Fujitsu Corporation

Fumio Nakao

Mitsugu Inomata

Haruhisa Inagaki

Takashi Maekawa

Tetsu Endo

Kaneatsu Uchiyama

Kaneastu Uchiyama

Kazuo Nobue

Masaki Shimazaki

Shigeki Idouji

A printer includes a printing portion and means for defining a sheet path along which a printing media passes through the printing portion. The sheet path defining means includes a pair of first feed rollers arranged upstream of the printing portion with respect to a normal feed direction of the printing media with the first rollers being adapted to be driven in the normal or a reverse direction. The first rollers further are driven at a predetermined speed with a predetermined speed force at least in a normal direction. A pair of second feed rollers is arranged downstream of the printing portion which are driven only in the normal direction at a feed speed slightly higher than the predetermined feed speed with a feed force slightly smaller than the predetermined feed force. The second rollers further are freely rotatable in the reverse direction.

Printing media feeding apparatus for printers

A printer of the kind having a printing head for printing on a sheet being held against a platen roll by a sheet presser, with both printing head and sheet presser mounted fast to a head carriage which is movable not only in a direction parallel to the axis of the platen roll but also in a direction normal thereto. For adjusting the spacing between the printing head and the platen roll to the thickness of the sheet to be printed upon, a drive motor is coupled to the head carriage via a yieldable clutch. The drive motor is energized first for driving the head carriage toward the platen roll to an extent equal to, or preferably somewhat exceeding, a predetermined stroke of head travel toward and away from the platen roll, in order to positively hold the sheet presser directly against the platen roll, then for driving the head carriage away from the platen roll over said predetermined stroke, then, after the sheet to be printed upon has been introduced between the platen roll and the sheet presser, for driving the head carriage toward the platen roll to an extent equal to or exceeding said predetermined stroke, in order to positively hold the sheet presser against the platen roll via the sheet, and then for driving the head carriage away from the platen roll a variable distance depending upon the thickness of the sheet, in order to provide a required spacing between the printing head and the platen roll.

Method and apparatus for adjusting the spacing between head and platen

A printer includes two printing sheet outlets each provided with a stacker mount on which a detachable stacker constituted as a single unit can be mounted. The stacker comprises a cut sheet supporting portion and an eject roller for ejecting cut sheets onto the supporting portion. A driving force is transmitted from a single drive source to the respective stacker mounts so that, when the stacker is selectively mounted on one of the mounts, the eject roller of the stacker can be operatively connected to the drive source and can be driven.

A printer comprises a cylindrical platen for supporting and feeding a printing sheet, a pinch roller in resilient contact with the platen to cooperate therewith to feed the cut sheet, and an inclined sheet guide on which a cut sheet is loaded. A leading edge of the cut sheet is inserted into a space between the platen and the pinch roller so that the cut sheet is ready to be compulsorily fed by the platen. When or after a cut sheet is loaded on the sheet guide, the platen is rotated in the reverse direction by a predetermined amount of rotation and then rotated in the forward direction to set the cut sheet at a given print start position. During the reverse rotation of the platen, the leading edge of the cut sheet is pushed up so that the posture of the cut sheet is corrected.

Process for setting a cut printing sheet

In a method and apparatus for changing the line of a sheet to be printed, the sheet is set in a print starting position, in which a front end of the sheet is located in front of bail rollers which feed the sheet together with a platen, and a carriage with a print head and a sheet guide is moved to a predetermined guide position in which the sheet guide is located at or near the center of width of the sheet, prior to every change of line, until the front end of the sheet is held between the bail rollers and the platen.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Fumio Nakao