Printer Label Alignment via Black Mark Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Printers that form prints on small labels, such as price tags, often experience misalignment due to discrepancies between the set printing interval based on label size and the actual distance between labels, leading to defects like print protrusion beyond the label boundaries.
Innovation Solution
A printer system with a feeder, a printing head, and a detecting device that uses a sensor unit to detect black marks on the print-receiving tape, generating a positioning reference to control the printing head accurately, ensuring precise alignment and preventing misalignment by adjusting the printing interval based on detected markers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the printing interval is set based on label size and margin settings, then the printing process can be automated and efficient, but misalignment occurs due to the difference between the setting unit and the actual distance between labels
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by detecting the black mark on the print-receiving tape before the actual printing operation. The detecting device identifies the position of the black mark upstream of the printing head, and the control unit calculates the precise printing interval based on this detection. This preliminary detection and calculation enable the system to compensate for any deviations in the actual distance between labels, ensuring accurate print positioning while maintaining automated efficient printing.
2Ease of operation
If the printing interval is set without considering actual label spacing, then the printing process is simple and fast, but misalignment accumulates over multiple labels causing print to protrude beyond label boundaries
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback by using the detecting device to continuously monitor the actual position of black marks on the print-receiving tape. The control unit receives this detection information and adjusts the printing interval for each subsequent label based on the measured actual spacing. This feedback mechanism allows the system to maintain printing process simplicity while automatically compensating for spacing variations, preventing misalignment accumulation and ensuring print stays within label boundaries.
Data Source
AI summary
A printer comprises a feeder, a printing head, and a detecting device. The feeder feeds a print-receiving tape having multiple print-receiving portions, each of the print-receiving portions having a detected element. The printing head forms desired printing on the print-receiving tape. The detecting device detects the detected element, provided on an upstream side of the printing head by a predetermined distance X. A first positioning reference is generated when the detecting device detects the detected element of a first print-receiving portion. The printing head may be controlled, when the detecting device detects the detected element of the first print-receiving portion, to perform print formation on a second print-receiving portion preceding the first print-receiving portion and facing the printing head, using the first positioning reference.