JP4516687B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printer capable of printing both a sheet such as a label tape and a plate such as a card, and has a print medium type input means for inputting the type in order to perform printing under printing conditions according to the type of the print medium. Regarding printers.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, printers for printing both hard plastic plates and tape-like print media described in JP-A-11-198478 and JP-A-11-245477 have been known as such printers. Since this printer varies in thickness and hardness depending on the type of printing medium, optimum printing cannot be performed unless printing is performed under printing conditions corresponding to the type of printing medium.
[0003]
For example, the head pressure and energization time of the thermal head are changed depending on the type of printing medium, and the interval between the transport roller and the pinch roller and the interval between the thermal head and the platen roller are changed according to the thickness of the medium.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The following problems have occurred in the above technique. The type of print medium is input by a printer that is a higher model of this printer or by the medium setting means of this printer, but the previously set condition is used as it is unless the operator changes it. Therefore, if this is forgotten and another printing medium is set in the printer, printing is performed under inappropriate printing conditions. When the operator notices this, the print medium set in the printer is exchanged, and therefore, it is necessary to cancel the set state and discharge the print medium.
[0005]
An object of the present invention is to provide a printer capable of performing a discharge process according to a print medium type when a print medium different from the print medium input by the print medium type input unit is set in the printer. .
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The printer of the present invention is a printing medium type input means for inputting the type of sheets and plates, a feeding means comprising a pair of rollers capable of changing the interval for conveying the printing medium toward the printing means, Sheet detecting means for detecting that the print medium is set in the feeding means, medium discharge instruction means for inputting a medium discharge instruction for replacing the set print medium, and print medium type input type means Is input and the medium discharge instruction means is input, the roller interval of the feeding means is widened, and when the plates are input and the medium discharge input means is input, the rollers of the supply means are reversed. Further, the present invention is characterized by comprising a medium discharge processing control means for widening the roller interval.
[0007]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an enlarged view of a printing portion of a plate printer, FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of an operation panel, and FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of the plate printer.
[0008]
The plate printer 1 includes a relatively thick printing medium such as a plastic plate P having a thickness of about 0.5 mm to 3 mm, a label sheet S wound in a roll shape, and a soft vinyl chloride sheet. It is a thermal printer that prints a relatively soft and thin print medium. The plate printer 1 is adhered to the surface of the cleaning roller 2 made of adhesive silicon rubber or the like for cleaning the printing surface of the plate P or the label sheet S before printing, and to maintain the adhesiveness of the cleaning roller 2. A cleaning means 3 for periodically removing dust is provided.
[0009]
The cleaning roller 2 is rotatably provided on a swing rod 8 that is swingable with respect to the printer body 1. The swing rod 8 is pivoted by a motor 9, a gear train (not shown), and a cam 10. The cleaning roller 2 is moved up and down by swinging about 8a. The cleaning roller 2 in FIG. 1 is in a state before the printing medium is transported under the plate feeding condition described later. When the printing medium such as the plate P is transported, the cleaning roller 2 moves toward the transport roller 11 below. When cleaning the cleaning roller 2, it moves toward the upper cleaning means 3.
[0010]
A conveying roller 11 facing the cleaning roller 2, a platen roller 12 located on the left side in the drawing, and the other conveying roller 13 convey a printing medium such as a plate P in the left direction in the drawing. And forward / reverse rotation drive by a drive means using a gear train. The upstream conveying roller 11 is paired with the cleaning roller 2, and the downstream conveying roller 13 is paired with a pinch roller 14 to press and hold the print medium.
[0011]
The pinch roller 14 is rotatably provided on a swing rod 15 that is swingable with respect to the printer body 1 about a shaft 15a. The swing rod 15 is provided with an intermediate cam means 16 and a slide plate 17. And the pinch roller 14 is moved in the vertical direction in conjunction with the swing rod 8. The springs 8b and 15b provided at one end portions of the swing rod 8 and the swing rod 15 urge the cleaning roller 2 and the pinch roller 14 toward the transport roller 11 and the transport roller 13, respectively. ]
The transport roller 11, the platen roller 12, the transport roller 13, and the pinch roller 14 described above are obtained by increasing the transport force by winding a rubber material such as CR (chloroprene) rubber or EPDM (ethylene propylene) around the surface of the metal shaft portion. It is.
[0013]
The thermal printing head 20 is configured to face the platen roller 12 and move in the contact / separation direction with the platen roller 12. During printing, the print data transferred to the platen roller 12 is printed on the print medium via the ink ribbon 21 from a higher-level model such as a personal computer (not shown). Reference numeral 22 denotes an ink ribbon cassette that accommodates the ink ribbon 21.
[0014]
As shown in FIG. 2, the operation panel 23 includes menu switching buttons 24 and 25, a menu selection button 26, a menu cancel / discharge button 27, a display unit 28 that displays a printer status and an operation menu to the operator, An online / offline switch key 29 with a higher-class computer is provided.
[0015]
The medium detection sensor 40 on the bottom surface of the upstream side (right direction in the figure) of the transport roller 11 and the cleaning roller 2 detects that the print medium has been set in the printer mainly by the operator, and the downstream side (in the figure). The TOP sensor 41 on the upper surface mainly detects the position of the leading edge of the print medium. The slide volume linear sensor 42 that engages with the protrusion 17a at the substantially central portion of the slide plate 17 moves the slide plate 17. The amount is detected as an interval between the cleaning roller 2 and the conveyance roller 11.
[0016]
The printer 1 is provided with a control unit 50. The control unit 50 includes a CPU as a known control unit, a RAM and a ROM (including a rewritable ROM) as a known storage unit, a timer, and the like. (All not shown), connected to the motors, sensors, operation panel, thermal head, and higher-level personal computer, and the control program read from the ROM, and from the personal computer and the operation panel. Control of the entire apparatus such as driving of motors and storage of each data is performed according to various data and conditions detected from inputs and sensors and read from RAM and ROM.
[0017]
Next, the operation of the printer will be described based on the flowchart shown in the drawing. As shown in FIG. 5, when the printer 1 is turned on, first, an initial operation is performed to move each mechanism unit to the home position and to read the initial printing condition values from a ROM (not shown). As the conditions read at this time, the feeding conditions of the plates or sheets set in the rewritable ROM set from the operation panel are read out.
[0018]
Based on the read feed condition, it is determined whether the plate or sheet is used (1). If the plate is set here, the drive motor 9 drives the cam 10 to rotate the cleaning roller 2. And the distance between the conveying rollers 11 is set to 4 mm (2) (state shown in FIG. 1). If the sheets are set, the cleaning roller 2 is moved to a position in contact with the conveying roller 11 (3). By this movement, plates that are relatively hard and easy to set and sheets that are soft and difficult to set because of curl are easily set to the position where the TOP sensor 41 detects. This condition can be easily changed by operating the operation panel 23.
[0019]
Next, confirmation of print data reception from a personal computer (not shown) (4), confirmation of presence / absence of a print medium from the medium detection sensor (5), and confirmation of whether the print medium is set (7) are continuously performed. When the plate P is set as the print medium in the setting unit by the operator, the medium detection sensor 40 detects this and the medium setting process (7) is executed. If the print medium is already set, that is, if both the sensor 40 and the sensor 42 detect the presence of the medium, it is determined in step (5) that the medium is present, and it is confirmed whether the discharge button 27 is input (6 ) And data reception confirmation (4) is continuously performed. FIG. 4 shows a state in which a print medium is set in the printer. (A) shows a state in which the plate P is set, and (b) shows a state in which the sheet S is set.
[0020]
When the operator notices that a print medium different from the print data is set before transferring the print data from the personal computer with the print medium set in this manner, the operator presses the cancel / discharge button 27 on the operation panel 23. The printing medium is ejected by pressing.
[0021]
When the cancel / discharge button 27 is pressed, it is determined in step 6 that there is an input of the discharge button, and the discharge process is executed. As shown in FIG. 6, in the discharge process, first, the feeding conditions of the plates or sheets stored in the rewritable ROM are read (60). The plate P is rotated in the reverse direction to discharge backward (rightward in FIG. 4A) (61), and then the cleaning roller 2 is lifted upward (62) to complete the plate discharging process. When the type of the preset medium is a plate, the plate is reversely fed and ejected from the conveyance roller. Since the plate is a printing object having a short size of about 50 mm unlike the sheet, the distance between the cleaning roller 2 and the conveyance roller 11 is set. This is a result of considering that it is difficult to pick a part of it by hand if it is set in the state.
[0022]
If it is determined in step 60 that the sheet is a sheet, the cleaning roller 2 is lifted upward (63), and the sheet S discharging process is terminated. In the case of a sheet, the reverse feeding process is not performed because the sheet is made of a thin and soft material unlike the plate. This is a result of considering the above.
[0023]
Subsequently, the operator exchanges the print medium, and when the correct print medium is set, print data is sent from the personal computer. The printer confirms reception of the print data and executes a printing process (steps 4, 12, 13, 14).
[0024]
In the printer of the present embodiment, the feeding condition set from the operation panel is used as an input unit for the type of print medium, but the medium type set in the print data and the print medium detected by a known thickness detection unit (For example, a medium of 0.6 mm or more is judged as a plate, and a medium less than that is judged as a sheet), the type of the print medium may be judged, and the discharge process may be changed according to the result. The print data input means and the thickness detection means become the print medium type input means.
[0025]
In the present embodiment, the form of each component and the materials, dimensions, and numerical values used should be changed according to cost, mutual relations, and the like, and should not be limited to the present embodiment.
[0026]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, when the discharge process for exchanging the print medium set in the printer is performed, it is set in the printer based on the input data of the print medium type input means for inputting the types of sheets and plates. If the print media is sheets, widen the gap between the feed rollers. If the print media are plates, widen the gap between the feed rollers after reverse feed of the feed rollers, and discharge properly according to the type of the media. Can be processed.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an enlarged front view of a printing unit of a plate printer.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of an operation panel.
FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of a plate printer.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an operating state of a print medium thickness detection unit.
FIG. 5 is a basic flowchart showing the operation of the printer.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing discharge processing.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Plate printer 2 Cleaning roller 8 Oscillating rod 9 Motor 10 Cam 11 Conveying roller 12 Platen roller 13 Conveying roller 14 Pinch roller 15 Oscillating rod 20 Thermal head 21 Ink ribbon 23 Operation panel 27 Cancel / discharge button 28 Display unit 40 Medium detection Sensor (reflection sensor)
41 TOP sensor (reflection sensor)
50 Control unit

Claims (1)

Printing medium type input means for inputting types of sheets and plates, feeding means comprising a pair of rollers capable of changing the interval for conveying the printing medium toward the printing means, and printing medium feeding means Detection means for detecting that the sheet is set, medium discharge instruction means for inputting a medium discharge instruction for replacing the set print medium, and a medium discharge instruction for inputting sheets by the print medium type input type means When the input of the means is made, the roller interval of the feeding means is widened, and when the plates are inputted and the input of the medium discharge input means is made, the roller of the feeding means is reversely fed and then the roller interval is enlarged. A printer comprising discharge processing control means.

Images