Printed matter producing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10093089-B2
Application number	US-201715444655-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2017
Priority date	Mar 1, 2016
Publication date	Oct 9, 2018
Grant date	Oct 9, 2018

Abstract

The disclosure discloses a printed matter producing device including a unique information acquiring portion, an identifier determining portion, a bar-coding portion, and a control portion. The unique information acquiring portion is configured to acquire unique information uniquely retained by the printed matter producing device. The identifier determining portion is configured to read a template so as to determine whether a predetermined collection identifier exists or not in the read template. The bar-coding portion is configured to generate and expand print data to a printing buffer in the case that the collection identifier is present, the print data having the unique information acquired and assigned to contents of the bar-code object included in the template. The control portion is configured to, by using the print data expanded to the printing buffer, to produce the printed matter having a bar-code print portion corresponding to the bar-code object.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printed matter producing device comprising:
a feeder configured to feed a print-receiving medium;
a printing head configured to perform a print on said printing-receiving medium;
a template memory configured to store a template configured to have at least one print object that includes a bar-code object and is allocated in a predetermined form; and
a controller;
said controller being configured to execute:
an instruction accepting process for accepting a production instruction for a printed matter by means of using said print-receiving medium;
a unique information acquiring process for using the acceptance of said production instruction in said instruction accepting process as a trigger to acquire unique information uniquely retained by said printed matter producing device;
an identifier determining process for using the acceptance of said production instruction in said instruction accepting process as a trigger to read said template stored in said template memory so as to determine whether a predetermined collection identifier exists or not in the read template;
a bar-coding process for generating bar code print data and expanding the bar code print data to a printing buffer in the case that it is determined in said identifier determining process that said collection identifier is present, the bar code print data having said unique information acquired in said unique information acquiring process, is bar-coded and assigned to contents of said bar-code object included in said template; and
a control process for controlling said feeder and said printing head by using said bar code print data expanded to said printing buffer in said bar-coding process so as to produce said printed matter having a bar-code print portion corresponding to said bar-code object after said assignment is applied.

2. The printed matter producing device according to claim 1 , wherein
said at least one print object includes a plurality of print objects,
said plurality of said print objects including said bar-code object and a text object is allocated to said template stored in said template memory,
the controller is further configured to execute a text data acquiring process for acquiring text data for assignment to contents of said text object and for expanding the text data as a portion of said bar code print data to said printing buffer, wherein
in said control process said feeder and said printing head are controlled by using said bar code print data expanded to said printing buffer so as to produce said printed matter further having a text print portion corresponding to said text object assigned with said text data acquired in said text data acquiring process.

3. The printed matter producing device according to claim 2 , further comprising a database memory configured to store a database including a plurality of records each having at least one character string respectively assigned to at least one field, wherein
in said text data acquiring process, the acceptance of said production instruction specifying said at least one record included in said database stored in said database memory in said instruction accepting process is used as a trigger to acquire and expand said at least one character string included in said record specified by the production instruction as said text data to said printing buffer, and
in said control process, said feeder and said printing head are controlled by using said at least one character string expanded to said printing buffer so as to produce said printed matter corresponding to said specified record and further having said text print portion corresponding to said text object assigned with said at least one character string acquired in said text data acquiring process.

4. The printed matter producing device according to claim 2 , further comprising a cutter configured to completely or partially cut said print-receiving medium in a thickness direction, wherein
in said control process, said feeder, said printing head, and said cutter are controlled so as to produce said printed matter completely or partially cut by said cutter between said bar-code print portion and said text print portion.

5. The printed matter producing device according to claim 2 , wherein
in said bar-coding process, said bar code print data is generated and expanded to a printing buffer in the case that it is determined that said collection identifier is present in said identifier determining process, wherein said bar code print data has said unique information acquired by said unique information acquiring process as well as said text data acquired in the text data acquiring process that are both bar-coded and assigned to contents of said bar-code object included in said template, and
in said control process, said feeder and said printing head are controlled by using said bar code print data expanded to said printing buffer in said bar-coding process so as to produce said printed matter having said bar-code print portion corresponding to said bar-code object after said assignment is applied in said bar-coding process and said text print portion corresponding to said text object assigned with said text data acquired in said text data acquiring process.

6. The printed matter producing device according to claim 1 , wherein
said unique information acquired in said information acquiring process includes at least one of an individual identification number of said printed matter producing device and production date/time of said printed matter.

7. A printed matter producing device according to claim 1 , wherein
said unique information acquired in said information acquiring process includes information of an edit process to contents preliminarily assigned to said text object of said template read from said template memory.

Assignees

• Brother Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Kanda Mitsuhiro
• Moriyama Satoru

Classifications

• B41J2/04586

  controlling heads of a type not covered by groups B41J2/04575 - B41J2/04585, or of an undefined type · CPC title

• B41J3/4075 Primary

  Tape printers; Label printers · CPC title

• B41J2/04536 Primary

  using history data · CPC title

• B41J3/01

  for special character, e.g. for Chinese characters or barcodes · CPC title