JPH05308495A - Serial recording device for facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain high speed recording of a facsimile received image without especially increasing a responding speed of a serial recording head by revising a head driving pattern and switching the moving speed of the recording head in response to a received picture element information density. CONSTITUTION:Image data received by a reception control unit are stored in a reception buffer 401 at any time. A conversion buffer 402 stores the picture data received in the unit of lines by N line divided and accumlated data capable of being recorded by the one movement of a recording head 405 and to extract the picture data by each N-dot sequentially accompanied with the movement of head. A CPU 404 exchanges between a control signal and a reception control unit and receives a reception starting signal and an ending signal of facsimile data and a discriminating signal etc., to discriminate whether the received picture is fine or normal to control a recording control section. That is, the CPU 404 switches between the moving speed of the recording head 405 and the head drive pattern at picture recording in response to the received picture element information density.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile serial recording device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In facsimile communication, a device that enables high-speed transmission / reception has not only improved usability but also shortened line occupancy time, which reduces running costs and has many advantages.

In order to meet the requirement of speeding up at the time of reception, not only the speedup of the reception control circuit for processing the reception data but also
Speeding up of the recording device is extremely important. Therefore, conventionally, a method has been often used in which a thermal line head capable of recording a received image at a high speed is used, and the received line is recorded at a time while sequentially conveying the paper.

However, in the conventional recording method using the thermal line head, although the recording speed is high, the recording head is expensive and it is difficult to provide an inexpensive facsimile apparatus. Further, since the recording paper is a thermal paper, there is a problem that it cannot be written on the recording paper due to fading or discoloration due to long-term storage.

While reciprocating the recording head, a plurality of recording elements mounted on the recording head are driven to record one row, and the recording is repeated a plurality of times while feeding the recording paper to reproduce an image. The apparatus using the so-called serial recording method is less expensive than the line head recording method in the recording head. Therefore, various facsimile recording apparatuses using this method have been devised. Since there are several methods such as a so-called wire dot method and a thermal transfer method that can record on plain paper, there is no problem with respect to the storability of the recording paper.

However, in most of these systems, the recording speed is often lower than the receiving speed. Generally, when a recording device having a recording speed lower than the receiving speed is used, a large amount of receiving buffer such as a memory IC is used. Since it is necessary to provide the device inside the device, the cost of the device is increased.
There is also a method in which the image data once received at a high speed is stored in a floppy disk device or the like and later recorded at a low speed by the serial recording method, but this also increases the cost of the device.

In recent years, the recording speed of the serial recording system has been remarkably improved, and there has been an attempt to perform high-speed real-time recording with the reception buffer kept small. In particular, in an ink jet system that performs recording by ejecting ink directly onto a recording sheet, an electric-thermal converter that applies thermal energy that causes film boiling of ink is used as an energy element for ejecting ink. An inkjet type recording head using thermal energy for ejecting ink at the pressure of the film boiling enables high-speed and high-definition recording, and more recording elements can be easily formed in a single head. It is most suitable as a recording device for a facsimile that records a fine received image at high speed. Also, using this method facilitates inexpensive plain paper recording.

[0008]

However, in the case of the serial recording system using the ink jet or in other high speed serial recording devices, the recording speed corresponding to the transmission speed increasing year by year, It is extremely difficult to realize it only by pursuing the high-speed response of the recording head itself.

Further, as a problem peculiar to the recording apparatus for facsimile, low density data (pixel density in the sub-scanning direction is 1 /
When receiving a so-called normal of 3.85 mm, it is necessary to perform recording at a higher speed than when receiving high-density data (so-called fine having a pixel density in the sub-scanning direction of 1 / 7.7 mm).

Usually, the recording pixel density of the serial head is set in accordance with the pixel density at the time of fine so that the received image at the time of fine can be recorded in the same size as the transmission original without loss of data. Therefore, when a normal image is received, control is performed to record one pixel of the normal image with two pixels in the sub-scanning direction of the recording head.

Therefore, for the same amount of data, the recording speed required for normal recording is twice as high as that for fine recording.

However, at present, as a facsimile serial recording apparatus, an apparatus using a control method for the purpose of speeding up particularly in normal recording has not been proposed at present.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a serial recording apparatus capable of recording a received image at a high speed during normal reception without particularly increasing the response speed of the serial recording head. To aim.

[0014]

To achieve the above object, the present invention receives a recording head in which a plurality of recording elements are arranged in a predetermined direction, a moving speed of the recording head and a head drive pattern at the time of image recording. And a switching means for switching according to the pixel information density.

[0015]

According to the present invention, the head driving pattern is changed according to the received pixel information density, and the moving speed of the recording head is switched so that the information of the received data is not lost. Data can be recorded at the same speed for the same amount of data.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an external configuration example of a facsimile apparatus to which the present invention can be applied.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a recording device described in detail in FIG. 2, which has a function of recording a received image according to the present invention. Reference numeral 2 denotes a recording medium (hereinafter, also referred to as paper), which is a paper wound in a roll shape in this embodiment. Reference numeral 3 is a control board for controlling the entire facsimile apparatus, 4 is a housing of the apparatus, 5 is a control panel on which a dial button (not shown), a start switch (not shown) and the like are arranged. 10
Reference numeral 1 is a paper discharge port for discharging the recorded paper, and 102 is a cutter for cutting the recording paper discharged at the end of the recording.

Reference numerals 6, 7 and 8 are related to the reading unit and are used when transmitting an original, 6 is a transmission original, 7 is a reading sensor, and 8 is a reading roller.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the recording apparatus 1 shown in FIG.

Here, 9 is a head cartridge (hereinafter, referred to as an ink jet recording head having detailed description of FIG. 3).
This head cartridge is also called a recording head), 11
Is a carrier for carrying this and reciprocating in the S direction in the figure. Reference numeral 13 is a hook for attaching the head cartridge 9 to the carrier 11, and reference numeral 15 is a lever for operating the hook 13. Reference numeral 19 is a support plate that supports an electrical connection portion for the head cartridge 9. Reference numeral 21 is a flexible cable for connecting the electric connection portion and the control board 3 (FIG. 1).

Reference numeral 33 denotes a guide shaft for guiding the carrier 11 in the S direction, which is inserted into the bearing 25 of the carrier 11. 27, the carrier 11 is fixed, and this is S
Is a timing belt for transmitting power for moving in the direction, and pulleys 29A, 29 arranged at both ends of the device.
It is suspended on B. Power is transmitted to the pulley 29B from the carrier motor 31 via a transmission mechanism such as a gear. As will be described later, the carrier motor 31 needs to be driven at twice the speed during fine reception during normal reception, so the torque is selected to sufficiently correspond to the drive speed during normal reception.

Reference numeral 23 denotes a conveying roller that regulates the recording surface of the sheet and conveys the sheet during recording or the like, and is driven by a conveying motor 35. Reference numeral 37 is a paper pan for guiding the paper to the recording position, 39 is arranged in the middle of the paper feeding path, and presses the paper toward the conveying roller 23,
It is also a pinch roller to convey this. Reference numeral 41 denotes a paper discharge roller that is arranged on the downstream side of the recording position in the paper conveyance direction and discharges the paper toward the paper discharge port 101.
Reference numeral 42 denotes a spur provided corresponding to the paper discharge roller 41, which presses the paper discharge roller 41 through the paper and causes the paper discharge roller 41 to convey the paper. Reference numeral 43 is a release lever for releasing the bias of each of the pinch roller 39, the pressing plate 45 (described later), and the spur 42 when setting a sheet or the like.

Reference numeral 45 is a pressing plate for suppressing the lifting of the paper and the like near the recording position and for ensuring a close contact with the conveying roller 23.

Reference numeral 51 denotes a cap made of an elastic material such as rubber which faces the ink ejection port forming surface of the recording head at the home position, and is supported so as to be able to come into contact with and separate from the recording head. The cap 51 is used for protection of the recording head during non-recording, and for ejection recovery processing (described later) of the recording head. The ejection recovery process is to eject ink from all ejection ports by driving an energy generating element that is provided inside the ink ejection port and is used for ejecting ink, thereby recording bubbles, dust, and viscosity. Is a process of removing the cause of ejection failure such as ink that is no longer suitable for the above (referred to as preliminary ejection), or a process of removing the cause of ejection failure by forcibly ejecting ink from the ejection port.

Reference numeral 53 denotes a pump that acts as a suction force for forcibly discharging the ink and also absorbs the ink received by the cap 51 during the discharge recovery process by the forced discharge and the discharge recovery process by the preliminary discharge. is there. 55 is a waste ink tank for storing the waste ink sucked by the pump 53, and 57 is a tube for connecting the pump 53 and the waste ink tank 55.

Reference numeral 59 denotes a blade for wiping the ejection port forming surface of the recording head. The blade 59 is retracted so that it does not engage with the ejection head forming surface protruding toward the recording head side for wiping in the course of head movement. It is movably supported in position and. Reference numeral 61 is a pump motor, and 63 is a cam device that receives power from the pump motor 61 to drive the pump 53 and move the cap 51 and the blade 59, respectively.

Next, details of the head cartridge 9 will be described.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a head cartridge used as a recording means of the recording apparatus used in this embodiment, which is of a disposable type in which an ink containing portion as an ink supply source is integrated.

Recording head portion IJH of this cartridge
Is a plurality of electro-thermal conversion elements (referred to as discharge heaters) on a Si (silicon) substrate and Al that supplies electric power to the elements.
A heater board (not shown) in which wiring (aluminum) and the like are formed by a film forming technique is provided.

The recording head unit IJH is equipped with a supply tank,
It functions as a sub-tank that receives the ink supply from the ink reservoir IT that is the ink supply source and guides the ink to the common liquid chamber formed by joining the heater board and the top plate.

An absorber for impregnating ink is internally provided in the ink storage portion IT, and the ink tank main body 9
It is located in b.

Reference numeral 1400 denotes an atmosphere communication port provided in the lid member for communicating the inside of the cartridge with the atmosphere. A liquid-repellent material is arranged inside the atmosphere communication port 1400, which prevents leakage from the atmosphere communication port 1400.

Further, the ink is supplied from the supply port inside the ink cartridge into the supply tank constituting the recording head, and after passing through the inside, flows into the common liquid chamber through the outlet. Then, based on a predetermined recording signal, a plurality of ejection heaters generate heat in a desired pattern and the thermal energy is used to eject ink to obtain a desired recorded image.

Among the ink jet recording methods, the above-mentioned recording method uses an ink jet method using heat energy, and by such a method, high definition and high speed recording can be achieved. Further, in this embodiment, 64 ejection heaters and ink ejection openings are provided, which is a so-called 64-dot head. In the following description, these will be referred to as recording elements, and the description will be continued assuming that there are N dots.

Next, FIG. 4 shows a block configuration of the recording control unit in this embodiment.

In the figure, a reception buffer 401 is a buffer in which image data received by a reception control unit (not shown) is accumulated as needed. In this embodiment, since the image recording speed is equal to or higher than the image receiving speed on average, the receiving buffer only needs to have a capacity capable of accumulating lines of the total number N of recording elements of the recording head. It suffices to use a capacity FIFO or the like. Conversion buffer 402
Is the number N that can record the image data received line by line by moving the recording head 405 once (this is called one line).
It is used for accumulating lines and sequentially extracting image data for each N dots as the head moves. If the number of dots corresponding to the recordable width of the recording device is L, the capacity of the conversion buffer 402 may be N × L bits, and may be composed of a normal memory element such as DRAM. The head driver 403 is a power element that drives the recording head 405, and selectively drives the element of the recording head 405 based on the image data of N dots received from the control CPU 404. The recording head 405 is the above-described head cartridge 9 and is an inkjet head capable of recording N dots at a time by a method using heat energy. The carrier motor driver 407 and the carry motor driver 406 drive the above-mentioned carrier motor 31 and carry motor 35, and move the print head mounted on the carrier 11 and carry the paper to be printed by these. There is. The control CPU 404 controls the reception buffer 401, the conversion buffer 402, the head driver 403, and the motor drivers 406 and 407 described above, and also exchanges and processes image data.

The CPU 404 exchanges control signals with the reception control unit, receives a reception start signal and an end signal of facsimile data, a determination signal as to whether the received image is fine or normal, and controls the recording control unit. Used for.

FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 are operation flowcharts of the recording control section in this embodiment. The operation of the recording control unit will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 5, 6 and 2. In the initial state before the image data is received and recording is performed, the sheet 2 passes through the conveyance path formed between the conveyance roller 23 and the paper pan 37, and the recording position and the arrangement which are the recording head movement paths. It is introduced through the roller 41 and the spur 42 up to just before the cutter 102 near the discharge port 101. This is the state at the end of recording the last received image.

When facsimile data arrives from the external public line in the above state, a reception control unit (not shown) receives the data line by line, and the reception buffer 4 is provided at any time.
The storage of image data is started at 01.

At S1, the control CPU 404 receives an incoming signal from the reception control unit and, at the same time, drives the carry roller 23 by the carry motor 35 to rotate in the T2 direction in the figure, and the carry roller based on the pressing force of the pinch roller 39. The sheet is conveyed in the discharge direction by the frictional force between the sheet 23 and the sheet 2. When the leading edge of the paper reaches a predetermined position with respect to the recording position, the driving of the carry motor 35 is stopped and the carrying of the paper to the print position is completed. Next, in S2, the carrier 11 having the recording head mounted thereon is driven by the carrier motor 31,
It is moved to the home position via the pulley 29 and the timing belt 27. In step S3, the above-described ejection recovery process is performed to prevent ejection defects in subsequent recording.

In step S4, the pointer i at the line set position in the conversion buffer 402 is initialized.

In S5, it is checked whether or not the facsimile data reception is completed. If so, go to S6 and set blank data in the remaining conversion buffers (N-1 lines), and go to S13. If not, go to S7, check whether the received data is fine, go to S8 if fine, go to S10 if not.

In S10, the process of creating a recording pattern for normal operation is performed. That is, one line of the reception data accumulated in the reception buffer 402 is taken out, the following mask processing is performed, and the resulting two lines of data are set in the conversion buffer 402.

First line = D (i) and M (i) (i = 1, ..., L) and second line = D (i) and (not (M
(I))) (i = 1, ..., L) where D (i) is the i-th pixel of the received data 1 line, M
(I) is a mask pattern, M (i) = 0 i = 2, 4, ... = 1 i = 1, 3, 5 ,. Further, and is an operator that takes a logical product of each bit, and not is an operator that performs bit inversion of each bit. By continuing this masking process, the contents of the conversion buffer 402 become those shown in FIG. 8 (the hatched circles indicate the pixels that are not masked by M (i) or not (M (i)), and the dotted circles indicate. Is M (i) or n
Pixels (elements not driven) masked by ot (M (i)) are shown. Since the same recording element is not continuously driven, it is not necessary to change the response speed of the recording element even if the head moving speed is doubled as described later.
At the last step S11, the pointer i is advanced by 1, and the process goes to step S9.

In step S8, one line of the reception data stored in the reception buffer 401 is extracted and converted into the conversion buffer 4
Set on the i-th line of 02.

At S9, the pointer i is incremented by 1, and S1
In step 2, i is compared with the number N of printing elements, and the above steps are repeated from S5 until i becomes N or more (until N rows are set in the conversion buffer).

In step S13, it is checked whether the contents of the conversion buffer 402 are all blank, and if so, the process proceeds to step S21.
This is to feed a predetermined line of paper without moving the head or driving the head when there is no print data. If it is not blank in S13, the process proceeds to S14.

Next, in S14 and S15, the carrier motor 31 is driven, the recording head mounted on the carrier 11 is moved to the home position, and the pointer i of the head moving position is set to "1". Here, the pointer i is 1 when the head is at the leftmost end and L when the head is at the rightmost end, and is assumed to correspond to the recording positions from 1 to L at recording density intervals.

In step S16, the carrier motor 31 is driven to move the recording head to the i-th dot position.
Here, in the present invention, the drive pulse given to the carrier motor 31 is changed so that the recording head is moved at a speed twice as fast as that during fine reception during normal reception. By this processing, during normal recording, recording is performed per line at twice the speed during fine recording, and the recording speed for the same amount of data is constant regardless of the received pixel density.

In S17, N pieces of image data corresponding to the i-th dot are cut out from the conversion buffer 402 and sent to the head driver 40. Convert buffer 402 to N
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing how individual pieces of data are cut out. In FIG. 7, image data of N lines × L dots is accumulated in the conversion buffer 402, and N dots worth of data is taken out in the line direction from the column corresponding to the pointer i, and is sent to the head driver 403. It is carried out.

In S18, the head driver 403
Drives the recording head 405 and ejects ink using the above-mentioned electro-thermal conversion to record on a sheet.

Next, in S19, 1 is added to the pointer i,
Set the pointer in the next step. S2
At 0, it is determined whether i is L or more. If i is L or less, the above steps are repeated from S16. If it is L or more, the process proceeds to S21.

In S21, it is determined whether or not the reception end information is output from the reception control unit. If so, the process goes to S23, and if not, the process goes to S22, in which the carry motor 35 is driven, and the carry roller 23 is moved. 2 in T2
The paper is fed so that the next line can be recorded by rotating in the direction. The paper feed amount here is N lines. After this, the process returns to S4 and the above steps are repeated.

In S23, since the recording is completed, the recording head is returned to the home position, and the paper is fed by the predetermined amount in S24 and S25, and then the paper discharge roller 41 and the spur 4 are inserted.
The cutter 102 located above 2 is driven to cut the sheet on which the image has been recorded, and the processing ends.

In the above operation, at an appropriate time interval,
The ejection recovery process is performed during an arbitrary step.
Further, the average recording speed of the above operation is higher than the reception speed, and the overflow of the reception buffer does not occur.

[Other Embodiments] In the recording apparatus shown in this embodiment, an ink jet type recording head using thermal energy is used, and a cartridge type recording head provided integrally with the recording head itself is used. Although an example of use is shown, the present invention is not limited to this.

(1) If the average recording speed is higher than the reception speed, a recording head using, for example, a piezo type ink jet system, a heat sensitive system, a thermal transfer system, or a dot impact system is mounted. Good.

(2) Further, even if the recording method is such that the average recording speed is less than the reception speed, the capacity of the reception buffer can be greatly reduced by using the control method according to the present invention. It is a method that is sufficiently effective in terms of meaning.

(3) Regarding the type and number of recording heads mounted, only one is provided for the single color ink shown in the embodiment, and the recording quality of halftone density is improved. Therefore, a plurality of inks having different ink densities or recording colors may be provided for a color compatible facsimile apparatus.

(4) Further, in the present embodiment, it has been described that the reception is performed asynchronously with the recording by the independent reception control unit, but the reception control has the same CPU as the recording control.
It is also possible to apparently simultaneously control both reception and recording by, for example, generating an interrupt by sensing the end of reception of one line with a hand.

(5) In this embodiment, the recording medium (paper) has been described as a paper wound in a roll, but a large number of papers (cut papers) cut to a specified length are stacked, It may be provided with a paper transport system for transporting the paper to the recording position while separating the paper one by one. In this case, cutter 1
02 becomes unnecessary.

(6) In the present embodiment, the description has been given only to the case where the image density is fine and normal, but the sub-scanning density is twice that of fine (line interval 1
This embodiment is also applicable to a facsimile machine capable of receiving and recording a so-called super fine recording density image.

That is, the present invention includes a serial recording apparatus that changes the drive pattern of the recording element of the head and the moving speed of the recording head depending on whether the pixel density is normal, fine, or superfine. It is a thing. Further, a facsimile which can receive and record a pixel density finer than that of Super Fine can be easily analogized by using the same method.

[0065]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to record a facsimile received image at high speed without particularly increasing the response speed of the serial recording head.

Further, if the present invention is carried out by using, for example, the above-mentioned bubble jet type recording, it is possible to perform plain paper recording with a low running cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external configuration diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram of the recording apparatus in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a head cartridge used as a recording unit of the recording apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a block configuration diagram of a recording control unit in the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a part of a control flowchart of the recording control unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the rest of the same flowchart.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a conversion buffer.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a conversion buffer during normal recording.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Recording Device According to the Present Invention 2 Recording Medium (Paper) 3 Control Board 4 Device Housing 5 Control Panel 6 Transmission Document 7 Reading Sensor 8 Reading Roller 9 Head Cartridge 11 Carrier 35 Conveyor Motor 51 Cap 53 Pump 55 Waste Ink Tank 57 Tube 59 Blade 61 Pump Motor 63 Cam Device 101 Paper Ejection Port 102 Cutter IJH Recording Head Unit IT Ink Storage Unit

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification number Internal reference number for FI Technical indication location B41J 2/51 19/18 F 9212-2C H04N 1/17 B 7205-5C 9211-2C B41J 3 / 10 101 E

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A recording head having a plurality of recording elements arranged in a predetermined direction, and a switching means for switching a moving speed of the recording head and a head drive pattern at the time of image recording according to a received pixel information density. A serial recording device for a facsimile characterized by the above. 2. The recording head according to claim 1, wherein:
A serial recording apparatus for a facsimile having an electro-thermal conversion pair for applying heat energy which causes film boiling of ink. 3. The serial recording apparatus for a facsimile according to claim 1, wherein the recording head is integrally formed with an ink supply tank, and is in the form of a removable cartridge.