JPS6295274A - Thermal recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to automatically operate the title recording apparatus in a proper recording mode without causing the lowering in a recording speed or printing grade, by detecting the presence of an ink ribbon and the kind thereof and selecting either one of uni-direction recording, limited bi- direction recording and perfect bi-direction recording corresponding to the detection result. CONSTITUTION:A first switch 27 detecting the presence of a ribbon cassette and a second switch 28 for detecting the kind of said ribbon cassette are provided on a carriage 3 and the detection signals from said switches 27, 28 are transmitted to CPU20. At the time of the mounting of an one-time ink ribbon, the mounting state is detected by the ON-operation of the switch 27 and that of the switch 28 and discriminated by CPU20 to perform uni-direction recording. At the time of the mounting of a multi-ink ribbon, this mounting state is detected by the ON-operation of the switch 27 and the OFF-operation of the switch 28 to perform limited bi-direction recording. At the time of the non- mounting of the ink ribbons, this state is detected by the OFF-operation of the switch 27 to perform perfect bi-direction recording. As mentioned above, recording can be freely performed in any recording mode.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a serial number-printing apparatus that records on a sheet while scanningly moving a thermal head along the sheet.

[Prior art]

A recording device such as a printer or facsimile is a device that records on a sheet (recording medium such as paper or a thin platen) by driving a recording head based on a print data signal. Scanning Millial types are widely used.

Furthermore, there are various types of recording devices such as an inkjet type and a thermal type.

Among these, the thermal type (thermal recording device) is
A dot forming means consisting of a plurality of electrothermal transducers (heating elements) is provided in front of the recording nozzle (thermal head),
The printing apparatus is configured to perform heating recording by pressing the sheet forming means against the sheet, sliding it, and driving it based on print data.

By the way, this type of thermal recording apparatus can be roughly divided into a thermal transfer method that uses an ordinary sheet and performs transfer recording via an ink ribbon, and a thermal method that uses a heat-sensitive sheet and performs recording without an ink ribbon. The thermal transfer method may use a one-time ink ribbon that records once on the same area, or a multi-ink ribbon that can record repeatedly, for example, 10 times.

Furthermore, the same thermal head can be used for each of the above recording methods.

However, in conventional thermal recording devices, the recording operation control system is dedicated to one of the above recording methods, and it is not possible to record using two or more methods with one thermal recording device. This was virtually impossible due to deterioration in speed and print quality.

〔the purpose〕

The present invention has been completed in view of the above-mentioned conventional technology, and allows efficient thermal transfer recording using one-time ink ribbons and multi-ink ribbons, as well as thermal recording without an ink ribbon, according to the user's selection. The purpose is to provide a practical thermal recording device.

〔overview〕

The present invention provides a thermal recording device that records while moving a thermal head along a sheet, detects this when a one-time ink ribbon is attached, and performs unidirectional recording.
The above objective is achieved by detecting when a multi-ink ribbon is attached and performing limited bidirectional recording in consideration of ribbon winding, and by detecting this when an ink ribbon is not attached and performing complete bidirectional recording. It is something.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the main parts of a thermal recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a thermal head 4 mounted on a carriage 3 is attached to a sheet 2 banked up on a platen 1.
It is configured to record. The illustrated platen 1 has a roller shape and also serves as a 1ull sheet feeding roller.

The carriage 3 is movably mounted along a guide shaft 5 installed parallel to the platen 1, and is wound around a stenciling motor 6, a driving pulley 7, a driven pulley 8, and these pulleys, and coupled to the carriage 3. It is reciprocated by a drive system consisting of a belt 9.

The thermal head 4 has a plurality of heating elements (for example, 12 x 2 elements arranged in two vertical rows or 24 resistors arranged in one vertical row), and has a down position where it is in pressure contact with the sheet 2 and an up position where it is separated from the sheet 2. It is mounted so that it can swing between positions.

A ribbon cassette 10 for feeding an ink ribbon to the front of the recording head 4 is removably mounted on the carriage 3.

This ribbon force set 10 is used when recording by thermal transfer method, and when performing thermal transfer recording, sheet 2
An ordinary sheet is used as a sheet, and recording is performed while the ink ribbon in the ribbon cassette IO is wound and driven in a predetermined direction by a ribbon drive shaft (not shown) on the carriage 3.

In addition, the ribbon cassette IOA is a cassette IOA that uses a 1-time ink ribbon that records once on the same area.
Alternatively, it is possible to select and install a cassette IOB that uses a multi-ink ribbon that repeatedly records on the same area (for example, 10 times).

On the other hand, when recording using the thermal method, usually ribbon cassette 1
0 is removed so that the ink ribbon is not attached, a heat-sensitive sheet (a sheet that develops color when heated) is used as the sheet 2, and the thermal sheet 4 is directly pressed against the sheet 2 to perform recording without the ink ribbon.

In each of the above recording operations, the thermal head 4 is moved in a press-contact state, and recording is performed while driving the plurality of heating elements based on the print data signal, and the sheet 2 is conveyed in the direction of arrow P by a predetermined pinch. Create a new line. However, in the case of unidirectional recording, there is a return operation of the thermal head 4 for each row.

However, according to the present invention, when the one-time ink ribbon is attached, this is detected and unidirectional recording (recording is performed only when moving from left to right or right to left) is performed, and the multi-ink ribbon is When the ink ribbon is installed, this is detected and limited bidirectional recording (bidirectional recording including the return operation of the thermal head 4) is performed in consideration of ribbon winding, and when the ink ribbon is not installed or the ink ribbon is not supplied to the front of the thermal head 4. When this is detected, the recording operation is controlled so as to perform complete bidirectional recording (bidirectional recording that does not require the return of the rad 4 to the thermal during recording).

In the limited bidirectional recording, since there is a limit (for example, 10 times) to the number of times that the multi-ink ribbon can be repeatedly printed, for example, every time the multi-ink ribbon used is printed an odd number of times (odd rows) close to the number of printable times, Bidirectional recording is performed in consideration of ribbon winding, such as a recording mode in which the return operation of the thermal head 4 is performed once at a time.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control system of the thermal recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1.

In FIG. 2, a CPU (microprocessor) 20 of the recording apparatus is connected to a host 21 such as a computer or a word processor, and receives print data signals and necessary command signals (commands).

The CPU 20 drives, via a driver (drive circuit) 22, a carriage motor 23 for driving the carriage 3, a conveyance motor 24 for conveying the sheet 2 (for driving the conveyance roller 1), and a head for driving the thermal head 4 up and down. motor 2
5, as well as controlling various drive systems such as a motor for driving the ribbon or a ribbon direction switching device 26;
Based on the print data signal from the host 21, the dot forming means (heating element) of the thermal head 4 is driven.

Therefore, the carriage 3 includes a first switch 27 for detecting the presence or absence of the ribbon cassette 1°, and a first switch 27 for detecting the presence or absence of the ribbon cassette 11, that is, whether it is for one-time ink ribbon or not.
A second switch 28 is provided to detect whether the ribbon is for multi-ink ribbon. □Detection signals from each of these switches 27 and 28 (usually on or off signals)
is sent to the CPU 20.

FIGS. 3 to 5 show the switch 27 in FIG.
2 illustrates the switches 28 and their operation.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which the ribbon cassette IOA of the one-time ink ribbon 29 is attached to the carriage 3, and in this case,
The contact pieces 27A and 28A of the first switch 27 and the second switch 28 are pressed down against the cassette case, and both switches are turned on.

Therefore, when the first switch 270 is turned on, it is detected that a cassette is present, and when the second switch 270 is turned on, it is detected that the installed cassette is the cassette IOA for one-time ink ribbon.

FIG. 4 shows a state in which the ribbon cassette IOB of the multi-ink ribbon 30 is attached to the carriage 3, and a hole 31 is formed in this ribbon cassette IOB to allow the contact piece 28A of the second switch 28 to escape. There is.

Therefore, the first switch 27 is turned on with its contact piece 27A pressed down, but the second switch 28 is turned off with its contact piece 28A kept in a free state.

In this way, when the first switch 27 is turned on, the presence of a cassette is detected, and when the switch 28 in FIG.
It has been detected that it is an OB.

FIG. 5 shows the state when the ribbon cassette is not attached, and in this case, the first switch 27 and the switch 28 in FIG.
Both contact pieces 27A and 28A are free and turned off.

Therefore, when the first switch 27 is turned off, the absence of a cassette is detected.

As a method of forming the hole 31 in the cassette 10B for the multi-ink ribbon 30, for example, as shown in FIG. In the case of ink ribbon 29, use it as is, and use multi-ink ribbon 3.
In the case of 0, a method of forming the hole 31 by removing this area 33 can be adopted, and by such a method, 1
f! Each cassette IOA, 10B in a similar cassette case
can be prepared.

During recording, when the l-time ink ribbon 29 is attached (FIG. 3), this is detected by turning on the first switch 27 and turning on the second switch 28, and the CPU 20 determines this and performs one-way recording. That is, recording is performed only when the thermal head moves in one direction from left to right or from right to left.

When the multi-ink ribbon 30 is attached (45th), this is detected when the first switch 27 is turned on and the second switch 28 is turned off, and the CPU 20 determines this and sets it in consideration of ribbon winding. Perform limited two-way recording. As mentioned above, in this limited bidirectional printing mode, for example, when the multi-ink ribbon 30 can repeatedly print 10 times, the thermal head 4 returns one line every time it prints 9 times (usually 9 lines). It is possible to set the ribbon to be wound gradually.

When the ink ribbon is not attached (FIG. 5), this is detected by turning off the first switch 27, and the CPLI 20 determines this and performs complete bidirectional printing. This complete bidirectional recording mode means bidirectional recording that does not require the return of the thermal head 4 during recording, and is set, for example, to continuously record while the thermal head 4 is moving back and forth.

Note that when ribbon cassettes IOA and IOB are installed (Figures 3 and 4), ordinary sheets are used for recording using the thermal transfer method, and when ribbon cassettes are not installed (Figure 5), a thermal sheet is used to record. Record.

The above recording operation is executed based on a program stored in a ROM attached to the CPU 20.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operating procedure of the control system shown in FIGS. 2 to 6.

In FIG. 7, when the recording device starts up in step 100, the process proceeds to step 101 and the ribbon cassette (IOA, IOA)
Determine the presence or absence of OB.

If it is determined that there is a ribbon cassette, the process proceeds to step 102, and it is determined whether the ribbon cassette is for one-time ink ribbon or multi-ink ribbon, and if it is for one-time ink ribbon, the process proceeds to step 103, in which one-way ink ribbon is used. Perform recording, and if it is for multi-ink ribbon, go to step 10.
Proceed to step 4 to perform limited two-way recording.

If it is determined in step 101 that there is no ribbon cassette, the process advances to step 105 to perform complete bidirectional recording.

During each recording operation in steps 103 to 105, the process returns to step 101 at regular timings and the above operations are repeated.

According to the embodiment described above, since the l-time ink ribbon 29 is used, the thermal transfer recording is suitable for unidirectional recording and is relatively low speed, and because the multi-ink ribbon 30 is used, the thermal transfer recording is suitable for limited bidirectional recording and is high speed. Since there is no ink ribbon, it is suitable for fully bidirectional recording, and high-speed thermal recording can be automatically controlled in the recording mode that matches each, resulting in a decrease in recording speed and print quality. It is possible to freely record in any recording mode without any trouble, and the range of uses can be expanded.

〔effect〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the thermal printer automatically operates in an appropriate recording mode depending on the type of ink ribbon and the presence or absence of the ink ribbon, without causing a decrease in recording speed or print quality. A recording device is obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of essential parts of a thermal recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control system of the device shown in FIG. 1, and FIGS. FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view of the ribbon cassette in FIG. 3; FIG.
This figure is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the control system of FIG. 2. 2-... Seat, 3...- Carriage, 4
---Thermal head, 10.10A, 10B--1--Ribbon cassette, 20...--CPU, 2
7.---11 first switch, 28---1 second switch, 29---1 time ink ribbon, 30---multi ink ribbon.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a thermal recording device that records while moving the thermal head along the sheet, when a 1-time ink ribbon is attached, this is detected and unidirectional recording is performed, and when a multi-ink ribbon is attached, this is detected and the ribbon is wound up. A thermal recording device is characterized in that it performs limited bidirectional recording in consideration of the ink ribbon, and detects this when an ink ribbon is not attached and performs complete bidirectional recording.