JPH07101089A - Heat transfer recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a heat transfer recording device, with which no printing quality on a rigid medium deteriorates, by a method wherein a peeling member consisting of an elastic member of transferring the ink on an ink ribbon on a medium side by pressing the ink ribbon toward the medium side at the position adjacent to a heat generating part is provided. CONSTITUTION:By means of the heat generated at the point C of a thermal head 14, the ink 13 on an ink ribbon 12 is melted so as to form a fused part 13a. When the fused part 13a reaches the point D through the conveyance of the ribbon 12 to the direction indicated with the arrow A, the fused part 13a is pressed by the tip part 20a of a peeling rubber 20 toward recording paper 6 side so as to be separated from the ribbon 12 and transferred onto the recording paper 6. Thus, since the peeling rubber 20 for pressing the ribbon 12 toward the recording paper 6 side is provided on the downstream side along the conveying direction A of the ribbon 12 of a head 14 is provided under the condition that the tip part 20a of the rubber 20 is slightly projected beyond the tip of the head 14. The wave of the recording paper 6 as medium is adsorbed by the protrusion of the tip part 20a and consequently the fused parts 13a melted by the heat generated in the head is surely transferred to the recording paper 6 by the pressing force of the rubber 20. Further, the adjustment to the hardness of the medium can be adjusting an adjusting plate.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording device using a thermal head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a thermal transfer recording apparatus 1 of this type, as shown in FIG. 4, a table 2 which is a drawing surface, and a guide bar 4 which is movable in a direction indicated by an arrow X by a pair of guide rails 3 are provided. , A transfer head unit 5 that is movable on the guide bar 4 in the Y direction. As shown in detail in FIG. 5, a ribbon supply roll 10 and a ribbon winding roll 11 are rotatably supported by the transfer head unit 5 to convey the ink ribbon 12 in the A direction. An edge type thermal head 14 is urged by a spring 15 so as to be pressed in the B direction, that is, the direction of the table 2 substantially at the center of both rolls 10 and 11, and the tip of the thermal head 14 is at a predetermined position. The recording paper 6, which is a medium, is pressed via the ink ribbon 12 by the pressing force of. Reference numeral 16 denotes a peeling roller, which has a function of keeping the rising angle of the ink ribbon 12 on the downstream side of the thermal head 14 in the conveying direction constant and guiding the ink ribbon 12 to the take-up roll 11.

In such a structure, the transfer head section 5
Is moved in the Y direction at the same time, the thermal head 14 generates heat by the image signal from the control section of the apparatus 1, the ink of the ink ribbon 12 is melted, and the ink is transferred to the recording paper 6 to perform desired printing. The ink ribbon 12 is conveyed in the A direction in synchronization with the movement of the transfer head unit 5 in the Y direction,
Printing is performed on the recording paper 6 on the line in the Y direction. When the printing on the line is completed, the guide bar 4 is slightly moved in the X direction, the transfer head unit 5 is again moved in the Y direction, and the recording paper 6 is moved.
Another line in the Y direction is printed on the
In the desired direction, and the desired drawing is performed on the recording paper 6.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional thermal transfer device, the pressing force of the thermal head 14 is simply applied such that the medium is deformed and transferred so as to follow the thermal head by the pressing of the thermal head. With this structure, the ink of the ink ribbon is transferred to the recording paper. Therefore, in the case of a medium having a relatively soft material such as thermal transfer paper, the medium itself is crushed, and thus printing can be performed following the thermal head 14. If the medium is a relatively hard material such as plastic, the thermal head 14
The pressing force of does not follow the head 14, and therefore, the print may be blurred, and if the pressing force is too strong,
There was a problem that the ink ribbon was torn or wrinkled.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer recording apparatus which does not deteriorate the print quality even on a hard medium.

[0006]

In order to achieve this object, a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to the present invention has an ink ribbon transfer medium downstream side of a thermal head, which is adjacent to a heat generating portion and has an ink ribbon directed toward the medium side. A peeling member composed of an elastic member that is pressed to transfer the ink of the ink ribbon to the medium side is provided. Further, the thermal transfer recording apparatus according to the present invention includes a pressing force adjusting means for adjusting the pressing force applied to the ink ribbon of the peeling member.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the ink of the ink ribbon melted by the heat generated by the thermal head is transferred to the medium by the peeling member downstream of the thermal head in the ink ribbon transport direction. Further, by changing the hardness of the portion of the peeling member that comes into contact with the ink ribbon according to the hardness of the medium, the medium becomes the peeling member regardless of the hardness of the medium.

[0008]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a side view of a transfer head portion of a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged side sectional view of the same, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the same. In these figures,
The same configurations as those of the conventional technique are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. The feature of the present invention resides in that a release rubber 20 as a release member is provided on the side surface of the thermal head 14 on the downstream side in the transport direction A of the ink ribbon 12.
That is, the peeling rubber 20 has the same length in the longitudinal direction (E direction) as that of the thermal head 14, and the screw 23 is screwed into the thermal head 14 from the long hole 22 of the adjusting plate 21, so that the tip portion 20a of the thermal head 14 is thermally heated. By slightly projecting from the tip of the head 14 (0.1 mm in this embodiment),
It is sandwiched between the adjusting plate 21 and the thermal head 14 and fixed to the side surface of the thermal head 14. The adjusting plate 21 can be fixed to the peeled rubber 20 by vertically changing its position by the elongated hole 22 extending in the vertical direction. Although the peeling roller 16 is used in this embodiment, it is not always necessary and the peeling rubber 20 acts as the peeling roller 16, so that it can be omitted.

Next, the transfer operation of the thermal transfer recording apparatus thus constructed will be described. The heat generated at the point C of the thermal head 14 melts the ink 13 of the ink ribbon 12 to form a melted portion 13a. When the melted portion 13a is conveyed in the direction A of the ink ribbon 12, the melted portion 13a reaches the point D,
The tip end 20a of the peeling rubber 20 presses the recording paper 6 side to peel it from the ink ribbon 12 and transfer it onto the recording paper 6. In this way, the ink ribbon 1 of the thermal head 14
Since the peeling rubber 20 for pressing the ink ribbon 12 toward the recording paper 6 is provided on the downstream side of the conveyance direction A of 2, and the tip portion 20a of the peeling rubber 20 is slightly projected from the tip of the thermal head 14, this tip is formed. The protrusion of the portion 20a absorbs the undulations of the recording paper 6 which is a medium, and therefore the melted portion 13a melted by the heat generated by the thermal head 14 forms the release rubber 20.
With the pressing force of, the recording paper 6 is reliably transferred.

Here, when the smoothness is different depending on the type of the recording paper 6 or the melting temperature is different depending on the type of the ink ribbon, the heat generating portion C and the peeling portion D are correspondingly changed.
The appropriate peeling state can be adjusted by changing the distance l between the and. That is, the screw 23 is loosened and the adjusting plate 21 is moved to the long hole 2
Position 21 indicated by the chain double-dashed line by moving it downward within the range of 2
When it is fixed again with the screw 23 at a, the contact point of the peeling rubber 20 with the ink ribbon 12 becomes D ₁ , and the distance ₁ becomes shorter. On the other hand, when the adjusting plate 21 is positioned at 21b indicated by the alternate long and short dash line, the distance 1 becomes longer. This adjustment is performed with the release rubber 20.
Also serves to adjust the pressing force of the recording paper 6 to the recording paper 6, and when the release rubber 21 is at the position 21a, the pressing force becomes strong,
This is effective when the medium is plastic or the like having a hardness higher than that of the recording paper 6, and can be adjusted with respect to the hardness of the medium.

The hardness of the release rubber 20 needs to be changed depending on the smoothness or hardness of the medium, the length of the thermal head 14 in the E direction, the material of the base film of the ink ribbon 12 or the material of the ink 13, and the like. Specifically, it is desirable to select the rubber hardness from the range of 30 to 70 ° (JIS K6301A type). In this embodiment, the adjusting plate 21 is moved up and down to correspond to the smoothness or hardness of the medium, but the release rubber 20 itself is moved up and down to move the tip portion 20a.
Of course, the amount of protrusion may be variable.

By providing the peeling rubber 20 in this manner, the peeling roller or the peeling bar which has been conventionally required is not required, and the pressing force of the thermal head 14 is also light, so that the entire apparatus is small and lightweight, and the cost is reduced. It is possible to go down. When a platen roller is used instead of the flat table 2, a rubber roller having low hardness is used as an object pressed by the thermal head 14 in the related art. As a result, a metal roller having a high hardness can be obtained, so that it is not necessary to perform expensive rubber roller cylindrical grinding.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention, the ink of the ink ribbon is pushed to the medium side by pressing the ink ribbon to the medium side on the downstream side of the thermal head where the ink ribbon is conveyed and adjacent to the heat generating portion. Since a peeling member composed of an elastic member to be transferred onto the medium is provided and the ink melted by the heat generated by the thermal head is transferred to the medium by the peeling member, it is possible to perform the transfer even if the medium has a high hardness. As the range of possible media expands, the peeling roller or peeling bar that was conventionally required becomes unnecessary,
The size and weight of the device can be reduced, and the cost can be reduced.

Further, since the pressing force adjusting means for adjusting the pressing force applied to the ink ribbon of the peeling member is provided, an appropriate pressing force can be selected according to the hardness of the medium, and therefore, for the medium having different hardness. However, stable print quality is always maintained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a transfer head section of a thermal transfer recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged side sectional view of a main part of a transfer head section of the thermal transfer recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of a main portion of a transfer head portion of the thermal transfer recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an external perspective view of a general thermal transfer recording apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a side view of a transfer head portion of a conventional thermal transfer recording device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Thermal Transfer Recording Device 5 Transfer Head 6 Recording Paper 12 Ink Ribbon 13 Ink 14 Thermal Head 20 Peeling Rubber 21 Adjusting Plate 22 Oblong Hole

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A thermal transfer recording apparatus that presses an edge type thermal head having a heat generating portion at a lower end thereof against a medium via an ink ribbon to perform desired printing on the medium, in the downstream side of the thermal head carrying the ink ribbon. A thermal transfer recording apparatus, characterized in that a peeling member composed of an elastic member that presses the ink ribbon toward the medium side to transfer the ink of the ink ribbon to the medium side is provided adjacent to the heat generating portion. . 2. The thermal transfer recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a pressing force adjusting unit that adjusts a pressing force applied to the ink ribbon of the peeling member.