Method and apparatus for heating thermal head
First Claim
1. A thermal printer comprisinga heat generating element for heating a recording medium to provide a selected one of a plurality of recording tones for each of a plurality of successive recording periods,control means for controlling said heat generating element to provide a respective recording signal corresponding to each said selected recording tone for each respective recording period, for stopping said providing of each said recording signal to allow the temperature of said heat generating element to fall below a first predetermined value, and for subsequently providing a heating change compensation signal to said heat generating element for returning said heat generating element to a second predetermined temperature at the end of each said recording period,wherein, after each said recording signal is stopped by said control means, the temperature history of said heat generating element is effectively independent of the respective history of recording.
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Abstract
In a thermal printer which conducts recording by heating heat generating elements with a drive signal, the temperature of the heat generating elements, after a specified period for the start of a thermal recording signal can be returned to a constant value, by applying during the normal cooling process, that is, after application of a thermal recording signal, a predetermined auxiliary pulse corresponding to the temperature that is generated during the thermal recording and to the tone to be recorded.
29 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A thermal printer comprising
a heat generating element for heating a recording medium to provide a selected one of a plurality of recording tones for each of a plurality of successive recording periods, control means for controlling said heat generating element to provide a respective recording signal corresponding to each said selected recording tone for each respective recording period, for stopping said providing of each said recording signal to allow the temperature of said heat generating element to fall below a first predetermined value, and for subsequently providing a heating change compensation signal to said heat generating element for returning said heat generating element to a second predetermined temperature at the end of each said recording period, wherein, after each said recording signal is stopped by said control means, the temperature history of said heat generating element is effectively independent of the respective history of recording.
Specification