JPH06155855A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance printing efficiency, in the printer of an optical character reader, by rotating a printing means on a carriage device and setting the same to a line direction printing state at the time of the instruction of printing in a line direction and to a row direction printing state at the time of the instruction of printing in a row direction. CONSTITUTION:A printing control part 30 transmits the processing result stored in a printing data memory part 36 to a printing mechanism 33 (printing head 12) and also selects X-direction printing or Y-direction printing on the basis of the printing control data received from a host device 37. A rotary base 8 is rotated on the basis of X- or Y-direction printings to rotate a cassette ribbon 11 and the printing head in an X-direction or a Y-direction. That is, in the Y-direction printing, the cassete ribbon 11 and the printing head 12 are made parallel to the Y-direction and, in the X-direction printing, both of them are set to a state rotated by 90 deg. and the printing mechanism 33 (printing head 12) is operated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an optical character reader,
The present invention relates to a printing device such as an impact printer and a word processor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional printing apparatus has dot wire pins arranged in the same direction as the sheet conveying direction. Therefore, continuous printing in the paper transport direction was impossible.

Further, for example, in an optical character reading device, since it is necessary to reflect (for example, number) the read data directly or indirectly on the read paper, a printing device is provided. However, the printing device used in the optical character reader is a fixed type,
Since the paper is not slid in the paper transport direction and in the direction orthogonal to the paper transport direction, the printing range is limited. Further, the dot wire pins are arranged in the direction orthogonal to the paper transport direction. Therefore, for printing only in the paper carrying direction, it is necessary to feed the paper line by line for each character printing, and continuous printing is possible only in the direction orthogonal to the paper carrying direction. Therefore, there is a problem that the printing efficiency is very poor when printing is performed only in the sheet conveying direction.

[0004]

As described above, the conventional printing apparatus cannot perform continuous printing in the same direction as the paper transport direction and in the direction orthogonal to the paper transport direction. Therefore, there is a problem that the printing efficiency on the paper is very poor.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, to enable continuous printing in the same direction as the paper transport direction and in the direction orthogonal to the paper transport direction, and to improve the printing efficiency.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a printing apparatus including a print head, a cassette ribbon, a platen roller, and a carriage device for moving the print head and the cassette ribbon. In the above, there is provided a printing device including a print head and a rotation unit that rotates the cassette ribbon on the carriage device.

With such a configuration, the rotating means rotates the print head and the cassette ribbon in the row direction printing state for printing in the case of printing in the direction orthogonal to the sheet transport direction, and prints in the sheet transport direction. In the case of printing in the same direction as, the print head and the cassette ribbon are rotated to print in the column direction.

[0008]

The details of the present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the printing apparatus in the Y-direction printing state according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the printing apparatus in the X-direction printing state according to the present embodiment. Note that the X direction shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is the conveyance direction of the sheet 1, and the Y direction is the direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the sheet 1.

The sheet 1 is conveyed in a column direction on a conveying path (not shown). The platen roller 2 is provided above the transport path (not shown) with its longitudinal direction parallel to the Y direction. A slide shaft 3 is provided so as to face the platen roller 2 with the conveyance path interposed therebetween. Two slide shafts 3 are provided in parallel with the platen roller 2. Slide shaft 3 is 2
It is inserted into the slide block 4 having one through hole. The slide block 4 slides on the slide shaft 3 by a motor (not shown) and a belt (not shown) that transmits the driving force of the motor to the slide block 4. A driven pulley 5 for rotating the cassette ribbon 11 and the print head 12 is provided on the upper surface of the slide block 4. A hole 14 is provided on the upper surface of the driven pulley 5. A motor 6 for rotating the driven pulley 5 is provided on the slide block 4. The motor 6 is provided with a drive pulley 7 that directly meshes with the driven pulley 5. Driven pulley 5
A rotary base 8 that is driven by the rotation of the driven pulley 5 is provided therein. The rotation base 8 is provided with a holder 9 for holding the cassette ribbon 11 and the print head 12. The rotary base 8 is provided with a convex portion 10 that fits with the cassette ribbon 11. The cassette ribbon 11 has holes. When the cassette ribbon 11 is attached to the holder 9, the convex portion 10 provided on the rotation base 8 fits into the hole provided in the cassette ribbon 11 to fix the mounting position of the cassette ribbon 11. The print head 12 is held by the holder 9. On the upper surface of the slide block 4, position detectors 13-a and 13-a in the shape of a leaf spring that fit in a hole are provided.
b is provided. The position detectors 13-a and 13-b are provided at positions having an angle of 90 degrees from the center of the driven pulley.

The perspective view of the printer shown in FIG. 2 shows the state in which the rotary base 8 is rotated 90 degrees from the state in FIG. Similar to the rotary base 8, the cassette ribbon 11 and the print head 12 attached to the rotary base 8 are in a state of being rotated by 90 degrees from the state during Y-direction printing.

When the cassette ribbon 11 and the print head 12 are in the state shown in FIG. 1, when the motor 6 is driven, the drive pulley 7 provided on the motor 6 rotates. When the drive pulley 7 rotates, the driven pulley 5 provided between the slide block 4 and the rotation base 8 rotates. When the driven pulley 5 rotates, the rotation base 8 provided on the driven pulley 5 is driven, and the position detector 13-a fitted into the hole 14 in the Y-direction printing state is removed from the hole 14.
When the driven pulley 5 rotates 90 degrees, the position detector 13-
b fits into hole 14. When the position detector 13-b fits into the hole 14, the motor 6 stops. The rotation base 8, the cassette ribbon 11, and the print head 12 rotate 90 degrees from the Y-direction printing state to become the X-direction printing state.

When a printing command in the Y direction is output, the cassette ribbon 11 and the print head 12 are rotated to the state shown in FIG. Slide block 4 is slide shaft 3
Slide on. Cassette ribbon 11 and print head 1
2 slides in the Y direction and prints on paper 1.

When a print command in the X direction is output, the cassette ribbon 11 and the print head 12 are rotated to the state shown in FIG. The slide block 4 slides on the slide shaft 3 to a predetermined print position in the Y direction and stops at the predetermined position. When the sheet 1 is conveyed, the sheet 1 is printed in the X direction.

When the cassette ribbon 11 and the print head 12 are in the Y-direction printing state, the position detector 13-
a is fitted in a hole provided in the driven pulley 5 and detects that the printing device is in the Y-direction printing state. When the cassette ribbon 11 and the print head 12 are in the X-direction printing state, the position detector 13-b fits into the hole received in the driven pulley 5 and detects that the printing device is in the X-direction printing state. To do.

FIG. 3 is a system block diagram when the printing apparatus according to this embodiment is applied to an optical character reading apparatus. FIG. 4 is an example of a print format of the printing apparatus according to this embodiment.

The print control unit 30 and the transport mechanism 31 are connected to the bus 38.
A carriage device 32, a printing mechanism 33, a drive motor control section 34, a printing control information storage section 35, and a printing data storage section 3
6 and the host device 37 are connected. The print control unit 30 controls the printing device. The transport mechanism 31 is a mechanism that transports a sheet in an optical character reading device (hereinafter, referred to as OCR). The carriage mechanism 32 is a motor (not shown) for sliding the slide block 4 and a belt or the like for transmitting the driving force of the motor to the slide block 4. The printing mechanism 33 is the cassette ribbon 11, the print head 12, and the like. The drive motor controller 34 controls the drive of the drive motor 6. The print control information storage unit 35 stores the head print position information in the X direction or the Y direction obtained from the print control information (format control information) transmitted from the host device 37. The print data storage unit 36 is an OCR
2 is a storage unit such as a buffer for reading the data of the paper by a reading unit (not shown) and storing the result of the tabulation processing on the read data. Host device 37 is OCR
Is.

The operation of the printer when the printer according to this embodiment is applied to OCR will be described below. The OCR reads the information written on the sheet by a reading unit (not shown). The read information is recognized by a recognition unit (not shown), and the recognized information is aggregated.
When the sheet is read by a reading unit (not shown), the conveyance mechanism 31 conveys the sheet on a conveyance path (not shown). When a print start command is issued from the host device 37, the paper is temporarily stopped at a predetermined print position. Further, the processing data to be printed transmitted from the host device 37 is stored in the print data storage unit 36 via the bus 38. Further, the print position information and the print direction information transmitted from the host device 37 are stored in the print control information storage unit 35.

The print control unit 30 transmits the processing result stored in the print data storage unit 36 to the printing device. The print control unit 30 selects X-direction printing or Y-direction printing according to the print control information transmitted from the host device 37.
A printing process is performed by the printing mechanism 33. The printing process will be described below with reference to the format example shown in FIG.

When a plurality of character string prints in the Y direction are instructed by the print control information (FIG. 4A), the print control unit 3
0 transmits a command to convey the sheet to the conveying mechanism 31 until the print position of the sheet conveyed on the convey path (not shown) reaches a predetermined print position determined by the print control information. The print control unit 30 determines whether the print direction transmitted from the host device 37 is Y-direction print or X-direction print, and in this case, Y-direction print.

The drive motor control section 34 uses the printing direction information stored in the printing control information storage section 35 to determine the printing mechanism 3
A drive command for driving the drive motor 6 is transmitted to 3. At this time, the position detector 13-a is fitted into the hole of the pulley 5 and the printing mechanism 33
Is in the Y-direction printing state, the drive motor control unit 34
Does not issue a drive command for the motor 6. Position detector 13-b
Is fitted in the hole provided in the pulley 5, the drive motor control unit 34 sends a drive command for the motor 6 to drive the motor 6. The motor 6 is a position detector 13-
The print head 12 and the cassette ribbon 11 are rotated until a is fitted in the hole received in the pulley 5, and the print mechanism 33 is set in the Y-direction print state.

The print control unit 30 transmits the print position information stored in the print control information storage unit 35 to the carriage mechanism 32. The carriage mechanism 32 slides the printing mechanism 33 to the leading printing position in the Y direction according to the printing position information. The print control unit 30 takes out print data from the print data storage unit 36 and sends it to the print mechanism 33. The printing mechanism 33 is slid in the Y direction by the carriage mechanism 32 and prints the first character string in the Y direction. When the printing mechanism 33 prints the first character string, the carriage mechanism 32 slides the printing mechanism 33 to the leading print position of the next character string. The print control unit 30 sends a signal to the transport mechanism 31 to transport the paper until the print position of the paper located in the next row reaches the head position. If there is print data to be printed, printing can be performed by repeating these processes. When there is no print data to be printed, the transport mechanism 31 is controlled to eject the paper.

When printing in the X direction is selected by the print control information ((b) of FIG. 4), the print control unit 30 uses the print position information and the print direction information stored in the print control information storage unit 35. It is determined that continuous printing is performed in the X direction. The drive motor control unit 34 transmits a drive command for the drive motor 6 to the printing mechanism 33 according to the print direction information. At this time, when the position detector 13-b is fitted in the hole of the pulley 5 and the printing mechanism 33 is in the X-direction printing state, the drive motor control unit 34 does not issue a drive command for the motor 6. Position detector 1
When 3-a is fitted in the hole provided in the pulley 5, the drive motor control unit 34 transmits a drive command for the motor 6 to drive the motor 6. The motor 6 rotates the print head 12 and the cassette ribbon 11 until the position detector 13-b fits in the hole provided in the pulley 5, and puts the print mechanism 33 in the X-direction print state.

When it is discriminated that printing is in the X direction, the following processing is performed. The print control unit 30 retrieves print data from the print data storage unit 36. The print control unit 30 includes the carriage mechanism 3
A command for sliding the printing mechanism 33 to the first printing position is transmitted to 2. The sliding printing mechanism 33 is the carriage mechanism 3.
It is slid to the first print position by 2. Print control unit 30
Sends a command to the transport mechanism 31 to transport the paper until the print position of the paper reaches the print position of the print mechanism 33. When the transport mechanism 31 transports the paper to a predetermined print position, the print control unit 30 sends print data to the print mechanism 33. The printing mechanism 33 continuously prints in the X direction while stopped at a predetermined printing position. The transport mechanism 31 continues to transport the paper until there is no print data to be printed. The paper is printed while being transported on a transport path (not shown).

In the case of the format state shown in FIG. 4 (c), printing in the Y direction is performed by the printing process in FIG. 4 (a), and continuous printing in the X direction is performed by the printing process in FIG. 4 (b). Printing can be performed by performing processing. That is, when the printing direction changes in the middle of the paper, the drive motor control unit 34 drives the motor 6 by identifying the printing direction information, and controls the printing mechanism 33 to the selected printing direction state. The format shown in FIG. 4C is also applicable. Figure 4
In the case of the state shown in FIG. 4D, the same processing as the printing processing of FIG.

[0025]

By providing the cassette ribbon and the rotating means for rotating the print head, different printing formats for each sheet (column printing, multi-column printing, multi-line printing, combination of column printing and line printing, etc.) It is possible to obtain the fastest printing speed corresponding to, and the printing range and printable amount are improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a printing apparatus in a Y-direction printing state according to this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the printing apparatus in an X-direction printing state according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a system block diagram when the printing device according to the present embodiment is applied to an optical character reading device.

FIG. 4 is a print format example of the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Paper 2 ... Platen roller 3 ... Slide shaft 4 ... Slide block 5 ... Followed pulley 6 ... Motor 7 ... Drive pulley 8 ... Rotation base 9 ... Holder 10 ... Convex part 11 ... Cassette ribbon 12 ... Print head 13- a, b ... Position detector 14 ... Hole 30 ... Print control unit 31 ... Conveyance mechanism 32 ... Carriage mechanism 33 ... Printing mechanism 34 ... Drive motor control unit 35 ... Print control information storage unit 36 ... Print data storage unit 37 ... Host device 38 ... Bus

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus comprising: a printing unit including a printing head and a cassette ribbon; a sheet transporting unit; and a carriage device for moving the printing unit. A rotation device for rotating the printing unit on the carriage device. When the row-direction printing is instructed, the rotating means rotates the printing means to the row-direction printing state, and when the column-direction printing is instructed, the rotating means changes the printing means to the column-direction printing state. A printing device characterized by being rotated. 2. A position detecting means for detecting a rotational position of the printing means rotated by the rotating means, and a print control means for controlling the rotating means by a detection signal obtained from the position detecting means. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: