JP4587662B2 - Cutter device and printer equipped with the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cutter device for cutting printed paper incorporated in a printer near a paper discharge unit.

  For example, some printers have a function of supplying roll paper and automatically cutting the printed roll paper at a paper discharge unit. Automatic paper cutting is realized by a cutter device incorporated in a printer.

As this type of conventional cutter device, the one disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known.
The cutter device disclosed in the document 1 is a so-called guillotine type cutter device, and a movable blade receives a driving force from a driving motor and linearly reciprocates. The movable blade moves from a position opened with respect to the fixed blade, and when the movable blade crosses the fixed blade, cuts the paper inserted between them. After the cutting operation, the movable blade moves to the return operation and moves to the open position again.

Now, there is no problem when the paper to be cut is thin and can be easily cut with a small shearing force, but some papers are thick and difficult to cut. Conventionally, assuming such thick paper that is difficult to cut, it is necessary to provide a large and expensive drive motor with a large torque in order to apply a large shearing force to the movable blade. There is a drawback that the power consumption increases as the apparatus becomes larger and more expensive.
JP-A-10-217182

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a cutter device having a simple configuration that can easily cut a sheet of material that is thick and difficult to cut without powering up a drive motor.

In order to achieve the above object, a cutter device of the present invention includes a fixed blade fixed to the device body, a movable blade that cooperates with the fixed blade to cut paper, and a drive motor that drives the movable blade. In the cutter device that the movable blade moves in the direction of cutting the paper and performs a return operation from the moving end in the cutting direction,
An urging unit is provided that applies an urging force to the movable blade in a direction of cutting the sheet and accumulates the urging force as the movable blade returns.

  That is, when the movable blade cuts the paper, a sufficiently large shearing force is required. Therefore, although the driving force from the drive motor is consumed for cutting the paper, a large driving force is required for the return operation of the movable blade. do not need. The present invention focuses on this point, and when the movable blade performs a cutting operation, the urging force from the urging means is superimposed on the driving force from the driving motor so as to reach the movable blade. It is possible to cut thick paper that is difficult to cut. The urging force is accumulated in the urging means using the driving force from the driving motor in the process of the return movement of the movable blade. For this reason, it is possible to easily cut a sheet of material that is thick and difficult to cut without powering up the drive motor.

  The biasing means can be simply configured by a coil spring or a torsion coil spring provided between the apparatus main body and the movable blade. Therefore, the apparatus is not complicated.

  Further, the urging means may be configured to apply an urging force in a direction to urge the blade edge of the movable blade toward the fixed blade side. For example, the urging means is constituted by a coil spring or a torsion coil spring provided between the apparatus main body and the movable blade, and the urging force is applied in a linear direction passing through the fulcrum on the apparatus main body side and the fulcrum on the movable blade side. In addition, the action line of the urging force can be configured to have an inclination with respect to a virtual plane including the cutting edge of the fixed blade.

When a thick sheet is cut between the fixed blade and the movable blade, the cutting edge of the movable blade tends to be separated from the fixed blade by the shearing resistance of the sheet. This is a well-known fact as seen when cutting cardboard with scissors. This phenomenon causes adverse effects such as paper cutting failure and tearing.
Therefore, by configuring the movable blade edge to be urged toward the fixed blade side by the urging means, reliable and smooth cutting is possible even with thick paper.

  Note that the present invention extends to a printer, and in a printer including a paper transport path, a printing unit provided on the transport path, and a paper discharge unit that discharges printed paper, A cutter device having the above-described configuration can also be provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily cut a sheet of material that is thick and difficult to cut without powering up the drive motor.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[Entire printer configuration]
FIG. 1 is a sectional side view showing an outline of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. First, the overall configuration of the printer according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
In the printer, a conveyance path 101 for the paper S is formed inside the printer main body 100 by conveyance means such as a feed roller, and a printing unit 102 is provided on the conveyance path 101.

  A sheet such as roll paper is fed into a printer main body from a paper supply unit (not shown) provided in the printer main body 100 and is conveyed in the left direction in FIG.

  The print unit 102 includes a print head 103 and a platen 104. The print head 103 and the platen 104 are provided to face each other. The print head 103 is pressed against the platen 104 by manual operation of a head lever (not shown). Or move away.

  A ribbon supply shaft 105 and a ribbon take-up shaft 106 are further provided inside the printer main body 100, and a ribbon supply reel 105a is mounted on the ribbon supply shaft 105, while a ribbon take-up reel 106a is attached to the ribbon take-up shaft 106. Is installed.

  An ink ribbon 107 that is continuous in a belt shape is wound around the ribbon supply reel 105a. The ink ribbon 107 drawn from the ribbon supply reel 105 a is taken up by the ribbon take-up reel 106 a via the print head 103 and the platen 104.

  Between the print head 103 and the platen 104, together with the ink ribbon 107, the paper S sent from a paper supply unit (not shown) is supplied, and the ink ribbon 107 and the paper S are overlapped with each other. Here, the operation of sandwiching the ink ribbon 107 and the paper S between the print head 103 and the platen 104 is performed in a state where the print head 103 is separated from the platen 104 by manual operation of the head lever (not shown).

  The print head 103 generates heat based on a control signal from a control unit (not shown) and melts ink applied to the ink ribbon 107. Then, the melted ink is transferred to the paper S.

  The platen 104 has a pedestal function for supporting the ink ribbon 107 and the paper S during the printing operation. The platen 104 is rotationally driven by a drive motor 108 and pulls out the paper S from a paper supply unit (not shown) and also functions as a paper transport unit that transports the paper S along the transport path 101. The ink ribbon 107 is pulled out by rotating the ribbon take-up shaft 106.

  In the printer main body 100, a paper discharge unit 109 is formed at the end portion of the conveyance path 101, and the printed paper S is discharged from the paper discharge unit 109 to the outside. The cutter device 10 is incorporated in the paper discharge unit 109.

[Configuration of cutter device]
Next, the configuration of the cutter device will be described.
2A is a front view showing a cutter device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2B is a right side view thereof, and FIG. 3 is an exploded front view showing a state in which a movable blade is removed from the device main body. .
The cutter device 10 includes a fixed blade 12, a movable blade 13, a drive motor 14, and a drive gear train 15 in the device main body 11.

  The fixed blade 12 is fixed to the apparatus main body 11, and one edge portion constitutes a blade edge 12a. A V-shaped blade edge 13 a is also formed on one edge of the movable blade 13. The movable blade 13 is movably attached to the apparatus main body 11. Here, a guide hole 13 b extending in the vertical direction is formed in the movable blade 13, and this guide hole 13 b is engaged with a guide protrusion 11 a provided in the apparatus main body 11. Due to the engagement between the guide holes 13b and the guide projections 11a, the moving direction of the movable blade 13 is restricted in the vertical direction in the figure.

The drive gear train 15 rotates in response to a rotational drive force from the drive motor 14. Cam followers 16a and 17a are provided on the peripheral surfaces of the two gears 16 and 17 constituting the drive gear train 15, respectively. On the other hand, the movable blade 13 is formed with a cam hole 13c extending in the lateral direction, and the cam followers 16a and 17a are engaged with the cam hole 13c.
The gears 16 and 17 are synchronously rotated at the same peripheral speed in conjunction with the rotation of the drive motor in one direction. As the gears 16 and 17 rotate, the cam followers 16a and 17a reciprocate the movable blade 13 in the vertical direction in the figure.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the movable blade 13 starts to move in the cutting direction (downward direction in the drawing) from the open position separated from the fixed blade 12, and when the blade edges 12a and 13a cross each other, the sheet inserted therebetween Cut S. Thereafter, the operation moves to the return operation from the moving end in the cutting direction and stops at the open position again.

  Now, in the cutter device of this embodiment, a coil spring (biasing means) 18 is provided between the device main body 11 and the movable blade 13. Specifically, one end of the coil spring 18 is attached to the support protrusions 13d and 13d provided near both sides of the blade edge of the movable blade 13, and the coil spring is applied to the support protrusions 11b and 11b provided on both sides of the lower end of the apparatus main body 11. The other end of 18 is attached. This coil spring 18 is a tension coil spring, and always urges the movable blade 13 in the cutting direction.

Next, the operation of the coil spring 18 will be described.
When the drive motor 14 rotates, the driving force is transmitted to the movable blade 13 via the drive gear train 15, and the movable blade 13 moves in the cutting direction (downward in FIG. 2) from the open position. At this time, in addition to the driving force transmitted from the driving motor 14, the urging force of the coil spring 18 acts on the movable blade 13. Therefore, even if the driving force of the driving motor 14 is relatively small, a large shearing force can be obtained because the biasing force of the coil spring 18 is applied to the movable blade 13. As a result, it is possible to easily cut thick paper that is difficult to cut without powering up the drive motor.

Further, when the movable blade 13 performs a return operation (moving upward in FIG. 2) after cutting the paper S, the driving force of the drive motor 14 is transmitted to the coil spring 18 via the movable blade 13. The coil spring 18 is stretched by this driving force, and a tensile force (biasing force) is accumulated therein. When the movable blade 13 performs the return operation, no shearing force is required for the paper S, so that the driving force from the driving motor 14 can be consumed almost as it is for the tension of the coil spring 18.
In the configuration that does not include the coil spring 18, the driving force from the driving motor 14 was not sufficiently consumed during the return operation of the movable blade 13, and was wasted. On the other hand, in the configuration of the present embodiment including the coil spring 18, the urging force is accumulated in the coil spring 18 by effectively using the driving force of the driving motor 14 during the return operation of the movable blade 13. As a result, efficient power consumption without waste is realized.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the cutter device, where (a) is a front view and (b) is a right side view.
The cutter device shown in FIG. 4 has a configuration in which a coil spring 18 is inclined with respect to the fixed blade 12 as shown in FIG. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, a straight line passing through the supporting point (supporting protrusion 11 b) on the apparatus body 11 side and the supporting point (supporting protrusion 13 d) on the movable blade 13 side is fixed. A coil spring 18 is mounted so as to have an inclination with respect to a virtual plane b including the cutting edge 12a of the blade 12. The inclination is set so that the urging force in the cutting direction and the direction in contact with the fixed blade 12 acts on the movable blade 13.

  The urging force P generated in the coil spring 18 can be broken down into a component force P1 in the cutting direction and a component force P2 in the direction in which the movable blade 13 contacts the fixed blade 12, as shown in FIG. Since the movable blade 13 is urged toward the fixed blade 12 by the component force P2, reliable and smooth cutting is possible even for thick paper.

FIG. 6 shows still another embodiment of the cutter device, where (a) is a front view and (b) is a left side view.
The cutter device shown in FIG. 6 has a configuration using a torsion coil spring 19 as an urging means for the movable blade 13. The torsion coil spring 19 has a coil portion fitted to a support protrusion 13 e provided on the movable blade 13, one end engaged with the support protrusion 11 c of the apparatus main body 11, and the other end supported on the movable blade 13. The protrusion 13f is engaged.
The movable blade 13 is constantly urged in the cutting direction of the paper by the torsion coil spring 19.

  Furthermore, the urging force of the torsion coil spring 19 passes through a fulcrum (support projection 11c) on the apparatus body 11 side and a fulcrum (support projection 13f) on the movable blade 13 side as shown in an enlarged view in FIG. It acts along a straight line (action line c of the urging force). Since the torsion coil spring 19 has different height positions at both ends due to the presence of the coil portion, the torsion coil spring 19 placed flat on the movable blade 13 has a line of action c of the biasing force including the cutting edge 12a of the fixed blade 12. It has an inclination with respect to the virtual plane b. Therefore, it is possible to obtain the same effect as that of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 by setting the inclination so that the urging force in the cutting direction and the direction in contact with the fixed blade 12 acts on the movable blade 13. Become.

  That is, the urging force P generated in the torsion coil spring 19 can be decomposed into a component force P1 in the cutting direction and a component force P2 in the direction in which the movable blade 13 contacts the fixed blade 12, as shown in FIG. Since the movable blade 13 is urged toward the fixed blade 12 by the component force P2, reliable and smooth cutting is possible even for thick paper.

In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above. For example, the cutter device of the present invention can be applied not only to the printer having the outline shown in FIG. 1 but also to printers having various configurations.
The urging means for urging the movable blade in the paper cutting direction can also be configured by an elastic member (for example, synthetic rubber) other than a coil spring or a torsion coil spring.

  In the above-described embodiment, a so-called guillotine type cutter device has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be applied to cutter devices having various configurations in which the movable blade reciprocates to cut the paper. .

1 is a cross-sectional side view illustrating an outline of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. (A) is a front view which shows the cutter apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention, The same figure (b) is a right view similarly. It is a disassembled front view which shows the state which removed the movable blade from the apparatus main body of the cutter apparatus shown in FIG. The other embodiment of a cutter apparatus is shown, (a) is a front view, (b) is a right view. It is an expansion right view for demonstrating the effect | action of a coil spring (biasing member). FIG. 9 shows still another embodiment of the cutter device, where (a) is a front view, (b) is a left side view, and (c) is an enlarged left side view for explaining the action of a torsion coil spring (biasing member). FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10: Cutter apparatus 11: Apparatus main body 11a: Guide protrusion 11b: Support protrusion 11c: Support protrusion 12: Fixed blade 12a: Blade edge 13: Movable blade 13a: Blade edge 13b: Guide hole 13c: Cam hole 13d: Support protrusion 13e: Support protrusion 13f: Support protrusion 14: Drive motor 15: Drive gear train 16, 17: Gear 16a, 17a: Cam follower 18: Coil spring (biasing means)
19: Torsion coil spring (biasing means)
100: printer main body 101: conveyance path 102: printing unit 103: print head 104: platen 105: ribbon supply shaft 105a: ribbon supply reel 106: ribbon take-up shaft 106a: ribbon take-up reel 107: ink ribbon 108: drive motor 109 : Output section

Claims (3)

A fixed blade fixed to the apparatus main body, a movable blade that cuts the paper in cooperation with the fixed blade, and a drive motor that drives the movable blade in a direction of cutting the paper from a position away from the fixed blade. And the movable blade moves in the direction of cutting the paper and performs a return operation from the moving end in the cutting direction.
An urging means provided between the apparatus main body and the movable blade;
The urging means applies an urging force in a linear direction passing through the fulcrum on the apparatus main body side and the fulcrum on the movable blade side, and the action line of the urging force is on a virtual plane including the cutting edge of the fixed blade. a configuration with the inclination against, thereby together with imparting a biasing force in a direction of cutting the sheet to said movable blade, accumulates the urging force due to the return movement said movable blade, further, the movable blade cutter device according to claim and Turkey to impart biasing force in a direction to urge the cutting edge to the fixed blade side. It said biasing means, a cutter device according to claim 1 which is a coil spring or torsion coil spring provided between the apparatus main body and the movable blade. In a printer comprising a paper transport path, a printing unit provided on the transport path, and a paper discharge unit for discharging printed paper,
A printer comprising the cutter device according to claim 1 or 2 in the paper discharge unit.

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