JPH07413B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Table of Contents] -Overview-Industrial field of application-Conventional technology-Problems to be solved by the invention-Means for solving the problems-Operation-Examples-Invention Effect [Summary] In a printer that can mount both a monochromatic ribbon and a multicolor ribbon having different ribbon widths, an identifying means for the attached ribbon is provided, and the attached ribbon is a monochromatic ribbon by the identifying means. When multi-color print information is input when the determination is made, regardless of the color information, printing is performed by the attached single-color ribbon, and head shift to a portion without the ribbon is prevented and information disappearance due to blank ejection is prevented.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a printer capable of selectively mounting both a monochromatic ribbon and a multicolor ribbon having different ribbon widths.

[Conventional technology]

A multi-color printer is equipped with a ribbon cartridge containing red, yellow, blue, and black color ribbons, for example, and the ribbon or print head is shifted according to the color information of the multi-color print command to print a ribbon of a predetermined color. Face each other and print by color. In such a multicolor printer, it is possible to mount, for example, a black monochrome ribbon cartridge. This single-color ribbon has a narrower ribbon width than the multi-color ribbon because the number of colors is smaller.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

When a multi-color print command is issued with a single-color ribbon attached to a conventional multi-color printer, the ribbon or print head is shifted according to the color information, and the print head is faced to the ribbon position of the originally desired color. The action is taken. Therefore, blank printing is performed without using the ribbon, the print information cannot be read accurately, and the information disappears.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a printer capable of performing readable printing and preventing the disappearance of information when multicolor printing information is input when a monochromatic ribbon is attached.

[Means for solving problems]

The printer according to the present invention includes a ribbon cassette mounting portion capable of selectively mounting both a monochromatic ribbon cassette accommodating a monochromatic ribbon and a multicolor ribbon cassette accommodating a multicolor ribbon having a width wider than the monochromatic ribbon, and a ribbon cassette. A ribbon shift mechanism that relatively shifts one of the ribbon cassette and the print head mounted on the mounting portion,
When the received print information is monochromatic print information, either one of the ribbon cassette and the print head is positioned at a predetermined home position, and when the received print information is multicolor print information, the ribbon cassette and the print head are And a drive unit for driving the ribbon shift mechanism so as to shift either one from the home position in accordance with the multicolor printing information. According to the present invention, in such a printer, the ribbon cassette identification unit incorporated in the ribbon cassette attachment unit to identify whether the ribbon cassette attached to the ribbon cassette attachment unit is a single color ribbon cassette or a multicolor ribbon cassette. Even though the means and the received print information are multicolor print information,
When the ribbon cassette mounted in the ribbon cassette mounting portion is identified by the ribbon cassette identification means as a monochromatic ribbon cassette, one of the monochromatic ribbon cassette and the print head is positioned at the home position. And a control means for controlling the driving means of (1) to perform monochromatic printing via the monochromatic ribbon based on the multicolor printing information.

[Work]

When the ribbon identifying means determines that a single-color ribbon is attached and a multicolor printing command is issued at this time, the ribbon selection shift operation based on the color information is not performed, and the attached ribbon always prints in a single color.

〔Example〕

FIG. 4 shows the appearance of a ribbon cassette to which the present invention is applied. (A) is a single color ribbon cassette 11 containing a black ribbon 20, and (B) is a multicolor ribbon cassette 12 containing a black ribbon 20 and red, yellow and blue color ribbons 21, 22, 23.
Is. 24 is a cassette mounting pin. As can be seen, the multicolor ribbon cassette 12 is thicker than the single color ribbon cassette 11.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a ribbon cassette mounting portion of the printer. The ribbon cassette 11 or 12 is set by inserting the pin 24 into the hole 25 of the cassette mounting frame 10. A ribbon identification microswitch 1 is provided on the cassette mounting frame 10. When the single color ribbon cassette 11 is mounted, the micro switch 1 does not operate. When the multi color ribbon cassette 12 having a large ribbon width is mounted, the drive spring 1a of the micro switch 1 is pressed and the switch operates. By the operation of the micro switch 1, it is discriminated by the discriminating circuit 2 whether the ink ribbon mounted on the printer is a single color or a multi-colored ribbon, and the ink ribbon is input to the microcomputer (microprocessor) 3. The print head 13 (FIG. 2) shifts in the direction of arrow A according to the color signal to select the ribbon, and prints at a position facing the ink ribbon of the color of the color signal. The print information is input to the microcomputer 3 for controlling the print mechanism. When the multicolor print information is input, the ribbon selection circuit 6 drives the ribbon shift mechanism 7 in accordance with the color information to make the print head face the front surface of the ribbon of the color specified in the print information. Then, the print control circuit 4 operates the dot drive mechanism to form dots of the characters designated in the print information, and prints via the selected ink ribbon. In addition, the printing mechanism includes a line feed mechanism, a head space operation mechanism, and the like in addition to these, and by driving these, printing is performed on the printing paper based on the printing information.

When the printer is equipped with the single color ribbon cassette 11,
This state is detected by the micro switch 1 and the discrimination circuit 2 and input to the microcomputer 3. At this time, when the multicolor printing information is input, the program of the microcomputer 3 drives the ribbon shift mechanism 7 so that the printing head faces the front surface of the loaded single color ribbon regardless of the color information.
The color information is ignored, and dots are formed based on only the character information, and monochrome printing is performed via the monochrome ribbon. At this time, an alarm 9 notifies the operator of this state. Further, the print information including the color information is stored in the memory 8 to prevent the color information from disappearing.

FIG. 3 is an example of an operation flowchart of the printer according to the present invention. When the print command 19 is issued, it is determined in step 14 whether it is a multicolor print command, and if it is a single color print command, it is determined in step 26 whether it is a single color ribbon based on the detection signal of the microswitch 1. If a monochrome ribbon (black ribbon) is attached, this black ribbon is set at the print position (step 27), and monochrome printing is performed according to the print command (step 28). If the multicolor ribbon is installed in step 26, the home position signal is output to the ribbon shift mechanism, the home position ribbon (black ribbon) is set to the print position (step 29), and this black ribbon is used. Performs monochrome printing according to the print command (step
28).

On the other hand, when the print command 19 is determined to be a multicolor print command in step 14, it is determined in step 16 based on the detection signal of the microswitch 1 whether the multicolor ribbon is attached.
If a multicolor ribbon is attached, the ribbon shift mechanism is driven as it is to perform multicolor printing (step 18). If a monochromatic ribbon cassette is installed despite the multicolor printing command in step 16, an alarm is generated (step 30) and the operator is notified, and the color information is ignored and the monocolor installed. Set the ribbon (black ribbon) at the print position (step 27),
Monochrome printing is performed with this black ribbon (step 28).

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, in the multicolor printer according to the present invention, when the multicolor print signal is input when the single color ribbon cartridge is mounted, the ribbon shift operation is not performed regardless of the color information and the print head always faces the single color ribbon. Printing is performed as it is (that is, ignoring color information). Therefore, the characters are surely printed through the single-color ribbon without blank printing, so that the disappearance of information is prevented. Also. If the memory circuit is connected, the printing information including the color information is surely protected.

The ribbon identification switch is not limited to the micro switch, and a magnetic sensor, a photo coupler, or the like may be used. Further, the printer is not limited to the dot type and can be applied to a type selection printer using a type wheel.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a cassette mounting frame of the printer according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the printer according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is an external view of a ribbon cassette to which the present invention is applied. 1 ... Micro switch, 2 ... Discrimination circuit, 3 ... Microcomputer, 11 ... Single color ribbon cassette, 12 ... Multicolor ribbon cassette.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A ribbon cassette mounting portion capable of selectively mounting both a monochromatic ribbon cassette accommodating a monochromatic ribbon and a multicolor ribbon cassette accommodating a multicolor ribbon having a width larger than the monochromatic ribbon, and the ribbon. A ribbon shift mechanism that relatively shifts one of the ribbon cassette and the print head mounted in the cassette mounting unit, and when the received print information is monochrome print information, either the ribbon cassette or the print head is moved. When the received print information is multi-color print information, one of the ribbon cassette and the print head is shifted from the home position according to the multi-color print information. And a drive unit for driving the ribbon shift mechanism. The ribbon cassette identification means incorporated in the ribbon cassette attachment part for identifying whether the ribbon cassette attached to the ribbon cassette attachment part is a single color ribbon cassette or a multicolor ribbon cassette, and the received print information is When the ribbon cassette attached to the ribbon cassette attachment portion is identified as a single-color ribbon cassette by the ribbon cassette identification means despite the fact that it is multicolor print information, the single-color ribbon cassette and the print head Control means for controlling the driving means of the ribbon shift mechanism so as to position one of them in the home position and performing monochromatic printing via the monochromatic ribbon based on the multicolor printing information. A printer characterized by.