JPH0650209Y2 - Printer guide - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial application] The present invention relates to a printer guide, and more particularly, to a printer guide structure for guiding and operating a small printer that can be manually operated on a predetermined printing surface. It is a thing.

[Prior Art] In recent years, with the remarkable development of information devices such as persol computers and word processors, the structure of a printer, which is one of the output devices of these devices, has been diversified. A small-sized printer has been developed that can perform a printing operation on the surface to be printed. Such a small-sized printer has good operability and can easily perform a printing operation on the surface of thick paper or the surface of a parcel or the like. However, on the other hand, since the printer main body is moved by hand to perform the printing operation, there is a problem in that the printed characters are swayed by hand during operation and the printed characters are distorted or arranged irregularly. Therefore, a printer guide having a guide groove for restricting the locus of the printing operation of the printer has been devised. For example, JP-A-60-2404
That is what is shown in the 72nd publication. Hereinafter, the guide of such a small printer will be described with reference to FIGS.
It will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 4, the guide 1 of the printer has a plate shape, and a through groove 2 extending in the longitudinal direction of the guide 1 is formed near the center thereof. A linear guide rail 3 is provided on the longitudinal edge of the through groove 2. The cross-sectional shape of this guide 1 is shown in FIG.

Further, the printer used in combination with such a guide 1 has a pen type shape that can be easily operated manually as shown in FIG. At the tip of this pen type printer 4,
A head guide 5 is formed which is inserted into the guide groove 2 of the guide 1 and guides the pen-type printer 4 along the guide rail 3 of the guide 1. Further, between the head guides 5, a print head 6 that is in contact with the surface to be printed and that prints characters and the like is provided on the surface. Further, inside the pen-type printer 4, a detection device that detects the amount of movement of the printer body, a print head drive device that drives the print head 6, and the like are incorporated. In addition, the print head 6
For example, an inkjet type printing device is used, and printing can be performed by directly ejecting ink or the like in a predetermined shape from the print head 6 onto the surface to be printed.

Next, the printing operation using the guide 1 of the printer will be described with reference to FIG. First, the guide 1 is placed so that the place on the target print surface 7 where printing is desired is placed in the through groove 2 of the guide 1. Next, the pen type printer 4 is inserted into the through groove 2 of the guide 1 so that the head guide 5 formed at the tip of the pen type printer 4 follows the guide rail 3 of the guide 1.
And set it at the print start location. Then, the print start switch of the pen type printer 4 is turned on, and the pen type printer 4 is manually moved along the guide rail 3 of the guide 1 in the printing direction. Then, in the pen type printer 4,
Detecting the relative movement amount on the print target surface 7 of the printer 4,
Information about the relative movement amount is transmitted to the device main body side to which the printer is connected via a cable 8 provided on the upper portion of the pen printer 4. Then, the device body immediately transmits the character information to be printed to the drive unit of the print head via the cable 8 based on the information on the relative movement amount.

Then, the print head 6 prints a character on the print target surface 7 according to the operation signal and the character information given from the print head driving device.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, the guide of the conventional printer has the guide groove and is mainly configured to guide the printing direction of the printer. Therefore, the printer used in combination with such a guide needs to be provided with a device capable of performing printing inside the printer. Therefore, when the printing device is a device including a printing head and a printing ribbon, for example, the outer shape of the printer becomes large, and therefore the guide 1 used in combination also has a problem such as being large. .

Further, when it is desired to print the same characters or sentences on many different print target surfaces, it is necessary to operate the printer many times for each location to print. Then, it is troublesome to repeat such an operation, and there is a problem that work efficiency is reduced.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a printer guide in which the structure of a printer used in combination can be downsized and the same character can be repeatedly printed. With the goal.

[Means for Solving the Problem] A guide of a printer according to the present invention is for guiding a printer, which has a print head and can be manually operated, to a predetermined position on a printing target surface to perform a printing operation. Guiding the movement of the print head, a rectangular through groove extending in the moving direction of the print head, and a state where the guide is placed on the print target surface, on the print target surface defined by the through groove, A print sheet supplying unit that supplies a print sheet in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the print head, and a print sheet supplied from the print sheet supplying unit is collected in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the print head. A print sheet collecting means.

Further, instead of the print sheet supplying means and the print sheet collecting means in the guide, the print sheet may be attached to a region covering the through groove of the guide.

Further, the print sheet may be a copy sheet capable of forming an image by thermal printing.

Further, a movement restraining means for restraining the movement of the print sheet movable toward the print sheet collecting means from the print sheet supplying means provided in the guide is provided.

Further, the guide may be provided with a pressing and fixing unit that presses and fixes the print sheet supplied onto the print target surface defined by the through groove.

[Operation] A printer having no print sheet inside the main body of the printer by providing the print sheet supply means and the print sheet collecting means in the guide for guiding the printing operation of the printer performed on the print target surface Also, it is possible to guide the printing operation and to perform the printing operation aligned along the guide.

Even if the print sheet is attached so as to cover the through groove of the guide, the same printing operation as described above can be performed.

Further, when the printing sheet used for such a guide is a transcription sheet capable of forming an image by thermal printing, a printer having a heat-sensitive print head is used in combination to print on the transcription sheet. It is possible to form a transcription pattern of a power character. This copy sheet is transparent and is made of a liquid-permeable material. Therefore, once the transcription pattern is formed on the transcription sheet, the character pattern formed on the transcription sheet can be printed on the print target surface by applying a printing liquid such as ink from the surface of the pattern. By repeating this operation, the same character pattern can be printed on a plurality of print target surfaces. Further, since the copy sheet is transparent, it is easy to position the copy sheet surface of the guide at a predetermined position on the print target surface.

Further, since one or both of the print sheet feeding means and the print sheet collecting means of the guide are provided with the movement restraining means for restraining the movement of the print sheet, the print sheet is prevented from being loosened when the guide is used. can do.

In addition, since a press fixing means for pressing and fixing the print sheet onto the print target surface is provided, this guide is placed on the print target surface to operate the printer or apply ink agent or the like. At this time, it is possible to prevent the print sheet from sagging or wrinkling.

In addition, the feeding distance for renewing the entire surface of the print sheet is shortened by setting the direction of supplying and collecting the print sheet to be the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the through groove. As a result, the time for supplying and collecting the print sheet by the print sheet supplying means and the print sheet collecting means can be shortened, and the winding diameter of the print sheet supplying means and the print sheet collecting means can be made small. The size can be reduced.

Furthermore, since the direction in which the print sheet is supplied and the direction in which the print head moves are orthogonal to each other, the print sheet is not used as play in the print sheet supply / recovery mechanism, and when the print head moves, the print sheet is rubbed against the print head due to friction. It is possible to prevent the occurrence of printing defects due to the following.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a guide of a printer which is an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a plan view and FIG. 2 is a section line II-II in FIG. The sectional view seen from the direction is shown. First, the structure of the guide will be described with reference to these drawings.

The guide 1 includes a copy sheet supply reel 10 and a copy sheet collection reel 11 inside a guide frame 9 forming an outer shell of the guide. The guide frame 9 is composed of a rectangular parallelepiped hollow box, and a through groove 12 formed so that a surface 9a of the guide frame 9 is depressed along the longitudinal direction of the guide frame 9 in the center thereof.
Are formed. The through groove 12 serves as a guide groove for linearly guiding the tip of the printer. Therefore,
The guide direction of the print head of the through groove 12 and the print sheet supply direction are orthogonal to each other. Copy sheet supply reel 10
Is configured by inserting a rotating shaft 13a extending from the wall surface of the guide frame 9 so that the cylindrical rotating body 14a can relatively rotate. One of the rotating shafts 13b inserted into the rotating body 14a extends to the outside of the guide frame 9, and a supply knob 15 that can be rotated by hand is integrally formed at the tip thereof.

Similar to the copy sheet supply reel 10, the copy sheet collecting reel 11 has a rotating shaft 13c extending from the wall surface of the guide frame 9, a cylindrical rotating body 14b rotatably inserted with respect to the rotating shaft 13c, and a guide frame. One rotating shaft 1 extending to the outside of 9
It is composed of a recovery knob 16 integrally formed at the tip of 3d.

Then, the unused copy sheet 17 wound around the rotating body 14a of the copy sheet supply reel 10 is guided to the outside from the lower opening of the copy sheet supply chamber 18 of the guide frame 9, and the lower surface of the through groove 12 is removed. It enters from the lower entrance of the copy sheet collection chamber 19 of the street guide frame 9 and is wound around the rotating body 14b of the copy sheet collection reel 11. The copy sheet supply room of the guide frame 9
A lid 20 capable of rotating and opening is attached to the lower surfaces of 18 and the copy sheet collection chamber 19.

Further, the copying sheet supply reel 10 and the copying sheet collecting reel 11 are provided with a device for suppressing the movement of the copying sheet 17. For example, for the copying sheet supply reel 10, this device includes a spring body 21a inserted around a rotary shaft 13a extending from the wall surface of the guide frame 9 and a felt material 21b inserted around the other rotary shaft 13b. It consists of and. This device presses the rotating body 14a of the copy sheet supply reel 10 by the elastic force of the spring body 21a in the direction in which the spring body 21a tries to restore. This force causes the rotating body 14a
One of the end faces is strongly pressed against the inner wall surface of the guide frame 9 via the felt material 21b. Therefore, due to the frictional resistance of the contact surface between the flute member 21b and the rotor 14a and the frictional resistance between the flute member 2b and the inner wall surface, the rotor 14a
The free rotation of is suppressed. A copy sheet collection reel
The device applied to 11 is similar to this.

The copy sheet 17 is formed by laminating a liquid-permeable sheet base material and a heat-meltable material that melts when heat is applied, as shown in Japanese Patent Application No. 61-17457, for example, and is transparent. is there. When heat is applied to the copy sheet from a heat-sensitive print head or the like, the heated portion of the heat-fusible material is melted and a hole is formed. Then, when printing ink or the like is applied on the surface of the copy sheet in which the holes are formed, the ink permeates the liquid-permeable sheet base material and exudes from the hole portion of the heat-meltable material, so that the surface to be printed is printed. Applied to. As a result, desired characters can be printed on the print target surface.

Further, sheet pressing portions 22 made of rubber are attached to both sides of the lower portion of the through groove 12 of the guide frame 9. When the guide 1 is placed on the surface to be printed, the sheet pressing portion 22 presses the copy sheet 17 onto the surface to be printed, so that the copy sheet 17 is not distorted or wrinkled during the printing operation of the printer. It works to prevent it.

Next, a method of operating the guide will be described with reference to FIG. The printer used in combination with this guide 23
Need only have a heat-sensitive print head 24, and need not be provided with a print sheet and its supply / collection device.

First, the guide 1 is placed on a flat surface with the copy sheet 17 facing downward. Then, insert the tip portion having the print head portion of the printer 23 into the through groove 12 of the guide 1,
The printer 23 is set at the print start position in the through groove 12.
Next, the print start switch of the printer 23 is turned on, and the printer 23 is moved along the through groove 12 of the guide 1 in the printing direction. Then, the movement amount detection device provided in the printer 23 operates and transmits the movement amount data of the printer 23 to the device main body side to which the printer is connected via the cable 25. Then, on the device body side, print information is generated based on this movement amount data and transmitted to the print head driving device in the printer 23 via the cable 25. Then, the print head driving device operates the heat-sensitive print head 24 to selectively perform the heat generation operation on the copy sheet 17 based on the character information. Due to this heat generation operation, the desired character pattern is formed on the copy sheet 17 as described above. Then, after the printer 23 has performed the predetermined printing operation, the printer is moved from the guide 1 to the printer.
You can remove 23. The guide 1 including the copy sheet 17 on which a desired character pattern is formed by such an operation
Move and place on the desired print surface, and copy sheet 17
By applying a printing agent such as ink to the surface of the ink, desired characters can be printed on the surface to be printed. The character pattern formed on the copy sheet 17 is not erased by one printing operation, and can be printed a plurality of times.

In the above embodiment, the case where the print sheet attached to the guide is a copy sheet has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and may be an ink ribbon, for example. In the case of this ink ribbon or the like, the printing operation can be performed on the printing target surface each time by the scanning operation of the printer 23 shown in FIG. However, in this case, when the same character is formed on a plurality of printing target surfaces, the same repetitive operation needs to be performed each time.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the print sheet has a structure in which it can be continuously used by the supply reel and the recovery reel. However, for example, a print sheet of a predetermined size is attached to the lower surface of the through groove of the guide and used. It does not matter even if it is a structure that does.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the spring body 21a and the felt material 21b are used as the device for suppressing the movement of the copy sheet 17, but the device is not limited to this and may have another structure. Further, although the sheet pressing portion 22 of the copy sheet is made of a rubber body, it is not limited to this. Further, the mounting location is not limited to the lower part of the through groove.

[Advantages of the Invention] As described above, since the guide of the printer of the present invention is provided with the print sheet feeding means and the collecting means in the guide, the structure of the printer used in combination with this guide can be simplified. You can When a copy sheet is used as the print sheet, a character pattern can be formed on the copy sheet by one scanning operation of the printer, and the copy sheet can be repeatedly used, and the same character can be used. Can be printed on a plurality of different print target surfaces. Therefore, the printing operation is simple and the work efficiency can be greatly improved. Furthermore, when the guide is provided with a movement restraining means for restraining the movement of the print sheet and a print sheet pressing and fixing means, it is possible to completely prevent the print sheet from being distorted or wrinkled during the printing operation. The printing operation can be performed more efficiently. Further, by setting the print sheet supply / recovery direction to be the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the groove, the feeding distance for updating the entire surface of the print sheet is shortened. Supply and recovery time can be shortened,
Further, since the winding diameters of the print sheet supplying means and the print sheet collecting means can be reduced, the diameter of the guide of the printer can be reduced. Further, since the print direction and the print sheet supply direction are orthogonal to each other, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of print defects due to the following of the print sheet due to friction with the print head when the print head moves. As described above, by using the guide of the printer according to the present invention, the printing work can be simplified and the work efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the structure of a guide of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cutting line II-- in FIG.
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional structural view as seen from the direction along II. And the third
The drawings are operation explanatory views for explaining the operation method of the guide of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a guide of a conventional printer, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view seen from a direction along a cutting line VV in FIG. FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory view for explaining a conventional guide operating method. In the figure, 1 is a guide of the printer, 10 is a copy sheet supply reel, 11 is a copy sheet collecting reel, 12 is a through groove (guide groove), 21a is a spring body, and 21b is a felt material. Is forming. Further, 22 indicates a sheet pressing portion. In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (5)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A guide for a printer which has a print head and which can be manually operated and which guides a printer to a predetermined position on a print target surface to perform a printing operation, and guides the movement of the print head of the printer. A rectangular through groove that is elongated in the moving direction of the print head, and, in a state where the guide is placed on the print target surface, on the print target surface defined by the through groove, with respect to the moving direction of the print head. And a print sheet collecting means for collecting the print sheet supplied from the print sheet supplying means in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the print head. A printer guide, characterized by being equipped with. 2. The printer guide according to claim 1, wherein the print sheet is a copy sheet on which an image can be formed by thermal printing. 3. The printer guide according to claim 1, further comprising movement restraining means for restraining the movement of the print sheet from the print sheet supplying means toward the print sheet collecting means. 4. The guide according to claim 1, further comprising a pressing fixing means for pressing and fixing the print sheet supplied onto the print target surface defined by the through groove to the print target surface. 2. A printer guide according to claim 3. 5. A guide for a printer which has a print head and which can be manually operated and which guides a printer to a predetermined position on a surface to be printed to perform a printing operation, and guides the movement of the print head of the printer. A printer comprising a rectangular through groove that extends in the moving direction of the print head and a print sheet that is arranged so as to cover the through groove and that is supplied in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the print head. Guide.