Francotyp-postalia Ag & Co.

Francotyp-postalia Gmbh

Francotyp-postalia Ag & Co. Kg

Francotyp Gesellschaft Mbh

Wolfgang Von Inten

Frank Geserich

Wolfgang Muhl

Heinz Rehberg

Dieter Wolm

Wolfgang Thiel

Stephan Gunther

Ralf Kubatzki

Uwe Hübler

Matthias Lorenzen

Horst Denzin

Norbert Knoth

Michael Schmidt-Kretschmer

Claus Freytag

Wilfried Kopanski

Ralf M&uuml;ller

Dietrich M&uuml;ller

Thomas Epping

Wolf-Alexander Krumholz

Dietrich Muller

Hasbi Kabacaoglu

Horst Pach

Peter Rogge

Hubert Schewczyk

Kurt Gotz

Christian Bartenwerfer

Michael Wolf

Reinhard Redecker

Helmuth Didsun

A device cleans an inkjet printhead in a franking and/or addressing machine. The inkjet printhead is disposed in a stationary manner such that it can be pivoted in a printing window of a guide plate for the print carrier. A cleaning and sealing device is disposed behind the guide plate such that it can be displaced toward and away from the inkjet printhead. This improves the print quality, prolongs service life, and provides a high throughput rate. Spraying clear is possible both during the print carrier transport and in a rest position without the letter run being soiled. The cleaning and sealing device is disposed underneath the inkjet printhead to be displaced by an associated displacement device. A matched baffle piece is disposed underneath the inkjet printhead such that it can pivot and is coupled to the latter.

Device for cleaning an inkjet printhead

A device for printing a print carrier in the printing region makes use, in a force transmission region, of a driven transport drum and non-driven back-pressure rollers or, alternatively, of a non-driven back-pressure conveyor belt. A stationary ink-jet printing head prints, in the printing region, the print carrier that is moved downstream, the ink-jet printing head being disposed axially relative to the transport drum. The printing region amounts preferably to about 1 inch and is at a distance from the force transmission region, the distance of the furthest pixel from the edge of the transport drum, being smaller than the radius of the circumference of the transport drum.

Device for printing a print carrier

A device for printing stock such as pieces of mail in postage meters and/or addressing machines. A guide plate, along which the stock slides, is inclined relative to the vertical and has a recessed region for an ink jet printing device with at least one print head. A conveyor advances the stock along the guide plate. The recessed region includes at least one cutout and a downstream region of the guide plate is so far recessed from a bearing surface for the stock that there is no contact with the latter in that location. That ensures sufficient penetration time for ink and prevents smearing of the printed image. The device improves the printing technology and simplifies transport of the piece of mail. The simple construction ensures precise feeding of the stock and a clean printed image.

Device for printing to stock in non-vertical orientation

A configuration for depositing media, particularly envelopes, transported in a franking and/or addressing machine standing on edge and butting against an inclined guide plate. The configuration is disposed downstream of the franking machine and includes a single-piece insert laterally attached and releasably coupled to the franking machine and an angled depositing box. A depositing box front wall is laterally and slidably coupled to the insert through a slit. The insert has a channel to receive recording media travelling on edge from the franking machine. The channel has a nose at an upstream end and formed as a slanting plane sloping downward in the travelling direction and projecting beyond a side of the insert and into the franking machine guide plane, and a supporting plate at an upstream end and a rear region adapted to a guide plate inclination. The depositing box has three slopes having a wedge-shaped cross-section that is bent on one side and defining a depositing region. The channel adjoins a franking machine guide plane, runs horizontally and slightly obliquely rearward behind an abutment plane of a guide plate, and undercuts such that the depositing region extends beneath the channel. The rear side of the insert undercuts the channel. The configuration permits recording media to be deposited in a careful and functionally reliable manner.

Configuration for depositing recording media

A device for positioning an ink jet print head and a cleaning and sealing device may be used in a postage meter and/or addressing machine for print media guided along a printing window in a guide plate by a transport device. In order to improve printing quality, the print head stationarily disposed behind the guide plate and the printing window is adjustable out of a printing position to be set in a defined way, into a cleaning and/or a sealing position and back again, and a cleaning and sealing device adapted to the print head can be coupled to the print head in a positionally accurate and functionally appropriate manner. The print head is pivotably secured and the cleaning and sealing device is disposed behind the guide plate, but linearly adjustably toward and away from the print head. A common gear for adjustment of the print head and the cleaning and sealing device is driven by a motor running in only one direction of rotation. The print head, the cleaning and sealing device, the gear and the motor are combined into a compact structural group secured adjustably to the transport device.

Device for positioning an ink jet print head and a cleaning and sealing device

In a printer device and method for printing on a print medium with a print head and with a transport device for the print medium, wherein the print head is not moved during printing, a controller is connected to sensors and actuators of a displacement device and the transport device. The transport device and the displacement device are mechanically coupled to a displaceable transport device in the printer device that is controllable by the controller for at least one alternative printing position. The transport device transports the print medium downstream in the alternative printing position during printing. The print medium is transported downstream in the X-direction and orthogonally thereto in the Y-direction, the displaceable transport device is returned into a first printing position with reference to the Y-coordinate of a Cartesian coordinate system when all printing jobs have been processed.

Printer device and method for printing on a print medium

A configuration for printing striplike print carriers in a postage meter and/or addressing machine, includes contact-pressure elements secured to a revolving conveyor belt for transporting the print carriers upright and in contact with a guide plate having a printing window. The contact-pressure elements are movable resiliently toward and away from the guide plate and the print carriers are printed by an ink jet print head located behind the printing window. In order to expand a range of use, increase reliability and make it possible to selectively print not only letters but also postage strips or address labels, a strip magazine in an entrance region of the otherwise conventional print carriers, a guide part which is disposed in an insert and is initially concave and then convex in shape, and a spacer part in the printing window, which is adapted to a jet distribution, are disposed at the level of the printing window. The strips are therefore guided essentially centrally along the printing window and above the conveyor belt by the contact-pressure elements, to assure uniform utilization of a printing field of the strips and prevent information losses.

Configuration for printing striplike print carriers

A device for printing stock standing on edge, in particular a piece of mail in postage meters and/or addressing machines includes a guide plate along which the stock slides. The guide plate is inclined relative to the vertical and has a recessed region for a printing device. A rotating conveyor advances the stock along the guide plate. The printing device is an ink jet printing device with at least one ink jet print head. The recessed region includes at least one cutout and a downstream region of the guide plate is so far recessed from a bearing surface for the stock that there is no contact with the latter in that location. That ensures sufficient penetration time for ink and prevents smearing of the printed image. Pressure elements with a pressure plate are fastened to the conveyor. The pressure plate is moved against spring force toward and away from the guide plate and presses the stock against the same. A friction lining fastened to the pressure plate carries the stock. The elastic mounting of the pressure plate ensures continuous adaptation to varying thicknesses of the stock. The direct coupling of the pressure elements with the conveyor and the use of an ink jet print head enables continues transport and printing. The device improves the printing technology and simplifies transport of the piece of mail. The simple construction ensures precise feeding of the stock and a clean printed image.

Device for printing stock

A device for printing stock standing on one edge, in particular a piece of mail in a postage meter and/or addressing machine, includes a guide plate for the stock which is inclined relative to the vertical and has a recessed region for a printing device. A rotating conveyor has a conveying plane which extends orthogonal to the guide plate and on which the stock stands on one edge and is transported in one direction while resting against the guide plate. The recessed region includes at least one cutout and a region of the guide plate downstream of the cutout is so far recessed from a bearing surface for the stock that there is no contact with the latter in this location. This ensures sufficient penetration time for the ink and prevents smearing of the printed image. The printing device is an ink jet printing device which is stationary during printing and which has a nozzle plane that extends parallel to the guide plate. The guide plate is inclined a maximum of 45.degree. from vertical. The conveyor runs continuously. This structure simplifies transport of the piece of mail, improves the printing technology and ensures a clean printed image at high throughput.

Device for printing to stock standing on edge

A user interface for a postage meter machine has a number of menu images which are available for display on a single display unit, the menu images containing internally generated and externally entered information, the menu images containing fields in which the information is contained and displayed, these fields being spatially allocated to input elements of the input unit. The setting of the fields in the menu images is variable, i.e., the limits or boundaries of the individual fields can be varied from menu image to menu image, so that the field size can be flexibly matched to the information to be displayed.

User interface for a postage meter machine

The invention concerns a postage meter with an electrothermal printing device by means of which value indications and/or graphics are printed onto a postage item moved past it at a predetermined speed by the transfer of color particles in a graphic forming distribution from a carrier web (114), which carrier web is heated by means of a thermal print head in correspondence to the graphic forming distribution and is driven past the printing device, with a counterpressure element (116) standing oppositely to the thermal print head (110). As the counterpressure element a counterpressure roll (116) is provided which is movable in a direction perpendicular to the printing surface, which counterpressure roll is so yieldingly supported on a shaft arranged parallel to the printing ledge (112) of the thermal print head (110) that its contact face with the postage item can take on different angles to the printing ledge (112) in a plane containing the printing ledge (112) and the shaft (130).

Postage meter

An inking mechanism for postage meters and price stamping machines includes an ink transport roller, an intermediate roller and an inking roller being operatively connected to one another and having surfaces. The surface of the intermediate roller transfers ink from the ink transport roller to the inking roller and the surface of the inking roller is formed of porous material. An ink supply container in the form of a tank has a slit-like opening formed therein. Porous material substantially fills the tank as a storage medium for stamp ink. The porous material protrudes out of the slit-like opening in the tank and contacts the surface of the ink transport roller in the form of a squeegee.

Inking mechanism for postage meters and price stamping machines

Adjusting device for postage metering and value stamping machines for adjusting printing rollers and cylinders which includes type wheels mounted in a printing cylinder having a shaft, each of the type wheels having a respective stepping motor operatively associated therewith for adjusting the respective type wheel by means of a respective toothed rack and a respective double toothed rack, the toothed racks and the stepping motors being disposed radially to the printing-cylinder shaft and the double toothed racks being disposed parallel to one another, a selective printing roller adjustable by one of the double toothed racks via a belt drive, the toothed racks and the double toothed racks being coupled by a hook-connection, one of the respective toothed and double toothed racks having a widened hook-shaped part, the double toothed racks being adjustable beyond a maximally required number of steps of the type wheels, and the ends of the double toothed racks being guidable laterally out of the printing cylinder for actuating respective levers to adjust, in stepwise manner, further printing rollers.

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Berlin, Germany

Wolfgang Von Inten