A thermal transfer printer ribbon separation device

Abstract

The application discloses a thermal transfer printer carbon ribbon separation device, comprising: a carbon ribbon recovery assembly, a carbon ribbon separation assembly and a print head assembly, the carbon ribbon recovery assembly comprises a recovery shaft and a carbon ribbon; the carbon ribbon separation assembly is located below the carbon ribbon, a separation sheet support is arranged on the carbon ribbon separation assembly, a polygon array texture is arranged on the inner side of the separation sheet support, a flexible conductive layer is arranged on the upper part of the outer edge of the separation sheet support, a transversely distributed conductive brush bundle is arranged below the flexible conductive layer, buckle structures are arranged on the two sides of the separation sheet support, a self-adaptive grounding spring device is arranged at the bottom end of the buckle, and the self-adaptive grounding spring device realizes near-end main discharge and far-end auxiliary discharge through left and right double-point grounding. Through the arrangement of the separation sheet and the electrostatic brush bundle assembly at the separation interface of the carbon ribbon and the printing medium, the technical purpose of completely eliminating the electrostatic adhesion and accumulation of the carbon ribbon and the printing medium under continuous printing and drying environment, significantly reducing the printing failure rate and improving the printing quality is achieved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention belongs to the field of printer technology, and specifically relates to a ribbon separation device for thermal transfer printers. Background Technology

[0002] During the operation of a thermal transfer printer, the printing rollers transport the printing filament and ribbon. Friction occurs between the rollers and the filament, between the ribbon and the thermal head, and between the filament and the ribbon. This friction generates localized micro-heat and micro-deformation, weakening the bond between atoms and electrons, leading to electron transfer. This results in one side of the contact surfaces becoming positively charged and the other negatively charged, and the charge cannot be effectively conducted away, accumulating and forming static electricity. Simultaneously, during the rewinding and unwinding process after printing, the ribbon tears apart layer by layer, and the large amount of charge at the interface cannot be quickly discharged, accumulating and forming another layer of static electricity. Furthermore, the thermal head generates high temperatures during printing, causing the ink to separate. Sub-polarization, with its internal positive and negative charge shifting, leads to charge retention upon cooling, further exacerbating electrostatic phenomena. Tests have revealed that printing materials made of polyester and nylon generate particularly severe static electricity, often exceeding 10KV. Currently, most commercially available thermal transfer printers separate the ribbon from the printing medium using gravity or mechanical forced separation at the exit. However, in practical applications, while the printing medium can separate freely under normal conditions, significant static electricity buildup occurs in dry environments or after multiple consecutive prints. In a free state, this easily leads to the printing medium failing to separate from the ribbon, causing the printing medium to rewind with the ribbon and resulting in malfunctions. Conventional mechanical separation, due to structural limitations, cannot fully access the separation point between the ribbon and printing medium, and when static electricity accumulates to a certain level, it can still stick to the printing medium, also causing malfunctions. Therefore, effectively solving the problem of electrostatic adhesion between the printing medium and ribbon after continuous printing, and overcoming the problem of static electricity buildup in dry environments, has become a pressing technical challenge for those skilled in the art. Summary of the Invention

[0003] To overcome the shortcomings of existing technologies, the present invention aims to provide a ribbon separation device for thermal transfer printers. This device utilizes a separation plate and electrostatic brush bundles at the ribbon-to-printing medium separation point, combined with a micro-pressure adaptive floating grounding spring system. The electrostatic brush bundles, arranged at a density of 12μm / 100f and spaced at 2mm intervals, form a continuous ion air channel. The device also features dual-point adaptive floating grounding on both sides and a positive diamond-shaped micro-texture structure on the surface of the separation plate. This achieves the technical objective of completely eliminating electrostatic adhesion and accumulation between the ribbon and the printing medium under continuous printing and drying conditions, significantly reducing printing failure rates, and improving print quality.

[0004] To solve the above problems, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is as follows: a thermal transfer printer ribbon separation device, comprising: a ribbon recycling assembly, the ribbon recycling assembly comprising a recycling shaft and a ribbon, the recycling shaft having a drive device inside, the ribbon being able to be wound on the recycling shaft; A ribbon separation assembly is located below the ribbon. The ribbon separation assembly has a separation plate support with a polygonal array texture on its inner side. A flexible conductive layer is located on the upper outer edge of the separation plate support. A horizontally distributed conductive brush bundle is located below the flexible conductive layer. The separation plate support has snap-fit ​​structures on both sides, with a fixing member at the top of each snap-fit ​​and an adaptive grounding spring device at the bottom. The adaptive grounding spring device is located on both sides of the electrostatic brush bundle and achieves near-end main discharge and far-end auxiliary discharge through dual-point grounding on both sides. A printhead assembly having a roller mounting position, a separation component receiving groove, and a grounding wire, wherein the roller can be engaged in the roller mounting position, the separation plate bracket can be engaged in the separation component receiving groove, and the grounding wire is fixed to the end face of the printhead assembly.

[0005] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: By setting a separation plate and an electrostatic brush bundle assembly at the separation interface between the ribbon and the printing medium, the conductive fiber ultrafine tip of the electrostatic brush bundle has a very strong electric field concentration effect. When the charged ribbon or printing medium enters the electric field domain, the air molecules around the fiber tip are ionized under the drive of the strong electric field, generating a large number of positive and negative ion pairs in situ. Among them, ions with opposite polarity to the surface charge of the charged body are directionally adsorbed to the surface of the object under the action of Coulomb force, and the residual static charge is efficiently neutralized through charge recombination reaction, which can reduce the static electricity from 10KV to below 400V. More importantly, this non-contact electrostatic elimination mechanism makes the electrostatic neutralization process completely independent of the physical contact between the ribbon and the printing medium. Even when there is a gap or no direct contact during the transmission of the two, it can still continuously and stably achieve real-time discharge and neutralization of static charge. This effectively eliminates problems such as ribbon adhesion, peeling lag and medium displacement caused by electrostatic adsorption, significantly improves the reliability of ribbon separation and the stability of printing quality, and realizes deep coupling and synergistic optimization of electrostatic control and mechanical separation functions.

[0006] In the aforementioned ribbon separation device, the electrostatic brush bundle and the flexible conductive layer are coplanar at the vertex region of the ribbon peeling corner.

[0007] The aforementioned carbon ribbon separation device includes a grounding spring on the adaptive grounding spring device, and a fixing buckle is provided above the grounding spring. The fixing buckle is used to fix the grounding spring to the thermal support.

[0008] In the aforementioned carbon ribbon separation device, one side of the buckle is provided with an elastic cantilever latch, and the free end of the elastic cantilever latch is provided with a barb.

[0009] In the aforementioned carbon ribbon separation device, the electrostatic brush bundle is arranged with a density of 12μm / 100f.

[0010] In the aforementioned carbon ribbon separation device, the polygonal array texture is a uniform raised structure, the polygonal array texture is a rhombus array texture, the height of the raised points of the rhombus array texture is 0.08 mm to 0.12 mm, the diagonal spacing of the rhombus is 0.8 mm to 1.0 mm, and the rhombus array texture is evenly and densely distributed on the surface of the separation plate support.

[0011] In the aforementioned carbon ribbon separation device, the fixing element consists of multiple rivets.

[0012] In the aforementioned carbon ribbon separation device, the conductive fibers of the electrostatic brush bundle are arranged in a gradient structure, and the fiber density in the inlet region of the electrostatic brush bundle is lower than the fiber density in the outlet region along the ribbon's travel direction.

[0013] In the aforementioned carbon ribbon separation device, the center-to-center distance between adjacent electrostatic brush bundles is 1.8 mm to 2.5 mm.

[0014] In the aforementioned carbon ribbon separation device, the distance between the conductive fiber tip of the electrostatic brush bundle and the surface of the carbon ribbon is maintained within a safe non-contact gap, the range of which is 1–3 mm. Attached Figure Description

[0015] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the carbon ribbon separation device according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the separation plate support structure in the carbon ribbon separation device according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the printhead assembly structure in the ribbon separation device of this invention. Explanation of symbols in the attached drawings: 100 ribbon recovery assembly, 110 recovery shaft, 120 ribbon, 130 drive unit, 200 ribbon separation assembly, 210 separation plate support, 211 polygonal array texture, 220 flexible conductive layer, 230 conductive brush bundle, 240 snap fastener, 241 fastener, 242 flexible cantilever latch, 243 barb, 250 adaptive grounding spring device, 251 grounding spring, 252 fixing buckle, 300 printhead assembly, 310 roller mounting position, 320 separation assembly receiving slot, 330 grounding wire, 340 roller. Detailed Implementation

[0016] The embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below, with reference to... Figures 1 to 3 This invention provides a ribbon separation device for a thermal transfer printer, comprising: a ribbon recycling assembly 100, a ribbon separation assembly 200, and a printhead assembly 300. The ribbon recycling assembly 100 includes a recycling shaft 110 and a ribbon 120. A drive device 130 is provided inside the recycling shaft 110, and the ribbon 120 can be wound around the recycling shaft 110. The ribbon separation assembly 200 is located below the ribbon 120. A separation plate support 210 is provided on the ribbon separation assembly 200. A polygonal array texture 211 is provided on the inner side of the separation plate support 210. A flexible conductive layer 220 is provided on the upper outer edge of the separation plate support 210. A horizontally distributed conductive brush bundle 230 is provided below the flexible conductive layer 220. Buckle structures 240 are provided on both sides of the separation plate support 210. A fixing member 241 is provided at the top of the buckle 240. Of course, this application does not limit the specific structure of the fixing member 241. Preferably, the fixing member 241 is a plurality of rivets. The bottom end of the buckle 240 is provided with an adaptive grounding spring device 250, which is located on both sides of the electrostatic brush bundle. The adaptive grounding spring device 250 realizes near-end main discharge and far-end auxiliary discharge through left and right dual-point grounding. The printhead assembly 300 has a rubber roller mounting position 310, a separation component receiving groove 320 and a grounding wire 330. The rubber roller 340 can be snapped into the rubber roller mounting position 310, the separation plate bracket 210 can be snapped into the separation component receiving groove 320, and the grounding wire 330 is fixed to the end face of the printhead assembly 300. This application sets a separation plate and an electrostatic brush bundle assembly at the separation interface between the ribbon 120 and the printing medium. Due to the strong electric field concentration effect of the ultra-fine tips of the conductive fibers of the electrostatic brush bundle, when the charged ribbon 120 or the printing medium enters the electric field domain, the air molecules around the fiber tips are ionized under the drive of the strong electric field, generating a large number of positive and negative ion pairs in situ. Among them, ions with opposite polarity to the surface charge of the charged body are directionally adsorbed to the surface of the object under the action of Coulomb force, and the residual static charge is efficiently neutralized through charge recombination reaction, which can reduce the static electricity from 10KV to below 400V. More importantly, this non-contact electrostatic elimination mechanism makes the electrostatic neutralization process completely independent of the physical contact between the ribbon 120 and the printing medium. Even when there is a gap or no direct contact during the transmission of the two, it can still continuously and stably achieve real-time discharge and neutralization of static charge. This effectively eliminates problems such as ribbon 120 adhesion, peeling lag and medium displacement caused by electrostatic adsorption, significantly improves the reliability of ribbon 120 separation and the stability of printing quality, and realizes deep coupling and synergistic optimization of electrostatic control and mechanical separation functions.

[0017] Furthermore, referring to Figure 1In this application, the electrostatic brush bundle and the flexible conductive layer 220 are coplanar at the vertex region of the peel angle of the ribbon 120. During the thermal transfer printing process, the ribbon 120 and the printing medium move synchronously under the clamping of the thermal sheet of the printhead and the paper pressure roller 340. The moment it passes the edge of the printhead, the ribbon 120 is forcibly peeled off, forming an extremely sharp peel angle. This vertex region of the peel angle is the core area where the ribbon 120 and the medium undergo violent physical separation and the interfacial double layer is instantly torn apart. It is also the center where electrostatic charge is explosively generated, the charge density is the highest, and the electric field strength is the most concentrated. By precisely arranging the electrostatic brush bundle and the flexible conductive layer 220 coplanar at this vertex region of the peel angle, the fiber tips of the conductive brush bundle 230 and the edge of the flexible conductive layer 220 immediately intervene and capture the free charge just released from the interfacial tear at the moment the ribbon 120 is peeled off. Furthermore, the adaptive grounding spring device 250 proposed in this application is provided with a grounding spring 251, and a fixing buckle 252 is provided above the grounding spring 251. The fixing buckle 252 is used to fix the grounding spring 251 and the thermal support. By fixing the grounding spring 251 and the thermal support together with the fixing buckle 252, the degree of freedom of the grounding spring 251 in the non-working direction is restricted, ensuring that the spring can only be displaced in the preset elastic deformation direction. Further, referring to... Figure 2 The buckle 240 of this application has an elastic cantilever latch 242 on one side, and a barb 243 is provided at the free end of the elastic cantilever latch 242. During the assembly process, when the operator pushes the separator bracket 210 into the separator component receiving groove 320 of the printhead assembly 300, the elastic cantilever latch 242 is passively bent and displaced when it contacts the separator component receiving groove 320. Once the bracket is pushed into place, the elastic cantilever latch 242 passes over the locking step or groove in the separator component receiving groove 320 and instantly elastically resets. The barb 243 at its free end engages with the edge of the groove, completing the mechanical locking.

[0018] Furthermore, the electrostatic brush bundle proposed in this application employs a density arrangement of 12μm / 100f. During high-speed tape transport, the surface of the ribbon 120 is not absolutely flat, but exhibits microscopic undulations and vibrations. The extremely fine 12μm fibers possess extremely low bending stiffness, enabling them to effectively follow the microscopic morphology of the ribbon 120 surface during bending deformation, maintaining optimal coupling with the ribbon 120 surface without causing any rigid impact or scratches. In contrast, if the fibers are too thick, such as above 50μm, their excessive rigidity not only easily leaves fine scratches on the ribbon 120 surface, damaging the quality of the printed image, but also causes rapid wear and breakage of the fibers themselves due to continuous rigid friction, generating conductive debris that contaminates the printhead. The 100f bundle density ensures that even if a few fibers break due to long-term fatigue within a single fiber bundle, the remaining 90-plus fibers can still maintain sufficient conductive cross-sectional area and antistatic capability, giving the system extremely high fault tolerance and redundancy. Furthermore, the polygonal array texture 211 proposed in this application is a uniform raised structure, specifically a rhombus array texture. The height of the raised points in the rhombus array texture is 0.08 mm to 0.12 mm, and the diagonal spacing of the rhombuses is 0.8 mm to 1.0 mm. The rhombus array texture is uniformly and densely distributed on the surface of the separator support 210. When the carbon ribbon 120 slides across the separator support 210 at high speed, these uniformly distributed rhombus raised points act as numerous tiny support structures, transforming the large-area surface-to-surface sliding friction between the back of the carbon ribbon 120 and the support into discrete point-to-surface or line-to-surface rolling / sliding mixed friction. This not only reduces the macroscopic sliding friction coefficient by several orders of magnitude, greatly reducing the resistance and tension loss of the carbon ribbon 120, but more importantly, it effectively disrupts the tendency for cold welding or adhesion between the back coating of the carbon ribbon 120 (usually a heat-resistant back coating) and the support surface caused by intermolecular forces (van der Waals forces) and localized high-temperature softening. In the high-temperature and high-pressure environment generated by high-speed printing, this anti-sticking effect is particularly crucial, completely eliminating wrinkling, tearing, or breakage of the ribbon 120 caused by sticking to the support. Furthermore, the conductive fibers of the electrostatic brush bundle proposed in this application adopt a gradient arrangement structure, with the fiber density in the entry area of ​​the electrostatic brush bundle lower than that in the exit area along the ribbon 120's travel direction. This application uses a lower fiber density in the entry area to gently neutralize the small amount of background charge remaining on the surface of the ribbon 120 due to previous travel friction, without hindering the smooth entry of the ribbon 120, thus acting as a buffer transition. When the ribbon 120 continues to travel to the peeling corner and the subsequent exit area, the amount of electrostatic charge reaches a high level, therefore a higher fiber density electrostatic brush bundle is used to eliminate it. Furthermore, the center-to-center spacing between adjacent electrostatic brush bundles proposed in this application is 1.8mm~2.5mm.If the spacing is too small (e.g., less than 1.5 mm), although the electric field coverage is denser, the electric fields between adjacent brush bundles will produce strong mutual interference and shielding effects, causing the edge electric fields to cancel each other out, which will reduce the overall static elimination efficiency. At the same time, the dense arrangement of brush bundles will significantly increase material costs and assembly difficulty, but will lead to a sharp decline in marginal benefits.

[0019] Furthermore, the distance between the conductive fiber tip of the electrostatic brush bundle and the surface of the ribbon 120 is maintained within a safe, non-contact gap, ranging from 1 to 3 mm. Under high-speed conveyor belt operation, if the fiber directly contacts the ribbon 120, even if the fiber is very soft, long-term relative sliding friction will inevitably leave fine scratches, wear, or even coating peeling on the extremely fragile back coating or ink layer surface of the ribbon 120. These physical damages not only directly destroy the integrity of the printed image, causing defects such as white lines and missing prints, but more seriously, the peeled coating debris, like abrasive, enters the clamping area between the print head and the roller 340 along with the ribbon 120, causing irreversible wear to the expensive thermal print head and significantly shortening its lifespan. The non-contact design of this application ensures that the fiber tip always floats above the surface of the ribbon 120, and the structure between the two guarantees both effective coupling of the electric field and prevents material wear.

[0020] It should be noted that in the description of this invention, any descriptions of orientation, such as up, down, front, back, left, right, etc., indicating orientation or positional relationships, are based on the orientation or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings. They are only for the purpose of facilitating the description of this invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed or operated in a specific orientation, and should not be construed as a limitation of this invention.

[0021] In the description of this invention, "several" means one or more, "more than" means two or more, "greater than," "less than," "exceeding," etc. are understood to exclude the stated number, while "above," "below," "within," etc. are understood to include the stated number. If "first" or "second" is mentioned, it is only for the purpose of distinguishing technical features and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance, or implicitly indicating the number of indicated technical features, or implicitly indicating the order of the indicated technical features.

[0022] In the description of this invention, unless otherwise explicitly defined, terms such as "set up," "install," and "connect" should be interpreted broadly, and those skilled in the art can reasonably determine the specific meaning of the above terms in this invention in conjunction with the specific content of the technical solution.

[0023] The above embodiments are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention and should not be construed as limiting the scope of protection of the present invention. Any non-substantial changes and substitutions made by those skilled in the art based on the present invention shall fall within the scope of protection claimed by the present invention.

Claims

1. A ribbon separation device for a thermal transfer printer, characterized in that, include: A ribbon recycling assembly (100) includes a recycling shaft (110) and a ribbon (120). The recycling shaft (110) is provided with a drive device (130), and the ribbon (120) can be wound on the recycling shaft (110). A ribbon separation assembly (200) is located below the ribbon (120). The ribbon separation assembly (200) is provided with a separation plate support (210). The inner side of the separation plate support (210) is provided with a polygonal array texture (211). The upper outer edge of the separation plate support (210) is provided with a flexible conductive layer (220). The lower part of the flexible conductive layer (220) is provided with a horizontally distributed conductive brush bundle (230). The two sides of the separation plate support (210) are provided with buckles (240). The top of the buckles (240) is provided with a fixing member (241). The bottom of the buckles (240) is provided with an adaptive grounding spring device (250). The adaptive grounding spring device (250) is located on both sides of the electrostatic brush bundle. The adaptive grounding spring device (250) realizes near-end main discharge and far-end auxiliary discharge through left and right dual-point grounding. A printhead assembly (300) has a roller mounting position (310), a separation component receiving groove (320), and a grounding wire (330). The roller (340) can be snapped into the roller mounting position (310), the separation plate bracket (210) can be snapped into the separation component receiving groove (320), and the grounding wire (330) is fixed to the end face of the printhead assembly (300).

2. The carbon belt separation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The electrostatic brush bundle and the flexible conductive layer (220) are coplanar at the vertex region of the carbon ribbon peeling corner.

3. The carbon belt separation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The adaptive grounding spring device (250) is provided with a grounding spring (251), and a fixing buckle (252) is provided above the grounding spring (251). The fixing buckle (252) is used to fix the grounding spring (251) and the thermal bracket.

4. The carbon belt separation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The buckle (240) has an elastic cantilever latch (242) on one side, and the free end of the elastic cantilever latch (242) has a barb (243).

5. The carbon belt separation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The electrostatic brush bundles are arranged at a density of 12μm / 100f.

6. The carbon ribbon separation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The polygonal array texture (211) is a uniform raised structure. The polygonal array texture (211) is a rhombus array texture. The height of the raised points of the rhombus array texture is 0.08 mm to 0.12 mm, the diagonal spacing of the rhombus is 0.8 mm to 1.0 mm, and the rhombus array texture is uniformly and densely distributed on the surface of the separation plate support (210).

7. The carbon belt separation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The fastener (241) consists of multiple rivets.

8. The carbon belt separation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The conductive fibers of the electrostatic brush bundle are arranged in a gradient structure. Along the running direction of the carbon ribbon (120), the fiber density in the inlet region of the electrostatic brush bundle is lower than the fiber density in the outlet region.

9. The carbon belt separation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The center-to-center distance between adjacent electrostatic brush bundles is 1.8 mm to 2.5 mm.

10. The carbon ribbon separation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The distance between the conductive fiber tip of the electrostatic brush bundle and the surface of the carbon ribbon (120) is maintained within a safe non-contact gap, the safe gap being 1mm to 3mm.

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