Ribbon cassette with ribbon guide mechanism

A ribbon cassette for mounting on a carriage and translatable along a platen of a printing apparatus, comprising:

• a case;
• a pair of ribbon supports extending from opposite corners of the case toward the platen;
• an ink ribbon mounted in the case and having a linear portion extending between the pair of ribbon supports;
• a movable ribbon guide mounted to at least one ribbon support of the pair of ribbon supports, wherein the movable ribbon guide moves between a first position and a second position to move an end of the linear portion of the ink ribbon, the ink ribbon having a surface parallel to the platen, between a print position and a non-print position;
• and
• an operating portion provided with the movable ribbon guide and engaged with a move mechanism disposed on the carriage to move the movable ribbon guide between the first position and the second position based on an operation of the move mechanism, wherein the movable ribbon guide includes pins slidably received in inclined guide holes in the at least one ribbon support for guiding movement of the movable ribbon guide.

A ribbon positioning mechanism opposing a platen of a printing apparatus, comprising:

• a print carriage which moves along the platen during printing;
• a ribbon cassette mounted to the print carriage having a case and an ink ribbon mounted therein, the case having a pair of ribbon supports extending from opposite comers of the case toward the platen with a linear portion of the ink ribbon extending between the pair of ribbon supports, and a ribbon guide assembly mounted to a first ribbon support of the pair of ribbon supports, wherein the ribbon guide assembly moves only one end of the linear portion of the ink ribbon between a print position and a non-print position, a surface of the ink ribbon remaining parallel to a surface of the platen, said ribbon guide assembly comprises a ribbon lift cam member rotatably mounted to the print carriage and having a cam groove having a maximum diameter cam groove portion and a minimum diameter cam groove portion;
• a ribbon guide movably linked to the ribbon lift cam member;
• and
• means for rotating the ribbon lift cam member between a first position corresponding to the print position of the end of the linear portion of the ink ribbon and a second position corresponding to the non-print position of the end of the linear portion of the ink ribbon.