Inked ribbon feed arrangement

An apparatus for feeding an inked ribbon of a highspeed printer for office machines such as accounting machines, terminals, teleprinters or the like, comprising a supply spool wherein said ribbon is lodged, a take-up spool for taking-up said ribbon, first motor means connected to said supply spool for effecting the rotation thereof, second motor means connected to said take-up spool for effecting the rotation thereof, means for intermittently feeding a constant stroke of said inked ribbon from said supply spool to said take-up spool, said feeding means comprising lever means disposed between said two spools and cooperative with said inked ribbon to form a loop thereof corresponding to said contant stroke, said lever means movable between a first position and a second position in which said loop is at a minimum and at a maximum size respectively, means cooperative with said lever means for tensioning said ribbon with a substantially constant force between said supply spool and said takeup spool, first switching means operable by said lever means in said first position for jointly actuating said first motor means and for stopping said second motor means to transfer said ribbon from said supply spool to said loop under the action of said tensioning means and second switching means operable by said lever means in said second position for jointly actuating said second motor means and for stopping said first motor means to transfer said ribbon from said loop to said take-up spool against the action of said tensioning means.

An apparatus for feeding an inked ribbon of a high-speed printer for office machines such as accounting machines, teleprinters or the like, comprising guide means for guiding said inked ribbon along a predetermined path, and feeding means for intermittently feeding a constant stroke of said inked ribbon along said path, said feeding means comprising supply means wherein said ribbon is lodged and actuatable for supplying said ribbon along said path, taking-up means actuatable for taking-up said ribbon, switching means connected to said supply means and said taking-up means for the actuation thereof and selectively operable for alternatively actuating said supply means and said taking-up means and means defining said constant stroke, said defining means comprising:

• a member cooperative with said inked ribbon to define a loop thereof corresponding to said constant stroke, and movable between a first position and a second position in which said loop is at a minimum size and at a maximum size respectively;
• means cooperative with said switching means and connected to said member;
• and
• urging means for urging said member from said first position to said second position, said cooperative means actuating said switching means in said first and second position of said member for the actuation of said taking-up means and said supply means.