JP2003254721A - Device for discriminating printing sheet, printer, computer program, computer system, and method of discriminating printing sheet - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a device for discriminating printing sheet and the like that discriminate the kind and thickness of printing sheets with a simple constitution. <P>SOLUTION: In this printing sheet discriminating device provided with a light emitting part for emitting light toward the printing sheet, a regular reflection light receiving part for light receiving mainly a regular reflection component out of reflected light of the light by the sheet, and a diffuse reflection light receiving part for light receiving diffuse reflection component of the reflected light, the kind of the sheet is discriminated using a diffuse reflection light quantity light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving part, and the thickness of the sheet is discriminated using a regular reflection light quantity light received by the regular reflection light receiving part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing sheet discriminating apparatus, a printing apparatus, a computer program, a computer system, and a printing sheet discriminating method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to print a high-quality image with a printing apparatus such as an inkjet printer, it is necessary to perform printing according to the type of a memory sheet that is a printing medium. For this reason, there is provided a printing apparatus including a determination device that determines the type of print sheet set in the printing apparatus. This discriminating device has a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion, and discriminates the type of the print sheet according to the amount of the diffused component of the reflected light emitted from the light emitting portion toward the print sheet.

Further, since the image quality is affected not only by the type of print sheet but also by the thickness thereof, a printing apparatus equipped with a thickness discriminating device for discriminating the thickness of the print sheet has recently been developed. . It is considered that the thickness determination device conveys a print sheet on a rib provided at a predetermined interval and detects a difference in thickness of the print sheet as a difference in deflection. Specifically, the printed sheet, which is placed on the rib and is bent, is scanned by a predetermined distance while irradiating light from the light emitting unit, and the light receiving unit receives the light amount of the specular reflection component of the reflected light. To do. At this time, the reflection direction of the specular reflection light changes due to the bending of the print sheet, so that the amount of light received by the light receiving unit changes. Memorize this light intensity fluctuation,
By counting the number of waves generated during a predetermined scanning distance from the waveform of the light amount fluctuation, the deflection state of the print sheet is recognized, and when the number of waves is small, that is, when the deflection is small, a thick print sheet, When the number of waves is large, it is determined that the print sheet is thin.

[0004]

However, the thickness discriminating apparatus as described above does not measure the thickness of the printed sheet, but utilizes the fact that the printed sheet has different rigidity depending on the thickness. However, since the rigidity of the print sheet is influenced not only by the thickness but also by the material, the environment in which it is used, etc., it may not be possible to accurately determine the thickness depending on the thickness determining device.

Further, it is necessary to scan the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion by a predetermined distance to store the light amount, and further, since the stored light amount data is analyzed and discriminated, it takes time to discriminate the thickness. At the same time, there is a problem that a complicated processing circuit or the like is required, which may promote a rise in product cost.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a print sheet discriminating apparatus for discriminating the type and thickness of a print sheet with a simple structure, and this discriminating apparatus. A printing device, a computer program that realizes a function of causing the determination device to perform determination,
It is intended to realize a computer system having a printing device provided with this discrimination device and a method for discriminating a print sheet.

[0007]

The main object of the present invention is to provide a light emitting portion which emits light toward a printing sheet, a regular reflection light receiving portion which mainly receives a regular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and In a discriminating device for a printing sheet, which comprises a diffuse reflection light receiving section for receiving a diffuse reflection component of reflected light,
The type of print sheet is determined using the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving unit, and the thickness of the printing sheet is determined using the amount of regular reflection light received by the regular reflection light receiving unit. It is a device for discriminating a printing sheet having a feature. Other features of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following description.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION === Summary of Disclosure === By the description in the detailed description of the invention in the present specification,
At least the following is revealed.

A light emitting portion which emits light toward the printing sheet,
A diffused reflection light receiving unit that receives a specular reflection light receiving unit that mainly receives a specular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and a diffuse reflection light receiving unit that receives a diffuse reflection component of the reflected light. It is characterized in that the type of print sheet is determined using the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the reflection light receiving unit, and the thickness of the printing sheet is determined using the amount of regular reflection light received by the regular reflection light receiving unit. Device for discriminating printed sheets. According to such a determination device, it is possible to determine the type and thickness of the print sheet with a simple configuration including the light emitting unit and the two light receiving units.

Further, it is desirable that the discrimination of the type of the printing sheet and the discrimination of the thickness are executed in a state where the light emitting portion and the two light receiving portions are held at predetermined positions with respect to the printing sheet. According to such a discriminating device, the type of the print sheet and the type of the print sheet can be obtained in a short time by receiving and emitting light at a predetermined position without moving the discriminating device of the print sheet
The thickness can be discriminated, the circuit configuration for the discrimination can be simplified, and the cost can be suppressed.

Further, there may be a type discrimination threshold value corresponding to the type of the print sheet, and it may be discriminated as a mat type sheet, a gloss type sheet or an OHP sheet based on the type discrimination threshold value. According to such a discriminating apparatus, it is possible to clearly discriminate the printing sheet as a matte sheet, a gloss sheet or an OHP sheet based on the type discrimination threshold. Here, the matte sheet means a printing sheet having low surface smoothness and fine irregularities on the surface, and includes plain paper. Further, the glossy sheet refers to a printing sheet having a glossy surface, the smoothness of which is improved by subjecting the surface to a predetermined treatment. The OHP sheet is a film made of a polymer material having transparency. These recording sheets become an OHP sheet, a glossy sheet, and a matte sheet when they are arranged in order from the one having the largest specular reflection component of the reflected light when irradiated with light.

Further, it is preferable that the regular reflection light receiving portion is provided at a position for receiving a regular reflection component reflected by a printing sheet having a predetermined thickness. According to such a discrimination device, the specular reflection component of the reflected light from the printing sheet having a predetermined thickness is reliably received, and the specular reflection component of the reflected light from the printing sheet having another thickness is received. Since it becomes difficult, the thickness can be clearly discriminated.

Further, it is desirable to have a thickness discrimination threshold value corresponding to the thickness of the printing sheet, and to discriminate the thickness based on this thickness discrimination threshold value. According to such a discriminating apparatus, the thickness of the print sheet can be clearly discriminated based on the thickness discriminating threshold value.

Further, the determination of the type of the print sheet is
It is desirable to make a determination based on the ratio of the regular reflection light amount and the diffuse reflection light amount. According to such a discrimination device, since the ratio of the regular reflection light amount and the diffuse reflection light amount is used,
Even if the light amount of the light emitting unit fluctuates, it is possible to realize a print sheet discriminating apparatus that is not easily affected by this light amount fluctuation.

A print sheet having a second type determination threshold value corresponding to the type of the print sheet and determined to be a mat type sheet by the determination of the type of the print sheet is used to determine the thickness, and then the It is desirable to discriminate between matte paper and plain paper based on the two type discrimination thresholds. According to such a discriminating apparatus, it is possible to clearly discriminate between matte paper and plain paper according to the second type discrimination threshold.

Further, the specular reflection light receiving portion is provided at a position for receiving the specular reflection component reflected on the print sheet having a predetermined thickness, and the specular reflection component reflected on the print sheet having the predetermined thickness is received. When the specular reflection light amount of the specular reflection light receiving portion provided at the light receiving position is smaller than the thickness determination threshold value, the emission intensity of the light emitting portion is optimized before the type determination based on the second type determination threshold value. It is desirable to do. According to such a discriminating apparatus, by optimizing the light emission intensity of the light emitting unit, the amount of specularly reflected light received is increased, and a large dynamic range can be obtained, so that matte paper and plain paper can be more accurate. It is possible to determine.

Further, a light emitting portion that emits light toward the printing sheet, a regular reflection light receiving portion that mainly receives a specular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and a diffuse reflection component of the reflection light. In a printing sheet discriminating apparatus including a diffuse reflection light receiving portion, the regular reflection light receiving portion is provided at a position for receiving a regular reflection component reflected by a printing sheet having a predetermined thickness, and the light emitting portion and 2 With one light receiving unit held at a predetermined position with respect to the print sheet, the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving unit is used, and a mat is formed based on a type determination threshold value corresponding to the type of the print sheet. The thickness of the printing sheet is determined by determining whether the sheet is a glossy sheet, a glossy sheet, or an OHP sheet, and the ratio of the amount of specular reflection light received by the specular reflection light receiver to the amount of diffuse reflection light. After determining the thickness of the print sheet based on the determination threshold, the print sheet determined to be a mat-based sheet by the determination of the type is either matte paper or plain paper based on the second type determination threshold. An apparatus for discriminating printed sheets, characterized in that According to such a discriminating device, it is possible to clearly discriminate between thick matte paper, thin matte paper, thick plain paper, thin plain paper, thick glossy paper, thin glossy paper, and OHP paper.

Further, a light emitting portion which emits light toward the printing sheet, a regular reflection light receiving portion which mainly receives a regular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and a diffuse reflection component of the reflected light. In a printing device having a discriminating device for a print sheet having a diffuse reflection light receiving unit, the type of print sheet is discriminated using the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving unit, and the specular reflection light receiving unit is used. It is also possible to realize a printing apparatus including a print sheet determination device that determines the thickness of the print sheet by using the received regular reflection light amount.

Further, a light emitting portion which emits light toward the printing sheet, a regular reflection light receiving portion which mainly receives a regular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and a diffuse reflection component of the reflection light. A discriminating device for a print sheet having a diffuse reflection light receiving portion discriminates the type of the print sheet using the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving portion, and the normal reflection light received by the regular reflection light receiving portion. It is also possible to realize a computer program for realizing the function of determining the thickness of the print sheet using the reflected light amount.

Further, the computer main body, the display device connected to the computer main body, the light emitting section for emitting light toward the print sheet, and the regular light receiving section for mainly receiving the specular reflection component of the light reflected by the print sheet. In a computer system including a printing device having a print sheet discrimination device including a reflection light receiving portion and a diffuse reflection light receiving portion for receiving the diffuse reflection component of the reflected light, the diffusion received by the diffuse reflection light receiving portion It is also possible to realize a computer system characterized in that the type of print sheet is discriminated using the amount of reflected light and the thickness of the print sheet is discriminated using the amount of specular reflected light received by the specular reflection light receiving section.

Further, a light emitting portion that emits light toward the printing sheet, a regular reflection light receiving portion that mainly receives a specular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and a diffuse reflection component of the reflection light. In a method of discriminating a print sheet using a discriminating device for a print sheet having a diffuse reflection light receiving portion, a step of discriminating a type of the print sheet using the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving portion, And a step of determining the thickness of the print sheet using the amount of regular reflection light received by the regular reflection light receiving unit. According to such a determination method, it is possible to determine the type and thickness of the print sheet with a simple configuration including the light emitting unit and the two light receiving units.

=== Schematic Configuration of Printing Apparatus === First, with reference to FIG. 1, a schematic configuration mainly of the outside of the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printing apparatus according to this embodiment. FIG. 1 shows a color printer CP as an example of a printing apparatus. The color printer CP includes a printer body 10 as a printing apparatus body, and a printer body 10
And a roll paper unit 24 that is detachably mounted.

The color printer CP is a printer capable of outputting a color image. For example, four color inks of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) are used as roll paper. And an inkjet printer that forms an image by forming dots by ejecting onto a printing medium. In addition, as color ink,
In addition to the above four colors, light cyan (light cyan, L
C), light magenta (light magenta, LM), and dark yellow (dark yellow, DY) may be used.

As shown in FIG. 1, the color printer CP
Has a structure for ejecting a printing medium such as printing paper supplied from the back from the front, an operation panel 11 and a paper ejection unit 12 on the front of the printer body 10, and a paper feeding unit on the back. 13 are provided. The operation panel 11 is provided with various operation buttons 111 and a display lamp 112. The paper discharge unit 12 includes a paper discharge tray 121 that closes a paper discharge port when not in use. The paper feed unit 13 includes a paper feed holder 131 for holding cut paper (not shown), a roll paper unit holder 20 for holding a roll paper unit 24,
21 is provided. As the print sheet, the sheet feeding holder 131 includes sheet members having various printable materials and surface states such as matte paper, plain paper, glossy paper, and OHP sheet, and print sheets having various thicknesses. It is possible to set and feed. Also in the roll paper unit 24, sheet members having various printable materials and surface states and sheet members having various thicknesses are wound around the core material and supplied from the paper feeding unit 13. .

=== Internal Configuration of Color Printer CP ==
= Next, the internal configuration of the color printer CP will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the color printer CP according to this embodiment.

The color printer CP, as shown,
Print heads IH1 to IH4 mounted on the carriage 28
And a mechanism for driving ink to eject ink and form dots,
The carriage 28 includes a mechanism that reciprocates the carriage 28 in the axial direction of the platen 42, a paper feed motor 31 that conveys the printing roll paper 32 supplied from the roll paper unit 24, and a control circuit 50. is doing.

A mechanism for reciprocating the carriage 28 in the axial direction of the platen 42 is installed in parallel with the shaft of the platen 42, and a sliding shaft 44 for slidably holding the carriage 28.
And the endless drive belt 4 between the carriage motor 30 and
It is composed of a pulley 46 and the like on which 5 is stretched.

The mechanism for conveying the printing roll paper 32 supplied from the roll paper unit 24 includes a platen 42, a paper feed motor 31 for rotating the platen 42, a paper feed auxiliary roller (not shown), and a paper feed motor 31. It has a gear mechanism 48 that transmits the rotation to the platen 42 and the paper feed auxiliary roller, and an encoder 47 that detects the rotation angle of the platen 42. In addition, the contact 1 is provided on the printer body 10 so as to face the contact 201 provided on the roll paper unit holder 20.
01 is provided.

The control circuit 50 is the operation panel 1 of the printer.
When a print command signal is input from the personal computer 1 or a connected personal computer, the movements of the paper feed motor 31, the carriage motor 30, and the print heads IH1 to IH4 are appropriately controlled. Roll paper unit holder 2 for color printer CP
The printing roll paper 32 of the roll paper unit 24 held by 0 and 21 is set so as to be sandwiched between the platen 42 and the paper feed auxiliary roller, and is fed by a predetermined amount according to the rotation angle of the platen 42.

The carriage 28 has print heads IH1 to IH4 having a large number of nozzles, and this print head IH1.
The cartridge mounting portion 18 provided integrally with the IH4 is fixed, and the ink cartridge INC1 and the ink cartridge INC2 are mounted on the cartridge mounting portion 18. The ink cartridge INC2 contains black (K) ink, and the ink cartridge INC1 contains other inks, that is, three color inks of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y). Light cyan (LC), light magenta (LM), dark yellow (D)
As described above, the ink of Y) can also be stored. Further, a reflection type optical sensor 29, which will be described later, is mounted on a side portion of the carriage 28 in the main scanning direction, which constitutes a printing sheet discriminating device.

=== Internal Structure of Control Circuit 50 === Next, referring to FIG. 3, the control circuit 50 of the color printer CP is shown.
The internal configuration of will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the control circuit 50 of the color printer CP according to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 3, inside the control circuit 50, a buffer memory 51 for receiving a signal supplied from the computer 90, an image buffer 52 for storing print data, and an operation of the entire color printer CP are shown. A system controller 54 for controlling, a main memory 56,
And an EEPROM 58. The system controller 54 further includes a main scanning drive circuit 61 that drives the carriage motor 30, a sub-scanning drive circuit 62 that drives the paper feed motor 31, a head drive circuit 63 that drives the print heads IH1 to IH4, and a reflection. The light emitting unit 38, the specular reflection light receiving unit 40, and the diffuse reflection light receiving unit 41 of the type optical sensor 29 are connected to the reflection type optical sensor control circuit 65. The reflective optical sensor control circuit 65 also includes an electrical signal measuring unit 66 for measuring an electrical signal converted from the reflected light received by the regular reflection light receiving unit 40 and the diffuse reflection light receiving unit 41. Further, the reflection type optical sensor control circuit 65 includes a light emission control unit 64 capable of controlling the intensity of light emitted from the light emitting unit 38 based on the amount of light received by the regular reflection light receiving unit 40.

The print data transferred from the computer 90 is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 51. In the color printer CP, the system controller 54 reads necessary information from the print data from the buffer memory 51, and based on this, the main scanning drive circuit 61, the sub-scanning drive circuit 62, and the head drive circuit 63 are read. Send a control signal.

The image buffer 52 stores print data of a plurality of color components received by the buffer memory 51. The head drive circuit 63 is the system controller 5
The print data of each color component is read from the image buffer 52 in accordance with the control signal from No. 4, and the nozzle arrays of each color provided in the print heads IH1 to IH4 are driven accordingly.

=== Structural Example of Reflective Optical Sensor === FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining an example of the reflective optical sensor 29. The reflective optical sensor 29 is the carriage 28.
And a specular reflection light receiving portion 40 and a diffuse reflection light receiving portion 41 formed of, for example, phototransistors.

The light emitted from the light emitting section 38 is set so as to irradiate the printing paper P as a printing sheet at a predetermined angle, and the specular reflection light receiving section 40 is set on the printing paper P. It is arranged at a position where mainly the specular reflection component of the reflected light emitted is incident. Here, when a thick glossy paper is set as the printing paper P, it is installed on the reflection optical path so that the specular reflection component enters the specular reflection light receiving unit 40. Further, the diffuse reflection light receiving section 41 includes a light emitting section 38,
An intermediate position with respect to the regular reflection light receiving unit 40, that is, a position vertically above the irradiation position of the printing paper P, these light emitting units 38,
The regular reflection light receiving portion 40 and the diffuse reflection light receiving portion 41 are arranged side by side in the sub-scanning direction. The incident light received by the specular reflection light receiving unit 40 and the diffuse reflection light receiving unit 41 is converted into an electric signal, and the magnitude of the electric signal is output as the output value of the light receiving sensor according to the light amount of the received reflected light. Is measured.

In the above, as shown in the figure, the light emitting portion 38, the regular reflection light receiving portion 40, and the diffuse reflection light receiving portion 4 are provided.
Although 1 and 1 are integrated into the reflective optical sensor 29, they may be configured as separate devices such as a light emitting device and two light receiving devices.

Further, in the above description, in order to obtain the light quantity of the received reflected light, the magnitude of the electric signal is measured after converting the reflected light into an electric signal, but the present invention is not limited to this. It suffices that the output value of the light receiving sensor can be measured according to the amount of received reflected light.

==== Discrimination Principle by Reflective Optical Sensor === FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a reflected state of light emitted from the light emitting portion 38 of the reflective optical sensor 29.

FIG. 5A shows a case where a matte printing sheet having a rough surface such as matte paper or plain paper is irradiated with light. The light with high directivity emitted from the light emitting unit 38 is diffused when it is applied to the matte paper or the like, and the amount of reflected light incident on the specular reflection light receiving unit 40 installed on the reflection optical path is
Significantly less than the irradiation light. At this time, a considerable amount of the diffused reflected light is received by the diffuse reflection / light receiving unit 41 installed vertically above the irradiation position.

On the other hand, in the case of a glossy printing sheet having a high surface smoothness such as glossy paper and OHP sheet, FIG.
As shown in (b), contrary to the case of the mat type printing sheet, most of the light emitted from the light emitting section 38 is specularly reflected by the printing sheet and is incident on the specular reflection light receiving section 40 to be diffusely reflected. A small amount of diffused light is incident on the light receiving section 41. Particularly, in the case of the OHP sheet, the diffuse reflection component is extremely small, and the amount of light incident on the diffuse reflection light receiving section 41 is almost zero. FIG. 6 shows outputs of the diffuse reflection / light receiving unit 41 for four types of printing sheets, that is, matte paper, plain paper, glossy paper, and OHP sheet. The vertical axis represents the ratio of the output of the diffuse reflection light receiver 41 to the output of the regular reflection light receiver 40, and the horizontal axis represents the distance between the reflective optical sensor 29 and the print sheet. As shown in the drawing, the reflective optical sensor 29 is arranged so that the distance between the reflective optical sensor 29 and the print sheet is, for example, point L in the figure, and the threshold value is A,
By setting B and C, it is possible to distinguish four types of print sheets.

Since the specular reflection light receiving section 40 of this embodiment is installed on the reflection optical path on which the specular reflection light of thick glossy paper is incident, when a thick glossy printing sheet is set, When the amount of received light becomes large and a thin glossy printing sheet is set, the amount of received light deviates from the specular reflection optical path by the printing sheet, and thus the amount of received light is significantly reduced. Therefore, the thickness discrimination threshold for discriminating between the thick print sheet and the thin print sheet is determined by the amount of light received by the specular reflection light receiving unit 40 of the light reflected by the thick print sheet and the thin print sheet. The reflected light is set between the amount of light received by the regular reflection light receiver 40. In the present embodiment, the thickness determination threshold value of the matte printing sheet is D, and the thickness determination threshold value of the glossy printing sheet is E.

=== Judgment Operation by Print Sheet Judgment Device === Next, with reference to FIG. 7, a print sheet judgment operation using the color printer CP according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a method of discriminating a print sheet.

The color printer CP is used to determine the print sheet.
The printing operation is performed immediately after the paper is fed in the series of printing operations. When the system controller 54 of the color printer CP receives the print command signal from the computer 90 operated by the user, the main scanning drive circuit 61 drives the carriage motor 30 to move the carriage 28 to a predetermined position, and then the sub-scanner. The scanning drive circuit 62 controls the paper feed motor 31.
Is driven, the printing roll paper 32 is fed, conveyed to a predetermined position, and stopped. At this time, the carriage 28 moves to a position outside the non-printing area, that is, above the printing roll paper 32 to be fed, and the reflective optical sensor 29 provided on the side portion of the carriage 28 is conveyed to the platen. Four
It moves so as to be located above the printing roll paper 32 placed on the sheet 2. On the other hand, the tip of the printing roll paper 32 is
The printing roll paper 32 is placed on the platen 42 after passing through a position where the light emitted from the light emitting portion 38 of the reflective optical sensor 29 is irradiated.

When the printing roll paper 32 is placed on the platen 42, the control circuit 50 causes the light emitting section 38 to emit light. The diffused component of the light reflected by the printing roll paper 32 is received by the diffuse reflection light receiver 41. The control circuit 50 detects the light receiving amount Q1 of the diffuse reflection light receiving unit 41 and the light receiving amount Q2 of the regular reflection light receiving unit 40, and the ratio Q1 / Q2 of the light receiving amounts and the first type determination threshold value B shown in FIG. And are compared (S101). At this time, if the ratio Q1 / Q2 of the received light amount is larger than the type determination threshold B, it is determined that the sheet is a mat type print sheet, and the ratio Q1 / Q2 of the received light amount is greater than the type determination threshold B. If it is smaller, it is determined to be a glossy print sheet (S102). Further, for a print sheet determined to be a glossy print sheet, FIG.
(S114), the ratio Q1 / Q2 of the amount of received light is smaller than the type determination threshold C and is extremely 0.
If it is detected that the sheet is close to the sheet, the sheet is discriminated as an OHP sheet (S119).

Among the print sheets determined to be glossy print sheets, the print sheet having the ratio Q1 / Q2 of the received light amount larger than the type determination threshold C is the received light amount Q2 of the specular reflection light receiving unit 40.
And the thickness determination threshold value E are compared (S115). As a result of comparison, when the received light amount Q2 is larger than the thickness determination threshold value E, it is determined to be a thick glossy print sheet as described above (S117), and the received light amount Q2 is greater than the thickness determination threshold value E.
If is smaller, it is determined to be a thin glossy print sheet (S118).

Further, the ratio Q1 / Q2 between the light receiving amount Q1 of the diffuse reflection light receiving part 41 and the light receiving amount Q2 of the regular reflection light receiving part 40 is larger than the type determination threshold value B, and when it is determined to be a mat type print sheet. (S102), the amount of received light Q of the regular reflection light receiving unit 40
2 is compared with the thickness determination threshold D (S103). As a result of comparison, if the received light amount Q2 is larger than the thickness determination threshold D, it is determined to be a thick matte print sheet, and if the received light amount Q2 is smaller than the thickness determination threshold D, it is thin. It is determined that the sheet is a matte print sheet (S104).

When it is determined that the sheet is a thick matte printing sheet, the ratio Q1 / Q2 of the amount of received light and the second type determination threshold value A
And are compared (S105). At this time, if the ratio Q1 / Q2 of the received light amount is larger than the type determination threshold A, it is determined to be thick matte paper (S107), and the ratio Q1 / of the received light amount is determined from the type determination threshold A. If Q2 is smaller, it is determined to be thick plain paper (S108).

On the other hand, when it is determined that the sheet is a thin matte printing sheet, the light emission amount of the light emitting section 38 is adjusted (S1).
09). This is because in the case of a thin print sheet, the distance between the print sheet to be discriminated and the reflection-type optical sensor 29 becomes wider, so that the light quantity is reduced and the SN ratio is lowered, and the light quantity difference between the matte paper and the plain paper is reduced. This is to prevent unclearness. Therefore, the light emission control unit 64 adjusts the output of the light emitting unit 38 based on the output of the regular reflection light receiving unit 40 so that the amount of regular reflection light equivalent to the amount of regular reflection light of the thick matte printing sheet is obtained.

After adjusting the output of the light emitting portion 38, the ratio Q1 / Q2 of the amount of received light is compared with the second type discrimination threshold A (S110). At this time, if the ratio Q1 / Q2 of the received light amount is larger than the type determination threshold value A, it is determined that the mat paper is thin (S112), and the ratio Q1 / of the received light amount is determined based on the type determination threshold value A. When Q2 is smaller, it is determined that the plain paper is thin (S113).

According to the color printer CP provided with the printing sheet discriminating apparatus of the present embodiment, the matte paper and the plain paper are simply structured by the light emitting portion 38, the regular reflection light receiving portion 40, and the diffuse reflection light receiving portion 41. It is possible to determine not only the types of glossy paper and OHP sheet, but also the thickness. As a result, printing can be performed according to the type and thickness of the print sheet, and higher quality images can be printed.

In the present embodiment, the print sheet determination position is described as one position, but by moving the carriage 28 or transporting the printing roll paper 32,
It is possible to improve the determination accuracy by changing the determination point and performing the determination at a plurality of points.

=== Other Embodiments === The printing apparatus and the like according to the present invention have been described above based on the embodiment. However, the above-described embodiment of the invention facilitates understanding of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. The present invention can be modified and improved without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and it goes without saying that the present invention includes equivalents thereof.

A printer having a printer body according to the above-described embodiment and a printing medium unit detachably mounted on the printer body, a computer body, a display device such as a CRT, an input device such as a mouse or a keyboard, and a flexible drive device. , And a computer system equipped with a CD-ROM drive device can also be realized, and the computer system realized in this way is superior to the conventional system as a whole system.

In the printer having the printer body according to the above-described embodiment and the printing medium unit detachably attached to the printer body, the computer body, the display device,
Input device, flexible disk drive device, and
The CD-ROM drive device may have a part of the function or mechanism of each. For example, as a configuration in which the printer has an image processing unit for performing image processing, a display unit for performing various displays, and a recording medium attaching / detaching unit for attaching / detaching a recording medium recording image data captured by a digital camera or the like, Good.

[0056]

According to the present invention, a print sheet discriminating apparatus for discriminating the type and thickness of a print sheet by a simple structure, a printing apparatus provided with this discriminating apparatus, and a computer for realizing the function of discriminating the discriminating apparatus. It is possible to realize a program, a computer system having a printing device provided with this discrimination device, and a method for discriminating a print sheet.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a color printer CP according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of a color printer CP according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a control circuit 50 of the color printer CP according to this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining an example of a reflective optical sensor 29.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing a difference in reflected light depending on a printing sheet.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the difference in the amount of light received by the reflective optical sensor 29 for each type of print sheet.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method of determining a print sheet by a determination device.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Printer body 11 Operation panel 111 Operation button 112 indicator lamp 12 Paper output section 121 Paper output tray 13 Paper feeder 131 Paper Feed Holder 18 Cartridge mounting part 20, 21 Roll paper unit holder 201 contacts 202 transmitter / receiver 24 roll paper unit 28 carriage 29 Reflective optical sensor 30 carriage motor 31 Paper feed motor 32 roll paper for printing 33 Memory element 38 Light emitting part 40 Regular reflection light receiving part 41 Diffuse reflection light receiver 42 Platen 44 Sliding shaft 45 drive belt 46 pulley 47 encoder 48 gear mechanism 50 control circuit 51 buffer memory 52 image buffer 54 system controller 56 main memory 58 EEPROM 61 Main scanning drive circuit 62 Sub-scanning drive unit 63 head drive circuit 64 Emission control unit 65 Reflective optical sensor control circuit 66 Electric signal measurement unit CP color printer INC1 and INC2 ink cartridges IH1, IH2, IH3, IH4 print head

Continued front page    F-term (reference) 2C056 EA09 EB13 EB45 EB46 KD06                 2F065 AA30 BB01 CC02 DD02 DD06                       DD11 FF23 FF41 GG07 HH12                       JJ01 JJ08 JJ18 MM03 PP16                       PP22 QQ03 QQ06 QQ25                 2G059 AA05 BB10 EE02 GG02 GG10                       KK01 KK03 MM05 MM10 NN01                       NN05                 3F048 AA01 AB01 BA06 BB02 DC14

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A light emitting section that emits light toward a printing sheet, a regular reflection light receiving section that mainly receives a specular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and a diffuse reflection component of the reflection light. In a device for determining a print sheet including a diffuse reflection light receiving unit, the type of the print sheet is determined using the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving unit, and the normal light received by the regular reflection light receiving unit is detected. An apparatus for discriminating a printing sheet, which discriminates the thickness of the printing sheet by using the amount of reflected light. 2. The printing sheet discriminating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discrimination of the type of the printing sheet and the discrimination of the thickness determine the light emitting unit and the two light receiving units with respect to the printing sheet. An apparatus for discriminating a print sheet, which is executed while being held at the position. 3. The print sheet determination device according to claim 1, further comprising a type determination threshold value corresponding to the type of the print sheet,
An apparatus for discriminating a printing sheet, which discriminates between a matte sheet, a gloss sheet and an OHP sheet based on the type discrimination threshold value. 4. The printing sheet discriminating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specular reflection light receiving portion is located at a position for receiving a specular reflection component reflected by the printing sheet having a predetermined thickness. A printed sheet discriminating apparatus, which is provided. 5. The print sheet discriminating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a thickness discriminating threshold value corresponding to a thickness of the print sheet,
An apparatus for discriminating a printing sheet, which discriminates the thickness based on the thickness discrimination threshold. 6. The printing sheet discrimination apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the type of the printing sheet is discriminated by a ratio of the regular reflection light amount and the diffuse reflection light amount. apparatus. 7. The printing sheet discriminating apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a second type discriminating threshold value corresponding to the type of the printing sheet, and discriminating the mat type sheet by discriminating the type of the printing sheet. After the thickness of the printed sheet is determined, matte paper or
An apparatus for discriminating printed sheets, characterized by discriminating on any of plain paper. 8. The printing sheet discriminating apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the specular reflection light receiving portion is provided at a position for receiving a specular reflection component reflected by the printing sheet having a predetermined thickness, and the predetermined reflection light receiving portion is provided. If the amount of specular reflection light of the specular reflection light receiving portion provided at the position for receiving the specular reflection component reflected by the printing sheet of thickness is smaller than the thickness discrimination threshold, the type based on the second type discrimination threshold An apparatus for discriminating a printing sheet, characterized in that the luminous intensity of a light emitting section is optimized before discrimination. 9. A light emitting section that emits light toward a printing sheet, a specular reflection light receiving section that mainly receives a specular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and a diffuse reflection component of the reflected light. In a discriminating apparatus for a print sheet including a diffuse reflection light receiving section, the regular reflection light receiving section is provided at a position for receiving a regular reflection component reflected by a printing sheet having a predetermined thickness, and the light emitting section and 2 With one light receiving unit held at a predetermined position with respect to the print sheet, the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving unit is used, and a mat is formed based on a type determination threshold value corresponding to the type of the print sheet. The thickness corresponding to the thickness of the printing sheet is determined by discriminating between a regular sheet, a glossy sheet, and an OHP sheet, and the ratio of the regular reflection light amount received by the regular reflection light receiving unit and the diffuse reflection light amount. It After determining the thickness of the print sheet based on the different threshold value, for the print sheet determined to be the mat type sheet by the determination of the type, either the matte paper or the plain paper is determined based on the second type determination threshold value. An apparatus for discriminating a printing sheet, which is characterized by discriminating between: 10. A light emitting unit that emits light toward a printing sheet, a regular reflection light receiving unit that mainly receives a regular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and a diffuse reflection component of the reflected light. In a printing device having a print sheet determination device having a diffuse reflection light receiving unit, the type of print sheet is determined using the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving unit, and the regular reflection light receiving unit is used. A printing apparatus comprising a print sheet determination device that determines the thickness of a print sheet by using the amount of regular reflection light received. 11. A light emitting unit that emits light toward a printing sheet, a regular reflection light receiving unit that mainly receives a specular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and a diffuse reflection component of the reflection light. A discriminating device for a print sheet having a diffuse reflection light receiving portion discriminates the type of the print sheet using the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving portion, and the normal reflection light received by the regular reflection light receiving portion. A computer program for realizing the function of discriminating the thickness of a printing sheet by using the amount of reflected light. 12. A computer main body, a display device connected to the computer main body, a light emitting section which emits light toward a printing sheet, and a regular light receiving section which mainly receives a specular reflection component of light reflected by the printing sheet. A reflection light receiving part,
In a computer system including a printing device having a printing sheet discrimination device including a diffuse reflection light receiving unit that receives the diffuse reflection component of the reflected light, the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection light receiving unit is used. A computer system characterized in that the type of a print sheet is determined, and the thickness of the print sheet is determined using the amount of regular reflection light received by the regular reflection light receiving unit. 13. A light emitting unit that emits light toward a printing sheet, a regular reflection light receiving unit that mainly receives a regular reflection component of the light reflected by the printing sheet, and a diffuse reflection component of the reflected light. In a method of determining a print sheet using a print sheet determination device including a diffuse reflection light receiving section, a step of determining the type of print sheet using the amount of diffuse reflection light received by the diffuse reflection receiving section, And a step of determining the thickness of the print sheet using the amount of regular reflection light received by the regular reflection light receiving section.