JPH0585848B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an electronic weighing device that is capable of printing on shelf labels.

[Prior Art] As is well known, shelf tags displaying the names, prices, unit prices, etc. of the products on the shelves are installed on product display shelves in supermarkets and the like. Conventionally, these shelf labels have been created by hand by a store clerk, or by specially requesting printing. Also, "0"
Some shelf label devices are also used in which the number plates with numbers 9 to 9 can be replaced as needed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, the display of shelf labels, especially the price display, is often changed due to temporary price reductions during service hours, closings just before closing, etc., and each time the display changes, the display of shelf labels must be recreated.
However, each time the display changes, the store staff manually writes,
Re-creating shelf labels manually is extremely time-consuming, lacks maneuverability, and is prone to errors.
Furthermore, it is not aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, requesting printing to an outside company and remaking the shelf labels increases the price of the shelf labels and takes time. In this respect, even when the above-mentioned shelf label device is used, the operator has to manually replace the numerical labels one by one, making the work complicated and extremely inefficient.

On the other hand, the preset memory of an electronic weighing device stores settings such as unit price, unit weight, product name, code number, etc., and also has the function of printing labels and receipts using a printer. These data and printers were used exclusively within the original functions of the electronic weighing device.

This invention was made in view of the above circumstances,
The purpose is to provide an electronic weighing device that has the ability to quickly create shelf labels as needed.

[Means for Solving the Problem] In order to solve the above problem, the present invention provides an electronic weighing device that measures the weight of a product and calculates and displays a price corresponding to the weight, by writing characters on a shelf label. A printing means for printing and issuing, a clocking means for counting the time, a product information storage means for storing the product name, normal unit price, and service unit price for each product, and a service period for storing the service start time and service end time. an information storage means, an operation means for outputting an instruction signal instructing shelf label creation, and when the operation means outputs the instruction signal, reading out the stored contents of the product information storage means and the service period information storage means; , a control means for outputting a command to the printing means to print the product name, normal unit price, and service unit price together with the service start time and service end time; and whether the time is between the service start time and the service end time. and determining means for determining whether or not the product is provided, and if the determination result of the determining means is affirmative, the price of the product is calculated by referring to the service unit price, and if the determination result is negative, the price of the product is calculated with reference to the normal unit price. It is characterized by

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In Figures 2 to 4, 1 is a measuring pan;
A load cell 2 (FIG. 4) is connected to this weighing pan 1. Further, 3 is a display section, and 4 is a keyboard, which includes a preset key 5, a numeric keypad 6, and a function key 7. Here, the preset key 5 is a key for calling up preset data such as the unit price and product name that have been set in advance for each product, the numeric keypad 6 is a key for inputting various numerical data, and the function key 7 is for correction and input items. This key is used to specify the print mode, switch the print mode, etc.

A paper cassette 10 is detachably inserted into the side of the main body 8 of this electronic scale. This paper cassette 10 has an appearance as shown in FIG.
There are two types of devices that supply paper to the printer section 11 shown in the figure: one that stores receipt paper 11a (FIG. 3b) and one that stores label paper 11b (FIG. 3c). They are prepared and one of them can be set as appropriate. A through hole 10a for automatic paper type determination is provided at a predetermined position of the label cassette.
The sensor 16 shown in FIG.
The paper cassette 10 is detected by the paper cassette 10 and sent to the CPU 18 via the printer interface 17 to determine the type of paper cassette 10, and the print control mode of the printer is automatically switched to label printing or receipt printing. ing. In addition,
Details of the paper cassette are described, for example, in Japanese Patent Application No. 1983-39846 previously filed by the present applicant.

The printer section 11 includes a pulse motor 12 that drives the paper in the paper cassette 10, and a thermal head 1 consisting of heating resistors _r1 to _r0 for 128 dots.
3. Drive circuit 1 that drives the thermal head 13
4. It consists of a shift register 15 that shifts and stores print data, and a printer interface 17 that exchanges data with the CPU 18. In this case, the printer interface 17
Based on the control data of the CPU 18, a drive pulse MCP for driving the pulse motor, a print pulse DP to the drive circuit 14, a clock pulse CP to the shift register 15, and print data DATA are output.

Next, the ROM 19 in FIG. 4 stores various control programs and data for the character generator, as shown in FIG. 5a. Contains control programs for printing, shelf label printing, and receipt printing.

In addition, the RAM 20, as shown in FIG. 5b,
Printing consists of a printing format register area 21 that stores parameters indicating the X, Y coordinates of the reference position of each printing block, character size, etc., and bits that correspond one-to-one to each dot in the printing area. A screen memory area 22, a preset data memory area 23 which will be described in detail later, and a total data memory area 2 that stores various types of total data.
4.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of the preset data memory area 23.
PLU (price lookup) area 25 that stores product number, unit price, product name, advertisement number, etc. for each item.
, an advertisement text area 26 for storing advertisement texts such as "special price" and "bargain item" in the form of character codes, and a preset key area 27 for setting and storing the correspondence between the key number of the preset key 5 and the product number. The shelf label 28 is printed on label paper or receipt paper based on the data extracted from each of these areas 25 to 27.

Returning to Figure 4, 31 connects load cell 2 to CPU1.
8 is a load cell interface for connecting to the CPU 18; 32 is an external device interface for exchanging data between the external device and the CPU 18; 33;
34 is a communication interface that controls data communication with other electronic scales. Month. Date data and time of day. Minute. This is a real-time clock that outputs date and time data consisting of time data in seconds. This real-time clock 34 is a commercially available clock.
IC can be used. The CPU 18 clocks this real-time clock 3 at regular intervals (for example, 6 seconds).
4 to read date and time data.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The operator first sets the paper cassette 10 in the electronic scale body 8 and operates a predetermined function key 7 to set the shelf label printing mode. This setting is
Although a dedicated function key for printing shelf labels may be provided, it is also possible to give meaning to conventionally provided key combinations. In this case, the paper cassette 10 may be used for receipts or labels, and this determination is made by the sensor 16 as described above.
The CPU 18 automatically performs this based on a signal from the CPU 18.

Now, once the shelf label printing mode is set,
The CPU 18 sets the shelf label printing flag to "1" and waits for the next input (step SP1). When the operator depresses the preset key 5 to specify the product number (step SP2), the CPU 18 Read the product number corresponding to the pressed key number from the preset key area 27 shown in the figure,
Recognize the specified product number (Step SP3). Further, when a product number is designated by operating the numeric keypad 6 and the product number key in the function key 7, this is read and the designated product number is recognized (step SP4). Next, the CPU 18 reads out the unit price, product name, and advertisement number corresponding to the product number from the PLU area 25 in FIG. (Step SP5) For example, in the example shown in Figure 1, if product number 15 is specified, the unit price is 640 yen, the product name is ``Beef (for shabu shabu),'' and the advertisement number ``06'' is read out and set. Ru. (In addition, in the above embodiment, considering that many advertisement texts are commonly used for each product number, only the advertisement text number is stored in the PLU area 25 corresponding to each product number. , advertising text area 2
6, the advertisement letter code is stored all together in correspondence with each advertisement letter number, so that the advertisement letter code read from the PLU area 25 is further stored in correspondence with the advertisement letter number "06". The character code for "special price" is read out and set. )
When the data to be printed on the shelf label 28 is thus prepared, the CPU 18 writes the character patterns of each data to the print screen memory 22 in accordance with the specifications of the format register 21. That is, according to the position and character size (regular characters, double-width characters, etc.) specified by the format register 21, the character generator converts the above product name and unit price into a character pattern and stores it in the print screen memory 22. At the same time, the character pattern of the advertisement text is subtracted from the advertisement text number and written into the print screen memory 22. In addition, predetermined printing items (for example, "100
g") into a character pattern and write it into the print screen memory 22 (step SP6). When the print pattern of the shelf label 28 is thus formed in the print screen memory 22, the CPU 28 supplies it to the printer section 11 to print the shelf label 28 (step SP7).

In this way, according to this embodiment, shelf labels can be easily issued whenever necessary.

Note that in the above embodiment, shelf labels are issued one by one as needed, but in cases where it is necessary to periodically create a large number of shelf labels with different unit prices during service time, etc. The following configurations are possible. For example, as shown in Figure 7a
In addition to each data shown in FIG. 1 as PLU data, there is a flag (SB) indicating whether the item is subject to a unit price change during service time (for example, if it is "1", the unit price is changed during service time). Do not set it to “0”) and flag (SB)
If is "1", service time unit price (SK)
Memorize and set. Then, in a predetermined area of the preset data area of the RAM 20, the data shown in FIG.
A register (STR1) for setting the shelf label ejection time for service time, a register (STR2A) for setting the start time of service time, and a register (STR2B) for setting the end time are provided as shown in c. :00, 16:00, 18:00 (service time is 16:00-18:
00 and the shelf label was created at 15:00 one hour before).
The CPU 18 performs the process shown in FIG. 8 when the date and time data read from the real-time clock 34 matches the time set in the register STR1, that is, when 15:00 arrives.

First, the operator is notified that the current time has reached the time set in register STR1 (step
SP8). This is done by displaying a message to that effect on the display, or by sounding a warning sound. This notification continues until the operator presses a predetermined numeric keypad (step SP9). The operator presses "1" on the numeric keypad when it is necessary to create a shelf label, and presses "0" on the numeric keypad when there is no need to create one (step 10). When the numeric keypad "1" is pressed, the CPU 18 sets the PLU data flag SB to "1".
Continuously issue shelf labels for all items (Step 11). As a result, the shelf label has the following information in Figure 10d.
As shown, the normal unit price (FK), service unit price (SK), service time start time, and service time end time are printed.

On the other hand, if the numeric keypad "0" is pressed, no shelf label is created. In addition, as in this example,
As PLU data, the bit SB indicating whether or not to change the unit price during service time and the unit price SK during service time are stored and set, and the service time start time and end time are stored and set in registers STR2A and STR2B, respectively. If so, the service time unit price SK is automatically called as PLU data during service time. That is, when the product number data is input by operating the preset key 5 or numeric keypad 6, the CPU 18 determines whether or not the current time is the service time, as shown in FIG. 9 (step 12). If it is not service time, the normal unit price (herein referred to as unit price FK for distinction) is read out and written into the unit price data register of RAM 20 (step 15). If it is service time, judge the flag SB (step 13) and SB is "0".
In this case, that is, when the unit price is not changed, the process of step 15 is performed. When SB is "1", that is, when changing the unit price, the service unit price SK is read out as the unit price and written into the unit price register of the RAM 20 (step 14). Therefore, the unit price read from the PLU data is automatically switched to the service unit price during the service time without the operator being particularly aware that it is the service time.

Therefore, by looking at the shelf label 28, the customer can see the normal unit price (FK) and the service start time.
When the service ends, it becomes possible to know the service unit price.

Furthermore, the normal unit price (FK) or service unit price (SK) is automatically set in the unit price data register of RAM 20 depending on whether or not it is servicing time, so the clerk must set the unit price again. You don't have to.

Furthermore, since the service period and service unit price printed on the shelf label match the data stored in the RAM 20, troubles between customers and store staff due to writing errors can be prevented. In the above case, when changing the unit price, the time is set, but the same applies to the case of service day, service day of the week, etc. In this case, the date or day of the week is set.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and, for example, embodiments such as those described below can be considered.

(1) In the above embodiment, the printer unit 11 is built into the electronic scale main body 8, but there is no problem even if the printer is a separate unit.

(2) Although the preset data memory area 23 is also built into the electronic balance body 8, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can also be applied to a case where preset data is supplied from outside. For example, if the base unit has preset data,
If the slave unit connected to this has a printer, the totalizer has preset data, and if each electronic scale connected to it has a printer, the central processing system has preset data, This can be implemented in various situations, such as when each terminal connected to this via a communication line has a printer.

(3) The shelf label 28 may be printed on either label paper (the label is pasted on a mount) or receipt paper. In the case of receipt paper, it can be printed on a tear-off sheet as shown in Figure 10a. frame 28
a may also be printed.

(4) When applied to a counting scale, shelf labels can be printed to indicate the classification of articles in storage racks, as shown in Figure 10b.

(5) There are no limitations on the data printed on shelf labels and the printing format. For example, when a printing device with a color printing function is used, it is conceivable to display data that particularly requires attention, such as prices or advertising text (special prices, etc.), in red. In addition, shelf labels used when prices are temporarily changed due to service times, etc.
As shown in Figure 10c, it may be possible to print the net price and the discounted price together, and delete the net price with two lines to clearly inform the customer how much the discount has been given. Of course, Figure 10d
It is also conceivable to print the net price, service time, and service price all on one label as shown in FIG.

(6) In addition, when creating shelf labels for all products in a department at the same time, if shelf position information is set and stored in the PLU data, the order of the shelf labels to be printed can be set in the order of product display. It may be made to be the same as. By punching out the shelves in this manner, the work of pasting the shelf labels can be done in order, improving work efficiency.

(7) In the first embodiment above, the product to be labeled on the shelf was specified by inputting the product code or JAN code, but other product information such as product name or shelf position data It is also possible to do this by specifying .

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the electronic weighing device according to the present invention can automatically create shelf labels. As a result, compared to creating them by hand, shelf labels can be created more easily and in a shorter time.
Reissuance due to damage, etc., and partial changes are extremely easy, making it possible to provide detailed services. In addition, the created shelf tags are also aesthetically superior. In addition, since shelf labels are automatically created using the product information in the electronic weighing device, there are no display errors in the created shelf labels, which has the advantage of saving the trouble of checking the display. . Furthermore, since the service period is printed on the shelf label along with the regular unit price and service unit price, even for products whose selling price changes at the service start time and service end time, the content printed on the shelf label can be changed each time the selling price changes. Not only is this not necessary, but there is no contradiction between the contents of the shelf label and the unit price referred to when calculating the price, and troubles with customers can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an outline of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of an electronic weighing device according to the above embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a paper cassette 10. a is a perspective view showing its appearance, b
1 shows the structure of the receipt cassette, A is a rear view, B is a sectional view taken along line A-A in A, and c
4 shows the configuration of the label cassette, A is a rear view, B is a sectional view taken along line A-A in A, and No.
The figure is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the above embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing the configuration of the ROM 19 and RAM 20, FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the above embodiment, and FIGS.
8 and 9 are flowcharts for explaining the operation of the embodiment, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a printed shelf label. 4...Keyboard (operation means), 11...Printer section (printing device), 18...CPU, 19...
ROM (the above 18 and 19 are control means), 20...
RAM (memory).

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An electronic weighing device that measures the weight of a product and calculates and displays a price corresponding to the weight, comprising: printing means for printing and issuing characters on a shelf label; and a timer for measuring time. means, product information storage means for storing product name, normal unit price, and service unit price for each product; service period information storage means for storing service start time and service end time; and instruction signal for instructing shelf label creation. an operating means for outputting, and when the operating means outputs the instruction signal,
Control for reading the stored contents of the product information storage means and the service period information storage means and outputting to the printing means a command to print the product name, normal unit price, and service unit price together with the time of service start and service end. and determining means for determining whether or not the time is between the time when the service starts and the time when the service ends, and when the determination result of the determination means is positive, the unit price of the service is determined, and when the determination result is negative, the unit price of the service is determined. The electronic weighing device is characterized in that the price of the product is calculated by referring to the normal unit price.