Printer, method of controlling printer, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10464354-B2
Application number	US-201815919982-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2018
Priority date	Mar 15, 2017
Publication date	Nov 5, 2019
Grant date	Nov 5, 2019

Abstract

A printer includes a processor; a conveying motor that can operate in any one of a plurality of excitation modes, the conveying motor being configured to convey a printing medium; and a printhead that prints on the printing medium on the basis of printing data, wherein, with respect to each of at least some of the plurality of excitation modes, the processor estimates a strength value of a vibration that would be caused by said conveying motor when the conveying motor is operated in said excitation mode at a first conveying speed that is set based on the print data, and selects one of the plurality of excitation modes for actually operating the conveying motor based on the estimated strength values of the vibrations for the at least some of the plurality of excitation modes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printer, comprising:
a processor;
a conveying motor that can operate in any one of a plurality of excitation modes, the conveying motor being configured to convey a printing medium; and
a printhead that prints on the printing medium on the basis of printing data,
wherein, with respect to each of at least some of the plurality of excitation modes, the processor determines a strength value of an undesired vibration caused by said conveying motor when the conveying motor is operated in said excitation mode, and selects one of the plurality of excitation modes of operating the conveying motor based on the determined strength values of the vibrations in the at least some of the plurality of excitation modes in actually printing on the printing medium.

2. The printer according to claim 1 , wherein, with respect to each of said at least some of the plurality of excitation modes, the processor receives data representing a speed-vibration relationship between strength values of the vibration that are caused by the conveying motor operated in said excitation mode and conveying speeds that can be produced by the conveying motor, and determines the strength value of the vibration caused by said conveying motor when the conveying motor is operated in said excitation mode for each of the plurality of excitation modes by referring to said data representing the speed-vibration relationship.

3. The printer according to claim 2 , further comprising a memory storing the data representing the speed-vibration relationship,
wherein the processor reads out the data representing the speed-vibration relationship from the memory.

4. The printer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of excitation modes include a first excitation mode and a second excitation mode that are different from each other,
wherein, for each of the first and second excitation modes, the processor determines that resonance will occur among members constituting the conveying motor if the determined strength value of vibration is greater than or equal to a threshold value assigned to the excitation mode and determines that the resonance will not occur if the determined strength value of vibration is less than the threshold value, and
wherein if the processor determines that the resonance will occur at a first conveying speed in the first excitation mode and if the processor determines that the resonance will not occur at the first conveying speed in the second excitation mode, the processor causes the conveying motor to operate in the second excitation mode at the first conveying speed.

5. The printer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of excitation modes include a first excitation mode and a second excitation mode that are different from each other,
wherein, for each of the first and second excitation modes, the processor determines that resonance will occur in the conveying motor if the determined strength value of vibration is greater than or equal to a threshold value assigned to the excitation mode and determines that resonance will not occur in the conveying motor if the determined strength value of vibration is less than the threshold value, and
wherein if the processor determines that the resonance will occur at a first conveying speed in the first excitation mode and if the processor determines that the resonance will also occur at the first conveying speed in the second excitation mode, the processor determines another conveying speed that is lower than the first conveying speed and that does not cause the resonance in at least one of the first and second excitation modes, and causes the conveying motor to operate at the determined another conveying speed in said one of the first and second excitation modes.

6. The printer according to claim 5 ,
wherein if the processor determines that the resonance will occur at the first conveying speed in the first excitation mode and if the processor determines that the resonance will also occur at the first conveying speed in the second excitation mode, the processor determines a second conveying speed that is lower than the first conveying speed and that does not cause the resonance in the first excitation modes and determines a third conveying speed that is lower than the first conveying speed and that does not cause the resonance in the second excitation mode, and
wherein the processor selects one of the first and second excitation modes on the basis of at least the second conveying speed and the third conveying speed.

7. The printer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of excitation modes includes a first excitation mode and a second excitation mode that are different from each other,
wherein, for each of the first and second excitation modes, the processor determines that resonance will occur among members constituting the conveying motor if the determined strength value of vibration is greater than or equal to a threshold value assigned to the excitation mode and determines that the resonance will not occur if the determined strength value of vibration is less than the threshold value, and
wherein if the processor determines that the resonance will occur at a first conveying speed in the first excitation mode and if the processor determines that the resonance will not occur at the first conveying speed in the second excitation mode and that a torque of the conveying motor will be greater than or equal to a prescribed value at the first conveying speed in the second excitation mode, the processor selects the second excitation mode and causes the conveying motor to operate in the second excitation mode at the first conveying speed.

8. The printer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of excitation modes includes a default excitation mode, and
wherein the processor first determines the strength value of the vibration at a first conveying speed in the default excitation mode, and if the strength value of the vibration is determined to be lower than a prescribed threshold, the processor selects the default excitation mode for actually operating the conveying motor and causes the conveying motor to operate in the default excitation mode at the first conveying speed without determining the strength value of the vibration in other excitation modes.

9. A method of controlling a printer performed by a processor in the printer, the printer including said processor; a conveying motor that can operate in any one of a plurality of excitation modes, the conveying motor being configured to convey a printing medium; and a printhead that prints on the printing medium on the basis of printing data, the method comprising:
with respect to each of at least some of the plurality of excitation modes, determining a strength value of an undesired vibration caused by said conveying motor when the conveying motor is operated in said excitation mode; and
selecting one of the plurality of excitation modes of operating the conveying motor based on the determined strength values of the vibrations in the at least some of the plurality of excitation modes in actually printing on the printing medium.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a program executable by a processor in a printer that includes said processor; a conveying motor that can operate in any one of a plurality of excitation modes, the conveying motor being configured to convey a printing medium; and a printhead that prints on the printing medium on the basis of printing data, the program causing the processor to execute the following:
with respect to each of at least some of the plurality of excitation modes, determining a strength value of an undesired vibration caused by said con

Assignees

• Casio Computer Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ozawa Takeo

Classifications

• H02P8/18

  Shaping of pulses, e.g. to reduce torque ripple {(Reducing overshoot H02P8/32 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• B41J29/38

  Drives, motors, controls or automatic cut-off devices for the entire printing mechanism · CPC title

• B41J2/32 Primary

  using thermal heads · CPC title

• B41J3/4075

  Tape printers; Label printers · CPC title

• B41J15/044 Primary

  Cassettes or cartridges containing continuous copy material, tape, for setting into printing devices · CPC title