JP2002137850A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To properly carry out an error correction depending on the type of a printing medium when a failure in setting the printing medium to a printer occurs, in the printer capable of printing both sheets such as label tape and plates such as card. SOLUTION: When a sensor 40 detects the plate P or the sheet S, a conveying roller 11 rotates, and when a sensor 41 does not detect conveying within a predetermined time, operation is performed depending on the type of the medium inputted by a printing medium type input means such that, in a case of the sheet S, an error display is performed by increasing a space of rollers between a cleaning roller 2 and the conveying roller 11 after the conveying roller 11 is reversely operated, and in a case of the plate P, only the error display is performed.

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 a sheet such as a label tape and a plate such as a card, and inputs the type of printing medium in order to perform printing under printing conditions corresponding to the type of printing medium. The present invention relates to a printer having a print medium type input unit.

[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. In this printer, an operator adjusts the interval between the cleaning roller and the transport roller in accordance with the type (thickness) of the medium, and detects it by a detection sensor provided on the downstream side of the transport roller. It was done by pushing up.

[0003] Conventionally, complicated operations such as adjusting the distance between the cleaning roller and the conveying roller and pushing in the print medium are required. Therefore, a printer of an automatic feeding system has been proposed to improve this. Was.

[0004]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] Is this automatic feeding system illustrated? As shown in the figure, a detection sensor is provided in front of the feeding device consisting of a pair of rollers, and when this detection sensor detects the printing medium, the feeding means is driven and automatically when the operator pushes the printing medium a little, When the detection sensor at the rear of the feeding device detects the print medium, it is determined that the feeding has been completed, and the feeding process ends.

When a sheet such as a roll sheet is conveyed in such an automatic feeding system printer, the warped tip portion enters the gap between the feeding means and the detection sensor due to the effect of being wound in a roll shape. There was a transportation trouble. On the other hand, in the case of a plate such as a plastic plate, if the operator improperly sets the printer, a transport trouble may occur.

It is an object of the present invention to determine that a feeding error has occurred when a detection sensor at the rear of the feeding device does not detect a print medium within a specific time after the printer has driven the feeding device. Then, an object of the present invention is to provide a printer that can easily handle an error of an operator by performing an error process according to a print medium.

[0007]

A printer according to the present invention comprises a print medium type input means for inputting the type of a print medium such as a sheet or a plate, and a pair of rollers for conveying the print medium toward the print means. Feeding means; first detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of a printing medium upstream of the feeding means in the feeding direction; and second detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of the printing medium downstream of the feeding means in the feeding direction. Means, a first control means for driving a specific time supply means after detection of the print medium by the first detection means, and when the second detection means does not detect the print medium within a specific time by the first control means, And a second control unit for performing an error process according to the medium type input by the print medium type input unit.

[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 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 unit 3.

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 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 rods 8 and 15
8b, 15b provided at one end of each
Urges the cleaning roller 2 and the pinch roller 14 toward the transport roller 11 and the transport roller 13, respectively.

The above-mentioned transport roller 11, platen roller 12, transport roller 13 and pinch roller 14 have CR (chloroprene) rubber or EPD on the surface of the metal shaft.
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 type is configured to be movable in the direction of contacting and separating from the platen roller 12 so as to face 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 unit 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.

A medium detection sensor 40 on the bottom surface on the upstream side (right direction in the figure) of the transport roller 11 and the cleaning roller 2 detects mainly that the print medium is 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 the presence or absence of a print medium from the medium detection sensor 40 (5), and confirmation of whether a print medium has been 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. Done

In the setting process (7), as shown in FIG. 6, first, the transport roller 11 rotates to carry out the process of transporting 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.

Here, if the predetermined time has elapsed without the printing medium being detected by the TOP sensor 41, step 33 is executed.
Is determined to be a feeding error, the rotation of the transport roller 11 is first stopped to stop the transport process (35). This is because, for the sheet S, the leading end of the sheet S enters the slight gap between the carrying roller 11 and the TOP sensor 41, or for the plate P, the operator does not push the sheet S until the operator touches the carrying roller 11. A transport trouble caused by stopping at a halfway position may be considered.

Next, the feeding condition of plates or sheets stored in the rewritable ROM is read (3).
6) If it is determined that the sheets are plates, a feed error is displayed on the display unit 28 of the display panel 23 (37), and the setting process ends. In the case of a plate, an error is displayed only by stopping the transport process.
Since the distance between the feed roller and the plate is wider than the width of the plate, the tip will reach the position of the TOP sensor when the operator pushes it in a little, and the subsequent processing will be easier if the current position is not moved. is there.

If it is determined in step S35 that the sheet is a kind of sheet, the conveying roller 11 is rotated in the reverse direction for a predetermined time to convey the sheet S backward (to the right in FIG. 1) and discharged (39). 2 is lifted up (40), a feed error is displayed on the display section 28 of the display panel 23 (41), and the setting process ends. The reason why the sheet is set in the reverse direction and discharged from the conveying roller when the sheet is set is a result of taking out the sheet because the sheet may enter the gap as described above. It goes without saying that generating a beep sound at the same time as the error display in steps 37 and 41 is effective in transmitting the error to the operator.

Next, the operator processes the feeding error and sends the print data from the personal computer. The printer confirms the reception of the print data and executes the printing process (steps 4, 12, 13, and 14).

In the printer of the present embodiment, the feeding condition set from the operation panel is used as the input means of the type of the print medium. The type of the print medium is determined based on the type of the medium set in the print data. In this case, the print data input means such as a personal computer is the print medium type input means.

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 are not limited to the present embodiment. .

[0028]

According to the present invention, there is provided a print medium type input means for inputting the type of print medium such as a sheet or a plate,
When a feed error occurs, appropriate feed error processing can be performed according to the type of medium.

[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 illustrating a setting process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 plate printer 2 cleaning roller 3 cleaning means 8 oscillating rod 11 transport roller 12 platen roller 20 thermal head 21 ink ribbon 23 operation panel 28 display unit 40 medium detection sensor (reflection sensor) 41 TOP sensor (reflection sensor) 50 control unit

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] February 6, 2001 (2001.2.6)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Brief description of drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the plate printer.

FIG. 3 is a basic flowchart showing the operation of the printer .
FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a setting process.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Plate printer 2 Cleaning roller 3 Cleaning means 8 Swinging rod 11 Conveying roller 12 Platen roller 20 Thermal head 21 Ink ribbon 23 Operation panel 28 Display unit 40 Medium detection sensor (reflection sensor) 41 TOP sensor (reflection sensor) ) 50 control unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Takashi Sugai 1234 Machi, Iwai City, Ibaraki Prefecture Japan Typewriter Corporation Iwai Factory (72) Inventor Shunsuke Takada 1234 Machi, Iwai City, Ibaraki Prefecture Japan Typewriter Corporation Iwai Factory F term (for reference) 2C059 AA02 AA22 AA24 AA26 AA31 AA49 AA50 AA51 AA58 AA62 AA70 AA74 AA79 AA80 3F048 AA05 AB01 AB05 BA14 BB02 BC03 CC03 CC11 CC11 CC17 DA06 DB07 DB11 DC12 EA03 EA13 EB02 EB21

Claims (2)

[Claims] An input unit for inputting a type of a print medium such as a sheet or a plate; a feed unit including a pair of rollers for conveying the print medium toward the print unit;
First detection means for detecting the presence or absence of a print medium on the upstream side in the feeding direction of the feeding means, and second output means for detecting the presence or absence of a print medium on the downstream side in the feeding direction of the feeding means;
A first control unit for driving a supply unit for a specific time after the detection of the print medium by the first detection unit; and a print medium when the second detection unit does not detect the print medium within a specific time by the first control unit. A printer comprising second control means for performing error processing according to the type of medium input by the type input means. 2. The type of print medium input by the print medium type input means is a sheet and a plate, and the second control means feeds when a sheet is input as the type of print medium. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printer performs reverse driving and error notification for a specific time, and performs error notification when a plate is input as a type of print medium.