Printer, method for controlling thermal head, and program

Abstract

A printer according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: a thermal head that has a heat generation unit having a plurality of heat generation elements arrayed in a line, and a drive circuit that drives the heat generation unit so as to control, on the basis of a signal which indicates an energization period for the heat generation unit in a printing period of one line, whether or not to energize the respective heat generation elements of the heat generation unit during the energization period; and a control unit that performs control so as to execute stop processing for stopping supply of an operating voltage used for operating the drive circuit for a prescribed period to reset the drive circuit.

Claims

1. A printer comprising: a heating section having a plurality of heating elements arranged in a line; a drive circuit that drives the heating section to control whether or not to energize each heating element of the heating section during the energizing period based on a signal indicating the energizing period of the heating section during the printing period of one line; and a control unit that controls the drive circuit to perform a stop process to reset the drive circuit by stopping the supply of an operating voltage for operating the drive circuit for a predetermined period.

2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the printer to perform the stop process at least once for each print job.

3. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the printer to perform the stop process at least once for printing on a single printing medium.

4. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the printer to perform the stop process at least once within the printing period of one line.

5. The printer according to claim 4, wherein the control unit controls the stopping process to be performed multiple times at equal intervals within the printing period of one line.

6. The printer according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined period in the shutdown process is provided after any power-on period within the printing period of one line, and when the power-on period and the predetermined period are considered as one set period, the printer is configured such that N sets of periods (where N is an integer of 1 or more) are included within the printing period of one line.

7. The printer according to claim 4, wherein, when the control unit performs the stop process one or more times within the printing period of one line, the slower the printing speed, the more times the stop process is performed within the printing period of one line.

8. The printer according to claim 4, wherein, if the power supply period is set multiple times within the printing period of one line, the control unit controls the printer to perform the stop process after the end of the last of the multiple power supply periods.

9. The printer according to claim 4, wherein the control unit, when starting to drive the heating element, starts supplying the operating voltage and then starts supplying the heating element voltage to energize the heating element, and when ending the driving of the heating element, ends supplying the heating element voltage and then ends supplying the operating voltage.

10. The printer according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the control unit sets the voltage supply period, which is the period during which the voltage for energizing the heating element is supplied to the thermal head, according to the energizing period, when the voltage for energizing the heating element is set to the heating element voltage.

11. A control method for a thermal head, wherein the thermal head comprises a heating section having a plurality of heating elements arranged in a line, and a drive circuit that drives the heating section to control whether or not to energize each heating element of the heating section during the energizing period based on a signal indicating the energizing period of the heating section during the printing period of one line, and the control method comprises the steps of supplying the signal indicating the energizing period to the thermal head, and controlling the drive circuit to perform a stop process to reset the drive circuit by stopping the supply of an operating voltage for operating the drive circuit for a predetermined period.

12. A program for a printer having a thermal head, which causes a computer to perform a predetermined procedure, wherein the thermal head comprises a heating section having a plurality of heating elements arranged in a line, and a drive circuit that drives the heating section to control whether or not to energize each heating element of the heating section during the energizing period based on a signal indicating the energizing period of the heating section during the printing period of one line, and the predetermined procedure includes a procedure for supplying the signal indicating the energizing period to the thermal head, and a procedure for controlling the drive circuit to perform a stop process that resets the drive circuit by stopping the supply of an operating voltage for operating the drive circuit for a predetermined period.

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