Ribbon guide for a serial printer

Claim 1

In a serial printer having a platen, a laterally movable carrier for traversing a printing line, a print wheel supported on said carrier and including a plurality of spokes extending radially outwardly and terminating in a character slug for impacting with said platen at a print position to print characters, ribbon supply means and a ribbon feed means for feeding an ink ribbon past said print wheel including ribbon exit and entrance areas having ribbon guides thereat and said print position; an improved ribbon guide member comprising: a first concave portion, a second concave portion laterally spaced from said first portion by a convex portion; said first and concave second portions being positioned on opposite sides of the print position between the ribbon supply guides in a juxtaposed relation with the character slugs, said first and second concave portions defining a concave surface which is transverse to the plane formed by the print wheel spokes and extends over a portion of the print wheel periphery to assist in guiding the ribbon during printing, a mounting portion, and a connecting portion extending from the mounting portion to the first and second portions in an outwardly sloping direction toward the outer periphery of the character slugs of the print wheel said concave and convex portions being concave and convex as viewed from said mounting portion.