JPH0858159A - Automatic tape printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To apply an optimal impression pressure easily and accurately so that an exact printing operation is carried out by changing the pressing force of a printing head in accordance with a change in rotary angle by an eccentrically rotating cam CONSTITUTION: If an eccentrically rotating cam 45 rotates, a ball plunger 4 at a lower arm 39 is pushed by the eccentric action of the cam 45 and subsequently, a support arm 40 is pressed downward by an interlocked action to the plunger 42. Consequently, a printing head 43 attached to the support arm 40 descends to a lower dead point to press rubber rollers 12, 13 for printing. If a command for the number of pulses corresponding to an optimal print output complying with the material, thickness and width data of a tape which is previously set and entered in a control part, is issued by the control part, the eccentric cam 45 rotates by a rotary angle equal to the number of pulses. Thus, it is possible to obtain a press) ing force applied to the rubber rollers 12, 13 which is equivalent to the descent distance of the support arm 40 pressed downward by the eccentric cam 45, as an appropriate printing pressure as previously set. Therefore, the exact printing operation is secured.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically printing on a roll of cloth or other tape by thermal transfer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known an apparatus for passing a printing ribbon and a tape between a print head and a printing rubber roller in an overlapping manner, and applying heat to the printing rubber roller by the print head to perform thermal transfer printing. As a pressurizing means, the print head is configured to be able to swing up and down around a spindle, and the print head is biased by a tension spring,
With the structure that can adjust its strength with screws,
The toggle mechanism is used to press and release the print head against the rubber roller for printing.

[0003]

However, if the tape material, thickness, width and the like are different, the printing pressure is different, and there is a problem that the printing is not normally performed unless the optimum printing pressure is given for each. .

In order to solve this, conventionally, the spring pressure was adjusted with a screw every time the material, thickness and width of the tape were changed to obtain an appropriate printing pressure. However, it is difficult to adjust the adjustment. However, there is a problem in that it takes a lot of time and that improper adjustment causes printing failure.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and it is possible to simply and accurately give the optimum printing pressure to each of the tapes even if the material, thickness and width of the tape are changed. The present invention is intended to provide an automatic tape printing device for the purpose of accurately printing.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is provided with a tape transporting portion at a lower portion and a printing portion at an upper portion thereof, and a printing ribbon wound on the printing portion is wound up for printing. In a tape printer having a ribbon take-up section, a tape transport section has a reel support section for supporting a reel on which a roll winding tape is attached, a tape guide for adjusting the feeding width position of the tape, and a rubber roller for printing. And a tape feeding section for feeding the tape,
In addition, the print head is attached to a support arm that can be raised and lowered, and an eccentric rotation cam is provided adjacent to the support arm. When the eccentric rotation cam is rotated, the support arm is pushed down by the eccentric action. , Integrally with this, when the print head descends to a predetermined position to press the rubber roller for printing and further reversely rotates the eccentric rotation cam, the support arm is pushed up to raise the print head to a predetermined position. Configure. On the other hand, the printing ribbon take-up unit is composed of a driving roll and a driven roll adapted to wind the printing ribbon wound through the lower part of the print head.

Therefore, when the tape is conveyed based on the print command from the control unit, the eccentric rotation cam rotates by a required amount and the print head descends, and the print ribbon and the tape are overlapped on the print rubber roller. It is configured to print on the tape while applying pressure, and when the printing of the print commanded area is completed, the eccentric rotation cam is reversely rotated and the supporting arm is pushed up, and the print head also rises to a predetermined position at the same time. The tape and printing ribbon feeding operation is also stopped.

More specifically, first, in the tape guide of the tape transport section, guide plates are set up on both sides of the tape,
These are configured to be capable of relative movement in opposite directions by means of a combination of a rack and pinion or other suitable means. Further, in order to prevent the tape from meandering, a drum-shaped meandering-preventing roller is arranged at an appropriate position during the transportation of the tape. Further, the tape feeding unit can be implemented by various means, but it is sufficient if the tape can be pulled out from the reel and fed without slack. For example, it is composed of a pair of an upper roller and a lower roller positioned above and below, and the lower roller and the rubber roller for printing are connected to a main drive motor so that the former has a speed ratio slightly higher than the latter. Always tension the tape to prevent it from sagging. If the upper roller can be pressed against the lower roller or released by using a toggle mechanism or other appropriate means, the lower roller rotates while the upper roller is pressed against the lower roller. By doing so, the tape is strongly sandwiched between these rollers and sent out while pulling out the tape from the reel, and when releasing it, a gap can be created between these rollers by raising the upper roller, so you can insert or remove the tape from this gap. You can

Next, the printing section will be described. The printing head uses a thermal transfer printing means. Although various means for raising and lowering the support arm to which the print head is attached are conceivable, for example, a commercially available slide type guide, a rack and pinion mechanism or other means can be used. For example, a U-shaped support arm having an upper arm and a lower arm is attached to the elevating unit to fix the print head to the lower arm, and an eccentric rotation cam is arranged between these arms.
The support shaft of this eccentric rotation cam is connected to a pulse motor or other appropriate drive unit so that it can rotate forward and backward.
When the eccentric rotation cam rotates, the lower arm is pushed down by the eccentric action, and the print head integrally attached to the lower arm descends to press the printing rubber roller. At this time, the pressing force of the print head corresponds to the descending distance thereof, which corresponds to the rotation angle of the eccentric rotation cam.
For example, when a pulse motor is used as the drive unit, the number of pulses corresponding to the number of pulses given to the pulse motor is set and input to the control unit in advance, which corresponds to the appropriate printing pressure according to the material, thickness and width of the tape. It is possible to print under the optimum conditions for the tape by placing it or inputting it arbitrarily and instructing at the time of printing.

On the other hand, the main roll of the printing ribbon is connected so as to rotate from a main drive motor for driving the printing rubber roller via an appropriate transmission means, or can be separately driven by a separate drive motor.

In the present invention, a plurality of printing units may be provided before and after the tape feeding direction. In this case, it is possible to perform multicolor printing by attaching printing ribbons of different colors to the respective printing ribbon winding portions. However, depending on the printing colors, there are cases where the printing areas are extremely small compared to the other colors. Under such usage conditions, if all the printing ribbons are wound together with the tape in the same manner, the printing ribbons other than the printing portion are wasted and it is uneconomical. It is preferable to consume the printing ribbon only when printing. To this end, as described above, the winding of the print ribbon take-up unit provided to each print head is driven independently of each other, and the print ribbon is consumed only when necessary for printing. I'll do it.

Further, according to the present invention, the tape can be printed while being simultaneously conveyed in a plurality of rows. In this case, the reels are mounted in a plurality of rows on the reel supporting portion of the tape transport portion. The tape guides are also arranged in multiple rows so that the width of each tape can be adjusted.

In short, the present invention can be implemented by freely selecting the number of rows for tape feeding and the number of print heads to be attached.

The effective print width of the print head may be set to be equal to or larger than the number of rows of the tape. Further, it is preferable that when the tape printed by the printing section is ejected by the tape feeding section, it is cut to an appropriate length by a cutter attached adjacently and stacked on the stocker.

Further, in the present invention, the print command is inputted from the control unit built in the main body, but it may be separately connected to a personal computer so that the personal computer controls the printing.

[0016]

The operation will be described. When the power is turned on, the eccentric rotation cam rotates to push up the upper part of the support arm. Then, the print head also rises integrally and stops at the initial position of the top dead center. Attach the roll tape to the reel and set it on the reel support. Pull out the end of the tape by hand,
The tape is placed on the tape guide, passed between the print head and the rubber roller for printing, and set in the tape feeding section through the meandering prevention roller. In the case where the tape feeding unit is composed of upper and lower rollers, when the upper roller is returned after inserting the tape between the upper and lower rollers, the tape is pressed by the lower roller by its toggle action. Further, the printing ribbon is passed between the printing head and the printing rubber roller and set in the printing ribbon winding section. Key in the required number of prints from the controller and press the start switch. Then, the main drive motor operates to rotate the upper and lower rollers and the rubber roller for printing connected to the tape drive section. The tape is pulled out and fed while being sandwiched by the rotating rollers of the tape feeding portion. At the same time or after a short time, the eccentric rotating cam reversely rotates by a required amount and pushes down the lower portion of the supporting arm. Then
The print head is integrally lowered and the print ribbon is superimposed on the tape surface and pressed onto the print rubber roller. At the same time, the main roll of the printing ribbon also rotates to wind up the printing ribbon. Immediately, print data is sent from the control unit to the print head to perform thermal transfer printing on the tape. When the printing portion for one sheet is completed, the print head reversely rotates the eccentric rotation cam to an intermediate extent so that the print head has a slight gap with the printing rubber roller. The forward rotation and the reverse rotation are repeated until the printing of the number of sheets input to the eccentric rotation cam is completed. When printing of the input number of sheets is completed and the last one sheet of printing area is ejected from the tape feeding section, the eccentric rotation cam automatically rotates in the reverse direction to push up the support arm and move the print head to the top dead center position. When it is lifted up and stopped, the print ribbon winding section and the tape transport section also stop.

Further, when it is desired to print, the required number of prints may be again keyed in and the start switch pressed. Press the stop switch when all printing is completed.

Even when a plurality of printing units are provided in the front and rear, the same effect as above is obtained only by increasing the number of sets of printing ribbons.

Further, when printing a plurality of rows of tapes at the same time, if the reels are set side by side on the reel support section, and the respective tapes are pulled out from the reels and set on the tape sending section via the tape guide, other effects are obtained. Same as above.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In the present invention, the number of rows for tape feeding and the number of print heads to be attached can be freely selected. In this embodiment, as a representative example thereof, two rows of tape feeding are used.
An example will be described in which two print heads are provided in the front and rear, a black ribbon is attached to the front print head, and a red ribbon is attached to the rear print head to perform two-color printing.

As shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 7, a side plate 2 is provided which stands vertically so as to divide the casing 1 into two parts, and the base plate 3 is made horizontal in the front side region divided into two parts. Fix to 2. Using the space on the front side where the base plate 3 is attached as a printing area, a tape feeding unit 4 is provided on the base plate 3, a printing unit 5 is provided above the tape feeding unit 4, and a printing ribbon 6 hung through the lower portion of the printing unit 5 is provided. A ribbon winding portion 7 for printing is provided for feeding.

On the other hand, the drive section 8 and the control section 9 are arranged with the space on the back side of the side plate 2 as a control area.

First, the print area will be described. As shown in FIG.
It is composed of a tape guide 11, rubber rollers 12 and 13 for printing, and a tape feeding section 14. The reel support portion 10 is composed of a support member 16 which can be fixed to the right end portion of the side plate 2 by a knob 15 and which is extendable in the left-right direction, and a roller 17 vertically attached to the tip end portion of the support member 10 when viewed from the front. Become. Further, the reel 18 attached to the roller 17 of the reel supporting portion 10 is composed of two discs each having a cylindrical shape with a hole at the center, and a roll-wound tape 19 is sandwiched between the discs to be integrated. The center hole is formed so as to be inserted into the roller 17, and two sets of these are attached. Further, the tape guide 11 is, as shown in FIG.
1 are mounted in parallel, a pinion 22 is placed between them to fix two guide plates 23 to one rack 20, and two guide plates 24 to the other rack 21 so that they are staggered. And parallel to each other. When the guide plates 23 and 24 are held by hand and moved to the left and right, both are relatively moved to the left and right of the center line of the tape 19 in the feeding direction, and the width positions of the two rows of the tape 19 can be adjusted. . Also, the rubber roller for printing 1
The rotating shafts 25 and 26 of 2 and 13 are supported by bearings mounted on the base plate 3. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the tape feeding unit 14 is composed of a pair of upper and lower rollers 27 and 28, which are located above and below, and both are rubber rollers, and the respective rotary shafts 31 and 32 are bearings. It is supported. The upper roller 27 has a long hole 30 formed in the upper part of the bearing case 29 of the lower roller 28 so that the lower roller 28 can be pressed or released. The rotation shaft 31 is configured to be slidable up and down, and a pin 34 urged by a spring 33 is attached to a side portion of the elongated hole 30.
Handles 35 attached to both ends of the rotating shaft 31 of the upper roller 27
When it is pushed down, its rotating shaft 31 is pressed by the pin 34 and comes into close contact with the lower roller 28. Therefore, when the lower roller 28 rotates, the upper roller 27 also rotates in conjunction with each other, so that the tape 19 can be strongly sandwiched between the upper roller 25 and the lower roller 28 and the tape 19 can be sent out.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the printing section 5 is located at two positions in front of and behind in the tape feeding direction, and both of them are mounted on the slide base 36 mounted on the side plate 2 and moved up and down on the slide base 37 and the upper arm 38. And a lower arm 39, and a U-shaped support arm 40 is attached, a cam follower 41 is attached to the lower end of the upper arm 38, and a spring-biased ball plunger is attached to the upper end of the lower arm 39. Four
2 is attached and the thermal transfer type print head 43 is fixed to the lower surface of the lower arm 39. As shown in detail in FIG. 6, an eccentric rotation cam 45 supported by a support shaft 44 is arranged between these arms. The support shaft 44 is connected to pulse motors 46 and 47, which will be described later, so as to be rotatable in forward and reverse directions. When the eccentric rotation cam 45 rotates (counterclockwise when viewed from the front), the eccentric action pushes the ball plunger 42 of the lower arm 39 to integrally push down the support arm 40. Then, the print head 43 attached to the support arm 40 descends to the bottom dead center position (a) and presses the printing rubber rollers 12 and 13. When the eccentric rotation cam 45 is rotated in the reverse direction (clockwise), the cam follower 41 of the upper arm 38 is pushed up to the contrary, the support arm 40 is pushed up integrally, and the print head 43 is slightly separated from the print rubber rollers 12 and 13. When rotated further from (b), it is configured to stop at the top dead center position (c). This operation is all performed by an instruction from the control unit 9. When a pulse number corresponding to the optimum printing pressure according to the material, thickness and width of the tape 19 which has been set and input in the control unit 9 is commanded from the control unit 9, the eccentric rotation is performed by a rotation angle corresponding to the pulse number. Cam 4
5 rotates. The descending distance of the support arm 40 pushed down by the rotation of the eccentric rotation cam 45 (corresponding to the rotation angle corresponding to the number of pulses), that is, the pressure applied to the printing rubber rollers 12 and 13 (pressure applied to the tape 19) is appropriate as set. Printing pressure. This appropriate number of pulses (corresponding to the printing pressure) is set and input to the control unit 9 in advance for each tape 19, or the additional setting can be input.

Furthermore, two printing ribbon winding portions 7 are provided on the front and rear sides, both of which are attached to the side plate 2. The front portion thereof is used for black printing and the rear portion thereof is used for red printing. . Both are arranged adjacent to the printing unit 5 and are composed of a main driving roller 46 and a driven roller 47 for winding the printing ribbon 6 hung through the lower portion of the print head 43, and their rotary shafts 48 and 49 are side plates. 2 is supported by bearings.

Numeral 50 is a tension bar attached to eliminate slack of the tape 19 sent from the reel 18, and numeral 51 is a meandering prevention roller. This meandering prevention roller 51 is provided at two positions in front and rear, and in each case, the tape 19 has a double drum shape so that the width position of the tape 19 becomes a mountain.
It is possible to prevent the meandering of the tape 19 from being fed.

Explaining the other control area, as shown in FIG. 7, timing pulleys 53 and 54 are coaxially attached to an output shaft 63 of a main drive motor 52 composed of a pulse motor arranged in the lower space of the base plate 3. The timing belts 57 and 58 are hooked on the timing pulleys 55 and 56 attached to the rotary shafts 25 and 26 of the rubber rollers 12 and 13 for printing. Further, another timing pulley 59 is attached to the rotary shaft 26 of the rubber roller 13 of the printing portion on the red printing side, and a timing belt 62 is attached to the timing pulley 59 attached to the rotary shaft 32 of the lower roller 28 of the tape feeding portion 13. To connect.

The rubber roller 12 for printing on the black printing side
In addition to the timing pulley 55, another pulley 63 is coaxially attached to the rotary shaft 25 of the, and a round belt is provided between the pulley 63 and the pulley 64 attached to the rotary shaft 48 of the main roller 46 for the black ribbon. It is connected by multiplying by 65.

On the other hand, the driving roller 46 for the red ribbon is
The drive motor 66 and the round belt 67 are separately connected.
The main driving roller 46 of the red printing ribbon 6 may be connected to be rotated by being driven by the main drive motor 52 similarly to the driving for the black ribbon. However, the consumption amount of the red ribbon is much smaller than that of the black ribbon. Therefore, when the red ribbon is fed together with the tape 19 to which the printing ribbon 6 is continuously fed, the printing ribbon 6 at a portion other than the printing portion is idly fed. Since it is wasteful and uneconomical, in order to consume only the printing ribbon 6 of the printing portion, the driving roller 4 is used.
By separately connecting the rotary drive of No. 6 to the drive motor 66 and controlling the independent rotation, the drive roll 46 is rotated only when printing.

In this embodiment, as shown in the printing example in FIG. 8, the black printing portion (a) occupies most of the portion, so that the rotation of the driving roll 46 of the printing ribbon 6 is controlled by the tape 19.
Although linked with the main drive motor 52 for feeding, the red print portion (b) of the prohibition mark "x" in the entire print area is extremely smaller than the black print, so it is turned on by a separate drive motor 68. It was controlled to be OFF.

Drive motors 46, 47 for the eccentric rotary cam 45
Is fixed to the side plate 2 using a bracket. Both of these pulse motors 46 and 47 are of the double shaft type, and timing pulleys 71 and 72 are attached to one ends of the respective shafts 69 and 70, and timing pulleys attached to the support shaft 44 of the eccentric rotation cam 45. 73,
Timing belts 75 and 76 are respectively hung between 74 and 74, and are connected. Further, rectangular shield plates 77 and 78 are attached to the other ends of the shafts 69 and 70, respectively. When the pulse motors 46 and 47 rotate forward and backward, the shield plate 7
7 and 78 rotate forward and backward integrally with the shafts 69 and 70 and stop at the positions caught by the photo sensors 79 and 80 attached to the side plate 2, so that the initial position of the eccentric rotation cam 45 (the top dead center position is It is set so that the rotation angle can be controlled from there.

The control unit 9 made of a printed circuit board is mounted on the cover of the casing 1. Reference numeral 81 is a power supply unit. Reference numeral 82 is an operation panel. Also, 8
3 is a stocker with a cutter, which cuts the continuous tape 19 after printing for each printing area length (shown in FIG. 8)
However, it is advisable to provide it for stacking.

[0034]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

As in the prior art, the means for manually adjusting the spring pressure by manually turning the screw in order to optimally adjust the pressurizing force of the print head cannot cope with various changes in tape material, thickness and width. However, in the present invention, since the pressing force of the print head is changed by changing the rotation angle of the eccentric rotation cam, it is possible to slightly change the pressing force of the print head, and moreover, the rotation angle of the eccentric rotation cam. Can be changed by digital control according to the number of pulses, so it is completely automatic, the setting is simple, and the optimum pressure can be given accurately.

As a result, it becomes possible to give the optimum print pressure to the print head for various changes in tape material, thickness, and width, so that no print defects occur and print quality is improved. Was able to improve.

Further, according to the present invention, since the number of rows for tape feeding and the number of print heads to be attached can be freely selected and installed, the processing capacity can be dramatically improved.

In addition, it can be said that the apparatus is industrially useful because it can be applied to multicolor printing by providing a plurality of printing heads and has a wide range of applications.

[0039]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view for explaining an external appearance in which an internal mechanism of the present invention is omitted.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing a print area.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a tape guide.

FIG. 4 is a front sectional view of a tape feeding unit.

FIG. 5 is a side view of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a front view of a printing unit.

FIG. 7 is a rear view showing a drive unit.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing an example of printing on a tape.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 Tape Conveying Section 5 Printing Section 6 Printing Ribbon 7 Printing Ribbon Winding Section 10 Reel Supporting Section 11 Tape Guide 12 Printing Rubber Roller 14 Tape Feeding Section 18 Reel 19 Tape 40 Supporting Arm 43 Printing Head 45 Eccentric Rotating Cam 46 Driving Roller 47 Driven roller

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Tape printing comprising a tape feeding section 4 at the bottom, a printing section 5 at the top, and a ribbon ribbon winding section 7 for winding a printing ribbon 6 hung on the printing section 5. In the apparatus, the tape transport section 4 is a roll-wound tape 1
Reel support part 10 for supporting the reel 18 to which 9 is attached
And a tape guide 11 for adjusting the feeding width position of the tape 19, a printing rubber roller 12, and a tape feeding portion 14 for feeding the tape 19, and the printing portion 5 is vertically movable. The print head 43 is attached to the arm 40, and an eccentric rotation cam 45 is provided adjacent to the support arm 40. When the eccentric rotation cam 45 is rotated, the support arm 40 is pushed down by the eccentric action, and the print head is integrated with this. When the printing roller 43 is lowered and the printing rubber roller 12 is pressed, and the eccentric rotation cam 45 is further rotated in the reverse direction, the support arm 40 is pushed up to raise the printing head 43, while the printing ribbon winding is performed. The take-up unit 7 is composed of a driving roller 46 and a driven roller 47 which wind the printing ribbon 6 hung through the lower portion of the print head 43.
Based on the print command from the control unit 9, the tape 19
When the eccentric rotation cam 45 is rotated by a required amount, the print head 43 descends to move the print ribbon 6 and the tape 19 to each other.
Is printed on the tape 19 while pressing the rubber roller 12 for printing in a state of overlapping, and when the printing is completed, the eccentric rotation cam 45 reversely rotates and the operation of raising the print head 43 is repeated to print on the tape 19. An automatic tape printing device characterized in that