JPS6124483A - Carriage controlling method for thermal transfer printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the occurrence of the digit deviation with changes in the starting positions of printing by a method in which in case where restart of printing action is indicated after the exchange of ink ribbons, the carriage is once set back to the initial position and repositioned. CONSTITUTION:When ink ribbons are exchanged by an operator and a switch is pushed, space initiation is made by a processor 1 for returning a carriage exactly to the stopping position of printing. A space control circuit 8 is controlled for positioning a printing head 14 at a printing position corresponding to the address position of a line buffer region, and a space motor 9 is driven to move the carriage.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method of controlling a carriage in a thermal transfer printer to prevent printing defects when the end of an ink ribbon is detected.

Thermal transfer printers heat the heating element in the print head to melt the heat-melting ink on the ink ribbon and transfer it onto paper to print. This ink ribbon for thermal transfer cannot be used again because the ink in the area that has been transferred once runs out. Therefore, the ink ribbon has a mark indicating the end of the ink ribbon, and the operator is designed to replace the ink ribbon by detecting this mark.

However, since replacing the ink ribbon requires operator intervention as described above, the carriage may be misaligned, but it is necessary that the printing operation be normal after the ink ribbon is replaced.

[Conventional technology]

Conventional thermal transfer printers have two types: one that winds up the ink ribbon while printing, and one that unwinds the ink ribbon when the carriage returns. When the end of the ink ribbon is detected after winding the ink ribbon, it stops feeding out the ink ribbon, stops the printing operation, and causes the ink ribbon to be replaced. When the end of the ink ribbon is detected during feeding, the return of the carriage is interrupted and the ink ribbon is replaced.

That is, when a mark indicating the end of the ink ribbon is detected, an alarm tuning fork/and display notifies the operator of the end of the ink ribbon, and after the operator replaces the ink ribbon,
For example, printing could be restarted by pressing a switch.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

As mentioned above, after the operator replaces the ink ribbon,
Printing resumes when the switch is pressed, but the operator may move the carriage when replacing the ink ribbon.

In this case, the operator cannot accurately return the carriage to its original position.

Therefore, there is a problem that the printing start position changes and a digit shift occurs.

[Means for solving problems]

The above-mentioned problem is solved by the carriage control method for a thermal transfer printer according to the present invention, which repositions the carriage after returning the carriage to the initial device when instructed to resume printing after replacing the ink ribbon. be done.

[Effect]

That is, when the operator instructs the operator to resume printing after replacing the ink ribbon, the carriage is returned to its initial position, the position error of the carriage 7 is canceled out, and the carriage is positioned to resume printing from this origin. .

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a circuit showing one embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment shows a case where a ribbon cassette is mounted on a carriage and the ink ribbon is wound up while printing.

The processor 1 reads a program stored in the ROM 2 and operates. Print data is sent from the host device via the interface control circuit 4. processor 1
temporarily stores this print data in RAM3. and R
The print data stored in AM3 is read out, and if it is a print code, the corresponding character pattern is read out from the character generation circuit 7 and written into the line buffer area in RAMa again.

Then, the print pattern is read from the line buffer area and sent to the print head control circuit 11. The print head control circuit 11 transfers the print pattern to the print head 1 of the print section 12.
4, and print head 140 based on the print pattern.
Heat the heating element.

At the same time, the processor 1 controls the space control circuit 8 to drive the space motor 9 to cause the carriage on which the printing section 12 is mounted to perform a space motion.

The processor 1 also simultaneously controls the ribbon drive control circuit 10 to drive the ribbon reel 16 of the printing section 12 and wind up the ink ribbon 15 sequentially as printing progresses. The ink on the ink ribbon 15 is melted by the heated heating element of the print head 14, and the characters are transferred onto the paper. A mark indicating the end of the ink ribbon 15 is detected by the ribbon end detector 13. This detection signal is transmitted to the ribbon drive control circuit 10.
The information is reported to processor 1 via .

When the processor 1 receives the signal from the ribbon end detector 13, it stores the print completion address of the line buffer area in the RAMa, and also outputs the print head control circuit 1.
1 to stop heating the heating element of the print head 14 and notify the operator that the ink ribbon is finished. At the same time, the space control circuit 8 is controlled to stop driving the space motor 9, and the space movement of the carriage is also stopped.

When the operator replaces the ink ribbon and presses the switch, the processor l performs space initialization (returning the carriage to the position immediately after power is turned on) in order to accurately return the carriage to the printing stop position, and sets the address of the line buffer area. In order to position the print head 14 at a print position corresponding to the position, the space control circuit 8 is controlled and the space motor 9 is driven to move the carriage.

When the processor 1 detects a line feed command from the print data read from the RAM 3, it controls the line feed control circuit 5 and drives the line feed motor 6 to feed the paper.

In the case of the system in which the ink ribbon is fed out when the carriage returns, the processor 1 controls the space control circuit 8 and drives the space motor 9 to move the carriage from the position at power-on to the printing start position.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the present invention, the space initialization is always performed after the ink ribbon is replaced, so that the print head can be accurately positioned at the print restart position regardless of the position of the carriage.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a circuit showing one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a processor, and 2 is a ROM. 3 is RAM. 4 is an interface control circuit, 5 is a line feed control circuit, 6 is a line feed motor, 7 is a character generation circuit, 8 is a space control circuit, 9 is a space motor, 1
0 is a ribbon drive control circuit, 11 is a print head control circuit, 12 is a printing section, 13 is a ribbon end detector, 1
4 is a print head, 15 is an ink ribbon, and 16 is a ribbon reel. Mine 1 Low AQ':

Claims (1)

[Claims] A method for controlling a carriage in a thermal transfer printer, characterized in that when the thermal transfer printer is instructed to resume printing operation after replacing an ink ribbon, the carriage is once returned to an initial position and then the carriage is repositioned.