Introduction
A look into the tape cartridge, the printing process and the resolution.
The disassembly was a little bit destructive. Maybe, with enough care, one may be able to open the cartridge nondestructive.
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The thermal ink tape gets unrolled and again rolled onto another roller.
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In the printing zone, a single column of heat "pixels" heats the thermal ink (red line) and sticks it to the clear top tape (blue line).
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The clear top tape than gets laminated with the white backing (white line).
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Since the ink from the printed spots is now on the label and not longer on the ink tape, you can see a inverted image of everything the cartridge ever printed.
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The resolution of the text font seems to be lower than the icons (this icon should resemble a old mobile phone).
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The small dots on the mobile phone are about 180 µm apart.
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