International Business Machines Corporation

Gerald Carl Sienkiewicz

William D Thorne

Herbert Gene Leonard

George Coleman Matuck

Donal J McQuade

A freely rotatable spool having an endless loop of printer ribbon wound around it is disclosed. The ribbon is withdrawn from the inner periphery of the coil and is simultaneously wound onto the outer periphery of the coil in a known manner. The freely rotatable spool is driven by the forces applied through pulling the ribbon off the inner periphery. Ribbon pulling is performed by an external set of feed rollers or similar mechanism. Difficulties encountered with the use of fabric ribbons in endless reel configurations are eliminated in the present invention by an improvement in the form of a polygonally shaped flange on the upper side of the freely rotatable spool on which the ribbon is wound. The flat sides on the polygonal flange have an optimum length which is defined in relationship to the width of the ribbon and the cosine of the angle at which the ribbon is withdrawn from the spool. An undercut dimension is provided on the spool so that the inner periphery of the ribbon is not in too great a contact with the hub or central core of the spool. A smooth ribbon flow from the vertical plane on the inner periphery of the coil to the horizontal plane as the ribbon is pulled from the center of the coil and out through the cassette is obtained.

Endless ribbon cartridge

A ribbon cartridge for an endless loop inked ribbon suitable for use with a wire matrix printer, for example, is disclosed in which the cartridge includes elongated guide members to confine the path of the loop of ribbon outside of the cartridge to a predetermined path and to allow for insertion of the cartridge into a using machine without the necessity of threading inky ribbon through fixed guides on the machinery.

Growing community of inventors

Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Gerald Carl Sienkiewicz