Ncr Canada Ltd. -- Ncr Canada Ltee

Ncr Canada Ltd.

Ncr Corporation

Brian P Connell

Ralf M Brooks

Fredrik L N Kallin

David Norris

Dennis T Sonnenburg

Robin I G Angus

Arvindkumar C Vyas

Stefan J Pagowski

A dual-stack document storage bin comprises a substantially U-shaped container including a first bottom wall which interconnects first and second sidewalls to provide (i) the substantially U-shape, and (ii) a first document storage chamber which is defined between the first and second sidewalls and into which documents can be stacked to form a first stack of documents when the U-shaped container is in a first position. The dual-stack document storage bin further comprises a substantially L-shaped housing including a second bottom wall and a third sidewall which is disposed relative to the second bottom wall to provide (i) the substantially L-shape, and (ii) a second document storage chamber which is defined between the third side wall and the second sidewall and into which documents can be stacked to form a second stack of documents when the U-shaped container is in a second position which is different from the first position. The dual-stack document storage bin also comprises a mechanism operatively coupled between the first and second bottom walls to support substantially horizontal sliding movement of the U-shaped container between the first position in which documents can be stacked onto the first stack of documents in the first document storage chamber and the second position in which documents can be stacked onto the second stack of documents in the second document storage chamber.

Dual-stack document storage bin for use in a self-service bunch document depositing terminal

A thermal printing apparatus and method are disclosed which allows a plurality of thermal print head elements to remain concurrently active, with each individual element being capable of remaining active for a time duration unique to itself and independent of burn times required by the remaining elements. This individual element burn time control is obtained by the high-speed loading and reloading of the thermal print head shift register, with the contents of the individual shift register cells being the controlling factor. Once the thermal print head element resistances have been dynamically measured, specific energies are derived for each element in the printhead by modulating the on time for each element, thus allowing grey scale printing and the like.

Thermal printing apparatus and method

A thermal printing apparatus is disclosed in which ribbon advancing mechanism including a supply spool and a take-up spool operated by a stepping motor is disclosed. Mechanism is provided for reversing the direction in which the take-up spool is driven by a specified amount during the printing cycle, in order to provide ribbon slack, so as to avoid smudging of the transferred ink on the receiving document and possible ribbon breakage during printing. The circumference of the accumulated ribbon on the take-up spool at any given time is considered in determining the number of steps and the step rate of the stepping motor in the reverse direction which must be taken in order to produce the desired amount of ribbon slack and slack take-up.

Thermal transfer ribbon mechanism and recording method

A system and method are disclosed for automatically compensating for overutilized elements in a thermal printhead. The system is implemented by utilizing a graphics style line thermal printhead with a greater number of resistive or thermal elements than are needed for the maximum number of characters to be printed. These spare or extra elements are positioned on the leading side of a nominal designated print area or field within the thermal printhead, such that a microprocessor under software control can sequentially shift for each new print line the leading edge of all character positions contained in the print field incrementally to one side, allowing increased utilization of formerly underutilized elements. In a preferred embodiment the magnitude of this sequential sideways shift is determined by the number of spare or extra elements which border the leading side of the nominal print field.

Thermal printhead life extension technique

A system and method are disclosed for automatically detecting any defective elements in a linear array of thermal printhead elements of a thermal printer and for automatically correcting for at least one defective thermal printhead element. In a preferred embodiment of the invention an ON/OFF line from a microprocessor is turned OFF to turn off a voltage regulator, thereby preventing the thermal printhead elements from printing. With the voltage regulator OFF, a diode is forward biased to enable a voltage divider to be formed between a sensing resistor and any one of the thermal printhead elements that is activated at any given time. When a subsequent sense voltage (or resistance measurement) of an element exceeds the value of the initial reference sense voltage for that by a predetermined amount, that element is detected as a defective element. A software subroutine, in the microprocessor is then utilized to change the position of serial data bits carrying data to be printed such that the detected defective thermal element is not utilized during a normal printing operation.

Growing community of inventors

Waterloo, Canada

Brian P Connell