Hand-held electrically selectable labeler

A hand-held labelling machine comprising;

• a housing having a manually engageable handle, the housing having means for holding a label supply roll of a composite web having labels releaseably adhered to a backing strip, means for printing on a label at a printing position, means for peeling the printed label from the backing strip, label applying means disposed adjacent the peeling means, means for advancing the web to peel a printed label from the backing strip at the peeling means and advance the printed label into label applying relationship with the label applying means and to advance another label into the printing position, means for entering selected data to be printed, the printing means including a thermographic print head having a plurality of individually selectable print elements for printing on a thermographic label at the printing position, means coupled to said data entering means for electrically processing the selected data and energizing the individual print elements in a predetermined sequence determined by the selected data to print data on the label, manually operable means coupled to the processing means and to the advancing means, said manually operable means being operative to cause the advancing means to initiate the feeding of the web past the print position and to cause the processing means to operate the thermographic printing head to print the selected data on the label while the web is advancing.

A hand-held labelling machine comprising;

• a housing having a manually engageable handle, the housing having means for holding a label supply roll of a composite web having labels releaseably adhered to a backing strip, means for printing on a label at a printing position, means for peeling the printed label from the backing strip, label applying means disposed adjacent the peeling means, means for advancing the web to peel a printed label from the backing strip at the peeling means and advance the printed label into label applying relationship with the label applying means and to advance another label into the printing position, means for entering selected data to be printed, the printing means including a thermographic print head having a plurality of individually selectable print elements for printing on a thermographic label at the printing position, means coupled to said data entering means for electrically processing the selected data and energizing the individual print elements in a predetermined sequence determined by the selected data to print data on the label, manually operable means coupled to the processing means and to the advancing means, said manually operable means being operative to cause the advancing means to initiate the feeding of the web past the print position and to cause the processing means to operate the thermographic printing head to print the selected data on the label while the web is advancing, said processing means further including means defining a print format, wherein the format defining means, the manually operable means, the advancing means and the processing means cooperate to cause the advancing means to advance the label and to cause the processing means to energize the individual print elements to print the selected data while the web is advancing in accordance with the defined format upon the operation of said manually operable means.

A hand-held labelling machine comprising;

• a housing having a manually engageable handle, the housing having means for holding a label supply roll of a composite web having labels releaseably adhered to a backing strip, means for printing on a label at a printing position, means for peeling the printed label from the backing strip, label applying means disposed adjacent the peeling means, means for advancing the web to peel a printed label from the backing strip at the peeling means and advance the printed label into label applying relationship with the label applying means and to advance another label into the printing position, means for entering selected data to be printed, the printing means including a thermographic print head having a plurality of individually selectable print elements for printing on a thermographic label at the printing position, means coupled to said data entering means for electrically processing the selected data and energizing the individual print elements in a predetermined sequence determined by the selected data to print data on the label, manually operable means coupled to the processing means and to the advancing means, said manually operable means being operative to cause the advancing means to initiate the feeding of the web past the print position and to cause the processing means to operate the thermographic printing head to print the selected data on the label while the web is advancing, wherein said processing means includes error checking means for checking the data received from said data entering means.

A hand-held labelling machine comprising;

• a housing having a manually engageable handle, the housing having means for holding a label supply roll of a composite web having labels releaseably adhered to a backing strip, means for printing on a label at a printing position, means for peeling the printed label from the backing strip, label applying means disposed adjacent the peeling means, means for advancing the web to peel a printed label from the backing strip at the peeling means and advance the printed label into label applying relationship with the label applying means and to advance another label into the printing position, means for entering selected data to be printed, the printing means including a thermographic print head having a plurality of individually selectable print elements for printing on a thermographic label at the printing position, means coupled to said data entering means for electrically processing the selected data and energizing the individual print elements in a predetermined sequence determined by the selected data to print data on the label, manually operable means coupled to the processing means and to the advancing means, said manually operable means being operative to cause the advancing means to initiate the feeding of the web past the print position and to cause the processing means to operate the thermographic printing head to print the selected data on the label while the web is advancing, wherein said processing means includes means for storing data representative of various fonts of said characters.

A hand-held labelling machine comprising;

• a housing having a manually engageable handle, the housing having means for holding a label supply roll of a composite web having labels releaseably adhered to a backing strip, means for printing on a label at a printing position, means for peeling the printed label from the backing strip, label applying means disposed adjacent the peeling means, means for advancing the web to peel a printed label from the backing strip at the peeling means and advance the printed label into label applying relationship with the label applying means and to advance another label into the printing position, means for entering selected data to be printed, the printing means including a thermographic print head having a plurality of individually selectable print elements for printing on a thermographic label at the printing position, means coupled to said data entering means for electrically processing the selected data and energizing the individual print elements in a predetermined sequence determined by the selected data to print data on the label, manually operable means coupled to the processing means and to the advancing means, said manually operable means being operative to cause the advancing means to initiate the feeding of the web past the print position and to cause the processing means to operate the thermographic printing head to print the selected data on the label while the web is advancing, wherein said processing means includes means for receiving the data and operating the elements in said thermographic print head to print out the data in any predetermined font and format.

A hand-held labelling machine comprising;

• a housing having a manually engageable handle, the housing having means for holding a label supply roll of a composite web having labels releaseably adhered to a backing strip, means for printing on a label at a printing position, means for peeling the printed label from the backing strip, label applying means disposed adjacent the peeling means, means for advancing the web to peel a printed label from the backing strip at the peeling means and advance the printed label into label applying relationship with the label applying means and to advance another label into the printing position, means for entering selected data to be printed, the printing means including a thermographic print head having a plurality of individually selectable print elements for printing on a thermographic label at the printing position, means coupled to said data entering means for electrically processing the selected data and energizing the individual print elements in a predetermined sequence determined by the selected data to print data on the label, manually operable means coupled to the processing means and to the advancing means, said manually operable means being operative to cause the advancing means to initiate the feeding of the web past the print position and to cause the processing means to operate the thermographic printing head to print the selected data on the label while the web is advancing, and means electrically coupling the processing means and the thermographic print head, said coupling means including a pluralilty of individual conductors electrically interconnecting the print head and the processing means, the number of said individual conductors being fewer than the number of individually selectable printing elements forming said printing head, said electrical coupling means including a serial-to-parallel converter interposed between said thermographic printing head and said plurality of individual conductors.

A hand-held labelling machine comprising;

• a housing having a manually engageable handle, the housing having means for holding a label supply roll of a composite web having labels releaseably adhered to a backing strip, means for printing on a label at a printing position, means for peeling the printed label from the backing strip, label applying means disposed adjacent the peeling means, means for advancing the web to peel a printed label from the backing strip at the peeling means and advance the printed label into label applying relationship with the label applying means and to advance another label into the printing position, means for entering selected data to be printed, the printing means including a thermographic print head having a plurality of individually selectable print elements for printing on a thermographic label at the printing position, means coupled to said data entering means for electrically processing the selected data and energizing the individual print elements in a predetermined sequence determined by the selected data to print data on the label, manually operable means coupled to the processing means and to the advancing means, said manually operable means being operative to cause the advancing means to initiate the feeding of the web past the print position and to cause the processing means to operate the thermographic printing head to print the selected data on the label while the web is advancing, wherein said processing means includes font and format defining means for receiving the data and operating the elements in said thermographic print head to print out the data in any predetermined font and format and error checking means for checking the data received from said data entering means.

A hand-held labelling machine comprising:

• a housing having a manually engageable handle, the housing having means for holding a label supply roll of a composite web having labels releasably adhered to a backing strip, means for printing on a label at a printing position, means for peeling the printed label from the backing strip, label applying means disposed adjacent the peeling means, means for advancing the web to peel a printed label from the backing strip at the peeling means and advance the printed label into label applying relationship with the label applying means and to advance another label into the printing position, means including data entry means on the housing for entering selected data to be printed, the printing means including a thermographic printing head having a plurality of individually selectable printing elements powered by a source of electrical energy for printing on a thermographic label at the printing position, means coupled to the data entry means for receiving and electrically processing data representative of the selected data entered via the data entry means, means electrically coupling the data receiving and processing means and the thermographic printing head, and means for causing the data receiving and processing means to operate the thermographic printing head to print the selected data on the label, wherein said data processing means includes control means for receiving the data and operating the printing elements in said thermographic printing head to print out selected data in a predetermined font and format, wherein said control means includes means for storing information representative of one of a plurality of fonts and formats, and is responsive to one of font and format identifying data received from said data entry means to select one of said plurality of fonts and formats, said control means further including means for providing a signal representative of a printable area or areas on the label defined by the selected format for rendering said print head operative while the composite web is being advanced by the advancing means to print the selected data in registration with the printable area or areas.

A hand-held labelling machine comprising:

• a housing having a manually engageable handle, the housing having means for holding a label supply roll of a composite web having labels releaseably adhered to a backing strip, means for printing on a label at a printing position, means for peeling the printed label from the backing strip, label applying means disposed adjacent the peeling means, means for advancing the web to peel a printed label from the backing strip at the peeling means and advance the printed label into label applying relationship with the label applying means and to advance another label into the printing position, means including data entry means on the housing for entering selected data to be printed, the printing means including a thermographic printing head having a plurality of individually selectable printing elements powered by a source of electrical energy for printing on a thermographic label at the printing position, means coupled to the data entry means for receiving and electrically processing data representative of the selected data entered via the data entry means, means electrically coupling the data receiving and processing means and the thermographic printing head, and means for causing the data receiving and processing means to operate the thermographic printing head to print the selected data on the label, wherein said data receiving and processing means includes font and format control means for causing the print-out of said data by said printing elements to be arranged in a selected one of a plurality of predetermined fonts and formats as defined by font and format identifying information stored in said data receiving and processing means, said font and format control means being operative to enable said data entry means to only accept input of predetermined font and format identifying data for selection of a desired font and format prior to entry of the selected data to be printed, and subsequently to determine whether the entered data represent a valid font and format, and once the font and format has been selected, enabling said data entry means to only accept input of data which are restricted to comply with the selected font and format.