JP2000062260A - Ticket-issuing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten to time necessary for issuing a ticket by moving a paper waiting behind a print position to the print position in response to the expression of a purchase intention of a ticket buyer generated before a ticket issuance order. SOLUTION: In the ticket-issuing apparatus which issues a ticket designated by a user after a price money is put therein, for example, when the price money is put in a money put part 109 prior to a ticket issuance order, a control part 113 controls to move a thermal paper P waiting behind a printing part I to the printing part I in accordance with a money put signal output from the money put part 109. When all information necessary for issuing the ticket is input to the control part 113, the ticket issuance order is generated at the control part 113 to process to issue the ticket. The thermal paper P kept waiting behind the printing part I for the purpose of preventing a print failure is transferred to the printing part I from a time point when the money is put in the apparatus, and therefore the ticket can be issued promptly in response to the ticket issuance order.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a ticket issuing device,
More specifically, the present invention relates to a ticket issuing device for making a sheet stand by before the printing position in order to prevent the sheet from adhering to the print head or the like and causing printing defects.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 1 shows an example of a ticket issuing device for issuing a ticket (ticket) necessary for boarding a train or the like. As shown in FIG. 1, the ticket issuing device includes a thermal head 100,
A platen roller 101 provided to face the thermal head 100, and a carrying roller 1 for carrying the rolled thermal paper P to a printing unit I (printing position) provided with the thermal head 100 and the platen roller 101.
02, a stepping motor 103 for driving the carrying roller 102, a cutter 104 for cutting the leading end portion of the thermal paper P carried to the printing unit I, a cutter solenoid 105 for driving the cutter 104, and the cutter Conveyor belt 10 for carrying out the ticket T cut by 104 and printed in the printing section I
6, a conveyor belt motor 107 for driving the conveyor belt 106, and an output photosensor 108 for detecting whether or not a ticket T provided in the ejecting section E is output from the apparatus.
An operation panel 1 including a price input unit 109 for a ticket purchaser to input a price, an operation unit 110 for designating a destination, etc., and a cancel button 111 for canceling a ticket purchase.
12 and various parts of the apparatus such as the thermal head 100, the stepping motor 103, the conveyor belt motor 107, and the output photosensor 108 according to the signals output from the price input unit 109, the operation unit 110, and the cancel button 111. And a control unit 113 for controlling. In such a ticket issuing device using the thermal head 100 and the thermal paper P, the leading end of the rolled thermal paper P is often kept waiting in the printing section I in order to shorten the time required for ticket issuing. However, the thermal paper P
If the thermal paper P is stuck on the thermal head 100 or the platen roller 101 when it is kept in a standby state and the printing is continued on the thermal paper P as it is, the printing failure occurs. I will end up. Therefore, according to the control of the control unit 113, the following operations of S301 to S316 are performed to make the thermal paper P stand by at the standby position W in front of the printing unit I, and when a ticket issuing command is issued, the printing unit moves from the standby position W to the printing unit. A ticket issuing device has been proposed in which the thermal paper P is moved to I and printing is issued. A flow chart for explaining the operation of such a ticket issuing device is shown in FIG. In the above-mentioned ticket issuing apparatus, the leading end of the rolled thermal paper P is made to stand by in front of the printing unit I provided with the thermal head 100 and the platen roller 101, for example, at a standby position W of about 6 mm upstream in the transport direction. In this standby state, the ticket purchaser inputs a price from the price input unit 109 (S301), and the ticket purchaser operates the operation unit 110 to input information necessary for ticket purchase such as a destination to the control unit 113. Then (S302), a ticket issuing command is issued in the control unit 113, and the following ticket issuing processing (S303 to S316) is performed. That is, the controller 113 controls the stepping motor 10
3 is rotated in the normal direction (S303), and the leading edge of the thermal paper P is moved from the standby position W to the printing unit I (printing position) (S304). Next, the cutter solenoid 105 is turned on / off by the control unit 113, and the leading end portion of the thermal paper P in the printing unit I is cut by the cutter 104 to form the bill T (S305). Next, the control unit 1
The stepping motor 103 is normally rotated by 13 (S306), and the platen roller 101 and the transport roller 10 are rotated.
2 and 2 are driven in a state of being synchronized with each other, and the ticket T and the thermal paper P are both conveyed in the downstream direction. Next, the control unit 113 turns on the print signal corresponding to the image to be printed on the ticket T to the thermal head 100 (S307), the thermal head 100 generates heat, and the ticket T is printed. After a predetermined time, the controller 113 turns on the conveyor belt motor 107 (S308), and the conveyor belt 1
06 is driven. Next, the print signal is turned off (S
309), after the ticket T is conveyed by the margin, the stepping motor 103 is turned off (S310). Then, the rear end of the ticket T transported by the transport belt 106 is at the discharge portion E.
When the ticket T disappears from the optical path between the output photosensors 108 which is output from the ticket T and is blocked by the ticket T, the output photosensor 108 is turned on (S311) and an output indicating that the rear end of the ticket T has been output. The completion signal is output to the control unit 113. Next, the control unit 113 reverses the stepping motor 103 (S312), and until the reverse rotation of the stepping motor 103 is turned off, the thermal roller P conveyed by the conveyance rollers 102 and the leading edge of which reaches the printing unit I is reached.
However, the leading edge of the thermal paper P is moved from the printing unit I to the standby position W in the upstream direction (S313).
When the movement of the leading edge of the thermal paper P to the standby position W is completed, the conveyor belt motor 107 is turned off (S3).
14) Then, it is returned to the waiting state waiting for the price to be input by the ticket purchaser. When the cancel button 111 is pressed by the ticket purchaser after the price has been input (S3
15) After the charged price is released from the device (S
316), and returned to the standby state. In this way,
By making the leading edge of the thermal paper P stand by at the standby position W in front of the printing section I, the thermal paper P is supplied to the printing section I only while printing is performed, so even when the humidity is high, the thermal paper P remains in the standby state. Paper P is thermal head 1
00 and the platen roller 101 were prevented from sticking.

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional ticket issuing device that waits for the leading edge of the paper before the printing section I in order to prevent defective printing or the like, the standby position W is issued after the ticket issuing command is issued. Since the paper is conveyed from the printing unit I to the printing unit I, there is a problem that the time required for ticketing becomes longer by that much and the waiting time of the ticket purchaser increases. In order to solve the above problems in the conventional technology, the present invention improves the ticket issuing device so that the paper can be transferred from the standby position to the printing position in response to a ticket purchaser's intention of purchase issued before the ticket issuing command. It is an object of the present invention to provide a ticket issuing device that can reduce the time required for ticket issuing, that is, the waiting time of a ticket purchaser by moving the. In addition, after the paper is moved from the standby position to the printing position according to the purchaser's intention to purchase, or when the ticket is canceled or there is an abnormality in the device, the paper that can be moved to the printing position is selected. Another object of the present invention is to provide a ticket issuing device that can satisfactorily perform cancellation or printing after an abnormality by returning to the standby position.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a ticket issuing device for issuing a printing ticket when a ticket issuing command is issued on a sheet of paper held in front of a printing position. According to a purchase intention indication of a ticket purchaser issued before a ticket issuing command, a sheet waiting device before the printing position is moved to the printing position. There is. The invention according to claim 2 is the ticket issuing device according to claim 1,
After the above-mentioned purchase intention is issued, if the ticket is canceled or there is an abnormality, the gist of the matter is that the paper that has been previously moved to the printing position is moved to the front of the printing position. The gist of the invention according to claim 3 is that, in the ticket issuing device according to claim 1 or 2, the purchase intention display is a price insertion. According to the ticket issuing device of any one of claims 1 to 3, the paper, which has been waiting in front of the printing position to prevent defective printing, is transferred to the printing position from the time when the price is input. Since the paper is transported, when the ticket purchaser has performed all the necessary operations to purchase the ticket, the paper stands by at the printing position and can issue a ticket promptly when a ticket issuing command is issued. The waiting time can be shortened. In addition, if the ticket purchaser cancels the ticket purchase or there is an abnormality, the paper at the printing position is returned to the original standby position without being held at that position, so the cancellation is performed. Good printing can be performed even after the ticket is broken or after an abnormality.

[0005]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings to provide an understanding of the present invention.
Note that the following embodiments are specific examples of the present invention, and do not limit the technical scope of the present invention. A ticket issuing device according to an embodiment of the present invention is embodied as a ticket issuing device for issuing a ticket (ticket) to a destination designated by a user after the purchase price is input, for example, for boarding a train or the like. It FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a ticket issuing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The ticket issuing device includes a thermal head 100, a platen roller 101 provided to face the thermal head 100, and the thermal head 1
00 and platen roller 101
A transport roller 102 for transporting the thermal paper P rolled to the (printing position), a stepping motor 103 for driving the transport roller 102, and a cutting end portion of the thermal paper P transported to the printing unit I. Cutter 104, a cutter solenoid 105 for driving the cutter 104, a conveyor belt 106 for carrying out a ticket T cut by the cutter 104 and printed in the printing section I, and the conveyor belt 106. Motor 107 for a conveyor belt, an output photosensor 108 provided in the ejecting section E for detecting whether or not a ticket T is output from the apparatus, a price input section 109 for a ticket purchaser to input a price, and a destination. The operation unit 110 for specifying the etc.
And an operation panel 112 having a cancel button 111 for canceling the purchase of the ticket, the price input section 109, the operation section 110, and the thermal head 100 and the stepping motor according to signals output from the cancel button 111. The thermal paper P is provided with a control unit 113 for controlling each part of the apparatus such as 103, a conveyor belt motor 107, an output photosensor 108, and the like, and is placed in front of the printing unit I.
In addition, when a ticket issuing command is issued from the control unit 113, it is almost the same as the conventional one in that the printing ticket is issued. The ticket issuing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is different from the conventional ticket issuing apparatus in particular before the ticket issuing command, for example, the price inserting unit 10
The control unit 113 controls the thermal paper P that has been waiting in front of the printing unit I according to the price input signal output from the price input unit 109 when the price is input to the printer 9. This is the point to move to the printing unit I. Below, Figure 1
The details and operation of the ticket issuing device will be described with reference to FIG. Here, FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the ticket issuing device. In the above ticket issuing device, the leading end of the rolled thermal paper P is in front of the printing unit I provided with the thermal head 100 and the platen roller 101, for example, a standby position W of about 6 mm upstream in the transport direction.
Are waiting in. This is because when the front end of the thermal paper P is kept waiting in the printing section I, the thermal paper P sticks to the thermal head 100 and the platen roller 101 when there is a large amount of moisture and the like, causing problems such as defective printing. This is to prevent inviting. In this standby state, when a ticket purchaser inputs a price such as coins into the price input unit 109, a sensor (not shown) provided in the price input unit 109 detects the input of the price and inputs the price to the control unit 113. A signal is output (S101). When the price input signal is input, the stepping motor 103 is normally rotated by the control unit 113 (S102), and the conveying roller 10 is rotated.
By 2 the tip of the thermal paper P is moved from the standby position W to the printing unit I (S103). In the above ticket issuing device, in order to prevent the thermal head 100 and the platen roller 101 from coming into close contact with each other when the thermal paper P is not in the printing section I, for example, about half of the thermal paper P is provided between them. A stopper S for providing a space of 0.1 mm is provided. After making the first payment of the price, the ticket purchaser continuously inputs the price as much as necessary, and then operates a destination button or the like provided on the operation unit 110 to provide information necessary for ticket purchase. The work given to (the control unit 113 of) is performed. In order for the ticket purchaser to finish these operations, it usually takes a longer time than the time required to move the leading edge of the thermal paper P from the standby position W to the printing section I. By the end, the leading edge of the thermal paper P is in the printing unit I. Then, when all the information necessary for purchasing the ticket such as the destination is input to the control unit 113 (S1
04), the control unit 113 issues a ticket issuing command, and the following ticket issuing processing (S105 to S114) is performed. That is, the cutter solenoid 105 is turned on / off by the controller 113, the leading edge of the thermal paper P in the printing unit I is cut by the cutter 104, and the ticket T is formed (S105). Next, the control unit 113 causes the stepping motor 103 to rotate in the normal direction (S106), the platen roller 101 and the conveying roller 102 are driven in a state of being synchronized with each other, and the ticket T and the thermal paper P are both conveyed in the downstream direction. It Next, the control unit 113 outputs a print signal corresponding to the image printed on the ticket T to the thermal head 100.
Is turned on (S107), the thermal head 100 generates heat, and printing is performed on the ticket T. After a certain time,
The conveyor belt motor 107 is turned on by the controller 113 (S108), and the conveyor belt 106 is driven. Next, the print signal is turned off (S109), the ticket T is conveyed by the margin, and then the stepping motor 103 is turned off (S110). Then, the rear end of the ticket T conveyed by the conveyor belt 106 is output from the ejection section E,
When the ticket T disappears from the optical path between the output photosensors 108 that is blocked further, the output photosensor 108 is turned on (S111), and an output completion signal indicating that the rear end of the ticket T has been output is sent to the control unit 113. Is output. Next, the control unit 113 reverses the stepping motor 103 (S112), and the thermal paper P conveyed by the conveyance rollers 102 and the leading end of which reaches the printing unit I is conveyed in the conveyance direction until the reverse rotation of the stepping motor 103 is turned off. The leading edge of the thermal paper P, which is conveyed upstream, is moved from the printing section I to the standby position W.
Is moved to (S113). And thermal paper P
When the movement of the leading end of the sheet to the standby position W is completed, the conveyor belt motor 107 is turned off (S114), and the sheet is returned to the standby state waiting for the price to be input by the ticket purchaser. In addition, between the operations S101 to S104, that is, after the first input of the price is performed and before the information necessary for purchasing the ticket is input to the control unit 113, the cancel button 111 on the operation panel 112 is purchased. When pressed by the person (S11
5), the stepping motor is rotated in the reverse direction (S11
6) Then, in the operation S103, the front end of the thermal paper P that has been moved to the printing unit I in advance is returned to the standby position W (S117), and after the charged price is released from the apparatus (S118), the standby is performed. It is returned to the state. As described above, in the ticket issuing apparatus according to the present embodiment, the thermal paper, which has been waiting in front of the printing unit to prevent printing defects, is conveyed to the printing unit from the time when the price is charged, and When the purchaser has performed all the necessary operations to purchase the ticket, the thermal paper is waiting in the printing section, and can issue tickets promptly when a ticketing command is issued. It can be shortened. Moreover, when the ticket purchaser cancels the ticket purchase, the thermal paper in the printing unit is returned to the original standby position without being held in the same position, so the ticket is issued after the cancellation. Also, good printing can be performed.

[0006]

[Embodiment] In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to a ticket issuing device for issuing a ticket for boarding a train or the like, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is applied to other ticket issuing devices. Is also possible. Further, although coins or the like are used as the price in the above-mentioned embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be applied to a banknote or a ticket issuing device using a card purchased in advance as the price. . Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the fact that the price has been input is used as the purchase intention indication of the ticket purchaser, but the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, a sensor is provided in front of the ticket issuing device and the ticket issuing device is provided. When it is detected by the sensor that a person stands at a position closer to the sheet, the sheet may be moved to the printing position by using this as an indication of purchase intention. Further, when a person moves out of the detection range of the sensor, it may be considered as the cancellation of ticketing and the paper at the printing position may be returned to the standby position. In this case, a voice or a display panel or the like may be used, and if necessary, a price may be charged and a message may be output so that a person does not fall out of the detection range of the sensor. Further, although the present invention is applied to the ticket issuing device using the thermal head and the thermal paper in the above-mentioned embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and the ticket issuing device adopting another printing method that may cause defective printing or the like is used. The present invention can be applied to an apparatus. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the paper is returned from the printing position to the standby position when the ticket purchaser cancels the ticket issuance, but the present invention is not limited to this.
The above-mentioned ticket issuing device may be used to return the paper to the standby position when a non-ticket such as a card is purchased or when an abnormality occurs. Such a ticket issuing device is also an example of the ticket issuing device in the present invention.

[0007]

As described above, according to the ticket issuing apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 3, the paper that has been waiting in front of the printing position for preventing printing defects is
For example, when the ticket purchaser carries out all the operations necessary to purchase the ticket, the paper is waiting at the printing position because the price is transferred to the printing position when the ticket price is input, and the ticket is issued promptly when issued. It is possible to shorten the time the ticket purchaser waits before issuing a ticket. In addition, if the ticket purchaser cancels the ticket purchase or there is an abnormality, the paper at the printing position is returned to the original standby position without being held at that position, so the cancellation is performed. Good printing can be performed even after the ticket is broken or after an abnormality.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a ticket issuing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the ticket issuing device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the conventional ticket issuing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

I ... Print position W ... Standby position P ... Thermal paper T ... ticket

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 2C058 AB08 AB15 AC06 AD09 AE02                       AE04 AF16 AF31 AF37 AF51                       AF63 GB04 GB14 GB30 GB47                       GB53                 3E026 FA01

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A ticket issuing device for issuing a printing ticket when a ticket issuing command is issued on a sheet of paper that has been waiting in front of a printing position, in response to a ticket purchaser's intention of purchase issued before the ticket issuing command. A ticket issuing device, characterized in that a sheet that has been waiting before the printing position is moved to the printing position. 2. The paper, which has been moved to the printing position in advance, is moved to the front of the printing position when the ticket issuing is canceled or an abnormality occurs after the purchase intention is displayed. The ticket issuing device according to 1. 3. The ticket issuing device according to claim 1, wherein the purchase intention display is a payment of a price.