Shinko Electric Company, Ltd.

Hayami Sugiyama

Minoru Yamakuni

Kenichi Kawahara

Hiroshi Matsuda

Kazunori Masukawa

Susumu Mitsushima

Hiromitsu Ogita

Shigeyuki Kawamura

Hitoshi Nakagawa

Kazuhiro Tsuji

Toshiki Nakamura

Takashi Kubota

Haruki Takeuchi

Sigeyuki Kawamura

Takasi Kubota

Kawabe Morio

Hideki Maeda

Shintaro Okamoto

A thermal head includes a metal substrate; an insulating layer formed on the surface of the metal substrate; a plurality of heating elements disposed on the surface of the insulating layer, the heating elements being arranged with a predetermined pitch along a plurality of lines in a main scanning direction, the plurality of lines being spaced from each other in a paper feeding direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction; and a heat radiating element projecting from the surface of the metal substrate to the side where the insulating layer is disposed. In this structure, although most of heat generated by the respective heating elements is transferred to an ink ribbon or print paper, residual partial heat is absorbed by heat radiating means via the insulating layer and radiated into the atmosphere. This suppresses thermal interference among the heating elements. A thermal head controller is provided for controlling the thermal head for use in a printer.

Thermal head and controller for controlling the same

In the present invention, the recording paper is conveyed by a feed roller to plural recording portions sequentially, and each recording portion successively prints each specific color on the recording paper while applying tension to the paper. The tension applied to the recording paper is switched to a predetermined value each time the recording paper is conveyed to each recording, portion when starting to print.

Color printer and method of feeding paper by tension rollers

This printer performs a heating process via a thermal head on TA paper provided with color forming layers and fixes the heat processed TA paper via a fixing lamp The fixing lamp is formed from: a fluorescent tube that has a fluorescent coating applied to the inside surface of the glass tube and inside which are sealed mercury and noble gases; filament electrodes provided at both ends of the fluorescent tube; a hot cathode fluorescent lamp formed from lead wires that supply power to the filament electrodes; and a magnetic circuit that is provided on a side surface of the fluorescent tube and that generates a magnetic field that acts on the current that flows through the fluorescent tube when power is fed to the filament electrodes.

Thermal printer and method of designing hot cathode fluorescent tube for thermal printer

A thermal head of the present invention comprises a substrate ( ) consisting of a metal such as a stainless steel, insulating layers ( ), with raised portions ( ) being formed by raising up a part of the surface thereof, and exothermic resistors ( ) formed on the raised portions. Common electrodes ( ) are disposed on the substrate, which protrude from the surface of the substrate, penetrate through the raised portions and are connected to the exothermic resistors, to thereby divide the resistors into first exothermic resistors and second exothermic resistors, centering on the connecting point.

Thermal heat and thermal printer

In a thermal-transfer-type color printer, an ink ribbon and a paper are sandwiched between a thermal head and a platen roller so that a specific image is transferred onto the paper in a specific color. The platen roller is made by a rubber material which has a certain degree of hardness. On the surface of the ink ribbon, plural colors of ink are sequentially and repeatedly painted. Hence, after transferring an image onto the paper in one color, the paper is moved backward; and then, another image is transferred onto the paper in another color. Thus, a multi-color printing is performed. In order to avoid a color shade or an printing error, in which a printing position of one-color image does not accurately match with a printing position of another-color image, the paper should be accurately moved forward and backward. In order to do so, the thermal-transfer-type color printer provides a precise paper-feed mechanism which comprises a pinch roller and a paper-feed roller. Around a surface of the paper-feed roller, micro projections are formed in predetermined size and shape, so that the paper is certainly held between the pinch roller and paper-feed roller. The micro projections can be formed at a selected surface area of the paper-feed roller. Those micro projections are formed by carrying out an etching process using a masking pattern formed at a certain surface area of the paper-feed roller.

Thermal-transfer-type color printer having a feed roller with micro

A thermal head for use in thermal printing including: a substrate having an upper face; an electrically insulating layer, coated over the upper face of the substrate; heating means, coated over the insulating layer, for providing heat for printing a dot of a picture; a protection layer, coated over the heating means; and dot area control means, formed above the heating means to receive sufficient heat for the printing, for transferring the heat from the heating means upwards for the printing of the dot and for controlling an area of the dot.

Thermal head with dot size control means

Thermal head

Growing community of inventors

Ise, Japan

Hayami Sugiyama