JPH04201466A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print on horizontal writing multiple papers at low cost and high speed by controlling moving means and advance and retreat movement means corresponding to printing for horizontal and vertical writings of a print head. CONSTITUTION:When documents are to be printed in the horizontal direction, print elements 2 of a print head 1 are set to an arrangement of the horizon direction by a controller 5. The print head 1 is moved in the direction of X by a moving means 3 so as to print the documents in the horizontal direction, and a paper is sent in the direction of Y by an advance and retreat movement means 4 so as to make an advance. When the documents are to be printed in the vertical direction, the print elements 2 of the print head 1 are set to an arrangement of the vertical direction by the controller 5. The paper is advanced or retreated in the direction of Y by the advance and retreat movement means 4 so as to print the documents in the vertical direction and the print head 1 is moved in the direction of X by the moving means 3 so as to make an advance.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a dot matrix printer that prints characters, symbols, etc. as a set of dots.

In particular, the present invention relates to a printer equipped with a print head capable of printing in the vertical or horizontal direction and capable of printing horizontally bound multiple sheets at high speed by automatic paper feeding.

(Prior Art) Generally, when multiple sheets of paper are automatically fed into a printer, only the paper whose edge on the side to be opened is glued can be automatically fed and printed.

Therefore, since it is not possible to automatically feed and print on multi-copy sheets that are horizontally bound in the same direction, the sheets are fed with the bound side set as the start side. Along with this,
Conventionally, image data such as a document to be printed was printed horizontally by 90 pixels.
It was supposed to be rotated and corrected before being printed.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In the above-described conventional printing method for horizontally bound multi-copy paper, image data such as a document to be printed had to be rotated once within a buffer.

For this reason, it is necessary to provide a large-capacity buffer, which poses problems of high cost (and time-consuming printing processing).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and provide a printer that can print on multiple sheets of horizontally bound paper at low cost and at high speed.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the printer of the present invention has a print head in which the dots of printing elements are arranged in a square shape and can print in the vertical and horizontal directions by controlling the operation of each element. , a moving means for moving the print head in a direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction, and an advancing/retracting means for guiding the paper by a platen and rollers and moving the paper forward and backward by forward and reverse rotation of the platen and rollers. and a control section that controls the moving means and the advancing/retracting means in response to printing in the vertical and horizontal directions of the print head.

(Operations and Effects) Since the present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, it exhibits the following operations and effects.

That is, in the print head, since the dots of each printing element are arranged in a square shape, documents, etc. can be printed from either the vertical or horizontal direction by controlling the operation of each element.

When printing a document or the like in the horizontal direction, the printing elements of the print head are set to be arranged in the horizontal direction under the control of the control section. Then, the printing head is moved in the left-right direction by the moving means to print a document or the like in the horizontal direction, and the line is fed by the advancing/retracting means.

Further, when printing a document or the like in the vertical direction, the printing elements of the print head are set to be arranged in the vertical direction under the control of the control section. Then, the moving means moves the paper forward and backward to print a document or the like in the vertical direction, and the moving means moves the print head to feed the line.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is no need to rotate image data using a large-capacity buffer, which was conventionally required. This has the effect that printing can be performed at low cost and at high speed.

(Example) The illustrated embodiment will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the print element layout of a print head in a printer according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2(a) and (b)
3 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the layout of printing elements and the printing pattern during printing in the vertical and horizontal directions, and FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the main parts of the printer.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 is a 24-dot matrix impact printing head, and the dots of each printing element (usually a wire) 2 are arranged in a square shape as a whole. That is, the dots of each printing element 2 are laid out so that printing can be performed from either the vertical or horizontal directions. In this print head 1, the operation of each print element 2 is controlled by a control section to be described later, and printing can be performed in the vertical and horizontal directions.

In FIG. 2(a), numbers (1 to 1) are written on each printing element 2.
24) is the number of the printing element, and represents the layout when printing a document or the like in the horizontal direction.

In this case, numbers are assigned in order from the printing elements 2 arranged above to the printing elements 2 arranged below. For example, the printing pattern of the alphabet A shown on the right (direct and reverse) When printing, the operation of the printing elements 2 corresponding to each dot of the printing pattern is controlled.

On the other hand, when printing a document or the like in the vertical direction, the layout is set as shown in FIG. 2(b).

That is, the printing element 2 arranged on the left side of the printing head l
Numbers 1 to 24 are sequentially assigned to the printing elements 2 arranged on the right side.

For example, when printing a printing pattern of the alphabet A in the same way as printing in the horizontal direction, the printing elements 2 having the same number as those used for printing in the horizontal direction are operated according to the layout in the vertical direction. By controlling it, it is possible to print in the vertical direction.

In FIG. 3, 3 is a moving means, 4 is an advancing/retracting means, and 5 is a control section.

The moving means 3 includes a carrier motor 6, a timing belt 7 rotated by the operation of the carrier motor 6, and a timing pulley 7a that supports the timing belt 7. The print head 1 is connected to a timing belt 7 by a hook (not shown). As a result, when the carrier motor 6 is operated, the timing belt 7 rotates, and the print head 1 moves in the direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction (arrow X direction in the figure) in accordance with the rotation direction. .

The advancing/retracting means 4 includes a drive motor 8 , a timing belt 9 rotated by the operation of the drive motor 8 , a platen 10 rotated by the timing belt 9 , and a platen 10 disposed above the platen 10 to move the paper sheet between them. It consists of friction rollers 11 and 11 that feed paper by sandwiching the paper. The advancing/retracting means 4 having such a configuration is configured to move the paper forward and backward in the direction of the arrow Y in the figure by the forward and reverse rotation of the platen 10 and the friction roller 11 by the drive motor 8.

The control unit 5 controls the settings of the print elements in the vertical and horizontal directions of the print head 1, and the moving means 3 and the forward/backward moving means 4 in accordance with the print settings.

Next, the operation of the printer having the above-described configuration will be explained.

When printing a document or the like in the horizontal direction, each printing element 2 of the print head 1 is set to the horizontal layout under the control of the control unit 5 (see FIG. 2(a)), and the moving means 3 The print head 1 is moved in the direction of the arrow X in FIG. 3 to print a document or the like in the horizontal direction, and the advancing/retracting means 4 feeds the paper in the direction of the arrow Y to perform line feeding.

This allows printing in the horizontal direction.

Further, when printing a document or the like in the vertical direction, each printing element 2 of the print head 1 is set to be arranged in the vertical direction under the control of the control section 5 (see FIG. 2(b)). Then, the moving means 4 moves the paper back and forth in the direction of the arrow X in FIG. 3 to print a document or the like in the vertical direction, and the moving means 3 moves the print head 1 in the direction of the arrow X to perform line feeding.

When printing in the horizontal direction on horizontally bound multi-copy paper, use this vertical printing and feed the paper with the binding section of the horizontally bound multi-copy paper on the big side as shown in Figure 3. Let's do it.

According to the printer described above, printing in the vertical and horizontal directions can be easily performed by setting print in the vertical and horizontal directions and controlling the operations of the print head and paper using the moving means 3 and the advancing/retracting means 4.

Therefore, it is not necessary to rotate the image data using a large capacity buffer, unlike the conventional printing method when printing in the vertical direction. Processing can be performed at high speed.

Thereby, printing on an envelope as shown in FIG. 4 can also be performed by moving the envelope and print head in the paper feeding direction and the printing direction shown in the same figure.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be modified as appropriate within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the print element layout of a print head in a printer according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2(a) and (b)
is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the layout of printing elements and the printing pattern when printing in the vertical and horizontal directions, Figure 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of the main parts of the printer, and Figure 4 is a diagram showing the printing direction and feed when printing on envelopes. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the paper direction. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Print head, 2...Printing element, 3...Movement means, 4...Movement means. Patent applicant Japan Business Computer Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A print head in which dots of printing elements are arranged in a square shape and can print in the vertical and horizontal directions by controlling the operation of each element, and the print head is moved in a direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction. a moving means for guiding the paper by a platen and rollers, and an advancing/retracting means for moving the paper forward and backward by forward and reverse rotation of the platen and rollers,
A printer comprising a control section that controls the moving means and the advancing/retracting means in response to printing in the vertical and horizontal directions of the print head.