JPH0623977A - Ink jet recorder and ink jet recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an ink jet recorder and an ink jet recording method which are capable of recording always a high quality image without being influenced by a class of a recording medium, a surrounding atmosphere in which the recording is placed, or a preservation state or the like of the recorder. CONSTITUTION:A bleeding quantity control means which controls a bleeding quantity of ink on a tablecloth 36 is provided at a position on the up-stream side of an ink jet head 9 as to a moving direction of the tablecloth 36 being a recording medium. For instance, a heating means 81 for controlling a water content of the tablecloth 36 by heating it is used as the bleeding quantity control means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and an ink jet recording method for forming an image by ejecting ink onto a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a typical method for recording an image on a recording medium such as cloth or wallpaper, there is a screen printing method in which a cloth or the like is directly printed using a silk screen plate. In this method, first, a silk screen plate is created for each original image to be printed for each color used in the original image, this silk screen plate is mounted on a screen printing device, and ink is passed through the mesh of the silk screen plate. Recording is performed by directly transferring the image onto a cloth or the like.

In such a screen printing method, in addition to requiring a great number of steps and days to prepare a silk screen plate in advance, it is necessary to prepare ink of each color and to align the silk screen plate for each color. There is a problem. In addition, the device is large and requires a large installation space in proportion to the number of colors to be used, and also requires a storage space for the silk screen plate.

Therefore, there has been proposed a method of directly recording an image on a recording medium such as cloth or wallpaper by using an ink jet recording method. According to this method, it is possible to obtain a merit that the screen printing, which was necessary in the screen printing, is not required, the process and the number of days until the printing on the recording medium can be significantly shortened and the device can be downsized. Furthermore, of course, the image information for printing is also
It can be saved on tape, flexible disk, optical disk and other media, so it has excellent storability and storability of image information, and can be easily processed such as changing the color scheme of the original image, changing the layout, and enlarging / reducing. There is also.

[0005]

However, when recording on a recording medium such as cloth or wallpaper by the ink jet recording method, depending on the type of recording medium, the surrounding environment in which the recording apparatus is placed or the storage state of the recording medium. However, there is a problem that a desired image quality may not be obtained because the dot diameter of the recorded ink on the recording medium or the amount of ink bleeding may change.

An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus and an ink jet recording method which can always perform high quality image recording without being affected by the type of recording medium, the surrounding environment in which the recording apparatus is placed or the storage state of the recording apparatus. To provide.

[0007]

The ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention is an ink jet recording apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium using the ink jet recording means for ejecting ink to form an image. A conveying unit that moves the recording medium relative to the inkjet recording unit while facing the recording medium, and an area of the recording medium that is not yet recorded before the area where the inkjet recording unit performs the recording. And a bleeding amount control means for controlling the bleeding amount of the ink on the recording surface of the recording medium.

The ink jet recording method of the present invention is an ink jet recording method in which ink is ejected onto a recording medium for recording, and the recording is still performed before the area of the recording medium on which the ink is ejected for recording. The method includes an ink applying step of controlling the amount of ink bleeding on the recording surface in the non-printed area and applying the ink to the recording surface whose ink bleeding amount is controlled.

In the present specification, "recording" includes the meaning of "printing", and broadly means applying an image to a recording medium such as cloth or paper.

As the recording medium, cloth, wallpaper, paper, OH
Examples thereof include films for P. The present invention is particularly suitable for recording media having low water absorption such as cloth and wallpaper.

In the present invention, a cloth is a material,
Includes all woven, non-woven, and other fabrics, whether woven or knitted.

In the present invention, the wallpaper includes a patch for walls made of a synthetic resin sheet such as paper, cloth and polyvinyl chloride.

[0013]

Since the amount of ink bleeding on the recording surface of the area of the recording medium on which the recording has not been performed is controlled, the amount of ink bleeding on the recording medium can always be appropriately controlled. High-quality recording can be performed, and high-quality recording can be maintained regardless of the type of recording medium to be recorded, the surrounding environment in which the device is placed, the storage state of the recording medium, and the like.

In order to control the amount of ink bleeding on the recording medium, the temperature or water content of the recording medium at the recording position may be controlled. Therefore, the means for controlling the amount of bleeding is to control the amount of bleeding of the recording medium. Means for controlling the temperature or means for controlling the water content in the recording medium can be used. More specifically, bleeding amount control means is provided so as to come into contact with the recording medium, and this bleeding amount control means heats the recording medium to a predetermined temperature and controls the water content in the fabric simultaneously with heating. Just do it. The suitable heating temperature of the recording medium in this case varies depending on the type of the recording medium and the type of ink used, and is appropriately selected depending on the heat resistance of the recording medium and the desired water content.

As the recording medium used in the present invention, various kinds can be used, and particularly by using a cloth or wallpaper, an excellent effect can be obtained.

The ink jet recording means used in the present invention is not limited as long as it ejects ink to perform recording, and in particular, electric heat for generating heat energy for ink ejection is used. An excellent effect can be obtained by using the one provided with the converter. In this case, the ink jet recording means is configured to eject and fly the ink from the ejection port toward the recording medium by utilizing the film boiling generated in the ink by the thermal energy applied by the electrothermal converter. Good.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail and specifically with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic structure of an ink jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of an image recording section 303 particularly preferable for the present invention. is there. This ink jet recording apparatus is configured as a system and is roughly classified into an image reading apparatus 301 that reads an original image created by a designer or the like and converts the original image into original image data represented by an electric signal, and original image data from the image reading apparatus 301. Image processing unit 30 for capturing, processing, and outputting as image data
2. An image recording unit 30 for recording on a recording medium such as cloth based on the image data created by the image processing unit 302
It consists of 3. In the image reading device 301, C
The original image can be read by the CD image sensor. In the image processing unit 302, an inkjet recording unit A that ejects four color inks of magenta (abbreviation M), cyan (abbreviation C), yellow (abbreviation Y), and black (abbreviation Bk) described below from the input original image data. -2 (FIG. 2) to generate data. At the time of creating the data, image processing for reproducing the original image with ink dots, color arrangement for determining color tone, modification of layout, processing of pattern size such as enlargement and reduction, and selection are performed. In the image recording unit 303, recording is performed by the inkjet recording unit A-2. The inkjet recording unit A-2 is for recording by ejecting minute ink droplets toward a recording medium and attaching the ink droplets to the recording medium.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the print unit 1 of the ink jet recording apparatus used in the present invention.

The ink jet printing unit 1 is roughly classified into a frame 6, two guide rails 7 and 8, an ink jet head 9 and a carriage 10 for moving the same, an ink supply device 11 and a carriage 12 for moving the same, and a head recovery device 13. And an electrical component system 5. The inkjet head 9 (hereinafter, simply referred to as “head”) includes a plurality of nozzle rows and a conversion device for converting an electric signal into ink ejection energy, and nozzles are generated according to the image signal sent from the image processing unit 302. It has a mechanism to selectively eject ink from a row.

The head 9 is a recording head for ejecting ink by utilizing heat energy, and is provided with a heat energy converter for generating heat energy applied to the ink. The applied thermal energy causes the ink to change its state,
A head that ejects ink from the ejection port based on the state change is preferably used.

The ink supply device 11 stores ink,
It is for supplying a required amount of ink to the head, and has an ink tank, an ink pump, and the like, which are not shown. The main body and the head 9 are connected by a tube 4 for ink supply, and normally, the head portion 9 is automatically supplied by the amount ejected from the head by a capillary action. In addition, in a head recovery operation as described below, ink is forcibly supplied to the head 9 using an ink pump.

The head 9 and the ink supply device 11 are mounted on a carriage 10 and a carriage 12, respectively, and are configured to reciprocate along guide rails 7 and 8 by a driving device (not shown).

The head recovery device 13 includes the capping unit 2
4 is provided at a position that can face the head 9 at the home position (standby position) of the head 9 in order to maintain the ink ejection stability of the head, and can move forward and backward in the direction of arrow A. Specifically, the following operation is performed.

First, the head 9 is capped by the capping unit 24 at the home position in order to prevent evaporation of ink from the nozzles of the head 9 during non-operation (capping operation). Alternatively, before the start of image recording, an ink pump is used to pressurize the ink flow path in the head in order to discharge air bubbles, dust, etc. in the nozzle to forcibly discharge the ink from the nozzle (pressure recovery operation). ), Or the operation of forcibly sucking and discharging the ink from the nozzle (suction recovery operation), and collecting the discharged ink.

The electrical system 5 includes a power supply unit and a control unit for performing sequence control of the entire ink jet recording unit.
The cloth 36 is conveyed by a predetermined amount in the sub-scanning direction (arrow B direction) by a conveyor device (not shown) every time the head 9 moves along the guide rails in the main scanning direction to perform recording for a predetermined length.
Image formation continues. In the figure, a shaded area 36 'indicates a portion where recording is completed (recorded portion).

As the ink jet head 9,
It is possible to use an inkjet recording head for single-color recording, a plurality of recording heads for recording with different color inks for color recording, or a plurality of recording heads for recording with dark and light inks having the same color but different densities.

Further, the structure of the recording means and the ink tank, such as a cartridge type in which the recording head and the ink tank are integrated, or a structure in which the recording head and the ink tank are separated and connected by an ink supply tube, It can be applied regardless.

Next, the bleeding amount control means will be described.

In the ink jet recording section A-2 (FIG. 2), a heating means 8 as a bleeding amount control means is provided immediately upstream of the ink jet head 9 in the conveyance direction of the cloth 36.
1 is provided. The apparatus shown in FIG. 2 is provided with upper and lower two-stage printing units 31, 31 ′ each having an inkjet head 9, but here, from the first printing unit 31 on the upstream side with respect to the conveyance direction of the fabric 36. Further, the heating means 81 is provided further upstream. As will be described later, the first printing unit 31 and the second printing unit 31 '
A drying unit 45 is provided between the two.
Substantially operates as bleeding amount control means for the second printing unit 31 '.

In this embodiment, the heating means 81 is in the form of a rotatable roller and contacts the surface of the cloth 36 and heats the cloth 36 from the side other than the belt 37 side. As the heating means 81, for example, a hollow aluminum roller having a halogen lamp provided therein can be used. As the heating means 81, in addition to the heating roller that comes into contact with the cloth 36 as described above, for example, a non-contact heating means such as an infrared lamp provided facing the cloth 36 can be used.

Further, the bleeding amount control means may be mounted on the carriage side by side with the recording head so that the bleeding amount control means moves as the carriage moves.

Furthermore, by carrying out the present invention in a recording apparatus of the following aspect, it is possible to obtain a high quality image even on a recording medium having extremely low water absorption.

Next, the image recording section 303 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. The image recording unit 303, that is, the recording device, is roughly classified into a feeding unit B that feeds a recording medium such as a roll-shaped fabric that has been subjected to a pretreatment for printing, and a feeding unit that accurately feeds the fed fabric. And a winding section C for drying and winding the printed cloth. And the main body A
Further comprises a precision feeding section A-1 for the cloth including a platen and an inkjet recording section A-2.

The operation of this apparatus will be described below by taking as an example the case of performing printing using a pretreated fabric as a recording medium.

The pre-processed roll-shaped cloth 36 is sent out from the cloth supply section B and sent to the main body section A. A thin endless belt 37 which is precisely step-driven on the main body portion A is wound around a drive roller 47 and a winding roller 49. The drive roller 47 is directly step-driven by a high-resolution stepping motor (not shown) to step-feed the belt 37 by the step amount. The sent fabric 36 is pressed by the pressing roller 40 against the surface of the belt 37 backed up by the winding roller 49,
It is stuck.

The fabric 36, which has been step-fed by the belt 37, is positioned by the platen 32 on the back surface of the belt in the first printing section 31 and printed by the ink jet head 9 from the front side. After each line of printing is finished, a predetermined amount is step-fed, and then heating is performed by the heating plate 34 from the back surface of the belt and drying is performed by the hot air from the surface supplied / exhausted by the hot air duct 35. Then, in the second printing unit 31 ',
Overprinting is performed in the same manner as the first printing unit 31.

The printed fabric 36 is peeled off and the post-drying section 46 similar to the above-mentioned heating plate and warm air duct is used.
Is dried again, is guided to the guide roll 41, and is wound up by the winding roll 48. Then, the wound cloth is removed from the apparatus, and the product is subjected to post-treatment steps such as color development, washing, and drying in batch processing.

Next, details of the vicinity of the ink jet recording section A-2 will be described with reference to FIG.

A preferable mode here is that the head of the first printing unit 31 thins out the number of dots to record information, and after the drying process, the head of the second printing unit 31 'causes the head to print in the first printing unit 31. Ink droplets are ejected so as to complement the thinned information.

In FIG. 4, the fabric 36 as a recording medium is used.
Is attached to a belt and is step-fed upward in the figure. In addition to Y, M, C, and Bk, the first print unit 31 on the lower side of the drawing has a first carriage 44 on which eight inkjet heads for special colors S1 to S4 are mounted.
There is. The ink jet head (recording head) in this example uses an element having an element that generates thermal energy that causes film boiling in the ink, as the energy used to eject the ink, and is 400 dp.
An array of 128 ejection ports with a density of i (dots / inch) is used.

On the downstream side of the first printing section 31, there is provided a drying section 45 consisting of a heating plate 34 for heating from the back side of the belt and a warm air duct 35 for drying from the front side. The heat transfer surface of the heating plate 34 is pressed against the belt 37 which is strongly tensioned, and the high temperature and high pressure steam passing through the hollow inside strongly heats the belt 37 from the back surface. The belt 37 directly and effectively heats the attached fabric 36 by heat conduction. The inside of the heating plate surface is provided with fins 34 'for collecting heat so that the heat can be efficiently concentrated on the back surface of the belt. Insulation material 4 on the side not in contact with the belt
It is covered with 3 to prevent loss due to heat dissipation.

On the front side, by blowing dry warm air from the supply duct 30 on the downstream side, air having a lower humidity is applied to the cloth 36 which is being dried to enhance the effect. The air flowing in the direction opposite to the conveyance direction of the fabric 36 and containing a sufficient amount of water sucks a much larger amount than the amount of sprayed air from the suction duct 33 on the upstream side, so that the evaporated water leaks and the surroundings are discharged. It is designed to prevent condensation on the machinery. The source of warm air is at the back of Figure 4,
Suction is performed from the front side so that the pressure difference between the blow-out port 38 and the suction port 39 facing the fabric 36 is uniform over the entire longitudinal direction. The air blower / sucker is offset downstream with respect to the center of the back heating plate so that the air hits the fully heated location. By these, the first printing unit 31 strongly dries a large amount of water in the ink including the thinning liquid received by the cloth 36.

The second printing unit 3 is provided downstream (upper) thereof.
1 ', and the second carriage 44' having the same structure as the first carriage 44 forms the second print portion 31 '.

Next, the image reading device 301 will be described. FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the configuration of the image reading device 301. The image reading device 301 is a kind of so-called image scanner, and is a CC
The original image is converted into an electrical signal (original image data) by the D unit 18.
Is to be converted to.

The CCD unit 18 includes the CCD 16 and CC.
It is a unit composed of the lens 15 that forms an image on D16, and can freely move on the main direction rail 54. The pulley 5 is provided at one end of the main rail 54.
1 and a main scanning motor 50 connected to this pulley 51 are attached. One more on the other end of the main rail 54
One pulley 52 is provided, and the wire 5 hung on both pulleys 51, 52 is connected to the CCD unit 18.
3 is provided. The main scanning motor 50, the pulleys 51 and 52, and the wire 53 form a drive system in the main scanning direction. By driving the CCD unit 18 with this drive system, the CCD unit 18 is moved to any position on the main direction rail 54. You can move to.

Both ends of the main-direction rail 54 have two sub-direction rails 6 provided at right angles to the main-direction rail 54.
It is slidably attached to 5,69. The two sub-direction rails 65 and 69 are parallel to each other and have the same length,
The area sandwiched between the sub-direction rails 65 and 69 becomes the reading area 77. Pulleys 76 and 68 are provided at one ends of the sub-direction rails 65 and 69, and pulleys 67 and 71 are provided at the other ends of the sub-direction rails 65 and 69. And, for each sub-direction rail 65, 69,
Wires 66, 70 for hanging pulleys 76, 67, 68, 71 at both ends are provided, and the wires 66, 70 are connected to both ends of the main-direction rail 54, respectively. The pulleys 76, 68 on one end side of each of the sub-direction rails 65, 69 are fixed to the one shaft 72, and the pulleys 67, 7 on the other end side.
Both 1 are fixed to the other shaft 73. These two
The shafts 72, 73 of the book are parallel to each other and parallel to the main rail 54 and are respectively rotatable. A sub-scanning motor 60 is attached to the end of one shaft 72. The shafts 72, 73, the sub-direction rails 65, 67, the pulleys 76, 67, 68, 71, and the sub-scanning motor 60 form a drive system in the sub-scanning direction. Rail 54 is sub-direction rail 65, 69
It can be moved in the direction of extension.

A document table glass 17 is provided on almost the entire surface of the reading area 77, and the document table glass 17 is C
It faces the CD unit 18. The end of the reading area 77 is a correction area 78.

With this configuration, in the image reading apparatus 301, the main scanning motor 50 and the sub-scanning motor 60 are driven to drive the reading area 7
It is possible to move the CCD unit 18 to any position of 7. In this case, the home position of the reading area 77 (the position that should be the origin of the coordinates when reading)
Home position sensors 56 and 58 are provided on the other end side of the main direction rail 54 and on the other end side of one of the sub direction rails 65, respectively, in order to detect the arrival of the CCD unit. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the home position is provided corresponding to the correction area 78.

Next, the image reading operation of the image reading device 301 will be described with reference to FIG.

In the reading operation of the original, first, the CCD unit 18 is moved to the home position HP in the correction area 78, and then the reading operation of the entire original placed on the original glass 17 is started.

In the correction area 78 before scanning the original,
Set the data required for processing such as shading correction, black level correction, and color correction. After that, the main scanning motor 50 starts scanning the CCD unit 18 in the main scanning direction (horizontal direction in the drawing) in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure. When the reading operation of the first area shown in the drawing is completed, the main scanning motor 50 is rotated in the reverse direction and the sub-scanning motor 60 is driven so that the correction area 78 of the illustrated area adjacent to the illustrated area is moved in the sub-scanning direction. Move. continue,
As in the case of the area, the shading correction, the black level correction, the color correction, and the like are performed as necessary, and the original is read while moving the CCD unit 18 in the main scanning direction.

By repeating the above scanning, the reading operation of the entire area of the area from the area shown in FIG. 6 is performed, and after the reading operation of the area which is the last area is finished, the CCD unit 18 is set again. Return to home position HP. Common document size and CCD
Due to the relationship with the width of the unit 18 that can be read at one time, in the present embodiment, it is necessary to actually perform a larger number of scans, but this is simplified in order to facilitate understanding of the operation.

Assuming that the above-described reading operation is the same-magnification reading operation, the area that can be read by the CCD unit 18 in one reading operation is actually wider than the actual reading area, as shown in FIG. The area. This is because the image reading device 301 has a variable magnification function for enlargement and reduction. For example, assuming that the area that can be recorded by the inkjet head 9 is 256 dots at a time, in order to perform a reduction operation of 50%, at least image information of an area of 512 dots, which is twice 256 dots, is required. Because. Therefore, the image reading device 301 has a built-in function of reading and outputting image information of an arbitrary image area by one reading in the main scanning direction.

Next, regarding the configuration of the image processing unit 302,
This will be described with reference to FIG. The image processing unit 302 operates integrally with the respective control systems of the image reading device 301 and the image recording unit 303, and therefore the control system of the image reading device 301 and the image recording unit 303 will also be described here.

The image processing section 302 is provided with a control section 111 which is a control circuit for transmitting and receiving data to and from a host machine (not shown) such as a computer. And
The image reading device 301 and the image recording unit 303 are also control units 102 and 12 which are control circuits for performing respective controls.
1 is provided. These control units 102, 111, 1
Reference numeral 21 includes a microprocessor, a program ROM, a data memory, a communication circuit, and the like. Between the control unit 102 and the control unit 111, the control unit 111 and the control unit 1
21 are connected to each other via communication lines, and so-called masters in which the control units 102 and 121 of the image reading device 301 and the image recording unit 303 operate according to instructions from the control unit 111 of the image processing unit 302. The slave control mode is adopted.

In addition to the control unit 111, the image processing unit 301 includes an IEEE488 interface, a so-called GPIB.
An I / F control unit 112, which is a control circuit for a general-purpose parallel interface such as an interface, a multivalue synthesis unit 106 that performs various types of image processing, an image processing unit 107 described below, and a head correction unit 12 that performs density unevenness correction.
3. Binarization processing unit 10 for performing binarization processing of image data
8. A buffer memory 110 for storing image data is provided, and the operation unit 20 is connected. This control unit 111
Operates according to instructions from the operation unit 20 and a computer (not shown). The operation unit 20 gives selection instructions such as designation regarding color and editing when reading a document, designation of operation, and the like. It also gives an instruction for density unevenness correction during image formation, which will be described later. The control unit 111 also includes an I / F control unit 112.
It has the control function of I / O, and can input / output image data to / from an external computer, etc.
This can be done via an interface connected to the / F control unit 112. Further, the control unit 111 includes a multi-value synthesis unit 106, an image processing unit 107,
The head correction unit 123, the binarization processing unit 108, and the buffer memory 110 are controlled.

In the control system of the image reading apparatus 301, in addition to the control section 102, a mechanical driving section 105 for controlling the driving of mechanical parts of the image reading apparatus 301, and an exposure control of a lamp (not shown) at the time of reading an original are performed. Exposure control unit 10
3, 104, an analog signal processing unit 100 that is connected to the CCD 16 and performs various processes related to an image, and an input image processing unit 101 that processes an input image.
The control unit 102 controls the mechanical drive unit 105, the exposure control units 103 and 104, the analog signal processing unit 100, and the input image processing unit 101.

The control system of the image recording unit 303 includes the control unit 1
21, a mechanical drive unit 122 that controls the drive of the mechanical portion of the image recording unit 303, and the recording head 11 for each color.
7 to 120, and a synchronous delay memory 115 that absorbs time variations in the operation of the mechanical portion of the image recording unit 303 and corrects the delay due to the mechanical arrangement of the recording heads 117 to 120. . The synchronous delay memory 115 also includes a circuit for generating the timing required to drive the recording heads 117 to 120. The control unit 121 controls the synchronous delay memory 115 and the mechanical drive unit 122.

Next, the flow of image processing in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In the image reading device 301, the CCD
The image formed on the CCD 16 of the unit 18 (FIG. 5) is converted into an analog electric signal by the CCD 16.
The converted analog electrical signal (image information) is R (red)
→ G (green) → B (blue) are serially processed and input to the analog signal processing unit 100. The analog signal processing unit 100 performs processing such as sample & hold, dark level correction, and dynamic range control for each color of R, G, B, and then performs analog / digital conversion (A
/ D conversion) is performed to convert into a serial multi-value (in this embodiment, 8-bit length for each color) digital image signal and output to the input image processing unit 101. Input image processing unit 101
Then, the correction processing necessary for the reading system such as CCD correction and γ correction is performed as it is with the serial multivalued digital image signal, and the result is output to the image processing unit 302 as the original image data.

In the image processing unit 302, the multi-value synthesizing unit 106
In, selection of a serial multi-valued digital image signal (original image data) sent from the image reading device 301 and a digital image signal sent from an external computer (not shown) via a parallel I / F, and A combining process is performed. The selected / combined image data is sent to the image processing means 107 as it is as a serial multi-valued digital image signal. The image processing means 107 is a smoothing process,
This circuit performs edge processing, black extraction, masking processing for color correction of the recording ink used in the recording heads 117 to 120, and the like. The serial multivalued digital image signal is subjected to the above-described processing in the image processing means 107. Then, the output of the image processing unit 107 is input to the head correction unit 123 and the buffer memory 110, respectively. The head correction unit 123 will be described later, but the output of the head correction unit 123 is input to the binarization processing unit 108.

The binarization processing unit 108 is a circuit for binarizing a serial multi-valued digital image signal, and can select simple binary with a fixed slice level or pseudo halftone processing with a dither method or the like. it can. The serial multivalued digital image signal is converted into a four-color binary parallel image signal here, and is output to the image recording unit 303 as image data.

In the image recording section 303, the image processing section 302
The binary parallel image signal (image data) from is input to the synchronous delay memory 115, and the head driver 116 drives each of the recording heads 117 to 120 based on this signal, and from each of the recording heads 117 to 120, respectively. Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks are ejected to print an image on the cloth.

Next, the interface (I / F) with an external computer will be described.

Multivalued image data of the original read by the image reading device 301 is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 110. This image data is sent to the I / F control unit 11
2, the data is transferred to a computer (not shown) via a parallel interface such as GPIB while being synchronized. The image data transferred to the computer is CR
Processing such as editing and color conversion is performed using a T display or the like, and is stored as an image file on a flexible disk, a fixed disk, an optical disk, or the like. Of course, it is needless to say that only storage may be performed without performing special processing. The image reading device 3
An image such as computer graphics (CG) directly produced on a computer without using 01 can be handled in the same manner as an image read by the image reading device 301.

The image data in the image file produced and stored in this way is stored in the buffer memory 11 via the parallel interface such as GPIB as described above.
0, and then from the buffer memory 110, the image multi-value synthesis unit 106, the image processing unit 107, the head correction unit 1
23, is sent to the head driver 116 through the binarization processing unit 108 and the synchronous delay memory 115, and as a result, the image data is printed by the recording heads 117 to 120.

Next, details of the above-mentioned head correction unit 123 will be described with reference to FIG.

The nozzles of the recording heads 117 to 120 provided in the image recording unit 303 are made to be uniform, but the nozzle diameters are slightly different and the influence of ink adhering to the vicinity of the nozzles. Therefore, although slightly, the ink ejection direction of each nozzle may be shifted or the ejection amount may be different. Therefore, even when image data having a constant density is recorded, streaky unevenness may occur in the main scanning direction. In order to correct this and obtain a print with a constant density, the density of the image data corresponding to the nozzle portion with a low density (or a dark density) is increased (decreased) according to the recording density, resulting in a recording. The correction is performed to make the density uniform. The head correction unit 123 is a unit that performs such correction. Here, it is assumed that each of the recording heads 117 to 120 is provided with 256 nozzles.

In the head correction unit 123, the selection RAM 26
0 is characteristic information of density unevenness of each of 256 nozzles of the print heads 117 to 120 corresponding to C, M, Y, and Bk (a plurality of correction data written in a correction RAM 262 described later). The CPU 258 writes selection information for selecting by which one of the corrections is added. In the selection RAM 260, 10 corresponding to the number of nozzles
Characteristic information for 24 (= 256 × 4) nozzles is written. The image input data VDin is serial multi-valued digital image data from the image processing means 107, and has an 8-bit width in this embodiment, and the color component image data (8 bits) for each pixel is Y, M. , C, B
Inputs are sequentially made in the order of pixel points in the order of k, Y, M, C, Bk, .... Data is fetched from the selection RAM 260 in accordance with the order of input image data by sequentially incrementing the address by one address. In addition, the selected data is selected in the RAM 260
A bidirectional buffer 263 for writing into the memory is provided, and further, a selector 259 for selecting either the lower 10 bits of the address of the 16-bit address bus output from the CPU 258 or the 10-bit output of the counter 250 is provided. ing. The counter 250 receives the hold signal HS and the clock CLK from the outside, counts the clock CLK, and outputs it as 10-bit data. This 10-bit data, that is, selection RAM
The data to be input as the address of 260 is 10 above.
It is used to specify a specific nozzle among the 24 nozzles. As described above, in the image input data VDin, the color component image data for each pixel is input according to the order of the pixel points. Therefore, the clock of the image input data VDin and the clock input to the counter 250 should be synchronized. Thus, the 10-bit width output of the counter 250 represents which pixel the current image input data VDin corresponds to. The selector 259 uses the CPU 25 when writing data to the selection RAM 260.
8 is selected, and when the data is read from the selection RAM 260, the output of the counter 250 is selected. In addition,
A flip-flop 252 for latching data is provided on the output side of the selection RAM 260.

The correction RAM 262 is for writing the correction table from the CPU 258, and is connected to the data bus of the CPU 258 via the bidirectional buffer 254. The correction table is composed of data as shown by solid lines or dotted lines L _{1 to} L ₅ in FIG. 9, for example. Here, the correction table of five kinds of data as represented by the solid line or dotted line L ₁ ~L ₅ is shown, in practice the number of data for correction contained in the correction table is greater than this . For example, if the output data from the selection RAM 260 is 8 bits, 256 types of correction data can be prepared. The selector 216 has a 16-bit address from the CPU, or an 8-bit output from the flip-flop 252 and an 8-bit image data input VDin.
R for correction by selecting any of 16 bits in total
It is input to the AM 262.

The correction data represented by the solid lines or dotted lines L _{1 to} L ₅ are selected according to the address input to the correction RAM 262. That is, the selector 261 is shown as B in the figure.
When the side is selected, the 8-bit image data input VDin and the 8-bit data output of the selection RAM 260 are input to the correction RAM 262 as the address A. Among these, the output data from the 8-bit selection RAM 260 is used to select either the solid line or the dotted lines L _{1 to} L ₅ described above. Incidentally, these solid or dotted L ₁ ~L solid of ₅ magnification for the time, the dotted line is the data for zooming, in time magnification and zooming the recording head 11
Since the range of the nozzles used in each of 7 to 120 is different, the CPU 258 writes the correction data of either the dotted line or the solid line in the correction RAM 262 according to the range of the used nozzles in the recording heads 117 to 120. Be done. The correction table written in the correction RAM 262 is the correction data ΔA for the address input A.
Is output, and the correction data ΔA
Are temporarily latched by the flip-flop 254, and are added by the adder 256 to the image input input image data VDi.
n is added to the corrected data, that is, the image output data V
Flip-flop 2 for data latch as Dout
It is output via 57.

That is, the selection RAM 26 is provided for each pixel.
The correction table is designated by 0, the value of the correction data corresponding to the image input data VDin is read from the correction RAM 262, and the read correction data is added by the adder 25.
In step 6, it is added to the image input data VDin and output as the image output data VDout. A flip-flop 255 for latching the image input data VDin input to the adder 256 is provided. Further, although the correction data represented by a straight line is shown in FIG. 9, the correction data may be represented by a curved line instead of a straight line.

Next, a method of generating characteristic information of density unevenness written in the selection RAM 260 will be described.

The operation unit 20 connected to the image processing unit 302
If you instruct to perform density unevenness correction more, C, M, Y, Bk
The characteristic information is generated in the order of. First, as shown in FIG. 10, a C, M, Y, and Bk monochromatic striped gradation patterns having arbitrary densities are generated by a pattern generator (not shown) for three lines (one line is for the inkjet head 9). Width that can be recorded at one time).
The image is recorded by the image recording unit 303. The pattern generator is included in the multi-value synthesis unit 106 shown in FIG. 7, and generates 8-bit data of a constant value instead of the image data from the buffer memory 110 and the input image processing unit 101. The concentration data that can be generated is, for example, 33,
You can choose from 50,100%, but here 50%
Are using. As a matter of course, at this time, the head correction unit 123 is set so that the correction is not performed,
The naked characteristics of the recording heads 117 to 120 are printed out as they are.

The density unevenness correction pattern output in this way is set in the image reading device 301, the image reading area 312 of this correction pattern is read, and the amount of density unevenness is determined for each nozzle of the recording heads 117 to 120. Then, the characteristic information is generated. The above operation is performed in order of C, M, Y, and Bk for all the recording heads 117 to 120 to generate characteristic information and write it to the selection RAM 260. With the above, the setting of the density unevenness correction data of the head correction unit 123 is completed. When the actual image is output thereafter, the correction data continuously corrects the density unevenness in real time, and the printing is executed.

Next, the cloth 36 in the image recording section 303.
The transport operation of will be described with reference to FIG.

As an initial setting operation for starting recording in the cloth feeding section C, first, the roll-shaped cloth 36 before recording is used.
The winding core 93 wound with is set rotatably. And
As shown in FIG. 2, one end of the cloth 36 is suspended by a roller 41 via a belt 37 and wound around a core 99 rotatably supported by the winding section C. Here, from the recording portion, the core 99
Since the recording of the portion of the fabric 36 that is wound around is wasteful, a dedicated fabric for guiding the fabric 36 to be recorded may be integrated with this portion by stitching or the like.

Subsequently, the pressing roller 40 is pressed against the outer peripheral surface of the belt 37 by the cloth setting start signal, and the drive motor 163 (FIG. 12) and the winding motor (not shown) start rotating, The fabric 36 is transferred and attached to the belt 37. At this time, the winding speed of the core 99 is set so as to be higher than the amount by which the conveyor belt 37 feeds the fabric 36, but a torque limiter (not shown) is provided at the drive connection portion between the core 99 and the winding motor. ) Is provided, a torque above a certain level is not applied to the fabric 36, and therefore, the fabric 36 at the recording position is not loaded and does not affect the recording quality. Braking means (not shown) is also provided on the winding core 93 of the cloth feeding section B, and it acts as a back tension when the cloth 36 is fed by the belt 37, so that the cloth 36 is not sagged. It is adapted to be adhered onto the belt 37. With the above, the initial setting of the fabric 36 is completed, and the recording operation can be performed.

Next, the operation of the ink jet printing section 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

In response to the recording start signal, the ink jet printing section 1 starts its operation. First, the pressure recovery operation is performed with the inkjet head 9 capped. Next, the capping unit 24 of the head recovery device 13 is separated from the inkjet head 9, and the inkjet head 9 is moved from the home position to the start position. After once waiting at the start position, the inkjet head 9 and the ink supply device 11 reciprocate along the guide rails 7 and 8 in synchronization with the operation signal and the image signal sent from the image processing unit 302 (hereinafter, This is called main scanning movement or simply main scanning). At that time, ink is ejected from the recording heads 117 to 120 in the inkjet head 9 toward the cloth 36 held on the opposite side in accordance with the image signal, and an image is formed on the cloth 36. When the inkjet head 9 reciprocates once on the guide rails 7 and 8, the fabric 36 is transported by the image width (width in the transport direction of the fabric 36 that can be recorded by the inkjet head 9 at one time), and the next main scanning movement is performed. . After a predetermined image recording is completed after repeating the above operation, the inkjet head 9 is moved to the home position and capping is performed by the head recovery device 13.

The above operation is repeated for a set length to record on the roll-shaped cloth 36. The length of one roll-shaped fabric 36 is finite, but when the final end of the roll-shaped fabric 36 deviates from the winding core 93, the leading end of the next roll-shaped fabric 36 Recording can be performed continuously by stitching with the section. At this time, a chromatic color thread is used for stitching, and a density detecting sensor 98 is provided upstream of the pressing roller 40. When the density detecting sensor 98 detects the stitching section, the stitching section is inkjetted. When it is conveyed immediately before the head 9, the above-mentioned 1 cycle (1 of the inkjet head 9
The recording is temporarily stopped at the point of time when the recording of one operation in the main scanning direction) is completed. After this, fabric 3
The fabric 36 is fed by a fixed amount until the stitching portion reaches a position immediately downstream of the ink jet head 9, and recording is started again. By doing so, the ink jet head 9 scans and records the stitched portion, which generally has an increased thickness, and the ink jet head 9 rubs against the stitched portion at this time, causing stains on the cloth 36 or the ink jet head 9 It prevents that is damaged.

Here, the heating means 81 and the heating control method thereof will be described in detail. Regarding the installation position of the heating means 81, it is desirable that the heating center of the cloth 36 by the heating means 81 is located on the upstream side of the inkjet head 9 in the transport direction of the cloth 36. here,
If the heating center and the inkjet head 9 are too close to each other, the moisture contained in the fabric 36 evaporates with heating, causing dew condensation on the surface of the inkjet head 9 and causing non-ejection of ink from the inkjet head 9. It is easy to become. Needless to say, the heating efficiency of the heating means 81 is higher when the heating is performed from the printing surface of the fabric 36 (the side facing the inkjet head 9). In particular, in the case of this embodiment, if heating is performed from the belt 37 side,
Since the fabric 36 is heated via the belt 37, more heat is required, and the thermal expansion of the belt 37 cannot be ignored, and uneven transport is likely to occur, leading to image deterioration. .

In this embodiment, as the heating means 81,
When an aluminum roller incorporating a halogen heater (output 200 W) is used, the temperature of the fabric 36 is controlled at a position facing the inkjet head 9 under an ambient temperature of 10 to 35 ° C. while the halogen heater is constantly operated. Four
The temperature could be maintained at 5 ° C. or higher, and a high-quality image could be stably formed on the fabric 36. That is, the fabric 36
By heating, the physical properties (viscosity, surface tension, etc.) of the ink that has landed on the fabric 36 can be kept constant. Furthermore, even if the initial moisture content in the fabric 36 is any value, this moisture content can be made constant by heating, so that the ink that has landed can penetrate into the fabric 36 under any condition. The speed can be constant. Therefore, for these reasons, the ink bleeding on the cloth can be made stable, and an appropriate high image quality of bleeding can be achieved and maintained. Here, the heating means 81 including a heating roller has been described, but a known means such as an infrared heater may be used as the heating means.

Next, in the image recording section 303, the cloth 36
Fig. 1 shows the operation of the control system that controls the transport operation of
This will be described using 1. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the inkjet printing unit 1 and the cloth transporting unit 3 of the image recording unit 303.

The control section 160 is a control circuit for controlling the cloth conveying section 3. A communication line is connected between the control unit 160 and the control unit 121 of the inkjet printing unit 1. The controller 160 drives the drive motor 163 via the motor driver 162, and the drive motor 163 drives the belt 37 (FIG. 2). The transport system operation unit 161 connected to the control unit 160,
This is for operating the cloth transporting section 3 from the outside, and the initial setting for starting recording and the transportation after the end of recording are performed by a command from the transport system operating section 161.

The temporary stop switch 164 connected to the transport system operation unit 161 is a switch used when it is desired to temporarily stop the recording operation. When this switch is turned on, a signal is sent from the control unit 160 to the control unit 121. To be The control unit 121 that has detected this signal indicates that this switch is OF
The recording operation is not performed until F is reached.
This temporary stop operation is performed when a recoverable abnormality is detected, such as detecting the absence of ink during recording, or detecting a stitched portion where fabrics are joined together. If there is no ink, the ink is replenished, and if there is a stitched portion, the fabric is conveyed until the stitched portion is positioned immediately below the inkjet head. The recording operation is restarted by turning the switch OFF. Similarly, the transport system operation unit 16
The emergency stop switch 165 connected to 1 is a switch used when it is desired to immediately stop the recording operation, and when the switch is turned on, a signal is sent from the control unit 160 to the control unit 121. The control unit 121, which has detected this signal,
The scanning of the inkjet head 9 (FIG. 2) is immediately stopped, and the recording operation is ended. Here, the pause switch 1
Instead of providing 64 or the emergency stop switch 165, an abnormality detection signal such as no ink may be directly communicated to the control unit 121.

The conveyance of the cloth 36 during recording is performed in response to a signal from the control section 121 on the ink jet printing section 1 side. FIG. 12 shows a timing chart of communication regarding conveyance between both of the control units 121 and 160. The fabric transport instruction signal is a signal sent from the control unit 121 on the inkjet printing unit 1 side to the control unit 160 of the fabric transport unit 3, and is normally LOW, and when the inkjet head 9 finishes recording for one line, it is HIGH. become. Control unit 160 of the cloth transport unit 3
When the cloth conveyance instruction signal becomes HIGH, the conveyance motor 163
Is driven to start the conveyance of the cloth 36. The cloth conveyance signal is a signal sent from the control section 160 of the cloth conveyance section 3 to the control section 121 of the inkjet printing section 1, is normally LOW, and becomes HIGH during conveyance of the cloth 36. When the control section 121 of the ink jet recording section 1 detects that the cloth conveyance signal becomes HIGH, it determines that the cloth conveyance instruction signal has been received and sets the cloth conveyance instruction signal to LOW.

The cloth conveying instruction signal is set to HIGH, and the cloth conveying signal does not become HIGH even after a certain time has passed, or
Once the signal becomes high when the cloth is being conveyed
When it does not become LOW, the control unit 1 of the image recording unit 303
21 determines that an abnormality has occurred in the fabric transport unit 3, interrupts the recording operation, and operates the operation unit 2 connected to the image processing unit 302.
An error is displayed at 0. By thus exchanging the cloth conveyance instruction signal and the cloth conveyance signal, the recording / printing by the inkjet head 9 and the conveyance of the cloth 36 are alternately performed.

As described above, in this embodiment, the image signal obtained by reading the original image by the image reading device 301 is processed by the image processing unit 302, and the image recording unit 303 is processed by the processing result of the image processing unit 302. In, the inkjet recording is performed on the cloth 36, and the textile 36 is printed.

In the ink jet recording apparatus of this embodiment,
Overprinting is performed using the first and second printing units 31 and 31 '. Here, the overlapping print operation will be described in detail. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating print data to be printed by sequential multi-scan for overlapping printing.

In FIG. 13, each rectangular area surrounded by a dotted line corresponds to one dot (pixel), and the recording density is 40, for example.
In case of 0 dpi (dot / inch), each rectangle is about 6
It is 3.5 μm square, and its area is about 4000 μm ² . The part indicated by a black circle is the place where dots are printed, and the part where no black circle is present indicates the part where recording is not performed. The inkjet head 9 moves in the direction of the arrow F in the drawing, and ink is ejected from the ink ejection nozzle 9 ′ of the inkjet head 9 at a predetermined timing.
This sequential multi-scan is for each nozzle 9 '
The same line (head moving direction) is recorded by a plurality of nozzles in order to correct the variation in the size of the ink droplets ejected by the nozzles and the variation in the density between the nozzles caused by the variation in the ink ejection direction. By thus forming one line with a plurality of nozzles, the randomness of the nozzle characteristics of each inkjet head 9 is utilized,
We are trying to reduce uneven density. That is, in the case of sequential multi-scan with two scans, printing is performed using the upper half of the inkjet head 9 in the first scanning, and printing is performed using the nozzles in the lower half of the inkjet head 9 in the second scanning. .

FIGS. 14 and 15 show examples of recording by the sequential multi-scan.

Now, for example, when recording the data shown in FIG. 13, first, as shown in FIG. 14, only the odd-numbered recording data of the data generated in the moving direction of the ink jet head 9 is recorded by the ink jet head 9. Record with the upper half nozzle. Next, the inkjet head (carriage) is returned toward the home position, the fabric 36 is fed by half the width of the inkjet head 9, and this time, as shown in FIG. Is recorded using the nozzles in the lower half of the inkjet head. In this way, two scans are performed.
The data as shown in FIG. 3 is recorded on the fabric 36.

FIG. 16 shows an example of printing in normal two-time multi-scan. Areas (bottom 1) 701 and (bottom 2) 7 printed by the inkjet head of the first printing unit 31
02, (bottom 3) 703, and the area printed by the inkjet head of the second printing unit 31 ′ (top 1) 70
4, (upper 2) 705, and (upper 3) 706.

The cloth feeding direction is as shown by the arrow in the figure, and the cloth 3
The single step feed amount of 6 corresponds to the recording width of the inkjet head. As is clear from FIG. 16A, all of the recorded area is either the upper half of the inkjet head of the second print unit 31 ′ and the lower half of the inkjet head of the first print unit 31, or the second print unit 31. '
Lower half of the inkjet head and the first printing unit 31
Is recorded using the upper half of the inkjet head. Here, the data recorded by each inkjet head is thinned out as shown in FIGS. 14 and 15, and as a result of overlapping recording by these two inkjet heads, as shown in FIG. The print density indicated by 707 is obtained.

Example 2 Next, another example of the present invention will be described. FIG. 17 is a sectional view showing the arrangement of the image recording section of the inkjet recording apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

The difference between this ink jet recording apparatus and the apparatus of the above-described embodiment is that the platen 32 is provided with the temperature detecting means 82. The temperature detecting means 82 is for measuring the temperature of the cloth 36 at a position facing the ink jet head 9, and controls the heating means 81 so that the temperature of the cloth 36 at this position is constant. As a result, it becomes possible to more accurately control the amount of ink bleeding on the cloth 36.

Here, the heating means 81 including a heater with an output of 800 W and the temperature detecting means 82 including a thermistor are used so that the temperature of the cloth 36 at the position facing the ink jet head 9 becomes 45 ± 5 ° C. , Heating means 81
When the heater on / off control was performed, it was possible to obtain an image in which the amount of ink bleeding was controlled more appropriately than in Example 1 described above. In this case, the temperature setting value of the control target may be changed according to the type of cloth, and thus an image with an appropriate amount of ink bleeding can be obtained regardless of the type of cloth.

(Embodiment 3) Next, still another embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the first and second embodiments described above, the heating means 81 is provided on the upstream side of the inkjet head 9,
You may make it heat the whole roll-shaped cloth in the cloth supply part B (FIG. 2). For example, the winding core 93 may be used as a heating roller to control the amount of bleeding. Further, the vicinity of the cloth roll may be kept at a constant temperature and constant humidity. By doing so, the cloth can be heated for a longer time, and the water content of the cloth can be controlled more precisely. Therefore, a more stable image can be obtained.

Next, a specific example of ink jet printing recording will be described. As described above, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of an inkjet recording apparatus suitable for textile printing. Using an inkjet recording apparatus as shown in FIG. 2, the cloth is dried (including natural drying) after the inkjet printing process. Then, continue to diffuse the dye on the fabric fiber,
In addition, a step of reacting and fixing the dye on the fiber is performed. By this step, sufficient color development and fastness due to dye fixation can be obtained.

This diffusion and reaction fixing step may be a conventionally known method, for example, a steaming method. In addition,
In this case, the cloth may be subjected to an alkali treatment in advance before the printing step.

Then, in the post-treatment step, the unreacted dye and the substance used for the pre-treatment are removed. Finally, the recording is completed through a finishing process such as defect correction and ironing.

In particular, for a fabric for ink-jet printing, (1) the ink can be developed to a sufficient density.
(2) Ink dyeing rate is high, (3) Ink dries quickly on the cloth, (4) Irregular ink bleeding on the cloth is small, (5) In-apparatus It is required to have excellent performance such as excellent transportability. In order to satisfy these required performances, the fabric can be pre-treated in advance if necessary. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-53492 discloses a fabric having an ink receiving layer, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-46589 proposes a fabric containing a reduction inhibitor and an alkaline substance. .. Examples of such pretreatment include
Examples of the treatment include an alkaline substance, a water-soluble polymer, a synthetic polymer, a water-soluble metal salt, a substance selected from urea and thiourea.

Examples of the alkaline substance include alkali metal hydroxides such as sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide,
Examples thereof include amines such as mono-, di- and triethanolamine, and alkali metal carbonates or bicarbonates such as sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate and sodium hydrogencarbonate. Furthermore, there are organic acid metal salts such as calcium acetate and barium acetate, and ammonia and ammonia compounds. Also, sodium trichloroacetate, which becomes an alkaline substance under steaming and dry heat, can be used. Particularly preferred alkaline substances are sodium carbonate and sodium hydrogen carbonate used for dyeing reactive dyes.

As the water-soluble polymer, starch substances such as corn and wheat, cellulosic substances such as carboxymethyl cellulose, methyl cellulose and hydroxyethyl cellulose, sodium alginate, gum arabic,
Locust bean gum, tragacanth gum, guar gum,
Examples thereof include polysaccharides such as tamarind seeds, protein substances such as gelatin and casein, and natural water-soluble polymers such as tannin-based substances and lignin-based substances.

Examples of synthetic polymers include polyvinyl alcohol compounds, polyethylene oxide compounds, acrylic acid water-soluble polymers, maleic anhydride water-soluble polymers, and the like. Among these, polysaccharide polymers and cellulose polymers are preferable.

Examples of the water-soluble metal salt include compounds such as halides of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals, which produce typical ionic crystals and have a pH of 4 to 10. As a typical example of such a compound, for example, in the case of an alkali metal, NaCl, Na ₂ SO
₄ , KCl, CH ₃ COONa, and the like, and examples of the alkaline earth metal include CaCl _2, MgCl _{2, and the} like. Of these, salts of Na, K and Ca are preferable.

The method of incorporating the above substances and the like into the cloth in the pretreatment is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include a dipping method, a pad method, a coating method and a spraying method which are usually carried out.

Further, since the printing ink applied to the ink-jet printing cloth is simply attached in the state of being applied on the cloth, the reaction fixing step (dyeing step) of the dye to the fiber is subsequently performed. Is preferred. Such a reaction fixing step may be a conventionally known method, for example, a steaming method, an HT steaming method, a thermofix method, or an alkali pad steam method or an alkali blotch steam method when a cloth that has been previously alkali-treated is not used. ,
Examples thereof include alkali shock method and alkali cold fix method.

Further, the unreacted dye and the substance used for the pretreatment can be removed by washing after the above reaction fixing step according to a conventionally known method. In addition, it is preferable to use a conventionally known fix treatment together with this cleaning.

The recorded matter which has been subjected to the above-mentioned post-processing step is then cut into a desired size, and the cut pieces are used for obtaining a final processed product such as sewing, bonding and welding. Then, clothes such as dresses, dresses, ties, swimwear, duvet covers, sofa covers, handkerchiefs, curtains, etc. can be obtained. The method of processing cloth by sewing etc. to make clothes and other daily necessities is described in many publicly known books such as "Latest Knit Sewing Manual": Published by Senyi Journal Co., Ltd. and monthly magazine "Soen": Published by Bunka Publishing Bureau. Has been done.

The present invention provides excellent effects particularly in an ink jet type recording head and a recording apparatus for recording by forming flying droplets by utilizing thermal energy among the ink jet recording systems.

With regard to its typical structure and principle, it is preferable to use the basic principle disclosed in, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4740796. This method can be applied to both the so-called on-demand type and the continuous type. In particular, in the case of the on-demand type, it is arranged corresponding to the sheet or liquid path holding the liquid (ink). By applying at least one drive signal which corresponds to the recorded information and which causes a rapid temperature rise exceeding nucleate boiling, to the electrothermal converter being generated, thermal energy is generated in the electrothermal converter,
This is effective because film boiling is caused on the heat-acting surface of the recording head, and as a result bubbles can be formed in the liquid (ink) that correspond one-to-one to this drive signal. The liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection openings by the growth and contraction of the bubbles to form at least one droplet. It is more preferable to make this drive signal into a pulse shape, because the bubble growth and contraction are immediately and appropriately performed, so that the ejection of the liquid (ink) with excellent responsiveness can be achieved.

As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable. If the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124, which is an invention relating to the rate of temperature rise on the heat acting surface, are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the constitution of the recording head, in addition to the combination constitution of the ejection port, the liquid passage, and the electrothermal converter (the linear liquid passage or the right-angled liquid passage) as disclosed in the above-mentioned respective specifications, , U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,333, which discloses a configuration in which the heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region, U.S. Pat. No. 44596.
The configuration using the specification No. 00 is also included in the present invention.

In addition, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 59-123670 discloses a structure in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of a plurality of electrothermal converters, and a pressure wave of thermal energy is absorbed. The present invention is also effective as a configuration based on Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-138461, which discloses a configuration in which an opening corresponds to a discharge portion.

Furthermore, a full line type recording head having a length corresponding to the width of the maximum recording medium that can be recorded by the recording apparatus is a combination of a plurality of recording heads as disclosed in the above specification. The present invention can exert the above-mentioned effects more effectively, although it may have a configuration that satisfies the above requirement or a configuration as one recording head integrally formed.

In addition, by being attached to the apparatus main body, it can be electrically connected to the apparatus main body and can be supplied with ink from the apparatus main body by a replaceable chip type recording head or the recording head itself. The present invention is also effective when a cartridge-type recording head provided with an ink tank is used.

Further, it is preferable to add recovery means for the recording head, preliminary auxiliary means, etc., which are provided as a configuration of the recording apparatus of the present invention, because the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. If you list these specifically,
Capping means, cleaning means, pressurizing or sucking means for the recording head, preheating means using an electrothermal converter or another heating element or a combination thereof, and a preliminary ejection mode for performing ejection other than recording It is also effective to perform stable recording.

Further, as the recording mode of the recording apparatus, not only the mainstream color such as black is recorded but also the recording head may be integrally formed or a plurality of them may be combined. The present invention is also extremely effective for a device provided with at least one of full colors by color mixing.

In the embodiments of the present invention described above, the ink is described as a liquid, but it is an ink that solidifies at room temperature or lower and that softens at room temperature, or is a liquid, or the above-mentioned. In the inkjet method, the temperature of the ink itself is generally adjusted within a range of 30 ° C. or higher and 70 ° C. or lower to control the temperature of the ink so that the viscosity of the ink is within a stable ejection range. It may be in a liquid form.

In addition, the temperature rise due to the thermal energy is positively prevented by using it as the energy for changing the state of the ink from the solid state to the liquid state, or the ink is solidified in the standing state for the purpose of preventing evaporation of the ink. In some cases, such as ink that is liquefied by applying heat energy according to a recording signal and ejected as a liquid ink, or one that has already started to solidify when it reaches a recording medium. The use of an ink having a property of being liquefied only by heat energy is also applicable to the present invention. In such a case, the ink is, as described in JP-A-54-56847 or JP-A-60-71260, in a state of being held as a liquid or a solid in the concave portion or the through hole of the porous sheet, It may be configured to face the electrothermal converter. In the present invention, the most effective one for each of the above-mentioned inks is to execute the above-mentioned film boiling method.

In addition, as a form of the recording apparatus according to the present invention, in addition to a recording apparatus provided integrally or separately as an image output terminal of information processing equipment such as a word processor or a computer, a copying apparatus combined with a reader or the like, May take the form of a facsimile machine having a transmission / reception function.

[0125]

As described above, according to the present invention, the bleeding amount control means for controlling the bleeding amount of ink on the recording surface of the recording medium is provided at the position upstream of the ink jet recording means with respect to the moving direction of the recording medium. As a result, the amount of ink bleeding on the recording medium can always be appropriately controlled, high-quality recording can be performed, the type of recording medium to be recorded, the ambient environment in which the device is placed, and the storage of the recording medium. There is an effect that high-quality recording can be maintained regardless of the state.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an inkjet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of an image recording unit.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing details of the configuration of an inkjet printing unit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration near an inkjet recording unit.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a configuration of an image reading device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an image reading operation of the image reading device.

7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control system in the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a head correction unit.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a correction table used for head correction.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a method of correcting density unevenness.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of an inkjet recording unit and a cloth conveying unit.

FIG. 12 is a timing chart showing a mutual relationship of each signal in the control unit.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating recording by sequential multi-scan.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating recording by sequential multi-scan.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating recording by sequential multi-scan.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of recording by sequential multi-scan.

FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of an image recording unit in an inkjet recording apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Inkjet Print Section 3 Cloth Transport Section 4 Tube 5 Electrical Equipment 9 Inkjet Head 11 Ink Supply Device 13 Head Recovery Device 15 Lens 16 CCD 17 Platen Glass 18 CCD Unit 20 Operation Section 24 Capping Section 30 Supply Duct 31 First Printing Section 31 'Second print part 32 Platen 33 Suction duct 34 Heating plate 35 Warm air duct 36 Cloth 37 Belt 38 Outlet port 39 Suction port 40 Pressing roller 44 First carriage 44' Second carriage 45 Drying part 47 Drive roller 49 Winding roller 50 Main scanning motor 54 Main direction rail 60 Sub scanning motor 65,69 Sub direction rail 81 Heating means 82 Temperature detection means 98 Density detection sensor 100 Analog signal processing section 101 Input image processing section 102,111,121 Control Part 103,104 Exposure control part 105,122 Mechanical drive part 106 Multi-value synthesizing part 107 Image processing means 108 Binarization processing part 110 Buffer memory 112 I / F control part 115 Sync delay memory 116 Head driver 117-120 Recording head 123 Head correction unit 160 Control unit 161 Transport system operation unit 162 Motor driver 163 Drive motor 164 Pause switch 165 Emergency stop switch 258 CPU 259 Selector 260 Selection RAM 262 Correction RAM 263 Bidirectional buffer 301 Image reading device 302 Image processing unit 303 image Recording part 312 Image reading area A Main body part A-1 Precision feeding part A-2 Inkjet recording part B Feeding part C Winding part

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Nobuhiko Ogata 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (25)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet recording apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium by using an ink jet recording means for ejecting ink to form an image, wherein the recording medium is set on the ink jet recording means while facing the ink jet recording means. The ink on the recording surface of the recording medium acts on the recording medium of the recording medium, which is moved relative to the conveying means, and acts on the area of the recording medium before the ink-jet recording means performs the recording, which is not yet recorded. An ink jet recording apparatus, comprising: a bleeding amount control means for controlling the amount of bleeding. 2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bleeding amount control means is means for controlling the temperature of the recording medium. 3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bleeding amount control means is a means for controlling the water content in the recording medium. 4. The bleeding amount control means is provided so as to come into contact with the recording medium, heats the recording medium to a predetermined temperature, and controls the water content in the recording medium simultaneously with heating. 1. The inkjet recording device according to 1. 5. The recording medium is cloth, and the recording medium is cloth.
The ink jet recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1. 6. The recording medium is wallpaper as claimed in claim 1.
The ink jet recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1. 7. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inkjet recording unit includes an electrothermal converter for generating thermal energy for ejecting ink. . 8. The ink jet recording device ejects ink from an ejection port by utilizing film boiling generated in ink by thermal energy applied by the electrothermal converter. Inkjet recording device. 9. An ink jet recording method for performing recording by ejecting ink to a recording medium, wherein recording is performed on an area before the area on which recording is performed by ejecting ink on the recording medium, which has not been performed yet. An ink jet recording method, comprising: an ink applying step of controlling the amount of ink bleeding on the surface and applying the ink to the recording surface on which the amount of ink bleeding is controlled. 10. The ink jet recording method according to claim 9, further comprising a fixing step of fixing the ink applied on the recording medium to the recording medium after the ink applying step. 11. A cleaning step of cleaning the recording medium on which recording has been performed after the fixing step.
0. The inkjet recording method described in 0. 12. The method according to claim 9, further comprising a step of adding a pretreatment agent to the recording medium before the ink applying step.
12. The inkjet recording method according to any one of 1 to 11. 13. The ink jet recording method according to claim 9, wherein the control of the amount of bleeding is performed by controlling the temperature of the recording medium. 14. The ink jet recording method according to claim 9, wherein the bleeding amount is controlled by controlling the water content in the recording medium. 15. The bleeding amount control is performed by using a bleeding amount control means, the bleeding amount control means is provided so as to contact the recording medium, and heats the recording medium to a predetermined temperature, 13. The water content in the recording medium is controlled simultaneously with heating.
Inkjet recording method according to item. 16. The inkjet recording means is a recording head for ejecting ink by using thermal energy, and the inkjet recording head includes a thermal energy converter for generating thermal energy applied to the ink. The inkjet recording method according to claim 9. 17. The ink jet recording method according to claim 16, wherein the thermal energy converter is an electrothermal converter. 18. The ink jet recording according to claim 17, wherein the ink jet recording head ejects the ink by utilizing film boiling generated in the ink by thermal energy applied by the electrothermal converter. Method. 19. The ink jet recording method according to claim 9, wherein the recording medium is a cloth. 20. The ink jet recording method according to claim 9, wherein the recording medium is wallpaper. 21. A recorded matter obtained by carrying out the ink jet recording method according to any one of claims 9 to 20. 22. A processed product obtained by further processing the recorded matter according to claim 21. 23. The processed product is obtained by cutting the recorded matter into a desired size and subjecting the cut pieces to a process for obtaining a final processed product. Processed product described in. 24. The processed product according to claim 23, wherein the step for obtaining the final processed product is sewing. 25. The processed product according to claim 22, wherein the processed product is clothing.