EP0186059B1 - Tête d'impression thermique - Google Patents

Tête d'impression thermique Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0186059B1
EP0186059B1 EP19850115850 EP85115850A EP0186059B1 EP 0186059 B1 EP0186059 B1 EP 0186059B1 EP 19850115850 EP19850115850 EP 19850115850 EP 85115850 A EP85115850 A EP 85115850A EP 0186059 B1 EP0186059 B1 EP 0186059B1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
elements
bus
buses
voltage level
marking
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP19850115850
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German (de)
English (en)
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EP0186059A2 (fr
EP0186059A3 (en
Inventor
Richard A. Stallkamp
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Wang Laboratories Inc
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Wang Laboratories Inc
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Publication of EP0186059A3 publication Critical patent/EP0186059A3/en
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Publication of EP0186059B1 publication Critical patent/EP0186059B1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
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    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/315—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material
    • B41J2/32—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material using thermal heads
    • B41J2/345—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material using thermal heads characterised by the arrangement of resistors or conductors

Definitions

  • This invention relates to thermal print heads as recited in claims 1 and 4.
  • a row of electrically resistive heating elements is defined along the length of a resistive stripe by a series of conductive fingers which cross the stripe at regular intervals. Each heating element is thus spaced apart from the next element by the width of the finger which separates them and each element is bordered by and connected to the two associated fingers which define the element.
  • an individual element is heated by driving current through it. A voltage is applied to one of the element's two associated fingers to supply power, and the other finger is grounded to withdraw (sink) power from the element.
  • every other finger along the stripe extends in one direction away from the stripe to connect to integrated circuitry which is arranged to permit grounding of various ones of the fingers at different times.
  • the intervening fingers (to which the voltage is to be applied) are not connected to the grounding integrated circuitry, but instead extend away from the stripe in the opposite direction from the grounding fingers. Every other one of these voltage fingers is routed to a first bus which runs parallel to the stripe, while the remaining voltage fingers are routed to a second bus, which also runs parallel to the stripe.
  • the printing of dots along a row is done in two phases a voltage is applied first to the first bus, and appropriate grounding fingers are grounded to cause heating of the elements corresponding to the desired dot positions and then to the second bus, and other appropriate grounding fingers are grounded.
  • Diodes are connected between each voltage finger and the bus to which it is routed to prevent so-called parasitic voltages from appearing on the bus to which the voltage which was not applied. Such parasitic voltages may erroneously cause printing by elements which were not selected for heating. Such diodes affect the complexity and reliability of the switching circuitry and contribute to the design and manufacturing costs of the print head.
  • thermal printing head which comprises two rows of contiguous heating elements, wherein the elements of one row is offset by one- half printing space from the elements in the second. In operation, when adjacent elements in one row are energized there is no gap or space between the dots printed, and the elements in the second row are energizable so to partially overlap dots printed by the first row.
  • EP-A-0 122 472 discloses a printing head comprising two contiguous heating elements which may be operated as a variable dot or pixel size generator, wherein pixels are formable by the use of one to four overlapping heating elements which comprise the heating elements.
  • a first voltage level is applied which is at least sufficient, when applied to one of the elements, to cause marking, while holding a second bus at a fixed second voltage level insufficient for causing marking.
  • the heating elements are arranged in rows, (e.g. two parallel rows), and there are a series of conductors for sinking power from the elements, with every other one of these conductors extending on one side of the rows, and the intervening conductors extending on the other side, with each conductors serving two elements on each row, and each element being served by one of the conductors; and there are four buses (double the number of rows), with two of the buses being arranged on one side of the rows so as to be adjacent to and to serve one of the rows, and with the other two buses being arranged on the other side of the rows so as to be adjacent to and to serve the other one of the rows.
  • the elements are regularly spaced along the rows, with spaces between successive elements (each element having, we.g., a length equal to the length of one of the spaces), and one of the rows is offset from the other row (e.g. by an amount equal to the space length) such that in a projection of one row onto the other row, the elements of the one row would cover at least a portion of the spaces along the other row.
  • the invention features a thermal print head having a number (N) of parallel rows of electrical heating elements for marking a heat sensitive medium, conductors for sinking power from the elements, 2N electrical buses for routine power to the elements, each bus being connected in common to a plurality of elements, and control logic for routing power via each one of the buses in turn.
  • a first voltage level is applied which is at least sufficient, when applied to one of the elements, to cause marking, while holding a second bus at a fixed second voltage level insufficient for causing marking.
  • the power sinking conductors selectively connect the elements to a predetermined third voltage level, such that the voltage difference between the first and third voltage levels is sufficient to cause marking, but the voltage difference between the second and third voltage levels, and the voltage difference between the first and second voltage levels, are each insufficient to cause marking;
  • the second voltage level is lower than the first voltage level and is selected to have a value, relative to the first voltage level, which minimizes the aggregate power loss in the heating elements, e.g., a value equal to the third voltage level plus 3/7 of the difference between the first voltage level and third voltage level;
  • control logic is provided for connecting the first voltage level from the power source to a selected one of the buses while connecting the second voltage level from the power source to the other buses; and the control logic connects selected ones of the elements to a power sink while the bus connected to the selected elements is connected to the first voltage level, to cause marking by the selected elements.
  • thermal printing system 10 a sheet of temperature-sensitive paper (or plain paper in conjunction with an ink-bearing temperature-sensitive ribbon) 12 is held against a thick-film thermal print head 14.
  • Paper driver 16 is arranged to move paper 12 to a succession of fixed positions with respect to head 14.
  • Paper driver 16 is connected via control signal line 17 and power line 19 to a power supply and control logic 18 (for providing power and control signals to cause paper driver 16 to move paper 12 to the successive positions).
  • Power supply and control logic 18 is also connected via control signal lines 21 and bus power lines 23 to head 14 (for providing power and control signals for causing head 14 to print a desired set of dots with respect to each successive position of paper 12).
  • Power supply and control logic 18 is also connected via control signal line 25 and data line 27 to a microprocessor (not shown) for receiving streams of bits representative of information to be printed, and for receiving and sending related control signals.
  • the rows are separated by a 0.25 mm space and the conductive fingers are spaced at regular intervals to define two parallel rows of printing elements 36, 38 (each 0.0833 mm square).
  • Elements 36 are offset from elements 38 along an imaginary axis 40 by a distance of 0.0833 mm such that, if elements 38 were moved along an axis 42 to the location of row 30, each element 38 would fill the space between a pair of adjacent elements 36.
  • the fingers 34 which cross row 30 are arranged in four groups.
  • One group of fingers 44 is connected to a conductive bus 46 oriented parallel to row 30.
  • a second group of fingers 48 (only two are shown in Fig. 2) passes under and is insulated from bus 46 and connects to a second bus 50 also oriented parallel to row 30.
  • a third group of fingers 52 passes under and is insulated from both buses 46 and 50 and connects to integrated circuit 54 (for connecting selected fingers 52 to ground). Fingers 52 also extend to and cross row 32 and have jogs 56 to accommodate the offset betwen elements 36, 38.
  • a fourth group of fingers 57 extend to and beyond stripe 32.
  • the fingers 34 which cross stripe 32 are arranged in four groups, including fingers 52 in one group, fingers 58 which connect to a bus 60 (on the other side of stripes 30, 32 from buses 46, 50) in a second group, fingers 62 which connect to a bus 64 in third group, and fingers 57 which connect to integrated circuitry 66 in a fourth group.
  • Each finger 52 by virtue of crossing both stripes 30, 32 is connected to four elements, which are served individually by one of the four buses 46, 50, 60, 64.
  • a finger 52 connects to elements 70, 72, 74, 76, which in turn are connected respectively to buses 46, 50, 60, 64.
  • each finger 57 is connected to four elements also served respectively by one of the four buses 46, 50, 60, 64.
  • Each pair of adjacent fingers 57 has four elements 38 positioned between them, and each pair of adjacent fingers 52 likewise has four elements 36 positioned between them.
  • Buses 46, 50, 60, 64 are integrated circuits 54, 66 are each connected independently via lines 41,43, 45, 47, 49, 51 to power supply and control logic 18.
  • Integrated circuitry 66 represents one of six identical circuits arranged along the length of head 14 on one side of rows 30, 32; integrated circuit 54 is identical to integrated circuit 66 and likewise represents one of six identical circuits on the other side of rows 30, 32.
  • Each integrated circuit has fifth-four cells to serve fifty-four fingers 52, 57. Thus the twelve circuits are able to serve all 648 of fingers 52, 57.
  • Integrated circuitry 66 includes a shift register 110 having a set of cells 112.
  • Each cell 112 includes a transistor 114 whose emitter is grounded, whose collector is connected to a particular one of the fingers 57, and whose base is controlled by the value of a bit stored in the cell.
  • transistor 114 is driven to saturation so that the corresponding finger 57 is effectively grounded (actually the finter is drawn down to the saturation voltage, V sat , of transistor 114, e.g., 0.3 volts).
  • transistor 114 When the bit has the opposite value, transistor 114 is off and the potential on the corresponding finger 57 is permitted to float.
  • power supply and control logic 18 includes a bus power supply 120 capable of producing highly regulated voltages at two levels: a higher level for causing printing at a selected element (the higher level is selected so that the voltage drop across a given element will drive current sufficient to cause the element to heat to a temperature which causes marking) and a lower level for driving the non-printing buses (the lower level is selected so that the voltage drop across a given element will not be sufficient to cause printing).
  • Bus power supply 120 is connected via high and low voltage lines 122, 124 to power-to-buses switching logic 126.
  • Logic 126 has outputs connected to bus connection lines 41, 43, 45, 47 for delivering the supply voltages, and has its input connected via control signal line 128 to control logic 130 for receiving signals which control the switching of the supply voltages to bus lines at any given time.
  • Control logic 130 is also connected via control and data lines 132, 134 to bit stream switching logic 136 for delivering, respectively, streams of bits corresponding to dots to be printed, and related timing control signals which synchronize the operation of the integrated circuits 54, 66 with the powering of buses 46, 50, 60, 64.
  • Logic 136 is connected via lines 49, 51 to circuits 54, 66 for carrying the bit streams and the timing control signals.
  • Control logic 130 is also connected via control signal line 17 to paper driver 16 and via control signal line 138 to paper drive power supply 140 to trigger the repositioning of the paper to each successive position at the proper time.
  • the output of supply 140 is connected via power line 19 to paper driver 16.
  • control logic 130 is connected via control line 25 and data line 27 to the microprocessor (not shown) to receive the bit streams and commands directing it when to print.
  • bus 46 is driven to the higher first voltage level (V A ) and buses 50, 60, 64 are driven to the lower second voltage level (V B ).
  • Each resistance labelled R m represents a printing element which is intended to be heated to print.
  • R MM represents heating elements which are not intended to be heated to print but which are connected to the same gounding finger as an R m element.
  • R NN represents a heating element which is not intended to be heated to print but is connected to the bus which is being driven to voltage V A .
  • R N represents heating elements connected between the same grounding finger as an R NN element, and one of the buses driven to voltage V B .
  • V A must be high enough so that each R m heats sufficiently to cause printing from voltage drop of V A ⁇ V sat across these resistors.
  • V B must be low enough so that each R MM does not heat sufficiently to print with a voltage drop of V B ⁇ V sat across it, and so that each R NN and R N does not print from a voltage drop of V B -V A across each network consisting of R NN in series with three parallel R N elements.
  • V B At a level which minimizes the total power dissipated in the R MM , R NN and R N elements.
  • paper 12 is moved to a succession of fixed positions relative to stripes 30, 32. At each position, power is applied to those elements 36, 38 which need to be heated in order to mark desired dots at corresponding locations on the paper. Power is applied in four stages. In each stage, V A is applied to a particular one of the buses 46, 50, 60, 64, while V B is applied to the remaining three buses. For example, V A is applied to bus 46 and V B is applied to buses 50, 60, 64. Under these circumstances, only half of the elements 36 on stripe 30, (i.e., those which are connected to bus 46) can be selected to heat to print corresponding dots.
  • a particular one of those elements heats to print by having integrated circuits 54, 66 connect to ground the finger 52, 57 which leads from the element to be heated, thus establishing V A -V sat across the element.
  • element 70 can be heated to print a corresponding dot by grounding finger 100 to establish a current path (indicated by arrow 102).
  • Appropriate bits are loaded into integrated circuits 54, 66 to cause, while V A is being applied to bus 46, the desired elements to be grounded and the others to remain floating.
  • V A is applied to bus 50
  • V B is applied to buses 46, 60, 64 and appropriate ones of fingers 52 and 57 are grounded to cause printing by desired ones of that half of the elements on row 30, which are connected to bus 50.
  • the paper is moved along axis 42 by a distance equal to the width of row 30 to a new position, at which the four printing stages are again repeated, this time with an updated set of fingers 52, 57 being grounded in order to print desired dots at the new paper position.
  • the paper is the moved to a succession of new fixed positions, at each of which the four printing stages are repeated. Because the elements on rows 30, 32 are staggered with respect to each other, dots can be printed at all desired places on the page.
  • the loading of bits into the shift registers, the switching of voltages onto buses 46, 50, 60, 64, and the advance of the paper to successive positions, are all synchronized by control signals delivered from power supply and control logic 130.
  • the microprocessor to which the power supply and control logic 18 are connected is programmed to provide the needed bit patterns for integrated circuits 54, 66 based on the characters or graphic symbols to be printed.

Claims (8)

1. Tête d'impression thermique, comprenant une première bande continue (30) de matériau, le long de laquelle une première rangée d'éléments chauffants électriques (36, 38) est définie, un ensemble de circuits (54, 66) raccordé aux éléments en vue du chauffage sélectif des éléments afin de créer un marquage dans des zones correspondantes d'une surface à imprimer, et une deuxième bande continue (32) de matériau, le long de laquelle est définie une deuxième rangée d'éléments chauffants électriques raccordés audit ensemble de circuits (54, 66), caractérisée en ce que la configuration de la première rangée d'éléments chauffants est telle que, lors du chauffage de deux éléments adjacents, un interstice sans marque apparaît entre les deux zones marquées obtenues sur la surface, et la configuration de la deuxième rangée d'éléments chauffants est telle que, lors du positionnement de la surface à imprimer (en la déplaçant perpendiculairement aux rangées) dans une nouvelle position dans laquelle les zones marquées se trouvent au droit de la deuxième rangée d'éléments chauffants, un élément de la deuxième rangée peut être chauffé afin de produire un marquage dans l'interstice.
2. Tête d'impression thermique selon la revendication 1, dans laquelle ledit ensemble de circuits (54, 66) comprend des lignes d'amenée (22, 48, 52, 57, 58, 62) qui chevauchent les bandes continues (30, 32) de sorte que des zones de chevauchement sont formées, les éléments (36, 38) étant définis entre les endroits où des lignes successives chevauchent les bandes, et les éléments et les interstices ont les mêmes longueurs, prises dans la direction longitudinale des rangées.
3. Tête d'impression thermique selon la revendication 2, comprenant en outre
des bus (46, 50; 60, 64) pour l'alimentation en courant des éléments, chacun desdits bus étant raccordé, en commun, à une pluralité des éléments,
une source de courant (120) servant à appliquer, à l'un des bus, un premier niveau de tension qui, lorsqu'il est appliqué à l'un desdits éléments auquel le bus est raccordé, est suffisant pour produire le marquage d'une surface à imprimer, les connexions entre lesdits bus et lesdits éléments étant réalisées de manière à définir aussi bien une voie électrique (102) à partir de l'un des bus (46, 50) vers l'un des éléments (36, 38) afin de produire le marquage, que des voies électriques non désirées à partir de l'un des bus via les éléments vers l'autre des bus (60, 64),
la source de courant (120) étant aménagée de manière à maintenir les autres bus (60, 64) à un deuxième niveau de tension fixe qui ne suffit pas à produire ce marquage.
4. Tête d'impression thermique selon l'une quelconque des revendications 1 à 3, comprenant deux rangées parallèles, au moins, d'élément chauffants électriques,
des bus (46, 50) d'alimentation en courant des éléments chauffants (36, 38), chacun des bus étant raccordé, en commun, à une pluralité des éléments,
une source de courant (120) servant à appliquer à un bus (46) des bus (46, 60) un premier niveau de tension qui, lorsqu'il est appliqué à un élément auquel ledit bus est raccordé, suffit à produire un marquage d'une surface à imprimer,
les connexions entre les bus et les éléments étant réalisées de manière à définir aussi bien une voie électrique (102) à partir de ce même bus (46) vers ce même élément (36) afin de produire le marquage, que des voies électriques non désirées à partir de ce même bus (46) via.les éléments vers l'autre bus (60), caractérisée en ce que
la source de courants (120) est aménagée de manière à maintenir cet autre bus (60) à un deuxième niveau de tension fixe qui ne suffit pas à produire le marquage.
5. Tête d'impression thermique selon la revendication 4, comprenant en outre
des conducteurs servant au raccordement sélectif de chaque élément à un troisième niveau de tension prédéterminé, la différence de tension entre les premier et troisième niveaux de tension étant suffisante pour produire le marquage, la différence de tension entre les deuxième et troisième niveaux de tension ne suffisante pas pour produire le marquage, et la différence de tension entre les premier et deuxième niveaux de tension ne suffisant pas pour produire le marquage.
6. Tête d'impression thermique selon la revendication 5, dans laquelle le deuxième niveau de tension est inférieur au premier niveau de tension et est choisi pour avoir une valeur, par rapport au premier niveau de tension, qui réduit au minimum la dissipation de puissance totale dans lesdits éléments chauffants (36, 38).
7. Tête d'impression thermique selon la revendication 6, dans laquelle le deuxième niveau de tension est maintenu à une valeur égale au troisième niveau de tension plus les 3/7 èmes de la différence entre le premier niveau de tension et le troisième niveau de tension.
EP19850115850 1984-12-28 1985-12-12 Tête d'impression thermique Expired - Lifetime EP0186059B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US68706984A 1984-12-28 1984-12-28
US687069 1984-12-28

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0186059A2 EP0186059A2 (fr) 1986-07-02
EP0186059A3 EP0186059A3 (en) 1987-03-04
EP0186059B1 true EP0186059B1 (fr) 1990-06-27

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Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP19850115850 Expired - Lifetime EP0186059B1 (fr) 1984-12-28 1985-12-12 Tête d'impression thermique

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EP (1) EP0186059B1 (fr)
JP (1) JPH0657457B2 (fr)
AU (1) AU584915B2 (fr)
CA (1) CA1237337A (fr)
DE (1) DE3578406D1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB8804467D0 (en) * 1988-02-25 1988-03-23 Alcatel Business Systems Thermal printing apparatus
US5235346A (en) * 1990-01-23 1993-08-10 Hewlett-Packard Company Method and apparatus for controlling the temperature of thermal ink jet and thermal printheads that have a heating matrix system
US5134425A (en) * 1990-01-23 1992-07-28 Hewlett-Packard Company Ohmic heating matrix
US5144336A (en) * 1990-01-23 1992-09-01 Hewlett-Packard Company Method and apparatus for controlling the temperature of thermal ink jet and thermal printheads that have a heating matrix system
US5702188A (en) * 1995-07-18 1997-12-30 Graphtec Corporation Thermal head and head drive circuit therefor

Family Cites Families (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CA1080297A (fr) * 1977-04-13 1980-06-24 Frederick C. Livermore Dispositif d'impression thermique
JPS5796874A (en) * 1980-12-08 1982-06-16 Oki Electric Ind Co Ltd Heat sensitive head for facsimile
JPS5816868A (ja) * 1981-07-24 1983-01-31 Fuji Xerox Co Ltd 熱記録用印字ヘツド
JPS58134765A (ja) * 1982-02-06 1983-08-11 Fuji Xerox Co Ltd 感熱記録ヘツド
US4459462A (en) * 1982-12-27 1984-07-10 International Business Machines Corporation Drive system for energizing elements of a fixed bar printer
US4450342A (en) * 1982-12-27 1984-05-22 International Business Machines Corporation Thermal print head

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
DE3578406D1 (de) 1990-08-02
JPS61154955A (ja) 1986-07-14
AU4644985A (en) 1986-07-03
EP0186059A2 (fr) 1986-07-02
AU584915B2 (en) 1989-06-08
EP0186059A3 (en) 1987-03-04
CA1237337A (fr) 1988-05-31
JPH0657457B2 (ja) 1994-08-03

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