Embodiments of the present invention describe a spindle for use by rolled materials (for example, ribbon, and labels) in a thermal printing device. The spindle contains a rigid side designed to prevent the spindle from flexing during printing. The spindle also contains a flexible side designed to address tolerance issues with the core of the rolled material and to retain the relative movement of the core of the rolled material.

A vacuum station comprising a main housing and a pair of arms extending from the main housing. The arms are configured to hold a roller. The main housing has a front face and a rear face, with the front face having a recess therein. An air path extends from the front face to the rear face. The vacuum station also includes a removable plate having a plurality of suction holes therethrough located within the recess in the front face of the main housing. The removable plate is removably connected to the main housing by magnets. A sheet of labels can be held to the removable plate by a suction force through the air path in the main housing and the suction holes in the removable plate.

The invention relates to a mobile robot, to a supply system, and to a method for changing label rolls on a labeling assembly for labeling containers. The mobile robot accordingly comprises a vehicle unit for changing locations of the robot and a manipulator unit with a multi-axle manipulator and an associated end effector for manipulating label rolls. Because the end effector is designed to grip the outer circumference of the label rolls and emptied roll cores of label rolls so as to carry them, ergonomically problematic work steps when introducing label rolls can be accomplished exclusively by machine with a high degree of precision and in a material-saving manner.

The printer is a printer for printing on a label continuous body including a plurality of labels temporarily attached to a belt-like liner at predetermined intervals, the printer calculates the label pitch from the downstream end portion of a first label and the upstream end portion of the first label detected by a second detecting unit that detects an end portion of the label, if the calculated label pitch is smaller than a distance from a first detecting unit for identifying a printing start position of the label to a printing unit, the printer feeds the label continuous body to a printing start position of a second label based on the calculated label pitch.

A separation unit (10) of a label printer includes a metal nip roller shaft (11), a resin nip roller (12) disposed at a center part of the nip roller shaft and is supported so as to be rotatable around the nip roller shaft, and resin supporters (13) that support both ends of the nip roller shaft. The separation unit (10) is attached to the body case (2) to be relatively movable between the normal ejection position and the separation ejection position. Each of the pair of supporters has a part protruding toward the nip roller, and this part is a roller holder (13d) to insert an end of the nip roller shaft. The roller holder and the supporter are integrally formed for enhanced strength of the supporter.

An elastic body roller which has an excellent non-stick property or release property, and frictional force (gripping force) and is able to stably feed and guide a belt-shaped member such as a linerless label, a typical liner label, or the like is provided. Attention has been paid to coating an outer layer of an inner layer elastic material member having a silicone resin (a outer layer elastic material member) with a C hardness (hardness by a spring-type Asker C type defined in the SRIS 0101 standard) set low. An elastic material member of an elastic body roller has an inner layer elastic material member provided on the outer periphery of a roller shaft, and a outer layer elastic material member provided on the outer periphery of the inner layer elastic material member and being in contact with a belt-shaped member, and the outer layer elastic material member is formed from a silicone resin with a C hardness of 20 degrees or less.

A roll of labels, each of the labels having a label side and an adhesive side, the roll comprising a stack of partially overlapping labels winded around a core structure. The label side of the first label of the stack, closest to the core structure, is on top of the stack. The roll also comprises a liner provided under a non-overlapping portion on the adhesive side of the partially overlapping labels. A method, and an apparatus, for stacking labels comprising conveying a plurality of individual labels at a first speed and transferring each of the plurality of individual labels to form a stack of labels running at a second speed lower than the first speed, thereby causing the transferred labels to be stacked in a partially overlapping configuration.

A winding device includes: a separation unit that separates sheets layered and simultaneously transported; a winding unit that winds one of the sheets separated by the separation unit; and a pressure contact unit that presses the one of the sheets wound by the winding unit from outside of the wound sheet toward the winding unit.

A sheet conveyer has a casing defined with first and second conveying passages and respectively having first and second curved passages. The first and second curved passages curve in opposite directions. A flap rotatably provided to a second guide member constituting a curved outside part of the first curved passage. When the flap is at a first position, the flap blocks passage from a part of the first conveying passage to the connection position, while the second conveying passage is opened to the connection position. When the flap is at the second position, the first conveying passage is opened toward the connection position and a part of the second conveying passage is blocked with respect to the connection position. A guide surface constituting an upper surface of the first curved passage is closer to the third guide member than a guide roller when the flap is at the second position.

A system for detecting labels arranged on a support and spaced apart from one another by a spacing, the system including a transmitter part including a transmitter arranged to transmit a beam of ultrasonic waves towards the support which carries the labels, a receiver part, separated from the transmitter part, such that the support carrying the labels can pass along a plane located between the transmitter part and the receiver part, the transmitter part or the receiver part being arranged so that the beam of ultrasonic waves transmitted by the transmitter covers, on the support carrying the labels, a total surface area in which the surface area occupied by the spacing between two labels is greater than the surface area occupied by the labels.