Low rotational inertia shuttle system with a flattened sinusoidal carriage velocity

摘要

A low rotational inertia shuttle system (24) for a dot matrix line printer (20) is disclosed. The low rotational inertia shuttle system (24) includes an elongate support structure (26), a carriage (22) and a counterbalance (62). The carriage and the counterbalance are reciprocally mounted on the support structure. The low rotational inertia shuttle system also includes a reciprocating assembly (60) disposed on the support structure for reciprocating the carriage and the counterbalance. The reciprocating assembly has an inertia that is purposely minimized with respect to the mass of the carriage and the counterbalance, such that the printer operates at a substantially constant level of kinetic energy to produce a substantially linear velocity profile for the carriage. The low rotational inertia shuttle system further includes a rotational mechanism (64) that is coupled to the reciprocating assembly for controlling energy applied to the reciprocating assembly in a way that maximizes the linearity of the carriage velocity profile.