JPH0531967A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printing device wherein high speed printing on papers is possible by arranging a plurality of print heads in a paper conveying passage. CONSTITUTION:A printing device comprises platens 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d and feed rollers 8 for conveying a cutform paper 2 having cutforms with a predetermined dimension arranged continuously, thermal heads 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d arranged at intervals of the same length L as the length of a cutform, an image memory for storing a printing data of the cutform, and a printing control means for giving the same image data stored in the image memory to the thermal heads 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d simultaneously so as to print on the cutform paper 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus in which a plurality of print heads are arranged at predetermined intervals along a sheet conveying path so that high speed printing can be performed on the sheet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a slip used for transaction of goods, the same data is printed at the same time on a slip paper in which a plurality of slips are piled up, which is called a multi-slip slip.
In order to print the same data on multiple sheets of slip paper at the same time, print on the slip paper using pressure-sensitive paper stacked on multiple sheets with a printing device that uses a so-called impact type print head such as a wire dot head. is doing.

[0003]

As described above, the printing device for simultaneously printing the same data on the slip paper using the pressure sensitive paper can print out the product data such as the product name and the amount of money in a predetermined print field. Voucher issuance time is short, but the voucher paper is expensive, and because it prints on pressure-sensitive paper, the print quality is poor especially on the second and subsequent sheets that are distant from the surface close to the print head. There is also a problem.

Therefore, in order to obtain a plurality of slips without using pressure-sensitive paper, one print head is used to sequentially and repeatedly print the same data on a plurality of slip papers.
It may be possible to improve the print quality for each slip, but there is a problem that it takes a long time to issue a plurality of slips.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems by providing a plurality of print heads in a paper conveying path and simultaneously printing the same data by applying the same data to the plurality of print heads. is there.

[0006]

The invention according to claim 1 is
Conveying means for conveying a long sheet in the longitudinal direction, a plurality of print heads arranged at predetermined intervals along the conveying direction of the sheet, a memory for storing data to be printed on the sheet, and The printing apparatus is provided with a print control unit that simultaneously applies the same data stored in the memory to the plurality of print heads and prints on the paper at the same time.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a printing apparatus for printing a set of slips on a plurality of cut sheets, a conveying means for conveying a long slip sheet in the longitudinal direction and the cut sheet. A plurality of print heads arranged along the transport direction at intervals of an integral multiple of the length of paper, a memory for storing data to be printed on the slip paper, and the same data stored in the memory for the plurality of print heads. And a print control means for simultaneously printing on the slip paper by simultaneously applying the print head to the print head.

[0008]

With this configuration, the same data stored in the memory is simultaneously applied to a plurality of print heads to print on a long sheet of paper, so that the printing time on a sheet of a predetermined length can be shortened and the slip Since pressure-sensitive paper is not used to create such items, it is possible to achieve uniform print quality.

[0009]

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

FIG. 1 shows a slip printer 1 for issuing a slip.
In the side view of FIG. 1, the first thermal head 4a to the fourth thermal head 4d are arranged on the transport path 3 for the slip paper 2 at regular intervals. Further, the first platen 5a is provided so as to face the thermal heads 4a to 4d.
To 4th platen 5d are provided, respectively.
Heat generating resistors (not shown) are arranged in the respective thermal heads 4a to 4d in the same width as that of the slip sheet 2 in a direction orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction (the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1). Has been done.

A cutter 7 is provided on the supply side (the right side in FIG. 1) of the slip paper 2, and a roll paper (not shown) wound in a roll shape is cut by this cutter 7 to cut the thermal heads 4a to 4a. The slip paper 2 is supplied between the platen 4d and the platens 5a to 5d by a feed roller described later. Further, the slip sheet 2 is nipped and conveyed between the cutter 7 and the fourth thermal head 4d, between the thermal heads, and on the discharge side (the left side in FIG. 1) of the slip sheet 2 of the first thermal head 4a. A pair of feed rollers 8 are provided rotatably for this purpose. Here, the slip paper 2 is a single-cut sheet provided with pre-printed description fields in which predetermined description items, for example, product data such as product name and unit price are printed, are sequentially formed in the longitudinal direction. It is a thing.

The slip printer 1 is also provided with ribbon devices 10a to 10d for supplying the ink ribbons 9 to the thermal heads 4a to 4d, respectively. The ribbon devices 10a to 10d include a ribbon holding portion 11, a ribbon winding portion 12, and a ribbon guide 13, respectively.
The ribbon 9 is sent in synchronism with the conveyance of the slip paper 2 at the time of printing.

Incidentally, the above-mentioned thermal heads 4a to 4
The platen 5a to 5d is supported by a platen 5a to 5d by a support mechanism (not shown).
Is rotationally driven by a paper feed motor described later. The distance L between the thermal heads and the distance L between the fourth thermal head 4d and the cutter 7 are set to be the same as the length of the cut sheet to be printed.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit of the slip printer 1, which is an RO to the CPU 15 via the bus line 16.
M17, RAM 18, motor driver 19, head driver 20 and communication interface (in FIG. 2, communication I
/ F) 21 is connected. The RAM
The image memory 18a is provided at 18 and stores data such as numerical values to be printed on the slip paper 2 as dot data.

The motor driver 19 includes a paper feed motor 2
2. The ribbon feed motor 23 and the cutter 7 are connected. The paper feed motor 22 rotationally drives the platens 5a to 5d and the feed roller 8 to convey the slip paper 2, and the ribbon feed motor 23 rotates the ribbon winding unit 12 in response to the platens 5a to 5d. Driven to wind the ribbon.

The head driver 20 is a RAM 18
Image data such as numerical values to be printed on a cut sheet formed in the image memory 18a in the first thermal head 4
The same data is simultaneously printed on the cut sheet by being simultaneously applied to the a to fourth thermal heads 4d. A personal computer 25 is connected to the communication interface 21 via a communication line 24.

The slip printer 1 having such a structure receives the data set by the personal computer 25 through the communication line 24, and the received data is sent to the image memory 18 by using a character generator (not shown).
It is stored as image data to be printed on a. Further, when a print command is issued from the personal computer 25, the printer 1 executes the printing process shown in FIG. First, the paper 2 wound in a roll is supplied to the printing unit,
The leading edge of the sheet is aligned with the print position of the first thermal head 4a by the output of a sheet sensor (not shown) (step 1). At this time, each thermal head 4a
4 to 4d are held at positions separated from the platens 5a to 5d by the above-mentioned support mechanism. After the printing position of the paper is adjusted, the thermal heads 4a to 4d are lowered so as to press the platens 5a to 5d with an appropriate pressure (step 2), and the cutter 7 is driven to cut the paper (step 3).

Then, one line of the image data stored in the image memory 18a is simultaneously sent to the four thermal heads 4a and 4b for printing (step 4).
The paper feed motor 22 is driven to rotate the platens 5a to 5d and the feed roller 8, the slip paper 2 is fed by one line (step 5), and the ribbon feed motor 23 is driven to rotate the ribbon winding unit 12. It is driven and the ribbon 9 is fed by one line (step 6). Next, it is judged whether or not the slip sheet 2 has been sent by the length of one cut sheet (step 7). If not, the process from step 4 to printing the next line is repeated.

If the slip paper 2 is fed by the length of the cut paper in step 6, the thermal heads 4a to 4d are lifted by the support mechanism (step 8) and the feed roller 8 is driven to form the slip paper 2 Is discharged (step 9), and the printing process is completed. This discharged slip paper 2
A set of slips is formed by cutting with a cutter (not shown) or separating by combining with perforations provided on the slip paper 2.

By doing so, the thermal heads 4a to 4d can simultaneously print on four sheets of cut paper, and the time required to create a slip is shorter than that when printing is performed by a printer using one print head. It is possible to save time, and there is no problem that the print quality is inferior as in the case of using pressure sensitive paper.

In this embodiment, a printer provided with four thermal heads is taken as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a plurality of thermal heads may be provided according to the number of cut sheets to be printed. In addition, the distance L between the thermal heads is not equal to the length of the cut sheet, and for example, the distance L between the two heads is set to the length of two cut sheets, and two cut sheets are treated as one cut sheet. It is also possible to print continuously with a thermal head to obtain four cut sheets.

Next, a case where the number of cut sheets to be printed is not an integral multiple of the number of thermal heads will be described. In this example, the number of cut sheets to be printed and issued is N, the number of thermal heads is A, Is an example when N / A = B too much α (where B and α are integers and α <A).

The number of cut sheets that can be printed by giving the same data to the thermal head at one time is A. Even if this is repeated B times, it is necessary to print α sheets of cut sheets. For this reason, after printing A sheets of cut sheets at the same time B times repeatedly, the same data is simultaneously given to the thermal heads from the beginning to the α-th thermal head on the discharge side after printing.
By printing on one sheet of cut paper, separating the remaining A-α thermal heads from the platen, and by not giving data for printing by the program processing to this thermal head, It is possible to print N sheets.

More specifically, when the number of cut sheets to be printed is N = 5 and the number of thermal heads is A = 3, 5 ÷ 3 = 1 (= B) and 2 (= α), First, print the same data on three sheets of cut paper at the same time, then
If the first thermal head is positioned on a non-printed slip sheet, the first thermal head and the second thermal head are driven to print, and the third thermal head is not driven. You can get a cut sheet. Also, 7 cut sheets of paper
When printing with 3 thermal heads, printing 3 sheets with 3 thermal heads at the same time is repeated twice and finally printing with 1 sheet with 7 sheets. A set of slips is obtained.

Although the cutter 7 is provided on the supply side of the slip paper 2, the cutter is provided on the discharge side of the slip paper 2 so that the printed slip paper 2 is discharged one by one when discharged. It may be cut. Further, by changing the color of the ink ribbon 9 for each thermal head, it is possible to distinguish the color according to the application such as a slip to be given to a customer or a slip to be left in a store. Further, the paper conveyance path is not limited to a straight line, and for example, an arcuate conveyance path is provided and a plurality of print heads are arranged on this conveyance path, so that a relatively small printing device can be obtained.

It should be noted that, in the slip paper 2 in the above-mentioned embodiment, the description field having a predetermined format, which is a single-cut paper, is preliminarily printed in succession in the paper transport direction. It can be applied to a slip printer that prints the same format of cut-sheet paper such as ruled lines and predetermined description fields on a blank sheet of paper and at the same time prints product data and the like in this format with a print head.

Further, as described in the above embodiment, the present invention is suitable for use as a voucher printer capable of issuing a voucher that is relatively small and has a large number of issued sheets in a short period of time. The present invention is not limited to the above, and can be applied to a label issuing device.

[0028]

According to the present invention, since a plurality of print heads are arranged at a predetermined interval along the sheet conveying direction, the same data are simultaneously sent to the print heads, and a long sheet of paper is sent. By printing the same content on a plurality of sheets of paper, the printing time can be shortened and the print quality of each sheet can be made uniform.

Further, there is an effect that a slip having a small size and a large number of issued sheets can be issued in a short time while the print quality is made uniform.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing of the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 slip printer 2 slip paper 4a to 4d thermal head 5a to 5d platen 8 feed rollers 18a image memory 22 Paper feed motor

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A transporting means for transporting a long sheet in the longitudinal direction, a plurality of print heads arranged at predetermined intervals along the transporting direction of the sheet, and storing data to be printed on the sheet. And a print control means for simultaneously applying the same data stored in the memory to the plurality of print heads to print on the paper at the same time. 2. A printing apparatus for printing a set of slips on a plurality of cut sheets and a conveying means for conveying a long slip sheet in the longitudinal direction, and an integral multiple of the length of the cut sheets. A plurality of print heads arranged at intervals along the transport direction, a memory for storing data to be printed on the voucher paper, and the same data stored in the memory are given to the plurality of print heads at the same time. A printing apparatus comprising: a printing control unit that simultaneously prints on a slip sheet.