JPS61158492A - Ribbon cassette replacing device for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a ribbon cassette to be automatically replaced, by providing a means for lifting up a ribbon cassette from a carriage and lowering the cassette and a means for feeding the cassette into a containing part. CONSTITUTION:A lifting motor is operated, and each link 17 is turned in the direction of arrow A, whereby a holder 7 and the ribbon cassette 6 are lifted up from the carriage 4, and a rack 22 provided at the bottom surface of the cassette is engaged with a pinion 23. When the pinion 23 is driven to rotate counterclockwise, the cassette 6 is moved toward a stocker 11 while being drawn out from the holder 7, and is contained into the stocker 11. Then, a stocker up-down motor 16 is operated to lower the stocker on a support base 12, a ribbon cassette to be newly used, e.g., a cassette 6a on a shelf 12a is opposed to the holder 7, and in a manner reverse to that in containing the cassette, the ribbon cassette 6a is placed into the holder 7, and the holder 7 is lowered onto the carriage 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a ribbon cassette changing device in a printer.

In various printers such as daisy-wheel printers, dot printers, and thermal printers, a ribbon cassette containing a printing ribbon is supported on a reciprocating carriage, and the ribbon cassette is operated together with the carriage to perform printing operations.

When the ribbon cassette reaches the end of its life, that is, when the ribbon is used up or deteriorates, printing operations can be continued by replacing it with a new ribbon cassette. However, in the past, ribbon cassettes had to be replaced manually, which was very complicated work.

In addition, normal printers are configured to automatically stop printing when the ribbon cassette reaches the end of its lifespan, so if the operator is not monitoring the printer during this stop, the printer will is left inactive, resulting in a significant drop in printing efficiency.

There are also known printers that can print in color by using printing ribbons of different colors; Similarly, the replacement work is very complicated.

The present invention has been made based on the above recognition, and its object is to provide a ribbon cassette exchange device that can automatically exchange ribbon cassettes.

The present invention lifts the ribbon cassette from the carriage,
or a cassette elevating means for lowering it onto the carriage;
A ribbon cassette exchanging device is proposed which is equipped with a cassette loading/unloading operation means for feeding the lifted ribbon cassette into a storage section or sending out the ribbon cassette from the storage section.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a platen, 2 and 3 are guide rods extending parallel to the platen 1, and 4 is a carriage that reciprocates in a direction parallel to the platen 1 while being guided by the guide rods 2 and 3. A print head 5 is fixed to the carriage 4, and a ribbon cassette 6 is supported.The cassette 6 is housed in a case-like holder 7, as will be described later, and is supported by the carriage 4 via the holder 7. . The print head 5 is inserted into the recess 8 formed in the cassette 6 so that the print head 5 does not interfere with the ribbon cassette 6.
is located. Furthermore, since the illustrated printer is a dot printer, a head with a large number of printing wires is used as the print head 5, but a daisy-wheel printer uses a print head with a hammer, and a thermal printer uses a thermal head. Ru.

During printer operation, the paper 9 is wound around the platen 1, and the carriage 4 moves in a direction parallel to the platen 1. The printing wire strikes the paper 9, and predetermined information is printed on the paper 9. The paper is fed by rotating the platen 1.

When the ribbon cassette 6 reaches the end of its life, the old ribbon cassette 6 is automatically replaced with a new ribbon cassette by a ribbon cassette replacement device described below.

1 to 4 show the carriage 4 in the home position, and a cassette storage section consisting of a cassette storage stocker 11 is provided adjacent to the carriage 4 in the home position. .

This stocker 11 has four stages of cassette storage shelves 12° 12a, 12b, and 12c in the case of an appropriate number of shelves.
.

6b and 6c are stored, and the lowest shelf 12 is empty.

The stocker 11 is placed on a support table 13 that can move up and down while being guided by a guide member (not shown).
3↓A feed screw 15 is screwed into a fixed nut 14 (Figs. 2 and 4).

The feed screw 15 is rotationally driven by a stocker up/down motor 1G fixed to the printer main body, whereby the carrier 13 moves up and down while carrying the stocker 11.

On the other hand, the holder 7 that holds the ribbon cassette 6 is.

The carriage 4 is raised and lowered by a lifting means, and the illustrated lifting means is pivotally attached to the lower surface of the holder 7 and the upper surface of the carriage 4, respectively. Link 17,
17a, 17b, and 17c (FIG. 3), and these links, the holder 7, and the carriage 4 constitute a parallel movement mechanism.

The link 17a is drivingly connected to a lifting motor 21 supported by the carriage 14 via a drive shaft 18, gears 19, 20, etc., as shown in FIG. The ribbon cassette 6 and the holder 7 are moved up and down together with the ribbon cassette 6.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a racket 2 is fixed to the bottom surface of the ribbon cassette 6, and a pinion 23 is supported on the printer body or carriage 4, and this pinion 23 is driven by a compei motor (not shown). Rotationally driven.

Except when replacing the ribbon cassette, the four links are in a resting state as shown in Figures 1 and 2.
Therefore, the holder 7 and the ribbon cassette 6 stored therein are supported by the carriage 4 in a lowered state, and printing operations can be performed without any trouble. At this time, since a notch 24 is formed in the holder 7 as shown in FIG. 5, the holder 7 and the print head 5 do not interfere with each other.

When the ribbon is used up or degraded, a ribbon end signal is generated, as is known per se (FIG. 7).
(a)), this brings the carriage 4 to the home position, stops the printing operation, and at the same time the lifting motor 21 starts operating.As shown in FIG. 7(b), each link 17.17a.

17b and 17c rotate in the direction of arrow A. Therefore, the holder 7 and the ribbon cassette 6 are lifted from the carriage 4 to a position above the print head 5 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and the lifting motor 21 is stopped. At this time, the rack 22 on the bottom of the cassette meshes with the pinion 23.

A slot 25 (FIG. 5) is formed in the bottom of the holder 7 so that this engagement is not disturbed.

After the rack 22 and pinion 23 are engaged, and immediately before or after the lifting motor 21 stops operating, the above-mentioned compei motor starts operating (FIG. 7(c)), thereby causing the pinion 23 to start operating. It is rotated counterclockwise in FIG. At this time, since the ribbon cassette 6 is lifted upward from the carriage 4 as described above, the ribbon cassette 6 is pulled out from the holder 7 without interfering with the print head 5 and moves toward the stocker 11 in the direction of arrow C. do. At this time, the stocker 11 is positioned with the empty shelf 12 facing the ribbon cassette 6, so that the cassette 6 can enter the empty shelf 12 as shown by the chain line in FIG.

It is also possible to store the ribbon cassette 6 on the shelf 12 using only the rack 22 and pinion 23, but in this example, in order to completely push the ribbon cassette 6 into the 112, a cassette pickup motor (not shown) is used.
A pickup arm 26 is provided which is oscillated in the EC (Fig. 6) direction. This arm 26 normally occupies the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 6, but when the ribbon cassette 6 is fed into the shelf 12 and reaches the position shown by the chain line in FIG. 6, the cassette pickup motor starts operating. 7(d)), the pickup arm 26 rotates in the direction of the arrow, and the ear 27 protruding from the ribbon cassette 6
as shown by the chain line, and push the ribbon cassette 6 to the final position shown by the broken line.
6 also rotates to the final position shown by the broken line and stops. In this case, if the arm 26 is configured with a leaf spring, after the cassette is pushed in, the arm 26 will elastically deform and close the ear 27.
can be rotated to its final position. Alternatively, the arm 26 or the carrier 13 may be moved up and down to a position where the arm 26 does not interfere with the ear 27, and then the arm 26 may be brought to the final position. A slot hole 28 is formed in the holder 7 to prevent interference with the ear 27. In this way, the old ribbon cassette 6 can be stored in the stocker 11.

Next, the stocker up/down motor 16 starts operating (FIG. 7(e)), lowers the stocker on the carrier 13, and moves the stocker to a newly used ribbon cassette, for example, Il.
The cassette 6a on l2a is opposed to the holder 7, and the ears 27 of the cassette 6a are pushed out from the shelf 12a of the stocker 11 by the pick-up arm 26 rotating in the direction of arrow E, and the ribbon The cassette 6a is placed in the holder 7, and this is lowered onto the carriage 4. In this case, in this example, the ribbon cassette is supported on the carriage 4 via the holder 7, so by pushing the ribbon cassette 6a into the holder 7 and storing it, the cassette 6a can be positioned at a predetermined position. In order to further ensure the effect of preventing the inconvenience that only the ribbon cassette 6a remains without descending, when the ribbon cassette 6a is stored in the holder 7, a click or elastic tongue is used to elastically lock the cassette 6a to the holder 7. A piece etc. can also be attached to the holder 7.

Once the ribbon cassette has been replaced, the printing operation can be continued. Therefore, even when the operator is not near the printer, the printing operation can be continued, and a decrease in the efficiency of the printing operation can be prevented.

The operation when replacing a used ribbon cassette has been described above, and the ribbon cassette 6.6a.

When cassettes containing ribbons with color ink attached are used as 6b and 6C, and a ribbon change signal that requires the use of a different color ribbon is printed (No. 7 @ (a)
), the ribbon cassette can be replaced with a ribbon cassette of a desired color in exactly the same manner as described above.

In the illustrated embodiment, a parallel movement mechanism and motor 21 are used as a cassette lifting means to lift the ribbon cassette from the carriage or lower it onto the carriage, and also to send the ribbon cassette lifted from the carriage 4 to the storage section or to store the cassette. A rack 22 serves as a means for loading and unloading cassettes from the rack 22. Pinion 23, its drive motor, pickup arm 26. Although the drive motor is used, it is obvious that other configurations may be used instead. For example, when lifting the ribbon cassette from the cartridge, instead of lifting the entire cassette, the cassette 6 can be rotated, for example, about 90 degrees so that only the recess 8 side of the cassette is lifted, and then stored in the storage section. In this case, the ribbon cassette in the storage section can be stored vertically instead of horizontally. Further, as a drive device for operating each element, suitable means such as a magnet may be used instead of a motor. It is clear that the present invention is applicable to various printers other than dot printers.

According to the present invention, the ribbon cassette can be automatically replaced;
The operation can be simplified. Furthermore, there is no possibility that the ribbon cassette will interfere with the print head when replacing the ribbon cassette.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a part of a printer equipped with a ribbon cassette changing device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view showing only some of the elements of FIG. 1, and FIG. Figure 4 is a perspective view similar to Figure 1 showing the lifted state, Figure 4 is a front view of Figure 3 similar to Figure 2, and Figure 5 shows the ribbon cassette separated by the holder and the ribbon cassette being lifted up. Fig. 6 is an explanatory plan view showing the movement of the ribbon cassette when it is stored, and Fig. 7 shows the operating state of the ribbon cassette changing device. This is a timing chart. 4... Carriage

Claims (1)

[Claims] Ribbon cassette exchange in a printer, comprising cassette lifting means for lifting the ribbon cassette from a carriage or lowering it onto the carriage, and cassette loading/unloading means for feeding the lifted ribbon cassette into a storage section or feeding the ribbon cassette from the storage section. Device.