Abstract: A system and method for reducing and/or eliminating the printed layer-over-layer registration error.

Abstract: A marking element assembly including a yoke which is driven by an arm. The arm is connected to a slider block which transfers motion to the yoke. The yoke has an interior channel for slider block free motion, with drag, after a marking element connected to the yoke stops yoke motion. The slider block moves against interior walls of the yoke dissipating arm motion and providing shock absorption for the marking element.

Abstract: A continuous motion ribbon imprinter moves with and marks a moving web on a packaging machine and has an easily set control adjusting step-by-step advance of the ribbon across the type block to accommodate wide variations in the size of the printed indicia so as to always present just enough length of fresh ribbon to cover the type for the next imprint. A frame mounting the type block and ribbon reels swings in either a clockwise or counterclockwise orbital path having a dwell stroke on the moving web, and a lift stroke spacing the ribbon from the web. The ribbon remains stationary on the type block during the dwell stroke and is advanced across the type block on the lift stroke. A single input shaft drives the frame through its orbital path and also drives the mechanism for unwinding the fresh ribbon from one reel and winding the spent ribbon on a second reel.

Abstract: A hand operated label printing machine in which a series of labels are serially fed onto a printing platen in response to the squeezing of a hand lever so that they may be imprinted with selected indicia. The hand labeler is equipped with a constant pressure printing mechanism interposed between the hand lever and the frame of the hand labeler. That mechanism comprises a biased cam pivotally mounted to the hand lever and a roller on a biased support which support is pivotally mounted to the machine frame. The cam and roller are brought into abutment contact while the hand lever is being squeezed, and springs bias them into abutment and prevent their bypassage. The label printing force is the force that has to be applied for the cam to ride over the roller, which occurs when one of the springs resiliently deforms.

Abstract: In a hand-operated label printing machine, including a hand lever and a printing head attached to the hand lever; a printing pressure buffer mechanism or a constant pressure printing mechanism which comprises: in a first embodiment, a spring-actuated engaging member formed in the hand lever and a cooperating checking shoulder which is formed in the main body of the machine; an inclined groove leads to the shoulder; the shoulder is brought into disengageable engagement with the spring-actuated engaging member for moderating the printing pressure; and when the spring-actuated engaging member rides over the checking shoulder, the printing head is actuated; in a second embodiment, a pressure receiving engaging member is carried on the hand lever, through a lost motion connection; a pressure contact member and a guide member are both carried on the main body of the machine and are spaced apart; the pressure receiving engaging member is integrally provided with a pressure receiving piece having a cam surface at the

Abstract: A rolling parallel printer in which a pressure element is driven through a swiveling motion each printing cycle and a pressure segment thereof rolls off a line of type. The pressure element is connected to a mechanical linkage which minimizes the sweep of travel of the pressure element, while maintaining the pressure element sufficiently far from the type in a rest position to facilitate reading of the printed matter.

Abstract: A contant pressure printing mechanism for use with a hand labeler which prints a label: an actuating lever, which is pivotally connected to the frame of the hand labeler, is divided into a hand lever and a printing lever, and both of these levers are also pivotally connected. A printing head is carried by the printing lever. The hand lever and the printing lever are biased to move together as a unit. The operating lever engages a snap mechanism which applies a preset resistance to rotation of the operating lever as the printing lever is turned toward the printing platen. In one embodiment, the snap mechanism includes a pressure roller and a snap bail. The pressure roller is rotatably mounted to either the hand lever or the frame of the hand labeler while the snap bail is mounted pivotally to the other. As the squeezing of the hand lever increases, the operating lever snaps past the snap mechanism and the snap movement urges the printing lever toward the platen.

Abstract: A constant pressure printing mechanism for use in a portable label printing machine, or the like: a pressing member is attached to a hand operated driving lever which carries the printing head and which is pivotally attached to the machine frame; a separate rocking lever is pivotally attached to the machine frame; a pressure receiving member attached to the rocking lever is in position to be engaged by the pressure member as the driving lever pivots; continued pivoting of the driving lever causes subsequent separation of the pressure receiving and pressure members, thereby again freeing the rocking member from being pivoted; a platen pivotally secured to the machine frame is normally biased away from the printing head; an elastic buffer member is stretched between the rocking lever and the platen for pivoting the platen toward the printing head when the rocking member is pivoted by the pressure member; with the provision of the constant pressure printing mechanism of the invention, the intensity and the conta

Abstract: A constant pressure printing mechanism for use in a label printing machine: the platen is pivotally secured to the machine body; the pivotally supported, hand operated printing levers include a projection, which engages a pivotally supported platen lifting member, and the lifting member is pivoted by the projection to turn the platen toward the printing head, whereby the printing head and the platen are moved near to each other to perform the printing of labels.

Abstract: A constant pressure printing mechanism for a portable label printing machine, or the like, comprising a driving member which is disposed on either the movable hand lever or the stationary hand grip of the label printing machine and a pressure receiving member which is disposed on the other of the hand lever or the hand grip. The invention uses stored energy derived from a manual squeezing operation to produce the printing stroke, independently of the intensity and duration of a manual squeeze. In one form, the driving member comprises a movable roller, a guiding means to allow the movable roller to move therethrough and an elastic means which always urges the movable roller in one direction and the pressure receiving member comprises a contact surface and an arcuate surface to be brought into contact with the above movable member when the hand lever is squeezed.

Abstract: In a printing press comprising a type-bearing heating block, means adapted alternately to apply the block under pressure along a printing surface onto a sheet to be printed located on the surface and to release the block therefrom, and means to interpose a stamping foil between the type-bearing block and a sheet to be printed located on the printing surface, the improvement wherein the printing surface is inclined sufficiently for a printed sheet to slide from the surface under the influence of gravity, and means are provided to hold a sheet in position on the surface which means are releasable by movement of the type-bearing block away from the printing surface after a printing operation to allow the sheet to slide from the printing surface.

Abstract: A feed mechanism for feeding an elongated strip of labels in a portable labeling machine. The label feed mechanism intermittently advances the label strip with an indexed movement in response to the manual gripping and releasing of a grip lever which acts through an actuating member that is pivotally connected to the grip lever. The label feed mechanism includes a rotatable feed wheel, and it includes a drive member which is connected to the actuating member at a position far from the pivot of the actuating member. The drive member may be a combination of a ratchet lever on the actuating member and a ratchet wheel connected to the feed wheel or it may be a combination of a rack on the actuating member and a pinion on the feed wheel. Between the ratchet wheel or the pinion and the feed wheel is a gear assembly that amplifies motion of the ratchet wheel or pinion. Thus, the manual actions of the grip lever are amplified in the motion of the feed wheel to ensure an elongated advancing motion of the label strip.

Abstract: An inking device for record media includes a self-contained ink reservoir bordered by a holder portion as one wall of the reservoir, and a backing plate as another wall adjacent a porous rubber electro pad. The backing plate includes a plurality of chamfered apertures therethrough which are circumscribed by a like number of slotted tubes which tubes separate the backing plate and the holder portion. A steel ball is positioned within each tube and controls the flow of ink from the ink reservoir to the electro pad by reason of swinging movement of the device wherein the ball is unseated from the chamfered aperture in the downward direction of movement upon the electro pad striking the record media to permit flow of ink to the pad, and the ball is reseated on the aperture during return movement of the device to stop the flow of ink to the pad. A low hydraulic pressure occurs during the striking action to unseat the ball and a suction occurs on the return movement to reseat the ball.

Abstract: A printing apparatus for webs continuously moving along a path wherein a printing head is cyclically displaced along a further path which includes a portion extending substantially along the web path, the printing head engaging the web against a displaceable back-up member while traversing said portion of its path, the print head being spaced from the web path during the remaining portion of each cycle. Apparatus is provided for selectively adjusting the velocity of the print head while in engagement with the web and back-up member so that the print head and web are moving at substantially the same velocity. The print head may be a heated die, in which case a heat-released pigment bearing strip is incrementally advanced to the region intermediate the print head and web when the print head is spaced from the web and is engaged against the web by the heated die when the print head engages the web.

Abstract: A printing mechanism comprises a housing, providing a print head carrying a flat type face, and a platen for supporting a forwardly moving sheet that is interposed between the platen and the type face. The platen includes an extended planar portion adjacent the sheet and movable parallel with it. Means are provided for bodily rotating the print head relative to the housing around an axis that is substantially parallel to the plane of the sheet, and in a path lying in a plane that is substantially perpendicular to the plane of the sheet so as to bring the type face into printing contact with the sheet against the platen planar portion; the planar portion is moved parallel with the sheet and at the same linear speed during the printing contact.