JP2001315369A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer which can eliminate wasting ink ribbons. SOLUTION: This printer which prints by transferring an ink 61 of the ink ribbon to sheets by a thermal head 51 includes a line sensor 20 for detecting the presence/absence of the ink of the ink ribbon 61, a storage means for storing ink presence/absence data detected by the line sensor 20 and positions of the ink ribbon to correspond to each other, and a control means for obtaining a used region where the ink ribbon is already transferred from the data stored in the storage means. When characters are to be printed at the used region, the control means makes only part of the characters exceeding the used region printed and the other part of the characters printed at a part of the ink ribbon 61 outside the used region.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer for printing, for example, characters used for guidance signs and directions.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a ribbon cassette detachably mounted, a sheet feeding mechanism for feeding a sheet from a sheet roll to a platen roller, and a ribbon feeding mechanism for sending an ink ribbon from one ribbon core of the ribbon cassette to a platen roller. A printer including a thermal head for transferring ink of an ink ribbon to a sheet is known.

In such a printer, the thermal head superimposes the sheet fed to the platen roller and the ink ribbon and presses the sheet against the platen roller to thermally transfer the ink of the ink ribbon to the sheet to perform printing. .

[0004]

By the way, in such a printer, the fed ink ribbon is wound up by the other ribbon core of the ribbon cassette, as shown in FIG. In the portion 1A where the printing is performed, the ink is missing, and in the portion 1B where the printing is not performed, the ink ribbon 1 is wound up with the ink remaining and is discarded as it is. For this reason, when the height H of the character 2 to be printed is small, there is a problem that the wasted area 3 becomes large.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printer capable of eliminating waste of an ink ribbon.

[0006]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer for performing printing by transferring ink on an ink ribbon to a sheet by a print head, wherein the ink ribbon has been transferred. Is used, and printing is performed in a portion outside the used area.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer for performing printing by transferring ink on an ink ribbon to a sheet by a print head, wherein a used area of the ink ribbon to which a transfer has been performed is detected, and a printing operation is performed. When a character to be printed on the used area overlaps, printing is performed only on a part of the character that protrudes from the used area, and the other part of the character is printed with an ink ribbon part outside the used area. It is characterized by the following.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer for performing printing by transferring ink on an ink ribbon to a sheet by a print head, comprising: an ink presence / absence detecting means for detecting presence / absence of ink on the ink ribbon; Storage means for storing the ink presence / absence data detected by the detection means and the position of the ink ribbon in association with each other; and control means for obtaining a used area where the ink ribbon has been transferred from the data stored in the storage means. When the character is printed in the used area, the control means causes only a part of the character that protrudes from the used area to be printed, and the remaining character part is printed on the ink ribbon outside the used area. The printing is performed in the portion of (1).

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a printer according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The printer 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes a printer main body 11 and a lid 50 attached to the printer main body 11 so as to be openable and closable.

In the printer body 11, a sprocket 12 for feeding a sheet, a platen roller 13, a driving mechanism (not shown) for rotating the sprocket 12 and the platen roller 13 and a ribbon core gear 64 of the ribbon cassette 60 are provided. , 65, a gear mechanism (not shown) for rotating
A line sensor (detection means) 20 (see FIG. 5) extending in the width direction of the ink ribbon 61; a light emitting diode 21 for emitting light toward the ink ribbon 61;
And a roller 14 that keeps the line sensor 20 at a predetermined position with respect to the line sensor 20. The line sensor 20 receives the reflected light of the ink ribbon 61 and
Is not transferred, that is, the in-ribbon 6
The first is to detect the presence or absence of the ink.

A mounting table 17 on which a sheet roll 16 of a printing sheet 16S is mounted is attached to a rear portion of the printer main body 11, and the mounting table 17 is mounted on the printer main body 11S.
It can be stored inside. A guide member 18 is provided in the printer main body 11 to guide the printed sheet 16S forward.

On the back side of the lid 50, a thermal head (print head) 51 is provided so as to be able to move up and down.
On the back side, an ink ribbon cassette 60 is detachably mounted. On the upper surface of the lid 50, an operation unit 52 provided with various operation keys (not shown) for inputting characters and the like, and a display unit 53 for displaying characters input by these operation keys are provided. I have. The lid 50 rotates around the axis 11J and opens and closes.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control system of the printer 10. As shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 70 denotes a pulse motor constituting a driving mechanism, which feeds the ink ribbon 61 and the sheet 16S by driving the pulse motor. 71 is a solenoid for moving the thermal head 51 up and down, 72 is a counter for counting the number of pulses input to the pulse motor 70, 73 is a memory for storing the ink presence / absence data detected by the line sensor 20 and the count of the counter 72 in association with each other. It is a memory to keep. Reference numeral 74 denotes a control device composed of a CPU or the like. The control device 74 determines the used area of the ink ribbon 61 from the data stored in the memory 73, and controls the operation of the operating section 52 or the used area. The thermal head 51, the pulse motor 70, the solenoid 71, and the like are controlled based on this.

Next, the printer 1 configured as described above
The operation of 0 will be described. Here, a description will be given of a case where the ink ribbon cassette 60 in which the used ink ribbon 61 is rewound is mounted.

First, desired characters and the like are input by operating the operation keys of the operation unit 52. The input characters are displayed on the display unit 5.
3 is displayed. Then, when the reuse mode is set and printing is started by operating the operation keys, the solenoid 71 is driven and the thermal head 51 is raised to the position shown in FIG. Thereafter, the light emitting diode 21 emits light and the pulse motor 70 is driven and controlled, so that the ink ribbon 61 is sent out. At this time, the platen roller 12 has stopped. In this case, only the ink ribbon 61 is sent out via a clutch or the like.

When the ink ribbon 61 is sent out, the presence / absence of ink on the ink ribbon 61 is detected from the amount of reflected light received by the ink ribbon 61 received by the line sensor 20. Are stored in the memory 73 in association with each other. The feed amount of the ink ribbon 61 is determined based on the number of characters to be printed.

The control device 74 determines the ink ribbon 6 based on the ink presence / absence data stored in the memory 73 and the count number.
The first used area is obtained, and it is determined whether or not all the characters to be printed can be printed with the feed amount of the sent ink ribbon. If printing is not possible, the ink ribbon 61 is sent out again, and the ink presence / absence data and the count number of the counter 72 are stored in the memory 73 in association with each other in the same manner as described above. Then, it is determined whether all the characters to be printed can be printed in the same manner as described above. In this way, the ink ribbon 61 is sent out to a length where all the characters to be printed can be printed.

When the feeding of the ink ribbon 61 is completed, the light emission of the light emitting diode 21 is stopped, and the pulse motor 70 is rotated in reverse to rewind the ink ribbon 61. When the rewinding of the ink ribbon 61 is completed, the operation of the solenoid 71 is stopped. When the operation of the solenoid 71 is stopped, the thermal head 51 is lowered, and the ink ribbon 61 and the sheet 16S are overlapped and pressed against the platen roller 13.

Then, the drive of the pulse motor 70 is controlled again, and the ink ribbon 61 and the sheet 16S are sent out to the platen roller 13. The control device 74 controls the thermal head 51 based on the ink presence / absence data and the count number stored in the memory 73, the character data to be printed, and the feed amount of the ink ribbon 61.

For example, when the character M of "A" shown in FIG. 4 is printed, as shown in FIG. 5, when the character "A" is printed in the area 61R of the ink ribbon 61 surrounded by the broken line, When there is a used area 61S (a part surrounded by a solid line) in the area 61R, a part Ma (hatched part) below the character "A" is printed in an area 61T in the area 61R and outside the used area 61S. Is performed. That is, only the portion Ma below the character “A” protruding from the used area 61S is printed by the area 61T of the ink ribbon 61.

That is, the ink in the area 61T of the ink ribbon 61 is transferred to the sheet 16S, and the portion Ma 'under the character "A" is printed on the sheet 16S.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the sheet 16S and the ink ribbon 61 are returned. Thereafter, the thermal head 51 is raised to feed out only the ink ribbon 61 as shown in FIG. 7, and the area 61P (the area with ink) of the ink ribbon 61 is positioned in the printing area of the portion Ma 'of the sheet 16S. Then, by lowering the thermal head 51, as shown in FIG. 8, the ink ribbon 61 is sent out together with the sheet 16S, and printing of the portion Mb above the character "A" is performed in the area 61P. That is, the ink in the area 61P of the ink ribbon 61 is transferred to the sheet 16S, and the portion Mb ′ above the character “A” is printed on the sheet 16S.
By printing the portion Mb ', the character M' of "A" is printed on the sheet 16S.

As described above, when a part of one character enters the used area without ink, the other part of the character is printed in the area with ink, and then the part is printed in another area with ink. Is performed to print one character, the ink ribbon 61 can be used without waste.

In this embodiment, the case where the ribbon cassette 60 in which the already used ink ribbon 61 is rewound is installed, but in the case of an unused ink ribbon, the normal mode is set and printing is performed. ,After this,
The ink ribbon may be rewound by the used length, and the reuse mode may be set and used in the same manner as described above.

[0026]

According to the present invention, since the used area of the ink ribbon is detected and printing is performed outside the used area, waste of the ink ribbon can be eliminated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a control system of the printer.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which a thermal head is raised.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing characters to be printed.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which ink on an ink ribbon is transferred to a sheet.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the ink ribbon and the sheet are fed back.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the ink ribbon is fed.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which characters are printed on a sheet.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a conventional problem.

[Explanation of symbols]

 16S sheet 20 Line sensor (detection means) 51 Thermal head (print head) 61 Ink ribbon 70 Pulse motor 73 Memory (storage means) 74 Controller (control means)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printer for transferring ink from an ink ribbon to a sheet by a print head to perform printing, wherein a used area where the ink ribbon has been transferred is detected, and printing is performed on a portion outside the used area. A printer. 2. A printer for transferring ink from an ink ribbon to a sheet by a print head to perform printing, wherein a used area to which the ink ribbon has been transferred is detected, and the used area is used for printing. When the characters to be printed overlap each other, only a part of the characters protruding from the used area is printed, and the other part of the characters is printed by an ink ribbon part outside the used area. And the printer. 3. A printer for performing printing by transferring ink of an ink ribbon to a sheet by a print head, wherein said ink presence / absence detecting means detects presence / absence of ink on said ink ribbon, and said ink presence / absence detecting means detects said ink presence / absence. Storage means for storing the ink presence / absence data and the position of the ink ribbon in association with each other; and control means for obtaining a used area where the ink ribbon has been transferred from the data stored in the storage means. When a character is printed in the used area, the printing is performed only on a part of the character that protrudes from the used area, and the other part of the character is printed on the ink ribbon outside the used area. Printer.