International Business Machines Corporation

Omron Tateisi Electronics Co.

International Manufacturing & Engineering Service Company

Omron Tateisi Elec.

International Mfg. and Engineering Services Co.

Hiroshi Fujikura

Ryuichi Onomoto

Tokio Mizukami

Akira Watanabe

Masato Nishikawa

Isamu Azuchi

Yoshinobu Haruna

Norishige Suzuki

Masaru Sato

Takao Ando

A printer prints upon a book having a plurality of pages bound at a binding edge (1). The book is opened, placed on a supporting surface (16) and fed in a feed direction parallel to the binding edge. A supporting shaft (13) extends parallel to the supporting surface. A channel (17) receives the binding edge in the middle of supporting surface and extends perpendicular to the supporting shaft thereby dividing the supporting surface into a first area and a second area. A first supporting frame (14) is pivotally supported on the supporting shaft over the first area. A first rotating shaft (25) is rotatably supported by the first supporting frame parallel with the supporting shaft. A first upper feeding roller (26, 27) is fixed on the first rotating shaft and forced to engage any page placed upon the first area. A second supporting frame (15) is pivotally supported on the supporting shaft over the second area. A second rotating shaft (30) is rotatably supported by the second supporting frame in parallel with the supporting shaft. A second upper feed roller (31,32) is fixed on the second rotating shaft and forced to engage any page placed upon the second area. A universal joint (33) couples the first rotating shaft to the second rotating shaft. A driving means is coupled to one of the first and second rotating shafts.

Book printer including support for accommodating bound portion

A plurality of lines are printed by the print head of a printer which is moved in a predetermined print direction on a sheet placed on a planar supporting surface wherein the sheet is fed perpendicular to the print direction. The print head is slidably mounted on a guide bar which is supported by a frame parallel to the sheet supporting surface so as to permit moving the lower end of the print head upwardly and downwardly relative to the support surface. The frame is biased in the downward direction normally. During non-print operation, a driving lever moves the frame upwardly to raise the print head to an initial position spaced above the support surface by a predetermined distance where it is maintained. During a print operation, the driving lever engages the frame to drive it upwardly or downwardly with the upward movement against the bias force. When the driving lever engages the frame for moving it downwardly, the driving lever engages to suppress a rapid downward movement of the frame due to the bias force thereby slowly moving the frame downwardly. The driving lever disengages from the frame after the print head lower end lands on the sheet placed on the support surface. Clearance between the lever and frame is detected. A control device responds to a print start signal for activating a driving source to apply the driving lever with a downward driving force for moving the frame downward. The control device responds to the detection signal to deactivate the driving source to terminate the application of downward force to the frame and hold the lever at its stopped position. The control device responds to completion of a print operation of one line on the sheet to activate the driving source for moving the driving lever from its stopped position to engage the frame and move it upwardly.

Printer including improved print head control

An apparatus for immobilizing a movable cabinet (1) including an apparatus body (2) capable of being housed in the cabinet and of being drawn out therefrom, a first caster (3) disposed on a rear bottom surface of the cabinet, a second caster (4) disposed on a front bottom surface of the cabinet, and a leg member (5) disposed on a front bottom surface of the cabinet. The total number of the first and second casters is at least three, and by means of these casters, the cabinet is movable with the apparatus body housed therein. In a lower end of the leg member, there is disposed a flat plate (5b) to be brought into contact with a floor surface to establish an areal contact. The leg member is capable of projecting to a position below a lower end of the second caster of the apparatus body housed in the cabinet. By projecting the leg member, the cabinet is retained in a stationary state. The leg member is also capable of retracting to a position above a lower end of the second caster. When the leg member is retracted, the cabinet is set to the movable state.

Apparatus for immobilizing movable cabinet

A bill handling apparatus which has a bill discharge outlet (13) for discharging instructed kinds of and instructed number of bills and which is to be shared between two tellers respectively located on the right and left sides thereof is provided with at least two receive members (42, 43) disposed in the left and right portions. The members are movable in the forward and backward directions and are used to receive discharge bills. If the teller who receives the discharged bills is on the left side, the receive member on the right side is proceeded; whereas, if the teller who receives the discharged bills is on the right side, the receive member on the left side is advanced. As a result, the bills discharged onto the receive members are inclined toward the left or right, which enables the teller on the left or right side to easily take out the bills.

Bill handler

A tape containing cartridge has a front wall with a transducer-receiving opening and a side wall has a capstan-receiving opening. A flexible sliding shutter is disposed in a shutter guide extending across said openings inside the cartridge. The flexible shutter can be slid between an open position where both openings are exposed and a closed position where both openings are covered for protecting a tape in the cartridge. The flexible sliding shutter has a flexible bifurcated detent such that in a closed position of the shutter the detent is positioned along a second side wall closer to the front wall while in the open position of the shutter it is positioned along the second side wall closer to the back wall. The bifurcated detent has pawls at its bifurcated end which, in the closed position of the shutter, engage the guide locking the shutter closed. To play the tape, the tape cartridge is inserted into a cartridge housing of a tape cartridge player with the front wall being a leading plane. A shutter opening member of the player engages the bifurcated detent on the shutter, flexes the free bifurcated ends inwards to unlock the shutter for sliding to the open position. As the cartridge is being removed from a player, a shutter closing member on the player moves the shutter to a closed position.

Tape cartridge having a shutter with self locking function

A tape-containing cartridge accommodates an endless tape either in the form of random loops or in the form of a tape roll wound on a single reel. A tape passageway extends the cartridge from a cavity adjacent a back wall, thence between a first side wall and a first internal wall past pad means and thence between a front wall and a second internal wall past a transducer-receiving opening formed in the front wall and thence between a pinch roller and portions of the front and second side walls into the cavity. The second side wall has an opening facing the pinch roller for receiving an external capstan. A positional relationship between the pinch roller and the capstan is selected such that a tangential force line at the contact point of the pinch roller and the capstan points inwards of the second side wall. An inward protrusion and a rotatably mounted guide roller provide a limited opening at the entry to the tape passageway to prevent tape creasing at the entry, while limiting drag on the tape.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Hiroshi Fujikura