JPH04113877A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a printer device, and more particularly to a printer device that uses an ink ribbon with a recording head to perform transfer onto a recording medium, for example.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, a ribbon feed motor (
In a printer device that uses a DC motor for the ribbon motor (hereinafter referred to as the ribbon motor), the ink ribbon winding process is performed by a switch that detects the end of winding the ribbon for the characters to be printed and stops the ribbon motor. This was done using so-called closed-loop control. In this type of control, even if a switch detects the end of ribbon winding and stops the ribbon motor rotation at that point, the ribbon motor does not stop immediately due to inertia, so it is possible to use a switch that detects the end of ribbon winding. It may wind up. Therefore,
In order to avoid such problems, in conventional printers, when the end of ribbon winding is detected, the ribbon motor is first rotated in reverse for a certain period of time, and the brake is forcibly applied to quickly unwind the ribbon. The motor was controlled to stop.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above conventional example, if the braking process of the ribbon motor is not sufficient due to variations in ribbon load or drive system friction, the ribbon may be wound more than specified due to insufficient braking process. A condition occurs. For this reason, there was a drawback that the amount of ribbon consumed increased. Furthermore, a bigger problem is that when winding up the next character's worth of ribbon from this state, the ribbon motor cannot accelerate sufficiently to wind the ribbon from a halfway position, so the switch is turned off when winding is complete. The number of rotations of the ribbon motor when this occurs is smaller than the number of rotations when it normally accelerates from the correct standby position.

However, since the braking process normally involves reverse rotation for a certain period of time, the reverse rotation is too large due to the insufficient acceleration mentioned above, and as a result, the ribbon is rewound, causing slack in the ribbon. There was a drawback that

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printer device that can appropriately wind up an ink ribbon.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, a printer device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, it is a printer device that uses an ink ribbon to perform transfer onto a recording medium by a recording head, and includes a ribbon winding means for winding the ink ribbon, and a braking means for braking the winding of the ink ribbon by the ribbon winding means. a detection means for detecting a state of the ink ribbon winding by the ribbon winding means; and a ribbon winding force of the ribbon winding means is controlled according to the state of the ink ribbon winding detected by the detection means. and a control means for controlling the braking means so as not to perform braking.

[Function] With the above configuration, the present invention operates to brake the ink ribbon winding depending on the state of the ink ribbon winding, or to control the ink ribbon winding force so as not to brake the ink ribbon winding.

[Embodiment] A printer device that is a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a daisy-wheel printer control section according to a typical embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the daisy-wheel printer control section includes a CP
U32, ROM33, RAM34, timer 36, ribbon cam switch 24, carriage motor 16, wheel motor 9, ribbon motor control section ff137, solenoid 2
1, an interface 35. Further, the ribbon motor 13 is controlled by the CPU 32 via a ribbon motor control device 37.

Here, the CPU 32 includes a ROM 33 that stores a program and data for executing printer control, which will be described later, and a RAM that is used as a work area when executing this program.
34 are connected by a CPU bus 40. Further, the interface 35 is provided for data communication with the outside, and the CPU 32 uses this interface 35 to read print commands from the outside.
It is configured to perform a print operation. Furthermore, the timer 36 is connected to the CPU 32 by a CPU bus 40, and is used for timing to determine the timing at which each mechanism constituting this embodiment operates. Furthermore, the ribbon motor controller 37 can control the winding force of the ribbon motor 13.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the daisy-wheel printer of this embodiment. 3 in FIG. 2, rollers and paper guides (not shown) are provided on the outer peripheral surface of the platen 1 to wind and hold the print paper 2, while a carriage 11 equipped with printing means to be described later moves around the platen 1. This carriage 11 has a support shaft 14 fixed to the printer body and a body frame 17 so as to be movable parallel to the central axis.
It is slidably held by one end surface 17a of.

On the other hand, the wheel 8 is provided so that the required number of typefaces can be independently moved around the outer periphery, and any typefaces printed by the wheel motor 9 mounted on the carriage 11 can be used. driven to choose.

The ink ribbon 18 is, for example, a so-called one-time carbon ink ribbon that can be printed only one time.It is stored in the ribbon cassette 12, and a part of it is pulled out of the ribbon cassette 12 to connect the wheel 8 and the printing paper. It is arranged between 2.

Further, the printing hammer 10 is energized by a solenoid 31 (not shown) on the carriage 11, and hits the type on the wheel 8 from the back toward the printing paper 2, so that the ink on the ink ribbon 18 is transferred onto the printing paper 2. The image is transferred and printed.

On the other hand, the rotational force generated by the carriage motor 16 is decelerated by the bevel gears 16a and 16b, and then transmitted to the carriage 11 via the carriage belt 15, causing the carriage 11 to reciprocate. In addition, the carriage motor 16
The direction of rotation of the rotating shaft is counterclockwise, which is referred to as reverse rotation, and the carriage 11 is attached to the carriage belt 15 so that the carriage 11 moves leftward at this time.

Further, the rotational force generated by the carriage motor 16 is transmitted to the clutch 3 via the feed pulleys 19a, 19b and the feed belt 20. Clutch 3 is CPU32
According to instructions from the CPU 32, the rotating force transmitted to the feed pulley 19b is optionally applied to the platen gear 4a,
4b. Since the platen gear 4b is fixed to the platen 1, the wound print paper 2 is driven vertically by the rotational force transmitted through the clutch 3. Note that the transmission system is designed such that when the carriage motor 16 rotates in the reverse direction of the rotation direction of the platen 1, the print paper 2 is driven upward.

Next, in the platen day tent mechanism 5, the spring member 6 engages with the valley of the teeth of the pulley 5a, which has triangular teeth on the outer peripheral surface, so that the clutch 3 is disengaged and the platen latch 3 is disengaged. The platen day tent mechanism 5 prevents unnecessary rotation of the platen 1 even when the platen 1 is in a freely rotatable state. I am able to move.

FIG. 3 is a sketch of the ribbon winding system in carriage II. The ribbon motor 13 located at the bottom of the carriage 11 transmits its rotational force to the ribbon winding shaft 21 through a deceleration mechanism (not shown). The ribbon winding shaft 21 is engaged with the winding shaft of the ribbon cassette 12 placed on the upper part of the carriage 11, and the ink ribbon 1 is
You can wind up 8.

On the other hand, the ribbon winding shaft 21 is always connected to the ribbon cam 22, and the ribbon cam 22 is rotated by the rotation of the ribbon winding shaft 21. This ribbon cam 22
is a circular shape with unevenness on the outer periphery, and when the ribbon cam lever 23 moves up and down along the unevenness on the outer periphery, the ribbon cam lever 23 whose fulcrum is set on the carriage 11 turns on the ribbon cam switch 24. Off (OF
F). The ribbon cam spring 25 has both ends fixed to the carriage 11 and the ribbon cam lever 23,
The tip of the ribbon cam lever 23 is moved to the ribbon cam 2 by tension.
2 and works to pull the pon cam switch 24 in the ON direction.

4 and 5 show changes in the states of the ribbon cam lever 23 and ribbon cam switch 24 as the ribbon cam 22 rotates. FIG. 4 shows the position of the ribbon cam 22 in a print standby state. In this state,
The ribbon cam switch 24 is turned on.

Next, FIG. 5 shows the state of the ribbon cam 22 and other parts when the ink ribbon 18 starts to be wound up. ribbon cassette 12
When the ribbon winding shaft 21 is rotated counterclockwise when viewed from the top surface of the carriage 11 to wind up the ink ribbon 18, the tip of the ribbon cam lever 23 touches the ribbon cam 22.
The ribbon cam rides on the image area on the outer periphery of the carriage 11, rotates clockwise around the support 1 fixed to the carriage 11, and opens the ribbon cam switch 24, turning the switch OFF.

Furthermore, when the ribbon cam 22 rotates 90 degrees from the state shown in FIG. 4, the states of the ribbon cam 22, ribbon cam lever 23, and ribbon cam switch 24 are the same as in FIG. 4, that is, the ribbon cam switch 24 is turned ON.

In this embodiment, the ribbon winding shaft 21 rotates counterclockwise 9
The ribbon cassette 12 and other mechanisms are designed so that new ink ribbon 18 as needed for printing can be supplied each time it rotates 0 degrees.

FIG. 6 shows the relationship between the rotation angle of the ribbon winding shaft 21, that is, the ribbon cam 22, and the 0N10FF state of the ribbon cam switch 24.

When the rotation angle of the ribbon cam 22 in the printing standby state in FIG. 4 is set to 0 degrees and the ribbon cam 22 is rotated counterclockwise by approximately 15 degrees, the output of the ribbon cam switch 24 changes from ON to OFF. When the ribbon cam switch 24 rotates further and reaches a position of about 75 degrees, the output of the ribbon cam switch 24 changes from OFF to ON. After that, the ribbon cam switch 24 turns ON-〇FF- of this output.
The change of 0N is repeated every 90 degrees of rotation of the ribbon cam 22. It can be seen from FIG. 6 that the ribbon motor 13 continues to accelerate for a period of 75 degrees from a rotation angle of 0 degrees to a rotation angle of 75 degrees under normal conditions.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing the sequence when the printer device of this embodiment prints one character from the normal ribbon winding standby position, and shows the time at which the state of each actuator changes from tl to tl. It is represented by symbols up to . Furthermore, FIG. 9 shows the first example of this embodiment.
This is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for realizing a character printing sequence, and the processing performed from the above normal ribbon winding standby position is shown in steps S1 to 314. Here, with reference to FIGS. 7 and 9, the process of printing one character when the ribbon winding by the printer apparatus of this embodiment is in a normal state will be explained.

First, at time t1, step Sl, the wheel motor 9 starts character selection interrupt processing. Thereafter, the character selection process of the wheel motor 9 is executed in the background by interrupt processing using the timer 36, so from this flowchart, which is a foreground process, the wheel motor character selection process is executed except for the flag indicating that the character selection process has ended. The contents are no longer visible. Note that the background character selection processing technology of the wheel motor 9 is already well known, so a description thereof will be omitted. Next, in step s2, it is checked whether the ribbon cam switch 24 is OFF, and if it is not OFF,
At time tzl step s3, the ribbon motor 13 is rotated forward, the ribbon winding shaft 21 is rotated counterclockwise to begin winding up the ink ribbon 18, and the ribbon cam 22 also begins to rotate counterclockwise. Ribbon cam 22, ribbon cam lever 23. The ribbon cam switch 24 is in the fourth state.
The line changes as shown in Figure 5 (until step S
After waiting at 4, move the ribbon cam 22° ribbon cam lever 2.
3. Wait until the state of the ribbon cam switch 24 changes again as shown in FIG. 4 and the output of the ribbon cam switch 24 turns ON (step S5), and when it turns ON at time t4, from time t to t6 During this time, in step S6, the ribbon motor 13 is rotated and the brake is forcibly applied.

After waiting for a predetermined braking time t of the ribbon motor 13 in step s7, the ribbon motor 13 is stopped at time ty't in step S8.

Next, at time ta, after waiting until the character selection process of the wheel motor 9 in the background due to the interrupt process activated earlier in step s9 is completed, in step SIO the printing pressure corresponding to the print character (in this embodiment After determining the energization time t,1) of the solenoid 31, the energization of the solenoid 31 is started at time t9 in step Sll. In step S12, wait for time t1, and when time tlo comes, end the energization of the solenoid 31 in step 313,
Finally, in step S14, the carriage motor 16 drive interrupt process is activated in the same manner as the character selection for the wheel motor 9, and after that, the carriage motor 16 drive is processed in the background, and then one character is processed. End the print sequence.

As described above, the printer device of this embodiment realizes normal printing.

Next, the processing when the ribbon cam switch 24 is off in step S2 of FIG. 9 will be explained using the timing chart shown in FIG. 8 and steps S21 to S28 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 9.

In this embodiment, the ribbon motor control device 37 uses chopper control to repeatedly turn on and off the current applied to the ribbon motor 13 in short cycles as a means of weakening the winding force of the ribbon motor 13.

First, if the ribbon cam switch 24 is already off in step S2, the ribbon motor 13 starts to rotate normally in step S21 at time t21, and a timer for measuring the on time is started in step S22.

Next, in step S23, it is checked whether the ribbon cam switch 24 has been turned on, and if not, in step S24, the on time t for the chopper is determined. Check whether n has elapsed. If the time has not elapsed, the process returns to step 523 and loops to step S24. While doing this, time t
. . When , the control shifts to step S25 due to the conditional branch in step S24.

Time t! 2. In step S25, the ribbon motor 13 is stopped, and in step S26, a timer for measuring the off time is started. Subsequently, in step S27, it is checked whether the ribbon cam switch 24 has been turned ON, and if not, in step S28, the off time t for the chopper is set. ? Check to see if , has elapsed.

If the time has not passed, the process returns to step S27 and loops to step 528. While doing this, when the time t-- ott has elapsed, the control returns to step S21 due to the conditional branch in step S28.

When the above steps S21 to S28 are repeatedly executed, the average value of the electric power supplied to the ribbon motor 13 becomes t of the normal supplied electric power. The size is □/(10°+tof,), and therefore winding can be performed with lower winding torque and speed than usual.

In this way, the times are t23, t24, tzs, tis
, tl, and t2°, it is detected in step S27 that the ribbon cam switch 24 is turned on at time t211, and the process branches to step S9. When the rotation of the ribbon motor 13 is controlled by chopper control in this manner, the winding speed is slow, so the next process can be performed without requiring a brake process by reverse rotation. Therefore, the following processing returns to the normal state processing from step S9 described above.

As described above, even if for some reason the ribbon cam switch is in the mid-winding position when ribbon winding starts, chopper control can slow down the ribbon winding speed of the ribbon motor (and keep the inertia low). Therefore, ribbon winding can be performed appropriately without requiring brake control.Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to continue the printing operation normally regardless of the position of the ribbon cam switch.

[Other Embodiments] In the embodiments described above, chopper control by software was used to weaken the winding force of the ribbon motor 13.

However, such software-based chopper control places a heavy burden on the CPU. Therefore, in this embodiment, a case will be described in which chopper control using a logic circuit is performed.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a chopper circuit which is a ribbon motor control device. 38 is output logic 1
．． P W M (
This is a Pulse Width Modulation) wave generator, and its output is input to the NAND circuit 39. Also, the other input of the NAND circuit 39 is the CPU
32 to receive on/off commands for the chopper circuit.

The output of the NAND circuit 39 is connected to the output of the AND circuit 4o. The other input of the AND circuit 40 is CP
(It is connected to J32 and instructs the ribbon motor 13 to start and stop rotating.

Now, disable the chopper circuit from CPLI32 (=0)
When there is an instruction to
Regardless of the output state of the wave generator 38, it is always 1. Therefore, the AND circuit 4.degree. can directly transmit instructions for starting and stopping the rotation of the ribbon motor 3 from the CPLI 32, which is the other input signal, to the ribbon motor 13.

In contrast, the CPU 32 enables the chopper circuit (
=1), the output of the NAND circuit 39 becomes the inverted state of the output of the PWM wave generator 38.

Therefore, the AND circuit 4o transmits to the ribbon motor 13 a signal obtained by logically multiplying the other input signal from the CPU 32 with an instruction to start and stop the rotation of the ribbon motor 13 and the inverted output of the PWM wave generator 38. That's what I do.

If the 1.0 duty ratio of the output logic of the PWM wave generator 38 is expressed as man, the average power supplied to the ribbon motor 13 during chopper control in this embodiment is n/(m+n) of the normal power supply. You can see that it's going to be large.

Note that the printer device of this embodiment has a structure in which the chopper circuit is in an invalid state after the power is turned on (after reset).

The flowchart in FIG. 11 shows the control processing procedure for the printer device when the chopper system described above is used.

As mentioned above, since the chopper circuit is disabled after the power is turned on, the processing from steps S1 to 314 is the same as that of the above-mentioned embodiment, so the explanation will be omitted.6Next, in step S2, the ribbon cam switch 24 is activated. The processing when the switch is already in the OFF state will be explained.

First, in step S31, the CPU 32 outputs a signal to enable the chopper circuit. Then, as described above, a signal in which the output logic of the PWM wave generator 38 is inverted is output from the NAND circuit 39 and transmitted to the input of the AND circuit 40.Next, in step S32, an instruction to rotate the ribbon motor 13 in the normal direction is issued. , the output of the AND circuit 40 is PW
The inverted output signal of the M-wave generator 38 is output, and the ribbon motor 13 is rotated in the normal direction while being 0N-OFFL in a short cycle. 6 The ribbon motor 13, which rotates in the normal direction at a slower rate than usual due to the average current smaller than normal, causes the ink ribbon 18 to rotate normally. At the same time as winding begins, the ribbon cam 22 is also turned, and after winding the specified amount of ribbon, the ribbon cam switch 24 is turned in step 533.
Wait until it turns ON. After disabling the chopper circuit in step S34, control is transferred to step s8.The subsequent processes (38 to 514) are the same as those in the previous embodiment, so a description thereof will be omitted.

According to the present embodiment as described above, even if the ribbon cam switch is in the middle of winding for some reason when ribbon winding is started, the chopper control of the ribbon motor 13 can be performed without placing any burden on the CPU. Appropriate ribbon winding can be performed.

In addition, although the above-mentioned embodiments were explained using a daisy-wheel printer as an example, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the present invention can be applied to thermal head printers, ball head printers, and the like.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, there is an effect that the ink ribbon can be appropriately wound.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a daisy-wheel printer device control unit that is a typical embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the daisy-wheel printer, and FIG. 3 is a carriage inside the daisy-wheel printer. A sketch of the ribbon winding section inside, Figures 4 and 5 are diagrams showing the state of the ribbon cam and ribbon force lever, Figure 6 is a diagram showing the relationship between the rotation angle of the ribbon cam and the on/off output of the ribbon cam switch. Figure 7 is a timing chart showing the print sequence, Figure 8 is a timing chart showing the print sequence by chopper control, Figure 9 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the print sequence, and Figure 10 is a timing chart showing the print sequence. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a chopper circuit according to an embodiment, and FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a print sequence processing procedure according to another embodiment. In the figure, l... platen, 2... printing paper, 3...
Clutch, 4... Platen gear, 5... Day tent mechanism, 6... Spring member, 7... Knob, 8... Wheel, 9... Wheel motor, 10... Printing hammer, 11 ... Carriage, 12... Ribbon cassette, 13... Ribbon motor, 14... Support shaft, 15...
... Carriage belt, 16... Carriage motor,
17... Body frame, 18... Ink ribbon, 1
9...Feed boo 9.20...Feed belt,
21... Ribbon winding shaft, 22... Ribbon cam,
23... Ribbon lever, 24... Ribbon cam switch, 25... Ribbon cam spring, 31... Solenoid, 32... CPLI, 33... ROM, 34...
RAM, 35...Interface, 36...Timer, 37...Ribbon motor control device, 38...PW
M wave generator, 38...NAND circuit, 42...A
It is an ND circuit. Patent Applicant Canon Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney Yasunori Otsuka (and 1 other person) Figure 1 Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A printer device that uses an ink ribbon to perform transfer onto a recording medium using a recording head, comprising: a ribbon winding means for winding the ink ribbon; and a ribbon winding means for winding the ink ribbon by the ribbon winding means. a braking means for braking; a detecting means for detecting the state of the ink ribbon winding by the ribbon winding means; and a detecting means for detecting the state of the ink ribbon winding detected by the detecting means; and a control means for controlling the ribbon winding force of the printer so as to prevent the braking means from performing braking.