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:
Dec. 17, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 29, 2000
Philip Alan Mastinick, Camarillo, CA (US);
Z.I.H. Corp., Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
A ribbon mechanism mounted in the lid of a printer includes a ribbon carriage pivotally coupled to the lid for folding out of the lid by virtue of its mass when the lid is open and for folding in the lid as the lid is closed. A gear train is mounted on the ribbon carriage for driving the ribbon take up core. A thermal printhead is resiliently mounted in the ribbon carriage and automatically aligned against the platen with alignment tabs. The ribbon carriage is movably linked to a printer hinge by way of a linkage having an elongated slot at one end for slidably engaging an integral ribbon carriage post and with an aperture at the other end for pivotally mating with a lever arm provided on the printer hinge. The ribbon carriage post slides linearly inside the linkage slot between maximum “down”/maximum “up” positions at each end of the linkage slot, respectively.