Data Products Corporation

Aram S Arzoumanian

Kam C Wong

Howard H Nojiri

Heinz W Hieber

Albert L Edwards

Jimmie L Hart

Calvin E Moeller

An elongated unitary spring armature is disclosed for use in dot matrix printers. The spring armature has an elongated triangular shape with attachment means located adjacent to the base and means for securing the impact tip located adjacent to the apex. A spring portion formed of a high carbon steel is located adjacent to the attachment means and an armature portion formed of a low carbon steel separates the spring portion from the apex. Processes for making the spring armature are also disclosed.

Unitary spring armature for a dot matrix printer

There is disclosed a hammer assembly for a high speed impact printer of the type comprising a solenoid including a coil and an axially-apertured pole piece, the pole piece having a conically-shaped recessed surface, an axially movable armature within the solenoid, the armature having a tapered conical leading surface facing and substantially parallel to the recessed surface of the pole piece, and a hammer, one end of the hammer being rigidly connected to the armature to form a unitized armature/hammer element for striking a print element in the printer, the hammer extending through the aperture in the pole piece. The present hammer assembly achieves, when compared to previous designs, a longer stroke, an increase in impact energy, a reduction of rebound and settling time, an increase in hammer life expectancy, a decrease in cost, improved reliability and a reduction in weight.

Solenoid-type hammer assembly for impact printer

This disc printer uses a relatively massive, rigid print disc having a flat face on which two sets of raised character fonts are arranged in separate spirals. Advantageously, the inner font set contains machine readable characters which are printable with high resolution, and a second font set arranged so that the characters are upright as they pass a print zone which is vertically offset from the zone in which the high resolution characters are printed. The print disc acts as the platen for printing. With this arrangement, the same print disc can be used to print characters onto a record medium at two different elevations, while maintaining the medium flat, and without the need to transport the medium vertically. A check printer also is disclosed which uses the print disc to print machine readable, high resolution characters onto the check during linear transport of the check in one direction, and to print other indicia onto the check during linear transport thereof in either the same or the opposite direction.

Disc printer

Print smearing observed in double wide hammers can be controlled and reduced by providing the impact face of the print hammer with a concave cylindrical radius of curvature wherein the cylindrical axis is parallel to the vertical font direction. The radius of curvature is chosen according to impact energy and font velocities. In other embodiments, the timing of impact between the hammer and font characters may be offset such that the center of the print column leads the center of the impact hammer at the time of impact. In another embodiment, the radius of cylindrical curvature may be ground off center from the center line of the print hammer by a predetermined offset.

Concave impact print hammers

A magnet assembly is disclosed suitable for use in an impact printer to produce a magnetic field for propelling movably mounted hammer coils toward a type bearing surface. The magnet assembly is comprised of a plurality of spaced relatively thin substantially rectangular magnetic members mounted along first and second parallel rows. End bridging bars are provided which, together with the members, form a closed magnetic field path in which the flux lines extend through the thin dimension of the members in one direction in the first row and in an opposite direction in the second row. The members in the first and second rows are aligned so as to define aligned gaps, each pair of aligned gaps receiving a flat hammer coil. In one embodiment, all of the magnetic members are permanent magnets in which rare earth and Alnico type magnets are interleaved. In a second embodiment, rare earth magnets are interleaved with members of soft iron.

Growing community of inventors

Encino, CA, United States of America

Aram S Arzoumanian