JPH08332765A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Object] The present invention relates to a printing apparatus using an ink ribbon, and particularly, to perform printing processing while keeping a constant back tension of the ink ribbon in use, and to remove stains on the ink ribbon. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing device capable of printing. A felt-like cleaner having appropriate frictional force and flexibility with respect to the ink ribbon 11 wound around an auxiliary roll 17 placed between a feed roll 12 of the ink ribbon 11 and a print head 15. The cleaner 18 is formed in a wedge shape so that the pressure contact surface with the ink ribbon 11 is in pressure contact with the ink ribbon 11 first, and the ends are in pressure contact with each other. Therefore, a constant back tension is always applied to the ink ribbon 11 that passes through the cleaner 18 that presses against the auxiliary roll 17 with an appropriate pressure contact force, and dirt attached to the ink ribbon 11 is removed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer which uses an ink ribbon, and more particularly to a printer which stably conveys the ink ribbon.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A printing apparatus using an ink ribbon sublimates the ink of the ink ribbon by running the ink ribbon coated with the ink along with the paper and applying heat generation according to the print data from the thermal head to the ink ribbon. Alternatively, it is melted, transferred to a sheet, and printed on the sheet. Therefore, stable feeding of the ink ribbon is important in print quality and the like.

FIG. 4 is a view for explaining the ink ribbon transport mechanism in the printing apparatus. The ink ribbon 1 is wound in a feed roll 2 and is driven by a winding roll 3 to be fed to a printing unit 5 via a roller 4. Ink is applied to the lower surface of the ink ribbon 1 (the lower surface in the printing portion), and the thermal head 5a and the platen roller 5b forming the printing portion 5 are formed.
While being sandwiched and conveyed, the ink on the ink ribbon 1 is transferred to the paper P by the heat generation of the thermal head 5a based on the print data.
Is transferred to Further, during this time, the torque limiter 2a provided in the feed roll 2 operates, and the back tension is applied to the ink ribbon 1 fed to the printing unit 5.

The above-mentioned paper P is the paper stored in the paper feed cassette 6 and fed to the printing section 5 by rotating the paper feed roller 6a. The sheet P on which the image has been transferred and printed is discharged to the sheet discharge tray 8 via the guide rollers 7 and the like.

Although not shown, a cleaner is provided between the feed roll 2 and the printing unit 5 so as to contact the upper surface or the lower surface of the ink ribbon 1 to clean dust and the like adhering to the ink ribbon 1. The reason for providing the cleaner in this way is that, for example, if the base surface (upper surface) of the ink ribbon 1 is soiled, the thermal head 5a will be soiled and cause printing failure. This is because, if there is such a dust, the dust or the like adheres to the paper, or the ink is not transferred in correspondence with the dust portion, resulting in defective printing.

[0006]

The conventional printing apparatus has the following problems. (A) First, as described above, in the conventional printing apparatus, back tension is applied to the running of the ink ribbon 1 by the torque limiter 2a, but this back tension is not constant. That is, the torque limiter 2a is attached to the roll shaft 2b of the feed roll 2 and utilizes the frictional force between the feed roll 2 and the roll shaft 2b, and the ink ribbon 1 that remains on the feed roll 2 with the lapse of usage time. , The back tension gradually decreases. Therefore,
Since a constant back tension cannot be applied to the ink ribbon 1 sent to the printing unit 5, the movement of the ink ribbon 1 becomes unstable. In addition, in order to stabilize the back tension, there is a proposal to increase the shaft diameter of the roll shaft 2b of the feed roll 2, but this causes an increase in size of the apparatus.

(B) Further, when the cleaner (not shown) is arranged between the feed roll 2 and the printing unit 5 as described above, the structure becomes complicated and the cost of the apparatus increases.

In view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, the present invention is capable of performing printing processing while keeping the back tension of the ink ribbon in use constant regardless of the state of the feed roll, and removing stains on the ink ribbon. The present invention aims to provide a simple printing device.

[0009]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a printing apparatus for performing printing while passing an ink ribbon sent from an ink ribbon supply section through a printing section composed of a platen member and a print head, A guide roll that is disposed between the ink ribbon supply unit and the printing unit, is in contact with one surface of the ink ribbon, and is made of a flexible material, and is provided so as to be in pressure contact with a predetermined range of the outer peripheral surface of the guide roll. To provide an ink ribbon transporting mechanism which is provided with a rubbing member that is in contact with one surface of the ink ribbon on the opposite side to the other surface, and has a shape in which the center in the width direction is projected to the upstream side in the feeding direction of the ink ribbon. Achieved by

Further, the shape in which the center in the width direction of the rubbing member projects is, for example, a so-called wedge shape in which the center in the width direction projects from the end of the rubbing member toward the center at a constant rate. Further, the shape in which the widthwise center of the rubbing member protrudes is such that the widthwise center of the rubbing member protrudes at different ratios from the end portion toward the center of the rubbing member.

[0011]

A guide roll and a rubbing member made of a flexible material that abuts on the guide roll are provided between the ink ribbon supply section and the print head, and the ink ribbon is sandwiched between them.
By winding the ink ribbon with the take-up roll, back tension is applied to the ink ribbon sent to the printing unit, and the ink ribbon can be sent stably. Further, by using a rubbing member having a shape in which the center in the width direction is projected to the upstream side in the feeding direction of the ink ribbon, a certain back tension can be stably applied to the ink ribbon, and further, the ink ribbon becomes dirty. Can be removed.

Further, by making the shape in which the widthwise center of the rubbing member protrudes, for example, a so-called wedge shape in which the widthwise center thereof projects from the end of the rubbing member toward the center at a constant rate, The back tension becomes constant, and stains on the ink ribbon can be efficiently removed.

Further, the shape in which the center of the rubbing member in the width direction projects is different from the end of the rubbing member toward the center, for example, the shape in which the central part projects is steeper than the end. Alternatively, the edges may be steeper than the central portion. Even if the rubbing member is configured as described above, it is possible to obtain a stable back tension regardless of the amount of the ink ribbon remaining on the feed roll, and it is possible to efficiently remove stains on the ink ribbon.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of the printing apparatus of this embodiment. In the figure, the ink ribbon 11 is formed by coating a film-shaped base material with ink. In this embodiment, inks of yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) are sequentially applied to the base material. The ink ribbon 11 is wound around the feed roll 12. Therefore, unlike the conventional example, the feed roll 12 does not have a special mechanism such as a torque limiter for adding back tension. Further, the ink ribbon 11 is fed from the feed roll 12 to the back tension forming section 14 and the printing section
It is stretched up to the winding roll 13 via 5 and is conveyed in the direction of the arrow by the rotational force applied to the winding roll 13. The printing unit 15 is composed of a thermal head 15a and a platen roller 15b, and the thermal head 15a is movable in the arrow direction. The position of the thermal head 15a shown by the solid line in the figure shows the position in the printing state, and the position 15a 'of the thermal head 15a shown by the dotted line shows the position in the non-printing state. Further, the pressure contact position t between the thermal head 15a and the platen roller 15b is set to the ink ribbon 11
It is also a position where the sheet P and the sheet P are in pressure contact with each other, and ink is transferred to the sheet P by heat generation of the thermal head 15a according to the print data.

On the other hand, the back tension forming portion 14 is composed of an auxiliary roll 17 and a cleaner 18. Figure 2
6 is a perspective view of a back tension forming portion 14. FIG. In addition, the configuration of the feed roll 12 is also shown in FIG. Auxiliary roll 1
A bar-shaped roll 7 is slightly longer than the width of the ink ribbon 11, and is configured to be rotatable. A cleaner 18 is arranged on the upper peripheral surface of the auxiliary roll 17, and the auxiliary roll 17 and the cleaner 18 are in pressure contact with each other at a predetermined pressure. Therefore, when the ink ribbon 11 is conveyed in the direction of the arrow by driving the take-up roll 13, the auxiliary roll 17 is driven. The ink ribbon 11 is conveyed between the auxiliary roll 17 and the cleaner 18 while receiving a predetermined pressure contact force.

The cleaner 18 is made of a felt-like soft material and has a predetermined thickness. In addition, the cleaner 18 is located on the upstream side in the feeding direction of the ink ribbon 11.
The shape is such that its center in the width direction projects.

FIG. 3A shows a plan view of the cleaner 18 described above. As shown in FIG. 8A, the cleaner 18 has a shape in which a tip portion 18a of the cleaner 18 projects in the center in the width direction with respect to the upstream side in the feeding direction of the ink ribbon 11, and a rear end portion 18b also has a feeding direction of the ink ribbon 11. It is formed in a concave shape with respect to the upstream side. Therefore, with this configuration, when the ink ribbon 11 is conveyed in the direction of the arrow 20 shown in FIG. 4A, the ink ribbon 11 receives a predetermined pressure between the auxiliary roll 17 and the cleaner 18,
The ink ribbon 11 receives a force in the direction of arrow 21. For this reason, the ink ribbon 11 receives the tension in the same direction and the arrow 2
The sheet is conveyed in the 0 direction and is sent to the printing unit 15 with a predetermined back tension. That is, the auxiliary roll 1
The ink ribbon 11 is pressed by the pressure contact force between the cleaner 7 and the cleaner 18.
The back tension is applied to the ink ribbon 11, and the ink ribbon 11 can be stably conveyed.

Further, with the above-described structure, the ink ribbon 11 receives a force in the direction of the arrow 21, so that even if the ink ribbon 11 is wrinkled, the wrinkles can be easily removed.

Further, the cleaner 18 can remove dust and dirt attached to the ink ribbon 11. That is, the auxiliary roll 17 and the cleaner 18 are in pressure contact with each other with a predetermined pressure, dust and the like adhering to the upper surface of the ink ribbon 11 are wiped off by the cleaner 18, or dust and the like are indicated by arrows 21.
It is sent in the direction and is dropped off. Therefore, the ink ribbon 11 can be cleaned by the above-mentioned back tension forming portion 14.

The ink ribbon 11 to which a constant back tension is applied as described above is sent to the printing unit 15, and the printing unit 15 generates heat according to the print data from the thermal head 15a. Due to this heat generation, the ink applied to the ink ribbon 11 is transferred to the paper P,
Printing on the paper P is performed. For color printing,
The conveyance of the ink ribbon 11 is stopped and only the paper P is fed backward. Yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C)
When the three colors are printed, the forward / reverse feed of the paper P is repeated three times, but the back tension forming unit 14 acts to apply a predetermined back tension to each print (in the forward feed). In 15, stable transfer processing (printing processing) can be performed.

The ink ribbon 11 to which the ink is transferred in the printing section 15 is sent to the take-up roll 13 and taken up by the take-up roll 13. And the winding roll 13
When the amount of the ink ribbon 11 wound up on the feeding roll 12 increases, the remaining amount of the unused ink ribbon 11 wound around the feed roll 12 decreases, but in the present embodiment, the auxiliary roll 17 and the cleaner 18 are used. Since the back tension is applied by the back tension forming portion 14, the ink ribbon 11
The back tension force applied to is not changed.

In the above embodiment, the cleaner 18 has the structure shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 (a), but FIG.
The configuration shown in (c) may be used. For example, the configuration of the cleaner 19 shown in FIG. 9B is the same as that of FIG. 11A in that the tip end portion 19a of the cleaner 19 has a shape protruding at the center in the width direction with respect to the upstream side in the feeding direction of the ink ribbon 11. However, the rear end portion 19b is flat. Even with this configuration, the ink ribbon 11 receives a force in the direction of the arrow 21, a certain back tension is applied to the ink ribbon 11, and the ink ribbon 11 can be stably transported. Further, for example, even when wrinkles or the like are generated on the ink ribbon 11, the wrinkles or the like can be easily spread out, and further, the cleaner 19 can remove stains attached to the ink ribbon 11. Further, it is the same as the case of the above-described cleaner 18 in that a constant back tension can always be applied to the ink ribbon 11 regardless of the amount of the unused ink ribbon 11 remaining on the feed roll 12.

On the other hand, the configuration of the cleaner 22 shown in FIG. 3C is such that the upstream side of the ink ribbon 11 in the feeding direction is
The tip portion 22a has a shape protruding in the center in the width direction, but the ratio is different from the end portion of the cleaner 22 toward the center. The rear end 22b of the cleaner 22
Is flat as in the configuration of FIG.
Even with this configuration, the ink ribbon 11 receives a force in the direction of the arrow 23, a certain back tension is applied to the ink ribbon 11, and the ink ribbon 11 can be stably transported, and at the same time, the ink ribbon 11 Cleaning can be performed.

In this embodiment, the cleaners 18, 19,
Although the shape (planar shape) of 22 is as shown in FIGS. 3A to 3C, in order to improve the wrinkle removal performance of the cleaner, the pressure contact force of the cleaner with respect to the ink ribbon 11 is changed to that of the ink ribbon 1.
The central part may be made stronger than the left and right ends of the width of 1.

[0025]

According to the present invention, a cleaner composed of a guide roll and a flexible material is provided between the ink ribbon supply section and the print head, and the ink ribbon is sandwiched between the cleaner and a constant back tension. Since it can be applied, you can always send the ink ribbon stably,
An image with excellent print quality can be obtained.

Since back tension is applied by using a so-called wedge-shaped cleaner, stains on the ink ribbon can be efficiently removed. Further, since the cleaner is pressed against the auxiliary roll with an appropriate force, it can be easily extended even if the ink ribbon has wrinkles.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a main part of the printing apparatus according to the embodiment.

3A is a plan view of a cleaner, FIG. 3B is a plan view of a cleaner having another configuration, and FIG. 3C is a plan view of a cleaner having another configuration.

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a conventional printing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Ink Ribbon 12 Feeding Roll 13 Winding Roll 14 Back Tension Forming Section 15 Printing Section 15a Thermal Head 15b Platen Roller 17 Auxiliary Roll 18, 19, 22 Cleaner 18a, 19a, 22a Tip 18b, 19b, 22b Rear End 20, 21, 23 arrows

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ───

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] November 7, 1995

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] Figure 3

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

FIG. 3 is a plan view of cleaners having different configurations.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus for performing recording while passing an ink ribbon sent from an ink ribbon supply section through a printing section composed of a platen member and a print head, wherein the recording apparatus is provided between the ink ribbon supply section and the printing section. A guide roll that comes into contact with one surface of the ink ribbon, and is made of a flexible material and is provided so as to be in pressure contact with a predetermined range of the outer peripheral surface of the guide roll. A printing apparatus, comprising: a rubbing member having a shape in which the center in the width direction is in contact with and is provided on the upstream side in the feeding direction of the ink ribbon.