JPS6141563A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the processing speed of a system as a whole by shortening a writing time per one scene, by using a plurality of writing elements on a line. CONSTITUTION:The unidimensional writing heads 54A, 54B of the writing part 12 provided in order to apply pattern baking writing to a region 102 have a large number of linearily arranged dot writing elements 56 and sensitized paper 18 is controlled so as to move above the direction crossing said arrangement at an almost constant speed by a motor 64. The pattern written to the region 102 of the sensitized paper 18 by baking is formed by a pattern forming device 86 and, when a writing signal generator 92 supplies a synchronous signal to a driving control circuit 80, the main scanning and sub-scanning of writing beam are synchronously controlled by the intermittent driving control of the motor 64 to apply the baking writing of an indicated pattern to the region 102. That is, two writing beams by the unidimensional writing heads 54A, 54B are scanned by the predetermined number of times at a predetermined cycle in the lateral direction of the sensitized paper 18 to respectively scan the halves of a picture and, therefore, the time requiring in writing is reduced by half and a processing speed can be enhanced as a whole.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a printer capable of printing and writing on photosensitive materials.

[Background Art] The writing device is designed to print variable images, such as characters such as "Happy New Year," on photographic images on ordinary photographic paper. Conventionally, for this purpose, characters were copied onto lithographic film and used as a mask.
The photographic image was exposed on photographic paper at the same time. However, this lith film needs to be made every time an order changes, and one operation takes a long time.

To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-7 developed a device in which the character pattern to be written is stored in a memory or the like in advance, and the pattern is burned in by emitting light or dimming means according to the contents.
This method has been proposed for the No. 4543 photo printing device. However, when a line liquid crystal or LED array is used as a printing device to achieve this, the processing speed of the entire system decreases due to the response speed of the liquid crystal and the insufficient light amount of the LED array. The problem arises.゛ [Object of the invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems,
The purpose of this is to shorten the writing time per frame by using a plurality of writing elements on a line, thereby increasing the processing speed of the entire system.

[Summary of the Invention] The apparatus of the present invention provides an apparatus for printing characters and figures such as "Happy New Year" on a photo, such as a New Year's postcard, without slowing down the processing speed. It is about providing.

Conventionally, when obtaining such prints, the usual photo printing process used lithographic film with characters and figures written on it as a mask, and sometimes the letters and figures were printed at the same time. Therefore, the printing time of the photograph does not become longer due to the printing of characters and figures. However, with this method, it was necessary to make a lith film for each order, and it took a lot of effort to change the pattern.

To solve this problem, put the pattern of characters and figures you want to write in memory etc. in advance, and according to this content,
A device for printing using a pattern printing element or a light reduction means has been proposed in 1983-74543 in ``Photo Printing Apparatus''. However, in order to realize this, a line liquid crystal or LED array was used as the printing device. In the case of a liquid crystal, there is a problem that the response speed is insufficient, and in the case of an LED array, the amount of light is insufficient, resulting in a decrease in the processing speed of the entire system.

For example, one cycle of normal photographic printing requires 0.5 seconds.

Therefore, unless characters and graphics are written within 0.5 seconds by the line writing element, the processing speed of the entire apparatus will decrease. 10cm for exposure within 0.5 seconds
When writing with a resolution of 10 pieces/mm, 0.5 (seconds) per piece ÷ (100 mm x 10 pieces/mm) = 0.
5mm seconds/tree. However, liquid crystals generally have a slow response speed, and even a very fast one requires a response time of 1 mm seconds or more. Therefore, as it is, a liquid crystal that is several times faster than the current one is required, but if you use multiple (n) liquid crystals of this line and make the writing area of each one l / n, the writing time can be reduced to 1
It becomes l/n at the time of the book. In other words, the response speed of the liquid crystal may be n times slower.

Although a case has been described in which a liquid crystal is used as a line writing element, the same applies to liquid crystals because when an LED array is used, the amount of light is insufficient.

Also, the screen can be divided by dividing the image into n parts, or by dividing the image into n parts.
It is also possible to write alternately at intervals of .

[Embodiments of the Invention] Hereinafter, embodiments of a high-speed printer according to the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall structure of the apparatus of this embodiment, and in this figure, the apparatus is equipped with a photographic printing section 10, a writing section 12, and a developing machine 14.

The photographic printing unit 10 prints the negative image of the mask negative film 16 set on the exposure light path onto photographic paper 18 (photosensitive material).
For example, the image shown in FIG.
It is possible to burn it into

At this time, the area 102 in FIG. 2 is masked, and therefore this area 102 is not printed in the photographic printing section 10.

The following issue is photographic paper 1 that was processed in the photo printing department 1O above.
8 is supplied to the writing section 12.

In this writing section 12, the pattern (A,
B, C, D, E, F, G) are burned in.

The photographic paper 18 that has been subjected to printing by the photo printing section lO1 writing section 12 is supplied to the developing machine 14.
The developing machine 14 can develop the photographic paper 18.

In FIG. 1, alternating current is supplied from a power supply 20 to the photographic printing unit 1O, and the current is supplied to an exposure lamp 24 via a chopper circuit 22.

The exposure lamp 24 is thus turned on, and its lighting brightness is determined by the detection window 26a formed in the lamp reflector 26.
The light is detected by the light receiver 28 via the light beam.

The detection signal is supplied to a processing circuit 32 provided in a write control device 30 that controls the photo printing section 10 and writing section 12. By controlling the switching of the elements, it is possible to perform phase control and control the lighting of the exposure lamp 24 so that the detected value of the light receiver 28 becomes the target value.

The light source light from the exposure lamp 24 is passed through a CC filter 34.
The light of the CC filter 34 can be adjusted by moving each component color filter piece forward and backward with respect to the exposure optical path.

Each of these filter pieces is driven by an actuator 36, and a drive current is supplied to the actuator 36 from a driver 38 controlled by the processing circuit 32.

Note that light source management, photometry, light adjustment, and exposure are performed by moving each filter piece of the CC filter 34 forward and backward with respect to the exposure optical path.

The light source light adjusted by this CC filter 34 is irradiated onto the mask negative film 16 through a mirror box 40, and the negative image of the mask negative film 16 is projected onto the photographic paper 18 through an exposure lens 42 and a shutter 44. imaged.

Further, the photometry is performed using color photodetectors 46A and 46B, and their detection signals are supplied to the processing circuit 32.

A phase detector 48 is provided for this photometry, and the phase detector 48 can detect the phase of the alternating current supplied from the power source 20 and supply the detected signal to the processing circuit 32. Then, the processing circuit 32 transmits the color light receiver 46A,
46B of detection signals can be sampled, and as a result, a stable photometric value is always obtained despite the periodically fluctuating lighting brightness of the exposure lamp 24.

Further, the shutter 44 is driven by an actuator 50 to which a drive current is supplied from the driver 38. When the shutter 44 is opened and driven by the actuator 50, the exposed photographic paper 18 is driven frame by frame by a step motor 52. and is supplied to the writing section 12.

Next, the configuration of the writing section 12 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3.

As shown in FIG. 1, this writing section 12 is provided with one-dimensional writing heads 54A and 54B for writing a pattern by burning into the area 102 shown in FIG. 2.

As can be seen from FIG.
4A and 54B have a large number of dot writing elements 56, which are arranged in a straight line.

Each dot writing element 56 includes a liquid crystal element, which is driven by drive voltages supplied from drivers 60A and 60B in FIG. 1 via signal lines 58A and 58B.

Further, although not shown, a writing light source is provided in each of the one-dimensional writing heads 54A, 54B, and these light sources are controlled by a predetermined electric current supplied from drivers 60A, 60B via wires 62A, 62B. It is lit with brightness.

The light from the write light source allows each dot write element 56 to emit a write beam in the direction -L in FIG. 3, and the transmission and blocking of these write beams is controlled by the liquid crystal element.

Note that these dot writing elements 56 can also be constituted by light emitting elements such as LEDs.

As understood from FIGS. 1 and 3, the dot writing element 5
The photographic paper 18 is controlled to move in a direction transverse to the direction in which the elements 6 are arranged and above them, and the movement is performed at a substantially constant speed by a step motor 64.

Therefore, by moving the photographic paper 18 while controlling the drive of the liquid crystal element of each dot writing element 56, the writing beam is directed in both the main scanning direction (element arrangement direction) and the sub-scanning direction (moving direction of the photographic paper 18). ), and as a result, patterns A, B, C, D, E, F, and G as shown in FIG. 2, for example, are burned and written in the area 102 of FIG.

Here, the photographic paper 18 is intermittently driven frame by frame by a step motor 52 on the photo printing section 10 side, and is driven at a substantially constant rate by a step motor 64 on the writing section 12 side independently of the photo printing section 10 side during photo printing. It is driven at low speed, otherwise it is driven at high speed. Therefore, in order to eliminate the discrepancy in the transfer speed of the photographic paper 18 in the photographic printing section 10 and the writing section 12, that is, in order to match the re-transfer speed, the photosensitive material A slack portion of (photographic paper 18) is set. That is, in this embodiment, the loop buffer of the photographic paper 18 is connected to the transport speed buffer mechanism 6 described below.
6.

In FIG. 1, the photographic paper 18 is transferred from the photographic printing section IO side to the writing section 12 side via rollers 68A, 68B, and the photographic paper 18 is located between the rollers 68A, 68B.
The upper side of 8 is urged downward by an urging element 70. Therefore, the biasing force is obtained by the spring 72, and the biasing force is obtained by the biasing element 7.
0 has reached a predetermined position, and it is detected that the amount of relaxation of the photographic paper 18 in the transfer speed buffer mechanism 66 has reached a predetermined value.

In FIG. 3, the rollers 68A and 68B are attached to a wall plate 76 along with the one-dimensional writing heads 54A and 54B, and the guide slide 7 of the biasing element 70 is attached to the wall plate 76.
6a is formed.

Further, a position detector 74 made of a photointerrupter is provided on the front side of the floor plate 78 in the figure, and the position detector 74 detects when the detector 70a provided at the tip of the biasing element 70 blocks the detection light. The detection signal can be provided to the processing circuit 32 as shown in FIG.

The processing circuit 32 shown in FIG. 1 can start and control the driving of the photographic paper 18 by the step motor 64 when the detection signal is supplied from the position detector 74, and the control command is supplied to the drive control circuit 80.

The drive control signal of the drive control circuit 80 is transmitted to the driver 82.
and driver 84, and driver 82.8
A stepper motor 52,64 is associated driven by 4.

As a result, when the step motor 52 drives the photographic paper 18 frame by frame and a detection signal is supplied from the position detector 74 to the processing circuit 32, the step motor 64 starts to be driven.

Next, the constituent parts of the write control device 30 that perform control operations for each dot write element 56 of the one-dimensional write heads 54A, 54B will be explained.

The pattern printed onto the area 102 of the photographic paper 18 is generated by the pattern generator 86.
6 can generate pattern image data according to key operations on the keyboard 88 and store this in the image memory 90. By operating the keyboard 88, various data necessary for exposure are taught to the processing circuit 32.

The image memory 90 can sequentially supply the image data for two main scans to the write signal generator 92 according to the read command from the processing circuit 32, and the write signal generator 92 can control the image data for one main scan accordingly. Signal to LCD driver 60A, 6
Each can be supplied to 0B.

Further, the write signal generator 92 sends a synchronization signal to the drive control circuit 80.
This allows the drive control circuit 80 to perform minute and intermittent drive control of the step motor 64.

In this way, the main scanning and sub-scanning of the writing beam are synchronously controlled, and by performing the sub-scanning, the pattern designated by the keyboard 88 is printed onto the area 102 of the photographic paper 18. There is.

The present embodiment has the above configuration, and its operation will be explained below.

When baking is performed as shown in Figure 2,
First, by operating the keyboard 88, various data necessary for exposing the area 100 are taught to the processing circuit 32.

Similarly, by operating the keyboard 88, the area 10 is
Image data for 2 is generated and stored in the image memory 90.

At this time, the photographic paper 18 between the rollers 68A and 68B is kept under tension and the biasing element 70 is moved upward, and the number of driving pulses of the motor 64 corresponding to the distance from the exposure position to the pattern printing position is set in advance. Set.

Thereafter, when an operation start command is supplied to the processing circuit 32 via the pattern generator 86 by operating the keyboard 88,
The process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4 is started.

In the first step 200, it is determined whether a write mode in which the pattern is written in the area 102 is selected, and if it is determined that this mode is not selected, the process is not performed. , by performing an exposure process (not shown), the photographic printing section 1
Printing is performed on the photographic paper 18 only on the 0 side.

If it is determined in step 200 that this mode has been selected, the process proceeds to step 202, where it is confirmed whether or not image data has been set for the pattern.

When it is determined in step 202 that the image data is set in the image memory 90,
In step 204, the photographic printing section 10 exposes the area 100 of the photographic paper 18, and the step motor 52 is driven to move the photographic paper 18 frame by frame.

Then, in step 206, it is determined whether or not a detection signal has been supplied from the position detector 74.
If a positive determination is made in step 206 due to the detection in step 4, the step motor 64 is started to be driven in step 208, and the photographic paper 18 is moved.

During this time, the driving pulses of the step motor 64 are counted, and in the next step 210, by checking the count value, the photographic paper 18 is moved to the writing position of the pattern.
It is determined whether the has moved.

If it is determined in this step 210 that the photographic paper 18 has not yet reached the writing position, steps 204, 206, and 208 are repeated, during which time the photographic paper 18 is moved by the transfer speed buffer mechanism 66. Therefore, even if the step motor 52 is driven to advance frame by frame, the writing unit 12
You can move at a certain speed on the side.

After that, if a positive determination is made in step 210, image data for two main scans is supplied from the image memory 90 to the write signal generator 92 in step 212, and a control signal is supplied to the liquid crystal drivers 60A and 60B. be done. j As a result, each dot writing element 56
The operation of sequentially transmitting or shielding the liquid crystal elements in the main scanning direction is repeated a predetermined period and a predetermined number of times.

That is, two writing beams by the one-dimensional writing heads 54A and 54B are scanned in the width direction of the photographic paper 18 a predetermined number of times at a predetermined period.

Furthermore, in synchronization with this, the step motor 64 is rotated at a low second speed during writing and at a high speed after writing, and the printing paper 18 is moved in the sub-scanning direction by the process of step 21'4.

This writing is performed by the two writing heads 54A and 54B simultaneously printing a length corresponding to half of the screen 10''2.Furthermore, this sub-scanning is combined with the main scanning to perform the writing. An action is taken.

In step 216, it is determined whether all the data stored in the image memory 90 has been burnt and written, and when it is determined in step 216 that the burn-in write operation has not been completed, step 212 is performed. .214
The processing is repeated, and when it is determined that this has been completed, the photographic paper 18 is advanced at high speed to the beginning of the next screen in step 218, and the processing shown in FIG. 4 is completed.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, the keyboard 88
By this operation, the pattern printed on the photographic paper 18 can be changed easily and in a short time.

Further, according to this embodiment, since the writing beam of the above pattern scans half of the screen each time the amount of water is 2, the time required for writing can be halved, and the overall processing speed can be improved. It is possible to do so.

Furthermore, since the transfer speed buffer mechanism 66 is provided,
Even if intermittent frame-by-frame feeding of the photographic paper 18 is carried out on the photographic printing section 10 side, the transport speed of the photographic paper 18 on the writing section 12 side can be independently controlled, and the photographic printing section 10 side can perform printing for exposure. Even if the paper is stopped, processing on the writing section 12 side can be continued, making it possible to improve the processing speed of the entire apparatus.

In this embodiment, the image data of the pattern is generated by operating the keyboard 88, but it may also be generated using a so-called word processor and stored in the image memory 90.

Further, in this embodiment, the pattern is written on the photographic paper 18, but it may be written on a semiconductor photosensitive drum of a copying machine.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the pattern can be changed easily and quickly, and writing on the photosensitive material is performed using a plurality of one-dimensional writing heads. This has an excellent effect of improving the writing speed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an apparatus to which the present invention is applied, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an image and pattern printed by the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a one-dimensional writing head and a phase velocity buffer. FIG. 4 is a flowchart diagram explaining the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1. 10...Photo printing section, 12...Writing section, 18...φ photographic paper, 30...
...Writing R1l 1it device, 32 units/0 processing circuit, 5
4A, 54B... One-dimensional writing head. 56... 9-dot write element, 84... Step motor, 86... Pattern generator, 88 Keyboard 1, 90... Image memory, 92... Write signal generator.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) a one-dimensional writing head that includes a large number of linearly arranged dot writing elements, each dot writing element emitting a writing beam onto a photosensitive material that is relatively moved in a direction transverse to the element arrangement direction; a writing control device that controls the radiation of each writing beam according to preset image data; each one-dimensional writing head has a plurality of dot writing element rows; A printer characterized in that the printer is arranged in parallel to the printer.