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:
Dec. 20, 1994
Filed:
Sep. 02, 1992
Mark S Janosky, Rochester, NY (US);
Robert R Brearey, Rochester, NY (US);
Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
A thermal printer is disclosed in which an image is generated on a line-by-line basis with a printhead that is comprised of a plurality of individually activated resistor elements along its length. Uniformity of image intensity is achieved by carefully controlling an ambient temperature of the printing head. This control of ambient temperature is achieved with a cooling fin that is thermally coupled to the printhead. A duct surrounds the cooling fin and air is blown through the duct to transfer heat from the cooling fin. The shapes of the cooling fin and the duct are such that the printhead is maintained at a substantially uniform temperature along its length. A unit cross-sectional area of the duct and a unit surface area of the cooling fin vary along the length of the printhead in a accordance with the expression: Q=unit surface area of cooling fin/unit cross-sectional area of duct=k/L.sup.n, where k is a constant, L is a distance along the length of the printhead an n is a positive exponential power. In a preferred embodiment, n is between about 1.5 and 3.0.