Incremental printing of symbolic information – Thermal marking apparatus or processes
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-13
2004-06-01
Feggins, K. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Thermal marking apparatus or processes
C347S197000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06744453
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus of a facsimile apparatus or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 5
is a sectional view of a conventional image recording apparatus
1
in a thermal transfer recording mode.
FIG. 6
is a sectional view of the conventional image recording apparatus
1
in a heat sensitive mode. The image recording apparatus
1
comprises a line-type thermal head
2
extending in a direction perpendicular to a paper feeding direction F (a direction perpendicular to paper of
FIG. 1
or
2
) which line-type thermal head
2
records line by line in the direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction F, and a substantially cylindrical platen
3
which is disposed so as to extend in a longitudinal direction of the line-type thermal head
2
. In the image recording apparatus
1
, switching of recording modes is possible between a heat transfer recording mode in which recoding is carried out by transferring ink of an ink ribbon
5
to ordinary recording paper
7
as shown in
FIG. 5 and a
heat-sensitive recording mode in which recording is carried out by directly recording on heat-sensitive recording paper
12
as shown in FIG.
6
.
In the heat transfer recording mode as shown in
FIG. 5
, an ink ribbon cartridge
4
is attached to the image recording apparatus
1
, which ink ribbon cartridge
4
includes the ink ribbon
5
, a feed roller
6
a
and a take-up roller
6
b
. Thermally-melting ink is applied to one face of the sheet-type ink ribbon
5
. The ordinary recording paper
7
for use in the thermal transfer recording mode is laid on an ordinary paper sheet tray
8
. The ordinary recording paper
7
laid on the ordinary paper sheet tray
8
is fed to an interval between the line-type thermal head
2
and the platen
3
which are disposed on the downstream side in the paper feeding direction F of an ordinary paper feeding roller
9
which is disposed on the downstream side in the paper feeding direction F of the ordinary paper sheet tray
8
, by the ordinary paper feeding roller
9
one by one.
The ordinary paper
7
fed to the interval between the line-type thermal head
2
and the platen
3
is pressed against the line-type thermal head
2
side in the state that an image recording face of the ordinary recording paper is in intimate contact with a face to which ink of the ink ribbon
5
is applied. At that time by generating heat energy by a heat generating element of the line-type thermal head
2
which is disposed on the side of the other face to which the ink of the ink ribbon
5
is not applied the ink of the ink ribbon
5
is melted, and the ordinary recording paper
7
and the ink ribbon
5
are conveyed in the paper feeding direction F by the platen
3
to transfer the melted ink to the image recording face of the ordinary recording paper
7
to record an image.
The image-recorded ordinary paper
7
is passed through the line-type thermal head
2
and a recording paper conveying guide
10
which is displaced on the downstream side in the paper feeding direction F of the platen
3
, by the platen, and is discharged to an outside of the image recording apparatus
1
by a pair of discharge rollers
11
a
,
11
b
which are displaced on the downstream side in the paper feeding direction F of the recording sheet conveying guide
10
. The ink-transferred ink ribbon
5
is taken up by the take-up roller
6
b
of the ink ribbon cartridge
4
.
In the heat-sensitive recording mode as shown in
FIG. 6
, a roll of heat-sensitive paper
12
a
which is formed by rolling heat-sensitive recording paper
12
is mounted to a portion of the image recording apparatus
1
for mounting the roll of heat-sensitive paper
13
. The heat-sensitive paper
12
has an image recording face and a heat-sensitive layer formed on the image recording face which heat-sensitive layer is color-developed by heat sense when it is heated. While being pressed against the line-type thermal head
2
side, the image recording face of the heat-sensitive paper
12
is fed to the downstream side in the paper feeding direction F by the platen
3
, and recording on the image recording face is carried out by heat generation of the heat generating element of the line-type thermal head
2
.
The image-recorded heat-sensitive paper
12
is passed through the line-type thermal head
2
and the recording paper conveying guide
10
which is displaced on the downstream side in the paper feeding direction F of the platen
3
, by the platen, and is discharged to the outside of the image recording apparatus
1
by the pair of discharge rollers
11
a
,
11
b
which are displaced on the downstream side in the paper feeding direction F of the recording sheet conveying guide
10
.
When switching from the thermal transfer recording mode to the heat-sensitive recording mode, an operator of the image recording apparatus
1
opens a cover
14
of the image recording apparatus
1
to take an ink ribbon cartridge
4
out of the image recording apparatus
1
, mounts a heat-sensitive paper roll
12
a
onto the image recording apparatus
1
, sandwiches the heat-sensitive recording paper
12
between the line-type thermal head
2
and a platen
3
, and closes the cover
14
of the image recording apparatus
1
.
When switching from the heat-sensitive recording mode to the thermal transfer recording mode, an operator of the image recording apparatus
1
opens the cover
14
of the image recording apparatus
1
, removes the heat-sensitive paper
12
sandwiched between the line-type thermal head
2
and the platen
3
, takes the heat-sensitive paper roll
12
a
out of the image recording apparatus
1
, mounts the ink ribbon cartridge
4
to the image recording apparatus
1
, and closes the cover
14
. A technique similar to the above is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 63-45075 (1988).
In such prior arts as described above, switching from the thermal transfer recording mode to the heat-sensitive recording mode and switching from the heat-sensitive recording mode to the thermal transfer recording mode are done by an operation of attaching and detaching the ink ribbon cartridge
4
and the heat-sensitive paper roll
12
a
by an operator of the image recording apparatus
1
. Thus, the conventional image recording apparatus
1
has such a problem that an operator of the image recording apparatus
1
is charged with a troublesome operation for switching. Moreover, in a case where when recording is done in either the thermal transfer recording mode or the heat-sensitive recording mode, the apparatus runs out of recording paper according to the recording mode, the apparatus cannot automatically switch to the other recording mode.
On the other hand, a recording method of automatically switching two image recording apparatuses which have different recording schemes such as an image recording apparatus of electrophotographic scheme which records on ordinary recording paper, which is excellent in preservation, and an image recording apparatus of heat sense recording type which records on heat-sensitive recording paper, which is excellent in running costs, is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications JP-A 62-225064 (1987) and JP-A 5-160980 (1993). However, in this case, there is such a problem that two apparatuses should be used.
As an image recording apparatus using a thermal head, an image recording apparatus wherein a serial thermal head which reciprocates in a perpendicular direction to a paper feeding direction of recording paper and records by line is used and a thermal transfer recording mode of thermally transferring an ink ribbon on ordinary recording paper and a heat-sensitive recording mode of using heat-sensitive recording paper are automatically switched is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications JP-A2-190352 (1990), JP-A3-256784 (1991), JP-A 5-116418 (1993) and JP-A 5-244337 (1993). Although the above apparatus can switch between the thermal transfer recording mode and t
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Feggins K.
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
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