Device and method for displaying a residual amount of cartridge ribbon for a color video printer
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorJoo H. Nam
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A device for displaying a residual amount of cartridge ribbons in a color video printer. The rotational period of a supply reel or a take-up reel, is detected and the detected rotational period is compared with previously stored reference periods. A present residual amount is displayed based on the comparison so that a user can know how many more sheets can be printed with the ribbon cartridge.
Claims7
A device for displaying the residual amount of ribbons of a ribbon tape contained in a cartridge of color video printer in which a ribbon tape, constituted by a plurality of ribbons, for printing an image, on a sheet, in response to a video signal is disposed, comprising:
- a supply reel and a take-up reel, said ribbon tape being wound between said supply reel and said take-up reel;
- a detecting device coupled to one of said supply reel and said take-up reel so as to detect a rotational period of said one of said supply reel and said take-up reel;
- a memory having values corresponding to reference rotational periods stored therein, each reference rotational period corresponding to a number of residual ribbons left on said supply reel;
- comparing means for comparing a rotational period detected by said detecting device with the values corresponding to said reference rotational periods and determining a present residual amount of ribbons on said supply reel based on the comparison;
- and
- a display device for displaying said present residual amount of ribbons.
A method of for detecting and displaying a residual amount of ribbons of a ribbon tape contained in a cartridge for a color video printer in which a ribbon tape, constituted by a plurality of ribbons, is wound between a supply reel and a take-up reel, said process comprising the steps of:
- storing values in a memory, the values corresponding to reference rotational periods of one of said supply reel and said take-up reel, each reference rotational period corresponding to a number of residual ribbons left on said supply reel;
- detecting the rotational period of said one of said supply reel and said take-up reel;
- comparing the detected rotational period to the values stored in said memory and determining a number of residual ribbons based on said comparison;
- displaying the number of residual ribbons.
A device for displaying the residual amount of ribbons of a ribbon tape contained in a cartridge of color video printer in which a ribbon tape, constituted by a plurality of ribbons, for printing an image, on a sheet, in response to a video signal is disposed, comprising:
- a supply reel and a take-up reel, said ribbon tape being wound between said supply reel and said take-up reel;
- a detecting device coupled to one of said supply reel and said take-up reel so as to detect a rotational period of said one of said supply reel and said take-up reel;
- a memory having values corresponding to reference rotational periods stored therein, each reference rotational period corresponding to a number of residual ribbons left on said supply reel, said reference rotational periods being calculated based upon the following equation;
- ##EQU7## wherein;
- Tn is a reference rotational period,
- Vo is the linear velocity of said ribbon tape during printing,
- t.sub.r is the thickness of the ribbon tape,
- l.sub.p is the length of a ribbon used for printing one sheet,
- n is the number of sheets printed,
- l.sub.s is the length of a leader portion of the ribbon tape, and
- r.sub.t is the diameter of the drum of said one of said supply reel and said take-up reel;
- comparing means for comparing a rotational period detected by said detecting device with the values corresponding to said reference rotational periods and determining a present residual amount of ribbons on said supply reel based on the comparison;
- and
- a display device for displaying said present residual amount of ribbons.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.