US-12617221-B2 - Roll paper printer

US12617221B2US 12617221 B2US12617221 B2US 12617221B2US-12617221-B2

Abstract

A roll paper printer includes an accommodation section that is configured to accommodate roll paper wound with paper, a platen that pulls out the paper from the roll paper, and transports the paper in a transport direction, a cover that opens and closes the accommodation section, a sensor that is mounted on the accommodation section, is configured to come into contact with an outer circumference of the roll paper at a contacting point, and is configured to detect a remaining amount of the roll paper, and a contact member that is configured to be disposed at a position facing a position of the contacting point with the roll paper interposed therebetween, is configured to come into contact with the outer circumference of the roll paper and rotate, and is configured to move.

Inventors

Tetsugo Ishida
Nobuhiro Inoue

Assignees

SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20231026
Priority Date: 20221028

Claims (7)

1 . A roll paper printer comprising: an accommodation section that is configured to accommodate roll paper; a platen that is configured to pull out paper from the roll paper, and is configured to transport the paper in a transport direction; a cover that is configured to open and close the accommodation section; a sensor that is mounted on the accommodation section, is configured to come into contact with an outer circumference of the roll paper, rotates about a sensor hinge according to a remaining amount of the roll paper, and is configured to detect the remaining amount of the roll paper based on a rotational position of the sensor; and a contact member that is configured to be disposed at a position facing a contacting point of the sensor with the roll paper interposed therebetween, and is configured to come into contact with the outer circumference of the roll paper and move, wherein the accommodation section includes a plurality of portions including a first portion and a recessed portion adjacent the first portion and that is lower than the first portion, wherein when a full roll paper is accommodated in the accommodation section, the contacting point and the sensor are positioned in the first portion at a same position as a surface of the first portion of the accommodation section, and wherein when the roll paper is accommodated in the recessed portion and is not accommodated in any other or the plurality of portions of the accommodation section, the sensor is raised to a highest level from the surface of the first portion and the sensor no longer contacts the roll paper.
2 . The roll paper printer according to claim 1 , wherein the contact member has a roller rotatably supported by the cover by a shaft having an elastic force, and is configured to move while elastically deforming the shaft.
3 . The roll paper printer according to claim 2 , wherein a plurality of the rollers are mounted on the cover, and are arranged in a width direction of the roll paper, each of the plurality of rollers being rotatably supported by a shaft having an elastic force and configured to move while elastically deforming the shaft, and at least a portion of the rollers having a surface covered with ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene to reduce friction with the roll paper.
4 . The roll paper printer according to claim 3 , wherein at least a portion of the plurality of rollers is configured to come into contact with the outer circumference of the roll paper having a minimum width configured to be accommodated in the accommodation section.
5 . The roll paper printer according to claim 2 , wherein a plurality of the rollers are mounted on the cover, and are arranged in a width direction of the roll paper, each of the plurality of rollers being rotatably supported by a shaft having an elastic force and configured to move while elastically deforming the shaft.
6 . The roll paper printer according to claim 1 , wherein the cover has a cover guide configured to guide the roll paper, and at least a portion of the cover guide has friction with the outer circumference of the roll paper smaller than other portions.
7 . The roll paper printer according to claim 1 , further comprising: a paper guide that is configured to guide the paper upstream in the transport direction of the platen; and a protrusion that is configured to come into contact with the paper and is configured to move toward the paper guide.

Description

The present application is based on, and claims priority from JP Application Serial Number 2022-173070, filed Oct. 28, 2022, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. BACKGROUND 1. Technical Field The present disclosure relates to a roll paper printer. 2. Related Art In the related art, as described in JP-A-2008-120069, a printer including a near end detection mechanism, which is a sensor that detects a remaining amount of roll paper, is known. In the printer described above, an influence of a load on a portion with which the roll paper comes into contact is not considered, and it may not be possible for the sensor to detect the remaining amount of the roll paper with high accuracy. SUMMARY The present disclosure is a roll paper printer including an accommodation section that is configured to accommodate roll paper, a platen that is configured to pull out paper from the roll paper, and is configured to transport the paper in a transport direction, a cover that is configured to open and close the accommodation section, a sensor that is mounted on the accommodation section, is configured to come into contact with an outer circumference of the roll paper at a contacting point, and is configured to detect a remaining amount of the roll paper, and a contact member that is configured to be disposed at a position facing a position of the contacting point with the roll paper interposed therebetween, is configured to come into contact with the outer circumference of the roll paper and rotate, and is configured to move. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a roll paper printer. FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the roll paper printer when a cover is closed. FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the roll paper printer when roll paper has a large diameter. FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the roll paper printer when the roll paper has a medium diameter. FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the roll paper printer when the roll paper has a small diameter at the time of a standby. FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the roll paper printer when the roll paper has a small diameter at the time of printing. FIG. 7 is an enlarged view mainly illustrating a roller. FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the roll paper printer when the roll paper is at a near end. DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 1. Configuration of Roll Paper Printer Hereinafter, a roll paper printer 1 according to an embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8. It should be noted that the directions in the drawings will be described by using a three-dimensional coordinate system. For convenience of description, a positive direction of a Z axis is referred to as an up direction, upward, or simply up, a negative direction of the Z axis is referred to as a down direction, downward, or simply down, a positive direction of an X axis is referred to as a right direction, rightward, or simply right, a negative direction of the X axis is referred to as a left direction, leftward, or simply left, a positive direction of a Y axis is referred to as a front direction, forward, or simply front, and a negative direction of the Y axis is referred to as a rear direction, rearward, or simply rear. The roll paper printer 1 according to the embodiment is used, for example, in a point-of-sale (POS) system. The POS system is a system used in the retail business, such as shopping centers, department stores, convenience stores, and in-car sales, and the food and beverage business, such as restaurants, coffee shops, and taverns. The roll paper printer 1 used in the POS system prints receipts, coupons, tickets, and the like according to products or services. FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of the roll paper printer 1 when roll paper R is not accommodated in an accommodation section 12 in a state in which a cover 10 is opened forward. The roll paper printer 1 is installed on a table or the like on a horizontal surface with a bottom surface facing down. Here, a posture in which the roll paper printer 1 can open the cover 10 forward in one direction of a side surface of a case 11, that is, a so-called vertical installation posture is illustrated. Since there is no roll paper R, a sensor 6 that detects a remaining amount of the roll paper R is at a position A0 advanced upward in the accommodation section 12. It should be noted that a width of the accommodation section 12 in the left-right direction is a width W, and the roll paper R up to the width W can be accommodated. The width W is, for example, 80 mm. The cover 10 can open and close the accommodation section 12. A user can access the accommodation section 12 by opening the cover 10 toward the front. FIG. 2 illustrates a sectional view of the roll paper printer 1 when the roll paper R is not accommodated in the accommodation section 12 in a state in which the cover 10 is closed. It should be noted that FIGS. 2 to 6 and 8 illustrate sectional views of the roll paper printer 1 in a state