Thermal transfer printer including single reversible motor for printing
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorMasahiro Minowa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A thermal transfer printer having an ink ribbon winding mechanism and a heating element biasing mechanism driven by a single motor source is provided. A carriage is slideably mounted on a guide for reciprocating along a platen. A print head including a heating element is mounted on the carriage. An ink ribbon winding means for moving the ink ribbon across the heating element and a head displacing means for displacing the heating element towards the platen during printing and away from the platen when not printing are both mounted on the carriage. The motor is operatively coupled to the ink ribbon winding means and the print head displacing means.
Claims17
A thermal transfer printer wherein a heating element is pressed against a platen to transfer ink from an ink ribbon to a recording medium, comprising:
- a guide;
- a carriage, slideably mounted on the guide for transverse motion opposite the platen;
- a print head including the heating element being mounted on the carriage;
- a motor selectively rotatable in a first direction and a second opposite direction mounted on the carriage;
- ink ribbon forwarding means driven by the motor for moving the ink ribbon across the heating element;
- head displacing means including direction changing means for transforming the rotational motion of the motor into reciprocating motion for displacing the heating element towards the platen during printing and biasing the heating element away from the platen when printing is completed;
- the direction changing means including a rotating member which is capable of at least 360 degrees of rotation;
- and
- transmission means operatively coupled to the motor for engaging the ink ribbon forwarding means and the head biasing means, the transmission means including switching means for selectively engaging the ink ribbon forwarding means when the motor rotates in one direction and the head biasing means when the motor rotates in the opposite direction.
A thermal transfer printer wherein a heating element is pressed against a platen to transfer ink from an ink ribbon to a recording medium, comprising:
- a guide;
- a carriage, slideably mounted on the guide for transverse motion opposite the platen;
- a print head including the heating element being mounted on the carriage;
- a motor mounted on the carriage;
- ink ribbon winding means for moving the ink ribbon across the print head including a winding gear mounted on the carriage and a winding spool rotated by the winding gear;
- head displacing means for displacing the print head towards the platen during printing and biasing the print head away from the platen when printing is completed, including a support member having a cam follower portion rotatably mounted for displacement towards the platen and away from the platen, the print head being mounted on the support member, a rotatable cam mounted on the carriage, the cam follower biased towards and contacting the cam, the cam formed with at least a region of minimum radius for biasing the support member and print head away from the platen and a region of maximum radius for biasing the print head towards the platen, whereby the print head is biased away from the platen when the cam follower portion contacts the cam at a point of the minimum radius and towards the platen when the cam follower portion contacts the cam at a point of the maximum radius;
- and
- transmission means operatively coupled to the motor for engaging the ink ribbon winding means and the head displacing means.
A thermal printer wherein a heating element is pressed against a platen, comprising:
- a guide;
- a carriage, slideably mounted on the guide for transverse motion opposite the platen;
- a print head including the heating element being mounted on the carriage;
- a motor;
- head displacing means including direction changing means for displacing the print head towards the platen during printing and biasing the heating element away from the platen when printing is completed;
- the direction changing means including a rotating member which is capable of at least 360 degrees of rotation by the motor;
- and
- biasing force changing means including the rotating member for changing biasing force of the head against the platen by selecting position of the rotating member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.