Pressure contact roller and printer using the same
AssigneeAlps Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorMitsuru Shida
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention provides a pressure contact roller for use in a recording paper feeding mechanism of a printer, the pressure contact roller is formed with crystalline resin powder projected from an outer circumferential surface of the roller body. By using the pressure contact roller, a printer is provided which can effectively prevent ink on the recording surface of a sheet of recording paper from drifting to the outer circumferential surface of the pressure contact roller, and can print high-quality full-color image free from unevenness in recording density.
Claims11
A pressure contact roller for a printer having a feed roller, said pressure contact roller pressure-contacting said feed roller separately provided in said printer and driven for rotation, rotated with rotation of said feed roller, and gripping a sheet of recording paper in cooperation with said feed roller to feed said sheet of recording paper to a recording position,
- said pressure contact roller pressure-contacting a surface of said sheet of recording paper on the side where printing has been made, and comprising a roller shaft serving as a rotary support shaft and a roller body formed around said roller shaft,
- said roller body being molded of a mixed material of a thermoplastic elastomer and crystalline resin powder having higher hardness than said elastomer, said crystalline resin powder being mixed at a ratio of 50 to 70 by weight with respect to 100 of said elastomer, said roller body being then polished at a surface thereof, whereby said roller body has an overall outer circumferential surface on which a number of projections are formed by said crystalline resin powder and scattered such that the projections are projected from said outer circumferential surface of said roller body, thereby preventing drift of ink, printed on the surface of said sheet of recording paper on the side where printing has been made, onto said outer circumferential surface of said roller body.
A printer comprising a feed roller driven by a motor for rotation to feed a sheet of recording paper, and
- a rotatable pressure contact roller capable of pressure-contacting said feed roller,
- said feed roller being driven by said motor for rotation in a condition of gripping said sheet of recording paper by said feed roller and said pressure contact roller, thereby feeding said sheet of recording paper to a recording position,
- said pressure contact roller being positioned to pressure contact a surface of said sheet of recording paper on the side where printing has been made, and comprising a roller shaft serving as a rotary support shaft and a roller body formed around said roller shaft,
- said roller body being molded of a mixed material of a thermoplastic elastomer resin and crystalline resin powder having higher hardness than said elastomer, said crystalline resin powder being mixed at a ratio of 50 to 70 by weight with respect to 100 of said elastomer, said roller body being then polished at a surface thereof, whereby said roller body has an overall outer circumferential surface on which a number of projections are formed by said crystalline resin powder and scattered such that the projections are projected from said outer circumferential surface of said roller body, thereby preventing drift of ink, printed on the surface of said sheet of recording paper on the side where printing has been made, onto said outer circumferential surface of said roller body,
- said feed roller being positioned to contact a surface of said sheet of recording paper opposite to the surface where printing has been made, and having an outer circumferential surface in the form of a smooth curved surface to suppress a wear caused by pressure contact of the projections of said pressure contact roller with said feed roller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.