JPS6367176A - Ink media wrinkle removal mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

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

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a non-impact printing device, which transfers thermoplastic abrasive ink to a transfer medium by the action of heat and magnetism. The present invention relates to an ink medium wrinkle removal mechanism of a printing device for obtaining characters and images.

[Conventional technology]

As a compact, low-cost, non-impact printing method, many methods using magnetic ink have been proposed.

For example, a method disclosed in JP-A-52-9/+541 uses magnetic ink as the ink of the fused thermal transfer method, and a magnetic means provided separately from the heat supply means is used to ink the ink corresponding to the thermal image. The transfer is performed by applying the full force of magnetic attraction.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the thermal head 4
1 - Ink medium 42 - Transfer paper 45 - Grinding stone 46 are installed in this order, and the thermoplastic ink 44 of the ink medium is heated with a thermal head on the base film 43 surface area (
After the ink is brought into contact with the paper to be transferred (directly above the head) and the ink melted in bath L7 is adhered to the paper, the ink medium is peeled off from the paper to remove the ink transfer. Furthermore, the magnetic attraction force increases the probability of contact of the bath-melted ink with the transfer paper, and when the ink medium is peeled off,
It was invented to add the effect of increasing the transfer rate to paper, and to make it possible to print high-quality character images even on rough paper (-), which has poor surface smoothness.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, when the ink medium is peeled off, the ink in the recording area to be transferred comes into contact with the base film and the ink in the non-recording area.
The ink in the recording area that is molten and adhered to the transfer paper is peeled off from the transfer paper together with the base film, which causes transfer defects. In Fig. 5, FA (inter-transfer paper adhesion force) and FB (ink cohesive force), which are used in general thermal transfer recording, are the accelerating force for transferring the recording ink to the transfer paper. Force that prevents transcription, FC
(adhesive force between interbase films) and FD (cohesive force between recording part inter-non-recording part ink), FB, FA
>If the sekiho of FC and FD always holds true, the transcription is completed completely.

During the opening, 51 is the base film, 52 is the recording part ink,
56 is the non-recording area ink, and 54 is the transfer paper.

Furthermore, in the prior art described above, when the ink melts, the ink in the recording section is attracted towards the transfer paper by magnetic attraction, so the probability of contact with the transfer paper increases, that is, as shown in FIG. Increasing the amount of FA therein had the effect of increasing the transfer efficiency to some extent. However, when the ink medium is peeled off, the base film, ink, and transfer paper still adhere to each other, so F(
3-' PFD is present. Therefore, especially in Table (2) when transferring to paper with very poor smoothness, FA<FC
In other words, the problem of FA (FD) occurs and transfer defects occur in all layers.

Furthermore, if the conventional method is used for printing, as shown in Fig. 4 (:) [shown, when the surface of the transfer medium is rough, the transfer medium 62 and the magnetic ink layer are printed, except for printing the recording dots 61. 63
Since there was a non-contacting part (part 64 in the figure), a recording dot with a normal shape could not be obtained. Especially in Figure 4 (
If the transfer medium shown in a) is paper such as rough paper with very poor surface smoothness (Peck smoothness of 1 to 2 seconds), even if magnetic attraction is used as in the prior art described above, the surface will not be smooth. The magnetic ink adhered only to the vicinity of convex portions 71 such as the tips of the fibers, resulting in recording dots 72 as shown in FIG. 7, and recording dots with a normal shape could not be obtained.

The same phenomenon was especially noticeable when the density of the 17c recording dots increased, and the recording dots with a small area could not have a normal shape.

Furthermore, in the conventional method, as shown in (a), the plastic magnetic ink 44 and the transfer paper 45 are in contact with each other, so most of the heat generated in the thermal head 41 passes through the plastic magnetic ink 44. It escaped to transfer paper 45 and was hiding there.

Therefore, during transfer, a large amount of heat is applied to the plastic magnetic ink 4.
There was a problem in that 4 was lost as heat loss without being thermally melted. (This phenomenon is hereinafter referred to as heat loss)
Furthermore, in the conventional method, since the magnetic ink 44 and the transfer paper 45 are in contact with each other, the plastic magnetic ink 44 and the transfer paper 45 are in contact with each other.
Friction, heat conduction, etc. occur between the For this reason, there is a phenomenon (
There was a problem in that characters (hereinafter referred to as smearing) occurred.

Furthermore, in the conventional technology, there was a problem that the ink was not transferred because the ink medium was not in contact with the thermal head and the ink medium. Therefore, the present invention was developed in this way. The purpose of this invention is to provide a device that can satisfy at least one of the following four items.

1. Eliminate transfer defects due to wrinkles in the ink medium.

Z Normally shaped dots can be recorded on transfer paper with very poor surface smoothness or on film that does not have a high oleophilicity with ink.

6. Prevents smudging of letters.

4. Reduce heat loss during printing energy 〇5.
Normally shaped dots can be printed even at high recording density.

[Means for solving problems]

The printing apparatus of the present invention is shown in FIG.
1, and the magnetic attraction force kl to the ink? This is a printing method in which the recorded portion of the ink is transferred to the transfer medium 14 by magnetic attraction force by controlling the application of thermal energy, and the ink and the transfer medium are In a printing device that does not contact the non-recording portion 12 (FMrJ, which is a magnetic attraction vector), as shown in FIG. means to apply tension in the direction that intersects with the
It is characterized by the provision of auxiliary rollers 274 (provided at the front and rear stages of the ink medium) that apply a certain tension in a direction perpendicular to the running direction of the ink medium.

[Effect]

With the above configuration of the present invention, the thermoplastic magnetic ink and the transfer medium do not come into contact with each other in the non-recording portion of the ink. Therefore, ink transfer is achieved at least when the ink is melted by thermal energy in the transfer area, and when the ink becomes oily due to the heat, the ink recording area is deformed by magnetic attraction force.
Or do it by flying. That is, the imprinting on the receiving medium is completed almost simultaneously with the application of thermal energy to the ink, and the process of peeling off the ink medium of the prior art is unnecessary. In other words, the FC, which is shown in FIG.
Since there is no FD, transfer occurs during photosynthesis.

In addition, the ink recording area deforms or flies regardless of the shape of the transfer medium, and the ink transfer is performed without contact between the ink medium and the transfer medium. The transfer efficiency is high, and recording dots with a normal shape can be produced even on a bad transfer medium or even when recording dots with a particularly small area with a high density.

'! 7C9E, since the ink medium and the transfer medium are not in contact with each other, the non-ink recording area and the transfer medium do not come into contact with each other, and smearing of characters does not occur.

In short, since the ink medium and the transfer medium are not in contact with each other, there is no heat loss due to heat conduction VC- from the ink medium to the transfer medium.

In addition, in a system where the ink medium and the transferred medium are not in contact with each other, as described in the previous section, installing all the ink medium wrinkle remover rollers will prevent the ink medium from falling out properly.
No uneven tension occurs.

[Embodiments] Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to all drawings. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a printing apparatus according to the present invention, in which 2-1 is a magnetic head, which is moved by a magnetic head feeding belt iC 2-10. 2-10 magnetic head and transfer paper ktri not shown in the figure.
In the opposite direction of δ, sir? - a single head 2-2 is installed on the carriage 2-8; Auxiliary rollers 2-5 and 2-5 and auxiliary roller supports 2-4 and 2-6 that hold them are installed on the carriage 2-8. FIG. 6(a) The auxiliary rollers 52,54 are attached to the auxiliary roller supports 67,56 by roller alignment springs, as shown in the figure. , auxiliary loaf-1111 and kite 2-12 are available, allowing for appropriate tension control of the auxiliary rollers.

The carriage 2-8 is fixed to a carriage feed belt 2-9, and power from a drive motor (not shown) is transmitted to a drive synchronous belt 2-11, which in turn is connected to a magnetic head feed belt 2-10. The thermal head 2-1 travels in the same direction as the magnetic head 2-1 while maintaining the positional relationship between the magnetic head 2-1 and the thermal head 2-2. The ink medium conveying thread in the @beak according to the invention is as follows.

Ink medium unwinding roller (2-15) → auxiliary roller (2-3) → thermal head (2-2) → auxiliary roller (2-5), ink medium winding 1ll) roller (2-
14) The conveyance of the ink medium as described above is carried out by rotation of an ink medium take-up roller by a drive motor (not shown).

The embodiment schematically shown in FIG. 3 is an improved version of the mechanism shown in FIG.

Example 1 of the present invention is shown in FIG. 5(a)K. In this Example 1, an ink medium unwinding roller 31, an auxiliary roller 52, 34, and an auxiliary roller support 56 are used.
, 57, a thermal head 63, and an ink medium take-up roller 35 are fixed on the carriage D, and move in synchronization with the magnetic head A on the opposite side of the transfer paper B.

The springs of the auxiliary roller supports 56,57 provide the appropriate tension on the ink medium C. Further, the intermedia C is an ink medium take-up roller 35 powered by an ink medium take-up roller drive motor (not shown).
It is wound up by the rotation of. Further, in the method of Example 10, the distance between the auxiliary rollers is 6 crn, and the spring load is 1002 times.

Example 2 of the present invention is shown in FIG. 5(b). In this embodiment 2, the auxiliary rollers 58, 59, auxiliary roller supports 41, 42, and the thermal head 40 are fixed to the carriage J, and the ink medium unwinding roller F and the ink medium take-up roller G is fixed outside the carriage.

The magnetic head H and carriage J on the opposite side of the transfer paper Ei are a drive motor and a drive cycle bell (not shown).
It is a type that moves at intervals of 2-11. The springs of the auxiliary roller supports 41 and 42 provide appropriate tension to the ink media handle and tail. Further, the ink medium evaporator is wound up by the rotation of the ink medium winding roller 55 from the power of a winding roller drive motor (not shown).

Example 20 Method 2, the distance between the auxiliary rollers is 6c
The load of m spring is 1002 times.

The electromagnetic head used as the magnetic attraction means had a core of 1 g permendile (coso) k1, and the magnetomotive force N was set to 1000.

Thermal head n8 pin7mm'i was used.

The ink medium used was a 4 μm thick PET (Polyethylene 1/1 Noft) film coated with a magnetic ink having the following composition using the hot melt method to give an ink thickness of 6 μm. .

- Composition - 1. Magnetite fine particles (φ = 0.5 μm) 50wt% Carnauba wax 24wt% Paraffin wax 25wt% Dispersant
1wt% melting point at 70°C ±5°C.

[Comparative example]

Ink transfer was performed in the configuration shown in Figure 4 using the same elements as in the example. The transfer efficiency evaluation results show that the amount of ink (surface structure x thickness) for one area of the thermal head and heat generating element is The amount of ink transferred to the transfer paper was expressed by the black fraction, and the transfer reproducibility was expressed by the dot reproducibility with respect to the heat generated by the thermal head.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention includes a means for applying thermal energy to a recording portion of thermoplastic magnetic ink and a means for generating a full magnetic attraction force to the ink. In a printing device that transfers an ink recording portion to a transfer medium by magnetic attraction, the ink and the recording medium do not come into contact with each other at the ink recording portion. Since the ink medium is closely spaced, the process of peeling off the ink medium in the prior art becomes unnecessary, and the ink transfer efficiency can be greatly increased.

Since it is a folded, non-contact type, it can be transferred to the ink regardless of the surface shape of the transfer medium, so recording dots with a normal shape and high transfer efficiency can be obtained.

Therefore, paper with very poor surface smoothness, ink and parent wood 0
It is possible to completely form high-quality characters and images even on films with poor quality.

′-! Since there is no contact between the non-recording area and the transfer medium, there is no chance of smudging of characters.

In addition, by using the ink medium wrinkle removal mechanism according to the present invention, transfer efficiency and transfer reproducibility are significantly improved, and furthermore, since σ and heat loss are extremely small, heat application energy k fJi can be reduced, and the application time can be shortened in total. By doing so, it is possible to speed up printing and make it fully functional.

Since the ink of the present invention and the thermoplastic magnetic ink medium have excellent releasability, it is possible to reduce the peeling force and increase the speed of printing.

Needless to say, in addition to the effects described above, it is possible to achieve synergistic effects by combining the above features.

Based on these facts, the present invention has the following features: 1. Eliminate poor transfer due to wrinkles in the ink medium.

λ Recording dots with very high transfer efficiency can be printed on transfer paper with poor surface smoothness, or on films that have a low affinity with the ink.

Five-character stains can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle of transfer of the printing apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the structure near the head of the present invention. 6(a), ('b+ is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the ink medium wrinkle removal mechanism according to the present invention. A is a magnetic head, B is a transfer paper, C is an ink medium, D is a transfer paper, and E is an ink. The medium, F (ζ @ feed roller, and G indicate the take-up roller. Fig. 4 is a diagram of the transfer principle of the conventional printing device. The fifth factor is the transfer problem of the conventional printing device. Explanatory diagram. Figure 6 (a) is an explanatory diagram of problems when printing on rough paper with a conventional printing device. Figure 6 (b) FC log when printing on rough paper with a conventional printing device. Dot-brother diagram. Applicant: Seiko Epson Co., Ltd.
(Hehe1□ Hehe■・ )Z- Fig. 4 □54 (a) A F8 Fig. 5 (b) Fig. 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] It has a means for applying thermal energy to a recorded portion of thermoplastic magnetic ink and a means for generating a magnetic attraction force to the ink, and by controlling the application of thermal energy, the recorded portion of the ink is transferred to a transfer medium by the magnetic attraction force. In a printing device that transfers the ink to a magnetic ink medium, and in which the ink and the transferred medium do not come into contact with each other in a non-recorded portion of the ink, the direction intersecting the running direction and the scanning direction of the magnetic ink medium with respect to the thermal energy application means. An ink medium wrinkle removal mechanism characterized by providing a means for applying tension to the ink medium.