Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation

Shuichi Imai

Kei Hamada

Minoru Isobe

Tadasi Kodama

Takahiro Tamura

Wataru Ohara

Waturu Ohara

Mitsumasa Hoshino

Etumi Ishii

Toru Hiroki

Portions of a steering wheel for a vehicle

Shift knob for vehicle

Steering wheel for vehicle

Dial switch for vehicle

A serial printer having a platen (5) and a carriage (4) having a printer head (6) with a plurality of aligned print needles close to the platen (5) for mosaic printing is disclosed. According to the present invention, an ink ribbon is in a detachable ribbon cartridge (3) under tension, and the printer head (6) has a smooth slope at the top of the head (5) that slopes towards the platen, thus, when the ribbon cartridge is put on the printer, the ink ribbon is temporarily twisted at the top of the slope on the head (6), and by swinging the printer head (5) a few times along the platen (6), the ink ribbon (1) at the top of the slope slides down along the slope into the narrow gap between the head (6) and the platen (6), and thus, the ink ribbon (1) is positioned in front of the print needles.

Automatic ribbon positioning serial printer

A small printer is provided which comprises a housing, a rolled printing paper mounted in the housing, a platen along which a paper runs, a motor, and a carriage having a printing head for mosaic printing on a paper on the platen. The carriage travels along the whole width of the paper and is driven by the motor, and a paper transfer mechanism transfers the paper by one line for every traverse of the carriage. The paper transfer mechanism comprises an idler positioned beneath the path of the paper, the idler being swingable in the moving direction of the paper, and the idler having a first projection parallel to the path of the carriage at the left half of the idler and a second projection inclined to the path of the carriage at the right half thereof. The projections are engaged with the corresponding slots provided at the bottom of the carriage to ensure the swing movement of the idler is synchronized with the movement of the carriage. The idler has a substantially V-shaped friction member providing a large frictional force to the paper in the normal moving direction of the paper and a small frictional force to the paper in the opposite moving direction of the paper.

Paper transfer system in a printer

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Shuichi Imai