JPH01247188A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable color printing without print quality deterioration caused by mixed color by calculating a rotation value upto each color zone based on the rotation value of a color ribbon cassette from a position of detection by the first detection means to a position of detection by the second detection means. CONSTITUTION:If a power supply is turned ON, CPU 31 drives a ribbon motor 15 to set a color ribbon cassette 11 to an initial position. Next, the CPU rotates the color ribbon cassette 11 at the initial position to set the latter to a specified rotation position. Then the CPU counts the rotation value of the color ribbon cassette 11 from a position of detection by a home position sensor 20 to a position of detection by a position detector switch 23, and calculates the rotation value of color ink ribbon upto each color zone with an initial position as a reference based on the rotation value. Then the CPU stores the calculated rotation value in RAM 34. After that, CPU 31 reads the rotation value corresponding to a color zone used in accordance with a designated printing color, and causes the color ribbon cassette 11 at an initial position to rotate.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a printer device that performs printing by mounting a ribbon cassette on a carriage, and particularly relates to a printer device that performs printing by mounting a ribbon cassette on a carriage, and particularly relates to a printer device that performs printing using a ribbon cassette for color printing. The present invention relates to a printer device suitable for.

(Prior Art) A ribbon cassette for color printing used in this type of printer device stores a color ink ribbon therein. This color ink ribbon is made by dividing a wide nylon fabric into multiple regions in the width direction, and impregnating each divided region with a different ink. have

Such a color ribbon cassette is mounted on a carriage and is controlled to rotate (shift) so that a color band corresponding to a designated print color faces a print head. When the color band corresponding to the print color faces the print head, the carriage moves in the axial direction of the platen, and as the carriage moves, print pins built into the print head protrude toward the platen.

The protruding print pin contacts the paper on the platen through the color band facing the print head. Due to this contact of the printing pins, colored bands of ink are applied to the paper, forming colored dot characters.

By the way, in color printing, as mentioned above, it is necessary to rotate the color ribbon cassette mounted on the carriage to position the area (color band) coated with the ink you want to use at the tip of the print head. , rotation control of this color ribbon cassette is very important. Conventionally, the rotation control of the color ribbon cassette was performed by first setting the color ribbon cassette to an initial position (home position), and then designing a pulse motor to move the color ribbon cassette around this initial position. The method used was to position the desired area (color band) at the tip of the print head by driving the print head by a predetermined number of steps.

However, when controlling the rotation of the color ribbon cassette using such a method, the number of steps of the pulse motor to each color band based on the initial position is predetermined. There is a problem in that positional deviations are likely to occur due to variations in the parts that transmit information and variations in the parts of the rotating mechanism that rotates the color ribbon cassette. Therefore, in the past, the color band of the color ink ribbon corresponding to the print color and the print head did not accurately oppose each other, resulting in a disadvantage that the print quality deteriorated, such as color mixing during color printing.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, conventionally, the rotation control of the color ribbon cassette according to the printing color was performed by rotating a pulse motor based on a fixed number of steps. This has the drawback that misalignment is likely to occur, leading to deterioration in print quality such as color mixing.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printer device that can perform rotation control of a color ribbon cassette with high precision and can perform color printing without causing deterioration in print quality such as color mixing. The purpose is to

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) That is, a printer device according to the present invention includes a color ribbon cassette containing color ink ribbons having a plurality of different color bands mounted on a carriage, In a printer device that performs color printing by rotating a ribbon cassette so that the color band corresponding to the print color is opposed to a print head, a first detection means detects that the color ribbon cassette is at an initial position; and a second detection means for detecting that the ribbon cassette is at a predetermined rotational position set separately from the initial position, the detection by the second detection means from the detection position by the first detection means. Based on the amount of rotation of the color ribbon cassette up to the position, calculate the amount of rotation to each color band with respect to the initial position and store this in the storage means, and when the printing color is specified. The color ribbon cassette is configured to read out the amount of rotation corresponding to the color band to be used from the storage means and rotate the color ribbon cassette based on this amount.

(Function) According to the above configuration, the amount of rotation of each color band based on the initial position of the color ribbon cassette is determined by the amount of rotation of the color ribbon from the detection position of the first detection means to the detection position of the second detection means. It is calculated based on the amount of rotation of the cassette, so
will have the correct value. Therefore, rotation control of the color ribbon cassette can be executed with high precision, and color printing can be performed without causing deterioration in printing quality such as color mixing.

(Embodiment) Hereinafter, a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the rotating mechanism of the color ribbon cassette, and FIG. 2 is a side view showing the rotating position detection mechanism of the color ribbon cassette/soto. It is stored. This color ink ribbon has a plurality of different color bands, for example "black", "cyan", "magenta", "
It has four color bands: yellow.

The color ribbon cassette 11 containing such color ink ribbons is rotatably mounted on a carriage (not shown), and is rotated by a rotation mechanism consisting of a shift drive shaft 12, a shift plate 13, and a shift arm 14. , rotates in the vertical direction (arrow A and arrow B direction).

The rotation mechanism is driven by a ribbon motor 15 consisting of a pulse motor. The rotational motion of the ribbon motor 15 is configured to be transmitted to the shift drive shaft 12 via the gear 1B.

That is, for example, when the ribbon motor 15 rotates in the direction of the arrow C, the shift drive shaft 12 rotates in the direction of the arrow C via the gear 16. This rotation of the shift drive shaft 12 in the direction of the arrow causes the shift arm 14 to rotate in the direction of the arrow E using the shaft 17 as a fulcrum via the shift plate 13, thereby causing the color ribbon cassette U to rotate in the direction of the arrow. I will do it. Further, the color ribbon cassette 11 is rotated in the direction of arrow B by rotating the pulse motor 15 in the direction opposite to arrow C.

Color printing is performed by rotating the color ribbon cassette 11 in such a manner that a color band corresponding to the specified printing color is opposed to the print head 18. That is, when a color band corresponding to the print color faces the print head 18, the carriage moves in the axial direction of the platen 19, and as the carriage moves, a print pin (not shown) built in the print head 18 moves toward the platen 19. protrude towards. The protruding printing pins contact the paper (not shown) on the platen 19 via the color band facing the print head 18 . Due to the contact of this printing pin, a colored band of ink is applied to the paper,
Colored dot characters are formed.

Here, when the color ribbon cassette 11 is mounted on the carriage, a home position sensor 20 is provided to set the color ribbon cassette 11 to an initial position as an initial setting. The home position sensor 20 is configured to be turned on by the passage of a sensor lever 21 attached to the shift drive shaft 12, and is composed of, for example, a microswitch or a photo sensor, and detects the initial position of the color ribbon cassette 11.

In this case, when the color ribbon cassette 11 is in the initial position, the center of the color ink ribbon, that is, the border between each color band of "cyan" and "magenta" is opposite to the tip of the print head 18, as shown in FIG. It looks like this.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
The ribbon holder 22 supporting the position detection switch 2
There are 3 and 10. This position detection switch 23 is
It consists of, for example, a microswitch that is turned on by contact with a protrusion 24 provided on the color ribbon cassette 11, and detects a predetermined rotational position of the color ribbon cassette 11.

In this case, when the color ribbon cassette 11 is at a predetermined rotational position, the end of the "yellow" color band of the color ink ribbon faces the tip of the print head 18, as shown in FIG. There is.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the same embodiment,
A ROM 33, a RAM 34, an interface circuit 35, a motor drive circuit 36, a head drive circuit 37, and an I10 port 38 are connected to the CPU 31, which controls the entire apparatus, via a system bus 32.

The ROM 33 stores various data necessary for printing, including programs. The RAM 34 has an area 34a that stores the rotation (number of pulses) of the color ink ribbon according to each color band. The interface circuit 35 transmits and receives data to and from a host device (not shown). The motor drive circuit 36 includes a paper feed motor 39 and a carriage motor 40.
and drives the ribbon motor 15. Each of the above motors 39
．． 40.15 is a pulse motor. A head drive circuit 37 drives the print head 18. I10 port 3B
performs input control of each signal of the home position sensor 20 and position detection switch 23.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

When the power is turned on, the CPU 31 controls the ribbon motor 15.
is driven to set the color ribbon cassette 11 to the initial position. This initial position is the detection position of the home position sensor 20, and here, as shown in FIG. set in position.

Next, the CPU 31 rotates the color ribbon cassette 11 at the initial position in the direction of arrow A, and sets it at a predetermined rotation position. This predetermined rotational position is determined by position detection switch 2.
3, and here, as shown in Figure 4, the edge of the "yellow" color band of the color ink ribbon and the print head 1 are detected.
8 is set at a position facing the tip.

Here, the CPU 31 counts the amount of rotation of the color ribbon cassette 11 (the number of steps of the ribbon motor 15) from the position detected by the home position sensor 20 to the position detected by the position detection switch 23, and based on this amount of rotation, the CPU 31 positions the color ribbon cassette 11 at the initial position. The amount of rotation of the color ink ribbon to each color band based on is calculated as follows.

That is, in FIG. 4, the home position sensor 2
Assuming that the amount of rotation of the color ribbon cassette 11 from the detection position by 0 to the detection position by the position detection switch 23 is N steps, from the initial position to "black", "
The amount of rotation to each color band of "cyan", "magenta", and "yellow" is calculated as follows: -(N-
Δn)/3 "Yellow J: n2m N-Δ
Each calculation formula for n is used to find each calculation formula. In this case, the above Δn is the amount of rotation (number of steps) from the center position of the “yellow” color band to the detection position of the home position sensor 20.
Although it is a value that can be ignored because it is designed to be a sufficiently small value compared to n2, it will be treated as a constant here. Moreover, the sign "-" indicates rotation in the direction of arrow B with respect to the initial position.

The CPU 31, which has thus calculated the rotation ff1 (number of steps) from the initial position to each color band, stores the rotation amount in the area 34a of the RAM 34.

Thereafter, the CPU 31 reads the amount of rotation corresponding to the color band to be used from the area 34a of the RAM 34 in accordance with the printing color specified by the host device (not shown), and controls the ribbon motor 15 based on the read amount of rotation. is driven to rotate the color ribbon cassette 11 in the initial position. In this case, since the rotation control of the color ribbon cassette 11 is performed based on the amount of rotation (step number) to each color band obtained by actually rotating the color ribbon cassette 11, it is not fixed as in the conventional case. Unlike conventional values, it can be executed with high precision using accurate values suitable for the printer device. Therefore, the color band corresponding to the printing color can be accurately positioned, and color printing can be performed without causing deterioration in printing quality such as color mixing.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the first detection means detects that the color ribbon cassette is at the initial position, and the first detection means detects that the color ribbon cassette is at the initial position. and a second detection means for detecting that the color ribbon cassette is in the rotational position, and based on the amount of rotation of the color ribbon cassette from the detection position by the first detection means to the detection position by the second detection means, Calculates the amount of rotation to each color band based on the initial position and stores it in the storage means, and when a printing color is specified, the storage means calculates the amount of rotation corresponding to the color band to be used. Since the color ribbon cassette is rotated based on the read data, rotation control of the color ribbon cassette can be executed with high precision, and color printing can be performed without causing deterioration of print quality such as color mixing.

[Brief Description of the Drawings] Fig. 1 is a side view showing a rotating mechanism of a color ribbon cassette according to an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is a side view showing a rotating position detection mechanism of the color ribbon cassette. , FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the same embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between each color band and rotation amount of the color ink ribbon in the same embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11... Color ribbon cassette, 12... Shift drive shaft, 13... Shift plate, 14... Shift arm, 15... Ribbon motor, 1B... Gear, 17... Shaft, 18 ...Print head, 19...Platen, 20...Home position sensor, 21...
・Sensor lever, 22...Ribbon holder, 23...
Position detection switch, 24... protrusion, 31... CPU
, 32... system bus, 33-ROM, 34-
...RAM, 34a...area, 35...interface, circuit, 3B...motor drive circuit, 37
...Head drive circuit, 38...I10 boat, 39
...paper feed motor, 40...carriage motor. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue

Claims (1)

[Claims] A color ribbon cassette containing color ink ribbons having a plurality of different color bands is mounted on a carriage, and rotation of the color ribbon cassette causes the color band corresponding to the printing color to be applied to the print head. In a printer device that performs color printing while facing each other, a first detection means detects that the color ribbon cassette is at an initial position; a second detection means for detecting that the color ribbon cassette is rotated from a detection position by the first detection means to a detection position by the second detection means, with the initial position as a reference; a calculation means for calculating the amount of rotation to each of the above color bands obtained by the calculation means; a storage means for storing the amount of rotation to each of the above color bands obtained by the calculation means; A printer apparatus comprising: a reading means for reading out the rotation amount from the storage means; and a rotation means for rotating the color ribbon cassette based on the rotation amount read by the reading means.