JPS6154974A - Ribbon shift mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a high-speed, small sized serial color printer without the needs for any exclusive actuator for a ribbon shift mechanism by fixedly providing the up and down cams for ribbon to the frame at the before and behind positions of spacing action. CONSTITUTION:The ribbon color switch mechanism to a serial printer is provided with a printing head 2 mounted with a carriage 5, an ink ribbon 4 with multi-colors in the vertical direction, and an ink ribbon cartridge 3 incorporated with the ink ribbon 4. A supporting point 13 is provided on the side wall 12 of the cartridge 3, and ribbon positioning means such as recessions 3B, 3Y and 3M and 3C a projection 2a are provided in the ribbon guide arms 14 and 14' of the cartridge 3 and the tip of the printing head 2. The cartridge 3 is stepwise operated in a vertically rocking manner around the supporting point 13. A ribbon up cam 10 and a ribbon down cam 11 are fixedly provided to the before and behind positions of spacing action. By stepwise operating the cartridge 3 in a rocking manner according to the spacing action, ribbons can be switched.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a ribbon color switching mechanism for a serial printer.

(Prior art) Examples of ribbon shift mechanisms of conventional serial printers include Japanese Patent Publication No. 161189/1989 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 5/1989.
7-87394 and the like are known. The examples disclosed therein are equipped with a dedicated motor or a dedicated operating magnet as the ribbon shift drive source, and these drive sources are mounted on a carriage frame that moves together with the print head.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the conventional configuration described above, the entire carrier frame is heavy, making it difficult to speed up the space operation and increasing power consumption. Furthermore, it is necessary to process the connection wiring between the installed drive source and the external signal system, which increases the number of man-hours and increases the cost of parts for the dedicated drive source itself. This has led to the trend toward color, lower price, and smaller size of serial printers. This was a major obstacle.

The purpose of this invention is to realize multicolor printing without having a dedicated actuator, driver, and controller as a drive source for the ribbon shift + i structure, and to reduce the cost and speed of the Norial Color Printer. , a simple ribbon 77 for miniaturization
and its mechanism.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides this type of rock (74) with a fulcrum on the side wall of the ribbon cartridge so that the ribbon cartridge can be vertically swung in stages around this fulcrum, and furthermore, The up cam and the down cam are respectively fixed to the frame at positions before and after the swissing operation, and are designed to swing the H-turn cartridge in stages according to the spacing operation.

(Function) According to the present invention, with the above configuration, the ribbon color positioning is determined by two elements, the print head and the ribbon cartridge, and the shift power is applied parallel to the cam provided on both sides of the grid and the grating of the carriage. This is achieved by a spacing operation that moves to a position, and will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a left side view illustrating the structure of a lever part according to an embodiment of the present application, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating the outline of a ribbon shift mechanism. The structure and operation will be explained in detail below according to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a grating and 2 is a print head, which is a wire dot type print head.

Reference numeral 3 denotes an ink cartridge, in which an ink ribbon 4 having, for example, four colors of ink arranged vertically is housed.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a carrier which carries the dot head 2, ink ribbon cartridge 3, etc., is supported by a guide shaft 6 and a guide rail 7, and moves parallel to the platen 1. One end surface of the guide rail 7 serves as a tooth-shaped rack, and a driving force for driving the ink ring 4 is obtained through a pinio/8 pivotally supported by the caliper part 5. The pinion 8 rotates in forward and reverse directions when the carriage portion 5 moves in both left and right directions, but the IJ drive shaft 9, which will be described later and is obtained from the pinion 8 by a one-way mechanism (not shown), always rotates in one direction. do.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the carriage section having the structure detailed in FIG. 1, seen from the upper left side. The shift cam 11 for the annozo, which is also fixed to the left side frame of the printer,
Corresponding to these left and right shift cams, there is a down cam follower integrally formed on the ribbon cassette case at the upper part of the right ribbon guide arm of the ribbon cassette 3, and a pivot part 3d1 at the bottom of the left ribbon guide arm, which is integrally formed with the ribbon cassette case. There is a pivot part 3u that is integrally molded and serves as an Aggu cam follower. Carry ribbon cassette 3/7ji 5
Clamp levers 12 and 12' for fixing to IJ
The ribbon cassette 30 is configured to hold a fulcrum part 13 integrally formed with the cassette case from both sides toward the back of the print head tip, and the ribbon cassette is inserted from above along the slope of the tip part. By press-inserting the wagon cassette 3, the levers 12 and 12' are bent, and the oiler can easily insert the wagon cassette 3 into the carriage portion from above.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the print head 2, in which one outer side 2a of both side walls of the front end of the head is formed.

Figure 4 shows the ink ribbon cartridge "3", which is ABS.
The left and right ink ribbon guide arms 14.14, which are integrally molded of resin or the like, are sized so as to sandwich both side walls of the tip end of the print head 2, and are arranged at four locations, that is, 3B.
, 3Y, 3M, and 3C recesses are formed. Each of the recesses 3B, JY, 3M, and 3C is a color ribbon of four colors divided into four layers, for example, each layer of cyan (vermilion) C% magenta (blue) M1 yellow (yellow) Y1 black (black) B1 It is positioned correspondingly. Convex portion 2a of the print head, and concave portions 3B and 3Y of the printing cartridge.

, 7 M , , 3 C is upper and lower, selected 1 of 4 colors
One concave portion, for example 3B, corresponding to the color fits into the convex portion 2a of the print head to ensure the relative positional relationship between the print head and the selected color B of the ink wagon, and the fulcrum portions 13, Z3' The fitting parts 3B and 2a each have a function of fixing and holding the ink ribbon cartridge 3 to the gear ridge part 5.

Figure 5 is sl? FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a power transmission section of the engine drive shaft 9'.

As described in detail above, the ink ribbon cartridge 3 swings up and down in four stages corresponding to each color at the tip of the print head about the fulcrum 13, IJ'. The ribbon drive shaft 9 that does not accompany this also swings about the fulcrums 13 and 13'. Therefore, twisting occurs in the power transmission section between the pinion 8 and the pinion 8 that is pivotally supported by the carriage section 5.

In order to solve this problem, the connecting portion 9' of the lower part of the 17-gun drive shaft 9 with the pinion 8 is formed with a cross hole shaped like a drum inside as shown in the figure.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained.

The cartridge 5 set and held at an arbitrary color position of the ink ribbon cartridge 3 is moved toward the down cam 10 by a space drive source such as a wire (not shown). the ink ribbon cartridge moves downward.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the ribbon cartridge 3 and the print head 2, which had been fitted together at their respective uneven portions, became unfitted due to the deflection of the guide arms 14° and 14' of the ribbon cartridge ribbon 3, and the above-mentioned Follow the steps like down cam 10,
The combinations are sequentially moved from 3M to 3Y to 3B. That is, the ink ribbon color corresponding to the dot pin of the print head 2 moves from cyan C to magenta M to yellow Y to black B and is fixed.

Contrary to the above, when the screen is moved toward the up cam 11 side, the ribbon color moves from black B to yellow Y to magenta M to cyan C.

As shown in FIG. 7, by appropriately selecting the amount of movement in the direction of the arrow, that is, in the direction of the surface, each color can be easily selected, and the final positional relationship is determined by fitting the uneven parts as described in detail above. Since this is guaranteed, positioning in the space direction can be done roughly, and the shift mechanism can be configured with a simple mechanism.

Incidentally, in the above embodiment, a concavo-convex fitting portion was explained.
Since the purpose of the unevenness is to maintain a selected position, it goes without saying that any shape sufficient to achieve that purpose, such as a serrated zigzag fit, may be used.

Furthermore, although four-color ribbons have been described in the above embodiments, it goes without saying that this is not limited to four colors and can be widely applied to serial printers that select ribbons of multiple colors. The control method is not limited to fixing the up cam and down cam to the left and right side frames, respectively, as explained in the above embodiment, but can be easily achieved by forming the cams in fixed positions, that is, in the straight shift position. realizable.

(Effects of the invention) As explained above, the multi-colored screen mounted on the carriage? A fulcrum is formed on the inner side wall of the cartridge, and both side walls of the tip of the print head are used as guides to hold the cartridge swingably.Furthermore, a cartridge positioning mechanism is provided at the tip of the print head in the ribbon cartridge itself, which is a consumable item. Since the fulcrum part, the positioning fitting part, the cam follower part, etc. are replaced at the same time as they are consumed, the problem of wear of the fulcrum part, positioning fitting part, cam follower part, etc. is also periodically updated and solved. As mentioned above, a color printer can be configured simply by providing a cam in a fixed part that does not move, without adding a driving source such as a motor or plunger to the caliper or any mechanical parts. This greatly contributes to miniaturization, lower power consumption, and lower prices.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a left side view showing the structure of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the print head, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the ink ribbon cartridge, and FIG. An explanatory diagram showing the power transmission system of the Zen drive shaft, Figure 6 is IJ
FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing the gon positioning means, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing the ribbon-up cam. 2... Print head, 3... Ink ribbon cart 1 knot, 4... Ink ribbon, 5... Gear 1 knot,
10...Shift cam for down, 11...Shift cam for amplifier. Patent Applicant Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. Figure 1 Figure 4 Figure 3 QΣ2 Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In the ribbon shift mechanism of a printer that has a print head mounted on a carriage, a vertically multicolored ink ribbon, and an ink ribbon cartridge containing the ink ribbon, a fulcrum is provided on the side wall of the ribbon cartridge, and a fulcrum is provided on the side wall of the ribbon cartridge. Ribbon positioning means are provided on the ribbon guide arm of the cartridge and the tip of the print head to enable the ribbon cartridge to swing up and down in stages about the fulcrum, and furthermore, a ribbon-up cam and a ribbon-down cam are provided, respectively. A ribbon shift mechanism, characterized in that it is fixed to a frame at positions before and after a pacing operation, and is configured to switch ribbons by swinging a ribbon cartridge in stages according to the spacing operation.