JPH06262833A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printer wherein printing is enabled on a different kind of form through one unit and the need for change in setting is eliminated by changing the form. CONSTITUTION:Small holes are provided in the prescribed positions of the respective pages of a folding form selected from recording paper. A first recording paper detector S1 is provided in the feed side of a print part consisting of a platen 1 and a print head 2. A second recording paper detector S2 is provided in the discharge side thereof. The kind of a rolllike form, a folding form and a cut sheet is discriminated by the output of the first and second recording paper detectors and existence of the small holes.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly to a printer capable of printing on different types of paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a printer used as an output device of a computer, a word processor, etc., has a printing section including a platen and a print head, a paper feeding section for feeding recording paper to be printed to the printing section, and a printing section. And a paper discharge unit for discharging the printed recording paper. There is a printer of this type that can automatically determine the size of a cut sheet, for example, A4, B4, A3, etc., and print according to the determination.
There is no one that can discriminate different kinds of paper such as roll-shaped paper, folding paper, cut paper, etc. with one machine.

Here, the roll-shaped paper is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 8, only the paper width is cut in advance, and the continuous paper in the vertical direction (continuous paper) is wound in a roll shape. The folding paper is a continuous paper as shown in FIG. 8B. The perforated sheet is folded for each specific length, and the cut sheet is a sheet that is cut in advance to a specific size.

[0004]

When printing is required on recording papers of different types such as roll paper, folding paper, and cut paper, the conventional printers described above must be equipped with their own dedicated printers. However, there is a problem that it is very uneconomical and the installation space becomes large.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and one sheet can print on different types of paper (recording paper), and it is not necessary to change the setting every time the paper is changed. The purpose is to provide a printer.

[0006]

According to the printer of the present invention, a printing section including a platen and a print head, a paper feeding section for feeding a recording sheet to be printed to the printing section, and a printing section for printing. A sheet discharge unit for discharging a recording sheet, in which a small hole is provided at a predetermined position on each page of the folding sheet of the recording sheet, and a first recording sheet detector is provided in the sheet feeding unit. A second recording paper detector is provided in the paper discharge section, and the first and second recording paper detectors are provided.
The types of roll paper, folding paper, and cut paper are discriminated by the presence or absence of recording paper detection by the recording paper detector and the presence or absence of small hole detection.

With this printer, the recording paper is set and the first
When there is an output from the second recording paper detector and no small hole is detected, there is roll paper, there is output from the first and second recording paper detectors, and when there is small hole detection, there is folding paper, It is determined that the sheet is a cut sheet without the output of the first and second recording sheet detectors.

[0008]

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following examples. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a printer showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the print head 2 is provided to face the platen 1, and the platen 1 is
When the platen 1 is driven by a stepping motor (not shown), the recording paper 5 is sandwiched and conveyed by the pinch rollers 3 and 4 when the two pinch rollers 3 and 4 are pressed against each other. Here, the pinch roller 3 on the paper feed side
Also serves as a paper feed roller. Reference numeral 8 is a sheet feed roller for cut sheets. Although the figure shows the state in which cut paper is set, the paper feed unit also includes roll paper and folding paper.
It is a mechanism that can be set appropriately.

On the paper discharge side, a cutter 6 capable of cutting the roll-shaped paper into an arbitrary length, a paper discharge roller 7 _A ,
7 _B is provided. These paper discharge rollers 7 _A and 7 _B are
It is driven in synchronization with the platen 1. A recording paper detector S1 is provided on the paper feed side of the print head 2, and a recording paper detector S2 is provided between the cutter 6 and the paper ejection rollers 7a and 7b on the paper ejection side.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the control unit of the printer of the above embodiment. The CPU 11 incorporates a counter A and a counter B that count the feed value, and determines the type of paper by a program described later according to the signals from the recording paper detectors S1 and S2 and the contents of the counters A and B. Further, the CPU 11 controls the head drive unit 12, the stepping motor 13, the paper feed drive unit 14, and the cutter 6 according to a predetermined program.

In this printer, under the control of the CPU 11, in addition to the general print control function described above, roll paper shown in FIG. 8A, folded paper shown in FIG. 8B, cut paper shown in FIG. It is equipped with a function to determine the type, a function to detect paper shortage, a function to detect paper jam, and a function to find the end of the paper. Next, the recording paper discriminating operation of the printer of the above embodiment will be described with reference to the flow charts shown in FIGS. When the power is turned on, first, the counter A and the counter B are cleared [step ST (hereinafter abbreviated as ST) 1], then the platen 1 is driven to feed one step, and the counter A is incremented by 1 ( ST2), "Is S1 present", that is, it is determined whether or not the recording paper detector S1 is ON (ST3). If the recording paper 5 is roll paper or folding paper and has already been fed, the determination in ST3 is YES, and in this case, one more step of feeding is performed and the counter A is incremented by one. (ST4).

Then, it is determined whether "S2 is present", that is, whether the recording paper detector S2 is ON (ST5). Where S
When 2 is OFF, it means that the leading edge of the recording paper 5 has not reached this point, and in the judgment of ST5, it moves to ST13, and it is judged whether or not the content of the counter A is larger than a + b + c + d. If NO, return to ST4, 1
While performing step feed, the counter A is incremented by 1 (ST4), and the processes of ST4, ST5, and ST13 are repeated during the determination NO of ST5 and the determination NO of ST13. Here, a, b, c, and d represent the distances shown in FIG. 1, respectively. If the determination in ST5 is YES, it indicates that the end surface of the recording paper 5 has reached the detector S2. Following the determination YES in ST5, the ON / OFF state of the recording sheet detector S1 at that time is recorded as S1 ′ (ST6), and one step is fed, and the counter A is incremented by 1 (ST7). Then, it is determined whether the recording paper detector S1 is ON (ST8). Detector S1
If is not ON, the counter B is incremented by 1 (ST14), and it is determined whether the content of the counter B is larger than p, that is, the hole diameter of the folded paper (ST1).
5) If it is not larger, the OFF state of the detector S1 may be due to the hole in the folded paper. Therefore, while the detector S1 is OFF, until the content of the counter B becomes larger than p, ST
The processing of 6, ST7, ST8, ST14 and ST15 is repeated. When the content of the counter B exceeds p (ST15) while the detector S1 remains off, it is determined that the paper is out.

If the detector S1 is ON in ST8, that is, if there is paper, then it is judged whether or not the memory S1 'is ON (ST9). If the memory S1' is also ON, the recording paper 5, there is no hole, and it is further determined whether or not the content of the counter A is larger than the length L of the cut sheet (ST10), and while it is smaller than L, the process returns to ST6, and the processes of ST6, ..., ST10 are repeated. Therefore, when the feed and the count-up of the counter A are continued and the content of the counter A exceeds L,
The recording paper 5 is determined to be roll paper.

If the recording S1 'is OFF in ST9,
From the logic that the detector S1 is turned ON at the present step of ST8, it means that the recording paper 5 is not at least a roll-shaped paper, and subsequently at ST16, it is determined whether or not the content of the counter B is larger than p, and it is determined that If not, the content of the counter B is due to the holes, and therefore the recording sheet 5 is determined to be a folding sheet. If the content of the counter B exceeds P, it is determined as an error.

If the recording paper detector S1 is OFF in ST3, it is judged whether or not the content of the counter A exceeds p (S
T11), if the determination is NO, the process returns to ST2 and the detector S
While 1 is OFF, the processes of ST2, ST3, and ST11 are repeated, and the feed and the count-up of the counter A are continued. When the content of the counter A exceeds P while the detector S1 is OFF, it is next determined whether or not the recording paper detector S2 is ON (ST12). If the determination is YES, the discharge operation is started. . When both the detectors S1 and S2 are OFF, and when the determination in ST12 is NO, it is determined that there is no paper, that is, the cut sheet is used as the recording sheet, and thereafter, the printing process using the cut sheet is performed.

When the determination in ST13 is YES, that is, the recording sheet detector S2 is OFF, the content of the counter A is a + b.
When greater than + c + d, this means that the feed is the detector S
It means that the distance is larger than the distance from 1 to S2, and nevertheless the detector S2 is not turned on.
In this case, it is determined that the paper is jammed. Next, roll paper,
The processing operation in the case where the types of folding paper and cut paper are respectively discriminated will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.

In the case of the roll-shaped paper, as shown in FIG. 5, it is first judged whether or not it is the cut mode (ST21). In the case of the cut mode, the recording paper 5 is fed by c,
Cut with the cutter 6 (ST22). After that, the recording paper 5 is fed by d + c and discharged (ST23),
On the contrary, only c + d + e is back-fed to perform cueing (ST24). Next, the presence or absence of print data is determined (ST
25) If there is print data, print and perform line feed (ST26), and determine whether it is the last line (ST27). If it is not the last line, return to ST25 until the last line is reached.
Printing is continued by repeating ST25, ST26 and ST27.

When it is determined in ST27 that the line is the last line, the recording paper 5 is fed by 6 to perform a page break, and the process returns to ST21.
If the determination is NO in ST21, ST22, ..., ST24
Skip to and move to ST25. In ST25, if there is no print data, the print data will come
Wait for the page break command. For folded paper,
As shown in FIG. 6, first, (L / 2) + a + b is fed to perform the cueing (ST31), then the presence or absence of print data is determined (ST33), and if print data is present, after printing, Start a new line (ST34). Then, it is determined whether or not it is the last line, and if the determination is NO, the process returns to ST31, and the processes of ST32, ..., ST34 are repeated until the last line is reached, and printing / line feed is continued. When the final line is reached, b + q is fed, the heads are aligned (ST35), and the process returns to ST31 to prepare for the next printing. Here, q is a correction value, and q = (hole pitch) -L.

In the case of cut paper, as shown in FIG. 7, after feeding and cueing the cut paper (ST41), it is judged whether or not there is print data (ST42). One line is printed, a line feed is performed (ST43), and it is determined whether the line is the last line (ST44). Judgment NO in ST44
In case of ST4, the process returns to ST42 and ST4 is executed until the last line.
2. The processes of ST43 and ST44 are repeated to continue printing / line feed. When the last line is determined in ST44, b + c
+ D + e is fed in the paper discharge direction, and the paper is discharged (S
(T45), the process returns to ST41 to move to the processing of the next cut sheet.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the types of the set sheets are automatically determined, so that one sheet can use a plurality of types. In addition, the control suitable for each paper is possible,
Further, in the case of a folded sheet, since a small hole is provided at a predetermined position on each page, it is possible to align the print start position for each page by detecting this.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a printer showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control unit of the printer of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a sheet type determination operation when the printer of the embodiment is turned on.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a sheet type determination operation when the power of the printer of the embodiment is turned on together with the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a printing process when the recording paper is determined to be a roll-shaped paper by the printer of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a printing process when the recording paper is determined to be folding paper by the printer of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a printing process when the recording paper is determined to be a cut paper by the printer of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view for explaining types of recording paper used in the printer of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Platen 2 Print Head S1 First Recording Paper Detector S2 Second Recording Paper Detector

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printing unit comprising a platen and a print head, a paper feeding unit for feeding recording paper to be printed to the printing unit, and a paper discharging unit for discharging the recording paper printed by the printing unit. In the printer, a small hole is provided at a predetermined position on each page of the folding paper of the recording paper, a first recording paper detector is provided in the paper feeding unit, and a second recording paper detector is provided in the paper ejection unit. A printer, wherein the type of roll paper, folding paper, and cut paper is determined by the presence or absence of recording paper detection by the first and second recording paper detectors and the presence or absence of small hole detection.