JPS62146650A - Printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to print a high quality character or image even on receiving paper inferior in surface smoothness or a film inferior in the compatibility with ink, by providing such a structure that ink is not contacted with a medium to be transferred at a non-recording part and applying heat energy in a state timewise divided into plural times when heat energy is applied from a thermal head. CONSTITUTION:A thermal head 21 is used as a heat energy applying means and a permanent magnet 26 is used as a magnetic attraction force generating means and, at the time of non-recording, an ink medium 22 is not contacted with receiving paper 25 to hold the interval between both of them at 100mum. The ink medium to be used is prepared by uniformly applying thermoplastic magnetic ink 24 to a PET film 23 with a thickness of 6mum in a thickness of 6mum. A pulse is generated in a pulse generating part 51 to be combined with the reversal pulse obtained by reversing the pulse generated in a pulse generating part 52 by an inverter 54 at NAND54 and the combined pulse is allowed to flow to the base of a transistor 55 to apply voltage to a thermal head heat generating part 56.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a non-impact printing device, and more specifically, to a non-impact printing device that transfers thermoplastic magnetic ink to a transfer medium using the action of heat and magnetism. The present invention relates to a printing method for obtaining two characters and one image.

[Conventional technology]

As a small, low-cost, non-impact printing method.

Many new methods have been proposed using magnetic ink. For example, the method described in *9.6541/1973.

4JR ink is used as the ink for the bath melting thermal transfer method, and one is installed in the one-shot means provided separately from the heat supply means.

A magnetic attraction force is applied to the ink corresponding to the thermal image to transfer the image. That is, as shown in FIG. 11, the thermal head 111 - ink medium 112 - transfer paper 115
- A1 stones 116 are placed in this order, and the thermoplastic magnetic ink 114 of the ink medium is brought into contact with the transfer paper when heat is applied to the base film 113 by the thermal head (directly below the head), and the ink is coated with the ink. After adhering to the transfer, the ink medium is peeled off from the transfer paper to perform the ink transfer process. Furthermore, the magnetic attraction force is added with the effect of increasing the probability of contact of the bath-melted ink with the transfer paper, and the effect of increasing the transfer rate to the paper when the ink medium is peeled off, resulting in poor surface smoothness. . This makes it possible to print a single character image with high quality even on rough paper.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, when the ink medium is peeled off, the ink in the recording area to be transferred is in contact with the base film and the ink in the non-recording area.
The ink is molten, adhered to the transfer paper, and then peeled off from the transfer paper along with the entire base film of the ink in the recording section, which causes transfer defects. In the 10th port, in general thermal transfer recording, Fum (ink-to-transfer paper adhesion force) and Pi (ink cohesive force), which are the accelerating forces for transferring the recording part ink to the transfer target, and the transfer power to hinder,
1Fa (ink-base film adhesive strength) and IFD
C Cohesive force between recording area ink and non-recording area ink) -F
Il l Fm)) F a, ? If the relationship I) always holds true, the transfer is perfectly performed. In the same figure, 1101 is base film-1[]2i ink in the recording area, 103 is ink in the non-recording area, and 104 is the transfer paper.

The conventional method has the effect of pulling the melted recording part ink toward the transfer paper using a magnetic attraction force, increasing the probability of contact with the transfer paper, and increasing the PAi in FIG. 10. In other words, although the ink transfer rate is higher than that of general thermal transfer methods, it is still -pa, l.
t'b exists, especially when transferring to paper with very poor surface smoothness, the above-mentioned F m (F o +
There is a problem in that the case of Fn occurs and transfer defects occur.The present invention therefore solves this problem by using this technique.
The purpose of this is 1) A printing method that can print very high quality character 0 images even on transfer paper with very poor surface smoothness, and on film that does not have a high affinity with ink. It's there to provide.

[The tth way to solve the problem]

The printing force method of the present invention includes a means 11 for applying thermal energy to a recording portion 13 of thermoplastic magnetic ink as shown in FIG.
This is a printing method in which the ink has all means 15 for generating (111-attractive force), and the recording part molecules of the ink are transferred to the transfer medium 14 by magnetic attraction force. , *a indicates that the ink and the transfer medium do not come into contact with each other at the non-recording portion 12 of the ink (F'M is a magnetic attraction vector).
In the above printing method, thermal energy t! :I]7J
It is assumed that the IJ means is a thermal head.Furthermore, in the above printing method, when applying thermal energy to a single head, the thermal energy may be applied multiple times in a time-divided manner. It is characterized by

[Effect]

With the above configuration of the present invention, the thermoplastic magnetic ink and the transfer medium do not come into contact with each other in the non-recording portion of the ink. Thus, ink transfer is effected by magnetic attraction in the thermally activated state of the ink, and the prior art process of peeling off the ink medium is unnecessary. That is, the first
In figure 0.

Since FO and F'B, which were hindering the transfer, become 0, the transfer rate becomes very high.Additionally, even during ink transfer according to the present invention, the FOIF in FIG. 11 mentioned above!
+ refers to resistance to ink transfer, but since the ink is activated, the resistance is small when peeling off (when the ink temperature has dropped).

Since it is non-contact, there is very little heat loss due to a part of the applied thermal energy being transferred to the transfer target or the like.

Furthermore, the melted state of the ink can be maintained for a long time without unnecessarily increasing the temperature of the ink by applying thermal energy in multiple steps.

For this reason, less energy is applied (compared to conventional contact type) and the transfer rate is extremely high.

[Practice 1j] 2 Figure 2 shows a diagram of the construction of an embodiment of the present invention. , a thermal head 21 is used as a thermal energy applying means.

As shown in Figure 0, a permanent magnet 26 is used as a magnetic attraction force generating means. During non-recording (ζ, the ink medium 22 and the transferred object, i25 are not in contact with each other, and the 90 ink is maintained at a total interval of 100 μm directly below the head. The medium used was a PET film 23 with a thickness of 6 μm, uniformly coated with the following igO thermocrystalline a% ink 24 to a thickness of 6 μm. [Composition] 1 Magnetite fine particles 40 wt, %2 Karna Uba wax 20wt Chi 3 Paraffin wax 30wt Chi 4 Fli V A
5 wt%5 Dispersant
1wt Chiro dye 4w
The melting point of t% is 70°C ± 5°C. Permanent stone is -a large energy a15MG Ørsted's sami stone is used for printing with a thermal head of 1 resolution i [180DPI.

Printing was performed by connecting to the pulses using the circuit shown in FIG. 3(a), and applying a voltage per dot to the thermal head heating resistor 34 as shown in FIG. 3(b).5. Ov application time Q, 7m, J! c Do your best to speak fc.

The shape of the dots printed at this time is much sharper than the dots printed using conventional heat transfer, and the dots are of high quality and have a high temperature. This is because the 4-force type is non-contact, and there is less heat escaping and staining.In addition, the torn transfer paper used had a Peck smoothness of 4 seconds.

[Example] 2 The temperature change of the ink in the underground cell 911 is recorded and shown in FIG. 4. According to this, 11m5 after applying the applied pulse
After EC, the temperature begins to rise and reaches 70°, which is the melting point of the ink.
α' reaches C! It is after m5ec.

7' (1, Om Around 5IIC, the temperature has reached around 20 °C.

Since printing is only possible when the ink has a temperature above its melting point, that is, when the ink melts, the actual effective printing time is 0.3 mg when the temperature is 70°C or above.

The circuit shown in FIG. 5(a) was created in order to lengthen the actual effective printing time.7'C.

Pulse-IEf) The IS51 generates a pulse, the pulse generated by the pulse generator 52 is inverted by the inverter 53, and the pulse is combined with the NAND54.

By flowing the voltage to the base of the transistor 550, a voltage is applied to the heating section 56 of the thermal head as shown in FIG. We are friends and other conditions (we haven't changed much).

According to this, the actual printing effective time is 0.2 mz.

When printing was performed using this application pulse, a print of higher quality and higher density than that obtained in Example 1 was obtained.

There is also a method of simply increasing the applied voltage by lengthening the application time without dividing the applied pulse into seven parts, but if you record the temperature change at this time, you can increase the application time and see Figure 7. When the applied voltage is increased as shown in (a), the result becomes as shown in FIG. 7 (1), and in both cases, there are places where the effective printing time (increases) exceeds -200'Ci.

If the temperature exceeds 200'C, the PET that is the support layer will soften and change its shape, and in the worst case, the ink film may be cut or thermal damage may occur.

Further, as the temperature of the magnetite particles in the ink increases, the output becomes weaker, and when the temperature exceeds 200°C, the 6 atmosphere suction force becomes weaker. For this reason, it is better to simply lengthen the application time without dividing the entire applied pulse.

The method of simply increasing the applied voltage t is inappropriate for printing.

From now on, when the application is effective...In order to increase the number by 1, it is preferable to add one pulse at a time.

[Example] 3 Pulse performed in Example 2? , the printing energy +C has been reduced as much as possible, and the settings have been reset so that the time during which the ink remains above the melting point and below 200'C is reconfigured.
) All printing was done using the circuit shown in ).

The next pulse generated by the pulse generating section 81, the pulse generated by the pulse generating section 82, which is inverted by the inverter 83, the pulse generated by the pulse generating section 84, which is inverted by the inverter 85, and the pulse generated by the pulse generating section 86 are generated by the inverter 87. The inverted outputs are combined in the NANDl path 88 and flowed to the transistor 890 to generate the thermal head heat generating part 9.
At 0, a voltage is applied as shown in FIG. 8 (1)).

Recording the temperature change of the ink at this time, as shown in Fig. 9, the effective printing time was IIL8m, Oc.

The applied power at this time is s, o (v) x (o, s+α1×3) [m
5elc] = 18 (mw:]. When printing was performed using this applied pulse, even higher quality printing was achieved than in Example 1.

If printing is not possible even with these 1-division pulse settings other than those in [Example 2.3], do not proceed.

Furthermore, if the melting point of the ink or the resistance value of the heating element of the thermal head changes, the settings of the applied voltage and divided pulses may be changed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the above-mentioned method, the present invention includes a manual device for applying thermal energy to the recording portion of the thermoplastic magnetic ink and a means for generating can air suction force to the ink, and controls the thermal energy stamping hole. 8vCxL In a printing device that transfers the recording portion 1 of the ink to the transfer medium using magnetic attraction force, the ink and the transfer medium are structured so that they do not come into contact with each other in the non-recording portion of the ink. The process of peeling off the ink film with technology becomes inconvenient, and.

It has become possible to reduce the force that was a factor in lowering the ink transfer rate in the conventional technology. This essentially solves the problem with the conventional technology of poor printing quality on transfer paper with a very rough surface, that is, rough paper.
It has the effect of being able to print very high quality characters because it is affected by the surface condition of the transfer paper.

Ninth, it is non-intrusive, and a part of the applied fc thermal energy is not transferred to the object to be transferred and lost, resulting in extremely low heat loss.

-Furthermore, since the thermal energy is applied several times, the t6 melting state of the ink can be maintained for a long time without unnecessarily increasing the temperature of the ink.

This t also has the effect of being able to print even higher quality characters with less energy than the conventional contact type.

Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the following.

Thermoplastic fB 2 is useful for controlling thermal energy
This method is effective for all printing methods in which a part of the recording is transferred to a destructible transfer medium using 4!1 suction force.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Yui! FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle of the printing method of the present invention. Figure 2 (Figure 3 showing one groove formed by C1 invention)
The figure is a diagram showing a circuit and pulses applied to the thermal head in Example 1. FIG. 4 is a t diagram recording the temperature change of the ink in Example 1. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a circuit and pulses applied to the thermal head in Example 2. FIG. 6 is a diagram recording the temperature change of ink in Example 2. Figure 7 (C) is a diagram recording the temperature change of ink when no Hals division is performed. Figure 8 is a diagram showing the circuit and pulses applied to the thermal head in actual gun example 3. Figure 9 is This is a diagram recording the temperature change of the ink in Example 5. Figure 10 is a diagram illustrating each electric power acting on the ink when the ink medium is peeled off in a general thermal transfer force type. 11 is a principle diagram of a conventional printing method. 11... Thermal energy stamping means 12... Ink non-recording area 13... Ink recording area 14... Transfer plot 15. ...Magnetic attraction force generating means FM...3 air attraction vector 21...Thermal head 22...Ink medium 23...Base film 24...Thermoplastic B air ink 25...Transfer paper 26 ...Permanent magnet 27...More than the printed dot Applicant Seiko Epson Co., Ltd. Claw C] Fig. 4 (α) Fig. 5 Application time Etlt5eC3 (b) Between application vj[/!n5ec 1 Fig. 6 mark〃0@view [Infection5ec1 Fig. 7 Fig. 8 Fig. 8 Fig. 9 AFB @IO diagram Figure 11

Claims (1)

[Claims] It has a means for applying thermal energy to a recorded portion of thermoplastic magnetic ink and a means for generating a magnetic attraction force to the ink, and by controlling the application of thermal energy, the recorded portion of the ink is transferred to a transfer medium by the magnetic attraction force. This is a printing method in which the ink and the transfer medium are not transferred at the recording area of the ink, but the thermal energy for printing one dot is time-divided into two or more times to transfer the ink to the ink. A printing method characterized in that a voltage is applied to the image.