Hand operated imprinter apparatus

In a hand operated imprinter for imprinting characters from a card-like character source member such as a credit card or the like onto a sheet material document, comprising an elongated generally rectangular base member having a flat upwardly facing panel forming a document supporting surface, a reciprocative carrier member transversely spanning the base member supporting imprinter roller means and movable longitudinally over the document supporting panel from a start position adjacent one end of the panel to a reversing return position adjacent the other end of the panel, the carrier member having opposite side portions flanking opposite sides of the base member, said imprinting roller means comprising at least one imprint roller for engaging a document when positioned on said panel overlying said character source member during movement of said carrier member between said start and return positions, the base member and carrier member having coactive means for moving the imprint roller from a raised inactive position to an imprint position engaging the document to cause imprinting of characters on said source member onto the document during such last-mentioned movement of the carrier member;

• the improvement comprising said base member having track means at said opposite sides of the base member longitudinally spanning the length of the base member for movably supporting and guiding the carrier member during its movement, said track means at each of the opposite sides comprising an upwardly facing first track surface disposed in substantially a horizontal plane paralleling said panel and an inclined downwardly and outwardly facing second track surface formed by an upper side face of an outwardly opening track channel at each opposite side of the base member having outwardly diverging upper and lower side faces, the portion of said base member at each side thereof lying between said first and second track surfaces defining a truncated triangular rib formation, and said carrier member having a pair of pinched action bearing roller assemblies at the respective opposite side portions thereof each comprising an upper roller having a cylindrical periphery concentric with a horizontal axis of rotation thereof disposed in confronting downwardly bearing rolling relation to said upwardly facing first track surface adjacent thereto and a tapered inwardly convergent substantially conical companion lower roller spaced directly below the upper roller and bearing upwardly in confronting rolling relation against said upper side face of the adjacent track channel, said upper roller and companion lower roller at each side of the carrier member being spaced so as to exert a vertically directed converging pinch action on and embracing said truncated triangular rib formation at the adjacent side of the base member.