A case formed with a compartment having a forwardly facing opening therein and including cartridge mounting means. A ribbon cartridge is received within such compartment and is formed with a check-receiving slot. Rollers are carried on the carriage for mounting an ink ribbon arranged with its ink surface facing such slot. A base plate is mounted in such compartment under the ink ribbon and a floating signature bar is disposed over such ribbon. The signature bar is normally biased upwardly out of engagement with the ribbon and has an actuating arm disposed thereover and pivotally mounted on one end from such case, the free end of such actuating bar being formed with a handle which may be pressed downwardly to engage such arm with the signature bar and urge it downwardly. Thus a check may be received in such slot for disposition under such ribbon and upon depression of the handle such bar will press the ribbon against the check to press such check against the base bar to thereby form an inked signature on such check corresponding with the signature on the signature bar.
A tape-ribbon supply cartridge for supplying tape and ribbon to a lettering apparatus having a mechanism for creating a lettering force and a mechanism for positioning a character to be lettered into lettering position. The cartridge includes an improved ribbon rewind feature driven by movement of the tape advancement means and positioned in a common plane with the ribbon supply spool.
A copyproof document includes a paper document substrate, a disc having a primarily holographic first face facing away from the substrate and a second face with permanent pressure sensitive adhesive engaging the substrate, and mechanical intertwining between the substrate and disc so that they are substantially inseparable. The mechanical intertwining enables the materials thereof become substantially inseparably intertwined, the permanent adhesive also acting to insure inseparability. Typically the parameter of the disc will be a mechanically intertwined with the substrate while at the center there is little or no mechanical intertwining so that the holographic activity of the first face is not significantly occluded. Unique identifying indicia (e.g. consecutive numbers or bar coding) may also be provided on the disc, and application of the discs to a document may not be practiced without security authorization and access (by key, computer, or the like). Also, the number of discs (and typically their unique identification indicia) may be recorded once applied to documents. The positioning of the discs in place with respect to the substrate and the mechanical intertwining step may be accomplished manually or automatically, the mechanical intertwining typically being accomplished by moving first and second cooperating dies to sandwich a disc and substrate between them. The discs may be fed on a web of release material to the document at an area between the dies, the web passing around a release roller which facilitates release of the discs from the web.
A user-friendly ribbon cartridge to house and to facilitate handling a wide thermal transfer ribbon for a thermal color printer is composed of first and second casing sections which define a slotted let-off tube and a slotted take-up tube and turnbar. A pair of casing end pieces connect the corresponding ends of the casing sections so that they are juxtaposed with their axes parallel to one another so as to define a plane and the turnbar is spaced parallel to that plane so that a stretch of ribbon wound about cores rotatively mounted in the tubes can extend out through the tube slots and over the turnbar creating a large unobstructed planar ribbon area that is accessible from both sides for printing. A handle and latch member integral to one of the end pieces facilitate positioning the cartridge properly in the associated printing apparatus and locking it in place during printing. The cores are removable from the casing tubes by releasable cap assemblies in the end piece at the handle end of the cartridge so that all of the components of the cartridge can be reused if desired. The ribbon is advanced by means of a gear motor coupled to the core in the take-up tube by way of a mechanical slip clutch so that the take-up core can be rotated at different speeds without overloading the motor. There is also provision for monitoring the position of the ribbon in the cartridge.
