Patent ID: 7736076

Claim:
A ribbon cassette comprising: a cassette case that has a first receiving portion; a second receiving portion disposed at a predetermined interval from the first receiving portion and operable to be inserted into a ribbon cassette mounting portion of a printer together with the first receiving portion; a first connecting member operable to connect the front ends of the first and second receiving portions in an insertion direction of the first and second receiving portions into the ribbon cassette mounting portion; a second connecting member operable to connect the rear ends of the first and second receiving portions in the insertion direction of the first and second receiving portions; and an ink ribbon that is disposed in a supplying axis and a winding axis rotatably received in the first and second receiving portions and is operable to be drawn from the supplying axis and wound on the winding axis, wherein a first supporting portion formed of a wall portion that is bridged between the first and second connecting members is provided, a second supporting portion is provided in the second receiving portion receiving the winding axis so as to correspond to the first supporting portion in a width direction of the ink ribbon, and the ink ribbon drawn from the supplying axis and supplied for printing is configured to be bent at the first supporting portion, subsequently bent at the second supporting portion, and wound on the winding axis, wherein a space portion is provided between the wall portion and the second receiving portion such that the space portion faces a part of a printing-portion paper transport unit in which a paper transport roller, which extends in the width direction of the ink ribbon of the printer, is supported so as to rotate, a driven roller, which extends in the width direction of the ink ribbon, is supported so as to rotate in contact with the paper transport roller, and a driven-roller mounting plate, which extends in the width direction of the ink ribbon, is supported so as to get close to and apart from the paper transport roller, and the paper transport roller, the driven roller, and the driven-roller mounting plate are sequentially disposed along the wall portion, and wherein a convex portion is provided on a wall-portion contact surface of the first connecting portion opposed to the space member so that a top portion of the convex portion comes in contact with the driven-roller mounting plate disposed in the space portion when the ribbon cassette is mounted in the ribbon cassette mounting portion of the printer.