Flat bed daisy wheel hot debossing stamper

In combination a dual station flat bed daisy wheel hot debossing stamper comprising:

• a chassis having a flat platen for mounting a workpiece to be debossed;
• a gantry connected to said chassis;
• a debossment print engine movable with respect to said gantry for debossing the workpiece mounted on a portion of said platen, said chassis, said gantry and said engine forming a debossment assembly comprising:
• means for moving said engine with respect to said gantry;
• a daisy wheel first debossment station in said engine including a rotating character wheel above said platen and having a series of character fingers thereon individually movable out of a plane of storage and means including a first motor for rotating said wheel;
• a second debossment station in said engine including a debossment die;
• a foil tape having a heat and pressure transferable material thereon, said tape being on a tape reel in a cartridge mounted in said assembly such that said transferable material extends between a workpiece on said platen and a character on an end of a finger of said character wheel in a first debossment zone or the debossment die at a second debossment zone;
• first heating means for individually heating said character on said wheel;
• second heating means for heating said debossment die;
• first force means operable for exerting force on said finger end, on said heated character and on said transferable material to transfer said transferable material from said foil tape to the workpiece and to deboss said transferable material representative of said character onto the workpiece on said platen;
• second force means operable for exerting force on said debossment die and said transferable material to transfer said transferable material from said foil tape to the workpiece and to deboss said transferable material representative of indicia on said debossment die into the workpiece;
• a motor means for driving said first and second force means;
• and
• a keyboard and control unit for controlling debossment of a line of individual character debossments across the workpiece;
• for controlling relative movement of the platen and said assembly line-by-line;
• for controlling movement of said character wheel with respect to said first pressure means;
• and for controlling movement of said first and second force means interchangeably to deboss said transferable material from said foil tape.

A hot stamper die loader/unloader comprising:

• an elongated tool base having a bottom;
• an elongated angular handle having an intermediate portion pivotably secured across said tool base by a handle pivot pin and extending longitudinally of said base;
• a die-mounting pad hingedly connected to a pad pivot pin connected to a distal end of said handle, the other end of said handle being pivoted about said handle pivot pin, and
• spring means on said pad pivot pin for angulating said pad with respect to said base, upon angular vertical movement of said handle with respect to said base.

In combination a flat bed daisy wheel hot debossing stamper comprising:

• a chassis having a flat platen for mounting a workpiece to be debossed;
• a gantry connected to said chassis said gantry including a gantry frame having an upper anvil load beam, a lower anvil load beam and a pair of tensionable spaced side plates connecting said load beams forming a rigid box frame;
• and
• a debossment print engine movable with respect to said upper load beam for debossing the workpiece mounted on a portion of said platen, said chassis, said gantry and said engine forming a debossment assembly comprising:
• means for moving said print engine with respect to said upper load beam parallel to a Y-axis of said platen;
• at least one debossment station in said engine including a daisy wheel first debossment station in said engine including a rotating character wheel generally extending in a plane parallel to said platen and having a series of character fingers thereon individually movable out of a plane of storage, means including a motor for rotating said wheel;
• a foil substrate having a heat and pressure transferable material thereon, said substrate being mounted in said assembly such that said transferable material extends between a workpiece on said platen and a character on an end of a finger of said character wheel;
• heating means for individually heating said character on said wheel;
• force means operable for exerting force on said finger end, on said heated character and on said transferable material to transfer said transferable material from said substrate to the workpiece and to deboss said transferable material representative of said character onto the workpiece on said platen wherein said force means supplies a force which bottoms out said print engine and said platen between anvils of said lower and upper load beams;
• a keyboard and control unit for controlling debossment of a line of individual character debossments across the workpiece;
• for controlling relative movement of the workpiece and said assembly line-by-line;
• for controlling movement of said character wheel with respect to said force means.

A daisy wheel casing locking apparatus for locking the casing in a print engine comprising:

• a linear ramp extending from a peripheral edge of said casing;
• a lock slot on said casing adjacent to said ramp;
• a pivoted locking tang in said print engine, said tang, upon insertion of said casing into said print engine, engageable with said ramp and when fully insertable into said engine being engageable with said lock slot;
• means for spring-biasing said tang into said lock slot;
• and
• means extending from said print engine for pivoting said tang out of said slot and permitting withdrawal of said casing from said print engine.

A rotation device for driving a print wheel having a central hub and hub aperture, said hub including an engagement ramp and a first locking slot adjacent to an end of the engagement ramp;

• a motor for rotating said wheel;
• a first drive gear connected to said motor;
• a print wheel drive gear fixedly attached to a shaft insertable into said hub aperture and being rotatable by said first gear;
• a spring-biased locking pin depending from said print wheel drive gear and movable by rotation into said engagement ramp and said first locking slot to a down position to permit rotation of said print wheel by said shaft;
• and
• means for lifting said shaft out of said hub aperture and lifting said pin out of said first locking slot.

In combination a dual station flat bed hot debossing stamper comprising:

• a chassis having a flat movable platen for mounting a workpiece to be debossed;
• a gantry connected to said chassis;
• and
• a debossment print engine movable with respect to said gantry for debossing the workpiece mounted on a portion of said platen, said chassis, said gantry and said engine forming a debossment assembly comprising:
• a first debossment station in said engine including a series of character fingers thereon individually movable out of a plane of storage;
• a second debossment station in said engine including a debossment die;
• a foil tape having a thermal and pressure transferable material thereon, said tape being positionably mounted in said assembly such that said transferable material extends between a workpiece on said platen and a character on a character finger or the debossment die at a debossment zone;
• at least one heater for heating said character and for heating said debossment die;
• at least one forcer operable for exerting force on said heated character and on said transferable material to transfer the transferable material from said foil tape to the workpiece and to deboss said transferable material representative of said character into the workpiece on said platen and operable for exerting force on said heated debossment die and the transferable material to transfer said transferable material from said foil tape to the workpiece and to deboss the transferable material representative of indicia on said debossment die into the workpiece.

A hot stamper debossing system comprising a debossment engine including a tape advance sensor and a tape cartridge including, a tape supply spool, a tape take-up spool and a drive motor for said take-up spool, said supply spool including a series of spaced reflector pads on a periphery of said supply spool;

• a host computer;
• means for tracking the number of revolutions of said supply spool;
• means, including said reflector pads and said sensor, for providing a feedback to said computer as to a number of motor steps required to rotate the supply spool over a fixed turn;
• and
• means in said host computer for calculating, based on said number of revolutions and said feedback, the approximate amount of tape remaining on said spool.

In combination, a hot stamper daisy character wheel including a central hub;

• a cover extending at least in part over said wheel, said wheel and hub being rotatable with respect to said cover, said wheel including a series of character fingers;
• a stepper motor;
• a wheel drive shaft insertable into said hub;
• a gear train extending from said stepper motor to rotate said shaft;
• and
• a linkage to allow raising of said drive shaft to disengage the drive shaft from said hub.

In combination a flat bed daisy wheel hot debossing stamper comprising:

• a chassis having a flat platen for mounting a workpiece to be debossed;
• a debossment print engine movable with respect to said platen and said chassis, said engine forming a debossment assembly comprising:
• a debossment station in said engine including a rotating character wheel generally extending in a plane parallel to said platen and having a series of character fingers thereon individually movable out of a plane of storage;
• a foil substrate having a heat and pressure transferable material thereon, said substrate being mounted in said assembly such that said transferable material extends between a workpiece on said platen and a character on an end of a finger of said character wheel;
• a heater for heating said character on said wheel;
• a forcer operable for exerting force on said finger end, on said heated character and on said transferable material to transfer said transferable material from said substrate to the workpiece and to deboss said transferable material representative of said character onto the workpiece on said platen;
• and
• means for centering a character on a character pad at a distal end of each of the fingers of the character wheel wherein a forcer hammer end strikes and dwells on said pad to transfer a character image to a workpiece.

A hot stamper daisy character wheel comprising:

• a central hub;
• a series of radial character fingers extending from the hub, a selected one of said fingers being depressible from a plane of storage;
• a character extending from an underside of a distal end of each of said fingers;
• and
• wherein each finger has a detent on a top side of said distal end radially offset from the character on the finger such that an associated probe attached to a forcer depressing said fingers can capture and center said detent with respect to said probe.