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Thermal printhead temperature control

  • US 10,183,500 B2
  • Filed: 06/01/2016
  • Issued: 01/22/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2016
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A thermal printer, comprising:

  • a thermal printhead configured for direct thermal printing;

    a print-medium subsystem comprising;

    a spool for holding a heat sensitive print medium; and

    a movement mechanism for moving the print medium along a print-medium path so that the print medium may be heated by the thermal printhead above a thermal threshold to form marks;

    a housing encompassing the thermal printhead and the print-medium subsystem;

    a first sensor mounted to the thermal printhead for sensing a printhead temperature;

    a second sensor positioned within the housing proximate to the spool and apart from the thermal printhead for sensing an environment temperature, the environmental temperature being approximately the temperature of the print medium; and

    a processor contained in the housing and communicatively coupled to the thermal printhead, the first sensor, and the second sensor, wherein the processor is configured by software to;

    compare the environment temperature and the printhead temperature by calculating a temperature gap that is a difference between the environment temperature and the printhead temperature,compute a temperature value based on the temperature gap, the temperature value computed by adding or subtracting a compensation value to the printhead temperature, andcontrol the heating of the thermal printhead using the temperature value.

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