Reduce inlay pitch singulation

• US 9,760,749 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2015
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avery Dennison Retail Information Services LLC (Avery Dennison Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Avery Dennison Retail Information Services LLC (Avery Dennison Corporation)
• Inventors: Duckett, Jeanne F., Wirrig, Richard D., Neuhard, Lance D., Wimmers, David J., Williams, Larri B., Makley, James A., Watson, Jan M., Evans, Andrew R.
• Primary Examiner(s): BLOUIN, MARK S
• Application Number:
  US14/881,740
• Publication Number:
  US 20160188921A1
• Time in Patent Office: 700 Days
• Field of Search: 340 1051
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2003/066 using ink jet
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 15/00 Devices or arrangements of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, specially adapted for supporting or handling copy material in continuous form, e.g. webs
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/335 Structure of thermal heads
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/36 Print density control
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 29/13 Cases or covers
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/4075 Tape printers; Label printers
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/50 Mechanisms producing characters by printing and also producing a record by other means , e.g. printer combined with RFID writer
• CPC Class Codes: B41M 5/0052 by thermal printing
• CPC Class Codes: B41M 5/0094 by thermal printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 1/00 Methods or arrangements for marking the record carrier in digital fashion
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 1/20 Simultaneous marking of record carrier and printing-out of data, e.g. printing-punch
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0025 the arrangement consisting of a wireless interrogation device in combination with a device for optically marking the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0723 the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0725 the arrangement being a circuit for emulating a plurality of record carriers, e.g. a single RFID tag capable of representing itself to a reader as a cloud of RFID tags
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 5/00 Methods or arrangements for verifying the correctness of markings on a record carrier; Column detection devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/00 Methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers, e.g. for reading patterns methods or arrangements for marking the record carrier in digital fashion G06K1/00; pattern recognition G06F18/00; arrangements for image or video recognition or understanding G06V10/00; character recognition, recognising digital ink or document-oriented image-based pattern recognition G06V30/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10198 setting parameters for the interrogator, e.g. programming parameters and operating modes
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10227 loading programming parameters or programs into the interrogator, e.g. for configuring the interrogator
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10316 using at least one antenna particularly designed for interrogating the wireless record carriers antennas in general H01Q1/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10366 the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications

Abstract

A high speed tabletop and industrial printer is disclosed with integrated high speed RFID encoding and verification at the same time. The industrial printer simultaneously prints on and electronically encodes/verifies RFID labels, tags, and/or stickers attached to a continuous web. The industrial printer comprises a lighted sensor array for indexing the printing to the RFID tags; and a cutter powered from the industrial printer for cutting the web that the RFID tags are disposed on. The industrial printer comprises two RFID reader/writers that are individually controlled. Specifically, one of the RFID reader/writers comprises the ability to electronically encode the RFID tags while the web is moving; and the second RFID reader/writer uses an additional RFID module and antenna on the printer for verifying the data encoded to the RFID tags. Further, the printer utilizes adaptive RFID power settings to prevent misreads and other errors when encoding tags.

Claims

1. A process for adapting RFID power settings in a thermal printer, comprising the steps of:

utilizing a sufficiently low RF power level to create an RF field small enough in strength so that a single RFID transponder is acted upon;

reading and saving a serialized tag identification (TID) field for the single RFID transponder;

increasing the RF power level;

encoding data on the single RFID transponder and the encoded data includes the serialized TID field;

reducing the RF power level back down to the selected read RF power level; and

reading and comparing the encoded data with data originally sent in a write command to confirm if the encoded data is accurately encoded.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the sufficiently low RF power level creates an RF field small enough that only a RFID transponder positioned immediately over an antenna of the thermal printer would be read.

3. The process of claim 2, wherein the RF power level is increased to a level that is sufficient to encode the RFID transponder.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein including the serialized TID field in the encoded data, allows the printer to singulate on the RFID transponder that contains the serialized TID field and ignore any adjacent RFID transponders in the RF field.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein an adaptive algorithm is used to allow for variation in RFID transponders within a supply roll without generation of an error.

6. The process of claim 5, further comprising utilizing the adaptive algorithm to start the printer at a RF power level low enough not to detect a RFID transponder.

7. The process of claim 6, further comprising incrementing the RF power level up in steps until a RFID transponder is detected.

8. The process of claim 7, wherein for next RFID transponder, previous detection point is used as a starting point.

9. The process of claim 8, wherein if more than one RFID transponder is detected at this detection point, then the RF power level will be reduced until only one RFID transponder is detected.

10. The process of claim 8, wherein if no RFID transponders are detected at this detection point, then the RF power level is increased until a RFID transponder is detected.

11. The process of claim 10, wherein for next RFID transponder, this detection point is used as the starting point.

12. A process for utilizing an adaptive algorithm to allow for variations in RFID transponders within a supply roll of a thermal printer without generation of an error, comprising the steps of:

starting the thermal printer at a RF power level low enough not to detect a RFID transponder;

incrementing the RF power level up in steps until a RFID transponder is detected;

reading and saving a serialized tag identification (TID) field for the detected RFID transponder;

increasing the RF power level;

encoding data on the detected RFID transponder;

reducing the RF power level back down to the selected read RF power level;

reading and comparing the encoded data with data originally sent in a write command to confirm if the encoded data is accurately encoded; and

utilizing previous detection point as a starting point for next RFID transponder and if more than one RFID transponder is detected at the previous detection point, then the RF power level will be reduced until only one RFID transponder is detected.

13. The process of claim 12, wherein if no RFID transponders are detected at the previous detection point, then the RF power level is increased until a RFID transponder is detected.

14. The process of claim 13, wherein for next RFID transponder this increased detection point is used as the starting point.

15. A process for utilizing an adaptive algorithm to allow for variations in RFID transponders within a supply roll of a thermal printer without generation of an error, comprising the steps of:

starting the thermal printer at a RF power level low enough not to detect a RFID transponder;

incrementing the RF power level up in steps until a RFID transponder is detected;

reading and saving a serialized tag identification (TID) field for the detected RFID transponder;

increasing the RF power level;

encoding data on the detected RFID transponder;

including the serialized TID field in the encoded data;

reducing the RF power level back down to the selected read RF power level;

reading and comparing the encoded data with data originally sent in a write command to confirm if the encoded data is accurately encoded; and

utilizing previous detection point as a starting point for next RFID transponder and if no RFID transponders are detected at the previous detection point, then the RF power level is increased until a RFID transponder is detected.

16. The process of claim 15, wherein including the serialized TID field in the encoded data, allows the printer to singulate on the RFID transponder that contains the serialized TID field and ignore any adjacent RFID transponders in the RF field.

17. The process of claim 15, wherein if more than one RFID transponder is detected at the previous detection point, then the RF power level will be reduced until only one RFID transponder is detected.