JPH0712737B2 - Thermal image recorder - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a thermal image recording apparatus, and more particularly, to a thermal recording head for applying heat to a recording medium to record an image and the thermal recording head according to an input image signal. The present invention relates to a thermal image recording apparatus including a drive circuit that selectively drives.

[Conventional technology]

Various thermal image recording techniques using such a thermal recording head have been conventionally proposed. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 54-33117, a dot-shaped perforated image is formed on a sheet made of only a stretched thermoplastic synthetic resin film by using a printing device having dot-shaped heating elements.
A method has been proposed in which ink is passed through the perforated image portion of the sheet to form a recorded image. Also, JP-A-56
No. 37,191 discloses that a thermal transfer ink layer of carbon paper for hectography is placed on the lower surface of a master image forming substrate so as to be in contact with the upper surface of the master image forming substrate, and heat is selectively emitted from a thermal recording head. There is disclosed a technique of transferring a master image from the heat-sensitive transfer ink layer to the lower surface of the master image forming substrate by applying it to the master image forming substrate.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, all of these techniques relate to forming a perforated image or a master image, that is, a plate making technique, and in any case, only a mirror image is formed on a recording medium. Not done. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a thermal image recording apparatus capable of recording not only a mirror image necessary for such a plate-making technique but also a normal image.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a thermal recording head having a heating element for applying heat to a recording medium to record an image and a drive circuit for selectively driving the heating element according to an input image signal. In a thermal image recording device comprising
Control for controlling the order of drive signals from the drive circuit to the heating element so that an image of either a normal image or a mirror image can be selectively recorded on the recording layer of the recording medium that is in close contact with the thermal recording head. It is characterized in that a circuit is provided.

The control circuit temporarily stores the image signal for each line of the image to be formed in the memory, and then switches between the normal image and the mirror image depending on whether the signal for the one line is read from the head or the tail. .

When the pixels of the thermal recording head are arranged in a staggered pattern or are dividedly driven, the signal may be taken out accordingly. When the printing conditions differ between the plate making process and the normal recording process, it is desirable to switch the printing condition at the same time as switching the normal image / mirror image.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows the basic configuration when the thermal image recording apparatus of the present invention is used in a plate making process.

Referring to FIG. 1, the perforated master 1 is passed between the thermal recording head 5 and the pressure roller 6 so that the film surface of the perforated master 1 is in close contact with the heating element 4. The pressure roller 6 presses the perforating master 1 against the thermal head 5 and rotates in the direction of the arrow to move the perforating master 1 in a predetermined direction (sub-scanning direction). The thermal recording head 5 is a recording element in which a large number of heating elements are arranged in a direction (main scanning direction) orthogonal to the sub-scanning direction, and is driven by a drive signal supplied from a drive circuit 7 of the thermal recording head. That is, when an image signal created by an original reading of a RIS (raster input scanner) or an output signal of a word processor is supplied to the thermal recording head drive circuit 7, a drive signal is generated, and accordingly, the heating element 4 responds to the image information according to the image information. It is selectively energized to generate heat. When the heating element 4 generates heat, the corresponding portion of the biaxially stretched film 3 on the surface of the perforating master 1 is heated. In this way, the biaxially stretched film is heat-shrinked, perforated and plate-formed. In this plate making process, the image signal supplied to the drive circuit is processed by the control circuit provided inside the drive circuit system so as to form a mirror image. On the other hand, when recording is performed on a normal thermal recording medium, processing is performed so as to form a normal image.

More specifically, the control circuit stores a binary image signal corresponding to one line of the original image in the RAM as data for each line, and the address of the RAM corresponding to the reading order of the data of the RAM. Are stored in the ROM in the order of addresses. Further, means for accessing the ROM is also provided, and switching between the normal image and the mirror image, that is, the switching between the normal recording mode and the plate making mode is achieved depending on whether the ROM is sequentially accessed from the beginning or the end of the address.

Next, the basic structure of the perforating master of FIG. 1 is shown in FIG.

In the perforated master 1, a biaxially stretched film 3 is attached to one surface of a porous base material 2. As the porous base material 2, there are natural fibers such as Manila hemp, Kozo, Mitsumata,
As the main raw material, synthetic fibers such as tetron, vinylon and acrylic, and semi-synthetic fibers such as rayon can be used.
As another base material, a material obtained by weaving fibers having a thickness of about 20 to 70 μm such as nylon, polyester, polypropylene, and tetron can be used. Biaxially stretched film 3 has 1
A polyester film of .about.5 .mu. Is preferred. The biaxially stretched film 3 is adhered to the porous base material 2 with an adhesive. As the adhesive, an adhesive made of a saturated polyester resin, an acrylic resin, a polyvinyl resin, a polystyrene resin, or the like can be used. The adhesive is the solid content after drying
It is used by dissolving an amount of 0.5 to 2.0 g / m ^{2 in} an appropriate amount of solvent.

Next, the result of an experiment using the above-mentioned thermal image recording device will be described.

First, in the plate making mode, the film surface of the perforated master, in which the polyethylene terephthalate film of about 3μ biaxially stretched is attached to the base of thin paper on the heating element part of the thermal recording head of 8 dots / mm, is brought into close contact with the thermal recording. The head was driven in mirror image mode to form a perforated image. The printing conditions of the thermal head are applied voltage of 25V and applied time of 2 m se
It was c. The film surface of the perforation master was perforated in the form of a mirror image, and a clear normal image was obtained by printing in a usual manner with a transcription printer. Next, in a normal recording mode, thermal recording paper was used instead of the perforated master, the thermal recording layer was brought into close contact with the heating element portion, and the thermal recording head was driven in the normal image mode for recording. The printing conditions of the thermal recording head are applied voltage of 25 V and applied time of 1 msec.
Met. As a result, a clear and normal image was obtained on the thermosensitive recording paper.

〔The invention's effect〕

In the heat-sensitive image recording apparatus of the present invention, normal recording and plate making can be performed by the same apparatus, so that it is not only cost effective but also necessary space can be reduced as compared with providing separate apparatuses.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the basic structure of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of a perforation master which can be used in the thermal image recording apparatus of the present invention. 1 ... Perforation master, 2 ... Porous base material, 3 ... Biaxially stretched film, 4 ... Heating element, 5 ... Thermal recording head, 6 ... Pressure roller, 7 ... Driving circuit, 8 ... Control circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A thermal image recording apparatus comprising a thermal recording head having a heating element for applying heat to a recording medium to record an image, and a drive circuit for selectively driving the heating element according to an input image signal. In, in order to selectively record an image of either a normal image or a mirror image on the recording layer of the recording medium brought into close contact with the thermal recording head, the order of the drive signals from the drive circuit to the heating element is controlled. A thermal image recording apparatus comprising a control circuit for controlling the thermal image recording apparatus.