JPH0630939B2 - Thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer, and more particularly, to a thermal transfer ribbon feeding device for a serial thermal transfer printer that horizontally scans a carriage carrying a thermal transfer ribbon cassette onto a recording sheet. It relates to a sending device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a thermal transfer printer in which a carriage having a thermal head is moved in a direction orthogonal to a recording paper feed direction for recording, a thermal transfer ribbon is attached to the carriage, and recording is performed via the thermal transfer ribbon. In order to reduce the load on the carriage motor, the carriage scanning mechanism, and the ribbon winding device, by mounting a winding motor for driving the transfer ribbon winding device in synchronization with the carriage motor separately from the carriage motor for moving the carriage. The engaging mechanism of the means is unnecessary.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of thermal transfer printer, a transfer ribbon is sent out from a supply spool, and is pressed against the recording paper between the thermal head and the recording paper and wound onto a take-up spool. The take-up spool is adapted to rotate by being engaged with the scanning mechanism of the carriage so as to take up the transfer ribbon.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the above-described thermal transfer printer, the carriage motor serves as a drive source for moving the carriage and winding the ribbon, so that the load becomes large, and accordingly, a large motor is required. In addition, there are various problems such that the scanning mechanism of the carriage and the engaging mechanism of the take-up spool are complicated, and readjustment is required due to changes in the characteristics of mechanical elements (springs, wires, etc.) due to long-term use. .

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems by mounting a thermal transfer ribbon winding motor, which is independent of a carriage scanning mechanism, on a carriage and winding the ribbon. It is a thing. Specifically, in a thermal transfer printer in which a carriage having a thermal head is moved in a direction orthogonal to the recording paper feed direction, a thermal transfer ribbon is mounted on the carriage, and recording is performed via the thermal transfer ribbon, the carriage is moved. A motor is provided and a supply reel and a take-up reel are rotatably supported on the carriage, and a take-up motor that is driven in synchronization with the carriage is arranged. The supply reel is provided with a rotational force exceeding a predetermined frictional force. While the tension mechanism that allows rotation only when it acts is provided,
A transfer ribbon cassette that is configured to be driven by the winding motor connected through a gear mechanism, has a ribbon supply spool and a ribbon winding spool arranged rotatably, and is wound around these spools to store a transfer ribbon. It is detachably mounted on the carriage, and the supply reel and the take-up reel are engaged with the ribbon take-up spool and the ribbon supply spool, respectively, and the take-up motor takes up the transfer ribbon. A characteristic thermal transfer printer is provided.

Embodiments Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings.

<Overall appearance of the printer>. ． FIG. 1 shows the appearance of the thermal transfer printer of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 10 is a chassis, 14 is a platen, 20 is a paper feed motor, 30 is a carriage, 32 is a ribbon supply reel,
31 is a ribbon take-up reel, 35 is a thermal head, 39
Is a carriage cover.

The chassis 10 includes a seat plate 9, side plates 11 and 12 standing upright on both sides of the seat plate 9, and a front plate 13.
In 1 and 12, the rear half side portion is formed one step higher than the front half side portion. The platen shaft 15 of the platen 14 is attached to the side plate 1
1 and 12 are rotatably supported by the rear side portions thereof, and the end portions of a pair of guide shafts 16 and 17 for guiding the traveling of the carriage 30 are fixed to the front side portions of the side plates 11 and 12, and these guide shafts 16 and 17 is mounted parallel to the front and rear. Also, from below the platen 14 to the rear,
The lower paper guide plate 18 is attached to the side plate 11 at a predetermined interval.
The sheet feeding motor 20, which is a stepping motor, is attached to the side plate 11 behind the guide plate 18, and the motor gear 21 attached to the rotation shaft of the motor 20 is attached to the outside of the side plate 11. It protrudes and is engaged with the idler gear 22 having a two-row configuration. The other gear (not shown) of the idler gear 22 is engaged with the platen gear 23 fixed to the tip of the platen shaft 15, and accordingly, the platen 14 is rotated by the rotation of the paper feeding motor 20 so that the recording paper (not shown) is rotated. ) Is fed vertically.

A timing belt 28 is provided between the guide shafts 16 and 17 in parallel with them and stretched around pulleys 24 and 25 mounted on a seat plate 9 of the chassis 10, and both ends of the timing belt 28 are connected to a carriage 30. It is fixed to. One of the pulleys 25 is formed integrally with an idler gear 26, and the idler gear 26 is mounted on the chassis 10 to form a carriage motor (not shown in FIG. 1, but 107 in FIG. 5) of a stepping motor. It is engaged with a motor gear 27 attached to the rotary shaft. Therefore, the idler gear 2 is rotated by the rotation of the carriage motor.
6. The pulley 25 is rotated to move the timing belt 28, and the carriage 30 is reciprocated along the guide shafts 16 and 17 in accordance with the movement of the timing belt 28. In the figure, recording is performed on a recording sheet when moving to the right.

<Structure of carriage cover>. ． A ribbon supply reel 32 and a ribbon take-up reel 31 project from a gear box of the carriage 30 on a cover 39 that covers the upper surface of the carriage 30 that is a flat box having an upper opening. The paper guide plate 3 is provided on the rear surface of the cover 39.
6, the guide plate 36 is formed in an arc shape having a circumferential surface concentric with the circumferential surface of the platen 14. The cover 39
The transfer ribbon cassette 40 shown in FIG. 4 is mounted on the upper part, and guide members 33 and 34 for mounting are projected at the center of the front and rear of the cover 39, and the front guide member 33 is a leaf spring. It is formed by. Further, a ribbon end sensor 37 formed of an optical element is provided on the cover 39 so as to be projected into the ribbon cassette 40 to be mounted, and for example, the transparency of the ribbon end is used for detection. . Further, on the cover 39, the operation lever 38 of the cassette mounting sensor 70 installed in the gear box is projected from below.

<Explanation of thermal head>. ． FIG. 3 The carriage 30 has a thermal head 35 shown in FIG.
Is attached. That is, the head support plate 67 of the thermal head 35 is attached to the carriage 30 via the shaft 68 to be rotatable about the shaft 68 as a fulcrum, and the spring 69 is stretched between the support plate 67 and the carriage 30. The support plate 67 is urged in the direction of the arrow in the figure, that is, in the direction in which the thermal head 35 moves away from the platen 14. An L-shaped head slider 66 is fixed to the support plate 67, and the head slider 66 is attached to the carriage 30.
It moves up and down by a drive unit 61, which will be described later, installed inside,
The thermal head 35 is completely in pressure contact with the platen 14 at the uppermost portion, and is separated from the platen 14 at the lowermost portion.

<Structure of transfer ribbon cassette>. ． FIG. 4 In the transfer ribbon cassette 40 mounted on the carriage cover 39, the transfer ribbon 47 is wound and the ribbon supply spool 41 engaged with the ribbon supply reel 32 is rotatably supported and the ribbon winding A ribbon take-up spool 42 engaged with the take-up reel 31 is rotatably supported. The transfer ribbon 47 wound around the ribbon supply spool 41 is led out from the supply spool 41, passes through the three guide pins 44A, and passes through the notch 45 into which the thermal head 35 and the guide member 34 are inserted. The take-up spool 42 is wound around the three guide pins 44B. Therefore, by rotating the take-up spool 42 counterclockwise by the rotation of the ribbon take-up reel 31, the transfer ribbon 47 is pulled out from the supply spool 41 to the notch portion 45, that is, the recording portion. A hole 43 is formed in the bottom plate of the cassette 40, and the hole 4
3, the ribbon end sensor 37 is inserted into the cassette 40.

<Internal structure of carriage>. ． FIG. 2 In the carriage 30, a supply reel unit 50 and a take-up reel unit 56 are provided, and a drive unit 61 for contacting and separating the thermal head 35 with respect to the platen 14 is provided between the reel units 50 and 56. ing.

The supply reel unit 50 includes clutch plates 52 and 53 that sandwich the reel shaft 51 and the felt member 54.
And the spring 55, the upper part of the reel shaft 51 is extended to form the supply reel 32. The supply reel 32, the reel shaft 51 and the clutch plate 53 are integrally formed, and the bottom plate of the carriage 30 is formed. More upright inner shaft
It is rotatably supported (not shown). Further, the other clutch plate 52 is connected to the clutch plate 53 by the spring 55.
A tension mechanism for the reel 32 is configured by pressing the reel 32 so that it does not rotate. That is, in the present embodiment, the supply reel 32 is provided with a tension machine that permits rotation only when a rotational force exceeding a predetermined frictional force is applied. Therefore, the supply spool 41 of the cassette 40
Is the felt member 5 when the transfer ribbon 47 is pulled out.
It overcomes the frictional force of 4 and is rotated. Further, the friction of the felt member 54 prevents the transfer ribbon 47 from being excessively supplied by the inertial rotation, thereby causing slack. The ribbon take-up reel 31 also has the same structure as the supply reel 32, except that the take-up gear 57 is used instead of the clutch plate 52. The take-up gear 57 is a take-up motor (not shown in FIG. 2, but not shown in FIG. 2, which is a stepping motor mounted on the carriage 30 via an idler gear (not shown in the drawing and located behind the take-up gear 57). In FIG. 5, it is engaged with the motor gear 60 attached to the rotating shaft 110). That is, in this embodiment, the take-up reel 31 is
A winding motor connected through a gear mechanism is driven in synchronization with the carriage motor. Therefore, by the counterclockwise rotation of the winding motor, the winding gear 57 is rotated in the direction of the arrow in the drawing, the ribbon winding spool 42 is rotated counterclockwise via the winding reel 31, and The take-up spool 42 is driven in synchronization with a carriage motor that moves the carriage 30.

The rotation of the winding gear 57 has a torque larger than the adhesive force with which the transfer ribbon 47 adheres to the paper for recording, and the ribbon 4 is rotated.
7 is designed to prevent peeling and loosening. Further, the rotation amount of the winding gear 57 is set to be larger than the rotation amount of the carriage motor, that is, the movement amount of the carriage 30. The winding of the transfer ribbon 47 is suppressed by the pressure contact of the thermal head 35 with the platen 14. However, since the winding motor has a larger rotation amount than the carriage motor, the frictional force of the felt member of the winding reel unit 56 increases. The wining gear 57 is overcome and the winding gear 57 idles.
Therefore, it is necessary to set the frictional force of the felt member to be greater than the adhesive force of the transfer ribbon and smaller than the pressure contact force of the thermal head 35 so that the transfer ribbon 47 does not unnecessarily slip on the recording paper.

In the drive unit 61 for bringing the thermal head 35 into and out of contact with the platen 14, a cam gear 62 is rotatably supported on the carriage bottom plate, and a gear is formed on the peripheral surface of the cam gear, and a cylindrical cam 63 is provided on the upper surface. Is forming. The gear of the cam gear 62 is a head actuating motor (not shown in FIG. 2 but consisting of a stepping motor attached to the bottom of the carriage 30 via an idler gear 64;
In the figure, it is engaged with a motor gear 65 provided on the rotating shaft 109). The tip of a head slider 66 integral with the thermal head 35 is pressed against the cam lobe of the cylindrical cam 63, and the cam lobe gradually rises to form a sharp notch following the highest position. Due to the rotation of the cam gear 62, the thermal head 35 comes into pressure contact with the platen 14 when the head slider 66 is located at the uppermost part of the cam lobe, and the thermal head 35 is moved from the platen 14 when the head slider 66 is located at the lowermost part (cam gear plane). I try to move away. Moreover, as described above, the thermal head 35 is urged by the spring 69 so as to move away from the platen 14. With this configuration, the thermal head 35 is pressed against the platen 14 by rotating the head operating motor at the time of recording, and the head operating motor is further rotated at the time of non-recording such as returning or space. The thermal head 35
Is separated from the platen 14 and the carriage 30 is moved while maintaining this state. In addition, a cassette mounting sensor 70 including a micro switch for detecting the mounting of the transfer ribbon cassette 40 is installed in the carriage 30, and an operating lever 38 thereof is projected on a carriage cover 39. The operation of the cassette mounting sensor 70 switches between recording control using a thermal transfer ribbon and recording control using thermal paper.

<Circuit configuration>. ． ． FIG. 5 Next, the configuration of the system control circuit of the printer will be described with reference to FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral 100 denotes a Cpu, which performs system control of the entire printer according to a system program stored in advance in a ROM 101, which will be described later, and is connected to the system bus 103.

Reference numeral 101 denotes a ROM, which is connected to the system bus 103, stores a system program as shown in FIG. 6 in advance, and is sequentially read out by the control of the Cpu 100 to control the system.

102 is a RAM, which is connected to the system bus 103 and is C
Reading or writing of data is controlled by the control of the pu 100, and the RAM 102 is provided with an area for recording the recording data from the host computer, various control registers, counters, flags and the like.

An interface device 115 sends and receives data to and from a host computer such as a Centro interface. For example, one line or a predetermined line of character or image data is supplied to the interface device, and an R device is provided via the system bus 103.
It is stored in the data area of the AM 102.

104 is an output I / O port, which is the system bus 1
03, and each of the above-mentioned motors (carriage motor 107, paper feed motor 20,
Data is sent to the head operating motor 109, the winding motor 110) and the drive circuit 111 of the thermal head 35.

An input I / O port designated by 105 receives the ribbon end sensor 37, the cassette mounting sensor 70 and other key signals (not shown) and inputs them to the Cpu 100.

Reference numeral 106 denotes a drive controller for controlling the drive of the motors 107, 20, 109, 110 and the thermal head 35, and supplies an exciting pulse for each phase to each of the motors including a stepping motor based on the control data from the Cpu 100. In addition, the head drive circuit 111 described later
To supply each recording dot data to.

The head drive circuit 111 is composed of a shift register having a capacity corresponding to the number of dots of the thermal head 35, and a buffer connected in parallel to the shift register and connected to the switching circuit of the heating element group. The drive circuit 111
In the thermal head 35 driven via the, the heating elements are arranged in, for example, one vertical column.

<Action>. ． 6 and 7 Next, the operation of the printer will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

One row of print data is stored in the storage data area of the RAM 102 from the host computer via the interface device 115, and when the data is ready, FIG. 6A is executed to start the print operation.

ON / OFF of the cassette mounting sensor 70 is determined,
If it is OFF, it is the normal thermal paper recording mode, and it is ON.
If so, the transfer print flag is turned on. Further, it is determined whether the ribbon end sensor 37 is ON / OFF, and if it is ON, it is determined that all the transfer ribbons in the transfer ribbon cassette 40 have been used, and error processing is performed, for example, a notification sound and a lamp are lit, and a recording operation Do not run. When recording on thermal paper, the thermal temperature is higher than that of the thermal transfer ribbon. Therefore, in the case of thermal paper, it is necessary to set the heat generation temperature of the thermal head 35 to be high, and the energization time is lengthened.

Subsequently, the head operating motor 109 and the winding motor 11
Initial drive control of 0 is performed. In this control, the head operating motor 109 is rotated to bring the thermal head 35 into pressure contact with the platen 14, and the winding motor 110 is rotated to apply a certain tension to the transfer ribbon 47 and prevent loosening. The control of the take-up motor 110 is operated only in the transfer print mode, and is not operated in the thermal paper print.
This specific action is, as shown in FIG. 6 (b), which is continuously shown by *, the CD value corresponding to the rotation amount until the thermal head 35 is completely pressed against the platen 14 is stored in the RAM1.
Set the counter in 02. This is for rotating the head operating motor 109 until the head slider 66 of FIG. 2 contacts the highest portion of the cylindrical cam 63 of the cam gear 62. After that, an exciting pulse is sent to the head actuating motor 109 via the output I / O port 104 and the drive control 106, and the exciting pulse is continuously sent out by counting down the CD value and reaching CD ≦ i. This state is shown in FIG. Here, the i value is immediately before the thermal head 35 is completely pressed against the platen 14, and corresponds to about 10 steps before the stepping motor. If the transfer print mode is set from this state, the excitation pulse is also supplied to the winding motor 110, and the process is repeated until CD = 0 is reached. This state is shown in FIG.
Each motor (head operating motor 109, winding motor 110, carriage motor 107) in FIG. 7 shows a time chart of one phase. The reason why the first excitation pulse is made wider than the others is to increase the rising torque. By this series of operations, the thermal head 35 is completely pressed against the platen 14, the winding spool 42 does not unnecessarily wind the ribbon 47, and the slack of the ribbon 47 can be prevented.

Again returning to FIG. 6 (a), the recording operation is started. Prior to recording, it is determined again whether the print mode is the transfer print mode.
When the ribbon end sensor 37 is turned on / off and the cassette mounting sensor 70 is turned off or the ribbon end sensor 37 is turned on, error processing is executed, the carriage 30 is returned, and the recording operation is interrupted. To do. This is for interrupting the recording when the cassette 40 is accidentally removed during recording or when the ribbon 47 is finished.

When these conditions are satisfied, recording is executed and RAM is
When the print data of 102 is read, the skip command (idle feed of the thermal head 35) and the line feed (LF) command (carriage return command) are determined, and if it is print data, one column of print data is the head. The data is transferred to the shift register of the drive circuit 111, and the heating elements of the thermal head 35 are energized for recording.

The recording operation is shown in Fig. 6 (C) in which * is continuous.
If it is the transfer print mode, the PL value corresponding to the heat sensitive temperature of the thermal transfer ribbon is set in the counter in the RAM 102, and if it is not the transfer print mode, the PH value corresponding to the heat sensitive temperature of the thermal paper is set (PL <PH. ). Further, a strobe signal is sent, the data in the shift register is transferred to the batter of the head drive circuit 111, and among the heat generating elements of the thermal head 35, the element having the recording dot data is energized to start recording. After that, PH or P
The L value is counted down and repeated until PH (L) = 0 is reached. That is, the energization time is determined by the value of the PH (L) value, and when PH (L) = 0 is reached, the buffer is reset, and the energization ends to complete the recording.

Returning to FIG. 6 (a) again, when the recording by the operation of (c) above is completed, the carriage motor 107 and the winding motor 1
Rotation control of 10 is performed, the carriage 30 is moved to the next column position, and the amount of the ribbon removed by this movement of the transfer ribbon 47 sandwiched between the thermal head 35 and the platen 14 is wound up and recorded. It is torn off from the paper.

The above operation is continued with * and shown in Fig. 6 (d). First,
Carriage motor 107, winding motor 110 (however,
Excitation pulse is supplied to the transfer print mode only).
Further, the CL value indicating the movement amount of the carriage 30 is counted up. Here, the excitation pulse is also supplied to the winding motor 110 in the same step as that of the carriage motor 107. This is because the gear ratios of the motor gear 60, the idler gear (not shown), and the winding gear 57 in FIG. Since the gear ratio of the carriage motor gear 27 and the idler gear 26 of FIG. 1 is set to be slightly larger, the rotation amount of the take-up gear 57 becomes larger than the movement amount of the carriage 30, and the transfer ribbon 47 is recorded on the take-up reel 31. The torque is applied so that it can be separated from the paper. A predetermined tension is applied to the ribbon 47 by this torque, and the friction force of the felt member under the winding gear 57 absorbs a torque more than the pressure contact force of the thermal head 35, and the ribbon 47 is unnecessarily wound. I am trying not to let it go. Therefore, both motors 107,
The amount of rotation between one column of 110 is not limited to 1: 1, and the excitation pulse supply ratio of the winding motor 110 may be smaller than that of the carriage motor 107 by these gear ratios, and the above torque relationship is set. Good.

Returning to FIG. 6A again, the above operation is repeated until the recording for one line is completed. (FIG. 7C) Here, when printing for one line, that is, the LF command in the print data is read or the carriage 30 moves to a predetermined position, the carriage motor 107 and the winding motor continue. The remaining amount rotation control of 110 is performed. This is because the thermal head 35 is fed by a predetermined amount and the transfer ribbon 47 adhered to the recording paper is peeled off. This operation is continued with * and shown in Fig. 6 (d). When CL = 1 (l is the line end position of a predetermined recording range) is reached or the LF command is read, the CE value corresponding to the above peeling control and slack removal is set in the counter in the RAM 102. Subsequently, the carriage motor 107 and the winding motor 110
Send an excitation pulse to (only in transfer print mode), and press C
The E value is counted down and the CL value is counted up. This operation is repeated until CE = i 'is reached. [Fig. 7 (b) D] The above i'value is the thermal head 35.
Equivalent to the amount of movement of the recording dod from the pressure contact part of
It is about 10 dodds. Then, the carriage motor 1
07 is stopped, the excitation pulse is sent to the winding motor 110 (only in the transfer print mode) and the head operating motor 109, and the CE value is counted down to CE = 0.
Repeat until you reach. [FIG. 7 (B) E] At this time, since the head slider 66 immediately contacts the lowermost part of the cam mountain of the cylindrical cam 63, the thermal head 35 is instantaneously removed from the platen 14, and thereafter the home position of the cylindrical cam 63 is reached. It is rotated, and at this time, the winding motor 110 is rotated to remove the slack.

In the above series of operations, the carriage 30 is moved by the amount corresponding to the peeling. However, the above operation E may be performed immediately without performing this operation, but at this time, the winding motor 110 corresponds to the peeling force. Supply spool 4 to give torque
There is a possibility that the ribbon 47 may be unnecessarily taken out from No. 1 and the adjustment of the tension of the supply reel 32 and the winding torque becomes complicated.

Again returning to FIG. 6 (a), the carriage motor 1
The winding rotation of 07 and the rotation control of the paper feed motor 20 are performed, and the return operation of the carriage 30 and the feeding of a predetermined amount of recording paper are completed. The details are continued with *, and as shown in FIG. 6 (e), the carriage motor 107 supplies the excitation pulse of the opposite phase until the CL value reaches zero, and the paper feed motor 20 is predetermined. Excitation pulses corresponding to the CF value of the fed amount are supplied.

Returning to FIG. 6A again, when the skip command is read from the print data, the carriage motor 107,
The remaining rotation control of the winding motor 110 and the end rotation control of the head operating motor 109 and the winding motor 110 are shown in FIG.
Work according to.

After that, an excitation pulse is supplied to the carriage motor 107, the carriage 30 is moved by the number of skips read as recording data, the non-recording area (space) is not recorded, the winding is not performed, and the thermal head 35 is emptied. To send.

Effects As is clear from the above description, according to the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, the carriage motor that mounts the winding motor that drives the transfer ribbon winding means in synchronization with the carriage on the carriage and moves the carriage. Since the carriage motor is installed separately, the load on the carriage motor is reduced and the motor can be downsized. In addition, since the engagement mechanism between the scanning mechanism of the carriage and the transfer ribbon winding means is not required, the mechanism is simple and the adjusting action of the engagement mechanism is not required. Further, the winding motor winds the ribbon in synchronization with printing, so that the transfer ribbon is stably fed. And,
Since the drive of the winding motor is disabled except in the transfer print mode, the idle noise of the winding reel is reduced and the power loss is reduced. Further, in the present invention, since the supply reel is provided with the tension mechanism that permits the rotation only when the rotational force exceeding the predetermined frictional force is applied, the transfer ribbon is excessively supplied by the inertial rotation or the like. As a result, slack can be prevented from occurring, and the transfer ribbon can be stably wound. Further, in the present invention, since the supply and take-up reel is configured to engage with the supply and take-up spool of the transfer ribbon cassette, the take-up operation can be reliably performed, and the take-up failure may occur. In addition, the transfer ribbon cassette does not require a complicated mechanism, the structure can be simplified, and the cost can be reduced. It goes without saying that this printer can be applied to a color printer having each color component in series.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a thermal transfer printer according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the internal structure of a carriage.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the thermal head, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the transfer ribbon cassette, and FIG. 5 is a circuit configuration diagram of the printer.
FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the operation sequence of the printer,
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the correlation between the driving states of the motors of the printer. 10 ... Chassis, 14 ... Platen 20 ... Paper feed motor, 30 ... Carriage 31 ... Ribbon winding reel 32 ... Ribbon supply reel 35 ... Thermal head 37 ... Ribbon end sensor, 39 ... Cover 40 ...... Transfer ribbon cassette 41 …… Supply spool, 42 …… Winding spool 50 …… Supply reel unit 56 …… Winding reel unit, 57 …… Winding gear 60 …… Motor gear, 61 …… Driving unit 62 …… Cam gear, 65 ... Motor gear 70 ... Cassette mounting sensor 100 ... Cpu, 101 ... ROM 102 ... RAM, 103 ... System bus 106 ... Drive control 107 ... Carriage motor 109 ... Head operating motor 110 ... Winding motor 111 ... Head drive circuit 115 ... Interface device

Continuation of front page (56) Reference JP-A-59-98889 (JP, A) JP-A-58-63494 (JP, A) JP-A-58-102782 (JP, A) JP-A-57-91280 (JP , A) JP-A-57-14084 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A thermal transfer printer in which a carriage having a thermal head is moved in a direction orthogonal to a recording paper feed direction, a thermal transfer ribbon is mounted on the carriage, and recording is performed via the thermal transfer ribbon. A carriage motor is provided to rotatably support a supply reel and a take-up reel on the carriage, and a take-up motor that is driven in synchronization with the carriage is arranged to rotate the supply reel to exceed a predetermined friction force. A tension mechanism that allows rotation only when force is applied is provided, while the take-up reel is driven by the take-up motor connected through a gear mechanism, and a ribbon supply spool and a ribbon take-up spool are provided. Is rotatably arranged and is wound around these spools to store the transfer ribbon. The copying ribbon cassette is removably mounted on the carriage, the supply reel and the winding reel are engaged with the ribbon winding spool and the ribbon supply spool, respectively, and the winding operation of the transfer ribbon is performed by the winding motor. The thermal transfer printer is characterized by