Patent ID: 7715939

Claim:
An embroidery sewing machine with a printing function including a sewing machine body having a bed, a foot, an arm, and being capable of sewing a workpiece cloth by a sewing unit; a cloth holding frame holding the workpiece cloth to be sewn; a frame drive unit moving the cloth holding frame independently in two mutually perpendicular directions in a horizontal plane; an ink-jet printer having a print head printing the workpiece cloth held by the cloth holding frame, and a control unit that controls the frame drive unit and the printer to print the workpiece cloth, wherein: the frame drive unit includes a first drive mechanism that moves the cloth holding frame in a first direction parallel with a lengthwise direction of the bed; and a second drive mechanism being driven by a stepping motor and that moves the cloth holding frame in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; the print head of the printer includes nozzle arrays with each nozzle array having a plurality of ink-jet nozzles aligned parallel to the first direction; the printer prints the workpiece cloth while moving the cloth holding frame in the second direction by the second drive mechanism; the cloth holding frame is arranged so that a length in the second direction is greater than a length in the first direction; and the control unit, when printing the workpiece cloth, controls the frame drive unit so that an acceleration/deceleration area of the second drive mechanism where a change in rotational speed of the stepping motor occurs is arranged at both ends of the second direction within the cloth holding frame, and controls the printer to execute printing operation exclusive of the acceleration/deceleration area.