A parking brake in a transmission consists of a toothed wheel non-rotatably joined to the output shaft of the transmission and a pawl on an arm which is pivotally joined to the housing. The arm is pivotally mounted in a yoke which partially encircles the toothed wheel and is limitedly movably mounted in the housing on opposite sides of the output shaft. The yoke has abutment surfaces on diametrically opposite sides of the toothed wheel, and when the pawl engages the toothed wheel, the yoke will be displaced so that--depending on the direction in which the toothed wheel is loaded--one of the abutment surfaces comes into contact against the toothed wheel. This eliminates bending stresses on the shaft at the same time as the forces transmitted to the housing will be only a fraction of the force acting between the pawl and the toothed wheel, due to the difference in the length of the moment arms.

An apparatus for a scanning-head printer in which a single motor is used to provide movement to a print head carriage and to advance the paper along a paper path. The single motor is coupled to the print head carriage to provide movement of the carriage back and forth across the width of the paper. As the carriage is moved across the paper, the print head applies print to the paper. An advancement mechanism is located near the edge of the paper path. As the print head carriage reaches the edge of the paper, the carriage contacts the advancement mechanism which, in turn, causes the paper to be advanced along the paper path. Thus, a single motor advances the paper and moves the carriage across the paper.

A ramp ribbon cartridge adapted for ramp mounting of a ribbon in a printer device which comprises a cartridge housing having a first end and a second end, a ribbon stored in and extending from the cartridge housing and on which a printing head makes a printing track while printing, a drive wheel for pulling the ribbon out of the housing, with the drive wheel being rotatably mounted at a first end of the cartridge housing and being adapted to connect with a drive shaft in a printer device, a ramping mechanism between the cartridge housing and positioned near the second end of the housing so as to place the ribbon at a ramp angle to the horizontal, a loose fitting connection between the drive wheel and the drive shaft of the printer device so that the drive shaft still drives the drive wheel without binding when the drive wheel is tilted on its axis away from the vertical, whereby the printing track of the ribbon is at a ramp angle to the top and bottom edges of the ribbon and is wider than if the ribbon were positioned in a horizontal attitude.

The inked ribbon cartridge comprises an endless ribbon, an elongated housing for the ribbon, a first laterally extending finger at on end of the housing, a longitudinally slidable arm at the other end of the housing carrying a second finger disposed generally parallel to the first finger. A drive wheel is located behind the ribbon and is rotatable for withdrawing ribbon from the front section and is operative to create folds in the used ribbon and to stuff the folds of ribbon between the drive wheel and the ribbon. A fixedly mounted stripper ring encircles the drive wheel and carries a stripper foot to strip the ribbon from the wheel. At the exit port are three aligned support members with the middle support member being over center with respect to the other two. A leaf spring member is located in contact with all three support members. The ribbon passes between one of the support members and the spring. The end portion of the spring member has top and bottom tabs with a height exceeding the height of the interior of the housing.

An improved parking brake cable control apparatus includes an automatic cable tensioning device that is operable at the beginning and end of every parking brake operating cycle to take up cable slack and maintain uniform cable tension. The foot-operated parking brake lever pivots on a main pivot shaft between brake-engaged and brake-released positions, a releasable pedal pawl being provided that cooperates with a conventional pedal ratchet. A cable-tensioning ratchet connected with the parking brake cable is rotatably mounted on the main pivot shaft, and cooperating therewith are a lock pawl and a drive pawl connected with the apparatus housing and with the lever, respectively. The lock pawl is released by a release lever when the pedal is pivoted toward the released position, and the drive pawl is disengaged when the lever is adjacent the disengaged position, thereby to activate the cable tensioning device.