JPH0739659Y2 - Carriage for print head of printer - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a carriage for a print head of a printer, and more particularly to improvement of a carriage that uses a flexible elongated conductor such as a flat cable for driving the print head.

2. Description of the Related Art As an electric wire for driving a print head in an impact dot matrix type serial printer or the like, a flexible elongated conductor such as a flat cable or an FPC is usually widely used.
This is to enable the conductor to move smoothly as the print head is driven. However, in this case, the cable or the like forms a semi-circular folded portion in the printer, and the semi-circular folded portion moves to the left and right at the same time as the carriage moves in the left-right direction. Etc. are surely following the carriage. The arc-shaped folded portion requires a radius of a certain value or more in order to secure the life of the cable or the like.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, a semi-arcuate folded portion is formed in a carriage 14 that supports a print head 10 and is guided by two shafts 12 (see FIG. 6) supported at both ends by a frame. The flat cable 16 is connected. Further, one surface of the carriage 14 has a flat surface for reasons such as easy processing, and the cable extends from this flat surface in one direction.

In particular, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, at the position where the carriage 14 moving left and right comes to the right end of the shaft 12, in order to secure the folding radius R of the cable 16 to a predetermined value or more, the right end of the carriage 14 and the frame are separated. It was necessary to leave a distance A (Fig. 8) larger than R between them. This results in an increase in the size of the printer, especially in the lateral dimension of the frame.

In order to eliminate such an increase in size, a printer was announced in which the distance A in Fig. 8 was made as small as possible (Figs. 9 and 10).
Figure). In this example, in order to reduce A, the carriage 14
The right side portion of the carriage 14a is scraped off so that the dimension B of a in the left-right direction is made as small as possible. However, due to this, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, due to the scraping, the strength of the carriage 14a is reduced, so that when the print head 10a receives the reaction force F (see FIG. 6) during the printing operation, the print head 10a.
There is a drawback in that a is twisted and print quality is deteriorated.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention As described above, in the conventional technique, since the cable folding portion having the radius R of the predetermined length is formed, the carriage cannot be sufficiently approached to the vicinity of the frame, and thus the printer becomes large in size. It was Attempts have been made to scrape off a part of the carriage in order to solve the drawback of the increase in size, but other problems such as deterioration of the strength of the carriage itself and deterioration of printing quality have been raised. Therefore, the present invention achieves downsizing of the printer without causing problems such as deterioration of strength of the carriage itself and deterioration of printing quality.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the present invention processes at least one side edge corner of a carriage having a rectangular cross section so that the cross section has an arc shape with a predetermined length, and the carriage has a frame shape. The pre-cage cable was made to escape to the cable fold side when approaching the side.

By this, the center of the radius (R) of the cable turn-back portion is moved from the one side portion of the frame to the other side portion of the frame as much as possible, thus making the carriage as close as possible to the one side portion of the frame, thereby reducing the size of the printer. I was able to achieve it.

Embodiments FIGS. 1 to 3 show a print head portion embodying the present invention. In the figure, the print head 20 is supported and the carriage 24
Is slidably guided on two shafts 22 (only one shaft is shown in FIG. 1) as in known printers. Both ends of these shafts 22 are supported by left and right frames 26 (only the right frame is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3). The carriage 24, in the illustrated example, one end portion that guides and supports the flange portion that normally supports the print head 20 and one guide shaft 22, and the other end portion that the other guide shaft 22 is stopped, It is composed of a central portion which is located between the other end portion and the one end portion, and which forms a circular arc portion 28 having a size of a radius r on one side corner portion 23 of the one surface 21.

One end of a cable 30 made of a flat flexible elongated conductor is connected to the carriage from the print head 20 like a known printer.
It rises up through one side 21 of 24 and is folded rightward in FIG. 1 through a carriage circular arc portion 28 at one side corner portion 23 of the carriage central portion and folded back to the left side of the rear surface 25 in a vertical state. There is.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the present invention. The difference of this embodiment from the embodiment of FIG. 1 is that the printing surface is located in the lateral direction in FIG. 1, but is located in the longitudinal direction in FIG. The present invention can be usefully used in the case of this embodiment as well. That is, by guiding the cable 30 from one surface 21 of the carriage to the other surface 25 of the carriage through an arc portion 28 formed on one side edge 23 thereof, the carriage 30
This is because it becomes possible to bring the 24 close enough to one side of the frame, and thus the size of the device can be reduced.

In FIG. 1, the cable 30 is guided from one side 21 of the carriage 24 to the other side 25 of the carriage 24 via the right side edge 23, but of course from the one side 21 of the carriage 24 to the left side edge.
It is also possible to guide to the other surface 25 of the carriage via 27.
In this case, an arc is formed on the left side edge 27 of one side 21 of the carriage, which allows the carriage 24 to be sufficiently close to the left frame.

Similarly, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the cable 30 can be guided from one surface 21 of the carriage 24 to the lower side of the carriage, that is, the other surface 25 via the other side edge 27. In this case, the arc part
28 is a side edge of the one surface 21 of the carriage 24 and is formed on a side edge 27 opposite to the circular arc portion 28.

Further, in FIGS. 1 and 4, the flat cable 30 is
Although the embodiment in which the carriage is folded back from one side 21 to the other side 25 has been described, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, the flat cable 30 connected to the print head 20 is connected to the one side 21 of the carriage 24. It is also possible to temporarily guide from the other surface 25 side to the other surface 25 side through an opening (not shown) provided in the carriage 24, and then fold back from the other surface 25 to the one surface 21 side of the carriage. Of course, even in this case, the cable
The carriage 24 can be folded back via the one side edge 29 or the other side edge 31 (FIG. 2), and in these cases, the arcuate portion is formed on the other surface 25 of the carriage 24. It will be understood that each one side edge 29 or the other side edge 31 is formed over a predetermined length. As a result, FIGS. 1 and 4
The same effect as the figure is obtained.

Here, it is preferable that the radius r of the carriage arc portion 28 is formed to be substantially equal to or slightly smaller than the radius R of the folded portion of the cable. Further, the circular arc portion 28 can also be configured as a mere oblique notch surface, or a step shape or other shape along the surface of the circular arc portion. After all, this portion has a shape that does not hinder the folding of the cable when the carriage is moved to the right or left side, and the escape structure of the elongated conductor so that the radius center of the folded portion of the cable can be moved to the left side or the right side as much as possible. It should be a face.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, since a cable flank having a size approximately similar to the radius R of the folded portion of the cable is formed on the carriage, the carriage can be framed without reducing the overall width B of the carriage. The distance A between the carriage and the frame can be remarkably reduced, so that the size of the printer can be reduced without deterioration of the strength of the carriage and deterioration of the print quality. Moreover, since the carriage is located in contact with the inner side surface of the arc drawn by the cable, the cable holding property of the carriage is good.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a print head carriage of a printer embodying the present invention, FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a front view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 1, which is a perspective view of a known carriage for a printer print head, FIG. 6 is a side view of FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a top view of FIG. 8 is a front view of FIG. 5, FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 7 showing another known example, and FIG. 10 is a front view of FIG. Description of department name 20: Printer head, 22: Axis 24: Carriage, 26: Frame 28: Relief structure surface 30: Flexible elongated conductor

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A flat flexible elongate conductor for driving a printhead supported on a carriage is guided from one side of the carriage to one side and then surrounds the one side corner. A carriage for a print head of a printer folded back to the other surface, wherein a flank of the conductor is formed on at least one lateral corner of one side or the other side of the carriage, and the flank of the conductor is formed on the flank. A carriage for a print head of a printer, which can be configured along the line.