JPH0662196A - Scanner printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a scanner printer capable of copying reading information as it is by integrating a printer and a scanner and making the both of them to output at the same time. CONSTITUTION:This scanner printer is provided with a paper carrier path 19 for original which guides original paper along the peripheral surface of one side of a paper feeding roller 17, carrier path 20 for thermal printing paper guiding thermal printing paper along the other peripheral surface of the roller 17, image scanner head 21 arranged on a paper carrier path 19 for original across from the roller 17, and thermal printer head 22 arranged on the carrier path 20 across from the roller 17.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer such as a portable personal computer or a word processor, and more particularly to a scanner printer having a function of copying input / output information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a thermal transfer type thermal printer installed in a portable word processor is suitable for downsizing, but has a slow printing speed because of a serial printer system, and a handy device for reading information from original paper. When the output information is copied by combining a type of image scanner, a control device such as a personal computer for temporarily storing and managing the copy information is required, and the copying takes time and time.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a scanner printer in which a printer and a scanner are integrally configured so that both can be output at the same time so that read information can be copied as it is.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, an original paper feed path for guiding an original paper along a peripheral surface on one side of a paper feed roller and a thermal print along a peripheral surface on the other side of the paper feed roller. A thermal print sheet conveying path for guiding the sheet, an image scanner head arranged in the original sheet conveying path facing the sheet feeding roller, and a thermal printer arranged in the thermal printing sheet conveying path facing the sheet feeding roller. A scanner printer including a head.

Further, the present invention is characterized by comprising copy control means for transferring the image data of the original sheet read by the image scanner head to the thermal printer side for printing.

Further, it is characterized in that a facsimile modem for transmitting and receiving output information and permitting facsimile communication is built in.

[0007]

According to the present invention, when a document sheet is fed to the document sheet feeding path, the image scanner head corresponds to the fed document sheet and reads the contents of the document, and in parallel with this, the thermal print sheet feeding path. The thermal print head is adapted to print on the thermal print paper guided at the same time.

Further, when the contents of the original are read by the image scanner head, the read contents of the original are transferred to the thermal printer side by the copy control means and simultaneously copied and printed.

Further, the output information is transmitted and received via a built-in facsimile modem to permit facsimile communication.

[0010]

As a result, one device has both the original reading process and the printer processing function, and the application can be expanded. Further, since the paper feed portion of the paper feed roller can be shared, the overall size and cost of the apparatus can be reduced.

Further, since the reading operation and the printing operation can be executed at the same time, the read original contents can be copied at the same time as reading, and another device for managing data is not required, and the device is a single device and is efficient in a short time. Can be copied well.

Further, since facsimile communication can be performed and the character font created by the device can be used as it is for the transmission data at this time, high-quality printing with the same output as the printer can be performed.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a thin personal computer 11, which is a personal computer body 1.
2 and a scanner printer 14 having a thermal print paper supply unit 13.

The scanner printer 14 is provided along the back width direction of the personal computer body 12, and
A printer main body 15 having substantially the same width dimension as the thermal print paper supply unit 13 is provided in series.

Of these, the thermal print paper supply unit 1
3 is a sheet 1 that is a roll paper-shaped thermal print sheet 16 that is allowed to be rewound and held, and is rewound and developed at the time of printing.
6 is supplied to the printer body 15 side.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the printer main body 15 internally has a long paper feed roller 17 having a width substantially equal to the width of the printer main body 15. Original paper feed path 1 for guiding the original paper 18 along the surface
9 and a thermal print paper transport path 20 for guiding the thermal print paper 16 along the lower peripheral surface of the paper feed roller 17.
An image scanner head 21 arranged in the original paper conveyance path 19 facing the paper feed roller 17, and the paper feed roller 17
A thermal printer line head 22 disposed on the thermal print paper transport path 20 facing the printer and a battery 23 for driving the paper feed roller are internally provided.

The above-mentioned original paper transport path 19 is provided with an original carry-in path 19a on the rear side of the upper surface of the printer body 15, and the upper rear surface of the printer body 15 via the diagonally upper side of the inner paper feed roller 17 communicating with this. A document carry-out path 19b is provided on the side. Then, the contact type image scanner head 21 supported by the upper elastic member 24 is brought into contact with the peripheral surface of the upper side of the paper feed roller 17, and the original paper 18 inserted from the original carry-in path 19a is fed by the paper feed roller 17. Captured at a constant speed by rotation, at this time, the image scanner head 21
Reads the contents of the original as image data corresponding to the original paper 18, and the taken-in original paper 18 is taken out from the original discharge path 19
It is released from b.

Further, the above-mentioned thermal print paper transport path 20 is provided with a thermal print paper carry-in path 20a at the lower rear side of the printer body 15, and the printer is provided below the inner paper feed roller 17 communicating with this. A thermal print paper carry-out path 20b is provided on the front side of the upper surface of the main body 15. Then, the thermal printer line head 22 supported by the lower elastic member 25 is brought into contact with the peripheral surface of the lower side of the paper feed roller 17, and the thermal print paper carry-in path 20a.
The thermal print paper 16 guided by the paper feed roller 17
The thermal printer line head 22 prints predetermined data corresponding to the thermal print paper 16 at this time by the rotation. The printed thermal print paper 16 is continuously discharged from the thermal print paper carry-out path 20b.

In this case, the original paper 18 and the thermal print paper 16 can be individually conveyed and processed in accordance with the purpose of processing, and the upper peripheral surface of the paper feed roller 17 is rotated along with the rotation of the paper feed roller 17. The original paper 18 that is conveyed in contact and the thermal print paper 16 that is conveyed in contact with the lower peripheral surface can be simultaneously conveyed at the same speed in the opposite front-rear directions, and one paper feed roller 17 is provided. By this rotation, the processing for two purposes of the reading operation and the printing operation can be performed at the same time, and this one sheet feeding roller 17 can be effectively utilized.

4 and 5 show a drive mechanism 26 for the paper feed roller 17. The drive mechanism 26 includes a drive motor M driven by a battery 23, and a rotary shaft 27 provided at one end of the paper feed roller 17. Are connected via reduction gears 28 ... Based on the output of the drive motor M, the paper feed roller 17
To feed paper by rotating one line at a time. Further, the manual feed knob 3 is attached to the rotary shaft 29 provided at the other end of the paper feed roller 17.
0 is attached so that paper can be fed by manual operation. Reference numeral 31 in the drawing is a control board.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the control circuit of the scanner printer, in which the CPU 61 is a ROM including character fonts and the like.
Each circuit device is controlled according to the program stored in 62, and the control data is stored in the RAM 63 so that it can be read.

The CPU 61 is a scanner printer 14
Although it is a single unit, it has a control function to transfer the image data of the original paper read by the image scanner head as it is to the thermal printer side and copy and print it at the same time because it can process the read input and the printer output at the same time. ing. As a result, the read original contents can be copied at the same time, and a separate device for temporarily storing and managing the read input is not required, and the scanner printer 14 alone can efficiently copy the contents.

Further, the scanner printer 14 has an F
The AX modem unit 64 is built in, and the FAX modem unit 64 transmits and receives output information to permit facsimile communication. Further, since the character font created by the personal computer 11 can be used as it is for the transmission data of the facsimile communication, high-quality printing with the same output as the printer can be performed.

Further, among the operation switches 65 such as various switches and input keys of the personal computer body 12, an output signal of the printer control system is operated, so that the CPU 6 is operated each time.
1 drives and controls the scanner printer 14.

The scanner printer 1 configured as described above
The processing operation of No. 4 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Normally, the scanner printer 14 is on standby in a print permitting state in which the thermal print paper 16 is initially set at a position corresponding to the thermal printer line head 22 on the thermal print paper transport path 20.

In this standby state, the fax modem 64 now
When the received facsimile data is received (step n1), the received data is expanded into one line of bit image data, which is temporarily stored in the RAM 63,
The stored bit image data for one line is history-controlled and output to the thermal printer line head 22 (steps n2 to n4).

Based on this, the thermal printer line head 22 prints one line of the received data on the thermal print paper 16. Repeat this line-by-line print operation until the end of the data,
The facsimile reception is completed (step n5).

Also in the case of transmitting using the facsimile function, the data of the contents of the original to be transmitted is read by the image scanner head 21 in the original paper feed path 19,
This can be transmitted by facsimile by outputting it to the destination via the FAX modem unit 64.

When printing the data created by the personal computer 11, the data is developed into image data and then printed by the thermal printer line head 22 for each line on the thermal print paper 16.

Further, when copying the contents of the original paper 18, the original paper 18 is inserted into the original paper conveyance path 19 and
The original content is read by the image scanner head 21, the image data of the read original content is transferred as it is to the thermal printer side, and the thermal printer line head 22 simultaneously executes copy printing (steps n6 to n8).

As described above, since one scanner printer has both the original reading processing and the printer processing functions, the application can be expanded, and since the paper feeding portion of the paper feeding roller can be shared, the whole apparatus can be used. Miniaturization and cost reduction can be achieved. Further, since the reading operation and the printing operation can be executed at the same time, the read original contents can be copied at the same time as reading, and another device for managing data is not required, and the copying can be efficiently performed in a short time even as a single device. . Further, facsimile communication can be performed, and since the character font created by the personal computer can be used as it is as transmission data at this time, high-quality printing with the same output as a printer can be performed.

In the correspondence between the present invention and the configuration of the above-described one embodiment, the thermal printer head of the present invention corresponds to the thermal printer line head 22 of the embodiment. Similarly, the copy control means corresponds to the CPU 61. Correspondingly, the facsimile modem corresponds to the FAX modem unit 64, but the present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above-described embodiment.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a personal computer including a scanner printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a copying state of the scanner printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the scanner printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an internal side view of the scanner printer of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an internal plan view of the scanner printer of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a control circuit of the scanner printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the scanner printer according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 13 ... Thermal print paper supply unit 14 ... Scanner printer 16 ... Thermal print paper 17 ... Paper feed roller 18 ... Original paper 19 ... Original paper transport path 20 ... Thermal print paper transport path 21 ... Image scanner head 22 ... Thermal printer line head 61 … CPU 64… FAX modem

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location H04N 1/024 9070-5C

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A document sheet conveying path for guiding a document sheet along a peripheral surface on one side of a sheet feeding roller, and a thermal print sheet conveying path for guiding a thermal print sheet along a peripheral surface on the other side of the sheet feeding roller. A scanner printer comprising: an image scanner head arranged in the original paper conveyance path facing the paper feed roller; and a thermal printer head arranged in the thermal print paper conveyance path opposed to the paper feed roller. 2. The scanner printer according to claim 1, further comprising copy control means for transferring the image data of the original sheet read by the image scanner head to the thermal printer for printing. 3. The scanner printer according to claim 1, further comprising a facsimile modem for transmitting and receiving output information and permitting facsimile communication.