Thermal Head Color Conversion for Thermosensitive Dot Size
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Solution Overview
Problem
In thermosensitive medium printing, increasing printing speed leads to shortened printing periods, making it difficult to ensure adequate development time for lower color developing layers, resulting in dots being smaller than intended size.
Innovation Solution
A printer system that includes a thermal head with heat generation elements aligned perpendicular to the conveyance direction, a control device to convert pre-conversion image data into post-conversion data, and a conveyance device to manage the thermosensitive medium, where conversion dots are adjusted to develop colors from adjacent layers, ensuring proper energy application and conveyance to maintain dot size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If printing speed is increased, then productivity is improved, but the printing period is shortened making it difficult to secure adequate development time for lower color developing layers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing color conversion in advance during image processing. Before printing, the system converts colors that require long development time (lower layer colors) into colors from upper layers that can be developed quickly. This preliminary color substitution ensures that even at high printing speeds with shortened printing periods, the lower color developing layers have sufficient time to develop properly, thus resolving the contradiction between high productivity and adequate development time.
2Productivity
If printing speed is increased, then productivity is improved, but dot size accuracy deteriorates as dots become smaller than target size
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary color conversion to substitute colors from lower developing layers with colors from upper layers before the printing process. This advance preparation ensures that the printed dots achieve the intended size and appearance even when the printing period is shortened due to high printing speeds, thereby maintaining dot size accuracy while achieving high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the color parameters during image processing by converting target colors to alternative colors that can be rendered with shorter development times. This parameter change approach allows the system to maintain visual fidelity and dot size accuracy while adapting to the constrained printing period imposed by high printing speeds, thus resolving the contradiction between productivity and manufacturing precision.
3Speed
If high-temperature heating is applied for short time to upper color developing layers, then printing speed is improved, but lower color developing layers cannot develop colors properly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary color conversion to replace colors that require long-time low-temperature heating (from lower layers) with colors from upper layers that can be developed using high-temperature short-time heating. This advance color substitution ensures that the subsequent high-speed printing process can use aggressive heating parameters without compromising the completeness of color development, thus resolving the contradiction between speed and reliability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively suppresses the size of printed dots from being smaller than target size by ensuring adequate development time for all color layers, maintaining dot size and position accuracy.
Implementation Method 1
a thermal head having a plurality of heat generation elements aligned in an arrangement direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction and configured to perform printing on the thermosensitive medium conveyed by the conveyance device by heat generation of the plurality of heat generation elements from the first layer side in the stacking direction
Data Source
AI summary
A printer performs printing on a thermosensitive medium including a plurality of color developing layers including a first layer developing a first color and a second layer developing a second color. The printer includes a head and a control device performing a printing control including outputting a signal pattern based on post-conversion image data converted from pre-conversion image data to cause a plurality of heat generation elements of the head to selectively generate heat while controlling conveyance of the thermosensitive medium. In the converting, when target dots containing the second color is included in the plurality of dots in the pre-conversion image data, the control device converts a color of conversion dots to a conversion color containing the color developed by any one of the plurality of color developing layers.