JP2010012663A - Printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To minimize an overhead, that is, movement of a printing head even when it is desired to perform processing that the printing head must be necessarily moved to a specified position such as roll paper cutting operation or head restoring operation. <P>SOLUTION: The roll paper cutting operation or the head restoring operation, which is to be performed in a job, is previously understood, and a scanning direction is decided intentionally so that a total moving distance may be the shortest not from a viewpoint that it is the shortest distance for next scanning. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus such as an ink jet printer, and more particularly to a printing apparatus and a control method therefor that have a restriction that a print head must be moved in a certain direction during a printing sequence.

  Conventionally, in order to perform printing at high speed, the printer moves the shortest distance from the current point to the point at which printing starts to move the print head to move the range that requires printing (logical seeking). ).

  In general, a printing apparatus includes an operation that cannot be performed unless the print head is moved to one side of the apparatus.

  For example, a head recovery unit that performs a print head maintenance operation is often arranged only on the standby position side of the print head. Therefore, if the print head needs to be maintained during printing, the print head must be moved to the recovery unit position regardless of the position of the print head at that time.

  Further, when printing on roll paper, an operation of cutting the roll paper may be performed when one print job is completed. In many cases, a cutter mechanism that cuts roll paper has a limited moving direction of the cutter. Therefore, when cutting the roll paper, the print head must be moved to the initial position at the time of cutting the roll paper, regardless of where the print head is located at that time.

  These forced movements of the print head to a specific position that occur during the print sequence affect the logical seeking operation.

In order to avoid such inconvenience, a method has been proposed in which operations such as print head maintenance that occur during a printing sequence are planned and arranged at a timing that has little influence on logical seeking. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1.)
JP 2004-174823 A (page 6, FIG. 3)

  The conventional method described above cannot be effective for disturbances to the logical seeking of the print head that cannot move the timing in the printing sequence, such as a roll paper cutting operation.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and the object of the present invention is to cope with an operation that occurs during a printing sequence and forcibly moves the position of the print head to a specific position. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus that can finish printing in a shorter time by moving the print head and determining the printing direction so as to minimize the influence on the total printing time.

In order to achieve the above object, the image recording apparatus of the present invention comprises:
A print head which is a printing means for forming an image;
Print head driving means for driving the print head to the left and right;
In a printing apparatus having a paper conveying means as a main element,
The print head drive means systematically determines the print direction so that the print head movement distance is the minimum print head movement distance in a print job.

  As described above, according to the present invention, there is an influence on the total printing time even for an operation that occurs during a printing sequence and the position of the print head must be forcibly moved to a specific position. It is possible to provide a printing apparatus that can finish printing in a shorter time by moving the print head and determining the print direction so as to minimize the print head.

  Next, details of the present invention will be described in accordance with the description of the embodiments.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an ink jet printer embodying the present invention.

  The printer is connected to a host PC, and print data generated by the printer driver 101 on the host PC is received by a print job receiving unit 102 of the printer.

  The received print job is held in the print job holding unit 103 and then read out by the print sequence determining unit 104.

  The print sequence determination unit 104 reads a print job from the print job holding unit 103 and determines a head moving procedure, that is, a print sequence when printing the print job on the print medium.

  In accordance with the print sequence determined by the print sequence determining means 104, the print job is transferred to the apparatus control means 105.

  The apparatus control means 105 prints the print job received from the print sequence determination means 104 on the print medium 107 by appropriately controlling the print head drive means 108 and the paper transport means 109.

  FIG. 2 is a structural view of the printing mechanism portion of the printer embodying the present invention as seen from above.

  Roll paper 201 is set in the printer.

  The roll paper 201 is sandwiched between paper transport rollers 203 driven by a paper transport device 202, and the roll paper 201 is transported when the paper transport device 202 rotates the paper transport rollers 203.

  A print head 204 is disposed on the roll paper 201 through a print head guide 205.

  The print head 204 is moved on the paper along the print head guide 206 by the print head drive mechanism 206.

  A cutter 207 is disposed on the roll paper 201 and is driven by a cutter driving mechanism 208. By driving the cutter 207, the roll paper 201 on the paper transport path is cut.

  The cutter 207 is normally disposed at the cutter standby position 209. When the paper is cut, the cutter driving mechanism 208 traverses the paper, cuts the paper, and is returned to the cutter standby position 209 after cutting.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the positional relationship and coordinates of the print area 306, the print head 302, and the like when the print image 305 is printed on the roll paper 301 to be printed by the printer embodying the present invention.

  301 is a roll paper to be printed, 302 is a print head, 303 is a print head standby position, 304 is a cutter standby position, 305 is a print image, 306 is a print area, 307 is a cutter, and 308 is a scan interval.

  A print head standby position 303 is on the left of the roll paper 301 to be printed, and the print head 302 is on standby at this print head standby position 303 in the print standby state. This position is the coordinate origin.

  There is a cutter standby position 304 on the right side of the roll paper 301 to be printed, and the cutter 307 is stored in the cutter standby position 307 in the cutting operation standby state. This position is 120mm from the coordinate origin.

  First, the basic printing operation of this printer will be described.

  The print head 302 of this printer can print the width of the scan interval 308 at a time.

  A range to be printed in the scan is referred to as a print area 306. A print area 306 indicates a portion of the print image 305 included in the scan.

  The print head prints an image having a height of the scan interval 308 by one scan, that is, by traversing the print area 306 on the roll paper to be printed once while printing.

  A single scan consists of three phases: (1) head movement to the end of the print area, (2) printing, and (3) paper feed.

  In phase (1), the print area moves from the current position to either the right or left edge of the print area. In the general shortest distance printing method, the print area moves closer to the end of the print area.

  The present printer is characterized in that the determination as to which end of the printing area the movement of (1) is moved is planned in advance over all scans of the job.

  1: Before the start of printing of the job, the total number of scans is grasped from the print image 305 and the scan interval 308.

  2: From the relationship between the total number of scans and the print image 305, the print area 306 in each scan is grasped.

  Part 3: The total movement distance when moving to the print area end in each scan at the right end and left end, including the head movement to the cutter position standby position 304 for paper cutting operation To calculate for all patterns. At this time, if the positional relationship from the current position is the same in both the right end and the left end, it is unconditionally moved to the near end, and the number of patterns is reduced.

  No. 4: A pattern having the shortest total movement distance is selected from all patterns, and the printing of the job and the movement of the print head are performed according to the pattern.

  As described above, the print head moving time can be minimized by determining and printing the print sequence that minimizes the head moving amount in advance.

  FIG. 4 clearly shows the amount of movement of the print area 406 to the right and left ends in the next scan, focusing on the movement of the head in FIG.

  As in FIG. 3, 401 is a roll paper to be printed, 402 is a print head, 403 is a print head standby position, 404 is a cutter standby position, 405 is a print area, 406 is a cutter, and 407 is a scan interval.

  The print head 402 moves from the position where printing of the printing area 405 in each scan is completed to either the right end or the left end of the printing area 405 of the next scan, and performs the next printing. FIG. 4 shows the amount of movement to the next scan.

  FIG. 5 shows the total amount of single movement calculated for all patterns when printing of each scan is performed in the right and left directions when printing the image described in FIGS. 3 and 4. It is a table.

  Based on this table, the combination of the printing directions with the smallest amount of single movement is adopted for actual printing.

  By doing so, it is possible to perform printing with a print sequence with the least amount of single movement that consumes unnecessary movement and time.

1 is a block diagram of an ink jet printer embodying the present invention. It is the structure figure which looked at the printing mechanism part of the ink-jet printer which implemented this invention from the upper surface. It is the figure shown regarding various positional relationship and a coordinate at the time of printing an image with the inkjet printer which implemented this invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram clearly showing a difference between scan completed print area edges when an image is printed by an ink jet printer embodying the present invention. 5 is a table in which the total amount of single movement is calculated in order to determine the print direction of each scan when the image described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 is printed by the inkjet printer embodying the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

101 Printer driver
102 Print job receiving means
103 Print job holding means
104 Print sequence determination means
105 Device control means
106 Print head
107 Printing media
108 Print head drive means
109 Paper transport means
201 roll paper
202 Paper transport device
203 Paper transport roller
204 Print head
205 Print head guide
206 Print head drive mechanism
207 cutter
208 Cutter drive mechanism
209 Cutter standby position
301 Roll paper to be printed
302 Print head
303 Print head standby position
304 Cutter standby position
305 Print image
306 Print area
307 cutter
308 scan interval
401 Roll paper to be printed
402 Print head
403 Print head standby position
404 Cutter standby position
405 Print area
406 cutter
407 scan interval

Claims (1)

A print head which is a printing means for forming an image;
Print head driving means for driving the print head to the left and right;
In a printing apparatus having a paper conveying means as a main element,
The print head driving means includes a determining means for systematically determining a print direction so that a movement distance of the print head is a minimum movement distance of the total print head in a print job. Printing device.

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