Abstract: An offset electrostatic printer is disclosed which comprises (a) an ion modulated electrostatic print head for forming latent electrostatic images, (b) a dielectric imaging member comprising a layer of dielectric material, (c) means for developing a latent electrostatic image on the dielectric imaging member, (d) means for transferring a developed electrostatic image from the dielectic imaging member to an image receiving surface, (e) means for supplying unheated dehumidified air having a relative humidity of less than about 20 percent at or near ambient temperature, and (f) means for directing the dehumidified air at, near or through the print head and at or near the dielectric imaging member.

Abstract: Electrostatic printing apparatus including structure for delivering developer or toner particles to a printhead forming an integral part of the printing device. Alternatively, the toner particles can be delivered to a charge retentive surface containing latent images. The developer or toner delivery system is adapted to deliver toner containing a minimum quantity of wrong sign and size toner. To this end, the developer delivery system includes a pair of charged toner conveyors which are supported in face-to-face relation. A bias voltage is applied across the two conveyors to cause toner of one charge polarity to be attracted to one of the conveyors while toner of the opposite is attracted to the other conveyor.In another embodiment, a single charged toner conveyor is supplied by a pair of three-phase generators which are biased by a dc source which causes toner of one polarity to travel in one direction on the electrode array while toner of the opposite polarity travels generally in the opposite direction.

Abstract: An electrostatic recording apparatus is provided which comprises a recording electrode with a plurality of stylus electrodes and a developing device with a back electrode provided on opposite sides of a recording medium. The recording apparatus is capable of simultaneously processing the forming of and development of a latent image by using the recording electrode which has a magnetic piece embedded at a tip portion thereof. A magnetic field is concentrated in its path and is increased in a narrow gap region between the recording electrode and the back electrode. Toner chains of magnetic particles in the developing process can easily stand upright on the back electrode, and can thus easily and uniformly contact the recording medium. Dot defects on a formed image, are therefore, avoided. The present invention is directed to several embodiments of the magnetic piece and the manner of embedding the magnetic piece in the recording electrode.

Abstract: An optical recording apparatus includes an imaging member which is advanced along a predetermined path, an optical recording head for applying light containing image information to the imaging member to form an electrostatic latent image thereon, a developing unit for developing the latent image thereby converting it into a toner image and a transfer unit for transferring the toner image to a sheet of transfer paper. With the imaging member in the form of a belt, a back-up member and a contact member, preferably in the form of brush, are provided on both sides of the belt-shaped imaging member in the vicinity of an image exposing section where the light from the recording head is applied to the imaging member thereby allowing that portion of the imaging member which is located in the image exposure section is prevented from moving up and down with respect to the advancing direction of the imaging member.

Abstract: A method and apparatus of electrophotography used for a printer or a copying machine, wherein a toner having no photoconductivity is applied on a surface of a photoconductive layer of a photoreceptor consisting of a transparent conductive layer and the photoconductive layer which are sequentially formed on a transparent substrate. The photoconductive layer is exposed from a side of the transparent substrate. Toner particles on an exposed region of the photoconductive layer are transferred to toner-receiving paper opposite the photoconductive layer so as to form a toner image. A process for developing a latent image can be omitted. In addition, a special toner such as a photoconductive toner having low sensitivity is not used, thereby forming a high-quality image.

Abstract: In one of its aspects the invention provides an ionographic print cartridge for use in placing discrete dots of electrostatic charge on a drum to build a latent image for subsequent toning. The print cartridge includes a substrate of a dielectric material having sufficient rigidity to resist deformation during assembly; driver electrodes printed on the substrate and consisting of parallel conductors extending longitudinally and having lead portions terminating at the conductors and extending generally transversely from ends of the conductors for making electrical connections to the driver electrodes. A dielectric layer covers at least the conductors with the conductors at a first side of the layer, and finger electrodes are positioned at the opposite side of the dielectric layer. The finger electrodes define edge structures straddling the driver electrodes and having individual contacts at the sides of the driver electrodes for making electrical connections to the finger electrodes.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for element-by-element and image-line-by-image-line recording of print characters on a full page by means of an exposing beam deflectable over the full page, and which is switched on and off by a control signal. The characters are stored in a character memory in the form of contour-coded character data. The contour-coded character data are read out of the character memory in the sequence required for exposure and are converted into control signals suitable for the image-line-by-image-line recording of the characters.

Abstract: A drive mechanism for a thermal transfer type line recording apparatus is implemented with only two drive motors in driving three essential members of the recorder i.e., platen, ink sheet, and thermal head. While a first drive motor is exclusively assigned to the platen, a second drive motor is shared by the ink sheet, which is fed in one direction only, and the thermal head, which is released from the platen without any intermediary actions concerning the sequence. The second drive motor feeds the ink sheet while in rotation in one direction and drives the thermal head while in rotation in the other direction, each through a one-way clutch.

Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for automatically compensating for overutilized elements in a thermal printhead. The system is implemented by utilizing a graphics style line thermal printhead with a greater number of resistive or thermal elements than are needed for the maximum number of characters to be printed. These spare or extra elements are positioned on the leading side of a nominal designated print area or field within the thermal printhead, such that a microprocessor under software control can sequentially shift for each new print line the leading edge of all character positions contained in the print field incrementally to one side, allowing increased utilization of formerly underutilized elements. In a preferred embodiment the magnitude of this sequential sideways shift is determined by the number of spare or extra elements which border the leading side of the nominal print field.

Abstract: At the time of conveying a transfer printing belt-shaped material having known length and utilized in a tape recorder, a picture image forming apparatus or the like by an electric motor, the length of the belt-shaped material remaining after any point thereof is determined and displayed. The remaining length is determined by generating pulses in accordance with the rotation of the motor and then counting the number of pulses with a counter. Since the length of the belt-shaped material is known by correlating the length and the count of the counter with a computer the remaining length can be determined.

Abstract: An improve image building apparatus is disclosed which makes it possible to carry out image transferrence to both the surfaces of material by bringing back material while its rear end moves ahead and displacing it to an image transferring section from first guiding means after it is displaced from first guiding means to second guiding means via the image transferring section after image transferrence is completed on the one surface of material. The first and second guiding means are extended in parallel with a discharging tray by way of which image transferred material is displaced away from the apparatus and they serve to guide reciprocable movement of the material through the image transferring section when superimposing image transferrence should be carried out.

Abstract: An auxiliary heating element is provided near at least one end of an array of main heating resistor elements, thereby preventing thermal diffusion near the at least one end of the array and providing uniform printing density and prolonged service life. The adjacent portion of the auxiliary heating resistor element and the main heating resistor elements may be connected in series or in parallel, thereby simplifying the feeder pattern to the heating resistor elements, hence simplifying the structure of connectors and a drive circuit concerned, providing uniform image density and realizing prolonged service life of thermal head, without raising cost.

Abstract: A printing head comprises a substrate, a plurality of printing elements disposed on the substrate and adapted to print a picture element of an image, and a driving device for selectively driving the printing elements. Each of the printing elements includes a plurality of ring-shaped printing segments disposed on the substrate concentrically to each other. The printed area in the picture element is changed according to the printing segments selectively driven by the driving device and thus the gradation of the printed image is expressed by changing the printed area in a picture element.

Abstract: A manual paper feed mechanism for a printer has a release lever adapted to permit mounting and demounting of a print paper to and from a platen, a paper feed gear for rotating the paper feed roller, a manual knob having a peripheral gear section engageable with the paper feed gear, and a manual lever supporting the manual knob rotatably and swingably towards and away from the paper feed gear. In addition, the mechanism has a first cam portion formed on the manual lever, and a second cam portion engageable with the first cam portion and formed on the release lever, such that the release lever is rotated in response to the operation of the manual knob and the paper feed gear in engagement with each other. This arrangement selectively permits the manual feed of the print paper by the manuel knob.

Abstract: According to a print control apparatus of a printer which has a line buffer, when one-line data transmitted from a host CPU includes a character and a figure, a print and line feed controller causes a character image generator to access a character pattern memory so as to write the readout a character image in the line buffer. The print and line feed controller causes a figure image generator to generate a figure image which is then ORed-written on the character image. As a result, one-line character and figure data can be printed with one scanning operation. Figure data parameters are stored in the parameter area in the internal memory. Every time printing of a page is performed in units of predetermined dot widths, the parameter corresponding to the figure image developed into the line buffer is deleted from the parameter area. The next parameter is then stored in the parameter area.

Abstract: In a printing apparatus which is loaded with a transfer member including a color agent to be transferred to a sheet and which transfers the color agent to the sheet in accordance with a pattern to form an image on the sheet, a cassette holding section is provided in a housing having a transferring function, whereby the transfer member is set in the position where the color agent can be transferred to the sheet in accordance with the pattern. The cassette holding section is provided with a holder for holding a spare transfer member.

Abstract: A heat transfer type multi-color printer which serves to automatically draw out a new ink ribbon with a simple constitution for recording. The multi-color printer includes members for holding/releasing an ink ribbon provided on a carriage which carries the recording head, and two ribbon spools of a ribbon cassette mounted on a printer body constructed to transmit unidirectional turning force of a spacing motor for moving the carriage. With this arrangement, the multi-color printer serves, when recording, to draw out the ink ribbon from one of the ribbon spools during the time the carriage moves in one direction and, serves, with the carriage moving in the opposite direction to hold the ink ribbon and to rotate the two ribbon spools for winding the ink ribbon.

Abstract: A method of cleaning the record head of an image recording system of the transfer type including an electrostatic record head having a multiplicity of electrodes arranged in an array or arrays and a preliminary charging unit operative to uniformly charge a dielectric record medium to a predetermined pre-charge voltage before the record medium is to be passed to the record medium for being activated to produce electrostatic latent images thereon by selective application of control signals to the electrodes in addition to a predetermined recording bias voltage lower than the pre-charge voltage and constantly impressed on all of the electrodes throughout each page print cycle of the system. The method comprises applying a cleaning voltage to the electrodes during a period of time continuous to one of the page print cycles, the cleaning voltage being higher than the pre-charge voltage.

Abstract: A thermal printer apparatus is disclosed which includes a print head having a plurality of groups of thermal pixels. The thermal pixels in each group are simultaneously addressed in parallel. Each group is addressed a plurality of times. The apparatus selectively energizes the thermal pixels of each group when they are addressed until each thermal pixel is at a temperature where it can supply energy to a carrier member which delivered an amount of dye to a receiver which corresponds to a desired dye density in an image pixel.

Abstract: A device for compensating fluctuation in the amount of ink transfer in a thermal transfer type printer in which plurality of densities or a plurality of colors of thermally fusible ink are thermally transferred to a printing medium sequentially over a plurality of times so as to reproduce a halftone and/or color image. Transfer signals other than a particular one which is to be transferred are weighted and added to or subtracted from the latter to compensate transfer energy at the time of multi-layer transfer. Fluctuation of the transfer energy due to previously transferred ink is prevented to enhance the quality of image reproduction.