EP0444763B1 - Imprimante thermique tenant compte de l'historique des éléments thermiques - Google Patents

Imprimante thermique tenant compte de l'historique des éléments thermiques Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0444763B1
EP0444763B1 EP19910250048 EP91250048A EP0444763B1 EP 0444763 B1 EP0444763 B1 EP 0444763B1 EP 19910250048 EP19910250048 EP 19910250048 EP 91250048 A EP91250048 A EP 91250048A EP 0444763 B1 EP0444763 B1 EP 0444763B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
pulse
data
strobe
printing data
line
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP19910250048
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0444763A1 (fr
Inventor
August Holstegge
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Eastman Kodak Co
Original Assignee
Mannesmann AG
Eastman Kodak Co
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Mannesmann AG, Eastman Kodak Co filed Critical Mannesmann AG
Publication of EP0444763A1 publication Critical patent/EP0444763A1/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0444763B1 publication Critical patent/EP0444763B1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • 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
    • B41J2/3555—Historical control
    • 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 invention relates to a thermal or thermal transfer printing unit in which a recording medium is blackened line by line directly or via an ink ribbon in accordance with the image to be displayed.
  • the blackening depends, among other things, on the heating duration and the associated heating output.
  • a thermal print head which has a large number of individually controllable resistance elements, the so-called heating dots.
  • These heating dots are heated up by current pulses.
  • the blackening of the record carrier depends on the duration of the current pulses and on the initial temperature at which the heating dot is excited with this current pulse.
  • a so-called heating dot history analysis is carried out (DE-OS 31 44 368).
  • the duration of the current pulses is controlled depending on the previous line. A current pulse of shorter duration is applied to a certain heating dot if a so-called black value was present for this heating dot in the previous line. A longer duration current pulse is applied if a so-called white value was previously available.
  • a thermal transfer printer is known from EP 0 274 905 A2, in which a matrix print head is guided line by line over the recording medium.
  • the heating pulses contain a main pulse and, if appropriate, additionally a pre-pulse or a post-pulse.
  • the heating pulse consists of pre-pulse, main pulse and post-pulse. The main pulse is always triggered when a point is generated on the recording medium, while the additionally provided pre and post pulses are controlled as a function of the duration of the previous heating pulses.
  • the heating dots can be summarized in four segments. These segments are then driven one after the other to print a line (US Pat. No. 3,467,810).
  • the thermal printhead includes a serial-to-parallel converter for converting the serial print data into parallel print data, a latch circuit connected to the converter for latching the data, and a current driver circuit connected to the latch circuit.
  • each of these segments is assigned a serial-parallel converter, a holding circuit connected to it and a switching element via which a so-called STROBE Control signal the duration of the heating pulse is adjustable.
  • This STROBE control signal contains a pre-pulse, a main pulse and a post-pulse, so that the heating duration is determined by the total duration of these three pulses.
  • the serial printing data are transmitted from the control device of the thermal printing unit to the thermal printing head on four data lines.
  • Each segment of heating dots, ie each of the four serial-parallel converters, is therefore connected to the control device via its own serial data line.
  • the invention is based on the object of specifying a fast data transmission method for this.
  • the duration for the data transmission is 160 ⁇ s for each of the pulses of the STROBE control signal.
  • the minimum heating period that can be set (corresponding to the duration of the STROBE control signal) would be 480 ⁇ s.
  • the minimum duration for each of the pre, main and post pulses would also be set to 160 ⁇ s. If the heating duration is divided, for example, the main pulse is allocated 50% of the heating duration, the pre-pulse 40% and the post-pulse 10%, the minimum heating duration that could be set would be around 1600 ⁇ s. This value is reduced to 320 microseconds by the parallel data transmission according to the invention. The printing process can therefore be carried out much faster.
  • This control device ST outputs serial print data DATA 1 and DATA 2 to two serial-parallel converters SP1 and SP2, which are arranged on the thermal print head. These two converters can for example, be implemented by shift registers.
  • FIG. 1 To explain the principle of operation of the method according to the invention, two segments are shown in FIG. 1, in each of which three heating dots H11, 12, 13 and H21, 22, 23 are arranged.
  • the serial pressure data DATA 1, DATA 2 which are brought into parallel form in the serial-parallel converters SP1, SP2 are given to two holding circuits M1, M2 via three lines each.
  • a data transfer signal LATCH output by the control device ST is present at these two holding circuits M1, M2.
  • the parallel pressure data output by the serial-parallel converters SP1, SP2 are each transferred to the holding circuits M1, M2.
  • the heating dots H11 to H13 are connected on one side to the holding circuit M1 via three lines, and on the other side to a current source S via a common line via a switching element S1.
  • the heating dots H21 to H23 are analogously connected on one side to the holding circuit M2 and on the other side to the current source S via a switching element S2.
  • a control signal STROBE 1 or STROBE 2 emitted by the control device ST is present at the switching elements S1, S2.
  • the heating dots H11 to H23 intended for printing are selected via the pressure data stored in the holding circuits M1, M2, and the heating duration for the selected heating dots H11 to H23 is set using the switching elements S1, S2 via the control pulses STROBE 1, STROBE 2.
  • a main pulse H1 or H2 is provided in each of the control signals STROBE 1, STROBE 2 in order to blacken the recording medium via the heated heating dots H11 to H23.
  • a heating dot history analysis is carried out.
  • the print data in the current print line n are linked on the one hand to the print data of the previous print line n-1, and on the other hand to the print data of the previous print line n-2.
  • These data packets are successively given to the serial-parallel converters SP1, SP2 as serial print data DATA 1, DATA 2.
  • Each of these data packets has a duration of approx. 160 ⁇ s with a real thermal printing unit with approx. 640 heating dots per segment and e.g. 4 segments, with a data transfer rate of 4 MHz).
  • the linkage is carried out mathematically by multiplication.
  • the data packet formed from the print data for the current print line n linked to the previous print line n-1, must be given to the serial-parallel converter SP1 or SP2 in the control signals STROBE 1 or STROBE 2 before the occurrence of the pre-pulse V1 or V2 will.
  • the data packet with the print data for the current print line n must be delivered before the main pulse H1 or H2 occurs.
  • the data packet, formed from the print data for the current print line n and the print data for the previous print line n-2, must be delivered before the post-pulse N1 or N2 occurs. At the end of each of these data packets, these print data located in the serial-parallel converter SP1, SP2 are transferred to the latches M1, M2 by the data transfer signal LATCH.
  • the data packet (n ⁇ (n-2) for the post-pulse N1 of the control signal STROBE 1 is now transmitted simultaneously with the data packet (n ⁇ (n-1)) for the pre-pulse V2 for the control signal STROBE 2 Thermal printing unit with at least two segments, so the print data for the post-pulse of one segment are transmitted simultaneously with the print data for the pre-pulse of the following segment.
  • the minimum heating duration which is predetermined by the transmission duration of the corresponding data packets for the partial pulses V1, 2, H1, 2, N1, 2 in the control signals STROBE 1, 2, is therefore 320 ⁇ s, since during the duration of the preliminary and main pulses V1 , 2, H1, 2 only transmit two data packets (each with a duration of 160 ⁇ s) will.
  • the duration of the main pulse H is 50%
  • the duration of the pre-pulse is 40%
  • the duration of the post-pulse N is 10% of the heating duration specified by the control signal STROBE.
  • the minimum heating duration that can be set is also 320 ⁇ s, corresponding to the duration for the transmission of two data packets.

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Claims (3)

  1. Procédé de transfert de données pour prendre en compte l'historique des éléments chauffants dans une unité d'impression thermique, en particulier une unité d'impression à transfert thermique, comportant :
    une tête d'impression thermique ayant des éléments chauffants (H11 à H23) commandables individuellement et agencés en une ligne, qui sont réunis en plusieurs segments, qui sont commandés l'un après l'autre pour imprimer une ligne d'impression,
    des convertisseurs séries-parallèles associés à chaque fois à un segment (SP1,SP2) pour transformer les données d'impression séries (DATA 1, DATA 2) en données d'impression parallèles pour la commande des éléments chauffants individuels (H11 à H23),
    des éléments de commutation associés à chaque fois à un segment (S1,S2), par l'intermédiaire desquels la durée de chauffage peut être réglée par l'intermédiaire d'un signal de commande (STROBE 1, STROBE 2), chaque signal de commande (STROBE 1, STROBE 2) présentant une préimpulsion (V1,V2), une impulsion principale (H1,H2), et une impulsion de traînage (N1,N2),
    un dispositif de commande (ST), qui fournit les données d'impression suivantes (DATA 1, 2), par l'intermédiaire de lignes de données séparées, à chaque segment :
    des données d'impression pour l'impulsion principale (H1,H2) avec les niveaux du noir et les niveaux du blanc pour la ligne d'impression actuelle (n),
    des données d'impression pour la préimpulsion (V1, V2), qui sont formées par une combinaison à partir des données d'impression pour la ligne d'impression actuelle (n) et des données d'impression pour la ligne d'impression précédente (n-1),
    des données d'impression pour l'impulsion de traînage (N1,N2), qui sont formées par une combinaison à partir des données d'impression pour la ligne d'impression actuelle (n) et des données d'impression pour la ligne d'impression (n-2) antérieure à la ligne précédente,
    les données d'impression pour l'impulsion principale (H1,H2) étant transmises pendant la préimpulsion (V1,V2), et les données d'impression pour l'impulsion de traînage (N1,N2) d'un segment étant transmises, parallèlement avec les données d'impression pour la préimpulsion (V1,V2) du segment suivant, pendant l'impulsion principale (H1,H2) d'un segment.
  2. Procédé selon la revendication 1,
    dans lequel la durée de l'impulsion principale (H1,H2) correspond à 50% de la durée totale du signal de commande (STROBE 1, STROBE 2).
  3. Procédé selon la revendication 1 ou 2,
    dans lequel la durée de la préimpuision (V1,V2) correspond à 40% de la durée totale du signal de commande (STROBE 1, STROBE 2).
EP19910250048 1990-02-23 1991-02-20 Imprimante thermique tenant compte de l'historique des éléments thermiques Expired - Lifetime EP0444763B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP90103591 1990-02-23
EP90103591 1990-02-23

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0444763A1 EP0444763A1 (fr) 1991-09-04
EP0444763B1 true EP0444763B1 (fr) 1994-08-31

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EP19910250048 Expired - Lifetime EP0444763B1 (fr) 1990-02-23 1991-02-20 Imprimante thermique tenant compte de l'historique des éléments thermiques

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EP (1) EP0444763B1 (fr)
DE (1) DE59102678D1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CA2075097C (fr) * 1991-08-02 2000-03-28 Hiroyuki Ishinaga Appareil d'enregistrement, tete d'enregistrement et substrat connexe
AU734083B2 (en) * 1991-08-02 2001-05-31 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Recording apparatus, recording head and substrate therefor
US5745136A (en) * 1993-04-16 1998-04-28 Canon Kabushiki Kaishi Liquid jet head, and liquid jet apparatus therefor

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPH069366B2 (ja) * 1984-06-08 1994-02-02 株式会社日立製作所 感熱記録装置
DE3628191A1 (de) * 1986-08-20 1988-02-25 Siemens Ag Verfahren und vorrichtung zur informationsaufzeichnung auf einem informationstraeger mittels eines thermodruckkopfes
DE3784683T2 (de) * 1986-12-27 1993-09-23 Canon Kk Nach dem ubertragungsprinzip arbeitender thermodrucker.
EP0279637B1 (fr) * 1987-02-18 1994-09-21 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Imprimante thermique

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Publication number Publication date
DE59102678D1 (de) 1994-10-06
EP0444763A1 (fr) 1991-09-04

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