JP2006076311A - Printing with blank dot inspection function - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique for detecting inoperative nozzles without acquiring inspection data for each nozzle. <P>SOLUTION: According to a nozzle ejection inspection method, a plurality of nozzles are subjected to inspection as to whether or not the inoperative nozzles not ejecting ink droplets are included in the nozzles, and therefore the presence/absence of the inoperative nozzles can be checked even if the inspection data for each nozzle is not acquired. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for inspecting whether or not ink droplets are ejected in a printing apparatus.

  An ink jet printer prints an image by ejecting ink droplets from a plurality of nozzles. A print head of an inkjet printer is provided with a large number of nozzles. However, there are cases where some nozzles are clogged and ink droplets cannot be ejected due to an increase in the viscosity of ink or mixing of bubbles. If ink droplets are not ejected normally, dots will be missing in the image, causing image quality to deteriorate. For this reason, it is desirable to inspect whether ink droplets are ejected before or during printing.

  An inspection method using light has been devised as a method for inspecting whether or not ink droplets are ejected. In such an inspection method, the operation of each nozzle is confirmed by moving the print head to position the nozzle at a predetermined position, and ejecting ink droplets to each nozzle to shield the light from the inspection apparatus. .

  However, in the method of confirming the operation for each nozzle, it is necessary to acquire and process inspection data for each nozzle. As a result, there has been a problem that it takes a lot of time to acquire and process the inspection data.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems in the prior art, and an object thereof is to provide a technique capable of detecting non-operating nozzles without acquiring inspection data for each nozzle.

  In order to solve at least a part of the above-described problems, the present invention provides a nozzle ejection inspection method for a print head including a nozzle row having a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink droplets. (N is an integer of 2 or more) a step of generating light that intersects simultaneously with the trajectory of the ink droplets simultaneously ejected from the inspection target nozzles, and (b) ejecting ink droplets to the N inspection target nozzles. A step of sending a drive signal for the detection, (c) a step of generating a detection pulse in accordance with a shielding state of the light by the ink droplet, and (d) an ink droplet being ejected by analyzing the detection pulse. Detecting the presence or absence of a non-operating nozzle that cannot be used; (e) updating the nozzle to be inspected by moving at least one of the print head and the light; and (f) the inspection. After the target nozzle has been updated, characterized in that it comprises a step of performing the step (a) ~ step (d).

  In the nozzle discharge inspection method of the present invention, it is possible to perform inspection for each of the plurality of nozzles and determine whether or not the plurality of nozzles include non-operating nozzles that cannot eject ink droplets. In addition, it is possible to confirm the presence or absence of a non-operating nozzle without acquiring inspection data.

  In the above-described nozzle ejection inspection method, in the step (d), the magnitude of the detection pulse is smaller than the first threshold value by comparing the detection pulse with a predetermined first threshold value. It is sometimes preferable to include a step of determining that the non-operating nozzle is included in the inspection target nozzle.

  In this configuration, it is possible to determine that the non-operating nozzle is included in the nozzle to be inspected by comparing the detection pulse with a predetermined threshold value, so that it can be easily applied to the printing apparatus. can do.

  In the nozzle ejection inspection method, the step (b) includes a step of setting the drive signal sent to the N inspection target nozzles to a constant frequency, and the step (d) includes the detection. A step of generating a nozzle detection signal, which is a signal obtained by filtering the frequency component from a pulse, is compared with a second threshold value that is determined in advance, and the magnitude of the nozzle detection signal is the second value. When it is smaller than the threshold value, it is preferable to include a step of determining that the non-operating nozzle is included in the inspection target nozzle.

  In this way, since only the signal generated according to the ejection of the ink droplet can be extracted, it is possible to increase the determination accuracy of whether or not a non-operating nozzle is included.

  In the above-described nozzle ejection inspection method, it is preferable that the method further includes a step of cleaning a nozzle row having an inspection target nozzle including the non-operating nozzle.

  In this case, by performing cleaning only for some of the plurality of nozzles of the print head, it is possible to eliminate missing dots (non-operating nozzles), and thus it is possible to suppress ink consumption associated with nozzle cleaning. .

  In the nozzle ejection inspection method, when the non-operating nozzle is detected, (g) ink droplets are sequentially applied to each of the N inspection target nozzles including the non-operating nozzle. A step of sending a drive signal for ejection; (h) a step of generating a detection pulse in accordance with a state of shielding the light by the ink droplet; and (i) specifying the non-operating nozzle in accordance with the detection pulse. It is preferable to provide the process of carrying out.

  In this way, it is possible to identify which nozzle is a non-operating nozzle. For example, when a missing dot is detected during printing, for example, by complementing a non-operating nozzle with another nozzle, Printing can be continued.

  In the nozzle ejection inspection method, the step (b) includes a step of setting N different frequencies for the ejection frequencies of the ink droplets ejected from the N inspection target nozzles, and the step (d) Generating a nozzle detection signal generated by filtering each component of the ejection frequency from the detection pulse for each ejection frequency as time series data, and nozzle detection for each ejection frequency in the time series data It is preferable to include a step of identifying a non-operating nozzle by comparing the order of appearance of signals.

  In this way, it is possible to specify the non-operating nozzle without performing the inspection again for each of the inspection target nozzles including the non-operating nozzle.

  In the above-described nozzle ejection inspection method, the N types of ejection frequencies are equal to an integer multiple of any of the N types of ejection frequencies, and other ejection frequencies of the N types of ejection frequencies. It is preferable that the setting is not made.

  In this way, it is possible to avoid a situation in which the frequency of the nozzle detection signal coincides with the harmonics of the nozzle detection signals of the nozzles belonging to other nozzle groups. Can be increased.

  The present invention can be realized in various forms such as a printing apparatus.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in the following order based on examples.
A. Device configuration:
B. Configuration and principle of ink drop detector:
C. Configuration and operation of the cleaning mechanism:
D. First embodiment:
E. Second embodiment:
F. Variations:

A. Device configuration:
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a main configuration of a color inkjet printer 20 as an embodiment of the present invention. The printer 20 includes a paper stacker 22, a paper feed roller 24 driven by a step motor (not shown), a platen plate 26, a carriage 29, a step motor 30, and a traction belt 32 driven by the step motor 30. A guide rail 34 for the carriage 29 and a linear encoder 35 for measuring the position of the carriage 29 in the main scanning direction are provided. A print head 28 having a large number of nozzles is mounted on the carriage 29. The step motor 30 is also called a carriage motor.

  A detection pulse generator 41 is provided at the standby position of the carriage 29 at the right end of FIG. The detection pulse generation unit 41 includes a light emitting unit 41a and a light receiving unit 41b, and detects ink droplets by examining the flight state of the ink droplets using light. The detailed contents of the inspection using the detection pulse generation unit 41 will be described later.

  The printing paper P is taken up by the paper feed roller 24 from the paper stacker 22 and fed on the surface of the platen plate 26 in the sub-scanning direction. The carriage 29 is pulled by a pulling belt 32 driven by a step motor 30 and moves in the main scanning direction along the guide rail 34. The position of the carriage 29 in the main scanning direction is measured by the linear encoder 35. The main scanning direction is perpendicular to the sub-scanning direction.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the printer 20. The printer 20 includes a reception buffer memory 50 that receives a signal supplied from the host computer 100, an image buffer 52 that stores print data, a system controller 54 that controls the operation of the entire printer 20, and a RAM 56 that can be rewritten. An EEPROM 57 which is a nonvolatile memory is provided.

  The system controller 54 includes a main scanning drive driver 61 that drives the carriage motor 30, a sub-scanning drive driver 62 that drives the paper feed motor 31, and an inspection unit that drives the dot dropout inspection unit 40 that includes the detection pulse generation unit 41. A driver 64 and a head drive driver 66 that drives the print head 28 are connected. The paper feed motor 31 is also used to drive a cleaning mechanism 200a described later.

  A printer driver (not shown) of the host computer 100 determines various parameter values that define the printing operation based on the printing mode (high-speed printing mode, high-quality printing mode, etc.) designated by the user. The printer driver further generates print data for printing in the print mode based on these parameter values, and transfers the print data to the printer 20. The transferred print data is temporarily stored in the reception buffer memory 50. In the printer 20, the system controller 54 reads necessary information from the print data stored in the reception buffer memory 50, and sends a control signal to each driver based on the read information.

  The image buffer 52 stores print data of a plurality of color components obtained by separating the print data received by the reception buffer memory 50 for each color component. The head drive driver 66 reads out print data of each color component from the image buffer 52 in accordance with a control signal from the system controller 54 and drives the nozzle array (also referred to as a nozzle row) of each color provided in the print head 28 according to the read data. It is driven by supplying a signal DRV. The drive driver 66 functions as a “drive signal generation unit” in the claims.

  The system controller 54 realizes various functions including a dot missing inspection function and an adjustment function of the dot missing inspection unit 40 by executing a computer program stored in the EEPROM 57.

  The computer program stored in the EEPROM 57 can be rewritten. The computer program for rewriting can be provided in a form recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a flexible disk or a CD-ROM. The program recorded on the recording medium is read by the host computer 100 and transferred to the EEPROM 57 of the printer 20. In this way, the computer program stored in the EEPROM 57 is rewritten.

  The “recording medium” in the present invention includes a flexible disk, a CD-ROM, a magneto-optical disk, an IC card, a ROM cartridge, a punch card, a printed matter on which a code such as a bar code is printed, an internal storage device (RAM) of a computer. And various media that can be read by a computer such as an external storage device.

B. Configuration and principle of ink drop detector:
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the detection pulse generator 41 and the principle of the inspection method (flying drop inspection method). FIG. 3 is a diagram of the print head 28 as viewed from the lower surface side, in which a nozzle array for six colors of the print head 28 and a light emitting unit 41 a and a light receiving unit 41 b constituting the detection pulse generating unit 41 are depicted.

  On the lower surface of the print head 28, a black ink nozzle row K for discharging black ink, a dark cyan ink nozzle row C for discharging dark cyan ink, and a light cyan ink nozzle for discharging light cyan ink. A line LC, a light magenta ink nozzle line LM for discharging light magenta ink, a dark magenta ink nozzle line M for discharging dark magenta ink, and a yellow ink nozzle line Y for discharging yellow ink Is formed.

  The plurality of nozzles in each nozzle row are aligned along the sub-scanning direction SS. At the time of printing, ink droplets are ejected from each nozzle while the print head 28 moves in the main scanning direction MS together with the carriage 29 (FIG. 1).

  The light emitting unit 41a is a laser diode that emits a light beam L having an outer diameter of about 1 mm or less. The directions of the light emitting unit 41a and the light receiving unit 41b are adjusted so that the traveling direction of the laser light L is slightly inclined from the sub-scanning direction SS.

C. Configuration and operation of the cleaning mechanism:
FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing the configuration of the cleaning mechanism 200a. The cleaning mechanism 200a includes a head cap 210a, hoses 220a, 220b, and 220c, and pump rollers 230a, 230b, and 230c. In FIG. 4, the hoses 220a and 220c are shown only halfway, and the pump rollers 230a and 230c are not shown.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the head cap 210a has an internal space divided into three suction chambers Va, Vb, and Vc. When the head cap 210a rises and comes into close contact with the lower surface of the print head 28, the suction chamber Va forms a closed space that covers the nozzle rows K and C (FIG. 3), and the suction chamber Vb covers the nozzle rows LC and LM. A closed space is formed, and the suction chamber Vc forms a closed space that covers the nozzle rows M and Y. The hoses 220a, 220b, and 220c are connected to the suction chambers Va, Vb, and Vc of the head cap 210a, respectively. The other ends of the hoses 220a, 220b, and 220c are connected to pump rollers 230a, 230b, and 230c, respectively. The pump rollers 230a, 230b, and 230c can be independently connected to the paper feed motor 31 (FIG. 2) by a clutch.

  The pump roller 230b has two small rollers 232b and 234b in the vicinity of the peripheral edge thereof. A hose 220b is wound around these two small rollers 232b and 234b. When the paper feed motor 31 is connected to the pump roller 230b and rotates in the direction of arrow A, the air in the hose 220b is pushed by the small rollers 232b and 234b, whereby the closed space Vb in the head cap 210a is exhausted. As a result, ink is sucked from the nozzles LC and LM of the print head 28 and discharged to a waste ink discharge unit (not shown) via the hose 220b. When ink present at the nozzle tip is discharged, new ink is supplied to the nozzle from the ink cartridge side.

  The configuration and operation of the pump roller 230a and hose 220a (not shown) and the pump roller 230c and hose 220c (not shown) are the same as the configuration and operation of the pump roller 230b and hose 220b. With these configurations, the nozzle set consisting of the nozzle rows K and C, the nozzle set consisting of the nozzle rows LC and LM, and the nozzle set consisting of the nozzle rows M and Y are capable of sucking ink independently from each other. It has become.

D. First embodiment:
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process for detecting a non-operating nozzle. In this process, non-operating nozzles are not specified in units of nozzles, but whether or not non-operating nozzles exist in any nozzle row is determined. If it can be determined in which nozzle row the non-operating nozzle exists, there is an advantage that the nozzle cleaning can be performed in units of nozzle sets having the nozzle row including the non-operating nozzle.

  In step S <b> 101, the main scanning drive driver 61 that has received a command from the system controller 54 drives the carriage motor 30 to start main scanning of the carriage 29. In the dot dropout inspection of this embodiment, a plurality of inspection target nozzles to be inspected are updated by moving a carriage 29 on which the print head 28 is mounted in the main scanning direction. The position of the carriage 29 is measured using the linear encoder 35. This measurement result is sent to the dot dropout inspection unit 40 through the system controller 54.

  In step S102, the light emitting unit 41a starts laser irradiation. Laser irradiation is started according to the measured value of the position of the carriage 29. For example, when at least one nozzle of the print head 28 reaches the vicinity of the laser beam L, laser irradiation is started at a timing at which an ink droplet can be stably detected.

  FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the positional relationship between the laser beam L and the nozzle in the first embodiment of the present invention. This figure is an enlarged view of FIG. 3 and shows each nozzle and laser beam L of the print head 28. The laser beam L has a detection region with a width of 0.3 mm. The detection region is a region in which the light amount of the laser light L is reduced to the extent that the detection pulse generator 41 can sense when an ink droplet is ejected to this region. This detection region is in a state where ink droplets ejected from the three nozzles # 4 to # 6 of the nozzle row C pass through. In this state, these three nozzles # 4 to # 6 are inspection target nozzles. Note that the print head 28 is stopped in this positional relationship.

  In step S103, when the ejection of ink droplets from the inspection target nozzles # 4 to # 6 is started, the system controller 54 sends a measurement trigger to the dot dropout inspection unit 40 through the inspection unit driver 64 (step S104). The dot dropout inspection unit 40 records the output value of the light receiving unit 41b in response to the measurement trigger (S105). This recorded output value is AD converted to generate digital inspection data. As shown in FIG. 2, this inspection data is DMA-transferred (Direct Memory Access Transfer) to the RAM 56 without passing through the system controller 54, and stored at a predetermined address.

  In step S <b> 106, the dot missing inspection unit 40 determines whether at least one non-operating nozzle is included for every three inspection target nozzles (whether or not dot missing is present) based on the inspection data read from the RAM 56. To decide. This determination is performed by comparing the amount of light with a threshold value stored in the EEPROM 57 as shown in FIG. At this time, the dot dropout inspection unit 40 also specifies a nozzle row including non-operating nozzles. In this embodiment, the missing dot inspection unit 40 functions as a “non-operating nozzle detection unit” in claims.

  Each threshold value can be determined as follows, for example. First, an inspection is performed for each nozzle to confirm that all nozzles are operating nozzles. Next, a decrease in light amount is measured in a state where ink droplets are ejected from only two of the three inspection target nozzles. A threshold value for each of a plurality of inspection target nozzles can be determined according to the measured value. The threshold may be set before shipment, or may be periodically performed after shipment. This threshold corresponds to the “first threshold” in the claims.

  If it is determined whether or not there is a non-operating nozzle, the nozzles to be inspected are updated, and then steps S103 to S106 are repeated. The inspection target nozzle is updated by the main scanning drive driver 61 driving the carriage motor 30 to move the carriage 29. In this manner, all nozzles on the print head 28 can be inspected. The main scanning drive driver 61 and the carriage motor 30 correspond to the “inspection target nozzle update unit” in the claims.

  In step S107, the cleaning mechanism 200a (FIG. 2) performs cleaning of a nozzle set including a nozzle row having non-operating nozzles.

  As described above, in the first embodiment, since the non-operating nozzle can be detected without acquiring the inspection data for each nozzle, the time required for acquiring the inspection data can be shortened and the amount of the inspection data can be suppressed. There is an advantage that you can.

  Further, in this embodiment, since a nozzle row having non-operating nozzles is also specified, dot omission is obtained by cleaning only some of the plurality of nozzles (nozzle set in this embodiment) of the print head. Can be eliminated. As a result, there is an advantage that consumption of ink accompanying nozzle cleaning can be suppressed.

  Alternatively, the non-operating nozzle may be specified by ejecting ink droplets sequentially from each of the plurality of inspection target nozzles determined to include the non-operating nozzle. This is because, if it is possible to specify which nozzle is a non-operating nozzle, for example, there is an advantage that printing can be executed by complementing dots to be formed by the non-operating nozzle with other nozzles. The supplementary operation is described in detail in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-263772 disclosed by the applicant of the present invention, and the description thereof is omitted here.

E. Second embodiment:
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a process for specifying a non-operating nozzle in the second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a plurality of inspection target nozzles that have been determined to contain non-operating nozzles are re-inspected, that is, ink droplets are ejected in order from each of the plurality of inspection target nozzles. It is possible to identify a non-operating nozzle without performing a detailed inspection of identifying the nozzle.

  In steps S201 and S202, main scanning of the carriage 29 and laser irradiation are started in the same manner as in the first embodiment.

  In step S203, a plurality of nozzles to be inspected starts ink droplet ejection. In this second embodiment, the head drive driver 66 determines a predetermined number of inspection target nozzles according to the position of the carriage 29 without stopping the print head 28, and ejects ink droplets from these inspection target nozzles. Let The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the ejection frequency of the ink droplets ejected from the inspection target nozzle is controlled to a different value for each nozzle.

  FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the positional relationship between the laser light L and a plurality of nozzles that eject ink droplets at mutually different frequencies in the second embodiment of the present invention. Each nozzle row includes 180 nozzles. The nozzles included in each nozzle row are divided into four nozzle groups, and ink droplets are ejected at different frequencies for each nozzle group.

  In the example shown in the figure, the first nozzle group composed of the nozzles # 1, # 5, # 9 to # 173, and # 177 ejects ink droplets at 5 kHz, and # 2, # 6, # 10 The second nozzle group composed of # 174 and # 178 nozzles is 3.3 kHz, and the third nozzle group composed of # 3, # 7, # 11 to # 175, and # 179 nozzles is 2 kHz. The fourth nozzle group composed of 4, # 8, # 12 to # 176, and # 180 nozzles ejects ink droplets at 1.4 kHz.

The arrangement of the nozzles and other items shown below are set so that a plurality of nozzles belonging to the same nozzle group in the same nozzle row may not simultaneously become inspection target nozzles in the main scanning of the print head 28. .
(1) Arrangement of nozzles belonging to each nozzle group (2) Width of detection region of laser beam L (3) Angle of laser beam L and nozzle row

  For example, in the example shown in FIG. 9, the nozzles belonging to the first to fourth nozzle groups are periodically arranged in the sub-scanning direction, and a maximum of three inspection target nozzles (# 6 to # in the figure). Since # 8), a plurality of nozzles belonging to the same nozzle group are not simultaneously inspected nozzles. Further, since each nozzle group is driven at a different frequency, it can be seen that the ejection frequencies of the ink droplets ejected from the plurality of inspection target nozzles are all different types of frequencies.

  FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a method for generating a drive signal DRV for ejecting ink droplets at different constant frequencies. In the second embodiment, a drive signal DRV for ejecting ink droplets at a different constant frequency is generated from each of the nozzles included in the plurality of nozzles to be inspected from the original drive signal COMDRV of 10 kHz. The drive signal DRV is generated by performing on / off control of the original drive signal COMDRV in accordance with the print signal PRT.

  Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 10A to 10D, the 5 kHz drive signal DRV to be supplied to the first nozzle group is turned on once every two print signals PRT. The 3.3 kHz drive signal DRV to be generated and supplied to the second nozzle group can be supplied to the third nozzle group by turning on the print signal PRT once every three times. The 2 kHz drive signal DRV turns on the print signal PRT once every five times, and the 1.4 kHz drive signal DRV for supplying the fourth nozzle group turns on the print signal PRT once every seven times. Can be generated respectively.

  FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing the detection pulse in the frequency domain in the second embodiment of the present invention. The solid line indicates the fundamental wave that is the frequency of the ejected ink droplet, and the dotted line indicates the second harmonic of the frequency of the ejected ink droplet. Note that the third and higher harmonics are not shown. As can be seen from the figure, the second harmonic is deviated from the frequency of the fundamental wave.

  In this way, the plurality of types of discharge frequencies are set so that an integral multiple of any one of the plurality of types of discharge frequencies does not match the other discharge frequencies of the plurality of types of discharge frequencies. Yes. The reason why the frequency of the fundamental wave is set in this way is that there is an advantage that erroneous determination caused by these harmonic noises can be suppressed.

  In step S204, the inspection data is DMA-transferred onto the memory 56 and stored at a predetermined address as in the first embodiment. The inspection data is analyzed by the system controller 54, and the non-operating nozzle is specified (step S205).

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing details of analysis of inspection data in step S205. In step S301, the system controller 54 reads the inspection data from the memory 56 and performs a filtering process. This filtering process is a digital filtering process that extracts data of frequency components that match the ejection frequency of ink droplets in each nozzle group. This filtering process is performed for each nozzle group frequency. The inspection data subjected to the filtering process is further arranged in time series order to generate time series data for each nozzle group (step S302). This time-series data is 8-bit multi-value data for each nozzle group. The multilevel data is subjected to binarization processing in the next step S303.

  FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing time-series binary data separated for each nozzle group. The number in the nozzle detection signal indicates the number of the corresponding nozzle. In the illustrated example, the inspection data is separated into components of 5 kHz, 3.3 kHz, 2 kHz, and 1.4 kHz, which are ink droplet ejection frequencies, and binarized. The binarization process is performed by comparing the time series data with a predetermined threshold in the system controller 54 (step S303). The reason for performing the binarization process is to determine whether the signal is a signal corresponding to ink droplet ejection or noise because noise is also included in the 8-bit time-series data for each frequency. . Further, since the binarized data becomes 1-bit digital data for each nozzle group, there is an advantage that detection of non-operating nozzles and specific processing are facilitated.

  This time-series binary data is obtained and processed while moving the print head 28 from right to left at a constant speed in the main scanning direction MS while ejecting ink droplets from the cyan ink nozzle row C in FIG. is there. The state shown in FIG. 9 is a state that occurs immediately before time t3. That is, after the # 5 nozzle of the first nozzle group of the cyan ink nozzle row C is out of the detection region of the laser light L, the # 9 nozzle of the first nozzle group enters the detection region of the laser light L. This is the previous state. In this state, the # 6 to # 8 nozzles are in the laser light L detection region.

  When the # 1 nozzle of the cyan ink nozzle row C enters the detection region of the laser light L at time t1, the nozzle detection signal appears in the first nozzle group, but when the # 1 nozzle exits from this detection region, the nozzle detection signal Disappears. At time t2, the # 5 nozzle enters this detection region, and a nozzle detection signal corresponding to this nozzle appears. Thus, there is a certain time interval in which the nozzle is not detected immediately before time t2. The same applies to the other nozzles (# 9, # 13 to # 177) belonging to the first nozzle group that ejects ink droplets at 5 kHz, and the nozzle detection signal is output at a constant time interval at which no nozzle is detected. Can be seen in order. Note that the same signal is obtained for the nozzles belonging to the second to fourth nozzle groups as can be seen from FIG.

  As a result, the same number of nozzle detection signals as the number of operating nozzles belonging to each nozzle group appear, so the number obtained by subtracting the number of nozzle detection signals from the number of nozzles belonging to each nozzle group is the number of non-operating nozzles. It turns out that it is. Further, as can be seen from FIGS. 9 and 13, when all the nozzles included in the nozzle row are operating nozzles, the first nozzle group, the second nozzle group, the third nozzle group, the fourth nozzle group, Nozzle detection signals appear in the order of one nozzle group.

  In step S304, the system controller 54 detects and specifies a non-operating nozzle using such binary time-series data. For example, as shown in FIG. 14, when the # 1 nozzle of the first nozzle group arranged at the end of the nozzle row is a non-operating nozzle, before the nozzle detection signal appears in the first nozzle group, A nozzle detection signal appears in two nozzle groups. When the # 1 nozzle is an operating nozzle, the nozzle detection signal should appear first in the first nozzle group, so that it is understood that the # 1 nozzle is a non-operating nozzle. When the # 2 nozzle is also a non-operating nozzle, the nozzle detection signal first appears in the third nozzle group, not the second nozzle group, so that both the # 1 nozzle and the # 2 nozzle may be non-operating nozzles. Can be identified.

  When the # 10 nozzle of the second nozzle group arranged in the middle of the nozzle row is a non-operating nozzle, after the nozzle detection signal of the first nozzle group appears in the time-series binary data, the second nozzle group In some cases, the nozzle detection signal of the third nozzle group appears instead of the nozzle detection signal. As a result, it can be seen that non-operating nozzles exist in the nozzles of the second nozzle group.

  This non-operating nozzle can be specified by, for example, counting the nozzle detection signals of the third nozzle group not including the non-operating nozzle. Specifically, since the non-operating nozzle is detected in the second nozzle group before the # 11 nozzle which is the third nozzle, it can be seen that the # 10 nozzle is the non-operating nozzle. The absence of non-operating nozzles in the third nozzle group can be confirmed by the fact that the number of nozzle detection signals detected in the third nozzle group matches the number of nozzles belonging to the third nozzle group.

  As described above, in this embodiment, non-operating nozzles can be identified without performing re-inspection for each nozzle by performing a time-series mutual comparison of the nozzle detection signals of each nozzle group. There are advantages. Furthermore, since the nozzles are inspected by performing a relative comparison in time series, there is an advantage that accurate measurement of the position of the carriage 29 becomes unnecessary.

  If there are many non-operating nozzles, there may be a case where the non-operating nozzles cannot be specified. However, in such a case, it is preferable to clean the nozzle row having the non-operating nozzles rather than performing the complementary operation, and thus such a sequence may be used.

  In the second embodiment, it is set so that three inspection objects enter the detection region of the laser beam L at the same time. However, for example, it may be set so that two inspection objects enter. In general, the number of inspection target nozzles that can enter the detection region of the laser beam L only needs to be set so that all nozzles can eject ink droplets at different frequencies.

F. Variations:
The present invention is not limited to the above-described examples and embodiments, and can be implemented in various modes without departing from the gist thereof. For example, the following modifications are possible.

F-1. In the first embodiment, ink droplets are ejected from the inspection target nozzle with the print head 28 stopped. However, the ink droplets may be ejected without stopping the print head 28. In general, in a state where light that intersects simultaneously with the locus of ink droplets ejected simultaneously from a plurality of inspection target nozzles is generated, a drive signal for ejecting ink droplets is sent to the plurality of inspection target nozzles. It should be.

  When the inspection is performed without stopping the print head 28, the ejection of ink droplets is controlled according to the measured value of the position of the carriage 29 measured by the linear encoder 35. For example, when at least one of the inspection target nozzles # 4 to # 6 (FIG. 6) comes to a position where ink droplets can be ejected to the detection region of the laser light L, the ejection starts, and the inspections # 4 to # 6 When all the target nozzles come to a position where ink is ejected outside this detection area, the ejection is controlled to end.

  On the other hand, when all of the nozzles to be inspected # 4 to # 6 come to a position where ink droplets can be ejected into this detection area, the measurement trigger causes the missing dot from the system controller 54 via the inspection unit driver 64. It is sent to the inspection unit 40 (step S104 (FIG. 5)). The other steps (S101, S102, S105 to S107) are executed in the same manner as in the above embodiment.

F-2. In the above embodiment, digital data measured at a constant sampling period (for example, 50 μs) is recorded in a storage element such as a memory, and the non-operating nozzle is detected by analyzing this data. A non-operating nozzle may be detected simultaneously with the measurement. Further, the timing of detecting the non-operating nozzle may be, for example, for each main scan or after all the inspection data has been acquired.

F-3. The first embodiment may be implemented by applying the filtering process used in the second embodiment. In this case, for example, the drive signals sent to the plurality of inspection target nozzles are all set to the same frequency, and the detection pulse is filtered at this frequency to generate the nozzle detection signal. By comparing this nozzle detection signal with a predetermined threshold value, it can be determined that non-operating nozzles are included in the plurality of inspection target nozzles.

  Even in this case, the presence / absence of the non-operating nozzle can be determined in the same manner as in the first embodiment described above. However, in this configuration, only the signal generated according to the ejection of the ink droplet can be extracted. There is an advantage that the accuracy of determining whether or not a nozzle is included can be increased. This threshold value corresponds to a “second threshold value” in the claims.

F-4. In the above embodiment, a part of the configuration realized by hardware may be replaced with software, and conversely, a part of the configuration realized by software may be replaced by hardware.

F-5. The present invention is generally applicable to printing apparatuses that eject ink droplets, and can be applied to various printing apparatuses other than color inkjet printers. For example, the present invention can be applied to an ink jet facsimile machine and a copying machine.

F-6. In the print head of the above embodiment, the plurality of nozzle rows are arranged in the main scanning direction, but may be arranged in the sub scanning direction.

1 is a schematic perspective view showing a main configuration of a color inkjet printer 20 as an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the printer 20. Explanatory drawing which shows the principle of the structure of the detection pulse production | generation part 41, and its test | inspection method (flight drop test method). The conceptual diagram which shows the structure of the cleaning mechanism 200a. The flowchart which shows the process for detecting the non-operation nozzle in 1st Example of this invention. Explanatory drawing which shows the positional relationship of the laser beam L and the nozzle in 1st Example of this invention. Explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between the detection pulse of a nozzle in 1st Example of this invention, and a threshold value. The flowchart which shows the process for the identification of the non-operation nozzle in 2nd Example of this invention. Explanatory drawing which shows the positional relationship of the laser beam in 2nd Example of this invention, and the some nozzle which discharges an ink drop with a mutually different frequency. Explanatory drawing which shows the method of producing | generating the drive signal for discharging an ink drop with a different fixed frequency. Explanatory drawing which shows the detection pulse in 2nd Example of this invention in a frequency domain. The flowchart which shows the analysis method of the detection pulse in 2nd Example of this invention. Explanatory drawing which shows the time series data isolate | separated for every nozzle group. Explanatory drawing which shows the time series data isolate | separated for every nozzle group.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 ... Color inkjet printer 22 ... Paper stacker 24 ... Paper feed roller 26 ... Platen board 28 ... Print head 29 ... Carriage 30 ... Carriage motor 31 ... Paper feed motor 32 ... Traction belt 34 ... Guide rail 35 ... Linear encoder 40 ... Dot missing Inspection unit 41 ... detection pulse generation unit 50 ... reception buffer memory 52 ... image buffer 54 ... system controller 56 ... RAM
57… EEPROM
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 61 ... Main scan drive driver 62 ... Sub scan drive driver 64 ... Inspection part driver 66 ... Head drive driver 100 ... Host computer 200a ... Cleaning mechanism 210a ... Head cap 220a, 220b, 220c ... Hose 230a, 230b, 230c ... Pump roller 232b , 234b ... Small roller

Claims (8)

A nozzle ejection inspection method for a print head including a nozzle row having a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink drops,
(A) generating light that intersects simultaneously with the locus of ink droplets ejected simultaneously from N (N is an integer of 2 or more) inspection target nozzles;
(B) sending a drive signal for ejecting ink droplets to the N inspection target nozzles;
(C) generating a detection pulse according to a state of shielding the light by the ink droplet;
(D) detecting the presence or absence of a non-operating nozzle that cannot eject ink droplets by analyzing the detection pulse;
(E) updating the inspection target nozzle by moving at least one of the print head and the light;
(F) After the inspection target nozzle is updated, the step of executing the steps (a) to (d);
A nozzle discharge inspection method comprising: A nozzle discharge inspection method according to claim 1,
In the step (d), when the magnitude of the detection pulse is smaller than the first threshold value by comparing the detection pulse with a predetermined first threshold value, A method for inspecting ejection of a nozzle, comprising the step of determining that the non-operating nozzle is included. A nozzle discharge inspection method according to claim 1,
The step (b) includes a step of setting the driving signal sent to the N inspection target nozzles to a constant frequency,
The step (d)
Generating a nozzle detection signal that is a signal obtained by filtering the frequency component from the detection pulse;
The nozzle detection signal is compared with a predetermined second threshold, and when the magnitude of the nozzle detection signal is smaller than the second threshold, the non-operating nozzle is included in the inspection target nozzle The process of determining that
Nozzle discharge inspection method. The nozzle discharge inspection method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:
A nozzle ejection inspection method comprising a step of cleaning a nozzle row having an inspection target nozzle including the non-operating nozzle. A nozzle discharge inspection method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
In the nozzle discharge inspection method, when the non-operating nozzle is detected,
(G) sending a driving signal for ejecting ink droplets in order to each of the N inspection target nozzles including the non-operating nozzle;
(H) generating a detection pulse according to a state of shielding the light by the ink droplet;
(I) identifying the non-operating nozzle in response to the detection pulse;
A nozzle discharge inspection method comprising: A nozzle discharge inspection method according to claim 1,
The step (b) includes a step of setting N different frequencies for the ejection frequencies of the ink droplets ejected from the N inspection target nozzles,
The step (d)
Generating a nozzle detection signal generated by filtering each component of the ejection frequency from the detection pulse as time-series data for each ejection frequency; and
Identifying non-operating nozzles by comparing the order of appearance of nozzle detection signals for each ejection frequency in the time series data;
Nozzle discharge inspection method. A nozzle discharge inspection method according to claim 6,
The N types of ejection frequencies are set so that an integer multiple of any of the N types of ejection frequencies does not match the other ejection frequencies of the N types of ejection frequencies. Discharge inspection method. A printing apparatus that performs printing using a print head including a nozzle row having a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink drops,
A light emitting unit that generates light that intersects simultaneously with the locus of ink droplets ejected simultaneously from the N nozzles (N is an integer of 2 or more);
A drive signal generator for sending a signal for ejecting ink droplets to the N test target nozzles;
A detection pulse generating unit that generates a detection pulse according to a state of shielding the light by the ink droplet;
A non-operating nozzle detector that detects the presence or absence of non-operating nozzles that cannot eject ink droplets by analyzing the detection pulse;
An inspection target nozzle updating unit that updates the inspection target nozzle by moving at least one of the print head and the light; and
A printing apparatus comprising:

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