Tape cartridge and printing device

Abstract

A printing device including a printing mechanism adapted to print a series of letters and characters on a printing tape which is fed through the printing mechanism in a generally vertical orientation. A manually operated cutting mechanism is provided which includes a movable cutting blade configured to cut a printed section of the printing tape at a generally vertical cutting region after a printing operation. The movable cutting blade is rotatably supported in a manner positioning its axis of rotation on one side of the cutting region while the fixed cutting blade is positioned on the other side of the cutting region. The movable cutting blade initially contacts the vertically oriented printing tape from a lower face of the blade during cutting of the printing tape, and moves generally in the direction toward the one side of the cutting region. An operation button provided on a top face of the printing device is configured to move substantially linearly toward a bottom of the printing device. The movable cutting blade rotates toward a fixed cutting blade when the operation button is depressed to manually cut the printing tape disposed between the movable cutting blade and the fixed cutting blade from the lower face of the printing tape.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.