JPH02117875A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable an easy and accurate positioning of an ink ribbon cassette relative to a carriage by providing a loading part capable of detachable loading of the cassette, and a mounting means for positioning and mounting the cassette into the loading part. CONSTITUTION:A ribbon cassette 1 is seated on an upper surface of a carriage, with rear side parts of left and right openings 8, 9 thereof being in contact with stepped parts of a guide pin 18 and a positioning protrusion 21 under a pressing force exerted by a spring 24. The cassette 1 is pressed downward to the front side by a contact force between a lower slant part 26 of the spring 24 and an upper slant surface of an angular protrusion 12. The position of the cassette in the left-right direction is determined by the positioning protrusion 21. Thus, the ribbon cassette is mounted in the state of being positioned accurately in all of left right, front-back and vertical directions. The ribbon cassette can be detached easily, in a procedure reverse to that for mounting.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to the structure of a cassette support device for removably mounting an ink ribbon cassette at a predetermined position on a carriage.

[Prior art]

In a thermal transfer printer, a tape-shaped ink ribbon is held between a print head and a sheet of paper, and a printing operation is performed while feeding the ink ribbon in accordance with the movement of a carriage that supports the print head. An ink ribbon cassette mounted on a carriage is used as a means for feeding the ink ribbon.

The ink ribbon cassette has a structure in which a recess is formed on the front surface to accommodate the print head, and an ink cartridge is fed into the opening of the recess, and when in use, the print head is inserted into the ink ribbon in the recess. It is mounted on the carriage while being inserted into the space on the back side.

Conventionally, the method for positioning and mounting this type of cassette has generally been to fit pins or protrusions on a carriage into a plurality of positioning holes at the bottom of the cassette.

However, in such a conventional ink ribbon cassette support device, when the cassette is installed, the ink pin in the recess comes into contact with the print head, causing loosening or misalignment of the regen, and when paper is inserted or fed, the paper gets caught in the 9-pin. This has the drawback that the winding condition is disturbed, resulting in problems such as an increase in the winding load, an inability to wind the ribbon, and even breakage of the ribbon.

In addition, with conventional structures that simply fit into pins or protrusions, play occurs and positioning is inaccurate, making it impossible to reliably position in all directions - left and right, front and back, and up and down. Another drawback was that problems were likely to occur.

〔the purpose〕

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional technology, eliminate the possibility of the thread being caught when installing a cassette, and
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink cartridge cassette support device capable of accurately positioning without rattling.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention has a structure in which the print head is provided on the left side of the cassette, and the print head near the print head is positioned by fitting into an id pin and a positioning protrusion on the opposite side (right side) and engaging with a spring that presses forward. The aim is to achieve the above objectives.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 11.

1 to 3 show a first cassette support device according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an ink ribbon cassette according to an embodiment.

In these figures, a supply reel 3 and a take-up reel 4 for an ink pin 2 are provided in a cassette case 1, and the ribbon is fed by driving the take-up reel in the direction of arrow A. A case lid 5 is detachably attached to the upper surface of the cassette case 1. Note that during the printing operation, this regen cassette moves in the direction of arrow B (to the right) together with the carriage.

A recess 7 for receiving the print head 6 is formed on the front left side of the cassette case 1, and the ink pin 2 is fed through the open end of the recess 7.

In use, the print head 6 is ink+7, yn2
is received in a position where it can be brought into pressure contact with a sheet (not shown) from the back side. Furthermore, 1. Inkuri? 72 is sent from the supply reel 3 to the take-up reel 4 along a predetermined path by a plurality of guide parts in the cassette case 1, and passes through the outside of the case at the recess 7 along the way.

An opening 8 that is long in the left-right direction is formed in the cassette case 1 near the recess 7 (and therefore near the print head 6). An idle pin of a carriage, which will be described later, is inserted through this opening 8. Further, an opening is formed in the front right side of the cassette case 1, that is, on the opposite side of the opening 8, into which a positioning projection of a carriage, which will be described later, is fitted.

Incidentally, the illustrated incremental pin cassette beam is of a type that can be used with the pin end detector 10, and the front corner of the cassette case l has a slot fixed to the carriage. An aperture 11 is formed for receiving an erad detector 10 .

A chevron-shaped protrusion 12 is formed approximately at the center of the rear surface of the cassette case 1, with which a pressing spring (described later) abuts and engages. In the illustrated example, the protrusion 12 is divided into two parts, left and right, each having upper and lower inclined surfaces forming a predetermined angle.

4 to 6 show a first cassette support device according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a carriage according to an embodiment.

In these figures, the carriage 13 is driven in the left-right direction along the guide shaft 14, and when moving in the printing direction B, drives the print head 6 to print on paper (not shown).

As shown in the figure, the print head 6 is swingably supported at the front left side of the carriage 13 via a shaft 15, and is driven between a head-up position shown in the figure and a paper pressure contact position via an ink clip pin. Ru.

The cassette shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 is mounted on the upper surface 16 of the carriage 13, and a glue gun is provided at a position corresponding to the take-up reel 4 of the cassette to fit into and drive the reel. A drive shaft 17 is provided.

An idle pin 18 is fixedly provided near the print head 6 on the carriage 13 and fits into the opening 8 of the cassette case 1. As shown in the figure, this guide pin includes a guiding part 9 part 19 and a stepped part 20 for front and rear positioning.
The height of the tip thereof is approximately the same as the height of the tip of the print head 6. The position of the guide pin 18 is selected so that the incretinous cassette is supported at a predetermined position when the stepped portion 20 of the guide pin comes into contact with the rear end surface of the opening 8 of the cassette case.

A positioning protrusion 21 is provided on the front right side of the carriage 13 to fit into the opening 9 of the cassette case when the cassette is installed. As shown in the figure, this protrusion 21 has a tapered part 22 for guiding and a stepped part 23 for front-back positioning, and the length of the opening 9 in the left-right direction relative to the length of the projection 21 in the left-right direction is The dimensions are selected such that the cassette can be loosely fitted in a small gap, that is, the cassette can be positioned in the left-right direction.

A photoelectric glue bin end detector 10 is fixed at a position corresponding to the opening 11 at the front corner of the carriage 13.

A spring 24 that engages with and presses the chevron-shaped protrusion 12 of the cassette case 1 is attached to approximately the center of the rear side of the carriage 13. This spring 24 has an upper inclined surface 25 for guiding and a lower inclined surface 2 for longitudinal and vertical positioning.
6, and its position and shape are selected so that when the cassette is mounted, it is deflected rearward by a predetermined amount and thereby presses the cassette forward with a predetermined spring force.

FIGS. 7 to 9 are views showing the incretin cassettes shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 mounted on the carriages shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, and corresponding parts are indicated by the same reference numerals. There is.

When installing the cassette/cassette, first install the cassette case 1.
The guide pin 18 is inserted through the opening 8 on the left side of the cassette case 1 to a predetermined depth, and then the positioning protrusion 21 is inserted through the opening 9 on the right side of the cassette case 1 to perform positioning in the left-right direction. Next, Su? While pressing the chevron-shaped protrusion 12 on the rear side of the cassette against the guide portion 25 of the spring 24, the rear part of the cassette is pushed in against the pressing force of the spring 24. At the same time, the front portion of the cassette is also pushed into the seating position against the idle pin 18 and the positioning projection 21.

Are the above operations possible? The connector cassette is in the installed state as shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, and the left and right openings 8 are closed by the pressing force of the spring 24.
, 9 are seated on the upper surface of the caliper by contacting the stepped portions of the id pin 18 and the positioning protrusion 21, and the contact between the lower inclined portion 26 of the spring 24 and the upper inclined surface of the chevron-shaped protrusion 12. Depends on contact force? The connector cassette is pressed forward and downward. Note that the lateral position of the cassette is determined by the positioning protrusion 21 as described above.

In this way, the rechin cassette is accurately positioned and installed in all directions: left and right, front and back, and up and down.

The IJ and 3P connector cassette can be easily removed by reversing the above installation procedure.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the height of the guide pin 18 is made approximately the same as the height of the tip of the print head 6, so if the opening 8 and the guide pin 18 are misaligned when installing the cassette, the bottom surface of the cassette will It collides with the guide pin and cannot be lowered below the position shown by the dotted chain line in Figure 8. Therefore, in combination with the provision of the idle pin 18 near the print head 6, it is possible to prevent the possibility of the ink 72 coming into contact with the print head 6 when the cassette is installed. Contact Nyoru IJ,
It is possible to eliminate misalignment and slack in y.

10 and 11 are views showing a second embodiment of the incremental cassette support device according to the present invention in an installed state.

This second embodiment is Su? The sensor lo itself is used as a positioning protrusion, and the positioning protrusion 2 in the first embodiment is
1 and opening 11? This embodiment differs from the structure of the first embodiment in that the sensor 1o is installed in an orientation that is advantageous for longitudinal positioning. The other parts have substantially the same structure, and corresponding parts are designated by the same reference numerals and their explanation will be omitted.

Note that a raised part 27 is provided on the rear surface of the glue pin end detector 10 of this embodiment, and a surface 28 for longitudinal and vertical positioning corresponding to the stepped part 23 of the positioning protrusion 21 in the first embodiment is provided below the raised part 27. is formed. Further, for the same reason as in the first embodiment, the left-right length of the opening 9 is made larger than the left-right length of the repin end detector 10 by a minute gap, and is selected to be a size that allows the left-right positioning of the cassette.

According to the second embodiment, the same effects as those of the first embodiment can be obtained, and the positioning protrusion 21 can be omitted to simplify the structure.

In the above embodiment, the height of the pin 18 is set to be approximately the same as the height of the tip of the print head 6, but the height can be set to any height that can prevent the pin 2 from contacting the print head. , an appropriate height can be selected taking into consideration the structure and dimensions of related parts.

Furthermore, although the above embodiments have been described with reference to the case where the beam end detector 10 is provided, the present invention can be implemented with or without the beam end detector.

〔effect〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, there is provided an ink cartridge cassette support device that can easily and accurately determine the position of the cassette with respect to the carriage.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 is a partially cutaway plan view showing an Increden cassette according to a first embodiment of the cassette support device of the present invention; FIG.
The figure is a sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view along the
FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the carriage according to the first embodiment; FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line I[1-Ill in FIG. 4; 6 is a partial sectional view taken along the line Vr-VT in FIG. 4, and FIG. 7 is a partially cutaway view showing the state in which the ribbon cassette of FIG. 1 is mounted and supported on the carriage of FIG. 4. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 7, and FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along the line IX-I in FIG. 7.
FIG. 10 is a partially cutaway plan view showing the cassette support device according to the second embodiment of the present invention with the cassette attached, and FIG. 11 is a partial sectional view taken along line M-M in FIG. 10. FIG. 1... Cassette case, 2... Ink lip pin, 6.
...Print head, 8...opening (for id pin fitting),
9... Opening (for fitting positioning protrusion), 1o... Bin end detector, 12... Chevron-shaped protrusion, 13... Carriage, 18... Guide pin, 21... Positioning protrusion, 24 ...Spring. t7nl Fig. 11!2 Fig. 113 Fig. 113 Fig. 113 Fig. 113 Fig. 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A recording device into which an ink ribbon cassette can be loaded, comprising: a loading section into which an ink ribbon cassette can be detachably loaded; and mounting means for positioning and mounting the ink ribbon cassette in the loading section. recording device.