JPH0745252B2 - Printer device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device, and more particularly to a perforation skip device for a print medium in a serial printer.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, serial printers have been capable of printing on various print media, such as one that prints on a print medium made of a single sheet one by one, and one that prints on a continuous print medium. Among them, the one that prints on a continuous print medium has a structure as shown in FIG.

That is, in the figure, the paper chute 1, the platen 2, and the carriage shaft 3 are supported and fixed by a side frame (not shown), and are arranged at regular intervals. A carriage 4 is supported on the carriage shaft 3 so as to be slidable in the length direction of the platen 2. A print head 5 is mounted on the carriage 4, and together with the carriage 4, the platen 2
It prints on the print medium by reciprocating above.

A gap is provided between the platen 2 and the paper chute 1 to form a passage for the print medium. The print medium is sent through this passage and the paper chute 1
The leaf spring 6 provided at the front edge of the sheet is printed while being pressed.

By the way, the conventional printer device generally has a perforation skip function for a print medium. This prevents the print from being unclear when printing is performed on the perforations of continuous print media, and also when the print media is cut later, the print part is also cut. This is a function for automatically predicting a position with a perforation so as not to print on the perforation and not printing on that portion.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the above-mentioned conventional perforation skipping device, the actual perforation is not detected, and the length of one page of the print medium, that is, the distance between the adjacent perforations is not detected. Then, the position of the perforation is predicted by setting the head position of one page, and when the print head comes to the predicted position, printing is skipped.

Therefore, the printer device has a function called two-way loading as shown in FIG. 9, that is, a function capable of supplying different kinds of print media from two directions of X and Y in the figure. However, the perforations cannot be skipped unless the page length and the like are set again when switching the print medium, and the operation is very troublesome.

Further, after the perforations of the print medium are removed and cut in the middle of the page, the page head position and the page length cannot be set, and it is difficult to skip the perforations.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and directly detects perforations of continuous print media to switch between various print media for printing, or even after cutting the print media in the middle of a page. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer device capable of surely detecting and skipping perforations on a print medium.

(Means for Solving the Problem) Therefore, in the printer device of the present invention, a continuous print medium is moved on the platen, and in the printer device that performs printing on the print medium, a leaf spring that presses the print medium, At least one slit is formed from the fixed portion of the leaf spring to the pressing portion of the platen, and one of the plurality of pieces divided by the slit is released from the fixed portion to be a free piece.

Then, a non-contact type sensor is arranged facing the tip of the free piece to detect the amount of movement of the tip.

(Operation) According to the present invention, at least one slit extending from the fixed portion of the leaf spring to the vicinity of the pressing portion of the platen is formed in the leaf spring that presses the print medium, and the plurality of pieces divided by the slit are formed. Since one of them is released from the fixed portion and used as a free piece, when a perforation comes during printing, the pressing portion of the leaf spring slightly vibrates, and the free piece amplifies this vibration.

Since the tip of the free piece moves largely due to the amplified vibration, the amount of movement can be detected by the non-contact sensor and printing can be skipped.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a printer device of the present invention.

In the figure, the paper chute 1, the platen 2 and the carriage shaft 3 are supported and fixed by a side frame as in the conventional printer device, and the carriage 4 is supported by the carriage shaft 3. A print head 5 is mounted on the carriage 4, and the carriage 4
At the same time, printing is performed on the print medium by reciprocating on the platen 2.

A gap is provided between the platen 2 and the paper chute 1 to form a passage for the print medium.
The print medium is fed through this passage and printed by the print medium.

A leaf spring 6 is arranged at the front edge of the paper chute 1 to press the print medium against the platen 2 during printing. In the present invention, the leaf spring 6 is provided with the above-mentioned pressing action of the print medium, and a displacement sensor 7 is provided in order to facilitate detection of perforations of the print medium. Reference numeral 8 is a print medium supply port when the print medium is supplied from below the printer.

The perforation skipping device in the printer of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is a perforation sensor mechanism diagram in the printer device of the present invention, FIG. 2 (a) is the same perspective view, FIG. 2 (b) is the same side view, FIG. 3 is a development view of a leaf spring, and FIG. The figure shows an operation diagram of the leaf spring, and FIG. 5 shows a sectional view of the displacement sensor.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the leaf spring 6 that presses the print medium against the platen 2 is
At least one slit 13 extending from the fixed portion 11 to the vicinity of the pressing portion 12 is formed. Then, one of the plurality of pieces formed by the slit 13 is released from the fixing portion 11 to become a free piece 14, and the free piece 14 is also free to move as the leaf spring 6 is deformed. You can do it.

Here, as shown in FIG. 4, when the pressing portion 12 moves in the direction of arrow A for some reason, the free piece 14 moves in the direction of arrow B. Then, the movement amount of the tip 15 of the free piece 14 is
The movement amount of the pressing portion 12 is amplified. That is, the pressing portion 12 swings while displacing the leaf spring 6 around the fixed portion 11, but since the slit 13 is formed, the free piece 14 is centered around the end portion 16 of the slit 13. Gives a rotational movement. The amount of movement of the tip 15 of the free piece 14 due to this rotational movement increases as the distance from the end 16 to the tip 15 increases.

The leaf spring 6 having such a structure presses and supports the print medium in the platen 2 direction, but when the continuous print medium is operated in the paper feeding direction, the perforation is the pressing portion 12 described above.
When it comes into contact with, the thickness of the paper increases only at the perforations, so that the pressing portion 12 vibrates for a single hour. At this time, since the tip 15 of the free piece 14 moves by amplifying the vibration of the pressing portion 12, the amount of movement can be easily detected by the displacement sensor 7.

The displacement sensor 7 is fixed to the end portion of the paper chute 1 as shown in FIG. 5, and a light emitting diode 17 and a phototransistor 18 are arranged facing the tip 15 of the free piece 14. When the light emitted from the light emitting diode 17 hits the tip 15 of the free piece 14 and is reflected and detected by the phototransistor 18, the signal is sent to the control circuit through the flexible cable 19 for wiring and the perforation detection signal. It is designed to be taken out as output.

Here, in the displacement sensor 7, when the perforation of the continuous print medium vibrates the pressing portion 12 to move the tip 15 of the free piece 14, the reflected light of the light emitting diode 17 detected by the phototransistor 18 is generated. It changes temporarily. The perforation can be detected by capturing this change.

FIG. 6 shows a characteristic diagram of the displacement sensor.

The horizontal axis represents the amount of displacement associated with the movement of the tip 15 of the free piece 14, and the vertical axis represents the photocurrent generated by the light detected by the phototransistor 18.

FIG. 7 is a perforation detection circuit diagram for taking out the light detected by the phototransistor 18 as a perforation detection signal.

When a photocurrent is generated by the light detected by the phototransistor 18 of the displacement sensor 7, the direct current component of the photocurrent is removed to extract only a rapid change in the current, which is sent to the amplifier 20. The output of the amplifier 20 is sent to a comparator 23 via a rectifying circuit 21 and a low pass filter 22, and is compared with a set value there. When an input of a certain value or more is obtained, a perforation detection signal 24 is output. At this time, the passage of perforations is detected.

Next, an operation in which the printer device of the present invention detects perforations, automatically skips, and automatically sets the head position and page length of the print medium will be described.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of the perforation position resetting operation.

A control unit (not shown) of the printer device counts the number of printing lines during the printing operation, and also monitors the output of the displacement sensor 7, that is, the perforation detection signal 24 shown in FIG.

It is judged whether or not there is a print operation instruction in the step printer device, and if there is an instruction, the process proceeds to step, otherwise the print operation is ended.

Step One line is printed.

Step line feed.

It is determined whether or not the step perforation detection signal 24 is output. If it is not output, the process proceeds to step. If it is output, the process proceeds to step.

Step 1 Add 1 to the number of print lines N _m .

It is determined whether or not the number of printing lines N _m is smaller than 1. If it is smaller, the process proceeds to step, and if it is larger, the process proceeds to step.

Step 1 If the sewing machine surface detection signal 24 is output every time one line is printed or one line is fed, judge that the print medium is jammed (paper jam) and turn on the alarm lamp on the front panel of the printer. , Buzzer sounds, alarm processing is performed, and printing operation is stopped.

Step Skip operation is performed.

The number of lines N _m counted each time the step printer prints, that is, the number of lines from the position of the previous perforation to the position of this perforation is compared with the preset number of lines, and if they are the same, Go to step, if not, go to step.

Step The number of lines N _m above is the number of print lines one page before N _(m-1)
If it is the same, it is determined that the set number of lines is incorrect, and the process proceeds to the step. If different, the process proceeds to the step assuming that the set number of lines is correct.

The first print line after the skip operation of the step perforation is reset as the head position of the page.

Step 1 Reset the page length to N _m lines.

Step N _m = 0.

Step m = m + 1.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment,
Various modifications are possible based on the spirit of the present invention, and these are not excluded from the scope of the present invention.

For example, in the present embodiment, the leaf spring at the front edge of the paper chute is diverted to detect perforations in order to reduce the manufacturing cost, but it may be arranged in the passage of the print medium. Any leaf spring may be used.

The leaf spring may not be for pressing the print medium against the platen to support it, but may be for detecting the paper thickness.

Further, the displacement sensor may be a non-contact type instead of an optical type, and a plurality of displacement sensors may be arranged in the passage of the print medium to improve the detection reliability.

Further, although the operation in the automatic mode has been described with reference to FIG. 8, it can be applied to the manual mode.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, in the present invention, the leaf spring of the print medium retainer provided in the passage of the print medium is provided with a slit to increase the amount of displacement of the paper thickness and monitor it with a non-contact sensor. Therefore, the perforation position can be detected reliably and easily.

In addition, the perforation detection sensor can be used to detect jams on print media,
It can be used to detect print media thickness, and
It can also be used as a sensor for automatically setting the head gap between the platen of the print head and the platen.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a printer device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perforation sensor mechanism diagram in the printer device of the present invention, and FIG.
Fig. 4 is a development view of the leaf spring, Fig. 4 is an operation diagram of the leaf spring, Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the displacement sensor, Fig. 6 is a characteristic diagram of the displacement sensor, Fig. 7 is a perforation detection circuit diagram, and Fig. 8 is a perforation detection circuit diagram. The figure is the flowchart of the perforation position resetting operation, No. 9.
The figure shows a conventional printer device. 1 ... paper chute, 2 ... platen, 4 ... carriage, 5 ... print head, 6 ... leaf spring, 7 ... displacement sensor, 11 ... fixing part, 12 ... pressing part, 13 ... slit, 14 ...
Free piece, 15 ... Tip, 17 ... Light emitting diode, 18 ... Phototransistor.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Jiro Tanuma 1-7-12 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo Inside Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (56) Reference JP 63-188051 (JP, A) JP Sho 63-98455 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printer device for moving a continuous print medium on a platen to print on the print medium, comprising: (a) a leaf spring for pressing the print medium, a fixing portion of the leaf spring to a pressing portion of the platen. Forming at least one slit extending to the vicinity, (b) releasing one of a plurality of pieces divided by the slit from the fixing portion to form a free piece, and (c) facing the tip of the free piece. A printer device having a non-contact type sensor for detecting the amount of movement of the tip.