JPH0528645U - Tape printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] Even when printing on tapes with multiple tape widths, the tapes can be transported smoothly without increasing the frictional resistance caused by the contact between the print head and the platen roller. Providing a simple tape printer. A platen roller 23 arranged in pressure contact with a thermal head 20 is divided in a direction perpendicular to a roller shaft 24 to form an upper roller member 23A and a lower roller member 23B, and each roller member 23A, 23B is formed. The tape printer 1 is rotatable around a roller shaft 24 independently of each other. With such a configuration, the film tape 11 having a tape width of about ½ of the vertical width of the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23 is provided on the upper roller member 2
The thermal head 20 is only fixedly contacted with the lower roller member 23B and does not participate in the frictional resistance at all, so that the film tape 11 is smoothly fed.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a tape printer that prints characters and the like on a tape conveyed between a print head and a platen roller arranged in contact with the print head via a thermal transfer ribbon, and particularly, to a tape printer. The present invention relates to a tape printer that can smoothly convey a tape without increasing frictional resistance due to contact between the print head and the platen roller even when printing on tapes having a plurality of tape widths.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 Conventionally, in this type of tape printing apparatus, a platen roller 51 is elastically pressed against a thermal head 50 fixedly arranged as shown in FIG. 6, and a tape 52 and a tape 52 are provided between the thermal head 50 and the platen roller 51. After the thermal transfer ribbon 53 is fed and the characters and the like are printed on the tape 52 by the thermal head 50 via the thermal transfer ribbon 53, the used thermal transfer ribbon 53 is wound in the direction of the arrow A by a pair of transport rollers 54, 55. The printed tape 52 is generally configured to be conveyed in the direction of arrow B.

When characters are printed on the tape 52 having a width smaller than the vertical width of the thermal head 50 and the platen roller 51 by the tape printing device to create a tape, the thermal head 50 and the platen roller 51 are located at the C portion. Direct contact with each other.

When the thermal head 50 and the platen roller 51 come into direct contact with each other in this way, the frictional resistance in the C portion increases, and the rotational load of the platen roller 51 may increase, causing slippage, which is strong. A spring biasing device increases the pressure contact force of the platen roller 51 with respect to the thermal head 50, and a powerful motor is used to increase the conveying force.

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, by making the width of the thermal transfer ribbon 53 equal to the vertical width of the thermal head 50 and the platen roller 51, the portion C where the thermal head 50 and the platen roller 51 are in direct contact is eliminated. In this way, the frictional resistance between the thermal head 50 and the platen roller 51 is reduced.

[0006]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, the former method described in the above prior art requires a strong spring urging device and a motor, which complicates the structure and increases the number of parts, resulting in complicated assembly, resulting in cost increase. There was a problem that would invite.

Further, in the latter method, a wide thermal transfer ribbon 53, which is originally unnecessary, is required only to reduce the frictional resistance between the thermal head 50 and the platen roller 51, and accordingly, the thermal transfer ribbon 53 is required. The ribbon cassette for storing 53 is also uneconomical because it becomes large in size, and as a result, there is a problem that the cost is increased as in the former method.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and eliminates the direct contact portion between the print head and the platen roller as much as possible even when feeding tapes having different tape widths. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tape printing device having an extremely simple structure and capable of smoothly transporting a tape without increasing the frictional resistance caused by the contact between the thermal head and the platen roller during the feeding of the tape. Suru

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to achieve this object, the present invention provides a print head for printing characters and the like on a tape, a platen roller which is arranged in contact with the print head to face the print head, and is supported rotatably around a rotation axis. In a tape printer having a tape feeding mechanism that feeds the tape between the print head and the platen roller and pulls out the tape printed by the print head, the platen roller includes a plurality of rollers in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis. Each of the divided roller members is configured to be rotatable independently of each other around the rotation axis.

[0010]

[Action]

 In the tape printer according to the present invention having the above-mentioned configuration, the tape printed by the print head is transported through the tape transport mechanism while being pressed against the print head and the platen roller.

At this time, the platen roller is divided into a plurality of roller members in a direction perpendicular to its rotation axis, and each divided roller member is rotatable around the rotation axis independently of each other. Therefore, only the roller member that is in contact with the tape corresponding to the tape width of the tape used is rotated as the tape is conveyed, and direct contact between the rotating roller member and the thermal head is eliminated as much as possible. To be done. As a result, the tape is smoothly transported by the transport mechanism without increasing the frictional resistance between the thermal head and the platen roller.

[0012]

【Example】

 An embodiment of the tape printing device according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a tape printer, which has an upper case 2 and a lower case 3, and a keyboard 4 and a character / symbol input dial 5 are provided on the upper surface of the upper case 2. And a liquid crystal display 6 is arranged. The keyboard 4 is provided with a power switch key 7 for switching the power of the tape printer 1 on and off, a print switch key 8 for printing with a thermal head 20 described later, and various other keys.

The character / symbol input dial 5 is for selecting and inputting a desired character or symbol, and the liquid crystal display 6 is for displaying the character or symbol input from the dial 5.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the main part showing the upper case and the upper lid of the tape cassette, and in the same figure, in the lower case 3, various tape supply spools, take-up spools, etc. are provided. A tape cassette 10 that rotatably supports is provided.

The tape cassette 10 is detachably attached to a printing mechanism having a thermal head 20 provided in the tape printer 1, and a film tape spool 12 around which a transparent film tape 11 is wound. The ribbon transfer spool 14 in which the thermal transfer ribbon 13 is wound with its ink surface inside, the ribbon take-up spool 15 for winding the thermal transfer ribbon 13 drawn out from the ribbon supply spool 14, and the film tape 11 have substantially the same width. A double-sided adhesive tape 16 having a release paper adhered on one side is wound with the release paper on the outside and a double-sided adhesive tape spool 17, and an alignment roller 18 for aligning the double-sided adhesive tape 16 and the film tape 11 inside. Each spool is rotatably supported via an upper lid and a support (not shown).

Here, the ribbon take-up spool 15 and the aligning roller 18 (which cooperate with a feed roller 22 to be described later to form a transport mechanism for the film tape 11 and the double-sided adhesive tape 16) are appropriately driven by a known pulse motor. It is rotationally driven via a power transmission mechanism.

A thermal head 20 fixed to the lower case 3 is disposed in the recess 19 provided in the tape cassette 10, and further, on the opposite side of the alignment roller 18 and the thermal head 20, A feed roller 22 and a platen roller 23, which are arranged on a support body 21 which is rotatably supported by the lower case, are arranged opposite to each other.

The platen roller 23 is in pressure contact with the thermal head 20, and the feed roller 22 is in pressure contact with the alignment roller 18, by the support 21 being selectively urged by an urging member (not shown).

Here, the platen roller 23 is rotatably supported by a roller shaft 24 fixedly erected on the support 21 as shown in an enlarged view in FIG. Is divided into an upper roller member 23A and a lower roller member 23B in a direction perpendicular to the roller shaft 24. The upper roller member 23A is rotatably attached to the roller shaft 24 via the collar 25, and the lower roller member 23B is rotatably attached to the roller shaft 24 via the collar 26. Based on this configuration, the upper roller member 23A and the lower roller member 23B can rotate around the roller shaft 24 independently of each other.

Next, an operation of creating a tape on which desired characters and the like are printed by the tape printer 1 configured as described above will be described.

When the print switch key 8 of the keyboard 4 is pressed after inputting a desired character or the like using the character / symbol input dial 5, printing control by the thermal head 20 is started. When printing control is started, the film tape 11 is drawn from the spool 12 by the aligning roller 18 and the feed roller 22 and is fed toward the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23. At the same time, the thermal transfer ribbon 13 is also pulled out from the ribbon supply spool 14 and sent to the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23 in the same manner as the film tape 11.

In synchronization with the feeding operation of the film tape 11 and the thermal transfer ribbon 13, the thermal head 20 reversely prints the characters and the like on the film tape 11 via the thermal transfer ribbon 13. Then, the printed film tape 11 is sent in the direction of the aligning roller 18 and the feed roller 22, and the thermal transfer ribbon 13 used for printing is taken up by the ribbon take-up spool 15.

Here, when the printing operation and the feeding operation are performed using the film tape 11 and the thermal transfer ribbon 13 whose tape width is substantially equal to the vertical width (about 24 mm width) of the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23, the tape width 4 and 5 about the case where the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23 use the film tape 11 and the thermal transfer ribbon 13 which are approximately 1/2 the vertical width of the platen roller 23 (see FIG. 4 and FIG. 5). I will explain.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view schematically showing the printing mechanism (thermal head 20 and platen roller 23) and the tape transport mechanism (alignment roller 18 and feed roller 22) taken out. 20 shows the case where the film tape 11 and the thermal transfer ribbon 13 which are substantially equal to the vertical width of 20 and the platen roller 23 are used.

In the figure, the film tape 11 and the thermal transfer ribbon 13 sent as described above are printed on the film tape 11 via the thermal head 20 while being pressed against the thermal head 20 from behind by the platen roller 23. Are printed in reverse. At this time, the tape widths of the film tape 11 and the thermal transfer ribbon 13 are substantially equal to the vertical widths of the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23, so that the film tape 11 is applied to both the upper roller member 23A and the lower roller member 23B. The full width area is contacted, and as a result, no direct contact portion is formed between the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23.

Therefore, when the film tape 11 is fed through the alignment roller 18 and the feed roller 22 after printing by the thermal head 20, frictional resistance is hardly generated between the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23. Absent. As a result, the film tape 11 is smoothly fed without increasing the frictional resistance.

Further, FIG. 5 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 4, and in the case of using the film tape 11 and the thermal transfer ribbon 13 whose tape width is about ½ of the vertical width of the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23. Indicates.

In the figure, characters and the like are printed on the film tape 11 by the thermal head 20 as in the case of FIG. 4, but the tape widths of the film tape 11 and the thermal transfer ribbon 13 are both platen roller 23. Since it is about half of that, only the upper roller member 23A of the platen roller 23 is involved in the printing operation and the feeding operation.

The upper roller member 23A is rotatable around the roller shaft 24 independently of the lower roller member 23B, while the lower roller member 23B is independent of the upper roller member 23A. Is fixedly contacted with the thermal head 20 and is not rotated during the feeding operation of the film tape 11, so that no frictional resistance is generated during the feeding operation of the film tape 11.

As described above, even if the tape width of the film tape 11 is 1/2 of the vertical width of the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23, the friction resistance does not increase during the feeding operation, and the film tape 11 can be sent smoothly. Further, unlike the conventional tape printer, it is not necessary to use the thermal transfer ribbon 13 having the same tape width as the vertical widths of the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23 in order to reduce the frictional resistance. Therefore, there is no need to increase the height of the tape cassette 10 according to the tape width of the thermal transfer ribbon 13.

After the characters and the like are printed on the film tape 11 as described above, the aligning roller 18 cooperates with the feed roller 22 to pull out the double-sided adhesive tape 16 from the spool 17, and the adhesive surface thereof. Is adhered and aligned with the printing surface of the film tape 11 on which characters and the like are printed. As a result, the tape P is created. After that, the tape P is cut by an appropriate manual or electric cutter (not shown) to produce the tape P having a predetermined length.

As described in detail above, in the tape printer 1 according to the present embodiment, the platen roller 23 arranged in pressure contact with the thermal head 20 has the upper roller member in a direction perpendicular to the roller shaft 24 thereof. 23A and the lower roller member 23B are divided into two roller members, and each of the divided upper roller member 23A and lower roller member 23B can be rotated independently of each other around the roller shaft 24. Even if two types of film tapes 11 and thermal transfer ribbons 13 having different widths are used, the direct contact portion between the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23, which causes frictional resistance during the feeding operation, is prevented from occurring. be able to.

This makes it possible to smoothly feed the film tape 11 and the thermal transfer ribbon 13 without increasing frictional resistance between the thermal head 20 and the platen roller 23 during the feeding operation.

Further, in the present embodiment, the extremely simple structure as described above eliminates the need for a strong spring urging device and a motor unlike the conventional tape printing device, thus reducing the number of parts and facilitating the assembly. Can be In addition, a large tape cassette for accommodating the thermal transfer ribbon 13 having a large tape width is not required only for the purpose of reducing the frictional force. Therefore, it is possible to provide a tape printing apparatus having a low cost.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and various modifications and improvements can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, in this embodiment, the platen roller 23 is divided into an upper roller member 23A and a lower roller member 23B corresponding to the tape widths of the two types of film tapes 11 and the thermal transfer ribbons 13. However, it goes without saying that it can be divided into two or more parts depending on the tape width of the film tape 11 or the like used.

In this embodiment, the tape P is prepared by adhering and aligning the double-sided adhesive tape 16 to the printing surface of the film tape 11 after printing by the cooperation of the aligning roller 18 and the feed roller 22. However, a tape in which the film tape 11 and the double-sided adhesive tape 16 are integrally formed may be used.

[0039]

[Effect of the device]

 As described above, the present invention eliminates the direct contact portion between the printing head and the platen roller as much as possible even when feeding tapes having different tape widths, and thus has a very simple structure for thermal head feeding. It is possible to provide a tape printer capable of smoothly transporting the tape without increasing the frictional resistance caused by the contact between the platen roller and the platen roller, and its industrial effect is great.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a tape printer.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a main portion showing an upper case and a tape cassette without an upper lid.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a platen roller.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view schematically showing a printing mechanism and a tape transport mechanism when a tape having a large tape width is used.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view schematically showing a printing mechanism and a tape transport mechanism when a tape having a small tape width is used.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view schematically showing a printing mechanism and a tape transport mechanism in a conventional tape printer.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view schematically showing a state where a thermal transfer ribbon having a large tape width is used in a conventional tape printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Tape Printing Device 10 Tape Cassette 11 Film Tape 13 Thermal Transfer Ribbon 16 Double-sided Adhesive Tape 18 Aligning Roller 20 Thermal Head 23 Platen Roller 23A Upper Roller Member 23B Lower Roller Member 24 Roller Shaft

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A print head for printing characters and the like on a tape, a platen roller arranged in contact with the print head so as to face the print head, and supported rotatably around a rotary shaft, the print head and the platen roller. In a tape printer having a tape feeding mechanism for feeding a tape between the platen roller and the tape and pulling out the tape printed by the print head, wherein the platen roller is divided into a plurality of roller members in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis. At the same time, each of the divided roller members can rotate independently of each other around the rotation shaft.