JPS6344619B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a label printing and pasting device that allows labels printed by a thermal recording method to be easily pasted onto articles.

Conventionally, a desk-top label issuing device uses a heat-sensitive recording method to print on a label that is temporarily attached to a peelable backing paper via a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, and then peels the label from the backing paper and sends it to a takeout port. It has been known.

However, in this label issuing device, the labels are picked up one by one with one's fingers and attached to the article, or the article is carried to the above-mentioned outlet and applied to the label, and the label is attached to the article. Therefore, label pasting work was difficult to do, and the pasting speed was slow and extremely inefficient. This is particularly inconvenient in supermarkets and the like where it is necessary to attach labels to a large number of products in a short period of time.

On the other hand, manual and portable label printing and pasting machines (so-called hand labelers) for printing on this type of labels and pasting them on articles are widely used.
This hand labeler is configured so that the label is printed and fed by repeatedly grasping and releasing the hand lever, which causes a lot of fatigue for the operator, and also makes a loud and noisy stamping sound between the printing head and the platen. There were also problems with outbreaks. Furthermore, especially in print heads that print barcodes for POS, since the barcodes are read by optical readers, strict accuracy is required for the width of the barcodes and the spacing between them, resulting in the structure of the printhead itself. Barcodes were often not printed accurately and could not be read correctly due to errors in the above or insufficient or excessive amount of ink applied to the typeface.

Therefore, the premise of the present invention is to provide a label printing and pasting device that can always print accurately, reduce worker fatigue and noise during operation, and greatly improve the efficiency of label pasting work. There is something to do.

Another example of this type of device is the Retsutel gluing machine (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1983-34800), but this gluing machine is heavy because it is equipped with an input device with a keyboard and a power supply unit. This machine has some drawbacks in its operability, as it requires one hand to apply labels to products, etc., and since all electrical devices are installed inside the machine, there is a risk of dropping the machine, etc. damage to electrical equipment is inevitable.

Furthermore, in a structure in which the keyboard is integrally installed in the machine, as in the labeler, the labeler itself becomes large.

That is, the keyboard in question is generally used to input data to be printed, such as product code, price, check digit, etc., by pushing the data to be printed with a fingertip. Therefore, the keyboard needs to be large enough to be pressed directly with a human fingertip.
Inevitably, the labeler becomes larger.

And the labels issued by this large labeler
Due to the JIS standard (JIS B9550),
Since the label is extremely small compared to the larger thermal hand labeler, it is difficult to attach the label to the product. Specifically, since the keyboard is located at the front of the top surface of the machine, the labels issued from the machine and affixed to the products are hidden behind the keyboard and are difficult to see. Therefore, there is a serious defect in that the operator cannot confirm the label being affixed, resulting in incorrect label affixation.

Also, when inputting data using the keyboard,
A display is installed on the body of the Retsutel gluing machine to confirm whether the data has been entered correctly. The characters displayed on this display must be large enough to be seen with the naked eye. For example, in order to display a 13-digit JAN code, a display with a width of at least 70 m/m is required, and it is compatible with the keyboard. This is one of the reasons why the width of the labeler body becomes much larger than the label width.

Generally, it is important that the width of the label issued by the label applicator is approximately equal to the width of the applicator, and it is preferable that there is no difference between the two widths. Furthermore, it has been proven in the industry that labeling is best when the widths are equal.

As mentioned above, since the known label pasting machine is equipped with a keyboard on the pasting machine body, the main body is necessarily large and it is extremely difficult and inaccurate to pasted labels on products. Furthermore, since a heavy power supply device is also built into the main body, it is heavy and it is difficult to operate the label with one hand. Furthermore, if the printer is dropped due to an operational error, the thermal head, which is the most susceptible to shocks, will be deformed, and the parallelism between the head and the platen will be disrupted, resulting in a defect in which clear thermal printing will no longer be possible.

Thus, in order to eliminate the defects of the above-mentioned known label pasting machines, the present invention removes a control unit with a keyboard of an input device from the label pasting machine, which requires a certain size because it is operated by human fingertips. The present invention provides a label printing and pasting device that is separated and installed on the body's waist belt or shoulder strap.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall view of the first embodiment of the present invention, which can be roughly divided into a printing and pasting unit 1 that can be held and operated with one hand, and a control unit that is constructed separately and connected to it by a cable 3. Consists of unit 2. The control unit 2 is attached to the worker's body via a waist belt 4 or a shoulder strap (not shown).

As shown in detail in FIG.
However, a grip 7 for grasping and holding with one hand is formed at the rear (right end in the figure), and inside the machine frame 5 there is a label transfer section 8, a printing section 9, a pasting section 10 at the front end, and a front section. A display section 11 on the top surface is installed,
Furthermore, a micro switch 12 operated by a push button 26 is provided inside the grip 7.

As shown in FIG. 6, the label roll holding unit 6 has a continuous label body 15 in which labels 14 made of heat-sensitive recording paper are sequentially temporarily attached to one side of a releasable mount 13 via a pressure-sensitive adhesive. A label roll 16 wound with is rotatably held, and a continuous label 1 drawn out from the label roll 16 is rotatably held.
5 enters the machine frame 5, passes through the guide 17 and guide roller 18, passes the transfer sensor 20 installed on the platen 19, and then passes between the platen roller 21 at the front end of the platen and the thermal print head 22 of the printing section 9. After passing through the gap, only the mount 13 is reversed by the platen roller 21, passes under the platen 19, is pulled by the rear transfer roller 23 and the auxiliary roller 24, and is ejected out of the machine.

On the other hand, the label 14 peeled off from the mount 13 is sent out below the pasting roller 25 at the front end of the machine, and becomes ready to be pasted onto an article.

The transfer sensor 20 is connected to a notch 2 formed at one end corner of the label 14 as shown in FIG.
7 is optically detected, and the transport of the continuous label body 15 is stopped by a control device, which will be described later. Further, a pasting sensor 28 is installed in front of the thermal print head 22 to detect whether the label 14 is pasted to an article.

A stepping motor 29 connected to a control device is installed in the center of the machine, and the rotation of the motor 29 is controlled by a drive belt 30 to the transfer roller 23.
transmitted to.

The display section 11 is provided with, for example, a light emitting diode display 31, and is adapted to display information input to the control device.

Note that the micro switch 12, stepping motor 29, thermal print head 22,
The transfer sensor 20, the application sensor 28 and the light emitting diode display 31 are each connected to the control part of the control unit 2 by a cable 3 extending to the rear of the grip 7.

Next, the control unit 2 will be explained.

The unit 2 is provided with a control section, a power supply section, a keyboard 32, etc. The circuit configuration of the control section will be explained with reference to FIG. 3.
A program storage device (ROM) 52 and an input data storage device (RAM) 53 are connected to a bus line 51 connected to the keyboard 32, the control unit 2, and the printing and pasting unit 1, respectively. Display section 32a, 1
Connected to 1. Furthermore, the bus line 51 is connected to the thermal print head 22 via the printer control circuit 54, to the stepping motor 29 via the stepping motor drive circuit 55, to the transfer sensor 20, the pasting sensor 28, and the micro switch via the buffer circuit 56. 12, respectively. Note that a weighing scale 58 or the like can also be connected to the bus line 51 via an interface 57.

The operation of this embodiment will be explained using bar code printing as an example with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. First, data to be printed is input by operating keys on the keyboard 32 of the control unit 2. Specifically, the information includes product code, price, check digit, etc. Once this input has been made for all digits, enter the number of copies to be issued.

The above data are displayed on the display sections 32a and 11 of the control unit 2 and the printing and pasting unit 1, respectively.

Next, in FIG. 2, when the push button 26 of the printing and pasting unit 1 is pressed to turn on the micro switch 12, a predetermined heating element of the thermal print head 22 generates heat according to a command from the control section, and the label 14 made of thermal recording paper is heated. color develops and one-step printing is performed. Next, the stepping motor 29 rotates one step to rotate the transfer roller 23 by a predetermined angle via the drive belt 30, and the auxiliary roller 24 rotates by a predetermined angle.
In order to pull the mount 13 a predetermined distance by cooperation with
The label series 15 above the platen 19 also moves a predetermined distance. Then, when the thermal print head 22 acts again in the same manner as described above to perform the next step of printing on the label 14, the stepping motor 29 rotates one step and the continuous label 15 is rotated.
moves, and this printing and transport are repeated until printing for one label is completed, and the continuous label body 15 is fed until the transport sensor 20 detects the notch 27 of the label 14 and then stops.

The printed label 14 is peeled off from the mount 13 by the platen roller 21 and sent to the pasting section 10, that is, below the pasting roller 25. Therefore, the label 14 is attached by rubbing the lower surface of the label 14 onto the article. When the pasting of the label 14 is detected by the pasting sensor 28 and the operator presses the push button 26 again, printing by the thermal print head 22 and transport by the stepping motor 29 are alternately performed as before. Then, the next label 14 is printed and sent to the pasting section 10. When all the labels corresponding to the preset number of labels have been issued in this way, the operation of the apparatus is stopped.

In order to position the first sheet (heading), when the switch 12 is turned on, the slapping motor 29 rotates and transports the label continuous body 15 until the transport sensor 20 detects the notch 27 of the label 14. It is configured to align the label 14 in a predetermined position.

Next, the second embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG.
However, since the other parts are the same as the first embodiment, the same numbers as in FIG. 2 are given. That is, a holding part 35 for a ribbon roll 34 on which a thermal transfer ribbon 33 is wound is provided in front of the label roll holding part 6, and a take-up reel 36 for the ribbon 33 is provided above the shafted roll 25 at the front end of the machine. is provided. The take-up reel 36 is connected to the stepping motor 29 by a transmission belt 37, and is configured to rotate together with the motor 29 to take up the ribbon 33. The take-up reel 36 is provided with an appropriate slip mechanism (not shown) in order to keep the amount of the ribbon 33 wound constant in response to changes in the winding diameter of the ribbon 33.

Further, since the labels 14 of the label continuous body 15 do not need to be thermal recording paper, they are made of plain paper.

To explain the operation of this embodiment, the thermal transfer ribbon 33 pulled out from the ribbon roll holding section 35 is
It passes through a guide 38 inside the machine, overlaps the label continuous body 15 at the guide roller 18, is transported while being superimposed at the same speed as the label continuous body 15, passes through the transport sensor 20 and the printing section 9, and is transferred to the guide pin 39 in front of the pasting sensor 28. At this point, only the ribbon 33 is turned upward and wound onto the take-up reel 36. Therefore, when the heating element of the thermal print head 22 generates heat in the printing section 9,
The transfer recording agent (for example, carbon wax) of the ribbon 33 is transferred to the printing surface of the label 14, and printing is performed. Note that the overall operating order is exactly the same as that of the first embodiment, so the explanation will be omitted.

A third embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment is an improved version of the pasting unit 10 located at the front end of the printing and pasting unit 1 as shown in FIGS. The feature is that it can be pasted.

Specifically, a first gear 43 meshes with a driving gear 42 connected to the stepping motor 29 via a transmission belt 41;
A second gear 45 to which a crank arm 44 is attached is engaged with the second gear 45 .

A sliding body 47 is pivotally attached to the upper end of the crank arm 44 by a mounting pin 48 and is capable of vertically sliding in a guide hole 46 formed in a front cover 5a attached to the machine frame 5. A rotating body 59 having a hook 49 is pivotally attached to the hole 47a formed in the hole 47a by the mounting pin 48. In addition,
The rotating body 59 has a spring 6 wound around the mounting pin 48.
0, it is always biased clockwise.

On the other hand, in front of the sliding body 47, a hammer 71 having a U-shaped horizontal section is arranged so as to be movable up and down. A locking portion 72 that can engage with the hook 49 of the rotating body 59 is formed on the rear surface of the hammer 71;
A guide pin 73 protrudes from both sides, and this guide pin 73 and a shaft 63 of a lever 62 to be described later.
A striking spring 74 is stretched between. Also,
The front cover 5 is located in the recess 75 on the front of the hammer 71.
A part holder box 76 formed at a is located. The front cover 5a further includes the box 7.
A pair of guide walls 77 are formed on both sides of the box 6, and vertically elongated guide holes 78 (four locations in total) are formed in each of the guide walls 77 and the side wall of the box 76.

A part holder 79 is housed in the box 76 so as to be vertically movable. The part holder 79
A mounting plate 80 having a bent portion 80a projecting rearward is integrally formed at the lower end of the mounting plate 80.
An adhesive patch 81 made of an elastic material such as rubber is attached to the lower end of 0a. Further, guide holes 82 are bored in both side walls of the parts holder 79, and guide pins 73 attached to the hammer 71 are inserted through these guide holes 82 and four guide holes 78 in the front cover 5a. There is. Inside the pad holder 79, a return spring 83 is interposed between the inner surface of the upper wall of the holder 76 and the guide pin 73. Note that a tapered surface 84 is formed on the front cover 5a so that the hook 49 can come into contact with the rotating body 59 when the rotating body 59 rises.
figure).

Further, below the pasting patch 81, the patch 81 is
A receiving plate 83' is attached to the machine frame, and a receiving plate 83' is formed with a label 14 that can be moved up and down. It is formed.

Next, an issuance switch 61 is provided on the side of the pasting section 82', and this switch 61 is operated by rotating a lever 62 provided below it (FIG. 10). That is, one end of the lever 62 is pivotally connected to the shaft 63 and the other end of the lever 62 is always biased clockwise by the spring 64.
The lever 62 is provided so as to protrude slightly from the lower surface of the issue switch 61, and when the holder 83' is placed on the article to which a label is to be attached, the lever 62 rotates upward and presses the protrusion 65 on the lower surface of the issuing switch 61. and turn on the switch 61.

Further, a spare switch 66 is installed at the bottom of the grip 7. Specifically, a hand lever 68 whose rear end is pivotally connected to the grip 7 and always biased counterclockwise by a return spring 67 is rotatably mounted. When the hand lever 68 is rotated to , the upper surface of the hand lever 68 presses the protrusion 69 of the preliminary switch 66, turning the switch 66 ON.

The thermal print head 22 has a vertically elongated shape, and is pressed against the platen roller 21 by a spring 70. The other configurations are the same as the first embodiment.

To explain the operation of the third embodiment, first input the necessary data into the keyboard 32 of the control unit 2, then grasp the grip 7 of the printing and pasting unit 1 and rotate the hand lever 68 upwards. turns on. Next, when the application port 82' of the holder 83' is pressed against the article to which the label is to be applied, the lever 62 rotates upward and the issuance switch 6 is turned on.
1 is turned on, the printing by the thermal print head 22 and the transfer by the rotation of the stepping motor 29 are repeated in accordance with the command from the control unit, as in the first embodiment, and printing for one label is completed. , the transfer sensor 20 is inserted into the notch 27 at the end of the label.
When detected, the stepping motor 29 is stopped and the label transport is stopped. In this case, the printed label 14 peeled off from the mount 13 which is reversed and pulled backward by the platen roller 21 is delivered to the receiving plate 84' below the pasting pad 81.

Furthermore, during the above-described printing/transferring process, the pasting pad 81 has risen to the upper limit position. That is, the rotation of the stepping motor 29 is controlled by the transmission belt 41, the drive gear 42, the first gear 43, and the second gear 43.
5 and the crank 44 to raise the sliding body 47. At that time, the hook 49 of the rotating body 59 attached to the sliding body 47 is connected to the locking part 72 of the hammer 71.
Since the hammer 71 is also raised by being engaged with the hammer 71, the guide pin 73 attached to the hammer 71 pushes up the part holder 79 while compressing the return spring 83. Next, the part holder 7
The upper surface of the part holder 79 comes into contact with the inner wall upper surface 85 of the front cover 5a, and the part holder 79 stops.
1 increases further. Since the hook 49 comes into contact with the tapered surface 84, the rotating body 59 rotates counterclockwise in FIG. 71 rapidly falls due to the action of the striking spring 74, and its lower surface strongly strikes the upper surface of the mounting plate 80 of the part holder 79. the result,
The patch holder 79 is strongly pressed and the patch 8 is pasted.
1 is attached to the attachment opening 8 along with the label 14 on the receiving plate 84'.
A label 14 is attached to the article by popping out from 2'.
Note that, at the same time as the transfer of the label is stopped due to the detection by the transfer sensor 20, the hook 49 and the hammer 71
Of course, the timing should be set so that the attachment pad 81 falls out of engagement with the attachment pad 81.

After pasting one label as described above, lift up the label pasting unit 1, hold the hand lever 68, turn on the spare switch 66, and press the pedestal 83' against another item to issue the label again. The switch 61 is turned on and printing and pasting are performed in the same manner as above, and this process is repeated until the number of sheets set in advance is reached.

In this embodiment, a spare switch 66 is provided, so even if the printing control unit 1 is placed on an object and the issuing switch 61 is pressed when not in use, the spare switch 66 can be activated by grasping the hand lever 68. Labels will not be issued unless it is turned on.

11 to 13 show other embodiments of the control unit 2, in which FIG. 11 is carried by a handle 86, and FIG. 12 is a wagon type with a trolley 87. , Fig. 13 shows that the control unit 2 is semi-fixedly installed in a location away from the work area such as each sales floor, and is connected to the connector 8 of each work area from here.
8, and the printing and pasting unit 1 is used by connecting it to the connector 88 during pasting work. In addition, in these embodiments,
It goes without saying that any of the first to third embodiments can be used as the printing and pasting unit 1.

Next, a fourth embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. 14.
This embodiment is a modification of FIG. 13, in which reception and transmission are performed wirelessly with a control unit 2 installed at a remote location, and its operation is controlled. That is, an antenna 89, a receiver 90, and a transmitter 91 are provided on the front surface of the printing and pasting unit 1, and the control unit is also provided with an antenna, a receiver, and a transmitter (not shown). Further, a rechargeable battery 92, a charging outlet 93, and a transformer 94 are provided in the grip 7 of the printing and pasting unit 1. Note that the other configurations and operations are the same as those in the first embodiment, so explanations will be omitted.

As described above, the present invention provides a printing and pasting unit having a thermal printing means, a label transporting means, and a label pasting means. Since the control unit is configured to be portable by being attached to the operator's body using a waist belt, shoulder strap, etc., the weight of the printing and pasting unit can be reduced.

Therefore, the printing and pasting unit can be operated with one hand, resulting in good label pasting.
The pasting speed is also fast, greatly improving work efficiency. Furthermore, the keyboard, which is an input device that requires a certain size because it is operated by human fingertips, is separated from the label pasting machine, and it is configured to be attached to the body's waist belt or shoulder strap. The width of the main body of the labeling machine is not affected by the width dimension of the keyboard, and it is possible to provide a main body with a width almost equal to the width of the small label to be issued.

Furthermore, even if a display is used to confirm the data entered from the keyboard, this display can be incorporated into the control unit equipped with the keyboard, so there is no need to incorporate the display into the labeling machine itself. do not have.

Therefore, the labeler main body can be made smaller, and the labeling on the product is extremely accurate, and it is also possible to apply the label to the exact position of the product using the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 54-34800.
Unlike the publication, it is not necessary to apply the label by hand, and the original function of a hand labeler can be fully demonstrated, as it can be applied directly to the product from this machine, so the operability of the label application work is excellent.

Furthermore, the control unit, which is equipped with an input device with a keyboard and a power supply, etc., can be attached directly to the operator's body with a waist belt, shoulder strap, etc., making keyboard operation easy and preventing the control unit from falling. It is also effective in preventing damage to.

Furthermore, since the printing and pasting unit and the control unit are connected by a cable with a connector, if one of the units breaks down, it can be immediately replaced with a spare unit, thereby preventing work from being delayed.

Furthermore, since the heavy power supply and input device are separated from the main body of the labeling unit, a shock protection device for the thermal head is installed inside the machine to prevent the machine from falling due to operational errors. It has the advantage that it is small and does not affect the operability of labeling.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG.
4 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration, FIG. 4 is a flowchart, FIG. 5 is a timing chart, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a label roll and a continuous label body.
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a print pasting unit showing a second embodiment, FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of a print pasting unit showing a third embodiment, and FIG. 9 is an exploded view of parts of the pasting part.
Figure 10 is a side view of the issuance switch part.
1 to 13 are overall views showing other aspects of the control unit, and FIG. 14 is a sectional view of a print and pasting unit showing a fourth embodiment. In the figure, 1...Printing pasting unit, 2...Control unit, 8...Transfer section, 9...Printing section, 10...
Pasting section, 14... label, 22... thermal print head.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Means for supplying and transporting labels to be printed;
means for printing on the label using a thermal recording method;
means for attaching the printed label to the article;
In the label printing and pasting device, the label printing and pasting apparatus includes: a portable printing and pasting unit; a control unit that controls the transport and printing of the label; and a control unit with a keyboard that has a power supply device; Label printing and pasting, characterized in that the unit and the control unit are separated, the two units are connected by a cable with a connector, and the control unit is mounted on the operator's body to make it portable. Device. 2. The label printing and pasting device according to claim 1, wherein the means for equipping the operator's body with the control unit is a waist belt. 3. The label printing and pasting device according to claim 1, wherein the means for equipping the operator's body with the control unit is a shoulder strap.