JP2570334B2 - Dial-selectable tape printer - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a tape printer for printing on a tape to be transported, and in particular, a character such as a character or a symbol to be printed by operating a rotary operation dial. The present invention relates to a dial printing type tape printing device to be selected.

<Prior art and its problems> A tape printing apparatus that prints on a tape instead of a printing paper is already known. Generally, a printing head, which is a main body of a printing mechanism, has a fixed position. In many cases, printing is performed on a printing tape fed in the longitudinal direction.

In general, a keyboard having a large number of keys is used for inputting print data, and the printing mechanism is controlled in accordance with the feed of the print tape based on the print data selected by the keyboard. However, the tape is usually fed by driving means such as a motor.

By the way, the above-mentioned keyboard usually requires at least about 50 keys for selecting alphabetic characters, numbers, kana, etc., so that the keyboard occupies a large proportion in the printing apparatus, and the printing apparatus itself is compact. This has been a factor that has hindered the development of the system.

Further, the cost of the motor for feeding the tape and the power consumed by the motor are one factor that hinders the cost reduction and the power consumption reduction of the printing apparatus.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the related art, and has as its object to provide a tape printer that satisfies all the requirements for a compact, low-cost, and low-power printer. .

<Means for Solving the Problems> In order to achieve the above object, an apparatus according to the present invention comprises a printing mechanism for printing on a printing tape to be transferred, and a character,
A rotary operation dial operated to select a character such as a symbol, phase detection means for detecting the rotation phase of the dial, and character storage for storing each character in association with the phase detected by the phase detection means Means, character selection means operated to select a character corresponding to the rotation phase of the rotary operation dial, a tape feed mechanism for sending a print tape based on the rotation of the rotary operation dial, A power transmission mechanism for selectively transmitting rotation to the tape feed mechanism, and a phase detected by the phase detection means when the rotation of the rotary operation dial is transmitted to the tape feed mechanism by the power transmission mechanism. And control means for driving and controlling the printing mechanism.

<Operations and effects> In this manner, a single rotary operation dial can be used to feed a tape for character selection and printing, and a phase detector such as a rotary encoder that detects the rotational phase of the dial. Since the means can be used in common, it is possible to provide an inexpensive tape printer with a simple and compact structure.

In other words, the rotary operation dial has a smaller input section than a keyboard having a large number of keys, and the dial is used to feed the tape. Therefore, a tape feed motor is not required. The cost and power consumption can be reduced.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 4 shows the overall configuration of a tape printer according to one embodiment of the present invention. This tape printing apparatus includes an input unit 10 for inputting print data, and a printing unit (printer unit) 14 for printing on a print tape 12 in accordance with the print data. The input unit 10 is provided with a rotary operation dial (hereinafter simply referred to as a dial) 16. This character selection dial 16
Has an annular shape, and on the annular dial surface 17, a number of characters such as characters (kana, alphabets, and numbers), symbols, and signs are displayed in two rows at equal intervals.

The input unit 10 is also provided with an alignment point 18 that defines the origin of the dial 16 and the character selection position.
Inside the dial 16, a print button 20 is provided concentrically with the dial 16 as character selection means operated to select a character corresponding to the rotation phase of the dial 16. When the print button 20 is pressed after the character selection operation by the dial 16, the data of the character located at the alignment point 18 is input, and the data is input to the liquid crystal display 22 provided on the input unit 10. Is displayed.

The input unit 10 is further provided with necessary function keys 24 such as a key for designating a character interval and a size, an enter key, a kana / kanji conversion key, and the like.

In the printing unit 14 according to the data of the input unit 10, the thermal head 26 as a printing head performs printing on the printing tape 12 fed in the longitudinal direction. The thermal head 26 has a heating element array in a direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of the printing tape 12, and is pressed against the platen roller 30 via the ink ribbon 28 and the printing tape 12. Then, the heating element array is caused to generate heat in a predetermined pattern, and the heat transfers the ink of the ink ribbon 28 to the printing tape 12 to perform printing, so that the thermal head 26 and the platen roller 30 are printed.
Is the main part of the printing mechanism.

The platen roller 30 is rotatably supported around an axis parallel to the row of heating elements, and is urged toward the thermal head 26 by an urging device (not shown). Ink ribbon 28
5 is drawn out from a supply spool 34 shown in FIG. 5 between the thermal head 26 and the platen roller 30, and the transferred ink ribbon 28 is taken up by a take-up spool.
Winded up at 36.

The printing tape 12 is supported in a state wound around a supply spool 38, is supplied to the thermal head 26 via a guide roller 40, and passes between a pair of tape feed rollers 42 and 44 provided further downstream. These rollers are provided so as to sandwich the print tape 12, and are driven to rotate in the opposite directions at the same speed, thereby playing the role of feeding the print tape 12 to the left in FIG. It constitutes a feed mechanism. Both rollers 42, 44 are manually driven according to the rotation operation of the dial 16,
It is connected to the dial 16 via a gear train, which will be described in detail later.

Next, the dial 16 and the print button 20 will be described in more detail.

As shown in FIG. 1, the dial 16 is a cover of the input unit 10.
A dial portion rotatably held and rotated by 46 is projected from the cover 46, while a slit disk 48 is concentrically fixed to a portion below the dial.

As shown in FIG. 6, optical slits formed by black silk printing are formed at equal angular intervals on the slit disk 48, and these grating portions 50 are light-opaque portions, and slits between the grating portions 50 are formed. The part 52 is a light transmitting part. As shown in FIG. 7, this optical grating is linearly developed, and includes an outer group of slits 54 for detecting the rotation phase of the dial 16 and an inner group of slits 56 for determining the rotation direction. In the present embodiment, the outer slit group 54 is formed at a pitch of 7.5 °, while the inner slit group 56 is shifted 2.5 ° clockwise with respect to the outer slit group 54. Has been shifted. A photosensor 58 for optically detecting the inner and outer slit groups 54 and 56 is provided.
(See FIG. 1) is provided at a position sandwiching the slit disk 48, and the slit disk 48 and the photosensor 58 constitute a rotary encoder 60 as phase detection means for detecting the rotational phase of the dial 16. .

The photo sensor 58 has a light source on one side and a photoelectric element on the other side, and outputs a signal of “1” for the grating section 50 and a signal of “0” for the slit section 52, as will be described later. Connected to a microcomputer.
Then, as shown in FIG. 4, at the dial phase where "A. A" matches the positioning point 18, the reading of the photo sensor 58 becomes "1, 1" as shown in FIG. Such a reading is obtained only at one point of "A. A", and this position is set as the origin of the dial 16, and the dial 16
If the next output of the photo sensor 58 becomes "0,0" due to the rotation of the dial, it is determined that the rotation direction of the dial 16 is clockwise in FIG. 4, and if "0,1", the rotation direction is counterclockwise. It is determined that there is. Thus, the rotation direction is determined,
Also, by counting the pulses based on the detection of the grid portion 50 and the slit portion 52 of the slit disk 48, the positioning point 18
Is read.

Returning to FIG. 1, a driving force generating gear 62 is concentrically fixed to a portion of the dial 16 further lower than the slit disk 48 so that the gear 62 rotates integrally with the dial 16. Has become.

The print button 20 is fitted inside the ring-shaped dial 16 so as to be relatively rotatable and slidable in the axial direction.
The cover 46 does not rotate. An elastically deformable rubber contact plate 64 is provided below the print button 20, and a switch contact is formed between the print button 20 and the substrate 63. The print button 20 is urged upward in the figure by the elastic force of the contact plate 64. The print button 20 is projected from the lower end of the dial 16, and a stopper bar 66 extending in the radial direction is integrally formed at the projected end.

A driving force transmission gear 68 is provided adjacent to the dial 16 and the print button 20 so as to mesh with the driving force generation gear 62 of the dial 16. As is clear from FIG.
The gear 68 has a cut-out part in the circumferential direction
In this notch 70, even if the gear 62 of the dial 16 rotates, the rotation is not transmitted to the gear 68.

A gear shaft 72 integrated with the gear 68 is provided with a radial projection 74 that rotates together with the gear 68. When the print button 20 is in the non-pressed state, the stopper bar 66 provided on the print button 20 is provided. To be engaged with the front end portion.

As shown in FIG. 2, the gear 68 is urged in the counterclockwise direction in the figure by a tension spring 76 for removing backlash, and as shown in FIG. It comes into contact with the stopper bar 66 from the counterclockwise direction, and is maintained in that state by the tension spring 76. At this time, the phases of the notch 70 and the projection 74 are determined so that the notch 70 of the gear 68 faces the gear 62.

As shown in FIG. 1, a gear 77 having teeth on the entire circumference is provided integrally and concentrically with the gear 68. Although not shown in detail, the gear 77 has the above-described tape feed roller 42 and the gear 77.
It is connected to 44 by a gear train. That is, the tape feed gears 78 and 80 are concentrically fixed to the tape feed rollers 42 and 44, respectively, and the gear 80 is meshed with the gear 77 via a predetermined gear train. Then, only when the gear 68 is engaged with the gear 62, in other words, selectively, the rotation of the dial 16 is transmitted to the tape feed rollers 42, 44, and in this embodiment, the gears 62, 68, 77, 78, 80 and The intermediate gear train forms a power transmission mechanism. Also,
The rotation of the gear 77 is also transmitted to a spool shaft for rotating the take-up spool 36 of the ribbon cassette 32 shown in FIG. 5 through another gear train (not shown).

Regarding the control system of the tape printer described above,
Description will be made based on the drawings.

The photo sensor 58 that detects the rotation phase of the dial 16 is connected to an input interface 132 of a microcomputer 130 together with the print button 20 and the function key 24. The input interface 132 is connected to the CPU 136, ROM 138,
40, a character generator (CG-ROM) 142 and an output interface 144.

The ROM 138 includes a program memory for storing a program for controlling the entire operation of the tape printer, a dictionary memory, and the like. The RAM 140 includes various counters, registers, and the like.
It has a buffer. The CG-ROM 142 generates a dot matrix pattern of various characters, and corresponds to character storage means for storing each character in association with the rotation phase of the dial 16. Output interface
The head drive circuit 146 and the display drive circuit 150 are connected to 144, and the thermal head 26 and the liquid crystal display 22 are connected to each.

 Next, the operation will be described.

After the power is turned on, the origin is set by aligning the origin "A. A" of the dial 16 with the positioning point 18, and the CPU 136 starts various signal processing thereafter. The general procedure of operation is to rotate the dial 16, select one character, press the print button 20, and then rotate the dial 16 again to print one selected character. During the character selection operation using the dial 16, the print button 20 is in a non-pressed state. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the notch 70 of the gear 68 faces the gear 62 of the dial 16, so that even if the dial 16 is rotated, the gear 68 does not rotate, and therefore the tape feed rollers 42, 44 Does not rotate.

The rotation of the dial 16 rotates the slit disk 48, and the rotary encoder 60 converts a change in the rotation phase into an electric signal and supplies the electric signal to the CPU 136. Based on this signal, the character matched with the positioning point 18 is determined and displayed on the liquid crystal display 22, and when the print button 20 is pressed, it is determined as a print character, and the dot pattern is stored in the RAM 140 from the CG-ROM 142. Stored in the print buffer. When printing kanji, select the kana corresponding to the reading with the dial 16, determine the kana one character at a time with the enter key which is one of the function keys 24, and further use the kana / kanji conversion key to select the desired kana. After selecting the kanji, the print button 20 is pressed.

In any case, when the print button 20 is pressed, the stopper bar 66 fixed to the lower end also moves downward integrally,
The engagement between the stopper bar 66 and the projection 74 is released. As a result, the gear 68 is driven by the tension spring
It is in a state of engagement.

When the dial 16 is rotated clockwise in this state, the gear 62 rotates the gear 68, and finally the tape feed rollers 42 and 44 in FIG. 1 rotate in opposite directions to supply the print tape 12. The thermal head 26 prints one character on the transported printing tape 12 while pulling it out from the spool 38 and feeding it in the longitudinal direction.

The timing of this printing is determined by receiving a supply signal from the rotary encoder 60 that detects the rotation phase of the dial 16, and
U136 controls. That is, according to the rotation of the dial 16,
The photo sensor 58 detects the slit group 54 and the like of the slit disk 48, and supplies a pulse signal corresponding to the number of passing slits to the CPU 136. Based on this, the CPU 136 calculates the change in the rotation phase of the dial 16 and, consequently, the feed amount of the printing tape 12, and adjusts the thermal head 26 at the optimal timing according to the feed amount.
The heating pattern of the heating element row is switched. At this time, since the rotation phase of the dial 16 is sequentially stored in the RAM 140, the correspondence between the rotation phase of the dial 16 and the character is maintained even after printing is performed. In this embodiment, the CPU 136 forms the main part of the control means for controlling the thermal head 26 based on the rotation phase of the dial 16.

For example, if a character having a pattern of 32 × 32 dots is to be printed, when the dial 16 is rotated by an amount that the photo sensor 58 detects the 32 slits, the gear is such that the printing tape 12 is fed by one character. By comparison, the dial 16 and the tape feed rollers 42 and 44 are connected.

When the dial 16 is rotated by a predetermined amount, the gear 68 rotating in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. 2 has a rotation phase in which the notch 70 has reached the engagement with the gear 62, and at this time, the gears 62 and 68
Is released, the projection 74 returns to the initial state in which the stopper bar 66 is engaged, and the dial 16 returns to the character selection mode in which character selection can be performed. In this one cycle, the print tape 12 has been sent by one character, and so on.
Character selection and printing can be performed one character at a time.

As is apparent from the above description, the dial for character selection and the dial for tape feed are constituted by one dial 16, and the character reading encoder on the dial 16 and the printing timing are set in accordance with the tape feed. Since the same encoder 60 is shared with the encoder, the structure of the tape printer is simple and compact, leading to cost reduction and easy control by a CPU or the like.

As a modification of the present embodiment, the tape feed roller 42
And 44 may be omitted, and the platen roller 30 may also function as a tape feed roller. In that case, the platen roller 30 may be driven to rotate by the gear 68 of FIG. 1 directly or indirectly via an intermediate gear.

Further, instead of simply printing on the printing tape 12, for example, a reverse printing is performed on a transparent printing tape, and a background forming tape or an adhesive layer applying tape is attached to the reverse printing surface with a pressure bonding device such as a roller. The present invention can be applied to a printing device.

In addition, it is needless to say that the present invention can be implemented in various modified forms based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a main part (a rotary operation dial and its vicinity) of a tape printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG. 1, and FIG.
It is a III-III sectional view. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the entire tape printing apparatus, and FIG. 5 is a plan view schematically showing the printing mechanism. FIG. 6 is a plan view of the rotary encoder shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 7 is a view in which the slit pattern is linearly developed. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a control system of the present apparatus. 10: Input section, 14: Printing section 12: Printing tape, 16: Rotating operation dial 18: Alignment point, 20: Printing button 26: Thermal head, 28: Ink ribbon 30: Platen roller 42, 44: Tape feed roller 48 : Slit disk, 58: Photo sensor 60: Rotary encoder 62: Driving force generation gear, 66: Stopper bar 68: Driving force transmission gear, 70: Notch 74: Projection

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yujiro Ishikawa 9-35, Horitadori, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi Prefecture Inside Brother Industries, Ltd. (72) Inventor Takashi Sakai 9-35, Horitadori, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi Address: Within Brother Industries, Ltd. (72) Eiji Yuki, Inventor 9-35, Hotita-dori, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi, Japan

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing mechanism for printing on a printing tape to be transferred, a rotating dial operated to select characters such as characters and symbols, and a phase detecting means for detecting a rotating phase of the dial; Character storage means for storing each character in association with the phase detected by the phase detection means; character selection means operated to select a character corresponding to the rotation phase of the rotary operation dial; A tape feed mechanism for feeding the print tape based on the rotation of the dial; a power transmission mechanism for selectively transmitting the rotation of the rotary operation dial to the tape feed mechanism; and a rotation of the rotary operation dial by the power transmission mechanism. The printing is performed based on the phase detected by the phase detection unit when the state is transmitted to the tape feeding mechanism. Dial selection character type tape printer, characterized in that it comprises a control means for driving and controlling the structure.