JPS6168276A - Ink sheet cassette for thermal transfer recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate replacing a thermal head and an ink sheet, by enclosing the thermal head and the ink sheet in a single cassette. CONSTITUTION:The thermal head 1 is supplied with an electric current from the exterior by a terminal 2a and a wiring 2b. A take-up roll 4 is rotated by rotating a motor 8 by an external signal current passed through a terminal 9a and a wiring 9. When the cassette enclosed in a housing 6 is fitted to the recorder, a driving current is passed in the order of a stepping motor terminal 9a wiring 9b motor 8. As a result, platen roll P connected to the stepping motor by gearing is rotated, while the take-up roll 4 is rotated through the rotation of the motor 8. By this, an image-receiving sheet R and the ink sheet 5 are pressed against the thermal head by the platen roll P in a laminated condition. Accordingly, since the thermal head 1 and the ink sheet 5 are enclosed in the same cassette, these can be replaced extremely easily.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field of the Invention) The present invention relates to an ink sheet cassette for a thermal transfer recording device.

(Background of the Invention) There has been active research into methods of reproducing images in the form of photocopies from electrical image signals obtained from video cameras, still video cameras, televisions, video disks, phototransmission devices, etc. ing.

A thermal transfer recording method is currently attracting attention as one of the promising methods.

This thermal transfer recording method means, for example,
A stack of an image receiving sheet and an ink sheet is pressed against a thermal head having a group of 10 heating element dots, and the heating element dots are energized to generate heat based on the input electrical image signal for one line. The ink on the ink sheet or the sublimable dye contained therein is transferred to the image-receiving sheet to print an image for one line, and then the positions of the ink sheet and the image-receiving sheet are sequentially moved line by line, The next line is printed based on the next line signal, thereby finally recording and forming a visually recognizable two-dimensional print image on the image receiving sheet.

The device used in this method is a thermal transfer recording device,
For example, as shown in FIG. 2, this device includes a thermal head (a thermal head) consisting of a group of heating element dots lined up in a line in the main scanning direction and a pair of electrode groups for energizing each dot to generate heat.
An image receiving sheet (R;) and an ink sheet (R;
5) A platen roll [F] for pressing the stacked one; a stepping motor (not shown) for rotating the platen roll; an image receiving sheet supply section (not shown); an ink sheet supply side roller ( 3); Used ink sheet take-up roller (4); Consists of a motor (not shown) and an electric circuit for rotating the take-up roller (4).

FIG.
The stepping motor (M,) for rotation and the motor (M,) for rotating the inkxy->take-up roller rotate.

By the way, once the ink sheet (5) is used for transfer, it is preferable to reuse it and to make it disposable, so the ink sheet (5) is stored in advance in the ink sheet supply section of the device in multiple layers, and it can be used as needed. Preferably, it is automatically supplied. Therefore, in this case, considering the ease of supply,
It has been proposed that a long ink sheet (5) be rolled up and stored, and then unrolled and pulled out each time it is used.

However, in this case, when the ink sheet (5) is completely used, a new rolled ink sheet (5) is required.
It is necessary to set the ink sheet (3) on the roller (3) of the ink sheet supply section, but at this time the roller (3) must be removed from the shaft of the device main body and other parts, and this replacement work is extremely troublesome. ) was touched and the 9 Ink Seed (5) became defective due to dirty hands. Further, there was a similar problem in the operation of pulling out the tip of the ink sheet (S) set on the roller (3) and winding it around the take-up roller (4).

On the other hand, the thermal head (1) also currently has a relatively short lifespan and needs to be replaced after recording several thousand images. However, since the thermal head (1) is attached to the mounting base (B) with screws (S) and other means, and there is also electrical wiring, replacement is more troublesome than the ink sheet (2).

(Objective of the Invention) Therefore, the object of the present invention is to (a) facilitate the replacement of the ink sheet without causing any damage;
(b) The purpose is to make it possible to easily replace the thermal head without using tools such as a screwdriver.

(Summary of the Invention) The present inventors have proposed that the size of the recorded image can be changed to, for example, the service size of a photograph or the cabinet size by rolling up the ink sheets necessary to print several thousand full-color images. , the diameter of the roll is approximately 8~
123, it is possible to synchronize the timing of replacing the ink sheet with the replacement of the thermal head, leading to the present invention.

That is, the present invention provides a thermal head (1) in which heating element dots are exposed to the outside from a housing, terminals (2a) and wiring (2b) for supplying electric current from the outside to the heating element dots, and ink. A sheet supply roller (3), a used ink sheet take-up roller (4), one end of which is wound around the supply roller in the form of a roll, and the other end is placed on the above-mentioned output head. an ink sheet (5) that is wound up on the winding roller through
- an ink sheet cassette for a thermal transfer recording device, comprising a housing (6) for accommodating the ψ member, and the ink sheet is sequentially wound around the winding roller based on an external signal. I will provide a.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically explained by examples with reference to the drawings.

(Example) FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the internal structure of a cassette according to this example.

In the figure, (1) is a thermal head in which the heating element is exposed to the outside from the housing, and (2a) and (2b) are respectively supplying electric current from the outside to the heating element. (3) is an ink sheet supply roller, (4) is a used ink sheet take-up roller, (5) is one end wound around the supply roller, and the other end an ink sheet (6
) is a housing that houses the five members, (7) is a guide roller, (8) is a motor for rotating the take-up roller (4) based on an external signal, (8a) is a rotating shaft of the motor, ( 9a) and (9b) are terminals and wiring for passing current as an example of an external signal to the motor (8), respectively, and IiO is a belt.

On the other hand, [F] indicated by a two-dot broken line is a platen roll on the thermal transfer recording device side, and (R) is an image receiving sheet.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of a thermal transfer recording apparatus in which the cassette of this embodiment is installed.
Stepping motor for rotating F], 04 is motor drive circuit, 00 is thermal head drive circuit, OQ
is a terminal that contacts the terminal (2a) of the cassette 0, and ◇1 is a terminal that contacts the terminal (9a) of the cassette θ.

When the cassette θη of this embodiment is installed in the recording device, the drive current (shown by the dotted line in FIG. 3) flows from the drive circuit 04 to the stepping motor 01 and the terminal ).As a result, the platen roll ■ connected with the motor ◇→ by a gear rotates, and the rotation of the motor (8) is transmitted to the ink sheet take-up roller (4) by the belt αQ, and the rotation of the motor (8) is transmitted to the ink sheet take-up roller (4) ) rotates.As a result, the image-receiving sheet (column and ink sheet) are pressed against the thermal head by the platen roll [F] in an overlapping state (the fourth
(see figure).

In this state, a printing current based on the image signal flows from the thermal head drive circuit 00 and passes through the terminal OQ to the terminal (2a).
It enters the cassette 0η and flows through the wiring (2b) to the heating element dots of the thermal head (1), selectively generating heat from them. As a result, the ink on the ink sheet (5) or the sublimable dye contained therein is transferred to the image receiving sheet (8), and one row of pixels is printed.

After printing, the next drive current flows from the drive circuit ◇◆ in the same way to move the ink sheet (5) and image receiving sheet (8) to the position of the next row, and the printing current from the drive circuit 0υ flows to the next row. to print. Similarly, when the last line is printed, a monochrome image is recorded on the image receiving sheet (6).

To obtain a full-color image, it is necessary to perform overlapping recording on the same image-receiving sheet (R) using three or four colors of ink: yellow, magenta, cyan, and sometimes black. Therefore, in that case, it is necessary to use an ink sheet (5) as shown in FIG. 5 in which ink areas of three or four colors are sequentially and repeatedly arranged. As shown in Figure 4, the ink sheet (5) consists of an image-receiving sheet (an ink layer (5a) coated on the side that contacts the chest) and a support sheet (5b), but the length of the ink sheet is already As mentioned above, it is preferable that the length corresponds to the number of sheets used during the life of the thermal head.

In addition, the motor (8) and its attached parts (8a), (LO
It is not necessary to provide a take-up roller (
For the rotation in 4), a coupler may be provided on the end face of the roller (4), and a rotational force from a rotation mechanism provided on the apparatus side may be transmitted to the coupler to rotate the roller (4).

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, since the thermal head and the ink sheet are housed in one cassette, the thermal head and the ink sheet can be replaced extremely easily.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the internal structure of a cassette according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the main parts of a conventional thermal transfer recording device. FIG. 2A is a block diagram of an electric circuit of a conventional thermal transfer recording device. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing the overall configuration of a thermal transfer recording apparatus to which the cassette of the embodiment is installed. FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 1. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an example of an ink sheet. [Explanation of symbols of main parts] 1... Thermal head, 2a...
・Terminal, 2b...Wiring, 3...
... Ink sheet supply side roller, 4 ... Used ink sheet take-up roller, 5 ... Ink sheet, 6 ... Housing, 31.
...The whole cassette.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A thermal head (1) in which heating element dots are exposed to the outside from a housing, a terminal (2a) and wiring (2b) for supplying electric current from the outside to the heating element dots, and an ink sheet. A supply roller (3), a used ink sheet take-up roller (4), one end of which is wound around the supply roller, and the other end of which is wound onto the take-up roller after passing over the thermal head. A thermal transfer recording device comprising: an ink sheet (5), and a housing (6) that houses the six members, and the ink sheet is sequentially wound around the winding roller based on an external signal. Ink sheet/cassette.