System and method for active printing consistency control and damage protection
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An imaging system comprising:
- a thermal printhead configured to operate in a first position;
at least one sensor configured to detect an aspect of motion of the imaging system and output a signal; and
a controller to halt operation of the thermal printhead and move the thermal printhead to a second position when the signal is above a first predetermined threshold and to move the thermal printhead to the first position to resume operation when the signal is below a second predetermined threshold.
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a mobile printer freefall detection and protection mechanism. Printers may be subject to vibration or free fall during printing. This is more likely to happen for a mobile printer. In such cases, the printing performance will be adversely affected a lot or a thermal printhead (TPH) in the printer could be damaged. This disclosure describes a system and method of solving this problem by measuring the G-forces at using at least one sensor to determine if it is safe to start operation again.
440 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An imaging system comprising:
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a thermal printhead configured to operate in a first position; at least one sensor configured to detect an aspect of motion of the imaging system and output a signal; and a controller to halt operation of the thermal printhead and move the thermal printhead to a second position when the signal is above a first predetermined threshold and to move the thermal printhead to the first position to resume operation when the signal is below a second predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 19)
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8. A method of damage protection in an imaging system comprising:
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starting a print job in an imaging system; calculating through at least one sensor aspects of motion values of the imaging system to determine if the aspects of motion values are greater than a predetermined value; if the sensors aspects of motion values are greater than a predetermined value, moving a thermal printhead of the imaging system from a first operating position to a second, non-operating position; monitoring the at least one sensor aspects of motion values to determine when the motion of the imaging system is below the predetermined value; and moving the thermal printhead from the second position to the first position to resume the print job. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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12. A method, comprising:
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calculating aspects of motion measured by at least one sensor on an imaging system; if the calculated aspects of motion exceed a first predetermined threshold, halting, with a controller in the imaging system, operation of a thermal printhead in the imaging system and moving the thermal printhead; and after the calculated aspects of motion exceed the first predetermined threshold and then are below a second predetermined threshold, moving the thermal printhead to a first operating position. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20)
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Specification