Patent GB-1408755-A (GB)
Title: Label applicators
IPC: B65C11/02
Filed: 1971-08-25
Abstract: 1408755 Label applicators NORPRINT Ltd 23 Aug 1972 [25 Aug 1971 29 Jan 1972] 39850/71 and 4305/72 Heading B8F [Also in Division B6] In a trigger-actuated hand-held label applicator, a label is both printed and dispensed by a single operation of the trigger. In one embodiment tape from a reel 164 is led under teeth 514 of a reciprocatable platen carrier 482 and over a platen 354, whence the tape passes around a label detaching roller 356 and between a bridge member 532 of the platen carrier and a feed slide 560 having a lostmotion connection with the platen carrier and having barbs 576 engaging notches in the spent labelled tape. The spent tape then passes between casing walls 224, 604, and leaves the applicator by an aperture 358. The platen carrier 482 is connected by a flexible strip 264 to a trigger mechanism 254, 256. On squeezing the trigger 256 the platen carrier is shifted rearwardly, initial movement of the carrier causing teeth 506 thereof to engage an extension of a pivotally mounted ink pad assembly of a front print head assembly 350, thus pivoting the ink pad from a position in which the print head assembly is locked, and contacting the pad with the type facets. The teeth 506 then clear the ink pad extensions, and vertical edges 512 of the platen carrier engage arms 436 of print control members 430 so that the front print head assembly is pivoted anti-clockwise to print the label. At the same time a vertical edge 530 of the platen carrier engages a rear ink pad holder and moves it along a cam groove, causing the pad to ink and then release the facets of a rear print head assembly. Meanwhile follower rollers 488 on a shaft 486, slidably mounted in vertical slots in the platen carrier, ride up stationary ramps causing shaft 486 to rise above ramps 566 on the feed slide which has not yet started to move. When the front head prints the label the rollers 488 have reached the peaks of their ramps and the shaft 486 has reached the peak of ramps 566 and then drops over edges 568. As rearward motion continues the feed slide 560 is entrained to move rearwardly with the platen carrier by abutment of the rear edges of projections 544 of the carrier with the forward edges of plates 578 on the feed slide. The barbs 576 of the feed slide engage the spent tape and begin to move it rearwardly. With continued movement of the platen carrier the forward print head pivots beyond the printing position, and the vertical edges 512 of the carrier contact control members 440 and cause them to swing the rear print head assembly to print the label for a second time. At the same time the forward print head assembly 350 is released and is returned to its original position by a spring 630 and locked by the ink pad assembly. The maximum rearward travel of the carrier is reached when the rear ink holder assembly contacts a stop on the casing, and the spent tape has been moved rearwardly by more than the label pitch. On initially releasing the trigger 256, the platen carrier is shifted forwardly by a spring 600 and the feed slide is entrained by the shaft 486, the spent tape being drawn into engagement with fixed barbs 606 of the casing wall 604. Subsequently the rollers 488 mount the rear faces of their ramps so that the shaft 486 clears the rear faces 568 of the feed slide ramp 566 and the feed slide is no longer driven forwardly and is restrained from further movement by engagement of teeth 574 with a member carried by the casing wall 604. The rear ink pad is simultaneously pivoted clockwise by pegs on the projections 544 of the platen carrier. Since the spent tape is held by the fixed barbs 606, the forward movement of the platen carrier causes roller 356 to draw tape off the reel and detach the label for application by a pad 318. To open the casing a catch 314 is pressed to release a portion 334 from a step in a member 112, so that the casing parts containing the print head and the tape roll can be pivoted about a pin 616. The applicator pad 318 may be of foam rubber to which balls of glass or tungsten carbide may be adhered, or it may be replaced by a plurality of fingers. A simplified embodiment (Figs. 28a-44, not shown) having only one print head assembly has the platen carrier itself formed with tape feed barbs, two sets of barbs being provided for feeding tap of two different widths. The ink pad is mounted for movement with the platen carrier, and the platen carrier is formed with cam surfaces such that during the rearward movement of the carrier it is raised to contact the ink pad with the print facets, then lowered, and finally raised to contact the label on the platen with the print head. As before the spent tape is held on the forward stroke of the platen carrier so that the printed label is dispensed. In another embodiment (Figs. 45a-47, not shown) a platen is connected to an actuating trigger by a lost-motion mechanism and two printing head assemblies are employed. Both the inking mechanisms incorporate inking rollers, the inking mechanism of the front assembly is stationary, initial pivotal movement of the front printing head moving the type facets over the inking roller and further pivotal movement printing the label, and the rear inking mechamism is pivotally mounted, pivotal movement of the rear inking mechanism inking the rear printing head and then pivotal movement of the rear head printing the label. Specification 1,408,756 is referred to.