JPS58162350A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform the maintenance of printer functions timely, in the ink jet printer, by moving a print head and an optical dot detector as one body, and detecting the correctness and errors of the dots. CONSTITUTION:A printing operation part 10 drives a corresponding printing nozzle 15 in the printer head 14 through a nozzle driving circuit 21, based on a printing command input to a printing control circuit 20. Ink is jetted to a platen 11. Then, the neighboring dot detector 16 in the printing operation part 10 reaches the corresponding position and detects the preceding printing dot. Then the signal is sent to an error detecting circuit 23 through a shaping circuit 22. The signal is compared with the printing command, which is once held in a register of the printing control circuit 20 in the circuit 23. When the difference is generated, an error generation signal is sent to the printing control circuit 20, and a warning signal, by which printing is stopped, is generated by the control circuit 20. Based on said warning signal, actions such as replacement of the printing head 14 are performed, and the printing quality is maintained at an excellent state.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention Regarding the Fi7 printer of the present invention, in particular, in an inkjet printer that prints dot characters on printing paper fed through a platen, optical inspection is performed to determine whether or not the nine dots are printed correctly as instructed. The present invention relates to a printer equipped with a dot detector that detects dots.

When printing dot characters on printing paper by linking, a nine printer equipped with a detection means to detect whether the nine dot characters actually printed on the # side are the correct printed characters has not yet been provided. In other words, conventional printers are configured to detect whether a printed character is correct or incorrect based on a print command signal input to the print head), and therefore can determine whether the character is correct or incorrect based on the actual character printed on the printing paper. No configuration has been adopted for detection.

Therefore, the present invention provides an inkjet printer in which the printed characters are DR)FF), which has a detection means t- for determining whether the printed characters are correct or incorrect, such as the 9-JIIO character printed on the printing paper, and detecting the correctness of the printed characters. According to the present invention, an optical dot detector is installed next to the print head of the printer, and the optical dot detector is connected to the print head. By moving the optical dot detector and the optical dot detector in parallel with the 12-ten axis, it is possible to detect the regular 9-dot character printed by the print head.
There is provided a printer characterized in that the optical dot detector has a dot detection head made of an optical fiber.2. It is preferable that the

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing the main structure of a printer according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view taken along n-us in the ls1 diagram. In FIGS. 1 and 12, the printing operation section 10 is provided so as to be slidable left and right along a sliding shaft 12 arranged parallel to the platen 11.
A configuration is adopted in which characters, symbols, etc. are sequentially printed on each line of printing paper 13 that is fed in the vertical direction between. Now,
The printer of the present invention is not related to the so-called inkjet F printer that prints characters, symbols, etc. using a dot matrix. When moving to the right along the moving axis 12, ink is ejected onto the printing paper 15 in the 1 latin 11 direction from the printing nozzles 15 of the print head 14 driven based on control commands at each position to form characters, symbols, etc. The dots are formed on the printing paper 13.

Generally, seven printing nozzles 15 of the print head 14 are arranged in the vertical direction. In addition, when forming letters and symbols, a 5x7 dot matrix is usually used.
Therefore, as shown in Fig. 13, the print head 1
Each time 4 moves one space in the direction of the arrow @P'', a printing operation is performed, and when it moves five spaces, one character is printed in a dot matrix of TL5X7, for example, the character ``1 person'' is printed. According to the present invention, in the printing operation N110, the dot detector 16 is placed next to the print head 14 described above.
is provided. In this case, the dot detector 16 is provided at the rear side of the print head 14 as seen in the direction of the arrow 1P'' when the printing operation unit 1o moves in the direction of the arrow 1P'', and the dot detector 16 is provided at the rear side of the print head 14 when the print head 14 prints. It detects whether the printed dots in each vertical direction are correctly printed on the commanded 1 [1].Dot detection wJ1t5 also detects the difference in the optical level of the reflected light from each dot position. However, this is converted into an electrical signal to detect the presence of a dot.Therefore, on the surface of the dot detector 160, the dot detector 160 has approximately the same arrangement of the printing nozzles 150 in the print head 14 with a -TV distance. A light receiving aperture 17 for reflected light is provided.

In forming this light receiving aperture 17, it is preferable that the light receiving end of the optical fiber is disposed within the dot detection field 16 to receive the reflected light and then send it to the rear photoelectric conversion element. Of course, it is also possible to form the light receiving hole 17 itself by arranging the photoelectric conversion elements themselves.

FIG. 4 shows an optical fiber 1 as an example of the dot detector 16.
This is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment in which one end of the optical fiber 18 is formed as the light receiving port 17.
is provided, and the reflected light emitted from the light emitting element 19 onto the surface of the printing paper 130 is introduced into the optical fiber 18 from the light receiving port 17, and dots are printed on the paper surface. The light level of the reflected light depends on the object! ! l! It is something that generates excitement. Note that the light emitting element 19 is connected to the light receiving port 17.
Instead of the structure provided adjacent to the light receiving port 17, it is preferable to adopt a structure in which the light is introduced from the light emitting port and is emitted from the light emitting port provided next to the light receiving port 17 via the optical 7 eyeper.

By arranging the optical fiber 2 at the front end of the dot detector #s16 in this way, it is possible to downsize the dot detector 16, and the inertia when sliding it together with the print head 14 is reduced. It has advantages.

Now, the printer according to the present invention equipped with the above-mentioned dot detector 16 uses the calibration signal of the dot detector 1116 to be able to repair nb when it occurs in the printing operation. A control mechanism as shown in the figure is provided.

That is, in FIG. 5, when each printing command is sent to the printing operation section 10it and the printing control circuit 20, the printing control circuit 20 operates the nozzle drive circuit 21 based on this command, and the above-mentioned nine printheads 14 The print nozzle 15 is driven to eject ink toward the platen 11 (Fig. 1111) K. At this time, the print command is temporarily held in a part of the register in the print control 1 circuit 20.
Next, the dot detector 16 of the printing unit 10 reaches the corresponding position and detects the 9 dots printed by the 1-ring F head 14, which are passed through the shaping circuit 22 to the FF detector (g circuit 2S). When the print command is sent to the printer, it is compared with the print command held in the above register part.As a result, if there is a difference between the contents of the print command and the detected result of the nine dots actually printed, an error occurs. An error occurrence signal is issued from the detection circuit 25 to the printing control Igl path 20, and the blank printing system # circuit 20 issues a threatening signal indicating that the operation of the printing operation section 10 should be stopped. If the operation of the printing object 11s10 is stopped in response to the signal, for example, the print head 14 of the printing operation section 10 can be stopped as needed.
It is even possible to replace it with a new one.

The present invention has been described above based on embodiments.According to the present invention, the correctness or wrongness of the dots formed on the paper can be determined from characters, symbols, etc. that are actually printed, and the print head of the printer can be repaired during reconnaissance operations. Nine is what makes it possible to take turns.

In the case of a wire dot printer, a 4-dot detector is placed on the print head, that is, it detects the driver F in the line immediately before the line currently being printed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 41 is a perspective view schematically showing the main parts of the printer according to the present invention, Fig. 12 is a plan view along u-IIs in Fig. 1, and Fig. 5 shows an example of the display method using the driver)-f) Figure 4 is a sectional view showing a specific configuration example of a dot detector, Figure 5 is a sectional view showing a specific example of the configuration of a dot detector.
The figure is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control WIJ mechanism provided in the W4 printer. 10... Printing operation section, 11... Platen, 12-0
．． Printing paper, 14... Print head, 15... Print nozzle, 16... Dot detector, 17... Light receiving port, 1B... Optical fiber, 19...
...Light emitting element. Figure 1, 2nd, 3rd, 4th kan 0 0 ・ o ・ 0 0 0 ・ Go→ 5th 爾0

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] t. An optical dot detector is provided next to the print head of the printer, and the print head and the optical dot detector are moved together in parallel with the platen axis. A printer characterized in that it is possible to detect whether the head prints a correct or incorrect number. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the optical dot detector has a dot detection head made of an optical fiber. 3. The printer according to claim 11, wherein the dot detection head made of optical fibers has light receiving ports arranged in the same number and amount mK as the dot wires of the print head.