JP7205901B2 - Improved tape printer - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates generally to tape printing devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved tape printer with good print accuracy. The tape produced by the printing apparatus of the present invention is a construction material layout tape used for construction material layout work.

With the increasing diversity of building designs and building materials, most of the cases are of on-site construction using building materials of a fixed width for roofs and outer walls of buildings. At present, in the pasting work of building materials and the like, generally, dimensions are determined (referred to as "allocation") by inking on site.

On-site allocation work by inking is time-consuming and tends to be inaccurate. Therefore, the present inventor manufactured a construction material allocation tape that enables accurate and rapid work execution. We have proposed a tape printer for this purpose (see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent No. 4577777

Fortunately, the tape printer described in Patent Document 1 has been well received, but there has been an increasing demand from work sites for tapes with higher precision for laying out building materials.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been developed in view of such a situation, and an object of the present invention is to provide an improved tape printer capable of manufacturing a building material layout tape with high precision.

The building material layout tape is preferably an adhesive tape having a back surface coated with a pressure-sensitive adhesive, since it needs to be attached to the base of the building during layout work. Also, if the tape itself has a large elongation, it is not possible to determine accurate dimensions, so it is necessary to use a material with a low elongation. The present inventor concluded that a filament tape coated with a pressure-sensitive adhesive on the back side is preferable as a material that satisfies the above conditions.

On the other hand, in order to manufacture a building material-allocated tape, it is necessary to pull out a tape wound around a core, print on the tape, and wind the printed tape around another core in a roll. That is, a tape with a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing must be transported from one core to the other.

As a result of various investigations, the inventors of the present invention have found that in order to manufacture a high-precision building material allocation tape, the tension acting on the tape must be kept constant when the tape is transferred from one core to the other core. I found it necessary to print. In addition, when the tape is transferred from one core to the other, the adhesive surface of the tape peels off from the roll of tape. expected to have a positive impact. The present inventors have overcome these problems by constructing an improved tape printer as described below, and have made it possible to manufacture a highly accurate building material layout tape.

The improved tape printer according to claim 1 of the present application comprises a drive roller driven by a stepping motor, a presser roller disposed immediately below the drive roller so that its outer circumference is in contact with the outer circumference of the drive roller, and An unwinding roller that is arranged on one side of the driving roller and loaded with the roll-shaped tape to be printed, and a control mechanism capable of unwinding the tape with a constant tension, and a servo that drives the unwinding roller. a motor, a tape peeling vibration suppressing roller disposed directly above the unwinding roller so that its outer circumference is in contact with the outer circumference of the roll-shaped tape mounted on the unwinding roller, and on the other side of the drive roller. A take-up roller arranged to take up the printed tape, a torque motor connected to the rotation shaft of the take-up roller, and a tape feeding amount arranged between the driving roller and the unwinding roller. and an inkjet nozzle disposed between the driving roller and the encoder for ejecting printing ink, and suppressing vibration when the tape to be printed is peeled from the unwinding roller. The roller and then the encoder are pulled out so that the substrate surface is in contact, the adhesive surface is brought into contact with the drive roller, and the drive roller is operated with the end of the tape fixed to the core mounted on the take-up roller. By causing the tape to be transported from the one side to the other side while maintaining a constant tension, ink is ejected from the inkjet nozzles based on predetermined print information, thereby forming the building material allocation tape. The invention is characterized in that it is adapted to manufacture.

According to claim 2 of the present application, there is provided an improved tape printer in the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the take-up roller is arranged below the presser roller, and a gap between the drive roller and the presser roller is provided. It is characterized in that the passed tape turns downward to reach the take-up roller.

According to the apparatus of the present invention, since the tension acting on the tape is kept constant and the printing is performed in the transportation state in which the generation of minute vibrations is avoided as much as possible, high-precision printing becomes possible. In addition, by arranging the pressing roller so as to sandwich the driving roller and the tape in a pressurized state, adhesion of the adhesive to the driving roller can be avoided as much as possible, and a good driving frictional force by the driving roller can be ensured. . Furthermore, by arranging the take-up roller below the pressing roller and changing the direction of the tape downward to reach the take-up roller, the substrate surface of the tape and the pressing roller are brought into contact with each other as much as possible, In addition, the drive force from the drive roller can also be transmitted to the pressing roller, so that the drive friction force of the tape can be ensured even on the base surface side of the tape.

1 is a general view of an improved tape printer in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the entire construction material-layout tape production system in which the printer of FIG. 1 is incorporated;

An improved tape printer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a general view of an improved tape printer in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral T _A denotes a roll tape before printing, and T _B denotes a roll tape wound after printing. A roll of tape is a roll wound around a cylindrical core and is generally formed of transparent filament tape with a pressure sensitive adhesive applied to the back. In the following description, the front surface of the tape is referred to as the substrate surface t1, and the back surface of the tape is referred to as the adhesive surface t2 (indicated by broken lines in _FIG . ₁ ).

An improved tape printer in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, indicated generally by the reference numeral 10 in FIG. A roller 12 and a stepping motor 14 connected to the rotation shaft of the driving roller 12 are provided. By operating the stepping motor 14, the tape can be transported at a constant speed.

A pressing roller 16 is arranged below the driving roller 12 so that the outer periphery of the driving roller ₁₂ is in contact with the outer periphery of the driving roller 12 . The tape is transported from the upstream side to the downstream side in a state of being located on the side of . It should be noted that disposing below the drive roller 12 means that the center of the drive roller 12 and the center of the pressing roller 16 are positioned on substantially the same straight line. By arranging the pressing roller 16, the adhesive surface t2 can be reliably brought into contact with the drive roller ₁₂ , thereby avoiding the adhesion of the adhesive to the drive roller 12 as much as possible and reducing the drive friction caused by the drive roller 12. We can expect to secure power. That is, normally, the surface of the drive roller 12 is made of Teflon (registered trademark) resin having good releasability. The adhesive tends to get tangled in the In order to avoid such a situation, the pressure roller 16 is brought into contact with not _only the adhesive surface t2 but also the base material surface t1 as much as possible, and the pressure roller ₁₆ also rolls as the tape is transported. It is designed to avoid entanglement of the adhesive to as much as possible.

The pressing roller 16 is pressed upward toward the drive roller 12 with a constant force by a pressing roller biasing mechanism 18 . As the pressing roller biasing mechanism 18, a commercially available gas damper, coil spring, or the like may be used. In the illustrated configuration, the tape passed between the driving roller 12 and the pressing roller 16 turns downward and reaches a winding roller 28, which will be described later. The substrate surface t ₁ of the tape and the pressing roller 16 are brought into contact with each other as much as possible, and the driving force from the driving roller 12 is also transmitted to the pressing roller 16, so that the driving friction of the tape is generated even on the side of the substrate surface t ₁ of the tape. You can expect it to hold power.

On the upstream side of the driving roller 12, an unwinding roller 20 to which the rolled tape _TA before printing is mounted is arranged. As the servomotor 22, a type of servomotor having a control mechanism capable of unwinding the tape with a constant tension (for example, a servomotor NX series manufactured by Oriental Motor Co., Ltd.) is used. The servomotor 22 has a control mechanism that allows the tape to be unwound at constant tension. That is, the diameter of the roll tape T _A gradually decreases as it is unwound, and the reaction force required to peel off the tape changes accordingly. In order to _unwind the tape with a constant tension, it is necessary to make such a reaction force constant. must be changed accordingly. In the present invention, the control mechanism changes the torque according to the unwinding diameter at that point in time, thereby making it possible to keep the tension acting on the tape constant.

In addition, it is preferable to connect the rotation shaft of the feed roller 20 directly to the shaft center of the servomotor 22 . This is to avoid the occurrence of misalignment, etc., when connecting using a coupling, etc., and the occurrence of misalignment, etc., may cause load fluctuations. .

A tape peeling vibration suppressing roller 24 is arranged directly above the unwinding roller 20 so that its outer periphery is in contact with the outer periphery of the roll tape T _A . Arranging directly above the unwinding roller 20 means that the center of the unwinding roller 20 and the center of the tape peeling vibration suppressing roller 24 are positioned on substantially the same straight line. A minute vibration occurs in the tape when the adhesive surface t ₂ of the tape is peeled off from the roll tape T _A when the roll tape T _A is unwound. play a role in suppressing

The tape-separating vibration suppressing roller 24 is pressed downward toward the unwinding roller 20 with a constant force by a tape-separating vibration suppressing roller urging mechanism 26 . The tape peeling vibration suppression roller urging mechanism 26 includes an arm rotatably supported at one end by a pin 26a and having the other end attached to a rotating shaft 24a of the tape peeling vibration suppression roller 24, and has a roll shape. _As the diameter of the tape TA gradually decreases, a downward force (indicated by the white arrow in FIG. 1) acts on the arm, so that the tape peeling vibration suppression roller 24 is pressed against the roll tape _TA . It has become. By pressing the tape peeling vibration suppression roller 24 downward toward the rolled tape _TA , it is possible to more reliably reduce the generation of minute vibrations of the tape.

A winding roller 28 around which the printed tape T _B is wound is arranged downstream of the drive roller 12 , and a torque motor 30 is connected to the rotating shaft of the winding roller 28 . The torque motor 30 is used because it is suitable for winding with constant tension.

An encoder 32 is arranged between the feed roller 20 and the drive roller 12 to measure the tape feeding amount. Encoder 32 serves to provide accurate tape position information to control board 38, described below.

An inkjet nozzle 34 for ejecting printing ink is arranged between the feed roller 20 and the driving roller 12 . A printer 36 (see FIG. 2) is connected to the inkjet nozzle 34 . A commercially available inkjet printer may be used as the printer 36, but it has a function to control the print timing by a print start pulse, a function to constantly change the print contents through communication, and a link between the pulse input from the encoder 32 and the print dots. It must be of the type that has at least the function.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the entire building material allocation tape production system in which the improved tape printer 10 of the present invention is incorporated. In FIG. 2, reference numerals 38 and 40 denote a control board and a computer, respectively. Improved tape printer 10 is connected to printer 36 and control board 38, respectively, and control board 38 is connected to printer 36 and computer 40, respectively. An application program for printing on tape is installed in the computer 40 . The control board 38 receives data transmitted from the computer 40 , stores data necessary for printing in an internal memory, and transmits printer data to the printer 36 . Also, in this building material allocation tape production system, the print position of the tape is determined by the pulse signal from the encoder 32, and the control board 38 is configured to perform print timing processing based on the pulse signal from the encoder. there is

1 and 2, the use of improved tape printer 10 constructed as described above will now be described. First, data to be printed and other required data (eg, desired torque value, etc.) are entered into control board 38 and computer 40 . On the other hand, the tape T _A to be printed is mounted on the unwinding roller 20, the tape is pulled out so that the substrate surface t ₁ is in contact with the tape peeling vibration suppression roller 24, and then the encoder 32, and the driving roller 12 and the pressing roller are pulled out. 16 to secure the end of the tape to a core mounted on a take-up roller 28. Then, the building material allocation tape production system is operated.

Then, based on data sent from the computer 40 to the control board 38, the stepping motor 14 is actuated to rotate the drive roller 12 counterclockwise in FIG. is transferred at a constant speed to At this time, since the tape is pressed against the driving roller 12 by the pressing roller 16, the driving force of the driving roller ₁₂ is reliably transmitted to the adhesive surface t2 of the tape, ensuring smooth transfer of the tape.

The roll tape T _A attached to the unwinding roller 20 decreases in diameter as it is unwound. When the diameter of the roll-shaped tape T _A decreases, the reaction force required to peel off the tape changes. tension) remains constant.

In addition, since the tape peeling vibration suppressing roller 24 is arranged directly above the unwinding roller ₂₀ so as to be pressed downward, the minute vibration generated when the adhesive surface t2 of the tape is peeled from the roll tape _TA is reduced. vibration is suppressed as much as possible.

Since the tape is unwound in this state, the tape is transported from the left to the right while maintaining a constant tension and avoiding minute vibrations as much as possible. The control board 38 is configured to perform print timing processing based on the tape position information (pulse signal) from the encoder 32, and the ink jet nozzle 34 of the printer 36 onto the adhesive surface _t2 of the tape. Ink is ejected to print predetermined information.

The printed tape is taken up by a take-up roller 28 driven by a torque motor 30, shipped to the site, and subjected to required allocation work.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments of the invention described above, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention described in the claims, and these are also included in the scope of the invention. It goes without saying that it is a thing.

For example, the details of each component shown in the accompanying drawings are merely exemplary and modifications may be made to the details of each component consistent with the principles of the invention.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 improved tape printer 12 driving roller 14 stepping motor 16 pressing roller 18 pressing roller biasing mechanism 20 unwinding roller 22 servo motor 24 tape peeling vibration suppression roller 26 tape peeling vibration suppression roller biasing mechanism 28 take-up roller 30 Torque motor 32 Encoder 34 Ink jet nozzle 36 Printer 38 Control board 40 Computer T _A Rolled tape before printing T _B Rolled tape after printing t ₁ Tape base surface (surface)
Adhesive _side of t2 tape (back side)

Claims (2)

An improved tape printer for producing building material layout tape, comprising:
a drive roller driven by a stepping motor;
a pressing roller arranged directly under the driving roller so that its outer periphery is in contact with the outer periphery of the driving roller;
an unwinding roller disposed on one side of the drive roller and loaded with a roll of tape to be printed;
a servo motor having a control mechanism capable of unwinding the tape with a constant tension and driving the unwinding roller;
a tape peeling vibration suppressing roller disposed directly above the unwinding roller so that its outer periphery is in contact with the outer periphery of the rolled tape mounted on the unwinding roller;
a take-up roller arranged on the other side of the drive roller and around which the printed tape is taken up;
a torque motor coupled to the rotation shaft of the take-up roller;
an encoder disposed between the driving roller and the unwinding roller for measuring the feeding amount of the tape;
an inkjet nozzle disposed between the drive roller and the encoder for ejecting printing ink;
The tape to be printed is pulled out from the unwinding roller so that the substrate surface is in contact with the tape peeling vibration suppression roller and then the encoder, the adhesive surface is brought into contact with the drive roller, and the tape is mounted on the take-up roller. By actuating the drive roller with the end portion of the tape fixed to the core, the tape is transported from the one side to the other side while maintaining a constant tension, and the predetermined printed information is printed. A device characterized in that it is configured to produce a building material layout tape by ejecting ink from said ink jet nozzle based on the above. The winding roller is arranged below the pressing roller, and the tape passed between the driving roller and the pressing roller turns downward to reach the winding roller. 2. The improved tape printer of claim 1, wherein:

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