Typewriting machines – Pocket typewriter
Patent
1992-02-28
1993-08-17
Eickholt, Eugene H.
Typewriting machines
Pocket typewriter
400208, 400680, 400693, 4006931, 3122081, 3122083, 3122084, 361807, 361725, 361730, B41J 336
Patent
active
052362655
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a portable printer able to be carried and transported by hand.
The wide-spread use of portable type personal computers and word-processors has led to a growing need for portable printers that can be conveniently carried and transported by hand.
To provide a good portability and transportability thereof, a printer able to be carried and transported by hand must have a spatial configuration, in addition to being made compact and light weight.
BACKGROUND ART
Typical conventional printers having detachable printer heads are known, but it is not possible to change the configurations of these printer bodies per se, since the casings of the printer bodies are formed integrally as a one-body construction.
A small printer is known, however, in which the casing thereof can be separated into two sections, i.e., upper and lower sections, to be freely openable and closable, and thus can perform a printing of normal papers and of passbooks or bankbooks. A printer head and a first paper feeder roller are provided in the upper casing side, and a platen and a second paper feeder roller are provided in the lower casing side. (Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 63-238)
The general type of printers having an overall configuration which cannot be changed must be carried or transported as when used, and therefore, are not suitable for hand-carrying or transporting wherein there is a strict requirement for a spatial configuration thereof convenient for carrying and transporting same.
Even the openable and closable type printer described above, must be carried or transported in the form similar to that when used for printing, and thus it is not truly convenient for carrying and transporting.
Further, in the openable and closable type printer, when the casing is opened, a wide gap exists between the printer head and the platen, allowing an external exposure of the delicate printing mechanism. This creates the possibility that the operator may touch the electronic elements and damage same, or foreign matter may enter therein to cause damage to the mechanism.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a portable printer which can be easily and conveniently hand-carried or transported and in which the possibility of damage to the printing mechanism thereof is lowered.
To accomplish the above-mentioned object, a portable printer according to the present invention, as exemplified in FIG. 1, comprises a plurality of casings 1, 2, a printing mechanism 10 housed within the casings 1, 2 for performing a printing on a paper 100, and a connecting means 3 for connecting the plurality of casings 1, 2 by mating wider surfaces 1a and 2a among the outer surfaces of the respective casings 1, 2, when a printing on the paper 100 by the printing mechanism 10 is performed, and when a printing is not performed, the relative positional relationship to each other of the plurality of the casings 1, 2 can be varied, to thus form an essentially flat single-body configuration thereof overall.
The plurality of casings 1, 2 can be connected by the connecting means 3 such that the plurality of casings 1, 2 have an essentially flat configuration overall when having a single body construction when a printing on the paper 100 is not performed.
Further, the portable printer according to the invention may be constructed such that the connecting means 3 connects the plurality of casings 1, 2 for an opening and closing thereof.
Two casings 1, 2 can be provided and these two casings 1, 2 can be connected at the lower ends thereof by the connecting means 3 when a printing is performed.
A dummy connecting means 9, which performs essentially the same action as the connecting means 3 with respect to each of the casings 1, 2, can be provided in parallel to the connecting means 3, and a cable 31 for an electrical connection between the plurality of casings 1, 2 inserted through the du
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Nagamine Tomoyuki
Nakamura Isao
Okuyama Masaki
Otsuka Masayoshi
Saito Yukio
Eickholt Eugene H.
Fujitsu Isotec Limited
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