Patent ID: 6046756
Filing Date: 2000-04-04
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
A printer device for a continuous printing medium having a series of printing areas, comprising:a feeding path;a feeding roller section for feeding the printing medium at a constant speed along said feeding path;a plurality of platens arranged in series on said feeding path, for rotatably supporting the printing medium fed from said feeding roller section;a plurality of print heads respectively disposed to face the platens and each print head being movable between a contact position for contact with a corresponding one of the platens and a standby position so as to be spaced apart from the corresponding platen, for performing a printing on selected printing areas of the printing medium;a single position sensing section for sensing that the printing medium has been positioned at a printing start position located between said feeding roller section and a platen nearest said feeding roller section; andcontrol means coupled to said print heads for determining a position of a front edge of the printing medium based on a result of measuring an elapse of time after the printing medium has been sensed to be positioned at the printing start position by said position sensing section, and moving each of said print heads from the standby position to the contact position when it is determined that the front edge of the printing medium has reached a position slightly advanced over the corresponding platen.