Patent Publication Number: US-8523349-B2

Title: Portable printer

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present disclosure relates to printers and, particularly, to a portable printer. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Standard printers are generally too big and heavy to carry around. Furthermore, many printers require the use of a computer to set up any special printing requirements such as aligning printed content to specific areas on a printing paper, which can be troublesome to users. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The components of the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of a portable printer. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout several views. 
         FIG. 1  is an isometric view of a portable printer in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded, perspective view of the portable printer of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is another exploded, perspective view of the portable printer of  FIG. 1 , but viewed from a different perspective. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-3 , a portable printer  100  includes an outer housing  10  an inner housing  20 , at least one inkjet head  30 , a motor  40 , a circuit board  50 , and a battery  60 , all of which are housed in the outer housing  10 . The battery  60  is electrically connected to the circuit board  50  to provide power to the printer  100 . The outer housing  10  defines a receiving space  12  along a longitudinal side of the outer housing  10 . The outer housing  10  includes a bottom surface defining an opening  14  communicating with the receiving space  12 . The inner housing  20  is received in the receiving space  12  and can be driven to rotate around an axis of the outer housing  10 . The inkjet head  30  is arranged within the inner housing  20  and can rotate with the inner housing  20 . The inkjet head  30  can emit ink when it rotates. Ink from the inkjet head  30  goes out of the outer housing  10  through the opening  14 . The motor  40  is electrically connected to the circuit board  50 . The motor  40  is controlled by the circuit board  50  to drive the inner housing  20  to rotate. The rotation of the inner housing  20  drives the inkjet head  30  to rotate. The inkjet head  30  can emit ink when it rotates, and ink from the inkjet head  30  goes out of the outer housing  10  through the opening  14 . In this embodiment, the outer housing  10  and the inner housing  20  are substantially cylindrical. The motor  40  is a direct current (DC) motor. 
     In this embodiment, the printer  100  includes three inkjet heads  30  respectively having red, green, blue ink therein. The inner housing  20  defines three longitudinal receiving cavities  22  and a shaft hole  24  arranged among the receiving cavities  22 . Each receiving cavity  22  receives one inkjet head  30 . The motor  40  passes through the shaft hole  24  to be electrically connected to the circuit board  50 . 
     The printer  100  further includes a base  70  latched to the outer housing  10 . The base  70  defines a longitudinal through hole  72  communicating with the opening  14 . The base  70  further defines a number of recesses  74  extending from the top of the base  70  and communicating with the through hole  72 . A number of projections  16  protrudes from the outer sidewall of the outer housing  10  and are adjacent to the bottom of the outer housing  10 . There are an equal number of the projections  16  and the recesses  74 . Each projection  16  can be received in one recess  74  to latch the outer housing  10  to the base  70 . The printer  100  further includes a cover  80  latched to the top of the outer housing  10 . 
     In this embodiment, the printer  100  can communicate with an external device for example a computer through wire or wireless means. To print desired content in a designated region of a paper with the printer  100 , the printer  100  is placed on the paper to cause the opening  14  to be above the designated region of the paper. For example, to print a name in a signature region of a document, the printer  100  is placed on the document to cause the opening  14  to be above the signature region. After the printer  100  is in place, a user can operate an external device communicating with the printer  100  to transmit a print command to the printer  100 . Upon receiving the print command, the circuit board  50  controls the motor  40  to drive the inner housing  20  to rotate, and ink from the ink head  30  goes out of the outer housing  10  to print the name on the signature region of the document. 
     In this embodiment, the structure of the printer  100  is simple and the volume of the printer  100  is relatively small, thus the printer  100  is small and has a simple structure making it very portable and easy to use. 
     Although the present disclosure has been specifically described on the basis of the exemplary embodiment thereof, the disclosure is not to be construed as being limited thereto. Various changes or modifications may be made to the embodiment without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure.