JP3069304U - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: In a printer such as an ink jet printer, a portion near one end of a flexible cable is positioned on a cable support attached to a chassis. By positioning a portion near one end of the flexible cable on the cable support, vertical deflection of the flexible cable and displacement in the front-rear direction are prevented. A fold (36) is formed at a location near one end of a flexible cable (3). Fold 36 to chassis 1
2 and is positioned by being hooked on the rod 62 of the cable support 6 fixed to the cable support 6. Connect the flexible cable 12 to the rod 62
Through the openings 64 and 65 on both sides of the. The flexible cable 12 is sandwiched between the pressing portion 63 of the cable support 6 and the chassis 12.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention relates to a printer that performs recording on paper or the like while reciprocating a carrier on which a print head is mounted in a horizontal direction.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 FIG. 5 schematically shows a printer 1 of this type. The printer 1 shown in FIG. 1 guides a reciprocating movement of the carrier 2 in the left-right direction D by a guide rod 11 disposed horizontally, and during the reciprocating movement of the carrier 2, the paper P is acted on by a print head mounted on the carrier 2. The recording such as printing is performed. A printed wiring board 13 is provided on the back side of the chassis 12. A strip-shaped flexible cable 3 having one end connected to the printed wiring board 13 is drawn out to the front through an opening (not shown in the figure) of the chassis 12, and the other end of the flexible cable 3 is connected to the other end of the flexible cable 3. The part is fixed to the carrier 2. Further, a cable support 4 is attached to the front surface of the chassis 12 in an overlapping manner, and a portion near one end of the flexible cable 3 is fixed to the cable support 4. The flexible cable 3 has a first portion 34 extending from the fixed portion to the cable support 4 to the carrier 2 at a middle portion of the portion extending from the fixed portion to the bent portion 33. The second portion 35 extending from the bent portion 33 to the carrier 2 has a flat shape along the reciprocating path of the carrier 2.

FIG. 6 schematically shows a structure for fixing the flexible cable 3 to the cable support 4. As shown in the figure, the flexible cable 3 is drawn out to the front side of the chassis 12 through an opening 41 provided in the chassis 12, and is attached to bosses 42, 42 protruding from the cable support 4. The protruding pieces 32, 32 formed integrally with a portion 31 near one end of the end are fixed.

If the portion 31 near one end of the flexible cable 3 is fixed as shown in FIG. 6, the portion 31 near one end of the flexible cable 3 is positioned so as not to move. Even if the carrier 2 reciprocates in the left-right direction D, the flexible cable 3 is prevented from vibrating in the vertical direction or being displaced in the front-rear direction. For this reason, an accurate printing operation is impaired by a defect caused by the vertical deflection of the flexible cable 3 or a deviation in the front-rear direction, for example, a defect such as the flexible cable 3 being sandwiched between the carrier 2 and the chassis 12. Does not occur.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-109508 discloses a printer using a flexible cable. According to this publication, in a printer having a flexible cable in which a portion near one end is fixed to a chassis and the other end is fixed to a carrier, an excessive force is applied to the flexible cable when the carrier reciprocates. It is useful to bend the middle part of the flexible cable in a U-shape in order to avoid the risk of flapping. It is described that it is useful to provide a regulating plate for suppressing the displacement of the flexible cable in the front-rear direction.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-142968 describes that a predetermined portion of a flexible cable is fixed to a boss and positioned.

Further, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-145181 describes that a flexible cable whose end is soldered to a printed wiring board is fixed through a slit formed in the printer wiring board.

By the way, an FPC is used for a flexible cable of a general inkjet printer. Although FPCs have the advantage of being able to freely design their shapes, they are very expensive, so printers employing FPCs as flexible cables are expensive. Therefore, the inventor of the present application attempted to use an inexpensive FFC instead of the FPC as a flexible cable.

[0009]

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

 However, the FFC is less expensive than the FPC, but cannot have the protruding piece 32 as shown in FIG. 6 unlike the FPC. Therefore, if only an inexpensive FFC is used instead of the FPC, as shown in FIG. 7, the portion 31 near one end of the flexible cable 3 pulled out to the front side of the chassis 12 through the opening 41 of the chassis 12 is fixed. Positioning becomes impossible. As a result, when the carrier 2 described with reference to FIG. 5 reciprocates in the left-right direction D, the flexible cable 3 formed by the FFC easily swings in the vertical direction and easily shifts in the front-rear direction. It has been found that there is a possibility of causing a trouble such as the cable 3 being pinched between the carrier 2 and the chassis 12. Even if FFC is used for the flexible cable 3, by applying the same drawing shape as that described in FIG. 5, an excessive force is applied to the flexible cable 3 when the carrier 2 reciprocates. It has been found that joining can be avoided.

[0010] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is intended to fix a portion near one end of a flexible cable to a cable support so as to suppress the vertical deflection and the longitudinal displacement of the flexible cable. It is based on

[0011] In particular, by enabling a portion near one end of the flexible cable to be fixed to the cable support without using a boss, an inexpensive FFC can be used for the flexible cable instead of the conventional FPC. In addition, it is intended to provide a printer that can suppress the vertical deflection and the displacement in the front-rear direction of the flexible cable and obtain the same operational stability as that obtained by using the FPC even when the FFC is used. Aim.

[0012]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The printer according to the present invention includes a belt-shaped flexible cable having one end fixed to a fixed position and the other end fixed to a carrier mounted with a print head and reciprocated in the left-right direction. This type of printer includes the printer described with reference to FIG. Here, the one end of the flexible cable corresponds to, for example, a portion where an electrode to be joined to the printed wiring board 13 described with reference to FIG. 5 is formed.

In the present invention, a fold is formed at a position near one end of the flexible cable. This fold is desirably a sharp fold that extends straight in the width direction of the flexible cable. The fold is positioned by being hooked on a vertical corner of a cable support fixed at a predetermined position of the printer. According to this, the location where the fold is formed, that is, the location near one end of the flexible cable, is positioned with respect to the cable support, so that even if the carrier reciprocates in the left-right direction, the flexible cable may swing up and down. The displacement in the front-rear direction is suppressed, and high operational stability can be obtained. Even if the FFC is inexpensive compared to the FPC, it is possible to form the above folds, so that the FFC can be used as a flexible cable, which reduces the cost of the printer. It will help you.

In the above flexible cable, a portion from a portion where the vertical corner portion and the fold are hooked to the carrier needs to have a length capable of absorbing reciprocating movement of the carrier due to bending deformation. Further, in the flexible cable, one portion of an intermediate portion of a portion extending from a hook portion between the vertical corner portion and the fold to the carrier is bent in a U-shape, and a first portion extending from the hook portion to the bent portion is formed. It is desirable that the portion and the second portion from the bent portion to the carrier have a flat shape along the reciprocating path of the carrier. The routing shape of such a flexible cable is the same as that described with reference to FIG.

[0015] In the present invention, the flexible cable is inserted into openings formed on both sides of a vertically long rod provided in the cable support in parallel with the fold, and is hooked on the rod. Preferably, the fold is hooked on a vertical corner of the rod. With this configuration, the fold is hooked on the vertical corner of the rod, and the flexible cable is inserted through the openings formed on both sides of the rod and hooked on the rod. By synergistically with the configuration of the flexible cable, a portion near one end of the flexible cable is securely fixed to the cable support. For this reason, the occurrence of the above-described vertical runout and longitudinal shift is further suppressed.

The cable support is fixed in an overlapping manner to a chassis provided in the printer, and the flexible cable extends over a front surface of the rod overlapping the chassis. It is desirable to be inserted through the openings on both sides. According to this, the conventional structure can be employed as it is as the structure for attaching the cable support to the chassis.

Further, a part of the first portion of the flexible cable, which is inserted into the opening on one side of the rod portion and extends toward the U-shaped bent portion, is a plate-shaped portion provided on the cable support. Is desirably sandwiched between the pressing portion and the chassis. According to this configuration, the fold is hooked on the vertical corner of the rod, and the flexible cable is inserted through openings formed on both sides of the rod and is hooked on the rod. The configuration and a configuration in which a part of the first portion of the flexible cable is sandwiched between the plate-shaped pressing portion provided on the cable support and the chassis are synergistically combined to form one end of the flexible cable. The nearby portion is securely fixed to the cable support, and the above-described vertical deflection and longitudinal displacement are further suppressed.

In the present invention, the cable support has only one end in the vertical direction connected to the cable support, and the other end in the vertical direction is formed as a free end. And a frame portion located at a position opposing the free end portion, and the rod portion has bending elasticity, and the rod portion is bent in a curved shape toward the back side of the cable support. Accordingly, it is desirable that an insertion port through which a flexible cable can be inserted into the front side of the rod portion can be formed between the free end portion of the rod portion and the frame portion. With this configuration, the intermediate portion of the flexible cable can be hooked to the rod portion through the insertion portion only by bending the rod portion to form the insertion port. This is useful for improving the attachment of the flexible cable to the support.

[0019]

[Embodiment of the invention]

 1 is a perspective view of a main part of the printer according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view of the main part, FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a part III in FIG. 2, and FIG. It is explanatory drawing which showed the attachment operation | movement at the time of attachment.

The cable support 6 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 has a rectangular frame 61, a vertically long rod 62 provided at a location surrounded by the frame 61, A plate-shaped pressing portion 63 provided adjacently, vertically long openings 64, 65 formed on both sides of the rod portion 62, hook portions 66 provided at left and right ends of the frame portion 61, and elasticity The locking piece 67 is integrally provided. The portion of the rod portion 62 facing the opening 64 on one side is formed as a vertically long corner portion 68. In addition, only one end (the lower end in the illustrated example) of the rod portion 62 is connected to the frame 61 of the cable support 6 and the other end (the upper end in the illustrated example) is connected to the frame 61 of the cable support 6. ) Is formed as a free end 69, and the frame 6 is located at a position facing the free end 69. Further, the rod portion 62 has bending elasticity. Therefore, when the rod 62 is bent toward the back side of the cable support 6 as shown in FIG. 4, the flexible cable 3 is moved between the free end 69 of the rod 62 and the frame 61. The insertion port 71 which can be inserted in the front side of this is formed.

On the other hand, a fold 36 is formed at a location 36 near one end of the strip-shaped flexible cable 3. The fold 36 is a sharp fold that extends straight in the width direction of the flexible cable 3. When the portion 31 near the one end of the flexible cable 3 is attached to the cable support 6, the insertion port 71 is bent by bending the rod portion 62 of the cable support 6 toward the back side as shown in FIG. It is only necessary to form and insert the portion 31 near one end of the flexible cable 3 through the insertion port 71 into the openings 64 and 65 as shown by arrows.

When the portion 31 near the one end of the flexible cable 3 is inserted into the openings 64 and 65 of the cable support 6 in this way, the flexible cable 3 straddles the front surface of the The fold 36 faces the vertically long corner portion 68 of the rod portion 62. Further, a part 34 a of the first portion 34 of the flexible cable 3, which is inserted through the opening 65 on one side and extends toward the U-shaped bent portion 33 (see FIG. 5), Will be deployed behind. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, when the cable support 6 is fixed to the chassis 12 in an overlapping manner using the hook 66 and the locking claw 67, a part of the first portion 34 of the flexible cable 3 is 34 a is sandwiched between the plate-shaped pressing portion 63 and the chassis 12.

According to the above description, when the carrier 2 described in FIG. 5 reciprocates in the left-right direction, the fold 36 of the flexible cable 3 is hooked on the vertical corner 68 of the rod 62 and the one end of the flexible cable 3 Since the vicinity portion 31 is positioned, the flexible cable 3 is prevented from swinging up and down or being shifted in the front and rear direction. This action is achieved by the fact that the flexible cable 3 is inserted into the openings 64 and 65 on both sides of the rod portion 62 and hooked on the rod portion 62, and the portion 34a of the first portion 34 of the flexible cable 3 This is more remarkably exhibited by being sandwiched between the plate-shaped pressing portion 63 of the body 6 and the chassis 12.

The flexible cable 3 has such a length that a portion extending from the portion where the vertical corner portion 68 of the rod portion 62 of the cable support 6 is hooked to the fold 36 to the carrier 4 can absorb reciprocating movement of the carrier due to bending deformation. Need to have Also, the flexible cable 3 is configured such that one portion of the middle portion of the portion from the hooking point of the vertical corner portion 68 and the fold line 36 to the carrier 4 is bent in a U-shape, and the bending portion 3 is bent from the hooking point. 3 and a second portion 35 from the bent portion 33 to the carrier 4 have a flat shape along the reciprocating path of the carrier 4.

[0025]

[Effect of the invention]

 As described above, according to the present invention, the flexible cable is not fixed to the boss or the like, but is fixed to a portion near one end thereof to the cable support to suppress the vertical deflection and the longitudinal displacement of the flexible cable. It becomes possible to do. Therefore, an inexpensive FFC can be used as a flexible cable instead of an expensive FPC, and according to the present invention, a printer can be provided at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main part of a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view of the main part.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a part III in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing an attaching operation when attaching a flexible cable to a cable support.

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of the printer.

FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view of a main part of a conventional printer using an FPC for a flexible cable.

FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view of a main part for describing a problem when the FFC is used for a flexible cable.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer 3 Flexible cable 4 Carrier 6 Cable support body 12 Chassis 31 Location near one end of flexible cable 33 Bent portion of flexible cable 34 First portion 34a Part of first portion of flexible cable 35 Second portion 36 Fold 61 Frame portion 62 rod part 64, 65 opening 68 vertical corner part 69 free end part of rod part 71 insertion port

Claims (7)

[Utility model registration claims] 1. A printer comprising a band-shaped flexible cable fixed at one end to a fixed position and fixed at the other end to a carrier mounted with a print head and reciprocated in the left-right direction. A printer characterized in that a fold formed near an end portion is positioned by being hooked on a vertical corner of a cable support fixed to a predetermined portion of the printer. 2. The flexible cable according to claim 1, wherein a portion extending from a portion where the vertically long corner portion and the fold are hooked to the carrier is provided.
2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printer has a length capable of absorbing a reciprocating movement of the carrier by bending deformation. 3. The flexible cable according to claim 1, wherein an intermediate portion of a portion extending from a hook portion between the vertical corner portion and the fold to the carrier is bent in a U-shape, and the hook portion is bent from the hook portion to a bent portion. 3. The printer according to claim 2, wherein the first portion and the second portion from the bent portion to the carrier have a flat shape along the reciprocating path of the carrier. 4. The flexible cable is inserted through openings formed on both sides of a vertically long rod portion provided in the cable support in parallel with the fold line, and is hooked on the rod portion. 4. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the fold is hooked on a vertical corner of the rod. 5. The cable support member is fixed to a chassis provided in the printer in an overlapping manner, and the flexible cable extends over a front surface of the rod portion overlapping the chassis. 5. The printer according to claim 4, wherein the printer is inserted through the openings on both sides of the printer. 6. A part of a first portion of a flexible cable which is inserted through an opening on one side of the rod portion and extends toward a U-shaped bent portion, is provided in a plate-like shape provided on a cable support. 6. The printer according to claim 5, wherein the printer is sandwiched between the pressing portion and the chassis. 7. The rod portion, wherein only one end in the vertical direction is connected to the cable support and the other end in the vertical direction is formed as a free end. A frame portion located at a position opposing the end portion, and the rod portion has bending elasticity, and the rod portion is bent in a curved shape toward the back side of the cable support so that the rod portion is bent. The printer according to claim 5 or 6, wherein an insertion port through which a flexible cable can be inserted into the front side of the rod portion can be formed between the free end portion of the portion and the frame portion. .