JP2014176978A - Heat transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer, in which a user can set consumption power of the printer, can estimate the consumption power based on contents to be printed and can adjust the consumption power based on the estimation, the printer being a preferable one in an environment where an amount of the power consumption is restricted.SOLUTION: A printer according to the present embodiment extracts a printing dot number per one line in advance from data drawn in an image buffer, provides an estimate amount of power consumption by converting the printing dot number to an amount of power consumption per one line, sets an upper limit value to the estimate amount of power consumption by an external input, compares the estimate amount of power consumption with the upper limit value if a signal in a power-saving mode is inputted, and suppresses the power consumption so as to become the upper limit value or less if the estimate amount of power consumption exceeds the upper limit value.

Description

  The present embodiment relates to a printer with reduced power consumption, and more particularly to a thermal transfer / thermal printer that prints information on a medium.

  Conventionally, printers may have different power consumption depending on the contents of printing. In particular, in thermal transfer and thermal printers, the larger the printing rate (number of printing dots / number of heating elements), the greater the amount of power consumption.

  In such a printer, it is not necessary to pay attention to fluctuations in power consumption during operation as long as the model using a commercial AC power supply is within the wattage of the outlet. However, the following problems have emerged as a result of the recent power restraint from electric power companies and measures for rotating power outages.

  In other words, taking into account sudden power outages, when using an uninterruptible power supply (hereinafter also referred to as “UPS”), the amount of power that can be consumed may be limited, and the amount of power consumed by the printer. However, with a conventional printer, the user cannot freely determine the amount of power consumption.

  On the other hand, there is a demand for performing printing processing at the most power-efficient printing speed in an environment where the amount of power is limited.

JP-A-5-72844

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and the purpose of the present invention is to allow the user to set the power consumption amount in the printer, predict the power consumption amount from the contents to be printed, and use the consumption based on the prediction. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer capable of adjusting the amount of electric power.

  The printer according to this embodiment includes a plurality of heating elements arranged in a line, and a thermal head driving unit that drives a thermal head that performs printing for each line based on data drawn in an image buffer on a medium. A motor driving unit for conveying the medium, a mode switching unit for switching between the normal mode and the power saving mode, and the number of print dots for each line is extracted in advance from the data drawn in the image buffer, A predicted power consumption calculation unit that converts the power consumption per unit to a predicted power consumption, a power amount setting unit that uses an externally input value as an upper limit for the predicted power consumption, and the signal of the power saving mode Is input, the predicted power consumption amount and the power amount setting unit call the predicted power consumption amount and the upper limit value, respectively, and the predicted power consumption A power amount comparison unit that compares the amount with the upper limit value, and when the predicted power consumption exceeds the upper limit value, the power consumption for the thermal head drive unit and the motor drive unit so that the power consumption is less than or equal to the upper limit value. And a power consumption amount suppression unit that controls the amount to be suppressed.

  In addition to the above configuration, the printer according to the present embodiment includes an uninterruptible power supply that includes a commercial power supply monitoring unit that outputs a power failure signal to the mode switching unit when a commercial power supply interruption is detected, and the mode switching unit. Is characterized by switching to the power saving mode when the power failure signal is input.

  With such a configuration, the power that can be consumed by the printer can be set by the user, and the power consumption can be predicted from the content to be printed so as not to exceed the set power, and can be adjusted based on the prediction. In an environment where the amount of power is limited, the amount of power consumption can be saved.

  According to the printer of this embodiment, the user can set the power that can be consumed by the printer, and the power consumption can be predicted from the contents to be printed so as not to exceed the set power, and adjusted based on the prediction. it can.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a main configuration of the printer according to the embodiment. The block diagram of the function structure which concerns on this embodiment. 6 is a flowchart showing a power saving mode operation in a set time zone of the printer according to the embodiment. 6 is a flowchart showing a power saving mode operation by the uninterruptible power supply of the printer according to the embodiment. 6 is a graph showing the relationship between the power consumption of the printer according to the present embodiment and the operation in the print line.

  Hereinafter, the printer according to the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The embodiment described below is merely an example of the present invention, and it goes without saying that the configuration of each part can be changed or modified as appropriate within the scope as long as the gist of the present invention can be achieved. Further, when the same reference numerals are used in the following description, the same reference numerals mean that they have the same configuration and function.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a main configuration of a printer according to the present embodiment, FIG. 2 illustrates a functional block diagram of the printer according to the present embodiment, and FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate a printer according to the present embodiment. FIG. 5 shows the relationship between the power consumption and the printing operation in each mode of the printer according to the present embodiment. FIG. 5A shows the relationship between the power consumption and the printing operation in the normal mode. (B) shows the relationship between the power consumption and the printing operation in the power saving mode.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a thermal printer 100 according to the present embodiment includes a CPU 1 that controls each unit. The CPU 1 includes a ROM 2, a RAM 3, and a user interface 4 that performs various settings and the like of the printer 100. A display 5 for displaying various types of information, a motor 6 for conveying a print medium, a sensor 7 for detecting the position of the print medium conveyed in the printer 100, and a print surface of the print medium are heated for printing. A thermal head 8, an uninterruptible power supply 9 for supplying power instead of a commercial AC power supply, and a communication device 10 for communicating with other devices are connected via a bus 11.

  The ROM 2 stores a control program for operating the printer, and stores a program for performing a normal operation, a program for performing a power saving operation, which will be described later, and the like. The RAM 3 has an image buffer 12 (shown in FIG. 2) that stores various data in a rewritable manner and develops an image of label data. The image buffer 12 draws an image to be printed on a label or the like. For example, a two-dimensional code or a character is drawn. The image buffer 12 is adapted to a predetermined medium size, and data drawn in the image buffer is transferred to the thermal head 8 for each line, and printing is performed.

  The user interface 4 includes operation buttons for various settings operated by the user, a numeric keypad, a touch panel, or the like, and a signal from the user interface 4 is input to the CPU 1. The display 5 includes a display such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and LEDs for informing the user of various statuses.

  The motor 6 is a pulse motor whose rotation speed is variable according to the cycle of the supplied drive pulse, and conveys the print medium by rotating a conveyance roller or the like. The motor 6 is rotated at a predetermined speed by a motor driving unit 13 (shown in FIG. 2). The sensor 7 is, for example, a print medium sensor that detects whether or not the print medium is set at a predetermined location, an edge sensor that detects the front and rear ends of the print medium, and a thermistor that detects the temperature of the thermal head 8. . A signal from the sensor 7 is input to the CPU 1.

  The thermal head 8 has a large number of heating elements arranged in a line, and controls the energization timing of these heating elements to perform a printing process for forming a printing pattern on a printing medium. The print pattern is based on data drawn in the image buffer 12 stored in the RAM 3, and the thermal head 8 is driven to print on a print medium by the thermal head drive unit 14 (shown in FIG. 2). Further, the thermal head 8 can divide each heating element into a plurality of blocks and perform energization control for each block.

  The uninterruptible power supply 9 supplies power for a predetermined time when the power supply from the commercial power supply is interrupted due to a power failure or the like. The uninterruptible power supply 9 is a device similar to that used in a computer or the like, and has a commercial power supply monitoring unit 15 (shown in FIG. 2) for detecting the interruption of the commercial power supply in addition to the battery unit. The monitoring unit 15 outputs a signal (hereinafter also referred to as “power failure signal”) to the effect that the power is cut off to the CPU 1 when detecting the cut-off of the commercial power. The CPU 1 to which this signal is input controls so that power from the battery unit of the uninterruptible power supply 9 is supplied to various places.

  On the other hand, when the power supply from the commercial power source is resumed, the commercial power source monitoring unit 15 outputs a signal indicating that the power source has been resumed to the CPU 1, and the power source from the uninterruptible power supply 9 to the power source from the commercial power source Return to supply. Further, the uninterruptible power supply 9 has a function of automatically shutting down, and by outputting a signal to the effect of shutting down (hereinafter also referred to as “end mode signal”) to the CPU 1, the CPU 1 If the printer cannot perform printing or if it receives print data, it will not receive print data by notifying it that it is currently shutting down, etc. Since the supply from the power supply is resumed and printing can be performed, it can be set to perform printing, and data loss from the host can be eliminated.

  The communication apparatus 10 communicates with other devices by wire or wirelessly, and can transmit label data to the printer 100 from a computer, for example.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the printer 100 according to the present embodiment.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the printer 100 according to the present embodiment includes a mode switching unit 16, a predicted power consumption calculation unit 17, a power amount setting unit 18, a power amount comparison unit 19, and a power consumption amount suppression unit. The power consumption suppression unit is connected to the motor drive unit 13 and the thermal head drive unit 14. In FIG. 2, the power consumption amount suppression unit 20 is illustrated as being connected only to the motor drive unit 13 and the thermal head drive unit 14, but is not limited thereto, and consumes power such as a display. Of course, it is connected to other parts.

  The mode switching unit 16 is a mode that performs a normal processing operation without being limited in power consumption (hereinafter also referred to as “normal mode”), and a mode that performs a processing operation with a predetermined power consumption (hereinafter referred to as “power saving mode”). And a mode for performing a shutdown processing operation (hereinafter also referred to as “end mode”), and a signal from the commercial power supply monitoring unit 15 of the uninterruptible power supply 9 or an input signal from the user interface. The mode is switched based on the above. The mode switching unit 16 outputs a signal to the power amount comparison unit 19 every time the mode for performing the processing operation is switched. In addition, since the date, time, and the like can be grasped based on an RTC (real time clock) 21 built in the printer, it can be set to switch to the power saving mode in a predetermined time zone. Such a setting can be set by the user interface 4.

  The predicted power consumption calculation unit 17 extracts the number of dots to be printed per line from the image buffer 12 in which the data such as the label is developed, converts it to the power consumption, and sets the predicted power consumption per line. Is. The value of the predicted power consumption is output to the power consumption comparison unit 19. Note that, by calculating in advance the power consumption for other functional devices, the amount of power consumed per line can be estimated even if the data to be printed changes.

  The power amount setting unit 18 sets an upper limit value (threshold value) of the power consumption amount per line of the thermal head 8 in the power saving mode. The user can set the upper limit value (threshold value) through the user interface 4. The power amount setting unit 18 outputs the upper limit value (threshold value) to the power consumption amount comparison unit 19.

  The power amount comparison unit 19 compares the power consumption for each line calculated by the predicted power consumption calculation unit 17 with the upper limit value (threshold value) set by the power amount setting unit 18. When the power saving mode signal is input from the mode switching unit 16, the predicted power consumption calculation unit 17 acquires the predicted power consumption for each line and also acquires the upper limit value (threshold) from the power amount setting unit 18. Comparison processing between the power consumption and the upper limit (threshold value) is performed. When the predicted power consumption exceeds the upper limit (threshold value), the signal is output to the power consumption suppression unit 20. On the other hand, when the normal mode signal is input from the mode switching unit 16, the comparison process is stopped.

  The power consumption suppression unit 20 adjusts the power consumption so that the predicted power consumption does not exceed the upper limit (threshold value). When a signal is input from the power consumption comparison unit 19, based on the signal, Control is performed so that the amount of power consumption that exceeds the upper limit (threshold) is suppressed to the upper limit (threshold) or less. In the printer, the printing process consumes the most power, and the power consumption per line of the thermal head varies depending on the print image and the control of the amount of heat applied to the thermal head itself. Therefore, specifically, control of the motor drive unit 13 and control of the thermal head drive unit 14 such as time-division printing are performed so as to slow down the print speed for a print line exceeding the upper limit (threshold value).

Next, the operation of the printer according to the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 3 shows a flowchart when the printer according to the present embodiment enters the power saving mode in a predetermined time zone.

  First, after the printer is activated, the user sets the time zone in which the user interface 4 operates in the power saving mode and the upper limit value (threshold value) of the power consumption (S101). Since the mode switching unit 16 knows the time based on the RTC 21 and does not switch to the power saving mode until the set time zone is reached, the printer 100 performs the printing process in the normal mode (S102, S103). The mode switching unit 16 switches from the normal mode to the power saving mode at the set time (S104), and shifts to the printing process in the power saving mode (S200).

  When the mode switching unit 16 is switched to the power saving mode, the mode switching unit 16 outputs a signal indicating that the mode has been switched to the power saving mode (hereinafter also referred to as “power saving mode signal”) to the power amount comparing unit 19 (S201). When the power saving mode signal is input, the power amount comparison unit 19 receives the upper limit value (threshold value) previously input by the user from the power amount setting unit 17 and the predicted power consumption for each line calculated by the power consumption amount calculation unit 17. The amount is acquired (S202). The power amount comparison unit 19 compares the acquired predicted power consumption and the value of the upper limit value (S203). As a result of comparing the two values, when the predicted power consumption exceeds the upper limit value (threshold value), the power consumption comparison unit 19 outputs the signal to the power consumption suppression unit 20 (S204). When the power consumption suppression unit 20 receives the signal, the motor drive unit 13 controls the print line so that the power consumption is lower than the upper limit (threshold value) based on the signal. Control of the thermal head drive unit 14 such as time-division printing is performed (S205).

  When the set power saving mode time ends, the mode switching unit 16 switches from the power saving mode to the normal mode (S206), and proceeds to the printing process in the normal mode (to S102). In accordance with this, the mode switching unit 16 outputs a normal mode signal to the power amount comparison unit 19. When the normal mode signal is input, the power amount comparison unit 19 stops the power amount comparison processing operation, and does not acquire the predicted power consumption amount from the predicted power amount calculation unit 17.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart when the commercial power supply is switched to the uninterruptible power supply due to a power failure or the like of the printer according to the present embodiment.
First, after the printer is activated, an upper limit value (threshold value) of power consumption is set by the user on the user interface 4 (S301). The printer 100 is operating in the normal mode (S302), and the commercial power supply monitoring unit 15 built in the uninterruptible power supply 9 detects the interruption of the commercial power supply (S303). When the commercial power supply monitoring unit 15 detects the interruption of the commercial power supply, it outputs a power failure signal to the mode switching unit 16 (S304). When the power failure signal is input, the mode switching unit 16 switches from the normal mode to the power saving mode (S305), and proceeds to the printing process in the power saving mode (S400).

  When the mode switching unit 16 switches to the power saving mode, the mode switching unit 16 outputs a power saving mode signal to the power amount comparison unit 19 (S401). When the power saving mode signal is input, the power amount comparison unit 19 receives the upper limit value (threshold value) previously input by the user from the power amount setting unit 18 and the predicted power consumption for each line calculated by the power consumption amount calculation unit 17. The amount is acquired (S402). The power amount comparison unit 19 compares the acquired predicted power consumption and the value of the upper limit value (S403). As a result of comparing the two values, when the predicted power consumption exceeds the upper limit value (threshold value), the power amount comparison unit 19 outputs the signal to the power consumption suppression unit 19 (S404). When the signal is input, the power consumption amount suppression unit 20 controls the motor driving unit 13 and the thermal head driving unit 14 as described above so that the power consumption amount is not more than the upper limit (threshold value) based on the signal. (S405).

  When the restart of the power supply from the commercial power supply is detected during the power saving mode, the commercial power supply monitoring unit 15 outputs a signal indicating that the commercial power supply has been resumed to the mode switching unit 16 (hereinafter also referred to as a “power supply restart signal”). (S406). When the power resumption signal is input, the mode switching unit 16 switches from the power saving mode to the normal mode, and proceeds to printing processing in the normal mode (to S301). In accordance with this, the mode switching unit 16 outputs a normal mode signal to the power amount comparison unit 19. When the normal mode signal is input, the power amount comparison unit 19 stops the power amount comparison processing operation, and does not acquire the predicted power consumption amount from the predicted power amount calculation unit 17.

  On the other hand, when the uninterruptible power supply 9 is turned off before the power from the commercial power supply is restarted during the power saving mode, the commercial power supply monitoring unit 15 outputs a shutdown signal to the mode switching unit 16. When this signal is input, the mode switching unit 16 performs the automatic shutdown described above and stops the entire system.

  FIG. 5 shows the relationship between the power consumption for the same print data and the operation in the print line in each mode of the printer according to the present embodiment, (a) shows the normal mode, and (b) shows the power saving mode. Shows inside.

  In the printing process in the normal mode, as shown in FIG. 5A, the printing operation is performed regardless of the upper limit value (threshold value) set by the user. On the other hand, during the power saving mode, as shown in FIG. 5B, for the lines (FIG. 5; double arrow A) where the power consumption per line exceeds the upper limit (threshold value), the above-described printing speed, etc. It becomes below an upper limit value (threshold value) by control of. As shown in FIG. 5B, by adjusting the printing speed so that the power consumption is the same as the upper limit value, printing can be performed at an optimum printing speed in an environment where the power consumption is limited.

  As described above, according to the printer according to the present embodiment, the user can set the power consumption amount in the printer, can predict the power consumption amount from the contents to be printed, and can adjust the power consumption amount based on the prediction. In an environment where the amount is limited, power consumption can be saved. Further, it is possible to save further power consumption by setting the transition time to the sleep mode to be advanced during the power saving mode.

1 ... CPU
2 ... ROM
3 ... RAM
4 ... User interface 5 ... Display 6 ... Motor 7 ... Sensor 8 ... Thermal head 9 ... Uninterruptible power supply
10 ... Communication equipment
11 ... Bus
12… Image buffer
13… Motor drive
14 ... Thermal head drive
15 ... Commercial power supply monitoring unit
16… Mode switching part
17 ... Predicted power consumption calculator
18 ... Electric energy setting section
19… Electricity comparison part
20 ... Power consumption control unit
21 ... RTC
100 ... Printer

Claims (6)

A plurality of heating elements arranged in a line, and a thermal head drive unit that drives a thermal head that performs printing for each line based on data drawn in an image buffer on a medium;
A motor drive for conveying the medium;
A mode switching unit for switching between normal mode and power saving mode;
A predicted power consumption calculator that extracts the number of print dots for each line in advance from the data drawn in the image buffer, converts the power consumption per line into a predicted power consumption, and
An electric energy setting unit that uses an externally input value as an upper limit for the predicted electric energy consumption;
When the signal of the power saving mode is input, the predicted power consumption amount and the upper limit value are obtained from the predicted power consumption calculation unit and the power amount setting unit, respectively, and the predicted power consumption amount and the upper limit value are obtained. An electric energy comparison unit for comparing
A power consumption suppression unit configured to control the thermal head driving unit and the motor driving unit to suppress the power consumption so that the predicted power consumption exceeds the upper limit when the predicted power consumption exceeds the upper limit; A printer characterized by that. In addition, an uninterruptible power supply having a commercial power supply monitoring unit that outputs a power failure signal to the mode comparison unit when a commercial power supply interruption is detected,
The printer according to claim 1, wherein the mode switching unit switches to a power saving mode when the power failure signal is input.   The printer according to claim 1, wherein the mode switching unit switches to a power saving mode in a time zone set by an external input.   The printer according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the power consumption suppression unit reduces a printing speed for a printing line exceeding the upper limit value.   5. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the power consumption suppression unit performs divided printing for a print line that exceeds the upper limit value. 6.   The printer according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the mode switching unit further includes switching to an end mode, and stops printing processing on the medium during the end mode. .

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