JP2000033740A - Printing control method of dot line printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform printing of high quality not receiving the effect of magnetic interference without increasing the cost of a machinery. SOLUTION: An entire printing range corresponding to one shuttle is divided into printing ranges of a dot unit and the number of printing dots in the printing ranges of a dot unit is calculated and, when the number of printing dots exceeds a prescribed value, the printing data corresponding to one shuttle are divided into plural times to be printed or the pulse width of a current allowed to flow to a release coil is altered.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing control method for a dot line printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 shows a printing principle of a dot line printer.

In FIG. 3, a plurality of printing hammers 210 attached to a hammer bank 200 are normally held at a non-printing position by the attractive force of a permanent magnet 220. The hammerbank 200 is reciprocated in the row direction by a shuttle mechanism (not shown) including, for example, a cam or a linear motor. When the hammerbank 200 reaches a predetermined dot position during this one-way movement (hereinafter referred to as a shuttle), the release coil 230 is moved. , And the print hammer 210 is released for printing.

It is well known that such a dot line printer has the following problems.

[0005] For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-10385, it is difficult to drive the printing hammers 210 of adjacent digits at the same time. That is, it is necessary to increase the width or increase the peak value of the current supplied to the coil 230. In the configuration disclosed in the above publication, in order to prohibit simultaneous driving of adjacent girders, the characters on the type drum are staggered along the circumferential direction so that they are not simultaneously driven mechanically.

The dot line printer according to the present invention is also disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
As disclosed in JP-A-28755, the printing hammers 210 are divided into two groups, and the printing hammers 210 of the second group are provided so as to be shifted from the standard set position by half the reciprocal of the printing density (hereinafter referred to as half dots). The simultaneous driving of the adjacent printing hammers 210 is prohibited.

Further, when the printing speed of the dot line printer becomes extremely high, the number of the printing hammers 210 becomes, for example, three.
However, even if the print hammers were divided into two groups, the number of simultaneously driven printing hammers 210 increased, and electrical and mechanical effects could not be avoided. Further, when the pitch between the printing hammers 210 is reduced, there is a problem that magnetic interference is further increased.

For this reason, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-38821, the printing hammer 210 is
The printing hammers 210 in the group are separated from each other by a predetermined amount from a predetermined pitch position so that the printing hammers 210 do not collide with the sheet at the same timing. The number of the hammers 210 is 1 / N.

However, even in this case, the printing hammer 210
In the print pattern in which the print dots are arranged in the same manner as in the arrangement of FIG.
The number of zeros increases, and the electrical effects, particularly the effects of magnetic interference, increase.

In other words, in order to increase the speed of the dot line printer, the period for supplying the current to the release coil 230 is from the time when the printing hammer 210 is released from the non-printing position to the time after printing is performed and returns to the non-printing position again. Usually, it is reduced to the same time as the required time (hereinafter referred to as hammery repeatability), and this time is usually about 300 μs.
The pulse width for supplying a current to the release coil 230 is
Usually, it is about 150 μs, which is about の of the hammery repeatability. Therefore, even if they are not driven at the same timing, the pulse width of the adjacent printing hammer is 1 / N
In this case, they overlap each other, and as a result, magnetic interference occurs.

In the above example, as shown in FIG. 4, the number of dot rows L to be printed simultaneously is 6, the number of groups N of the printing hammer 210 is 6, and the hammer repeatability is 300.
μs, the pulse width of the current flowing through the release coil 230 is 150
When μs is set, a case is considered where a print pattern in which print dots are arranged in the same manner as the arrangement of the print hammer 210 is printed. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, in the section T, a current always flows through one half of the release coil 230 of the entire hammerbank 200 (for example, as shown by a point P in FIG.
Current is flowing through the release coils 230 of three of the hammers). In this way, in the case of a high-speed dot line printer, the influence of magnetic interference increases depending on the print pattern, no matter how large N is.

[0012]

As described above, the number of printing hammers driven simultaneously is reduced by 1 / N by displacing the printing hammers by a predetermined amount from a predetermined pitch position so as not to collide with a sheet at the same timing. However, depending on the printing pattern, the influence of the magnetic interference increases, and the force of holding the printing hammer by suction increases, thereby causing dot removal. When driving with a constant voltage and a constant pulse width,
There has been a problem in that the time constant of the current waveform is reduced due to the reduced inductance, so that the rise of the current is faster and the current value is increased.

[0013]

According to a first printing control method of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems, a hammer bank having a plurality of printing hammers at predetermined intervals along a printing line is formed along a printing line by a shuttle mechanism. In a dot line printer that performs printing by driving the printing hammer in the course of this reciprocating movement, the entire printing range for one shuttle is divided into printing ranges for individual printing hammers and divided. A dot position is allocated for each printing range, and the number of scheduled driving of the same dot position of each print hammer is calculated from the print data transmitted before the start of printing. If the expected number of driving exceeds the specified value, 1 is calculated. It is to print the print data for the shuttle in a plurality of times.

According to a second printing control method of the present invention for solving the above problems, a hammer bank having a plurality of printing hammers is reciprocated along a printing line by a shuttle mechanism at predetermined pitches along the printing line. In a dot line printer that performs printing by driving the printing hammer in the course of this reciprocating movement, the entire printing range for one shuttle is divided into printing ranges for individual printing hammers, and each divided printing range is A dot position is allocated, and the number of drive of the same dot position of each print hammer is calculated from the print data transmitted before the start of printing, and when the number of drive exceeds the specified value, the driving of the print hammer is performed. It is to change the pulse width and print.

Further, according to a third printing control method of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems, a hammerbank having a plurality of printing hammers is reciprocated along a printing line by a shuttle mechanism at predetermined pitches along the printing line. In a dot line printer that performs printing by driving the printing hammer in the course of this reciprocating movement, the entire printing range for one shuttle is divided into printing ranges for individual printing hammers, and each divided printing range is Dot positions are allocated, and the number of driving of the same dot position of each print hammer is calculated from the print data transmitted before the start of printing, and if the number of driving exceeds the first prescribed value, the printing is performed. When printing is performed by changing the driving pulse width of the hammer, if the second specified value that is larger than the first specified value is exceeded, print data for one shuttle is printed. Is to print is divided into.

[0016]

FIG. 1 shows an example of the present invention.

The microprocessor 100 converts print data transferred from a higher-level device (not shown) into a data processing circuit 1.
Then, the image is edited into a dot image via 10 and written into the RAM 130. Before starting printing, the printing control circuit 120
30 is read out and edited according to the arrangement of the print hammer 210, and the print data for one shuttle is stored in the RAM.
Write to 140. At the start of printing, the print control circuit 120 sequentially reads out print data from the RAM 140 and supplies a current to the release coil 230 at an appropriate timing to perform printing.

FIG. 2 shows a printing range (hereinafter referred to as the number of dots) assigned to each printing hammer 210 in a printing range for one shuttle in the arrangement of the printing hammers 210 shown in FIG.
And a specific example in which dot positions are assigned. FIG.
, The number of dots per printing hammer 210 is 200, and the total number of printing hammers 210 is 300
Individual.

The print control circuit 120 writes the print data in the RAM 140 and, at the same time, calculates the number of hammers to be printed at each dot position of all the print hammers 210, and writes the number to the corresponding address in the RAM 150.

For example, all 300 printing hammers 210
If the total number of hammers scheduled for printing at the position of dot position 1 is 20, the print control circuit 1
Reference numeral 20 writes data "20" to the address "1" of the RAM 150. Similarly, assuming that the total number of hammers scheduled to be printed at the dot position 2 is 150, the print control circuit 120 determines the address "
The data "150" is written to 2 ". In this way, the print control circuit 120 calculates the total number of hammers scheduled to be printed for each dot position up to the position of the dot position 200, and the RAM 15 corresponding to the dot position.
At the address of 0, the number of hammers to be printed is written. When the writing of the print data for one stroke is completed, the microprocessor 100 sequentially reads the data in the RAM 150 from the addresses “1” to “200”, and specifies the printing method to the print control circuit 120 based on the maximum value Z.

For example, if the maximum number of print hammers 210 that can be driven without being affected by magnetic interference is 100, RA
When the maximum value Z of the data of M150 is 100 or less, the microprocessor 100 instructs the print control circuit 120 to print one shuttle of print data by one shuttle. The maximum value Z of the data in the RAM 150 is 100
When <maximum value Z ≦ 200, the microprocessor 100 controls the print control circuit 12 to overcome the influence of magnetic interference.
0, the pulse width of the current flowing through the release coil 230 is set to 150
Instruct to spread from μs to 180 μs. RAM1
If the maximum value Z of the 50 data exceeds 200, the microprocessor 100 instructs the print control circuit 120 to perform two-part printing. In this case, for example, the first shuttle prints 1, 3, and 5 dot rows, and the second shuttle prints 2, 4, and 6 dot rows.

Further, in addition to the above method, when there are many dot positions where 100 <maximum value Z ≦ 200, the pulse width can be arbitrarily changed such that the pulse width is further increased to 200 μs. It is.

The range in which the maximum value Z is calculated is not limited to each dot position as described above, but may be two adjacent positions (or more than two) such as dot position 1 and dot position 2 and dot position 3 and dot position 4. ) Can be arbitrarily changed, for example, by calculating the average.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, before starting printing, it is determined whether or not the print pattern is affected by magnetic interference.
In the case of a print pattern that is affected by magnetic interference, the printing method can be changed to one that is not affected by magnetic interference, so that print quality can be improved without increasing the cost of equipment.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing dot positions for each printing hammer.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a main part showing a printing mechanism of the dot line printer.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing an arrangement of a printing hammer.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the driving timing of the printing hammer.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 is a microprocessor, 110 is a data processing circuit, 120 is a print control circuit, 130, 140, 150 are RAM, 200 is a hammer bank, 210 is a print hammer,
220 is a permanent magnet, and 230 is a release coil.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A hammer bank having a plurality of printing hammers at predetermined intervals along a printing line is reciprocated along a printing line by a shuttle mechanism, and printing is performed by driving the printing hammer in the course of the reciprocating movement. In a dot line printer, the entire print range for one shuttle is divided into print ranges for individual print hammers, and dot positions are allocated for each of the divided print ranges, and print data transmitted before printing is started. Calculating the number of driving of the same dot position of each printing hammer from the same, and printing the print data for one shuttle in a plurality of times when the number of driving exceeds the specified value. Printer print control method. 2. A printing machine comprising: a hammer bank having a plurality of printing hammers separated by a predetermined pitch along a printing line by reciprocating along a printing line by a shuttle mechanism, and driving the printing hammer in the course of the reciprocating movement to perform printing. In a dot line printer, the entire print range for one shuttle is divided into print ranges for individual print hammers, and dot positions are allocated for each of the divided print ranges, and print data transmitted before printing is started. A dot line printer that calculates the number of driving of the same dot position of each print hammer from the same, and changes the driving pulse width of the printing hammer when the number of driving exceeds a prescribed value. Print control method. 3. The print control method for a dot line printer according to claim 2, wherein said drive pulse width can be arbitrarily changed. 4. A print control method for a dot line printer according to claim 1, wherein the width of the print range of each print hammer can be changed arbitrarily. . 5. A printing machine by reciprocating a hammer bank having a plurality of printing hammers at predetermined intervals along a printing line along a printing line by a shuttle mechanism, and driving the printing hammer in the course of the reciprocating movement. In a dot line printer, the entire print range for one shuttle is divided into print ranges for individual print hammers, and dot positions are allocated for each of the divided print ranges, and print data transmitted before printing is started. The calculated number of driving of the same dot position of each printing hammer is calculated from the above, and when the number of driving exceeds the first specified value, the printing is performed by changing the driving pulse width of the printing hammer and the first specified. A dot line printer for printing print data for one shuttle in a plurality of times when a second prescribed value larger than the second prescribed value is exceeded. Print control method.