JPH0226773A - Thermal recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a thermal recording device that records on recording paper by a thermal transfer method using an ink sheet coated with either sublimation ink or melting ink. It is.

[Prior Art] Color printers that print out color images in color computer graphics, color videos, etc. have been actively developed in recent years.

Among these color printers, thermal transfer color printers using thermal heads use ink sheets coated with yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and even black (Bk) coloring materials. There is a printer that uses a head to transfer images onto recording paper, producing a multi-color, multi-gradation color image.

Typical ink sheets for color recording are
There are sublimable ink sheets coated with sublimable ink and fusible ink sheets coated with meltable ink. Generally, sublimation ink sheets are suitable for gradation recording, but they require expensive and special recording paper with an ink-receptive layer.
Melting ink sheets can be used to record on plain paper, but they are not suitable for gradation recording.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Conventionally, thermal transfer recording using these gradation ink sheets and fusible ink sheets has been realized by separate thermal transfer printers. Therefore, when it is desired to change the ink sheet to be used in consideration of the type of data to be printed, printing cost, etc., it is necessary to prepare a small number of printers (at least two printers).

This has placed a heavy financial burden on users.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide a thermal recording device that can attach either a sublimable ink sheet or a meltable ink sheet and record by determining the type of the ink sheet. With the goal.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the thermal recording device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, it is a thermal recording device that drives a thermal head to generate heat and performs recording by a thermal transfer method, and has an ink sheet mounting section and an ink sheet mounted on the ink sheet mounting section that determines whether the ink sheet is a sublimation ink sheet or a meltable ink sheet. and identification means for identifying.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, the identification means identifies whether the ink sheet mounted on the ink sheet mounting section is a sublimable ink sheet or a meltable ink sheet.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Description of mechanical parts of printer (Figs. 1 to 3, and 5)] Fig. 1 shows a side sectional view of a color thermal transfer printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, and in the figure, 101 is a plain paper cassette. , 201 is a cassette that stores recording paper for sublimation ink. As shown in FIG. 1, the printer can be loaded with two cassettes 101 and 201 at the same time. The cassette 101 contains plain paper used for normal thermal transfer using a fusible ink sheet, and the cassette 201 contains, for example, sublimation thermal transfer recording paper that has an ink receiving layer from an ink sheet coated with sublimation ink. It is designed to be stored.

If two types of recording paper are of the same size, there is a possibility that they will be erroneously stored in different cassettes, and plain paper may also be stored in cassette 101 or 201. Therefore, in this example printer, ordinary recording paper 3
01 and the back side of the sublimation type thermal transfer recording paper 302, as shown in FIG. Alternatively, plain paper 301 or sublimation type thermal transfer recording paper 302 is detected by 202 . Therefore, even if the sublimation thermal transfer recording paper 302 is incorrectly stored in the cassette 101 or the plain paper 301 is stored in the cassette 201, or if the paper is stored upside down, or if plain paper without markings is stored, the photosensor 102 or 202 will not be activated. No recording paper is detected, and an appropriate display (not shown) is made to indicate that there is no paper.

Each of the recording sheets stored in the cassettes 101 and 201 is transferred to the corresponding pickup roller 103 and 2031.
The paper is fed to the printer main body by separation rollers 104, 105, 204, 205, etc. The drive sources for each of the rollers are motors 106 and 206, and by selectively driving these, plain paper 301 or sublimation thermal transfer recording paper 302 is fed.

Reference numerals 107 and 108 and 207 and 208 are paper guides, respectively, and the plain paper or sublimation type thermal transfer recording paper fed by the paper feeding mechanism is sent to the platen 120 by these paper guides. Pinch rollers 121 and 122 are urged toward the platen 120 by springs (not shown), and convey the recording paper while sandwiching it between them and the platen 120. The motor 123 is a stepping motor, and drives the platen 120 via a deceleration mechanism (not shown). 124 is a paper guide, and 125 is a paper discharge tray for discharging the recorded recording paper.

126 is a paper guide lever;
is biased by a spring and plunger (not shown),
When the plunger is on, it is positioned in the state shown by the solid line in Figure 1 due to the suction force of the plunger, and when the plunger is off, it is positioned in the state shown in the broken line by the spring biasing force. The length of the platen 120 in the longitudinal direction, which indicates the positional relationship with the platen, is slightly narrower than the width of the recording paper, and has a length that allows it to be contacted by the head over the entire recording range indicated by diagonal lines. are doing. Further, paper guide levers 126 are disposed on both sides of the platen 120 so as to be within the width of the recording paper, and guide the conveyance of the recording paper.

Therefore, when the paper guide lever 126 is in the position shown by the solid line as shown in FIG. is sent to the recording position. Further, when the paper guide lever 126 is in the position shown by the broken line, the recording paper is guided by the side surface of the paper guide lever 126 on the 12b side, and the recording paper is
0 and is ejected to the paper ejection tray 125.

Next, a mechanism for bringing the head 130 into contact with the platen 120 will be described. Reference numeral 131 is a motor for moving the head up/down, and the driving force of the motor 131 moves the head 13.
0 is pressed against the platen 120 via the ink sheet 132 and the recording paper (down state) or separated from the platen 120 (up state). That is, motor 1
The rotation obtained from the worm gear 133 attached to the shaft 31 is transmitted to the gears 19 and 20 shown in FIG. 2 via a speed reduction mechanism (not shown). The head 130 and a rotating plate are integrally attached to the head drive shaft 134 of the gear 20, and both ends of a torsion coil spring 23 are fixed to the rotating plate 22 and the gear 21, respectively.

Therefore, when the motor 131 is driven to rotate the gear 20 in the counterclockwise direction shown by the arrow in FIG.
Further, the head 130 is driven in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 1, so that the head 130 comes into contact with the platen 120.

When the motor 131 is further driven to rotate the gear 20 counterclockwise, the torsion spring 23 is charged and the head 130 is pressed against the platen 120 by its charge. At this time, by detecting the rotational phase of the gear 20 with a detection mechanism (not shown), the amount of charge of the spring 23 can be detected, and the pressing force of the head 130 against the platen 120 can be controlled in at least two stages. The two-step pressing force referred to here is the optimum pressing force when using plain paper, and the optimum pressing force when using sublimation type thermal transfer recording paper. Furthermore, if the motor 131 is driven in the opposite direction (clockwise) to the above direction, the gear 20 is driven in the opposite direction to the arrow in FIG.
It rotates around , in a direction opposite to the eight directions of arrows in FIG.

In addition, the head pressing mechanism shown in FIG.
The pressing against the platen 120 by the gear 19.
The mechanisms of the 20-turn plate 22 and the torsion coil spring 23 are disposed on both of two base plates (not shown) that support the platen 120.

Furthermore, since the worm gear 133 is attached to the shaft of the motor 131, even if the power to the motor 131 is cut off after the spring 23 is charged and the head 130 is pressed against the platen 120, the motor 1
31 is rotated in the opposite direction so that the platen 1 of the head 130
The pressure on 20 is never released.

[Description of Ink Sheet (FIG. 4)] Next, the structure of the ink sheet 132 and its drive system will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, the ink sheet 132 includes transparent molecules provided with marks 16a for sheet position detection, and three dyes yellow Y, magenta M, and cyan C for color recording. Four parts, each consisting of a coated part, are successively formed according to this order. The transparent part molecule is a part for synchronizing the colors to be printed, and when this part molecule is detected, it can be detected that the yellow Y part will come next.

In addition, in the sublimation ink sheet, sublimation dye is applied to the Y, M, and C portions, and at this time, the cassette 2
Color recording is performed using sublimation type thermal transfer paper No. 01, and the Y, M, and C portions of the fusible ink sheet are coated with fusible ink, and at this time, the cassette 101
Color recording is performed using plain paper stored in the . 16b is a mark added only to the sublimable ink sheet, and no mark indicating the type of ink is attached to the meltable ink sheet. Therefore, a positioning mark 16a and a mark 16b indicating the type of ink applied are added to the sublimation ink sheet.

Note that the position of the mark indicating the type of ink sheet is not limited to this. For example, in the case of a single-color ink sheet, the length of the ink sheet is placed at the end of the ink sheet that is not used for recording. A line indicating the type of ink sheet is placed along the direction, for example, on the right side of Figure 4 for a sublimation ink sheet, and on the left side for a fusible ink sheet, and the printer determines the position of this line in the photo. The type of ink sheet may be determined by reading it with a sensor or the like.

In FIG. 1, a stepping motor 139 is a driving source for the ink sheet 132 feeding mechanism, and the rotation of the motor 139 is transmitted to a winding shaft 140 to wind up the ink sheet 132 in the direction of arrow B.

Further, since an appropriate friction is applied to the rotating shaft 141 of the roll-shaped ink sheet 132, the winding shaft 141
When the ink sheet 132 is wound up by the winding shaft 40, the shaft 141 applies a load to the winding shaft 140, so that the ink sheet 132 does not slacken. Furthermore, the head 130
Even when the platen 120 is rotated with the head 130 pressed against the platen 120, the force for pressing the head 130 against the platen 120 is set such that the ink sheet 132 does not sag due to the frictional force between the recording paper and the ink sheet 132 or the electrostatic force. etc. can be adjusted.

[Mark Detection on Ink Sheet (Figures 1 and 4)] In Figure 1, 135 and 136 are a photodiode and a phototransistor, respectively. The photodiode 135 is attached to the upper part of the thermal head 130, and the Together with the phototransistor 136, it constitutes a pair of transmission type photosensors. These are marks 16a or 16b marked on the ink sheet 132.
Two sets of detectors are provided in the width direction of the recording paper, one for detecting the mark 16a and one for detecting the mark 16b. Now, when the mark 16a is detected by one set of photosensors while the thermal head 130 is down, it means that the ink sheet 132 has been set to the initial position for starting recording. At this time, the mark 16b is detected by the other set of photosensors.
If it is detected, the installed ink sheet 13
2 can be identified as a sublimation ink sheet, with a mark of 16.
If b is not detected, it can be recognized that the sheet is a meltable ink sheet.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, on the downstream side of the mark 16b of the ink sheet 132, there is a length "β" from the position of the photosensors 135, 136 in the printer body to the recording position 13a (FIG. 1) by the head 130. Therefore, when the mark 16a is detected by the photosensors 135 and 136, the leading part of the ink sheet Y is facing the head 130, and the ink sheet Y is ready to start recording. This means that the initial position has been set.

Furthermore, when the stepping motors 123 and 139 have a reduction ratio of 123 and 139 in the same manner, the ink sheet is faster at feeding the recording paper and the ink sheet at the recording position 13a of the head 130. However, since the winding shaft 140 is provided with a slip mechanism (not shown), the ink sheet 132 is wound in an amount similar to the amount of recording paper fed by the head or platen. , the slip mechanism is configured to absorb the difference.

[Description of Color Printer (Figure 6)] Figures 6A and 6B are block diagrams showing the circuit configuration of a color printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6B shows a printer section having the mechanism shown in FIG.

In the image processing section 30 , the color image input from the telephone line input terminal 31 is input to the color demodulator 34 . This color image is demodulated into an NTSC signal or a color difference signal by a demodulator 34, and decomposed into R, G, and B signals by a decoder 35 when the switch 32 is connected to the (b) side.

In addition to the telephone line input terminal, the image processing section 30 has a video input terminal 36, and the video signal input to the video input terminal 36 is also input to the decoder 35 by switching the switch 32 to the (a) side. .

The color image signal decomposed into RGB signals by the decoder 35 is converted into RGB signals by the A/D converter 37, for example.
Each signal is converted into multi-value data of 6 bits per pixel and stored in the RGB memory 38.

The YMC conversion circuit 40 converts RGB signal data into C(
This is a color conversion circuit that converts cyan) to 1M (magenta) and Y (yellow) signals. By this color conversion circuit 40, YM
The color image data signal converted into C signal data is sent to the printer section 41 shown in FIG. 6B.

In addition, each of the above circuit blocks and the switch 32 are connected to the 6th B.
It is controlled by a CPU 42 shown in the figure.

Note that the CPU 42 has a ROM that stores processing procedures and the like that will be described later in the flowchart of FIG. 12, and a RAM that is used as a work area for control.

In the printer section 41, the image data output from the image processing section 30 is processed into one of the images to be recorded as shown in FIG.
The data is sequentially stored line by line in the buffer memory 43, and after being temporarily held in the buffer memory 43, it is output to the head drive pulse control circuit 44 in synchronization with the recording speed under the control of the CPU 42.

[Description of Head Drive Pulse Control Circuit (FIG. 8)] The head drive pulse control circuit 44 has a configuration as shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the configuration of the thermal head 130.

230 is a heat generating resistor element, 233 is a latch circuit, and 234 is a shift register. The serial data input to the shift register 234 is sequentially shifted by the clock pulse CLK, and is transferred to the latch circuit 233 by the latch signal 235.
is latched and converted to parallel data. In this way, the recording data corresponding to each heating resistor element 230 is held in the latch circuit 233, and the timing and time for applying voltage are determined by the strobe signal 5TB445.
The output transistor 231 of the element with data is “on”
Then, a voltage is applied to the corresponding heating resistance element 230.

The gradation conversion decoder 440 shown in FIG. 8 is a gradation conversion decoder for transferring gradation data 444 for each pixel to each register stage of the shift register 234 corresponding to each pixel by the number of gradations. be. When processing a color image, a gradation conversion decoder 440 performs gradation conversion for each of Y, M, and C colors. At this time, the strobe signal generation circuit 4
Recording is performed by a strobe signal 5TB445 from 42. Temperature/color correction gradation RO indicated by 443 in Figure 8
The M table stores correction data such that optimum gradation characteristics can be obtained for each color based on a temperature correction signal 446 from a head temperature detector (not shown).

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the relationship between head energization time and recording density by the thermal head 130.

To obtain the concentration of (B , + B2 + Bs
+B4 +Bs), the heating resistor element 230 is energized. As is clear from FIG. 10, the time the head 130 is energized is not proportional to its recording density; for example, to obtain a P+ recording density, the head 130 requires about (BI+82) energization time. be.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing head drive and control pulses during color image recording in a color printer having the current application time and recording density characteristics as shown in FIG. 10.

Here, the thermal head 130 is a line head, and
0 indicates the data recording timing of 1942 minutes.

1 which is now input to the gradation conversion decoder 440 in FIG.
If image data per pixel is composed of, for example, 6 bits, then 64 types of data are handled per pixel. Therefore, in this case, N of N gradations is "64". First, the gradation data 444 corresponding to the first STB signal of one line of data is transferred to the shift register 234 and latched by the latch circuit 233 by the latch signal 235. Next, the STB signal signal generator is output, and the heating element to which data "1" is output for the pulse width of B1 is driven.

During this heat generation drive, the next data is transferred to the shift register 234.
When the STB signal falls, the latch signal 23
5, it is latched by the latch circuit 233. In this way, the STB signal is then output on B2. This operation is executed 64 times to record one line.

That is, the gradation conversion decoder 440 manually inputs the image data,
When the value of the m-th pixel data of the line to be recorded in the image is "20", the value of the gradation counter 441 is placed in the m-th stage of the shift register 234 corresponding to the position of the pixel data. While referring to it, the data 71 is output a total of 64 times such that the first 20 pieces of data are "1" and the latter 44 (64-20) pieces of data are "O".

However, at this time, it goes without saying that data is set in the other stages of the shift register 234 according to the gradation level of the corresponding pixel. In this way, the pixel has a density “
20". At this time, each strobe signal STB is recorded as STB for the reason shown in FIG.
The pulse width is changed depending on the number of times the signal is output. The strobe signal generation circuit 442 executes such pulse width adjustment of the STB signal.

[Explanation of operation of color printer (Fig. 12)] Next, the sequence of color printing will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in Fig. 12.

First, in step S1, the image signal input terminal shown in FIG. 6A is selected, that is, the telephone line input terminal 31 or the video input terminal 3.
Enter from 6 automatically or manually.
The color image data R input in step S2
Next, in step S3, the thermal head 130 is brought into contact with the platen 120 in order to detect the mark 16a. At this time, by appropriately charging the torsion coil spring 23 by the drive motor 131, the pressing force between the head 130 and the platen 120 that is optimal for thermal transfer printing is achieved.

Next, in step S4, rotation of the platen 120 and winding of the ink sheet 132 are started, and the initial position of the ink sheet 132 shown in FIG. 4 is performed. Here, the phototransistor 136 that detects the signal from the photodiode 135 is 135-1, 136-1 for detecting the mark 16a shown in FIG. 4, and 135-2, 136- for detecting the mark 16b. 2, until 136-1 outputs a detection signal in step S5.
The ink sheet 132 is moved in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG.

In step S5, the mark 16a is the phototransistor 13.
6, it means that the thermal head 130 and the ink sheet 132 are set at a position where they can record with each other, and the winding of the ink sheet 132 and the rotational drive of the platen 120 are stopped in step S6. Then, in step S7, the photo sensor 136-2 detects the mark 16b.
By performing the detection, the type of ink sheet 132 is determined. That is, when the mark 16b is detected by the photosensor 136-2, since the ink sheet 132 is a sublimation ink sheet, steps S7 to S are performed.
8, the photo sensor 136-2 detects the mark 16b.
If not detected, it is processed as a meltable ink sheet in step S.
Proceed to ll.

In step S8, it is determined whether recording paper for a sublimable ink sheet is stored in the cassette 201, and
If the recording paper for sublimable ink is stored in 1, the process advances to step S9 to raise the thermal head 130, and in step SIO, the pickup roller 2 is moved by the motor 206.
03 and separation rollers 204, 205 to separate the cassette 2.
01, the recording paper is fed to the platen 120 side. - direction,
If it is a fusible ink sheet, it is checked in step Sll if plain paper is stored in the cassette 101. If plain paper is stored, the process advances to step S12, where the thermal head 130 is separated from the platen 120, and step S13
The pickup roller 103 and separation rollers 104 and 10
5 is driven by the motor 106, and the plain paper is transferred to the platen 12.
Feed paper to the 0 side. Note that step S8 and step Sl
If the corresponding recording paper does not exist in l, step S14
Proceed to , and perform paper out processing such as paper out display.

It should be noted that before the paper feeding operation in steps SIO and 13, and furthermore at the time of initial positioning of the recording paper as described below, the ink sheet 132
In order to prevent the ink sheet 132 from being sent by the rotation of the platen 120, the head 130 is placed slightly apart from the platen 120 to prevent the ink sheet 132 from being sent by the rotation of the platen 120.

Next, in step S15, the platen 12 (not shown)
The rotational position of the platen 120 is detected by the rotational phase angle detector 0, and if it is determined in step S16 that the recording paper is in a recordable position, the head 130 is brought into contact with the platen 120 in step S17, and step S18
The recording operation is started at , and data of one color is recorded for one line. At this time, the pressing force of the head 130 is set to an optimal pressing force that is predetermined according to the type of ink sheet 132.

Next, in step S19, it is checked whether recording of one page of image data for one color (Y data) has been completed, and if it has not been completed, the process returns to step S18 and winds up the ink sheet 132 by a predetermined amount. Record the image data for the next line.

In this way, when it is determined in step S19 that one page of image data for one color has been recorded, the process proceeds to step S20, where the paper ejection lever is turned on and the paper guide lever 126 is moved to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. let

In this manner, through steps S21 and S22, the recording paper is conveyed to the recording position again by the rotation of the platen 120.

That is, based on the rotational position of the platen 120, the platen 120 is rotated until the recording paper and the ink sheet 132 are placed at the recordable position. Next, color recording is performed in step S23.

In this recording operation, the ink sheet 132 is also driven at the same moving speed as the recording paper to perform recording from the time when the recording paper reaches a position where recording is possible.

In this way, in step S24, when it is determined that recording has been completed for each data of YMCa color, step S24 is performed.
Proceed to step 25.

In step S25, the paper ejection lever 126 is turned off and the first
The platen 1 is moved to the dotted line position in the figure, and the platen 1 is moved to the dotted line position in the figure.
The recorded recording paper is discharged onto the tray 125 by the rotation of 20, and the rotation of the platen 120 is stopped in step S27. Next, in the process of step S28, if recording is to be continued, the process returns to step S3 and the above-described operation is performed.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, the type of ink sheet can be easily detected.

In addition, since a mark indicating the type of ink sheet is attached to the printed part of the ink sheet, the exterior parts such as the ink sheet case can be used in common regardless of the type of ink sheet, so the shape of the ink sheet cartridge etc. The mold type of exterior parts becomes cheaper and it is also advantageous in terms of parts management, etc.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, either a sublimable ink sheet or a meltable ink sheet is installed,
This has the effect of being able to distinguish and record the type of ink sheet.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a side sectional view of a color printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the pressing mechanism of the thermal head shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a marking on recording paper in the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a top view to explain the ink sheet in the example. FIG. 5 is a top view showing the arrangement of the paper guide lever, platen, and recording paper shown in FIG. 1. , FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image processing section and printer section of the color printer shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing the contents of the buffer memory shown in FIG. 6, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing details of the head drive pulse control circuit shown in FIG. 9. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing details of the thermal head in the embodiment. FIG. 10 is the relationship between head energization time and image density in the embodiment. FIG. 11 is a waveform diagram of signal pulses for driving the thermal head in the printer section of the embodiment, and FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the recording processing procedure in the color printer of the embodiment. In the figure, 16a, 16b... Mark, 30... Image processing unit, 34... Color demodulator, 35... RGB decoder, 38... RGB memory, 40... YMC converter, 41 ...Printer section, 42...CPU, 43.
... Buffer memory, 44... Head drive pulse control circuit, 45... Head driver circuit, 101.201
...Cassette, 120...Platen, 126...
Paper guide lever 130... thermal head, 132
... ink sheet, 135 ... photodiode,
136... Phototransistor, 230... Heat generating resistor element, 231... Output transistor, 232...-
AND circuit, 233... Latch circuit, 234... Shift register, 301... Plain paper, 302... Recording paper for sublimation thermal transfer, 440... Gradation conversion decoder, 4
41... Gradation counter, 442... Strobe signal generation circuit, 443... Temperature/color correction gradation ROM, 44
4... Gradation data, 445... Strobe signal ST
It is B. Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 7 +30 Figure 9

Claims (1)

[Claims] A thermal recording device that drives a thermal head to generate heat and performs recording by a thermal transfer method, comprising: an ink sheet mounting section; and an ink sheet mounted on the ink sheet mounting section that is a sublimation ink sheet or a meltable ink sheet. What is claimed is: 1. A thermal recording device comprising: identification means for identifying an ink sheet.