JP2020066189A - Printer and control method - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a printer that controls cutting processing of a recording medium by a simple constitution.SOLUTION: Cutting processing is executed for a tubular recording medium subjected to printing. The recording medium, which is subjected to the cutting processing and positioned on an upstream side with respect to a cut location, is conveyed in an opposite direction. The cutting processing is retried on the basis of a load when the recording medium is conveyed in the opposite direction.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a control method for executing printing on a tubular recording medium.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing apparatus such as a printer, which performs a printing process on a flexible long recording medium such as a tube and a cutting process on the recording medium, has been widely known. In this type of printing apparatus, a transport path for transporting a recording medium is provided, characters and the like are printed on the recording medium in the printing unit, and a cutting unit is provided downstream of the printing unit in the recording medium transport direction. The unit (cutting device) cuts the recording medium to a desired length. Further, this type of printing apparatus generally includes a control unit that controls the printing process of the printing unit and the cutting process of the cutting unit based on the input print information and cutting information.

  In such a printing apparatus, since the recording medium is long and flexible, various technologies have been conventionally disclosed in relation to the structure of the cutting unit having the cutter and the cutter receiver. In Patent Document 1, a cutter having conductivity, a cutter receiver arranged opposite to the cutter and having conductivity, and a predetermined voltage is applied to one of the cutter and the cutter receiver, and the cutter during the cutter operation. 2. Description of the Related Art There is known a printing apparatus that determines whether or not cutting has succeeded by determining whether or not the blade and a cutter receiver have come into contact with each other.

  Further, in Patent Document 2, a cutter blade receiver that has a half-cut surface and a full-cut surface that are arranged at a position facing the cutter blade and that has a restriction portion that restricts the movement amount of the cutter blade, and the cutter blade receiver are moved. There is described a cutting device and a printing device provided with a cutter blade receiving drive means for switching the receiving surface corresponding to the cutter blade.

  Further, in Patent Document 3, a pressing member (torsion coil spring) that presses the printing tape until the cutter blade is completely separated from the tape substrate after cutting the tape substrate with the cutter blade is provided adjacent to the cutter blade. A half-cutting device for printing tape is described.

JP, 2005-100910, A JP, 2002-137864, A JP, 2002-255434, A

  In Patent Document 1, one of the cutter blade of the cutter and the receiving surface of the cutter receiver needs to be made of a conductive member to apply a predetermined voltage, and the other one needs to be made of a non-conductive member. It is necessary to dispose the conductive member on the surface or at least two spaced apart positions of the cutting edge. Therefore, the size of the device is increased and the power consumption is increased.

  According to Patent Document 2, it is described that an inexpensive cutting device can be provided by using only one cutter, but it is necessary to configure a cutter blade receiver and a cutter blade receiving drive means. Further, according to Patent Document 3, it is necessary to provide a pressing member (torsion coil spring) adjacent to the vicinity of the cutter blade.

  None of Patent Documents 1 to 3 mentions a configuration that enables control of a cutting process of a recording medium with a simple configuration.

  In view of such conventional problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus and a control method for controlling the cutting process of a recording medium with a simple configuration.

  In order to solve the above problems, a printing apparatus according to the present invention is a printing apparatus that prints on a tubular recording medium, and includes a conveying unit that conveys the recording medium and a predetermined conveying direction by the conveying unit. A printing unit that prints on the recording medium conveyed to the recording medium; a cutting unit that performs a cutting process on the recording medium downstream of the printing unit in the conveying direction; The recording medium on which the cutting process is performed, based on the load when the recording medium located upstream of the cutting direction in the transport direction is transported in the direction opposite to the transport direction, And a control means for retrying the disconnection process.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to control the cutting process of the recording medium with a simple configuration.

It is an external view of a printer. It is a figure which shows the structure of the attachment which can be mounted | worn with an attachment part. It is a figure which shows the structure of a cutting part. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a control system. It is a flowchart which shows a cutting process. It is a figure which shows the position of a cutter.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the following embodiments do not limit the present invention according to the claims, and all combinations of features described in the present embodiments are not necessarily essential to the solving means of the present invention. . In addition, the same reference numerals are given to the same components, and the description thereof will be omitted.

<Overall structure>
As shown in FIG. 1, the printer 1 of the present embodiment is configured to be portable like a notebook computer, and roughly includes an input unit 13 having a keyboard and an input control unit, an LCD and a display control unit. The display unit 14, the thermal head 6, and the printing unit 20 that prints on the recording medium by selectively heating the plurality of heating elements that are arranged in the main scanning direction, and the printing unit 20 in the recording medium conveyance direction. A cutting unit 30 provided on the downstream side for cutting the recording medium and a control unit 15 (FIG. 4) for controlling these units are provided. Further, the printer 1 is provided with a transport path P for transporting a tubular recording medium.

<Input section>
The input unit 13 has function keys, letter / number / symbol keys, space key, conversion key, cross direction key, return key, and the like, which are similar to those of a notebook type computer, and the operator (user) uses these keys. By operating, the print information and the cutting information can be set by inputting the type, size, printing / cutting condition, etc. of the recording medium including the tube T.

<Display>
The LCD of the display unit 14 has various information display areas for displaying an input mode and the like, a character information display area for displaying characters, numbers and symbols (hereinafter, abbreviated as characters) input from the input unit 13, a character size, etc. Including three display areas of a parameter display area for displaying. The various information display areas and the parameter display areas are arranged above and below the character information display area, respectively.

  The display of various information display areas includes the display of the following information. For example, it includes an input mode display for displaying (selecting) which one of alphanumeric characters, Roman letters, and hiragana is input from the input unit 13. It also includes an insert / overwrite mode display (editing mode display) for displaying whether to input with the insert or overwrite from the input unit 13. In addition, "type of recording medium", "cut setting" of how to divide pages when printing multiple pages in one print operation (presence or absence of half-cut, Including the display of the dividing line as a solid line, a dotted line, or no dividing line. In addition, "cut length" indicating the length of one tube (one label), "character arrangement" indicating whether the character position is centering or left alignment, and "margin" indicating the left end of the tube to the first character Including display. Further, it includes a previous page display displayed when another page exists before the currently displayed page, and a next page display displayed when another page exists after the currently displayed page. It also includes a tube feeder display that shows whether an optional unit (tube feeder) for assisting the transportation of tubes is connected, and a power supply display that shows that the power is turned on.

  The display of the parameter display area includes the display of the following information. For example, it includes a page display in which how many pages are currently displayed is displayed by numbers. Also, the print orientation display that indicates whether the print orientation is set to "horizontal / horizontal writing", "vertical / vertical writing", or "vertical / horizontal writing", and the frame selected to add a frame to the character Includes a boxed box that displays the shape of the box. It also includes a character size display for displaying the selected character size, a line number display for displaying the number of lines to be printed, and a character spacing display for displaying the selected character spacing. It also includes a continuous print display that shows how many pages of the currently displayed character are copied and printed.

  The display of the character information display area includes the display of the following information. For example, it includes display of a character string of a character input from the input unit 13 (a character whose input character data is displayed after a predetermined conversion). In the character information display area, a cursor is displayed at a position where the operator is going to input.

<Printing section>
The printing unit 20 includes transport rollers 2a and 2b for transporting a recording medium, a platen roller 3 arranged to face the thermal head 6 on the downstream side of the transport rollers 2a and 2b, and a downstream side of the platen roller 3. It has a platen roller 3 and a pinch roller 4 arranged to face it.

  An ink ribbon R is interposed between the platen roller 3 and the thermal head 6. The ink ribbon R is supplied from the ribbon supply reel of the ink ribbon cassette 8 and wound on the ribbon take-up reel.

  A stepping motor 5 for rotating and driving the transport roller 2a, the platen roller 3, and the spool of the ribbon take-up reel of the ink ribbon cassette 8 is arranged on the upstream side of the transport rollers 2a and 2b via a gear (not shown). Further, on one side of the ink ribbon cassette 8 (on the left side in FIG. 1) and on one side of the cutting section 30 (on the lower side in FIG. 1), the thermal head 6 is conveyed through an arm 44 (see FIG. 3) described later. A stepping motor 9 is arranged to move between a retracted position retracted from P and a printing position in which the platen roller 3 is pressed against the platen roller 3.

  FIG. 1 shows a state in which the tube T is mounted as a recording medium. Explaining according to this example, at the time of printing, the thermal head 6 is pressed against the tube T while sandwiching the ink ribbon R of the ink ribbon cassette 8 and the thermal head 6 is configured according to the print data input from the input unit 13. By selectively heating the heating elements, the ink of the ink ribbon R is melted and a character string is printed on the tube T line by line. Further, on the upstream side of the transport rollers 2a and 2b and on the downstream side of the pinch roller 4, there are disposed transmission-integrated sensors for detecting the presence or absence of a recording medium and the front end of the transported recording medium.

<Attachment part>
The printer 1 is configured to be able to perform printing processing and cutting processing on various types of media by changing the attachment mounted on the attachment unit 10. FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the label cassette and the tube attachment. For example, when the label cassette 11 shown in FIG. 2A is attached to the attachment unit 10, the label with release paper is pulled out from the inside of the cassette, and printing and cutting processing can be performed on the label. Further, when the tube attachment 12 shown in FIG. 2B is attached to the attachment portion 10, the tube T can be printed and cut by inserting the tube T from the tube insertion port 12a. In the following, a case where the tube attachment 12 is attached to the attachment unit 10 and the tube T is used as the recording medium will be mainly described with reference to FIG. 1.

<Cut part>
As shown in FIG. 1, a cutting unit 30 that cuts the tube T (recording medium) is disposed downstream of the pinch roller 4.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the cutting unit 30 is disposed on the base frame 40, and is provided with a cutter 30A having a cutter blade 31 and a position facing the cutter 30A via the conveyance path P. It is composed of a cutter receiver 30B having a receiving surface for the cutting edge, and a drive unit 30C for moving the cutter 30A toward the cutter receiver 30B.

1. Cutter 30A
The cutter blade 31 is slidably held by a resin cutter holder 32 back and forth (toward the receiving surface side of the cutter receiver 30B or the opposite direction). That is, a support protrusion is formed in the upper center portion inside the cutter holder 32 (on the side contacting the side surface of the cutter blade 31), and the torsion coil spring 33 is attached to this support protrusion. One end of the torsion coil spring 33 is engaged with a hole formed near the center of the cutter blade 31, and the other end of the torsion coil spring 33 is a locking portion formed in the lower center of the inside of the cutter holder 32. Is engaged with. Therefore, the cutter blade 31 is biased rearward (in the direction opposite to the receiving surface side of the cutter receiver 30B) by the torsion coil spring 33.

  The cutter holder 32 is detachably held by a bracket 34 having a U-shaped cross section. A fixing pin insertion hole 35 is formed in the bracket 34. A concave cutout is formed at the center of the rear end side of the cutter blade 31 (opposite to the cutting edge of the cutter blade 31). Therefore, when the cutter holder 32 is mounted so as to be inserted from above the bracket 34, the rear end of the cutter blade 31 abuts against the fixed pin 36 so that the cutter blade 31 moves forward against the biasing force of the torsion coil spring 33. Then, when the cutter holder 32 is removed from the bracket 34, the cutter blade 31 retracts due to the biasing force of the torsion coil spring 33, so that the blade tip of the cutter blade 31 is not exposed from the cutter holder 32.

2. Cutter holder 30B
The cutter receiver 30 </ b> B includes a cutter receiver holding member 60 that is rotatably attached to a columnar pillar 61 that is erected on the base frame 40, and a cutter receiver member 50 that is detachable from the cutter receiver holding member 60. And have. Further, a spring hooking arm 64 is integrally formed on the lower side of the cutter receiving and holding member 60, and the other end of the spring hooking arm 64 is locked to a spring stopper 65 which is provided upright by bending the base frame 40. One end of the spring 66 is locked.

3. Drive unit 30C
As shown in FIG. 3, rollers 37 are fixed to the side of the bracket 34 opposite to the cutter receiver 30B. The roller 37 is in contact with the peripheral surface of the first cam 39 fitted to the cam shaft 38. A gear 42 is fitted on the cam shaft 38, and the rotational driving force of the stepping motor 9 is transmitted by a plurality of gears (not shown) meshed with the gear 42.

  A second cam 45 is fitted on the cam shaft 38 between the first cam 39 and the gear 42. The peripheral surface of the second cam 45 has a contact portion (or a roller fixed to the second cam 45, which is provided in the vicinity of the tip end portion 44 a of the arm 44 and protrudes from the side surface of the arm 44 toward the second cam 45 side. ) Is in contact with. A round hole is formed in an end portion (not shown) of the arm 44 opposite to the tip portion 44a, and a pin (not shown) provided upright on the base frame 40 is inserted into the round hole. . Therefore, the arm 44 is configured to be rotatable with respect to the pin, and the tip end portion 44a thereof is swung as the arm 44 is rotated with respect to the pin.

  Further, one end of a spring 43, the other end of which is locked to the arm 44, is locked to the side of the bracket 34 opposite to the cutter receiver 30B. Therefore, the cutter 30A (bracket 34) is always urged toward the first cam 39 (arm 44). Further, between the spring hooking arm 64 of the cutter receiving and holding member 60 and the tip end portion 44a of the arm 44, the spring 46 that applies a pulling force to the spring hooking arm 64 in a direction opposite to the tension direction of the spring 66. Is stretched, and the tension of the spring 46 is set to be larger than the tension of the spring 66.

  When the second cam 45 pivots counterclockwise around the cam shaft 38 and the tip portion 44a of the arm 44 moves downward (pulling direction of the spring 46) (swings), the cutter receiving and holding member 60 is moved to the position shown in FIG. 6 is rotated counterclockwise as seen in FIG. 6, and the half cut surface 52 of the cutter receiving member 50 mounted on the cutter receiving holding member 60 is positioned so as to face the cutter 30A (cutter blade 31), and conversely the arm. When the tip end portion 44 a of 44 moves upward (in the pulling direction of the spring 66), the action of the spring 66 causes the cutter receiving and holding member 60 to rotate in the clockwise direction, so that the cutter receiving and holding member 50 mounted on the cutter receiving and holding member 60 moves. The entire cut surface 51 is positioned so as to face the cutter 30A (cutter blade 31). Restricting plates 55 and 56 are provided on the half-cut surface 52, and the cut amount of the cutter blade 31 is restricted by the height of the restriction plates 55 and 56, whereby the tube T is half-cut.

  In addition, the arm 44 has a pin-shaped member in the vicinity of the tip end portion 44 that is in sliding contact with an elongated hole 47 formed in the base frame 40, and regulates the rotation angle of the arm 44 (the swing range of the tip end portion 44a). The regulating member 48 is provided. The thermal head 6 described above is connected to the arm 44, and is configured such that the thermal head 6 moves between the retracted position and the printing position by the rotation of the second cam 45.

4. Standby position and operating position In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 6A to 6C, the movement amount of the cutter blade 31 can be changed by using the cam structure. As shown in FIG. 6, according to the rotation of the first cam 39, the cutter 30A has a standby position (see FIG. 6A) in which the cutter blade 31 is retracted from the receiving surface of the cutter receiving member 50. A first operating position (see FIG. 6B) that has advanced toward the receiving surface of the cutter receiving member 50, and a first operating position that the cutter blade 31 has further advanced from the first operating position toward the receiving surface of the cutter receiving member 50. 2 operating positions (see FIG. 6 (c)). Note that the guide 41 in FIG. 6 represents a guide that comes into contact with one side surface of the bracket 34 and guides forward and backward movement (not shown in FIG. 3). As shown in FIG. 6A, the standby position is a position where the cutter blade 31 is retracted from the transport path P. In the present embodiment, the cutter blade 31 is positioned at the standby position of the home position in the initialization process described later.

  As shown in FIG. 6B, in the first operating position, the first cam 39 is rotated clockwise around the cam shaft 38 to move the bracket 34 toward the cutter receiver 30B. The position is set. The first operating position is a position where the cutter blade 31 advances from the standby position toward the cutter receiver 30B and the cutter blade 31 cuts the tube T. The first operating position is a position where both ends of the bracket 34 are brought into contact with the tube T and deformed to push the tube T toward the cutter receiver 30B.

  As shown in FIG. 6C, in the second operating position, the first cam 39 is further rotated clockwise around the cam shaft 38 to move the bracket 34 toward the cutter receiver 30B. The position is set with. The second operating position is a position where the cutter blade 31 advances from the first operating position to the side of the cutter receiver 30B and the cutter blade 31 cuts the tube T. The second operating position is a position where both ends of the bracket 34 push the tube T toward the cutter receiver 30B with a larger pressing amount than the first operating position.

  For example, when the cutter blade 31 has a slight gap with respect to the receiving surface of the cutter receiving member 50 in the first operating position, the cutter blade 31 does not contact the receiving surface of the cutter receiving member 50 in the second operating position. It may be at a position where it contacts. Further, even at the position where the cutter blade 31 comes into contact with the receiving surface of the cutter receiving member 50 at the first operating position, the receiving surface of the cutter receiving member 50 is made of an elastic material. You may comprise so that it can be pushed further in from the operating position.

<Control part>
As shown in FIG. 4, the control unit 15 includes a CPU 401 that functions at high speed as a central processing unit, a ROM 402 that stores a basic control program and program data of the printer 1, a RAM 403 that functions as a work area of the CPU 401, and the like. The CPU 401, ROM 402, and RAM 403 are connected by an internal bus. Such a control unit 15 is composed of, for example, a microcomputer.

  An external bus 407 is configured in the control unit 15, and the external bus 407 includes, for example, an input control unit of the input unit 13, a display control unit of the display unit 14, a thermal head 6 of the printing unit 20, and a transport load detection unit 406. A driver 404 that controls the operations of the stepping motors 5 and 9 and a sensor control unit 405 that controls information from the sensor are connected. The stepping motors 5 and 9 described above are connected to the driver 404, and the sensor in the printer 1 is connected to the sensor control unit 405. The control unit 15 has a buffer and an interface (not shown), and can be connected to a higher-level device such as a personal computer via the external bus 407. Therefore, the operator can input from the personal computer instead of the input from the input unit 13, and further, by installing an external storage device such as a RAM card or a USB, the data stored in the external storage device can be stored. It is also possible to use.

(motion)
Next, the operation of the printer 1 of the present embodiment will be described focusing on the CPU 401 of the control unit 15 and mainly the cutting process in the cutting unit 30. In the following, in order to simplify the explanation, the operator inputs from the input unit 13 as cutting information, a “recording medium type” tube, a “cut setting” half cut mode cut command, a cutting number of 6 and a “cut”. An example will be described in which the length is set to 25 mm. In addition, the half cut mode cut command means to repeat the half cut for partially cutting the tube and finally cut it all. The cutting information in this example is 5 times and half every 25 mm from the tip of the tube T. It means that after cutting, 25 mm after that (finally), the whole is cut into 6 pieces.

  When the power of the printer 1 is turned on, the programs and program data stored in the ROM 402 are expanded in the RAM 403, and the CPU 401 performs the initial setting process of moving the above-described units to predetermined home positions, and then the input unit 13 Wait for input of print information and disconnection information.

  When these pieces of information are input, the CPU 401 generates print data according to the input print information and waits for a print start instruction from the operator. When the operator presses a predetermined button of the input unit 13 to give an instruction to start printing, is the tube T set at a predetermined position based on an output from a sensor arranged upstream of the transport rollers 2a and 2b? Determine whether or not. When it is determined that the tube T is not set at the predetermined position, the CPU 401 displays that fact on the display unit 14 and stands by, and when it is determined that the tube T is set at the predetermined position, the stepping motor is used. The printing unit 20 drives the tubes 5 and 9 to print the tube T.

  That is, the CPU 401 moves the thermal head 6 to a printing position where it is pressed against the platen roller 3, and outputs the thermal head 6 to the thermal head 6 line by line according to the generated print data. The tube T is transported downstream on the transport path P by the rotational driving force of the transport rollers 2a and 2b, the platen roller 3, and the pinch roller 4, and a desired character is printed by the printing unit 20. In the case of the present example, similarly, the tube T is subjected to a total of 6 printing processes at predetermined intervals. In the present embodiment, since the stepping motors 5 and 9 are used to convey the tube T, the CPU 401 counts the number of output pulses, and thus the tip of the tube T with respect to the position of the heating element of the thermal head 6. It is possible to grasp the positional relationship, that is, the printing position.

  Further, the CPU 401 can monitor that the cutting position of the tube T reaches the cutting unit 30 during the printing process by the thermal head 6 by counting the number of output pulses of the stepping motors 5 and 9.

  Then, when the cutting position of the tube T reaches the cutting portion 30, the CPU 401 of the cutter receiving member 50 according to the cutting information so that the half cut surface 52 faces the position facing the cutter blade 31 via the conveyance path P. Position the receiving surface. In the initial setting process, since the cutter blade 31 is positioned at the standby position in FIG. 6A, by rotating the cam shaft 38 counterclockwise at the standby position, The second cam 45 is rotated counterclockwise to position the receiving surface of the cutter receiving member 50 so that the half-cut surface 52 faces the position facing the cutter blade 31 via the transport path P.

  The CPU 401 monitors whether the tip of the tube T reaches the position of the sensor based on the output from the sensor arranged on the downstream side of the pinch roller 4. The CPU 401 can grasp the relationship of the position of the tip of the tube T with respect to the position of the cutter blade 31, that is, the cutting position with respect to the tube T by counting the number of output pulses to the stepping motor 9 with the position of the sensor as a reference. it can.

  As shown in FIG. 6A, the CPU 401 uses a cutter to prevent the tip of the conveyed tube T from catching on the cutter blade 31 until the tip of the tube T passes through the position of the cutter blade 31. Position the blade 31 in the standby position.

  Next, when the tip of the tube T passes through the position of the cutter blade 31 and the cutting position for the tube T is conveyed to the position of the cutter blade 31, the CPU 401 conveys the conveyance rollers 2a and 2b, the platen roller 3, and the pinch roller 4. The driving of the tube T is once stopped to stop the transport of the tube T. Then, the CPU 401 moves the cutter blade 31 from the standby position of FIG. 6A to the first operating position of FIG. 6B and cuts the tube T in half (* 1).

  Next, the CPU 401 moves the cutter blade 31 from the first operating position to the standby position, restarts the driving of the rollers 2a and 2b, the platen roller 3, and the pinch roller 4 to convey the tube T again to the downstream side. When the next cutting position for the tube T is conveyed to the position of the cutter blade 31 (for example, 25 mm from the previously cut portion), the CPU 401 drives the rollers 2a and 2b, the platen roller 3, and the pinch roller 4. Is temporarily stopped to stop the conveyance of the tube T, the cutter blade 31 is moved from the standby position to the first operating position, and the tube T is cut in half (* 2). Hereinafter, similarly, the CPU 401 moves the cutter blade 31 between the standby position and the first operating position to continuously perform half-cutting on the tube T (* 3).

  In this example, when the half cutting of the tube T by such a cutter blade 31 is repeated 5 times in total ({(the number of cuts 6) -1} times), the tube T is further transported by 25 mm and finally the tube T is cut. Cut all T. With the cutter blade 31 positioned at the standby position, when the tube T reaches the full cutting position where it is conveyed by 25 mm from the last half-cut position, the CPU 401 causes the rollers 2a and 2b, the platen roller 3, and the pinch roller 4 to move. Is temporarily stopped to stop the conveyance of the tube T, and the cutter blade 31 is moved to the standby position before the whole cutting. Subsequently, the CPU 401 rotates the cam shaft 38 counterclockwise at the standby position to rotate the second cam 45 fitted to the cam shaft 38, and the cutter blade via the conveyance path P. The receiving surface of the cutter receiving member 50 is changed so that the entire cut surface 51 faces the position facing 31.

  Next, the CPU 401 moves the cutter blade 31 from the standby position to the first operating position, and cuts the tube T completely (* 4). Next, the driving of the rollers 2a and 2b, the platen roller 3, and the pinch roller 4 is restarted, and the tube T is conveyed further downstream by a predetermined distance and discharged from the printer 1. After a lapse of a predetermined time, the CPU 401 stops driving the rollers 2a and 2b, the platen roller 3, and the pinch roller 4, and ends the operation of one routine based on the input print / cut information. Then, the CPU 401 drives the rollers 2a and 2b, the platen roller 3, and the pinch roller 4 to move the tube T to the conveying rollers 2a and 2b side in order to prevent the tube T from being curled after a predetermined time. Rewind.

  The above description is for the entire operation when the cutting operation in (* 1) to (* 4) is successful. Here, there are cases where the cutting by the cutting operation in the above (* 1) to (* 4) is unsuccessful. Therefore, the CPU 401 determines whether or not the cutting by the cutting operation in (* 1) to (* 4) has been successful, and cuts the tube T again when it is determined that the cutting has not been successful. Execute the process. The "cut" described above is used to distinguish from the series (a plurality of times) of cutting processes included in the cut command in the half-cut mode described above. Means

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart of the cutting process in this embodiment. The process of FIG. 5 is realized, for example, by the CPU 401 reading a program stored in the ROM 402 into the RAM 403 and executing the program. First, in S101, the CPU 401 moves the cutter blade 31 to the first operating position shown in FIG. 6B during the full cut.

  When the movement of the cutter blade 31 to the first operating position is completed, the CPU 401 drives the rollers 2a and 2b, the platen roller 3 and the pinch roller 4 to wind the tube T to the transport rollers 2a and 2b side by a predetermined amount in S102. return.

  In S103, the CPU 401 detects the transport load on the transport rollers 2a and 2b during the rewinding in S102 by the transport load detection unit 70. The transport load on the transport rollers 2a and 2b may be measured by various methods. For example, the measurement may be performed based on the decrease in the rotation speed of the transport rollers 2a and 2b detected by the sensor. Alternatively, it may be measured based on an increase in the current value of the motor that drives the transport rollers 2a and 2b.

  In S104, the CPU 401 determines whether or not the load detected by the conveyance load detection unit 70 is larger than the load applied during normal conveyance. The CPU 401 makes a determination by comparing with a physical quantity measured by the transport load detection unit 70, for example, a threshold value corresponding to a rotation speed or a current value. If it is determined that the load is higher than the load applied during normal conveyance, it is determined that the cutting has failed, and the process proceeds to S105. On the other hand, if the load is not larger than or equal to the load applied during normal conveyance, it is determined that the cutting is successful, and the cutting process of FIG. 5 is ended. When the CPU 401 determines that the cutting has been successful, the CPU 401 displays, for example, a message “cutting is completed. Take the tube.” On the display unit 14.

  In S105, the CPU 401 determines whether the number of retries has reached a predetermined number (N times). If the number of retries has not reached the predetermined number, the CPU 401 moves the cutter blade 31 from the first operating position to the second operating position in FIG. The cutter blade 31 is moved to the position where it is further pushed, and S102 to S105 are repeated. Here, in the second and subsequent processes of S106, the cutter blade 31 is already in the second operation position, and therefore the process from S102 is repeated. On the other hand, when it is determined that the number of retries has reached the predetermined number, it is determined that there is a jam, and the CPU 401 executes the jam stop process and ends the cutting process of FIG. In the jam stop processing, for example, the display unit 14 is notified of a warning message such as "Could not be cut. Open the cover and remove the tube".

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to determine whether or not the recording medium is surely cut regardless of the type of the recording medium without complicating the device.

  1 Printing device: 2a, 2b Conveying roller: 20 Printing part: 30 Cutting part: 31 Cutter blade: 39 First cam

Claims (7)

A printing device for printing on a tubular recording medium,
Conveying means for conveying the recording medium,
Printing means for printing on the recording medium conveyed in a predetermined conveying direction by the conveying means,
A cutting unit that performs a cutting process on the recording medium on the downstream side of the printing unit in the transport direction,
The cutting process is performed by the cutting unit, and the cutting process is performed based on a load when the recording medium located upstream of the cutting position in the carrying direction is carried in the opposite direction to the carrying direction. Control means for retrying the cutting process for the executed recording medium,
A printing apparatus comprising:   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit retries the cutting process based on a current value of a motor that drives the conveyance roller.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit retries the cutting process based on the rotation speed of the transport roller. The cutting means includes a cutter,
The control means, when retrying the cutting process, increases the pressing amount of the cutter against the recording medium,
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing apparatus is a printing apparatus.   The printing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the control unit changes a movement amount of the cutter by a cam structure. Further comprising a notification means for notifying the user of a warning,
The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the control unit notifies the user of the warning when the number of retries reaches a predetermined number. A method for controlling a printing device for printing on a tubular recording medium, comprising:
A conveying step of conveying the recording medium, and a printing step of performing printing on the recording medium conveyed in a predetermined conveying direction in the conveying step,
A cutting step of performing a cutting process on a recording medium at a downstream side in the transport direction with respect to a position where printing is performed in the printing step,
The cutting process is performed in the cutting step, and the recording medium positioned upstream of the cutting direction in the carrying direction is transported based on the load when the recording medium is carried in the opposite direction to the carrying direction. A retry step of retrying the cutting process for the executed recording medium,
A control method comprising: