US2867168A - Printer positioning mechanism - Google Patents

Description

R. I. ROTH PRINTER POSITIONING MECHANISM Jan. 6, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 6, 1953 INVENTOR.

l. ROTH ROBERT X f KQ ATTORNEY Jan. 6, 1959 R. 1. ROTH PRINTER POSITIONING MECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 6, 1953 FIG.

FIG. 3

iklil vL INVENTOR.

ROBERT l. ROTH gw a. 99%,,

ATTORNEY United States Patent PRINTER POSITIONING MECHANISM Robert I. Roth, Briarclitf Manor, N. Y., assignor to International Business Machines Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 6, 1953, Serial No. 390,532 10 Claims. (Cl. 101-93) This invention relates to totalizer mechanisms and more particularly to cumulative or aggregative printers wherein a plurality of mechanical displacements may be added to position correspondingly a type wheel or bar.

It is common to code decimal numbers in combinational codes. Such codes are employed in calculating machines and an example thereof is the binary code having the four positions of 1, 2, 4, and 8. In the four positions of the binary code, there are 15 possible combinations and thus any decimal number from 1 up to 15, and in addition to 0, may be readily represented. In addition to the values of the four positions mentioned, those of the other decimal numbers are obtained as follows: 3 is a combination of the 1 and 2 positions; 5 is a combination of the 1 and 4 positions; 6 is the combination of the 2 and 4 positions; 7 is the combination of the 1, 2, and 4 positions; 9 is a combination of the 1 and 8 positions; 10 is a combination of the 2 and 8 positions; 11 is the combination of the 1, 2, and 8 positions; 12 is the combination of the 4 and 8 positions; 13 is the combination of the l, 4, and 8 positions; 14 is the combination of the 2, 4, and 8 positions; and 15 is the combination of the 1, 2, 4, and 8 positions.

In calculating machines the presence or absence of the numeric value in any of the four positions is determined by the presence or absence of a corresponding pulse. Such pulses may be made to energize corresponding solenoids. Hence, the energization of such solenoids may be used to determine the presence or absence of a numeric value.

It is an object of this invention to provide a means for translating coded values into decimal values.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide apparatus for translating the energization of one or more solenoids into decimal displacements which bear a direct relation to the numeric value represented by the energizing pulses and which can be used to effect a corresponding positioning of a type bar or type wheel.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cumulative or aggregative printer that is extremely simple and easy of construction and yet accurate and reliable in operation.

According to the invention, positioning of a type wheel is efiected through the use of bars corresponding in number to the positions in the combinational code being read and mounted on a support for parallel linear displacement. Successive numbers of the bars are made displaceable by respective ones of the solenoids in amounts proportional to the numeric values of the energizing pulses. Thus one solenoid will move all of the bars, another all but one of the bars, and still another all but two of the bars. The additive function is obtained by enabling the solenoids to move their respective bars even though they are also being moved along with another bar or bars controlled by another solenoid.

An important feature of this invention resides in the fact that the apparatus may be embodied in a simple construction. In this embodiment the bars have portions formed of magnetic and non-magnetic material and the solenoids encompass the bars so as to act directly thereon to eifect translation thereof when energized. Each of the bars, except the last, is movable within a range determined by another bar and is biased to a normal position at one end of that range. Hence, it moves with its range determining bar when the later is moved from its normalposition. The solenoid for a bar is advantageously mounted on the range determining bar and hence is always located for most effective action upon the magnetic material of its bar. The range of movement for the bar whose displacement effects movement of all the bars is determined by stops carried by the support. Its solenoid is fixed to the support, also. The bar movable by all of the other bars may include an extension which is itself a type bar or it may be formed with a rack meshing with a gear fixed to a type wheel. In either case type faces bearing indicia representative of the decimal values of the coded numbers are readily positioned for a printing.

Other objects of the invention will be pointed out in the following description and claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which disclose, by way of examples, the principle of the invention and the best mode, which has been contemplated, of applying that principle.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of. the embodiment taken along the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view taken along the section line 33 of Fig. 1. v

Fig. 4 is a view taken along the section line 44 of Fig. l.

The apparatus disclosed in the drawing is that which might be employed with a machine using the four position binary code discussed above. Four solenoids are thus necessary to indicate the presence or absence of the four pulses representative of the coded values and these are generally designated 1, 2, 4, and 8. For translating the combinational code energizations of the solenoids into corresponding amounts of mechanical displacements, four bars designated respectively 12, 14, 16, and 18 are inserted through the respective solenoids. The solenoids for the three bars 12, 14, and 16 are fixed to the three bars 14, 16, and 18, respectively, while the solenoid for operating the slide bar 18 is mounted on a base plate 10.

The bars are mounted in closely spaced parallel relation. Each bar is reciprocable on pairs of upper and lower rollers located at each end. For example, the bar 12 is supported at its right hand end by upper and lower rollers 20 and 22 and at its left hand end by upper and lower rollers 24 and 26.

The rollers are mounted on studs projecting from the face of the plate 10. As best seen in Fig. 3, rollers 24 and 26 are mounted on studs 28 and 30, each of which is headed to hold the respective roller upon it. Eachroller is held in spaced relation from the plate by means of spindles 31. This spacing is necessary because the bars supported by the respective rollers are encircled by the solenoids.

The rollers hold the bars in spaced relation to the plate 10 by being formed with grooves 33 about their outerperipheries. The bars are formed with complementarily shaped edges 35 which cooperate with the grooves in the rollers to hold the bars against all but endwise displacement. The length of the complementary edges on the bars must be such as to accommodate the full displacement with which the particular bar may undergo relative to the plate, both that due to the action of its own operating solenoid and that due to the movement of the other bars with which it is movable.

The bars 14, 16, and 18 are formed so that their movement also results in the movement of the bars 12, 14, and 16, respectively. Thus, each of these bars is formed into the path of the next adjacent bar.

with a projection 40 (Fig. 1) which extends upwardly Hence, when a lower or master bar is moved to the right as seen in Fig 1, it carries with it the next adjacent or slave bar which willcarry with it the next upper bar, and so'fortha' It is evident, therefore, that movement of bar 14 to'the right will result in movement of bar 12 to the right, and that movement of either bar 16 or bar 18 will result respectively in movement of bars 12 and 14 or 12, 14, and 16 to the right.

The upwardly extending projections 40 also serve to define the normal positions of the bars movable with the bars bearing the projections. To this end, tension springs 42 are mounted between the projections and downwardly extending lugs43 formed on the respective slave bars and constantly urge the slave bars to the left to their normal positions in which the slave bars abut the projections on themaster bars. It should be noted that these normal positions refer to the positions relative to the master bar and not to a position relative to the base plate 10. On the other hand, the normal position for the bottom bar is determined by a stud 32 projecting outwardly from the base plate 10. A second stud 38 also is mounted on the base plate to serve as an anchor for the tension spring 34 hooked at its other end to a lug 1811 depending from the bar 18 to urge it to its normal position.

The amounts of relative displacement imparted by the solenoids to their respective bars are determined by stops. In other words, a solenoid moves its respectiveibar until the bar strikes the stop and these stops are located so that the bar will have been displaced from its normal position a distance proportional to the numeric value of the energerizing pulse. The stops for the bars 12, 14, and 16 It has been pointed out that the solenoids 1, 2 and 4 for moving directly the bars 12, 14, and 16 are mounted, respectively, on adjacent bars 14, 16, and 18. To this end, the bobbin of each is formed with brackets b, one at each end, which extend downward to where their split ends are received upon the mounting bar. Rivets c may be used to secure these brackets rigidly to the adjacent bar.

It will be recalled that the solenoid for the bar 18 is secured directly to the base plate 10. The bobbin thereof is provided with downwardly extending brackets d, but, unlike the brackets b for the other solenoids, these are bent inwardly so that they rest upon the base plate 10.

are formed as upwardly extending projections on the.

right hand ends of the bars 14, 16, and 18. The upwardly extending projection 45 on the bar 14 is so spaced from the right hand end of the bar 12 in the normal position that it will stop the latter after it is moved a distance proportional to 1" numeric value. Similarly, the upwardly extending projections 45 on the bars 16 and 18 will stop the bars 14 and 16, respectively, when they have undergone displacements proportional to 2 and 4 numeric values. The stop for the slide bar 18 is a stud 46 projecting outwardly from the face of the base plate 10. Conveniently, a lug 44 depending from the bar 18 strikes the stud after that bar has undergone a displacement proportional to the 8 numeric value.

In order for a solenoid to move a bar, there must be some magnetic material associated with the bar. In the embodiment disclosed, the bars are partially formed of a magnetic material. Since a solenoid has the property of centering itself upon a magnetic core, it is desirable that a portion of the bar be formed of a non-magnetic material. It can thus be seen that in order to obtain effective action by a solenoid it is desirable that magnetic core material terminate at the beginning of a solenoid. Then when the relatively fixed solenoid is energized, it will tend to pull the core, in this case a portion of a bar, into it.

As has been seen in Fig. l, the left hand portions of the slide bars are formed of a magnetic material such as soft iron. These portions terminate, when the bars are in their normal positions, just inside the left hand ends of the respective solenoids. The right hand portion of each bar is formed of a non-magnetic material such as brass. Each of the bars is mechanically one rigid piece and this may be obtained by dovetailing the abutting ends of the different materials and brazing these together as along the line 66.

Each of the solenoids includes a bobbin a (Fig. 1) formed of Bakelite or other non-magnetic material. The coil of each solenoid is wired around this. bobbin. Referring to Fig. lit may be seen that the bobbins surround but do not touchthe respective bars and that clearances exist along both the top and bottom and along the sides of; the. bars.

Suitable fastening means such as rivets 52 and 54'may also be employed to hold them in place.

It may be observed that the solenoids 1, 2, 4, and 8 are staggered with respect to each other. Obviously this is necessary so that the mounting of one will, not intertere with the mounting of another. Furthermore, the solenoids on adjacent bars must be spaced with, respectto one another so that the solenoid on the bar moved by another willnot strike the latter when the latter isenergized. However, when the master solenoid is mounted to the left of the solenoid carried by theslave bar, its position must only be such as to permit the full return of theslave bar to the normal position. Solenoid 8 is an example of such a solenoid, however, it is shown as being spaced from solenoid 4 for purposes of clarity.

The bars 12, 14, 16, and 18 position a type wheel through an extension 80 carried along the upper edge of the bar 12. Thisextension is formed with a rack 84 which meshes with a pinion 86 rotatably mounted on a" stud 88 carried by the base plate 10. A type wheel 90 is.- also rotatably mounted on stud 88 and is fixed to the pinion to rotate therewith.

7 Printing may be effected through the use of a platen, 96 movable relative to the type wheel 90. A ribbon 92 may be suitably interposed between a paper 94 backed up by the platen 96 and the type wheel 90 so that upon impact between the platen and type wheel the character pattern on the wheel opposite the platen will be imprinted upon the paper.

Since in the embodiment shown there are sixteen possible decimal values, if 0 is treated as such a value, the type wheel must have sixteen possible positions or type faces. The type wheel is so mounted on the rack that when all of the bars are in their normal positions the 0 or first position of the type wheel is opposite the platen. On the other hand the parts are'so formed that when all of the coils are energized the value 15 at the sixteenth position of the type wheel is opposite the platen.

It will now be appreciated that the presence of a lf pulse will energize solenoid I mounted on the bar 14 to move bar 12 from its normal position with respect to bar 14 to where it engages the stop 45 on bar 14 and that the displacement undergone will be such as to effect rotation of the type wheel to where the type face bearing the numeral 1 is opposite the platen 96.

Similarly, if either of solenoid 2, solenoid 4, or solenoid 8 is energized, the bar 14, 16, or 18'will be displaced respectively to the right an amount effective to position through the bars 12, the bars 12 and 14, or the bars 12, 14, and 16, respectively, the type wheel so that the 2, 4, or 8 type face is opposite the platen 96. Since the displacement of either of the bars 14, 16, and 18 by its respective solenoid also results, respectively, in the transposition of the bar 14, the bars 12 and 14, or the bars 12, 14, and 16, it will be evident that if additional solenoids are energized, additional rotation of the type wheel will result and this rotation will be such as to dispose the type wheel so that the type face bearing indicia of the decimal equivalent of the pulse values is opposite the platen. If relative movement is now undergone between the platen and the type wheel, the coded value will be recorded on the paper.

The solenoids energized from each coded number between the values of 0 and 15 together with the bars displaced from normal positions and the corresponding type wheel position are listed in the following table:

Bars displaced from their respective normal positions Type wheel position Solenoids While there have been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In an aggregative printer or the like, a support, a series of movable parts mounted on said support, succeeding ones of said parts having driving connections with preceding ones and stops operable to limit relative displacements of preceding ones, a stop on said support determining the initial position of the last part, and a series of selectively actuable devices corresponding to the series of parts and supported fully and respectively by succeeding parts and the support and operable to move the respective parts relative to the succeeding parts and the support.

2. In an aggregative printer or the like, a support, a series of reciprocable parts mounted on said support, cooperating means between each preceding part and succeeding part and between the last part and the support effective to limit to a fixed distance relative movement of the preceding to succeeding parts and of last part to the support in both directions,-means biasing each of said parts in one direction, and a series of selectively actuable devices corresponding to the series of parts and supported fully and respectively by succeeding parts and the support and operable to displace the respective parts within the limits permitted by said cooperating means.

3. In an aggregative printer or the like, a series of reciprocable bars having portions formed of magnetic and non-magnetic material, means connecting each of said bars for movement in one direction with successive ones thereof, and solenoids for the different bars cooperative With the magnetic material thereon to move the respective bars relative to the succeeding bars.

4. In an aggregative printer or the like, a support, a series of reciprocable bars each having portions formed of magnetic and non-magnetic material and mounted on said support, means connecting each of said bars for movement in one direction with successive ones thereof, and solenoids for the different bars cooperative With the magnetic material thereon to move the respective'bars relative to the succeeding bars, the solenoids for the respective bars being mounted on the succeeding bars and the support. I

5. In an aggregative printer or the like, a support, a series of reciprocable bars having portions formed of m e ti c. and non-magnetic material and mounted on said support, means connecting each of said bars for U 6 movement in one direction with successive ones thereof, said 'bars each being biased in the other direction, and solenoids cooperative with the magnetic material on the different bars and mounted on succeeding bars and the support to move the respective bars against the bias.

6. In an aggregative printer or the like, a support, a series of reciprocable bars each having portions formed of magnetic and non-magnetic material and mounted on said support, means on each succeeding bar and the support cooperating with each preceding bar and the last bar to fix displacement range of the precedingg bars and last bar with respect to the succeeding ones, means biasing each of said bars to one end of the displacement range, and solenoids cooperative with the magnetic material on the different bars and mounted on the succeeding bar and the plate to move the respective bars relative to the succeeding bars and the plate.

7. In an aggregative printer or the like, a support, a series of reciprocable bars each having portions formed of magnetic and non-magnetic material and mounted on said support, means on each succeeding bar and the support to fix the displacement range of the preceding bar and thelast bar, means cooperating between each bar and its succeeding bar or the support to bias each of said bars to one end of the displacement range, and solenoids cooperative with the magnetic material on the different bars and mounted on succeeding bars and the support to move the respective bars to the other ends of their displacement ranges.

8. In an aggregative printer or the like, a support, a series of bars individually mounted on said support in parallel relation and for endwise movement and formed of magnetic and non-magnetic portions, an extension carried by each succeeding bar at one end which projects into the path of movement of the preceding bar to urge the latter against the former, a stop fixed to said support and projecting into the path of the last bar, a spring coacting between said support and the last bar to urge the last bar against the stop, solenoids encircling respectively the different bars at the ends of the magnetic portions and being mounted on the succeeding bars and support, an extension carried by the other end of each succeeding bar and projecting into the path of the preceding bar to limit the displacement of the preceding bar by the respective solenoid, and a second stop fixed to said support and projecting into the path of the last bar to limit displacement of that bar by the solenoid mounted on the support.

9. In an aggregative printer or the like, a support, a series of reciprocable bars each having portions formed of magnetic and non-magnetic material and mounted on said support, means respectively on each succeeding bar and the support to fix the displacement range of the preceding bar and the last bar, means respectively cooperating between each bar and its succeeding bar and the support to bias each of said bars to one end of the displacement range, solenoids cooperative with the magnetic material on the diiferent bars and mounted respectively on succeeding bars and the support and energizable to move the respective bars to the other ends of their displacement ranges, and printing means connected with the first bar for positioning thereby.

10. In a translating mechanism, a series of members mounted for relative and concurrent reciprocal movement with like direction, each of said members except the first member bearing a succeeding relationship to a preceding member, and each of said members except the last member bearing a preceding relationship to a succeeding member, cooperating means to limit to a fixed distance the relative reciprocal movement in both directions of each preceding member to its related succeeding member, certain of said cooperating means upon movement of any succeeding member acting to move in one direction all members precedent thereto, a series of selectively actuable means for moving from a normal position each preceding member in relation to its succeeding member a fixed distance within limits permitted by said cooperating 1,480,734 means, each of said selectively actuable means mounted 17,880,523

upon one of said members and acting directly upon the 1,882,766.

other member to be moved in relation thereto, and means 1,902,060 forrestoring each of said parts to said normal position. 2,077,965

References Cited in the file of this patent V 1 UNITED STATES PATENTS 723,119 Zweigbergk Mar. 17, 1903 2,687,087

1,324,371 Banzhof Dec. 9, 1919 10* 1 8 Nelson Jam-15, 1924 Tauschek 2 Oct. 4, 1932 Bryce Oct. 18 1932 -Dechene Mar. 21-, 1933 Smith Apr. 20, 1937,, Knutson Dec. 5, 1939 Christian Apr. 11, 1950 Garbell Feb. 20, 1951 Crowell Aug. 24, 1954 Baldwin Sept. 14,1954-

Images