Nec Corporation

Nisca Corporation

Susumu Co., Ltd.

Cyber Graphics Corporation

Susumu Corporation, Ltd.

Itaru Fukushima

Takashi Okamoto

Satoshi Yamanushi

Yuuki Horigome

Takehiko Saito

Nakaba Nakamura

Hisashi Deguchi

A printer includes an exposing section for exposing a recording medium, a first feed device for feeding the recording medium while contacting both side edges of the recording medium, a developing section for development of the recording medium, a recording media feed path arranged between the exposing section and the developing section, a second feed device arranged in the recording media feed path for feeding the recording medium to the developing section while contacting the both side edges of the recording medium, and a cutting device for cutting four edges of the recording medium, a third feed device arranged between the developing section and the cutting device for feeding the recording medium to the cutting device while contacting the both side edges of the recording medium. An apparatus housing retains the exposing section, the developing section, the cutting device, and the first, second, and third feed devices therein.

Printer with cutting device

A printer comprises for forming an image on a surface of a recording medium includes a preprocessing means for preprocessing the surface of the recording media to form an image on the surface of the recording media; post-processing device for post-processing the surface of the recording medium preprocessed by the preprocessing device; a recording medium feed path formed between the preprocessing means and the post-processing means; a first feed device arranged on an upstream side of the recording medium feed path; and a second feed device arranged on a downstream side of the recording medium feed path. The first feed device and the second feed device are made different in driving control from each other. For printing a plurality of recording medium successively, no large-scale arrangements are provided for printing processes to meet a required printing accuracy and to shorten a processing time.

Printer

A print control device and method utilizes a thermal head provided with a set of minute heating members serving as both a heating element and a temperature detector and a drive circuit for supplying an electric current to drive the heating members; a control circuit for switching the electric current flowing to the respective heating members between a heating drive state and a temperature detection state; a circuit for converting temperature values from each of the heating members to voltage values and for detecting the voltage values using electrical current that flows during the temperature detection state; an analog/digital conversion circuit for converting the voltage into a digital value; an adder for cumulatively adding digital values obtained by the digital conversion from the start of heating; a comparator for comparing the cumulative value obtained by the adder against a target print density value set in advance with respect to a given point on which printing is to be executed and sent from a superior device, to thereby determine which one is greater; and a circuit for stopping the heating drive of the heating member if the comparator detects that the target print density has been reached.

Print control device and method of printing using the device

A printer for printing on a recording medium with a plurality of processes includes a first processing section for making a first process on the recording media; a second processing section arranged close to the first processing section for making a second process different from the first process on the recording media on which the first process was made, thereby obtaining an image on a surface of the recording medium; and a recording medium feed path formed between the first processing section and the second processing section. The entire apparatus is made compact without decreasing a recording medium feeding performance and a printing process capability by that a plurality of processing units serving for the printing processes and recording medium feed path linking those units are arranged reasonably.

The present provides a thermal head apparatus wherein temperatures of heat generation elements resulted from heat generation can be individually detected directly so that an abnormal condition of any heat generation element can be detected. A plurality of unit heat generation elements each formed from a resistor whose electric resistance value varies depending upon a temperature of itself are arranged in a row. A driving circuit is provided for each unit heat generation element and supplies an electric current to the unit heat generation element, and a temperature detection circuit is provided for each unit heat generation element and extracts, from the unit heat generation element, an electric signal which is obtained as a result of a variation of a resistance value caused by a variation in temperature of the unit heat generation element itself. An abnormal condition detection circuit is provided for each unit heat generation element and detects presence or absence of an abnormal condition of the unit heat generation element from an output of the temperature detection circuit.

Thermal head apparatus

The invention provides a thermal head apparatus of the type which includes, as a heat generation element, a resistor member whose resistance value varies depending upon the temperature thereof, wherein the accuracy in detection of the temperature of a medium is improved to assure an improved quality of printing. The thermal head apparatus includes a plurality of heat generating resistance elements and having an electric resistance whose value varies depending upon a temperature thereof, a heat generation driving and temperature detection circuit for first driving the resistance elements in accordance with print data to generate heat and then successively detecting voltages across the resistance elements to detect temperatures of them, a control circuit for comparing the thus detected temperatures with the print data and controlling the heat generation driving function of the heat generation driving and temperature detection circuit based on results of the comparison, and a switch for switching the heat generation driving and temperature detection circuit between a heat generation driving condition and a temperature detection condition.

A thermal head apparatus includes a heat generation driving integrated circuit and a current detecting integrated circuit. The heat generation driving integrated circuit is constituted by a plurality of first switching elements respectively connected in series with current detecting resistors, a first shift register for serially inputting print input data for heating heat generation elements, a first latch circuit for latching the print input data input to the first shift register at a predetermined timing, and a first output gate circuit for selectively controlling energization of the first switching elements on the basis of the print input data latched by the first latch circuit. The current detecting integrated circuit is constituted by a plurality of second switching elements respectively connected to connection points between the heat generation elements and the current detecting resistors, a second shift register, a second latch circuit, and a second output gate circuit for selectively controlling energization of the second switching elements on the basis of the data latched by the second latch circuit, the current detecting integrated circuit outputting, as serial data, current detection data which energizes the second switching elements.

Thermal head apparatus with integrated circuits and current detection

A thermal printer head comprises an array of heating elements (1-1.about.1-N) mounted on an insulating base member (20). Each of the heating elements is connected to a common voltage source (V) and has a temperature dependent electrical resistance. Electrically resistive elements (2-1.about.2-N) are respectively connected in series with the heating elements to form a plurality of series circuits. Current supply circuits (3-1.about.3-N, 4-1.about.4-N, 5, 6, 7-1.about.7-N, 14) are provided corresponding respectively to the resistive elements for selectively supplying a current to the series circuits in response to a sequence of print signals. A control circuit (8-11, 14) makes a determination whether a voltage developed across each resistive element is higher or lower than a prescribed threshold value and causes one of the current supply ciruits corresponding to the resistive element to control the current depending on the determination.

Thermal printer head having current sensors connected to heating elements

A thermal printing control circuit includes a first shift register for receiving and storing a series of serial printing image data to be printed by a plurality of thermal print elements, a second register, constituted by a plurality of registers for storing contents of the first shift register by parallelly and sequentially shifting and receiving the contents thereof, for storing printing history data of a plurality of cycles of the thermal print elements, and a logic circuit for performing a logic operation by using the printing history data of the plurality of cycles of the plurality of thermal print elements, the printing history data being stored in the second shift register, and externally supplied control timing signals and for generating drive signals representing voltage waveforms to be applied to the plurality of thermal print elements.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Itaru Fukushima