JPH0452662A - Multicolor image recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To cut a recording medium where a multicolor image is recorded at a specific position without causing any shift by detecting the shift between a conveyor roller and the recording medium with a register mark and correcting the cutting position. CONSTITUTION:The shift at the time of next image recording is detected and corrected to cut the medium between a last image and a following image. For example, if a difference of (m) pulses is generated between a reference register mark read (a) in the 1st pass of the next image and a reference register mark read (b) in the final pass (4th pass) of the next image, a slip of (m) pulses is generated between the conveyor roller 8 and recording paper 1. Then a pulse motor is driven by (n+m) pulses as the sum of the number (n) of pulses up to an indicated cutting position and a correction number (m) for the shift and then the medium is cut, so that the medium is cut at the correct position where the shift is corrected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multicolor image recording apparatus equipped with a cutting device that cuts a recording medium on which a multicolor image is recorded at predetermined positions.

Conventional technology In the case of a multicolor image recording device, a developing device has a recording head that forms a latent image and developer tanks corresponding to the number of colors used to develop this latent image between a paper feed roller and a conveyance roller. Set up a container and 1ii! A multicolor image is formed by moving the recording area of the recording medium between the recording head and the developing device for the number of colors used to obtain the image, and then a fire image is formed. Then, each image is cut at a predetermined position by a cutting machine provided downstream of the conveyance roller. This cutting position is specified in advance, and the cutting machine is activated when the specified cutting position on the recording medium comes under the cutting blade. Whether or not the designated cutting position is below the cutting blade is determined by determining the amount of movement of the recording medium from the rotation of the conveyance roller.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, according to this configuration, when the recording medium is moved back and forth between the conveyance roller and the paper feed roller by the number of colors to be used in order to obtain a multicolor image, the relationship between the conveyance roller and the recording medium is Due to the slippage that occurs between the two, a discrepancy occurs between the rotation of the conveyance roller and the amount of movement of the recording medium, and even if the rotation of the conveyance roller is controlled to reach the specified cutting position, the actual The cutting position may be misaligned. Note that registration marks are formed on both sides of the image in order to control color misregistration, so by detecting these registration marks, the correct conveyance amount can be obtained. This registration mark detector is provided between the developer and the conveyance roller.

By the way, when determining the cutting position between the previous image and the next image, it is necessary to cut at a predetermined length from the end of the previous image, but this cutting position can be determined accurately based on the registration mark of the previous image. Obtainable. However, when cutting, the previous image moves downstream from the cutting machine, and the registration 1-mark detector is located upstream from the conveyance roller, so the cutting position of the previous image is detected using the registration mark of the previous image. It is not possible.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and is capable of performing multicolor cutting that corrects the misalignment that occurs between the conveyance roller and the recording medium when cutting between the previous image and the multicolor next image. The purpose is to provide an image recording device.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, a registration mark is used to detect a misalignment between a conveyance roller and a recording medium, and a pre-instructed cutting position is corrected. The color image recording device includes a supply roller that supplies a recording medium with a predetermined tension and also rewinds the recording medium, and a latent image forming means that forms a latent image of an image and a registration mark on the recording medium supplied by the supply roller. a developing means for developing the latent image, a mark reading means for reading the developed registration mark, and a mark reading means provided downstream of the mark reading means for transporting the recording medium in the downstream direction and for rewinding the recording medium by the supply roller. a conveyance roller that applies a predetermined tension to the recording medium when printing, a cutting machine installed downstream of the conveyance roller that cuts the recording medium, input registration mark information from the mark reading means, and rotates the conveyance roller. control means for controlling the conveyance amount of the recording medium and the cutting timing of the cutting machine; When reciprocating between the positions, the cutting timing is controlled by calculating the deviation between the rotation of the conveyance roller and the conveyance amount of the recording medium due to this reciprocation based on the registration mark information.

Operation With the above configuration, first, the cutting position of the rear end of the previous image is specified in advance, and this is stored in the control means as the number of rotation pulses of the conveying roller.Next, the registration mark that will be the reference for the next image is determined. The number of rotation pulses of the transport roller when the first color is developed and transported and the mark reading means reads this reference registration mark, and when the last color is developed and the mark reading means reads the reference registration mark. By determining the number of rotation pulses of the conveyance roller and taking the difference between the two, it is possible to obtain the deviation when forming the next image in multiple colors. This deviation is the deviation when the previous image is transported by the transport roller and moved to the cutting machine, so by correcting the number of rotation pulses of the transport roller previously stored based on this deviation, the correct cutting position can be found.

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of this embodiment. In FIG. 1, this apparatus includes a supply roller 2 that supplies the recording paper 1, applies a braking force to the recording paper 1 during feeding, applies a predetermined tension to the recording paper 1, and also rewinds the recording paper 1, and a first roller that guides the recording paper 1. A guide roller 3, a recording head 4 that forms an image in the center of the recording paper and latent images of registration marks at regular intervals on both ends, and a second guide roller 5 that guides the recording paper l that has passed through the recording head 4. A multicolor developer 6 having four developer tanks for developing latent images, a mark reader 7 for reading developed registration marks, and a recording paper 1 that is unwound and conveyed, and which applies a braking force when rewinding. A conveyance roller 8 that applies a predetermined tension to the recording paper 1, a pulse motor drive circuit 9 that controls a pulse motor that drives the conveyance roller 8, a cutter unit 0 that cuts the recording paper 10, and a drive motor of the cutter unit are controlled. Kanta unit drive circuit 1
1 and the registration mark information of the mark reader 7 manually,
It is composed of a control section 12 that controls a pulse motor drive circuit 9 and a cutter unit drive circuit 11.

Figure 2 shows the mark reader 7. Conveyance roller 8. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the detailed configuration of the cutter unit IO and their control units 9.11.12. The mark reader 7 includes a CCD image sensor 71 and a mark detection circuit 72 that converts an analog signal from the CCD image sensor 7I into a digital signal. The conveyance roller 8 is controlled in forward and reverse directions by a pulse motor 81 to determine the conveyance speed and amount of the recording paper l. The control unit I2 includes a CP tJ121, a programmable counter 122, a reference clock 123, and a storage device (not shown), and the CPU 12 is a mark detection circuit 72.
Based on the registration mark information, the counter unit drive circuit 11 instructs the cutting timing, and the pulse motor drive circuit 9 is sent to the programmable counter 122.
Indicates the number of pulses to be output. The programmable counter 122 outputs a number of pulses generated by dividing the period of the reference clock 123 according to the number of rotations of the conveying roller 8 according to an instruction from the CPU 121.

Next, the operation will be explained. First, set the basic specifications such as image size, cutting position, and number of colors to be printed, and as shown in Figure 1, set one of the four color developing devices 6, for example, a black developer tank, at the developing position, and record the image. The paper I is transferred from the supply roller 2 to the first guide roller 3. It passes through the second guide roller 5 and is conveyed in the direction of the arrow by the conveyance roller 8. During the second period, an image and a latent image of the registration mark are formed in the recording head 4, and the developing device 6
The film is developed and a black image is recorded. At this time, a brake force is applied to the supply roller 2, and control is performed so that a constant tension is applied to the recording paper l.

When recording of the black image is completed, the black developer tank is moved away from the developing position, the supply roller 2 is rewound, and the recording paper I
is conveyed in the direction shown by arrow B, and the recording paper l is returned to the initial position where the formation of the black image started. Next, the cyan developer tank is set at the development position, and the cyan image is recorded superimposed on the black image 1 in the same manner as the previous time. At this time, the blank image and the cyan image are superimposed (positioned) using registration marks by a superposition control device (not shown). By performing the above operations for each color of mazetan and yellow, a color image in which four colors are combined is formed. During the last yellow recording (this is called the final bus), the CPU calculates the amount of movement of the recording paper 1 from the starting position to the cutting machine position as the number of driving pulses of the pulse motor 81.
121, the image is stored in the storage device and recording of the next image is started. With respect to this next image, the color image for which image recording has been completed is referred to as the previous image. When recording the first color of the next image (this is called the first bus), a reference registration mark is determined, and the number of driving pulses of the pulse motor 81 when the mark reader 7 reads this reference registration mark. Furthermore, when recording the fourth color, which is the final pass, the number of drive pulses of the pulse motor 81 when the mark reader 7 reads this reference registration mark is also stored. If no slip occurs between the two, the number of driving pulses read during the first pass and the final pass will be the same value, but since slipping actually occurs, the number of driving pulses during the final pass will be a larger value. Become. The difference between the two represents the deviation due to slip. The cutting between the previous image and the next image is performed after the pulse motor 81 is driven by the number of drive pulses stored in the storage device by the CPU 121 described above from the start of the last bus of the next image. The amount of deviation due to slippage that occurs during multicolor recording will directly appear as a deviation in the cutting position. Therefore, by setting the number of pulses obtained by adding the amount of deviation and the number of driving pulses up to the cutting position as the number of driving pulses corresponding to the corrected cutting position, the correct cutting position can be obtained.

This will be explained using FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating displacement detection during recording of the next image and cutting between the previous image and the next image after correcting this displacement. (a)
b) shows the reference registration mark reading during the first pass of the next image, and b) shows the reference registration mark reading during the final pass (fourth bus) of the next image.

There is a difference of m pulses between the two, and the conveyance roller 8
This indicates that a slip corresponding to m pulses has occurred between the recording paper 1 and the recording paper 1. (C) shows the relationship between the number of pulses from the start of the 4th bus to cutting in the next image, where n indicates the number of pulses to the specified cutting position, and m indicates correction of deviation n+m
This indicates that if the cutting is performed after driving the pulse motor 81, the deviation can be corrected and the cutting can be performed at the correct position. (
d) shows the generation of a cut signal by the cutting pulse without correction and the generation of a cant signal with correction. Figure 4 shows the cutting position with and without correcting the deviation.The broken line indicates the case where the deviation is not corrected, and the solid line
This figure shows the cut position when cutting after correcting the deviation of one minute of pulse.

Next, the operation will be explained using the flowchart shown in FIG. FIG. 5 shows the cutting position in this case.

As shown in the figure, there are two cutting positions, a and b, where a shows the cutting position at the rear end of the previous image, b shows the cutting position at the front end of the next image, and b shows the cutting position at the front end of the next image. Since it can be determined based on the registration mark, only the expansion/contraction error of the recording paper (which is sufficiently small compared to the cutting tolerance) occurs.
Accurate cutting at a defined position can be performed. As described above, the cutting a is performed at a cutting position where the slip error during recording of the next image has been corrected.

This flowchart starts from the first pass (first color) of the next image after the previous image has been recorded and the cutting position shown by a in FIG. 5 (the number of pulses n shown in FIG. 3) is stored in the storage device by the CPU 121. It begins. The STF, P counter that counts the number of driving pulses of the pulse motor 81 is a soft counter of a storage device, but there is no need to limit it to this.

First, set the 5TEP counter to 0 (step 61
). Next, the pulse motor 81 is rotated in the normal direction to start transporting the recording paper l using the transport roller 8 in the six directions shown by the arrows in FIG.
2.63). When the mark reader 7 detects a reference registration mark (Step 7 64), first pass image recording is started (Step 65). In the first pass (step 66), save the 5TEP count value when detecting the registration mark (step 67), check whether the recording of the first pass is finished or not (step 68), and when finished, count the pulse motor 81 and the 5TEP counter. Stop (
Steps 69 and 70), then record paper 1 for the second bus.
Then, the pulse motor 81 is started to reverse (Step 71), the 5TEP counter is decremented (Step 72), and when the 5TEP counter reaches O (Step 73), the pulse motor 81 is stopped (Step 71). 74) At the same time, the count of the STEP counter is stopped (step 75).

The second bus and third pass are performed in the same manner with Ste knobs 62 to 75, and when the final pass (fourth bus) is reached (step 66)
stores the count value of the 5TEP counter at the time of detecting the reference registration mark (step 76). Step 77
Then, as shown in Fig. 5, check whether there is a cutting line a based on the previous image, and if there is, it will be
Step 7: Calculate the difference (m shown in FIG. 3) between the 5TEP counter values when register marks are detected during a pass.
8) This difference is added as a correction amount to the pulse n indicating the preset cutting position to find the value (n+m)L/(step 79). In step 80, when the cutting position shown in FIG. The number of pulses representing the cutting position based on the image registration mark is the number of pulses n+ if the cutting position is a.
m is set in the 5TEP counter, the pulse motor 81 is driven, and when the set count is reached (step 81), a cut is executed (step 82). After cutting, or if the cutting position has not been reached, check whether recording of the final pass has been completed (step 83), and then end the processing of the next image.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above explanation, the present invention is capable of adjusting the cutting position of the trailing edge of the previous image, which is determined based on the previous image, to avoid misalignment due to the unevenness of the recording paper and the conveyance roller during multicolor recording of the next image. Since the paper is detected and cut by conveying the recording paper to the cutting position using a conveying roller, the deviation that occurs is corrected and cut, so that the cutting can be performed at the predetermined cutting position.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a block diagram showing the hardware part that corrects the cutting position in the configuration shown in Figure 1, and Figure 3 describes the detection of misalignment caused by the reciprocating movement of recording paper during multicolor printing and the correction using this. The waveform diagram, FIGS. 4 and 5 are overview diagrams explaining the cutting position between the previous image and the next image, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment. l...-recording paper, 2...supply roller, 3
-...First guide roller, 4...Recording head, 5...Second guide roller, 6...Clear imager, 7...Reader , 8... Conveyance roller, 9
...Pulse motor drive circuit, 10...
...Cutter unit, 11...Cutter unit, drive circuit, 12...Control unit. Name of agent: Patent attorney Shigetaka Awano

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) a supply roller that supplies a recording medium with a predetermined tension and also rewinds the recording medium; a latent image forming means that forms a latent image of an image and a registration mark on the recording medium supplied by the supply roller; A developing means for developing a latent image, a mark reading means for reading the developed registration mark, and a mark reading means provided downstream of the mark reading means for conveying the recording medium in the downstream direction and for rewinding the recording medium by the supply roller. A conveyance roller that applies a predetermined tension to the recording medium, a cutter that is installed downstream of the conveyance roller and cuts the recording medium, and registration mark information inputted from the mark reading means to cut the recording medium by rotation of the conveyance roller. control means for controlling the cutting timing of the cutting machine by controlling the amount of conveyance of the medium; Multicolor image recording, wherein during reciprocating, the cutting timing is controlled by calculating a deviation between the rotation of the conveyance roller and the conveyance amount of the recording medium due to the reciprocating operation based on the registration mark information. Device.