Ribbon drive assembly for ribbon cartridge

A ribbon cartridge for printers, the ribbon cartridge including a housing having a bottom wall portion, a re-inking assembly provided in a re-inking compartment within the housing for re-inking a ribbon, a ribbon storage compartment for storing the ribbon, and a ribbon drive assembly provided within the housing for advancing the ribbon, the ribbon drive assembly having a drive transfer gear assembly, the improvement comprising:

• a partition wall separating between the re-inking compartment and the ribbon storage compartment, the drive transfer gear assembly having a vertical wall portion defining a portion of the partition wall;
• a first engaging device adjacent the partition wall and affixed to the bottom wall portion of the housing;
• and
• a second engaging device provided on the drive gear assembly for engaging the first engaging device;
• and
• wherein the first engaging device includes a flexible projection extending from the bottom wall portion of the housing and provided with a first hook, and the drive gear assembly includes a step-like protrusion in the vertical wall portion thereof, the flexible projection being flexible between an engaging position at which the first hook engages the step-like protrusion of the vertical wall portion of the drive gear assembly and a disengaging position at which the first hook disengages from the step-like protrusion.

In a ribbon cartridge for printers, the ribbon cartridge including a housing having a bottom wall portion, a re-inking assembly provided in a re-inking compartment within the housing for re-inking a ribbon, a ribbon storage compartment for storing the ribbon, and a ribbon drive assembly provided within the housing for advancing the ribbon, the ribbon drive assembly having a drive transfer gear assembly and an idler gear assembly for engagement with the drive transfer gear assembly, the improvement comprising:

• the ribbon storage compartment having two substantially flat and smooth opposing internal wall surfaces extending substantially in parallel with each other, a substantially flat and smooth side internal wall surface substantially perpendicularly transversing the two opposing parallel internal wall surfaces and a substantially flat and smooth diagonal internal wall surface diagonally transversing the two opposing parallel wall surfaces, the diagonal internal wall surface separating the ribbon storage compartment from the re-inking compartment;
• the drive transfer gear assembly having a vertical wall portion including an internal vertical surface defining a part of the diagonal internal wall surface;
• a first engaging device provided on the bottom wall of the housing so as to be adjacent the diagonal internal wall surface;
• and
• a second engaging device provided on the drive gear assembly for removably engaging the first engaging device.