Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Yoshifumi Yamamoto

Akihito Ito

Kosuke Oda

Ichiro Furuki

Osamu Asano

Nobuzumi Kurihara

Takashi Hatakenaka

Makoto Sakuwa

Ichirou Furuki

Tatsuya Egawa

Masatomo Sakaguchi

A thermal printer uses an ink ribbon having a function of performing cleaning of a thermal head by being heated. The thermal printer performs a cleaning process of performing cleaning of the thermal head. In the cleaning process, the thermal head applies, to the ink ribbon, heat of a heat quantity with which a dye applied onto the ink ribbon does not sublime and with which the cleaning is performed.

Thermal printer

Speed fluctuations are decreased with a simple method even when a stepping motor () having comparatively large torque fluctuations is used. A drive pulse modulating unit () which modulates the frequency of a drive pulse to be inputted to the stepping motor () is provided. The drive pulse modulating unit () modulates the constant frequency of the drive pulse such that the frequency of the drive pulse within excitation-phase one cycle of the stepping motor () is: low for a period that is, by &#x215b; cycle of the excitation-phase one cycle, before an excitation phase where the vibration of the stepping motor is the maximum; and high in an excitation phase that is by &#xbd; cycle subsequent to the excitation phase where the drive pulse frequency is low.

Motor control device and printer device

A thermal transfer printer according to the present invention includes a printing section that thermally transfers an ink of an ink sheet to printing paper for performing printing and a slitter section that cuts, in a paper transport direction, the printing paper after the printing by the printing section. The printing section includes a thermal head and a platen roller pressed against the thermal head. The slitter section is capable of adjusting a cutting position for cutting the printing paper.

Thermal transfer printer

A thermal printer of the present invention includes: a thermal head; a platen roller disposed to face the thermal head; a first path that guides a recording paper drawn from a recording paper roll to one entrance of a gap between the thermal head and the platen roller such that a first main surface of the recording paper is on the thermal head side; a second path that guides the recording paper drawn from the recording paper roll to the other entrance of the gap between the thermal head and the platen roller such that a second main surface of the recording paper is on the thermal head side; and a switch guide that switches between the first path and the second path.

An ink sheet damage calculating unit compares image element density data of each of areas into which an image is divided by an image area dividing unit with a first threshold to calculate the total number of pixels each having density data equal to or larger than the first threshold for each area, and then compares the total number of pixels calculated for each area with a second threshold. A printing operation selecting unit uses a remaining area of an already-used ink area for formation of a next print image when the total number of pixels is smaller than the second threshold in every one of all the areas, and uses an ink area in a new unit area for formation of a next print image when the total number of pixels is equal to or larger than the second threshold.

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Tokyo, Japan

Yoshifumi Yamamoto