JPH01247189A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make possible color printing without printing quality deterioration caused by mixed color without reduction of throughput by providing a mechanism to adjust a gap between the tip of a printing head and a platen in opposite position to the printing head. CONSTITUTION:Color printing is performed by allowing a color zone corresponding to a designated printing color to be opposed to a printing head 11 by rotation of a color ribbon cassette 20. However, if a printing color is designated, CPU 41 reads the movement value of the color ribbon cassette 20 from a memory 43 with a carriage 12 set to a stand-still when the color ribbon cassette 20 is rotated, and drives a gap motor 29 based on said movement value. After this, an eccentric shaft 28 rotates through gears 30, 31 by driving of the gap motor 29, and the carriage 12 moves in a direction away from a platen 15 by a value equivalent to the number of steps. Consequently, a color ink ribbon stored in the color ribbon cassette 20 is not caught by the tip of the printing head 11 and color printing without print quality deterioration caused by mixed color is achieved by allowing the color ink ribbon corresponding to a printing color to be opposed to the printing head 11.

Description

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

(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 regions with a number of rows in the width direction, and impregnating each divided region with a different ink. have

Such a color ribbon cassette is mounted on the carriage L, and is controlled to rotate (shift) so that the color band corresponding to the specified print color faces the 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 pins abut 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.

In this case, the color ink ribbon is generally used for printing while being fed in the longitudinal direction within the color ribbon cassette using the moving force of the carriage as a driving source.

By the way, printing is not performed during printing on such a color ribbon cassette, but basically when the carriage is stopped. Generally, the gap between the tip of the print head and the platen is extremely narrow. Therefore, when the color ribbon cassette is rotated within this narrow gap, there is a possibility that the color ink ribbon interposed between the tip of the print head and the platen will be caught by the tip of the print head.

If the color ink ribbon gets caught at the tip of the print head, the color band of the color ink ribbon corresponding to the print color does not face the print head accurately, leading to problems such as color mixing and other deterioration in print quality. .

Conventionally, in order to solve this problem, a structure was adopted in which the carriage was moved idly when the color ribbon cassette was rotated. This is to move the carriage in the axial direction of the platen without printing after the color ribbon cassette has finished rotating, and the ribbon feeding carried out by this carriage movement eliminates the above-mentioned catch. It is something. However, such empty feeding of the carriage requires wasted time, which has the disadvantage of lowering the throughput of the entire apparatus.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, conventionally, when the color ribbon cassette is rotated, the color ink ribbon gets caught on the tip of the print head, resulting in poor print quality such as color mixing. Ta.

Further, when a structure is adopted in which the color ink ribbon is freed from being caught by empty feeding of the carriage, there is a drawback that the throughput is reduced.

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 capable of color printing without reducing throughput and causing no deterioration in print quality such as color mixture.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) That is, the printer device according to the present invention prints a color according to the printing color by rotating a color ribbon cassette in which color ink ribbons having a plurality of different color bands are stored. A printer device that performs color printing by placing the color band facing a print head, comprising a mechanism capable of adjusting a gap between the tip of the print head and a platen facing the print head, and rotating the color ribbon cassette. The gap is widened when the rotation is completed, and the gap is returned to its original state after the rotation is completed.

(Function) According to the above configuration, since the color ribbon cassette rotates when the gap is widened, the color ink ribbon is not caught on the print head. This allows for deterioration of printing quality such as color mixing without reducing throughput.
You can print in color without any problem.

(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 plan view showing the configuration of the printing mechanism section,
The carriage 12 carrying the print head 11 is supported by two shafts 13, 14 so as to be slidable in the axial direction of the platen 15. This carriage 12 is operated by a carriage motor IB, for example, a pulse motor.
It is driven via a timing belt 17. Further, the platen 15 is driven via a timing belt 19 by a paper feed motor 18 made of, for example, a pulse motor.

A color ribbon cassette 20 as shown in FIG. 2 is removably mounted on the carriage 12.

This color ribbon cassette 20 has a plurality of different color bands, such as "black", "cyan", "magenta", "
Color ink ribbons (not shown) having four color bands of "yellow" are stored.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing the carriage mechanism, in which the color ribbon force set 20 mounted on the carriage 12 is supported by a ribbon holder 22 that is rotatable about a shaft 21,
The rotation of the cam 23 causes it to rotate in the direction indicated by the arrow. This cam 23 is driven by a ribbon motor 24 consisting of, for example, a pulse motor.
rotates through gears 25, 26, 27.

Further, the carriage 12 is supported by a shaft 13 having an eccentric shaft 28 so as to be slidable on the shaft I3, and is moved in the direction of arrow B by rotation of the eccentric shaft 28. This eccentric shaft 28 is rotated via gears 30, 31 by a gap motor 29 consisting of, for example, a pulse motor. With this configuration, when the carriage 12 moves in the direction of arrow B, the tip of the carriage 12 and the platen 15
The gap between them will change.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the control system of the same embodiment. A memory 43 and an output port 44 are connected via a system bus 42 to a CPU 41 which controls the entire device.

The memory 43 stores data necessary for printing as well as carriage movement amount, which will be described later. The output port 44 controls the output of signals to each of the motor drive circuits 45 to 48 and the head drive circuit 49.

Motor drive circuits 45 to 48 drive the carriage motor 16, paper feed motor 18, ribbon motor 24, and gap motor 29, respectively. In addition, the head drive circuit 49
drives the print head 11.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

Color printing is performed by rotating the color ribbon cassette 2o so that a color band corresponding to a specified printing color faces the print head 11. That is, when a color band corresponding to the print color faces the print head 1.1, the carriage 1.
2 moves the platen 1 by the driving force of the carriage motor 16.
As the carriage moves, a print pin (not shown) built in the print head 11 projects toward the platen 15. The protruding print pins abut against the paper (not shown) on the platen 15 via the color band facing the print head 11 . Due to this contact of the printing pins, colored bands of ink are applied to the paper, forming colored dot characters.

In such color printing, the gap between the tip of the print head 11 and the platen 15 is adjusted in advance according to the thickness of the paper. In this case, the gap can be adjusted manually using a copy control lever or automatically using an auto gap adjustment mechanism, but these methods are not directly related to the present invention. , the explanation thereof will be omitted.

Here, when a printing color is specified by a host device (not shown) or the like, the CPU 41, while keeping the carriage 12 stopped, selects the color ribbon cassette 2 according to the specified printing color.
This ribbon cassette 20 rotates the ribbon cassette 20.
Perform gap adjustment before rotating.

That is, when rotating the color ribbon cassette 20, the CPU 41 reads the amount of movement from the memory 43 and drives the gap motor 29 based on this amount of movement. The amount of movement is, for example, the number of steps. By driving the gear knob motor 29, the eccentric shaft 28 is rotated via the gears 30, 31, and the carriage 12 is moved in a direction away from the platen 15 by the number of steps mentioned above. This movement of the carriage I2 causes the gears to widen.

□ After widening the gap in this manner, the CPU 41 drives the ribbon motor 24 to rotate the color ribbon cassette 20 according to the print color, and after this rotation is completed, the carriage 12 is moved backward by the number of steps mentioned above. This results in
The gap will return to normal.

In this way, the color ribbon cassette 20 is rotated with the gap widened. Therefore, when the color ribbon cassette 20 is rotated, the color ink ribbon stored in the color ribbon cassette 20 will not be caught on the tip of the print head 11, and the color ink ribbon can be accurately drawn according to the print color. By facing the print head II, color printing can be performed without causing deterioration in print quality such as color mixing.

Furthermore, in this case, there is no need for empty feeding of the carriage 12 as in the conventional case, so the throughput of the entire apparatus is not reduced.

In this embodiment, a configuration has been described in which a color ribbon cassette is mounted on a carriage for color printing. However, for example, color printing may be performed using a color ribbon cassette (so-called long ribbon cassette) installed outside the carriage. Even if the present invention is configured as such, it is applicable and the same effects as those of the above embodiment can be obtained.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, by rotating the color ribbon cassette in which color ink ribbons having a plurality of different color bands are stored, the color bands corresponding to the printing color are opposed to the print head. A printer device that performs color printing with a mechanism that can adjust the gap between the tip of the print head and a platen facing the print head, widens the gap when rotating the color ribbon cassette, and
- Since the gap is returned to its original position after the printing rotation is completed, color printing can be performed without reducing the throughput and causing no deterioration in printing quality such as color mixing.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the configuration of a printing mechanism section of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which a color ribbon cassette is installed in the same embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the same embodiment. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the control system of the same embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11... Print head, 12... Carriage, 13 and 14... Shaft, 15... Platen, 16...
... Carriage motor, 17 and 19 ... Timing belt, 18 ... Paper feed motor, 20 ... Color ribbon cassette, 21 ... Shaft, 22 ... Ribbon holder, 23 ... Cam, 24 ...・・Ribbon motor, 25
~27...Gear, 28...Eccentric shaft, 29...Gap motor, 30 and 31...Gear, 41...C
PU, 42... System bus, 43... Memory, 4
4... Output port, 45-48... Motor drive circuit, 49... Head drive circuit. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue N -ku (Tl -

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printer device that performs color printing by rotating a color ribbon cassette containing color ink ribbons having a plurality of different color bands, the color band corresponding to the print color is placed opposite the print head, and the tip of the print head and A mechanism capable of adjusting the gap between the print head and the opposing platen is provided, and gap control means is provided that widens the gap when rotating the color ribbon cassette and returns the gap to the original state after the rotation is completed. A printer device characterized by: