Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Ikutaro Inoue

Yuki Ohishi

Takeo Suzuki

Yuki Oishi

Masatsugu Aoki

Hideo Tamai

Yoshihiro Someno

Hiroshi Izumi

Takuya Nagai

Akira Ohki

Kousaki Yanata

Yutaka Usui

Susumu Asakawa

An actuator in which, when a supporting shaft, where a mirror (control object) is provided, is tilted by receiving an electromagnetic force of a magnetic driving mechanism, small balls of a supporting mechanism move in an axial direction in a space provided between an outer base and an inner ring member. Therefore, the supporting shaft and the inner ring member holding the supporting shaft swing. At this time, since the inner ring member swings around a rotational fulcrum as center, the supporting shaft can swing around one rotational fulcrum as center at all times. A plurality of laid members serving as a rotation restricting member prevent rotation of the supporting shaft in a direction around the axis.

Actuator

An ink ribbon cassette for use in a thermal transfer printer, the ink ribbon cassette including an opening and containing an ink ribbon wound on a draw-out reel and a windup reel and having a portion exposed through the opening. The ink ribbon cassette includes ribbon feed rollers, the ribbon feed rollers contacting the ink ribbon between the draw-out reel and the opening and between the windup reel and the opening. The ribbon feed rollers include keyed central passages for receiving driving shafts located on a mounting carriage of the thermal transfer printer, and the ribbon feed rollers have high friction surfaces for providing constant tension to the ink ribbon portion located at the opening in the ink ribbon cassette.

Ink ribbon cassette for thermal transfer printer

A thermal transfer printer in which printing is performed by melting ink from an ink ribbon and transferring the molten ink to a printing sheet, and which is capable of erasing printed characters as desired by attaching the transferred ink to the ink ribbon and drawing the ink ribbon to separate the ink from the printing sheet. At least one ribbon feed roller having its surface formed of a material of a large friction coefficient is provided in a ribbon cassette housing the ink ribbon. The ribbon feed roller is rotated by a drive shaft provided on a carriage to assist in separating the ink ribbon from the printing sheet, thereby enabling the ink ribbon to be separated and wound up constantly with stability during each of the printing and correction operations.

Thermal transfer printer and ribbon cassette for use in the same

Ink ribbon cassette

A constant tension device for peeling an ink ribbon away from a printing medium during a correction operation in which ink printing produced by a thermal transfer printer is erased, a roller mounted on the printer is pressed against another roller mounted on a ribbon cassette, an ink ribbon is trained over the roller mounted on the ribbon cassette and between the two rollers, and the ink ribbon is stretched by the rotation of the roller mounted on the ribbon cassette which is rotated with a constant speed so as to provide a constant tension so that the ribbon is reliably peeled away from the printing medium.

Constant tension device for a thermal transfer printer

A thermal printer using a single pulse motor is disclosed. This thermal printer comprises: a single pulse motor; a moving member which is moved in accordance with the drive of the pulse motor; a head raising and lowering mechanism and a sheet feed mechanism which are selectively actuated in correspondence with the movement of the moving member; and a carriage moving mechanism which is interlockingly driven by the pulse motor. These components are driven by the single pulse motor. Also, the moving member may be a rack.

Single motor multi-function drive control recorder

A small and light-weight serial printer adapted to portable electric-powered typewriters and output devices of personal computers. The serial printer of the present invention requires a reduced number of drive sources and is simply constructed. The serial printer further possesses a small and light-weight carriage which does not mount drive sources such as motors or electromagnets and which does not mount a hammering mechanism, either.

Serial printer

In an extra-small sized printer of the so called serial type, which prints one character every time a type wheel is shifted by a distance corresponding to one character in the direction of the line of typing, the simplification of a driving source as well as the simplification of the overall mechanism are accomplished by a modification of the system.

Printers

A simplified and compact typing machine to be incorporated in an electronic calculator has a type wheel for presenting different numerals upon rotation. The type wheel is moved along a line of digits, i.e., laterally and in the generally horizontal direction, for typing successive numerals and the typing is performed when a hammer head is swung, or the type wheel is rotated, by the movement in one direction of an acting rod of an electromagnetic relay. The same relay acting rod also laterally moves the type wheel in the direction of the line of digits, on its return motion, by a distance corresponding to the space of one digit.

Typing machine

A printing apparatus for an electronic calculator or the like comprises a first type wheel formed with mathematical operator symbols which is fixed to a spline shaft and a second type wheel formed with digits which is slidably mounted on the spline shaft for integral rotation. A stepping motor rotates the spline shaft for character selection. A carriage is connected to the second type wheel and is movable by a cable wound around drive and take-up spools to move the second type wheel along the spline shaft for serial feed. A single electrical solenoid actuates a printing hammer for printing and subsequently actuates a ratchet and pawl mechanism to serially feed the second type wheel by one character position in one reciprocation of the solenoid plunger. A linkage initially connects the plunger to a first printing hammer associated with the first type wheel to print the mathematical operator and subsequently to a second printing hammer associated with the second type wheel to serially print digits from least significant to most significant.

Growing community of inventors

Takizawa, Japan

Ikutaro Inoue