JPH10309859A - Apparatus for printing character on pencil side face - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate types by fixing a kanji-mixed character string to be printed by a word processor function and printing the character string on a side face of a pencil by a printing means. SOLUTION: A kana character string which is inputted by a keyboard 4 and words which are sequentially converted by a conversion means are displayed at a display 5 by a display means of a character-setting mechanism part 1 having nearly the same mechanism as a general word processor. A kana, kanji- mixed character string displayed at the display 5 is printed on a side face of a pencil 7 by a printing means 6. Specifically, a print head 24 is moved in a predetermined direction at a constant speed to trance the side face of the pencil 7 held at a pencil-holding part 20. An ink ribbon between the print head 24 and the pencil 7 is supplied in an opposite direction to the run direction of the print head 24 at the same speed. In this state, a microheater of the print head 24 is controlled to heat and not to heat, thereby printing dots on the side face of the pencil 7 with ink layered on an external face of a film constituting the ink ribbon.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a pencil, a name, a company name, a pseudonym such as a motto, an alphabet,
The present invention relates to a pencil character holder for printing a character string containing numbers and Chinese characters.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A pencil for gifts to newly enrolled school children may be printed with a name, or a commemorative letter may be printed on a pencil distributed to an athletic meet or other event. In this way, a conventional pencil character holder that prints predetermined characters on a pencil is composed of a character string to be printed, fixed and printed, and a pencil, usually a hexagonal pencil, and various types of ink ribbons or gold foil on one side. Is printed by pressing the prints with the character in between. Such a pencil lettering device is commercially available as Utility Model Registration No. 434359 invented by the inventor of the present invention. In addition, a pencil supply device for improving the efficiency and automation of the operation of the pencil character input device has been devised by the inventor of the present invention, and is described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 31-6811.

There is room for improvement in the above-mentioned conventional pencil character input device in the following points. 1) With the advent of word processors and the development of printing technology, the use of typeface in printing has dropped sharply.
The production of type is lost, and it is impossible to obtain only missing or lost type again. For this reason, it is difficult to continue using the conventional pencil lettering device sold by the inventor in the future. It needs to be able to continue.

[0004] 2) Since type is used in the character case,
It was necessary to equip the type according to the typeface and size to be used, and a large space for arranging a large number of types was required. As a result, the pencil writing device was heavy and long as a whole, and was inconvenient to use. .

[0005] 3) The operation of selecting an appropriate type from a large number of types requires skill, and the workability is low and it cannot be performed quickly. For this reason, it is suitable for printing a large amount of the same character string on pencils such as souvenirs, but is not suitable for printing a small number of various character strings in which the names of each child are put on the pencil.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems. Instead of using a conventional device which requires type printing, a simple operation using a simple and compact device can be applied to the side of a pencil. It is an object of the present invention to provide a pencil character input device capable of printing a character string mixed with any alphabet or kana / kanji.

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems As means for solving the above problems, the invention of claim 1 comprises an input means for inputting a character string consisting of a kana, an alphabet and a number, and a method for reading a plurality of words including kanji. Dictionary means for storing words together with a character string representing the character string, conversion means for retrieving and converting words stored in the dictionary means based on the character string inputted by the input means, character strings inputted by the input means and conversion Display means for displaying words sequentially converted by the means, printing means having a pencil holding part and capable of printing a character string displayed by the display means on the side of the pencil held by the pencil holding part, and the pencil holding part And a pencil supply means for sequentially supplying pencils to the pencil.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the printing means includes a pencil holding portion which is a hexagonal column-shaped hollow portion into which a pencil can be inserted and one side wall and both ends are opened, and a micro heater which can control heating and non-heating. , A thermal transfer type print head in which the print heads are arranged in a line in units of character constituent dots, an ink ribbon that is sequentially supplied between the print head and the side of the pencil in accordance with the amount of movement of the print head, and the print head is a pencil A rail for reciprocatingly supporting along one open side wall of the holding portion, a drive belt parallel to the rail and running so as to engage with the print head, and running and stopping the drive belt. A head drive motor for controlling the print head to reciprocate freely and parallel to the rail, and a signal for controlling heating / non-heating of the heater of the print head. The pencil supply means has a linear pencil guide groove on the upper surface capable of inserting a pencil and slidable in the axial direction on the upper surface, and one end of the pencil guide groove is connected to one opening of the pencil holding portion. A pencil member disposed above the pencil guide groove, a pencil tank capable of sequentially supplying a plurality of pencils filled in parallel to the internal space to the pencil guide groove, and the pencil guide groove and the inside of the pencil holding portion. And a push shaft provided so as to be reciprocally movable in the axial direction. Here, the ink ribbon means a thermal transfer type ink ribbon.

The operation of the above means will be described below. According to the pencil character placing device of the first aspect, the following operation can be exhibited. 1) Since the present pencil character input device includes an input unit, a dictionary unit, a conversion unit, and a display unit as in the case of a word processor, a predetermined kana character of an input character string is converted into a kanji character and any desired kanji character is mixed. Create and display strings. In addition, since the printing device is provided with the printing unit, the displayed character string mixed with kanji can be printed on the side surface of the pencil. Further, the provision of the pencil supply means makes it possible to speed up the work of printing on a plurality of pencils.

2) Since the present pencil character input device includes an input unit, a dictionary unit, a conversion unit, a display unit, and a printing unit, it is possible to create a document having functions such as input, display, editing, storage, and printing. Is almost the same as a word processor which is a computer device, but its function may be relatively low. This is because the purpose of the device is to print a character string on the side of a pencil, so there are certain restrictions on the number of characters and the size of characters, a huge storage capacity, advanced conversion / editing functions, and various functions. This is because a function such as a print pattern is not required.

3) It is preferable that the pencil printed by the pencil lettering device is coated on the outermost layer with a paint having a high reactivity with the ink of the ink ribbon. By doing so, the adhesion and fixability of the ink to the pencil can be improved.

According to the pencil character input device of the second aspect, the following operation can be exhibited. 1) The printing means presses the print head on the side of the pencil via an ink ribbon while controlling the heating and non-heating of the micro heaters arranged in a line on the print head, and further controls the print head while supplying the ink ribbon. A thermal transfer type that performs dot printing by moving in the axial direction along the side of the pencil was adopted. On the other hand, a character string printed on the side surface of a pencil is generally a single color though various colors, and is a line of characters sized according to the width of the side surface. For this reason,
A relatively simple thermal transfer type, which is a serial printer and changes the color of printing by exchanging an ink ribbon, is most suitable for the present pencil character holder. Therefore, it is not necessary to employ an ink jet printer suitable for color printing, a laser printer suitable for a page printer, or the like.

2) Since the pencil holding portion of the printing means is a hexagonal column-shaped hollow portion into which a pencil can be inserted and one side wall and both ends are opened, one side wall opened in a state where the pencil is held in the pencil holding portion. And one side of the pencil is exposed, and a print head arranged reciprocally along the side wall allows a character string to be printed on the side of the pencil exposed from the side wall. The open ends of the pencil holding portion serve as entrances or exits of the pencil.

3) According to the pencil supply means, one pencil from a pencil tank filled with a plurality of pencils is inserted into the pencil guide groove of the guide member.
By being supplied one by one, the push shaft is advanced from the pencil guide groove toward the pencil holding portion, whereby the pencil in the pencil guide groove can be pushed in the axial direction and fitted into the pencil holding portion. Thereafter, when the push shaft is retracted in the axial direction and pulled out from the pencil holding portion and the pencil guide groove, the next pencil is supplied from the pencil tank to the pencil guide groove. Therefore, the pencil can be sequentially supplied to the pencil holding unit by reciprocating the push shaft, and printing can be sequentially performed. When the pencils are sequentially supplied to the pencil holding unit in this way, the printed pencils are pushed out from the other open end of the hollow portion.

[0015]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a pencil character holder according to the embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the pencil character input device generally includes a character input mechanism 1 that prints a character string on a side surface of a hexagonal pencil 7, and a pencil supply unit that supplies the hexagonal pencil 7 to the character input mechanism 1. Means 2 In addition,
The pencil character holder is for hexagonal pencil 7,
Hereinafter abbreviated as pencil.

Most of the means for storing characters are programs stored in a CPU provided inside the main body 3,
1 which can be hardly expressed in FIG.
Input means for inputting a kana character string using kana character keys, numeric keys, etc., dictionary means for storing a plurality of words including kanji together with a kana character string representing the reading thereof, a conversion key of the keyboard 4, no conversion A conversion unit capable of searching and converting a word stored in the dictionary unit with a kana character string input by the input unit by operating a key; a kana character string input by the input unit and a word sequentially converted by the conversion unit On the display 5 and a printing means 6 capable of printing on the side of the pencil 7 a character string mixed with kana and kanji displayed on the display 5 of the display means. That is, the character insertion mechanism section 1 has a mechanism substantially similar to that of a normal word processor, but differs in that an object to be printed is not the paper but the side of the pencil 7. Therefore, it is only necessary to print characters of the number of characters that can be printed in one line on one side of the pencil 7 in vertical or horizontal writing, and there is no need for an advanced editing function for a long sentence or various printing functions.

The pencil supply means 2 comprises a guide member 8, a pencil tub 9, a push shaft 10, and a push shaft driving means 11. The guide member 8 has a quadrangular prism shape, and has a linear pencil guide groove 12 formed on the upper surface into which a vertical half that is obtained by dividing the pencil 7 by a plane passing through the center axis and the center of one side face can be fitted (FIGS. 1 and 2). ), One end of the pencil guide groove 12 is connected to a pencil holder 2 described later.
0 entrance 21. That is, the pencil guide groove 12
Can be inserted into the pencil holder 20 by sliding in the axial direction with the hexagonal corners of the pencil 7 turned up and down.

The pencil tub 9 is fixed to the guide member 8 so as to be positioned above the pencil guide groove 12, so that a plurality of pencils 7 filled in parallel in the internal space can be sequentially supplied to the pencil guide groove 12 and fitted therein. did. Specifically, the pencil tank 9 separates a pair of tank forming pieces 13 having a U-shaped cross section by the length of the pencil 7,
In addition, the U-shaped openings were fixed to face each other so that the pencils 7 could be filled in parallel between the two tank forming pieces 13. Also,
The interval between the opposite sides of the U-shape formed by the tank forming piece 13 is shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, the tapered shape gradually widens from the predetermined position 14 toward the upper end, and the lower part from the predetermined position 14 has the same width as the diameter of the hexagonal inscribed circle formed by the pencil 7, that is, the whole is formed into a funnel shape. The lower fixed width portion 16 is disposed vertically. Therefore, the plurality of pencils 7 inserted and filled from the upper tapered portion 15 move downward by their own weight, and the constant width portion 16 has a paired side surfaces oriented vertically (the corners are vertically moved). In a parallel state).

The push shaft 10 is a round bar having a diameter slightly smaller than the diameter of the hexagonal inscribed circle formed by the pencil 7 as shown in FIGS. 12 and in the pencil holding portion 20 of the printing means 6 and provided to be reciprocally movable in the axial direction. By moving the push shaft 10 forward from the pencil guide groove 12 toward the pencil holding unit 20, the pencil 7 fitted in the pencil guide groove 12 can be pushed into the pencil holding unit 20. Thereafter, when the push shaft 10 is retracted from the pencil holding portion 20 and the pencil guide groove 10, the lowermost one of the pencils 7 filled in the pencil tub 9 becomes the pencil guide groove 12.
It falls and fits inside. Therefore, the pencils 7 can be sequentially supplied to the pencil holding unit 20 by the reciprocating movement of the push shaft 10. The pencils 7 that have been printed in the pencil holding unit 20 are pushed out by the sequentially supplied pencils 7 from the outlet 22 opened at the other end of the pencil holding unit 20.

The push shaft driving means 11 for reciprocating the push shaft 10 in the axial direction includes a crankshaft 1 as shown in FIG.
7 is rotatably supported, and a disk-shaped crank plate 18 is fixed to the outer periphery of the crank shaft 17.
One end of a connecting rod 19 is rotatably connected to the vicinity of the outer periphery of the rod, and the other end of the connecting rod 19 is rotatably connected to the rear end of the push shaft 10. A servomotor (not shown) whose rotation can be controlled is connected to the crankshaft 17, and the push shaft 10 can be reciprocated by rotating the crank shaft 17. The push shaft driving means 11 in FIG. 1 is a crank mechanism provided at the rear end of the push shaft 10, but may be provided with a rack and pinion mechanism (not shown). That is, the pinion gear is combined with the rack gear connected to the rear end of the push shaft 10, and the servo motor is connected to the pinion gear to control the rotation, whereby the push shaft 10 can reciprocate. The push shaft driving means 11 may be provided with a stick that can be gripped at the rear end of the push shaft 10 and may be manually operated by an operator.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing means 6 comprises a pencil holder 20 for holding the pencil 7 during printing, and a thermal transfer printer mechanism for printing on the side of the pencil 7. The pencil holding portion 20 is a hexagonal column-shaped hollow portion having the same shape as the pencil 7, and penetrates horizontally between both side surfaces of the main body 3 with the hexagonal corners up and down. In addition, the pencil holding unit 20 is
Is formed so as to have an entrance 21 and an exit 22 of the pencil 7 which are opened on both sides of the pencil 7 and further have a slit 23 in which one side wall (a side wall on the side of the print head 24 described later) of the hollow portion is opened. did.

The thermal transfer printer mechanism includes a pencil holding unit 20.
A predetermined character string is printed on one side of the pencil 7 exposed from the slit 23, and a plurality of micro-heaters (not shown) are arranged in a vertical line to control heating / non-heating of the heater. A print head 24 that performs dot printing, and an ink ribbon cassette 25 that can supply an ink ribbon between the print head 24 and the pencil 7 according to the amount of movement of the print head 24 are provided. The print head 24 and the ink ribbon cassette 25 are slidably engaged on a rail 26 provided in parallel with the slit 23, and are engaged with a drive belt 27 which extends parallel to the rail 26 and movably runs. The drive belt 27 is controlled to travel by a head drive motor (not shown) engaged with the drive belt 27, so that the drive belt 27 can be moved in parallel along the slit 23. Further, the print head 24 has a ribbon-shaped flexible cable 2 incorporating a plurality of wires for transmitting a signal for controlling heating / non-heating of the heater.
8 were connected and programmed so as to output a signal capable of completing dot printing of a character string in accordance with the moving speed of the print head 24.

According to the printing means 6 as described above, as shown in FIG. 3, the print head 24 is moved at a constant speed in the direction of the arrow along the side of the pencil 7 held by the pencil holding section 20, The ink ribbon 29 between the print head 24 and the pencil 7 is supplied at the same speed in a direction opposite to the running direction of the print head 24. When heating / non-heating of the micro heater of the print head 24 is controlled in such a state, the outer surface (the pencil 7) of the film 30 constituting the ink ribbon 29 is controlled.
Only when the ink 31 laminated on the side (direction surface) is heated, it adheres to the side surface of the pencil 7 and dot printing can be performed. A character string can be printed by outputting a signal to the print head 24 so as to perform this operation in accordance with the dot pattern constituting the character. This is a mechanism substantially similar to that of a normal thermal transfer printer, except that the printing target is a pencil 7 instead of paper. However, since only one line can be printed on the side of the pencil 7, a serial printer may be used.

In general, a character string written on the side of the pencil 7 has a rear end in the case of vertical writing (an end opposite to the end where the pen tip is formed by shaving during use, that is, the end is not cut to the end. (Meaning the end) to the front end (however, there is a little space, not just at the end of the back end. The same applies to horizontal writing below), in the case of horizontal writing, the last character comes at the back end It is written from the front end toward the rear end. Therefore, according to the pencil character insertion device shown in FIG. 1, when printing a vertically written character string, the pencil 7 is inserted into the entrance 21 of the pencil holding unit 20 from the tip and the print head 24 and the like are generally used. Vertical writing is performed while running at a constant speed from left to right like a word processor printer. At this time, the stroke width of the reciprocating movement of the push shaft 10 is adjusted so that the rear end of the inserted pencil 7 is located at a predetermined position in the pencil holding unit 20, and printing is started from that position. on the other hand,
When printing a horizontally written character string, insert the pencil 7 from the rear end, leave space on the side of the pencil 7 for the number of characters that can be printed, and subtract the number of characters of the character string to be printed now from the number of characters that can be printed. By printing the rows horizontally, you can print with the final characters aligned on the rear end. In the case of horizontal writing, horizontal writing is also possible by preparing a font of an inverted character in the horizontal writing and programming so as to print upside down from the last character of the character string.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it is conceivable to print a character string with high decorativeness by employing an inkjet printer capable of full-color printing. Further, a pencil lettering device as shown in FIG. 4 is also possible. The pencil character holder is almost the same as a word processor in the market today as a device for creating file headings, name tags, and the like. The point that the kana character string is input by operating the keyboard 32, the corresponding word is converted into kanji, the sentence mixed with the kana kanji to be printed is determined, and displayed on the display 33 is as follows.
Although it is almost the same as the pencil character holder of FIG. 1, the printing means 34 for the pencil 7 is different. The printing means 34 has a print head 35 arranged at a predetermined position, and moves the pencil 7 at a constant speed in the axial direction to perform printing on the side surface.
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the printing means 34 has a pair of rolls 36 rotatably arranged, and a belt 37 is runably stretched between the rolls 36. The roll 36 is connected to a drive motor (not shown), and the belt 37 can be run by the drive motor. The belt 37
The print head 35 was disposed at a position separated by a distance from which the pencil 7 could be inserted. Further, an ink ribbon cassette 38 is detachably provided around the print head 35,
The ink ribbon was supplied between the print head 35 and the pencil 7 according to the traveling speed of the pencil 7. According to the pencil character input device, the pencil 7 is inserted into the entrance 39, and the character string mixed with kana and kanji previously created and displayed on the display 33 is printed by the print head 35 while the pencil 7 is running at a constant speed. Can be.

[0026]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. 1) The present pencil character insertion device can determine a character string mixed with kanji to be printed by a word processor function, and can print the character string on a side surface of the pencil by a printing unit. For this reason, the characters required for the conventional pencil character holder are not required, and the characters can be entered in the pencil in the present day when the characters cannot be obtained. Further, since the device is substantially the same as a general word processor, it can be made a compact device as compared with a conventional pencil character input device that forms characters.

2) Equipped with a pencil supply means capable of sequentially supplying pencils, the work of printing the same character string on a plurality of pencils can be speeded up, the production efficiency can be improved, and it is most suitable for mass production. Becomes

According to the pencil character input device of the second aspect, the following effects can be obtained. 1) Since a relatively simple thermal transfer printer is used as the printing means, it is most suitable for writing a single-color character string on a side of the pencil in a vertical or horizontal writing mode.

2) The pencil holding portion of the printing means is a hexagonal hollow portion into which a pencil can be inserted, and is penetrated between both sides of the main body, so that the hexagonal pencil can be held during printing and can enter and leave the holding portion. To do so, the simplest structure can be achieved.

3) Since the pencils can be supplied one by one from the pencil tank to the pencil holder of the printing means by the reciprocating movement of the push shaft of the pencil supplying means, the printing operation by the printing means and the pencil supplying operation of the pencil supplying means are linked. By doing so, the work of putting characters into a large number of pencils can be efficiently performed, and automation can be promoted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a pencil character holder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view (the cutting line is AA) showing the pencil lettering device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing mechanism by the pencil character input device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing a pencil character input device according to a different form from the pencil character input device of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Character input mechanism part 2 Pencil supply means 3 Main body 4 Keyboard 5 Display 6 Printing means 7 Pencil 8 Guide member 9 Pencil tank 10 Push shaft 11 Push shaft drive means 12 Pencil guide groove 13 Tank forming piece 14 Predetermined position 15 Tapered portion 16 Constant width part 17 Crank shaft 18 Crank plate 19 Connecting rod 20 Pencil holding part 21 Inlet part 22 Outlet part 23 Slit 24 Print head 25 Ink ribbon cassette 26 Rail 27 Drive belt 28 Flexible cable 29 Ink ribbon 30 Film 31 Ink 32 Keyboard 33 Display 34 Printing means 35 Print head 36 Roll 37 Belt 38 Ink ribbon cassette 39 Inlet

Claims (2)

[Claims] An input means for inputting a character string consisting of a kana, an alphabet, and a number, a dictionary means for storing a plurality of words including kanji together with a character string representing the reading thereof,
Conversion means capable of searching and converting words stored in the dictionary means by the character string input by the input means,
A display unit that displays a character string input by the input unit and a word sequentially converted by the conversion unit, and a character string displayed by the display unit on a side surface of a pencil that has a pencil holding unit and is held by the pencil holding unit. A pencil character input device comprising: printing means capable of printing; and pencil supply means for sequentially supplying a pencil to the pencil holding unit. 2. The printing means comprises a hexagonal prism-shaped hollow portion into which a pencil can be inserted and one side wall and both ends of which are opened, and a micro heater which can control heating / non-heating in a unit of a character dot. A thermal transfer type print head arranged in a line, an ink ribbon sequentially supplied between the print head and the side of the pencil in accordance with the movement amount of the print head, A rail supporting the reciprocating movement along the side wall, a drive belt extending parallel to the rail and running so as to be engaged with the print head, and controlling the running and stopping of the drive belt to control the print head. A head drive motor for freely and reciprocally moving the print head in parallel with the rail, and a flexible for transmitting a signal for controlling heating / non-heating of a heater of the print head. The pencil supply means has a linear pencil guide groove on the upper surface capable of inserting a pencil and slidable in the axial direction, and one end of the pencil guide groove is connected to one opening of the pencil holding portion. A guide member, a pencil tub disposed above the pencil guide groove and capable of sequentially supplying a plurality of pencils filled in parallel to the internal space to the pencil guide groove, and an axial direction in the pencil guide groove and the pencil holding portion. 2. A pencil character input device according to claim 1, further comprising a push shaft disposed so as to be able to reciprocate.