Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Ryuzo Une

Kenichi Naruki

Hiroshi Fukumoto

Koji Namura

Toshihiko Kitayama

A thermal transcription printer has a thermal head (8), a platen (9), a pair of pinch rollers (10), (11) disposed on both sides of the platen and a gearing apparatus consisting of gears (31), (32) and (33) and oneway clutches (29) and (30) and the gearing apparatus over-drives or reduces the rotation speed of the pinch rollers (10) and (11) and coupling of the oneway clutches and the gears is selected for making peripheral velocity of a pinch roller at a forward position against the paper conveyance faster than that at a backward position.

Thermal transcription printer

A thermal transcription printer has a thermal head (8), a platen (9), a pair of pinch rollers (10), (11) disposed on both side of the platen and a pressure control device, consisting of cams (35), sliding blocks (31) and springs (32), (33) and (36) and the cams controls pressing force of a pinch roller disposed backward of paper conveying direction smaller than that disposed forward for making the paper sheet (3) closely adhere to the platen (9).

A thermal color printer includes a reversible platen roller 9 and associated pinch rollers 11, 10 on the paper feed and discharge sides. The paper is repeatedly advanced back and forth through the printing station to successively print the different color separations. The discharge side pinch roller 10 is coupled to the platen roller by 'unequal' spur gear 31, 32 and one-way clutches 33 such that it is frictionally driven by the platen roller in the sheet advance direction and gear driven by and at a slower speed than the platen roller in the reverse or sheet return direction. This serves to tension the sheet of paper during each return conveyance to thus maintain it in tight contact and registration with the platen roller, thereby avoiding offsets between the successive color separation printings and attendant fringe patterns.

Sheet tensioning printer rollers

A thermal transfer printer employs a relatively small diameter platen roller 20 flanked by a pair of sprockets 3c which support endless timing belts 2. A clamp 7' for gripping the leading edge of a sheet 6 to be printed is mounted laterally across and between the belts. The attendantly small radius of curvature of the roller at the printing station prevents any contact by components and structure mounted to the reciprocable printing head 1.

Belt drive for thermal printer

A shell-type printing apparatus is equipped with a link mechanism for loading and unloading an inksheet cassette from the printing apparatus. The link mechanism comprises a support frame which supports an inksheet cassette and two pairs of links which have one end pivotably mounted on the base of the printing apparatus and the other end pivotably connected to the support frame. The link mechanism rotates the support frame between a first and a second position. In the first position, the support frame is disposed above and to the front of the base of the printing apparatus so that an inksheet cassette can be mounted on the support frame. In the second position, the support frame is disposed inside the base and the inksheet cassette is disposed in the proper position for printing.

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Fukuyama, Japan

Ryuzo Une