JPS5955769A - Heat sensitive recording system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to achieve high speed precise recording, by a method wherein a plurality of thermal heads each having such a configuration that rod-shaped thermal elements are gathered in parallel are arranged with respect to recording paper at predetermined intervals and each thereof is put in supporting recording at a predetermined position. CONSTITUTION:Each thermal head 10 is formed by gathering rod shaped thermal elements 11 is parallel and heaters 12 are provided to one end part thereof while lead wires 13 are extended to the other end part thereof. Two of these thermal heads 10A, 10B are provided, for example, at an interval of 10mm. and put in charge of recording positions with respect to heat sensitive recording paper 21 conveyed through pinch rollers 22A, 22B while the recording informations, which are obtained by subjecting the image data from the other apparatus to treatment such as modulation in a control part to store the same, from line memory 23 are imparted at every a predetermined amount to perform recording in charge. By this method, the speed acceleration of recording is achieved, a precise recording image is obtained, a line image can be made thick and multi-color recording can be performed.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical backbone of the invention] This invention relates to an improvement in a thermal recording method.

[Technical background of the invention]

A conventional thermal head has a structure in which a heating element 2 is formed on a flat plate 1 by thick film technology or thin film technology, as shown in FIG.

Therefore, when performing thermal recording using such a thermal head 3, as shown in FIG.
The pinch roller 5 is rotated by a drive motor (not shown) to sub-scan the thermal recording paper 4, and a voltage is applied to the heating element 2 from a printed circuit (not shown).

[Problems with background technology]

However, in such a conventional thermal recording method, the thermal head 3 has a flat shape and the heating element 2 is formed on a flat surface, so the area occupied by the thermal head 3 on the thermal recording paper 4 is large, and multiple It was impossible to perform heat-sensitive recording by arranging a thermal head in the sub-scanning direction.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention was devised in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional heat-sensitive recording method, and its purpose is to provide a heat-sensitive recording method that is capable of recording with high accuracy and high speed.

[Summary of the invention]

Therefore, in the present invention, a thermal head, which has a shape in which rod-shaped thermal elements are assembled in parallel, has a heating element at one end, and a gland extending from the other end, is attached to the recording paper at a predetermined interval. A plurality of thermal heads are arranged, and each thermal head is assigned to record at a predetermined position.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a thermal head used in the present invention. This thermal head 1 (J) is formed by collecting bar-shaped thermal elements 11 in parallel, and one end (the upper end in the figure) is a heating element 12.
2 and the other end (lower end in the figure) so that a tow line 13 extends from the other end (lower end in the figure).

FIG. 4 is a block diagram for explaining the present invention in detail, and in this example, two (IMI thermal head 10A,
IOBs are provided at intervals of, for example, 10+nm. In this example, a thermal recording paper 21 is used, and the thermal recording paper 21 is attached to a pinch roller 22A.

22B part, thermal spatula)' IOA,
It is being pressed lightly by IOB K.

The thermal heads IOA and IOB are given a predetermined amount of recording information from the line memory B, and when they are given recording information corresponding to a pixel position that should be recorded in "black", the thermal head IOA and IOB automatically turn the power supply on to the pixel position corresponding to that pixel position. Heating element (12 in Figure 3)
) is applied. Sae indicates a receiving unit, and in this example, image data sent from another device is subjected to processing such as demodulation under the control of a control unit 50, and is stored as recorded information in line memory B. .

FIG. 5 is a plan view for explaining the thermal recording performed in FIG. 4, and shows the pixel position P1 + )'2+ P3 + --- to be recorded by the heating element of the thermal head IOA.
+Pn and the pixel position p; , p, p, l ---+p, which is to be recorded by the heating element of Zuma) rrad 10T3 are shifted by one pixel in the vertical direction. Then, 7.7 h n1 is applied to the direction (■) in which the thermal recording paper 21 is sub-travelled.
37a, and the line memory B is capable of storing necessary table recording information for each main scanning line, for example, in addresses Add O to Add 76.

Assume that recording information corresponding to 77 raw scanning lines is now stored in the line memory z3. Therefore, the control unit 5
The recorded information is read out from the recording information, passes through a mask circuit that masks odd-numbered bits, and is applied to the thermal head IOH.

As a result, even-numbered pixels of the first main scanning line are not recorded. Next, the control unit 5 performs 7.7 J7ine /
Sub-scanning is performed for an amount equivalent to ran, and the recorded information of Addl in line memory B is read out, and is passed through the mask circuit in the same manner as above to be applied to the thermal head IOH. Repeat this action 76 times in the same manner. During this time, no recording information is given to the thermal spatula)"1 (IA). As a result, the thermal recording paper 21 shifts from the state indicated by the one-dot chain line in FIG. 5 to the state indicated by the two-dot chain line.

Therefore, the control unit 5 provides the thermal head IOA with recorded information read from AddO of line memory B and passed through a mask circuit that masks even-numbered bits.

At the same time, the control unit 5 reads the recorded information from the Add76 of the line memory B, passes it through a mask circuit that masks the odd-numbered bits, and applies it to the thermal head IOH. As a result, the pixel position of the first main scanning line is the pixel position recorded at this time P1 + P2 + P3 +
---+ Pyl and the recording position indicated by the broken line where it was recorded 76 times ago means that everything has been recorded. Therefore, the control unit simultaneously performs the sub-scanning of '77.7■.
The recorded information from to Add76 is sequentially sent in the direction of the younger address, and the recorded information of the 78th main scanning line is newly taken out from the receiving section U and added to Add76 of line memo IJ 23.
Store in. The recording is repeated in the same manner, and the recording information of the final main scanning line is added to Add76 of line memo IJ 23.
The thermal head I of the final main scanning line
No recording information is given to the thermal head IOB in the 76th recording operation after the OB has recorded at both positions. By doing this, positions in the same main scanning line are allocated and recorded. By performing such a recording operation, high speed,
Precise recording can be performed with a narrow inter-pixel interval.

Figure 7 shows recordings made on different main scanning lines, using two thermal spatulas) 'IOA' and IOB.
If the spacing of ' is further shifted by, for example, 1/z x 1/7.7 wm, an image that is twice as precise in the sub-scanning direction can be obtained. Furthermore, it is also possible to increase the speed of the different thermal heads IOA' and IOB' of this embodiment by dividing them into two, for a total of four, as shown in FIG.

Figure 8 shows two thermal heads IOA" and IOB.
"The recording is performed at the same pixel position on the same main scanning line with ".This is effective when, for example, you want to draw thick powder to draw a line drawing.Furthermore, each thermal head IOA", If thermal transfer paper of different colors is placed under the IOB'' and plain paper is used in place of the thermal recording paper 21, multicolor recording is also possible. In this case, Figure 5,
If the recording operations shown in FIG. 6 are performed together, the speed can be increased, and if the recording operations shown in FIG. 7 are performed together, the density of pixels can be obtained in the sub-scanning direction.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to increase the speed of recording and also to obtain a precise recording surface. Furthermore, it can be applied to various fields (for example, thickening line drawings, multicolor recording, etc.).

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a conventional thermal head, Fig. 2 is a diagram for explaining the recording operation using the conventional thermal head, Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the thermal head used in the present invention, and Fig. 4 is a diagram for explaining the recording operation using the conventional thermal head. A block diagram of a recording device using the present invention, FIG.
7 and 8 are diagrams for explaining the present invention in detail, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a line memory used in the example of FIG. 5. 1.0, IOA, IOB, IOA',
IOB', IOA", 10]3/'...Thermal head 11...Thermal element 12...Heating element 13...Lead wire 21...(thermal) recording paper agent Patent attorney Book 1) Takashi Diagram 1
Figure 2 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A thermal head, which has a shape in which rod-shaped thermal resistors are assembled in parallel and has a heating element at one end and a lead wire extending to the other end, is placed against the recording paper after a predetermined interval. A thermal recording method characterized in that a plurality of thermal heads are arranged and each thermal head is responsible for recording at a predetermined position. (2) The thermal recording method according to claim (1), wherein recording is performed by allocating pixel positions in the same main scanning line using a plurality of thermal heads. (3) A thermal recording method according to claim 1, characterized in that recording is performed at the same pixel position in the main scan by a plurality of thermal heads. (4) The thermal recording method according to claim (1), wherein recording is performed at pixel positions in different main scanning lines using a plurality of thermal heads.