TITLE	Development of Rewritable Print Technology of the Low Energy by Reversible Reaction Dye (Joint Program to Promote Technological Development with the Private Sectors)
AUTHOR	RITE-FUCHU LABORATORY in CYBER IMAGING CORPORATION
SOURCE
ABSTRACT	We worked out nine developing themes to decrease the consumption energy based on plain paper usage at office and home. Current rewritable print method consists of two heating steps; the first step is erasing of all characters by a heater drum and the second step is writing new characters by a conventional thermal head. Our method realizes erasing of previous written characters and writing of new characters at the same time by heating one Intelligent Thermal head. Our Intelligent Thermal Technology can control heating by the accumulation of applied heat energy of erasing and writing character for every heating element. The base material of the rewritable media is adopted by PET film. The rewritable media is available for 1,000 times re-printing. 1. The Development of the Energy Control Program for Trail Thermal Head We have evaluated our thermal head of edge type equipped with the newly developed circuit board and the control programs of circuit board. We have developed the control programs for the rewritable media of 125 microns thickness PET film for two years. In 2007, we have developed new control programs that can implement one pass rewriting. 2. The Development of Rewritable Card Printer In 2006, we decided that we would develop two kinds of card printers. One is for thin base card printer, the other is for thick base card printer. However we achieved one card printer for both thin base card and thick base card. 3. The Development of Trial Thermal Head As regards our edge thermal head, we have modified the removal of electric noise signals, the change of control signal. We also have improved control program by adpting low price flexible cable. We have developed new driving circuit board and flexible cable to avoid the electric noise signals occurred on our edge thermal head. 4. The Designing of Electric Circuit and the Development of the Driver Circuit Board / Control Circuit Board We have designed an electric circuit of the new driving circuit board and the heating control board. 5. The Composition of the Driver Circuit Board / Control Circuit Board We mounted the driving circuit board and also the heating control circuit board on the rewritable printer and built them up. 6. The Development of Rewritable Printer (Kanban) for Information Card We have considered requirments to develop a new card printer, downsizing of A4 thermal head, high speed processing for heating control circuit board, mechanical specification, the layout modification of low noise power source and electric signal cable, heating control programs and the designing smaller power source. In the past, there had been so many sizes of rewritable media in “Kanban” application from A4 size (210mmX297mm) to 85mmX200mm in the market. Recently, the sizes of rewritable media have been put together into two sizes. We have to reconsider the printer specification, as A4 size will not become main size on “Kanban” application in the near future. We will reconsider the printing speed, too. 7. Trial Development of Rewritable Printer for Office Use We have considered communizing thermal head, mechanism, circuit board, control programs, interconnection to decrease the cost. We also considered themes as follows; the requirement for development, making the thermal head for A4 size smaller, high speed processing by designing of heating control circuit board, mechanism specification, improving the layout of low noise power source / electric signal cable, the specification of heating control programs and compact power source. We have considered the development of rewritable office printer of A4 size as well as “Kanban” printer. Such common usage can surely implement the cost down. However, the size of “Kanban” has been changed. Therefore we cannot easily develop the A4 size’s rewritable office printer, because the printer size of office rewritable printer is different from “Kanban” printer at this stage. Also we cannot mount the edge type’s thermal head on the office rewritable printer without any modification. As a result, the size of the printer has become big. So we will develop the office rewritable printer after reconsidering miniaturization in next year. 8. The Performance Evaluation and Environmental Test of Trial Rewritable Printer After composing card printers, we have evaluated the developed rewritable printers whether they have been equipped with the performances as designed. We evaluated the minimum and maximum optical density, unevenness of density and reliability of rewriting. We have checked all of them. We have evaluated the environmental test of operation and reliability at 5℃ and 35℃. 9. The Development of Second Trial Product Parts and Related Control Programs We have developed application programs for marketing and we have developed printer case, motor, pin, guide panel, holder of bottom board and circuit board, stay, color for deciding the layout, platen roller, transportation roller, cooling wheel, gear, shaft, Selfoc lens alley set and flange.