Title of Invention

"A THERMAL TRANSFER INK RIBBON CASSETTE"

Abstract

A thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette (108, A) comprising: a cassette main body (108, 204) having an upper wall (209) and a bottom wall (111, 210); and a core (110, 202, 203) having a center hole (206) and a plurality of clutch portions (207) radially formed to an upper end of the center hole (206), wound with an ink ribbon (109, 201) and rotatably arranged between the upper wall (209) and the bottomwalU (111, 210) of the cassette main body (108, 204); wherein the cassette main body (108, 204) comprises a through hole (216) formed at the bottom wall (111, 210) for engaging a lower end portion of the center hole (206) of the core (110, 202, 203) with a rotating shaft (106, 107, 226) of a thermal transfer printer (101), characterized in that a flap (125, 215), which is swingable in an up and down direction and includes a short shaft portion (220) engageable with an upper end portion of the center hole (206) and an engaging claw (221) engageable with the clutch portion (207), is formed integrally with the upper wall (209), and the flap (125, 215) is deflned by a U-shaped cutting portion (217, 218) formed on the upper wall (209) of the cassette main body (108, 204).

Full Text

DESCRIPTION INK RIBBON WINDING CORE, INK RIBBON CASSETTE AND INK RIBBON CASSETTE HOLDING MECHANISM OF THERMAL TRANSFER PRINTER Technical _Fiel_d:_ The present invention relates to an ink ribbon winding core and an ink ribbon cassette used in a thermal transfer printer . further, the invention relates to an ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism for strongly holding an ink ribbon cassette in a thermal transfer printer. Generally, in order to show a category or a function of an electric wire integrated to an electric equipment of a switchboard or the like, a character or a sign is indicated on the electric wire. In that case, since the character or the sign cannot be printed directly on the electric wire, the character or the sign is printed on a short tube and the electric wire is inserted through the tube to indicate the character or the sign. Further, a tape indicating a character or a content is labeled on a backbone of a book or a binder and also the tape is printed with a character of a title or the like on a surfact: thereof. In any of the cases, printing is carried out by a thermal transfer printer and according to the thermal transfer printer, the tube or the tape is pressed to a surface of a material to be printed of a platen roller or the like, an ink ribbon and a printing head are pressed thereon and a character or a sign is thermally transcribed to the tube or the tape by melting ink of the ink ribbon. Before mounting an ink ribbon cassette to the printer, a core for extracting the ink ribbon and a core of reeling the ink ribbon are brought into a free state and therefore, there is a case in which winding of the ribbon wound around the core is slackened and when the ink ribbon is set to the printer under the state, a drawback may be brought about in printing the character. Further, since the ink ribbon is an expendable item, the used ink ribbon needs to be removed and a new one thereof needs to charge, and according to a background art, there is adopted a cassette charging system previously containing the ink ribbon in the cassette and charging the ink ribbon to the printer along with the cassette. As an advantage of the cassette system, a thin ink ribbon is easy to handle and performance of charging the ink ribbon is excellent. On the other hand, as a disadvantage, when the ink ribbon is used up, a whole of the cassette is abandoned, the environment is deteriorated thereby and also a unit price thereof is high. In contrast to the cassette system, there is a core winding charging system of interchanging only the ink ribbon wound around the core. Although handling thereof differs from that, of 1 he cassette system, the unit price is inexpensive, abandoned parts are few and therefore, load on the environment is reduced. further, when the above-described ink ribbon cassette is mounted to the thermal transfer printer, the ink ribbon cassette needs to be held to be unmoved. Therefore, in the background art, the ink ribbon cassette is pressed or engaged to hold by elasticity of a member made of a synthetic resin. Meanwhile, there is an ink ribbon cassette formed with a detent for engaging with an ink ribbon shaft by forming a notch at a portion of a cassette vessel such that an ink ribbon at inside thereof is not rotated spontaneously when the ink ribbon cassette is not mounted thereto. The cassette having the detent of this kind is constructed by a constitution of releasing engagement of a tape reel by pushing up the detent by a tape reel rotating shaft provided at a main body of a printer by mounting the tape reel to the main body of the printer . According to the system, in releasing the engagement, a force of pushing up the detent exerted to the ink ribbon cassette is considerable and therefore, the ink ribbon cassette cannot sufficiently be held by the holding mechanism constituted by the synthetic resin material of the background art. Disclosure of the Invention It is a first problem of the invention to resolve the above-described problem and provide a thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette capable of eliminating slack in reeling when an ink ribbon is not mounted thereto by a minimum number of parts and capable of corresponding to a cassette system and a core winding system. Further, it is a second problem thereof to provide a core for winding an ink ribbon suitable for the thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette. Further, it is a third problem of the invention to resolve the above-described problem and provide an ink ribbon cassette holdingmechanism of a thermal transfer printer capable of firmly holding an ink ribbon cassette mounted to the thermal transfer printer. In order to resolve the first problem, a thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette according to the invention is characterized in a thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette containing a core wound with an ink ribbon to a cassette main body, wherein the core is rotatably arranged between an upper wall and a bottom wall of the cassette main body, the bottom wall is formed with a through hole for engaging a lower end portion of a center hole of the core with a rotating shaft for an ink ribbon of a thermal transfer printer, and the upper wall is provided with a flap including a short shaft portion engaged with an upper end portion of the center hole and an engaging claw engageable with a clutch portion radially formed at a surrounding of an upper end of the center hole pivotably in an up and down direction. Further, the flap may be formed by cutting the upper wall of the cassette main body. Further, a side wall of the cassette main body may be formed with an opening portion capable of inserting and detaching the core at inside thereof. In order to resolve the second problem, an ink ribbon winding core according to the invention is characterized in including a cylindrical portion, a center hole provided at inside oi the cylindrical portion, a recess portion formed at an upper end of the cylindrical portion, and a plurality of clutch portions each projected to the recess portion, radially provided from the center hole and having a taper face, the taper face of the clutch portion is inclined to a vertical direction of the recess portion by making a thickness of a front end portion thereof disposed on a side of an upper end of the core thinner than a thickness of a base end portion thereof disposed on a side of the recess portion and making a thickness of a portion on a side of a center of the core thinner tnan a thickness of a portion thereof on a side of an outer periphery of the core. Further, the clutch portion may be provided with a first side face formed as the taper face of the clutch portion and a second side face formed as a face substantially orthogonal to the recess portion. Further, the cylindrical portion may be provided with a projected portion formed in a longitudinal direction of an inner face thereof. Further, flanges may be provided respectively at two upper and lower ends of the cylindrical portion and a small diameter portion may be formed at an outer face of the cylindrical portion. Further, in order to resolve the second problem, there may be provided an ink ribbon winding core set by combining a first core and a second core each having the above-described characteristic of the ink ribbon winding core according to the invention. Further, the first core and the second core need not to be commonly provided with the above-described characteristic of the ink winding core according to the invention but may be constituted by characteristics different from each other. In order to resolve the third problem, an ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism of a thermal transfer printer according to the invention is characterized in that a thermal transfer printer main body is provided with a first sliding member for moving a platen roller and a printing head relatively in a direction of pressing or separating from each other and a second sliding member arranged at a lower portion of an ink ribbon cassette and moving cooperatively with the first sliding member, and the second sliding member is formed with an engaging portion for engaging with the ink ribbon cassette when the first sliding member is moved from a state of separating the platen roller and the printing head in a direction of pressing each other. Further, the engaging portion may be formed in an inverse L-like shape from an erecting piece erected from the second sliding member and an engaging claw formed to project from a front end of the erecting piece in a lateral direction, inside of the engaging claw may be formed with an inclined portion inclined from a base portion to the front end and the inclined portion may be engaged with a bottom wall of the ink ribbon cassette. Brief_description of the drawings: Fig. 1 is a plane view showing an essential portion of a thermal transfer printer according to the invention. Fig. 2 is a perspective view viewing an ink ribbon cassette from a bottom face thereof. Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 3(b) are sectional views showing a mode of mounting an ink ribbon cassette. Fig. 4 is an enlarged view showing a mode of sliding a first sliding member and a second sliding member. Fig. 5 is an enlarged view showing the mode of sliding the first sliding member and the second sliding member. Fig. 6 is an enlarged view showing the mode of sliding the first sliding member and the second sliding member. Fag. 7 is a plane view of a main body of the printer in exchanging an ink ribbon. Fig. 8(a) and Fig. 8(b) are perspective views of an ink ribbon cassette. Fig. 9 is a bottom view of a state of removing a bottom wall. Fig. 10 (a) and Fig. 10 (b) are respectively a perspective view and a sectional view of a core (reeling core). Fig. 11 is a sectional view of an essential portion of an ink ribbon cassette. Fig. 12 is a sectional view of a state of pushing up a flap by a rotating shaft of a thermal transfer printer. Fig. 13 is a plane view of other ink ribbon cassette. Fig. 14 is a plane view of other ink ribbon cassette. Further, in notations in the drawings, numeral 104 designates a first sliding member, numeral 108 designates an ink ribbon cassette, numeral 115 designates a second sliding member, numerals 118 and 119designate engagingportions, numeral 202 designates a core, numeral 203 designates a reeling core, numeral 204 designates a cassette main body, numeral 209 designates an upper wall, numeral 215 designates a flap, numeral 220 designates a short shaft portion, and numeral 221 designates an engagjng claw. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention: First, an explanation will be given particularly of an ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism and an ink ribbon cassette with regard to a constitution of a thermal transfer printer according to the invention in reference to Fig. I through Fig. 7. In Fig. 1, numeral 101 designates a main body of a thermal transfer printer. The thermal transfer printer main body 101 is provided with a platen roller 102 and a printing head 103. The platen roller 102 is fixed to a const ant position. The printing head 103 is provided to the printer main body pivotably in a horizontal direction and is urged to separate from the platen roller 102 by a spring, not illustrated. Further, the printing head 103 is engaged with an erecting piece 105 of the first sliding member 104. Therefore, the printing head 103 is made to be movable in a direction of pressing or separating from the platen roller 102 by sliding the first sliding member 104 . The platen roller 102 and the printing head 103 may relatively be moved in the direction of pressing each other or separating from each other. Therefore, there may be constructed a constitution in which the platen roller 102 is moved cooperatively with the first sliding member 104 to thereby move the platen roller 102 in the direction of pressing or separating from the fixed printing head 103. Next, the thermal transfer printer main body 101 is provided with two pieces of rotating shafts 106, 107 and the ink ribbon cassette 108 is mounted to the rotating shafts 106, 107. An ink ribbon 109 and a winding reel 110 thereof are arranged to contain at inside of the ink ribbon cassette 108. Further, as shown by Fig. 2, at vicinities of a bottom wall 111 of the cassette 108, side walls at two end portions in correspondence with a line P traversing an interval between the ink ribbon 109 and the winding reel 110 are notched to form engagement receiving portions 112, 113 and one end portion thereof is formed with a through hole 114. Further, a lower portion of the ink ribbon cassette 108 is arranged with the second sliding member 115 in a plate-like shape . The second sliding member 115 is preferably constituted by a material having a high strength of a metal or the like and as shown, by Fig. 3 (a), both ends of one side thereof are formed with a pair of the engaging portions 118, 119. Each of the engaging portions 118, 1119 comprises an erected erecting piece 116 and an engaging claw 117 formed to project from a front end of the erecting piece 116 in a horizontal direction and formed in an inverse L-like shape by the erecting piece 116 and the engaging piece 117. An inner side of each engaging claw 117 is formed with an inclined portion 120 inclined from a base portion to a front end thereof. Further, the second sliding member 115 is urged to move to a side of the first sliding member 104 always by a tension spring 121. The engagement receiving portions 112, 113 at two ends of the ink ribbon cassette 108 are formed to be mounted to positions in correspondence with the engaging portions 118, 119 of the second sliding member 115 in mounting. Further, as shown by Fig. 4, a front end side of the second sliding member 115 is formed with a hole 122 substantially in a triangular shape and triangular hole 122 is engaged with a projected shaft 123 formed at a front end of the first sliding member 104. Thereby, the second sliding member 115 is constituted to slide cooperatively with the first sliding member 104 in a constant range. Further, an amount of sliding the first sliding member 104 is set to about twice of an amount of sliding the second sliding member 115. In the above-described constitution, in interchanging an ink ribbon, the first sliding member 104 is slid to the right side of the drawing by pertinent means and as shown by Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, and the platen roller 102 and the printing head 103 are moved to separate from each other. When the first sliding member 104 is slid in this way, the projected shaft 123 is disposed at an initial side of the triangular hole 122 of the second sliding member 115, that is, on a side of the first sliding member 104 and at a position shown in Fig. 4 and therefore, the projected shaft 123 is moved only on the inner side of the triangular hole 122 until sliding by about a half of the sliding amount and therefore, the second sliding member 115 remains unmoved. When the first sliding member 104 exceeds the half of the sliding amount, the projected shaft 123 is brought into contact with a wall at a depth side of the triangular hole 112 shown in Fig. 5 and therefore, when the projected shaft 123 is moved further, the projected shaft 123 presses the second sliding member 115 and also the second sliding member 115 is moved cooperatively with the first sliding member 104 against a spring force of the tension spring 121 to move to the position of Fig. 6. Next, the ink ribbon 109 is extracted from between the platen roller 102 and the printing head 103, a used one of the ink ribbon cassette 108 is removed and a new one of the ink ribbon cassette 108 is made to pass a rotating shaft of the thermal transfer printer main body 101 to mount. At this occasion, as shown by Fig . 3 (a) , one of the engaging portions 118 of the second sliding member 115 is made to pass the through hole 114 of the bottom wall 111 of the ink ribbon cassette 108 to a middle portion thereof. Further, after setting the material to be printed (not illustrated) between the printing head 103 and the platen roller 102 and thereafter, the first sliding member 104 is slid in a reverse direction to move the printing head 103 to press the platen roller 102. Although when the first sliding member 104 is slid, as shown by Fig. 6, the projected shaft 123 is disposed on the depth side of the triangular hole 122 of the second sliding member 115, as shown by Fig. 1 and Fig. 3 (b) , the second sliding member 115 is always urged to move to the side of the first sliding member 104 by the spring force of the tension spring 121 and therefore, also the second sliding member 115 is moved cooperatively with the first sliding member 104. Although when the second sliding member 115 is moved by the spring force, also the engaging portions 118 and 119 are moved in the same direction and the inclined portions 120 of the engaging claws 117 of the engaging portions 118, 119 are engaged with the engagement receiving portions 112 and 113 of the bottom wall 111 of the ink ribbon cassette 108, since the bottom wall 111 is pressed downwardlyby the inclined portions 120 of the engaging claws 117, the ink ribbon cassette 108 is held solidly. At a time point of engaging in this way, the second sliding member 115 is stopped at a position of Fig. 5 and is not moved further. Meanwhile, the first sliding member 104 is further moved and therefore, the projected shaft 123 is moved to the initial side of the triangular hole 122 and the printing head 103 is pressed to the platen roller 102 as shown by Fig. 4. Thereby, printing can be carried out. As described above, the second sliding member 115 is moved along with the first sliding member 104 to engage with the ink ribbon cassette 108 and therefore, by constituting the second sliding member 115 by a material having a high strength of a meta.l or the like, the ink ribbon cassette 108 can firmly be held by the second sliding member 115 . Therefore, in mounting the ink ribbon cassette 108 to the printer main body, when the detent: is released by pushing up a detent 125 of the ink ribbon cassette 108 by the rotating shafts 106, 107 provided at the printer main body as shown by Fig. 3 (b) , the ink ribbon cassette 108 can be held sufficiently solidly. Further, the second sliding member 115 finishes to hold the ink ribbon cassette 108 at a former half of a stroke thereof, thereafter, mechanical contact thereof with the first sliding .member 104 is cut and therefore, the second sliding member 115 does not press the printing head 103 for holding the ink ribbon cassette 108, the printing head 103 is pressed to the platen roller 102 by a constant pressure and therefore, an adver,se influence is not effected on printing quality. Further, the above-described movement of the first sliding member 104 and the second sliding member 115 is carried out similarly in interchanging not only the ink ribbon cassette 108 but also expendable items of a printing tube, a tape and the like. Further, positions of the engaging portion of the ink ribbon cassette and the second sliding member engaged with the engaging portion are not limited to the above-described example. Successively, an explanation will be given with regard to a constitution of a thermal transfer printer according to the invention, particularly of an ink ribbon winding core and an ink ribbon cassette in reference to Fig. 8(a) through Fig. 14 . Fig. 8(a) and 8(b) are perspective views of an ink ribbon cassette, Fig. 9 is a bottom view of a state of removing a bottom wall and Figs. 10(a) and 10(b) are respectively a perspective view and a sectional of a core. In the above-mentioned drawings, notation A designates an ink ribbon cassette for thermal transcription. According to the ink ribbon cassette A, the core 202 wound with an ink ribbon 201 for thermal transcription and the core 203 for reeling the ink ribbon 201 are contained in the cassette main body 204, the core 202 and the reeling core 203 comprise a synthetic resin, flanges b are provided at two upper and lower ends of a center cylindrical portion a, a center hole 206 is formed at inside of the cylindrical portion a, a recess portion 205 is formed at an upper end of the cylindrical portion a and the recess portion 205 is formed with a plurality of clutch portions 207 each in a shape of a proj ect ed pieces radially from the center hole 206 . Further, an inner face of the cylindrical portion a is formed with a projected portion 208 in a longitudinal direction thereof. F'igs, 10 (a) andlO(b) illustrate the corebyparticularly taking an example of the case of the reeling core 203. An outer face of the cylindrical portion a of the reeling core 203 is provided with a small diameter portion 261 to form a stepped difference. There is a case in which the ink ribbon 201 as printed by a printing head (not illustrated) is warped by an influence of a portion which is printed and at which ink is consumed. Therefore, when the ink ribbon 201 is reeled around the reeling core 203, there is a case in which an outer edge port ion in a length direction of the ink ribbon is difficult to be reeled smoothly. However, by providing the small diameter portion 761, the ink ribbon 201 as fed from the core 206 and printed by the printing head can smoothly be reeled to a final portion thereof. Meanwhile, as shown by Fig. 9, Fig. 13 and Fig. 14, it is not: necessary to provide the small diameter portion 261 of the cylindrical portion a and the flange b at the core 202 and the :i nk ribbon 201 may directly be reeled by the smooth cylindrical portion a. By not providing the small diameter portion 261 of the cylindrical portion a and the flange portion b, the core 202 and the reeling core 203 can be arranged to be further proximate to each other at inside of the cassette main body 204 to downsize the cassette main body. Further, arrangement of the core 202 and the reeling core 203 is s not particularly limited and an arrangement reverse to that .shown in Fig. 9 may be constituted. As shown by Fig. 10 (a) and Fig. 10 (b), the clutch portion 207 of each of the core 202 and the reeling core 203 is provided with a taper face inclined to a vertical direction of the recess portion 205. As shown by Fig. 10(a), the taper face of the clutch portion 207 is formed by making a thickness of a front end portion thereof corresponding to a core upper end side thinner than that of a base end portion thereof on a side of the recess portion 205 and making a thickness of a portion on a core center side thinner than a thickness of a portion on a core outer peripheral side. Further, according to the clutch portion 207, in two side faces to be engaged with an engaging claw, mentioned later, only one side face (first side face 207a) is constituted by the taper face and other side face (second side face 207b) is constituted by a face substantially orthogonal to the recess portion 205. The cassette main body 204 is constituted in a shape of a case by the upper wall 209, a bottom 210 and a side wall 211, provided with a containing portion 212 for rotatably containing the core 202 and the reeling core 203 of the ink ribbon 201 at inside thereof and provided with a pair of small ribbon pulleys 213 for exposing the ink ribbon 201 in the midst of reeling the ink ribbon 201 drawn out from the core 202 to the reeling core 203. The containing portion 212 is formed on an inner side of a projected edge 214 in a shape of a circular arc for positioning the ink ribbon core 202 and the reeling core 203 on the bottom wall 210. A space is formed on inner sides of the small ribbon pulleys 213 and the printing head (not illustrated) of the thermal transfer printer is constituted to dispose in the space. Further, notches may be formed at side walls of two upper and lower end portions of Fig. 8 (a) as in the engagement receiving portions 112, 113 of the ink ribbon cassette 108 shown in Fig. 2. Similarly, a through hole may be formed at the bottom wall 210 of the cassette main body 204 as in the through hole 1.14 of the ink ribbon cassette 108 shown in Fig. 2 . By forming the engagement receiving portions and the through hole in this way to integrate to the above-described ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism, the ink ribbon cassette mounted to the thermal transfer printer can firmly be held. The two flaps 215 are formed at the upper wall 209 of the cassette main body 204 at positions in correspondence with the core 202 and the reeling core 203. That is, by forming two long and short flat portions 217 and 218 substantially in a U-l j .Re shape at the upper wall 209 opposedly to each other, the flaps 215 are formed on inner sides of the cut portions 217, 218 and connecting portions 219 in an L-like shape are formed between the two cut portions 217, 218. As shown by Fig. 11, the short shaft portions 220 are formed at portions of ends on one side of the flaps 215 in correspondence with respective centers of the core 202 and the reeling core 203, and the engaging claws 221 in a projected shape are formed at portions on further front ends of the short shaft portion 220 in correspondence with the respective clutch portions 207 of the core 202 and the reeling core 203. Further, pressing portions 222 which can be pressed from outside are formed at end portions thereof on sides opposed to the flaps 215. When the pressing portion 222 is pressed, the flap 215 is pivoted in an up arid down direction in a seesaw-like shape centering on the connecting portion 219. According to the above-described constitution, the short shaft portions 220 of the flaps 215 of the cassette main body 204 are inserted into upper portions of the center holes 206 of the ink ribbon core 202 and the reeling core 203 at inside of the cassette main body 204 and therefore, as shown by Fig. 1 1 , the ink ribbon core 202 and the reeling core 203 are made to be rotatable centering on the short shaft portions 220. Further, the engaging claws 221 of the flaps 215 are engaged with the clutch portions 207 in the radial shape at surroundings of upper ends of the center holes 206 of the ink ribbon core 202 and the reeling core 203 and therefore, both of the core 202 and the reeling core 203 are brought into a locked state and cannot be rotated. Therefore, when the ink ribbon cassette is not charged to the thermal transfer printer, the cores are not rotated spontaneously. When the ink ribbon 1 is slackened, as shown by Fig. 12, after pivoting the flap 115 by pressing the pressing portion 222 of the flap 215 and disengaging engagement between the engaging claw 221 and the clutch portion 207 of the ink ribbon core 202 or the reeling core 203, the core 202 or the reeling core 203 exposed to a through hole 216 (refer to Fig. 8) of the bottom wall 210 may be turned by the finger, a rod or the like. Further, the flap may not be formed integrally with the upper wa.11 of the cassette but may formed separately from the upper wall of the cassette. As shown by Fig. 12, when the ink ribbon cassette having the above-described constitution is charged to the thermal transfer printer, a rotating shaft 226 provided at the thermal transfer printer may be inserted into the through hole 216 formed at the bottom wall 210 of the cassette main body 204. Further, when the ink ribbon cassette is inserted to fix to a predetermined position of the thermal transfer printer by means, not illustrated, an upper end of the rotating shaft 226 pushes up the short shaft portion 220 of the flap 215 and therefore, the flap 215 is pivoted, the engaging claw 221 is floated up, the engagement with the clutch portion 207 is disengaged and the locked state is released... Projected portions 223 are formed at an outer face-of the rotating shaft 226 along a longitudinal direction thereof. When the rotating shafts 226 are jnserted from the through holes 216 of the ink ribbon cassette A into the respective center holes 206 of the ink ribbon core 202 and the reeling core 203, the projected portions 223 of the rotating shaft 226 and the projected portions 208 of the center holes 206 are engaged with each other and therefore, when the rotating shafts 226 are rotated, the ink ribbon core 202 and the reeling core 203 are also rotated. further, as described above, according to the embodiment, at the clutch portion 207, in the side faces engaged with the engaging claw 221, only the first side face 207a is constituted by the taper face and the second side face 207b is constituted by the face substantially orthogonal to the recess portion 205. Therefore, a resistance against rotation in the locked states of the core 202 and the reeling core 203 can be changed in accordance with a direction of rotating the cores. That is, when the core is rotated in the direction of engaging the taper face (first side face 207a) of the clutch portion 207 and the engaging claw 221, the core can more easily be rotated than in the case of rotating the core in a direction of engaging the side face 207b of the clutch portion 207 and the engaging claw 221 . When the ink ribbon is slackened in a state in which the ink ribbon cassette is not charged to the thermal transfer printer, the user per se needs to rotate the reeling core 203. Under such a situation, by adopting the above-described constitution of the clutch portions, slack of the ink ribbon 201 can easily be resolved by urging the user to rotate the ink ribbon cassette only in one direction. Further, as shown by Fig. 8, an inclined face 216a is provided at an edge of the through hole 216 in correspondence with the reeling core 203. By the inclined face 216a, when the reel .ing core 203 is rotated in a state in which the ink ribbon cassette is not charged to the thermal transfer printer, a portion of the reeling core 203 exposed from the bottom wall 210 of the cassette main body 204 can smoothly be touched by the finger of the user. Thereby, when the ink ribbon 201 is slackened, the reeling core 203 can easily be rotated. Further, although Fig. 8 shows an example of providing the inclined face 216a only to the through hole 216 in correspondence with the reeling core 203, the inclined face 216 may be provided at the through hole 216 in correspondence with the core 202. Fig. 13 is the plane view of other ink ribbon cassette. As in a cassette main body 304 shown in the drawing, at two side portions of the cassette main body, opening portions 224 may be formed by notching the side wall 211. The opening portions 224 are formed by a size of capable of inserting and detaching the ink ribbon core 202 and the reeling core 203 at inside thereof. Therefore, the ink ribbon winding cassette comprising the ink ribbon core 202 and the reeling core 203 can freely be attached and detached. That is, when the ink ribbon winding core set is attached thereto, the pressing portion 212 of the flap 215 may strongly be pressed to float up the short shaft portion 220, the ink ribbon core 202 and the reeling core 203 may be inserted from the opening portion 224 to contain in the containing portion 212 and the short shaft portion 222 of the flat 215 may be moved down. In contrast thereto, when the ink ribbon 202 or the reeling core 203 at inside thereof is detached, similarly, the pressing portion 222 of the flat 215 may strongly be pressed to float up the short shaft portion 220 and the ink ribbon core 202 or the reeling core 203 may be drawn out from the opening portion. Fig. 14 is a plane view of still other ribbon cassette. A cassette main body 404 shown in Fig. 14 is provided with opening portions 224a, 224b similar to the cassette main body shown in Fig. 13 and formed with a projected portion 225 on a bottom wall at a vicinity of the opening portion 224a for inserting and detaching the core 202 . By providing the projected portion 225, contact resistance between the core and the bottom wall of the cassette main body in inserting and detaching the core can be reduced and the ink ribbon ribbon can further easily be i n t e r oh an g ed . The cassette main body 404 shown in Fig. 14 is similar to the cassette main bodies 204, 304 shown in Fig. 8 through Fig. 13 except the projected portion 225 and a detailed description thereof will be omitted. Further, although Fig. 14 shows an example of providing three pieces of the projected portions 225 only on the side of the opening portion 224a, a shape, arrangement and a number of pieces of the projected portions are not: particularly limited. Further, the projected portions may be provided at a bottom wall of the opening portion 224a on the side of the reeling core 203. The invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments but can variously be modified within the technical range of the invention and the invention naturally covers the mo d i fi c a t i on s. The application is based on Japanese Patent Application (Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-054824) filed on February 28, 2002 arid Japanese Patent Application (Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-054825) filed on February 28, 2002 and contents thereof are incorporated here by reference. I n du s tr i a 1_ Applicability: As described above, according to the ink ribbon winding core and the ink ribbon cassette of the invention, since the ink ribbon 201 is charged to the cassette main body 204, in charging t.o the thermal transfer printer, the ink ribbon cassette may be charged thereto by inserting the rotating shaft 226 provided at: the thermal transfer printer into the through hole 216 formed at the bottom wall 210 of the cassette main body 204 . Therefore, the ink ribbon 201 is easy to handle and also charging performance thereof is excellent. Further, when the flap is formed integrally with the upper wa .1.1 of. the cassette, slack in reeling the ink ribbon when the ink ribbon cassette is not charged thereto can be eliminated by a minimum number of parts. Further, when the opening portion is formed at the side portion of the cassette main body 204, only the ink ribbon 201 reeled by the core 202 can be interchanged and therefore, the invention can be adopted as the core reeling charging system. Thereby, the cassette is simple to handle, the unit price is inexpensive, abandoned portions are few, the load on the environment is reduced and the invention can also deal with the cassette system and the core reeling system. Further, according to the ink ribbon cassette holding mechanism of the thermal transfer printer of the invention, the second sliding member is moved along with the first sliding member to be engaged with the ink ribbon cassette. Thereby, the ink ribbon cassette mounted to the thermal transfer printer can firmly be held by the second sliding member. WE CLAIM: 1. A thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette (108, A) comprising: a cassette main body (108, 204) having an upper wall (209) and a bottom wall (111, 210); and a core (110, 202, 203) having a center hole (206) and a plurality of clutch portions (207) radially formed to an upper end of the center hole (206), wound with an ink ribbon (109, 201) and rotatably arranged between the upper wall (209) and the bottomwalll (111, 210) of the cassette main body (108, 204); wherein the cassette main body (108, 204) comprises a through hole (216) formed at the bottom wall (111, 210) for engaging a lower end portion of the center hole (206) of the core (110, 202, 203) with a rotating shaft (106, 107, 226) of a thermal transfer printer (101), characterized in that a flap (125, 215), which is swingable in an up and down direction and includes a short shaft portion (220) engageable with an upper end portion of the center hole (206) and an engaging claw (221) engageable with the clutch portion (207), is formed integrally with the upper wall (209), and the flap (125, 215) is defined by a U-shaped cutting portion (217, 218) formed on the upper wall (209) of the cassette main body (108, 204). 2. The thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette (108, A) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cassette main body (108, 204) further comprises: a side wall (211) including an opening portion (224) for inserting and detaching the core (110,202,203); 3. The thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette (108, A) as claimed in claim 2, wherein a projected portion (225) is formed on the bottom wall (111, 210) at a vicinity of the opening portion (224). 4. The thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette (108, A) as claimed in claim 1, wherein an inclined face (216a) is provided at an edge of the through hole (216).

Documents:

2429-delnp-2006 (Petition under rule 137).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-1-Correspondence-Others-(22-02-2013).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-1-Form-3-(22-02-2013).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Abstract-(05-01-2015).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Abstract-(23-05-2011).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-abstract.pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Claims-(05-01-2015).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Claims-(23-05-2011).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-claims.pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Correspondance Others-(05-01-2015).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Correspondence Others-(15-04-2014).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Correspondence Others-(23-05-2011).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-correspondence- others.pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Correspondence-Others-(22-02-2013).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Description (Complete)-(23-05-2011).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-description (complete).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-drawings.pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Extra Claims-(05-01-2015).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Form-1-(05-01-2015).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Form-1-(23-05-2011).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-form-1.pdf

2429-delnp-2006-form-18.pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Form-2-(23-05-2011).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-form-2.pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Form-3-(23-05-2011).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-form-3.pdf

2429-delnp-2006-form-5.pdf

2429-delnp-2006-GPA-(05-01-2015).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-GPA-(23-05-2011).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-gpa.pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Petition 137-(05-01-2015).pdf

2429-delnp-2006-Petition-137-(23-05-2011).pdf

abstract.jpg

Petition under rule 137 (2429-DELNP-2006).pdf