DIGITAL DECORATING SYSTEM

摘要

A digital decorating system (10) for transferring a selected image to a surface (25) of an article (26) includes a thermal head (42), an advancing mechanism (22) for producing relative movement between the printhead (42) and the surface (25) of the article (26), and a force member (41) for exerting a selected amount of pressure between the thermal line of pixels and the surface of the article (25). The thermal printhead (42) includes a plurality of energizable heater elements constructed to deliver heat to a thermal line of pixels on a surface of the printhead (42). The digital decorating system (10) also includes a microcontroller (16) operatively connected to the printhead (42), the force member (41) and the advancing mechanism (22) to provide control signals selectively delivering heat to pixels of the thermal line and selectively causing the movement thereby thermally transferring, over a two-dimensional array of pixels, a two-dimensional image to the article surface (25). The microcontroller (16) can classify the pixels corresponding to the image into parimeter pixels and interior pixels and control energy levels delivered to each pixel cooperatively depend on a level of energy previously delivered to the pixel, on levels of energy delivered to neighboring pixels and on a level of energy required at the pixel to thermally transfer the image to the surface (25).