The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 08, 1985
Filed:
Oct. 11, 1983
John C Bartlett, Lexington, KY (US);
Alan E Bohnhoff, Lexington, KY (US);
Donald F Croley, Georgetown, KY (US);
Stanley Dyer, Lexington, KY (US);
Kenneth E Edds, Versailles, KY (US);
Frank J Horlander, Lexington, KY (US);
Donald W Stafford, Lexington, KY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Ribbon (22) in thermal printing has an outer layer which adheres to printed characters at intermediate temperatures, lower than printing temperatures. The printhead (7) has a column of electrodes (9) which sweep across the character area. Lift-off is accomplished by the pattern control (40) controlling the current source (38) to provide rapid, square wave pulses displaced in phase 180 degrees at adjoining electrodes (9). The high level of the pulses is about that of the level at printing, and the pulses are sufficiently rapid so that their net effect is to raise the outer layer ribbon (22) to the intermediate temperature. At areas corresponding to underlines of characters, duration of the up period is longer. Good, long term reliability is achieved by the significant erase level being very close to the print level.