THERMAL PRINT HEAD AND THERMAL PRINTER

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent an erroneous operation in relation to a change in supplied voltage.SOLUTION: In a thermal print head 10, a driving IC 41 that operates in two operation modes according to a driving voltage VD is mounted on a circuit board 40, and a voltage limiting part 42 is provided between a connector 43 and the driving IC 41. Only when the driving voltage VD is higher than a reference voltage Vref, the voltage limiting part 42 supplies the driving voltage VD to the driving IC 41, thereby operating it. When the driving voltage VD is lower than the reference voltage Vref, the driving voltage VD is not supplied to the driving IC 41, thereby not operating it. Accordingly, when the driving voltage VD is lower than the reference voltage Vref, the driving IC 41 is prevented from being operated in a low speed operation mode and can be kept stopped. Thus, an unintentional image is prevented from being recorded on a thermal recording medium P right after, for example, starting. 【課題】 供給される電圧の変動に対する誤動作を防止できるようにする。【解決手段】サーマルプリントヘッド１０は、駆動電圧ＶＤに応じて２通りの動作モードで動作する駆動用ＩＣ４１を回路基板４０に搭載し、コネクタ４３及び当該駆動用ＩＣ４１の間に電圧制限部４２を設けた。電圧制限部４２は、駆動電圧ＶＤが基準電圧Ｖｒｅｆよりも高い場合にのみ当該駆動電圧ＶＤを駆動用ＩＣ４１に供給して動作させ、当該基準電圧Ｖｒｅｆよりも低い場合には当該駆動電圧ＶＤを駆動用ＩＣ４１に供給せず動作させない。これによりサーマルプリントヘッド１０は、駆動電圧ＶＤが基準電圧Ｖｒｅｆよりも低い場合に駆動用ＩＣ４１を低速動作モードで動作させることなく停止させたままとすることができ、起動直後等に不用意な画像が感熱記録媒体Ｐに記録されることを防止できる。【選択図】 図３