EP0280877B1 - Hand-held labeller - Google Patents

Abstract

A hand labeling device is described with the aid of which in the course of an operating cycle self-adhering labels can be imprinted, dispensed and attached to articles. The operating cycle is controlled by means of an operating lever (26) pivotal out of a rest position into a pulled or squeezed position. In a device housing a printing mechanism (34) is arranged which comprises print types for producing an imprint on a self-adhering label disposed in a printing position. By a transport means (22) the self-adhering labels can be brought consecutively into the printing position and into the position for attachment to the articles. An inking device serves for inking the print types of the printing mechanism (34) before each printing operation; said device comprises an inking roll (46) which is held by a stirrup (51) pivotally mounted in the device housing and which on pivoting of the stirrup member (51) rolls on the print types of the printing mechanism (34). For producing a pivot movement about an axis (50) the stirrup member (51) is in drive connection with a rod (66), the displacement of which is controlled by the operating lever (26).

Description

The invention relates to a hand-held labeling device according to the preamble of patent claim 1.

Such a hand labeling device is known from FR-A-2 327 148. In this known device, the axis of the paint roller is displaceable in guideways in the inner walls of the device housing, the guideways running in such a way that the paint roller initially rolls on the print types of the print heads at the start of an actuation cycle of the device, whereupon they then have such a course, that the ink roller is removed from the path of movement of the print heads as they lower onto the label to be printed. The bracket carrying the paint roller is coupled to the operating lever via lever and articulated connections, so that the ink roller movement is always determined by the movement of the operating lever and the course of the guideways. With this type of movement control of the paint roller In practice, a perfect and uniform coloring of the printing types can only be achieved if close tolerances of the components controlling the movement of the ink roller are observed. If the articulated connections, the guideways or the stub shaft protruding from the ink roller wear out, the ink roller surface no longer rolls evenly on all printing types, so that there is consequently also an uneven coloring with a resulting uneven printing on the label. A uniform inking of the print types could be achieved regardless of existing tolerances if the shift of the ink roller were caused solely by the lowering of the print heads. However, this is not possible with the known device, since the ink roller has to travel a relatively long displacement path, given by the guideways, perpendicular to the lowering direction of the print heads because of the need to ink three print heads. The lowering printheads, however, cannot transmit any driving force to the ink roller that could cause the ink roller to be displaced. So that this long displacement path of the ink roller perpendicular to the lowering movement of the print heads is possible at all, even though the bracket carrying the ink roller is supported at one end around a pivot point, the end of the bracket that supports the ink roller is fork-shaped, the stub axles projecting at the ends of the ink roller are attached in this fork-shaped end so that the distance of the paint roller axis from the pivot point of the bracket carrying the paint roller can increase with progressive displacement of the paint roller. This type of storage of the ink roller is also detrimental to the desired uniform coloring of the printing types. The free rolling of the ink roller on the print types of all three printheads would only be possible with the known device if the pivot point of the bracket carrying the ink roller would lie outside the path of movement of the ink heads during their lowering movement and if the guideways for the ink roller were designed in the form of a circular arc. However, such a configuration has the major disadvantage that the device would have to be designed to be very protruding at the front end in order to enable the ink roller to release the path of the print heads when they were lowered onto the label to be printed. Such a protruding configuration of the front part of the device is undesirable for the operator, since in this case the operator cannot see exactly where to put the label on an object to be labeled.

The invention has for its object to design a hand-held labeling device of the type described so that a compact design can be achieved without protruding front section and is always guaranteed that the ink roller rolls safely and evenly on the printing types during the entire inking phase.

In a device of the type specified, this object is achieved with the features specified in the characterizing part of patent claim 1. In the device according to the invention, the swivel axis of the bracket can be attached very close to the path of movement of the printing unit, since it is always ensured that a driving force acts on the bracket carrying the ink roller, which in the initial phase of inking by the lowering movement of the multi-line printing unit and then to avoid it a blocking position is caused off the shelf.

The rod is advantageously attached to an inner surface of a side wall of the housing in a linearly displaceable manner.

Fig. 1

eine schematische Darstellung eines Handetikettiergeräts nach der Erfindung, wobei sich die im Verlauf eines Betätigungszyklus bewegenden Teile in der Ruhestellung befinden,

Fig. 2

eine Ansicht des Geräts von Figur 1 nach Beginn eines Betätigungszyklus, wenn das Druckwerk begonnen hat, sich in Richtung zu einem zu bedruckenden Etikett zu bewegen.

Fig. 3

eine weitere Ansicht des Geräts von Figur 1 im Zeitpunkt des Auftreffens des Druckwerks auf einem zu bedruckenden Etikett,

Fig. 4

eine ähnliche Ansicht wie in Figur 3, wobei jedoch die Frontklappe des Geräts geöffnet ist,

Fig. 5

eine vergrößerte Ansicht eines Schwenkbügels, der im Gerät den Farbrollenhalter trägt,

Fig. 6

einen Ansicht des Schwenkbügels von der in Figur 5 mit einem Pfeil gekennzeichneten Seite her,

Fig. 7

eine Ansicht des Farbrollenhalters mit eingesetzter Farbrolle und

Fig. 8

eine Seitenansicht des Farbrollenhalters von der in Figur 7 mit einem Pfeil gekennzeichneten Seite her.

The invention will now be explained by way of example with reference to the drawing. Show it:

Fig. 1

1 shows a schematic illustration of a hand-held labeling device according to the invention, the parts moving in the course of an actuation cycle being in the rest position,

Fig. 2

a view of the device of Figure 1 after the start of an actuation cycle when the printing unit has started to move towards a label to be printed.

Fig. 3

1 shows another view of the device of FIG. 1 at the time the printing unit hits a label to be printed,

Fig. 4

3 shows a view similar to that in FIG. 3, but with the front flap of the device open,

Fig. 5

an enlarged view of a swivel bracket that carries the paint roller holder in the device,

Fig. 6

5 shows a view of the swivel bracket from the side marked with an arrow in FIG. 5,

Fig. 7

a view of the paint roller holder with inserted paint roller and

Fig. 8

a side view of the paint roller holder from the side marked with an arrow in Figure 7.

The hand-held labeling device shown in FIG. 1 is used to print, output and attach self-adhesive labels to articles of goods. The device contains a housing 10 to which a handle 12 is attached. On the top of the housing there is a holder 14 for receiving a supply roll 16 of a carrier tape 18 on which self-adhesive labels adhere. The carrier tape 18 runs in the device from the supply roll 16 first downward and then towards the front of the device to a dispensing edge 20, at which the carrier tape 18 is deflected at an acute angle and is guided to the rear end of the housing by a transport device 22. In front of the dispensing edge 20, a pressure roller 24 is rotatably mounted in the housing, with which a label detached from the carrier tape 18 and located below the pressure roller in the dispensing position can be glued to an article of goods.

An operating lever 26 is mounted beneath the handle 12 and is mounted rotatably about an axis 28. Between the handle 12 and the operating lever 26 there is a spring 30 which always moves the operating lever into the Figure 1 shown trying to press rest position. In the housing 10 there is also a printing unit support 32, which is also rotatably mounted about the axis 28. This printing unit carrier 32 carries a printing unit 34, by means of which a self-adhesive label located on a printing table 36 can be printed. A spring 40 is attached between an arm 38 of the operating lever 26 and the printing unit carrier 32 and serves to transmit a movement of the operating lever 26 directed against the handle 12 to the printing unit carrier 32. In the rest position shown in FIG. 1, the printing unit carrier 32 is held in the raised position by a contact surface 42 on the operating lever 26.

The printing unit 34 has printing types 44 on its surface facing the printing table 36, which can be inked before each printing operation by means of a coloring device. As the most important component, the inking device contains a paint roller 46 which is rotatably mounted in a paint roller holder 48. Details of the paint roller holder 48 are subsequently explained in more detail with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. The paint roller holder 48 in turn is seated in a bracket 51 which can be pivoted about an axis 50, the structure of which is explained in connection with FIGS. 5 and 6.

Two guide pins 52 are attached to the paint roller holder 48 and are guided in a guide track 54. The guideway recognizable in FIG. 1 is located in the inner surface of the rear side wall of the housing 10, as seen from the viewer. A similar guideway 54 is located in the front side wall of the housing 10, not shown in FIG. 1. Accordingly, the ink roller holder 48 also has two guide pins 52 , one of which engages in one of the two guideways 54.

At the front of the housing 10 there is a front flap 56 which can be pivoted forward about an axis 58 into the opened position shown in FIG. 4. The axis 58 is also the axis on which the pressure roller 24 is mounted. The front flap 56 is provided with an extension 60 directed towards the interior of the housing, the end face 62 of which forms part of the guide track 54. As can be seen from a comparison of FIGS. 1 and 4, the guideway 54 has an outlet opening 64 towards the front of the device, which opening 60 closes in the closed position of the front flap 56. The purpose of this outlet opening 64 will then become apparent from the description of the mode of operation of the device described.

A push rod 66 is attached between the operating lever 26 and the swivel bracket 51 and is biased by means of a spring 68 in the direction of a pin 70 on the operating lever 26. The rest position, into which the push rod 66 is biased by the spring 68, is shown in FIG. 1. The push rod 66 is designed as a toothed rack at the end lying in the region of the bracket 51. The bracket 51 has a pinion 72 which is in engagement with the teeth of the rack end of the push rod 66. From the illustration of Figure 1 it can be seen that the bracket 51 is pivoted clockwise about the axis 50 from the rest position shown when the push rod 66 moves to the left.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show the bracket 51 carrying the paint roller holder 48 in more detail. The bracket 51 has two arms 74, 76 which are connected to one another by a web 78. On the inside, the arms 74, 76 have two pins 80, 82 in the area of the web 78, which pins serve to mount the ink roller holder 48. At the ends lying at the top in FIG. 5 there are bearing bushes 84, 86 on the arms 74, 76, by means of which the bracket 51 can be rotatably supported on pins which are in the inner surfaces the housing side walls are attached. The teeth forming the pinion 72 are attached to a part of the outer peripheral surface of the bearing bush 84.

According to FIG. 7, the guide pins 52, 53 are attached to the paint roller holder 48 in such a way that they project laterally on arms 88 and 90, respectively. The arms 88, 90 are connected by means of a web 92. The ink roller 46 is held between the arms 88, 90 of the ink roller holder 48; it has two journals 94, 96, which are shown in broken lines in FIG. 7 and each engage in a corresponding hole 98 in the associated arm 88, 90 of the paint roller holder 48.

On the outer surface of the arms 88, 90 there are recesses 100 and 102 in the area of their lower ends in FIG.

An actuation cycle of the hand labeling device described above in its construction proceeds as follows:
If the operating lever 26 is pulled against the action of the spring 30 in the direction of the handle 12 starting from the rest position shown in FIG. 1, the movement of the operating lever 26 counterclockwise about the axis 28 is carried out by means of the arm 38 and the spring 40 Transfer printing unit carrier 32. The printing unit carrier 32 therefore also rotates counterclockwise about the axis 28 and in the process lowers the printing unit 34 in the direction toward the printing table 36. Via a lever connection, not shown, the transport device 22 is displaced to the left along the carrier belt 18 in the view of FIG. 1 due to the movement of the printing unit carrier 32.

How the transport device 22 is constructed in detail is not important here; it should only cause that in the course of each actuation cycle of the device, the carrier tape is pulled exactly around the dispensing edge 20 by a transport step corresponding to a label width, so that a self-adhesive label on the printing table 36 comes into a printing position with each actuation cycle. A transport device that can be used for this purpose is described for example in DE-PS 32 00 977.

Due to the lowering movement of the printing unit 34 connected to the printing unit carrier 32, the printing unit 34 exerts a torque on the bracket 51, which swivels the bracket 51 in a clockwise direction. In the course of this pivoting movement of the bracket 51, the ink roller 46 rolls on the printing types 44 so that they are colored. At the same time, the guide pins 52 and 53 in the guide track 54 move towards the front of the device. As soon as the bracket 51 has reached a position in which the direction of movement of the printing unit 34 is exactly tangential to the connecting line between the axis 50 of the bracket 51 and the axis of the ink roller 46, the printing unit 34 can no longer exert any torque on the bracket 51. Without additional measures being taken, a blocking state would occur and the bracket 51 would prevent the printing unit 34 from reaching the label to be printed on the printing table 36. The push rod 66 ensures, however, that the bracket 51 is pivoted further beyond the blocking position in a clockwise direction and thus clears the way for a further lowering of the printing unit. Until the blocking position was reached, the bracket 51, due to the engagement between the pinion 72 and the end of the push rod 66 designed as a toothed rack, moved the push rod 66 to the left in the illustration in FIG. 2 against the action of the spring 68. However, as soon as the blocking position is reached, the pin 70 attached to the upper end of the operating lever 26 comes into contact with the push rod 66, so that it moves it further to the left, which causes the pivoting of the Bracket 51 towards the front of the device. The position in which the push rod 66 begins to move the bracket 51 further is shown in FIG. 2. The swivel angle of the bracket 51 can be adapted to the respective requirements very simply by changing the diameter of the pinion 72.

Finally, the bracket with the ink roller holder attached to it is pivoted so far that the printing unit 34 can freely move downward in the direction of the label on the printing table 36. FIG. 3 shows the point in time of the actuation cycle at which the printing types hit the label on the printing table 36 and produce the desired impression. The guide pins 52, 53 are located at the end of the guide track 54.

At this time, the transport device 22 assumes its leftmost position according to FIG. 3. As soon as the operating lever 26 is released, the transport device 22 moves back to the right into its starting position shown in FIG. 1, but during this backward movement it is firmly connected to the carrier belt 18 so that it pulls it around the dispensing edge 20. During this movement of the carrier tape 18, the self-adhesive label just printed detaches from the carrier tape and comes to a position below the pressure roller 24, in which it can be attached to an object.

When the operating lever 26 moves back into its rest position shown in FIG. 1, the printing unit 34 lifts off the printing table 36 again, and the spring 68 ensures, via its engagement with the push rod 66 and its action on the pinion 72, that the Bracket 51 moves the paint roller holder back into the starting position of FIG. 1.

The device described is shown in FIG. 4 with the front flap open. The front flap 56 must be opened when the ink roller 46 is to be replaced. In preparation for the replacement process, the front flap 56 is brought into the position shown in FIG. 4. The operating lever 26 is then pulled against the handle 12 until the printing unit 34 hits the printing table 36. Since the outlet opening 64 of the guideway 54 is open when the front flap 56 is open, the guide pins 52, 53 can move out of the guideway 54 into the position shown in FIG. 4 in the course of their displacement movement through the outlet opening 64. In the exemplary embodiment shown, the guide pins 52, 53 automatically come out of the guide track 54 due to centrifugal forces when the operating lever 26 is tightened with the front flap 56 open and the ink roller holder 48 is moved together with the ink roller 46 at a relatively high speed. In this position, the operator can grasp the web 92 of the ink roller holder 48 and lift the ink roller holder 48 out of the bracket 51 with the ink roller 46 rotatably mounted in it. Preferably, the paint roller holder 48 and the paint roller 46 form a complete exchange unit, so that it is not necessary to insert a new paint roller in the paint roller holder, but a new assembly of a paint roller holder and a paint roller is simply inserted into the bracket 51. After insertion, the ink roller holder 48 is pivoted so that it assumes the position shown in FIG. 3, in which the guide pins 52, 53 lie in the guideway 54, whereupon the operating lever 26 is released, which leads to the ink roller holder 48 move the paint roller 46 back to the position of Fig. 1. The front flap 56 is then closed, so that the extension 60 closes the outlet opening 64 again. As a result, the guide track 54 is closed again, so that the paint roller holder 48 is again guided over the guide pins 52, 53 and securely held in the device.

As already mentioned above, a guide track 54 is provided in the inner surface of each side wall of the housing 10, so that there are accordingly two outlet openings 64. The front flap 56 is thus also equipped with two lugs 60, one of which closes one of the outlet openings 64.

In the described configuration of the hand-held labeling device, it is ensured that a compact design is achieved even when using a multi-line printing unit. Because of the drive of the bar 51 swiveling past the printing unit 34 via the push rod 66, its pivot point can be moved so far into the interior of the device housing that an unnecessarily protruding construction of the housing front can be avoided, which would be unfavorable for the application of printed labels.

Claims (2)

1. Hand labeling device for imprinting, dispensing and applying self-adhering labels to articles in the course of an operating cycle controlled by means of an operating lever (26) pivotal out of a rest position into a pulled position, comprising a multi-line printing mechanism (34) arranged in a device housing (10) and having print type (44) for producing an imprint on a self-adhering label disposed in a printing position, a transport means (22) which brings the self-adhering labels consecutively into the printing position and into the position for application to the articles, and an inking device (46, 48) for inking the print types of the printing mechanism before each printing operation by means of an inking roll (46) which is held by a stirrup member (51) pivotally mounted in the device housing and on pivoting of the stirrup member rolls on the print types of the printing mechanism, the pivoting of said stirrup member being caused by a lowering of said printing mechanism towards a label disposed in the printing position, characterized in that the stirrup member (51) for generating a complete pivoting motion about an axis (50) within the motion path of the printing mechanism (34) is in drive connection with a rod (66) whose displacement against the force of a spring (68) is controlled by the operating lever (26) and one end of which is formed as a rack engaging a pinion (72), which is arranged at the stirrup member (51) concentrically with respect to its pivot axis (50) and that between the rod (66) and the operating lever (26) such play is present in the rest position of the operating lever (26) that the rod (66) beers on the stirrup member (51) only in the area of its dead center.
2. Hand labeling device according to claim 1, characterized in that the rod (66) is secured linearly displaceably at an inner face of a side wall of the device housing.

Images