JPS59164180A - Ribbon mechanism part of multi-color printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the wastefulness of an ink ribbon, by superposing a plurality of ink ribbon cassettes respectively having different colors while simultaneously moving the same to a drive axial direction to perform the selective positional determination of an arbitrary color at a printing position. CONSTITUTION:A printing head 12 is held on a carrier and moved along a platen to perform printing. On the other hand, the ribbon mechanism part 13 held to the carrier has cassettes 141-144 receiving ink ribbons respectively having different colors attached thereto by respectively inlaying the ribbon feed rollers 161-164 thereof with a drive shaft 15 and driven by a motor 17. These cassette groups 141-144 are integrated with connection screws and subjected to selective positional determination by a position determining means 18 constituting of a cam 19 and a spring 20 so that the ink ribbon having a desired color corresponds to the printing head by the rotation of the cam 19. By this method, an effective printing speed is enhanced and only a thinned-out ink ribbon can be exchanged.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a ribbon mechanism in a printer that performs multicolor printing on paper on a shim platen using an ink ribbon by a print head held on a carrier that moves along the platen. It is.

Prior Art and Problems Conventional ink ribbons used in this type of printer are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

In the case of the ink ribbon 1 shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of colors I, n, I[l] extend in the longitudinal direction and are adjacent in the width direction.

(2) is formed, and when printing, the ink ribbon 1 is shifted by a predetermined amount in the width direction, and the desired color is made to face the print head, and printing is performed. The ink ribbon 1 can be shifted, for example, by a cam 2 via a ribbon shift plate 3, as shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, 4 is a print head.

In addition, in the case of the ink ribbon 5 shown in FIG. 2, there are a plurality of colors 1, 11, 111, . M in the longitudinal direction I, II, I[1,
1V', I, . . . are formed successively in this order, and printing is performed only when the desired color reaches the printing position.

However, in both cases, if a particular color is frequently used, that color becomes lighter9, which requires replacing the ink ribbon, resulting in a lot of waste. Furthermore, when the ink ribbon shown in FIG. 2 is used, the effective printing speed is reduced.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned various drawbacks, and provides a ribbon mechanism for a multicolor printing printer that can eliminate waste of ink ribbon and prevent a decrease in effective printing speed. It is intended to.

Structure of the Invention In the present invention, a plurality of ink ribbon cassettes each containing ink ribbons of different colors and equipped with ribbon feeding rollers for transporting the ink ribbons are provided and stacked, and each ink ribbon cassette is connected to the ribbon feeding roller. The center portion of the roller is slidably fitted to a drive shaft for driving the cylinder feed roller provided in a carrier and detachably supported by the carrier, and the plurality of ink ribbon cassettes are mounted in the axial direction of the drive shaft. The above object is achieved by providing a positioning means for selectively positioning any ink ribbon cassette at a print position corresponding to the print head by simultaneously moving the ink ribbon cassette.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6.

4 is a side view of the ribbon mechanism according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a front view of the same, in which 11 is a platen, 1 is a wire dot type print head, and 13 is an east ribbon mechanism (excluding positioning means). It is.

The print head n is held by a carrier (not shown), and is attached to a platen 11 along with the carrier in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG.
to print.

The ribbon mechanism section 13 includes a plurality of (four in this example) ink ribbon cassettes 141 +14g, 14 of the same shape.
g, 144, a drive shaft 15, and positioning means (details will be described later). Ink ribbon cassette 141.1
41, 14g, and 144 each have different colors 1.
If, Ill, and IV ink ribbons are stored.

Using each of these ink ribbons) 14+, 142
, 146, and 144 are overlapped and integrated so as to be separable. Although detailed explanation is omitted, this integration can be easily performed using, for example, a coupling fitting and a coupling screw.

Ink ribbon cassette 141 integrated in this way
, 142 , 14s , 144 are the ribbon feed rollers 161 , 162 , 16g of the respective cassettes,
The drive shaft provided in the carrier (not shown) is slidably fitted into the drive shaft. The drive shaft 15 is driven by a motor 17 provided on the carrier through a transmission means. This ink ribbon cassette group is selectively positioned using a positioning means so that a desired ink ribbon cassette corresponds to the print head 12. Next, an example of the positioning means will be explained.

As shown in FIG. 6, the positioning means 18 consists of a cam 19 and a spring stopper. The cam 19 is driven by a drive source (not shown) provided on the carrier and can rotate by a predetermined angle in the directions of arrows A and A'. The spring is installed between the carrier and the coupling fitting 21 that separably integrates each ink ribbon cassette, and urges the ink ribbon cassette group toward the cam 19. It engages with an engagement plate 22 fixed to. FIG. 4 shows a state in which the ink ribbon cassette 148 of the color ■, which is the second from the right, is positioned at the printing position corresponding to the printing herddle, but the rightmost ink ribbon cassette 148
When it is desired to move the cam 19 to the printing position, the cam 19 may be rotated by a predetermined angle in the direction indicated by the arrow from the state shown in FIG. In this case, the highest part of the cam 19 that has completed its rotation engages with the engagement plate n, and during this time the ink ribbon cassette group moves to the left in FIG. 5 by a distance W, and the ink ribbon cassette 144 is positioned at the printing position. Further, when the cam 19 is rotated by a predetermined angle in the direction of arrow A' from the state shown in FIG. 6, the ink ribbons 141 and 142 are positioned at the printing position. In this way, by operating the positioning means 18, the ink ribbon cassette containing the ink ribbon of a desired color can be positioned at the printing position.

The exposed portion of the ink ribbon of the ink ribbon cassette, which has been positioned at the printing position by the positioning means 18, faces the end surface of the front end of the print head 12, as shown in FIG.

In this state, the ribbon feed roller is rotated by the drive shaft 15 to transport the ink ribbon along the end surface of the tip portion 23, and the print head 12 is operated while the carrier is moved to perform all printing. If 13 characters of different colors are to be printed, the ink ribbon of that color is stored in the ink ribbon set H and positioned at the printing position using the above-mentioned method.

Reference numeral 24 denotes a guide bar provided on the carrier, which supports and guides guide rollers 25 provided in each one-ink ribbon cassette.

1) If the ink of a certain color becomes thin after long-term use, you can remove the ink ribbon cassette group and replace only the ink ribbon cassette of that color with a new one. In this case, since the ink ribbon cassette group is separably integrated, replacement is easy.

In the above description, the plurality of ink ribbon cassettes are
Although an example has been described in which they are arranged side by side in the horizontal direction in the figure, it goes without saying that they may be arranged in parallel in the vertical direction in FIG.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, the following various excellent effects can be achieved.

(1) Since each ink ribbon cassette stores an ink ribbon of one color, printing can be performed at any position on the ink ribbon, and a decrease in the effective printing speed can be prevented.

(2) Only the ink ribbon cassette that stores the ink ribbon whose ink density has become low can be replaced, eliminating waste.

(3) When printing in different colors, it is only necessary to operate the positioning means and move the ink ribbon cassette group by a predetermined amount in the direction in which the ink ribbon cassettes are arranged side by side, which is easy.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIGS. 1 and 2 are diagrams explaining the color arrangement of various ink ribbons conventionally used for multicolor printing, FIG. 3 is a diagram explaining the shifting procedure of the ink ribbon shown in FIG. 5
The figures show an embodiment of the multicolor printing printer mechanism according to the present invention, in which Fig. 4 is a side view showing the overall outline, Fig. 5 is a front view thereof, and Fig. 6 is a front view showing an example of the positioning means. It is a diagram. In the figure, 11 is a platen, 12 is a print head, 13 is a ribbon mechanism, 14+, 142.14g, 144 is an ink ribbon cassette, 15 is a drive shaft, 161.162
．． 168.164 is a ribbon feeding roller, 17 is a motor,
18 is a positioning means. Patent applicant Fujitsu Limited

Claims (1)

[Claims] A ribbon that stores ink ribbons of different colors and transports the ink ribbons in a printer that performs multicolor printing on paper on the platen via an ink ribbon by a print head held on a carrier that moves along a platen. A plurality of ink ribbon cassettes each having a feed roller are provided and stacked, and each of the ink ribbon cassettes is slidably fitted into a drive shaft for driving the ribbon feed roller provided on the carrier. a positioning means that is removably supported by the carrier, and that simultaneously moves each of the ink ribbon cassettes in the axial direction of the drive shaft to position any ink ribbon cassette at a printing position corresponding to the print head. A ribbon mechanism section of a multi-color printing printer, characterized in that it is provided with: