Method for using and reusing correction tape assembly

A method for using and reusing an invertible correction tape assembly on a typewriter, the assembly comprising a dispensing reel and a winding reel united by a length of correction tape wound upon each. The assembly is designed for invertible attachment to typewriters having correction tape reel-attaching support shaft members, each having a base flange, a first locking pawl and a second locking pawl, so that the assembly can be mounted in both normal and inverted positions. In both positions the dispensing and winding reels are mounted on the base flange, engaged at the lower side by the first locking pawl at the upper side by the second locking pawl. After the correction ribbon is fully dispensed, the assembly is removed, inverted and reattached to redispense the correction ribbon for reuse as many times as permitted by its effectiveness.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to an assembly including a pair of reels for 
dispensing and winding a correction tape for a typewriter one or more 
times. More particularly, it relates to a reel assembly adapted to be 
removably attached to a correction tape reel attaching structure of a 
typewriter, which structure has a support shaft member on a correction 
tape dispensing side and a support shaft member on a correction tape 
winding side, the support shaft members being rotatably supported on the 
attaching block of the typewriter, and the support shaft members being of 
substantially the same shape and size and each comprising a base flange, a 
middle shaft erected on the base flange, and a first locking pawl, the 
middle shaft being integrally provided with a tongue-like spring provided 
with a second locking pawl on the outer surface of the free end thereof. 
A correction tape for this kind of typewriter will have ink stuck to its, 
lift-off surface when used only once, in which case it has been considered 
to be no longer suitable for further use. However, when the correction 
tape used once and wound on a winding reel was unwound nd used again, it 
was found that the tape still retained its lift-off function to the extent 
that it was suitable for reuse there. 
However, even though such correction tape is reusable, the dispensing and 
winding structure is originally designed to be suited to single use of the 
tape, and therefore it is required that the tape, when used once, be 
manually unwound from the winding reel and wound on the dispensing reel 
for reuse, which operation is very troublesome and has discouraged the 
typist from reusing the tape. 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a reel assembly for 
dispensing and winding a correction tape for a typewriter by which the 
correction tape can be reused without the manual re-reeling of the used 
correction tape on another reel. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide a reel assembly for 
dispensing and winding a correction tape for a typewriter wherein only a 
simple change in the reel is made to reuse the correction tape and no 
change in the structure associated with the typewriter having the known 
correction tape driving mechanism is required. 
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from 
the description hereinafter. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an assembly for 
dispensing and winding a correction tape for a typewriter which is adapted 
to be removably attached to a correction tape reel attaching structure of 
the typewriter, the structure having a support shaft member on a 
correction tape dispensing side and a support shaft member on a correction 
tape winding side, the support shaft members being rotatably supported on 
an attaching block of the typewriter, and the support shaft members being 
of substantially the same shape and size and each comprising a base 
flange, a middle shaft erected on the base flange, and a first locking 
pawl, the middle shaft being integrally provided with a tongue-like spring 
provided with a second locking pawl on the outer surface of the free end 
thereof, which comprises a correction tape dispensing reel and a 
correction tape winding reel, each of the dispensing and winding reels 
being centrally formed with a double-sleeve-like boss section, the inner 
sleeve of the boss section being fitted on the middle shaft of the support 
shaft member, the inner and outer sleeves of the boss section defining 
therebetween a spacing adapted to have the first locking pawl fitted 
therein, each end of the inner sleeve being formed with an engagement 
portion adapted to engage the second locking pawl, and the distance along 
the rotation axis of each reel between the one end surface of each reel 
that abuts against the base flange and the one engagement portion of the 
inner sleeve that engages the second locking pawl, when each reel is in 
normal position, being substantially the same as the distance along the 
rotation axis of each reel between the other end surface of each reel that 
abuts against the base flange and the other engagement portion of the 
inner sleeve that engages the second locking pawl, when each reel is in 
inverted position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention has improved 
the boss section of a conventional reel used in combination with the 
correction tape reel attaching structure of the above-specified 
typewriter. 
That is, the opposite ends of the inner sleeve of the boss section are each 
formed with an engagement portion for engagement with the second locking 
pawl, and the distance along the rotation axis of the reel between the one 
end surface of the reel that abuts against the base flange and the one 
engagement portion of the inner sleeve that engages the second locking 
pawl, when the reel is attached to the support shaft member in normal 
position, is substantially the same as the distance along the rotation 
axis of the reel between the other end surface of the reel that abuts 
against the base flange and the other engagement portion of the inner 
sleeve that engages the second locking pawl, when the reel is inverted. 
This arrangement ensures that even if the reel is turned upside down, it 
can be mounted on either of the two support shaft members and can be 
subjected to the slip-off preventing action provided by the second locking 
pawl. 
As a result, the reel initially used for winding the correction tape is 
removed from the support shaft member on the correction tape winding side, 
turned upside down and reattached to the support shaft member on the 
correction tape dispensing side, while the reel used for dispensing the 
correction tape is removed from the support shaft member on the correction 
tape dispensing side, turned upside down and reattached to the support 
shaft member on the correction tape winding side, to thereby enable the 
correction tape to be moved in the reverse direction. Thus, the present 
invention has made possible the repeated use of the correction tape by 
simply inverting and transposing the two reels. 
Further, the modification required for obtaining such function and effect 
is only to make a slight change in the inner sleeve of the boss section of 
the reel, which means that the function of enabling the reuse of the 
correction tape according to the present invention can be made possible in 
simple manner on any conventional, commercially available typewriter that 
has the aforesaid construction. 
The present invention will now be more particularly described with 
reference to the accompanying drawings. These embodiments shown in the 
drawings are intended to illustrate the invention and not be construed to 
limit the scope of the invention. It is to be understood that various 
changes and modifications may be made in the invention without departing 
from the spirit and scope thereof. 
Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, there is illustrated an embodiment of the 
reel assembly of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as 
"Embodiment 1"). 
In FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the numeral 1 denotes a support shaft member on a 
correction tape dispensing side, and the numeral 2 denotes a support shaft 
member on a correction tape winding side. Since the two support shaft 
members 1 and 2 are the same in the arrangement concerning the mounting of 
their respective reels 3 and 4, common reference numerals are used in the 
figures and the arrangement of one support shaft member will be described 
to serve as a description of the other, unless noted otherwise. 
The numeral 5 denotes a central shaft of the typewriter mechanism, which 
stands vertically. The support shaft member 1 is attached to the central 
shaft 5. The support shaft member 1 is usually made of a plastic material. 
The support shaft member 1 comprises a base flange 6, a middle shaft 7 
extending vertically from the upper surface of the base flange 6, two 
first locking pawls 8 which extend from the base flange 6 along the middle 
shaft 7 on the opposite sides of the middle shaft 7, two tongue-like 
springs 9 integrally formed in the middle shaft 7 and which extend along 
the axis of the middle shaft 7 on the opposite sides of the side wall of 
the middle shaft 7, a second locking pawl 10 integrally provided on the 
outer surface of the free end of each spring 9, and a gear 12 integrally 
extended from the base flange 6 and having sawteeth 11 on its peripheral 
edge. 
The reels 3 and 4 will now be described. 
The dispensing and winding reels 3 and 4 differ from each other only in 
whether or not gear-like finger catch projections 22 are formed on the 
upper surface of the upper flange 20 or 21, the rest of the arrangement 
being the same. Thus, only one of the reels 3 will be described, while the 
same numerals are applied to the other reel 4 to replace a description 
thereof, unless noted otherwise. 
The numeral 23 denotes the boss section of the reel 3, which comprises an 
inner sleeve 24 mounted on the middle shaft 7 mentioned above, and an 
outer sleeve 25, the two sleeves 24,25 being integrated together by a 
plurality of ribs 26, for instance, four ribs. The outer sleeve 25 has 
upper and lower flanges 20 and 27 integrally extending from its upper and 
lower ends. The two sleeves 24, 25 and the ribs 26 define therebetween a 
spacing adapted to have the first locking pawls 8 fitted therein. 
The upper and lower ends of the inner sleeve 24 are in the form of inwardly 
inclined taper surfaces which provide engagement portions 28 and 29 
associated with the second pawl 10. The distance L along the rotation axis 
of the reel 3 between the upper engagement portion 28 and the abutment 
surface 30 of the lower flange 27 against the base flange 6 is equal to 
the distance l along the rotation axis of the reel 3 between the lower 
engagement portion 29 and the abutment surface 31 of the upper flange 21 
against the base flange 6, when the reel 3 is inverted, so that the reel 3 
can be installed in any one of the two support shaft members 1 and 2 in 
its inverted or normal position and slip-off prevention by the engagement 
of the second locking pawl 10 can be attained. 
In the reel assembly of such arrangement, after a lift-off tape A initially 
wound on the dispensing reel 3 has been dispensed through guide pins 13 
and wound on the winding reel 4 as it is used, the two reels 3 and 4 
removed from the support shaft members 1 and 2 and then inverted, the 
winding reel 4 being mounted on the dispensing support shaft member 1 and 
the dispensing reel 3 being mounted on the winding support shaft member 2. 
Thus, the two reels 3 and 4 are prevented by the two types of locking 
pawls 8 and 10 from relative rotation against the respective support shaft 
member 1 and 2 and from accidental slip-off, so that the lift-off tape A 
can be used while being unwound. 
In addition, where the dispensing reel 3 is shaped to have an inverted form 
of the winding reel 4, the finger catch gear like projections 22 will be 
always present on the upper surface of the reel 4 on the winding side when 
the lift-off tape A is repeatedly used and thus, the effect of the 
projections 22, i.e., the ease for initial manual winding will be always 
developed. 
Referring to FIG. 4, there is illustrated a second embodiment of the reel 
assembly of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as "Embodiment 
2"). 
This embodiment illustrates another form of reel, wherein the reel is 
vertically symmetrically formed. That is, an upper flange 20' which has 
the same shape as that of the lower flange 27 in the reel shown in 
Embodiment 1 is provided. The rest of the arrangement is the same as in 
Embodiment described above, and hence the same numerals as in FIGS. 1 to 3 
are applied thereto and a detailed description thereof is omitted. 
Referring to FIG. 5, there is illustrated a third embodiment of the reel 
assembly of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as "Embodiment 
3"). 
This embodiment illustrates still another form of reel which is an 
improvement over the reel of Embodiment 2. That is, the peripheral edges 
of the upper and lower flange 20' and 27' are formed with equispaced cuts 
40 to provide the same function as that of the gear-like projections 22 
shown in Embodiment 1. The rest of the arrangement is the same as in 
Embodiment 2 and hence the same numerals as in FIG. 4 are applied thereto 
and a detailed description thereof is omitted. 
Referring to FIG. 6, there is illustrated another mounted state of the reel 
assembly of the present invention in use. In this embodiment, two central 
shafts 5, 5 of the typewriter mechanism extend horizontally. The support 
shaft member 1 and the reel 3 on the correction tape dispensing side and 
the support shaft member 2 and the reel 4 on the correction tape winding 
side are attached to the central shafts 5, 5, respectively. The numeral 14 
denotes a guide arm for changing the tape direction. 
In addition to the elements used in the Examples, other elements can be 
used in the Examples as set forth in the specification to obtain 
substantially the same results.