The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 10, 1996
Filed:
Sep. 22, 1994
Dirk Umbach, Hattingen, DE;
Esselte Meto International GmbH, Heppenheim, DE;
Abstract
A reusable ribbon cassette can be provided for a printer for printing on labels by using an ink transferred from the ribbon to the label material, wherein the ribbon cassette provides the ribbon for the printing. Such a re-usable cassette for a ribbon which is used up rapidly, in particular an ink ribbon in a thermal transfer printing process, has two parallel housing halves, one of which has vertically projecting pins onto which the other housing half can be pushed, and then maintained in position by friction. When the cassette is open, the tape, which is conventionally wound on a tape core, can be pushed onto the cores or core pairs of the cassette, and thereby become simultaneously non-rotationally connected to the cores. The connecting pins for the two housing halves advantageously simultaneously form deflector elements for the tape. The deflector pins are also detachable, so that the pins can be replaced by shorter or longer ones, thereby making it possible to use a narrower or wider tape for the cassette. The cores, or at least one core per core pair, can be coupled to the corresponding shaft by means of internal and external teeth, whereby one of the shafts is a drive shaft.