Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Coil holder or support – Mounted coil holder or spindle
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-06
2002-12-10
Jillions, John M. (Department: 3654)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Coil holder or support
Mounted coil holder or spindle
C242S596400, C242S596700
Reexamination Certificate
active
06491252
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a winding core holding mechanism for supporting a winding core on which a thin medium such as paper, film or cloth is wound in a roll, relates to a roll medium holding device having the winding core holding mechanism, and relates to a winding device using those. More specifically, the present invention relates to a winding core holding mechanism suitable for supporting a winding core on which a roll paper output by a large-scale printer is wound, and a winding device using this. Also, the present invention relates to a roll medium holding device suitable for holding a roll paper output by a large-scale printer, and a winding device using this.
2. Description of the Related Art
Normally used as drawing media for large-scale full color printers (of ink jet or electrostatic recording types) are papers, films, or cloths wound on a pipe-like paper tube made of cardboard. One of the means for storing a printed medium is to wind a printed medium
100
on a paper tube
102
by a winding device
101
to store the medium
100
in a roll, as illustrated in
FIGS. 26 and 27
.
In a device for supplying the medium
100
to a printer
104
(not illustrated) or in the winding device
101
, the roll medium
100
is held such that the paper tube
102
, on which the medium
100
is wound, is sandwiched by winding core holding members
103
from both sides. Also, the paper tube
102
to be installed in the winding device
101
is the same kind as the paper tube
102
of the medium used in the supply side.
There are two kinds of paper tubes that are normally used according to the hardness and winding characteristics of the medium
100
: of 2-inch or 3-inch diameter. In order to hold two kinds of paper tubes
102
in a single winding device
101
, the 2-inch core holding member and the 3-inch core holding member are interchangeably used through attachment/detachment thereof. Otherwise, as illustrated in
FIG. 28
, a 2-inch core holding portion
115
is formed on one side of the winding core holding member
103
and a 3-inch core holding portion
106
is formed on the other.
Since the paper tube
102
is made of cardboard, the inner diameter of the paper tube
102
varies by about 2.5 mm. For example, the inner diameter of a &phgr;2 inch paper tube may vary within the range 450 mm to +52.5 mm. For this reason, a holding portion
103
a
of the winding core holding member
103
is made in a conical shape to hold the paper tube
102
with the tapered surface so that the paper tube is centered and held even if the inner diameter of the tube
102
is not uniform.
Furthermore, the medium
100
is output in sizes of B
0
, A
0
through A
2
, for example. Therefore, roll media of various widths are on the market to meet these size requirements. To meet with media
100
of different widths, one of the winding core holding members
103
may be configured capable of sliding with respect to a stay in the axial direction of the paper tube
102
, i.e., in the width direction W of the medium
100
, as illustrated in FIG.
30
.
To hold the paper tube
102
using the above, the winding core holding member
103
is slid in the width direction W according to the width of the medium
100
to sandwich the paper tube
102
. A knob
105
is turned to secure the winding core holding member to the stay
106
so that the winding core holding member
103
will not become loose and the paper tube
102
will not come off. Although the winding core holding member
103
is secured by a screw in this example, a pin may be used as a position fixing means to secure the winding core holding member
103
to the stay
106
.
However, using this winding core holding member
103
, the components need to be changed according to the diameter of the paper tube
102
as illustrated in FIG.
28
. This results in poor operability due to complicated attaching and detaching operations. Also, a cap, fixture, etc. may be lost during the operation of the attaching/detaching of the components. Moreover, because the winding core holding member
103
uses two different components depending on the size of the paper tube
102
, one of the components which is not in use may be lost while the other component is in use.
Furthermore, since the winding core holding member
103
supports the non-uniform inner diameter of the paper tube
102
with the tapered surface of the holding portion
103
a
, the position on the tapered surface to stop the paper tube
102
varies depending on the size of the inner diameter of the tube
102
. Therefore, although the paper tube
102
is centered, the end face
102
a
thereof in the width direction W cannot be constantly positioned at the same position in the width direction W. For this reason, the center of the winding position of the paper tube
102
is shifted from the center of the winding core of the medium
100
output by the printer
104
. If the front end of the medium
100
is set and attached along the width of the paper tube
102
and winding is started under this condition, the medium
100
easily wanders off, making a winding-up difficult. In view of this, a paper tube
102
slightly longer than the width of the medium
100
needs to be used. With this, however, a winding core which is exclusively used for the winding purpose should be used for every medium of different width. This results in complicated storing and managing of the cores. Also, the paper tube
102
that was used in the supply side cannot be recycled. Moreover, the paper tube
102
has ends which stick out of the edges of the roll medium after winding-up.
In addition, when the winding core holding member
103
is positioned and fixed by a rotation of the knob
105
or by a pin, two different sliding and locking/unlocking operations are required for moving/locking or unlocking/moving the winding core holding member
103
. This results in poor operability. Particularly, to move the winding core holding member
103
to detach the medium
100
after winding, the heavy wound-up roll medium
100
is handled with a single hand. Thus, he operation becomes troublesome.
If a winding core is used exclusively for a winding purpose, instead of using the recycled paper tube
102
, the winding core may be easily attached/detached to the winding device
101
or to the printer
104
. With this, however, a winding core needs to be prepared for every medium of different width. This results in complicated storing and maintaining of the components, and also the paper tube
102
that is no longer needed in the supply side will be wasted.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Then, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a winding core holding mechanism which can hold two kinds of winding cores of different sizes without changing components and can position both kinds of winding cores at a predetermined reference position, and a winding device using the core holding mechanism.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a roll medium holding device which can easily attach/detach a winding core such as a paper tube, and a winding device using the roll medium holding device.
To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a winding core holding mechanism for holding at least one of the end portions of a winding core on which a thin medium such as paper, film, or cloth is wound, comprising a base fixed in the axial direction of the winding core, a larger diameter reference portion, which is capable of axially moving in and out of the base and which abuts to an end face of the winding core, a tapered larger diameter centering portion, which is capable of axially moving in and out of the larger diameter reference portion and which fits into the winding core of larger diameter, a smaller diameter reference portion, which is capable of axially moving in and out of the base and which abuts to an end face of the winding core of smaller diameter, and a tapered smaller diameter centering portion, which is capable of axially moving in and out of the smal
Komatsu Fumito
Takasawa Kiyotsugu
Ueno Noboru
Jillions John M.
Reed Smith LLP
Sankyo Seiki Mfg Co., Ltd.
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