JPH0531994A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] An object of the present invention is to provide a printer capable of printing continuous lines in the paper feed direction without affecting the height of the entire printed image. According to the present invention, there is provided a print head 2 in which a plurality of heating elements 2a corresponding to pixels are arranged in the paper feeding direction.
Assuming that the total length of the heating elements 2a in the arrangement direction is H1, the length of one paper feed is H2, and the maximum error of paper feed is H3,
The relationship of H1> H2 is satisfied, and the difference between H1 and H2 is H
If a, then the printer satisfies the relationship of Ha ≦ H3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer using a thermal printer head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, thermal printers having low noise and excellent maintainability have been widely used in place of impact printers such as dot impact printers. Also, this thermal printer is
It also has an advantage that an image with an accurate pixel size can be printed. However, on the other hand, when printing a continuous line along the paper feed direction, the line may not be connected due to the error of the paper feed amount.

In order to solve such a problem, conventionally, the paper feed pitch is made slightly shorter than the length of the heating element group in the paper feed direction in the print head to absorb the error of the paper feed amount, and one line is drawn. I am trying to connect to.

However, if the paper feed pitch is reduced in this way, the length of the entire print image in the paper feed direction is reduced, which causes a new problem such as a deviation from a predetermined format. Becomes

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve such a problem and is capable of printing continuous lines in the paper feed direction without affecting the height of the entire printed image. The purpose is to provide a printer.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the printer of the present invention is a printer having a print head in which a plurality of heating elements corresponding to pixels are arranged in the paper feed direction, and each heating element is The total length in the array direction is H
1, the length of one paper feed is H2, the maximum error of paper feed is H
When 3, the relationship of H1> H2 is satisfied, and H1 and H2
When the difference from 2 is Ha, the relationship of Ha ≦ H3 is satisfied.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the total length H1 of the heat generating elements in the print head in the arrangement direction is set to be larger than the length H2 of one paper feed, so that each printed image is before and after the paper feed. Have a slight overlap. This makes it possible to print continuous lines in the paper feed direction without affecting the height of the entire print image.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing the configuration of a printing mechanism in a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a carriage on which a thermal printing head 2 is mounted and a ribbon cassette (not shown) can be attached and detached.
The chassis 3 is supported so as to be capable of reciprocating along a main shaft 4 whose both ends are supported. A carriage belt 5 is engaged with the carriage 1. The carriage belt 5 is stretched between a drive pulley 6 and a sub pulley 7. When the drive pulley 6 is rotationally driven, its rotational force is transmitted to the carriage 1 through the carriage belt 5, whereby the main shaft 4 The carriage 1 travels along the line. Also drive pulley 6
Is rotationally driven by the driving force of a carriage motor (not shown) being transmitted via a transmission mechanism 8 such as a gear. Further, 9 and 10 are a pair of paper feed rollers, and in this printer, a total of three paper feed roller pairs 9, 10 are provided.
Are arranged. Of each paper feed roller pair 9, 10
One of the paper feed rollers 9 is integrated through a rotary shaft 11, and the drive force of a paper feed motor (not shown) is transmitted to the rotary shaft 11 via a transmission mechanism 12 such as a gear. Is becoming The paper is conveyed while being sandwiched between the paper feed rollers 9 and 10, and passes between the ink ribbon and the platen 13 which are arranged to face the head surface of the print head 2.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the surface of the print head 2.

As shown in the figure, on the surface of the print head 2, 24 heating elements 2a corresponding to the respective pixels are arranged in a line along the paper feeding direction. Here, the size of each heating element 2a is a logical pixel size (for example, 1/18).
Value slightly larger than 0 inch (eg 1/180 x 1.02
Inches).

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the system configuration of this printer.

In the figure, reference numeral 20 is an internal bus, 21 is a CPU for controlling the operation of the printer in general, 22 is an interface section for inputting various control information and print data from a host device, and 23 is an input through the interface section 22. A data buffer for temporarily storing the generated print data, 24 a carriage motor driver for driving and controlling a carriage motor 25, 26 a paper feeding motor driver for driving and controlling a paper feeding motor 27, and 28 for driving and controlling the print head 2. The head driver, and 29 are R in which programs and character font data necessary for printing are stored.
OM.

Next, the operation of this printer will be described.

The carriage 1 is moved by the drive of the carriage motor 25 along the main shaft 4 in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the heating elements 2a in the print head 2. As the carriage 1 moves, each heating element 2
A drive current from the head driver 28 is selectively supplied to a, whereby printing for one pitch of paper feed is performed.

When the printing for one pitch is completed, the carriage 1 is moved back to the initial position and the paper is fed by one pitch by the operation of the paper feeding mechanism. Then, the next printing operation is executed.

Next, the relationship between the size of the heating element 2a and the paper feed pitch in this printer will be described with reference to FIG.

In the figure, A is the print result of the first pass,
B shows the print result of the second pass. Here, since the size of each heating element 2a in the print head 2 is larger than the logical pixel size by 0.02% as described above, the length H1 in the array direction of each heating element 2a is 1/180 × 1.
02 x 24 = 1 / 7.35 inch, and the print result is equal to this. On the other hand, if the length of one paper feed (paper feed pitch) H2 is 24 times the logical pixel size, this paper feed pitch H2 becomes 1/180 × 24 = 1 / 7.5 inch.
17.3.5-1 / 7.5 between the print result of B and the print result of B
Only overlap will occur.

Therefore, the maximum error H3 of the paper feed pitch is
If the length of the overlapped portion is suppressed to be equal to or less than this overlapping length, continuous lines in the paper feeding direction can be connected to print.

In summary, the total length of the heating elements 2a in the arrangement direction is H1, the length of one paper feed is H2,
If the maximum error of paper feed is H3, the relationship of H1> H2 is satisfied, and if the difference between H2 and H1 is Ha, Ha ≦
If the relationship of H3 is satisfied, it is possible to print a continuous line in the paper feed direction without affecting the overall print height.

The present invention is not limited to a serial printer, but can be applied to a line printer in which heating elements are two-dimensionally arranged and printing for one line is performed simultaneously.

[0022]

As described above, according to the printer of the present invention, without affecting the height of the entire printed image,
It is possible to print continuous lines in the paper feed direction.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a configuration of a printing mechanism in a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view showing a surface of a print head.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration of the printer of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a relationship between a size of a heating element and a paper feed pitch.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Carriage, 2 ... Print head, 2a ... Heating element, 3
... chassis, 4 ... main shaft, 5 ... carriage belt, 6 ... drive pulley, 7 ... sub-pulley, 8, 12 ... transmission mechanism, 9, 10 ... paper feed roller, 11 ... rotary shaft, 13 ...
Platen, 20 ... Internal bus, 21 ... CPU, 22 ... Interface section, 23 ... Data buffer, 24 ... Carriage motor driver, 25 ... Carriage motor, 26 ... Paper feed motor driver, 27 ... Paper feed motor, 28 ... Head driver, 29 ... ROM.

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. A printer having a print head in which a plurality of heating elements corresponding to pixels are arrayed along the paper feed direction, wherein a total length of the heating elements in the array direction is H1, Let H2 be the length of paper feed and H3 be the maximum error of paper feed.
The relationship of H1> H2 is satisfied, and the difference between H1 and H2 is H
A printer satisfying the following relationship: Ha ≦ H3.