Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8106932 | Image formation apparatus and method for forming image An image formation apparatus includes a transporting section configured to transport a thermal transfer sheet; a carrying section configured to carry a thermal transfer receiving sheet; a thermal head configured to sequentially thermally transfer the color material ... | 01/31/2012 |
| 7528852 | Method of differentiating types of heat sensitive paper A method of differentiating a type of heat sensitive paper is provided. The method comprises the steps of a) printing a test pattern on a surface of the heat sensitive paper using a thermal printhead, b) detecting the test pattern using an optical sensor, c) determi... | 05/05/2009 |
| 7372475 | System and method for thermal transfer print head profiling A thermal transfer print head is disclosed. The print head includes a housing configured and dimensioned to be installable within the printer, a plurality of resistive heating elements positioned on an external surface of the housing and in thermal contact with a pr... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7339686 | System and method for intelligent print quality selection A system and method are provided for intelligently selecting a print quality setting. Print quality selection logic automatically selects one of a plurality of print quality settings based on data relating to document content, prior print setting selections, user in... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7336394 | Discriminating method for recording medium and recording apparatus A method for discriminating the kind of a recording medium comprises generating image information composed by plural pixels corresponding to a specific area on the surface of a recording medium as image information indicating the surface condition of the recording m... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7324125 | Method for automatic adjustment of media settings for a printer A method for automatically adjusting the setting of a thermal printer when a new roll of media is inserted in the printer. A maximum and a minimum energy needed to print are determined. This information is used to determine a coarse energy setting. The printer next ... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7321375 | Thermal printer, thermal printing method and thermosensitive recording material In a color thermal printer, a thermal head has an array of heating elements, arranged in a main scan direction, for thermal recording to respectively pixels on thermosensitive recording material. The recording material is moved relative to the thermal head in a sub ... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7301550 | CD recorder and printer A disc copying or recording device and a disc label printer are mounted in a common assembly, and include a printhead moveable along a guide shaft on a frame. A disc transport carriage is mounted on the same guide shaft as the printhead, can be moved along this guid... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7283146 | Thermal printer temperature management Systems and methods for providing thermal printhead thermal history temperature management by preprocessing target images are described. In one example, a thermal compensation process is applied to a target image to provide offset values in order to create a compens... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7271819 | Thermal printer that effectively controls heat buildup A thermal head has heating elements and is movable relative to a printing medium. A pulse application portion applies a drive voltage pulse selectively to the heating elements. A voltage measurement portion measures a head voltage applied to the thermal head. A tota... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7206010 | Systems and methods for providing a media located on a spool and/or a cartridge where the media includes a wireless communication device attached thereto A media supply apparatus and associated methods are provided. The apparatus can include a spool on which a media is wound, and/or the media can be provided in a cartridge either wound about a spool or wound about itself. A wireless device such as a programmable radi... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7139010 | Thermal head printer and process for printing substantially light-insensitive recording materials A thermal head printer with image-invariant printing speeds for printing a substantially light-insensitive thermographic material having a print density-driving power level characteristic, the thermal head printer comprising a transport means, one or more thermal he... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7119822 | Printer and consumables for use in printer A consumable for use in a printer has a consumable section (for example, paper or ink ribbon) which is consumed during printing operation of the printer, and an RFID tag that stores the specification data of the consumable section. The printer has a printing section... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7114377 | Methods and systems for ascertaining the roughness of a print media surface In one embodiment, a printing device comprises a printer configured to print upon paper, a surface-engaging member associated with the printer and configured to physically engage a paper surface, the surface-engaging member comprising a flexure material body that is... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7101100 | Printer apparatus Provided is a printer apparatus, including: a thermal print head that performs printing by contacting a heat-sensitive color-developing layer of a heat-sensitive adhesive sheet that includes a printable surface made from the heat-sensitive color-developing layer on ... | 09/05/2006 |
| 7099032 | Printer control based on detection of envelope-sized print medium In performing a printing operation, upon designating the type of paper by inputting it, a paper type table is searched to determine whether the designated type of paper requires a special printing operation, such as reverse feeding and printing. If the above-mention... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7038779 | System and method for sensing variations in a strand A system for monitoring production of uniform strands, such as medical sutures, utilizes a measurement head through which the strand passes. The measurement head includes a plurality of light beams illuminating a corresponding number of sensors. The light beams all ... | 05/02/2006 |
| 6923532 | Efficient yellow thermal imaging ribbon The invention relates to a donor for thermal imaging including a base and dye layer, wherein said dye layer includes yellow dye and binder in a ratio of about 0.63, and said base has a thickness of between 4 to 4.75 micrometers. ... | 08/02/2005 |
| 6916131 | Image forming device customizing the image to fit the paper length A tandem-type image forming device is provided which includes a plurality of photosensitive drums, a paper edge detecting section to detect a front edge and a rear edge of a sheet of paper, an exposure starting time calculating unit for each of a plurality of photos... | 07/12/2005 |
| 6626098 | Master making device for a stencil printer A master making device of the present invention includes a thermal head having a plurality of heating elements arranged in an array in the main scanning direction. A platen roller forms a nip between it and the thermal head for pressing a stencil. The pla... | 09/30/2003 |
| 6606107 | Printing system, thermal printer, printer control method, and data storage medium A printing system, a thermal printer, a printer driver, a printing control method, and a data storage medium control the printing process according to the type of thermal paper that is loaded into the printer when the paper is replaced. By appropriately c... | 08/12/2003 |
| 6593952 | Printer system, printer apparatus, printing method, ink ribbon and printing medium A printer system, a printer apparatus, a printing method, an ink ribbon and a printing medium that certainly and effectively prevent a quality of printed image from being degraded without causing trouble to a user. More concretely, the printing medium is ... | 07/15/2003 |
| 6447181 | Variable position, force and velocity printer A printer for printing onto substrates includes a housing that mounts a movable carrier for the substrates such as a compact disc or digital versatile disc. The carrier for the substrate is driven relative to the printhead while printing takes place, and ... | 09/10/2002 |
| 6345920 | Method of energy control in printing with transfer ribbon and direct thermo material in thermo-printers The invention relates to a method for controlling the amount of energy from a printer head in a thermo-printer. The appropriate amount of energy for obtaining the best possible print quality with a certain printing material is controlled through calculati... | 02/12/2002 |
| 6335749 | Process and apparatus for printing and decorating by means of sublimable inks A process for printing and decorating an article by the use of sublimable inks, includes providing preformed images on a substrate, these preformed images are obtained using the sublimable inks; applying the substrate on surfaces of the article; applying ... | 01/01/2002 |
| 6250824 | Thermal transfer recording method and thermal transfer printer A thermal transfer recording method and a thermal transfer printer, which can provide a high quality recorded image by controlling the number of underlying ink printing operations in accordance with the properties of a print sheet, and forming boundaries ... | 06/26/2001 |
| 6211894 | Image forming method In an image forming method in that an image-receiving layer of an image-receiving element is in contact with an ink sheet comprising a thermally transferable dye, and the dye is transferred to the image-receiving layer in accordance with imagewise-heating... | 04/03/2001 |
| 6206589 | Printer ribbon compensation The printer is adapted to print an image onto a substrate using a web carrying a color material. The printer includes a web supply configured to supply the web and a web take-up configured to receive the web. A print head is configured to material from th... | 03/27/2001 |
| 6166753 | Thermal printer A thermal printer applies heat to print a multicolor image on a heat-sensitive paper having a stack of color development layers which have different development characteristics. The printer includes a paper feed motor for feeding the heat-sensitive paper,... | 12/26/2000 |
| 6141028 | Printer and control method therefor A printer and control method for printing to various types of recording media store printing modes appropriate to those various types of recording media in a mode/media memory section. When a particular printing mode is selected while a particular type of... | 10/31/2000 |
| 6023284 | Method and apparatus for the maximization of print quality in a multipass thermal printer ribbon A method and apparatus for maximizing print quality in a thermal printer uses a ribbon condition monitor to detect the condition of a multipass thermal ribbon. Data related to the condition of the thermal ribbon at each individual pixel is used to determi... | 02/08/2000 |
| 5946020 | Method and apparatus for the maximization of print quality in a multipass thermal printer ribbon A method and apparatus for maximizing print quality in a thermal printer uses a ribbon condition monitor to detect the condition of a multipass thermal ribbon. Data related to the condition of the thermal ribbon at each individual pixel is used to determi... | 08/31/1999 |
| 5860751 | Thermal transfer printer Provided is a thermal transfer printer which can stably perform recording using an ink ribbon formed of a base member coated with heat-fusible ink and recording using an ink ribbon formed of a base member coated with heat-sublimated ink without needing an... | 01/19/1999 |
| 5815191 | Direct thermal printing method and apparatus A method and apparatus is provided for operating a direct electrostatic printer whereby no printer adjustments are required by the operator. The direct thermal printer includes a print head and a variable speed motor for reproducing images on an imaging e... | 09/29/1998 |
| 5809879 | Control device for a thermosensitive stencil printer A control device for a thermosensitive stencil printer capable of perforating a stencil in an optimal configuration matching a desired resolution in the subscanning direction and thereby producing desirable images. The device allows perforations to be for... | 09/22/1998 |
| 5771803 | Tape cassette housing thermally perforatable stencil paper A tape cassette used in a tape printer, the tape cassette including a thermal stencil paper thermally perforatable by a thermal print head of the tape printer; and a stencil sheet case housing the thermal stencil paper and having a portion shaped the same... | 06/30/1998 |
| 5719616 | Thermal transfer film cassette and thermal transfer recording method A thermal transfer film cassette (1) used after having been removably loaded in a thermal transfer printer (2) is disclosed, which enables an appropriate printing without being used erroneously by the thermal transfer printer and without being forged or c... | 02/17/1998 |
| 5711621 | Method and apparatus for selecting printer parameters for different types of print media A thermal printer is provided which can be easily calibrated by an operator for any selected type of print media. The thermal printer includes a thermal print head and a rotatable platen adapted to draw a print media therebetween. The thermal print head i... | 01/27/1998 |
| 5689297 | Thermosensitive stencil printer capable of controlling image density In a thermosensitive stencil printer, a sensor responsive to the temperature of a thermal head and at least either of a sensor responsive to the temperature of ink and keys for entering a desired image density are provided. Cutting energy to be applied to... | 11/18/1997 |
| 5685222 | Control device for a thermosensitive stencil printer A control device for a thermosensitive stencil printer which is capable of perforating a stencil in an optimal configuration matching a desired resolution in the subscanning direction and thereby producing desirable images. The device allows perforations ... | 11/11/1997 |
