According to an embodiment, a printer includes a thermal head with a plurality of heaters. A memory device stores utilization information indicating a status or cumulative usage amount of the thermal head. A processor is configured to acquire a measured resistance value for each of the heaters in the plurality of heaters and detect whether the thermal head has been changed since a previous use based on differences in the measured resistance values from reference resistance values. If it is detected that the thermal head has been changed, the processor updates the utilization information in the memory device to indicate the thermal head has been replaced.

The invention relates to a wear compensation device (1) of a label printer (2) which prints labels (3) by means of thermal printing, having a thermal head (4) which has a thermal strip (5) with a plurality of heating resistors (6), having a label feeding device (8) which feeds the respective label (3) to the active region (9) of the heating resistors (6), and having a control device (10) which actuates the thermal head (4) for printing the respective label (3). It is proposed that the control device (10) is configured to monitor the electric resistance (R) of one or more of the heating resistors (6) and, if a predefined threshold value (R1) for the electric resistance (R) is exceeded, to increase the energization duration of the respective heating resistor (6) during a printing operation.

According to an embodiment, a printer includes a thermal head with a plurality of heaters. A memory device stores utilization information indicating a status or cumulative usage amount of the thermal head. A processor is configured to acquire a measured resistance value for each of the heaters in the plurality of heaters and detect whether the thermal head has been changed since a previous use based on differences in the measured resistance values from reference resistance values. If it is detected that the thermal head has been changed, the processor updates the utilization information in the memory device to indicate the thermal head has been replaced.

The thermal printer includes a heating element, and a voltage supply circuit that supplies a drive voltage and a test voltage to the heating element. The voltage supply circuit includes a drive voltage supply circuit that is coupled to the heating element and that turns ON the supply of the drive voltage to the heating element, a test voltage supply circuit that is coupled to the heating element and that turns ON the supply of the test voltage to the heating element, a drive voltage stop circuit setting the supply of the drive voltage of the drive voltage supply circuit OFF, and a test voltage stop circuit setting the supply of the test voltage of the test voltage supply circuit OFF.

The present invention provides a thermal sensing device having cleaning function and the method for using the same. The thermal sensing device comprises a top lid and a bottom lid. The top lid includes a thermal sensing member; the bottom lid includes a paper roller correspondingly. When the top lid covers the bottom lid, the paper roller contacts the thermal sensing member. To clean, take out the paper roller, dispose a cleaning roller inside the bottom lid, and cover the top lid to the bottom lid so that the thermal sensing member contacts the cleaning roller. Drive a motor in the bottom lid to rotate the cleaning roller. Since the cleaning roller includes an antistatic glue layer, the cleaning roller will adhere to one or more object on the thermal sensing member via the antistatic glue layer.

In accordance with an embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a thermal head including a plurality of heat generation elements and configured to form an image on a sheet using heat generated by the heat generation element; a health check section configured to diagnose conditions of the heat generation elements; and a control section configured to control the health check section to execute a health check processing when the thermal head is not executing a job of forming an image and diagnose conditions of remaining heat generation elements in a next health check processing when the health check processing is interrupted.

The thermal printer includes a heating element, and a voltage supply circuit that supplies a drive voltage and a test voltage to the heating element. The voltage supply circuit includes a drive voltage supply circuit that is coupled to the heating element and that turns ON the supply of the drive voltage to the heating element, a test voltage supply circuit that is coupled to the heating element and that turns ON the supply of the test voltage to the heating element, a drive voltage stop circuit setting the supply of the drive voltage of the drive voltage supply circuit OFF, and a test voltage stop circuit setting the supply of the test voltage of the test voltage supply circuit OFF.

A thermal printer has a thermal head with multiple heat elements for printing on roll paper; a measurer that measures heat element resistance; printer memory storing a resistance evaluation table relating the resistance of the heat elements to heat element defect levels defined based on a specific range of reflectivity in the symbol image; and an evaluator that references the resistance evaluation table stored in printer memory, acquires a defect level based on the resistance measured by the measurer, and evaluates the defect state of the thermal head based on the defect level of a consecutively adjacent count of heat elements.

In accordance with an embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a thermal head including a plurality of heat generation elements and configured to form an image on a sheet using heat generated by the heat generation element; a health check section configured to diagnose conditions of the heat generation elements; and a control section configured to control the health check section to execute a health check processing when the thermal head is not executing a job of forming an image and diagnose conditions of remaining heat generation elements in a next health check processing when the health check processing is interrupted.

The invention relates to a wear compensation device (1) of a label printer (2) which prints labels (3) by means of thermal printing, having a thermal head (4) which has a thermal strip (5) with a plurality of heating resistors (6), having a label feeding device (8) which feeds the respective label (3) to the active region (9) of the heating resistors (6), and having a control device (10) which actuates the thermal head (4) for printing the respective label (3). It is proposed that the control device (10) is configured to monitor the electric resistance (R) of one or more of the heating resistors (6) and, if a predefined threshold value (R1) for the electric resistance (R) is exceeded, to increase the energization duration of the respective heating resistor (6) during a printing operation.