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US 4,956,652 AGranted
Pen selection mechanism for a printer
AssigneeAlps Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorTakashi Onozato
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pen exchange mechanism is disclosed, by which a plurality of pen chuck mechanisms holding pens on a carriage are disposed, and a slider is engaged with the carriage at a position corresponding to a pen, which should print, among said pens, printing being effected while driving a pen chuck mechanism at a position corresponding to the slider together with the pen by means of a pen driving mechanism.
Claims1
A pen selection mechanism for a pen type printer, comprising:
- a carriage movable in a plane parallel to a surface to be printed;
- a plurality of pen chuck mechanisms supported by said carriage, each movable in a direction perpendicular to said surface to be printed together with pens held thereon;
- a slider mounted movably with respect to said carriage between a plurality of driving positions corresponding to said pen chuck mechanisms and engaged with said carriage at each of said driving positions;
- a pen driving mechanism disposed on said slider and capable of driving at each of the driving positions a corresponding one of said pen chuck mechanisms in the direction perpendicular to said surface;
- an engagement mechanism disposed on said slider and capable of engaging said slider with said carriage and disengaging said slider from said carriage;
- and
- a single drive source disposed on said slider for driving both said pen driving mechanism and said engagement mechanism.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.