Oyster Terminals Ltd is a UKP3.5m a year Newport, Gwent-based company specialising in hand-held data collection units for a variety of manufacturing, retailing and general applications. In the words of managing director Doug Watkins, who gave a refreshingly low key introduction at last week’s new product launch, Oyster is a small company that occasionally gets lucky with a product, but realises that it could easily get swept away if it attempts to get too clever at the data collection end. Accordingly, it has come up with a product aimed at cashing in on the fact that printer extension units for mobile data collection systems are bulky, heavy and expensive, and hopes to get so lucky with it that turnover will double to UKP7m in the next year. The product in question is the Printapen 5000, a hand-held pen-like device that accepts ASCII data through a standard RS232 interface, and when moved across any paper-based surface, uses a Hewlett-Packard ink-jet cartridge to print out whatever the remote computer to which it is linked commands. Using an Intel 80C51 microprocessor, 128 bytes RAM and 4K-bytes ROM, its maximum print-out is 64 characters over one or more lines, with the microprocessor linked to a small caterpillar tracking system so that print-out is virtually unaffected by the speed at which the Printapen is swept across the surface. When asked if a rubber stamp with interchangeable characters could do the same job equally well, Oyster concedes that for a lot of applications, the Printapen technology was not needed: it really comes into its own when printing out information directly from a computer whose output is constantly changing – for example, when the precise time of a transaction or stock check needs to be recorded on the good itself. Oyster is also targeting the financial sector for uses such as passbook and cheque printing, retail outlets for point-of-sale applications, and a number of central and local government administrative requirements. Bull HN Information Systems, which provides the computer technology for various life assurance companies, is already pushing the Printapen for use by its agents as they go from door to door collecting and recording premiums. Oyster is expecting to shift around 15,000 units in the next year, and is particularly keen to market the device abroad, where it currently does around 60% of its total business. Available from May, Printapen 5000 will cost UKP250, and the company is offering discounts for volume purchase.
