JPH0747670A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To employ an ink jet system in a label printer applying printing to a label using roll paper constituted by continuously bonding a large number of labels to release paper and to miniaturize the label printer. CONSTITUTION:A printer is equipped with a feed part 65 feeding roll paper 51 to a block 68 having an ink jet printing head, the ink supply part 83 of the head and a recovery unit 78 stabilizing the capacity of the head. A roll paper feed surface is made almost horizontal and the block 68 and the recovery unit 78 are arranged above the roll feed surface and the ink supply part 83 is arranged below.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to printers, especially POs.
The present invention relates to a label printer widely used in S, FA, physical distribution and the like, and more particularly to a label printer using an inkjet printing method.

[0002]

BACKGROUND ART Until now, label printers using the inkjet printing method have not been put to practical use. The general advantages of inkjet recording are that it is excellent in quietness because it is not in contact with the print medium, high printing speed, high density printing is possible, easy colorization, and Is small, and so on. On the other hand, many label printers have a form in which a large number of labels are continuously pasted on a long release paper called a separator and the so-called label paper formed by rolling this is conveyed, and an inkjet method is applied to the label printer. In this case, it is necessary to take measures such as suppressing the floating and skewing of the paper at the print head portion.

Recently, there is a tendency for a shortage of bar codes, and colorization has been studied. From this point of view, the adoption of the ink jet system is effective, but when designing a color label printer, printing of the label printer is performed. If the speed is designed to be high, the frequency of the print signal applied to the print head of each color becomes large, and it becomes necessary to increase the capacity of the driving power supply, which increases the power supply and causes a cost increase.

Further, in the case of the ink jet system, in order to prevent ink ejection instability due to being left for a long time,
It is effective to circulate the ink around the print head by a so-called recovery system. This recovery operation is generally performed by bringing a recovery unit called a recovery system into contact with a print head, which is a printing unit. However, in a label printer, label paper is generally used in roll form, and therefore the paper does not disappear from the printing position. Therefore, it is very difficult to arrange the recovery system and design the recovery sequence, as compared with a normal office printer compatible with cut sheets.

Along with these, it is very difficult to make the print head, the recovery system unit, the ink supply system, and the print medium carrying system compact.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a printer in the form of a label printer which employs an ink jet system and makes full use of its advantages.

The present invention also provides at least one of the above objects.
It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and provide a small label printer.

[0008]

To this end, the present invention provides
A printer that uses continuous paper in which a plurality of labels are continuously attached to a release paper, and that uses the label as a print medium and a print head in which a plurality of ink ejection ports are arranged to perform printing. A head control means for controlling the print head, a storage means for storing print data to be printed by the head control means, and a modification of at least a part of the print data created or the print data created in advance. Means for carrying, a transport means for transporting the continuous paper relative to the print head, and an ink supply means for supplying ink to the print head,
It is characterized by comprising head recovery means for stabilizing the printing performance of the print head, and communication means for communicating data including the print data with an external device.

Here, the carrying means has a means for carrying the continuous paper at a printing position by the print head by a carrying belt utilizing electrostatic attraction.
And on the upstream side in the transport direction from the print position, it is possible to have a means for correcting the curl of the continuous paper formed in a roll shape and a means for giving an appropriate slack when the continuous paper is transported, and the transport belt, N inside the conveyor belt
A BR layer and an outer silicon-based insulating layer facing the continuous paper, and a negative charge is applied to the silicon-based insulating layer by the first charging means prior to adsorption of the continuous paper. In the vicinity of the contact point of the conveyor belt, a positive charge may be applied by a second charging unit provided in a shape that scissors the recording paper with the conveyor belt.

Further, in the above, the carrying surface of the continuous paper by the carrying means is located between the side where the print head and the head recovery means are located and the side where the ink supply means is located. And the transport surface of the continuous paper at the print position by the print head is substantially parallel to the level surface,
The print head and the head recovery means may be disposed above the transport surface, and the ink supply means may be disposed below the transport surface.

Further, in the above, a plurality of the print heads are provided corresponding to the inks having different color tones so that the timings of the print drive pulse signals applied to the plurality of print heads do not overlap with each other. The time division processing means may be included in the head control means.

Further, in the above, one of the three memory access means is provided by the first to third memory access means for accessing the storage means and the first bus arbitration means for arbitrating the priority of the memory access. And a control means for determining one of the three memory access means based on a predetermined priority order, the third memory access means further includes a plurality of data transfer means, and within the period permitted by the third memory access means. A second bus arbitration means for sequentially transferring memory data to the plurality of data transfer request means can be further provided.

Further, it is possible to further comprise means for interrupting and resuming printing during the printing operation, and at every predetermined cycle or by command command,
Alternatively, the printing can be interrupted and restarted by operating a key or a switch, and the recovery operation by the head recovery means can be performed when the printing is interrupted. Then, the recovery means is configured to perform ink ejection according to predetermined pattern data,
Alternatively, the recovery operation may be performed by ink circulation in the print head, the ink supply unit, and the head recovery unit.

Further, according to the present invention, in a printer for printing on a print medium by using a print head having a plurality of ink ejection openings arranged, a transport means for transporting the print medium relative to the print head. An ink supply unit for supplying ink to the print head, and a head recovery unit for stabilizing print performance by the print head, and a side on which the print head and the head recovery unit are located and It is characterized in that the transport surface of the print medium by the transport means is located between the ink supply means and the side on which the ink supply means is located.

Here, the transport surface of the print medium at the print position by the print head is substantially parallel to the level surface, and the print head and the head recovery means are arranged above the transport surface, and the transport is performed. The ink supply means is arranged below the surface.

Further, in the above, the head recovery means has a pump for receiving and recovering the ink discharged from the print head, and the ink supply means is a pump for supplying ink in the direction toward the print head. And these two pumps can be driven by a single drive source.

In addition, in the above, a plurality of print heads can be attached corresponding to inks having different color tones, and further, the plurality of print heads having low brightness of ink from the upstream side in the transport direction of the print medium. It can be arranged in order from.

In addition, the print head has an element for generating thermal energy used for ejecting ink, and has a temperature sensor attached to the print head, by which the sensor of the print head is provided. An increase in temperature can be detected to interrupt the printing operation or reduce the printing speed or cause ink circulation in the print head.

[0019]

According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a label printer which employs the ink jet system and takes advantage of its advantages, and it is possible to make it compact.

[0020]

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

(1) Outline (FIG. 1) (2) Mechanical configuration of device (FIGS. 2 to 29) (2.1) Overall device (FIGS. 2 to 9) (2.2) Head lifting mechanism ( (Figs. 10 and 11) (2.3) Ink system (Figs. 13 to 18) (2.4) Head unit (Figs. 19 and 20) (2.5) Recovery system (Figs. 21 to 23) (2) .6) Sensor system (FIGS. 24 to 29) (3) Configuration of control system (FIGS. 30 to 41) (3.1) Overall configuration (FIG. 30) (3.2) Control panel (FIG. 31) (3) .3) Head control system (FIGS. 32 to 35) (3.4) Control procedure (FIGS. 36 to 41) (4) Expansion control based on data contents (FIGS. 42 to 45) (5) Addition of special data (FIGS. 46 to 48) (5.1) Addition of printer specifying data (FIG. 46) (5.2) Data change for specifying label group (FIG. 47,
48) (6) Label determination (FIGS. 49 to 52) (7) Printing of data over a plurality of labels (FIGS. 53 to 5)
8) (8) Print control corresponding to label orientation (FIGS. 59 to 6)
1) (9) Shift printing (FIGS. 62 to 65) (10) Maintaining bar accuracy (FIGS. 66 to 71) (10.1) Maintaining bar accuracy by raising and lowering the head (FIG. 6)
6, FIG. 67) (10.2) Maintaining bar accuracy by controlling discharge amount (FIG. 68)
(Fig. 70) (10.3) Maintaining bar accuracy by adding data (Fig. 7)
1) (11) Others In the present invention, the terms "recording", "printing" and "printing" are used in a mixed manner, but these all widely apply a recording agent on a recording medium. Say that.

Further, as the recording medium, in the following embodiments, a roll paper form in which labels are continuously arranged on release paper is used, but any form, kind and material may be used. For example, cut paper may be used as the recording medium, and the material of the recording medium may be film, cloth or the like.

Further, the case where the present invention is applied to a label printer will be described below. The printer of the present invention uses perforated continuous paper, business cards, cards, etc., which can be cut as print media, or ticket vending machines. Of course, various forms such as a machine form can be adopted.

(1) Outline FIG. 1 is a view for explaining the outline of the apparatus of the embodiment. In this embodiment, an apparatus for printing information such as a predetermined bar code on a label paper LS (hereinafter referred to as a label printer). It is related to.

In the figure, PDS is a print data supply means which is a supply source of data to be printed, and may be an information processing device such as a host computer, a data storage device such as a magnetic disk or a memory card, and various other forms. To do.

SCM is a print data supply means PDS
Print data supplied from the print head PH
Depending on the form of D, the form of printing operation, etc., and further according to the shape of the label paper LS detected by the print medium information detecting unit MID, the layout of print data, etc., the data is appropriately aligned and expanded on the data expanding unit DSM. This is a deployment control means and will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 42 to 45.

The SDM is a special data adding means, which is specific information other than the original data to be printed on the label paper, for example, device identification data indicating by which device the label was printed, and continuous printing. When there is a change in the print content in the label group, the content identification data is added to the label group so that it can be seen at a glance which label has been changed, and the label is expanded in the data expansion means DSM. The mode of adding the data may be to generate data other than the original print data, or to process a part or all of the original print data. Do not spoil the contents of. This special data adding means will be described later with reference to FIGS.

The HDM is a head driving means, and drives the recording element group of the print head PHD according to the print data expanded by the data expanding means DSM. In addition, in this driving, a recording element used at the time of printing is appropriately used in order to reduce the distribution of the frequency of use of the recording element or to obtain a desired print state regardless of the orientation of the label sheet detected by the print medium information detecting means MID. Shift. This head drive means is shown in FIGS.
Etc. will be described later.

BAM is a bar accuracy holding means, and controls for ensuring the accuracy of the bar code to be formed on the label paper in accordance with print data and the like. This bar accuracy holding means BAM is shown in FIGS. 10, 11, and 66 to 7.
1 will be described later.

In this example, the print head PHD uses ink as a recording material, and has an ink jet recording element having a heating element for applying heat energy that causes film boiling in the ink as energy used for ejecting the ink. A head, that is, a bubble jet type print head proposed by Canon Inc. is used. Further, a plurality of print heads PHD (for example, four stages) are provided corresponding to inks having different color tones, and the print heads PHD can be exchanged so as to correspond to a color desired for printing. The replacement or arrangement of the print head PHD will be described later with reference to FIGS.

The SRM is an ink supply / recovery means for supplying ink to the print head PHD or circulating and recovering the ink during the processing (recovery processing) for maintaining the ink ejection performance, and FIGS. 21 to 23 will be described later.

The print medium information detecting means MID is composed of various sensor groups used for detecting the edge portion of the label sheet, detecting abnormal conveyance, detecting the shape of the label sheet, and the like. Further, the MTM is a conveying unit that conveys the label paper LS with respect to the recording position by the print head PHD.

(2) Mechanical Configuration of Device (2.1) Overall Device FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the label printer of this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is an external perspective view showing a state in which the lid portion is opened. .

Here, 1 is the main body of the apparatus, 51 is a label paper roll wound in a roll shape, 51A is a roll support shaft, and 52 is a roll support shaft.
Is a roll guide that regulates the width of the roll end face in the width direction to obliquely feed the label paper, and prevents the roll 51 from falling off the support shaft 51A, and 53 is a column of the support shaft 51A. Reference numeral 2 denotes an operation panel having various switches and display lamps, which will be described later with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 3 denotes an apparatus lid portion, and by opening the lid portion as shown in FIG. 3, required work such as replacement of the ink tank 83 and the like, jam removal related to the transport system and the like can be performed. Further, 4 is a main power switch, 5 is a connector for connecting a power cord, 6 is a slot for mounting a memory card 90, and 7 is an interface cable connector for connecting a host computer or the like to the label printer body. .

FIG. 4 is an external perspective view showing a state in which the exterior cover of FIG. 2 is removed, FIG. 5 is a front view showing the internal structure of the apparatus of this example, and FIG. 6 is a plan view of the same.

In these figures, 54 is a paper roll 51.
And a curl correction roller 55 for giving a curl reverse to the label paper (hereinafter referred to as paper) fed from the roll 51 in order to correct curl. Collaborate. Reference numeral 92 denotes a loop roller that performs control for giving an appropriate slack (loop) to the sheet, and 56 denotes a pinch roller of the loop roller 92.
Reference numeral 57 is a loop plate that is displaced along with a loop amount for giving an appropriate loop to the paper, 58 is a loop sensor that detects the displacement amount of the loop plate 57, 59 is a lower guide plate of the paper, and 60
Is the upper guide plate of the paper.

Reference numeral 61 is a TOF (top of form) sensor which is a reflection type sensor for detecting the position of the sheet, 62 is a TOF sensor which is also a transmission type sensor for detecting the position of the sheet, and 63 is a label by charging the belt. A charging roller for adsorbing the paper, 64 is a discharging roller for removing the electric potential of the surface of the paper, 65 is a charging belt which is charged by being charged with the electric potential by the charging roller 63, and 66 is a charging belt 65 for absorbing and conveying the paper. A paper pressing roller 67 that surely presses the sucked and conveyed paper against the charging belt 65, and a platen 67 that stabilizes the flatness of the paper during printing. Here, the belt 65 is an NB arranged inside the belt.
It consists of R layer and the outer silicon-based insulating layer facing the paper,
Prior to the adsorption of the paper, a negative charge is applied to the silicon-based insulating layer by the charging roller 63 which is the first charging means, and the paper is provided near the contact point between the paper and the belt 65 in the form of scissors with the belt 65. In addition, the charge removing roller 64, which is the second charging unit, applies a positive charge.

Reference numeral 68 denotes a print head (to be described later as 301Bk, 30B) for printing predetermined information on the conveyed paper.
1Y, 301M, 301C, etc.), a head block 69 for holding both ends of the conveyed sheet to prevent the sheet from floating, and 70 for adjusting to the sheet width of the sheet. A moving block for moving the paper pressing plate 69, 71 a main roller for driving the charging belt 65 for conveying the paper, 72 a driven roller driven by the driving of the main roller 71 via the charging belt 65, and 73 a main roller. 71 is a pinch roller, 74 is a paper ejection roller for ejecting the printed and printed paper to the outside of the apparatus, 75
Is a paper ejection roller which is a pinch roller of the paper ejection roller 74,
Reference numerals 6 and 77 are guides for ejected sheets.

Reference numeral 78 is a recovery unit for cleaning the thickened ink inside the discharge ports of the print heads of the head block 68, ink adhered to the discharge port forming surface, and the like, and 79 is a recording and recovery operation for the head block 68. Head moving motor for moving and setting to an appropriate position, 8
Reference numeral 0 is a paper conveyance motor that applies a driving force to the main roller 71 for paper conveyance, and 81 is a recovery unit movement motor that moves the recovery unit 78 to a position facing the ejection surface of the head block 68 or the like. Reference numeral 82 denotes a loop motor that detects the displacement of the loop plate 57 by the loop sensor 58 to secure an appropriate loop amount and controls the speed of the loop roller 92 based on the detected value.

Reference numeral 83 is an ink supply unit for supplying ink to each head of the head block 68, reference numeral 84 is a power supply for supplying electric power to this apparatus, and reference numeral 85 is a reflection type TOF for detecting whether or not the paper is normally conveyed. A sensor, 86 is a similar transmissive TOF sensor, 87 is a sub-board on which a switch for performing a partial operation and adjustment of the apparatus is arranged, 88 is a main board on which a controller of the apparatus is arranged, and 89 is a sub-board. It is a terminal board for connecting various actuators to the main board 88.

Here, the paper roller used in the label printer of this example will be described.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of the paper roll 51. Here, 100 is a recording material of this printer, which is usually called a label. Various sizes are used depending on the application, but in the printer of this embodiment, a maximum of 4 inches or less in the width direction can be used corresponding to the ejection port arrangement range of each head. This label 100
Is continuously attached by a tacking adhesive (not shown) onto a mount paper called a release paper or a separator indicated by reference numeral 101 to form a roll-shaped recording paper 51. It should be noted that the arrow 102 indicates the paper conveyance direction during printing.

In the label printer of this example, the leading edge of the label is detected as a trigger for starting printing, and therefore, the TOF as shown in FIG. 8 is used.
A (Top of Form) mark 103 is printed and printed on the side of the separator 101 opposite to the surface on which the label 100 is attached.

That is, the TOF mark 103 is replaced with the TO
By detecting with the F sensor, the leading edge signal of the paper can be obtained. Further, by keeping the gap of the label on the separator 101 constant, the size of the label can be detected from the interval between the TOF marks, and the printable area can also be detected.

In this embodiment, the TOF mark 61 can be detected by the reflective TOF mark 61, and a TOF which is a transmissive sensor is used by using a separator having a high light transmittance.
The sensor 62 can be used to detect the print start position, the label size, and the like.

FIG. 9 shows a configuration example of the operation panel 2. As shown in the figure, the operation panel of this example has a power on / off switch 190, an online switch 191 for a host computer, etc., and a paper feed (feed) switch 192 operated when the paper is fed in the manual mode. A switch 193 for aligning the leading positions of the sheets, a switch 194 for forcibly stopping printing, and a lamp 195 for notifying the operator of any abnormality occur. Note that 190A and 191A are lamps that light up when the power is on and online, respectively.

In this example, a movable part (a head block having a head, which operates by moving like a recovery system unit) and a fixed part (ink supply system unit, power supply part) are vertically moved. The paper is conveyed between the two parts. That is, a movable part having a complicated device configuration and a fixed part having an ink tank that needs to be replaced and a power source part having a comparatively large weight are separately provided, but this is an effective configuration for the following reasons. is there.

That is, by making the head face down,
Since the printed label is ejected with the printing surface facing upward without reversing the paper, the user can easily confirm the printed label. Further, since it has been known that good results can be obtained in the inkjet method by discharging downward, the above configuration is preferable.

Further, by arranging the supply system below the head, it is possible to obtain an appropriate negative pressure state when supplying ink. If the supply system is placed above the head, liquid pressure is applied to the side where the ink is supplied (head side) due to weight, causing ink leakage from the ejection port surface of the head.
This is because in order to avoid this, a mechanism for applying a predetermined pressure (negative pressure) must be provided, which complicates the structure of the supply system and increases the cost.

Further, when the ink supply system is on the upper side,
If there is a failure in the ink remaining sensor, a failure in the pump that circulates the ink, or a tube defect, the ink will overflow, and the inside of the machine, including the transport system and paper, will be contaminated. The above configuration is also effective from the point of view.

Further, in this example, the circuit board is arranged on the back surface separately from the transport system and the supply system. This is a preferable structure in terms of the heat dissipation effect and the prevention of ink contamination.

(2.2) Head Elevating Mechanism According to the information to be formed at the time of printing,
For example, in order to adjust the cap (head cap) between the ejection surface and the paper by moving the head block 68 according to the line width of the barcode, or to move the head block 68 during the recovery operation by the recovery unit 78. The head lifting mechanism will be described.

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of the mechanism. Here, 80-9 is a guide rod when the head block 68 moves, 80-10 is a rack attached to the head block 68, and 80-11 is in mesh with the rack 9 for moving the head block 68. It is a gear and is connected by a head moving motor 80 via a belt-shaped transmission mechanism 80-12. Needless to say, the configuration of the head lifting mechanism, that is, the configuration of the drive source, the transmission mechanism, and the like is not limited to that shown in the drawings.

In this structure, the controller provided on the main board 88 (FIG. 6) drives the motor 80 and the gear 80 during printing or ejection recovery operation.
-11 is rotated, and the head block 68 is moved while being guided by the guide 80-9 via the rack 80-10. Regarding the movement amount of the head block 68 during printing, the controller determines an appropriate amount according to the command content of the line width to be printed. Further, at the time of the ejection recovery operation and at the end of printing, the head block 76 is retracted to the upper position, and the recovery unit 78 is positioned immediately below it to perform recovery processing such as ink suction, preliminary ejection, wiping, and capping.

The head block 68 corresponding to the line width
To maintain an appropriate value for the head gap, and also to set the head gap appropriately for thick paper such as cardboard and tag paper, and to avoid collision between the paper and the head. Can be used. In order to detect the paper thickness, the TO
On the other hand, a sheet provided with an F mark is used, and on the other hand, a plurality of TOF sensors are arranged at a portion where the TOF mark may exist.
This can be done by determining their on / off state. Further, the information may be received from a host computer or the like, or a paper thickness setting switch may be provided on the operation panel. Further, it is possible to provide a means for determining the paper thickness of the set paper.

In any case, even if a relatively thin label paper is used as shown in FIG.
Even when the thick tag paper S1 'or the like is used as shown in FIG. 1 (B), the head block can be positioned at an appropriate position. In FIG. 11, a gear 80-13 attached to the shaft of the motor 80 is used as a transmission mechanism for raising and lowering the head block.

(2.3) Ink System FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the entire ink supply system of the apparatus of this embodiment, which will be described below according to the flow of ink. Ink is sucked out from the ink bag 310a housed in the ink supply unit 83 in the form of a cartridge by suction of the pump 308, and stored in the sub tank 307 via the one-way valve 309a in the valve 309. This is indicated by a white arrow I in the figure. On the other hand, during normal printing, the used ink is supplied from the sub tank 307 to the head 301. This is indicated by the white arrow II in the figure.

When printing of the same pattern is repeated and the ejection port usage frequency fluctuates, or when the head is left unused without being used, the ink in the ejection port of the head 301 increases in viscosity, or in the head 301. Bubbles may be generated and collect in the tube, which may interfere with the subsequent printing. In such a case, the recovery operation of the head 301 is required, and black arrows I and II in the figure show the flow of ink at that time.

First, the black arrow I indicates the circulation of the ink to the head 301, and the ink is unidirectionally moved from the sub tank 307 to the inside of the valve 309 by the pump 308 rotating in the opposite direction from the time of supplying the ink to the sub tank 307. Valve 309
It circulates to the head 301 via b and returns to the sub tank 307. At this time, the thickened ink near the ejection port of the head 301 is ejected from the ejection port, and the bubbles in the flow path are also ejected from the nozzle or are collected in the sub tank 307.

Next, a black arrow II shows a recovery path of the ink discharged from the ejection port of the head to the recovery system unit 78. The pump 308 has the ability to recirculate the ink to the head 301 and at the same time to operate this ink recovery system. Then, the ink discharged into the recovery system unit 78 is collected by the waste ink absorber 310b in the ink supply unit 83 by the pump 308, and is replaced with a new absorber when the ink supply unit 83 is replaced.

The above is a description of the entire ink supply system.
As a portion not described above, a cartridge presence / absence detection sensor 311 is provided in the ink cartridge storage portion, and the head 301 can be connected to the main body side by a head joint 303. In addition, the sub tank 30
Reference numeral 7 denotes an ink level sensor 306 for keeping the amount of ink above a certain amount, and an overflow sensor 305 for stopping the apparatus when it fails for some reason.
Further, a breather valve 304 for opening the atmospheric pressure in the tank to the atmosphere is provided.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing the construction of an actual ink system in this apparatus. Here, with respect to the elements other than the head 301, the sub tank 307, and the recovery system 351, only the portions related to the Y (yellow) ink are shown.

Using the ink system configuration shown in FIG. 13,
The flow of ink along the tube will be described below. (1) When supplying ink to the sub tank 307: ink supply unit 83 → tube 314 → tube 3
15 → tube 316 → sub tank 307 (2) during printing sub tank 307 → tube 317 → head 301 (3) during head circulation sub tank 307 → tube 316 → tube 315 →
Tube 318 → Tube 317 → Sub tank 307 (4) When collecting waste ink Recovery system unit 78 → Tube 319 → Tube 320
→ It becomes the ink supply unit 83.

As shown by hatching in FIG. 5, the uppermost part of the sub tank 307 is located slightly above the sheet conveying surface. The height of the stored liquid surface is controlled by a sensor or the like so as not to be higher than a predetermined value.

The ink system is not limited to the above, and it goes without saying that various configurations can be adopted.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing another configuration example of the ink system. Ink is supplied from the ink cartridge 328 by the pump 325 to the sub-tank 307 via the one-way valve 327 (this time is the normal rotation of the pump).

When bubbles or fine dust are mixed in the ejection port of the head 301 and the print quality is disturbed, the pump is rotated in the opposite direction to transfer ink from the sub tank 307 to the head via the one-way valve 326. Supply (recovery of pressure) to 301. At this time, the ink discharged from the head 301 is received by the recovery system unit 78, and is directly supplied to the waste ink cartridge 330 or the waste ink pump 329.
It is configured to be sent by.

On the other hand, in the configuration example of FIG. 14, when the waste ink pump does not exist, the recovery of the waste ink becomes insufficient, and when the waste ink pump is provided, the space for the waste ink pump is required, so that the apparatus is required. Since it is possible that the overall size will increase and the cost will increase, a pump for supplying ink to the sub-tank or head and a pump for collecting waste ink will be provided with a one-way clutch and the same drive source (motor It is also possible to adopt a configuration that is operated by).

15 and 16 show an example of the configuration, and the same parts as those in FIG. 14 are designated by the same reference numerals. Here, FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of the ink system, and FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram of the pump.

The basic structure is the same as that of FIG. 14, but when the motor P13, which is the drive source, rotates in a certain direction (normal rotation), the ink is transferred from the ink bag 310a in one direction 32.
7 to the sub tank 307, and when the ink is rotated in the reverse direction, ink is supplied from the sub tank 307 to the head 301 via the one-way valve 326 and at the same time, the recovery system unit 78
The difference is that the waste ink inside is collected in the waste ink absorber 310b.

Pump 3 for performing the above operation with one motor
31 will be described with reference to FIG. 16. In this embodiment, the tube pump 11 is adopted as the pump, and the pump 3 shown in FIG.
The portions A and B of 31 are denoted by reference numerals P16 and P in FIG. 16, respectively.
It corresponds to the pump portion indicated by 18.

A roller P17 for crushing the tube P20 is rotatably attached to the ink supply pump portion P16 and the waste ink recovery pump portion P18. The ink supply pump P16 is directly connected to the motor P13 by a pump shaft. It is fixed to P15 and can rotate in both forward and reverse directions. On the other hand, the waste ink collecting pump P18 has a built-in one-way clutch P21 and is configured to be rotatable only when the motor P13 rotates in the reverse direction. In the figure, reference numeral P14 is a frame that supports the pump shaft P15, and reference numeral P18 is a tube retainer.

If the ink bag or the ink supply source is integrated with the waste ink absorber as shown in FIG. 12, FIG. 13 or FIG. 15, the space in the machine can be made more effective. It can be used, but Fig. 14
These may be separated as shown in FIG.

Although the tube pump in which the two pumps are integrated is adopted as the pump in the configuration of FIG. 16, the pump portion may be configured by a gear pump or the like as shown in FIG.

Further, in the configuration of FIG. 16, the pump corresponding to the supply system for one head is used, but as shown in FIG. 18, the pumps corresponding to a plurality of heads can be driven by one motor. It is possible.

(2.4) Head Unit FIG. 19 shows a component of the head block 68, that is, the head 301 and the head holder 312 on the main body side for connecting it.
FIG. Head 301 is head holder 3
Four of them are inserted in parallel in the head 12, and the positioning is performed by the head positioning pin 301b on the head 301 and a joint portion (not shown) in the head holder 312.

A head flexible wiring board A301a having a contact on the upper surface is connected to the head 301 and fixed in contact with a head flexible wiring board B313 provided on the lid portion of the head holder 312. With this, an electric signal from the main body side is received.

It should be noted that Y, M, C and B in the figure represent the colors of ink yellow, magenta, cyan and black, respectively. Further, it goes without saying that the number of heads that can be arranged in the holder 312 can be appropriately determined.

As described above, the head holder 312 of this embodiment has four
Although one head can be attached and detached, in addition to the four color heads normally used for recording, colors that are particularly desired (metal color, cobalt blue, and other four colors that cannot be expressed or are difficult. If you prepare a head (called a special color), you can also attach it. At this time, it is preferable to mount a head corresponding to the ink having a low lightness in order from the upstream side in the paper transport direction F. This is for the following reason.

When recording (printing) is performed on a sheet (label 100) using a plurality of colors (for example, three colors) of ink, it is considered that the inks CL1, CL2, CL3 overlap as shown in FIG. Therefore, for example, the lightness of the special color ink to be used is compared with C, M, and Y excluding Bk (the order is not particularly set because Bk is often formed alone), and the special color ink and C, By configuring so that M and Y are printed in the order of low lightness, it is considered that the color of the ink formed earlier can be seen because the transmittance of the ink formed later is high as shown by the arrow in FIG. As a result, clear composite color printing is realized. That is, for example, when an orange ink is added as a special color ink in an inkjet printer that can print four colors of C, M, Y, and Bk, the lightness is C <M <orange <Y, and therefore the printing order is C, M, It may be orange, Y, Bk. In this connection
A means that can present information about the color of the head to the head (E
EPROM, switch, notch, etc.) are provided, on the one hand, means for reading this on the device side, means for detecting whether they are arranged in an appropriate order according to the reading, and arrangement order or change according to the detection. It is also possible to provide a means for suggesting.

(2.5) Recovery System FIG. 21 is a perspective view showing the positional relationship between the head 301 (or head holder 312) and the recovery system unit 78.
The head 301 can be moved vertically by a drive source as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, while the recovery system unit 78 can be moved horizontally.

In the recovery system unit 78, in order to efficiently collect the ink discharged from the nozzles when the head 301 is recovered, the absorber roller 3 is provided below each head below the head.
52 is provided. The absorber roller 352 has a roller gear 353 and an idler gear 35 mounted on its axis.
4, It is rotationally driven by a recovery system motor 357 mounted on the recovery system unit 78 via a motor idler gear 355 and the like.

FIG. 22 illustrates the operation of the recovery system unit 78 when the head 301 is recovered. Note that FIG.
In the figure, TS is a temperature sensor provided at an appropriate portion of each head, which will be described later. The state of FIG. 22 shows a state in which the head 301 is in close contact with the recovery system unit 78 (capping, which will be described later), and ink circulation during the recovery operation of the head 301 is performed in this state.

As described with reference to FIG. 19, the head 3
The absorber roller 352 below 01 is rotationally driven in the direction of the arrow by the recovery system motor 357 mounted on the recovery system unit 78, and is pressed against the aperture roller 360, so that the ink discharged from the head nozzle 362 is there. The ink is squeezed out, and ink is always easily permeated above the absorber roller 352 below the head nozzle 362. The figure shows a case where ink is circulated in the yellow head 301, and the ink discharged into the recovery system unit 78 passes through the tubes 319 and 320 by the pump 308 and is discharged into the ink supply unit 83 as described above. It is transferred to the ink absorber 310b.

FIGS. 23A to 23D are for explaining the respective positions of the head 301 and the recovery system unit 78.

(A) Capping Capping is a position during ink circulation in the normal standby state or the head 301 recovery operation, and the head 30
The front plate 361 of No. 1 and the cap rubber 359 of the recovery system 351 are in close contact with each other.

(B) Wiping Wiping is one of the recovery operations of the head 301. Of the ink ejected from the head ejection port 362 due to the ink circulation, the ink that is not absorbed by the absorber roller 352 and remains around the head nozzle 362. It shows an operation of removing a drop.

Specifically, when the head 301 moves upward by a predetermined amount from the capping position and the recovery system 351 moves rightward by a predetermined amount, a blade 358 provided thereon is provided.
By this, the periphery of the head nozzle 362 is wiped off.

(C) Evacuation Evacuation is a state in which the recovery system 351 largely moves when the capping state is changed to the printing state or in the reverse movement, so that the head 301 is escaped so as not to contact with it.

(D) Printing (printing) In the normal printing state, the recovery system 351 retracts completely to the right, the head 301 moves further below the capping position, and the recording paper and a predetermined amount of It is in a state of maintaining the interval.

(2.6) Sensors of Various Parts In this example, as shown in FIG. 22, the temperature sensor TS is provided for the head. This enables the following control. When print commands are continuously output, the temperature of the head 301 starts to rise gradually,
The temperature information of the head is detected by the temperature sensor TS,
When the temperature exceeds a predetermined reference temperature,
By interrupting printing, waiting until the temperature of the head 301 drops, and then restarting printing, it is possible to eliminate the occurrence of print defects. Alternatively, the temperature of the head can be lowered by reducing the printing speed without interrupting the printing.

Further, when the detected value of the temperature sensor TS exceeds the reference temperature, it is possible to lower the head temperature by circulating the ink as described above without interrupting the printing.

Next, a sensor for performing a predetermined detection on the paper along the paper transport path will be described. As a sensor related to the paper, the TOF sensor is provided as described above, but in addition, the following sensor should be provided to detect the shape and posture of the paper (label) (tilt on the release paper). You can

FIGS. 24A and 24B respectively show
It is a schematic plan view and a side view for explaining such a sensor. The sensor 405 in this example is disposed on the downstream side by the head block 68 in the paper transport direction,
Further, the line sensor extends in the direction orthogonal to the conveying direction, and the shape of the label 100 can be recognized by reading the sheet at a predetermined timing while conveying the sheet. Here, this example is an effective configuration when a group of labels 100 continuously have the same shape and posture, and by recognizing the leading label shape prior to printing, the layout of the content to be printed can be obtained. According to the suitability of the corresponding label, or desired printing can be performed on the subsequent label in conformity with the shape or the like. It is also possible to recognize the print form.

In the structure shown in the drawing, when printing is also performed on the leading label, or when desired printing is performed when the label shape or posture is different, rewinding is performed after reading. You may.

FIGS. 25A and 25B respectively show
It is a typical top view and a side view for explaining other examples of a sensor which detects shape and a posture. In this example, the sensor 405 similar to that shown in FIG. 24 is arranged upstream of the head block 68 in the paper transport direction, and although the print state cannot be confirmed, the leading label is wasted or the rewinding is necessary as described above. Since it does not exist, efficient printing is possible.

Furthermore, such a sensor is shown in FIGS.
The line sensor such as 5 does not have to be used. FIG. 26 (A)
And (B) show still another example of the configuration of the sensor. In this example, the sensor 406 that performs the detection operation for the point or the small area is guided along the guide 422 in the direction orthogonal to the transport direction. However, the same effect as described above is obtained by scanning.

In addition, although the reflection type sensor is used in the above example, a transmission type sensor may be used if the release paper 101 has a required light transmittance.

Further, if it is sufficient to consider only the posture of the label (inclination on the release paper), it is not necessary to provide the line sensor or scanning means over the entire width as described above.

FIG. 27 is a schematic plan view showing a structural example of a sensor system for detecting the attitude of the label, and FIG. 28 is a perspective view thereof (however, only the head for black is shown). Thus, the end sensors 418 and 41
9 are arranged on the upstream side and the downstream side of the head block 68 in the paper conveyance direction, and the data relating to the inclination of the end portion and the print position are obtained by the arithmetic operation to enable the appropriate printing according to the posture.

FIG. 29 shows another structural example of the end sensor system. In this example, the paper edge position detection sensors 418 and 419 are arranged immediately before the head block and in the vicinity of the paper edge, and the nozzles for printing are selected based on the paper position data immediately before the head. is there. In this case, it is not necessary to calculate the print position from the skew feeding amount as in the previous embodiment, so that simpler control is possible.

(3) Configuration of Control System (3.1) Overall FIG. 30 shows an example of the overall configuration of the control system of this embodiment. The image data printed by the label printer of this example is created or edited by the host computer 151 and then sent to the data transmitting / receiving unit 152 as color image data or color character data.

There are cases where these are received as bitmap data for each of the four colors (black, cyan, magenta and yellow, or special colors as required), and cases where they are received as character code data. Whether the received print data is bitmap data or character code data is identified by a command received in advance.
In the case of character code data, commands such as print start position specification, character font, character size, and print color specification are inserted for each character data or for a plurality of character strings, that is, for each change point of the printing style. .

The data received by the data transmission / reception section 152 is read by the main CPU 153 and sequentially stored in the RAM 156.
The character generator contents of the corresponding character are read out from the ROM 155 and are stored in the work area provided in the RAM for bit map expansion on a character-by-character basis.
Write to 58. The print buffer 158 is the head 301Bk.
~ 301Y etc. corresponding to black, cyan, magenta,
Data for one page (one label) for each of the four colors such as yellow is held independently. For example, in the present embodiment, a line head having a printing resolution of 360 dpi (dots / inch) and 1,344 ejection ports arranged in one head in the paper width direction is used. , 328 ejection ports are used for printing. That is, the print data is 1,328 dots, and when it is expanded in the print buffer 158, blank data of 8 dots is applied to both ends to make 1,344 dots of data. The 1,344 discharge ports are divided into 21 blocks by 64 blocks, and the blocks are driven by a head control circuit 157 described later. The maximum print width of the 1,328 ejection ports is about 3.7 inches. If you set the page length to 4 inches, the required print buffer size is 1 color

[0105]

[Equation 1] 1,328 × 360 [dot / inch] × 4 [inch] = 1,912,320 [bit / page]. When continuously printing different text or graphic data of a plurality of pages without impairing the effective printing speed, a method having two pages of the above print buffer, that is, a double buffer method is effective. The print buffer size in this case is per color

[0106]

[Equation 2] 1,912,320 [bit / page] x 2 [page] = 3,824,640 [bit] is required. High speed printing can be realized by using one page as a buffer currently being printed and dedicating another page to edit the next page. The image data developed in the print buffer 158 is continuously read from the head control circuit 157 and transferred to the four color heads 301Bk to 301Y.
Detailed operation timings of the print buffer 158, the head control circuit 157, the heads 301Bk to 301Y, and the CPU 153 will be described later.

The ROM 155 stores a control program for controlling the entire color printer together with the above-mentioned character generator and bar code generator. Then, under the control of the control program, the main CPU 153 controls the drive of the drive motor 165 via the I / O port 159 and the drive circuit 164. The drive motors 165 include a paper feed motor for conveying the paper, a head motor for moving the head up and down, a capping of the ink nozzle portion of the head, a capping motor for operating the cleaning mechanism, and the like. In this example,
The drive pulse for driving the paper feed motor and the printing operation are perfectly synchronized.

The sensor circuit 167 monitors the TOF sensor for detecting the leading position of the label for printing, each home position sensor for determining the reference position of the head motor, the capping motor, etc., and the remaining amount of ink of each color. In addition to the ink level sensor, the temperature sensor shown in FIG. 22, the label shape detection sensor shown in FIG. 24, 25 or 26, the edge sensor shown in FIG. 27 or 29, and the like are included.

The main CPU 153 may store the print data received from the host computer 151 in the memory card 90. When the host computer 151 and the print of this example are separated and the printing operation is performed, the data stored in the memory card 90 is usually in the form of character code data, but fixed print image data that does not need to be changed. May be saved as bitmap data for four colors. A print command for a print operation using the memory card 90 is output from the control panel 154. The control panel 154 can change the print format of print data in the memory card 154 in addition to the print start and stop operation commands. Details of the control panel 154 will be described later.

The operation panel 2 has already been described with reference to FIG.

(3.2) Control Panel FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the control panel 154. The control panel 154 is usually used in a state where the label printer main body 1 of this example and the host computer 151 are separated from each other, that is, in an offline mode. The main function of the control panel is to display print image data and print format. Is a change. The control panel 154 may be provided in an enclosure different from the color printer body.

The normal display image data is the main CPU 153.
Although it is sent from the side to the communication port of the sub CPU 180 in the form of code data, there are cases where the display image data of the bitmap is received and displayed. Here, the case where the character code data is received is described.

When a data reception request key is pressed on the keyboard 186, the sub CPU 180 causes the main CPU 153 to operate.
Issue a data request command to the side. Main CPU1
The data sent from the 53 side is stored in the RAM 182, and in parallel, the sub CPU 180 corresponds to each received character code data in order to display the image data received under the control of the control program stored in the ROM 181. The display character generator is sequentially read and written in the display memory 184 via the display control circuit 183.

The display character generator is ROM1.
81. The display control circuit 183 continuously reads the contents of the display memory 184 and continuously controls the display of the display 185. Here, the display is, for example, 320 × 24
A 0 dot liquid crystal display can be used. If the weight of 1 dot on the display corresponds to 1/90 inch in the vertical and horizontal directions on the print medium, it is possible to display an area of about 3.6 × 2.7 inch.

Image data and format are keyboard 1
86 can be used to make changes on the display 185. The changed contents are sequentially stored in the RAM 182. When printing the results, the sub CPU 180 issues a data reception request command to the main CPU 153, and the main CPU 153 side receives the updated image data and executes the printing operation. The display 185 is provided with a backlight 187 for improving the display quality. Usually, a cold-cathode tube or the like is suitable, in which case an inverter 188 for exchanging drive from direct current to alternating current is used.

(3.3) Head Control System In this example, an inexpensive DRAM is used for the print buffer (bitmap RAM) 158 for expanding the print data into a bitmap.
(Dynamic random access me
mory) is used. Functions required for managing the bitmap RAM include (a) a writing operation from the CPU (b) a reading operation to the CPU (c) a print data reading operation to the head (d) a refresh operation of the DRAM. Of these, since it is necessary to create the data for the next page during printing, (a), (c), and (d) or (b), (c), and (d) are the bitmap RAM at the same time.
May request access to. Therefore, a bus arbitration circuit for arbitrating the access right to the bitmap RAM is provided so that the CPU can ignore the timing and access the bitmap RAM even during printing. Rewriting for each page is possible by providing a bitmap RAM for two pages for each color and separating the page for creating the bitmap data from the CPU and the page for transferring the print data to the head. .

The functions of transferring data to the head include (a) transfer of print data to the head, (b) transfer of pulses for adjusting print density, and (c) transfer of print alignment information for front, back, left and right. Since this function can operate independently of the CPU, the CPU load does not increase with the printing speed.

FIG. 32 is a conceptual diagram of the printing mechanism of the label printer of this example.

Here, various methods are used for the black head for black printing, the cyan head for cyan printing, the magenta head for magenta printing, and the yellow head for yellow printing. For example, (a) heat is applied to the heater in the nozzle to generate bubbles,
Inkjet method for ejecting ink by pressure generated by air bubbles (b) Ink method is filled with ink in a cylindrical piezoelectric element, and ink is ejected by contraction of the piezoelectric element. (C) Heat-meltable film is used for recording paper and heater. A thermal transfer method that places a heater between them and heats the heater to transfer the color of the film to the recording paper. (D) Use a thermal reaction recording paper and apply heat to the heater to change the color of the recording paper. However, the control method is basically the same. That is, it is a method of applying an electric pulse to the head portion such as a heater or a piezoelectric element and controlling the time or voltage of this pulse. In this example, the method (a) is described in particular, but similar effects can be expected with other methods.

For the printing, the paper is fed below the heads by the paper feed motor, and the clock or FEE
Printing is performed line by line in synchronization with the DCK signal.

FIG. 33 shows an example of an equivalent circuit of the head section.
The heater HTR of the print head is electrically considered to be a resistor and is therefore shown as a resistor. In addition, 21 ICs for controlling 64 heaters 6 are installed, and the total number of heaters 6 is 134.
4 pieces.

The print data is synchronized with the SICK signal in the SI
Transferred by signal. Data is D1 by shift register
To D1344 are shifted. L when transfer is completed
The AT signal is input and the shifted data is temporarily held. For printing, the STRB1 signal and the STRBCK signal have a shift register configuration in IC units.
It will be controlled in units of four heaters 6. The reason why the 1344 heaters 6 are not controlled simultaneously is that the electric current supplied to the heaters 6 is large and the time efficiency drive improves the power efficiency.

FIG. 34 shows the timing of each print control signal supplied to the head. Although the black head is illustrated here, the same applies to other heads. In the figure, KENB2 ^* : internal signal of the head control circuit that enables the printing operation.

HSINC ^* : Internal signal of the head control circuit generated for each print line.

K-LAT ^* : A signal for simultaneously latching the print data for one line from the shift register in the head to the latch section of the driver section in the head as well.

K-STRB1: Heat start signal for heater.

K-STRB2: A confirmation signal for notifying that heating of all blocks of one line has been completed,
The output of the final stage of the shift register that determines the heat block inside the head.

K-STRBCK: A signal for performing a heating operation for each block by advancing the "High" level of K-STRB1 block by block in order to determine the heating cycle of the heater.

K-BE0: A signal that determines the heating time within the heating cycle. In this example, a heat pulse divided into a preheat portion and a main heat portion is given.

IC21 on bit to IC1 on
bit: Print pulse of the heated heater in the 21st block to the 1st block.

IC21 off bit to IC1 of
f bit: Shows the state of the unheated heaters of the 21st block to the 1st block.

FIG. 35 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the head control circuit 157. In this example, a DRAM is used as the print buffer 158.

When the CPU 153 accesses the print buffer 158, the access signal C is sent from the decoding circuit 251.
Activate RAM1 ^* . In addition, the print buffer 15
The refresh operation 8 is performed by making the access signal RRAM1 ^* of the refresh request circuit 252 active. Further, when transferring data to the head, the access signal HRAM1 ^* of the head data request circuit 260 is activated. These three signals are transferred to the bus arbitration circuit 270.
Entered in.

The bus arbitration circuit 270 can access the print buffer 158 in accordance with a predetermined priority order for these three accesses. Each access method is controlled by the DRAM control circuit 280.

The bus arbitration circuit 270 is the bus switching circuit 25.
3 to control the CPU address buses A1 to A18 and the address buses HA1 to H18 output from the head data address switch circuit 254, and output the address buses DRA0 to DRA17 for the print buffer 158. The bus arbitration circuit 270 is similar to the bus switching circuit 2
A data bus H which controls 53 and is transferred to the CPU data buses D0 to D15 and the respective color data transfer circuits 291 to 294.
D0 to HD15 are switched and connected to the data buses DRD0 to DRD156 for the print buffer 158.

Similarly, the chip select signals are also CCS0 to CCS.
Switching and CS15, and outputs the RAS0 ^* ~RAS15 ^*. During the printing operation, the head data request circuit 260 requests the access right to the print buffer 158, the bus arbitration circuit 270 permits the timing, the bus switching circuit 270 outputs the address of each color to the print buffer 158, and the print data is output. The data is output to the buses HD0 to HD15 and transferred to the head from each color data transfer circuit 291 to 294. By this series of operations, the print data and the print content can be matched.

The timing of the above operation is determined by the timing generation circuit 290. Timing generation circuit 29
0 is sent in synchronization with the FEEDCK signal sent to the paper feed motor. Here, the paper feed motor accurately determines the feed amount by pulse control of a stepping motor or the like, but this pulse signal, that is, the FEEDCK signal is also transferred to the timing generation circuit 290, and the FEEDCK is generated.
The internal circuit is synchronized based on the signal. When the paper is fed, a trigger signal for determining the print position, such as TO
F (Top of Form) is detected, and this trigger signal is transferred from the CPU 153 to the head control circuit 157. The timing generation circuit 290 receives Bk from the trigger signal.
-The distance to the head 301Bk is F to the paper feed motor.
The print timing can be accurately determined by counting the EEDCK signal. Then, when it is time to print with the Bk-head 301Bk, the timing generation circuit 290
Transfers the print data of the bitmap RAM 158 to the Bk head 301Bk. As a result, black is printed. The paper feed motor 7 further rotates to feed the paper. The timing generation circuit 290 determines the distance from the Bk head 301Bk to the C head 3101C by the FEEDC of the paper feed motor.
The K signal is counted to determine the print timing. Thereafter, the printing timings of the M head 301M and the Y head 301Y are determined and printing is performed in the same procedure.

The above is the basic printing operation sequence, but if this is realized, the bitmap RAM 158 will be C
There is a timing at which the writing operation from the PU 153, the reading operation, and the reading operation for data transfer to each color head occur at the same time. Furthermore, since a low-priced DRAM is used for the bit map RAM, a refresh operation is necessary, and this operation also occurs at the same timing. Therefore, the circuit 270 for arbitrating them is required.

As described above, since the data transfer to the heads of the respective colors during printing is controlled by the hardware inside the head control circuit 157, the CPU 153 basically does not need to access the print buffer 158 during the printing operation and the load is reduced. Is significantly reduced, which enables high-speed printing. Further, when the print data is different for each page, the print buffer 158 is provided for two pages or more, and while the data in one page buffer is being printed, the other page buffer has a CPU.
When 153 develops a bit map and transfers it to the head, continuous printing is possible by switching the address of the print buffer 158.

Further, the CPU 153 measures the processing time required to expand the print data for one page into the bit map RAM and preliminarily sets the print speed so that the expansion processing time does not exceed the print processing time required for printing one page. If you set
You can develop and print efficiently. In other words, by changing the print speed according to the amount of main data such as a barcode, it is possible to develop and print efficiently.

The print speed may be finely set stepwise, or 50, 100, 200 (mm / se).
c) (length of label printed in 1 second) may be set largely. Further, the speed setting may be configured so that the user can select it with a switch.

In this example, the D-map is stored in the bitmap RAM.
Although the case where the RAM is used has been described, the same effect can be obtained by removing the refresh request circuit 252 even when the SRAM that does not require the refresh operation is used. Further, although the case of four colors of heads is shown, the same configuration can be applied when controlling more heads.

In any case, in a high-speed printer using a line head, the load on the CPU is reduced, and when there is a large amount of print data such as color printing, or when different data is printed for each page, High-speed printing is possible.

(3.4) Control Procedure FIG. 36 is a flowchart showing an example of the initial processing procedure after the power of the apparatus of this example is turned on. After turning on the power, step S0
Initialization and initialization of the RAM 156 and initialization of the print buffer 158 are performed at 01, and initialization of the I / O port 159 and head control circuit (hereinafter referred to as GA) 157 is performed at S002.

Then, in step S003, the head moving motor 79 is driven to detect the home position of the print head block 68, and then the print head block 68 is positioned at the retracted position (C) shown in FIG. Here, if an abnormality such as the inability to detect the home position occurs, abnormal termination is performed.

Similarly, in step S004, after the recovery unit 78 is driven by the recovery unit moving motor 81 to detect the home position, it is positioned at the capping position (A) shown in FIG. Here, if an abnormality such as the inability to detect the home position occurs, abnormal termination is performed.

Further, in step S005, the print head block 68 is driven by the head moving motor 79 and positioned at the capping position (A) shown in FIG.

Then, in step S006, a recovery process, which will be described later with reference to FIG. 39, is performed to enter the standby state. here,
If an error occurs in the recovery process, it ends abnormally.

FIG. 37 is a flow chart showing an example of the print processing procedure of the apparatus of this example.

Print information is sent from the host computer 151 or the like, or a print command is input for the contents stored in the memory card 155 and the contents are sent,
When that information is stored in the RAM 156, the main CPU
153 is a print buffer 15 using the character code and bar code data in the ROM 155 based on the information.
Required processing such as bit map expansion to 8 is performed (switch S100).

Next, or in parallel with this, step S
At 101, a preliminary ejection process described later with reference to FIG. 40 is performed. Here, if an abnormality occurs in the preliminary ejection process, the abnormal end is performed. Further, in step S102, a preliminary discharge timer that defines the time interval of the preliminary discharge operation is started.

Then, in step S103, the position states of the print head block 68 and the recovery unit 78 are checked,
If it is not at the printing position shown in FIG. 23D, the recovery unit moving motor 81 and the head moving motor 79 are driven and positioned at the printing position in step S104.

Then, in step S105, the drive circuit 15
9 and the feed clock to the head control circuit 157.
Start supplying signals. Here, Feed Clock
The signal can be made variable according to each speed table of acceleration, low speed and deceleration (for example, provided in a predetermined area of the ROM) that defines a transport speed specified in advance.

When the Feed Clock signal is supplied, the conveyance of the paper roll 51 is started. Accordingly, the TOF mark 103 is detected in step S106, and if detected, the head control circuit 157 is detected in step S107.
Apply a print trigger signal to. In response to this, the head control circuit 157 prints the data in the print buffer 158. In this case, the processing of the CPU 153 is basically unnecessary, but the CPU 153 may intervene as necessary (described later).

During the printing operation, the preliminary ejection process during printing described in FIG. 38 is performed in step S108. If an error occurs in the preliminary ejection process during printing, the process ends abnormally.

It is checked in step S109 if the printing operation is continued, and if it is continued, the process returns to step S106. If not continuing, the Feed Clock signal is stopped in step S110.

Finally, in step S111, the recovery unit moving motor 81 and the head moving motor 79 are driven to move the print head block 68 and the recovery unit 78 to the position shown in FIG.
Position at the capping position (A) shown in 3.

FIG. 38 is a flow chart showing an example of the pre-printing pre-ejection processing procedure of the apparatus of this embodiment, and this procedure can be started by operating a timer, a command, a key or a switch.

First, if it is determined in step S121 that the preliminary discharge timer for defining the preliminary discharge time interval has elapsed at the predetermined time interval, the process proceeds to step S122.
In cases other than the above, the process ends normally.

In step S122, Feed Cloc is set.
Stop the k signal.

Next, in step S123, a preliminary ejection process described later with reference to FIG. 40 is performed. Here, if an abnormality occurs in the preliminary ejection process, the abnormal end is performed.

Then, in step S124, the preliminary discharge timer that defines the time interval of preliminary discharge is restarted.

Finally, in step S125, the drive circuit 15
9 and the feed clock to the head control circuit 157.
Resume signal supply.

FIG. 39 is a flow chart showing an example of the recovery processing procedure of the apparatus of this example.

First, in step S201, the position states of the print head block 68 and the recovery unit 78 are checked,
If it is not at the capping position (A) shown in FIG. 23, the recovery unit moving motor 81 and the head moving motor 79 are driven and positioned at the capping position in step S202.

Next, in step S203, the presence / absence of a cartridge is checked by the cartridge presence / absence sensor 311. If there is a cartridge that is not detected, the process ends abnormally.
Of course, the cartridge can be checked for each color.

After that, if overflow is detected by the overflow sensor 305 in step S204, the process ends abnormally.

Furthermore, ink is supplied in step S205. The ink level sensor 306 and the overflow sensor 305 are checked every time the ink pump 308 is rotated at a predetermined number of revolutions in the supply direction, and the ink level sensor 306 is detected within a predetermined total number of revolutions when the overflow sensor 305 is not detected. Is detected, the process proceeds to step S206, and otherwise, the process ends abnormally. Of course, this ink supply is performed for each color.

Then, in step S206, a recovery operation is performed. The recovery system motor 357 is started, and the ink pump 308
After the number of revolutions determined in advance by the time interval of the recovery operation is rotated in the recovery direction, the recovery system motor 357 is stopped. As a matter of course, this recovery operation is performed for each color.

Finally, in step S207, the preliminary ejection process described in FIG. 40 is performed. Here, if an abnormality occurs in the preliminary ejection process, the abnormal end is performed.

FIG. 40 is a flow chart showing an example of the preliminary discharge processing procedure of the apparatus of this example.

Steps S210 to S215 are shown in FIG.
The same process as steps S200 to S205 of 9 is performed.

Then, in step S216, the head control circuit 157 is supplied with the ejection pattern data for the preliminary ejection recovery determined by the time interval of the preliminary ejection operation and the like. Then, in step S217, an instruction of the preliminary ejection operation is given to the head control circuit 157.

Finally, in S218, the wiping process described in FIG. 41 is performed.

FIG. 41 is a flowchart of the wiping process of the present invention.

First, the position state of the recovery unit 78 is checked in step S221. If the recovery unit 78 is not in the capping position (A) shown in FIG. 23, the print head block 68 drives the head moving motor 79 in step S222. It is positioned at the retracted position shown in FIG. Next, in step S223, the recovery unit 78 is driven to drive the recovery unit moving motor 81 and is positioned at the capping position shown in FIG.

After that, in step S224, the print head block 68 is driven by the head moving motor 79, and FIG.
It is positioned at the wiping position shown in FIG. Next, in step S225, the recovery unit moving motor 81 is driven and positioned at the wiping position shown in FIG. 23 (B).

Finally, in step S227, the recovery unit 78 is driven by the recovery unit moving motor 81, and FIG.
It is positioned at the capping position shown in (A). Then, in step S228, the print head block 68 is driven by the head moving motor 79 to be positioned at the capping position shown in FIG.

(4) Expansion control based on data contents When a plurality of print data is expanded on the paper (label 100) by designating a relative position, the print data having redundancy such as character information is used. When other print data is misaligned or when multiple print data is expanded by specifying the absolute position, the print data areas may be specified overlapping each other. Inconvenience occurs.

Therefore, in the apparatus of this example, the received command is classified into an exclusive command indicating that data expansion / contraction (magnification) is not permitted and an exclusion command that allows a certain amount of magnification variation, and the exclusion command is excluded. The individual expansion area values of the command are stored, and when the expansion is executed for the exclusive command, the stored expansion area value is changed and the expansion is executed according to the expansion area value stored when the expansion is executed for the exclusive command. , For data with some degree of arbitraryity in magnification or height, such as printing barcode data,
The magnification or height of the bar code data or the like is changed in response to the conflict with other print data.

FIG. 42 shows each area provided in a predetermined area of the RAM 156. FIG. 42A shows the receiving buffer (see FIG. 3).
0, which can be provided in the data transmitter / receiver 152), stores an exclusive command in
(C) is a development area table that stores development area information in the print buffer 158 for the exclusive command.

FIG. 43 is a flow chart showing an example of the expansion control procedure according to this embodiment, and step S1 of FIG.
00 as a part of the procedure.

In step S301, the reception buffer, exclusive command table, exclusive command table, expansion area table, and print buffer 158 are initialized.

Next, in step S302, a print command / data for one page is input and stored in the reception buffer.

Then, in step S303, it is classified whether the print command stored in the reception buffer is an exclusive command or an exclusive command. If it is an exclusive command, the exclusive command is registered in the exclusive command table in step S304, and the rectangular information of the expansion area occupied by the data corresponding to the exclusive command in the print buffer 158 is registered in the expansion area table in step S305. ,
The process returns to step S303. If it is an exclusive command, the exclusive command is registered in the exclusive command table in step S306, and the process returns to step S303. If the classification is completed, the process proceeds to step S307.

The exclusive command registered in the exclusive command table is individually called in step S307, the corresponding data is expanded in the print buffer 158 in step S308, and the exclusive command whose expanded area is registered in the expanded area table in step S309. It is checked whether or not it overlaps in the development area in the vertical direction. If it does not overlap, the process returns to step S307. If they overlap, the upper and lower limits of the rectangular information stored in the expansion area table are changed so that no overlap occurs in step S310, and the process returns to step S307. When the expansion of all the exclusive commands is completed, the process proceeds to step PS311.

In step S311, the exclusion command registered in the exclusion command table 7 is individually called, and in step S312 the corresponding data is printed in the print buffer 158.
In accordance with the rectangle information stored in the expansion area table, the process returns to step S311.

When the expansion of all the exclusive commands is completed, the expanded data is printed in the print buffer 158. The effect of this embodiment is shown in FIG.
An example is shown in (A).

FIG. 44 is a flow chart showing another example of the expansion control procedure of this example.

In FIG. 44, steps S321 to S321 are performed.
Since steps up to 328 are the same as steps S301 to S308 in FIG. 43, description thereof will be omitted.

In FIG. 44, it is checked in step S329 whether the expansion area overlaps the expansion area of the exclusive command registered in the expansion area table. If they do not overlap, the process returns to step S327.
If there is overlap, the upper, lower, left, and right limits of the rectangular information stored in the expansion area table are changed so that no overlap occurs in step S330, and the process returns to step S327. When the expansion of all exclusive commands is completed, the process proceeds to step S331.

In step S331, the exclusive command registered in the exclusive command table is individually called, and in step S332, the corresponding data is stored in the print buffer 158 in the expansion area and expansion area table designated by the exclusive command. The data is compressed and expanded according to the ratio of the rectangular information to the vertical direction and the horizontal direction, and the process returns to step S331.

When the expansion of all the exclusive commands is completed, the data expanded in the print buffer 158 is sent to the print head and stored in the print medium, which is not shown, as in the above embodiment. is there. The effect of this embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 45 (B).

In both of the above two examples, the reception buffer may be read twice without setting the exclusive command table and the exclusive command table.
Further, in step S310 of FIG. 43 and step S330 of FIG. 44, the upper and lower limit values and the left and right limit values of the rectangular information stored in the expansion area table may be limited.

Although information such as characters may be scaled, it is preferable to change the bar code which is relatively arbitrary when it is difficult to read.

(5) Addition of special data (5.1) Addition of printer specifying data When using a plurality of label printers, it is necessary to know which printer issued the printed label. May be desired. That is, when some trouble such as printing failure occurs on the label, it is possible to quickly deal with it by specifying the print and performing maintenance if it is clear which printer issued the trouble.

Therefore, in this example, when the input data is stored in the print buffer 158, the specific information corresponding to each printer is always stored at the same time, and the specific information is stored in the inconspicuous color (dropout color). ), The label after printing can be discriminated by which printing device. Also, by printing in dropout color, it is possible to avoid deterioration of quality.

For this purpose, for example, the format of the registration number of the device may be stored in the ROM 155 of FIG. 30, or an EEPROM may be separately provided or a RAM backed up by a battery may be provided and stored therein. However, these can be expanded at the same time when expanding the data.

FIG. 46 shows an example of the format of the device registration number. The device registration number SD (here, "7-24-JD018") is set on the label 100 in a certain pattern. The device registration number based on such a pattern may always be printed in yellow, and other data may be set in the yellow buffer so that it is printed in the color set by the user.
With this, when a failure such as non-ejection is detected in the labels issued by the plurality of label printers, it is possible to determine at a glance which device has the failure.

[0200] Although the registration number is overprinted in yellow here, the same purpose can be achieved by simply using the number of dots printed in yellow. In this case, for example, the first label printer has one yellow dot at a certain position (lower right corner, etc.) of the label to be printed, and the second label printer has two yellow dots. It is also possible to determine the printer by checking the number.

Further, in addition to the addition of the special data itself, the color of the data to be printed on the label may be partially changed within a range that does not cause any inconvenience.

In any case, when the same type of label is printed by a plurality of printers due to the productivity of the printer or the like, when a trouble occurs that the scanner cannot read, the printer that has printed the label is specified. Because you can
Repairs can be done smoothly. Also, when the same type of label is delivered from a plurality of vendors, or the product with the label attached is delivered, if there is a faulty label, it is easy to determine from where it was delivered.

(5.2) Data Change for Specifying Label Group In a label printer, the printed label may be wound on another roll and peeled off when necessary for use.

In the printer of this example, data can be continuously printed on the label 100 attached to the release paper 101, but the print data may be changed in the middle. Therefore, it is desirable to remove the label so that the change can be easily identified when the intended purpose is reached. For this purpose, it is conceivable to print the information about the data content printed first or the data content printed later on one label between the labels whose data is changed or between the label groups. Cannot be used for its original purpose, resulting in waste.

Therefore, in this example, among the data to be printed (hereinafter referred to as regular print data), some or all of the print color data is changed to create the identification print data, and the identification label based on the identification print data is created. By performing the printing before or after the printing operation based on the regular print data, it is possible to output the identification label in which only the color information is changed between the regular print labels having different contents by a simple operation. Further, this identification label has the effect that it can be used in the same way as the regular label because it is the one in which only the color information is changed as compared with the label by regular printing (hereinafter referred to as the regular label). .

FIG. 47 shows an example of contents printable by the apparatus of this example. This is a model of a typical label that a manufacturer attaches to a food product.

The frame 520, the ruled line 521, the titles 522 to 528 of each item, and the bar code 529 in which product information is coded are printed in black, for example, and the other print information 530 to 539 is printed in red. Can be done.

The print control will be outlined.
The print data taken in 6 is expanded in the print buffer 158 as actual drawing data. Print buffer 155
Is composed of a memory unit for storing data for each color, the head control circuit 157 and the drive circuit 64 are connected to the CPU.
153 controls and prints according to the print data to output a predetermined number of labels as shown in FIG.

Now, in this example, before printing the above-mentioned label,
Alternatively, the identification label is continuously output after printing. Here, an example in which the identification print label is output before the regular print label is printed will be described. Further, for the sake of clarity, the content of the identification label is the same as the regular print content in black monocolor, but a specific part, for example, only the frame is output in a specific color. It is also possible to use an identification print label, and it goes without saying that it is included in the technical scope of this example.

FIG. 48 is a flow chart showing an example of a processing procedure for performing such control.

First, when the input of the print data is completed (step S100 in FIG. 37), the number A of sheets to print the data is set in the counter. This counter may be provided by hardware or may be provided in a predetermined area of the RAM 156. Next, it is determined in step S401 whether or not to output the identification label. This step is necessary because the identification label may not be necessary depending on the usage pattern. In this embodiment, the identification label is output at the beginning of the A print labels. When outputting the identification label, the flag SF provided in a predetermined area of the RAM 156 is set to "1", and the total print number "m" which is the set content of the counter is replaced with "m + 1" (step S403). When the identification label is not output, SF = 0 is set (S405). When the printing is started, "0" is set to the predetermined printing flag n,
At the same time, the memories in the print buffer 158 corresponding to the colors used in this example (in this example, the ones for black and red are used, respectively, will be referred to as frame memories 505a and 505b hereinafter).
Will be refreshed).

In the next step S409, it is determined whether or not the SF flag is set. If SF = 1, all print data is expanded in the black print buffer memory regardless of the print color data set in the print data. (Step S41
1). When SF = 0, the black print data is printed in the print buffer 158 based on the data stored in the RAM 156.
Is expanded in the black frame memory 505a, and the red print data is similarly expanded in the frame memory 505b (S413).

Next, print control and drive control are performed based on the data developed in the frame memories 505a and 505b (S415), and the first print label is printed. 1
Every time a sheet is printed (S417), n + 1 is set to n (S419).

At this time, when the identification label is designated to be output, an identification label printed in black on the entire surface is outputted, and when the designation is not made, a printed label according to the print data is obtained. .

Next, in step S421, it is checked whether or not the number of printed sheets is completed. If the number of printed sheets is less than the previously set number, the process proceeds to step S423. If it is satisfied, the printing is completed.

In step S423, the presence or absence of the output of the identification label is checked. If the identification label is not output, the data currently stored in the frame memories 505a and 505b is used as it is, and print control is performed again to perform printing. When no identification label is output (SF = 0), this flow is repeated, and the printing operation is stopped when the number of printed sheets n becomes equal to m. Actually, a predetermined drive motor or the like of the printing device is driven until the print label is output to the outside of the machine.

If the identification label output is set in step S423, the flow advances to step S425. Here, it is checked whether only the identification label is printed yet, or whether the regular print data has already been expanded in the frame memory, that is, whether one regular label has been output.

That is, when the regular label has already been output, since the print data has already been expanded in the frame memory, this is a step in which the expansion control time is removed by directly entering the print control operation.

By thus printing the identification label before the regular label, it is possible to easily separate the labels having different print contents, and the identification label content changes only the color information in the regular print content. Since it is a product that can withstand actual use, very effective identification between labels can be achieved.

For example, a large number of labels are affixed to merchandise in advance, and the merchandise is often affixed separately. So, for example, when there are 10 types of products,
It is used such as printing 10 labels of 50 labels each.

In such a case, since the contents of the label are often similar, it is not easy to find the delimiter between the different types of labels. Therefore, if there is a conspicuous label at the delimiter portion, the delimiter can be easily identified, which is advantageous in handling after printing.

In this example, the color of only the barcode is not changed in consideration of the decrease in detection accuracy. In addition, the identification label also has distinctiveness within a practical range to save the label.

Incidentally, it is also possible to change a part of the colors for each number of labels and for each label type. Further, it can be used not only for identification of labels but also for confirmation of lots and confirmation of attached products.

When a plurality of types of labels are printed in units of a certain number of sheets, and are wound and used, the labels printed later are used first. Therefore, it is preferable that the identification label of a certain label is printed last when it is wound and used.

(6) Label Judgment In a printer using a label continuously attached to a release paper as a print medium, various types of labels can be selected and attached to the printer depending on the print format, the amount of information to be printed, and the like. Preferably. On the other hand, if the shape of the attached label does not correspond to the printing format, it will be printed on the part other than the label, and the platen will be soiled.
Problems such as poor print quality and shortened printer life occur. Therefore, it is desired to be able to determine the shape of the label inside the printer.

Therefore, as described in FIGS. 24 to 26,
In this example, an optical sensor for scanning the entire surface of the release paper was provided in the label conveying path. The label shape detection circuit detects the shape of the label based on the voltage detected by the optical sensor. Further, a label shape determination circuit that determines whether the data of the label shape detection circuit and the print data match is provided, and a control circuit that controls the printing operation by the label shape determination circuit is provided.

Further, in the example of FIG. 24, the optical sensor is arranged between the printing section and the label discharging section in the label conveying path. Corresponding to this, a print detection circuit for detecting that it is a printed matter printed on a label, a print determination circuit for determining that it matches the print data, and a control circuit for controlling the print operation by the print determination circuit. And can be provided.

Here, as the optical sensor, there are a reflection type optical sensor, a transmission type optical sensor and the like. For example, a reflection type optical sensor outputs light from one side, the light is reflected on a detection surface, the intensity of the reflected light is detected, and the light is converted into a voltage and output. Since the reflectance of the release paper and the reflectance of the label are different, the detection voltage is different. The shape of the label can be determined by detecting this difference.

In the transmissive optical sensor, light is output from one side, transmitted through the detection surface, and judged by the intensity of the light received by the optical sensor provided on the other side. Since the release paper and the label have different transmittances, the shape of the label can be determined by detecting this difference.

Next, a method for checking print data such as a bar code will be described. Since the print data has a predetermined print format recorded inside the printer, the position where the bar code is printed is also recorded. By measuring the detection voltage of the label detector at this position, it can be determined whether or not the printing has been performed correctly. At this time, the detection voltage needs to be set in advance because it depends on the printed color, but it may be set when the printer is manufactured.

FIG. 49 is a conceptual diagram showing the operation of the photosensor shown in FIG. The release paper 101 passes below the optical sensor 405. The detection voltage of the optical sensor 405 at this time is determined by the reflectance of the roll paper 51. Optical sensor 405 is A
The detection voltage characteristic in the X direction at the position of −A ′ will be described. Since the light is not reflected on the outside of the release paper 101, the detection voltage is 0V. The release paper 101 is made of yellow or blue coated paper and reflects light. Therefore, the detection voltage does not become 0V but becomes aV. In addition, label 10
0 is composed of white paper, and a detection voltage of bV can be obtained. Further, if the Y-direction characteristic when the optical sensor 405 passes through the position of BB ′ is detected, the release paper 101 and the label 10 are detected.
A similar difference in detection voltage can be obtained with 0. The shape of the label 100 can be detected by combining the detection voltages in the X and Y directions.

[0232] Next, the circuit configuration and its operation for checking the compatibility with the print format will be described.

FIG. 50 shows an example of the configuration of the circuit, which can be configured in association with the sensor circuit 167 of FIG.

When the roll paper 51 is attached to the printer and the print start is selected from the operation panel, the CPU
The control circuit 165 rotates the start motor to feed the roll paper 51, and at this time, a voltage corresponding to the shape of the label is generated in the optical sensor 405. This voltage is processed by the label shape detection circuit 466. Label shape detection circuit 46
Reference numeral 6 is composed of a switch circuit 467 and a label recording circuit 469. When the roll paper 51 reaches the position of the optical sensor 405, the switch circuit 467 measures the X-direction characteristic of the optical sensor 405.
One of 05 is selected, and the selected photosensor 405 is connected to the label shape recording circuit 469. The label shape recording circuit 469 compares the voltage levels aV and bV shown in FIG. 49, and if the voltage level is bV, stores it as the presence of the label 100. After the storage, the label shape storage circuit 469 requests the switch circuit 467 for the next data. The switch circuit 467 selects the next one of the linear photosensors 405 and performs the same operation. When the data for one line of the optical sensor 405 is detected by repeating this, the CPU 153 starts the control circuit 165, rotates the motor, and feeds the roll paper 51 for a certain length. The above-described detection method is repeated to store the characteristics in the X direction and the Y direction in the label shape storage circuit 469. The feed amount of the roll paper 51 is determined by the resolution of the optical sensor 405 and the required accuracy. That is, the feed amount is reduced when the label 100 having a complicated shape is mounted, and the feed amount is increased when the label 100 is simple. The end of the label 100 can be determined by the detection voltage of the optical sensor 405. That is, it is the position where the time when the portion of the voltage level bV has disappeared has ended.

When the detection of one label 100 is completed, the CPU 153 causes the label shape determination circuit 18 to collate the data in the RAM 156 with the data in the label shape storage circuit 469. If they match, the printing operation is started. If they do not match, the content of the error can be displayed on the operation panel, or the error can be transferred to the host computer 151 or the control panel 154 via the data transmitting / receiving unit 152.

With the above operation, the printer determines whether or not the print format and the shape of the label 100 are compatible, and it is possible to print only when they are compatible.

Next, a method of confirming print data such as a barcode will be described.

FIG. 51 is a conceptual diagram of the operation of the optical sensor 405 when the bar code BC is printed on the label 100.
Since the printed character has a barcode BC in the C-C 'part,
The detection voltage of the label 100 portion in the X direction is not constant. That is, the black printed portion of the bar code BC has a detection voltage of cV. This voltage may be detected by the optical sensor 405 to confirm whether or not the printing is performed correctly.

FIG. 52 shows an example of a circuit configuration for making a print determination. The shape determination of the label 100 is the same as in the case of FIG. When the roll paper 51 is loaded and the label 100 is detected by the optical sensor 405, the print detection circuit 470 inputs the detection voltage of the optical sensor 405. Print detection circuit 4
Reference numeral 70 determines whether or not a portion is printed by a preset print reference voltage. This print reference voltage is set to the voltage cV shown in FIG. The print reference voltage cV is determined according to the printed color, and the CPU 1
It can be set at 53. If the detected voltage is cV, it is considered to have been printed, and is temporarily recorded in the print determination circuit 471. The data of the print determination circuit 471 is CPU1.
The data in the RAM 156 is collated by 53, and if it is correct, the printing is continued, and if it is incorrect, an error is displayed,
Printing can be interrupted by transferring an error to the outside.

By the above operation, it is confirmed whether or not accurate printing is performed, and reliable printing can be secured.

Note that part of the circuit configuration shown in FIGS. 50 and 52 can be replaced by software.

In any case, in a printer that prints various types of labels, when the shape of the label is changed, for example, when a label such as a circle, an ellipse, or a rhombus is attached to the printer, it is determined and printed inside the printer. It can be printed only when it is compatible with the format.

Further, it is possible to judge whether the print content printed on the label matches the information to be printed, and it is possible to provide a highly reliable printer. In particular, when a bar code is desired to be printed, if the print bar is not printed for some reason or the print density is low, it is possible to judge that and it is effective.

The print format may be changed according to the label shape if no problem occurs.

(7) Printing data over a plurality of labels Conventionally, in a printer that prints on roll-shaped continuous paper such as label paper, the printing process is performed after the expansion process and expansion of the data for one page (label). In contrast to the one-page (label) printing process that is started, the device of this example appropriately expands or prints data in the print buffer to allow data exceeding the label length to be used for multiple labels. It is possible to respond by printing on. To this end, it is necessary to prevent printing between the labels and to ensure that the data is kept normal even when the labels are combined and attached. It is strongly requested that the page designation method does not become complicated when reprinting is performed due to a jam or the like when printing on the page, and that it is not necessary to discard or retake each page to ensure the legitimacy of the printed matter. To be done.

Therefore, in this example, the presence or absence of the label 100 attached on the release paper 101 is detected, the print data for one page is stored, and the stored print data is transferred to the print head line by line. According to the detection result of the presence / absence of a label in response to a print instruction, a predetermined amount of printing and line feed are performed when a label is detected, and only a line feed is performed when a label is not detected.

Alternatively, when resuming abnormal interruption during printing of a printed matter that is printed with a plurality of pages as one unit, from the first page of one unit to the page before the abnormal interruption occurs, or only the page in which the abnormal interruption occurs For other than the above, specific characters, symbols, lines, shading, etc. are additionally printed, or the printing color is fixed and printing is restarted.

For detecting the presence / absence of a label, for example, a structure as shown in FIG. 25 can be adopted.

FIG. 53 is a flow chart of the first embodiment for performing the control.

In FIG. 53, when a print instruction is issued, a predetermined area of the RAM, a reception buffer of the data transmission / reception unit, and a print buffer are initialized in step S501, and the label detection means detects the head of the label in step S502. Line up to and cue the print position. Next, in step S503, a print command / data for one page is input from the outside and stored in the reception buffer.

Further, in step S504, the image data for one page is expanded in the print buffer 158 by the print command / data stored in the reception buffer, and the image data for the page is expanded in the print buffer 158. RA print line number
It is stored in the work area of M156.

After that, the actual printing operation is performed from step S505 onward. First, at step S505, whether the number of actual printing lines is equal to the number of printing lines stored in the work area, that is, all the image data expanded in the print buffer are printed. Is finished, and if it is finished, the printing process for one page is finished.

If it is not finished, it is checked in step S506 if the label detecting means is in the label detecting state. If it is not in the detecting state, the process proceeds to step S508, the line feed is performed, and the process returns to step S505.

If it is detected in step S506, one line data is transferred to the print head by the print buffer in step S507 and printing is performed, and then the process proceeds to step S508 in the same manner as in the case of non-detection to cause a line feed, Return to S505.

The effect of this embodiment is illustrated in FIG. In the case where data exceeding the used label length is printed on a plurality of labels to deal with it, the technique prior to the present invention is shown in FIG.
As shown in (A), after printing is completed, if the label is peeled from the mount and attached to another one, the print is also printed on the mount, so that the normality of the printed matter is not maintained. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 57B, according to this example, the normality of the printed matter is maintained even in the above case.

FIG. 54 is a flow chart showing the second embodiment of the control according to this example.

In FIG. 54, the process of storing the reception data from the outside in the reception buffer is performed asynchronously with the printing process, and therefore the description thereof is omitted. Further, here, it is assumed that the number of pages in one printing unit is fixed.

First, in step S511, the number of recoveries, which stores the number of pages of one printing unit in the work area of the RAM in which the abnormal interruption has occurred, is initialized (0 page). Next, in step S512, the current page that stores how many pages of one printing unit in the work area are being printed is initialized (one page).

After that, the actual printing operation is performed from step S513 onward. First, in step S513, the value of the number of recoveries is checked, and if a value other than 0 is set (recovery), it is received in step S514. The print data is expanded in the print buffer from the received data stored in the buffer, and in step S515, the hatched pattern indicating the recover page is expanded in the print buffer by overlaying.

Thereafter, in step S516, the number of recoveries is reduced.

Then, in step S517, the print data developed in the print buffer is printed by the print head.

In step S518, the current page is added, and if the number of pages in one printing unit is exceeded, printing of one printing unit is completed. If the number of pages in one print unit is not exceeded, the process returns to step S513 to print the next page.

If the value of the number of recoveries in step S513 is 0 (normal), the print data is expanded from the received data stored in the receive buffer to the print buffer in step S519, and the process proceeds to step S517 to perform the printing operation. I do.

When an abnormal interruption such as a jam is detected during the printing operation in step S517, the restart operation is carried out in step S520, and when the instruction is given, step S52 is executed.
The current page is decremented by 1 and moved to the number of recoveries,
Returning to step S512, the recovery process is started.

The effects of this example are illustrated in FIGS. 58 (A) and 58 (B). 58A shows that an abnormal interruption such as a jam is detected on the third sheet during the printing process of a set of four sheets of printed matter, and in FIG. 58B,
Additional printing of a hatched pattern (addition of specific characters, symbols, and lines) to the recovery page up to the page (third sheet) where abnormal interruption such as jam of printed matter of a set of four sheets is detected by restart operation However, it can be done).

FIG. 55 is a flow chart of the third embodiment of the control of this example. This procedure is performed by step S51 in FIG.
4, S515 is only replaced by step S534, and other operations are the same. That is, step S5
At 34, the print data is expanded from the received data stored in the receive buffer corresponding to the print color fixed in advance in the print buffer.

FIG. 56 is a part of the flow chart of the fourth embodiment of the control of this example, and steps S513 to S of FIG.
514 and S519. However, in step S521, the current page is directly transferred to the number of recoveries.

At step S551 and subsequent steps, the additional data is expanded only to the page in which the abnormal interruption occurred during the recovery process. The print color can be fixed in the same manner.

The effect of this procedure is illustrated in FIGS. 58 (A) and 58 (C). FIG. 58A shows that an abnormal interruption such as a jam is detected on the third sheet during the printing process of a set of four sheets of printed matter, and in FIG. 58C,
This indicates that the halftone pattern is additionally printed only on the page (third sheet) where the restart operation is performed and abnormal interruption such as jamming of a set of four sheets is detected.

If step S553 is configured to be performed after step S554, shading is performed on pages other than the page (third sheet) in which a resuming operation is performed and abnormal interruption such as jamming of a set of four sheets is detected. It is possible to add a pattern or fix the print color.

(8) Printing Control Corresponding to Label Attitude When the paper (label) is conveyed obliquely with respect to the reference position as shown in FIG. 59, the label is changed as shown in FIG. 60 (A). If printing is performed obliquely on 100, and if the paper is being conveyed at a position that has moved parallel to the conveying direction from the reference position, the label 1 will be printed as shown in FIG.
The print is shifted to one side with respect to 00. In any case, a label attached to a product may even damage the image of the product itself.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 27, the paper edge position detection sensors 418 and 419 are arranged to detect the position, and the label position of the print head is calculated by this, and the nozzles used by each head are calculated. By selecting the position and printing, it is possible to always print at a fixed position on the label without being affected by the skew of the paper.

In particular, in the present embodiment, the resolution of the paper edge position detection sensor is equal to or higher than the resolution of the print head, and therefore, at most 1/2 dot is deviated from the resolution of the print head. Even when a plurality of inks are overlapped to produce a color, color unevenness or the like can be minimized.

That is, in the printing process described with reference to FIG. 37, if the edge position of the paper being conveyed is detected and the nozzles used for printing are selected according to the position to perform printing, the paper will meander and skew. Printing can always be performed at a stable position without being affected by lines, color unevenness and the like can be suppressed, and high-quality printing can be performed.

This will be described more specifically. here,
If the skewed state of the label paper is as shown in FIG. 61,
A case where the frame line is green by overlapping C (cyan) and Y (yellow) will be described. The sensor 41
It is assumed that the intervals between 8, 419 and each head are all L [mm], the skew amount is x [mm], and the transport speed is v [mm / sec].

In order to prevent the image from being skewed with respect to the label as shown in FIG. 60A, the point printed by the mth nozzle of C (cyan) is the skew amount in Y (yellow). If the (m + a) th nozzle, which is offset by the amount, is not printed, the dots will not overlap and will not become green.

Therefore, the sensors 418 and 419 detect the edge of the sheet.

The skew amount between the sensors 418 and 419 is x /
Since it is 5 L, Y (yellow) is (x / 5 L) × 2 L when the m-th nozzle of C (cyan) is used from this value.
(The interval between C and Y), that is, the nozzle (ejection port) displaced by (2/5) x is used. If the nozzle interval of the head is N [mm], it may be shifted by [(2/5) x ÷ N]. However, since the nozzle can only be operated in units of one, the value obtained by rounding the value of [(2/5) ÷ N] is used as a [integer], and the (m + a) th nozzle is used (1/2 by rounding off). It is possible to minimize misalignment of more than dots).

Further, if the m-th to n-th nozzles of the C (cyan) head are heated at the same time to print, a line inclined with respect to the paper is obtained, so (nm) ×
N (: line length) × (X / 5L) (: line inclination) ÷ v (: speed) [sec] minutes, after heating the mth nozzle, heat the nth nozzle by delaying the timing of heating I have to let you. Similarly for Y (yellow), the timing of heating the (n + a) th nozzle after heating the (m + a) th nozzle after 2L ÷ v [sec] is similarly delayed so that Y (yellow) is placed on C (cyan). ) Will be overprinted. Of course, m-th
The nozzles between the nth nozzles are sequentially heated according to the above formula.

More specifically, in this embodiment, the head resolution is 360 dpi and the speed v = 200 [mm / se.
c] and the head interval L = 25.4 [mm], so when x = 1 mm and m = 20 nozzle and n = 1400 nozzle.

[0281]

[Equation 3] (x / 5L) x 2L = [1 / (5 x 25.4)] x 2 x 25.4 = 2/5 [mm] (2/5) ÷ N = (2/5) ÷ (25.4 / 360 ) = 5.669∴a = 6, that is, when C (cyan) is printed by the 20th nozzle, Y (yellow) is printed by the 26th nozzle.

In addition,

[0283]

[Formula 4] (n−m) × N × (x / 5L) ÷ v = (1400−20) × (25.4 / 360) × [1 / (5 × 25.4)] ÷ 200 = 3.83 [msec] In other words, After heating the 20th nozzle of C (cyan) 3.83 [msec], the 1400th nozzle has an inclination to heat, and the heating timing of the nozzles is sequentially delayed for printing.

Such control is performed by the sensor systems 418, 41.
According to the arrangement and configuration of No. 9, the bit map may be appropriately expanded in the print buffer 158, or means for shifting the nozzles to be used may be added to the head control circuit 157.

(9) Shift printing As a printing method using a heating element, a thermal recording method in which heat is applied to a thermosensitive recording paper to develop color by heat, a thermal transfer recording method in which ink is transferred to the paper by heat, and a heating element instantly There are various methods such as an ink jet recording method in which liquid ink is vaporized and ink droplets are ejected by the pressure of bubbles to record on a paper, and the method is applied to printing apparatuses in various fields as a printing recording method.

The durability of the print head to which the above heating element is applied is governed by the disconnection of the resistor used as the heating element, the failure of the switching element such as the transistor for controlling the energization of each heating element, and the like. Further, especially in the case of a contact type print head such as thermal recording or thermal transfer recording, the head is damaged due to contact friction with the paper or the ink ribbon, and in the case of inkjet recording, ink clogging or dust in the ink flow path near the heat generating circuit is caused. It is also controlled by factors such as clogging.

When a part of the heating elements of the print head, that is, the print segment is damaged due to these factors, there is a possibility that a part of the information to be printed is missing or the printed information is erroneously recognized. The print head needs to be replaced. However, the print head is an expensive element, and at the same time, it takes a lot of time and trouble to replace the print head and a loss of time during which the printing operation cannot be performed, resulting in an increase in printing cost.

[0288] In order to cover the above-mentioned drawbacks, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 61-61
As described in No. -104872, a current that does not cause printing is applied to the heat generating circuit of the print head to detect a disconnection portion, and it is determined whether or not there is data to be printed at the print position corresponding to the disconnection portion. It has been proposed to print, and if there is no print data in the vicinity, search for it and print it there. Alternatively, there is a case where a method of indicating a reference for replacement may be taken by displaying an indication such as "The durability of this thermal head is about 50 km".

However, when the printed contents include ruled lines, frames, etc., when a large number of sheets are printed, the number of energizations of a specific heat generating circuit in the print head increases, and therefore the life of the heat generating circuit increases. The life of the entire print head is determined, and even if the disconnection portion is shifted and printing is performed, disconnection may occur because the number of energizations of only a specific heating circuit increases.

Particularly in the case of this example, since the print contents include a bar code, this must be appropriately avoided.

Therefore, in this example, when printing is performed by relatively moving the paper in the direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the print heads having a plurality of heating elements, the number of print elements from both ends of the arranged heating elements is increased. The same content is printed by detecting whether the heating element is not used, shifting the data taken in the data register according to the detected number, and changing the shift amount for each predetermined number of labels. When printing data, it is possible to prevent an increase in the number of energizations of a specific heating element, and hold it to prevent a decrease in durability due to a break in the heating circuit of the print head.

Now, it is assumed that the print data as shown in FIG. 47 is taken into the apparatus through the data transmitting / receiving unit 152 and at the same time the number of printed sheets N is taken. At this time, R
CPU1 by the program stored in OM155
Although 53 controls the expansion of the print data to the print buffer 158, dots having no print data at both ends of one line of the print data (one dot is printed by one heating circuit of the print head 21). (Indicating) is checked. Here, it is assumed that the left and right sides are the same and there are 20 dots each.

FIG. 62 is a flow chart showing an example of the control procedure at the time of printing according to this example. The shift amount can be made variable within a range corresponding to the numbers of unused dots x and y at the left and right ends, but here, the shift amount is set to two types of “0” and “A” in order to simplify the description. . "0" means that the shift amount is zero, that is, the print data is printed as is.
"A" means that the data is shifted by A and printed. For example, if the value of “A” is x = y = 20, it is set to “10”. If it is set to "20", the print data will be extremely edged.

The print control is as follows. First, in step S601, the number N of sheets to be printed is set. Next, in step S602, the print shift amount S is set to 0. When the print start is instructed, the data is shifted by S for development in the print buffer 158 in step S603. Since the first sheet has S = 0, the shift amount is 0 and the data is not shifted. Next, according to the data stored in the data register, each heating element of the print head is turned on to set 1 for the paper.
Lines are printed. In step S606, it is checked whether there is line data to be printed, and if there is any line data, printing is continued. At the time of printing, the motor is driven and the paper is conveyed line by line. This is repeated until all the lines are printed on the label, and if all the lines are printed, the process proceeds to step S607. Step S60
In No. 7, since one sheet has been printed, N-1 is set in N. In step S608, it is checked whether N = 0, that is, whether the number of printed sheets has been printed, and if not finished, the process proceeds to step S609. In step S609, it is checked whether or not the shift amount S is 0. If S = 0, S is set to A in step S610, and step S60
3, and if S = A, S is set to 0 and the process proceeds to step S603. S when one sheet is printed
Since = 0, A is set in S and the process proceeds to step S603.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the printed matter which has been shifted by 10 dots in the line direction of the print head is output every other sheet.

By printing in this manner, it is possible to suppress the number of times of energization to a heating element which constitutes a printing dot and has a high printing frequency, such as a frame or a bar coat, in a heating circuit corresponding to the printing dot. It will be possible.

In this embodiment, the shift amount is 0 and A (= 1).
Since it is set to two kinds of 0), the number of energization of the heating element corresponding to the dot where the printing frequency is concentrated is reduced by about half. A printing example according to this example is illustrated in FIG.

In this embodiment, the ink jet recording using the ink jet method is premised, but a thermal transfer recording using a thermal transfer ribbon, a thermal recording using a thermal paper, or the like, a print head including a plurality of heating elements is used. It goes without saying that any printing device can be applied.

In the above example, the shift amount S is "0" and "10".
Were two values. Therefore, for example, when the number of energizations of the heating element in the position portion is larger than that of other heating elements due to the presence of a thick frame or the like, for example, when the width of the frame is 20 dots, heat is generated as shown in FIG. Circuits H28 to H5
Of the three, the heating elements from H33 to H47 are almost always energized, and the shift effect may be weak. Therefore, the shift amount S is set to "-10", "0", and "1".
As shown in FIG. 65, H3
The energization frequency of the specific heating element from 3 to H48 can be suppressed.

Further, in these examples, the case where the width of the paper to be printed is approximately equal to the printable area of the print head has been described. The purpose can be achieved by detecting in the area corresponding to the width of the printing paper when detecting the heating circuit for applying the signal.

Further, in this example, since the print buffer for expanding the data of one page (one label) into the bitmap is provided, the data is expanded again every time one page is printed. If the head control circuit 157 has means for expanding the data so as to send the data to the print head one by one, the data shift may be performed at the time of the expansion.

Furthermore, since the ink jet head used in this example can arrange the discharge ports at a high density, it is possible to appropriately thin out the discharge ports to be used, for example, to drive every other dot in a sequential line, thereby reducing the frequency of use. It is also possible not to raise the height of only a specific ejection port.

In addition, in the case of the ink jet head, the paper and the head are not in contact with each other, and so-called "tailing" as in the case of printing a bar code using a thermal head.
Does not matter. Therefore, it is possible to incline the bar code within a range that does not cause a problem in reading so that the bar code is printed, for example, as shown in FIG.

In addition, it is also possible to detect that the print contents include ruled lines or bar codes, which particularly frequently use a particular heating element, and shift only in that case or only that portion. it can.

(10) Retaining Bar Accuracy (10.1) Retaining Bar Accuracy by Elevating the Head For example, consider the JAN code. For example, 11.
In order to print a barcode with a magnification of 1 (bar width 330 μm, tolerance ± 101 μm) in a print head with a dot density of 5 lines / mm and a deflection amount of maximum 35 μm, the minimum bar 330 μm is composed of 4 dots. . 4 with this head
The width of the dot is 348 μm without any deviation, and even when the deviation is maximum, it is 278 to 418 μm and falls within the JAN standard (229 to 431 μm). Therefore, as shown in FIG. 66, the distance between the paper and the head is x, When it is deflected to the maximum with respect to the ideal landing point a (y = 35 μm), there is no problem even if landing at the point c. However, when the minimum magnification of 0.8 times (bar width 264 μm, tolerance ± 35 μm) is printed, the minimum bar 264 μm is composed of 3 dots. In that case, the bar width without distortion is 260 μm. , The maximum deviation is 190 to 330 μm, which is outside the JAN standard (229 to 299 μm) and cannot be used as a bar code. In order to satisfy the standard when this magnification is 0.8, the maximum amount of deviation must be 15.5 μm or less.

Therefore, if the position of the head is moved so as to be x '= 0.4x in FIG. 66, then the amount of deviation y'between the maximum misaligned landing point b and the ideal landing point a is y'.
Becomes y = 0.4y = 0.4 × 35 μm = 14 μm,
When the magnification is 0.8, the allowable range is 15.5 μm or less, which satisfies the JAN standard.

In this embodiment, when a print command is created by an external device, for example, the host computer 151, the input of the bar code portion, the input of the character and numeral portion, and the input of the illustration portion are input. Then, step S100 of FIG.
When the input information is expanded into image data for one sheet, the minimum bar width is detected from the bar code data, and if it is composed of 3 dots, the head is driven to the position of x'in FIG. If there are 4 dots, printing is performed after moving the head to the position of x in FIG. After printing is completed, the head is retracted to a predetermined position to avoid jamming due to curling of the paper. Figure 6
7 (A) is a schematic diagram of dots when there is no deviation, (B) is a schematic view when the distance between the paper and the head is x ', and (C) is the maximum deviation when the distance between the paper and the head is x. FIG.

In this example, the movement of the print head is described as being controlled by the number of dots forming the fine line, but a mechanism for detecting the paper thickness is provided, and the position of the print head is changed according to the thickness of the paper. 66 to control
Of course, the same result can be obtained even if the position of x'is secured.

In any case, by making the head position movable, it is possible to print a stable line by reducing the deviation amount for a thin line width. Further, since thin lines can be stably printed, the magnification of the barcode can be reduced and the size of the printing paper itself can be reduced, which is also effective in saving paper.

(10.2) Bar Accuracy Maintenance by Ejection Volume Control By the way, the size of the bar code to be printed, the thick and thin bar ratio, etc. depend on the density of the print head. On the other hand, the barcodes are "JAN", "UPC", "CODE39", "CODE".
There are types such as “E93”, and the thick and thin bar ratios are standardized for each type. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately print the width of the bar. In a conventional bar code printer, a paper feed mechanism is usually designed according to the dot density of a print head to be used, and one pitch of paper feed always prints once with one line of the same thickness. However, since the printing operation is performed by setting the size of one dot and the dot pitch that satisfy the density according to the bar code standard, the both ends of the black bar are printed with the same dot diameter. As shown in FIG. 5, the width of the black bar becomes thicker than the regular width T like the width T ′, and the width of the white bar (the bar having a high reflectance among the parallel bars forming the bar code) becomes thin accordingly. Had the problem of becoming.

Therefore, in this example, when storing the input bar code data in the print buffer, both ends of the black bar in the bar code data are detected and one dot at both ends of the black bar is detected. By controlling the applied voltage and / or the applied pulse width of only the head that prints one dot at both ends when printing, and by making the ink ejection amount small,
By providing a hand mark to reduce the diameter of dots to be printed, not only the density of the bar code but also the width of the bar can be printed accurately. As a result, the densities at both ends of the black bar may not meet the standard. In that case, it is more effective to print a larger dot diameter than at the ends of the black bar. In addition, when printing a small dot diameter as a whole, when printing the detected black bar, the dot diameters other than one dot at both ends are printed larger.

Specifically, in the process of step S100 of FIG. 37, when print data is input via the transmission / reception unit 15, this print data is temporarily stored in the reception buffer of the RAM 156. Since the received print data contains the character code corresponding to the characters to be printed on one label and the numeric code corresponding to the barcode, etc., this received print data is analyzed and the character generator and numeric code are analyzed. / When a bar code conversion table is used to develop image data for one label and store it in the print buffer 158, a black bar with a thickness of 3 dots or more in the bar code data is detected, and the black bar is detected. When printing one dot on both ends of the print buffer 15, the voltage V applied to the head shown in FIG. 69 is slightly lowered or the pulse width W is narrowed, and the data is stored in the RAM 156 before being printed in the print buffer 15.
Expand to 8. Then, the image data for one line is read from the print buffer 158, and the data in which the strength of the applied voltage is stored is read from the RAM 156 and input to the read head control circuit 157 to detect 3 dots which are detected in advance when the head is driven. By lowering the applied voltage to the head element that prints one dot on both ends of the black bar having the above thickness, the amount of ink ejected is reduced and the bar code is printed accurately as shown in FIG.

The effect of this example will be described in more detail. For example, an inkjet printer having a resolution of 360 dpi can be used as a bar code (here, J specified in JIS X0501).
(Described with AN code) is to be printed.

Since the resolution is 360 dpi, the pitch between ink jet nozzles is 70.5 μm. However, in ink jet recording, since the print dot shape is close to a circle,
With printing dots having a diameter of 70.5 μm, a gap is generated between dots when printing a solid image (for example, the inner portion of the bar). Therefore, the printer using the normal ink jet recording system is designed so that the print dot diameter is equal to or larger than √2 × nozzle pitch. In this embodiment, √2
The description will be made assuming that it is × 70.5 μm × 1.2≈120 μm (the larger the dot diameter, the higher the printing density and the less white spots, so the size is increased by 20%).

According to JIS X0501, the minimum bar width (one module size) in JAN code is 264μ.
Although it is specified from m to 660 μm, in a device that prints a bar with a print head like this device, one bar is composed of several dots.
This means that some of the allowable widths from 4 μm to 660 μm can be expressed.

That is, the JA that can be expressed when the print dot diameter is 120 μm and the pitch between print nozzles is 70.5 μm
The minimum bar width of N code is

[0317]

264 ≦ 70.5 (a−1) + 120 ≦ 660: a must satisfy the condition of the number of dots forming the bar, and 3 ≦ a ≦ 8. In other words, in this printer, the number of dots printed in the width direction of the bar is 3
It is up to 8 pieces. Here, when a = 4,
That is, when the minimum black bar (1 module size) that is actually printed when the minimum black bar (1 module) is composed of 4 dots is calculated,

[0318]

## EQU6 ## 70.5 × (4-1) + 120 = 331.5 μm.

Since the entire JAN code is composed of 95 modules (in the standard version), the total size is

[0320]

## EQU00007 ## 70.5.times. (95.times.4-1) + 120 = 26839.5 .mu.m Therefore, when the size of one module is calculated from the size of this whole.

[0321]

[Equation 8] 26839.5 / 95 = 282.5 Therefore, by setting the dot diameter to 120 μm,
The width of the bar, which should be 2.5 μm, will be 331.5 μm. That is, it is about 49 μm too thick. Further, the above values are values when there is no deviation in the printing position, and assuming that the printing position accuracy σ = 15 μm in a normal inkjet printing apparatus, it is sufficiently possible that the deviation from the desired size exceeds 60 μm. Become. According to X0501, this deviation is described as a bar width tolerance, but when one module dimension is 281 μm, it is ± 51 μm, and when it is 297 μm, it is ± 69 μm.
When it is 282.5 μm by proportional calculation, it becomes about 53 μm,
Clearly it can be said that the standard is not met.

Therefore, by applying this example as described below, it is possible to provide a bar code which satisfies the standard and has a high bar density and a small white spot. The size of the print dots that form the outside of the bar is small, for example 90 μm.
Therefore, the minimum black bar width is

[0323]

## EQU9 ## 70.5 × (4-1) + 90 = 301.5 μm, and even if the printing accuracy of σ = 15 μm is included in the calculation, it can be sufficiently within the range of 282.5 ± 53 μm.

For example, when the bleeding rate of the recording paper is 2.5, about 58 p is necessary to obtain a dot diameter of 120 μm.
It is designed to eject 1 (picoliter) droplets, but the droplets from the print nozzles are ejected by about 24 pl using a means for detecting the positions of the print dots corresponding to the ends of the black bar as described separately. The effect of this example can be realized by controlling the print pulse width so that

(10.3) Maintaining Bar Accuracy by Adding Data In addition to controlling the discharge amount in this way to maintain bar accuracy, the following may be performed. Also in this example, the processing up to the detection of the bar is the same as in the above example.

In this example, a white bar in the bar code data is detected, a white bar of 1 dot or more is added in accordance with the thickness of the white bar, and the additional data is shifted and printed. Is stored in the RAM 156, and the print buffer 1
Expand to 58. Then, by reading the data from the print buffer 158 and inputting it to the head control circuit 157, driving the head, and printing the bar code, as shown in FIG. 71, the width T when the processing of this example is not performed is performed. It is possible to obtain an appropriate width T of the white bar for '.

To describe the effect of this example in detail, for example, 360d
With an inkjet printer with pi resolution,
When the JAN13 digit code described in JIS X0501 is printed, and the minimum black bar (1 module size) is printed with 4 dots, and the diameter of one print dot is 120 μm (on recording paper) The difference between the bar sizes in the case of this example (adding one dot to the white bar) is shown in the table below.

[0328]

[Table 1]

As described above, it can be seen that the difference between the widths of the minimum width black bar and the white bar is reduced, and the white bar approaches the value of one module width calculated from the length of the entire bar code.

The same applies to black bars and white bars having a width of two modules or more.

When a bar code is printed in this way, the width of the white bar can be accurately printed by adding a white bar of 1 dot or more to the white bar portion, and an accurate bar code can be printed. effective.

(11) Others Since the ink jet head is used in this example, the peculiar effects described above can be obtained by this, but in addition, the following remarkable effects are obtained.

That is, when a bar code is recorded by using a thermal head, when a bar is printed by extending in a direction orthogonal to the line head (paper conveying direction), a specific heating element is continuously driven. Therefore, heat storage in a particular heating element becomes a problem. In particular, the upper part of the bar, which is printed later in the height direction of the bar, is printed thicker than the lower part due to the heat accumulated in the heating element, and therefore it is necessary to control the energy applied to the heating element. .

On the other hand, when printing in a direction outside the carrying direction, such as the line head direction, a large number of continuous heating elements in the arrangement direction of the heating elements of the full multi-head are driven at one time, and printing is performed by the accumulated heat. The portion not heated is heated and becomes a streak in the trailing state, which affects the image quality. Particularly in the case of a bar code for which printing accuracy is important, the bar interval at which printing is not performed is disturbed, and this adversely affects the bar code detection accuracy.

Further, when recording is performed in a state where the temperature of the heating element is low (after a line where printing is not performed continues), the color is not sufficiently developed, and a thin line is printed with a density that cannot be accurately detected by the bar code scanner. There is also a risk that it will be done.

Therefore, it is necessary to control so that the color is sufficiently developed in the next recording in the element which does not record and the temperature of the heat generating element does not rise excessively in the element which continuously records. is necessary.

From this point of view, the use of the inkjet head is effective.

The present invention is particularly equipped with means for generating heat energy as energy used for ejecting ink (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) among the ink jet recording systems, and The effect is excellent in a recording head and a recording apparatus of a system that causes a change in ink state by energy. This is because such a system can achieve high density recording and high definition recording.

Regarding its typical structure and principle, see, for example, US Pat. No. 4,723,129 and US Pat. No. 4,740.
What is done using the basic principles disclosed in 796 is preferred. This method is a so-called on-demand type,
It can be applied to any of the continuous type, but especially in the case of the on-demand type, it can be applied to the sheet holding the liquid (ink) or the electrothermal converter arranged corresponding to the liquid path. By applying at least one drive signal corresponding to the recording information and giving a rapid temperature rise exceeding nucleate boiling, heat energy is generated in the electrothermal converter, and film boiling is caused on the heat acting surface of the recording head. Liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal in a one-to-one correspondence
It is effective because bubbles can be formed inside. Due to the growth and contraction of the bubbles, the liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection opening to form at least one droplet. It is more preferable to make this drive signal into a pulse shape, because the bubble growth and contraction are immediately and appropriately performed, so that the ejection of the liquid (ink) with excellent responsiveness can be achieved. As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable. If the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 of the invention relating to the rate of temperature rise on the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the constitution of the recording head, in addition to the combination constitution of the discharge port, the liquid passage, and the electrothermal converter (the straight liquid passage or the right-angled liquid passage) as disclosed in the above-mentioned respective specifications, US Pat. No. 4,558,333, US Pat. No. 4,558,333, which discloses a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region.
The structure using the specification of No. 59600 is also included in the present invention. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-123670 discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of the electrothermal converter for a plurality of electrothermal converters, and an opening for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy is provided. The effect of the present invention is effective even if the configuration corresponding to the ejection portion is disclosed in JP-A-59-138461. That is, according to the present invention, recording can be surely and efficiently performed regardless of the form of the recording head.

Further, in the above example, a full line type recording head having a length corresponding to the maximum width of the recording medium which can be recorded by the recording apparatus is used. However, such a recording head may be a combination of a plurality of recording heads. Either a structure satisfying the length or a structure as one recording head integrally formed may be used.

In addition, even in the case of the serial type, by mounting the recording head fixed to the apparatus main body or the apparatus main body, it becomes possible to electrically connect to the apparatus main body and supply ink from the apparatus main body. The present invention is also effective when a replaceable chip type recording head or a cartridge type recording head in which an ink tank is integrally provided in the recording head itself is used.

Further, as the constitution of the recording apparatus of the present invention, it is preferable to add ejection recovery means of the recording head, preliminary auxiliary means and the like because the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. Specifically, heating is performed by using a capping unit, a cleaning unit, a pressure or suction unit for the recording head, an electrothermal converter or a heating element other than this, or a combination thereof. Examples thereof include a preliminary heating unit for performing the discharge and a preliminary discharge unit for performing discharge different from the recording.

Regarding the type or number of recording heads to be mounted, for example, only one is provided corresponding to a single color ink, or a plurality of inks having different recording colors and densities are supported. A plurality of pieces may be provided. That is, for example, the recording mode of the recording apparatus is not limited to the recording mode of only the mainstream color such as black, but it may be either the recording head is integrally formed or a plurality of combinations may be used. Alternatively, an apparatus provided with at least one of full-color recording modes by color mixing is extremely effective because a barcode is insufficient and colorization is being considered.

In addition, in the above-described embodiments of the present invention, the ink is described as a liquid, but an ink that solidifies at room temperature or lower and that softens or liquefies at room temperature may be used. Or, in the inkjet system, it is common to control the temperature of the ink itself within the range of 30 ° C. or higher and 70 ° C. or lower to control the temperature so that the viscosity of the ink is within the stable ejection range. Sometimes, a liquid ink may be used. In addition, the temperature rise due to thermal energy is positively prevented by using it as the energy of the state change of the ink from the solid state to the liquid state, or in order to prevent the evaporation of the ink, it is solidified and heated in the standing state. You may use the ink liquefied by. In any case, by applying thermal energy such as ink that is liquefied by applying thermal energy according to the recording signal and liquid ink is ejected, or that begins to solidify when it reaches the recording medium. The present invention can be applied to the case where an ink having a property of being liquefied for the first time is used. In this case, the ink is
JP-A-54-56847 or JP-A-60-7
As described in Japanese Patent No. 1260, it may be configured to face the electrothermal converter in a state of being held as a liquid or a solid in the concave portion or the through hole of the porous sheet. In the present invention, the most effective one for each of the above-mentioned inks is to execute the above-mentioned film boiling method.

In addition, as the form of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention, other than the one used as an image output terminal of an information processing apparatus such as a computer, a copying apparatus combined with a reader or the like, and a facsimile apparatus having a transmitting / receiving function are provided. It may be a form or the like.

[0347]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to realize a label printer that employs the inkjet method and takes advantage of its advantages, and also to make it compact.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a label printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the label printer of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an external perspective view showing a state in which a lid portion of the label printer of the embodiment is opened.

FIG. 4 is an external perspective view showing a state in which an exterior cover of the apparatus of the embodiment is removed.

FIG. 5 is a front view showing the internal configuration of the apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the internal structure of the apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of a recording target sheet.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of TOF marks on the sheet.

FIG. 9 is a front view showing a configuration example of an operation panel on the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 10 is a schematic view showing a configuration example of a head lifting mechanism in the apparatus of this example.

11A and 11B are schematic diagrams showing another configuration example of the head lifting mechanism in the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration example of an ink system of the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration example of an ink system of the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 14 is a schematic view showing another configuration example of the ink system of the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram showing still another configuration example of the ink system of the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram of the pump.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing another configuration example of the pump.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing still another configuration of the pump.

FIG. 19 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of a head mounting portion of the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram showing how ink is overlapped on a recording medium.

FIG. 21 is a perspective view showing the positional relationship between the head and the recovery system unit of the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 22 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the recovery system unit at the time of recovery.

23A to 23D are explanatory views for explaining each position of the head and the recovery system unit.

24A and 24B are a schematic plan view and a schematic side view, respectively, showing an example of the configuration of a sensor used to detect a label shape.

25A and 25B are a schematic plan view and a side view, respectively, for explaining another configuration example of the sensor.

26A and 26B are a schematic plan view and a side view, respectively, for explaining still another configuration example of the sensor.

FIG. 27 is a schematic plan view showing a configuration example of a sensor system for detecting the posture of a label.

FIG. 28 is a schematic perspective view showing a configuration example of a sensor system for detecting the posture of a label.

FIG. 29 is a schematic plan view showing another configuration example of the sensor system for detecting the label posture.

FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a control system of the device of this example.

FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a control panel of the device of this example.

FIG. 32 is a conceptual diagram of a printing mechanism of the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 33 is an equivalent circuit diagram of the head portion of the device of this example.

FIG. 34 is a timing chart of a print control signal supplied to the head.

FIG. 35 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration example of a head control circuit.

FIG. 36 is a flowchart showing an example of an initial processing procedure after the power of the apparatus of this example is turned on.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart showing an example of a print processing procedure of the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 38 is a flowchart showing an example of a preliminary ejection processing procedure during printing of the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart showing an example of a recovery processing procedure of the device of this example.

FIG. 40 is a flowchart showing an example of a preliminary ejection processing procedure of the apparatus of this example.

FIG. 41 is a flowchart showing an example of a wiping process procedure of the device of this example.

42A to 42C are explanatory views showing each area provided in the RAM for expansion control based on data content.

FIG. 43 is a flowchart showing an example of the expansion control procedure.

FIG. 44 is a flowchart showing another example of the expansion control procedure.

45 (A) and 45 (B) are explanatory views for explaining the effect of the processing of FIGS. 43 and 44, respectively.

FIG. 46 is an explanatory diagram showing a format example of printer specifying data.

FIG. 47 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of print content on a label.

FIG. 48 is a flowchart showing an example of a label specifying print control procedure.

FIG. 49 is an operation conceptual diagram of the optical sensor shown in FIG. 24.

FIG. 50 is a block diagram showing an example of a circuit configuration for determining compatibility with the print format of label paper.

FIG. 51: FIG. 2 when a barcode is printed on the label
It is an operation conceptual diagram of the optical sensor of FIG.

FIG. 52 is a block diagram showing an example of a circuit configuration for performing print determination.

FIG. 53 is a flowchart showing an example of a control procedure for printing data over a plurality of labels.

FIG. 54 is a flow chart showing an example of another control procedure.

FIG. 55 is a flow chart showing an example of still another control procedure.

FIG. 56 is a flow chart showing an example of still another control procedure.

57A and 57B are explanatory diagrams for explaining the effect of the processing of FIG. 53.

58A to 58C are explanatory diagrams for explaining the effect of the processing in FIG. 54.

FIG. 59 is an explanatory diagram showing a skew-feeding state of label paper.

FIG. 60A and FIG. 60B are explanatory views showing a printing state at the time of skew conveyance and at the time of bias conveyance from the normal position, respectively.

FIG. 61 is an explanatory diagram for explaining control for performing printing correctly on a label that is skew-conveyed.

FIG. 62 is a flowchart showing an example of a shift print control procedure performed to even out the frequency of use of recording elements.

FIG. 63 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing example when the procedure is performed.

FIG. 64 is an explanatory diagram illustrating another example of shift printing.

FIG. 65 is an explanatory diagram for explaining still another example of shift printing.

FIG. 66 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a process for maintaining the accuracy of the barcode by moving the head up and down.

67 (A), (B) and (C) are explanatory views for explaining a decrease in bar accuracy due to twisting.

FIG. 68 is an explanatory diagram for explaining widening of a black bar of a barcode by forming dots.

FIG. 69 is an explanatory diagram of applied pulses for driving a recording element.

FIG. 70 is an explanatory diagram of maintaining bar accuracy by controlling the discharge amount.

FIG. 71 is an explanatory diagram of bar accuracy retention by white data addition control.

[Explanation of symbols]

 PDS print data supply means SDM special data addition means SCM expansion control means DSM data expansion means HDM head drive means BAM bar accuracy retention means SRM ink supply / recovery means MID print medium information detection means 1 label printer main body 2 operation panel 3 lid 51 Label paper 55 Curl correction roller 61, 62, 84, 86 TOF sensor 63 Charging roller 64 Static elimination roller 65 Belt 68 Head block 78 Recovery unit 79 Head movement motor 81 Recovery unit movement motor 83 Ink supply unit 90 Memory card 100 Label 101 Separator 103 TOF mark 151 Host computer 152 Data transmitter / receiver 153 Main CPU 154 Control panel 155 ROM 156 RAM 157 F Control circuit 158 print buffer 159 I / O port 164 drive circuit 165 drive motor 167 sensor circuit 168 operation panel 301Bk, 301C, 301M, 301Y head 307 sub tank 308 pump 312 head holder 405 label shape detection sensor 418 skew feed amount detection sensor 468 Label shape determination circuit 469 Label shape storage circuit 470 Print detection circuit 471 Print determination circuit

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Reference number within the agency FI Technical indication location B41J 2/185 5/30 B 15/00 B41J 3/04 102 R (72) Inventor Yuichi Watanabe Ota Ward, Tokyo 3-30-2 Shimomaruko Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Shigeru Inose 5540-11 Sakate-cho, Mizukaido City, Ibaraki Prefecture Incorporated Canon Aptex Co., Ltd. (72) Katsumi Sugiyama 5540-11 Sakate-cho, Mizukaido City, Ibaraki Prefecture Canon Aptex Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kohei Ishikawa 5540-11 Sakate-cho, Mizukaido City, Ibaraki Prefecture Canon Aptex Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Issei Nishimoto 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. In the company

Claims (19)

[Claims] 1. A continuous paper in which a plurality of labels are continuously attached to a release paper is used, and the label is used as a print medium to print using a print head in which a plurality of ink ejection ports are arranged. A printer for performing the print head, a head control unit for controlling the print head, a storage unit for storing print data to be printed by the head control unit, and at least the print data created or previously created. A part for changing and correcting a part, a carrying part for carrying the continuous paper relative to the print head, an ink supplying part for supplying ink to the print head, and a print performance by the print head. Head recovery means for stabilizing the Printer, characterized in that it comprises a communication means for communicating data including. 2. The transport means has means for transporting the continuous paper at a print position by the print head by a transport belt using electrostatic attraction, and the roll is disposed upstream of the print position in the transport direction. 2. The printer according to claim 1, further comprising: a unit that corrects a curl of the continuous paper formed in a strip shape and a unit that gives an appropriate slack when the continuous paper is conveyed. 3. The conveyor belt is N inside the conveyor belt.
A BR layer and an outer silicon-based insulating layer facing the continuous paper, and a negative charge is applied to the silicon-based insulating layer by the first charging means prior to adsorption of the continuous paper. 3. The positive charge is applied to the vicinity of the contact point of the conveyor belt by a second charging unit provided in a shape that scissors the recording paper with the conveyor belt. Printer. 4. The transport surface of the continuous paper by the transport means is located between the side where the print head and the head recovery means are located and the side where the ink supply means is located. The printer according to any one of claims 1 to 3. 5. The transport surface of the continuous paper at the print position by the print head is substantially parallel to the level surface, and the print head and the head recovery means are arranged above the transport surface, and the transport surface is provided. The printer according to claim 4, wherein the ink supply unit is disposed further downward. 6. A plurality of print heads are provided corresponding to inks having different color tones, and time division is performed so that timings of print drive pulse signals applied to the plurality of print heads do not overlap with each other. 2. The head control means includes a processing means.
6. The printer according to any one of 5 to 5. 7. One of the three memory access means is preliminarily provided by a first to a third memory access means for accessing the storage means and a first bus arbitration means for arbitrating the priority of the memory access. Control means for making a decision based on the decided priority order, and the third memory access means further includes a plurality of data transfer means,
Within the period permitted by the third memory access means,
7. The printer according to claim 1, further comprising a second bus arbitration unit that sequentially transfers memory data to the plurality of data transfer requesting units. 8. The printer according to claim 1, further comprising means for interrupting and resuming printing during the printing operation. 9. The printer according to claim 8, wherein the printing is interrupted and restarted at predetermined intervals, by a command, or by a key or switch operation. 10. The recovery operation by the head recovery means is performed when the printing is interrupted.
Or the printer according to item 9. 11. The printer according to claim 10, wherein the recovery unit is performed by ejecting ink according to predetermined pattern data. 12. The printer according to claim 10, wherein the recovery operation is performed by ink circulation in the print head, the ink supply unit, and the head recovery unit. 13. A printer for performing printing on a print medium by using a print head having a plurality of ink ejection openings arranged therein, and a transport means for transporting the print medium relative to the print head, and the print. An ink supply unit for supplying ink to the head; and a head recovery unit for stabilizing the printing performance of the print head, wherein the print head and the side on which the head recovery unit is located and the ink supply unit are A printer characterized in that a transport surface of the print medium by the transport means is positioned between the printer and a side on which the print medium is positioned. 14. A transport surface of the print medium at a print position of the print head is substantially parallel to a level surface, and the print head and the head recovery means are arranged above the transport surface, and the transport surface is provided. 14. The printer according to claim 13, wherein the ink supply unit is arranged below the printer. 15. The head recovery means has a pump for receiving and collecting ink discharged from the print head, and the ink supply means has a pump for supplying ink in a direction toward the print head. 15. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the two pumps are driven by a single drive source. 16. The printer according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of print heads can be attached in correspondence with inks having different color tones. 17. The print head is arranged such that the plurality of print heads are arranged in order from the upstream side in the conveying direction of the print medium in order of decreasing lightness of ink.
The printer according to item 6. 18. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the print head has an element that generates thermal energy used for ejecting ink. 19. A temperature sensor attached to the print head, the temperature sensor detecting the temperature rise of the print head to interrupt the print operation, reduce the print speed, or reduce the ink in the print head. The circulation is carried out, wherein
The printer according to item 8.