DE2421697A1 - HAND-OPERATED LABEL DISPENSER - Google Patents

Description

AVERY PRODUCTS CORPORATION, a California company located at 415 Huntington Drive, San Marino, California 91108 (V.St.A.)

Manually operated label dispenser

The invention relates to a hari.; .- actuatable Label dispenser for printing and dispensing self-adhesive labels.

Such label dispensers are known and are used, for example, in supermarkets and retail stores used to mark packaged goods with self-adhesive price tags.

There are known label dispensers that are operated with one hand and in which you have two handle elements like scissors compresses to print a label via a mechanism and move it into a position which it can be applied to a desired external surface. Known label dispensers of this type have Disadvantages, both from a construction point of view

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and manufacturing as well as from the user's point of view. It is still a problem in design and manufacture to find an inexpensive and reliable mechanism for precise feed control of the label carrier strip with each label dispensing. If the feed operation is not monitored very closely, then the label position between the beginning of a roll to the end of the label roll can be subject to an increasing tolerance. If you want to process labels of different sizes with the same label dispenser, the feed mechanism must be made even more complicated in known devices. In addition, known label dispensers also have disadvantages for the user. The usual scissors-like grip elements require that the user executes a squeezing movement with his hand, which is used as a drive source for printing the label and for advancing the carrier strip. This squeezing movement takes place against the force of a spring, which returns the tool to its initial state after actuation. This type of movement can be extremely tiring in the long run.

The way in which new label rolls are used is also a nuisance for the user of familiar label dispensers will. Usually you push the roll onto a new pin or sets them in a delimited space that allows the carrier strip to unwind and the roll opposite fixed to the tool. After inserting the new role in the tool, the carrier strip must through a Printing station, a label peeling and dispensing station and threaded through the carrier strip feed mechanism will. It is written from the German P-IT 1 205 889 a label dispenser known that is relatively

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Can be operated fatigue-free, because its pressure and feed mechanism is operated by a rocker? at the end of which the pressure roller sits, which presses the printed label onto the object to be marked. But this label dispenser also has the other disadvantages listed above, in particular b ^. ; possible feed control and roll-on change.

The invention is based on the object. η label dispenser to create, while avoiding all the disadvantages listed above and with a relatively simple Setup of a precise label feed control as well as a quick and easy insertion of a new label roll allowed.

According to the invention this object is achieved in that the roll with the labels in a removable cassette is stored, which is attached to the release lever, that a feed mechanism attached to the release lever detects the carrier strip when the cassette is inserted, and that the feed mechanism by means of a lever device so connected to the housing of the label dispenser that the carrier strip is activated when the release lever is actuated can be advanced.

The feed mechanism according to the invention contains a slide element of simple construction, which is easy to control and also to the required feed path for can be adapted to any label size.

The label dispenser according to the invention is known per se Wise operated by putting it against a work surface presses.

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The label dispenser according to the invention has the other particular advantage that the problems previously encountered when inserting a new roll of labels are complete be avoided. You only need a new cassette, which holds a strip of labels, in the To use the device. When all labels are used up, the cassette is either thrown away or a new one filled. Within the cassette, the carrier strip carrying the labels is already pre-threaded so that the label dispenser is ready for use after inserting the cassette. The cassette itself contains all the necessary Guide surfaces for the advance of the carrier strip by the device in the label dispensing operation. The interchangeable cassette has the added benefit of that ji.-tzt the guide surfaces for the carrier strip in the device, which were previously at regular intervals had to be cleaned and removed from adhesive residues.

Advantageously, the cassette can also be provided with a stop which the feed mechanism for the support strip controls so that when inserting If a cassette with a different label size is inserted in the label dispenser, the device is automatically set in this way is that the carrier strip is transported with a correct feed path, which of the different Label size corresponds.

In addition, the label dispenser according to the invention with a ru-like arrangement for adjusting the pressure elements which can be stranded with the help of a single button. It can also be advantageous a new printing mechanism with a replaceable one To use inking roller, which the printing elements in front

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each actuation of the label dispenser with dye provided.

The label dispenser according to the invention is preferred designed so that it has a housing with a handle-like end and also a release lever, the is pivotably mounted with one end of the handle end of the housing. The removable cassette is on the release lever a releasably attached uiiJ enLhäit Rolled and self-adhesive labels carrying carrier strips. The cassette also contains a printing pad , a dispensing lip for the labels, a long one Guide surface with a guide device for moving the carrier strip forward from the roll over the printing pad, around the dispensing lip and over ι, 'ι. · Length of the guide surface of the cassette. To the The advance mechanism includes a pusher plate that reciprocates against the guide surface of the cassette moved here and has fingers that grasp the carrier strip and it with each reciprocating stroke of the Move the slide plate further, uer the feed path of the The slide plate is limited with each .ab by a stop on the cassette. To operate the slide plate serves eii. the same coupling element connecting to the housing, so that due to a relative movement between the release lever and the housing; .c reciprocating movement is transferred to the slide plate. A pressure mechanism mounted in the housing contains pressure rollers, which act on the label that is being moved over the printing substrate.

A preferred exemplary embodiment of the invention is described in greater detail below with reference to a drawing

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explained. Show in it:

1 shows a side view of the label dispenser described below;

Fig. 2 is a section taken along line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section taken along line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

FIG. 4 shows an enlarged individual illustration of the drawing and printing rollers; FIG. and

5 shows a detail view of a slide arrangement of the label dispenser.

The label dispenser is composed of a right housing half 12 and a left housing half 14 Housing, the housing halves of which are held together by screws 16 screwed into inside threaded lugs 18 will. A release lever protrudes from an opening in the housing 10 that is delimited by a lower edge 20 22 out, which has a perforation at its rear end; tes eye 26 has which on both sides in the housing 10 attached pin 24 is rotatably mounted.

E.. On the handle 2 8 at the rear end of the housing 10 a handle portion 30 of the release lever 22 is assigned, so that ej.ne operator the handle 28 and the Grasp handle section 30 with one hand and the latter can push into the interior of the housing. This m & uelle Pushing movement takes place against the force of a leaf spring 32, which are biased in the form of an open loop, on the one hand on a shoulder 34 of the housing and on the other hand on one Approach 36 of the release lever 22 is attached. Two stops 40 of the release lever 22, which are inserted into slots 42, limit the relative movement between pivot lever 22 and

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Housing 10. The stops 40 are components of integrally molded side parts 44 of the release lever 22 and protrude through the slots 42 J ₁ outside. If you press these side parts -14 together, you can remove the stops 40 inwardly from the slots 42; In this way, the release lever 22 can be pivoted around the pin 24 completely out of the interior of the housing 10 'and the label dispenser can be refilled with labels.

The label dispenser is refilled with the aid of a cassette 46, which is designed as a one-piece molded plastic part and has two side walls 48 and a bottom wall 50. The outer end of the bottom wall 50 ends with a pressure pad 52 stiffened by ribs 54, which in turn is closed with a dispensing lip 56 which serves to separate the labels one after the other from their carrier strip. The side walls 48 are also connected to one another by a bridge section 58. The cassette 46 contains a supply roll 60 with rope adhesive labels which are strung together with their adhesive layer on one side of a carrier strip 62. The two side walls serve to guide the supply roll 60. 11 of the cassette 46 connecting cylindrical mandrel 64, which penetrates the central opening (r supply roll 60. The carrier strip 62 is already threaded through the entire cassette 46 and back on the printing underlay 52, around the dispensing lip and on the bottom wall 50 up to a guide section 6 , which forms a slot at the end of the bottom wall 50 through which the free end of the carrier strip 62 is led out of the label dispenser. The cassette 46 snaps into its operating position.

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ment on the release lever 22 with Hi ^! fe of protrusions on each side of a ledge 70 which receive the side walls of the cassette. The cassette itself has projections 68 which touch the side walls of the release lever on both sides of the bar 70 and ensure that the cassette assumes an operating position in which the end of the printing pad 52 of the cassette rests against a bridge section 72 of the release lever 22. t. The end of the printing pad 52 of the cassette engages with the aid of resilient retaining fingers 74 which grasp the printing pad 52 from both sides.

On the side of the housing opposite the handle 28 10 is a printing device 76 with two injection molded Frame plates 78 and 80, between which an axle 82 extends, on which a number of pressure rollers 84 are rotatably mounted isL, - in the present embodiment there are five pressure rollers. Each pressure roller is covered on its outer circumference with raised printing symbols 86, as FIG. 4 shows. To comply with a desired angular position of each pressure roller 84 is a locking device, each consisting of a ball 88 and a Spring 90 in a transverse bore of the axis 82 for each pressure roller. The reder 90 presses the relevant steel ball 88 into one of several recesses 92 on the circumference of the inner bore of each pressure roller 84.

Each pressure roller 84 can be rotated separately into a desired WinkelJ position in which a certain pressure symbol 86 is in the printing position. A number of index rollers 94, which are made of injection-molded, transparent material, are used to rotate the pressure rollers Made of plastic. All of the index rollers 94 are

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rotatably mounted on a transparent hollow shaft 96, which in turn in axially aligned openings is mounted in the frame plates 78 and 80. The outer Ends of the hollow shaft 96 are through aligned openings in the housing halves 12 and 14 of the housing 10 passed through. The hollow shaft 96 can be rotated and moved axially, and it has a number of parallel grooves 98 on its periphery, the mutual center-to-center spacing of the Pressure rollers 84 corresponds. According to FIG. 3, a spring 102 presses a ball 100 into one of the grooves 9 8 and thus fixes it the hollow shaft 96 in one of several possible sideways positions.

According to FIG. 4, the hollow shaft 96 also has a number of radially outwardly protruding teeth 104, the width of which corresponds in each case to the thickness of an index roller 9 4. Each index roller 94 has a number of recesses 106 on its inner circumference which fit into the teeth 104 can intervene. If you now move the hollow shaft 96 in the transverse direction from one Kitgel locking position to the next, then I move the teeth 104 from the recesses 106 of one index roller to the next index roller. If you then turn the hollow shaft 9 6 into a certain locking position, the relevant index roller rotates with it. Each index roller 94 in turn also has teeth on its circumference which are inserted into corresponding recesses 1 ι- · engage on the circumference of the associated pressure roller 84. In each case one recess 110 is located between two adjacent print symbols on the circumference of the backing roller. Will So if a certain index roller 94 is rotated, then the associated pressure roller 84 rotates accordingly.

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To rotate the hollow shaft 96, a shaft 114 inserted into its central opening is used integrally with an outer one on; shaped adjusting knob 112. Spring-loaded locking fingers 116 at the end of the shaft 114 engage behind a shoulder 118 at the end of shaft 114, and one wrapped around shaft 114 Ribbon 120 can be seen through the hollow shaft 96 and the index rollers 94 through which index roller can just be rotated by the adjusting knob 112, because diesf; Ribbon 120 moves from index roller to Index roller with when the adjusting knob 112 in the transverse direction is shifted from detent position to detent position. The circumference of each index roller 94 bears a number of imprinted or otherwise applied symbols, which can be seen through a viewing opening 122 on the top of the housing 10 can be observed.

The entire Druckexnrichtung 76 is with the help of projections which engage in the housing halves 12 and 14, firmly connected to the housing 10. The pressure device is aligned so that when the release lever is actuated 22 in the direction of the housing 10, the pressure rollers 84 are moved up to the printing substrate 52. The lazy j. strip 62 with the labels attached to it is int elastic pad 126 with which the printing pad j2 is occupied, carried away. One after the other, each individual label takes a position above the printing underlay 2, and by actuating the release lever 22, the pressure rollers 84 come into contact with this label brought, press it against the elastic support 126, and the opposite printing symbols are printed on the surface of the label.

In each case of actuation of the release lever 22, the printed Label dispenser one label each and transported

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forward the carrier strip 62 a distance which corresponds to the center-to-center distance between two adjacent labels on the carrier strip. Also takes place with every actuation of the release lever 22 a wetting of the printing rollers with dye and the detachment of a label from the carrier strip as well as its delivery instead, as will be explained below nah-Jr.

The feed mechanism for the carrier strip 62 includes a slide assembly 128 which is displaceable in a channel is guided by a bottom wall 130 and side walls 132 of the release lever 22 is formed. According to FIG. 5, the slide assembly 128 has a cross section U-shaped lower plate 134, which is provided in its side walls with recesses 138 in which a Upper plate 136 is guided in a longitudinally displaceable manner. Two springs 140 connect the top plate 136 to the bottom plate 134 and presses it against a stop 141 at one end the lower plate. The sub-plate 134 also has two sets of spring loaded fingers; there is one for each finger with one end attached to the underside of the top plate 136 leaf spring 146, which at its other end a Tooth 148 carries, which protrudes through an opening in the top plate upwards.

The slide assembly 128 sits immediately below the Bottom wall 50 d cassette 46, so that the teeth 148 from below against the led through at this point Press backing strip 62. The carrier strip preferably has cutouts between the labels ... let the teeth 148 engage. Thus, with a shifting movement the slider assembly 148 of the carrier strips 62 on the lower surface of the cassette wall

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50 taken away.

To move the slide arrangement 128, two are used within the housing 10 on both sides of the printing device 76 arranged transport arms 150, the ends of which can be pivoted by a pin 152 on the printing device 76 are stored. The other ends of the two transport arms 150 each engage in a lateral recess the lower plate 134 of the slide assembly 128. if the release lever 22 against the pressure device 76 in the C. luse 10 is moved, then push the transport arms 150 the slide assembly 128 according to the view of FIG. 3 to the right. The teeth 148 capture the recesses or perforations of the carrier strip 62 and take it with you, so that it is a piece of the Unwinds the supply roll 60 and pushes it around the dispensing lip 56. Since the labels are relatively stiff, you can they do not follow the sharp curvature of the dispensing lip 56 and are in the course of this transport movement from Carrier strip detached. A roller 154 rotatably mounted at the end of the release lever 22 detects the just released Label from above, so that a person operating the label dispenser can use this label on the Can stick to the surface of a packaging or a material to be labeled.

The feed path of the top plate 136 is limited by a stop 156, which is on both sides of the feed path of the Carrier strip ;: 62 is integrally formed on the bottom wall 50 of the cassette 46. Thus, each cassette determines individually the feed path of the carrier strip for each operation cycle of the label dispenser. In this way the carrier strip feed path is automatically applied to the

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adapted to the individual size of the labels dispensed from a specific cassette. Between a pillar 159 A spring 157 is suspended from the release lever 22 and a column 161 of the lower plate 134. During the return stroke of the slide assembly 128 is the carrier strip 62 by a Brake arm 160 clamped, which is mounted on the release lever 22 and is pressed against the surface of the carrier strip by a suitable spring, not shown. This Brake arm 160 is pressed against the carrier strip 62 so that the carrier strip is only in the backward direction is locked against movement towards the supply roll.

A color transfer device 162 with one of two in one is used to wet the printing rollers with dye Distance from each other and parallel by a web 166 interconnected side arms 164 consisting of metal frames. The lateral distance between the two side arms 164 is slightly larger than the width of the pressure device 76 so that the arms can be guided to the outside of the frame plates 78 and 80. At the upper end the side arms 164 are rotatably mounted on the frame plates 78 and 80 by means of a pivot axis 16ti. On the opposite The end of the side arms 164 is a paint roller 170 covered with a semicircular shield 172 attached, which sits on an axis 174, which B = 'stanchions through the two ends of the shield 172. The mounting holes for the axle 174 at the ends of the Side arms 164 are slightly undersized and open to the outside in the form of a slot, around the axis 174 with the paint roller to be able to snap into place. The shield 172 protects the operator from replacing the paint roller 170 Paint pollution

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Near the pivot axis 168 for the side arms 164 there is a pin 176 which engages a slot 178 of the transport arms 150 for the slider assembly. In this way, a pivoting movement of the transport arms 150 causes the paint dispensing device to rotate 162 caused about its pivot axis 168, in the Verlaux of the paint roller 170 over the print symbols is rolled away on the pressure rollers 84. The symbols are wetted with dye before they are actuated of the release lever 22 come into contact with the label to be printed. A semicircular leaf spring 180, on the one hand on pin 17u and on the other hand a point of the transport arms 150 designated by 182 einq .-; hangs, is compressed and stretched when the release lever 22 moves in the direction of the housing 10, will. After releasing the release lever 22, the leaf spring 180 brings the slide assembly 128 and the paint dispensing device 162 back to its original position.

The label dispenser described above as an exemplary embodiment is fundamentally simpler: instruction and easy to use. To reload labels, the sides of the release lever 22 are pressed together until the stops 40 have left the slots 42, then the entire release lever can be folded out of the housing 10. Then the new cassette, which is filled and provided with the label carrier strip that has already been threaded through, is inserted into the release lever by inserting the projections 6 8 of the cassette on both sides of the bar 70 and the de of the cassette carrying the printing substrate so that it dries, d ..,. Tie snap resiliently holding η ιager 74 and the cassette rriegeln ^. Now you fold the release lever 22 back into the housing, and the label dispenser is ready for use. The operation can be different

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Way to be done by either hand the Griffsi-ück 28 of the housing 10 comprises and the handle portion 30 of the release lever 22 in the direction of the handle 28, or by pushing the end of the release lever 22 presses against a work surface to be labeled and the housing 10 in the direction of the Release lever presses. The operational possibility called uletuc avoids operating the device simply by squeezing it to use because this can be tiring in the long run.

When the release lever 22 is brought up to the housing 10, the slide arrangement 128 inevitably slides in its channel formed between the walls of the release lever 22 along and transports the carrier strip 62 forwards so far that a label lies opposite the printing substrate 52. At the same time, the paint roller rolls over the surface of the printing rollers and wets them with it Dye. Then the ink rollers touch the label to be printed, press it against the printing surface and the raised ones Color symbols are printed on the label. After releasing the tool, the slide assemblies return and ink delivery device automatically return to their original positions. With the next actuation of the tool »" "" is again the support dispute for the transported on the same path, the previously printed label is separated from the carrier strip at the dispensing lip 56 and under the action of the roller 154 on the surface of the to etil ·. ι animal material pressed. Consequently are for printing, ... i; .ening a label and for its submission and Aufbringii τ on a work surface as a whole two complete operating cycles of the tool are necessary. However, since printing a label is the same

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The time it takes to apply the previously printed label takes place in each Oj ration cycle of the tool the delivery of a printed label takes place.

In summary, the invention relates to a hand-operated one Label dispenser / with which only one label is ever dispensed from a carrier strip. The labels carrying carrier strip is sicii in a cassette, the devices for guiding the label strip of a supply roll over a printing pad, around a release and dispensing lip, and back in the course of a Has guide surface. The cartridge is on a release lever of the label dispenser attached, and the release lever is pivotable in a housing of the device arranged. A back and forth movable slide element attached to the release lever acts in the area of the guide surface the cassette ripen on the carrier. The slide element movement is determined by the relative movement diverted between the release lever and the housing. Manually pressing the release lever against the housing can do that Slide element forward the Träyerstiffen and one Acting pressure device in the housing opposite the pressure plate of the cassette on a label. A stop in the cassette limits the travel of the reciprocating slide member to thereby control the amount of advance d; Trä rstreifens each time the release lever is operated to control.

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Claims (7)

Expectations QHand-operated label dispenser with a housing, which a release lever is pivotably mounted, and with devices for advancing a label bearing rolled up carrier strip, with which when moving the release lever relative to the housing a printed Label dispensed and another label is printed, characterized in that the supply roll (60) with the Labels is stored in a removable cassette (46) which is mounted on the release lever (22) that a feed mechanism (128) attached to the release lever engages the carrier strip (62) when the cassette (46) is used, and that the feed mechanism by means of a lever device (150) so with the housing (Ij) is coupled so that the carrier strip can be advanced when the release lever is actuated. 2. Label dispenser according to claim 1, characterized in that that on the housing (10) a printing device (76) is attached, which is applied to the surface of a label acts when the release lever (22) is fully pivoted towards the housing. 3. Label dispenser according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that that the cassette (46) includes a printing pad (52) to which the label to be printed is passed the pressure device (76) can be pressed. 4. Label dispenser according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the feed A09848 / 0338 mechanism essentially from one to one linear Path movable slide element (28), which by means of a relative movement between the release lever (22) and housing (10) driven link (150) can be moved, grips thin carrier strip (62) and in advances in one direction. 5. Label dispenser according to claim 4, characterized in that a gripping device (136, 148 ...) for gripping is present, which is displaceable relative to the slide element (128) against a spring (157) and before Slide element will .lalten when the carrier strip (62) is advanced by a predetermined transport path in order to record the movement of the carrier strip with each actuation of the To limit the release lever (22) to an amount depending on the label size. 6. Label dispenser according to claim 5, characterized in that that the separate feed path of the gripping device (136, i 48) by a stop belonging to the cassette (46) (156) is limited. 7. Label dispenser according to at least one of claims 4-6, characterized in that the carrier strip (62) is blocked against its feed direction by a one-way blocking element (160). 409848/0338 Blank page