1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to printers and, more particularly, to printers that print media with adhesive backing.
Applications for printers have called for an adhesive layer to be added to the back of the print media. Once printed, the media can then be adhered to objects like a “post-it” note. McDonald's Corporation is using this “linerless” print media on drive-thru lanes in its restaurants. The adhesive layer on the linerless media presents many problems for the printer. As it is fed through the mechanism and printed, the adhesive is transferred to the platen, cutter, and other parts of the mechanism. Once this adhesive builds up on the mechanism, failures occur. Frequent service calls of the printer are required to clean the mechanism of this adhesive build up. Customer dissatisfaction results because of the poor reliability and the high cost of preventative maintenance. Printer manufacturers have designed mechanisms with special materials and coatings to minimize the transfer of the adhesive layer to the mechanism.
The use of special materials and coatings minimize the preventative maintenance required by the customer, but does not eliminate it. Also, the reliability failures that result from the buildup are minimized but not eliminated.
The printer using these special coated papers use higher energy to image the paper. The coating on the top of these papers reduces the transfer of adhesive to the printer, but the coating forces the printer to use more energy to image the paper. Also, the adhesive on the back of the paper requires more force and higher power to feed through the printer mechanism. The adhesive sticks to the top side and must be separated during the feed operations requiring more power from the printer.
The printer requires special features to operate the paper low function. Since the paper does not separate easily from the supply roll, it often rolls out of the paper bucket as it gets smaller in diameter and lighter in mass. The printer will need some extra parts to hold the roll using this special paper in place so that the paper low and paper out status can be accurately measured and reported to the host.
It would be advantageous to provide a low maintenance/maintenance free printer that can image print media with adhesive backing.
It would also be advantageous to provide a printer that can activate an adhesive layer on the print media after the media has been fed through the mechanism so that the adhesive layer will not transfer to parts of the printer.
It would further be advantageous to provide a programmable array on a printer that can activate an adhesive layer on the print media in various patterns. This would allow the user to control the location and size of the surface of the adhesive on the back of the print media.
It would further be advantageous to provide print media that can be mass produced in one configuration and then customized for the end user by the printer mechanism. The location and size of the adhesive is controlled by the programmable array. The paper roll manufacturer does not need to customize the location and size of the adhesive at the paper convertor. All rolls can be produced to the same specification and the cost for the media can be driven lower as a result.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a printer that prints on media with an adhesive layer backing with a heat absorption substance. The printer contains control board with electronics and firmware to control the printer' s various functions. It contains media storage to hold the print media, and a platen mechanism to feed the media. It contains a printhead to image the print media. The printer has a programmable array to activate the adhesive layer of the media once the imaging is complete and fed past the knife blades. It contains a knife mechanism which cuts the media once the imaging and adhesive activation is complete.
A complete understanding of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the accompanying drawings, when considered in conjunction with the subsequent, detailed description, in which:
For purposes of clarity and brevity, like elements and components will bear the same designations and numbering throughout the Figures.
Since other modifications and changes varied to fit particular operating requirements and environments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention is not considered limited to the example chosen for purposes of disclosure, and covers all changes and modifications which do not constitute departures from the true spirit and scope of this invention.
Having thus described the invention, what is desired to be protected by Letters Patent is presented in the subsequently appended claims.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/578,273, filed Dec. 21, 2011, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61578273 | Dec 2011 | US |