LASER PRINTER

Laser Printer

Laser Printer

Testing Methods and Equipment

1. A laser printer, comprising a high output semi-conductor laser beam source, a polygon mirror arranged to move the laser beam relative to a recording medium and means to effect movement of the laser beam relative to the recording medium wherein an area of the recording medium is heatable by the laser beam.

2. A printer according to claim 1 in which the laser beam source has an output of at least 100 mW.

3. A printer according to claim 1 in which the polygon mirror is a scanning mirror.

4. A printer according to claim 3 which comprises means to move the recording medium is a non-parallel direction to the direction of scanning of the scanning mirror whereby an area of the inksheet is heatable by the laser beam.

5. A printer according to any preceding claim comprising a plurality of scanning polygon mirrors arranged such that the scanning widths of the mirrors are substantially parallel and/or coincident.

6. A printer according to claim 4 in which the scanning mirrors are arranged such that the scanning widths are adjacent end to end and the sum of the scanning widths of the mirrors is the total printable width.

7. A printer according to any preceding claim in which each laser beam passes through a polygon scanning mirror.

8. A method of thermal melt transfer printing which comprises placing a thermal melt transfer ink sheet comprising a substrate having an ink layer on one side in register with a receiver sheet with the ink layer facing the receiver sheet, heating pre-determined portions of the ink layer by means of a laser beam which is moveable relative to the ink sheet by means of a scanning polygon mirror in response to a pre-determined signal to effect thermal melt transfer of said portions of the ink layer to the receiver sheet wherein the laser beam is produced by a high output semi-conductor laser beam source.

9. A method according to claim 8 which comprises moving the ink sheet and receiver sheet in a non-parallel direction to the direction of scanning of the scanning mirror whereby an area of the inksheet is heatable.

10. A method according to claim 8 or claim 9 in which the laser beam source has an output of at least 100 mW.

11. A method according to any of claims 8 to 10 in which pre-determined portions of the ink layer are heated by a plurality of laser beams, each being moveable relative to the ink layer by a scanning polygon mirror, the said mirrors being arranged such that the scanning widths are adjacent end to end and the sum of the scanning widths is the total printable width.

Description

This invention relates to a laser printer and its use in thermosensitive recording, in particular to a laser printer having a high recording speed with high precision and high resolution and thermal transfer printing method, in particular to thermal melt transfer printing.

In recent years, thermal melt transfer printing record systems have found widespread use in recording ...