EP0690791B1 - Document printing device with a device and process for print monitoring - Google Patents

Abstract

An automatic cheque issuing device used as a document printer contains a device for print monitoring (GS, AE). The print monitor makes it possible to print a print monitor symbol (15) in a blank section of the document (12) when the latter is printed. This print monitor symbol (15) is scanned by means of a light barrier (26), which is used to place the documents (12) in a printing position, and checks the presence and condition of the print via a program-controlled assessment unit (AE). It is thus possible to monitor the operation of the printing mechanism of the printing device and ensure that only printed and checked documents (12) are produced by the automatic document issuing device.

Description

Document printing devices for printing checks or other forms have been in use at banks and in retail for a long time. They generally contain a print head and a transport channel for transporting the printed checks to the printer exit. In order to be able to process several checks in succession, it is also known to design the transport device as a turning device with a catch orientation in such a way that the checks are collected at the output of the printer and then output as a stack.

Such receipt printing devices are also used in secured machines, in which the customer can request the issuance of checks printed with customer-specific data after entering a PIN number.

It is also common to automatically create checks with such receipt printing devices and send them to customers e.g. to be sent in the form of crossed checks.

In all of these cases, it must be ensured that the printout in the document printing device takes place completely in legible quality. In such document printing devices, dot matrix printing devices that work together with an ink ribbon are often used. If the ribbon is exhausted or damaged, the print will be weak or illegible. This leads to disruptions in the automatic evaluation of checks by document reading devices.

An exposure device for photo paper is known from FR-A-1 385 177. In this exposure device, starting from a supply roll, an endless photo paper is guided past an exposure opening and then rolled up. To control the feed of the paper, in particular to adapt to different formats of the imaging device a marking device is printed on the paper with the aid of a marking device when the paper enters the exposure area at the height of the upper edge of the exposure area and this marking is scanned at the exit of the exposure area at the height of its lower edge with the aid of a scanning device.

The printed marking is used for format control of the generated image and not for quality control.

A check printing device is also known from EP-A-0 171 380, in which checks removed from a storage container are printed in a printing device with personal data and with OCR characters for identification of the checks. Downstream of the printing device is a verification unit that checks the content and quality of the personal data. Depending on this check process, the checks are then either issued or placed in a receptacle.

It is not clear how this verification unit is structured in detail.

It has already been proposed to check the printing of the checks by arranging a separate font reading device in the form of an OCR reader in the document device, which reads and checks the generated lines of text. However, OCR readers must be horizontal when scanning be carried over the document, which is complex and cumbersome.

The object of the invention is therefore to provide a receipt printing device with a device for checking the impression, which is of simple construction and which enables the impression to be checked reliably and without interference.

This object is achieved in a receipt printing device of the type mentioned at the outset in accordance with the features of the first and fifth patent claims.

Advantageous embodiments of the invention are characterized in the subclaims.

In the document printing device according to the invention, a separate impression control sign is generated on the document while the document is being printed with the printing unit. This print control symbol is scanned with a light barrier and the scanning process is evaluated in the printer control. If there is no print control character or if the print is too weak, a corresponding message appears and the printing process can be interrupted and the fault rectified. It is also possible to repeat the printing process if necessary.

Document printing devices generally contain positioning scanning means in the form of light barriers which scan the position of the documents in the area of the printing unit in order to position the document in a clear printing position. The light barriers preferably scan the front edge of the document.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, this light barrier serving as a positioning scanning means is used to simultaneously scan the pressure control sign. For this purpose, the print control sign on the receipt printed so that it lies in the scanning path of the light barrier or the installation position of the light barrier is adapted to the pressure position of the sign on the document.

This enables a particularly cost-effective and simple impression control. An incorrect impression, e.g. through an exhausted ribbon cassette, is reliably recognized.

The print control sign can consist of a small black-colored area on the front of the check.

• Figur 1 eine schematische Schnittdarstellung einer Belegdruckeinrichtung mit integrierter Abdruckkontrolle und
• Figur 2 eine schematische Darstellung eines Druckbogens mit darauf angeordneten Scheckformularen, die ein Druckkontrollzeichen aufweisen.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawings and is described in more detail below, for example. Show it

• Figure 1 is a schematic sectional view of a receipt printing device with integrated print control and
• Figure 2 is a schematic representation of a printed sheet with check forms arranged thereon, which have a print control symbol.

A document or check printing device, not shown in detail here, contains a transport channel 10 for transporting documents 12, such as checks, arranged on printed sheets, through the document printing device. The printed sheets can be made up as a form tape 11, such as continuous paper in the form of perforated folded paper or roll paper, with the documents 12 printed thereon, which are connected to an associated receipt document 14 via a perforation edge 13. A print control sign 15 in the form of a black-colored small rectangle is printed on the front of the receipts 12 in a free field.

The transport channel 10 extends from an input area 16 of the printing device for inputting the printed sheets 11 to an output slot 17 for outputting the ready-made Checks, the entire receipt printing device being arranged in a check dispenser 18 in a safe-protected manner. The aggregates required for document processing are arranged along the transport channel 10. These consist essentially of two pairs of electromotively driven drive rollers 19 with a print head 20 arranged between the drive rollers 19 for printing on the receipts 12. The print head 20 can consist of a conventional needle print head with an associated ink ribbon cassette 21 or of an ink print head which moves perpendicular to the document transport direction in the writing mode is, with a pressure bar 22 serves as a support surface for the receipts or as a repository for the print head.

In the transport channel 10, downstream of the drive rollers 19 in the transport direction, there is a cutting device 23 with a knife 24, e.g. in the form of a cutting roll, which is used to cut the receipts 12 from the form tape 11, if necessary with attached receipt 14, and thus to separate them.

In continuation of the transport channel 10 after the cutting device 23, a turning device with an associated bundling device is arranged. The turning device 25 consists of a drum 28 which can be driven by an electric motor via a belt 27 and which grips and transports each individual check 12 with mechanically opening and closing pliers 29. If the corresponding number of checks are stored in the pliers 29, the direction of rotation of the drum is reversed and the bundle of checks is output via the dispensing slot 17.

To monitor the printing process, the receipt printing device has a device for checking the printing. This contains a light barrier 26, which in and of itself serves to scan the front edge of the checks and the check or the beginning of the printed sheet in a printing position between the Position drive rollers 19 and the print head 20. The light barrier can be designed as a reflection light barrier.

A microprocessor-controlled device controller GS, which is only shown schematically here, is coupled to the units of the printing device, having a central unit CPU and an evaluation unit AE, which is coupled to the central unit CPU. The evaluation unit and the central unit serve, among other things, to control the print control described below by printing and scanning a print control sign 15 on the checks. The device controller GS is designed as a program-controlled controller, so that the evaluation unit AE symbolizes only one area of the controller. If necessary, however, a hardware implementation is also possible. The coupling of the device control with the individual units is only indicated symbolically by connecting lines.

The receipt printing device with the associated impression control device works as follows:

At the start of the printing operation, the beginning of the form belt 11 with the connected documents 12 is fed to the printing device via the drive rollers 19 and the front edge of the first document 12 is positioned in a printing position below the print head 20. For this purpose, the front edge of the check is scanned via the light barrier 26 and then the check or the form belt 11 is brought into a predefinable printing position via the drive rollers 19. This positioning of the form belt 11 and thus the documents 12 takes place once at the beginning of the form belt 11 after the start of operation. For the subsequent positioning of the subsequent checks, this position is stored and maintained, or it is predetermined by the check sequence on the form belt 11.

After the form tape 11 and thus the first document 12 have been positioned in the printing position, the check is printed in a controlled manner by the device controller GS and, at the same time as the printing process is triggered, the print control sign 15 is printed on the check as confirmation of the printing process. After the printing process has ended, the impression control device is activated and the document or the form band 11 is moved further by approximately one document length including the receipt document 14.

Since the transport route between the front edge of the document 12 and the intended printing area of the control mark 15 is known from the positioning process and from the predetermined imprinting scheme on the printed sheet or form belt 11, a window area is assigned to the imprint control of this route, during its passage under the light barrier 26 the evaluation unit AE on the one hand scans the presence of the pressure control sign 15 via the light barrier 26 and on the other hand evaluates the scanning result. If the print control sign is missing at all, an error sign is set in a memory within the evaluation unit AE and this fault is externally e.g. shown on a display. At the same time, further printing and feeding are interrupted until e.g. after replacing the ribbon cassette 21 or by any other troubleshooting, the printing operation is started again. The procedure is similar if the print quality is significantly reduced. If necessary, a routine can also be included which starts a new print for a follow-up check and checks its print again by scanning the print control symbol 15.

After checking the print control mark, the checks are cut, collected and issued as described.

In the described embodiment, the pressure control sign 15 is scanned with the aid of the light barrier 26, which has a double function both for positioning the Receipts 12 and also for scanning the print control sign 15 is used. However, it is also possible to scan the pressure control sign 15 with a separate light barrier arranged in the transport channel 10 or with another optoelectric scanning device. It is also conceivable to print on a plurality of control signs instead of a single control sign and to scan these using separate scanning devices or common scanning devices.

Reference list

10th

Transport channel

11

Formuca tape (printed sheets), folding paper, continuous paper

12th

Receipt, e.g. check

13

Perforation edge

14

Receipt

15

Print control sign

16

Entrance area of the printing device

17th

Output area of the printing device

18th

Framework of the automatic check dispenser

19th

Drive rollers

20th

Printhead

21

Ribbon cartridge

22

Pressure bar

23

Cutting device

24th

knife

25th

Turning device, exit transport device, exit transport device

26

Photoelectric barrier

27

belt

28

Drum, turning device

29

Pliers, collecting device

GS

Device control

CPU

Central unit

AE

Evaluation unit

Claims (8)

1. Document printing device having

   - a printing unit (20, 21),

   - a transport channel (10) with associated transport device (19) for document transport,

   - control means (GS, AE), which can be coupled to the printing unit (20, 21) and which cause at least one separate print monitoring symbol (15) to be printed on the document (12) by the printing unit (20, 21) during a printing process printing a document (12),

   - monitoring marker scanning means assigned to the transport channel (10) and scanning the print monitoring symbol (15) in the sense of testing the blackening for positioning the document (12) in a predeterminable printing position,

   characterized by an assessment unit (AE) assigned to the monitoring marker scanning means, which, on the one hand, scans for the presence of the print monitoring symbol via the monitoring marker scanning means and, on the other hand, assesses the scanning result.
2. Document printing device according to Claim 1, having monitoring marker scanning means which have an electro-optical scanning device arranged in the transport channel (10) in such a manner that the scanning device scans the print monitoring symbol (15) during the further transport of the document (12) out of the printing position.
3. Document printing device according to one of claims 1 or 2, having a light barrier (26) as monitoring marker scanning means.
4. Document printing device according to one of claims 1 to 3, arranged in an automatic cheque output device (18) protected like a safe.
5. Process for operating a document printing device, having the following features:

   - positioning a document in a printing unit (20, 21) of the document printing device with the aid of positioning scanning means,

   - data-dependent printing of the document and generation of a print monitoring symbol (15) characterizing the printing process,

   - further transport of the document through the printing unit and scanning the print monitoring symbol (15) with the aid of the positioning scanning means,

   characterized by assignment of an assessment unit (AE) to the positioning scanning means which, on the one hand, scans for the presence of the print monitoring symbol (15) via the positioning scanning means and, on the other hand, assesses the scanning process in the sense of testing the blackening of the print monitoring symbol (15).
6. Process for operating a document printing device according to claim 5, the scanning being carried out using the relative movement of the positioning scanning means and document (12) in relation to each other during the transport of the document (12) through the document printing device.
7. Process for operating a document printing device according to claim 5 or 6, in which the documents (12) are printed on a forms strip (11) in a predetermined spacing sequence and an individualization of the documents is carried out after the printing and scanning process.
8. Process for operating a document printing device according to one of claims 5 to 7,

   - the print monitoring symbol (15) being printed in a window region on the document,

   - the positioning scanning means scanning this window region,

   - the assessment means (AE), as a function of the scanning result, causing faulty functioning to be indicated and/or the operation of the document printing device to be interrupted.

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