JPH0570588B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a hand-driven transfer device that prevents deterioration of print quality by controlling printing conditions of a thermal head.

[Conventional technology]

As a conventional hand-driven transfer device, there is one disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 115773/1983. The hand-driven transfer device shown here houses a thermal head in a main body that runs on a roller over the recording paper, and an ink donor film is interposed between the thermal head and the recording paper to drive the thermal head in response to image signals. This is a thermal transfer method for recording paper.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, with conventional hand-driven transfer devices, if the pressure applied by the thermal head to the recording paper is insufficient or if there are unevenness on the surface of the recording paper, printing conditions deteriorate, resulting in uniform image quality. There is an inconvenience that printing is not performed.

[Means for solving problems]

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention enables printing with uniform image quality even if printing conditions deteriorate.
The printer is equipped with a thermal head that is driven in accordance with an image signal and selectively heats the ink donor film located between the recording member and a print control means that controls the printing conditions of the thermal head. The recording member tracking means causes the thermal head to follow the recording member by pressing with a pressing force based on elastic force, and the printing density control means cooperates with the recording member tracking means to control the printing density on the recording member. The present invention provides a hand-driven transfer device.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the hand-driven transfer device according to the present invention will be described in detail.

Figures 1a and 1b show a hand-driven transfer device to which the present invention is applied, which includes a thermal head 1 that slides into contact with the transfer surface via an ink donor film 2, and a thermal head 1 that is wound around a roll and moves depending on the printing situation. Thermal head 1
Ink donor film 2 is delivered to the printing surface of
, a roller 3 that rolls on the surface to be transferred when the transfer device moves, a rotary encoder 4 to which the rotation of the roller 3 is transmitted and generates a pulse signal according to the moving speed of the transfer device, and the rotary encoder 4
A control unit 5 controls reading of image information from a host computer, network, etc., and controls driving of the thermal head 1 based on output signals from the thermal head 1.
and a housing 6 that integrally incorporates each of the above members,
It consists of a button 20 for starting transfer that is attached to the front of the housing 6.

The hand-driven transfer device 7 with the above configuration has a second
As shown in the figure, for example, the thermal head 1 is connected to a personal computer 8 in which the image information of the original is stored, and the thermal head 1 is driven by the image information transmitted from the personal computer 8.
It is transferred onto nine surfaces of an object to be transferred such as a notebook. To perform the transfer, as shown in FIG. 2, it is sufficient to hold the hand-driven transfer device 7 in the hand, place it on the portion of the object 9 to be transferred, and move it.

The operation of the configuration shown in FIG. 1 will be explained based on the time chart shown in FIG. When a transfer start button 20 attached to the device is pressed, one line of image information is read into the hand-driven transfer device 7 from an external device such as a personal computer 8 . In this reading, if the dot density is 1 dot/mm and one display screen (one page of CRT screen of personal computer 8) is composed of 200 x 200 pixels, the first 200 dots will be read by thermal head 1. Transcribed by. The rotary encoder 4 generates a pulse signal every time the hand-driven transfer device 7 moves 1 mm on the surface of the transfer target 9. When a pulse signal is output from the rotary encoder 4, image information for 200 dots is read into the hand-driven transfer device 7 in synchronization with this pulse signal.
At time _t2 following the end of _t1 , the thermal head 1 is driven and transfer is performed. Thereafter, image information is read in the same manner every time a pulse signal is output from the rotary encoder 4, and the drive control of the thermal head 1 is subsequently performed. FIG. 4 shows an example of printing (alphabet A) in this manner. Normally, the maximum scanning time by hand drive is 100 mm/sec. Therefore, a row of 200 dots is read within 0.01 seconds and then transferred within 0.01 seconds. That is, the transfer process is performed sequentially at a cycle of 20 KHz.

In the embodiments described above, the image information is supplied by the display signal of the personal computer 8, but the image information can also be supplied from another image processing device or the like. It is also possible to input via an interface such as RS232C. In this case, it is desirable to provide a buffer memory in order to absorb the difference between the baud rate of the electrical signal and the drive timing of the transfer device.

Further, although a notebook is shown as an example of the object to be transferred, thermal transfer can also be performed on clothing or the like in addition to three-dimensional objects.

FIG. 5 shows a second hand-driven transfer device to which the present invention is applied, and since the same reference numerals are used for the same parts as in FIG. 1, redundant explanation will be omitted. A reflective photo sensor 10 is provided in the camera. The reflective photo sensor 10 optically detects whether or not the transfer material 9 exists on the transfer surface, and outputs this as an electrical signal. In other words, when there is no object to be transferred within the distance set so that the maximum amount of light is received by the light receiving element, if the amount of light received is below the established level, there is no object to be transferred (hereinafter referred to as "no paper"). ) is detected.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 5, the reflective photo sensor 10 will be explained using the time chart shown in FIG.
detects that there is no paper, even if the hand-driven transfer device 7 is in motion and the rotary encoder 4
Even if a pulse signal is generated, the signal is not applied to the control section 5. As a result, the reading operation shown in FIG. 3 is not performed, and the transfer process is not performed. Therefore, wasteful consumption of the ink donor film 2 can be prevented. Further, the transfer work can be performed efficiently.

FIG. 7 shows a modification of the hand-driven transfer device shown in FIG. 5, in which a push-type switch 11 is provided in place of the reflective photo sensor 10. When the switch 11 is pressed, the presence of the transferred object 9 is detected, and application of the encoder output to the control section 5 is permitted. On the other hand, if switch 11 is not pressed,
Even if the transfer start button is pressed, application of the encoder output to the control section 5 is prohibited to prevent transfer from being performed.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment of the present invention, and the same reference numerals are used for the same parts as in FIG. 1, so redundant explanation will be omitted. , a spring 13 that is fitted onto the pin 12 and urges the thermal head 1 toward the transfer surface, and a guide plate 14 that is fixed to the pin 12 and locks the upper end of the spring 13.
and an eccentric cam 16 which disposes a guide plate 14 such that it can freely move up and down, and which presses the guide plate 14 against the biasing force of the spring 13; It is constructed by providing a concentration adjustment lever 17 whose end is exposed from the housing 6 and is rotatable together with the eccentric cam 16.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 8, the eccentric cam 16 is rotated by moving the lever 17 up and down. Since the cam 16 is eccentric, the height of the bottom surface of the cam 16 changes depending on its rotational position, causing the guide plate 14 to rise or fall. The spring 13 expands and contracts as the height of the guide plate 14 changes, and the pressure applied to the thermal head 1 changes in accordance with this expansion and contraction. The pressure applied by the thermal head 1 to the transferred object corresponds to the density, and the printing density can be adjusted by operating the lever 17.

Furthermore, even if the surface to be transferred has unevenness or a three-dimensional surface, the head surface follows the transfer surface, so that stable transfer can be performed. As a result, stable print quality can be obtained without blurring or density changes that would occur if the head position was fixed.

FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which a pressing force detecting means is provided so that the pressure applied to the thermal head 1 is uniform during manual driving. In FIG. 9, the same reference numerals are used for the same parts as in FIG. 8, so redundant explanation will be omitted. is made to vary. A DC voltage (for example, +5V) is applied to the volume 18, and a voltage corresponding to changes in the movable element is output. The output of the volume 18 is supplied to the control section 5, and the control section 5 applies correction to obtain the best image quality when driving the thermal head 1.

When holding the transfer device in your hand for scanning, if an inexperienced person operates it, the long thermal head 1 may
The force is not applied uniformly, which tends to cause uneven printing.
However, in reality, it is difficult to apply pressure uniformly. Therefore, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 9, the pressure unevenness itself is accepted, and the electrical density unevenness is corrected for this pressure unevenness.

To explain the relationship between pressing force and density, the smaller the pressing force, the thinner the print density. When setting the density level to three levels: "Dark", "Normal", and "Light", the first
As shown in Figure 0, the permissible range of the pressure level detection output is x ₁ to x ₂ at the "light" level, x ₂ to x ₃ at the "normal" level, and x ₃ to _{x 4} at the "dark" level. Become.

As is clear from FIG. 10, the pressurization level has a certain tolerance range for one concentration level. Therefore, if the operator operates so that the pressurizing force falls within a predetermined range for the required concentration level, the electrical correction shown in FIG. 9 becomes unnecessary. However, it is not easy to determine the pressure by relying on intuition, so as shown in Figure 11, the concentration level is
19 is preferable. The operator only has to apply pressure to the hand-driven transfer device 7 so that the LED continues to display the desired density level.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the hand-driven transfer device of the present invention, the thermal head is driven in accordance with an image signal to selectively heat the ink donor film located between the recording member and the printing conditions of the thermal head. The printing control means cooperates with a recording member following means for pressing the thermal head against the recording member with a pressing force based on an elastic force and causing the thermal head to follow the recording member, and a recording member following means. Since it is composed of a print density control means that controls the print density on the recording member, it is possible to transfer to a recording member with unevenness or a three-dimensional object, and even if the pressurizing force due to manual operation is insufficient. It is possible to print uniform image quality with a predetermined image density.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1a and 1b are side sectional views and front sectional views showing a hand-driven transfer device to which the present invention is applied; FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an example of use of the hand-driven transfer device shown in FIG. 1; 3 is a time chart showing the operation of the hand-driven transfer device shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of printing by the hand-driven transfer device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is an illustration to which the present invention is applied. A front sectional view showing a second hand-driven transfer device, FIG. 6 is a time chart showing the operation of the hand-driven transfer device shown in FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a modification of the hand-driven transfer device shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 8 is a side sectional view showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 9 is a front sectional view showing one embodiment of the present invention.
The figure is a schematic configuration diagram showing the second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 10 is a characteristic diagram showing the relationship between pressurizing force and concentration, and FIG.
FIG. 1 is a front sectional view showing a modification of the embodiment shown in FIG. 10. Explanation of symbols, 1... Thermal head, 2... Ink donor film, 3... Roller, 4... Rotary encoder, 5... Control unit, 6... Housing,
10... Reflective photo sensor, 11... Switch, 12... Pin, 13... Spring, 14...
... Guide plate, 16 ... Eccentric cam, 17 ... Density adjustment lever, 18 ... Sliding volume, 19
...LED, 20...Transfer start button.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a hand-driven transfer device that travels over a recording member and performs thermal transfer onto the recording member, the ink donor film is driven in accordance with an image signal to select an ink donor film located between the recording member and the recording member. A thermal head that heats the thermal head; and a printing control means that controls printing conditions of the thermal head, the printing control means pressing the thermal head against the recording member with a pressing force based on elastic force to print the thermal head on the recording member. A hand-driven transfer device comprising: a storage member following means for following a thermal head; and a print density control means for controlling the print density on the recording member in cooperation with the recording member follower.