Removably couplable printer and verifier assembly
AssigneeHand Held Products, Inc.
InventorsChin Young Wong, Thomas Axel Jonas Celinder, Sébastien Michel Marie Joseph D'Armancourt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A verifier and printer assembly are provided. The verifier and printer assembly include a verifier module and a printer. The verifier has a magnetic docking element and the printer includes a docking portion operable to dock the verifier module. The magnetic docking element and the docking portion interact with each other to removably couple the verifier module to the printer. A magnetic attachment system for the verifier module and methods for removably coupling the verifier module and the printer for verification of a printed machine-readable symbol are also provided.
Claims18
A printer apparatus comprising:
- a media support attached to the printer apparatus at a media-support attachment point;
- a printhead having an array of print elements configured to print sequential segments of an image on corresponding sequential segments of a print media, wherein the array of print elements define a lateral print axis;
- a platen roller configured to advance the print media when printing the sequential segments;
- and
- a verifier that is configured to verify a print output by the printer apparatus based on a digital representation of print output of the printer apparatus, the verifier comprising a verifier-coupling that is configured to engage, at least in part by a magnetic force, with a printer-coupling in the printer apparatus, wherein the verifier further comprises an image sensor having an array of photo sensors configured to capture the digital representation of the print output of the printer apparatus, wherein the print output of the printer apparatus comprises at least a portion of the sequential segments of the image printed on the print media, and wherein the magnetic force is configured such that it aligns the array of photo sensors to a fixed scanning position relative to the array of print elements.
A method of removably coupling a verifier to a printer, the method comprising:
- receiving the verifier that is configured to verify a print output by the printer based on a digital representation of the print output of the printer, wherein receiving the verifier further comprises positioning a verifier-coupling in proximity to a printer-coupling;
- and
- coupling the verifier to the printer at least in part by a magnetic force acting between the verifier-coupling and the printer-coupling, wherein the verifier-coupling interacts with a printer-coupling metallic material at least in part by the magnetic force, wherein the magnetic force is configured such that it aligns an image sensor of the verifier to a fixed scanning position relative to an array of print elements of a printhead in the printer, wherein the image sensor comprises an array of photo sensors, and wherein the image sensor is configured to capture the digital representation of the print output of the printer.
A method comprising:
- generating a digital representation of a print output by a verifier, wherein the digital representation of the print output is generated by an image sensor of the verifier that is removably coupled to a printer at least in part by a magnetic force, wherein the magnetic force is configured such that it aligns the image sensor to a fixed scanning position relative to an array of print elements in a printhead of the printer;
- comparing, using a processor, the digital representation of the print output to an input image provided by a print logic of the printer to generate a verification;
- and
- determining that at least one predetermined standard is satisfied based on the verification.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.