JPH07290805A - Ribbon cassette - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a ribbon cassette which can eliminate some failure due to the looseness of an ink ribbon for good printing by rewinding a ribbon rewinding spool a little if the ink ribbon is fed a little reversely. CONSTITUTION:This ribbon cassette 1, which is equipped with an outer frame case 11, and a ribbon rewinding spool 2 which is jointed with the final end of an ink ribbon 13 and around which it is wound, is inserted into a clutch spring provided with a ring-shaped part 7 and a stopper part 8 mounted onto its one end, and the rotating shaft of the ribbon rewinding spool 2. At the outer frame case 11, a groove wall part 4 with which the stopper 8 comes into contact when the rotating shaft rotates in such a direction as it delivers the ink ribbon 13 is mounted. The stopper 8 is flexible, and is rotated a little in a reverse direction by the stability of a deflection when the ribbon rewinding spool 2 stops to rewind the ink ribbon.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a ribbon cassette having a printing ink ribbon incorporated therein, which is used in a printing apparatus or the like, and more specifically, a ribbon former winding spool around which a ribbon is wound is slightly reversely rotated. The present invention relates to a ribbon cassette capable of stabilizing the printing process in a printing device by applying tension to the ink ribbon to eliminate loosening and wrinkles of the ink ribbon.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a tape printing apparatus for printing characters such as characters on a printing tape which is a long printing medium, a printing tape and an ink ribbon for printing on the printing tape have a predetermined shape. The tape cassette housed in the cassette case is attached to the printing mechanism, and the printing tape supplied from the tape cassette and the ink ribbon are superposed and passed through the thermal head for printing. Such a tape cassette is provided with a ribbon take-up spool that winds and stores an ink ribbon around a ribbon original-winding spool and winds and collects a used ink ribbon. By rotating the ribbon take-up spool, The required amount of ink ribbon is pulled out from the winding spool for printing. Further, in a word processor or the like, a ribbon cassette in which an ink ribbon is housed in a cassette case having a predetermined shape is used.

In these tape cassettes or ribbon cassettes (hereinafter collectively referred to as "ribbon cassettes"), the ribbon former spool for winding the ink ribbon before use is not positively driven, and the ribbon take-up spool is not wound. It was only passively driven as the ink ribbon was pulled out by rotationally driving the spool. On the other hand, since the pulling-out of the ink ribbon is not always constant, it is common to provide some sort of braking means on the ribbon former spool. If the rotation of the ribbon former spool cannot follow the fluctuation of the drawing speed due to the inertia, wrinkles and slack will occur in the drawn ink ribbon, which will make the printing unclear, misaligned, or stray. The reason for this is that the ribbon will be caught in other parts and cause problems. Further, the braking means also plays a role of giving a certain tension to the ink ribbon until it is pulled out from the ribbon former spool and is inserted into the thermal head.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a braking means for a ribbon original spool in a conventional ribbon cassette, which uses a torsion coil spring. FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a ribbon former winding spool 80 of a conventional ribbon cassette. In FIG. 6, a bearing 82 is formed as a part of a cassette case 81 of the ribbon cassette. The inside of the bearing 82 is hollow, and a part of the bearing 82 is a window 83. A cylindrical ribbon former winding spool 80 around which an ink ribbon 86 is wound is fitted into the bearing 82. Then, in the inner cavity of the bearing 82, the torsion coil spring 84
Is inserted in a compressed state. A bent portion 85 is provided at one end of the torsion coil spring 84, and the bent portion 8
5 is in point contact with the inner surface of the ribbon former winding spool 80 through the window 83 of the bearing 82.

In such a structure, since there is a certain clearance between the outer diameter of the bearing 82 and the inner diameter of the ribbon main winding spool 80, the ribbon main winding spool 80 can essentially rotate freely, and the ink ribbon 86 can be rotated. Rotates as it is pulled out. However, it receives resistance due to contact friction with the bent portion 85 of the torsion coil spring 84 which is about to expand. Therefore, the ribbon former-winding spool 80 is braked by its contact resistance when the drawing speed of the ink ribbon 86 becomes slow. This also allows the ink ribbon 86
It prevents the occurrence of slack and gives tension.

[0006]

However, some tape printers using a ribbon cassette have an automatic cut function for automatically cutting a printed tape. Some tapes are fed backwards to shorten the margins. When the conventional ribbon cassette is used in a tape printer having such a function, the following problems occur.

That is, in the conventional ribbon cassette, there is no means for positively driving the ribbon former spool as described above. For this reason, even when the tape and the ink ribbon are reversely fed for the automatic cut function, the backwardly fed ink ribbon cannot be rewound to the ribbon original winding spool, and the ribbon original winding spool and the thermal head are not separated from each other. The slack of the ink ribbon occurred. Due to the presence of this slack, when the tape and the ink ribbon are sequentially fed to perform the next printing, misalignment of the tape and the ink ribbon and wrinkles of the ink ribbon may occur, resulting in problems such as unclear printing and misalignment of printing. became.

Needless to say, this problem can be eliminated by positively driving the ribbon former winding spool. However, for that purpose, another problem arises because it is necessary to provide not only a measure on the ribbon cassette side but also a drive transmission mechanism for driving the ribbon former winding spool on the printing device side. First of all, it goes without saying that the manufacturing cost of the printing apparatus is significantly increased. This is because the printing device needs to be provided with a drive transmission mechanism as well as a control function for controlling the backward feeding in any case.
On the other hand, the backward feeding of the ink ribbon is only a small amount for adjusting the margin, and therefore it is not always necessary to provide a full-scale drive mechanism similar to the forward feeding. In addition, the existing printing device cannot be effectively used. Further, the conventional ribbon cassette cannot be mounted on the printing apparatus provided with such measures, and the compatibility is not good.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and a mechanism for slightly rewinding the ribbon former winding spool is provided inside the ribbon cassette, whereby the ink ribbon is slightly fed backward. Even when the ribbon cassette does not slacken, a ribbon cassette is realized without any improvement on the printing device side, eliminating the problems caused by the slack of the ribbon and enabling good printing. It is intended to be provided.

[0010]

In order to achieve this object, a ribbon cassette of the present invention is a ribbon cassette having an outer frame case and a ribbon original winding spool wound by joining the ends of ink ribbons. A clutch spring having an annular portion and a flexible stop portion provided at one end of the annular outer portion, the annular spring portion being inserted into the rotary shaft of the ribbon original winding spool, and the outer frame case And a groove wall portion with which the stop portion comes into contact when the rotation shaft rotates in a direction in which the ink ribbon is delivered, and the stop portion comes into contact with the groove wall portion while the rotation shaft is rotating. When the rotation shaft stops bending due to, the rotation shaft is rotated in the opposite direction by restoring the bent stop portion.

Further, the ribbon cassette of the present invention is configured as described above, wherein the annular portion expands in diameter when it receives a torque in a direction for delivering the ink ribbon.
Further, the ribbon cassette of the present invention is configured as described above, characterized in that the tip end of the stop portion has a bent portion that abuts the groove wall portion in a curved shape.

[0012]

In the ribbon cassette of the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, the ribbon original winding spool is rotated by drawing the ink ribbon from the ribbon original winding spool, and the rotation of the ribbon original winding spool and the clutch spring are accompanied by this rotation. The clutch spring also tries to rotate due to the friction with the annular portion, but it cannot rotate because the stop portion provided at one end of the clutch spring abuts the groove wall portion provided in the outer frame case.
For this reason, the flexible stop portion of the clutch spring bends due to the frictional force with the ribbon original winding spool that continues to rotate. When the pulling out of the ink ribbon is stopped, the bent stop portion is restored, and the ribbon original spool is slightly rotated in the opposite direction.

Further, in the ribbon cassette of the present invention, when the ribbon former winding spool is rotated by pulling out the ink ribbon, the diameter of the annular portion is expanded by the torque applied to the annular portion of the clutch spring, and the rotary shaft is rotated. The friction between the ring and the ring part is reduced, and the ribbon former spool rotates smoothly. When the pulling out of the ink ribbon is stopped, the torque is interrupted, the expanded state of the clutch spring is released, and the friction with the rotating shaft increases. Therefore, the reverse rotation is surely performed due to the restoration of the bending. Further, in the ribbon cassette of the present invention, since the tip of the stop portion has a bent portion that abuts the groove wall portion in a curved shape, the tip of the stop portion does not stick into the groove wall portion, and the bending is smooth. Restore to.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the ribbon cassette of the present invention is embodied as a tape cassette for a tape printer for printing on a long print tape will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the internal structure of the tape cassette 1 of this embodiment.
Shown in. The tape cassette 1 includes a transparent case 12, which is a medium to be printed, an ink ribbon 13 for printing on the transparent tape 12, a transparent tape 12 on which printing is performed, inside a cassette case 11 formed of resin or the like in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape. The colored double-sided adhesive tape 14 to be attached to the back of the ink ribbon is wound around a reel and stored.
An ink ribbon take-up reel 16 for winding 3 is also provided.

The transparent tape 12 is a transparent tape reel 15
It is wound around and stored. The transparent tape 12 pulled out from the transparent tape reel 15 has auxiliary rollers 20, 2
1 through the opening 22 of the tape cassette 1,
It is guided to the tape drive roller 19 which is rotationally driven from the tape printer and reaches the outside of the tape cassette 1.

The ink ribbon 13 has its end joined to the ink ribbon original winding reel 2 and is wound and stored. The ink ribbon 13 pulled out from the ink ribbon original reel 2 passes through the auxiliary roller 23 and the transparent tape 1
2 and the transparent tape 12 pass through the opening 22. After that, it is separated from the transparent tape 12 and reaches the ink ribbon take-up reel 16 which is rotationally driven from the tape printer through the ribbon guide 26 and the auxiliary roller 25. The ink ribbon take-up reel 16 has an ink ribbon 1
The starting ends of 3 are joined and wound. A clutch spring having an annular portion 7 and a linear portion 8 is attached to the ink ribbon original reel 2. Inner teeth 18 are formed inside the ink ribbon take-up reel 16. Internal teeth 18
Is fitted with the rotary drive end of the printer when the tape cassette 1 is mounted in the printer. The ink ribbon take-up reel 16 is rotated by driving the inner teeth 18 from the printing device.

The colored double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape 14 is wound around a double-sided tape reel 17 and housed with the release paper on the one side and the release paper on the outside. Colored double-sided adhesive tape 14 pulled out from double-sided tape reel 17
Is guided to the tape drive roller 19 and the adhesive surface on the side where the release paper is not superposed is attached to the transparent tape 12.
Then, it reaches the outside of the tape cassette 1 together with the transparent tape 12. In addition, inside the cassette case 11, a groove wall portion 4 is provided below the ink ribbon original winding reel 2. The groove wall portion 4 comes into contact with the tip 10 of the linear portion 8 of the clutch spring mounted on the ink ribbon former winding reel 2 to regulate the movement thereof.

A printing mechanism of the tape printer is located in the opening 22 of the tape cassette 1 when the tape cassette 1 is mounted in the tape printer. The printing mechanism of the tape printer includes a thermal head 31 in which a plurality of heating elements are arranged,
Ink ribbon 13 and transparent tape 1 on the thermal head 31
2 and a platen roller 30 that presses. With these, printing is performed on the transparent tape 12 which is superposed on the ink ribbon 13. The tape printer uses the tape drive roller 19 to adjust the margin when the text is printed, by using the ink ribbon 13 and the transparent tape 12.
It has a function to reverse and a little.

A tape cassette 1 having the above-mentioned overall structure
When printing, the ink ribbon take-up reel 16 is rotationally driven from the tape printer side via the internal teeth 18. Further, the tape drive roller 19 is also rotationally driven by the tape printer. A driven roller (not shown) is arranged at a position facing the tape drive roller 19 on the side of the tape printer, and when the tape cassette 1 is mounted in the tape printer, the tape drive roller 19 and the driven roller are separated from each other. , Transparent tape 12 and colored double-sided adhesive tape 14
It is sandwiched between and. Then, by driving the tape drive roller 19, the transparent tape 1
2 is transparent tape reel 15 and colored double-sided adhesive tape 1
4 are pulled out from the double-sided tape reel 17, respectively. The transparent tape reel 15 and the double-sided tape reel 17 rotate as much as the tape is pulled out.

The ink ribbon take-up reel 16 is shown in FIG.
The ink ribbon 1 is driven by being driven counterclockwise.
3 is pulled out from the ink ribbon original winding reel 2. The ink ribbon former winding reel 2 rotates counterclockwise by the amount by which the ink ribbon 13 is pulled out. The platen roller 30 is the ribbon take-up reel 16 or the tape drive roller 1.
9, the ink ribbon 13 is sandwiched between the thermal head 31 and the platen roller 30 in a state of being overlapped with the transparent tape 12, and is delivered by the rotation of the platen roller 30. It is also possible to have a configuration in which the wound portion is wound around the ribbon winding reel 16.

Details of the ink ribbon original winding reel 2 and the clutch spring, which are the characteristic portions of the tape cassette 1, will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4. Figure 2
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the ink ribbon original winding reel 2 with a clutch spring attached. An ink ribbon 13 is wound around a cylindrical ink ribbon original reel 2, and a clutch spring is fitted therein. The ink ribbon original winding reel 2 is rotatably attached to the cassette case 11. A cross-sectional view of the ink ribbon original winding reel 2 is shown in FIG.
A groove 5 is circumferentially formed near the upper end of the ink ribbon original reel 2.
Are formed. The groove 5 is for mounting a clutch spring. The ink ribbon 13 is wound around the section of the arrow 6 on the outer peripheral surface of the ink ribbon original winding reel 2.

The structure of the clutch spring is shown in FIG. The clutch spring has an annular portion 7 and a straight portion 8 having one end extending outward. The annular part 7 of the clutch spring is
It is formed by winding a wire in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. 4 from the tip 9 on the side opposite to the straight line portion 8 and reaches the straight line portion 8. Therefore, when the straight portion 8 is fixed and a counterclockwise torque is applied to the annular portion 7, the annular portion 7 is expanded in diameter. Ring part 7
The inner diameter in the free state is slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the groove 5. Therefore, the annular portion 7 is slightly elastically expanded when attached to the groove 5 of the ink ribbon original winding reel 2.

The straight portion 8 is formed by extending one end of the element wire of the clutch spring toward the outside of the annular portion 7. The tip 10 of the straight line portion 8 is smoothly bent in the lateral direction. Here, the tip 10 is bent in the lateral direction,
This is because when the groove wall portion 4 is brought into contact with the groove wall portion 4, the groove wall portion 4 is allowed to come into contact with the curved surface without being pierced. That is, if the cut end of the tip 10 directly contacts the groove wall portion 4, the cut end may pierce the groove wall portion 4 and hinder the subsequent movement. Further, the straight line portion 8 is a part of the strand of the clutch spring and has flexibility. In the state where the clutch spring is attached to the ink ribbon original winding reel 2, the tip 10 of the linear portion 8 is positioned very close to the groove wall portion 4 of the cassette case 11.

The ink ribbon original winding reel 2 and the clutch spring operate as follows. As described above, since the annular portion 7 of the clutch spring is mounted in the groove 5 of the ink ribbon main winding reel 2 in a slightly expanded state, it is closely attached to the ink ribbon main winding reel 2 by the elasticity. . Therefore, when the ink ribbon take-up reel 16 is rotated to perform text printing in the thermal head 31 and the ink ribbon original winding reel 2 is rotated by the pulling action of the ink ribbon 13, the clutch spring also tries to rotate accordingly.

However, as soon as the clutch spring rotates, the tip 10 of the linear portion 8 contacts the groove wall portion 4 and the rotation is stopped. When the tip 10 comes into contact with the groove wall portion 4, the linear portion 8 bends due to its flexibility. FIG. 5 shows a state in which the tip 10 of the linear portion 8 of the clutch spring is in contact with the groove wall portion 4 and is bent. On the other hand, since the ink ribbon original winding reel 2 continues to rotate further, the groove 5 of the ink ribbon original winding reel 2
And sliding friction between the ring portion and the annular portion 7 of the clutch spring,
A counterclockwise torque is applied to the annular portion 7 of the clutch spring. Therefore, the diameter of the annular portion 7 is increased to reduce the sliding friction with the ink ribbon original winding reel 2. Therefore, the braking action applied to the ink ribbon former winding reel 2 by the friction with the annular portion 7 is small and the ink ribbon can be smoothly rotated.

When the printing of the text is completed, the rotation of the ink ribbon take-up reel 16 is stopped and the ink ribbon 13 is stopped.
The force for pulling the ink from the ink ribbon original winding reel 2 is reduced. Then, when the ink ribbon 13 is slightly fed backward by the tape drive roller 19 for adjusting the margin, due to the restoring force of the linear portion 8 of the bent clutch spring, the annular portion 7 of the clutch spring rotates clockwise. To do. Since this rotation is transmitted to the ink ribbon main winding reel 2, the reversely fed ink ribbon 13 is wound up on the ink ribbon main winding reel 2 and wrinkles and slack are prevented from occurring.

Here, when the straight portion 8 of the clutch spring is about to be restored, the counterclockwise torque applied from the ink ribbon former winding reel 2 to the annular portion 7 of the clutch spring has already disappeared, so that the circle The ring portion 7 is released from the expanded diameter state and is in close contact with the ink ribbon original winding reel 2. Therefore, the reverse rotation due to the recovery of the bending is surely transmitted to the ink ribbon original winding reel 2. That is, the clutch spring acts as a one-way clutch according to the applied torque. The tip 1 of the linear portion 8 of the clutch spring
Since 0 is bent, it abuts the groove wall portion 4 in a curved shape, and the flexure is restored smoothly.

As described above, the slightly reversely fed ink ribbon 13 can be rewound on the ink ribbon original winding reel 2, and in the next printing, unclear printing due to wrinkles and looseness of the ink ribbon 13 occurs. It is possible to provide an excellent tape cassette 1 without a problem. In such a tape cassette 1, the contact portion between the ink ribbon original winding reel 2 and the clutch spring is wide and covers the entire bottom surface of the groove 5, and is substantially close to surface contact. The rotation transmission to the winding reel 2 due to friction is stable.

As described in detail above, according to the tape cassette of each of the above-mentioned embodiments, since the flexible clutch spring is attached to the ink ribbon main winding reel 2, the ink ribbon main winding reel 2 rotates. Then, the tip 10 of the linear portion 8 of the clutch spring comes into contact with the groove wall portion 4, so that the rotation of the clutch spring immediately stops and the linear portion 8 bends. When the pulling out of the ink ribbon 13 is stopped, the bent linear portion 8 is restored, and the ink ribbon original winding reel 2 slightly rotates in the opposite direction. As a result, the ink ribbon 13 is slightly rewound, and the ink ribbon 13 can be prepared for the next printing without wrinkling or slack.
Therefore, it is possible to provide the ribbon cassette 1 that can eliminate the occurrence of wrinkles and looseness of the ink ribbon 13 without providing a special reverse rotation mechanism in the printing apparatus. Thus, good printing can be performed without the inconvenience caused by the looseness of the ink ribbon.

The above embodiments do not limit the present invention at all, and it goes without saying that various modifications and improvements can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, in each of the above-described embodiments, the tape cassette has a print-receiving tape and the like built-in in addition to the ink ribbon. It may be a ribbon cassette for printing on.

[0031]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the ribbon cassette of the present invention, a mechanism for rewinding the ribbon former spool a little is provided inside the ribbon cassette, so that the ink ribbon is slightly fed backward. Even when
A ribbon cassette that does not cause slack in the ribbon can be realized without any improvement on the printing device side, and a ribbon cassette can be provided in which problems caused by the occurrence of slack in the ribbon can be eliminated and good printing can be performed. The effect produced by the industry is great.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an internal configuration of a ribbon cassette of this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which a clutch spring is attached to an ink ribbon original winding reel.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an ink ribbon original winding reel.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a clutch spring.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a state where the clutch spring abuts against the groove wall portion and is bent in the ribbon cassette of the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing an ink ribbon original winding spool of a conventional ribbon cassette.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 tape cassette 2 ink ribbon original winding reel 4 groove wall portion 7 annular portion of clutch spring 8 linear portion of clutch spring 10 tip of linear portion of clutch spring 11 cassette case 13 ink ribbon 16 ink ribbon take-up reel 18 internal teeth

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A ribbon cassette having an outer frame case and a ribbon former winding spool wound by joining the ends of ink ribbons to each other, wherein a ring portion and a flexible stop provided outside at one end of the annular portion. A clutch spring having an annular portion inserted into the rotary shaft of the ribbon original winding spool, and the rotary shaft provided in the outer frame case is rotated in a direction for delivering the ink ribbon. A groove wall portion with which the stop portion abuts, wherein the stop portion bends due to abutment with the groove wall portion during rotation of the rotary shaft, and when the rotary shaft stops rotation, the flexure occurs. A ribbon cassette, wherein the rotation shaft is rotated in a reverse direction by restoring the stop portion. 2. The ribbon cassette according to claim 1, wherein the annular portion expands in diameter when it receives a torque in a direction for delivering the ink ribbon. 3. The ribbon cassette according to claim 1, wherein a bent portion that abuts the groove wall portion in a curved shape is provided at a tip of the stop portion.