JP2002036521A - Control device for printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To execute a printing operation with a desired printing quality by simple control without enlargement of a housing of a printing device. SOLUTION: In the case of a printing mode other than a highly sophisticated printing mode (NO in S1), third lump table data are read out from a storage part for printing in two way directions by a monochrome ink head B by acceleration control of a carrier motor (S2). In contrast, in the case of the highly sophisticated printing mode (YES in S1), if the printing direction is the D1 direction and it is for monochrome printing (S3, YES in S4), first lump table data are read out for printing in the D1 direction by the monochrome ink head by acceleration control of the carrier motor (S5). If it is judged to be in the D2 direction and it is for color printing (YES in S6), second lump table data are read out for printing in the D2 direction by a color ink head by acceleration control of the carrier motor (S7).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control of a printing apparatus for performing printing by reciprocating a carrier in which a color ink head and a monochrome ink head are arranged in a printing direction along a printing direction by a carrier motor. Related to the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an ink jet printer as a printing apparatus, when printing is started based on a control command from a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a personal computer) as a host computer, a carrier having an ink head is moved to a cap position (home position). ), The carrier is moved to the printing start position after the maintenance of the ink head of the carrier, that is, the removal of the ink dripping by the wiper is performed, and the carrier is moved in one direction or the other by the carrier motor including the stepping motor in the printing area. The paper is moved bidirectionally, the paper is fed by a predetermined amount by a feed motor composed of a stepping motor, and characters, figures, and the like based on predetermined print data are printed on the paper.

Conventionally, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-267832, a color printer in which color and monochrome ink heads are arranged along the scanning direction to perform color printing and monochrome printing. Has also been proposed.

[0004]

However, in the case of this type of color printer, since two ink heads are arranged in the scanning direction, the length of the carrier after the width of the paper becomes longer, and the size of the housing increases accordingly. There is a problem of inviting.

In order to set the acceleration region of the carrier motor in a color printer without increasing the size of the housing, the acceleration region must be set based on the position of the ink head closer to the printing region. However, the acceleration distance was short and the carrier motor could not be sufficiently accelerated.

According to the invention described in the above publication, the printing area is divided into an area where a sufficient acceleration distance of a carrier motor for driving a carrier can be secured and an area where it is difficult to ensure a sufficient acceleration distance of a carrier motor. In an area where a sufficient acceleration distance can be secured, in a step where printing is performed in one pass at a constant speed, and in an area where a sufficient acceleration distance is difficult to secure,
After the printing is completed, the operation of finely feeding the paper is repeated a plurality of times, and the printing is divided into steps of printing in multiple passes, so that printing is performed,
Although an increase in the size of the housing is prevented, there is a problem that extremely complicated control is required.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and without increasing the size of the housing of the printing apparatus.
It is an object of the present invention to enable printing with desired print quality by simple control.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention has a carrier having a color ink head and a monochrome ink head arranged in a printing direction, and the carrier is used as a carrier motor. A control unit for controlling the carrier motor, wherein the control unit controls the carrier motor, and the control unit controls the color ink head and the monochrome ink head. Based on the position of the ink head farther from the print area, the acceleration control of the carrier motor is performed until the print area is reached, and one of the reference points is used as the reference for the acceleration control of the carrier motor in one-directional printing. The ink head performs printing in one direction, and the reference for the acceleration control of the carrier motor in the printing in the opposite direction. It was is characterized by performing printing on the opposite direction by the other of the ink head.

According to such a configuration, printing in one direction is performed by one of the ink heads, which is used as a reference for the acceleration control of the carrier motor in printing in one direction, and the carrier motor is used in printing in the opposite direction. Printing in the opposite direction is performed by the other ink head that has been used as a reference for the acceleration control.

Therefore, in printing in one direction and in the opposite direction, the carrier motor can be sufficiently accelerated without increasing the size of the housing of the apparatus, and desired print quality can be obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, the carrier motor comprises a stepping motor, wherein the first ramp table for controlling the acceleration of the carrier motor in the printing in the one direction and the carrier in the printing in the opposite direction. A storage unit storing a second ramp table for motor acceleration control, wherein the control unit is configured to store the first lamp table and the second lamp table from the storage unit in a high-definition printing mode. It is characterized in that the acceleration control of the carrier motor is performed according to a corresponding ramp table among the ramp tables.

According to such a configuration, the acceleration distance of the carrier motor in printing in one direction and the acceleration distance of the carrier motor in printing in the opposite direction are limited due to the size of the housing and the internal space. In the case where they are different from each other, the first lamp table and the second lamp table are prepared in advance, and the carrier motor is accelerated in accordance with the corresponding lamp table to sufficiently accelerate the carrier motor in any printing direction. And stable printing quality can be obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, the storage unit may be configured such that the storage unit is configured to reach the printing area with respect to the position of the ink head closer to the printing area among the color ink head and the monochrome ink head. A third ramp table for carrier motor acceleration control is further stored, and when the control unit is in a print mode other than the high-definition print mode, the control unit controls the carrier motor according to the third ramp table from the storage unit. It is characterized by performing acceleration control.

According to this configuration, in a print mode other than the high-definition print mode, the acceleration control of the carrier motor is performed in accordance with the third ramp table.
The printing speed can be improved by bidirectional printing.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a color ink jet printer as a printing device will be described with reference to FIGS. However, FIG.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a color ink jet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart for operation explanation.

As shown in FIG. 1, the color ink jet printer according to this embodiment is an ASIC that receives data transmitted from a personal computer 1 as a host computer.
And a controller 2 comprising a CPU, a carrier motor driver 3 for driving a carrier motor to be described later, a carrier motor 4 comprising a stepping motor for moving a carrier not shown in FIG. And a storage unit 5 including a stored ROM or the like. Although not shown in FIG. 1, the controller 2 is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal display.
Is provided with a display section for displaying a predetermined message or the like under the control of.

The ramp table is a ramp for acceleration and deceleration comprising data for correcting the exciting current so as to maintain desired characteristics of the acceleration characteristics at the start and the deceleration characteristics at the stop of the carrier motor 4, respectively. It is a table. That is, for example, when the stepping motor starts, the rise time until it reaches a certain speed varies, the rotation speed is unstable, and the stepping motor oscillates. Therefore, there is a specific problem that the rotor does not stop at a prescribed position even if the rotor rotates a required number of steps.

For this purpose, usually, ramp tables for acceleration and deceleration, which are data for correcting the exciting current in order to maintain the acceleration characteristics at the start of the motor and the deceleration characteristics at the stop at the desired characteristics, are prepared. When the controller 2 starts and stops, the data of the ramp tables for acceleration and deceleration are respectively read from the storage unit 5, and the excitation current supplied to each excitation coil is corrected based on the read data. It is.

Here, the data of the acceleration ramp table is set so that the time from the start of the start to the stabilization of the speed is within a predetermined time. The pulse frequency data of each control signal is data in which the pulse frequency increases as time elapses. On the other hand, the data of the ramp table for deceleration is pulse frequency data of a control signal for every fixed time during deceleration to be output from the controller 2 to the carrier motor driver 3 so that the time from the start of deceleration to the stop is constant. This is data in which the pulse frequency decreases as time passes.

As shown in FIG. 2, acceleration and deceleration areas are provided on both sides of the printing area, and the acceleration and deceleration areas are set so that carrier driving is normally stabilized at the maximum speed of the printer. In this acceleration / deceleration region, the acceleration / deceleration control of the carrier motor 4 according to each ramp table is performed. Note that the stable carrier drive means a state in which a problem such as vertical stripes does not occur during printing by minimizing a speed fluctuation occurring immediately after acceleration.

As shown in FIG. 2, the carrier driven by the carrier motor 4 includes a color ink head C and a monochrome ink head B arranged in the printing direction. At the position (home position), the nozzles of both ink heads C and B are on standby (capped) in order to prevent drying of the ink. In FIG. 2, K represents a housing of the printer.

As described above, the two types of ink heads C and B
Is provided, as shown in FIG.
In some cases, the acceleration distance L1 of the carrier motor 4 in the printing in the direction D1 and the acceleration distance L2 of the carrier motor 4 in the printing in the direction D2 are different from each other due to the relationship between the size and the internal space. for that reason,
The carrier motor for printing in the direction D1 in FIG. 2 (in this case, the reference is to the farther monochrome ink head B) based on the position of the ink head farthest from the printing area of the two ink heads C and B. First for acceleration control of 4
And a second lamp table for controlling the acceleration of the carrier motor 4 in the printing in the direction D2 which is the opposite direction (in this case, the color ink head C at the far side is the reference). It is stored in the storage unit 5 as a lamp table for use.

Further, if these first and second lamp tables are used in the high-definition printing mode, they are used in a printing mode other than the high-definition printing mode. A third ramp table based on the position of the ink head on the near side is also stored in the storage unit 5 as a ramp table for acceleration.

In the high-definition printing mode, when printing is performed in the direction D1 in FIG. 2, the controller 2 reads out the data of the first ramp table from the storage unit 5 and controls the acceleration of the carrier motor 4, Printing is performed by the monochrome ink head B, which is the reference for the acceleration control at that time. In the case of printing in the direction D2 in FIG. 2, the controller 2 reads out the data of the second ramp table from the storage unit 5 and controls the acceleration of the carrier motor 4, which serves as a reference for the acceleration control at that time. Printing by the color ink head C is performed.

As described above, by preparing two types of ramp tables for acceleration, the first and second ramp tables, as shown in FIG. 2, the relationship between the size of the casing K and the internal space is obtained. Above, even when the acceleration distance L1 of the carrier motor 4 in printing in the direction D1 and the acceleration distance L2 of the carrier motor 4 in printing in the opposite direction D2 are different, the data of the corresponding lamp table is read. By controlling the acceleration of the carrier motor 4 by using
Can be accelerated stably and sufficiently, and printing with stable print quality is performed by the monochrome ink head B in the D1 direction and by the color ink head C in the D2 direction.

On the other hand, in a printing mode other than the high-definition printing mode, the controller 2 reads out the data of the third ramp table from the storage unit 5 and controls the acceleration of the carrier motor 4. The printing speed can be improved by bidirectional printing while maintaining the printing quality in the printing mode. Here, the process of selecting each lamp table according to the print mode and the respective print control processes by the controller 2 correspond to a control unit.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the controller 2 determines whether or not the selected print mode is the high-definition print mode (S1). If the determination result is NO, the controller 2 selects a print mode other than the high-definition print mode. Since it can be determined that there is a third
Is read out (S2), the acceleration control of the carrier motor 4 is performed based on the data, and the bidirectional printing of D1 and D2 by the monochrome ink head B is performed.

On the other hand, if the result of the determination in step S1 is YES, it is determined whether the printing direction is D1 or D2 (S3). If it is determined that the printing direction is the D1 direction, monochrome printing is performed. A determination is made (S4), and if the determination result is YES, data of the first ramp table is read from the storage unit 5 by the controller 2 (S5), and acceleration of the carrier motor 4 is performed based on the data. The control is performed and D1 by the monochrome ink head B is performed.
Printing in the direction is performed.

If it is determined in step S3 that the printing is in the D2 direction, it is determined whether or not the printing is color printing (S6). If the determination result is YES, the controller 2 stores the data in the storage unit. 5, the data of the second ramp table is read (S7), the acceleration of the carrier motor 4 is controlled based on the data, and printing in the direction D2 by the color ink head C is performed.

Incidentally, the above-mentioned steps S4 and S6
If the determination results are NO in both cases, it is impossible that the printing in the D1 direction is not monochrome printing.
An error message is displayed on the above-mentioned display unit because there is no case where the printing in the direction is not color printing (S8).

Therefore, according to the above embodiment, D1
The printing is performed in the D1 direction by the monochrome ink head B which is the reference of the acceleration control of the carrier motor 4 in the printing in the direction, and the color ink is used as the reference of the acceleration control of the carrier motor 4 in the printing in the D2 direction. Head C
As a result, printing in the D2 direction is performed, so that in the printing in the D1 direction and the D2 direction, it is possible to sufficiently accelerate the carrier motor 4 without increasing the size of the housing K, and to achieve the desired printing. Printing quality can be stably obtained.

Further, due to the size of the housing K and the internal space, the acceleration distance L1 of the carrier motor 4 in printing in the direction D1 (see FIG. 2) and the movement of the carrier motor 4 in printing in the opposite direction D2. Even when the acceleration distances L2 (see FIG. 2) are different from each other, by reading out the data of the corresponding ramp table from the first ramp table and the second ramp table and performing acceleration control of the carrier motor 4, In any printing direction, the carrier motor 4 can be sufficiently accelerated, and stable printing quality can be obtained.

Further, since the third ramp table for controlling the acceleration of the carrier motor 4 based on the position of the ink head closer to the printing area is stored in the storage unit 5, the printing mode other than the high-definition printing mode is used. At times, by controlling the acceleration of the carrier motor in accordance with the third ramp table, the printing speed can be improved by bidirectional printing while maintaining the printing quality for the printing mode.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the first to third lamp tables are stored in the storage unit 5 in advance has been described. However, as shown in FIG.
The data of the lamp table is transmitted from the printer device driver 1A stored in the ROM or the like to the printer side, and received by the printer controller 2 by the printer controller 2.
It may be stored in the storage unit 5 configured by AM.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the third ramp table for controlling the acceleration of the carrier motor 4 based on the position of the ink head on the side close to the printing area is stored in the storage unit 5 is described. As described above, the third lamp table need not always be prepared.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the printing device is a color ink jet printer has been described. However, the printing device is not particularly limited to a color ink jet printer. The present invention can be applied to any printing device equipped with an ink head, and the same effects as those of the above-described embodiment can be obtained.

Further, the host computer is not limited to the personal computer 1 as described above.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various changes other than those described above can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0039]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, printing in one direction is performed by one ink head which is used as a reference for acceleration control of the carrier motor in printing in one direction. Since the printing in the opposite direction is performed by the other ink head, which is used as a reference for the acceleration control of the carrier motor in the printing in the opposite direction, the size of the casing of the apparatus is increased in the printing in one direction and the opposite direction. Therefore, it is possible to sufficiently accelerate the carrier motor without performing the above-described operations, to obtain a desired print quality, and to provide a printing apparatus such as a color printer having excellent performance.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the acceleration distance of the carrier motor in printing in one direction and the carrier in printing in the opposite direction due to the size of the housing and the internal space. When the acceleration distances of the motors are different from each other, the first lamp table and the second lamp table are prepared in advance, and the corresponding lamp tables are read out and the acceleration control of the carrier motor is performed. Thus, the carrier motor can be sufficiently accelerated, and a stable print quality can be obtained.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in a print mode other than the high-definition print mode, the third
Since the acceleration control of the carrier motor is performed according to the ramp table described above, the printing speed can be improved by bidirectional printing while maintaining the printing quality in the printing mode.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Personal computer (host computer) 2 Controller (control part) 4 Carrier motor 5 Storage part C Color ink head B Monochrome ink head

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A control device for a printing apparatus having a carrier in which a color ink head and a monochrome ink head are arranged in a printing direction, and performing printing by reciprocating the carrier in the printing direction by a carrier motor. In the apparatus, a control unit for controlling the carrier motor is provided, and the control unit performs printing based on a position of an ink head farther from a printing area among the color ink head and the monochrome ink head. Carrier motor acceleration control is performed until the area is reached, and printing is performed in one direction by one of the ink heads used as a reference for acceleration control of the carrier motor in printing in one direction, and printing is performed in the opposite direction. Printing in the opposite direction by the other ink head which was used as a reference for the acceleration control of the carrier motor at A control device for a printing device, wherein 2. A first ramp table for controlling the acceleration of the carrier motor in the printing in the one direction, and the acceleration control of the carrier motor in the printing in the opposite direction. A second lamp table for storing the first lamp table and the second lamp table from the storage unit when the control unit is in a high definition printing mode. 2. The acceleration control of the carrier motor according to a corresponding ramp table.
3. The control device for a printing device according to claim 1. 3. The storage unit according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit is configured to accelerate the carrier motor before reaching a printing area based on a position of an ink head closer to a printing area among the color ink head and the monochrome ink head. A third ramp table for control is further stored, and when the control unit is in a print mode other than the high-definition print mode, the control unit performs acceleration control of the carrier motor from the storage unit according to the third ramp table. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein
3. The control device for a printing device according to claim 1.