JP4496576B2 - Printer carrier - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printer carrier.
[0002]
[Prior art]
FIG. 5 schematically shows a carrier 2 used in a printer 1 such as an ink jet printer. In the printer 1 shown in the drawing, the reciprocating movement of the carrier main body 21 in the left-right direction D is guided by the horizontally arranged guide rod 11, and the printing means mounted on the carrier main body 21 during the reciprocating movement of the carrier main body 21. Thus, printing or the like is recorded on the paper P. One end of a strip-shaped flexible cable 3 is connected to a printed wiring board 13 installed on the back side of the chassis 12. The flexible cable 3 is pulled out to the front side through an opening (not shown in the figure) of the chassis 12, and is fixed to a fixture 4 attached to the chassis 12, and the other end is attached to the carrier body 21. It is connected. Further, the flexible cable 3 is bent in a U-shape at one portion of the portion from the fixing portion to the carrier body 21 to the carrier body 21, and the portion from the fixing portion to the bending portion 33 and its bending. A portion from the portion 33 to the carrier body 21 has a flat shape along the reciprocation path of the carrier body 21.
[0003]
On the other hand, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 60-64861 describes a printer in which a flexible cable is connected to a carrier body. Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 60-182157 discloses a technique for bending the middle portion of the flexible cable into a U shape as described with reference to FIG. 5 to absorb the deformation of the flexible cable accompanying the movement of the carrier body. It is disclosed.
[0004]
FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the procedure conventionally performed when the flexible cable 3 is assembled to the carrier body 21.
[0005]
As shown in the figure, the carrier body 21 is formed in a rectangular frame shape, and has a guided portion 22 that is slidably held by the guide rod 11 described in FIG. The carrier body 21 has a mounting portion (not shown in the drawing) for the printing means described above on the front surface, and a substrate mounting portion 23 on which a wiring substrate 5 described later is disposed on the back surface side. Further, side plate portions 24 and 25 are provided on the left and right sides of the substrate installation portion 23, and an upper plate portion 26 is provided on the upper side of the substrate installation portion 23, respectively. In the side plate portion 24 on one side, a vertically long opening 27 is formed in a slit shape.
[0006]
On the other hand, the flexible cable 3 is formed of an FFC formed in a band shape, and the other end is joined to the relay wiring board 5. The wiring board 5 is a printed wiring board (PCB) having poor flexibility. In addition to the flexible cable 3, a wiring board (FPC) 6 having a number of electrodes corresponding to printing means is joined to the wiring board 5.
[0007]
As shown in FIG. 6, when the flexible cable 3 is assembled to the carrier body 21, the flexible cable 3 is inserted through the opening 27 of the side plate portion 24 on one side of the carrier body 21 as indicated by arrow B, and then the relay wiring board. 5 is attached to the substrate installation portion 23 of the carrier main body 21. In this way, the wiring board 5 assembled to the carrier body 21 and the junction between the wiring board 5 and the flexible cable 3 are surrounded and protected by the left and right side plate parts 24 and 25 and the upper plate part 26 of the board installation part 23. Has been.
[0008]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the board installation part 23 surrounded by the left and right side plate parts 24 and 25 and the upper plate part 26 is a very narrow space, and the wiring board 5 to which the long strip-like flexible cable 3 is joined is the board installation part 23. If it is going to install in board | substrate, it will be forced to perform an assembly | attachment operation | work in the limited narrow space in the board | substrate installation part 23. FIG. When the wiring board 5 is assembled under this condition, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, the loose portion of the flexible cable 3 is caught in the gap between the edge of the wiring board 5 and the side plate portion 24. There are cases where abnormal deformation occurs. If the deformed portion 31 of the flexible cable 3 generated in this way is left as it is, the smooth movement of the carrier body 21 during the printing operation is hindered, resulting in an operation failure. Further, if the flexible cable 3 is pulled out of the opening 27 of the side plate portion 24 and the deformed portion 31 is forcibly extended, an excessive force is applied to the soldered portion A between the flexible cable 3 and the wiring board 5 to cause solder peeling or the like. In addition, even if the solder is not peeled off, the bent portion of the deformable portion 31 may remain and cause abnormal noise when the carrier 21 moves.
[0009]
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, the opening width of the opening 27 of the side plate portion 24 is widened, and the flexible cable 3 opens due to its own rigidity when the wiring board 5 is assembled to the board installation portion 23 of the carrier body 21. It is conceivable that the flexible cable 3 is pulled out from the terminal 27 without resistance so as not to be loosened. In this case, the loosened portion of the flexible cable 3 is formed in the gap between the edge of the wiring board 5 and the side plate 24. It is hard to happen that the worm is swallowed and deformed into a bowl shape. However, when the carrier body 1 is moved in this way, the deflection width of the flexible cable 3 in the opening 27 increases when the carrier body 1 moves. Otherwise, the possibility of causing breakage of the flexible cable 3 is increased.
[0010]
The present invention has been made under the above circumstances, and it is possible to improve the assembly workability when assembling the flexible cable to the carrier body without increasing the opening width of the opening through which the flexible cable is inserted. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer carrier.
[0011]
It is another object of the present invention to provide a printer carrier that can improve the assembly workability without increasing the number of parts.
[0012]
It is another object of the present invention to provide a printer carrier that is unlikely to cause abnormal deformation in a flexible cable during assembly.
[0013]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The carrier of the printer according to the present invention has a carrier body for mounting printing means formed in a rectangular frame shape having an upper plate portion and left and right side plate portions, and a vertically long opening formed in the side plate portion on one side. One portion of the flexible cable inserted in the longitudinal direction is connected to a predetermined portion of the printer, and the other portion of the flexible cable in the longitudinal direction is connected to the carrier body. Further, the side plate portion on one side is divided from the carrier main body at the upper and lower end edges thereof, and a continuous portion of the carrier main body and the side plate portion located at the front end edge includes the carrier main body and It is formed as a thin plastic hinge formed integrally with the side plate portion, and the opening is formed in a shape recessed from the plastic hinge to the side plate portion side. Further, when the opening is located at a closed position in which the side plate portion on one side faces the side plate portion on the other side in parallel, the opening is a first beside the connection portion between the flexible cable and the carrier body. When the side plate on one side opens to the outside of the carrier body and is located at the open position in the sideways state, the opening is disposed at the second position outside the first position and is It opens to the direction.
[0014]
As described above, when the side plate portion on one side of the carrier body can be opened and closed between the closed position and the open position outside the closed position, the flexible cable is opened in the opening of the side plate portion in the open position. By doing so, the operation of passing the flexible cable through the opening can be easily and reliably performed in a wide space. In addition, if the side plate is moved to the closed position after passing the flexible cable through the opening, loop-like slack will not remain in the flexible cable, so solder peeling or abnormal noise caused by abnormal deformation of the flexible cable will not occur. Occurrence of the occurrence of an operation failure during the movement of the carrier body does not occur.
[0015]
In addition, since the continuous portion of the carrier main body and the side plate portion located at the front edge is formed as a thin plastic hinge formed integrally with the carrier main body and the side plate portion, the side plate There is no need to use extra parts for opening and closing the part. In addition, the carrier body and the side plate need only be integrally molded with plastic, so that the price can be reduced.
[0016]
When the opening is located at a closed position where the side plate portion on one side faces the side plate portion on the other side in parallel, the opening is at a first position directly beside the connection portion between the flexible cable and the carrier body. When opening sideways and the side plate portion on one side is open to the outside of the carrier body and is positioned in the open position in the sideways state, the opening is disposed at the second position outside the first position and is moved in the front-rear direction. It opens to face. In this case, if the side plate portion is positioned at the open position, the opening is arranged at the second position outside the first position, so that the work of passing the flexible cable through the opening can be performed in a wide space. As a result, it is possible to carry out easily and reliably, and the workability of assembling the flexible cable is further improved . Thus the, also be kept small amplitude of the flexible cable during carrier movement by narrowing the opening width of the opening, thereby eliminating that assembling workability of the flexible cable is impaired. Further, as described above, when the side plate portion is located at the closed position, the opening is arranged at the first position directly beside the connection portion between the flexible cable and the carrier body. Since an unreasonable bending force is not applied to the inserted flexible, there is no possibility that an unreasonable force is applied to the connecting portion between the flexible cable and the carrier body, that is, the soldering portion, and the solder is peeled off.
[0017]
In the carrier of the printer according to the present invention, the other part of the flexible cable is coupled to a wiring board with poor flexibility, and a board installation part for arranging the wiring board is formed on the back surface of the carrier body. It is possible to adopt a configuration in which the side plate portion on one side is connected to the edge portion in the left-right direction of the substrate installation portion via the plastic hinge. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the flexible cable is formed in a strip shape and the opening is formed in a slit shape. These configurations are the same as those described with reference to FIG. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the workability of assembling the flexible cable and eliminate problems such as solder peeling and abnormal noise without making a significant change to the conventional carrier configuration. become.
[0018]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the procedure when the flexible cable 3 is assembled to the carrier body 21 in the carrier 2 according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of the carrier 2 to which the flexible cable 3 is assembled. is there. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view for explaining a state in which the side plate portion 24 is in the open position, and FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view for explaining a state in which the side plate portion 24 is in the closed position.
[0019]
The carrier body 21 shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 is different from the carrier body 21 described with reference to FIG. 6 in that the side plate portion 24 connected to the carrier body 1 and provided with a vertically long slit-shaped opening 27 is opened and closed. This is possible. That is, the side plate portion 24 is divided from the carrier main body 21 at the upper and lower end edges 24a and 24b, whereas the carrier main body 21 and the side plate portion 24 located at the front end edge are connected. The installed portion is formed as a thin plastic hinge 28. Therefore, the side plate portion 24 is connected to the edge portion on one side in the left-right direction of the substrate installation portion 23 on the carrier body 21 side via the plastic hinge 28. The vertically long opening 27 is formed in a shape that is recessed from the plastic hinge 28 toward the side plate portion 24. Since the other points are the same as those of the carrier body 21 described with reference to FIG. 6, the same or corresponding parts are denoted by the same reference numerals for the sake of simplicity and simplicity.
[0020]
In the carrier main body 21, when the side plate portion 24 is in the closed position shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, that is, when the side plate portion 24 faces the other side plate portion 25 in parallel, the opening 27 is shown in FIG. as it is deployed in a first position just beside the soldering point b between ie wiring board 5 and the flexible cable 3. Further, when the side plate portion 24 is the open position shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, i.e. the side plate portion 24 is in the horizontally oriented state as shown in FIG. 3 open to the outside of the carrier body 21 has an opening as shown in figure 27 Is deployed in a second position outside the first position. In addition, the opening 27 opens in the lateral direction as shown in FIG. 4 when deployed in the first position, and opens in the front-rear direction as shown in FIG. 3 when deployed in the second position.
[0021]
A point in which a strip-shaped FFC is used for the flexible cable 3, and the other end of the flexible cable 3 is joined by soldering to a flat-plate relay wiring board 5 made of PCB having poor flexibility, The point that the wiring board 6 made of FPC is joined to the wiring board 5 is the same as described with reference to FIG. Therefore, the same reference numerals are given to the same or corresponding parts for easy understanding and simplicity.
[0022]
When the carrier body 21 is configured as described above, the workability of assembling the flexible cable 3 and the wiring board 5 to the carrier body 21 is improved. That is, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 , when the side plate portion 24 is turned sideways to the open position, the opening 27 faces in the front-rear direction at the second position outside the carrier body 21. The operation of passing the flexible cable 3 can be easily and reliably performed in a wide space outside the board installation portion 23. Therefore, even if the opening width of the opening 27 is narrow, the flexible cable 3 can be easily and reliably performed without causing slack.
[0023]
After the flexible cable 3 is inserted through the opening 27 of the side plate portion 24 in the open position, the side plate portion 24 is closed to the closed position as shown in FIGS . If it does in this way, the flexible cable 3 will not be in the state which slackened inside the side-plate part 24 of a closed position. Therefore, when the wiring board 5 is installed on the board installation part 23 of the carrier body 21 before the side plate part 24 is closed or after the side plate part 24 is closed, as shown in FIGS. Then, the flexible cable 3 is pulled out loosely through the opening 27 located directly beside the soldering point (a), which may cause solder peeling, abnormal noise, operation failure during movement of the carrier body, etc. It helps to prevent it from happening.
[0024]
Even if the opening width of the opening 27 is narrowed, the workability of assembling the flexible cable 3 is improved as described above. Therefore, the opening width of the opening 27 is narrowed so that the carrier can move flexibly. It is possible to suppress the deflection width of the cable 3 to be small, and to prevent an excessive force from being applied to the soldered portion a.
[0025]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in this embodiment, the hook portion 29 is provided on the side plate portion 24, and the hook portion 29 is engaged with the carrier main body 21 when the side plate portion 24 is in the closed position. An engaging portion 20 is provided to keep the side plate portion 24 in the closed position. Therefore, since the side plate portion 24 is locked in the closed position by the hook portion 29 engaging with the engaging portion 20, there is no possibility that the side plate portion 24 is accidentally opened to the open position.
[0026]
In this embodiment, one end of the flexible cable 3 is connected to the chassis 12 or the printed wiring board 13 via the fixture 4 described with reference to FIG. One place may be connected to a predetermined place (such as the chassis 12 or the printer wiring board 13) on the printer side. Further, the other end of the flexible cable 3 is connected to the wiring substrate 5 made of PCB having poor flexibility in a joined state, but this is because the other part in the longitudinal direction of the flexible cable 3 is on the carrier body 21 side. should I be connected to.
[0027]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, assembling workability when assembling the flexible cable to the carrier body is improved without increasing the opening width of the opening through which the flexible cable is inserted or increasing the number of parts. In addition, it is possible to provide a low-cost printer carrier that is less prone to abnormal deformation of the flexible cable during assembly and less likely to cause problems such as solder peeling of the flexible cable and abnormal noise. Become.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view illustratively illustrating a procedure when a flexible cable is assembled to a carrier body in a carrier according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a carrier to which a flexible cable is assembled.
FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view for explaining a state in which a side plate portion is in an open position.
FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view for explaining a state in which a side plate portion is in a closed position.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view schematically showing a carrier used in a printer.
FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view illustratively showing a procedure when the flexible cable is assembled to the carrier body of the conventional example.
FIG. 7 is a sectional view illustratively showing a state that can occur in a conventional carrier.
FIG. 8 is a sectional view illustratively showing a state that can occur in a conventional carrier.
[Explanation of symbols]
2 Carrier 3 Flexible cable 5 Wiring board 21 Carrier body 23 Board installation part
24 Side plate on one side
24a, 24b Upper and lower edges of one side plate
25 Side plate on the other side
26 Upper plate portion 27 Opening 28 Plastic hinge A Soldering location (flexible cable connection with the carrier body)

Claims (3)

A longitudinal direction of a flexible cable in which a carrier body for mounting printing means is formed in a rectangular frame shape having an upper plate portion and left and right side plate portions, and is inserted into a vertically long opening formed in the side plate portion on one side Is connected to a predetermined part of the printer, and another part in the longitudinal direction of the flexible cable is connected to the carrier body ,
The side plate portion on one side is divided from the carrier main body at the upper and lower end edges thereof, and the connecting portion between the carrier main body and the side plate portion located at the front end edge includes the carrier main body and the side plate portion. Is formed as a thin plastic hinge molded integrally with the opening, and the opening is formed in a shape recessed from the plastic hinge to the side plate portion side,
When the opening is located at a closed position in which the side plate portion on one side faces the side plate portion on the other side in parallel, the opening is at a first position directly beside the connection portion between the flexible cable and the carrier body. When the side plate is opened laterally and the side plate portion on one side is open to the outside of the carrier main body and is located at the open position in the sideways state, the opening is arranged at the second position outside the first position and extends in the front-rear direction. A carrier for a printer, characterized by being open to face . The other part of the flexible cable is coupled to a wiring board having poor flexibility, and a board installation part for arranging the wiring board is formed on the back surface of the carrier body. The printer carrier according to claim 1 , wherein the side plate portion on one side is connected to the portion via the plastic hinge. The carrier of the printer according to claim 1, wherein the flexible cable is formed in a strip shape, and the opening is formed in a slit shape.

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