Tapered platen roller for thermal printer

摘要

An improved platen roller is particularly suited for a thermal printing postage meter. The postage meter includes a registration wall, a print deck, a thermal print head mounted to the registration wall and extending over the deck to define a print station, a platen roller support assembly for supporting the platen roller parallel to the thermal print head and causing the platen roller to bias an envelope against the thermal print head and causing the envelope to traverse the thermal print head during a print cycle of the thermal postage meter. The platen roller is unitary in material construction of cellular urethane. The platen roller has a first and second end section, each section having a conical configuration a surface taper angle of between -2.0 DEG degrees and -3.0 DEG degrees.