Typewriting machines – Sheet or web – For feeding web record-medium
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-02
2001-09-11
Hilten, John S. (Department: 2854)
Typewriting machines
Sheet or web
For feeding web record-medium
C400S076000, C400S070000, C400S061000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06287030
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tape-printing apparatus for printing on a tape, and more particular to a tape-printing apparatus which is capable of setting the length of a marginal area defined between a leading cutting position on a tape and a print-starting position on the same.
2. Prior Art
Recently, there comes into use a tape-printing apparatus called a tape printer or a label word processor. According to a tape-printing apparatus of this kind, printing is effected on a front surface of a portion (hereinafter referred to as a “label portion”) of a continuous tape, and the label portion is cut off to a desired length. Then, a release paper is peeled off the reverse side of the label portion to thereby reveal an adhesive surface of the label portion, whereby the label portion is made attachable to a desired place as a label or the like. The tape-printing apparatus rapidly comes into wide use as a home-use printing apparatus because of the ease of operation and a low price.
On the other hand, higher levels of function are demanded of this kind of tape-printing apparatus, as well. For example, an ordinary tape-printing apparatus requires a certain distance between a printing operation position of a print head thereof and a cutting operation position of a tape cutter thereof for cutting a continuous tape, due to limitations of a mechanism of the apparatus. Accordingly, a leading margin (i.e. margin at a leading end of a label portion in the direction of feeding of the continuous tape) is necessarily formed on the label portion which corresponds to the distance between the cutting operation position and the printing operation position in the apparatus. However, this leading margin has a length larger than desired of a label by the user. To overcome this inconvenience, the tape-printing apparatus is demanded of a capability of automatically forming a leading margin of the label portion to a length desired by the user. A tape-printing apparatus having the function which meets this demand by the user has been proposed e.g. by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-84994.
According to the proposed tape-printing apparatus, when the length of a leading margin of a label portion of a tape is set, a position of a leading edge of the leading margin, i.e. a cutting position on the leading end side of the tape where the tape is cut is determined with reference to a print-starting position on the tape where printing is started, and then the label portion is printed by driving a thermal head while feeding the tape to a cutting operation position of a tape cutter. Then, a tape feed motor is stopped to temporarily place the tape in position for cutting. Then, the tape cutter is operated to cut the tape to thereby form the leading margin of the label portion to the length set by the user.
When the leading edge of the label portion has been cut, the driving of the tape feed motor and printing by the thermal head are resumed. When the printing of the label portion is completed, the tape feed motor is further driven until a position of a trailing edge of a trailing margin which is set to a predetermined length similarly to the leading margin, i.e. a cutting position on the trailing end side of the tape where the tape is cut is brought to the cutting operation position, whereupon the label portion is cut off from the tape. Thus, the label is made which is formed with the leading and trailing margins having desired lengths, as a portion preceding the print-starting position on the tape from which a printed portion starts and a portion following a print-terminating position at which the printed portion terminates, respectively.
However, the conventional tape-printing apparatus suffers from the following inconveniences: When the tape cutter operates, the tape is caught between blades of the tape cutter to be pulled forward, resulting in displacement or an undesired forward shift in position of the tape. Further, when the feeding of the tape is suddenly stopped, the reactionary force against stoppage accumulated within a tape-driving mechanism still feeds the tape forward, resulting in an undesired forward shift in position of the tape. Due to these undesired forward shifts in position of the tape, there can be formed a so-called spaced-dots area between dots printed immediately before cutting the tape and dots printed after the printing is resumed. This results in cleaved printed letters or the like, which degrades the quality of print.
On the other hand, if the feeding of the tape is suddenly accelerated, the driving force is absorbed by the tape-driving mechanism of the apparatus to delay the feeding of the tape, which causes displacement or an undesired backward shift in position of the tape. That is, in this case, there can be formed a so-called jammed-dots area between dots printed immediately before cutting of the tape by the tape cutter and dots printed after the printing is resumed. This also degrades the quality of print.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a tape-printing apparatus which is capable of preventing a tape from being displaced or undesirably shifted in position, which tends to occur in the course of feeding and/or cutting of the tape.
It is another object of the invention to provide a tape-printing apparatus which is capable of preventing degradation of the quality of print, which can be caused when the feeding and printing of a tape are stopped and resumed.
To attain the above objects, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a printing apparatus, comprising:
printing means for printing on a continuous tape;
tape-cutting means for cutting the continuous tape at a predetermined cutting position on the continuous tape, after the predetermined cutting position on the continuous tape has passed the printing means;
tape-feeding means in rolling contact with the continuous tape for feeding the continuous tape in a manner such that the continuous tape faces the printing means and the tape-cutting means;
driving means for driving the tape-feeding means for rotation; and
control means for operating, when the continuous tape is cut, to cause the driving means to stop driving the tape-feeding means for rotation to thereby stop feeding the continuous tape, and thereafter cause the tape-cutting means to cut the continuous tape,
the control means holding the driving means in an energized state during a cutting operation of the tape-cutting means.
According to this tape-printing apparatus, during a cutting operation by the tape-cutting means, the driving means is held in an energized state, whereby permanent magnets of a rotor within the driving means and electromagnets formed by coils on a stator within the same attract each other, to prevent the rotor from rotating. As a result, displacement or an undesired shift in position of the tape is prevented by a larger force than obtained when the driving means is in a non-energized state. That is, it is possible to prevent the operation of the tape-cutting means from causing the displacement of the tape in a forward direction.
Preferably, when the continuous tape is in the process of being printed, the control means causes the tape-cutting means to carry out the cutting operation after the control means causes the tape-feeding means to stop feeding the tape and the printing means to stop printing on the continuous tape.
According to this preferred embodiment, when the tape is cut, the feeding of the tape is stopped and the printing is also stopped. On this occasion, when the tape-cutting means cuts the tape, the displacement of the tape is prevented as described above, so that by resuming the printing and feeding of the tape thereafter, the same quality of print as can be obtained without interrupting the printing and feeding of the tape can be preserved. That is, it is possible to prevent a spaced-dots area from being formed between dots printed immediately before cutting the tape and dots printed immediately after cutting the
Aida Chieko
Furuya Yoshikiyo
Kameda Takanobu
Shimmura Tomoyuki
Takeuchi Yoshiyuki
Hilten John S.
Hogan & Hartson L.L.P.
Nolan, Jr. Charles H.
Seiko Epson Corporation
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