JPS62146660A - Thermal printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the use of a material having no flexibility, by constituting the titled printer so that a transfer material feed path is made linear at a thermal transfer recording part. CONSTITUTION:Thermal transfer guide plates 8, 9 for linearily feeding a thermal transfer material 6 forwardly and rearwardly around a thermal transfer recording part and guide rolls 7 for feeding the thermal transfer material 6 forwardly and rearwardly while pressing the same to the guide plates are provided and a mechanism for feeding the thermal transfer material 6 forwardly and rearwardly by a platen roll 2 and the guide rolls 7 is provided. In order to prevent the thermal transfer material 6 from shifting left and right, both sides of the guide plate 8 are formed into left and right L-shaped shift preventing guides 8a and the support shaft of the aforementioned guide roll 7 is received in the vertical grooves 8b formed to said preventing guides 8a in an up-and-down movable manner. The guide plate 9 is similarly constituted. Because the thermal transfer material is linearily fed, the use of cardboard such as a postcard or a name card, plastic such as a card and a metal etc. having no flexibility as the thermal transfer material is enabled.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (a) Purpose of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention is directed to the transfer of a pigment or dye transfer material from a heat-sensitive transfer film to a transfer material by a thermal recording means such as a thermal head. The present invention relates to a thermal printer that performs recording by printing.

[Prior Art] Two methods have been proposed as a method for conveying a transfer material in a color thermal transfer recording device using a thermal head consisting of a plurality of heating element dots.

To explain briefly based on the diagram, the first method is the fourth method.
As shown in the figure, the thermal transfer film 5 is rolled around the pressing part of the platen roll 2 which presses the thermal transfer film and the thermal transfer material 6 against the thermal head heating part 1 which becomes the thermal transfer recording part. The thermal transfer material 6 is conveyed in one direction to the take-up roll 3, and is transferred to the thermal transfer film 3 by the guide roll 7 and platen roll 2 during thermal transfer recording.
When the recording of the first color is completed, the film is conveyed in the opposite direction to the film conveyance direction to the recording head position, and the operation is repeated for the number of overlapping colors.

This method can use both cut paper and roll paper as the thermal transfer material, but since the thermal transfer material has a U-shaped conveyance path along the platen roll 2 and thermal transfer recording is performed, the thermal transfer material can be used as a thermal transfer material. Cardboard used for postcards, business cards, etc., and plastics used for plastic cards, etc., have a fatal drawback of being unusable because they do not have flexibility.

Next, as a second method, as shown in FIG. A method has been proposed in which a thermal transfer image is obtained by rotating the paper in the same direction as the direction in which the sheet moves from the take-up roll 4 to the take-up roll 3 of the paper discharge section by the number of overlapping colors. Compared to the first method, this method has the advantage that it is less likely to cause misregistration (misregistration) when overlapping colors because the transfer material 6 rotates integrally with the platen roll. As in the first method, since the material to be transferred is wound around the platen roll, the material to be transferred 6 must be visible, and the material to be transferred may be cardboard such as postcards, business cards, or plastic cards. It has a fatal drawback in that it cannot use non-flexible materials such as plastics used in other products.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of these points, and its purpose is to provide a thermal printer that is not affected by the flexibility of the transfer material.

(B) Mechanism of the invention [Means for solving the problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized in that the transfer material conveyance path is straight in the thermal transfer recording section. It is something.

Examples] Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, the thermal transfer film 5 is moved around the pressing part of the plantain roll 2 that presses the thermal transfer film 5 and the thermal transfer material 6 against the thermal head heat generating part l, which becomes the thermal transfer recording part, and the thermal transfer film 5 is The thermal transfer guide plate 8 is conveyed in one direction from the roll 4 to the take-up roll 3 of the paper discharge section and is conveyed in a straight line from front to back around the thermal transfer recording area. is provided with a guide roll 7 that transports the paper back and forth, and has a mechanism in which the platen roll 2 and the guide roll 7 transport the paper back and forth by the number of overlapping colors. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, a guide plate 8
The side of the guide roll 7 is an L-shaped left-right shift prevention guide 8a, and the support shaft of the guide roll 7 is accommodated in a vertical groove 8b formed in the prevention guide 8a so as to be movable up and down.

Note that the guide plate 9 is also configured in the same manner.

In addition, in order to make the transferred material conveying path straight, guide rolls 7 are held between the upper and lower sides of the thermally transferred material 6 as shown in FIG.
A mechanism for transporting the heat transfer material 6 back and forth may be used, and in order to prevent the thermal transfer material 6 from shifting to the left or right, a rod 10 or a plate-shaped side guide may be provided.

A block diagram of a thermal printer having the above printing mechanism is shown in FIG.

(C) Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, since the thermal transfer material is conveyed in a straight line without being bent, postcards that have no visibility as the thermal transfer material 1. It is possible to use cardboard such as business cards, plastic such as cards that have become extremely popular in recent years, metal, etc.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the configuration of a thermal printer using a thermal transfer material conveyance system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the guide roll portion in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is another embodiment similar to FIG. 1. , FIG. 4, and FIG. 5 are side views showing the configuration of a conventionally provided thermal printer using a thermal transfer material conveyance method, and FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a thermal printer. It is. 1... Thermal head heating section, 2... Platen roll, 3... Paper discharge section transfer film winding roll, 4... Paper feeding section transfer film winding roll, 5...
・・Thermal transfer film, 6・・Thermal transfer material, 7・
...Thermal transfer paper guide roll, 8...Paper feed section heat transfer paper guide plate, 8a...Thermal transfer material right and left deviation prevention guide, 9...Thermal transfer paper guide plate at the paper discharge section, 1θ...Guide bar to prevent left and right misalignment of thermal transfer paper.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A thermal printer that transfers pigments or dyes from a thermal transfer film using a thermal head, characterized in that the conveyance path of the thermal transfer material is a straight line. (2) The thermal printer according to claim 1, further comprising a side shift prevention guide provided on the guide plate through which the thermal transfer material is transferred.