JPS58158271A - Thermal label printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit printing of a fixed density even when environmental conditions are changed by switching the densities of printing for labels by a thermal head. CONSTITUTION:In relation to a thermal head 13 having plural heating elements arranged on a straight line, labels are moved by a paper feeding mechanism by means of a pulse motor 12 and printing format is dot-printed. In this case, a printing density switcher 15 is operated under control of CPU 6 according to application areas, seasons, and application environments. By this, a fixed printing condition can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a thermal label printer.

Labels printed by label printers generally use a printing format that includes barcodes in addition to characters such as product name and price. Therefore, reliability of reading 9 is required, and it is necessary to maintain a certain level of print quality. However, differences in temperature depending on the region where it is used, differences in temperature depending on the season, and differences in temperature due to the product term used affect the printing conditions on labels such as thermal paper, making it difficult to maintain a constant printing quality level. It is something.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a thermal label printer that can maintain a constant printing quality even when external conditions change.

The present invention is directed to a thermal head having a plurality of heating elements arranged in a straight line, in which the print format is printed in dots by moving the label using a paper feed mechanism using a pulse motor. , season t-
fi- operates the print density switching section according to the usage environment,
This allows a constant printing condition to be obtained, and 9. When using seasonal temperature changes as a standard, processing uses the time function of the setting mechanism to change the print density depending on the month. The system is configured so that automatic switching can be performed, and automatic switching depending on the month can also be freely selected using a selection switch.

A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5. First, input from the display/key ↑ (1) or data from the weighing section (2) or data from the machining date memory (3) which is part of the machining date setting mechanism are input to the CPUI (4) and the program memory (5). ), and the data necessary for printing etc. is transferred to the CPU 2 (6).

The processing date memory (3) is linked to an internal clock LSI to automatically update the date including the year and month, and the year, month, and day are always stored at the top. The data transferred to CPU2 (6) is
The dot configuration to be printed in program page (7) is generated by the character generator (8) and set in the print buffer (9).

Then, set the data for each print to be printed,
Common drive (G), drives the image signal drive α force,
The thermal head (to) is energized for a certain period of time to print on a label made of heat-sensitive colored paper. Further, the pulse motor (2) rotates by a certain angle in synchronization with printing. The movement of the pulse motor (2) drives the backing paper, moves the label attached to the backing paper, and prints dots in the form of a dot by the thermal head.

Next, the CPU 2 (6) has a print switching memory α◆
is connected thereto, and a changeover switch (2) serving as a print density changeover section is also connected thereto.

What is shown in FIG. 2 shows the four common drives (G), the image signal drive ELL), and the state of paper feeding during the 1-line printing cycle. Here, what is related to the print density is the driving time of the image signal drive α■.

In such a configuration, initialization is performed after the start, and then reading of the print density changeover switch (b) is performed. The contents are as shown in Fig. 4. When the changeover switch (2) is ON, the print density selection flag is set, and when the changeover switch (to) is OFF, the print density selection flag is reset. Ru.

Then, data is received, data is processed,
It is processed by the character generator (8) and set in the print buffer (9). Then, a print line counter is set and 1 line printing is performed. The content of this l line printing is shown in Figure 5. The l line is divided into four blocks, data is set and latched for each block, and the label is printed by driving the image signal drive α. is printed on. That is, first, the service line counter is set to 4, the print data for each block is set, the image signal drive α is switched, and the print density selection flag is checked.

When printing is to be darkened, a 2.0 ms timer is started, and when printing is not to be darkened, a 1.5 ms timer is started. Then, the thermal head 0 is energized until these timers time up, and after the time up, the drive of the common drive αQ is switched and the work line counter is incremented by one. Such an operation f
) Repeat 4 times until the counter reaches 0, increment the print line counter by 1, and repeat 9 times until the content becomes 0.

When this print line counter reaches O, the paper is fed, and the paper feeding 9 ends in a state where the label can be taken out.

In this state, the next label cannot be issued because the label is present in the label issuing port (not shown).

However, once the label is removed, the next label can be issued.

In this way, the energizing time for each block is 20 mats.
The printing density can be selected depending on the length of time, 1.5 ms or 1.5 ms.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 6 and 7. Fig. 6 is basically the same as that shown in Fig. 3, but the middle part of the rounded part is omitted, but the content of the temperature sensing data is shown in Fig. 7, and this is the same as that shown in Fig. 3.
It is different from what is shown in the figure. That is, read the processing date data, select whether it is a period of high temperature from May to October or a period of low temperature from November to April,
If it is from May to January, the print darkness selection flag is reset to print with a short power-on time, and if it is from November to April, the print lightness selection flag is set to print with a long power-on time. do. As a result, even if the coloring ability changes depending on the outside temperature, a constant printing quality can be obtained by changing the current application time.

Next, Figures 8 to 10 show the third embodiment of the present invention, and the steps in Figure 8 are the same as those in Figure 3 except for the steps of reading the print density selection switch and data processing. The same is true. Therefore, the print density selection switch reading shown in FIG. 9 sets or resets the selection switch flag depending on whether the switch is on or not. Next, the data processing shown in FIG. The printing density is selected depending on the month of the processing date.

Therefore, either the selection switch is set to an operating state in which the print density level is switched blindly based on the date of processing, or it overrides any signal from the date of processing and is normally used. A selection is made as to whether to set a state in which only printing is performed.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 11 to 13. First, in the routine shown in FIG. jIK11, the data processing step and the one line printing step are different from those of the above embodiments. First, in the data processing step, processing date data is read, but from June to
The hot season of August and 12. Cold period from P5 to February and from March
It is divided into three types: May and the period between September and November. Accordingly, there are three types of printing: normal printing, dark printing, and light printing. That is, 3
During the period from Monday to September and from September to November, the power supply time is 1.
．． 75 Inll, 1. In the hot season from June to August.
It is as short as 5 ms, and during the cold season from December to February, LOm
It has a long shape IIK.

In this way, the period of -year is divided into smaller parts, so that the printing output can be made constant throughout the year.

The present invention includes a thermal head having a plurality of nine heating elements arranged in a straight line as described above, and a paper feeding mechanism using a round pulse motor that moves the label in a direction perpendicular to the thermal head. However, in a device that prints dots in a predetermined printing format while moving the label, the printing density can be changed using the printing density switching section, so it is possible to reduce temperature differences depending on the area of use, season, usage environment, etc. It is possible to print at a constant density even when the coloring ability differs depending on the color, and by using the hour hand function of the processing date setting mechanism to automatically set the shading of the printing depending on the season. Since a selection switch is provided so that the function of changing the print density can be selected as necessary, the present invention has the advantage that it can sufficiently respond to short-term changes in external conditions.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1g is a block diagram showing the first embodiment of the present invention;
The figure is a timing H chart, Figures 3 to 5 are flowcharts, Figures 6 and 7 are flowcharts showing the second embodiment of the present invention, and Figures 8 to 10 are flowcharts showing the third embodiment of the present invention. Flow Chart Showing Embodiment FIGS. 11 to 13 are flow charts showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention. 3... Processing date memory (processing date setting mechanism), 12...
・Pulse motor, 13...thermal spatula)',! 5
...Selector switch (print density switching unit) Applicant Tokyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A thermal head having a plurality of heating elements arranged in a straight line, and a paper transport mechanism 9 using a pulse motor for moving the label in a direction perpendicular to the thermal head. A thermal label printer which prints dots in a predetermined printing format while moving the label, characterized in that it is provided with a printing density switching section for switching the density of printing on the label by the thermal head. It has a thermal head with a plurality of heating elements arranged in a straight line, and a paper feed mechanism using a pulse motor to move the label in a direction perpendicular to the thermal head, and it moves the label to a predetermined position. The printing format is set to dot printing, and the printing date is automatically set. A thermal label printer characterized by having a print density switching section for setting the print density. It has a thermal head with a plurality of heating elements arranged in a straight line, and a paper feed mechanism using a pulse motor to move the label in a direction perpendicular to the thermal head, and it moves the label to a predetermined position. The printing format is set to dot printing, and the printing date is automatically set. A selection switch is provided for selecting whether to always set the print density switch to an operating state or to disable the signal from the print density switch to print at a constant density. A thermal label printer characterized by: