JPS6236872B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a multicolor thermal recording system using multicolor thermal recording paper.

In the conventional multicolor thermal recording method, which uses multicolor thermal recording paper coated with two or more coloring layers of different colors on one side of a mount, a thermal recording head is placed only on one side of the coloring layer of the recording paper. Different colors are produced by electrically varying the application time of thermal energy. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, when using two-color thermal recording paper 4, in which a high-temperature coloring layer 2 with a relatively high coloring temperature and a low-temperature coloring layer 3 with a relatively low coloring temperature are coated on a mount 1, By heating the recording paper 4 to a low or high temperature by varying the heat energy applied from the thermal recording head 5 disposed in contact with the low-temperature coloring layer 3 side, only the coloring layer 3 can be colored or the coloring layer can be colored. 2 and 3 are developed to perform two-color thermal recording. In the figure, 2a and 3a are color developing parts. However, in such a recording method, it is difficult to sufficiently heat the high-temperature coloring layer 2 located inside, and the single thermal recording head 5 must be controlled so that it can be heated in two stages: low temperature and high temperature. However, there was a drawback that the control system became complicated.

In the present invention, a thermal recording head for heating bias is separately provided on the back side of the multicolor thermal recording paper, and this thermal recording head for heating bias is driven simultaneously with the thermal recording head on the front side, thereby ensuring heating of the high-temperature coloring layer in particular. It is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-color thermal recording system that can be used in a variety of applications and that also simplifies the control of a thermal recording head.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a side view showing the structure of the thermal recording section, in which numeral 6 denotes a front thermal recording head, and numeral 7 denotes a heating bias thermal recording head on the back side (hereinafter abbreviated as thermal bias recording head). These thermal recording heads 6,7
are heating element groups 6a, 7a and bases 6b, 7, respectively.
b and lead wire portions 6c and 7c. The heating element groups 6a and 7a are heating elements D ₁ to D ₈₀ and GD ₁ to GD ₈₀ arranged in one row, respectively, as shown in FIG.
Consisting of One ends of the heating elements D ₁ to _{D 80} are individually connected to the character pixel distribution drive circuit 9 via lead wires 1D ₁ to 16D ₅ , and the other ends are grouped into digits and connected to common lead wires CH ₁ to _{CH 16} It is connected to the digit selection drive circuit 10 via. Heating element GD ₁ ~
One end of GD ₈₀ is grouped into digits and connected to lead wires.
It is connected to the color selection drive circuit 1'1 via GCH ₁ to GCH ₁₆ , and the other end is connected to the color selection drive circuit 11 via a lead wire CCH.

In order to perform multicolor thermal recording in the above configuration, character pixel signals are applied from the recording circuit 9 to the lead wires 1D ₁ to 16D ₅ , and at the same time, character pixel signals are applied to the common leads CH ₁ to
A digit selection signal is applied to CH ₁₆ from the drive circuit 10 to selectively cause the heating elements D ₁ to D ₈₀ of the front thermal recording head 6 to generate heat to apply thermal energy to the surface of the multicolor thermosensitive recording paper 4 . This operation of the thermal recording head 6 is performed whenever character pixels are printed, regardless of the color to be produced. Then, to specify the color to be produced, a color selection signal is applied from the drive circuit 11 to the lead wires GCH ₁ to GCH ₁₆ of the thermal recording head 7 for thermal bias on the back side according to the color specification information of that digit. This is performed by selectively causing the heating elements GD ₁ to _{GD 80} to generate heat in units of digits. Heating the surface of the multicolor thermal recording paper 4 with the thermal recording head 6,
In addition, multicolor thermal recording can be performed by heating with the thermal recording head 7 from the back side. In other words, if you want to color only the low-temperature coloring layer 3 on the front surface, only the thermal recording head 6 on the front surface is driven (as shown by the solid line).
Then, the recording paper 4 is heated at a low temperature from the surface. At this time, the recording head 7 is not driven (indicated by a broken line). If it is desired to color the inner high-temperature coloring layer 2 as well, the front thermal recording head 6 and the rear thermal recording head 7 for thermal bias are simultaneously driven (both shown by solid lines). As a result, the thermosensitive recording paper 4 is heated from both the front and back sides and reaches a high temperature, and the high-temperature coloring layer 2 (and the low-temperature coloring layer 3) develops color, resulting in a different color than when only the low-temperature coloring layer 3 develops color.

In this way, the front thermal recording head 6 is driven in accordance with the pixel selection regardless of color development, and the rear thermal recording head 7 is driven in accordance with the color development.
Since this is a multi-color thermal recording method that applies high temperature to the high-temperature coloring layer by controlling whether or not it is driven simultaneously with the high-temperature coloring layer, the inner high-temperature coloring layer in particular can be reliably colored, and the control system is simplified. Incidentally, the recording head for thermal bias may be constantly driven so as to vary the applied heating energy.

With the multicolor thermal recording method of the present invention described above,
A heating bias thermal recording head is provided at a position facing the surface thermal recording head, and when the high-temperature coloring layer is to be colored, the heating bias thermal recording head is driven simultaneously with the surface thermal recording head, so that it is possible to combine both heads. By applying thermal energy to the high-temperature coloring layer, the high-temperature coloring layer of the multicolor thermosensitive recording paper is sufficiently heated from both the front and back sides, making it possible to perform clear multicolor thermal recording. Furthermore, when coloring the high-temperature coloring layer, it is sufficient to apply a voltage to the bias head that corresponds to the difference between the voltage applied to the surface head and the voltage required for high-temperature coloring, so the voltages applied to each head can be applied to both sides. Both can be made relatively low, thereby extending the life of each head and increasing the reliability of the device. Furthermore, since each color can be recorded at the same position without any positional deviation, the recording quality is extremely high. Furthermore, by controlling the thermal recording head for thermal bias in units of heating elements, units of digits, and units of rows, multicolor thermal recording is possible for each pixel and each digit. The multicolor thermal recording method of the present invention can also be applied to simultaneous printing thermal recording on a plurality of sheets.
Furthermore, if each recording head is controlled so that it can be heated in multiple stages, recording in three or more colors can be more easily performed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an example of a conventional multicolor thermal recording method, FIGS. 2 to 4 are views showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view showing the structure of a thermal recording part. 3 is a block diagram showing the thermal recording head and control system, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the thermal recording portion in detail. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Mounting paper, 2... High-temperature coloring layer, 3... Low-temperature coloring layer, 4... Multicolor thermosensitive recording paper, 6... Surface thermal recording head, 6a... Heat generating element group, 7... Heat for thermal bias Recording head, 7a...Heating element group, 9...Character pixel distribution recording circuit, 10...Digit selection drive circuit,
11...Color selection drive circuit, _D1 to _D80 , _GD1 to _GD80
...heating element.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a recording method using a multicolor thermosensitive recording paper coated with a coloring layer having at least a low-temperature coloring layer and a high-temperature coloring layer on one side of a mount, a coloring layer provided at a position in contact with the surface of the multicolor thermosensitive recording paper and responsive to pixel selection. A surface thermorecording head that is constantly driven by the multicolor thermosensitive recording paper is provided at a position opposite to the surface heat recording head and in contact with the back side of the multicolor thermosensitive recording paper, and when coloring the high temperature coloring layer, the surface heat recording head and and a heating bias thermal recording head that is driven simultaneously, and by simultaneously driving the heating bias thermal recording head, synthetic thermal energy is applied to the coloring layer to color the high temperature coloring layer and perform thermal recording of a different color. A multicolor thermal recording method featuring