Abstract:
There is disclosed a composite label web and method of date coding, whether pre-printed color-coded labels can be overprinted in a hand held portable thermal labeler to enable a color relating to a selected day of the week to be highlighted and date-related information to be encoded.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    A related application is application Ser. No. 11/471,902, filed Jun. 21, 2006. 
     
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    This invention relates to the field of date-coded labels and method of date coding. 
         [0004]    2. Brief Description of the Prior Art 
         [0005]    It is known to use date coding in connection with perishable goods such as meats and produce to indicate expiration times and/or dates. The date code can be applied either to the goods or to packaging for the goods. It is known to date code by words, numbers and/or colors. When colors are used, there is a different color to designate each day of the week. One such system in use in the United States for color-coding perishable goods designates blue for Monday, yellow for Tuesday, red for Wednesday, brown for Thursday, green for Friday, orange for Saturday and black for Sunday. 
         [0006]    The following prior art is made of record: U.S. Pat. Des. 514,154; U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,544; U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,503; U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,462; U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,909; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,910,227. 
         [0007]    It is known to date code by using an electronic thermal table-top printer to overprint adhesive backed labels which were preprinted with colors in zones, with a different colored zone for each of six days of the week and the color black for Sunday was printed by thermal direct printing. All of the colored zones of up to six days of the week are obliterated by overprinting by thermal direct printing, except for the colored zone representative of a selected day of the week. In either case, the name of the day of the week was thermally printed adjacent to the colored zone corresponding to the selected day of the week. This arrangement required substantial investment and required that the user return to the thermal printer at a fixed location each time the user needed a label or labels. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0008]    Use of the label web of the invention in a hand-held thermal printer enables the user to print, dispense and apply date coding labels at the rate where they are to be applied without the user having to go back and forth between a stationary printer and the site of application. 
         [0009]    A specific embodiment of a method of date coding comprises providing a hand-held, portable thermal labeler including a hand-held portable housing, the housing having a label roll space, a thermal print head to print on thermal labels and an applicator roll for applying printed labels, providing a composite label web in roll form in the label roll space, the composite label web including a carrier web having a release coating, a series of labels having opposite faces, a coating of pressure sensitive adhesive on one face of each label releasably adhered to the release coating, the other face of each label having a thermal coating, each label having a set of seven printed zones over the thermal coating, the seven zones being comprised of seven different colors representative of seven days of the week, printing at least one mark adjacent one and only one selected zone to highlight the selected day of the week. 
         [0010]    According to a specific embodiment, there is provided an improved label web capable of being printed in a thermal hand-held labeler, wherein the label web has a carrier web with a release coating, a series of labels with opposite faces, a coating of pressure sensitive adhesive on one face of each label releasably adhered to the release coating, and the other face of each label having a thermal coating. Each label having a set of seven printed zones over the thermal coating, the seven zones being of seven different colors representative of seven days of the week, and at least one label having at least one thermally printed mark adjacent one and only selected zone to highlight the selected day of the week without obliterating any zone. 
     
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DIAGRAMMATIC DRAWINGS 
         [0011]      FIG. 1  is a fragmentary top plan view of a composite label web used for date coding; 
           [0012]      FIG. 2  is a fragmentary bottom plan view of the composite label web; 
           [0013]      FIG. 3  is an enlarged sectional view taken along line  3 - 3  of  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0014]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view of a thermal hand-held portable labeler used to print and apply date-coding pressure sensitive thermal labels from the composite label web; and 
           [0015]      FIG. 5  is a fragmentary partly sectional view of the hand-held portable thermal labeler shown in  FIG. 4 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0016]    With reference to  FIGS. 1 and 3 , there is disclosed a longitudinally extending composite label web C including labels L releasably adhered to a longitudinally extending carrier web W. Upper surface  10  of the carrier web is provided with a uniform coating of a release material such as silicone  11 . The labels L are comprised of label material  12 . Pressure sensitive or tacky adhesive  13  is adhered to lower surface  14  of the label material  12 . A uniform thermal coating  15  is applied to upper surface  16  of the label material  12 . An optional barrier coating  17  can be applied over the thermal coating  15 . 
         [0017]    The composite label web C is paid out of a roll R ( FIG. 5 ) and can be printed in a thermal hand-held portable labeler shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5 . Lines of complete severing  18  ( FIGS. 1 and 2 ) are shown to divide the label material  12  into end-to-end labels L. The labels L in the roll R can be preprinted with zones Z 1  through Z 7  during the label making process. According to one convention, the days of the week Monday through Sunday are represented by the colors blue for Monday, yellow for Tuesday, red for Wednesday, brown for Thursday, Green for Friday, orange for Saturday and black for Sunday in zones Z 1  through Z 7 , respectively. The zones Z 1  through Z 7  are printed directly onto the barrier coating  17 , or if a barrier coating  17  is omitted, then directly onto the thermal coating  15 . The zones Z 1  through Z 7  are shown to be generally rectangular with the long dimension extending longitudinally, although other shapes such as circular, square and so forth can be used instead. The labels can be printed with text T as shown in  FIG. 1  and/or with graphics, bar codes and other indicia. 
         [0018]      FIG. 3  shows the underside of the composite web C with printed registration marks as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,462 for registering the labels L in the labeler. 
         [0019]    With reference to  FIG. 1 , the composite label web is shown to move in the direction of arrow A. The leading label L, is shown to have been encoded by thermally printing a highlighting mark  19  around the zone Z 3  representative by color of Wednesday. The mark  19  is shown to be a rectangle formed by a continuous line but the line can be intermittent, or a different mark such as an arrow (not shown) pointing to the zone Z 3  can be used. Also the zones Z 1  through Z 7  can be circles and the marks  19  can be larger circles. The mark  19  shown to be slightly spaced from zone Z 3 , but it can be a continuous border around zone Z 3  if desired. The mark  19  can be used to highlight any selected zone Z 1  through Z 7 . There can be encoding of text T relating to date coding as shown in  FIG. 1 . 
         [0020]    The composite label web C is shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5  to be used in a hand-held portable thermal label printer or labeler  110 . The composite label web passes from the roll R beneath a roller  125  to between a platen roll  119  and a cooperating thermal print head  120  to print on the labels. L. An electric motor  122  drives the platen roll  119  while the print head  120  prints. The platen roll  119  advances the composite label web C to and beyond the platen roll to a delaminator  121 . As the carrier web W makes a sharp bend about the delaminator  121 , the label L projects from the front of the printer  110  beneath and in label applying relationship to an applicator  147  shown to be in the form of an applicator roll. The carrier web W passes from there to and partially around a direction changing roll  123 , from there the web W passes between a feed roll  125 ′ driven by the motor  122  and a back-up roll  127 , and from there the web W passes out of the printer through an exit opening  129 . 
         [0021]    As shown, the roll R is mounted in a space within the housing  112  on a label roll holder  131 . 
         [0022]    The printer  110  also includes a bar code scanner  126  aligned with a window  126 ′ for scanning bar codes and a radio card  145  for communicating with a host computer (not shown). The housing  112  includes a movable upper housing section  112   a  and a lower housing section  112   b  to which a handle  116  is attached. A keyboard  140  is used to enter data and a display  144  displays data, prompts and the like. 
         [0023]    Other embodiments and modifications of the invention will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art, and all such of these as come within the spirit of this invention are included within its scope as best defined by the appended claims.