JPS6016763A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To miniaturize a printer in common use for picture reading function with a simple construction by reading an original with a picture reading means in interlocking with reciprocating motion of a carriage and also discharging the read original from the vicinity of an insertion slot of a paper sheet. CONSTITUTION:The original 25 inserted by making a picture face upside from an original insertion slit C is moved for sub-scanning by a depressing driving roller 32 and discharged succeedingly from the upper face rear part of the printer with a driving roller 13 and a pressing roller 33. Since the focus of an image forming lens 27 is focused to the lower face of a transparent guide plate 26, even if the thickness of the original 25 is changed, the reading face of the original 25 is held always at a prescribed position and the reading by a reading element 23 is conducted normally. Further, while the carriage 1 is moved in the main scanning direction at the printing a paper sheet 11 on a cushion part 6A is printed and when one reciprocating motion is finished, a motor 17 is turned and the driving roller 13 feeds the paper sheet 11 for sub-scanning in a prescribed pitch.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to the structure of a printing device, and particularly to the structure of a printing device that also has an image reading function.

[Prior art]

Printing devices and image reading devices are used as input/output devices for electronic devices such as word processors, electronic typewriters, and facsimile machines.

Among these input/output devices, for example, there are devices such as word processors that perform print output and input original images in reverse, but in general, printing devices are output means of various electronic devices. When used as an input device, it was necessary to send a data signal separately.

Therefore, conventional printing devices do not have an image reading function, and in order to obtain image input in electronic equipment, a separate image reading device, such as that used in facsimile machines, is required.
This is how images are input. Therefore, the printing function section and the image reading function section must be provided independently, which has the drawback of increasing the size of the electronic device and increasing its overall cost.

In addition, devices dedicated to image reading such as facsimile machines have an excellent ability to read the entire width of a document at high speed; It lacks the ability to read only a portion of data, and cannot be used for operations such as sorting data and recording only the selected portion.

Furthermore, although some input/output devices have been proposed that have a printing function and a reading function, these types of devices simply have a printing means and a reading means installed side by side, and cannot transmit the read information. It lacks a so-called copy function that instantly outputs a recorded image, or a so-called monitor function that outputs read information as a recorded image while inputting it to a storage device, and has not reached the point where it has found any special practical value. .

〔the purpose〕

The present invention eliminates the drawbacks of such conventional printing devices,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing device that is capable of partial reading, has a copying function or a monitoring function, and can be miniaturized.

[Explanation of Examples]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

In FIGS. 1 to 3, reference numeral 1 indicates a carriage, and this carriage is a guide member 4, 5 provided parallel to each other between side plates (or frames) 2, 3 installed on both sides of the printing device. is guided and reciprocated along the platen 6. This carriage 1 is connected to a belt 9 stretched between pulleys 7 and 8 on both sides, and pulley 7 is connected to a motor 1.
It is reciprocated by driving at zero.

Paper 11 for printing (recording) is fed and driven along a guide plate 12 by a drive roller 13 and a pressing roller (pinch roller) 14, and moves from below to above the platen 6 in the sub-scanning direction (paper feeding) as shown by the arrow. or in the leading direction). The drive roller 13 is rotationally driven by a motor 17 such as a pulse motor via pulleys 14 and 15 and a belt 16 stretched between these pulleys.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, a substrate 20 having a heating element recording element 19 consisting of a plurality of dots is attached to the entire surface of a head holder (head support member) 18. The heating element recording elements are arranged in a row, and these recording elements and the substrate 20 constitute a print head.

The base end of the head holder 18 is rotatably (swingably) mounted on a shaft 21 supported by an arm 1A provided on the carriage 1. Further, the head holder 18 is biased clockwise in FIG. 2 about the shaft 21 by a spring 22 provided between the head holder 18 and the protrusion 1B of the carriage 1, so that the print head 19 is moved against the paper 11. It is designed to be pressed into contact. That is, the recording element 19 prints on the paper 11 based on the print signal while being pressed by the spring force of the spring 22 against the portion of the paper 11 located on the surface of the cushion member 6A provided on the platen 6. Let's do it.

In FIGS. 2 and 3, the carriage 1 is provided with a reading element (photoelectric element) 23, and this reading element is for reading image information of an original (image information original) 25 illuminated by a lens 24. be. This document 25 is read through a transparent guide plate 26 and an imaging lens 27.

The transparent guide plate 26 is mounted below the guide members 4 and 5 and sandwiched between a lower guide plate 28 and an upper guide plate 30 provided between the side plates 2 and 3. In this case, a spacer 29 is provided between the transparent guide plate 26 and the lower guide plate 28, and the spacer forms a conveyance path (predetermined gap) through which the original 25 passes. As shown in FIG. 3, the length of the transparent guide plate 26 in the width direction of the printing device is made to be approximately the same as the reading range in the main scanning direction performed by the reading element 23 in conjunction with the reciprocating movement of the carriage 1. .

In FIG. 2, a document 25 is inserted with its image side facing up through a document insertion opening C formed on the entire surface of the printing device by the lower guide plate 28 and the upper guide plate 30. The inserted document 25 is moved in a sub-scanning direction by a pressing drive roller 32, and then is ejected from the upper rear part of the printing device by the driving roller 13 and the pressing roller 33 disposed below the driving roller 13. This document 25 is ejected from the guide plate 1.
2 and the lower guide plate 28. Further, the pressing drive roller 32 is rotationally driven by the motor 17 via a transmission mechanism including the pulley 15, the pulley 31, and a belt 16 stretched around these pulleys.

The pressing drive roller 32 moves the original 25 in the sub-scanning direction while pressing it against the transparent guide plate 26 . On the other hand, since the focus of the imaging lens 27 is focused on the lower surface of the transparent guide plate 26, even if the thickness of the original 25 changes or the paper surface is curved, the reading surface of the original 25 does not change and is always constant. held in position. Therefore, reading element 2
A read by 3 will always be successful.

1 and 2, a temporary index 34 made of a transparent material is fixed to the carriage 1 parallel to the upper surface of the transparent guide plate 26. As shown in FIGS. On the index plate 34, an index line 34A indicating the center position in the sub-scanning direction of the reading element 23 made of a photoelectric element and an index line 34B indicating the center position in the main scanning direction are provided. Furthermore, thin lines are provided above and below the index line 34B to indicate the reading width.

The index lines 34A and 34B can be provided directly on the side surface of the carriage 1, or an elongated protruding member can be provided on the carriage 1 and used in place of the index lines. Furthermore, it is also possible to adopt a method in which colored linear light is projected onto the image plane using the light from the illumination lamp 24 as an index line.

The index plate 34 is provided with an indicator mark indicating that a printing device such as READ as shown in the figure is in a reading operation, and is highlighted by the lamp 24 during the reading operation, thereby alerting the operator. It is designed to indicate that the printing device is in read mode. The display mark 34C can be formed by engraved characters provided on the back surface of the index plate 34, but can also be formed as appropriate depending on the direction of operation.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the recording element 1 of the print head
9 and the center of the reading element 23 of the reading means are aligned on the common center line 35, and the edges 2 of the original 25 are aligned.
By aligning the set positions of the recording paper 5A and the edge 11A of the recording paper 11, the distance traveled during the reciprocating motion of the carriage 1 can be minimized, and the printing apparatus can be downsized.

In FIG. 2, a detector P1 for detecting the presence or absence of a document is provided below the small hole formed in the lower guide plate 28, and further below the small hole formed in the guide plate 12. A detector P2 for detecting the presence or absence of paper 11 is provided. These detectors P1 and P2 are each constructed by combining a light emitting diode and a photodiode that receives reflected light from the paper. Therefore, in the print mode, the printer does not operate unless the detector P2 is ON (paper present). Also, in read mode, at least P1
It will not work unless is ON. Furthermore, in the copy mode (including monitor), it will not operate unless both of the detectors P1 and P2 are ON.

Reference numeral 50 in FIG. 2 indicates a power supply section of the printing apparatus, and reference numeral 36 in FIGS. 2 and 3 indicates a circuit board constituting a control section of the printing apparatus.

As shown in FIG. 1, an energizing path connecting the electric circuit on the carriage 1 to the circuit board 36 and the power supply unit 50 is provided between the connector 37 fixed to the side plate 3 and the connector 38 fixed to the carriage 1. It is formed by a connected flexible flat cable 39. This flat cable 39 is disposed outside the space within which the index plate 34 provided on the carriage 1 moves, allowing the operator to observe the reading surface of the original 25 from above. In this embodiment, the side surface 1C of the carriage 1 and the upper cover 40
By disposing the flat cable 39 in the space between the side surface and the side surface of the document 25, the reading surface of the document 25 can be observed from above (from above the printing device).

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the cover 40 for covering the upper part of the printing device has a cover 40 in a predetermined range so that the operator can observe the image surface of the document 25 over the range of movement of the carriage 1. It has a see-through section 40A made of a transparent material.

Reference numeral 41 denotes a lower outer cover for covering the lower surface of the printing device, and a plurality of rubber feet 42 are provided on the lower surface.

Further, reference numeral 43 in FIGS. 1 and 2 indicates a document mounting table provided protrudingly below the document insertion slot C.

The operation of the printing device described above with reference to the drawings will be described below.

First, the recording (printing) operation will be explained.

By pressing a predetermined key on an operation panel (not shown), the printing device enters a printing mode.

The print mode is displayed on the operation panel.

When the paper 11 is inserted onto the guide plate 12 and the detector P2 detects the presence of paper, the drive roller 13 rotates and the leading edge of the paper 11 is sent to the top of the recording element 19 of the print head. Note that, if necessary, the position of the paper 11 relative to the recording element 19 can be changed manually. In this case, if a predetermined key is kept pressed, the motor 17 will operate until the key is released, and the paper 11 can continue to be fed via the drive roller 13. Further, by pressing a key for reverse rotation operation of the motor 17, the paper 11 can be returned to the insertion slot by a predetermined length.

By completing the above operations, preparation for the printing operation is completed.

Next, when the start key on the operation panel is pressed, the printing operation is started, and the recording element 11 generates heat based on the print signal from the main body of the electronic device such as a word processor, and the cushion 11 is heated while the carriage 1 moves in the main scanning direction. Paper 1 on section 6A
Printing is performed in step 1.

When one reciprocating movement of the carriage 1 is completed, the motor 17 rotates, which causes the drive roller 13 to rotate and feed the paper 11 upward in a sub-scanning direction (line feed) by a predetermined pitch. By repeating such operations, printing is performed on the entire surface of the paper 11.

Next, the reading operation will be explained.

By pressing a predetermined key on an operation panel (not shown), the printing device enters a reading mode.

The read mode is displayed on the operation panel, and the display mark 34C on the indicator member 34 shown in FIG. 1 is embossed, thereby informing the operator that the read mode is in effect.

The original 25 is inserted onto the lower guide plate 28, and the detector P1
When the presence of paper is detected, the pressing drive roller 32 is driven to rotate and the leading edge of the original 25 is sent to the reading position of the reading element 23. The reading position of the original 25 in the main scanning direction can be determined by the index line 34B in FIG.

Note that, if necessary, the position of the document 25 with respect to the index line 34B can be changed by manual operation. in this case,
When a predetermined key is pressed continuously, the motor 17 rotates until the key is released, and the pressing drive roller 32 and the drive roller 13 are rotated.
The original 25 is continuously fed by the rotation of the original 25. Further, when a key for reverse rotation operation of the motor 17 is pressed, the document 25 is returned to the direction of the insertion slot C by a predetermined length.

By completing the above operations, preparation for the read operation is completed.

Subsequently, when the start key on the operation panel is pressed, the reading operation is started, and during the main scanning movement of the carriage 1, the reading element 23 reads the image information of the original 25 and converts it into an image electric signal. This image signal is sent to the main body of an electronic device such as a word processor.

When one reciprocating movement of the carriage 1 is completed, the motor 17 is activated, and the pressing drive roller 32 connected to the motor 17 is activated.
and 5, the moving roller 13 rotates, and the document 25 is fed by a predetermined pitch in the sub-scanning direction.

When the reading operation progresses and the rear end of the document 25 passes the detector P1, the detector P1 detects that there is no paper.

Based on this detection signal, the control circuit 36 continues the reading operation until the rear end of the original 25 passes the reading position. When the trailing edge of the document passes the reading position, the reading operation stops. On the other hand, the pressing roller 32 and the driving roller 33 continue to be driven to rotate, and the original paper 25 is discharged from the lower side of the guide plate 12. The upper side of this guide plate 12 forms an insertion opening for the paper 11, and the lower side forms an ejection opening for the original document 25, as described above. That is, according to the present invention, the read document is ejected from the vicinity of the recording paper insertion slot.

Next, the operation of reading only a specific portion of the original 25 will be explained.

For example, as shown in FIG. 1, among the character group 44 from A to Z written over two lines on the manuscript 25, from the first line, from F to K.
When partially reading the range from the second line to T to Y, look at the document from above the printing device through the see-through part 40A of the cover 40, and make sure that the heads of the letters A to N in the first line are at the index line.
Manually feed the document until it enters the reading range of 4B.

Next, the carriage 1 is moved from left to right (main scanning direction) by manual operation until the index line 34A is to the left of the letters F and T (these letters F and T are at the same position in the main scanning direction). At this point, the carriage 1 is stopped, and then a predetermined key is pressed to register the stopped position of the carriage 1 in the control circuit 36.

Next, the carriage 1 is moved to the right by manual operation, and the carriage 1 is stopped when the index line 34A is on the right side of the letters K and Y (these letters are also at the same position in the main scanning direction). By pressing a predetermined key, the second stop position of the carriage 1 is registered in the control circuit 36.

In this way, when the reading start key is pressed, the carriage 1 moves back and forth over the range between the two registered locations, while the reading element 23 reads the image information within the registered range and uses this as an image signal for a word processor, etc. to the main body of the electronic device.

The sub-scanning movement of the document 25 during the reading operation is observed by the see-through unit 40.
While observing at A, the letters O to Z on the second line are the index line 34B.
passes through the reading range and presses the stop key, thereby completing the reading operation.

Next, the copy operation will be explained.

By pressing a predetermined key on an operation panel (not shown), the printing device enters a copy mode.

The copy mode is displayed on the operation panel.

When the copy operation key on the operation panel is pressed when the presence of paper in the original 25 is detected by the detector P1 and the presence of paper in the paper 11 is detected by the detector P2 at the same time, the drive roller 13 and the pressing drive roller are pressed. 32 rotates and paper 1
The tip of document 2 is placed in front of the recording element 19 of the print head.
The tips of 5 move to the reading positions of the reading elements 23 of the reading means. Subsequently, the carriage 1 is reciprocated in the main scanning direction, and in conjunction with this, the reading operation and the recording (printing) operation described in detail above are performed simultaneously.

According to the configuration of the embodiment described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3, the reading element 23 moves the document 2
Since the direction in which the image is read and the direction in which the recording element 19 of the print head records on the paper 11 are exactly the same, in the copy mode, the control circuit 36 immediately reads the image information read by the reading element 23. It can be sent to the recording head.

That is, the image can be directly and immediately sent to the recording head without using an image recombination processing circuit, a buffer memory, or the like. Therefore, according to the configuration of the above embodiment, the copy processing time can be extremely shortened, and since the special processing circuit and buffer memory described above are not required, the manufacturing cost of the printing device can be greatly reduced. Moreover, it is possible to form a highly accurate copy image without misalignment between the document and the recording.

Note that the image information read during the above-mentioned copying operation can also be input into the main body of an electronic device such as a word processor. It is extremely convenient to be able to check while viewing.

In the above embodiments, the case where the recording head is a thermal head having the substrate 20 and the heating element 19 has been described, but it is also possible to use various other types of print heads as this print head. For example, print heads of other recording methods such as a wire dot method or an inkjet method can also be used, and even in these cases, substantially the same effects as those of the embodiments described above can be achieved.

Furthermore, the embodiments described above are not limited to use in word processors, but can also be used in various devices that require a printing function and image input, or in which a printing function and an image reading function are combined through communication means. It can be widely applied to various types of equipment.

According to the embodiment described above, the operator can read only a specific part of the document by a simple operation while looking at the document from outside the printing device, and due to its arrangement, the read image can be immediately printed and recorded. A printing device capable of printing can be obtained.

Further, according to the embodiments described above, a printing device can be obtained which can be loaded with an image reading function without increasing the size of the printing device itself and with an inexpensive structure.

[Effects] As is clear from the above description, the present invention provides a printing device that can also have an image reading function with a simple structure without increasing the size of the device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a printing device according to the present invention with the upper cover removed, and FIG. 2 is a line I in FIG. 1.
3 is a sectional view taken along line III--III in FIG. 1. FIG. 1... Carriage, 4, 5... Guide member, 6...
Platen, 11... Recording paper, 12... Guide plate, 13... Drive roller, 18... Head holder,
19... Heating element recording element (print head), 23...
Reading element, 24... Lamp, 25... Document for reading, 26... Transparent guide plate, 27... Imaging lens, 28... Lower guide plate, 30... Upper guide plate. 32
...Press drive roller, 34...Indicator plate, 34A, 3
4B... Index line, 35... Center line, 36... Circuit board (control circuit), 39... Flexible cable, 40
...Cover, 40A...Transparent part of cover, 50...
・Power supply unit, P1...Detector for detecting knots in the original, P
2...Detector that detects the presence or absence of paper. Figure 1 ■-River

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A print head and an image reading means are provided on a carriage that reciprocates along the paper moving from below to above the platen in a sub-scanning direction, and at least two guide members spaced apart from each other in the front and rear direction move the carriage to the paper. A document conveyance path is provided below these guide layer and the platen, and the document in the conveyance path is read by the image reading means in conjunction with the reciprocation of the carriage. A printing device configured to eject a document from near the paper insertion slot. (2) The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the cover covering the upper part of the carriage is transparent over the range of movement of the carriage, and the reading surface of the document can be visually observed from above the cover. (3) The printing device according to claim 2, wherein the carriage is provided with an index line that allows a viewer to align the carriage with a specific position on the document while the carriage is moving. (4) A patent claim characterized in that, during the reading operation, a display mark provided near the index line is highlighted by the light source of the reading means, thereby clearly indicating to the operator that the printing device is in the reading operation. 3. The printing device according to item 3.