JPS63128963A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the number of replenishing works by half and to facilitate maintenance, by a method wherein paper, a sheet material and a battery are received in a cassette and the length of the paper is made almost equal to that of the sheet material and the power consumed during feed is accumulated in the battery. CONSTITUTION:Papers 3 are received in a cassette 1 on the under side of a partition plate 4 and a battery 18 is further received below the paper 3. The power necessary for forming an image to all of the papers 3 is accumulated in the battery 18 and a sheet material 1 is received in the cassette 1 on the upper side of the partition plate 4. Each of the papers 3 is a cut sheet and the sheet material 2 is an ink ribbon 3 supporting a sublimable dye. The long sheet material is folded back at a predetermined interval and subsequently further folded half so as to provide a space to the inside to be received. The upper surface of the leading end part of the paper 3 received in the cassette 1 is constantly in contact with a feeding roller 8. In addition, a cutter 13 is provided to the upper surface of an opening part 17. This cutter 13 is used when the sheet material 12 exposed to outside from the opening part 17 is cut.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (AL industrial field of application) This invention is an image forming process in which an image is formed by driving a print head based on transmitted image data and transferring ink carried on a sheet material onto a paper surface. The present invention relates to a forming device.

(1)) Prior Art In a small, portable image forming apparatus, image data read by an image reading section is sent to a printing section, and a print head is driven based on this image data. In small-sized image forming apparatuses, a thermal head is used as this print head. In the printing section, the print head comes into contact with a sheet material that is in close contact with the surface of the paper. This sheet material supports heat-melting ink or sublimation dye, and is generally called an ink ribbon. By driving the thermal head, ink carried by the ink ribbon is transferred onto the surface of the paper, forming an image corresponding to the image data. As described above, it is necessary to bring the paper and the ink ribbon into close contact with each other in the printing section, so in conventional image forming apparatuses, the ink ribbon and the paper are stored separately, and the ink ribbon and the ink ribbon are stored separately at the thermal head position. It constitutes the transport route.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in conventional image forming apparatuses, paper and ink ribbon are stored separately, and the amount of storage does not match, so when the stored paper and ink ribbon run out. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a system for storing paper and sheet materials inside the apparatus. By storing paper and sheet materials in a single member and matching the storage amount so that they run out at the same time, it is possible to replenish them at once, reducing the number of replenishment operations by half and simplifying maintenance. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that can perform

(Means for Solving Problem d1) The image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a sheet material carrying ink and a print head device that transfers ink from the sheet material to the surface of the paper based on image data. In the forming device, a sheet material having a length approximately equal to the total conveyance distance of the paper and a battery that stores power consumed while all of the paper and sheet material are conveyed are stored, and one main body is detachable. The present invention is characterized by comprising a freely adjustable cassette and a conveying means for conveying paper and sheet material at the same speed for the print head device.

(e) Function In the present invention, the paper and the sheet material are transported at the same speed to the print head device by the transport means. Therefore, the lengths of paper and sheet material conveyed per ζ unit time are equal. Paper, sheet materials, and batteries are stored in the cassette. The lengths of the stored paper and sheet materials are approximately equal, and the battery stores power that is consumed while all of the paper and sheet materials are conveyed. From the above, if all the sheets stored in the cassette are conveyed, all the sheet materials will be conveyed, and at the same time, all the battery power will be consumed.

Further, the cassette is removably attached to the main body, and paper, sheet materials, and batteries can be replenished by replacing the cassette.

(f) Embodiment FIG. 1 is a schematic front sectional view showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus which is an embodiment of the present invention.

The image forming apparatus main body 16 can be opened and closed using a hinge 16a as a fulcrum. On the top surface of the image forming apparatus main body 16,
A document table 15 made of transparent hard glass is formed. The upper surface of this document table 15 is a document cover 14 that can be opened and closed freely.
covered by. A light source 2 is provided on the underside of the document table 15.
2. Focusing light transmitter lens 23 and CCD array 2
4 is provided so as to be horizontally movable in the direction of arrow A or B. This reading section 21 is driven by a stepping motor M2, which will be described later, and is driven by arrows A and B.
Move back and forth in the direction.

A cassette l is placed on a mounting plate 5 at the lower inside of the image forming apparatus main body 16 . This mounting plate 5 is supported by a rotating shaft 6. Further, one end of a coil spring 7 is attached to the lower surface of the mounting plate 5. The inside of the cassette 1 is divided into two stages, upper and lower, by a partition plate 4. Paper 3 is stored below the partition plate 4, and a battery 18 is further stored below the paper 3. This battery 18
The power necessary to form an image on all of the paper 3 is stored in the . A sheet material 1 is stored above the partition plate 4. Paper 3 is a cut sheet cut to a standard size. The sheet material 2 is an ink ribbon carrying a sublimation dye, and is stored in a state in which a long sheet material is folded at predetermined intervals and then folded in half with a space provided inside.

An opening 17 is provided on one side of the image forming apparatus main body 10 . Inside the image forming apparatus 16, a paper feed roller 8, a tension roller 10, and a platen roller 11 are provided between the cassette 1 and the opening 17.

Driving force is supplied to the paper feed roller 8 and the platen roller 11 by a stepping motor M1, which will be described later. A guide 9 is provided between the paper feed roller 8 and the platen roller 11. The paper feed roller 8 contacts the leading edge of the upper surface of the paper stored in the cassette 1, and rotates to feed the paper one by one toward the platen roller 11. The guide 9 guides the leading edge of the paper fed by the paper feed roller 8 to the platen roller 11 . A tension roller 10 applies a constant tension to the sheet material 2 pulled out from the inside after being folded in half.A thermal head 12 is in contact with a platen roller 11, with the paper 3 and the sheet material 2 in between. The thermal head 12 is driven by a head drive unit (not shown),
Heat the sheet material. Due to this heating, the sublimation dye carried by the sheet material is transferred to the surface of the paper 3.

Note that the length of the sheet material 2 in the direction in which it is pulled out is slightly longer than the total length of the sheets stored in the cassette 1 in the conveyance direction. Further, the width of the sheet material 2 in the direction perpendicular to the conveying direction is equal to the width of the paper 3. Further, due to the elastic force of the spring 7 in the direction of the arrow C, a force in the direction of the arrow is applied to the mounting table 5 and the cassette 1 with the rotating shaft 6 as a fulcrum, and the top surface of the leading end of the paper 3 stored in the cassette l is always in contact with the paper feed roller 8. In addition, a cutter 13 is provided on the upper surface of the opening 17. This cutter 13 is used when cutting the sheet material 2 exposed to the outside from the opening 17.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a conveying means provided in the image forming apparatus.

Gear M fixed to the rotating shaft of stepping motor M1
1a meshes with the transmission gear 8a and the transmission gear llb. The speed change gear 8a is fixed coaxially with the paper feed roller 8. The transmission gear llb meshes with a speed change gear 11a fixed coaxially with the platen roller 11. Gear M
The number of teeth of transmission gear 1a and transmission gear 11b is the same. Also,
The ratio of the number of teeth between the speed change gear 8a and the speed change gear lla is made equal to the ratio between the diameters of the platen roller 11 and the paper feed roller 8. From the above, the paper feed roller 8 and the platen roller 11 rotate in the same direction at the same circumferential speed in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control section of the image forming apparatus.

The CPU 31 outputs control data to the lamp drive section 30, head drive section 37, and motor drive section 38 according to the program written in the ROM 32. At this time, R.A.
A part of M33 is used as a working area.

The lamp driving section 35 turns on the lamp 22 when reading an image. The reflected light from the lamp 22 passes through the lens 23 to the CCD.
Array 24 is reached. Each C constituting the CCD array 24
The CD outputs a voltage corresponding to the amount of light that has arrived, and this output voltage is binarized by a binarization circuit 36 and input to the CPU 31 via the I10 interface 34. The image data input from the binarization circuit 36 is temporarily stored in a data buffer and output to the head drive section 37. The head driving section 37 drives each element constituting the thermal head 12 based on image data. Furthermore, the motor drive section 38 is
Stepping motors M1 and M2 are driven according to the control data output from U31.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the image forming apparatus.

Before starting the operation, the reading unit 21 moves in the direction of arrow B on the document table 15.
A lens 23 is stopped at a position facing the end of the direction. When a start switch (not shown) is turned on after a document is placed on the document table 15 (nl), the stepping motor M
1, a drive pulse of pulse number A is output. This number of pulses A corresponds to the amount of rotation of the stepping motor M1 required to move the leading end of the paper 3 stored in the cassette 1 from the position of the paper feed roller 8 to the position of the platen roller 11. After this, the lamp 22 is driven (n3), and the CCD
Image data of the original image is read by the array 24 (n4
), and sends this image data to the head drive section 37 (n
5). The CCD array 24 is arranged in a line in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the reading section 21, and the range that can be read at one time in the moving direction of the reading section 21 is equal to the range in the paper conveyance direction that can be printed at one time by the thermal head 12. .

After this, output one driving pulse to stepping motors Ml and M2.n6. n7), and increments the counter C (n8). This counter C is the stepping motor M1. Count the number of pulses output to M2. That is, the amount of movement of the reading unit 21 and the amount of conveyance of the paper 3 are measured.

Note that the reduction ratio when the rotation of the stepping motor M2 is transmitted to the reading unit 21 is equal to the reduction ratio when the rotation of the stepping motor M1 is transmitted to the paper feed roller 8. Therefore, the reading section 21 moves at a speed equal to the transport speed of the paper 3.

The above steps n4 to n8 are repeated until the contents of the counter C match the set value N (n9). This set value N is the number of pulses corresponding to the amount of rotation of the pulse motor M2 necessary for the reading section 21 to move over the entire surface of the document table 15. When the contents of counter C match the set value N, lamp 2
2 is turned off (nlO), and the driving pulse of the number N of pulses is inverted and outputted to the stepping motor M1 (nll).
Finish the operation. At this time, the reading unit 21 is placed at the position before the start of operation, that is, at the end of the document table 15 in the direction of arrow B.
3 has returned to the opposing position.

Through the above operations, image data is read every time the stepping motors M1 and M2 are driven one pulse at a time.
An image corresponding to the image data is formed on the paper 3 by the thermal head 12 . As the reading section 21 moves, the paper 3 is conveyed to the thermal head 12, and images are formed one after another. As the paper 3 is transported, the ink ribbon 2 is pulled out, and new ink ribbons are successively brought into close contact with the surface of the paper between the thermal head 12 and the platen roller 11. The ink ribbon 2 is made by folding a long sheet material to a certain length and then folding it in half with a space provided in the center. Since the ink ribbon 2 is pulled out from this central portion, almost no contact resistance occurs during pulling out, and it can be easily pulled out continuously. Furthermore, since the rotation of the stepping motor 2 is simultaneously transmitted to the paper feed roller 8, tension roller 10, and platen roller 11, the ink ribbon 2 is The same amount will be withdrawn. Therefore, the ink ribbon 2 has the paper feed roller 8 and the platen roller 1 along the length of the paper 3 in the transport direction.
1 multiplied by the number of sheets of paper stored.

Note that by configuring the paper feed roller 8 to be able to rotate independently from the platen roller 11 using a renoid, it is possible to prevent the sheet material 2 from being pulled out before the leading edge of the paper 3 reaches the platen roller 11. , cassette 1
The length of the sheet material 2 to be stored inside can be shortened. Further, the sheet material 2 exposed to the outside from the discharge port 17 can be cut by contacting the cutter 13, and the used sheet material 2 can be discarded. Therefore, there is no need to collect the used sheet material 2 inside the device, and the device can be downsized.

(a) Effects of the Invention According to the invention, paper, sheet material, and buffing material are consumed almost simultaneously in the cassette.

Moreover, these papers, sheet materials, and batteries are all housed in a single cassette, and all of these can be replenished at once by replacing the cassette. Therefore, the number of replenishment operations can be reduced and maintenance can be facilitated.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an image forming apparatus that is an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a front view of the main part showing a conveying means that constitutes a part of the image forming apparatus, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the control section of the image forming apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the image forming apparatus. 1-cassette, 2-ink ribbon, 3-paper, 8-paper feed roller, 11-platen roller, 12-thermal head, 3a, 11a-transmission gear, 18-battery, Ml-stepping motor. 3rd #A 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In an image forming apparatus comprising a sheet material carrying ink and a print head device that transfers ink from the sheet material to the surface of the paper based on image data, a length approximately equal to the total transport distance of the paper and the paper. A cassette that stores the sheet material, paper, and a battery that stores power consumed while all of the sheet material is transported, and is detachably attached to the main body, and a print head device that stores the paper and sheet material. An image forming apparatus comprising: a conveying means for conveying the images at the same speed.