Thermal transfer printer capable of bidirectional printing

Abstract

Abstract PURPOSE:To enhance printing efficiency and obviate troubles such as wasteful feeding of a ribbon and bending of the ribbon, by a construction wherein two ribbon cassettes are stacked so that the take-up direction of a ribbon in one of the cassettes is opposite to that in the other, and the two cassettes are shifted up or down in accordance with forward or backward movement of a carriage. CONSTITUTION:When printing while moving the carriage 5 in a forward direction F, a cassette holer 11 is shifted downward by an operating motor 18, so that the upper ribbon cassette 12 is located in front of a heating part 6a of a printing head 6. In this condition, while the carriage 5 is moved in the forward direction F by clockwise rotatory movement of a timing belt 8, thermal transfer printing on a printing paper through the ribbon 16 in the cassette 12 is conducted by the head 6 turned to a printing position. In the forward printing, a moving focre of the belt 8 is transmitted to a driving shaft 30 on one side, so that a take-up spool 15 in the cassette 12 is rotated to feed the ribbon 16 in a direction opposite to the direction F without trouble.

Inventors

• 👤 Hisashi Inoki
• 👤 猪木　寿志
• 👤 Tomohiro Yamada
• 👤 知広 山田

Bibliographic Details