Method and apparatus for thermal management in a thermal printer having plural printing stations

A method for recording image information on a moving receiver media at a thermal print station, the method comprising:

• providing a ribbon cassette assembly that stores a thermal ribbon having dye, the thermal ribbon being supported as a supply role and take-up role on the ribbon cassette assembly, the ribbon cassette assembly including a wall structure defining a plenum chamber;
• providing air under pressure to the plenum chamber;
• providing an elongated thermal print head that is positioned in engagement with the thermal ribbon and activating recording elements on the thermal print head that are directed along a main scan direction to transfer dye on the thermal ribbon to the moving receiver media, the print head having associated therewith a heat sink that includes a series of parallel fins arranged along the length of the print head and the fins being oriented at least generally perpendicular to the main scan direction of printing;
• and
• providing cooling air from the wall structure, which structure extends in the direction of elongation of the print head and has one or more openings along the direction of elongation, the cooling air being directed generally to sweep in the direction of the fins so that the cooling air advances generally in a direction generally parallel to the advancement direction of the receiver media at the printing station.

A method of recording a multi-color image on a thermal recording media, the method comprising:

• providing a plurality of color print stations arranged along a path, each print station including a print head for recording a particular color image at that station;
• advancing the thermal recording media from print station to print station to record each of plural color images at each respective print station;
• prior to commencing recording of a multi-color image determining if all the print heads used in image recording are in a first temperature operating range and if all image recording print heads are in the first temperature operating range commencing recording of the multi-color image;
• determining during image recording if any of the print heads used in image recording have exceeded a first temperature threshold that is outside of said first temperature operating range but is less than a second temperature threshold that is greater than said first temperature threshold;
• and
• if the temperature of the hottest print head used in image recording is greater than the first temperature threshold but less than the second temperature threshold, continuing recording to complete the multi-color image and after completing recording of the multi-color image inhibiting recording of further multicolor images until the temperatures of all the image recording print heads are in the first operating range.