JPH07304217A - Slip printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform printing on slips of a plurality of ground colors without a manual operation by a method wherein first and second printers with first and second ground color paper loaded are connected to a printing control means through a change-over circuit, and the change-over circuit is controlled in accordance with set slip ground color information. CONSTITUTION:A first printer 3 with first ground color paper loaded and a second printer 4 with second ground color paper loaded are connected to a printing control part 5 through a change-over circuit 15. The printing control part 5 controls the connection of the change-over circuit 15 in accordance with set slip ground color information. In addition, the printing control part 5 contains a means for automatically setting ground color information so that the number of copies in the first printer 3 is set to one and that in the second printer 4 is set to N-1 when the total number of copies is assigned to N. Furthermore, a keyboard 1 for setting ground color information is provided. When ground color information is set, priority is given under control to the ground color information set by operating the keyboard.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

The present invention is used for product management and order acceptance. In particular, the present invention is an apparatus developed for factory production control, but can be used for other than production control. The present invention relates to a slip printing technique for collectively managing a plurality of products of the same type mounted on the same carrier. The present invention is used for unmanned factories.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a transport vehicle moving between assembly lines in a factory is loaded with the same parts and semi-finished products for each transport vehicle. These parts include the order number,
A slip in which the name of the product to be incorporated, the name of the part, and other information are described is attached and managed as a tag.

When a plurality of the same parts or the same semi-finished products are loaded on the same carrier and transported, it would take time to check the vouchers individually, so one representative voucher is set. By confirming this, the destination of the parts, the recipient, etc. are confirmed. The representative slip has a different background color from that of other slips so that it can be easily distinguished from other slips.

In an unmanned factory, a voucher that is a representative of the unmanned factory is automatically read by a voucher reading device, and a carrier travels in the unmanned factory under control. The non-representative voucher is used to identify the other boxes on the delivery vehicle.

When printing with the background color of the paper different from that of other slips, one sheet of paper with a different background color from the other slips is first loaded into the printing apparatus and printing is executed. When printing a plurality of remaining slips, it is necessary to return to the original paper and perform printing.

[0006]

However, in such a method, it takes time to load the paper and the format into the printing apparatus, and the work efficiency is lowered. In addition, it is not preferable to use a plurality of formats because the types of software to be prepared increase.

In particular, when the factory work is unmanned and the transport vehicle is constructed so as to automatically read the bar code printed on the voucher, the voucher printing work is a labor-intensive work. There is irrational work.

The present invention has been made against such a background, and an object thereof is to provide a slip printing apparatus capable of printing slips of a plurality of background colors without manpower. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a slip printing apparatus that can quickly print two types of slips having different appearances using the same format.

[0009]

The present invention is characterized in that two printing devices are used to print the same contents on two types of paper having different background colors. That is, the present invention is a voucher printing apparatus including a memory and print control means for printing out a voucher created on the memory.

Here, the feature of the present invention lies in that the first printing device on which the first background color paper is mounted and the second printing device on which the second background color paper is mounted are switched. The print control means is connected to the print control means via a circuit,
There is a means for controlling the connection of the switching circuit according to the set background color information of the slip.

When the print number N is designated, the print control means automatically outputs the ground color information so that the first printing device prints one sheet and the second printing device prints N-1 sheets. It is desirable to include means for setting. Further, it is preferable that a unit for setting the background color information is provided, and when the background color information is set by the operation, the background color information set by the operation has priority.

[0012]

When the N slips are pasted on the N items, the two printing devices are used and one of the printing devices receives M (M <M
The (N) slips are printed out, and the remaining (NM) slips are printed out from other printing devices.
For example, assuming that the colors of the papers loaded in the respective printing apparatuses are different, M sheets of the slips printed out from one of the printing apparatuses are printed out as a representative slip, and NM from the other one. Print out a voucher. The slips with different background colors printed out of M sheets are attached to the transport vehicle as a representative slip. It is distinguished from the N-M sheets of other background-colored slips, and the other background-colored slips are attached to the box mounted on the transport vehicle.

Although the value of M can be arbitrarily determined, it is possible to automatically print out only one representative slip, for example, by setting M to "1". Even if it is automatically set, the value of M can be changed only by the temporary operation.

Thus, the representative voucher and the other vouchers can be printed quickly and unattended by the same format.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The configuration of an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention is a voucher printing apparatus including a memory and a print control means for printing out a voucher created on the memory in the control unit 5.

Here, the feature of the present invention resides in that the first printing device 3 on which the first background color paper is mounted and the second printing device 4 on which the second background color paper is mounted. Is the switching circuit 1
5, which is connected to the print control means, and the print control means includes means for controlling the connection of the switching circuit 15 according to the set background color information of the slip.

When the number of prints N is designated, the print control means automatically outputs the ground color information so that the first printing device prints one and the second printing device prints N-1. Includes means to set. Further, it is possible to provide a means for setting the background color information by operation, and when the background color information is set by the operation, the background color information set by the operation can be prioritized. In the embodiment of the present invention, a slip refers to a packing tag attached to a part or a product.

The apparatus of the embodiment of the present invention is a keyboard 1 as an input means for the operator to give an instruction to the apparatus, and a display for the apparatus to present various information to the operator and to display for prompting an input. The display unit 2 as means, the first printing device 3, the second printing device 4, the switching circuit 15, and the control unit 5 that controls these units are configured.

Next, the structure of the controller 5 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the control unit 5. The control unit 5 is realized by a microcomputer system including a microprocessor 6 as a main component. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, it comprises a microprocessor 6, a ROM 7, a RAM 8, a display control unit 9, an input control unit 10, a hard disk 11, and first and second printing devices 3 and 4. Further, the print signal 12 input to the first and second printing devices 3 and 4 via the switching circuit 15 and the switching signal 13 for controlling the switching circuit 15 are output. The above units are connected by a bus 14, and the microprocessor 6 controls and inputs / outputs data to / from each unit through the bus 14.

Next, the operation of the apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an initial screen of the label printing procedure. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the procedure for printing a tag. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing information in the hard disk 11. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a printed slip.
When the power of the apparatus of the present invention is turned on, the microprocessor 6 controls the display means controller 9 to display the menu screen according to the start program stored in the ROM 7. The menu screen is displayed on the display unit 2 and the keyboard 1 waits for an input.

Here, when the operator selects the label printing from the menu, the display unit 2 is prompted to input the order number, which is the management unit number, as shown in FIG. 3 (S1). When the order number is entered by the input means, it is searched whether or not the order number entered in the order management table in the hard disk 11 exists (S2), and if it does not exist, an error message is displayed (S3), Input of the order number is prompted again (S1).

The structure of the order management table is as shown in FIG. 5 (a). When the input order number exists in the order management table, the product name and the number in this table are the product names on the RAM 8. It is written in the storage means and the number storage means. Further, the order number stored in the register (not shown) of the microprocessor 6 is written in the order number storage means on the RAM 8 (S4).

Next, the number N of printed slips is calculated. Since the size varies depending on the item, the number that can be accommodated in the transport container is different. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
The item name-accommodation number list shown in (b) is stored. This list is not necessary if the size of the item is constant and the number that can be accommodated in the shipping container does not depend on the item name.

Now, by searching the product name symmetric number list for the product name stored in the product name storage means, the number of accommodated products can be obtained (S5). The obtained number of stored sheets is stored in one of the registers (not shown) of the microprocessor 6 and used for the calculation of the number of printed sheets N below.

Here, by dividing the ordered quantity stored in the quantity storage means on the RAM 8 by the accommodated quantity stored in the register of the microprocessor 6, a number "1" less than the printed quantity N is obtained (S6). . The division here is performed in a mode of rounding down fractions. In a general microprocessor, this mode is realized by an instruction called integer division. Also in the embodiment of the present invention, it is realized by the above instruction.

By this instruction, the result of the division becomes "1" less than the number of printed sheets N, so that the number of sheets to be printed by the second printing device 4 is immediately obtained. If another division instruction is used, the number of sheets to be printed by the second printing device 4 cannot be directly obtained. The number of sheets to be printed by the second printing device 4 obtained here is stored in a printed sheet number storage means (not shown) on the RAM 7. However, if it is possible to divide, it is necessary to subtract "1" after the above integer division, so check whether it is possible to divide (or have a remainder) after the above integer division by referring to the flags and registers. , The process branches to the process of subtracting “1”.

Next, the print data to be transmitted to the first printing device 3 and the second printing device 4 is edited (S).
7). The edited data is stored in the print data buffer area on the RAM 8.

When the print data is prepared, the print signal 12
Is input to the switching circuit 15, and the switching circuit 15 is switched by the switching signal 13 to transfer data to the first printing device 3, so that one slip is printed by the first printing device 3 (S
8).

Next, the value of (printed sheet number N-1) stored in the printed sheet number storage means is checked (S9). When the value is "0", the slip printing ends. When the value is not “0”, the print signal 12 is input to the switching circuit 15, and the switching circuit 15 is switched by the switching signal 13 to switch the second printing device 4
Data is transferred to the second printing device 4, and the second printing device 4 prints as many slips as the number stored in the print number storage means.

As shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, different background color papers are set in the first printing device 3 and the second printing device 4 to form a representative slip. , Other slips are distinguished, and the object of the present invention is achieved. It is desirable that the paper set in the first printing device 3 is colored such as red or green, and the paper set in the second printing device 4 is white. Further, in the embodiment of the present invention, the number of printed sheets of the first printing device 3 is explained as one sheet, but any number can be set.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to print multiple background color slips without human labor. Further, it is possible to quickly print two types of slips having different appearances using the same format.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram of a control device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an initial screen of a label printing procedure.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure for printing a tag.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing information in a hard disk.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a printed slip.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 keyboard 2 display section 3 first printing device 4 second printing transfer 5 control section 6 microprocessor 7 ROM 8 RAM 9 display means control section 10 input means control section 11 hard disk 12 print signal 13 switching signal 14 bus 15 switching circuit

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Shogo Tanaka, 2-1-3 Fumika Sumida-ku, Tokyo Kao Stock Association, in-house (72) Inventor Shikine Maru 2-1-3 Fumika Sumida-ku, Tokyo Kao Stock Association, in-house

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A voucher printing apparatus comprising: a memory; and a print control means for printing out a voucher created on the memory, comprising: a first printing device having a first background color paper mounted thereon; A second printing device on which a second ground color paper is mounted is connected to the print control means via a switching circuit, and the print control means connects the switching circuit according to the ground color information of the set slip. A slip printing apparatus including means for controlling the slip. 2. When the number of printed sheets N is designated, the printing control means automatically makes the background color so that the first printing apparatus prints one sheet and the second printing apparatus prints N-1 sheets. The slip printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for setting information. 3. The slip printing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising means for setting the background color information by operation, and when the background color information is set by the operation, the background color information set by the operation has priority.