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:
Jun. 03, 1997
Filed:
Mar. 06, 1995
Abstract
For thermal transfer printing, a coloring material image is thermally migrated from a thermal transfer printing sheet having a coloring material layer thereon onto an image forming area of an image-receiving layer of an intermediate transfer recording medium. The image on the recording medium is then thermally transfer-printed under pressure on a printing sheet in an image transfer section. A detection mark is provided on the intermediate transfer recording medium. This detection mark is detected for positioning an image forming area of the recording medium relative to a thermal head of the printer. In a case where the image forming section and the image transfer section are arranged in a line, a buffer unit is provided in which the recording medium being fed continuously between the two sections is caused to take a detouring path whereby mutual influence of the two sections is prevented. A line heater can be used as heating means in the image transfer section.