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US 7,256,807 B2Granted
Thermal printer
AssigneeAlps Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorsTakashi Goto, Shinichiro Suzukawa
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AssigneeAlps Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorsTakashi Goto, Shinichiro Suzukawa
Estimating the term…
A thermal printer includes a platen roller having both ends supported by a frame, a line thermal head having a plurality of heater elements and coming into contact with and separating from the platen roller, and a head mount supporting the line thermal head. The line thermal head has a heat sink mounted thereto for dissipating heat generated from the heater elements during printing on a recording sheet. The heat sink includes a first heat sink portion supported by the line thermal head through the head mount and a second heat sink portion which is connected to the first heat sink portion with a connector and which is removable.
A thermal printer comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Structure of thermal heads: cooling arrangements
Using thermal heads: structure of thermal heads
Typewriters
Term ended 2 Dec 2025 (estimated)
This application claims the benefit of priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-186787, filed on Jun. 24, 2004, herein incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal printer, and, more particularly, to a thermal printer which can print a high-quality image by properly dissipating heat generated by a line thermal head.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the main portion of a thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a right side view of FIG. 1; and
FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the main portion of a related thermal printer.
A thermal printer 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will hereunder be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the main portion of the thermal printer according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a right side view of FIG. 1.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the thermal printer 1 according to the present invention includes a frame 2 and a long cylindrical platen roller 3. The frame 2 has opposing side plates 2a and 2b that are separated from each other by a predetermined interval. The platen roller 3 is rotatably supported at the opposing side plates 2a and 2b.
A long line thermal head 4 is disposed in the frame 2 so as to be situated above the platen roller 3 and so as to extend along a longitudinal direction of the platen roller 3. The line thermal head 4 has a plurality of heater elements (not shown) disposed in a row in the longitudinal direction and opposing the plate roller 3.