A Model of Direct Thermal Printing

William T. Vetterling, Alexei Azarov, Brian Busch, and Chien Liu, ZINK Imaging , Massachusetts, USA

ZINK — Zero Ink — technology prints full-color digital images without cartridges or ribbons. Using timed heat pulses and temperatures, ZINK melts a coated medium infused with layers of dye crystals to release colors that then combine to produce photographic quality images.

The ZINK system consists of a thermal print head, the medium moving beneath the print head, and a rotating platen. The interplay between the mechanics, the thermal effects, and the chemical layers of the media structure is inherently a multiphysics problem.