GB2058674A

GB2058674A - Ticket printing machine

Info

Publication number: GB2058674A
Application number: GB8028441A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Control Systems Ltd
Current assignee: Control Systems Ltd
Priority date: 1979-09-11
Filing date: 1980-09-03
Publication date: 1981-04-15
Also published as: GB2058674B

Abstract

A ticket printing machine comprising a guideway 1 along which a ticket web is fed, rollers 2 for feeding the web by increments of one ticket length and an inking roller 4 on one side face of the web and a wire printer 3 on the other side of the web to print information on the said one side of the web. The rollers 2 may print additional static information on the ticket web. Photo-electric devices 14 and control circuits are provided to control the positioning of the ticket web to enable the spacing of the printing to be achieved. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to ticket printing machines This invention has reference to ticket printing machines and in particular to ticket printing machines for use for example, in vehicle parking applications where a ticket is issued and is valid for a predetermined period. The tickets issued by such machines are printed with the value of the ticket issued and the time of issue and consequently the time by which the vehicle is due to leave the vehicle park can be determined.

Having the time of issue printed on the ticket can be misinterpreted so it has been proposed to embody time printing mechanisms advanced by a specific period (say two hours) to specify the time of expiry of the ticket. However, difficulties arise when it is required to have varying times of validity of the ticket depending upon the amount of the parking fee paid.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved ticket machine. it is a further object of the present invention to provide a ticket machine capable of printing variable information on the ticket in a simple and convenient manner.

According to the present invention a ticket printing machine comprises a guideway for a ticket web, means for printing information on the ticket web, means for feeding the ticket web by increments of one ticket length through the ticket machine wherein the means for printing variable information comprises an inking roller on one side face of the web and a wire printer having an associated control circuit to enable variable information to be printed on the other side of the ticket web.

By machines according to this invention we are able to provide an impression on a ticket web at the positions where the ends of the wire project onto the ticket web to urge it towards the inking roller and each energised wire produces a mark corresponding to selected wires which are energised and the selected marks of the energised wires represent a number, letter or other data. It will be apparent that the wire printer must be programmed so as to effect a printing image on the underside of the ticket corresponding to a mirrored image of the number, letter or other data, in order that a true representation of the number, letter or other data may be produced on the upper side of the ticket, namely the side adjacent the inking roller.

A ticket machine in accordance with the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein, Fig. 1 is a side view of the ticket machine.

Fig. 2 is a side view taken from the opposite direction of the machine and Fig. 3 is a view of a ticket printed by the machine.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawings there is shown a guideway 1, comprising two closely spaced plates between which a ticket web (not shown) is passed. This ticket web is wound on to a roll or is located in the machine as on the left hand side of the machine shown in Fig. 1 in a folded pack and fed between the plates of the guideway 1. A pair of feed rolls 2 are positioned so as to project into respective apertures in the plates 1 and between which the ticket web is fed. These rolls 2 thereby constitute feeding means for the ticket web. A wire printing mechanism 3 is located beneath the spaced plates 1 on one lower side of the ticket web and an inking roller 4 being a porous roller impregnated with ink and which is positioned on the other upper side of the ticket web.

The wire printing mechanism 3 consists of a plurality of wire printing mechanisms, each mechanism of which has a plurality of wires arranged to form a matrix, say 7 x 5 wires which are connected with and selectively energised by a solenoid to print a representation of a letter or number or other data. Each wire comes into contact with the ticket web and exerts pressure on the web over a limited area to force the web into contact with the inking roller 4, and make a small dot impression.

The parallel plates 1 extend through the ticket printing machine, as shown in Fig. 1 in a substantially horizontal direction towards the out feed. However adjacent the outfeed the upper guide plate 6 is inclined downwardly.

The under plate finishes adjacent the turn of the guide plates and the trailing end of the under guide plate is provided with serrated teeth 5. It is arranged that the downwardly inclined part of the guide plates 1 have a length less than the length of a single ticket length in order that a ticket when fed between the guide plates projects at its leading end beyond the end of the guide plates. By this means the ticket can be torn off by the serrated teeth 5.

The feed rolls 2 are driven through a gear train 7 from a motor 9 and one of the gears 7a of the gear train 7 has associated with it a photo-electric device 8 which senses the teeth on the gear 7a.

The spacing between the teeth on the gear 7a is equivalent to the spacing of the lines of dots made by the wires of the printing mechanism on the ticket web consequently each time a tooth on the gear 7a is sensed by the photo-electric device 8 to initiate a control circuit which is energised to cause operation of the wire printer to cause selected dots in a line of dots to be printed.

A further photo-electric device 14 to sense pre punched holes in the ticket web which holes are spaced apart by one ticket length is included in a circuit to the drive motor 9 which is programmed so that the drive motor is halted when a prepunched hole at one end of a ticket length is sensed by the further photo-electric device each time a single length of ticket is fed.

A device 10 is included in the ticket machine to remove tension between the rubber feed rolls to permit new ticket stock to be loaded. These feed rolls can be provided with a printing impression 11 on its circumference in order that additional static information may be printed on the ticket as is required.

The control circuits associated with the photoelectric device 8 to sense the teeth on the gear 7a and with the photo-electric device 14 to sense the prepunched holes in the ticket web are teeth included as part of a microprocessor which forms part of the ticket printing machine. This microprocessor also includes circuits to enable variable information to be printed by means of the wire printers. This information may for example be programmed to enable printing as shown on the single ticket of a ticket web in Fig. 3. In such a ticket static information including identification of the ticket source, fee paid, departure time and machine number are pre-printed on the ticket web. Additional static information related to a particular ticket printing machine is printed on the ticket by means of the printing and driving rollers 2.This additional information may comprise information about the location of the car park as shown at 12, and also identify the machine number in that car park as shown at 13. Variable information as to the date, fee paid and the departure time of the ticket are printed by the wire printer mechanisms 3.

The ticket printing machine also includes coin counting mechanism with associated mechanism to enable information about the amount of money entered into the machine to be registered in the microprocessor circuits.

The associated control circuits of the microprocessor also determine which solenoids of the wire printer mechanism are to be energised to determine what information is to be printed on the ticket by way of the variable information. This is controlled by programming the microprocessor to count money inserted into the feed machine and this amount is printed on the ticket. Similarly the date of issue and the departure time namely the time by which the vehicle should have left the car park is calculated by the microprocessor. The calculation is determined by the actual time, the day of the week, the tariff in use and the amount of money inserted.

This equipment may also be programmed to issue and print tickets for other uses, for example -- transport tickets on which could be printed the zone or area number, the amount paid, the date of issue and machine number.

Claims

1. A ticket printing machine comprising a guideway for a ticket web, means for printing information on the ticket web, means for feeding the ticket web by increments of one ticket length through the ticket machine wherein the means for printing variable information comprises an inking roller on one side face of the web and a wire printer having an associated control circuit to enable variable information to be printed on the side of the ticket web remote from the means for printing variable information.

2. A ticket printing machine according to Claim 1 having a pair of driving and printing rollers capable of printing on; the ticket web additional static information related to a specific ticket printing machine.

3. A ticket printing machine according to Claim 1 or 2 wherein the means for printing variable information includes a gear tooth mechanism, an associated photo-electric device and control circuits, wherein the spacing of the teeth on the gear tooth mechanism is equivalent to the spacing of the dots produced by the wire printer whereby the spacing of the dots of the character of the tickets is controlled.

4. A ticket printing machine according to any one of the proceeding claims having a photoelectric device to sense the position of holes the ticket web to determine the printing position of the ticket web.

5. A ticket printing machine according to any one of the preceding claims having microprocessor control circuits to determine claims having microprocessor control circuits to determine which solenoids of the wire printer mechanism are to be energised to determine what information is printed on the ticket web.

6. A ticket printing machine constructed, arranged and adapted to operate substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.