GB1180772A - Improvements in reels for carrying inked ribbons in printing machines. - Google Patents

Abstract

1,180,772. Typewriters &c. SOC. INDUSTRIELLE BULL - GENERAL ELECTRIC. 8 Aug., 1967 [31 Aug., 1966], No. 36456/67. Heading B6F. Ink-ribbon reels.-A reel for holding, in a typewriter, an inked page width ribbon, including a carbon ribbon or a ribbon coated with material having optical or magnetic properties, has on at least part of its external surface an adhesive coating which is covered by protective ribbons disposed parallel to the reel axis, each ribbon being removable to expose a portion of the coating to enable the end of an ink ribbon to be applied to the coating and adhered by pressure. In one form, Fig. 5, the reel 200 is covered with sheet material 201 having an adhesive surface to which a number of protective ribbons 202 are adhered. To attach the leader tape of an ink ribbon to the reel, one of the ribbons 202 is removed by means of a flap 213 thereon, the leading end of the leader tape is aligned as shown by means of the flap of the adjacent ribbon, and the leader tape is then pressed against the exposed adhesive strip. Instead of the flap 213, each protective ribbon 202 may have a tab at one or both ends (Figs. 3, 4) by which it can be easily detached. In this construction, the leading edge of a leader tape is aligned against an edge of a ribbon 202 adjacent to the exposed area. According to a modified construction (Fig. 6), the protective ribbons 202 are adhered to axially-extending adhesive strips on a covering of impermeable material attached to the reel. Axially-extending grooves or projecting flutings in the covering separate the adhesive strips and serve for aligning the leading edge of a leader tape. The reels may be used repeatedly for securing fresh ink ribbons so long as there are unused adhesive strips thereon. Reversal arrangements; ribbon guides.-The leader tapes at each end of the ribbon are wider than the ink ribbon and each carries a transverse bar, one of which engages one of two blades 110 of a switch CI to reverse the ribbon feed when the ink ribbon of the associated reel 103 or 104 is nearly completely unwound. To attach a new ink ribbon to a reel which is in position 103, for example, a reel complete with a new ribbon is inserted in position 104, and its leader tape is pulled by hand over a fixed plate 116 spaced from the switch blade 110 so that the blade is not operated, then over a flexible sheet 119 and rollers 117, 112 and is attached as already described to the reel 103. The ribbon is then tautened by the operator in known manner. The flexible sheet 119 is disposed between the paper 139 to be printed and the ink ribbon in a zone a little below the printing line, which as shown is where hammer mechanism 114 strikes the paper against type on a drum 102 to print a line. In this position the sheet 119 prevents spotting of the paper by ink from the ribbon. In addition to machines employing type drums, the reels may be used in line-by-line printers having a set of type-wheels, a system of toothed type-carrying racks, or an endless band carrying type characters.