Astro-med, Inc.

James E Shaw, Iii

Chris Mulhearn

A thermal printing apparatus and a method of controlling a thermal printing apparatus is provided wherein the duration of the strobe pulse utilized to transfer the ink from the carrier to the media is controlled and adjusted by a correction factor. The correction factor is calculated by the printer controller based directly on feedback regarding the actual transport time required to advance the media between encoder steps. Generally, the present invention controls a thermal printer in a manner that accounts for the transport speed between each encoder step and applies the correction factor to the strobe signal duration in a manner that maintains a uniform print density.

Method of adjusting strobe length in a thermal printer to reduce effects of changes in media transport speed

An assembly for feeding, printing, and cutting a continuous web of material is provided. The web is fed from a roll supported in a roll feeding unit to a printer unit. The web can carry distinct image-receiving media items or can be a plain continuous web material. The assembly is particularly useful for feeding a web carrying pressure-sensitive adhesive labels to a laser printer. The printer produces printed images on each label as the web is fed through the printer. Then, the web can be cut to produce a finished roll of printed labels ready for application. The assembly includes a roll feeding unit, a printer, a controller for the roll feeding unit, and a controller for the printer which communicate with each other. The controller is responsive to sensors and signals received from the printer controller, and the printer controller is responsive to the sensors and signals received from the roll feeding unit controller. In this manner, the feeding, printing, and cutting of the web are controlled precisely.

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Plainfield, CT, United States of America

James E Shaw, Iii