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. 04, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 23, 2000
Minoru Suzuki, Tochigi, JP;
Hiroshi Orita, Saitama, JP;
Hiroyuki Saito, Saitama, JP;
Katsuyoshi Suzuki, Tokyo, JP;
Koichi Furusawa, Tokyo, JP;
Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A plurality of thermal heads for different colors, are disposed in parallel in a line-printing direction, being offset with respect to each other in a transport direction along which an image-forming sheet is moved via a conveyer path. The image forming sheet is a pressure/temperature-sensitive sheet or a temperature-sensitive sheet. The thermal heads are moved in the line-printing direction. Adjacent-opposing ends of adjacent thermal heads are separated in the line-printing direction, and overlap in the transport direction. The thermal heads are controlled so as to simultaneously generate image-pixels on the image-forming sheet. The printing speed is high due to a plurality of colors being simultaneously printed. The thermal heads are used as part of pressure applying unit. The pressure applying unit is provided for selectively applying predetermined pressure to the micro-capsules, when the image-forming sheet is a pressure/temperature-sensitive sheet. The thermal heads can also be applied to a high-speed printing of a mono-chrome image on the temperature-sensitive sheet.