PRINTING SYSTEMS

摘要

The invention provides a number of improvements useful in printers which may be of the fixed, portable or hand-held types. In one aspect, the printer, which comprises a housing, a printing unit, means for feeding to said printing unit a substrate onto which indicia are to be printed, means for feeding a thermal transfer ribbon to said printing unit, and means for providing electrical power to operate the printer, is characterized by means permitting independent movement of said substrate and said thermal transfer ribbon within said printing unit. In another aspect, the printer includes means for supplying power to operate the printer, for example dynamo driven by a manual trigger. In a further aspect, the means for supplying power comprises a piezoelectric motor. In a further aspect, the printer is intended for printing bar codes, and comprises a housing; a thermographic print head; means for supplying a substrate to said print head, and a power supply for said thermographic print head, characterized in that the printer is arranged to apply substantially constant and continuous power to heat the elements of the thermographic print head during a bar code printing operation.