JP2006035521A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To rapidly decelerate and stop moving parts which operate by motors, when a cover is opened during the recording action. <P>SOLUTION: When printer cover opening is detected during the recording action, a CPU 204 lowers (makes zero) an indication speed of the motor. At this time, a driving power supply of the motors 101 and 113 is cut by a cover switch 215 in response to the printer cover opening, and at the same time the motors 101 and 113 are driven to be the indication speed by charges accumulated in a capacitor 301 connected to a motor driver 210. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording apparatus having a carriage on which a recording head is mounted and a sheet conveyance unit, and more particularly to movement control of a carriage motor and a sheet conveyance motor.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a recording apparatus having a carriage on which a recording head is mounted and a sheet conveying unit that conveys a sheet includes a printer cover for protecting the moving carriage and the sheet conveying unit and thus protecting the user. When the printer cover is opened during printing, from the viewpoint of PL (Product Liability), the drive power source for driving the carriage motor and the paper transport motor is shut off by a physical switch or the like. These are also called interlock mechanisms.

Since the drive power supply is shut off, the motor itself can be stopped relatively safely even when the CPU and circuit of the control system run away (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2004-142341 A

  However, the above method causes the following problems.

  First, even if the power supply of the drive system is cut off, the circuit tries to continue operation by the electric charge accumulated in the electrolytic capacitor inserted in the drive circuit for a short time.

  In addition, regardless of whether the carriage or the paper transport unit is related to the weight of the movable unit, if the moment of inertia is large, the carriage continues to move longer after the power is shut off. As a result, when the printer cover is opened during the recording operation, the carriage may move unexpectedly even if the driving of the carriage and the paper transport unit is stopped. As a result, there is a concern that the carriage or the like may continue to move and the user may encounter danger (particularly in a large format recording apparatus, the carriage is also large and heavy).

  The present invention has been made in such a background, and an object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus capable of suddenly decelerating and stopping a movable portion operated by a motor when a cover is opened during a recording operation. There is.

  The recording apparatus according to the present invention includes a carriage motor speed instruction means for instructing a speed of a carriage motor that drives a carriage on which a recording head is mounted, and a speed of a conveyance motor that conveys a sheet in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage. A conveyance motor speed instruction means for instructing the carriage, a cover for protecting the carriage and the paper conveyance section, a cover detection means for detecting opening and closing of the cover, and when the cover detection means detects that the cover is open, the carriage At least one of the motor speed instruction means and the conveyance motor speed instruction means includes control means for performing control so as to reduce the instruction speed. That is, it is possible to suddenly decelerate and stop the movable part by performing speed control to stop the motor.

  When the cover detection means detects the opening of the cover, the drive power supply cutoff means cuts off the drive power supply of the carriage motor and the transport motor, thereby ensuring safety.

  The cover detection means and the drive power supply cutoff means can be configured by the same mechanism.

  As an aspect of the instruction speed reduction, when the cover detection is detected by the cover detection means, at least one of the carriage motor speed instruction means and the transport motor speed instruction means can make the instruction speed zero. .

  In the case of having a capacitor connected to the drive voltage supply unit of the drive circuit of the carriage motor and the carry motor, after the drive power supply is cut off, the carriage motor and the carry motor operate using the electric charge accumulated in the capacitor as drive power. To do. As a result, the movable part can be controlled by shutting off the motor drive power supply and ensuring global safety, while performing speed control to actively stop the motor in a short time using the accumulated charge of the capacitor. It becomes possible to decelerate and stop suddenly.

  According to the present invention, even if the cover is opened during the recording operation of the recording apparatus, the movable part that operates by the motor can be suddenly decelerated and stopped, so that a recording apparatus with higher safety can be provided. .

  Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an external configuration of the vicinity of a carriage and a paper transport unit of a recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

  The carriage 102 on which the recording head 103 is mounted is movable in the right and left printing directions in the figure via a guide pulley 105 and a carriage belt 106 coupled to the motor shaft, using the carriage motor 101 as a drive source.

  The movement of the carriage 102 is guided by the guide portion 108 along the guide shaft 107. The carriage 102 slides along the slider member 109 during movement.

  The paper 110 can be moved in the front-rear direction by the rotation of the paper feed roller 114 using the transport motor 113 as a drive source, and the carriage 102 and the paper 110 may be moved simultaneously. On the sheet 110, an area 111 where printing has already been completed is shown.

  The linear scale 104 is a member that cooperates with a linear encoder 212 including a light emitting element and a light receiving element (not shown) on the carriage 102, and is provided over the entire movable range of the carriage 102. The moving speed and the current position of the carriage 102 are identified by measuring the moire transmitted through the linear scale 104 by a light emitting element and a light receiving element (not shown) on the carriage 102.

  Similarly, a rotary encoder 115 is coupled to the rotation shaft of the conveyance motor 113, and the sheet conveyance speed and the current position can be identified.

  A cleaning mechanism 112 for maintaining or restoring the recording performance of the recording head 103 is installed at the end of the movement range of the carriage 102.

  In particular, in a large-format recording apparatus or the like, the inertia of the movable part is large, and ensuring safety is important.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing control hardware of a recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

  Image data received from an external host PC (Personal Computer) 200 to the system controller 201 of the recording apparatus is transferred to the interface controller 203 of the recording apparatus engine unit almost simultaneously. The CPU 204 controls the interface controller 203 and temporarily stores the image data as bitmap data in the image memory 207 via the print data generation unit 206. The CPU 204 controls the inside of the recording device based on the program. Such an execution program is stored in the ROM 205. The execution program stored in the ROM 205 is, for example, a program that executes the procedure shown in FIG. Further, the ROM 205 is provided with a position error to instruction speed conversion table and the like shown in FIGS. A RAM 206 is also prepared as a working memory for the CPU 204. The RAM 206 is provided with an area for storing various data. The system controller 201 also accepts key input from the operation panel 202 and controls a display device such as an LCD. The carriage motor speed instruction means, the transport motor speed instruction means and the control means in the present invention are constituted by the CPU 204.

  When necessary print data is set in the image memory 207, the CPU 204 first starts driving the carry motor 113 via the servo logic 209 and the motor driver 210 to carry the paper 110 to the print start position. The print start position in the transport direction can be accurately positioned by a rotary encoder 115 coupled to the transport motor 113 and a paper detection sensor (not shown).

  Subsequently, the carriage motor 101 starts to be driven via the servo logic circuit 209 and the motor driver 210 in the same manner. In this embodiment, servo motors are used as both the transport motor 113 and the carriage motor 101. More specifically, a brushless motor incorporating a Hall element 211 for controlling the commutation timing from the armature rotation position to the multi-phase winding is used. The output of the hall element 211 is composed of, for example, a 3 [bit] digital signal and is fed back to the servo logic circuit 209.

  In the present embodiment, the brushless servomotor is used, but the same effect can be obtained by using a brushed DC motor.

  The output of the encoder 212 obtained from the transmitted light of the linear scale 104 by the movement of the carriage 102 is fed back to the servo logic circuit 209.

  In synchronization with the output of the encoder 212, reading of the image memory 207 is started after the carriage 102 reaches the recording start position on the paper 110. The read data is input to the print data generation unit 206, and the recording head driver 208 is driven according to the generated recording data, and ink according to the recording data is ejected from the recording head 103.

  The cover switch 215 is a mechanical switch that detects the opening and closing of a printer cover, which will be described later, and the output of the cover switch 215 can be read out almost in real time via the input / output (I / O) port 214.

  FIG. 3 shows a drive voltage supply path to the motor driver 210 for the carriage motor 101 and the transport motor 113, which is a characteristic part of the present invention. The same elements as those shown in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals. The cover switch 215 shown in FIG. 2 includes a switch 215 a that inputs ground information to the input / output port 214 and a switch 215 b that connects the drive voltage VM to the motor driver 210. In other words, the cover switch 215 constitutes the same mechanism that serves as both a cover detection unit and a drive power supply cutoff unit. Both switches 215a and 215b are interlocked according to opening and closing of a printer cover 701 (described later in FIG. 7). In a normal state, the drive voltage (VM: + 24V, for example) is supplied to the motor driver 210 via the cover switch 215. When the printer cover is opened, the cover switch 215 is opened and the drive voltage is cut off. Such a mechanism is called an interlock mechanism, and is a safety circuit that takes into consideration that the user will never be damaged even if the CPU 204 or the control circuit runs out of control when the printer cover is opened. The switch 215a is prepared for the CPU 204 to read the cover state.

  A relatively large capacitor 301 is inserted in the drive voltage supply section of the motor driver 210. As a result, when the printer cover is opened and closed, failure or malfunction of the motor driver 210 due to chattering of the cover switch is prevented. Due to the presence of the capacitor 301, even if the printer cover is opened and the cover switch 215 is opened, the drive voltage does not instantaneously become zero.

  Next, general speed control when an instruction to move the carriage and paper is given will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The current positions of the carriage 102 and the conveyance motor 113 can always be read from the CPU 204 as values of a carriage position counter and a conveyance position counter (not shown). Although the target positions of the carriage 102 and the transport motor 113 are written in the storage area of the RAM 206, the current position is usually the same as the carriage target position or is stationary at a nearby position. However, since the stop position accuracy of the transport unit is strictly managed, when the transport motor 113 is stopped, it is servo-locked by a minute position control circuit (not shown).

  When the movement instruction is given, the CPU 204 updates the carriage target position in the RAM 206 or the paper conveyance position, and then starts the movement speed control. Hereinafter, since the servo control of these two types of motors is controlled by a similar method, the carriage movement control will be described here as a representative.

  FIG. 4 schematically shows a position error-instruction speed conversion table 401 (data table) for determining the instruction speed V when the position error N with respect to the target position of the current position of the carriage 102 is taken on the horizontal axis. (The same applies to other subsequent conversion tables). This position error to instruction speed conversion table 401 is stored in the ROM 205.

  The command speed 401 is designed so that the acceleration is constant from the region of the maximum command speed 402 of the carriage 102 to the target position (N = 0). If the target position is to the right of the current position, the command speed is given (+), and if the target position is to the left of the current position, the polarity (-) is given.

  FIG. 5 shows a pulse interval to speed conversion table 501 for obtaining the current speed (moving speed) of the carriage 102. This pulse interval to speed conversion table 501 is stored in the ROM 205. Here, the pulse interval is 90 degrees out of phase with each other obtained from the encoder 212 via the linear scale 104 due to the movement of the carriage, and the ratio of High (1) and Low (0) of each pulse is approximately 1: The time from the change point to the change point of the two types of output pulses that become 1 is shown. For example, if the slit interval of the linear scale is designed with 1/300 [inch], four change points are obtained for each 1/300 [inch], so the pulse interval for every 1/1200 [inch] is set. It can be measured.

  For example, in the recording apparatus of the present embodiment, the vicinity of the pulse interval of zero (speed: infinity) is the forbidden area 502, while the speed is considered to be zero when the pulse interval is greater than a certain value. As described above, the pulse interval measurement pulse is generated every 1/1200 inch, so that the pulse interval can be converted to the actual speed by the conversion table 501 in FIG.

  The movement direction of the carriage 102 can be determined from the phase relationship between the two signals output from the encoder 212, and the latest movement direction is obtained for every movement of 1/1200 [inch].

  As the pulse interval to speed conversion table 501, a common conversion table can be used for both the carriage 102 and the transport motor 113. However, since the speed regions normally used by the two are different, independent speed conversion tables may be prepared.

  Next, when the current speed obtained from the pulse interval to speed conversion table 501 is subtracted from the indicated speed, a speed error including polarity is obtained. Therefore, referring to, for example, the speed error to PWM value conversion table 601 in FIG. 6 in the end, the CPU 204 writes in a PWM circuit (not shown) inside the servo logic circuit 209. At this time, a rotation direction instruction signal (not shown) indicating the rotation direction to be driven is also written. The servo logic 209 outputs a PWM waveform that determines the rotation direction of the motor driver 210 and the driving unit ON duty. These feedback controls are performed independently for each of the carriage motor 101 and the conveyance motor 113.

  FIG. 7 is a perspective view illustrating a state in which the printer cover 701 is attached to the recording apparatus according to the present embodiment. The printer cover 701 has a structure that opens from the front of the figure in the upward direction of the arrow with the back side as a fulcrum, and its opening and closing can be mechanically detected by a cover switch 215. When the printer cover 701 is opened, the cover switch 215 is opened, and the drive voltage to the motor driver 210 is cut off as described with reference to FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 7, it is preferable in terms of safety that the carriage motor and the conveyance motor stop immediately when the printer cover 701 is opened. However, since the capacitor 301 is inserted, the motor drive voltage is instantaneously zero. Don't be.

  Processing when the printer cover 701 is opened in the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the CPU 204 detects that the printer cover 701 is opened (S801-Yes), the CPU 204 checks whether or not the carriage 102 is moving. If it is moving (S802-Yes), the instruction speed of the carriage motor 101 is set to zero. To start deceleration immediately (S803).

  Next, it is checked whether or not the transport motor 113 is operating (paper transport). If the transport motor 113 is operating (S804-Yes), the instruction speed of the transport motor 113 is also set to zero (S805), which is the same as the carriage motor. , Decelerate immediately.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, as a measure when the printer cover is opened, the recording apparatus is rather positive as long as the electric charge of the capacitor inserted in the motor driver portion remains. Since the motor is to be decelerated by feedback control using this, a force to decelerate the motor resists inertia force. Therefore, the motor can be stopped in a shorter time. Thereby, a very favorable result can be obtained in terms of safety of the recording apparatus. Although the instruction speed at the time of detecting the opening of the cover is immediately zero, the instruction speed may be decreased in a plurality of stages.

  The present invention can be used for a high-speed and highly productive recording apparatus, and is particularly suitable for use in a large format recording apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a carriage and a paper transport unit of the recording apparatus to which the invention is applied. 1 is an electrical block diagram of a recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. It is a block diagram which shows the relationship between the cover switch to which this invention is applied, and a motor drive system. It is a figure which shows the conversion table which defined the instruction | indication speed to the motor with respect to a position error in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the conversion table which converts a pulse interval into speed in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the conversion table which defined the PWM value to the motor driver with respect to the speed error in embodiment of this invention. FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a state in which a printer cover is attached to the recording apparatus to which the invention is applied. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing operation when the printer cover is opened in the embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Carriage motor 102 Carriage 103 Recording head 104 Linear scale 110 Recording medium 111 Printed area 113 Conveyance motor 115 Rotary encoder 201 System controller 204 CPU
205 ROM
209 Servo logic circuit 210 Motor driver 215 Cover switch 301 Capacitor 701 Printer cover

Claims (5)

A carriage motor speed instruction means for instructing a speed of a carriage motor for driving a carriage on which the recording head is mounted;
A transport motor speed instruction means for instructing a speed of a transport motor for transporting paper in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage;
A cover that protects the carriage and the paper transport section;
Cover detection means for detecting opening and closing of the cover;
Control means for performing control so that at least one of the carriage motor speed instruction means and the conveyance motor speed instruction means reduces the indicated speed when the cover detection means detects that the cover is open;
A recording apparatus comprising:   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a drive power source cutoff unit that shuts off a drive power source of the carriage motor and the transport motor when the cover detection unit detects that the cover is open.   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cover detection unit and the drive power supply cutoff unit have the same mechanism.   2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the cover detection is detected by the cover detection unit, at least one of the carriage motor speed instruction unit and the transport motor speed instruction unit sets the instruction speed to zero. .   A capacitor connected to a drive voltage supply unit of a drive circuit for the carriage motor and the carry motor; after the drive power supply is cut off, the carriage motor and the carry motor operate using the electric charge accumulated in the capacitor as drive power The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording apparatus is a recording apparatus.

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