JP2002137471A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem of a printer printing on both a sheet, e.g. a label tape, and a plate, e.g. a card, that a cutting means is damaged, in worst cast, when data of label print requiring cutting operation is inputted and a plastic plate is set. SOLUTION: Moving amount of a cleaning roller C in the print medium carrying passage is detected as the thickness of a plate and when the detected thickness exceeds a specified value and a sheet is inputted by a print medium input means, operation of a cutting means is interrupted by a cutting control means 50.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer capable of printing both sheets such as a label tape and plates such as a card. The present invention relates to a printer having a print medium type input unit for inputting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, such printers have been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. Hei 11-198478 and Hei 11-245577.
A printer that prints both a hard plastic plate and a tape-shaped print medium described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H10-260, has been known. Since the thickness and hardness of this printer vary depending on the type of printing medium, optimal printing cannot be performed unless printing is performed under printing conditions corresponding to the type of printing medium.

For example, the head pressure and energizing time of a thermal head are changed depending on the type of print medium, and the distance between a transport roller and a pinch roller and the distance between a thermal head and a platen roller are changed according to the thickness of the medium.

[0004]

The following problems have been encountered in the above-mentioned technology. The input of the print medium type is input by the printer which is a higher model of this printer or by the medium setting means of this printer, but the set state is used as it is unless the operator changes it. Therefore, in some cases, the user forgets this and mounts another print medium on the printer.

If the operator performs printing as it is, it is difficult to specify the type of print medium unless expensive detecting means or complicated detecting means is used, so that printing is performed under inappropriate printing conditions. It was decided. Especially when printing a sheet such as a label tape, it is necessary to perform a cutting process between print data and at the end of printing, so even though the operator intends to print a hard medium such as a plastic plate, If the printing condition is a sheet, the cutting process may be performed during printing, and in the worst case, the cutting unit may be damaged.

An object of the present invention is to perform a cutting process based on a detection result of the thickness of a print medium when a print medium that is difficult to cut is different from the print medium input by the print medium type input unit and is set in the printer. To provide a printer capable of canceling the operation.

[0007]

A printer according to the present invention includes a print medium type input means for inputting types of sheets and plates, a transport means for transporting a print medium, and a transport path provided by the transport means. And a cutting device for cutting the trailing edge of the printed sheets, and cutting the trailing edge of the printed sheets when the sheets are input by the print medium input device. A medium thickness detecting means for detecting a thickness of a printing medium in a conveying path by said conveying means; and a sheet type inputting means by a printing medium inputting means when a detection result by said medium thickness detecting means is a predetermined thickness or more. Disconnection control means for stopping the operation of the disconnection means when the operation is performed.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an enlarged view of a printing portion of the plate printer, FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of an operation panel, and FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of the plate printer. The plate printer 1 includes a printing medium of a relatively thick and hard material such as a plastic plate P having a thickness of about 0.5 mm to 3 mm and a label sheet S or a soft vinyl chloride sheet wound in a roll shape. This is a thermal printer that prints a printing medium of a relatively soft and thin material.

The plate printer 1 has a cleaning roller 2 made of silicone rubber or the like having an adhesive property for cleaning the printing surface of the plate P or the label sheet S before printing.
And a cleaning means 3 for periodically removing dust adhering to the surface of the cleaning roller 2 in order to maintain the adhesiveness of the cleaning roller 2. The cleaning means 3 is provided with a storage cassette 4 for storing the cleaning sheet C so as to be able to be pulled out, and a cleaning sheet transport roller 5 for transporting the cleaning sheet C of the loaded storage cassette 1 to the cleaning roller 2.

The cleaning roller 2 is rotatably provided on a swinging rod 8 provided to be able to swing with respect to the printer main body 1. The swinging rod 8 is composed of a motor 9, a gear train (not shown) and a cam. The cleaning roller 2 is swung about the shaft 8a by 10 to move the cleaning roller 2 in the vertical direction. Note that the position of the cleaning roller 2 in FIG. 1 is in a state before the printing medium is conveyed under plate feeding conditions, which will be described later, and when the printing medium such as the plate P is conveyed, the cleaning roller 2 moves toward the lower conveying roller 11. When cleaning the cleaning roller 2, the cleaning roller 2 moves toward the upper cleaning sheet transport roller 5.

A transport roller 11 facing the cleaning roller 2, a platen roller 12 and another transport roller 13 located on the left side in the figure transport a print medium such as a plate P to the left in the figure. The motor is driven to rotate forward and backward by a driving means such as a motor or a gear train (not shown). The cleaning roller 2 is paired with the upstream transport roller 11, and the pinch roller 14 is paired with the downstream transport roller 13 so as to sandwich the print medium.

The pinch roller 14 is rotatably provided on a swinging rod 15 which is provided so as to be swingable about a shaft 15a with respect to the printer main body 1. The pinch roller 14 is connected to the swinging rod 8 via a slide plate 17 and moves the pinch roller 14 in the vertical direction in conjunction with the swinging rod 8. The swinging rod 8 and the swinging rod 15
And the relationship between the intermediate cam means 16 and the slide plate 17 are as follows:
The cleaning roller 2 and the pinch roller 14 are configured to move at equal intervals with respect to the transport roller 11 and the transport roller 13, respectively.

Therefore, when the cleaning roller 2 moves up and down, the pinch roller 14 moves up and down in the same manner,
Further, when the cam 10 is rotated by the driving of the motor 9, the cleaning roller 2 and the pinch roller 14 move up and down in conjunction with each other. The springs 8b and 15b provided at one end of the swinging rod 8 and the swinging rod 15 urge the cleaning roller 2 and the pinch roller 14 toward the transport roller 11 and the transport roller 13, respectively.

The transport roller 11, the platen roller 12, the transport roller 13 and the pinch roller 14 are provided on the surface of the metal shaft with CR (chloroprene) rubber or EPD.
It is obtained by winding a rubber material such as M (ethylene propylene) to increase the conveying force.

The print head 20 of the thermal system is configured to be opposed to the platen roller 12 and to be movable in the direction of contacting and separating from the platen roller 12. During printing, the print data is moved toward the platen roller 12 and prints the print data transferred from an upper model such as a personal computer (not shown) on a print medium via the ink ribbon 21. still,
An ink ribbon cassette 22 stores the ink ribbon 21.

As shown in FIG. 2, the operation panel 23 has menu switching buttons 24 and 25, a menu selection button 26, a menu cancel / discharge button 27, and a display section for displaying the status of the printer and the operation menu to the operator. 2
8 and an online / offline switching key 29 for connecting a personal computer of a higher model type.

The cutting device 30 is mounted on the downstream side of the printer 1 with an electrical and control relationship. The cutter 31 includes a fixed blade and a movable blade, and a motor and a gear train for driving the same. (Not shown) therein, and its operation is controlled by the printer 1.

A medium detection sensor 40 on the bottom surface on the upstream side (right direction in the drawing) of the transport roller 11 and the cleaning roller 2 detects mainly that the print medium has been set in the printer by the operator. (Left direction in the figure) T on the top surface
The OP sensor 41 mainly detects the position of the leading edge of the print medium.
Slide volume type linear sensor 4 that engages with a
Numeral 2 detects the amount of movement of the slide plate 17 as the distance between the cleaning roller 2 and the transport roller 11.

The printer 1 is provided with a control unit 50, which is a well-known control unit such as a CP.
U, known storage means such as RAM and ROM (including rewritable ROM), a timer, and the like (all not shown), and the above-described motors, sensors, operation panel, thermal head, and higher model Connected to a personal computer, and controls the motors in accordance with the control program read from the ROM and various data and conditions detected from the input from the personal computer and the operation panel and from the sensors and read from the RAM and the ROM. , And controls the entire device such as storage of each data.

Next, the operation of the printer will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, when the power of the printer 1 is turned on, first, an initial operation is performed, and each mechanism is moved to a home position, and an initial printing condition is read from a ROM (not shown). At this time, the rewritable RO set from the operation panel
The feeding conditions of plates or sheets stored in M are read.

Based on the read feeding conditions, it is determined whether the sheet is a plate or a sheet (1). If the plate is set, the cam 10 is rotated by the drive of the drive motor 9 if the plate is set. Cleaning roller 2 and transport roller 11
The distance between them is set to 4 mm (2) (state shown in FIG. 1). If sheets are set, the cleaning roller 2 is moved to a position where it contacts the transport roller 11 (3). This movement makes it easy to set top plates, which are relatively hard and easy to set, and sheets, which are soft and hard to set because of curl, respectively.
The sensor 41 can be set up to the position where it is detected. This condition can be easily changed by operating the operation panel 23.

Next, confirmation of print data reception from a personal computer (not shown) (4), confirmation of print medium presence / absence from medium detection sensor 40 (5), and confirmation of print medium set (7) are continuously performed. When the operator sets the plate P as a print medium in the setting section, the medium detection sensor 40 detects this, and the medium setting process (7) is executed. If the print medium is already set,
That is, when both the sensors 40 and 42 detect the presence of a medium, it is determined in step (5) that there is a medium, and confirmation (6) of whether the ejection button 27 has been input and confirmation (4) of data reception continue. It is done on a regular basis.

In the setting process (7), as shown in FIG. 6, first, the transport roller 11 rotates to perform the transport process of the print medium (30). At the same time, the count of the timer is started by the control unit 50 (31), and the TOP sensor 4
The transporting process is performed until 1 detects a print medium (3.
2) (33). When the TOP sensor 41 detects the print medium (32), the conveyance of the medium is stopped (34), and the setting process ends. When a predetermined time has elapsed, an error process is executed.

When the print medium set is confirmed (7),
Next, the cam 9 is rotated by driving the motor 9 to detect the thickness of the print medium, and the cleaning roller 2 is moved toward the transport roller 11. Here, the position of the cleaning roller 2 was 4 mm because the feeding condition was plates.
Move down from the position. If the feeding condition is sheets, the cleaning roller 2 is temporarily moved upward to a position of 4 mm and moved toward the transport roller 11. When the cleaning roller 2 moves until it contacts the plate P, the movement stops. FIG. 4A shows this state, in which the control means of the control unit 50 reads from the sensor 42 the position of the slide plate 17 moved with the movement of the cleaning roller 2, and reads the position between the cleaning roller 2 and the transport roller 11. (8). This distance takes into account the elastic deformation of the surface rubber material of the cleaning roller 2 and the transport roller 11.

Subsequently, the control means of the control unit 50 controls the motor 9 based on the calculated thickness of the printing medium (for example, 2 mm) so that the distance between the rollers optimal for transporting the plate P of this thickness is obtained. The position of the cleaning roller 2 is moved (9), and the data of this thickness is stored in the RAM of the control unit 50.
(10), and waits for data reception from the personal computer again (4).

Next, when the print data is received (4),
The type of print medium such as the acrylic plate, the PVC plate, and the label tape, the print density, the number of prints, and the print data related to the print color are stored in the RAM of the control unit 50 (12). The determination (13) is made, and the print processing is executed because the print medium set has already been confirmed (14). Here, if the print medium is not set, the process waits until the medium is set (15). When the print medium is set by the operator, the above-described steps (8) to (11) are performed. The same processing steps (16-19) are performed, and the printing process is automatically executed (14).

In the printing process, as shown in FIG. 7, the leading edge of the print medium is first executed (50), and then the print medium type of the print data stored earlier is read from the RAM to determine whether it is a sheet. (51). If the print data received here is sheets, the thickness of the print medium (here, 2 m
m) is read out and has a thickness of 0.6 mm or more, so that it is set and the printing medium is determined to be the plate P (52), and the cutting process by the cutting device 30 is invalidated (55). Printing is performed (54), and the printing process ends.

If a print medium of 0.6 mm or less such as the label sheet S is set, the process proceeds to step (5).
In step 2), it is determined that the distance is 0.6 mm or less.
When the printing of No. 4 is executed, the cutting process by the cutting device 30 is accompanied. Here, the medium of 0.6 mm is almost a sheet, but even if it is a plastic plate P,
If the plastic has such a small thickness, the cutter 31 of the cutting device 30 may be a relatively large cutter, so that no problem occurs.

In the printer according to the present embodiment, both the feed conditions set from the operation panel and the print data from the personal computer, or both of them, are set regardless of whether or not they are set to print sheets. The priority is given to the detected thickness of the print medium and the cutting process is invalidated because the possibility that the required print medium is set by mistake is extremely low as compared with the input of other conditions. It should be noted that in the present embodiment, the form of each component and the materials, dimensions, or numerical values used are to be changed depending on costs, mutual relationships, and the like, and should not be limited to the present embodiment.

[0031]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer which includes a print medium type input means for inputting types of sheets and plates, and cuts the rear end of the printed sheets when the sheets are input. In the above, when the detection result by the medium thickness detecting means is a predetermined thickness, the operation of the cutting means is stopped even if sheets are input by the print medium input means, so that the cutting means is not damaged. Further, since the printing is performed with the cutting process being invalidated, the surface of the plates is not damaged.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged front view of a printing unit of a plate printer.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of an operation panel.

FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of the plate printer.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an operation state of a print medium thickness detection unit.

FIG. 5 is a basic flowchart showing the operation of the printer.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a setting process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a printing process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 plate printer 2 cleaning roller 3 cleaning means 8 swinging rod 9 motor 10 cam 11 transport roller 12 platen roller 13 transport roller 14 pinch roller 15 swing rod 16 intermediate cam means 17 slide plate 20 thermal head 21 ink ribbon 23 operation panel 24 Menu switching button 25 Menu switching button 26 Menu selection button 27 Cancel / discharge button 28 Display unit 30 Cutting device 31 Cutter 40 Medium detection sensor (reflection sensor) 41 TOP sensor (reflection sensor) 42 Linear sensor (slide volume) 50 Control unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) B65H 7/14 B41J 3/20 109Z 35/06 117A F term (Reference) 2C058 AB07 AC06 AC11 AD01 AE02 AE05 AE14 AE15 AE16 AF03 AF51 LA03 LA24 LB09 LB17 LC02 LC04 LC11 LC15 2C059 AA24 AA26 AA50 AA58 AA70 AA74 AA79 AA80 2C065 AB02 AD02 AF01 CZ09 DA37 DA38 3F048 AA05 AB01 AB05 BB02 BB05 CA02 DA02 DA01 DB11 DC03 EA03

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printing medium type input unit for inputting types of sheets and plates, a conveying unit for conveying a printing medium, a printing unit provided in a conveying path by the conveying unit, and a printed sheet Cutting means for cutting the trailing edge of the sheets, when a sheet is input by the print medium input means, a printer for cutting the trailing edge of the printed sheets, Medium thickness detecting means for detecting the thickness of the print medium, and when the detection result by the medium thickness detecting means is equal to or greater than a predetermined thickness, and when sheets or the like are input by the print medium input means, the operation of the cutting means is performed. A printer comprising cutting control means for canceling the operation. 2. The conveyance means comprises a plurality of conveyance roller pairs, and the medium thickness detection means includes one conveyance roller pair on an upstream side of a printing means and an inter-roller detection for detecting an interval between the conveyance roller pairs. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein said printer comprises: