JPH1016349A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To apply printing to various objects to be printed other than usual printing paper. SOLUTION: A carriage unit 20 supporting a carriage 10 having a printing head so as to make the same movable in an X-direction is constituted alone and a positioning mechanism and a height adjusting mechanism are provided and the carriage unit 20 is arranged to a printing object feed table 40 or a conveyor apparatus in a positioned state and appropriately adjusted in height to apply printing to various printing objects 80 fed on the printing object feed table 40 or the conveyor apparatus in a Y-direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer having a carriage unit on which a printing head is mounted.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in a printer apparatus of an ink jet system, a printer unit having a structure in which a carriage unit for transporting a carriage holding a print head and a paper feed unit for transporting print paper have been widely used. That is, in this printer device, the carriage is moved by the carriage unit in a direction orthogonal to the paper feeding direction of the printing paper by the paper feeding unit,
The printing paper and the carriage are relatively moved in the X and Y directions to print text and images.

[0003]

However, since the paper feed unit in such a conventional printer device transports the printing paper by a rubber roller or the like, the thickness, shape, and material of the transportable paper are limited. There are many restrictions. For example, a sheet that is thinner or slippery than general printing paper cannot be fed properly, and as a result printing cannot be performed. In addition, it is difficult to apply a paper feed mechanism to something that breaks when bent, such as glass or ceramics, or extremely thick paper, and it is almost impossible to print on the surface of a box. Met.

Further, it is difficult to feed a sheet having a special shape such as a circle or a triangle due to a positional relationship between a paper sensor and a paper feed roller. The direction cannot be changed, and the desired print cannot be obtained. As described above, the conventional printer device mainly enables printing only on specific paper, and has a drawback that it cannot be used in such a manner as to easily print various printing objects.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printer capable of easily and widely performing printing on various printing objects.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a carriage unit for supporting a carriage having a print head, and installs the carriage unit on a transfer device having a transfer mechanism for a printing object. Printing. The present invention is also characterized in that the carriage unit has a carriage feeding mechanism for moving the carriage in a direction substantially perpendicular to a sheet feeding direction of the conveyance device.

In the printer apparatus of the present invention as described above, by installing the carriage unit on a transport device such as a transport table or a conveyor device, a thick sheet or a non-foldable sheet other than paper that can be transported by the transport device. In addition, printing can be easily performed on a three-dimensional object such as a box.

[0008]

Next, an embodiment of a printer device according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a schematic side sectional view showing an example of a carriage unit of a printer device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic front sectional view showing a state in which the carriage unit shown in FIG. 1 is set on a printing object transfer table which is one of the transfer apparatuses.
It is the schematic top view.

The printer according to this embodiment comprises a single carriage unit 20 for supporting a carriage 10 having a printing head.
The printing object 8 transported by the printing object transport table 40
0 is to be printed. Carriage unit 20
As shown in FIG. 1, a cross-sectional shape having an open bottom surface is provided in a dome-shaped case 2.

The carriage unit 20 includes the carriage 1
0 is moved in the width direction of the printing object (the direction of the paper surface in FIG. 1 = the X direction in FIG. 2), and a guide pipe 22 corresponding to the stroke of the carriage 10 is provided by an attachment member 26 in the case 2. The carriage 10 is slidably fitted by slidably fitting the support piece 12 provided on the carriage 10 to the guide pipe 22. Then, the wire 24 wound around the inside of the guide pipe 22 is connected to the support piece 12 of the carriage 10, and the wire 24 is wound up by a mechanism such as a carriage driving motor (not shown) to control the carriage. 10 is slid.

A guide pin 14 is provided on the side of the carriage 10 opposite to the support piece 12, and is engaged with a carriage guide 28 in the case 2. This allows
The carriage 10 is prevented from rotating and dropping downward with the guide pipe 22 as a fulcrum, and an appropriate printing position is secured. Also, as shown in FIG.
0, a head maintenance unit 30 is provided at a position corresponding to the end point of the stroke of the carriage 10, and performs suction, wiping, and the like on the print head of the carriage 10, for example, when starting a print operation. ing.

On one side of the carriage unit 20, a pair of fitting holes into which a pair of guide shafts 32A and 32B erected on a base 40A of the printing object transfer table 40 are slidably fitted. 24A and 24B. Note that, in detail, a flange 26
A and 26B protrude, and fitting holes 24A and 24B are formed in the flange portions 26A and 26B. Note that, instead of the complete hole-shaped fitting holes 24A and 24B, for example, groove-shaped fitting portions corresponding to the guide shafts 32A and 32B may be provided. Further, on the other side of the carriage unit 20, there is provided a leg 34 that comes into contact with the base 40 </ b> A of the printing object transport table 40. Also, the legs 34
Has an adjusting section 34A for adjusting the height of the carriage unit 20.

As the structure of the adjusting section 34A, for example, a link mechanism such as a pantograph, a cam mechanism, or a screw mechanism can be used. In addition, as a method of adjustment, a scale indicating the height position is provided to perform the adjustment visually, or a dedicated spacer provided corresponding to the thickness of the printing object is actually provided with the printing object transport table 40 and the carriage. 10 may be inserted to determine whether the position of the head is appropriate.

Also, such a carriage unit 20
As a control system, a circuit board (not shown) is provided on the inner wall or the like of the case 2, and a control circuit for the motor and a processing circuit for supplying print data to the head are provided on the board. I have. A cable for transferring print data and a power supply cable from an external device are connected to this board, and signal supply and power supply are performed via a connector (not shown) provided on the outer wall of the case 2. . For power supply, for example, an AC adapter for a 100 V AC power supply is used. On the other hand, the printing object transport table 40 has a structure similar to a belt conveyor, and transfers the printing object 80 to the carriage 1.
The sheet is transported in a direction (Y direction in FIG. 3) orthogonal to the moving direction of 0.

In the printing object transport table 40, a plurality of conveyor rollers 42 are rotatably arranged at predetermined intervals by shaft supports 46A and 46B protruding from a base 40A. 44, and the traveling of the conveyor belt 44 is controlled by a drive mechanism (not shown). Further, the conveyor belt 44 is provided with a projection 48 for positioning the printing object 80. By using a predetermined adapter or the like on the basis of such a projection 48, a common printing object transport table 40 can be used for a printing object having a round shape or a triangular shape other than a square, for example.
Can be held in position.

In the above configuration, when using a printer, first, the carriage unit 20 is set on the printing object transport table 40. this is,
Guide shafts 32A, 32B are fitted with fitting holes 24A, 24B.
The positioning is performed by fitting the
The height of the carriage unit 20 is adjusted by operating the adjustment unit 34A of the leg 34 according to the thickness of the carriage unit 20. Next, in a state where the printing target 80 is set at a predetermined starting position on the printing target transport table 40, for example, an external device instructs the printer to print. As a result, the control circuit in the carriage unit 20 starts the printing operation, and the carriage 1
0 moves in the X direction to eject ink from the print head. At the same time, the printing object transport table 40 is started, and the printing object 80 is transported at a predetermined speed in the Y direction. Thus, the printing head and the printing target 80 are relatively moved in the X and Y directions, and printing can be performed.

The carriage unit 20 according to the present embodiment is provided with the printing object transport table 4 as described above.
In addition to 0, it can be installed, for example, on a conveyor device of a production line. That is, the carriage unit 20 is installed on the printing object transfer table 40 by providing the same installation surface as the above-described base 40A and the same guide shaft as the guide shafts 32A and 32B at a predetermined position of the conveyor device. It can be installed in exactly the same way as described above, and it is possible to print on a conveyed article on the conveyor device by the same operation. Thereby, for example, a label print system corresponding to high-mix low-volume production can be constructed. In addition, barcodes for product management and the like can be printed, which can be used for inventory management.

As described above, in this embodiment, the single carriage unit 20 is connected to the printing object transport table 4.
By attaching it to the conveyor device of the production line or the like, it is possible to print easily and effectively on thick sheets or three-dimensional objects, glass or ceramic products, etc., which cannot be printed with a printer having a normal paper feed mechanism. It can be carried out. Particularly, in the above embodiment, the carriage unit 20 can be easily positioned by fitting the guide shafts 32A, 32B into the fitting holes 24A, 24B.

Further, the carriage unit 20 can be properly installed only by providing an appropriate installation surface and a guide shaft on the printing object transport table 40, a conveyor device, and the like, so that the present invention can be widely applied to many transport devices. Further, the height of the carriage unit 20 can be adjusted on the printing object transport table 40, so that various printing objects having different shapes can be effectively handled.

In the above-described embodiment, the printing object transfer table 40 for holding a thick flat body is provided as the printing object 80, but another transfer device may be provided. For example, by providing a table having a concave portion for holding a specially shaped polyhedron or the like, and holding the polyhedron with the concave portion, it is possible to perform printing with one surface of the polyhedron facing the print head. Also,
It is also possible to print on chocolate or the like by using edible ink instead of ordinary ink. At this time, the head maintenance unit 30
Is replaced to prevent normal ink from being mixed.

In the above embodiment, the height of the carriage unit 20 is manually adjusted on the printing object transport table 40. Instead, a distance sensor is provided on the carriage unit 20 side. In addition to providing the actuator, the adjustment unit 34A of the leg 34 may be provided with an actuator so that the carriage unit 20 performs printing while automatically adjusting the height according to the detection value of the distance sensor. . In this way, even if the object to be printed has some curvature or roundness, the distance from the printing head can be kept constant, and proper printing can be performed.

[0022]

As described above, in the printer of the present invention, the carriage unit for supporting the carriage having the print head is provided, and the carriage unit is installed in the transfer device having the transfer mechanism for the printing object. Printing was done. Therefore, the carriage unit can be appropriately installed in the transfer device for the printing target to perform printing, and printing can be easily performed on thick sheets, non-foldable sheets other than paper, and three-dimensional objects such as boxes. There are effects that can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side sectional view showing an example of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic front sectional view showing a state in which a carriage unit in the printer device of FIG. 1 is set on a printing object transport table.

FIG. 3 is a schematic top view showing a state in which a carriage unit in the printer device of FIG. 1 is set on a printing object transport table.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... case, 10 ... carriage, 20 ... carriage unit, 22 ... guide pipe, 24A, 24B ...
... fitting holes, 32A, 32B ... guide shaft 34A ...
... Adjustment unit, 40 ... Print object transport table, 80 ...
Print object.

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A printer apparatus, comprising: a carriage unit that supports a carriage having a print head; and the carriage unit is installed on a transfer device having a transfer mechanism for a printing target to perform printing. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the carriage unit has a carriage feed mechanism that moves the carriage in a direction substantially perpendicular to a sheet feed direction of the transport device. 3. The printer according to claim 2, wherein the transport device has a transport table for an object to be printed. 4. The printer device according to claim 2, wherein said transport device is a conveyor device. 5. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the carriage unit has an adjusting unit that adjusts an interval between the carriage unit and the carriage mechanism. 6. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the carriage unit has a fitting portion that fits with a positioning portion provided in the transport mechanism. 7. The printer device according to claim 6, wherein the positioning portion of the transport mechanism and the fitting portion of the carriage unit position the distance between the carriage unit and the transport mechanism so as to be adjustable. 8. A positioning portion of the transport mechanism and a fitting portion of the carriage unit, a guide shaft protruding in a direction of adjusting a distance between the carriage unit and the transport mechanism, and a hole fitted to the guide shaft. 8. The printer device according to claim 7, wherein the printer device is configured by a combination with a groove. 9. The printer device according to claim 7, wherein a positioning portion of the transport mechanism and a fitting portion of the carriage unit slide along with adjustment of an interval between the carriage unit and the transport mechanism. 10. An adjusting mechanism for detecting an interval between a carriage unit and a transport mechanism, and an adjusting mechanism for automatically adjusting an interval between the carriage unit and the transport mechanism based on a detection signal of the detector. Claim 5 which has
10. The printer according to any one of items 9 to 9. 11. The object to be printed is a thick flat body having a square shape or another shape in plan view.
The printer according to any one of claims 10 to 10. 12. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the printing object is food, and the printing head uses edible ink.