JPS604794B2 - serial impact printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to ribbon feed control and hammer pressure control for a serial impact printer, and in particular, to control the feed amount of the printing ribbon and the hammer pressure for printing in response to printed characters. The purpose is to variably control the

Conventionally, in serial impact printers, type is selected using a printing character code such as an ASCII code or JIS code, and the type is printed by pressing the type provided on a rotating wheel or cylinder onto paper via a ribbon. The amount of ribbon feed was always determined to be a constant length for each print, regardless of the type of type printed.

For example, carbon film ribbons that have been printed once cannot be used again, and when using a bong, the bong must be fed to fit the maximum width of the printed type, regardless of the width of the printed type. was being carried out. Therefore, there are disadvantages in that the efficiency of using the ribbon decreases and the frequency of ribbon replacement increases. In addition, in such printers, in order to make the printed characters uniform in density,
It is necessary to change the strength of the impact hammer, that is, the hammer pressure, depending on the size of the type area. In order to control the hammer pressure in this way, hammer pressure information corresponding to the size of the type area is stored in a fixed storage device such as a ROM, and the input print character code is used to control the hammer pressure along with the wheel position address code. Printers that read and control hammer pressure information are conventionally known. Since the feed amount and hammer pressure of the bong differ depending on the type of typeface, it is possible to read out from the ROM along with the position address code necessary for selecting the typeface depending on the type of typeface to be printed. , it can be easily used as a control signal necessary for printing with that type.

Therefore, the serial impact printer of the present invention is characterized in that it is provided with a storage means for storing both hammer pressure information and IJ bomb feed information.

When printing outside a serial impact type printer using type on a rotating wheel or rotating cylinder, a method for selecting the type position is, for example, by inputting an ASCII code print character code, the type on the type wheel is selected from the ROM. The target position address code indicating the location of the typeface is read out, and the content of the counter is counted up or down for each character pitch on the type wheel, and the output of the counter is set as the current position code of the type wheel.
A method is known in which the target position address code read from the OM is compared with the current position code of the wheel to select a type.

Since such a method of selecting the position of a printed font is not a direct object of the present invention, a detailed explanation of the known method will be omitted. Next, the serial impact printer of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 shows three examples of letters with different typefaces. For example, for the capital letter "A," the capital letter "1," and the lowercase letter "b," the width of the type is represented by robe, ko, and Z. .

When printing characters with different type widths and type areas, the ribbon feed amount is controlled by the feed amount specification information corresponding to these type widths x, y, etc., and the hammer pressure is controlled by the hammer pressure corresponding to these type widths. Control using pressure information improves the efficiency of ribbon usage and makes the density of printed characters uniform.

Generally speaking, type width and type area are almost proportional, but depending on the type of type, they are not necessarily directly proportional.

For example, the minus sign "1" has a relatively large font width but a relatively small font area. Therefore, for each character, the ribbon feed amount specification information corresponding to the type width and the hammer pressure information corresponding to the type area are determined in advance, and R
Store it at the same address in OM.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the serial impact printer of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an example of a ROM code table.

In the drawing, 1 and 2 are ROM, 3 is a rotating wheel control circuit, DI is an input line for printing characters, D2 is an output line for position address code, D3 is an output line for ribbon feed amount specification information, and D4 is hammer pressure. Indicates the information output line. Input line D
When a print character code such as an ASCII code is input from I, a target position address code indicating the position of the type on the type wheel is output from the output line D2 of ROMI. This target position address code is given to the rotary wheel control circuit 3, where it is compared with the contents of a current position counter provided therein, and the type wheel is rotated until the two match, and the inputted print character code is Select the corresponding typeface.

At the same time, this target position address code is stored in the ROM2 in which ribbon feed amount designation information and hammer pressure information are stored.
, specifies the address of ROM2, and outputs the output line D.
3 outputs ribbon feed amount designation information, and output line D4 outputs hammer pressure information. The ribbon feed amount designation information and the hammer pressure information each consist of a 4-bit binary code, so that one state from 0 to 15 can be controlled. In addition, the print position information is D2 in Figure 3.
It consists of 8 bits, as shown in
It is stored in ROMI which has a storage capacity of bits.
In this way, control information for the ribbon feed amount and hammer pressure can be obtained in response to each input printing character code, as shown in the top and bottom rows of Figure 3. Furthermore, when a code that is not printed is input, it is also possible to control so that both ribbon feeding and hammer operation are not performed.

Such bong feed amount designation information and hammer pressure information are not necessary for the entire time during one printing cycle.

For example, the ribbon feed control is such that before the printing operation by the hammer, the ribbon is fed by half the width of the type to be printed (the amount corresponding to x and y in Figure 1), and after the printing operation, it is further fed by half the width of the type. It is possible to do this in two parts. In addition, if this feeding operation is performed at one time, control is performed so that half of the width of the type printed immediately before is added to half of the width of the type printed next, and the feed is performed before the next printing operation. It's okay. Additionally, hammer pressure information is not needed during wheel rotation, but only after it has stopped.

Therefore, addressing of ROM2 does not necessarily require R.
It is not necessary to use the target position address code output from the OMI, and the address in the ROM 2 can also be specified using the contents held in the current position address counter necessary for wheel control. In other words, in a control in which the ribbon is fed twice, half before printing and half after printing, the target position address code is used to read the ribbon feed amount specification information before printing, and the hammer pressure required for printing is read out. The output from the current position address counter may be used for reading out the information and the post-print paper ribbon feed amount designation information.

In addition, when feeding the ribbon at one time, read out the ribbon feed amount specification information corresponding to the type printed just before.
In this case, the address of ROM2 is specified by the contents held in the current position address counter, and the ribbon feed amount specification information corresponding to the next printed character is read out.1 This uses the target position address code. like,
For specifying the address of the ROM 2 during one print cycle, either one of the two can be appropriately switched and used as necessary. Next, FIG. 4 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the serial impact printer of the present invention. In the drawing, 3 indicates a rotating wheel control circuit as in the case of FIG. 2, 4 indicates a ribbon feed control circuit, and 5 indicates a ribbon feed control circuit.
6 indicates a hammer pressure control circuit, and 6 indicates a ROM. DI~D4
are each input/output line as in the case of Fig. 2, and D5 is RO
This is the input line for the M switching command. In the case of this figure 4,
The ROM 6 is composed of only one ROMI and 2 used in FIG. 2, and reads out the target position address code, the ribbon feed amount designation information, and the hammer pressure information in response to a ROM switching command. That is,
When the print character code is input to the ROM 6 from the input line DI, a ROM switching command is given from the input line D5 in a logic "0" state, and information for IJ bond feeding before printing is first read from the ROM 6.

The read ribbon feed amount designation information is sent to the ribbon feed control circuit 4 through the output line D3, and is controlled. Next, the ROM switching signal is switched to a logic "1" state and the target position address code is read from the ROM 6.

This address code is applied to the rotary wheel control circuit 3 from the output line ○2 and is used to select the character position.
When the rotation of the wheel is completed, the ROM switching command is returned to the logic "0" state, and the output line D3 of ROM6 is
The ribbon feed control circuit 4 provides post-printing feed amount designation information, and the output line 4 provides hammer pressure information for printing to the hammer pressure control circuit 5.

As explained above, the serial impact printer of the present invention is provided with a storage means for storing hammer pressure information and IJ bong feed information, so that it is possible to correspond to type, variable bong feed control, and adjust the hammer pressure. Variable control becomes possible, improving the efficiency of printing ribbon usage and achieving uniform density of printed characters.

Furthermore, since the sum of the information amounts of hammer pressure information and IJ bomb feed information is smaller than the storage capacity of the type position information storage means, it is possible to store them in the same storage means, and each can be stored in separate memories. Compared to the case where the information is stored in a device, memory capacity can be used more efficiently, and reading from the memory can be easily controlled, and many other excellent effects can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 shows three examples of characters with different typefaces, Figure 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the serial impact printer of the present invention, Figure 3 is an example of a ROM code table, and Figure 4 is FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the invention. In the drawings, 1 and 2 are ROMs, 3 is a rotating wheel control circuit, 4 is a ribbon feed control circuit, and 5 is a hammer pressure control circuit. O'Zuzu 2nd figure. 3rd figure and 4th figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Selecting the type to be printed in a serial impact printer having a type wheel having type for printing, an impact hammer for impacting the type, and a ribbon for printing. a rotating wheel control means for feeding the ribbon, a ribbon feed control means for feeding the ribbon, a hammer pressure control means for controlling the printing pressure of the impact hammer, and a type position for storing information regarding the position of the type on the type wheel. an information storage means, a ribbon feed information storage means for storing ribbon feed information for performing variable feed control of the ribbon according to type, and a hammer pressure for storing hammer pressure information for variable control of the hammer pressure of the impact hammer. information storage means, the sum of the information amount of the ribbon feed information and the information amount of the hammer pressure information is determined so as not to be larger than the storage capacity of the type position information storage means; A serial impact printer characterized in that pressure information and pressure information are stored in the same storage means. 2. The serial impact printer according to claim 1, characterized in that the address of the storage means for storing ribbon feed information and hammer pressure information is specified by the output information of the type position information storage means. printer.