Capacitive metering means for uniform ribbon feed and take-up mechanism
First Claim
1. Apparatus for feeding ribbon from a supply reel to a take-up reel, each reel supporting a portion of a fixed inventory of ribbon running from the supply reel to the take-up reel comprisingmeans for driving said take-up reel at selected one of a plurality of different rotational velocities,capacitive means for sensing the portion of said inventory of ribbon on said supply reel and for producing an electrical signal representative of the radius of said portion, andmeans for selecting one of said rotational velocities in response to said signal.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus for feeding ribbon in an impact printer or typewriter is provided in which the ribbon metering means are very simple and minimize the potential for damage to the ribbon. Ribbon is fed from a supply reel to a take-up reel each of which is adapted to support a portion of an inventory of ribbon running from the supply reel to the take-up reel. The apparatus includes a drive mechanism which drives the take-up reel at a selected one of a plurality of different rotational velocities, apparatus for sensing the portion of the inventory of ribbon on one of the reels and for producing an electrical signal representative of the radius of said portion, and apparatus for selecting one of said rotational velocities in response to said signal. The sensing apparatus used to sense the portion of the ribbon inventory which remains on the supply reel is capacitive sensing apparatus.
-
Citations
6 Claims
-
1. Apparatus for feeding ribbon from a supply reel to a take-up reel, each reel supporting a portion of a fixed inventory of ribbon running from the supply reel to the take-up reel comprising
means for driving said take-up reel at selected one of a plurality of different rotational velocities, capacitive means for sensing the portion of said inventory of ribbon on said supply reel and for producing an electrical signal representative of the radius of said portion, and means for selecting one of said rotational velocities in response to said signal.
Specification