JPS6145933A - Label printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable printing necessary data in a pre-print column by dividing a print image RAM into >=2 in its longitudinal direction and enabling inserting a feed space in which printing is not made into the divided RAM data printing. CONSTITUTION:The print image RAM storing data for printing is divided into >=2 in its longitudinal direction and a counter in a printing controller 13 is provided by dividing into an N dot counter 26 and an M dot counter 27 corresponding to dividing of this print image RAM. Then, a space counter 28 is connected with the middle between both counters 26, 27 and the count value of this space counter 28 is set optionally by the key operation of a space setter 29. Further, an AND gate 31 stops renewal of an address signal and a clock signal to the print image RAM and inhibits a data count signal and an enable signal to a thermal head at the time of operation of the space counter 28.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Technical field of invention The present invention relates to a label printer.

Technical background of the invention and its problems Generally, label printers print information such as weight, unit price, price, product name, etc. on labels, and with the spread of POS systems in recent years, barcodes have also been printed. There are many things that have been done. Such label printers generally use a thermal head in consideration of barcode printing accuracy, noise during label printing, and the like.

FIG. 6 schematically shows the printer section, in which labels 2 formed in a rectangular shape are continuously pasted on a long mount 1. This mount 1 has a roller 3 and a platen roller 4.
, a peeling plate 5, and a roller 6 before being wound up by a winding section (not shown). A thermal head 7 is provided above the platen roller 4 for printing on the label 2. The thermal head 7 is constructed by arranging a large number of heating elements in a straight line at a predetermined pitch in a direction perpendicular to the label feeding direction. Further, since the mount 1 is sharply bent at the part of the release plate 5, the label 2 is peeled off from the mount 1 and pushed out horizontally.
A label detector 8 is provided in close proximity to. Furthermore,
A pulley 9 is formed at the end of the platen roller 4,
A timing belt 12 is stretched between this pulley 9 and a pulley 11 of a pulse motor 10.

Moreover, FIG. 7 shows a block diagram for controlling the operation of such a printer, and basically shows the print controller 1.
3. For this reason, the print controller 13 is given a print command signal and a signal from the label detector 8. Then, the print data such as weight and product name are sent to the AND gate 1 along with the signal from the print controller 13.
4, and its output is input to the character generator converter 15. Based on the output from the character generator converter 15 and the address signal, clock signal, etc. from the print controller 13, a print image RAM 16 is provided which stores product name data such as "beef loin", measurement value data, price data, date data, etc. It is being Further, the print controller 13 sends a strobe signal STB and an enable signal E to the thermal head 7.
NB and clock signal CLK are input. The output data from the print image RAM 16 is applied to the shift register of the thermal head 7 along with the output signal from the print controller 13 via an AND gate 17 as a PIX IN signal. Furthermore, the print controller 13 drives and controls the pulse motor 10 via a driver 18.

Here, FIG. 8 shows a part of the basic circuit of the thermal head 7. As shown in FIG. First, the strobe signal STB enables the latch circuit 19 to latch data, and when the data is input to the shift 1 register 20 as a PIX IN signal under the control of the clock signal C'LK, the contents are transferred to the latch circuit 19. Latched. Therefore, if printing is possible according to the enable signal ENB, the necessary transistors 21 are turned on in accordance with the data of the latch circuit 19 to energize the heating element 22, and dot printing is performed by the heat generated.

Here, the labels 2 used are "Processing date", "Validity date J", "Product number", "Per 100g (yen)", "Contents amount (g) Jr. Price (JPY)" as shown in Figure 9(a). )" etc. are pre-printed in advance, and as shown in FIG. It will be printed.

In the same figure (b), the arrow shows the printing direction.

In such a label printer, the platen roller 4
The amount of feed of the label 2 is determined by the rotation of , and the heat generation of the line occurs with respect to pitch feed.

Specifically, if the dot pitch of the heating element 22 of the thermal head 7 is 6 lines/mm, the rotation pitch (label feeding amount) of the platen roller 4 is also usually set to 6 lines/m. In other words, the printing operation is performed using the pitch of the heating element 22 and the rotation pitch of the platen roller 4 as one basic bit. Here, since the printing length α=28 m, the number of dots in the length direction of the label 2 is 28×6 dots. Therefore, the precision of the diameter of the platen roller 4 is 168 times that of the single label printing section, which requires extremely high precision. As a result, if there is variation in the diameter of the platen roller 4, it may not be possible to print necessary data in the correct position on the pre-printed label 2, as shown in FIG. 9(C).

In particular, as shown in Figure 9 (,,), the printing position of barcodes, etc. is almost normal, but some of the printing positions are incorrect, such as over the pre-printing line of product names such as "beef loin". often occurs. Therefore, in order to align the positions of such pre-print fields and data printing, a sufficient amount of printing space must be provided for pre-printing, which results in an increase in the size of the label.

Purpose of the Invention The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and even if there are variations in the diameter of the platen roller, necessary data can be stored in the pre-print column without increasing the pre-print space on the label. The object of the present invention is to obtain a label printer capable of printing.

Summary of the Invention The present invention provides a print image R that stores printing data.
AM is divided into two or more parts in the length direction, and the divided R
By setting so that a feed space where no printing is performed can be inserted between AM data prints, it is possible to reliably print the necessary data in the pre-print field by adjusting the ko (7) feed 4J space. It is.

Embodiment of the Invention A first embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 to 3. Components that are the same as those shown in FIGS. 6 to 9 are indicated using the same reference numerals. This embodiment is basically based on the seventh
The block diagram configuration shown in the figure is adopted as is, but the configurations of the print controller 1, roller 13 and print image RAM 16 are different.

First, the print image RAM + 6 is the first
As shown in the figure, it is divided into two in the length direction into an N dot area 23 and an M dot area 24. 25 indicates the dividing line, but this dividing line 25 is shown for convenience and is not actually marked on the print image RAM 16. The arrow indicates the printing direction. Here, the setting position of the dividing line 25 is arbitrary, but it is necessary to select a part where there are no colored dots in a horizontal row as shown in the figure.

This is because if this is not done, one print data (character) will be divided into upper and lower parts.

On the other hand, in response to such division of the print image RAM 16, the counters in the print controller 13 are also provided separately into an N dot counter 26 and an M dot counter 27, as shown in FIG. And both unta 2
A space counter 28 is connected between 6 and 27. The space counter 28 has its count value arbitrarily set by key operations on a space setter 29 provided outside the print controller 13, and is operated by a load signal from a differentiating circuit 30 based on a print command signal. The output of this space counter 28 is input to an AND'D gate 31. This AND gate 31 is connected to the print image RAM 1 when the space counter 28 operates.
The update of the address signal and clock signal for the thermal head 6 is stopped, and the data count signal and enable signal for the thermal head 7 are prohibited.

In this embodiment, a printing operation is performed on a pre-printed label 2 as shown in FIG. 3(a) in this embodiment. Here, assuming that the count value setting of the space counter 28 by the space setter 29 is 0, the printing operation is performed in the same manner as in the conventional case. That is, under the control of the N dot counter 26, when the printing of the N dot area 23 of N dots is completed, the space counter 28 is loaded by the print command signal, but since it is O, the M
Shifting to the control by the dot counter 27, the M dot area 2
4 is printed. Examples of printing in this case are shown in FIGS. 3(b) and 3(C).

Here, when the printing position is defective as shown in FIG. 3(C),
The space setter 29 sets a count value for the required space in the space counter 28. As a result, printing in the N-dot area 23 under the control of the N-dot counter 26 is performed normally. When printing for N dots is completed, the space counter 28 is loaded by the rotary signal based on the print command signal and the counter I
- Go into action. When the space counter 28 operates, updating of the address signal and clock signal of the print image RAM 16 is stopped, and the data count signal and enable signal to the thermal head 7 are also stopped. In other words, all heat generation from the heating element 22 of the thermal head 7 is stopped, and only the label feeding of the platen roller 4 is performed by the pulse motor 10 rotations.
A feeding space is secured between the area 23 and the M dot area 24 where no printing is performed. When the space counter 28 counts up, control shifts to the M dot counter 27 and the print image RAM 16
The updating of the address signal and clock signal is restarted, and the printing operation for the M dot area 24 is performed. FIG. 3(d) shows an example of such printing, and it is possible to normally print necessary data in the pre-print field for the pre-printed label 2. In this way, by setting the feed space appropriately, even if there are variations in the diameter of the platen roller 4, the necessary data can be printed normally in the pre-print field, and it is necessary to have a large margin of space for pre-printing. It's nothing.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the print image RAM 16 is divided into three parts in the length direction: an N dot area 23, an M dot area 24, and an L dot area 32.

Correspondingly, the L driver 1 is also included in the print controller 13.
- A counter 33 is added, and a space counter 34 is connected between the counters 24 and 33.

The count values of these space counters 28 and 34 are set by the space setter 29. For example, when a constant of (M+N) is set by this space setter 29, the count values of these space counters 28 and 34 are divided by the respective dividers 35 and 36. The space counter 28 is set to N/(M+N) and the space counter 34 is set to M/(M+N) by the circuit.
is set. In other words, area 2
3. Number of bits N in the previous length direction for the feed space between 24 and the feed space between area 24.32.

The constant M+N is distributed to the space counters 28 and 34 according to M.

In this embodiment as well, the operation is performed in the same manner as in the first embodiment, and feeding spaces are provided between the regions 23 and 24 and between the regions 24 and 32, respectively. As a specific example of this embodiment, for example, regarding the printing contents shown in FIG. 3(d), for example, when it is desired to move the product name "beef loin" above 211W11 and print it.

Space setter 2 takes the corresponding feed amount as M+N.
This is set in 9. In such a case, it is possible to set the space counter 28 to 0 and set M0N in the space counter 34, but if the printing length is large as in the N dot area 23, the deviation will be large. By allocating and setting the feeding space according to the number of dots in the length direction as in this embodiment, it is possible to maintain balance and improve printing quality.

Effects of the Invention The present invention divides the print image RAM into two or more parts in the length direction as described above, and makes it possible to insert a feed space in which no printing is performed between the divided letter RAM data prints. By adjusting the feed space settings, you can successfully print the necessary data in the pre-print field of the label without increasing the pre-print margin space.In this case, by setting a certain constant for the feed space setting, By distributing this constant according to the number of bits in the length direction, it is possible to set a well-balanced space.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a conceptual diagram of the printer 1 to image RAM showing the first embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a circuit diagram of the print controller, Figs. FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of a print image RAM showing a second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of a print controller, and FIG. 6 is a side view showing a conventional example. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the printer section, FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram of a part of the thermal head, and FIGS. 9(a) to 9(c) are plan views of the label. 2...Label, 4...Platen roller, 7...Thermal head, 16...Print 1 to image RAM, 2
2... Heating element, 29... Space setting device (space setting means), Figure 3-33

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A thermal head in which a large number of heating elements are arranged in a straight line in a direction perpendicular to the label feeding direction is provided, and the pitch of the heating elements and the rotation pitch of the platen roller for label feeding are set to one. A print image RAM with the number of bits corresponding to the required print width and length for printing on one label is provided as basic bits, and the amount of label movement synchronized with the rotation of the platen roller and the data on the print image RAM are controlled. A label printer that prints on labels using a thermal head, characterized in that the print image RAM is divided into two or more in the length direction, and a feeding space in which no printing is performed can be inserted between printing of divided RAM data. label printer. 2. The label printer according to claim 1, further comprising (number of divisions) -1 space setting means for setting the feed space of the print image RAM. 3. A predetermined constant is set for the feed space, and this constant is distributed according to the number of divisions of the print image RAM and the number of bits in the length direction of each divided portion, and is allocated to the amount of feed between printing of each RAM data. A label printer according to claim 1, characterized in that: