JPH0655802A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printer which is a printer having possibility wherein a thickness of a printed medium is changed and line feed operation can be performed easily and swiftly. CONSTITUTION:This is a printer constituted of a medium thickness detecting part 4 detecting a thickness of a printing medium 2, a control part 5 performing a decision of a quantity of expansion of a gap between a printing head 1 and platen 3 in accordance with a thickness condition of the medium and generating a corresponding signal, the printing head practicing a movement of the printing head and/or a platen according to a quantity of gap expansion signal between the printing head and platen corresponding to the detected medium thickness and a variable retracting mechanism 6 of the platen.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device for printing print media having different thicknesses.

Generally, in order to perform clear printing with a printer, it is necessary to secure an appropriate gap between the print head and the platen in consideration of the medium thickness. In this case, the gap between the print head and the platen tends to be reduced due to the demand for high speed printing. On the other hand, it is necessary to perform an accurate line feed operation in order to correctly print in the desired print target field. In an ordinary printer, the movement of the print head and the line feed operation are executed by the rotation of the stepping motor.

In a printer which always prints on a medium having a predetermined thickness, for example, a printing paper of a predetermined standard, the gap between the print head and the platen can be adjusted in advance in accordance with the thickness of the printing medium. The line feed operation is also performed smoothly. This is because there are many relatively thin media and many cylindrical platens do not hinder the line feed operation, and a reliable media feeding mechanism such as a sprocket is provided.

On the other hand, in a printer device that changes the thickness of the printing medium and uses a flat platen, such as a passbook printer device, special consideration must be given to the print line feed operation.

[0005] Automatic teller machines (ATMs), automatic teller machines (CDs), automatic bookkeeping machines, and the like of financial institutions are equipped with passbook printers for recording transaction contents. Such a passbook printer uses deposit and savings passbooks, which are booklets of several pages, as print media. In addition to the passbook, a transaction slip is also used as the print medium in some cases.

The thicknesses of passbooks and slips are significantly different, and even in the case of passbooks, the thickness is different each time the passbook is started and the number of pages changes as the number of transactions progresses. Further, a step may occur on the upper and lower or left and right pages of the binding portion of the passbook. Therefore, the print medium may come into contact with the print head and / or the platen to hinder the line feed operation, resulting in incomplete feeding of the medium, for example, skew feeding, which prevents reliable line feed.

[0007]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 8 shows a main part of a typical passbook printer, and shows a plan view, a side view taken along the line AA 'and a front view taken along the line BB'. is there. A print medium 102 such as a passbook or a slip that is conveyed by rollers R on the conveyance table 100 is a print head 101 and a platen 1.
The required printing is performed when positioned between 03.

When the medium 102 is inserted, the account number and other information is identified by the magnetic stripe attached to the medium 102, and communication is made with the host computer based on the result, resulting in the printing of the required print data. Although transmission and reception are performed, description of these operations will be omitted because they are unrelated to the contents of the present invention.

The mediums 102 are inserted and conveyed as indicated by an arrow 105. Then, when the row column to be printed reaches the corresponding portion of the print head 101, the platen 10
3 is adjusted as indicated by the arrow 107, and the print head 10
While moving 1 as indicated by arrow 106, the required print data is printed.

The driving of the medium carrying roller R, the movement of the print head 101, the vertical movement of the platen 103, etc. are performed by a stepping motor (not shown) suitable for each operation. For proper operation of such a stepping motor, there is also the influence of the inertia of the rotating part,
Predetermined acceleration operation, that is, slew-up operation, and deceleration operation before stop, that is, slew-down operation, are important between the stopped state and the constant speed operation state.

In the conventional passbook printer, various measures are taken in order to avoid a situation in which a print head having a different thickness comes into contact with the printer head to cause so-called skewing and an accurate line feed operation cannot be performed. Has been adopted. One measure is
As shown in FIG. 9, the print head 11 is retracted from the print medium 12 to the home position or the end position, and then the medium feed for line feed is executed.

In such a system, the time required for the line feed operation to move the print head to the both ends of each line feed regardless of the presence or absence of print data, the length, etc., and therefore the total time required for printing and line feed. Has the drawback of being long.

In order to eliminate the drawbacks of the above-described method of retracting the print head until it exceeds the print medium, a method of retracting the platen 13 away from the print head 11 as shown in FIG. 10 is also adopted. . In such a platen retracting method, the platen is retracted prior to the line feed operation by setting the position at which the medium does not come into contact with the print head even if the medium has the expected maximum thickness, as the home position (retracting position) of the platen.

In this case, the home position of the platen is detected by the sensor, and the retracting operation and the returning operation are always performed by a predetermined amount. Therefore, there is a drawback that the dead time associated with the platen retracting operation and the returning operation increases, and the total time required for printing and line feed increases.

[0015]

In order to accurately execute the line feed operation of the printer device in which the thickness of the print medium according to the prior art changes, when the measure of the conventional example 1 is taken, the movement amount of the print head is There is a drawback that it becomes large and the time required for the line feed operation becomes long. Further, when the measure of the conventional example 2 is taken, there is a drawback that the dead time associated with the retracting operation and the returning operation of the platen increases. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve these drawbacks in the prior art and to provide a printer device capable of more efficient print line feed operation.

[0016]

FIG. 1 shows a principle view of a printer device according to the present invention. Reference numeral 1 is a print head, and a print medium 2 can be interposed between the platen 3 and the platen 3. There is. Reference numeral 4 is a thickness detection unit that detects the thickness of the print-receiving medium 2, and the detection result is sent to the control unit 5.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a gap varying mechanism portion between the print head and the platen, and the print head 1 and / or the gap between the platen 3 and the print head 1 are relatively expanded or reduced.
Alternatively, the platen 3 is moved. The momentum for relatively changing the gap between the print head 1 and the platen 3 is determined by the signal generated by the control unit 5 according to the output signal obtained from the thickness detection unit 4.

The control unit 5 stores a pattern table containing a predetermined number of control patterns when the gap between the print head 1 and / or the platen 3 is relatively changed, and stores the pattern table according to the thickness of the print medium 2. The amount of change in the gap between the print head 1 and the platen 3 can be determined by a control pattern appropriately selected.

The operation of the print head and platen gap varying mechanism portion 6 can be controlled so as to be executed while overlapping a part of the printing operation and the line feed operation.
It should be noted that the gap varying mechanism section 6 between the print head 1 and the platen 3
Can be mechanically performed by combining a stepping motor with elements such as a cam and a link, and can also be used with an electromagnet.

[0020]

In this structure, the gap between the print head 1 and the platen 3 is set according to the output signal of the thickness detecting section 4 which detects the thickness of the print medium 2. This gap is determined when the medium 2 is transported between the print head 1 and the platen 3 by a transport mechanism (not shown), and is determined at a predetermined level until printing of the print target medium, for example, a passbook page is completed. The gap varying operation between the print head 1 and the platen 3 is performed according to the momentum.

The interrelation between the variable gap operation, the line feed operation, and the printing operation of the print head 1 and the platen 3 is executed according to a control pattern selected from several kinds of control pattern tables stored in the storage unit in the control unit 5. be able to. This control pattern may include the modes of acceleration and deceleration of the stepping motor.

As a result, the structure of the control unit 5 can be simplified, and at the same time, it is possible to simplify the control pattern for performing the printing and line feed operations according to the variable gap operation of the print head 1 and the platen 3.

The present invention can be carried out while slightly varying the gap changing operation, the line feed operation, and the printing operation of the print head 1 and the platen 3 with each other. With this configuration, it is possible to reduce the total printing time required.

[0024]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part for carrying out the present invention. In the printer mechanism section PR,
A print head motor 11, a platen motor 16, and a conveyance roller motor 17 are provided. These motors are stepping motors, and each of the control units 11C and 16C
Rotational motion is performed in proportion to the number of pulses applied from C and 17C.

The thickness detecting unit 14 detects the thickness of the print medium (not shown) and transmits the output to the main control unit 20 of the control unit C. The main controller 20 generates a drive pulse for the platen motor 16 according to a signal representing the medium thickness, for example, corresponding data of the medium thickness vs. pulse width or pulse gap stored in advance.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship among the print head 1, print medium 2, and platen 3 of the printer device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3 (1), the print head 1 is stopped at the position where the printing of the preceding line is completed, and the platen 3 is slightly retracted as shown in FIG. 3 (2).

In order to change the gap between the print head 1 and the platen 3, the print head 1 is moved upward by using mechanical elements such as cams and links and electric elements such as stepping motors and electromagnets. There are means, means for moving the platen 3 downward, and means for moving both at the same time, and any of them can be adopted. In this embodiment, the platen motor 16 (FIG. 2) is driven to move the platen 3 in the vertical direction, thereby expanding and returning the gap between the print head 1 and the platen 3.

In this case, the retracted amount of the platen 3 is controlled to a necessary and sufficient value according to the medium thickness detected by the thickness detecting section 4 as described above, so that the dead time is reduced and the speed is increased. Line feed operation is possible.

After a line feed operation by driving a conveying roller (not shown), as shown in FIG. 3C, the platen 3 is returned by an amount corresponding to the previously retracted amount, and the print head 1 is used again. Start printing the next line. Since the time required for line feed is shortened in this way, the time from the end of printing the preceding line in FIG. 3 (1) to the start of printing the next line in FIG. 3 (3) is shortened.

If an attempt is made to perform such a retracting and returning operation of the platen 3 with a variable amount, the following problems will occur due to the characteristics of the stepping motor. Since the stepping motor needs to be constantly kept in synchronization in spite of the influence of the inertia of the moving part, it is important to accelerate at the time of starting and decelerate before stopping. If these accelerations and decelerations are not performed sufficiently, the rotary unit cannot follow the drive pulse, resulting in step out and operation becomes impossible.

When the driving amount of the platen operating stepping motor for moving the platen 3 up and down is constant, acceleration and deceleration may be performed at a predetermined timing, but when it is a variable amount, the acceleration and deceleration amounts. Also needs to be variable accordingly.

However, since these acceleration and deceleration operations are performed in an extremely short time, it is known that the control circuit for sequentially minutely changing the pulse width or the pulse gap over a predetermined range becomes complicated.

In the present invention, optimum control patterns for slew-up or acceleration operation and slew-down or deceleration operation, which are slewing operations when the operating range of the stepping motor is variable, are stored in advance and selected. The optimum operation pattern is selected and applied according to the total operating range.

Therefore, the control unit may select and execute an operation pattern that matches the conditions of the input medium thickness signal, and in each case, the control circuit is different from the conventional system in which the control state is changed and applied. Is easy and the operation is reliable.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the basic operations of the printing and line feed operations of the printer device according to the present invention. First, the medium thickness detector 14 detects the thickness of the medium to be printed (step S1). Based on the output of the thickness detection unit 14, a necessary and sufficient platen retreat amount is determined (step S2).

A control pattern corresponding to the platen withdrawal amount thus determined is selected from the control pattern table stored in the control section (step S3).
Then, the platen is slightly retracted according to the selected control pattern (step S4), and then the line feed operation is executed (step S5). Then, the printing operation is executed for a predetermined line of the medium (step S6).

Thereafter, the presence or absence of print data is checked (step S7), and if it is determined that there is print data, the process returns to step S4 and the same operation as described above is repeated. On the other hand, if there is no print data, that is, if it is determined that all printing has been completed, the medium is conveyed and discharged, and a series of processing is completed (step S8).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the retracting operation of the platen. In the platen retracting process, first, the required retracting amount of the platen is determined from the medium thickness (step S11). Based on the result, it is checked whether or not the platen withdrawal amount needs to be changed (step S12).

If it is determined that it is not necessary to change the platen, the platen is retracted and the line feed operation is performed according to a predetermined operation pattern (step S13).

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S12 that the platen variable amount needs to be saved, the optimum control pattern is selected from the control pattern table (
Step S14), in accordance with this control pattern, subsequent motor slew-up processing (Step S15), selection of constant speed step number (Step S16), motor constant speed processing (Step S17), motor slew down processing (Step S18). To execute. As a result, the micro withdrawal of the platen corresponding to the medium thickness is performed without excess or deficiency.

In the printer device according to the present invention,
Although the above-described processing can significantly reduce the print line feed processing time, in order to further enhance the effect, it is possible to execute the superposition processing, that is, the overlap processing, in each processing step as much as possible.

For example, as shown in the time chart of FIG.
The retracting operation of the platen is started during the deceleration period from when the print head finishes printing to when the print head slews down and completely stops. Further, although the evacuation of the platen is completed, even before the print head is completely stopped, the conveying roller can be driven to overlap and start the line feed operation.

By performing such overlap processing, it is possible to operate the print head, the platen, and the transport roller in the three driving portions efficiently while overlapping them, and it is possible to reduce the effective processing time. It can be expected to improve efficiency.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing an operation state in the case of overlap processing such as the time chart shown in FIG. First, the printing process is executed (step S21),
It is checked whether the print data is finished (step S2).
2). If it is determined that the print data still remains, the process returns to step S21 and the same operation is repeated. On the other hand, if it is determined that the print data has ended, the following overlap processing is executed.

In the overlap processing, step S
The process of stopping the print head motor is executed as in 23, but since the inertia of the print head is large, it takes a considerable time to completely stop. In the meantime, the platen retracting operation process is performed (step S24), and it is checked whether or not the platen retracting operation is completed (step S25). If it is determined that the platen retracting operation is not completed, the process returns to step S24 to perform the same processing. repeat.

When it is determined in step S25 that the platen retracting operation processing is completed, the feed roller driving motor for line feed is driven (step S26). Next, it is checked whether or not all the overlap processing (line feed operation) is completed (step S27), and if it is determined that the overlap processing is not completed, the same overlap processing as described above is continued.

In the above embodiment, the platen is moved in the medium thickness direction in order to obtain a predetermined gap between the print head and the platen. However, in the print head, the platen is moved in the medium thickness direction. It may be configured to move to, and in this case also, the same operation and effect as those of the above-described embodiment can be obtained.

[0049]

As described in detail above, according to the printer device of the present invention, the line feed operation can be performed by a slight platen retracting process regardless of the stop position of the print head. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the time loss due to the retracting of the print head and / or the excessive retracting of the platen, and the necessary and sufficient line feed operation of the print medium can be performed. As a result, the total processing time is reduced, the waiting time of the customer is reduced, and it is possible to contribute to effective use of facilities and improvement of services.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an operating state of a main part of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a basic operation of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a platen retraction amount variable control state of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a time chart showing an overlap processing state associated with the platen withdrawal of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an overlap processing state accompanying the platen withdrawal of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration example of a main part of the printer device.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example at the time of a line feed operation of the passbook printer according to the related art.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing another example at the time of a line feed operation of the passbook printer according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 print head 2 print medium 3 platen 4 medium thickness detection unit 5 control unit 6 print head and platen gap variable mechanism unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printer device for performing printing while sequentially performing a line feed operation by interposing a print medium (2) between a print head (1) and a platen (3), the print medium (2) In the printer device in which the gap between the print head (1) and the platen (3) is enlarged in the line feed operation of, the thickness detection unit (4) for detecting the thickness of the print medium (2) and the thickness detection unit (4) The controller (5) that determines the expansion amount of the gap between the print head (1) and the platen (3) according to the thickness of the print medium (2) detected in 4), and the controller (5) Print head (1) and platen (3) that perform enlargement and restoration operations according to the gap expansion amount
And a variable gap mechanism section (6). 2. When controlling the variable gap mechanism section (6), the control section (5) has a storage section for storing an optimum control pattern table, and is optimized according to the thickness of the print medium (2). 2. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein a control pattern is selected, and a gap expanding and returning operation of the print head (1) and the platen is executed according to the selected control pattern. 3. A control pattern of a storage unit attached to the control unit (5) is started by superimposing a line feed operation in accordance with the start of the print head (1) and the platen gap expanding operation, and the line feed operation is started. 3. The printer device according to claim 2, wherein the printer head (1) and the platen are set so that the gap returning operations of the print head (1) and the platen are overlapped and started before the completion of the operations, and the operations are completed at substantially the same time.