Printer, and method and computer-readable medium for the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9764569-B2
Application number	US-201615280124-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2016
Priority date	Sep 30, 2015
Publication date	Sep 19, 2017
Grant date	Sep 19, 2017

Abstract

A printer includes a controller configured to perform a through-up printing process to print at least a part of a page while accelerating a conveyance speed of a print medium from zero at a particular acceleration, a constant-speed printing process to print at least a part of the page while maintaining a maximum conveyance speed after the conveyance speed reaches the maximum conveyance speed via the through-up printing process, a through-down printing process to print at least a part of the page while decelerating the conveyance speed at a particular deceleration after performing at least one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process, and a maximum speed setting process to set the maximum conveyance speed in accordance with a print amount of print data stored in a storage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printer comprising:
a conveyor configured to convey a print medium along a conveyance path in a conveyance direction;
a storage configured to receive and store print data of a page as a single unit;
a print head configured to print the page on the print medium based on the print data stored in the storage, as the print medium is conveyed on the conveyance path; and
a controller configured to perform:
a through-up printing process to control the print head to print at least a part of the page while controlling the conveyor to accelerate a conveyance speed of the print medium from zero at a particular acceleration;
a constant-speed printing process to control the print head to print at least a part of the page while controlling the conveyor to maintain a maximum conveyance speed after the conveyance speed reaches the maximum conveyance speed via the through-up printing process;
a through-down printing process to control the print head to print at least a part of the page while controlling the conveyor to decelerate the conveyance speed at a particular deceleration after performing at least one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process; and
a maximum speed setting process to set the maximum conveyance speed in accordance with a print amount of the print data stored in the storage.

2. The printer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the controller is further configured to, in the maximum speed setting process, set the maximum conveyance speed based on a print length of the page to be printed based on the print data stored in the storage.

3. The printer according to claim 2 ,
wherein the controller is further configured to, in the maximum speed setting process, set the maximum conveyance speed such that the print length of the page is equal to a sum of:
a distance over which the print medium is conveyed while the conveyance speed is accelerated from zero to the maximum conveyance speed at the particular acceleration; and
a distance over which the print medium is conveyed while the conveyance speed is decelerated from the maximum conveyance speed to zero at the particular deceleration.

4. The printer according to claim 2 ,
wherein the page is a first page;
wherein the controller is further configured to perform:
a determining process to determine whether print data of a second page is stored in the storage while one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process is in execution, wherein the second page is to be printed subsequently to the first page; and
a nonstop printing process to, when determining in the determining process that the print data of the second page is stored in the storage while one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process is in execution, continue the one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process in execution and begin to print the second page continuously after printing of the first page is completed.

5. The printer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the print head comprises a plurality of printing elements arranged in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction, and is further configured to perform line-by-line printing using the plurality of printing elements,
wherein the print data comprises one or more pieces of data, each of which is a single piece of data for printing, by the print head, a single line as a part of the page, and
wherein the controller is further configured to, in the maximum speed setting process, set the maximum conveyance speed based on a data amount of the print data stored in the storage, the data amount being a total number of the one or more pieces of data included in the print data stored in the storage.

6. The printer according to claim 5 ,
wherein the controller is further configured to, in the maximum speed setting process, set the maximum conveyance speed such that a length of the print medium in the conveyance direction corresponding to the data amount of the print data is equal to a sum of:
a distance over which the print medium is conveyed while the conveyance speed is accelerated from zero to the maximum conveyance speed at the particular acceleration; and
a distance over which the print medium is conveyed while the conveyance speed is decelerated from the maximum conveyance speed to zero at the particular deceleration.

7. The printer according to claim 5 ,
wherein the controller is further configured to perform:
a determining process to determine whether new print data has been added into the storage while one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process is in execution; and
a nonstop printing process to, when determining in the determining process that the new print data has been added into the storage while one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process is in execution, continue the one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process in execution in accordance with a data amount of the added new print data.

8. The printer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the controller is further configured to perform an acceleration-deceleration printing process to:
while one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process is in execution, update the maximum conveyance speed in accordance with the print amount of the print data stored in the storage; and
continue the one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process in execution until the conveyance speed becomes the updated maximum conveyance speed.

9. The printer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the controller comprises:
a processor; and
a memory storing processor-executable instructions configured to, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the through-up printing process, the constant-speed printing process, the through-down printing process, and the maximum speed setting process.

10. A method adapted to be implemented on a processor coupled with a printer comprising:
a conveyor configured to convey a print medium along a conveyance path in a conveyance direction;
a storage configured to receive and store print data of a page as a single unit; and
a print head configured to print the page on the print medium based on the print data stored in the storage, as the print medium is conveyed on the conveyance path, the method comprising:
a through-up printing process to control the print head to print at least a part of the page while controlling the conveyor to accelerate a conveyance speed of the print medium from zero at a particular acceleration;
a constant-speed printing process to control the print head to print at least a part of the page while controlling the conveyor to maintain a maximum conveyance speed after the conveyance speed reaches the maximum conveyance speed via the through-up printing process;
a through-down printing process to control the print head to print at least a part of the page while controlling the conveyor to decelerate the conveyance speed at a particular deceleration after performing at least one of the through-up printing process and the constant-speed printing process; and
a maximum speed setting process to set the maximum conveyance speed in accordance with a print amount of the print data stored in the storage.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions that are executable by a processor coupled with a printer comprising:
a conveyor configured to convey a print medium along a conveyance path in a conveyance direction;
a storage configured to receive and store pri

Assignees

• Brother Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Kawai Junya

Classifications

• G06K15/16

  Means for paper feeding or form feeding · CPC title

• G06K15/022

  for printing on continuous media, e.g. tapes · CPC title

• B41J13/0009 Primary

  control of the transport of the copy material · CPC title

• B41J25/005

  for serial printing movements superimposed to character- or line-spacing movements · CPC title

• B41J2/32

  using thermal heads · CPC title