JPH0777818B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image using a print ribbon, such as a thermal printer or an impact printer, and in particular, the unused amount of the print ribbon can be easily identified. It is related to the structure.

[Prior art]

Various types of printing ribbons that indicate the unused amount of the printing ribbon have been proposed, but there are problems in that the structure and assembly are complicated, and the unused amount of the printing ribbon cannot be clearly seen.

〔Purpose〕

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide an image forming apparatus having a simple structure in which the unused amount of the print ribbon can be clearly seen.

〔Constitution〕

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a transparent window in a part of a casing that accommodates an unused printing ribbon and a used printing ribbon in one chamber. A moving member having a color different from that of the printing ribbon is interposed between the printing ribbon and the printing ribbon, and the unused amount of the printing ribbon can be seen through the transparent window depending on the position of the moving member in the casing. It is characterized by being.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a usage mode of a portable image forming apparatus according to an embodiment, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are a front sectional view and a side sectional view of the portable image forming apparatus.

First, a schematic configuration of the entire image forming apparatus will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the portable image forming apparatus has a case body 2 made of a synthetic resin in the shape of a rod or a cylinder, which has a vertically elongated shape and an outer peripheral portion which can be grasped by a hand 1, and is housed in the case body 2. The image reading unit 3 exposed at one end (lower end in the figure), the image writing unit 4 accommodated in the case body 2 and exposed at the other end (upper end in the figure), and the image reading unit 3 accommodated in the case body 2 and Image writing unit 4
It is mainly composed of a control unit 5 (see FIG. 3) which is connected to and receives a signal.

As shown in FIG. 1, the case main body 2 is provided with a power switch 6, a power indicator 7, a reading width designation slide switch 8 and the like on one side surface. On the other side, a clear switch 9, a repeat switch 10, a buzzer 11, a memory full display element 12, a battery replacement display element 13 and the like are provided.

As shown in FIGS. 2, 3, and 4, the image reading unit 3 includes two exposure light sources (LEDs) 14 for slit exposure and a lens 1 for transmitting reflected light from the document surface 15.
6, a photoelectric conversion element (CCD) 17 for converting an optical signal transmitted through the lens 16 into an electric signal, a printed circuit board 18 on which the photoelectric conversion element 17 is attached, and magnetic patterns at equal intervals on the outer peripheral surface. A first encoder 19 that is in contact with the original surface 15 and
It is composed of a first rotation detector 20 composed of a magnetic head for detecting the rotation of the first encoder 19 and a reading section frame 21.

The light source 14, a lens 16, a photoelectric conversion element 17, a printed circuit board 18,
The first encoder 19, the support shaft, and the first rotation detector 20 are
The frames 21 are integrally attached to each other at predetermined positions. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the frame 21 is movably attached to the case body 2 via an elastic body 22 such as rubber. Therefore, when the document is read, even if the case body 2 is slightly slanted with respect to the document surface 15 or the document surface 15 itself is slightly slanted, for example, when a thick book is opened, the frame 21 A guide surface 23 corresponding to the lower end surface of the document is in close contact with the document surface 15 to enable accurate image reading.

The writing unit 4 is mainly composed of a writing head unit, a ribbon cassette, and a ribbon drive unit.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the write head portion, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing the positional relationship of the thermal head. The writing head is composed of a thermal head 24, a second encoder 26 having magnetic patterns at equal intervals on the outer peripheral surface and contacting a transfer sheet (not shown), and a magnetic head for detecting the rotation of the second encoder 26. 2nd rotation detector 27 and writing unit frame
It is composed of 28 and.

As shown in FIG. 6, in the thermal head 24, the leaf spring 29 is bent so that it projects slightly outside the virtual plane X passing through the guide surface 25 of the frame 28 when the image writing is not performed. When writing an image, the tip end surface of the thermal head 24 is pushed to the virtual plane X due to the close contact with the transfer paper, and the repulsive force of the leaf spring 29 caused thereby presses the print ribbon 30 against the transfer paper.

The second encoder 26, the second rotation detector 27, and the leaf spring 29 are integrally attached by the frame 28 at predetermined positions. And this frame 28
Is movably attached to the case body 2 via an elastic body 31 such as rubber as shown in FIG. Therefore, when writing an image, even if the case body 2 is slightly inclined with respect to the transfer surface, the guide surface 25 of the frame 28 is in close contact with the transfer surface, and accurate image writing can be performed.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a modified example of the writing head portion. In the case of this modification, the side surface of the frame 28 is U-shaped, and a plurality of rollers 32 having a large coefficient of friction, such as rubber rollers, are installed inside the frame 28. By providing the roller 32 having a large friction coefficient in the guide portion in this way, it is possible to prevent lateral displacement during scanning and improve linear mobility.

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view of the ribbon cassette. The ribbon cassette 33 is mainly composed of a cassette body 34, a cassette cover 35 fitted to the cassette body 34, and a printing ribbon 30.

At the upper end of the cassette body 34, a ribbon guide wall 39 having a space 38 inside for inserting and arranging the thermal head 24 is provided in a protruding manner. Below the ribbon guide wall 39, there is a recess for accommodating a gear 40 of a ribbon drive unit described later.
41 is provided, and a through hole 43 for inserting the pinion 42 is formed in the bottom of the recess 41.

Below the recess 41, the ribbon storage unit 4 is provided by the side walls 44A and 44B.
5 are formed. A ribbon intake port 46 is provided at a position near the pinch roller 36 and the capstan roller 37, which will be described later, in the upper part of the ribbon storage part 45, and a ribbon extraction port 47 is provided at the lower part of the ribbon storage part 45. . One side wall 44A extends to the other side wall 44B side beyond the ribbon take-out port 47, and the tip end thereof serves as a ribbon retainer 48.

Between the side wall 44A and the side wall 44B, that is, in the ribbon storage portion 45, a relatively light moving plate 49 having a small friction coefficient is disposed so as to be vertically movable. The movable plate 49 is interposed, and the upper part of the movable plate 49 is used as a used ribbon storage part 45A for storing the used print ribbon 30A, and the lower part of the movable plate 49 is used for storing the unused print ribbon 30B. It is 45B. Since the print ribbon 30 is usually black or a color close to black, the color of the moving plate 49 is clearly distinguishable from the print ribbon 30, such as white.

As shown in FIG. 8, a locking claw 50 is provided on the cassette body 34, whereby the cassette 33 is exchangeably supported on the case body 2.

A transparent plate 51 is fitted in a portion of the cassette cover 35 facing the ribbon storage portion 45 of the cassette body 34, and the position of the moving plate 59, that is, the unused amount of the printing ribbon 30 can be confirmed through the transparent plate 51. It is becoming like this.

The ribbon drive unit includes a stepping motor 52, a pillion 42 fixed to its output shaft, a gear 40 meshing with the pinion 42, and a capstan roller that rotates integrally with the gear 40.
37, and the capstan roller 37 and a pinch roller 36 that rotates together with the capstan roller 37.

As shown in FIG. 2, the unused print ribbon 30B has a side wall 44B and a ribbon retainer 4 when the ribbon take-out port 47 is pulled out.
It is elastically sandwiched between itself and 8 and reaches the upper surface of the thermal head 24 via one ribbon guide wall 39. The used print ribbon 30A involved in image formation passes through the other ribbon guide wall 39, passes between the capstan roller 37 and the pinch roller 36, and is stored in the ribbon storage portion 45A from the ribbon intake port 46. . Therefore, the side wall 44B and ribbon retainer
The elastic tension between the print ribbon 30 and the capstan roller 37 and the pinch roller 36 provides a predetermined tension to the print ribbon 30.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the control circuit of this portable image forming apparatus.

In the figure, 53 is a central processing unit (CPU), 54 is an oscillator, 55 is a timer, and 56 is a read only memory (RO).
M), 57 is a random access memory (RAM), 8 is a read width designated slide switch, 9 is a clear switch, 10
Is a repeat switch, 52 is a stepping motor, 58 is a motor driver, 59 is an interrupt control IC, 60 is an I / O port,
7 is a power indicator, 12 is a memory full display element,
13 is a battery replacement display element, 61 is a RAM for data memory, 14
Is an exposure light source, 62 is a CCD driver, 17 is a CCD, 63 is an amplifier, 64 is a binarization circuit, 65 is an S / P converter for converting a serial bit into a parallel bit, 71 is a thermal head driver, 24
Is a thermal head.

As shown in FIG. 1, a read width 4 mm line 66, a read width 5 mm line 67, a read width 6 mm line 68, and a read width 7 mm line 69 are provided near the read width specifying slide switch 8 in the case body 2. The lines 66 to 69 are drawn in parallel and extend to the lower end of the case body 2. A reading upper index line 70 is provided in parallel with these lines 66 to 69. The position of the slide switch 8 can be adjusted according to the size of the characters on the document, and this position adjustment causes the main scanning width to be approximately the same as the size of one character, as will be described later.

When reading a desired image, the position of the reading width designating slide switch 8 is adjusted as described above, and then the case reading unit 3 is turned down as shown in FIG. Then, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the image reading unit 3 is brought into contact with the document surface 15 and manually scanned. By doing so, the original image illuminated by the exposure light source 14 is optically read by the CCD 17, the image data output from the CCD 17 is amplified by the AMP 63, and binarized by the binarization circuit 64. After that, the S / P converter 65 converts the serial data into parallel data. Then, after the upper bits other than the width set by the reading width designation slide switch 8 are set to 0, the image data is stored in the data memory RAM 61.
Stored in and read the image.

As shown in FIG. 10, the image reading is started every pulse of the first reading encoder 19, and the exposure light source (LED) 14 is turned on by the rising edge of one pulse of the first encoder 19. It turns off after a lapse of a certain time T ₁ .

On the other hand, in the case of writing on the transfer paper, the image writing unit 4
The case main body 2 is held by the hand 1 so as to face downward, the image writing unit 4 is brought into contact with the heat-sensitive transfer paper, and the manual scanning is performed. As described above, the image data for each CCD 1 line stored in the data memory RAM 61 is read out by designating the corresponding address from the CPU 53 and output to the thermal head driver 71. Then, in the thermal head 24, a heating element corresponding to the read image data is heated on the transfer sheet in accordance with the output pulse signal of the second writing encoder 26 that rotates in contact with the transfer sheet. The image data is written.

Next, the control operation of the image forming apparatus according to this embodiment will be described in a little more detail.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of the main routine. As shown in FIG. 11, when the power switch is turned on at step (hereinafter abbreviated as S) 1, the control RAM and the data memory RAM are cleared at S2. , S3 sets the initial level of the input / output port, and S4 turns on the power indicator for power-on display.

Next, the read width check subroutine is called in S5, the battery check subroutine is called in S6, and S7 is called.
The memory check subroutine is called at, the repeat switch check subroutine is called at S8, and finally the clear switch check subroutine is called at S9, and the call operation of each of these subroutines is sequentially repeated.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of the read width check subroutine.

As shown in FIG. 1, the slide switch 8 for specifying the reading width is used.
When is at the lowest position, it is determined that SW = 0 in S10, and the reading width is set to 7 mm. S
If SW = 1 is determined in 11, the reading width is set to 6 mm by the slide switch 8, and if SW = 2 is determined in S12, the reading width is 5 mm by the slide switch 8. If it is determined in S12 that SW = 2 is not satisfied, the slide switch 8 causes the reading width to be minimum.
It has been set to 4mm. In this manner, the reading width designation check is performed in this routine by setting the position of the slide switch 8.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of the battery check subroutine.

In S13, it is determined whether or not the power supply voltage is equal to or higher than a predetermined value.If it is necessary to replace the battery below the predetermined value, the battery replacement display element 13 is turned on in S14, and the battery voltage is determined to be equal to or higher than the predetermined value. For example, in S15, replace battery display element 1
Keep off state of 3.

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of the memory check subroutine.

If it is judged in S16 whether the memory full flag is on or not, and if the memory capacity is already full, the memory full display is turned on in S17, the reading of the image data is prohibited in S18, and the interrupt of the first encoder is interrupted. Ban. On the other hand, if the memory full flag is not turned on, the process proceeds to S19, the output signal of the first encoder can be interrupted, and S20
In, keep the memory full display off.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart of the repeat switch check subroutine.

The repeat switch is a switch that is turned on when the same item is printed more than once. In S21, it is determined whether the repeat switch is turned on. If the repeat switch is turned on, the repeat flag is turned on in S22 and the repeat switch is turned on. If the switch is not on, the repeat flag is turned off in S23.

FIG. 16 is a flow chart of the clear switch check subroutine.

The clear switch is a switch that forcibly clears the stored contents of the data memory RAM.It is determined in S24 whether the clear switch is turned on.If the switch is turned on, the memory clear flag is turned on in S25, while , S2 if the switch is not turned on
At 6 the memory clear flag is turned off.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart of an image reading subroutine. For image reading, when the output pulse of the first encoder 19 is input to the interrupt control IC 59 (see FIG. 9), a subroutine called "interrupt 1" shown in FIG. 17 is called. As described above, this "interrupt 1" is an image reading program.

Since the read flag is off in the first interrupt, it is determined to be NO in S27, the read flag is turned on in S28, the stored contents of the data memory RAM are cleared in S29, and then the data storage address is shown in S30. Set the pointer to the first address of memory. Therefore, the storage location of the data is determined by this pointer.

Next, in S31, it is determined whether the storage capacity of the 1-line memory in the data memory RAM is already high,
When it is time, the memory full flag is turned on in S32.
On the other hand, if the memory has enough storage capacity, the memory full flag is turned off in S33, and the exposure light source (LED) is turned on in S34. The on-time of this exposure light source is constant as described with reference to FIG. 10, and this is because a constant light amount is always given to the CCD.

By turning on the exposure light source (LED) in S34, the image data is read in S35, and the exposure light source (LED) is turned off in S36. Next, in S37, the read image data is erased to zero except for the necessary reading width designated as described above. In this way, only the image data for one line is S38
Is stored in a predetermined address indicated by the pointer, and then the pointer is set to the next memory address (S39).

For the second and subsequent readings, since the reading flag is turned on in S27, it is judged in S40 whether the clear flag is turned on. Unless the clear flag is turned on, the memory is not cleared and the pointer is Indicates the address to be stored in. By repeating such steps, the program of interrupt 1 is completed.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of the writing subroutine. To write an image on the transfer paper, when the output pulse of the second encoder is input to the interrupt control IC 59 (see FIG. 9), a subroutine "interrupt 2" shown in FIG. 18 is called. As described above, this "interrupt" is a program for writing an image.

In S41, it is determined whether or not the write flag is turned on. Since the write flag is not turned on at first, the process proceeds to S42 and the write flag is turned on. Then, after the writing is completed, the RAM 61 for the data memory is cleared when the reading is started next time, and the reading flag is turned off in order to set the pointer to the head address of the memory (S43).

Next, in S44, the pointer is set to the start address of the data memory RAM. This pointer is the same as that at the time of reading described above. A pulse is output to drive the stepping motor 52 (see FIG. 3) for the ink ribbon (S45), the thermal head 24 is turned on in S46, and the image data at the address indicated by the pointer is output (S47). ), And the on / off control of the heat generating element of the thermal head which is adapted to it. Next, in S48, the thermal head is turned off and the pointer is set to the next memory address.

For the second and subsequent interrupts, the write flag has already been turned on, so proceed to S50 to determine whether the repeat flag is turned on. If the repeat flag is set, S4
If the repeat flag is not set, the operation proceeds to the step before S45, and the image is written using the thermal head as described above. As described above, since the image data for each row is stored in the data memory RAM 61, the image data is written for each row when writing.

〔The invention's effect〕

The present invention is configured as described above, because the unused amount of the print ribbon can be known by the position of the moving member that is displaced in accordance with the increase and decrease of the unused print ribbon and the used print ribbon, The structure is very simple, and the cost can be reduced and the assembling work can be simplified.

Further, if the color of the moving member is different from the color of the printing ribbon, the unused amount of the printing ribbon can be clearly discriminated.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings are all for explaining a portable image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a usage mode of the image forming apparatus, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are the image forming apparatus. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the image reading portion, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the writing head portion, FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing the positional relationship of the thermal head, and FIG. A perspective view showing a modified example of the head portion,
8 is an exploded perspective view of the ribbon set, FIG. 9 is a control circuit block diagram, FIG. 10 is a timing chart showing the relationship between the output signal of the reading encoder and the on / off operation of the exposure power supply, and FIG. Flow chart of main routine, Fig. 12 is flow chart of reading width check subroutine, Fig. 13 is flow chart of battery check subroutine, Fig. 14 is flow chart of memory check subroutine, Fig. 15 is repeat switch check subroutine. 16 is a flow chart of the clear switch subroutine, FIG. 17 is a flow chart of the interrupt 1 subroutine, and FIG. 18 is a flow chart of the interrupt 2 subroutine. 2 ... Case body, 3 ... Image reading unit, 4 ... Image writing unit, 5 ... Control unit, 8 ... Reading width designation slide switch, 14 ... Exposure light source, 51 ... Original surface, 16 ...
… Lens, 17… Photoelectric conversion element, 19… First encoder, 20… First rotation detector, 21… Reading frame, 24… Thermal head, 26… Second encoder, 27
...... Second rotation detector, 28 ...... writing part frame, 30 ...
… Printing ribbon, 30A …… Used printing ribbon, 30B …… Unused printing ribbon, 33 …… Cassette, 45 …… Ribbon storage part, 45A …… Used ribbon storage part, 45B …… Unused ribbon storage part, 49 …… Moveable plate, 51 …… Transparent plate, 61 …… RAM for data memory, 66 …… Reading width 4mm line, 67 …… Reading width 5mm line, 68 …… Reading width 6mm line, 70…
… Reading width 7mm line, 70… reading upper index line.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus for forming an image using a print ribbon, wherein a transparent window is provided in a part of a casing for accommodating an unused print ribbon and a used print ribbon in one chamber. A moving member is interposed between the used printing ribbon and the used printing ribbon, and the unused amount of the printing ribbon can be seen through the transparent window depending on the position of the moving member in the casing. An image forming apparatus characterized in that 2. In the claim (1),
An image forming apparatus, wherein the color of the moving member is different from the color of the print ribbon.