JP2004017584A - Method of operating medium of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that a position of a medium in a width direction is determined after pressing of a key for completion of inputting is operated, and then a print head has to be moved thereafter so that a time period from the pressing of the key to the printing is increased in a printer that prints on the regulated medium such as a bankbook in a financial institution. <P>SOLUTION: This printer comprises a conveying means for conveying a medium to be printed and a carriage that has the print head for printing on the medium and a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of the medium in a conveyance path and moves in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the medium. The medium set in an insertion hole is fed irrespective of the presence or absence of information of a host controller, the carriage is moved, one side end of the medium is detected by the sensor, and then the position of the end of the medium is calculated. The feeding information is held. When information is received from the host controller and the feeding information exists, the moving distance of the carriage from a printing position to the designated medium for the information to a position for the printing is calculated, and then the printing operation is immediately started. When the feeding information dose not exist, the printer is made to be in a condition of waiting the insertion of the medium. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for inhaling a print medium in a printer, and more particularly to a method for inhaling a medium suitable for a passbook slip printer used in financial institutions and the like.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In a financial institution, when printing on a medium such as a passbook or a slip, a predetermined transaction content is input from a keyboard or the like to an upper control unit connected to the printer, and the input transaction content is pressed by pressing an operation completion key. Is sent from the control unit to the printer as print information.
[0003]
Thereafter, by setting the medium in the printer, the ink is automatically sucked and predetermined printing is performed. Alternatively, the contents of the transaction may be input after a medium is set in advance and the medium is slightly inhaled.
With such a printer, the medium can be set freely in the horizontal direction within the width of the transport path. When information is received, the medium is pulled in, and a sensor mounted on a carriage such as a print head is moved in the horizontal direction of the medium. There is a structure in which the end of the medium is detected and the position of the medium with respect to the apparatus is specified, and predetermined printing is performed at a given predetermined position based on the determined position of the medium.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In such a printer, the print head must be moved afterward to press the input completion key to draw the medium and specify the position in the width direction after pressing the input completion key. There is a problem that it takes time.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Therefore, the present invention is equipped with a transport unit that transports a medium to be printed, a print head that prints on the medium, and a sensor that detects the presence or absence of a medium in a transport path, and travels in a direction orthogonal to the medium transport direction. A printer having a carriage that moves the carriage, pulls in the medium set in the insertion slot, moves the carriage, detects one side end of the medium with the sensor, and detects the medium end position regardless of the presence or absence of the information of the upper control unit. When the information from the host controller is received and the information from the higher-level control unit is received, if the information is present, from the printing position on the medium specified by the information to the printing position The print processing is started immediately by calculating the moving distance of the carriage, and when there is no inhaled information, a medium insertion waiting state is set.
[0006]
Further, in the above-mentioned printer, regardless of the presence or absence of the information of the higher-level control unit, the medium set in the insertion slot is drawn in, the carriage is run, the both ends of the medium are detected by the sensor, the medium width is calculated, and the higher-level control unit is calculated. If it is determined that the medium has an inappropriate print width with respect to the information input in (1), the medium is ejected.
Further, in the above-mentioned printer, regardless of the presence or absence of the information of the upper control unit, the medium set in the insertion slot is pulled in, the carriage is moved, and at least one side end of the medium is detected by the sensor, and the medium with respect to the transport path is detected. The position is calculated, and if it is determined that the position is inappropriate based on the information held by the printer and / or the information of the higher-level control unit, the medium is discharged without printing on a medium.
[0007]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory side view of a printer, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory plan view.
Reference numeral 1 denotes a medium insertion slot, and 2 denotes a transport path, which are set slightly larger than the maximum width of the medium 3 to be handled. Immediately after the insertion slot 1, there is provided an alignment mechanism 4 for correctly positioning the medium with respect to the apparatus. A plurality of transport rollers 5 are provided in the transport path 2, and a gear or the like (not shown) is driven by a feed motor 6. , And conveys the medium.
[0008]
Reference numeral 7 denotes a print head, which is mounted on a carriage 8 and is movable in a direction orthogonal to the medium transport direction, that is, in the width direction of the medium via a pulley 10 and a belt 11 by driving a pulse motor 9. A reflection sensor 12 is mounted on the carriage 8 and detects a medium on the transport path 2.
Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
[0009]
There are two types of operator processing: operation A, which is a set of media, and operation B, which is the input of information.
First, the first operation procedure is a case where operation A is performed first.
Sa1. The medium 3 is set in the insertion slot 1 of the printer.
Sa2. The printer aligns the medium 3 with respect to the transport path 2 by the alignment mechanism 4.
[0010]
Sa3. The medium 3 is pulled into a predetermined position by the transport roller 5.
Sa4. At this time, the carriage 8 is at a position waiting at the home position 13 outside the transport path 2, and by driving the pulse motor 9, the carriage 8 is moved by a predetermined amount to the full width of the transport path 2 by driving the pulse motor 9. The end 31 of the medium 3 is detected by the mounted reflection sensor 12. The output waveform at this time is shown in FIG.
[0011]
Sa5. The printer counts the number of drive pulses of the pulse motor 9 from the home position 13 to the position where the end 31 of the medium 3 is detected, and calculates the home position of the carriage 8 from the determined movement amount of the carriage 8 per one pulse. The position at the end 31 is calculated from the distance from 13 to the end 31 and the current position 14 after the movement.
Sa6. The printer sets the medium suctioned information by this.
[0012]
Sa7. After the operation A, the apparatus performs the above operation, and during this time, the operator can input the transaction information of the operation B by using the keyboard.
Sa8. When the input completion key is pressed, predetermined print information is transmitted from the host control unit of the printer.
[0013]
Sa9. The printer receives and determines whether or not Sa3 has been completed, and if not, determines that the operation A has not been performed and waits for the operation A. If so, go to the next step.
Sa10. The information includes the print start position on the medium 3 by Sa6. When the printer receives this, the printer starts the printing process because the inhaled information is set.
[0014]
Sa11. The printing process is performed by first moving the print head 7 to a predetermined line to be printed, and then moving the print head 7 from the current position 14 of the carriage 8 obtained in the operation after the operation A to the end 31 of the medium 3. And the position to be printed from the end 31 obtained from the information, the amount of movement of the carriage 8 to the position where printing is to be started is calculated, and the carriage 8 is moved to perform printing.
[0015]
Sa12. The medium is ejected when printing is completed.
Next, the second operation procedure is a case where the operation B is performed first.
After information input and information transmission, the printer waits for processing after operation A because the inhaled information is not set.
After the printer sucks the medium, the same operation as the above operation procedure is performed.
[0016]
According to the above embodiment, the automatic operation of the apparatus for permitting the inhalation of the medium before receiving the information and detecting the end of the medium from the inhalation of the medium after the setting of the medium in operation A, and the information input operation in operation B Can be performed in parallel, and the printing process can be started simultaneously with the completion of the input.
Further, by holding the inhalation information in the printer, the operation can be performed regardless of the order of the operation A and the operation B, and the operation is flexible.
[0017]
The structure of the printer of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.
The operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
Sb1. The medium 3 is set in the insertion slot 1 regardless of the preceding operation procedure of the operation A and the operation B.
[0018]
Sb2. The printer aligns the medium 3 with respect to the transport path 2 by the alignment mechanism 4.
Sb3. The medium 3 is pulled into a predetermined position by the transport roller 5.
Sb4. At this time, the carriage 8 is at a position waiting at the home position 13 outside the transport path 2, and by driving the pulse motor 9, the carriage 8 is moved a predetermined amount to the full width of the transport path 2 by driving the pulse motor 9. Both end portions 31 and 32 of the medium 3 are detected by the mounted reflection sensor 12. The output waveform at this time is shown in FIG.
[0019]
Sb5. The printer counts the number of drive pulses of the pulse motor 9 from the end 31 to the position where the end 32 of the medium 3 is detected, and calculates the medium width from the determined movement amount of the carriage 8 per one pulse. For convenience, even if the sensor that detects one side end and the sensor that detects the other side end are different, the width can be calculated by calculation if the distance between both sensors is known.
[0020]
Sb6. The printer sets the medium suctioned information by this.
Thus, an example of using the width obtained here will be described.
(Application Example 1)
Sb7. Medium information is set in the printer in advance. For example, “passbook” is defined as 140 mm ± 5 mm. On the other hand, according to the output information, if the measured medium width is out of this range even if the medium to be handled is a "passbook", eject the medium without printing or make a sound or light Notify by
[0021]
(Application 2)
Sb8. If the number of characters per line specified by the information is larger than the calculated medium width, a predetermined process is performed. For example, the medium is ejected without printing. Notify by sound or light. Alternatively, print as much as possible and discard the remaining data. Alternatively, it prints the rest with automatic line feed. Alternatively, compression printing is performed. And so on, which can be changed according to the user's intention.
[0022]
The subsequent operations of the application examples 1 and 2 are the same as those of the printing process of the first embodiment. That is,
Sb9. The information includes the print start position on the medium 3 by Sb6. When the printer receives this, the printer starts the printing process because the inhaled information is set.
[0023]
Sb10. The printing process is as follows: first, the print head 7 is moved to a predetermined line to be printed, and then the side end 31 of the medium 3 from the current position 14 of the carriage 8 obtained by the operation after the operation A The movement amount of the carriage 8 up to the position at which printing is to be started is calculated from the position up to and the position to be printed from the side end 31 obtained from the information, and the carriage 8 is moved to perform printing.
[0024]
Sb11. The medium is ejected when printing is completed.
In the above description, the description has been made regardless of the preceding operation procedure of the operation A and the operation B. Therefore, after the operation A described in the first embodiment, the device performs the above operation. In the meantime, the operator can perform the operation of inputting the transaction information of operation B, which is shown in the flowchart but the description is omitted. That is, the description of Sa7 to Sa9 is omitted.
[0025]
According to the above-described embodiment, the width of the medium is detected, compared with the information, and a predetermined process is performed if the width is not appropriate. It is possible to prevent printing on the medium. Further, in the application example 2, the blank hitting on the platen does not occur, and the printing can be surely performed.
[0026]
Since the structure of the printer according to the third embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description is omitted. In the same manner as in the second embodiment, the sucked medium detects the medium width and, as described in the first embodiment, the distance from the home position 13 of the carriage 8 to the medium end and the medium from the current position. Calculate the distance to the edge.
[0027]
Thus, the transport path 2 has a fixed relationship with the home position of the carriage 8 in terms of structure, and thus the position of the medium with respect to the transport path 2 is determined.
FIG. 7 shows a case where an extremely narrow medium is unbalancedly placed on one side of the transport path 2.
Although transport printing can be performed as it is, the tension of the rollers in the transport path 2 is unbalanced, and there is a possibility that the transport may be skewed or the print may be skewed.
[0028]
Therefore, in order to prevent this, the printer 1 detects the above-mentioned position and takes a means for discharging the medium according to a certain rule. Here, the certain rule means that, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, when the width is equal to or less than a certain value, at least a part of the medium must be present in a range near the center S of the transport path 2. Or restrict the range where the right or left end should be. Also, as shown in FIG. 8, in the case of a passbook having a magnetic stripe in the medium transport direction, when the passbook is pressed against the right end of the transport path 2 of the printer for reading and writing, the read / write of the magnetic stripe is performed. The read / write head 15 is mounted at a possible position. Therefore, the insertion position is limited only for the passbook. In this case as well, even if the passbook is inserted without abutting, it can be discharged by the means.
[0029]
When the passbook is discharged, it is preferable to display the fact on the screen of the operator to prompt the operator to reset the passbook to the center, or to prompt the user to reset the passbook by sound or light.
According to the above-described embodiment, when the medium is inappropriate for the apparatus, the medium is ejected, so that the subsequent inconvenience can be prevented. Further, in the case of a passbook having a magnetic stripe, it is possible to determine that the medium is set at a correct position without providing any special detecting means.
[0030]
The above-described embodiment can be applied to a mark detection sensor or a printer with an OCR having a limited detection position or a printer with an automatic page break having a limited position in the width direction.
[0031]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention described in detail above, the automatic operation of the apparatus for permitting the suction of the medium before receiving the information and detecting the end of the medium from the suction of the medium after the setting of the medium is performed in parallel with the information input operation. The print processing can be started simultaneously with the completion of the input, and the processing time can be greatly reduced.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an explanatory side view of a printer. FIG. 2 is an explanatory plan view. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an operation of a first embodiment. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a sensor output of the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the sensor output of the second embodiment. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram defining a medium insertion range of the third embodiment. Explanatory diagram of a usage example of a passbook with a magnetic stripe according to a third embodiment.
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Insertion port 2 Transport path 3 Medium 4 Alignment mechanism 5 Transport roller 6 Feed motor 7 Print head 8 Carriage 9 Pulse motor 10 Pulley 11 Belt 12 Reflection sensor 13 Home position 14 Current position 31, 32 End of medium

Claims (8)

It has a transport unit that transports a medium to be printed, a print head that prints on the medium, and a carriage that carries a sensor that detects the presence or absence of a medium in the transport path, and that runs in a direction perpendicular to the medium transport direction. In the printer, regardless of the presence or absence of the information of the upper control unit, the medium set in the insertion slot is pulled in, the carriage is run, one side end of the medium is detected by the sensor, and the medium end position is calculated. When the information is received from the higher-level control unit at the time when the information is received from the higher-level control unit, the moving distance of the carriage from the print position on the medium specified by the information to the position to be printed when the information is present And immediately starts the printing process, and, if there is no inhaled information, enters a medium insertion waiting state. It has a transport unit that transports a medium to be printed, a print head that prints on the medium, and a carriage that carries a sensor that detects the presence or absence of a medium in the transport path, and that runs in a direction perpendicular to the medium transport direction. In the printer, regardless of the presence or absence of the information of the upper control unit, the medium set in the insertion slot is pulled in, the carriage is run, the both ends of the medium are detected by the sensor, the medium width is calculated, and the medium width is input to the upper control unit. A medium having a print width determined to be inappropriate for the information, and ejecting the medium. 3. The printer medium processing method according to claim 2, wherein when it is determined that the print width is inappropriate for the information input to the higher-level control unit, the fact is notified. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when it is determined that the medium has an inappropriate print width with respect to the information input to the higher-level control unit, it is possible to select whether to discharge the medium or to notify the fact. Media processing method of the printer. 3. A medium processing method for a printer according to claim 2, wherein when it is determined that the print width is inappropriate for the information input to the higher-level control unit, printing is not performed for a portion exceeding the width of the medium. . 3. The printer according to claim 2, wherein when it is determined that the medium has an inappropriate print width with respect to the information input to the higher-level control unit, an amount exceeding the medium width is printed on the next line. Media processing method. 3. A medium processing method for a printer according to claim 2, wherein when it is determined that the medium has an inappropriate print width with respect to the information input to the upper control unit, the medium is compressed in the width direction and printed. It has a transport unit that transports a medium to be printed, a print head that prints on the medium, and a carriage that carries a sensor that detects the presence or absence of a medium in the transport path, and that runs in a direction perpendicular to the medium transport direction. In the printer, regardless of the presence or absence of the information of the upper control unit, the medium set in the insertion slot is pulled in, the carriage is run, the sensor detects at least one side end of the medium, and the position of the medium with respect to the transport path is calculated. A medium processing method for a printer, characterized in that when a position is determined to be inappropriate based on information held in the printer and / or information of a higher-level control unit, the position is discharged without printing on the medium.

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