GB2295584A - A printer having a cutting device wherein the cutting device may be coupled to and decoupled from a printhead carriage - Google Patents

Abstract

A printer (10) includes a printhead (5) mounted on a carriage (1) and a cutting device (2) which is located outside the range of movement of the printhead (5) for printing. The carriage (1) is not coupled to the cutter device (2) while the carriage (1) is moved for printing, coupling between the carriage (1) and the cutter device (2) for cutting a printing paper (P) is established by a coupling mechanism (3), e.g. a hook member (31) and a protrusion member (32). Upon establishment of the coupling, the cutter device (2) moves together with the carriage (1) to cut the printing paper (P). After the cutting is completed, the coupling mechanism (3) decouples the cutter drive (2) from the carriage (1). The printing carriage is not unnecessarily burdened with the weight and inertia of the cutter device. <IMAGE>

Description

PRINTER FOR USE WITH ROLLED PRINTING PAPER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, and more partially to a serial printer for use with rolled printing paper.

Descrittion of the Prior Art Usually, printers uses printing papers such as A4 or B4 cut sheets, continuous perforated paper or rolled paper.

Among the printers, a serial printer mainly use cut sheet and rolled paper. When the cut sheet is used for the printing paper, no cutter for cutting the printing paper is needed in the printer, however, the printer has the disadvantage that the size of the printing paper is prescribed and cannot be changed. On the other hand, although requiring cutters for cutting printing paper, printers for use with rolled paper have the advantage that the paper may be cut to any desired size, and thus they are used for purposes relying on this advantage.

An example of the conventional printers for use with rolled paper is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Law Application Disclosure No. HEI 3-6949. FIG. 1 is a partial sectional view of the printer disclosed in the official gazette. The shown printer comprises a carriage 71 which moves in the direction of width of the printing paper P unrolled from a roll of paper, a carriage guide 72 and a sub-guide 73 arranged along its width, a print head 74 mounted on the carriage 71 and a cutter device. The cutter device is constructed with a motor 70 which is rotated according to an operation demand, an arm 79 which is rotated by the motor 70 and a cutting blade 77 provided at the tip of the arm 79. A sheet guide 78 is provided parallel to the direction of movement of the carriage 71 and has a guide groove which is brought into contact with the cutting blade 77.

For printing, a conveying roller 75 and a follower roller 75A are rotated to convey the printing paper P in the direction indicated by the arrow in the drawing.

Concurrently, the carriage 71 is guided by the carriage guide 72 and the sub-guide 73 to move along the width of the printing paper P, and the print head 74 executes printing as the carriage 71 moves. During printing, the cutting blade 77 is not located at the position shown in Fig. 1, because it is revoked to a position which does not allow its contact with the printing paper P.

To cut the printing paper P after completion of printing, the carriage 71 moves to one end of the carriage guide 72 in response to a command from an electric circuit (not shown). At the same time, the motor 70 is driven to rotate the arm 79, and the edge of the cutting blade 77 moves to a position which allows its contact with the guide groove of the sheet guide 78. Thereafter, the carriage 71 moves from the one end of the carriage guide 72 to the other end, and the printing paper P is cut by the cutting blade 77 as the carriage 71 moves.

With the above-described printer, since the carriage is fixed to the cutter device, there is no need to provide the cutter device parallel to and independently from the carriage and the guide there for, and this advantageously allows shortening of the length of the path of printingpaper conveyance.

Since the entire cutter device is mounted on the carriage, however, the total weight of the carriage increases accordingly, thus increasing the moment of inertia as well which causes vibrations of or otherwise influences the carriage during reciprocating motion. For this reason, accelerated movement of the carriage results in poor print quality, and thus it has been difficult to increase the printing speed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention in its various aspects is defined in the independent claims below, to which reference should now be made. Advantageous features of the invention are set forth in the appendant claims.

A preferred printer embodying the present invention comprises a conveying mechanism for conveying printing paper unrolled from a roll of printing paper; a print head which faces and prints the conveyed printing paper; a carriage with the print head mounted thereon; guides and a carriage-moving mechanism for moving the carriage in the direction of printing by the print head; a cutter device equipped with a cutting blade for cutting the printing paper; and a coupling mechanism for establishing coupling between the cutter device and the carriage for cutting the printing paper and decoupling the cutter device from the carriage after cutting the printing paper.

With this printer embodying the present invention, the carriage is moved for printing without being coupled to the cutter device, and therefore the weight of the carriage and the moment of inertia as well remain unchanged during moving for printing. As a result, vibrations due to movement of the carriage during printing may be minimized.

In addition, the movement of the carriage may be speeded up, and this naturally results in faster printing speeds.

Furthermore, since the cutter device is positioned in the direction of movement of the carriage, the above-described design does not cause extension of the path of printingpaper conveyance, as in the prior art which requires fixation of the cutter device to the carriage.

In this connection, the only requisite of the present invention is that the cutter device be decoupled from the carriage prior to the movement of the carriage for printing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.1 is a partial sectional view of a printer of the prior art; FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the printer according to a first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrative of the operation of the printer shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrative of an electric circuit for the printer shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrative of the operation of the electric circuit shown in FIG. 4; FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are plan views illustrative of other examples of the cutter device for use in the printer shown in FIG. 2, respectively; FIG. 8 is a plan view illustrative of part of the printer according to a second embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 9A and FIG. 9B are plan views illustrative of part of the printer according to a third embodiment of the present invention; ; FIG. 10 is a plan view illustrative of a guide plate for use in the printer shown in FIG. 9A and FIG. 9B; and FIG. 11 is a side view illustrative of the state of a cutter device mounted on carriage guides.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In FIG. 2, the printer 10 comprises a carriage 1 which is placed facing printing paper P unrolled from a roll of printing paper; a print head 5 mounted on the carriage 1; and a cutter device 2 for cutting the printing paper P.

The carriage 1 has holes for insertion of carriage guides 52, 53 therein and is biased by a carriage-moving mechanism 4 to move along the carriage guides 52, 53. The carriage guides 52, 53 are placed along the width of the printing paper P to guide the movement of the carriage 1. The carriage-moving mechanism 4 comprises an endless belt 42 connected to the carriage 1 and placed parallel to the carriage guides 52, 53, and a motor 41 for rotating the endless belt 42 to move the carriage 1. The cutter device 2 is provided in a slidable manner along the carriage guides 52, 53 so that its movement is guided by the carriage guides 52, 53. A coupling mechanism 3, which is composed of parts mounted on either the carriage 1 or the cutter device 2, serves to couple the cutter device 2 to the carriage 1 and to decouple it from the carriage 1.

The mechanism for conveying printing paper P comprises conveying rollers 55, 56 which are rotated when driven by a driving section (not shown), and follower rollers 55A, 56A.

The printing paper P is printed by the print head 5 while being conveyed between the conveying rollers 55, 56. A sheet guide 58 placed between the conveying rollers 55, 56 are equipped with a face 58b facing the print head 5 and a guide groove 58a which guides the cutter blade 21 fixed to the cutter device 2. Here, the sheet guide 58 is placed parallel to the carriage guides 52, 53.

The print head 5 is a thermal head having a printing section which consists of twelve heating elements per mm arranged along a length of 8 mm in the direction of conveyance of the printing paper P, and is biased toward the printing paper P by a pressing mechanism. In this case, the printing paper P is normally thermal paper, but another type of paper may be used depending on the type of the print head used.

The coupling mechanism 3 comprises a solenoid 33 fixed to the carriage 1, a hook member 31 which operates while interlocked with the solenoid 33, and a protrusion member 32 fixed to the cutter device 2. The hook member 31 on the carriage 1 is shaped so as to be engagable with the protrusion member 32, and the tip of the hook member 31 is designed to be rotated by the solenoid 33. The solenoid 33 is driven by an electric circuit (not shown in FIG. 2) and establishes the coupling between the hook member 31 and the protrusion member 32 when the carriage 1 has come close to the cutter device 2, and releases the coupling during printing.

The cutter device 2 is coupled to the carriage 1 by the coupling mechanism 3 for cutting the printing paper P, to cut the printing paper P as the carriage 1 moves. Except during the cutting of the printing paper P, the cutter device 2 is held on standby at one ends of the carriage guides 52, 53, retained by a plate spring stopper 7 so that the cutter device 2 does not move due to vibrations caused by the printing operation. The cutting blade 21 has an edge which comes into contact with the edge of the printing paper P in a slanting direction. A microswitch 6 fixed to the bottom plate of the printer detects whether the carriage 1 is located at its home position.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an electric circuit for the printer shown in FIG. 2. In the drawing, the electric circuit for the printer comprises an interface 61 connected to a computer 60; a control circuit 62 for controlling printing, and feeding and cutting of paper; and a driving motor 63 for the conveying rollers 55, 56 in addition to the print head 5, the microswitch 6, the solenoid 33 and the motor 41 of the carriage-moving mechanism 4 which are also shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrative of the operation of the electric circuit shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 3 is a view illustrative of the operations of the carriage 1 and the cutter device 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the carriage 1 is located at position A, its home position, at the start. Upon receipt of a printing command from the computer 60 shown in FIG. 4 by the interface 61 (step T1 in FIG. 5), the control circuit 62 controls the driving motor 63 to convey the printing paper P to the printing position and also controls the driving motor 41 (step T2), and then the carriage 1 is moved from position A to position C opposite thereto while sending printing signals to the print head 5 on the basis of printing data from the computer 60 to execute printing (step T3). During the movement of the carriage 1 from position A to position C, a plurality of dot lines (12 x 8 lines) are printed.This is because, as mentioned above, the print head 5 is composed with a 12 x 8 dot array of heating elements arranged along the direction of conveyance of the printing paper.

When the carriage 1 has moved to position C, the driving motor 41 is set for reverse motion to return the carriage 1 to position A. Its stopping at position A is detected by the microswitch 6. The carriage 1 may be stopped at the proper position even without the microswitch 6 in cases where the distance of movement of the carriage 1 is programmed in the control circuit 62 in advance. Steps T2 and T3 are repeated until the interface 61 receives a command for a page break or for cutting the printing paper or a command to stop the printing (hereunder such command will be referred to as "cutting command").

Upon receipt of the cutting command by the interface 61 (step T4), the control circuit 62 controls the driving motor 41 to move the carriage 1 to position B (step T5).

Position B is more distant from the printing paper than position A, located outside the area of movement of the carriage 1 for printing (outside the area of movement for printing). The carriage 1 abuts the cutter device 2 when it is located at position B. Then, the control circuit 62 controls the solenoid fixed to the carriage 1 to rotate the hook member 31 (step T6). As indicated by the alternate long and two short dashes line in FIG. 3, this rotation results in engagement of the hook member 31 with the protrusion member 32 of the cutting device 2 which in turn establishes the coupling between the carriage 1 and the cutter device 2. After this, the motor 41 is driven, under control by the control circuit 62, to move the carriage 1 from position B to position D and then to position B again (step T7). The position D is located outward from the position C, outside the area of movement of the carriage 1 for printing. While the carriage 1 is moving from the position B to position D, the edge of the cutting blade 21 stays in the guide groove 58a provided in the sheet guide 58 to cut the printing paper P. Since the force with which the stopper 7 retains the cutter device 2 is significantly smaller than the force required to move the carriage 1 coupled to the cutter device 2, there is no possibility of the stopper 7 impeding the movement of the cutter device 2 coupled to the carriage 1.

In step T7, when the carriage 1 coupled to the cutter device 2 arrives at the position B, the control circuit 62 controls the solenoid 33 to release the coupling between the hook member 31 and the protrusion member 32 (step T8) to decouple the carriage 1 and the cutter device 2. After this decoupling, the control circuit 62 controls the motor 41 to move the carriage 1 from the position B to the home position A (step T9). The cutter device 2 is stopped by the stopper 7. During the execution of step T9, the control circuit 62 stops the printing in cases where a command to stop the printing had been received or upon receipt of such command, whereas the control starting in step T2 is repeated as long as there is no command received to stop the-printing and printing data is still left (step T10).

As explained above, since the cutter 2 is decoupled from the carriage 1 prior to printing, the weight of the carriage 1 and thus the moment of inertia decreases accordingly to reduce the degree of vibration of the carriage 1 during its reciprocating motion. As a result, the print quality is improved, and the movement of the carriage 1 is speeded up.

In addition, the stopper 7 serves to prevent the cutter device 2 from moving due to vibrations during printing.

Furthermore, the retaining force of the stopper 7, being smaller than that required to move the carriage 1 coupled to the cutter device 2, cannot impede the movement of the cutter device 2. Here, the stopper 7 may be a permanent magnet in cases where the cutter device 2 is a magnetic substance. -Alternatively, the stopper 2 may be formed of a friction-creating material.

In FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the solenoid 33 and the hook member 31 of the coupling mechanism 3 may be mounted on the cutter device 2, and the protrusion member 32 on the carriage 1. Mounting of the protrusion member 32 on the carriage 1 may save the weight of the carriage 1.

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are plan views of other examples of the cutter device available for use in the printer shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. In FIG. 6, the cutter device 22 has a disc-like cutting blade 22a engaged with the center shaft 22b in a rotatable manner. The periphery of the cutting blade 22a is sharpened. In addition, the cutter device 22 contains a space 22c enveloping the cutting blade 22a part of the outer region of which is bare. The cutting blade 22a contacts and cuts the printing paper P while rotating with the entire periphery thereof in contact with the printing paper P. As a result, the entire edge is gradually and evenly worn, and thus has greater durability than the cutting blade 21 (FIG, 2) only part of the edge of which is brought into contact with the printing paper P.

In FIG. 7, the cutter device 23 has a disc-like cutting blade 23a engaged with the center shaft 23b in a rotatable manner. The periphery of the cutting blade 23a is sharpened and is provided with radial concave notches arranged at regular spacings. The cutter device 23 also contains a space 23c enveloping the cutting blade 23a part of the outer region of which is bare. The cutting blade 23a contacts the printing paper P and rotates, during the movement of the cutter device 23,'to create perforation as a broken line through the printing paper P. This broken line-like perforation provides a portion along which the printing paper P may be easily cut without using any tool.

FIG. 8 is a plan view of part of the printer according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the drawing, the paper feed mechanism for printing paper P and the mechanism for moving the carriage 1 are the same as of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2, and thus an explanation thereof will be omitted. A coupling mechanism 34 for the carriage 1 and the cutter device 2 according to the present embodiment is different from the coupling mechanism 33 shown in Fig. 2. The coupling mechanism 34 comprises an electromagnet 35 fixed to the carriage 1 and a piece 36 of iron which is a magnet substance fixed to the cutter device 2. The electromagnet 35 and the piece 36 of iron face to each other.Also, the electric circuit for printing, which is different from that shown in FIG. 4 only in that the electromagnet 35 is substituted for the solenoid 33, operates in the same manner as that shown in FIG. 4.

The printing may be executed in the same manner as with the first embodiment, and upon receipt of a command to cut the paper, the carriage-moving mechanism 4 takes the carriage 1 to a position (position B in FIG. 2) abutting the cutter device 2. The control with the control circuit 62 is then performed to excite the electromagnet 35 to adsorb the piece 36 of iron thereon thereby establishing coupling between the carriage 1 and the cutter device 2.

Subsequently, after the cutting of the printing paper P is completed, excitation of the electromagnet 35 is terminated when the carriage 1 reaches position B, thus releasing the coupling between the carriage 1 and the cutter device 2.

According to the second embodiment, since the coupling mechanism 34 is composed with the electromagnet 35 and the magnet substance 36, the coupled carriage 1 and cutter device 2 co-operate satisfactorily due to the attracting effect of the electromagnet 35 even in cases where the two members deviate somewhat from the prescribed positional relationship. Accordingly, there is no need to control the coupling operation and to manufacture respective parts which constitute the coupling mechanism 34 with particularly high degrees of precision, and this contributes to reduced costs of manufacturing. In addition, in the second embodiment, the coupling mechanism 34 may be mounted on the cutter device 2, and the piece 36 of iron on the carriage 1. Furthermore, since the use of the electromagnet 35 allows intimate contact between the carriage 1 and the cutter device 2, the cutter device 2 is not required to be guided by the carriage guides 52, 53.

Here, the cutter device 2 is designed to be retained at a given position with a holder or the like while it is not used for cutting.

FIG. 9A and FIG. 9B are plan views illustrative of part of the printer according to a third embodiment of the present invention. A coupling mechanism 8 is constructed in the same manner as the first embodiment except that it is equipped with a guide plate 80 mounted on the cutter device 2 which has a W-section guide groove 81, and an arm member 82 fixed on the carriage 1 which has an engaging protrusion 82a at its tip for engagement with the guide groove 81.

As shown in FIG. 10, the guide plate 80 has the W-section guide groove 81 on its top, and two openings 81b, 81f of the guide groove 81 are arranged so as to face the tip-bent, engaging protrusion 82a provided at the tip of the arm member 82. Here, the guide plate 80 is supported by the cutter device 2 by means of the center shaft 80a in a rotatable manner. This center shaft 80a is engaged with a recoiling spring 80b, and this recoiling spring 80b has one side fixed to the cutter device 2 and the other end fixed to the guide plate 80 so as to bias the guide plate 80 in a given direction at all times.

On the other hand, the engaging protrusion 82a (FIG.

10) has a width which allows a clearance fit thereof in the W-section guide groove 81. For coupling, the carriage 1 moves to the position abutting the cutter device 2 in the same manner as for the cutting operation with the first embodiment. Both the coupling between the guide plate 80 and the engaging protrusion 82a and the movement of the carriage 1 will now be explained with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 10.

The W-section guide plate 80 has a side 81a with openings 81b, 81f which is shaped as an arc tilting in the direction from the opening 81f to the opening 81b, and as the carriage 1 moves closer to the cutter device 2, the engaging protrusion 82a is brought into contact with the side 81a and then slides on the side 81a into the opening 81b. At this time the guide plate 80 is pressed to rotate, by the driving force of the carriage 1, in the direction indicated by "r" in FIG. 10. In addition, as the carriage 1 moves, the guide plate 80 is biased in the direction indicated by "q" in FIG. 10 by the recoiling spring 80b.

As a result, the engaging protrusion 82a is moved to a knee section 81c of the guide groove 81. Now the carriage 1 is located at position B shown in FIG. 3.

When the carriage 1 begins to move to position D shown in FIG. 3 for cutting, the engaging protrusion 82a also begins to slide in the W-section guide groove 81 to move from the knee section 81c to a knee section 81d. Since the engaging protrusion 82a is retained at the knee section 81d, the printing paper P is cut while the cutter device 2 is towed by the carriage 1.

After cutting the printing paper P, the carriage 1 moves back from position D to position B. Here, since the carriage 1 moves as if to press the cutter device 2, the engaging protrusion 82a moves in the W-section guide groove 81 from the knee section 81d to a knee section 81e.

Before the carriage 1 returns to position A or its home position, the engaging protrusion 82a moves from the knee section 81e of the guide groove to the opening 81f to release the engagement between the guide groove 81 and the engaging protrusion 82a thereby decoupling the carriage 1 and the cutter device 2.

With the third embodiment which comprises the arm member 82 equipped with the engaging protrusion 82a for engagement with the W-section guide groove 81, since the coupling is established by mechanical engagement, there is no need to have an electric circuit, including a solenoid, an electromagnet, etc., and thus no failure such as wiring contact failure occurs, thereby enhancing the maintainability of the printer.

Here, the third embodiment may be modified by setting the arm member 82 in a rotatable manner and fixing the guide plate 80. Alternatively, the guide plate 80 may be mounted on the carriage 1, and the arm member 82 on the cutter device 2.

In this -connection, the cutter device 2 used in the respective embodiments described above may have the structure shown in FIG. 11. The shown cutter device 2 may be a molded piece formed of an elastic material, for example, provided with claw members 24, 25 which sandwich the respective guides, instead of the holes for fitting the carriage guide 52 and the sub-guide 53 therein. Since these claw members 24, 25 have lower ends of widths somewhat smaller than those of the carriage guide 52 and the sub-guide 53, as shown in FIG. 11, the cutter device 2 may be readily removed from the carriage guide 52 and the sub-guide 53 by being simply pulled up in the direction indicated by the arrow shown in FIG. 11. This configuration allows easy and safe replacement of the cutter device 2 by its removal from the carriage guide 52 and the sub-guide 53 in case of replacement required due to failure of the cutting blade 21 of the cutter device 2, etc.

Moreover, although the print head 5 used in the respective embodiments described above is a thermal head, any other serial print head (e.g., dot matrix or ink jet print head) may be used as well.

The printers illustrated are adapted for high-quality, high-speed printing, and allow conveyance of the printing paper along a short path.

Claims (15)

1. A printer for use with rolled printing paper, comprising: means for conveying printing paper unrolled from a roll of printing paper; a print head which faces and prints said conveyed printing paper; a carriage with said print head mounted thereon; carriage-moving means for moving said carriage in the direction of printing by said print head; a cutter device equipped with a cutting blade for cutting said printing paper; and a coupling mechanism for establishing coupling between said cutter device and said carriage for cutting said printing paper, and for decoupling said cutter device from said carriage after the cutting is completed, said cutter device being designed to move with said carriage by being coupled thereto.

2. A printer as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cutter device is located outside the range of movement of said print head for printing while being decoupled from said carriage.

3. A printer as claimed in claim 2, wherein said carriage-moving means comprises carriage guides which are fixed in said direction of printing to guide the movement of said carriage; and a moving mechanism which is coupled to said carriage to move said carriage along said carriage guides.

4. A printer as claimed in claim 3, wherein said cutter device is connected to said carriage guides, and is located outside the range of movement of said print head for printing while being decoupled from said carriage, and- moves together with said carriage guided by said carriage guides for cutting said printing paper.

5. A printer as claimed in claim 2, which further comprises retaining means for retaining said cutter device outside the range of movement of said print head for printing, the retaining force of said retaining means being smaller than that required to move said carriage coupled to said cutter device.

6. A printer as claimed in claim 5, wherein said retaining means is a magnet which attracts said cutting mechanism.

7. A printer as claimed in claim 5, wherein said retaining means is a spring.

8. A printer as claimed in claim 1, wherein said coupling means, which comprises a hook member mounted on either said carriage or said cutter device and a hook coupling member mounted on the other of said carriage and said cutter device which is designed to be coupled to said hook member, and said hook member is coupled to said hookcoupling member for cutting said printing paper, and said hook member is decoupled from said hook-coupling member after the cutting is completed.

9. A printer as claimed in claim 1, wherein said coupling means comprises an electromagnet mounted on either said carriage or said cutter device and a magnetic substance mounted on the other of said carriage and said cutter device which is designed to be coupled to said electromagnet, and said electromagnet is coupled to said magnetic substance for cutting said printing paper, and said electromagnet is decoupled from said magnetic substance after the cutting is completed.

10. A printer as claimed in claim 1, wherein said coupling means comprises a grooved guide member mounted on either said carriage or said cutter device and a groovefitting member mounted on the other of said carriage and said cutter device which is designed to be fitted in the groove of said guide member, and said groove-fitting member is fitted in said groove for cutting said printing paper, and said groove-fitting member is detached from said groove after the cutting is completed.

11. A printer as claimed in claim 2, wherein said cutting blade is a disc-like rotatable blade.

12. A printer as claimed in claim 11, wherein said disc-like cutting blade has radial notches arranged along its periphery at given spacings to create perforation as a broken line through said printing paper.

13. A printer for use with rolled printing paper, comprising: means for conveying printing paper unrolled from a roll of printing paper; a print head which faces and prints said conveyed printing paper; a carriage with said print head mounted thereon; carriage-moving means for moving said carriage in the direction of printing by said print head; a cutter device equipped with a cutting blade for cutting said printing paper; a coupling mechanism for establishing coupling between said cutter device and said carriage for cutting said printing paper, and for decoupling said cutter device and said carriage from each other after the cutting is completed; and control means for controlling the coupling between said cutter device and said carriage, which is established by said coupling means, based on an instruction from a host system, said cutter device being designed to move with said carriage by being coupled thereto.

14. A printer as claimed in claim 13, wherein the instruction from said host system is a command for a page break, stopping the printing or cutting the printing paper

15. A printer for use with rolled printing paper, substantially as herein described with reference to the embodiments illustrated in Figures 2 to 11 of the drawings.