JPS62273879A - Multicolor ink ribbon shifting mechanism for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable prevention of mixing of colors at the time of moving a multicolor ink ribbon, by providing a printing head gap moving mechanism. CONSTITUTION:A ribbon shield 49 consisting of a plate 48 provided with through-holes 47 for enabling printing by dot wires at a part thereof corresponding to a tip part 1a of a printing head 1 is provided on a surface of a ribbon protector 10, thereby preventing a printing paper 9 from being contaminated by a multicolor ink ribbon 3. Since a thin plate (usually, not more than 0.1mm in thickness) is used for the ribbon shield 49, the ribbon shield is elastic. The ribbon 3 is moved after enlarging a printing ribbon gap. Accordingly, the ribbon 3 is smoothly moved without rubbing against the printing head 1, and mixing of colors can be prevented from occurring at the time of color printing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention 3. Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a multicolor ribbon switching mechanism for a printer such as a serial printer.

[Conventional technology]

With the advancement of color printing technology such as serial printers,
The uses of serial printers are not limited to mere hard copying of program lists or issuing slips, but are also expanding to include word processors, graphic printing, and the like.

Such color printing technology was developed in 1986-10, for example.
There are various No. 4 types such as No. 2950, which place a multi-colored ink ribbon between the print head and the printing paper, and use a drive source such as a plunger magnet to move this multi-colored ink ribbon to the multi-print stage. By moving the ink ribbon and selecting the color that changes in the width direction, the color of the ink ribbon in the area printed by the print head is changed.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In order to improve the printing speed of impact printers, it is useful to reduce the distance between the print head and the print paper as much as possible, and in conventional technology, the distance between the print head and the print paper is adjusted to the thickness of the multicolor ink ribbon. The opening is also set to be slightly wider.

However, when multicolor ink ribbons are used for a long time, the part used for printing becomes fluffy, wrinkles occur due to the difference in the wear of the fabric between the printed and non-printed parts, and the edges of the ink ribbon become kinked. As a result, the thickness of the multicolor ink ribbon has become thicker than before use.
As a result, when the multicolor ink ribbon is moved, it rubs between the print head and the print paper, making it difficult to move the ink ribbon smoothly and causing color mixing.

Therefore, in order to prevent this color mixing phenomenon, it is necessary to widen the distance between the print head and the printing paper by treating it as thicker than the actual ink ribbon, which results in a decrease in printing speed. It became.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention provides a multicolor ink ribbon switching mechanism for a printer, including a multicolor ink ribbon moving mechanism that moves the multicolor ink ribbon located at the tip of the print head in the width direction of the ribbon, and a print head and print paper. The present invention is characterized in that it is provided with a print head gap moving mechanism that changes the interval between the print heads.

[Effect]

According to the above configuration, during printing operation, the print head and the multicolor ink ribbon are positioned at the minimum distance between the print head and the print paper so that the multicolor ink ribbon located between them does not touch the print paper. , when the multicolor ink ribbon is moved, the print head and the ink ribbon are moved backward to widen the gap between the print head and the print paper so that the multicolor ink ribbon does not touch the print paper, and the multicolor ink ribbon is moved; After this movement is completed, the print head and the multicolor ink ribbon are moved forward to return the distance between the print head and the printing paper to the above condition, and the printing operation is resumed. Color mixing during movement of the ink ribbon can be prevented.

〔Example〕

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

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the first embodiment, Fig. 2 is a left side view, and Fig. 3 is a plan view of the first embodiment.
The figure is a right side view of the reed. In the figure, 1 is a print head, and 2 is a carriage on which this print head 1 is mounted.

3 is a multicolor ink ribbon, which is stored in a ribbon cartridge 4 and is fed out one after another.

5 is a platen, and 6 is a platen shaft for rotating the platen 5, both ends of which are rotatably supported by side frames 7.8.

Reference numeral 9 denotes printing paper, and the platen 50 rotates and is fed out and moved in a direction perpendicular to the spacing direction of the carriage 2.

A ribbon protector 10 is provided at the tip 1a of the print head 1 and slightly closer to the platen 5 in order to prevent the multicolor ink ribbon 3 from staining the printing paper 9.

Reference numeral 11 indicates a guide shaft that penetrates and engages the front portion of the carriage 2, and 12 indicates a slide beam that engages with a bearing 13 and a guide 14 provided at the rear of the carriage 2.

Both ends of the guide shaft 76110 are attached to the side frame 7.
The slide beam 12 is slidably and rotatably fitted into the long beam 15 and 16 provided at the platen 8, and both ends of the slide beam 12 are fixed to the side frame T and the side frame 8, which allows the carriage 2 to be attached to the platen 5. It is supported so that it can move parallel to the guide shaft 11 and also move in a direction perpendicular to the platen shaft 6 together with the guide shaft 11 . The tab and carriage 2 are supported by a guide shaft 11 so as to be movable in the direction of arrow A and also in the direction of arrow B shown in FIG. 1 by means of a drive source and a power transmission mechanism (not shown).

17 and 18 are cams fixed to both ends of the guide shaft 11, and 19 and 20 are cam followers rotatably supported by the side frame 7.8.

21.22 is a spring stretched from both ends of the guide shaft 11 to the side frame 7.8, which urges the sb guide shaft 11 in the direction of arrow C in FIGS. 2 and 3 to move the carriage 2 in the direction of the arrow. It is being moved to .

23 is a driven gear fixed to the left end of the guide shaft 11 in the figure. 24 is an idle gear provided almost directly below this driven gear 23, and is rotatably supported by the side frame 7. 25 is a print head gap stepping motor that engages with this idle gear 24, and a motor gear 26 is fixed to the motor shaft.

27 is a lever fixed to the right end of the guide shaft 11 in the figure, and a scale 2 stamped on the side frame 8.
The print head gap is set at an interval corresponding to B, and is normally operated by an operator.

The multicolor ink ribbon 3 is pulled out from the outlet 4a of the ribbon cartridge 4 by a drive source and a power transmission mechanism (not shown), passes through the tip 1a of the print head 1, and returns to the ribbon cartridge 40 from the inlet 4b. stored inside.

Clamps 29 and 30 are used to fix the ribbon cartridge 4 to the ribbon shift plate 31, and are used when replacing the multicolor ink ribbon 3 that has reached the end of its service life.

The ribbon shift plate 31 is rotatably supported by bins 32, 33 relative to the side frames 7, 8.

A spring 34 is stretched from the left end 31a of the ribbon shift plate 31 to the post 35 of the side frame T in the drawing, and urges the ribbon shift frame 31 in the direction of arrow E in FIG. The multicolor ink ribbon 3 in is moved downward.

36 is a pin 3 attached to the left end 31a of the ribbon shift plate 31.
This is a fan-shaped gear provided at 1. 37 is a ribbon shift stepping motor that engages with this fan-shaped gear 36;
J) A motor gear 38 is fixed to the motor shaft.

Next, a control section that controls the above-mentioned configuration will be explained according to the block diagram of FIG. 4.

39 is a circuit for driving the ribbon shift stepping motor 37, which drives the ribbon shift stepping motor 3 according to input pulse commands from the microprocessor 40.
Operate 7.

Reference numeral 41 denotes a circuit for driving the print head gap stepping motor 25, which operates the print head gap stepping motor 25 in accordance with input pulse commands from the microprocessor 40.

Reference numeral 42 denotes a control program 43 for operating the microprocessor 40 and a color specification/multicolor ink ribbon movement amount conversion unit 4 that stores the movement amount of the multicolor ink ribbon corresponding to a color specification instruction 44 from a host computer or the like.
This is a storage section consisting of 5. 46 is a print data signal.

Next, the operation of this embodiment with the above configuration will be explained.

The printing paper 9 is mounted on the platen 5, and the operator sets the lever 27 at a scale corresponding to the thickness of the printing paper mounted.

Color specification command 44. When the print data signal 46 is transmitted from a host computer or the like and the microprocessor 40 receives the color designation command 44, first, the microprocessor 40
Then, a reverse signal is sent to the drive circuit 41 of the print head gap stepping motor 25 to open the print head gap by a certain amount from the initial value, for example, by two scales using the lever 27.

Additionally, the print head gap stepping motor 25 rotates to the left in the figure, with the idle gear 24° driven gear 23. Cam 17.18. The carriage 2 moves by a certain amount via the guide shaft 11 in a direction in which the print head gap widens.

Next, the excitation of the ribbon shift stepping 37 is turned off. Depending on the ribbon shift plate 31, the spring 34
Due to the tension, the silicon ribbon shift plate 31 rotates to a position where the left end 31a and the post 35 come into contact with each other in the drawing, and then becomes stable. At this time, the multicolor ink ribbon 3 is at the lowest position at the tip 1a of the print head 1.
The print head 1 can print on the uppermost side of the multicolor ink ribbon 3.

Next, the color specification command 4 received by the microprocessor 40
4 is converted into a multicolor ink ribbon movement amount by a color designation/multicolor ink ribbon movement amount conversion unit 45 in the storage unit 42.

Furthermore, the microprocessor 40 sends the number of pulses corresponding to the amount of movement of the multicolor ink ribbon to the drive circuit 39 of the ribbon shift stepping motor 37, and after the ribbon shift stepping motor 37 has rotated by a predetermined amount, the ribbon shift stepping motor 37 is The fan-shaped gear 36. Ribbon shift plate 31. A color designation command 44 is applied to the multicolor ink ribbon 3 located at the tip 1a of the print head 1 from the lowest position via the ribbon cartridge 4.
Move to the position corresponding to and hold that position.

Next, the microprocessor 4o sends the drive circuit 41 of the print head gap stepping motor 25 a certain amount, such as a lever 27, so that the print head gap returns to its initial value.
A forward signal for two scales is issued at , and after the print head gap returns to the initial value, the print head gap is held at the initial value.

Next, the print data signal 46 is input to the microprocessor 40, and according to the control program 43, a printing operation is started by means not shown.

A second embodiment will be described with reference to a plan view of the main parts shown in FIG.

In the first embodiment, nothing is interposed between the printing paper and the multicolor ink ribbon, but in this embodiment, a ribbon protector 10 is installed in order to prevent the printing paper 9 from being soiled by the multicolor ink ribbon 3. In the case where a ribbon shield 49 is provided, which is made up of a plate 48 having a through hole 47 on its surface corresponding to the tip 1a of the print head 1 to enable printing with dot wires, the ribbon shield 49 is Since a thin plate (usually O, I, or less) is generally used and has elasticity, the multicolor ink ribbon can be moved after widening the print head gap.

FIG. 6 is a side view of the main parts of the third embodiment. In the structure in which a ribbon shield 49 is attached to the ribbon protector 10 and the ribbon shield 49 is urged toward the platen 5, the print head gap can be widened. After that, the multicolor ink ribbon can be moved.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention described in detail above, by providing the multicolor ink ribbon moving mechanism and the printing rad gap moving mechanism that changes the distance between the print head and the printing paper,
When moving the multicolor ink ribbon located at the tip of the print head to change colors, etc., remove the print head from the print paper and move the multicolor ink ribbon at a sufficient distance. When the print head is returned to the printing position after printing is completed, the multicolor ink ribbon may have become fluffy or wrinkled due to long-term use. Sisters,
Even if the multicolor ink ribbon slides and moves between the print head and the print paper, the multicolor ink ribbon can be moved by widening the gap between the print head and the print paper when the multicolor ink ribbon moves. The multicolor ink ribbon moves smoothly without rubbing on the print head or print paper.
It has the effect of preventing color mixing during color printing.

In addition, even if the paper becomes thicker due to the folds of the printing paper being used or the paper staples of bi-leaf paper appearing on the printing surface, smooth printing can be achieved by separating the print head from the printing paper when the multicolor ink ribbon is moved. Color ink ribbons can be switched.

Furthermore, since the distance between the print head and the print paper can be increased when the multicolor ink ribbon is moved, the distance between the print head and the print paper can be narrowed during printing, making it possible to perform high-speed printing. It has the effect of

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the first embodiment, FIG. 2 is a left side view,
Figure 3 is a right side view, Figure 4 is a block diagram of the control section, Figure 5
The figure is a plan view of the main part showing the second embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a side view of the main part showing the third embodiment.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A multicolor ink ribbon switching mechanism in a serial printer, etc., comprising: a multicolor ink ribbon moving mechanism that moves a multicolor ink ribbon located at the tip of a print head in the width direction of the ribbon; and a print head. It has a print head gap moving mechanism that changes the distance between the print head and the print paper, and when the multicolor ink ribbon moves, the print head is moved to sufficiently widen the gap between the print head and the print paper so that the multicolor ink ribbon slides. A multi-color ink ribbon switching mechanism for a printer, characterized in that the multi-color ink ribbon is moved in a state where the multi-color ink ribbon is not moved, and after the multi-color ink ribbon has finished moving, the print head is returned to its original position to perform a printing operation. 2. The multicolor ink for a printer according to claim 1, characterized in that a ribbon shield provided between the printing paper and the multicolor ink ribbon is elastically biased toward the printing paper. Ribbon switching mechanism.