JP4069758B2 - Laminate layer forming apparatus and forming method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the present invention, a laminate layer made of a transparent resin is formed on the upper surface of the print sheet by thermal transfer on the surface of the print sheet on which the image of letters / graphics is formed by thermal transfer or the like. The present invention relates to a laminate layer forming apparatus and a forming method.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, in order to protect characters and figures printed or printed on recording paper by printing presses or printers from dirt and scratches, a transparent laminate film is superimposed on the surface of the recording paper and heat-pressed. Laminating equipment is used. In such a laminating apparatus, it is necessary to prepare a laminating apparatus separately from the printing machine or printer, and further, the laminating film is polymerized on the recording paper that is printed or printed with characters or figures by the printing machine or printer. The process of inserting the recording paper into the laminating apparatus had to be performed, and the laminating operation was extremely troublesome.
[0003]
A recording apparatus wherein an ink ribbon having an ink layer formed of a heat sublimable dye formed on one side of a ribbon base is heated by a thermal head to form characters, figures, etc. on a recording paper, wherein the ink ribbon A heat-meltable transparent resin layer is formed continuously with the ink layer, or a laminate ribbon formed with a heat-meltable transparent resin layer is formed separately, and images such as characters and figures are formed by the ink layer. Formation of a laminate layer in which the heat-meltable transparent resin layer of the laminate ribbon is in close contact with the recording paper, and the transparent resin layer is thermally transferred by heating of the thermal head, and the image forming area is protected by the transparent resin layer. An apparatus has already been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2557622
In the above prior art, by heating an ink ribbon formed with a heat sublimable dye as an ink layer by a thermal head, the heated heat sublimable dye penetrates the recording paper to form an image. Then, the recording paper on which the image by the ink layer is formed is temporarily returned to the initial position for image formation, and the ink ribbon is moved or the ink ribbon and the laminate ribbon are exchanged to form a heat-meltable transparent resin layer. The ribbon is placed on the upper surface of the recording paper on which the image is formed, and the resin layer is heated by the thermal head from the back side of the ribbon to form a heat-meltable transparent resin layer on the upper surface of the recording paper by thermal transfer. Like to do.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, in the prior art, a heat-meltable transparent resin is heated by a thermal head for image formation and transferred onto a recording paper surface to form a laminate layer. Since the laminate layer must be formed on the entire surface of the recording paper on which the image is formed, all the dots for forming the image are energized and continuously energized for a long time. There it is generated exceeds a predetermined temperature at which the laminate film is melts. The thermal head is provided with a temperature sensor, and the temperature sensor detects the temperature rise of the thermal head up to a predetermined temperature at which the laminate film melts. It may not be obtained. Also, when the apparatus is stopped and then restarted after the head temperature is lowered, dot dropout or the like occurs and a complete laminate layer cannot be formed.
[0007]
The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and is formed after the temperature sensor detects that the temperature of the thermal head has risen above a predetermined temperature for melting the laminate film and then stops until the apparatus stops. It is an object of the present invention to provide a laminate layer forming apparatus and a forming method capable of forming a laminate layer following the laminated layer.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
A laminating layer forming apparatus according to the present invention is a method in which a laminating ribbon having a heat-meltable transparent resin layer is brought into close contact with a printing surface of a printing sheet on which an image is formed and heated by a thermal head. An apparatus in which a transparent resin is transferred to a printing surface on which an image of a printing sheet is formed by being transferred to form a laminate layer of the transparent resin on the printing surface on which an image of the printing sheet is formed. A temperature sensor is provided to detect that the temperature of the thermal head during the forming process rises above a predetermined temperature at which the laminate film is melted, and the temperature sensor detects that the thermal head has risen above the predetermined temperature. When this occurs, the process of forming the laminate layer is interrupted and the print sheet is placed in the opposite direction during this interruption. Return distance, the temperature sensor is characterized in that so as to resume processing of the laminate layer formed from the return position by detecting a temperature below the predetermined temperature.
[0009]
In addition, the laminate forming method according to the present invention includes a laminate ribbon formed with a heat-meltable transparent resin layer, which is brought into close contact with a printing surface of a printing sheet on which an image is formed and heated by a thermal head. A transparent resin is transferred to the print surface on which the image of the print sheet is formed by transferring the image, and a laminate layer made of the transparent resin is formed on the print surface on which the image of the print sheet is formed, A temperature sensor is provided to detect that the temperature of the thermal head during the process of forming the laminate layer rises above a predetermined temperature for melting the laminate film, and the temperature sensor detects that the temperature of the thermal head has risen above the predetermined temperature. When this occurs, the laminate layer formation process is interrupted and the print sheet is Return by the constant distance, the temperature sensor is characterized in that so as to resume processing of the laminate layer formed from the return position by detecting a temperature below the predetermined temperature.
[0010]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. 1 and 2 show a print sheet 2 in which laminate layers 4a and 4b are formed on a print surface on which an image of an ink layer 3 has been previously formed by a laminate layer forming apparatus 1 of the present invention (see FIGS. 3A and 3B). In the case of this embodiment, the printed sheet 2 has a vinyl sheet 7 attached to the front side of the long sheet 6 in which the supply holes 5 are formed along both side edges. After the image by the ink layer 3 and the laminate layers 4a and 4b are formed on the surface, the vinyl sheet 7 is peeled off from the long sheet 6 and attached to an advertisement or the like with an adhesive formed on the back side of the vinyl sheet 7. It is what you use.
[0011]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the laminate layers 4 a and 4 b are made of a heat-meltable transparent resin layer, and an image area forming an outline of an image formed on the surface of the print sheet 2 by the ink layer 3. 8 are formed by overlapping each of the edges in the width direction and the longitudinal direction of the print sheet. The laminate layers 4a and 4b completely cover the periphery of the ink layer 3 forming the image, and the image is protected by a transparent heat-melting transparent resin.
FIG. 3A shows a laminate layer forming apparatus 1 for forming laminate layers 4a and 4b of a heat-meltable transparent resin on the upper surface of an ink layer 3 previously formed on the print sheet 2, and the laminate layer formation is shown in FIG. The apparatus 1 includes a sheet supply mechanism 10 that moves the printing sheet 2 in the laminating layer forming process direction and the direction opposite to the laminating layer forming process direction, and heat-transferring the heat-meltable transparent resin to the printing surface of the printing sheet 2. A thermal head 11 and a platen roller 12 that supports the print sheet 2 on the lower surface side of the thermal head 11 are configured. Since the supply mechanism 10 uses the long print sheet 2 in the apparatus of this embodiment, the feed 10 is formed by projecting pins 10a that engage with the feed holes 3 formed on both side edges of the print sheet 2 to the outer peripheral surface. When the supply mechanism 10 is rotated in the forward rotation direction, the print sheet 2 engaged with the pin 10a is transferred in the laminate layer forming processing direction to form an image, and the supply mechanism is formed. When 10 is rotated in the reverse direction, the print sheet is transferred in the reverse direction so that the print sheet 2 can be returned.
[0013]
As shown in FIG. 3B, the thermal head 11 has a laminated ribbon 13 formed with a heat-meltable transparent resin layer 14 disposed between the surface of the print sheet 2 and the thermal head 11. The heat-meltable ink is heated by the print head 15 formed on the thermal head 11 to transfer the transparent resin layer 14 to the print surface of the print sheet 2. The thermal head 11 is disposed so as to face the printing surface of the printing sheet 2 and to face the direction perpendicular to the transfer direction of the printing sheet 2, and the thermal ribbon 11 heats the laminate ribbon 13 that is in close contact with the printing sheet 2 for printing. By transferring the sheet 2 in the laminate layer forming process direction, laminate layers 4 a and 4 b made of the transparent resin layer 14 are formed on the print surface of the print sheet 2.
[0014]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the laminating layer 4a starts the laminating layer forming process from the front side of the front edge of the image area 8 formed on the print sheet, and the thermal head of the laminating layer 4a The temperature sensor that detects that the temperature rises above a predetermined temperature at which the laminate film is melted is detected and the laminate layer forming process is temporarily interrupted. Therefore, the rear edge of the laminate layer 4a is formed at this interruption location. The laminating layer 4b starts from a position B that is ahead of the position A of the rear end edge of the laminating layer 4a by the overlapped dimension L, and is formed further to the rear than the rear end edge of the image area 8. Therefore, the rear end portion of the laminate layer 4a and the front end portion of the laminate layer 4b are overlapped and formed by the dimension L. Wherein the thermal head 11 is formed with a temperature sensor 15, and outputs a detection output so as to interrupt the laminated layer forming process when the temperature of the thermal head is raised at a predetermined temperature until the laminate film melts ing.
[0015]
As shown in FIG. 3, the laminate layer forming apparatus 1 according to the above embodiment forms an image by the ink layer 3 on the printing surface of the printing sheet 2 by mounting the ink ribbon on which the heat-meltable ink layer is formed. The image forming apparatus can be used as an image forming apparatus, and an ink ribbon on which a heat-meltable ink layer is formed is attached to form an image with the ink layer 3 on the print sheet 2, and then the apparatus is stopped once and the ink is formed. The ribbon is replaced with a laminate ribbon 13 on which a heat-meltable transparent resin layer 14 is formed, the print sheet 2 is returned, and then the laminate layer forming process is restarted to form an image with an ink ribbon. The transparent resin layer 14 of the laminate ribbon 13 is thermally transferred onto the printed image so that the laminate layers 4a and 4b can be continuously formed. To have.
[0016]
Hereinafter, the operation state of the laminate forming apparatus 1 will be described with reference to the operation diagrams shown in FIGS. 4 to 8 and the process flowchart shown in FIG. 9. In step S <b> 1 shown in FIG. 9, the laminate layer forming process is started from a position further forward than the front end of the image area 8 on the print sheet 2 on which the image is formed. As shown in FIG. 4, the thermal head 11 brings the heat-meltable transparent resin layer 14 of the laminate ribbon 13 into close contact with the printing surface, all the dots of the thermal head 11 are energized, and the printing sheet 2 is an arrow in the figure. The transparent resin layer 14 is heated by the thermal head 11 and transferred to the print surface, and the upper surface of the image such as characters and figures is covered with the transparent resin layer 14 to form the laminate layer 4a.
[0017]
When the temperature of the thermal head 11 in the laminate layer forming process of the laminate layer 4a is laminated film is increased at a predetermined temperature or melts, the temperature sensor 15 detects this in step S2, the laminate layer formed by step S3 Interrupt the process. Thereafter, in step S4, the print sheet 2 and the laminate ribbon 13 are advanced by a predetermined dimension N as shown in FIG. 5 in order to avoid the formation of non-printing portions at the time of restart, and the thermal head 11 is moved to the print sheet 2 in step S5. Move away from the print surface.
[0018]
Further, in step S6, as shown in FIG. 6, the print sheet 2 is moved back in the reverse direction indicated by the arrow of the predetermined dimension N and the overlap dimension L of the laminate layer. In step S7, the temperature of the thermal head 11 is detected by the temperature sensor 15 in the state described above, and when it is detected that the temperature of the thermal head 11 has dropped below a predetermined temperature at which the laminate film melts, step S8 causes FIG. As shown, the thermal head 11 is brought into contact with the print surface of the print sheet 2 to restart the laminate layer forming process to form the laminate layer 4b. An overlapped portion having a width corresponding to the dimension L is formed by overlapping the starting end of the laminate layer 4b with the upper surface of the end portion of the laminate layer 4a. As shown in FIG. 8, by forming the laminate layer 4b to the position beyond the end edge of the image area 8, the image by the ink layer 3 formed on the print surface of the print sheet 2 is transferred by the laminate layers 4a and 4b. Protected.
[0019]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a temperature sensor that detects that the temperature of the thermal head during the process of forming the laminate layer rises above a predetermined temperature at which the laminate film is melted. When it is detected that the temperature has risen above the predetermined temperature, the laminate layer forming process is interrupted, and during this interruption, the print sheet is returned in the reverse direction by a predetermined distance, and the temperature sensor is at a temperature equal to or lower than the predetermined temperature. Since the laminate layer formation process is restarted from the return position by detecting this, the process is not stopped due to the temperature rise of the thermal head, and the laminate layer is not completely formed without being formed. In addition, the end of the laminate layer after restarting is pasted to the end of the laminate layer up to the time of interruption by a predetermined dimension L. Is, it is possible to form a laminate layer without such missing dots.
[Brief description of the drawings]
1 is a plan view of a print sheet output by a laminate layer forming apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the same print sheet as FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a diagram (a) of a laminate layer forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. ) Cross-sectional view of the state in which the thermal head is separated from the print sheet, and (b) The state in which the thermal head is in close contact with the print sheet and the laminate layer forming process is performed. FIG. 5 is a longitudinal side view of the same laminate layer forming apparatus as in FIG. 4 in a state where the temperature formation of the thermal head is detected by a temperature sensor and the laminate forming process is interrupted. Vertical side view of the same laminate layer forming device as in Fig. 4 with the thermal head separated from the print sheet and the print sheet returned [Fig. 7] FIG. 8 is a vertical side view of the same laminate layer forming apparatus as in FIG. 4 in a state in which the second laminate layer is formed in close contact with the substrate. FIG. 8 is the same laminate as in FIG. 4 after the second laminate layer is formed. Fig. 9 is a vertical side view of the layer forming apparatus. Fig. 9 is a flowchart of processing for forming a laminate layer by the laminate layer forming apparatus.
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Laminate layer forming apparatus 2 Print sheet 3 Ink layer 4a, 4b Laminate layer 5 Feed hole 6 Long sheet 7 Vinyl sheet 8 Image area 10 Supply mechanism 11 Thermal head 12 Platen roller 13 Ink ribbon 14 Thermomeltable ink layer 15 Temperature sensor

Claims (2)

The laminate ribbon formed with a heat-meltable transparent resin layer is brought into close contact with the print surface of the image-formed print sheet and heated by a thermal head, and the laminate ribbon and the print sheet are transferred to form an image on the print sheet. An apparatus for transferring a transparent resin onto the printed surface to form a laminate layer of the transparent resin on the print surface on which an image of the print sheet is formed , the temperature of the thermal head during the process of forming the laminate layer Is provided with a temperature sensor that detects that the temperature rises above a predetermined temperature at which the laminate film is melted. When the temperature sensor detects that the thermal head has risen above the predetermined temperature, the process of forming the laminate layer is interrupted. together to back a predetermined distance to print sheets in the opposite direction during the interruption, the temperature sensor is above Laminating layer forming device being characterized in that so as to resume processing of the laminate layer formed from the return position by detecting a constant temperature below the temperature. The laminate ribbon formed with a heat-meltable transparent resin layer is brought into close contact with the print surface of the image-formed print sheet and heated by a thermal head, and the laminate ribbon and the print sheet are transferred to form an image on the print sheet. A transparent resin is transferred to the printed surface to form a laminate layer of the transparent resin on the printed surface on which the image of the print sheet is formed, and the thermal head of the thermal head during the laminate layer forming process is formed. A temperature sensor is provided to detect that the temperature rises above a predetermined temperature at which the laminate film is melted. When the temperature sensor detects that the temperature of the thermal head has risen above the predetermined temperature, the laminate layer forming process is interrupted. together, back by a predetermined distance the print sheet in the reverse direction during this interruption, the temperature sensor is above plants Laminate layer forming method is characterized in that so as to resume processing of the laminate layer formed from the return position by detecting a temperature below the temperature.

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