JPH0632987B2 - Continuous label printer - Google Patents

Description

Description: FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a continuous ticket printing device for printing a continuous ticket, such as a price tag, and more particularly to an apparatus capable of creating a partition card together with printing.

(Prior Art) The content printed by the continuous label printing device is often changed for each required number of sheets, and the printed continuous sheets are appropriately cut after being cut into single-leaf sheets and then stacked. It is usually used. In this way, when a large number of cards with the print content changed for each required number of sheets are stacked, a partition card is provided so that the position where the print content is changed can be easily confirmed in the stacked state. It would be very convenient.

In consideration of the above points, two bills 72a, 72b which are not printed each time the printing contents of the continuous bill 71 are changed are made as shown in FIG.
By cutting a position C ′ different from the prescribed cutting position C between b, a bill 72a shorter than the normal bill 72 and a long bill 7 are cut.
It has been proposed to create 2b and. in this way,
Whenever the printed contents are changed, the bills 72a and 72b having different lengths from the ordinary bill 72 are created as the partition bills.
Even when they are stacked as shown in the figure, it is possible to easily confirm the location where the print content is changed.

However, in the case of creating a partition as described above, there is a drawback in that the continuous bank 71 corresponding to two cards 72 must be wasted each time the partition is created. Further, since the normal bill 72 on which the information is printed and the bills 72a and 72b as the partition bills have different lengths, there is a drawback that it is very difficult to align them when stacking them on a stacker after cutting or aligning them by hand. ing.

In order to eliminate such drawbacks, the present applicant has filed Japanese Patent Application No.
No. 7-110763 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-1288) proposes a new partition bill making technique. In this technique, a partition is created by applying a mark to the rear end surface of a portion where the print content of the continuous hole is changed by a mark applying unit including an ink roller and the like.

According to this technique, as shown in FIG. 10, all the cut sheets have the same length, so that the sheets 81 can be handled very easily when they are stacked on the stacker or aligned by hand, and the information is Printed tag 8
Since it is also possible to apply a mark to the side end surface of No. 1 to make a partition card, there is an advantage that a continuous card is not wasted. However, in this technique, when the partition cards are continuous as shown by A in FIG. 10,
Alternatively, in the case where the partition cards are close to each other as shown by B, there is a possibility that the respective partition cards cannot be surely confirmed and they are discriminated as one partition card.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the related art, and it is possible to create a partition card that is easy to arrange without wasting continuous cards and that the partition cards are continuous. It is an object of the present invention to provide a continuous ticket printing device that can create a partition card that can be easily identified even in any case.

(Summary of the Invention) In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention applies a mark to the side end surface of a portion where the printing content of a continuous ticket is changed to create a partition ticket, The application position of the mark, that is, one or both of the application start position and the application position is appropriately changed.

Embodiments Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 1, a continuous label 11 formed of cardboard such as a tag is held by a supply roller 20 and guided to a printing unit 23 while being guided by a guide roller 21 and a guide plate 22. The printing section 23 has a thermal print head 24, and a platen roller 26 is pressed against the print head 24 with the continuous label 11 and a thermal transfer type carbon ribbon 25 interposed therebetween. Consecutive bill 11
The printing method for printing on may be any method such as a thermal type, an electrostatic type, an inkjet type, and a drum impact type, but in the present embodiment, a thermal transfer type is exemplified.

The continuous label 11 on which the desired information 13 as shown in FIG. 2 is printed by the printing unit 23 has a transfer roller 29 for driving driven by a pulse motor 28 and a transfer roller 30 for driven. The continuous bill 11 is guided to the section 27 and appropriately transferred by the transfer section 27.

In addition, the continuous bill 11 that has passed through the transfer unit 27 has the fixed blade 32.
The cutting portion 31 having the rotary blade 33 and the rotary blade 33 sequentially cuts each cutting position C indicated by a chain line in FIG.
Is created. These single-leaf bills 12 are delivered to the stacker 35 by the delivery rollers 34 that are constantly rotating and are sequentially stacked.

The transmission type photoelectric detector PS attached to the guide plate 22 is
This is for detecting each detection hole 14 of the continuous label 11 shown in FIG. 2, and the timing of printing by the printing unit 23 and the timing of cutting by the cutting unit 31 are based on the output signal from this photoelectric detector PS. Is set.

The continuous label 1 is provided between the printing unit 23 and the transfer unit 27.
A mark application unit 37 is provided for applying a mark to the side end surface of the portion of the bill 12 where the print content of 1 is changed to create a partition bill. The mark applying section 37 mainly includes a solenoid 38, a lever 38, and an ink roller 40.

As shown in FIG. 3, the solenoid 38 is fixed to a mounting plate 41, and the mounting plate 41 is mounted to a device body (not shown). The lever 39 pivotally attached to the mounting plate 41 by a pivot 42 has a solenoid pin 38 with a pin 43 at one end.
A support frame 45 pivotally attached to the plunger 44 and rotatably supporting the ink roller 40 is fixed to the other end. The lever 39 is urged by a spring 46 stretched between the lever 39 and the mounting plate 41 in a direction in which the ink roller 40 is separated from the continuous label 11.

When the solenoid 38 of the mark applicator 37 is excited, the lever 39 rotates counterclockwise in FIG. As a result, the ink roller 40 is pressed against the side end surface of the continuous bill 11 as shown by the solid line in FIG. When the solenoid 38 is demagnetized, the lever 39 is rotated by the spring 46 in the clockwise direction in FIG. 3, and the ink roller 40 is separated from the continuous label 11 as shown by the chain line in FIG. The ink roller 40 is configured to obliquely press against the continuous bill 11 as shown in FIG. 1 in order to prevent partial abrasion and rotate smoothly.

Next, the drive circuit of the continuous label printing apparatus will be described.

In FIG. 5, a ROM 52 and a RAM 53 are connected to a bus line 51 connected to the CPU 50. The ROM 52 has a fixed value N for controlling the solenoid 38 and a program storage unit 59 in which the operating procedure is stored.
It has a fixed value storage unit 60 for storing 1, N2, N3, K (where N1 <N2 <N3). RAM53
Is the print data storage unit 61 and the number of completed prints of the tag 12 C
A print number storage unit 62 for storing A, and the pulse motor 28
Step number storage unit 63 for storing the driving step number CB of
And a coating position storage unit 64 for storing the coating position CC on the bill 12 as a partition, and a coating length storage unit 65. The coating length storage unit 65 stores a value KB that defines the coating length obtained by referring to the fixed value K.

Further, an I / O boat 54 is connected to the bus line 51, and a photoelectric detector PS, a print control circuit 55, a motor drive circuit 56, a flip-flop circuit FF, and a data input circuit 57 are connected to the I / O port 54. It is connected.
The print control circuit 55 is for controlling the print head 24 that prints on the continuous label 11, and the motor drive circuit 5
Reference numeral 6 is for driving the pulse motor 28. The solenoid drive circuit 58 to which the output signal of the flip-flop circuit FF is input is
Is configured to excite the solenoid 38 only while is set.

The data input from the data input circuit 57 is stored in the print data storage section 61 of the RAM 53, and the format of this input data is shown in FIG. That is, the first type of print data DA1 to be printed on one sheet of the bill 12 is input from the left side of the drawing, and the 1-bit partition bill data DB1 representing the presence or absence of a partition bill of this print data DA1 and the number of printed sheets. Number data DC to specify
1 and then are input. Further, the second type of print data DA2 and the partition card data DB2 and the number of sheets data DC2 corresponding to the print data DA2 are successively input, and similarly, the third type of print data DA3 and the partition card data D are similarly input.
B3, the number data DC3 is input. The data input circuit 57 is configured to allow online input such as parallel / serial and offline input such as a keyboard. Further, the data input method of this embodiment exemplifies a method of previously inputting all kinds of data to be printed and printing them all at once. A method of inputting each eye data can also be adopted.

Next, the operation of the above-described continuous label printing apparatus will be described.

First, the pulse motor 28 is driven and the transfer unit 27 transfers the continuous label 11. The photoelectric detector PS detects the detection hole 14 of the continuous label 11 as the continuous label 11 is transferred. After the detection signal is detected, the pulse motor 28
When the print head 2 is driven by a predetermined number of steps, it is confirmed that the print head 2 is at the print position of the information 13 corresponding to the first row of the first sheet 12, that is, the leftmost row in FIG. Printing of the information 13 corresponding to the print data DA1 of the type is started. Specifically, the pulse motor 28 is driven one step every time one dot row of the information 13 is printed, and the operation of transferring the continuous bill 11 by one dot row is repeated, whereby one bill of paper is printed. Printing on 12 is completed. Then, the first type of print data D
Every time the information 13 corresponding to A1 is printed on one sheet 12, the value CA of the print number storage unit 62 is incremented by "1". When the value CA of the number-of-printed-sheets storage unit 62 and the content of the number-of-sheets data DC1 match, the value CA of the number-of-printed sheets storage unit 62 is set to "0", and the information 13 corresponding to the second type of print data DA2 is printed. In the same manner, the information 13 corresponding to the print data DA2 and DA3 of the second and third types is printed on the required number of sheets 12 and all printing is completed.

Further, during the above printing, the cutting section 31 keeps the photoelectric detector P
By operating based on the detection signal of the detection hole 14 output from S or the photoelectric detector (not shown) provided in the vicinity of the cutting unit 31, each cutting position C of the continuous label 11 shown in FIG. 2 is sequentially cut. . And the cut single leaf tag 1
The stackers 35 of the sheets 2 are sequentially stacked by the respective delivery rollers 34.

On the other hand, the mark application unit 37 for creating a partition every time the print content is changed during the above-mentioned printing operates according to the procedure shown in FIG. At the start of printing, the flip-flop circuit FF is reset and the value CC of the coating position storage unit 64 is set to "1".

The subroutine for creating a partition shown in FIG. 7 is executed each time the pulse motor 28 operates one step during printing. In this partition creating operation, it is first determined whether or not a signal is output from the photoelectric detector PS. If there is an output signal from the photoelectric detector PS, the value CB of the step number storage unit 63 is set to "0", and then step S3
If there is no output signal, the process goes directly to step S3. Then, in step S3, it is determined whether or not the flip-flop circuit FF is set, that is, whether or not the mark applying operation is being performed. At the start of printing, the flip-flop circuit FF has not been set, and thus the process proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, the print data DA1, which is being printed,
Data DB of partition cards corresponding to DA2, DA3, ...
1, DB2, DB3, ... Are judged to be “1”, and if not “1”, the process proceeds to step S13.
A determination is made whether the value CA of 2 is "1".
When CA is not "1", print data DA1, DA2
Since any of the data DA3, ... Is printed after the second sheet and is not the target of the partition card, the process proceeds to step S13. When CA = “1”, the first sheet is the partition card. Is a tag 12 to be created, the process proceeds to step S6.

In this step S6, it is judged whether or not the value CC of the application position stored in the application position storage unit 64 is "1", and if CC = "1", the mark is applied to the first position. If it is determined that it should be performed, the process proceeds to step S7. Step S
At 7, it is determined whether the value CB of the step number storage unit 63 is N1, that is, whether the continuous label 11 has been moved to the application start position when applying the mark to the first position, and CB is not “N1”. In case of CB = “N1”, step S11 is performed.
When the flip-flop circuit FF is set at, the solenoid 38 is excited and the ink roller 40 is moved to the second position.
As shown by the solid line in the figure, it is pressed against the side end surface of the continuous bill 11.

When it is determined in step S6 that CC is not "1", the process proceeds to step S8, and it is determined whether CC is "2", that is, whether the mark should be applied to the second position. If CC = “2”, CB = in step S9
It is judged whether or not it is "N2", that is, whether or not the continuous label 11 has been transferred to the application start position when applying the mark to the second position. If CB = “N2”, the process proceeds to step S13. If CB = “N2”, the flip-flop circuit FF is set at step S11.

When it is determined in steps S6 and S8 that CC ≠ “1” and CC ≠ “2”, CC =
It is determined that the mark should be applied to "3", that is, the third position, and the process proceeds to step S10. In this step S10, it is judged whether CB = “N3”, that is, whether or not the continuous label 11 has been transferred to the mark application start position when applying the mark to the third position, and if CB = “N3” is not satisfied. Shifts to step S13, and if CB = "N3", the flip-flop circuit FF is set in step S11.

As described above, when the flip-flop circuit FF is set in step S11 and the ink roller 40 is pressed against the side end face of the continuous bill 11, the fixed value K is referred to from the fixed value storage unit 60, The value K is set in the coating length storage unit 65 as a value KB that defines the coating length of the mark. This value K
When the setting of B is completed, the value CB of the step number storage unit 63 is incremented by "1" in step S13, and then the printing operation is returned to.

On the other hand, if the flip-flop circuit FF is set in the determination in step S3, the process proceeds to step S14, and the value KB that defines the coating length of the mark is subtracted by "1". Then, in step S15, it is determined whether KB = “0”, that is, whether the mark has been applied for a predetermined length. If KB = “0”, step S1
3 and when KB = "0", the flip-flop circuit F is regarded as having completed the application of the desired length.
Reset F. When the flip-flop circuit FF is reset and the partition is completed, the application position data CC is changed in order to change the application position of the mark when the next partition is created.
Move to the change operation of. First, in step S17, CC
= CC = “3”, it is determined whether CC = “3”, the value of CC is set to “1” in step S18, and then the process proceeds to step S13. After adding "1" to the value of, the process proceeds to step S13. As a result, the value of CC repeats "1", "2", "3" in sequence every time a partition is created.

As described above, if CC = “1”, the photoelectric detector P
After S has detected the detection hole 14, the application of the mark is started when the continuous label 11 is transferred by "N1" steps of the pulse motor 28, and if CC = "2", the pulse motor 28 When CC = “3” for “N2” steps, the application of marks is started when the continuous bills 11 are transferred by “N3” steps of the pulse motor 28, respectively.
Then, when the continuous label 11 is transferred by KB steps of the pulse motor 28 after the application of the mark is started, the application of the mark is completed. In this way, the value CC of the application position storage unit 64 is changed every time the creation of the partition ticket is completed, so that the application position of the mark is changed each time.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the structure of applying the mark of the first label 12 on which the same content is printed is illustrated, but the determination of CA = “1” in step S5 determines whether it is the final label. It is also possible to apply it to the last bill 12 by setting, for example, CA = “DC1”. It is also possible to make one blank bill 12 each time the print content is changed and apply a mark to this blank bill 12 to make a partition bill.

Further, although the ink roller is illustrated as the one for applying the mark, an ink pad, a felt pen, a colored pencil, etc. may be adopted. When a mark of a predetermined length is instantaneously applied without being applied along with the transfer of continuous bills such as an ink pad, S3, S12, S14 to S16.
This step is not necessary, and after the flip-flop circuit FF is set in step S11, this flip-flop circuit FF may be immediately reset after the required time has elapsed.

Further, in order to change the length of the mark to be applied depending on the value of CC, that is, the application position, the content of CC is confirmed at this point without simply setting the value of KB as shown in step S12. A fixed value corresponding to the contents, for example, KB1, KB2, KB3 may be set. Further, it is also possible to make the application start position always the same and change the application end position to make it easy to distinguish each partition. To do this, step S
When the step number CB of the pulse motor 28 is determined to be a value corresponding to the coating start position without performing the operations of 6 to S10, and when the value is reached, the step S11 is performed.
And at the time of step S12, the coating position storage unit 6
The value CC of 4 is determined and the value corresponding to that value, for example, KB
1, KB2, KB3 may be set in the coating length storage unit 65. Further, it is possible to change the coating start position so that the coating end position is always the same. In order to do this, the value CB of the step number storage unit 63 corresponding to the end position is determined to be “N
If it is "N4", the flip-flop circuit FF may be reset.

Furthermore, fixed values N1, N2, which represent the coating start position of the mark,
Although the fixed value K representing the coating length of N3 and the mark is stored in the ROM 52 in advance, the print data DA1, DA2, DA3 ...
Etc. may be input each time.

(Effect) As described above, according to the present invention, a mark is applied to the side end surface of the portion where the printing content of the continuous ticket is changed to create a partition, and the position where the mark is to be applied is changed appropriately. Is configured to. Therefore, it is possible to create partition cards that are easy to arrange without wasting continuous cards, and even if the created partition cards are continuous or close to each other, each partition card can be reliably identified. It has the effect of being able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 7 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing the structure of the entire apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a view showing a state in which a mark is applied to a continuous label, FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the structure of the stamp coating section, FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing stacked cards, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a drive circuit, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a format of input data, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a subroutine of a partition ticket creating operation, FIGS. 8 to 9 show an example of creating a conventional partition ticket, and FIG. 8 is a view showing a continuous ticket.
9 and 10 are perspective views showing stacked cards. In the drawing, 11 ... Continuous bill, 12 ... Single leaf bill 23 ... Printing unit, 27 ... Transfer unit 28 ... Pulse motor, 37 ... Mark application unit 38 ... Solenoid, 50 ... CPU 52 ... ROM , 53 ... RAM PS ... Photoelectric detector FF ... Flip-flop circuit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A continuous label consisting of a series of multiple price tags is appropriately transferred, desired information is printed on each price tag of the transferred continuous tags, and the continuous tag is cut into various tags. In the continuous label printing apparatus configured as described above, the desired coating length is provided only on the side end face of the portion where the printed content of the continuous label is changed, while being arranged on either the left or right side in the transfer direction of the continuous label. Over the entire time, a mark applicator that applies a mark to create a ticket, a ticket judgment means that judges whether each ticket is a ticket or a skew, and a position to apply the ticket to the ticket that should be a ticket. An application position determining means for making it possible to determine the marks on each partition from each other by changing at least one of the application position and the application length in each partition in the transfer direction of the price tag, A continuous label printing apparatus comprising: a control unit that drives and controls the mark application unit based on the determination results of the partition ticket determination unit and the application position determination unit.