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 |
| 8098267 | Thermal printer apparatus and printing method To provide a thermal printer apparatus and a printing method that can be adapted to different types of thermal paper having different thermal conductivity characteristics, a dot data memory 3 stores dot data for each line in synchronization with line sequenti... | 01/17/2012 |
| 7314322 | Printing system that corrects image data based on environmental history data A printing system according to the present invention includes a media terminal box which may be installed on a street. In the box, there are disposed a measuring device that measures the temperature or humidity in the box, a device such as a CPU, and a storage devic... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7307754 | Density control method for image control apparatuses and image forming apparatus capable of executing the method There is provided an image forming apparatus which is capable of quickly performing measurements required for obtaining a proper image density. The image forming apparatus having a plurality of image forming apparatuses performs an image density adjustment control p... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7304658 | Thermal printer and method for correcting the energizing time data for heating elements in the thermal printer A thermal printer comprises: a ROM 11 for storing a heat history correction table; a RAM 12 for storing the density-related energizing time data for the first and second preceding lines printed immediately before the current line to be printed and the ... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7283282 | Method of adjusting color in a color proof The present invention is a method of adjusting a color in a color proof (112) printed with primary colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. It is accomplished by: a) combining the cyan bitmap (2), magenta bitmap (4... | 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 |
| 7271818 | Thermal transfer printing system and method with improved print quality and printhead life in cold ambient temperature conditions A method of controlling a thermal transfer printhead by selectively activating the printhead heater elements at customized pulse widths specifically developed for low temperature printing applications (less than 5° C.). Through the application of specific control s... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7259775 | Image recording apparatus A small-size color printer which can perform printing while generation of wrinkles is prevented in an ink ribbon to suppress decrease in print quality caused by the wrinkles of the ink ribbon is provided. A status of image data in a print area is determined, and pri... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7004554 | Ink jet printing apparatus The present invention performs a uniform lamination on a print medium by controlling generated heat of the thermal head for forming a protective layer according to a volume of water contained in the print medium. For this purpose, the apparatus has a printing unit t... | 02/28/2006 |
| 6870638 | Halftone processing apparatus using distributing PWM method An image processing apparatus for a laser printer, wherein a halftone control through laser pulse modulation (PWM) is used in combination with distributed clustered-dot halftone processing which distributes a tone level over four clustered-dots, and the value repres... | 03/22/2005 |
| 6145951 | Method and apparatus for correcting printhead, printhead corrected by this apparatus, and printing apparatus using this printhead An apparatus and method for correcting printing characteristics of a full-line printhead, and producing a high-printing quality printhead at high manufacturing yield, a corrected printhead by this apparatus, and a printer employing this printhead are disc... | 11/14/2000 |
| 6017159 | Tape printing apparatus The invention is directed to a tape printing apparatus having a cassette receiving bay adapted to receive a cassette which contains an image receiving tape, with a print head and a platen roll being relatively movable into an operative position ready for ... | 01/25/2000 |
| 6008831 | Apparatus for controlling driving of thermal printhead A plurality of shift register groups 13a-13d each consisting of a plurality of registers are provided to store a next one of printing data, a current one of the printing data, a predetermined number of previous ones of the printing data and a predetermine... | 12/28/1999 |
| 5808653 | Thermal gradation printing apparatus In the disclosed thermal gradation printing apparatus, heat elements in a line-type thermal head are divided into a plurality of groups, and an accumulated heat amount in the substrate of the thermal head for each group is estimated based on the pulse wid... | 09/15/1998 |
| 5644351 | Thermal gradation printing apparatus In the disclosed thermal gradation printing apparatus, heat elements in a line-type thermal head are divided into a plurality of groups, and an accumulated heat amount in the substrate of the thermal head for each group is estimated based on the pulse wid... | 07/01/1997 |
| 5599113 | Thermal printer A compact thermal line printer includes a guiding portion that releases a thermal line printing head from contact with a platen roller responsive to opening of a cover member. The edges of the cover member are recessed to form paper insert and discharge s... | 02/04/1997 |
| 5339099 | Line thermal printer having driving pulses of variable pulse width This invention is directed to provide a line thermal printer which controls a power supply quantity to a thermal head by high speed control below a second unit and can insure always a predetermined printing density. The line thermal printer includes circu... | 08/16/1994 |
| 5255011 | Thermal printer drive control apparatus and method of controlling thermal print head A thermal printer drive control apparatus of the type having a thermal print head comprising a plurality of heating elements provides for reliable cost effective thermal head temperature detection by means of producing multiple, different current flow int... | 10/19/1993 |
| 5184150 | Thermal printer for providing printed characters with a uniform density The present thermal printer provides a high-speed printing table and a low-speed printing table in addition to the thermal printing head containing dot heating elements and a switch for switching the printing mode. The high-speed printing table contains p... | 02/02/1993 |
| 5109235 | Recording density correcting apparatus A recording density correcting apparatus in a recorder for performing a recording operation at a multiple gradation by a thermal head having a plurality of heating resistors. The apparatus has a counting device for counting a level frequency with respect ... | 04/28/1992 |
| 5025267 | Thermal print head termperature control An apparatus and method is disclosed for controlling the temperature of a thermal print head and individual dot elements thereon, thereby optimizing print quality and reducing the thermal and electrical stress on the thermal print head. Hysteresis control... | 06/18/1991 |
| 5006866 | Thermal printing apparatus responsive to estimated stored heat of the heating element A thermal printing apparatus comprises a thermal head which has a plurality of heat generating elements to generate a heat according to an image. A temperature of the thermal head is detected by a thermister. The thermal head is controlled by a thermal he... | 04/09/1991 |
| 4983994 | Thermal transfer type printing device A printing device suitable for printing on a record medium for use in an overhead projector (OHP) prints at a density controlled as a function of the type of an OHP (transmission type of reflection type) in which the record medium will be used, and/or as ... | 01/08/1991 |
| 4951152 | Circuit for controlling thermal array recording head A PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) control circuit for printing apparata comprises a memory for storing digitized image data, a main converter connected to the memory for converting upper bits of the digitzed image data into a main pulse-width modulated signa... | 08/21/1990 |
| 4764858 | Energy controller A circuit for delivering a predetermined amount of energy to a load without regulating the voltage across the load is described. An a.c. or rectified sine wave is controlled. There is no capacitive smoothing of the applied voltage. A time counter is activ... | 08/16/1988 |
| 4700199 | Print quality controller for a thermal printer A thermal printer has a plurality of electrodes arranged in a column for applying heat to a resistive ribbon to transfer material from the resistive ribbon to a recording medium. When the electrode is to be energized in the present cycle but was not energ... | 10/13/1987 |
| 4685069 | Heat storage correction apparatus A heat storage correction apparatus and method determines the degree of solidity of a picture data to be recorded and increases the quantity of energy supplied to data elements recording substantially solid portions of the picture elements.... | 08/04/1987 |
| 4663734 | Print pulse controller for a termal printhead A thermal print pulse controller and data shifter accomplishes control of a thermal print pulse by altering the pulse width of the print pulse according to the printing history. Data is obtained from the printhead and recirculated for logical operation wi... | 05/05/1987 |
| 4607262 | Thermal head drive circuit A thermal head drive circuit for use with a thermal head comprising multiple heat generating elements for data recording comprising a heat accumulation calculating unit (36) for calculating the heat residual from prior recording steps and a pulse width ca... | 08/19/1986 |
| 4590487 | Thermal recording apparatus A thermal head drive circuit is provided in which the thermal energy applied during printing is corrected due to the black-white ratio, the thermal head's heat accumulation and the heat history data. The circuit includes a heat accumulation state operator... | 05/20/1986 |
| 4574293 | Compensation for heat accumulation in a thermal head Electric energy to be applied to each heating element of the thermal head is controlled by taking into account the energy applied to the heating element one scan period before as well as the effect of heat accumulated in heating elements surrounding the h... | 03/04/1986 |
| 4566813 | Dot-matrix print controller A dot-matrix print controller having a dot pattern generating means for generating a dot pattern to be printed and a means for supplying current pulses to a dot-matrix print head in accordance with an output of said dot pattern generating means, said cont... | 01/28/1986 |
| 4567488 | Thermal head drive device A method and device for driving a thermal head taking into consideration not only picture data already recorded and picture data on the line containing the aimed data currently being recorded, but also picture data intended to be recorded.... | 01/28/1986 |
| 4560992 | Image recording arrangement The disclosure is directed to an image recording arrangement for use in a facsimile equipment and the like, adapted to effect an image recording at rough density for standard information and an image recording at high density for fine information at a den... | 12/24/1985 |
| 4536774 | Thermal head drive circuit A thermal head drive circuit with the input connected to a source of printing data and the output connected to a thermal head including heater elements, so as to improve the printing quality of a thermal head recording apparatus for printing successive li... | 08/20/1985 |
| 4524368 | Thermal head drive circuit A thermal head drive circuit with the input connected to a source of printing data and the output connected to a thermal head including heater elements, so as to improve the picture quality of a thermal head recording apparatus for printing successive lin... | 06/18/1985 |
| 4309712 | Thermal printer A thermal printer includes a memory for storing recording information supplied to a thermal printing head, and control circuitry for comparing the recording information stored in the memory with new recording information supplied subsequently to the previ... | 01/05/1982 |
