FI62786C - pressure device - Google Patents

Description

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Patents and Registration * AmMun uttagd ech utl ^ krUtan pubttewad 30.11.82 (32) (33) (31) Pnrtsey Begird prtorit * 26.12.73 USA (US) U27962 (71) International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. 1050U, USA (72) Blair Robertson Martin, Owego, NY, USA (7U) Oy Kolster Ab (5U) Printing apparatus - Tryckanordning The present invention relates generally to printing apparatus and, more particularly, to serial printing apparatus in which printing stations are evenly distributed on a printing line. and comprising a carriage capable of moving past said printing stations along the weight line of the document and supporting the printing element having the characters in a predetermined order, means for bringing the printing element to the printing stations representing the different characters, and a hammer operable to press the selected character. Previously known printing devices are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3 U61,225, which relates to a continuously rotating printing wheel which travels at a constant distance along the weight line and 3,707 21U, which uses counters to control stepping motors in the start / stop cycle to move the printing wheel and carriage clockwise or counterclockwise to select the desired mark and that the bracket moves to the right or left to the desired weight position.

It is a general object of the present invention to provide increased performance in a serial printing apparatus in a simple and efficient manner.

More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to stack the most frequently used indicia on each printing wheel block of 2 62786 two or more and to allow the printing wheel to normally move two or more printing positions each turn of the printing wheel, while the printing wheel holder is only stopped when the marking is not met. typesetting.

Another object of the invention is to provide printing "in motion" in which the printing wheel and the support both move, except when successive printing stations require marks that are too close to each other on the printing wheel to allow the hammer to return from previous operation, in which case the support alone is stopped. and restarted.

It is a further object of the invention to provide "in-motion" printing, whereby the actuators can be actuated to drive the carriage at a first constant speed when the distance between successive printable characters is such that the time elapsed from the pressure element actuators to display successive and at a second modified speed between adjacent weight stations, said e-distance being such that said time exceeds said travel time, said second converted speed including deceleration from said first speed at the weight station and acceleration to said first speed at the next weight station.

It is a further object of the invention to allow the use of look-up tables to determine the next printable mark and further to the next, so that it can be decided whether the printing wheel carrier continues to move or must be stopped so that the desired mark can be printed at each printing station along the weight line. The further features of the invention appear from the following claims. The above and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following more detailed description of a preferred embodiment, which is illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 schematically shows a part of a printing device adapted in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic representation of a "half-printed" printing wheel utilizing a preferred arrangement of fonts in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a block diagram of a portion of a weight control system for controlling the operation of a book carriage in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 4 shows a group of time adjustment curves illustrating the operation of the control system in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a table showing a preferred arrangement of fonts used on a printing wheel.

In Fig. 1, a laterally moving carriage 1 mounted on guide rails IA and IB supports a continuously rotating pressure wheel 2 driven by a conical gear wheel 3 corresponding to a slidably fitted conical gear wheel 4 driven by an electric motor 6 driven at a constant speed. The carriage 1 is driven by a toothed strap 7, which in turn is used by step sizes. tori 8. During the pressing of the sign, the carriage 1 is always moving from left to right, but it can be stopped and restarted by suitable control of the stepper motor 8.

The printing wheel 2 comprises a plate with a plurality of movable font elements in the form of flexible sides or font fingers 9A to Z, etc. The desired character is printed, e.g. 9X in Fig. 2, by acting on a printing hammer 10 which can be activated by a solenoid 11 both mounted to carriage 1. As the right font finger, e.g., 9X, approaches the center of gravity, the solenoid 11 carries the hammer 10 into contact with the font finger and strikes the finger toward the paper 12. The emitter wheel 13, which rotates with the pressure wheel 2, cooperates with the magnetic sensor 13A to produce a series of index pulses for controlling the operation of the printing device, producing one pulse for each character and a start pulse for each rotation of the weight wheel. The weight guide can thus determine the angular position of the weight wheel 2 at each specific time.

Although the carriage 1 moves at the time of pressing any mark, the activation of the hammer 10 is timed so that the center line of the selected mark is oriented correctly with respect to the center line of the printing column in which it is pressed.

According to the invention, the number of font fingers on the printing wheel 2 is larger than the number of different characters to be printed. Font fingers are divided into two or more types of approximately the same type, as shown in Figure 2. The most commonly used characters are several in types, while the least used characters are in only one type. In each type, the most used characters are placed in the middle and the least used characters are placed on the pages.

During printing, the movement of the carriage 1 is synchronized with the printing wheel 2, so that the carriage 1 runs exactly the width of the column as each stack of font fingers passes the printing station. This means 62786 that two or more characters (as many characters as the printing wheel has stacks) can be printed during each round of printing.

However, this printing speed cannot be maintained continuously. There are two different cases in which printing must be interrupted.

1) the next character to be pressed is not present in the next stack, whose turn is to bypass the printing station. 2) the two consecutive characters to be pressed are so close to each other on the pressure wheel that the hammer 10 does not have time to return after the first character is pressed until the second character is current. In both cases, the carriage 1 must be stopped for a moment and then restarted when a new stack containing the searched character approaches the printing station. One or more print sets are lost each time this happens. The actual number of printing sets in each specific case depends on the design of the printing wheel and the mechanical properties of the carriage drive mechanism. This lowers the average weight speed to some extent. However, the specification of the practical applications shows that the actual printing speed is 90-99% of the theoretical maximum value, which means at least 80% faster than is possible without the present invention.

Figure 3 shows logic circuits. A letter counter 21 which responds to the index pulses and is reset by the start pulses or "stack-end-2" pulses via the OR circuit 21a is connected to the emitter converter 13a to provide a numerical indication of the printing wheel character in the printing station in Fig. 1. The output signal from the letter counter 21 is fed to the reference circuit 29 and the AND circuit 25 to provide a hammer release pulse to act on the weight hammer solenoid 11 via the hammer drive unit. The interpretation circuit 16 is adapted to recognize the intermediate state mark in the character buffer 33. The AND circuit 17 and the station intermediate space locking circuit 18 together with the turning member 19 prevent the hammer release signal at the intermediate space.

The output signal from the font counter 21 also acts on the stack counter 22 to provide "stack-end-1" and "stack-end-2" signals to the interpretation AND circuits 23, the delay preamble 24, the flip-flop circuit 26, the delay member 27 and via a flip-flop circuit 28 for each token stacking on the pressure wheel 2. These 5,62786 signals occur at approximately 50 microsecond intervals in the order indicated at the end of each stack, first 1 and then '?. The look-up table 31 receives as input signals the output signal from the character buffer 32 (which output signal represents the character to be pressed as a code) and the output signal from the stack counter 22 (which output signal is the binary value of the next stack in front of the hammer. The look-up table 31 produces " indicates whether there is a character in the next buffer in the character buffer 3 2 e], and a binary character station igriual in indicating the position of the character in this stacking. The output signal from this register is input to the reference circuit 29 to correspond to the position input signal of the printing wheel for controlling the release of the hammer in the AND circuit 25.

A predetermined amount of additional input is provided by a register 40 connected to the reference AND circuit 42, together with an output signal from the font counter 21, to determine the time at which the printing wheel can be started to maintain synchronous operation. The first reference output signal from the AND silicon 42 is applied to the AND circuit 44 together with the output signal from the "buffer full" M interlock circuit 43, which circuit is controlled by the "weight clear" signal from the system via the AND circuit 45, the "buffer not full" signal and the signal. "stack end 2" monostabii1 sit on the flip-flop circuit 28 and is returned via the AND circuit 47 by the signal "stack end 1" and the signal "trolley in motion" from the flip-flop circuit 48. The weight activation signal from the triggered lock circuit 46 is also supplied To the AND circuit 44 together with the "signal present" or Intermediate signal from the OR circuit 47.

A signal from the AND circuit 44 is applied to the "carriage in motion" flip-flop circuit 48 to activate the carriage drive control 70 to start the carriage motor 8 and to produce a hammer release signal in the AND circuit 25 by a weight activation signal from the locking circuit 46.

Another preset amount is provided by a register 60 connected to the reference circuit 52, together with the output signal of the font flag 21, to provide a "stop comparison" signal to stop the carriage motor 8. The "stop comparison" signal is applied to the AND circuit 54 together with the tree circuit from the interlock circuit 4, the i-wave signal, and the output signal from the OR circuit 56 to restore the flip-flop circuit 48. The inverter 58 is used to transmit a "token occurs" or intermediate input signal from the input of the OR circuit 49 to the OR circuit 56 to reset the flip-flop circuit 48 at any time when the token or intermediate state is not present. The pivot member 59 connects the interlock circuit 43 to the OR circuit 56 to reset the flip-flop circuit 48 at any time when the interlock circuit is reset.

The device is provided with a comparison circuit 60, the second input of which receives a number from the "preset hammer return time" register 62, and the second input signal of which is the "preset stack length" register 61 and the look-up table 31 57 difference between incoming output signal. In the event that the output value of the unit 64 is less than the time of the register 62, the output signal of the AND circuit 60 returns the flip-flop circuit 48 via the OR circuit% and the AND circuit 54 to stop the carriage drive motor 8 by the carriage drive control device 70. Registers 40 »50, 61 and 62 contain seven-bit binary coded numbers such as 0010010, 0011110,0100111 and 0001001, which represent decimal values 18, 30, 59 and 9.

The rotating printing wheel 2 and the resting carriage 1 as a starting point generate the logic shown in Fig. 3 at such a time that the carriage 1 has just reached the working speed when the stacking containing the first mark to be printed approaches the printing station. After this, the printing takes place at the highest possible speed. Before each character is pressed, the logic determines whether it is possible to press the next character with the second next stack. If this is not the case, the trolley will be stopped at a suitable time when passing or immediately after the last »rake to be pressed (depending on the mechanical properties of the system, it may be necessary to stop before the hammer is released to press the last mark). When the carriage 1 has stopped, the logic starting part starts to act again and starts the carriage movement again as described above.

Referring to Fig. 4, a group of curves b shows the relationship between the pulses of the emitter 13 and the position of the weight wheel 2 at different weight positions, shown in a. After the carriage start reference signal of the AND circuit 42 in Fig. 3, shown in curve c, the dashed line d represents the period . As shown, the flip-flop circuit 48 is connected by the AND circuit 42 to the simultaneous operation of the carriage start reference signal of the AND circuit 42, the "buffer full" signal of the lock circuit 7 62786 (curve h) and the carriage lock system ή (> signal "no weight rk *)" simultaneously. The signal g from the system / "weight information clear" is used to switch the locking circuit 43, which causes the output signal h. The flip-flop circuit 4Θ is switched to produce the signal m, "the carriage in motion" and acts on the carriage control device 70 starting the carriage motor 8 As the sign to be pressed is in place, the weight activation signal n of the weight activation locking circuit 46 bypasses the AND circuit 25 together with the weight reference signal and causes the weight hazard to trip as shown in curve o.At this time, the carriage speed is elevated as shown by the carriage speed curve p.

When the search or lock 31 determines which is the next character station, the output signal “character occurs” is produced even though this character is as shown in the next stack j.In this case, the look-up table 31 determines that the third character transferred from the system does not appear in the next stack is activated via the reversing member 58 and in conjunction with the stop reference signal of the AND circuit 52, the AND circuit 54 providing an output signal to reset the flip-flop circuit 48 and stop the carriage drive motor 8. This is illustrated by a dashed line q terminated by a signal curve j generates a wagon stop reference signal curve e that interrupts the flip-flop 48 signal after the "carriage in motion" stop reference signal e occurs, as shown in m, so that one cycle is skipped due to the absence of the next character.

The next stack contains a character, so the Lookup Table 31 generates a "character occurs" signal when the stack counter 22 is activated.

After the occurrence of the next carriage start comparison signal c as shown by the dashed line curve r simultaneously with the signal "buffer full" shown by curve h and the signal "no weight activation" shown by curve n, switch the output signal of AND circuit 44 in case flip-flop 48 and restart carriage 1 to press two characters.

In this case, it is assumed that the position of the fourth printed character is too close to the position of the fifth character in the next stack to allow immediate subsequent printing, so that the count / logic circuit 64 produces an output signal which is compared by the reference circuit 60 to the hammer reset time of the register 62. when there is not enough time to reset the hammer, to activate the OR circuit 56, which, after the occurrence of the stop reference signal, curve e, resets the flip-flop circuit 48 to stop the carriage motor 8. This section is illustrated by the dashed line s.

The carriage 1 is restarted according to the dashed line t after the next "carriage start comparison" signal occurrence of the AND circuit 42, which together with the "buffer full" signal of the lock circuit 62786 and the "signal present" signal of the look-up table 31 produces an output signal from the AND circuit 44 flip-flop circuit 48 to switch. As shown, three characters are pressed, after which the carriage 1 is stopped after the signal "weight data clear" has ceased, represented by the curve g, which indicates that the data has ended for printing. This is represented by the dashed line u and the turning member 59 produces an output signal when the signal "buffer full" ceases. This pass signal is applied to the OR circuit 56 and returns - after the presence of the stop reference signal of the AND circuit 52 - through the flip-flop circuit 48 of the AND circuit 54, which stops the carriage drive motor 8 by the carriage drive motor control device 70.

It will be apparent from the above description and the accompanying drawings that simple and efficient weight control is provided in accordance with the present invention. The advantageous arrangement of the marks and the fact that the printing wheel passes two or more printing stations during one revolution in a normal uninterrupted period allow a higher printing speed. Stopping and restarting the carriage each time a printable mark does not appear in the following stacking or when there is not enough time to return the hammer between the marks makes this arrangement particularly effective.

Claims (5)

A printing device, in which the printing positions are uniformly distributed along a printing line, comprising a carriage (1) movable past said printing positions along a printing row on a document and carrying a printing element (2) with type characters (9) in a predetermined arrangement, means (3 ... 6) for driving the printing element in and for displaying various type characters at said printing positions, and a pressure hammer (10) operable to effect the impact of a selected type character on the document, characterized by driving means (7, 8) operable to operate the carriage at a constant first rate when the distance between successive type characters to be printed is such that the time taken for the action of the pressure element driver (3..6) to present successive selected type characters to be printed is within the turning time of the carriage (1) between adjacent pressure positions and at a modified second speed between adjacent pressure positions, when said distance is such that said time exceeds said turning time, at said modified second speed includes deceleration from said first speed at a pressure position and acceleration to said first speed at the next pressure position. 2. A pressure device according to claim 1, characterized in that the pressure element is a pressure wheel. Pressure device according to claim 2, characterized in that the pressure wheel rotates constantly. 4. A pressure device according to any of the preceding claims, characterized by means (31, 62) for determining the time required for the pressure element drive means (3 ... 6) to present successively selected type characters, and means (7). , 8) operable by said determining means (31, 62) to drive the carriage drive means (7, 8) at said first speed or at said modified second speed during relative movement of the pressure element on the carriage.