This invention relates to apparatus for printing and dispensing labels. Such labels may be of the kind coated with a pressure-sensitive adhesive, but may also be coated with a heat-sensitive or other adhesive and in the limit may even be in the form of a ticket having no adhesive coatin .

Such apparatus has already been proposed and brought into use and includes printing means which may operate on the stamp principle or maymake use of rotary or pivotal print heads. The stamp impression print heads have the disadvantage that the intensity of the impression formed on the labels depends to some extent upon the force applied by the operator when actuating the apparatus unless the apparatus incorporates adequate mechanical safeguards. For this reason rotary print heads have been proposed but they tend to complexity of construction and the safeguards proposed or used for stamp impression print heads often require that a high actuating force should be applied by the operator as well as necessitating additional complexity. In the latter apparatus, despite the sa e uards,improper inking may result from fatigue in the operator who fails to apply sufficient pressure to the actuating member to ensure the desired intensity of the print impression.

According to the present invention there is provided

hand-held apparatus for printing and dispensing labels comprising actuating means for initiating an operational cycle of the apparatus and print head means connected to the actuating means through linkage means, the arrangement being such that the co-operative relationship between the actuating means and the linkage means gives rise to a toggle action during the operational cycle thereby rendering the action of the print-head means to produce a print impression substantial independent of the force applied to the actuating means.

Apparatus embodying the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanyi diagrammatic drawings, in which: ifigure 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus in a rest configuration; and

.Figure 2 is a side elevation of the apparatus of Figure 1 in an operative position.

Referring now to the drawings, the hand-held apparatu comprises a body 10 arranged to carry a reel 12 of pressure- sensitive adhesive labels mounted on a backing strip and durin use the web is indexed through the apparatus by a feed mechani sm, not shown in detail _* Such webs are well-known in the art. The body 10 includes a handle 1 rigid therewith which carries at the end remote from .the reel 12 a trigger or other actuating member 16 pivoted at 18 to the handle and this trigger member 16 has an upwards extension 20 to which a return spring 22 is attached at point 2-4-.

The trigger member 16 includes a surface which can be conveniently engaged by the fingers of one hand of an operator and includes a finger guard 26, a part of which in the position shown in Figure 1, is approximately aligned with the lower wall (as shown) of the body 10.

At the end remote from the projection 20, the trigger member 16 pivotally carries at pivots 27 two short links 28 (only one shown) which are also pivotally connected at 29 "to a respective one of two bell-crank levers 30 which are pivotally connected at one end of one arm of each lever 32 to the body 10 and at the other end are spanned by a

wi

print-head 3^ of generally conventional form in hand-held labelling apparatus. The print-head 34 may be of the fixed type (as shown) or may be capable of swinging in order to effect the printing operation on a label about to be dispensed at a printing platen 36- The print head is mounted between the two levers 30.

The applicator, as is conventional, includes a feed mechanism 39 (shown only in outline), which may be, for example, as illustrated and claimed in our co-pending application PCT GB 79 00005 and this includes a take-up reel 38 for spent backing strip. The spent backing strip reel is mounted wholly within the body and below (as illustrated) the reel of fresh web 12. At the end of the body 10 remote . from the handle an applicator roller 40 is provided and the operative facets of the print head 3^ .are arranged to contact during the operational cycle immediately before printing an inking roller 42 disposed immediately above the applicator roller 40.

In operation, the trigger member 16 is squeezed and the link 28 provides a toggle action so that at the over- centre position with the pivots 18, 27, 29 substantially aligned the bell-crank levers 30 swing and cause the print head 34 to move, contact the inking roller 42 and subsequently apply a print impression to a label on the platen 36 which also forms a guide for the label web both before and after a label has been dispensed from the backing. As will be apparent the amount of force applied to the label will be independent of the squeezing pressure applied to the trigger member 16 and by appropriate design of the bell crank lever 30* and of the link 28, the amount of pressure applied can be multiplied substantially beyond the pressure applied to the trigger member itself. This will avoid fatigue of the operator as well as ensuring that the print impression is maintained substantially constant irrespective of the pressure applied to the trigger member.

It will be understood that although the toggle actio linkage is applied as hereinbefore described to apparatus operated by a squeeze action trigger, it is applicable to other apparatus such as disclosed in our co-pending applicatio PCT GB 79 00005.

Although the apparatus hereinbefore described is intended for manual operation it is also possible to operate the apparatus electrically. Clearly fatigue of the operator will be of less importance, but lower power consumption will be of advantage if the apparatus is battery-powered.

Although primarily intended for use with a web comprising a backing strip and pressure-sensitive adhesive coated labels, the apparatus could, with appropriate modific¬ ation be used with heat-sensitive adhesive labels. The apparatus could also be used for a web of non-adhesive labels or tickets, and the term "label" as used herein is intended to cover tickets without any adhesive coating.