Incremental printing of symbolic information – Thermal marking apparatus or processes – Record receiver driving means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-16
2001-02-27
Tran, Huan (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Thermal marking apparatus or processes
Record receiver driving means
C400S579000, C226S015000, C226S018000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06195112
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to compensating for stresses caused on a re-inkable endless belt during a thermal printing process.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Color transfer thermal printers use a color donor member that may be a sheet, but usually is in the form of a web advanced from a supply roll to a take-up roll. The color donor member passes between a print head and a dye receiver member. The thermal print head comprises a linear array of resistive heat elements. In operation, the resistive heat elements of the print head are selectively energized in accordance with data from a print head control circuit. As a result, the image defined by the data from the print head control circuit is placed on the receiver member.
A significant problem in this technology is that the color donor members used to make the thermal prints are generally intended for single (one time) use. Thus, although the member has at least three times the area of the final print and contains enough colorant to make a solid black image, only a small fraction of the color is ever used.
After printing an image, the color donor cannot be easily reused, although this has been the subject of several patents. The primary reason that inhibits reuse of the color donor is that the color transfer process is very sensitive to the concentration of the colorant in the donor layer. During the first printing operation, color is selectively removed from the layer thus altering its concentration. In subsequent printings, regions of the donor that had been previously imaged have lower transfer efficiency than regions that were not imaged. This results in a ghost image appearing in subsequent prints.
The cost associated with having a single use donor ribbon is large because of the large area of ribbon required, as well as the large excess of colorant coated on the donor member. While this technology is able to produce high quality continuous tone prints, it is desired to provide an approach which has all of the good attributes of thermal color transfer imaging but without the limitations associated with single use donor members.
Some work has been done by others to accomplish similar goals. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,521 discusses a reusable wax transfer ink donor ribbon. This process is intended to provide a dye donor ribbon that may be used to print more than one page before the ribbon is completely consumed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,393 describes a reusable ink ribbon, again for wax transfer printing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,382 discloses a printer device capable of re-inking a thermal transfer ribbon. However, again the technology is wax transfer rather than dye transfer. In the device, solid wax is melted and transferred using a roller onto the reusable transfer ribbon. U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,574 describes a reusable dye donor ribbon for thermal dye transfer printing. This reusable ribbon has multiple layers containing dye which limit the diffusion of dye out of the donor sheet. This enables the ribbon to be used to make multiple prints. In addition, the ribbon may be run at a slower speed than the dye receiver sheet, enabling additional utilization. U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,657 describes a multiple use thermal dye transfer ink ribbon. This ribbon has a high concentration dye layer on the bottom and low concentration dye layer on the top. The low concentration dye layer meters or controls dye transfer out of the ribbon. This enables the ribbon to be used multiple times. U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,318 is another example of a thermal dye transfer ribbon that can be used multiple times.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has recognized that when endless re-inkable belts are used, stresses can cause positional distortion of the belt and these distortions should be corrected.
An object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for steering and controlling the position of a re-inkable belt for thermal printing to compensate for stresses on the re-inkable belt.
This object is achieved by color printing apparatus for compensating for lateral distortion of a re-inkable belt, the re-inkable belt being moveable along an endless path and trained about a transport roller and including an ink transfer layer where an ink can be transferred to a moveable receiver and replenished in the endless belt comprising:
a) means for causing the moveable receiver to move into ink transfer relationship with the re-inkable belt at a nip position for transferring ink imagewise from the re-inkable belt to the receiver;
b) means for replenishing depleted ink on the re-inkable belt; and
c) means for adjustedly applying tension at two spaced locations to the transport roller and including two spaced steering actuators which, when respectively actuated, selectively displaces the transport roller at opposite positions, a sensor for determining the position of the re-inkable belt, and means coupled to the sensor for selectively actuating the steering actuators so as to move the transport roller to laterally position the re-inkable belt along the surface of the transport roller to compensate for lateral distortion of the re-inkable belt.
ADVANTAGES
An advantage of this invention is that a re-inkable belt can be more effectively used for transferring inks to a receiver producing images that have high resolution and are of continuous tone by compensating for lateral movement of the re-inkable belt caused by stress from temperature and environmental changes.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the re-inkable belt can be used for more prints without replacement because of thermal distortion of the belt.
A feature of this invention is that the images can be inexpensively produced because the re-inkable belt is re-useable for more prints and there are no wasted colorants.
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Tran Huan
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