JP2868855B2 - Recording device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a method for sandwiching and transporting a recording sheet between a platen roller and a thermal head and bringing the recording sheet into contact with the thermal head. The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that records an image using a head.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, for example, a recording sheet is brought into contact with a thermal head employed in a plate making section, a printer, and a facsimile of a printing and copying integrated type copying machine, and based on an image signal,
A recording apparatus for recording on a recording sheet is already known.

This recording apparatus has a configuration in which a recording sheet is nipped and conveyed between a thermal head and a platen roller, the recording sheet is brought into contact with the thermal head, and an image based on an image signal is recorded on the recording sheet. I have.

In this recording apparatus, an image is recorded on a recording sheet along a scanning line of a heating element of the thermal head while nipping and transporting the recording sheet between a rotating platen roller and a thermal head. In order to perform high-quality recording, it is necessary that the nip portion of the platen roller and the heating element line of the thermal head abut on each other in a state where they are accurately aligned with respect to the generatrix direction of the platen roller. At the same time, it is necessary that the peripheral surface of the platen roller and the surface of the thermal head are in contact with each other in a state where they are accurately aligned with each other in the transport direction of the recording sheet. The former positioning is referred to as the positioning of the platen roller in the generatrix direction, and the latter positioning is referred to as the positioning in the sheet conveying direction.

As the recording apparatus for performing the alignment between the former and the latter, for example, those described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 61-93253 and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 61-14220 are known.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In the recording apparatus described in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 61-93253, a part of the bracket holding the thermal head is brought into contact with the bearing of the platen roller, and the nip of the platen roller is moved. The relative position of the head, the thermal head and the heating element line is matched, but in this case the thermal head is positioned with the platen roller via the integral bracket, so the bracket is made with high precision Otherwise, it is difficult to align the thermal head with the platen roller,
In order to increase the positional accuracy, a positioning jig must be separately used, which causes a problem in that the assemblability is poor and the head replacement becomes troublesome.

In the recording apparatus described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 61-14220, a U-groove is provided in the bracket of the thermal head, and a platen roller bearing is supported in the U-groove. Since the position accuracy is assured, in this case as well,
As in the case of the recording apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H10-260, it is difficult to improve the positional accuracy between the platen roller and the thermal head unless the bracket is made with high accuracy. To improve the position accuracy between the platen roller and the heating element of the thermal head,
Between the thermal head and the support member of the platen roller,
It is necessary to provide a position adjusting mechanism to increase the positional accuracy between the platen roller and the thermal head and to assemble it. This increases the number of parts, worsens the assemblability, and makes it difficult to replace the thermal head. There is a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording apparatus capable of performing positioning in a generatrix direction of a platen roller and positioning in a sheet conveying direction by a simple mechanism without requiring high-precision parts. Is what you do.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and has a platen roller for recording sheet conveyance rotatably supported by a support member, and the platen roller. A thermal head disposed at a position opposing the thermal head, a substrate supporting the thermal head movably in a conveying direction of the recording sheet and swingably in a longitudinal direction of the thermal head, and a thermal head and the substrate. A swing fulcrum, which is provided at a central portion of one of the thermal head and the substrate in the longitudinal direction of the thermal head and swingably supports the thermal head; and The thermal head is provided with a surface on the downstream side in the recording sheet conveyance direction, thereby locking the platen roller with respect to the platen roller. Positioning means for positioning the thermal head in the recording sheet transport direction; abutting means provided on the substrate for abutting the thermal head on the positioning means; And a press-contact means for press-contacting each other.

(Operation) The positioning of the platen roller with respect to the platen roller of the thermal head in the generatrix direction and the positioning in the sheet conveyance direction are automatically performed.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

First, an outline of a plate making and printing integrated copying machine in which the recording apparatus of the present invention is adopted will be described.

In FIG. 5, reference numeral 100 designates a copying and printing machine integrated with plate making and copying. Inside the copying machine 100, a document reading section mainly composed of a contact glass 8 and a CCD 9 with an optical system, a roll master 10, and a record for making a master to record a recording image of the document reading section on the master. apparatus
200, a drum 1 for winding a master created by the plate making unit around the peripheral surface, and an ink desbill 12 arranged in the drum and supplying ink to the master. A printing section, a paper loading section mainly loaded with paper loading table 15, paper supply roller 5, registration roller 6, and press roller 4, separation claw 3, paper ejection blow 2, paper ejection vacuum 13. A paper discharge section mainly composed of a paper discharge table 16 and a plate discharge section mainly composed of a plate discharge box 14 for discharging and storing a printed master are formed.

In the above copying machine, first, the original image of the original moving on the contact glass 8 is read by the CCD 9, and an image signal corresponding to the read original image is transmitted to the roll master.
The recording device 200 writes the master fed out from 10 to create a master master. Next, the master master is wound around the drum 1, and ink is supplied from the ink die 12 to the master master to cause the ink to bleed from the master master. At this time, the paper is fed from the paper mounting table to the transfer portion of the drum 1 by the paper feed roller 5 and the registration roller 6, and a recording image blurred from the master master is formed between the press roller 4 and the paper. Transfer and print. The printed sheet is peeled off from the surface of the drum 1 by the separation claw 3 and the discharge blow 2, and is discharged onto the discharge table 16 by the discharge vacuum 4. When printing of the master master is completed, the used master master is peeled off from the drum 1 and stocked in the paper discharge box 14.

Next, a recording device of a plate making section in the copying machine will be described.

1 to 3, the recording apparatus 200 mainly includes a platen roller 60, a thermal head 50, and a substrate 30.

The substrate 30 is rotatably supported by support shafts 111, 111 of both side plates 110, 110. The substrate 30 has a habit of always rotating in the direction of the arrow by a tension spring 32 stretched between the substrate 30 and the side plate 110. Have been. The substrate 30 can be rotated in the opposite direction of the arrow against the tension spring 32 by abutting a lever (not shown). On the substrate 30, a holding bracket 40 for the thermal head is provided. Holes 41, 42 are formed in both ends 40a, 40b of the holding bracket 40 in the longitudinal direction. Guide pins 36 and 37 caulked on the substrate 30 are fitted into these holes 41 and 42, respectively. The hole 41 is an elongated hole long in the master transport direction, and the hole 42 is a guide pin 37
Are formed in the shape of a fool hole for loose fitting. The guide pins 36 and 37 are formed by headed flat screws that do not come out of the holes 41 and 42.

A pair of protrusions 33, 33 arranged substantially in a straight line in the transport direction of the master are formed on the upper surface of the central portion in the longitudinal direction of the substrate 30. On the projections 33, 33, a holding bracket 40 is mounted. Therefore, the holding bracket 40 is supported on the substrate 30 so as to be swingable in the longitudinal direction of the holding bracket 40 with the projections 33 and 33 as fulcrums,
1, by engaging the guide pins 36, 37 with the fool hole 42,
It is movably supported in the master transport direction.

A base of a pair of leaf springs 38, 38 is fixed on both sides in the longitudinal direction of the substrate 40 at the bent portion 34 at the upstream end in the master transport direction of the substrate 30, and the free ends of the leaf springs 38, 38 are fixed. The portion 38a projects from the surface of the substrate 30 and the rear end portion 40 of the holding bracket 40.
c, and presses the holding bracket 40 in the master transport direction. On the holding bracket 40, the thermal head 50 with the thermal head surface facing upward is integrally mounted and fixed by fixing means such as screws.

At a position facing the thermal head surface of the thermal head 50,
Platen roller 6 rotatably supported by both side plates 110, 110
0 is provided. The platen roller 60 has its support shaft 6
1, 61 are supported by both side plates 110, 110 via bearings 62, 62, and a driving force is transmitted from a driving source (not shown) so that the rotation is performed in the direction of the arrow in FIG.

Bearing plates 70, 70 are provided between the side plates 110, 110 and the end faces of the platen roller 60. As shown in FIG. 4, platen rollers 60 are mounted on the bearing plates 70, 70.
The platen roller bearing holding portion 72 into which the support shafts 61, 61 are fitted via the bearings 62, 62, the bearing plate half blanking portion 73, the hole 74 for fixing the side plate, the swing fulcrum 75 of a bearing fixing lever described later, A spring retaining portion 76 of the bearing fixing lever and a pin 77 for positioning the thermal head standing inside are provided. The bearing plates 70, 70 are fixedly supported inside the side plates 110, 110 by setting fixing means such as screws in the holes 74.

Bearing fixing levers 90, 90 are provided inside the bearing plates 70, 70.
Are swingably supported by a swing fulcrum 75. The free ends 91 and 91 of the bearing fixing lever are the platen roller bearing 6
The tension springs 97 extend between the other end portions 92, 92 of the bearing fixing lever and the spring retaining portions 76, 76, respectively. Due to the elasticity of the tension springs 97, 97, the bearing fixing levers 90, 90 are given a rotating behavior in the direction of the arrow in FIG. The support shafts 61, 61 of the platen roller 60 are held by being pressed and sandwiched between the platen roller bearing holding portion 72 of the bearing plate 70 and the free end portion 91 of the bearing fixing lever 90 via the bearings 62, 62. Is done. The support shafts 61, 61 rotate the bearing fixing lever 90 in the direction opposite to the arrow in FIG. 1 against the force of the spring 97, so that the holding state between the platen roller bearing holding portion 72 and the free end portion 92 is maintained. Is released and can be removed from both side plates 110,110. The positioning pins 77, 77 are provided at positions separated by a certain distance from the axis of the platen roller 5 in the transport direction of the master.

Since the recording apparatus is configured as described above, the substrate 30 is pushed and turned by the lever (not shown) in the direction opposite to the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1, and as shown in FIG. Move to a position away from the peripheral surface of. When the lever is released with the master M interposed between the platen roller 60 and the thermal head 50, the substrate 30 rotates in the direction of the arrow in FIG. Is brought into contact with the peripheral surface of the platen roller 60 via the master M. At this time, since the thermal head 50 can swing in the longitudinal direction of the thermal head with the swing projections 33, 33 as fulcrums, the thermal head 50 can swing with the swing projections 33, 33 as fulcrums.
When the thermal head 50 abuts on the platen roller 60 while swinging in the longitudinal direction, the thermal head surface of the thermal head 50 is brought into contact with the generatrix of the peripheral surface of the platen roller 60.
Since the thermal head 50 is pressed on the substrate 30 by the leaf springs 38 in the transport direction of the master M, when the thermal head 50 comes into contact with the peripheral surface of the platen roller 60, the transport of the master M is performed. It moves to a position where the surface on the downstream side in the direction contacts the positioning pin 77. The position of the positioning pin is determined in advance so that the distance from the axis of the platen roller is kept constant.
Numeral 30 is pressed against the platen roller 60 in a state where it is set at a fixed position also in the transport direction of the master M.

Since the platen roller 60 is rotated in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1, the master M is transported in the direction of the arrow with the heating head surface of the thermal head 50 in contact with the master M. At this time, recording is performed on the master M by the heating head according to the image signal.

In the above-described embodiment, the thermal head is moved to the platen roller to move the thermal head toward and away from the platen roller, but the platen roller may be moved relative to the fixed thermal head. Further, in the embodiment, the example in which the positioning pin is provided on the bearing plate is shown, but the positioning pin may be provided directly on the side plate.
Further, in the embodiment, the example in which the pair of swing protrusions is provided on the substrate is shown, but the swing protrusion may be provided downward on the back surface of the thermal head, or one may be provided at the center portion in the transport direction of the master. Is also good.

(Effect of the Invention) According to the present invention, a thermal head is supported on a substrate so as to be swingable in the longitudinal direction of the thermal head and movably in the transport direction of the recording sheet, and the thermal head is moved in the transport direction of the recording sheet. Positioning means for positioning the position is provided, so that each component of the recording device does not need to be high-precision components, and a simple mechanism is used to align the thermal head in the generatrix direction of the platen roller and the sheet transport direction. And can be done automatically.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a recording apparatus showing one embodiment of the present invention,
2 is an operation view of the same, FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of the same, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a bearing plate, and FIG. 5 is a plate making / printing apparatus employing the recording apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a front view of a body copying machine. 60 ... platen roller, 30 ... thermal head, 33 ...
Projection, 77… Positioning pin, 38… Leaf spring, 32… Tension spring.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 25/304 B41J 2/32 B41C 1/00-1/18

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A recording sheet transport platen roller rotatably supported by a support member; a thermal head disposed at a position facing the platen roller; and moving the thermal head in the recording sheet transport direction. A supportable and swingable substrate in the longitudinal direction of the thermal head; and between the thermal head and the substrate, the center of one of the thermal head and the substrate in the longitudinal direction of the thermal head. A swing fulcrum that is provided on the portion and swingably supports the thermal head, and is provided on the support member, by locking a surface of the thermal head on the downstream side in the recording sheet transport direction,
Positioning means for positioning a position of the thermal head in the recording sheet transport direction with respect to the platen roller; a contact means provided on the substrate for bringing the thermal head into contact with the positioning means; A recording apparatus comprising: a press-contact unit for pressing substrates to each other via the thermal head.