JPH0547659Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed explanation of the idea]

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an ink ribbon color switching mechanism in a serial printer. [Prior Art] A conventional example of a color printing device for an ink ribbon cassette stationary serial printer will be described with reference to FIG. The drawing is a perspective view, and in the drawing, 1 is an ink ribbon cassette, 2 is an ink ribbon, and there are 4 ink ribbons: yellow, magenta, cyan, and black.
This will be explained using the case of color. 3 is a print head; 4 is a ribbon protector that faces the print head 3 with the ink ribbon 2 in between;
5 is a platen. According to the above configuration, the ink ribbon cassette 1
The ink ribbon 2 is moved up and down to align the ink ribbon 2 with a predetermined color position, that is, a desired color among the four colors, with the tip of the print head 3, and print is performed. Therefore, the ink ribbon 2 is guided at the tip of the printing head 3 by sliding the ink ribbon 2 on both end surfaces of the ribbon protector 4 for lateral guidance.
The vertical guidance is performed by the tension of the ink ribbon 2. [Problems to be solved by the invention] According to the above-mentioned conventional technology, when the ink ribbon cassette 1 is raised when changing the ink ribbon color, the ink ribbon 2 near the entrance and exit of the ink ribbon cassette 1 is raised at the same time as the ink ribbon cassette 1 is raised. However, the exposed portion of the ink ribbon that passes through the minute gap between the print head 3 and the ribbon protector 4 is in contact with the print head 3 or the ribbon protector 4, and therefore receives a frictional load, causing the ink ribbon cassette to rise. There is a problem in that it is not possible to raise the amount of movement by the amount that the ink ribbon 1 has been raised.Furthermore, when the tension applied to the ink ribbon 2 is small, the above-mentioned frictional load increases further, making it impossible to raise the ink ribbon to a predetermined position. . Furthermore, the ink ribbon is difficult to rise due to its own weight, and the center portion tends to sag. Therefore, in this situation, the ink ribbon on the front of the print head is at a lower position than the specified position, so the desired hand color cannot be printed and the color of another band is printed, resulting in so-called color mixing. There is a problem with the situation. Therefore, as a measure to solve the above problem, the ink ribbon cassette is raised to a predetermined position when changing the color of the ink ribbon, and then the ink ribbon is wound up for a certain period of time, so that the ink ribbon in front of the print head is placed in a position parallel to the ink ribbon cassette. However, since the ink ribbon must be wound up, the color switching operation takes time, and the printing speed of the printer as a whole decreases. [Means for solving the problem] In order to solve this problem, the present invention uses a print head mounted on a carrier that moves parallel to the platen, and an ink ribbon that is color-coded with multiple colors of ink in the width direction of the ribbon. and an ink ribbon cassette which tensions the ink ribbon over the entire moving range of the print head and is attached to an ink ribbon shift mechanism so as to face the platen. A printer that performs color printing by the print head by changing the color of the ink ribbon by moving it in the ribbon width direction with a shift mechanism, has a support frame in the front part that holds the ink ribbon and guides it to the front of the print head. and a ribbon guide provided on the carrier so as to be movable in the same direction as the moving direction of the ink ribbon cassette, and the rear part of this ribbon guide is brought into direct contact with a part of the ink ribbon cassette mounted on the ink ribbon shift mechanism. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a biasing means for biasing the ribbon guide. [Function] In the present invention having such a configuration, since the ribbon guide is always in direct contact with the ink ribbon cassette by the biasing means, when the ink ribbon shift mechanism moves the ink ribbon cassette in the ribbon width direction when changing the color of the ink ribbon, The ribbon guide moves in conjunction with this, thereby moving the ink ribbon held by the ribbon guide by the same amount as the moving amount of the ribbon guide. [Examples] Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the entire printer showing one embodiment, Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of main parts, Fig. 3 is a side view,
FIG. 4 is a plan view of the ribbon guide. In the figure, 6 is an ink ribbon cassette, and 7 is an ink ribbon. In this embodiment, this ink ribbon 7 has yellow, magenta, cyan,
It is assumed that the color is divided into four colors: black. Further, the ink ribbon 7 is moved so that it covers the entire moving range of the print head, which will be described later.
It is stretched between the feed-out port and the inlet port. Reference numeral 8 denotes a ribbon shift mechanism for moving the ink ribbon cassette 6 up and down, that is, in the ribbon width direction, the details of which will be described later. 9 is a carrier, 10 is a printing head mounted on this carrier 9, and 11 is a ribbon guide also mounted on the carrier 9, which is guided by a stud 12 and can move up and down, and is directed from the bottom to the top. and is supported by a spring 13. The ribbon guide 11 has a support frame 14 corresponding to the width of the ink ribbon 7 at the front thereof, and supports the ink ribbon 7, and a roller 15 is attached to the rear thereof, and the roller 15 contacts the guide surface 16 of the ink ribbon cassette 6. It is designed so that it can be moved horizontally. The same applies even if the roller 15 is a protrusion 17 as shown in FIG. 18 is a ribbon protector, and 19 is a platen. Next, the ribbon shift mechanism will be explained using the perspective view of FIG. 6. 20 is a pulse motor, 21 is a motor gear, 22
is an idle gear, 23 is a ribbon shift gear that meshes with this idle gear 22, 24 is a planetary gear, 25
26 is a link connected to this ribbon shift bracket 25 at a fulcrum 27; 28 is a ribbon shift that is fitted to and driven by this link 26, and the ribbon shift gear 23
It is connected to the rotating shaft. 29 is a ribbon drive shaft. According to the above configuration, when the motor gear 21 rotates clockwise due to the drive of the pulse motor 20, the planetary gear 24 meshes with the idle gear 22, and the ribbon shift gear 23 rotates. In conjunction with this, when the ribbon shift cam 28 rotates in the direction of the arrow, the link 26 moves up and down. In conjunction with the movement of the link 26, the ribbon shift bracket 25 moves up and down, and the ink ribbon cassette 6 attached thereto moves up and down, thereby switching the ribbon color. FIG. 7 shows the rotation angle of the ribbon shift cam 28 and the positional relationship between the ink ribbon and the print head. When the ribbon shift cam rotates, the position of the ink ribbon relative to the print head changes.

[Table] You can move in the order shown and stop at the specified color position. The actual operation will be explained below. If the print head 10 is currently printing black and you want to print yellow next, the ink ribbon cassette 6 is currently located at the bottom, so the ribbon shift mechanism 8 moves it to the top yellow position. The ink ribbon cassette 6 rises until the end.
At the same time, the guide surface 16 of the ink ribbon cassette 6 also rises. At this time, the ribbon guide 11 is
, the ink ribbon cassette 6 rises to the yellow position while being pressed against the guide surface 16 of the ink ribbon cassette 6. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 4, the ribbon guide 11 guides the ink ribbon 7 by sandwiching the top and bottom of the ink ribbon 7 in front of the printing head 10 with the support frame 14, so that the ink ribbon 7 is accurately positioned in the yellow position at the same time as the ink ribbon cassette 6. can be raised to [Effects of the invention] As explained above, the present invention has a support frame in the front part that holds the ink ribbon and guides it to the front of the print head, and also has a support frame that can move in the same direction as the movement direction of the ink ribbon cassette. A ribbon guide provided on the carrier, and a biasing means for biasing the ribbon guide so that the rear part of the ribbon guide comes into direct contact with a part of an ink ribbon cassette mounted on an ink ribbon shift mechanism. Accordingly, this biasing means allows the ribbon guide to directly contact the ink ribbon cassette at all times, and when the ink ribbon shift mechanism moves the ink ribbon cassette in the ribbon width direction when changing the color of the ink ribbon, the ribbon guide is interlocked with this. The ink ribbon held by the ribbon guide is thereby moved by the same amount as the amount of movement of the ribbon guide. In this way, with this invention, the movement of the ink ribbon cassette can be directly transmitted to the ribbon guide, and the ink ribbon can be reliably moved by the same amount as the movement of the ink ribbon cassette, resulting in a highly reliable color switching operation. This makes it possible to accurately position the portion of the ink color used for printing in front of the print head, resulting in the effect that high-quality printing without color mixing can be performed. In addition, since the movement of the ink ribbon cassette is directly transmitted to the ribbon guide as described above, there is no delay in the color switching operation of the ink ribbon, and since no other parts are interposed between the ink ribbon cassette and the ribbon guide, the structure is This simplifies the process, greatly reduces the possibility of failure, and also facilitates miniaturization.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the position of the printer according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of main parts, Fig. 3 is a side view of the printer, Fig. 4 is an enlarged plan view of the ribbon guide, and Fig. 5. is a perspective view showing another embodiment, No. 6
The figure is a perspective view of the ribbon shift mechanism, and FIG. 7 is a graph showing the relationship between the ribbon shift cam and the ink ribbon.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a conventional example. 6... Ink ribbon cassette, 7... Ink ribbon, 8... Ribbon shift mechanism, 9... Carrier, 10... Print head, 11... Ribbon guide, 14... Support frame, 16... Guide surface.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] The ink ribbon has a print head mounted on a carrier that moves parallel to the platen, and an ink ribbon that is color-coded with multiple colors of ink in the width direction of the ribbon, and the ink ribbon is moved by the print head. an ink ribbon cassette stretched over the entire area and mounted on an ink ribbon shift mechanism so as to face the platen, and the ink ribbon can be moved by moving the ink ribbon cassette in the width direction of the ribbon with the ink ribbon shift mechanism. A printer that performs color printing using the print head by performing color switching, the printer having a support frame in the front for holding the ink ribbon and guiding it to the front of the print head, and moving in the same direction as the movement direction of the ink ribbon cassette. a ribbon guide provided on the carrier so that the ribbon guide can be moved; and a biasing means for biasing the ribbon guide so that the rear part of the ribbon guide directly contacts a portion of an ink ribbon cassette mounted on an ink ribbon shift mechanism. A printer characterized in that the ribbon guide is interlocked with the movement of the ink ribbon cassette in the ribbon width direction by the biasing means.