EP0110675B1 - Thermisches Aufzeichnungsverfahren - Google Patents

Thermisches Aufzeichnungsverfahren Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0110675B1
EP0110675B1 EP19830307166 EP83307166A EP0110675B1 EP 0110675 B1 EP0110675 B1 EP 0110675B1 EP 19830307166 EP19830307166 EP 19830307166 EP 83307166 A EP83307166 A EP 83307166A EP 0110675 B1 EP0110675 B1 EP 0110675B1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
data
resistive elements
supply energy
thermal heating
image data
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EP19830307166
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English (en)
French (fr)
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EP0110675A2 (de
EP0110675A3 (en
Inventor
Hitoshi Nagato
Koji Izawa
Shuzo Hirahara
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Toshiba Corp
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Toshiba Corp
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Publication of EP0110675A3 publication Critical patent/EP0110675A3/en
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    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/315—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material
    • B41J2/32—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material using thermal heads
    • B41J2/35—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material using thermal heads providing current or voltage to the thermal head
    • B41J2/355—Control circuits for heating-element selection
    • B41J2/36—Print density control

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a thermal recording system.
  • thermal recording apparatus is receiving most attention these days.
  • the thermal recording apparatus has advantages in that a normal paper sheet can be used for recording, a noise level at the time of recording is low, a recording mechanism is simple, easy maintenance can be performed, and alteration of recorded data is impossible.
  • color output terminal devices such as a color CRT display
  • a color thermal recording apparatus can be easily arranged to perform good color reproduction.
  • the color thermal recording apparatus is the most promising apparatus among various types of color recording apparatus.
  • thermal heating resistive elements are aligned in line, and the thermal heating resistive elements are selectively supplied with current in accordance with a recording signal. This energizing cycle is then repeated to heat the resistive elements, so that an ink carried on an ink ribbon is melted by the heated resistive element. The ink is then transferred to the paper sheet so as to record an image on the sheet.
  • the thermal recording apparatus has the above.advantages, it has a drawback in that the recorded image becomes poor due to a heat retention or storage effect of the resistive elements as the recording speed increases. In order to increase the recording speed, an interval between energizing cycles is shortened.
  • US ⁇ A ⁇ 4 347 518 further discloses that the storage energy data calculated by said calculating means is stored in the memory means and is updated every time new image data is recorded.
  • US-A-4 347 518 also discloses a method of recording image data using a thermal head having a number of thermal heating resistive elements aligned in line and a drive circuit means for selectively energizing said thermal heating resistive elements with current supply in accordance with the image data of one line, comprising the steps of:
  • a thermal recording system comprising: a thermal head having a number of thermal heating resistive elements and drive circuit means for selectively energizing said thermal heating resistive elements, with current supply, in accordance with image data to record the image data; memory means for storing data of a storage energy of each of said thermal heating resistive elements after the image data have been recorded; calculating means responsive to storage energy data from said memory means and next image data for calculating a supply energy to be supplied to each of said resistive elements to record the next image data and a storage energy stored in each of said thermal heating resistive elements after the next image data have been recorded; and controlling means responsive to the supply energy data of each of said resistive elements from said calculating means for causing said drive circuit means to control the supply energy to be applied to each of said thermal heating resistive elements, characterised in that said calculating means is arranged to calculate the supply energy to an ith thermal heating resistive element in accordance with image data for said ith resistive element and adjacent resistive elements arranged on the right
  • a method of recording image data using a thermal head having a number of thermal heating resistive elements aligned in line and drive circuit means for selectively energizing said thermal heating resistive elements, with current supply, in accordance with the image data to record the image data of one line comprising of the steps of: providing, as data having a plurality of bits, supply energy to be supplied to each of said thermal heating resistive elements to record the image data of one line in accordance with the image data of one line to be recorded and storage energy stored in each thermal heating resistive element after image data of an immediately preceding line has been recorded; supplying to drive circuit means the supply energy data for said thermal heating resistive elements in units of corresponding bits; and energizing said thermal heating resistive elements every time corresponding bits of the supply energy data is supplied to said drive circuit means, characterised in that energizing times of said thermal heating resistive elements vary with bits of the supply energy data.
  • FIG. 1 shows the schematic configuration of a thermal recording or printing system embodying the present invention.
  • Input image data or recording data 1 is supplied to an input buffer 2 and is properly processed therein.
  • An output signal of the input buffer becomes an input signal 4 of a calculator 3 for calculating supply energy and storage energy of each thermal heat resistive element.
  • the calculator 3 calculates the supply energy to each thermal heating resistive element and storage energy which would be stored therein after energization, in accordance with output data of the input buffer 2 and output data 6 of a storage energy memory 5, and outputs calculated supply energy data 7 and storage energy data 8 to a supply energy control 9 and the storage energy memory 5, respectively.
  • the storage energy memory 5 stores storage energy data of each resistive element calculated from the beginning of printing up to the present moment.
  • Storage energy data read out from the storage energy memory 5 is supplied as the input signal 6 to the calculator 3.
  • the storage energy data stored in the storage energy memory 5 are sequentially updated in units of thermal heating resistive elements every time new storage energy data are calculated by the calculator 3, so that the memory 5 holds the present storage energy data of the resistive elements.
  • the supply energy control 9 temporarily stores supply energy data 7.
  • the supply energy data 7 is read out in response to a readout signal and is supplied as input data 11 to a thermal head 10.
  • the circuits of the thermal recording apparatus are controlled by a timing controller 12.
  • the supply energy to be supplied to each resistive element and the storage energy stored in each resistive element after energization are calculated in accordance with the input image data and the storage energy data stored in the memory 5.
  • the relationship between the input image data and the storage energy data is shown in Figure 2.
  • the thermal head has an A4 width and comprises a iine head of 12 dots/mm. Therefore, 1 ⁇ i ⁇ 2592.
  • the supply energy to be supplied to the ith resistive element is calculated from the input image data D,, D i ⁇ 1 , and D i ⁇ 2 respectively to the ith, (i ⁇ 1 )th and (i ⁇ 2)th resistive elements, and storage energy data Q,, Q i ⁇ 1 and Q i ⁇ 2 thereof.
  • the storage energy of the ith resistive element after energization is calculated from the input image data D,, D i ⁇ 1 , and D, ⁇ 2 respectively supplied to the ith, (i ⁇ 1)th and (i ⁇ 2)th resistive elements, and storage energy data Q,, Q i ⁇ 1 and Q i ⁇ 2 thereof.
  • the energy data for each resistive element is represented by 4-bit data.
  • FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the input buffer 2 and the storage energy memory 5.
  • the image data are stored in an image memory 20.
  • the image data is read out as the 8-bit parallel input image signal 1 from an image memory 20 in response to a signal MR generated from the timing controller 12, and is loaded into a shift register 21 in response to a signal LD .
  • the shift register 21 performs parallel-to-serial conversion.
  • the image data 1 is loaded into the next shift register 22 in a serial manner in response to a signal SRCLK generated after loading of image data into the shift register 21.
  • the timing controller 12 stops generating the signal SRCLK and starts generating the signal MR so that the next image data is read out from the image memory 20. The above operation is repeated until the image data corresponding to one line are read out from the image memory 20.
  • Each bit of the image signal corresponds to a resistive element for one-dot display.
  • the parallel-to-serial conversion is performed by the shift register 21 to calculate the supply energy and the storage energy in units of resistive elements.
  • the image data may be directly loaded into the shift register 22.
  • the shift register 22 serves to extract the image data D,, D i ⁇ 1 and D i ⁇ 2 (to be supplied to the calculator 3) from the serial image data taken from the shift register 21.
  • the data 4 supplied to the calculator 3 comprise input image data to the ith, (i ⁇ 1)th and (i ⁇ 2)th resistive elements. Therefore, among the outputs of the shift register 22, the 5-bit image data corresponding to the ith, (i ⁇ 1)th and (i ⁇ 2)th resistive elements is supplied to the calculator 3.
  • a random access memory (RAMA) 23, latches 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28, adders 29 and 30, a write address counter 31, a read address counter 32 and a selector 33 constitute the storage energy memory 5 shown in Figure 1.
  • the RAMA 23 stores storage energy data of the resistive elements. Addresses of the RAMA 23 correspond to the respective resistive elements of the thermal head. In this embodiment, the address counters 31 and 32 designate 2592 addresses.
  • the storage energy data 8 calculated by the calculator 3 has four bits. The 4-bit storage energy data 8 is supplied to a terminal D IN of the RAMA 23 and is written at an address specified by the write address counter 31 in response to a signal WR generated from the timing controller 12.
  • Each of the latches 24 to 28 comprises a 4-bit latch which latches a 4-bit input signal in response to a signal LATCH generated by the timing controller 12, and holds the latched data until the next signal LATCH is supplied thereto.
  • the latches 24 to 28 are connected in cascade to constitute a shift register so that 4-bit data is sequentially shifted toward the output stage every time the signal LATCH is supplied thereto.
  • the storage energy data of a first resistive element which is specified by the read address counter 32 is read out from the terminal D ouT of the RAMA 23 and is latched by the latch 24 in response to a first LATCH signal.
  • the count of the read address counter 32 is incremented by one in response to the first LATCH signal, so that the storage energy data of a second resistive element is read out from the terminal D OUT .
  • the storage energy data of the second resistive element is latched by the latch 24.
  • the storage energy data of the first resistive element is latched by the latch 25.
  • the supply energy data of the ith resistive element and the storage energy data after energization thereof are calculated in accordance with the input image data to the ith, (i ⁇ 1)th and (i ⁇ 2)th resistive elements, and with storage energy data thereof obtained to date.
  • the supply energy data and the storage energy data can be calculated in accordance with data having a total of 25 bits (i.e., 5-bit data from the shift register 22 and the 20-bit (4 bitsx5) storage energy data from the latches 24 to 28).
  • the printing period is defined as a time increment ⁇
  • the pitch of the array of thermal heating resistive elements, the width of the resistive element along the direction perpendicular to the array, and the thickness of a glass layer immediately under the resistive element are defined as spatial increments ⁇ x, ⁇ and Az.
  • the temperature in the vicinity of the ith resistive element in a given printing period n is defined as T i ".
  • the energy balance at the point i is given by the following general equation in the form of a forward difference equation:
  • k is the heat conductivity
  • q o is the energy used for activating a coloring agent
  • q i n is the energy supplied from a resistive element.
  • the energy q o must be kept constant to obtain the optimum printing quality by means of the thermal head.
  • the energy q o is determined by a time integral of the temperature gradient in the direction toward the coloring agent. If a pulse width t," of a pulse applied to a thermal heating resistive element to determine the energizing time is a controllable factor, the energy q o depends on T i " indicating the storage state and the energy q i n ((V 2 /R) ⁇ t i n ) which is a function of T i n .
  • T i n+1 is in practice a function of not only T i n and T i+1 n but also T Ui n and T Di n .
  • the following equation can be obtained in consideration of the heat conduction and the recording or printing speed: where K Q1 , K 12 and K Q3 are constants.
  • the width t i n of the pulse applied to the resistive element can be understood to be calculated from the storage energy Q," and the input image data D,".
  • the printing period must be shorter than about 3.8 msec when the resolution of the thermal head is 12 dots/mm; and the printing period must be shorter than about 2.1 msec when the resolution is 16 dots/mm.
  • the resolution is increased, heat tends to be conducted further than the adjacent volume unit consisting of one resistive element and glass layer immediately thereunder within a printing period.
  • the heat conduction from the volume units associated with the two adjacent resistive elements (R i ⁇ , R j ⁇ 2 ) on the right and left sides of the volume unit associated with the ith resistive element (R,) is considered.
  • Equation (3) is of a form which can be easily handled in this embodiment.
  • Various types of equations can be derived in accordance with: physical conditions such as the printing period, the head resolution, the head construction and the head material; the properties of the material; and an approximation method to obtain a solution.
  • the adders 29 and 30 are provided in Figure 3 in consideration of thermal conduction from the adjacent volume units.
  • the adder 29 serves to calculate an average of 4-bit storage energy data of the (i+1)th and (i-1)th resistive elements obtained from the latches 25 and 27. Namely, the four more significant bits of the adder 29 are used as the storage energy data to be supplied to the calculator 3. Similarly, the adder 30 calculates the average value of the 4-bit storage energy data of the (i+2)th and (i-2)th resistive elements which are respectively obtained from the latches 24 and 28. The three more significant bits of the adder 30 are used as the storage energy data of the (i ⁇ 2)th resistive elements to be supplied to the calculator 3.
  • the 5-bit image data from the shift register 22, the 4-bit data of the ith resistive element from the latch 26, the 4-bit storage data of the (i ⁇ 1)th resistive elements from the adder 29, and the 3-bit storage energy data of the (i ⁇ 2)th resistive elements from the adder 30 are applied to the calculator 3. In other words, 16 bits in total are used.
  • the calculator 3 calculates the supply energy E,” to be injected in the ith resistive element, and the storage energy Q i n+1 which will be stored in the ith resistive element until the ith element is again energized after the supply energy E," has been injected in the ith element, in accordance with the input image data D)- 2 , D i-1 , D,, D i+1 and D i+2 and the storage energy data Q i ⁇ 2 n , Q i ⁇ 1 n and Q i n obtained to date.
  • the calculator 3 simulates the equation of heat conduction in accordance with equations (3) and (4) to provide prediction values of the proper supply energy, and storage energy in the next printing period.
  • the supply energy data is applied to the thermal head 10 through the supply energy control 9.
  • the storage energy prediction data is stored in the storage energy memory 5 arid is used as input data to the calculator 3 in the next printing period.
  • the contents of the storage energy memory 5 are updated every printing period.
  • the calculator comprises a ROM.
  • the supply energy data and the storage energy data which have been calculated by a computer in advance are stored in the ROM.
  • the 5-bit image data and the 11-bit storage energy data are used as 16-bit address data of the ROM.
  • the 4-bit supply energy data 7 and the 4-bit storage energy date 8 are read out from the ROM.
  • the upper four bits of one-byte output of the ROM are assigned to the supply energy data, and the lower four bits thereof to the storage energy data. Therefore, the capacity of the ROM of the calculator 3 is 64 K bytes.
  • the operation of the circuit shown in Figure 3 will be described with reference to the timing charts in Figures 4A and 4B.
  • the 8-bit image data is read out from the image memory 20 in response to the signal MR and is loaded in the shift register 21 in response to the falling edge of the signal LD .
  • the 8-bit data loaded in the shift register 21 are serially loaded into the shift register 22 in response to the rising edges of the signal SRCLK .
  • the signal MR is issued again from the timing controller 12 to load the next 8-bit data into the shift register 21. Thereafter, the above operation is repeated until data (324 bytes) on one line are shifted.
  • the timing controller 12 generates the signal LATCH together with the signal SRCLK so as to shift the storage energy data from the RAMA 23 from the lower latches to the upper latches.
  • the count of the read address counter 32 is incremented by one every time the signal LATCH is applied to the latches, so that the storage energy data are sequentially read out from the terminal Dour of the RAMA 23.
  • the storage energy data calculated by the calculator 12 are sequentially stored in the RAMA 23 in response to the signal WR.
  • the count of the write address counter 31 is incremented every time the data is stored in the RAMA 23.
  • the read address differs from the write address in Figure 4A or 4B, since the image data of the first resistive element must be shifted to the 3rd bit from the LSB of the shift register 22 and the storage energy data of the first resistive element must be shifted to the latch 26 in order to calculate the supply energy and the storage energy of the first resistive element.
  • the selector 33 is used to switch between the read address signal and the write address signal. When data calculation for one line is completed, all the signals are made off until a read synchronizing signal for the next line is issued. When the synchronizing signal is issued, data readout is performed for the next line. The above operations are repeated until the data processing of all lines is completed.
  • Figure 5 shows the detailed configuration of the supply energy control 9 of Figure 1.
  • the thermal head since the thermal head has a resolution of 12 dots/mm and an A4 width, the number of thermal heating resistive elements is 2592.
  • the thermal head of this embodiment has nine input data ports SIN1 to SIN9 each adapted to receive data in a serial manner. Each data port receives data corresponding to 288 resistive elements.
  • each drive circuit comprises a 32-bit shift register 62, a latch circuit 63, an enable gate circuit 64 and, a driver 65 for driving thermal heating resistive elements R1 to R32.
  • the supply energy data 7 calculated by the calculator 3 are applied to a RAMB(11) 44 to a RAMB(19) 46 or a RAMB(21) 45 to a RAMB(29) 47 through a buffer(11 ) 40 to buffer(19) 42 or a buffer(21) 41 to buffer(29) 43, respectively.
  • Nine buffers i.e., buffer(1) to buffer(9)
  • nine RAMBs i.e., RAMB(1) to RAMB(9) respectively correspond to nine ports SIN1 to SIN9. If the thermal head has one input port, one set of a buffer and a RAM suffice. Furthermore, two sets each having nine buffers and nine RAMBs are prepared for a high speed recording.
  • timing signal G1 is issued from the timing controller 12.
  • the timing signal GT and a timing signal G 2 are applied to terminals CS1 of the buffer(11) to buffer(19) and of the buffer(21) to buffer(29), respectively.
  • the timing signal G2 is not issued and vice versa.
  • Each buffer is enabled only when a signal of logic "0" is supplied to the terminals CS1 and CS2 thereof so as to supply the supply energy data from the calculator 3 to the corresponding RAMB. Otherwise, the data line of the supply energy data is disconnected from the corresponding RAMB.
  • the data is written at an address of RAMBs which is accessed by an address counter 48 or 49 when a signal is applied to its terminal WR. Otherwise, data is read out from an address accessed by the corresponding address counter.
  • the address counter 48 is commonly used for RAMB(11) to RAMB(19), and the address counter 49 is commonly used for the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29). The same address data are supplied to the RAMB(11) to RAMB(19) or RAMB(21) to RAMB(29).
  • the number of address data is equal to the number of resistive elements for one port, so that the number of address data is 288 in the case of nine ports. Since the timing signal G1 is issued from the timing controller 12, the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29) are disconnected from the supply energy data lines. When the supply energy of the first resistive element is calculated, a signal RAMB(11)WR is generated from the timing controller 12. In this case, the buffer(11) 40 is enabled, so that the supply energy data is coupled to the data line of the RAMB(11).
  • the supply energy data is written at an address accessed by the address counter 48.
  • Signals RAMB(11)WR to RAMB(19)WR have a period 288 times the period of the signal WR shown in Figures 4A and 4B.
  • the data is written in the RAMB(11) in response to the signal RAMB(11)WR .
  • the next signal RAMB(12)WR is used to write the data in the RAMB(12).
  • the data is written in the RAMB(19) in response to the last signal RAMB(19)WR .
  • Each buffer is enabled only when the signal WR is supplied to the corresponding RAMB so as to write the supply energy data in this RAMB.
  • the signal WR1 is issued from the timing controller 12, and the count of the address counter 48 is incremented by one.
  • the signal WR1 is issued every time one of the RAMB(11) to RAMB(19) receives the signal WR.
  • the supply energy data of the second resistive element is written in the same manner as in the RAMB(11). The above operation is then repeated to write the first 288 supply energy data in the RAMB(11).
  • the address counter 48 designates the same address as in the case wherein the supply energy data of th first resistive element is written.
  • the supply energy data of the 289th resistive element is written in the RAMB(12) in response to the signal RAMB(12)WR generated from the timing controller 12.
  • the data line of the RAMB(11) is disconnected from the supply energy data line.
  • the RAMB(12) is disconnected from the supply energy data line. The above operation is repeated to write the supply energy data of the 2304th to 2592th resistive elements in the RAMB(19). Thus, the calculation for one line is completed.
  • the signals RAMB(21)WR to RAMB(29)WR are not issued. In other words, the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29) are kept in the read mode so that the supply energy data accessed by the address counter 49 is read out onto the data line.
  • one bit of the 4-bit data from each of the RAMB(11) to RAMB(19) or of the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29) is selected by the multiplexer(1 ) 50 to multiplexer(9) 51 and is supplied to the corresponding port.
  • the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29) are set in the read mode, so that the selected one-bit data of data read out from the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29) are issued from the multiplexer(1) to multiplexer(9), respectively.
  • the data supplied to the input ports SIN1 to SIN9 of the thermal head 10 are written in the corresponding shift registers in response to the signal CLK generated from the timing controller 12.
  • the timing controller 12 generates the signal CLK2 to increment the address counter 49 of the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29).
  • supply energy data corresponding to the next resistive elements in the respective groups are read out from the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29).
  • One-bit data of the same order as the previous one-bit data are supplied to the corresponding terminals SIN through the multiplexer(1) to multiplexer(9).
  • This one-bit data is written in the corresponding shift register in response to the signal CLK .
  • the immediately preceding one-bit data is shifted by one bit.
  • This operation is repeated 288 times, so that the same order bits of all the 4-bit data of the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29) are written in all the eighty-one shift registers 62 in the thermal head 10.
  • the data written in the shift register 62 is latched by the latch circuits 63 in response to a signal ALATCH .
  • Output data of the latch circuits 63 is supplied to the drivers 65 through the enable gate circuits 64 which are enabled by one of enable signals MEN-1 to MEN-4 from the timing controller 12.
  • the resistive elements R1 to R32 are heated or are not heated in accordance with the corresponding data "0" or "1".
  • the enable signals MEN-1 to MEN-4 supplied to the gate circuits 64 have different pulsewidths to be described later.
  • Figure 6A shows the relationship between the 4-bit supply energy data 7 and the enable signals MEN-1 to MEN-4.
  • a voltage applied to the resistive elements of the thermal head is constant, so that a current flowing therethrough is also constant.
  • the energizing time must change in accordance with the supply energy.
  • the 4-bit supply energy data generated from the calculator represents an energizing time of a resistive element.
  • the energizing time cannot vary in units of resistive elements because of the structural restriction of the thermal head.
  • the energizing times of the resistive elements have the same length of period.
  • the energization of each resistive element may be repeated several times in accordance with the corresponding supply energy data.
  • each resistive element is selected by a bit or bits of "1" of the supply energy data.
  • the energizing times T1, T3 and T4 are selected as shown in Figure 6B.
  • the corresponding resistive element is energized during a time of T1 +T3+T4.
  • the energizing time of each resistive element is changed in such a manner as described above.
  • the times T1, T2, T3 and T4 can be freely set in accordance with the enable signals MEN-1 to MEN-4.
  • a maximum of four steps of the energizing time intervals can be obtained.
  • the pulsewidths of the enable signals MEN-1 to MEN-4 (corresponding to the times T1 to T4) differ-from each other, a maximum of 16 steps of the energizing time intervals can be obtained.
  • the number of bits of the supply energy data is increased, or the supply order of enable pulses having different pulsewidths is changed, then the more precise control of the energizing time would be enabled.
  • the multiplexer(1) to multiplexer(9) select, for example, the MSB E," 1 of the 4-bit supply energy data read out from the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29) to feed the thermal head 10.
  • MSB E the MSB data
  • the MSB data are latched by the latch circuits in response to the signal ALATCH generated from the timing controller 12.
  • the latched data are supplied to the drivers through the gate circuits in response to the enable signal MEN-1 for setting the energizing time T1.
  • MEN-1 enable signal for setting the energizing time T1.
  • Data readout from the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29) is restarted from address 1 thereof.
  • the multiplexer(1) to multiplexer(9) select the one-bit data E," 3 .
  • the timing controller 12 generates the enable signal MEN-3, so that the resistive elements are selectively energized for the time T3 set by the enable signal MEN-3.
  • the fourth time data readout operation is performed with respect to the RAMB(21) to RAMB(29).
  • the multiplexer(1) to multiplexer(9) select the LSB data E,” 4 of the 4-bit supply energy data.
  • the timing controller 12 supplies the enable signal MEN-4 to the enable gate circuit 64.
  • the resistive elements are selectively energized for the time T4 set by the enable signal MEN-4.
  • the four-time data readout operations from the RAMBs and the four-time selective energizations of the resistive elements in accordance with the readout data are performed to print the image data corresponding to one line.
  • the supply energy must be preset to cause the resistive element to reach a predetermined temperature, since the transfer factor of ink to a sheet depends solely on the temperature of the resistive element, as has been found according to experiments.
  • the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiment. Various changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the present invention.
  • the content of the ROM of the calculator 3 may be obtained theoretically or empirically.
  • the calculator 3 may be comprised of a CPU or the like.

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Claims (11)

1. Thermisches Aufzeichnungssystem, umfassend einen Thermokopf (10) mit einer Anzahl von thermischen Heizwiderstandselementen (R1-R32) und einer Ansteuerschaltungseinrichtung (62-65) zum selektiven Aktivieren der thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente mit einer Stromversorgung nach Maßgabe von Bilddaten zum Aufzeichnen der Bilddaten,
eine Speichereinheit (5) zum Speichern von Daten einer Speicherenergie jedes der thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente nach dem Aufzeichnen der Bilddaten,
eine auf die Speicherenergiedaten von der Speichereinheit und nächste Bilddaten ansprechende Recheneinheit (3) zum Berechnen einer jedem der Widerstandselemente für die Aufzeichnung der nächsten Bilddaten zuzuführenden Speiseenergie und einer in jedem der thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente nach der Aufzeichnung der nächsten Bilddaten gespeicherten Speicherenergie sowie
eine auf die Speiseenergiedaten für jedes Widerstandselement von der Recheneinheit ansprechende Steuereinrichtung (9, 12), um die Ansteuerschaltungseinrichtung die jedem der thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente aufzuprägende Speiseenergie steuern bzw. regeln zu lassen,
dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß die Recheneinheit (3) angeordnet ist zum Berechnen der Speiseenergie zu einem i-ten thermischen Heizwiederstandselement nach Maßgabe der Bilddaten für das i-te Widerstandselement und benachbarte, an rechter und linker Seite des i-ten thermischen Heizwiderstandselements angeordnete Widerstandselemente sowie der in der Speichereinheit gespeicherten Speicherenergiedaten vom i-ten und von den benachbarten Widerstandselementen.
2. System nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß die durch die Recheneinheit (3) berechneten Speicherenergiedaten in der Speichereinheit (5) (ab)gespeichert werden, wobei die in der Speichereinheit gespeicherten Speicherenergiedaten beim jedesmaligen Aufzeichnen neuer Bilddaten aktualisiert werden.
3. System nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß die Recheneinheit (3) geschaltet ist zur Abnahme der Speicherenergiedaten vom i-ten thermischen Heizwiderstandselement und eines Mittelswerts der Speicherenergiedaten von mindestens zwei entsprechenden, an rechter und linker Seite des i-ten Widerstandselements angeordneten Widerstandselementen.
4. System nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß die Recheneinheit (3) einen Festwertspeicher umfaßt, der angeordnet ist zum Abnehmen der Bilddaten, als Adreßdaten, und der Speicherenergiedaten von den thermischen Heizwiderstandselementen (R1-R32) und zum Speichern der Speiseenergiedaten sowie der Speicherenergiedaten für ein thermisches Heizwiderstandselement an einer mittels der Adreßdaten bezeichneten Adresse.
5. System nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß jede der Speiseenergiedateneinheiten eine Vielzahl von Bits aufweist und die Steuereinrichtung (9,12) angeordnet ist zur Lieferung der Speiseenergiedaten von jedem der thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente zur Ansteuerschaltungseinrichtung in Einheiten entsprechender Bits, so daß die Bilddaten für jedes der Widerstandselemente auf Zeitteilungsbasis aufgezeichnet werden, wobei die Zahl der Zeitteilungen der Zahl der Bits entspricht.
6. System nach Anspruch 5, dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß die Ansteuerschaltungsrichtung umfaßt: eine Schieberegistereinheit (62), die geschaltet ist zum Abnehmen der Speiseenergiedaten von den thermischen Heizwiderstandselementen in Einheiten von entsprechenden Bits; eine Verriegelungsschaltungseinheit (63) zum Verriegeln einer Anzahl von Bitausgängen der Schieberegistereinheit; sowie eine Freigabetorschaltungseinheit (64), die zwischen die Bitausgänge der Verriegelungsschaltungseinheit und die thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente (R1-R32) geschaltet ist und die jedesmal dann freigegeben bzw. in Arbeitslage geschaltet wird, wenn entsprechende Bits der Speiseenergiedaten der Widerstandselemente aufgezeichnet werden.
7. System nach Anspruch 6, dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß die Freigabezeiten der Freigabetorschaltungseinheit (64) mit den Bits der Speiseenergiedaten variieren.
8. System nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß die Speiseenergiedaten eine Vielzahl von Bits aufweisen und die Steuereinrichtung (9, 12) umfaßt:
eine Zwischenspeichereinheit (RAMB) zum Zwischenspeichern der Speiseenergiedaten der thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente (R1-R32), die von der Recheneinheit (3) erzeugt oder geliefert werden,
eine Multiplexereinheit (MPX) zum sequentiellen Liefern entsprechender Bits der Speiseenergiedaten, die sequentiell aus der Zwischenspeichereinheit ausgelesen werden, zur Ansteuerschaltungseinrichtung, und
eine Einheit zum Veranlassen der Zwischenspeichereinheit (RAMB) zum Auslesen der Speisenenergiedaten mit einer Häufigkeitszahl entsprechend der Zahl der Bits der Speiseenergiedaten und zum Veranlassen der Multiplexereinheit (MPX) zum Liefern der Speiseenergiedaten zur Ansteuerschaltungseinrichtung in Einheiten entsprechender Bits, um damit die Bilddaten auf einer Zeitteilungsbasis für jedes Bit der Speiseenergiedaten aufzuzeichnen.
9. System nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß
die thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente (R1-R32) des Thermokopfes (10) in eine Anzahl von Gruppen unterteilt sind,
die Ansteuerschaltungseinrichtung (62-65) in Unteransteuerschaltungseinheiten entsprechend der Anzahl von Gruppen unterteilt ist und
die Steuereinrichtung (9, 12) eine Anzahl von Speichereinheiten (RAMB(11)-RAMB(19)) zum Zwischenspeichern der von der Recheneinheit (3) gelieferten Speiseenergiedaten in Einheiten von Gruppen sowie eine Einrichtung (48, 49) zum Auslesen der Speiseenergiedaten aus der Anzahl von Speichereinheiten zwecks Lieferung ausgelesener Daten zu(r) entsprechenden Unteransteuerschaltungs- einheit(en) der Ansteuerschaltungseinrichtung in Parallelanordnung aufweist.
10. Verfahren zum Aufzeichnen von Bilddaten mittels eines Thermokopfes mit einer Anzahl von in einer Reihe ausgerichteten thermischen Heizwiderstandselementen und einer Ansteuerschaltungseinrichtung zum selektiven Aktivieren der thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente mit einer Stromversorgung nach Maßgabe der Bilddaten zum Aufzeichnen der Bilddaten einer Zeile, umfassend die folgenden Schritte:
Bereitstellen, als Daten mit einer Vielzahl von Bits, einer Speiseenergie zur Lieferung zu jedem der thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente zwecks Aufzeichnung der Bilddaten einer Zeile nach Maßgabe der Bilddaten einer aufzuzeichnenden Zeile und der in jedem thermischen Heizwiederstandselement nach dem Aufzeichnen von Bilddaten einer unmittelbar vorhergehenden Zeile gespeicherten-Speicherenergie,
Beschicken der Ansteuerschaltungseinrichtung mit den Speiseenergiedaten für die thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente in Einheiten entsprechender Bits und
Aktivieren der thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente, sooft entsprechende Bits der Speiseenergiedaten zur Ansteuerschaltungseinrichtung geliefert werden,
dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß die Aktivierungszeiten der thermischen Heizwiderstandselemente mit Bits der Speiseenergiedaten variieren.
11. Verfahren nach Anspruch 10, dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß die Speicherenergie anhand der Bilddaten berechnet wird.
EP19830307166 1982-11-29 1983-11-23 Thermisches Aufzeichnungsverfahren Expired EP0110675B1 (de)

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JP57207710A JPS5998878A (ja) 1982-11-29 1982-11-29 サ−マル記録装置
JP207710/82 1982-11-29

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EP0110675A2 EP0110675A2 (de) 1984-06-13
EP0110675A3 EP0110675A3 (en) 1986-03-19
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JPH0630889B2 (ja) * 1984-11-12 1994-04-27 株式会社リコー サ−マルヘツド駆動装置
JPS61163866A (ja) * 1985-01-16 1986-07-24 Ishida Scales Mfg Co Ltd 印字デ−タ転送制御回路
JPS62132474A (ja) * 1985-12-04 1987-06-15 Matsushita Graphic Commun Syst Inc Ｌｅｄアレイ光量ばらつき補正方法
JP2511258B2 (ja) * 1986-07-16 1996-06-26 アルプス電気株式会社 サ−マルプリンタ
JPS6413335U (de) * 1987-07-15 1989-01-24
US5400058A (en) * 1989-02-03 1995-03-21 Monarch Marking Systems, Inc. Thermal print head control for printing serial bar codes
US5043742A (en) * 1989-02-09 1991-08-27 Victor Company Of Japan, Ltd. Correction of printing signal to be supplied to thermal head of thermal printer
JP3226595B2 (ja) * 1992-04-23 2001-11-05 キヤノン株式会社 記録装置および記録回路ユニット
JP3254913B2 (ja) * 1993-07-21 2002-02-12 セイコーエプソン株式会社 印字ヘッドの制御方法
US6023283A (en) * 1993-09-28 2000-02-08 Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. Method of and apparatus for recording an image in a thermosetting medium with post-recording heat treatment
JP3625333B2 (ja) 1996-02-13 2005-03-02 富士写真フイルム株式会社 感熱画像記録装置および記録方法
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JPS5856874A (ja) * 1981-09-30 1983-04-04 Sharp Corp 感熱記録装置

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DE3378967D1 (en) 1989-02-23
EP0110675A3 (en) 1986-03-19
JPS5998878A (ja) 1984-06-07
CA1210988A (en) 1986-09-09

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