KR19990006394A - Ribbon Thermal Room Card Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a ribbon thermal card printer, the front or back of the card by the thermal head using a thermal ink ribbon having a different color range of a certain distance to a plastic card, such as credit cards, telephone cards and various membership cards Photographs, seals, graphics, characters of various sizes and colors can be printed on the screen, and continuous grayscale images of monochrome and color photographs or video images of television and computer systems can be converted and printed by hardware and software. Can be.

Description

Ribbon Thermal Card Printer

The present invention relates to a ribbon thermal card printer for printing on a plastic card.

Conventional credit cards, employee cards, membership cards and the like input personal information into embossing or magnetic tape. However, since the conventional cards are difficult to express any more than the generalization of card peripherals and letters with fixed protrusions and magnetic tapes, damage due to forgery or tampering has increased.

Ribbon thermal card printer of the present invention is a plastic card, such as credit cards, telephone cards and various membership cards of different colors of a certain distance, that is, yellow (YELLOW), magenta (MAGENTA), cyan (CYAN), black (BLACK) Prints primary colors such as photographs or letters and graphics of various sizes and colors on the front or back of the card by thermal heads using a thermal ink ribbon with an overlay section that is transparently coated to protect sections and prints. It is.

In addition, image information signals of various original images, such as continuous gradation images such as monochrome and color photographs, and video images obtained from video signals of television and computer systems, are converted into hardware and software, and recorded on plastic and similar card surfaces. Images can be printed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a ribbon thermal card printer device and a printing method for printing personal information or characteristics on a plastic card with characters of various sizes and colors such as photographs, signs, seals, and various graphics.

1 is a block diagram of a ribbon thermal card printer according to the present invention.

Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating a printing method of a thermally sensitive ribbon card printer according to the present invention.

Ribbon thermal card printer of the present invention for achieving the above object is a RAM for receiving and storing the image information signal from the computer driver through the gray scale adjustment unit, and a card supply device motor driver for operating a DC motor for card supply In addition, the basic operation of the printer and the card feeder motor driver to control the DC driver to drive the DC motor to eject a single card and software devices such as CPU and ROM, and stepping motor to operate the stepping motor for card transfer The driver, a ribbon drive motor driver that drives the DC motor to drive the ribbon, a thermal head drive solenoid that closely connects the thermal head to the upper surface of the card and the ribbon, and a switch operation to optimize the optimum state of the drive element. A display device for checking each other and the print data to the print data driver circuit. By CPLD or FPGA to write print it was transferred to the serial eomeol head and, for the card to determine the supply state of the card loaded check sensors. Card ejection confirmation sensor to check card ejection, Print position start sensor to capture whether the card to be transferred is in print position, Ribbon color sensor to detect ribbon color, Ribbon cartridge detection to check whether ribbon cartridge is attached A sensor, a sensor I / O port for the interface of the mechanism and various sensing sensors, a communication I / O port for the interface between the computer and the driver and a power supply for supplying power.

In addition, in the method of printing a thermally sensitive ribbon printer for color printing on a card, a step of sending an image information signal from a PC to a printer command storage unit and a different color from the driver of the computer Separating the component signal into the gradation adjusting unit, classifying the data for each printing color from the gradation adjusting unit, and sending the data to the RAM; transmitting the print data by combining the data stored in the RAM in the CPLD or the FPGA and the CPU; The step of moving the card to the print standby state by operating the positioning stepping motor by the program of the ROM, selecting the ribbon panel to be used by operating the ribbon driving motor, and applying the thermal head solenoid to the selected ribbon panel Drive the thermal head to the card, and print data transferred from CPLD or FPGA and CPU And a step of visualizing the print by transmitting the data to the thermal head to the serial head and ejecting the printed card out by the stepping motor.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a ribbon thermal card printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 1, the image information signal of the original original image in the computer 1 is transferred to a computer driver using a different color, that is, yellow (YELLOW), magenta (MAGENTA), cyan (CYAN), black (BLACK) and print protection. For this purpose, the overlay component signals having transparent coding are separated and transmitted to the gray scale controller 2. The color component signal transmitted from the gradation adjusting unit is sent to the RAM 17 and stored, and the DC motor 11 is operated by controlling the card feeder motor driver 10 from the storage of the CPU 3 and the ROM 16. Eject a single card. At this time, whether the card sheet is supplied and discharged is checked by the card loading check sensor 21 and the card ejection check sensor 22. When the supply of the card sheet is confirmed by the card ejection confirmation sensor 22, the stepping motor driver 6 is controlled to operate the position setting stepping motor 7 to move the card to the print start position.

When the moving card is captured by the print position start sensor 23, the DC motor 11 of the card feeder stops, and the DC motor 9 is controlled by controlling the ribbon drive motor driver 8 to find the color panel of the ribbon. Move to move the ribbon color panel. The ribbon DC motor 9 is stopped when the moving panel is checked by the ribbon color sensor 25 and is switched to another panel.

When the card is first captured by the print position sensor 23 and confirmed by the head print waiting sensor 24, the thermal head 5 is brought into close contact with the card by the thermal head driving solenoid 14, and the CPLD or The FPGA 15 transfers the print data to the thermal head 5 via the print data driver circuit 4 to the thermal head 5 to start printing.

The motor driver and the sensor are interfaced by the sensor I / O port 18, and the detector and the motor driver are interfaced by the communication I / O port 19. By operating the switch 13 by controlling the driving driver in the memory device of the CPU and the ROM, the optimized state of the driving element can be confirmed by the display device 12 for each part, and the state of the printer can be observed. The power of the card printer is supplied by the power supply device 20.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of printing a ribbon thermal card printer according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the printer is powered on, the I / O port is initialized after booting 101 to print the head print waiting sensor 200, the card loading sensor 201, and the card ejection sensor. 202, the print position start sensor 203, the ribbon color sensor 204, and the ribbon cartridge sensor 205 are checked to test 102 the operating state of the printer. If the operation state of the printer is normal, the operation switch is checked 103, and if an error occurs, the printer operation is tested 102 by the error processing routine 104 again.

If the operation switch is off, the PC 107 executes the printer command storage unit 105 for storing the image information signal 108 of the original document image, and if the switch is on, the switch processing routine 106 is executed. The check switch 103 again. At this time, when the PC 107 does not store the image information signal 108 of the original document image in the printer command storage unit 105, the operation switch is checked 103 again.

The image information signal stored in the print command storage unit is separated into yellow (YELLOW), magenta (CYAN), black (BLACK), and overlay (OVERLAY) component signals from the computer driver to the gradation adjustment unit 109. When the data is transmitted in the order of Y, M, C, K, and O, the gray scale controller classifies data for each print color (110). First, the information of the Y panel is sent and stored in the RAM 111, and if the information is not stored, the operation switch is checked again (103). Information stored in RAM is sent to CPLD or FPGA 112. The CPLD or FPGA 112 and the CPU 113 combine to transmit the print data to the thermal head.

In addition, when the image information signal is stored in the print command storage unit, the stepping motor 115 for position setting is moved from the ROM 114 to the card print standby state 116, and then the ribbon drive motor 117 is activated. Select (118) the ribbon (Y panel) to be used. The thermal head is in close contact with the card (120) with the thermal head driving solenoid (119) at the position of the Y panel, and the parameter data transmitted by combining the CPLD or the FPGA 112 and the CPU 113 to the thermal head is serialized. The printer is started 121 by sending it.

At this time, a heat value is given nine times for each dot of the thermal head. Therefore, there are 16 kinds of color level differences due to dye sublimation differences of color ribbon paper. In this state, after transmitting all the data of one line, the stepping motor 115 is used to transfer the card by 1/600 inch. After the card is transferred, the color value for one line is transferred to the thermal head and the color value is printed on the card. After repeating the above operation and printing the value of the color on the entire surface of the card, the thermal head is lifted and then the card is transferred to the print standby state by using the stepping motor 115 (116).

After the card is transported, the ribbon drive motor 117 is operated to find the M value of the ribbon color, and the ribbon drive motor is stopped at the point where the ribbon color sensor 204 changes from the M value to the C value. The transfer is received and stored in the RAM 111. This time, start printing the M value on the transferred card. At this time, the print position coincides with the starting position of the first printed Y value, and the M value is printed at 16 levels on the dot of the same position. When printing up to C value, Y, M, and C are combined by 256 levels in one dot and have 16.7 million or more level values, thereby printing with 16.7 million or more color images. Finally, transparent coding is performed on the overlay ribbon panel for print protection. When the printing is finished 122, the card is ejected 123 using the stepping motor 115, and when the printing is not finished 122, the card returns to the print command receiving unit 105.

The ribbon thermal card printer of the present invention can improve the speed by processing printing and data input in one process, can maintain the excellent security and can be manufactured at a low price.

Claims (5)

In the ribbon thermal card printer device for color printing on the plastic card, RAM for receiving and storing the image information signal from the computer driver through the gray scale adjustment unit; A card feeder motor driver for starting a DC motor for card feed, A memory device such as a CPU and a ROM for controlling the card supply device motor driver to operate a DC motor to eject a single card; A stepping motor driver that drives the stepping motor for card transfer, A ribbon drive motor driver to drive a DC motor for ribbon drive, Thermal head drive solenoid for closely contacting the thermal head to the upper surface of the card and ribbon, A display device which checks the optimized state of the driving device for each part through a switch operation; A CPLD or FPGA for printing print data by serially printing the print data to the thermal head by a print data driver circuit; A card loading sensor to check the supply status of the card, A card ejection check sensor to check ejection of a card, A print position start sensor for capturing whether the conveying card is in the print position; Ribbon color sensor to detect the ribbon color, Ribbon cartridge detection sensor to check ribbon cartridge presence or absence, A sensor I / O port for interface between the driver and the sensor; A communication I / O port for interfacing the computer with the driver, and Ribbon thermal card printer device characterized in that consisting of a power supply for supplying power. In the printing method of a ribbon thermal card printer which prints color on a card, After booting, the I / O port is initialized and the sensor is tested to test the operation of the printer. Checking an operation switch after checking the printer operation; Sending an image information signal from the PC to the printer command storage unit; Separating the image information signal of the printer command storage unit into different color component signals from a driver of a computer and transmitting the same to a gradation adjustment unit; Classifying and sending data for each printing color from the gray scale adjusting unit to a RAM; Sending the data stored in the RAM to the CPLD or the FPGA and storing the data in combination with the CPU; Moving the card to the print standby state by starting a stepping motor for positioning in the ROM; Selecting a ribbon panel to be used by operating the ribbon driving motor; Driving the thermal head driving solenoid to the selected ribbon panel to bring the thermal head into close contact with the card; Transmitting print data transmitted from the CPLD or the FPGA and the CPU to a thermal head in serial to visualize a print; and And a step of discharging the card printed by the stepping motor to the outside. The method of claim 2, The sensor is a printing method of a thermal print card for a ribbon card, characterized in that consisting of a head print standby sensor, card stack detection sensor, card ejection confirmation sensor, print position start sensor, ribbon color sensor, ribbon cartridge sensor. The method of claim 2, The different color section is yellow (YELLOW), magenta (MAGENTA), cyan (CYAN), black (BLACK) and overlay (OVERLAY) characterized in that the ribbon thermal card printer printing method. The method of claim 2, The CPLD or FPGA is a ribbon thermal card printer, characterized in that the combination of the ROM, yellow, magenta, cyan combined by 256 levels each to print an image of more than 16.7 million colors.