Industrial printer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10592794-B2
Application number	US-201514882194-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 13, 2015
Priority date	Oct 13, 2014
Publication date	Mar 17, 2020
Grant date	Mar 17, 2020

Abstract

A high speed tabletop and industrial printer is disclosed with integrated high speed RFID encoding and verification at the same time. The industrial printer simultaneously prints on and electronically encodes/verifies RFID labels, tags, and/or stickers attached to a continuous web. The industrial printer comprises a lighted sensor array for indexing the printing to the RFID tags; and a cutter powered from the industrial printer for cutting the web that the RFID tags are disposed on. The industrial printer comprises two RFID reader/writers that are individually controlled. Specifically, one of the RFID reader/writers comprises the ability to electronically encode the RFID tags while the web is moving; and the second RFID reader/writer uses an additional RFID module and antenna on the printer for verifying the data encoded to the RFID tags.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process for printing, encoding, and verifying RFID products, using a printer device, comprising the steps of:
providing a thermal tabletop and industrial printer device for printing on and electronically encoding and verifying radio frequency identification (RFID) labels, tags, or stickers attached to a continuous web, comprising: a print head capable of printing on the continuous web, a supply sensor, a supply damper, an RFID reader/writer module that electronically encodes the RFID tags with data while the continuous web is moving and a second RFID reader/writer module that verifies the data encoded to the RFID tags and the second RFID reader/writer module is individually controlled from the RFID reader/writer module that electronically encodes the RFID tags, such that the printer device can encode and verify in a sequential manner, substantially simultaneously or simultaneously, and the printer device can read and encode and print on an RFID tag without damaging the RFID tag, a cutter attachment may be attached;
issuing commands be sent in sequence, the commands including write EPC, write access, password lock, and read EPC as one command;
feeding a label in position;
fetching EPC data from memory;
generating a program command with EPC data packet;
sending packet to RFID module;
receiving RFID module response packet;
extracting response data from packet; and
decoding response data.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein encoding and printing occurs substantially simultaneously.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the printer device further comprises a lighted sensor array that automatically detects aperture sense marks on the continuous web to correctly index printing to the RFID tags.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the printer device further comprises a NFC I 2 C inlay for the purposes of communicating with a main processor.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the cutter is powered from the printer device.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein the print head is a thermal print head that automatically detects dot density.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the printer device further comprises a UHF temperature inlay contained under supply guides for the purpose of reading the printer's temperature and using the temperature for optimizing printer performance.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein the print head can accept input information from Portable Document Format (PDF) Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML) or JSON (Java Script Object Notation).

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the continuous web is arranged in a sheet or roll form so that the RFID tags can be printed or encoded as part of a continuous process without stopping the web motion.

10. The process of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether the RFID module responded with an error.

11. The process of claim 10 , wherein the RFID module did respond with an error, then the process further comprises: decoding and displaying error message on an LCD screen; and feeding and printing overstrike image on label.

12. The process of claim 11 , wherein after the overstrike image is fed and printed, the process goes back to beginning and a label is fed into position.

13. The process of claim 10 , wherein the RFID module did not respond with an error, then the process further comprises: feeding and printing image defined by format and batch data on label.

14. The process of claim 13 , wherein after the image is fed and printed, the process goes back to beginning and a label is fed into position.

15. The process of claim 1 , wherein the RFID module determines whether an RFID transponder is within its field by reading the RFID transponder's identification code.

16. The process of claim 15 , wherein the RFID module then encodes RFID tags with data while the web is moving.

17. The process of claim 16 , wherein a second RFID module is utilized to verify that the data has been programmed into the RFID transponder and that the data was correctly written into the RFID transponder.

Assignees

• Avery Dennison Retail Information Services Llc

Inventors

• Duckett Jeanne F
• Williams Larri B
• Makley James A
• Watson Jan M
• Neuhard Lance D
• Wirrig Richard D
• Wimmers David J
• Evans Andrew R

Classifications

• G06K17/0025

  the arrangement consisting of a wireless interrogation device in combination with a device for optically marking the record carrier · CPC title

• G06K7/00

  Methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers, {e.g. for reading patterns} (methods or arrangements for marking the record carrier in digital fashion G06K1/00; pattern recognition G06F18/00; arrangements for image or video recognition or understanding G06V10/00; character recognition, recognising digital ink or document-oriented image-based pattern recognition G06V30/00) · CPC title

• B41J15/00

  Devices or arrangements {of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers,} specially adapted for supporting or handling copy material in continuous form, e.g. webs · CPC title

• B41J3/50

  Mechanisms producing characters by printing and also producing a record by other means {, e.g. printer combined with RFID writer} · CPC title

• B41J3/4075

  Tape printers; Label printers · CPC title