JP2001180134A - Printing medium and its label printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing medium which is set correctly in replacement, can eliminate waste printing caused by erroneous setting, and can optimize a printing condition by making printing speed, printing density, printing pressure, etc., proper and a label printer for the medium. SOLUTION: In order to give printing control information 25 composed of a plurality of magnetic marks to obtain proper printing quality to the printing medium 21 itself to be set in the label printer 20, the information 25 is given to a non-printing surface 18, a sensor 22 set in the printer 20 can detect the information, and printing is done on a printing surface 17 according to the information 25 corresponding to detected values.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print medium and a label printer therefor, and more particularly to a print medium having a print control information composed of a magnetic mark on a non-printing surface of the print medium and a label printer thereof. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, label printers of various printing systems have been loaded with various printing media to perform respective printing. A conventional label printer 1 (for example, a thermal printer) and its print medium 2 (for example, a continuous label) will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory view of the label printer 1, wherein the label printer 1 includes a printing medium supply unit 3 and a data input unit 4.
Printing means 5, sensor means 6, control means 7,
Having.

The printing medium 2 has a band-shaped backing sheet 8 and a plurality of thermosensitive coloring label pieces 9 temporarily attached to the backing sheet 8, and the front side of the label piece 9 has a printing surface 17. The back side of 8 is a non-printing surface 18, and position detecting marks 10 are provided on the non-printing surface 18 at predetermined intervals corresponding to the respective label pieces 9.

FIG. 4 is a rear view of the print medium 2, in which a position detection mark 10 is printed in advance at a position corresponding to the position of the sensor means 6 with the transfer of the print medium 2, and The means 6 reads this optically, for example, and outputs a detection signal to the control means 7.

The position detecting mark 10 is used for detecting a printing position, and has a predetermined length or size on a side surface (FIG. 4) of the back surface of the band-shaped backing sheet 8, a central portion or any other portion. This is what forms this.

[0006] The supply means 3 for the print medium 2 loads the print medium 2 in the form of a roll, and can feed the print medium 2 along with printing and transport of the print medium 2.

The data input means 4 is constituted by, for example, a keyboard or the like. The data input means 4 inputs predetermined print data, drives the printing means 5 under the control of the control means 7, and performs printing.
Note that print data can be input from the personal computer 11 and other external devices via an interface.

The printing means 5 includes, for example, a thermal head 12
And a platen roller 13, and the drive motor 1
The printing medium 2 is transported during the rotation of the platen roller 13 by the rotation of the heating element 4, and predetermined printing information is printed on the printing surface 17 of the printing medium 2 by the heat generated by the heating element 15 of the thermal head 12 based on the printing data. Is printed. Note that the printing unit 5 can include a printing pressure adjusting mechanism 16. The printing pressure adjusting mechanism 16 can manually switch the printing medium 2 according to the type of the printing medium 2 to adjust the printing pressure on the printing medium 2. For example, when the printing medium 2 is a relatively thin continuous label, the printing pressure is made relatively weak,
In the case of a tag without the backing sheet 8 and the adhesive layer, the printing pressure is set relatively high. The printing medium 2 may be a heat-transferable label or tag using a carbon ribbon or the like, or a label without a backing sheet, in addition to the thermosensitive coloring label and tag.

The sensor means 6 detects the position detecting mark 10 on the print medium 2 and outputs a detection signal to the control means 7. Based on this signal, the control means 7 controls the drive motor 14 and the platen roller 13. In addition to controlling the transfer of the print medium 2 via the printer, the print data is sent to the thermal head 12 to control the above-described printing operation.

In the label printer 1 having such a configuration, when the printing process on a certain printing medium 2 is completed, it is necessary to replace the printing medium 2 with a new printing medium 2. However, the type of the printing medium 2 is of course different in width, length, or the like. In some cases, the printing medium 2 having a size or the like may be reloaded, and accordingly,
It is necessary to change a setting such as a printing speed, a printing density and a printing pressure by switching a switch (not shown) or operating another mechanism. However, in the actual operation, if printing is performed with the switching operation being performed incorrectly, there is a problem that not only the printing medium 2 is wasted, but also unnecessary nerves are used for the switching operation.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing medium and a label printer capable of eliminating waste of printing caused by an erroneous loading of the printing medium 2. Make it an issue.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a print medium and a label printer which can optimize a print state on a print medium by appropriately setting a print speed, a print density, a print pressure, and the like. And

[0013]

That is, the present invention focuses on attaching print control information composed of a plurality of magnetic marks for obtaining proper print quality to a print medium itself loaded in a label printer. The first invention is a printing medium having a printing surface and a non-printing surface and being loaded into a label printer, wherein the non-printing surface is constituted by a plurality of magnetic marks at predetermined intervals. The print control information is provided, and the sensor means provided in the label printer is capable of detecting the individual widths of the plurality of magnetic marks, the distance between the magnetic marks and the number thereof, and the print control information according to the detected value, A printing medium characterized by performing printing on a printing surface.

A second invention is a label printer for loading a printing medium having a printing surface and a non-printing surface and performing printing on the printing surface, wherein a plurality of printing media are provided on the non-printing surface at predetermined intervals. Sensor means capable of reading print control information composed of magnetic marks, and performing control such that printing is performed on the print surface in accordance with print control information composed of a plurality of magnetic marks read by the sensor means. And a control unit.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, a label printer according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. However, the same parts as those in FIG. 3 and FIG.
The detailed description is omitted. FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view of a label printer 20 according to the above embodiment. The label printer 20 includes a supply unit 3 for a print medium 21, the data input unit 4, the print unit 5, and a magnetic detection device. It has a sensor means 22 and a control means 23. The printing means 5
Printing pressure adjusting mechanism 26 automatically controllable by control means 23
Having.

The print medium 21 is the print medium 2 shown in FIG.
Similarly to the above, print control information 25 having a band-shaped mount 8 and label pieces 9 and a plurality of magnetic marks 24 on the non-printing surface 18 instead of the position detection marks 10.
Is printed in advance.

FIG. 2 is a back view of the printing medium 21.
Several examples of the print control information 25 are shown. That is, the print control information 25 shown in FIG. 9A is composed of a plurality of magnetic marks 24 having various widths and a space portion 2 having an interval therebetween.
7. The plurality of rectangular magnetic marks 24 are formed at right angles to the transport direction of the print medium 21 and are arranged 24a, 24a in order from the side edge of the rear end of the label piece 9.
Spaces 27 formed by the gaps b and 24c, and formed by these intervals, respectively form 27a and 27b. The magnetic marks 24a having these various widths,
Space part 27 consisting of 24b, 24c and their interval
“a” and “27b” are set to integral multiples of a predetermined reference value width, and have a magnetically readable magnetic detection sensor unit 22 corresponding to the print control information 25. Therefore, in the print control information 25, the magnetic marks 24 constituting these and the space portions 27 between them are represented by “10”.
01101 "can be displayed, each of which can correspond to information such as the type, width, length, thickness, printing speed, printing density, printing pressure, and printing position of the printing medium 21.

The print control information 25A shown in FIG. 2B of the print control information 25 composed of a plurality of magnetic marks 24 can similarly display information "1101". The print control information 25B is “10100
1 ", and the print control information 25C in FIG.
001 "can be adopted.

In the information display of the print control information 25, the individual width of the magnetic mark 24 and the interval of the space 27 between the magnetic marks 24 are counted by employing the magnetic detection sensor means 22 with higher accuracy. The counting can be performed with an absolute value that does not depend on the setting of the width that has been set as a reference, and various kinds of information of the print control information 25 can be obtained by combining the number with the number information of the magnetic marks 24.

The non-printing surface 18 of the printing medium 21 can be formed not only on the back surface of the backing paper 8 but also on the front side of the label piece 9 at a portion different from the printing surface 17.

In the label printer 20 and the print medium 21 having such a configuration, the magnetic detecting sensor means 22 moves the print medium 21 so that the width of the magnetic mark 24 of the print medium 21 and the space between the magnetic marks 24 are changed. The control means 23 reads the print control information 25 including the interval of the section 27 and the number of prints, and the print control information 25 such as the type of the print medium 21, the print speed, the print density, the print pressure, and the print position information. Judge and print means 5
If necessary, the printing pressure adjusting mechanism 26 and other mechanisms are driven to perform printing.

The control means 23 based on the print control information 25 causes the printing means 5 having the thermal head 12 and the platen roller 13 to drive the drive motor 14
, The rotation of the platen roller 13 is made appropriate, the optimal printing speed is given to the loaded printing medium 21, and the heating element 15 of the thermal head 12 can be given appropriate applying energy.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, information for specifying the type, printing speed, printing density, printing pressure and printing position information of the printing medium is attached to the non-printing surface of the printing medium. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate label waste due to an incorrect setting of the label printer when a new print medium is loaded.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a label printer 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG.

FIG. 2A is a rear view of the print medium 21 and shows an example of print control information 25. FIG. (B), (c), (d) It is a back view of the print medium 21, and is a view showing another example of the print control information 25.

FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory view of a conventional label printer (for example, a thermal printer).

FIG. 4 is a back view of the printing medium 2 according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Label printer (thermal printer) 2 Printing medium (continuous label body) 3 Supply means of printing media 2 and 21 4 Data input means (keyboard) 5 Printing means 6 Sensor means (optical sensor) 7 Control means 8 Strip mount 9 Thermal sensitivity Color-developing label piece 10 Position detection mark 11 Personal computer (data input means) 12 Thermal head 13 Platen roller 14 Drive motor 15 Heating element of thermal head 12 16 Printing pressure adjusting mechanism 17 Printing surface 18, 18A, 18B, 18C Non-printing Surface 20 Label printer (embodiment, FIG. 1) 21 Print medium (embodiment, FIG. 2) 22 Sensor means for magnetic detection (magnetic sensor) 23 Control means 24, 24A, 24B, 24C Magnetic mark 25, 25A, 25B , 25C print control information 26 print pressure adjustment mechanism 27, 2 A, 27B, 27C space portion

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printing medium having a printing surface and a non-printing surface and being loaded into a label printer, wherein the non-printing surface is provided with print control information composed of a plurality of magnetic marks at predetermined intervals. The sensor means provided in the label printer can detect the individual widths of the plurality of magnetic marks, the distance between the magnetic marks, and the number of the magnetic marks, and prints on the printing surface by print control information according to the detected value. A printing medium characterized in that the printing is performed. 2. A label printer for loading a printing medium having a printing surface and a non-printing surface and performing printing on the printing surface, wherein a plurality of magnetic marks are provided on the non-printing surface at predetermined intervals. Sensor means capable of reading the configured print control information, and control means for controlling to print on the print surface according to the print control information composed of a plurality of magnetic marks read by the sensor means, A label printer comprising: