Thermal ink ribbon cassette for mailing machines

A ink ribbon cassette for a mailing machine comprising:

• a housing defining a substantially rectangular shape comprising a front wall, a rear wall;
• first and second end walls, a top wall, and a plurality of walls and surfaces defining a bottom of the housing;
• a recess formed in the bottom of the housing for accommodating a print head and a print head bracket when the ink ribbon cassette is inserted in the mailing machine, the recess comprising a top wall and first and second side walls;
• a supply spool rotatably mounted in the housing;
• an ink ribbon rotatably mounted on the supply spool;
• an exit opening defined in the bottom of the housing adjacent to the first side wall of the recess and the first end wall of the cassette, the exit opening for accommodating the exiting of the ink ribbon from the ink ribbon cassette;
• an entrance opening defined in the bottom of the housing adjacent to the second side wall of recess, the entrance opening comprising:
• an first upwardly slanted wall extending between the front and rear walls of the housing and at a lower end connecting to a lower end of the second side wall of the recess to form a juncture;
• whereby
• the juncture of the upwardly slanted wall and the second side wall is disposed slightly above a lower edge of the print head bracket;
• and whereby
• the ink ribbon follows a path that is contiguous with the upwardly slanted wall, and is directed sharply out of a path of travel of an envelope and the lower edge of the print head bracket functions as a strip off point for separation of the ink ribbon from the envelope;
• and
• a take up spool rotatably mounted in the housing for collecting the inked ribbon after it completes a path that is contiguous with the upwardly slanted wall;
• a cavity disposed on the bottom of the housing adjacent to the second end wall of the cassette, the cavity for accommodating a roller of the mailing machine;
• a first side edge mail guide disposed along a portion of the front wall of the cassette, the first side edge mail guide extending from approximately a midpoint of the upwardly slanted wall to an upstream side of the cavity;
• a second side edge mail guide disposed along a portion of the rear wall of the cassette, the second side edge mail guide extending from the lower end of the second side wall of the cassette to the upstream side of the cavity;
• whereby the first and second side edge mail guides maintain the envelope in its normal path of travel through the mailing machine as the ink ribbon is separated from the envelope
• a downwardly slanted wall, the downwardly slanted wall slants downwardly ir a downstream direction and extending between the front and rear walls of the housing, at an upper end the downwardly slanted wall is spaced apart from approximately the midpoint of the upwardly slanted wall to further define the entrance opening, at a lower end the downwardly slanted wall connects to the upstream side of the cavity;
• whereby the downwardly slanting wall exerts a downward force on the leading edge of the envelope thus maintaining the envelope in a normal path of travel through the mailing machine;
• a rectangular opening in the side wall of the cassette adjacent to the take up spool comprising a top edge, a bottom edge, a front edge and a rear edge;
• and
• a second upwardly slanted wall extending from the upper end of the downwardly slanted wall to the end wall of the cassette at the bottom edge of the rectangular opening;
• whereby when the ink ribbon becomes broken, a broken end of the ink ribbon can be inserted by a user into the entrance opening and guided along the second upwardly slanted wall to the rectangular opening where it can be manually accessed by the user and fastened with adhesive to the take up spool.