Esselte Meto International Produktions Gmbh

Other

Peter Franzen

Alan J Harry

Paul R Nailor

Juergen Schoon

Fred Adelmann

Robert M Pettigrew

Robert M Petigrew

Vincent Geake

A device suitable for printing bar codes is disclosed, this device comprising a housing, means for holding a label supply roll, printing means for applying indicia to a label, means for supplying data to determine the nature of the indicia printed on the label, and means for supplying electrical energy to operate the device, characterised in that said print unit is an ink jet printer.

Bar code printing

A method of bar code printing is disclosed. The bar code is printed directly onto packaging material associated with the product, and in that the ink used to produce the bar code is such that indicia constituting the bar code can be discriminated regardless of the background onto which the bar code is printed.

The invention provides a number of improvements useful in printers which may be of the fixed, portable or hand-held types. In one aspect, the printer, which comprises a housing, a printing unit, means for feeding to said printing unit a substrate onto which indicia are to be printed, means for feeding a thermal transfer ribbon to said printing unit, and means for providing electrical power to operate the printer, is characterized by means permitting independent movement of said substrate and said thermal transfer ribbon within said printing unit. In another aspect, the printer includes means for supplying power to operate the printer, for example dynamo driven by a manual trigger. In a further aspect, the means for supplying power comprises a piezoelectric motor. In a further aspect, the printer is intended for printing bar codes, and comprises a housing; a thermographic print head; means for supplying a substrate to said print head, and a power supply for said thermographic print head, characterized in that the printer is arranged to apply substantially constant and continuous power to heat the elements of the thermographic print head during a bar code printing operation.

Printing systems

Improved printers are disclosed which are characterized by means for inputting data which is arranged to function without the use of an alpha-numeric keyboard. The data inputting means may be a cursor moving device operating in conjunction with a graphics display system; a graphics display system having a touch-sensitive screen; a speech recognition unit; a memory or 'smart card'; or an integral bar code reader. The cursor moving devices may be, for example, a tracker ball or a mouse.

Growing community of inventors

Hirschhorn am Neckar, Germany

Peter Franzen