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US 5,413,422 AGranted
Print wheels and methods of using same
AssigneeTaurus Impressions, Inc.
InventorsRoger M. Gray, Warren K. Shannon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a print wheel encoding scheme, signs such as reflector strips are arranged on an encoder ring along the print wheel petals. One strip is provided at each petal. The strips are grouped into groups of three or more petals. Each group starts with a reflective strip and terminates with a non-reflective strip, or vice versa. The strips are read by a single optical sensor to provide a reliable mechanism for reading the print wheel I.D., homing the print wheel and detecting print wheel error conditions such as jams or mispositioning.
Claims9
A print wheel comprising:
- a center portion;
- a plurality of petals having characters thereon, the petals extending radially from the center portion;
- and
- a plurality of signs running along the center portion generally circularly in one plane with the petals, each sign being either a predetermined sign S1 or a predetermined sign S2, the signs being in groups of three or more consecutive signs, each group containing a unique variable bit of information, each group when examined in sequence in a predetermined circular direction comprising:
- one or more consecutive signs S1 marking a beginning of the group;
- p2 one or more identical consecutive signs "I" following said one or more signs S1, each sign "I" being one of S1 and S2, the signs "I" providing the unique bit of information;
- and
- one or more consecutive signs S2 which follow said one or more signs "I" and which mark an end of the group,
- wherein a sign sequence "S2 S1" identifies the end of one group and the beginning of another group to allow a print engine to synchronize with the groups.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.