EP1412194B1 - Printing device with parallel type ink jet printhead - Google Patents
Printing device with parallel type ink jet printhead Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- EP1412194B1 EP1412194B1 EP02755626A EP02755626A EP1412194B1 EP 1412194 B1 EP1412194 B1 EP 1412194B1 EP 02755626 A EP02755626 A EP 02755626A EP 02755626 A EP02755626 A EP 02755626A EP 1412194 B1 EP1412194 B1 EP 1412194B1
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- European Patent Office
- Prior art keywords
- nozzles
- printing
- head
- along
- axis
- Prior art date
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Classifications
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- 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
- B41J2/2132—Print quality control characterised by dot disposition, e.g. for reducing white stripes or banding
- B41J2/2139—Compensation for malfunctioning nozzles creating dot place or dot size errors
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- 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
- B41J11/00—Devices or arrangementsĀ of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form
- B41J11/36—Blanking or long feeds; Feeding to a particular line, e.g. by rotation of platen or feed roller
- B41J11/42—Controlling printing material conveyance for accurate alignment of the printing material with the printhead; Print registering
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- 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
- B41J13/00—Devices or arrangements of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, specially adapted for supporting or handling copy material in short lengths, e.g. sheets
- B41J13/26—Registering devices
- B41J13/32—Means for positioning sheets in two directions under one control, e.g. for format control or orthogonal sheet positioning
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- 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
- B41J2/135—Nozzles
- B41J2/145—Arrangement thereof
- B41J2/155—Arrangement thereof for line printing
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- 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
- B41J2/2132—Print quality control characterised by dot disposition, e.g. for reducing white stripes or banding
- B41J2/2146—Print quality control characterised by dot disposition, e.g. for reducing white stripes or banding for line print heads
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- 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
- B41J2/485—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by the process of building-up characters or image elements applicable to two or more kinds of printing or marking processes
- B41J2/505—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by the process of building-up characters or image elements applicable to two or more kinds of printing or marking processes from an assembly of identical printing elements
- B41J2/515—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by the process of building-up characters or image elements applicable to two or more kinds of printing or marking processes from an assembly of identical printing elements line printer type
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- 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
- B41J25/00—Actions or mechanisms not otherwise provided for
- B41J25/001—Mechanisms for bodily moving print heads or carriages parallel to the paper surface
Definitions
- Printing devices with parallel or in-line type ink jet head produce printouts in a short space of time, in relation to the number of dots comprising the image, and are compact. Furthermore, on account of the fixed head, these devices have a lesser number of moving parts than the devices that employ a serial type ink jet head.
- shingling In printing devices with a serial head, to obtain high quality images, "shingling" is used, by which is meant methods in which the sheet is fed by an amount less than the height of the head and in which a final line of print is obtained with various overlapping passes.
- An elementary row is not printed by one nozzle associated therewith but is composed by dots of ink emitted by nozzles in different parts of the head. The advantage lies in the fact that the effect of dots missing due to a defective nozzle is lessened over various rows, and the visual disturbance is reduced.
- Document EP 0963854 discloses an inkjet printer comprising a printhead, a nozzle checking means for detecting a defect of an inkjet nozzle mounted on the printhead, wherein the inkjet printer performs a plurality of scanning operations onto the same scanning line of the recording medium when the nozzle checking means detects a defect.
- the plurality of image formations at least one image formation is obtained by printing the defective portion by using other normal nozzles instead of the defective nozzle. Image failure due to the defect of the nozzle is said to be improved.
- Document EP 0023433 describes a fluid drop generator and an ink jet raster image recording method in which the entire raster image is created by a single traverse of the generator relative to the target transport mounted on a rotating drum. The generator is moved along the drum axis of one pixel position for each revolution of the drum. During a single drum revolution, all the pixel positions in a column around the periphery of the drum are addressed by a single nozzle located over the column.
- the head 37 is supported by a carriage 60 which can effect a scanning movement of the desired width with respect to the platen 34.
- the carriage 60 is suitable for sliding on guides 61 and 62 and its movement is controlled, for example, by means of a cam (not depicted in the drawings) suitably connected with the motor 41 and in sync with the motion of the sheet 39.
Abstract
Description
- This invention relates to a printing device with parallel or "in-line" type ink jet head, used for forming black or colour images on a print medium.
- More specifically, the invention concerns a printing device with parallel or in-line ink jet head, comprising a plurality of nozzles according to the introductory part of
claim 1. - The printing device may be used in general purpose printers or for photographic reproductions, in labelling machines, or in similar machines. Printing is effected on a medium consisting of a sheet of paper, or plastic, or other material.
- An ink jet printhead, of the thermal type for instance, provides for a plate with one or more rows of nozzles, an actuating assembly with resistors associated with the nozzles and the emission of droplets of ink perpendicularly to the plate. This is widely known, and will not therefore be described in detail herein.
- The current technology tends to produce heads with high density of nozzles for a printing definition of more than 600 dpi (dpi = dots per inch), a high work frequency (ā„ 10 kHz) and producing ever smaller droplets (ā¤ 10 pl). Addressing techniques have also been developed that modulate various dots on the same print location (multidrop), obtaining effects similar to those of an enhanced printing definition. This is particularly widespread in colour heads, and requires compact size actuators and hydraulic circuits, precision of assembly and stringent tolerances.
- Printing devices with parallel or in-line type ink jet head produce printouts in a short space of time, in relation to the number of dots comprising the image, and are compact. Furthermore, on account of the fixed head, these devices have a lesser number of moving parts than the devices that employ a serial type ink jet head.
- A common problem shared by all printing devices based on ink jet technologies concerns the fact that operating defects of the individual nozzles are intrinsically evident on the printed sheet.
- In printing devices with a serial head, to obtain high quality images, "shingling" is used, by which is meant methods in which the sheet is fed by an amount less than the height of the head and in which a final line of print is obtained with various overlapping passes. An elementary row is not printed by one nozzle associated therewith but is composed by dots of ink emitted by nozzles in different parts of the head. The advantage lies in the fact that the effect of dots missing due to a defective nozzle is lessened over various rows, and the visual disturbance is reduced.
- In printing devices with in-line ink jet head, any defect of a nozzle is particularly obvious on the printed sheet, where the printing positions on the sheet are unambiguously associated with the individual nozzles, since all the elementary rows into which an image is broken down and on the same print grid, the dot associated with the faulty nozzle is missing. This is manifested in the appearance of an unprinted, and therefore clearer, line over the entire height of the image.
- The unique association between the printing positions and the nozzles of an in-line head, limits definition of the image to definition of the nozzles.
- Document
US 6,217,148 describes a method of operation for high-speed inkjet printer comprising a printhead for printing parallel lines of dots on a substrate in a plurality of passes. Between each pass, the printhead is displaced in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the lines by a distance that satisfies certain conditions so as to ensure that two adjacent lines are printed by different ink jets and that each line is printed by only one ink jet. - Document
EP 0963854 discloses an inkjet printer comprising a printhead, a nozzle checking means for detecting a defect of an inkjet nozzle mounted on the printhead, wherein the inkjet printer performs a plurality of scanning operations onto the same scanning line of the recording medium when the nozzle checking means detects a defect. In the plurality of image formations, at least one image formation is obtained by printing the defective portion by using other normal nozzles instead of the defective nozzle. Image failure due to the defect of the nozzle is said to be improved. DocumentEP 0023433 describes a fluid drop generator and an ink jet raster image recording method in which the entire raster image is created by a single traverse of the generator relative to the target transport mounted on a rotating drum. The generator is moved along the drum axis of one pixel position for each revolution of the drum. During a single drum revolution, all the pixel positions in a column around the periphery of the drum are addressed by a single nozzle located over the column. - Document
US 4,223,323 discloses an inkjet printer comprising a plurality of printing elements arranged on a carriage which is made to move in a direction transverse to the direction of travel of the recording medium. Each printing element has an ink supply line made of flexible material connected thereto and connected to a header supply line of rigid nature so as to minimize the effects of acceleration and deceleration of the printing elements on the supply of ink. - The object of this invention is to provide a method for performing printing on a print medium by emitting ink droplets from a printing device with "in-line" ink jet head, in which the faulty operation of a nozzle has minimal visual disturbance on the printed sheet.
- Another object is to obtain high definition printing using an in-line head having a density of nozzles with lower definition, or to obtain printing of average definition and high speed with a nozzle density lesser than that of the printable dots.
- These objects are achieved by the method of the invention which allows for an alternating transverse motion between head and print medium simultaneous with the longitudinal motion of the medium, according to
claim 1. - Another object of the invention is to provide a printing device with ink jet head that has a good dot definition and which is suitable for miniaturization, in particular for integration in digital cameras or in associated compact accessories.
- A further object of the invention is to obtain a printing device with an in-line ink jet head suitable for miniaturization and autonomous feeding and in which the peak currents absorbed by the actuators of the row of nozzles in the head are minimal.
- In photographic applications, the tanks for the different colour inks may be applied to the medium of the head and be easily interchangeable. Alternatively or, in combination with, the tanks may be unconstrained from the head when the head is subject to the alternating motion.
- These and other objects, characteristics and advantages of the invention shall become apparent from the following description of an embodiment, provided by way of non-restrictive example, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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Fig. 1 Represents a schematic view of a printer that employs a printing device with parallel or in-line type ink jet head, according to the invention; -
Fig. 2 is a partial schematic view of an in-line ink jet head; -
Fig. 3 represents a block diagram of control of the printing device according to the invention; -
Fig. 4 represents a variant of a printing device with ink jet head according to the invention; -
Fig. 5 is a diagram of dots printed by a device according to the known art; -
Figs. 5a, 5b and 5c represent different diagrams of dots printable by a printing device of the invention, in accordance with a first methodology; -
Fig. 6a represents a diagram of dots printable by a device of the invention, in accordance with a second methodology; -
Fig. 6b represents a variant of the diagram of printable dots ofFig. 6a ; -
Fig. 7 is a diagram of an in-line inkjet head according to the invention; and -
Fig. 8 represents a diagram of operation of the printing device according to the invention. - Depicted in
Fig. 1 is aprinter 31 comprising afixed structure 32 and aprinting device 33. - The
device 33 includes a contrast roller (or platen) 34, electronic control means 36 and a colour, parallel or in-line type printhead 37. Thehead 37 is arranged in front of theplaten 34 for its full length and comprises a plurality ofnozzles 38 suitable for actuation by corresponding resistors. Theplaten 34 supports a print medium which consists of asheet 39 of paper, plastic or other material and is fed by a step motor 41 (Fig. 3 ) by way of theelectronic means 36 for defining the elementary lines of the image. - Also shown in
Fig. 1 are the reference axes X, Y and Z: The X axis is horizontal in use, i.e. parallel to the axis of theplaten 34 and to a transverse axis of thehead 37; the Y axis is vertical, i.e. parallel to the direction of motion of themedium 39 during the line feed function; and the Z axis is perpendicular to the X and Y axes, parallel to the direction of emission of the ink droplets by thenozzles 38. - With reference to
Fig. 2 , thenozzles 38 of thehead 37 are made on anozzles plate 51, arranged in threerows - The nozzles plate 51 (
Figs. 2 and7 ) is, for example, of the type described in the patentEP 0 652 107 , made up of sixprinting modules 59, having a distance H between the end nozzles of 25.4 mm (1 inch) in order to form the distance M. Eachmodule 59 contains 600nozzles 38 kept apart by a distance "p" of 42 Āµm (1/600 of an inch) and a definition of 1/600". Eachcolour row - In a printer with in-line head, the failure of a nozzle to function is apparent as a lack of colour dots arranged according to a vertical line, so as to alter uniformity of the printout.
- In
figure 5 an image is shown obtained according to the known technique of activation of all the nozzles in therow 56, for a droplet of, by way of example, 20 pl. and in the case where one of the nozzles, forinstance nozzle 56b in printing position "n", does not work or is defective. Due to the continuity of the missing dots, the defect stands out clearly with respect of the adjacent printing positions "n-1", "n-2", "n+1" and "n+2" and is therefore unacceptable. - In accordance with this invention, the head 37 (
Fig. 1 ) is made to move with respect to thesheet 39, making allowance forextra nozzles 38 with respect to those necessary to perform a line of print according to the known technique offigure 5 . Movement and actuation of the nozzles are regulated individually in a reciprocal relationship and with respect to the sheet feeding motion in such a way as to conceal possible unprinted dots on the sheet and/or increase the equivalent print definition. - According to a first embodiment, the volume of the droplets emitted by the nozzles remains the same but each line is printed in several passes, activating the nozzles with permutations consistent with the number of passes. A defect of one nozzle is diluted over a number of columns and for an extension depending on the number of passes and on the width of the oscillations.
- In this way a multi-pass mode is achieved which, by applying a shingling form of masking, reduces the visual disturbance. Shown in the drawings of
Figs. 5a, 5b and 5c are the dots formed by a generic nozzle in relation to a series of printing positions, relative to shingling modes with 2, 3 and 4 passes or levels, in the case of continuous feeding of thesheet 39. - In accordance with a second embodiment, each grid associated with the printing positions is sent various ink droplets of lesser volume than in the previous case (multidrop/multilayer). In addition, the
nozzles 38 may be controlled in relation to the alternating motion between thehead 37 and thesheet 39 so as to address the droplets to different areas of the grid. - By way of example, for a volume of elementary droplets equal to one quarter of the volume a single droplet, the droplets may be freely addressed to four areas of the grid. The grid may therefore be covered by means of a quadruple form of dot addressing, giving an equivalent definition of approx. 1200 X 1200 dpi or, to use a different terminology, a definition of 600 X 600 dpi with four-level modulation. The
head 37 also has allowance formore nozzles 38 to cover all the dots of the grids associated with the end positions of the line of print. -
Fig. 6a illustrates an example of printing with four-level modulation,volume 5 pl and an oscillation width of 5p in the two directions. The result is an automatic shingling effect for the missing or defective dots. Each grid has differently coloured dots and the number of extra nozzles is ten. - By slowing down or accelerating sheet feeding and increasing or decreasing the oscillation width, the grid may contain more or less dots. In the case of a printing definition of 300 dpi, for four dots in the grid, heads of 20 pl. are suitable and for eight dots in the grid heads of 10 pl.
- Obviously, for a like maximum jet frequency of the nozzles, shingling mode and modulation mode lower the overall printing speed. On account of parallelism of the nozzles, printing speed is high at any rate while the considerations regarding noise level and acoustic disturbance linked with the oscillation frequency of the head or sheet apply. Therefore, if the sheet feeding motion is lowered, the frequency is lowered to under 40 Hz.
- The shingling of the first embodiment and the multi-level modulation of the second embodiment may be suitably combined to give different equivalent definitions and different levels of defect masking with a scanning motion amplitude that varies between one and sixty-four times the step "p".
- The diagram of
figure 6b shows an example of printing with shingling and four-level modulation and alternating motion amplitude equal to 9p in the two directions. The number of extra nozzles is eighteen and the missing dot of a nozzle is distributed over a wide area and with a density that renders visual disturbance imperceptible. - Table 1 below shows various application solutions by droplet volume, number of addressable dots, shingling levels, number of extra nozzles and frequencies of oscillation between head and sheet and other significant parameters.
TABLE 1 Droplet volume Dots/ pixel Equivalent definition Shingling level Extra Nozzles Oscillation Frequency Feed rate. Printing mode Jet freq. (KHz) Amplitude of oscillat. (pl) (Hz) (cm/s) +/-(um) 20 1 600X600 0 0 0 33.6 NORMAL 8.0 0 20 2 1200x600 2 6 500 8.4 SHINGLlNG 4.0 126.9 20 3 1200x900 3 8 222 3.7 2.7 169.2 20 4 1200x1200 4 10 125 2.1 2.0 211.5 20 6 1800x1200 6 14 56 0.9 1.3 296.1 20 8 2400x1200 8 18 31 0.5 1.0 380.7 20 12 2400x1800 12 26 14 0.2 0.7 549.9 10 2 1200x600 0 6 1500 25.2 2 2-level mod. 12.0 126.9 10 4 1200x1200 2 10 375 6.3 2-level mod. + SHINGLlNG 6.0 211.5 10 6 1800x1200 3 14 167 2.8 4.0 296.1 10 8 2400x1200 4 18 94 1.6 3.0 380.7 10 12 2400x1800 6 26 42 0.7 2.0 549.9 10 16 2400x2400 8 34 23 0.4 1.5 719.1 5 4 1200x1200 0 10 1125 18.9 4-level mod 18.0 211.5 5 8 2400x1200 2 18 281 4.7 4-level mod + SHINGLING 9.0 380.7 5 16 2400x2400 4 34 70 1.2 4.5 719.1 5 24 3600x2400 6 50 31 0.5 3.0 1057.5 5 32 4800x2400 8 66 18 0.3 2.3 1395.9 - It is clear from the table that increasing the number of extra nozzles requires an increase in the amplitude of oscillation and a decease in the frequency and a slowing down of the printing speed, but allows an ever larger number of dots to be addressed inside each single grid, by increasing the modulation levels (dots per grid) and as a result the equivalent printing definition.
- The limit that defines the passage between increasing the modulation/definition levels and shingling is given upon reaching full printing saturation (volume of ink/pixel). For instance, for a grid of 600x600 dpi this limit is given by 20pl and shingling masking rules out the higher definition levels.
- The convenience of resorting to high levels of shingling lies in the fact that printing uniformity increases considerably and that a low oscillation frequency (< 20Hz) must be selected at any rate. The gain in quality is obtained therefore for like printing time merely from a greater number of lateral nozzles and a greater oscillation amplitude.
- Similar consideration may be made about heads of lower definitions (300 dpi and 150 dpi), with which it is possible to reach, at the same printing speed, equivalent definitions highly similar to those of heads of higher definitions.
- Structurally, the
head 37 is supported by acarriage 60 which can effect a scanning movement of the desired width with respect to theplaten 34. Thecarriage 60 is suitable for sliding onguides motor 41 and in sync with the motion of thesheet 39. -
Fig. 8 , in relation withfigure 6a , depicts on the X axis the oscillation time of thecarriage 60 and on the Y axis its displacement according to a law of linear motion. Feeding of thesheet 39 in the direction of the Y axis is equal to p/4 (1/2400") for each pass and the relative scanning of the carriage in the direction of the X axis is equal to 5/4p. Excitations of thenozzles 38 occur at constant intervals "t" equal to 1/16 of the period "T", corresponding to a double pass of the carriage. - The law of motion of the carriage may be sinusoidal type and actuation of the nozzles may be slave driven, with feedback, by a carriage linear position encoder or by other systems without feedback, which ensure that the dots are equidistant and that there is alignment of the printing positions of the different elementary line feeds.
- The
circuit 36 comprises, for example, acontroller unit 71, adriver 72 for themotor 41 and adriver 73 for the actuators of thehead 37. Thecontroller 71 controls thedrivers - The
unit 71 also provides the timing for command of the nozzles and synchronization of these commands with the line feed movements. Carriage oscillation frequency is selected low, between 5 and 40 Hz and preferably less than 20 Hz. In this way, as well as lowering the noise emitted by the carriage when moving, the printing time may be considered instantaneous with respect to the movements under way and there is a wide dispersion of missing dots. - According to another characteristic of the invention, the
control circuit 36 excites the resistors actuating thehead 37 in sequential groups in order to minimize current peaks and allow use of an independent battery power supply. - As a limit example, for a single colour of 1200 dots, 30 blocks are provided of 20 conventionally even resistors and 30 blocks of 20 odd resistors and the resistors are excited in twos, even and odd ones, for a time of 2.5 Āµs. Selection of the 1200 nozzles of each primary colour therefore requires 1.5 ms. and, for a peak resistor absorption value of 0.1A, the peak current needed to excite the 6 resistors of the three primary colours is approximately 0.6 A for a head of 4 pl.
- The scanning movement of the
head 37 does not substantially worsen the working characteristics of theprinter 31. For a scanning frequency of 10 Hz, it takes 25 ms to travel the distance equal to Ā¼ of the oscillation path of thecarriage 60. The time needed to write with 1200 nozzles is therefore 16 times less that the time needed to travel this distance and accordingly there are no drawbacks regarding deposition of the ink on the sheet. - Shown in
figure 4 is a variant, designated with the numeral 76, of the printing device of the invention. In this variant, the printing sheet, here designated with the numeral 77, is engaged between pairs of feeding rollers 78-1, 78-2 and 79-1, 79-2 parallel to the X axis and to the transversal axis of thehead 37. - The rollers 78-1, 78-2 and 79-1, 79-2 are driven by a relative step motor and provide the feeding movement of the
sheet 77 on the Y axis. Again in this case, there is oscillating movement betweenhead 37 andsheet 77. - In a first solution, the
ink jet head 37 is fixed and the oscillating movement is obtained by moving the four rollers along their axis together with thesheet 77. In a second solution, the four rollers are fixed along their axis and thehead 37 is made oscillate with respect to thesheet 77. - The
printing device 76 is suitable for miniaturization. It may be used to advantage in integration with digital cameras or in relative, compact accessories for printing adequately-sized photographs (10 x 15 cm). In these cases, in fact, the number of nozzles is low and the times needed to invert motion are perfectly acceptable. - In the photographic applications, the tanks for the different colour inks can be applied by pressure-fit into the head support and are easily interchanged, as indicated in the above-mentioned patent
EP 0 652 107 . - According to another aspect of the invention, where the
head 37 is open to movement, the three ink tanks are in flexible connection, for example through bellows, with the rows ofnozzles 38. Alternatively or in combination, the tanks are in a fixed position and the head remains released from the tanks, minimizing inertia of the moving parts. - In association with miniaturization, the device 74 is also open to feeding with an autonomous power supply. Excitation of the resistors actuating the
head 37 in sequential groups in fact renders minimal the peak currents absorbed by the actuators of the nozzles, guaranteeing the batteries supplying power an acceptable life. - Naturally, while the principle of the invention remains unaltered, the embodiments and the details of manufacture of the printing device with ink jet head may be abundantly varied with respect to what has been described and illustrated merely by waxy of non-restrictive example, without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
Claims (12)
- A printing method for performing printing on a print medium (39, 77) by emitting ink droplets from a printing device (33, 76) with an in-line ink jet head (37) comprising a plurality of nozzles (38) arranged side by side along a transverse axis parallel to a first reference axis X and in front of said print medium (39, 77), said plurality of nozzles being associated with corresponding reference grids in reference printing positions, the method comprising the step of printing an image grid defining a plurality of horizontal dot lines along said first reference axis X and a plurality of vertical dot lines along a second reference axis Y perpendicular to the first reference axis X by performing an alternating transverse motion between the head (37) and the print medium (39, 77), said alternating transverse motion being defined by oscillations of the head along the transverse axis while simultaneously moving said print medium along said second reference axis Y for the definition of said plurality of vertical dot lines thereby providing a permutation in the actuation of the nozzles associated with said printing positions for masking possible unprinted dots (56b) on said print medium and/or for obtaining numerous dots in said image grid thereby increasing the printing definition with respect to that of said nozzles, wherein each vertical dot line is printed by more than one nozzle of said plurality of nozzles.
- The method according to claim 1, characterized in that said head has extra nozzles, the number of which depends on the amplitude of said oscillations of the head along the transverse axis.
- The method of claims 1 or 2, wherein said reference printing positions of the reference grids are spaced by a distance p both along the first preference axis X and along said second reference axis Y, said distance p corresponding to the interspacing between said nozzles along said transverse axis.
- The method according to claim 3, characterized in that said alternating motion extends for a total amplitude of between, in the two directions along said transverse axis, one and sixty-four times the distance p of the nozzles.
- The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said oscillations of the head have a frequency of between 5 and 40 Hz.
- The method according to claim 5, characterized in that said frequency is less than 20 Hz.
- The method according to any of the claims from 1 to 6, characterized in that the step of printing is carried out by actuating said nozzles in intermediate printing positions with respect to the reference printing positions, thereby increasing the transversal definition of the printed dots with respect to the density of the nozzles.
- The method of claim 7, wherein said intermediate printing positions spaced one another of p/N, where N is equal to 2 or 4.
- The method of claim 1, wherein the law of said alternating motion is of sinusoidal type.
- The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the printing device is open to an autonomous power supply and in that said nozzles are activated by relative actuators driven in sequential groups to minimize the current peaks absorbed by said autonomous power supply.
- The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said nozzles are actuated according to a modulation type multipass mode.
- The method of claim 1, wherein moving of the print medium is carried out by continuous feeding of said print medium in the printing device along said second reference axis Y.
Applications Claiming Priority (3)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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IT2001TO000707A ITTO20010707A1 (en) | 2001-07-19 | 2001-07-19 | PRINTING DEVICE WITH PARALLEL INK JET HEAD. |
ITTO20010707 | 2001-07-19 | ||
PCT/IT2002/000442 WO2003008195A1 (en) | 2001-07-19 | 2002-07-04 | Printing device with parallel type ink jet printhead |
Publications (2)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
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EP1412194A1 EP1412194A1 (en) | 2004-04-28 |
EP1412194B1 true EP1412194B1 (en) | 2010-03-10 |
Family
ID=11459064
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
EP02755626A Expired - Lifetime EP1412194B1 (en) | 2001-07-19 | 2002-07-04 | Printing device with parallel type ink jet printhead |
Country Status (5)
Country | Link |
---|---|
EP (1) | EP1412194B1 (en) |
AT (1) | ATE460286T1 (en) |
DE (1) | DE60235631D1 (en) |
IT (1) | ITTO20010707A1 (en) |
WO (1) | WO2003008195A1 (en) |
Families Citing this family (9)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
ITTO20020876A1 (en) | 2002-10-10 | 2004-04-11 | Olivetti I Jet Spa | PARALLEL INK JET PRINTING DEVICE |
US7021739B2 (en) | 2003-11-24 | 2006-04-04 | Xerox Corporation | Ink jet processes |
KR20060110489A (en) | 2005-04-20 | 2006-10-25 | ģ¼ģ±ģ ģģ£¼ģķģ¬ | Shingling printing method and inkjet image forming apparatus |
KR20070095465A (en) * | 2005-06-17 | 2007-10-01 | ģ¼ģ±ģ ģģ£¼ģķģ¬ | Inkjet image forming apparatus and method for printing in high quality |
DE102006038750A1 (en) * | 2006-08-17 | 2008-02-21 | Robert BĆ¼rkle GmbH | Rigid workpiece e.g. furniture panel, printing device, has inkjet nozzles distributed in row over entire working width, which over stretches workpiece transverse to direction of relative movement between printing device and printing station |
KR20080068261A (en) * | 2007-01-18 | 2008-07-23 | ģ¼ģ±ģ ģģ£¼ģķģ¬ | Inkjet printer and image forming method thereof |
WO2011024313A1 (en) * | 2009-08-31 | 2011-03-03 | ę Ŗå¼ä¼ē¤¾ććććØć³ćøćć¢ćŖć³ć° | Three-dimensional inkjet printer |
WO2015180818A1 (en) * | 2014-05-28 | 2015-12-03 | Durst Phototechnik Ag | Two-dimensional method comprising a scanning printer module and a media advancing system |
JP2017052182A (en) * | 2015-09-09 | 2017-03-16 | ć«ć·ćŖčØē®ę©ę Ŗå¼ä¼ē¤¾ | Printing device, printing method and program |
Family Cites Families (6)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US4223323A (en) * | 1978-12-15 | 1980-09-16 | Ncr Corporation | Ink jet printer |
JPS5621287A (en) * | 1979-07-30 | 1981-02-27 | Xerox Corp | Fluid dripping device |
IT1272050B (en) * | 1993-11-10 | 1997-06-11 | Olivetti Canon Ind Spa | PARALLEL PRINTER DEVICE WITH MODULAR STRUCTURE AND RELATED CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE. |
IL117278A (en) * | 1996-02-27 | 2000-02-17 | Idanit Tech Ltd | Method for operating an ink jet printer |
CA2253418A1 (en) * | 1996-05-06 | 1997-11-13 | Herbert Daniel Vargas Iii | Auxiliary ink reservoir and feed system and method for ink jet cartridges |
US6481820B1 (en) * | 1998-05-25 | 2002-11-19 | Konica Corporation | Ink jet printer which can carry out high speed image formation and which can avoid image failure due to a defective nozzle |
-
2001
- 2001-07-19 IT IT2001TO000707A patent/ITTO20010707A1/en unknown
-
2002
- 2002-07-04 EP EP02755626A patent/EP1412194B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 2002-07-04 DE DE60235631T patent/DE60235631D1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 2002-07-04 WO PCT/IT2002/000442 patent/WO2003008195A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 2002-07-04 AT AT02755626T patent/ATE460286T1/en not_active IP Right Cessation
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
DE60235631D1 (en) | 2010-04-22 |
WO2003008195A1 (en) | 2003-01-30 |
ITTO20010707A0 (en) | 2001-07-19 |
EP1412194A1 (en) | 2004-04-28 |
ATE460286T1 (en) | 2010-03-15 |
ITTO20010707A1 (en) | 2003-01-20 |
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