JPS6221575A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prolong the useful life of a ribbon, by controlling the ribbon feed quantity according to a spacing pitch. CONSTITUTION:A ribbon feed quantity R conforming to the width of a type read from a conversion table is read step (a), and it is discriminated whether or not proportional spacing is to be performed (step (b)). When the proportional spacing is to be performed, a ribbon 65 is fed by the amount the read ribbon feed quantity R (step (c)), whereas the proportional spacing is not to be performed, it is discriminated whether the spacing pitch is 1/10''. When the spacing pitch is 1/10'', the ribbon 65 is fed by the read feed quantity R (step (c)), whereas when the spacing pitch is not 1/10'', it is discriminated whether or not the spacing pitch is 1/12''. Accordingly, because the ribbon feed quantity is controlled according to the spacing pitch in this printer, the amount of the ribbon used per one character is reduced, and the useful life of the ribbon is prolonged.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] 1Vii! ! L This invention relates to a printer that uses a single-use ribbon.

JLiLIXJ! M- Generally, type printers, dot impact printers,
In various printers such as thermal transfer printers,
Ribbons that cannot be used multiple times in the same area, such as Jingle Strike Ribbons, Collectables, and One-Time Ribbons (
A ribbon like this.

In this specification, a ribbon (referred to as a "one-time ribbon") is used.

When such a ribbon is used, it is required to reduce the amount of ribbon used per character as much as possible.

1-Objective This invention has been made in view of the above points, and its purpose is to reduce the amount of ribbon used per character and extend the life of the ribbon.

1-1 In order to achieve the above object, the present invention controls the ribbon feeding amount according to the space pitch.

Hereinafter, a detailed explanation will be given based on one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an example of a type wheel type printer embodying the present invention.

The outer casing of this printer consists of a lower case 1 and an upper case 2 that house a mechanical section and a control section, and a cover 3 that can be opened and closed for replacing type wheels, ribbon cassettes, etc. 3 is equipped with character scale 4.

In addition, although not shown, various switches such as an online/offline switch and a line feed switch, and various indicators such as a paper end indicator and a ribbon end indicator are arranged on the operation panel 5 attached to the front of the case 2. It is.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are a schematic plan view and a front view showing an example of the mechanism of this printer.

This mechanical section has a platen 12 rotatably mounted between the frames 11 and 11 for winding and feeding paper to be printed.

This platen 12 is moved by a motor gear 14. An idle gear 15, a gear 16° that moves together with the idle gear 15, is driven via a timing belt 17 and a platen gear 18 to automatically feed the paper.

Additionally, knobs 19 and 19 are provided at both ends of the platen 12.
is fixed thereto, and can be manually rotated by turning this knob 19, 19 when loading or removing paper.

Further, on the opposite side of the platen 12 from the platen gear 18, a platen gear 20 for an ASF (automatic paper feeder) is provided.
It is equipped with.

Furthermore, in front of the platen 12, as shown in FIG.
2 is biased toward the platen and is swingably disposed.

On the other hand, the rod 30.3 fixed between the frames 11.11
A carriage 32 is mounted on the platen 12 so as to be movable parallel to the platen 12 in its axial direction. Note that details of this carriage 32 will be described later.

A space motor 35 consisting of a stepping motor is attached to the subframe 33, and a space gear 36 is attached to the rotating shaft of this space motor 35.

Further, on both sides of the sub-frame 33, 33', a pulley 39 integrally formed with a gear 3 that fits into the space gear 36 of the space motor 35 is rotatably mounted, and a guide pulley 40 is rotatably mounted. ing.

A space wire 41 is stretched between these pulleys 39 and guide pulleys 40, and this space wire 41
The end of the carriage 32 is fixed to the side of the carriage 32, and the carriage 32 is moved by a space motor 35.

Further, a platform detection plate 32 is provided at the bottom of the carriage 3'2.
While installing a, frame 11 on the carriage home side
A carriage home sensor 43 consisting of a transmission type photosensor is attached to the carriage home sensor 43.

Next, details of the carriage 32 will be explained with reference to FIG. 4.

This carriage 32 includes a carriage block 51 slidably attached to the rod 30 in FIG. 2, and a rod 3 at the rear end.
a carrier frame 53 with a guide 52 that engages with the carrier frame 53;
are fixed together.

Note that FIGS. 2 and 3 are simplified illustrations.

These carriage blocks 51. A selection motor 57 consisting of a stepping motor with a type wheel 55 mounted on a rotating shaft, a printing hammer 58 for hitting the type on the type wheel 55, and a ribbon feed mechanism 60 are provided on the carrier frame 53.

The ribbon feed mechanism 60 includes a ribbon feed motor 61, a drive gear 62, a feed gear 63, and a feed knob 64.

Also, on the carrier frame 53 of this carriage 32, a ribbon cassette (within which a ribbon 65 such as a single strike ribbon, collectable ribbon, etc.) is loaded (
A ribbon cartridge) 66 is removably mounted.

Therefore, when the ribbon cassette 66 is mounted on this carrier frame 53, the ribbon cassette 66 is
A ribbon end sensor 67 consisting of a transmission type photosensor that protrudes into the ribbon 6 and detects the ribbon end is attached.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a control section of this printer.

The main controller 70 includes a mask microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as "master microcomputer J and 11t") 71 and a slave microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as "slave microcomputer J and 11t").
microcomputer) 72, ROM 73, and RAM 74
and T1075-77, etc.

The mask microcomputer 71 is, for example, an 8-bit CPU, RO
This circuit consists of M, R, AM, Ilo, etc., and also serves as a ribbon feed control means that controls controls other than line feed and space control of the Kono printer.

The slave microcomputer 72 includes, for example, an 8-bit 16-bit CPTJ, ROM, RAM, T10, etc., and is a circuit that controls the line feed and space control of this printer.

For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the ROM 73 stores a program area for storing control programs, and a code conversion table for converting character codes into type position data, printing pressure data, ribbon feed amount data, proportional space space data, etc. It comprises a conversion table area, a program area for storing a self-test program for executing the self-test, and other areas for storing other fixed data.

For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the RAM 74 includes a reception buffer area for temporarily storing received data received from the host system, a user area for loading programs from the host, and a working area for program execution. etc.

The mask microcomputer 71 then transfers print character data and space data that instructs the carriage movement amount to T1075 from the host system side.

Various data such as line feed data instructing line feed and backline feed (including feed amount) are taken in, stored in the reception buffer of the RAM 74, and processed based on the received data.

That is, this mask microcomputer 71 is ■107Ei
A hammer drive pulse is outputted to the hammer driver 81 through the drive control unit 58 to drive and control the hammer magnet 58A forming the printing hammer 58, thereby causing the hammer 58B to strike the type on the type wheel 55.

The mask microcomputer 71 also outputs selection drive data to the selection driver 82 via T1076, controls the rotation of the selection motor 57, rotates the type wheel 55 in a predetermined direction by the required amount, and generates the required data. The type is placed in a position where it will be struck by the print hammer 58.

Further, the master microcomputer 71 outputs a ribbon feed drive pulse to the ribbon feed driver 83 via T1076 to drive and control the ribbon feed motor 61 to feed the ribbon 65.

The mask microcomputer 71 also receives designation information from a space pitch switch 84, which is a dipswitch attached to the rear panel and designates a space pitch, via T1077.

Note that this printer uses rl as the space pitch.
/I O' J, rl/12"J, rl/+
5 "" can be selected and specified.

Moreover, this mask microcomputer 71 is also T1077
It takes in the status signals from various other function designation switches attached to the rear panel, the status signals of the switches attached to the operation panel 5, and the detection signals of the sensors, and also controls the lighting of each display attached to the operation panel 5. do.

Furthermore, this mask microcomputer 71 transfers line feed data and carriage movement data to the slave microcomputer 7.
Send to 2.

On the other hand, the slave microcomputer 72 outputs line feed drive data to the line feed driver 85,
The line feed motor 13 is driven and controlled to feed the platen 12.
control rotation, and control line feed and back line feed.

The slave microcomputer 72 also outputs space drive data to the space driver 86 to drive and control the space motor 35 to move the carriage 32 in a predetermined direction by a required amount.

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained with reference to FIG. 8 and subsequent figures.

First, the mask microcomputer 71 of the main controller 70
In the main routine shown in FIG. 8, while there is no received data in the received data buffer (R, A M74 ), switch monitoring processing is performed to monitor various switches such as the above-mentioned space pitch switch 84 of the printer.

If there is received data in the receive buffer, the received data is read out and it is determined whether it is a sentence mode code or not.

If it is a character code, the read character code is converted into a wheel address, printing pressure, proportional space amount, and ribbon feed amount using a conversion table stored in the ROM 73.

Thereafter, printing processing is performed based on these data.

In addition, in other processing, a proportional space designation sent from the host side (for example, sent by an ESC code) is taken in and stored at a predetermined address in the RAM 74. Note that the proportional space designation from the host side has priority over the designation by the spacing pitch switch 84.

Next, the ribbon feeding process of this printing process will be explained with reference to FIG. 9.

First, after reading the ribbon feed amount R corresponding to the type width read from the conversion table (for example, 0.21+nl11 for 1 to 15:1 steps), it is determined whether or not it is a proportional space.

At this time, if it is a proportional space, the ribbon 65 is fed by the read ribbon feed amount R, and if it is not a proportional space, it is determined whether the space pitch is 1/10''.

Then, if the space pitch is 1/10', feed the ribbon 65 by the read ribbon feed amount R, and if the space pitch is not 1/10', determine whether the space pitch is 1/12" or not. do.

At this time, if the space pitch is 1/12', the new ribbon feed amount is calculated by subtracting a predetermined setting amount R,1 (for example, R,1=2) from the read ribbon feed amount R. The ribbon 65 is fed in an amount R.

In addition, if the space pitch is not 1/12', that is, if the space pitch is 1/15', the read ribbon feed amount R is determined in advance to be larger than the set amount R1 when the space pitch is 1/12''. The ribbon 65 is fed by using a new ribbon feed amount R that is reduced by a set amount R2 (for example, R2=4).

Therefore, for example, when rMJ is sent as a character code and the space pitch is 1/12', the ribbon feed amount of rMJ (for example, 13 steps) is calculated according to the type width read from the conversion table. The value obtained by subtracting the set amount R1 (R1 = 2) (13-2) =
Feed the ribbon 65 by 11 steps.

In this way, in this printer, the amount of ribbon feed is controlled according to the space pitch, so the amount of ribbon used per character is reduced and the life of the ribbon is extended.

Also, since the ribbon feed amount is changed according to the space pitch, if there are three types of space pitches as described above, one table is equivalent to having three tables, and the memory capacity is It is possible to perform extremely fine ribbon feeding without increasing the amount of ribbon.

Furthermore, as a method to prevent "r character loss" that occurs when printing is repeated at the same location on the ribbon, for example, the concept of proportional space amount can be incorporated into the ribbon feed amount, and the previous character data and the next character data can be It is conceivable to determine the amount of ribbon feed based on the data, but in such a case, there is an inconvenience that the next character data must be read out when feeding the ribbon. It is less efficient than sequential processing.

Similarly, for example, it is possible to provide a margin in advance for the ribbon feed amount, but even if this is done, the ribbon feed amount is determined using the same table even if the space pitch changes, so the space pitch is 1/10. Since the value set in " is also used for the space pitch 1/12'', ]/15', the ribbon is fed too much compared to the above-mentioned embodiment.

Therefore, by doing as in the above embodiment, processing efficiency is not reduced or the ribbon is not fed too much.
You can send just the right amount of ribbon.

In the above embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a type wheel type printer has been described, but the present invention can be similarly applied to ribbon feeding in other printers such as a dot impact printer or a thermal transfer printer.

Of course, as explained above, according to the present invention, the amount of ribbon used is reduced and the life of the ribbon is extended.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an example of a printer embodying the present invention. 2 and 3 are schematic plan views and front views showing an example of the mechanism, FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of the carriage, and FIG. 5 is an example of the control section of the printer. FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are explanatory diagrams showing the allocation of the ROM and RAM. FIGS. 8 and 9 are a flowchart showing an example of a maintenance routine executed by the control section, and a flowchart showing an example of its printing process. 32... Carriage, 55... Type wheel 6
1... Ribbon feed motor 65... Ribbon 66... Ribbon cassette 70... Main controller special opening 862-21575 (7) Procedural amendment (white side November 1985 140 Commissioner of the Patent Office Michi Uga) Department: 1, Indication of the case, Patent Application No. 168-162513, 2, Name of the invention, Printer 3, Person making the amendment, Relationship with the case Patent applicant: 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo (674) ) Riko Co., Ltd. (and 1 other person) 4. Agent 1-20-5 Higashiikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo (]) Detailed explanation of the invention in the specification (2) Brief explanation of the drawings in the specification Column (3) Drawing 6, Contents of amendment (1) "Complete" on page 2, line 4 of the specification can be changed to "W can be done"
and correct it. (2) Change the "r sentence code" on page 11, line 12 of the specification to "
Correct with character code j. (3) “Menn Routine” on page 16 of the same book, lines 9-10
is corrected as "r main routine". (4) "Figure 3" and "Figure 5" of the drawings will be amended as shown in the corrected drawings attached to this document. 7. Attached documents

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A printer using a one-time ribbon, characterized in that a ribbon feed control means is provided for controlling the feed amount of the ribbon according to a space pitch. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the ribbon feed control means includes means for controlling the feed amount according to the width of the typeface.