JPH0367633B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printer, and particularly to a lightweight, low-noise impact printer.

[Prior art and its problems]

Typical output devices for information processing devices such as computers and word processors include CRTs, printers, plotters, and file devices.
Among these, printers are positioned as the most common output device because they can output information as printed information such as characters or graphics and leave it as a hard copy.

Such printers can be broadly divided into so-called impact type printers, which apply a blow to a printing material such as paper through an ink ribbon, and make the ink stick to the printing material, and printers that use inkjet or thermal paper. There is also a non-impact type used. Among them, impact printers are widely used because they are capable of recording on plain paper and have excellent reliability. There are two types of impact type: the type type, which prints by selecting type, and the wire dot type, which combines several thin wires and drives any one of them to form characters as a collection of extremely fine dots. There is something. The basic printing method for both is the same, and the printing hammer or armature is driven to cause the wire or type drive body to collide with the printing object on the platen through the ink ribbon, and the impact causes the ink ribbon to be damaged. The ink contained in the printing medium is transferred to the printing medium. Therefore, the printing method of impact printers is
A feature of this method is that the printing hammer or the like that is a moving part collides with the platen, and by adopting this method, the printing mechanism system can be simplified. However, in impact printers, as mentioned above, the kinetic energy of the printing hammer etc. is applied to the platen as an impact force, which causes the platen to vibrate greatly, and the energy of this vibration is transferred to the chassis frame, etc. used to fix the platen. transmitted to. These vibrations of the platen, chassis frame, etc. are a problem in terms of the noise generated by the printer. In particular, the noise generated from the platen is one of the factors that determines the level of noise generated by impact printers, and therefore, reducing the noise generated from the platen will reduce the noise of impact printers. Become.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a conventional impact printer. The printing section includes a printing hammer 9 and a printing thimble 10 provided with printing characters.
The selection of type is performed by rotating the type thimble 10 by a rotation motor 11. Printing hammer 9, type thimble 10, rotation motor 1
1 is placed on carriage 2. The carriage 2 has a structure that is movable along the platen 1 to select a printing position, and is guided by a carriage guide 3. A spacing belt 4 is attached to the carriage 2 for movement, and the spacing belt 4 is driven by a spacing motor 12. The platen 1 is rotatably held by a chassis frame 15 via platen shafts 16 provided at both ends of the platen 1. The printing medium 14 is fed along the cylindrical surface of the platen 1, and as the line feed pulley 13 coupled to the platen shaft 16 rotates, the platen 1 rotates, and the printing medium 14 is fed along the cylindrical surface of the platen 1. Sent by the friction between.

When considering the noise generated from the platen 1 due to the hammer impact, the mechanism of its generation can be considered as follows. First, print hammer 9
When the printing hammer 9 collides with the platen 1, the kinetic energy of the printing hammer 9 is transferred to the platen 1. The impact of the printing hammer 9 is impulse-like, and the platen 1 receives an excitation force in an extremely wide band.
This excitation force causes the platen 1 to vibrate,
The vibrational displacement causes noise to be widely propagated into the air. The radiated noise generated by the vibration of the platen 1 is spread over a wide area because the outer circumferential area of the platen 1 is large and the platen 1 has a substantially integral structure, so the whole vibrates significantly. Therefore, conventional printers have the disadvantage that noise is emitted over a wide range due to platen vibration caused by the hammer impact.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks and provide a low-noise impact printer.

[Structure of the invention]

The present invention has a structure in which a carriage equipped with a printing mechanism system is movable in the printing direction, and the object to be printed is brought into close contact with a platen, and a blow is applied to the object by a wire or a hammer that constitutes the printing mechanism system. An impact printer that performs printing, characterized in that the platen is made small so as to reduce the noise emission area, and is combined with the carriage to form an integral structure, so that it can move freely in the printing direction together with the carriage. It is said that

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing a type impact printer which is an embodiment of the impact printer of the present invention. A platen 1, which is smaller than the carriage 2, is coupled to the carriage 2, and the carriage 2 and platen 1 are configured to be movable as a unit. The carriage 2 is guided by a carriage guide 3 and driven by a spacing motor 12 via a spacing belt 4 connected to the carriage 2. Carriage 2
is equipped with a type thimble 10 and a printing hammer 9, and the type thimble 10 is equipped with a rotation motor 1.
1 rotates and selects the type. Printed material 1
4 is guided to a paper roller 7 and a return roller 5, brought into close contact with the platen 1 by a set roller 6, and fed by paper feed rollers 8a and 8b. Paper feed roller 8
A line feed pulley 13 connected to the sura is rotated by a line feed mechanism (not shown).

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the relationship between the feeding of the printing medium 14 and the printing mechanism system in the embodiment shown in FIG. The printing medium 14 is guided by the paper roller 7, wrapped around the return roller 5 approximately once, and is fed by paper feed rollers 8a and 8b.

In order to reduce the noise radiation from the platen caused by the hammer impact, it is effective to reduce the surface area of the vibrating portion of the platen 1. That is, the radiation power from the platen decreases as the surface area decreases. Therefore, in the impact type printer of the present invention, the platen is integrated with the carriage, so the platen only needs to be present in the area in front of the printing area, and therefore the platen can be made extremely small, and the noise radiation area can be made small. , low noise can be achieved. Further, unlike the conventional example, the platen does not need to have a printing width, and only needs to be present in the printing area, so the printer becomes smaller and lighter. The shape, material, size, etc. of the platen connected to the carriage 2 can be optimally selected depending on each case.

Although a type impact printer was shown in the above embodiments, it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to wire dot type impact printers, and it goes without saying that the above embodiments do not limit the scope of the present invention. .

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the platen is integrated with a carriage equipped with a printing mechanism system, and the carriage and platen are structured to be movable in the printing direction, thereby reducing the noise emission from the platen that occurs at the time of impact. It is possible to obtain a low-noise impact printer.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of the impact printer of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the printing mechanism of the impact printer shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a conventional impact printer. 1... Platen, 2... Carriage, 3... Carriage guide, 4... Spacing belt, 5... Return roller, 6... Set roller, 7... Paper roller, 8a, 8b... Paper feed roller, 9...
Printing hammer, 10... Type thimble, 11... Rotation motor, 12... Spacing motor, 1
3...Line feed pulley, 14...Printed material, 1
5...Shaft frame, 16...Platen shaft.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A carriage equipped with a printing mechanism system is constructed to be movable in the printing direction, and the object to be printed is brought into close contact with the platen, and a blow is applied with a wire or hammer that constitutes the printing mechanism system to print on the object to be printed. The impact printer is characterized in that the platen is made small so as to reduce the noise emission area, and is combined with the carriage to form an integral structure, so that it can move freely in the printing direction together with the carriage. Impact printer.