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Thermal printing apparatus

  • US 6,019,526 A
  • Filed: 01/30/1997
  • Issued: 02/01/2000
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/31/1996
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. Printing apparatus for printing on a print receiving surface of an item during feeding of the item in a feed direction, said item being of nonuniform thickness in a direction transverse to the feed direction, said apparatus comprising a print head including printing means extending along a line;

  • means providing a layer of ink for transfer by the printing means to a surface of the print receiving item; and

    feed and impression means operable to feed the item past the printing means in the feed direction;

    said line of printing means extending transversely to said feed direction and while feeding the item to press the item toward the printing means into ink transfer engagement with said layer of ink;

    said feed and impression means including a plurality of freely rotatable impression rollers having axes extending transversely to the feed direction and engageable tangentially with the item in opposition to the printing means, said impression rollers each being independently and resiliently mounted to accommodate the non-uniform thickness of the item transversely of the feed direction;

    a driven feed roller engageable with said item downstream of and adjacent said plurality of impression rollers;

    said feed and impression means having an inoperative retracted position in which both the feed roller and the plurality of impression rollers are spaced from the printing means to permit free passage of a print receiving item past the feed roller and between the printing means and the plurality of impression rollers and an operative position in which the plurality of impression rollers press the surface of the item into ink transfer engagement with the ink layer and the feed roller engages the print receiving item to feed the item past the printing means;

    means operable to move said feed and impression means from said inoperative position to said operative position in a printing operation when the print receiving item is located between the printing means and the plurality of impression rollers to receive a printed impression thereon.

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