JPH02277680A - Electronic typewriter - 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 Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an apparatus for irradiating printed results of an electronic typewriter.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in electronic typewriters that use a serial printer mechanism, a printing means is mounted on a carriage that is moved in a direction transverse to the conveyance direction of the recording medium. While recording operation is performed by printing means,
As a means of indicating the recording position, for example, a recording position mark may be printed on a card holder for holding paper that is fixed on the carriage, and this may be used as a mark, or an indicator or the like may be placed on the scale section that indicates the carriage movement position. A method of pointing by providing an indicating means was adopted.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the past, as described above, when checking the printing result or correcting the printing result, it is necessary to move the carriage to the original printing position and check the printing. In this case, there are problems in that the usage environment is dark or the printed results are sometimes hidden behind the transparent card holder, making it difficult to confirm the printed results.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and its purpose is to move the carriage to the original printing position when checking the printing result or correcting the printing result. To provide an electronic typewriter that can easily check the printing results when the usage environment is dark or the printing results are sometimes hidden by a card holder.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned problems and objects, the electronic typewriter of the present invention has an irradiation means mounted on a carriage constituting a serial printer mechanism, I am trying to illuminate the area with light.

Preferably, the current recording position and the past recording position on the recording medium are irradiated separately.

Preferably, an optical fiber is used as the irradiation means.

Preferably, the light from the irradiation means is used as a means for displaying the moving position of the carriage.

Preferably, the irradiation means is turned off after a certain period of time has elapsed.

[Embodiments] Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an electronic typewriter equipped with a thermal transfer printer mechanism. In the figure, the electronic typewriter is detachably provided with an AC adapter l for supplying external power. A power switch 2 for turning the power on and off is provided on this side part, while
An LCD display section 3 for displaying characters and symbols to be printed is provided approximately at the center of the top surface.

Furthermore, a transparent plastic card holder 8 for holding the paper F is further mounted on the carriage 4, which is equipped with a thermal head 6 that performs printing operations while reciprocating between a home position and a carriage return position. Further, an ink ribbon cassette 7 storing an ink ribbon whose ink is thermally transferred onto the paper F by the heat of the thermal head 6 is also removably mounted on the carriage 4 .

On the other hand, a keyboard 5 provided with a large number of keys for instructing characters to be printed and function operations is located in front of the top surface as shown in the figure. A scale 13 made of transparent plastic that indicates the movement position of an indicator rod fixed to the carriage 4 in a transparent state is provided in the illustrated position parallel to the LCD display section 3.
A scale is engraved on the mark so that the moving position of the carriage 4 can be accurately confirmed.

Next, FIG. 2 shows an external perspective view of the main mechanical parts of the electronic typewriter shown in FIG. 1, but the parts explained in FIG. To explain only the parts, the carriage 4 is a part of a wire 32 stretched between a pulley 31 fixed to a motor 30 and an idler 33 rotatably supported on a main body (not shown). It is fixed to , and is moved as the motor 30 is driven.

The carriage 4 is provided with a light source 9 and a cover 10 with a lens for the light source, which is integrated with the light source, in the vicinity of the thermal head 6 as shown in the figure. I try to illuminate the top.

Next, FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of the power supply section of an electronic typewriter. In this figure, the power supply section 14 is connected to the above-mentioned AC adapter l, and the power supply section 14 is connected to the above-mentioned AC adapter l, and the necessary power supply for the CPU device 100, thermal head 6, etc. In addition to supplying power, it also supplies power to the light source 9.

For this purpose, a control amplifier 16 consisting of a transistor T and a resistor R is connected as shown between the CPU device 100 and the magnet relay 15 shown by the dashed line that controls the supply of power to the light source 9. There is. As a result, C.P.
When the output from the output port of the U device 100 is turned on, the transistor T of the control amplifier 16 turns on, turning on the magnet relay 15.
The contacts are short-circuited, and the light source power source (2) is output to turn on the light source 9.

On the other hand, when turning off the light source 9, the output port of the CPU device 100 may be turned off. Here, this CPU
During normal operation, the device 100 measures the time from the first key force to the next key force,
If a certain period of time has elapsed, the light source 9 is controlled to be turned off, thereby achieving an energy saving effect.

Alternatively, for example, the end state of the ink ribbon may be detected by a ribbon end sensor, and the light source 9 may be blinked based on this detection to inform the user of the end state of the ink ribbon.

Furthermore, the power relay 15 can be connected directly from the output port of the CPU device 100 by using a photocoupler or the like as an alternative.
It may be configured to perform on/off control.

The operation of the above configuration will be described in detail below. First, when the power switch 2 is turned on, the electronic typewriter receives power from the AC adapter 1 and performs an initial operation. Typical initial operations include an operation in which the carriage 4 returns to the home position, which is the starting point, an operation to wind up the ribbon in the ribbon cassette 7, and an operation to clear the screen of the LCD display section 3.

After this initial operation is completed, the predetermined operation is performed according to the input on the keyboard 5, while the display operation is from now on.
This is done by displaying characters and symbols on the CD display section 3.

On the other hand, in the printing operation, when character information is input from the keyboard 5, the thermal head 6 on the carriage section 4
The paper F is brought into close contact with the paper F with the ribbon of the ribbon cassette 7 sandwiched therebetween. After that, the thermal head 6 is selectively energized and generates heat, which melts the ribbon. At the same time, the carriage section 4 moves to the right in the horizontal direction with respect to the paper F, causing the melted ribbon to melt. is transferred onto paper F as printed characters.

After this transfer, the thermal head 6 returns from the contact position on the paper F to its original standby position, and at the same time the carriage 4 moves to the next character printing position.

Next, FIG. 4 is a partially sectional plan view showing the back and forth movement of the thermal head 7 with respect to the ribbon R and the relationship between the paper F and the card holder 8. As is clear in this figure, the thermal head 7 is The paper F is brought into contact with the paper F by entering into an opening 8a formed substantially at the center of the holder 8.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A' in FIG. 4, and shows the opening 8a of the card holder 8. In this figure, a marker 8b is located at the upper center of the opening 8a. It is designed to indicate the recording position.

On the other hand, FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional side view showing the visible range of the recorded character C, and as shown in the figure, it can be seen that it is blocked by the head of the thermal head 6 at the standby position of the thermal head 6.

FIG. 7 is a partially sectional plan view showing a first embodiment in which the light source 9 is a miniature light bulb B, and FIG. 8 is a partially sectional side view of FIG. In both figures, light source 9 is miniature light bulb B.
and a lens-equipped cover 10, and is configured to irradiate an irradiation range a on the sheet F. Further, since the thermal head 6 is in a transfer operation, when the light source 9 irradiates the paper while it is moving in the direction of the paper F, the light is blocked by the thermal head 6 and when it returns to its original position, the part a of the paper F is irradiated. I have to.

Next, FIG. 9 is a partially sectional plan view showing the back and forth movement of the thermal head 7 with respect to the ribbon R and the relationship between the paper F and the card holder 8 according to the second embodiment. By changing the shape of the lens-equipped cover 10 as shown in the figure, it becomes possible to irradiate the part to the left of the current position on the paper F, that is, the printed result part hidden behind the transparent card holder 8. . This rear side area is distinguished by lowering the irradiation brightness than the irradiation area a.

Here, as another method for distinguishing between the irradiation range a, which is the current position, and the backside range A, which is another part, a color filter may be attached to the cover 10 with a lens.

Next, FIG. 10 is a partially sectional side view showing the back-and-forth movement of the thermal head 7 with respect to the ribbon R and the relationship between the paper F and the card holder 8 according to the third embodiment. is used to irradiate the irradiation area a, and a part of the thermal head 6 is provided with a hole 6a.
The hole 6a has a structure through which light from the optical fiber 12 passes. In addition, for illumination of the back side area, -
As shown in the partial external perspective view of FIG. 11, the optical fiber 12 is embedded inside the card holder 8, so that the printed results are irradiated from below through the card holder 8.

This optical fiber 12 is further used for illuminating the scale indicator rod, and is attached vertically to the tip of the optical fiber 12 fixed to the carriage 4, as shown in the perspective view of FIG. By forming grooves and having a structure in which light leaks from the crests of the vertical grooves, the 13 scales of a transparent plastic scale are used to indicate the movement position of the carriage 4 in a transparent state.The light leaks out and is displayed. Zero or more light sources whose positions are indicated share one miniature light bulb B on the carriage part 4.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and its purpose is to remove the carriage when checking the print result or when correcting the print result. Provided is an electronic typewriter that allows the user to easily check the print results when moving to the original print position and checking the print results in a dark usage environment or when the print results are hidden behind a transparent card holder. .

Furthermore, an electronic typewriter is provided that can distinguish and irradiate current recorded positions and past recorded positions on a recording medium.

Furthermore, an electronic typewriter is provided that can efficiently irradiate light by using an optical fiber as the irradiation means.

Furthermore, there is provided an electronic typewriter in which the moving position of the carriage can be easily confirmed by using the light from the irradiating means as a display means for indicating the moving position of the carriage.

Furthermore, an electronic typewriter with low power consumption is provided in which the irradiation means is turned off after a certain period of time has elapsed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is an external perspective view of an electronic typewriter equipped with a thermal transfer printer mechanism. Figure 2 is an external perspective view of the main mechanical parts of the electronic typewriter shown in Figure 1. Figure 3 is the power supply section of the electronic typewriter. FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional plan view showing the back and forth movement of the thermal head 7 with respect to the ribbon R and the relationship between the paper F and the card holder 8. FIG. 6 is a sectional side view showing the visible range of the recorded letter C; FIG. 7 is a partially sectional plan view showing the first embodiment in which the light source 9 is composed of a miniature light bulb B; 8 is a partially cross-sectional side view of FIG. 7, and FIG. 9 is a ribbon R of the thermal head 7 according to the second embodiment.
FIG. 11 is a partial cross-sectional side view showing the relationship between the paper F and the card holder 8, the back and forth movement of the paper F and the card holder 7 relative to the ribbon R, and the relationship between the paper F and the card holder 8. FIG. is a perspective view of a part of the tenth part. In the figure, 1...AC adapter, 2...power switch,
3... LCD display, 4... Carriage, 5...
Keyboard, 6... Thermal head, 7... Ribbon cassette 8... Card holder 9... Light source, 10
... Lens cover 12 ... Optical fiber 13.
...Scale, 14...Power supply section, 15...Magnetic relay 16...Control amplifier, 100...CP
U device, F...paper, B...miniature light bulb.

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) An electronic typewriter characterized in that an irradiation means is mounted on a carriage constituting a serial printer mechanism to irradiate light onto a recording medium. (2) The electronic typewriter according to claim 1, characterized in that the current recording position and the past recording position on the recording medium are irradiated separately. (3) The electronic typewriter according to claim 1, wherein an optical fiber is used as the irradiation means. (4) The electronic typewriter according to claim 3, wherein light from the irradiation means is used as means for displaying the moving position of the carriage. (5) The electronic typewriter according to claim 1, wherein the irradiation means is turned off after a certain period of time has elapsed.