Incremental printing of symbolic information – Thermal marking apparatus or processes – Multicolor
Patent
1993-07-13
1996-02-13
Tran, Huan H.
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Thermal marking apparatus or processes
Multicolor
347174, B41J 2325
Patent
active
054915040
ABSTRACT:
A thermal transfer color printer (100) utilizes a single print head (102) positioned outside a carousel (104) of monochrome ink ribbons (106) each stretched between a pair of spaced-apart spools (108, 110) mounted around the periphery of the carousel. A spool spacing (112) provides sufficient clearance for the thermal print head to be positioned between to spools to contact the ribbon. A media drum (116) is positioned coaxially within the carousel. The carousel has a media opening (122) through which a print medium (118) enters and exits a medium clamp (144) attached to the media drum. To print a particular color, the carousel is rotated such that the media opening is adjacent to a media supply, and a print medium is guided from the media supply into the medium clamp. The media drum is rotated to close the medium clamp and position a leading edge (138) of the print medium adjacent to the print head. The print head is moved against the ribbon, and the print head is electrically driven by a printer controller (240) to selectively transfer ink to the print medium in a predetermined pattern. To print a different color, the carousel is indexed to a selected ribbon position, the media drum is rotated to position the leading edge of the print medium as before, and the printing process is repeated for the newly selected ribbon color. When printing is completed, the carousel is indexed to the initial position, and the print medium is guided from the medium clamp into the exit path.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4630069 (1986-12-01), Erlichman
patent: 4647232 (1987-03-01), Costa
patent: 4768041 (1988-08-01), Sato et al.
patent: 4778290 (1988-10-01), Costa et al.
patent: 4809018 (1989-02-01), Nakamura et al.
patent: 4815869 (1989-03-01), Van Dyke
patent: 5030969 (1991-07-01), Kaneko et al.
D'Alessandro Ralph
Preiss Richard B.
Textronix, Inc.
Tran Huan H.
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