Printing device

A printing device is disclosed, consisting of a chassis (10), an abutment (40), and relative to the abutment in the direction of lines, an adjustable printing head (36) and a chassis fixed stop (16) for fixing the printing position of a print carrier (18), inserted between the printing head (36) and the abutment (40). The stop (16) is assigned a holding device (20) for holding the print carrier in its printing position, whereby the beam-shaped abutment (40) and the printing head (36) are carried on a pivoting frame (42), which on chassis (10) parallel to abutment (40) and a distance to an axis (44) is carried in a pivoted mode and by way of a pivoting drive (62-72) is adjustable.

TECHNICAL FIELD 
The invention concerns a printing device comprising a chassis, an abutment, 
a printing head adjustable relative to the abutment in the direction of 
lines and a chassis fixed stop, fixing the printing position of an 
insertable print carrier between the printing head and the abutment. 
BACKGROUND ART 
Such printing devices as described above are known, for an example, from 
DE-OS 35 14 062. The known printing device is positioned in a cash 
dispensing unit for the printing of check blanks and such, where either 
one line is printed onto the print carrier or the print carrier is moved 
relative to the printing head to be able to print several lines. 
In practice, the problem occurs that the print carrier can not be moved 
freely. This is the case, for an example, with labels, which already are 
attached to merchandise and have to be printed later. At the same time, 
the problem arises when a large number of print carriers have to be 
imprinted in the shortest possible time and that this imprint as a rule 
has to consist of several lines. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The invention has the object to employ a printing device of the above 
mentioned type which makes possible the imprinting of a fixed print 
carrier in a short time span. 
This task is solved by the invention in that a holding device is associated 
with the stop for the holding of the print carrier in the printing 
position and that the beam shaped abutment and the printing head are 
arranged on a pivoting frame, which is arranged in a pivoting mode around 
a pivoting axis parallel to the abutment and is adjustable by way of a 
pivoting drive. 
By holding the print carrier during printing and the arrangement of the 
abutment and the printing head on the pivoting frame, it is possible with 
the appropriate control of the pivoting drive to accomplish a multi-line 
imprint on the stationary print carrier, whereby the spacing of the lines 
can be chosen. This makes it possible to imprint with high precision into 
defined fields of the print carrier. The adjustment of the pivoting frame 
can be accomplished very quickly, so the time needed for the line feed is 
very short. This is especially valid when the pivoting frame is rotatable 
around a horizontal axis and during the printing cycle will be adjusted 
downward line by line, because then the control drive will be assisted by 
gravity acting on the pivoting frame. 
The holding device preferably should have a clamping drive with at least 
one clamping element, which is adjustable by a clamping drive relative to 
a stop strip supporting the print carrier, whereby the clamping drive 
preferably is an electromagnet. 
The printing head can be mounted by known methods to a carrier which is 
mounted on the pivoting frame such that it is movable in parallel to the 
abutment. In order to keep the adjustment forces for the pivoting frame as 
low as possible, it is preferable if the drive motor for the carrier is 
close to the pivoting axis or even is located on the pivoting frame on the 
side of the pivoting axis facing away from the abutment. In this case, a 
counterweight by the drive motor for the printing head has been created 
and with that the pivoting frame can be balanced. 
A very dependable and precise adjustment of the pivoting frame can be 
accomplished, when on the pivoting frame near the abutment, a curved gear 
segment is arranged, which engages with a driven gear mounted on the 
chassis and driven by a stepping motor. 
Instead of a linear adjustment of the printing head carrier on suitable 
guides, it is suggested by the invention that the printing head carrier is 
a rocker arm, which is mounted in a pivoting mode around an axis 
perpendicular to the pivoting axis and as a whole parallel to the printing 
surface, the abutment forming a circular arch around the rocker arm axis. 
Instead of the relatively expensive slide and roll guides for the printing 
head carrier, only a simple pivot bearing for the rocker arm is needed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
The printing devices illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 consist of a chassis 10, 
of which only the side walls 12 and the bottom plate 14 are implied. 
Between the side walls 12 and perpendicular to these is a stop strip 16 
having an L-shape profile and serving as a support and positioning stop 
for the printing carrier 18. This stop strip 16 is associated with a 
clamping device, designated in general with numerical reference 20. This 
comprises an electromagnet 22, which is mounted to a strip 24, extending 
between the side walls 12 of chassis 10. The armature 26 of the 
electromagnet 22 engages over a pin-elongated-slot connection 28 to a 
clamping piece 30, which is supported on the stop strip 16 rotatable 
around shaft 32 and is equipped with a clamping pin 34, with which the 
print carrier 18 can be held in position at the stop strip 16, when the 
clamping piece 30 in the position shown in FIG. 1 is swiveled in a 
clockwise direction in its clamping position. 
For the imprinting of the print carrier 18, a needle printing head 36 with 
mouthpiece 38 is employed. During the printing cycle, the print carrier is 
supported by a beam shaped abutment 40. The abutment 40 as well as the 
printing head 36 are arranged on a pivoting frame generally designated by 
numerical reference 42, which is supported in a pivoting mode on a shaft 
44. The shaft 44 extends between the side walls 12 of the chassis 10, so 
that the printing head 36 and abutment 40 can be rotated between the 
positions as shown in FIG. 1 by the continuous lines and dotted lines, 
respectively. The pivoting frame 42 consist of two side panels 46 (FIG. 2) 
which are connected by a traverse 48, the abutment 40 as well as by two 
guide rods 50. 
A slide 52 carrying the printing head 36 is guided on the guide rods 50 in 
the direction of the double arrow A in FIG. 2, to enable the printing of 
one line onto the print carrier 18. The slide 52 is driven by an electric 
motor 54 disposed on the traverse 48, whose shaft 56 drives a belt 58, 
which is led over rolls 60 on the side panels and is fastened to slide 52. 
The pivoting drive for the pivoting frame 42 comprises a stepping motor 62 
(mounted on the chassis by suitable means but not shown) whose output 
shaft 64 via belt 66 and a pulley 68 drives a gear shaft 70, which engages 
with gear segments 72, curved around the pivoting shaft 44 on the sides 46 
of the pivoting frame 42. With that, the printing head 36 and the abutment 
40 can be adjusted to imprint several lines on the print carrier 18. 
Underneath the pivoting frame 42 is located an electronic control device 
74, which includes the control for the drives 62 and 54, the clamping 
device 20 and the printing head 36. 
The second embodiment shown in FIG. 3 distinguishes itself from the 
embodiment of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 by a different adjustment of the printing 
head 36 in the direction of the lines. The printing head 36 is carried on 
a rocker arm 76, mounted on an axis 78 which is perpendicular to pivoting 
shaft 44 and almost parallel to the printing surface. The front end of the 
mouth piece 38 of the printing head 36 moves along a circular path by 
pivoting of the rocker arm 76. In the same way, the beam shaped abutment 
40 is bent in a circular arch around rocker arm axis 78. For an example, 
the adjustment of the rocker arm can be accomplished by an electric motor 
80, whose output pinion 82 engages with the circular arch-like rack 84 
fastened to the rocker arm 76. With this arrangement, because of the large 
lever arm in regards to rocker arm axis 78, only a small amount of 
adjustment power is needed for the adjusting of rocker arm 76.