Print head for high resolution electrothermal printing apparatus
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsWalter Crooks, Cameron H. Hafer, William J. Weiche
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A printing apparatus employing a print head comprising a plurality of thin wire print electrodes mounted in a single plane and held in a closely-spaced row by an electrically insulating resilient material so that the wires are individually movable out of the planar alignment to a limited extent with respect to the other wires in the array. A relatively rigid backing member is provided to support the electrode array and the print head is mounted in a relatively fixed position relative to the print ribbon and a predetermined pressure is produced between the print head and the electrothermal print ribbon during printing operations.
Claims7
A print head for resistive ribbon printing comprising:
- an array of thin wire print electrodes mounted in a single plane, each of said spring electrodes having a size which is sufficiently small as to not be self-supporting and having a contact end for electrically contacting the ribbon during printing;
- insulating means extending substantially all the way to said contact end of said print electrodes for resiliently positioning the array of print wire electrodes in a closely-spaced line so that the wires are individually movable out of the planar alignment to a limited extent with respect to other wires in the array to maintain all the print electrodes in contact with the ribbon;
- relatively rigid backing means fixed to said insulating means for mounting the array in a relatively fixed position relative to said backing means to enable said non self-supporting print electrodes to withstand a predetermined pressure;
- means for mounting said print head in a relatively fixed position relative to said print ribbon;
- and
- means for selectively applying a predetermined pressure to the print head to produce a predetermined overall pressure between the print head and a print ribbon whereby reliable operation is produced, even though said print electrodes are not self-supporting, due to the support provided by said backing means and the limited movement out of a planar alignment permitted by said insulating means.
Apparatus for electrothermal printing using a resistive transfer ribbon comprising:
- an array of thin wire print electrodes mounted in a single plane, each of said print electrodes having a size which is sufficiently small as to not be self-supporting and having a contact end for electrically contacting the ribbon during printing;
- insulating means extending substantially all the way to said contact end of said print electrodes for resiliently positioning the array of print wire electrodes for a closely-spaced line so that the wires are individually movable out of the planar alignment to a limited extent with respect to other wires in the array to maintain all the electrodes in contact with the ribbon;
- relatively rigid backing means fixed to said insulating means for mounting the array in a relatively fixed position relative to said backing means to enable said non self-supporting print electrodes to withstand a predetermined pressure;
- means for mounting said print head in a relatively fixed position relative to said print ribbon;
- means for interposing an electrothermal printing ribbon between said print head and a record medium;
- means for selectively applying a predetermined pressure to the print head to produce a predetermined overall pressure between the print head and a print ribbon;
- and
- means for moving the print head relative to the printing ribbon while said pressure is applied whereby reliable high resolution printing is produced even though said print electrodes are not self-supporting due to the support provided by said backing means and the limited movement out of a planar alignment permitted by said insulating means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.