Pitney Bowes Inc.

Pitney Dowes Inc.

Richard A Sloan, Jr

Paul R Sette

David E Kayser

Yichun Zhang

David K Lee

Walter J Kulpa

James A Salomon

Jay Reichelsheimer

Carl A Miller

George M Macdonald

Arnold T Eventoff

Patrick Rolling

Jeffrey T Mulreed

Paul A Kovlakas

Wayne W Pritchett

Michael S Doery

Victor C Riccardi

David G Collings

Jeffrey P Rios

Christopher Mallick

Brian A Lemm

John R LePage

Linda L Gale

A printing system has fixed print heads in positions that are subject to adjustment between print jobs. The system provides a print preview display that includes a representation of the item of printing stock on which the printing is to be performed. The print preview display also includes a first printing field that is at a location in the representation that corresponds to the position of a first one of the print heads. The print preview display further includes a second printing field that is at a location in the representation that corresponds to the position of a second one of the print heads.

Print preview for printers with multiple print heads

A printer having a printer deck and a media support mechanism having a flexible biased mount is provided. In one configuration, the media support mechanism includes an adjustable side guide that is mounted in a biased clamp mechanism. The biased clamp mechanism includes opposing clamps arranged in the same plane that each have two portions with at least one biased toward the other portion. Each opposing clamp includes a top portion and a bottom portion fixed to the printer deck by a shoulder bolt wherein the bottom portion engages a coil spring and is spring biased from the deck toward the top portion of the clamp to engage the mounting portion of the side guide. The coil springs are selected to apply sufficient force to facilitate holding the side guide sufficiently in place during operation and to also allow a reasonable force to adjust the width of the side guide.

Printer mounting arrangement for feed guide mechanisms

Printing systems and methods for user-selectable dynamic soft font and print stream data template control processing in a printer driver are provided. The system utilizes a print job driver screen that provides the user with a selectable option to convert soft fonts into graphics that are transferred to the printer. When using multi-byte fonts, and in particular when using multi-byte fonts in a character mangling operating system, printer memory may be rapidly allocated and consumed. However, soft fonts persist in printer memory for the length of the print job. The printer system provided herein allows the user to dynamically select an option to forgo soft font loading for the entire print job and instead transmit appropriate font graphics that are discarded from memory after use after a character threshold has been reached.

System and method for user-selectable soft font and print stream data template control in a printer driver

A method and system for drying printed ink on the face of a substrate material such as a mailpiece. The method comprising the steps of (i) providing a dryer having at least one variable output element for producing a plurality of dryer configurations, (ii) developing data correlating each of the dryer configurations with at least one print characteristic, (iii) storing the developed data in a memory storage device, (iv) obtaining the print characteristic associated with a particular print job and comparing the print characteristic with the developed data to define a desired dryer configuration, (v) adapting the dryer to assume the desired dryer configuration based upon the print characteristic, and (vi) drying the ink printed on the face of the substrate material. The system may include a taggant introduced into the ink and a means for identifying the taggant to determine the type of ink and the desired dryer configuration.

Method and system for drying ink on a substrate material

A method and system for recovering addresses in an address printing system is provided. A resume marker is set at the current location in the print buffer, used to buffer the addresses for printing, from which the next address will be read for printing. The address in the buffer location preceding the location where the resume marker is set is reprinted. The user can compare the reprinted address to the mail pieces already processed to determine if it is a duplicate. If not a duplicate, the address in the next preceding location can be reprinted. This processing continues until a duplicate address is printed, indicating that the address printing system properly printed all of the previous addresses in the address list up to the point of the duplicate. The print job will then automatically continue from the location where the resume marker was set.

Method and system for address recovery in an address printing system

A shield assembly is provided for use in combination an ink jet printer and is operative to provide a smooth planar surface for printing on a print media. The described embodiment includes a shield having first and second contact surfaces to define an opening therebetween. The opening of the shield assembly is aligned with the print head of the ink jet printer for permitting the deposition of ink through the opening. The assembly further includes a pivot mount operative to pivot the shield about a rotational axis which is substantially parallel to the feed path of the print media and orthogonal to the motion of the print head. Moreover, the assembly includes a means for pivoting the shield about the rotational axis in a first and second direction thereby causing one of the contact surfaces to engage the print media upstream of the print head when depositing ink on the print media.

Shield assembly for ink jet printing

A mounting arrangement and/or stand for supporting a print feed mechanism relative to a printer. The mounting arrangement includes first and second support members defining first and second mating surfaces, respectively. The first support member is adapted to support the print feed mechanism and the second support member is adapted to support the first support member. Furthermore, the first and second mating surfaces define a mating interface or plane which is inclined relative to a horizontal plane. The relative position of the first and second support members is maintained by a means for coupling the first and second segments along the inclined mating plane. The coupling means is, furthermore, operative to selectively position the first support member relative to the second support member so as to separate the print feed mechanism segment from the printer by a fixed separation distance. The selected separation distance accommodates print media which varies in length while the inclined mating plane maintains the inclination angle of the print media at any selected separation distance.

Mounting arrangement and support stand for print feed mechanisms

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for stacking mailpieces received from a mail-processing machine in consecutive order. There is a receiving conveying section positioned at a greater height than the following stacking conveying section. A stacking ramp extends from the downstream portion of the stacking conveying section. The receiving conveying section has a single continuous belt extending along the receiving conveying section in a first direction and positioned centrally along a second direction of the conveying section. The continuous belts of the stacking conveying section are positioned substantially at equal intervals extending along the first direction of the stacking conveying section and have top surfaces which extend above the stacking conveying section and which contact the mailpieces received from the mail processing machine. Additionally, included are means for driving the continuous belt at a first speed on the receiving conveying section in the first direction and for driving the belt at a second speed on the stacking conveying section in the same direction, the second speed of the plurality of belts is slower than the first speed of the continuous belt on the receiving conveying section. There is also a hold down means which positions and guides the mailpieces, positioned at the downstream portion of the receiving conveying section comprising normal force rollers that contact the receiving conveying belt to align the mailpieces at the receiving conveying section and guide the mailpieces onto the stacking conveying belt.

Method and apparatus for stacking mailpieces in consecutive order

A method and an apparatus for controlling the traveling direction of a piece of folded material in the feed path of a folding machine. A first roller nip is used to ingest the folded material into the front end of a turn chute. If the traveling direction is to be maintained, the folded material is allowed to move out through the rear end of the turn chute. If the traveling direction is to be reversed, a stop is used to block the rear end in order to keep the leading edge of the ingested folded material from leaving the turn chute through the rear end. At the same time, the trailing edge of the ingested folded material is caused to engage in a second roller nip located in the front end of the turn chute, in order for the second roller nip to move the folded material out of the turn chute, thereby reversing the traveling direction of the folded material.

Method and system for directing an item through the feed path of a folding apparatus

A media feed system with a self-contained propulsion system is provided. A singulator is used to feed a single media piece and a sensor determined when to disengage propulsion.

Method and system for feeding media to a printer

A method and system for printing specific print zones of a substrate is described. A bundled shuttle print head assembly is utilized to print desired print zones of a substrate in a single pass while the substrate is stationary in a stopped position.

Method and system for printing specific print zones using a bundled print head shuttle assembly

A method and device for reducing the maximum torque to rollers mounted on a drive shaft of a drive roller assembly. By using a plurality of slip clutches, each for engaging an individual roller to the drive shaft and setting a maximum torque for the individual rollers, each roller is coupled to the drive shaft when the tangential force exerted on the roller does not exceed the maximum torque, and each roller is mechanically decoupled from the drive shaft when the tangential force exerted on the roller exceeds the maximum torque. Because each roller has a separate slip clutch, each roller can be mechanically decoupled from the drive shaft without affecting the other rollers coupled to the drive shaft.

Method and apparatus for limiting torque in a feeder

A method and apparatus for tabbing a piece of folded material with one or more tape feeders mounted on the apparatus. The tape feeder includes a roll of tape, a transporting mechanism for advancing the tape in order to release a fixed length section of the tape, wherein the released section partially extends below the traveling path of the folded material with the adhesive side facing the leading edge of the folded material, a V-shaped knife positioned above the traveling path and downstream from the released tape section, wherein the apparatus further comprises a moving mechanism to move the folded material further downstream so as to cause the released section of tape to contact and fold over the leading edge of the folded material. As the folded material moves further downstream, the released section of tape is separated by the V-shaped knife to form a tab. A pair of sealer rollers located further downstream are used to firmly press the tab across the leading edge of the folded material.

Method and system for tabbing folded material

A method and system for producing a self-mailer using a folding apparatus for folding sheets into folded materials and a tabbing apparatus for sealing the folded materials with tabs in a continuous flow. Typically a folded material exits the folded apparatus with the open end of the folded material leading and this traveling direction of the folded material is not suitable for tabbing. A path directing apparatus is placed between the folding apparatus and the tabbing apparatus so as to cause the folded material to enter the tabbing apparatus with the open end of the folded material leading. As such, the entire process can be carried out without manually reversing the traveling direction of the folded material. In addition, a printer and a labeling device can be added to the self-mailer producing system to put on an address label, a postage indicia and a return address while keeping the process steps in a continuous flow.

Growing community of inventors

Southbury, CT, United States of America

Richard A Sloan, Jr