PRINTER MEDIUM-SUPPLYING SPOOL, AND, METHOD FOR ASSEMBLING PRINTER MEDIUM-SUPPLYING SPOOL

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To sense a type of a medium in a noncontact manner by arranging a transceiver unit in the vicinity of a shaft and including an EEPROM semiconductor chip in a transponder integrally connected to the shaft in a supplying spool adapted to sense the type of the medium ribbon. SOLUTION: A supplying spool 120 in a laser thermal transfer printer has a coloring agent-supplying substance 125 wound around a shaft 310. A rotatable spindle set to the printer is fitted into a hollow hole 319 of the shaft 310, whereby the spool is supported. A transceiver 330 which can transmit, receive an electromagnetic field of a prescribed frequency is arranged at a position adjacent to the supplying spool 120. On the other hand, a transponder 340 is set to be buried in a wall of the shaft 310. The transponder 340 includes a programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) storing coded data of a medium type. The medium type is sensed by receiving the data.