JPH0263371A - Simple printer with scanner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain scanning while observing a scanner area and to attain easy to see print position by arranging a frame to both sides of a casing and arranging a printer head in the inside of the frame CONSTITUTION:A frame 12 has a lateral side 12c having nearly an equal length to a lateral width of a casing 2 and sides 12a, 12b at a right angle to the lateral shaft 12c and the sides 12a, 12b are supported freely slidably at both sides of the casing 2. A printer head 50 is fitted freely slidably to the inner side face of the lateral shaft of the frame 12 opposite to the casing 2 and a print face is opposite to a plane prolonged from a bottom face of the casing 2. Thus, the scanning and printing are implemented accurately.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a printer that prints on paper using a printer head based on print data or scanner data input from an input device, and particularly relates to a printer that prints on paper with a printer head based on print data input from an input device or scanner data, and particularly when placed on a desk or the like. The present invention relates to a simple printer with a scanner in which a casing is placed on a sheet of paper at an arbitrary position and printing can be performed on the sheet with a printer head.

[Conventional technology]

A printer in which a casing is placed on a sheet of paper on a placement surface such as a desk, and prints on the sheet of paper using a printer head provided on an arm protruding from the casing was disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61.
It is disclosed in Japanese Patent No.-32771. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-29263 discloses an apparatus in which a line scanner is provided in a casing and the line scanner converts a document placed on a placement surface of the casing into scanned data. In addition, a scanner and a printer head are built into the casing, and the casing is manually moved over a document to scan the document, and then the casing is manually moved over another sheet of paper to transfer the scan data to the printer head. There are commercially available handy transfer machines with the trade name ``Sharaku'' that can be used to transfer images onto other types of paper.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Although the above-mentioned handy transfer machine has the advantage of being able to perform scanning and printing operations by manually moving the casing, it has not been able to accurately perform scanning and printing operations. Furthermore, since the above-mentioned printer automatically controls the print head in the XY force directions, it is possible to accurately feed the printer head, but it does not have a scanner function, so there is a drawback that its applications are limited. The present invention aims to eliminate the above-mentioned defects.

[Means to solve problems]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an apparatus that allows input print data or input scan data to be automatically printed on a paper surface by a printer head, which has a bottom part suitable for being placed on a table. A substantially rectangular casing 2 in which a scanner area 6 consisting of a substantially rectangular space opened in the vertical direction is formed in the center thereof, a transverse shaft portion 12c having substantially the same length as the transverse width of the casing 2; a frame] 2 having side portions 12a, 12b perpendicular to the shaft portion 12c, and the side portions 12a, 12b being slidably supported on both sides of the casing 2;
A scanner 98 is slidably supported in a direction transverse to the scanner area 6, and a scanner 98 is slidably supported on the inner side of the horizontal shaft portion 12c of the marking frame 12 facing the casing 2, and is attached to the bottom surface of the casing 2. a head cover 4a provided on the casing 2 for shielding the print surface of the printer head 50 when the frame 12 is closest to the casing 2; , a Y drive mechanism that drives the frame 12 along both sides of the casing 2, and an X drive mechanism that drives the printer head 50 along the horizontal shaft portion 12c of the frame 12;
A scanner feeding mechanism that drives the scanner 98 in a direction across the scanner area 6 is provided.

[Effect]

Before printing, press the frame 12 by key operation.
to a predetermined position in the direction away from the casing 2 in the Y direction.Next, when the casing 2 is placed at a desired position on the paper on the table and the printing operation is started, the printer head 50 While moving along the horizontal axis] -2c.

Based on the input print data, printing is performed on the paper directly below the printer head 50. In addition, when reading a document on the table, move the casing 2 and scan the scanner area 6.
position in the reading area of the original. Next, when a scanning operation is started, the scanner 98 moves across the scanner area 6, and the scanner 98 converts the document in the scanner area 6 into image data. This scanner data can be printed out on another paper by the printer head 50. When the printing operation is completed, the side portions 12a and 12b of the frame 12 move toward the inside of the casing 2, and the horizontal shaft portion 12c of the frame 12 approaches the casing 2 to a predetermined position. In this state, the printer head 50 is located on the head cover 4a of the casing 2, and the printing surface of the printer head 50 is shielded from the outside.

〔Example〕

The structure of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a casing consisting of a substrate 4 and a cover covering the upper part of the substrate, and a scanner area 6 consisting of a rectangular space opened vertically is formed in the center of the casing. Both ends of a Y-axis seal 8 are fixed to the side of the board 4 via brackets, and a Y-cursor 10 is attached to the Y@rail 8.
The guide holes fit together so that they can slide freely. One end of one side 12a of a U-shaped frame 12 is fixed to the Y cursor 10. Side portion 12b of the frame 12
is slidably supported via rollers 16 and 18 on a guide rail 14 that is fixed on the other side of the surface board 4 in parallel to the Y rail 8. 20 is a frame drive motor fixed to the board 4, and the output shaft of the motor 2o is connected to the support shaft of a drum 22 rotatably supported at the rear of the board 4 via a gear mechanism.

24 is a drum rotatably supported in the curved side of the substrate 4, and a flexible wire rope 26 is tensioned between the drum 24 and the drum 22.
The stake has been passed. One side of the pair of horizontal parts of the wire rope 26 is fixed to the Y cursor 10. The above configuration constitutes a Y drive mechanism that drives the frame 12 in the front-rear direction along both sides of the casing 2.

Next, the X drive mechanism for driving the X cursor 28 for transporting the printer head along the horizontal shaft portion 12c of the frame 12 will be described.

30 is an X-axis seal whose both ends are fixed to the frame 12 via brackets at right angles to the Y-axis seal 8, and the guide hole of the X cursor 28 is slidably fitted into this. . As shown in FIG. 16, a guide rail 32 is fixed to the frame 12 in parallel with the X-axis seal 3o, and a roller guide groove having a U-shaped cross section in the guide rail 32 allows the X cursor 28 to freely rotate. A guide roller 34 that is pivotally supported is disposed so as to be freely movable. The guide rollers 34 and the roller guide grooves of the X guide rail 32 restrict movement of the X cursor 28 in the rotational direction about the X-axis seal 30. 36 is a head drive motor fixed to the board 4, and its output shaft is connected to the head drive motor via a gear mechanism.
It is connected to a support shaft of a drum 38 rotatably supported by the base plate 4.

The wire rope 40 is wound around the 1-ram 38.

As shown in FIG. 10, pulley 42. The wire rope 4 is passed through the upper pulley 44 of the double pulley, the pulley 46 of the double pulley, and the lower pulley 4a of the double pulley in this order.
o is fixed to the X cursor 28. The pulley 42
is rotatably supported by the Y cursor 10, the pulleys 44, 4a are located on the left end side of the horizontal shaft portion 12c of the frame 12, and are rotatably supported on the same axis.
is located on the right end side of the horizontal shaft portion 12c of the frame 12 and is rotatably supported.

Next, a description will be given of a printer head elevating mechanism that controls elevating and lowering the printer head 50 in a direction perpendicular to the printing surface.

In FIGS. 8 and 16, 52 indicates the X cursor 28
A guide shaft 54 is fixed to this bracket perpendicularly to the extension plane of the bottom surface of the casing 2, and a hole in the lifting frame 56 and the lifting body 58 is fixed to the guide shaft 54. However, they are slidably fitted together so as not to rotate about the guide shaft 54. A thermal printer head 50 is fixed to the elevating body 58. A coil spring 60 fitted into the guide shaft 54 is disposed between the lower surface of the elevating frame 56 and the upper surface of the lower part of the bracket 52, and a coil spring 60 is disposed between the upper surface of the elevating body 58 and the upper lower surface of the elevating frame 56. A coil spring 62 fitted into the guide shaft 54 is compressed. Reference numeral 64 denotes a lifting guide bar having a U-shaped overall shape, and both sides of the bar 64 are rotatably fitted to both ends of the X-axis seal 3o. Reference numeral 66 denotes an L-shaped piece rotatably supported by the X cursor 28, one of which faces the guide bar 64, and the other of which faces the two sides of the protrusion 68 protruding from the lifting frame 56. is facing. 70 is frame 1
A pin 74 fixed to the output shaft 72 of this solenoid is fixed to the frame 1.
The rotary shaft 76 is slidably inserted into an elongated hole formed in a projecting piece of a rotary shaft 76 rotatably supported by the rotary shaft 76 . The rotating shaft 7
A pushing piece 76a integrally formed in a direction perpendicular to 6 faces the lifting guide bar 64.

In FIGS. 5 and 6, 78 is an ink ribbon cassette, and a supply reel shaft 82 supporting a ribbon supply reel 8° is rotatably provided on this. The ink ribbon cassette 78 is removably attached to the X cursor 28, and a swing plate 8 is attached to the internal substrate of the cassette 78.
4 is rotatably supported. The swing plate 84 is biased in one counterclockwise direction in FIG. 88 and 90 are gears that are rotatably supported on the rocking plate 84 in a mutually meshed state, and the two gears 88 are meshed with a gear 94 fixed to a shaft that interlocks with the ribbon winding shaft 92. There is. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 96 indicates the frame 12 parallel to the X rail 30.
This is a rack gear fixed to the gear 90, and is arranged directly below the gear 90 at an appropriate interval.

Next, a scanner feeding mechanism for driving the scanner 98 in the X# force direction will be described.

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 100 denotes a scanner guide shaft fixed to the substrate 4 via a bracket, and is arranged at right angles to the Y-axis seal 8.

A tubular cursor body 1 is provided on one end side of the line scanner 98.
02 is fixedly installed, and the cursor body 102 is slidably fitted to the scanner guide shaft 100. A plurality of rollers 1 are connected to the other end of the scanner 98 via a bracket.
04 is rotatably supported, and the surface of the roller 104 is movably in contact with the wall surface of a groove of a guide rail 106 fixed to the substrate 4 in parallel to the scanner guide shaft 100. . 108 and 110 are drums located near both ends of the scanner guide shaft 100 and rotatably supported by the substrate 4; one drum 110 is
It is connected via a gear mechanism to the output shaft of a scanner feed motor 112 fixed to the substrate 4. The drum 10
An endless wire rope 114 is passed between 8 and 110, and the horizontal part of the rope 114 is connected to the cursor body 1.0.
It is fixed at 2. The lower surface of the scanner 98 in the scanner area 6 is set substantially on the same plane as the bottom surface of the substrate 4.

The casing 2 has a built-in data processing circuit that processes scanner data and keyboard print input data as input data to the printer head 50, and also has a print input that includes a connection terminal with the host computer 118 and a display section. A connection terminal for connection to a computer keyboard 120 is provided. The casing 2 also includes the motors 36, 20.
, 112, a built-in controller for controlling the solenoid 70, the printer head 50, and the scanner 98,
A main operation panel 116 for operating the controller is provided on the upper surface of the casing 2.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

First, a case will be described in which character data input from the main operation panel 116 or the keyboard 120 is printed on paper.

When the power of this machine is turned on, the motor 20 is driven and the frame 12 is moved between the Y-axis seal 8 and the guide rail 1 as shown in FIG.
4 to a predetermined position, that is, in front of the casing 2, and then stops. Furthermore, the X cursor 28 is supported by the X axis seal 3o and the X guide rail 32, moves to the left to a predetermined position, and then stops. The operator is the casing 2
Move the printer head over the paper on a surface such as a desk to align the print head with the print start point on the paper.

Next, or in advance, print data is input into the data processing circuit inside the casing 2 from the print input keyboard 12o or the host computer 118.

When the print start key on the main operation panel 116 is turned on, the solenoid 70 is energized, and its output shaft 72 is driven one time upward in FIG. 16. This drive rotates the rotating shaft 76, and the protruding piece 76a rotates the head elevation guide bar 64 about the X-axis seal 30. As a result, the L-shaped piece 66 rotates counterclockwise about the central axis of rotation in FIG. Then, the printer head 50 resists the elasticity of the coil spring 62 and comes into elastic contact with the printing surface via the ink ribbon. As the protrusion 68 descends, the support plate 84 rotates clockwise about its rotation center in FIG. 5 against the tensile force of the coil spring 86, and the gear 90 descends. The gear 90 comes into elastic contact with the rack gear 96.

Next, the printer head 50 and motor 36 are driven,
The printer head 50 prints on the paper while printing the fourth
It is sent rightward along the X-axis rail 30 in the figure. As the printer head 50 moves, the gear 9o rotates, and the winding shaft 92 interlocked with the gear 9o rotates in the ink ribbon winding direction, supplying a new ink ribbon to the printing surface of the printer head 50. It is supplied from the reel 80.

When the printing of the first line is completed, the solenoid 70 is turned off, the printer head 50 is raised, and the gear 9 is turned off.
0 is separated from the rack gear 96.

The printer head 50 is driven by the motor 36.

The horizontal shaft portion 12c of the frame 12 returns to a predetermined left end portion. Next, the motor 20 is driven, and the frame 12 is
It moves downward along the Y-axis seal 8 by a predetermined distance in FIG. 4, aligns the printing position of the printer head 50 with the line feed position, and then prints the next line as described above. In this way, the above operation is repeated within the five drawing areas 122 until printing of a predetermined number of lines is completed.

Next, the operation of printing the image data read by the scanner 98 will be explained.

When you align the scanner area 6 of the casing 2 with the part you want to copy, such as a drawing, and press the scan key on the main operation panel 116, the motor 112 is driven and the scanner 98 scans the inside of the scanner area 6 as shown in FIG. Guide shaft 1 to the right from
00 and the guide rail 106, the scanner 98 reads image data such as a drawing directly below the scanner area 98 and stores it in a memory. This read image data may be stored in the host computer 118. The read image data or the image data stored in the host computer 118 can be printed on a desired printing screen using the printer head 50 by pressing the print key on the main operation panel 116. Further, while scanning with the scanner 98, this scan data can be printed out with the printer head 50. Furthermore, the image data read by the scanner 98 can be edited on the host computer 118 side, and the edited data can be printed out on paper using the printer head 50. Furthermore, while the scanner 98 is being driven, print data other than the scanner data can be printed out on paper using the printer head 50.

With the printer head 50 elevated, the frame 12
When the frame 12 is retracted to the most retracted position, the side surface of the horizontal shaft portion 12c of the frame 12 comes into contact with the upper edge of the board 14, as shown in FIG. In this state, the printer head 50 is positioned on the head cover portion 4a of the substrate 4, and the printing surface of the printer head 50 is protected.

〔effect〕

As described above, in the present invention, since the frames are arranged on both sides of the casing, a relatively wide scanner area can be secured in the center of the casing, and scanning operations can be performed while looking into this scanner area, and the height of the casing can be reduced. It can be lowered. In addition, since the printer head is placed inside the frame, it is easy to see the printing position during printing operations, and when the frame is completely retracted toward the casing, the printer head is stored on the head cover of the casing, allowing the print head to print. There are effects such as protecting the surface.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is an external view, Figure 2 is an external view, Figure 3 is an external view, Figure 4 is a plan view with the casing cover removed,
Figure 5 is a sectional view taken along line B-B, Figure 6 is a rear view, and Figure 7 is A.
-A sectional view, Fig. 8 is a right side view, Fig. 9 is a plan view with the frame protruded, Fig. 10 is the same, rear view, Fig. 11
The figure is the same, left side view, Figure 12 is the same, right side view, 1st
3 is an explanatory diagram of the X drive mechanism, FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram of the Y drive mechanism, FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram of the scanner feeding mechanism, and FIG. 16 is an external view. 2... Casing, 4... Board, 6... Scanner area, 8... Y-axis seal, 10... Y-cursor,
12... Frame, 14... Guide rail, 16.
18... Roller, 20... Motor, 22.24...
Drum, 26...Wire rope, 28...X cursor, 30...X#I rail, 32...X guide rail, 34...Guide roller, 36...Motor, 38...
...Drum, 40...Wire rope, 42,44,4
．． 6, 4a...Pulley, 50...Printer head,
52... Bracket, 54... Guide shaft, 56...
Elevating frame, 58... Elevating body, 60.62... Coil spring, 64... Elevating guide bar, 66... L-shaped piece. 68... Protrusion, 7o... Solenoid, 72... Output shaft, 74... Pin, 76... Rotating shaft, 78... Cassette, 80... Ribbon supply reel, 82...・Supply reel shaft, 84... Rocking plate, 86... Coil spring,
88.90... Gear, 92... Winding shaft, 94.
・Gear, 96...Rack gear, 98...Scanner,
100... Scanner guide axis, 102... Cursor body, 104... Roller, 1°6... Guide rail, 1
08,110--Drum, 112--Motor, ]1
4... Rope, 116... Operation panel, 118...
・Host computer, 120...Keyboard

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a device that is capable of automatically printing input print data or input scan data on a paper surface using a printer head, the device has a bottom suitable for being placed on a table, and a A substantially rectangular casing 2 in which a scanner area 6 consisting of an open substantially rectangular space is formed, a horizontal shaft portion 12c having approximately the same length as the width of the casing 2, and a horizontal shaft portion 12c perpendicular to the horizontal shaft portion 12c. Side part 12
a, 12b, and the side parts 12a, 12b are slidably supported on both sides of the casing 2.
2, a scanner 98 supported by the casing 2 so as to be slidable in a direction across the scanner area 6; and a scanner 98 slidably attached to the inner side of the horizontal shaft portion 12c of the frame 12 facing the casing 2; The printer head 50 whose printing surface faces the extended plane of the bottom surface of the casing 2 and the frame 12 are connected to the casing 2.
When the head cover 4a provided on the casing 2 for shielding the printing surface of the printer head 50 and the frame 12 are brought closest to the casing 2,
an X drive mechanism that drives the printer head 50 along the horizontal axis portion 12c of the frame 12, and an X drive mechanism that drives the scanner 98 in a direction across the scanner area 6. A simple printer with a scanner equipped with a scanner feed mechanism.