Abstract: A friction mechanism exerts a frictional force on a feed pinch roller to apply a proper tensile load to an ink ribbon when the ink ribbon is fed.

Abstract: The invention intends to obtain a good printed result without creating displacement of printing positions when printing is performed on a piece of printed paper with different contact pressures of the thermal head to the platen. To achieve the object, the thermal transfer printer of the invention comprises control means that make it possible to select a contact pressure of the thermal head to the platen in correspondence with a printing mode, and controls a printing setting position in accordance with the printing mode selected, whereby it becomes possible to correct the drifts of printing positions due to the difference of contact pressures of the thermal head to the platen, and acquire an excellent printed result without having the drifts of printing positions.

Abstract: According to the thermal transfer printer, a plurality of cassette holder plates each for holding ribbon cassettes stacked in plural stages are arranged side by side on a holding cover on the side opposed to a carriage, a fixed holding arm for holding the ribbon cassettes and a movable holding arm for pressing the ribbon cassettes toward the fixed holding arm are disposed respectively on both sides of each cassette holder plate of the holding cover, holding guides are erected on the holding cover at positions corresponding to ribbon cores of the ribbon cassettes in such a manner as to extend through the cassette holder plate, and a holding arm for holding the peripheral edge portion of one ribbon core of each ribbon cassette is formed integrally with one holding guide, while ribs for engagement with the other ribbon core of the ribbon cassette are formed on the other holding guide.

Abstract: A printer including, from an upstream side to a downstream side in a sheet feeding direction, a sheet feed mechanism, a carriage, a curl straightening device, and a sheet discharge mechanism. A curl straightening head of the curl straightening device is resilient. The carriage and the curl straightening device are driven by a same drive source. The printer is a cheap printer which can allow reliable straightening of curled recorded sheet, even when sheets of different thicknesses are used, and which can reliably discharge the sheet out the printer.

Abstract: A cassette transfer mechanism for a thermal transfer printer with a cassette platform and a cassette holder for holding a plurality of ribbon cassettes. The cassette transfer mechanism transfers a ribbon cassette between the cassette platform and the cassette holder by driving the platform and holder to come into and out of contact with each other. The cassette holder and the cassette platform each have movable members and stationary members for engaging a ribbon cassette. A further embodiment includes elastic members on the cassette holder for abutting the reels of the ribbon cassette to elastically bias the reels in one direction.

Abstract: This invention provides a dot printer which reads a manuscript and prints on a recording medium automatically only by placing a manuscript and a recording medium. A thermal head and an image scanner are provided facing to a platen, a feeding mechanism for feeding a desired manuscript or recording medium between the platen, and the thermal head and the image scanner is provided, an identification marker is formed on the upstream side of feeding of the manuscript, and a controller for controlling the operation is provided so that the identification marker is read using the image scanner to recognize that the medium is a manuscript fed from the feeding mechanism, then, the image scanner starts to read the manuscript.

Abstract: A reading apparatus and a recording apparatus having the reading apparatus which can reduce storage capacity for storing read data and, because the read data processing modes can be switched according to the type of documents to be processed, perform fast and proper document reading operation. If a document to be processed is an image document, the controller operates in the image processing mode in which M pieces of read data are sampled out of N pieces of read data and a mean value of the M pieces of read data is calculated to be stored in the memory as gradation data of one pixel. If the document is a text document, the controller operates in the text processing mode in which read data of one read unit of the image scanner is digitized by a threshold to be stored in the memory. Switching between these two processing modes is performed by the conversion processing operator section in the controller.

Abstract: A driving circuit for a stepping motor comprises bridge circuits being composed of switching elements connected between a DC power source and the coils of a stepping motor, rectifier diodes connected in antiparallel to the switching elements, capacitors connected in parallel to the bridge circuits, and constant voltage diodes connected between the DC power source and junction points of the bridge circuits and the capacitors. The switching elements are constituted to be ON/OFF controlled by a predetermined exciting system, and the constant voltage diodes are set to turn conductive to form a feedback circuit even if they are in a biased state in the reverse direction when the capacitors are charged up to a voltage which is higher than the source voltage and lower than the breakdown voltage of the switching elements by the counter electromotive force induced in the coils.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for setting a desired color in a thermal transfer printer using a color ink ribbon which has ink sections of plural colors arranged in continuous repeating units in the longitudinal direction of the ink ribbon. Taking note of the fact that in a short distance from a color detecting sensor up to a printing position, the amount of the ribbon wound up for a rotational amount corresponding to one step of a ribbon winding motor is almost constant, irrespective of the amount of the ink ribbon used, the present invention was accomplished. According to the present invention, the number of steps of the motor for feeding a color distinguishing marker on the ink ribbon is counted by a sensor and the ribbon is fed from the position of the said sensor up to the printing position by a predetermined integer multiple of steps of the counted value, whereby a desired color is set in the printer accurately.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for driving and controlling a thermal printer. In the thermal printer provided with a carriage driving mechanism for moving a carriage including a thermal head forward and backward along a platen; a mechanism for moving upward and downward the thermal head to bring it into contact with and detach it from said platen; and a sheet forwarding mechanism for forwarding a print sheet in the direction perpendicular to the sheet forwarding direction; the time required for the printing operation by the printer is shortened as a whole and thus it is possible to raise the effective printing speed by controlling the drive of the printer so that the upward movement and/or the downward movement of the thermal head and the moving operation of the carriage or the sheet forwarding operation are effected, overlapped with each other.