JP2009113209A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a risk of paper jamming caused by a user's holding a printing medium temporarily discharged at the time of double-faced printing owing to wrong recognition, in a printer which includes an automatic double-faced printing mechanism having no reversal passage. <P>SOLUTION: At the time of double-faced printing, printing data of a front surface is divided into two printing data, and one of the divided printing data is printed and the printing medium is temporarily discharged when the printing medium is conveyed in the forward direction. The divided remaining printing data is then printed to carry out back face printing when the printing medium is conveyed in the opposite direction. Hence, it is well recognized by the user that the printing is not completed, and the risk of paper jamming due to the user's wrong holding of the printing medium is reduced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing medium printing method in a printing apparatus having an automatic duplex printing mechanism.

  In recent years, printing apparatuses having a mechanism for performing double-sided printing on paper have become widespread. As a paper feeding method for the back side printing after the front side printing at the time of double-sided printing, there is a method of manually placing the paper after the front side printing is finished again in the paper feeding tray. In such a printing apparatus, an example of refeeding is displayed on the display. However, since the setting of the sheet is manual, there is a possibility that an upside down printed matter may be generated due to the incorrect setting of the sheet by the user. In addition, the user is obsessed with the printing apparatus because of refeeding, and there is a problem in that it is not convenient.

In order to solve such a problem, a printing apparatus having a mechanism for automatically performing refeeding has been devised. As described in Patent Document 1, there is a method in which a sheet is transported to a reversing path in a printing apparatus and re-feeded after the surface printing is completed. However, such a printing apparatus has a reversing passage inside, so that the apparatus mechanism becomes complicated and large, and the price increases. Therefore, at present, a printing apparatus is widely used that does not use a reversing path but transports a sheet in the direction opposite to the discharge direction by the reverse rotation of the LF roller, and has a mechanism for performing reverse side printing via a duplex conveying roller.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-91685

  However, in a printing apparatus that does not have such a reversing path, it is necessary to temporarily discharge the paper on the mechanism during double-sided printing. Since the paper discharged at this time has been printed on the entire front side, there is a problem in that the user accidentally grasps the paper and the paper is jammed.

  The present invention has been devised to solve the above-described problem, and an object of the present invention is to solve the problem that a user accidentally grasps a temporarily ejected sheet when double-sided printing is performed by a printing apparatus that does not have a reversing path, and a paper jam occurs. And

  The printing apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention includes a double-sided printing mechanism capable of transporting a print medium in both forward and reverse directions, and is capable of printing at least in both forward and reverse directions. In addition, it includes a print data transmission unit that transmits print data to the recording head in accordance with the transport direction, and includes that it is possible to complete printing on the surface by printing from both the forward and reverse directions during duplex printing.

  For example, when performing double-sided printing with the printing apparatus described above, the printing state on the front side is set to an unfinished printing state when paper is temporarily ejected, so that the user is in the middle of printing and prevents paper jams. can do.

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

  First, a printing apparatus used in this embodiment will be described.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a recording head on which an ink tank is mounted, and reference numeral 102 denotes a carriage on which the recording head 101 is mounted. A guide shaft 103 is inserted into the bearing portion of the carriage 102 so as to be operable in the main scanning direction, and both ends of the shaft are fixed to the chassis 114. The drive of the drive motor 105 which is a carriage drive means is transmitted via the belt 104 which is a carriage drive transmission means engaged with the carriage 102, and the carriage 102 can move in the main scanning direction. An encoder sensor 120 is attached to the carriage 102, and speed and position information is obtained by reading the linear encoder film 121.

  The double-sided printing mechanism in the printing apparatus in FIG. 1 will be described in detail.

  In the duplex unit 131, a duplex transport roller 132 and a duplex transport roller 133 are provided. When performing double-sided printing, first, printing on the front surface in the forward direction is performed, and printing is performed on the temporarily ejected print medium 115 by transporting in the reverse direction. Thereafter, the printing medium 115 on the platen 112 is conveyed into the duplex unit 131 by reversing the conveying roller 107. Thereafter, the printing medium 115 is rotated by rotating the double-sided conveyance roller 132 and the double-sided conveyance roller 133 to convey the printing medium 115 in a loop shape so that the front and back sides are reversed, and the printing medium 115 reaches the platen 112 again to print the back side.

  The print data dividing means divides the front surface print data into print data for forward conveyance and reverse conveyance. As a division method, it suffices that the user looks at the printing state and sees that the printing is incomplete. Here, as an example, the printing data is divided by 50% printing density. Further, when the print data is image data, the user can further print by dividing the print data corresponding to the characters “printing image” on the surface print data as shown in FIG. 2 as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. You can appeal that printing is in progress. As a result, the possibility that the user erroneously recognizes that printing has ended and grabs the print medium can be further reduced, leading to prevention of paper jams.

  At this time, the print data transmission means transmits the print data of FIG. 3 to the recording head line by line from the first line when transporting in the forward direction, and converts the print data of FIG. Then, the data is transmitted to the recording head, printing is performed, and surface printing is realized. At this time, it is assumed that the storage area in the printing apparatus holds twice the print data.

  5, FIG. 6, FIG. 7, FIG. 8, FIG. 9, and FIG. 10 illustrate in more detail the operation of the printing apparatus capable of duplex printing.

  In FIG. 5, 201 is an unprinted print medium 115, 203 is a printed print medium 115, 202 is a print medium 115, 204 that is a current print target, paper feed rollers not shown in FIG. FIG. 2 shows a paper discharge side pinch roller not shown in FIG. 1.

  FIG. 5 shows the print medium 202 to be printed fed from the paper feed base 106 by the paper feed roller 204.

  FIG. 6 shows a state in which the print medium 202 fed in FIG. 5 is conveyed by the conveyance roller 110 and the paper discharge roller 113 while being printed by the carriage 102.

  FIG. 7 shows a state in which the print medium 202 on which the printing on the surface is finished in FIG.

  In FIG. 8, the printing medium 202 on which the surface printing is completed in FIGS. 6 and 7 is drawn into the duplex unit 131 by the reverse rotation of the conveyance roller 110, and the duplex conveyance roller 132 and the duplex conveyance roller 133 are rotated to form a loop shape. The state of being conveyed is shown.

  FIG. 9 shows that the printing medium 202 drawn into the duplex unit 131 in FIG. 8 is put on the platen 112 again by rotating the duplex transport roller 132 and duplex transport roller 133 and further rotating the transport roller 110 forward. The state which is going to reach is shown.

  FIG. 10 shows a case where the print medium 202 fed in FIG. 9 is conveyed by the conveyance roller 110 and the discharge roller 113 while the print medium 202 is printed by the carriage 102, and discharged by the discharge roller 113 at the same time as the printing is completed. It shows the state of trying to paper.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the operations described in FIGS. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

  When double-sided printing is started in 701, the process proceeds to 702, and a print medium is fed from the paper feed base. This process corresponds to the state of FIG.

  In 703, printing processing in the forward direction on the surface of the print medium is performed. This corresponds to the state of FIG.

  In 704, the print medium is drawn by the reverse rotation of the transport roller, and in 705, the printing process is performed in the reverse direction of the surface of the print medium. This corresponds to the state of FIG.

  In 706, the print medium is drawn into the automatic duplex unit. This corresponds to the state of FIG.

  In 707, the print medium is reversed in the automatic surface unit. In 708, the print medium is fed from the automatic duplex unit. This corresponds to the state of FIG.

  In step S709, the back side of the print medium is printed, and in step S710, the paper is discharged. This corresponds to the state of FIG.

  In 711, the above processing is completed, and the double-sided printing ends.

  In addition, a mechanism for transporting the print medium from the reverse direction is added, and the print data transmission unit sends the print medium 115 conveyed in the reverse direction to the recording head one line at a time in reverse order from the last line of the print data. Print. After the front side printing, the printing medium is drawn into the automatic duplex unit as shown in FIG. In this way, it is possible to perform double-sided printing. As a result, the transport distance of the print medium is shortened, leading to an improvement in throughput.

It is an example of a printing apparatus that can perform printing during forward conveyance and reverse conveyance and can perform duplex printing. This is print data on the front side during duplex printing. This is print data to be printed when transporting in the forward direction during duplex printing. This is print data to be printed during reverse conveyance during duplex printing. The operation of a printing apparatus capable of printing and capable of duplex printing during forward conveyance and reverse conveyance is illustrated in more detail. The operation of a printing apparatus capable of printing and capable of duplex printing during forward conveyance and reverse conveyance is illustrated in more detail. The operation of a printing apparatus capable of printing and capable of duplex printing during forward conveyance and reverse conveyance is illustrated in more detail. The operation of a printing apparatus capable of printing and capable of duplex printing during forward conveyance and reverse conveyance is illustrated in more detail. The operation of a printing apparatus capable of printing and capable of duplex printing during forward conveyance and reverse conveyance is illustrated in more detail. The operation of a printing apparatus capable of printing and capable of duplex printing during forward conveyance and reverse conveyance is illustrated in more detail. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of a printing apparatus that can perform printing during forward conveyance and reverse conveyance and that includes a bidirectional printing mechanism.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Recording head which has an ink tank 102 Carriage which mounts the recording head 101 Guide shaft 104 Belt 105 Drive motor 106 Paper supply base 107 Print medium conveyance motor 108 Motor gear 109 Conveyance roller gear 110 Conveyance roller 111 Pinch roller 112 Platen 113 Discharge roller DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 114 Chassis 115 Print medium 116 Rotary encoder film 117 Encoder sensor 120 Encoder sensor 121 Linear encoder film 122 On-carriage sensor 131 Double-sided unit 132 Double-sided conveyance roller 133 Double-sided conveyance roller

Claims (1)

In a printing apparatus capable of transporting a print medium in both forward and reverse directions, equipped with an automatic double-sided printing mechanism, and capable of printing at least during forward and reverse bidirectional transport
In addition to having print data dividing means that divides print data into forward and reverse print data, it also has at least print data transmission means that sends print data to the recording head in accordance with the transport direction. A printing apparatus capable of completing surface printing by printing from

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