摘要 |
PURPOSE:To use an ink ribbon without waste by a method wherein a thermosensitive coloring part is provided to a begining and end parts of an ink ribbon and a number of used times of the ink ribbon is detected. CONSTITUTION:As an ink ribbon 9 is being wound from a core 21 onto a core 24, a leader part 6a or 6b of a ribbon 9 end part soon passes a position of a photosensor 36. At that time, since the leader part 6a or 6b is transparent, a control circuit recognizes that a final end of the ribbon 9 has come, stops energizing a recording head 37, and stops recording. Thereafter, the ribbon 9 is wound around the core 24, and the leader part 6a, 6b is positioned between the recording head 37 and recording paper 9. Then, the recording head 37 is energized to color a thermosensitive coloring layer 5 of the leader part 6a, 6b, and a specific bar code is recorded. Then, all recording operation is stopped, and reach to the end part of the ribbon is reported to a display. Then an opera tor reverses a ribbon cassette 20, re-opens recording operation, drives the ribbon to the position of othe leader part 6a or 6b again, and forms the bar code at the final end part of the ribbon. |