JPH07262747A - External storage medium printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simply impart an identification mark consisting of a character or a sign of printing type onto a storage medium such as a floppy disk by providing the device with a print head part. CONSTITUTION:This device is provided with a storage medium insertion part for inserting the floppy disk 2 of a rewritable storage medium and the print head part consisting of a thermal head unit 4, etc., executing a printing on a prescribed position of the inserted storage medium or the housing of the storage medium in a visible state. Thus, the identification mark, etc., is imparted in the state where a relative positional relation between the print head part and the storage medium is decided unequivocally. Thus, a systematic label 22 is realized extreamly simply and clearly without using a word processor, etc., specially as in the conventional manner.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to various OA (Office Au) such as a word processor (hereinafter abbreviated as "word processor") and a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as "personal computer").
tomation) equipment, electronic still camera or VTR
The present invention relates to an external storage medium printer device for visibly printing on a storage medium recorded or reproduced by an external storage device for storing information used for home electric appliances such as (video tape recorder) or its housing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, word processors and personal computers have become extremely popular not only in offices but also at home. Considering the normal usage pattern of these OA devices, the created text or input information is saved in a storage medium such as a floppy disk via an auxiliary storage device. As a matter of course, the number of floppy disks owned increases as the eel climbs, and it becomes difficult to manage floppy disks such as what text is stored in which floppy disk or what data is stored.

In magnetic recording represented by a floppy disk, it is generally difficult to directly see the recorded information. Therefore, in order to manage the storage medium, it is necessary to make it identifiable by giving visible information. It is essential.

As such means, a label (hereinafter abbreviated as "label") having an adhesive on its back side, which is called a color label for jobs or an index label attached at the time of purchasing a storage medium, has been used for identification. A mark (hereinafter referred to as an "identification mark") is written by hand, or the identification mark itself is printed using a word processor or the like, and the mark is attached to the housing of the floppy disk. The housing protects the storage medium and is called a jacket in the case of a 5.25-inch or 8-inch floppy disk and a plastic cartridge in the case of a 3.5-inch floppy disk. It should be noted that the label referred to in the present invention is different from the display label that is attached at the time of shipment by the manufacturer of the storage medium for the purpose of clearly indicating the recording density, the product name, etc. What you do.

As described above, when handwriting on these labels, there is no particular problem except that the identification mark is provided with the character face as it is handwritten, but when the identification mark itself is printed using a word processor or the like. OA
Compared to standardized A4 size or B4 size papers that are normally used in equipment, the label is very small and troubles occur easily in the paper transport section of OA equipment printers, and printing is started. It is difficult to select the position (launching position), and it takes a lot of trouble to print properly on the desired layout.

The identification mark referred to in the present invention is usually called an index or a heading, and if it can be directly recognized by human eyes, its format, printing method, etc. are particularly limited. Instead, for example, character information such as "prepared text 001", "application patent", "private", or "□□□-□",
Even if it is a symbol with encryption function such as "☆☆☆", "12345", "AS1", etc., it is a list of creation date, word processor, computer model name, input file name, etc. Alternatively, a combination mark or the like of these may be used. In addition, optically readable barcodes or OCR to enable mechanical control
It is also possible to add a standardized code such as. That is, if characters or symbols can be printed in a visible state, those printed can form an identification mark.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above points, the present invention provides a storage medium with a very easily visible symbol,
An external storage medium printer device capable of printing information such as characters is provided.

Further, depending on the control of the printer device of the external storage medium of the present invention, the identification mark standardized to a fixed layout can always be printed on the label, and a very uniform form can be obtained. Therefore, it can be effectively used for automatic search management of storage media.

In the present invention, the external storage device is
A type in which a storage medium is removable from the storage device. That is, information is recorded (written) or reproduced (read) on a storage medium called an exchangeable storage medium that can be removed from the storage device and stored. At present, a magnetic recording method is mainly used as a rewritable storage method, and a typical external storage apparatus is a disk drive apparatus using a floppy disk as a storage medium or a cassette tape recorder apparatus using a magnetic cassette tape as a storage medium. However, the external storage device of the present invention may be an external storage device using a rewritable exchangeable storage medium such as a phase change type optical disk, etc., in addition to these. The storage medium is not limited to one having a housing, and the storage medium may be directly inserted into the external storage device.

[0010]

An external storage medium printer apparatus of the present invention that achieves the above-mentioned object is a storage medium insertion section for inserting a rewritable storage medium, and the inserted storage medium or the storage medium. An external storage medium printer device, comprising: a print head unit that prints in a visible state at a predetermined position of a housing.

[0011]

The important requirement of the present invention is that the storage medium is inserted into the storage medium insertion section for inserting the storage medium similarly to the external storage device, and in this state, the characters or symbols that can form the identification mark etc. are made visible. The point is that printing is possible on the storage medium or the housing thereof by the printable print head unit. That is, an identification mark or the like can be added by printing type characters or symbols in a state where the relative positional relationship between the print head unit and the storage medium is uniquely determined. It is possible to add a clean type-type label to a storage medium without operating the or the like. Further, the storage medium insertion unit may be shared with the external storage device. In this case, it is preferable that information can be recorded on or reproduced from the storage medium by the external storage device and can be directly printed on the storage medium.

The printing method of the printer unit of the present invention is not particularly limited, but a suitable printing method should be selected according to the form of the storage medium. That is, for example, in the case of a disk drive device compatible with 5.25-inch and 8-inch floppy disks, a non-impact printer such as a thermal recording type or an inkjet type is suitable because the mechanical strength of the housing (jacket) is not sufficient. Is.

Of course, the printing of characters or symbols is not limited to the case of giving it as a special identification mark, and for example, general "name" and "date of creation of storage medium".
It can also be used to print just like.

As for the printing of characters or symbols, as described in the embodiments described later, the identification name is printed as it is at the same time as the setting operation of the identification name at the time of formatting or initialization of the storage medium itself is performed. Alternatively, the printing may be performed independently of the operation.

[0015]

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following examples, but the scope of the present invention is not limited by the examples. Rather,
It brings the following applications and developments.

FIG. 1 is a model diagram showing an embodiment of an external storage medium printer device 1 of the present invention. In this embodiment, the insertion portion of the storage medium is shared with the external storage device. When the 5.25-inch floppy disk 2 which is a storage medium is inserted, the inside of the external storage medium printer device is turned up (the floppy disk display label 21
Looking from the side). The insertion direction of the floppy disk 2 into the external storage medium printer device 1 is shown by an arrow 23. Although the magnetic head unit 3 is shown in the figure, the display is omitted because it does not affect the present invention with respect to other mechanisms essential to a general disk drive device. In addition to the display label 21, the thermal paper type label 22 in which nothing is written is already attached to the floppy disk. The thermal head unit 4 is incorporated so as to be positioned above the label 22 with the floppy disk inserted. The thermal head is a type for serial printers installed in word processors, etc.
It has a heating area of 24 dots. The heat generating portion is on the back surface of the thermal head unit 4 in the figure, and 24 dots are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the thermal head unit moving direction 41.
The lateral width of the label 22 is covered by the feeding mechanism including the stepping motor 5 and the belt 6. In addition, the thermal head unit feed guide, the pressure contact mechanism to the label 22 surface,
Not shown.

In this embodiment, an identification mark is printed on the label 22 when the floppy disk is initialized. That is, when the floppy disk is initialized by the control unit, if the "/ V" parameter is specified for "FORMAT" of the MS-DOS external command, the volume label can be input after formatting is complete, and in the case of Kanji (double-byte). Can be added within 5 characters and within 11 half-width alphanumeric characters. Upon receiving this code signal, the code conversion table temporarily develops an image pattern on the memory (print buffer) of the control unit, and sends it to the thermal head drive unit and the stepping motor drive unit. This made it possible to print a type-type identification mark similar to a word processor.

In the external storage medium printer of this embodiment,
When the identification marks were added to the five floppy disks, a very uniform label layout was realized.

[0019]

As described above, if the external storage medium printer of the present invention is used, a very clean and unified label can be realized without using a separate word processor as in the past. As a result, it is possible to manage systematic storage media more than ever,
OA equipment such as word processors and personal computers, or VT
It is also effectively used in home appliances such as R and electronic still cameras.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a model diagram showing an embodiment of an external storage medium printer device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: External storage medium printer device 2: Floppy disk 21: Display label 22: Label 23: Insertion direction 3: Magnetic head unit 4: Thermal head unit 41: Moving direction 5: Stepping motor 6: Belt

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A storage medium insertion portion for inserting a rewritable storage medium, and a print head portion for visibly printing at a predetermined position of the inserted storage medium or a housing of the storage medium. External storage medium printer device. 2. The external storage medium printer device according to claim 1, wherein the storage medium is a disk-shaped storage medium (disk). 3. The external storage medium printer device according to claim 2, wherein the disk-shaped storage medium (disk) magnetically records (writes) or reproduces (reads) information.