JP2003025663A - Printing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] When cutting the boundary of each image printed on paper, the time required for cutting is shortened by eliminating or reducing the operation of “empty cutting”, and during cutting operation. The present invention provides a printing apparatus having an improved processing capability by reducing the stop time of a stopped printing operation. The control device includes a line print head, a cutter that cuts the paper by moving a contact point between a fixed blade and a movable blade in a width direction of the paper, a movable blade driving device, and a control device. Is characterized by having a printing operation control unit, a movable blade drive control unit, and a transport mechanism control unit, thereby setting the moving range of the contact point between the fixed blade and the movable blade according to the width of the paper. In addition, it is possible to eliminate or reduce the "empty cutting" operation when performing the cutting operation of narrow paper, thereby shortening the stop time of the printing operation and improving the processing capability of the printing apparatus.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus having a cutting device for printing an image on a long paper line by line and cutting the paper for each of a plurality of printed images. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing apparatus for printing an image on a long paper line by line, as shown in FIG. 7, has a long paper 101, a roller 102 which is a carrying mechanism for carrying the paper 101, and a paper. A print head 10 that prints an image in a line shape by moving in the width direction of 101
3 and a cutter 104 which is a cutting device including a fixed blade 104a and a movable blade 104b for cutting the printed paper 101 for each image.

This printing apparatus has a print head 10
3 moves in the width direction of the paper 101 to perform a line-shaped printing operation, and when printing for one line is completed, the roller 102 is driven for one line to convey the paper 101 at a pitch and move to the next line. Is printing. In this way, a plurality of images are continuously printed on the long paper 101, and after printing, the boundary 105 of each image is cut by the cutter 104 to obtain a print product of each image. .

Here, the boundary 10 between the images on the paper 101
When cutting 5, the cutting operation of the cutter 104 gives impact or vibration to the paper 101, so the printing operation by the print head 103 is once stopped and then the cutter 104 is driven.

The cutter 104, which is a cutting device, is arranged so as to be orthogonal to the paper transport path as shown in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the cutter 104 is composed of a fixed blade 104a and a movable blade 104b, and the fixed blade 104a and the movable blade 104b are made of paper 10.
1 are disposed so as to face each other. Fixed blade 104
a is positioned so that the fixed blade edge 104c is substantially parallel to the paper 101, while the movable blade edge 1 of the movable blade 104b is
04d is positioned so as to be inclined with respect to the paper 101. The movable blade 104b is moved in the vertical direction by a movable blade drive mechanism (not shown), and as shown in FIG.
The paper 101 is cut by moving the contact point 104e between the fixed blade 104a and the movable blade 104b in the width direction of the paper 101.

In this case, although various widths of paper may be used in the printing device, the cutter 104 is wide enough to cut the widest paper 101 (eg, 8 inches wide) used in the printing device. In the cutter 104, the movable blade 104b reciprocates once in the vertical direction, so that the fixed blade 104a and the movable blade 104
The contact point 104e of b is always reciprocating in a range corresponding to the maximum paper width.

[0007]

In the conventional printing apparatus configured as described above, it is necessary to temporarily stop the printing operation by the print head 103 during the cutting operation of the paper 101 by the cutter 104. Has a great influence on the print processing capacity, and it can be said that how to shorten the cutting operation is a major issue.

When the cutting operation is further considered,
Since the conventional one uses papers having different widths, the contact point 104e between the fixed blade 104a and the movable blade 104b always reciprocates within a range corresponding to the maximum paper width (for example, 8 inch width). Therefore, when a paper having a width smaller than the maximum width is used, a so-called “empty cutting” region occurs in which the paper is not cut during the cutting operation of the movable blade 104b, and a width in which the paper is frequently used is particularly high. In the case of a narrow paper width (for example, a width of 3 inches), about 60% or more of the blank cutting occurs, and this blank cutting greatly affects the print processing capability.

According to the present invention, when cutting a boundary between images in a plurality of images printed on paper, "empty cutting" is performed.
It is an object of the present invention to improve the processing capacity of the printing apparatus by reducing the time taken for cutting by eliminating or reducing the operation of No. 2 and by reducing the stop time of the printing operation stopped during the cutting operation.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus including a transport mechanism for transporting various long papers having different widths in the longitudinal direction, and the entire width direction of the paper. A print head that prints an image in a line shape for each predetermined range, and has a fixed blade and a movable blade that are arranged downstream of the print head, and a contact point between the fixed blade and the movable blade in the width direction of the paper. A cutting device that moves and cuts the paper, a movable blade driving device that drives the movable blade, and a control device are provided, and the control device controls the operation of the print head during the operation of the cutting device. A print operation control unit that stops, a movable blade drive control unit that controls the movable blade drive device to set a moving range of a contact point between the fixed blade and the movable blade according to the width of the paper, It is characterized by having a transport unit controller for controlling the transport of the path. By having the above configuration, it is possible to eliminate or reduce the operation of "idle cut" when performing the cutting operation of the paper having a width narrower than the maximum width, thereby shortening the stop time of the printing operation and thus, The processing capacity can be improved.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus.
The said cutting device is arrange | positioned along the width direction of the said paper in the said Claim 1, The said fixed blade and the said movable blade are the straight blades whose edge extends in the width direction of paper, The said fixed A blade edge of at least one of the blade and the movable blade is inclined with respect to the paper. With the above configuration, the contact point between the fixed blade and the movable blade can be moved in the paper width direction by moving the movable blade in the vertical direction to cut the paper.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus.
In the above-mentioned claim 1, the movable blade is a rotatably supported rotary blade, and the movable blade drive device moves the rotary blade in a width direction of the paper to cut the paper. I am trying. With the above configuration, the paper can be cut by moving the rotary blade in only one direction in the paper width direction. Therefore, unlike a linear blade, it is not necessary to return the movable blade to the original position in preparation for the next cutting operation after cutting the paper, and therefore the time required for cutting can be further shortened.

A printing apparatus according to a fourth aspect of the invention is
In the above-mentioned 1 to 3, the control device and the movable blade drive control unit are configured so that the control device performs a double cutting operation in a range including a boundary between images in a plurality of images printed on the paper. It is characterized by controlling. Performing the cutting operation twice means doubling the stop time of the printing operation between the cutting operations, and by having the above configuration, the “idle cutting” operation during the cutting operation is eliminated or reduced. Therefore, the stop time of the printing operation can be further shortened.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a printing apparatus according to the present invention. In the frame 1 of the printing apparatus, a roll paper RP formed by rolling a long paper, a supply roller 2 that sequentially conveys the paper P drawn out from the roll paper RP, and a supply roller 2 are conveyed to a print position. A print head 3 that prints an image on the paper P, an intermediate roller 4 that conveys the paper P after printing, and a fixed blade 5 that is arranged downstream of the print head 3.
a and a movable blade 5b as a cutting device for cutting the paper P for each image, a discharge roller 6 for discharging the paper P after cutting by the cutter 5 from the frame 1, and a cutting of the paper P cut by the cutter 5. A collection box 7 for collecting waste is provided. The printing on the paper P is performed by using a well-known inkjet printer that controls the ink ejection amount of the print head 3 based on the image information.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the internal structure of the printing apparatus according to the present invention. The supply roller 2, the intermediate roller 4, and the discharge roller 6 that are the transport mechanism are driven by the supply roller drive motor M2, the intermediate roller drive motor M4, and the discharge roller drive motor M6, respectively. The print head 3 moves in the width direction of the paper P by driving the print head drive motor M3 to perform line printing in the paper width direction. The cutter 5 drives the movable blade drive motor M5 by the movable blade drive motor M5 and the movable blade drive mechanism 50, which are movable blade drive devices.
The paper P is cut by moving the movable blade 5b in the vertical direction via 0. The movable blade drive motor M5 is composed of a forward / reverse rotatable pulse motor or the like that can set a rotation angle. Further, since the conveyance of the paper P affects the finish of the print, the supply roller drive motor M2 is preferably a pulse motor or the like that can finely set the rotation angle.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the control system of each drive motor. The controller 8 includes a print operation controller 81, a movable blade drive controller 82, and a transport mechanism controller 83. The print operation control unit 81 controls the print head drive motor M3 based on image information separately input. The movable blade drive control unit 82 also controls the drive of the movable blade drive motor M5 based on the paper width information detected by a paper width detector (not shown). Further, the transport mechanism control unit 83 controls the drive of each of the supply roller drive motor M2, the intermediate roller drive motor M4, and the discharge roller drive motor M6 based on the separately detected image size information.

Next, the cutting device will be described. FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a cutting device in the printing apparatus according to the present invention. The cutter 5 is arranged so as to be orthogonal to the paper transport path. As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4C, the cutter 5 includes a fixed blade 5a and a movable blade 5b which are straight blades extending in the paper width direction, and the fixed blade 5a and the movable blade 5b sandwich the paper. Are arranged so as to face each other. The fixed blade 5a is positioned such that the fixed blade edge 5c is substantially parallel to the paper, while the movable blade edge 5d of the movable blade 5b is located.
Are inclined with respect to the paper. The movable blade 5b is moved in the vertical direction by the movable blade drive mechanism 50, and the contact point 5e between the fixed blade 5a and the movable blade 5b is moved in the width direction of the paper to cut the paper.

Next, the movable blade drive mechanism 50 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 (b) and 4 (d). Movable blade drive mechanism 50
Is supported by a movable blade drive motor M5, a rotary arm 51 whose one end is connected to the rotary shaft of the movable blade drive motor M5, and a fulcrum shaft 52 so as to be swingable near the intersection of the long side portion and the short side portion. It has a substantially L-shaped arm 53. Also,
The origin sensor S5 that detects the protrusion 51a at the other end of the rotating arm 51 is provided on the rotation track of the protrusion 51a due to the rotation of the rotating arm 51. When the rotating arm 51 is located at the position indicated by the broken line in FIG. 4B and the origin sensor S5 detects the protrusion 51a of the rotating arm 51, the movable blade 5b of the cutter 5 is at the top dead center. Located, fixed blade 5
The contact point 5e between a and the movable blade 5b is near one end of the paper having the maximum paper width (shown by the broken line in FIG. 4A), and the position of the rotating arm 51 at this time is the home position.

The pin 511 provided on the rotating arm 51 has a long hole 53 provided on the long side of the arm 53.
By engaging with 1, the rotary motion of the movable blade drive motor M5 is converted into the swing motion of the arm 53. On the other hand, the movable blade 5b is connected to the connection hole 532 near the tip of the short side portion of the arm 53 by the engagement of the connection pin 54, and the swinging motion of the arm 53 is changed to the vertical movement of the movable blade 5b. Converting. Further, the movable blade 5b is fixed to the fixed blade 5 by the spring 55.
Always biased in the a direction.

With the above construction, the movable blade drive motor M5
Is converted into vertical movement of the movable blade 5b via the arm 53. Next, the operation of the movable blade 5b by the movable blade drive mechanism 50 will be described.

Until the paper width is detected in the movable blade drive mechanism 50, the protrusion 51a of the rotating arm 51 is
As shown by the broken line in FIG. 4B, the vehicle is waiting at the home position detected by the origin sensor S5. When the paper width is detected, the cutting initial position of the movable blade 5b is set and the cutting operation is performed according to the detected paper width as described below.

First, a case where the detected paper width is the maximum paper width will be described. When the maximum paper width is detected, the position of the movable blade 5b when the protrusion 51a of the rotating arm 51 is at the home position corresponds to the cutting initial position. Fixed blade 5a as shown by the broken line
Since the contact point 5e of the movable blade 5b is located in the vicinity of the end portion in the width direction of the paper having the maximum width, the operation for setting the initial cutting position is not performed. After that, when the boundary of the image which is the cutting point is conveyed to the cutter 5 as described later, the paper cutting operation is performed.

The cutting operation of the paper having the maximum width drives the movable blade drive motor M5 so as to rotate the rotating arm 51 at the home position counterclockwise in FIG. 4 (b).
When the rotating arm 51 rotates, the movable blade 5b moves downward via the arm 53 and starts cutting the paper. As shown by the broken lines in FIGS. 4C and 4D, when the rotating arm 51 rotates 180 degrees, the movable blade 5b reaches the bottom dead center and completely cuts the paper. When the rotating arm 51 further rotates counterclockwise, the movable blade 5b moves upward. The rotating arm 51 returns to the home position, and the rotating arm 5
When the first protrusion 51a is detected by the origin sensor S5, the movable blade drive motor M5 is stopped and the cutting operation is ended.

On the other hand, the case where the detected paper width is a narrow paper width will be described. When the paper width is detected, first, the cutting initial position of the movable blade 5b is set. When the paper width is detected, the cutting initial position is set by moving the movable blade drive motor while the rotating arm 51 rotates counterclockwise until it reaches the rotation angle θ1 as shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b). By driving M5, the movable blade 5b is moved downward by a predetermined distance, and the contact point 5 between the fixed blade 5a and the movable blade 5b is moved.
e is moved to the vicinity of the end portion in the width direction of the paper to be the initial cutting position of the movable blade 5b in the narrow paper width.

Next, when cutting the narrow paper, as shown in FIGS. 4 (c) and 4 (d), a predetermined angle .theta.
By driving the movable blade drive motor M5 while rotating the rotary arm 51 counterclockwise until the fixed blade 5a is reached.
The contact point 5e of the movable blade 5b moves in the paper existing range to cut the paper. When the cutting of the paper is completed, the movable blade drive motor M5 is operated while the rotating arm 51 rotates the angle corresponding to the predetermined angle θ2 in the direction (clockwise direction) opposite to that at the time of cutting.
Is driven in the reverse direction, the movable blade 5b is returned to the original cutting initial position, and the cutting operation is completed.

Thus, when cutting a narrow paper, the movable blade 5b is driven by driving the movable blade drive motor M5 by the rotation angle θ1 and the predetermined angle θ2 at the time of cutting.
Of the blade to the initial cutting position, fixed blade 5a and movable blade 5b
It is possible to set a movement range of the contact point 5e of the above when cutting. The values of θ1 and θ2 are preset according to the paper width.

The operation and control of the printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below. FIG. 5 shows the print head operation speed, the print operation, the supply roller drive motor, and the movable blade drive motor. Each operation is controlled by the control device 8. In addition, the following embodiment is an explanation for the case of a narrow paper width.

When the roll paper RP is loaded in the printing apparatus and the leading end of the paper P is pulled out, the paper width detector (not shown) detects the paper width. On the basis of the detected paper width information, the movable blade drive control unit 82 controls the movable blade 5b.
Set the initial cutting position.

Here, the cutting initial position of the movable blade 5b is set by the movable blade drive motor while the rotating arm 51 rotates until it reaches a predetermined rotation angle θ1 based on the detected paper width. This is done by driving M5. Thereby, the movable blade 5b is moved downward by a predetermined distance, the contact point 5e between the fixed blade 5a and the movable blade 5b is moved to the vicinity of the end portion in the width direction of the paper, and the initial cutting of the movable blade 5b in the narrow paper width is performed. Position.

In this way, when the initial cutting position of the movable blade 5b is set according to the narrow paper width, the transport mechanism control unit 83 subsequently turns on the supply roller drive motor M2 to turn on the supply roller 2. It is driven to convey the leading end of the paper P to the print position. Then, the supply roller 2 is stopped at the print position and printing on the paper P is started.

Printing on the paper P at the print position is performed by driving the print head drive motor M3 under the control of the print operation control unit 81, and is separately performed by moving the print head 3 in the width direction of the paper P. One line of the image is printed on the paper P based on the input image information. As shown in FIG. 5, the print head 3 first moves gradually while accelerating in the forward direction, and when it reaches one end of the paper P at a predetermined speed, the print operation is turned on to print on the paper P. Take action.

When the print head 3 moves to the other end of the paper P and finishes printing for one line, the print operation is turned off, and the print head operating speed is set to reverse the movement of the print head 3 in the backward direction. Slow down. Print head 3 after printing one line
While decelerating, the drive of the supply roller drive motor M2 is turned on by the control of the conveyance mechanism control unit 83, and the supply roller 2 conveys the paper P to the print position of the next line by one line pitch.

Subsequently, the print head 3 moves while accelerating in the returning direction, and performs the printing operation of the next line on the paper P as in the case of the going path. Even after the printing operation in the backward direction, the pitch conveyance of the paper P is performed similarly to the above. In this way, continuous image printing is performed on the paper P by repeating the line-by-line printing by the reciprocating movement of the print head 3 in the width direction of the paper P and the pitch conveyance of the paper P by the supply roller 2. . The first several frames of images are printed continuously by repeating the line print operation and the pitch conveyance.

As the printing of the paper P and the conveyance of the pitch progress, the front end of the paper P is nipped by the discharge roller 6, and further,
The boundary between the printed images of the first frame and the second frame is conveyed to the vicinity of the cutter 5. As will be described in detail later, when the border of the image is conveyed to the vicinity of the cutter 5 and the printing of the line at the conveyance position is completed, the line printing operation is temporarily stopped and the cutting device performs the cutting operation of the border of the image. .

The cutting operation is performed by the control of the movable blade drive control unit 82 and the transport mechanism control unit 83 of the control device 8. Here, the transport mechanism control unit 83 stores the transport amount of the paper P from the print position when the paper P is transported by the supply roller 2. Further, the cutter 5 is located at a position separated from the print position by an integral multiple of the pitch width of the line print.

The printing operation and the paper P conveying and cutting operation will be described in detail below. An example will be described in which the line width of the line print is 5 mm, the distance from the print position to the cutter 5 is 100 mm, and a roll paper having a width of 89 mm is loaded to print an image of L size (89 mm × 127 mm).

First, at the print position, the paper P
When the leading edge of the sheet is conveyed to the print position, line printing is started. In this state, a line print of 5 mm is printed on the paper P, and the line of the next print is positioned by feeding the paper P with a pitch of 5 mm.

When images are continuously printed by repeating line printing and pitch conveyance, an L size image has a length of 127 mm in the conveyance direction. Therefore, from the front end of the paper P to 125 mm, one frame is printed. 5mm eye image
Lines are sequentially printed with a pitch width of. However, the next line is printed 2 times from the beginning in the transport direction.
3 mm after that because there is a border of the image at mm
Will print the image at the top of the second frame.
This is because the length of the printed image in the conveyance direction is not necessarily a multiple of the pitch width of the line print, so the line width of the line print includes the boundary of the image and the end of the first frame. The image at the tip of the second frame is printed.

Further, when the printing of the second frame and the conveyance of the pitch progress, and the line including the boundary of the image is conveyed to 100 mm from the print position (the distance from the print position to the cutter 5), After performing the line print at the transport position, the line print operation is temporarily stopped. At this time, the boundary of the image has been conveyed to 2 mm before the cutting position by the cutter 5, and has been conveyed to a position shorter than the pitch width (5 mm) of the pitch conveyance. At this time, the tip of the image on the paper P is 125 mm apart from the cutting position by the cutter 5, and the tip of the image is 225 (125+) from the print position.
It is transported by 100) mm.

Subsequently, in order to perform the cutting operation, the boundary between the printed images and the cutting position by the cutter 5 are aligned. This alignment is performed by turning on the supply roller drive motor M2 and slightly feeding the paper P until the boundary between the images and the cutting position by the cutter 5 coincide.

The carry amount of the minute feed for carrying the boundary of the image to the cutting position by the cutter 5 corresponds to the "remainder" when the length of the image in the carrying direction is divided by the pitch carry amount in the line printing. Here, the length of the image in the conveyance direction is 1
Since it is 27 mm and the pitch conveyance amount is 5 mm, 1
27/5 = 25, which is a remainder of 2, and by carrying out a minute conveyance by 2 mm, the boundary between images and the cutting position by the cutter 5 can be aligned. If the length of the image in the carrying direction is a multiple of the pitch carrying amount at the time of line printing and there is no "remainder", cutting can be performed without performing minute feeding.

Next, the movable blade 5b of the cutter 5 waiting at the initial cutting position is driven to cut the paper P. To cut the paper P, the movable blade drive motor M5 is turned on by the control of the movable blade drive control unit 82, and the rotating arm 5 is moved.
1 is rotated by a predetermined angle θ2 and the movable blade 5b is moved downward by a predetermined range. As a result, the contact point 5e between the fixed blade 5a and the movable blade 5b, which is the cutting point, moves only in the area where the paper P exists and cuts the paper P.

When the cutting of the paper P is completed, the movable blade drive control unit 82 drives the movable blade drive motor M5 in the reverse direction to move the rotating arm 51 in the direction opposite to that at the time of cutting by an angle corresponding to the predetermined angle θ2. The movable blade 5b is returned to the original cutting initial position and the cutting operation is completed. Subsequently, the transport mechanism control unit 83 drives the ejection roller 6 to eject the cut paper P from the printing apparatus and accumulate the paper P in the accumulating apparatus (not shown).

Further, the supply roller drive motor M2 is turned on and the paper P is slightly fed by 3 mm to match the pitch conveyance amount of the original line print. In other words, since the previous 2mm minute feed was performed for cutting, by further 3mm minute feed, the total feed amount of the minute feed is 5mm.
mm, which is the same transport amount as one line print line pitch transport.

At this time, even at the print position, the paper P is conveyed by a total of 5 mm by the minute feed,
Since the paper P has been conveyed to the position where the next line printing is to be performed, even if the printing operation is resumed after the printing operation is paused and the minute feeding is performed in order to perform the cutting operation. Since the printing is performed at the position, the finish of the print is not affected.

When cutting the boundary of each image, if the boundary of each image and the cutting position are deviated, one end of another image will be displayed at the end of the image, which is not good as a print. Alternatively, the cutting operation may be performed twice in a minute range including the boundary of each image. In this case, the cutting operation and the fine feed are repeated at positions sandwiching the boundary of each image, and the feed may be performed so that the total feed amount of the fine feed matches the pitch feed amount at the time of line printing. In this case, the cutting waste in a minute range including the boundary of the cut-off image is collected in the collection box 7.

In the above example, when the minute range including the image boundary is cut twice, if the minute range to be cut is 1 mm, the image boundary is conveyed to the vicinity of the cutter 5, and then 1.5 mm minute conveyance. After that, cut the paper,
Further, it is conveyed by 1 mm to cut off a minute area including the boundary of the image. After that, by further feeding by 2.5 mm, the feeding amount in the total cutting operation becomes 5 mm, which can be matched with the pitch feeding amount of line printing.

In the present embodiment, the movable blade drive motor M
Although 5 is a pulse motor, it is not particularly limited as long as the rotation angle of the motor can be set, and a servo motor or the like may be used. If the motor is capable of forward and reverse rotation, a plurality of sensors that detect the protrusion 51a of the rotating arm 51 when the cutting initial position is set are arranged on the rotation track of the protrusion 51a. Alternatively, the cutting initial position may be set according to the paper width.

Further, after the paper P is pulled out from the roll paper RP loaded in the printing device to detect the paper width, the movable blade 5 of the cutter 5 based on the detected paper width information.
Setting of the cutting initial position of b and conveyance until the front end of the paper P reaches the print position are performed by the movable blade drive control unit 82 and the conveyance mechanism control unit 83, which are different control units. Either may be performed first, or both may be performed simultaneously.

Further, regarding the alignment of the boundary between each image and the cutting position, in the present embodiment, the paper is minutely fed, but the present application was filed by the applicant (Patent application 2).
No. 000-355884), the position of the cutter 5 may be made variable with respect to the paper conveyance direction so that the cutting position is adjusted.

Further, when the movable blade 5a is made to stand by at the initial cutting position, if the contact point 5e between the fixed blade 5a and the movable blade 5b is in contact with the end portion in the width direction of the paper, it is completely "empty". Although the operation can be eliminated, there is a risk of damaging the widthwise end portion of the paper P when the paper P is transported. Therefore, it is preferable that the contact point 5e between the fixed blade 5a and the movable blade 5b is not in contact with the paper P, but a slight gap is provided, because damage to the widthwise end portion of the paper P can be prevented.

In the present embodiment, the fixed blade edge 5c of the fixed blade 5a of the cutter 5 is positioned so as to be substantially parallel to the paper P, while the movable blade edge 5b of the movable blade 5b is positioned.
Although the example in which d is positioned to be inclined with respect to the paper P is shown, the invention is not limited to this, and the movable blade edge 5d of the movable blade 5b is positioned so as to be substantially parallel to the paper P, and the fixed blade 5a. The fixed blade edge 5c may be inclined with respect to the paper P. Further, the fixed blade edge 5c of the fixed blade 5a and the movable blade 5b.
Both of the fixed blade edges 5d may be inclined with respect to the paper P.

(Other Embodiment) Next, another embodiment will be described. FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a cutting device as another embodiment of the printing device according to the present invention. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6A, the cutting device 10 includes a fixed blade 10a and a movable cutter 10b, and the movable cutter 10b includes a rotary blade 10c rotatably supported and a movable cutter 10b. It has a movable cutter moving motor (not shown) that reciprocates in the width direction.

As shown by the broken line in FIG. 6A, the movable cutter 10b is on standby at the home position. When the roll paper is loaded and the paper pulled out from the roll paper is conveyed, the paper width detector (not shown) detects the paper width. When the detected paper width is the maximum paper width, the cutting initial setting of the movable cutter 10b is not necessary, so the machine waits at the home position as it is, but when it is detected that the paper width is narrow, the movable blade drive control unit is used. Numeral 82 drives a movable cutter moving motor (not shown) to move the movable cutter 10b to an initial cutting position corresponding to the paper width,
It waits at that position until the paper cutting operation is performed.

In the paper cutting operation, the rotary blade 10c is rotated by a motor (not shown), and the movable cutter 10b is further moved.
Moves the paper existing range in the paper width direction to cut the paper. In this embodiment, the rotary blade 10c
Therefore, the paper can be cut by moving the movable cutter 10b only once in the width direction (outward direction) of the paper P. In addition, as shown in FIG. 6B,
When performing the next cutting operation, the movable cutter 10b is moved in the backward direction, and the movable cutter 10b is repeatedly moved in the forward direction and the backward direction in the cutting operation.

Here, in the case of the first embodiment using the fixed blade and the movable blade which are straight blades, the movable blade is moved downward to perform the cutting operation, and then further moved upward. Since it is necessary to restart printing and conveyance to paper after returning to the original position, a time loss occurs until the movable blade returns, but as shown in this embodiment, the rotary blade 10c is provided. When the cutter is used, it is not necessary to return the rotary blade 10c to the original position, and therefore the time required for cutting can be further shortened.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the print head for moving the print head in the width direction of the paper for printing is illustrated as the apparatus for printing in a line shape, but the present invention is not limited to this. It is also possible to use a print head that prints at once over the entire width direction of the paper. In addition, the printing may be one in which printing is performed directly on paper such as ink jet, and a latent image is formed by exposing a photosensitive material such as photographic paper,
It is also possible to form an image by developing processing.

Further, although the paper width detector is used for the detection of the paper width, the present invention is not limited to this, and a paper-containing magazine is provided with a detection mark to read the paper width. The width may be detected, or the paper width may be input in advance or selected from a plurality of preset paper width information.

[0060]

As described above, according to the present invention, the width of the paper is detected, and the movable blade is moved to a position corresponding to the paper width in advance, and then the cutting operation is performed. Since the operation can be eliminated or reduced, the time required for the cutting operation can be shortened, and the stop time of the printer interrupted during that time can also be shortened, improving the processing capacity of the printing device. You can do it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the internal structure of the printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control system of each drive motor of the printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a cutting device of the printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the operation speed of the print head, the printing operation, the operation of the supply roller drive motor, and the operation of the movable blade drive motor in the printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a cutting device of another embodiment of the printing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a configuration of a conventional printing apparatus.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a cutting device of a conventional printing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

RP roll paper P paper 1 frame 2 supply roller 3 print head 5a fixed blade 5b movable blade 8 control device M2 supply roller drive motor M3 print head drive motor M5 movable blade drive motor 102 Laura 103 print head 104 cutter

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A transport mechanism that transports various long papers having different widths in the longitudinal direction, and a print head that prints an image in a line in a predetermined range over the entire widthwise direction of the paper. A cutting device which is arranged downstream of the print head, has a fixed blade and a movable blade, and moves the contact point of the fixed blade and the movable blade in the width direction of the paper to cut the paper; A movable blade drive device for driving the control device, and a control device, wherein the control device stops the operation of the print head during the operation of the cutting device, and the width of the paper according to the width of the paper. A movable blade drive control unit that controls the movable blade drive device so as to set a moving range of a contact point between the fixed blade and the movable blade, and a transport mechanism control unit that controls transport of the paper. And printing device. 2. The cutting device is arranged along the width direction of the paper, and the fixed blade and the movable blade are linear blades having a blade edge extending in the width direction of the paper. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one blade edge of the movable blade and the movable blade is inclined with respect to the paper. 3. The movable blade comprises a rotary blade rotatably supported, and the movable blade drive device moves the rotary blade in a width direction of the paper to cut the paper. The printing device according to claim 1. 4. The control device controls the transport mechanism and the movable blade drive control unit so as to perform a cutting operation twice in a range including a boundary between the images in the plurality of images printed on the paper. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing apparatus is a printing apparatus.