EP0082336B1 - Drucken mit wählbarer Dichte mittels in einem festen räumlichen Verhältnis stehenden Punktmatrixdruckköpfen - Google Patents

Drucken mit wählbarer Dichte mittels in einem festen räumlichen Verhältnis stehenden Punktmatrixdruckköpfen Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0082336B1
EP0082336B1 EP19820110825 EP82110825A EP0082336B1 EP 0082336 B1 EP0082336 B1 EP 0082336B1 EP 19820110825 EP19820110825 EP 19820110825 EP 82110825 A EP82110825 A EP 82110825A EP 0082336 B1 EP0082336 B1 EP 0082336B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
print
heads
printer
head
character
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
EP19820110825
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English (en)
French (fr)
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EP0082336A3 (en
EP0082336A2 (de
Inventor
Frank R. Humphreys
Donald K. Rex
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
International Business Machines Corp
Original Assignee
International Business Machines Corp
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Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by International Business Machines Corp filed Critical International Business Machines Corp
Publication of EP0082336A2 publication Critical patent/EP0082336A2/de
Publication of EP0082336A3 publication Critical patent/EP0082336A3/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0082336B1 publication Critical patent/EP0082336B1/de
Expired legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/485—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by the process of building-up characters or image elements applicable to two or more kinds of printing or marking processes
    • B41J2/505—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by the process of building-up characters or image elements applicable to two or more kinds of printing or marking processes from an assembly of identical printing elements
    • B41J2/515—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by the process of building-up characters or image elements applicable to two or more kinds of printing or marking processes from an assembly of identical printing elements line printer type

Definitions

  • This invention relates to dot matrix printers and, more particularly, to selectively varying the dot density and print quality.
  • the print wires are contained in two guides, one of which can be translationally displaced in a vertical direction from the other guide which is held in a fixed position.
  • the wires are arranged in a single wire guide rotatable about an axis which is perpendicular to the document and parallel to the print wires. Further, in this patent the print head is translated horizontally from left to right to print across a line on a document.
  • Printing is effected by the impact of selected pluralities of print wires, each of which is provided with a separate actuator arranged so that when the actuator is energized, the associated print wire is driven forward to impact the paper.
  • An inked ribbon is interposed between the document (recording medium) and the print wires. The impact of the print wire on the ribbon causes a dot to be printed at a selected point on the document.
  • WO-A-79/00627 relates to a matrix printer having adjacent printing elements offset at an angle to the horizontal line direction and shifted vertically sufficiently to allow the centers of horizontal lines of successive dots to be spaced more closely than would be possible if the centers of adjacent elements had to be vertically spaced by the diameters of the adjacent elements.
  • the technical problem solved by this invention is to vary the density within printed dot matrix characters by selectively overstriking the same medium position with the same character or a portion thereof positionally offset in at least one direction without requiring that the medium be moved or complex rotational head motion be involved.
  • the solution involves partitioning each print line extent into several zones and assigning print heads to the counterpart zones; positioning the heads in fixed vertical offset relation to each other; and selectively causing each head to imprint the medium within its zone for low density and to overstrike a designated position within another zone with a predetermined character or portion thereof for high density.
  • the printer includes a plurality of print heads, each positioned to print a portion of the line and each including a plurality of wires which print dots separated by a given distance.
  • Corresponding wires of one of the alternate print heads is horizontally aligned to print dots between printed dots of the other of the alternate print heads.
  • a vertical displacement or offset of one-half character dot between overstriking pairs of heads yields aesthetically pleasing dot matrix characters.
  • the half character dot displacement between the characters in the zones is not readily discernible to the eye.
  • the only mechanical motion is the horizontal displacement of the preferably ganged print heads.
  • the wire matrix printer is substantially of the type described in US-A-4,284,001, issued August 18, 1981, which is incorporated by reference.
  • FIG. 1 there is shown a representative system configuration including a host system 1, and a printer system 2.
  • the printer system includes a control unit 3 and an attachment logic 4.
  • Command and data signals are provided by the host system to printer control unit 3 by way of bus 5.
  • Command and control signals are obtained from printer control unit 3 over the printer adapter 4 by way of bus 6.
  • Status signals are supplied by the printer control unit 3 to host system 1 over bus 5.
  • the host system applies sequences of commands and data to the printer and monitors status in return.
  • Control unit 3 receives the commands, decodes them, checks for errors, and generates status information.
  • Control unit 3 further regulates printing and spacing and includes local diagnostics.
  • the adapter 4 executes decoded control unit commands, monitors all printer operations, actuates print wires, drives motors, senses printer emitters, and controls operator panel lights and switching circuitry. Also, the adapter controls the tractors, the ribbon drive, the print head carrier, the operator panel, and the printer sensors. It should be appreciated that the printer control unit 3 and adapter 4 incorporate one or more microprocessors for analyzing commands and data and to regulate operations.
  • FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate components of the printer housed in console 10. Access panels or covers 11, 12, 13 keep a relatively clean industry environment. Top cover 11 has a window 14 enabling an operator to observe paper path movement during operation of the printer whenever the cover is closed.
  • the recording medium is paper 15. It is obtained from a stored stack 16 and is fed into an upwardly or downwardly transvers- ing paper path as seen in FIGS. 2 and 3 by way of a mechanical assemly 20 which includes one or more sets of tractors 90 and 91.
  • a guide 28 moves the paper after printing to a takeup stack (not shown) positioned below the printing mechanism and to the rear of the console.
  • the printer incorporates a print assembly 30 which is positioned in a horizontal relationship with respect to the medium 15 at a print station 32.
  • the printer ribbon drive assembly 40 is located in closer proximity to the front of the printer.
  • the printer control unit 3 and its associated microprocessors are situated behind the side cover 13.
  • a ribbon 41 is provided on one of the spools 42 or 43.
  • Each ribbon box preferably contains a disposable ribbon shoe 46 mounted on spring attachment members 130 and 131 between print assemly 30 and the medium 15 in order to maintain ribbon 41 in proper alignment and to minimize ink smudging on the medium.
  • the ribbon moves on a path in front of the print head around posts 125, 126,127, and 128.
  • Two motors drive ribbon 41 back and forth between spools 42 and 43.
  • the printer control unit 3 detects ribbon jams and end of ribbon condition. A ribbon jam turns on an error indicator and stops printing.
  • the printer includes an operator panel 26 that consists of several operator control keys, two indicator lights, a power on/off switch, an operator panel display, and a density display.
  • print block 50 includes four groups of nine print wires 52 and associated actuator (not shown).
  • Print block 50, print wires 52, and the print actuators are described in detail in European Patent Application No. 80105774.6, "Printer Subsystem With Microprocessor Control", filed on Septemer 25, 1980.
  • Each group of nine print wires 52 is referred to as a print head and is respectively designated heads 1 through 4.
  • Each of the print wires 52 is, in turn, respectively numbered 1 through 9, vertically from top to bottom with wires 1 through 5 being on a first slanted path, such that adjacent wires 52 are separated horizontally by about (0.20 inches) and vertically by about 0,0042 cm (0.0167 inches). Any number of print heads may be used, such as for example two, four or seven.
  • a vertical or slant matrix printer having two heads 54 in gang relationship each of which are normally assigned to a predetermined zone along a print line extent.
  • the gang heads 54 would be positioned to the left of the first character to be printed and incrementally moved left to right until the heads were positioned just to the right of the last character to be printed upon that line.
  • the medium would be advanced so that the gang heads could be actuated for printing purposes in a right to left direction for the next print line.
  • the use of multiple heads and zones increases print speed because the heads are driven in parallel over a shorter distance.
  • FIG. 6 there is shown the detail of the normal low vertical density printing within the zonal boundaries.
  • a head will print dot matrix characters having 0,5mm (.020 inch) spacing therebetween horizontally and 0,42mm (.0167 inches) vertically.
  • the other head is vertically offset.
  • the amount of vertical offset is 0,21mm (.00833 inches).
  • FIG. 7 shows the detail of high quality printing in which the horizontal dot spacing is 0,25mm (.010 inches) and the vertical dot spacing in any vertical row is 0,21mm (.00833 inches).
  • the ganged heads are positioned such that the right most head is to the left of the first character.
  • a character as shown in the right most E in FIG. 7 would be first laid out all along the print extent while the second or left most head would overstrike each character position with the same character in the same order but offset vertically upwards to achieve the vertical and horizontal print density shown in FIG. 7.
  • the ganged print head movement would continue until the left most head was positioned to the right of the last character at the right end of the line to be printed.
  • the print rate for quality printing is 1/n of the draft printing, where n is the number of ganged heads.
  • the ganged relationship among the heads is not mandatory, although it does obviate problems of maintaining synchronism of data and position.
  • the alternate print heads are horizontally aligned with respect to one another so that the dots of one of the two alternate print heads imprints dots between previously printed dots of the other of the alternate print heads.
  • the heads are controlled in the quality print mode to print over two portions of the line whereby quality printed dot matrix characters result.
  • the print quality is of sparse density.

Landscapes

  • Printers Characterized By Their Purpose (AREA)

Claims (3)

1. Verfahren zur Veränderung der Dichte innerhalb von mittels einer Punktmatrix gedruckten Zeichen durch ausgewähltes wiederholtes Bedrucken derselben Position auf dem Druckmedium mit demselben in mindestens einer Richtung versetzten Zeichen oder Teil des Zeichens durch Steuerung des Druckkopfs zum wahlweisen Bedrucken des Druckmediums innerhalb der Druckzone mit geringer Dichte oder zum wiederholten Drucken eines bestimmten Zeichens, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass folgende Schritte ausgeführt werden:
Einteilung jeder Druckzeile in n Bereiche und Zuordnung von n-Druckköpfen zu jedem dieser Bereiche;
Anordnung der n-Druckköpfe in senkrechter zueinander versetzter Lage; und
selektive Ansteuerung der einzelnen Druckköpfe zum wiederholten Drucken eines bestimmten Zeichens auf eine bestimmte Position in einem anderen Bereich zur Erzielung einer grösseren Dichte.
2. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass der Schritt zur Positionierung einen Schritt zur Erhalterung einer senkrecht versetzten Stellung zweier ausgewählter Druckköpfe beinhaltet, so dass sich die Zeichen um einen halben Punkt gegeneinander verschoben sind.
3. Matrix-Nadeldrucker zum Drucken einer Zeile von Zeichen auf ein Druckmedium, wobei der genannte Drucker über mehrere Druckköpfe verfügt, die so angeordnet sind, dass sie einen bestimmten Bereich der Zeile drucken, und die je mehrere, in einem gegebenen Abstand voneinander angeordnete Nadeln zum Drucken von Punkten beinhalten, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass:
entsprechende Nadeln eines der Wechseldruckköpfe horizontal so ausgerichtet sind, dass sie Punkte zwischen den von einem der anderen Wechseldruckköpfe gedruckten Punkten drukken, und
der genannte Drucker Steuerungsmittel enthält, mit denen gewählt werden kann, ob jeder Druckkopf entweder einen oder zwei Bereiche der genannten Zeile von Zeichen drucken soll.
EP19820110825 1981-12-21 1982-11-23 Drucken mit wählbarer Dichte mittels in einem festen räumlichen Verhältnis stehenden Punktmatrixdruckköpfen Expired EP0082336B1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US33289881A 1981-12-21 1981-12-21
US332898 1981-12-21

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0082336A2 EP0082336A2 (de) 1983-06-29
EP0082336A3 EP0082336A3 (en) 1985-08-21
EP0082336B1 true EP0082336B1 (de) 1988-07-13

Family

ID=23300340

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP19820110825 Expired EP0082336B1 (de) 1981-12-21 1982-11-23 Drucken mit wählbarer Dichte mittels in einem festen räumlichen Verhältnis stehenden Punktmatrixdruckköpfen

Country Status (4)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0082336B1 (de)
JP (1) JPS58110266A (de)
CA (1) CA1191390A (de)
DE (1) DE3278761D1 (de)

Families Citing this family (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3482822D1 (de) * 1983-12-14 1990-08-30 Oki Electric Ind Co Ltd Seriendrucker mit mehreren schreibkoepfen.
DE3730844A1 (de) * 1987-09-14 1989-03-23 Siemens Ag Matrix-schreibeinrichtung
JP2785031B2 (ja) * 1988-03-02 1998-08-13 キヤノン株式会社 シリアルプリンタ
DE68928464T2 (de) * 1988-03-02 1998-04-23 Canon Kk Saugvorrichtung für einen Tintenstrahldrucker
US5611630A (en) * 1995-12-27 1997-03-18 Pitney Bowes Inc. Method and apparatus for securely printing a postal indicia image having a different dot density in two dimensions thereof
US5769550A (en) * 1995-12-27 1998-06-23 Pitney Bowes Inc. Method and apparatus for securely printing an indicia image in multiple passes including an enhancement pass
CN102750264A (zh) * 2012-06-12 2012-10-24 华东师范大学 一种Truetype字体加粗数据处理方法

Family Cites Families (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
NL7613358A (nl) * 1976-12-01 1978-06-05 Philips Nv Besturingsinrichting voor een matrixdrukker.
DE2633978C2 (de) * 1976-07-28 1978-04-20 Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd., Tokio Verfahren und Schaltungsanordnung zur Zwischenpunktausdruckung bei Punktdruckern
IL56669A0 (en) * 1978-02-15 1979-05-31 Nori Sinoto Matrix printer
JPS5527266A (en) * 1978-08-17 1980-02-27 Nec Corp High speed dott matrix printer
JPS55111273A (en) * 1979-02-15 1980-08-27 Rogon Corp Printer and its method
US4284001A (en) * 1979-10-19 1981-08-18 International Business Machines Corp. Head image generator for a matrix printer
JPS5663677A (en) * 1979-10-30 1981-05-30 Oki Electric Ind Co Ltd Printing control system of dot printer

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
CA1191390A (en) 1985-08-06
EP0082336A3 (en) 1985-08-21
JPS58110266A (ja) 1983-06-30
JPS6311153B2 (de) 1988-03-11
EP0082336A2 (de) 1983-06-29
DE3278761D1 (en) 1988-08-18

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