Parkhurst, Wendel & Rossi
Thermal printing apparatus
 A printing apparatus for printing on a recording medium by using an ink film which has an electrically resistive layer and a thermally fusible and transferable ink layer. The apparatus includes a thermal head which has a substrate, and a plurality of recording electrodes disposed on the substrate. Each electrode has an electrical contact portion for contacting the resistive layer of the ink film. The contact portions of pairs of electrodes cooperate to energize the electrically resistive layer of the ink film, so that the energized portion of the resistive layer generates Joule heat for heating the corresponding portion of the ink layer, thereby softening ink material and transferring the softened ink material onto the recording medium. The substrate of the thermal head is made of a material having a low wear resistance, and the electrical contact portion of each electrode of the thermal head consists essentially of an electrically conductive material selected from the group consisting of: a metal silicide; at least one metal selected from the group consisting of chromium, titanium, tantalum, zirconium, hafnium and niobium; at least one alloy which contains at least one of the metals indicated above; and at least one metal compound which contains at least one of the metals. 
NGK Insulators, Ltd.
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Tetsuo Yukihisa
Watanabe Takeuchi