Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Hiroshi Koike

Mikio Miyajima

Shuhei Takeuchi

Hiroshi Izumi

Osamu Hatakeyama

Naoki Moriyama

A rotary wheel printer such as a daisy wheel printer includes a rotatable platen for receiving a paper sheet partially therearound, a carriage movable along the platen, and a type wheel mounted on the carriage in confronting relation to the platen and having a plurality of type fonts. The type wheel is inclined with respect to a horizontal plane, and first drive means are mounted on the carriage and inclined with respect to the horizontal plane for driving the type wheel to rotate about is own axis. Hammer means are also mounted on the carriage for pressing the type fonts and second drive means are mounted on the carriage for driving the hammer means. A ribbon cassette is mounted on the carriage and accommodates an ink ribbon, the ribbon cassette having slanted surfaces at a front portion thereof in which the ink ribbon is exposed adjacent to the print wheel. The slanted surfaces are inclined at the same angle as the type wheel, and the ribbon feeder means for successively feeding the ink ribbon are accommodated in the ribbon cassette. Third drive means are mounted on the carriage for driving the feeder means.

Rotary wheel printer

A serial printer having a carriage adapted to be shifted transversely of a paper and a type cylinder carried by the carriage in such a manner as to be able to be shifted up and down and to be rotated, so that the printing is effected by pressing the desired type character against the paper. The improvement comprises that the vertical shifting of the type cylinder, rotation of the type cylinder, driving of the hammer, shifting of the carriage and other kinds of operation are performed by the force derived from a single motor, and that operation such as spacing and back spacing of the carriage, paper feeding and so forth is achieved when the type cylinder selects a visible position.

Serial electric printer using single unidirectional motor

A circuit for driving a stepping motor comprises a sensor for detecting when the stepping motor is in a hold position, a counter for counting an output from the sensor, a hold pulse pattern generator for generating a hold pulse pattern to hold the stepping motor in the hold position, a shift circuit for shifting the hold pulse pattern from the hold pulse pattern generator, an inverter circuit for inverting hold pulse pattern from the hold pulse pattern generator, and a comparator for comparing an output from the counter with a reference value and producing an output to select one of the hold pulse pattern from the hold pulse pattern generator, a shifted hold pulse pattern from the shift circuit, and an inverted hold pulse pattern from the inverter circuit.

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Morioka, Japan

Hiroshi Koike