(57) 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 (203), a printing unit (27), means for feeding to said printing unit a substrate
(11) onto which indicia are to be printed, means for feeding a thermal transfer ribbon
(14) to said printing unit, and means for providing electrical power to operate the
printer, is characterised by means permitting independent movement of said substrate
(11) and said thermal transfer ribbon (14) within said printing unit. In another aspect,
the printer includes means for supplying power to operate the printer, for example
dynamo (20) driven by a manual trigger (200). In a further aspect, the means for supplying
power comprises a piezoelectric motor (301, 302). 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, characterised 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.
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