JP2006264184A - Printer and its control method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance the processing efficiency of double side printing and printing on a plurality of sheets in particular, while achieving miniaturization and simplification of a device. <P>SOLUTION: A first printing section 9 and a second printing section 10, which print on a sheet P, using a printing head 44, fed from a sheet cassette 5 and carried with a sheet carrying device 11 and discharges the sheet, are vertically arranged. A U-shaped sheet receiving/delivering route C, which turns upside down the sheet P retreated from the straight carrying route B of the first printing section 9 and delivers the sheet to the arc-shaped carrying route A of the second printing section 10, is provided between the first printing section 9 and the second printing section 10. A sheet detector 71 detecting the passage of the sheet P is provided to the sheet receiving/delivering route C. A print control unit 73 controlling the first and second printing sections 9, 10 based on the detected results from the sheet detector 71 is provided. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer that records characters or images on paper and a control method thereof.

In general, a printer has a structure in which sheets in a sheet cassette are fed one by one and conveyed to a printing unit, and then a character or an image is recorded on the sheet by a print head and discharged.
As this type of printer, there is known a printer that draws a sheet printed by a printing unit into a switchback path, and then reverses the drawn sheet and sends it to the same printing unit to perform double-sided printing. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent No. 3242025

By the way, the printer having the paper reversing mechanism as described above has a complicated conveyance path having a switchback path for temporarily drawing the printed paper, and thus the size of the apparatus cannot be avoided. .
In addition, after printing the front side in the printing unit, the paper is reversed and sent back to the printing unit to print the back side, so it took a considerable amount of time to print, and improved printing processing efficiency was required. .

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a printer capable of improving the processing efficiency of double-sided printing and multiple-sheet printing, and a control method thereof, while miniaturizing and simplifying the apparatus. The purpose is that.

  The above-described object of the present invention is such that a plurality of printing units for printing and discharging a sheet conveyed by a paper conveying device are arranged in the upper and lower stages, and between these printing units is a conveyance path of one printing unit. This is achieved by a printer characterized in that a U-shaped paper delivery path is provided for reversing the backed paper and delivering it to the transport path of another printing unit on the upper or lower side.

According to the printer having the above-described configuration, the paper printed by one printing unit is retreated and sent to another printing unit on the upper side or the lower side via a U-shaped delivery path so that the paper is turned upside down. Therefore, it is possible to invert the paper and print it on both front and back sides very easily without providing a switchback path for temporarily drawing the printed paper.
As a result, the apparatus can be reduced in size and simplified, the paper transport path can be shortened, and the print processing efficiency can be improved by parallel printing.

In the printer configured as described above, it is preferable that a paper detector for detecting passage of paper is provided in the paper delivery path.
According to this configuration, based on the detection result of the paper detector, a new paper can be fed after the paper printed on the front surface is sent out to the paper delivery path. Defects can be eliminated, and smoothing of double-sided printing can be achieved.

In the printer configured as described above, it is preferable that each of the printing units includes a paper cassette in which paper to be supplied to the transport path is stored.
According to this configuration, paper can be supplied from the paper cassette of each printing unit, and printing can be performed on the paper in parallel in each printing unit, so that the printing processing speed can be greatly improved. Further, even if a printing failure occurs due to out of paper, ink out, or paper jam in any of the printing units, the printing process can be continued by another printing unit.

In the printer having the above-described configuration, it is preferable that the printing unit includes an ink jet type print head that ejects and adheres ink toward the paper from above.
According to this configuration, it is possible to perform printing by ejecting different inks at each print head. Accordingly, it is possible to print with different inks on the front and back sides, for example, printing with pigment ink on the front surface and printing with dye ink on the back surface.

Another object of the present invention is a control method for a printer having a plurality of printing units that print and discharge paper conveyed by a paper conveying device, and the print command is a double-sided print command. , Printing on the front side of the paper by one printing unit, then performing a double-sided printing process in which the paper is reversed and printed on the back side by another printing unit, and the printing command is a plurality of printing commands, a plurality of printing This is achieved by a printer control method characterized in that a plurality of sheets are printed in parallel on one side of a sheet.
According to this printer control method, double-sided printing or parallel printing on one side is performed by a plurality of printing units, so that the efficiency of each printing process can be greatly improved.

In the above-described printer control method, in the multiple sheet printing process, a plurality of printing processes in which the same printing is performed in parallel in a plurality of printing sections or a plurality of pages is divided in a plurality of printing sections. It is preferable to perform any one of the multi-page printing processes to be performed.
According to this printer control method, printing of a plurality of copies or printing of a plurality of pages is processed by a plurality of printing sections, so that the efficiency of the printing process can be greatly increased.

According to the printer described above, it is very easy to invert the paper and print on both front and back sides, downsizing and simplifying the device, shortening the paper transport path, and improving the printing processing efficiency by parallel processing of printing. Can be achieved.
In addition, according to the above-described printer control method, it is possible to greatly increase the processing efficiency of various types of printing such as double-sided printing and single-sided printing of a plurality of sheets.

Embodiments of a printer and a control method thereof according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an embodiment of a printer according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the internal structure of the printer shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is incorporated in the printer shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a paper transport path and a print processing unit, and FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the periphery of the print processing unit shown in FIG.

The printer 1 according to the present embodiment is a front-feed / discharge-type business-use inkjet printer. As shown in FIG. 1, the center of the front surface of an apparatus case 4 composed of an upper case 2 and a lower case 3 is used. In addition, a substantially box-shaped paper cassette 5 loaded with a paper to be conveyed is detachably inserted in two upper and lower stages.
In addition, paper discharge trays 6 for receiving paper for which printing has been completed are provided in two upper and lower stages so as to cover the open top surface of each paper cassette 5. Further, on both sides of the front surface of the device case 4, a display unit 7 and an operation unit 8 for displaying an operation state are provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, a first printing unit 9 and a second printing unit 10 are provided in the device case 4, and the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 are arranged in two upper and lower stages. ing.
As shown in FIG. 3, the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 are configured to convey a paper that forms an arcuate conveyance path A and a linear conveyance path B that connects the arcuate conveyance path A to the paper discharge tray 6. The apparatus 11 is provided, and after the paper P fed out from the paper cassette 5 is processed by the paper cassette 5, the arc-shaped transport path A, the linear transport path B, and the paper discharge tray 6, the paper is fed to the front paper discharge tray 6. A returning U-shaped conveyance path is formed.

The paper transport device 11 includes an ASF (auto sheet feeder) unit and a PF (paper feeder) unit.
The ASF unit feeds the paper P stored in the paper cassette 5 one by one to the rear of the apparatus, and a circle for feeding the paper P fed by the paper feeding mechanism 22 along the arcuate conveyance path A. It is comprised from the intermediate | middle roller 31 and the guide part 34 etc. which form an arc-shaped conveyance part.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the PF unit sandwiches the sheet P conveyed from the arcuate conveyance unit and sends it onto the platen surface 51 of the print processing unit 43, and the first conveyance unit 40. A cockling imparting mechanism 53 for applying a wavy shape to the paper P sent onto the platen surface 51, and a plurality of papers P that have passed through the print processing unit 43 and sandwiched between the paper discharge trays 6 downstream thereof The second conveying means 55 having a roller 54 and a guiding member 57 continuously formed at the upstream end of the second conveying means 55 are configured.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the sheet feeding mechanism 22 of the ASF unit is configured such that the rear end of a frame 25 having a pickup roller 21 for feeding at the front end can be rotated in the vertical direction in the figure by a support pin 24. Yes. The sheet feeding mechanism 22 can bring the pickup roller 21 into contact with the uppermost sheet P in the sheet cassette 5 by swinging the frame 25 in the vertical direction. In the paper feeding mechanism 22, when the printer 1 is at rest, the frame 25 is kept horizontal as indicated by a solid line in FIG. 2, and the pickup roller 21 is kept away from the paper P on the paper cassette 5.

  At the time of paper feeding, the pickup roller 21 is pressed against the paper P on the paper cassette 5 as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. As the roller 21 rotates, the paper P on the paper cassette 5 abuts against the inclined friction pad 23 and is separated by the frictional force and the strength of the paper P between the intermediate roller 31 and the guide portion 34 one by one. It is drawn out. When the paper supply is completed and printing is started by the print processing unit 43, the frame 25 is returned to the original horizontal state as shown by the solid line in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the arcuate conveyance path A includes a guide portion 34 that is provided outside the arcuate conveyance path A (on the back side of the printer 1) and has a guide surface that is curved in a substantially arcuate shape, and the arcuate conveyance path. An intermediate roller 31 that is provided on the inner side of A (the front side of the printer 1) and feeds the paper P from the lower side to the upper side of the guide portion 34 is provided. The guide portion 34 is provided with a retard roller 32 provided on the lower side and an assist roller 33 provided on the upper side.

  The paper P sent out by the pickup roller 21 is nipped and conveyed by the intermediate roller 31 and the retard roller 32, and further nipped and conveyed by the intermediate roller 31 and the assist roller 33. As a result, the paper P is transported along an arc-shaped transport path A formed as a gap between the intermediate roller 31 and the guide section 34, and its leading end is directed to the front side of the printer to form a U-shaped transport path. To the linear conveying path B.

  Further, an auxiliary guide member 35 is provided above the intermediate roller 31. The auxiliary guide member 35 is rotatably supported at the rear end side with respect to the guide portion 34, and the front end side is swung. The auxiliary guide member 35 presses the sheet P conveyed from the arcuate conveyance path A to the linear conveyance path B by its own weight from the upper side, and forwards the sheet P along the linear conveyance path B to the front of the printer 1. Guide to the side.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the first conveying means 40 of the PF unit is composed of a pair of paper feed rollers 41, 42a and a paper feed auxiliary roller 42b. The pair of paper feed rollers 41 and 42a is provided at a position a predetermined distance away from the exit end of the arcuate conveyance path A (downstream end part of the guide portion 34) on the front side of the apparatus, and is substantially omitted from the arcuate conveyance path A. The sheet P that has been sent out to the linear path (linear conveyance path B) is nipped and conveyed under the print processing unit 43 that is the printing position. The paper P can be positioned with respect to the print processing unit 43 by controlling the rotational drive amount.

  In the first transport unit 40, the paper feed roller 41 is a drive roller that is rotationally driven by a print control unit 73 described later. Further, the paper feed roller 42a and the paper feed auxiliary roller 42b are driven rollers that are rotatably supported, and the paper feed auxiliary roller 42b located on the downstream side is arranged to press the paper P to be fed toward the platen surface 51. Yes.

  The print processing unit 43 includes a carriage 45 on which a print head 44 is mounted. The carriage 45 is supported so as to be movable in the width direction with respect to the fed paper P. As shown in FIG. 3, the print head 44 has discharge nozzles 46, and prints by discharging ink droplets from the discharge nozzles 46 toward the paper P disposed below by the piezoelectric effect of piezoelectric elements. This is an ink jet type print head.

  A PW sensor 47 is provided on the front side of the printer 1 with respect to the discharge nozzle 46 of the print head 44 to detect the paper P and to detect its width. The PW sensor 47 detects the presence or absence of the paper P by detecting the reflected light of the light emitted toward the paper P, and detects the width of the paper P by the movement of the carriage 45.

  The printer 1 including the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 having the above-described structure includes a printing control unit 73 at the bottom thereof, and the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit are respectively provided by the printing control unit 73. The printing operation is performed under the control of the unit 10.

  When the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 start the printing operation, the pickup roller 21 of the paper feeding mechanism 22 of the paper transport device 11 is pressed against the paper P on the paper cassette 5 and the pickup roller 21 rotates. As a result, the paper P on the paper cassette 5 contacts the inclined friction pad 23 and is conveyed along the arcuate conveyance path A one by one while being separated by the frictional force and the strength of the paper P. Thereafter, the paper P transported along the linear transport path B from the arc-shaped transport path A is nipped by the paper feed rollers 41 and 42a of the first transport means 40 and transported to the printing position. Printing is performed and the sheet is conveyed to the discharge tray 6 side.

Further, the printer 1 having the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 having the above-described structure has a sheet delivery path C connected to the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 as shown in FIG. ing. The sheet delivery path C is connected to the rear end side of the linear transport path B of the first printing unit 9 and is connected in the middle of the arc-shaped transport path A of the second printing unit 10.
The paper delivery path C includes a paper detector 71 in the middle thereof, and the paper detector 71 detects the paper P passing through the paper delivery path C.
In the first printing unit 9, the auxiliary guide member 35 functions as a paper path switching plate.

  In the printer 1, as described above, the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 are connected to one printing control unit 73 and controlled by the printing control unit 73, respectively. A sheet detector 71 is connected to 73, and a detection result from the sheet detector 71 is transmitted to the print control unit 73.

Next, operation control of the printer 1 by the print control unit 73 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.
When a print command is given to the printer 1 and print data is input (step S01), the print control unit 73 determines whether the print data is only one sheet (step S02).

(Single-sided printing process)
If the print control unit 73 determines that the print data is only one sheet of data, the print control unit 73 outputs a control signal to the first printing unit 9, and performs the single-sided single-sheet printing process by the first printing unit 9 (step S03). .
Thus, in the first printing unit 9, one sheet P on the sheet cassette 5 is conveyed from the arcuate conveyance path A to the printing position along the linear conveyance path B, and printing is performed by the print processing unit 43. Then, it is conveyed to the paper discharge tray 6 side.

(Double-sided printing process)
If the print control unit 73 determines that the commanded print data is not data for only one sheet (step S02), the print control unit 73 determines whether the print data is data for duplex printing (step S04).
If the print control unit 73 determines that the print data is data for double-sided printing, the print control unit 73 performs double-sided printing processing by the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10.
In the duplex printing process, first, as shown in FIG. 6, the paper P on the paper cassette 5 is transported to the printing position by the first printing unit 9, and printing on the front side of the paper P is performed by the printing processing unit 43. (Step S05).

Next, the paper transport device 11 of the first printing unit 9 is reversed, and the paper P on which the surface has been printed is back-fed. The back-fed paper P is guided from the linear transport path B to the paper delivery path C by the auxiliary guide member 35 disposed below by its own weight functioning as a paper path switching plate.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 7, the sheet P passes through the sheet delivery path C and is fed into the arc-shaped transport path A of the second printing unit 10 so that the front and back are reversed. Are conveyed to the printing position of the second printing unit 10 and printed on the back side of the paper P by the print processing unit 43 (step S06).

The print control unit 73 determines whether or not there is print data for the next page (step S07). If there is print data for the next page, the print control unit 73 prints on the front and back surfaces of the paper P of the next page to print the next page. The first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 perform printing in order (steps S05 and S06).
Here, as shown in FIG. 8, the print control unit 73 performs printing on the front surface based on the detection result from the paper detector 71 provided in the paper delivery path C and sends it to the second printing unit 10. After confirming that the paper P has been fed into the paper delivery path C, the first printing unit 9 starts printing the surface of the paper P on the next page.

(Single-sided, multiple-part printing)
The print control unit 73 determines that the commanded print data is not only one sheet of data (step S02), and further determines that the print data is single-sided print data (step S04), the print data is It is determined whether the data is a plurality of copies (step S08).
Here, if the print control unit 73 determines that the print data is data of a plurality of copies, the print control unit 73 performs a single-sided multiple-part printing process by the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10.

In the single-sided multiple-part printing process, as shown in FIG. 9, the driving of the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 is controlled by the printing control unit 73, and the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit are controlled. 10, the same printing is simultaneously performed on the paper P, and the paper P with the same printing on one side is discharged to the paper discharge tray 6 of each of the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 ( Step S09).
In this single-sided multiple-part printing process, when one of the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 becomes in a print-incapable state due to out of paper in the paper cassette 5, out of ink, or paper jam, the print control The unit 73 adds the remaining number of copies of the number of copies allocated to the unprintable state to the other printing unit to perform printing.

(Single-sided multi-page printing process)
The print control unit 73 determines that the commanded print data is not data for only one sheet (step S02), determines that the print data is single-sided print data (step S04), and further includes a plurality of print data. If it is determined that the print data is not part of the data (step S08), it is determined whether the print data is data for a plurality of pages (step S10).
When the print control unit 73 determines that the print data is data of a plurality of pages, the print control unit 73 performs a single-sided multi-page printing process by the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10.

In the single-sided multiple page printing process, as shown in FIG. 9, the drive of the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 is controlled by the printing control unit 73, and odd page printing in the first printing unit 9 is performed. The even-numbered pages are simultaneously printed in the second printing unit 10.
In this single-sided multi-page printing process, the print control unit 73 divides the print data of a plurality of pages into the first half and the second half, the first half printing is performed by the first printing unit 9, and the second half printing is performed by the second printing. It can also be performed simultaneously by the unit 10.

  As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, the paper P printed by the first printing unit 9 is retracted and sent to the second printing unit 10 via the U-shaped delivery path C. Therefore, without providing a switchback path for drawing the printed paper P once, the paper P can be reversed and printed on both sides.

As a result, the apparatus can be reduced in size and simplified, and the printing process efficiency can be improved by shortening the transport path of the paper P.
In addition, since the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 perform double-sided printing or parallel printing on one side, various printing processing efficiencies can be improved, and multiple copies or multiple pages can be printed. Since the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 can perform processing, the efficiency of these printing processes can be greatly improved.

Further, the print control unit 73 feeds a new sheet P after the sheet P printed on the front surface is sent to the sheet delivery path C based on the detection result of the sheet detector 71. It is possible to eliminate a conveyance failure due to interference and to facilitate the duplex printing.
Further, since each of the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 includes the paper cassette 5, the paper P is supplied from the paper cassette 5 of the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10, and the paper P is supplied to the paper P. Printing can be performed in parallel by the first and second printing units 9 and 10, and the printing processing speed can be greatly improved. Even if printing failure occurs due to out of paper, out of ink, or paper jam in one of the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10, the printing process can be continued by another printing unit.

Further, according to the printer 1, it is possible to perform printing by ejecting different inks with the ink jet type print heads 44 of the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10. Accordingly, it is possible to print with different inks on the front and back sides, for example, printing with pigment ink on the front surface and printing with dye ink on the back surface.
In the above embodiment, the first printing unit 9 and the second printing unit 10 are arranged up and down. However, the number of printing units is not limited to two, and may be three or more.
In addition, a paper path for guiding the paper P of the paper cassette 5 of the first printing unit 9 to the second printing unit 10 may be provided separately, and the paper cassette 5 of the second printing unit 10 may be omitted. Further downsizing of the apparatus can be achieved.

1 is an external perspective view of an embodiment of a printer according to the present invention. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the internal structure of the printer shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view illustrating a schematic configuration of a paper conveyance path and a print processing unit incorporated in the printer illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is an enlarged view around the print processing unit shown in FIG. 3. 5 is a flowchart for explaining printing operation control by a printing control unit of a printer. It is a schematic block diagram of the printer explaining the printing operation of the printer. It is a schematic block diagram of the printer explaining the printing operation of the printer. It is a schematic block diagram of the printer explaining the printing operation of the printer. It is a schematic block diagram of the printer explaining the printing operation of the printer.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer 5 Paper cassette 9 1st printing part (printing part)
10 Second printing section (printing section)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Paper conveying apparatus 44 Print head 71 Paper detector 73 Print control part A Circular conveyance path (conveyance path)
B Linear transport path (transport path)
C Paper delivery path P Paper

Claims (6)

  The printing unit that prints and discharges the paper that is transported by the paper transporting device is arranged in multiple stages in the top and bottom, and the paper that is retracted from the transport path of one printing unit is reversed between these printing units. A printer having a U-shaped paper delivery path that is delivered to a transport path of another printing unit on the upper or lower side.   The printer according to claim 1, wherein a paper detector that detects passage of paper is provided in the paper delivery path.   The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit includes a paper cassette that stores paper to be supplied to the conveyance path.   4. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit includes an ink jet type print head that discharges and adheres ink toward the paper from above. 5. A method for controlling a printer having a plurality of printing units that print and discharge paper conveyed by a paper conveying device,
When the print command is a double-sided print command, after performing printing on the front side of the paper with one printing unit, the paper is reversed and printed on the back side with the other printing unit. A printer control method comprising: performing a plurality of printing processes for performing printing on one side of a sheet in parallel with a plurality of printing units when the print command is a print command.   In the multi-sheet printing process, either a multi-part printing process in which a plurality of printing units perform the same printing in parallel or a multi-page printing process in which a plurality of printing units are divided to print a plurality of pages The printer control method according to claim 5.

Images