A manual printer has a set of type wheels turned and set by manually operated rack bars which have additional slanted recesses and projections engaged by a spring-biassed arresting bar which is resiliently and yieldingly displaced by the slanted portions during setting of the type wheels. The blocking lever is biassed by a strong spring to block the yielding movement of the arresting bar, but is held in an inoperative position by a feeler lever engaging a wheel of the platen carriage when the carriage is in the initial position so that the type wheels can be set with the arresting bar resiliently yielding. When the carriage is manually moved with the platen in a printing stroke out of the initial position and over the type wheels, the feeler lever releases the blocking lever which blocks the arresting bar in the position arresting the rack bars and thereby the type wheels, so that the manual force during setting, and the action of the platen during printing, cannot displace a type wheel set in the initial position of the carriage.
A digit wheel assembly for use in connection with a variable imprinting device comprises a plurality of digit wheels rotatably mounted on a common fixed digit wheel shaft, each of said digit wheels having raised printing indicia spaced along the circumference thereof; a plurality of thumbwheels rotatably mounted on a common fixed thumbwheel shaft, said thumbwheels being equal in number to said plurality of digit wheels; a first plurality of sprockets equal in number to said plurality of digit wheels, each of said first plurality of sprockets being operatively associated with one of said digit wheels so as to rotate therewith; a second plurality of sprockets equal in number to said plurality of digit wheels, each of said second plurality of sprockets being operatively associated with one of said thumbwheels so as to rotate therewith; and endless flexible drive means connecting each of said first plurality of sprockets to one of said second plurality of sprockets, whereby the rotational position of a given one of said digit wheels may be adjusted by rotation of the corresponding one of said thumbwheels.
A varible data imprinting machine having an elongated flat printing bed section providing a document supporting surface and having a print wheel pack formed of closely adjacent peripherally notched print wheels, an imprinting carriage moveable through advance and return strokes longitudinally along the document support surface and an elongated rack section perpendicular to the printing bed section subadjacent the wheel pack having a number-indicating rack control panel projecting therefrom and including a plurality of toothed racks coarse manually adjusted longitudinally in the rack case to rotatably index the print wheels to number-printing positions. The rack case includes a pivoted centering blade activated by carriage movement to fine adjust the racks as the carriage leaves parked position and interlock means provided to latch the carriage at parked position following an imprinting cycle until one of the racks is readjusted.
A printing machine is provided for imprinting forms with fixed data from embossed printing plates and variable data from manually settable print wheels by moving a roller platen from a start position across the printing elements and the form to an actuated position to perform a printing operation and back to the start position to complete a printing cycle. The print wheels are selectively positionable by keyset levers movable from a zero position to a selected printing position for rotating each of the print wheels to a desired peripheral setting. Reset means is provided for restoring each of the keyset levers from the selected printing position to the zero position in response to movement of the roller platen through a printing operation, and lock-out means is provided to inhibit movement of the roller platen through a printing operation following a printing cycle. The roller platen is unlocked for movement in response to movement of at least one of the keyset levers from the zero position to a new setting.
A value setting mechanism constituting an interface between printing mechanism and an electronic accounting system in a franking machine has each value precisely set without possibility of alteration during a printing cycle. A four digit value can be set by rotating thumb wheels that transmit the value to encoding switches and printing elements. A spring loaded locking bar lies between aligned recesses on the wheels when properly set. To initiate a cycle a trip lever is electromagnetically moved from a first position to a second position releasing a clutch pawl to actuate the printing elements via a clutch and to close switches. If bar fails to enter aligned recesses, a detent unit prevents the trip lever from moving to the second position. When it does so move, an arm thereon inhibits detent unit from moving in a direction to allow bar to withdraw from the aligned recesses.
A variable data imprinting machine having an elongated flat printing bed section providing a document supporting surface and having a print wheel pack formed of closely adjacent peripherally notched print wheels, an imprinting carriage movable through advance and return strokes longitudinally along the document support surface and an elongated rack case section perpendicular to the printing bed section subjacent the wheel pack having a number-bearing rack control panel projecting therefrom and including a plurality of flexible band-like toothed racks coarse manually adjusted longitudinally in the rack case to rotatably index the print wheels to number-printing positions. The rack case includes serpentine elongated guide slot trackways sized to receive and guide the toothed racks for their longitudinal wheel-indexing movement. A pivoted centering blade is activated by carriage movement to fine adjust the racks as the carriage leaves parked position and interlock means are provided to latch the carriage at parked position following an imprinting cycle until one of the racks is readjusted.
