JP6102485B2 - Printing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printer, a copying machine, or the like, as a method for positioning printing papers having different paper widths with a center reference, a structure in which a pair of paper width guides integrated with a pair of racks is moved by one pinion is common. The paper guide of the punching punch machine adopts the same structure as described above in order to position the paper on the basis of the center.

  However, this method is troublesome because it is necessary to operate the paper guide after setting the paper in the apparatus. In addition, in a device such as a printing apparatus that is small in size, the configuration of a pair of racks and pinions with paper guides does not have a space for arranging them.

  Therefore, a plurality of roll papers having different paper widths are positioned and held with reference to the center, and the leading edge of the paper drawn out from the held roll paper is inserted into a guide groove corresponding to the paper width in the plurality of guide grooves and skewed. A roll paper holding mechanism has been proposed in which the leading edge is fed to the printer unit. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1.)

JP 2000-302299 A

  However, the roll paper skew prevention method described in Patent Document 1 is a troublesome method of selecting a guide groove corresponding to the paper width among a plurality of guide grooves and inserting the leading end of the roll paper. In addition, when exchanging roll papers having different paper widths, there is a risk that the leading edge of the roll paper taken out from the holding unit may be torn by interference with the guide groove.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described conventional problems, and to provide a printing apparatus including a printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism that prevents the printing medium skew of the printing apparatus with a simple configuration. To do.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, a printing apparatus according to the present invention includes a conveyance unit that conveys a print medium from the upstream side to the downstream side of the conveyance path, and printing that is disposed on the conveyance path and performs printing on the print medium. A head and a plurality of restricting members that are disposed upstream of the print head in the conveyance path and restrict the movement of the print medium in the width direction, and the length of the print medium in the width direction Accordingly, the restricting member that restricts the movement in the width direction is configured to be different.

  The present invention can provide a printing apparatus including a printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism that prevents the printing medium of the printing apparatus from skewing with a simple configuration.

FIG. 2A is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of a printing apparatus including a printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating a long printing medium mounted on the printing apparatus. . FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a state in which an upper cover of a printing apparatus including a printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism according to the first embodiment is opened. (a) is a side cross-section showing the internal configuration of the printing apparatus, (b) is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA ′ of the discharge roller of (a), and (c) is a configuration in the vicinity of the travel restricting portion of (a). It is an enlarged view. (a) is a BB 'arrow sectional view of a run control part of Drawing 3 (c), and (b)-(d) is a figure showing the operation state. FIG. 10 is a diagram simply illustrating a configuration of a travel restriction unit in a printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism according to a second embodiment with a right part cut away. (a), (b), (c) is a figure which shows the operation state of the travel control part in Example 2. FIG. (a) is a figure which shows the structure of the travel control part in the printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism which concerns on Example 3, (b), (c), (d) is a figure which shows the operation state of a travel control part. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a travel restriction unit of a printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism according to a fourth embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[Example 1]

  FIG. 1A is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of a printing apparatus 1 including a printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism according to the first embodiment. FIG. It is a figure which shows a scale-shaped to-be-printed medium.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, the printing apparatus 1 has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a main body housing 3 having a groove 2 formed in the vicinity of the lower portion of the outer peripheral surface thereof, and an opening in the upper portion of the main body housing 3. And an openable / closable upper lid 4.

  The front upper portion of the main body housing 3 and the front portion of the upper lid 4 are partially cut out, and a discharge port 5 for a printed medium to be printed is formed by combining these two cutout portions. A cutter 6 for cutting the printed print medium is disposed above the discharge port 5 and a discharge roller 7 for discharging the cut print medium from the discharge port 5 is disposed on the lower downstream side. Yes.

  Further, a plug jack 8 for a power plug is formed on the side surface of the main body housing 3 below the groove 2, and a signal line USB (external signal) of an external host device is placed on the front surface of the main body housing 3 at the same position as the groove 2. A USB jack 9 connected to a universal serial bus) terminal is formed.

In FIG. 1B, the unwinding section 10 has a printing medium 11 such as heat-sensitive tape paper cut into a long tape shape and wound in a roll shape, and a roll shape of the printing medium 11. And a printing medium holding unit 14 including a reel 12 that directly holds the printing medium 11 and a reel support shaft 13 that rotatably supports the reel 12.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which the upper lid 4 of the printing apparatus 1 having the printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism is opened. The thermal head 16, the hinge 21, the urging member 22, and the travel restricting portion 17 shown in FIG. 3A are attached to the back surface 4 a side of the upper lid 4.

  3A is a side cross-sectional view showing the internal configuration of the printing apparatus 1, FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA ′ of the discharge roller 7 in FIG. 3A, and FIG. FIG. 4 is an enlarged view showing a configuration in the vicinity of a travel restricting portion 17 in FIG.

  In FIG. 3 (a), the same components as those shown in FIGS. 1 (a) and (b) are given the same reference numerals as in FIGS. 1 (a) and (b). . Further, FIG. 3A shows only members necessary for explanation, and other members such as the cutter 6 shown in FIG. 1A are not shown.

  In FIGS. 3A and 3B, three types of printing media 11 (11a, 11b, and 11c) having different widths are gathered and shown at the same time so that only one description can be given. FIG. 3B is a slightly enlarged view, and FIG. 3C is a further enlarged view. In FIG. 3C, the thermal head 16 is not shown.

  As shown in FIG. 3A, the upper lid 4 of the printing apparatus 1 can be opened by being pivoted up and down as indicated by an arrow a with the hinge 15 as a pivot axis. In addition to the thermal head 16 and the travel restricting portion 17, a cutter 6 (not shown) is held on the back surface of the upper lid 4.

  Similarly, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the main body housing 3 of the printing apparatus 1 has a roll-shaped covering of the discharge roller 7 and the unwinding portion 10 shown in FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b). In addition to the print medium 11, a platen roller 18 and an auxiliary roller 19 are disposed.

  The thermal head 16 is held on the back surface of the upper lid 4 via the hinge 21 at the rear end. Further, a spiral pressing and urging member 22 is interposed between the center of the back surface of the thermal head 16 and the back surface of the upper lid 4.

  Here, the upper lid 4 is rotated upward and rearward to open, and the printing medium 11 is newly set on the mounting portion of the unwinding unit 10, and the printing medium 11 pulled out from the unwinding unit 10 is connected to the auxiliary roller 19. The sheet is transferred to the platen roller 18 and the leading end portion of the printing medium 11 is set on the step portion of the discharge roller 7 as shown in FIG.

  In this example, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the printing medium 11 used in the printing apparatus 1 is a printing medium 11a having a width of 18 mm, a printing medium 11b having a width of 12 mm, and a printing medium having a width of 9 mm. Three types of print media 11 of print media 11c are used.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 3 (b), the discharge roller 7 is formed with three width regulation step portions 23 corresponding to the widths of the printing medium 11. The actual width of the width regulating step portion 23 is slightly wider than the width of the printing medium 11.

  However, in order to make the explanation easy to understand, the width of the width restricting step portion 23 (23a, 23b, 23c) is shown by the same dimension as the width of the printing medium 11 (11a, 11b, 11c).

  When the printing medium 11 mounted in the printing apparatus 1 is a printing medium 11a having a maximum width of 18 mm, the leading end of the printing medium 11 is formed with respect to the maximum width formed on the shaft 7a of the discharge roller 7. It is set to the step part 23a.

  The print medium 11a passed between the discharge roller 7 and the unwinding section 10 is positioned by the print medium holding section 14 at the unwinding section 10 with a center reference, and the width of the print medium 11a is restricted by the discharge roller 7 at the tip. The step portion 23a is positioned with reference to the center, and the tip thereof is fixed to the discharge roller 7 by a human finger.

  Therefore, in this state, the print medium 11a is stretched in a straight line between the unwinding unit 10 and the discharge roller 7 without meandering from side to side. Here, the opened upper lid 4 is closed as shown in FIG.

  In the process of closing the upper lid 4, the print medium 11 a is positioned upstream of the thermal head 16 and the platen roller 18 in the print medium conveyance direction (close to the hinge 15 of the upper lid 4) before being sandwiched between the thermal head 16 and the platen roller 18. Is pressed downward by the travel restricting portion 17 on the side).

  As a result, the printing medium 11a is positioned with respect to the center in the width direction by the travel restricting portion 17 and further positioned with respect to the center at the step portion of the discharge roller 7 as described above. Therefore, the thermal head 16 and the platen roller When sandwiched between the print media 11a, no skew occurs in the print medium 11a.

  As shown in FIG. 3C, the travel restricting portion 17 includes plate-like side restricting fixing members 24a and 24b that form a restricting width having a maximum width of 18 mm. However, in FIG. 3C, since it is a cross-sectional view, only the side regulation fixing member 24b on the side facing the depth direction in the drawing can be seen, and the side regulation fixing member 24a on the near side is out of the drawing and cannot be seen.

  A plurality of side regulation varying members 25 are disposed between the side regulation fixing members 24a and 24b. The side part regulation variation member 25 includes a regulation part 25a and a piston part 25c that holds the regulation part 25a via a shaft 25b.

  The piston portion 25c is restricted by the back surface 4a of the upper lid 4 in the upper cavity portion 26 of the travel restricting portion 17 and is regulated by the internal overhanging portion 17a of the travel restricting portion 17 between them. It is arranged to move up and down.

  4A is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB ′ of FIG. 3C, and FIGS. 4B to 4D are diagrams illustrating the operation state. 4A to 4D, the same components as those in FIG. 3C are denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the travel restricting portion 17 of this example includes four side restricting varying members 25 (25-1, 25-2, 25-3, 25-4). A side regulation variation member 25-1 is arranged inside the side regulation fixing member 24a in contact with the regulation surface of the side regulation regulation member 24a, and inside the side regulation regulation member 25-1 in contact with the regulation surface. A side regulation changing member 25-2 is arranged.

  Further, a side regulation changing member 25-4 is disposed inside the side regulation fixing member 24b in contact with the regulation surface of the side regulation fixing member 24b facing the side regulation regulation member 24a, and is in contact with the regulation surface. A side regulation varying member 25-3 is arranged inside the side regulation regulating member 25-4.

  As shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b), the four side regulation changing members 25 (25-1, 25-2, 25-3, 25-4) all fall by their own weights, and their pistons. The part 25c is regulated by the internal overhanging part 17a of the travel regulation part 17, and the four side regulation varying members 25 (25-1, 25-2, 25-3, 25-4) are at the reference position. In some cases, a travel path having a width of 9 mm corresponding to the width of the print medium 11c having the minimum width is formed between the two inner side regulation changing members 25-2 and 25-3.

  As shown in FIG. 4 (b), when the print medium 11c having a minimum width of 9 mm passes through this travel path, the print medium 11c has two side regulation varying members 25-2 and 25- on the inside. 3 (in FIG. 4 (b), the side regulation changing member 25-3 is not shown, see FIG. 4 (a)). Thus, the movement of the printing medium 11c in the width direction is restricted.

  Further, when the printing medium 11b having the intermediate width of 12 mm is mounted on the mounting portion of the printing apparatus 1, as described above, the leading end of the printing medium 11b is the width regulating step portion having the intermediate width of the discharge roller 7. 23b.

  Then, when the upper lid 4 is closed, the two side regulation varying members 25-2 and 25-3 inside the travel regulation section 17 shown in FIG. 4 (c) descending together with the upper lid 4 (in FIG. 4 (c) The side regulation changing member 25-3 is not shown in the drawing and see FIG. 4 (a), and abuts against the side end of the printing medium 11b and presses with its own weight.

  The two outer side regulation variation members 25-1 and 25-4 (see FIG. 4C, the side regulation variation member 25-4 is not shown, and FIG. 4A) is the print medium. The piston portion 25c falls to a reference position regulated by the inner overhanging portion 17a of the travel regulating portion 17 so as to contact the outside of the side end portion of 11b.

  As a result, the print medium 11b passes through the 12 mm-width travel path formed between the two outer side regulation change members 25-1 and 25-4, and the print medium width direction is the center reference. And the movement of the printing medium 11b in the width direction is restricted.

  Further, when the print medium 11a having the maximum width of 18 mm is mounted on the mounting portion of the printing apparatus 1, as described above, the leading end of the print medium 11a is the width regulation of the maximum width of the discharge roller 7. It is set to the step part 23a.

  When the upper lid 4 is closed, the four side regulation varying members 25-1 to 25-4 of the travel regulation section 17 shown in FIG. The regulation variation members 25-3 and 25-4 are not shown in the drawing and refer to FIG. 4A), and abut against one surface of the printing medium 11a and press with their own weight.

  As a result, the printing medium 11a is placed between the side regulation fixing members 24a and 24b of the travel regulation section 17 (see FIG. 4 (a), the side regulation regulation member 24b is not shown in FIG. 4D). While passing through the formed 18 mm wide travel path, the printing medium width direction is positioned with reference to the center, and the movement of the printing medium 11a in the width direction is restricted.

As described above, the print media 11 (11a, 11b, 11c) having three kinds of widths are, on the one hand, the four side regulation varying members 25-1 to 25-4 of the travel regulation unit 17 or the side regulation on both sides. The fixing member 24a and 24b position the printing medium width direction with the center reference, and after printing by the thermal head 16, the printing medium width direction is discharged by the step portion 23 of the discharge roller 7 while being positioned with the center reference. . Thereby, the skew of the printing medium 11 is prevented.
[Example 2]

  FIG. 5 is a diagram simply illustrating the configuration of the travel restriction unit 17 in the printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism according to the second embodiment, with the right portion cut away. As shown in FIG. 5, the side regulation variation members 25-1 to 25-4 in the travel regulation unit 17 of this example (in FIG. 5, the side regulation variation members 25-3 and 25-4 are not shown and are described later. 6 (a), (b), and (c)), a push spiral spring 27 is disposed inside the upper cavity portion 26.

  Thereby, when the printing medium 11 is not passed, the piston portion 25c is urged by the push spiral spring 27 and is forcedly positioned at the restriction position of the internal overhang portion 17a.

6 (a), 6 (b), and 6 (c) are diagrams showing an operating state of the travel restriction unit 17 in the second embodiment. 6 (a), (b), and (c) only differ in whether or not a push spiral spring 27 that biases the piston portion 25c is disposed in the upper cavity portion 26 of the travel restricting portion 17. The operating states shown are exactly the same as the operating states shown in FIGS. 4 (b), (c) and (d).
[Example 3]

  FIG. 7A is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the travel restriction unit 17 in the printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism according to the third embodiment. FIGS. 7B, 7 </ b> C, and 7 </ b> D are diagrams of the travel restriction unit 17. It is a figure which shows an operation state. 7 (a) to (d), the same components as those shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 or the same functional parts are given the same numbers as those shown in FIGS. Yes.

  In the first embodiment and the second embodiment described above, the widths of the side regulation varying members 25-1 to 25-4 are shown to be the same for convenience of illustration, but in practice, FIG. ), The two outer side regulation changing members 25-1 and 25-4 that are in contact with the inner surfaces of the side regulation fixing members 24a and 24b are members having a width of 3 mm. The side regulation varying members 25-2 and 25-3 are 1.5 mm wide members.

  In Example 1 and Example 2, there was no side regulation varying member for pressing the printing medium 11c having a width of 9 mm from above in the travel path having a minimum width of 9 mm. 3, the side regulation varying member 25-5 is also disposed on the 9 mm wide travel path.

  Further, in the first and second embodiments, only the side edges of the printing mediums 11b and 11a are changed to the side part regulation changing member with respect to the printing medium 11b having the intermediate width of 12 mm and the printing medium 11a having the maximum width of 18 mm. 25.

  However, in the third embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 7B, 7C, and 7D, all three types of print media 11a, 11b, and 11c are disposed on the entire surface of the print medium in the width direction. Any one of the side regulation varying members 25-1 to 25-5 is in contact with and pressed.

As a result, the print medium 11 is not only positioned with respect to the width direction of the print medium as a central reference, but may also occur between the auxiliary roller 19 and the platen roller 18 shown in FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (c). It is possible to prevent floating and twisting.
[Example 4]

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the travel restriction unit 17 in the printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism according to the fourth embodiment. In the travel restricting portion 17 in this example, twelve side restriction varying members 25 having a width of 1.5 mm are arranged between the side restricting fixing members 24a and 24b.

  The six side regulation varying members 25 in the center function in the same manner as the side regulation regulation member 25-5 in FIG. 7B, and correspond to the 9 mm-width printing medium 11c. In addition, the central six and one side regulation variation member 25 on each side thereof cooperate with the side regulation variation members 25-2, 25-5, 25-3 in FIG. It functions similarly and corresponds to a printing medium 11b having a width of 12 mm.

  Further, all the twelve side regulation changing members 25 cooperate to be the same as the side regulation regulation members 25-1, 25-2, 25-5, 25-3, 25-4 in FIG. And corresponds to a printing medium 11a having a width of 18 mm.

  Note that the configuration of the travel restriction unit 17 of this example can correspond to the center reference positioning for any print medium whose width varies from 3 mm to 3 mm.

  In each of the first to fourth embodiments, the travel regulation unit 17 is disposed above the travel path of the print medium 11 and presses the print medium 11 from above. As described above, when the piston portion 25c is biased by a spring, the travel restricting portion 17 may be disposed below the travel path of the print medium 11 to press the print medium 11 from below.

  The width of the print medium 11 is 9 mm, 12 mm, and 18 mm, but these are examples of different print medium widths, and the width of the print medium 11 is arbitrary. Also, the types are not limited to three. In any case, a plurality of side regulation varying members may be arbitrarily set according to those cases.

  Further, although the printing medium 11 has been described as merely a thermal paper tape, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a tape paper with a back paste, a double-structure tape paper with a release paper attached to a tape paper with a back paste, etc. Of course, it can be applied to any type and any type of tape paper.

Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, the present invention is included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof. Hereinafter, the invention described in the scope of claims of the present application will be appended.
[Appendix 1]

A transport unit that transports the print medium from the upstream side to the downstream side of the transport path;
A print head disposed in the transport path and performing printing on the print medium;
A plurality of regulating members that are arranged on the upstream side of the print head in the conveyance path and regulate movement of the printing medium in the width direction;
Have
The printing apparatus, wherein the regulating member that regulates the movement in the width direction differs according to the length in the width direction of the printing medium.
[Appendix 2]

The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of regulating members regulate movement of the printing medium in a width direction by its own weight.
[Appendix 3]

The printing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the plurality of regulating members are urged by an urging member to regulate movement of the printing medium in the width direction.
[Appendix 4]

A printing medium holding unit that holds the printing medium around the other end of the printing medium;
A guide roller provided on the downstream side of the print head in the conveyance path, and provided with a center reference step portion corresponding to the length in the width direction of the printing medium;
The printing apparatus according to any one of appendices 1 to 3, wherein:
[Appendix 5]

  The printing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising an auxiliary roller that presses the printing medium between the printing medium holding unit and the plurality of regulating members.

  The present invention can be used for a printing medium skew feeding prevention mechanism of a printing apparatus.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printing apparatus 2 Groove 3 Main body case 4 Top cover 4a Back surface 5 Ejection port 6 Cutter 7 Ejection roller 7a Axis 8 Plug jack 9 USB jack 10 Unwinding part 11 (11a, 11b, 11c) Printed medium 12 Reel 13 Reel support shaft DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 14 Printed medium holding | maintenance part 15 Hinge 16 Thermal head 17 Travel control part 17a Internal overhang | projection part 18 Platen roller 19 Auxiliary roller 21 Hinge 22 Pushing urging member 23 (23a, 23b, 23c) Step part 24 (24a, 24b) side Part regulation fixing member 25 (25-1, 25-2, 25-3, 25-4, 25-5) Side part regulation variation member 25a Regulation part 25b Shaft 25c Piston part 26 Upper cavity part 27 (27a, 27b, 27c ) Push spiral spring

Claims (4)

A transport unit that transports the print medium from the upstream side to the downstream side of the transport path;
A print head disposed in the transport path and performing printing on the print medium;
A plurality of regulating members that are arranged on the upstream side of the print head in the conveyance path and regulate movement of the printing medium in the width direction;
A guide roller provided on the downstream side of the print head in the conveyance path, and provided with a center reference step portion corresponding to the length in the width direction of the printing medium;
Have
The printing apparatus, wherein the regulating member that regulates the movement in the width direction differs according to the length in the width direction of the printing medium.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of regulating members regulate movement of the printing medium in a width direction by its own weight.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of regulating members are urged by a biasing member to regulate movement of the printing medium in the width direction. A printing medium holding unit that holds the printing medium around the other end of the printing medium;
An auxiliary roller that presses the printing medium between the printing medium holding unit and the plurality of regulating members ;
The comprising printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that.