JPH0470154B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (a) Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a serial printer, and in particular, when stopping a printing section, the speed can be changed multiple times to increase the printing processing speed. Regarding printers.

(b) Technical background Recently, serial printers have been developed and put into practical use as office machines such as computer terminals and word processors. In particular, as its use as a computer terminal is expanding, there is a demand for faster printing. For this reason, printers that print output data from computers, etc., and word processor printers increase printing speed by driving the print head in both forward and reverse directions to perform reciprocating printing.

On the other hand, efforts are being made to increase the speed of printing by improving print heads, but from an economic standpoint, there is a demand for an improvement in the print processing speed of current print heads.

(c) Prior Art and Problems Hereinafter, a conventional method will be explained using a wire dot printer as an example with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating the outline of a wire dot printer to which the present invention is applied, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams of FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, a platen 2 is rotatably supported on a side frame 1. A printing paper 3 is wound around the platen 2, and the printing paper 3 is carried by a tractor 4 driven by a motor (not shown).
a, 4b, etc. in the direction of arrow A in the figure.

On the other hand, on the front side of the platen 2, that is, on the lower side in the figure, a carrier 5 is slidably fitted into a guide shaft 6 provided parallel to the platen 2; It is screwed together with the feed screw 7.

The feed screw 7 is connected to a space motor 9 via a belt 8 or the like, and therefore, the feed screw 7 can move the carrier 5 in the directions of arrows C and D in the figure by the forward and reverse rotation of the space motor 9. I can do it.

An ink ribbon cassette 10 is mounted on the carrier 5, and an endless ink ribbon 10a is built into the ink ribbon cassette 10 with a part thereof exposed to the platen 2 side.

Further, a printing head 11 is installed in the carrier 5 surrounded by an ink ribbon cassette 10, and a plurality of printing magnets having printing wires are installed in the printing head 11 in order to form printing by dots. It is being

With such a configuration and operation, when the print head 21 operates, the print wire of the print magnet collides with the print paper 11 on the platen 10 via the ink ribbon 10a, and printing is performed, and the print head 11 5, printing is performed on the printing paper 11 while moving in the direction of arrow D. When one line of printing is completed, the paper transport section 4
When the printing paper 11 is driven by a predetermined feed amount, the printed printing paper 11 is transported in the direction of arrow A.

The print head 11 continues printing while moving in the direction of arrow C.

To explain the space control method using the feed screw 7 and the space motor 9 for moving, positioning and stopping the printing head 11, as shown in FIG. 2, a slit disk 7a is attached to one end of the feed screw 7. Slit disk 7
In the zone a, zone holes 7b are provided at equal intervals at large intervals near the outer periphery, and dot holes 7c are provided at small intervals between them.

A light emitting element 12a and a light receiving element 12b of the photosensor 12 are arranged with the zone hole 7b and the dot hole 7c sandwiched from both sides of the slit disk 7a.

Therefore, when the feed screw 7 rotates, the slit disk 7a rotates and counts the zone holes 7b and dot holes 7c that pass through the photosensor 12.

Corresponding to this count, a zone address (not shown) is set in the movement range of the carrier 5 screwed into the feed screw 7.

With such a configuration, the printing head 11
Starting from the home position of the printing head 11, the printing head 11 is moved by the drive of the feed screw 7, and the counting of the zone holes 7b and dot holes 7c of the slit disk 7a by the photosensor 12 is specified. It can be controlled by accumulating up to the zone address.

The method of stopping the print head 11 in this case is shown in the time chart in Figure 3 for cases where the distance without printing is long (hereinafter referred to as the high-speed skip case) and when the distance without printing is small (hereinafter referred to as the case with printing). It shows.

In the figure, the horizontal direction indicates the zone address, and the vertical direction indicates the moving speed of the print head 11.

First, the curve shows the case of high-speed skip, where the zone address is the deceleration start zone, the zone address is the deceleration zone, and three zones are provided to absorb variations in load due to mechanical resistance.

In the zone between these, for example, from 180 characters per second (hereinafter referred to as cps)
The speed will be reduced to 120cps. Next, the zone address is the stop zone, which reduces the speed from 120 cps to 30 cps.
It then moves to the target position at 30 cps and comes to a complete stop.

The curve is for printing, and after printing is finished using the zone address at 120 cps, the speed is adjusted using the zone address.
Increase the speed to 180 cps and proceed to the zone address, and after the zone address, decelerate as in the case of high-speed skip, move to the target position, and stop.

However, according to this method, depending on the mechanical resistance during braking, such as the tension of the belt and the stickiness of the rotating parts, the difference between the zone address and the broken line in the figure may vary depending on the mechanical resistance during braking. As shown in the figure, the curve becomes a steep curve a or a gentle curve c, causing variations in the expected curve b shown by the solid line, resulting in longer or shorter stopping times, resulting in a steep curve a. Sometimes, the speed suddenly decreases at the zone address and the vehicle advances to the zone address at that speed, so the stopping time becomes slow, and when it reaches the gentle curve c, the stopping speed becomes faster.
There is a risk of overrun and collision.

Since there is a strong tendency to deviate in the direction of the steep curve a, there is a drawback that the printing processing speed becomes slow.

(d) Purpose of the Invention The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and to speed up the print processing speed by applying a skip speed to the print head in multiple steps when stopping the print head. There are printers that can be provided.

(e) Structure of the Invention The present invention comprises a platen, a printing section including a printing head facing the platen, a drive section that moves the printing section parallel to the platen, and a medium transport section that transports the printing medium. It is a printer that prints on a print medium by moving the printing section by a drive section, and when stopping the movement of the printing section, the entire movement range of the printing section is divided into multiple printing digits. determination means for determining the number of zones up to the stop zone in which the printing section moves without printing, and a memory that holds skip speed data for each zone preset according to the number of zones up to the stop zone. and a printer that sequentially outputs skip speed data for each zone corresponding to the number of zones held in the storage means based on the determination result of the determination means, and the entire moving range of the printing section is divided into multiple printing digits. When stopping the movement of the printing unit, the number of zones up to the stop zone is determined, and the skip speed data for each zone is output according to the number of zones, and the printing unit is stopped. The purpose can be achieved by applying skip speed and stopping multiple times.

(f) Embodiment of the invention Below, an embodiment of the invention will be explained as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
This will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6A and 6B. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment according to the present invention, FIG. 5 is a time chart of FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 a and b are a flow chart of FIG. 4. The same reference numerals indicate the same objects throughout the figures.

In FIG. 4, 13 is a data discrimination section, 14 is a one-line print data buffer, 15 is a data leftmost digit register, 16 is a data rightmost digit register, 17 is a print head control section, 18 is a space motor control section,
19 is a speed determination circuit, 20 is an amplifier, 21 is a zone address counter, and 22 is a left end sensor.

The data discrimination unit 13 is composed of a decoder, and it takes in print data and also transfers one line of print data to a one line print data buffer 15.
It also has a function of sending a print start signal to the print head control section 17 and space motor control section 18.

The one-line print data buffer 14 holds one line's worth of print data and has a function that enables forward and reverse printing.

The data leftmost digit register 15 and the data rightmost digit register 16 calculate the left and right end spaces, that is, the digits of the space from the print start position and print end position to both ends. This becomes the data for determining the print start digit and the print end digit, and also serves as the skip determination data.

The print head control section 17 drives the print head 11 for printing based on inputs from the data discrimination section 13 and the one-line print data buffer 14.

The space motor control unit 18 controls the space motor 9
It has a function of controlling the start and stop operation at a speed instructed by the speed determination circuit 19.

The speed determination circuit 19 includes a speed storage section 19a that holds predetermined skip speed data, and the position of the stop zone of the print head 11, that is, the zone address when the end of printing is detected and the size of the distance to the stop position (the number of zones). ), and the speed storage unit 19a stores, for example, when the printing speed is 120 cps and the high speed skip is 180 cps, the braking speed is 160 cps, 140 cps, 120 cps, 30 cps.
is set and maintained. Also, the comparison circuit 19
b is a comparison judgment of the length of the non-printing distance and the distance to the stop position based on the printing end position sent from the data leftmost digit register 15 or the data rightmost digit register 16 and the zone address input from the zone address counter 21. Compare the distance stably, and in the case of high-speed skipping, use the zone interrupt to collect the speed data corresponding to the distance to the stop position.
In the case of printing, the speed memory unit 1 is
It has a function to output from 9a.

The amplifier 20 is a photo sensor 12 that detects the zone hole 7b and dot hole 7c of the slit disk 7a.
It has a function of amplifying the detection signal and sending the zone signal to the zone address counter 21 and the dot signal to the space motor control section 18.

The zone address counter 21 has a function of counting the zone signals sent from the amplifier 20 and sending the position of the print head 11 to the space motor control section 18 and speed determination circuit 19.

The left end sensor 22 detects the home position of the print carrier 5, and when the home position is detected, the zone address counter 2
1 is cleared.

With such a configuration and function, when print data is sent to the data discrimination section 13, the print head control section 17 and the space motor control section 18
is activated, and the print data sent to the one-line print data buffer 14 is sent to the print head control section 17, and the leftmost data digit register 15 and rightmost data digit register 16 calculate the print start digit and print end digit, and control the space motor. The print head 11 is sent to the printing section 18 to start printing, and the zone address counter 21 continues and stops printing while counting the position of the print head 11.

Further, when the left end sensor 22 detects that the print head 11 has returned to the home position, the space motor control section 18 stops the space motor 9.

The print head 11 is stopped in the case of high-speed skipping and stopped in the case of printing by the speed judgment circuit 19.
Based on the skip judgment data sent from the data leftmost digit register 15 and the data rightmost digit register 16 and the position indicating data of the print head 11 sent from the zone address counter 21, the speed judgment circuit 19 determines the zone address in each case. A skip speed corresponding to the skip speed is commanded to the space motor control unit 18, and the space motor 9 is driven in accordance with the command.

That is, in the case of high-speed skipping in Figure 5, as shown in the curve and Figure 6a, for example, the vehicle moves at 180 cps to the zone address, is decelerated by commanding 160 cps at the zone address, and decelerates to 140 cps at the zone address. is commanded to slow down,
A zone address of 120 cps is commanded, then the zone address decelerates to 30 cps, moves to the target position, and stops.

In the case of printing, for example, in the zone address, as shown in the curve and Figure 6b,
If printing is completed at 120 cps, the judgment proceeds from 180 cps, and for example, a dot interrupt in the zone address commands 160 cps and accelerates, 140 cps is commanded in the zone address, and after that it decelerates as in the case of high-speed skip. can be stopped at the target position.

Although not shown, if printing ends at a zone address,
Increase speed to 140cps and decelerate from zone address. In this way, with the conventional method, when printing ended at a zone address, it was only possible to increase the speed at the zone address, but with this method, it is possible to immediately increase the speed at the zone address where printing ends. Moreover, as mentioned above, the skip operation is possible with both the zone address and the zone address.

Therefore, as shown by the curve and the broken line in the figure,
Variations in speed changes caused by the causes explained in the conventional example can be reduced.

In this way, in the case of high-speed skipping and printing, by giving different skip speeds to each zone address and slowing down in stages, the printing processing speed can be shortened and the possible skipping range can be widened. Since there is little variation in skip speed, it is effective in meeting the demands for high-speed printing.Furthermore, the stress during braking can be dispersed, reducing impact, reducing noise, and reducing failures, improving the reliability of the device. The effect is that it can be enhanced.

In the above example, the skip speed commanded for each zone address is set as a speed change value that is divided into equal parts, but it is also possible to stop at an even higher speed by changing the speed change ratio and setting it. be.

(g) Effects of the Invention As explained above, according to the present invention, when stopping the movement of the print head, it is possible to command different speeds for each zone address and apply braking, so the skipping range is widened, and Since there is little variation in the skip speed during deceleration, the printing processing speed can be increased and the demand for faster printing can be met.

The stress applied to the mechanism during braking can be dispersed, and the reliability of the device can be improved.

There is an effect.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating the outline of a wire dot printer to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a time chart explaining the conventional method, and FIG. A block diagram showing one embodiment, FIG. 5 is a time chart of FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 a and b are a flow chart of FIG. 4. In the figure, 5 is a carrier, 7 is a feed screw, 7
a is a slit disk, 7b is a zone hole, 7c is a dot hole, 9 is a space motor, 11 is a print head, 12 is a photo sensor, 13 is a data discrimination section, 1
4 is a one-line print data buffer, 15 is a data leftmost digit register, 16 is a data rightmost register, 17 is a print head control section, 18 is a space motor control section, 19 is a speed determination circuit, 20 is an amplifier, 21 is a zone address counter, 22 indicates a left end sensor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A platen, a printing section including a printing head facing the platen, a drive section that moves the printing section parallel to the platen, and a medium transport section that transports the printing medium. A printer that prints on the printing medium by moving a printing section by the driving section, wherein when the movement of the printing section is stopped, the printing section moves and stops without printing. a determining means for determining the number of zones into which the entire movement range of the printing section up to the position is divided into units of a plurality of printing digits; and a skipping speed for each zone preset according to the number of zones up to the stop zone. 1. A printer comprising: storage means for holding data; and based on a determination result of said determination means, skip speed data for each zone corresponding to the number of zones held in said storage means is sequentially output.