held between the paper 121 by the thermal head 118 and the platen 120, and when a recording signal is applied to the thermal head 118, the screen belt 101 is As shown in Figure 4, the heater section 122 of the thermal head 118 generates heat by the amount that the recording signal is applied, and the solid ink at the position of the hole 102 corresponding to that position is
As shown in (2), melting begins from the surface in contact with the heater section 122, and as shown in (2), the melting progresses toward the surface in contact with the paper 121.

Next, when the heater section 122 is turned off, the melted ink begins to solidify, but due to residual heat, the melting progresses further as shown in (■) and (■) in the figure, and the ink permeates into the paper due to its surface tension. The ink that permeates the paper immediately
Heat is removed by the liquid, causing it to cool and solidify. And V in the figure,
As shown in (2), the ink is transferred due to the adhesion of the solidified ink. As explained in FIG. 2, each pixel of the ink to be transferred is formed by a plurality of dots as shown by the double diagonal lines in FIG. Even when the holes cannot be filled, the ink held in the remaining holes can form pixels, making it difficult for printers to experience dot dropouts, which can be fatal, and to achieve highly reliable printing. realizable.

The portion of the solid ink 123 that has not been transferred remains attached to the holes 102 of the screen belt 101. The ink then returns to the inking device 106 again, and ink is replenished by the amount transferred in the above-described manner.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, an economically efficient serial printer is provided that solves the economic problems of conventional thermal transfer recording type serial printers and can efficiently transfer ink to recording paper. can.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a conventional thermal transfer serial printer.

101... Screen belt, 106... Inking device, 110... Ink pellet, 112... Inking roller, 118... Thermal head.

Agent Patent Attorney Susumu Uchihara

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a serial printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged view of a screen belt, and FIGS. 3(a) and (b) are side views showing the configuration of an inking device. The cross-sectional view and the plan cross-sectional view, Fig. 4, are a description of the serial printer of the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A flexible endless belt-shaped ink holder having a large number of holes running in the length direction, a solid ink having a low melting point melted by heating means,
an ink supply means for filling holes in the ink holder; and an ink holder between the ink holder and the recording paper with the holes holding the solid ink in the ink holder facing the recording surface of the recording paper. and a thermal head that melts the solid ink held in the hole and transfers it to the recording paper according to a recording signal, and the ink supply means includes two rotating upright rotatable cylinders. The two cylindrical bodies are placed so as to create a gap equal to or greater than the plate thickness of the ink holder, and the molten solid ink fills the gap by capillary action. A serial printer characterized in that ink is passed through an ink holder to fill holes in the ink holder.