JPH0220372A - Printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device that prints on a print medium while a print head is brought into contact with the print medium.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Impact type printing devices have been the mainstream of printing devices used as computer output devices since they have the practical advantages of being able to make copies and having low running costs. This printing device is designed to be compatible with printing on print media of extremely different thicknesses, such as passbooks and slips handled at financial terminals. A conventional printing device will be explained below.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a conventional printing device, and FIG. 6 is a side view of a main part of the thickness adjustment mechanism of the printing device shown in FIG.

In FIG. 5, 101 is an impact type print head, 107 is an ink ribbon containing ink, 102 is an ink ribbon cassette containing the ink ribbon 107, and 10
3 is a printing medium such as a bankbook or a slip. 104 is a print receiving platen made of rubber or the like that receives the dots of the print head 101 via a print medium, and 112 is a pulley 12 having a spur gear for feeding the ink ribbon 107.
It is a rotating rope wound around 5.

113 is a rope stopper attached to the side chassis 110 of the printing device.
is maintained. 148 is a swing lever 145.146
116 is an oscillating spur gear, and 116 is a drive spur gear that is fitted and fixed to the ink ribbon drive shaft 115 for feeding the ink ribbon 107. 147 is an intermediate spur gear that transmits the rotation of the oscillating spur gear 146 to the driving spur gear 116. 118.
141 is a carriage shaft that guides the rad carriage 127 toward printing. Reference numeral 142 denotes a drive rope that causes the print carriage 127 to travel, and is fixedly held on the print carriage 127 . Reference numeral 143 denotes a drive rope pulley, which is pivotally supported by the side chassis 110 of the printing device. 150 is an eccentric bearing in which the carriage shaft 141 is inserted, and 144 is an eccentric bearing 1.
It is a lever that rotates 50.

Next, the operation of the thickness adjustment mechanism for the print medium 103 will be explained. In FIG. 6, 01 is the center of the carriage shaft, C2 is the center of the eccentric bearing 150, and S is the amount of eccentricity thereof, which is the maximum adjustment gap for the print medium thickness. When the user rotates the lever 144 according to the thickness of the print medium 103, the eccentric shaft 150 similarly rotates, and the carriage shaft 141 moves from CI to 02. Accordingly, the gap between the tip of the print head 101 and the print receiver 104 has to be adjusted. Generally, this adjustment amount was about 0.5 mm, with a maximum of 1 mm.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, with the above-mentioned conventional configuration, it is difficult to cope with printing media that are extremely thick, such as passbooks and slips used in financial institutions. Furthermore, it is troublesome for the user to manually adjust the thickness based on the user's recognition of the thickness of the print medium.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve this problem, the present invention provides a carriage that holds a print head base on which a print head is mounted so as to be movable in a direction perpendicular to the print surface, and a carriage that moves the print head base along the print surface. a carriage shaft for movably holding the carriage, a biasing means for biasing the carriage in one direction of movement relative to the print head base, a rotatable roller provided on the carriage, and a rotatable roller stretched along the carriage shaft and hung on the roller. The carriage is provided with a driving means for pulling the rope, and by pulling the rope by the driving means, the carriage is moved in a direction opposite to the direction urged by the urging means.

Operation In this configuration, when the rope is pulled by the drive means, force is applied to the roller regardless of the position of the carriage, causing the print head to move back and forth.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a plan view of a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of the printing device shown in FIG. 1 viewed from the right, and FIG. 3 is a side view of the printing device shown in FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing the drive mechanism of the ink ribbon 7. FIG. 1
1 is an impact type print head having a wire tod, 7 is an ink ribbon containing ink, 2 is an ink ribbon cassette containing the ink ribbon 7, and 3 is a printing medium such as a bankbook or a slip. 4 is a metal print receiver made of metal such as stainless steel, and 5 is an elastic print receiver made of rubber or the like, which is provided below the metal print receiver 4.

These metal print receiver 4 and elastic print receiver 5 constitute a platen. Reference numeral 6 designates a conveyance path base that transports and guides the print medium 3, 8 a medium pressing roller pivotally supported by the print head base 14, and 9 a screw shaft that drives the rad carriage 27 for printing. Reference numeral 10 designates a side chassis that fixedly holds the entire printing apparatus, and reference numeral 11 designates an ink ribbon rotation shaft that rotates the ink ribbon cassette 2 about the support shaft 23 of the cassette holder 19 and moves the ink ribbon 7. Reference numeral 12 denotes a rotating rope wound around a movable pulley 25, which is held on the side chassis 10 by a stopper 13 and is connected to the motor 60 in the direction B.
being pulled by. 14 is a print head base on which the print head 1 and ink ribbon cassette 2 are placed; 15 is an ink ribbon drive shaft that feeds the ink ribbon 7 in the ink ribbon cassette 2; the ink ribbon drive shaft is inserted into the movable pulley 25; .

Reference numeral 16 denotes a drive bevel gear coaxially inserted into the movable pulley and the ink ribbon drive shaft 15. 17 is a biasing pin for rotating the ink ribbon cassette 2. Reference numeral 18 denotes a carriage shaft for guiding the rad carriage 27 toward printing, and 21 refers to the print head base 14 and the print head 1 and ink ribbon cassette 2 placed on the print head base 14 on the print surface of the print medium 3. 20 is a spring hanging pin fixed to the print head base 14 of this coil spring 21. Reference numeral 24 denotes an ink ribbon drive roller that is built into the ink ribbon cassette 2 and is pivotally supported, and is connected to the ink ribbon drive shaft 15 for rotation transmission. Reference numeral 26 denotes a guide pin that guides the print head base 14 movably in the direction of the arrow, and is formed on the print carriage 27.

28 is a screw motor that rotates the ink ribbon cassette 2 using the ink ribbon rotation shaft 23. 30 is a conveyance roller that conveys the print medium 3, and 29 is a driven roller thereof. 3
2 is a rad carriage 27 that connects the print head base 14 to printing.
It is a slider that can be held and moved freely. 33
is a guide roller for moving the movable pulley 25 in the direction of the arrow by pulling the rotary rope 12. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 34 denotes an intermediate bevel gear which is interposed between the movable pulley 25 coaxially inserted into the ink ribbon drive shaft 15 and the drive bevel gear 16 and meshes at right angles. This intermediate bevel gear 3
4 is pivotally supported on the print head base 14 by a shaft 37.

A drive shaft 38 coaxially holds the ink ribbon drive shaft 15 and rotates together with the ink ribbon drive shaft 15, and is rotatably held by the print head base 14.

35.36 is a movable pulley 2 that rotates in opposite directions with a one-way rotation bearing.
5 and the drive bevel gear 16, the rotational force of the one rotating in a predetermined direction is transmitted to the drive shaft 38, and the rotational force of the drive bevel gear 16 is separated from the other one in an idle state. The operation of the printing apparatus of this embodiment configured as described above will be described below. First, when the screw shaft 9 is rotated counterclockwise in FIG. 2, the print carriage 27, the print head base 14, the print head 1 placed on the print head base 14, and the ink ribbon cassette 2 travel in the direction of arrow B. . Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the movable pulley 25 around which the rotary rope 12 is wound rotates in the direction of the arrow, and as the ink ribbon drive roller 24 rotates, the ink ribbon 7 is fed in one direction.

Next, the unidirectional feeding operation of the ink ribbon 7 will be explained. First, when the RAD carriage moves in the A direction to print, the movable pulley 25 rotates clockwise by the rotating rope 12 around which it is wound.Since the one-way rotation bearing 36 rotates only in the clockwise direction, the drive shaft 38 Combined with movable pulley 2
Rotates clockwise as in 5. At this time, the intermediate bevel gear 34
The drive bevel gear 16 is rotated counterclockwise through the unidirectional rotary bearing 35, which rotates only in the clockwise direction.
Therefore, the ink ribbon 7 is fed in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. Conversely, when the print carriage 27 moves in the A direction and the movable pulley 25 rotates counterclockwise, the drive shaft 38 and the one-way rotation shaft 36 become loose and the rotation transmission is disconnected.

At the same time, the driving bevel gear 16 is reversely rotated clockwise via the intermediate bevel gear 34, and the one-way rotation bearing 35 and the driving shaft 38 are coupled to rotate the ink ribbon driving shaft 15 clockwise. As described above, the ink ribbon 7 is also fed in only one direction by moving the rad carriage 27 back and forth in the direction of the arrow AB toward printing or by pulling the rotating rope 12.

Next, print head base 14 and this print head base 1
Print head 1 and ink ribbon cassette 2 placed on 4
The operation of the mechanism for adjusting the thickness of the print medium 3 by movement of the print medium 3 will be explained. First, in FIG. 2, a print medium 3 is fed into a print receiver 4 by a conveying roller 30 and a driven roller 29. As shown in FIG. At this time, the print head base 14 is moved to a position away from the print medium 3 by pulling the rotating rope 12 shown in FIG.
Since a gap larger than the thickness is provided between the print receiver 4 and the tip of the print head 1, the print medium 3 can be set at a predetermined position. Next, when the rotating rope 12 is loosened, the print head base 14 is moved onto the print medium 3 by the biasing spring 21 shown in FIG.
moved to the side.

Then, the medium pressing roller 8 comes into contact with the print medium 3, and a gap is maintained between the print receiver 4 and the tip of the print head 1 according to the thickness of the print medium 3. At this time, the movable pulley 25 rotates little by little clockwise or counterclockwise, so that the ink ribbon 7 is fed and the previously unexposed portion is newly exposed. A step-like gap is provided between the medium pressing roller 8 and the tip of the print head 1 in consideration of the thickness of the ink ribbon 7 and the dot stroke of the print head 1. Therefore, there is a gap between the print medium 3 and the tip of the print head 1, allowing the ink ribbon 7 to run freely. Furthermore, when replacing the ink ribbon cassette 2, the pulling amount of the rotary rope 12 in the direction B can be further increased, as shown in FIG.

Since the amount of movement S can be 10 mm or more, print head 1
The gap between the tip of the ink ribbon cassette 2 and the print receiver 4 becomes larger, making it easier to replace the ink ribbon cassette 2. As described above, according to this embodiment, the movable pulley 25 is rotated by pulling the rotary rope 12 or moving the rad carriage toward printing, and the thickness of the print medium 3 can be adjusted or the ink ribbon 7 can be adjusted with a simple configuration. Directional feeding becomes possible. Also, the thickness adjustment amount is 10
The ink ribbon cassette 2 can be easily replaced since it can be as large as mm or more. As described above, the printing device of the present invention is capable of handling printing media of different shapes and thicknesses, and can be applied not only to impact printing devices but also to printing devices using other printing methods such as thermal transfer using a thermal ink ribbon. be.

Effects of the Invention The present invention comprises: a carriage that holds a print head base on which a print head is mounted so that it can move in a direction perpendicular to the print surface; a carriage shaft that holds the carriage so that it can move along the print surface; The driving device includes a biasing means that biases the print head base in one direction of movement, a rotatable roller provided on the carriage, and a driver stage that pulls a rope stretched along the carriage shaft and hung on the roller. By pulling the rope using the means, the carriage is moved in the opposite direction to the direction urged by the urging means, so even if the thickness of the medium to be printed changes, the lever can be operated as before. It becomes possible to provide a printing device that does not require adjusting the position of the print head.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a printing device in an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a side view of the printing device shown in FIG. 1 seen from the right, FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the printing device shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a plan view of a conventional printing device, and FIG. 6 is a side view of essential parts showing a medium thickness adjustment mechanism of the printing device shown in FIG. Name of agent Patent attorney Shigetaka Awano 1 person 1...Print head 12...Rotating rope 25...Moving pulley 27...Print carriage 14...Print head base

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A print head base on which a print head is placed, a carriage that holds the print head base so as to be movable in a direction perpendicular to the print surface, and the print carriage is movable along the print surface. a carriage shaft for holding the print head base; a biasing means for biasing the print head base in one direction of movement with respect to the print carriage; a rotatable roller provided on the carriage; A rope to be hung, and a driving means for pulling the rope, and the carriage is moved in a direction opposite to the direction urged by the urging means by pulling the rope by the driving means. printing device.