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:
Sep. 01, 1992
Filed:
Jul. 15, 1991
Toshiaki Amano, Iwate, JP;
Alps Electric Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A drive control method for a thermal transfer printer adapted to carry out printing by melting a thermofusible ink of an ink ribbon and transferring the molten ink onto a printing paper. The ink ribbon is formed with a blank portion coated with no ink, which blank portion is formed between an ink layer and a mark for indicating the ink layer. Under the condition where the thermal head is spaced from the printing paper, the ink ribbon is moved to bring the blank portion into opposition to the thermal head. At this position, the thermal head is pressed through the blank portion against the printing paper. Then, the thermal head is moved relative to the printing paper and the ink layer, and simultaneously the thermal head is heated to transfer the ink of the ink layer onto the printing paper. According to this drive control method, no ink is transferred onto the printing paper upon pressing the thermal head through the ink ribbon against the printing paper, thereby preventing staining of the printing paper due to the ink.