Shelf mountable printing apparatus
First Claim
1. A printing apparatus comprising an elongate printing track including a print receiving surface being integral with and fixed relative to the printing track, guide means extending alongside the print receiving surface, a printing carriage arranged to travel along the printing track on the guide means, monitoring means for monitoring the movement of the carriage as it travels along the printing track, and control means responsive to the monitoring means for controlling the operation of the carriage, the carriage including at least one printing head arranged to receive data for printing directly on the print receiving surface at predetermined positions along the printing track, wherein the elongate printing track is arranged to be mounted on a shelf and the printing carriage is arranged to print data on said print receiving surface corresponding to a shelf item location.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to a printing apparatus comprising a printing track defining a print receiving surface and a printing carriage arranged to travel along the printing track. The carriage includes printing heads arranged to receive data from a central database for printing on the printing surface at predetermined positions along the printing track, and a roller arrangement for driving the carriage along the printing track. An optical position encoder is provided for monitoring the movement of the carriage as it travels along the printing track. A data transmission link 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 for mounting it on a shelf edge, and the printing heads are arranged to label items of stock on the shelf. The invention extends to the printing track, the printing carriage, a shelf labelling system, as well as to a method of labelling a row of items of stock.
58 Citations
30 Claims
- 1. A printing apparatus comprising an elongate printing track including a print receiving surface being integral with and fixed relative to the printing track, guide means extending alongside the print receiving surface, a printing carriage arranged to travel along the printing track on the guide means, monitoring means for monitoring the movement of the carriage as it travels along the printing track, and control means responsive to the monitoring means for controlling the operation of the carriage, the carriage including at least one printing head arranged to receive data for printing directly on the print receiving surface at predetermined positions along the printing track, wherein the elongate printing track is arranged to be mounted on a shelf and the printing carriage is arranged to print data on said print receiving surface corresponding to a shelf item location.
- 17. An elongate printing track assembly comprising a print receiving surface being integral with and fixed relative to a printing track, guide means extending alongside the print receiving surface for accommodating a printing carriage, the printing surface being arranged to receive print directly from a printing head extending from the carriage, and being formed from a material upon which a printing ink is receivable, curable and erasable, and the printing track assembly being arranged to be mounted on a shelf.
- 24. A printing carriage arranged to travel along a plurality of separate elongate printing tracks, each printing track being mounted on a shelf and defining a print receiving surface integral with and fixed relative to the track, the carriage including roller means for monitoring movement of the carriage as it travels along the printing track, control means responsive to the monitoring means for controlling the operation of the carriage, memory means and at least one printing head arranged to receive data at the memory means via data transmission means for printing directly on the printing surface at predetermined positions along the printing track.
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26. A shelf labelling system for identifying and pricing items of stock on shelves, the labelling system comprising a plurality of printing tracks extending along the lengths of the shelves and including print receiving surfaces on each track, at least one printing carriage being arranged to travel along the printing tracks and having a printing head, a central database, and data transmission means for allowing the central database to download at least stock pricing data 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.
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27. A method of labeling a row of items comprising the steps of:
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a) providing labeling data relating to the items; b) locating a printing carriage at a predetermined position on a first continuous printing track extending alongside a first row of items; c) transferring the data to the printing carriage; and d) printing the data on a printing surface of the printing track at positions corresponding to a location for said items in said row as the printing carriage moves along the printing track. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
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Specification