The Effect of Heat Transfer Process on the Print Quality in Thermal Printers

Abstract

The printing characteristics of thermal printers are studied through an analysis of the developing process of the temperature field formed within a thermal paper. The thermal print head is treated as a moving heat source with a finite width which generates heat according to the control signal. A two-dimensional unsteady energy equation is solved numerically and the time-dependent temperature field within the thermal paper is obtained. The effects of various parameters such as the distribution of heat flux along the head, the width of the thermal head, the head speed, the heating duration, etc. on the temperature distribution in the area for printing one dot are examined and printing performance is discussed.