TAPE-CONTAINING CASSETTE FOR THERMAL TRANSFER TYPE PRINTER

摘要

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need for complicated operations for mounting or replacing a printing tape and a thermal transfer ribbon, by incorporating the tape and the ribbon into a cassette. CONSTITUTION:A printing tape A is mounted in a box 1a by fitting a core (a) thereof to a tape-mounting core 2; a leading end part of the tape A is led toward an inserting hole 5 for a thermal head, passed through an inserting hole 6 for a cutter for the tape, and fed out to the exterior of a cassette 1 through an outlet 7. A thermal transfer ribbon B is mounted with a core (b) thereof fitted to a ribbon-mounting core 8; a leading end part of the ribbon B is led through a part devoid of a surrounding wall 5a of the inserting hole 5, superposed on a tape surface of the tape A, and finally taken up by a ribbon take-up core 9. On a bottom plate 1b, a releaser 14 is provided for removing the tape A and the ribbon B from respective feeding positions thereof and returning the tape A and the ribbon B to respective original positions thereof after the cassette 1 is mounted in position. A rotor 18 is engaged with a platen roller, and a belt 21 transmits the rotation of the rotor 18 to the take-up core 9. A detecting rod 24 detects automatically the condition where the tape A runs out.