JP2754956B2 - Barcode printer device, barcode printing method, and barcode recording medium - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bar code printer for printing a bar code, a printing method for printing a bar code by the device, and a bar code recording body printed by the device.

In recent years, barcodes have been added to products, products, or workpieces, semi-finished products, products, etc. in the manufacturing process,
By enabling single item identification, these processing and assembly,
Automation or labor-saving management is performed in various processes such as inventory, shipment, and distribution management.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, when a bar code is printed by a dot-type printer, "JAN standard", "NW
Barcode type such as "-7" or "CODE39", the width of the minimum barcode element (module) width such as "1 dot", "2 dots" or "3 dots", and the numbers or letters to be printed -By specifying and inputting characters (information) including special symbols and spaces, respectively, the barcode image pattern corresponding thereto is once developed on a bitmap type working memory, and then the pattern data is read from the memory. Are sequentially read, transferred to a print buffer memory, sent to a print head, and printed on a record carrier. Then, in order to develop the bar code pattern in the working memory, one horizontal (width direction) dot row for each character constituting the bar code is referred to by referring to the code conversion table (for example, "●●● ○○ ● ○ ”), the module configuration composed of bit strings (for example,“ 1110010 ”) is sequentially written in the working memory, thereby creating a pattern for one horizontal row (width direction) of the barcode. Conventionally, a bar code symbol is completed by copying (repeating) a predetermined number of times in the vertical direction, that is, the height of the bar code into a predetermined area in the working memory.

Hereinafter, the conventional system will be specifically described by taking a serial scanning type ink jet printer as an example. The serial scanning type prints while the ink head 1 reciprocates in the horizontal direction 3 with respect to the record carrier 2 as shown in FIG. 2 and the like. In the transport direction 4. The effective print width 5 is naturally determined by the horizontal moving distance of the ink head. If the length direction of the barcode symbol 6 is printed on the effective printing width 5 as shown in FIG. 2, the height direction of the barcode symbol 6 is printed on the effective printing width 5 as shown in FIG. Compared with, the amount of working memory required to expand the barcode symbol can be greatly reduced. This is because the barcode symbol length 7 and the barcode symbol height 8 in the present invention are as shown in FIG. 3, and originally the barcode height 8 is
It is considered that 10 mm or more is necessary because it affects the read operability, but generally the barcode length 7 is longer than the barcode height 8.

Further, the bar code is generally written with characters (human readable interpretation) above or below the bar code symbol so that the recorded character (information) can be visually checked by a human. However, if the character is printed in the arrangement shown in FIG.
The printing must be performed by so-called vertical / horizontal conversion. In view of these points, conventionally, barcode symbols are printed in the arrangement shown in FIG.

However, when a bar code symbol is printed in the above-described arrangement of FIG. 2 using a serial scanning type ink jet printer, it essentially contributes to printing at the ink droplet formation stage in FIG. Unnecessary satellite droplets 11 are generated in addition to the main droplets 10, which are spot-like stains 12 on the space (white bar) of the barcode symbol on the record carrier as shown in FIG.
And the reading rate is greatly reduced. The generation of the satellite drops 11 can be suppressed by optimizing the ink drop formation conditions. However, barcode symbols are required to maintain the highest possible contrast, and the PCS value defined by the following equation is required. A minimum value is specified. In order to satisfy this, it is important to lower the reflectance of the black bar portion (increase the print density), and use high-density, ie, high-viscosity ink. However, when the viscosity of the ink increases, the above-mentioned satellite droplets 11 are likely to be formed. Therefore, in the case of printing a barcode symbol with an ink-jet printer device, it is necessary to select a contradictory condition regarding so-called print density and contamination. Had been.

PCS value = (RL−RD) / RD × 100 (%) RL: reflectance of space RD: reflectance of bar

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to provide a very high contrast,
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a bar code printer capable of printing a bar code symbol having a very high read rate.

By utilizing the characteristics of the recording method of the present invention, it is possible to print on a record carrier having a curved surface, a spherical surface, or a minute uneven surface, so that a barcode symbol can be printed on, for example, a fiber cloth. Since colorization is possible, it is also possible to combine colorful marks and barcode symbols, and this is very effectively used for various record carriers.

In view of the above, another object of the present invention is to provide a printing method for printing a barcode symbol having a very high contrast and yet having a very high readout rate.
An object of the present invention is to provide a barcode recording medium.

[0011]

The inventor of the present invention has made intensive studies on this object for many years, and has finally reached the present invention. The outline is as follows.

That is, the bar code printer device of the present invention comprises an ink jet printer device for ejecting ink droplets for printing information including a bar code symbol on a record carrier. A bar code printer device wherein the height directions of the code symbols are substantially the same.

[0013] In addition, bar code printing method of the present invention, Lee
Using an ink jet printer that ejects ink droplets ,
A barcode printing method characterized in that printing is performed so that the ink printing direction on a record carrier and the height direction of a barcode symbol to be printed are substantially the same.

Further, a barcode recording body of the present invention is a barcode recording body prepared by the above-described barcode printing method of the present invention.

[0015]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail.

The barcode symbol length 7 and the barcode symbol height 8 in the present invention are as shown in FIG.

The printing direction of the ink on the record carrier, which is a key point of the present invention, is defined as the form of an ink head such as a continuous ejection type, an intermittent ejection type, an on-demand type, an ink mist type, etc. Is defined regardless of That is, the printing position on the record carrier of the ink droplet ejected at a certain moment from one nozzle constituting the ink head is set to point A, and the ink is ejected from the same nozzle at the next moment after a minimum time interval. Assuming that the printing position of the ink droplet to be printed is point B, the ink printing direction on the record carrier of the present invention is a direction connecting point A to point B.
More specifically, in the case of a serial scanning type bar code printer device, printing is performed while the ink head moves in the horizontal direction with respect to the record carrier, that is, in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the record carrier. Is defined as a direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the record carrier. Note that the direction connecting the point A to the point A rotated by 180 degrees does not deviate from the basic idea of the present invention.

Further, there are the following points as unexpected effects of the present invention. That is, the serial scanning type ink jet printer device is originally positioned as a character printer because of its good direct visibility in the horizontal direction. However, when the printer prints barcode symbols arranged in FIG. Even with a record carrier having a high degree of flatness (dedicated recording paper), due to the inevitable swing caused by the lateral movement of the ink head, 13 "" at the edge of the bar as shown in FIG. It causes "distortion". In the case of the present invention, since the edge portion of the bar is formed by effectively utilizing the intuition in the horizontal direction, which is a feature of the printer device, a bar code symbol of very high quality can be obtained. Furthermore,
When printing a barcode symbol with the configuration of the present invention, a barcode symbol that is long in the barcode length direction can be printed without being limited by the effective printing width determined by the horizontal moving distance of the ink head. That is, a so-called "long" barcode symbol can be obtained even with a small serial scanning type ink jet printer having an extremely narrow effective printing width, and a compact label printer can be realized. When the effective printing width is narrow, it is not necessary to secure a large capacity for the working memory.

As the record carrier used in the present invention, conventionally used paper, fiber cloth, film sheet and the like can be used. As a fiber cloth, a woven or knitted fabric woven or knitted at a high weaving density or knitting density,
Alternatively, a nonwoven fabric or the like can be used. The fibers constituting these fiber cloths are preferably ultrafine fibers having a single fiber fineness of 1 denier or less, preferably 0.1 denier or less. The woven or knitted fabric or the nonwoven fabric may be one in which the fabric surface is flattened or highly entangled by a calendering process, various resin processes, a water jet punching process, or the like.

In the above description, in particular, the printing mechanism has been described with an example of an ink jet printer apparatus of a serial scanning type. However, another printing mechanism of another type proposed, for example, a record carrier is wound around a drum. Even in a drum scanning type in which the rotation of the drum is a main scan and a horizontal movement of the ink head is a sub-scan, or in a plane scanning type using a horizontal single-row type ink head (multi-nozzle line head), it is possible to use The present invention can be implemented by configuring the ink printing direction and the height direction of the barcode symbol to be printed substantially in the same direction.

The bar code printer of the present invention does not impose any restrictions on the information input unit, and has an input unit that enables manual input of a keyboard type so that it can be used alone (stand-alone). Alternatively, it may be of a type that incorporates various communication interfaces that have already been proposed and that can input information from an external computer.

[0022]

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following examples.

A commercially available personal computer was connected to an ink-jet printer apparatus having an on-demand ink head and a serial scanning type printing mechanism. "JAN standard", "NW-
7 ”or a barcode type such as“ CODE39 ”,
A barcode minimum element (module) width such as "1 dot", "2 dots", or "3 dots" is designated, and data (character) is input. With reference to the code conversion table, the input data was developed into a barcode image pattern on the work memory secured in the personal computer.

On the other hand, a water-jet punch was applied to a high-density woven fabric in which ultrafine fiber yarn having a single fiber fineness of 0.07 denier was woven as a constituent fiber to obtain a fiber cloth sheet for a record carrier.

The above-described image patterns were sequentially transferred to the printer, and printed on the sheet using the record carrier sheet.

In such printing, in order to compare the method of the present invention with the conventional method, the conventional arrangement shown in FIG. 2 using exactly the same hardware and the bar code printing method of the present invention in which this is rotated by 90 ° are used. Printing was performed in two systems based on the arrangement shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 shows the printing results. FIG. 6 is an enlarged micrograph (magnification: 18 ×) of the fiber surface on which the bar code is printed on the fiber cloth, where a black portion indicates a black bar and a white portion indicates a white bar. FIG. 3A shows a graph according to the method of the present invention.
FIG. 1B shows the result of the conventional method. The code system of the barcode symbol shown in FIG. 6 is “JAN standard”.

FIG. 6A, which is a barcode recording medium of the present invention prepared by the barcode printing method of the present invention, shows that there is no stain caused by satellite droplets and a bar edge with high linearity is obtained. The conventional bar code recording body shown in FIG. 6B can be clearly distinguished. In other words, in the conventional system, printing of satellite droplets in a barcode symbol is often performed in the conventional system, and blurring of a white bar is particularly conspicuous.

Both barcodes were repeatedly read and inspected by a commercially available touch-type barcode reader. As a result, FIG.
Was difficult to read and could only be read once by several reading operations, whereas FIG. 6A, which is a barcode recording material according to the present invention, was very easy to read. .

[0030]

As described above, according to the bar code printer apparatus and the bar code printing method of the present invention, a very high quality bar code recording medium with little stain caused by satellite droplets can be produced. Utilizing the features of the recording method, barcode symbols can be added to materials with a slightly uneven surface, such as fiber cloth, which is effective for delivery of textile products that had been postponed to automation, such as the uniform rental business. It is used.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a model diagram showing one embodiment of a serial scanning type printing method for a barcode printer device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a model diagram of a conventional serial scanning bar code printer device shown for comparison.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram in which the length and height of a barcode symbol are defined.

FIG. 4 is a model diagram showing an ink droplet formation state after being ejected from a nozzle.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are model conceptual diagrams schematically showing a defective portion of a barcode symbol printed by a conventional serial scanning type ink jet printer.

[6] a sign barcodes fabric obtained in Example
Is a magnified micrograph (magnification: 18 times) showing the shape of the fibers in the fiber cloth obtained by lettering, where black portions are black bars and white portions are white bars. Is shown. FIG. 3A shows the result of the method of the present invention, and FIG. 3B shows the result of the conventional method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: ink head 2: record carrier 3: moving direction of ink head 4: transport direction of record carrier 5: effective printing width 6: barcode symbol 7: length of barcode symbol 8: height of barcode symbol 9: Ink ejection direction 10: Main droplet 11: Satellite droplet 12: Spot-like stain 13: "Distortion" at the edge of the bar

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G06K 1/12 B32B 27/12 B41J 2/01 B41J 3/01 D04H 1/46

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] An ink jet printer for ejecting ink droplets for printing information including a barcode symbol on a record carrier, wherein the ink printing direction on the record carrier and the height direction of the barcode symbol to be printed are substantially equal. A barcode printer device configured to be in the same direction. 2. The bar code printer according to claim 1, wherein the printing mechanism is a serial scanning type. 3. An ink jet printer for ejecting ink droplets, wherein printing is performed such that the ink printing direction on a record carrier and the height direction of a barcode symbol to be printed are substantially the same direction. A bar code printing method characterized by the following. 4. A bar code recording material prepared by the bar code printing method according to claim 3. 5. The bar code recording body according to claim 4, wherein the record carrier is a fiber cloth.