JPS60240470A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a small printer capable of performing printing by manually moving a printing head, by printing the output of the printing head on a printing object in synchronous relation to the movement of the printing head. CONSTITUTION:A printer 2 is manually moved on a printing object 3. For example, when a character (a) of katakana is printed, it is detected that a printing head reaches a position x1 and the dot D6 of an inline head is prined. Next, when the printing head reached a position x2, D5 is printed and, thereafter, if a smeared-out dot is printed when the printing head respectively reached x3, x4... x7, the character (a) can be printed. When the relative position with the printing object change, wheels 9, 13 are rotated corresponding to said change. The rotation of the wheel 9 rotates a rotary encoder 11 to output a position signal and the printing head 8 generated head and the ink of a ribbon 12 is transferred to the printing object. The ribbon 12 is wound up by one hub 18 with the rotation of the wheel 13 and the ribbon 12 at an unused part is always contacted with the printing head 8 and the printing object.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an improved printer and to a small printer that can print by manually moving the print head.

[Background of the invention]

In recent years, with the spread of personal computers, the demand for printers as output means has increased. Conventional printers, as we all know, are thermal printers.

A system for driving a system consisting of a print head for printing on the printing target (normally 9 types of paper) by means of dot impact, electric discharge, etc., and a stepping motor assembly for moving the print head - A for driving the Danpo pair 9 It consists of a paper feed mechanism and a drive circuit for driving the print head, and most of them are housed in one unit. In conventional printers like this,
Because it has a drive system for paper feeding, etc., it is large and complex. In addition, the printing target must be flexible and rigid, and it has the disadvantage that it cannot print on items that are bound like books on the back. It is also difficult to print on thick paper such as cardboard.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing press that is small and lightweight, and is capable of printing on hard printing objects such as book covers.

[Overview of the invention]

In the present invention, the print head is made independent, the print head is manually moved relative to the print object, the relative speed between the print object and the print head is detected at the same time, and the print head is moved in synchronization with the movement of the print head. The above objective is achieved by printing the output of the printer on the printing target.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail without referring to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a personal computer, 2 is a printer of the present invention, and 6 is a printing target (usually one sheet of paper).
is manually moved over the printing object 5. When a start switch on the top of the printer 2 is pressed, characters or graphic data to be printed are transferred from the personal computer 1 to a printer interface circuit (not shown). The printer interface circuit prints characters or graphic data on the printing object 3 as the printer 2 moves.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the principle of printing. Here, an 8-dot inline head will be used as the print head. For example, when printing one katakana letter, the print head detects that it has reached the rl position and prints the D6 dot of the in-line head. Next, when the printing head reaches the x2 position, D5 is printed, and so on.

, Z'3 , , ff14......If you print out the dots not shown in Figure 2 when x7 is reached, then
This means that the character ``kiii'' can be printed. A printing method using such an in-line print head is widely used in printers. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of a printer according to the present invention. The printing method is based on the principle explained in FIG. In Figure 3, 4 is the national polity.

5 is a start switch, 6 is a cassette holder.

7 is a ribbon cassette, 8 is a print head, 9 is a wheel, 10
tri pulley, 11 is a rotary encoder.

12 is a ribbon, 13 is a wheel, 14 is a rubber belt, 15 is a parallel spring, 16 is a cable, and 17 is a distal shaft.

18 is a hub. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line AA' shown in FIG. 3. 16 is a cable. FIG. 5 further shows a BB/sectional view of the printer of the invention shown in FIG. The structure will be explained according to FIGS. 3, 4, and 5. A start switch 5 is attached to the national polity 4. In addition, a cassette holder 6 is attached to the national polity 4 via a parallel spring 15.
are combined. The print head 8 is connected to the cassette holder 6, and the ribbon cassette 7 is detachably attached to the cassette holder 6.

The ribbon cassette 7 has a built-in ribbon 12.

The ribbon 12 is wound around a hub 18, one hub is inserted into a winding shaft 17, and the winding shaft 17 is driven by a wheel 15 rotatably supported on the national body 4 via a rubber belt. The rotary encoder 11 is in contact with a wheel 9 connected to the national polity 4 via a pulley 10. The start switch 5 and the print head 8 are connected to an interface circuit (not shown) via a cable 16.

Next, the operation will be explained. First, the position detection with respect to the printing object is performed manually, etc., and when the relative position with the printing object changes, the wheels 9 and 13 rotate accordingly.
The position signal from the rotary encoder is sent to cable 16.
The rotor 11 encoder is of the Koei type and the magnetic type, and any type of encoder can also be used as long as it outputs an output according to rotation. sell.

The printing operation is performed by connecting the print head 8 to the cable 16.
When print data is sent, the print head 8 generates heat according to the data. A ribbon 12 sandwiched between the print head 8 and the object to be printed (not shown) is heated, and the ink is transferred to the object to be printed.

This is a known technology as a thermal transfer method. The ribbon 12 is
As the wheel 130 rotates, the winding shaft 17 is rotated via the rubber belt 14 to be wound around one of the hubs 18, and the unused portion of the ribbon 12 always comes into contact with the print head 8 and the printing target. Further, the cassette holder 6 and the print head 8 are connected to the national body 4 by a parallel spring 15, and the parallel spring 15 is configured to press the print head 8 against the printing target. This prevents the print quality from becoming e-like due to changes in shading due to changes in the contact state.

It goes without saying that the ribbon cassette 7 can be easily attached and detached by a means not shown in the drawings, and although a configuration using a thermal head has been described as an O print head, wire tod type,
It is obvious that other methods can also be used.

6 shows an example of the configuration of a drive circuit for driving a printer according to the present invention. In FIG. 6, 1 is a personal computer, 19 is a microprocessor, 20 is a print head drive unit, 21 is a print head, and 22 23 is a position detection section, and 23 is a start switch.

The microprocessor 19 includes R, OM, )i, AM
is built in, and R and OM store programs and data necessary for printing, such as data for converting the received ASCII code into printing information as shown in Figure 2. has been done.

Furthermore, f(, AM) is used as a memory for executing instructions. As a microprocessor, any known microprocessor can be used.

FIG. 7 shows a printing flowchart and a timing chart for the 8th part character. The printing method will be explained using FIGS. 6, 7, and 8. microprocessor 19
Information to be printed from personal computer 1 (
When the start switch 23 is pressed, the microprocessor 19
transfers data to be printed (point data to be heated) to the print head drive section 20.

When a start pulse is input from the start switch 23, it waits for the first position detection pulse to be input from the position detection section 22, and when the position detection pulse is input, a print pulse is applied to the print head drive section 20. The print head driving section 20 drives the print head 2 and prints one line by the method described above.

After printing one line, the microprocessor 19
The next line of data is sent to the print head drive section 20, the next output from the position detection section 22 is waited for, and one line is printed based on the output from the next position detection section. By repeating this operation, when a data end signal is generated from the personal computer 1-, which prints characters or graphics as the printer moves (mainly manually), the microprocessor 19 returns to its initial state. return.

The reason why printing does not start until the first position detection pulse is output after the start switch 23 is pressed is because the position detection unit 22 using a rotary encoder etc. is not synchronized with the actual printer position. This is to prevent the print quality from deteriorating due to the change in the interval between a printed line and the next line, and in reality it is 2 to 3 pulses instead of 1 pulse.
Experimental results have shown that waiting for a pulse is more stable.

The start switch stick in one embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 3 has been explained only in terms of its operation as a start switch, but it has a function of stopping printing for once, or a separate switch with that function, a function of stopping printing, or a function of stopping printing. It is also easy to provide a switch.

Furthermore, by changing the operation of the microprocessor 19, it goes without saying that horizontally folded characters and H2 characters can be easily handled.

Further, it is also easy to have the personal combination, Eta 1 perform the function of the microgross sexer 190.

As described above, the present invention detects the printing timing by detecting the relative position, but the same effect can be achieved even if a relative losing streak is detected.

The present invention has the effect that the printer can be configured with a print head, a position detecting section, a ribbon, etc., so the printer can be made smaller and lighter, and can be provided at a lower price. Also, since a start switch is provided, it is possible to This method has the advantage that printing can be started after manually positioning the printer accurately, making it easy to set the print position.

Furthermore, even if the start switch is pressed, printing is performed after waiting for the output of the position detection pulse, which also has the effect of preventing deterioration in print quality. It has the feature that it can be printed not only on ordinary paper but also on hard paper such as the cover of a book.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a convenient printer that is small in size, small in volume, and capable of printing even on hard paper.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a printing method, FIG. 6, FIG. 4, and FIG. 5 are cross-sectional views of an embodiment of the present invention. 7 is a block diagram showing an example of the drive circuit of the present invention, FIG. 7 is a flowchart thereof, and FIG. 8 is a timing chart. 2... Printer 5... Start switch 6... Cassette holder 7... Ribbon cassette 8... Print head 916...・Wheel 11...Rotary encoder 12...Ribbon Patent Attorney Akio Takahashi 1st Figure @ 2 times ○0 5000■○○○ O○00000 7000■○○0 30000000 Sentence, χ2χ324χ5χ6χ7

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printer having a print head, which is equipped with a means for detecting a change in the relative position of the object to be printed, and prints according to the movement of the printer.