GB2252633A

GB2252633A - Packaging printing apparatus for retailing

Info

Publication number: GB2252633A
Application number: GB9102052A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Henry Page
Original assignee: Herbert & Sons Ltd
Current assignee: Herbert & Sons Ltd
Priority date: 1991-01-30
Filing date: 1991-01-30
Publication date: 1992-08-12
Anticipated expiration: 2011-01-30
Also published as: GB9102052D0; GB2252633B

Abstract

A packaging printing apparatus suitable for use in retailing unlabelled goods having a retail operations unit (10, 15) and a printer (20); the retail operations unit includes a customer display (15) for displaying to a customer information about goods being purchased and means for transmitting that information to the printer; wherein the printer is adapted to print the received product information direct in at least one location onto packaging (32) intended for holding the purchased goods, the unit also including means for dispensing the packaging after printing thereon by the printer. <IMAGE>

Description

PACKAGING PRINTING APPARATUS FOR RETAILING The present invention relates to an apparatus for use in retailing operations, such as supermarkets and delicatessens, in which product information is displayed and then printed directly onto the packaging in which the purchased product is to be put.

Loose, unlabelled items such as tomatoes and un-prepackaged goods such as pate are usually placed by a sales assistant in a package in the course of a retailing operation, and the product information such as price is then attached to the packet for later reference by either the customer or another sales assistant. For example following a weighing operation the weighed goods are usually placed in a plastics or paper bag and the printed label is then attached to the bag. The printed label can carry information regarding the total price, identity of the goods, and/or price per unit weight of the goods. The problems with such printed labels is that they are expensive and can be removed from the package.

Additionally the labels are sometimes used as a means for sealing the package and then the package can easily be torn when the customer tries to remove the label.

Alternatively the product information may be written on the package. This however has a number of disadvantages in that not only is it time consuming but the sales assistant could easily make a mistake. Also the plastics material usually used for packaging is difficult to write on.

According to the present invention there is provided a packaging printing apparatus suitable for use in retailing unlabelled goods comprising, in combination, a retail operations unit and a printing means wherein the retail operations unit includes means for displaying to the customer information about the goods being purchased and means for transmitting that information to the printing means, and wherein the printing means is adapted to print the received product information direct in at least one location onto packaging intended for holding the purchased goods.

The retail operations unit is preferably a weighing machine, but could be a cash register or any other piece of equipment used in retailing operations where information about a product is required to be displayed to the customer. Although the printing means could be housed separately, it is preferably housed within the retail operations unit, and includes means, desirably automatic, for feeding the packaging to the printing means and for dispensing the packaging after it has been printed. The packaging can take the form of plastics or paper bags, plastics film, metal foil, tubs or containers of plastics, metal foil or waxed paper, or the like, desirably arranged in a roll, stack or the like for automatic feeding through the printing means.

The printing means is preferably an ink jet printer, but could be a laser printer, a thermal image printer, or any other means which can be used for printing information direct onto packaging for holding purchased goods at any suitable location on the surface of the packaging.

Optionally, the printing means can be adapted to print product information on both sides of the packaging where the packaging is in the form of a container such as a plastics bag. This possibility is desirable since fully automatic product scanning could then be performed without the need for an operator to supervise the scanning operation and turn a package over in order to ensure that the bar code or the like is presented to the reading head. Double sided printing is possible with the present invention since the product information is printed direct onto the packaging rather than onto an adhesive label where only one side can be used. For such double sided printing an enhanced ink jet printer is preferably used.

The present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention in which the retail operations unit is a weighing machine, and in which the printing means, the two load cells and an alternative position for a label printer are indicated by broken lines.

Referring to Figure 1 there is shown a weighing machine 10 which includes a weighing platform 11, a housing 12, an elevated control keyboard 14 and a customer display 15. The weighing machine 10 may be preprogrammed with the price per unit weight of all of the available goods, the price of each being accessible by pressing an appropriate button (not shown) on the control keyboard 14 and displayed on the customer display 15. The weighing machine 10 has a conventional dual load cell weighing mechanism wherein the weighing platform 11 is mounted on two spaced apart load cells 16.

An ink jet printer 20 of conventional construction is positioned within the housing 12 between the two load cells 16 and is electronically connected to the weighing machine 10 so as to be capable of receiving and printing information transmitted from the weighing machine 10.

Adjacent the side of the housing 12, or optionally of the elevated keyboard 14, is a second printer 18, 18' of conventional type for printing adhesive labels (not shown) carrying product information such as weight, possibly in the form of a machine readable bar code, which can be affixed to a plastics bag or the like for reading by a check-out cash register. The labels can also be used for goods which are not easily bagged such as cauliflowers. The labels contained within the printer 18, 18' are dispensed by way of an opening 19, 19' and are designed to be torn off individually by the customer or sales assistant.

At the rear of the weighing machine 10 a reel of plastics bags 30 is mounted on a holder 31 which is attached to the housing 12, each bag in the reel of bags 30 being separable from each other along a perforated line (not shown).

In use a first bag 32 of the reel of bags 30 is passed through an opening (not shown) at the rear of the weighing machine 10 and arranged on a printer feeding mechanism (not shown) which manoeuvres the bag 32 into a suitable position for printing by the printer 20.

Following printing the bag 32 is fed a suitable distance by a bag dispensing mechanism (not shown) through a slot opening 17 in the housing 12 so that it can be detached manually from the remainder of the bags 30. A second bag (not shown) attached to the bag 32 can then be manoeuvred into a suitable position for printing and the process repeated.

Operation of the weighing machine 10 commences when a product (not shown) is placed on the weighing platform 11 by a customer or sales assistant. A button (not shown) appropriate to the product to be weighed is then pressed on the keyboard 14 and the product information displayed on the customer display 15. When the sales transaction is agreed a print button (not shown) is pressed and the displayed information is then transmitted to the printer 20.

The bag 32 with the printed information thereon is then fed by the bag dispensing mechanism (not shown) out of the printer 20 and weighing machine 10 through the opening 17 where it can be detached manually from the remaining bags 30. If desired an adhesive label can also simultaneously be printed by the label printer 18, 18' and be detached manually for attaching to the goods.

It will be appreciated that in addition to the product price information the weighing machine 10 can transmit additional information, including pre-programmed information, regarding the product, such as its identity, product expiry date or the like, which either the printer 20 can print onto a bag or the label printer 18, 18' can print onto an adhesive label.

It will be appreciated that the type of printer 20 used and its associated packaging feeding and dispensing mechanisms will depend upon the nature of the packaging used and whether printing on one or both sides of the packaging is desired. Such are well nown to those skilled in the art.

By means of the present invention a shopper can be provided with individually labelled goods for self-selected unlabelled items which, where double sided printing is used, are capable of being scanned at a check-out fully automatically.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A packaging printing apparatus suitable for use in retailing unlabelled goods comprising, in combination, a retail operations unit and a printing means wherein the retail operations unit includes means for displaying to the customer information about the goods being purchased and means for transmitting that information to the printing means, and wherein the printing means is adapted to print the received product information direct in at least one location onto packaging intended for holding the purchased goods.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the printing means is housed in the retail operations unit.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 including means for feeding the packaging to the printing means.

4. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims including means for dispensing the packaging after printing thereon by the printing means.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein the printing means is adapted to print direct onto plastics bags, and wherein the apparatus includes means for feeding plastics bags to the printing means and means for dispensing them after printing.

6. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the printing means is an ink jet printer.

7. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the retail operations unit is a weighing machine.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein the weighing pan is supported by two spaced apart load cells and wherein the printing means is located between the load cells.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

Amendments to the claims have been filed as follows

1. A packaging printing apparatus suitable for use in retailing unlabelled goods comprising, in combination, a retail operations unit and a printing means wherein the retail operations unit includes means for displaying to a customer information about goods being purchased and means for transmitting that information to the printing means, wherein the printing means is adapted to print the received product information direct in at least one location onto packaging intended for holding the purchased goods, the unit also including means for dispensing the packaging after printing thereon by the printing means.

4. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein printing means is adapted to print directly onto packaging formed as plastic bags or paper bags.

5. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the printing means is an ink jet printer.

6. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the retail operations unit is a weighing machine.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 6 wherein a weighing pan is provided for the weighing machine, wherein the pan is supported by two spaced apart load cells and wherein the printing means is located between the load cells.