Eltron International, Inc.

Persci, Inc.

Other

Wangdat, Inc.

Philip Stuart Bryer

Dean Howard Lodwig

Douglas L Harb

James V Tierney, Iii

Vigo H Gustavsson

Apparatus for maintaining tension on a ribbon in a printer used for transferring an image, e.g., thermally, from a print head through the ribbon to a print medium. By maintaining ribbon tension and thus keeping the ribbon essentially without wrinkles, print quality is enhanced. This tension maintenance apparatus uses a pair of torqued reel subassemblies with the ribbon extending between and is of particular significance when used in conjunction with a label stock as a printer medium when the printer mechanism bidirectionally moves the label stock to assist removal of labels from its backing. These torqued reel assemblies are sufficiently loaded such that ribbon tension is maintained between these reel assemblies despite this bidirectional movement.

Computer driven printer with a stripper roller and latching assembly

Computer driven printer

A low cost small footprint thermal printer including a thermal print head and a motor drive roller/platen mounted opposite to the print head for pinching web material therebetween to draw said material from a supply roll and advance it past said print head. The roller/platen is mounted on a hinged door which can be opened to provide access to a supply roll compartment and closed to position the roller/platen in operative relationship adjacent to the print head. In its closed operative position, the roller/platen is spring biased against a fixedly mounted print head.

Thermal printer with spring biased drive roller/platen

A data transfer system using cassettes with a tape drive is configured with a number of removable cassettes stored in front to rear alignment adjacent one side (e.g. the bottom) of the tape drive. Cassettes in a removable cassette tray in a magazine are disposed in two levels, and shifted between entry and exit regions of the cassette tray after each successive cassette is derived from the tape drive and a new one is supplied. A transporter moves the individual cassette between the cassette tray and the tape drive. Advantageously, this system is configured to fit into the form factor of a standard height enclosure, with a high density DAT format tape drive occupying the upper half and the cassette tray and magazine occupying the lower half.

Loader mechanism for tape cartridge systems

The transducer or transducers are mounted to the bottom of a U-frame carrying a coil between the legs; the coil is slipped onto and runs over a bar, facing two permanent magnets. One leg of the U-frame is suspended on leaf springs, being connected also to a base, so that the frame moves strictly linearly without lateral displacement. A similar spring mount may be connected to the other leg of the U-frame. The springs may have a U-configuration or an E-configuration.

Transducer positioner in disk files

A stepper-motor-driven capstan is connected to a split band whose two portions loop around two idlers disposed on a displacement member and in line with the displacement and are doubled back to be affixed to another stepping device, such as multi-position armature devices or another step-motor-driven capstan. This arrangement permits interspersing of steps in order to reduce the actuator step length for a given stepping angle of the motor or motors, for increasing, for example, track density on a disk cooperating with a transducer on the displacement member.

Split band actuator

Two magnetic heads are mounted respectively in front of two springs, and face each other across a gap in a frame into which a recording disk can be exerted. The springs are respectively flexed back by means of two spring biased pivot levers, so that the heads do not engage the disk. These levers have tongues in their front, which hold the springs down. A cone-ball actuator pivots the lever towards each other permitting, in turn, the springs to flex towards each other so that the heads engage the disk.

Dual magnetic head mounting and loading

A three part cone member assembly is provided for positioning a flexible disk on a drive hub. The three parts are, a disk with annularly arranged apertures, a plastic trunketed cone established by oblique arms and feet which stick in the apertures thereby determining the cones geometry; the third part is a metallic member with resilient arms, positioned in the plastic cone whereby each metal spring arm urges a plastic arm against the outer surface of the respective aperture.

Positioner cone for flexible disks

A flexible disk is automatically coupled to a drive spindle following insertion in the drive, but decoupled and ejected on command. The positioning and ejection control runs through a three-phase cycle which halts at the end of the positioning phase and is terminated at the end of the ejection phase while disk de-coupling and ejection phases follow directly. The ejection device has an override if an obstacle holds the disk in the drive. The three-phase cycle is cam-operated, using a motor drive cam assembly whose shaft extends in the direction of disk insertion and ejection and parallel to the hinge axis of a cam-operated disk positioning hub carrier. A cam pin on the shaft actuates the disk ejection and additional cams control stop switches for the motor.

Growing community of inventors

Tarzana, CA, United States of America

Philip Stuart Bryer