Typewriting machines – Sheet or web – Including insertion of sheet from front of platen
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-11
2003-01-14
Hirshfeld, Andrew H. (Department: 2854)
Typewriting machines
Sheet or web
Including insertion of sheet from front of platen
C400S617000, C400S120160, C400S120170
Reexamination Certificate
active
06505981
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer using thermal recording technology, for example, and, particularly, relates to a printer which can print on both a recording sheet for a label on a base sheet (hereinafter called label paper) and normal recording paper (hereinafter called plain paper) as a recording medium.
2. Related Art
Heretofore, work for sticking on commodities a label on which a bar code showing the price of a product, a destination of delivery and so on are printed, is performed in a store, a physical distribution center and others. Recently, a portable small-sized printer for issuing such a label has been proposed.
FIG. 7
is a schematic drawing showing the internal constitution of a conventional type printer for issuing a label.
As shown in
FIG. 7
, roll label paper
103
in which plural labels
102
are stuck on a base sheet
101
is loaded into a printer
100
. A thermal head
106
is attached to a printer cover
105
which can be opened or closed against a printer body
104
. The printer
100
is constituted so that the thermal head
106
presses the label paper
103
against a platen roller
107
when the printer cover
105
is closed, and predetermined printing is performed on the label
102
.
A contact member
108
is provided over the platen roller
107
and the base sheet
101
of the label paper
103
is bent when pressed against the platen roller
107
by a pressing roller
109
provided on the end of the printer cover
105
. Owing to such constitution, when the label paper
103
is fed after printing, the base sheet
101
and the label
102
are separated because of the rigidity of the label
102
and the label
102
is ejected from an ejection port
110
provided in the printer cover
105
. In the meantime, the base sheet
101
of the label paper
103
is ejected from another ejection port formed at the front of the printer body
104
.
The printer
100
can also print on rolled plain paper not shown instead of the above label paper
103
, and in that case, printed plain paper is ejected from the ejection port
110
of the printer cover
105
.
However, the conventional type printer
100
constituted as described above has the following problems.
That is, a printer provided with a mechanism for separating the above label has a problem that when plain paper is set, the leading end of the plain paper is required to be passed through the ejection port
110
of the printer cover
105
and the work is very troublesome and causes waste of time in setting the plain paper roll.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to solve such problems of prior art and to facilitate setting of plain paper as well as label paper in a printer which can print on both plain paper and label paper.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer capable of printing a recording medium including a base sheet and at least one label sheet detachably adhered thereon, comprising: a print head and platen opposing each other for printing the recording medium; a printer housing for housing said print head and platen; an ejection port, provided on said printer housing, from which the recording medium is ejected after having been printed by said print head and platen; and a separator for curving the base sheet ejected from said ejection port to separate the leading edge of the label sheet from the base sheet.
According to the present invention, a transportation path is provided through which the base sheet is curved by the separator after the recording medium printed by the print head and the platen is ejected from the ejection port. Thus, the plain paper which does not require use of the separator can be directly received from the ejection port. Thus, the plain paper can be set more easily without threading the separator.
In this case, it is preferable to employ a contact member arranged on the ejection port and at a platen side of the ejection port and a guide member for guiding the base sheet downstream of said contact member to be curved by said contact member.
In this situation, it is preferable that the guide member is movably provided so as to be released from the separating position where the guide member, in cooperation with the contact member, curves the recording medium to separate the leading edge of the label sheet.
When a recording medium is set, the separator is arranged in a predetermined standby position with the print head and the platen arranged opposite, and the label paper is carried and then positioned. After then, when the guide member is moved to a pressing position, the base sheet of the label paper as the recording medium is curved by the contact member. Therefore, if the label paper is further carried in the above arrangement, the leading edge of the label sheet is naturally separated from the base sheet because of the rigidity of the label sheet.
Further, it is preferable to provide the guide member with a roller for transporting the base sheet. Thus, the function of the guide member namely that the base sheet is transported in a curved manner by means of the contact member is facilitated.
Moreover, in this condition, it is preferable to provide a detector for detecting the label sheet and a driver for moving the guide member, such that the driver moves the guide member to the separating position in accordance with detection of the label sheet by the detector.
According to the present invention, the recording medium set up operation is performed automatically and smoothly. Thus facilitating the operability or the printer.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer capable of printing a recording medium including a base sheet and at least one label sheet detachably adhered thereon comprising: a print head and platen opposing each other for printing the recording medium; a first printer housing for housing the platen; a second printer housing movably connected to the first printer housing for housing the print head; an ejection port, defined at the border of the first and second printer housings, from which the recording medium is ejected after having been printed by the print head and platen; and a separator for curving the base sheet ejected from the ejection port to separate the leading edge of the label sheet from the base sheet.
In this case, it is preferable to provide the separator on the first printer housing. And, it is further preferable that the separator comprises a contact member arranged on the ejection port and at platen side of said ejection port and a guide member for guiding the base sheet downstream of said contact member to be curved by said contact member. The contact member is preferably arranged on the first printer housing, and the guide member is movably mounted on the second housing. It is also effective that the above platen is provided on one printer housing, while the above print head and a head controller for controlling the operation of the print head are provided inside the other housing.
As a result, the print head and the head controller are arranged inside the same printer housing, wiring can be completed without passing a movable part and hereby, the wiring of the print head can be facilitated. In addition, if the print head and the head controller are arranged closely, wiring for the print head can be shortened and, hereby, the effect of electric noise upon the print head can be reduced and the cost of the wiring for the head can also be reduced.
Further, according to one embodiment of the present invention, since a print head and a head controller can be connected with wiring extended inside a main printer housing and in addition, wiring for the head can be constituted without passing a movable part, a destruction of the wiring to the print head due to a frequent bending can be avoided.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, since the print head is provided inside the main printer housing and foreign matter such as dust hardly invades in its driving part, there
Takami Toru
Tsukada Toshihiro
Crenshaw Marvin P.
Hirshfeld Andrew H.
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
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