JPH0250873A - Printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform a printing free from a ribbon stain and a printing pin damage by mounting a gap adjusting means abutting against the tip end of a printing head on paper surface through a gap adjusting board inserted into a gap by an insertion mechanism. CONSTITUTION:By operating a switch 39 with paper 19 set to a platen 15, a CPU 31 starts a gap adjusting action. With the maximum gap, the CPU 31 inserts a gap adjusting board 28 into a gap and drives a stepping motor 18 by a specified number of rotation (a) prestored in a ROM 33 by the excitation of a solenoid 26. At this time, the tip end of a printing head 11 abuts on the surface of paper 19 through the gap adjusting board 28. After that, the CPU 31 drives the stepping motor 18 by a specified number of rotation (b) prestored in the ROM 33 and stops the excitation of the solenoid 26, whereby the gap adjusting board 28 is returned to a home position by the pressing force of a return spring 27. Then, the CPU 31 drives the stepping motor 18 by the specified number of rotation (b) in a gap closing direction. In this manner, the tip end of the printing head 11 is spaced from the surface of the paper 19 by the board thickness of the gap adjusting board 28.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a printer device suitable for printing using optionally paper sheets of different thicknesses.

(Prior Art) For example, in a dot impact printer, as a carriage moves, a print pin built into a print head projects toward a platen via an ink ribbon. As the printing pin protrudes, ink from the ink ribbon is applied to the paper set on the platen, forming dot characters.

By the way, in this type of printer device, when printing using paper of different thickness as desired, the gap between the tip of the print head and the paper set on the platen must be adjusted to an appropriate value. There is a need.

However, conventionally, for example, copy control technology (
This is a lever that is operated according to the number of copies of paper, and the gap is adjusted depending on the position of this lever. This had the disadvantage of causing damage to the pins.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) As mentioned above, conventionally, when printing using sheets of paper of different thickness, it is not possible to obtain an appropriate gap, resulting in ribbon stains and damage to printing pins. There were drawbacks that led to

The present invention has been developed in view of the above points, and even when printing using paper of different thickness, it is possible to always obtain an appropriate gap, and it is possible to avoid ribbon stains, broken printing pins, etc. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer device capable of printing without causing problems.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) That is, a printer device according to the present invention is a printer device that adjusts the gap between the tip of a print head and a sheet of paper set on a platen. The tip of the print head is brought into contact with the paper surface marked t via a gap adjusting plate inserted into the gap to obtain an appropriate gap.

The insertion/removal mechanism is a mechanism for inserting/removing the gap adjustment plate into/from the gap. Further, the gap adjustment plate has a thickness equivalent to the appropriate value of the gap.

(Function) According to the configuration described in "-", the gap adjustment plate has the same thickness as the proper gap, so by bringing the tip of the print head into contact with the paper surface through this plate, the proper gap can be adjusted. can be obtained. Therefore, even when printing using sheets of paper of different thickness as desired, a proper gap can always be obtained, and printing can be performed without causing ribbon stains or damage to printing pins.

(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 configuration of the printing mechanism, in which a carriage 12 carrying a print head 11 is supported so as to be slidable in the axial direction of a platen 15 by a front guide rail 13 and a rear guide rail 14. . The front guide rail 13 has a gear 16 as shown in FIG.
gear 16 and gear 1
The re-carriage 12 is rotated in response to the driving force of the step motor 8 via the step motor 7, and the re-carriage 12 is moved parallel to the platen 15 in the gap adjustment direction by the eccentric action at that time.

The above gap is between the tip of the print head 11 and the platen 1.
This is the gap between the paper 19 set in 5 and
The gap becomes maximum when the rear end of the carriage 12 is brought into contact with the stopper 20, and becomes minimum when the ribbon mask 21 is brought into contact with the platen 15.

The ribbon mask 21 is disposed at the tip of the print head 11 to prevent the paper 19 from being stained by ink from the ink ribbon 22. Further, the ink ribbon 22 is stored in a ribbon cassette (not shown),
It is set between the tip of the print head 11 and the ribbon mask 21. As a result, the print pin built into the print head 11 projects toward the platen 15 via the ink ribbon 22, and the ink from the ink ribbon 21 is applied to the paper 19 to form dot characters. In this case, the paper 19 is guided by the paper pan 23 and moved to the platen 15 by the friction roller 24 and the pale roller 25.
is under pressure.

Here, the solenoid 26 and the return spring 27
The gap adjusting plate 28 is configured to be inserted into and removed from the gap by an insertion/removal mechanism consisting of the following.

The gap adjustment plate 28 has a thickness equivalent to the appropriate value of the gap, and is inserted into the gap against the urging force of the return spring 27 when the solenoid 26 is excited.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the control system of the same embodiment. The CPU 31, which controls the entire device, has a ROM 33, a RAM 34, an interface circuit 35, a motor control circuit 36, A solenoid control circuit 37 and an input/output port 38 are connected to each other.

The ROM 33 stores programs as well as various data necessary for gap adjustment operations to be described later.

The RAM 34 stores various data such as print data. The interface circuit 35 transmits and receives data to and from a host device (not shown). Motor control circuit 36
drives the step motor 18. The solenoid control circuit 37 excites and drives the solenoid 26 . The input/output port 38 controls the signal input of the switch 39. This switch 39 is a switch for starting the gap adjustment operation.

Next, the gap adjustment operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, the paper 19 is set on the platen 15 and the switch 39 is operated. By operating this switch 39, the CP
U31 starts the gap adjustment operation. That is, C.P.
When U31 receives a signal from switch 39 through input/output port 38, it first drives step motor 18 by a constant stored in ROM 33 in advance (step S).
l).

- The constant number indicated by the mark indicates that when the gap adjustment plate 28 is inserted into the gap with no paper 19 set on the platen 15, the rear end of the carriage 12 is This is the number of step pulses to be applied to the motor control circuit 36 necessary to move the carriage 12 until it contacts the stopper 20. By driving this constant step motor 18, the gap between the tip of the print head 11 and the paper 19 is maximized.

Note that depending on the position of the carriage 12 when widening the gap, the rear end of the carriage 12 may come into contact with the stopper 20 within the above constant. In this case, the step motor 18 will stop at the maximum gap position due to the adjustment of the step motor 18 even if it is within the constant.

In this way, if we maximize the gap (step S
2) After inserting the gap adjustment plate 28 into the gap by excitation of the solenoid 26 (step S3), the CPU 31 drives the step motor 18 by a specified number a stored in advance in the ROM 33 (step S4).

The specified number a is the motor control circuit 3 required to move the carriage 12 from the maximum gap to the minimum gap.
This is the number of step pulses to be given to 6. This specified number a
By driving the step motor 18, the driver 11 to print
The leading end (ribbon mask 21) contacts the surface of the paper 19 via the gap adjustment plate 28.

Note that depending on the paper thickness of the paper 19, the tip of the print head 11 (ribbon mask 21) may come into contact with the surface of the paper 19 via the gap adjustment plate 28 within the prescribed number 8 described above. In this case, even if it is within the specified number a, due to the adjustment of the step motor 8, the step motor 18 is in contact with the surface of the paper 19 via the tip of the print head 11 (ribbon mask 21) or the gap adjustment plate 28. Stop 1-.

After driving the step motor 8 for the specified number a (
In step S5), the CPU 31 drives a specified number of step motors 8 stored in advance in the ROM 33 (step S7), and stops excitation of the solenoid 26 (step S8).

The above specified number is the motor control necessary to create a gap between the tip of the printing head 11 (ribbon mask 21) and the gap adjustment plate 28 so that the gap adjustment plate 28 can be easily removed from within the gap. This is the number of step pulses to be given to the circuit 36. When the excitation of the solenoid 26 is stopped by driving the step motor 18 by the specified number of steps, the gap adjustment plate 28 is returned to its original position by the biasing force of the return spring 27.

Then, the CPU 31 drives the step motor 18 in the direction of closing the gap by the specified number of times (step S
9;5IO). As a result, the tip of the printing pad 11 (ribbon mask 21) is set at a position spaced apart from the surface of the paper 19 by the thickness of the gap adjustment plate 28. In this case, the thickness of the gap adjustment plate 28 has a value equivalent to the appropriate gap. Note that the value of this plate thickness is, for example, 0,
2-0. 3 [mm] is required, and 1 rad for printing is required.
1. As a result, regardless of the thickness of the paper 19 set on the platen 15, a gap equal to the thickness of the gap adjustment plate 28, that is, a proper gap can always be obtained.

Therefore, even when printing on sheets of paper of different thickness, an appropriate gap can always be obtained without the need for conventional gap adjustment by operating the combination control lever. Printing can be done without causing stains or damage to printing pins.

In this embodiment, the gap adjustment operation is started by operating the switch 39, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the gap adjustment operation can be started by a command from the host device. good.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the tip of the print head is brought into contact with the paper surface via the gap adjustment plate to obtain an appropriate gap, so that paper of different thickness can be arbitrarily adjusted. Even when used for printing, it is possible to always obtain an appropriate gap, and printing can be performed without causing ribbon stains or damage to printing pins.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the configuration of a printing mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view showing a gap adjustment mechanism of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a side view of the control system of the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration, and is a flowchart for explaining the gap adjustment operation of the same embodiment. 11... Print head, 12... Carriage, I3.
...Front guide rail, 14...Rear guide rail, 15...Platen, 16 and 17...Gear,
18...Step motor, 19...Paper, 20...
Stopper, 21... Riphon mask, 22... Ink ribbon, 23... Paper pan, 24... Friction roller, 25... Pail roller, 2B... Solenoid, 27... Return spring, 28... Gap adjustment Board, 31...CPU, 32...System bus, 33
...ROM, 34...RAM, 35...interface circuit, 36...motor control circuit, 37...
Solenoid control circuit, 38... input/output port, 39.
··switch. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue No. 3 3 Otsu 1c: 1

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A printer device that adjusts the gap between the tip of a print head and paper set on a platen, comprising: a gap adjustment plate having a thickness equivalent to the appropriate value of the gap; and this gap adjustment plate. an insertion/removal mechanism for inserting and removing the paper into the gap; and a gap for achieving an appropriate gap by bringing the tip of the print head into contact with the paper surface via the gap adjusting plate inserted into the gap by the insertion/removal mechanism. What is claimed is: 1. A printer device comprising: adjustment means.