Type belt for a belt printer

Claim 1

A high speed printer comprising: a driving pulley, a driven pulley, and an endless type belt mounted thereon; a guide member fixed to said printer to slidably receive said type belt as it is driven therepast in a feeding direction by said driving pulley; a print hammer means located opposite said guide member to impact against said type belt to effect printing on a record medium positioned therebetween; said type belt comprising: a dimensionally-stable elastomeric band having a rectangular cross section and being formed into a continuous loop and having a plurality of spaced metallic tensile cables imbedded therein to reinforce said band; said band having a plurality of pairs of holes therein to define type member locations; a plurality of elastomeric type members secured to said band at said type member locations, with each said type member completely surrounding a portion of said band and adhering thereto and having portions integral therewith passing through the associated pair of holes to assist in fixing the location of the type member on said band; each said type member having a printing portion and a driven portion with said driven portion having a cross-sectional shape in the form of an isosceles trapezoid as viewed along a section line including the cross section of said band, with the longer of the two parallel sides of said trapezoid being adjacent to the print portion of the associated type member so as to enable the driven portions to be driven by said driving pulley which has a complementary shape in cross section to receive the driven portions of said type members; and with said elastomeric band being located in said driven portions; said guide member comprising a block member having a recess in one side thereof with said recess having a cross-sectional shape in the form of an isosceles trapezoid to slidably receive said driven portion of said type members therein; each said driven portion having two faces lying substantially in a common plane including said longer side and said one side of said guide member; said guide memBer also having plates detachably secured to said one side and aligned with said two faces to prevent rebounding of the type member when said print hammer means impacts against the associated printing portion, which printing portion extends from the associated driven portion beyond said two faces and plates.