JPH0696303B2 - Printer that can print on notebook-sized print media - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION [Outline] In a printer with an automatic head gap adjusting mechanism, when continuously printing on the left and right pages of a notebook-type print medium, the head gap is adjusted at the start of printing in order to compensate the step difference between the left and right pages. After adjustment, readjust the head gap at the center.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention provides a gap between the platen and the printhead,
The present invention relates to a printer having an automatic head gap adjusting mechanism that can be adjusted according to the thickness of a print medium, and particularly to a passbook or a notebook-type print medium in which each end of a plurality of paper sheets such as a notebook is bound. The present invention relates to a printer capable of continuously printing on pages on both sides of an open surface.

[Conventional technology]

In a printer having an operation mode capable of printing on a notebook-sized print medium such as a passbook or a notebook bound at one end, when printing on an arbitrary page of the print medium, the sheets of paper overlapping below the print target page are printed. It is necessary to adjust the gap between the print head and the platen according to the number of sheets.

Therefore, such a printer is provided with an automatic head gap adjusting mechanism so that an appropriate head gap can be set according to the thickness of the print medium before starting printing.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a printer capable of printing a notebook having a conventional automatic head gap adjusting mechanism.

In the figure, 40 is a print head, 41 is a platen, 42 is a head gap adjusting mechanism, 43 is a notebook, 44 is a notebook insertion slot, and 45 to 4
8 is a feed roller and 49 is a sensor.

The print head 40 is of a wire dot type, for example, and is a notebook 43 of a print medium inserted between the print head 40 and the platen 41.
Touch and print.

The notebook 43 is a notebook insertion slot with the page to be printed open.
It is inserted from 44 and is sequentially moved to the left by the feed rollers 45 to 48 so that the printing position (row) is right below the print head 40.

The platen 41 is connected to the head gap adjusting mechanism 42, holds the head gap in an open state during a period when the notebook 43 is inserted, and after the notebook 43 is inserted, the platen 41 is moved upward before starting printing. Then, the head gap is set to an appropriate value corresponding to the thickness t of the page to be printed in the notebook 43.

The sensor 49 detects the leading edge and the trailing edge of the notebook 43 and controls the position of the feed operation of the feed rollers 45 to 48.

FIG. 5 shows a state in which data is printed on the notebook 43. In this case, the head gap adjustment is performed by detecting the thickness of the front edge (upper end) portion of the notebook 43 before printing the first line "ABCDEF".

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional printer, the head gap adjustment is performed only once before printing, and thereafter the head gap is fixed and printing is performed. In this case, no problem occurs as long as the print area stays within one page. However, in the case of connecting and printing in the print area that extends over both open pages of the notebook, if the number of paper sheets or the paper thickness under those two pages is different, the difference in print density will occur. When the step difference occurs in the central binding portion, there is a problem that printing of the second half of the page becomes impossible.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the present invention is a means for re-adjusting a head gap that has already been set in the central portion of two opened pages of a notebook type print medium, that is, in the vicinity of the binding portion. Is provided.

FIG. 1 shows the basic configuration of the present invention.

In the figure, 10 is a print head, 11 is a platen, 12 is a head gap adjusting mechanism, 13 is a notebook type print medium, 14 is a print medium insertion port, 15 to 18 are feed rollers, 19 is a sensor, and 20 is a printer controller. , 21 is a center position calculation unit in the print medium, 22 is a print medium feed control unit, 23 is a head gap adjustment control unit, 24 is a command analysis unit, A and B are the leading edge and the trailing edge of the notebook type print medium 13, C represents the central position and t represents the head gap.

The notebook-type print medium 13 is inserted from the print medium insertion port 14 with the page to be printed open.

The inserted notebook type print medium 13 is first fed to the left by the feed rollers 15 to 18 under the control of the print medium feed control unit 22 of the printer controller 20, and the front edge A thereof is detected by the sensor 19. After being detected, it is sent further to the left. Subsequently, when the trailing edge B of the medium is detected by the sensor 19, it is sent to the right side this time, and the leading edge A is once stopped at the print start position which has come to the lower left of the print head 10. During this initial series of feed control periods, the head gap t is held open by the head gap adjustment control unit 23 of the printer controller 20.

The print medium center position calculation unit 21 calculates the distance between the leading edge A and the trailing edge B in the above-described initial feeding control of the notebook-type print medium 13, and further, the center distance which is half the distance. C, that is, the position of the bound portion of the print medium is calculated.

The command analysis unit 24 analyzes a command given to the printer from the CPU or the like of the host device, identifies a print command indicating print data, a line feed, and other print control commands, and performs corresponding control.

The head gap adjustment control unit 23 is activated when the command analysis unit 24 detects the first print command, and sets the head gap t to the medium thickness at the print start position of the print medium via the head gap adjustment mechanism 12. To do.

After that, each time the command analysis unit 24 detects a print command, the print head 10 performs a printing operation, and when a line feed command is detected, the print medium feed control unit 22 feeds the line of the notebook-type print medium 13. Is done.

The head gap adjustment control unit 23 uses a notebook-type print medium 13
The new position as a result of the line feed is compared with the center position calculated by the print medium center position calculation unit 21, and when they match within a predetermined range, the head gap is readjusted.

[Action]

According to the configuration of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, in the notebook-type print medium, the head gap is first set at the print start position near the front edge A, and the thickness of the page on the left side or the upper side is set. Keep the matched head gap to the center of the media. Then reset the head gap at the center position and keep a new head gap that matches the media thickness of the right or bottom page up to the trailing edge of the media.

As a result, when continuous printing is performed on any left and right opened pages of a notebook-type print medium, the head gap suitable for each page is set even if there is a difference in thickness. High quality printing is possible.

〔Example〕

Next, the details of the present invention will be described using the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 and the control flow of FIG.

FIG. 2 shows a printer configuration basically the same as that of FIG. 1, but each of the elements 21 to 24 in the printer control device 20.
The point that the function is more specifically shown is different from the point that the head gap adjustment flag 25 is added.

FIG. 3 shows the flow of the control operation of the printer controller 20 performed on the configuration of the embodiment shown in FIG. A brief description will be given below with reference to both drawings.

The head gap adjustment control unit 23, in the initial operation,
The head gap t is controlled to the open state.

When the print medium is inserted, the print medium feeding control unit 22
The initial feeding operation of the print medium is started.

The sensor feeds the print medium until it detects the leading edge of the print medium until it detects the trailing edge, and then returns to the print start position.

The print medium center position calculation unit 21 calculates the medium length l during the period.

Further, the medium length l / 2 is calculated to obtain the central position C of the print medium, and the allowable widths of -α and + β are given to this to obtain and store the central position detection area D.

C−α → C ₁ C + β → C ₂ C ₁ <D <C _{2 The} print medium center position calculation unit 21 sets the head gap adjustment flag 25 to ON after the completion of, and the head gap adjustment should be performed. indicate.

The command analysis unit 24 analyzes the input command,
When a print command is detected, the head gap adjustment control unit 23
To execute, and execute for other commands.

When the first print command arrives, the head gap adjustment control unit 23 refers to the head gap adjustment flag 25. If the head gap adjustment flag 25 is turned on, the head gap adjustment control unit 23 executes, and otherwise executes.

The head gap adjustment control unit 23 performs the first head gap adjustment.

Further, after the head gap adjustment is completed, the head gap adjustment flag 25 is reset to OFF, and the process is executed.

The printing operation is executed according to the contents of the print command.

The command analysis unit 24 causes the line feed command to be identified and executes the other cases.

The head gap adjustment control unit 23 checks whether or not the medium position after the line feed falls within the central position detection area D, and when it falls within D, after executing, or in other cases, directly.
To execute.

The head gap adjustment control unit 23 sets the head gap adjustment flag 25 to ON again.

Further, the head gap t is controlled to be open.

The print medium feed control unit 22 executes a line feed operation.

The command analysis 24 causes the discharge command to be identified, and otherwise returns to and repeats.

The print medium feeding control unit 22 executes an operation of ejecting the print medium 13.

In addition, when the head gap adjustment flag 25 is set to ON with, the head gap is readjusted by executing →→→ with the next print command.
Reset off.

Also, the calculation of l, C, C ₁ , C ₂ , and D is performed only for the first inserted print medium, and the following steps may be omitted and the same values may be applied unless otherwise specified. It is possible.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the print quality and reliability of a printer that can print on a notebook-sized print medium without any special designation from software or an operation panel.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a control flow chart of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. FIG. 5 is an external view showing the state of printing on a notebook as a conventional mechanical diagram of FIG. In FIG. 1, 10: print head 11: platen 13: notebook type print medium 20: printer controller 21: print medium center position calculation unit 22: print medium feed control unit 23: head gap adjustment control unit 24: command analysis Department

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printer capable of printing on a notebook-sized print medium (13), wherein feeding is carried out in a direction orthogonal to a stitch of the notebook-format print medium (13) with a page surface to be printed open. When a print medium feeding control unit (22) to be controlled and a notebook-type print medium (13) are inserted into the printer, a print medium which first calculates the total length in the direction orthogonal to the stitch and calculates the center position thereof Central position calculator (21)
And a head gap adjustment control unit (23) for adjusting the head gap between the print head (10) and the platen (11) according to the thickness of the notebook type print medium (13), and the input to the printer. The head gap adjustment control unit (23) is provided with a command analysis unit (24) that analyzes a command such as a print command or a line feed command and gives necessary control instructions. In the above, the command analysis section (24) executes head gap adjustment when it detects the first print command, and then the command analysis section (24) detects a line feed command and the print medium feed control section (22). As a result of the line feed of the notebook type print medium (13), the print position is the print medium center position calculation unit (21).
It is possible to print on the notebook type print medium, which is configured so that when the next print command is detected, the head gap adjustment is executed again when the central position calculated in step 1 is exceeded. Printer.