JPS5852509B2 - Injino Dojidouchiyouseihoshiki - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a printer device having an automatic print density adjustment function that automatically adjusts the impact force of a hammer to adjust print density according to the amount of ink remaining on an ink ribbon.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of the printer device.

In the figure, 1 is a magnet, 2 is an armature, 3 is a hammer,
4 is printing paper, 5 is ink ribbon, 6 is type wheel,
7 is a type provided on the outer periphery of the type wheel 6.

When printing, when the magnet 1 is excited, the magnet 1 attracts the armature 2, and the tip of the armature 2 strikes the hammer 3.

Thereupon, the hammer 3 rotates in the clockwise direction shown by the arrow in the figure, applying an impact force to the type 7 via the ink ribbon 5 and the printing paper 4 to perform printing.

In such an impact printer, if the amount of remaining ink on the ink ribbon is relatively large, applying a larger impact force than necessary will not only make the print darker than necessary, but also damage the ink ribbon substrate. On the other hand, when the amount of remaining ink is relatively small, if a small impact force is used to develop print color, the desired print density cannot be obtained.

Therefore, conventionally, a buffer member 9 equipped with a cushioning material 8 such as rubber is provided near the impact force transmission part at the printing point, and the amount of mitigation of the hammer impact force by the cushioning material 8 (the amount of the kinetic energy of the hammer 3 that is 8) was adjusted by the printer user by visually observing the actual printed coloring state.

This adjustment is performed by moving the buffer member 9 by an appropriate amount in the directions of arrows A and A'.

That is, when the print density becomes too light, the buffer member 9 is moved an appropriate amount in the direction of arrow A to reduce the amount of relaxation of the hammer impact force and increase the impact force of the hammer on the paper. The member 9 is moved by an appropriate amount in the direction of arrow A' to increase the amount of relaxation of the impact force of the hammer and thereby reduce the impact force of the hammer on the paper.

However, this visual adjustment not only requires time and effort, but also has problems in terms of reliability.

The present invention is intended to solve these problems.The present invention is an automatic print density system that automatically sets the amount of relaxation of the hammer impact force and reliably prints at a constant density without the intervention of the printer user. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer device having an adjustment function.

Next, the present invention will be explained in detail.

When the impact force of the hammer on the paper is constant, the print density performance of the ribbon, which influences print density, increases as the ink content of the ribbon increases, and for example, the ink content of the ribbon decreases as the number of times of printing increases.

That is, the print density performance of the ribbon decreases as the number of printing increases.

Therefore, by detecting a variable element such as the number of times of printing, the print density can be detected without visual inspection.

Variable factors include the following, including the number of times of printing.

(1) Number of prints (2) Amount of ink ribbon movement (number of times the ink ribbon is reversed) (3) Amount of remaining ink on the ink ribbon (4) Thickness of the ink ribbon base (gradually changes depending on the impact force during printing) Also, a hammer As means for adjusting the impact force, (a) a cushioning material whose position can be adjusted is provided near the impact force transmission section at the printing point mentioned above, and the position of the cushioning material is adjusted by moving it.

(b) Adjust by changing the energy of the impact force generating part such as a magnet.

etc. are possible.

The present invention uses the above-mentioned means (1) to (4) for detecting the variable elements that affect the printing density performance, and the means (a) and (b) for controlling the detected value of the variable element and the hammer on the paper. This automatically synchronizes the impact force.

Next, a first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 will be described.

This embodiment is a combination of the element detection means (1) and the means (a) or (b) described above.

The print density performance of the ribbon, which influences print density, decreases as the number of printing increases.

Therefore, by calculating the correspondence between the number of prints and the life of the ink ribbon in advance, and adjusting the cushioning material by determining the print density performance of the ribbon based on a signal that indicates the number of prints during which the print density decreases by a predetermined amount. This is used to adjust the impact force of the hammer on the paper, and its outline is shown in Figure 2.

When the line counter that counts the number of prints or the number of printed lines counts a predetermined number, the motor 10 rotates forward by a predetermined amount in response to a command from the line counter, and the motor 10
The cam 11 is rotated by a predetermined amount in the counterclockwise direction in the figure.

Then, the adjustment lever 13, which is supported by the fixed part so as to be slidable in the directions of the arrows B and B' and is biased by the spring 12, engages with the convex part of the cam 11 and moves in the direction of the arrow B. The engaged buffer member 9 is moved by a predetermined amount in the direction of arrow A (direction approaching the printing surface) against the biasing force of the spring 15.

As a result, the print density can be adjusted by reducing the amount of relaxation of the hammer impact force by the buffer material 8 provided in the buffer member 9 and increasing the hammer impact force on the paper.

When moving the buffer member 9 in the arrow' direction, the motor 10
Reverse.

It is also possible to adjust the print density by increasing the hammer impact force by increasing the current supplied to the magnet 1 by a predetermined amount without using a buffer material.

Hammer mass 0.4. ! i', F when using standard ribbon
The relationship between the maximum impact force of 7 (hammer maximum impact force) and print density is shown in FIG. 5, and the relationship between the number of hits/1 square meter and print density is shown in FIG.

Curve A in Fig. 5 shows the case of 1 sheet of 2 sheets at a speed of 55, curve B shows the case of 5P (5 sheets) carbon-containing paper, and curves A/ and B/ of Fig. 6 respectively show the case of ribbon paper. Cases where the ink share is different (both have a speed of 55 and 2
1 sheet of paper).

From FIG. 6, it is clear that there is a tendency for print density to decrease as the number of prints increases.

It is clear from the trend in FIG. 5 that the print density can be maintained by detecting that the number of printings has reached a certain number and increasing the impact force of the hammer on the paper.

Next, a second embodiment will be described.

This embodiment is a combination of the element detection means (2) described above and the means (a) or (b), and the amount of movement of the ink ribbon in a printer where the ink ribbon is transferred only when a printing operation is performed. This method utilizes the fact that the amount of ink consumed by printing is proportional to the amount of ink consumed by printing, and adjusts the hammer impact force by determining the printing density performance of the ribbon based on a signal representing the amount of movement of the ink ribbon or the number of times the ink ribbon is reversed. be.

That is, in FIG. 4, 4, 5, 6.7 indicate printing paper, ink ribbon, type wheel, and type as described above, 18 is a ribbon winding Lisbourg, 19 is a reversal detector, and 20 is an n-ary. A counter 21 is a drive circuit, and the number of times the ink ribbon 5 is reversed is detected by a reversal detector 19, and is determined by counting the number of times of detection with an n-ary counter 20.

Then, the n-ary counter functions to provide a signal to the drive circuit 21 to rotate the motor 10 when a certain count occurs, for example, when an overflow occurs.

In this way, the buffer member 9 is moved toward the print side, and the impact force of the hammer on the paper is increased as a result, thereby adjusting the printing density.

Next, a third example will be described.

This embodiment is a combination of the element detection means (3) and the means (a) or (b) described above.

An ink ribbon is a silk or nylon fabric impregnated with ink, and during printing, the ink moves from this ink ribbon to the printing paper to create the printed color.

Therefore, as the number of printing increases, the color of the ink ribbon gradually changes from the ink color to the base color, and the transparency of the ink ribbon increases.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, a light emitting element 16 and a light receiving element are provided facing each other with the ink ribbon 5 sandwiched between them, and the output voltage of the light receiving element 17 changes depending on the amount of light passing from the light emitting element 16 through the ink ribbon 5. This fact is used to determine the amount of remaining ink, and the hammer impact force is adjusted using the same adjusting means as in the first embodiment described above.

In this case, the motor 10 is driven when the output voltage of the light receiving element 1T increases by a predetermined amount.

Next, a fourth example will be described.

This embodiment is a combination of the element detection means (4) described above and the means (a) or (b).

Ink ribbons have a woven structure, and the thickness of the substrate increases when subjected to repeated impact forces from type.

This amount of increase is proportional to the amount of ink ribbon used.

Therefore, the printing density performance of the ribbon is determined by continuously measuring the thickness of the ink ribbon during printing, and when the thickness increases by a predetermined amount, the hammer impact force is adjusted at the same time as in the above-mentioned embodiment.

As is clear from the description of the embodiments described above, according to the present invention, changes in printing density performance of the ribbon can be automatically detected and the hammer impact force can be adjusted, so that constant printing can be achieved without the need for human intervention. It has various excellent effects such as being able to reliably obtain density and allowing the ribbon to be used for a long period of time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a printer device. 2 to 4 show an embodiment of a printer device having an automatic print density adjustment function according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the cushioning material adjustment means, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the remaining ink on the ink ribbon. A schematic diagram of the amount detection mechanism, FIG. 4, is a device for detecting the number of ink ribbon reversals. FIG. 5 is a graph showing the relationship between the hammer maximum impact force and print density, and FIG. 6 is a graph showing the relationship between the number of hits and print density. In the figure, 1 is a magnet, 3 is a hammer, 4 is printing paper, 5
is an ink ribbon, 8 is a buffer material, 9 is a buffer member, 11 is a cam, 13 is an adjustment bar, 14 is an inclined surface, 16 is a light emitting element,
17 is a light receiving element.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printer device that performs printing by applying an impact force to type using a hammer energized by a magnet, which includes a counting means for counting the number of prints, an adjusting means for changing the impact force of the hammer on the paper, and a counter for the counting means. A printer device having an automatic print density adjustment function, comprising: control means that automatically adjusts the adjustment means to compensate for and increase the impact force of the hammer according to the counting result. .