JPH0781197A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printer of the wire-dot type, wherein when an ink ribbon has been worn and printed characters have become thin, printing can be set so as to be repeated a plurality of times so that the quality of the printing can be maintained at a certain level. CONSTITUTION:There are provided a storage means 2 wherein data associated with the relationship between number of printed characters and number of repeated printings is stored beforehand, and a control means 1 for controlling a printing element 3 so that number of printed characters are counted, and printing is performed according to the number of repeated printings corresponding to the number of the printed characters based on the stored data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer for printing print information supplied from the outside by using an ink ribbon, and is particularly suitable for use for a long time such as use in a production line. About printers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a wire dot type printer has been used in a wide range of applications. The printer prints characters and the like made up of dots by hitting pins on an ink ribbon.

[0003]

By the way, for example, there is a case where a printer of this type is used in a production line to continuously print for a long time. In such a case, when printing with a wire dot type printer, as shown in FIG. 2, when a large number of characters are printed, the ink ribbon is consumed and printing becomes thin. In this case, conventionally, the only option was to replace the ink ribbon. However, since it takes time to replace the ink ribbon, it is impossible to replace the ink ribbon while the production line is operating, and the printing becomes gradually thin as the ink ribbon is continuously used. As a result, the worker has a difficulty in noticing it. As described above, the conventional printer has a drawback that the printing quality may be deteriorated due to the consumption of the ink ribbon.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in a wire dot type printer, when the ink ribbon is exhausted and the printing becomes thin, it is set so that printing can be performed by overprinting a plurality of times. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer that can perform printing and can maintain a constant print quality.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a printer according to a first aspect of the present invention is a printer that drives a printing unit according to print information supplied from the outside to perform printing. It is characterized in that it has an input means for inputting the number of times of overprinting of a set, and a control means for controlling the printing unit so that printing is performed according to the number of overprints input by the input means. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a printer that drives a printing unit according to print information supplied from the outside to perform printing, a storage unit that stores in advance data that associates the number of characters to be printed with the number of times of overprinting, and printing. It is characterized in that it has a control means for counting the number of characters and controlling the printing unit so as to print based on the data according to the number of times of repeated printing corresponding to the number of printing characters.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the number of times of over-printing is input from the input means, and the control means controls the printing unit so that the printing unit prints according to the number of over-printing. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the storage unit stores in advance the data in which the number of print characters and the number of times of repeated printing are associated with each other. The control means counts the number of characters to be printed, and controls the printing unit to print based on the data according to the number of times of overprinting corresponding to the number of characters to be printed.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the printer according to the present embodiment includes a control unit 1, a storage unit 2 that stores the number N of times of repeated printing that is information necessary for control, a printing unit 3 that is a driving mechanism for printing, and a communication line. An interface 4 for receiving print information supplied as a production instruction from a host computer via the computer and delivering the print information to the control unit 1, and an input unit 5 for inputting a command for designating the number N of over-strikes configured by a keyboard or the like It consists of and.

According to the embodiment having the above construction, the number N of times of repeated printing is stored in advance in the storage unit 2 as "1", so that the ink ribbon is not consumed and printing of sufficient density is possible. During normal operation, one printing is performed in accordance with the pre-stored number of times N "1" of overprinting. Next, it is determined that printing is faint due to the consumption of the ink ribbon and one printing is not sufficient, and a command for designating a number of "2" or more as the number N of repeated ejections is input from the input unit 5. Then, the control unit 1 controls the number N of repeated hits in the storage unit 2.
Will be updated. The print information supplied from the host computer via the communication line is supplied to the control unit 1 via the interface 4. The control unit 1 then prints on the printing unit 3 in accordance with the number N of times of repeated striking stored in the storage unit 2.
Is controlled to print the print information.

As described above, according to the first embodiment,
When the operator inputs the number of times N of over-strikes from the input unit 5, it is possible to perform printing a plurality of times and perform over-strikes.
By operating the input unit 5, it is possible to easily change the number N of repeated hits. Therefore, when the operator determines that the ink ribbon has been consumed and the print has become thin, the print can be made dark by setting the number N of times of repeated printing according to the thinness. As a result, even if the ink ribbon is exhausted during operation of the production line, it can be dealt with by a simple software operation, and it is not necessary to replace the ink ribbon over time. .

Next, a second embodiment will be described. The present embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the storage unit 2 is previously stored in FIG.
It stores the data associating the number of print characters i with the number of times N of overprinting as shown in (3), and has a print character number recording area for recording the number of print characters i. The storage unit 2 is backed up by a battery or the like so that the stored contents are not lost even when the power is cut off.

According to the present embodiment, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 4, first, when an instruction to start a program is given by turning on the power or inputting a command, the control section 1 causes the print character number recording area of the storage section 2 to be displayed. "0" is written as the number of print characters i (step S1). After that, the control unit 1 repeats the processing of steps S2 to S5.

In step S2, it is determined whether or not a reset command has been input from the input section 5, that is, whether or not the number of print characters i recorded in the storage section 2 is to be reset. When proceeding and resetting, the number of print characters i is set to "0", and then the process returns to step S2. In step S3, the number N of times of repeated printing is set based on the value of the number of print characters i recorded in the storage unit 2 in step S1 or Step S2 and the data of FIG.
For example, if the value of the number of print characters i is "2000", the number N of overprinting is set to "2", and if the number of print characters i is "2001", the number N of overprinting is set to "4". It

In step S4, it is determined whether or not a printing command for one character has been sent to the printing unit 3. If the determination result is "YES", "1" is added to the print character number i stored in the storage unit 2, and the result is recorded as a new print character number i in the print character number recording area (step S5). Return to step S2. If the determination result of step S4 is "NO", that is, if printing is not performed, the process directly returns to step S2. By repeating the above cycle, when the specified number of print characters i is reached based on the data of FIG. 3, the number N of times of repeated printing is automatically increased. Then, each time the printing unit 3 receives a printing command from the control unit 1, printing is performed in accordance with the number N of times of repeated printing.

As described above, in the second embodiment, the data of FIG. 3 created in view of the fact that the number of print characters i and the ink blur are correlated is stored in advance in the storage unit 2, Whenever one character is printed, the number of printing characters i is counted and recorded in the storage unit 2. When the specified number of characters is reached, the number N of times of repeated printing is automatically increased. Therefore, it is not necessary for the operator to keep in mind that the printing becomes gradually lighter as a result of continuous work. It is possible to obtain the effect that it is not necessary to determine whether or not

[0015]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. According to the first aspect of the present invention, the number of times of over-printing can be input by the input device, and the control unit controls the printing unit to print according to the number of over-printing. Therefore, the ink ribbon is consumed. Even if the print becomes lighter, you can set the print density to the required darkness by replacing the ink ribbon and setting the number of overprints according to the thinness of the print. Can be kept at In addition, the input work of the number of times of repeated striking can be performed only by a simple operation on software, or can be performed during the operation of the production line.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the storage means stores in advance data in which the number of print characters and the number of times of overprinting are associated with each other, the control means counts the number of print characters, and based on the data, the number of print characters is calculated. Since the printing unit controls printing according to the corresponding number of times of repeated printing, when the ink ribbon is exhausted, the data and the value of the number of characters actually printed will give a sufficient darkness. Since the number of overprints required for printing is automatically calculated, it is not necessary for the operator to keep in mind that the print will be thin, and the number of overprints should be set according to the degree of thinness. It is possible to obtain an effect that it is not necessary to make a decision as to whether or not to make a decision. Furthermore, since the number of times of repeated printing is automatically increased according to the number of characters to be printed, it is possible to obtain the effect of reducing the number of steps.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing the number of characters printed and the density of printing in a general printer, where the X axis represents the number of characters printed and Y
The axis indicates the print density.

FIG. 3 is a table showing data in which the number of print characters and the number of times of repeated printing are associated with each other in the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process of overprinting of the printer in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 control part (control means) 2 storage part (storage means) 3 printing part 5 input part (input means)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printer for driving a printing unit to perform printing in accordance with print information supplied from the outside, input means for inputting the number of times of overprinting of the printing unit, and overprinting input by the input means. A printer, comprising: a control unit that controls a printing unit to print according to the number of times. 2. A printer for driving a printing unit to perform printing in accordance with print information supplied from the outside, storing means for preliminarily storing data associating the number of print characters with the number of times of repeated printing, and counting the number of print characters, A printer that controls the printing unit so that printing is performed according to the number of times of overprinting corresponding to the number of printing characters based on the data.