EP0730970A2 - Tintenstrahlfarbdrucker - Google Patents

Tintenstrahlfarbdrucker Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0730970A2
EP0730970A2 EP96102261A EP96102261A EP0730970A2 EP 0730970 A2 EP0730970 A2 EP 0730970A2 EP 96102261 A EP96102261 A EP 96102261A EP 96102261 A EP96102261 A EP 96102261A EP 0730970 A2 EP0730970 A2 EP 0730970A2
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
ink
printing
black
colour
nozzles
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP96102261A
Other languages
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0730970A3 (de
Inventor
Enrico Manini
Alcide Clemente
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Olivetti Canon Industriale SpA
Original Assignee
Olivetti Canon Industriale SpA
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Olivetti Canon Industriale SpA filed Critical Olivetti Canon Industriale SpA
Publication of EP0730970A2 publication Critical patent/EP0730970A2/de
Publication of EP0730970A3 publication Critical patent/EP0730970A3/de
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/21—Ink jet for multi-colour printing
    • B41J2/2107—Ink jet for multi-colour printing characterised by the ink properties

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to an equipment for recording black and colour images on a printing support, usually but not exclusively a sheet of paper, by way of the ink-jet technology.
  • Equipments of the type above disclosed are known in the art, as for example, printers, copiers, facsimiles, etc., and in particular printers used for producing, by way of printing means generally in the form of a printing heads, the printing of a document, generated by using a complex electronic equipment and particularly a computer, on a printing support, as for example a sheet of paper, a continuous form or a thin transparent plastic material sheet; the document can be generated by way of the computer only using available functions inside it, or it can be made up by integrating a document or part of a document already existing, using a special device called "scanner" and per se known.
  • the document comprises parts (usually, for example, a text) which must be black printed, and parts (usually figures, pictures or graphs for example) which must be colour printed, often mixed among them in a casual manner; in these cases the problem is to print with the best possible quality the black and the colour parts in short time and low cost: the ink-jet printers, initially capable of black printing only, gradually developed towards the colour printing, proving to be the most versatile and suitable printer to satisfy such requirements.
  • a typical ink-jet printer is schematically formed by:
  • a first known method to solve this problem consists, for example, in using, by mounting them in turn on the same carriage according to the features of the document to be printed, a black printing head or a colour printing head comprising three distinct groups of nozzles, each group connected to a reservoir containing a different colour ink and precisely a cyan ink, a yellow ink and a magenta ink, which represent the "primary" colours combining which it is possible to obtain all the other colours, the black included which is given by the sum of the three "primary” colours; the black obtained using this type of colour printing head is usually indicated as “composite black” or "process black", signifying in this way that it is not obtained by a single colour (the so-called "true black”) but mixing three different colours.
  • An example of the formulation and of the chemical-physical features of these colour inks are disclosed in the Italian Patent Application N. TO 94A000528.
  • This method permits to use the black printing head when it is necessary to print documents containing only texts, and the colour printing head in all the other cases; but the "composite black", because of several unfavourable factors among which the different paper absorption of the three "primary” inks cyan, yellow and magenta, the imperfect superimposition of the three inks drops and the imperfect pureness of the three colours corresponding to the "primary” colours used in their formulation, tends always to present a colour shading, for example blue or red; in addition, it can cause paper deformation, because the paper tends to swell in correspondence to the "composite black” for the excessive ink quantity deposited in the same place, and the possibility to obtain an optical density as good as with the "true black” ink. Therefore this first known method, even if economically favourable, does not permit to obtaining a good printing quality.
  • a commercial example of this first method is represented by the printer model DeskJet 500C manufactured by Hewlett-Packard®.
  • a second method to solve the aforementioned problem consists in mounting on the carriage a colour printing head, in alternative to a black printing head, on the grounds of the features of the document to be printed; the colour head comprising four distinct nozzles groups, three groups of which are connected each to a reservoir containing a different colour ink and particularly a cyan ink, a yellow ink and a magenta ink, and the fourth group is connected to a reservoir containing a black ink, which will be called "graphic ink” to distinguish it from the black ink used in the printing head for the sole black printing.
  • the images are formed by way of dots or pixels, tipically disposed on an orthogonal grid with constant pitch P, for example 1/300th or 1/360th of an inch, in both directions; the single pixels, corresponding to the image generated on the printing support by the ink drop issued by a single nozzle, are not visible to the naked eye, so that there is the perception of a continuous area, unless in mistake cases consisting in systematic, even if little, grid pitches changes, which, on the contrary, originate optical phenomenons of rarefaction or fattening easily noticeable by the naked eye, with deterioration of the image quality.
  • the black printing heads contain an ink which is expelled in the form of drops with a typical volume equal to about 160 pl, and which is formulated in such a way as to have a slow penetration in the printing support (the sheet of paper on which the printing takes place) and rather tends to spread on the surface, so that any single printed pixel widens till to enter into contact with the adjacent pixels, in such a way granting a good covering of the printing support and consequently a high optical density.
  • the colour printing heads contain inks which are expelled in the form of drops with a typical volume halved with respect to the previous one, equal to about 80-90 pl, and which are formulated in such a way to quickly penetrate in the printing support, without spreading on the surface, but leaving the most possible colour on the same surface.
  • the reason is that, in order to obtain a correct colour rendering, it is necessary that every pixel, in getting dry, maintains its original colour, while, if it enters in contact with a different ink when it is in a liquid state, there it could be a reciprocal bleeding which could change the colours in an uncontrolled manner, producing changes in the colours and smudges of the separation lines between a colour and the adjacent one.
  • the "black graphic" ink contained in the colour printing head is really different from the ink contained in the printing head for black only printing, but it is chemically and physically similar, and therefore compatible with the colour inks in the immediate vicinity of which it is deposited during a colour printing containing black pixels too, either to darken the same colours or to draw lines or characters.
  • the lower optical density obtained is a consequence of the lower size of the printed pixel, which appears separated by white areas of the sheet with respect to the adjacent pixels.
  • a commercial example of this second solution form is the printer model BJC 4000 manufactured by Canon®.
  • a third method to solve the aforementioned problem consists in using a black printing head and a colour printing head with the three "primary" colours, similar to the one disclosed in the first method, coupled on the same carriage, overcoming in such a way the printing head replacement problem according to the document to be printed; but this solution, following what stated before about the incompatibility of the black ink contained in the black printing head with respect to the colour inks contained in the printing head, requires particular expedients to operate in a satisfactory manner if the pixels to be black printed are adjacent, or at a distance lower than a predefined minimum limit, to those pixels to be colour printed.
  • An object of the present invention is to print, by way of ink-jet printers, documents containing parts to be black printed and parts to be colour printed mixed together, in such a way that each part is printed with the best possible quality and with the greatest obtainable speed.
  • a further object of the present invention is to print, by way of ink-jet printers, documents containing parts to be black printed and parts to be colour printed mixed together, in such a way that the printing quality is not strictly conditioned by the accuracy of the adjustments of reciprocal geometrical alignment of two printing heads, one for black printing and the other for colour printing, mounted on the same printer carriage.
  • An other object of the present invention is to print, by way of ink-jet printers, documents containing parts to be black printed and parts to be colour printed mixed together, in such a way that no sophisticated technologies are necessary to identify the black pixels to be printed as "true black” or as "composite black”.
  • a further object of the present invention is to print, by way of ink-jet printers, documents containing parts to be black printed and parts to be colour printed mixed together, in such a way that even the black pixels of the parts to be colour printed are printed as "true black” and not as “composite black”.
  • An other object of the present invention is to print, by way of ink-jet printers, documents containing parts to be black printed and parts to be colour printed mixed together, without need to replace the printing head on the printer carriage according to the document to be printed.
  • a further object of the present invention is to print, by way of ink-jet printers, documents containing parts to be black printed and parts to be colour printed mixed together, in such a way as to optimize the consumption of the inks, both black and colour, contained in the printing heads reservoirs.
  • Fig. 1 - represents a schematic view of the carriage of the colour ink-jet printer on which two printing heads are mounted.
  • Fig. 2 - represents a possible arrangement of the nozzles for ink issuing in a black printing head.
  • Fig. 3 - represents a possible arrangement of the nozzles for ink issuing in a colour printing head.
  • the heads-holder carriage 10 (see Fig. 1) is formed by a support 18 sliding on one or more guides 15 for the action of a system driven by a motor, not shown in the figure, in both directions represented by the arrows 11.
  • the two printing heads 12, 13 are positioned in such a way as to present towards a printing support 16, in the figure represented by a sheet of paper, the face with the nozzles from which drops of ink are issued, according to the direction of the arrows 17, which reach the sheet 16, in such a way generating an image on it.
  • the lower face of the printing heads 12, 13, not visible in the figure, is in contact with the connection terminal of a flat cable 19, on which are obtained the conductors for supplying driving signals, coming from an electronic controller not shown in the figure, to the printing heads 12, 13 for the selective issuing of the ink drops.
  • the black printing head 12 comprises a black ink reservoir and an ejector plate having 50 nozzles 120 (see Fig. 2), disposed on two lines 121a and 121b spaced by 10 pitches P of 1/300th of an inch, and staggered in such a manner that their projection on the sheet 16 is represented by a 50 pixels row at a constant pitch of 1/300th of an inch. Since even the feeding of the sheet 16 in the direction of the arrows 17 takes place by multiples of 1/300th of an inch, the combination of the back and forth motion of the carriage 10 along the guides 15 and of the motion of the sheet of paper 16 in the direction of the arrows 17, allows to address all the possible pixels of an orthogonal grid at a pitch of 1/300th of an inch.
  • each single nozzle is typically comprised between 40 and 60, preferably between 43 and 55, better equal to about 50 ⁇ m; the volume of the single drop issued is typically comprised between 100 and 220, preferably between 130 and 190, better equal to about 160 pl; and the pixel printed on the sheet of paper 16 has a typical diameter comprised between 130 and 70, preferably between 115 and 85, better equal to about 100 ⁇ m.
  • the ink contained in the reservoir has tipically a surface tension comprised between 40 and 60, preferably between 40 and 50, better between 43 and 48 dyne.cm, and the fixing of the same ink on the paper takes prevalently place by surface diffusion and by the solvent evaporation.
  • the colour printing head 13 comprises four distinct reservoirs, respectively containing a "graphic" black ink, a cyan ink, a magenta ink and a yellow ink, and an ejector plate (see Fig. 3) having four groups of nozzles 130, the geometrical arrangement of the nozzles being similar to the one of the nozzles 120 of the black printing head 12:
  • the diameter of each single nozzle is typically comprises between 30 and 50, preferably between 35 and 45, better equal to about 40 ⁇ m; the volume of the drop issued is comprised between 40 and 140, preferably between 70 and 110, better equal to about 90 pl; and the pixel printed on the sheet of paper 16 has a typical diameter comprised between 35 and 85, preferably between 50 and 70, better equal to about 60 ⁇ m.
  • the three inks corresponding to the "primary colours" and the "graphic” black ink typically have a surface tension comprised between 25 and 45, preferably between 25 and 38, better between 28 and 34 dyne.cm and the fixing of the same ink on the paper takes prevalently place by the solvent penetratiom.
  • This method simple and easily applicable, consists in using the specific software known as "printer driver”, that usually are supplied, in the form of magnetic diskettes, directly by the supplier of the same printer or by the supplier of the operating system of the computer to which the printer is connected, in order to decompose the document to be printed in homogeneous areas typologically characterised as "text” areas (texts, solid lines or halftone black and white images, etc.) containing pixels to be only black printed, or as "figures" areas (colour pictures, graphs, pie charts, etc.) containing pixels to be black and colours printed, assigning the printing of the "text" areas to the black printing head 12 and the "figures" areas to the colour printing head 13.
  • printer driver that usually are supplied, in the form of magnetic diskettes, directly by the supplier of the same printer or by the supplier of the operating system of the computer to which the printer is connected, in order to decompose the document to be printed in homogeneous areas typologically characterised as "text” areas (texts, solid lines or
  • the physical separation between the "text" areas and the “figures” areas may be, for example, of 1-1,5 mm (corresponding to 12-18 pitches P 1/300th of an inch); in other words, the decomposition is rough, as compared with the grid definition having a pitch of 1/300th of an inch on which the single pixel can be driven, and may easily be done without using complicated algorithms, but only with the aid of tools well known by the field experts, as "pointers” and “mouse", within the functionalities made available by the "printer drive” software.
  • the "printer driver” performs a further decomposition of the "figures" areas, in order to extract from the latter some sub-areas in which the pixels to be black printed are spaced more than a predefined minimum limit value, for example 5/300th of an inch, with respect to the pixels to be colour printed, and assigning also the printing of these sub-areas to the black printing head 12, in such a way as to increase the use, even if only a bit, of the cheapest and fastest printing head.
  • a predefined minimum limit value for example 5/300th of an inch
  • the improvement obtainable by using the printer according to the present invention consists in that all the black pixels of the document are printed as "true” black, and not partly as “true” black and partly as “composite” black, as it would happens in the known art, with the consequent aforesaid advantadges in printing quality, speed and cost.
  • a colour printing head always comprising four distinct reservoirs respectively containing a "graphic" black ink, a cyan ink, a magenta ink and a yellow ink, but having an ejector plate provided with four groups of nozzles characterised as following: a first group comprising 12 nozzles connected to the "graphic" black ink reservoir; a second group, spaced 12 pitches P of 1/300th of an inch, comprising 12 nozzles connected to the cyan ink reservoir; a third group, spaced 11 pitches P of 1/300th of an inch, comprising 13 nozzles connected to the magenta ink reservoir; and finally a fourth group, spaced 10 pitches P of 1/300th of an inch, comprising 14 nozzles connected to the yellow ink reservoir.
  • this printing head may be either of removable type, mounted on a carriage which crosses the width of the sheet of paper on which the printing is made, or of the fixed type, capable of issuing ink drops throughout the sheet width (line printing head).
  • orthogonal grid pitch for example taking it to 1/360th or to 1/600th or to 1/720th of an inch, consequently modifying the pitch of the line feeding of the printing support and the pitch in which the nozzles are disposed.
  • printing heads comprising only the passive devices for the drops issue, receiving from outside all the relevant driving signals, or can be used printing heads with a higher or lower "intelligence" degree, or which have internal active components (for example diodes, transistors, MOS, etc.) capable of performing at least the decoding and/or the amplification of the driving signals.
  • internal active components for example diodes, transistors, MOS, etc.
  • the ink-jet printing process used can be the one called “thermic”, in which the ink drop is issued by way of a vapour bubble generated within the same ink by a thermic effect, or it can be the one called “piezoelectric”, in which the ink drop is issued by a pressure wave generated by a piezoelectric effect.

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  • Ink Jet (AREA)
  • Ink Jet Recording Methods And Recording Media Thereof (AREA)
EP96102261A 1995-03-07 1996-02-15 Tintenstrahlfarbdrucker Withdrawn EP0730970A3 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
ITTO950172 1995-03-07
IT95TO000172A IT1278980B1 (it) 1995-03-07 1995-03-07 Stampante a colori a getto di inchiostro

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0730970A2 true EP0730970A2 (de) 1996-09-11
EP0730970A3 EP0730970A3 (de) 1997-09-03

Family

ID=11413318

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP96102261A Withdrawn EP0730970A3 (de) 1995-03-07 1996-02-15 Tintenstrahlfarbdrucker

Country Status (3)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0730970A3 (de)
JP (1) JPH08258290A (de)
IT (1) IT1278980B1 (de)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0976565A3 (de) * 1998-07-30 2000-08-23 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Apparat und Verfahren zum Drucken
US6511171B2 (en) * 2000-12-25 2003-01-28 Konica Corporation Ink set for an ink-jet recording method

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP3254982B2 (ja) * 1995-10-06 2002-02-12 セイコーエプソン株式会社 カラープリンタの印画位置調整方法及びカラープリンタ

Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3401071A1 (de) * 1984-01-13 1985-07-25 Siemens AG, 1000 Berlin und 8000 München Vorrichtung zum nachfuellen von tintenbehaeltern in tintenschreibeinrichtungen
JPS61230952A (ja) * 1985-04-05 1986-10-15 Sharp Corp インクジエツトプリンタ
JPH05330086A (ja) * 1992-06-01 1993-12-14 Fuji Xerox Co Ltd カラー画像記録装置
JPH0619778A (ja) * 1992-07-01 1994-01-28 Toshiba Corp 不揮発性半導体メモリ装置
EP0583127A2 (de) * 1992-08-11 1994-02-16 Xerox Corporation Räumliche Farbfilterung für thermische Tintenstrahldrucker
EP0595658A2 (de) * 1992-10-30 1994-05-04 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Farbstrahlaufzeichnungsvorrichtung
JPH06143795A (ja) * 1992-11-06 1994-05-24 Seiko Epson Corp インクジェット記録方法
EP0639463A1 (de) * 1993-08-19 1995-02-22 OLIVETTI-CANON INDUSTRIALE S.p.A. Punktdruckverfahren und entsprechender Tintenstrahldruckkopf
JPH07125406A (ja) * 1993-10-28 1995-05-16 Canon Inc カラーインクジェット記録方法

Patent Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3401071A1 (de) * 1984-01-13 1985-07-25 Siemens AG, 1000 Berlin und 8000 München Vorrichtung zum nachfuellen von tintenbehaeltern in tintenschreibeinrichtungen
JPS61230952A (ja) * 1985-04-05 1986-10-15 Sharp Corp インクジエツトプリンタ
JPH05330086A (ja) * 1992-06-01 1993-12-14 Fuji Xerox Co Ltd カラー画像記録装置
JPH0619778A (ja) * 1992-07-01 1994-01-28 Toshiba Corp 不揮発性半導体メモリ装置
EP0583127A2 (de) * 1992-08-11 1994-02-16 Xerox Corporation Räumliche Farbfilterung für thermische Tintenstrahldrucker
EP0595658A2 (de) * 1992-10-30 1994-05-04 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Farbstrahlaufzeichnungsvorrichtung
JPH06143795A (ja) * 1992-11-06 1994-05-24 Seiko Epson Corp インクジェット記録方法
EP0639463A1 (de) * 1993-08-19 1995-02-22 OLIVETTI-CANON INDUSTRIALE S.p.A. Punktdruckverfahren und entsprechender Tintenstrahldruckkopf
JPH07125406A (ja) * 1993-10-28 1995-05-16 Canon Inc カラーインクジェット記録方法

Non-Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 011, no. 076 (M-569), 7 March 1987 & JP 61 230952 A (SHARP CORP), 15 October 1986, *
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 018, no. 232 (P-1731), 27 April 1994 & JP 06 019778 A (TOSHIBA CORP), 28 January 1994, *
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 018, no. 453 (M-1662), 24 August 1994 & JP 06 143795 A (SEIKO EPSON CORP), 24 May 1994, *
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 95, no. 005 & JP 07 125406 A (CANON INC), 16 May 1995, *

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0976565A3 (de) * 1998-07-30 2000-08-23 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Apparat und Verfahren zum Drucken
US6540328B1 (en) 1998-07-30 2003-04-01 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Printing apparatus and printing method
US6511171B2 (en) * 2000-12-25 2003-01-28 Konica Corporation Ink set for an ink-jet recording method

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
JPH08258290A (ja) 1996-10-08
ITTO950172A0 (it) 1995-03-07
ITTO950172A1 (it) 1996-09-07
IT1278980B1 (it) 1997-12-02
EP0730970A3 (de) 1997-09-03

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