PRINTER

• US 20180117908A1
• Filed: 10/27/2017
• Published: 05/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citizen Systems Japan Co.,Ltd. (Citizen Electronics Company Limited), Citizen Watch Co Limited (Citizen Electronics Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Citizen Systems Japan Co.,Ltd. (Citizen Electronics Company Limited), Citizen Watch Co Limited (Citizen Electronics Company Limited)
• Inventors: SAKURAI, Hiroshi
• Granted Patent: US 10,457,077 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/46 by marks or formations on the paper being fed
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 29/02 Framework
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 29/13 Cases or covers
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 29/38 Drives, motors, controls or automatic cut-off devices for the entire printing mechanism

Abstract

Provided is a printer including a conveying unit conveying a continuous sheet in accordance with an input print instruction, a plurality of sensors detecting a mark serving as a reference for positioning a print area on the continuous sheet, wherein the plurality of sensors adopt marks different from each other as detection targets, a printing unit printing on a print area of the continuous sheet, a storage unit storing priority information about a sensor to be used preferentially among the plurality of sensors, and a control unit controlling the conveying unit so that the print area is positioned at a print position of the printing unit on the basis of the priority information and a detection result indicating whether each of the plurality of sensors has detected the mark or not during conveying of the continuous sheet while the priority information is stored in advance.

Claims

1. A printer comprising:

a conveying unit conveying a continuous sheet in accordance with an input print instruction;

a plurality of sensors detecting a mark serving as a reference for positioning a print area on the continuous sheet, wherein the plurality of sensors adopt marks different from each other as detection targets;

a printing unit printing on a print area of the continuous sheet;

a storage unit storing priority information about a sensor to be used preferentially among the plurality of sensors; and

a control unit controlling the conveying unit so that the print area is positioned at a print position of the printing unit, on the basis of the priority information and a detection result indicating whether each of the plurality of sensors has detected the mark or not during conveying of the continuous sheet, while the priority information is stored in advance.

2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit is a ROM, and stores the priority information since the printer is manufactured.

3. The printer according to claim 2, wherein the priority information is set only for some of the plurality of sensors that function during conveying of the continuous sheet.

4. The printer according to claim 1, further comprising a receiving unit receiving an input of the priority information stored in the storage unit before conveying of the continuous sheet is started in response to the print instruction.

5. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the control unit performs specifying processing for specifying, from among the plurality of sensors, a sensor which has detected the mark before a head of the print area is conveyed to the print position of the printing unit and whose priority rank indicated by the priority information is the highest, and controls the conveying unit on the basis of a detection result with the specified sensor.

6. The printer according to claim 4, wherein the receiving unit is an operation unit provided on a main body of the printer to be manipulated by a user.

7. The printer according to claim 5, wherein

the storage unit further stores the sensor specified in the specifying processing, and

the control unit performs the specifying processing in a first printing after the continuous sheet is exchanged, and causes only the specified sensor out of the plurality of sensors to detect the mark during printing of second and subsequent sheets.

8. The printer according to claim 5, wherein in the specifying processing, the control unit specifies, from among sensors detected the mark, a sensor whose difference in an output level between detection and non-detection exceeds a reference value determined in advance and whose priority rank is the highest.

9. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors detect the mark at positions different from each other in a width direction of the continuous sheet.

10. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors include a reflection-type sensor emitting light to the continuous sheet and receiving light reflected by the continuous sheet and a transparent-type sensor emitting light to the continuous sheet and receiving light transmitted through the continuous sheet.