United States Patent: 3556007

[US Patent & Trademark Office, Patent Full Text and Image Database]

( 7140 of 7140 )

United States Patent	3,556,007
Schulze	January 19, 1971

DATA RECORDING SYSTEM

Abstract

A printing recorder which has only the function of providing a rolling compression upon an assembly of printing devices and print receiving forms. The assembly is totally separable and is provided in size and configuration to accommodate the needs of the form. Several extensions of the invention provide for separate document creation, and/or combinations with machine reading to transmit information to a remote computer.

Inventors:	Schulze; Erwin F. C. (Novelty, OH)
Assignee:	Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation (Cleveland, OH)
Appl. No.:	04/715,374
Filed:	March 22, 1968

Current U.S. Class: 101/250 ; 101/281; 101/374

Current International Class: B41L 47/42 (20060101); B41L 47/00 (20060101); B41f 003/26 ()

Field of Search: 101/268,269,271,279,253,254,255,259,56,57,407,316,319--321,374,426,281,214,250

References Cited [Referenced By]

U.S. Patent Documents


2482941	September 1949	Sark
2624278	January 1953	Robbins
2848088	August 1958	Shaw
1669972	May 1928	Cottrell
1997191	April 1935	Hoag
2027625	January 1936	Bauer
2161602	June 1939	Von Pein
2694975	November 1954	Garver
3083641	April 1963	Childs et al.
3125951	March 1964	Lyman et al.
3183834	May 1965	Marmor et al.

Foreign Patent Documents


623,861	May., 1949	GB
994,632	Nov., 1951	FR

Primary Examiner: Pulfrey; Robert E.
Assistant Examiner: Eickholt; Eugene H.

Claims

I claim:

1. A printing recorder system including a printing recorder machine, comprising:

a plurality of separate form holders, each said form holder being a plate configuration having retainer surface means for removably holding a printing device card and other printing devices, said form holder providing printing devices to the exclusion of the printing recorder machine and configured to hold a form thereon in pressure printout relationship to said printing devices;

a base track with means to guide said form holder along said track in a print path;

a frame supporting said track and projecting a cantilever beam transversely of said path over said track from a position lateral of said track;

a roller platen having bearing support means for mounting said platen in a fixed position on said beam and extending transversely of said path over said track;

said cantilever and platen being unyielding under printout conditions of making impressions from printing devices to the extent that the spacing of said roller platen from said printing device during printout is independent of the presence or absence of print characters on said printing device and said roller platen is spaced above the level of printing devices passing thereunder out of contact only enough to prevent the roller and form from smudge printing in the absence of print characters and will produce uniform print pressure on all areas of a printing device where there are such characters; and

whereby, the recorder is open to one side of said print path to allow said form holder to present a portion thereof for impression printing with the remainder projecting from the frame and to pass along said track from one side of the frame to the other, the platen being held rigidly above said path and any size form may be printed in a continuous straight line pass-through movement with selected data arranged to the requirement of the form and with any portion of the form which exceeds the capacity of the recorder track projecting through said open side of the recorder formed by said cantilever beam.

2. A printing recorder system, comprising:

a plurality of form holders each said form holder having provisions for carrying in a superimposed relationship at least one printing device and a print receiving form in a condition for imprinting the form by application of pressure applied to press the form to the printing device;

a base track with means to guide said form holder along said track in a print path;

a frame supporting said track and projecting a cantilever beam transversely of said path over said track from a position lateral of said track;

a roller platen having bearing support means at opposite ends thereof for mounting said platen in a fixed position on said beam and extending transversely of said path over said track;

said cantilever and platen being unyielding under printout conditions of making impressions from printing devices to the extent that the spacing of said roller platen from said printing device during printout is independent of the presence or absence of print characters on said printing device and said roller platen is spaced above the level of printing devices passing thereunder out of contact only enough to prevent the roller and form from smudge printing in the absence of print characters and will produce uniform print pressure on all areas of a printing device where there are such characters; and

whereby, the recorder is open to one side of said path to allow said form holder to present a portion thereof for impression printing with the remainder projecting from the frame and to pass along said track from one side of the frame means to the other, the platen being held rigidly above said path and any size form may be printed in a continuous straight line pass-through movement with selected data arranged to the requirement of the form and with any portion of the form which exceeds the capacity of the recorder track projecting through said open side of the recorder formed by said cantilever beam.

3. A printing recorder as defined in claim 2, further characterized in that the form holder and the base track are interfitting to guide the holder through the recorder in proper angular register with respect to said platen.

4. A printing recorder as defined in claim 2, further characterized in that power means is provided to drive the form holders along said track in one direction only.

5. A printing recorder system as define defined in claim 2, further characterized in that said recorder base track includes at least one power drive roller, said power drive roller having an axis transverse to said path for rotation of said roller in a plane extending in the path direction.

6. A printing recorder system as defined in claim 2, further characterized in that said recorder base track begins at one elevation and extends downwardly to a lower elevation at an angle to the horizontal of at least 30.degree..

7. In a printing recorder as defined in claim 2:

a first and second ribbon, each ribbon having a separate path with the paths merging under said roller platen, one of the ribbons being adapted to provide print marking upon the other under print pressure conditions;

means to advance said first and second ribbon in synchronism with a form holder passing under said platen; and

whereby, a recording of the printed material from the printing means upon a form held in the form holder is separately printed on the said other ribbon.

8. A printing recorder as defined in claim 7 further characterized in that said ribbons are carried on separate supply spools;

means urging said ribbons to progress in a joint path across the face of said platen, but with a force insufficient to cause ribbon feed; and

whereby, the ribbons are advanced only under printing conditions by the amount of the peripheral rotation of said platen.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Data recording machines, such as the department store and automotive service station credit charging devices are now commonly used for quickly printing information on forms. These machines are now finding application in industry to speed gathering of control data and employee payment information. This is the general field of the invention.

The usual construction of such machines requires the operator to assemble the personal data printing device, together with the paper form, at the machine. The printing devices are known by such terms as: credit cards, printing tokens, or similar terms. Such act of assembly is not a lengthy procedure, but can accumulate the time lag into serious proportions whenever a business rush causes several operators to need the machine at one time.

The prior art has recognized the need to speed the use of the expensive printing recorder machines. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,083,641 presents an advance in this direction. This prior patent provides a separable form holder which limits the possible form size to the size of the holder. Part of the printing is accomplished by printing devices carried by the form holder, and part by the machine.

Also, in the commercial data printing recorders, it is necessary to provide interleaved forms in order to produce more than one copy of the data assembled. It is necessary for the operator to transport his copy to a storage facility, and to be certain to preserve the copy, in order to have a basis for proper billing. Human negligence and error can cause confusion, with no means to provide an audit trail.

There are two further factual situations with respect to the background of the present invention. First, it must be recognized that the embossed characters on a metal or plastic sheet are ostensibly raised to the exact same plane for uniform printing impression. However, both plastic and metal sheets are subject to variable tolerances, and the machines employed for producing embossures are subject to tolerance limits. Sometimes the limits on both the material and the machine inadvertently exceed specifications. When all tolerances are at maximum, the quality of the printing characters will be lowered, and in the event that the tolerances accumulate on one of the larger characters which requires the most embossing pressure, then the quality is capable of dropping to dangerously low limits.

Secondly, the printing machines which employ a moving platen need a long span bridge to carry the roller platen. Because the pressure needed to properly print a series of lines is so great, deflection in such beams is sufficient to make uniform printing for machine character recognition somewhat problematical. For this reason, U.S. Pat. No. 3,340,800 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,272,120 have been provided to minimize such effect. These patents teach the use of a roller operating on a single line of a multiple line printing plate in order to accomplish uniformity by printing one letter of a series at a time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The advantages of this invention as compared to prior art devices are several: all time-consuming preparation of imprinting data and form assembly is done on a separate form transport before the impression machine is placed into service; the form transport moves through a printing station, as opposed to having a roller platen traverse the transport, thereby accomplishing cost reduction and also making an integrated system possible wherein the assembled data is passed from the printing station into a reading device for transmission of the same data to a remote receiver; and, various audit trail or auxiliary records are produced, which may be cloistered within the machine for untampered surveillance.

It is an object of this invention to provide a system, wherein one impression supplying recorder machine can be used to service a variety of separable form holders, regardless of the form size.

Another object of this invention is to make possible the arrangement of the printing devices to the needs of the form, and not dictate that the form must concur with the limitations of the machine.

It is possible, therefore, to use this invention for imprinting within the confines of a large form, as well as at the top or bottom.

Further, the prior art provides imprinted forms, and often provides several copies by the use of interleaved forms. These copies are separate, loose forms subject to loss, or possible alteration.

It is an object of this invention to provide, as an alternative embodiment, a ribbon of impression material, usually paper, which is imprinted by the same printing impression devices in the same printing act, as the form on the holder. This ribbon may be collected on a spool within the machine, inaccessible to the operator, as an audit trail for use in the event of loss or dispute over the imprinted forms.

An object of this invention, is to provide a record printed by the machine separate from any printing form carried on the form holder which passes through the machine, but to minimize the cost of such separate printing. It is contemplated that form holders having printing members of various lengths will be used in the one printing machine. One form may use a single printing member of about 2 inches or 3 inches length whereas another may have more than one printing member plus various settable wheel printing members.

It is an advantage of this invention that two separate ribbons are passed under the roller platen. One ribbon provides the pressure release marking material to print out on the other. Some such marking material, such as magnetic ink, is expensive in total release form. Therefore, in this alternative construction of the invention, the ribbon feed is not provided with a positive drive. By this construction, the ribbons will be fed through the machine only to the extent that actual printing contact is made with the platen. A short printing demand will cause only a short length of printout tape to pass through the machine, whereas a long printing member or series of printing members will cause the exact amount of the printout tape to follow along. The object of this construction is to drive the auxiliary printing tapes by frictional contact without a separate drive which would produce a fixed amount of advancement for each use of the machine.

An advantage of the invention, also, is that the use of a stationary platen roller and transport of the form holder through the machine, enables the coupling of a reading-transmission function along with the imprinting.

By this means, the form may be imprinted and the data sent to a remote computer. Many combinations are possible. Reading and transmission may be carried out first, and printing permitted only if the computer requirements are satisfied, as one example. Many other combinations will be apparent.

An advantage of this invention is the use of a stationary position roller platen with a movable carriage to carry printing devices and forms relative to the stationary position roller platen. The roller platen may then be supported with an exceptionally heavy and strain resistant frame to minimize the deflection of the roller platen under load conditions. Because the roller platen is held in one position, the machine frame can be structured to hold deflection to within 0.0002 of an inch. Then, variation in the embossure quality due to the several factors described, will be less likely to produce unacceptable reproduction results, because one large possible variable has been removed.

In accordance with these and other advantages which will become apparent hereinafter, the best mode contemplated for the present invention is disclosed in the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a printing recorder made according to the principles of this invention, adapted for the provision of separable form holders of various sizes and configurations.

FIG. 2 is the machine of FIG. 1 in the same perspective relationship, with the protective cover removed and a carbon ribbon and paper tape combination attached for recording information imprinted by the machine.

FIG. 3 is a functional interior view as taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a detail of the platen roller assembly as taken from line 4-4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a detail of the guiding and driving rollers at the rear of the device as taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 illustrates the means of coordinating the guiding and drive rollers, as viewed along lines 6-6 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 7 is the perspective view of one embodiment of a form holder.

FIG. 8 is a section taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged fragmentary portion of a section as viewed along line 9-9 of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is an enlarged fragmentary portion as viewed along line 10-10 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of one combination of three functions and embodiments of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIGS. 1 and 2 are separate modifications, although FIG. 2 is identical in structure to that of FIG. 1 with the addition of an alternative recording system attached thereto. In FIG. 2, the covering housing has been removed to reveal the interior construction.

The FIG. 1 indicates a general basic printing recorder 10, and FIG. 7 is representative of various types of form holders 12 which may be employed in the system of this invention.

As seen best in FIG. 2, the recorder is constructed around a C frame composed of two laterally spaced C frame members 14 and 15. The frame members are bridged by various structural components which hold the C frames in proper relationship and also serve as a support for the devices which bridge the C frames.

One such bridging device is a base track frame 17 which may be seen in FIG. 3, and a base track frame 18 which is visible both in FIGS. 3 and 5. These are cross frame members which carry bearings to support a drive roller 20, and outrigger guide rollers 21. The use of outrigger guide rollers is not essential, but provides greater stability and reliability for guiding and driving the form holders 12.

A motor 23, seen in FIG. 3, operates through a coupler 25 to drive the roller 20. In FIG. 6, a spur gear 26 on the drive roller 20 operates spur gears 27 on the two guide rollers 21 through the media of idler coupler gears 28. The drive roller 20, and the guide roller 21, are therefore caused to rotate in unison and serve as three related drive roll means.

In order to provide a working table top, and also give lateral stability to the desk model of the invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a table frame 30 is incorporated around the three drive rollers and forms a table top extension from the three rollers.

The three rollers and table frame construction thus described, is referred to as a base track with means to drive a selected form holder along the track in a print path, and also as a power roller conveyor for the form holder 12. That is, a form holder 12 placed on the table frame 30 will be moved across the table frame 30.

In FIG. 5, a crossbar 35 is also seen to bridge between the two C frame members 14 and 15. Crossbar 35 carries three roller wheels 36 in frames 37. Springs 38 are held by screws 39 to provide a resilient force upon the roller wheels 36. Form holder 12, when placed upon the base track, will be forced against the first outrigger wheel 21 by the companion roller wheel 36 and therefore caused to advance along the print path. The roller wheels will adjust to whatever thickness of form holder is inserted, within the limits of yieldability of springs 38.

Impression of printing devices carried by a form holder is accomplished by means of roller platens in the better data imprinting constructions. The recorder of this invention employs roller platens which are rotatable around a stationary axis, as opposed to other forms in which the roller platen is caused to move across a field.

Because adjustment of printing pressure may be necessary after the printing machine is in actual use, a means for adjusting the position of the roller platen with respect to the rollers 20 and 21 is provided. A plate 42, as seen best in FIG. 4, bridges between the C frames 14 and 15, and two parallel leaf springs 43 are held on the under surface of the plate 42. Two platen rollers 44 are shown in this embodiment of the invention. Each is attached to its spring 43 by a screw. One platen roller or several may be employed according to the type of impression that is desired. Leveling screws 45 are threaded through the plate 42 and impinge against the top of the leaf springs 43 to cause the platens to be moved to a desired spacing of the platens with respect to the drive roller 20 and to tilt the platens until proper uniform impression is obtained upon the form holder passing through the recorder.

In FIG. 7, one embodiment of a form holder is illustrated. This invention has as one of the prime objects the provision of a separate printing recorder which carries no data but simply provides impression force for any form holder compatible with the recorder. Thus, the form holders, typified by holder 12 in FIG. 7, may be quite large to hold a form having an area of blank spaces to be printed by the printing devices on the form holder, but having a much greater area where other data is printed or entered. Other types of form workmen may be no wider than the bed of the printing recorder itself. The form holder is free of restriction in that the printing may be provided to the dictates of the form, rather than the form being required to conform to the construction of the printing recorder. For example, in FIG. 7 the surfaces 51 are retainer surfaces for a separable printing device a such as the common embossed plastic cards popularly referred to as credit cards, which are now employed by filling stations, and department stores. Such embossed plastic cards are also widely used in industry for identifying workmen or jobs or locations and similar purposes. Hence, they are properly known as printing plates or devices. They all have the common characteristic of being a completely separable member carrying part of the information to be printed onto a form.

In FIG. 7, a "station plate" imprinting area 53 is indicated. This is a removable, although semipermanent type of plate which has a long term of use and is not changed with each change of the device which fits into the retainer surfaces 51. In a filling station situation, this would be the address of the filling station, for example.

Then, a set of "date" wheels 55 are shown as a further possibility. Such wheels are usually used to provide two digits to indicate the month, two digits to indicate the day, and two to indicate the year. They are commonly referred to as dater wheels.

Finally, the illustrated embodiment 12 of the form holders carries a set of variable numbers in a number station 57. Such variable numbers are commonly used to provide a count, or perhaps a dollar amount of a sale. They may be set to indicate a job number or order number.

It is the intent of this invention to provide all of the printing devices in the form holder 12 to the exclusion of the use of any machine contained data. In this way, the recorder 10 may be kept simplified for inexpensive construction and ease of maintenance. However, a more important function is that by placing all of the printing function on the form holder, the entire form holder is set up by the operator away from the printing recorder 10, and then the recorder 10 is scheduled for only the moment or two required to place the form holder on the base track of the drive device to carry the holder through the area. In this manner the one printing recorder is employed for each transaction for the least possible period of time.

The variable number station 57 is constructed in a unique manner as shown in the FIGS. 8 and 9. Each of the variable number positions is provided by a set of number characters on a belt 59. In the illustrated embodiment, these would consist of the numbers 1 through 9 and 0. Each number position is represented by a wheel 58. Each wheel has a plurality of flat face areas defining the periphery of the wheel. The length of each face area corresponds to the space between the characters on the belt.

Then, a handle 63 projects through slots 64 in the top surface of the form holder 12 and extends to a particular belt 59 as shown in FIG. 9. By using indicia markings on the surface surrounding the slots, the various handles 63 are quickly moved to set up the proper number combination in the variable number station 57.

To assure proper alignment of the form holder 12 in the printing recorder 10, the top edge is preferably provided with a groove 65 as seen best in FIGS. 7 and 10. The groove 65 is designed to be placed in alignment with the roller wheels 36, and form a locking alignment relationship with the form holder.

Refer to the FIG. 2. This modification is accomplished by using the exact recorder construction as described, and attaching thereon a carbon spool 66 and a paper spool 67. The paper and carbon are threaded under the head of the machine in alignment with the platens 44 and to takeup spools 68 and 69.

In order to drive the paper and carbon through the machine in coordination with the printing of forms as the form holder is passed therethrough, a pulley 71 on the takeup spool 68 is driven by a belt 73. In FIG. 3, the shaft of drive roller 20 is provided with a drive pulley configuration which is indicated by the reference character 74. Belt 73 transmits drive from the pulley 74 to the pulley 71. Pulley 71 is a double pulley and a belt 76 extends to a pulley 77 on the drive axis of the takeup spool 69. The operation of the form holder drive and the spools is from the same drive source.

The drive is initiated by a switch 80. Switch 80 is shown in FIG. 3 in a position to be contacted by the insertion of the form holder 12. The switch 80 is wired in a conventional known manner not illustrated, to be in control of motor 23. Thus, when the form holder is inserted into the track of the recorder, the motor 23 is activated and the drive action commences. More than one switch 80 may be employed along the drive track in order to cause the motor to continue operation until the form holder is passed completely through the recorder. Such control arrangement in electrical circuitry is common and well known and therefore is not illustrated.

The pulley 74 operates only when the motor drives the roller 20, but whenever pulley 74 does operate through the belt 73 to cause the takeup spools 68 and 69 to receive drive force, the drive is only of sufficient magnitude to serve as a takeup of loose ribbon, and is insufficient to actually draw either the paper or the carbon from their supply storage spool.

As a form holder is passed through the machine, and a printing plate comes into contact with the roller platen, the superposed carbon and paper from the spools 66 and 67 are clamped against the face of the roller platen. The ribbons are caused to move along with the rotation of the platen, and the amount of advancement of the ribbons will be the exact amount that corresponds to the rotary movement of the plate, and no more.

The embodiment of FIG. 2 is shown as one of several useful variations of the invention. If the characters on the printing devices positioned by surfaces 51 are reading type, which means that they are readable directly when viewed from the raised side, then the paper from spool 67 will be printed in mirror image. Mirror image is no problem to machine reading.

If human reading is desired, the tape may be translucent and read through the tape, or printing type used. Printing type is raised characters in reverse image when viewed from the raised side.

Rather than using a takeup spool 69, the paper tape may be ejected through a slot to be severed and taken by the operator as a separate record document.

The use of the tape and carbon, or two tapes with a type of crushable ink bead so that there is no carbon ribbon required, may be varied in a great variety of combinations for audit trail or other documentation, in addition to or separate from any actual printing on the form holder 21.

The preferred embodiment is shown with a power drive because such conveniences are common and generally expected. However, in order to provide ease of encoding in areas where power is difficult to obtain, it has been found that the motor may be eliminated and the operator can supply all of the necessary drive force by pushing the form holder 12 through the device. This same principle is useful in the event of power failure on the powered models.

The pushing of a form holder through a level track requires use of muscles which are not normally strong in humans, and it has been found advantageous to place the encoder on a base which tips the track such that one end is elevated above the other on a path which is somewhere near 45.degree. to the horizontal. This is not a fixed or specific angle which is essential to the operation by hand, but is a general average angle which will accommodate most people operating a device on a common table height support. The angle should however, be at least 30.degree.. In FIG. 11, the schematic illustration shows the encoder tilted at such angle with the carbon spool 66 and the paper supply spool 67 in position as shown in FIG. 2, but without a takeup spool on the opposite side. Rather, two drive rollers 82 pull the paper along the desired amount. Therefore, the embodiment of FIG. 11 illustrates the fact that the paper may be extended to any end use. It may be collected as shown in FIG. 2 or fed from the machine for individual receipt purposes, as two possible examples.

Further, in FIG. 11, the combination of form printing and data transmission in one unit is illustrated. A reader 84 is in position to strum the surface of the printing devices carried by the holder 12 as it passes thereby, and to create electrical signals in a pattern produced by such reader. The reader 84 may be mechanical for sensing bar code, or an optical reader may be employed to scan the information on the form holder 12. Furthermore, the reader is shown subsequent to the recording step, but may be placed in advance of the recording. The two functions of recording and transmission may be related such that the reading may take place and all other functions stop until a remote station computer or similar device gives a clear signal to authorize continuing of the operation. The fact that the printing recorder does pass the holder through from one end to the other makes possible the combination of this invention into a larger scheme requiring such transmission, whereas the prior devices using movable platens are limited.

Whereas the present invention has been shown and described herein in what is conceived to be the best mode contemplated, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the invention which is, therefore, not to be limited to the details disclosed herein, but is to be afforded the full scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

* * * * *

Current U.S. Class:	101/250 ; 101/281; 101/374
Current International Class:	B41L 47/42 (20060101); B41L 47/00 (20060101); B41f 003/26 ()
Field of Search:	101/268,269,271,279,253,254,255,259,56,57,407,316,319--321,374,426,281,214,250