GB953183A - High speed magnetic printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

953,183. Selective printing. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. June 16, 1960 [June 30, 1959], No. 21140/60. Heading B6F. [Also in Division G4] A high-speed printing apparatus for recording information from data processing machines and computors, comprises a plurality of character defining members 20, at least one printing head e.g. a transducer 16, movable past the character members 20 and operative when adjacent said members to be selectively energized to form a character image on to a record 10 travelling between the character members 20 and the printing head 16. The character defining members 20 may be external or internal of the transducer cylinder 14 and may form the character image by magnetic, static, or photographic means. They are arranged in rows transverse to the movement of the record 10 and equal in number to the number of characters in a line of information. Each row has the same character but all the other characters, letters or numerals are arranged in annular columns, so that as the transducers are rotated they travel past all the characters and cause the character to be formed at the appropriate time. There are two transducers 16 for each column spaced 180 degrees apart and the rows are on a line skewed to the axis to accommodate the continuous movement of the record 10. They are rotated in synchronism with an information drum 46 into which data is entered. The information to be printed is entered in coded form one character at a time through a regenerative gate 52 to Read-in Station R.I. comprising transducers 54, and a Read-out Station R.O. sends pulses to one side of a coincidence gate 60. There is a second series of tracks on the drum 46 containing permanent information representative of the characters and identical in position to the character recording members 20 so that when this pulse, which is sent to the other side of the gate 60, is present at the same time as a pulse from the Read-out transducers then a print signal is received by a ring counter 42 whose stages are wired to brushes 40 engaging sliprings 38 connected to the transducers 16. The regenerative gate feeds the information to leads 64 which re-record the information in drum 20 that the information may be printed at a later time if necessary. The ring-counter 42 is stepped by a signal from a lead 44 co-operating with a prerecorded timing track on the drum 46. The record 10 is driven by a drive-roll 12 and slips over the transducer-carrying roll 14, acting as a guide, since the latter is driven relatively quickly. The images on the record 10 are developed at 22, and transferred to permanent record 24 by rolls 26, 28. An eraser 30 clears the record which is cleaned at 32.