JPH0918662A - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To perform continuously reading of an original and print onto a recording medium through the movement of a carriage by reading and storing image information by one line of the original and printing out the image information onto the recording medium located at a downstream side of the carriage. CONSTITUTION: When an original and a recording medium are carried, a carriage drive motor 13 is driven by a control signal from a CPU 27 to move a carriage 4 thereby scanning an image scanner 9 to the original. Then a reflected light from the original is received by an image sensor unit and image information by one line of the original is read and stored in a RAM 29. While operating continuously the carriage and a thermal head 5 is pressed into contact on the recording medium, the information stored in the RAM 29 is printed on the recording medium. Thus, the reading of the original and the printing onto the recording medium are conducted quickly.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer,
In particular, it relates to a thermal transfer printer equipped with a thermal head and an image scanner, respectively.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a predetermined recording medium is sandwiched between a conveying roller and a pressing roller pressed against the conveying roller and conveyed between a platen and a thermal head, and then the thermal head is applied to the recording medium. Under a predetermined pressure contact force, and in this state, while moving the carriage and winding the ink ribbon in the ribbon cassette, the heating element formed in the thermal head is energized based on a desired print signal to generate heat. Many thermal transfer printers are used to perform desired printing on the recording medium by heating the element to melt the ink of the ink ribbon and transfer the ink to the paper.

In recent years, the applicants have mounted an image scanner on a carriage, and in a state where a predetermined original has been conveyed between the carriage and a platen, the image scanner scans while moving the carriage. A thermal transfer printer was developed which reads the image information and prints on a predetermined recording medium based on the image information.

In such a thermal transfer printer, first, in a state where a predetermined document is conveyed between the carriage and the platen, the image scanner is operated while moving the carriage to read image information of one line of the document. Then, the original document is conveyed by one line, the image information of one line of the original document is read again by the image scanner, and by repeating such an operation, the image information of the entire original document is obtained. It is read and stored in the storage means. After that, in a state where a predetermined recording medium is conveyed between the carriage and the platen, printing is performed on the recording medium based on the image information stored in the storage means.

[0005]

However, in the thermal transfer printer, after the operation of reading the image information of the entire document is completed, printing is performed on the recording medium based on this image information, and therefore the document is read. It takes a long time to complete printing from the recording medium to the recording medium, resulting in poor workability. Further, since it is necessary to store the image information of the entire original document in the storage means, it is necessary to secure a large storage capacity of the storage means, which causes a problem that the cost of parts of the storage means becomes high. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points, and it is possible to quickly read an original and print it on a recording medium, and further reduce the storage capacity of the storage means to reduce the cost of parts. An object of the present invention is to provide a thermal transfer printer that can be designed.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a thermal transfer printer according to the invention of claim 1 is arranged such that a thermal head and an image scanner are arranged on the carriage so as to face the platen, and the carriage is mounted on the platen. A thermal transfer printer configured to read a document by the image scanner while moving the document along with, and record the read image information on the recording medium by the thermal head, wherein a predetermined document is moved in a moving direction of the carriage. An original feeding unit for feeding the upstream side and a recording medium feeding unit for feeding a predetermined recording medium on the downstream side in the moving direction of the carriage are arranged in parallel with each other, and a feeding device is arranged on the upstream side of the carriage. A memory for storing image information for at least one scan read by the image scanner located on the side. And means, is characterized in that it has provided a control device for controlling to perform printing on a recording medium located downstream of the carriage on the basis of the image information stored by the storage means.

The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that a partition wall is formed between the document feeding portion and the recording medium feeding portion of the paper feeding device. The invention described in (1) is characterized in that a plurality of recording media are stacked and housed in the recording medium feeding section, and the recording media are separated and fed one by one. Further, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the recording medium is a postcard, and printing is performed on the postcard by using an ink ribbon. Is characterized in that the recording medium is a stencil sheet, and the thermal head directly punches the stencil sheet.

[0009]

According to the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, a desired original is accommodated in the original feeding section of the sheet feeding device, and a predetermined recording such as paper, postcard or stencil sheet is performed in the recording medium feeding section of the sheet feeding apparatus. The medium is stored, and the document and the recording medium are conveyed from the paper feeding device one by one between the thermal head 5 and the platen 2. When the original document and the recording medium are conveyed, the carriage is moved by the control device to cause the image scanner to scan the original document, and the image information for one line of the original document is read and stored in the storage means. Then, while the carriage is continuously operated, desired printing is performed by the thermal head on the recording medium positioned on the downstream side of the document based on the image information of the document stored in the storage means. It is something to do. Then, such an operation is repeated to read the image information of the entire document and print it on the recording medium, thereby ending the operation.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

1 to 5 show an embodiment of a thermal transfer printer according to the present invention. A frame 1 of the printer is provided with a flat platen 2 extending in the longitudinal direction. A carriage shaft 3 that is located in front of the platen 2 and extends parallel to the platen 2 is supported between both side surfaces of the frame 1. A carriage 4 is reciprocally attached to the carriage shaft 3 along the carriage shaft 3, and a thermal head 5 is moved toward and away from the tip of the carriage 4 so as to face the platen 2. It is installed freely. An ink ribbon (not shown) is housed on the upper surface of the carriage 4, and a ribbon cassette 6 for guiding the ink ribbon between the thermal head 5 and the platen 2 is detachably mounted. A winding bobbin 7 for winding the ink ribbon of the ribbon cassette 6 and a feeding bobbin 8 for feeding the ink ribbon are arranged on the upper surface of the carriage 4.

Further, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, an image scanner 9 is disposed on one side of the carriage 4, and as shown in FIG. An opening 10 is formed on the surface facing the platen 2. In addition, the image scanner 9
Two light-emitting members 11, 11 such as lamps are disposed inside the opening 10 on both sides of the opening 10 so as to face the opening 10.
An image sensor unit 12 that receives the reflected light of the light emitted from the light emitting member 11 to the document and reads a predetermined image is disposed inside the.

On the lower side of one end of the frame 1,
A carriage drive motor 13 is arranged such that its output shaft penetrates the upper surface of the frame 1. The output shaft of the carriage drive motor 13 has a drive pulley 14 rotatably driven by the carriage drive motor 13. Is provided. A driven pulley 15 is rotatably arranged on the upper surface of the other end of the frame 1, and a part of the driven pulley 15 is connected to the lower surface of the carriage 4 between the drive pulley 14 and the driven pulley 15. The carriage drive belt 16 is suspended. Then, the carriage drive motor 13 is rotationally driven to drive the carriage drive belt 16 via the drive pulley 14,
The carriage 4 is reciprocated along the carriage shaft 3 in parallel with the platen 2.

A transport roller 17 for transporting a predetermined recording medium at a predetermined speed is provided below the rear portion of the platen 2, and below the transport roller 17, the transport roller 17 is pressed against the transport roller 17. A plurality of pressure contact rollers 18 are rotatably arranged. Further, above the platen 2, a paper discharge roller 19 for guiding the recording medium after printing is provided.

Further, a positioning marker 20 is formed on one side of the platen 2 of the frame 1, and by reading the positioning marker 20 by the image scanner 9, the stop position of the carriage 4 can be recognized. Has been done.

Further, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, a sheet feeding device 21 having a width dimension substantially the same as the width dimension of the thermal transfer printer is provided behind the thermal transfer printer.
And a partition wall 22 is formed at the center of the sheet feeding device 21. Then, the paper feeding device 21
At a position on one side of the partition wall 22 corresponding to the upstream side in the moving direction of the carriage 4 of the thermal transfer printer, a predetermined original document 23 is stacked and stored, and the original document 23 is transferred one by one to the thermal transfer printer. A document feeding section 24 for feeding the sheet to the conveying rollers 17 of the partition wall 2 is provided.
The recording medium 25 such as a predetermined paper, a postcard or a stencil sheet is stacked and accommodated at a position on the other side of the thermal transfer printer, which corresponds to the downstream side in the moving direction of the carriage 4 of the thermal transfer printer. A recording medium feeding unit 26 for feeding the sheets one by one to the conveying roller 17 of the thermal transfer printer is arranged.

Then, the document feeding section 2 of the sheet feeding device 21.
4 and the recording medium feeding unit 26 respectively feed the document 2 between the conveying roller 17 and the pressure contact roller 18.
The recording medium 3 and the recording medium 25 are conveyed between the thermal head 5 and the platen 2 by rotating the conveying roller 17 by a conveying motor (not shown).

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the control device for the thermal transfer printer of this embodiment.
A ROM 28 that stores printing conditions and the like according to the type of recording medium 25 that is used and a RAM 29 that is a storage unit that stores various data are connected. Image information read by the image scanner 9 is sent to the CPU 27. From the CPU 27, a thermal head drive circuit 30 for controlling energization of the thermal head 5 and a platen for the thermal head 5 are provided. 2, control signals are sent to the thermal head contact / separation drive circuit 31 for contacting / separating the image scanner 2, the image scanner drive circuit 32 for controlling the drive of the image scanner 9, the carriage drive motor drive circuit 33, and the conveyance roller drive circuit 34. It is designed to be sent.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

When the document 23 is read and the recording medium 25 is printed by the thermal transfer printer, first,
A desired document 23 is stored in a document feeding section 24 of the sheet feeding device 21, and a predetermined recording medium 25 such as paper, postcard or stencil sheet is stored in a recording medium feeding section 26 of the sheet feeding device 21. Keep it.

Then, the original 2 is fed from the paper feeding device 21.
3 and the recording medium 25 are fed one by one between the conveying roller 17 and the pressure contact roller 18 of the thermal transfer printer, and CP
By rotating the conveying roller 17 in response to a control signal from U27, the original document 23 and the recording medium 2 are
5 is conveyed between the thermal head 5 and the platen 2.

When the original 23 and the recording medium 25 are conveyed, the carriage drive motor 13 is driven by the control signal from the CPU 27 to move the carriage 4 and the image scanner 9 is scanned laterally with respect to the original 23. , The light is emitted from each light emitting member 11 to the document 23, and the reflected light from the document 23 is received by the image sensor unit 12 to read the image information for one line of the document 23 in the lateral direction, and the image information is read. It is stored in the RAM 29 via the CPU 27.

After the document 23 is read by the image scanner, the thermal head 5 is positioned downstream of the document 23 by the control signal from the CPU 27 while the carriage 4 is continuously operated. 25, while the winding bobbin 7 is rotationally driven in this state to wind the ink ribbon, the RAM 2
By selectively heating the heating elements of the thermal head 5 based on the image information of the original document 23 stored in 9, the desired printing is performed on the predetermined recording medium 25. In the above-described embodiment, printing is performed using the ink ribbon, and the recording medium 25
However, for example, in the case of paper, postcards, etc., the ink ribbon may be used in this way.
For example, in the case of stencil paper, etc., the thermal head 5 may be used for direct printing without using an ink ribbon.

By the above operation, the image information for one line of the manuscript 23 is read, the image information is printed on the recording medium 25, the carriage 4 is returned to the original position, and
The transport roller 17 is driven to drive the document 23 and the recording medium 25.
For one line, and while moving the carriage 4 again, the image information of one line of the original 23 is read by the image scanner 9 and stored in the RAM 29, and one line is recorded on the recording medium 25 based on this image information. Print minute image information.

By repeating the above operation, the image information of the entire document is read and then printed on the recording medium 25, and the document 23 and the recording medium 25 are ejected by the conveying roller 17, whereby the image of the document 23 is obtained. The operation of printing the information on the recording medium 25 ends.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, after the image information of one line of the original document 23 located on the upstream side in the moving direction of the carriage 4 is read and stored, the recording medium 25 located on the downstream side in the moving direction of the carriage 4. Since the printing is performed based on this image information, the document 23
And the printing on the recording medium 25 can be continuously performed by the movement of the carriage 4, and the reading operation of the original document 23 and the printing operation on the recording medium 25 can be quickly performed. Further, since the RAM 29 only needs to store one line of image information, the storage capacity of the RAM 29 can be small, and the component cost of the RAM 29 can be significantly reduced.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but various modifications can be made as necessary.

[0028]

As described above, in the thermal transfer printer according to the present invention, after the image information of one line of the original document located on the upstream side in the moving direction of the carriage is read and stored, it is positioned on the downstream side in the moving direction of the carriage. Since the printing based on the image information is performed on the recording medium to be read, the reading of the original and the printing of the recording medium can be continuously performed by the movement of the carriage, and the reading operation of the original and the printing on the recording medium are performed. Operations can be performed quickly. Also,
Since it is sufficient to store one row of image information in the RAM, the storage capacity of the RAM can be small, and the effect of significantly reducing the cost of parts of the RAM can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a thermal transfer printer of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a carriage part of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of an image scanner part of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a sheet feeding device portion of the thermal transfer printer of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a controller of the thermal transfer printer of the present invention.

[Explanation of reference numerals] 1 frame 2 platen 4 carriage 5 thermal head 9 image scanner 11 light emitting member 12 image sensor unit 17 transport roller 18 pressure contact roller 21 paper feed device 22 partition wall 23 original 24 original feed section 25 recording medium 26 recording medium Paper feed unit 27 CPU 29 RAM

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Internal reference number for FI Technical indication H04N 1/024 B41J 3/20 117A (72) Inventor Koichi Umeki No. 1 Otsuka-cho, Yutani, Ota-ku, Tokyo No. 7 within Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A thermal head and an image scanner are arranged on a carriage so as to face the platen, a document is read by the image scanner while the carriage is moved along the platen, and the read image information is read by the thermal image sensor. A thermal transfer printer configured to record on the recording medium by a head,
A sheet feeding device in which a document feeding unit that feeds a predetermined document upstream in the moving direction of the carriage and a recording medium feeding unit that feeds a predetermined recording medium downstream in the moving direction of the carriage are arranged in parallel. And at least 1 read by an image scanner located upstream of the carriage.
Having storage means for storing image information for scans,
A thermal transfer printer, characterized in that a control device is provided for controlling printing on a recording medium located downstream of the carriage based on the image information stored by the storage means. 2. The thermal transfer printer according to claim 1, wherein a partition wall is formed between the document feeding section and the recording medium feeding section of the sheet feeding device. 3. The recording medium feeding unit is configured to store a plurality of recording media in a stacked manner, and the recording media are separated and fed one by one. Thermal transfer printer. 4. The thermal transfer printer according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium is a postcard, and printing is performed on the postcard by using an ink ribbon. 5. The thermal transfer printer according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium is a stencil sheet, and the stencil sheet is directly punched by a thermal head.