JP2005077727A - Label and label printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a label, adapted to permit easy identification of the generation history by which display information is generated relating to the label which is generated with merchandise related information corresponding to the merchandise to be stuck as the display information and is formed by printing on a label paper sheet, and to provide a label printer which prints such a label. <P>SOLUTION: The label is formed, by printing the label paper sheet (L) with the history information (3) displaying the generation history of the display information (1 and 2) in the label printer together with the display information (1 and 2). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a label generated by generating product-related information corresponding to a product to be attached as display information and printing it on a label sheet, and a label printer that prints such a label.

  Traditionally, for products such as fresh foods and lunch boxes, product-related information such as product name, content, price, date of manufacture, expiration date, and seller name is displayed as a combination of text information and barcode information. A printed label is created, and the created label is shipped on the surface of the product or its packaging. Among the display information printed on such a label, the character information is mainly displayed in characters so that the consumer can read the merchandise related information, and the barcode information is the sales destination. The information is displayed in accordance with a bar code standard such as a JAN code (13 digits or 8 digits), for example, so that the inventory management and sales management of goods can be performed quickly and accurately by the POS system in the store of the dealer.

By the way, in each barcode standard, the contents displayed by each digit are standardized. For example, in the case of JAN code (13 digits), the first two digits are the country code, the next five digits are the manufacturer's registration number, Further, the next 5 digits are used as the product number of the manufacturer, and the last 1 digit is used as the check code. As a result, inventory management and sales management can be performed for each manufacturer and product at the store of the shipping destination. However, the bar code system standardized as described above is not suitable for quality control of products such as fresh food and lunch boxes that have a short expiration date. Therefore, chains (sellers) such as convenience stores have invented their own barcode systems in which the items displayed in each digit of the barcode are reconfigured so that each company conforms to its product management method. The manufacturer is instructed to print the barcode information generated by the unique barcode system on the label attached to the product for the company. As a result, at each shipping destination store, fine quality control can be performed for fresh food, lunch boxes, and the like using the POS system (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 11-338930 A

  However, when a manufacturer ships products to a plurality of sellers who have set their own barcode system, they are printed based on the barcode system set by a certain seller. There is a risk that the product with the attached label will be shipped to another seller by mistake. In other words, although each ship-to party has its own barcode system, it is not possible to distinguish from each other by simply resetting the items displayed in each digit for the same barcode standard. In addition, for example, even if a label is printed with a different barcode system due to an error in setting a label printer by an operator or an error in writing instructions to the operator, the error may not be found. is there.

  In addition to the barcode system, if the format of the label used for each vendor is slightly different, the label is printed in the format of another vendor due to a label printer misconfiguration. There is a risk that the product will be shipped without noticing.

  In view of such a situation, the present invention generates the product related information corresponding to the product to be affixed as display information and what kind of display information the label is created by printing on the label paper. It is an object of the present invention to provide a label that can be easily identified as being generated through a generation history and a label printer that prints such a label.

  The invention according to claim 1 is a label created by generating product-related information corresponding to a product to be affixed as display information by a label printer and printing it on a label sheet. The label is characterized in that history information for displaying the generation history of the display information is printed together with the display information.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the display information includes a combination of character information and barcode information, and the history information identifies a barcode system used for generating the barcode information. The label according to claim 1, wherein the label is identification information.

  The invention of claim 3 is a label in which product related information corresponding to a product to be pasted is printed as display information combining character information and bar code information by a label printer, and the bar code information The bar code system used to generate the bar code information is used to check whether the bar code system used for generation matches the bar code system preset for the shipping destination of the product. Identification information for identifying a code system is printed together with the display information.

  The invention according to claim 4 is a label printer that generates product related information corresponding to a product to be pasted as display information, and creates a label by printing the display information on a label sheet, wherein the display Provided is a label printer characterized in that history information for displaying an information generation history is printed on the label sheet together with the display information.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the display information is composed of a combination of character information and barcode information, and the history information is an identification for identifying a barcode system used to generate the barcode information. 5. The label printer according to claim 4, wherein the label printer is information.

  The invention of claim 6 is a label printer that creates a label by printing product related information corresponding to a product to be attached as display information combining character information and barcode information on a label sheet. In order to check whether the barcode system used to generate the barcode information matches a barcode system preset for the shipping destination of the product, the barcode information is generated. The label printer is characterized in that identification information for identifying the bar code system used for printing is printed on the label sheet together with the display information.

  The invention according to claim 7 includes an input unit that inputs product-related information and a barcode system used to generate display information that combines character information and barcode information from the product-related information, and the input unit Based on the input product related information and the barcode system, a control unit that generates display information combining character information and barcode information, the display information, and identification information for identifying the barcode system And a printing unit that prints on the label paper.

  According to the label described in claim 1 or the label printer described in claim 4 of the present invention, the generation history when the display information to be printed on the label is generated from the product related information is printed on the label together with the display information. Therefore, for example, it is possible to easily identify the barcode system used to generate the barcode information, the format used to generate the label design, etc. It is possible to achieve an excellent effect that a setting error can be easily found.

  According to the label according to claim 2 or 3 of the present invention or the label printer according to claims 5 to 7, the barcode system used when generating the barcode information from the product related information is printed together with the display information. Since it can be easily identified by the identification information, it is possible to achieve an excellent effect that it is possible to easily find a setting error of the barcode system, which has conventionally been difficult to find a mistake.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

〔label〕
FIG. 1 is an example of a label according to the present embodiment. Product-related information corresponding to a product to be pasted, such as fresh food or a lunch box, is generated as display information by a label printer and printed on a label sheet. Is created. The display information printed on the label L is composed of a combination of character information 1 and barcode information 2.

[Character information 1]
The character information 1 includes product related information including a special sale display 11, a product name 12, a sales deadline 13, a manufacturing date 14, a sales price 15, and a dealer display 16 in a predetermined format (display item name, display item arrangement / position). -Fonts, etc.) are displayed with characters and symbols so that manufacturers, distributors and consumers can visually check the display items.

[Barcode information 2]
The bar code information 2 is a 13-digit number displayed as a bar code consisting of a combination of four types of thin and thick four bars and three spaces, like the JAN code. However, the contents displayed by each digit of 13 digits are different from the combination of country code, manufacturer's registration number, manufacturer's product number, and check code, such as JAN code. It is said that each of the multiple sellers has been set independently. For example, an in-store identifier (1 digit), a merchandise item number (6 digits) at the seller, date data (2 digits) that is the expiration date of the sale, a manufacturer identifier (3 digits), a check code (1) Digit). The dealer gives instructions to the manufacturer and generates the barcode information 2 with the barcode system set by the seller himself, and delivers the product with the printed label attached to it. Quality control can be realized.

[History information 3]
The label L is printed with history information 3 for displaying the generation history of display information in the label printer, together with display information consisting of character information 1 and barcode information 2. Here, the history information 3 is identification information for identifying which barcode information 2 is generated using which of a plurality of barcode systems uniquely set by a plurality of distributors. Specifically, the first two characters in the name of the seller who set the bar code system used are printed. Therefore, by referring to the history information 3, it is determined whether or not the barcode system used to generate the barcode information 2 matches the barcode system set in advance for the shipping destination of the product. It can be easily checked.

[Label printer 4]
A label printer 4 integrally provided with an electronic scale is used as means for creating a label by generating product-related information corresponding to a product to be attached as display information and printing it on label paper. . As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the label printer 4 includes a control unit 41, an operation unit 42, a weighing unit 43, a display unit 44, and a printing unit 45.

[Control unit 41]
As shown in FIG. 3, the control unit 41 includes a CPU 411, a ROM 412, a RAM 413, and a calendar clock 414, and controls the overall operation of the label printer 4. In the CPU 411, display information generation based on input information from the operation unit 42 and other arithmetic processes are performed. In the ROM 412, a program for the arithmetic process performed in the CPU 411 is stored in a non-rewritable manner. .

  The RAM 413 stores in advance various data such as a product master, a dealer list, a label format, a barcode system, and identification information corresponding to each barcode system, and a preset key provided in the operation unit 42. The input information that is initially set and the display information generated by the arithmetic processing in the CPU 411 are rewritably stored. In the product master, a product name, a weight unit price set for each product name, a sales effective period, and the like are registered, and a seller name, an address, a store name, and the like are registered in the seller list. The calendar clock 414 is used to generate display information related to the date or date such as the sales deadline 13 or the manufacturing date 14.

[Operation unit 42]
The operation unit 42 performs an operation of initializing input information corresponding to a product or a shipping destination to a preset key provided in the operation unit 42, and inputs a preset product name or barcode system using a preset key to issue a label. This is an input unit for an operator to perform various operations such as operations to perform. In the initial setting operation, product related information (product master, information on seller list), label format, barcode, etc., from the product master, seller list, label format and barcode system data, etc. stored in advance in RAM 413 Select a system, etc., and set it as a preset key. As a result, information necessary for generating the display information can be input with a single touch, and label printing can be performed quickly. Also, a plurality of preset keys are provided, and are set so as to cope with the case where a plurality of types of products are produced in parallel.

  In the label issuance operation, execution of label printing is instructed while checking the setting of display information of the label corresponding to the product to be priced by looking at the display on the display unit 44. It should be noted that setting input of various data such as a merchandise master, a dealer list, a label format, and a barcode system can be performed by operating the keys of the operation unit 42.

[Weighing unit 43]
The weighing unit 43 is configured to measure the product weight by placing the product. However, there are two types of products: weighed products (products whose prices vary depending on the product weight) and flat-rate products (products whose price is constant regardless of the product weight), and not all products are weighed. . Therefore, the control unit 41 automatically determines whether the product is a metered product or a fixed-price product based on the load state of the metering unit 43, and calls a price lookup (hereinafter referred to as PLU). It has become. That is, when no product is placed on the weighing unit 43 and the measured value is less than or equal to zero, the PLU of the flat-rate product is called, the product is placed on the weighing unit 43, and the weight value is equal to or greater than the minimum print weight. In this case, the PLU of the weighing product is called. Therefore, in the label issuing operation, the trouble of switching between the weighing product and the fixed amount product can be saved, and an operation error can be prevented.

[Display unit 44]
The display unit 44 is configured by a matrix display in which a display part is partitioned into several areas, and each partition part includes a dedicated display part 441 provided for each display item such as a product weight, a unit price of weight, a sales price, and the like. , And a variable display portion 442 that can selectively display display items such as product names, production dates, and sales deadlines. In the variable display portion, the setting contents can be confirmed by sequentially displaying each setting item such as a product name in the above-described initial setting operation.

[Printing section 45]
As shown in FIG. 4, the printing unit 45 includes a platen roller 452 that sequentially feeds the label paper from the label roll R that is rotatably supported by the label roll support unit 451, and the fed label paper by the control unit 41. And a thermal head 453 that prints the generated display information. The thermal head 453 prints together with display information, history information 3 for displaying a generation history of display information, that is, identification information for identifying a barcode system. The printed label L is protruded from the label issuing port 454 in a state where it is partially peeled off from the mount X, and is completely peeled off from the mount X when the operator picks and pulls it out. The mount X from which the label L has been peeled is wound up by a mount winding section 455 that is driven to rotate.

[Label issuing operation]
Next, the label issuing operation according to the above embodiment will be described.

  First, prior to a label issuing operation, an operator performs an initial setting operation according to a product to be affixed with a label based on a work instruction sheet. In the initial setting operation, the operator recalls and selects initial setting items such as product related information, label format, barcode system, etc. corresponding to the product to which the label is attached from the product master stored in the RAM 413 in advance. The preset key is set while checking with the variable display part 442 of the display unit 44. When there are a plurality of types of products, a plurality of preset keys can be set.

  By completing the initial setting operation, the label issuing operation can be performed. The operator looks at the merchandise brought in at hand, operates the preset key corresponding to the merchandise and the shipping destination, and causes the printing unit 45 to print the display information on the label paper. On the label paper, the identification information of the barcode system consisting of the first two characters in the name of the seller is printed as the history information 3 together with the display information, so that the operator can use it to generate the barcode information visually. The barcode system can be easily identified. Therefore, by collating the history information 3 with the dealer display 16 included in the character information 1, the operator caused a mistake in setting the label printer by the worker or a mistake in describing the instruction to the worker. Easily find a setting error in the barcode system.

[Modification of this embodiment]
In the above embodiment, the first two characters of the seller name are displayed as the identification information of the barcode system that is the history information 3. However, one character or three or more characters depending on the number of the seller that is the shipping destination. May be displayed, or may be displayed in characters unrelated to the spelling of the seller name. The history information 3 may be displayed by coloring a symbol, figure, or label other than characters, and it is not always necessary to display the history information 3 separately from the display information. For example, the character information 1 itself is colored. It is also possible to adopt a display form such as. In addition, as a matter of course, the history information 3 may be displayed consistently between different shipping destinations (sellers), and does not necessarily have to be different.

  In the above embodiment, the identification information for identifying the barcode system is displayed as the history information 3. However, the identification information for identifying the format of the label may be displayed. Further, identification information for identifying a combination of a barcode system and a format may be displayed, or history information other than the above may be displayed. For example, a method for calculating a sales price that differs for each shipping destination can be displayed as history information.

  In the above-described embodiment, the history information 3 is described as being collated with the seller display 16, but can be collated with other character information 1. Further, the history information 3 is not used only for collating with display information printed by the label printer 4, but can be collated with information pre-printed on a label sheet.

  In the embodiment described above, the operator visually checks the history information 3 and the display information. However, an inspection unit including a sensor such as a scanner is provided near the label issuing port 454 of the printing unit. Alternatively, the display information and history information 3 and the like may be acquired by the inspection unit, and output to the control unit 41 so that the control unit 41 performs collation. As a result, the burden on the operator can be reduced, and when an abnormality is found, the label printer is immediately stopped, thereby preventing an error in issuing a large number of labels with incorrect contents. Is.

  In addition, the label and the label printer of the present invention are not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it is needless to say that various changes can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

The figure which shows the label which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 1 is a perspective view showing a label printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram which shows the internal circuit of a label printer. Sectional drawing which shows the printing part of a label printer.

Explanation of symbols

1 Character information (display information)
2 Barcode information (display information)
3 History information 4 Label printer 41 Control unit 42 Operation unit 43 Weighing unit 44 Display unit 45 Printing unit L Label

Claims (7)

Product-related information corresponding to the product to be affixed is generated as display information by a label printer and printed on label paper,
A history information for displaying a generation history of the display information in the label printer is printed together with the display information. The display information is composed of a combination of character information and barcode information,
The label according to claim 1, wherein the history information is identification information that identifies a barcode system used to generate the barcode information. Product related information corresponding to the product to be pasted is a label printed by a label printer as display information combining character information and barcode information,
In order to check whether the barcode system used to generate the barcode information matches a barcode system set in advance for the shipping destination of the product, the barcode information is generated. The label is characterized in that identification information for identifying the barcode system used in the printing is printed together with the display information. A label printer that generates product-related information corresponding to a product to be affixed as display information, and creates a label by printing the display information on a label sheet,
A label printer that prints history information for displaying a generation history of the display information on the label sheet together with the display information. The display information is composed of a combination of character information and barcode information,
The label printer according to claim 4, wherein the history information is identification information for identifying a barcode system used to generate the barcode information. A label printer that creates a label by printing product-related information corresponding to a product to be affixed on label paper as display information combining character information and barcode information,
In order to check whether the barcode system used to generate the barcode information matches the barcode system preset for the shipping destination of the product, the barcode information is generated. A label printer which prints identification information for identifying a used barcode system on the label sheet together with the display information. Product-related information, and an input unit that inputs a barcode system used to generate display information that combines character information and barcode information from the product-related information;
A control unit that generates display information that combines character information and barcode information based on the product related information and the barcode system that are input by the input unit;
A label printer comprising: a printing unit that prints the label information in combination with the display information and identification information for identifying the barcode system.

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