Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Tohoku Richo Co., Ltd.

Genzi Oshino

Isamu Suzuki

Katsuhiko Obata

Hideaki Matsuda

Masaaki Yoshikawa

Masayoshi Kikuchi

Kenichi Kimura

Yutaka Shibata

Makoto Saitou

Nobuhiro Sato

Atsushi Okamura

Susumu Yagi

A printing/verifying direction section in a control section directs a thermal head controller and a sheet conveying motor controller to do printing in accordance with a detection result by a sheet position detection sensor, so as to print image data in a printing image storage section on a sheet (label) by a thermal head. Further, based on printing position data from a printing data storage section, the printing/verifying direction section directs a verification section controller to operate a scanner controller so as to permit a scanner to read an image of a printed mark. The verification section controller compares the read image with printing data in the printing data storage section to judge whether the image is good or no good. When it is no good, the mark is returned to a printing position by the thermal head by a direction of a printing/verifying controller, so that the thermal head prints an overwriting image in an overwriting image storage section on the mark.

Mark printing/verifying device, mark printing/verifying method and mark printing control method

One roller ( ) of paired feed rollers is a driving roller which is rotated by a motor ( ), and a platen ( ) and the other roller (which is a driven roller) ( ) of the paired feed rollers are rotatably mounted on a swingable bracket ( ) through a platen support member ( ) and a roller support member ( ) respectively to be free from being rotated by the motor ( ).

Printer

A printer comprising a paper storage section provided at the lower portion of a printer body, a feed roller and a pinch roller for feeding paper being brought into contact with each other under pressure and positioned over the paper storage section inside the printer body, a thermal head and a platen capable of pressing and holding the paper therebetween and positioned at the downstream side of the feed roller in the paper feed direction, and a discharge tray for receiving the printed paper and positioned over the paper storage section at the downstream side of the thermal head in the paper feed direction.

In a thermal printer for feeding a direct thermal paper or a thermal transfer ribbon and a printing paper between a thermal head and a platen roller while such paper is pressed and held by pressing force of a pressure application means, and printing on such paper by heating a heating portion of the thermal head, the positioning or the thermal head relative to the platen roller in the paper feeding direction can be easily performed by a simple mechanism without using an exclusive assembling instrument. To achieve this object, the thermal head and the platen roller are attached to the same member or members which are integrated with each other and there is provided a linear moving mechanism for moving the thermal head and the platen roller toward or away from each other while one of the thermal head and the platen roller is held by the pressure application means so as to be movable linearly in the pressure application direction, whereby the thermal head is brought into contact with the platen roller or vice versa by merely linearly moving the thermal head or the platen roller.

Thermal printer having a thermal head and platen roller

In a thermal printer for feeding a direct thermal paper or a thermal transfer ribbon and a printing paper between a thermal head and a platen roller while such paper is pressed and held by pressing force of a pressure application means, and printing on such paper by heating a heating portion of the thermal head, the positioning of the thermal head relative to the platen roller in the paper feeding direction can be easily performed by a simple mechanism without using an exclusive assembling instrument. To achieve this object, the thermal head and the platen roller are attached to the same member or members which are integrated with each other and there is provided a linear moving mechanism for moving the thermal head and the platen roller toward or away from each other while one of the thermal head and the platen roller is held by the pressure application means so as to be movable linearly in the pressure application direction, whereby the thermal head is brought into contact with the platen roller or vice versa by merely linearly moving the thermal head or the platen roller.

A press force control apparatus for use in a apparatus for stacking sheets of paper that have been cut from a continuous roll of paper by inserting each successive sheet of paper beneath a previously stacked sheet of paper. The press force control apparatus includes a paper press for pressing a top surface of the sheets of paper, after the sheets of paper have been placed in a stacked position, wherein the paper press is translatable up and down with respect to a stack height of the sheets of paper. The press force control apparatus includes a press force switching facilities for dually functioning to contact the paper press to apply a press force to the paper press and thus hold the paper press in a downwardly translated position, wherein the paper press transfers the press force to the sheets of paper in the stacked position until the stack height of the sheets of paper in the stacked position reaches a predetermined value and to release the press force when the stack height of the sheets of paper exceeds the predetermined value. The press force switching facilities is provided with a mechanism for controlling the stack height at which the press force is released. The press force control apparatus assures that an appropriate press force is always applied to the sheets of paper so that the sheets of paper may be reliably successively stacked on the bottom of the stack.

Stacker

In a thermal printer for performing printing on the printing surface of a tag which is drawn out from a tag roll and then held and conveyed by a platen and a line thermal head, the thermal printer comprises a thread sweeping means for sweeping away the threads which get on the printing surface of the tag and a tag guide means disposed downstream the conveying direction of the tag for bringing into contact with the side edge of the tag which is opposite to the other side edge thereof to which the threads are attached so that the threads which get on the printing surface of the tag are swept away by the thread sweeping means and the tag is conveyed in the manner that the threads do not contact the tag guide, which eventually prevents the threads from being caught by parts on the conveying route or prevents the tag from being printed on the printing surface thereof while the threads remain getting on the printing surface. Furthermore, a roll holder for holding the entire tag roll is attached to a detachable roll presser plate facing the threads, thereby preventing the threads from being put between the roll presser plate and the roll holder.

Thermal printer

In a stacker for successively stacking cut papers on a bottom plate, a winding shaft for winding a non-cut continuous paper therearound is provided on a back side plate so as to project substantially perpendicularly to the paper restriction surface of the back side plate. This structure of the stacker makes it possible to stack the cut papers successively on the bottom plate and also makes it possible to easily wind the continuous paper around the winding shaft. In the stacker for successively stacking cut papers therein by inserting a cut paper beneath the previous stacked papers comprising a paper press for pressing the stacked papers from the top surface thereof and a press force switching mechanism for contacting the paper press and applying press force to the stacked cut papers until the stack height of the stacked papers reaches a prescribed value and for releasing the application of the press force when the stack height of the stacked papers exceeds the prescribed value. This structure makes it possible to apply always an appropriate press force to the stacked papers and to stack the papers on the bottom plate with assurance.

A thermal printer comprising a line type thermal head which is arranged substantially in parallel with the shaft of a platen and is swingably supported about the longitudinal central portion thereof can obtain clear printed letters and prevent the abrasion of the platen due to the direct contact between the thermal head and the platen even if the recording paper varies in width or thickness or is set on the platen one-sided. To achieve the above object, members for restricting the swinging of the thermal head are prodded at both end portions thereof, one of the members being adjustable in its restricting position and the thermal head is supported by a head supporting means composed of a head plate, a head frame and tension springs so as to be movable toward or away from the platen so that the thermal head is separated from the platen according to the thickness of the recording paper and does; not contact the platen. When the thermal head is separated from the platen, the stopper portions of the head plate move while contacting the outer circumferences of beatings for supporting the platen so that the printing line of the thermal head is not displaced out of a given printing position.

Head pressing mechanism of a thermal printer

A stacker has a feed unit for feeding separate sheets in a direction, a stacking unit for stacking the separate sheets in a normal position, and a sheet classifying mechanism for shifting a sheet into a position different from the normal position, upstream of the stacking unit with respect to the direction. Sheets to be used to classify respective batches of sheets stacked by the stacking unit can selectively be shifted into the position different from the normal position by the sheet classifying mechanism. Since those shifted sheets can easily and clearly be recognized by the operator, the batches of stacked sheet can be sorted out with ease. The sheets remain sightly in appearance as no classifying ink mark is applied to those sheets used to classify the batches of stacked sheets. If a bar code printed on a sheet is found defective as a result of a verification process, it may be either shifted into the position different from the normal position or rejected so that it will not be stacked by the stacking unit.

Stacker having a classifying bullet to shift delivered sheet

The invention relates to a thermal printer and a printing method thereby, using a step motor for feeding a sheet of paper, a scanning type thermal head and a control unit by which the paper feeding operation is temporarily stopped and the printing operation is restarted after the stopped period. This thermal printer further comprises a delay drive unit which drives the thermal head with delay of one or two clock periods, predetermined as a control parameter for this printing operation, by a phase switch timing point for the step motor, in response to the time-lag defined by the phase switch timing point to an actual paper feeding motion; and a pre-print unit which outputs a command signal to begin the printing operation of the thermal head for printing one or more times the print data which follows the final print data of when the paper feeding operation was stopped, prior to the above described regular drive operation of the thermal head at the restart of the printing operation. Whereby this thermal printer can provide a high quality print without any print gaps and unclear prints due to the interruption of the printing operation.

Thermal printer having a controller for controlling paper feed operation

In a stacker, where a stopper for aligning the front end of the papers to be stacked being detachable within a bottom plate of a paper receiver by a magnetic force, a paper feed means being provided along the paper feed direction in a manner such that the feed surface projects slightly above the bottom plate, a projection being provided at the bottom of the stopper in a manner such that it extends in parallel with the feed surface while not projecting above the feed surface of the feed belt, thereby letting the stopper moveable at any position along the paper feed direction in order to adjust the paper feed depth corresponding to the length of the fed papers, the papers can be fed by the feed belt and stacked without fail and further the stacked papers can be taken out by raising the stopper from the bottom plate while the stacked papers are raised by the projection.

An indicia printing/verifying apparatus and an indicia scanning method are disclosed, in which a scanner is shifted in the line feed direction while indicia is scanned by the scanner so that even the indicia having a small length in the line feed direction can be completely scanned by the scanner without decreasing the printing/verifying speed of the apparatus.

Growing community of inventors

Miyagi, Japan

Genzi Oshino