Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Hirotoshi Matsui

Hirokazu Koda

Kazuo Suzuki

Susumu Nonaka

Nobuyoshi Miyao

Masayasu Makino

Nobukazu Isoyama

Shintaro Hashimoto

Isamu Washizuka

Hiroji Iwai

Takeo Tsumura

Eiichi Sakanaka

A printer which includes a lower cabinet, and an upper cabinet pivotally connected at its one end to the lower cabinet for selective opening or closing with respect to the lower cabinet. The lower cabinet is provided with a holder plate to place on it a photosensitive and heat-sensitive paper having a heat-sensitive layer to be sensitized by light and visualized by heat, and a set of heat fixing rollers for visualizing images by imparting heat to the photo-sensitive and heat-sensitive paper, while the upper cabinet is provided with a transparent liquid crystal display panel of a light transmitting type disposed at a position to confront the photo-sensitive and heat-sensitive paper placed on the holder plate, upon closure of the upper cabinet with respect to the lower cabinet so as to display images corresponding to input as applied by an external operation or external signal and a light source for projecting light onto the transparent liquid crystal panel from its upper portion.

Printer

An impact-type electronic printer uses a rotary printing wheel and a ROM to store printing-type position data for dealing with respective printing types borne by the rotary printing wheel, hammer pressure data, and the spacing data respectively matching the designated printing types together with printing-type position data. The main CPU then draws out the printing-type position data, hammer pressure data, and the spacing data in response to the input data to allow the printer to execute the printing operation using the designated printing types in accordance with these data drawn out of the ROM, thus realizing distinctly clean printed characters. The unique system embodied by the present invention makes it possible for the controller to easily read important data from the ROM. In other words, since the control system reflecting the present invention allows the ROM to effectively store the printing-type position data, hammer pressure data, and the specifying data in two words, the control system can, for example, securely read the data merely by executing the reading operations twice.

Electronic printer with interleaved storage of print wheel position,

A printer is provided with carriage having a daisy print wheel supporting type elements at the external circumferential edges of respective spokes that make up the wheel. The printer sequentially performs a printing operation by causing its carriage to move in the direction of a printing row and a hammer to strike the designated type element held by an associated print wheel spoke after rotating the designated type element into the printing position. The daisy print wheel includes a number of spokes each mounting a type element at its external circumferential edge. At least one of these spokes is provided with a pen at the position corresponding to that of the type element held by the remaining spokes, and as a result, by selecting the pen from the type element supported in the remaining spokes, either a picture, diagram, or a graph can be optionally drawn, thus effectively realizing a multifunctional printer.

Daisy-wheel type printing system with multiple functions

A paper guide mechanism in a printer includes a platen and a plurality of paper feed rollers for setting a paper sheet around the platen. A plurality of slidable guide plates are disposed below the platen adjacent to the paper feed rollers. The upper surfaces of the slidable guide plates are shaped to accomodate the surface of the platen. To set the paper sheet around the platen, the slidable guide plates are shifted along the surface of the platen so that the slidable guide plates are protruded toward the front portion of the platen in order to ensure an easy setting of the paper sheet. When the paper setting operation is completed, the slidable guide plates are returned to the normal position so as not to disturb the printing operation.

Paper guide mechanism in a printer

A printer system includes a carriage for accomodating a printer head therein. The carriage is driven to travel in the lateral direction along the surface of a recording paper while the actual printing operation is conducted. A paper edge detection system is incorporated in the carriage for detecting a left edge of the recording paper when the carriage is driven to travel rightward. The print control system develops a print enabling signal when a preselected period of time has passed after the paper edge detection system detects the left edge of the recording paper.

Paper edge detection in a printer

In an automatic electronic sewing machine including a read only memory (ROM) and a random access memory (RAM), the read only memory (ROM) stores pattern data for performing buttonhole stitch operation in the forward direction and pattern data for performing buttonhole stitch operation in the backward direction. A first control switch functions to conduct the buttonhole stitch operation in the forward direction by a desired length selected by the operator. A storage means is provided for storing the length information of the buttonhole stitch formation in the forward direction, or the repetition number of a unit pattern in the forward direction. A second control switch functions to conduct the buttonhole stitch operation in the backward direction by the length stored in the storage means.

Buttonhole stitch control in an automatic electronic sewing machine

The present invention is directed to a hammer actuated printer comprising a printing drum, a plurality of type carrying belts secured around the printing drum, and a plurality of hammers for depressing a paper toward a selected type carried on the type carrying belts. A plurality of separator strips are formed on the printing drum surface for separating the type carrying belts from each other. The separator strips have a height higher than that of the types carried by the type carrying belts, thereby precluding the paper from coming in contact with types which are not selected.

Type separator in a hammer actuated printer

In an automatic electronic sewing machine including a read only memory (ROM) and a random access memory (RAM), a needle is controlled to swing in order to shift the penetration position. In a button mode, the needle is controlled to swing to a predetermined position corresponding to one of a pair of throughholes formed in a button, and the other swing position corresponding to the other of the pair of throughholes formed in the button is variably controlled in response to the size of the button.

Button size control in an automatic electronic sewing machine

A plurality of magnetic dot elements are provided, each of which comprises a cylindrical magnet and a conical impact member fixed to the cylindrical magnet. The magnetic dot elements are rotatable and can shift their positions along their axes. A magnetic field control is provided for controlling the orientation of each of the magnetic dot elements in accordance with print information so that the conical impact member of a selected magnetic dot element faces a print receiving member. A depression plate is provided for depressing the magnetic dot elements toward the print receiving member in such a manner that the conical impact member of the selected magnetic dot element comes into contact with the print receiving member, whereby a desired character is printed on the print receiving member in a dot matrix fashion.

Dot matrix impact printer employing magnetic dot elements

Disclosed is an electronic calculator which has a thermal printing head or active printing area exposed to the ambient environment to enable printing in a stamp-like fashion. In the preferred form, the thermal printing head comprises a predetermined number of thermal printing units each unit having a plurality of segment-shaped resistors. More particularly, a metal layer of platinum, nickel-chrome alloy, etc., is deposited in accordance with a segment configuration on a glass-glazed substrate of beryllium oxide. A current flow through the metal segments will cause the generation of heat therein which makes a clearly distinct record on a heat-sensitive paper.

Growing community of inventors

Nara, Japan

Hirotoshi Matsui