Printhead shifting for wear distribution
US4740092A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 14, 1986 |
| Grant date | Apr 26, 1988 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 14, 2006 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06K15/10
- WIPO fieldTextile and paper machines
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
Wear on the elements (5) of a printhead (3) is spread by shifting the region of use of the printhead line by line. Font (13) provides information as to whether any character in a line employs the upper three pels or the bottom three pels of a line. For each line which can be printed from different shift positions of the printhead, selection logic controls paper feed (15) to index platen (9) to the least used of a shifted position of printhead. Only those electrodes over the print line in each shifted position are used for printing. This distributes wear without requiring any special ribbon feed. The three pel height is at least as wide as the serifs on most characters, which avoids some electrodes being used for the serifs of given characters in more than one shift position.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.