Printing apparatus with carriage drive utilized to feed print and erase ribbons and/or to feed the print ribbon and shift the erase ribbon.

摘要

A printer, including a first and a second feed mechanism supported by a carriage (17) for feeding a print ribbon (75) and an erase ribbon (71), respectively, at least one rotatable shaft (30-31; 139) supported by the reciprocating carriage rotatably in opposite directions, a one-way clutch (37; 147) for transmitting the shaft rotation in one of the opposite directions to the first feed mechanism (48, 77: 161), and inhibiting transmission of the rotation in the other direction, and a control mechanism (43, 61a; 158, 169) for inhibiting transmission of the shaft rotation to the second feed mechanism when the printer is in a printing mode, and transmitting the shaft rotation to the second ribbon mechanism when the printer is in a correction mode, whereby the carriage reciprocation activates the first and second feed mechanisms. A converter (44; 152) may be provided for converting the shaft rotation into movements of a ribbon lift member (63; 123) to shift the erase ribbon between an erasing and an inoperative position. The rotation control mechanism inhibits transmission of the shaft rotation to the converter while in the printing mode, but transmits the rotation to the converter while in the correction mode. Thus, the carriage reciprocation also cause the shifting movements of the erase ribbon.