JP2004249465A - Printer/cutter - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a printer/cutter capable of printing or cutting data in a specified range within the range of remaining length of a sheet when the length of print data or cut data consisting of a plurality of blocks to be printed or cut exceeds the remaining length of the sheet. <P>SOLUTION: Detection output from a sheet sensor 10 for detecting the end of a sheet 15 being moved by a sheet drive means 12 is inputted to a control section 6 where the feeding amount of the sheet 15 and the number of printed blocks are stored. When the sheet sensor 10 detects the end part of a sheet during print processing, the sheet drive means 12 is driven to pull back the sheet 15 by the feeding amount. Subsequently, the sheet drive means 12 and a cutting means 13 are driven to perform cutting operation by the number of printed blocks. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing and cutting apparatus for printing figures such as characters and symbols on a long sheet using a thermal head or the like, and cutting the sheet along the outline of the printed figure.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, printing means for printing characters, figures, and the like by heat transfer or the like on the surface of a vinyl sheet attached to a long sheet wound in a roll shape, and the outline of the characters and figures printed by the printing means. 2. Description of the Related Art A printing and cutting apparatus including cutting means for cutting a vinyl sheet along the printing sheet is known. The vinyl sheet cut along the outline of the printed character or figure or into a rectangle or the like surrounding the character or figure by the above-described device is peeled off from the long sheet 4 and formed on the back side of the vinyl sheet 5. It is used by sticking it to an advertisement etc. with the adhesive material. In such an apparatus, printing and cutting are performed on a long sheet based on image data such as characters and figures created using a dedicated input device or a personal computer. In some cases, the sheet becomes insufficient during the cutting, and printing or cutting is interrupted during the cutting, and the sheet may be wasted.
[0003]
Conventionally, a cutting device that cuts a long sheet based on input image data such as characters and figures has been used. 2. Description of the Related Art There is known a cutting apparatus for cutting a long sheet which is prevented from being lost. According to this cutting device, prior to the cutting operation, the length of data such as characters or figures input from a dedicated input device or a personal computer is calculated and calculated, and the length of the data obtained by this calculation is calculated. It is determined whether or not a sufficient length of the sheet is sufficient by feeding forward the sheet, and if the remaining amount of the sheet is less than the length of the input data, the cutting operation is not performed (for example, see Patent Document 1).
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-2002-301690
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
According to the above prior art, when the length of the sheet remaining in the apparatus is not enough for the length of the input data, the cutting operation is not started, and the sheet roll remaining in the apparatus is newly replaced. It is necessary to replace the sheet roll with a new one and restart the cutting work, or to re-input data such as characters or figures corresponding to the length of the remaining sheet by using an input device or a personal computer and perform the cutting process. The exchanged sheet is wasted, and it takes time to re-create data. The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, and performs printing or cutting when the length of print data or cut data including a plurality of blocks to be printed or cut exceeds the remaining length of a sheet. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing and cutting device that prints or cuts a predetermined range of data that can be printed or cut on the remaining sheet length of data to be printed.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, a printing and cutting apparatus according to the present invention includes a sheet driving unit that moves a long sheet along the longitudinal direction of the sheet, and a sheet driving unit that is orthogonal to the sheet moving direction so as to print an image on the surface of the sheet. Printing means formed along the direction of cutting, cutting means for moving the sheet in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the sheet to cut the sheet, and a control unit for controlling the sheet driving means, printing means and cutting means After performing a printing operation of forming an image on a sheet by driving the sheet driving unit and the printing unit by the control unit, the sheet driving unit and the cutting unit are driven by the control unit to form the sheet. A printing and cutting apparatus for performing a cutting operation for cutting an image, wherein the sheet is moved by sheet driving means. A sheet sensor for detecting the end of the sheet is provided, the detection output of the sheet sensor is input to the control unit, and the amount of the sheet sent by the control unit and the number of data that can be printed out are stored. When the sheet sensor detects the end of the sheet during the processing of the above, the control unit drives the sheet driving unit to pull back the sheet by the fed amount, and then drives the sheet driving unit and the cutting unit. In this case, the cutting operation is performed by the number of data that can be printed out.
[0007]
The cutting device according to claim 2, wherein the long sheet is moved along the longitudinal direction of the sheet by the sheet driving means, and the cutting means for cutting the sheet is moved in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the sheet. A cutting device that cuts a sheet by operating the sheet driving unit and the cutting unit based on predetermined input data by controlling the sheet driving unit, the cutting unit, and a control unit; A sheet sensor for detecting the end of the sheet to be moved is provided, and the detection output of the sheet sensor is input to the control unit, and the control unit further detects the sheet necessary for the cutting operation based on the input data. The length is calculated, and based on the calculation result, the sheet driving means performs the operation. An arithmetic processing unit that determines whether or not a sheet of a required length is placed by feeding and driving the sheet, and when the input data length is larger than the sheet length, the first data of the input data that fits in the sheet length. The cutting operation of the sheet is performed in a range from to the predetermined data.
[0008]
The printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the long sheet is moved in the longitudinal direction of the sheet by the sheet driving means, and the printing means for forming an image on the surface of the sheet is moved in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the sheet. A printing device that forms an image on the surface of a sheet by operating the sheet driving unit and the printing unit based on predetermined input data by controlling the sheet driving unit and the printing unit by a control unit. A sheet sensor for detecting the end of the sheet moved by the sheet driving means, inputting the detection output of the sheet sensor to the control unit, and further, the control unit performs a cutting operation based on the input data. The required sheet length is calculated, and based on the calculation result, the sheet driving means feeds and drives the sheet to obtain the required length. When the input data length is longer than the sheet length, the arithmetic processing unit that determines whether the sheet is placed is provided. The printing operation is performed.
[0009]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on examples shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a printing and cutting apparatus 1 according to the present invention. The printing and cutting device 1 is configured to drive and control the printing and cutting device 1 based on a predetermined program stored in the ROM 4 by a control unit 6 having an arithmetic processing unit 5 including a CPU 2, a RAM 3 and a ROM 4. Has been. The control unit 6 is provided with a data buffer 7 and an interface 8. An input device 9 composed of a dedicated input device or a personal computer is connected to the CPU 2 via the interface 8, and prints and prints created by the input device 9 are performed. Print data such as characters and figures to be cut and cut data are input to the arithmetic processing unit 5 via a data buffer.
[0010]
The data buffer 7 stores print data and cut data input from the input device via the interface 8 and sequentially supplies the cut data and the cut data to the arithmetic processing unit 5. The arithmetic processing unit 5 performs arithmetic processing on the print data and cut data stored in the data buffer 7 to calculate the length of a sheet required for printing or cutting. Further, the arithmetic processing unit 5 is connected to a sheet sensor 10 which is provided on the sheet conveyance path and detects the end of the sheet and outputs a detection signal.
[0011]
The arithmetic processing unit 5 includes a print head 11 forming a printing unit for forming an image such as a character or a figure on a sheet, and a sheet driving unit for moving the sheet in a supply direction or a return direction. And a pulse motor 14a for moving a cutting head for cutting the sheet constituting the cutting means 13 in a direction orthogonal to the sheet feeding direction, and the cutting head with respect to the sheet surface. The solenoids 14b that operate vertically are connected to each other via a driver for driving.
[0012]
The control unit 6 drives a print head 11 of a printing unit and a pulse motor 12 of a sheet driving unit to perform a printing operation of forming an image on a sheet based on print data input by an input device 9; By driving the pulse motor 12 of the sheet driving means, the pulse motor 14a of the cutting means, and the solenoid 14b, the sheet is cut along the contour of the image or in a rectangular shape surrounding the image based on the cut data inputted by the input device 9. The cutting operation is performed. Further, the control unit 6 determines the sheet feed amount and the sheet feed amount sent by the pulse motor 12 of the sheet driving unit at the time of printing and cutting processing of a plurality of blocks or at the time of print cutting processing of copying and cutting a plurality of copies of the same image. , The number of blocks for which printing or cutting processing has been completed is sequentially stored.
[0013]
Further, when performing printing and cutting processing of a specified number of blocks or the number of copies, the control unit 6 receives a sheet end detection signal from the sheet sensor 10 during a printing operation, and thereby outputs a pulse of the sheet driving unit. After the printing operation by the motor 12 and the print head 11 is interrupted and the rolled sheet is returned to the initial position, the number of blocks or the number of copies for which image printing has been completed is designated as the designated number or the number of copies, and The pulse motor 12, the pulse motor 14 a of the cutting means, and the solenoid 14 b are driven so that the cutting operation is started.
[0014]
Next, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation when the same image is printed by the printing and cutting device 1 according to the present invention and a predetermined number of sheets are cut by cutting the outline of the image. 4 will be described. The print data and cut data of images such as characters and figures created by the input device 9 are stored in the data buffer 7, and when the printing operation is started, the printing is started with the pulse motor 12 of the sheet driving means in step 1 shown in FIG. The print head 11 is driven to print an image on the sheet 15. When the first image G1 shown in FIG. 3 is printed on the sheet 15, the number of printed sheets and the amount by which the sheet 15 has been moved up to this point are stored in step S2. During the printing operation, the sheet sensor 10 continues to detect the end of the sheet 15 in step S3, and if the end of the sheet is not detected by the sheet sensor 15, it is determined in step S4 whether the number of prints has reached the predetermined number. If it is determined that the number of prints has not reached the predetermined number, the process returns to step S1 to start the print processing of the next figure G2.
[0015]
As described above, the image printing operation is performed by repeating the steps S1 to S4, the images G1 to G3 are printed on the sheet 15, and the sheet sensor 10 detects the end of the sheet 15 during the image G4 printing operation. When the detection and the detection output are input to the control unit 6, it is determined in step S3 that there is no remaining sheet 15, and the printing operation is interrupted while the printing of the image G4 is incomplete as shown in FIG. In step S5, the processing is restarted from step S6 in order to perform the cutting processing of the sheet 15 by using the sheet moving amount at the time when the return amount of the sheet 15 is interrupted and the designated number of cuts as the number of print processing completed.
[0016]
In step S6, the sheet 15 sent during the printing operation so far is returned by the moving amount of the sheet 15, and the starting position of the cutting operation is set to the position where printing on the sheet 15 is started. Thereafter, in step S7, the control unit 6 drives the pulse motor 12 of the sheet driving unit, the pulse motor 14a of the cutting unit, and the solenoid 14b to perform the cutting operation of the cut data C1 surrounding the image G1 as shown in FIG. When the cutting of the print data G1 shown in FIG. 4 is completed, it is determined in step S8 whether or not the number of cut completion sheets has reached the designated number. If the number of cut completion sheets has not reached the designated number, the process returns to step G7 to return to step G7. Perform cutting operation. When the cut data C3 of the last image G3 that has been printed in this way is completed, the printing and cutting are completed.
[0017]
FIG. 5 shows a case where an image composed of a plurality of blocks B1 to B4 is printed on a sheet 15 or cut along the contour of the image. In this processing, the data is input from the input device 9 by the arithmetic processing unit 5 and the data buffer is cut. Based on the print data or the cut data stored in 7, the length L1 when all data is developed on a sheet is calculated and calculated, and then the pulse motor 12 of the sheet driving means is driven by the control unit 6 to drive the pulse motor 12. The sheet 15 is fed and operated by the calculated length L1. If the end of the sheet is not detected by the sheet sensor 10 during the sheet feeding operation, the printing or cutting operation for the predetermined number of blocks is performed.
[0018]
When the sheet sensor 10 detects the end of the sheet 15 during the sheet feeding operation, the sheet feeding length L at this time is subjected to printing or cutting processing up to the number of blocks having a data length L2 smaller than this, and the predetermined data The number of products that can be cut can be obtained in the range up to.
[0019]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, in the printing and cutting apparatus according to the present invention, when the conventional cutting apparatus attempts to output cut data having a longer data length than the remaining sheet length, the cutting operation is performed. Stopping, replacing the sheet roll and restarting the cutting operation with a new sheet roll, or performing cutting processing by recreating and inputting data corresponding to the remaining sheet, but in the present application, multiple copies and When performing printing and cutting processing of a plurality of blocks, by detecting the end of the sheet during the printing operation, the cutting processing is performed to the number of copies or blocks corresponding to the completion of the printing processing, and the remaining It is possible to obtain as many products as the number of blocks possible within the range of the sheet length.
[0020]
Further, a total data length L1 is calculated based on the data input by the arithmetic processing unit, the sheet is fed by the data length, and the end of the sheet is detected by the sheet sensor. If L1 is not enough, the remaining sheets are printed or cut within the data length L2 of the number of blocks that can be printed or cut within the range of the length L of the remaining sheet. Sheets can be used without waste, and work such as re-input of data is not performed, so that the efficiency of printing or cutting work can be greatly improved as compared with the related art.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a printing and cutting device according to the present invention; FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a process when printing and cutting a plurality of copies of the same image by the printing and cutting device; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the printing operation of the image on the sheet in the copy processing of FIG. 2 is completed. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the cutting operation of the image on which the image is printed in FIG. 2 is completed. An explanatory diagram showing a state in which image data composed of a plurality of blocks is printed or cut.
Reference Signs List 1 printing and cutting device 5 arithmetic processing unit 6 control unit 7 data buffer 9 input device 10 sheet sensor 11 print head (printing means)
12 pulse motor (sheet driving means)
13 Cutting means 14a Pulse motor 14b Solenoid 15 Sheets G1 to G4 Print data C1 to C4 Cut data B1 to B4 Data block

Claims (3)

Sheet driving means for moving a long sheet along the longitudinal direction of the sheet, printing means formed along a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the sheet so as to print an image on the surface of the sheet, and the sheet A cutting unit that moves in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the sheet and cuts the sheet; and a control unit that controls the sheet driving unit, the printing unit, and the cutting unit, and controls the sheet driving unit and the printing unit. And a cutting unit that drives the sheet driving unit and the cutting unit by the control unit to perform a cutting operation of cutting the image formed on the sheet after performing a printing operation of forming an image on the sheet by driving the unit. A device,
A sheet sensor for detecting the end of the sheet moved by the sheet driving unit is provided, and the detection output of the sheet sensor is input to the control unit. When the sheet sensor detects the end of the sheet during the image printing process, the control unit drives the sheet driving unit to pull back the sheet by the amount sent, and then the sheet driving unit And a cutting means for driving the cutting means so as to perform cutting operations for the number of data which can be printed and output. The sheet driving means and the cutting means so that the long sheet is moved along the longitudinal direction of the sheet by the sheet driving means, and the cutting means for cutting the sheet is moved in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the sheet. And a cutting device that cuts a sheet by operating the sheet driving unit and the cutting unit based on predetermined input data by controlling by the control unit.
A sheet sensor for detecting the end of the sheet moved by the sheet driving means is provided, and a detection output of the sheet sensor is input to the control unit. Further, the control unit is required for a cutting operation based on the input data. An arithmetic processing unit that calculates the length of the sheet and calculates whether a sheet of a required length is loaded by feeding and driving the sheet by the sheet driving unit based on the calculation result. When the data length is longer than the sheet length, the cutting device performs a sheet cutting operation in a range from the leading data to predetermined data of input data that fits in the sheet length. The long sheet is moved along the longitudinal direction of the sheet by the sheet driving means, and printing means for forming an image on the surface of the sheet is provided along a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the sheet, and the sheet driving means is provided. By controlling the printing means by the control unit, based on predetermined input data, a printing apparatus for operating the sheet driving means and the printing means to form an image on the surface of the sheet,
A sheet sensor for detecting the end of the sheet moved by the sheet driving means is provided, and a detection output of the sheet sensor is input to the control unit. Further, the control unit is required for a cutting operation based on the input data. An arithmetic processing unit that calculates the length of the sheet and calculates whether a sheet of a required length is loaded by feeding and driving the sheet by the sheet driving unit based on the calculation result. When the data length is longer than the sheet length, a printing operation on the sheet is performed in a range from the leading data to the predetermined data of the input data that fits in the sheet length.

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