International Business Machines Corporation

James T Welch, Iii

Richard Allen John

Ramon Lane

Omesh Sahni

Tony A Hancock

A printhead of a resistive ribbon printer has a column of electrodes formed on each of at least two edge surfaces. When the column of electrodes at one edge surface is worn out after being used for printing, the printhead is rotated so that the column of electrodes at the other edge surface is used for printing. Instead of the column of electrodes at each edge surface being the same size, the column of electrodes at one edge surface could be smaller than at the other edge surface so as to have a higher resolution for graphics whereby the position of the printhead is changed each time that higher resolution is desired and then returned to its initial position when alphanumeric printing is to occur. The printhead could have more than two edge surfaces with each having a column of electrodes for printing when at the printing position.

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Lexington, KY, United States of America

James T Welch, Iii