The present invention relates to the field of label and receipt printers. More specifically, the present invention relates to a printer that is configurable for different paper sizes and corresponding methods.
Printers that print from paper rolls are widely used in various locations, including at the point of sale in retail establishments, in kiosk such as ATM and ticket machines, lottery machines, and anywhere the printing of labels is required, such as in the food preparation area of fast food restaurants or the like. Such printers include label printers, ticket printers, receipt printers, and the like (collectively referred to herein as “label and receipt printers”).
However, typical label and receipt printers are configured to accept a single size of paper roll. With such printers, there is no need to program or configure a cutter mechanism or a print mechanism for different paper widths or for different types of paper (e.g., plain paper, sticky label paper, etc.).
For certain applications or customer locations, it is desirable to have separate printers for both receipts and/or labels which use paper rolls of different widths or different paper types. To avoid the need to have two separate printers for accommodating paper rolls of different widths and types, the Assignee of the present invention, TransAct Technologies Inc., is developing a printer that can be configured to accept paper rolls of different widths and to print on paper rolls of different types.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous for such a printer to be automatically configured for accepting, printing on and cutting paper rolls of different widths and different types. It would also be advantageous to enable automatic configuration of a print energy, print speed, and print scale based on the size or type of paper present in the printer.
The methods and apparatus of the present invention provide the foregoing and other advantages.
The present invention relates to a printer that is configurable for different paper sizes and corresponding methods for configuring a printer.
In accordance with one example embodiment of a configurable printer for different paper sizes and types in accordance with the present invention, the configurable printer may comprise a print mechanism, a controller for controlling the print mechanism, a paper bucket for receiving a first sized paper roll to be printed, a divider for the paper bucket for reducing a width of the paper bucket to accept a second sized paper roll which is smaller than the first sized paper roll, and a bucket sensor adapted to sense at least one of insertion of the divider into the paper bucket and removal of the divider from the paper bucket and to provide a paper size signal to the controller. The controller controls the print mechanism in response to the paper size signal from the bucket sensor.
The controller may reduce at least one of a print area and a speed of the print mechanism in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor senses the insertion of the divider into the paper bucket. The controller may increase at least one of a print area and a speed of the print mechanism in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor senses the removal of the divider from the paper bucket.
The configurable printer may further comprise a cutter mechanism for cutting the paper roll. The controller may control a length of travel of the cutter mechanism in response to the paper size signal from the bucket sensor. For example, the controller may reduce the length of travel of the cutter mechanism in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor senses the insertion of the divider into the paper bucket. The controller may increase the length of travel of the cutter mechanism in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor senses the removal of the divider from the paper bucket.
The controller may reduce a scale of text to be printed in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor senses the insertion of the divider into the paper bucket. The controller may increase a scale of text to be printed in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor senses the removal of the divider from the paper bucket.
The first sized paper roll may be, for example 80 mm wide. The second sized paper roll may be, for example, 40 mm wide. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the paper bucket and divider may be configured to accept various sizes of paper rolls. It is also conceivable that the configurable printer can be designed to accept three different sized paper rolls, e.g., by providing two separate areas for insertion of the divider.
Label printers may use a paper roll with glue or other adhesive on one side for printing sticky labels rather than plain thermal paper rolls. Such rolls containing adhesive may include evenly spaced-apart black dots or lines denoting print areas for the sticky labels. To accommodate the use of sticky label paper rolls, the configurable printer may further comprise a paper sensor for sensing a presence of black marks (e.g., lines or dots) on the paper roll and providing a paper type signal to the controller. The controller, in response to the paper type signal indicating the presence of black marks, may at least one of decreases a print speed of the print mechanism and increases an energy of the print mechanism to better print on the sticky paper roll. For example, the second sized (smaller) paper roll may be an adhesive backed paper roll, and the black marks may denote a location of adhesive, which is positioned between the black marks.
The bucket sensor may comprise an optical sensor residing on a controller board of the printer. A flag may be provided for triggering the bucket sensor upon insertion of the divider into the paper bucket and contacting the flag. One or more protrusions on the divider may depress the flag to trigger the bucket sensor to indicate the insertion of the divider into the paper bucket. At least one of the one or more protrusions may serve to fix the divider in the paper bucket.
In an example embodiment of a method for configuring a printer for different paper sizes and types in accordance with the present invention, the method may comprise: providing a divider for a paper bucket for reducing a width of the paper bucket; sensing at least one of insertion of the divider into the paper bucket and removal of the divider from the paper bucket via a bucket sensor; and providing a paper size signal for use in controlling a print mechanism in response to the paper size signal. The paper bucket is adapted for receiving a first sized paper roll without the divider and to receive a second sized paper roll with the divider, the second sized paper roll being smaller than the first sized paper roll.
The method may also include additional features discussed above in connection with the various embodiments of the corresponding configurable cutter mechanism.
The present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawing figures, wherein like reference numerals denote like elements, and:
The ensuing detailed description provides exemplary embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention. Rather, the ensuing detailed description of the exemplary embodiments will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing an embodiment of the invention. It should be understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
The controller may be implemented on a controller board 20 of the printer 10.
The controller may reduce at least one of a print area and a speed of the print mechanism 12 in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor 18 senses the insertion of the divider 16 into the paper bucket 14. The controller may increase at least one of a print area and a speed of the print mechanism 12 in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor 18 senses the removal of the divider 16 from the paper bucket 14.
The configurable printer 10 may further comprise a cutter mechanism 22 for cutting the paper roll, which may be configured and controlled based on the paper size signal. The cutter mechanism 22 may comprise a rotary cutter mounted for rotation about a rotation axis and for translation across at least a portion of a width of a paper path perpendicular to the rotation axis. An example of such a configurable cutter mechanism is described in detail in a commonly-owned application entitled “Configurable Cutter Mechanism For a Printer and Method For Configuring a Cutter Mechanism For a Printer” filed on the same date as the present application, which is incorporated herein and made a part hereof by reference.
The controller may control a length of travel of the cutter mechanism 22 in response to the paper size signal from the bucket sensor 18. For example, the controller may reduce the length of travel of the cutter mechanism 22 in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor 18 senses the insertion of the divider 16 into the paper bucket 14. The controller may increase the length of travel of the cutter mechanism 22 in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor 18 senses the removal of the divider 16 from the paper bucket 14.
In addition, the cutter mechanism 22 may be configured to make partial or full cuts of the paper. For example, if a 40 mm paper roll is sensed, the controller may limit the cutter mechanism 22 to a paper path that is 39 columns long and if an 80 mm paper roll is sensed, the controller may limit the cutter mechanism 22 to a paper path that is 79 columns long, resulting in a partial cut of the paper roll (a full cut corresponding to a 40 or 80 column paper path for the 40 and 80 mm rolls, respectively). The cutter mechanism 22 may be controlled such that a full cut is completed at selected intervals (e.g., every third or fifth cut).
The controller may reduce a scale of text to be printed by the print mechanism 12 in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor 18 senses the insertion of the divider 16 into the paper bucket 14. The controller may increase a scale of text to be printed in accordance with the paper size signal when the bucket sensor 18 senses the removal of the divider 16 from the paper bucket 14. For example, when the bucket sensor 18 senses the insertion of the divider 16, the controller may slow the print mechanism 12 to approximately 8 inches per second. When the divider 16 is removed, the controller may speed the print mechanism 12 up to approximately 12 inches per second.
As shown in
Label printers may use a paper roll with glue or other adhesive on one side for printing sticky labels rather than plain thermal paper rolls. Such rolls containing adhesive may include evenly spaced apart black dots or lines denoting print areas for the sticky labels. To accommodate the use of sticky label paper rolls, the configurable printer 10 may further comprise a paper sensor 32 for sensing a presence of black marks (e.g., lines or dots) on the paper roll and providing a paper type signal to the controller. The controller, in response to the paper type signal indicating the presence of black marks, may at least one of decreases a print speed of the print mechanism 12 and increases an energy of the print mechanism 12 to better print on the sticky paper roll. For example, as shown in
The controller may accept signals from both the bucket sensor 18 and the paper type sensor 32. In such an embodiment, the signal from the bucket sensor 18 will set the paper size for the printer and the controller will configure the print area and length of travel of the cutter mechanism 22 in accordance therewith. The signal from the paper sensor 32 will set the paper type and the controller will configure the print speed and print energy in accordance therewith.
The bucket sensor 18 may comprise an optical sensor residing on a controller board 20 of the printer 10. A flag 19 may be provided for triggering the bucket sensor 18 upon insertion of the divider 16 into the paper bucket 14 and contacting the flag 19. One or more protrusions 21 on the divider 16 may depress the flag 19 to trigger the bucket sensor 18 to indicate the insertion of the divider 16 into the paper bucket 14 (as shown in
For example, the sensor 18 may be a slotted sensor as shown in the detailed views of
Although the Figures show a flag-type bucket sensor 18, those skilled in the art will appreciate that other types of sensors may also be used to detect the presence of the divider 16, such as an optical sensor without a flag, a hall effect sensor, a mechanical switch, a magnetic switch, various configurations of the flag-type sensor, or the like. It is also possible for the divider 16 to be configured to directly trigger the slotted sensor 18.
At least one of the one or more protrusions 21 may serve to fix the divider 16 in the paper bucket 14. In particular, protrusions 21 on the divider 16 may be accommodated in depressions or openings 23 in the paper bucket 14. One or more of the protrusions 21 may be slotted and adapted to interlock or snap into a corresponding extension in an opening 23 in the paper bucket 14.
It should now be appreciated that the present invention provides an advantageous configurable printer which can be used with different sized paper rolls, as well as corresponding methods for configuring such a printer for different sized paper rolls.
Although the invention has been described in connection with various illustrated embodiments, numerous modifications and adaptations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.
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