JPH06143766A - Tape printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent adhesion of ink to a platen roller even if printing is conducted when the set printing width is larger than a tape width. CONSTITUTION:A tape width information receiving means receives width information of a tape loaded (100). At the time of printing, a head drive range control means drives only dot elements of a range according to the received tape width information out of a plurality of dot elements juxtaposed on a printing head (102, 103).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tape printer,
In particular, it is suitable for application to an apparatus capable of printing on tapes having various tape widths.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A tape printer prints an input column of one or more lines (concept including a symbol) (hereinafter referred to as a sentence) on a continuous tape as needed, and
It cuts the printed tape and ejects it. Recently, cut tapes (hereinafter called labels)
In consideration of being used for various purposes, printable tapes having various tape widths are prepared, and various character sizes are prepared.
Further, there is a tape printer which gives a degree of freedom to the number of print lines.

In practice, the tape is accommodated in a cartridge together with the ink ribbon, and when the cartridge is loaded in the tape printer main body, the tape and the ink ribbon which are superposed together are between the print head and the platen roller of the main body of the apparatus. Inserted in. Then, in this state, when printing is instructed, the platen roller slightly moves to the print head side and the overlapped tape and ink ribbon are sandwiched by the print head and the platen roller, and the print head is driven. , The ink is transferred to the tape and printing is executed.

Since the tape printer is required to be small in size, many of them employ a thermal transfer system which can make the printing mechanism small. Further, for the same reason, in many cases, the print head is fixed and has a sufficient driving width, and printing is performed by tape feeding in one direction (simple forward movement) without performing reciprocating forward movement.

[0005]

By the way, in the recent tape printer, as described above, the user can arbitrarily select the tape width, the character size, the number of lines, and the like. The width to be printed is larger than the width of the existing tape (printing exceeds the tape)
It may happen that the settings are as follows.

In this case, there is also a method of prohibiting the execution of printing in order to prevent useless labels from being generated. However, in the case of a small-sized tape printer, the display area of the display unit cannot be largely divided, so it is not possible to provide the user with a detailed reason for prohibiting printing, and the user may not know the cause, which may cause confusion. Yes, and in order to clarify the cause, operations such as the layout display function must be performed.

Therefore, even in the case of a print command when the print width exceeds the tape width, the printing is executed by allowing the upper and lower portions of the characters to be cut off, and the inconvenience is presented to the user to inform the cause. There is also.

By the way, the width of the ink ribbon accommodated in the cartridge accommodating the tape having a small tape width is equal to or larger than the drive width of the print head. This is because the print head may be damaged when the print head and the platen roller are directly rubbed against each other, and therefore it is attempted to prevent the print head from being rubbed directly with an ink ribbon.

Therefore, if printing is executed in response to a print command when the print width exceeds the tape width, it is unavoidable that ink adheres to the platen roller.
As a result, the inconvenience that dirt is attached to the back side of the label when printing is performed on a wide tape later, and the diameter of the platen roller is changed by the attached ink and the margin and character size in the longitudinal direction of the label change subtly. Or cause mechanical troubles.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is possible to prevent ink from adhering to the platen roller even when printing is performed when the width to be printed is wider than the tape width. It is intended to provide a printing device.

[0011]

In order to solve such a problem, according to the present invention, a tape in which an inputted sentence consisting of a character string of one or more lines is printed on a tape, and the printed tape is cut and discharged. In a printing device, a tape width information taking-in means for taking in width information of a loaded tape, and a dot in a range corresponding to the taken-in tape width information among a plurality of dot elements arranged in parallel in a print head at the time of printing Head drive range control means for driving only the element is provided.

It is preferable that the tape width information fetching means is a sensor for detecting a physical tape width identification element provided in the cartridge containing the tape.

[0013]

In the present invention, the tape width information capturing means is
The width information of the loaded tape is taken in, and the head drive range control means, at the time of printing, only the dot elements in the range corresponding to the taken tape width information out of the plurality of dot elements arranged in parallel in the print head. It can be driven.

As a result, even if printing is performed when the width to be printed is wider than the tape width, the dot elements of the print head that exceed the tape width are not driven, and ink is prevented from adhering to the platen roller. it can.

As the tape width information fetching means, a sensor for detecting a physical tape width discriminating element provided in a cartridge accommodating the tape, a means for setting using a dip switch or a key, etc. are applied. However, the former is preferable in consideration of forgetting to reset when the tape width is changed.

[0016]

【Example】

(A) First Embodiment First, the electrical overall configuration of the tape printer according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to the functional block diagram of FIG.

In FIG. 2, the tape printing apparatus of this embodiment, like the other information processing apparatuses, is roughly the input section 1.
0, a control unit 20, and an output unit 30. The control unit 20 executes processing according to the information from the input unit 10 and the processing stage at that time, and outputs the processing result to the output unit 3.
0 is used for display output or print output.

The input section 10 is composed of a key input section 11 having a press key, a dial key, etc., and a tape width detection sensor 12, although the detailed structure is omitted. The key input unit 11 generates character code data and various control data to be given to the control unit 20. The tape width detection sensor 12 detects the width of the loaded tape and provides the tape width information to the control unit 20. In practice, the tape is housed in a tape cartridge, and the tape cartridge is provided with a physical identification element such as a hole that defines the tape width. The tape width detection sensor 12 uses this physical identification element as a mechanism. To read the tape width information.

The output unit 30 has a print configuration and a display configuration. For example, the tape / ribbon feed motor 31, which is a stepping motor, feeds the loaded tape or ink ribbon (not shown) to a predetermined printing position or the outside of the apparatus. The thermal head 32 is fixed and prints on the running tape by thermal transfer. For example, if the thermal head 32 can print a maximum of 96 dots at the same time, 96 thermal resistance elements (hereinafter referred to as dot elements) are arranged in a line. The tape / ribbon feed motor 31 and the thermal head 32 are driven by a motor drive circuit 33 and a head drive circuit 34, respectively, under the control of the controller 20. Cutting of the printed tape is performed by, for example, an external force from a user or a cutter (not shown) driven by a motor (not shown).

In the case of the tape printer according to this embodiment,
A liquid crystal display 35 is provided as a display unit,
The liquid crystal display 35 is driven by a display drive circuit 36 under the control of the control unit 20.

The control unit 20 is composed of, for example, a microcomputer, and has a CPU 21, a ROM 22, and
RAM23, character generator ROM (CG-R
The OM) 24, the input interface unit 25, and the output interface unit 26 are connected via a system bus 27.

The ROM 22 stores various processing programs and fixed data such as kana-kanji conversion dictionary data. The RAM 23 is used as a working memory and also stores fixed data related to user input. The RAM 23 is backed up even when the power is turned off. The processing programs and fixed data stored in the ROM 22 and the data stored in the RAM 23 will be clarified in the description of processing described later.

The CG-ROM 24 stores a dot pattern of characters and symbols prepared in the tape printer, and corresponds to a dot pattern corresponding to code data for specifying the characters and symbols. Is output. Separate CG-R for display and printing
An OM may be provided. The dot patterns of characters and symbols stored in the CG-ROM 24 have various sizes, as will be described later.

The input interface unit 25 is the input unit 10.
The output interface unit 26 serves as an interface between the output unit 30 and the control unit 20.

The CPU 21 uses the processing program in the ROM 22 determined according to the input signal from the input unit 10 and the processing stage at that time, while using the RAM 23 as a working area, and if necessary, the ROM 22 and the RAM 2.
The fixed data stored in No. 3 is used as appropriate for processing, and the processing status and processing result are displayed on the liquid crystal display 35 or printed on a tape (not shown).

The first embodiment having the above-mentioned electrical structure is intended to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems by software, and the processing steps for solving the problems are included in the processing routine at the time of printing. ing. Hereinafter, this process will be described.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing the processing at the time of printing. With the text stored in the text area of the RAM 23, the user can print the text at any time.

When the print key of the key input section 11 is operated, the CPU 21 starts the print processing routine stored in the ROM 22, and first takes in the width information of the tape loaded in the apparatus (step 100). After that, the text of the text area is developed in the print buffer on the RAM 23 according to the set character size and other attributes (step 101).

Here, the print buffer virtually has a width corresponding to the number of dot elements of the thermal head 32, that is, a width corresponding to the number of dots in the width direction of the maximum tape width. The expansion is performed without considering the tape width information.

When the pixel development is completed (completely or when a predetermined amount is completed), the CPU 21 causes the output interface unit 2 to operate.
The dot on / off information obtained by the expansion is transferred to the head drive circuit 34 via 6, but in the case of this embodiment, the transfer output is controlled according to the tape width information taken in.

That is, the CPU 21 determines the range in the width direction for reading the dot data from the print buffer based on the read tape width information (step 102), and the dot data within the determined range is left as it is.
As the dot data outside the determined range, the dot data for always turning off is transferred to the head drive circuit 34 regardless of the stored contents of the print buffer (step 103). Note that the transfer is performed in consideration of the margin in the tape longitudinal direction and the like.

When the transfer operation (including the margin forming operation in the longitudinal direction of the tape) is completed, the process of returning to the state immediately before the operation of the print key is executed to complete the series of printing processes (step 104). .

Here, the dot element of the thermal head 32 within the width of the loaded tape is juxtaposed in the width direction range in which the dot data is read from the print buffer, which is determined based on the taken-in tape width information. It is within the range.

The tape width information may be fetched from the tape width detection sensor 12 at the time of printing.
Alternatively, the tape width detection sensor 12 read when the tape cartridge is loaded and stored in the RAM 23 may be taken out and used.

As described above, since a set of dot data in the width direction is given to the head drive circuit 34, a predetermined range (a range determined based on tape width information) in the dot elements of the thermal head 32 is provided. Only the dot elements of 4) are controlled in heat generation according to the on / off information of the dots expanded in the print buffer, and conversely the outer dot elements are not heated.

Therefore, according to the first embodiment, during the printing process, only the dot elements within the range of the thermal head 32 according to the width of the tape loaded at that time can be driven. It is possible to prevent ink from adhering to the platen roller even if printing is performed when the width to be printed is wider than the tape width.

Even when the width to be printed is equal to the tape width or narrower than the tape width, noise is generated during the pixel expansion process, and the dots in the print buffer corresponding to the outside of the tape width are on-dots. However, even at this time, the dot element of the corresponding thermal head 32 is not turned on, and it is possible to prevent ink from adhering to the platen roller.

As a result, it is possible to prevent mechanical troubles in advance, and also prevent stains from being attached to the labels obtained in the subsequent printings and the length in the longitudinal direction of the tape from becoming larger than a predetermined value. be able to.

To obtain such an effect, what is conventionally changed is the content of the print processing routine, which is the same as the conventional one in terms of hardware, and does not make the apparatus complicated and large.

As a modified example of the first embodiment, when the text is expanded in the print buffer, the expansion is performed based on the tape width information, that is, when the dot pattern of the character exceeds the tape width, the protrusion is performed. For example, the dot may be forcibly turned off and expanded in the print buffer.

(B) Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The second embodiment is intended to solve the conventional problem in terms of hardware.

Therefore, when printing, the text is stored in the RAM.
The dot data developed by being developed in the print buffer on 23 is read from the print buffer so as to cover the entire range of the thermal head 32 regardless of the tape width.
That is, the software is the same as the conventional one.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of the essential parts of the second embodiment. In FIG. 3, the thermal head 32 has a dot element 321 that covers only the entire range of the tape having the maximum width.
.About.32n are arranged side by side in one row. , 32n are driven by corresponding driver circuits 341, 342, ..., 34n (all driver circuits correspond to the head drive circuit 34).

In the case of the second embodiment, each driver circuit 3
, 34n are output interface units 2
6 (see FIG. 2) is not directly connected to the dot on / off signal line extending from the corresponding gate circuit 41.
, 41n.

Each gate circuit 411, 412, ..., 41n
An opening / closing control signal is supplied from the tape width information conversion circuit 40 to each of the gate circuits 4.
, 41n pass the dot on / off signal output from the output interface unit 26 in response to the opening / closing control signal, or block the passage of the dot on / off signal.

The tape width information conversion circuit 40 is supplied with the tape width information detected by the tape width detection sensor 12 (see FIG. 2) through the input interface section 25 (see FIG. 2). Tape width information conversion circuit 40
Is a decoder circuit, for example, and generates n opening / closing control signals according to the tape width information. The tape width information conversion circuit 40, for example, instructs the passage of all the n opening / closing control signals when the widest tape is loaded, and loads the tape when other widths are loaded. An opening / closing control signal having a number of dots corresponding to the tape width is designated to pass, and another opening / closing control signal is designated to not pass.

Because of the above structure, the second
In the embodiment, among the n number of dot on / off signals output from the output interface unit 26, only the number of dot on / off signals corresponding to the tape width pass through the gate circuit and are given to the driver circuit. Only the number of dot elements corresponding to is turned on / off according to the contents expanded in the print buffer, and other dot elements are not turned on.

Therefore, according to the second embodiment as well, only dot elements within the range of the thermal head 32 according to the width of the tape loaded at that time can be driven during the printing process. When the attempted width is wider than the tape width, it is possible to prevent ink from adhering to the platen roller even if printing is performed, and also when the intended width is equal to or narrower than the tape width. It is possible to prevent ink from adhering to the platen roller even if noise is generated during the pixel expansion processing and dots in the print buffer corresponding to the outside of the tape width become on-dots.

As a result, it is possible to prevent mechanical troubles in advance, and also prevent stains from being attached to the labels obtained in the subsequent printings and the length in the longitudinal direction of the tape from becoming larger than a predetermined value. be able to.

(C) Other Embodiments At present, print heads other than the thermal transfer system are not applied to tape printers, but the present invention is also applied to tape printers having such print heads. be able to.

Further, in the above embodiment, the tape width information is obtained by the detection by the sensor, but it may be obtained by always setting the tape width information when the tape is replaced.

The present invention can be widely applied to any tape printer which can load tapes having two or more kinds of tape widths.

By the way, the applicant of the present application, in a separate application, designates the character size of each line of the designated number of print lines as a relative value, and converts the character size of the relative value designation into an absolute value according to the tape width at the time of printing. We have proposed a tape printing device that prevents printing beyond the tape width by printing with a tape. In such a tape printer, for example, in the case of three-line printing, when the relative value designation of the character size is “large / small”, the specific characters of “large” and “small” are determined according to the tape width. Determine the size and print. Therefore, it seems that the present invention is unnecessary in such a tape printer, but the present invention is meaningful to use together for the following reasons.

In other words, when the designated number of print lines is large, a tape width that exceeds the minimum character size is applied as the character size of each line. In such a case, the present invention is effective. . In addition, it is not possible to completely prevent noise from being mixed in when the text in the text area is expanded, or it is possible to prevent expansion errors. It is preferable to use the present invention in combination from the viewpoint of sure prevention.

[0055]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a tape printing apparatus that prints an input sentence consisting of one or more character strings on a tape, cuts the printed tape, and ejects the tape. The tape width information take-in device that takes in the tape width information that has been read, and at the time of printing, only the dot elements in the range corresponding to the taken tape width information can be driven out of the multiple dot elements that are arranged in parallel in the print head. Since the head drive range control means is provided, the ink can be prevented from adhering to the platen roller even if printing is performed when the width to be printed is wider than the tape width, and various types of ink accompanying the ink adhering can be prevented. Inconvenience can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a printing process according to a first embodiment.

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

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Input part, 12 ... Tape width detection sensor, 20 ... Control part, 21 ... CPU, 22 ... ROM, 23 ... RAM, 30
Output unit, 32 ... Thermal head, 34 ... Head drive circuit, 40 ... Tape width information conversion circuit, 321 to 32n ... Dot element of thermal head 32, 341 to 34n ... Driver circuit, 411 to 41n ... Gate circuit.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location B41J 3/36

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A tape width for loading width information of a loaded tape in a tape printing apparatus for printing an inputted sentence consisting of a character string of one or more lines on a tape, cutting the printed tape and discharging the tape. An information fetching means and a head drive range control means for driving only a dot element in a range corresponding to the fetched tape width information among a plurality of dot elements arranged in parallel in the print head at the time of printing are provided. A tape printer characterized by the above. 2. The tape printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tape width information fetching means is a sensor for detecting a physical tape width identification element provided in a cartridge containing a tape. Tape printing device characterized by.