Auxiliary Tape Cassette Spiral Guide for Kink-Free Tape Conveyance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Printing tape may not be properly conveyed due to kinks and similar issues if the path to the ink ribbon cassette is not established correctly.
Innovation Solution
The auxiliary tape cassette and printing tape cassette designs include a guide surface with a spiral portion having an angle of rotation greater than or equal to 180 degrees, guiding the printing tape to suppress kinks and ensure proper conveyance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the printing tape is discharged directly from the printing tape cassette to the ink ribbon cassette without proper guidance, then the device complexity is reduced, but the printing tape may develop kinks and not be properly conveyed
Solution Approach 1:
The guide surface acts as an intermediary component between the printing tape cassette and the ink ribbon cassette. It provides a controlled path for the printing tape to follow, preventing kinks while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure. The guide surface mediates the transition of the tape between the two cassettes, ensuring reliable conveyance without requiring complex mechanical guidance systems.
2Reliability
If a guide surface with spiral portion of at least 180 degrees is introduced, then the printing tape conveyance reliability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide surface incorporates a spiral portion with an angle of rotation of at least 180 degrees, using curvature to guide the printing tape around corners and prevent kinks. This curved path allows the tape to transition smoothly between the printing tape cassette and ink ribbon cassette, improving conveyance reliability while adding only moderate structural complexity compared to straight-line guidance systems.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the guide surface is designed to wrap around the printing tape with at least 180 degrees rotation, then the tape kinking problem is suppressed, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The guide surface uses a spiral curved path with at least 180 degrees of rotation to wrap around the printing tape, effectively preventing kinks by providing a gradual transition path. This curved design distributes the bending stress along the spiral path rather than concentrating it at sharp corners, reducing the precision requirements for manufacturing while still achieving effective kink prevention.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2B
Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
There is provided an auxiliary tape cassette enabling a printing tape to be properly conveyed. The present disclosure provides an auxiliary tape cassette including a roll of an auxiliary tape used for printing on a printing tape being conveyed, and a case housing the roll. The case has a discharge port for discharging the printing tape from inside the case to outside the case, and a guide surface for guiding toward the discharge port the printing tape supplied from outside the case, the guide surface being defined on an inner surface or an outer surface of the case. The printing tape is wrapped around the guide surface to form a spiral portion whose angle of rotation about a central axis of the spiral portion is greater than or equal to 180 degrees, the central axis being parallel to the winding axis of the roll. The guide surface includes a curved surface for guiding at least a portion of the spiral portion on an upstream side of the discharge port in a discharging direction of the printing tape.