Classifications

• • 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
• • 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
  • B41J11/00—Devices or arrangements  of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form
  • B41J11/36—Blanking or long feeds; Feeding to a particular line, e.g. by rotation of platen or feed roller
• • 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
  • B41J3/00—Typewriters or selective printing or marking mechanisms characterised by the purpose for which they are constructed
  • B41J3/60—Typewriters or selective printing or marking mechanisms characterised by the purpose for which they are constructed for printing on both faces of the printing material

Definitions

• the present invention is directed to thermal printing, in particular, to controlling an amount of contact between thermal media and a feed roller in the printer.
• Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer printer firmware it is also common practice within the Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer printer firmware to incorporate compensation algorithms that correct for across the page density variations, and/or down the page density variations. There may be limitations within the printer hardware or printer firmware such that compensation algorithms cannot completely compensate for printing artifacts generated by the drive roller. Due to these limitations, it becomes important to minimize the number of times that new contact occurs between the aggressively textured drive roller and the paper surface. With respect to Figs. 2-3, for two-sided or duplex Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer printing, one common method is to use two thermal print heads 117, 137, as shown in FIG.
• the printed paper After completion of printing on both surfaces 100, 101 of the print paper, the printed paper is ejected from the printer along paths 121 or 133, and is commonly collected via exit guide 125, after being cut by cutters 126 and output via rollers 127 into a paper catch tray 128.
• FIG. 4 there is illustrated a length of paper driven through the drive roller 113 and pinch roller 141, exposing paper surface 100 to come into contact with the drive roller's aggressive surface texture, compromising the paper surface 100 for subsequent prints.
• the next two- sided print job would again be staged to print using thermal print head TPHl on paper side 100 (see Fig. 7), and then re-position the paper, and drive the paper to the other thermal print head TPH2 and print on the non-printed side of the print paper 101, thus repeating the steps of Figs 2, 3 and 4.
• This printing sequence introduces an unnecessary repositioning of the paper between TPH2 137 and side 101 of the paper back over to TPHl 117 and side 100 of the paper, once again unnecessarily exposing the paper surfaces to come into contact with the drive roller's aggressive surface texture during the retraction, compromising the paper surfaces.
• FIG. 8 a known method to generate the sequential page content and sending the image data to the printer so that a photo book is printed with proper page order is illustrated in FIG. 8 wherein a host computer 10 communicates a host request to a connected printer 50 and receives a printer response.
• a host computer communicates a host request to a connected printer 50 and receives a printer response.
• This is a common method of a host computer communicating with the connected printer, typically through USB connection, wired ethernet, or wireless connection.
• Figure 9 shows a typical print job printing page sequence sent from the Host Computer to the Printer: Page 10 951, Page 9 950, Page 8 941 , Page 7 940, Page 6 931 , Page 5 930, Page 4 921, Page 3 920, Page 2 911, Page 1 910.
• the pages are sent to the printer in reverse sequential order so that the last printed page that is ejected in to the print catcher tray 128 is the first page of the photo book.
• An alternate typical Print Job Printing Sequence (reversed) would be: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Page 9, Page 10. This page order would result in the photo book being face-down in the print catcher tray, but would still be in proper page order.
• a length of paper is driven through the drive roller 113 and pinch roller 141 , exposing paper surface 100 to come into contact with the drive roller's aggressive surface texture, compromising the paper surface 100 for subsequent prints.
• the next two-sided print may be staged to print using TPH2 as a first step on paper side 101, as shown in FIG. 5. The same thermal print head and paper side is used as was printed last on the immediately previous print.
• a preferred printing method is to start the next two- sided print on the same thermal print head and paper side as was printed last on the immediately previous print.
• a preferred embodiment of the present patent application comprises a printing system having a printer comprising two printheads, sensors for determining a position of a rolled receiver media in the printer, and rollers for starting a next multi-page print job using either one of the printheads based on the position of the rolled receiver media in the printer.
• a first page or a second page of the print job can be printed first in response to the position of the rolled receiver media in the printer.
• the multi-page print job can be started with the second page based on data provided by the sensors indicating that the receiver media was positioned at a printhead dedicated to printing even numbered pages of the multi- page print job. If a next print job is a duplex print then pairs of the even numbered pages are printed consecutively and odd numbered pages are printed consecutively in pairs of each. The even numbered pages of the duplex print job are printed only on one of the printheads the odd numbered pages on another one of the printheads.
• Another preferred embodiment of the present patent application comprises a printing system having sensors for determining which one of two printheads in a printer was most recently used for printing a last page of a preceding print job, and rollers and receiver media for starting a next print job using the printhead that was most recently used.
• the most recently used printhead is used to print the entire simplex print job.
• the printer alternates between printing a pair of the even numbered pages and printing a pair of the odd numbered pages. In any case, the printer outputs and stacks the even and odd numbered pages in a consecutive ordered sequence according to the page numbers.
• Another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises a printer with two printheads, rollers for selectively positioning receiver media at either of the two printheads, a communication channel for transmitting receiver media position data and for receiving image data for printing, the image data including second page data of a duplex print job for printing a second page of the duplex print job before printing the first page of the duplex print job.
• the image data includes first page data of the duplex print job received after the second page data in order to print the first page of the duplex print job after printing the second page of the duplex print job.
• a different printhead is used for printing these two pages. Sensors in the printer detect at which of the two printheads the receiver media is positioned and the printhead that was most recently used for printing is used for printing the second page data. This is because that particular printhead corresponds to and is used only for printing even numbered pages of the duplex print job.
• the even numbered pages of the duplex print job are printed consecutively in pairs, likewise with the odd numbered pages.
• FIG. 1 illustrates a computer operated thermal printing system.
• FIG. 2 illustrates a document positioned in a thermal printer apparatus.
• FIG. 3 illustrates a document positioned in a thermal printer apparatus.
• FIG. 4 illustrates a document positioned in a thermal printer apparatus.
• FIG. 5 illustrates a document positioned in a thermal printer apparatus.
• FIG. 6 illustrates a document positioned in a thermal printer apparatus.
• FIG. 7 illustrates a document positioned in a thermal printer apparatus.
• FIG. 8 illustrates host-printer communication
• FIG. 9 illustrates page order as output by a two-sided printer.
• FIG. 10 illustrates a host-printer communication method
• FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart describing an operational
• FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart describing an alternative operational embodiment of the present invention.
• FIG. 1 illustrates an example printing system for practicing embodiments of the present invention.
• the printing system includes a host computer 10 which typically comprises keyboard 46 and mouse 44 as input devices communicatively connected to the computer's desktop interface device 28.
• the interfaces illustrated in FIG. 1 can include USB interfaces and other wired connections, as well as wireless connections via Wi-Fi or cellular.
• host computer or "host PC” is intended to include any data processing device, such as a server, desktop computer, PC, a laptop computer, a mainframe computer, a router, a personal digital assistant, a Blackberry, or any other device for computing, classifying, processing, transmitting, receiving, retrieving, switching, storing, displaying, measuring, detecting, recording, or reproducing any form of information, intelligence or data for any purpose whether implemented with electrical, magnetic, optical, or biological components, and otherwise.
• a server desktop computer
• PC personal computer
• a personal digital assistant a personal digital assistant
• Blackberry any other device for computing, classifying, processing, transmitting, receiving, retrieving, switching, storing, displaying, measuring, detecting, recording, or reproducing any form of information, intelligence or data for any purpose whether implemented with electrical, magnetic, optical, or biological components, and otherwise.
• Communicaticatively connected is intended to include any type of connection or transmission media, whether wired, wireless, or both, between devices, computers, or programs in which data may be communicated.
• Output from host computer 10 is typically presented on a video display 52, which may be communicatively connected to the computer 10 via the display interface device 24.
• the computer 10 contains components such as CPU 14 and computer-accessible memories, such as read-only memory 16, random access memory 22, and a hard disk drive 20, which may retain some or all of the image data, page data, print documents, character data, and programming referred to herein.
• computer-accessible memory is intended to include any computer-accessible data storage device, whether volatile or nonvolatile, electronic, magnetic, optical, or otherwise, including but not limited to, floppy disks, hard disks, Compact Discs, DVDs, flash memories, such as USB compliant flash drives, for example, ROMs, and RAMs.
• the CPU 14 communicates with other devices over a data bus 12.
• the CPU 14 executes software stored on, for example, hard disk drive 20.
• the host computer 10 may also contain computer- accessible memory drives for reading and writing data, such as page print image data, from and to removable computer-accessible memories. This may include a CD-RW drive 30 for reading and writing various CD media 42 as well as a DVD drive 32 for reading and writing to various DVD media 40.
• the printer 50 such as described herein is a dye diffusion thermal transfer printer communicatively connected to a printer interface device 26 for communicating with processor 14 over data bus 12. The connection between the thermal printer 50 and the printer interface device 26 serves as a two way communication channel between the printer and the host computer.
• the printer 50 includes a supply of receiver media, typically in rolled form, and preferably includes an exit tray 28 for holding a plurality of printed receiver media sheets.
• Printer 50 typically includes a buffer memory for storing print information, for example such as Postscript data, for formatting documents to be printed.
• printer 50 incorporates memory sufficient to store print data for a plurality of pages of a print job and a processor sufficient to selectively sequence pages of the print job for printing and for controlling communications and all components of the printer as illustrated herein. Additional information can be stored for each type and size of media, including a finish of media, for example.
• the printer preferably includes selectable printing options such as duplex and simplex printing.
• selectable options can be controlled by user input to the computer system via the mouse 44 or keyboard 46 illustrated, and as confirmed by a convenient graphical user interface on video display 52.
• a digital scanner 6 or other image capture device such as a digitizing tablet or a camera can be communicatively connected to the computer 10 through, for example, the USB interface device 34 to transfer image from the scanner 6 to the computer's hard disk drive or other connected memory devices.
• the computer 10 can be communicatively connected to an external network 60 via a network connection device 18, thus allowing the computer to access digital objects and media assets from other computers, devices, or data-storage systems communicatively connected to the network.
• a collection of print documents, and/or media assets can reside exclusively on the hard disk drive 20, compact disc 42, DVD 40, or on remote data storage devices, such as a networked hard drive accessible via the network 60, or on other local memory devices such as a thumb drive.
• a collection of digital objects and documents can also be distributed across any or all of these storage locations.
• a collection of digital objects and documents may be represented by a database that uniquely identifies individual digital objects (e.g., such as a print job) and their corresponding location(s). It will be understood that these digital objects can be media objects or non-media objects.
• Media objects can be digital images, such as those captured by scanner 6.
• Media objects could also include files produced by graphic, text or animation software.
• the preferred method of printing outlined above is critical for reduction of image artifacts during photo book creation on dye diffusion thermal transfer printers, and also results in improved through-put.
• the page printing sequence must be modified in order to produce a sequentially paged photo book that is assembled from the printed sheets output by the printer into the exit tray.
• a preferred method for printing requires the following printing order: new print sheet, Page 10 951 (TPH1), Page 9 950 (TPH2); new print sheet, Page 7 940 (TPH2), Page 8 941 (TPH1); new print sheet, page 6 931 (TPH1), Page 5 930 (TPH2); new print sheet, Page 3 920 (TPH2), Page 4 921 (TPH1); new print sheet, Page 2 911 (TPH1), Page 1 910 (TPH2), which results in the same sheet stack arrangement in the exit tray as shown in Fig. 9.
• This page order results in the last printed sheet that is ejected into the print catcher tray being the first sheet of the photo book, and so the face-up page order of the finished print stack is correct.
• TPH2 prints all the upward facing pages of the print stack in this sequence and so prints the odd-numbered pages.
• TPH1 Page 1 (TPH2), Page 4 (TPH2), Page 3 (TPH1), Page 5 (TPH1), Page 6 (TPH2), Page 8 (TPH2), Page 7 (TPH1), Page 9 (TPH1), Page 10 (TPH2), which would result in the photo book being face-down in the print catcher tray stack, but would still be in proper page order.
• TPH1 prints the odd-numbered pages.
• Sequencing becomes more complicated when a print job contains an odd number of duplex sheets for printing, as in these examples discussed thus far, because the next print job's printing sequence must be changed to utilize a preferred method of an embodiment of the present invention.
• the last side printed was Page 1 910, Side B, printed on TPH2, for a face-up print stack. So in order to continue in the preferred method for the next print job, the next page to be printed (which is the first page of the next print job) should be printed on Side B using TPH2 again. Note that this is different from the first page printed of the previous print job which used TPH1 for Side A.
• the print job printing sequence for this next photo book, for a face-up print stack is: Page 9 (TPH2), Page 10 (TPH1), Page 8 (TPH1), Page 7 (TPH2), Page 5 (TPH2), Page 6 (TPH1), Page 4 (TPH1), Page 3 (TPH2), Page 1 (TPH2), Page 2 (TPH1).
• Each print job printing sequence is different, depending on which side and head was used last in the previous print job.
• the preferred method to minimize the printer generated roller artifact and to maximize throughput is to print all simplex prints on the same thermal print head and paper side as the last page of the previous print job. This may affect which print job printing sequence should be used for the next duplex print job, depending on which side and head was used last.
• An additional complication can occur when using the preferred printing method to minimize printer generated drive roller artifacts. If a jam, out of media condition, or other problem, occurs during printing, the logic for the page sequencing may become incorrect. This may require the paper to be cleared and printing job to be re-started.
• the solution for maintaining proper photo book page order while using the preferred printing method involves the host computer querying the printer to determine which side (Side A on TPH1 or Side B on TPH2) the paper will be staged at the time it is ready to begin the next print.
• the Host PC can then generate and send the image data in the proper sequence based on which side will be printed first.
• This solution adequately addresses the complications posed by odd numbers of sheets in a print job, simplex prints, and also the additional complication caused by a jam or other printer error.
• the Host Computer 10 having internal components as described above receives data from data input sources via, for example, the USB 2.0 communication protocol such as image data coming in from an input source and stores the data at step 171.
• Internal data processing is performed by the Host Computer at step 172, wherein software takes the received image data and performs certain tasks with the image data such as color correction.
• the image data moves from the internal image data processing to the printer processing stage at step 173.
• the processed image data is sent from the Host Computer to the printer. This can be done through various means such as USB 2.0 communication protocol.
• the image data from the Host Computer to the Printer represents pages in a preferred sequence which can be stored on the printer's image buffer. Once the image buffers are emptied, they can accept more image data from the Host Computer.
• the USB 2.0 communication protocol allows for constant communication between the Host and the Printer.
• Fig. 11 illustrates a flow chart for a printing sequence according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the host PC queries the printer and the printer responds to the host PC.
• Step 200 represents the Host to Printer Data Processing function similar to Step 173 of Fig 10.
• Image Data is extracted from the last two pages of remaining print job from the Host Internal Data Processing at step 201.
• the Host Computer then queries the printer for the print paper location in the printer at step 202.
• the printer queries the printer for the print paper location in the printer at step 202.
• Step 204 the printer responds to the Host Computer with the print paper location.
• Step 205 represents a decision point branching to either Thermal Print Head 1 (TPHl) or Thermal Print Head 2 (TPH2). If the printer reported back that the paper position is located on the side of Thermal Print Head 1 using sensors 124 or 130 or both, which also means that the paper is physically closer to TPHl due to the straight paper path leading to TPHl and traversed by the paper when the paper is fed forward, then paper surface Side A, Step 206, is the surface that will be printed on.
• TPHl Thermal Print Head 1
• TPH2 Thermal Print Head 2
• the Host Computer then sends the appropriate image data to the printer which, in this instance, is the First Image Data in the sequence from a two page print job at step 208.
• the printer's paper position switches to the side of Thermal Print Head 2. Paper surface Side B will be printed by Thermal Print Head 2 using image data for the Second Image Data in sequence from a two page print job at step 211.
• paper surface Side B of step 212 is the surface that will be printed on.
• the Host Computer sends the appropriate image data to the printer which is the Second Image Data, in sequence from the two page print job as shown at step 214.
• the printer's paper position is switched to the side of Thermal Print Head 1 at step 215.
• the paper surface Side A 216 is the surface that will be printed on under Thermal Print Head 1.
• Step 218 another decision point is based on whether more image data is needed to be printed or not. If Yes, the algorithm goes back to the Host Computer to extract two additional pages or the last page of image data at step 201. If No, the print job is completed.
• An alternate solution for maintaining proper photo book page order while using the preferred printing method of starting each duplex print on the same side as was printed last for the previous print, is for the host computer to tell the printer which side of the paper each set of image data is intended to be printed on. For example, print or image data is identified as Side A and Side B. Then, the printer can determine which image data to use next based on whichever side it is about to print (Side A on TPH1 or Side B on TPH2).
• Step 301 represents the Host to Printer Data Processing function similar to Step 173 in Fig 10.
• the Host Computer sends to the printer the order of the image data that will be received, or which image data will be printed on which side of the paper.
• the Host Computer sends the image data for Side A of the paper to the printer.
• the Host Computer sends the image data for Side B of the paper to the printer. It will be appreciated that the two steps just described can be performed in a reverse sequence.
• the printer detects and identifies the location of the paper in the printer using sensors 124 or 130 or both.
• Step 306 is a decision point for using either Thermal Print Head 1 or Thermal Print Head 2 depending on where in the printer the paper has been located. If the printer determines that the paper position is located on the side of Thermal Print Head 1 then paper surface A is determined as the surface that will be printed on at step 307. At step 308 the printer accesses the image data for side A. At step 309 the appropriate image data, side A, is printed from a two page print job. At step 310 the printer switches paper position to the side of Thermal Print Head 2. At 311 the paper surface B is the surface that will be printed under Thermal Print Head 2. At step 312 the appropriate image data, side B, is printed in sequence from a two page print job.
• paper surface B 314 is the surface that will be printed next.
• the printer accesses the corresponding image.
• the appropriate image data is printed in sequence from a two page print job.
• the printer's paper position switches to the side of Thermal Print Head 1.
• 317 represents the paper surface A which is the surface that will be printed under Thermal Print Head 1.
• the appropriate image data is printed.
• Step 319 represents a decision point based on whether more image data is needed to be printed or not. If Yes, the algorithm logic goes back to the Host Computer to obtain two additional pages or the last page of image data and side identification at step 302. If No, the print job is completed.

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• Accessory Devices And Overall Control Thereof (AREA)
• Printers Characterized By Their Purpose (AREA)
• Dot-Matrix Printers And Others (AREA)
• Electronic Switches (AREA)

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• 2012
  • 2012-11-15 BR BR112014011910A patent/BR112014011910A2/pt not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2012-11-15 EP EP12795684.5A patent/EP2780166A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2012-11-15 JP JP2014542447A patent/JP2015502274A/ja active Pending
  • 2012-11-15 WO PCT/US2012/065189 patent/WO2013074734A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2012-11-15 CN CN201280063061.1A patent/CN104023986B/zh active Active

Patent Citations (6)

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