Patent ID: 8013884

Claim:
A method of transferring information onto surfaces of objects comprising: inputting information into an input device, the input device transforming the information into an image for storage in a printing memory as a stored image; positioning one or more glass objects in an object storage section by a printing device; removing one glass object from the storage location into a glass object carrier of the printing device; indexing the glass object in the carrier to initialize the printing; transporting the object to a first position under a print head of a printing means for transferring such information to the object; positioning an ink media tape from a driven feeder between the print head and the glass object; moving the print head and glass object together to cause the tape to contact the glass object in the carrier; heating, as required, at least one pixel element in a predetermined manner in the print head to print a row from the stored image by a thermal process to cause an inked media to transfer onto the object as determined by the stored image; advancing the tape and indexing the object to a next print row and repeating the steps from positioning the tape to transfer the desired information to the object; after printing the last row of data, separating the print head and object to a non-contact position; transporting the glass object by the carrier to an output section; removing the glass object wherein the object is mechanically removed into the output section; and repeating said method as many times as necessary as determined by the operator.