System for marking and installing closures

Abstract

A bag closing system which includes; a closer with a closing roll, a pick, and a closure break-off mechanism that are driven by stepper motors under the control of a central processing unit, fault detectors for sensing operating faults, read only memory for storing the operating program and historical data, a display that indicates the system status, I/O drivers for providing bi-directional communications with a remote processing unit, memory for driving the display and programmed messages to be printed, and; a printer that has a stationary dot matrix impact print head that prints, using a cold-foil ribbon driven by a stepper motor, on closures moved past the print head, an out-of-foil detector and a closure sensor for preventing printing without a closure in front of the print head, and a printer head driver for determining which impact wires must be driven to print the message and for driving the determined wires.