Printing platen for hand labeler, or the like

Claim 1

A printing platen for use with a label printing machine, or the like, wherein said platen includes a surface thereof on which a strip of labels, or the like objects to be imprinted, is fed and wherein said platen surface is opposed to and is adapted to be moved against printing types supported by a printing head, or the like; said platen including a support frame; a plate shaped impression plate supported on said platen support frame; said impression plate having a surface thereof which is the said surface of said platen that is opposed to printing types; said impression plate having a plurality of projections projecting up from said impression plate surface; said impression plate projections being comprised of elastic and deformable material and being adapted to be depressed to varying extends upon being engaged by printing types and said projections are of such height and deformability that, when printing types are applied against the label strip and are pressed against said impression plate surface projections, the types of a printing head may elastically deform said projections to varying extents depending upon the extent of irregularities of the types, and the types may be imprinted upon labels with a uniform, averaged density, despite irregularities in the types or in the orientations of the types; said projections of said impression plate are in the form of a plurality of corrugations defined in said impression plate surface; said corrugations are oriented on said impression plate that each said corrugation extends parallel to the direction of advancing movement of the label strip over said impression plate; said corrugations are of such a width, are so sized and are so placed that at least two of said corrugations will be covered over in the width direction across said platen by each printing type when the type engages a label strip on said impression plate surface.