Ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism of thermal transfer printer

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD [Detailed description of the invention]

【0001】

[Technical field to which the invention belongs]

The present invention relates to an ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism that strongly holds an ink ribbon cassette in a thermal transfer printing machine.

【0002】

[Previous technology]

Generally, in order to indicate the type and function of an electric wire incorporated in an electric facility such as a switchboard, characters and symbols are printed on the tube and the tube is attached to the electric wire. In addition, a tape displaying the title and contents is attached to the spine of a book or a binder, and this tape also has characters or the like printed on the surface.

【0003】

In either case, printing is performed by a thermal transfer printing machine, but in the thermal transfer printing machine, a material to be printed such as a tube or tape is placed between a platen roller and a printing head in which an ink ribbon is arranged inside. It sandwiches and pressurizes, heats the print head to melt the ink on the ink ribbon, and heat-transfers letters and symbols to a tube or tape.

【0004】

By the way, when the ink ribbon cassette is attached to the thermal transfer printing machine, the ink ribbon cassette must be held so as not to move. Therefore, conventionally, the elasticity of the synthetic resin member presses or engages the ink ribbon cassette to hold it.

【0005】

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

However, the ink ribbon cassette has a detent by forming a notch in a part of the cassette container and engaging it with the ink ribbon shaft so that the ink ribbon inside does not rotate freely when it is not attached. There is. In a cassette equipped with this type of detent, the tape reel rotation shaft provided in the printing machine body pushes up the detent and disengages the tape reel by being mounted on the printing machine body. It has become. According to this method, since the pushing force applied to the ink ribbon cassette at the time of release is large, it cannot be sufficiently held by the conventional holding mechanism using the synthetic resin member.

【0006】

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide an ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism of a thermal transfer printing machine capable of reliably holding an ink ribbon cassette mounted on the thermal transfer printing machine.

【0007】

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above problems, the ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism of the thermal transfer printing machine according to the present invention includes a first slide member that relatively presses or moves the platen roller and the printing head in the thermal transfer printing machine main body in the direction of separation or separation. , A second slide member arranged at the bottom of the ink ribbon cassette and interlocking with the first slide member is provided, and the first slide member is in a state where the platen roller and the print head are separated from each other. It is characterized in that an engaging portion that engages with the ink ribbon cassette when moving in the pressing direction is formed.

【0008】

The engaging portion is formed in an inverted L shape from the standing piece standing up from the second slide member and the engaging claw formed laterally protruding from the tip of the standing piece, and is inside the engaging claw. Is formed with an inclined portion inclined from the base portion to the tip portion, and it is preferable that the inclined portion engages with the bottom wall of the ink ribbon cassette.

【0009】

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 indicates a thermal transfer printing machine main body. The platen roller 2 and the printing head 3 are provided on the thermal transfer printing machine main body 1. The platen roller 2 is fixed in a fixed position. The print head 3 is provided on the main body of the printing machine so as to be rotatable in the horizontal direction, and is urged to separate from the platen roller 2 by a spring (not shown). Further, the print head 3 is engaged with the standing piece 5 of the first slide member 4. Therefore, when the first slide member 4 slides, the print head 3 can move in the direction of pressing or separating from the platen roller 2.

【0010】

The platen roller 2 and the print head 3 may be moved in a direction in which they are relatively pressed or separated from each other. Therefore, the platen roller 2 may be interlocked with the first slide member 4, and the platen roller 2 may be moved to the fixed print head 3 in the pressing and separating direction.

【0011】

Next, the thermal transfer printing machine main body 1 is provided with two rotating shafts 6 and 7, and the ink ribbon cassette 8 is mounted on these rotating shafts 6 and 7. The ink ribbon 9 and its take-up reel 10 are housed and arranged inside the ink ribbon cassette 8. As shown in FIG. 2, in the vicinity of the bottom wall 11 of the cassette 8, the side walls at both ends correspond to the line P crossing between the ink ribbon 9 and the take-up reel 10. Reel portions 12 and 13 are formed, and a through hole 14 is formed at one end thereof.

【0012】

Further, a plate-shaped second slide member 15 is arranged below the ink ribbon cassette 8. The second slide member 15 is preferably made of a high-strength material such as metal, and as shown in FIG. 3A, a pair of engaging portions 18 and 19 are formed at both ends on one side thereof. Has been done. These engaging portions 18 and 19 consist of an upright piece 16 and an engaging claw 17 formed so as to project laterally from the tip of the standing piece 16, respectively, and the standing piece 16 and the engaging piece 17 form an inverted L shape. It is formed. An inclined portion 20 is formed inside each engaging claw 17 so as to be inclined from the base to the tip. The second slide member 15 is urged by the tension spring 21 so as to constantly move to the first slide member 4 side.

【0013】

The engaging receiving portions 12 and 13 at both ends of the ink ribbon cassette 8 are formed so as to be mounted at positions corresponding to the engaging portions 18 and 19 of the second slide member 15 at the time of mounting.

【0014】

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a substantially triangular hole 22 is formed on the tip end side of the second slide member 15, and the protruding shaft formed at the tip end of the first slide member 4 is formed in the triangular hole 22. 23 are engaged. As a result, the second slide member 15 is configured to slide in conjunction with the first slide member 4 in a certain range. The slide amount of the first slide member 4 is set to be about twice the slide amount of the second slide member 15.

【0015】

In the above configuration, when the ink ribbon is replaced, the first slide member 4 is slid to the right side in the drawing by an appropriate means, and the platen roller 2 and the print head 3 are separated from each other as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. Move it like this.

【0016】

By the way, when the first slide member 4 is slid in this way, the protrusion 23 is located in front of the triangular hole 22 of the second slide member 15, that is, at the portion shown in FIG. 4 on the side of the first slide member 4. Therefore, the second slide member 15 does not move because the protrusion 23 only moves inside the triangular hole 22 until it is slid by about half of the slide amount. When the first slide member 4 exceeds half of the slide amount, the protrusion 23 abuts on the wall behind the triangular hole 22 shown in FIG. 5, and when the first slide member 4 moves further, the protrusion 23 becomes the second slide member. The second slide member 15 also interlocks with the first slide member 4 against the spring force of the tension spring 21 by pushing 15, and moves to the position shown in FIG.

【0017】

Next, the ink ribbon 9 is pulled out from between the platen roller 2 and the print head 3, the used ink ribbon cassette 8 is removed, and a new ink ribbon cassette 8 is passed through the rotating shaft of the thermal transfer printing machine main body 1. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3A, one engaging portion 18 of the second slide member 15 passes through the through hole 14 of the bottom wall 11 of the ink ribbon cassette 8 to the middle portion thereof. Further, after setting the material to be printed (not shown) between the print head 3 and the platen roller 2, slide the first slide member 4 in the opposite direction to press the print head 3 against the platen roller 2. Move.

【0018】

When the first slide member 4 is slid, the protrusion 23 is located behind the triangular hole 22 of the second slide member 15 as shown in FIG. 6, but FIGS. 1 and 3 (b) As shown in, the second slide member 15 is urged to always move to the first slide member 4 side by the spring force of the tension spring 21, so that the second slide member 15 is interlocked with the first slide member 4. The second slide member 15 also moves. When the second slide member 15 is moved by the spring force, the engaging portions 18 and 19 also move in the same direction, and the inclined portion 20 of the engaging claw 17 of the engaging portions 18 and 19 is the bottom wall 11 of the ink ribbon cassette 8. Although it engages with the engaging receiving portions 12 and 13, the bottom wall 11 is pressed downward by the inclined portion 20 of the engaging claw 17, so that the ink ribbon cassette 8 is firmly held.

【0019】

At the time of such engagement, the second slide member 15 stops at the position shown in FIG. 5 and does not move any further. On the other hand, since the first slide member 4 moves further, the protrusion 23 moves to the front side of the triangular hole 22 as shown in FIG. 4, and the print head 3 is pressed against the platen roller 2. This enables printing.

【0020】

As described above, since the second slide member 15 moves together with the first slide member 4 and engages with the ink ribbon cassette 8, the second slide member 15 is made of a high-strength material such as metal. , The ink ribbon cassette 8 can be securely held by the second slide member 15. Therefore, when the ink ribbon cassette 8 is attached to the printing machine main body, as shown in FIG. 3B, the rotation shafts 6 and 7 provided on the printing machine main body push up the rotation stopper 25 of the ink ribbon cassette 8 to prevent rotation. The ink ribbon cassette 8 can be held firmly enough even when the button is released.

【0021】

Further, since the holding of the ink ribbon cassette 8 is completed in the first half of the stroke of the second slide member 15 and then the mechanical contact with the first slide member 4 is cut off, the ink ribbon cassette 8 is held in order to hold the ink ribbon cassette 8. Since the slide member 15 of 2 does not press the print head 3 and the print head 3 is pressed by the platen roller 2 with a constant pressure, the print quality is not affected.

【0022】

The movement of the first slide member 4 and the second slide member 15 described above is performed in the same manner when not only the ink ribbon cassette 8 but also consumables such as a printing tube and a tape are replaced.

【0023】

Further, the engaging portion of the ink ribbon cassette and the portion of the second slide member that engages with the engaging portion are not limited to the above examples.

[Simple explanation of drawings]

[Figure 1]

Top view showing the main part of the thermal transfer printing machine which concerns on this invention [Figure 2]

Perspective view of the ink ribbon cassette from the bottom [Fig. 3]

(a) and (b) are cross-sectional views showing the mounting mode of the ink ribbon cassette. [Fig. 4]

An enlarged view showing a slide mode of the first slide member and the second slide member. [Fig. 5]

An enlarged view showing a slide mode of the first slide member and the second slide member. [Fig. 6]

An enlarged view showing a slide mode of the first slide member and the second slide member. [Fig. 7]

Plan view of the printing machine body when replacing the ink ribbon [Explanation of symbols]

4 1st slide member 8 ink ribbon cassette 15 Second slide member 18, 19 Engagement part