摘要:
A thermal printer utilizes a donor web bearing a transfer ink to create enhanced printed images on a strip of sheet material with half-tones, color and other attractive features. The donor web is mounted on supply and take-up spools within a cassette that is removable from the printer in order to change the color or other printing characteristics of the web for various printing operations. A drag brake mounted in the printer connects with the supply spool through a disengageable coupling to maintain tension on the donor web during printing and to allow the web and cassette to be removed from the printer. A feed detection sensor in the form of an optical encoder is also contained within the printer and coupled to the supply spool through the same disengageable coupling utilized by the drag brake to detect feed faults.
摘要:
Disclosed are the following: a wide format thermal printer for printing a multicolor graphic product on a printing sheet; a vacuum workbed for supporting a sheet material for performing work operations, such as cutting, printing or plotting, thereon; a replaceable donor sheet assembly, which includes a memory, for use with a thermal printer; methods and apparatus for improved thermal printing, including methods and apparatus for conserving donor sheet and reducing the amount of time required to print a multicolor graphic product; a thermal printhead including a memory; and methods and apparatus for the alignment of a sheet material for printing or performing other work operations on the sheet material. The wide format thermal printer can include provision for the automatic loading of cassettes of donor sheet from a cassette storage rack. The vacuum workbed can include provision for determining the size of the sheet material supported by the workbed, and for controlling the suction applied to the apertures in a worksurface of the workbed. Also disclosed are methods and apparatus for controlling the tension of the donor sheet during printing with a wide format thermal printer.
摘要:
In an apparatus for printing graphic images on sheet material. The thermal print head has a linear array of heating elements extending in the y-coordinate direction, and is movable between a home position and a command position in that direction for printing graphic images wider than the length of the linear array. With the print head in the home position, a first group of heating elements at the upper end of the print head are actuated to print a plurality of first indicia equally spaced relative to each other in the y-coordinate direction. The print head is then moved upwardly in the y-coordinate direction to the command position whereby a second group of heating elements at the lower end of the print head overlap the first indicia. The print head then prints a plurality of second indicia in the spaces defined between adjacent first indicia with the second group of heating elements, and the print head is moved incrementally in the y-coordinate direction between printing sequential second indicia. The second indicia equally spaced between adjacent first indicia is then selected, and the command position of the print head is adjusted based on its total incremental movement corresponding to the selected second indicia to calibrate the movement of the print head in the y-coordinate direction.
摘要:
A printing apparatus for printing designs, halftones, alphanumeric and other printed matter on sheet material utilizes a thermal printhead that is pressed against sheet material on a roller platen during a printing operation. A donor web bearing an ink material is interposed between the printhead and the sheet material on the roller platen. In order to improve the print quality, the printer includes a pressure regulating mechanism which not only controls the pressure between the printing head and roller platen at different pressure levels but also allows the printing head and platen to be separated and moved away from one another.
摘要:
An automatically controlled plotter that generates graphic information on recording material in response to a plot program includes an optical sensor for detecting the traces or lines that are generated in the plot on the recording medium. The detected lines are compared with the programmed lines to establish if an omission or gap exists, and where there is a gap, the plotting process is interrupted or the program is repeated to retrace the defective portion of the plot, or the defect can be recorded for subsequent correction.
摘要:
A web and an associated web feeding and handling apparatus for performing a work operation on the web is disclosed. The apparatus feeds the web in a feed direction longitudinally of itself by means of a friction drive. The operation of the drive is controlled by lateral and longitudinal alignment indicia located on the web which insure that the web is properly aligned with the feed direction as the web is initially fed into and then through the apparatus, and to insure that any bowing of the web during the work operation is corrected or compensated for.
摘要:
A web and an associated web feeding and handling apparatus for performing a work operation on the web is disclosed. The apparatus feeds the web in a feed direction longitudinally of itself by means of a friction drive. The operation of the drive is controlled by lateral and longitudinal alignment indicia located on the web which insure that the web is properly aligned with the feed direction as the web is initially fed into and then through the apparatus, and to insure that any bowing of the web during the work operation is corrected or compensated for.
摘要:
A method and apparatus for cutting multi-ply layups of limp sheet material employs an automatically controlled machine with a knife blade and a controller for guiding the blade along cutting paths defined by a marker of pattern pieces. The marker contains a plurality of pattern pieces in a closely packed array which causes the pattern pieces and segments of the cutting paths to be in contact or in close proximity to one another, and makes accurate cutting difficult or impossible. Digitized data defining a cutting program for the marker is preprocessed in a data processor to identify critical segments of cutting paths where cutting difficulties may arise and introduces into the data remedial command signals that guide the cutting blade past the identified critical segments for more accurate cutting.
摘要:
A wide format thermal printer for printing a multicolor graphic product on a printing sheet; a vacuum workbed for supporting a sheet material for performing work operations, such as cutting, printing or plotting, thereon; a replaceable donor sheet assembly, which includes a memory, for use with a thermal printer; methods and apparatus for improved thermal printing, including methods and apparatus for conserving donor sheet and reducing the amount of time required to print a multicolor graphic product; a thermal printhead including a memory; methods and apparatus for the alignment of a sheet material for printing or performing other work operations on the sheet material; and methods and apparatus for controlling the tension of the donor sheet during printing with a wide format thermal printer. The wide format thermal printer can include provision for the automatic loading of cassettes of donor sheet from a cassette storage rack. The vacuum workbed can include provision for determining the size of the sheet material supported by the workbed, and for controlling the suction applied to the apparatus in a worksurface of the workbed.
摘要:
A web and an associated web feeding and handling apparatus for performing a work operation on the web is disclosed. The apparatus feeds the web in a feed direction longitudinally of itself by means of a friction drive. The operation of the drive is controlled by lateral and longitudinal alignment indicia located on the web which insure that the web is properly aligned with the feed direction as the web is initially fed into and then through the apparatus, and to insure that any bowing of the web during the work operation is corrected or compensated for.