Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Orio Yoshii

Noboru Katakabe

Atsushi Sogami

Takehisa Takamiya

Shuichi Watanabe

Tetsuhiro Sano

Hiroaki Takase

A resistive ribbon thermal transfer printing apparatus produces two kinds of electric pulses for selectively energizing recording electrodes of a printing head according to a data to be printed. A first electric pulse (normal pulse) is applied to a recording electrode which is to be energized and is disposed between two recording electrodes which are to be energized. A second electric pulse (specific pulse) is smaller in energy than the normal pulse and is applied to a recording electrode which is to be energized and is not disposed between two recording electrodes which are to be energized. This selective application of the two kinds of pulses allows the size of the printed dots to become uniform.

Resistive ribbon thermal transfer printing apparatus

A printing apparatus having a simple construction is constituted by a print element with a plurality of resilient spokes which have type elements disposed vertically thereon and in two rows around the element and extend upwardly from a disc base in a cylinder, and a gear on the disc base integral therewith and coaxial with the disc base and cylinder. The print element is easy to mount and remove. A hammer for pressing each type element on the print element against a printing member and a shaft mechanism for carrying out a shifting operation of the print element are provided. A rotary means includes a motor for rotatably driving the print element and a drive gear connected to the motor. A holder is provided for holding the print element, hammer, and shift mechanism. The print element is preferable mountable and removable with respect to the holder and when mounted, engages the drive gear and is rotatable and vertically movable.

Print element and printing apparatus using same

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Kadoma, Japan

Orio Yoshii