US 4,061,219 AGranted

Printing device

AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsTatsuo Nishikawa, Toshiaki Ozawa

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Abstract

A printing device includes a wire printing head provided with a plurality of closely adjacent printing wires movable back and forth with respect to a web of printing paper with inking ribbon interposed therebetween. The device further includes a pair of spools for taking up the inking ribbon and a carriage for supporting thereon these spools and the printing head in an associated relationship. The carriage may be moved along a print line in a first direction by first drive means, and in a second direction opposite to the first direction by second drive means. Means is provided to rotatively drive said spools on the carriage in response to the movement of the carriage imparted by the first drive means. The shift of the carriage from the first direction to the second direction may be provided by an automatic reversing mechanism. The rotation of the spools on the carriage may be stopped by stop means when the carriage is being moved by the second drive means.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A printing device comprising

a pair of spools mounted on a carriage for supplying and winding up a ribbon for printing, said spools each having a shaft;
a motor;
and
means mounted on said carriage for transmitting the rotational force of said motor to one of said spools, said transmitting means including, a first gear driven by means adjacent said carriage engaging said first gear, a plurality of gears rotatably in mesh with said first gear, a turret head disposed coaxially with said first gear for rotatable movement and having thereon said plurality of gears, an index gear coaxially and integrally provided with said turret head, a ball fitted in a valley portion of said index gear, a spring for pressing said ball, a screw for fixing and adjusting the urging force of said spring, intermediate gears mounted on said carriage for selective engagement with one of said plurality of gears, and spool gears provided on the shafts of said pair of spools, respectively, to be in mesh with said intermediate gears, and wherein said intermediate gears transmit the motor rotational force to one of said spool gears upon being selectively rotated by one of said plurality of gears and said plurality of gears, turret head, index gear, ball, spring and screw are employed to automatically switch the ribbon feeding when the ribbon has been exhausted from one of said pair of spools.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.