JP2014106817A - Printer having correction print head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the printer of a POS terminal capable of automatically recognizing a printing defect and performing correction printing (correction printing of characters) to a receipt with the printing defect even when the printing defect has occurred in the printer of the POS terminal.SOLUTION: The printer having a correction printing unit for POS terminals comprises: printing means having a printing unit for printing numbers and letters; reading means having a reading unit for recognizing and reading the printed letters, etc.; and correction printing means for performing correction printing when the printed letters, etc., are read, and defects (blurs and dot omissions) are observed in print quality. The printer recognizes the printing result with the reading means, collates the recognized print data with print data sent to a print head to detect dot omissions and performs the correction printing in the places of the detected dot omissions by the correction printing means.

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer apparatus with a correction print head used for a POS terminal.

  At present, when a receipt is printed by a printer used in the POS system, most of the print heads are one. A one-head printer does not detect head contamination, nor does it detect data quality after printing. Therefore, in the printed receipt, there is a possibility that a defect such as blurring of printed characters or missing printed dots may occur due to wear or dirt on the head portion.

  For example, even if there is a printing defect such as missing dots, there has conventionally been no method for checking the printing defect other than a human visual confirmation. The receipt at the POS register is a proof of purchase and printing of the receipt must be avoided. However, there has been a problem in the past because a store clerk noticed or a customer complaint first noticed.

  Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 8-187881 and 2004-202962 describe printer apparatuses that perform correction printing, but there is only one print head, and correction printing is performed again with the same print head. For this reason, the operation is complicated, and it takes a long time for correction printing, so that it is not suitable for a printer used in a POS terminal that requires quickness.

JP-A-8-187881 JP 2004-202962 A JP 2012-11769 A

  The present invention provides a printer device of a POS terminal that automatically recognizes even if there is a printing failure in the printer device of the POS terminal and further performs correction printing (correction printing) on a printing failure receipt. For the purpose.

  A printer device with a correction printing unit for a POS terminal according to the present invention includes a printing unit having a printing unit for printing numbers and characters, a reading unit having a reading unit for recognizing and reading the printed characters, and printing. Control means for controlling the correction printing means having the correction printing section for carrying out correction printing and the printing means, the reading means, and the correction printing means when the printed characters are read and the print quality is poor. And the control means recognizes the print result printed by the reading means, compares the recognized print data with the print data sent to the print head, detects a dot missing portion, and detects the detection result. The dot missing portion is corrected and printed by the correction printing means.

  Furthermore, the printer device with the correction printing unit for the POS terminal according to the present invention further includes a transmission / reception means for transmitting / receiving data to / from the host device, and notifies an alarm when the reading unit exceeds a certain amount in the reading unit. It further has an alarm notification means, and further has a cleaning means for automatically cleaning the printing means when the reading portion exceeds a certain amount in the reading section.

  In the printer device with a correction printing unit for the POS terminal according to the present invention, the printing unit of the printing unit and the printing unit of the correction printing unit are automatically arranged when the reading defective part exceeds a certain amount in the reading unit. It is characterized by further comprising a control mechanism for replacement.

  Further, the printing unit, the reading unit, and the auxiliary printing unit are provided in parallel in the receipt traveling direction, and the head mounting member to which the printing unit, the reading unit, and the auxiliary printing unit are attached can be rotated by a shaft. A second rotating member is attached to the shaft, and a first moving member for moving the shaft is attached above the shaft. The shaft is raised by a second moving member that engages with the moving member, and the first rotating member and the second rotating member separately provided by the rising of the shaft are engaged, and the first The head mounting member is rotated by the rotation of the rotating member, and a control operation for automatically switching the printing unit of the printing unit and the printing unit of the correction printing unit is performed.

According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically prevent the printing failure of the printer device of the POS terminal.
Furthermore, since defective printing is automatically recognized, there is an effect that a warning can be given to the host device and maintenance / inspection work such as replacement of the printer head can be performed quickly. In addition, by performing the replacement operation of the print head and the correction print head, the correction print head can be used temporarily instead of the defective print head, so that there is an effect that a maintenance time margin is generated.

It is a conceptual diagram of the correction | amendment printing printing part of the printer apparatus of the POS terminal of this invention. It is a more detailed block diagram of the correction printing apparatus of the printer apparatus of FIG. FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram of a print information monitoring unit in FIG. 2. It is a figure which shows the basic flow of correction | amendment printing of the printer apparatus of the POS terminal of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the alarm transmission of the correction printing of the printer apparatus of the POS terminal of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the cleaning operation | movement of the correction printing of the printer apparatus of the POS terminal of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram of the head replacement | exchange operation | movement of the correction | amendment printing apparatus of the printer apparatus of the POS terminal of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the head replacement | exchange operation | movement of the correction | amendment printing apparatus of the printer apparatus of the POS terminal of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the printing defect of the printer apparatus of a POS terminal. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the head replacement | exchange operation | movement of the correction | amendment printing apparatus of the printer apparatus of the POS terminal of this invention. It is a figure which shows the mechanism used for head replacement | exchange operation | movement, and the flow of the operation | movement. It is a figure which shows the mechanism used for head replacement | exchange operation | movement, and the flow of the operation | movement. It is a figure which shows the mechanism used for head replacement | exchange operation | movement, and the flow of the operation | movement. It is a figure which shows the mechanism used for head replacement | exchange operation | movement, and the flow of the operation | movement. It is a figure which shows the mechanism used for head replacement | exchange operation | movement, and the flow of the operation | movement. It is a whole conceptual diagram of the printer device of the conventional POS terminal. It is a conceptual diagram of the printing part of the printer device of the conventional POS terminal.

FIG. 16 shows an overall conceptual diagram of a printer device of a conventional POS terminal. FIG. 17 is a conceptual diagram of a printing unit of a printer device of a conventional POS terminal.
In FIG. 16, the printer apparatus includes a paper feed mechanism unit 130, a cutter unit 138, a printing unit 131, and a cleaning unit 132, which are controlled by the head control unit 135. A printer device control unit 134 that interlocks with various sensor units including the head control unit performs transmission / reception with the host device 137 by the transmission / reception unit 136 to control the entire printer device.

FIG. 17 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. Conventionally, only one printing unit (printing head [H1]) 131 exists. For this reason, in order to deal with missing dots, blurred characters, etc., it is necessary to constantly monitor these printing defects and frequently perform maintenance and inspection to replace the head. Since it is not possible to detect printing defects other than by visual inspection, the store clerk sometimes does not notice it, and may first notice it from customer complaints. If the detection of printing defects and correction printing for defective printing parts can be automated, This is preferable from the viewpoint of convenience as a printer apparatus.
The present invention has been devised from the above viewpoint.

  FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a corrected print printing unit of a printer device of a POS terminal according to the present invention. FIG. 2 shows a more detailed block diagram of the correction printing apparatus of the printer apparatus of FIG. In FIG. 1, the printer device control unit and the head control unit 1 include a transmission / reception unit 3 that controls the cleaning unit 2 as necessary and transmits / receives necessary data to / from a host device.

  The printer device of the POS terminal of the present invention is characterized by having three heads as shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, the three heads are the same as the conventional printing unit (printing head [H1]) 4 and a reading unit (head [H2]) 5 for checking the printing quality of the printing unit 4. And a correction printing unit (head [H3]) 6.

  Print data is sent to the printing unit 4 from the printer device control unit and the head control unit 1 to perform a printing operation. Next, the reading unit (image scanner or the like) 5 reads the printed state and checks the print quality. An image of the print quality check operation is shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 9, 40 is print information and 41 is read information. When a printing failure occurs in 43, 46, etc. of the print information 40, as indicated by 41, missing dots 44, 47, 49, etc. in the read information 41 occur. The standard quantification of the number of dots of the POS terminal printer of the present invention is as follows.

  In the case of 58 mm printing paper, it is 384 dots, and the number of printed characters (one line) is 16 full-width characters and 32 half-width characters. Each character is 24 dots in full width and 12 dots in half width. In the case of 80 mm printing paper, it is 576 dots, and the number of printed characters (one line) is 24 full-width characters and 48 half-width characters. Each character is 24 dots in full width and 12 dots in half width.

  Returning to FIG. 1, when the missing dot is detected as described above, the correction printing unit 6 performs correction printing of 45, 48, and 50 as indicated by 42 in FIG.

This operation will be described as follows with reference to FIGS. 2 is a detailed block diagram of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram of the print information monitoring unit of FIG.
1) Print data is sent from the printer device control unit 21 to the print information unit 22, and a print operation is performed by the print head 23.
2) The reading information unit 24 reads the printed print data by the reading head 25.
3) The print information sent from the printer device control unit 21 to the print information unit 22 is compared with the recognition information of the print data recognized by the read information unit 24, and the print omissions 44, 47,. 49 and the like are identified, and correction information 42 in FIG. 9 is created.
4) The correction information is instructed to the correction unit 26 by the correction information 42, and the correction head 27 performs the correction printing operation of the print missing portion as shown in 45, 48 and 50 in FIG.

  Detailed block diagrams of this operation are shown in FIGS. In FIG. 2, the print information monitoring unit 28 monitors the above-mentioned print missing portion and issues a correction print instruction based on the monitoring result. That is, in FIG. 3, the data of the print information section 31 to the print section and the data of the read result section 32 are compared by the data comparison section 33, the correction data is output to the correction data section 34, and the correction print is performed by the correction head 27. Made.

  These basic flows are shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, when print data is received (S1), a printing operation (S2) is performed, and reading (S3) is performed by the reading unit. If there is no defective printing, the process proceeds to S5, S6, and S7. If there is a defective printing part, the defective part is notified to the correction printing part (S8), and after correction printing (S9), the paper is discharged (S6), and the printing is completed (S7).

  FIG. 5 shows a flow for issuing an alarm when there is a printing defect. The normal process of S10 to S16 is the same as that in FIG. If there is a printing failure location, and there are a predetermined number of printing failure locations, for example, 2 locations (dots) or more (S17), an alarm is transmitted to the host (S18). The defective part is notified to the correction printing unit (S19), and after correction printing (S20), the paper is discharged (S15), and the printing is completed (S16), which is the same as in FIG.

  FIG. 6 shows a flow of the print head cleaning operation. The normal process of S21 to S27 is the same as that in FIG. If there is a print defect location, if there are more than a predetermined number (for example, 2 locations) of print failure locations (S28), the print head cleaning operation (S29) is performed, and the correction print section is notified to the failure location (S30). After the correction printing (S31), the sheet is discharged (S26) and the printing is completed (S27), which is the same as in FIG.

  Next, the print head replacement operation will be described. FIG. 7 shows a conceptual diagram of the head replacement operation of the printer device of the POS terminal of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, when the number of defective prints is a predetermined number, for example, 3 (dots) or more, the print head and the correction print head are exchanged. As a result, the correction print head becomes the main print head instead of the defective print head, so that the print defect is temporarily avoided and a time margin for maintenance is created. That is, by using the corrected print head as the main print head, a normal print state is temporarily maintained. However, since the print head replacement operation is issued as an alarm to the upper level, maintenance such as replacement of the print head is performed. However, since the correction print head is temporarily in a normal state, maintenance such as urgent print head replacement is required. There is a merit that does not need to be done.

FIG. 8 shows the flow of this print head replacement operation.
The normal process of S40-S46 is the same as FIG. If there is a printing defect location, or if there are more than a predetermined number (for example, 3 locations) of printing failure locations (S47), the print head / correction print head replacement operation (S48) is performed. (S49) After the correction printing (S50), the sheet is discharged (S45) and the printing is completed (S46), which is the same as in FIG.

FIGS. 11 to 15 show three views of a specific mechanism of the print head / correction print head replacement operation.
Hereinafter, the replacement operation of the print head / correction print head will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 11 shows a normal printing state of the three-head printing mechanism of the present invention shown in FIG. A print head 118, a read head 117, and a correction print head 116 are arranged perpendicular to the traveling direction of the medium (print paper), and the heads are arranged in parallel. Each head has a rectangular cross section as shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 shows a diagram of the printing mechanism in the normal printing state.
In FIG. 11, the printing mechanism is provided in the housing 128. 126 is a receipt take-out port, and prints on the receipt 127 by the print head. Reference numerals 120 and 121 denote platens that serve to define the receipt when the receipt 127 is printed by the print head, and are located on the opposite side of the print head. The receipt 127 is conveyed by a conveyance roller (not shown). Reference numeral 118 denotes a main print head, and a read head 117 and an auxiliary print head 116 are provided in parallel in the receipt traveling direction. The print head 118, the read head 117, and the auxiliary print head 116 are attached to the head attachment member 115. The head mounting member 115 is rotatably mounted by a shaft 125, and a bevel gear 101 is integrated with the shaft 125. A rack gear 104 is also attached above the shaft 125. Reference numeral 110 denotes a first motor, which is fixed to the casing 128 by a motor mounting member 112. Reference numeral 111 denotes a second motor, which is fixed to the housing 128 by a motor mounting member 113. A bevel gear 100 is attached to the first motor shaft, and a pinion gear 103 is rotatably attached to the second motor shaft. In the normal printing state of FIG. 11, the head mounting member 115 and the shaft 125 are lowered and are in the printing position. Therefore, the bevel gear 100 and the bevel gear 101 are not engaged.

During the print head / correction print head replacement operation, as will be described later, the head mounting member 115 and the shaft 125 are raised upward by the rotation of the pinion gear 103 engaged with the rack gear 104, and the bevel gear 100 and The bevel gear 101 is engaged.
At this time, when the first motor 110 is driven, the bevel gear 100 rotates, the bevel gear 101 engaged with the bevel gear 100 also rotates, and thereby the head mounting member 115 also rotates. When the print head 118 and the correction print head 116 are switched by rotating 180 °, the shaft 125 is lowered again by the second motor 111, and the head mounting member 115 returns to the print position. At this time, the correction print head operates as a main print head by the above-described print head / correction print head replacement operation.

The print head / correction print head replacement operation will be described in detail below.
FIG. 11 shows the state of a normal print head. Next, in FIG. 12, the head mounting member 115 and the shaft 125 are moved upward by the rotation of the pinion gear 103 engaged with the rack gear 104 by the second motor 111. At this time, the bevel gear 100 and the bevel gear 101 are engaged.

  13 and 14, when the first motor 110 is driven, the bevel gear 100 is rotated, and accordingly, the engaged bevel gear 100 and the bevel gear 101 are interlocked so that the bevel gear 101 is also rotated. Accordingly, the shaft 125 also rotates, and the head mounting member 115 integrated therewith also rotates as shown in FIGS. Since the rack gear 104 and the mounting bracket 105 are in the groove of the shaft 125, even if the shaft 125 rotates, the rack gear 104 and the mounting bracket 105 do not rotate and remain in that position.

  FIG. 15 shows the print head 116 and the correction print head 118 rotated 180 °. In this manner, the print head / correction print head replacement operation is performed from the state of FIG. 11 to the state of FIG.

  Although not shown, after the print head / correction print head replacement operation is performed, the head mounting member 115 and the shaft 125 are again lowered by the rotation of the pinion gear 103 that engages with the rack gear 104 by the second motor 111. , Is set at the print position. In this way, the corrected print head 116 is replaced with the conventional print head 118 and temporarily used as the main print head until the print head 118 is replaced.

  As can be understood by comparing FIG. 11 and FIG. 15, the dot positions (1) to (N) of the head are converted to (N) to (1), and the directions are reversed. Accordingly, when the print head / correction print head replacement operation is performed, the dot positions (1) to (N) of the print head 118 / correction print head 116 are switched to (N) to (1) in terms of software. There is a need. That is, (1) to (N) are re-recognized as (N) to (1). The same applies to the reading unit. In addition, FIGS. 11 to 15 show mechanisms for rotating three heads simultaneously, while FIGS. 10 (1) to (5) show mechanisms for rotating only the print head / correction print head among the three heads. As shown in FIG. 10, the reading unit 62 may be fixed and separate from the head mounting member, and may not be moved up and down when the print head / correction print head replacement operation is performed.

  FIG. 10 (5) is the same as FIG. 10 (4) again after the print head / correction print head replacement operation has been performed, or after maintenance has been completed and the print head 71 has been replaced. The figure which returns to an initial state (FIG. 10 (1)) by replacement | exchange operation | movement is shown. At this time, similarly to the above, it is necessary to replace the definitions again in terms of software (1) to (N) and restore them.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various configurations or embodiments can be taken without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  Since the printer device with the correction head used in the POS terminal of the present invention immediately reads the data after printing, detects the defective printing portion, and notifies the defective printing portion of the defective printing portion, thereby performing the correction printing instantly. It has good responsiveness, no print defects, and is highly convenient and reliable as a POS terminal printer. In addition, since there is a margin in maintenance, industrial applicability is high.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer apparatus control part, head control part 2 Cleaning part 3 Transmission / reception part with high-order apparatus 4 Printing part [H1]
5 Reading unit [H2]
6 Correction printing section [H3]
7 Printing paper 28 Print information monitoring section 31 Print information section 32 Reading result section 33 Data comparison section 34 Correction data section 100 Bevel gear 101 Bevel gear 103 Pinion gear 104 Rack gear 110 First motor 111 Second motor 115 Head mounting member 116 Correction printing Head 117 Reading head 118 Print head 120 Platen 121 Platen 127 Receipt

Claims (5)

A printing unit having a printing unit for printing numbers and characters, a reading unit having a reading unit for recognizing and reading the printed characters, and the like;
When the printed characters are read and the print quality is poor, the correction printing means having a correction printing section for performing correction printing, and the printing means,
Control means for controlling the reading means and the correction printing means;
The control means recognizes the print result printed by the reading means, compares the recognized print data with the print data sent to the print head, detects a dot missing place, and detects the detected dot missing place. A printer device with a correction printing unit for a POS terminal, wherein the correction printing unit performs correction printing.   2. The POS according to claim 1, further comprising transmission / reception means for transmitting / receiving data to / from a host apparatus, and further comprising alarm notification means for notifying an alarm when the number of defective reading portions exceeds a certain amount in the reading unit. Printer device with correction printing unit for terminals.   3. The printer with a correction printing unit for a POS terminal according to claim 1, further comprising a cleaning unit that automatically cleans the printing unit when the number of defective reading portions in the reading unit exceeds a predetermined amount. apparatus.   The control device according to claim 1, further comprising a control mechanism that automatically replaces the printing unit of the printing unit and the printing unit of the correction printing unit when the number of defective readings in the reading unit exceeds a certain amount. 4. A printer device with a correction printing unit for a POS terminal as set forth in any one of the items 3.   The printing unit, the reading unit, and the auxiliary printing unit are provided in parallel in the receipt traveling direction, and a head mounting member to which the printing unit, the reading unit, and the auxiliary printing unit are attached is rotatably attached by a shaft. A second rotating member is attached to the shaft, and a first moving member for moving the shaft is attached above the shaft, the first moving member The shaft is raised by a second moving member that engages with the first turning member, and the first turning member provided separately by the raising of the shaft and the second turning member are engaged, and the first turning member 5. The POS terminal according to claim 4, wherein the head mounting member is rotated by the rotation of the member, and a control operation for automatically switching the printing unit of the printing unit and the printing unit of the correction printing unit is performed. Printer device with correction printing unit.