The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 19, 1991
Filed:
Oct. 13, 1989
James O Beehler, Brush Prairie, WA (US);
Allan G Olsen, Camas, WA (US);
Chong S Yoon, Vancouver, WA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
The invented printer includes a carriage-actuated clutch and a motor-driven gear element. The clutch is selectively engageable with the element and causes the printer to perform different tasks when engaged. More specifically, the invented printer includes a motor-driven gear, a printhead and a printhead carriage, a clutch having a flexible portion, and a gripping surface on the flexible portion for engaging the motor-driven gear. To actuate the clutch, the carriage pushes against the clutch causing it to flex and engage the motor-driven gear. When engaged, rotating the gear a predetermined distance causes the clutch to rotate a predetermined distance, in turn causing the printer to perform a certain task. Continuing to rotate the clutch causes the printer to perform other tasks. The invented printer also includes a paper-feed mechanism for picking up and feeding a sheet of paper into the printer. This mechanism incudes a rotatable drive roller that moves paper through the printer, a spring-biased plate capable of pivoting around an axial pivot, biased to extend toward the drive roller and on which paper is tacked, a partition, having at least one opening, positioned between the roller and the plate for generally preventing the roller from contacting the media on the plate, and a pivot adjacent the roller for selectively allowing at least a part of the roller to extend through the opening in the partition to contact the top sheet of paper and feed it through the printer. The paper-feed mechanism is one task that may be triggered by the carriage-actuated clutch.