JPH11165445A - Bankbook printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a bankbook printer in which the size and cost can be reduced by decreasing the number of parts. SOLUTION: A bankbook printer comprises a carriage 17 arranged movably along a carriage shaft 16, a print head 18 mounted on the carriage 17 to print on a medium, an optical reading unit 24 mounted on the carriage 17 to read out an image on the medium, and means for advancing/retracting the carriage 17 to adjust the reading gap. The optical reading unit 24 can be shifted in the breadthwise direction of the medium by moving the carriage 17 along the carriage shaft 16. Since the optical reading unit 24 is shifted in the breadthwise direction of the medium, a dedicated shifting means is not required.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a form slip printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an optical reading unit is provided in a form slip printer which is provided at a financial institution such as a bank and can print on a medium, for example, a form such as a passbook and a slip. It has been established. Then, the optical reading unit irradiates the medium with light, receives the reflected light by the light receiving element, and reads an image such as a page mark added to each page of the document, a final print line, and the like.

[0003] In each page, the position where the page mark is added is not always the same, and often differs for each financial institution. Further, even in the same financial institution, the position where the page mark is added may be different from the position of the final print line. Therefore, a moving unit is provided in the form slip printer, and the moving unit moves the optical reading unit in the width direction of the medium.

[0004]

However, in the conventional form slip printer, it is necessary to provide a dedicated moving means for moving the optical reading unit in the width direction of the medium. Not only will the cost increase, but also the size will increase. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a form slip printer which solves the problems of the above-described conventional form slip printer, can reduce the number of parts and cost, and can be downsized.

[0005]

For this purpose, in a form slip printer according to the present invention, a carriage movably disposed along a carriage shaft, and a print mounted on the carriage and performing printing on a medium. A head, an optical reading unit mounted on the carriage and reading an image on a medium, and a gap adjusting unit for moving the carriage forward and backward with respect to the medium to adjust a reading gap.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a printing unit of the form slip printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the form slip printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a printing section P1 is formed at the center of the form slip printer 11, and the printing section P
1, a first transport path q1 extending horizontally to the front (left side in FIG. 2) of the form slip printer 11, and a second transport extending to the back side (right side in FIG. 2) of the form slip printer 11. Path q2, and a third path disposed above the first transport path q1 and merged with the first transport path q1.
Is formed. Then, the first transport path q1
At a point m where the first and second transport paths q3 and q3 meet, the first transport path q1 and the second transport path q
2 and the third transport path q3 and the second transport path q
A switching piece 51 for connecting the power supply 2 and the like is provided.

The first transport path q1 is provided with a pair of rollers R1 to R3 for transporting a form 50 as a medium, and the front end of the first transport path q1 (the left end in FIG. 2).
In addition, a passbook insertion slot 41 for inserting and discharging the form 50 is formed. A roller pair R4 for transporting the form 50 and a slip (not shown) is provided in the second transport path q2. And the third transport path q
3 is provided with a roller pair R5 for conveying the slip.
At the front end of the transport path q3, a slip insertion port 42 for inserting and discharging a slip is formed.

Accordingly, the form 50 inserted into the passbook insertion slot 41 is transported by the roller pairs R1 to R3, and the slip inserted into the slip insertion slot 42 is transported by the roller pairs R5 and R3 and sent to the printing unit P1. Printing is performed between the print head 18 and the platen 19. afterwards,
The form 50 is conveyed along the first conveyance path q1 and passes through the passbook insertion port 4
1, the slip is transported through the third transport path q3, sent to the slip insertion port 42, and discharged. The roller pairs R1 to R5 are rotated by driving a transport motor (not shown).

Further, side frames 12 and 13 are provided upright on both side edges of the form slip printer 11, and elongated holes 14 and 15 are formed in the side frames 12 and 13, respectively.
Is formed, and a carriage shaft 16 is installed between the side frames 12 and 13 through the elongated holes 14 and 15. A carriage 17 is slidably fitted on the carriage shaft 16,
A rack 21 and a carriage 1 erected between the side frames 12 and 13 in parallel with the carriage shaft 16.
7 meshes with a motor gear 26 disposed on the back surface of the motor 7. Therefore, the carriage 17 can be moved along the carriage shaft 16 by driving a spacing motor (not shown) and rotating the motor gear 26. Reference numeral 22 denotes an ink ribbon cartridge.

The form slip printer 11 can print on forms 50 having different thicknesses. Then, the form 5 is printed so that there is no variation in the print quality when the form 50 is printed.
The distance between 0 and the tip of the print head 18, that is, the print gap needs to be constant. Therefore, the print head 18 is provided so as to be movable in the vertical direction, and a gap adjusting mechanism 40 as a gap adjusting means is provided. The gap adjusting mechanism 40 adjusts the carriage 17 and the print head 18 according to the thickness of the form 50.
To move (vertically move) with respect to, and adjust the printing gap.

Next, the gap adjusting mechanism 40 will be described. As shown in the figure, a motor 38 is fixed to the side frame 12 and a motor gear 39 of the motor 38 is provided.
And the idle gear 37 are meshed, and the idle gear 37 and the gear 34 are meshed. And the gear 3
A cam 33 and a slit disk 35 are arranged coaxially with the optical disk 4.
And the cam 33 is brought into contact with the end of the carriage shaft 16.

Outside the side frames 12 and 13, rings 29 and 3 are attached to the carriage shaft 16.
0 is fixed, and springs 31 and 32 are attached to the rings 29 and 30, respectively. The springs 31 and 32 urge the carriage shaft 16 upward. In this case, when the cam 33 is rotated, the carriage shaft 16 can be moved downward against the urging force of the springs 31 and 32. Therefore, the print gap can be adjusted by changing the position of the cam 33. Note that 23
Reference numeral denotes a pressure sensor, and reference numeral 24 denotes an optical reading unit that reads an image such as a page mark 28 attached to each page of the form 50 and a final print line.

Next, the carriage 17 will be described. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a carriage according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. As shown in the figure, a print head 18 is mounted on the carriage 17 facing downward, and the print head 18 and a platen 19 are mounted.
The pressure sensor 23 is disposed so as to abut on a form 50 passing through (FIG. 1), and the optical reading unit 24 is mounted downward.

The optical reading unit 24 is provided with a light emitting element 25 at a predetermined position inside a box-shaped case 24a having an open bottom, and a lens 56 and a light receiving line sensor 27 at the top. Irradiates the form 50, the reflected light is transmitted by the lens 56 to the light receiving line sensor 27.
To be focused. In this case, since the optical reading unit 24 is mounted on the carriage 17,
It can be moved together with the carriage 17 in the spacing direction, that is, in the main scanning direction. Reference numeral 22 denotes an ink ribbon cartridge.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the control unit of the form slip printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 46 denotes a control unit for controlling the form slip printer 11 (FIG. 2).
A motor 38 (FIG. 1) is connected via a motor drive circuit 47, a spacing motor 49 is connected via a motor drive circuit 48, and the optical sensor 36, the pressure sensor 23, and the light receiving line sensor 27 are also 46. The controller 46 drives the motor 38 based on the detection results of the optical sensor 36 and the pressure sensor 23, and drives the spacing motor 49 based on the detection result of the light receiving line sensor 27. A storage unit 45 stores a control program, an appropriate print gap value, and the like.

Next, a description will be given of an operation when the form slip printer 11 having the above configuration continuously prints the form 50. First, when the form 50 is inserted into the passbook insertion slot 41, the control unit 46 drives a conveyance motor (not shown) to rotate the roller pairs R1 to R5, and conveys the form 50 in the first conveyance path q1, When the page mark 28 attached to each page of the form 50 reaches the position where the optical reading unit 24 is disposed, that is, the reading position, the roller pairs R1 to R3 are stopped, and the form 50 is also stopped. . For this purpose, a medium detection sensor (not shown) is provided in the second transport path q2, and the page mark 28
The front end (the right end in FIG. 1) of the form 50 is detected by the medium detection sensor at the timing when reaches the reading position. In the present embodiment, the page mark 28 is formed of a bar code formed by printing several black bars having a predetermined width.

Next, by driving a spacing motor 49 mounted on the carriage 17, the motor gear 2 is driven.
By rotating the carriage 6, the carriage 17 is moved right and left along the carriage shaft 16. Then, the carriage 17 is once (temporarily) moved to the home position set on the side frame 12 side or the side frame 13 side, and thereafter, is moved by a predetermined amount, and the optical reading unit 24 is moved to the page mark. When reaching just above 28, the spacing motor 49 and the carriage 17 are stopped. At this time, the light emitting element 2
5 (FIG. 4) illuminates the form 50 and the reflected light
The light is converged on the light receiving line sensor 27 through the line 6. The position of the page mark 28 on the form 50 is set in advance, and data representing the position of the page mark 28 is stored in the storage unit 45.
Is stored in

Next, the motor 38 is driven, the cam 33 is rotated via the idle gear 37 and the gear 34, and the carriage shaft 16 is moved up and down. Move forward and backward. Then, while determining the position where the S / N ratio of the output waveform of the light receiving line sensor 27 is maximum,
At this position, the motor 38 is stopped. As a result, the form 50
The optical reading unit 24 and the form 50 corresponding to the thickness of the
, That is, the reading gap can be set to an optimum value, the page mark 28 is read by the light receiving line sensor 27, and the reading result is sent to the control unit 46.

In this embodiment, the page mark 28
Is formed by a bar code, the output of the light receiving line sensor 27 has a small value in the portion corresponding to the black bar,
The value of the part corresponding to the space increases. Therefore, for example, an S / N ratio of the output waveform is calculated by differentiating the output of the light receiving line sensor 27 in a differentiating circuit (not shown) of the control unit 46.

The control unit 46 determines whether or not the page is a page to be printed based on the reading result of the page mark 28. If the page is a page to be printed, the control unit 46 17 is moved to a preset row read position. Then, the control unit 46
Reads the output waveform of the light receiving line sensor 27 while transporting the form 50, reads the final print line, and places a print line on which printing is not performed at a position corresponding to the tip of the print head 18. In this case, for example, a print line on which printing is performed always has a portion where characters, marks, and the like are printed. The final print line is read by determining whether or not the last print line can be read.

Subsequently, the control section 46 performs a print gap adjusting operation by the gap adjusting mechanism 40. That is,
The control unit 46 drives the motor 38 in the forward direction, rotates the cam 33 via the idle gear 37 and the gear 34, moves the carriage shaft 16 downward, and
3 is pressed against the form 50. When the pressure detected by the pressure sensor 23 reaches a constant value, the control unit 46
(Not shown) detects the thickness of the form 50. Subsequently, the control unit 46 drives the motor 38 in the reverse direction, rotates the slit disk 35 via the idle gear 37 and the gear 34, and stops the motor 38 when the optical sensor 36 counts a predetermined number of pulses. Let it. As a result, printing can be performed with the printing gap set to an optimum value corresponding to the thickness of the form 50.

Next, when print data is sent from a higher-level device (not shown), the control unit 46 drives the print head 18 and starts printing on the form 50. While printing is being performed, the print head 18 is moved right and left along with the carriage 17 along the carriage shaft 16. On the other hand, if the page is not a page to be printed, the form 50 is sent to the book insertion slot 41 and returned.
A message to that effect is displayed on the display unit of the host device. If a reverse mechanism for turning the pages of the form 50 is provided in the second transport path q2, the form 5
"0" is sent to the front / back reversing mechanism, and after turning the page, it is returned to the print head 18.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the optical reading unit 24 is mounted on the carriage 17, the carriage 17 is moved along the carriage shaft 16 so that the optical reading unit 24 50 in the width direction. Therefore, since it is not necessary to provide a dedicated moving means for moving the optical reading unit 24 in the width direction of the form 50, the number of parts can be reduced, and the cost of the form slip printer 11 can be reduced. But not only can it be miniaturized.

Further, since the carriage 17 can be moved up and down by the gap adjusting mechanism 40 and the focal length of the optical reading unit 24 can always be set to an optimum value, the focal depth of the optical system in the optical reading unit 24 can be adjusted. Does not need to be increased, and the aperture of the lens 56 can be increased. Therefore, the light receiving line sensor 2
7, the light amount increases, and the image can be sufficiently read. Moreover, since the number of lenses 56 can be reduced, the cost of the form slip printer 11 can be reduced.

Further, since the reading gap can be set to an optimum value by moving the carriage 17 in the vertical direction, the optical reading unit 2 at the time of assembly can be obtained.
4 does not need to be adjusted. In the present embodiment, the optical reading unit 24 of a reduction optical system using the lens 26 is used, but an optical reading unit of a close contact type using a rod lens array can be used.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. For the structure of the form slip printer,
Since it is the same as the first embodiment, FIGS. First, when the form 50 (FIG. 1) is inserted into the passbook insertion slot 41 (FIG. 2), the form 50
When the page mark 28 attached to each page of the form 50 reaches the reading position after being conveyed along the first conveyance path q1 by R3, the roller pairs R1 to R3 are stopped, and the form 50 is stopped.
Is also stopped.

Next, when the motor gear 26 is rotated by driving the spacing motor 49 (FIG. 5) mounted on the carriage 17, the carriage 17 is moved right and left along the carriage shaft 16. Then, the carriage 17 is moved by a predetermined amount, and the optical reading unit 24
, The spacing motor 49 and the carriage 17 are stopped. At this time, the light emitting element 25
(FIG. 4) illuminates the form 50 and the reflected light is
Through the light receiving line sensor 27.

Next, the motor 38 is driven in the forward direction,
The cam 33 is rotated via the idle gear 37 and the gear 34 to move the carriage shaft 16 downward, thereby pressing the pressure sensor 23 against the form 50. When the pressure detected by the pressure sensor 23 reaches a constant value, the control unit 46 drives the motor 38 in the reverse direction, rotates the slit disc 35 via the idle gear 37 and the gear 34, and Stops the motor 38 after counting a predetermined number of pulses. As a result, the form 50
The reading gap can be set to an optimal value in accordance with the thickness of the page mark, the page mark 28 is read by the light receiving line sensor 27, and the reading result is sent to the control unit 46.

Thereafter, the motor 38 is driven in the forward or reverse direction to move the carriage 17 downward or upward. When the optical sensor 36 counts a predetermined number of pulses, the motor 38 is stopped. As a result, the printing gap can be set to an optimum value, and printing can be performed by the optical reading unit 24.

As described above, since the reading gap and the printing gap can be set to optimal values based on the number of pulses counted by the optical sensor 36, the processing time for that can be shortened. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified based on the gist of the present invention, and they are not excluded from the scope of the present invention.

[0031]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, in a voucher slip printer, a carriage movably disposed along a carriage shaft, and a carriage mounted on the carriage and supporting a medium. The printhead includes a print head that performs printing, an optical reading unit that is mounted on the carriage and reads an image on a medium, and a gap adjustment unit that moves the carriage forward and backward with respect to the medium to adjust a reading gap.

In this case, by moving the carriage along the carriage shaft, the optical reading unit can be moved in the width direction of the medium. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide a dedicated moving means for moving the optical reading unit in the width direction of the medium, so that the number of parts can be reduced, and the cost of the form slip printer can be reduced. And can be miniaturized.

Further, the carriage can be moved forward and backward with respect to the medium by the gap adjusting means, and the focal length of the optical reading unit can always be set to an optimum value. Therefore, the focal depth of the optical system in the optical reading unit is increased. This eliminates the need, for example, it is possible to increase the diameter of the lens. Therefore, an image can be sufficiently read.

Further, since the reading gap can be set to an optimum value by moving the carriage back and forth with respect to the medium, there is no need to adjust the mounting of the optical reading unit during assembly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a printing unit of a form slip printer according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a form slip printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a carriage according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a control unit of the form slip printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Form slip printer 16 Carriage shaft 17 Carriage 18 Print head 24 Optical reading unit 40 Gap adjusting mechanism 50 Form

Claims (4)

[Claims] (A) a carriage movably disposed along a carriage shaft; (b) a print head mounted on the carriage and configured to print on a medium;
(C) an optical reading unit mounted on the carriage and reading an image on a medium; and (d) a gap adjusting unit for adjusting the reading gap by moving the carriage forward and backward with respect to the medium. Form slip printer. 2. The form slip printer according to claim 1, wherein said gap adjusting means adjusts a reading gap based on an output waveform of said optical reading unit. (A) a thickness detection unit mounted on the carriage and detecting a thickness of a medium;
2. The form slip printer according to claim 1, wherein said gap adjusting means adjusts the reading gap in accordance with the thickness of the medium. 4. The form slip printer according to claim 1, wherein said gap adjusting means adjusts a printing gap by moving said carriage forward and backward with respect to a medium.