Patent Application
20080025755
These and/or other aspects and utilities of the present general inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the exemplary embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below so as to explain the present general inventive concept by referring to the figures.
The same elements are given the same reference numerals in various embodiments, and they will be typically described in the first embodiment, and will be omitted in the other embodiments as necessary.
An image forming apparatus 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept is provided to have a thermal type which forms an image on media 132 having a plural numbers of ink layers responding to heat to realize different colored image.
As illustrated in
Here, the image forming apparatus 1 is provided to have the main body in the shape of a rectangular hexahedron in the closed configuration, but may be provided to have other functional and/or ornamental shapes.
The main body 100 comprises a casing 110 to form a main body transferring path 115 having a pair of openings 111a and 111 b provided so that the media 132 can be fed in and out externally when the folding part 200 is in the closed configuration. The main body 100 further comprises a coupling part 113 provided on one side of the casing 110 to allow rotatable coupling of the folding part 200 and the casing 110 and to receive the folding part 200 in the closed configuration, an inputting part 120 provided on the casing 110 to receive an input signal by a user, a media storing part 130 provided in a lower part of the casing 110 to store the media 132, which include a plurality of media, an opening and closing sensor part 140 to detect whether the folding part 200 is in the opened configuration or the closed configuration, a communication part 150 to receive image data from a host apparatus, and a controller 160 to control the above-described components according to the result detected by the configuration sensor part 140.
The casing 110 protects the internal components from an external shock and the environment including, but not limited to moisture. The casing 110 is desirably provided to have a sufficient durability and a lightweight material that a user can easily carry, such as but not limited to acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) or polycarbonate (PC). The inside of the casing 110 contains the main body transferring path 115 to transfer the media 132. At opposite end parts of the main body transferring path 115 are the pair of openings 111a and 111b through which the media 132 can be fed in and out externally and when the folding part 200 is in the closed configuration. Also, the main body transferring path 115 for transferring the fed-in media 132 from the opening 111a to the other opening 111b may sufficiently accommodate the fed-in media 132 according to the arrangement of the frame and the components in the inside of the main body 100. On the main body transferring path 115, a transfer roller (not illustrated) is provided for transferring the fed-in media 132 to the other opening 111b to stably and efficiently transfer the media 132.
The size of the casing 110 is corresponds to the size of the media 132 to be stored. That is, a length L of the casing 110 corresponds to a length of the media 132, and the width of the casing 110 corresponds to a width of the media 132. Accordingly, if the size of the media 132 decreases, the size of the casing 110 can be miniaturized or otherwise decreased. For example, if the media 132 is a small printing paper as small as a two inch by three and a half inch (2.0″×3.5″) business card, the size of the main body 100 may be microminiaturized to correspond to the size of the small printing paper.
The coupling part 113 is provided in one end part of the main body 100 to be rotatably coupled the folding part 200 with the main body 100. The coupling part 113 shares a rotating shaft with the folding part 200 to enable the folding part 200 to rotate with respect to the main body 100. In at least one area of the coupling part 113, a pick-up roller 131 may be provided to feed the media 132, such as paper, of the media storing part 130 to the folding part 200. The pick-up roller 131 provided on the external part has a rubber material with a sufficient friction force to transfer the media 132 of the media storing part 130 to the inside of the folding part 200. The thickness of the pick-up roller 131 may be designed within a variable range sufficient to not interfere when the folding part 200 is rotatably coupled to the main body 100, and may further be provided with a sufficient thickness to pick up the media 132, such as a printing paper of the paper storing part 130.
The inputting part 120 provided on the outside of the casing 110 is supplied with an input signal by a user. The inputting part 120 may be provided in the shape of a plurality of input panels, or a touch screen.
The media storing part 130 is provided in a lower part of the casing 110 to store a plurality of media 132. The media storing part 130 is capable of being opened or closed from the outside of the casing 110 or fixed in the inside of the casing 110. An area contacted with the pick-up roller 131 may be opened to the outside to enable the pick-up roller 131 to contact the media 132 stored therein and apply a frictional force. The area of the media storing part 130 may be sized in relation to the thickness of the main body 100, and further, may have a thickness sufficient to store at least two media 132 so that consecutive outputs can be performed. The media storing part 130 may have a plate and an elastic member disposed to move the plate so that the media 132 stacked on the plate is moved toward and picked-up by the pick-up roller 131 in an opened configuration.
The configuration sensor part 140 provided on one side of the main body 100 detects whether the folding part 200 is in a coupled or closed configuration or an opened configuration from the main body 100 to signal the controller 160as to the configuration of the main body 100. The configuration sensor part 140 may be provided in partial contact with the main body 100 when the folding part is in the closed configuration. The configuration sensor part 140 may be provided as a pressure sensor or other known sensor having a contact switch or the like. For example, the pressure sensor may determine whether the main body 100 is in an opened or closed configuration based on the pressure applied to the main body 100 when the folding part 200 is in the closed configuration and the lack of pressure applied to the main body 100 when the folding part 200 is in the opened configuration. The configuration sensor part 140 may be a magnet or an optical sensor.
The communication part 150 is provided on an external side of the casing 110 to receive image data from a host H in which the image data is stored. The communication part 140 may be provided as a connector directly connected with the host H or a radio communication part capable of wirelessly communicating by radio. The directly-connected connector may be provided as a USB (universal serial bus) port to be directly connected with a cellular phone, a digital camera, and/or a computer through the connector. The radio communication part may be provided through a radio network such as a Bluetooth or an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification).
The controller 160 controls a media transferring direction according to the result detected by the configuration sensor part 140. If the folding part 200 is in the closed position according to the result detected by the configuration sensor part 140, the controller 160 manually receives a manually-fed media (not illustrated) from external side A and forms an image thereon using a printing unit, for example, a thermal print head (TPH) 221, dispersed in the folding part 200 to print an image on the media 132 and to discharge the media 132 through the main body transferring path 115 of the main body 100 and to an external side B. If the folding part 200 is in the opened configuration according to the result detected by the configuration sensor part 140, the controller 160 controls the folding part 200 to automatically receive the media 132 from the media storing part 130, feeds the media 132 toward the TPH 221 using the pick-up roller 131, and forms an image thereon to discharge the media 132 through a folding transferring path 215 to external side C. The controller 160 applies a driving signal to a driving part (not illustrated) for driving the pick-up roller 131 and enabling the pick-up roller 131 to feed the media 132 of the media storing part 130 to the folding transferring path 215.
After an output signal is applied through the inputting part 120, the controller 160 preheats the TPH 221 of an image forming part 220 in the folding part 200 at a reference temperature to form an image on the media 132, thereby reducing a printing time.
The main body 100 may further comprise a storing part (not illustrated) to store image data received through the communication part 150. The storing part may be built in the main body 100 or provided as a mobile type detachable from the main body 100.
The folding part 200 of the image forming apparatus 1 is provided to rotate between the closed configuration wherein the folding part 200 is coupled to the main body 100 and the opened configuration wherein the folding part 200 is rotatably separated from the main body 100. The folding part 200 forms an image on the manually-fed media introduced within the folding part 200 from external side A in the closed configuration, and forms an image on the media 132 automatically fed from the media storing part 130 in the opened configuration.
The configuration of the folding part 200 may be determined manually by a user and/or automatically by a switch.
The folding part 200 comprises a folding part casing 210 having a paper feeding opening 211a through which media 132 is fed, a paper discharging opening 211b through which the media 132 is discharged to the outside and the folding transferring path 215 on which the media 132 is transferred, the image forming part 220 for forming an image on the media 132 transferred from the feeding opening 211a, and a transferring unit 230 transferring the media 132 on which the image is formed in the image forming part 220 to the outside or the main body transferring path 115 depending on whether the folding part 200 is in the closed configuration or the opened configuration.
The folding transferring path 215 may be provided to correspond to the main body transferring path 115 of the main body 100 in a coupled state to stably transfer the printing paper.
The image forming part 220 forms an image by applying heat to the media 132 having the ink layers realizing different colors of image by heat. The image forming part 220 comprises the TPH 221 applying heat and pressure to the media 132 and a platen 223 provided facing the TPH 221 and pressedly supporting the media 132 with respect to the TPH 221 when the image is formed.
A plurality of minute heating elements are arranged in the TPH 221 to correspond to the width of the media 132 at a predetermined interval. The number of the heating elements may be of a varied number to influence a resolution of the image forming apparatus 1. Since the respective colors of ink layers (Y, M, and C) respond to different temperatures, the respective heating elements are controlled to individually generate heat at different temperatures
The TPH 221 is controlled to be preheated at the reference temperature by the controller 160 when the user applies the input signal through the inputting part 120. The reference temperature may be set as a temperature corresponding to the lowest response temperatures among the respective colors of ink layers. Accordingly, the TPH 221 remains in a preheated standby mode at the reference temperature and directly applies heat to form an image if the media 132 enters to reduce an amount of time necessary to form an image.
The transferring unit 230 discharges the media 132 on which the image is formed in the image forming part 220. As illustrated in
An image forming process of the image forming apparatus 1 with this configuration will be described by referring to
First, when a user applies an output signal through the inputting part 120 (operation S110), the controller 160 controls the TPH 221 of the image forming part 220 to be preheated at a reference temperature. Accordingly, the respective heating elements remain in the preheated standby mode at the reference temperature (operation S120).
At this time, the communication part 150 of the main body 100 receives the image data from the host H. For instance, if the host H indicates a cellular phone and the communication part 150 communicates by radio, the communication part 150 receives the image data to be inputted through the cellular phone and the radio communication. The received image data is stored in the storing part (not illustrated) (operation S130).
The configuration sensor part 140 detects whether the folding part 200 is in the opened configuration (S140) if the reception of image data completes. In the case that the folding part 200 is coupled to the main body 100, the configuration sensor part 140 informs the controller 160 that the folding part 200 is in the closed configuration, as illustrated in FIG. 3A., thereby allowing the user to insert the manually-fed media via external side A and through the feeding opening 211a of the folding part 200. The user inserts the manually-fed media to the inside of the folding part 200 until the manually-fed media engages the transferring unit 230 (operation S160).
The TPH 221 of the image forming part 220 changes the temperatures consecutively from the lowest response temperature among the ink layers of the manually fed media 132 and forms an image corresponding to the image data (operation S161). The media 132 having an image formed thereon is transferred to the main body transferring path 115 through the transferring unit 230 (operation S162), and discharged to the outside (operation S163).
Meanwhile, if the folding part 200 is opened from the main body 100 and in the opened configuration, the controller 160 controls the pick-up roller 131 to rotate and the media 132 of the media storing part 130 to be fed to the feeding opening 211a (operation S150). The image forming part 220 applies heat to the media 132 transferred through the folding transferring path 215 to form an image (operation S152). Then, the transferring unit 230 discharges the media 132 having an image formed thereon from the image forming part 220 to the outside via external side C (operation S153).
If a plurality of image data is to be output, the pick-up roller 131 successively supplies the media 132 to the folding part 200, and the image forming part 220 forms images on the media 132. When the image forming completes, the user folds the folding part 200 to be coupled to the main body 100 and in the closed configuration.
The image forming apparatus 1 comprises a paper storing part which stores printing papers, thereby automatically feeding the papers. Components of the main body 100 and components of the folding part 200 are connected to each other through a cable (not illustrated). Accordingly, the components illustrated in
The user is able to selectively change the folded state from the closed configuration where the folding part 200 is coupled to the main body 100 to the opened configuration where the folding part 200 is opened from the main body 100, thereby automatically controlling the auto feeding and the manual feeding. The auto feeding enables image data to be successively output to thereby enhance the user's convenience.
Since the main body 100 is provided to have a minimum size corresponding to the size of the printing paper, it can be portably used by the user.
The image forming apparatus employs a thermal type to minimize the volume of the main body, but may use a thermal transfer type to apply heat and pressure to the printing paper to coat ink and form an image on the media 132.
In the thermal transfer type, the image forming part 220 of the folding part 200 may further comprise an ink ribbon supply roller (not illustrated) for supplying an ink ribbon and an ink ribbon recycle roller (not illustrated) for recycling the ink ribbon used for the image forming.
The media 132 is supplied either automatically or manually depending on whether the folding part 200 is in the closed configuration and coupled to the main body 100 or in the opened configuration and opened from the main body 1001f the media 132 is supplied automatically, the image data can be successively output.
Also, since the folding part can be folded into the main body to minimize the whole size, it can be portably used by the user.
Although a few exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-70025 | Jul 2006 | KR | national |
