Thermal printing postage meter.

摘要

The thermal printing postage meter includes a base supporting a registration wall and a deck, and a thermal print head fixably mounted to the registration wall above a portion of the deck to define a print station for printing a postage indicia on an envelope when the leading edge of the envelope is properly positioned on the deck in the print station. A position sensing assembly is provided for sensing the presence of the envelope's leading edge in the print station. A microcontroller is in bus communication with the position sensing means. A thermal tape cassette is detachably mounted to the registration wall such that the thermal print head extends through the opening and has its thermal ribbon passing below the thermal print head. A platen roller assembly and position assembly are responsive to instruction from the microcontroller for causing the platen roller to assume a second positioned biasing the envelope against the thermal ribbon and the thermal print head, and a home position ducked below the deck. An ejection plate is fixably mounted to the registration wall. An ejection roller assembly having position assembly is responsive to instruction from the microcontroller for causing the ejection roller to assume a home position biasing the ejection roller assembly in the direction of the ejection plate and a second position ducked below the deck. A motor in bus communication with and responsive to the microcontroller causes the platen and the ejection roller to rotate under the control of the microcontroller. The microcontroller is programmed such that in response to activation of the position sensing means by the envelope, the microcontroller to cause the platen roller assembly to assume the second position and to initiate print sequence instruction to the print head while synchronously causing the drive means to cause the platen roller to rotate at a first speed, following completion of the print sequence, the microcontroller to cause the platen roller to assume the home position and the ejection roller assembly to assume the home position and causing the ejection roller to rotate at a second speed. <IMAGE>