JPH0811303A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printer preheating an ink container corresponding to the utilizing time zone of the printer to prelimlnarily melt ink up to a printable state. CONSTITUTION:In a hot-melt type ink jet printer, the time performing the ON/ OFF of the power supply of an ink heating container 231 is set to a memory 214 and, when this set time coincides with the time of the timepiece 212 built in the printer, the power supply of the ink heating container 231 is turned ON/ OFF. Therefore, when ink heating start time set from an operation panel 246 or a host by user arrives, the heating of solid ink is automatically started and the solid ink begins to melt. Therefore, only by turning a main switch 223 ON by a user when the printer is desired to be used, printing can be started immediately.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for printing on paper based on input information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the development of information processing devices (hereinafter abbreviated as hosts) such as personal computers and word processors, lasers that perform printing based on information sent from these hosts through an external interface. Printers and inkjet printers have become widespread. Particularly, in order to obtain color printing, ink jet printers provided with inks of three or four colors are rapidly spreading. Among them, an inkjet printer using a solid ink, which has an advantage that ink is not clogged at an ejection nozzle, has recently been particularly attracting attention. This type of printer is supplied with solid ink that is solid at room temperature and melts when heated, and ejects the ink onto a sheet for printing.

Conventionally, in the case of an ink jet printer using solid ink, heating in the ink container having an ink melting means for melting the ink is started at the same time when the user turns on the power of the printer body.

[0004]

However, when the heating of the ink melting means is started after the power of the printer main body is turned on as described above, it takes 15 to 30 minutes until the ink in the ink container melts to a printable state. Takes time,
There is a problem that the user has to wait for a long time before executing the first printing after the power is turned on.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the ink melting means is heated in advance according to the time period of use of the printer to melt the ink to a printable state. The purpose is to provide a printing device that can be stored.

[0006]

To achieve this object, in a printing apparatus according to the invention of claim 1, solid ink which is solid at room temperature and melts when heated is supplied,
In an ink jet type printing apparatus for ejecting the ink onto a sheet for printing, ink melting means for heating and melting the solid ink so that it can be ejected from an ejection nozzle, and time data representing the time when the power is turned on are stored. A time storage means, a clock means for outputting current time data, and an ink melt control means for turning on at least the ink melt means are provided, and the ink melt control means is stored in the time memory means. It is intended to achieve the above object by comparing the time data output from the clock means with the time data output from the clock means and controlling the power supply to the ink melting means to be turned on.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the time storage means further stores time data indicating a time at which the power is turned off, and the ink melting control means further controls the power off to the ink melting means. Characterize.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is further provided a switch means for switching whether or not the electric power from the power source is supplied to the entire printing apparatus, and the ink melting control means controls the power on of only the ink melting means. It is characterized by performing.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the internal battery that supplies power to the time storage means, the clock means, and the ink melting control means, and the power from the power source due to the control of the ink melting control means. A relay switch for switching whether to supply the ink to the ink melting unit is further provided.

[0010]

In the printing apparatus of the present invention having the above structure, the ink melting control means compares the time data stored in the time storage means with the time data output from the clock means, and the ink melting means is used. ON control of power supply to. Therefore, when the preset time comes, the electric power is automatically supplied to the ink melting means to start melting the solid ink.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is embodied in a hot melt ink jet printer will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the inkjet printer.

An internal battery 211 is provided inside the ink jet printer main body 220, and the internal battery 211 is provided.
Is connected to a microcomputer 213 that controls ON / OFF of the clock 212 and the relay switch 221. The memory 214 is a memory for storing the time when the relay switch 221 is turned on / off, and is powered by the internal battery 211. The relay switch 22
1 performs an on / off operation of a power source when using a timer mode described later, and is connected to a power source input section 222 and a main switch 223.

The main switch 223 switches between always on, always off, and timer mode, and is internally divided into two systems: a circuit connected to the ink heating AC controller 241 and a circuit connected to the AC controller 242. . The relay switch 221 is electrically connected to the ink heating container 23 in the inkjet printer engine 230 via one system of the main switch 223.
1 is connected to the ink heating AC controller 241 for controlling the number 1. In addition, another system of the main switch 221 includes an AC controller 242 and a low voltage power supply unit 243.
Is connected, the AC controller 242 controls a heat platen (not shown) in the inkjet printer engine 230, and the low-voltage power supply unit 243 supplies a DC voltage to the inkjet printer engine 230 and the controller 244.

The controller 244 analyzes the printer control data sent from the host through the external interface 247, develops printable image information, and transfers the image information to the ink jet printer engine 230, and an interpreter function. It has a control function of the entire inkjet printer. Controller 2
Reference numeral 44 indicates the status of the inkjet printer on the LCD display unit 245 and various internal statuses on the operation panel 2.
46, or from the host through the external interface 247, respectively.
Further, the setting of the memory 214 that stores the power on / off time can be set as one of the internal states as described above.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. However, among the constituent elements in the inkjet printer 220, the description of the operation here will be omitted for those that conform to the conventional inkjet printer.

The ink heating start time and the ink heating end time to be stored in the memory 214 can be set in two ways. In the first method, the user operates the operation panel 24.
This is a method of setting via 6. The set time data is transferred from the controller 244 to the microcomputer 21.
3 and is stored in the memory 214. In the second method, the controller 244 interprets the command when the ink heating start time and the ink heating end time are received as a command from the host via the interface 241 and the time data is used as the first method. Similarly, it is transferred to the microcomputer 213 and stored in the memory 214.

The operation at the ink heating start time and the ink heating end time set in the memory 214 is effective only when the main switch 223 is in the timer mode, and is invalid when the main switch is on or off. Is.

The operation when the main switch 223 is in the timer mode will be described. The microcomputer 213 compares the ink heating start time and the ink heating end time stored in the memory 214 with the time indicated by the clock 212. When it coincides with the ink heating start time, the microcomputer 213 turns on the relay switch 221. As a result, power is supplied to the ink heating AC controller 241, and heating of the ink in the ink heating container 231 is started. When the ink heating end time coincides, the microcomputer 213 turns off the relay switch 221 to stop the supply of power to the ink heating AC controller 241, thereby heating the ink in the ink heating container 231. finish.

The control operation of the microcomputer 213 will be described below with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG.

In step (hereinafter abbreviated as S) 10, the flag is initialized. The PowFlag that stores the state of the main switch 223 and the HeatFlag that indicates the state of ink heating are set to FALSE. The current state of the main switch 223 is referred to in S12, and if it is on,
At 14, PowFlag is set to TRUE, and the process returns to S12. If off in S12, PowFl in S16
Check ag. If PowFlag is TRUE at this point, it means that the user turned on the main switch 223 which has been turned on up to that point.
Ends the ink heating (turns off the relay switch 221), sets HeatFlag to FALSE in S26, and in S28.
Set PowFlag to FALSE and return to S12.

If PowFlag is FALSE in S16, S2
At 0, the current time is read from the clock 212, and S2
In 2, the ink heating start time stored in the memory 214 is read. The current time and the ink heating start time read in S20 and S22 are compared in S30. If the two times are the same, the HeatFlag is checked in S31. If HeatFlag is FALSE, that is, if the ink has not been heated until that time, the heating of the ink is started in S34 (the relay switch 221 is turned on).
To do. Also, HeatSlag is set to TRUE in S36 and the process returns to S12. If S31 is TRUE, the process returns to S12.

If the two times are not equal in S30, the ink heating end time is read from the memory 214 in S32, and the current time read in S20 in S38 is compared with the ink heating end time read in S32.
If the two times are the same, the HeatFlag is checked in S40. If HeatFlag is TRUE, that is, if the ink has been heated until that time, the heating of the ink is ended (the relay switch 221 is turned off) in S42. Next, in S44, HeatFlag is set to FALSE and the process returns to S12.
If S40 is TRUE, the process returns to S12.

With the configuration and operation as described above, in the hot melt ink jet printer of this embodiment, when the ink heating start time set by the user from the operation panel 246 or the host comes, the heating of the solid ink is automatically started. Since the solid ink starts to melt, the user can start printing without waiting by simply turning on the main switch 223 when he wants to use the printer.

Further, in the present embodiment, since the heating of the solid ink is automatically ended based on the setting of the ink heating end time, even if the user forgets to turn off the main switch, the printer can be operated in the printer. It is possible to automatically cut off the power supply to the ink heating container 231 which is the portion that consumes the most power.

Further, in this embodiment, the memory 214
Relay switch 221 based on the time set in
Since only the ink heating container 231 is switched by the main switch 223 and the main switch 223 supplies power to the entire printer, the power is supplied when the set time comes. Only the container 231. Therefore, it is possible to minimize the loss of power consumption that occurs when the user does not use the printer after the set time.

In the above embodiment, the ink heating container 23 is used.
Although both the on / off control of the power supply to No. 1 are controlled, the control of only the on control can sufficiently achieve the object of the present invention. Further, in the above-described embodiment, only the ink heating container is automatically supplied with power at the set time, but power supply to the entire printer may be started.

[0027]

As is apparent from the above description, in the printing apparatus of the present invention, the ink melting control means compares the time data stored in the time storage means with the time data output from the clock means, Since the power supply to the ink melting means is controlled to be turned on, electric power is automatically supplied to the ink melting means at a preset time, and the solid ink starts melting. This has the effect that the ink can be melted before the user turns on the power, and the user can use the printer immediately after the power is turned on.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 211 Internal Battery 212 Clock 213 Microcomputer 214 Memory 220 Inkjet Printer 221 Relay Switch 223 Main Switch 241 Ink Heating AC Controller 231 Ink Heating Container

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A solid ink that is solid at room temperature and melts when heated is supplied, and an ink jet printer that ejects the ink onto a sheet to perform printing is capable of ejecting the solid ink from an ejection nozzle. Ink melting means for heating and melting the ink, time storage means for storing time data representing the time at which the power is turned on, clock means for outputting the current time data, and at least for turning on the power to the ink melting means. Ink melting control means of
The printing apparatus, wherein the ink melting control means compares the time data stored in the time storage means with the time data output from the clock means, and performs power-on control of the ink melting means. . 2. The time storage means further stores time data representing the time when the power is turned off, and the ink melting control means further controls the power off to the ink melting means. The printing apparatus according to claim 1. 3. A switch means for switching whether or not the power from the power source is supplied to the entire printing apparatus is further provided, and the ink melting control means controls to turn on the power to only the ink melting means. Claim 1 characterized by
The printing device described. 4. An internal battery for supplying electric power to the time storage means, the clock means, and the ink melting control means,
4. The printing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a relay switch for switching whether or not to supply the electric power from the power source to the ink melting means, under the control of the ink melting control means.