Agfa-gevaert

Agfa Graphics Nv

Armor

Anumecs Bv

Dirk Verdyck

Maxime Charrier

Paola Campestrini

Marc De Temmerman

A thermal printing apparatus includes a frame, an endless ribbon to transport ink on its outer face, a coating device to coat the endless ribbon with ink, a printhead to print by thermal transfer a substrate with a part of the ink, a plurality of first rollers supporting and transporting the endless ribbon by its inner face along a path from the coating device to the printhead and from the printhead to the coating device in a cyclic manner, at least one first conveyor arranged to support the inner face of the endless ribbon between two adjacent first rollers along its path from the coating device to the printhead; the first conveyor including a plate fixed in translation and rotation with the frame and having a first convex surface supporting the inner face, a heat exchanger designed to cool down the first surface of the plate at a predefined temperature.

Thermal printing apparatus comprising a cooler

A termination unit for a deposition system, comprising a device for effecting a function, the device comprising at least one component comprising electrical steel, and at least one shielding element which is electrically conductive. The shielding element is configured so: an effect of a neighboring current on the component comprising electrical steel, which is not contributing to the function of the device, is mitigated, wherein this neighboring current has a first topology; and so an effect of at least one neighboring current having a different topology than the first topology is not significantly mitigated. The device moreover comprises a current transfer means neighboring the at least one component comprising electrical steel, and adapted for guiding a current according to the first topology and for transferring power to a target when mounted on the termination unit.

Termination unit

A method for making a lithographic printing plate support is disclosed comprising the steps of: (i) providing an aluminum support; (ii) treating said support in an aqueous solution; (iii) graining said treated support in an electrolyte solution by applying an alternating voltage thereby inducing a local current density J; characterized in that said local current density J at time t fulfills the following equation: J(t)&#x2266;a+bQ(t) for t=o to t=tand wherein Q(t) is the integrated value of the absolute value of the local current density at time t:(I)&#x2014;a is equal to 5&#x2014;b is equal to 10&#x2014;and tis the time necessary to obtain a value of Q(t) equal to 50 C/dm. 

Lithographic printing plate support

The present invention relates to a method for reducing or eliminating cross-talk when operating a thermal print head for printing one line on a recording medium. Energizable heater elements of a thermal print head are drivable with at least one activation pulse for supplying a controllable amount of heat to the heater elements to generate a graphical output level of pixel areas on thermographic material. According to the method a plurality of subsets of the heater elements are sequentially driven to print pixel areas in each line. The cross-talk between pixel areas printed by heater elements in the same and/or different subsets is reduced by calculating a value relating to heat supplied to an nheater element in accordance with a predetermined relationship relating the effect of heat from any one heater element after activation thereof on the graphical output of neighboring heater elements in the same and/or a different subset, and by driving the nheater element in accordance with the calculated value.

Deconvolution scheme for reducing cross-talk during an in the line printing sequence

A method for printing an image using a thermal printing system comprising a thermal printer having a thermal head TH incorporating a plurality of energisable heating elements H and a thermographic material m, comprises several steps. These steps comprise supplying image data Id corresponding to a plurality of output values D to a processing unit, reading a first table LUT1 comprising first entries for desired output values D and second entries for sequences S of time slices s of activation pulses, transformation of the image data Id into corresponding sequences S of time slices of activation pulses, providing the time slices of activation pulses to the heating elements H of the thermal head TH, and printing the image by transporting the thermographic material past and adjacent to the thermal head and by activating the heating elements H of the thermal head. Herein, the transformation of the image data Id comprises a step of establishing a relation between output values D or D which are both continuous and monotone and in the latter case linear as well, and corresponding sequences S of time slices s of activation pulses.

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Merksem, Belgium

Dirk Verdyck