JPS60984A - Printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printing apparatus capable of automatically and optimumly altering a printing condition when a printing head is exchanged, constituted by mounting a means for labeling a character kind to the printing head while mounting a means for discriminating said character kind and adjusting the feed or driving timing of the printing head to a carriage side. CONSTITUTION:For example, patterns 63a provided with notch 63b or not provided therewith corresponding to a character kind are provided to the print board 63 of the head 6 of a thermal printer. Leading-out wires 73a connectable to the patterns 63a are provided to the connector 7 on a carriage for mounting said head 6 and connected to a head discriminating circuit 10 while the presence or absence of the notch 63b is discriminated by said circuit 10 and the signal corresponding to the result thereof is inputted to a selector circuit 11 which in turn orders an optimum set condition to a head driving circuit 12 or a carriage driving part on the basis of said signal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a printing device in which the feed or drive timing of a print head is made variable depending on the character type of the print head.

In character processing devices for word processors that have become popular in recent years, a printing device that can print characters of different fonts and sizes is desired in order to create many types of text 1. Therefore, for example, it is possible to manually replace the thermal head that can print a specific type of character (size/font) and print various types of characters, but simply replacing the thermal head is not enough. Printing is not possible. By controlling the feed amount of the thermal head and the drive timing of the head according to the character type, characters with appropriate spacing can be printed. Therefore, it is necessary to always check whether the feeding amount and drive timing of the thermal head to be attached match those of the head, and there is a high risk that printing will be performed in an inappropriate state.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing device that can always print at an appropriate I'i drive timing of the print head feed -1'', regardless of the character type of the attached print head. With the goal.

The present invention will be described in detail below based on the drawings of the embodiments.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a servo motor drive circuit, which drives a servo motor 2 via an amplifier 1A, resulting in a carriage 5, which will be described later.
to drive and control. The servo motor 2 has position detectors 3 and 4.
installed, those signals are further amplified by amplifiers 3A and 4A.

As the servo motor 2 rotates, two types of detectors 6 and 4 each comprising a slit, an optical element, etc. generate pulses with different timings. The servo motor 2 is mechanically connected to the carriage 5 by a gear train, wires, etc. (not shown).
is combined with A thermal head 6 in which a plurality of heating elements are arranged in one row is mounted on the carriage 5-H, and a connector 7 is fixed on the zero-cross carriage 5, which moves back and forth in the printing direction with the rotation of the servo motor 2. It holds the thermal head 6 and connects electrical signals, making it possible to replace the thermal head 6. Also, the recording paper 8. is placed opposite the heating element surface of the thermal head B. A platen 9 is provided, and the thermal head 6 is always pressed against the recording paper 8 and the platen 9 during printing.

A head discrimination circuit 10 is connected to a connector 7 to which a thermal head is attached, and discriminates the type of head. Reference numeral 11 denotes a circuit for selecting which timing pulse from the position detector 6 or 4 is to be used, and performs the selection upon receiving a signal from the head discrimination circuit 10. The output from the selection circuit 11 enters the motor drive circuit 1 controlled by the print command, controls the rotational speed of the servo motor, and controls the feed of the carriage 5. Furthermore, the output of the selection circuit 11 is sent to the head drive circuit 12.
The current supply time is determined from the standby state according to the print command, and the thermal head 6 is driven via the amplifier 12A.

FIG. 2 shows a specific configuration of the function for determining the type of thermal head B. The thermal head 6 has a glaze section 61
1 printed board 63 coupled to heating element section 61a. It consists of a heat sink 62, each having a glaze part 61. The printed board 66 is fixed to the heat sink 62 with screws, and forms one unit of the thermal head 2 as a whole. The pattern on the printed board 66 is a pan-turn 63a that partially makes a U-turn on the printed board regardless of the heating element portion 61a.

There is 63b, especially 47 which can cut some of the 66 monsters,
It is in f construction, and depending on the type of character, 6 lobes or b are cut. A flexible cable 71 is led out from the connector 7 to be connected to the printed board 66 of the thermal head B, and a lead out ffJ'A 73 is connected to the pattern 63b.
b is grounded, and a lead wire 75 a connected to the pattern 65 alc is connected to the input a of the head discrimination circuit 10 . The head discrimination circuit 10 is a latch circuit in which the input a and the output are at the same level, but it also has several functions to prevent malfunction of the thermal head 6 insertion.

The operation of the thermal printer with the above configuration will be described below.

When the thermal head 6 is inserted into the connector 7 on the carriage 5, the input a of the head discrimination circuit 1o, which is connected to the power supply via the resistor R, changes its level depending on the type of the thermal head B. That is, the pattern 63a of the printed board part 66 of the thermal head B is connected to the inlet a of the head discrimination circuit 10 via the connector 7, and the lead-out IJ75b
is connected to ground. So character size 1
When the thermal head 6 cut with the pattern 63b corresponding to two points is inserted, the head discrimination circuit 1
The input a of 0 becomes the “1” level and at the same time the output sumo 61”
level. Similarly, when the thermal head 6 corresponding to the character size 9 points in which the pattern portion 65b is not cut is inserted, both the head discrimination circuit human power a and the output become 0'' level.The head discrimination circuit 10 outputs A After automatically determining the type of thermal head B, the selection circuit 11 selects whether to perform position detection for energizing the thermal head 6 from 1. position detector 6 or position detector 4. Thermal When a print command is received while the head '6 is mounted on the carriage 5, the motor drive circuit 1
, the servo motor 2 is rotated through the intensifier 1A, and moves the mechanically connected carriage 5 and thermal head 6 in the printing direction. Also, at this time, the output from the selection circuit 11 is fed back to the motor drive circuit 1.
The servo motor 2 is controlled to rotate at a constant speed corresponding to each of the 2-point or 9-point thermal heads. When the carriage 5 moves and the position detection timing is transmitted from the selection circuit 11 to the head drive circuit 12, the head drive circuit 12, which had been prepared based on the print command, determines the energization time and connects the amplifier 12A, connector 7, and printed board 66. causes the heat generating part 61a to generate heat at a predetermined position on the recording paper through the
Perform thermal printing. In this way, the moving speed of the carriage 5 is changed depending on the type of the thermal head 6, and the position or timing at which electricity is applied to the recording paper 8 is changed to perform proper print feeding, thereby forming regular characters. Feeding can also be achieved by appropriately converting either the carriage travel speed or the energization position.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments (a thermal head having a 5 x 7 dot matrix configuration may be used.Furthermore, a wire head or a head supporting a matrix type may be similarly configured as a printing head. It is clear that this is the case.It is also clear that IJJ can distinguish not only two types of print heads, but also many types, and the method of discrimination can be changed in various ways. If it is operable, it is possible to print a plurality of different character types (shapes) with the same print head.0 As described above, according to the present invention, the character type of the manually installed print head is determined, Since the print head feed 9 or drive timing suitable for the determined character type can be set, proper printing can always be performed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a configuration diagram of a thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a detailed view of a thermal head and a connector section according to an embodiment of the present invention.Here, 5 is a carriage, 6 is a thermal head, and 10 is a head identification It is a circuit. Applicant Canon Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A connector for manually attaching and detaching a print head, a carriage that carries the connector and moves back and forth, a head drive unit that controls energization of the print head attached to the connector, a carriage drive unit that controls movement of the carriage, and the connector. a discrimination means for discriminating the character type of a print head mounted on the printer, and a timing pulse corresponding to the character type is supplied to the head drive means or the carriage drive means according to the determination result of the discrimination means, thereby controlling printing according to the character type. A printing device characterized in that it has a means for performing.