JP2000225743A - Serial printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce accelerations or decelerations of a carriage and a time of no recording of a recording head caused by a sheet supply or delivery operation and to improve throughput of printing by disposing a plurality of sets of sheet feeders in alignment in a main scanning direction at a storage medium. SOLUTION: First, a recording medium 1-1 is supplied in a first sheet feeder 15-1, and thereafter an image is recorded on the medium 1-1 by alternately repeating main scanning of a carriage and sub-scanning of the medium by conveying. Before finishing recording of an image on the medium 1-1, a second sheet feeder 15-2 starts feeding of a recording medium 1-2, and feeding is finished until the recording of the image on the medium 1-1 is finished, and hence the carriage mounted in a print head can start printing on the medium 1-2 at immediate timing of an arrow A after finishing the recording of the image on the medium 1-1. Such an operation is repeated between the feeder 15-1 and the feeder 15-2, and printing can be conducted without stopping for the medium feeding and delivering time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method in which a carriage having a print head performs main scanning, and a recording medium performs sub-scanning in a sub-scanning direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction, and alternately performs main scanning and sub-scanning. Printer that records an image in an area on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional serial printer has a configuration as shown in FIG. Recording media 1 such as paper and film
Paper feed tray 15, paper feed motor 19, and pinion gear 18
And a paper feed roller 16 driven via a gear 17
The sheet is fed by a sheet feeding device constituted by The fed recording medium is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction 7 by the rotation of the sub-scanning motor 2 between the driving roller 5 and the pressing roller 6 driven by the sub-scanning motor 2 via the pinion gear 3 and the gear 4. You. The carriage 8 is fixed to a belt 10 at a connection portion 9. The belt 10 forms a carriage driving unit by a main scanning motor 11, a driving pulley 12 that transmits rotation of the main scanning motor 11, and a driven pulley 13 that rotates in conjunction with the driving pulley 12. The carriage 8
Is moved in the main scanning direction 14. A print head is mounted on the carriage 8, and an image is recorded in an area on a recording medium by alternately performing main scanning and sub scanning.

[0003]

In the serial printer as described above, as shown in FIG. 6, the paper feeding and discharging time when a cut sheet recording medium is used, the acceleration / deceleration time of the carriage, and the like. There is a time during which the print head cannot record on the recording medium, such as a conveyance time when the conveyance of the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction cannot be made during the acceleration / deceleration time of the carriage. There is a problem that it hinders the improvement of the throughput of the system.

[0004]

In order to solve this problem, in the present invention, two or more sets of recording medium feeders are provided, and the respective feeders are arranged side by side in the main scanning direction.

[0005] The sheet feeding device is a sheet feeding device for cut sheets, and two sets of the sheet feeding devices are provided, and the sheet feeding operation and the printing operation are alternately performed.

Further, the standby position of the carriage is located between the plurality of recording medium feeding devices.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail. 1 and 2 show the structure of the serial printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment,
As in the prior art shown in FIG. 6, the recording medium 1 such as paper or film is fed by a paper feed tray 15, a paper feed motor 19, and a paper feed roller 16 driven via a gear 17 by a pinion gear 18. Paper is fed by the configured paper feeding device. The fed recording medium is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction 7 by the rotation of the sub-scanning motor 2 between the driving roller 5 and the pressing roller 6 driven by the sub-scanning motor 2 via the pinion gear 3 and the gear 4. You.

The carriage 8 is fixed to a belt 10 at a connection portion 9. Belt 10 is main scanning motor 1
1, a drive pulley 12 for transmitting the rotation of the main scanning motor 11, and a driven pulley 13 that rotates in conjunction with the driving pulley 12 to constitute a carriage driving unit. Move in the scanning direction 14. The printhead is mounted on the carriage 8, and the main scan and the subscan are alternately performed to record an image in an area on a recording medium.
In contrast to the prior art shown in the above, the carriage 8 on which the print head is mounted and the drive unit of the carriage are one set, but there are two sets of the paper feeding device and the conveyance device for the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction. The difference is that they are arranged side by side in the main scanning direction. Further, a standby position 20 of the carriage is prepared between the two sheet feeding devices.

These ink jet recording head, main scanning motor 11, sub-scanning motor 2, paper feed motor 1
Reference numeral 9 denotes a host 22 such as a computer, which is controlled by control means 23 including a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, and the like.
An image is output based on the data sent from. Also,
Each sheet feeder has a sheet detecting means 24-1 and 24, respectively.
-2 is connected, and the presence or absence of a recording medium in each sheet feeding device can be detected.

In the serial printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention, as shown in the timing chart of FIG. 3, first, the first paper feeder 15-1 feeds the recording medium 1-1. The operation is performed, and thereafter, an image is recorded on the recording medium 1-1 by alternately repeating the main scanning of the carriage and the sub-scanning by transporting the recording medium.

In the timing chart of FIG. 3, since the sub-scanning of the recording medium has been completed until the carriage is decelerated and accelerated again in the opposite direction, it does not affect the printing throughput. Does not indicate the transport time of the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction.
The second paper feeding device 15-2 starts the feeding operation of the recording medium 1-2 before the recording of the image on the recording medium 1-1 ends, and the recording of the image on the recording medium 1-1 ends. Since the paper feeding operation has been completed before the printing operation, the carriage on which the print head is mounted is immediately transferred to the recording medium 1-2 at the timing indicated by the arrow A in FIG. Printing can be started. Such an operation is performed by the sheet feeding device 1.
By repeating between 5-1 and paper feeder 15-2,
Since printing can be performed without stopping printing during the paper supply / discharge time of the recording medium, the throughput of the apparatus can be improved.

Further, since a standby position of the carriage is provided between the two sets of paper feeders, no wasteful movement time of the carriage occurs when printing is started from either paper feeder. Furthermore, in the case of a serial printer using an ink jet head, in order to prevent clogging of nozzles that do not discharge for a long time, all nozzle discharge operations can be performed at a standby position of a carriage that is equidistant from both sheet feeding devices. As a result, no unnecessary moving time of the carriage is generated.

[0013] Even when the paper detecting means detects that the recording medium in one sheet feeding device has run out, printing is continued using the remaining sheet feeding device while the recording medium is being replenished. Can be done.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 4 shows a serial printer according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The first embodiment uses a cut sheet paper feeder, but the present embodiment is different in that a roll paper recording medium is used. Further, as an example of using two or more sets of paper feeders, three sets of roll paper feeders and paper transporting devices are arranged side by side in the main scanning direction. When printing is continuously performed using a recording medium of roll paper, paper feeding is performed only at the beginning and paper discharging is performed only at the end, so that the influence on throughput is reduced. Here, in order to further improve the throughput, printing is performed on all of the three printing media 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3 in FIG. 4 by one main scan.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention. After the acceleration of the carriage, recording is performed on the recording medium 1-1, and thereafter, the recording medium is moved onto the recording medium 1-2 while maintaining the moving speed of the carriage.
Printing is performed on the recording medium 1-2. Similarly, printing is performed on the recording medium 1-3, and the carriage is decelerated. By making the non-printing time for moving between recording media shorter than the acceleration / deceleration time of the carriage, the overall throughput can be improved.

Further, similarly to the first embodiment of the present invention, even when the paper detecting means detects that the recording medium of the roll paper of one paper feeding device has run out, the feeding of the recording medium that has run out is also performed. While the roll paper is set in the paper device, printing can be continued using the recording medium of the remaining paper supply device.

In the second embodiment of the present invention, three paper feeders are used. However, it is apparent that the same effect can be obtained by using two or more paper feeders. is there.

Further, in the second embodiment of the present invention, the roll paper is used as the recording medium, but the first and second embodiments are simultaneously executed by using a single-sheet paper recording medium. It is also possible. In this case, printing is performed on recording media corresponding to the remaining paper feeding devices while a certain paper feeding device is performing paper feeding and discharging, and during other times, printing is performed on all recording media by one main scan. The effect obtained by combining the effects of the first embodiment and the second embodiment, such as recording, is obtained.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the provision of a plurality of paper feeders reduces the time during which the recording head cannot perform recording due to the acceleration / deceleration of the carriage and the paper supply / discharge operation. Throughput is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a mechanism of a serial printer according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a serial printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart showing an operation of the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

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

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional serial printer.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing the operation of a conventional serial printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 recording medium 2 sub-scanning motor 3 pinion gear 4 gear 5 driving roller 6 holding roller 7 sub-scanning direction 8 carriage 9 connecting part 10 belt 11 main scanning motor 12 driving pulley 13 driven pulley 14 main scanning direction 15 paper feed tray 16 paper feed Roller 17 gear 18 pinion gear 19 paper feed motor 20 carriage standby position 21 roll paper shaft 22 host 23 control means 24 paper detection means

Claims (3)

[Claims] A carriage on which a print head is mounted performs main scanning, a recording medium performs sub-scanning in a sub-scanning direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction, and alternately performs main scanning and sub-scanning on the recording medium. A serial printer for recording an image in an area, comprising two or more sets of sheet feeding devices for a recording medium, wherein each sheet feeding device is arranged side by side in the main scanning direction. 2. A serial printer according to claim 1, wherein said paper feeder is a cut-sheet paper feeder, comprising two sets of said paper feeders, and alternately performing a paper feed operation and a print operation. The serial printer according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The serial printer according to claim 1, wherein the standby position of said carriage is located between said plurality of recording medium feeding devices.