Thermal printer
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsSeung H. Baek, Thomas A. Mackin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A thermal printer is disclosed which is adapted to form an image on a thermal print medium of a type in which a donor element transfers dye to a receiver element upon receipt of a sufficient amount of thermal energy. The printer includes a plurality of diode lasers which can be individually modulated to supply energy to selected dots on the medium in accordance with an information signal. The print head of the printer includes a fiber optic array having a plurality of optical fibers coupled to the diode lasers. The thermal print medium is supported on a rotatable drum, and the fiber optic array is movable relative to the drum. In order to prevent banding in an image produced on the print medium, the two outside fibers in the array are used for preheating and postheating of inner scan lines.
Claims13
A thermal printer for forming an image on a thermal print medium, said medium including a dye which is transferred by sublimation from a donor to a receiver as a result of heating dye in the donor, said printer comprising:
- means for supporting a thermal print medium;
- laser means for forming successive swaths of scan lines on said medium as the laser means and said swaths including a plurality of parallel scan lines, said laser means including a plurality of separately addressable lasers and each of the lasers serving as a light source for forming one scan line in the swath;
- means for imaging radiation from each of said lasers on said medium;
- means for providing relative movement between said medium and said laser means;
- and
- driver means for supplying a current to each of said lasers, said driver means supplying current to certain of said lasers which is modulated in accordance with an information signal for writing on said medium and current to a remainder of said lasers at less than full power for preheating and postheating selected scan lines.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.