JPS6157375A - printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field The present invention relates to a printer, and particularly to control of a print start position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In printers such as type wheel printers, thermal printers, dot impact printers, electronic typewriters, and the like, it is desirable to be able to select the insertion position of printing paper in the line direction to some extent in order to improve operability.

However, in this case, not only is the distance from the left edge position of the paper to the printing start position not determined, but there are also disadvantages in that printing may start from a position off the paper.

Therefore, in order to prevent this from occurring, the operator must insert the paper while taking into consideration the distance between the printing start position W1 (ejection position) and the left edge of the paper, which reduces operability. becomes worse.

This invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to improve the operability of a printer.

Structure In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a paper edge guide for guiding the left end of printing paper, a position detection means for detecting the position of the paper edge guide, and a method for starting printing based on the detection result of the position detection means. and determining means for determining the position.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an example of a type wheel type printer embodying the present invention.

The outer casing of this printer consists of a lower case 1 and an upper case 2 that house a mechanical section and a control section, and a character scale 3a.
It consists of a cover 3 that can be opened and closed for replacing type wheels, ribbon cassettes, etc. formed thereon.

A paper edge guide 5 for guiding the left end of the printing paper is mounted on the left side of the printing paper insertion portion of the upper case 2 so as to be slidable in the direction of the arrow on a slide base 6.

As shown in FIG. 2, this paper edge guide 5 has a plunger 7a of a paper guide position detector 7, which is a position detecting means provided in the upper case 2, fixed to the rear thereof.

This paper guide position detector 7 has its plunger 7a
is movable in the direction of the arrow, and outputs a binary position signal according to the position of the plunger 7a.

Therefore, the paper guide position detector 7 outputs binary code paper guide position data GPD corresponding to the position of the paper edge guide 5.

5 This paper guide position detector 7 is connected to the plunger 7.
It may be a device that outputs a voltage level signal depending on the position of a, or a device whose resistance value changes.

Further, the position of the vapor edge guide B can be detected by using a linear sensor such as a photosensor instead of the paper guide position detector 7.

6 and 4 are a schematic plan view and a front view showing the (jJI=H section) of this printer.

In this mechanical section, a platen 12 is rotatably mounted between frames 11 and 11, which wraps and feeds paper to be printed.

This platen 12 is moved by a motor gear 14. An idle gear 15, a gear 16° that moves together with the idle gear 15, is driven via a timing belt 17 and a platen gear 18 to automatically feed the paper.

Additionally, knobs 19 and 19 are provided at both ends of the platen 12.
is installed, and can be manually rotated by turning this knob 19.1!3 when loading or removing paper.

On the other hand, the rod 20.2 fixed between the frames 11.11
1, a carriage 23 is left movable parallel to the platen 12 in its axial direction.

This carriage 23 is equipped with a selection motor 2S consisting of a DC motor with a type wheel 25 mounted on a carrier frame 24, a selection sensor 27 consisting of a photo encoder that detects the rotation of this selection motor 26, and printing by hitting the type on the type wheel 25. Hammer 28
A ribbon cassette 31 loaded with an ink ribbon 30 and a ribbon feed motor (not shown) are used.

Note that a mark 28a indicating a printing position is attached to the upper surface of the printing hammer 28.

A space motor 34 made of a DC motor is attached to the sub-frame 3B, and a space sensor 35 made of a photo encoder is attached to this space motor 34 to detect the rotation of its rotating shaft 34a.

Also, on both sides of the subframe "+3.33'".

A pulley integrally formed with a gear 38 meshing with a pinion gear 37 fixed to a rotating shaft 34a of a space motor 34 is disposed with its shaft 39a rotatably mounted between subframes 33.degree. 33'.

The guide pulley 40 is connected to the subframe 33 with its shaft 40a.
It is rotatably mounted and disposed between 33'.

Then, a space wire 41 is stretched between these pulleys 3S and guide pulleys 40, and this space wire 41
The end of the carriage 23 is fixed to the side of the carriage 2, and the carriage 23 is moved parallel to the platen 12 by a space motor 34.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the control section of this printer.

This control unit includes a printer interface 51 that controls the interface with the host system.

It consists of a printer control circuit S2 which also serves as a determining means for controlling the entire printer, and a drive circuit 53 consisting of various drive circuits.

The printer control circuit 52 takes in various data such as print character data, space (carriage movement amount) data, line feed data, etc. transferred from the host system side via the printer interface 51 via the l1054.

A microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as "microcomputer") 55 of this printer control circuit 52 is a CP
Consisting of U, ROM, RAM, Ilo, etc., line feet (paper feed) are part of the control of this printer! Controls 1/I operation and space (carriage movement) operations.

That is, this microcomputer 55 outputs the line feed 1-live data LFD to the line feed drive circuit 56 of the drive circuit 53, drives and controls the line feed motor 13, controls the rotation of the platen 12, and controls the line feed and back line. Control your feed.

The microcomputer 55 also outputs space drive data SPD specifying the amount of rotation of the space motor 34 corresponding to the amount of movement of the carriage 23 and the direction of rotation to the space servo drive circuit 57, so that the space motor 34
is driven to perform a spacing operation in which the carriage 2'5 is moved by a required amount in a predetermined direction.

This space servo drive circuit 57 is a microcomputer 5S.
Based on the space drive data SPD from and the position signal Pc from the space sensor 35, the space motor 3
4 is driven and controlled.

The microcomputer 55 also receives the paper guide position data GPD from the paper guide position detector 7 through I, 1058, and determines the printing start position and controls the movement of the carriage 23 accordingly. do.

On the other hand, the microcomputer 60 controls controls of the printer, such as printing, ribbon feeding, etc. other than space and line feeding.

In other words, the microcomputer 60 outputs the hammer drive data HMD to the hammer drive circuit 61 of the drive circuit 53 to generate the hammer magnet 28 that constitutes the printing hammer 28.
A is driven and controlled to cause the hammer 28B to hit the type letters on the type wheel 25.

The microcomputer 60 also outputs ribbon feed drive data RBD to the ribbon feed drive circuit 62 to drive and control the ribbon feed motor 66 to feed the ink ribbon 30 of the ribbon cassette 31.

Further, the microcomputer 60 outputs selection drive data 5 LED specifying the amount of rotation of the selection motor 26 corresponding to the amount of rotation of the type wheel 25 and the direction of rotation to the selection servo drive circuit 64 to rotationally drive the selection motor 26. Type wheel 2
5 by a required amount in a predetermined direction to bring the desired type into a position where it is struck by the printing hammer 2EL.

This selection servo drive circuit 64.

Selection drive data 5 LED from microcomputer 60
Based on the position signal Ps from the selection sensor 27, the selection motor 26 is controlled for one drive.

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained with reference to FIG. 6 and subsequent figures.

First, when printing with this printer, print paper is inserted (set) with its left end aligned with the paper edge guide 5.

At this time, the printing paper can be set at any position in the row direction as long as it is within the movement range of the paper edge guide 5.

Therefore, the printer control circuit 52 performs a glue store operation such as positioning the carriage 23 at the home position by turning on the power, as shown in FIG.

If printing is to be performed, the paper guide position data GPD from the paper kite position detector 7 is read to determine the position of the paper edge guide S, that is, the left end position of the printing paper.

Then, the print start position is determined based on this paper left edge position and the left margin amount transferred from the host system or fixed or set by a switch, and the carriage 23 is moved to the determined print start position. , starts execution of print processing.

Furthermore, when a demonstration switch (not shown) provided on the operation panel on the outer surface of the printer is operated, this printer control circuit 52 moves the carriage 23 to a printing start position corresponding to the position of the paper edge guide 5 at that time. Execute processing.

This process is performed once, for example, when the demonstration switch is operated, as shown in FIG.

This is done by determining the paper guide position (paper left edge position) in the same manner as described above, determining the print start position based on the determination result and the left margin amount, and moving the carriage to the print start position.

In this case, the demonstration switch is used as a momentary switch that turns on and off for each operation, and the paper edge guide S
It is also possible to move the carriage 23 simultaneously with the movement of the carriage 23.

This process is omitted because it is sufficient to move the carriage to the print start position in the process shown in FIG. 7 and then return to the process of determining whether or not it is a demonstration again.

By performing such an operation, when the printing paper P is set at the position shown by the solid line as shown in FIG. 8, the carriage 23 also moves to the position shown by the solid line and starts printing, and the printing paper P When is set to the position shown by the broken line, the carriage 23 also moves to the position shown by the broken line and starts printing, and when the printing paper P is set to the position shown by the phantom line, the carriage 23 also moves to the position shown by the phantom line. to start printing. Incidentally, in the case of demosis 1-ration, the carriage 23 only moves to each position.

In this way, this printer detects the position of the paper edge guide that guides the left edge of the printing paper, and determines the print start position based on this detection result.

This eliminates the need for the operator to align the paper insertion position and punch from outside the paper in order to maintain an appropriate distance between the left edge of the print and the left edge of the paper.

Operability is greatly improved.

FIG. S is an external perspective view showing an example of an electronic typewriter embodying the present invention.

This electronic typewriter includes a keyboard 71 for inputting data necessary for creating and editing documents (text 1-), and a liquid crystal display having a display area of two lines (another number of lines may be used) for displaying text, etc. Display (LCD) or L
It is equipped with a line display 72 consisting of an ED display or the like, and a printer 73 similar to the previous embodiment for printing text, layout, etc.

The printer 7B of this electronic typewriter is equipped with a paper edge guide 7S similar to that of the above embodiment, and a position detector similar to the paper guide position detector 7 shown in FIG. 2 (not shown) inside. is provided to detect the position of the paper edge guide 75, that is, the left end position of the printing paper.

FIGS. 10 and 11 are a schematic plan view and a front view showing an example of the mechanism of the printer 7B in this electronic typewriter.

In this mechanism section, the above-mentioned embodiment (FIGS. 3 and 4)
The only difference from the Ia structure shown in FIG. 1 is that a paper guide 76° 76 is provided on the front surface of the carrier frame 24 of the carriage 23, so the other explanations will be omitted.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the control section of this electronic typewriter.

This control unit 80 includes a CPU 81. ROM82゜Text memory for storing text, text format, etc.
The entire system is controlled by a microcomputer control unit including a RAM 83 that also serves as a format memory and the like.

The control unit 80 also controls a kana-kanji conversion dictionary memory 84. Keyboard interface 8G.

Display controller 87. It also includes a printer interface 88 and a floppy disk controller 89 for connecting a floppy disk.

The printer control section in this electronic typewriter is the same as the control section in the printer of the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, so its explanation will be omitted.

Even in this electronic typewriter configured in this way,
The same process as shown in FIG. 6 or 7 in the above-described embodiment is executed to determine the printing start position based on the detection result of the position of the paper edge guide 75, that is, the left edge position of the printing paper, and print. or demonstrate by moving the carriage.

In this case, the demonstration instructions are given manually using predetermined keys on the keyboard 71.

Therefore, here we will explain the first process for automatically inserting paper.
This will be explained with reference to FIG.

First, when the paper automatic insertion instruction key 71 of the keyboard 71 is operated, the control unit 80 issues a paper automatic insertion instruction and RAM
The left margin and right merge of the text format stored in 83 are transferred to the printer control circuit of printer 73.

On the other hand, upon receiving the data from the control unit 80, the printer control circuit determines the position of the paper edge guide 75, that is, the left edge position of the paper, and positions the left margin position and the right margin position according to the left edge position of the paper. After correcting the intermediate position and moving the carriage 23 to the corrected position, the platen 12 is rotated to perform an automatic paper insertion process that folds a predetermined amount of printing paper.

As a result, the printing paper is placed approximately in the middle of the carriage 23.
Since the paper is automatically inserted while being guided by the paper guides 76 and 76, the paper can be automatically inserted reliably.

In the above embodiments, the present invention was applied to a type wheel type printer alone and a printer constituting an electronic typewriter.

Other printers, such as thermal printers.

It can be applied to various printers such as dot impact printers.

Toyoma: As explained above, according to the present invention, the operability of the printer is improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an example of a printer embodying the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the main parts thereof. FIG. 3 (7) and FIG. 4 are a schematic plan view and a front view showing the mechanical part thereof. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the control section. 6 and 7 are flowcharts showing the printing start position control process and demonstration process executed by the control unit; FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining FIGS. 6 and 7; FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an example of an electronic typewriter embodying the present invention, and FIGS. 10 and 11 are a schematic plan view and a front view showing the mechanism of the printer. FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the control stand. FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the process performed by the control section and the printer control circuit at the time of automatic sheet insertion. 5.75... Paper edge guide 6... Paper guide position detector 23... Carriage 52... Printer control circuit 71... Keyboard print processing Figure 8 Figure 12 Figure 13 - J duplex Neichi Shozui) (Voluntary) September 24, 1985, Director General of the Patent Office, Uga Michibe, 1, Indication of Case, Patent Application No. 160429, 1982, 2.5! Name of Akira Printer 3, Relationship with the case of the person making the amendment Patent applicant 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo (674) Ricoh Co., Ltd. -4, Agent
1-20-5-6 Higashiikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo Contents of amendment (1) "Paper Edge Guide 5" in lines 6 to 7 on page 12 of the specification is corrected to "j in Paper Edge Guide 5." (2) Correct [6] in line 14 of page 18 of the same IF to "7A. (3) rgJ plane rth 5TJA1 + rEIK4
Figure j, “511”J” is corrected as shown in the corrected drawing attached to this document. 7. Attachment, 4.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a printer, a paper edge guide guides the left edge of printing paper, a position detection means for detecting the position of the paper edge guide, and a printing start position based on the detection result of the position detection means. A printer characterized in that it is provided with a determining means for determining. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the position detection means outputs a binary position signal according to the position of the paper edge guide.