JP2668251B2 - Ribbon switching device in printer - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer that can perform printing of a plurality of colors in a mixed manner, and in particular, an ink ribbon (hereinafter, ink ribbon divided into a plurality of areas in the width direction). The present invention relates to a ribbon switching device in a printer that switches a printing color by changing a posture of a ribbon cassette having a “multicolor ink ribbon”.

[Prior Art] In a conventional printer in which a carriage equipped with a print head is run to perform multicolor printing, a ribbon cassette having multicolor ink ribbons is supported on a printer body in a changeable position (stationary type). As an ink ribbon switching device, for example, there is an ink ribbon switching device which has been previously filed by the present applicant and which is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 63-37248 (hereinafter referred to as "the former").

This includes a ribbon cassette containing a multicolor ink ribbon, and a ribbon guide plate having a ribbon guide portion for guiding the multicolor ink ribbon to the leading end of the print head,
Grooves or projections are provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the ribbon cassette, and hook portions that elastically and slidably engage with the ribbon cassette are provided on the ribbon guide plate, and projections or grooves are provided on the carriage or print head. The ribbon guide plate is provided with a groove or a protrusion that engages so as to be movable up and down, and the ribbon cassette is rocked around an axis parallel to the traveling direction of the print head so that the print colors can be switched. .

A printer that mounts a ribbon cassette on a carriage (carriage mount type) and performs multicolor printing by running integrally with a print head is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-61-2208.
No. 84 (hereinafter referred to as "the latter")
That. ).

This is composed of a ribbon cassette in which a multicolor ink ribbon is housed in a cassette case, a carrier on which a print head is mounted and which is provided with a cassette support base and a drive mechanism for moving the support base in the width direction of the ribbon. A pair of locking members meshed with each other by a corresponding number of locking portions, one locking member is attached to the cassette case so as to be displaceable in the ribbon width direction, and the other locking member is attached to the carrier. The cassette case is urged toward the locking body side so as to be displaceably mounted, and an adjusting spiral having an axis centered in the width direction of the ribbon is rotatably provided in the cassette case so as to prevent movement in the axial direction. The adjusting screw is screwed to the locking member on the case.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the case of the former case described above, since the fine adjustment mechanism for swinging and changing the ribbon cassette by a minute amount is not provided, at the time of assembling, the printing position is set to the ribbon position. If an accurate position cannot be set, the boundary between colors may be printed, which is difficult to cope with.

In the latter case of the related art, there is a mechanism for finely adjusting the printing position of the multicolor ink ribbon, but there is a problem that the fine adjustment mechanism has a complicated structure and is difficult to adjust. Was.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the conventional art, and an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems by providing a fine adjustment mechanism having a simple structure capable of finely adjusting the printing position of a multicolor ink ribbon. And

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, a ribbon switching device in a printer according to the present invention includes a ribbon cassette containing multicolor ink ribbons that are color-coded in a plurality of areas in a width direction; A ribbon guide section for guiding the color ink ribbon to the leading end of the print head, and the ribbon cassette section is swung about an axis parallel to the running direction of the print head to move the ribbon guide section up and down so that the printing color is changed. In a ribbon switching device in a printer that switches between, a cassette holder that detachably and swingably supports the ribbon cassette,
An adjustment lever having a cam roller, the position of which is adjustable relative to the cassette holder, a cam that abuts the cam roller, a spring that presses the cam roller against the cam, a rotational drive of the cam, and a rotation angle of the cam. A plurality of types of pulse motors can be selected, and printing colors are switched according to the rotation angle of the pulse motors, and color mixing is prevented by changing the mutually fixed positions of the cassette holder and the adjustment lever.

[Operation] When the attitude of the adjusting lever supported by the cassette holder is changed, the relative position between the cam roller provided on the adjusting lever and the cassette holder is slightly changed. Therefore, the spring of the spring that biases the cam roller to the cam is changed. The posture of the cassette holder changes due to the force, and the ribbon cassette fitted and supported by the cassette holder swings in the direction orthogonal to the running direction of the print head, and the areas of each color of the multicolor ink ribbon are the tip of the print head. It is fine-tuned so that it is accurately positioned on the part.

Example Next, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 to 3 are views showing an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the structure will be described. 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a base plate which is a member on the printer body side, 2 is a platen which is rotatably supported on the printer body side, and 3 is a print which is movably attached to the base plate 1. The print head 3 reciprocates in the axial direction along the surface of the platen 2 in parallel.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a ribbon cassette in which a multicolor ink ribbon 5 color-coded into a plurality of regions in the width direction is housed in a cassette case 6, and two protrusions 7 are provided on one side surface of the cassette case 6 which is orthogonal to the ribbon traveling direction. The other side not shown in the figure is provided with a projection which is the center of the swinging motion.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a cassette holder having two recesses 9 into which the two projections 7 fit, and the two recesses 9 are open upward as shown in the enlarged view of FIGS. A bearing 10 is provided by fitting a bush into a hole drilled below. The bearing 10 has a base plate 1 as shown in FIG.
A support shaft 12 provided on a support plate 11 which is erected upright is loosely fitted thereto, whereby the cassette holder 8 can be rotated around the support shaft 12, and a direction orthogonal to the traveling direction of the print head 3 can be obtained. It is configured to be swingable.

On the surface of the cassette holder 8 opposite to the ribbon cassette 4, an adjustment lever 14 having a lower end pivotally supported by a pivot 13 is arranged. At the upper part of the adjusting lever 14, there is provided an internal thread portion 17 into which a thread portion of a fixing screw 16 which passes through an arc-shaped long hole 15 provided in the cassette holder 8 is screwed. Further, the adjusting lever 14 is provided with a pointer portion 18 by bending the upper end portion thereof toward the cassette holder 8 side,
Between the two recesses 9 of the cassette holder 8 corresponding to the pointer portion 18, an adjusting scale 19 indicating the minute position in the width direction at the tip of the print head 3 of the multicolor ink ribbon 5 is provided depending on the position of the adjusting lever 14. Has formed. Furthermore, a cam roller 20 is rotatably supported near the portion of the adjusting lever 14 supported by the pivot 13.

Reference numeral 21 is a tension spring stretched between the cassette holder 8 and the base plate 1.
The cassette holder 8 is swung about the support shaft 12 by a pulling force on the cam holder 20 to urge the cam roller 20 to the cam 22.
The cam 22 is provided integrally with a gear 23 rotatably supported on a support shaft 11a provided on the support plate 11, and a pinion 24 meshes with the gear 23. And the pinion 24
It is attached to the output shaft of a pulse motor 26 fixed to the support plate 11 by screws 25.

 Next, the operation will be described.

When multicolor printing is performed with the multicolor ink ribbon 5, the posture of the ribbon cassette 4 is changed according to the color to be printed, and the facing position in the width direction of the multicolor ink ribbon 5 at the tip of the print head 3 is changed. Can be performed.

That is, when the pulse motor 26 is driven at a constant rotation angle and the rotational force is transmitted from the pinion 24 to the gear 23, the cam 22 integrated therewith rotates by an angle according to the rotation angle of the pulse motor 26, and The cam roller 20 is displaced by a lift amount corresponding to the rotation angle of the cam 22. This allows the cam roller
Since the cassette holder 8 fixed to the adjustment lever 14 having the roller 20 swings about the support shaft 12 in accordance with the amount of displacement of the cam roller 20, the ribbon cassette 4 engaged with and supported by the cassette holder 8 is printed. 3 swings in a direction orthogonal to the running direction.

As a result, the area of the multi-color ink ribbon 5 located on the front surface of the print head 3 changes. Therefore, by appropriately selecting the rotation angle of the pulse motor 26, the desired color can be used for the paper supplied to the platen 2. Can be printed.

Next, a fine adjustment of the print position of the ribbon 5 is performed as follows, for example, because an accurate print position cannot be obtained due to variations in product assembly.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining such fine adjustment work. In FIG. 3, the posture of the ribbon cassette 4 is shown in a solid line from an offset position shown in an imaginary line (two-dot chain line), and is in an accurately positioned position. 3 shows a case where a small movement is performed.

As shown in the figure, when the multicolor ink ribbon 5 is slightly displaced upward with respect to the leading end of the print head 3 and the multicolor ink ribbon 5 is slightly moved downward, a fixing screw is used.
16 is loosened and the adjustment lever 14 is swung clockwise in the figure by an appropriate adjustment length N, whereby the cassette holder 8
It is possible to move the position of the ribbon cassette 4 fixedly supported by the position of the ribbon cassette 4 to the position shown by the solid line, and at that position again,
By tightening 16, the minute movement is completed. At this time, the adjustment lever 14 is relatively rotated about the pivot 13 of the cassette holder 8.

By performing such an adjustment work, each color area of the multicolor ink ribbon 5 can be accurately positioned and adjusted with respect to the tip portion of the print head 3.

When the multicolor ink ribbon 5 is slightly moved upward, the adjustment lever 14 may be swung counterclockwise in FIG.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a ribbon cassette accommodating a multicolor ink ribbon, a cassette holder that swingably supports the ribbon cassette, and a posture changeably supported by the cassette holder are provided. An adjusting lever, a spring for urging a cam roller provided on the adjusting lever to the cam, and a pulse motor for selecting a color region of a multicolor ink ribbon by swinging the cassette holder by appropriately rotating the cam to rotate the cassette holder. Therefore, even if a user who is unfamiliar with fine adjustment of the print position without requiring skill can adjust the position of the cassette holder with respect to the adjustment lever when an accurate print position cannot be obtained due to variations in product assembly etc. The effect is obtained that the fine adjustment can be easily and accurately performed simply by changing the position. Moreover, because of the simple structure as described above, it is possible to obtain the effect that the printer provided with this kind of mechanism can be manufactured at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the main part of the drawing, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory view for explaining the operation of the present invention. 3: Print head, 4: Ribbon cassette 5: Ribbon, 8: Cassette holder 11: Support plate, 12: Spindle 13: Axis, 14: Adjustment lever 16: Fixing screw, 20: Cam roller 21: Spring, 22: Cam 26 : Pulse motor

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A ribbon cassette accommodating a multicolor ink ribbon colored in a plurality of regions in a width direction; and a ribbon guide section for guiding the multicolor ink ribbon to a leading end of a print head. In a ribbon switching device in a printer in which a ribbon guide portion is moved up and down to switch a printing color by swinging the cassette around an axis parallel to the traveling direction of the print head, the ribbon cassette is detachably and swingably supported. A cassette holder, an adjustment lever having a cam roller, the mutual position of which is adjustable and fixed to the cassette holder, a cam that abuts the cam roller, a spring that presses the cam roller against the cam, a rotational drive of the cam, and It consists of a pulse motor whose rotation angle can be selected from multiple types. Ri ribbon switching device in a printer, characterized by preventing color mixing by changing the mutual fixed position with the adjusting lever and the cassette holder with switching the print color.