JPH09323403A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) 【Abstract】 PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent deformation of an image formed on a roller 2,
Make sure that the print quality after transfer does not deteriorate. SOLUTION: The pitch interval P of the inkjet recording head 5 and the ink droplets 32 adjacent to each other in the rotation direction of the roller 2 are larger than the diameter D of each dot (ink droplet 32) forming an image on the roller 2. The pitch L is set to be large, and the ink droplets 32 adjacent to each other formed on the roller 2 do not come into contact with each other.
A mirror transfer image is formed on the roller 2 in a predetermined pattern without the surface 2 aggregating due to surface tension.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for forming an image on the surface of an image carrier and transferring the image onto a recording medium for printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional manual printing apparatus, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
A device as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-17630 is known. In this device, the speed at which the manually operated printing device moves on the recording medium is not constant,
A position detecting device is provided for detecting the relative position of the print head with respect to the recording medium. The position detecting device performs a change in the relative position caused by the movement of the print head on the recording medium by causing a roller moving together with the print head to contact and rotate on the recording medium. That is,
By detecting the rotation angle of the roller, the relative position between the print head and the recording medium is detected, and the position of the print head is detected.

According to such a method, it is necessary that the two parts of the roller and the print head are always in contact with the recording medium. Therefore, there is a drawback that the tip of the printing device becomes large and it is difficult to confirm the printing position during printing.

As a means for solving these problems, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 225372/1987, in a printing apparatus composed of an ink ribbon and a print head, only the print head is connected via the print ribbon. An apparatus having a configuration of contacting a recording medium, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-17956.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 0-202, there has been proposed a printing apparatus in which the front end of the printing section has a wedge shape.

However, all of these apparatuses use a printing ribbon, and it is necessary to construct a space for accommodating a used ribbon in the printing apparatus, and the printing apparatus itself cannot be downsized. There is.

As a means for solving these problems, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-274862, recording information is once printed on a recording medium, and the printing on the recording medium is recorded by a heating means. A method of transferring to a medium has been proposed.

However, even in the case of the above-mentioned method, it is necessary to configure the thermal ribbon for printing, the mechanism for guiding these and the heating means for transfer in the recording apparatus, which makes the apparatus itself complicated. There were still drawbacks. Further, since the capacity of the power source for supplying electric power to the heating means and the like is increased, it is difficult to downsize the device.

In order to solve the above problems, the applicant of the present application, in the specification and drawings of Japanese Patent Application No. 7-239663, once forms an image with a mirror character on a roller or belt and records the roller or belt. An apparatus has been proposed for performing a predetermined image formation by transferring an image on the roller or the belt to a recording medium by moving the image on the roller or the belt in contact with the medium. As a result, it has become possible to provide a manual recording device that can be configured with a simpler mechanism than the conventionally proposed device that directly prints on a recording medium, and that is small in size and whose print position can be easily confirmed. Further, a water-repellent metal, resin or the like is used for the image carrier of such a device. Also,
The mirror transfer image formed on the surface of the image carrier was formed of a plurality of dots.

[0009]

However, when the dots formed on the water-repellent image bearing member are overlapped with each other, the adjacent dots are agglomerated by the surface tension of the ink and a predetermined printing is performed. There was a problem that I could not get it. That is, even if a mirror transfer image is formed on the image carrier with a dot pattern for printing a predetermined character, the ink agglomerates due to the surface tension in the overlapping area of the adjacent inks, so the predetermined dot pattern However, there is a defect that the print is not formed, the print transferred on the recording medium is different from the predetermined print, and the print quality is deteriorated.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and provides a printing apparatus in which an image to be printed is not deformed on the image carrier or the printing quality after transfer is not deteriorated. Is intended.

[0011]

In order to achieve this object, a printer according to claim 1 of the present invention is an image carrier which is rotationally driven while contacting on a recording medium, and a transfer to the image carrier. An image carrier, which comprises a recording head having a plurality of nozzles for forming an image, and which transfers a transfer image formed on the image carrier to a recording medium to form a predetermined image on the recording medium. Each dot formed by a plurality of nozzles of the transferred image formed above was prevented from overlapping an adjacent dot on the image carrier.

In the printing apparatus according to the second aspect, the nozzle spacing of the recording head is set to be larger than the diameter of dots formed on the image carrier.

According to another aspect of the printing apparatus of the present invention, dots are formed on the image carrier at predetermined intervals based on the rotation detection means for detecting the rotation of the image carrier and the detection result of the rotation detection means. Control means for controlling the recording head so that the predetermined interval is set to be larger than the diameter of dots formed on the image carrier.

Furthermore, the printing apparatus according to the fourth aspect controls the amount of ink ejected from the nozzles of the recording head so that the dots formed on the image carrier do not overlap.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view for explaining the manual printer according to the present embodiment. The body 1 of the manual printer has a cylindrical shape and is configured so that the user can easily support it by hand. A roller 2 as an image carrier is rotatably provided at the tip of the body 1. The roller 2 is made of a water repellent material such as metal. Further, the other end of the body portion 1 is provided with an interface portion 3 for infrared communication for transmitting and receiving print data input in an external device (not shown). A switch 4 for turning on / off the power supply and selecting various printing modes is provided on the side surface of the body portion 1. In the manual printer according to this embodiment, a user manually rotates the print data or the like input from an external device while supporting the body 1 on the recording medium (paper or the like) while the roller 2 is in contact with the recording medium. Is a device for performing predetermined printing on a recording medium.

FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram for explaining the internal configuration of the manual printer according to the present embodiment. Hereinafter, the internal configuration of the manual printer according to the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

A roller 2 is arranged at the tip of the body 1 so as to be rotatable about a shaft 8. The surface of the roller 2 is made of a material having a water-repellent surface such as metal or resin. An inkjet recording head 5 is arranged on the side of the roller 2 opposite to the side in contact with the recording medium. The ink jet recording head 5 is arranged with respect to the roller 2 with a fixed gap at its tip. The inkjet recording head 5 has a plurality of nozzles 30, which will be described later, arranged in the longitudinal direction of the roller 2 at regular pitch intervals.

A cleaning member 6 for cleaning the surface of the roller 2 is arranged in front of the roller 2 in the rotational direction of the roller 2 at a position facing the ink jet recording head 5. The cleaning member 6 is made of sponge, cloth or the like. In addition, the roller 2 of the inkjet recording head 5
An ink tank 7 for supplying ink to the inkjet recording head 5 is arranged on the opposite side. The roller 2 is rotated in the direction of arrow A in the figure, and the body 1 is scanned in the direction of arrow B in the figure.

A pulley 9 is attached to the rotation center shaft 8 of the roller 2.
Are arranged to rotate with the rotation of the roller 2.
A belt 10 is drawn around the pulley 9, and is configured to transmit the rotational force of the pulley 9 that rotates with the rotation of the roller 2 to an encoder 11 described later. The encoder 11 is configured near the center of the body portion 1. Slits 12 are provided on the circumference of the encoder 11 at a predetermined interval, and the rotation speed of the encoder 11 is converted into an interval of electric pulse signals by a photo interrupter 13 which is turned on / off by the rotation of the slit 12. It is configured to be input to the control device described later. Therefore, the encoder 11 and the photo interrupter 13 constitute the rotation detecting means of the present invention.

On the opposite side of the body 1 from the roller 2, the ink jet recording head 5 and the photo interrupter 1 described above are provided.
An electric pulse signal 3 and a control unit 14 as a control unit for controlling the interface unit 3 and the like provided for receiving print data described later are arranged. Further, a power source 15 for supplying electric power to each functional block described later is arranged in the vicinity thereof. Power supply 1
Reference numeral 5 is composed of a small power supply unit such as a dry battery and a device for stabilizing these power supplies.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing the electrical construction of the manual printer according to this embodiment. In the figure, a storage unit 20 (ROM) containing a control program for controlling each functional block according to a predetermined program is connected to a control unit (CPU) 14. Control unit 14
The interface unit 3 described above is connected to. The signal after the rotation speed of the encoder 11 is converted into the electric pulse signal is input to the control unit 14. Storage unit (RAM) for storing print data input from the interface unit 3
16 is connected to the control unit 14. The drive unit 17 that drives the inkjet recording head 5 is also connected to the control unit 14. Each of these functional blocks is shown in FIG.
It is built in the body 1 of the manual printer.

The operation of the manual type printing apparatus having the above configuration will be described. The manual printer according to the present embodiment operates according to a predetermined program stored in the storage device 20 described above. The print data is input to the interface unit 3 by an infrared signal from an external device. The input state of the print data is performed by the control section judging the input state by selecting the mode of the switch 4 described above.

The input print data is temporarily stored in the storage unit 16. When the control unit 14 receives the print start signal by selecting the mode by operating the switch 4 described above, it confirms that the print data is stored in the storage unit 16, and the print standby state is set. At this time, the control unit 14
Determines whether the encoder 11 has rotated, and if it is determined that the encoder 11 has rotated, the roller 2
By controlling the output of print data at a predetermined interval according to the rotation amount and driving the inkjet recording head 5, dots are formed on the roller 2 for printing.

The controller 14 also controls the amount of ink ejected from the nozzles 30 of the ink jet recording head 5.

At this time, characters or the like printed on the roller 2 are controlled so that a mirror image of the characters normally formed on the recording medium is printed. Further, the printing is performed on the water repellent surface 50 of the roller 2.
Formed. The roller 2 is moved along with the movement of the body 1 while rotating in contact with the recording medium.

The mirror image formed on the roller 2 is the roller 2
Is transferred and image-formed on the recording medium (paper) 35 as a predetermined print. Since the output control of the print data is configured to be controlled in accordance with the rotation amount of the roller 2, even if the scanning speed of the body portion 1 on the recording medium is not uniform, predetermined printing is performed on the roller 2. It is possible to form. Therefore, it is possible to always form a predetermined print on the recording medium even if the scanning speed of the body portion 1 on the recording medium is not uniform.

Further, since the roller 2 is made of a water-repellent material, all the ink image-formed on the roller 2 is transferred onto the recording medium, but even after the transfer onto the recording medium, the roller 2 is transferred. The ink left on the water repellent surface 50 of No. 2 is cleaned by the above-mentioned cleaning member 6.

Next, referring to FIG. 4, with respect to the state of the mirror transfer image formed on the roller 2 of the manual type printing apparatus of the present embodiment, that is, the structure of each dot forming the mirror transfer image. explain.

A plurality of nozzles 30 are arranged on the lower surface of the ink jet recording head 5. From the nozzle 30,
The rotation of the roller 2 causes the nozzle 30 to rotate at the timing described above.
Ink is ejected in a predetermined pattern for the printed characters.

The ink ejected from the nozzle 30 is transferred to the roller 2
The surface tension causes the ink droplets to aggregate in a substantially hemispherical shape, and roller 2
A mirror transfer image of a predetermined character pattern is formed on the top.
At this time, the ink droplets 32 on the surface of the mirror transfer image formed by the nozzles 30 are formed such that the ink droplets 32 ejected from the adjacent nozzles 30 are formed on the surface of the roller 2 with a gap. That is, the pitch interval P (the interval between the nozzles 30) of the inkjet recording head 5 is configured to be larger than the diameter D of the ink droplet 32 formed on the surface of the roller 2.

The pitch L (printing timing pitch) of the ink droplets 32 adjacent to each other in the rotation direction of the roller 2 on the roller 2 is larger than the diameter D of the ink droplet 32 formed on the surface of the roller 2. . Therefore, the ink droplets 32 formed on the roller 2 do not come into contact with the ink droplets 32 that are adjacent to each other in the front, rear, left, and right directions. An image is formed.

Further, the ink droplets 32 formed on the surface of the roller 2 are transferred to the paper as the roller 2 rotates, but the ink droplets formed on the roller 2 due to the ink bleeding on the paper. It is possible to form dots larger than the contact area of the roller 32 with the roller 32, and it is also possible to form an image in which adjacent dots on the paper are continuous.

In the present embodiment, the roller 2 is used as the image carrier, but the image carrier such as a belt may be used.

Further, in the present embodiment, the pitch interval P of the ink jet recording head 5 is made larger than the diameter D of the ink droplet 32 formed on the surface of the roller 2,
Although the adjacent dots are not in contact with each other, the ink may not be ejected from the adjacent nozzles 30 at the same time so that the adjacent dots do not come into contact with each other, or the adjacent dots do not come into contact with each other. You may control so that the amount of ink used may be reduced.

[0036]

As is apparent from the above description, in the printing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, each dot formed by the plurality of nozzles of the transfer image formed on the image carrier is formed on the image carrier. Since the dots do not overlap with the adjacent dots above, the dots do not deform due to the surface tension between the adjacent dots, and thus the deformation of the image transferred to the recording medium can be prevented.

Further, in the printing apparatus according to the second aspect of the invention, since the nozzle interval of the recording head is set to be larger than the dot diameter formed on the image carrier, the adjacent units on the image carrier are simple in structure. It is possible to use an inexpensive print head having a coarse pitch because it can be prevented from overlapping with the dots to be printed.

In the printing apparatus according to the third aspect of the invention, the interval of the printing timing is set larger than the diameter of the dots formed on the image bearing member, so that the image bearing can be easily carried out without adding any mechanical constitution. It is possible to avoid overlapping with adjacent dots on the body.

Further, in the printing apparatus according to the fourth aspect, the amount of ink ejected from the nozzles of the recording head is controlled so that the dots formed on the image carrier do not overlap with each other. It is possible to easily avoid overlapping with the adjacent dots on the image carrier without requiring addition.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a manual printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram of the manual printer.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the manual printer.

FIG. 4 is a nomenclature diagram for explaining a state of a mirror transfer image formed on the image carrier of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 roller 5 inkjet recording head 11 encoder 12 slit 13 photo interrupter 14 controller 30 nozzle 32 ink droplet

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image carrier provided with an image carrier which is rotationally driven while contacting on a recording medium, and a recording head having a plurality of nozzles for forming a transfer image on the image carrier. In a printing apparatus for transferring a transfer image to a recording medium to form a predetermined image on the recording medium, each dot formed by the plurality of nozzles of the transfer image formed on the image carrier is on the image carrier. The printing device is configured so that it does not overlap with the adjacent dots in. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein a nozzle interval of the recording head is set to be larger than a dot diameter formed on the image carrier. 3. A rotation detecting means for detecting rotation of the image carrier, and based on a detection result of the rotation detecting means,
A control means for controlling the recording head so that dots are formed on the image carrier at predetermined intervals, and the predetermined interval is set to be larger than the dot diameter formed on the image carrier. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing apparatus is a printing apparatus. 4. The control means for controlling the amount of ink ejected from the nozzles of the recording head so that the dots formed on the image carrier do not overlap each other. Printer.