JPH082658B2 - Printing method of two-color coloring thermal paper - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a two-color coloring thermal paper, and more particularly to a method for printing a two-color coloring thermal paper for performing two-color coloring printing depending on the difference in the amount of heat applied.

(B) Conventional technology When printing two colors of black and red, for example, on two-color thermal paper, the amount of heat applied when printing black is different from the amount of heat applied when printing red. In some cases, a larger amount of heat (energy) is given to perform color printing. When a printer is constructed using a thermal head in which a large number of heating resistors are arranged in a line on a substrate as dot elements and printing is performed on the above-mentioned two-color thermal paper, the heating resistors are set according to the data. Select the body, energize,
Although heat energy is applied to the thermal paper to develop color, conventionally, in order to distinguish black color from red color, conventionally, the energization voltage to the heating resistor is changed or the energization time is changed.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention Of the above-mentioned conventional heat amount control for two-color color printing,
The method of suppressing the energization voltage has a limit in increasing the energization voltage due to the restriction of the power supply capacity, and eventually it is used together with the energization time control, and the control becomes complicated.

On the other hand, in the method of controlling the energization time, for example, the time required for coloring red is about 5 times the time required for coloring black. However, when the current is continuously applied for 5 times as long as the time when the current is applied for black color due to the red color, there is a problem that the power source is burdened when the red color is generated and the life is extremely shortened. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, it is conceivable to intermittently and continuously energize the power source and the printer within the capabilities of the printer so as to give the thermal paper a desired amount of heat for red color development. However, a normal thermal line printer has a large number of heating resistors, that is, dots (example: 1728), and it is impossible to drive all dots at the same time, so several (example 9) strobe signals are used for time division. Are being driven. Therefore, each strobe signal is
Simply, for example, if the voltage is applied 5 times continuously from intermittently, the application time of one heating resistor group of 9 times 9 times is required for 9 strobe signals, resulting in an extremely long printing time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and even when a small power source and a printer are used, the two-color coloring thermal paper which is capable of relatively high speed printing without lowering the life of the power source and the printer. The purpose is to provide a printing method of.

(D) Means and Actions for Solving Problems The printing method of the two-color coloring thermal paper of the present invention uses a thermal head in which a large number of heating resistors are arranged in a line and In response, the heating resistor is selected and energized. Due to the difference in the amount of heat given by this power source, the first and second
In the method for printing on two-color thermosensitive paper, the heating resistor is divided into N grapes when printing the first color having a small amount of heat applied, and the energization time sufficient for coloring is one pulse width. Each group of the heating resistors is time-divisionally driven by N time-division pulse signals, and when printing the second color having a large amount of heat applied, the heating resistors are divided into N / n classes, and each class is divided into N / n classes. Is further divided into n groups, and each group is time-division driven by a time-division pulse signal having the pulse width,
In addition, this time-division driving is repeated M times necessary for coloring the second color, and the time-division driving of each class is further time-divided to the other classes.

In this printing method, the heating resistor of the thermal head is selectively driven according to the data to be printed, but when the data is the first color with a small amount of heat applied, for example, black printing,
It is time-division driven by N time-division pulse signals. When the data is the second color with a large amount of heat, for example, red printing, it is divided into heating resistor N / n class, and further divided into n groups of each class, and n groups from the first class. Time-division driving is performed with the same time-division signal as when driving the first color, and the n-group time-division driving is further repeated M times. As a result, the thermal paper corresponding to the driven first-class heat generating resistor element develops the second color. Subsequently, the second class, ... The M / nth class are driven in a time division manner in the same manner as the first class. Therefore, the thermal paper corresponding to the heating resistors of the second class, ..., N / nth class also develops the second color in the order of each class.
With this printing method, for the second color that requires a large amount of heat,
Since each group of each class is driven intermittently, the power supply operates within the warranty of the printer, and the power supply is not overloaded. In addition, each group of each class is driven in a time-sharing manner and operates when the other groups are inactive, thus shortening the overall operation time.

(E) Examples Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples.

FIG. 2 shows a drive circuit of a thermal printer in which the present invention is implemented. In the figure, 1 _-1 , 1 _-2 , 1 _-3 , ..., 1
_-27 is a schematic _diagram of the heating resistor block of the thermal head. One heating resistor block is
The individual heating resistors are collectively shown. Therefore, in this embodiment, a thermal head in which 1728 heating resistors are arranged is used. 2 _-1 , 2 _-2 , 2 _-3 , ..., 2 _-27 are drive circuits for driving the respective heating resistor blocks 1 _-1 , 1 _-2 , 1 _-3 , ..., 1 _-27 . 3 is a shift register having a 1728-bit storage cell, which has a clock pulse CP
Every time is added, the input data DI is shifted and stored. When the storage of 1728-bit data is completed in the shift register 3, the latch signal LA is applied to the latch circuit 4, and the latch circuit 4 latches the data stored in the shift register 3. Therefore, the latch circuit 4 is composed of latch cells for 1728 bits. Each bit cell of the latch circuit 4 is input to the drive circuits 2 _-1 , 2 _-2 , 2 _-3 , ..., 2 _-27 . Therefore, in the figure, one output line is shown by collecting 64 bits.

In the circuit of this embodiment, nine strobe signals ST are added.
R ₁ , STR ₂ , ..., STR ₉ are individually input, and each strobe signal is input to each three drive circuits. That is, the strobe signal STR ₁ is applied to the drive circuit 2
_-1, 2 _-2, 2 _-3, the strobe signal STR ₂ in the drive circuit
The strobe signal STR ₉ is commonly input to the drive circuits 2 _-25 , 2 _-26 , and 2 _-27 , respectively, to 2 _-4 , 2 _-5 , 2 _-6 . Therefore, 192 heating resistors are simultaneously driven by one strobe signal.

Next, the operation of the embodiment circuit will be described with reference to the time chart shown in FIG.

As illustrated in the figure, the data DI ₁ is input to the shift register 3 by the clock CP ₁ and the latch signal
The input data DI ₁ is latched in the latch circuit 4 by LA. Next, the strobe signals STR ₁ , STR ₂ , ..., STR ₉ are input, and the printing operation starts.

Now, when the data DI ₁ is printed in black, the strobe signals STR ₁ , STR ₂ , ..., STR _{9 in} which the pulse width T of one strobe signal is 0.5 to 0.8 ms are input in time division. . The scanning line time SLT _B of one cycle of the strobe signals STR ₁ , STR ₂ , ... STR ₉ is 10 ms. At the timing when the strobe signal STR ₁ is input, the drive circuits 2 _-1 , 2 _-2 , 2 _-3 operate, and the heating resistor blocks 1 _-1 , 1 _-2 , 1 according to the data from the latch circuit 4. _-Drive the heating resistor corresponding to the data of _-3 by energizing. As a result, the amount of heat generated in the heating resistor is about 0.2 to 0.3 mJ,
Due to this amount of heat, the thermal paper develops black color. Similarly, when the strobe signals STR ₂ , STR ₃ , ..., STR ₉ are sequentially input, the corresponding drive circuits 2 _-4 , 2 _-5 , ..., 2 _-27 sequentially operate, and the corresponding heating resistors are generated. Blocks _1-4 , _1-5 , ...
_1-27 is driven, the thermal paper develops black color in the same way,
Black printing for one line is completed.

Next, assume that the data DI ₂ is printed in red. After the data DI ₂ is latched by the latch signal LA, the strobe signals STR ₁ , STR ₂ , and STR ₃ are sequentially input in time division. The pulse width T of these strobe signals is also 0.5 to 0.8 ms.
And is the same as in the case of black color development. By inputting these strobe signals STR ₁ , STR ₂ and STR ₃ , the corresponding drive circuits 2 _-1 , 2 _-2 , 2 _-3 , ..., 2 _-7 , 2 _-8 , 2 _-9 operate and are supported. Heating resistor block 1 _-1 , 1 _-2 , 1 _-3 , ..., 1 _-7 ,
1 _-8 , 1 _-9 are driven, and 0 in the corresponding part of the thermal paper.
Heat of 2 to 0.3 mJ is applied. These strobe signals ST
The time division signals of R ₁ , STR ₂ and STR ₃ are repeated not for one cycle but for 5 cycles including the first. By these 5 cycles, the heating resistor block 1 _-1 , 1 _-2 ,
The heat generating resistors 1 _-3 , ..., 1 _-7 , 1 _-8 , and 1 _-9 give a sufficient amount of heat for red coloring to the corresponding portions of the thermal paper.
It develops red color. The scanning line time SLT _R1 for these 5 cycles is 26.5 ms.

When the 5-cycle drive operation by the strobe signals STR ₁ , STR ₂ , and STR ₃ is completed, this time, the strobe signal ST
R ₄ , STR ₅ , and STR ₆ are sequentially input in time division, and the strobe signals STR ₄ , STR ₅ , and STR ₆ are repeated five times in the same manner as the strobe signals STR ₁ , STR ₂ , and STR _3. As a result, the corresponding portion of the thermal paper also develops red color due to the heating resistor of the corresponding heating resistor block.

When the 5-cycle drive operation by the strobe signals STR ₄ , STR ₅ , and STR ₆ is completed, the strobe signal ST continues.
R ₇ , STR ₈ and STR ₉ are sequentially input in a time-divisional manner, and the strobe signals STR ₇ , STR ₈ and STR ₉ are repeated as in the case of the strobe signals STR ₁ , STR ₂ and STR ₃ . The heating resistor of the corresponding heating resistor block causes the corresponding portion of the thermal paper to also develop red color for 5 cycles. This completes the red printing of the data for one line.

In the above embodiment, the number of strobe signals is 9,
In addition, the strobe signal when red color is generated is divided into 3 classes,
Each class is driven by every three strobe signals, and the number of times the strobe signal is repeated in each class is five. However, the present invention is not limited to these numerical values, of course, and may be changed according to actual conditions. Then, an appropriate value may be set.

(F) Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, even in the case of red printing that requires a large amount of heat, such as red coloring for black, the same pulse width timing as the time-division timing signal for color printing with a small amount of heat is applied. Since the signals are time-divisionally printed, even if the power supply device has a small capacity, the load is small and the life is not shortened. Also,
For color printing that requires a large amount of heat, set the heating resistor to N /
Since it is divided into n classes and each class is further divided into n groups and time-division driven for each class, the non-operating time of each group can be used as the operation print timing of other groups. It is possible to print at a relatively high speed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a time chart for explaining the printing operation of the drive circuit of the thermal printer according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a diagram showing a drive circuit of the thermal printer. 1 _-1・ 1 _-2・ 1 _-3・ ... ・ 1 _-27 : Heating resistor block, 2 _-1・ 2 _-2・ 2 _-3・ ... ・ 2 _-27 : Drive circuit, 3: Shift register, 4 : Latch circuit, STR ₁ , STR ₂ , ... STR ₉ : Strobe signal.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A thermal head in which a large number of heating resistors are arranged in a line is used, and the heating resistors are selected according to the data to be printed and energized. A method for printing a two-color coloring thermal paper for performing printing on a thermal paper that develops first and second colors, wherein the heating resistors are set to N groups when printing the first color having a small amount of heat applied. , Each of the groups of heat generating resistors is time-division driven by N time-division pulse signals whose energization time for color development is one pulse width, and when printing the second color with a large amount of heat applied, The heating resistors are divided into N / n classes, each clauff is further divided into n groups, and each group is time-division driven by the time-division pulse signal of the pulse width, and this time-division driving is performed with the second color. Repeated M times necessary for color development of each of these classes The split drive to other classes, two-color development thermal paper printing method for which to perform an additional time division.