Patent · US Expired

Thermal print head control for printing serial bar codes

US5506613A · kind A · utility

7Cited by
6References
11Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 2, 1995
Grant dateApr 9, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 2, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06K15/028
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A printer for printing serial bar codes on a web of record members with a thermal print head is shown. The thermal print head is driven by a series of pulses having a constant duty cycle for each row of information printed. However, the number of pulses in the series is varied from row to row, in accordance with the status of the current row being printed as a bar row or a space row; with the status of at least one row immediately preceding the current row and at least one row immediately succeeding the current row; and with the number of bar rows previously printed. By varying the number of pulses applied to the thermal print head and thus the amount of energy applied thereto, discontinuities in the serial bar code and any information, such as a human readable character, printed adjacent thereto are minimized.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.