Flap-Armature Electromagnet

This invention relates to a flap-armature electromagnet.

In the conventional flap-armature electromagnet, the flap-armature is rockingly supported on a yoke. Such a supporting arrangement hinders the operating function of the flap-armature. More particularly, since the rocking axis of the flap-armature with respect to the yoke is spaced by a predetermined interval from a supporting member for supporting the flap-armature to the yoke, the driving torque of the flap-armature must be large and yet an incorrect operation of the flap-armature takes place because the supporting member acts against the rotating operation of the flap-armature by the electomagnet as a moment of rotation in the opposite direction and does not perform a reliable supporting function.

In case the flap-armature electromagnet is utilized as the printing wire driving electromagnet of a wire printer, a large current is required to obtain sufficient printing pressure because of these defects, and particularly these defects cause the printing wire to incorrectly print.

It is an object of this invention to provide a flap-armature electromagnet which can reliably operate a flap-armature.

It is another object of this invention to provide a flap-armature electromagnet which can rapidly respond with certainty.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a flap-armature electromagnet which is compact and less expensive.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a flap-armature electromagnet of the prior art.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a flap-armature electromagnet of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a front partially sectional view of a printing head assembly and the flap-armature electromagnet of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows the conventional flap-armature electromagnet utilized for printing with a wire driving electromagent 1 of a wire printer. A flap-armature 2 is rockingly supported at one end thereof between supporting portions 3a and 3a projected from a yoke 3 and is formed at the other end thereof with an actuating portion 2a contacting the head of a printing wire 4. The actuating portion 2a is normally maintained in a non-operating position by a compression spring 5 coupled to the printing wire 4. The flap-armature 2 is rotated clockwise against the compression spring 5 when an excitation coil 6 is energized, to thus operate the printing wire 4. A coil spring 7 is provided at the center of one end of the flap-armature 2 to prevent the flap-armature 2 from erroneously operating.

More particularly, the flap-armature 2 is so supported rockingly between the supporting portions 3a and 3a of the yoke so as to restrict the horizontal motion thereof but is partly restricted in the vertical motion thereof by the coil spring 7.

However, the coil spring 7 is mounted at a position spaced by predetermined intervals from the rocking axis with respect to the flap-armature 2 as shown in FIG. 1 to provide a counterclockwise rotating moment always against the flap-armature 2. Accordingly, this moment becomes an excessive load when the excitation coil 6 is energized to operate the flap-armature 2 and thus increases the load of the excitation coil 6. Further, as the coil spring 7 is attached to the center of one end of the flap-armature 2, elevational motion of the flap-armature 2 in a wide direction tends to occur to cause the flap-armature 2 to erroneously operate.

FIG. 3 shows a wire printer printing head 8 employing a flap-armature electromagnet constructed according to this invention. Seven printing elements 12 each having a flap-armature electromagnet 13 (only one element 12 is designated in FIG. 3) are mounted on one planar surface of a base 9 for a printing head in such a manner that each printing wire 10 is concentrated to one line by a printing wire guide 11.

The flap-armature electromagnet 13 used for the printing elements 12 of this printing head 8 will now be described in detail.

The flap-armature electromagnet 13 is secured to the front end 15a of an iron core 15 wound with a coil 14 thereon with a substantially U-shaped yoke 16 surrounding the coil 14. A flap-armature 17 (FIG. 2) has notches 17a formed at both sides of the base ends thereof and an actuating portion 17b formed in narrow width at the other end thereof. These notches 17a and 17a thus formed at the base ends of the flap-armature 17 are engaged with projections 16a formed at the upper rear end of the yoke 16 so that the flap-armature 17 is supported on the yoke 16. Thus, the flap-armature is rockingly supported at the engaging points of the projections 16a and 16a with the notches 17a and 17a as a center while restricting the horizontal motion thereof. A synthetic resin auxiliary frame 18 is mounted on the yoke 16 by engaging the dove-tail shape projection 19 projecting from yoke 16 with a dove-tail shape groove 20 formed in the frame 18. A penetrating hole 21 is formed at one end of the frame 18, and the actuating portion 17b of the flap-armature 17 is movably inserted through the hole 21 of the frame 18. A supporting portion 22 projects downwards in FIG. 3 from the frame 18, and the printing wire 10 is slidably supported at the portion 22. A boss 23 is fixed to the head of the printing wire 10 in such a manner that a compression spring 24 is interposed between the boss 23 and the supporting portion 22. This spring 24 urges the printing wire 10 to the left in FIG. 3 and also urges the actuating portion 17b of the flap-armature 17 to the left in FIG. 3.

Coil spring 25 is interposed and tensioned between the projections 16a of the yoke in such a manner that is forcibly raised upwardly at the center thereof so as to press both sides of the flap-armature 17 only at both ends 25a of the spring 25 as shown in FIG. 2. In addition, this spring 25 is so tensioned as to bias the rocking axis of the flap-armature 17 formed upon engagement of the notches 17a of the flap-armature 17 with the projections 16a of the yoke 16.

Since the spring 25 is thus tensioned, the flap-armature 17 does not sense the rotating moment created by the spring 25 at all, and the elevational motion of the flap-armature 17 in the lateral direction is completely prevented to thus prevent the flap-armature 17 from erroneously operating.

More particularly, when the coil 14 of the flap-armature electromagnet 13 is energized, the flap-armature 17 will rotate counterclockwise in FIG. 3 against the compression spring 24, whereupon the spring 25 will not affect the rocking motion of the flap-armature 17 at all. Accordingly, the flap-armature 17 can easily rotate against only the compression spring 24. If the coil of the flap-armature electromagnet 13 is deenergized, the flap-armature 17 is returned to the original position before rotation in accordance with the recoiling force of the compression spring 24. Further, even if this coil 14 is rapidly energized or deenergized cyclically, the flap-armature 17 will certainly follow the operations to completely prevent the flap-armature 17 from erroneously operating by means of the action of the spring 25.

It should be understood from the foregoing description that since this invention restricts both sides of the flap-armature at the rocking axis by the coil spring in structure for prohibiting excessive rotating moment to the flap-armature, the flap-armature electromagnet will completely prevent the flap-armature from erroneously operating. It should also be understood that this invention also provides extremely easy attachment and detachment of the coil spring making this invention very useful.