Wire printer

Claim 1

A wire printer comprising: a base frame over which paper to be printed on advances in use; a carriage movable over said base frame in a direction transverse to the direction of advance of the paper to be printed on, said carriage including a plurality of guide members equispaced along the direction of movement of said carriage; a plurality of print wires each having a respective front and rear end, mounting means on said carriage slidably mounting the front and rear ends of said print wires on said carriage with the respective front ends of said print wires equispaced along the direction of movement of said carriage opposite the paper to be printed on, and said plurality of guide members of said carriage being positioned each for slidably supporting and maintaining a portion of a respective print wire intermediate its front and rear ends straight, wherein the number of print wires is equal to a submultiple of a total number of characters to be printed in a line of printing; a plurality of stationary electromagnet devices on said base frame each for driving a print wire independently of the other electromagnet devices, each electromagnet device comprising a magnetic core having a coil wound thereon and magnetized in response to current flowing through said coil, a print lever displaced by the magnetized core and having a striking portion for striking the rear end of a corresponding print wire when it is displaced at any position to which said carriage moves; and means for reciprocating said carriage in the direction transverse to the direction of advance of the paper to be printed on for a distance approximately corresponding to a space between front ends of adjacent print wires; whereby energization of selected ones of the stationary electromagnet devices as said carriage is reciprocating in the direction transverse to the direction of advance of the paper to be printed on is effective for printing selected characters in use on the paper.