JPH068610A - Electronic numbering apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the number of operations for selection of characters and the number of solenoids thereby to lessen the consuming power and costs, by adding a movable character selecting cam and forming projections in the movable character selecting cam corresponding to a plurality of type rings to sequentially select the type rings. CONSTITUTION:A type ring shaft 7 is rotatably supported via a metal 10 to a chassis 11. A plurality of type rings 6 are slidably supported by the type ring shaft 7 independently for every place. Moreover, each type ring 6 is held at a predetermined position by the pressing action of a type ring spring 9 consisting of a recessed part and a steel ball 8. The type ring shaft 7 is provided with an encoder 13 for monitoring the rotating angle, and the encoder is monitored by a photo interrupter 12. A character selecting cam 14 is supported to the chassis 11 via a metal 15. A plurality of projections 38a-38h for actuating latches, and a resetting projection 39 for raising latches of all the places to the resetting position are formed in the character selecting cam 14. Accordingly, the type rings 6 are sequentially selected in accordance with the rotation of the character selecting cam 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic numbering device for electronically selecting arbitrarily set print data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an electronic numbering device,
There has been proposed an apparatus that electronically sets and changes an arbitrary value with respect to the numbering for mechanically recording serial numbers.

[0003]

However, the numbering which has a mechanism for selecting the character ring of the number of digits in the electronic numbering device is one in which the character ring once selected is reset after printing again. Since the character selection operation is wasteful because it operates, the power consumption for character selection is large because it has the number of digits for the character selection solenoid. Furthermore, when receiving power from dry batteries, many dry batteries are used. Is required, which leads to an increase in size of the main body, and many solenoids cause a cost increase.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to reduce power consumption as much as possible by changing only a necessary ring shape by a set amount. At the same time, it is to provide a small, lightweight, inexpensive character selection mechanism suitable for electronic numbering specifications.

[0005]

In order to achieve this object, the electronic numbering device of the present invention has an input means for setting and inputting data to be printed, and a display for displaying the data input by the input means. Means, a control means for changing a set value by a predetermined amount based on the input data, and a printing means for printing the value set by the control means on an arbitrary object by a plurality of printing wheels, There is provided a movable character selection cam in which protrusions for sequentially selecting the plurality of character wheels are provided separately for each character wheel.

[0006]

The character selection mechanism of the electronic numbering device of the present invention having the above-described structure should be changed by a predetermined amount by rotating the movable character selection cam provided in each row so that the protrusions correspond to each type wheel. It is possible to sequentially select the type wheels.

[0007]

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

FIG. 1 is an external view of an electronic numbering device of the present invention, which is a main body 1
And a slide 2 which is made of a transparent member and has an opening 41 for indicating a printing position. The main body 1 is in front of the main body 1a
And a rear body 1b of the main body, a keyboard 3 and a display device 4 such as an LCD are provided on the central front surface of the front body 1a, and a battery lid 5 for replacing the battery is provided on the upper portion.
Is provided.

FIG. 2 is a system block diagram of this apparatus. The input means 62 is composed of the keyboard 3 and is connected to the CPU 50 via the input circuit 52. The control unit 60 comprehensively manages the input circuit 52 for sending the input data from the keyboard 3 to the CPU 50 as a digital signal, the input data and the information from the sensor, and the character selection operation based on the data. And CPU5 to execute the display
0, a memory circuit 51 that reads out a program and stores input data, and a driver 5 that operates the motor 21 and the solenoid 32 based on the calculation result of the CPU 50.
It is composed of 4, 56. The display means 61 comprises the display device 4 and is controlled by the CPU 50 of the control means 60. The printing unit 63 includes a motor 21 for actually generating power for character selection operation, a solenoid 32 for switching between character selection and digit selection, and photo interrupters 12, 16 for monitoring character selection operation and digit selection operation, respectively. And a print confirmation SW 53 for confirming whether or not the printing operation is performed.

FIG. 3 is a front sectional view of the present apparatus, and FIG.
Is a side sectional view taken along the line aa of FIG. 3, and FIG.
It is a side surface sectional view in the bb surface of FIG.

The wheel shaft 7 is rotatably supported by the chassis 11 via a metal 10. The plurality of character wheels 6 are pivotally supported by the character wheel shaft 7 independently of each digit. A large number of recesses 6c are formed on the inner peripheral surface of the type wheel 6. A character ring spring 9 is arranged in a portion of the character wheel shaft 7 corresponding to each character wheel 6 in a direction orthogonal to the axis, and is pressed by the both ends of the character wheel spring 9 into the recess 6c. Two steel balls 8 are provided for engagement. The press contact engagement between the recess 6c and the steel ball 8 allows each type wheel 6 to be held at each position rotated by a predetermined angle with respect to the type wheel shaft 7. Further, the character wheel shaft 7 has an encoder 13 for monitoring the rotation angle.
Is pressed in and the encoder 13 is monitored by the photo interrupter 12.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the character selection cam. As is apparent from this figure, the character selection cam 14 is a protrusion arranged on the surface of the cylindrical cam in a spiral shape and actuating the latch 18. 38a to 38h, which is half the height of the protrusion and extends in the entire longitudinal direction of the character selection cam 14 and latches 1 of all digits.
8 is provided with a reset protrusion 39 for pushing up to the reset position, and each protrusion is arranged in equal divisions at an angular pitch of 360 / n + 2 when the number of digits is n digits (8 digits in the embodiment). , A blank 40 for rotating the character wheel to the print position.

The character selection cam 14 is supported by the chassis 11 via a metal 15, and an encoder 17 for monitoring a rotation angle is press-fitted into the character selection cam 14 by a photo interrupter 16 as in the case of the character wheel shaft 7. Being watched.

A latch 18 for sequentially fixing the type wheel 6 as the character selection cam 14 rotates is pivotally supported by a latch shaft 19 fixed to the chassis 11, and the latch 18 is fixed to the chassis 11. The character selection cam 14 is constantly urged by the comb spring 20 that is present.

The motor 21 is fixed to the chassis 11 with screws or the like, and a pinion 22 is press-fitted at the tip of its output shaft. The power transmitted from the pinion 22 is the character selection cam 14
By the planetary gear speed reducer 23 rotatably supported by the convex portion 14a formed so as to project at the tip of the character wheel 7 and the character selection cam 14 and the gear wheel 24 press-fitted at the tip of the character wheel shaft 7, the character wheel shaft 7 is attached. Transmitted.

The planetary gear speed reducer 23 includes a drive gear 25,
It is composed of a planetary gear 26, a connecting gear 27, and a switching cam 28, and selectively transmits the power from the motor 21 to the character wheel shaft 7 and the character selecting cam 14 by switching the solenoid arm 29. The switching cam 28 is press-fitted into the character selection cam 14 and operates integrally when power is transmitted to the switching cam 28.

The solenoid arm 29 is rotatably supported by the chassis 11 by means of a caulking shaft 30, and a gear 24 and a switching cam 28 are provided by a self-holding solenoid 32 which is installed on a substrate 31 and has a permanent magnet inside.
Are switched and engaged at a predetermined rotation angle.

The ink roll 33 is composed of a roll-shaped ink pad 34 made of a porous polymer material and a pad case 35. The ink pad 34 is placed at a position where the ink pad 34 is constantly in pressure contact with the type wheel 6. It is rotatably supported by the chassis 11 via the case 35. The ink is replenished to the ink roll 33 through the ink window 36 near the center of the rear surface of the rear body 1b.

Further, a room for accommodating the battery 37 is formed in the upper portion of the main body 1, and the battery lid 5 is opened and closed to replace the battery.

The operation will be briefly described below. When an arbitrary numerical value is input from the keyboard 3 or the numerical value changes by a predetermined amount according to a specific regularity, a control unit (not shown) controls the current typeface 6. The state and the new set value are compared to determine how much each type wheel 6 should be changed relative to the type wheel shaft 7, and a command is given to the motor 21 and the solenoid 32.

Next, the mechanism of character selection will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 shows the initial state of the mechanism at the start of character selection. Since the gear 24 integrally attached to the character wheel shaft 7 is prevented from rotating by the solenoid arm 29, it is in communication with the gear 24. The rotation of the gear 27 is also stopped at the same time. Therefore, the driving force from the motor 21 is transmitted to the character selection cam 14 via the pinion 22, the drive gear 25, the planetary gear 26, and the switching cam 28, and rotates in the direction of arrow A.

The character selection cam 14 receives the power from the motor 21 and is sequentially urged to the character selection cam 14 by the latch 1.
8 is pushed up to engage with the engaging claw portion 6a of the type wheel 6, and the rotation angle of the character selection cam 14 at this time is determined by the encoder 16
Is monitored by the photo interrupter 17, and switching of the solenoid arm 29 is commanded via a control unit (not shown) at the position of the type wheel 6 to be changed.

FIG. 7 is a state diagram in which the solenoid arms are switched, and the rotation of the switching cam 28 integrally attached to the character selection cam 14 is blocked by the solenoid arm 29, so that the driving force of the motor 21 is increased. Is a pinion 22, a drive gear 25, a planetary gear 26, a connecting gear 2
7 and the gear 24 to be transmitted to the wheel shaft 7 and rotate in the direction of arrow B.

The type wheel 6 is equally divided in the radial direction by the number of printing surfaces 42 and is latched on the axis 7 in a semi-fixed state by two steel balls 8 and a ring spring 9. 18
Except for the type wheel 6 engaged with the engaging claw portion 6a
However, since the type wheel 6 in which the latch 18 and the engaging claw portion 6a are engaged cannot rotate together with the type wheel shaft 7, the type wheel shaft 7 and the type wheel 6 are connected to each other. Relative positional deviation occurs between them. This positional deviation is monitored by the encoder 12 and the photo interrupter 13, and when a desired relative change occurs, the solenoid arm 29 is switched again via a control unit (not shown), thus requiring the above character selection operation. Only the position is repeated so that the set value and the printing surface 42 match.

When the set value and the print surface coincide with each other through the above process, at this time, in most cases, the print position and the set position of the print surface 42 are displaced as shown in the following equation.

M: total sum of relative change pitches of the character wheel 6 and the character wheel shaft 7 s: number of printing surfaces x: number of rotations of the character wheel shaft y: feed amount required up to the printing position y = s (x + 1)- m In order to correct the positional deviation by the amount y, the character selection cam 14 is rotated again in a series of flows, and the solenoid arm 29 is switched at the position of the blank 40 on the character selection cam 14 to rotate the character wheel shaft 7. Let Since the latch 18 is not engaged with the engaging claw portion 6a of any of the character wheels 6 at the position of the blank 40, the character wheel shaft 7 and all the character wheels 6 are integrally rotated by the pitch amount y. The set printing surface 42 is aligned with the printing position, and the character selection process is completed.

In this way, the user is notified of the completion of the character selection by using some kind of notification means, and the user presses the main body with the opening 41 of the slide 2 aligned with the printing position to print.

Next, the reset process will be briefly described. When an error occurs in the character selection process when the battery 37 is replaced or due to some reason, all digits are immediately reset once and then the next process is started. Character selection cam 14
Is rotated to engage the latch 18 and the reset protrusion 39. Here, since the reset protrusion 39 has only half the height of the normal protrusion 38, the latch 18 pushed up by the reset protrusion 39 can rotate only to the half engagement position of the conventional one. Among the engaging claws 6a formed integrally with the type wheel 6, only one position can engage with the engaging claws 6b having a high claw height. If the type wheel 6 is rotated once in this state, the rotation is blocked by the latch 18 at the position of the engaging claw portions 6b provided at the same position for all the digits, and a mechanical reset operation can be performed.

[0029]

As is apparent from the above description, the character selection mechanism in the electronic numbering device of the present invention can reduce the character selection operation and the number of solenoids to reduce the power consumption. It has an excellent effect of being able to realize a significant cost reduction.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an electronic numbering device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system block diagram of the present apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a front sectional view of the device.

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view taken along the line aa in FIG.

5 is a side sectional view taken along the line bb of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a character selection cam.

FIG. 7 is a state diagram in which solenoid arms are switched.

[Explanation of symbols]

 6 Character Wheel 14 Character Selection Cam 38 Protrusion 60 Control Means 61 Display Means 62 Input Means 63 Printing Means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An input unit (62) for setting and inputting data to be printed, a display unit (61) for displaying data input by the input unit, and a set value based on the input data. An electronic numbering device having a control means (60) for changing a predetermined amount by a predetermined amount and a printing means (63) for printing the value set by the control means on a desired object by a plurality of type wheels (6), Protrusions (3) for sequentially selecting a plurality of type wheels (6)
An electronic numbering device comprising a movable character selection cam (14) which is provided separately for each type wheel (6).