EP1661724A1 - Imprimante avec une bobine pour délivrer une bande sans fin d'un support d'enregistrement - Google Patents

Imprimante avec une bobine pour délivrer une bande sans fin d'un support d'enregistrement Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1661724A1
EP1661724A1 EP05111021A EP05111021A EP1661724A1 EP 1661724 A1 EP1661724 A1 EP 1661724A1 EP 05111021 A EP05111021 A EP 05111021A EP 05111021 A EP05111021 A EP 05111021A EP 1661724 A1 EP1661724 A1 EP 1661724A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
printer
web
coil
reel
paper
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Withdrawn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
EP05111021A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Lodewijk T. Holtman
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.)
Canon Production Printing Netherlands BV
Original Assignee
Oce Technologies BV
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 Oce Technologies BV filed Critical Oce Technologies BV
Priority to EP05111021A priority Critical patent/EP1661724A1/fr
Publication of EP1661724A1 publication Critical patent/EP1661724A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current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
    • B41J11/00—Devices or arrangements  of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form
    • B41J11/66—Applications of cutting devices
    • B41J11/70—Applications of cutting devices cutting perpendicular to the direction of paper feed
    • 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 arrangements  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
    • 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
    • B41J15/00—Devices or arrangements of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, specially adapted for supporting or handling copy material in continuous form, e.g. webs
    • B41J15/04—Supporting, feeding, or guiding devices; Mountings for web rolls or spindles
    • B41J15/046—Supporting, feeding, or guiding devices; Mountings for web rolls or spindles for the guidance of continuous copy material, e.g. for preventing skewed conveyance of the continuous copy material

Definitions

  • the invention relates to a printer comprising a reel for supplying a recording medium in the form of a coil of an endless web wound on the reel, a feed path leading from the reel to a print station, a cutting device disposed at the feed path for cutting the web, and a feed control system. More particularly, the invention relates to a hot melt ink jet printer.
  • cockling phenomenon is related to the fact that paper and similar materials tend to absorb humidity from ambient air and to expand and contract in accordance with their humidity content. Typically, the expansion and contraction is unisotropic and is particularly pronounced in a direction in which the fibers of the paper are predominantly oriented. When there exists a gradient in humidity within the paper, then the more humid portion of the paper will expand more than the drier portion, which inevitably leads to the production of cockles or wrinkles.
  • the paper is intermittently advanced over a flat sheet support plate, while a carriage moves back and forth across the paper, and ink jet printheads mounted on the carriage are energised to eject droplets of ink onto the paper so as to form a printed image. Since the carriage moves with relatively high velocity, the ink droplets ejected onto the paper undergo a certain aberration and are deposited on the paper in a somewhat dislocated position. The amount of dislocation is proportional to the flight distance of the ink droplets. Thus, when cockles are present in the paper, the flight distance is non-uniform and, accordingly, the dislocation of the spots of ink on the paper also becomes non-uniform, so that the quality of the printed image is deteriorated.
  • the ink In a hot melt ink jet printer, the ink is solid at room temperature and must be heated above its melting point, typically in the order of magnitude of 100° C, before droplets of liquid ink can be jetted onto the paper.
  • the paper will be heated by the high temperature of the ink, and part of the water that has been absorbed in the paper will evaporate. This creates a humidity gradient in the paper in the area of the print station, and the production of cockles is likely to occur.
  • this object is achieved by a printer of the type indicated above, in which the feed control system is adapted to withdraw a cut end portion of the web onto the peripheral surface of the coil, when the printer is in a predetermined operating condition.
  • the predetermined operating condition may for example be a condition in which a print operation is terminated or the printer enters into a standby mode, while a leading edge of the web that has been cut at the cutting device is located in the feed path. Then, an end portion of the web that is present in the feed path will be exposed to ambient air from both sides and can therefore absorb a large amount of moisture, especially when the air humidity is high. If the web would be left in this position for some time and, subsequently, the print operation is continued or restarted, the high humidity content of the leading end portion of the web would give rise to the undesired cockling phenomenon. However, according to the invention, the end portion of the web is withdrawn onto the coil by rotating the reel in reverse direction.
  • the entire length of the web is wound on the coil, where it is exposed into ambient air to a significantly smaller degree because, even in the outer layer of the coil, one surface of the web is shielded by the lower layers of the coil, so that the tendency of air to penetrate into the web is greatly reduced.
  • the humidity content of the web will be low and essentially uniform, and, as a result, the cockling tendency is suppressed.
  • a separating mechanism is disposed near the periphery of the coil, so that the leading edge of the web that has been wound onto the coil may reliably be separated from the surface of the coil, e.g. by means or air suction, and may be guided into the feed path.
  • the web may readily be supplied to the print station without intervention of the user.
  • the printer may comprise a humidity sensor arranged to detect the degree of humidity of ambient air, and the function of the feed control system may depend upon the detected degree of humidity, so that, when the air is relatively dry and the cockling tendency is low, the leading edge of the web will not be withdrawn but will be left in position at the cutting device, at least during the standby period of the printer. This will speed-up the resumption of the print operation under favourable air humidity conditions.
  • a hot melt ink jet printer comprises a frame 10 (which has only been shown in phantom lines) and which accommodates a paper magazine 12 and a paper feed system 14 adapted to feed a sheet 16 of paper to a print station 18 on the top side of the frame 10.
  • the sheet 16 is sucked against a flat top surface (print surface) of a perforated sheet support plate 20 by means of a vacuum system (not shown).
  • a carriage 22 is arranged to travel back and forth across the sheet 16 in the direction normal to the plane of the drawing in Fig. 1 and carries at its bottom side a number of hot melt ink jet printheads 24 facing the sheet 16.
  • a swath of an image is printed in each pass of the carriage 22.
  • the sheet 16 is advanced by a step of appropriate length in a direction indicated by an arrow A, so that the next swath can be printed.
  • a discharge mechanism 26 discharges the sheet onto a tray 28 which, in the example shown, accommodates already a printed sheet 30.
  • the sheet support plate 20 is temperature-controlled in order to control the cooling rate and the solidification of the hot melt ink that has been deposited on the paper. For example, the temperature of the print surface of the sheet support plate 20 is kept at 32°C.
  • the paper magazine 12 comprises a set of six reels 32 each providing a supply of printing paper in the form of an endless web 34.
  • the reels 32 are arranged in three levels, and the web 34 from each reel is drawn-off by means of a respectively associated pair of transport rollers 36.
  • An arrangement of guide plates 38 defines a branched system of narrow feed paths 40 which merge into a common feed path 42 on the top side of the paper magazine.
  • the pairs of transport rollers 36 are selectively driven to feed the web 34 from a selected one of the reels 32 to the common feed path 42.
  • the reels 32 may contain paper of different qualities and possibly also non-paper recording media such as plastic films or the like.
  • the webs on the reels 32 may differ in width, so that printed sheets may be produced in different formats, ranging for example from A4 portrait to A0 landscape.
  • endless web 34 it is meant that the length of paper on reels 32 is long compared to the cutted sizes A4 or A0. Typically the length of such a web is between 20 and 200 meters but can be also longer than that.
  • the selected web is guided past a cutting mechanism 44 for cutting the web to the desired sheet length, and then the cut sheet 16 is guided over a system of deflection and tensioning rollers 46 and guide plates 48 to a platen 50 from which it is paid out onto the sheet support plate 20.
  • the web 34 and the sheet 16, respectively On its way from the reel 32 to the platen 50, the web 34 and the sheet 16, respectively, will inevitably be exposed to ambient air and, as a result, will absorb humidity, especially when the relative humidity RH of the ambient air is high.
  • the paper is particularly exposed to ambient air in the vicinity of the cutting mechanism 44.
  • the humidity content of the paper increases, it tends to expand, in particular in the direction in which the fibers in the paper are predominantly oriented. Typically, this is the direction transverse to the longitudinal direction of the web.
  • the sheet 16 After having expanded in this way, reaches the sheet support plate 20 and is heated by the hot melt ink deposited thereon, part of the water contained in the paper will be evaporated, and the paper shrinks again in width direction of the sheet.
  • the accompanying reduction in width of the sheet leads to the production of cockles.
  • the paper magazine 12 is capable of withdrawing a web 34, that has been fed into the feed path 42, back onto the coil on the reel 32 from which had been drawn-off.
  • Each of the reels 32 is indepently driven by an electric motor, which has not been illustrated, and may rotate in either direction under the control of an electronic feed control system 60, as has been symbolized by dashed lines 62 for the two upper reels 32 in figure 1.
  • the feed control system 60 is also connected to a humidity sensor 64.
  • the sensor 64 is arranged in a position where it can detect the humidity of air near a portion of the paper feed path where the paper is particularly exposed to ambient air.
  • the feed control system 60 is connected to separating mechanisms 66 that are arranged at the periphery of each of the reels 32 at a position where the web 34 is drawn off from the coil.
  • Figure 2 illustrates a condition where a web 34 has been drawn off from a paper coil 68 on one of the reels 32 has just been cut by means of the cutting device 44, so that the leading edge of the web 34 is located in the paper feed path at the position of the cutting device 44.
  • a cut sheet 16 which has not been shown in figure 2, is in the process of being printed.
  • the feed control system 60 reads the air humidity that has been detected by the sensor 64, and if the air humidity is above a certain threshold level of 40% RH, for example, a counter is triggered at the instant at which the cutting device 44 is activated. The counter counts a certain time period the length of which may depend upon the detected amount of air humidity in the sense that the time period is shorter when the air humidity is higher.
  • the reel 32 is driven in reverse direction, as is indicated by an arrow in figure 2, so as to withdraw the web 34 from the paper feed path and back onto the periphery of the coil 68.
  • the coil 68 may optionally be surrounded by a shell 70 which is interrupted only at the position of the separating mechanism 66 and assists in protecting the outer layer of the web on the coil 68 against ambient air.
  • the printer At the time when the web 34 is drawn back onto the coil 68 or at a timing that is determined independently thereof, the printer enters into a standby mode.
  • the printer When a new print job is entered, the printer is again switched into the operating mode, and the feed control system 60 controls the reel 32 to rotate in forward direction, as has been indicated by an arrow in figure 4. Simultaneously, the separating mechanism 66 is activated so as to separate the leading edge of the web from the periphery of the coil 68, e.g. by air suction. It will be understood that the separating mechanism 66 is mounted to be movable in radial direction of the reel 32 so as to adapt to a varying thickness of the coil 68. While the wheel 32 rotates in forward direction, the leading edge of the web 34 is pushed forward until it is captured by the transport rollers 36 and is fed further into the feed path, so that the print operation may be resumed and a new sheet 16 may be cut and printed.
  • the web 34 is left in the paper feed path, so that the print process may be resumed without delay, when a new print job is entered. In this case, the web will only be withdrawn onto the coil 68 when a command is entered for switching off the printer completely.
  • the web 34 shown in figure 2 must be withdrawn to some extent, in order to clear the feed path for the new web. If, at this instant, the air humidity is high, the web 34 will be withdrawn completely, as has been described above. However, if the air humidity is low, the web will only be withdrawn so far that its leading end is still held in the nip between the transport rollers 36, as is conventional in the art, so that this web may readily be supplied into the paper feed path when it is needed again.

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  • Handling Of Sheets (AREA)
EP05111021A 2004-11-25 2005-11-21 Imprimante avec une bobine pour délivrer une bande sans fin d'un support d'enregistrement Withdrawn EP1661724A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP05111021A EP1661724A1 (fr) 2004-11-25 2005-11-21 Imprimante avec une bobine pour délivrer une bande sans fin d'un support d'enregistrement

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP04106084 2004-11-25
EP05111021A EP1661724A1 (fr) 2004-11-25 2005-11-21 Imprimante avec une bobine pour délivrer une bande sans fin d'un support d'enregistrement

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1661724A1 true EP1661724A1 (fr) 2006-05-31

Family

ID=36204556

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP05111021A Withdrawn EP1661724A1 (fr) 2004-11-25 2005-11-21 Imprimante avec une bobine pour délivrer une bande sans fin d'un support d'enregistrement

Country Status (1)

Country Link
EP (1) EP1661724A1 (fr)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN106218239A (zh) * 2016-09-12 2016-12-14 张选琪 传票自动打印投放机
US20220203725A1 (en) * 2020-12-28 2022-06-30 Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha Printing device configured to determine reverse conveyance amount of printing medium based on control information acquired from cassette, and cassette attachable to the printing device

Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0819976A1 (fr) * 1996-07-17 1998-01-21 Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. Chargeur pour rouleau de papier d'enregistrement et rouleau de papier d'enregistrement

Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0819976A1 (fr) * 1996-07-17 1998-01-21 Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. Chargeur pour rouleau de papier d'enregistrement et rouleau de papier d'enregistrement

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN106218239A (zh) * 2016-09-12 2016-12-14 张选琪 传票自动打印投放机
US20220203725A1 (en) * 2020-12-28 2022-06-30 Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha Printing device configured to determine reverse conveyance amount of printing medium based on control information acquired from cassette, and cassette attachable to the printing device

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