Thermal printer cartridge with energy absorbing features

A thermal printer cartridge comprising:

• supply housing having a drive end and a non-drive end;
• take-up housing having a drive end and a non-drive end;
• a stiffening linkage joining the non-drive end of the supply housing to the non-drive end of the take-up housing to define a separation between them, said stiffening linkage having a first beam strength and being capable of elastic deflection to absorb one portion of an energy from an impact load;
• an elastically deformable linkage joining the drive end of the supply housing to the drive end of the take-up housing, said elastically deformable linkage having a second beam strength and being adapted to elastically deform from a first state following a first deflection pattern and to absorb another portion of the energy from an impact load during elastic deformation;
• and
• a damping linkage joining the drive end of the supply housing to the drive end of the take-up housing, said damping linkage having a third beam strength and being adapted to elastically deflect from the first state following a second deflection pattern that is different than the first deflection pattern and to absorb a further portion of the amount of energy from the impact load during said deflection, said damping linkage further being adapted to damp deformation of the elastically deformable linkage during a portion of the deflection thereof, wherein at said first state said elastically deformable linkage and said damping linkage are in contact with each other, and at said impact load said first deflection pattern of said elastically deformable linkage and said second deflection pattern of said damping linkage cause a gap to be created between said elastically deformable linkage and said damping linkage, and wherein the first beam strength of said stiffening linkage is stiffer than the combination of the second beam strength of said elastically deformable linkage and the third beam strength of the damping linkage