Cartridge

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11872808-B2
Application number	US-201917418904-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2019
Priority date	Dec 26, 2018
Publication date	Jan 16, 2024
Grant date	Jan 16, 2024

Abstract

A cartridge reduces a movement amount of a center of gravity of a cartridge accompanied by the progress of the winding of an ink ribbon. The cartridge to be installed in a tape printing device includes a platen roller, a paying-out core on which an ink ribbon is wound, and a winding core that winds up the ink ribbon paid out from the paying-out core. When seen from a rotational axis direction parallel to a rotational axis of the paying-out core and a rotational axis of the winding core, the paying-out core and the winding core are arranged to at least partially overlap an imaginary line that passes through a center of the platen roller and extends in a longitudinal direction of the cartridge.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A cartridge to be installed in a tape printing device, the cartridge comprising:
a platen roller;
a paying-out core on which an ink ribbon is wound; and
a winding core that winds up the ink ribbon paid out from the paying-out core, wherein,
when seen from a rotational axis direction parallel to a rotational axis of the paying-out core and a rotational axis of the winding core, the paying-out core and the winding core are arranged to at least partially overlap an imaginary line that passes through a center of the platen roller and extends in a longitudinal direction of the cartridge.

2. The cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein
the platen roller is provided close to one end in the longitudinal direction of the cartridge when seen from the rotational axis direction, and
the paying-out core and the winding core are provided close to the other end in the longitudinal direction of the cartridge when seen from the rotational axis direction.

3. The cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein the paying-out core is provided closer to the platen roller than the winding core.

4. The cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein
an inter-core dimension that is a dimension between a center of the paying-out core and a center of the winding core is smaller than a total roll value that is a total value of a maximum paying-out-side roll radius that is a radius of a paying-out-side roll in a state in which the whole ink ribbon is wound on the paying-out core and a maximum winding-side roll radius that is a radius of a winding-side roll in a state in which the whole ink ribbon is wound up by the winding core.

5. The cartridge according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a cartridge case that accommodates the platen roller, the paying-out core, and the winding core, wherein
the cartridge case has a peripheral wall part, and
the peripheral wall part has, when seen from the rotational axis direction, a curvature surface that is positioned between a first facing portion facing one end of the winding core in the longitudinal direction of the cartridge and a second facing portion facing one end of the winding core in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the cartridge, and that is formed into a convex shape protruding toward an outside of the cartridge case.

6. The cartridge according to claim 5 , wherein
the cartridge case has a first case and a second case that are combined together in the rotational axis direction,
the peripheral wall part includes a first peripheral wall part that is provided in the first case and a second peripheral wall part that is provided in the second case,
one of the first peripheral wall part and the second peripheral wall part has an insertion hole,
the other of the first peripheral wall part and the second peripheral wall part has an insertion pin that is inserted into the insertion hole, and
the insertion hole and the insertion pin are provided so as to avoid the curvature surface.

7. The cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein
the tape printing device includes
a cartridge installation part in which the cartridge is installed,
a printing head that is provided in the cartridge installation part, sandwiches the ink ribbon and a printing tape between the printing head and the platen roller, and performs printing on the printing tape, and
a device case,

the device case has a device-side tape introduction port that introduces the printing tape from an outside to an inside of the device case and a device-side tape ejection port that ejects the printing tape to the outside of the device case, and
the cartridge includes a tape path through which the printing tape introduced from the device-side tape introduction port is fed toward the device-side tape ejection port in a state in which the cartridge is installed in the cartridge installation part.

8. The cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein a first distance between the paying-out core and the platen roller is shorter than a second distance between the winding core and the platen roller.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Ishimoto Akio
• Sasaki Taishi

Classifications

• B41J15/044 Primary

  Cassettes or cartridges containing continuous copy material, tape, for setting into printing devices · CPC title

• B41J32/00

  Ink-ribbon cartridges · CPC title

• B41J17/32 Primary

  Detachable carriers or holders for impression-transfer material mechanism · CPC title

• B41J3/382 Primary

  of tapes, e.g. tape cartridges · CPC title

• B41J3/36

  for portability {, i.e. hand-held printers or laptop printers (B41J3/4075 takes precedence)} · CPC title