JPH01114466A - Manual printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate protection of the thermal head through manual lifting when the printer is not used, by providing means to engage with a drive means to slide or rotate the thermal head and to engage this means. CONSTITUTION:A thermal head 1 is pressed against the recording medium by a press spring 3 on head holder pivot 4 until a drive roller 6 comes into contact with the recording medium. A head storage lever 18 is rotatably pivoted by the head holder pivot 4, and a pawl clutch integral with the lever 18 and a pawl clutch integral with a head holder 2 is contacted and separated by rotation of the lever 18. The pin 19a of a head storage switch 19 manually operated up and down is engaged with the lever 18. In the case of no use of the printer, when the storage switch 19 is manually lifted, the lever 18 is rotated on the head holder pivot 4 by the pin 19a, and the holder 2 of the thermal head 1 is rotated by engagement of the claw clutch. Thus, the thermal head 1 is pulled above the drive roller contact fact A against the spring.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a thermal transfer manual printer that prints by manual scanning.

[Conventional technology]

Many manual scanning printers have been proposed in the past. A representative example thereof is JP-A-60-109866. In this method, an ink ribbon is sandwiched between a drive roller and a printing surface, and is manually scanned to print as it moves.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the conventional method using this method, the tip of the thermal head protrudes the most from the other components, and the tip of the thermal head is not protected when the printer is not in use, causing trouble such as failure. Ta.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate this conventional problem, protect the thermal head when the printer is not in use, and provide a manual printer with fewer troubles.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention provides a sliding or rotatable thermal head, a driving means for sliding or rotating the thermal head, and a device that engages with and locks the thermal head or the driving means. A method of providing a locking means was used.

[Effect]

By using the above means, the thermal head can be stored when the printer is not in use, so that the thermal head can be easily protected.

〔Example〕

1 and 2 are front and side views of a manual printer according to the present invention.

1 is a thermal head, 2 is a head holder that protects the thermal head 1, and is connected to a frame 7 via a head holder shaft 4.
is rotatably engaged with. The head holder 2 is biased with a pressing force by a head pressing spring 3, which applies a rotational force in the counterclockwise direction in the figure around the head holder shaft 4, and a hook-shaped head holder shaft holding force that is a part of the frame 7. Part 7
A downward force in the figure is applied to the headset 1.2.4 from b to prevent it from coming off.

6 as 6 b16 c is a drive roller (2), which is arranged on both sides of the thermal head (2) together with the drive roller (6) 6d, and is rotatably engaged with the frame 7 by the drive roller shaft 5. At this time, the lowest point A in the figure of drive rollers I and H
The positions of the tip heating system of the thermal head 1 almost coincide with each other. The drive roller I includes a rubber roller portion 6a that contacts the recording medium 25 and functions as a wheel, a ratchet portion 6b that allows rotation only in the driving direction, and a gear that transmits power to the transfer ribbon feed and detection wheel 12. It is composed of a section 6C. Reference numeral 21 denotes a ratchet pawl that engages with the ratchet portion 6b of the drive roller I to prevent the drive roller from rotating back, and is biased clockwise in the figure by a ratchet pawl spring 21. Reference numeral 18 denotes a head storage lever, which is rotatably attached to the head holder shaft 4 and engages with a claw clutch 2a integrated with the head holder 2, as shown in FIG. 19 is frame 7
When this head storage switch is slidably engaged, the head storage lever 18 that is engaged with the pin 19a integrated with the head storage switch 19 rotates, and the head holder 2 and thermal head 1 are moved to the head holder shaft 4. It rotates around the center and is stored.

9 is a transmission plate having a gear that engages with the intermediate gear 8;
A ribbon winding shaft 10 and a friction plate 11 made of felt, etc.
It is frictionally engaged with the ribbon winding core 13 via.

The ribbon winding core 13 is press-fitted onto the ribbon winding shaft 10. A cassette winding spring 14 is built into the ribbon winding core 13 and applies a pressing force to the transmission plate 9. The ribbon winding core 13 is structured to engage with a ribbon cassette core 23 of the ribbon cassette 16.

The ink ribbon 17 built into the ribbon cassette 16 is
First, it is wound around a supply-side ribbon cassette core 24 that is rotatably supported by the ribbon cassette 16, and the load is passed between ribbon butts 18 and 20 made of felt or the like that are biased by a tension spring 19. After being given
The ribbon passes around the thermal head 1 and is wound onto the ribbon cassette core 23 on the winding side.

18b is a group of teeth integrally formed with the head storage lever 18, which engages with a gear on the outer periphery of the cassette take-up shaft 10 when the head is stored, making it unrotatable.

12a, 12b, and 15 are detection mechanisms for emitting pulses synchronized with the amount of movement of the main body, which includes a photo-enterer tab 15, a detection plate 12a with an open slit, and a gear unit 1 integrated therewith.
2b.

Next, the operation will be explained.

Initially, the tip of the thermal head 1 is at a position slightly protruding from the outer diameter of the drive roller 6a, as shown in FIG. 3, and is locked at the end of the frame 1 (not shown). When the user presses the bottom of the printer against the recording medium 25 during printing,
First, the tip of the thermal head 1 is pressed by the recording medium 25, and rotates around the head holder shaft 4 until the outer periphery of the drive roller 6a comes into contact with it. At this time, the head pressing force necessary for printing is applied by the head pressing spring 3.

Conversely, if the drive roller 6 is in contact with the recording medium 25, the head pressing force necessary for printing is obtained. Also, at this time, if the printing surface is inclined as shown in FIG. It floats from the hook-shaped head holder shaft holding part 7b that is a part of the frame 7, and the tip of the thermal head follows the printing surface as shown in FIG.
A uniform head pressing force can be maintained in the head width direction.

If the printer main body is moved to the right in FIG. 4 in the above state, printing will be performed.

First, when the drive roller 6 rotates, rotational force is transmitted to the cassette winding gear 9 through the intermediate gear 8, and further through the winding transmission plate 11 to the cassette winding shaft 10 and the ribbon winding core 1.
3. As a result, the ribbon cassette core 23 in the ribbon cassette 16 is rotated, and the ink ribbon 17 is wound up. At this time, in order to make the amount of movement of the ink ribbon 17 the same as the amount of movement of the printer main body, that is, the relative speed between the recording medium 25 and the ink ribbon 17 to be zero, the frictional force between the ribbon and the recording medium 25 due to the head pressing force is , friction plate 11
This is because the slip torque is set small. This prevents overfeeding and slack of the ribbon, and enables correct ribbon feeding.

Next, the detection mechanism will be explained. The cassette take-up gear 9, which rotates due to the rotation of the drive roller, further transmits rotational force to the detection plate 12 through gears. As a result, the photo-enabler 15 recognizes the signal from the slit on the detection plate and transmits a pulse synchronized with it to the arithmetic unit.

Next, the head storage mechanism will be explained.

FIG. 5 shows a state in which the thermal head 1 is stored. When the head storage switch 19 is slid up, the head storage lever 18 is moved to a pin 19a that is integrated with the head storage switch.
The head holder is pushed up and rotated around the head holder shaft 4. At this time, as shown in FIG. 7, the claw-like clutch 2a integrated with the head holder 2 and the claw-like clutch integrated with the head storage lever engage, rotating the head holder 2 and the thermal head 1 at the same time, and causing the thermal head tip to rotate. The driving roller 6a
Store it inside the outside diameter. However, if this state remains, the ink ribbon 17 will remain slack. To prevent this, tooth group 1 is integrally formed at the tip of the head storage lever.
8b engages with a gear on the outer periphery of the cassette take-up shaft 10, rotates it a certain amount clockwise in the figure, and at the same time locks it so that it cannot rotate. Through this series of operations, the slack of the ink ribbon 17 is taken up, and even if the drive roller rotates in this state, the ink ribbon is no longer taken up.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In the present invention, since the thermal head can be freely raised and lowered manually, it is easy to protect the thermal head when the printer is not in use, and there is no need to add additional parts such as a cover.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 8 show embodiments of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a front view, FIG. 2 is a side view, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the head storage lever clutch section. Figure 3 is a side view during standby, Figure 4 is a side view during printing, Figure 5 is a side view when the head is retracted, and Figures 6 (a) and (b) are when the printing surface is not smooth. The state of the head is shown in a front view and a side view, and FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of an example of use. 1... Thermal head 2... Head holder 3... Head pressing spring 4... Head holder shaft 5... Drive roller shaft 6... Drive rollers I and II 7... Frame 8...・Intermediate gear 9...Transmission plate 10...Ribbon take-up shaft 11...Friction plate 12...Detection plate 13...Ribbon take-up core 14...Cassette take-up spring 15...Photo-enabler tab 16... Ribbon cassette 17... Ink ribbon 18... Ribbon pad 1 19... Tension spring 20... Ribbon pad ■ 21... Ratchet pawl spring 22... Ratchet pawl 23.24... - Ribbon cassette core and above Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation Figure 7 Figure 1 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a thermal transfer manual printer that prints image information by placing the printer body on a recording medium and printing image information while manually moving the printer body, there is a thermal head that can be slid or rotated, and a thermal head that can be slid or rotated. 1. A manual printer, comprising: a driving means for moving the thermal head or the driving means; and a locking means for engaging with and locking the thermal head or the driving means.