JP4870866B2 - 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. For this reason, the user sometimes forgets to install another print medium in the printer.
[0005]
If the operator performs printing as it is, it is difficult to specify the type of the print medium unless expensive detection means or detection means with a complicated configuration is used, and printing is performed under inappropriate printing conditions. . In particular, when a printing medium having completely different thickness and hardness such as a hard plastic plate having a thickness of 3 mm and a label tape is set by mistake, the transport amount and the printing density are significantly affected.
[0006]
The object of the present invention is to correct the printing conditions to the optimum printing conditions from the thickness detection result of the printing medium medium when a printing medium different from the printing medium input by the printing medium type input means is set in the printer. It is to provide a possible printer.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
For this reason, the printer of the present invention includes a printing unit that prints on a printing medium of sheets and plates using a thermal head , and an upstream of the printing unit to convey the printing medium of sheets and plates. And a transport unit comprising a plurality of transport roller pairs provided on the side and the downstream side, each having a connecting member coupled to a roller on one side of the plurality of transport roller pairs, Interval changing means for moving the one side roller of the plurality of transport roller pairs in conjunction with the other side roller so that the interval between the side roller and the other side roller is equal. In a state where the print medium is set, the interval changing means moves the one roller toward the other roller to detect the position of the connecting member, and the detected roller La intervals, said a medium thickness detecting means for detecting the thickness of the print medium, according to the thickness detection result of the printing medium by the medium thickness detecting means, by moving the thermal head, said thermal head and control means for adjusting the distance between the platen which is opposed to the thermal head, characterized in that Ru comprising a.
[0008]
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. 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.
[0009]
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. The cleaning means 3 is provided with a storage cassette 4 that stores the cleaning sheet C so that the cleaning sheet C can be pulled out, and a cleaning sheet transport roller 5 that transports the cleaning sheet C of the mounted storage cassette 1 to the cleaning roller 2.
[0010]
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, the cleaning roller 2 moves toward the upper cleaning sheet conveying roller 5.
[0011]
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.
[0012]
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 relationship between the rocking rod 8, the rocking rod 15, the intermediate cam means 16, and the slide plate 17 is such that the cleaning roller 2 and the pinch roller 14 are moved at equal intervals with respect to the conveying roller 11 and the conveying roller 13, respectively. Has been.
[0013]
Therefore, when the cleaning roller 2 moves up and down, the pinch roller 14 moves up and down in the same manner. When the cam 10 is further rotated by driving the motor 9, the cleaning roller 2 and the pinch roller 14 move up and down in conjunction with each other. Moving. The springs 8b and 15b provided at one end portions of the swing rod 8 and the swing rod 15, respectively, bias 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 each of which a rubber material such as CR (chloroprene) rubber or EPDM (ethylene propylene) is wound around the surface of the metal shaft portion to increase the transport force. It is.
[0015]
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.
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.
[0016]
The cutting device 30 is attached to the downstream side of the printer 1 with an electrical and control relationship, and includes a cutter 31 including a fixed blade and a moving blade, a motor for driving the cutter, and a gear train (both not shown). The operation of the printer 1 is controlled by the printer 1.
[0017]
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.
[0018]
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.
[0019]
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.
[0020]
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. In conjunction with the movement of the cleaning roller 2, the pinch roller 14 also moves up and down, and the distance from the conveying roller 13 also varies.
[0021]
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.
[0022]
In the set process (7), as shown in FIG. 6, first, the transport roller 11 is rotated and the print medium is transported (30). At the same time, the controller 50 starts counting the timer (31), and the carrying process is performed until the TOP sensor 41 detects the print medium within a predetermined time (32) (33). When the TOP sensor 41 detects the print medium (32), the conveyance of the medium is stopped (34), and the setting process is terminated. Note that error processing is executed when a predetermined time has elapsed.
[0023]
When the setting of the print medium is confirmed (7), the cam 10 is rotated by driving the motor 9 to detect the thickness of the print medium, and the cleaning roller 2 is moved toward the transport roller 11. Here, the position of the cleaning roller 2 moves downward from the position of 4 mm because the feeding conditions are plates. If the feeding conditions are sheets, the cleaning roller 2 is once moved upward to a position of 4 mm and moved toward the conveying roller 11. When the cleaning roller 2 moves until it contacts the plate P, the movement stops. FIG. 4A shows this state, and the control means of the control unit 50 reads the position of the slide plate 17 moved along with the movement of the cleaning roller 2 from the sensor 42, and this is read between the cleaning roller 2 and the conveying roller 11. Is calculated as the thickness of the print medium (8). This distance takes into account the elastic deformation of the surface rubber material of the cleaning roller 2 and the transport roller 11.
[0024]
Subsequently, the control means of the control unit 50 controls the motor 9 for several pulses so that the optimum distance between the rollers for transporting the plate P having this thickness is obtained based on the calculated thickness of the printing medium (for example, 2 mm). Then, the positions of the cleaning roller 2 and the pinch roller 14 are moved slightly upward (9), then the data of this thickness is stored in the RAM of the control unit 50 (10), and again waiting to receive data from the personal computer. (4)
[0025]
Next, when print data is received (4), the print data relating to the type of print medium such as the acrylic plate, the vinyl chloride plate, and the label tape, the print density, the number of prints, and the print color are stored in the RAM of the control unit 50. The print medium is stored (12), the presence / absence of the print medium is determined again (13), and the print processing is executed because the print medium set has already been confirmed (14). If the print medium is not set here, the process waits until the medium is set (15). When the print medium is set by the operator, steps (8) to (11) are performed. Similar processing steps (16-19) are performed, and the printing process is automatically executed.
[0026]
First, the controller 50 reads the set print medium thickness data and other print data stored in the RAM (14), and sets the print medium thickness even if the print data type of the print data is a sheet. Prioritize, the thermal head 20 is moved up and down (21), and the setting is changed to the energization time suitable for the plate P to perform printing (22).
[0027]
As described above, in the printer according to the present embodiment, both the feeding conditions set from the operation panel and the print data from the personal computer, or one of them is set regardless of whether or not one is printing of sheets. Prioritize the detected thickness of the print medium, move the position of the transport roller, and change the conditions that affect the image quality, such as the thermal head position and energization time. Printing can be performed without affecting the transport amount and image quality. The reason why the thickness data is validated and the previously entered print medium type is invalid is that the possibility of setting the necessary print medium by mistake is extremely low compared with the input of other conditions.
[0028]
In this embodiment, the case where the plate P is set with the setting of the sheet S will be described. However, when the sheet S is set with the setting of the plate P, first, in steps 1 and 3, the distance is moved according to the plate. The detected position of the cleaning roller 14 is moved to a position suitable for the thickness in step 10 based on the thickness of the medium when detected in step 9, and further moved to a position corresponding to the thickness of the print medium in step 21. The thermal head 20 is moved. Here, the energization time in the printing in step 22 is performed with the type of print data. This is because it is difficult to set the sheet S when the position of the cleaning roller 2 in step 3 is in accordance with the plate. Therefore, it is unlikely that the operator notices the setting difference at the time of setting and prints by mistake. It is a thing.
[0029]
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.
[0030]
【Effect of the invention】
According to the present invention, according to the detected thickness even when the detection result by the medium thickness detection means is different from the print medium type input by the print medium type input means for inputting the types of sheets and plates. Printing and transporting under different conditions. For example, when sheets are input by a printing medium input unit and a plate is mounted. Printing can be performed under conveyance conditions suitable for the thickness and printing conditions suitable for the plate. In this way, even if the wrong type of print medium is input, printing suitable for the set print medium can be performed.
[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 set processing.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Plate printer 2 Cleaning roller 3 Cleaning means 8 Oscillating rod 9 Motor 10 Cam 11 Conveying roller 12 Platen roller 13 Conveying roller 14 Pinch roller 15 Oscillating rod 16 Intermediate cam means 17 Slide plate 20 Thermal head 21 Ink ribbon 23 Operation panel 28 Display unit 40 Medium detection sensor (reflection sensor)
41 TOP sensor (reflection sensor)
42 Linear sensor (slide volume)
50 Control unit

Claims (1)

Printing means for printing on a print medium of sheets and plates using a thermal head ;
A transport unit comprising a plurality of transport roller pairs provided on the upstream side and the downstream side of the printing unit for transporting the print media of the sheets and plates,
Each of the plurality of conveying roller pairs includes a connecting member that is coupled to one side of the plurality of conveying roller pairs, so that the distance between the one side roller and the other side roller is equal. Interval changing means for moving the one side roller in conjunction with the other side roller;
In a state where the print medium is set, the interval changing means moves the one side roller toward the other side roller to detect the position of the connecting member, and the roller interval detected thereby is detected. Medium thickness detecting means for detecting the thickness of the print medium;
Control means for adjusting the distance between the thermal head and a platen provided opposite to the thermal head in accordance with the result of print medium thickness detection by the medium thickness detection means; ,
Printer, characterized in that Ru comprising a.

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