Application of Laser to Digital Printing

Abstract

Laser thermal transfer printing was first investigated in the early 1970's but dropped in favor of more compact and efficient thermal printers that employ small thermal print elements. Recently, several types of laser thermal printing using a high power laser diode were developed to make a color proofing and plate-making for offset lithography in graphic art. In this paper, several types of laser thermal printing technologies are introduced. The laser diode irradiation is absorbed as heat in the thermal media which results in local physical change such as melting, sublimation, ablation and a high definition image is formed by material transfer from a donor sheet to receiving sheet. A high definition image is obtained easily because a laser light can be focused to small spot on a donor sheet. A laser thermal printing is a convenient for achieving a high definition image.