JP2550542B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print head of a wire-dot type printer, in which a print wire is moved forward and backward by expansion and contraction of a piezoelectric element due to application of a voltage. Is.

(Prior Art) An example of this type of printing device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-188672. In this case, the expansion and contraction of the piezoelectric body 4 causes the first and second movable members (tilting bodies) 1 to move.
The pins (printing wire) 24 provided at the tip of the third movable member 21 are advanced and retracted by inclining 3,15 in the opposite directions with the fourth and fifth coupling members 16,18 as fulcrums, respectively. ing.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the above-mentioned conventional one, the piezoelectric body 4
Therefore, both the first and second movable members 13 and 14 must be tilted, and it becomes difficult to cope with the speeding up of printing due to the weight and inertia of these both movable members 13 and 14.

(Means for Solving the Problems) Therefore, according to the present invention, there is provided a printing device in which the printing wire is moved forward and backward by the expansion and contraction of the piezoelectric element due to the application of a voltage, and the substrate supporting one end of the piezoelectric element. A frame body having a pedestal part, a support body extending in the expansion and contraction direction of the piezoelectric element on one side of the piezoelectric element, an interlocking body provided at the other end of the piezoelectric element, and a print wire at the tip end portion. , A tilting body connected to the interlocking body and the support body via an elastic body so as to rotate with the expansion and contraction of the piezoelectric element, and the interlocking body with the piezoelectric body as the piezoelectric element expands and contracts. One end is connected to the interlocking body and the other end is connected to the support body so that the element can be moved in parallel in the expansion / contraction direction, and an elastically deformable connection body extending in a direction orthogonal to the expansion / contraction direction of the piezoelectric element is provided. Prepared configuration Is.

(Operation) Therefore, according to the present invention, when the piezoelectric element is expanded and contracted by the application of voltage, the interlocking body is elastically deformed in parallel with the support of the frame main body in the expansion and contraction direction of the piezoelectric element. Be moved. Along with the movement of the interlocking body, the tilting body connected to the interlocking body via the elastic body is tilted, whereby the printing wire is advanced and retracted.

That is, when the piezoelectric element is expanded or contracted, one tilting body is tilted so that the printing wire is moved back and forth, unlike two tilting bodies being tilted. It becomes possible to deal with it.

Moreover, when the piezoelectric element expands or contracts, the interlocking body is moved in parallel in the expanding and contracting direction, so that the movement of the interlocking body causes a problem that a bending moment acts on the piezoelectric element.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

A frame main body 1 is shown in FIG. 1 which is a perspective view and FIG. 2 which is a side view showing a main part of a printing device provided in a print head of a dot matrix type printer.
Is formed of a metal plate having a predetermined plate thickness. This frame body 1 is one end surface of the piezoelectric element (lower end surface in FIG. 2).
A base portion 2 having a support surface 2a for supporting the base 2 and the base portion 2
A side surface shape mainly composed of a first support body 3 formed on one side (left side in FIG. 2) and a second support body 4 formed on the other side (right side in FIG. 2) of the base portion 2. Is formed in a substantially letter shape. A piezoelectric element 5 made of a laminated piezoelectric ceramic is supported on the supporting surface 2a of the base portion 2 by adhesion or the like at its lower end portion.

A recess 6 is formed inside the first support 3 at a substantially intermediate height position.
Are formed. On the inner surface of the recess 6, parallel link portions 8 of the same length, which are vertically opposed to each other with a long separation hole 7 therebetween,
9 are connected at their one ends by elastically deformable first and second hinge portions 10 and 11. An interlocking body 14 is connected to the other end of each of the link portions 8 and 9 by elastically deformable third and fourth hinge portions 12 and 13. The interlocking body 14 is supported by the first support body 3 so as to be movable in parallel in the expansion / contraction direction of the piezoelectric element 5 in a state where the lower surface of the interlocking body 14 is joined to the upper end surface of the piezoelectric element 5.

Second support 3 provided on the other side of the frame body 1
Are extended to the same height position as the upper surface of the interlocking body 14. A tilting body 17 is connected to the upper surfaces of the second support body 4 and the interlocking body 14 at the base end portions thereof by elastically deformable fifth and sixth hinge portions 15 and 16. When the piezoelectric element 5 is expanded or contracted, the tilting body 17 is tilted about the sixth hinge portion 16 on the second support 4 side as a fulcrum.

The upper end portion of the tilting body 17 extends to a position substantially the same height as the upper end surface of the first support body 3. At the upper end of the tilting body 17, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a first plate spring 18 made of a substantially rectangular plate spring material is provided at its base part.
It is fixed by welding, brazing, etc.

A second leaf spring material 19 made of a leaf spring material longer than the first leaf spring 18 is fixed to the upper end surface of the first support 1 by welding, brazing or the like at its base portion.
The second leaf spring 19 is superposed along the lower surface of the first leaf spring 18 and elastically deformable with respect to the first leaf spring 18, and at the center of the leaf surface, the tilting body 17 is provided. A hole that is loosely fitted in the upper part and has a size that allows the tilting body 17 to tilt.
19a is pierced.

Further, the tip of the second leaf spring 19 has the first leaf spring 18
The first and second leaf springs extend to the tip of
The tips of 18, 19 are fixed to each other by brazing.

A wire supporting arm 20 is fixed by brazing to the two fixed ends of the first and second leaf springs, which are fixed to each other at the base end of the wire supporting arm 20. The base end of the printing wire 21 is fixed to the tip of the wire by brazing.

Further, in this embodiment, a predetermined number of through holes 23 are provided in the longitudinal direction of the tilting body 17, and the wire supporting arm 20 is provided.
A predetermined number of through-holes 24 are also provided in the longitudinal direction, so that the tilting body 17 and the wire support arm 20 can be reduced in weight.

In this embodiment configured as described above, when a voltage is applied between both electrodes of the piezoelectric element 5 and the piezoelectric element 5 extends in the direction of arrow A in FIG. In the state of being supported by 8 and 9, the piezoelectric element 5 is translated in the extending direction. With the movement of the interlocking body 14, the tilting body 17 moves the sixth hinge portion 16 on the second support body 4 side.
Is tilted in the direction of arrow B with the fulcrum as the fulcrum.

By tilting the tilting body 17 in the direction of the arrow, first of the first and second leaf springs 18 and 19, the tilting body 17 is first.
The first leaf spring 18 whose base is fixed to the tip end surface of is pushed out and is elastically deformed into a curved shape at its intermediate portion as shown in FIG. Then, the second leaf spring 19 whose base is fixed to the upper end surface of the first support body 3 of the frame body 1 is elastically deformed into a curved shape as the first leaf spring 18 is deformed.
As a result, the wire support arm 20 fixed to the tips of the first and second leaf springs 18 and 19 is tilted forward, and the printing wire 21 is guided by the predetermined number of guide members 22. The tip is advanced to the print position.

That is, the expansion of the piezoelectric element 5 is remarkably expanded by the tilting of the tilting body 17 and the curved elastic deformation by the first and second leaf springs 18 and 19, so that the printing wire 21 necessary for printing is formed. The stroke is obtained.

When the piezoelectric element 5 is shortened to its original state, the interlocking body 1
4, the tilting body 17 and the first and second leaf springs 18 and 19 are respectively returned to their original states, and the printing wire 21 is retracted.

When the piezoelectric element 5 expands and contracts, the interlocking body 14 is supported in the expanding and contracting direction of the piezoelectric element 5 with the interlocking body 14 supported by the link portions 8 and 9 with respect to the first supporting body 3 of the frame body 1. Translated. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the bending moment from acting on the piezoelectric element 5 and prevent the piezoelectric element 4 from being damaged due to the tensile load.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above-described embodiment, in order to support the interlocking body 14 in parallel with the first support body 3 of the frame body 1 so as to be able to move in the expansion / contraction direction of the piezoelectric element 5, a pair of upper and lower link portions 8 having the same length and parallel to each other , 9 supported the interlocking body 14, but the invention is not limited to this. As shown in FIG. 5, the base end is connected to the first support body 3 by the first and second hinge portions 10 and 11. The ends of the unequal length link parts 8 and 9 are appropriately brought close to each other, and the interlocking body 14 is connected to the ends of these link parts 8 and 9 by the third and fourth hinge parts 12 and 13, respectively, to thereby establish a four-bar linkage mechanism. May be configured.

(Effect of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, the expansion and contraction of the piezoelectric element is performed by the action of the elastically deformable connection body that is connected to the interlocking body and the support and extends in the direction orthogonal to the expansion and contraction direction of the piezoelectric element. The interlocking body can be moved in parallel in the direction to tilt the tilting body to move the printing wire forward and backward. Therefore, when the piezoelectric element expands and contracts, one tilting body is tilted to move the printing wire forward and backward, which is different from the case where two tilting bodies are tilted. There is an effect that it is possible to cope with speeding up.

Moreover, when the piezoelectric element expands and contracts, the interlocking body is moved in parallel in the expansion and contraction direction, so that it is possible to prevent a problem that a bending moment acts on the piezoelectric element due to the movement of the interlocking body. Therefore, there is also an effect that sufficient durability can be obtained even if a piezoelectric element having a characteristic weak against bending moment such as piezoelectric ceramic is used.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a printer, FIG. 2 is a side view of the printer, FIG. 3 is a plan view, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a side view showing a state in which the tilting body is tilted, and FIG. 5 is a side view showing another embodiment. 1 ... frame body 3 ... first support 4 ... second support 5 ... piezoelectric element 8,9 ... link part 10 ... first hinge part 11 ... second hinge part 12 ... third Hinge section 13 …… 4th hinge section 14 …… Interlocking body 15 …… Fifth hinge section 16 …… Sixth hinge section 17 …… Tilting body 18 …… First leaf spring 19 …… Second leaf spring 21 …… Printing wire

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing apparatus in which a print wire is moved forward and backward by expansion and contraction of a piezoelectric element by applying a voltage, wherein a base portion supporting one end of the piezoelectric element and one side of the piezoelectric element are provided. A frame main body having a support body extending in the expansion / contraction direction of the piezoelectric element, an interlocking body provided at the other end of the piezoelectric element, and a print wire at the tip end, and rotated along with expansion / contraction of the piezoelectric element. As described above, a tilting body connected to the interlocking body and the supporting body via an elastic body, so that the interlocking body can move in parallel in the expansion and contraction direction of the piezoelectric element as the piezoelectric element expands and contracts, An elastically deformable connector, one end of which is connected to the interlocking member, the other end of which is connected to the support member, and which extends in a direction orthogonal to the expansion and contraction direction of the piezoelectric element.