Zih Corporation

Joël Pelletier

Olivier Boisdon

Sylvain Zumbiehl

Lionel C Chavarria

Marty Smith

Babak Honaryar

The present invention provides a floating print head assembly and an associated method. According to one embodiment, the floating print head assembly includes a head bracket and a print head attached to the bracket such that the print head is suspended above the printing substrate. The assembly also includes an alignment mechanism disposed within the head bracket, where the alignment mechanism is operable to pivot such that the print head is capable of pivoting to apply substantially uniform print pressure across a substrate.

Apparatus for a floating print head and associated method

A feeder device for feeding a unit of media from a stack of media to a receiving apparatus is provided. The feeder device comprises a drive mechanism for driving the media in a feed direction through an opening defined by a gate apparatus. The opening extends from a first to a second edge of the gate apparatus and defines a fixed height greater than the thickness of the media. A flexible blade member is fixedly engaged with the gate apparatus at a fixed end and is cantilevered with respect to the gate apparatus. The blade member defines a length and extends from the first edge toward the second edge to reduce the opening height. The blade member is further configured to have an adjustable flexibility to allow the feeder device to feed media of varying thickness to the printing apparatus. An associated method is also provided.

Feeder device having adjustably flexible gate apparatus and associated method

A feeder device is provided, comprising a drive mechanism for driving a media unit in a feed direction, the media unit being provided from a stack of media units by a hopper including upstream and downstream hopper members. A directing member associated with the upstream hopper member engages the trailing edge of the media unit to direct the same to the drive mechanism, reduces an adhesive force between the media unit and remaining media units in the stack, and engages the trailing edge of one other media unit to direct the same toward the downstream hopper member and to partially support the weight of the remaining media units. A biased member urges the media unit against the drive mechanism, thereby increasing a driving force on the media unit, and prevents remaining media units from being fed to the receiving apparatus, also reducing the adhesive force. Associated methods are also provided.

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Saint Sylvain d'Anjou, France

Joël Pelletier