Industrial printer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11010571-B2
Application number	US-202016816792-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 12, 2020
Priority date	Oct 13, 2014
Publication date	May 18, 2021
Grant date	May 18, 2021

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 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; and
an RFID reader/writer that electronically encodes the RFID tags with data while the continuous web is moving;
wherein the printer device can read and encode and print on an RFID tag without damaging the RFID tag; and
wherein the printer is configured to send as one command: write EPC, write access, password lock, and read EPC.

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

3. The printer device of claim 2 , further comprising a second RFID reader/writer module that verifies the data encoded to the RFID tags.

4. The printer device of claim 3 , wherein 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 simultaneously.

5. The printed device of claim 4 , further comprising a lighted sensor array that automatically detects aperture sense marks on the continuous web to correctly index printing to the RFID tags.

6. The printer device of claim 1 , further comprising a main processor and a NFC I 2 C inlay for the purposes of communicating with the main processor.

7. The printer device of claim 6 , wherein a cutter is powered from the printer device.

8. The printer device of claim 1 , wherein the print head is a thermal print head that automatically detects dot density.

9. The printer of claim 1 , further comprising supply guides and a UHF temperature inlay contained under the supply guides for the purpose of reading the printer's temperature and using the temperature for optimizing printer performance.

10. The printer device of claim 1 , wherein the print head can accept input information from Portable Document Format (PDF) or Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML).

11. The printer device 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.

12. The printer device of claim 1 , further comprising a cover which uses thumb screws.

13. The printer device of claim 12 , wherein the cover comprises a front door and a handle such that the front door is actuated via the handle to provide access to a front of the printer and to load supplies.

14. The printer device of claim 1 , further comprising a supply damper.

15. The printer device of claim 1 , wherein a stock switch provides an on/off indication regarding whether supplies are loaded into the printer device.

16. The printer device of claim 1 , further comprising a print head holder that is a cast aluminum.

17. A thermal tabletop and industrial printer device for printing on and electronically encoding and verifying radio frequency identification (RFID) labels, tags, and stickers attached to a continuous web, comprising:
a print head capable of printing on the continuous web;
a first RFID reader/writer that electronically encodes the RFID tags with data while the continuous web is moving;
a lighted sensor array that automatically detects aperture sense marks on the continuous web to correctly index printing to the RFID tags; and
a second RFID reader/writer that verifies the data encoded to the RFID tags; and
wherein the printer device can read and encode and print on an RFID tag without damaging the RFID tag;
wherein the second RFID reader/writer is individually controlled from the first RFID reader/writer, such that the printer device can encode and verify simultaneously; and
wherein the printer is configured to send as one command: write EPC, write access, password lock, and read EPC.

18. The printer device of claim 17 , further comprising at least one intention transmitting antennas and at least one passive RFID antennas.

19. The printer device of claim 17 , further comprising a temperature sensor.

20. The printer device of claim 17 , further comprising an overhead LED door.

Assignees

• Avery Dennison Retail Information Services Llc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• G06K19/0725

  the arrangement being a circuit for emulating a plurality of record carriers, e.g. a single RFID tag capable of representing itself to a reader as a cloud of RFID tags · CPC title

• G06K19/0723

  the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs · 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

• G06K7/10227

  loading programming parameters or programs into the interrogator, e.g. for configuring the interrogator · CPC title

• G06K17/0025

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