Printing system capable of achieving double-width printing and double-width printing control method

Abstract

The invention discloses a printing system capable of performing double-width printing, which comprises a conveying guide belt, a printing mechanism and a printing mechanism, the printing unit is located on the conveying guide belt and used for printing the two passing printing media; the printing unit comprises a system controller, a sub-queue A and a sub-queue B, wherein the system controller is used for identifying and sorting jobs to be printed to two printing media; and during printing, the system controller forms a page buffer area according to printing image parameters and printing medium parameters, and the job image data in the two job sub-queues are placed at designated positions of the page buffer area for printing. The double-width digital printing device is provided with the double-width cloth feeding control unit and the double-width cloth collecting control unit, the double-width printing function can be achieved, meanwhile, the single-width printing function can still be supported, and therefore the requirements that the capacity is not reduced and energy is not wasted when the wide-width digital printing device produces narrow-width operation are met, and the effects that the device is flexible, flexible and low in cost are achieved. And the shipment efficiency of narrow orders is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of digital printing, and more specifically, to a printing system capable of double-width printing, and also to a double-width printing control method. Background Art

[0002] The existing single-pass digital printing equipment is generally equipped with a cloth feeding unit, a platform unit, a printing unit, and a drying unit. In the cloth feeding unit, a set of medium tension detection and control systems is configured. After the platform unit presses the printing medium onto the guide belt, it is provided for printing by the printing unit. In the printing unit, a single job is printed at the same time. After printing is completed, the drying unit dries the printed medium and outputs it.

[0003] In the prior art, the system controller of the printing unit generally has modules such as job queue management and job printing status monitoring. After printing starts, the system controller applies for page memory according to the first job in the queue, reads the image data, and sends the data to the CNC unit. After the CNC unit collects the platform motion signal, it prints, and then feeds back the printing status to the system controller. The system controller collects and parses the status, and finally presents the printing information of the job on the interface, which mainly includes the name of the job being printed, the current printing status, and the length of the completed print. The job is repeated in this way to complete the printing of all jobs. In general, the printing unit processes the printing process of user jobs, refer to Figure 1 shown.

[0004] Among the existing single-pass digital printing equipment, the common equipment width is about 1700mm, or even wider, so that it can adapt to the printing processing of most fabrics. However, during the production process, there are often narrow-width printing orders, such as orders with a width of about 500mm. Under normal circumstances, users can directly produce on the current equipment, but during the production process, only a small part of the print heads are working, and most of the print heads are idle, which directly affects the production capacity of the equipment and causes many waste problems.

[0005] Therefore, a new solution needs to be proposed to solve this problem. Summary of the invention

[0006] The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art and to provide a printing system capable of double-width printing and a double-width printing control method, which can realize simultaneous printing of two printing media at the same time when working with narrow-width printing media.

[0007] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention adopts the following technical solution:

[0008] A printing system capable of double-width printing, comprising:

[0009] Conveyor guide belt, used to convey two printing media at the same time;

[0010] A printing unit, located on the conveyor belt, is used to print two printing media passing through;

[0011] The printing unit comprises: a system controller, the system controller is used to identify and sort jobs to be printed on two printing media to form two job sub-queues, namely sub-queue A and sub-queue B; the images A to be printed in sub-queue A are arranged in a circular manner in a longitudinally continuous manner, and the images B to be printed in sub-queue B are arranged in a circular manner in a longitudinally continuous manner;

[0012] When printing, the system controller applies for page memory according to the printing image parameters and printing medium parameters to form a page buffer, and places the job image data in the two job sub-queues at the designated position of the page buffer for printing.

[0013] The present invention further comprises:

[0014] The double-width unwinding unit has two sets of independent unwinding sub-units, which are used to realize the unwinding of two printing media respectively;

[0015] The belt conveyor pressing roller is located in front of the printing unit and is used to press the printing medium onto the conveyor belt;

[0016] The double-width winding unit has two independent winding sub-units for winding two printing media respectively.

[0017] Furthermore, the two sets of unwinding sub-units are respectively provided with tension detection and control units, which are used to respectively keep the two printing media in a flat conveyance.

[0018] The present invention further comprises a numerical control unit, and during printing, the numerical control unit is used to control the running speed and running distance of the conveying guide belt to match the printing speed of the printing unit.

[0019] In the present invention, the two printing media are printing medium A and printing medium B respectively, and pattern A and pattern B are printed on the two printing media respectively.

[0020] The present invention further comprises that the width of printing medium A is Wa, the width of printing medium B is Wb, the spacing between the two printing media is S, the reserved width on the left side of printing medium A to be printed is Ka, and the reserved width on the left side of printing medium B to be printed is Kb.

[0021] Furthermore, in the present invention, the vertical height of the page buffer is determined by the job height of the subqueue A, which is an integer multiple of the image A; and the horizontal width of the page buffer is Wa+S+Wb.

[0022] Further, in the present invention, when the image data of the page buffer is filled, in the horizontal position, the image A in the subqueue A is arranged starting from the position Ka, and the image B in the subqueue B is arranged starting from the position Wa+S+Kb;

[0023] Image B is arranged in a circular manner in a vertically continuous manner within the vertical height range of the page buffer, and the vertical end position of the page buffer is recorded as the printing end position of image B in queue B.

[0024] Furthermore, in the present invention, when the page buffer is filled next time, in the vertical position, the image B in the queue B is filled starting from the end position of the last printing.

[0025] The present invention also provides a double-width printing control method, which uses the above-mentioned printing system to print and print, and can realize two printing media printing at the same time. The specific steps of the present invention when printing double widths are as follows:

[0026] 1) Equipped with double-width unwinding unit and double-width rewinding unit, it can transport two printing media at the same time;

[0027] 2) configuring the printing unit, inputting two images to be printed on two media, and marking and sorting them through the system controller;

[0028] 3) After printing starts, the system controller applies for page memory for the double-width job, forms a page buffer, and sends the data in the page buffer;

[0029] 4) Perform printing status analysis and interface presentation for double-width printing jobs.

[0030] In summary, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0031] By adopting a double-width unwinding unit and a double-width winding unit, in conjunction with a conveying guide belt and a printing unit, two printing media can be conveyed simultaneously, and the two printing media are independent of each other; when printing narrow-width printing media, two printing media can be printed at the same time, which can save the production efficiency of wide-width digital printing equipment and reduce the vacancy of printing units; at the same time, the printing system is also suitable for single-width printing media printing, which can enhance the flexibility and maneuverability of the equipment and improve the overall production efficiency of the equipment.

[0032] Through the control of the system controller of the printing unit, the parameters of the two printing media and the parameters of the images to be printed can be processed during double-width printing. Through identification and sorting, two job sub-queues can be formed, so that the printing unit can print two images at the same time to achieve double-width printing. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] Figure 1 It is a control logic diagram of a printing system in the prior art;

[0034] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a printing system capable of double-width printing in this embodiment;

[0035] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a job sub-column in this embodiment;

[0036] Figure 4 This is a flow chart of image data processing by the system controller in this embodiment;

[0037] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a page buffer in this embodiment;

[0038] Figure 6 This is a flowchart of the program design for calculating the page height in this embodiment;

[0039] Reference numerals: conveying guide belt 10 ; double-width unwinding unit 20 ; unwinding subunit 21 ; double-width winding unit 30 ; guide belt pressing roller 40 ; printing unit 50 ; printing medium 60 . DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0040] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0041] This embodiment discloses a printing system capable of double-width printing, referring to Figure 2 As shown, it includes: a conveying guide belt 10, a double-width unwinding unit 20, a double-width winding unit 30, a guide belt pressure roller 40 and a printing unit 50, which can simultaneously convey two printing media 60 and simultaneously print two different patterns on the two printing media 60. When producing narrow and wide printing media, the printing system can realize simultaneous printing of two printing media, thereby improving the operating efficiency of the equipment. The sum of the widths of the two printing media should not exceed the preset width parameter.

[0042] In the printing system of this embodiment, the conveying guide belt is a ring-shaped belt structure, the surface of which can be in contact with two printing media and can convey two printing media at the same time.

[0043] The double-width unwinding unit 20 serves to unwind two printing media, and has two sets of independent unwinding subunits 21, which are used to unwind two printing media respectively. The printing medium 60 is generally a rolled fabric with printing. The two sets of unwinding subunits 21 respectively have tension detection and control units, which can control the tension of the two printing media and perform deviation correction processing to keep the two printing media flat for transportation.

[0044] The double-width winding unit 30 has two independent winding subunits 31 for respectively winding two printing media 60. The two winding subunits 30 and the two unwinding subunits 31 are adapted to each other, and can respectively wind up and unwind two printing media, and can adapt to the transportation of printing media.

[0045] The guide belt pressing roller 40 is located before the printing unit 50, between the double-width unwinding unit 20 and the printing unit 50. Before printing, the two printing media 60 first pass through the guide belt pressing roller 40, which can press the two printing media 60 onto the conveying guide belt 10 to keep the printing media flat.

[0046] The printing unit 50 is a digital printer, located on the conveying guide belt 10, and is used to print two printing media 60 passing through.

[0047] The printing system of this embodiment also includes a numerical control unit. When printing, the numerical control unit can control the entire system according to parameters such as printing image parameters and printing medium parameters, and control the running speed and running distance of the conveyor guide belt to match the printing speed of the printing unit.

[0048] In this embodiment, the printing unit includes a system controller, which can identify and sort the jobs to be printed on the two printing media to form two job sub-queues.

[0049] Before printing begins, the system controller identifies and arranges the two patterns to be printed on printing medium A and printing medium B according to user input and arrangement, forming sub-queue A and sub-queue B. Among them, the medium to be printed corresponding to sub-queue A is printing medium A, and the working pattern is pattern A; the medium to be printed corresponding to sub-queue B is printing medium B, and the working pattern is pattern B.

[0050] Reference Figure 3As shown, the two job subqueues are subqueue A and subqueue B, the images A to be printed in subqueue A are arranged in a circular manner in a longitudinally continuous manner, and the images B to be printed in subqueue B are arranged in a circular manner in a longitudinally continuous manner. The jobs to be printed in subqueue A are JA-01, JA-02, JA-03, JA-04, etc., and the jobs to be printed in subqueue B are JB-01, JB-02, JB-03, JB-04, etc. Then, the system controller marks the user's double-width printing parameters. Specifically, the width of the printing medium A is Wa, the width of the printing medium B is Wb, the spacing between the two printing media is S, the reserved width to be printed on the left side of the printing medium A is Ka, and the reserved width to be printed on the left side of the printing medium B is Kb.

[0051] Reference Figure 4 As shown, when printing starts, the system controller starts two image data reading threads, which are recorded as thread A and thread B in this embodiment, and respectively read the image data in subqueue A and subqueue B. The system controller applies for page memory according to the printing image parameters and printing medium parameters to form a page buffer, puts the job image data read from thread A and thread B to the specified position of the page buffer, and then sends it to the numerical control unit for printing.

[0052] The system controller applies for memory based on the job height in job subqueue A. When filling the memory, the jobs in subqueue B are filled with data in a vertically continuous form. Figure 4 As shown in the figure, the vertical height of the page buffer is determined by the job height of subqueue A. The height of the page buffer is always an integer multiple of the height of image A. The height of image B may not be an integer multiple of its image height within the vertical height of the page buffer. The system controller uses the vertical height of the page buffer as the minimum unit to send page data to the CNC unit. The CNC unit controls the operation of the printing system, the transport of the printing medium, and the operation of the printing unit to achieve double-width printing.

[0053] Reference Figure 5 As shown, during the data filling process of the page buffer, the horizontal width of the page buffer is Wa+S+Wb, and the horizontal width and height of the page buffer can be adjusted according to the printing system. In this embodiment, the height of the page buffer is an integer of the height of image A. The system controller puts the job image data in subqueue A into the area marked by A, that is, starting from the Ka position in the horizontal direction, and puts the job image data in subqueue B into the area marked by B, that is, starting from the Wa+S+Kb position in the horizontal direction. The vertical end position of the page buffer is recorded as the printing end position of image B in queue B. After the data filling of the page buffer is completed, data can be sent once.

[0054] When the page buffer is filled next time, image B in queue B is filled starting from the end position of the last print; in the vertical position, the end position of the last queue B print can be continuous with the start position of the next layer of queue B print, so that the image in area B can be printed continuously.

[0055] During the printing process, the system controller collects the printing information fed back by the numerical control unit, performs data analysis, and forms status information packets corresponding to subqueue A and subqueue B. Subsequently, the interface unit of the system controller displays the status of subqueue A and subqueue B respectively.

[0056] The CNC unit will return the printing information in page height units, and the system controller will parse the job printing information in subqueue A based on the job parameter information in subqueue A. The system controller will parse the job printing information in subqueue B based on the job parameter information in subqueue B and the page height information returned by the CNC, and feedback the position where the last printing of queue B ended.

[0057] Reference Figure 6 As shown, the total length completed by subqueue A is SumA, and the total length completed by subqueue B is SumB. In the figure, a is a variable, representing the jobs of subqueue A; b is a variable, representing the jobs of subqueue B.

[0058] Specifically, the calculation process when the page height is twice the height of the jobs in subqueue A is as follows:

[0059] 1) The CNC returns the number of printed pages Pa, so it can be known that the number of printed pages for this job in subqueue A is Pa;

[0060] 2) The height of one page in the job parameters of subqueue A is Ha, in millimeters, then the length of the current subqueue A that has been printed is La = Pa·Ha;

[0061] 3) The total length of the job parameters in sub-queue B is Lb. When Pa·Ha is greater than or equal to Lb, this job in B is marked as completed, and the value of Pa·Ha-Lb is included in the printed length of the next job in B. This position is the position where printing of queue B ends.

[0062] This embodiment also discloses a double-width printing control method, which uses a printing system as in the above embodiment to achieve simultaneous printing on two printing media.

[0063] The above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the protection scope of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. All technical solutions under the concept of the present invention belong to the protection scope of the present invention. It should be pointed out that for ordinary technicians in this technical field, some improvements and modifications without departing from the principle of the present invention should also be regarded as the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A printing system capable of double-width printing, characterized in that: include: Conveyor guide belt, used to convey two printing media at the same time; A printing unit, located on the conveyor belt, is used to print two printing media passing through; The printing unit comprises: a system controller, the system controller is used to identify and sort jobs to be printed on two printing media to form two job sub-queues, namely sub-queue A and sub-queue B; the images A to be printed in sub-queue A are arranged in a circular manner in a longitudinally continuous manner, and the images B to be printed in sub-queue B are arranged in a circular manner in a longitudinally continuous manner; When printing, the system controller applies for page memory according to the printing image parameters and printing medium parameters to form a page buffer, and places the job image data in the two job sub-queues at the designated position of the page buffer for printing.

2. The printing system capable of double-width printing according to claim 1, characterized in that: Also includes: The double-width unwinding unit has two sets of independent unwinding sub-units, which are used to realize the unwinding of two printing media respectively; The belt conveyor pressing roller is located in front of the printing unit and is used to press the printing medium onto the conveyor belt; The double-width winding unit has two independent winding sub-units for winding two printing media respectively.

3. The printing system capable of double-width printing according to claim 2, characterized in that: The two sets of unwinding sub-units are respectively provided with tension detection and control units, which are used to respectively keep the two printing media conveyed flatly.

4. The printing system capable of double-width printing according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes a numerical control unit. When printing, the numerical control unit is used to control the running speed and running distance of the conveying guide belt to match the printing speed of the printing unit.

5. The printing system capable of double-width printing according to claim 1, characterized in that: The two printing media are printing medium A and printing medium B, and pattern A and pattern B are printed on the two printing media respectively.

6. The printing system capable of double-width printing according to claim 5, characterized in that: The width of printing medium A is Wa, the width of printing medium B is Wb, the spacing between the two printing media is S, the reserved width on the left side of printing medium A to be printed is Ka, and the reserved width on the left side of printing medium B to be printed is Kb.

7. The printing system capable of double-width printing according to claim 6, characterized in that: The vertical height of the page buffer is determined by the job height of the subqueue A, which is an integer multiple of the image A; the horizontal width of the page buffer is Wa+S+Wb.

8. The printing system capable of double-width printing according to claim 6, characterized in that: When the image data of the page buffer is filled, in the horizontal position, the image A in the subqueue A is arranged starting from the position Ka, and the image B in the subqueue B is arranged starting from the position Wa+S+Kb; Image B is arranged in a circular manner in a vertically continuous manner within the vertical height range of the page buffer, and the vertical end position of the page buffer is recorded as the printing end position of image B in queue B.

9. The printing system capable of double-width printing according to claim 8, characterized in that: The next time the page buffer is filled, in the vertical position, image B in queue B is filled starting from the end position of the previous print.

10. A double-width printing control method, characterized in that: Printing is performed using a printing system capable of double-width printing as described in any one of claims 1 to 9.

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