Method and apparatus for producing a thermal transfer print by means of a tape-like transfer film

US6618069B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG · DE

Inventors

• Alfons Schuster · Augsburg, DE
• Armin Weichmann · Kissing, DE
• Bernhard Feller · Friedberg, DE
• Dirk Probian · Gersthofen, DE
• Michael Muller · Harper Woods, US
• Thomas Hartmann · Altdorf, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 16, 2001
• Grant date: Sep 9, 2003
• Expiry date: Aug 16, 2021

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B41M5/38221
• WIPO field: Textile and paper machines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A method of producing a thermal transfer print, including the steps of controlled imagewise heating of a surface layer of the print by means of a laser beam from a laser writing head; applying selected area elements to a substrate using a tape-like transfer film with a width which is small in relation to a width of the substrate, transporting the transfer film continuously between the substrate and the laser beam, close to the substrate surface during imaging moving the transfer film over the substrate width simultaneously and in synchronism with movement of the laser writing head the width of the transfer film being sufficiently large for a number of imaging tracks to be used alongside one another, and selecting an as yet unused track for each imaging operation.