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Assembly Line Date Coder
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Click on Image for a close-up | Submitted to Parallax by John Lodal, Applications Engineer in HP’s plant in Boise, ID
HP InkJet Supplies Manufacturing Integrates BASIC Stamp and SX Microcontroller Into Assembly Line Date Coder
Hewlett Packard’s Inkjet Supplies manufacturing operations in Boise, Idaho replaced their primary package date coding hardware with a unique new system in 2002. The old printer that used to apply the expiration date information to the boxes containing the 51604/51605 inkjet cartridges was a wax type printer. The start up time for this wax printer was too long and the reliability of this printing technology was dismal. A new printing solution was sought that required little or no technician intervention. Process support engineers and technicians put their heads together and configured a new solution which was deployed in 2002. The design objectives were high up time, simple integration, small footprint, and better reliability.
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Click on Image for a close-up | HP’s Boise facility is home to its “TIJ 1.0” family of products. TIJ is an acronym for “Thermal InkJet” and is the foundational technology behind HP’s inkjet product offerings. TIJ 1.0 is a family of products which is no longer used in HP branded printers but has found many niches in industrial and transaction printing applications. Parallax is proud to now offer the 51604/51605 family of products to our customers.
HP sought to deploy its own TIJ 1.0 technology to date code the 51604/51605 one-up box. A controller was needed and the engineering/technician team worked closely on the unique requirements of the application and eliminated the significant technician attention required to keep the wax printer up and running. These photos show the solution the engineering team developed.
The controller uses both the BASIC Stamp 2SX and the SX chip. The performance of this combination has met or exceeded all of the design goals. This was very appealing to HP both to demonstrate TIJ 1.0 as an excellent solution for simple alpha-numeric date coding applications and to showcase the low cost and simplicity of the controller design based on products from Parallax.
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Click on Image for a close-up | The BASIC Stamp 2SX is connected to a DS1302 Real-Time clock, which it uses to generate date codes for the numerous packages being conveyed on the assembly line. The SX28AC/DP receives serial commands and drives the TIJ 1.0 inkjet printer in parallel through two ULN2803 drivers. An infrared object detection system identifies the beginning of the package, and a timing delay in the SX causes the printing to occur in the middle of the package.
HP is now a supplier of the TIJ 1.0 inkjet technology to Parallax. There are many exciting developments underway in terms of how this can be deployed by both hobbyists and by designers of industrial printing solutions. This collaboration demonstrates that technology from HP and from Parallax has already been successfully deployed in a primary package coding application. Costs were reduced, reliability was improved, and the support technicians on HP’s packaging line in Boise could devote their attention to more important issues.
Parallax will offer this printing technology to our customers by late 2005 with our new Serial Print Driver. There are exciting, robust, cost effective, and fun printing ideas based on HP’s thermal inkjet technology in combination with a BASIC Stamp and SX microcontroller. |
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