Paper transport and paper stabilizing system for a printer plotter or the like

A method for fabricating a vacuum attach means for registration of a recording material on a transport belt with respect to a writing head in a plotter, printer or the like comprising the steps of:

• etching a first series of vacuum receiving apertures in a paper holding surface of a thin metallic strip along the length thereof;
• etching a second series of closely spaced vacuum attachment apertures in said paper holding surface of said strip along the length thereof, and spaced apart from said first series of apertures by an intervening area, to thereby form a vacuum contact region on said paper holding surface of said strip for conformably adhering a recording material thereto;
• etching a series of channels in an opposed surface of said strip to a depth sufficient to contact said first and second series of apertures, while not penetrating though said intervening area of said paper holding surface separating said first and second series of apertures, and thereby connecting by means of each channel said first series of apertures with said second series of apertures;
• bonding said opposed surface of said strip containing said channels to the surface of said transport belt to thereby fully enclose said channels and from tightly sealed vacuum chambers disposed beneath said paper holding surface of said strip for transferring vacuum from said first series of apertures to said second series of apertures.

An improved, high resolution plotter, printer or the like incorporating a continuous transport belt means for maintaining a recording material disposed thereon in invariant registration with respect to a writing head comprising:

• a recording material;
• a writing means disposed for printing information on said record material;
• a flexible transport belt means characterized by a metallic or extremely smooth paper holding surface for supporting and maintaining said recording material in invariant registration thereon with respect to said writing means, said transport belt means having compliancy in an axis orthogonal to the direction of paper travel and rigidity in the direction of paper travel;
• roler means for passing said continuous transport belt and said recording material in a substantially complete revolution past said writing means;
• attach means for progressively removing substantially all of the air between said paper holding surface of said transport belt and said record material disposed thereon such that an airtight seal is provided between said paper holding surface of said transport belt and said record material and said record material is thereby maintained in invariant alignment with respect to said writing means.