Apparatus and method for working on a length of web material

A method for working on a length of web material, said method comprising:

• providing a plurality of separate units for individually working on a length of sheet material with each of said units having a means defining a work station and a feed mechanism for feeding said length of web material longitudinally of itself past said work station in an X coordinate direction,
• arranging said units in serial relationship to one another along said X coordinate direction,
• training said web material to move lengthwise of itself along said X coordinate direction and to pass serially through said units,
• providing each of said units with data for causing said unit to perform a desired work function on said web material and to cause each of said units to consume a given amount of time in feeding a given length of said web material through said unit which given amount of time may be different for different ones of said units,
• accumulating in an accumulator mechanism a variable amount of slack material between at least one adjacent pair of said units,
• directly sensing the amount of slack material accumulated in said accumulator mechanism to produce a first signal when said amount of accumulated slack material exceeds a first pre-given value and a second signal when said amount of accumulated slack material falls below a second pre-given amount, and
• controlling the operation of at least one unit of said adjacent pair of units in response to at least one of said first and second signals.

A thermal printing apparatus for generating graphics on a length of receiving web material which includes at least one marginal edge portion extending along the length of the receiving web material and provided with sprocket holes spaced from one another along said length of the receiving web material, which apparatus uses a number of printers and an equal number of donor foils each carrying a thermally releasable printing agent so that said apparatus is capable of generating end graphics made up of separate portions printed by separate ones of said printers, said apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of thermal printers,
• each of said thermal printers having a thermal print head with a plurality of printing elements arranged in a row extending in a Y coordinate direction, a feed mechanism for feeding said length of receiving web material longitudinally of itself past said print head in an X coordinate direction extending perpendicularly to said Y coordinate direction, a means for receiving a respective one of said donor foils, and a means for feeding said received donor foil past said thermal print head in superimposed relation to said receiving web material so that energizations of said printing elements cause transfers of spots of said printing agent from said donor foil to said receiving web material,
• said thermal printers being arranged in serial relationship to one another along said X coordinate direction with said receiving web material during operation of said apparatus passing serially and unidirectionally through said printers, and
• a controller providing each of said printers with image data for operating its print head and its feed mechanism so as to print onto said receiving web material separate portions of the end graphics,
• said feed mechanism of each of said thermal printers including at least one sprocket wheel with sprocket pins engagable with said sprocket holes of a respective one of said marginal edge portions of said receiving web material for positioning said receiving web material in both said X and said Y coordinate directions relative to said print head of that thermal printer.

A thermal printing apparatus for generating graphics on a length of receiving web material and which apparatus uses a number of printers and an equal number of donor foils each carrying a thermally releasable printing agent so that said apparatus is capable of generating end graphics made up of separate portions printed by separate ones of said printers, said apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of thermal printers,
• each of said thermal printers having a thermal print head with a plurality of printing elements arranged in a row extending in a Y coordinate direction, a feed mechanism for feeding said length of receiving web material longitudinally of itself past said print head in an X coordinate direction extending perpendicularly to said Y coordinate direction, a means for receiving a respective one of said donor foils, and a means for feeding said received donor foil past said thermal print head in superimposed relation to said receiving web material so that energizations of said printing elements cause transfers of spots of said printing agent from said donor foil to said receiving web material,
• said thermal printers being arranged in serial relationship to one another along said X coordinate direction with said receiving web material during operation of said apparatus passing serially and unidirectionally through said printers, and
• a controller providing each of said printers with image data for operating its print head and its feed mechanism so as to print onto said receiving web material separate portions of the end graphics,
• a cutter mechanism located downstream, with respect to the direction of movement of said receiving web material through said plurality of thermal printers, of the most downstream one of said thermal printers so as to receive said receiving web material after it leaves said most downstream thermal printer,
• said cutting mechanism including a knife and a means for moving said knife and said receiving web material relative to one another in said X and Y coordinate directions to cut said end graphics from said receiving web material, and
• said controller including means for providing said cutting mechanism with cutting data for operating said cutting mechanism to cause said knife to cut said end graphics from said receiving web material.

A thermal printing apparatus for generating graphics on a length of receiving web material which carries a plurality of longitudinal position indicators spaced uniformly from one another along the length of said receiving web material, which apparatus uses a number of printers and an equal number of donor foils each carrying a thermally releasable printing agent so that said apparatus is capable of generating end graphics made up of separate portions printed by separate ones of said printers, said apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of thermal printers,
• each of said thermal printers having a thermal print head with a plurality of printing elements arranged in a row extending in a Y coordinate direction, a feed mechanism for feeding said length of receiving web material longitudinally of itself past said print head in an X coordinate direction extending perpendicularly to said Y coordinate direction, a means for receiving a respective one of said donor foils, and a means for feeding said received donor foil past said thermal print head in superimposed relation to said receiving web material so that energizations of said printing elements cause transfers of spots of said printing agent from said donor foil to said receiving web material,
• said thermal printers being arranged in serial relationship to one another along said X coordinate direction with said receiving web material during operation of said apparatus passing serially and unidirectionally through said printers,
• a controller providing each of said printers with image data for operating its print head and its feed mechanism so as to print onto said receiving web material separate portions of the end graphics,
• said controller supplying said image data to said thermal printers in page data blocks each of which page data blocks contains image data for causing the associated one of said thermal printers to print on said receiving web material within the bounds of a rectangular page field having lateral sides parallel to said X coordinate direction and leading and trailing sides parallel to said Y coordinate direction, the page fields corresponding to said page data blocks being part of a job run having a given number of page fields and being arranged in abutting succession to one another along the length of said receiving web material, and
• means associated with each of said printers for positioning the leading edge of the first print field of said job run relative to said receiving web material at a position along said X coordinate axis related to the position along said X coordinate axis of a given one of said longitudinal position indicators of the receiving web material.

A thermal printing apparatus for generating graphics on a length of receiving web material and which apparatus uses a number of printers and an equal number of donor foils each carrying a thermally releasable printing agent so that said apparatus is capable of generating end graphics made up of separate portions printed by separate ones of said printers, said apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of thermal printers,
• each of said thermal printers having a thermal print head with a plurality of printing elements arranged in a row extending in a Y coordinate direction, a feed mechanism for feeding said length of receiving web material longitudinally of itself past said print head in an X coordinate direction extending perpendicularly to said Y coordinate direction, a means for receiving a respective one of said donor foils, and a means for feeding said received donor foil past said thermal print head in superimposed relation to said receiving web material so that energizations of said printing elements cause transfers of spots of said printing agent from said donor foil to said receiving web material,
• said thermal printers being arranged in serial relationship to one another along said X coordinate direction with said receiving web material during operation of said apparatus passing serially and unidirectionally through said printers.
• a controller providing each of said printers with image data for operating its print head and its feed mechanism so as to print onto said receiving web material separate portions of the end graphics,
• said printers in comparison with one another being ones which may take different amounts of time to perform the printing required by each of said printers onto a given length of said web material, and
• an accumulator mechanism arranged between each pair of successive ones of said serially arranged thermal printers which accumulator mechanism is arranged along said X coordinate direction and operates to accumulate a variable lengthwise slack amount of said receiving web material after it has issued from the one of said printers located immediately upstream of said accumulator mechanism and before being received by the one of said printers located immediately downstream of said accumulator mechanism.

A thermal printing method for generating end graphics on a length of receiving web material, said method comprising:

• providing a plurality of thermal printers,
• arranging said printers in serially spaced relationship along an X coordinate direction,
• providing a plurality of donor foils each carrying a thermally releasable printing agent,
• supplying each of said plurality of donor foils to a respective one of said thermal printers,
• each of said thermal printers being operable to move a receiving web material through that printer in said X coordinate direction and to print onto said receiving web material separate portions of end graphics using the one of said donor foils supplied to that printer,
• providing a receiving web material and introducing it to said printers so as to be moved by said printers longitudinally of itself in said X coordinate direction through successive ones of said printers,
• supplying each of said printers with image data for causing that printer to print separate portions of end graphics onto said receiving web material so that said web material when it issues from the most downstream one of said serially arranged thermal printers contains end graphics made up of the various separate portions printed by the separate ones of said serially arranged printers,
• providing a cutting mechanism,
• arranging said cutting mechanism to follow in said X coordinate direction the most downstream one of said thermal printers,
• introducing said receiving web material to said cutting mechanism after it has issued from said most downstream one of said thermal printers, and
• operating said cutting mechanism to cut said end graphics from said receiving web material.

A thermal printing method for generating end graphics on a length of receiving web material, said method comprising:

• providing a plurality of thermal printers,
• arranging said printers in serially spaced relationship along an X coordinate direction,
• providing a plurality of donor foils each carrying a thermally releasable printing agent,
• supplying each of said plurality of donor foils to a respective one of said thermal printers,
• each of said thermal printers being operable to move a receiving web material through that printer in said X coordinate direction and to print onto said receiving web material separate portions of end graphics using the one of said donor foils supplied to that printer,
• providing a receiving web material and introducing it to said printers so as to be moved by said printers longitudinally of itself in said X coordinate direction through successive ones of said printers,
• supplying each of said printers with image data for causing that printer to print separate portions of end graphics onto said receiving web material so that said web material when it issues from the most downstream one of said serially arranged thermal printers contains end graphics made up of the various separate portions printed by the separate ones of said serially arranged printers,
• operating said thermal printers so that given uniform lengthwise sections, in said X coordinate direction, of said receiving web material may be fed through said printers in amounts of time different for different ones of said printers,
• providing an accumulator mechanism between each pair of adjacent ones of said serially arranged thermal printers and passing said receiving web material through said accumulator mechanism so that it accumulates a variable slack amount of said receiving web material after it issues from the immediately upstream one of said thermal printers and before it is received by the immediately downstream one of said thermal printers, and
• controlling the operation of at least one of said immediately upstream printer and said immediately downstream printer in response to the amount of slack material accumulated by said accumulator mechanism.