SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The ATLANTEK Model 200 thermal response test system is designed to provide thermal
response vs. print density for imaging on direct thermal or thermal transfer media. This
system is based on a special purpose ATLANTEK controller board which drives a standard
thermal printhead and a programmable stepping drive controller. The system includes
provision for mounting four standard performance thermal printheads. The system is
controlled from a personal computer with parameter programming accomplished from menu
driven software designed specifically for thermal response and performance characterizations.
For a given printhead and media type the primary factors which determine print quality are:
1) Printhead Substrate Temperature
2) Printhead Platen Pressure
3) Applied Dot Power or Voltage
4) Dot Pulse Duration(Ton)
5) Print Rate(Tcycle)
6) Dot Duty Cycle(% Dot) - Dots printed per line
The ATLANTEK system is designed to control and measure these parameters and to provide
results which not only produce the visual print data but which are stored in computer data files
and thus can be recalled and analyzed. The two key print timing parameters are Tcycle and
Ton. The difference between these two variables is Toff which represents the dot cooling time
between printed dot lines.
Tcycle = Ton + Toff
To provide meaningful test data Tcycle and SPEED must be related by the expression:
[ L / (SPEED X Tcycle) ] = 1
Where L is the amount of paper advance per dot line. In this system L is fixed at .125 mm
providing a square matrix. This is to avoid overlapping dot lines or creating spaces between
dot lines, either of which introduce error in the densitometer readings.
Thus the specification of SPEED implies a value of Tcycle. The parameter APPLIED DOT
POWER (P/DOT) is controlled by the applied VOLTAGE through the expression:
P/DOT = [ ( VOLTAGE - Vd )**2 / Rdot ]
where Vd and Rdot are parameters of the printhead. Thus the applied VOLTAGE determines
P/DOT.
The system, consists of four major components: the PRINT MECHANISM, the POWER
SUPPLY, the ATLANTEK controller board and a COMPUTER containing the SYSTEM
SOFTWARE.
