INFRARED IMAGING STUDY OF PRINT HEAD TEMPERATURES OCCURRING DURING RESISTIVE RIBBON THERMAL TRANSFER PRINTING.

An infrared imaging system has been used to measure the thermal response of the print head electrodes during resistive ribbon thermal transfer printing. This has proved to be an effective method for fast, non-contact, high spatial resolution temperature measurements, providing valuable information on the thermal stress upon the head materials and on the amount of energy flowing into the head during printing.