JP2002248823A - Ink sheet cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: An ink sheet 21 is mounted on a cartridge body 30 without error. SOLUTION: Three engaging members 52 are protruded from one flanged shaft portion 48 on the winding side of an ink sheet 21;
The engaging body 52 is inserted into the shaft hole 50 of the side plate 31a of the cartridge body from the inside, and is irremovably engaged with the fitting hole of the first rotating member 46 with the transmission gear 47. Side plate 31
On the outer surface of a, a first prevention piece 70 in the shape of an arc-shaped eave and second prevention pieces 72 and 7 are disposed on a portion radially outside the outer circumference of the transmission gear 47 so as to surround 180 degrees or more of the outer circumference of the transmission gear 47.
2 is projected so as to make it difficult to remove the transmission gear 47 from the outer surface of the side plate 31a.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure of an ink sheet cartridge having an exchangeable ink sheet used for an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a facsimile machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when printing on recording paper such as plain paper using a line type thermal head and a wide ink sheet, an ink sheet cartridge having the ink sheet mounted thereon is, for example, a Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 6-81749. As shown in JP-A-10-193732 and JP-A-10-193732, an ink sheet supply side spool and a take-up side spool can be rotatably supported with respect to a cartridge body in order to exchange an ink sheet. One that is configured to be detachable is disclosed.

[0003]

However, if the user incorrectly attaches the supply-side spool and the take-up spool to the cartridge body and positions the spools on the left and right sides, the front and back surfaces of the new ink sheet are attached to the cartridge body. On the other hand, there has been a problem that printing cannot be performed without a regular set state.

Generally, a transmission gear for transmitting power from the main body of the image forming apparatus and rotating each spool is provided on one side of the supply side spool and the winding side spool. In this case, if the mounting position of the transmission gear is incorrect, the supply (rewinding) operation of the ink sheet becomes impossible. Therefore, the transmission gear is mounted on the correct side surface of the cartridge body, and the cartridge body is oriented in the correct direction. It is necessary to set to the body of. For this purpose, it was necessary to prevent the transmission gear from easily falling off the cartridge body.

Accordingly, the present applicant has previously filed Japanese Patent Application No.
In the specification and drawings of No. 96818, it has been proposed that the transmission gear and one spool are fixedly mounted on one side plate of the cartridge main body, but some users forcibly remove the transmission gear, and later, There is a problem that it causes a mounting failure or a driving failure.

The present invention has been proposed in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and it has been made physically difficult to remove a transmission gear from a cartridge body, and to replace an ink sheet in a correct direction. It is an object to provide an ink sheet cartridge.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the ink sheet cartridge according to the first aspect of the present invention has an ink sheet supply spool and a take-up spool mounted on both left and right ends. An ink sheet cartridge rotatably mounted on left and right side plates of the cartridge body via a shaft portion, wherein one of the left and right ends of the winding side spool has a shaft portion from outside the one side plate. A transmission gear is fitted, and a pull-out preventing member for the transmission gear is protruded from an outer surface of the one side plate at a position radially outside the outer periphery of the transmission gear.

[0008] The invention described in claim 2 is the first invention.
In the ink sheet cartridge described in (1), the extraction preventing member is configured to surround at least 90 degrees of the outer periphery of the transmission gear.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the ink sheet cartridge according to the first or second aspect, wherein the pull-out preventing members are provided at two or more circumferential positions at intervals. It is.

[0010]

Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a side sectional view of the facsimile machine 1, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the ink sheet cartridge, FIG. 3 is a left side view, FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of parts of the ink sheet cartridge, and FIG. FIG.

First, the structure of a facsimile machine 1 as an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be schematically described. The facsimile apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment reads an image or the like from a document 8, transmits the image data as facsimile data to another facsimile apparatus via a communication line such as a telephone line, and connects the communication line such as a telephone line. It receives facsimile data transmitted from another facsimile apparatus via the MFP and forms an image on the recording paper 4 as well as a function as a normal facsimile apparatus. It has a function as a printer that receives print data transmitted through the printer and forms an image in accordance with the data.

A receiver (not shown) is arranged on one side of the main body case 2 of the facsimile machine 1. An upper case portion 6 covering the upper surface of the main body case 2 having an open top surface is pivotally mounted on the upper rear end of the main body case 2 so as to be vertically rotatable about a rotation fulcrum 6a at the rear end. An operation panel 3 having a key switch 3a, a liquid crystal display device (not shown), and the like is provided on a front side of an upper surface of the upper case portion 6. The operation panel 3 also removes the original 8 when the original 8 is not properly fed, removes the recording paper 4 due to double feeding of the recording paper 4, and replaces the ink sheet 21 with the cartridge body 30 described later. For example, the front side is largely opened upward and can be rotated. Also, body case 2
A paper feed tray body 5 having an upper tray section 30 and the like for stacking and placing the recording papers 4 in an obliquely downward state is attached to and detached from the rear of the upper case section 6 at the rear of the upper surface of the upper case 6. A document table 7 is detachably mounted on the main body case 2 at an intermediate position in the front and rear directions.

A transport roller pair 11 is provided in the main body case 2 at a position below the operation panel 3 and downstream of a feed roller 9 for separating and sending out the originals 8 from the original platen 7 one by one. A contact image scanner unit (CIS) 10 for reading the original 8 and a paper discharge roller pair 12 are disposed downstream of the printer.

A paper feed mechanism is provided in the upper case section 6 below the paper feed table 5 for transporting the recording papers 4 stacked on the paper feed tray body 5 one by one toward a printing section described later. Have been. That is, the paper feed mechanism is provided with the stacked recording papers 4.
And a paper feed set plate 14 for pressing the lower end of the paper feed roller 15 against the peripheral surface of the paper feed roller 15 with a spring 14a, and urging the lower peripheral surface of the paper feed roller 15 with a spring to separate the paper one by one. And the like.

Below the sheet feeding mechanism and in the main body case 2
Inside, a roller-shaped platen 17 as a printing unit, a thermal head 22 on a printing table 19 urged by a spring 18 toward the lower surface of the platen 17,
And a storage unit 13 for an ink sheet 21 wound around an ink sheet cartridge 20 arranged so as to straddle in the front-rear direction (see FIG. 1).

The ink sheet 21 wound from the supply side sheet spool 25 to the front take-up side sheet spool 26
Is a thermal head 22 and a tension body 2 made of a spring plate.
3 and reaches the lower peripheral surface side of the take-up side sheet spool 26. At this time, the ink surface of the ink sheet 21 is on the upper surface. The recording paper 4 overlapping the upper surface (ink surface) of the ink sheet 21 is printed in a printing portion where the platen 17 and the thermal head 22 overlap, and then a paper ejection guide chute 27 formed on the lower surface of the upper case portion 6. The paper is discharged to the rear of the upper surface of the upper case section 6 via the paper discharge roller pair 28.

Next, the configuration of the ink sheet cartridge 20 according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

The ink sheet cartridge 20 includes a cartridge body 30, an ink sheet 21, and a pair of left and right supply side spools 3 as supply side sheet spools 25.
6, 37 (see FIG. 4) and the take-up side sheet spool 26.
A pair of left and right take-up spools 38, 39 (FIG. 4)
Reference).

The spools 36, 37, and 39 are flanged shafts which are removably fitted at both ends of core tubes 40, 41 for winding the ink sheet 21, and are, for example, injection of synthetic resin material. It is integrally formed by molding or the like, and only one spool 38 is configured by combining a plurality of components.

As shown in FIGS. 2 to 7, the cartridge body 30 includes a pair of left and right side plates 31a and 31b extending from the sheet supply side to the take-up side so as to surround the left and right outer sides of the ink sheet 21, and the pair of side plates. Upper cover pieces 32 connected to cover the upper side of the supply-side winding portion of the ink sheet 21 to the upper and lower sides 31a and 31b, and the upper side of the winding side of the ink sheet 21 to the pair of side plates 31a and 31b. And is integrally manufactured by injection molding with a synthetic resin material. Accordingly, a portion surrounded by the supply side upper cover piece 32 which is long in the left and right direction, the connection plate 24 on the winding side, and the left and right side plates 31a and 31b is a window hole portion where the ink sheet 21 is exposed.
The roller-shaped platen 17 faces from the upper side of the window, and the printing table 19, the thermal head 22, and the tension member 23 face from below the window (see FIGS. 1 and 2). The connecting plate 24 has a fin-shaped handle (knob) 35 projecting upward from a central portion of the connecting plate 24 in a right or left direction by an appropriate dimension in a right or left direction.

Each of the side plates 31a and 31b has
Except for the take-up side left spool 38, the outer shafts 44 of the supply-side right spool 37 and the take-up right spool 39
A shaft support groove 33 having an open end is formed in which the support shaft of the supply-side left spool 36 is loosely fitted (see FIGS. 4 and 7). The side plates 31a, 31a are connected to the shaft support groove 33 and extend radially outward.
b, each outer shaft 44
When the (support shaft) is pushed upward with its axis substantially crossing the shaft support groove 33, the width between the lower open groove edges of each shaft support groove 33 elastically expands.
In the free state, each outer shaft 44 (support shaft portion) is
3 so as not to fall off.

The ink sheet 21 is formed by forming an ink layer on one entire surface of a wide resin film. As shown in FIG. 4, the ink sheet 21 is wound around a pair of cylindrical core tubes 40 and 41 made of paper or the like. Have been. The recording paper 4 is formed on the ink layer of the ink sheet 21.
Are sandwiched between the platen 17 and the recording surface of the thermal head 22 which is a line printer, and the heating resistor of the thermal head 22 is energized in accordance with image data. An image is formed.

The core tube 40 on the supply side and the core tube 41 on the winding side
The supply side right spool 37 and the take-up side right spool 39 which are fitted to the right ends (the right side as viewed from the discharge side of the recording paper 4) have the same shape as shown in FIG. 4
1) an inner cylindrical portion 42 fitted to the inner diameter of the right end portion, a large-diameter flange portion 43, and a small-diameter cylindrical outer shaft 44 as a support shaft portion rotatably disposed with respect to the cartridge body 30 described later. It is composed of

The supply-side left spool 36 fitted to the left end of the supply-side core tube 40 fits into the inner diameter of the left end of the core tube 40, and has an inner cylindrical portion with an engagement claw 42a that engages with a notch groove. 42
A large-diameter flange portion 43, a support shaft portion (not shown) provided outside the flange portion 43 and rotatably disposed with respect to a cartridge body 30 described later, and a gear portion provided outside the support shaft portion. 45 (see FIG. 4).

On the other hand, a take-up left spool 38 that fits into the left end of the take-up core tube 41 is irremovably mounted in a shaft hole 50 of one side plate 31a of the cartridge body 30. A first rotating member 46 having a transmission gear 47 disposed outside the one side plate 31a, and a flange 48a connected to the first rotating member 46 from inside the one side plate 31a.
And a shaft portion 48 with a shaft. The intermediate connector 56 is detachably fitted to the flanged shaft portion 48, and the intermediate connector 56 is fitted to the inner diameter portion at the left end of the core tube 41 on the winding side. Are each formed by injection molding of a synthetic resin material.

As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B,
An inner cylindrical portion 46a is formed along the axis of the first rotating member 46 made of a synthetic resin material such as nylon resin on the inner diameter of the transmission gear 47 so as to extend along the axis. A rod-shaped elastic body 51 extending along the axial direction is integrally formed. On the free end side of the elastic body 51, a locking claw 51a is integrally formed radially outward.

At the outside of the radius of the inner cylinder portion 46a, a fan-shaped base portion 46b divided into three is provided along the circumference.
Further, a substantially rectangular fitting hole is formed between the base portion 46b and the fitting portion 52a of each of the three engaging members 52 of the shaft portion 48 with the flange 48a. A step as an engaging portion is formed on the outer peripheral side of each fitting hole. In addition, the base portion 46b divided into three parts includes
A positioning projection 54 projecting from a side surface facing the shaft portion 48 and extending in the radial direction is integrally formed.

A disc-shaped flange 48a protrudes radially outward from a cylindrical base 48b of a shaft 48 with a flange 48a made of a synthetic resin material such as nylon resin. One end of the base 48b has a slightly smaller radius. A guide section having an arcuate cross section extends in the axial direction, and the elastic body 51 and its distal end hook 51a can pass through the base 48a and the inner diameter of the guide section in the axial direction. From the middle of the radius of the flange 48a, in the opposite direction to the base 48b, three engaging members 5
2 are protruding. The base 48b and the flange 4
A positioning hole 55 into which the positioning projections 54 of the first rotating member 46 are fitted is formed at the base portion 8a.

Further, of the outer surface of the left side plate 31a,
A pull-out preventing member for the first rotating member 46 with the transmission gear 47 is provided so as to protrude from the outer peripheral edge of the transmission gear 47 on the winding side. In the first embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 2 to 7, an arc-shaped eave-shaped first prevention piece 70 projecting so as to cover a part of the outer periphery of the transmission gear 47 is provided.
And a fin-shaped second prevention piece 72 protruding from both sides of a cylindrical support piece 71 protruding laterally on the outer surface of the left side plate 31a.
The first prevention piece 70 and the second prevention piece 72 are set so as to surround at least 90 degrees or more, preferably 180 degrees or more of the outer periphery of the transmission gear 47. In the embodiment, it is surrounded by approximately 180 degrees.

With this configuration, the left side plate 31a
Even if the outer periphery of the transmission gear 47 is pinched by the user's finger from outside, only a portion of the outer periphery of the transmission gear 47 that is within a semicircle can be pinched, and no force is required to pull out the transmission gear 47. The operation of removing the gear 47 becomes very difficult, and the removal of the first rotating member 46 can be substantially prevented.

With the above configuration, the cartridge body 30
In the embodiment, the base portion 46b of the first rotating member 46 is inserted into the shaft hole 50 from the outside of the left side plate 31a shown in FIG. 4, and the shaft portion 48 is inserted from the inside of the side plate 31a. Of the shaft hole 5
The three engagement bodies 52 are inserted into the zero. And each engagement body 5
2 is fitted into each fitting hole 53 on the inner diameter side of the transmission gear 47 in the first rotating member 46. As a result, the front claw portions 52a are engaged with the step portions 53a on the outer peripheral side of the respective fitting holes 53, and are integrally formed as the winding-side left spool 38.
It is impossible to escape from 0.

In a state where the spool is integrated as the take-up left spool 38, the outer periphery of the joining portion of the base portion 48b of the shaft portion 48 and the divided base portion 46b of the first rotating member 46 becomes cylindrical, The transmission gear 47 with respect to the shaft hole 50
And a positioning portion for the rotation center axis of the take-up spool 38.

An embodiment in which a replacement ink sheet set is mounted on the cartridge main body 30 with the above configuration will be described. The replacement ink sheet set is a set in which a new ink sheet 21 is wound around the supply-side core tube 40 and a take-up side core tube 41, and the width dimension of the ink sheet 21 is set at both ends of the core tube 41. It is preferable to make the dimension between them substantially equal. In addition, the end of the new ink sheet 21 is attached to the outer periphery of the core tube 41 with an adhesive tape or the like in advance. Then, the first rotating member 46 and the shaft portion 48 with the flange 48a are irremovably attached to a predetermined shaft hole 50 of the cartridge main body 30 to form the take-up left spool 38. Then, an intermediate connector 56 is inserted between the end (left end) of the winding-side core tube 41 and the shaft portion 48 of the winding-side left spool 38, and the core tube 41 is inserted into the shaft portion 48.

On the other hand, a take-up right spool 39 is inserted into the right end of the core tube 41 and mounted. The supply side left spool 36 and the supply side right spool 3 are provided at both ends of the supply side core tube 40.
7 and insert them.

As described above, the four spools 36, 3
One of the spools 7, 38, and 39 (the take-up side left spool 38 in the embodiment) is undetachably mounted to the cartridge main body 30. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the side on which the transmission gear 47 is disposed is Cartridge body 30
It becomes clear that it is one of the left and right, and when the user replaces with a new ink sheet 21, the core tubes 40, 41
This reduces errors in the direction and the like when attaching both ends of each of the spools to each spool, and allows the ink sheet 21 to be quickly and easily replaced.

As described above, since the first and second prevention members 70 and 72 prevent the user from picking the outer periphery of the transmission gear 47 and removing the first rotating member 46 without permission, the cartridge body It is difficult to remove the transmission gear 47 to be disposed on the regular side of the printer 30. Therefore, when the ink sheet 21 is replaced, the spools 36, 37, and 39 serving as other rotating members may be attached to a wrong place. It can be reliably prevented.

As a second embodiment of the pull-out preventing member, although not shown, it is the above-mentioned arc-shaped eave-shaped preventing piece,
By projecting two or three pieces having a short circumferential length at an interval, the outer circumference of the transmission gear 47 may be configured to surround 90 degrees or more, preferably 180 degrees or more. In another embodiment, a large number of convex shaft-shaped prevention pieces may be arranged so as to surround 90 degrees or more, preferably 180 degrees or more, of the outer periphery of the transmission gear 47 at intervals, instead of having an eaves shape. It is.

A cylindrical support piece 71 is also provided on the outer surface of the right side plate 31b so as to protrude horizontally, and the pair of left and right support pieces 71, 71 is located at a position (not shown) in the storage portion 13 in the main body case 2. The cartridge body 3
A normal set state of 0 can be maintained.

In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to a facsimile apparatus, but is not limited to this.
The present invention can be used for various image forming apparatuses such as a printer, a copying machine, and a device having a plurality of functions thereof.

[0040]

As described above, the ink sheet cartridge according to the first aspect of the present invention has a cartridge in which the supply spool for the ink sheet and the take-up spool are mounted on the left and right ends of the respective shafts. An ink sheet cartridge rotatably mounted on left and right side plates of a main body, wherein a transmission gear is fitted to one shaft portion of left and right ends of the winding spool from outside the one side plate. On the outer surface of the one side plate, a pull-out preventing member for the transmission gear is provided so as to protrude from a portion radially outside the outer periphery of the transmission gear.

With this configuration, the user cannot arbitrarily pick the outer periphery of the transmission gear and remove the shaft portion.
Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the ink sheet from being attached in a wrong posture when replacing the ink sheet. This has the effect that the cause of the poor mounting of the transmission gear or the poor driving can be eliminated later.

Further, the invention described in claim 2 is the same as that in claim 1.
In the ink sheet cartridge described in (1), the extraction preventing member is configured to surround at least 90 degrees of the outer periphery of the transmission gear.

With this configuration, even if the outer periphery of the transmission gear is pinched by the user's finger from the outside of the side plate, only a portion of the outer circumference of the transmission gear within a semicircle can be pinched. Since no force is required to remove the transmission gear, it is very difficult to remove the transmission gear, and the shaft can be substantially prevented from being removed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the ink sheet cartridge according to the first or second aspect, wherein the pull-out preventing members are provided at two or more circumferential positions at intervals. Even in this case, the effect of the invention described in claim 1 or 2 can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a facsimile machine.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the ink sheet cartridge.

FIG. 3 is a left side view of the ink sheet cartridge.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the ink sheet cartridge in a state where components are turned upside down.

5A is an enlarged sectional view showing a connection positional relationship between a first rotating member 46, a flanged shaft portion 48, and an intermediate connector 56, and FIG. 5B is an enlarged sectional view showing a connected state.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the ink sheet cartridge as viewed from the front left side.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the ink sheet cartridge as viewed from the front right side.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Body Case 4 Recording Paper 5 Feed Tray Body 6 Upper Case 20 Ink Sheet Cartridge 21 Ink Sheet 24 Connecting Plate 25 Supply Side Sheet Spool 26 Rewind Side Sheet Spool 30 Cartridge Main Body 31a, 31b Side Plate 35 Handles 36 to 39 Spool 40 , 41 core tube 42 inner cylinder part 43, 48a flange part 45 gear part 46 first rotating member 47 transmission gear 48 shaft part 56 intermediate connector 70 first prevention piece 71 support piece 72 second prevention piece

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An ink sheet cartridge in which an ink sheet supply side spool and a take-up side spool are rotatably mounted on left and right side plates of a cartridge main body via shaft portions mounted on left and right ends thereof. A transmission gear is fitted to one shaft portion of the left and right ends of the winding spool from the outside of the one side plate, and an outer surface of the one side plate is located radially outside the outer periphery of the transmission gear. An ink sheet cartridge provided with a pull-out preventing member for the transmission gear. 2. The ink sheet cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the pull-out preventing member is configured to surround at least 90 degrees of an outer periphery of the transmission gear. 3. The pull-out preventing member is provided in the circumferential direction.
The ink sheet cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the ink sheet cartridge is provided at intervals at positions or more.