Patent EP0622757A2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0622757A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Printing apparatus
Assignee: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
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Filing: 1994-04-27
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2014-04-27
Abstract
Abstract The invention relates to a printing apparatus (10) comprising a printing track (20A) defining a print receiving surface and a printing carriage (21) arranged to travel along the printing track. The carriage includes printing heads (22) arranged to receive data from a central database (26) for printing on the printing surface at predetermined positions along the printing track, and a roller arrangement (46, 48) for driving the carriage along the printing track. An optical position encoder (52) is provided for monitoring the movement of the carriage as it travels along the printing track. A data transmission link (28) is provided for interfacing the central database to the carriage. The central database includes both positional data for controlling the position of the printing heads and pricing data. The printing track has mounting clips (188) for mounting it on a shelf edge, and the printing heads are arranged to label items of stock (18A) on the shelf (12). The invention extends to the printing track (20), the printing carriage (21), a shelf labelling system, as well as to a method of labelling a row of items of stock (18A, 18B, 18C).
Inventors
- 👤 Michael John Camille Marsh
- 👤 Franz Peschl
- 👤 Trevor Meredith Hodson
- 👤 Tricia Dorothea Ritter
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-10 01:12
CPC Classifications
B; B41; B41J; B41J3/00; B41J3/407; B41J3/4073; A; A47; A47F; A47F10/00; A47F10/02; G; G06; G06K; G06K15/00; G06K2215/00; G06K2215/0082
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 33
Claim 1
Independent Claim
117 words
A printing apparatus (10) characterised in that it comprises an elongate printing track (20) including a print receiving surface (36) being integral with and fixed relative to the printing track, guide means (38, 40) extending alongside the print receiving surface, a printing carriage (21) arranged to travel along the printing track on the guide means, monitoring means (52) for monitoring the movement of the carriage as it travels along the printing track, and control means (54) responsive to the monitoring means for controlling the operation of the carriage, the carriage including at least one printing head (22) arranged to receive data for printing directly on the print receiving surface (36) at predetermined positions along the printing track.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
92 words
A printing apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that it includes a central database (26) remote from the carriage (21), the carriage includes memory means (108), and data transmission means (28) are provided for allowing data to be downloaded from the central database to the memory means on the carriage, the central database including both positional data for controlling the position of the printing head (22) on the printing track and labelling data (58, 60, 62, 64) for printing labelling on the print receiving surface (36) of the printing track (20).
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
52 words
A printing apparatus according to either one of the preceding claims characterised in that the printing track (20, 236) includes mounting means (30, 188) for mounting the printing track on a shelf edge (12, 234), and the printing carriage is arranged to label items of stock (18A, 18B, 18C) on the shelf.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
31 words
A printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the printing track is formed integrally with a shelf (12), towards an overhanging edge (234) thereof.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
57 words
A printing apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims characterised in that it includes a fixed feed track (78, 80) arranged to provide mounting means for the carriage prior to printing on the printing track (72), the printing track being arranged to be mounted detachably adjacent and in axial alignment with the fixed feed track.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
38 words
A printing apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims characterised in that the carriage includes drive means (42, 44, 46) arranged to co-operate with the guide means (38) for driving the carriage along the printing track.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
28 words
A printing apparatus (10) according to any one of claims 1 to 5 characterised in that the carriage is arranged to be manually scanned along the printing track.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
53 words
A printing apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that the monitoring means (52) is synchronized with the control means (54) for controlling the operation of the printing head, the monitoring means being arranged to provide timing signals based on the movement of the printing head (22) on the print receiving surface (36).
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
65 words
A printing apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims characterised in that the monitoring means includes identification means located on the printing track, and a reader (158, 160) provided on the carriage for reading the identification means, the reader being arranged to interact with the identification means to control the downloading of data onto the printing track at predetermined positions on the track.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
51 words
A printing apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims characterised in that the guide means (38, 40) includes at least one rail formation (38, 40), and the carriage (21) includes at least one roller arrangement (46, 48) for co-operating with the rail formation for travelling along the printing track.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
55 words
A printing apparatus according to claim 10 characterised in that the guide means includes a pair of opposed rail formations (38, 40) flanking the print receiving surface, and the roller arrangement includes at least one pair of rollers (46, 48) arranged to travel along and to be held in captive engagement with the rail formations.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
45 words
A printing apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims characterised in that the control means (54) includes a central processing unit (102), static memory means (170, 172) for storing relatively static data, and volatile memory means (108, 176) for storing relatively dynamic data.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
30 words
A printing apparatus according to claim 12 characterised in that the static data includes icon-related data providing icons or images of stock (58), and/or font-related data (62), and/or translation data.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
41 words
A printing apparatus according to either one of the preceding claims characterised in that the dynamic data comprises shelf description data including positional data (56) for controlling the position of stock labels and pricing data (60) reflecting updated prices of stock.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
67 words
A printing apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims characterised in that the monitoring means includes an optical position encoder (122, 278) arranged to be coupled to a roller arrangement (272) carried on the carriage, logic circuitry (124) responsive to the optical position encoder, and a printer driver (114) controlled by the logic circuitry, the printer driver being arranged to drive the printing head (116).
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
30 words
A printing apparatus according to claim 4 characterised in that the central database (26) includes identification data for identifying which printing track on a particular shelf or gondola requires printing.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
46 words
A printing apparatus according to claim 9 characterised in that the identification means is located on at least one end of the printing track, the identification means being arranged to identify a particular printing track to ensure that the correct data is printed on the track.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
76 words
An elongate printing track assembly characterised in that it comprises a print receiving surface (36) being integral with and fixed relative to a printing track (20), guide means (38, 40) extending alongside the print receiving surface for accommodating a printing carriage (21), the printing surface being arranged to receive print directly from a printing head (22) extending from the carriage, and being formed from a material upon which a printing ink is receivable, curable and erasable.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
36 words
A printing track assembly according to claim 18 characterised in that the guide means comprises a pair of opposed rail formations (38, 40) flanking the print receiving surface (36), which is located between the rail formations.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
32 words
A printing track assembly according to either one of the preceding claims characterised in that it includes mounting means (30, 188) for mounting the track along the length of a shelf edge.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
24 words
A printing track assembly according to either one of claims 18 or 19 characterised in that it is formed integrally with a shelf edge.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
84 words
A printing track assembly according to claim 20 characterised in that the mounting means (188) includes a plurality of clips (190, 192) for mounting the printing track detachably to the shelf edge (234), and complemental clip-engaging formations (246, 251) carried on the printing track, each clip comprising a clamping bracket (194) for clamping the clip detachably to a shelf edge (234), and a pair of jaws (190, 192) extending from the clamping bracket and arranged to engage the clip-engaging formations in a snap fit.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
37 words
A printing track assembly according to claim 22 characterised in that each clip comprises height adjustment means (200, 202, 222, 226, 228) for adjusting the height of the printing track (236) relative to the shelf edge (234).
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
39 words
A printing track assembly according to any one of claims 18 to 23 characterised in that the material from which the printing surface is formed is chosen from a group including Melamine ®, PVC or an acrylic plastics material.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
31 words
A printing track assembly according to any one of claims 18 to 24 characterised in that the printing ink is chosen from a group including water- or solvent-based resin bonding agents.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
128 words
A printing carriage (210, 254) characterised in that it is arranged to travel along a plurality of separate elongate printing tracks (20A, 20B, 20C), each printing track defining a print receiving surface (36) integral with and fixed relative to the track, the carriage including roller means (46, 48) for travelling along guide means (38, 40) on the printing track, monitoring means (52) for monitoring movement of the carriage as it travels along the printing track, control means (54) responsive to the monitoring means for controlling the operation of the carriage, memory means (134) and at least one printing head (22) arranged to receive data at the memory means via data transmission means (28, 106) for printing directly on the printing surface at predetermined positions along the printing track.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
39 words
A printing carriage according to claim 26 charcterised in that it includes drive means (42, 44, 46) for driving the carriage along the printing track via interaction of the roller means (46, 48) and the guide means (38, 40).
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
112 words
A shelf labelling system for identifying and pricing items of stock on shelves characterised in that the labelling system comprises a plurality of printing tracks (20A, 20B, 20C) extending along the lengths of the shelves and including print receiving surfaces (36) on each track, at least one printing carriage (21) being arranged to travel along the printing tracks and having a printing head (22), a central database (26), and data transmission means (28) for allowing the central database to download at least stock pricing data (60) to the carriage, the printing head being arranged to receive the data for printing on the print receiving surfaces at predetermined positions along the printing tracks.
Claim 29
Independent Claim
93 words
A method of labelling a row of items characterised in that it comprises the steps of: a) providing labelling data (58, 60, 62, 64) relating to the items; b) locating a printing carriage (21) at a predetermined position on a first continuous printing track (20A) extending alongside a first row of items; c) transferring the data to the printing carriage (21); and d) printing the data on a printing surface (36) of the printing track at positions determined by the location of the items as the printing carriage moves along the printing track.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
36 words
A method according to claim 29 characterised in that it includes the initial steps of entering, at a remote database (26), updated data relating to the items, and transferring the updated data to the printing carriage.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
54 words
A method according to either one of the preceding claims characterised in that it includes the steps of removing the printing carriage from the first printing track (20A), locating the printing carriage on a second printing track (20B) extending alongside a second row of items, and repeating steps c) and d) of claim 29.
Claim 32
Independent Claim
40 words
A method according to any one of claims 29 to 31 characterised in that it includes the steps of identifying the row of items (18A, 18B, 18C) to be labelled, and confirming that the labelling data corresponds to that row.
Claim 33
Independent Claim
30 words
A method according to any one of claims 29 to 32 characterised in that the labelling data includes pricing data (60), positional data (56), and item identification data (62, 64).
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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