Thermal label printer with automatic and manual cutting means

Abstract

In a tape cutting mechanism, when a tape is cut manually, a rack 58 which is lowered by pushing a push button 14 down meshes with a gear 48 by guidance of a guide groove 59 to thereby cause a scissors cam 46 to make a single complete rotation along with a pin 46b around a cam shaft 47. The pin 46b half rotates to raise a turnable arm 52b up so that a turnable blade 52a is turned toward a fixed blade 55 to cut a printed tape portion. By the remaining half rotation, the turnable arm 52b is returned to its reference position. When the rack 58 rises with the resiliency of a compression spring 57 due to release of the push button 14 from its pushed state, the rack 58 is disengaged from the gear 48 with the guide of the guide groove 59. When the tape is cut automatically, the motor 37 is rotated, the scissors cam 46 is rotated along with the pin 46b via a worm 38, worm wheel 29, smaller gear 40, reduction gear 41, spur gear 43, bevel gears 42, 44, one-way clutch 45 and cam shaft 47 to cause the rotatable and fixed blades 52a and 55 to cooperate to cut the printed tape portion.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.