Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-Kaisha

Toshiaki Sugiura

Mamoru Imaizumi

Shigeo Ishikawa

Hikaru Kaga

Hiroshi Tokuda

Hiroaki Kimura

Susumu Kuzuya

Toshio Sugiura

Takashi Nakata

Tasuku Sugimoto

Masatomo Kojima

Toshiaki Mizuno

Shinji Kimura

Kazunori Tanabe

Mikio Sakuma

Hideo Yoshihara

Seiichi Kanemoto

Morikazu Iwase

An ink jet printer head of hot-melt type for heating and melting solid ink and then discharging the melted ink onto a recording medium is provided with: a cavity plate prescribing (i) an ink flow path through which the melted ink is supplied, (ii) a plurality of ink storing chambers, each of which is connected to the ink flow path in which the supplied ink is temporarily stored, and (iii) a plurality of ink discharge holes which are connected to respective one of the ink storing chambers though which the temporarily stored ink is discharged; a piezoelectric element member, which is opposed to the cavity plate and has a plurality of piezoelectric elements for selectively changing capacities of the ink storing chambers; and a base member for supporting the piezoelectric element member. The piezoelectric element member is interposed and fixed between the cavity plate and the base member. The cavity plate, the piezoelectric element member and the base member have thermal expansion coefficients equal or approximate to each other.

Ink chamber and piezoelectric actuator structure in an ink jet printer head, and ink jet printer incorporating same

The carriage mounting the print head, for a printer, is supported at an upper guide bar with an upper bearing and at a lower guide bar with a lower-right bearing and a lower-left bearing. The printing device prints characters while driving the print head in reciprocal movement along the guide bars. The lower-left bearing has an eccentric center relative to the axis of the lower-guide bar. A lever fitted on the lower-left bearing allows the operator to rotate the lower-left bearing relative to the axis of the lower guide bar to adjust the height of print.

Printing device with a tiltable printing head

A printer enables discrimination of the kind of a printing medium and automatically controls whether the medium is to be thermally processed or not by the result of the discrimination, while enabling reversal of the execution or inexecution of the heating process if necessary. A control portion is able to discriminate the kind of a printing paper based on a signal output from a detector and changeover automatically, whether the printing paper is to be thermally processed or not, in moving a diverter from a first position to a second position by controlling a solenoid. A user can reverse the execution or inexecution of a heating process of a printed paper in operating the diverter by the operation of a reverse key provided in a control panel.

Printer with a selectively operable heating processor

A feeding device for a printer having a combination of at least one feeding roller with an opposing pinch roller both upstream and downstream, in the feed direction, of a print position. The upstream and downstream side paper feeding rollers are made from metal and the upstream and downstream pinch rollers are made of a elastic material. The upstream and downstream side paper feeding rollers feed a paper sandwiched between the feeding rollers and opposing pinch rollers. The nip pressure on the downstream side is slightly stronger than the nip pressure on the upstream side so that the feed rate is slightly higher at the downstream side than at the upstream side. As a result, the paper is tant as it moves past the print position. Further, the paper is accurately positioned for each line, even after the paper has cleared than nip of the upstream side paper feeding and pinch rollers.

Paper feeding device in a printer

A sheet feed arrangement having an upstream first and downstream second rollers for defining a part of a sheet feed path therebetween. A first sheet detector is disposed upstream of the first roller and a second sheet detector is disposed downstream of the second roller. These detectors transmit sheet detection signals when the sheet passes therealong. The detection signals are transmittable to a control unit. The control unit is connected to a first roller drive motor and stops rotation thereof if the sheet detection by the first detector is finished whereas a leading end of the sheet has not yet been detected by the second detector. If desired, the first roller is reversely rotated to discharge the sheet toward the upstream or sheet inlet side.

Sheet feed device capable of facilitating sheet removal from sheet feed

An ink jet printer having a pressing mechanism for pressing a print head against a sheet of paper set on a platen by rotating an eccentric shaft, a driver for feeding the paper under the condition where the print head is in pressure contact with the paper to carry out cleaning of the print head, a photosensor for detecting whether or not the paper is present at a printable position, and an eject controller for ejecting the paper after carrying out test printing of a plurality of predetermined characters on the paper when the sufficient remaining paper is detected after ending the cleaning of the head or, alternatively, ejecting the paper without carrying out the test printing when it is determined there is insufficient paper detected after ending the cleaning of the head.

Ink jet printer print head cleaning apparatus and method

A sheet feeding device includes a member for depressing a pair of rollers to feed the top sheet off a stack of papers in a case. The depressing member is only operated when the case is positioned in an associated device. The spacing between the feed rollers is variable and controlled in accordance with the width of the stacked sheets.

Sheet feeding device

In a sheet feeding device adapted to be positioned in a main unit such as a copying machine, a printer and the like, having a case member for holding a plurality of cut-form sheets in a stacked state and a pair of feeding rollers for feeding the sheet one by one, an indicator for indicating a size of the stacked sheet and an interval change mechanism for automatically changing an interval between the pair of feeding rollers in accordance with the size indicated by the indicator when the sheet feeding device is positioned in the main unit, are provided. Thus, according to the size of the stacked sheet, the pair of sheet feeding rollers are respectively placed at the most suitable positions for a sheet feeding operation.

A sheet feed device for feeding sheets from a stack to a machine, such as a copier, is provided with rollers for feeding the top sheet of the stack to the entrance of the machine. When a sheet is being fed through the machine, the presence of the sheet is sensed and used to generate a signal to disengage the rollers from the stack to thereby ensure precise feeding of the sheets.

A sheet detection apparatus is provided which determines the presence or absence of a sheet on a sheet feed path as well as the type of sheet. The apparatus utilizes a light source to direct a predetermined amount of light to a sensor by reflecting off a sheet on the feed path or a reflector in the absence of any such sheet on the path. The presence or absence of the sheet is determined by comparing the output value of the sensor with predetermined reference values.

Sheet detection apparatus with reflecting member

A sheet feed mechanism has an array of suction cups into and out of contact with an uppermost one of stacked sheets in a sheet cassette. After the suction cups are held against the uppermost sheet, a vacuum is developed in the suction cups to enable the suction cups to attract the uppermost sheet. Then, the suction cups are lifted with the uppermost sheet attracted thereto, and a leading end of the attracted and lifted uppermost sheet is nipped, and the sheet is delivered into a sheet feed path. When the suction cups are lifted, they are angularly moved about an axis to cause the leading end of the attracted uppermost sheet to be obliquely separated from other stacked sheets.

Sheet feed mechanism and method of feeding sheet

Ribbon lifting apparatus for a printing device having a print wheel and a ribbon cartridge. The lifting apparatus includes a pair of ribbon guides for supporting an exposed portion of a ribbon extending from an outlet opening of the ribbon cartridge to an inlet opening thereof. The pair of ribbon guides are supported by respective pairs of supporting levers which are swung in a plane parallel to the face plane of the print wheel. The pair of ribbon guides are lifted so that the lifting movement of the guides causes variation of a distance therebetween for keeping the path of the exposed length of ribbon substantially constant.

Ink-ribbon lifting apparatus

A printer employing a daisy-type wheel. On a hub of the type wheel a pin is slidably disposed and is backwardly biased by a spring to protrude from the rear surface of the hub. In a central opening of the hub a hair pin spring having a pair of arms is disposed. The type wheel is mounted on a drive shaft of a motor through a coupling element. The coupling element is provided with a projection which is fitted into the opening of the hub and engaged with the arms of the hair pin spring by a snap action to latch the type wheel to the drive shaft in the axial direction. In the axially latched state the pin protrudes from the front surface of the hub, resisting the resilient force of the spring, by the coupling element. When the coupling element is rotated more than one turn the protruding pin is engaged with a stationary projection to prevent the type wheel from rotating, with the result that the pin is aligned with a notch formed in the coupling element and is fitted into the same for latching the type wheel to the drive shaft in the rotational direction.

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Hekinan, Japan

Toshiaki Sugiura