JPH01237184A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable accurate control of recording conditions and record with high quality, by providing a ribbon cassette in which recording condition data intrinsic of an ink ribbon incorporated therein is recorded at a predetermined position on an outer surface thereof, and a means for reading the recording condition data and controlling a recording operation. CONSTITUTION:An identification seal 15 is affixed to each ribbon cassette 4, and data on recording conditions suitable for an ink ribbon 6a is written on the seal 15. The data written on the seal 15 is read by a photo-sensor 16 fixed through a support column 17. Thus, recording energy suitable for the characteristics of the ink ribbon 6a in the cassette 4 can be read from the identification seal 15 and be used for recording, so that appropriate recording energy to be used on a device employing a multiplicity of kinds of ink ribbons through replacement can be determined without an increase in memory capacity.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a recording device, and particularly to a recording device that is equipped with an ink ribbon cassette containing an ink ribbon and performs recording using a predetermined recording method via the ink ribbon. be.

[Prior Art] Recording devices that use ink ribbons have been known in the past, such as impact printers and thermal transfer printers.

In this type of device, ink from an ink ribbon is transferred to a recording medium such as paper by mechanical impact or energy such as heat.

The energy given to the recording head during this recording is
It must be controlled based on the area, shape, recording speed, etc. of the characters to be recorded.For this reason, in the past, for each character to be recorded, the recording energy required to record that character, such as the recording head drive voltage, drive pulse width, etc. A control method is used in which data is stored in a memory within the apparatus main body and an appropriate recording energy is determined by referring to this data.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] On the other hand, in recent years, the number of ink ribbons used in this type of device is not just one, but many types have been supplied with different recording colors, ink materials, etc. It's here.

However, with the conventional method of storing information regarding recording energy in the main body memory, it is difficult to store all the data that can be used for a large number of ink ribbons due to limitations in memory capacity. Additionally, when a new ink ribbon was developed, the only way to accommodate it was to rewrite the memory. Also,
There is also a problem in that it cannot deal with variations in ink ribbon manufacturing lofts.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above problems.

[Means for Solving the Problems 1] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a recording apparatus that is equipped with an ink ribbon cassette containing an ink ribbon and performs recording using a predetermined recording method via the ink ribbon. A configuration is adopted that includes a ribbon cassette in which recording condition data specific to the ink ribbon is recorded at a predetermined position on the outer surface, and means for reading the recording condition data recorded on the ribbon cassette and controlling the recording operation.

[Function] According to the above configuration, printing operation can be controlled by reading additional printing condition data specific to the ink ribbon contained in the ribbon cassette from the ribbon cassette.

[Example] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on the example shown in the drawings.

FIGS. 1(A) and 1(B) show the structure of a type impact type electronic typewriter as an example of a recording device employing the present invention.

FIG. 1(A) shows the structure of the recording section of the recording device of FIG. 1(B). In FIG. has been done.

A guide rail 5 is arranged along the platen 2, and a carriage 3 carrying a recording disk 6 is slidably supported on the guide rail 5. Therefore, the carriage 3 is moved by the motor 14 to the pulleys 12, 13 and the belt 11.
By moving the platen 2 from side to side, recording main scanning is performed, and by rotating the platen 2, recording sub-scanning is performed.

In this embodiment, the recording head 6 is constituted by a recording hammer that strikes the type on the daisy wheel 8 from behind.

The recording energy generated by the recording head 6 is applied to the ink ribbon 6a, and the ink on the ink ribbon 6a is transferred to the recording medium 1 by this recording energy.

The ink ribbon 6a is stored in the ribbon cassette 4 and stretched in front of the recording head by its two arms. The ribbon cassette 4 is removably attached to the guide portion 1o of the carriage 3 via a bin 9 on its rear side.

A detection plate 18 is provided at the rear end of the carriage 3, and when the detection plate 18 comes into contact with a limit switch 19, the home position of the recording head 6 is detected.

Further, in this embodiment, the ink ribbons 6a are stored and supplied in the ribbon cassettes 4, and identification stickers 15 are attached to each ribbon cassette 4 by a method such as adhesive. Information regarding recording conditions suitable for the ink ribbon 6a is written on the identification sticker 15 using, for example, a bar code.

Information on the identification sticker 15 is read by a photosensor 16 fixed to the frame of the device at a position corresponding to the height of the identification sticker 15 via a support 17.

The recording mechanism shown in FIG. 1(A) is housed in the front part of the main body 22 shown in FIG. 1(B), and is covered with a cover 21. When replacing the ribbon cassette 4, the par 21 can be opened on this side. Opening/closing of the cover 21 is detected by a sensor 23 composed of a limit switch or the like to detect attachment of a ribbon cassette. Here, the position of the sensor 23 housed inside the cover 21 is indicated by diagonal lines. The device in the illustrated embodiment is an electronic typewriter;
Although a keyboard 20 is provided on the front side of the device, a similar configuration can also be applied to a recording device that does not have input means.

Identification stickers 15 of FIG. 1(A) are shown in FIGS. 2(A) and (B).
As shown in FIG. 0, which shows the structure of the reading means, the photosensor 16 is placed in a position facing the identification sticker 15 by a support 17, and the carriage 3 is connected to the motor 14.
The barcode on the identification sticker 15 is read when the identification sticker 15 is moved in the direction of the arrow. A start mark 15s and an end mark 15e are provided at the right end and left end of the identification sticker 15, respectively, to indicate the tip and end of the barcode.

Fig. 3 shows the configuration of the control system of the device shown in Fig. 1. The control circuit shown in Fig. 3 is a C
The PU 30 controls the operation of the entire device.

The following units are connected to the CPU 30 via an address bus and a data bus. Reference numeral 31 is a ROM that stores a program to be described later, reference numeral 32 is a RAM used for storing recording data, etc., and reference numeral 33 is a carriage 3.
The driver includes a motor 14 for moving the daisy wheel 8, a wheel motor 34 for rotating the daisy wheel 8, and a switching transistor for controlling the operation of the recording head 6.

Further, an input/output port 35 for inputting input information from the keyboard, sensors, and switches is connected to the path. The input/output boat 35 includes the photo sensor 16,
A sensor 23 for detecting opening/closing of the cover 21, a limit switch 19 for detecting the home position, and a key switch 36 of the keyboard 20 are connected.

FIG. 4(A) shows the recording energy table expressed by the eight codes of the identification sticker 15 attached to the rear end of the ribbon cassette 4.

In this case, the characters recorded by the recording pad 6 are mainly determined by the striking force determined according to the recording area.
−n groups in advance.

For each of these groups, as shown at the bottom of the table, a value corresponding to the recording energy, that is, the type impact force (specifically, the drive voltage or drive pulse width of the recording head 6) is determined. Further, the impact force (recording strength) can be controlled in five levels depending on the number of recording media used during recording, and the impact force in this case is also determined in five levels as shown in the figure.

Therefore, the impact force data shown in the lower part of FIG. 4(A) is recorded on the identification sticker 15 in an expression format such as a bar code.If the recording area of the identification sticker 15 is insufficient, for example, the lowest recording strength can be used. Only the corresponding data may be stored, and the data for each intensity level may be calculated from this data.

FIG. 4(B) shows the control procedure by the CPU 30 in FIG. i2.

In step S1 of FIG. 4(B), in order to determine whether the ribbon cassette 4 has been replaced, the sensor 23 detects whether the cover 21 has been opened or closed. If opening/closing is not performed, the following process is not performed and the routine returns to the normal control routine. When step Sl is affirmed, the carriage 3 is moved to the left in FIG. 1(A) by driving the motor 14 in step S2, and the carriage 3 reaches the home position in step S3, and the limit switch 19 detects Wait for it to be scanned by plate 18.

Carriage 3 returns to the home position and step S3
If it is affirmed, the process moves to step S4, and the carriage 3 is moved to the right in FIG. 1(A) via the motor 14.
This time, it is determined whether the start mark 15s of the identification sticker 15 has been detected by the photosensor 16. When the start mark 15s is detected in step S5, the process moves to step S6, and recording energy information regarding the ink ribbon 6a stored in the ribbon cassette 4, as shown in FIG. 4(A), written on the identification sticker 15 is recorded. Load.

In step S7, predetermined data processing is performed based on the read information, and a recording energy table is created in the RAM 32. Here, for example, when only data corresponding to the lowest recording intensity in FIG. 4(A) is recorded on the identification sticker 15, processing for calculating recording energy at other recording intensities is included.

Next, in step S8, it is determined whether the end mark 15e of the identification sticker 15 has been detected by the photosensor 16, and if it has not been detected, the process returns to step S6 and the same process is repeated. and return to the normal recording routine.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to read from the identification sticker 15 the recording energy that matches the characteristics of the ink ribbon 6a actually installed in the ribbon cassette 4 and use it for recording, so that various types of ink ribbons can be exchanged. Appropriate recording energy can be determined without increasing the memory capacity in such devices.

Furthermore, even if there are variations due to differences in manufacturing lots, the optimum recording energy can be easily determined by recording corresponding data on the identification sticker 15. Furthermore, even if the ink ribbon to be used is newly developed, it is possible to easily adapt to the new ribbon by simply changing the information on the identification sticker 15 of the ribbon cassette 4, without having to modify the main body of the recording apparatus at all. There is an advantage.

In the procedure shown in FIG. 4(B), the recording energy information is rewritten according to the opening and closing of the cover 21.
The procedure in Figure (B) may be performed when the power is turned on.
As a result, when recording is started, recording energy data corresponding to the ribbon attached at that time is always stored.

Furthermore, a similar configuration can be implemented not only in a type impact printer but also in a thermal transfer printer or the like. FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the recording section of the thermal transfer printer. In FIG. 5, the printer is composed of the same members as in FIG. 1A, except that the recording head 6 is a thermal head and the ink ribbon is also a thermal transfer printer.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 5, the data recorded on the identification sticker 15 may be configured as shown in FIG. Since it is necessary to control the applied recording energy, in FIG. 4(C), the two-dimensional Data of the spacing drive pulse width is recorded. Here, as the recording density increases,
Further, settings were made such that the higher the recording speed, the higher the recording energy.

According to such a configuration, in a thermal transfer printer as well, as in the above embodiment, an appropriate recording energy can be determined depending on the ink ribbon actually installed in the apparatus.

Although the above example is an apparatus in which a ribbon cassette is mounted on a recording head and performs scanning, it goes without saying that a similar configuration can be implemented in a recording apparatus that uses a large-area ink ribbon or the like. Further, the recording method is not limited to type impact or thermal transfer, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be implemented in devices using other ink ribbons.

In addition, although the example above shows a recording energy key table created according to recording intensity (or density), character type (or recording area), etc., these parameters can be determined arbitrarily by a person skilled in the art, and each parameter Of course, the recording energy may be set freely.

Further, in the above embodiment, the barcode-like identification pattern was optically read as a means for recording on the cassette, but as a means for carrying out the present invention, a ROM is stored in the cassette.
This can also be achieved by installing electrical memory such as

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, in a recording apparatus that is equipped with an ink ribbon cassette containing an ink ribbon and performs recording by a predetermined recording method via the ink ribbon, a predetermined position on the outer surface A ribbon cassette that records recording condition data specific to the ink ribbon built into the
Since the configuration includes a means for reading the recording condition data recorded on the ribbon cassette and controlling the recording operation, the recording operation can be controlled by reading the recording condition data specific to the ink ribbon built into the ribbon cassette. . Therefore, even when various types of ink ribbons are stored in a ribbon cassette and supplied to the same model, the printing conditions can be accurately controlled for any ribbon without affecting the storage capacity of the memory of the apparatus. Also, if the recording condition data of the ink ribbon is changed, the manufacturing row 2
Even if the recording conditions differ from one cartridge to another, the recording conditions can be accurately controlled based on the data read from the ribbon cassette without modifying the main body of the apparatus, resulting in excellent effects such as high-quality recording.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1(A) is a perspective view showing the structure of the main parts of a recording apparatus adopting the present invention, FIG. 1(B) is an external perspective view of the apparatus of FIG. 1(A), and FIG. ), (B) are top and rear views showing the identification seal reading means provided on the ribbon cassette and its operation, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the control system of the device in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 ( A) is a table showing the information recorded on the sheet of the ribbon cassette, and FIG.
Flowchart diagram showing the control procedure of the CPU in Figure 4.
FIG. 5C is a table showing different information recorded on a sheet, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a different recording apparatus. l... Recording medium 2... Platen 3... Carriage 4... Ribbon cassette 6... Recording head 8
... Daisy Wheel 9 ... Pin 10
... Guide part 11 ... Motor 15 ... Identification sticker 16 ... Photo sensor 18 ... Detection plate 1
9...Limit switch 30...CPU 31...ROM 32...RAM34
...Wheel motor 35...Input/output boat 36...Key switch aa
a-

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A ribbon cassette in which recording condition data unique to the built-in ink ribbon is recorded at a predetermined position on the outer surface of a recording device that is equipped with an ink ribbon cassette containing an ink ribbon and performs recording using a predetermined recording method via the ink ribbon. and a means for reading recording condition data recorded on the ribbon cassette and controlling the recording operation.