Patent · US Expired

Method of adjusting a head gap for a wire dot impact printer

US5518323A · kind A · utility

6Cited by
5References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 14, 1993
Grant dateMay 21, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 14, 2013

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC B)Performing Operations; Transporting
  • CPC primaryB41J25/308
  • WIPO fieldTextile and paper machines
  • WIPO sectorMechanical engineering

Abstract

According to a method of adjusting a head gap, a wire dot head is set to a predetermined position of a reference head gap; a printing pattern for detecting printing time is printed by a plurality of pins; reference printing times of respective pins are detected. Next, a test printing is performed with test printing dots previously selected from printing data, and printing time of the test printing is detected. Then, the thickness of the printing media is calculated based on the reference printing time and the printing time of the test printing. At that time, a rule of thumb in which the difference of the printing time corresponds to the difference of the head gap, is used. Then, a shift amount of the wire dot head is calculated for setting the head gap to an optimum value according to the thickness of the printing media, and gap shifting mechanism shifts the wire dot head by the shift amount. This leads to highly accurate detection of the head gap and improves printing quality thereof.

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