An illustrative heating section in a dye sublimation apparatus may include one or more individually controllable fans. More specifically, a computer or a controller may control speed and/or orientation of the fans for a convective heat transfer to a printed sheet in the heating section. Furthermore, the speed and/or orientation of the fans may be dynamically adjusted based upon the temperature requirement of different stages of the dye sublimation process. Compared to the conventional systems that rely only upon radiative heat which generally results in non-uniform heat distribution within the heating section, the embodiments disclosed herein generate a uniform or nearly uniform heat distribution and also avoid hot spots within the heating section.

An optical light reflectance measurement system above an imaging member surface measures fountain solution surface light reflectance interference on reflective substrate portions of the imaging member surface in real-time during a printing operation. The measured light reflectance interference corresponds to a thickness of the fountain solution layer and may be used in a feedback loop to actively control fountain solution layer thickness by adjusting the volumetric feed rate of fountain solution added onto the imaging member surface during a printing operation to reach a desired uniform thickness for the printing. This fountain solution monitoring system may be fully automated.

An image based correction system compensates for the image quality artifacts induced by thermal ghosting on evolving imaging member surfaces. With thermal ghosting directly tied to previous image content, a feed forward system determines thermal ghosting artifacts based on images previously rendered and generates an open loop gray-level correction to a current image that mitigates undesirable ghosting. For example, the correction system compensates for the thermal ghosting by making the current image “lighter” in areas that will be imaged onto warmer blanket regions, thereby cancelling out TRC differences between different temperature regions. A temperature sensor is used to measure the temperature of the imaging blanket due to the stresses induced by the image. This data is used to learn the parameters of the temperature model periodically during operation, and used in subsequent corrections to mitigate thermal ghosting in spite of changes in blanket properties over use and time.

A printing apparatus includes a cooling system for cooling a print medium. The cooling system includes a cooling member with a support surface configured for supporting the print medium. The cooling member has a first end and a second end and the support surface extends in a lateral direction between the first end and the second end. The cooling member is provided with supply channels and return channels extending between the first and the second end. A fluid circulation means supplies fluid through the supply channels from the first end to the second end, and back through the return channels from the second end to the first end.

A curable thermal interface material and a cooling device, and a cooling device manufacturing method thereof are provided. The curable thermal interface material includes thermal conductive material and polymeric material, which is formed from the mixture of thermal conductive material and polymeric material. The curable thermal interface material is disposed on the heat sink, so as to properly conduct heat from the heat source to the heat sink to achieve heat dissipation.

A cast and cure system which can be implemented by UV lacquer and which enables application of various patterns and sheathing on printed materials in areas such as flexible packaging, printing, serigraphy, label printing and offset tin printing. The system includes at least one UV cassette which enables the UV lacquer to pass under the UV light together with the belt and therefore curing the UV lacquer. The system relates to a micro embossing unit with belt-which has at least one cooler cylinder which cools the film coming out of the UV cassette, at least one cylinder which enables the film to be carried during the sheathing and at least one tension control system which automatically adjusts the tension of the cylinders.

Methods and systems of actively cooling a card while the card is within a card processing machine are described. One or more cooling stations are provided within the card processing machine to actively cool the card prior to performing a processing operation, during a processing operation, and/or after a processing operation on the card in order to reduce a temperature of the surface of the card.

A multi-sheet cooling buffer suitable for use in a printing device and a method of sheet processing with the cooling buffer are described. The cooling buffer includes an inlet and an outlet and a sheet cooling mechanism. An array of cooling stations, intermediate the inlet and the outlet, are each configured to receive print media sheets independently from the inlet and direct cooled sheets towards the outlet. In the cooling buffer, multiple print media sheets are able to be cooled contemporaneously in respective ones of the cooling stations.

A multi-sheet cooling buffer suitable for use in a printing device and a method of sheet processing with the cooling buffer are described. The cooling buffer includes an inlet and an outlet and a sheet cooling mechanism. An array of cooling stations, intermediate the inlet and the outlet, are each configured to receive print media sheets independently from the inlet and direct cooled sheets towards the outlet. In the cooling buffer, multiple print media sheets are able to be cooled contemporaneously in respective ones of the cooling stations.

A supporting structure for a temperature sensor, and a drying device provided with the supporting structure. The supporting structure includes a front panel, a rear panel, a first supporting member having both ends in a longer-side direction of the first supporting member, and a second supporting member attachable to and detachable from the first supporting member. In the supporting structure, both ends of the first supporting member are removably supported by the front panel and the rear panel. In the supporting structure, the temperature sensor is disposed on the second supporting member, and the temperature sensor detects a surface temperature of a heating roller disposed between the front panel and the rear panel.