JP2003034016A - Liquid discharge recording device, liquid discharge recording method, liquid droplet impact position evaluation device, and method for evaluating liquid droplet impact position - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently eliminate non-target droplets for impact position evaluation from among the discharged droplets and even when the droplets are discharged at high frequency, make it possible to make a precise evaluation of the impact position of the liquid droplets, and further, eliminate unnecessary ink droplets responsible for the deterioration of recording quality from among the discharged liquid droplets and thereby, realize high-quality recording. SOLUTION: The non-target liquid droplets for impact position evaluation among the ink liquid droplets discharged from a recording head 1 are irradiated with a laser beam, and thus vaporized. Consequently, only the target liquid droplets for impact position evaluation are selectively made to fall onto a glass substrate 5. In addition, the unnecessary ink liquid droplets 15 and 16 are irradiated with a laser beam and vaporized.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid ejection recording apparatus and method for ejecting a desired liquid to record on a recording medium, and a droplet for measuring and evaluating the landing position of the ejected droplet. The present invention relates to a landing evaluation device and method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 8, when ink is ejected from a recording head 1, unnecessary ink droplets called satellite ink 15 other than the main droplet ink 14 and the main droplets landed on a recording medium 5 are ejected. Unwanted ink droplets such as the rebound mist ink 16 in which a part of the ink 14 rebounds are generated.
These unnecessary ink droplets land at a position deviated from the main droplet ink 14 to deteriorate the recording quality, and also land on the main droplet ink 14 so as to be integrated with the main droplet ink 14. Even in such a case, the dot shape formed by the ink droplets landed on the recording medium 5 is distorted,
It becomes a factor that deteriorates the recording quality. Also, some of the unnecessary ink droplets do not land on the recording medium 5 and adhere to the ejection surface of the recording head 1 in the vicinity of the ejection port. If the ink droplets excessively adhere to the ejection surface near the ejection port of the recording head 1, the ejected ink is attracted to the unnecessary ink droplets, and the ejection direction is displaced, which may result in deterioration of recording quality. As a result, ink cannot be ejected and good recording cannot be performed.

As a device for efficiently removing such unnecessary ink droplets, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-518 discloses a device shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, there is described a device that includes a plus electrode 17 and a minus electrode 18 to adsorb unnecessary ink droplets 15 and 16. On the other hand, in the liquid ejection recording apparatus, high definition and high image quality are required, but if the ejected droplets have different landing positions, the density unevenness or the color tone deviation in the color image is affected. This hinders high definition and high image quality. In order to prevent such problems from occurring, it has been required to measure the landing position of the ejected droplet as one of the inspection items of the droplet ejection characteristics of the manufactured head.

Conventionally, as described in JP-A-7-329302, a predetermined inspection pattern is recorded on a recording medium and the recorded inspection pattern is visually observed or the recorded inspection pattern is imaged. By performing image processing by using the image processing, the droplet landing is inspected. Alternatively, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-62158, droplets are ejected from an ejection port, and the droplets are landed on a recording medium such as paper positioned away from the ejection port surface, The coordinates of each droplet are measured by photographing the droplets that have landed on the ejection port and the recording medium with an image processing camera located below the recording medium and performing image processing to measure the coordinates of each droplet and the position of the ejection port. There was a way to measure and.

[0005]

The apparatus of FIG. 9 assumes that the ink droplets are charged and tries to electrically adsorb the charged ink droplets. However, since unnecessary ink droplets are not always charged with certainty, they are not surely attracted to the electrodes 17 and 18. Further, even if the unnecessary ink droplets are charged, the recording medium 5 such as paper is also charged. Therefore, the unnecessary ink droplets are attracted to the recording medium 5 that is charged in the opposite polarity, and the electrode There is also a possibility of landing on the recording medium 5 without adhering to 17 or 18. Further, since the main droplet ink 14 is also charged, the main droplet ink 14 receives an electric field from the two positive and negative electrodes 17 and 18, and the flight trajectory changes, which may deteriorate the landing accuracy. Furthermore, since the charge amount of the unnecessary ink droplets varies, if the unnecessary ink droplets are to be adsorbed to the electrode 17 or 18 without fail, the electric potentials of the electrodes 17 and 18 must be raised, and accordingly. The amount of electric field also becomes large. The increase in the electric field amount causes an increase in the landing error of the main droplet ink 14.

On the other hand, in the conventional method for evaluating the landing position of the ejected ink, recording is performed so that the ink dots formed by the landed ink droplets do not overlap with each other, but they are independent one by one. Measurement is possible when the head 1 is driven at a low ejection frequency. However, recording head 1
At the time of high frequency driving, the landed positions of the ink droplets could not be evaluated because the landed ink dots overlapped each other and the landed position of each droplet could not be determined.

An object of the present invention is to efficiently remove unnecessary liquid droplets such as ink mist which should not be involved in recording without increasing the error in the landing position of the liquid droplets involved in recording, thereby achieving high quality. An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid discharge recording apparatus and method capable of recording an image.

It is another object of the present invention to efficiently remove, from the ejected liquid droplets, the liquid droplets other than the evaluation target of the landing position and eject the liquid droplets at a high frequency.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for evaluating the landing position of a droplet, which is capable of accurately evaluating the landing position of the droplet.

[0009]

A liquid discharge recording apparatus of the present invention is a liquid discharge recording apparatus for recording on a recording medium using a recording head capable of discharging a liquid from a discharge port.
It is characterized in that a laser beam irradiation means for irradiating unnecessary liquid droplets discharged from the discharge port with laser light to vaporize the unnecessary liquid droplets is provided.

The droplet landing position evaluation apparatus of the present invention uses a recording head capable of ejecting liquid from an ejection port, and causes the droplet ejected from the recording head to land on a recording medium and land the droplet. In a droplet landing position evaluation device for measuring and evaluating a position, a flying droplet ejected from the ejection port is selectively irradiated with laser light to selectively evaporate the flying droplet. It is characterized in that it is provided with a laser beam irradiating means for performing the measurement, and measures and evaluates the landing position of the droplet that has landed on the recording medium without being evaporated.

The liquid ejection recording method of the present invention is a liquid ejection recording method for recording on a recording medium by using a recording head capable of ejecting a liquid from an ejection port, to generate unnecessary liquid droplets ejected from the ejection port. It is characterized by irradiating laser light to evaporate the unnecessary droplets.

In the droplet landing position evaluation method of the present invention, a recording head capable of ejecting liquid from an ejection port is used, the droplet ejected from the recording head is landed on a recording medium, and the droplet is landed. In a droplet landing position evaluation method for measuring and evaluating a position, a droplet in flight is selectively evaporated by irradiating a laser beam to the droplet in flight ejected from the ejection port. Then, the landing position of the liquid droplet that has landed on the recording medium without being evaporated is measured and evaluated.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be specifically described below based on Examples.

(First Embodiment) FIGS. 1 to 4 are views for explaining a droplet landing position evaluation apparatus as a first embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part of this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of this embodiment, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of this embodiment, and FIG. 4 is this embodiment. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a landing shape of ink droplets in FIG. In this example, by selectively irradiating the flying ink with a laser beam, the ink is evaporated to reduce the number of ink droplets landed, and the ink droplets landed on the recording medium without being laser-irradiated are reduced. Measure the landing position.

The ink jet recording head used in this example (hereinafter referred to as "head") heats the ink by an electrothermal converter to foam a part of the ink, and the action force of the foaming causes an orifice plate. It is a type in which ink is ejected from the ejection port of the nozzle opened at the bottom. The head has, for example, 64 to 140 nozzles.
Various types up to 8 are produced. In this example,
A head having 128 nozzles was used. Further, in this example, an experiment was performed with one nozzle for ejecting ink.

The head 1 is mounted at a position facing the high performance XY stage 4. Ink is supplied to the head 1 through a tube. A glass substrate 5 as a recording medium is adsorbed and installed on the XY stage 4.
The glass substrate 5 is one in which a resin layer that receives ink is applied by spin coating and then the resin is cured by baking. Orifice surface of head 1 and glass substrate 5
The distance between and was 1.5 mm. A detection optical system 8 is also installed at a position facing the high-performance XY stage 4.

The laser device 2 used to evaporate the ink droplets is a YAG laser having an output of 10 W and an oscillation frequency of 1064 mm. By inputting a pulse signal, laser light is emitted at any timing and for any time. Can oscillate. In the laser device 2, the oscillated laser light is parallel to the XY stage surface of the XY stage 4,
In addition, the head 1 is positioned so as to pass directly below the nozzle to be measured.

The lens 3 is arranged on the laser light path so that the laser light is focused on the flight path of the ink droplet. Further, the two concave cylindrical reflection plates 6 and 7 are arranged so as to sandwich the flight path of the ink droplet as shown in FIG. These concave cylindrical reflection plates 6 and 7 are unidirectional (front and back direction of the paper surface in FIG. 1) on their facing surfaces.
Has a curvature only, and the direction perpendicular to it (the vertical direction in FIG. 1) is linear (curvature is ∞). The concave cylindrical reflectors 6 and 7 are provided with adjustment mechanisms for a total of 5 axes. The five axes are adjusted by adjusting the positions along the XY axis parallel to the XY stage surface and the Z axis perpendicular to the XY stage surface, and the angle θ formed between the XY surface and the reflection mirrors (reflection plates 6 and 7).
And the rotation direction φ on the XY plane. In FIG. 1, the reflector plate 6 is located on the detection optical system 8 side, and the reflector plate 7 is located on the laser device 2 side.

The two reflectors 6 and 7 are installed on an adjusting jig so that the surfaces having curvature are oriented in the XY plane, and further, they are focused on the flight path of the ink droplet just below the nozzle to be measured. The XY position and the rotation angle φ are determined so as to connect with each other. The reflector 7 is positioned in the Z direction so as not to block the laser light emitted from the laser device 2 and to reflect the laser light reflected by the reflector 6. The reflection plate 6 is positioned in the Z direction so that its lower surface is located above the surface of the glass substrate 5 by about 0.1 to 0.2 mm. In addition, laser light is reflected by both reflectors 6 and 7.
The tilt angle θ of both the reflection plates 6 and 7 is adjusted so that the laser light passes under the reflection plate 6 after being repeatedly reflected in between. The closer the angle θ is to 90 degrees, the greater the number of times the laser light is reflected, and the total amount of energy that can be irradiated onto the flight path of the ink droplet can be increased. However, if the angle θ is too close to 90 degrees, the laser light initially reflected by the reflection plate 6 will not be reflected by the reflection plate 7 and will return to the laser device 2 side. Adjust the angle θ so that there is no

With the above structure, a region having a high energy density can be provided on the flight route of the ink droplet.

The XY stage 4 discharges ink droplets from the nozzle to be measured of the head 1 while scanning at a constant speed of 0.5 mm / s. Drive frequency from head 1 to 7.5 kHz
When the ink droplets are ejected at, the ink droplets that have landed on the glass substrate 5 overlap each other in a dumpling shape, and it is not possible to evaluate the landing position of each ink droplet. Therefore, ink droplets are ejected at a drive frequency of the head 1 of 1.5 kHz, and the ink is ejected continuously from the head 1.
Laser light is emitted to four of the ejected ink droplets to evaporate the four ejected ink droplets. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the head 1 and the laser device 2 are driven in association with each other, and ink droplets (first shot, second shot, The laser device 2 is driven such that the third shot is discharged and four of the five consecutive ink droplets are irradiated with the laser light. Therefore, the first shot, 6 discharged based on the drive signals 1, 6 in FIG.
The second ink droplets landed on the glass substrate 5 and were ejected based on the drive signals 2, 3, 4, and 5,
The fourth and fifth ink droplets receive the laser light and evaporate.

The drive signal in FIG. 2 is a single pulse drive signal, and the head 1 ejects one ink droplet by one pulse drive. However, also in the case of the multiple pulse drive method in which one ink droplet is ejected by a plurality of drive pulses, similarly, the first and sixth ink droplets land on the glass substrate 5 and the second and third ink droplets land. It is possible to evaporate the ink droplets of the fourth, fifth, and fifth ejections.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the control system.
A head controller 11 that controls the drive of the recording head 1.
0, the laser device 2, and the stage 4 are controlled by the control unit 10.
It is associatedly controlled by 0 as described above.

After the ink droplets are ejected onto the glass substrate 5, the XY stage 4 is moved so that the landed ink droplets are located directly below the detection optical system 8 in order to measure the landing positions of the ink droplets. Then, the detection optical system 8 is used to measure the center coordinates of the landed ink droplet by image processing. The center coordinates of the landed ink droplets on the glass substrate 5 are calculated from the measured values by image processing and the movement amount of the XY stage 4.

As another example, the driving frequency of the head 1 is set to 2.5 kHz, and two of the three ink droplets ejected continuously from the head 1 are vaporized by laser light. The laser device 2 was driven. As a result, as shown in FIG. 4, landed ink dots D were formed in which landed ink droplets were slightly overlapped with each other. In this case, since the overlapping portions of the ink droplets are small, the center position of the landed ink droplets can be evaluated by performing image processing on the contour portion of the landed ink droplets that do not overlap. However, as in the previous example, the drive frequency is 1.5
When the frequency is set to kHz and the ink droplets are evaporated so that the landed ink droplets do not come into contact with each other, the image processing accuracy in obtaining the center coordinates of the landed ink droplets is high, and higher accuracy evaluation is possible. Become.

Further, the number of nozzles to be measured for ejecting ink droplets is not limited to one, and is arbitrary. When ejecting ink droplets from a plurality of nozzles, a plurality of laser beams are prepared, or By dividing the laser light with a beam splitter or the like, the ejected ink droplets can be appropriately evaporated by the laser light, and the same treatment can be performed.

Further, the laser beam may be irradiated just below the nozzle row so as to be along the direction in which a plurality of nozzles are arranged in the head 1 (the nozzle row direction). In that case, some of the flight paths of the ink droplets in the plurality of nozzles deviate from the focus position of the laser light. Since the amount of ink ejected is small, even if the energy density of laser light is not higher than that at the focal position, ink droplets irradiated by such laser light can be evaporated before landing, and the laser By sufficiently increasing the output of the device 2, the energy density of the laser light on the flight paths of the ink droplets of all the nozzles can be set to a density sufficient for the evaporation of the ink droplets. Therefore, the laser light is emitted below the nozzle row along the arrangement direction of the plurality of nozzles in this manner, and the laser light is emitted so as to synchronously thin out ink droplets continuously ejected from each of the plurality of nozzles. By irradiating, it is possible to evaluate the landing positions of the ink droplets ejected from the plurality of nozzles, as in the case where there is one measurement target nozzle described above.

(Second Embodiment) FIGS. 5A and 5B.
FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an inkjet recording apparatus (liquid ejection recording apparatus) as a second embodiment of the present invention, and the same parts as those in the above-described first embodiment are given the same reference numerals and described. Is omitted. FIG. 5A shows the laser light path when no deflection is applied, and FIG. 5B shows the laser light path when no deflection is applied. FIG. 6 shows FIG.
FIG. 6B is an explanatory view of the laser optical path of FIG. 5B viewed from the head side (however, the illustration of the XY stage, the substrate, the flat reflecting plate, and the concave reflecting plate in FIGS. 5A and 5B is omitted). FIG. 7 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of this embodiment.

In this example, unnecessary ink droplets generated during recording, that is, satellite ink, rebounding mist ink, and the like are evaporated by laser light irradiation. Further, the same parts as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

In the case of this example, the laser light emitted from the laser device 2 first passes through the beam shaper 11 and spreads in a fan shape on the XY plane as shown in FIG. This laser light only spreads on the XY plane and does not spread in the Z-axis direction. The laser light passing through the deflector 12 passes through the lens 3. As shown in FIG. 5A, when the deflector 12 does not deflect, the laser light is directed to the reflection plate 6,
Then, as in the case of the above-described first embodiment, while moving between the reflection plates 6 and 7 several times, it moves downward in FIG. 5A. A slit 6 is formed in the center of the reflectors 6 and 7 of this example.
A and 7A are provided, and the laser light when no deflection is applied as shown in FIG.
Through the area under the head 1.

On the other hand, when the laser light is deflected by the deflector 12 as shown in FIG. 5B, the deflected laser light is reflected by the flat reflecting plate 9 and the concave reflecting plate 10 and then reflected. It passes through the slit 7A of the plate 7. After that, the laser light is emitted in the same manner as in the case of the first embodiment described above.
While reflecting several times between the reflectors 6 and 7, it moves downward in FIG. 5B and passes under the reflector 6.

In the reflectors 6 and 7 and the concave reflector 10 in this example, an adjusting mechanism for a total of five axes, that is, an X direction parallel to the XY stage surface, is used as in the first embodiment.
Position adjustment along each of the Y axis and the Z axis perpendicular thereto, adjustment of the angle θ formed by the XY plane and the reflection mirror (reflection plates 6, 7, 10), and adjustment mechanism of the rotation direction φ on the XY plane are provided. Has been. As shown in FIG. 6, in order to make the width of the laser beam in the Y-axis direction the narrowest under the nozzle row (row of nozzles 13) of the head 1 and slightly wider than the width of the nozzle row, X
Adjust the Y axis and φ rotation axis. It has been confirmed by experiments that the width of the laser beam (beam width) directly below the head 1 is 100 μm wider at both ends than the width of the nozzle row that ejects ink. Also, the reflector 7 is
The laser light emitted from the laser device 2 is not blocked, and the laser light reflected by the reflection plate 6 is reflected,
Positioned in the Z-axis direction. The reflector 6 is
The lower surface is 0.1 to 0.2 mm from the upper surface of the glass substrate 5.
It is positioned in the Z-axis direction so as to be located slightly above. Further, by adjusting the inclination angle θ of both the reflection plates 6 and 7, the laser light is repeatedly reflected between the reflection plates 6 and 7, and the non-deflection of the deflector 12 as shown in FIG. It is set so that the laser light sometimes passes through the slit 6A of the reflection plate 6 and the laser light passes below the reflection plate 6 when deflected by the deflector 12 as shown in FIG.

By adjusting each axis of the concave reflection plate 10, the direction of the laser beam reflected by the concave reflection plate 10 becomes horizontal to the XY plane, and after passing through the slit 7A of the reflection plate 7, it is reflected by the reflection plate 6. To be set. Further, by adjusting the respective axes of the flat reflection plate 9 and the X-axis of the concave reflection plate 10, the concave reflection plate 1 can be processed as in the case of FIG.
The width of the laser light reflected by 0 is set to be the narrowest under the nozzle row (row of the nozzles 13) and slightly wider than the width of the nozzle row.

With such a structure, a region where the energy density of laser light is high can be provided in the lower region of the nozzle 13 that ejects ink. This energy density is smaller than the energy density in the above-described first embodiment in which the laser light is concentrated under the specific one nozzle. However, unnecessary ink droplets to be evaporated, such as the satellite ink 15 and the rebound mist ink 16, are much smaller than the main droplet ink 14, so that the energy required for evaporation of these unnecessary ink droplets 15 and 16 can be small. . Therefore, with the configuration of this example, the purpose of evaporating the unnecessary ink droplets 15 and 16 can be sufficiently achieved. As a result, it is possible to record a high-quality image on the glass substrate 5 serving as a recording medium without being affected by the satellite ink 15 and the rebound mist ink 16. As the recording medium, recording paper or the like can be used.

Next, the control timing will be described with reference to the timing chart of FIG.

In this example, the area irradiated with laser light is the area above the slits 6A and 7A in the reflectors 6 and 7 as shown in FIG. 5A and the reflector 6 and 6 as shown in FIG. 5B. 2 of the slits 6A and 7A in 7
It is divided into two areas. In the following description, the former upper region will be referred to as the “upper laser irradiation region” and the latter lower region will be referred to as the “lower laser irradiation region”. When the head 1 is ejected and driven based on the drive signal, first, the main droplet ink 14 is ejected, and then the satellite ink 1 is ejected.
5 occurs. After the main droplet ink 14 has passed through the upper laser irradiation area, the laser device 2 is driven at time t1, and the upper laser irradiation area is irradiated with laser light to evaporate the satellite ink 15 as shown in FIG. 5A. Let that time,
The deflector 12 is not driven, and the laser light travels straight from the lens 3 toward the reflector 6.

After that, when the main droplet ink 14 has landed on the glass substrate 5, the deflector 12 is driven at the time point t2, as shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), laser light is applied to the lower laser irradiation area to rebound and vaporize the mist ink 16. In addition,
Since the satellite ink 15 is large, even if it does not completely evaporate in the upper laser irradiation region and continues to fly to the lower laser irradiation region, it is possible to obtain the results shown in FIGS.
The satellite ink 15 can be completely evaporated by continuously irradiating the lower laser irradiation region with the laser light as shown in (b). For example, the interval between the start of the ejection drive signal for each ejection and t1 is set to 50 μs, and the interval between t1 and t2 is set to 50 μs.

In the case of this example, the head controller 1 for controlling the drive of the recording head 1 as shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG.
The deflector 12, together with 10, the laser device 2 and the stage 4, are associated and controlled by the controller 100. The control timing is adjusted to the optimum condition before actual recording.

(Other Embodiments) In the above-described embodiment, a configuration is adopted in which the glass substrate 5 as a recording medium is moved with respect to the head 1 in the X-axis and Y-axis directions.
However, the relative movement relationship between the head and the recording medium is not limited to the above-described embodiment and is arbitrary, and it is sufficient that the droplets ejected from the head 1 can be selectively evaporated by the laser light. Therefore, a serial scan method in which recording is performed by repeating the recording scan of the head in the main scanning direction and the conveyance operation of the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction (direction intersecting with the main scanning direction), or the facing position of a long head It is also possible to adopt the full line method in which the recording medium is continuously conveyed in one direction for recording.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, unnecessary liquid droplets ejected from the recording head are irradiated with a laser beam and the unnecessary liquid droplets are vaporized, so that the liquid droplets involved in recording are recorded. It is possible to efficiently remove unnecessary liquid droplets such as ink mist that should not be involved in recording and to record a high-quality image, without increasing the error in the landing position of.

Further, according to the present invention, by irradiating the liquid droplets other than the evaluation target of the landing position with laser light to evaporate the liquid droplets, only the liquid droplets of the landing position evaluation target are selectively landed. Thus, the landing position of the droplet can be accurately evaluated. In that case, when the droplets are ejected at a high frequency by selectively evaporating the droplets in flight by laser light so that the droplets do not land and contact the recording medium. Also, it is possible to shift the landing positions of a plurality of droplets and to accurately evaluate the landing positions of those droplets.

Further, the diameter of the laser beam is narrowed so as to focus on the droplet to be evaporated, the laser beam is passed through the passage area of the droplet to be evaporated many times, or the passing point of the droplet to be evaporated is set. By reflecting the laser light so as to form a focal point by the reflection plate, it is possible to increase the ratio of the energy consumed for vaporizing the droplets in the generated laser energy, and as a result, the energy efficiency can be improved. It is possible to use equipment with a small laser output,
The choice of lasers used can be widened. Further, by irradiating the region through which the liquid droplets which are not desired to be vaporized have been irradiated with the laser light, it is possible to surely vaporize only the liquid droplets which are desired to be vaporized without irradiating the necessary liquid droplets with the laser light.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a droplet landing position evaluation apparatus as a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of the evaluation device in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block configuration diagram of a control system of the evaluation device in FIG.

4 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a landing shape of a droplet in the evaluation device of FIG.

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are schematic configuration diagrams of a recording apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention in different operating conditions.

6 is a schematic configuration diagram of the recording apparatus of FIG. 5 viewed from the head side.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of the recording apparatus in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of hitting ink droplets in the related art.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional unnecessary droplet removing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 recording head 2 laser equipment 3 lenses 4 XY stage 5 Substrate (recording medium) 6,7 concave cylindrical reflector 6A, 7A slit 8 Detection optical system 9 Flat reflector 10 concave reflector 11 Beam shaper 12 deflector 13 nozzles 14 Main drop ink 15 satellite ink 16 Bounce Mist Ink 17 Positive electrode 18 Negative electrode

Claims (17)

[Claims] 1. A liquid ejection recording apparatus for recording on a recording medium by using a recording head capable of ejecting liquid from an ejection port, wherein unnecessary liquid droplets ejected from the ejection port are irradiated with laser light, A liquid discharge recording apparatus comprising a laser beam irradiation means for evaporating the unnecessary liquid droplets. 2. The liquid ejection recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the laser beam irradiating means narrows a laser beam diameter so as to focus on the unnecessary liquid droplets. 3. The liquid jet recording according to claim 1, wherein the laser light irradiating means is provided with a reflection plate for repeatedly passing laser light in a pass region of the unnecessary liquid droplets many times. apparatus. 4. The liquid discharge recording according to claim 3, wherein the reflection plate has a concave portion for reflecting the laser light so as to focus the passage point of the unnecessary droplet. apparatus. 5. The laser light irradiating means irradiates the laser light onto a region after a necessary liquid droplet ejected from the ejection port has passed through. Liquid discharge recording device. 6. The liquid ejection recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for relatively moving the recording head and the recording medium. 7. The liquid ejection recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording head has an electrothermal converter that generates thermal energy used for ejecting liquid. 8. A liquid droplet which is ejected from a recording head using a recording head capable of ejecting a liquid from an ejection port and which is evaluated by measuring the landing position of the droplet. In the landing position evaluation device, a laser beam irradiation unit for selectively evaporating the flying droplets by selectively irradiating the flying droplets ejected from the ejection port with a laser beam, A droplet landing position evaluation device, which measures and evaluates a landing position of a droplet that has landed on the recording medium without being evaporated. 9. The plurality of flying liquids ejected from the ejection ports so that the plurality of liquid droplets ejected from the recording head land on the recording medium and are not in contact with each other. The droplet landing position evaluation device according to claim 8, wherein the droplets are selectively evaporated by laser light. 10. The droplet landing position evaluation apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the laser beam irradiation means narrows the laser beam diameter so as to focus on the droplet to be evaporated. 11. The liquid according to claim 8, wherein the laser light irradiating means is provided with a reflection plate for repeatedly passing the laser light a number of times in the passage area of the droplet to be evaporated. Drop impact position evaluation device. 12. The droplet according to claim 11, wherein the reflection plate has a concave portion for reflecting the laser light so as to focus on a passage point of the droplet to be evaporated. Landing position evaluation device. 13. The laser light irradiating means irradiates the laser light to a region after a necessary liquid droplet ejected from the ejection port has passed through the region. Droplet landing position evaluation device. 14. The droplet landing position evaluation device according to claim 8, further comprising means for relatively moving the recording head and the recording medium. 15. The droplet landing position evaluation according to claim 8, wherein the recording head has an electrothermal converter that generates thermal energy used for ejecting liquid. apparatus. 16. A liquid ejection recording method for recording on a recording medium using a recording head capable of ejecting liquid from an ejection port, wherein unnecessary liquid droplets ejected from the ejection port are irradiated with laser light, A liquid discharge recording method characterized in that the unnecessary liquid droplets are evaporated. 17. A droplet which is evaluated by using a recording head capable of ejecting a liquid from an ejection port, landing the droplet ejected from the recording head on a recording medium, and measuring the landing position of the droplet. In the landing position evaluation method, by selectively irradiating the flying droplets ejected from the ejection port with a laser beam, the flying droplets are selectively evaporated, and the droplets are not evaporated onto the recording medium. A droplet landing position evaluation method, characterized in that the landing position of a landed droplet is measured and evaluated.