JP2010099895A - Printer and printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

To save energy by effectively irradiating ultraviolet rays.
When an ink attached to an IC tag label 60 that is a printing medium is cured by an ultraviolet irradiator 24 that is a light irradiating unit having a plurality of light emitting sources 24a that emit ultraviolet rays, the IC tag label 60 is controlled by a control unit that is a control unit. The light emission source 24a to be turned on is selected and controlled in accordance with the print width of information such as characters printed on the screen, so that the ultraviolet irradiation is effectively performed. In other words, it is possible to irradiate ultraviolet rays to the portion where the fine particles of the ink are attached without waste, and to eliminate unnecessary irradiation of the ultraviolet rays to the portion where the fine particles of the ink are not attached. I made it.
[Selection] Figure 5

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method for printing on a printing medium by an ink jet method.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing apparatus equipped with an ink jet type print head that performs printing by spraying fine particles of ink onto paper is known. Here, a method of spraying fine particles of ink by an ink jet method includes a piezo method in which a liquid is instantaneously increased by applying a pulse to a piezoelectric element to push the liquid from the nozzle, and the inside of the nozzle. There is a thermal method in which bubbles are generated by heating a heater and ink particles are blown by the pressure of the bubbles.

  In addition, the inkjet printing method includes a serial head method in which an image is formed by reciprocating a head on a printing medium and transporting the printing medium in a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction of the head, and a printing width of the printing medium. There is a line head system in which an image is formed by conveying a print medium in a direction perpendicular to the print width direction.

  In such an ink jet system, printing can be performed not only on a printing medium that is continuous paper such as roll paper or fanfold paper but also on a printing medium that is a sheet such as an IC tag label.

  By the way, when printing is performed on such a print medium by an inkjet method, it is necessary to fix the image such as characters formed by fine particles sprayed on the print surface of the print medium so as not to blur. In addition, in the case of a print medium whose print surface is coated with a material such as PET (PolyEthylene / Terephthalate) such as an IC tag label, the ink absorbability is extremely low, so that it needs to be fixed in the same manner as described above. There is.

  As for the fixing of such ink, in Patent Document 1, the ultraviolet curable ink discharged from the recording head and landed on the recording medium by the ultraviolet irradiation unit in which the exposure amount of the ultraviolet ray is set by the image quality adjustment condition setting unit. An ink jet recording apparatus that irradiates ultraviolet rays has been proposed.

JP 2005-119131 A

  In the above-described ink jet recording apparatus of Patent Document 1, since the ultraviolet irradiation operation by the ultraviolet irradiation unit is appropriately controlled based on the exposure amount of ultraviolet rays set by the image quality adjustment condition setting unit, Not only printing media that is continuous paper, such as fanfold paper, but also printing media that is sheet paper, such as IC tag labels, the ink will be properly fixed, resulting in high-quality printing. Done.

  However, in the ink jet recording apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, ultraviolet rays emitted by ultraviolet irradiation means such as a high-pressure mercury lamp, a metal halide lamp, a hot cathode tube, and a cold cathode tube arranged in parallel along the scanning direction for printing by the recording head. When controlling the exposure amount, it is necessary to carry out the entire ultraviolet irradiation means.

  In this case, ultraviolet irradiation is performed by the ultraviolet irradiation means even on the portion where the printing on the printing medium is not performed, that is, the portion where the fine particles of the ultraviolet curable ink are not attached. Is wastefully performed, and there is a problem in saving energy.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and an object thereof is to provide a printing apparatus and a printing method that can save energy by effectively irradiating ultraviolet rays.

A printing apparatus according to the present invention is a printing apparatus that performs printing by an ink jet method in which an ink having ultraviolet curable properties is attached to a printing medium, and a plurality of ultraviolet rays that are used to cure the ink attached to the printing medium. And a light irradiating means having a light emitting source, and a control means for selecting and controlling the light emitting source to be turned on in accordance with a print width of information printed on the print medium.
The light emitting sources may be arranged in parallel along the printing direction with respect to the print medium, and may be selected and controlled for each print line with respect to the print medium by the control means.
The printing method of the present invention is a printing method in which printing is performed by an ink jet method in which an ultraviolet curable ink is attached to a printing medium, and the printing medium includes a plurality of light emitting sources that emit ultraviolet rays. And a step of selecting and controlling the light emitting source to be turned on in accordance with a print width of information printed on the print medium by the control means.
In the printing apparatus and the printing method of the present invention, when the ink attached to the print medium is cured by the light irradiation means having a plurality of light emitting sources that emit ultraviolet rays, the control means according to the print width of the information printed on the print medium. Since the light emission source to be turned on is selected and controlled, ultraviolet irradiation is effectively performed.

  According to the printing apparatus and the printing method of the present invention, when the ink attached to the print medium is cured by the light irradiation means having a plurality of light emitting sources that emit ultraviolet rays, the print width of the information printed on the print medium by the control means is set. Accordingly, the light emission source to be turned on is selected and controlled so that the ultraviolet irradiation is effectively performed, so that energy saving can be achieved.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a printing apparatus for performing printing on a printing medium according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of the printing unit of FIG. 1 as viewed from above. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a stacker that accommodates a printed medium such as printed.

  First, a printing apparatus (hereinafter referred to as an inkjet printer) 1 shown in FIG. 1 performs printing by an inkjet method, and includes a stacker 10, a printing unit 20, a transport mechanism unit 30, a stacker 40, and a control unit 50. .

  The stacker 10 has a housing 10a that accommodates, for example, an IC tag label 60, which is a printing medium before printing. The casing 10 a has a top plate 12 that is formed in, for example, a box shape and can be opened and closed via a hinge 11. The IC tag label 60 can be replenished by opening the top 12. Note that, here, for example, the IC tag label 60 is shown as the print medium. However, the print medium is not limited to the IC tag label 60 and may be a sheet such as another label.

  In addition, inside the housing 10a, there are provided a mounting table 14 on which an IC tag label 60 is mounted and a delivery roller 15 for feeding the IC tag label 60 to the printing unit 20 side. . The driving force of the delivery roller 15 may be applied from a motor (not shown), or may be applied from a step motor 37 (described later) via a clutch mechanism (not shown).

  A pair of feed rollers 16a and 16b is provided outside the housing 10a and in the vicinity of the feed roller 15. These feeding rollers 16a and 16b feed the IC tag label 60 to the printing unit 20 side while being pressed against the front and back surfaces of the IC tag label 60 fed by the feeding roller 15. The driving force of these feeding rollers 16a and 16b may be applied from a motor (not shown) as described above, or may be supplied from a step motor 37 (described later) via a clutch mechanism (not shown). Good.

  The printing unit 20 performs printing on the IC tag label 60 described above, and includes a paper detection sensor 21, an inkjet head 22, an ultraviolet irradiator 24, and a transmission / reception module 25 as shown in FIGS. ing.

  The paper detection sensor 21 is a reflective sensor that detects, for example, the front end portion of the IC tag label 60 fed by the feeding rollers 16a and 16b. The paper detection sensor 21 may be a transmissive type. In addition, when a mark such as an I mark is attached to the back side of the paper detection sensor 21, the mark may be detected. The print start position on the IC tag label 60 by the inkjet head 22 is determined based on the detection result by the paper detection sensor 21.

  The ink jet head 22 performs printing by spraying fine particles of ink from the nozzle 22 a onto the print surface of the IC tag label 60. Here, as the ink sprayed from the nozzle 22a, a radical polymerization type or cationic polymerization type ink having ultraviolet curing properties can be used.

  The inkjet head 22 performs, for example, black (K) monochrome printing, and moves (scans) along the guide shaft 23 in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the IC tag label 60 (width direction of the IC tag label 60). ) Serial head method. The ink jet head 22 may have a nozzle row extending in the width direction of the IC tag label 60, and may be a line head system that forms an image by transporting the IC tag label 60 in a direction perpendicular to the printing direction.

  Here, the inkjet head 22 is shown in the case of performing black (K) monochrome printing, for example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and color printing may be performed. In this case, when the serial head method is adopted, for example, four ink jet heads 22 are provided, and each ink jet head 22 is provided along the guide shaft 23 and fine particles of ink of each color from each ink jet head 22 are sprayed. Color printing can be performed by superimposing.

  Further, when the line head method is used, each inkjet head 22 is provided along the conveyance direction of the IC tag label 60, and further, a nozzle row is provided in each inkjet head 22 in the width direction of the IC tag label 60. Color printing can be performed by spraying and superimposing fine particles of ink of each color from each inkjet head 22.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the ultraviolet irradiator 24 has a plurality of light emitting sources 24a such as LEDs that emit ultraviolet light. As will be described later, the light emission sources 24a are controlled in accordance with the print width of the inkjet head 22.

  The transmission / reception module 25 shown in FIG. 1 receives radio waves (not shown) from an inlet 61 having an IC chip 62 and an antenna 63 mounted on a plastic film (not shown), which is provided on the IC tag label 60 shown in FIG. For example, 2.45 GHz) is emitted, the inlet 61 is operated in a dielectric manner, and information is written to and read from the IC chip 62.

  The transport mechanism 30 shown in FIG. 1 applies drive force to the drive roller 32 via the drive rollers 32 and 33 that drive the transport belt 31, the pressing rollers 34 and 35 that suppress the lifting of the IC tag label 60, and the timing belt 36. And a stepping motor 37 for feeding.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the stacker 40 has an IC tag label in which information is written to and read from an IC chip 62 of an inlet 61 (to be described later) and an IC tag label 60 that contains printed IC tag labels 60. And a housing 40b for housing 60.

  The housing 40a has, for example, a box shape and includes a top plate 42 that can be opened and closed via a hinge 41. By opening the top plate 42, the printed IC tag label 60 can be taken out.

  In addition, on the side surface of the housing 40a facing the drive roller 33 side, a take-in port 43 for taking in the IC tag label 60 that has been printed or the like is provided. The intake port 43 is provided with a distribution plate 44 that is rotatable in the direction of arrow a from a horizontal position via a shaft 44a, and a pressing roller 44b that suppresses the lifting of the IC tag label 60.

  This distribution plate 44 is normally in a horizontal position, and when writing or reading information to / from the IC chip 62 of the inlet 61 by the transmission / reception module 25 is NG, the distribution plate 44 is rotated in the direction of the arrow a and becomes NG. The IC tag label 60 is discharged downward to the housing 40b side. At this time, the pressing roller 44 b is shifted upward in accordance with the rotation of the distribution plate 44.

  A pull-in roller body 45 for pulling in the IC tag label 60 taken from the take-in port 43 is provided inside the housing 40a. The pulling roller body 45 has driving rollers 45a and 45b and a driving belt 45c, and is driven by a driving force of a motor (not shown). The driving timing of the drawing roller body 45 can be set, for example, when a sensor for detecting the entry of the IC tag label 60 is provided in the intake port 43 and the entry of the IC tag label 60 is detected by the sensor. .

  The housing 40b has a box shape, for example, and has a discharge port 46 at a position corresponding to the above-described distribution plate 44. As described above, the outlet 46 is opened by rotating the distribution plate 44 in the direction of the arrow a when information is written to or read from the IC chip 62 of the inlet 61 by the transceiver module 25. It has come to be. And the IC tag label 60 which became NG discharged | emitted from the discharge port 46 is accommodated in the housing | casing 40b.

  The housing 40 b has an open / close plate 48 that can be opened and closed via a hinge 47. By opening the opening / closing plate 48, the NG IC tag label 60 can be taken out.

  Next, details of the control unit 50 of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. As shown in the figure, the control unit 50 includes a CPU 51, a ROM 52, a RAM 53, an external interface 54, an interface 55, a motor control unit 56, a sensor control unit 57, a print control unit 58, a transmission / reception module control unit 59, and an ultraviolet irradiator control. Unit 64 and distribution plate control unit 65. These are connected through a bus 66.

  The CPU 51 controls the operation of each unit based on a control program stored in the ROM 52. As the main control of the CPU 51 in the present embodiment, any of the light emitting sources 24a of the ultraviolet irradiator 24 is selected according to the print width obtained by the calculation based on the control data accompanying the print data developed in the RAM 53. It is characterized in that it lights up.

  Here, the print width is a width corresponding to the number of print characters in the width direction with respect to the print surface of the IC tag label 60, for example, as shown in FIG. Normally, the number of characters printed in the width direction with respect to the printing surface of the IC tag label 60 is determined by calculation of the size of characters and the like as information to be printed and the printing area on the printing surface of the IC tag label 60. Does not necessarily have the same number of print characters on each print line.

  That is, as shown in the figure, for example, when the number of characters in the first line is 3, the number of characters in the second line is 14, and the number of characters in the third line is 17, the print width of the first line a is narrower than the print width b of the second line, and the print width b of the second line is narrower than the print width c of the third line.

  Therefore, the CPU 51 turns on only the light emission source 24a of the ultraviolet irradiator 24 corresponding to each printing width, thereby irradiating the portion where the fine particles of ink are attached with no waste. it can. In other words, useless irradiation of ultraviolet rays to portions where fine particles of ink are not attached is eliminated.

  Control of lighting of only the light emission source 24a of the ultraviolet irradiator 24 corresponding to the print width by the CPU 51 can be performed for each print line. As shown in FIG. 6, when printing is performed on, for example, the left side of the printing surface of the IC tag label 60, the light emission source 24a of the ultraviolet irradiator 24 corresponding to the printing width b wider than the printing widths a and c. Even if only each of the print lines is turned on, useless irradiation of ultraviolet rays to portions where fine particles of ink are not attached is eliminated.

  The ROM 52 stores a control program for the CPU 51 to control each unit. Various data are temporarily stored in the RAM 53. The external interface 54 transmits and receives various data to and from a device such as a host computer (not shown). The interface 55 receives input from the input unit 67 and outputs information for display to the display unit 68. Here, the input unit 67 and the display unit 68 are provided in an operation unit (not shown) of the inkjet printer 1.

  The motor control unit 56 drives the driving roller 32 by driving the step motor 37 to convey the IC tag label 60. The sensor control unit 57 controls the detection operation of the paper detection sensor 21 and, when receiving a detection signal from the paper detection sensor 21, notifies the CPU 51 of the detection signal.

  The print control unit 58 generates a control signal corresponding to the print data, supplies the control signal to the inkjet head 22, and causes the IC tag label 60 to be printed. The transmission / reception module control unit 59 controls information writing / reading operations with respect to the IC chip 62 of the inlet 61 by the transmission / reception module 25.

  The ultraviolet irradiator control unit 64 performs control so that any one of the plurality of light emitting sources 24 a of the ultraviolet irradiator 24 is turned on according to the print width for the IC tag label 60 described above. As described above, the distribution plate control unit 65 rotates the distribution plate 44 to remove the housing 40b when the transmission / reception module 25 writes or reads information to / from the IC chip 62 of the inlet 61. The outlet 46 is opened.

  Next, the operation of the inkjet printer 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the following description, as shown in FIG. 5, it is assumed that the print width of the IC tag label 60 on the print surface is different in each print line.

  First, for example, it is determined whether or not there is a print job which is a print command from a host computer (not shown) (step S1). Here, if there is a print job, the print width for each print line is obtained by calculation based on control data associated with the print data developed in the RAM 53 (step S2). Next, the light emission source 24a to be turned on by the ultraviolet irradiator 24 is selected and set in accordance with the obtained print width for each print line (step S3).

  Then, printing starts (step S4). Here, after the leading end portion of the IC tag label 60 fed by the feed roller 15 on the stacker 10 side and further fed to the printing unit 20 side by the feed rollers 16a and 16b is detected by the paper detection sensor 21, the IC tag label 60 is When the ink is transported to the printing position of the inkjet head 22, as described above, fine particles of ink are sprayed from the nozzle 22 a onto the printing surface of the IC tag label 60 to perform printing.

  In parallel with printing by the inkjet head 22, it is determined whether or not information is written to the IC chip 62 of the inlet 61 (step S5). If there is no writing, the light emission source 24a selected and set in step S3 is used as the IC tag label 60. It is turned on for each print line printed (step S9). Here, the light emission source 24a selected and set is turned on when each print line on which the IC tag label 60 is printed reaches the irradiation position of the light emission source 24a. Whether each print line on which the IC tag label 60 is printed has reached the irradiation position of the light emission source 24a can be determined from the detection result by the paper detection sensor 21 and the number of steps of the step motor 37. .

  In this way, the fine particles of the ink sprayed from the nozzles 22a of the inkjet head 22 are cured by the irradiation of the ultraviolet rays from the light source 24a of the ultraviolet irradiator 24 that is selected and set corresponding to the print width of each print line. Then, the image such as characters formed by fine particles is fixed so as not to blur.

  When the printed IC tag label 60 is conveyed to the stacker 40 side, it is stacked inside the housing 40a (step S10). Here, when the leading end side of the IC tag label 60 passes between the distribution plate 44 and the pressing roller 44b at the horizontal position and reaches the drawing roller body 45, the IC tag label 60 is moved into the housing 40a by the drawing roller body 45. Be drawn into.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S5 that there is a write, information is written to the IC chip 62 of the inlet 61 by the transmission / reception module 25 and a read check is performed, and it is further determined whether the read check is normal ( Steps S6, S7, S8).

  Here, when the read check is normal, the lighting by the light source 24a in step S9 described above and the stacking inside the housing 40a in step S10 are performed.

  On the other hand, if the read check is not normal, the IC tag label 60 is discharged (step S11). Here, the distribution plate 44 provided in the intake port 43 of the housing 40a rotates in the direction of the arrow a, and the discharge port 46 on the housing 40b side is opened. Thereby, the IC tag label 60 conveyed to the stacker 40 side is discharged from the discharge port 46 and accommodated inside the housing 40b. In this case, since the issue source 24a of the ultraviolet irradiator 24 is not caused to emit light, energy saving can be achieved.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when the ink attached to the IC tag label 60 that is a printing medium is cured by the ultraviolet irradiator 24 that is a light irradiating unit having a plurality of light emitting sources 24 a that emit ultraviolet rays, the control that is a control unit is performed. The light emission source 24a to be turned on is selected and controlled according to the printing width of information such as characters printed on the IC tag label 60 by the unit 50, and the ultraviolet irradiation is effectively performed, so that energy saving can be achieved. .

  Specifically, the light emission source 24a of the ultraviolet irradiator 24 is arranged in parallel along the printing direction with respect to the IC tag label 60, and the light emission source 24a is selected and controlled by the control unit 50, for example, for each print line with respect to the IC tag label 60. As a result, it is possible to irradiate ultraviolet rays to the portion where the fine particles of the ink are attached without waste, and to irradiate unnecessary portions of the ultraviolet rays to the portion where the fine particles of the ink are not attached. Can be eliminated.

  The present invention can be applied to all printers that employ an ink jet system that ejects ink and prints on a print medium.

It is a figure which shows one Embodiment of the printing apparatus for printing on the printing medium by the inkjet system of this invention. It is a top view at the time of seeing the printing part of the printing apparatus of FIG. 1 from upper direction. 1 is a diagram for explaining a stacker that accommodates a printed medium such as printed. It is a block diagram for demonstrating the detail of the control part of FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the printing width in the IC tag label of FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the printing width in the IC tag label of FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the ink jet printer of FIG. 1.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Inkjet printer 10,40 Stacker 20 Printing part 22 Inkjet head 23 Guide shaft 24 Ultraviolet irradiator 25 Transmission / reception module 30 Conveyance mechanism part 37 Step motor 44 Distribution board 45 Roller body 50 Control part 60 Tag label 61 Inlet

Claims (3)

A printing apparatus for performing printing by an ink jet method in which an ultraviolet curable ink is attached to a printing medium,
A light irradiation means having a plurality of light emitting sources that emit ultraviolet rays for curing the ink attached to the print medium;
And a control unit that selectively controls the light emitting source to be turned on according to a print width of information printed on the print medium. The light emitting sources are arranged in parallel along a printing direction with respect to the printing medium,
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit performs selection control for each print line on the print medium. A printing method for performing printing by an ink jet method in which an ultraviolet curable ink is attached to a printing medium,
Curing the ink adhering to the print medium by light irradiation means having a plurality of light emitting sources that emit ultraviolet rays; and
And a step of selecting and controlling the light emitting source to be turned on in accordance with a print width of information printed on the print medium by a control means.

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