JPS5978882A - Ribbon zone switcher for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a ribbon zone switcher capable of setting the maximum moving width of printing ribbon to a minimum by using a system in which a ribbon guide of a specific structure is turned in a given amount in such a way as to cause a desired ribbon zone to face the printing end of a printing head. CONSTITUTION:A ribbon guide 6 is turned around a shaft 5b toward the widthwise direction of a printing ribbon 13 to switch it to desired ribbon zones 13a- 13c and printing is performed. The moving amount of the printing ribbon 13 toward the widthwise direction can be set to a minimum, the distorsion of the ribbon 13 can be prevented, and the upper print-impossible portion of a printing paper 4 can be lessened.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a ribbon band switching device for a printer that appropriately switches a printing ribbon having at least two types of ribbon bands in the width direction to produce a printing sound.

Prior Art Conventionally, the above-mentioned type of ribbon band switching device moves a printing ribbon having two or more types of ribbon bands up and down linearly in the width direction, and places a desired ribbon band opposite the print end surface of a print head. , multi-color printing, or a configuration that aims to improve the consumption efficiency of printing ribbon.In particular, in printers that insert and eject cut sheets from above the printing section, a pair of paper feed rollers is moved from the printing position to at least the printing ribbon. They had to be placed at positions separated by the maximum upward movement width, and it was impossible to print on the upper part of the printing paper over the maximum upward movement width from the upper end. In particular, a printing ribbon installed in a printer capable of multicolor printing has at least three ribbon bands of yellow, macenta, and cyan in its width direction, and the maximum upward movement width of the printing ribbon is wide. Furthermore, since a space is required for replacing the ribbon, there is a drawback that the area on the top of the printing paper where printing is not possible increases.

In addition, ribbon cassettes that fold and store printing ribbons are also available.
In addition, in the case of a ribbon band switching device that lowers the printing ribbon drive device together with the printing ribbon drive device, the device becomes heavier and more expensive due to an increase in the number of parts and a structure with multiple Glts. This has the disadvantage that it takes a long time to switch bands, making it impossible to perform high-speed printing.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional art, an object of the present invention is to shorten the maximum two-way width of the printing ribbon in the width direction by using a simple configuration, thereby making it possible to switch between various ribbon bands. An object of the present invention is to provide a ribbon band switching device that can reduce the unprintable area in a section.

Composition of the invention The present invention will be described below according to one embodiment.

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing a ribbon band switching device for a printer according to the present invention, Fig. 2 shows a ribbon band in a printing ribbon = 3- Fig. 3 is a front view of a ribbon guide attached to a print head , FIG. 4 is a plan view of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a right side view of FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the road body taken along line A-A in FIG. 3.

In the figure, a carriage 1 is parallel to the axis of the platen 2, and a printing paper 4 is attached to the platen 2 by rotation of a drive motor (not shown) with respect to a guide rod 3 fixed to a main body frame (not shown). It is inserted into the printing line so that it can be moved back and forth.

The print head 5 is placed and fixed on the carriage 1, and as the carriage 1 moves, a number of electromagnetic solenoids (not shown) selectively connect printing wires (not shown) supported within the front frame 5a. The printer is driven to print characters and the like in a dot matrix format on the printing paper 4'' via a printing ribbon 13 which will be described later. Also mll front frame 5a
On both sides of the tip end of the printing ribbon 13, there is a pair of - for rotatably supporting a ribbon guide 6, which will be described later, in the width direction of the printing ribbon 13.
4=The shaft portion 5b is integrally formed.

The ribbon guide 6 has ribbon guide parts 7a and 8a that position the printing ribbon 13 at approximately the same position as the printing end surface 5c at the tip of the frame 5a of the 1iI section, and
A pair of left and right universal guide bodies 7 and 8 each having a hole (-J hole 71) 8b into which the shaft portion 5b is inserted and the upper part of the guide bodies 7 and 8 are connected to form a ribbon guide 6. is the shaft portion 5b
When the ribbon guide 6 is rotated downward around the... one part frame 5a, the bridge part 9 acts as a stopper that restricts the maximum rotational position of the ribbon guide 6 in the downward direction by abutting against the upper surface of the frame 5a, and the guide main body 7. The guide path 1 of the printing ribbon 13 extends backward from the mI end of
0a and lla, and the printing ribbon 13 is l'II.
The slits 10b, 1. are inserted into the guide paths 10a, 1a, and are opposed to the print end surface 5c of the print head 5, which is located approximately on the same side as the ribbon slots 7a, 8a.
1b, and a gear 12 having an appropriate number of teeth 12a on the outer periphery at a concentric position from the center of the multi-hole 7a on the guide body 7 side of the two parts. It is integrally molded in resin.

The printing ribbon 13 has a first ribbon of a different color from its upper end in the width direction.
It has the to fourth ribbon bands 13a to 13d, and
It is folded and stored in an endless ribbon cassette 14 that is detachably attached to the main body case, and is stretched around guide shafts 15 fixed to the main body case at both ends of the platen 2. and is positioned opposite to the printing end surface 5c. ...1. A ribbon feeding roller 18 is installed in the ribbon cassette 14, which is rotatably driven by a ribbon drive motor 16 fixed to the main body case, and folds and stores the print ribbon 13 while pinching it with a driven roller 17.

The drive device 19 is meshed with a step motor 2o mounted and fixed on the carriage 1 described in 1rII, a drive gear 21 fixed to the rotating shaft of the step motor 20, and the gear 12, and is engaged with the step motor 20 for a predetermined number of steps. Each of the first to fourth ribbon regions 13a to 13dtl-
It consists of an idle gear 22 having an appropriate reduction ratio that is sequentially switched.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

First, in order to attach the printing ribbon 13 to the ribbon guide 6, place the print ribbon 13 at +1 indicated by the dashed line in FIG.
The printing ribbon 13 is inserted into the guide path lea, 11a from lb, and positioned in the ribbon guide portions 7a, 8a, which have substantially the same shape as the printing end surface 5C.

Then, after mounting the ribbon cassette 14 on the main body case and stretching the printing ribbon 13 through the guide III 115t, the ribbon guide 6 is attached to the tip of the print head 5 by inserting the shaft portion 5b into the mounting holes 7b and 8b. The printing ribbon 13 is mounted rotatably on the print head 5 so as to face the printing end surface 5C.
By installing the gear 12, the gear 12 and the idle gear 22 are matched at an arbitrary position.

After the ribbon guide 6 is attached to the tip of the print head 5 by the above means, when the power switch is turned on, the control device (none of which is shown) controls the step motor 20 from the first to Fourth ribbon band 138-1
3d, the ribbon guide 6 is rotated in the downward direction shown by the solid line arrow in FIG. The connecting portion 9 is brought into contact with the upper surface of the front frame 5a to regulate the maximum rotational position of the ribbon guide 6 in the downward direction, and at the same time, the step motor 20 is brought out of synchronization to bring the step motor 20 into the two-face contact position. Set to rotation reference position.

Then, when the printing data is input manually, the control device rotates the step motor 20 from the rotation reference position by a predetermined number of steps corresponding to the ribbon band data based on the ribbon band data, and rotates the ribbon guide 6 around the shaft portion 5b. is rotated in the upward direction indicated by the solid line arrow in FIG. -7 = dot pattern data accessed from the pattern memory (not shown) based on the above print data is outputted to the print head 5 while selectively driving the print wire...1 ribbon jl) area 13
Characters, etc. are printed in the color corresponding to c.

Then, in the same way as the above operation, the control device moves the following ribbon;
Based on the ribbon zone data, the step motor 20 is rotated by the number of steps calculated from its current position and the ribbon zone data, and the ribbon guide 6 is rotated around the shaft portion 5b.
After rotating the carriage 1 in the downward direction indicated by the broken line arrow in the figure to position, for example, the ribbon band 13b corresponding to the ribbon band data, facing the printing end surface 5C, the carriage 1 is returned along the printing line. While performing FIJ, the previously printed characters are overprinted in the color corresponding to the switched ribbon band 13b, and the characters are printed in a desired color consisting of a mixture of colors corresponding to the ribbon bands 13b and 13C described in 11i1. etc. are printed.

After the above operation, the printing paper 4 is fed by one printing part by the rotational drive of the platen 2, and then the ribbon bands 138 to 13d are sequentially switched according to the above operation, and the mixed color of the color corresponding to the switched ribbon band 138 to 13d is 8- Print characters, etc. in the desired color.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the ribbon guide 6 is rotated in the width direction of the printing ribbon 13 around the shaft portion 5b, and a desired ribbon band 1 is formed.
To print by switching to 38 to 13d, print ribbon 1
3 linearly up and down in the width direction to remove ribbon bands 13a~
13d, it is possible to set the amount of movement of the printing ribbon 13 in the width direction to the minimum, and it is possible to prevent the printing ribbon 13 from twisting, and also to prevent the printing paper 4 from twisting. It is possible to reduce the unprintable area at the top. Furthermore, when the power switch is turned on, the contact of the bridging portion 9 with the print head 5 actively causes the step motor 20, which is controlled in an open loop, to step out of step, and the corresponding contact position is moved to the rotation reference position of the ribbon guide 6. In order to
There is no need to install it in a positioned state, which improves operability.

In this embodiment, a printing ribbon having ribbon bands of type 4a consisting of different colors in the width direction was used for multi-color printing, but at least two types of ribbon bands consisting of the same color were arranged in the width direction. It is possible to improve the consumption efficiency of the printing ribbon by using a printing ribbon having the same direction and performing printing while sequentially switching the ribbon bands.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As described above, the present invention provides a serial printer that prints via a print ribbon while moving a print head placed on a carriage along a print line, in which a ribbon band of at least two sleeves in the width direction is provided. a ribbon guide rotatably supported in the width direction of the ribbon on the carriage and having a ribbon kite portion having substantially the same surface as a print end surface of the print head; and a ribbon guide that is rotated by a predetermined amount. With a simple configuration including a drive device that brings the required ribbon band to face the II'iI printed end surface, it is possible to switch between many types of ribbon bands by setting a short dynamic width to the maximum width of the printing ribbon in the width direction. This is a ribbon band switching device that can reduce the unprintable area at the top of printing paper.

[Brief Description of the Drawings] Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the outline of the ribbon band switching device of the printer according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the ribbon band in the printing ribbon, and Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the ribbon band switching device of the printer according to the present invention. 4 is a plan view of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a right side view of FIG. 3, FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the road body taken along line A-A in FIG. This figure and FIG. 8 are explanatory views showing the operating states, respectively. In the figure, 1 is a carriage, 5 is a print head, 5C is a printing end surface, 6 is a ribbon guide, 7a and 8a are ribbon guide parts, 1
3 is a printing ribbon, 138 to 13d are ribbon bands, and 19 is a driving device. Patent applicant Brother Industries, Ltd. Agent: Patent attorney Ken Ito −

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A serial printer that prints via a print ribbon while moving a print head placed on a carriage along a print line, comprising at least two types of ribbons in the width direction. a ribbon guide rotatably supported in the width direction of the ribbon on the carriage and having a ribbon guide portion having substantially the same surface as the printing surfaces J and iii of the mI print head; 1. A ribbon band switching device for a printer, comprising: a drive device that rotates the ribbon by a predetermined amount so that the required ribbon band faces the printing end described in 1.