Article dispensing – Concurrent separation and distortion of flexible article
Patent
1998-12-02
2000-08-29
Noland, Kenneth W.
Article dispensing
Concurrent separation and distortion of flexible article
83649, B65H 100
Patent
active
061094722
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a device for dispensing tickets or labels from a strip by cutting successive segments from the end of the strip which is inserted into a cutter mechanism.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In numerous applications, it is the practice to supply a ticket or a label which, for example, constitutes a receipt for a transaction or an element for identifying an object or a product, . . .
Such tickets are taken from a strip in the form of a roll housed in a container and paid out by a drive mechanism which guides the end of the strip between the blades of a cutter unit. In conventional manner, the drive mechanism is the drive mechanism of a printer, in particular a thermal printer, serving to put a message on the ticket or label (data, bar code, letters or digits, . . . ).
In some devices, after the segment of strip has been cut off it is left to its own devices and falls under gravity into a receptacle from which it can be taken by a user. In other devices, the ticket is taken by a conveyor to the location where the user can take hold of it. The conveyor is a unit that complicates the device since it uses mechanical members which come into contact with the segment, thereby constituting an additional constraint on strip positioning and giving rise to poor operation of the overall assembly (wear, breakdowns, jamming, . . . ). This is particularly true when the strip is designed to provide adhesive labels, i.e. labels which are adhesive on one face.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention seeks to remedy those drawbacks by proposing means for dispensing tickets or labels, which means are much simpler in their structure and in their organization relative to the cutter units and to the roll of strip.
To this end, the invention thus provides a device for dispensing tickets in the form of segments cut off from a single paid-out strip, the device comprising a two-portion container, each portion of the container carrying a cutter blade, the portions of the container being movable relative to each other between a first relative position in which the blades are in a position to co-operate with each other for cutting off a ticket, and a second relative position in which the blades are remote from each other so as to leave sufficient space between them to give easy access to the path of the strip. According to one of the characteristics of the invention, the device comprises a ticket extractor situated downstream from the blades in the strip payout direction, the extractor comprising respective rollers coupled to each of the portions of the container such that, in the first above-mentioned position, the rollers are in contact with each other along a generator line, and, in the second position, the rollers are spaced apart from each other by a distance that is not less than the distance between the blades when in their second position.
The device of the invention thus opens fully, so that installing a roll of strip or taking action in the event of a breakdown or of jamming is made very much simpler. It suffices merely to separate the two portions of the container from each other to gain access in one operation to all of the path followed by the strip, both upstream and downstream from the cutter mechanism.
In a preferred embodiment, one of the motor-driven rollers is carried by one portion of the container which is fitted with the motor-driven cutter blade of the cutter mechanism. This container portion is preferably the larger portion, and the portion of the device which supports the roll of strip, while the other portion can be little more than a lid fitted with non-motor-driven cutting and extraction elements.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Other characteristics and advantages appear from the following description given below of an embodiment of the invention.
Reference is made to the accompanying drawing, in which:
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a device of the invention in its closed state; and
FIG. 2 is the same view of the device, but shown in its o
REFERENCES:
patent: 4690344 (1987-09-01), Yokota
patent: 5013388 (1991-05-01), Goodwin et al.
Axiohm Transaction Solutions, Inc.
Noland Kenneth W.
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