Printer with a plurality of ink ribbon cassettes

Abstract: A printer with a plurality of ink ribbon cassettes (33a-c) is capable of printing characters or designs with a selective one of these ink ribbon cassettes. The printer includes a vertically movable cassette table (12) on which the plurality of ink ribbon cassettes are mounted in pile, a stepping motor (35), and a rotary cam mechanism (34) for moving up and down the cassette table (12) when the stepping motor (35) drives to rotate the rotary cam mechanism (34). And, it further provides a memory (37b) for prestoring the rotational speed data for each rotational angle of the rotary cam mechanism (34) according to a variation pattern of load applied to the stepping motor (35) together with the rotation of the rotary cam mechanism (34). The rotational speed of the stepping motor (35) is controlled according to the rotational speed data corresponding to each rotational angle of the rotary cam mechanism (34) read out of the memory (37b).

Description: The present invention relates to a printer with a plurality of ink ribbon cassettes. More particularly, the invention relates to a printer which allows a print head to be opposed to any one of the ink ribbon cassettes for respective colours so that it can print characters or patterns in a desired colour. A printer which is capable of printing characters or patterns in several colours is normally operated to mount on a vertically movable cassette table a plurality of printing ink ribbon cassettes for respective colours and to move up and down the cassette table with a cam mechanism driven by a motor in order that a desired ink ribbon cassette is allowed to be opposed to a print head. This type of printer has been disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laying Open Publication (KOKAI) No.61-182961, laid open on August 15, 1986. Another printer which is capable of printing characters is operated to move up and down an ink ribbon providing several colours with a cam mechanism driven by a stepping motor in order that a ribbon portion of a desired colour is opposed to a print head. This type of printer has been disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laying Open Publication (KOKAI) No.59-194884, laid open on November 5, 1984. As shown in Fig.1, those printers are designed to control the drive motor of the ink ribbon cassettes or of the ink ribbon in a manner to keep a rotational speed of the motor constant irrespective of load variation. When the load reaches a maximum peak, therefore, the motor rotates too fast to reach the drive torque which allows positive drive. In particular, if the drive motor employs a stepping motor, it may be stepped out. In order to prevent the motor from being stepped out caused by short drive torque, the rotational speed of the stepping motor should be set low. However, such setting results in enlarging the drive torque, which may heat the stepping motor. In particular, if a carriage is iteratively moved up and down for often switching the colours, abnormal heating may occur in the stepping motor and it may be finally burnt out. Moreover, as the rotational speed of the motor is set lower, the cassette table is slowly moved up and down. This brings about a shortcoming in that it takes a long time to switch the printing ink cassette. This means that it has been impractical to set the rotational speed of the motor low if there has existed a requirement for the quick and smooth switching of the ink cassette. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a printer which is capable of quickly switching printing ink ribbon cassettes and preventing the stepping motor for driving a carriage from being stepped out and excessively heated. This invention provides a printer having a plurality of ink ribbon cassettes, and which, in operation, uses a selected one of said ink ribbon cassettes, said printer comprising: a vertically movable cassette table for mounting, in a stacked relationship, the plurality of ink ribbon cassettes; a stepping motor; and a rotary cam mechanism connected to said stepping motor and to said cassette table, and rotatable by said stepping motor, for moving said cassette table up and down, characterized in that said printer further comprises: storage means for pre-storing rotational speed data of said stepping motor at each rotational angle of said rotary cam mechanism, said data being arranged to depend on a load variation caused by the rotation of said rotary cam mechanism so that a rotational speed of said stepping motor is decreased when the load applied to said stepping motor increases, and the rotational speed is increased when the load applied to said stepping motor decreases; and control means for controlling a rotational speed of said stepping motor according to the rotational speed data corresponding to each rotational angle of said rotary cam mechanism, read out from said storage means. Thus the rotational speed data which the storage means pre-stores for each rotational angle of the rotary cam mechanism is arranged to increase the rotational speed if the load applied to the stepping motor is reduced during the rotation of the rotary cam mechanism, for the purpose of preventing the motor from being heated too much. Also, in order to prevent the stepping motor from being stepped out, the printer is capable of lowering the speed of the stepping motor during the high load time, for the purpose of increasing the driving torque. This results in being able to quickly and smoothly switch the ink ribbon cassette. Microprocessor control of a stepper motor, used for example in a printer, according to the relationship between the speed of the motor and a load applied thereto, is known from IBM TECHNICAL DISCLOSURE BULLETIN, Vol.29, No. 3, August 1986, pages 1039-1041. This document makes no reference to problems associated with ribbon switching in a multi-ribbon printer. Further features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 is a graph showing the relation between load and rotation speed of the conventional driving motor for switching a printing ink ribbon; Fig. 2 is a perspective view schematically showing construction of a print unit according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; Fig.3 is a perspective view showing construction of a carriage base viewed from the back side of Fig.2; Fig.4 is a side view showing the carriage base and a cassette table of the print unit of Fig.2; Figs.5 to 7 are views showing structure and operation of a drive mechanism for moving up and down the cassette table; Fig.8 is a graph showing the relation between load and rotational speed of a motor for switching an ink ribbon cassette included in the print unit of Fig.2; Fig.9 is a block diagram showing a control device for controlling the rotational speed of the motor; and Figs.10 and 11 are flowcharts illustrating a portion of a speed control program contained in a microcomputer. Fig.2 schematically shows the construction of a print unit designed according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. Fig.3 shows the construction of a carriage base included in the print unit shown in Fig.2, which carriage base is viewed from the back side of Fig.2. Fig.4 shows the carriage base and a cassette table included in the print unit of Fig.2, which are viewed from the side of Fig.2. In these figures, reference numeral 10 denotes a main frame of a print unit, and 11 denotes a carriage base of a cassette table 12 on which a plurality of ink ribbon cassettes are mounted. The carriage base 11 is supported on a guide shaft 13 laterally supported on the main frame 10 and is supported on a guide plate 14 fixed on the main frame 10 via a roller 15 (see Fig.4). The carriage base 11 is allowed to laterally travel along the guide shaft 13 as shown by an arrow A (see Figs.2 and 3). The carriage base 11 is connected to a timing belt 16. This timing belt 16 is driven by a motor 17 rotating in both directions so that the carriage base 11 is allowed to laterally travel back and forth at a predetermined stroke. On the carriage base 11 are provided the cassette table 12, a thermal head 18 served as a print heat, and a ribbon take-up shaft 19. A platen 20 is provided in opposition to the thermal head 18 (see Fig.3). The ribbon take-up shaft 19 provides a drive pawl 19a for winding the ink ribbon at the same level as the thermal head 18. The ribbon take-up shaft 19 is designed to rotate in interlocking with a gear 21 provided on the lower portion of the carriage base 11. The gear 21 engages with a rack gear 22 fixed on and located in parallel to the guide plate 14. Hence, by laterally travelling back and forth along the carriage base 11, the gear 21 is rotated so that the ribbon take-up shaft 19 may be rotated. In Fig.2, 23 denotes a feed roller for feeding paper. The feed roller 23 is rotated by the motor 24. The cassette table 12 is mounted above the carriage base 11 by links 25 and 26 crossed like an X character. These links 25 and 26 are mounted on one side of the carriage base 11, the other side of which provides similar crossed links mounted thereon (not shown). A middle portion of the link 25 and one end of the link 26 respectively provide pins 27 and 28 mounted thereon. The pins 27 and 28 are pivotally supported on the cassette table 12 and the carriage base 11. The other ends of the links 25 and 26 respectively provide guide pins 29 and 30. The guide pins 29 and 30 are inserted into slots 31 and 32 in a manner to allow these pins to move through the slots. As such, as the crossed links 25 and 26 become longer or shorter, the cassette table 12 is allowed to move up and down in parallel to the carriage base 11. As shown in Fig.4, three ink ribbons 33a, 33b, and 33c for respective colors are mounted on the cassette table 12 in pile. This mounting construction allows the thermal head 18 to be inserted into a concave portion provided at the front surface of the ink ribbon cassettes 33a, 33b, and 33c and to be located on the rear side of the ink ribbon of each cassette. Next, the description will be directed to the structure and the operation of the lifting mechanism of the cassette table 12 with reference to Figs.5 to 7. As shown in these figures, a rotary cam mechanism 34 is provided under the cassette table 12. The rotary cam mechanism 34 is rotated in both directions by a stepping motor 35 so that the cassette table 12 is allowed to move up and down. That is, the rotary cam mechanism 34 provides a drive shaft 34a connected to a rotary shaft of the stepping motor 35, a first cam member 34b fixed on the drive shaft 34a, and a second cam member 34c rotatably fitted on the drive shaft 34a. These first and second cam members 34a and 34c respectively include arc contact surfaces. The first cam member 34b has a smaller diameter to the contact surface than the second cam member 34c by a thickness of an ink ribbon cassette. The first cam member 34b includes an arc slot 34d to which a pin 34e is inserted. The pin 34e is formed to project from the side of the second cam member 34c. In an initial state, as shown in Fig.5, the first and second cam members 34b and 34c are rotated counterclockwise to a maximum limit. That is, the end of the slot 34d of the first cam member 34b is pressed on the pin 34e of the second cam member 34c and the side end of the second cam member 34c is pressed on the pin 36 fixed on the carriage base 11 so that both cam members 34b and 34c are disallowed to rotate counterclockwise any more. In this state, the contact surfaces of both cam members 34b and 34c are disallowed to press up the bottom of the cassette table 12. It means that the cassette table 12 is located at the lowermost point. When the cassette table 12 is located at the lowermost point, the uppermost ink ribbon cassette 33a results in positioning the thermal head 18. Also, the drive pawl 19a of the ribbon take-up shaft 19 is located inside of the ink ribbon cassette 33a. It results in allowing only the ink ribbon cassette 33a to enter into a ribbon take-up state, in other words, a printable state. When the drive shaft 34a is rotated clockwise about 90° from the state shown in Fig.5, it shifts to the state shown in Fig.6. That is, the first cam member 34b is rotated about 90° in a manner to allow the contact surface of the first cam member to press up the bottom of the cassette table 12 by a certain length. In this state, the second cam member 34c remains in an initial state without rotation, because the opposite end of the slot 34d of the first cam member 34b is disallowed to be pressed on the pin 34e. In the state shown in Fig.6, the middle ink ribbon cassette 33b is located at the same level as the thermal head 18, thereby allowing the drive pawl 19a of the ribbon take-up shaft 19 to be located inside of the ink ribbon cassette 33b. As a result, only the ink ribbon cassette 33b enters into a printable state. When the drive shaft 34a is rotated about 90° clockwise from the state shown in Fig.6, it enters into the state shown in Fig.7. That is, the opposite end of the slot 34d of the first cam member 34b is pressed on the pin 34e of the second cam member 34c so that the second cam member 34c is rotated about 90° together with the first cam member 34b, thereby allowing the contact surface of the second cam member to press up the bottom of the cassette table 12 by a certain length. In the state shown in Fig.7, the lowermost ink ribbon cassette 33c is located at the same level as the thermal head 18, thereby allowing the drive pawl 19a of the ribbon take-up shaft 19 to be located inside of the ink ribbon cassette 33c. As a result, only the ink ribbon cassette 33c enters into a printable state. If the drive shaft 34a is rotated counterclockwise, the cassette table 12 is lowered one step by one step as tracing back the operation disclosed in the foregoing description. The drive shaft 34a of the rotary cam mechanism 34 is rotated by the stepping motor 35, the speed of which is controlled on a predetermined pattern by a control device 37 providing a microcomputer. The load applied to the stepping motor 35 through the drive shaft 34a of the rotary cam mechanism 34 varies as shown in Fig.8 according to a rotational angle position of the drive shaft 34a. The variation pattern can be obtained in advance by calculation or measurement using a dimension of the rotary cam mechanism 34 and weights of the cassette table 12 and the ink ribbon cassettes 33a, 33b, and 33c. It is possible to control the speed of the stepping motor 35 as shown in Fig.8 according to the variation pattern. When high load is applied to the motor, it is possible to prevent the stepping motor 35 from being stepped out by lowering the speed of the stepping motor 35 for increasing the drive torque. When low load is applied to the motor, it is possible to take the steps of increasing the speed of the stepping motor 35 for preventing the motor from being heated too much as well as increasing the lifting speed of the cassette table 12 for quickly and smoothly switching the ink ribbon cassette. Fig.9 schematically shows electric arrangement of the control device 37 for controlling the speed. The control device 37 mainly consists of a microcomputer including a CPU 37a, a ROM 37b, a RAM 37c, an I/O interface 37d, and a bus 37e connecting them with one another. The I/O interface 37d is connected to a driver circuit 37f for supplying the drive current of the stepping motor 35. The CPU 37a serves to form a phase shift signal for driving the stepping motor 35 based on a program stored in the ROM 37b and apply it to the driver circuit 37f through the I/O interface 37d. Figs.10 and 11 show portions of a program for controlling the motor rotation, which is included in the microcomputer. Then, the description will be directed to the motor rotation control operation with reference to those flowcharts. In response to a signal indicating the switching of the ink ribbon cassette supplied through the I/O interface 37d, the control device 37 starts to control the rotation of the stepping motor 35. At a time, it sets a flag representing that the stepping motor 35 is in operation and permits a timer interruption for phase shift. As shown in Fig.10, at a step S1 on the way of the main routine, the CPU 37a determines if the stepping motor is in operation based on the flag. If the motor is in operation, the CPU 37a iteratively performs the process of the step S1. Further, in response to an indication signal for switching from an ink ribbon cassette to another one, the CPU 37a recognizes the current angle position (the number of steps counted from an initial position) of the stepping motor 35 and which direction the stepping motor 35 makes for and how many steps it should be rotated. On the other hand, the ROM 37b stores as a table a phase shift period of time (set value of an interruption timer) in each angle position (each step counted from the initial position) of the stepping motor 35. The stepping motor 35 is switched on for the phase shift period of time read at each angle position from the ROM 37b so as to control the speed of the stepping motor 35. That is, according to the present embodiment, the speed control is executed by controlling the phase shift period of time of the stepping motor 35. When high load is applied to the stepping motor 35, the speed of the stepping motor 35 is controlled low by extending the phase shift period of time. When low load is applied thereto, the speed of the stepping motor 35 is controlled high by shortening the phase shift period of time. Table 1 represents a portion of the table, that is, the step numbers 100 to 109 of the table counted from the initial step position, and motor speeds and phase shift periods of time respectively matching to these step numbers. In this instance, the value to be set in the timer is based on a unit of µ sec. NUMBER OF STEPS FROM INITIAL POSITION MOTOR SPEED (pps) PHASE SHIFT PERIOD OF TIME (msec) VALUE TO BE SET IN TIMER 100 600.0 1.667 1667 101 581.2 1.720 1720 102 561.8 1.780 1780 103 541.6 1.846 1846 104 520.7 1.920 1920 105 498.9 2.004 2004 106 476.1 2.100 2100 107 452.2 2.212 2212 108 426.9 2.343 2343 109 400.0 2.500 2500 The CPU 37a reads the value to be set in the timer from the table stored in the ROM 37b. An interrupt takes place after the timer counts the set value. It results in shifting the phase of the stepping motor 35 so that the stepping motor 35 rotates by a predetermined angle, that is, one step. Fig.11 shows the timer interrupt routine. This interrupt routine takes the following steps; at a step S11, executing phase shift of the stepping motor 35 when a timer interrupt takes place, at a step S12, incrementing the pointer P of the table as P.P+1, at a step S13, reading the next value to be set in the timer on the incremented pointer P, and at a step S14, setting the value read at the step S13 to the timer. Then, the program finishes this interrupt routine and returns to a main routine. After the timer counts this set value, the interrupt shown in Fig.11 takes place again. It results in executing the similar process so that the stepping motor 35 is rotated by one step. If the motor is rotated by the number of steps defined by repeating the phase shift of stepping motor 35, it is when the rotation control operation of the stepping motor 35 finishes. It means that the phase-shift timer interrupt is prohibited when the flag is reset. By setting the flag, the main routine escapes out of the step S1 and goes to the next step. The foregoing embodiment discloses a printer provided with three ink ribbon cassettes. In fact, however, the number of ink ribbon cassettes may be any number except one, though the number of cam members is defined according to the number of ink ribbon cassettes. The structure of a cam mechanism for moving up and down the cassette table is not limited to that disclosed in the embodiment. Many widely different embodiments of the present invention may be constructed without departing from the scope of the present invention. It should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described in the specification, except as defined in the appended claims.

Claims: A printer having a plurality of ink ribbon cassettes (33a-33c), and which, in operation, uses a selected one of said ink ribbon cassettes, said printer comprising: a vertically movable cassette table (12) for mounting, in a stacked relationship, the plurality of ink ribbon cassettes; a stepping motor (35); and a rotary cam mechanism (34) connected to said stepping motor and to said cassette table, and rotatable by said stepping motor, for moving said cassette table up and down, characterized in that said printer further comprises: storage means (37b) for pre-storing rotational speed data of said stepping motor (35) at each rotational angle of said rotary cam mechanism (34), said data being arranged to depend on a load variation caused by the rotation of said rotary cam mechanism so that a rotational speed of said stepping motor is decreased when the load applied to said stepping motor increases, and the rotational speed is increased when the load applied to said stepping motor decreases; and control means (37a) for controlling a rotational speed of said stepping motor according to the rotational speed data corresponding to each rotational angle of said rotary cam mechanism, read out from said storage means (37b). A printer as claimed in claim 1, wherein said storage means (37b) is a ROM table. A printer as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the rotational speed data stored in said storage means (37b) indicates a phase shift period of time of said stepping motor (35). A printer as claimed in claim 3, wherein said control means (37a) serves to control a phase shift period of time of said stepping motor (35) according to the data about the phase shift period of time, said data corresponding to each rotational angle of said rotary cam mechanism (34) read out of said storage means (37b). A printer as claimed in claim 4, wherein said control means (37a) includes timer means providing the set data about phase shift period of time read out of said storage means and means for indicating the phase shift of said stepping motor (35) when said timer means finishes a count of said set data. A printer as claimed in claim 5, where said control means (37a) includes a programmed microcomputer which controls the rotational speed of said stepping motor (35). A printer as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rotary cam mechanism (34) includes a contact surface on which the bottom of said cassette table (12) is pressed when said stepping motor (35) rotates said rotary cam mechanism whereby said cassette table is allowed to move up and down by pressing said contact surface on said bottom surface. A printer as claimed in claim 7, wherein said rotary cam mechanism (34) includes a plurality of cam members (34b; 34c) having respective diameters to the contact surface. A printer as claimed in claim 8, wherein the number of said cam members is the same as that of said stacked ink ribbon cassettes (33a-33c). A printer as claimed in claim 8, wherein the difference between the diameters of adjacent ones of said cam members (34b; 34c) is equal to the thickness of said ink ribbon cassette (33a-33c).

Inventors: MATSUDA SHINJI, NAKANISHI YOUICHI, SUGIMURA KENJI, MATSUDA, SHINJI, NAKANISHI, YOUICHI, SUGIMURA, KENJI
Applicants: SHARP KK, SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1990
Main classification: B41J35
IPC codes: H02P8, B41J35, F27D3, B41J32