Liner-less label pre-feed system
AssigneeToshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.
InventorsWilliam M. Connors, Donn D. Bryant, Michael W. Lawrence, George N. Woolcott
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for feeding a ribbon of un-lined label stock to a printer includes first and second, abutting rollers that cooperatively remove label stock from a roll. An optical sensor is disposed in a ribbon path between the rollers and the printer. The optical sensor determines a slackness level of the ribbon between rollers and the printer. Speed of a drive roller drive motor is increased when the slackness level is below a prescribed threshold. Speed of the drive roller motor is decreased when the slackness level is above a prescribed threshold.
Claims22
A liner-less label printer pre-feed system comprising:
- an idler roller;
- a drive roller having a first contact surface aligned with a second contact surface of the idler roller to form a nip, the nip configured to receive label stock from an associated roll;
- a motor configured to rotate the drive roller wherein the drive roller drives a counter rotation of the idler roller so as to move the label stock through the nip and to an associated label printer;
- a sensor configured to determine slackness of the label stock when disposed between the nip and a label printer;
- and
- a controller configured to control a speed of the motor to maintain the label stock within a preselected slackness range.
A method of feeding a liner-less label printer comprising:
- receiving label stock into a nip between a drive roller and an idler roller;
- rotating the drive roller to move label stock through the nip cooperatively with the idler roller urged by the drive roller to counter rotate at the nip and feed the label stock to an associated label printer;
- determining a slackness of the label stock between the nip and a label printer;
- and
- adjusting a rotation speed of the drive roller in accordance with a determined slackness.
An inline printer paper feed system comprising:
- a first pair of opposed feed rollers configured to cooperatively rotate and remove linear label stock from an associated roll;
- a second pair of opposed feed rollers disposed after the first pair of opposed feed rollers and configured to cooperatively rotate to advance the label stock received from the first pair of opposed feed rollers;
- a position sensor configured to determine a slackness of label stock between the first pair of opposed feed rollers and the second pair of opposed feed rollers;
- a controller configured to selectively control a rotation speed of the first pair of opposed feed rollers in accordance with a determined slackness.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.