Small-type printer

Abstract

Abstract PURPOSE:To enable easy and accurate verification of the residual amount of an ink ribbon, by detecting the amount of the ribbon supplied after an ink ribbon cassette is fitted in position, and indicating the amount supplied or the residual amount of the ribbon. CONSTITUTION:When a printing head part HA is brought into contact with a recording paper and a main body 10 of the device is moved in the direction of an arrow X by continued pressing of a print key, a rubber roller 31 is rotated with the attendant rotation of an encoder disk 41, and passage of light sent from LEDs 42a, 42b to corresponding photosensors 43a, 43b through slits 41a, 41b... is intermittently permitted and interrupted under control. With the encoder disk 41 in forward rotation, a pulse signal is outputted from the photosensor 43a. Rotation of the rubber roller 31 takes up a thermal transfer ink ribbon 24. A counter counts encoder pulses corresponding to the amount of movement of the main body 10 after an ink ribbon cassette 22 is fitted in position, and calculates the residual length of the ink ribbon 24. The residual amount data thus obtained is accurately displayed on a display part.

Inventors

• 👤 Atsushi Sagisaka

Bibliographic Details