Seiko Epson Corporation

Seiko Epson Corporation, a Japanese Corporation

Takao Mimura

Hiromi Shishiuchi

Kozo Kishida

Masayuki Kumazaki

Norihiro Maruyama

Atsushi Nishizawa

The object of the current invention is to print characters, for example, on a substantially full area of a recording medium extended up to the leading or trailing edge of the recording medium. A carriage is moved so that a print hole of a ribbon mask is positioned at a medium center as viewed in the direction of feeding of a recording medium. The recording medium is fed to a position so that the print hole is at a print start position. A print operation is carried out toward a first side edge of the recording medium. The recording medium is then fed in the reverse direction to a position where the print hole is away from the recording medium as viewed in the character pitch direction. The carriage is then moved so that the print hole is positioned at a medium center as viewed in the direction of feeding of a recording medium. Thereafter, the medium is fed to a position so that the print hole is at a print start position. A print operation is then carried out toward a second side of the recording medium. A similar operation may be carried out to print on the trailing edge of a recording medium. Thus, characters may be printed on the leading or trailing edge of the recording medium without catching the any of the corners of the recording medium on the print hole.

Method of controlling a carriage and a paper feed in a printer

A printer for use with both monochrome and color ink ribbon cartridges has a cartridge holder which is rotatable to correctly position the ink ribbon of whichever cartridge is put in place in front of the print head. The cartridge holder and a transmission for driving it are mounted on a carriage which is movable in front of a platen. A driving motor for powering the transmission is placed on the carriage to convert the printer from monochrome so as to be able to use with either a monochrome or a color ink ribbon cartridge and a switch having two sets of contacts in a single circuit responds to the presence of a color ink ribbon cartridge to position the color ribbon in front of the printer at a color home position.

Printer for monochrome and color printing

A mechanism for automatically adjusting the gap between the platen and print head of a printer includes a paper thickness lever detecting lever pivotably mounted on the printer base so that one end selectively contacts the surface of the platen. The opposite end of the lever contacts a pressure sensitive conductive member or adjusts the amount of light striking a photosensitive member of a paper thickness detector to generate an initial signal. After paper is fed onto the platen the lever contacts the surface of the paper and the paper thickness detector generates a second paper thickness signal corresponding to the different position of the lever. A carriage control circuit receives this signal and controls a print head carriage guide to adjust the relative position between the carriage and the platen to provide a suitable distance for printing.

Growing community of inventors

Suwa, Japan

Takao Mimura