Hand-held labeler having improved web position sensing and print head control

Claim 1

A hand-held labeling machine comprising; a housing having a manually engageable handle, the housing having means for holding a label supply roll of a composite web having labels releaseably adhered to a backing strip, means for printing on a label at a printing position, means for peeling the printed label from the backing strip, label applying means disposed adjacent the peeling means, means for advancing the web to peel a printed label from the backing strip at the peeling means and advance the printed label into label applying relationship with the label applying means and to advance another label into the printing position, means for entering selected data to be printed, the printing means including a thermographic print head having a plurality of individually selectable print elements for printing on a thermographic label at a printing position, means coupled to said data entering means for electrically processing the selected data and energizing the individual print elements in a predetermined sequence determined by the selected data to print data on the label, further including indexing means operable by said advancing means and coupled to said processing means for providing signals representative of the position of a label relative to said printing position, said indexing means including a plurality of home position indices and a plurality of position indices disposed adjacent each home position index, said indices being disposed on a disc as light contrasting indices formed by aperture on said disc, said home position index being larger than said position indices.

Claim 21

A system for controlling the advancement of a web of sheet stock containing a plurality of labels disposed along the longitudinal dimension of said web, comprising: means for printing on a label at a printing position; means for advancing the web past the printing position; means for entering selected data to be printed; means coupled to said data entering means for electrically processing the selected data and energizing the printing means to print the selected data on the label; indexing means electrically coupled to said processing means for providing signals thereto representative of the position of a label relative to said printing position, said indexing means including a rotary indexing device having at least one home position index disposed thereon, a plurality of positioning indices disposed adjacent to said home position index and a warning track disposed adjacent said plurality of positioning indices, sensing means disposed in proximity to said indexing device for sensing the indices and the warning track, said indexing device being mechanically coupled to said advancing means to sequentially advance the home position index, the positioning indices and the warning track past the sensing means, said processing means being responsive to said positioning indices to cause the printing means to print the selected data at predetermined locations on the web, said processing means being further responsive to said warning track for causing the advancing means to terminate the feeding of said web in such a manner that a home position index is in alignment with the sensing means after the feeding of the web has terminated.

Claim 22

A system for controlling the advancement of a web of sheet stock containing a plurality of labels disposed along the longitudinal dimension of said web, comprising: means for printing on a label at a printing position; means for advancing the web past the printing position; means for entering selected data to be printed; means coupled to said data entering means for electrically processing the selected data and energizing the printing means to print the selected data on the label; indexing means electrically coupled to said processing means for providing signals thereto representative of the position of a label relative to said printing position, said indexing means including a rotary indexing device having at least one home position index disposed thereon, a plurality of positioning indices disposed adjacent to said home position index and a warning track disposed adjacent said plurality of positioning indices, sensing means disposed in proximity to said indexing device for sensing the indices and the warning track, said indexing device being mechanically coupled to said advancing means to sequentially advance the home position index, the positioning indices and the warning track past the sensing means, said processing means being responsive to said positioning indices to cause the printing means to print the selected data at predetermined locations on the web, said processing means being further responsive to said warning track for causing the advancing means to terminate the feeding of said web in such a manner that a home position index is in alignment with the sensing means after the feeding of the web has terminated.