JP2000037872A - Recording apparatus and method for recording using the recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To record high-quality images without being influenced by kinds of media to be recorded and recording environments. SOLUTION: After papers are set (step 101), a printing execution is ordered (step 102) and one line is recorded (step 103). It is judged whether or not a break is present between a precedent line finished to be recorded and a succeeding line to be recorded at present (step 104). When the break is present, a feed amount of the paper is not detected and the paper is transferred by a regulated feed amount (step 105). On the other hand, if the break is not present, the print result of the precedent line is detected by a paper feed detection means and the paper feed is carried out (step 106). The paper feed is stopped after the print result of the precedent line moves by an estimated feed amount (step 107) and the line to be recorded at present is printed (step 108).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a serial type recording apparatus and a recording method for performing a predetermined recording on a recording medium by reciprocating a recording means in a direction substantially perpendicular to a conveying direction of the recording medium. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A recording apparatus having functions such as a printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile, or a recording apparatus used as an output device of a composite electronic device or a workstation including a computer or a word processor, etc., is based on image information. It is configured to record an image on a recording medium such as a plastic thin plate. These recording apparatuses can be classified into an ink jet type, a wire dot type, a thermal type, a laser beam type, and the like according to a recording method.

In general, in a serial type recording apparatus (serial printer) adopting a serial scan system in which a main scan is performed in a direction substantially perpendicular to the conveying direction (sub-scanning direction) of the recording medium, the recording medium is After being set at a predetermined recording position, an image is recorded on the recording medium in the main scanning direction by recording while moving a carriage equipped with a recording head serving as recording means on the recording medium.

When the recording of one line is completed, a predetermined amount of paper feed (pitch conveyance) is performed in the sub-scanning direction, and thereafter, the recording of the image of the next line is stopped again on the stopped recording medium. Is performed in the main scanning direction.

[0005] By repeating the above operation, recording is performed on the entire recording medium. In recent years, with the improvement in the performance of image processing apparatuses, large-capacity image data can be handled, and the recording apparatus also increases the resolution of the recording head and reduces the size of one pixel recorded on a recording medium to achieve high image quality. Is progressing.

On the other hand, various types of recording media, such as plain paper, coated paper, glossy paper, 0HP paper, glossy film, postcards, and thick paper, are also reflecting the needs of the market. Depending on these recording media, parameters that affect paper feeding accuracy such as friction coefficient and stiffness are greatly different, so that when the same paper feeding control is performed, the paper feeding amount is smaller than the regular feeding amount depending on the recording medium. The problem that black streaks or white streaks occur between lines occurs because the lines become larger or larger. In contrast, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-096
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 796 proposes a method in which a test pattern is first recorded on a recording medium, the recording result is read, the recording result is compared with a regular paper feed amount (conveyance amount), correction data is created and fed back. ing.

[0007]

However, when the transport amount is controlled by the above-described conventional method, it is necessary to record a test pattern on the recording medium once to generate correction data. Waste, also
There is a problem that it takes time and effort to create the correction data. Further, since this correction data is required for each recording medium and each recording environment, it is enormous data, and the memory capacity to be stored becomes large, leading to an increase in cost.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus which performs high-quality recording without being affected by the type of recording medium and the recording environment, and a recording method using the recording apparatus.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a recording apparatus according to the present invention comprises a carriage reciprocally moved for holding recording means for performing recording on a recording medium line by line, and a transport signal. Transport means for transporting the recording medium based on the detection result, and a recording result recorded on the recording medium by the recording means is used as a detection section, and the position of the detection section is detected while transporting the recording medium. And a control unit for outputting to the transport unit a transport signal for transporting the recording medium to the recording position of the next row, which is calculated based on the output from the detector.

In the recording apparatus according to the present invention, the recording result recorded on the recording medium by the recording means is used as a detected portion, and the position of the detected portion is detected while the recording medium is being conveyed. Detect by means. Then, the control unit outputs the transport signal calculated based on the output from the detection unit to the transport unit, and thereby transports the recording medium to the next row recording position. Therefore, the transport amount of the recording medium can be accurately controlled regardless of the type of the recording medium and the recording environment.

The area in the conveyance direction of the recording medium which can be detected by the detection means is defined as follows: when a direction substantially perpendicular to the conveyance direction and substantially parallel to the recording surface of the recording medium is defined as a main scanning direction, It may be wider than the maximum recording area in the transport direction that can be recorded in one main scan.

The detecting means may include at least an image pickup means using a charge-coupled device, and the conveying resolution of the conveying means may be at least higher than the recording resolution of the recording means.

The control means determines whether a non-recording area, which is an area where recording is not performed between lines, exists on the recording medium, and when the non-recording area exists on the recording medium, The detection means does not perform the detection, but outputs a conveyance signal for conveying the recording medium by a predetermined conveyance amount to the conveyance means. If there is no non-recording area, the detection means performs the detection and performs the detection. The result may be output to the transport means.

Further, the recording means may be provided with an electrothermal converter for generating thermal energy for ink discharge, or the recording medium may be provided with the thermal energy applied by the electrothermal converter to the ink. The ink may be ejected from the ejection port using the generated film boiling.

[0015] A recording method using the recording apparatus of the present invention is a recording method for recording one line at a time on a recording medium, wherein a recording result recorded on the recording medium is used as a detected portion, and While the medium is being conveyed, the position of the detected portion is detected, and the recording medium is conveyed to the recording position of the next line, which is calculated based on the result of the detection, to perform recording.

In the recording method, it is determined whether or not a non-recording area, which is an area where recording is not performed between lines, exists on the recording medium. When the non-recording area exists, no detection is performed. If the non-recording area does not exist, the detection may be performed. If the detection is not performed, the recording may be performed by transporting the recording medium by a preset transport amount.

[0017]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a main configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The ink jet recording apparatus of the present embodiment
A carriage 1 on which a recording head 6 is mounted;
And a transport mechanism including a transport roller 8 and a discharge roller 12.

The carriage 1 is supported on a guide shaft 2 so as to be slidable in the direction of arrow A. The carriage 1 has a carriage driving belt 5 stretched between a pulley 3 a coupled to a carriage driving motor 3 and an idle pulley 4.
A part of the carriage 1 is fixed, and can reciprocate in the direction of arrow A along the guide shaft 2 according to the rotation of the carriage drive motor 3.

The transport roller 8 is connected to a recording sheet transport motor 22 via a driving force transmission mechanism 9 composed of a gear train or the like. The recording sheet transport motor 22 rotates upon receiving an output from a control board 23 which is a control unit for controlling the transport amount of the recording sheet 15 based on an output from a recording sheet transport amount detecting unit 30 described later. . The pinch roller 10 is rotatably supported on a pinch roller holder 11 and is urged by the conveying roller 8 by an urging member (not shown). The discharge roller 12 is connected to the transport roller 8 via a driving force transmission gear train 13 and is urged by a spur 14 by an urging member (not shown).

The recording head 6 performs recording on a recording medium by discharging ink, and discharge ports (not shown) for discharging ink are formed downward in the drawing.
The ink tank is integrated. The recording head 6
Is removably mounted on the carriage 1, and is electrically connected to the control board 23 via the flexible board 7 by mounting the recording head 6 on the carriage 1.

The recording sheet 15 is inserted from a recording sheet feeding port 21 formed by the upper guide member 16 and the lower guide member 17, and the conveyance roller 8 and the pinch roller 1 are inserted.
0, the recording sheet is conveyed in the direction of arrow B by the conveying roller 8 and the discharging roller 12 which are sandwiched between the discharging roller 12 and the spur 14 and rotate in accordance with the rotation of the recording sheet conveying motor.

The transport resolution (minimum feed amount) for transporting the recording sheet 15 is at least higher than the recording resolution of the recording head 6. In the present embodiment, the transport resolution is set to 144 so that the transport resolution becomes four times the recording resolution.
0 dpi and a recording resolution of 360 dpi.

The cap 18 holds the recording head 6 during non-recording.
The recording sheet 1 covers the ink ejection portion of the ink ejection port surface on which the ejection port is formed.
5 is provided outside the area through which the recording sheet 5 passes, and is movably provided in the direction of arrow C by obtaining a driving force from the recording sheet conveying motor 22 via a clutch mechanism (not shown). The cap 18 is provided with a pump 19 for sucking ink that is no longer suitable for printing in order to restore the printing performance of the print head 6.
And, it is connected in series with a waste ink tank (not shown) for discarding waste ink sucked by the pump 19. The cover operation (cap operation) of the ink ejection unit by the cap 18 is performed by the recording head 6 mounted on the carriage 1.
Is moved to a position (capping position) facing the cap 18 and the cap 18 and the ejection port forming surface of the ink ejection section of the recording head 6 are brought into contact with each other.

The wiper 20 is configured to be able to come into contact with and separate from the ink ejection section of the recording head 6 in conjunction with the movement of the carriage 1. By moving the carriage 1 in the direction of arrow A while the wiper 20 is in contact with the ink ejection section of the recording head 6, dirt such as dust attached to the ink ejection section can be wiped and cleaned.

Next, regarding the details of the structure of the carriage 1,
This will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a view of the carriage 1 on which the recording head 6 is mounted as viewed from the recording sheet direction.

The carriage 1 has an illuminating means 30b and a recording sheet feed amount detecting means 30.
A detection window 30a and a recording head window 30c are formed on the wall surface opposite to.

The recording sheet feed amount detecting means 30 has a lens (not shown) and a CCD (not shown), and moves the carriage 1 while the carriage 1 is stationary through the detection window 30a. The carriage 1 is integrally mounted so as to be able to detect the range of the detection range 40a in the main scanning direction as the direction and the range of the detection range 40b in the sub-scanning direction as the feeding direction of the recording sheet 15. Lighting means 30
b is for ensuring that the CCD can detect the recording result recorded in the detection range of the recording sheet 15 in the detection range of the detection ranges 40a and 40b.

The detection range 40b includes at least a maximum recording range 50 in which the recording head 6 can perform recording in one scan.
In addition, the range is wider than the maximum recording range 50. In the present embodiment, the configuration is such that a range that is twice or more the maximum recording range 50 can be detected.

Next, FIG. 4 shows a recording procedure in this embodiment, taking as an example the case of printing a pattern of a hollow square shape 60 and an intermediate square shape 61 continuous in a staggered manner as shown in FIG. This will be described with reference to a printing process explanatory diagram and a printing flowchart shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, the printing pattern in the present embodiment is a hollow square shape 60 and a hollow square shape 61.
Is the same as the maximum recording range 50 of the recording head 6.

First, the recording sheet 15 is inserted from the recording sheet feeding port 21 until the leading end thereof comes into contact with the nip portion between the transport roller 8 and the pinch roller 10. The conveyance roller 8 driven by the recording sheet conveyance motor 22 rotates, and when the recording sheet 15 is nipped between the conveyance roller 8 and the pinch roller 10 by a predetermined amount, the conveyance roller 8 stops and the paper setting is completed. (Step 101). Thereafter, when print execution is instructed (step 102), the recording sheet 15 is transported to a recording position facing the recording head 6. Then, the recording for one line is performed while the carriage 1 moves along the guide shaft 2 (step 103). Since the recording height of the print pattern according to the present embodiment is the same as the maximum recording range 50 of the recording head 6, the hollow square shape 60 on the first line is formed by one line of recording as shown in FIG. Printing is performed, thereby ending the recording for one line.

Next, is there a break (where recording data is not connected in the paper feed direction between the previous line and the current line) between the previous line where recording is completed and the next line to be recorded next? Whether it is determined by the control board based on the print data sent to the recording apparatus (step 104). If there is a break, the paper feed amount is not detected by the paper feed amount detecting means 30 and the specified feed amount is conveyed by open loop control (step 10).
5). Then, the next line is printed (step 10).
8).

On the other hand, when there is no break, the paper feed is detected by the paper feed amount detecting means 30 and the paper feed is executed while outputting the detection result to the control board 23 (step 106). That is, as shown in FIG. 4B, the hollow square shape 60 recorded by the paper feed amount detecting means 30 is used.
The carriage 1 is moved to a position where the horizontal line 60a can be detected. For example, the position of the horizontal line 60a on the upstream side in the paper feeding direction (the direction of arrow B) of the hollow square 60 recorded at the hollow square position 60b before the paper feeding is changed Execute paper feed while recognizing. Then, the paper feeding is stopped when the hollow square shape 60, which is the printing result of the previous line, has moved by the predetermined feed amount 70 (the hollow square position 60c after the paper feeding) (step 1).
07). Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4 (c), the middle-filled square shape 61 of the current line is printed (step 108).

Thereafter, it is determined whether or not there is print data (step 109). If there is print data, the process proceeds to step 104, and if there is no print data, printing ends.

The recording head 6 is provided with an electrothermal converter for generating thermal energy for discharging ink, and utilizes film boiling generated in the ink by the thermal energy applied by the electrical thermal converter. An ink jet recording head that discharges ink from a discharge port may be used.

As described above, at the time of paper feeding, the paper feed amount detecting means 30 detects the moving amount of the recording result of the preceding line and, at the same time, performs the paper feeding using the detected moving amount, thereby enabling the recording to be performed. The transport amount of the recording medium can be accurately controlled regardless of the type of the medium and the recording environment.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, the recording result recorded on the recording medium by the recording means is used as the detected part, and the position of the detected part is detected by the detecting means while transporting the recording medium. . Then, the control means outputs the transport signal calculated based on the output from the detection means to the transport means,
Thereby, the recording medium is transported to the recording position of the next line. Therefore, the transport amount of the recording medium can be accurately controlled regardless of the type of the recording medium and the recording environment. This enables high quality recording regardless of the type of recording medium and the recording environment.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a main configuration of an inkjet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a view of the carriage shown in FIG. 1 as viewed from a recording sheet side.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a print pattern for explaining the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a printing process of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a printing flowchart of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 carriage 2 guide shaft 3 carriage drive motor 3a pulley 4 idle pulley 5 carriage drive belt 6 recording head 7 flexible substrate 8 transport roller 9 drive transmission mechanism 10 pinch roller 11 pinch roller holder 12 paper discharge roller 13 power transmission gear train 14 spur 15 Recording sheet 16 Upper guide 17 Lower guide 18 Cap 19 Pump 20 Wiper 21 Recording sheet feed port 22 Recording sheet transport motor 23 Control board 30 Recording sheet transport amount detecting means 30a Detection window 30b Illuminating means 30c Recording head window 40a, 40b Detection range 50 Maximum recording range 60 Hollow rectangular shape 60a Horizontal line 60b Hollow rectangular shape position before paper feed 60c Hollow rectangular shape position after paper feed 61 Medium rectangular shape 70 Scheduled feed amount

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A reciprocating carriage for holding recording means for performing recording on a recording medium one line at a time, a transporting means for transporting a recording medium based on a transporting signal, and The recording result recorded on the recording medium is set as the detected portion, and while the recording medium is being conveyed, the detecting means for detecting the position of the detected portion is calculated based on the output from the detecting means. And a control unit for outputting a transport signal for transporting the recording medium to a recording position of the next row to the transport unit. 2. A region in the transport direction of the recording medium, which can be detected by the detection unit, has a direction substantially perpendicular to the transport direction and substantially parallel to a recording surface of the recording medium as a main scanning direction. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the recording is performed, the recording unit is wider than a maximum recording area in a transport direction in which recording can be performed in one main scan. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said detection means has an image pickup means using at least a charge-coupled device. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a transport resolution of the transport unit is at least higher than a recording resolution of the recording unit. 5. The control means determines whether a non-recording area, which is an area where recording is not performed between lines, exists on a recording medium, and determines whether the non-recording area exists on the recording medium. Outputting a transport signal for transporting the recording medium by a preset transport amount to the transport unit without performing the detection by the detector, and detecting by the detector when there is no non-recording area. The recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the recording apparatus performs the following and outputs a transport signal calculated based on an output from the detection means to the transport means. 6. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said recording means includes an electrothermal converter for generating thermal energy for ink ejection. 7. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording means discharges the ink from the discharge port by using a film boiling generated in the ink by the thermal energy applied by the electrothermal transducer. The recording device according to any one of the preceding claims. 8. A recording method for performing recording on a recording medium one line at a time by repeating reciprocating movement of recording means and conveyance of the recording medium, wherein a recording result recorded on the recording medium is detected. Department and
A recording method for detecting the position of the detected portion while transporting the recording medium, and transporting the recording medium to a recording position of a next line, which is calculated based on the result of the detection, and performing recording. . 9. Determine whether a non-recording area, which is an area where recording is not performed between lines, exists on a recording medium,
9. The detection is not performed when a non-recording area exists, and the detection is performed when a non-recording area does not exist.
Recording method described in 1. 10. The recording method according to claim 8, wherein when the detection is not performed, the recording is performed by transporting the recording medium by a preset transport amount.