Cartridge and printer
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsMinoru Tanabe, Etsuro Suzuki, Masahiko Chaya, Kenji Ito
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cartridge detachable from a printer has a roll paper unit including roll paper, a roller, and flanges, and a separation member used to pull out the roll paper from the roll paper unit. Upon rotating the roll paper unit in a direction to feed out the roll paper, the roll paper is brought into contact with the separation member, thereby pulling out the roll paper from the roll paper unit and feeding out the roll paper to outside the cartridge.
Claims22
A cartridge detachable from a printer for printing an image on roll paper, characterized by comprising:
- roll paper wound around a roller;
- flanges which are provided to end portions of the roller, are used to hold said roll paper wound around the roller, and are made up of elastic members;
- and
- a separation member which is used to feed out said roll paper to outside said cartridge,
- characterized in that said roll paper is brought into contact with said separation member and is fed outside said cartridge when the roller is rotated in a direction to feed out said roll paper, and
- said roll paper which has been fed outside said cartridge is taken up on outer circumferential portions of said flanges and is rewound into said cartridge when the roller is rotated in a direction to rewind said roll paper.
A printer for printing an image on roll paper, characterized by comprising:
- a loading portion in which a cartridge, which has roll paper wound around a roller, flanges which are provided to end portions of the roller, are used to hold the roll paper wound around the roller, and are made up of elastic members, and a separation member which is used to feed out the roll paper to outside the cartridge, is loaded;
- and
- a rotation driving portion for driving rotation of the roller of the cartridge loaded into said loading portion,
- characterized in that the roll paper is brought into contact with the separation member and is fed outside the cartridge when the roller is rotated in a direction to feed out the roll paper, and
- the roll paper which has been fed outside the cartridge is taken up on outer circumferential portions of the flanges and is rewound into the cartridge when the roller is rotated in a direction to rewind the roll paper.
A cartridge detachable from a printer for printing an image by transferring ink applied to an ink ribbon onto a printing medium by a thermal head, characterized by comprising:
- a first housing portion which houses the ink ribbon wound around a supply roller;
- a second housing portion which houses the ink ribbon after the ink ribbon is pulled out from said first storage portion and the ink is transferred onto the printing medium;
- and
- an opening/closing member which is movable between a closing position where said opening/closing member covers the ink ribbon from when the ink ribbon is pulled out from said first housing portion until the ink ribbon is housed in said second housing portion, and an opening position where the ink ribbon is exposed,
- characterized in that when said cartridge is loaded into the printer, said opening/closing member is brought into contact with a contact member of the printer and moves to the opening position.
A cartridge detachable from a printer, characterized by comprising:
- roll paper wound around a roller;
- detection means, arranged inside the roller, for detecting the presence/absence of said roll paper wound at a predetermined position of a surface of the roller from an interior of said roll paper;
- and
- output means for outputting a detection result of said detection means to the printer.
A printer characterized by comprising:
- loading means for loading a cartridge which has roll paper wound around a roller, detection means, arranged inside the roller, for detecting the presence/absence of the roll paper wound at a predetermined position of a surface of the roller from an interior of the roll paper, and output means for outputting a detection result of the detection means to the printer;
- calculation means for, when the detection means detects the absence of the roll paper, calculating a length of the roll paper which remains in said printer, and calculating the number of printable sheets based on the calculated length;
- and
- determination means for determining based on the number of printable sheets calculated by said calculation means and the number of sheets to be printed which is designed in advance whether or not printing is possible to execute.
A printer for printing an image by transferring ink applied to an ink ribbon onto roll paper, characterized by comprising:
- a loading portion which loads a cartridge that houses the roll paper;
- a thermal head which prints an image by transferring the ink applied to the ink ribbon onto the roll paper fed out from the cartridge;
- first conveyance means for conveying the roll paper;
- cutting means for cutting the roll paper;
- second conveyance means for conveying the roll paper, said second conveyance means being arranged at a side that opposes said first conveyance means via a cutting position where said cutting means cuts the roll paper, and in a discharge direction of a conveyance path of the roll paper;
- and
- control means for controlling said first conveyance means and said second conveyance means to convey the roll paper and said cutting means to cut the roll paper,
- characterized in that said control means controls said first conveyance means to stop conveyance of the roll paper, then controls said second conveyance means to stop the conveyance of said roll paper, and controls said cutting means to cut the roll paper.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.