Abstract: A thermal printer early printhead failure prediction system detects possible printhead and/or printing clement failure in response to the sensed resistance of the printhead or an individual element thereof. A microprocessor of the printer monitors the resistive trends of the printing elements. A warning is generated when a characteristic of the resistive trend exceeds a predetermined boundary.

Abstract: There is disclosed a composite label web and methods of making and using same. The composite label web has a carrier web and a label material web releasably adhered thereto by pressure sensitive adhesive. The label material web is butt cut laterally at equally longitudinally spaced intervals. The carrier web is perforation cut laterally at equally longitudinally spaced intervals. The butt cuts and the perforation cuts are longitudinally offset to provide a tab. The invention provides the cost and manufacturing advantages of a butt composite label web plus the feature of ease of separation of the leading label from the carrier web.

Abstract: There is disclosed a portable printer for printing on either tags or labels. Its print head assembly includes a thermal print head, a platen roll. The printer has a housing with front, rear and top portions, a single horizontal printed circuit board, and a vertically extending battery pack which is releasably attached to the rear portion and is directly plug-connectable to the circuit board. The print head assembly, a peel roller and a releasable presser roll are located at the front portion of the housing. The print head assembly includes a spring arrangement for urging the print head into pressure contact with the platen roll. The spring arrangement has main springs and an auxiliary spring. The auxiliary spring bears against the housing and the print head assembly.

Abstract: A printing system for printing characters in various fonts and formats onto webs of sheet stock of various sizes includes apparatus for cutting the web into various lengths to accommodate various formats as well as for providing different lengths of tags which are interposed between batches of tags to permit easy separation of the batches. A stacker is also provided which selectively stacks the tags in a shingle fashion or into piles. Circuitry is provided to detect jams in the system and to assure that the proper size web corresponding to the selected format is used. Also, the system is provided with circuitry for adjusting the line print position to compensate for positioning errors caused by mechanical tolerances in the printers.

Abstract: A printer utilizes an automatic stacker that has a conveyor belt whose speed and increment of advance is varied as a function of the size of the tag being printed in order to provide a more even overlap when different size tags are stacked in a shingle fashion.

Abstract: A printing system for printing characters in various fonts and formats onto webs of sheet stock of various sizes includes apparatus for cutting the web into various lengths to accommodate various formats as well as for providing different lengths of tags which are interposed between batches of tags to permit easy separation of the batches. A stacker is also provided which selectively stacks the tags in a shingle fashion or into piles. Circuitry is provided to detect jams in the system and to assure that the proper size web corresponding to the selected format is used. Also, the system is provided with circuitry for adjusting the line print position to compensate for positioning errors caused by mechanical tolerances in the printers.

Abstract: A printing system for printing characters in various fonts and formats onto webs of sheet stock of various sizes includes apparatus for cutting the web into various lengths to accommodate various formats as well as for providing different lengths of tags which are interposed between batches of tags to permit easy separation of the batches. A stacker is also provided which selectively stacks the tags in a shingle fashion or into piles. Circuitry is provided to detect jams in the system and to assure that the proper size web corresponding to the selected format is used. Also, the system is provided with circuitry for adjusting the line print position to compensate for positioning errors caused by mechanical tolerances in the printers.

Abstract: A printing system for printing characters in various fonts and formats onto webs of sheet stock of various sizes includes apparatus for cutting the web into various lengths to accommodate various formats as well as for providing different lengths of tags which are interposed between batches of tags to permit easy separation of the batches. A stacker is also provided which selectively stacks the tags in a shingle fashion or into piles. Circuitry is provided to detect jams in the system and to assure that the proper size web corresponding to the selected format is used. Also, the system is provided with circuitry for adjusting the line print position to compensate for positioning errors caused by mechanical tolerances in the printers.

Abstract: A printing system for printing characters in various fonts and formats onto webs of sheet stock of various sizes includes apparatus for cutting the web into various lengths to accommodate various formats as well as for providing different lengths of tags which are interposed between batches of tags to permit easy separation of the batches. A stacker is also provided which selectively stacks the tags in a shingle fashion or into piles. Circuitry is provided to detect jams in the system and to assure that the proper size web corresponding to the selected format is used. Also, the system is provided with circuitry for adjusting the line print position to compensate for positioning errors caused by mechanical tolerances in the printers.

Abstract: A high quality, variable font, matrix printer employs a precise carriage position control system that precisely determines the position of the carriage at discrete positions in combination with a variable time delay in the matrix element firing circuit to permit each printed matrix element to be positioned at one of the various carriage positions, or between discrete carriage positions, thereby permitting essentially continuous horizontal lines and high quality characters of various fonts and sizes to be printed. In such a system, the positions of the elements forming the particular characters to be printed are defined by stored information representative of carriage position and time delay. Essentially continuous vertical lines are generated by precisely controlling the paper feed to permit matrix element overlap, and characters larger than the printing matrix may be generated utilizing multiple printing passes with an appropriate paper advance.