Typewriting machines – Including interposed inking device for record-medium – Endless ribbon or cartridge therefor
Patent
1983-06-17
1984-05-29
Pieprz, William
Typewriting machines
Including interposed inking device for record-medium
Endless ribbon or cartridge therefor
400234, 400208, B41J 3202
Patent
active
044511655
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and, more specifically, to an ink ribbon facing mechanism, in which an endless ink ribbon is folded regularly and contained in a ribbon case.
Ink ribbons having a width of several centimeters or less have been used hitherto for low-speed and small-sized typewriters or serial printers, but, recently, they are also being used for middle-speed line printers.
There is a known ink ribbon folding mechanism for a printing apparatus using the above-mentioned type of ink ribbon, which mechanism comprises a ribbon case provided with an inlet and an outlet at opposed ends for an ink ribbon, and a pair of feed rollers disposed at said inlet of the ribbon case, said feed rollers having parallel axes of rotation and being in contact with each other at their peripheries, whereby an endless ink ribbon, which has been passed through the outlet of the ribbon case and a printing station, is pinched between the feed rollers and fed into the ribbon case alternately along the peripheries of the feed rollers so as to be folded regularly by lengths reaching the opposed side walls of the ribbon case.
This known mechanism, however, has a problem which will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 through 3 in the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a conventional line printer with the above-described type of ink ribbon folding mechanism. In this line printer, a type belt 1 is run by means of pulleys 2 and 2', and an endless ink ribbon 3 is passed along the outside of the type belt 1 and drawn by a pair of feed rollers, including a driving roller 4 and a driven roller 4', in the direction of arrow 5, so as to be fed into a ribbon case 6. The ink ribbon 3 is fed into the ribbon case 6 alternately along the peripheries of the feed rollers 4 and 4' so as to be folded regularly by lengths reaching the opposed side walls 6a and 6b (FIGS. 2 and 3) of the ribbon case 6, and advanced in order toward the interior. The ink ribbon 3 contained in the ribbon case 6 in such way is taken out of an outlet 7 of the ribbon case and fed along the type belt 1 again via guide rollers 8. Furthermore, a printing hammer 9 is arranged opposite to the type belt 1, and a printing paper 10 is passed between the printing hammer 9 and the ink ribbon 3, so that the printing hammer 9 causes the ink ribbon 3 and the paper 10 to be struck on the type belt 1, whereby the printing is performed. On the inner side of the type belt 1, a platen 11 is provided for stopping the impact of the printing hammer 9.
When the printing is continuously performed as mentioned above, a surface 12 of the ink ribbon 3 which faces the type belt 1 is struck against the printing types and, accordingly, becomes nappy and rough. Contrary to this, the opposite surface 13 of the ink ribbon 3 is struck by the printing paper 10 and, accordingly, becomes smooth. Therefore, one surface 12 of the ink ribbon 3 becomes a rough surface and the opposite surface 13 of the same becomes a smooth surface. As a result, a phenomenon arises, which will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. When the ink ribbon 3 is folded on the side of the rough surface 12 (that is, when the fold extends toward the side of ribbon case 6 that is closest to the rough surface 12), since the smooth surface 13 is folded inside, the ink ribbon is smoothly folded to reach the normal turning position 14, which is defined by the side wall 6a of the ribbon case 6. However, when the ink ribbon 3 is folded on the opposite side, i.e. on the side of the smooth surface 13, the rough surface 12 is folded inside and, accordingly, due to the large friction, the ink ribbon 3 is turned back at a position 15 before reaching the normal turning position 14' (shown by a dotted line) which is defined by the opposite side wall 6b of the ribbon case. The longer the ink ribbon has been used, the farther away the fold at the position 15 becomes from the side wall 6b and, accordingly, the length of the fold of the ink ribbon becomes shorte
REFERENCES:
patent: 4227820 (1980-10-01), Falcetti
patent: 4243334 (1981-01-01), Shigemeri
patent: 4343556 (1982-08-01), Kobayashi
Dowd, Mobius Guide, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 20, No. 6, p. 2175, 11/77.
Fudatsuji Toshiharu
Imagi Tsutomu
Miura Hiroshi
Fujitsu Limited
Pieprz William
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