JPH04166357A - Printing paper feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To set printing paper on an initial position without the manual operation of the user to improve operability by a method wherein after a power switch is turned off, printing paper is automatically fed to the initial position. CONSTITUTION:When a change-over of a power switch 52 from ON to OFF is detected by a power switch OFF sensor 60 and a paper feed mode is a cut- form paper A, a limit switch 58 is changed over from ON to OFF if cut-form paper A remains on a platen roller 19. The platen roller 19 is driven in a paper discharge direction to discharge the cut-form paper A from a printer 1. When a paper feed mode is a continuous paper mode and a position on which the perforation line of continuous paper B is coincident with the tip end of a paper presser 23 is determined as an initial position, the continuous paper B is discharged until it coincides with the initial position. In this manner, when the power switch 52 is changed over from ON to OFF, power is supplied from a power source circuit 54 to control the position of the cut-form paper A or the continuous paper B to the initial position, and the power supply from the power source circuit 54 is interrupted. Therefore, paper can be set to the initial position at the turn-on of the printer without the manual operation of the user, and the operability is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a print paper transport device for transporting print paper along a predetermined transport path in a front printing device.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, the position of printing paper is stored in RAM, and during printing operation (based on printing commands input from outside),
2. Description of the Related Art Printing devices are known that are configured to transport printing paper from a paper position stored in a RAM to a predetermined printing start position and start printing.

In addition, in this type of printing device, when the power supply is stopped, the paper position stored in the RAM disappears, so when the power is turned on, the printing paper is assumed to be in the preset initial position (for example, The paper position recording area of the RAM is initially set for continuous paper (assuming that the perforation is at a predetermined cutting position).

[Problem to be solved by the invention] Therefore, in this type of printing device (when the power is turned on,
If the printing paper is not in the initial position, subsequent printing operations will not be able to print on the desired area of the printing paper. Otherwise, the printing paper had to be reset to its initial position the next time the power was turned on.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a printing paper conveying device that can set the printing paper position at the initial position when the power is turned on without any trouble to the user.

[Means for Solving the Problems] That is, the printing paper conveyance device of the present invention, which has been made to achieve the above object, has a conveying means for conveying the printing paper, and a conveyance means for conveying the printing paper, as illustrated in FIG. a storage means for storing the position of the printing paper; and a storage means for driving the transporting means to transport the printing paper based on a printing command inputted from the outside, and storing information in the storage means according to the transporting state. a control means for updating the paper position; and a paper position initial setting for initializing the paper position in the storage means assuming that the printing paper is at a preset initial position when power supply to the apparatus is started. means, a paper initial position control means for driving the conveying means based on the sheet position stored in the storage means to convey the printing paper to the initial position when the power switch is turned off; power supply means that starts supplying power to the apparatus when the power switch is turned off, and then cuts off the power supply to the apparatus at least after the operation of the paper initial position control means is completed. It is characterized by

[Function] In the printing paper conveying device of the present invention configured as described above, the paper position initial setting means initializes the paper position in the storage means when power supply to the device is started, and then a printing command is received from the outside. When inputted, the control means drives the conveyance means to convey the printing paper based on the printing command, and updates the paper position in the storage means. Further, the power supply means starts supplying power to the apparatus when the power switch is turned on, and when the power switch is turned off, the paper initial position control means then controls the paper initial position control means to supply the paper to the conveying means based on the paper position stored in the storage means. After continuing power supply until the printing paper is transported to the next printing start position (initial position) by driving
Cut off the power supply to the device.

[Example] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the printer of this embodiment.

As shown in the figure, an auto-cut sheet feeder (hereinafter simply AC3F) equipped with a pair of paper feed trays 3 for stacking and holding cut sheets A before printing is installed at the rear of the upper surface of the printer 1.
A pair of paper discharge trays 7 are provided at the center of the top surface of the printer 1 to receive printed sheets A or continuous sheets B discharged from the printer 1. Further, an operation panel 10 equipped with various switches for inputting various commands from the outside is disposed at the front of the top surface of the printer 1.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the AC8F5 includes a paper feed roller 12 that separates and feeds out the cut sheets A stacked and held on the paper feed tray 3 one by one. A pair of large and small feeding rollers 14 and 15 are provided for feeding the cut sheet A supplied from the printer 2 into the printer.The driving shaft 12a of each roller 12, 14, 15 is 14a and 15a are connected to the drive shaft 19a of the platen roller provided inside the printer via a well-known gear mechanism provided in the side case 5a of the AC3F5.
During the printing operation, the drive shaft 12a first rotates to separate and feed the cut sheet A from the paper feed roller 12, and then the drive shaft 1
4a and 15a are rotated, and the feed rollers 14 and 15 feed the cut sheet A into the printer.

The cut sheet A sent out from AC8F5 is placed on the guide plate]8
is guided to the platen roller]9 in the printer. Then, the cut paper sheet A is transferred to the platen roller 19 (with two wraps,
After the paper is printed by the print head 20 and separated from the platen roller 19 by the paper presser 23, it is discharged to the paper discharge tray 7 side via the guide plate 24.

The pair of paper feed trays 3 are movable in the width direction of the cut sheet A with respect to the main body of the AC8F5, and can be moved to a predetermined position according to the size of the cut sheet A by operating a stopper lever 3a. The paper feed tray 3 can be positioned and fixed with the .

On the other hand, a well-known bin tractor 25 is provided inside the main body of the printer 1 to feed continuous paper B inserted from the rear end of the printer into the printer. The paper B is conveyed to the platen roller 19 side by the bin roller 26, and is separated from the platen roller 19 by the printing head 20 on the platen roller 19 by the printing tongue paper presser 23 in the same way as the tongue cut paper A. The continuous paper Bt1 thus discharged can be cut at the tip of the paper presser 23.
- Bin tractor 2 above in 22
5 and bottle roller 26 (Table AC8F5 roller 12,
Similarly to 14.15, the continuous paper sheet B is conveyed by receiving power from the drive shaft 19a of the platen roller 9 via a well-known gear mechanism, but the power is transmitted from the platen roller 19 to the bin tractor 25 and the bin roller 26. The system is designed to be able to be turned on and off by commands from outside, and by this switching, the paper feeding mode of the [printer] is set to cut paper A.
It can be switched to either the AC3F mode in which printing is performed on continuous paper B or the continuous paper mode in which printing is performed on continuous paper B. It should be noted that the configuration for switching the paper feeding mode and the like is well known in the past, and therefore, the explanation thereof will be omitted here.

Next, the printer of this embodiment configured as described above] (Y) is driven by a control device 50 shown in FIG. It operates by receiving power from a power supply circuit 54 with a built-in battery that converts it to DC voltage.Also, since the power supply circuit 54 has a built-in battery, it is possible to supply power even when the power switch 52 is switched from on to off. However, when the power supply circuit 54 (or the power switch 52) of this embodiment is in the OFF state and a power OFF command is input from the outside, the power supply from the built-in battery is cut off.

As shown in FIG. 4, a control device 50 (above) includes a print data input port 55 for inputting print data output from an external device such as a document editing device, a paper feed mode changeover switch 56 provided on the operation panel 10, etc. A command switch is installed near the platen roller 19 to switch from ON to OFF a limit switch 58 for paper presence/absence detection and a power switch 52 that detects whether cut paper A is being fed into the printer. It is equipped with various sensors such as a power switch OFF sensor 60 for detection, and inputs random signals from these parts to a control circuit 70 consisting of a CPU 72, ROM 74, RAM 76, etc.

Control circuit 70 (according to a control program stored in advance in ROM 74, a paper feed motor 62 which reads signals from the above-mentioned parts and drives the print paper conveyance system such as platen roller 19). Print head 20° Print head 20 moves to the platen The present invention shown in FIG. Paper position initialization processing, which is the main processing involved, is executed.

Furthermore, when the control circuit 70 (after turning on the power and print data is input from an external device), even if the paper feeding mode is the above-mentioned AC3F mode (assuming that there is no cut paper A remaining in the printer 1, the AC3F mode If the paper feed mode when the power is turned on is the above continuous mode,
i Assuming that the perforation of continuous paper B matches the position of the tip of paper presser 23, printing control corresponding to continuous paper mode is started, but since such printing control is well known, it will not be explained here. omitted.

Next, the paper position initialization process shown in FIG. 5 is a process that is executed when the power switch OFF sensor 60 inspects the switching of the power switch 52 from on to off.

As shown in the figure, when the paper position initialization process is started, first, in Sl, the paper feeding mode of the printer] is set to the bin tractor 2.
5 and the rotation of the pin roller 26 to determine whether or not the continuous paper mode is in which continuous paper B is fed.

In Sl, the paper feed mode is not continuous mode but AC3F5.
When it is determined that the ACSF mode is in which the cut paper A is fed, the process moves to s2 and checks whether the limit switch 58 for checking the presence of paper is in the ON state, that is, if the cut paper A is fed to the platen roller 19. Determine whether there are any remaining. If there is no cut paper A remaining on the platen roller] 9, the process moves directly to S6, and if the cut paper A remains on the platen roller 19, the cut paper ejection process is executed in continuation <33. After that, the process moves to S6.The cut paper ejection process (
After the limit switch 58 is switched from on to off, the platen roller 19 is driven in the paper ejection direction until a predetermined period of time elapses after that. is reliably discharged.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the paper feeding mode is the continuous mode in [S], the process moves to ES4, and from the past conveyance data of the continuous paper B, the perforation of the continuous paper B is located at the tip of the paper presser foot 23. It is determined whether the initial position matches the position. Then, when continuous paper B is in this initial position (front
The process directly advances to S6, and if continuous paper B is not in the initial position (continuous paper ejection processing is executed to eject continuous paper B until the perforation of continuous paper B matches the position of the tip of paper presser 23). After that, the process moves to S6.This continuous paper discharge process is performed based on the past conveyance data of continuous paper B.
This is executed by determining the drive amount of the platen roller] 9 necessary to align the perforation with the tip position of the paper presser 23, and rotating the platen roller 19 in the paper ejection direction accordingly.

Then, in continuation <36 (the power is turned OFF to the power supply circuit 54)
By outputting the command, the power supply from the power supply circuit 54 to the control device 50 is stopped, and the process is ended.

As explained above, when the power switch 52 is switched from on to off, the control device 501 of this embodiment receives power from the battery built-in power circuit 54.
After the power is turned on, the paper positions of cut paper A and continuous paper B are controlled to the initial position where printing control is possible, and then the power supply circuit 5
The power supply from 4 is cut off. Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to set the paper position at the initial position when the power is turned on without using a sensor for inspecting the first perforation, and without bothering the user as in the conventional case. This makes it possible to improve the operability of the printing device.

In the above embodiment, the power supply circuit 54 has a function of stopping power supply from the battery in response to a power OFF command. However, for example, a self-holding power switch equipped with an electromagnetic clutch may be used as the power switch. Even if the power switch is turned off by an external operation, power may be supplied to the power circuit from the power switch as long as the electromagnetic clutch is not turned off. In this case, there is no need to use a built-in battery type power supply circuit, and the configuration can be simplified.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, the printing paper conveying device of the present invention achieves (
f-: After the power switch is turned off, the printing paper is automatically transported to the initial position, so the printing paper can be set to the initial position when the power is turned on without any user intervention. This makes it possible to improve the operability of the printing device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the present invention, and FIGS.
FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the printer, FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the configuration of the printer's paper conveyance system, and FIG. 4 is the configuration of the printer control device. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing paper position initialization processing executed in the control circuit when the power switch is turned off. ]...Printer 5...AC3F]9.
...Platen roller 20...Print head 23...
Paper presser 25... Bin tractor 26... Pin roller 50... Control device 52... Power switch 54... Power supply circuit 58... Limit switch 60... Power switch OFF sensor

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A conveying means for conveying printing paper, a storage means for storing the position of the printing paper conveyed by the conveying means, and printing by driving the conveying means based on a printing command input from the outside. a control means for transporting the paper and updating the paper position stored in the storage means according to the transport state; and a control means for transporting the printing paper at a preset initial position when power supply to the apparatus is started. In the printing paper conveying apparatus, the printing paper conveyance device is equipped with a paper position initial setting means for initializing the paper position of the storage means, and when the power switch is turned off, paper initial position control means for driving the conveyance means to convey the printing paper to the initial position; and a paper initial position control means for starting the power supply to the apparatus when the power switch is turned on, and at least the above when the power switch is turned off. 1. A printing paper conveyance device comprising: power supply means for cutting off power supply to the device after the operation of the paper initial position control means is completed.