High speed dual pitch impact printer
AssigneeComputer Peripherals, Inc.
InventorKenneth Staugaard
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An impact printer is capable of printing at either ten characters per inch or fifteen characters per inch by changing the type character carrying member. The print hammers are spaced at the same distance apart as are the type characters on the carrying member or band and the hammers are displaced from a home position by one space for printing the fifteen characters per inch at a higher speed than when printing at ten characters per inch. The hammers are time shared and are caused to be moved or shifted a precise distance of 4 increments of 1/30 inch each for a standard pitch band at ten characters per inch or a precise distance of 2 increments of 1/30 inch each for a compressed pitch band at fifteen characters per inch.
Claims20
An impact printer capable of printing at one or another character pitch,
- a plurality of removable type character carrying members, one member having characters defining standard pitch and another member having characters defining compressed pitch, each of said characters being spaced at a predetermined distance thereon,
- a plurality of impact members adjacent a selected one of said type character carrying members and spaced at a like predetermined distance as said characters,
- means for conditioning said impact members in accordance with the pitch of said characters on the selected one of said type character carrying members, and,
- means for plural print column shifting of said impact members for printing at one rate in standard pitch mode and for singular print column shifting of said impact members for printing at a higher rate in compressed pitch mode.
In a printer, means for printing characters at one rate in a standard character pitch mode and for printing characters at a higher rate in a compressed character pitch mode, a
- plurality of removable type character carrying members, one member having standard pitch characters and another member having compressed pitch characters thereon, said type characters being spaced at a predetermined distance, a
- plurality of impact members adjacent said type characters and spaced at a like distance,
- means for sensing said one or another character pitch for printing in either standard or compressed pitch mode dependent upon the type character carrying member on the printer, and
- means for plural column shifting of said impact members for printing at one rate in standard pitch mode and for singular column shifting of said impact members for printing at a higher rate in compressed pitch mode.
For printing characters in a select one of two pitch modes, an impact printer including:
- a type character carrying member having characters thereon spaced a first predetermined distance from each other;
- a plurality of impact members adjacent said type character carrying member and spaced a second predetermined distance from each other;
- means for shifting said impact members over a first set of printing positions for printing each line of characters in a standard pitch mode, and for shifting said impact members over a second set of printing positions for printing each line in a compressed pitch mode, said first set including a greater number of printing positions than said second set;
- and
- means for selecting one of said character pitch modes and means for conditioning said impact members in accordance with the selected mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.