JP2000158776A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make optimum the number of characters per one line as the maximum number of characters printable for respective printing media by providing a medium width computing section computing the width of printing media based on the output of medium detecting sensors and a moving position information of the medium detecting sensor output from a sensor moving mechanism. SOLUTION: The output from a medium detecting sensor 5 and a moving position information of the medium detecting sensor 5 output from a sensor moving mechanism 6 are input into a medium width computing section 7 in which the width of a printing medium is computed and output. The number of printable characters per one line is computed by a medium printing width computing section 8 based on a medium width information from the medium width computing section 7, and the printing control at the time of printing is carried out in compliance with the computed number of printable characters per one line by a printing control section 9. The output fluctuation based on the existence of the shading on the printing medium is generated by a medium detecting sensor 5 formed of a light emitting section and a light receiving section, and the medium width is computed by a medium width computing section 7 based on the output fluctuation generated by the existence or non-existence of shading and the moving position information from a sensor moving mechanism 6.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer for performing printing on a print medium with a print head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a printer device for printing with a print head moving in a lateral direction on a print medium conveyed in one direction, for example, there is a passbook printer device for printing on a passbook in a financial institution or the like. As a medium to be printed by the passbook printer, there is a medium in which the size of the print medium is standardized like a 2000 passbook, but there are many mediums such as slips which have different print medium sizes. By the way, as shown in FIG. 5, a conventional printer device has a plurality of medium detection sensors 2 and 3 mounted in a fixed position in a lateral direction (width direction) with respect to a transport direction of the print medium 1 and a horizontal position. The medium width is pseudo-detected from the presence or absence of light blocking of the medium detection sensors 2 and 3 by the other side of the print medium 1 conveyed with one side in the direction being positioned by the medium abutting guide 4.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional printer, the actual width of the print medium 1 cannot be detected accurately. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, when the print medium 1 blocks the medium detection sensor 2 and transmits the light to the medium detection sensor 3, the width of the print medium 1 is changed from the medium abutting guide 4 to the medium detection sensor 2. The distance is detected as not less than the distance to the position and not more than the distance from the medium abutting guide 4 to the position of the medium detection sensor 3. As described above, since the conventional printer device cannot accurately detect the width of the print medium 1, the distance from the medium abutting guide 4 to the medium detection sensor 2 is set as a printable range, and the number of characters per line is adjusted to perform printing. As a result, the number of characters per line cannot be optimized by the maximum number of characters that can be printed for each print medium (that is, the print width of one line cannot be set to the full width of the print medium).
There was a problem. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer device capable of optimizing the number of characters per line by the maximum number of characters that can be printed for each print medium by accurately detecting the width of the print medium.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer apparatus for performing printing with a print head moving in a lateral direction on a print medium conveyed in one direction. A medium detection sensor that detects the presence or absence of a print medium, a sensor movement mechanism that moves the medium detection sensor in a direction transverse to a transport direction on the print medium, an output from the medium detection sensor, and the sensor movement. A medium width calculating unit that calculates the width of the print medium from the movement position information of the medium detection sensor output from a mechanism. By moving the medium detection sensor on the print medium in the lateral direction with respect to the transport direction by the sensor moving mechanism, the accurate width of the print medium is two-dimensionally detected.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the printer device according to the first aspect, the sensor moving mechanism moves the print head by adding the medium detection sensor to the print head. It is characterized by being shared with a print head moving mechanism that causes the print head to move. As described above, by adding the medium detection sensor to the print head, the sensor movement mechanism is shared with the print head movement mechanism that moves the print head, and thus requires a mechanism only for moving the medium detection sensor. Thus, the medium detection sensor can be moved in the lateral direction with respect to the transport direction.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of a printer according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a printer according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a print medium 1 is inserted along a medium abutting guide 4 and is conveyed in one direction along the medium abutting guide 4. On the media transport path,
A medium detection sensor 5 for one-dimensionally detecting the presence or absence of the print medium 1 is mounted on a sensor moving mechanism 6 mounted in a direction perpendicular to the medium abutting guide 4. When the print medium 1 passes through the sensor moving mechanism 6, the sensor moving mechanism 6 causes the medium detection sensor 5 to move on the print medium 1 in a direction transverse to the transport direction (specifically, from position A to position B in FIG. 1). Direction). Although not shown in FIG. 1, the printer device performs printing with a print head that moves in a direction transverse to the direction in which the print medium 1 is conveyed.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for setting the width of the print medium 1 of the printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, the output from the medium detection sensor 5 and the movement position information of the medium detection sensor 5 output from the sensor moving mechanism 6 are input to a medium width calculation unit 7, where the width of the print medium 1 is calculated and output. I do. The medium print width calculation unit 8 calculates the number of printable characters per line based on the medium width information from the medium width calculation unit 7, and the print control unit 9 prints according to the calculated number of print characters per line. Perform control.

Next, the operation of the printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described. In FIG. 1, a printing medium 1 is inserted and conveyed along a medium abutting guide 4, and
Comes to the sensor moving mechanism 6, the sensor moving mechanism 6
Moves the medium detection sensor 5 from the position A to the position B.

The medium detecting sensor 5 is composed of a light emitting section and a light receiving section. In FIG. 2, a medium width is calculated by a medium width calculation unit 7 based on an output variation at a place due to the presence or absence of light shielding by the print medium 1 of the medium detection sensor 5 and movement position information from the sensor movement mechanism 6.

The medium print width calculation unit 8 calculates the number of printable characters per line based on the medium width information from the medium width calculation unit 7, and the print control unit 9 prints according to the calculated number of print characters per line. Control.

According to the above, the one-dimensional medium detection sensor 5
Is moved in the lateral direction of the transport path on the print medium 1 to detect the width of the print medium 1 accurately, and the print length of one line can be automatically and optimally set according to the width of the print medium 1.

FIG. 3 shows a printer according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, the print head 10 is moved left and right (laterally with respect to the transported print medium 1) by the print head moving mechanism 11 to perform printing. The print head 10 has a medium detection sensor 5 mounted thereon. When the print medium 1 is in the print head 10 portion, the print head moving mechanism 11 moves the print head 10 from position A to position B.
By moving in the position direction, the medium detection sensor 5 also moves from the position A to the position B.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram for setting the width of the print medium 1 of the printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, the output from the medium detection sensor 5 and the position information of the print head moving mechanism 11 controlled by the print control unit 9 from the print control unit 9 are input to the medium width calculation unit 7, where the medium width is calculated. Calculate and output.
The medium print width calculator 8 calculates the number of printable characters per line based on the medium width information from the medium width calculator 7, and the print controller 9 calculates the number of printable characters per line according to the calculated number of print characters per line.
Performs printing control during printing.

Next, the operation of the printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In FIG. 3, when the print medium 1 is inserted and conveyed along the medium abutting guide 4 and is at the position of the print head 10, the print head moving mechanism 11 moves the print head 10 from the position A to the direction of the position B. The print head 10 has a medium detection sensor 5 mounted thereon, and the medium detection sensor 5 including a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit causes an output variation due to the presence or absence of light shielding of the print medium 1 as the sensor moves.

In FIG. 4, a change in the output of the medium detection sensor 5 depending on the presence or absence of light shielding by the print medium 1 and the print control unit 9 are shown.
The position information of the print head moving mechanism 11 controlled by the controller is input to the medium width calculator 7, where the medium width is calculated and output. The medium print width calculation unit 8 includes a medium width calculation unit 7
The print control unit 9 calculates the number of printable characters per line based on the medium width information from, and controls the printing in accordance with the calculated number of printable characters per line.

According to the above, by mounting the medium detection sensor 5 on the print head 10, a special sensor movement mechanism is not required, and the medium detection sensor 5 is replaced with the print medium 1 instead of the print head movement mechanism 11. By moving the upper side in the horizontal direction, the width of the print medium 1 can be detected.

[0017]

As described in detail above, claim 1 of the present invention
According to the printer device described above, the accurate width of the print medium is two-dimensionally detected by moving the medium detection sensor on the print medium in a direction transverse to the transport direction by the sensor moving mechanism. Therefore, the width of the print medium can be accurately detected, and the number of characters per line can be optimized with the maximum number of characters that can be printed for each print medium.

According to the printer device of the present invention, by adding a medium detection sensor to the print head, the sensor moving mechanism is shared with the print head moving mechanism for moving the print head. In addition, the medium detection sensor can be moved in the lateral direction with respect to the transport direction without requiring a mechanism only for moving the medium detection sensor. Therefore, cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a printer according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a printer according to a first embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a printer according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a printer according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a conventional printer device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 print medium 2 medium detection sensor 3 medium detection sensor 4 medium abutment guide 5 medium detection sensor 6 sensor moving mechanism 7 medium width calculating section 8 medium printing width calculating section 9 print control section 10 print head 11 print head moving mechanism

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printer device for performing printing with a print head moving in a lateral direction on a print medium conveyed in one direction, a medium detection sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a print medium, and the medium detection sensor on the print medium. A sensor moving mechanism for moving in the lateral direction with respect to the transport direction, and a medium width for calculating a width of a print medium from an output from the medium detecting sensor and a moving position information of the medium detecting sensor output from the sensor moving mechanism. And a calculating unit. 2. The sensor moving mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the sensor moving mechanism is shared with a print head moving mechanism for moving the print head by adding the medium detection sensor to the print head. Printer device.