JP3353801B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an impact type color printer. More specifically, the present invention relates to a ribbon switching device in a printer that switches a printing color by changing a swing position of a ribbon cassette having an ink ribbon provided with a plurality of color bands in a width direction (hereinafter, referred to as a “multicolor ink ribbon”). Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a result of demand for multicolor printing and long printing life, a ribbon cartridge having a multicolor ink ribbon (hereinafter, referred to as a "multicolor ribbon cartridge") is swingably supported on a main body (stationary). Equation) A multicolor ink ribbon switching device has been proposed. For example, a multicolor ink ribbon switching device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-106381 is known.

[0003] This prior art will be described with reference to FIG.
In the ribbon cassette 104, two projections 107 provided on one side surface are fitted into corresponding recesses 109 of the cassette holder. Screw 116 into cassette holder 108
The cam roller 120 provided on the adjustment lever 114 fixed by the pivot 113 is pressed against the surface of the cam 122 by the urging force of the spring 121, and the cassette holder 108 can swing about the support shaft 112 with the rotation of the cam 122. It has become. The cam 122 is integrally provided with a gear 123,
The gear 123 is connected to a pulse motor 127 via a pinion 124. By rotating the pulse motor 127 by a predetermined amount, the gear 123 rotates, and the integral cam 122 rotates by a predetermined amount. Cam roller 120
Is biased by the cam 122, the cassette holder 108 swings about the support shaft 112, and as a result, the ribbon 105 changes its vertical position. The adjustment lever 114 can adjust the relative position with respect to the cassette holder 108 around the pivot 113 by loosening the screw 116, so that the vertical position of the ribbon 105 can be finely adjusted.

[0004]

However, in the configuration in which the cam roller 120 is urged against the cam 122 by the spring 121, when the rotation speed of the cam 122 increases, a response failure occurs due to the inertia of the cam roller 120 and the spring 121. Therefore, there is a restriction on the rotation speed of the cam 122. As a result, there is a problem that it takes a long time to switch the printing color, and the throughput is reduced.

Further, since the spring 121 is used, a motor having a large torque is required as a motor for driving the cam. When a small motor is used, there is a problem that heat is generated.

If the leaving time is long, such as during transportation, the cam surface may be deformed by the urging force. Therefore, there is a restriction in setting the urging force. As a result, there is a problem that the printing color switching operation becomes unstable.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable printer capable of quickly switching printing colors.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has a side surface rotatably supported on a support shaft and is driven by a driving means to select a color band of a multicolor ink ribbon. in the printer having a cartridge holder for displacing the interior of the ribbon in the width direction together with the ribbon cartridge, said engaged with the drive means cartridge
Equipped with a shaft for displacing the holder, the lower end pivoted by a pivot
Movably supported lever member with the cartridge holder
And the cartridge is provided at the other end of the lever.
Selectively engage the plurality of engagement grooves formed in a portion of the holder
Characterized by providing an engaging projection to finely adjust the mounting angle of the cartridge holder.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in (1), two projections 7 protrude from the right end of the ribbon cartridge 4, and a cylindrical projection 30 is provided at the left end.
The two projections 7 are supported by cutouts 9 provided on the upper surface of the cartridge holder 8, and the cylindrical projections 30 are supported by pivots provided on the side frames. The endless multicolor ribbon 5 stored in the ribbon cartridge 4 exits the right arm of the ribbon cartridge 4, is guided between the print head 3 and the platen 2, and is rewound into the ribbon cartridge 4 from the left arm. Cartridge holder 8 supporting two projections 7
The multi-color ink ribbon switching device 40 including the ribbon cartridge 4 is detachably fixed to the right side frame.
Supports the right side of the

FIG. 2A is a view of the multi-color ink ribbon switching device 40 removed from the side frame and viewed from the direction A in FIG. FIG. 2B is a side view of FIG. FIG. 3A is a view showing the cartridge holder 8 and the adjustment lever 14 removed from the state of FIG. 2A. FIG. 3B is a diagram showing the back side of FIG. FIG. 4 is a view showing a state where the cartridge holder 8 and the adjustment lever 14 are removed from FIG.

[0012] As shown enlarged in FIGS. 2 and 3, Ca
Over cartridge holder 8 is a cartridge holder which have a two notches 9 for mating with two projections 7 on the ribbon cartridge 4, the two notches 9 are open in the lateral direction, one of its A hole 10 is provided below the notch 9.
Direct There have been set, by fitting the support shaft 12 provided on the supporting holding plates 11 in the hole 10, as pivotable cartridge holder 8 about the shaft 12, the running direction of the print head 3 It is configured to swing in the direction in which it moves.

An adjustment lever 14 having a lower end pivotally supported by a pivot 13 is arranged on the same side of the cartridge holder 8 as the ribbon cartridge 4 (the plane shown in FIG. 3A). .

As shown in FIG. 5 showing the adjusting lever 14 and FIG. 8 showing the cartridge holder,
At the upper part of the adjustment lever 14, a projection 16 (a cross section is shown in FIG. 10) whose cross section is an inverted V-shape is provided to engage with a continuous V-shaped groove 15 (a cross section is shown in FIG. 9) provided in the cartridge holder 8. I have. Further, a pointer 18 is provided at the upper end of the adjustment lever 14, and a minute position in the width direction at the tip of the print head 3 of the multicolor ink ribbon 5 is provided on the upper surface of the cartridge holder 8 corresponding to the pointer 18. An adjustment scale 19 (shown in FIG. 8) as an adjustment index is formed. Furthermore, the part supported by the pivot 13 of the adjusting lever 14
They become a bifurcated cam shaft 20 is press-fitted in this portion.

The cam 22 is supported as shown in FIG. 4, which shows the cartridge holder 8 and the adjustment lever 14 removed from FIG. 2, and FIG. 6, which is a partially exploded perspective view showing the relationship between the cam and the cam shaft. It is provided integrally with a gear 23 rotatably supported on a support shaft 21 provided on the plate 11,
A pinion 24 meshes with the gear 23. Cam 2
Reference numeral 2 denotes a groove cam, into which the cam shaft 20 is fitted. The pinion 24 is attached to an output shaft of a pulse motor 27 fixed to the support plate 11.

As shown in FIG. 3, near the notch 9 of the cartridge holder 8, there is provided a cartridge detecting means 17 comprising a microswitch for detecting the mounting of the ribbon cartridge 4.

The operation of the embodiment described above will be described.

When performing multi-color printing with the multi-color ink ribbon 5, the inclination of the ribbon cartridge 4 is changed according to the printing color, and the position of the leading end of the print head 3 facing the width direction of the multi-color ink ribbon 5 is changed. By changing it, the printing color can be selected.

That is, the pulse motor 27 is driven at a constant rotation angle, and the rotation force is transmitted from the pinion 24 to the gear 23.
, The camshaft 20 is displaced by a lift amount corresponding to the rotation angle of the cam 22 integrated therewith. This allows
The ribbon cartridge 4 engaged and supported by the adjustment lever 14 having the cam shaft 20 and the cartridge holder 8 fixed thereto swings in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the print head 3.

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 27, a desired color can be applied to the paper supplied to the platen 2. Can be printed using

Since the grooved cam is used as the cam and the cam shaft 20 is not pressed against the cam surface, the pulse motor 27 can be driven at a higher speed than in the prior art in which the cam roller is pressed against the cam surface by the urging force of the spring. It is possible, and the cam surface does not deform even if left for a long time.

Next, in order to finely adjust the printing position of the ribbon 5 so that an accurate printing position cannot be obtained due to a variation in product assembly, for example, the following is performed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining such a fine adjustment operation. In FIG. 7, the posture of the ribbon cartridge 4 is accurately positioned from a position shifted by an imaginary line (two-dot chain line) by a solid line. In this case, the object is slightly moved to the opposite side.

As shown in FIG. 2, 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 is slightly moved downward,
The adjustment lever 14 is moved clockwise in the figure while the relative position between the pointer 18 and the adjustment scale 19 is being adjusted, and the continuous V-shaped groove 15 of the cartridge holder 8 is engaged with the projection 16 provided on the adjustment lever 14. By changing the position, the position of the ribbon cartridge 4 fixed and supported by the cartridge holder 8 is moved to the position shown by the solid line, thereby completing the fine adjustment operation. At that time, the adjustment lever 14 is relatively displaced about the pivot 13 of the cartridge holder 8.

By performing such an adjustment operation, each color region of the multicolor ink ribbon 5 can be accurately positioned with respect to the leading end of the print head 3.

When the driving load of the multicolor ink ribbon is greater than that of the single color ink cartridge, when the cartridge detecting means 17 detects the mounting of the multicolor ink ribbon, the driving speed of the multicolor ink ribbon is changed to the single color ink cartridge. The driving force can be increased by making the driving speed slower than the driving speed of the ink ribbon.

[0027]

According to the present invention as described above, according to the present invention, not only by operating the drive motion means automatically select the color of the ink ribbon, the ribbon cartridge by operating the lever member By finely adjusting the mounting angle , a desired color band can be correctly selected.

Further, since the cartridge detecting means is attached to the cartridge holder, the driving speed of the multi-color ink ribbon can be made slower than the driving speed of the single-color ink ribbon to increase the driving force.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are a view of the multicolor ink ribbon switching device detached from a side frame as viewed from a direction A in FIG. 1 and a side view thereof.

3A is a diagram showing a cartridge holder and an adjustment lever removed from the state of FIG. 2A, and FIG. 3B is a diagram showing the back side of FIG.

FIG. 4 shows the cartridge holder 8 and the adjustment lever 1 from FIG.
FIG. 4 is a view showing a state in which a reference numeral 4 is removed.

FIG. 5 is a view showing an adjustment lever.

FIG. 6 is a partially exploded perspective view showing a relationship between a cam and a cam shaft.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a fine adjustment operation.

FIG. 8 is a view showing a cartridge holder.

9 is a sectional view of the cartridge holder taken along the line BB in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a sectional view of the adjustment lever taken along the line AA in FIG. 5;

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Base plate 2 Platen 3 Print head 4 Ribbon cartridge 5 Multicolor ribbon 7 Projection 8 Cartridge holder 9 Notch 10 Hole 11 Support plate 12 Support shaft 13 Axis 14 Adjustment lever 15 V-shaped groove 16 Projection 17 Detecting means 18 Pointer 19 Adjustment Scale 20 Camshaft 21 Support shaft 22 Groove cam 23 Gear 24 Pinion 27 Pulse motor 28 Cover 30 Cylindrical projection 40 Multicolor ink ribbon switching device

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masaki Shimomura 3-3-5 Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Inventor Kazuhiko 3-3-5 Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano Pref. Seiko Epson stock In-house (56) References JP-A-3-213383 (JP, A) JP-A-62-160266 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 35/10 B41J 35/20

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A cartridge holder rotatably supported on a side surface of a support shaft and driven by driving means to select a color band of a multicolor ink ribbon and displaces an internal ribbon in a width direction together with a carried ribbon cartridge. The cartridge holder is displaced by engaging with the driving means.
The lower end is rotatably supported by a pivot.
Lever member on the side of the cartridge holder.
The other end of the lever is provided with an engagement projection which selectively engages with an engagement groove provided in a part of the cartridge holder to finely adjust a mounting angle of the ribbon cartridge holder. Printer.