Abstract:
There is disclosed a method using thermal and inkjet printing and a combination thermal and inkjet printer includes a thermal print head, an inkjet print head and at least one motor for driving a web of record members, such as labels past the thermal print head and the inkjet print head. A controller controls the thermal print head and the inkjet print head while the inkjet print head remains stationary to print on a record member as the record member moves continuously past each of the print heads at the same speed to provide a simple, fast and inexpensive and less complex combination thermal and inkjet printer than prior combination printers. The thermal print head is used to print data and the ink jet print head is used to print marks of any of various contrasting colors.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The present invention relates to the field of printing on record members such as tickets, tags, labels and other printable media. 
   2. Brief Description of the Prior Art 
   The following prior art is made of record: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,846,503; U.S. Patent 5,462,909; U.S. Patent 5,561,500; U.S. Patent 5,570,451; U.S. Patent 5,592,262; U.S. Patent 5,748,204; EP 0 361 780B1; EP 0 782 929B1; and EP 0 928 698B1. 
   It is known to print data on record members in a web in a printer, wherein a marking pen of a selected color mounted in the printer and held against the web marks a color stripe along the entire length of the web as the web moves through the printer. 
   Prior to the present invention, the retail industry supplied record members made from rolls of different color stock or record members preprinted with different colored stripes or indicia thereon. However, this required a large inventory of supply rolls of the various colors and also the supply roll in the printer had to be changed for printing the record members with different color stock or colored stripes. This was an extremely cumbersome and expensive operation for the retailer. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   This invention relates to an improved printer that uses both a thermal print head and an ink jet print head. The thermal print head is controlled to print data on record members of a web, and the ink jet print head is used to print marks such as longitudinal stripes or other shapes or data on the record members in a variety of colors. In the illustrated embodiment, the color of the mark is matched to and is related to the size printed on the record member, there being a different color code for each size. Typically, the thermal printing is accomplished by having thermally coated record members or by having plain paper record members using a thermal ink ribbon. The color of the printing using either thermal direct or thermal transfer printing is usually black, although color thermal papers and colored ink ribbons are commercially available that can cause data to be printed in selected colors. However, because of the cost of such color-printing with thermal papers and ink ribbons is higher than printing data in black, it is preferred to use standard thermal papers or ink ribbons that print in the color black. 
   An inkjet printer could print both the variable data and color marks, but at higher cost and slower speed than the combination printer of the invention. 
   According to the present invention, it is desired to print data using a thermal print head to produce black printing, and to use an ink jet print head to print visually identifiable marks in any selected color. For example, when printing marks to indicate one of several sizes, one of several different colors can be printed selectively. If, on the other hand, date coding is desired, there can be a different color for each day of the week. The marks can be in a stripe running from end-to-end of a record member, or they can be intermittent such as a bar, or a selected shape, dots, data, or the like. The mark can be over or adjacent part or all of the data. When the mark is over or adjacent part of the thermally printed data, that part of the data is thereby highlighted without being obscured. 
   It is preferred that the printing of the thermal data and the color-contrasting marks can occur while the web of record members is moving continuously through the printer without forming a loop or intermittent motion in the web during movement of the web. Accordingly, a single motor can be used to advance the web by means of one or more web advancing rolls driven by the motor. 
   A feature of the invention is that the control system enables the full content of the record members to be printed including the color and location of the colored marks, without the need for operator attention to generate correct combinations of printed text and marks of selected colors and locations. 
   It is a feature of the invention to provide a narrow ink jet print head which is substantially narrower than the thermal print head in the direction lateral to the movement of the web. It is preferred that the inkjet print head be stationary during use, and that only narrow marks be printed. This enables a low cost print head to be used. 
   These and other advantages and novel features of the present invention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DIAGRAMMATIC DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  a perspective view of a printer in accordance with the invention; 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of the printer; 
       FIG. 3  is a top plan view of certain components of the printer showing resulting printing on a web of record members. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   A combination thermal and inkjet printer  10  as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2  includes a thermal print head  12  and an inkjet print head  14  for printing on a web of record members  16  such as tickets, labels, tags or the like dispensed from a supply roll web  18  that is supported in or on the combination printer in any manner known in the art. The print head  12  and the print head  14  are preferably stationary during use, however, the print head  14  is manually or automatically settable to print at different positions across the width of the web  18 . The inkjet print head is narrow and, indeed, substantially narrower than the width of the web of record members and substantially narrower than the width of the thermal print head  12 . Accordingly, the print head  14  need only be wide enough to print the desired width stripe or mark  15 . As shown, the print head  14  is wider than the mark  15 , but it can be narrower yet. Accordingly, the narrow inkjet print head is low cost because it has relatively few nozzles. The combination printer  10  includes a single motor  20  that drives a platen roller  19  cooperating with the thermal print head  12  for moving the web of labels past both the thermal print head  12  and the inkjet print head  14  at the same speed. The cross-web positioning of the inkjet print head takes place during initialization of the printer  10  prior to printing a batch of record members which use the same format. When a different set-up is required to print the marks by use of the inkjet print head at a different lateral position across the web, then the inkjet print head  14  is repositioned. 
   The thermal print head  12  preferably extends across the entire width of the label web to enable the thermal print head to print at any location across the width of the label  16 , where the width of the label web extends in a direction perpendicular to the direction of web movement. The inkjet print head has one or more sets of nozzles  24 ,  26 ,  28  and  30  for dispensing ink of a given color where the nozzles for the same color ink may extend across the width of the web for inkjet printing at any position across the width of the web. However, in a preferred embodiment, the nozzles for dispensing ink of one color do not extend across the entire width but only partially thereacross. In this embodiment, the nozzles of the replaceable inkjet print head  14  are supported on a movable frame  21 . A second motor  22  is used to rotate a screw  22 ′ to move the frame  21  of the inkjet print head  14  into a desired position while guided on a rod  21 ′ laterally across the width of the web, i.e. in a direction perpendicular to the web movement to allow the inkjet print head  14  to print at any position across the width of the web. 
   As shown in  FIG. 3 , the inkjet print head  14  preferably includes nozzles for dispensing more then one color of ink. In a preferred embodiment, the inkjet print head  14  includes one or more nozzles  24  for dispensing cyan ink, one or more nozzles  26  for dispensing magenta ink, one or more nozzles  28  for dispensing yellow ink and optionally one or more nozzles  30  for dispensing black ink. As discussed above, the nozzles dispensing ink of the same color are positioned adjacent to each other in a direction that extends across or partially across the width of the web  32 . The nozzles  24 ,  26 ,  28  and  30  associated with the different colors are aligned along the length of the label web  32  in the direction  34  of the web movement. By actuating nozzles that are aligned in the direction of web movement  34  but associated with different colors such as cyan and yellow, for example, the inkjet printer can combine the three colors magenta, cyan and yellow to print in a wider variety of colors. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the web  16  travels in the direction of arrow  34  past the thermal print head  12  having closely spaced dot heating elements  13  and past the inkjet print head  14  having the rows of the nozzles  24 ,  26 ,  28  and  30 . The print head  12  illustrated as having printed the same data D, namely “Size 8”, “Ladies Blouse” and a bar code on each record member  16 . The inkjet print head  14  is shown as printing a mark  15  in a selected color over part of the data to highlight without obscuring that part of the data. The size “8” could also be printed in the same color as the mark  15 , if desired. It saves ink to print discontinuous marks  15  as shown, however, continuous marks can be printed, if desired. In the illustrated embodiment, the record members  16  are labels adhered by pressure sensitive adhesive A to a carrier web W. 
   In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the inkjet print head  14  is controlled to print lines of one or more contrasting colors on a given record member, i.e. label, tag or the like. The line or lines that are printed by the inkjet printer  14  on a given label  16  may be continuous or intermittent, i.e. formed of dots and/or dashes. The thickness of a line is determined by the number of adjacent nozzles that are actuated at the same time. For example, a very thin line of cyan can be printed on a label by actuating a single cyan nozzle  24 . Alternatively, a thicker cyan line can be printed on a label by actuating multiple, adjacent cyan nozzles  24 . Because the inkjet print head of the present invention is controlled to print either continuous or intermittent lines on a label, the label web W can move past the inkjet print head  14  during an inkjet printing operation at the same speed that the web is moving past the thermal print head during a simultaneous thermal printing operation. Printing different colored lines on labels by the inkjet print head  14  along with text and barcode information printed by the thermal print head  12  allows labels and tags to be printed with a strong visual color indication quickly and less expensively than has heretofore been possible. Different color lines or stripes can be associated with different sizes so that both the retailer and the customer can easily pick out a given size from a rack supporting multiple sizes. In accordance with the present invention however, the inkjet print head  14  can print lines of a large number of different colors, automatically, before or after the printing of text and/or barcode information by the thermal print head  12 . Because the motor  20 , drives the web of record members past both print heads  12  and  14  at the same speed, a simple, inexpensive printer is provided. 
   As shown in  FIG. 1 , the thermal print head  12  is controlled to print on one label which thereafter advances to the inkjet print head  14  which prints a colored line or the like on the label. In an alternative embodiment, the position of the inkjet print head  14  and the thermal print head  12  are exchanged so that inkjet printing occurs prior to the thermal printing on the same label. Further, although as shown in  FIG. 1 , the thermal print head  12  and the inkjet print head  14  are positioned so that the thermal print head  12  is printing on one label while simultaneously the inkjet print head is printing on an adjacent label, the print heads  12  and  14  can be spaced further apart so that one or more labels may be disposed between the label being simultaneously printed on by the thermal print head  12  and the label being printed on by the inkjet print head  14 . Controls in the microprocessor in  FIG. 2  can be such as to provide thermal and inkjet printing on the same long label or to allow one or more short labels to be positioned between the thermal and ink jet print heads while still placing the colored mark on each label in the desired location. 
     FIG. 2  shows a microprocessor based controller  40  for controlling the thermal print head  12 , the inkjet print head  14 , the web motor  20  and the inkjet print head motor  22  through respective drivers  42 – 48 . The microprocessor controller  40  operates in accordance with software stored in a memory such as flash memory to print data that is stored in, for example, a random access memory of the controller. Data, format, and font information can be input to the microprocessor controller  40  by a control panel  50  having a full keyboard if desired. Alternatively, the control panel  50  may have only a limited number of keys for controlling the operation of the printer. In this latter embodiment, data is input to the printer  10  for printing under the control of the microprocessor controller  40  from another computer. The printer  10  may be coupled to the other computer via a cable or wireless communication via a radio or the like included, but not shown in the printer  10 . The microprocessor controller controls the thermal print head  12  to print text and/or barcode information on each label while simultaneously controlling the inkjet print head  14  to print colored indicia, such as a mark or stripe or member at the appropriate location on another label. The microprocessor controller  40  controls the motor  20  to move the web of labels past the print heads  12  and  14  for respective thermal printing and inkjet printing. It should be noted, that although the movement of the web past the print heads  12  and  14  is continuous during simultaneous thermal and inkjet printing on two labels, the movement of the label web may be stopped and reversed in between the printing of two simultaneous labels by the respective print heads  12  and  14  so as to allow the next successive pair of labels to be printed on, to be registered with respect to the thermal print head  12  and the inkjet print head  14 . In a preferred embodiment, registration is controlled by a mark sensor associated with, for example the thermal print head  12  as is well known in the art. The thermal print head  12  and inkjet print head  14  are preferably spaced from each other along the direction of web movement so that when one label is registered with the thermal print head  12  for thermal printing thereon, another label is registered with the inkjet print head  14  for inkjet printing thereon. The microprocessor controller  40  also controls the motor  22  for positioning the inkjet print head  14  laterally across the width of the label web upon rotation of the motor-driven screw  22 ′ as discussed above so that indicia such as a colored line can be printed at any location across the width of the label, the printed line extending in the direction of label movement. The microprocessor  40  preferably controls the movement of the inkjet print head via the motor  22  during initialization or batch set up while the web is stationary and not during an inkjet printing operation. 
   The combination thermal and inkjet printer  10  of the present invention allows text and barcode information as well as other graphic characters to be printed by the thermal print head  12  and on the same label a colored stripe or mark can be printed by the inkjet print head  14 . The combination printer  10  of the present invention accomplishes the thermal and inkjet printing very fast and inexpensively by utilizing the best features of both thermal and ink jet printing technologies used where they are appropriate to accomplish the purposes of the invention. 
   Many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. Thus, it is to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as described hereinabove.