JP2003063115A - Method for recording on continuous form - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem of high speed printing that the reading speed of a test pattern does not follow up the printing speed. SOLUTION: Carrying speed of a continuous form is decelerated at the detecting position of a detector for detecting test pattern information printed at an arbitrary position of a recording sheet, i.e., the continuous form.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording method, and more particularly to a color image recording method for printing a color image on continuous paper at high speed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method for printing image information on a recording paper, ordinary printing such as offset printing using a printing plate, an ink jet method for spraying droplets of liquid ink on the recording paper, and powder An electrophotographic method using toner is known.

In particular, the electrophotographic method has a problem that the quality of a printed image is not stable as compared with normal printing. Further, the inkjet method has a problem that the nozzles that generate ink droplets are clogged. This problem becomes serious especially in a system in which a large number of nozzles are arranged and used. In addition, when the printed image is a full-color image using cyan, magenta, yellow, and black color materials, the image needs to be stabilized more in the electrophotographic system, and in the inkjet system, the number of nozzles is four times that of a single color. Therefore, the probability of nozzle clogging increases accordingly. As a method for improving the problems of the electrophotographic system and the inkjet system, it has been practiced to print a test pattern for checking the printing state and monitor the printing state. In the case of using cut paper as the recording paper, in the electrophotographic method, the unrecorded portion between the cut paper is used to monitor the test pattern on the photoconductor or the intermediate transfer body, and the inkjet In the method, the test pattern is monitored by printing on a cut sheet when starting the printing operation. When continuous paper is used as the recording paper, a method is used in which a test pattern is printed on the left and right edges of the continuous paper for monitoring. However, the type of test pattern is also limited in this method of printing on the edge of the recording paper. In particular, the electrophotographic method has a problem that the printing quality cannot be accurately monitored because the printing quality is deteriorated at the edges, and especially in the inkjet method in which the nozzles are arranged in a line, it is necessary to check all the nozzles. There was a problem that I could not do it. As a method for solving these problems, a method has been proposed in which a monitor page for printing a test pattern is printed on a continuous paper during a printing operation, and the monitor page is cut and removed after being read by an image detection device. However, there is a problem in that the reading speed of the image detecting device does not follow particularly when performing color printing at high speed.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In consideration of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to form a test pattern at an arbitrary position on a continuous paper during a continuous printing operation, especially in an electrophotographic system or an inkjet system which performs color printing at high speed. The purpose of the present invention is to propose a recording method in which printing is performed to reliably monitor the printing state, and the result is fed back to maintain the print image in the best state.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention prints a monitor page for printing a test pattern between arbitrary recording pages of a continuous paper which is a recording paper, and provides a monitor page detecting apparatus. In the detection unit, the conveyance speed of the recording paper is reduced.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a first embodiment of the present invention and shows an example of a schematic configuration of a printing apparatus 1 for performing color printing on continuous paper by an electrophotographic method. In the figure, cyan printing unit 201, magenta printing unit 202, yellow printing unit 203, black printing unit 204
Full-color printing is performed using four sets. For simplicity, a charger, an optical system, an eraser, a cleaner and the like necessary for a normal printing process are omitted, and only a recording body 21, a developing device 22 and a transfer device 23 are shown in each printing unit.
The roll-shaped continuous paper 3, which is a recording paper, is conveyed in the direction of the arrow, and the toner images 24 formed on the recording bodies 21 of the respective printing units are sequentially superimposed and transferred onto the continuous paper 3 to form a color toner image 241. Next, the continuous paper 3 is the fixing device 4
And sent to the post-processing device 5. The post-processing device 5 is
Print information detection device 51, cutter 5 for cutting continuous paper
2. Monitor page removing device with test pattern printed 5
3, a paper storage device 54, a paper buffer device 55 and the like. The post-processing device 5 can include devices necessary for various post-processing of paper such as a paper folding device, a collating device, a binding device, and a closing device, as required.

A paper buffer device 55 is provided in front of and behind the installation position of the detection device 51. During the test pattern detection operation by the detection device 51, the moving speed V2 of the paper at the detection position is reduced from the printing process speed V1. Further, at the end of the detection operation, the moving speed V2 is accelerated above the printing process speed V1 to eliminate the slack of the paper on the upstream side of the detection position. As described above, the sheet buffer device 55 is necessary to adjust the slack of the sheet due to the speed difference when the sheet speed is changed.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a test pattern printed on the continuous paper 3 conveyed in the direction of the arrow. On the monitor page 6 which is the print area a, as a test pattern, for example, cyan,
Print solid and gradation images of magenta, yellow, black and red, blue, green, misregistration detection marks, etc. As the detection device 51, one or a plurality of detection units such as an image densitometer and a color difference meter are arranged and used according to the purpose. Further, a line sensor or a video camera that can monitor the entire width of the continuous paper 3 is also used to measure the density, color tone, and positional deviation of solid images and gradation images. Detector 51
The print information detected in (1) is processed by the arithmetic unit and used for feedback control to the related devices to keep the print state in the best condition. For example, when the image density is low, the developing bias voltage for adjusting the image density of the developing device 22 is controlled to increase the image density. By slowing down the paper movement speed when detecting monitor pages, it is possible to perform sufficient measurement even during high-speed printing. Further, the print area a of the monitor page 6 can be made shorter than the normal print page b.

According to this embodiment, even in high-speed full-color printing, the image quality of the color image can be maintained in the optimum state by surely reading the test pattern for the image monitor and checking the color image.
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, the main difference from the first embodiment is that, in the second embodiment, the toner image of each printing unit is once transferred to an intermediate transfer member and then retransferred to continuous paper. Cyan printing unit 201, magenta printing unit 20
2. The toner image 24 formed on the recording body 21 of each printing unit of the yellow printing unit 203 and the black printing unit 204 is sequentially superposed and transferred onto the intermediate transfer body 31 to transfer the color toner image 241 to the intermediate transfer body 31. Form on the surface. Then, the color toner image 241 formed on the surface of the intermediate transfer member 31 is transferred onto the continuous paper 3 by the transfer roller 231.
Retransfer to the folding paper. After that, the continuous paper 3 is processed by the same process as in the first embodiment.

According to the present embodiment, since the intermediate transfer member 31 is used, it is possible to stably form an image on a wide variety of recording papers without being affected by the surrounding temperature and humidity, and the traveling path of the recording papers. However, there is an advantage that the paper can be run simply and stably.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, the main difference from the first embodiment is that an inkjet method is used as the printing means instead of the electrophotographic method. A cyan print head 211, a magenta print head 212, a yellow print head 213, and a black print as a color print head system 200 including a set of inkjet nozzle heads 4 in which ink nozzles are arranged linearly in the width direction of the continuous paper 3. The heads 214 are attached in parallel and color printing is performed on the continuous paper 3. As in the first embodiment, printing the test pattern on the monitor page has the advantage that the image quality of the color image can be maintained in the optimum state. When the nozzles are arranged in a line as in the present embodiment, the nozzle clogging can be easily performed by operating only even-numbered nozzles or odd-numbered nozzles as a test pattern to draw vertical lines. It is possible to check. By using the same test pattern, it becomes possible to easily check the light emission defect of the LED array even in the electrophotographic apparatus using the LED array as the light source.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the cutter 52 is used after the test pattern print image is monitored by the detector 51.
Although the continuous paper 3 printed in 1 is cut, the continuous paper may be once wound as it is and then subjected to the post-processing collectively including the removal of the test pattern printing portion.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, particularly in an electrophotographic system or an inkjet system for color printing at high speed, a test pattern is printed at an arbitrary position on a continuous paper during a continuous printing operation. There is an effect that the print quality can be maintained in the best condition by monitoring the condition and feeding back the result.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a continuous paper printing apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a print example of a test pattern used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a continuous paper printing apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a continuous paper printing apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Printing device, 3 ... Continuous paper, 4 ... Fixing device, 5 ... Post-processing device, 51 ... Detection device, 52 ... Cutter.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G03G 21/14 G03G 21/00 372 F term (reference) 2C058 AB17 AC08 AE04 AF06 GA07 GB01 GB15 GB40 GB49 2C061 AQ05 AQ06 AR01 AS06 KK13 KK25 KK28 KK32 KK33 2H027 DA10 DA50 DE02 DE07 DE10 EA05 EB04 EC03 EC06 EC07 ED16 EE03 2H030 AA01 AA02 AA03 AB02 AD16 BB02 BB34 BB56 BB63 BB71

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A recording method for printing on continuous paper, which is a recording paper, wherein a test pattern for monitoring the print state is printed between arbitrary recording pages of the continuous paper during continuous printing operation, and test pattern information is detected. A continuous paper recording method, characterized in that the transport speed of the continuous paper is reduced at the detection position of the apparatus. 2. The continuous paper recording method according to claim 1, wherein the recording method is an electrophotographic recording method using toner. 3. The recording method is cyan, magenta, yellow,
The continuous paper recording method according to claim 1, wherein the continuous paper recording method has a black coloring material and is color printed.