Claims
- 1. A printer for printing vehicular transportation documents, said printer comprising, in combination, an ion deposition print engine, feeder means for feeding document forms to be printed into said print engine, and control means for controlling the printing of vehicular transportation passenger information on said forms by said print engine.
- 2. A printer as in claim 1 in which each of said forms bears a magnetic recording area, and magnetic recording means for recording vehicular transportation passenger information in said area, said control means being adapted to control said magnetic recording means.
- 3. A printer as in claim 1 including a housing, in which said feeder means includes drive means for moving said forms from a supply station to said print engine along a path adjacent the upper portion of said housing, said drive means including a drive mechanism and a pivotably mounted closure member bearing a portion of said drive mechanism such that when said closure member is pivoted away from said path a form located in said path is easily removed.
- 4. A printer as in claim 1 said print engine having a stationary print head with an array of spot-forming openings spanning the width of one of said forms, said forms being elongated and relatively narrow in width.
- 5. A printer as in claim 3 in which said housing is adapted to form a drawer slidable into and out of a receptacle in a support structure for ease of access to the mechanism thereof.
- 6. A printer as in claim 1 including an input keyboard device, coupling means for coupling said keyboard device and said printer to a central computer for generating said information to be printed on said forms.
- 7. A printer as in claim 2 said magnetic recording means including a stationary magnetic recording head, pressure means for urging said recording area on each of said forms against said head and for moving said form past said head while recording said information on said area, a reference guide to guide said form past said head in accurate alignment therewith, and alignment means for urging said form against said guide while it is moving past said head.
- 8. A printer as in claim 7 in which said alignment means includes a drive roller adapted to apply to said form a primary thrust in the direction of its motion along said guide, and a secondary thrust towards said guide.
- 9. A printer as in claim 7 in which said pressure means includes a pressure application member with a canted edge shaped to urge said form towards said guide.
- 10. A printer as in claim 1 in which said forms are elongated and relatively narrow in width, and including storage means for storing two stacks of said forms side-by-side, and said feeder means includes longitudinal feed means for feeding forms longitudinally from one of said stacks along a single path to said print engine, and cross-feed means for selectively feeding forms from the other of said stacks sideways to the first-named stack.
- 11. A printer as in claim 10 in which parts of said longitudinal and cross-feed means are pivotably mounted so as to swing up to allow the user to gain access to said stacks and said path and to free any forms therein for repositioning.
- 12. A printer device for printing vehicular transportation documents comprising, in combination, a print engine for printing vehicular transportation passenger information, storage means for storing a vertical stack of sheets on which said indicia are to be printed, a housing, feeder means for feeding said sheets one-at-a-time from the top of said stacks to said print engine, a support structure, at least a portion of said feeder means being mounted on said support structure, said support structure being pivotably secured to said housing to allow it to move upwardly from the path traveled by said sheets toward said print engine to free said sheets and provide manual access to said path and said sheets.
- 13. A device as in claim 12 in which said storage means is adapted to store two stacks of said sheets side-by-side, and said feeder means includes longitudinal feed means for feeding sheets longitudinally from one of said stacks along a single path to said print engine, and cross-feed means for selectively feeding sheets from the other of said stacks sideways to the first-named stack.
- 14. A device as in claim 12 including a one-way prop mechanism for propping said hinged support structure in the "up" position unless manually released, but allowing said hinged support structure to be lifted freely.
- 15. A device as in claim 12 in which each of said sheets bears a magnetic recording area, magnetic recording means at a recording station for recording information on said area as said sheet is being fed by said feeder means, said feeder means including recording drive means for feeding said sheets past said recording means with said recording means aligned and in contact with said area, and means for pivotably mounting said recording drive means to enable said recording drive means to be pivoted upwardly to free and give manual access to sheets at said recording station.
- 16. A device as in claim 12 in which the portion of said feeder means which is mounted on said support structure includes at least one motor driven feed roller which engages the top sheet on said stack when said support structure is in the "down" position.
- 17. A device as in claim 13 in which said feeder means includes at least one cross-feed drive motor and coupled cross-feed rollers, and a long-feed drive motor and coupled roller, said motors and rollers being mounted on said support structure.
- 18. A sheet feeder device for feeding sheets to a print engine for printing on said sheets indicia corresponding to electrical signals, storage means for storing at least two vertical stacks of sheets on which said indicia are to be printed, a housing means for mounting said feeder device in said housing, said sheet feeder device being adapted to feed sheets to said print engine from either of said stacks and including first sheet drive means for moving sheets from a first one of said stacks along a single path to said print engine, and second sheet drive means for moving sheets from a second one of said stacks to said first stack.
- 19. A device as in claim 18 including means for sensing the height of each of said stacks and elevating said stacks to maintain the top sheet thereon at a pre-determined height, said first sheet drive means comprising a first feed roller driven by a motor, and means for lifting said first feed roller when a sheet is being fed from said second stack to said first stack.
- 20. A device as in claim 18 in which said second sheet drive means includes at least one forward feed roller and at least one stripper roller rotatably mounted on a common shaft, clutch means for drivably engaging said forward feed roller with said shaft only when said shaft is rotating in one direction, and for drivably engaging said stripper roller only when said shaft is rotating in the other direction, and means for rotating said shaft first in said one direction, and then in said other in order to feed the top sheet from said second stack to said first stack, and to return the next sheet on said second stack back to the second stack if it has been moved with said top sheet.
- 21. A device as in claim 18 in which said second drive means includes a first set of forward feed rollers and a second set of forward feed rollers downstream from said first set, said sheets having a mark at a pre-determined location, means for sensing said mark and operating said feed rollers in response to the position of said mark.
- 22. A magnetic recorder/printer for magnetically recording information on a magnetic recording area of an elongated printable sheet, means for storing a stack of said sheets, a print engine and magnetic recording means, feed means for feeding said sheets to said print engine and past said recording means with said recording area aligned with said magnetic recording means, edge guide means for guiding sheets past said recording means, and means for biasing said sheets against said edge guide means.
- 23. A device as in claim 22 in which said feed means includes a pressure foot for pressing said recording area against said recording means so said sheets move past said recording means, said pressure foot having a canted edge to urge said sheet against said edge.
- 24. A device as in claim 22 in which said feed means includes a feed roller of flexible gripping material with flutes slanted at an angle to the axis of rotation so as to urge said sheet towards said guide means.
- 25. A magnetic recorder/printer for magnetically recording information on a magnetic recording area of an elongated printable sheet, means for storing a stack of said sheets, a print engine and magnetic recording means, feed means including at least one roller mounted on a carriage, a support structure, said roller being retractably mounted on said support structure, and a manually-operable latch means for securing said carriage in driving position for driving said sheet, said latch means being manually releasable to give manual access to a sheet located within said feed means.
- 26. A device as in claim 25 including a pressure foot for pressing said recording area against said recording means so said sheets moves past said recording means, said pressure foot being mounted on said support structure.
- 27. A device as in claim 25 in which said carriage is pivotably mounted on said support structure to be pivoted upwardly, and said latch means includes a toggle mechanism with resilient means for biasing said roller, and a mating roller mounted on said support structure in a position to mate with the first-named roller when latched into recording position.
- 28. A method of printing elongated transportation coupons, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) storing coupon forms at a storage station;
- (b) upon demand therefore feeding said forms longitudinally from said storage station through an ion deposition print engine;
- (c) controlling the operation of said print engine to print desired graphic images representing transportation information on said coupon by moving said forms through said print engine longitudinally past a stationary print head while forming said graphic images.
- 29. The printer of claim 1, wherein the control means comprises means for controlling the printing of airline passenger information on airline coupons by said print engine.
- 30. The printer device of claim 12, wherein the print engine comprises means for printing airline passenger information on airline coupons.
- 31. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of controlling the operation of said print engine comprises controlling said engine to print airline passenger information on airline coupons.
Parent Case Info
This application is a division of Ser. No. 051,046, filed May 15, 1989, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,851,864.
US Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
4560243 |
McCumber et al. |
Dec 1985 |
|