JPH05301395A - Tape printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily take out a printed tape even if a printing length is short by adding space data so as to make the printing length longer than a predetermined distance when a calculated printing length is determined to be shorter than a predetermined distance between a printing means and a cutting means. CONSTITUTION:Printing is performed on a tape as the tape is conveyed. When the tape is conveyed for a predetermined distance, the conveyance of the tape is stopped temporarily and a blank generated at the end of the tape is cut off. Thereafter, the conveyance of the tape is restarted and a printing length is calculated from data stored in a memory means. The calculated printing length is compared with a predetermined distance between a printing means and a cutting means. When the printing length is shorter than the predetermined distance, one or plural space data is added to the data stored in the memory means so as to make the printing length longer than the predetermined distance.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention, based on the data stored in a memory means, prints on the tape by the printing means in accordance with the tape feeding by the tape feeding means and also feeds the tape by the predetermined distance. The present invention also relates to a tape printer that temporarily stops tape feeding, cuts a margin produced at a tape end by cutting means, and then restarts tape feeding.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a tape printer of this type,
What was described in the specification and drawing attached to the application of Japanese Patent Application No. 3-217860 is known. In this tape printer, a transparent film, an ink ribbon, and a double-sided tape with release paper are wound and housed in a detachably provided tape cassette. When the tape cassette is installed in the tape printer, the character data for printing characters such as characters and symbols is input by operating the keyboard, and when the print key is operated, the built-in thermal head is used. Characters entered on the transparent film via the ink ribbon are printed,
Then, the printed transparent film and the double-sided tape are bonded together and sent out of the apparatus.

A cutting means for cutting the tape along its width direction is built in near the tape delivery port of this tape printer. Since the cutting means and the thermal head are provided with rollers for bonding the transparent film and the double-sided tape to each other, the cutting means and the thermal head are arranged in the tape printer with a predetermined distance therebetween.

Therefore, a tape produced by this tape printer always has a blank space having a length corresponding to the predetermined distance from the tape tip to the print start position. Therefore, the tape printer is configured to cut the margin by feeding the tape a predetermined distance from the start of printing, then temporarily stopping the tape feeding and operating the cutting means.

After that, the tape printer restarts printing, prints all the input characters, feeds the tape by a length corresponding to the predetermined distance from the trailing end of the print, and operates the cutting means in this state. Cut the tape pasted together to make a printed tape.

[0006]

The tape printer is capable of designating the print size of characters, but if the number of input characters is small and a small print size is designated, an input is made. The printed length of the printed character may be shorter than a predetermined distance between the thermal head and the cutting means. Since the predetermined distance is set so that the margin is as small as possible, when the printing length is shortened as described above, the tape protruding from the delivery port to the outside of the tape printer is further shortened, and the cut tape is tape-printed. There is a problem that it cannot be taken out from the device.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and provides a tape printer which can easily take out a printed tape from the tape printer even if the printing length is short. With the goal.

[0008]

In order to achieve this object, a tape printer according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, has a memory means for storing input data and an apparatus for printing at a fixed position. Printing means fixedly provided on the frame, tape feeding means for feeding a tape as a print medium to the printing means, and printing attached to the machine frame at a predetermined distance downstream from the printing means in the tape feeding direction A cutting means capable of cutting the subsequent tape and a control means for controlling the printing means, the tape feeding means, and the cutting means based on the data stored in the memory means are provided, and printing is performed in accordance with the tape feeding by the tape feeding means. When the tape is fed by a predetermined distance, the tape feeding is temporarily stopped by the means, the margin produced at the tape end is cut by the cutting means, and then the tape feeding is restarted. In the printing apparatus, a calculating unit for calculating the print length from the data stored in the memory unit, and the print length calculated by the calculating unit and the predetermined distance between the printing unit and the cutting unit are compared and discriminated. When the comparison / determination means determines that the print length is shorter than the predetermined distance, the print length is determined by adding one or more space data to the data stored in the memory means. Data editing means for making the length longer than the distance.

[0009]

In the tape printer of the present invention having the above construction, the print length of the input data is calculated by the calculation means, and the print length calculated by the comparison / determination means is between the print means and the cutting means. When it is determined that the print length is shorter than the predetermined distance, the data editing means adds one or more space data to the data stored in the memory means to make the print length longer than the predetermined distance.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In this embodiment, a large number of characters such as kanji, hiragana, katakana and alphabetic characters can be printed on a printing tape (tape as a printing medium), and a tape cutting mechanism for cutting the printing tape after printing is provided. The present invention is applied to a tape printer.

As shown in FIG. 2, a keyboard 3 is arranged in the front part of the main body frame 2 of the tape printer 1, and a printing mechanism PM is arranged in the main body frame 2 behind the keyboard 3. A liquid crystal display 32 capable of displaying characters and symbols is provided behind the keyboard 3. Below the left end of the printing mechanism PM, the printed printing tape 5
A discharge port 4 for discharging is formed.

The keyboard 3 includes character keys for inputting alphabets, hiragana and katakana, numeric keys,
A symbol key, a return key, a cursor movement key for moving the cursor on the display 32 up and down, left and right, a non-conversion key, a conversion key, a printing key for executing printing, and a tape for tape feeding the printing tape 5. It has a send key and a power key for turning the power on and off.

The printing mechanism PM will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 3. A rectangular tape storage cassette CS is detachably attached to the printing mechanism PM, and the tape storage cassette CS is transparent. Tape spool 6 around which a printing tape 5 having a width of about 24 mm is wound, a ribbon supply spool 8 around which an ink ribbon 7 is wound, and a take-up spool 9 around which the ink ribbon 7 is wound up.
And a supply spool 11 in which a double-sided tape 10 having the same width as the printing tape 5 is wound with the release paper outside, and a joining roller 12 for joining the printing tape 5 and the double-sided tape 10 are rotatable. Is directed to.

A thermal head 13 is attached to a machine frame (not shown) at a position where the printing tape 5 and the ink ribbon 7 overlap, and a platen for pressing the printing tape 5 and the ink ribbon 7 against the thermal head 13. Roller 14
And a joining roller 1 for joining the printing tape 5 and the double-sided tape 10.
The feed roller 15 that presses 2 is rotatably supported by the support 16. This thermal head 13 has 12
A group of heating elements composed of eight heating elements is vertically arranged in a row. The ink ribbon 7 and the thermal head 13 form a printing unit.

Accordingly, by driving the tape feed motor 34 (see FIG. 5) in the predetermined rotation direction, the joining roller 12 and the take-up spool 9 are driven in synchronism with each other in the predetermined rotation direction, and the heating elements are energized. At this time, characters are printed on the printing tape 5 by a plurality of dot rows, and the printing tape 5 is fed in the tape feeding direction A with the double-sided tape 10 joined.

The joining roller 12 and the feed roller 1 are
5, the tape feeding motor 34 and the like constitute the tape feeding means of the present invention. The details of the printing mechanism PM are described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-106555, so the description thereof will be omitted.

Next, the tape cutting mechanism 20 for cutting the printing tape 5 after printing will be described with reference to FIG. The tape cutting mechanism 20 constitutes the cutting means of the present invention.

A cutting motor 21 composed of a DC motor is attached to the machine frame below the attachment / detachment position of the tape storage cassette CS in the main body frame 2, and a drive gear 22 is attached to the drive shaft of the cutting motor 21. Is fixed,
The drive gear 22 has a first frame rotatably supported on the machine frame.
The large-diameter gear 23a of the gear 23 is meshed with the first gear 2
A second gear 24, which is rotatably supported by the machine frame, is meshed with the third small-diameter gear 23b. A swing lever 26 is connected to the pin 25 fixed to the second gear 24, and a movable blade 26b is integrally formed on the swing lever 26. On the other hand, the fixed blade 27 is attached to the machine frame adjacent to the movable blade 26b.

Therefore, when the cutting motor 21 is driven, the first gear 23 and the second gear 24 are rotated, and at the same time, the swing lever 26 swings. By the swinging of the swing lever 26, the movable blade 26b moves from the non-cutting position separated from the fixed blade 27 by a predetermined distance toward the movable blade 27 to the cutting position, and then moves to the non-cutting position again through this cutting position. ..
When the movable blade 26b moves to the cutting position, the printing tape 5 is cut in cooperation with the fixed blade 27.

The tape printer 1 having the above structure
The control system of is constructed as shown in FIG.

A keyboard 3, a display controller (LCDC) 33 having a display RAM for outputting display data to the liquid crystal display 32, a drive circuit 35 for driving the thermal head 13, and a tape feed motor 34 are driven. The drive circuit 36 for driving and the drive circuit 37 for driving the cutting motor 21 are provided in the control device C.
Of the input / output interfaces 38 of FIG.

The control device C includes a CPU 40 and a CPU 40.
I / O interface 38, ROM 41/43, CGROM connected to the same via a bus 39 such as a data bus
42 and RAM 50. This control device C constitutes the control means of the present invention.

A ROM (program memory) 41 is a program for controlling the display controller 33 in association with code data of characters such as characters, numbers and symbols input from the keyboard 3, and the code data is stored in the text memory 51 of the RAM 50. Stored in the print memory, a program for converting outline data corresponding to each code data in the text memory 51 into dot data, and expanding the dot data in the print buffer 52, the print buffer 52
A program for sequentially controlling the thermal head 13 and the tape feed motor 34 by sequentially reading the data in FIG.

Further, in order to send the printing tape 5 to the ROM 41 in correspondence with the head-cutter distance D between the printing position facing the thermal head 13 and the cutting position of the tape cutting mechanism 20, as shown in FIG. Tape feed motor 3
The number P of drive pulses for driving 4 and the number NS of print dot rows are stored.

CGROM (pattern data memory) 42
In, the dot pattern data for display is stored in association with the code data for each of a large number of characters. ROM (outline data memory) 43
For each of a large number of characters for printing characters (characters, symbols, etc.), outline data (outline data) that defines the outline of the character is written for each typeface (Gothic typeface, Mincho typeface, etc.). Are stored according to the code data. The ROM 43
In the individual contour line data stored in, the print lengths corresponding to various specifiable sizes are also stored.

The text memory 51 of the RAM 50 stores the code data of the input characters and symbols as document data. The print buffer 52 stores dot patterns of characters and symbols. A pulse number counter (count pulse number is N) 53 stores the pulse number N that has driven the tape feed motor 34 from the start of printing. The character size memory 54 stores data of the size used for printing. The print length memory 55 stores the total print length NL calculated from the input characters and symbols and the data of the size. Furthermore, RAM
The buffer 50 is provided with a buffer, a counter, a pointer, etc. for temporarily storing the calculation result calculated by the CPU 40. The text memory 51 constitutes the memory means of the present invention.

A tape printer 1 having the above-mentioned structure
A tape printing process routine performed by the controller C will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When various keys of the keyboard 3 are operated, code data such as characters and symbols are stored in the text memory 51, and size data is stored in the character size memory 54. When operated, the tape printing process shown in FIG. 5 is started by the controller C.

When this control is started, first, the pulse number counter 53 is reset and the print length memory 55 is cleared (S1). The code data stored in the text memory 51, the size data stored in the character size memory 54, and the ROM 43
From this, the total number of dot rows required for printing, that is, the total print length NL is calculated, and the calculated total print length NL is stored in the print length memory 55 (S2).

It is determined whether or not the total print length NL is equal to or more than the number of print dot rows NS corresponding to the head-cutter distance D between the print position and the cutting position stored in the ROM 41 (S3). If the total print length NL is greater than or equal to the number of print dot rows NS (S3: YES), the outline data of each code data stored in the text memory 51 is expanded into dot data of the specified size and the print buffer 5 is output.
2 is stored (S4).

Next, one row of dot data is read from the print buffer 52, and printing processing is executed while driving control of the tape feed motor 34 and the thermal head 13 based on this dot data (S5). The number N of pulses supplied to the tape feed motor 34 for printing dot data for one row is counted (S6), and when the number N of count pulses is not the number P of drive pulses corresponding to the distance D between the head and the cutter. (S7: NO), the above S5
Is executed and the next dot data for one column is read out from the print buffer 52 and printed. In this way, S5 to S7 are repeated, and the printing process is executed row by row.

When the count pulse number N and the drive pulse number P become equal (S7: YES), the driving of the thermal head 13 and the tape feed motor 34 is stopped and the printing process is temporarily stopped ( S8), a cutting process for cutting the printing tape 5 is executed (S9). In this cutting process, the cutting motor 21 is driven, the first gear 23 and the second gear 24 are rotated along with this driving, and at the same time, the swing lever 26 is swung, and the movable blade 26b is fixed.
The movable blade 27 is moved from the non-cutting position, which is separated by a predetermined distance from 7, to the cutting position. By this movement, the movable blade 2
6b and the fixed blade 27 cooperate to cut the printing tape 5. By this cutting process, the distance D between head and cutter
A tape with a blank space corresponding to is cut off.

After the cutting process is completed, when the printing is interrupted, the printing process for printing all the dot data remaining in the print buffer 52 from the line next to the one dot line printed last is restarted (S10), and the printing process is executed. After the end, the tape feed motor 3 is driven by a predetermined number of pulses required to send the dot data of the last printed row to a position sufficiently exceeding the cutting position.
4 is driven (S11), the tape cutting process is executed (S12), and the tape printing process ends.

For example, using the keyboard 3, the character string "AB
When "CDEF" is input and a large size is designated, the above steps S1 to S12 are executed and the printed printing tape 5 shown in FIG. 6 is created.

On the other hand, when only the character "A" is input by the keyboard 3 and a small size is designated, the total print length NL becomes smaller than the print dot row number NS, so that the above S3 is selected. The judgment is “NO”.
Therefore, a space code representing a space is added before the code data of the character "A" stored in the text memory 51 (S13), and the total print length NL is calculated again (S2). S13 is repeated until the total print length NL becomes equal to or more than the print dot row number NS, and the total print length N
When L becomes equal to or more than the print dot row number NS (S
3: YES) S4 to S12 are executed. This S1
By the tape printing process including 3, the printing tape 5 of the character string "A" is created as shown in FIG.

As described above, even when printing a character string whose print length is smaller than the head-cutter distance D, the print length is always shorter than the head-cutter distance D by automatically inserting the space code. become longer. Therefore, even if a margin having a length corresponding to the head-cutter distance D is cut off, the tip of the printed printing tape 5 always projects from the discharge port 4 and can be taken out very easily.

The control device C executes the step S3 to configure the comparison / discrimination means of the present invention, and the execution of the step S13 configures the data editing means of the present invention.

[0039]

As described above, according to the tape printer of the present invention, the printed tape can be easily taken out from the tape printer even if the printing length is short.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the tape printer.

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view of a printing mechanism.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control system of the tape printer.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing tape printing processing.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a printed tape having a long print length.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a printed tape having a short print length.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 Printing Tape 7 Ink Ribbon 12 Joining Roller 13 Thermal Head 15 Feeding Roller 20 Tape Cutting Mechanism 34 Tape Feeding Motor 51 Text Memory C Controller

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A memory means for storing input data, a printing means fixedly provided in a machine frame for printing at a fixed position, and a tape feeding means for feeding a tape as a print medium to the printing means. A cutting means attached to the machine frame at a predetermined distance downstream from the printing means in the tape feeding direction, capable of cutting the tape after printing, and the printing means and the tape based on the data stored in the memory means. The tape feeding means comprises a control means for controlling the feeding means and the cutting means, the printing means prints on the tape along with the tape feeding by the tape feeding means, and the tape feeding is temporarily stopped when the tape is fed by the predetermined distance. In a tape printer that cuts a margin produced at the end of the tape by the cutting unit and then restarts tape feeding, calculates the print length from the data stored in the memory unit. And a comparing and determining means for comparing and determining the print length calculated by the calculating means and the predetermined distance between the printing means and the cutting means, and the comparing and determining means causes the print length to be less than the predetermined distance. And a data editing means for adding one or a plurality of space data to the data stored in the memory means to make the printing length longer than a predetermined distance, Printing device.