Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Jun Taniguchi

Fumihisa Hori

Zenko Motoki

Yukiteru Yano

Yoshibumi Abe

Yasuhiko Iwane

Minoru Sato

Masahiko Mori

Chikashi Osakama

Akira Kabamoto

Shinichi Nishimura

Kohei Ishizawa

When an operation body is urged upward by a flat spring and is in a return position, a projection disposed on the operation body is held between opposing positioning portions and the position of the operation body in an X-direction is set. When the operation body is pressed at a position away from a central portion of the operation body in the X-direction, the operation body pivots on one of retaining structures downward. At this time, the projection moves away from the opposing positioning portions, and resistance against a pressing operation can thereby be reduced.

Press operation apparatus

A head up-down mechanism in a printer is to be provided wherein, by a simple construction, a carriage is returned up to a printing start position while a thermal head is spaced apart from a platen and at the same time there is performed a paper feed operation and which can thereby improve an effective printing speed. To this end the head up-down mechanism includes a head up-down lever with a thermal head mounted thereon at a position opposed to a platen, the head up-down lever being supported pivotably by a carriage which reciprocates along the platen between both side plates spaced a predetermined distance from each other, an urging member for urging the head up-down lever in a direction in which the thermal head comes into abutment against the platen, and a head up-down cam which is moved by abutment thereof against each of the side plates and which causes the head up-down lever to turn so that the thermal head comes into or out of contact with the platen.

Head up-down mechanism in printer

A thermal printer is provided which is capable of easily controlling the operations of a carriage and conveyance rollers by only one drive motor thereof and which enables the size and cost to be reduced. A thermal printer including a carriage capable of reciprocatively moving along a platen when a carriage drive shaft is rotated; a thermal head provided for the carriage to oppose the platen; an urging member for urging the thermal head to the platen; a cam portion for separating the thermal head from the platen against the urging force of the urging member when the thermal head has passed a printable range as a result of movement of the carriage; conveyance rollers to be rotated when a roller drive shaft is rotated and arranged to convey a recording medium; a drive motor for rotating the carriage drive shaft and the roller drive shaft; and drive-force transmission device which always transmits the drive force of the drive motor to the carriage drive shaft and which transmits the drive force of the drive motor to the roller drive shaft only when the carriage is moved in either direction and when the thermal head has passed the printable range.

Thermal printer

A thermal printer which is designed to reduce costs by reducing the number of parts, and which can easily drive a carriage using an inexpensive low-power drive motor by reducing a load acting on the part of the carriage which carries a thermal head. The carriage is provided so as to travel reciprocatively along a platen. A thermal head is directly attached to the opposite side of the carriage to the platen without any intervening member. A biasing member is disposed for urging the carriage toward the platen.

A printer comprising a printing drive gear for generating a print operation output and having a print control cam for controlling a print operation; a paper feed control cam adapted to be rotated with the printing drive gear as a unit for controlling a paper feed operation; a paper feed driving intermittent gear for generating a paper feeding output; a ratchet wheel for controlling an output timing of the paper feed driving intermittent gear; a print control lever adapted to be moved in association with the print control cam and be releasably engaged therewith; a paper feed control lever adapted to be moved in association with the paper feed control cam; a pawl lever adapted to be moved integrally with the paper feed control lever and be releasably engaged with the ratchet wheel; and an electromagnetic clutch capable of generating a first rotative output for driving the print control lever and a second rotative output for driving the paper feed control lever and the pawl lever, wherein the paper feed control cam has such a shape as to disengage the pawl lever from the ratchet wheel after printing of a type at a final column.

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Iwate-ken, Japan

Jun Taniguchi