JPH02310077A - printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides a sensor (
The present invention relates to a printer that controls a print position based on a signal from a print detector (hereinafter referred to as a print detector).

[Conventional technology]

In order to change the printing position, the printer has a mechanical mechanism that moves the printing target paper or the print head, and controls the printing position.

In conventional printers, the printing position is not adjusted in the vertical and horizontal directions, and most of the printing position accuracy relies on mechanical accuracy. However, recently some high-quality printers have been designed to further improve accuracy by having a person actually print the image before shipping, visually confirming the print result, determining the amount of correction, and storing the amount of correction in the printer. I'm letting you do it. The printer subsequently used the correction amount to improve printing accuracy.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Recently, the density of printers has increased, and improving printing position accuracy has become an extremely important issue.

The main causes of this error in printing position are 1. Printing misalignment in the printing direction.

2゜ Printing misalignment between rows when the head has multiple rows.

3. Printing deviation related to paper feeding accuracy.

There are three points.

1 occurs when the print head moves left and right to print, and the influence of the mechanical mechanism on printing is different between the right direction and the left direction. As a result, when printing using ruled lines with a word processor, the ruled lines may shift in the left-right direction.

2 occurs when the head has multiple pins and is arranged in multiple rows in order to improve the printing quality or increase the printing speed. For example, when 24 pins are realized with two rows of 12 pins, this problem occurs when the printing accuracy differs between the two print head rows. This causes the characters to become distorted when printing kanji.

3 occurs because the mechanical accuracy of the 16th paper feeder varies. For example, when you make a hard copy of a computer screen, the paper feed accuracy between each line is poor, so the print overlaps and some parts become darker.
Or, conversely, a phenomenon occurs in which gaps remain and white areas remain.

Most of these printing position accuracies are determined by mechanical factors. This mechanical accuracy is determined by variations in all the parts that make up the printer, and each printer is different, so adjustments are made for each printer. Must-have.

In addition, since this adjustment is very delicate, it is very difficult for everyone to make the same adjustment, and since the amount of correction changes depending on the mode of use (for example, printing speed), there are many different modes (for example, printing speed). I have to make many adjustments.

Furthermore, there are factors such as wear and tear that gradually change over time, so regular maintenance is required even after the product is shipped in order to truly guarantee the accuracy of the printing position.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above drawbacks, an object of the present invention is to provide a printer that automatically corrects printing positions.

[Means to solve the problem]

In the present invention, in a printer device, printing is performed on a printing target, this printing position is detected by a printing detector, the distance between this position and a logical printing position is measured, and this distance is reflected as a printing position correction amount. One of the hallmarks is to do something.

[Effect]

In the present invention, the difference between the logical printing position and the actual printing position is taken as the printing position correction amount.

[Example 1] Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a printer device of the present invention. A system bus 1 includes a microprocessor unit 1 that controls the entire device, a control circuit 2 that includes a storage device that stores information necessary for control, a paper feed drive unit 3 that includes a paper feed motor and its drive circuit, and a head and its drive. A head drive unit 4 consisting of a circuit, a carriage drive unit 5 consisting of a carriage and its drive circuit, a print detector 6 installed on the carriage 2, an external interface unit 7 for sending and receiving data such as a post computer, , and an operation panel unit 8 consisting of a switch for performing operations such as starting print position adjustment and a display indicating the status of the printer device.

Figure 2 shows the relationship between print head A, print paper B, and print detector 6. Print detector 6 is installed right next to print head A, and these distances are accurate. is set to .

The operation of this embodiment will now be briefly explained.

First, consider print correction when printing as shown in FIG. 3(a). Each circle in the figure indicates a printing result by the dot impact head. Among these prints, the hatched driver 1- is printed when the head moves to the right, and the white circle driver 1- is printed when the head moves to the left. This is a printing pattern that is often used when printing ruled lines, etc., and without correction, if the left and right sides are printed at the same position, the printing will be shifted as shown in FIG. 3(b).

When the print correction start switch on the operation panel section 8 is pressed, the printer enters the print position correction mode.

First, the carriage 6 moves to the right and prints one dot row at position D. In this case, even if printing is performed at position D, the head bin will actually pop out and some time will be required for it to reach the paper, so the printing position will be set to D' (Fig. 4). The position of D' differs from machine to machine depending on the machine precision such as the speed of the carriage at that time and the distance between the head and the paper holder. The distance between D and D' becomes the distance to be corrected. Next, it similarly moves to the right, and the print detector 6 detects the print dot. The detection position at this time is assumed to be E. From this, the correction amount when printing in the right direction can be expressed by the above equation, where N is the distance between the head and the print detector.

(Correction amount in the right direction) = D-D' = E-N-D.

In other words, if the above-mentioned nail correction is performed, printing will be performed at position D.

From next time onwards, by making the above correction and printing on the left side,
It becomes possible to perform accurate printing at position D.

Similarly, a+1 constant is performed in the left direction to determine the correction m in the left direction.

By determining the correction amount using the above procedure, it becomes possible to accurately print at the position D in either the left or right direction, and it becomes possible to correct errors that depend on the printing direction.

[Embodiment 2] Print position correction in a printer having multiple rows of print heads (for example, two rows) will be described. Normally, printing by such a head is performed by forming vertical columns using the entire head, as shown in FIG. Therefore, unless the printing positions of each print head row are aligned, printing quality cannot be improved. In this case, first print in the right direction using only the first print head row, then move it to the right, measure the print position, and calculate the right print correction value for the first print head row. decide. Next, similarly, the print position correction amount in the left direction is measured.

In this way, the print correction values in the right and left directions are measured for each print head row, and the print timing of each print head during printing is corrected.

[Embodiment 3] In addition, it becomes possible to correct the printing position not only in the horizontal direction but also in the paper feeding direction of printing.

First, draw a line using one bottle of the head. The paper is fed N steps (N is 1 at first), and a line is similarly drawn using 1 bin. Then move the paper back far enough to move the print detector onto this line. Then, the paper is fed at a low speed and the print detector 6 detects whether there are one or two lines.

When one line is detected, the above operation is performed again and executed as N = N -1-1.

This operation is repeated, and a value N-1, which is one smaller than N when two lines are detected for the first time, becomes the basic value of print correction 1 in the paper feed direction. Using this value, when making a hard copy of the screen, (paper feed amount) - N * (number of bins) can solve the above-mentioned poor paper feed accuracy.

By using each of the embodiments described above, it becomes possible to automate the work currently performed by humans, and it becomes possible to reduce adjustment time and improve print quality. Moreover, it is possible to easily deal with changes such as wear due to usage time.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described below, according to the printer device of the present invention, it is possible to easily achieve the highest printing quality at all times.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a printer device of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the relationship between the print head, print paper, and print detector of the present invention. FIGS. 3(a) and 5(b) to 5 are explanatory diagrams for performing print correction. 1... System bus 2... Control circuit unit 3... Paper feed drive unit 4... Head drive unit 5... Carriage drive unit 6... Print detector 7... External interface unit 8 ...Operation panel A...Print head B/Print paper -L Applicant Seiko Epson Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Kizobe Suzuki and 1 other person Figure 1 Figure 3 (α) Figure 3 (b) Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] The apparatus has a means for detecting printing, a means for determining a print position correction amount based on the detection result, and a means for storing the print position correction amount, and is capable of correcting the print position using the print position correction amount. Characteristic printer device.