EP0856412B1 - Appareil pour régler l'espacement entre la tête d'impression et le cylindre d'appui - Google Patents

Appareil pour régler l'espacement entre la tête d'impression et le cylindre d'appui Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0856412B1
EP0856412B1 EP19980101615 EP98101615A EP0856412B1 EP 0856412 B1 EP0856412 B1 EP 0856412B1 EP 19980101615 EP19980101615 EP 19980101615 EP 98101615 A EP98101615 A EP 98101615A EP 0856412 B1 EP0856412 B1 EP 0856412B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
platen
carriage
regulating apparatus
gap regulating
gap
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP19980101615
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0856412A2 (fr
EP0856412A3 (fr
Inventor
Takeo Kishida
Kiyoto Komuro
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Seiko Epson Corp
Original Assignee
Seiko Epson Corp
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Seiko Epson Corp filed Critical Seiko Epson Corp
Publication of EP0856412A2 publication Critical patent/EP0856412A2/fr
Publication of EP0856412A3 publication Critical patent/EP0856412A3/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0856412B1 publication Critical patent/EP0856412B1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J25/00—Actions or mechanisms not otherwise provided for
    • B41J25/304—Bodily-movable mechanisms for print heads or carriages movable towards or from paper surface
    • B41J25/308—Bodily-movable mechanisms for print heads or carriages movable towards or from paper surface with print gap adjustment mechanisms
    • B41J25/3088—Bodily-movable mechanisms for print heads or carriages movable towards or from paper surface with print gap adjustment mechanisms with print gap adjustment means on the printer frame, e.g. for rotation of an eccentric carriage guide shaft
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J23/00—Power drives for actions or mechanisms
    • B41J23/02—Mechanical power drives
    • B41J23/025—Mechanical power drives using a single or common power source for two or more functions
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J25/00—Actions or mechanisms not otherwise provided for
    • B41J25/304—Bodily-movable mechanisms for print heads or carriages movable towards or from paper surface
    • B41J25/308—Bodily-movable mechanisms for print heads or carriages movable towards or from paper surface with print gap adjustment mechanisms

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to an platen-gap regulating apparatus for regulating the space between a platen and a recording head in proportion to the thickness of a recording medium.
  • a typical conventional platen-gap regulating apparatus for regulating a gap between a platen and a recording head in proportion to the thickness of a recording medium is, as shown in Fig. 6, adapted to change the distance from a platen face or a printing reference position to a recording head h by rotating a guide member g1 situated closer to the recording head h out of a pair of guide members g1, g2 for guiding a carriage c by the displacement quantity of an eccentric shaft.
  • the recording head h in a conventional printer is turned by an angle ⁇ equivalent to a gap regulating quantity ⁇ centering on the other guide member g2 before and after the gap is adjusted, the parallelism between the recording medium s and the recording head h is spoiled by the angle ⁇ ; this results in inconvenience in that the printing position is displaced to that degree in the direction of a line or otherwise an image is deformed lengthwise in the direction of the line.
  • the trouble is that the tone and the like are affected by the aforementioned displacement or deformation.
  • An object of the present invention made in view of the foregoing problems is to provide a novel platen-gap regulating apparatus which is free from causing an image to be badly affected before and after the gap is adjusted.
  • Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel platen-gap regulating apparatus capable of automatically moving a recording head to an optimum position of a recording medium and in parallel to the recording medium.
  • a platen-gap regulating apparatus for regulating a carriage with respect to a platen of a printer
  • the platen-gap regulating apparatus comprising: a pair of guide members rotatably mounted on the printer via an eccentric portion, for running the carriage; and regulating means for imparting the same rotational displacement quantity to both the guide members, wherein the carriage is separated from and drawn near to a printing reference plane in parallel thereto.
  • the regulating means regulates both the guide members forwardly and reversely by the same quantity in the same direction in response to the forward and reverse rolling of paper-feed driving means, and the regulating means engages with or detaches from both the guide members in response to moving the carriage.
  • a printer under an ink-jet recording system using a platen-gap regulating apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.
  • reference numeral 1 denotes a carriage for running a recording head that is carried by the carriage. Further, a pair of front and rear guide rods 3, 4 for guiding the carriage 1 are rotatably mounted on a guide frame (not shown) via eccentric pins 3a, 4a which are biased in the same direction and installed at both the respective ends of the carriage 1.
  • the guide rods 3, 4 are operated by a carriage regulating unit 10, which will be described later, so that the guide rods are turned in the same direction, the carriage 1 which the guide rods 3, 4 support is separated from or drawn near to a platen or a printing reference plane p in the absence of such a platen.
  • reference numeral 6 denotes a paper feed roller; and 7, a paper discharge roller.
  • Figs. 1 - 4 show a gap regulating unit 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention, which gap regulating unit 10 is mounted on a side frame on one side of a printer body (not shown) via a unit frame 11.
  • the gap regulating unit 10 is operated by the carriage thus moved, it is driven by a paper feeding motor (not shown) to turn the two guide rods 3, 4 by the same quantity.
  • a switch lever 13 which is displaced toward a position where it engages with an intermediate gear 20, which will also be described later, when it is pressed by the carriage 1 is supported pivotally, rotatably, and slidably in the axial direction at the end of a paper discharge roller shaft 8 driven by the paper feeding roller (not shown), the rotation of the paper discharge roller shaft 8 being integral with that of the paper discharge roller 7.
  • the switch lever 13 is thus supported in such a state that it is urged by a spring 19 installed with respect to the unit frame 11 and always held in a non-engaging position.
  • a sun gear 16 is slidably fitted to the square shaft portion 8a of the paper discharge roller shaft 8 in the center of the switch lever 13. Further, two different-in-level planet gears 17, 18 which are kept in engagement with the sun gear 16 are supported on both sides of the switch lever 13, respectively.
  • the switch lever 13 is pressed by the carriage 1 and displaced, one of the planet gears 17, 18 is used to transmit gap regulating torque to the intermediate gear 20 according to the direction in which the paper feeding motor is rotated.
  • the intermediate gear 20 is, as shown in Fig. 3, formed with two different-in-level gear portions without teeth 21, 22 having a phase difference so that these gear portions selectively engage with the planet gears 17, 18, and a deformed Geneva gear portion 23 which engages with and disengages from a sector gear 25, which will be described later.
  • the intermediate gear 20 is rotated by a predetermined quantity, irrespective of the rotational quantity of the planet gears 17, 18, so as to rotate the sector gear 25 by a predetermined angle.
  • the sector gear 25 is fixed to the end portion 3b of one guide rod 3 so that it is rotated integrally with the guide rod 3. Further, a small fan-shaped gear 26 which is integral with the sector gear 25 engages with an airfoil sector gear 27 installed between both the guide rods 3, 4 in order that unidirectional torque is transmitted via the gear 27 to a small fan-shaped gear 28 fixed to the end of the shaft 4b of the other guide rod 4.
  • reference numeral 14 denotes a pawl formed on the back surface of the switch lever 13 and used to hold the switch lever 13 always in the non-engaging position by mating with an arcuate mating hole 12 bored in the unit frame 11.
  • the recording head 2 is made to hold a gap matching the thickness of ordinary paper by turning and positioning the two guide rods 3, 4 so as to keep the eccentric pins 3a, 4a substantially horizontally via the small fan-shaped gears 26, 28 engaging with the airfoil sector gear 27 as shown in Figs. 1, 5 in such a normal state that information is recorded/written onto the ordinary paper.
  • an operating button on a panel (not shown) is depressed or an instruction as to permitting the platen gap to be altered is given from a personal computer in order to record/write information onto thick recording paper such as special paper for color printing, postcards and so on to move the carriage 1 to a platen-gap switching position at the beginning of the recording-writing operation, whereby the carriage 1 presses down part of the switch lever 13 with its projected end portion 1a with the effect of displacing the switch lever 13 toward the engaging position shown by a chain double-dashed line of Fig. 4.
  • the paper feeding motor (not shown) simultaneously rotates the paper discharge roller shaft 8 counterclockwise to turn the switch lever 13 counterclockwise via the planet gears 17, 18 engaging with the sun gear 16 at the end of the paper discharge roller shaft 8.
  • the one planet gear 17 is caused to engage with and rotate the intermediate gear 20 in the direction of an arrow in the drawing and then rotates the sector gear 25 by the predetermined quantity up to a position where the sector gear 25 engaging with the deformed Geneva gear portion 23 of the intermediate gear 20 is brought into contact with a stopper 23a.
  • the guide rod 3 integral with the sector gear 25 is turned clockwise in the drawing and the airfoil sector gear 27 is rotated in the direction of an arrow in the drawing via the small fan-shaped gear 26 integral with the sector gear 25.
  • the other guide rod 4 is turned in the same direction via the other small fan-shaped gear 28 engaging with the airfoil sector gear 27, and the carriage 1 is raised in parallel to the printing reference plane p by means of both the guide rods 3, 4.
  • the platen-gap regulating apparatus When the platen-gap regulating apparatus is adapted for thin recording paper, it is needless to say only needed to regulate the platen gap by reversely rotating the paper feeding motor.
  • two of the front and rear guide rods 3, 4 may be displaced manually in the same direction in order to displace the carriage 1 or the recording head 2 itself in parallel.
  • the carriage supported and guided by these guide members can always be regulated in parallel to the printing reference plane in proportion to the thickness of a recording medium, whereby print quality is held to be constant at all times, irrespective of the gap regulating operation.
  • the regulating means for regulating the carriage in the direction in which the carriage is separated from and drawn near to the printing reference plane according to the forward and reverse rotation of the paper-feed driving means is capable of engaging detachably with the guide members in such a way that the engagement of the regulating means therewith is interlocked with the movement of the carriage, the gap regulating operation is automatically performable only when the gap adjustment is made in accordance with a recording medium for printing.

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  • Common Mechanisms (AREA)

Claims (5)

  1. Appareil de régulation d'espace de cylindre d'impression destiné à réguler un chariot par rapport à un cylindre d'impression d'une imprimante, l'appareil de régulation d'espace de cylindre d'impression comportant :
    une paire d'éléments de guidage montés de façon rotative sur l'imprimante par l'intermédiaire d'une partie excentrique, pour le déplacement du chariot; et
    des moyens de régulation destinés à appliquer la même quantité de déplacement en rotation sur les deux éléments de guidage, le chariot étant séparé de et tiré près d'un plan de référence d'impression parallèlement à celui-ci.
  2. Appareil de régulation d'espace de cylindre d'impression selon la revendication 1, dans lequel les moyens de régulation régulent les deux éléments de guidage dans le sens normal et dans le sens inverse de la même quantité dans la même direction en réponse à la rotation dans le sens normal et dans le sens inverse des moyens d'entraínement d'avance de papier, et les moyens de régulation engagent ou se détachent des deux éléments de guidage en réponse au déplacement du chariot.
  3. Appareil de régulation d'espace de cylindre d'impression dans une imprimante dans laquelle un chariot est déplacé le long d'une paire de tiges de guidage, l'appareil de régulation d'espace de cylindre d'impression comportant :
    des axes excentriques, supportant chacun de manière excentrique la tige de guidage respective sur l'imprimante; et
    une partie de liaison reliée aux axes excentriques, afin de déplacer les axes excentriques de telle sorte que les tiges de guidage sont déplacées parallèlement par les axes excentriques.
  4. Appareil de régulation d'espace de cylindre d'impression selon la revendication 3, dans lequel la partie de liaison comporte :
    des petits pignons en forme d'éventail, fixés chacun sur l'axe excentrique respectif; et
    un secteur denté en forme d'aile ayant des parties de secteur denté qui engagent les petits pignons en forme d'éventail des axes excentriques.
  5. Appareil de régulation d'espace de cylindre d'impression selon la revendication 4, comportant en outre :
    un secteur denté pouvant pivoter avec un des axes excentriques;
    un pignon intermédiaire qui engage le secteur denté; et
    un levier de commutation qui entraíne de manière sélective le pignon intermédiaire.
EP19980101615 1997-01-30 1998-01-30 Appareil pour régler l'espacement entre la tête d'impression et le cylindre d'appui Expired - Lifetime EP0856412B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP3111597 1997-01-30
JP3111597A JPH10211748A (ja) 1997-01-30 1997-01-30 プラテンギャップ調整装置
JP31115/97 1997-01-30

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0856412A2 EP0856412A2 (fr) 1998-08-05
EP0856412A3 EP0856412A3 (fr) 1999-10-27
EP0856412B1 true EP0856412B1 (fr) 2001-04-04

Family

ID=12322413

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP19980101615 Expired - Lifetime EP0856412B1 (fr) 1997-01-30 1998-01-30 Appareil pour régler l'espacement entre la tête d'impression et le cylindre d'appui

Country Status (3)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0856412B1 (fr)
JP (1) JPH10211748A (fr)
DE (1) DE69800651T2 (fr)

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6921217B2 (en) 2003-05-08 2005-07-26 Seiko Epson Corporation Gap adjusting device, recording apparatus and liquid ejection apparatus
RU2494424C2 (ru) * 2011-10-07 2013-09-27 Общество с ограниченной ответственностью "Фирма "Радиус-Сервис" Видеоэндоскоп для осмотра внутренних поверхностей трубчатых изделий
US8768215B2 (en) 2010-05-10 2014-07-01 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Image forming apparatus

Families Citing this family (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP4009936B2 (ja) 2001-02-09 2007-11-21 セイコーエプソン株式会社 インクジェット式記録装置
US7481527B2 (en) 2004-02-17 2009-01-27 Seiko Epson Corporation Liquid ejection apparatus
JP4670466B2 (ja) 2005-05-12 2011-04-13 セイコーエプソン株式会社 プラテンギャップ調整装置及び印刷装置、並びに複合処理装置
JP5171236B2 (ja) * 2007-12-14 2013-03-27 キヤノン株式会社 記録装置
JP6218196B2 (ja) 2016-03-23 2017-10-25 株式会社東海理化電機製作所 歯車駆動装置

Family Cites Families (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPS6378783A (ja) * 1986-09-22 1988-04-08 Silver Seiko Ltd 印字機のキヤリア装置
US5156466A (en) * 1989-10-18 1992-10-20 Fujitsu Limited Method and apparatus for adjusting the spacing between head and platen in an impact printer or the like
JPH03224775A (ja) * 1990-01-31 1991-10-03 Brother Ind Ltd 印字装置
GB9203047D0 (en) * 1992-02-13 1992-03-25 Compular Ltd Improvements in and relating to printing machines
JP3326780B2 (ja) * 1995-04-28 2002-09-24 セイコーエプソン株式会社 プリンタ

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6921217B2 (en) 2003-05-08 2005-07-26 Seiko Epson Corporation Gap adjusting device, recording apparatus and liquid ejection apparatus
US8768215B2 (en) 2010-05-10 2014-07-01 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Image forming apparatus
RU2494424C2 (ru) * 2011-10-07 2013-09-27 Общество с ограниченной ответственностью "Фирма "Радиус-Сервис" Видеоэндоскоп для осмотра внутренних поверхностей трубчатых изделий

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
JPH10211748A (ja) 1998-08-11
DE69800651T2 (de) 2001-08-09
EP0856412A2 (fr) 1998-08-05
DE69800651D1 (de) 2001-05-10
EP0856412A3 (fr) 1999-10-27

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