JPH04142957A - Sheet cutter for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a device which can variably control moving distance, stopping position (retract end, or standby position, and forward end position) of a movable cutter by setting set positions of a plurality of detecting means by differentiating a rotating phase to a rotary member to be detected so that a plurality of combinations of detection signals of the means exist. CONSTITUTION:A drive motor 24 is stopped while a movable cutter 9a is held at a standby position of a retracted position in a state that detection signals of two detecting means 34, 35 are simultaneously OFF in a sheet cutting work. The motor 24 is normally rotated upon reception of a signal of timing for finishing a series of predetermined printing works to move forward the cutter 9a. A position where the one signal of the means 34 is altered from OFF to ON becomes a sheet cut starting position, and the motor 24 is further normally rotated. In this case, if a fully-cutting work is instructed, the motor 24 is continuously normally rotated until the signal of the means 34 is varied from ON to OFF, the motor is slightly stopped at the varying position for a very short time, the motor 24 is then reversely rotated, and returned to an original standby position. As a result, the motor can be effectively controlled, and moving distance, stopping position of the cutter can be variably controlled.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a paper cutting device installed in a printer capable of inputting image data such as characters and figures and recording the image data on roll paper. It's about structure.

[Conventional technology]

In this type of paper cutting device, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 127499
As disclosed in Publication No. 8, etc., paper is passed between a guillotine-type movable blade and a fixed blade in a cutter device provided at a position downstream from the printing section of the printer for paper feeding,
The rotating horn of the drive motor, such as the C motor, is transmitted through an interlocking mechanism so that the movable blade reciprocates near and far with respect to the fixed blade. After cutting the paper by moving the movable blade (in the retracted position) forward toward the fixed blade, the drive motor is reversed to return the movable blade to the standby position again.

In this case, in the prior art, a cam that rotates in the forward and reverse directions according to the forward and reverse rotation of the drive motor and rotates in accordance with the amount of movement of the movable blade is provided in association with the interlocking mechanism, and the cam is attached to the interlocking mechanism. One limit switch was brought into contact with the movable blade, and the phase position of the limit switch with respect to the cam was set so that the detection signal changed at the start and end positions of cutting the paper by the movable blade.

For example, the limit switch signal is set to be OFF at the standby position of the movable blade, and 0F at the cutting start position.
The signal changes to F-+ON and turns ON-+ at the cutting end position.
By setting the phase relationship between the cam and the limit switch so that it is turned OFF, you can also check the amount of movement of the movable blade.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, with such a configuration, the following problem occurs.

In other words, when the detection signals are OFF at the same OFF position, such as OFF when the movable blade is in the standby position when it is retracted and OFF when the movable blade is at the cutting end position when the movable blade is advanced, the position of the movable blade will be completely different, but the printer will In the operating state, the above-mentioned fluctuations in the detection signal are performed in order, so that the detection signal becomes 0 at the cutting end position.
Immediately after the detection signal changes to N-OFF, the drive motor is reversed, and the movable blade can be returned to the standby position by determining a change opposite to the change in the detection signal using the controller.

Similarly, when the paper cutting mode can be switched between two types: a full cut in which the entire width of the paper is completely cut, and a partial cut (half cut) in which the edges of the paper width are left uncut, The combination of changes in the detection signal of the limit switch depending on the shape of the cam, for example, is OF at the standby position.
F, OFF → ON at cutting start position, 0 at half cutting end position
N-OF, F, OFF → ON at full cut end position
The cam shape is determined so that three types of change positions of the detection signal can be realized as shown in the figure, and when the drive motor rotates forward and reverse,
The movable blade can be returned to the standby position by determining each change in the detection signal using the controller.

However, when the printer is turned on (power up), paper must be able to pass between the standby movable blade and the fixed blade, so the movable blade must be in the standby position. If the detection signal from the limit switch is in the OFF state even though it is necessary to set the limit switch to Invite.

Therefore, conventionally, the drive motor is rotated in a fixed direction (for example, in the forward rotation direction) for a fixed period of time, and the change in the detection signal is checked to search for the standby position of the movable blade.

However, for example, when the movable blade is at the advanced cutting end position, if the drive motor is rotated in the forward direction to further advance the movable blade, the movable range of the movable blade or the interlocking mechanism may be exceeded. At this time, the gear ratio of the interlocking mechanism is large, about 1:500, so if you try to stop the movement with a stopper etc. when the movable blade exceeds the movable range, a large amount of torque will be applied to the interlocking mechanism, causing the gear shaft etc. Damage may occur.

In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to make the movable range of the movable blade and the interlocking mechanism larger than necessary, which causes the problem of increasing the size of the cutting device. There is also the problem that preparation time is required only while rotational driving is performed for a certain period of time in the direction, and the start-up of the device is delayed.

The present invention aims to solve these technical problems.

[Means to solve the problem]

To achieve this object, the present invention provides a movable blade that reciprocates in order to cut paper in a direction intersecting the paper feeding direction in a printer, and a drive motor that can rotate in forward and reverse directions. It consists of an interlocking mechanism that converts into reciprocating motion, a rotating detected member that is associated with the interlocking mechanism and interlocks with the amount of reciprocating movement of the movable blade, and a plurality of detection means that detects fluctuations in the rotational phase of the rotating detected member. , the installation positions of the plurality of detection means are set at different rotational phases with respect to the rotating detected member so that there are a plurality of combinations of detection signals from the plurality of detection means.

[Operation and effects of the invention]

In the present invention, a plurality of detection means are installed with different phases for - rotational detection members, and fluctuations in the rotational phase of the rotation detection member are determined as a combination of detection signals from the plurality of detection means. This makes it possible to accurately control the drive motor without changing the shape of the interlocking mechanism in the cutting device or the shape of the rotating detected member, and it is possible to control the amount of movement of the movable blade and the stop position (end of retreat (standby)). This has the effect that the position and forward end position can be controlled in various ways.

Therefore, unlike conventional technology, the amount of movement of the movable blade, the forward movement,
There is no need to change the shape of the interlocking mechanism or the shape of the rotating detected member each time the retreat stop position is changed, and there is no need to move the movable blade more than necessary to search for the standby position. Since the mechanism does not need to be large, it also has the effect of making the cutting device more compact.

Furthermore, when searching for the standby position of the movable blade when powering up the printer, the control for rotating the drive motor can also be easily distinguished from the combination of detection signals from the plurality of detection means, and the time required until the start-up is It has the potential to shorten the time.

〔Example〕

Next, a description will be given of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a printer for an electric cash register (ECR). Reference numeral 1 indicates an upwardly U-shaped case body in cross section of an image recording device, and reference numeral 2 indicates an upper surface of the case body 1. Comes with a removable cover to cover the
The case body 1 and the cover unit 2 are both made of synthetic resin by injection molding or the like.

Reference numeral 3 denotes roll paper on which image data such as characters and figures can be printed and recorded, and when the print head 15 described later is of the dot impact type, the print head 15 is a plain paper on which printing can be performed via an ink ribbon (not shown). If the head is a thermal head, thermal paper is used.

The width dimension (Hl
) is integrally formed with a recess for storing and holding the roll paper 3, and in the embodiment, the roll paper holding part 4 is formed by the bottom plate part 4a and the left and right side plate parts 4b, 4b.
is formed into a substantially semi-cylindrical shape that is open upward, and the left and right side plate parts 4b, 4b have recessed bearing parts 6, 6 for rotatably supporting both the left and right ends of the support shaft 5 of the roll paper 3. It is.

Further, reference numeral 7 denotes a wide paper feed hole for feeding the roll paper 3 to a printing section which will be described later. A hole is drilled in the middle. Reference numeral 8 denotes a paper discharge port for discharging the printed paper out of the apparatus, and the paper discharge port 8 is bored in the top plate 2a above the guillotine-type cutting device 9 installed inside the case body 1. There is.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a removable auxiliary cover that covers the upper part of the roll paper holder 4, and the auxiliary cover 10 covers the roll paper 3
It is made of a transparent material (such as acrylic resin) so that the degree of consumption of paper can be observed, and also has the function of protecting the roll paper 3 from dust.

Reference numeral 11 is a locking portion that locks one end of the auxiliary cover 10.

Reference numeral 12 denotes mechanical parts such as a printing section and an electronic circuit board 13 disposed inside the case body 1. The electronic circuit board 13 including a controller such as a microcomputer is located on the bottom plate 1 of the case body 1.
a It is attached to the upper surface and is located approximately below the roll paper holding section 4.

Reference numeral 14 indicates a plate-shaped platen body in the printing section; reference numeral 15
is a print head mounted on a carriage that faces this platen body 14 and is movable left and right along a support shaft 16, and can be moved back and forth left and right using the rotational force of a step motor 17 for driving the carriage via an endless belt (not shown). It is composed of

Reference numerals 18 and 19 denote a paper guide plate, 20 a paper end sensor such as a limit switch for detecting the end of paper or the presence or absence of paper, and 21 a pair of paper feed rollers equipped with a paper feed mechanism that rotates intermittently. When the print head 5 finishes printing one line, the paper is vertically fed by one line.

The cutting device 9 has a movable blade 9 that is longer than the width of the roll paper 3.
a and a fixed blade 9b are disposed below the left and right longitudinal paper discharge ports 8 along the long direction thereof, and the fixed blades 9 have an angular cross-section.
The left and right ends of b are fixed to a pair of left and right support members 22.22, while the movable blade 9a is fixed to the longitudinal tip of the fixed blade 9b.
The blade edges of the blades are arranged non-parallelly so that the roll paper 3 passes through the gap between the two blades of the movable blade 9a and the fixed blade 9b.

Therefore, the cutting edge of the movable blade 9a approaches the longitudinal tip of the fixed blade 9b, and as the two cutting edges overlap, the paper is successively cut off from one side of the width, and the paper is completely cut in the width direction. (cut) mode and mode where part of the width of the paper is left uncut and other parts are cut (partial cut).
This can be achieved by adjusting the amount of forward movement of the movable blade 9a relative to the fixed blade 9b.

Reference numeral 23 denotes an interlocking mechanism that converts the rotational force of a drive motor 24 such as a C motor capable of forward and reverse rotation so that the movable blade 9a reciprocates near and far with respect to the fixed blade 9b, and the interlocking mechanism 2
3 is a reduction gear group consisting of gears 2.5, 26.27;
It consists of a fan-shaped gear 28 that meshes with a gear 27, and a midway part of the fan-shaped gear 28 is rotatably connected to a frame 29 provided upright on the case body l by a pin of 3 degrees. An arm 32 is rotatably supported at one end via a pivot 31, and a movable blade 9a fixed to the arm 32 is always a fixed blade 9b.
It is biased by a torsion spring (not shown) or the like so as to move in the direction.

Reference numeral 33 denotes an end cam as a rotation detected member provided in association with the interlocking mechanism 23, and the end cam 33 is connected to the gear 27.
Two detection means 34 and 35 (leaf switches in the embodiment) are fixed to the side surface of the end cam 33 to detect the phase of the end cam 33 and the forward/backward movement position relationship of the movable blade 9a.
They are appropriately spaced apart so that their rotational phases relative to the end cam 33 are different.

That is, when the gear 27 rotates in the direction of arrow A in FIG.
an abutment 34a of the rain detection means 34°35 on the arcuate surface of the
The state in which the movable blade 9a is in contact (both detection signals are OFF) is the standby position (K) (retracted position) of the movable blade 9a,
The abutment 34a of one of the detection means 34 is connected to the end face cam 3.
3, and the detection signal changes to ON (the abutment 35a of the detection means 35 is still in contact with the arcuate surface of the small diameter portion 3).
3a and the detection signal remains OFF), the cutting start position (L) is reached.

Next, when the abutment 35a of the other detection means 35 comes into contact with the arc surface of the large diameter portion 33b of the end cam 33 and the detection signal changes to ON (the detection signal in the detection means 34 is already ON). , the partial cut position (M) is reached, the gear 27 further rotates in the direction of arrow A, and the detection means 34
The abutment 34a of the detection means 35 comes into contact with the arcuate surface of the small diameter portion 33a, and the detection signal changes to OFF (the abutment 35a of the detection means 35
is still in contact with the arcuate surface of the large diameter portion 33b and the detection signal is ON.
The phase relationship between the fan-shaped gear 28 and the gear 27 and the phase relationship between the end face cam 33 and the detection means 34 and 35 are set so that the cutting end position (N) (the most advanced position) is reached when That's what I do.

In addition, FIG. 5 shows a time schedule showing the ON-OFF fluctuation of the detection signal by the rain detection means 34, 35,
Figure 6 shows the detection signal 0N- by the rain detection means 34 and 35.
It is a figure which shows the relationship between the OFF state and the position state of the movable blade 9a.

These detection signals are input to the electronic circuit board 13, and the drive motor 24 can be stopped, rotated in the normal direction, stopped, or
It provides a signal that controls the reversing operation.

In this configuration, the roll paper 3 is stored in the roll paper holding section 4 in the cover integral 2 that covers the case body 1,
At this time, the bearing allows the supporting shaft 5 to be rotatably supported by the parts 6, 6. Next, the starting end of the roll paper 3 is inserted into the paper feed hole 7.
Insert it into the inside and position it in the printing part and cutter part 9.

When data such as characters and symbols are input from an external device such as a host computer, the character generator of the electronic circuit board 13 reads out data such as predetermined character codes (data such as images read by an image scanner is One or two lines of data is sent from the print buffer to the print head 15 via the print processing control section to execute a predetermined printing operation.

After printing a predetermined number of lines, the paper passes between the movable blade 9a and the fixed blade 9b in the cutting device 9.
Separation by moving the movable blade 9a back and forth (during full cut work)
or partially connected (during partial cut work)
The paper is ejected from the paper ejection port 8 in this state.

To explain this paper cutting operation in more detail, when the detection signals of the two detection means 34 and 35 are both OFF, the drive motor 24 is stopped while the movable blade 9a is held at the standby position, which is the retreated position. Then, upon receiving a timing signal when a series of predetermined printing operations are completed, the drive motor 24
is rotated forward to move the movable blade 9a forward. The position where the detection signal of one of the detection means 34 changes from OFF to ON becomes the paper cutting start position, and the drive motor 24 is further rotated in the normal direction (see FIG. 4).

At this time, when a full cut operation is instructed, the drive motor 24 continues to rotate forward until the detection signal of one of the detection means 34 changes from ON to OFF, and after the motor stops for a short time at the changed position, Reverse the drive motor 24,
It returns to its original standby position.

When a partial cut operation is instructed by operating a switch on the operation panel, the detection signal of the one detection means 34 turns ON.
The drive motor 24 continues to rotate in the normal direction until the detection signal of the other detection means 35 changes from OFF to ON, and after the motor stops for a short period of time at the changed position, the drive motor 24 is rotated in the reverse direction. , just return it to its original standby position.

When searching for the standby position of the movable blade, such as when powering up the printer, if it is determined that the detection signals of the rain detection means 34 and 35 are both OFF, that position is the standby position, and the drive motor 24 is turned off. As can be easily understood from the above explanation, when the sensor is held as it is and one of the detection signals of the rain detection means 34 and 35 is ON,
Since the movable blade 9a has moved forward from the standby position, the drive motor 24 is reversed to move the movable blade 9a forward.
All that is required is to move the vehicle a backward and stop at the point where both the detection signals of the rain detection means 34 and 35 are turned OFF.

Instead of an end cam as the rotating detection member, this is a non-contact detection means that can detect light passing through the slits by punching prescribed slits (through holes) in a disc and sandwiching the disc. The movable blade position detection control described above may be performed by arranging the photosensors in different positions.

In this way, in the present invention, a plurality of detection means are installed with respect to - number of rotating detected members so that their phases are different, and fluctuations in the rotational phase of the rotating detected members are detected by detection signals from the plurality of detection means. Since it has been made possible to identify the combination of This has the advantage that the drive motor can be accurately controlled without any problems, and the amount of movement and stop position (retreat end position and forward end position) of the movable blade can be controlled in various ways.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show embodiments of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a plan view of the printer, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line nn in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a side view of the main parts of ITJ-I in FIG. , Figure 4 is an explanation diagram of the action, Figure 5
The figure is a time chart of the detection signal, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the relationship between the detection signal of the detection means and the position of the movable blade. ■...Case body, 2...Cover integrated, 3...
- Roll paper, 4... Roll paper holding section, 6...
・Bearing is part, 7... Paper feed hole, 8... Paper discharge port, 9... Cutting device, 9a... Movable blade, 9b...
... Fixed blade, 10 ... Auxiliary cover 12 ... Mechanism section, 13 ... Electronic circuit board, 14 ... Platen body, 15 ... Print head, 18.19 ...・Paper guide plate, 20...Paper end sensor 21
... Paper feed roller pair, 23 ... Interlocking mechanism, 24
... Drive motor, 25.26.27... Gear,
28... Fan-shaped gear, 29... Frame, 32...
... Arm, 33 - End cam, 34.35... Detection means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A movable blade that reciprocates in order to cut paper in a direction intersecting the paper feeding direction in the printer, and an interlocking mechanism that converts the rotational force of a drive motor that can rotate forward and backward into reciprocating motion of the movable blade. , a rotating detection member that is linked to the amount of reciprocating movement of the movable blade accompanying the interlocking mechanism, and a plurality of detection means for detecting fluctuations in the rotational phase of the rotation detection member, and A paper cutting device for a printer, characterized in that the plurality of detection means are installed at different rotational phases with respect to the rotating detected member so that a plurality of combinations of detection signals exist.