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US 6,388,690 B1Granted
Thermal recording apparatus
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kogyo
InventorKatsuhito Kurachi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Every time after a cyan ink and a magenta ink are transferred to form respective color dots of a line with a length L2 in a sub-scanning direction, an ribbon cassette RC is returned to a start position of the transference of the cyan and magenta inks and moved by half of a pitch of a print dot of the cyan and magenta inks in the sub-scanning direction by a carriage moving mechanism CH. Subsequently, an yellow ink is transferred to form yellow color dots of a first column. Every time after the ribbon cassette RC is moved by a pitch P1 each in the sub-scanning direction, the yellow ink is transferred to form dots of one column until dots of all columns in the length L2 of a line are formed.
Claims13
A thermal recording apparatus including:
- a thermal head provided with a plurality of heating-elements, the thermal head being movable in a first direction;
- a drive device for selectively driving the heating-elements to generate heat;
- an ink ribbon applied thereon with at least a first color ink, a second color ink and a third color ink;
- a print medium on which images are to be printed through the ink ribbon by the selected heating-elements, the print medium being fed in a second direction intersecting the first direction;
- means for dividing the heating-elements into a first group of odd heating-elements and a second group of even heating-elements, and alternately driving the odd heating-elements and the even heating-elements at different time points;
- a memory for storing image data corresponding to the first color, image data corresponding to the second color and image data corresponding to the third color;
- control means for operating the drive device to drive one group of the first heating-element group and the second heating-element group to generate heat and, after moving the thermal head by one pitch defined by a print dot in the first direction, operating the drive device again to drive another group of the first heating-element group and the second heating-element group to generate heat, thereby to print the first color ink on the print medium based on the image data, and for operating the drive device to drive the another group that is different from the one group driven first to print the first color ink thereby to print the second color ink on positions where the first color ink has not been printed on the print medium;
- and
- means for determining a first print position of the third color ink in correspondence with a position determined by the thermal head that is moved by half of one pitch of a print dot in the first direction from positions where the first and second color inks are printed.
6 more elements
At thermal recording apparatus according to 1, further including:
- pulse application means for selectively applying a drive pulse train to the heating-elements;
- pulse number setting means for setting a number of pulses of the drive pulse train according to gradation level of a print dot to be printed by the heating-elements;
- pulse width setting means for setting a width of a first drive pulse of the drive pulse train to be larger than those of a second and subsequent drive pulses;
- and
- pulse control means for applying the first drive pulse to the heating-elements thereby to preheat the same up to a predetermined heating temperature and then the second and subsequent drive pulses to the preheated heating-elements to record the print dot.
2 more elements
A thermal recording apparatus including:
- a thermal head provided with a plurality of heating-elements, the thermal head being movable in a first direction;
- a drive device for selectively driving the heating-elements to generate heat;
- an ink ribbon applied thereon with at least a first color ink, a second color ink, and a third color ink;
- a print medium on which images are to be printed through the ink ribbon by the selected heating-elements, the print medium being fed in a second direction intersecting the first direction;
- means for dividing the heating-elements into a first group of odd heating-elements and a second group of even heating-elements, and alternately driving the odd heating-elements and the even heating-elements at different time points;
- a memory for storing image data corresponding to the first color, image data corresponding to the second color and image data corresponding to the third color;
- and
- control means for operating the drive device to drive one group of the first heating-element group and the second heating-element group to generate heat and, after moving the thermal head by one pitch defined by a print dot on the first direction, operating the drive device again to drive another group of the first heating-element group and the second heating-element group to generate heat, thereby to print the first color ink on the print medium based on the image data, and for operating the drive device to drive the another group that is different from the one group driven first to print the first color ink thereby to print the second color ink on positions where the first color ink has been printed on the print medium;
- and
- means for determining a second print position of the third color ink in correspondence with a position determined by the thermal head that is moved by half of one pitch of a print dot in the second direction from positions where the first and second color inks are printed.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.