EP0100776B1 - Méthode pour l'utilisation par ajustement d'un ruban d'impression dans une imprimante à impact - Google Patents

Méthode pour l'utilisation par ajustement d'un ruban d'impression dans une imprimante à impact Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0100776B1
EP0100776B1 EP19820107233 EP82107233A EP0100776B1 EP 0100776 B1 EP0100776 B1 EP 0100776B1 EP 19820107233 EP19820107233 EP 19820107233 EP 82107233 A EP82107233 A EP 82107233A EP 0100776 B1 EP0100776 B1 EP 0100776B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
ribbon
colour
subsection
track
printing
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
EP19820107233
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0100776A1 (fr
Inventor
William J. Butera
Peter Dr. Stucki
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
Priority date (The priority date 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 date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by International Business Machines Corp filed Critical International Business Machines Corp
Priority to DE8282107233T priority Critical patent/DE3268815D1/de
Priority to EP19820107233 priority patent/EP0100776B1/fr
Priority to JP8777983A priority patent/JPS5929189A/ja
Priority to CA000431793A priority patent/CA1204335A/fr
Publication of EP0100776A1 publication Critical patent/EP0100776A1/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0100776B1 publication Critical patent/EP0100776B1/fr
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
    • B41J31/00—Ink ribbons; Renovating or testing ink ribbons
    • B41J31/14—Renovating or testing ink ribbons
    • B41J31/16—Renovating or testing ink ribbons while fitted in the machine using the ink ribbons
    • 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
    • B41J33/00—Apparatus or arrangements for feeding ink ribbons or like character-size impression-transfer material
    • B41J33/14—Ribbon-feed devices or mechanisms
    • B41J33/36—Ribbon-feed devices or mechanisms with means for adjusting feeding rate

Definitions

  • the invention relates to a method for adaptively using a print ribbon in an impact printer such as a typewriter or dot matrix printer, for example.
  • the first may be called a single-use ribbon, where the colouring material, such as carbon, at the impact location is completely transferred to the record carrier, thus leaving a non-colouring area on the ribbon substrate, so that after one complete pass of its entire length for successive printing the ribbon has to be discarded, save any provisions for repleting.
  • the colouring material such as carbon
  • the second type of ribbon in contrast, may usually be passed back and forth several times in front of the printing station since after each impact and ensuing removal of dye from the impact location, sufficient time is provided as the ribbon is further advanced, and later reversed, for the dyestuff to "bleed" into depleted areas from the neighbourhood so as to maintain a reasonable though continuously degradating print quality over several reversals of the transport direction of the ribbon.
  • CH-A-474757 describes method and device for measuring the density of the printing ink in a multi-colour printer.
  • a current sample of the printing ink of each colour is compared with a standard of the respective colour in that light is shone through the inks under investigation and directed onto photosensitive means for electronic comparison.
  • CH ⁇ A ⁇ 474757 refers to conventional apparatus for determining the density of printing colours employing complementary colour filters.
  • the present invention aims at proposing a method for adaptively using the print ribbon, i.e. provide undepleted ribbon if high quality printing is desired but leave the ribbon just as it happens to be if no special quality requirements have been signalled.
  • the method in accordance with the present invention for adaptively using a print ribbon is characterized by transporting by small increments in forward and reverse directions, during printing operation, one subsection of predetermined length of the ribbon, continuously monitoring the condition of the printing colour or colours in said one subsection, until the condition of said colour or of any one of the colours in said one subsection has reached a predetermined lower tolerance level, and then advancing the ribbon so as now to expose at the printing station the subsequent, fresh subsection of the ribbon, regardless of the condition of the possibly remaining colours in said one subsection, for repeating the procedure until the entire ribbon is used up.
  • the printer 1 comprises a platen 2 which carries a record carrier such as a sheet of paper 3.
  • Platen 2 is supported in frames 4,5 and indexed via belt 6 and pulleys 7 and 8 by a stepper motor 9.
  • Slidingly supported on rods 10 and 11 is a print head 12 which may be escaped along the print line by a belt 13 slung around drums 14 and 15 and driven by a stepper motor 16.
  • Print head 12 contains, e.g. seven wires (not shown) arranged at equal mutual distances in a column, the tips of the wires directed against platen 2 and their ends connected to electromagnets which may be selectively energized via a flexible cable 17 connected to appropriate control apparatus as is known to those skilled in the art.
  • Printing of alphanumeric characters and symbols is through composition of single dots in a 7x5 matrix arrangement, i.e. after the parallel energizing of the appropriate number of wires the print head has to be advanced by one fifth or less of a character width whereupon the selective energization for the then actual print position will be made, and so forth until a character is completed and an intercharacter escapement is accomplished.
  • Print ribbon 18 (Fig. 2) has four parallel colour bands 21 through 24, for example, with yellow (21), magenta (22), cyan (23) and black (24) inks, respectively. These inks permit printing in a total of seven different colours by superposition in accordance with the subtractive primary colour system which is, for example, explained in EP-A-Nr. 0011 722.
  • Print ribbon 18 may alternatively be dedicated to a different system of colours such as the one disclosed in CH-A-610.825 which prefers golden yellow, carmine, violet and turquoise. Still another system might comprise the positive primary colours red, yellow, blue and black, the black always being used to enhance contrast.
  • the colour band to be presented at the print station for printing is selected by a print control unit which either controls the lifting of a conventional ribbon fork 25 or of said ribbon spools 19 and 20.
  • the differently coloured inks are composed such that every two inks impregnated on adjacent bands are mutually repelling so that their mixing (bleeding) is prevented and no degradation of one ink by its neighbour can occur.
  • Printers of the type described above presently can perform up to a speed of 5000 imprints per second.
  • the limitation in speed is mainly dictated by the mechanical parts which must be moved, viz. the print wires and their associated electromagnets. With a further reduction of mass of the wire/electromagnet assemblies and with improvements in the materials used in the print head, still higher speed will certainly be possible soon.
  • the entire ribbon is treated as one unit assumed to have the uniform deterioration characteristics as shown in Fig. 3.
  • the quality is, of course, very high, but with use the quality decreases until a lower quality threshold is reached at which replacement of the ribbon is required.
  • Uniformity of wearing is achieved by escaping the ribbon by a small increment after each printing impact until the entire supply of new ribbon is used up and then reversing the direction of transportation several times until said lower quality threshold is reached.
  • the method of the present invention remedies these problems by partitioning the entire ribbon into several subsections of essentially equal length and employing those subsections for printing sequentially until each one reaches its individual lower quality level and then switching to a fresh subsection.
  • Fig. 4 shows this for a colour ribbon partitioned into six subsections 5, ... S 6 , with the life of the subsections varying with the parameters of the colour images printed, such as frequency of colour changes, colour dot density, printer speed, degree of resolution, etc.
  • the comparatively fast deterioration of subsections S 2 and S 5 may be due to dark colour overprint causing a lighter colour band to fade or a high frequency of colour variation causing streaks on the ribbon's colour bands. Because in accordance with this method one subsection is completely exhausted before the printer.switches to the next, the faster deterioration of subsections S 2 and 5 5 in the example of Fig. 4 is not allowed to harm the overall picture quality.
  • the second monitoring scheme as shown in Fig. 5 is basically optical and comprises a light source 26 and a photo-detector 27.
  • the idea here is that a streaked, smudged or faded ribbon can be detected by the intensity of light it emits.
  • the photo-detector is mounted adjacent print head 12, and as the latter is escaped, the detector scans ribbon 18.
  • Light from source 26 passes through a short length of each colour band of ribbon 18 to a bank of optical filters 28 through 31. Each filter suppresses every colour except the one of the colour band directly in front of it. For example, light shone through the magenta band 22 is passed through corresponding filter 29.
  • the filtered light is then passed to a string of photo-sensitive elements 32 through 35 which convert the intensity of the colour received from their associated filter 28 through 31 to electrical signals which they feed to individually connected integrators 36 through 39.
  • Each integrator adds the signals received over time to the previous output of the respective photosensitive element 32 through 35 and supplies its output signal to one of comparators 40 through 43 which have one of their inputs commonly connected to a threshold voltage.
  • Separate adjustment facilities may be provided at the comparators so as to permit the threshold for each colour to be preset individually.
  • detector 27 If after a specified time, which may, e.g. correspond to one sweep, the voltage output from one integrator is below the threshold for the colour concerned, then detector 27 signals via OR gate 44 that one of the colour bands in the current subsection is corrupted. Ribbon 18 is then advanced to the next, fresh subsection.
  • the third scheme simply involves a manual advance option.
  • the operator desires to proceed to a fresh subsection of ribbon 18, e.g. for a printing job requiring high quality, this option may be used.
  • the ribbon then advances to the next subsection regardless of the state of the current subsection.
  • the length of the ribbon subsections can be set by the operator prior to printing.
  • the minimum practicable length corresponds to the distance the print head 12 can travel across platen 2 between the left and right stops 45, 46 (Fig. 1 & 6).
  • the length AL of a subsection should extend on both sides beyond said travel distance. In the latter case, to ensure uniform aging/ wearing of the entire subsection, ribbon 18 has to be advanced and reversed by a tiny fraction Ax of the subsection length AL for every couple of print head carrier returns.
  • FIG. 7 A block diagram for such a system is shown in Fig. 7.
  • the operation of the system is divided into three phases: power-up, normal operation, and power-down.
  • microprocessor 47 runs through some check-out routines and then reads the operating parameters pertaining to the previous operation out of a non-volatile memory 48 and into the appropriate units, such as a random access memory 49. Into specific areas of memory 49 are read the maximum count for the wire impacts on the ribbon for each colour band 22... 25, the length AL for the ribbon subsections, the current count for ⁇ x, and the maximum count for ⁇ x. The previous values off the counters (which were saved in memory 48) are rounded off, e.g. to the nearest 10 20 and read back into the counters. When this is complete, microprocessor 47 commences normal operation by causing the printer to print.
  • resetflipflop 51 Since the mechanism is preferably designed such that hitting RESET button 53 does not have any effect while printing is in progress, resetflipflop 51 is assumed to be reset. Therefore, the operation proceeds to block 54 decrementing the current carrier count which is representative of the number of carrier returns performed since the last time the ribbon was advanced. When the current carrier count reaches zero (block 55), said count is reloaded from memory 48 and the ribbon is advanced by Ax (fig. 9).
  • microprocessor 47 determines that ribbon 18 should be advanced, it checks first on the direction of advancement, i.e. forward, backward or not at all, as would be the case if the length AL of a ribbon subsection was chosen to be equal to the distance of carrier travel.
  • the processor will look at the number of times the ribbon was previously advanced by Ax by asking whether the current Ax count has reached zero (block 56). If the answer is NO, i.e. the ribbon has not reached the end of the current subsection, the processor reads the direction flag stored in memory 48 (block 57). If the answer to the question of block 56 is YES, the processor asks the direction flat at which end of the subsection the ribbon is.
  • the processor checks (block 60) the status of flipflop 51 (which may be set by the counters 59, the photo-detector 27 or by manual advance) to decide whether to go to the next subsection or go back over the preceding one. If either photo-detector 27 or counters 59 signals that the ribbon is worn, or manual advance button 50 indicates ribbon transport regardless of ribbon condition, processor 47 reloads the counters 59 and signals the advance into the new subsection (blocks 61, 62). Otherwise, processor 47 toggles the direction flag, reloads the Ax count for the subsection and begins to go back over the preceding subsection (blocks 63, 64).
  • flipflop 51 which may be set by the counters 59, the photo-detector 27 or by manual advance
  • each ribbon subsection (AL) is set by the operator during a power-up or RESET operation. While the printer is printing, microprocessor 47 is supervising the uniform wearing of the ribbon subsection by slowly moving the ribbon back and forth by small increments (Ax) every few carrier returns. When a ribbon advance is signalled, the processor causes the ribbon to be transported to the next subsection and repeats the process.
  • microprocessor 47 The only other incident which can cause an interrupt to microprocessor 47 is the pushing of the RESET button 67 by the operator. This causes microprocessor 47 to enter the interrupt routine of Fig. 8, loading new parameters (AL, counter limits) into storage (blocks 66 and 68). When RESET button 67 was pushed, processor 47 assumes that a new ribbon has been installed. Therefore, the printer must be off-line when this happens.
  • a DEFAULT button 69 may be provided which has essentially the same consequences when pushed as RESET button 67, except that the new parameters are read from a default list stored in the non-volatile memory 48.
  • Fig. 10 shows the design principle for the counters 59 of Fig. 7.
  • the purpose of the counters is to determine the actual number of impacts performed on each of the colour bands of ribbon 18 and to cause ribbon advance to a new ribbon subsection when the predetermined maximum number of impacts is surpassed.
  • print head 12 is assumed to have seven print wires and, accordingly, there will be seven control lines 70 for activating the print wire magnets.
  • These control lines 70 are also connected to a discrete logic unit 71 which also receives vertical position control signals over lines 72 from the ribbon transport mechanism 73.
  • a clock signal from system clock 74 via line 75 synchronizes logic unit 71 with the rest of the printer.
  • logic unit 71 enables the appropriate one of counters 76 through 79 which then decrements by the number of times the associated colour band is impacted by a print wire.
  • the counters 76 through 79 may be implemented as binary counters, with the proviso that each counter comprises two sections (a) and (b), respectively counting the least and most significant bits.
  • the input to counters 76 through 79 as well as the most significant bits are continuously mapped in map section 80 of memory 48 so as to permit the system to remember after a power-down which were the latest counts for each of the colour bands 21 through 24.
  • the human interface to the printer can vary widely with the kind of printer used.
  • the essential elements of the human interface are shown in Fig. 7 and comprise ribbon advance button 50, RESET button 67, DEFAULT button 69, a visual display 81 for displaying a numerical output from microprocessor 47,-this display might, e.g. use light emitting diodes, a AL button 82, and a set of microswitches 83 or the like for entering said predetermined counts for each one of the colour bands into microprocessor 47.
  • An alternative to those microswitches 83 would be an appropriate set-up mode preprogrammed so as to write the values direct into random access memory 49.
  • the mechanisms described above can be implemented on existing and future systems in a variety of different ways all leading to the performance of the method in accordance with the invention. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the ribbon subsection control described can be implemented as a separate unit interfacing the printer at the power supply, the print control lines and the ribbon transport mechanism. It may also be fully integrated into a host printer, if the printer is run from a microprocessor. In this case, besides the addition of a few components, the program code for the host microprocessor will have to be modified. In printers without a keyboard the human interface of Fig. 7 may be used. Where there is a keyboard on the printer, the entire human interface could be integrated into the set-up mode of the printer.
  • microprocessor offers the additional advantage to monitor and remember the quality status of all subsections of the ribbon at the time an advance to a fresh subsection was made so as to enable a possible return to those subsections which still would permit printing in a quality commensurate with the quality then required.

Claims (3)

1. Méthode d'adaptation et d'utilisation d'un ruban d'impression dans une imprimante à impact monochrome ou polychrome, caractérisée par l'entraînement pendant l'opération d'impression, en avant et en arrière, par petits incréments (Ax), d'une sous section de longueur prédéterminée (AL) du ruban (18), le contrôle continu de l'état de la ou des couleurs (21 ... 24) de ladite sous section jusqu'à ce que l'état de ladite couleur ou de l'une quelconque des couleurs (21 ... 24) de ladite sous section ait atteint un niveau de tolérance inférieur prédéterminé et par l'avancement du ruban (18) de façon à exposer maintenant à la station d'impression une nouvelle sous section de ruban (18) indépendamment de l'état des couleurs pouvant rester de ladite sous section, afin de répéter cette suite d'opérations jusqu'à ce que tout le ruban soit utilisé.
2. Méthode selon la revendication 1 caractérisée en ce que l'état de la. ou des pistes de couleur est contrôlé en comptant le nombre des impacts d'impression sur la ou les pistes de couleur de ladite sous section exposée, en comparant le compte courant à un compte prédéterminé représentant la disparition de la couleur particulière et en signalant l'atteinte dudit compte prédéterminé pour avancer le ruban (18) afin d'exposer sa sous section suivante à la station d'impression.
3. Méthode selon la revendication 1 caractérisée en ce que l'état de la ou des pistes de couleur est contrôlé en appliquant de la lumière (26) au travers de la ou desdites pistes (21 ...24), en faisant passer la lumière résultant au travers d'un filtre (28 ... 31) associé à la ou les pistes de couleur (21 ... 24) et prévu pour filtrer toutes les couleurs à l'exception de celle de sa piste associée (21...24), en appliquant la sortie lumineuse desdits filtres (28... 31) à des éléments photosensibles individuels (32...35) pour déterminer l'intensité de la lumière passant au travers desdits filtres (28 ... 31), en envoyant les signaux de sortie desdits éléments photosensibles (32 ... 35) dans des unités d'intégration associées (36...39) et en comparant la sortie desdites unités d'intégration à des seuils prédéterminés particulieurs à chacune des couleurs utilisées.
EP19820107233 1982-08-10 1982-08-10 Méthode pour l'utilisation par ajustement d'un ruban d'impression dans une imprimante à impact Expired EP0100776B1 (fr)

Priority Applications (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
DE8282107233T DE3268815D1 (en) 1982-08-10 1982-08-10 Method for adaptively using a print ribbon in an impact printer
EP19820107233 EP0100776B1 (fr) 1982-08-10 1982-08-10 Méthode pour l'utilisation par ajustement d'un ruban d'impression dans une imprimante à impact
JP8777983A JPS5929189A (ja) 1982-08-10 1983-05-20 インパクト式プリンタ
CA000431793A CA1204335A (fr) 1982-08-10 1983-07-05 Methode d'emploi adaptatif d'un ruban encreur dans une imprimante a frappe

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP19820107233 EP0100776B1 (fr) 1982-08-10 1982-08-10 Méthode pour l'utilisation par ajustement d'un ruban d'impression dans une imprimante à impact

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0100776A1 EP0100776A1 (fr) 1984-02-22
EP0100776B1 true EP0100776B1 (fr) 1986-01-29

Family

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Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP19820107233 Expired EP0100776B1 (fr) 1982-08-10 1982-08-10 Méthode pour l'utilisation par ajustement d'un ruban d'impression dans une imprimante à impact

Country Status (4)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0100776B1 (fr)
JP (1) JPS5929189A (fr)
CA (1) CA1204335A (fr)
DE (1) DE3268815D1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CA1251156A (fr) * 1984-04-11 1989-03-14 Leo J. Emenaker Imprimante polychrome
US5445464A (en) * 1987-02-27 1995-08-29 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Ink ribbon usage in a multicolor image recording apparatus
GB8913354D0 (en) * 1989-06-09 1989-07-26 Wright John G Ribbon re-inking machine
JPH03244582A (ja) * 1990-02-23 1991-10-31 Citizen Watch Co Ltd プリンタのカラー切替表示装置
DE60004741T2 (de) 1999-07-09 2004-07-01 Seiko Epson Corp. Drucker und Steuerungsverfahren dafür

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3346090A (en) * 1963-05-31 1967-10-10 Ibm Ribbon feed mechanism
JPS5431251Y2 (fr) * 1976-06-22 1979-09-29
JPS578187A (en) * 1980-06-17 1982-01-16 Toshiba Corp Apparatus for detecting color scheme of multicolor ink ribbon
US4375339A (en) * 1980-12-01 1983-03-01 International Business Machines Corporation Electrically conductive ribbon break detector for printers

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
DE3268815D1 (en) 1986-03-13
CA1204335A (fr) 1986-05-13
JPS5929189A (ja) 1984-02-16
EP0100776A1 (fr) 1984-02-22
JPH0234315B2 (fr) 1990-08-02

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