Sony Corporation

Izumi Kariya

Noboru Koyama

Mitsuo Yanase

Tooru Morikawa

Hiroshi Katsuno

Shuichi Ota

Yasuhito Eguchi

Masahiro Fujiwara

Sunao Kushiro

Toru Morikawa

Hidehiko Funayama

Koichi Numata

Takashi Bunya

Kazuyoshi Murata

Hideki Yoneoka

Shinsuke Kanayama

Yzsuhito Eguchi

A thermal dye sublimation printer to which an ink ribbon cassette having a function of transmitting and receiving data via wireless communication with a printer main body is attached, is disclosed. The thermal dye sublimation printer includes: communication means that transmits and receives data via wireless communication with an ink ribbon cassette; and control means that acquires management information of the ink ribbon cassette stored in the ink ribbon cassette side via the communication means and controls printing processing based on the acquired management information.

Thermal dye sublimation printer and ink ribbon cassette therefor

A thermal head includes a glass layer provided with a groove section formed inside the glass layer, a heat generating resistor disposed outside the glass layer, and a pair of electrodes provided to both sides of the heat generating resistor, wherein a part of the heat generating resistor exposed between the pair of electrodes is defined as a heat generating section, and at least one of the pair of electrodes has a smaller width in an end section on an opposite side to a side of the heat generating section than a width of an end section on the side of the heat generating section.

Thermal head and printing device

A thermal head includes a glass layer having a protruding section formed on one surface and a concave groove section formed on the other surface facing the protruding section, a heat generation resistor provided on the protruding section, and a pair of electrodes provided to both sides of the heat generation resistor, and a part of the heat generation resistor exposed between the pair of electrodes is defined as a heat generation section, the protruding section has a smaller curvature radius in both sides than a curvature radius in a central portion, and a width of the groove section is one of equal to and larger than a length of the heat generation section.

A thermal head includes a head containing a glass layer. The glass layer has a projecting portion on one surface and a concave groove on the other surface at a position opposed to the projecting portion. The head further contains a heating resistor disposed on the projecting portion, and a pair of electrodes disposed on both sides of the heating resistor. The thermal head further includes a rigid substrate on which a control circuit for the head is provided, and a flexible substrate for electrically connecting the head and the rigid substrate.

Thermal head and printer

A video printer for transferring an image from an ink ribbon to a print sheet has a print medium detector for detecting the type of a print medium and outputting medium data indicative of the detected type, a memory for storing image data to be printed, and a keyboard for inputting reversal information indicating whether the image data stored in the memory are to be reversed or not. A reversing unit selectively outputs the image data stored in the memory and reversed image data which are a reversal of the image data stored in the memory. A gamma correcting circuit adjusts image density of the image data with image density adjusting data, or a gamma curve, selected from a plurality of sets of image density adjusting data or gamma curves each having a different image density characteristic, and outputs the image data with the adjusted image density. A thermal head transfers an image represented by the image data with the adjusted image density to the print medium with an ink ribbon. The video printer has a controller for controlling the reversing unit based on the reversal information and controlling the gamma correcting circuit to select the image density adjusting data based on both the reversal information and the medium data.

Video printer

A printer for printing both image information and additional character information superimposed on the image. The printer comprises an additional character information generation circuit, a display circuit for displaying the additional character information generated by the additional character information generation circuit, and a selecting circuit for selecting characters and/or symbols in the additional character information. A plurality of additional character information symbols and/or characters are displayed on a display unit for selection purposes.

Printer

A thermal transfer printing system of the kind having a plurality of resistive elements substantially aligned for printing an image line-by-line includes a resistance value variation detector selectively connected to each of the resistive elements in order to derive compensation data based upon resistance variations in such elements. The resistant compensation data is retained in a memory at addresses corresponding to each of the resistive elements in the printing head and the compensation information is read-out from the memory to thereby compensate the printing data prior to being fed to the thermal printing head.

Thermal printing system

A thermal transfer printing system for printing data on a medium employing a plurality of aligned heat elements has a memory for receiving data and a driver for driving or energizing selected ones of the heat elements to print the stored data in a timed sequence which prevents preheating of certain heat elements. In one arrangement, upon driving the heat elements, every other heat element is first driven or energized to print the respective data, and then the remainder of the heat elements are driven. After all heat elements are energized according to the data to be printed, a stepping motor is actuated and the medium is advanced in preparation for printing a next line of data.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Izumi Kariya