JPH06286239A - Method for processing of label printing in label printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent errors by detecting the printing position of a label being printed when a terminal end of the label of a continuous body is to be detected, detecting whether or not it is possible to print the remaining printing data at a remaining part of the label, and displaying the detecting result. CONSTITUTION:In a label printer which uses a continuous body 1 having a plurality of labels 3 continuously provided at every prescribed distance on the surface of a band-like cardboard 2, each label 3 is printed by a thermal head 9. The label printer is provided with a sensor 5 to detect gaps 4 between the labels 3. Although the length L of each label 3 in the moving direction is L, the length La of label 3a at the terminal end of the body 1 is La (<L). Therefore, it is detected from the output of the sensor 5 during the printing operation whether it is a label 3b of the regular length or the terminal label 3a. When it is detected as the terminal label 3a and if the printing distance L-Lp is larger than the remaining length of the label Ls-T, a mark NG indicating that it is impossible to print the label is printed on the continuous body 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a label printing method in a label printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a label used in this type of label printer, there is known a label continuous body formed by winding a plurality of labels on a strip-shaped backing sheet at regular intervals and wound in a roll shape. Has been. As a method for producing such a roll-shaped label continuous body, recently, when a label continuous body is wound in a roll shape around a winding core by an automatic label manufacturing apparatus, the length of the label continuous body reaches a certain length from the start of winding. A method has been adopted in which the label continuum is automatically cut by a cutting blade to form a roll-shaped label continuum.

However, according to the above-described method for automatically producing a continuous roll-shaped label, the length of the label temporarily attached to the strip-shaped mount has various sizes, so that it is constant from the beginning of winding the continuous label. When the label continuum was cut at the length of, the cutting was not always performed in the gap between the adjacent labels, and the cutting was performed at various printing positions of the final label.

Such a cut label is to be positioned at the winding start of the core of the next roll-shaped label continuous body.

Therefore, when a label continuum having a cut label that is cut halfway and does not reach the normal label length is loaded into the label printer for printing, the label printer also has a normal label 1 for the cut label. Printing for the number of pages is performed, so that the remaining print data after the label cutting part is not printed on the label, and as a result, the print data of the cut label must be printed again on the label of the new label continuum. However, the data re-transmission operation has a troublesome drawback.

Further, if the operator notices that the cut label is shorter than the regular label length and the print data is not printed normally, the cut label can be reprinted, but the cut label can be visually recognized as the label length of the regular length label. If it is cut with a length that can not be seen and discerned, assume that the operator has normally printed on the cut label,
If the print data is missing, or if the print data is a bar code, the read error or erroneous data will be read when the bar code data of the cut label is read later by the scanner. there were.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is a label printer for printing on the label of a label continuous body formed by connecting a plurality of labels on a strip-shaped backing sheet. Detecting the print position on the label being printed at the time of detecting the end of the label in the continuum, determining whether it is possible to print the residual print data on the remaining portion of the label being printed at the time of detecting the print position, The operator can very easily know the existence of a label that cannot be printed normally by configuring the display to indicate that printing cannot be performed on the remaining portion of the label being printed. An object of the present invention is to provide a label printing method in a label printer.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a label printing process in a label printer which prints on the above label of a label continuous body formed by connecting a plurality of labels on a strip mount. In the method, the step of detecting the end of the label in the label continuum, the step of detecting the print position in the label being printed at the time of detecting the end of the label, and the residual of the label in the print at the time of detecting the print position The step of determining whether or not it is possible to print the residual print data on the part, and the step of completing the printing of the residual print data when the printing of the residual part of the label being printed is possible, And the step of displaying that printing is not possible when the remaining portion of the inner label cannot be printed.

[0009]

According to the present invention, when the end of the label in the label continuum is detected, it is judged whether or not the residual print data can be printed on the remaining portion of the label being printed, and the remaining portion of the label being printed is printed. When it is possible to print, the printing of the residual print data can be completed.

Further, when it is impossible to print on the remaining portion of the label being printed, the fact that printing is impossible is displayed, so that it is extremely easy for the operator to detect the presence of a label that cannot be printed normally. Get to know

[0011]

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

FIG. 1 shows a label continuous body 1 used in a label printer. The label continuous body 1 is
A plurality of labels 3 are continuously and temporarily attached to the surface of the strip-shaped mount 2 at a predetermined interval. A gap 4 having a constant size is formed between the labels 3, and the gap 4 serves as a detected portion detected by a sensor 5 described later.

The length of each label 3 in the label continuum 1 in the transfer direction is always a constant length L, but the label continuum 1
Since the length of the label 3 at the final end in the transfer direction of (3) is manufactured by the automatic label manufacturing apparatus, the length of La is smaller than L (L> La). For convenience of description below, the label 3 having the length L is referred to as a regular length label 3b, and the label 3 at the final end having the length La is referred to as a cut label 3a.

Next, FIG. 2 shows the main part of the mechanical portion of the label printer. At the rear of the printer body 6, a roll-shaped label continuous body 7 formed by winding the label continuous body 1 in a roll shape is supported. It is rotatably attached via a member 8. The leading end of the label continuum 1 is inserted between the thermal head 9 and the platen 10, and a desired print is printed on the label 3 while the label continuum 1 is transported between the thermal head 9 and the platen 10. It is supposed to be done.

The thermal head 9 is configured to be supported by the support mechanism 11 so as to be able to come into contact with and separate from the platen 10. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the thermal head 9 is separated from the platen 10. Is. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 5 is a sensor for optically detecting a gap 4 between the labels 3 in the label continuum 1. This sensor 5 detects whether or not the label 3 is present when the label continuum 1 has passed. Generally, since the quality of the backing sheet 2 has high transparency, it is judged to be the same level as the state without the label 3. The output signal of the sensor 5 is supplied to the CPU 12 described later.

Next, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of the label printer, in which the CPU 12 is a bus line 13.
ROM 14, RAM 15, print control circuit 16,
The motor drive circuit 17, the input unit 18, and the sensor 5 are connected to each other. The ROM 14 is a program storage unit 14a
And a character generator 14b, and the RAM 15 is used as a buffer memory. The input unit 18 includes a keyboard 18a. The keyboard 18a is used for inputting print data and information relating to the number of labels to be produced.
It is stored in a predetermined address of M15.

The motor drive circuit 17 appropriately drives the pulse motor 19 based on the output signal from the sensor 5 to control the transfer of the label continuum 1, while the print control circuit 16 is stored in the RAM 15. Print information
By supplying the thermal head 9 according to the program of M14, desired printing is performed on each label 3 of the label continuum 1.

Further, the signal from the sensor 5 is supplied to the CPU 12, and the CPU 5 detects the gap 4 in the CPU 12 and at the time when the label 3 travels for a constant length T from the start of the detection of the gap 4, that is, between the regular length label 3b. The end of the final label 3 is detected by the absence of the label 3 over the maximum value of the length G of the gap 4. The length G of the gap 4 between the regular length labels 3b differs depending on the label type, but the constant length T is the regular length label 3
The length of the gap 4 between b is set to be larger than the maximum length of the gap G, and it is possible that the length of the gap 4 between the labels 3 is T as long as the regular length label 3b continues to the label continuum 1. There is no such thing.

Next, the method of printing the final label of the label printer will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the positional relationship between the thermal label 9 and the sensor 5 of the cut label 3a when the sensor 5 detects the label end of the cut label 3a. In FIG. 5, G is the length of the gap 4 between the regular length labels 3b, Lp is the printed distance in the final label 3 at the time when the sensor 5 detects the label end of the cut label 3a, and Ls is the thermal distance. Head 9
To the sensor 5, T is the distance from the label end edge of the cut label 3a to the sensor 5. Note that FIG.
The label 3 shown by the solid line is the cut label 3a, and the broken line shows the end of the regular length label 3b.

In FIG. 6, when the label printer is powered on (not shown) and a predetermined operation is performed, the pulse motor 19 is driven, the label continuum 1 is transferred in a predetermined direction, and the thermal head 9 is moved. Then, a predetermined print 20 is made on the surface of the label 3 as shown in FIG. 7 (step S1).

Then, in step S2, the sensor 5
Has detected gap 4 between the labels,
If not detected, the process returns to step S1 to continue printing. When the gap 4 is detected,
In step 3, the CPU 12 determines whether or not the length of the gap 4 is larger than T.

When the length of the gap 4 is smaller than T, the CPU 12 determines that the gap 4 is the gap 4 between the regular length labels 3b and returns to step S1 to continue printing. If the length of the gap 4 is larger than T in step S3, the CPU 12 determines that the label 3 being printed is the final label 3, and proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, the CPU 12 causes the remaining label length Ls-T of the final label 3 being printed.
, It is determined whether or not the final label 3 is larger than the remaining print distance L-Lp when the label 3b is the regular length label 3b. When the print distance L-Lp is larger than the residual label length Ls-T, the CPU 12 prints the residual print data completely within the print area of the label, since the final label 3 being printed is the cut label 3a. When it is determined that the unprintable mark NG is printed on the label continuum 1 as shown in FIG. 7, the process proceeds to step S6.

In step S6, the CPU 12 stores the print data of the cut label 3a in the RAM 15, and then in step S7, the cut label 3 stored in the RAM 15 is stored.
The print data of a is printed on the first label 3 of the new label continuum 1.

In step S4, the printing distance L
If -Lp is smaller than or equal to the residual label length Ls-T, the CPU 12 determines that the residual print data can be printed on the label 3 being printed, and the printing is continued in step S8.

Next, in step S9, it is judged whether or not the printing of one label 3 is completed. If the printing is not completed, the process returns to step S8 to continue the printing.

If it is determined in step S9 that the printing of one label 3 has been completed, the print data in the RAM 15 is erased in step S10,
Prepare for the next printing operation.

As described above, when it is possible to print the residual print data on the remaining portion of the label 3 being printed when the end of the label 3 of the label continuum 1 is detected, the printing of the residual print data is completed and When it is impossible to print the remaining print data on the remaining portion of the label 3 being printed, it is possible to display that printing is impossible.

In the above embodiment, the label continuum 1 having the gap 4 between the labels 3 is used, but the present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. 8 as the label continuum. It is also possible to use a label 3 having no gap between the labels 3 and having an index 21 indicating the reference position of each label 3 on the back surface of the mount 2, and detecting this index 21 by the sensor 5. In the above embodiment, the sensor for detecting the label pitch and the sensor for detecting the end of the label are the same sensor 5. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and both sensors may be independent sensors. Also, NG is printed as the unprintable mark on the label continuum 1, but it may be a mark such as a thick straight line.
In the above embodiment, the cut label 3a is the label continuum 1.
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the cut label 3a may be present at an intermediate position of the label continuum 1, and the present invention is also applicable to other configurations. Various changes can be made without changing the range.

[0031]

The label printing method in the label printer according to the present invention is a label printer which prints on the above label of a label continuous body formed by coupling a plurality of labels on a strip-shaped backing sheet. Detects the print position on the label being printed when the end of
When detecting the print position, determine whether it is possible to print the residual print data on the residual portion of the label being printed,
Since it is configured to display that it is not possible to print on the remaining portion of the label being printed,
This has the effect of making it extremely easy for the operator to have a label that cannot be printed normally.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a label continuum of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part of a label printing mechanism with a thermal head closed.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a main part of the label printing mechanism with a thermal head opened.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control circuit of the printer.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a positional relationship between a sensor and a label continuum.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a label printing processing method.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a printing state on a continuous label body.

FIG. 8 is a modification of the label continuum.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Label continuum 3 ... Label 3a ... Cut label 3b ... Regular length label 4 ... Gap 5 ... Sensor

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A label printer for printing on a label of a label continuum formed by connecting a plurality of labels on a strip-shaped mount, the step of detecting the end of the label in the label continuum, and the step of detecting the end of the label. A step of detecting the print position on the label being printed at the time of detection, a step of determining whether or not it is possible to print residual print data on the remaining portion of the label being printed at the time of detecting the print position, and The step of completing the printing of the residual print data when it is possible to print on the remaining part of the label, and that it is impossible if the printing on the remaining part of the label being printed is impossible. And a step of displaying the label printing method in a label printer. 2. The printing of a label according to claim 1, further comprising a step of storing print data of the label being printed when printing on the remaining portion of the label being printed is impossible. Processing method. 3. The label print processing method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of printing the stored print data of the label being printed on a label of a new label continuum.