Abstract: A recording head having a plurality of recording elements arranged thereon is moved in a different direction than a direction of arrangement to make record scan and a recording sheet is fed by a distance corresponding to a recording width of the recording head for each scan. The record scan (main scan) and the sheet feed (sub-scan) are repeated to record received image data on the recording sheet. The feed amount of the recording sheet is counted, and the data is sent to a recording unit until the count reaches a predetermined count, that is, the data a predetermined amount before a trailing edge of the recording sheet is sent, without synchronization with the operation of the recording unit.

Abstract: An optical recording medium has a mask layer 4, an intermediate dielectric layer 5, a recording layer 6, and a reflective layer 8 on a transparent substrate 2. The recording layer 6 contains a recording material which changes its crystallographic structure upon exposure to recording light for recording information. The mask layer 4 contains a mask material which increases its light transmittance when melted and has a complex refractive index (n.sub.0 -ik.sub.0), of which the real part n.sub.0 drops by 1.0 or less and the imaginary part k.sub.0 drops by 0.25-1.0 when the mask material converts from a crystalline state to an amorphous or microcrystalline state. Signals can be reproduced from the medium with high C/N without resorting to reading light of shorter wavelength or an optical pickup objective lens having a larger numerical aperture and even when the linear velocity of the medium relative to recording and reproducing light is low.

Abstract: In a printing sheet making and printing system applicable to for example an electronic gravure printing system a printing sheet is sheathed in a printing sheet jacket to prevent the adhesion of dust and the occurrence of scratching on its surface and the feeding and ejection of the printing sheet to and from the cylinders of a printing sheet making machine and a printing machine is completely automated so that an operator can run the system without ever directly touching the printing sheet. A printing sheet, a printing sheet jacket, and devices for pulling the jacket and the printing sheet into a printing sheet making machine or a printing machine and removing the printing sheet from the jacket and winding and clamping it onto a cylinder for engraving of the printing sheet or printing with it and returning it to the jacket and ejecting the jacket and the printing sheet inside it from the machine after the engraving or printing all in a completely automated fashion are disclosed.

Abstract: An optical recording medium has a substrate having a groove, a recording film of phthalocyanine coloring matter and provided on the substrate, a light reflection film on the recording film, and a protection film on the light reflection film. The depth of the groove is between 800 .ANG. and 1100 .ANG..

Abstract: An information recording layer on a substrate provides a method of recording information by selectively opening the rings of dicyclopentadiene skeletons, thus recording information by forming cyclopentadiene skeletons. The information recorded by the method can be erased by the cycloaddition of cyclopentadiene skeletons. Information can also be recorded or erased by incorporating or eliminating a metal ion from a selectively opened section of a ring of a dicyclopentadiene skeleton after forming an organic thin film comprising the dicyclopentadiene skeleton. Alternatively, after the formation of an organic thin film comprising a cyclopentadiene skeleton, a heterocycle or a benzene ring, a metal ion is incorporated or eliminated from a section between at least two rings of the cyclopentadiene skeleton, the heterocycle or the benzene ring. Thereafter, a metallocene skeleton or a skeleton analogous to the metallocene skeleton is formed or eliminated, thus recording or erasing information.

Abstract: A holder for a thermal print medium is disclosed. The holder is adapted to be used in a thermal printer in which a donor element in a thermal print medium transfers dye to a receiver element upon receipt of a sufficient amount of thermal energy. The printer includes a plurality of diode lasers which can be individually modulated to supply energy to selected dots on the medium in accordance with an information signal. The print head of the printer includes a fiber optic array having a plurality of optical fibers coupled to the diode lasers. The holder for the thermal print medium includes a rotatable vacuum drum, and the fiber optic array is movable relative to the drum. The vacuum drum includes separate vacuum supplies for the donor sheet and for the receiver sheet so that the sheets can be independently handled.

Abstract: A thin flexible film is loaded into an interior surface of a hollow image-processing drum by releasably adhering a sheet of the film to a carrier. The carrier is admitted into the drum and positioned in spaced relation to the interior surface of the drum. The upper surface of the carrier is urged to the surface of the drum to place the sheet in residence against the interior surface of the drum. The sheet of film is releasably adhered to the drum and the carrier is removed from the drum. A receptor sheet may be placed within the drum and a donor sheet placed over it in a similar manner.

Abstract: According to this invention, there is provided an information recording medium including a substrate, a metal layer formed on the substrate, and a recording layer formed on the metal layer and being formed a recorded portion and a non-recorded portion by changing optical characteristics by radiating a recording light beam, wherein the recording layer contains GeSbTe, a reflectance of the recorded portion of the recording layer is higher than that of the non-recorded portion, and a reflectance of the non-recorded portion is not less than 10%. Focusing and tracking operations can be stably performed.

Abstract: An optical recording medium comprises a transparent substrate, an inner protection layer, a recording material layer, an outer protection layer, and a reflection layer, which are laminated in this order. In an in-groove recording mode, the ratio of the thickness of the recording material layer to the thickness of the outer protection layer is in a range between 0.52 and 0.95. In an on-land recording mode, the ratio of the thickness of the recording material layer to the thickness of the outer protection layer is in a range between 0.32 and 0.6.

Abstract: A thermal transfer printer includes a rotating drum for transporting a sheet of paper together with and at the periphery of the drum, a plurality of guide rollers for guiding the paper sheet disposed on the periphery of the drum and rotated while in contact with the drum, an ink film which moves with the paper sheet, and a thermal transfer printing head for heating the ink film by irradiating light modulated according to image data so that the ink of the ink film is transferred onto the paper sheet. The printer further includes a tube for pressing the ink film and paper sheet against the drum, the tube containing the printing head therein and being formed of a transparent material, and a device for supporting the tube so that the tube comes into contact with the drum.

Abstract: An image formation apparatus using a recording medium including a scattering-mode light-modulation member which takes an opaque state in response to a heat and takes a transparent state in response to an electric field. The apparatus comprises an electrode device disposed in opposed relation to the recording medium and a charge removal device facing or in contact with the recording medium. The electrode device applies an electric field to the recording medium thereby completely erasing an image previously recorded in the recording medium and the charge removal device removes charge left in the recording medium due to application of the electric field by the electrode device. After the erasure, the recording medium is heated by a thermal head in accordance with an information signal from an external device so as to form a new image in the recording medium.

Abstract: An optical recording disk includes a dye base recording layer, an intermediate layer, and a reflective layer on a substrate in the described order. The reflective layer is composed of one or more metal elements, for example, copper alloy, and the intermediate layer contains a compound of the one metal element or a compound of at least one of the metal elements, for example copper oxide. The intermediate layer minimizes undesirable interactions between the recording and reflective layers.

Abstract: An optical record carrier with a substrate (1) having thereon a stack (3) of a reflection layer (4), an interference layer (5) and a phase-change recording-layer (6) in that order, the incident radiation being first incident on the reflection layer. Due to this structure of the stack a high contrast between the inscribed and uninscribed areas of the recording layer, and/or a high reflection, is obtained.

Abstract: In an optical recording medium comprising a recording layer on a substrate, the recording layer contains a recording material which consists essentially of A, B, C, MI, and MII wherein A is Ag and/or Au, B is In, C is Te and/or Se, MI is Sb and/or Bi, and MII is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Mn, W and Mo, the atomic ratio of the respective elements being represented by the formula:[(A.sub.a B.sub.b C.sub.1-a-b).sub.x MI.sub.1-x ].sub.1-y MII.sub.ywherein 0.01.ltoreq.a<0.50, 0.01.ltoreq.b<0.50, 0.30.ltoreq.x.ltoreq.0.70, and 0.001.ltoreq.y.ltoreq.0.20. Information is recorded and erased by exposing the recording layer to a light beam for causing the recording layer to change its crystallographic state. The invention improves C/N and repetitive recording performance at a low linear velocity of the recording layer relative to the light beam and enables reproduction in accordance with the CD standard.

Abstract: An information recording medium comprises a semiconductor layer and a layer of a ferroelectric substance overlaid on the semiconductor layer, information being recorded by means of directions of polarization of the ferroelectric substance. The ferroelectric substance is an organic ferroelectric substance, such that recorded information may not be lost during its reproduction and a sufficiently high level of a reproduced signal may be obtained.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for adapting a low precision lead screw to perform in a high precision application by compensating for cyclical positioning errors that are produced by the lead screw. A stage assembly driven by a stepper motor is individually characterized and its inherent cyclical positioning error is stored in a memory device. The memory device is used to control a driving circuit that controls an operation of the stepper motor. The stepper motor is driven in a non-uniform manner that is complementary to a pattern of cyclical positioning errors in the stage assembly. As a consequence, a stage, driven by the lead screw, moves in a uniform manner. The system is disclosed in the context of a printer in which a receiver is driven at a uniform rate by an inexpensive low precision lead screw.

Abstract: An optical disc for use as a compact disc, an optical video disc, or the like has a disc substrate of a light-transmissive material such as polycarbonate, PMMA, or the like. The disc substrate has a pattern of pits and lands formed as representing an information signal on at least one surface thereof. A thin reflective layer of a-corrosion-resistant metallic material such as an alloy of Fe, Ni, and Co is deposited on the disc substrate over the pattern of pits and lands. The optical disc is relatively inexpensive to manufacture as no protective layer needs to be deposited on the reflective layer and is also highly resistant to loss of performance with aging because the reflective layer is made of a corrosion-resistant metallic material.

Abstract: An optical information recording medium includes a ROM region in which information has been recorded in the form of pits in a substrate, and from which the recorded information can be reproduced upon application of a laser beam thereto, and a recording region in which information can be recorded in the form of pits from which the recorded information can be reproduced upon application of a laser beam thereto, with the improvement wherein a reflective layer is provided in a ROM region portion of the substrate in the ROM region, and a recording layer is overlaid on both the reflective layer in the ROM region portion and a recording portion of the substrate in the recording region.

Abstract: A composite disc in which a pattern of spaced glue dots is sandwiched between two disc halves. One of the disc halves is a dummy disc, and the other is a recordable optical disc. The pair of disc halves are joined together by depositing a pattern of spaced glue dots on the upper surface of one of the discs, positioning the second disc over the first, and contacting the lower surface of the second disc with the pattern of spaced glue dots. Preferably, the material of the glue dots is an ultraviolet curable contact cement, and, subsequent to the application of the pattern of dots on the dummy disc, and prior to joining the two disc halves, the glue dots are cured by being exposed to a source of ultraviolet light.

Abstract: A machine-readable serial number is formed on a CD-ROM by using a laser to selectively remove a reflective layer from the CD-ROM. Removal of the reflective layer creates defects in addressable information storage locations on the CD-ROM. The serial number is read by detecting the defects. The serial number is used in a software distribution system in which many different software programs are distributed on a single CD-ROM and an access code based on the desired software program and the serial number of a particular CD-ROM is used to "unlock" the desired program on the particular CD-ROM.

Abstract: In a record medium wherein information is recorded and/or erased by changing the optical state thermally by the irradiation with a laser beam or the like, a protection layer made from a material having a larger thermal conductivity than adjacent protection layers is used to decrease the temperature difference between the center and edges of a record mark on recording and/or erasing with a laser beam. By using the material having a larger thermal conductivity, the heat due to the irradiation with a laser beam or the like is diffused not only to the periphery of the substrate, but also to the plane of the substrate surely. Therefore, the temperature difference between the center and the edges in a mark on irradiation with the laser beam is decreased, and the recording/erasing characteristics and the power margin for erasing can be improved.

Abstract: An optical recording medium includes a recording layer which contains as major components an element (A) selected from Ag, Au, Cu and Pt, an element (B) selected from Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Mn, W and Mo, and an element (C) selected from Te, Se and S. The medium features high performance and versatile use.

Abstract: A process of forming a single color, dye ablation image having an improved D-min comprising imagewise heating by means of a laser, a dye-ablative recording element comprising a support having thereon a dye layer comprising an image dye dispersed in a polymeric binder and an infrared-absorbing material, the laser exposure taking place through the dye side of the element, and removing the ablated image dye material to obtain an image in the dye-ablative recording element, and wherein the element contains an interlayer containing infrared-absorbing material and which is located between the support and the dye layer.