JPS61246067A - Thermal printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten printing time, by a system wherein images arranged at regular intervals in a printing direction are simultaneously printed by a plurality of heating element rows, then the heating element rows are moved relatively to a printing paper in a direction orthogonal to the printing direction, and the next printing is conducted. CONSTITUTION:A plurality of heads 3a,..., 3d provided respectively with the heating element rows 2a,..., 2d parallel with each other in the moving direction B of the printing paper 1 are provided at intervals D in a direction orthogonal to the direction B. A one-line amount of data to be printed are split, and split pieces of data are individually impressed on the heating element rows 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d of the heads 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d from a CPU 5 through decoder drivers 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, respectively. According to a command from the CPU 5, a head- controlling part 6 controllingly shifts the heads 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d. The CPU 5 controls printing in accordance with a program which is previously provided. Accordingly, since a line is simultaneously printed by the plurality of the heating element rows, printing speed can be enhanced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application This invention relates to a thermal printing method, and particularly to a thermal printing method capable of high-speed printing.

(b) Conventional technology In general, a printing method using a thermal print head prints one heating element row (dot row) as shown in Fig. 3.
Thermal print head b with a and print paper C
After scanning in the direction of the arrow and printing one line, either feed the paper C in the direction B, or fix the thermal print head b and feed only the paper C7. I try my best to print the desired characters and images.

(c) Problems to be solved by the invention Regarding thermal printing, 1. is a method of printing by heating the printing material through thermal transfer paper or directly. It takes a predetermined time for one heating. Therefore, like the conventional pudding 1 type mentioned above,
Printing using a single thermal print head while sequentially shifting had a limit in high-speed printing.

In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a thermal printing method that allows higher speed printing than conventional methods.

(d) Means and operation for solving the problems This invention provides a plurality of heating element rows (2a, 2b, 2c, 2d) at predetermined intervals in the first printing direction (A, > of the printing paper (1)). (D), and in a first step, the plurality of heating element rows simultaneously print at the predetermined intervals in the first printing direction, and after the completion of printing at the predetermined intervals, the second In step, the plurality of heating element rows are moved relative to the printing paper in a second direction perpendicular to the first printing direction to perform the next printing in the first printing direction. I have to.

Since printing for one row in the printing direction of the thermal print head of the present invention is divided by a plurality of heating element rows and performed in parallel, the printing time required for one row is shortened.

(E) Examples The present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to Examples below.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the same figure, thermal print heads 3a1, 3d, which have heating element rows 2a, 2d, arranged parallel to the moving direction B of the printing paper 1, are connected to the paper 1.
A plurality of pieces (four pieces in the figure) are arranged in parallel at intervals in a direction perpendicular to the movement direction B of .

Data to be printed for one line is divided into each thermal print head 3a, 3b, 3G, and 3d from a CPU (microcomputer) 5 through each decoder driver 4a, 4b, and 4C14d, and each thermal print head has a heating element. row 2a
, 2b, and 2C12d.

Further, according to a command from the CPU 5, the head control section 6
Each thermal print head 3a, 3b.

It is designed to shift control the 3C13d.

As is well known, the CPU 5 executes print control according to a program stored in advance.

Further, the CPU 5 has built-in counters and registers for storing constants and calculated values required during the execution process.

Next, the printing operation of the above embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, when the power is turned on and the operation starts, initialization is performed such as setting each counter C3 and C2 to 0 (step 5TI). In this state, the thermal print head 3a,
3b, 3c, and 3d are stopped at the left end. Subsequently, when a print command is issued (step 5T2), counter C1
is incremented by +1 (step 5T3). This counter C8 is built into the CPU 5, and is used for each thermal print head 3az.
3bs3c and 3d are counted from 1 to D in the direction of arrow A. C1=1 is the left end, C,
=D will be located at the right end.

In step ST3, the counter CI is incremented by 1, and printing is performed by each of the thermal print heads 3a, 3b, 3c, and 3d at the position C,=1 (step 5T4). Next, step ST
5, it is determined whether the content of the counter C1 is D or not. At the beginning of printing, this determination is NO, and each of the thermal print heads 3a, 3b, 3c, and 3d is shifted to the right by one column (step 5T6), step S
Return to T3. From then on, until the content of the counter C1 becomes D, that is, each thermal print head 3a, 3b
, 3c, and 3d reach the right end of their respective movement ranges, repeating steps ST3 to ST6 to continue printing.

When the content of the counter C1 reaches D, the determination in step ST5 becomes YES, and then each thermal print head 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d is returned to the left end (step 5T7), and the counter C3 is set to 0. (Step 5T8).

With the above processing, printing of the first line is completed, so the counter C2 is incremented by 1 (step 5T9).
), and each thermal print head 3a, 3b, 3
c and 3d are shifted by one line (step 5TIO).

Here, the counter C2 is provided to count the number of printed lines.

Following the one-row shift, it is determined whether the contents of the counter C2 have reached N (step 5TII). N is the number of print lines on the print paper 1. At the beginning of printing and the line shift has not progressed, this judgment is No.
Then, the process returns to step ST3. Thereafter, the processes from step ST3 to step 5TII are repeated until the content of the counter C2 becomes N. That is, each thermal print head 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d has 1
Printing for D columns per row is divided and held in the receiver, and printing for N rows is executed.

When Cm=N in step 5TII, printing for one sheet of print paper 1 is completed and the operation is completed.

In the above embodiment, the case where the thermal print head is shifted in both rows and columns was given as an example, but shifting of the rows may be done by feeding the print paper, or it is also possible to shift the print paper in both the rows and columns. You can do it like this.

Further, the number of heating element rows of the thermal print head is not limited to one row, but may include two or more rows.

Further, in the above embodiment, a case has been described in which a plurality of thermal print heads are arranged in parallel and a plurality of heating element rows are arranged in parallel, but the present invention is not limited to this. A plurality of heating element rows may be arranged in parallel at predetermined intervals.

(f) Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, since one row is printed simultaneously using a plurality of heating element columns, the printing speed becomes faster than that of the conventional method.

Furthermore, by increasing the number of rows of heating elements, a large head can be easily realized, and wide printing becomes possible. Therefore,
Suitable for CA, D, CAM, etc.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a flow diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment, and Fig. 3 is a diagram for explaining the conventional printing method. be. 1 Niblint paper, 2a/2b -2c -2d: Heating element row, 3a/3
b・3C・3d: Thermal print head, Fig. 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A plurality of heating element rows are arranged in parallel at predetermined intervals in a first printing direction of printing paper, and in a first step, the plurality of heating element rows are arranged at the predetermined intervals in the first printing direction. After printing at the predetermined intervals,
In a second step, the plurality of heating element rows are moved relative to the printing paper in a second direction perpendicular to the first printing direction to perform the next printing in the first printing direction. Thermal printing method.