JPH05305727A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To apply a thermal transfer printer to both sublimable ink paper and hot melt ink paper by a method wherein printing is made on image receiving paper in a printing mode selected in accordance with a result of discriminating ink paper in use by reading an identification mark. CONSTITUTION:In the selective use of sublimable ink paper and hot melt ink paper, which are provided with ink identification marks of the same format, the identification mark is provided on the ink paper in use for every different color ink coated part. In the format, information is represented by 4 bits in each of lines alpha, beta. The information is read by an identification mark reading element as a part of a sensor and switch forming part. In accordance with the read result, the type of the ink paper in use is discriminated. In accordance with the discriminated result, a predetermined printing mode is selectively set. Printing is made on image receiving paper in the selectively set printing mode. In this manner, a thermal transfer printer applicable to both sublimable ink paper and hot melt ink paper is made available.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to thermal transfer printers, and more particularly to
The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer that can be used for both sublimable ink paper and meltable ink paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a printer including a thermal head, in addition to a printer configured to print on thermal paper by the thermal head, sublimable ink paper is used for printing on image receiving paper. Thermal transfer printers configured as described above and thermal transfer printers configured to perform printing on image-receiving paper using fusible ink paper have been conventionally known, as well as thermal paper and fusible ink paper. Printers that can be shared have also been put to practical use, for example, as printers for word processors.

[0003]

By the way, when the transfer is performed using the sublimable ink paper, the heating power amount required to be supplied to the thermal head and the transfer using the fusible ink paper are performed. In this case, there is a significant difference in the amount of heating power required between the heating head and the amount of heating power required to be supplied to the thermal head. When trying to configure a thermal transfer printer that can be shared with both ink papers, for example, depending on whether the ink paper used for printing is a sublimable ink paper or a meltable ink paper, In order to supply the required heating power to the thermal head,
The supply voltage value to the thermal head may be switched according to the ink paper used, or, for example, depending on whether the ink paper used for printing is sublimable ink paper or meltable ink paper. It is conceivable that different print data are used so that printing suitable for each ink paper is performed, but in the case described above, a large-scale supply power switching means is required. However, in the above case, there is a problem that separate print data must be used for each different ink paper used. Even if an attempt is made to configure a thermal transfer printer that can be used for both sublimable ink paper and meltable ink paper by applying the means, it is easy and practical. It was not possible to provide a transfer printer.

[0004]

The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer for performing printing on an image receiving paper by sandwiching an ink paper and the image receiving paper by a line thermal head and a platen,
When the sublimable ink paper and the fusible ink paper provided with the ink identification mark in the same format are selectively used, the ink identification mark is read to determine the type of the ink paper used. There is provided a thermal transfer printer including means, means for selecting a print mode according to the above-mentioned discrimination result of the used ink paper, and means for performing printing on the image receiving paper according to the selected print mode.

[0005]

By reading the ink identification mark provided on the ink paper in the same format, it is determined whether the ink paper used for printing is a sublimable ink paper or a fusible ink paper. In accordance with the result of the determination of the type of ink paper used for printing, the print mode that is performed using the ink paper used for printing is set, and the same is used regardless of which ink paper is used. Printing is performed using the print data of.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The specific contents of the thermal transfer printer of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a thermal transfer printer of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an energization control circuit unit, FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an energization mode to a thermal head, and FIG. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of the print mode, and FIG. 5 is a plan view of a part of the ink paper showing a configuration example of the ink identification mark provided on the sublimable ink paper and the meltable ink paper. In the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, when sublimable ink paper and meltable ink paper provided with ink identification marks in the same format as exemplified in FIG. 5A are selectively used. In addition, the identification mark attached to the used ink paper is read by the reading element of the identification mark provided as a part of the component shown as sensor and switch 5 in FIG. By determining the type of ink paper being used, selecting and setting a predetermined print mode according to the result of the determination, and printing on the image receiving paper according to the print mode selected and set as described above, The present invention provides a thermal transfer printer that can be used for both sublimable ink paper and fusible ink paper without causing the above problems.

In FIG. 1, Ht is a line thermal head, 23 is a shift register, 24 is a latch circuit, 25,
26 is a NAND circuit, 28, 29 are a large number of heating resistors arranged in a predetermined arrangement state, and Vt is an operating voltage supplied to a large number of heating resistors 28, 29 of the line thermal head. The thermal transfer printer communicates print data (print data) and printer control signals with an external host computer (not shown) via the interface circuit 12 and the bus 11 in FIG. Printing is performed by the given print data on the image receiving paper between the ink paper and the image receiving paper sandwiched by the thermal head and the platen. FIG. 5 (a)
Is an ink paper IP used in the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, and the ink paper IP is configured as a sublimable ink paper or a meltable ink paper. To do. FIG. 5 (a)
In the ink paper IP illustrated in FIG. 1, one of the part where the black (K) ink is applied on the base film and the other part where the yellow (Y) ink is applied on the base film are included. Only the divisions are shown. In FIG. 5A, yellow (Y)
To the part where the ink of is applied on the base film,
1, 2, 3, in each column designated by α, β
The small squares shown at positions 4 are examples of information marks (bits) used in the construction of the ink identification mark, and the ink identification mark described above is the application of ink of each color on the ink paper. It is provided for each part. The format of the ink identification mark illustrated in FIG. 5A is 4 bits in the α column and 4 bits in the β column, and each information as illustrated in FIG. 5B. Is represented.

The interface circuit 1 in FIG. 1 described above
Reference numeral 2 gives print data (print data) to the print data process circuit 15 via the transmission line 14, and the interface circuit 12 supplies a printer control signal to the mechanism control circuit section 7 via the transmission line 13. .. The print data process circuit 15 described above prints the print data output from the interface circuit 12 to the energization control circuit unit 17 via the transmission line 16 with the print data in which, for example, heat storage correction and various other corrections are added. give. As described above, the mechanism control circuit unit 7 includes the interface circuit 1 via the transmission line 13.
2 based on the printer control signal supplied from the sensor 2 and various signals that belong to the sensors and switches 5 and are provided through the transmission path 6 from various sensors and various switches that are provided at various places of the thermal transfer printer. , Respectively, supplies a predetermined drive signal to the mechanism drive circuit 9 via the transmission line 8, and supplies an energization command signal So to the energization control circuit unit 17 via the line 43.

When the power of the thermal transfer printer is turned on, the power-on reset circuit 42 causes the power-on reset signal S7.
Is output to line 40, and this power-on reset signal S7
Initializes the mechanism control circuit unit 7, the energization control circuit unit 17, and other necessary components through the lines 41, 39, 36, 45, the gate 35, and the like, and the mechanism control circuit unit 7, In the energization control circuit unit 17 and the like, a necessary program is loaded, and further, data is written in a register provided in the energization control circuit unit 17. Then, the energization control circuit unit 17 described above
Then, various control signals for controlling the operation of the thermal head Ht, that is, the energization control signal S1, the latch signal S2, and the head clock signal S4 are generated. The energization control signal S1 generated by the energization control circuit section 17 is transmitted through the line 18, the gate G2 and the line 19 to the NAND circuits 25 and 26.
The head clock signal S4, which is supplied as one input to each of the ...
Is supplied as a shift signal to the shift register 23 via.

Further, the latch signal S2 generated in the energization control circuit section 17 is supplied to the latch circuit 24 via the line 20 as the latch signal S2, and at the same time, as the detection signal S2 of the error detection circuit 33, the line 31 is supplied. It is supplied to the error detection circuit 33 via the. That is, when the energization control circuit unit 17 malfunctions due to a cause such as electrostatic discharge and the latch signal S2 is no longer generated, the error detection circuit 33 outputs the signal S6 as the error signal 2 to the line 34, Is supplied as a reset signal S8 from the gate 35 to the energization control circuit section 17 via the line 45, thereby re-initializing the energization control circuit section 17 so that correct data is written in the register and the error Allow automatic recovery. Error detection circuit 3 described above
The signal S5 output to the line 32 as the error signal 1 from 3 is supplied to the gate G2 as a gate signal. Also,
The energization control circuit unit 17 determines the print pattern in accordance with the data written in the register provided therein, and at the same time, for the print data (for 256 gradations, data by an 8-bit parallel signal),
DT conversion (conversion from parallel data to a time signal of pulse width or number of pulses) necessary for energizing the thermal head is performed, and the line 21 is used as the print data signal S3.
Is supplied to the shift register 23 via.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a concrete configuration example of the energization control circuit section 17 in FIG. 1, and among the drawing symbols and the symbols showing signals used in FIG. The same reference numerals as those shown in FIG. 1 and reference numerals indicating signals indicate corresponding components or the same signals in both figures. Energization control circuit unit 17
Is a head drive unit (thermal head energization control circuit) 5
4, a print data latch 47, a supplementary heat data latch 48, line memories 49 and 50, a selector 51, and a read-only memory 5 that stores duty ratio data of each gradation.
2. A timing control unit 46 that controls the operation timing of the read-only memory 53 that stores system data for determining the operation mode of the head drive unit 54 according to the type of ink paper, the line memory, the read-only memory, and the like. Etc.

When the power source of the thermal transfer printer is turned on, the power-on reset circuit 42 outputs the power-on reset signal S7 to the line 40, and the power-on reset signal S7 is used to initialize the respective parts of the apparatus as described above. Then, the control device (CPU) provided in the mechanism control circuit section 7 operates to move the ink paper IP forward and backward as indicated by arrow X in FIG. A rotation control power is supplied from a mechanism drive circuit 9 to a motor (not shown) through a transmission line 10, and identification marks provided on the ink paper IP are shown as sensor and switch 5 in FIG. Is read by the reading element of the identification mark provided as a part of the above, and the type of ink paper used is discriminated from the reading result, and the discrimination result The mechanism driving circuit 9 in response, supplies the energization control circuit section 17 to melt sublimation switching signal S9 via line 44. Next, the mechanism drive circuit 9
The print reset signal S10 is sent to the line 38, and the print reset signal S10 is applied to the energization control circuit unit 17 via the gate 35 and the line 34 to reset the energization control circuit unit 17.

The head drive section 54 (FIG. 2) outputs a gradation signal in synchronization with the rise of the above-mentioned print reset signal S10, and at the same time, the contents stored in the read-only memory 53 are selected and this read-only memory is selected. The system data corresponding to the ink type is output from 53,
The print mode is determined by being loaded into a register in an integrated circuit provided in the head drive unit 54. An example of the above print mode will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4A shows an all-dot print mode, which is a print mode applied when sublimable ink paper is used, and
The print modes shown in (b) and (c) of FIG. 4 are print modes applied when the fusible ink paper is used. FIG. 4 (b) is so-called staggered print, and FIG. 4 (c) is This is a so-called double digit print.

Next, referring to FIG. 3, print energy
The control of will be described. As in the print data energization period illustrated in FIG. 3, for example, when printing data of 256 gradations, printing of each gradation is made to correspond to each gradation from 1 gradation to 256 gradations. It is well known that the print density is controlled by changing the time (or the number of pulses), but the one gradation is further composed of an energization period and a cooling period. The respective ratios of the period and the cooling period are controlled using the energization ratio data stored in advance in the read-only memory 52 according to each gradation. For example, when sublimable ink paper is used, the average energization period is 80%, and when fusible ink paper is used, the average energization period is 30%. In addition,
In the case of fusible ink paper of a type with a lower print energy, the supplementary heating energization period shown in FIG. 3 is set to a non-energized state, and sufficient density can be obtained only by energizing during the print data energizing period. There may be cases where
As described above, in the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, the ink paper is read by reading the identification mark provided on the ink paper to determine whether the ink paper used is a sublimable ink paper or a fusible ink paper. It is possible to easily realize the optimum printing state according to the characteristics of each ink by detecting the type of ink and setting the print mode, the energization period, and the supplementary heat period accordingly.

[0015]

As is clear from the above description, the thermal transfer printer of the present invention reads the ink identification mark provided on the ink paper in the same format, and thus the ink used for printing. Printing performed using the ink paper used for printing by determining whether the paper is a sublimable ink paper or a fusible ink paper and determining the type of ink paper used for printing According to the present invention, the sublimation ink paper and the fusible ink paper are set because the same print data is used for printing regardless of which ink paper is used by setting the mode. We can easily provide a thermal transfer printer that can be shared with the printer and can always obtain the optimum printing state, in a state where all the problems already described as the conventional problems have been solved well. It is possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a thermal transfer printer of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an energization control circuit unit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a manner of energizing a thermal head.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a print mode.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a part of the ink paper showing a configuration example of ink identification marks provided on the sublimable ink paper and the meltable ink paper.

[Explanation of symbols]

5 ... Sensor, switch, 7 ... Mechanism control circuit section, 9
… Mechanism drive circuit, 12… Interface circuit,
17 ... Energization control circuit section, 23 ... Shift register, 24 ...
Latch circuit, 25-27 ... NAND circuit, 28-30 ... Heating resistor, 42 ... Power-on reset circuit, Ht ... Line thermal head, IP ... Ink paper, Vt ... Operating voltage of line thermal head,

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] April 30, 1992

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be corrected] Drawing

[Name of item to be corrected] Figure 2

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Fig. 2]

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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sublimation ink paper provided with an ink identification mark in the same format in a thermal transfer printer which prints on an image receiving paper by sandwiching the ink paper and the image receiving paper by a line thermal head and a platen. When the fusible ink paper is selectively used, a means for reading the ink identification mark to determine the type of the ink paper used, and a print mode depending on the result of the above-described ink paper used. A thermal transfer printer comprising means for selecting and means for causing printing on an image receiving paper according to the selected print mode.