JP2008036888A - Label printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable tracking of a circulation hysteresis of food, etc. at all times by facilitating generation of management numbers of the food and performing label printing. <P>SOLUTION: A thermal head (printer part) 13 which carries out printing to a label for the food, and a clock 16 which meters the present date/time are installed in the label printer P. Also the label printer P is equipped with a buffer memory (recorded value input part) 4 to which a recorded value showing the present date/time by the clock 16 is inputted, a printing data generating part 17 which converts the recorded value inputted to the buffer memory 4 to printing data of another numeric value, and a printing data output part 18 which outputs the printing data generated by the printing data generating part 17 to the thermal head 13. The management number as traceability information is printed to the label for each food. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a label printer, and more particularly to a label printer that prints a management number on a label for foodstuffs.

Conventionally, an electric product label is given a different management number for each product in consideration of aftercare after factory shipment. However, the management number is not added to the label for food such as fruits and vegetables. That is, a label printer for food can be equipped with a clock and can print a date such as the expiration date, but usually a management number is not printed on the label for food (for example, see Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-190068 A.

  In the above prior art, since the control number is not added to the label for food, when problems such as quality defects or confusion of the source (including the production place) occur in the market after shipment, for example, There was no way to track the distribution history of the food, and there was a case that the response to the problem was delayed.

  By the way, in order to quickly solve the above problem, it is possible to print a control number on the label for foodstuffs. In this case, manually set a control number that can be identified for each foodstuff. That is cumbersome and inefficient. Therefore, in order to add a different management number for each food product, how to efficiently create the management number is an important issue.

  Therefore, there is a technical problem to be solved in order to easily generate a management number for each food product, print it with a label, and keep track of the distribution history of the food product. It aims at solving this subject.

  The present invention has been proposed to achieve the above object, and the invention according to claim 1 is equipped with a printer unit for printing on a label for food and a clock for measuring date and time. In the label printer, a time value input unit to which the current date / time time value is input by the clock, and print data of the food product management number based on the time value sent from the time value input unit. A print data generation unit for generating and a print data output unit for outputting the print data generated by the print data generation unit to the printer unit, and configured to label-print a management number unique to each food product A label printer is provided.

  According to this configuration, when printing a label for foodstuffs, first, the current date / time is measured with a clock, and the time value is input to the time value input unit. Next, the time value is sent to the print data generation unit, and print data having a management number different from the value of the time value is generated. Thereafter, the print data is output to the printer unit by the print data output unit, and a management number unique to each food product is printed on the label for the food product. This management number functions as traceability information for tracking the history of each food product when a problem occurs in the food product after shipment.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the print data generation unit generates the print data of the management number by adding or subtracting a specific numerical value to the time value sent from the time value input unit. A label printer as described is provided.

  According to this configuration, for example, each time value indicating year, month, date, hour, minute (second if necessary) is sent to the print data generation unit, and a two-digit numerical value (tenth digit) of each time value is sent. For example, “11” is also added to 2 digits when the number of items is 0). For example, “11” is simply added, and different management numbers are automatically generated for each individual food.

  In the first aspect of the invention, since a management number serving as traceability information for each food product is printed and displayed on a label for food products such as fruits and vegetables, the quality and source of the food product in the consumer market after shipping, etc. If a problem occurs with respect to, the problem can be solved promptly by tracking the history of the food product based on the management number.

  In addition, since the management number is created based on the current timekeeping value that is constantly changing, it can be automatically created with different management numbers for each individual food product, and compared to the manual management number creation method. The characteristics are greatly improved.

  Furthermore, since the management number of each food product is converted into a management number different from the current time value and printed, the general consumer cannot know the contents of the printed management number, and the management number is not There is no fear of being tampered with by Service-to-Self.

  Since the invention according to claim 2 can automatically create different management numbers by simply adding or subtracting the set value to the current timekeeping value, in addition to the effect of the invention according to claim 1, The creation is facilitated, and the print data generation unit can be configured simply. In addition, since all the management numbers are created in the order of shipment of individual food items, the history of food items can be quickly tracked according to the order of shipment.

  The present invention is directed to a printer unit that prints on a label for food, and a date for the purpose of easily generating a management number of the food and printing the label and tracking the distribution history of the food at all times. In a label printer equipped with a clock for measuring time, a time value input unit for inputting a time value of a current date / time by the clock, and a time value sent from the time value input unit A print data generation unit that generates print data of the management number of the food product, and a print data output unit that outputs the print data generated by the print data generation unit to the printer unit. This was realized by configuring a unique management number to be printed on a label.

  Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a label printer P according to this embodiment. In the figure, the label printer P includes a keyboard unit 1 and a print control unit 3.

  The keyboard unit 1 is a key input unit of the label printer P, and format setting, a print execution command, and the like are input by the keyboard unit 1. Information input from the keyboard unit 1 is written to the buffer memory 4 of the print control unit 3 via the interface 2, and the written content is read by the CPU 5 of the print control unit 3. Further, the print data read by the CPU 5 is written into the print data memory 6 and the display driver circuit 7 is driven to display the contents of the print data on the LCD display unit 8.

  When a print execution command is input from the keyboard unit 1, the CPU 5 controls the motor driver circuit 10 according to the print control program in the ROM 9 and drives the feed motor 11 to feed the label (adhesive tape with release paper) while printing data. The dot pattern data is output to the head driver circuit 12 based on the document data in the memory 6, and label printing is performed by the thermal head 13. Further, the CPU 5 drives the cutter driver circuit 14 at the start and end of label printing, and cuts (or half-cuts) the label at a predetermined position by the cutter 15.

  The label printer P according to the present embodiment is equipped with a clock (electronic clock) 16 that always measures the current date / time, and the time information measured by the clock 16 also serves as a time value input unit. Input to the buffer memory 4. More specifically, 10 numbers indicating the contents of the current date / time are extracted, and 10 numbers (including the leading 0) are stored in the buffer memory 4. As the number indicating the year, a lower two-digit number indicating the year or a two-digit number indicating the year of Heisei is adopted. Similarly, for the month, day, hour, and minute, a 2-digit number (2 bits including the leading 0) is adopted.

  Further, the print control unit 3 of the label printer P is provided with a print data generation unit 17 and a print data output unit 18. The print data generation unit 17 generates print data of the food product management number based on the ten time values input to the buffer memory (time value input unit) 4. In the present embodiment, it is generated by automatically converting into ten numbers of print data corresponding to the timekeeping value on a one-to-one basis. Specifically, it is divided into 2-digit numerical values indicating year, month, date, hour, and minute, and "11" is added to each numerical value for each division, so that new 10-digit print data Is generated.

  The print data output unit 18 outputs the print data converted by the print data generation unit 17, that is, the print data of 10 numbers after the conversion process, to the thermal head 13. Then, based on the print data, the thermal head 13 performs label printing of the converted ten numbers as the management number of the food product.

  Next, the procedure for printing a specific management number on the label for fruits and vegetables will be described in detail. It is assumed that the current date / time is measured as 10:45 am on August 18, 2006 by the clock 16. At this time, as shown in FIG. 2, ten numbers “0608181045” are stored in the buffer memory 4 from the clock 16.

  Next, the ten numbers after the conversion are transmitted to the print data generation unit 17, and the print data generation unit 17 classifies the numbers into two-digit numerical values respectively indicating year, month, date, hour, and minute. Then, “11” is added to the two-digit numerical value for each category, thereby calculating the print data of ten numbers “17192292156”. Thereafter, the print data is output to the thermal head 13 by the print data output unit 18, whereby a number (management number) “17192292156” is printed on the label for fruits and vegetables.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a management number serving as an identification code of each food product is added to a label for food such as fruits and vegetables, and each food product is always used as traceability information. Can manage. Therefore, when a problem occurs with respect to the quality or the manufacturer in the distribution route or the consumer market after the shipment of the food product, the history of the food product can be quickly traced based on the management number.

  In addition, since the management number printed on the label for each food product is always created based on the time measured at the time of printing, it is possible to reliably and automatically create a different management number for each food product. In particular, it is possible to create print data for management numbers simply by adding a simple number “11” to each 2-digit number indicating the current year, month, date, hour, and minute. Even if it is not provided, a large number of print data can be easily created. The simple numerical value is not limited to “11”, and may be other numerical values such as “01”, “10”, and “21”.

  Furthermore, the management number is printed by encrypting other numbers rather than the time value itself measured by the clock 16. Therefore, consumers and distributors do not know the contents of the printed management number, and there is no possibility that the management number is falsified by a malicious person or the like. It should be noted that in the creation of the management number based on the time value of the clock 16, it is possible to change the conversion rules for the encryption processing depending on, for example, the use or purpose of use of the management number.

  Further, since the management number of each food product is created in the order of shipment of each food product, the history information of each food product can be easily traced in the order of shipment.

  The present invention can be variously modified without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and the present invention naturally extends to the modified ones.

1 is a block diagram of a label printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of creating a management number printed by the label printer of FIG. 1.

Explanation of symbols

3 Print control unit 4 Buffer memory (time value input unit)
5 CPU
6 Print data memory 13 Thermal head (printer part)
16 Clock (timer)
17 Print Data Generation Unit 18 Print Data Output Unit

Claims (2)

  In a label printer comprising a printer unit for printing on a label for food and a clock for measuring date / time, a time value input unit for inputting a time value of the current date / time by the clock; A print data generation unit that generates print data of the food product management number based on the time value sent from the time value input unit; and the print data generated by the print data generation unit is output to the printer unit. And a printing data output unit configured to perform label printing of a management number unique to each food product. The label according to claim 1, wherein the print data generation unit generates the print data of the management number by adding or subtracting a specific numerical value to the time value sent from the time value input unit. Printer.

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