Patent ID: 8464771

Claim:
A multi-layer label for use in apparatus for automatically applying labels to individual items of produce, wherein each label includes a multi-layered laminate media and has a visible front surface and a back surface and variable coded information is applied to said visible front surface of said label in human or machine readable form, wherein a rotary bellows applicator is utilized to transfer individual labels from a label carrier strip onto the tip of a single bellows and thereafter onto individual items of produce, wherein a sensing means senses a variable characteristic of said produce item, wherein the output of a high intensity light source is utilized to apply said sensed variable characteristic through the back surface of each of said labels while each label is on said tip of a bellows, and wherein said multi-layered laminate media comprises: a media substrate, said substrate having back and front surfaces, a light absorbent layer, said layer adapted to absorb light from said output of said high intensity light source and to convert said absorbed light into heat, and a thermochromic layer in thermal contact with said light absorbent layer, said thermochromic layer forming said visible, front surface of said media, wherein portions of said thermochromic layer change visual appearance in response to application of said output of said high intensity light source into said light absorbent layer, and conduction of heat converted from light absorbed by said light absorbing layer into said thermochromic layer, and wherein said light absorbent layer absorbs light in the visible and NIR (near infrared) wavelength ranges of light.