JPH0121446B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a pen changing device for a recorder, which comprises a fixed position pen holder that holds a plurality of recording pens and a movable pen holder that exchanges and uses the recording pens held in the fixed position pen holder.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main part of a recorder having this type of pen changing device. In the figure, recording paper 1 is
It is wound around the drum 2 via a sprocket 3 and is tightly attached by a recording paper presser 4. Furthermore, recording paper 1
is driven in the X-axis direction (temporarily referred to as the X-axis direction) by a pulse motor (not shown) via the drive shaft 5 of the drum 2. A recording pen 10 is attached to a carriage 11 via a movable pen holder 12, and a wire 1 transmits the output of a pulse motor (not shown).
6 and guide shafts 14 and 15 in the Y-axis direction. The fixed-position pen holder 6 holds a plurality of recording pens 10, and is supported in a fixed position by its support fitting 7. At this time, the fixed-position pen holder 6 has a rotatable structure, and its drive shaft 8 is further connected to a pulse motor (not shown). The rotational movement of the stationary pen holder 6 is therefore controlled by commands of an internal electrical circuit (not shown). At this time, the surface of the recording pen 10 is partially or mostly covered with a magnetic material, and a magnetic mechanism is formed by interaction with the magnet 9 of the fixed pen holder 6 and the magnet 13 of the movable pen holder 12. The recording pen 10 is attracted and held by the fixed position pen holder 6 and the movable pen holder 12 by this magnetic mechanism.

Next, the operation will be explained. First, in response to a recording command from an internal electric circuit (not shown), the movable pen holder 12
The recording pen 10 held in the recording paper 1 records on the recording paper 1 within the effective recording range. When a pen exchange command is issued here, the recording pen 10 currently recording stops recording and moves in the direction of arrow A. and,
The recording pen 10 of the mobile pen holder 12 reaches the matching point with the vacant pen holder of the fixed position pen holder 6 (FIG. 1). This matching point is the point where the center of the notch forming each pen holding portion of the fixed-position pen holder 6 and the center of the notch forming the pen holding portion of the movable pen holder 12 match.
Furthermore, the pen holding portion of the fixed-position pen holder 6 and the pen holding portion of the movable pen holder 12 are configured to be shifted in position to avoid collision.

Now, when the recording pen 10 on the movable pen holder 12 reaches the matching point, the fixed position pen holder 6 rotates 45 degrees in the direction of arrow C in the fixed position pen holder 6 having four recording pens 10 of this embodiment. This 45° angle is between the fixed position pen holder 6 and the movable pen holder 12.
is the angle at which no collision occurs. At this time, the directionality of the pen holding part of the fixed position pen holder 6 and the directionality of the pen holding part of the movable pen holder 12 at the matching point match, and since the matched direction is the same as the direction of arrow C, the movable pen holder Recording pen 1 held in 12
0 is captured by the vacant holding part of the fixed position pen holder 6. The movable pen holder 12, which has taken the recording pen 10, is driven in the direction of arrow B by the carriage 11. During this time, the fixed position pen holder 6 stops the pen holder holding the desired recording pen 10 at a position rotated by 45 degrees in the direction of arrow C from the matching point according to an internal electric circuit command. When this is completed, the vacant movable pen holder 12 moves in the direction of arrow A to the matching point. Here, the fixed position pen holder 6 is rotated by 45 degrees in the direction of arrow D (FIG. 1). Then, the movable pen holder 12 is moved by the carriage 11 in the direction of arrow B, thereby taking over a desired recording pen and performing necessary recording.

However, in this type of pen exchange device, the following inconveniences have occurred because the attachment and detachment of the recording pen 10 is not confirmed.

1. If a pen replacement operation is started without checking whether the recording pen 10 is held in the movable pen holder 12, the pens may collide with each other and in severe cases may be damaged. For example, even though all the pen holders of the fixed-position pen holder 6 are filled with recording pens 10, the operator mistakenly attaches the recording pen 10 to the movable pen holder 12 and performs a pen exchange operation. The above-mentioned inconveniences occurred in some cases.

Furthermore, if a check is not made to see if the recording pen 10 is securely held in the movable pen holder 12 after the pen replacement operation is completed, the recording operation will start without the recording pen 10 being held, which has the disadvantage of increasing recording loss time. Ta.

2. Furthermore, when using many types of recording pens 10, it is necessary to manually adjust the optimal pen pressure and pen speed for each type of recording pen 10 each time the recording pen 10 is replaced, which is troublesome. Ta.

In view of these points, the present applicant has filed a patent application filed in 1983-
No. 119814 (filed on September 1, 1981, hereinafter referred to as the "prior application"), a pen detection device (for example, an optical sensor) is provided in each pen holding section of a storage pen holder (hereinafter referred to as a fixed position pen holder). , states that the existence and type of a recording pen is detected by providing a physical structure for identification (for example, a reflective mark) on the recording pen, and the detection output is used for pen exchange operations, pen pressure control, etc. .

However, in this prior application, the number of detection devices required is equal to the number of recording pens, which not only increases costs, but also
The drawback was that the configuration was complicated.

The present invention eliminates these drawbacks and achieves the following objects.

1. To provide a recorder pen exchange device that smoothly performs pen exchange operations.

2. To provide a pen exchange device for a recorder that can automatically control pen pressure, pen speed, etc. even when many types of recording pens 10 are used.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of the recording pen 10 applied to the present invention. The shaft of the recording pen 10 is provided with a physical structure for identifying the presence or absence of a pen and a physical structure for identifying the type of pen. In this embodiment, the pen shaft body at the tip of the recording pen 10 is used as the physical structure for identifying whether or not the pen is attached to the fixed position pen holder 6, and the movable pen holder 12
The pen shaft at the distal end of the recording pen 10 is used as the physical structure for identifying whether or not the pen is attached to the recording pen 10. The convex portion 16 is used as the physical structure for pen type identification.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of essential parts of an embodiment of the present invention. In the recorder pen changing device shown in FIG. 1, a micro switch 18 for identifying the presence or absence of a pen and a micro switch 19 for detecting the type of pen are provided near the fixed position pen holder. Both detection devices are
It is attached to a housing (not shown) using a support fitting 20. Further, a micro switch 21 for detecting the presence or absence of a pen is provided along the trajectory of the movable pen holder 12. This detection device 21 is attached to a housing with a support fitting 23. Additionally, these sensing devices are connected to a storage device in an internal electrical circuit (not shown). The operation time of this storage device is controlled by a disk 25 having a slit 24 provided on the drive shaft 8 of the fixed-position pen holder 6. 26 is a slit detection device, and this slit detection device is synchronized with the storage device. Next, the operation will be explained.

First, the operation of detecting the presence or absence and type of the recording pen 10 attached to the fixed-position pen holder 6 will be described.

This operation is performed at power-on or initialization.

The fixed-position pen holder 6 is rotated in a fixed direction by its drive shaft 8. At this time, the storage device operates according to the slit detection signal. Here, let us assume that each pen holding part of the fixed position pen holder 6 corresponds to the slit 24 as a, and in order in the rotation direction b,
Let them be c and d. First, regarding the pen holding portion a, the pen presence/absence detection device 18 detects that the recording pen 10 is held, and at the same time, the pen type detection device 19 detects the pen type (presence/absence of the convex portion 16). Detected. Similarly, pen holding parts b, c, d
Detection is also carried out and is detected in the storage device as follows.

Pen presence/absence Pen type (Detection device 18) (Detection device 19) a 1 1 b 1 0 c 1 1 d 0 0 Here, 1 means that it was detected by the detection devices 18 and 19, and 0 means that it was not detected. It is something that

In this way, when the storage of the recording pen 10 attached to the fixed position pen holder 6 is completed, an instruction to attach the recording pen 10 of the pen holder c, for example, is sent to the vacant movable pen holder 12 by the internal electric circuit. Served.

In response to this, the movable pen holder 12 moves from the right side of the drawing to the left toward the pen holding portion c of the fixed position pen holder 6. (At this time, if the recording pen 10 is attached to the movable pen holder 12, the rear shaft of the recording pen 10 is connected to the pen presence/absence detection micro switch 21 of the movable pen holder 12.
It contacts the auxiliary fitting 22 and is connected to the internal electric circuit. The internal electric circuit that receives this signal is configured to interrupt this operation, issue an alarm, and issue a new command to attach the recording pen 10 to the vacant pen holder d). When the recording pen 10 of the pen holder c is attached to the vacant movable pen holder 12, the movable pen holder 6 moves in the opposite direction and performs recording. (At this time, if the recording pen 10 is not attached to the movable pen holder 6, it will not be detected by the pen presence/absence detection device 21 and an alarm will be generated).

Recording pen 10 attached to movable pen holder 12
A similar operation is performed when returning the pen to an empty pen holding portion of the fixed-position pen holder 6.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing this pen exchange operation.

Also, at this time, the internal electric circuit is configured to provide an optimal pen pressure and pen speed by providing a control circuit for controlling the pen pressure and pen speed according to the pen type stored in the storage device by the pen type detection device 19. Recording pen 1 in pen holder 12 moving speed
It is given to 0.

As described above, the present invention has the following effects.

1. In the pen exchange operation, pen collision between the recording pens 10 is avoided, and
Since the recording pen 10 is checked every time each operation is completed, a smooth pen exchange operation is performed.

2. It has become possible to automatically control pen pressure, pen speed, etc. in a recorder that uses many types of recording pens 10 and performs pen exchange operations.

In this embodiment, the physical structure for identifying the presence or absence of a pen and the physical structure for identifying the pen type are configured by the pen shaft body and the convex portion 16 provided on the pen shaft body. A similar effect can be obtained by detecting a change in shape using a convex portion such as a convex portion or a convex portion. Furthermore, instead of utilizing such shape changes, other physical means such as optical means such as the reflective mark and optical sensor mentioned in the prior application, or magnetic means such as the magnetic material and magnetic sensor, etc. Similar effects can be obtained by using

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the movable pen holder 1
Although the second pen presence/absence detection device is provided along the movable pen holder 12, it may be provided on the movable pen holder 12 itself.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a recorder according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an example of a recording pen applied to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the pen exchange operation. 1... Recording paper, 6... Fixed position pen holder, 12
...Movable pen holder, 10...Recording pen, 16...
...Convex portion, 18...Pen presence/absence detection device, 19...
Pen type detection device, 21...Pen presence/absence detection device,
25...A disk with a slit 24, 26...A slit detection device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The movable pen holder is attached to a carriage that can freely move in the Y-axis direction and can be moved to a pen exchange position, and a plurality of pen holders are arranged at equal angular intervals around the cylindrical outer circumference. By rotating the fixed position pen holder around its cylindrical axis, any one of the plurality of pen holders can be moved to the pen exchange position, and this moved pen holder can be moved to the pen exchange position. When the movable pen holder is in the pen exchange position, the axis of the part coincides with the axis of the pen holding part to form a matching point, and at this matching point, the recording pen is common to both the movable pen holder and the fixed position pen holder. In a pen changing device for a recorder configured to leave the recording pen in a predetermined one pen holder from this matching point, a physical structure for pen type identification provided on each recording pen; A pen type detection device that is provided to face the cylindrical outer periphery of the pen holder and detects the physical structure for identifying the pen type by rotating the fixed position pen holder around the cylindrical axis, and a memory that stores detection data of the pen type detection device. means for initializing the memory of the memory device by an initialization operation; means for referring to the memory contents of the memory device when a pen replacement command is given; A pen changing device for a recorder, characterized in that it is equipped with a means for calling attention.