JP3553980B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
[Industrial applications]
The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly, to a small-sized printer capable of increasing a reverse feeding amount of paper.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional printer, there is known a printer in which environment setting is performed in an interactive manner with a user. This type of printer prints a message to the user on the paper at the printing unit, sends out the paper until the message reaches a position where it can be seen by the user, and then reverses the paper and sends it to the printing unit. After printing the next message, the paper is sent out again until the message reaches a position where it can be seen by the user, and the environment is set by repeating such operations.
[0003]
In such a printer, after feeding the paper until the message comes to a position that can be seen by the user, the leading edge of the paper must be fed back to the printing section, so a relatively long reverse feeding path is required. Therefore, there is a problem that the size of the printer is increased.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a small-sized printer capable of increasing a reverse feeding amount of paper.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
That is, in order to achieve this object, the present invention provides a printer having a paper feed path from a paper feed unit to a discharge unit via a printing unit, after printing on the upstream side of the printing unit in the paper feed direction in the paper feed path. Forms a reverse feed path for reverse feeding the sheet of paper, and opens an outlet at the end of the reverse feed path to guide the paper from the reverse feed path between the installation surface of the printer and the bottom of the printer body. It is intended to be.
[0006]
【Example】
Therefore, embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
[0007]
Each of the drawings shows an embodiment of the present invention, and a printer main body indicated by reference numeral 10 in the drawing has a printing unit 13 composed of a head 11 and a platen 12. The platen 12 is attached to 14 so that the platen 12 is rotated via a gear train 16 by a paper feed motor 15 composed of a stepping motor.
[0008]
Reference numeral 20 denotes a paper feed cassette. The paper feed cassette 20 is mounted in a concave paper feed cassette mounting section 17 provided at the bottom of the printer main body 10, and the paper 4 stored therein is fed by a paper feed roller 19. The paper feed cassette 20 is configured to be supplied to the printing unit 13 through the paper path 30, and the bottom surface 22 of the loaded paper cassette 20 forms the bottom surface 10 a of the printer together with the bottom surface 18 of the printer main body 10.
[0009]
On the other hand, the carriage 40 carrying the head 11 travels in parallel with the platen 12 via a timing belt 42 driven by a carriage motor 41 to print a predetermined line on the paper 4, and the printed paper is fed. The paper is discharged from a paper path 50 via a paper discharge roller 51 to a stacker 53 from a paper discharge unit 52.
[0010]
The reference numeral 60 in the drawing denotes a reverse feed path which is a feature of the present invention, and is used when the printed paper 4 is largely fed backward, for example, when the printer environment is set interactively.
[0011]
The reverse feed path 60 branches off from the path 30 from the paper feed cassette 20 before the printing unit 13 and extends substantially vertically downward toward the bottom surface 10 a of the printer body 10. The lower end of the reverse feed path 60 forms a discharge port 62 that opens to the bottom surface 10a of the printer main body 10, and the sheet 4 discharged from the paper discharge port 62 is placed on the installation surface F of the printer and the printer main body 10 A guide piece 70 leading to the space S between the bottom surface 10a and the bottom surface 10a is rotatably supported by a shaft 71, and the leading end 72 thereof is brought into contact with the installation surface F. 3 and 4, when the printer body 10 is used upright as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the guide piece 70 is made to protrude from the bottom surface 10a. It is configured to rotate clockwise in the figure to have a role as a manual feed guide.
[0012]
In the drawing, reference numeral 21 denotes a stopper for preventing the paper 4 from falling down, and reference numeral 80 denotes a metal partition plate for separating the mechanical unit A and the electric unit B when the printer is placed vertically. This is to prevent the electric components from being mixed into the mechanism section A. As shown in FIG. 1, the partition plate 80 also serves as a shield plate for the electric unit B together with the front bent portion 82 of the metal base frame 81, and winds up the ink ribbon mounted on the carriage 40. A rack 83 that meshes with the gear 41 that operates the mechanism is formed.
[0013]
Next, a normal printing operation by the printer configured as described above will be described.
[0014]
When the paper feed roller 19 rotates in the direction of arrow d, the uppermost sheet 4 in the paper feed cassette 20 is separated from the lower sheet and sent out to the paper feed path 30. The paper reaches the printing unit 13 via the paper feed roller 32 and is printed by the head 11, and then passes through the paper discharge path 50, passes through the paper discharge roller 51, and is discharged from the paper discharge unit 52 to the stacker 53.
[0015]
Next, a case where the environment setting of the printer is performed in an interactive manner will be described. When the paper 4 is sent out from the paper feed cassette and the trailing end 4a reaches a branch point 61 between the paper feed path 30 and the reverse feed path 60, The platen 12 and the like are switched to the reverse rotation, and the paper 4 is fed in the reverse direction until the leading end returns to the printing unit 13. At this time, since the rear end 4a of the sheet descends along the wall surface of the sheet discharge path 60 due to its elasticity, the sheet enters the reverse path 60 smoothly from the branch point 61, and the guide provided at the sheet discharge port 62 therefrom. While being guided by the piece 70, it is fed into the space S between the installation surface F of the printer and the bottom surface 10a of the printer body 10, as shown by the arrow a.
[0016]
Then, when the first message to the user is printed on the surface of the paper 4 by the head 11 at the stage when the reverse feeding of the paper is stopped, the platen 12 and the like are then switched to the normal rotation, and the paper 4 is The printed first message is sent out to the paper discharge unit 52 until the first message reaches a position 54 that can be seen by the user.
[0017]
Accordingly, the user operates the operation panel P in response to the first message, and then reverses the sheet to print the second message, and then returns the second message to a position where the user can see the second message again. The environment is set by sending the sheet until it reaches 54 and repeating such operations.
[0018]
FIGS. 3 and 4 show a case where the printer is placed vertically. When the printer is placed vertically so that the rear end face of the printer main body 10 is in contact with the installation surface F of the printer, the discharge path 60 is discharged. The paper port 62 will be located on the side surface.
[0019]
In this state, the guide piece 70 is opened in the clockwise direction. In this state, when a small thick paper 4 such as a postcard is fed from the paper discharge port 62, a reverse feed path is formed. 60 can be used as a second paper feed path. The fed paper 4 is printed by the printing unit 13 via the reverse feed path 60, and then is fed from the paper discharge unit 52 to the stacker 53 via the paper feed path 50. The paper is discharged to
[0020]
The above is a description of one embodiment of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be appropriately implemented within the scope of the present invention.
[0021]
For example, the manual feed guide 70 does not necessarily need to be provided, and the paper discharge port 62 may be directed in a direction in which the paper enters between the installation surface F of the printer and the bottom surface 10a of the printer body 10.
[0022]
Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where it is necessary to largely reverse the paper after printing is described as an example in which the environment setting of the printer is performed interactively, but the present invention is not limited to this. The present invention can be widely applied to a printer that needs to largely reverse a printed sheet.
[0023]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, in a printer having a paper feed path from a paper feed unit to a paper discharge unit, a reverse feed path for reversely feeding paper is formed in a branch, and the paper discharge in the reverse feed path is performed. The mouth is opened so that it can be guided between the installation surface of the printer and the bottom surface of the printer body, so that not only normal printing operations can be performed, but also when printing interactively By guiding the formed paper between the installation surface of the printer and the bottom surface of the printer body, the amount of paper to be fed back can be made sufficiently large even in a small printer.
[0024]
Further, by using the printer body upright, it is possible to perform appropriate printing processing on thick paper having a small size such as a postcard.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a printer main body showing an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the upper case of the printer in a separated state.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the printer main body in a vertically placed state.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the printer main body from the back side in a vertically placed state.
[Explanation of symbols]
F Printer installation surface 4 Paper 10a Bottom surface 13 of printer main body Printing unit 30 Paper feed path 60 Reverse feed path 62 Paper discharge port 70 Guide piece

Claims (3)

In a printer having a paper feeding path from a paper feeding unit to a discharging unit via a printing unit,
A reverse feed path for reversely feeding the printed sheet is formed on the upstream side of the printing section of the paper feed path in the paper transport direction, and the paper from the reverse feed path is provided at the end of the reverse feed path by the printer. A printer, characterized in that a paper discharge port for guiding between an installation surface and a bottom surface of the printer body is opened. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the reverse feed path is a substantially linear path from the printing unit to the paper discharge port. Depending on when the printer main body is placed with the bottom face facing the installation surface at the discharge port of the reverse feed path and when the printer main body is placed with the bottom face orthogonal to the installation surface. 2. The printer according to claim 1, further comprising a rotatable guide piece that is displaced between a direction in which the sheet can be fed backward and a direction in which the sheet can be manually fed.

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