EP0046985A1 - Tintengetränkte Anschlagfläche zur Verwendung in Punktdruckern - Google Patents

Tintengetränkte Anschlagfläche zur Verwendung in Punktdruckern Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0046985A1
EP0046985A1 EP81106644A EP81106644A EP0046985A1 EP 0046985 A1 EP0046985 A1 EP 0046985A1 EP 81106644 A EP81106644 A EP 81106644A EP 81106644 A EP81106644 A EP 81106644A EP 0046985 A1 EP0046985 A1 EP 0046985A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
hardness
ink
degrees
platen
paper
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP81106644A
Other languages
English (en)
French (fr)
Inventor
Tsuneaki Narumiya
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Bridgestone Corp
Original Assignee
Bridgestone Corp
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Bridgestone Corp filed Critical Bridgestone Corp
Publication of EP0046985A1 publication Critical patent/EP0046985A1/de
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J11/00—Devices or arrangements  of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form
    • B41J11/02—Platens
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J27/00—Inking apparatus
    • B41J27/20—Inking apparatus with ink supplied by capillary action, e.g. through porous type members, through porous platens

Definitions

  • This invention relates to an ink platen for use in a dot printer.
  • the dot printing system is designed such that a plurality of closely arranged printing needles strike plain paper through an ink or carbon ribbon to form characters (including letters, marks and figures) on the paper in a dot-matrix format.
  • a prior art dot printing system is illustrated as comprising a backup plate 1 of iron steel or hard rubber with a sheet of paper 2 placed in front of the backup plate 1, an ink ribbon 3 extending from one reel to the other reel of a ribbon cassette 4 through a path in a parallel facing relationship with the paper sheet 2 or backup plate 1, and a bundle of printing needles 5 disposed opposite to the backup plate 1 with respect to the ribbon path and perpendicular to the backup plate 1.
  • the selected needles of the bundle are actuated to strike the paper, thereby printing a character on the paper with ink.
  • One drawback of this system is that the entire mechanism becomes relatively large in size because an ink ribbon must be continuously fed for ink supply.
  • a dot printing system illustrated in Fig. 2 may be employed.
  • the illustrated system uses an ink platen 6 which comprises a porous nylon or polyolefin body impregnated with ink.
  • a sheet of paper 2 is placed in abutment with the ink platen 6.
  • Printing needles 5 are adapted to strike the paper 2 directly.
  • Ink is supplied from the ink platen 6 to the surface of the paper sheet facing the platen 6, that is, the back surface of the paper sheet at the points of impact of the needles 5 by the impact stress applied to the ink platen 6 by the striking needles 5 through the paper sheet 2, thereby imprinting dots which form a printed character.
  • the mechanism of this system may be of a relatively small size.
  • This system has a shortcoming that the life of the ink platen is short because the porous nylon or polyolefin body of which the ink platen is formed has poor cushioning characteristics such that it may be severely pierced or damaged by the impact of the printing needles.
  • the present invention is directed to a dot printer which comprises an ink platen impregnated with ink and printing needles adapted to strike the ink platen through a sheet of paper placed in abutment with the ink platen, whereby ink dots are imprinted on the paper at the points of impact of the printing needles to form a character on the paper in a dot-matrix format.
  • the ink platen comprises a compressed body of a flexible reticulated polyurethane foam, which has a surface hardness of at least 45 degrees and an internal hardness of at least 30 degrees on the hardness scale of a spring type hardness tester (type A) when the hardness is measured by using this type tester with the method defined in Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) K 6301-1975, the surface hardness being higher than the internal hardness.
  • a spring type hardness tester type A
  • JIS K 6301-1975 defines Physical Testing Methods for Vulcanized Rubber.
  • JIS K 6301 the hardness measurement method by using a spring type hardness tester (type A) is defined as follows.
  • a test piece having a flat opposed surfaces and a thickness of 12 mm or more is used.
  • a spring type hardness tester (type A) 101 shown in Figs. 3 to 6 has a loading disc 102 and an indentor 103 which is loaded by a spring 104 so as to protrude out of a central hole 105 in the disc 102.
  • the loading disc surface is a plane at right angles to the indentor 103 and the indentor 103 is fitted correctly at the center of the hole 105 of the disc 102.
  • the tester 101 is designed such that when the loading disc surface of this tester 101 comes into contact with the surface of the test piece, the indentor 103 projecting from the hole 105 in the center of the loading disc surface by means of the spring 104 is pushed back by the surface of the test piece to a distance which is indicated on a scale 106 by a pointer 107 as a hardness.
  • the diameter "d" of the tip of the indentor 103 is 0.79 ⁇ 0.02 mm, 0 is 35° ⁇ 0.25°, the diameter "D 1 " of the cylindrical part of the indentor 103 is 1.3 ⁇ 0.1 mm and the diameter "D 2 " of the hole 105 is about 3.2 mm in Fig. 5.
  • the tip of the indentor 103 is projected at a distance of 2.49 to 2.54 mm from the loading disc surface when the pointer 107 indicates the mark of 0 on the scale 106.
  • the tip of the indentor 103 is on the same level with the loading disk surface when the pointer 107 indicates the mark of 100 on the scale 106.
  • the scale 106 is divided evenly from 0 to 100.
  • the relationship among the scale 106, motion of the indentor 103 and force of the spring 104 is shown in Fig. 6 and the following table. Tolerance is ⁇ 8 g.
  • the tester In hardness measurement, the tester is kept vertically and the loading disc surface is let contact with the test piece so as to make the indentor vertical to the surface of the test piece to be measured. Then immediately the scale is read and the hardness of the test piece is obtained. In this case the type A tester is vertically pressed with a load of 1000 g and the scale is read.
  • the hardness measurement in the present invention is carried out in the above-described manner.
  • the compressed, flexible reticulated polyurethane foam body of which the ink platen of the present invention is.composed is a non-brittle, high- impact material which is improved in ink retention, make-up and leaching characteristics. Since the compressed foam body has a surface hardness of at least 45 degrees on the hardness scale of a spring type hardness tester (type A) by the hardness measurement method defined in JIS K 6301-1975, the surface is sufficiently hard to withstand the impact stress of printing needles. Further, since the internal hardness of the compressed body is at least 30 degrees on the same scale and lower than the surface hardness, the interior of the compressed body can retain a substantial amount of ink. The relatively hard surface portion is subjected to minimum damage by printing needles and provides clear printing as it is combined with the interior having good cushioning characteristics.
  • an ink platen for use in a dot printer according to the present invention is designated at 10.
  • the ink platen 10 consists of a compressed body of a flexible polyurethane foam having a substantially skeletal reticulated structure in the form of a plate.
  • the surface 10a of the compressed body has a hardness of at least 45 degrees and the interior 10b has a hardness of at least 30 degrees on the hardness scale of a spring type hardness tester (type A) by the hardness measurement method defined in JIS K 6301-1975, with the surface hardness being higher than the internal hardness.
  • the ink platen 10 is impregnated with ink particularly in its interior and is applied to the same system as described in connection with Fig. 2.
  • the ink platen 10 of the present invention is placed in the system shown in Fig. 2 instead of the ink platen of porous nylon or polyolefin designated at 6 in Fig. 2.
  • a sheet of paper 11 is placed in abutment with the ink platen 10 and a bundle of printing needles 12 is located opposite to the ink platen 10 with respect to the paper sheet 11 and spaced apart from the paper sheet 11.
  • suitable drive means for example, electromagnetic means drives the printing needles 12 to move them toward and perpendicular to the paper sheet 11.
  • Suitable selection means functions to select those needles which correspond to a character to be printed.
  • the drive means cooperates with the selection means to drive the selected needles toward the paper sheet 11. These needles at their tips strike the paper sheet 11 and the ink platen 10 to transfer ink from the ink platen 10 to the back surface of the paper sheet 11 in front of the ink platen 10, thereby imprinting dots which form the character.
  • the sheet of paper 11 may be moved laterally in Fig. 7 by any suitable carrying means.
  • the bundle of printing needles 12 may be reciprocated parallel to the sheet of paper 11 and the sheet of paper 11 may be moved perpendicular to the direction of reciprocation for each cycle of reciprocation of the bundle of needles 12.
  • the dot printer to which the ink platen 10 of the present invention is applicable may be of a well-known design as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.
  • the ink platen of the present invention is advantageously compatible with the dot printer of Fig. 1 which has heretofore been widely accepted.
  • Such a conventional dot printer may be operated without any substantial change except that the conventional printing mechanism is simply replaced by a novel printing mechanism according to the present invention.
  • the remaining mechanisms may be of a well-known conventional design including a mechanism for driving printing needles toward and away from a sheet of paper, a mechanism for selecting the necessary printing needles, and a mechanism for advancing the sheet of paper.
  • the ink platen of the present invention is illustrated as having an elongated rectangular cross section in Fig. 7.
  • the configuration of the ink platen is not particularly limited, the ink platen may advantageously take the form of either a rectangular body 10' as shown in Fig. 8 or a cylindrical body 10" as shown in Fig. 9. It will be understood that the ink platen of the present invention may be of any suitable configuration depending on the type of a particular dot printer to which the platen is applied.
  • the ink platen of the present invention comprises a compressed body of a flexible reticulated or cell membrane-free polyurethane foam
  • the ink platen is excellent in impregnation, make-up, retention and leaching of ink.
  • usual polyurethane foams have cell membranes.
  • the ink platen of the present invention is desirably unsusceptible to surface damage in this respect too.
  • the reticulated polyurethane foams may be prepared by any suitable methods as by removing cell membranes from a cell membrane-bearing polyurethane foam with a heat or chemical treatment or by producing a polyurethane foam from a reaction system which are specially formulated so as to prevent formation of cell membranes. Examples of process for the preparation of the reticulated foam are disclosed in U.S. Patent Nos. 3,175,030 and 4,259,452.
  • the polyurethane foams may be either polyether or polyester type although polyester polyurethanes are preferred because of strength.
  • the dimensions of a cell in the initial foam from which a compressed body is formed are not particularly limited.
  • the initial foam may preferably have 2 to 80 cells per linear cm.
  • the ink platen of the present invention has a surface hardness of at least 45 degrees on the above-said hardness scale, it can satisfactorily withstand the impact stress by printing needles in a dot printer where the printing needles strike the ink platen through a sheet of paper at a high speed and stress.
  • the platen is thus substantially free of surface damage and ensures clear character printing. With surface hardnesses below the above value, the platen surface is too soft to provide for clear printing and susceptible to damage.
  • the surface hardness may preferably be 60 degrees or higher on the above said scale in order to further improve the surface characteristics of the platen.
  • the upper limit of the surface hardness may preferably be 95 degrees on the above-said scale.
  • the surface portion having a hardness of at least 45 degrees may preferably have a thickness of 1 to 30'mm.
  • the ink platen of the present invention has an internal hardness of from 30 degrees on the above-said hardness scale to a value lower than the surface hardness, a substantial amount of ink is retained in the platen interior and the cushioning characteristics of the interior function to minimize damage to the platen surface.
  • the internal hardness may preferably range from 40 to 90 degrees on the above-said scale as long as it is lower than the surface hardness.
  • ink platens for use in dot printers are sufficiently hard to provide for clear printing while they have a capacity of retaining a substantial amount of ink.
  • the surface hardness of the ink platen of at least 45 degrees, preferably at least 60 degrees on the above-said scale ensures clear printing
  • the internal hardness of at least 30 degrees, preferably 40 to 90 degrees on the above-said scale, but lower than the surface hardness gives a higher void percentage than that of the surface portion so that a substantial amount of ink is retained in the interior.
  • the object of the present invention cannot be attained.
  • the interior of the platen functions as a cushioning layer to attenuate or diminish the impact by the printing needles striking the platen, minimizing surface damage due to impact of needles.
  • the difference between the surface hardness and the internal hardness may preferably be 15 to 60 degrees.
  • the ink platen of the present invention may be prepared by placing a flexible reticulated polyurethane foam 13 between a pair of heat press plates 14, 15 and heat pressing the foam therebetween in the direction of an arrow A as shown in Fig. 10.
  • the heat compression results in a compressed felt-like porous body having a relatively high hardness at either surface and a relatively low hardness in-the interior.
  • This compressed body is ready for use as an ink platen. It may also be severed by cutting the compressed body along the direction of compression into a shape suitable for a particular ink platen application.
  • the heat compression is carried out so that the surface hardness of the compressed body is at least 45 degrees and the internal hardness of the compressed body is at least 30 degrees.
  • a three-dimensional rectangular body C whose thickness is perpendicular to the direction of compression or the direction of arrow A may be cut out.
  • This rectangular body C may be moderately heat compressed in its thickness direction or the direction of arrow B so that the body has a relatively high hardness of at least 45 degrees at the surface 10a and a relatively low hardness of at least 30 degrees at the interior lOb, resulting in a bidirectionally compressed body for use as a platen.
  • the platen manufactured by the latter procedure shows satisfactory performance upon use because internal cells elongated along the direction of thickness or perpendicular to a sheet of paper to be printed allow ink to smoothly leach out of the platen, but prevent ink from dripping.
  • the ink platen may be manufactured by covering a relatively soft compressed foam intermediate layer 18 having a hardness of at least 30 degrees at one or two main opposed surfaces or the entire surfaces with a relatively hard compressed foam layer or layers 19 having a hardness of at least 45 degrees and heat fusing them into a laminated product.
  • the ink platen of the present invention comprises a compressed body of a flexible reticulated polyurethane foam which.has a surface hardness of at least 45 degrees and an internal hardness of at least 30 degrees on the hardness scale of the spring type hardness tester (type A) with the surface hardness being higher than the internal hardness, not only ink retention, make-up and leaching characteristics are improved, but also clear dot or character printing is achieved, surface damage is minimized and durability is improved due to an appropriate combination of a rigid surface portion and an elastic interior.
  • the present invention also contributes to the achievement of a small, dot printing mechanism.

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  • Handling Of Sheets (AREA)
  • Impression-Transfer Materials And Handling Thereof (AREA)
  • Laminated Bodies (AREA)
EP81106644A 1980-08-30 1981-08-26 Tintengetränkte Anschlagfläche zur Verwendung in Punktdruckern Withdrawn EP0046985A1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP120209/80 1980-08-30
JP12020980A JPS5745081A (en) 1980-08-30 1980-08-30 Ink platen for dot printer

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0046985A1 true EP0046985A1 (de) 1982-03-10

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ID=14780594

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Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP81106644A Withdrawn EP0046985A1 (de) 1980-08-30 1981-08-26 Tintengetränkte Anschlagfläche zur Verwendung in Punktdruckern

Country Status (2)

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EP (1) EP0046985A1 (de)
JP (1) JPS5745081A (de)

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0115676A2 (de) * 1982-12-08 1984-08-15 Honeywell Inc. Tintenzufuhrvorrichtung und Herstellungsverfahren
DE3527453A1 (de) * 1984-07-31 1986-02-13 Pentel K.K., Tokio/Tokyo Einrichtung zum versorgen eines nadelpunktschreibkopfes mit tinte
EP0254420A1 (de) * 1986-06-19 1988-01-27 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Verfahren und Gerät zum Aufzeichnen
US5477255A (en) * 1993-09-07 1995-12-19 Hewlett Packard Corporation Ink cartridge system with improved volumetric capacity and method for using the same

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3175030A (en) * 1963-03-07 1965-03-23 Chemotronics International Inc Process for the preparation of reticulated materials
US3918567A (en) * 1973-03-28 1975-11-11 Edward D Kittredge Process printing
JPS5157680A (en) * 1974-11-18 1976-05-20 Kakusaburo Onda Denkaisochunite kakuhankanioitehannoseshimeruhoho
JPS5551576A (en) * 1978-10-06 1980-04-15 Seiko Epson Corp Printing mechanism

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3175030A (en) * 1963-03-07 1965-03-23 Chemotronics International Inc Process for the preparation of reticulated materials
US3918567A (en) * 1973-03-28 1975-11-11 Edward D Kittredge Process printing
JPS5157680A (en) * 1974-11-18 1976-05-20 Kakusaburo Onda Denkaisochunite kakuhankanioitehannoseshimeruhoho
JPS5551576A (en) * 1978-10-06 1980-04-15 Seiko Epson Corp Printing mechanism

Non-Patent Citations (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Vol. 19, No. 5, October 1976 New York R.G. CROSS "Self-Inking Matrix Printer" page 1538 * page 1538 * *
PATENTS ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN, Vol. 4, No. 94, 8 July 1980 page 64M19 & JP - A - 55 - 51576 *

Cited By (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0115676A2 (de) * 1982-12-08 1984-08-15 Honeywell Inc. Tintenzufuhrvorrichtung und Herstellungsverfahren
EP0115676A3 (de) * 1982-12-08 1987-02-25 Honeywell Inc. Tintenzufuhrvorrichtung und Herstellungsverfahren
DE3527453A1 (de) * 1984-07-31 1986-02-13 Pentel K.K., Tokio/Tokyo Einrichtung zum versorgen eines nadelpunktschreibkopfes mit tinte
EP0254420A1 (de) * 1986-06-19 1988-01-27 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Verfahren und Gerät zum Aufzeichnen
US5477255A (en) * 1993-09-07 1995-12-19 Hewlett Packard Corporation Ink cartridge system with improved volumetric capacity and method for using the same

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
JPS5745081A (en) 1982-03-13

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PUAI Public reference made under article 153(3) epc to a published international application that has entered the european phase

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Inventor name: NARUMIYA, TSUNEAKI