JP4595090B2 - Ink ribbon cassette - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ink ribbon cassette that accommodates an ink ribbon and is attached to a printer, and more particularly to an ink ribbon cassette that can prevent loosening of the ink ribbon due to vibration during transportation or the like. is there.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a sublimation type thermal transfer recording type printer is known as a printer that performs printing using an ink ribbon. Here, an ink ribbon used for a printer of a sublimation type thermal transfer recording method generally has an ink layer made of a sublimation or heat diffusible dye on one surface of a support made of a polyester film. In addition, a heat-resistant slipping layer is provided on the other surface of the support. Further, photographic paper used in a sublimation type thermal transfer recording type printer has a dye receiving layer. Then, printing is performed by superimposing the ink ribbon and the photographic paper, heating the thermal head of the printer according to the image information, and transferring the dye from the ink layer of the ink ribbon to the dye receiving layer of the photographic paper. ing.

  As described above, the sublimation type thermal transfer recording type printer performs printing by transferring dye from the ink layer of the ink ribbon to the dye receiving layer of the photographic paper by thermal energy. For example, it is attracting attention as a method for hard copying a video image. Further, the ink ribbon which is a consumable item is attached to the printer via an ink ribbon cassette, so that a new ink ribbon can be easily replenished.

  Here, the ink ribbon cassette protects the ink ribbon, and includes a cassette case that houses the ink ribbon, a winding spool that winds the ink ribbon, and a winding spool that winds the ink ribbon. . In the initial state of use, the ink ribbon is wound around a winding spool attached to the cassette case, and is wound around the winding spool along with printing.

  Such an ink ribbon cassette is required not to cause wrinkles, jamming, or the like in the internal ink ribbon so that high printing quality can be obtained when printing is performed with the printer mounted. Also, if the ink ribbon is loose, when the ink ribbon cassette is installed in the printer, the loose ink ribbon contacts a part of the printer, the ink ribbon breaks, wrinkles, etc., and the ink ribbon is damaged. In some cases, it is necessary to prevent loose winding of the ink ribbon caused by vibration during transportation.

  That is, since a thin film of 10 μm or less is often used for the support of the ink ribbon, wrinkles and scratches are likely to occur. If there are fine scratches or the like on the film, the film may tear from the scratches during printing, leading to poor printing. Therefore, in order to prevent the ink ribbon from slackening, the unwinding spool or the take-up spool is attached to the cassette case with a tape, or the ink ribbon is prevented from being loosened by another member in place of the tape.

Also known is a technique in which an ink ribbon cassette is provided with a winding loosening prevention mechanism. For example, as a winding loosening prevention mechanism, two engaging grooves having a first wall extending in the radial direction and a second wall inclined with respect to the first wall are formed in the peripheral wall of the winding spool, By configuring the bent portion of the spool spring to be engageable with one of the engaging grooves, when the rotational force acts in the direction opposite to the winding direction of the ink ribbon, the bent portion of the spool spring There is a technique that is configured to engage and abut the engagement groove to inhibit the rotation of the take-up spool (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2004-114589 A

  However, if the unwinding spool or take-up spool is affixed to the cassette case with tape, or if the ink ribbon is prevented from loosening by another member instead of the tape, the tape or another member is added. In addition, there are disadvantages in production, such as an increased number of ink ribbon cassette manufacturing processes. In addition, before the ink ribbon cassette is installed in the printer, the tape and other members must be removed from the cassette case, which is problematic in terms of user convenience.

  Further, the winding loosening prevention mechanism described in Patent Document 1 described above can inhibit the rotation of the take-up spool, but does not give an appropriate tension to the ink ribbon. That's not enough. In other words, once the ink ribbon has slackened, the slack that has occurred cannot be eliminated no matter how much the winding spool is prohibited from rotating.

  Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is not only to prohibit the rotation of the unwinding spool and the winding spool, but also to apply an appropriate tension to the ink ribbon even when vibration during transportation is applied. It is to provide an ink ribbon cassette that can always prevent loose winding of the ink ribbon by being applied.

The present invention solves the above-described problems by the following means.
The invention according to claim 1, which is one of the present invention, is a cassette case that accommodates an ink ribbon therein, an unwinding spool that is attached to the cassette case and unwinds the ink ribbon, and is attached to the cassette case. A ribbon spool that winds up the ink ribbon, and the ribbon ribbon wound up from the reel-out spool is wound up by the reel-in spool. An unwinding gear having an inclination angle of 30 ° to 75 ° formed between an unwinding direction and an opposite direction of the ink ribbon , wherein the winding spool is opposite to the unwinding gear; having a winding gear angle between the winding direction of having a tilt angle of 30 ° to 75 °, the cassette case, the unwinding gear and said A rib that is fitted to the take-up gear, and a spring member that urges the take-out gear and the take-up gear to be fitted to the rib, respectively, by fitting the unwind gear and the rib. An ink ribbon cassette in which a rotational force in the direction opposite to the unwinding direction is applied to the unwinding spool, and a rotational force in the winding direction is applied to the take-up spool by fitting the take-up gear and the rib. Oh Ru.

(Function)
In the above invention, the unwinding spool has an unwinding gear having an inclination angle, and the winding spool has an unwinding gear having an inclination angle opposite to the unwinding gear. When the ribs of the cassette case are fitted into the unwinding gear and the winding gear by the spring member provided in the cassette case, a rotational force in the direction opposite to the unwinding direction is applied to the unwinding spool. A rotational force in the winding direction is applied to the take-up spool. Therefore, an appropriate tension is always applied to the ink ribbon.

  According to the above invention, an appropriate tension can always be applied to the ink ribbon in the cassette case. For this reason, even if the ink ribbon is wound and loosened in the cassette case due to vibration during transportation of the ink ribbon cassette, the ink ribbon does not become slack. Therefore, the ink ribbon can be reliably prevented from being damaged due to the slack of the ink ribbon.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the ink ribbon cassette 10 of the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 1, the ink ribbon cassette 10 includes a cassette case 11 that houses an ink ribbon (not shown), a winding spool 14 that winds the ink ribbon, and a winding spool 17 that winds the ink ribbon. It has. The ink ribbon cassette 10 is mounted and used in a sublimation type thermal transfer recording type printer.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an appearance of a sublimation type thermal transfer recording printer 20 in which the ink ribbon cassette 10 of the present embodiment is mounted.
As shown in FIG. 2, the printer 20 includes a rectangular parallelepiped printer main body 21, a paper feed cassette 22 for storing photographic paper, and a photographic paper discharge tray 23, and the ink ribbon cassette 10 is a printer main body. After opening the lid 21a provided on the side surface of the printer 21, it is inserted into the printer body 21 from the side and mounted.

FIG. 3 is a schematic side view showing the inside of the printer 20 equipped with the ink ribbon cassette 10 of the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 3, the printer 20 includes a thermal head 24 inside, and uses thermal energy when energizing a plurality of heating elements (resistive elements) arranged in the thermal head 24. Printing is performed by transferring the dye from the ink layer of the ink ribbon 30 housed in the ink ribbon cassette 10 to the dye receiving layer of the photographic paper 40.

  That is, the ink ribbon 30 is unwound from the unwinding spool 14 that rotates as indicated by the arrow, passes between the thermal head 24 and the platen roller 25, is wound on the take-up spool 17, and is sequentially conveyed. It has become. On the other hand, the photographic paper 40 is fed from the paper feed cassette 22 (see FIG. 2), passes between the thermal head 24 and the platen roller 25, and is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 23 (see FIG. 2). It has become. Note that the photographic paper 40 is sandwiched between the capstan roller 26 and the pinch roller 27 and is conveyed by the rotational drive of the capstan roller 26.

  When a print command is input to the printer 20, the thermal head 24 that has been lifted (state indicated by the dotted line in FIG. 3) is lowered to press the platen roller 25, and the thermal head 24 and the platen roller 25 The ink ribbon 30 and the photographic paper 40 are sandwiched between them (state shown by the solid line in FIG. 3).

  When gradation data is input in this state, the ink ribbon 30 is unwound from the take-up spool 14 by the rotational drive of the take-up spool 17 and the photographic paper 40 is conveyed by the rotational drive of the capstan roller 26. At the same time, the heating elements (resistance elements) in the thermal head 24 are selectively energized. Then, the dye moves from the ink layer of the ink ribbon 30 to the dye receiving layer of the photographic paper 40, and printing is performed.

  Here, if there is a scratch or the like on the ink ribbon 30, the ink ribbon 30 may tear during printing, resulting in poor printing. For this reason, the ink ribbon 30 should not be scratched, but if the ink ribbon 30 is loose, the ink ribbon 30 comes into contact with a part of the printer 20 and is damaged when the ink ribbon cassette 10 is attached to the printer 20. There is a case.

  However, according to the ink ribbon cassette 10 of the present embodiment, the rotational force in the direction opposite to the unwinding direction is applied to the unwinding spool 14 and the rotational force in the winding direction is applied to the winding spool 17. The loose winding of the ink ribbon 30 is effectively prevented, and the ink ribbon 30 is not loosened, and excellent print quality is maintained.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the inside of the ink ribbon cassette 10 of the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 4, the cassette case 11 of the ink ribbon cassette 10 includes an unwinding spool 14 for unwinding the ink ribbon 30 and a winding spool 17 for winding the ink ribbon 30 unwound from the unwinding spool 14. It is attached. The unwinding spool 14 and the winding spool 17 are both movable in the axial direction within the cassette case 11.

  Here, the unwinding spool 14 has a pair of flanges 15 (15a, 15b) that restrain and guide the movement of the ink ribbon 30 in the width direction. A gear 16 is formed. And this unwinding gear 16 has inclination-angle (theta) so that the A section of FIG. 4 may be expanded and shown. Similarly, the take-up spool 17 has a pair of flanges 18 (18a, 18b), and an inclination angle (180 ° −θ) opposite to the unwinding gear 16 is formed on the outer side of one flange 18a. Is formed.

  On the other hand, the cassette case 11 is provided with two ribs 12 (12a, 12b) and two spring members 13 (13a, 13b). As shown in FIG. The end is urged in the axial direction, the opposite end protrudes from the side surface of the cassette case 11, and the unwinding gear 16 is fitted to the rib 12a. Similarly, the spring member 13b urges the end of the take-up spool 17 in the axial direction, the opposite end protrudes from the side surface of the cassette case 11, and the take-up gear 19 is fitted to the rib 12b. I am letting.

  In the ink ribbon cassette 10 of the present embodiment, the unwinding gear 16 having the inclination angle θ and the rib 12a are fitted by the biasing of the spring member 13a as described above. A rotational force in the direction opposite to the unwinding direction is applied to 14 and acts to prevent the ink ribbon 30 from slackening. In other words, the spring member 13a may expand and contract due to vibration during transportation of the ink ribbon cassette 10, but when the spring member 13a contracts and the unwinding spool 14 rotates in the unwinding direction, the ribs 12a move to the unwinding gear 16. It will go up the slope. Then, due to the relationship between the rib 12 a and the inclined surface of the unwinding gear 16, the urging force due to the extension of the spring member 13 a acts to lower the rib 12 a from the inclined surface of the unwinding gear 16. As a result, a rotational force in the direction opposite to the unwinding direction is generated in the unwinding gear 16, and a back tension is applied to the ink ribbon 30.

  In addition, the ink ribbon cassette 10 of the present embodiment is configured such that the winding gear 19 having an inclination angle opposite to that of the unwinding gear 16 and the rib 12b are fitted by the bias of the spring member 13b. Then, a rotational force in the winding direction is applied to the winding spool 17 so that the slack of the ink ribbon 30 is prevented. That is, the spring member 13b may expand and contract due to vibration during transportation of the ink ribbon cassette 10, but when the spring member 13b contracts and the take-up spool 17 rotates in the direction opposite to the take-up direction, the rib 12b takes up. The inclined surface of the gear 19 is raised. Then, due to the relationship between the rib 12 b and the inclined surface of the winding gear 19, the urging force due to the extension of the spring member 13 b acts to lower the rib 12 b from the inclined surface of the winding gear 19. As a result, the winding gear 19 generates a rotational force in the winding direction, and tension is applied to the ink ribbon 30.

  Thus, the urging force of the spring member 13 (13a, 13b) is converted into the rotational force of the unwinding spool 14 and the winding spool 17 by the inclined surface of the unwinding gear 16 and the inclined surface of the winding gear 19. . Therefore, the inclination angle θ of the unwinding gear 16 and the inclination angle θ ′ (θ ′ = 180 ° −θ) of the winding gear 19 are important. In the unwinding gear 16, θ = 30 ° to 75 °, and the winding gear In 19, the range of θ ′ = 105 ° to 150 ° is a preferable range.

  Here, if the inclination angle θ of the unwinding gear 16 is less than 30 °, unless the urging force of the spring member 13a is made considerably strong, the converted rotational force becomes weak and sufficient back tension is applied to the ink ribbon 30. Can not give. Therefore, there are cases where the winding of the ink ribbon 30 cannot be prevented. On the contrary, when the inclination angle θ exceeds 75 °, the range in which the urging force can be converted into the rotational force becomes narrow, and the unwinding spool 14 hardly rotates, so that a sufficient back tension can be applied to the ink ribbon 30. Disappear. Therefore, there are cases where the winding of the ink ribbon 30 cannot be prevented.

  If the inclination angle θ ′ of the take-up gear 19 exceeds 150 °, the converted rotational force becomes weak unless the biasing force of the spring member 13b is considerably increased, and sufficient tension is applied to the ink ribbon 30. I can't. Therefore, there are cases where the winding of the ink ribbon 30 cannot be prevented. On the contrary, when the inclination angle θ ′ is less than 105 °, the range in which the urging force can be converted into the rotational force becomes narrow, and the take-up spool 17 hardly rotates, so that sufficient tension can be applied to the ink ribbon 30. become unable. Therefore, there are cases where the winding of the ink ribbon 30 cannot be prevented.

  In the ink ribbon cassette 10 of the present embodiment, the unwinding gear 16 and the winding gear 19 have symmetrical inclination angles (the unwinding gear 16 has an inclination angle θ and the winding gear 19 has 180 ° −θ). However, it is not always necessary to make the inclination angles of the two symmetrical. However, it is essential to provide an inclination angle for both the unwinding gear 16 and the winding gear 19. That is, if an inclination angle is provided on only one of them and an inclination angle is not provided on the other, the other is allowed to rotate freely, and no matter how much the urging force is converted into a rotational force at one inclination angle, Since sufficient back tension (tension) cannot be applied to the ink ribbon 30, it is impossible to prevent loose winding of the ink ribbon 30.

FIG. 5 is a table showing the relationship between the inclination angle θ of the unwinding gear 16 and the inclination angle θ ′ (θ ′ = 180 ° −θ) of the winding gear 19 and the looseness of the ink ribbon 30 in the ink ribbon cassette 10. .
As shown in FIG. 5, the case where the inclination angle θ of the unwinding gear 16 is 45 ° (the inclination angle θ ′ of the winding gear 19 is 135 °) is defined as Example 1. Further, except that the tilt angle θ is 30 ° (θ ′ is 150 °), the same configuration as that of the first embodiment is used in the second embodiment. Similarly, the tilt angle θ is 75 ° (θ ′ is 105 °). Example 3 in which the inclination angle θ is 25 ° (θ ′ is 155 °) is Example 4, and that in which the inclination angle θ is 80 ° (θ ′ is 100 °) is Example 5. None (inclination angle θ and inclination angle θ ′ was 90 °) was used as Comparative Example 1.

  Then, by applying vibration of a sine wave of 5 Hz to 50 Hz to each side of each of the ink ribbon cassettes 10 of Examples 1 to 5 and Comparative Example 1 for 20 minutes, the degree of looseness of the ink ribbon 30 is visually confirmed. evaluated. The evaluation is “A” for a good level where no winding looseness is observed, and a small amount of winding looseness is seen, but the ink ribbon 30 can be attached even if it is mounted on the printer 20 (see FIG. 2) without removing the loosening. The level that is not damaged is classified as “B”, and the level that needs to be rewound separately is classified as “C” in order to mount the ink ribbon 30 on the printer 20 without damaging the ribbon.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the evaluation of Example 1 in which the inclination angle θ of the unwinding gear 16 is 45 ° (the inclination angle θ ′ of the winding gear 19 is 135 °) is “A”, and the inclination angle θ is 30 ° ( The evaluation of Example 2 with the inclination angle θ ′ of 150 ° is also “A”, the evaluation of Example 3 with the inclination angle θ of 75 ° (inclination angle θ ′ of 105 °) is also “A”, and the ink ribbon cassette 10 It was confirmed that it was at a good level where no loosening of the winding was observed even after application of vibration assuming that the product was transported.

  Further, the evaluation of Example 4 in which the inclination angle θ is 25 ° (inclination angle θ ′ is 155 °) is “B”, and the evaluation of Example 5 in which the inclination angle θ is 80 ° (inclination angle θ ′ is 100 °) is also evaluated. Although it was “B” and a small amount of winding looseness was observed, it was confirmed that it was at a level that could be attached to the printer 20 (see FIG. 2) without removing the winding looseness. Therefore, there is no problem even when the inclination angle θ is 25 ° (inclination angle θ ′ is 155 °) or when the inclination angle θ is 80 ° (inclination angle θ ′ is 100 °), but the inclination angle θ is 30 It is preferable that the angle is from 75 ° to 75 ° (inclination angle θ ′ is 105 ° to 150 °).

  However, the evaluation of Comparative Example 1 with no inclination (inclination angle θ and inclination angle θ ′ is 90 °) is “C”, and there is a lot of winding looseness, and the level at which it is necessary to rewind the ink ribbon 30 without damaging it. Met. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an inclination angle to the unwinding gear 16 (winding gear 19).

  As described above, in the first to fifth embodiments, the ink ribbon cassette 10 is vibrated by the unwinding gear 16 having the inclination angle θ and the winding gear 19 having the inclination angle θ ′ (θ ′ = 180 ° −θ). Even if it is added, back tension (tension) is applied to the ink ribbon 30. That is, by the expansion and contraction of the spring member 13 (13a, 13b), a rotational force in the direction opposite to the unwinding direction is applied to the unwinding spool 14, and a rotational force in the winding direction is applied to the winding spool 17. As a result, the ink ribbon 30 is pulled in the direction opposite to the take-up spool 14 side and the take-up spool 17 side, whereby the slack of the ink ribbon 30 is suppressed. Therefore, it can be mounted on the printer 20 (see FIG. 2) without removing the winding.

FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view showing a state where the ink ribbon cassette 10 of the present embodiment is mounted on a printer.
As shown in FIG. 6, when the ink ribbon cassette 10 is mounted on the printer, the engagement release member 28 on the printer side pushes the end of the unwinding spool 14 protruding from the cassette case 11 and compresses the spring member 13a. Then, the fitting between the rib 12a and the unwinding gear 16 is released, and the unwinding spool 14 can be freely rotated. Similarly, the drive member 29 on the printer side pushes the take-up spool 17 and compresses the spring member 13b to release the fitting between the rib 12b and the take-up gear 19. When the drive member 29 is driven to rotate as indicated by the arrow, the take-up spool 17 rotates to take up the ink ribbon 30.

  In this way, the ink ribbon cassette 10 of the present embodiment has the unwinding spool 14 having the unwinding gear 16 having an inclination angle, and the winding spool 17 has an unwinding angle having an inclination angle opposite to the unwinding gear 16. A take-off gear 19 is provided. And the unwinding gear 16 and the rib 12a are fitted by the urging | biasing of the spring member 13a, the rotational force of a reverse direction to an unwinding direction is provided to the unwinding spool 14, and a winding gear is energized by the urging | biasing of the spring member 13b. 19 and the rib 12b are fitted, and the winding spool 17 is given a rotational force in the winding direction. For this reason, even if the ink ribbon 30 is wound and loosened in the cassette case 11 due to vibration during transportation, the ink ribbon 30 does not sag, and the ink ribbon 30 is damaged when mounted on the printer 20. There is nothing. When mounted on the printer 20, the rib 12a (rib 12b) and the unwinding gear 16 (winding gear 19) are disengaged, and printing becomes possible.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications such as the following can be made.
(1) In this embodiment, the unwinding spool 14 and the winding spool 17 are provided with a pair of flanges 15 (15a, 15b) for guiding the ink ribbon 30, and the unwinding gear 16 and the unwinding gear 19 are provided with the flanges. 15 (15a, 15b). However, the unwinding gear 16 and the winding gear 19 can also be formed on the end surfaces of the unwinding spool 14 and the winding spool 17.

  (2) The rib 12 (12a, 12b) formed in the cassette case 11 may be a position where the rib 12 (12a, 12b) is fitted to the unwinding gear 16 and the winding gear 19, and the formation position is not specified at all. Moreover, the rib 12 (12a, 12b) should just be a shape fitted with the unwinding gear 16 and the winding gear 19, and the shape is not specified at all.

  (3) The spring member 13 (13a, 13b) may be any member that urges the unwinding gear 16 and the winding gear 19 so as to engage with the ribs 12 (12a, 12b), respectively. The mounting positions and shapes of 13a and 13b) are not specified at all.

It is a perspective view which shows the external appearance of the ink ribbon cassette of this embodiment. 1 is a perspective view showing an external appearance of a sublimation type thermal transfer recording type printer equipped with an ink ribbon cassette of the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a schematic side view showing the inside of a printer equipped with the ink ribbon cassette of the present embodiment. It is a top view which shows the inside of the ink ribbon cassette of this embodiment. 5 is a table showing the relationship between the inclination angle θ of the unwinding gear and the inclination angle θ ′ of the winding gear and the looseness of the ink ribbon in the ink ribbon cassette. FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view showing a state where the ink ribbon cassette of the present embodiment is mounted on a printer.

Explanation of symbols

10 Ink Ribbon Cassette 11 Cassette Case 12 (12a, 12b) Rib 13 (13a, 13b) Spring Member 14 Unwinding Spool 15 (15a, 15b) Flange 16 Unwinding Gear 17 Winding Spool 18 (18a, 18b) Flange 19 Winding Gear 20 Printer 30 Ink ribbon

Claims (4)

A cassette case that houses the ink ribbon inside,
An unwinding spool attached to the cassette case and for unwinding the ink ribbon;
A winding spool attached to the cassette case and winding the ink ribbon;
An ink ribbon cassette in which the ink ribbon unwound from the unwinding spool is wound by the winding spool,
The unwinding spool has an unwinding gear having an inclination angle of 30 ° to 75 ° formed by an angle between the unwinding direction and the reverse direction of the ink ribbon ,
The take-up spool has a take-up gear that is opposite to the take-out gear and has an inclination angle of 30 ° to 75 ° with the take-up direction of the ink ribbon ,
The cassette case includes a rib that fits into the unwinding gear and the winding gear, and a spring member that biases the unwinding gear and the winding gear to fit into the rib, respectively.
By fitting the unwinding gear and the rib, a rotational force in the direction opposite to the unwinding direction is applied to the unwinding spool,
Wherein the engagement between the winding gear and the ribs, the ink ribbon cassette of Ru rotational force of the take-up direction is applied to the take-up spool. The ink ribbon cassette according to claim 1,
The unwinding spool and the winding spool include a pair of flanges for guiding the ink ribbon,
The unwinding gear and the take-up gear, the ink ribbon cassette that is formed on one of said flanges. The ink ribbon cassette according to claim 1,
The unwinding spool and the winding spool are movable in the axial direction,
The spring member is an ink ribbon cassette that urges the unwinding spool and the winding spool in an axial direction . The ink ribbon cassette according to claim 3 ,
The unwinding spool and the winding spool are ink ribbon cassettes in which an end of the spring member opposite to the biasing side protrudes from the cassette case .

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