JPS63299967A - Elastic ink ribbon deformation type printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce noise generated at the time of a printing operation, by setting arm plates by a return torque-supplying means at the time of not applying a printing pressure, and selectively rotating the arm plates by electromagnetic driving means to press an ink ribbon against a recording paper by each printing pressure-applying part at the time of applying the printing pressure. CONSTITUTION:When an electromagnet 24a is selectively energized while an ink ribbon 19 is fed by a feeding pulley 18, an attraction part 20c of an arm plate 20 is attracted by the electromagnet 24a, whereby the arm plate 20 is rotated to the position indicated by a two-dotted chain line to press a local part of the ribbon 19 by a printing pressure-applying part 20a. Then, the pressed part of the ribbon 19 is locally projected, and is pressed against a recording paper 31 set on a platen 30, whereby an ink supported by the pressed part of the ribbon 19 is transferred to the paper 31 in a dot form. With the energization of the electromagnet 24a being stopped, the electromagnet 24a is returned to an original aligned position thereof by an energizing force of a helical spring 22, resulting in a stand-by condition for the next energization.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field The present invention relates to an elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device, and more particularly belongs to the field of hard copy technology, and relates to a vine impact type printing device applied to printers such as word processors. .

As for the printing methods of conventional printers, the impact type wire tod method, the non-bact type thermal transfer method, inkjet method, and laser printing method are known, and each method has various advantages. There are disadvantages.

First, let's look at the non-impact type: 1. Although the % transfer method is superior in terms of device manufacturing costs, it has the problem of slow printing speed and high running costs because the ink ribbon is a one-time type.The inkjet method has a relatively low printing speed. Although it is quick and has low running costs, it is prone to clogging and has maintenance problems.The laser printing method has a significantly faster printing speed than other methods, but the equipment itself is very expensive. It has the problem of becoming.

On the other hand, the impact type wire tod method is currently the most widely used along with the thermal transfer method, and has the advantages of relatively fast printing speed, ability to produce multiple hard copies at the same time, and low running costs. However, the problem is that the noise during printing operation becomes very loud.

Therefore, the present invention was created for the purpose of providing an impact type printing device which has the advantages of the wire tod method and which can minimize the noise during printing operation which is the disadvantage thereof. .

Construction The basic construction of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, which respectively show a plan view and a sectional side view of the printing device.

1 is an arm plate, 2 is a shaft, and a part 1a of the side peripheral surface of the arm plate 1 becomes a printing pressure part. A plurality of arm plates 1 are stacked one on top of the other, with a shaft 2 passing through them, and each arm plate 1 is rotatable about the shaft 2.

Further, each arm plate 1 is provided with a return torque supplying means 3 that urges each arm plate 1 in one rotation direction when no pressure is applied and sets the printing pressure portions 1a in an aligned state, and a return torque supply means 3 for setting each arm plate 1 in a state in which the printing pressure portions 1a are aligned when no pressure is applied, and a return torque supply means 3 for each arm plate 1 when pressure is not applied. l
An electromagnetic drive means 4 is provided for selectively rotating the rotation direction in the direction opposite to the direction of rotation caused by the above-mentioned return torque.

The above is the configuration of the printing pressure mechanism, and the printing of the present invention? Furthermore, it has a special elastic ink ribbon 5 and an ink ribbon mechanism 6.

The elastic ink ribbon 5 is renewed and transferred by the ink ribbon mechanism 6 to the front surface of the printing pressure section 1a of the stacked arm plates l, but under a constant tension, the elastic ink ribbon 5 It has elasticity such that only the pressed portion is deformed protrudingly when pressed by the printing pressure portion 1a.

That is, when the elastic ink ribbon 5 is pressed against the recording paper 8 set on the platen 7 by the printing pressure portion 1a of the arm plate l, the ink carried thereon is transferred onto the recording paper 8. The dots recorded by the pressure of the printing pressure part 1a of one arm plate 1 have enough deformability to be resolved with respect to the dots recorded by the printing pressure part la of the adjacent arm plate l. Is it necessary?

In the above configuration, when no pressure is applied, the arm plate 1 is set to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the ink ribbon 5 is pressed against the recording paper 8 by each printing pressure section 1a.

At this time, due to the local deformation of the elastic ink ribbon 5, the dots produced by the pressure of the negative printing pressure part 1a can be resolved as independent dots from the dots produced by the pressure of the adjacent printing pressure part 1a. Characters can be printed on the recording paper 7 by selectively driving each arm plate l by the arm plate 4.

1. Unlike the conventional wire tod system, which uses a wire hammer to print on the recording paper through the ink ribbon, the printing device of the present invention applies the printing pressure portion 1a to the ink ribbon 5 by rotating the arm plate l. Since it uses a sliding pressure contact method, noise during printing is extremely low.

EXAMPLE Hereinafter, an example apparatus of the present invention will be explained using FIGS. 3 to 11.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the embodiment device 11 attached to the guide shaft 13 via the linear bearing 12.
The entire device 11 operates while being guided by the guide shaft 13 by the operation of a wire 15 attached to a carrier 14 which is a substrate on which the device 11 is mounted. In addition, 16 is a main body part, and 17 is an ink tank part which is a replacement part.

Although not shown in the figure, in an actual printer, a platen roller on which recording paper is set is provided in front of the printing pressure section of the main body. The Bralen roller may be arranged so that the axis of the roller is parallel to or perpendicular to the moving direction of the device 11.

The internal structure when the cover of the main body part 16 and the ink tank part 17 are removed is shown in the perspective view of FIG.

In the figure, each component is mounted on the carrier 14, and 18 is a pulley for conveying an ink ribbon, and 19 is a pulley for conveying an ink ribbon.
20 is an arm plate, 21 is a shaft passing through a plurality of arm plates 20, 22 is a helical spring, 23 is a shaft fixing one end of the helical spring, 24 is an electromagnet unit, and 25 is an ink ribbon which is an endless band. 26 is an ink application roller, 27 is an ink connecting portion, 28 is a cleaning plate, and 29 is a solenoid.

First, the ink ribbon conveying pulley 18 supplies driving force to the ink ribbon 19, which rotates endlessly while maintaining a constant tension in a ring path around the pulley 18 and the arm plate 20. Since the driving force is supplied by friction between the ink ribbon 19 and the ink ribbon 19, it is possible to make the surface of the ink ribbon 19 suitably rough, or to form irregularities on both sides of the ink ribbon 19 to mesh with the irregularities. Can be adopted.

The ink ribbon 19 needs to have a width determined by the number of stacked arm plates 20 and be a flexible elastic body.

That is, when the thickness of the arm plate 20 is several thousand tm to lnnm, when one arm plate 20 rotates around the shaft 21 and presses the ink ribbon 19 from the inside with the printing pressure part at its tip. , only the suppressed part is 0°1m
It is made of a thin elastic body that protrudes by approximately several millimeters.

This is a requirement for this printing device to be able to resolve 11-t, and materials that meet this requirement include natural rubber,
Synthetic rubber, plastic film, etc. can be used, and the thickness will vary depending on the required resolution, but it can be up to several +7 tm.
It is about lnnm. Note that the width is determined by the number of stacked arm plates 20 as described above, and this corresponds to the size of the character printed with one stroke of the carrier 14.

As for the structure of the ink ribbon, a multi-layer structure can be adopted, and at least one layer can be made of rubber or plastic, or made of mesh or fabric. In particular, those made of mesh or textiles,
If the amount of impregnated ink is large, the amount of ink supplied from the ink application roller 26 can be reduced, and if conditions permit, the amount of ink supplied from the ink application roller 26 can be reduced.
6 can also be made unnecessary.

The assembly of the arm plates 20 and the shaft 21 is shown in the perspective view of FIG. The printing pressure part 20a and the other end of the helical spring 22 are attached to a part 20b, and a suction part 20c is further formed at a position facing the electromagnet unit 24.

The thickness of each arm plate 20 is a factor that determines the resolution during dot printing, but it is usually about 0.1 mm, and the arm plates 20 can be stacked at 10 sheets/mm. Further, by improving the printing pressure section 20a and the electromagnet unit, it is possible to reduce the thickness to about 0°O1 to 0.02 mrn, and it is also possible to stack 50 to 100 sheets/mm. The shape of the printing pressure part 20a may be a rectangular tip or a rectangular shape, but in order to avoid damaging the ink ribbon 19, it is preferable to have a curved surface as shown in the figure. Also, when printing pressure is applied via the ink ribbon 19, the dots transferred to the recording paper side are rectangular, circular or oval, and there is no problem.

The suction portions 20c may be located at the same location on all arm plates 20, but in this case, they may be placed in a staggered manner for each arm plate to prevent magnetic interference of the electromagnets and also taking into account the size of the coil. It is formed in two different positions so that it can be used. Incidentally, the entire arm plate may be made of a magnetic material, or only the attraction portion 20c may be made of a magnetic material.

The assembly of the helical spring 22 and the shaft 23 is shown in the perspective view of FIG. It is attached to part 2°b.

Suction part 20 of arm plate 20 in electromagnet unit 24
The side facing the arm plate 24 has a structure as shown in FIG.

As shown in the perspective view of FIG. 8, the ink connecting section 27 has an ink introducing vibe 27a from the ink tank 17 shown in FIG. In addition, a slit 27b is formed at the tip, and the ink is uniformly transferred to the ink application roller 26 from the slit.

Note that this ink connecting portion 27 is rotatably supported by a pin 14a of the carrier 14 on the lower side thereof.

The ink application roller 26 carries the ink transferred from the slit 27b of the ink connecting portion 27 around its periphery, and rotates while contacting the ink ribbon 19 to uniformly transfer the ink to the ink ribbon 19. Application roller 2
If the amount of ink carried in tank 6 is increased, ink tank 1
It is also possible to eliminate the need for the ink connecting portion 7 and the ink connecting portion 27.

In the above configuration, when the electromagnet 24a is selectively energized while the ink ribbon 19 is being conveyed by the conveying pulley 18, as shown in FIG.
is attracted by the electromagnet 24a, the arm plate 20 rotates to the position shown by the two-dot chain line, and the local printing pressure portion 2 of the ink ribbon 19 is
Press at 0a. Then, the ink ribbon 1 of the pressing part
9 protrudes locally and is pressed against the recording paper 31 set on the platen 30, thereby transferring the carried ink to the recording paper 31 side in the form of dots. When the electromagnet 24a is energized or stopped, the biasing force of the helical spring 22 causes
It returns to its original alignment position and enters a standby state for the next energization.

Furthermore, spacers 2 are provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the arm plate 20 and shaft 21 assembly as shown in FIG.
5 is provided, and the ink ribbon 19 of the pressing section is
The distance (X) between the ink ribbon 19 and the recording paper 31 that the ink ribbon 19 contacts the recording paper 31 only when the ink ribbon 19 and the recording paper 31 protrude
are separated. Therefore, when the arm plate 20 or the ink ribbon 19 is not pressed.

Without the ink ribbon 19 coming into contact with the recording paper 31,
This prevents the recording paper 31 from being stained due to unnecessary sliding contact of the ink ribbon 19 with the recording paper 31.

In this way, whether character printing is to be executed or not, the ink ribbon 19 is coated with the application roller 2 as described above.
Since ink is supplied from 6, the ink ribbon will never run out of ink.

Since the ink is transferred from the connecting portion 27 to the ink ribbon 19 via the application roller 26 under the above operating conditions, it is required to have a relatively high viscosity, and an ink having a viscosity of 1 to 5000 centivoise is used. In addition, it is desirable that the remaining ink be oil-based with low volatility so that the properties of the remaining ink do not change over time and become different from the new ink.

However, it is necessary to dry quickly after being transferred to the recording paper 31, so the ink layer during printing is made thin.

By the way, even when ink with low volatility is used, if the ink on the ink ribbon 19 is left as is until the next printing operation after a printing operation is completed, the quality of the ink deteriorates over time and printing can be performed smoothly. become unable.

Therefore, a cleaning device as shown in FIG. 10 is used which is interlocked with the operation of the ink application roller 26 and the like.

In this cleaning device, an end of a lever 33 that is rotated around a fixed shaft 32 of a carrier 14 by a solenoid 29 and an end of a lever 35 that is rotated around a fixed shaft 34 are connected by a pin 36. , a cleaning blade 28 is attached to the pin 36,
The shaft of the coating roller 26 is attached to the other end of the lever 35, and the lever 35 is biased by a coil spring 37 in a direction to separate the coating roller 26 from the ink ribbon 19. Note that the ink connecting portion 27 is always connected to the application roller 2.
A biasing torque is supplied by a helical spring 38 so as to abut the spring 6.

In this configuration, in the printing state, when the solenoid 29 is turned on and the operating rod is retracted, the lever 33.35 rotates against the biasing force of the coil spring 37, releasing the cleaning blade 28 from the ink ribbon 19, and releasing the cleaning blade 28 from the ink ribbon 19. 26 is brought into contact with the ink ribbon 19, and on the other hand, when the non-printing state is reached, the solenoid 29 is turned off, and the levers 33 and 35 are rotated in the opposite direction by the biasing force of the coil spring 37, and the cleaning plate 28 or the ink is removed. Upon contacting the ribbon 19, the applicator roller 26 is released from the ink ribbon 19.

Therefore, when the conveying pulley 18 is rotated a predetermined number of times after the solenoid 29 is turned off, the ink carrying surface of the ink ribbon 19 is cleaned.

In the above configuration, the ink ribbon is an endless band and is rotated endlessly. As shown in FIG. Ink ribbon 42
Alternatively, when this cassette system is adopted, the ink ribbon 42 can only be transported and rewound, instead of being a one-time system, and the ink applicator and cleaning device described above can be added. This also allows for repeated use.

It is desirable that the hardness of the platen has good linearity in order to prevent staining of non-printed areas.In other words, it is desirable to have a platen with high hardness. This results in the problem that the concentration at From this point of view, the hardness of the rubber used for the platen should be selected within the range of about 20 to 90''. This can be dealt with by adapting the curvature of the platen to the curvature of the platen, or by increasing the amount of protrusion displacement during printing pressure in the vertical direction from the center.

As described above, the elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device of the present invention uses an impact method, but generates extremely little noise during printing compared to a wire tod printing device.

Furthermore, as shown in the embodiments, by adding an ink supply device and a cleaning device, it is possible to provide a printer that maintains stable print quality with low running costs.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a printing device showing the basic configuration of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a side sectional view of the same, Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the embodiment device attached to the guide shaft, and Fig. 4 is the internal configuration when the main body cover and ink tank of the printing device are removed. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the arm plate and shaft assembly, FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the helical spring and shaft assembly, FIG. 7 is a view showing the surface of the electromagnet unit, and FIG. The figure is a perspective view of the ink connecting section, Figure 9 is a plan view showing how the arm plate operates, Figure 10 is a plan view showing the configuration of the cleaning device and ink supply device, and Figure 11 is a plan view showing how the ink ribbon cassette is used. FIG. l...Arm plate 1a...Side peripheral surface (printing pressure part) 2...
- Shaft 3... Return torque supply device 4... Electromagnetic drive means 5... Ink ribbon 6... Ink ribbon mechanism
7...Platen 8...Recording paper

Claims (13)

[Claims] (1) A plurality of arm plates are layered with a part of the side peripheral surface serving as the printing pressure part, and each arm plate is rotatable around an axis that passes through the stacked arm plates, and there is no printing pressure. a return torque supply means that biases each arm plate in one rotational direction at the time of printing and sets the printing parts in an aligned state; and an electromagnetic drive that selectively rotates each arm plate in the opposite rotational direction at the time of printing. An elastic ink ribbon that is deformed in a protruding manner only at the pressed area under the pressure of the printing part of the single arm plate when a certain tension is applied to the arm plate when no printing pressure is applied. An elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device comprising an ink ribbon mechanism that renews and transports the ink ribbon while applying the above-mentioned constant tension in front of the printing pressure section. (2) The electromagnetic driving means of the printing mechanism is such that the entire or part of each arm plate is made of magnetic material, and an electromagnet is arranged at a position facing a part of the side peripheral surface of each arm plate, and each electromagnet is selected. An elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to claim 1, wherein a corresponding arm plate is rotated by electrically energizing the elastic ink ribbon. (3) Claims in which the return torque supplying means of the printing pressure mechanism is such that one end is a fixed end and the other end of each helical spring is attached to the end of the arm plate to supply torque to the arm plate. The elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to item (1) or item (2). (4) A spacer near the stacked arm plates that separates the ink ribbon and recording paper by a distance that allows the ink ribbon to come into contact with the recording paper only when the printing pressure part of the arm plate presses the ink ribbon during printing. An elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to claim (1), (2) or (3). (5) The ink ribbon is in a cassette.
4) The elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device described in item 4). (6) Claim (1) wherein the ink ribbon is an endless ribbon, and the ink ribbon mechanism rotates and transports the ink ribbon in a ring path around the printing pressure mechanism;
The elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to item (2), item (3), item (4), or item (5). (7) An elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to claim (6), wherein an ink supply device to the ink ribbon is provided in the ring path. (8) An ink supply device comprising an application roller that applies ink to an ink ribbon, an ink tank, and a connecting portion that guides ink from the ink tank and carries the ink through a slit on the outer periphery of the application roller. The elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to scope (7). (9) An elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to claim (8), wherein the ink tank is replaceable. (10) In the ink ribbon transport direction of the ring path, a cleaning device is provided after the printing pressure section of the arm plate and in front of the ink supply device, and after printing is completed, the application roller is separated from the ink ribbon, and the cleaning device inks the ink. Claims (7) and (7) that purify the ribbon
The elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to item 8) or item (9). (11) The elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to claim (7), wherein the ink supply device is an ink roller that constantly carries ink. (12) Claims (1), (2), and (3) in which the ink ribbon consists of one or more layers, at least one of which is made of a rubber material or a plastic material.
), (4), (5), (6), (7)
Section, Section (8), Section (9), Section (10) or Section (
11) The elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to item 11). (13) Claims (1), (2), and (3), wherein the ink ribbon consists of one or more layers, at least one of which is made of mesh or fabric; Clause (4), Clause (5), Clause (6), Clause (7), Clause (
The elastic ink ribbon deformable printing device according to item 8), item (9), item (10), or item (11).