JP2006192815A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recorder for efficiently using a power supply capacity including also at the time of standby. <P>SOLUTION: The recorder which is operated by an AC power supply, comprises a DC voltage generating means which generates a predetermined DC voltage from the AC power supply, a charging means which charges by the generated DC voltage, a secondary battery charged at the charging means, and a discharging means. A plurality of the secondary batteries are set in the recorder. The charging means is configured to charge at the time of non printing of the recorder. Moreover, the charging means is configured to charge the plurality of secondary batteries one by one at the time of non printing of the recorder. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording apparatus equipped with an AC / DC power source and a secondary battery.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, ink jet recording apparatuses that perform recording on various recording media are capable of high-density and high-speed recording operations, and are therefore applied as printers or portable printers as output media of various apparatuses, and Have been commercialized.

  In general, an ink jet recording apparatus includes a carriage on which recording means (recording head) and an ink tank are mounted, a transport means for transporting a recording medium, and a control means for controlling them. The recording head for ejecting ink droplets from a plurality of ejection openings is serially scanned in the direction (main scanning direction) perpendicular to the recording paper transport direction (sub-scanning direction), while the recording medium is not recorded at the time of non-recording. Intermittent conveyance is performed in an amount equal to the recording width.

This recording method performs recording by ejecting ink onto a recording sheet in accordance with a recording signal, and is widely used as a quiet recording method with low running cost. In recent years, many products using a plurality of colors of ink and applied to a color recording apparatus have been put into practical use.
In addition, with the recent increase in speed of PCs, color images can be easily handled, and it is desired to process large amounts of data even in image recording.

  The speeding up of the recording operation in the serial ink jet printer can be realized by increasing the ink discharge frequency and increasing the number of recording nozzles. Further, since it is possible to increase the definition of the recorded image by arranging the recording nozzles at a high density, the recording head tends to be lengthened.

  Problems associated with such an increase in the length of the recording head include problems such as an increase in power supply capacity, an increase in shape, and an increase in cost.

  As a method for solving these problems, there is a method in which the number of data to be printed is counted, and the recorded content is divided into a plurality of prints based on the count value (see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent No. 3376118

  However, the above-described conventional example can only solve the averaging during the printing operation, and in fact, the power difference between the standby state and the printing operation is also large.

  In addition, if the power supply capacity is reduced too much, the ratio of split printing increases, and there are problems that throughput decreases due to split printing.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus for efficiently using a power supply capacity even during standby.

  In order to achieve the above object, a recording apparatus of the present invention comprises the following arrangement.

  That is, in a recording apparatus incorporating an AC / DC power source that generates a DC power source from a commercial power source, a plurality of rechargeable batteries with charge / discharge circuits are provided in a power line for driving the recording head, and a plurality of rechargeable batteries are set to 1 during standby. A means for charging each one, a means for calculating the print density and its area from the dot count value during the printing operation, a load level is judged from the calculated dot count value, and a plurality of rechargeable batteries are selected and discharged according to the load. It is comprised by the means to do.

  According to the present invention, the built-in rechargeable batteries are charged one by one during standby when the current value required by the recording apparatus is small, while the rechargeable battery requires a larger current value than during standby when the printer performs a printing operation. When charging is stopped, and the printing density is high and the power supply is under heavy load, the shortage of the power supply can be compensated by selecting and discharging some of the rechargeable batteries according to the load. . For this reason, it is possible to average the power including the standby time, and to suppress the mounting of a large-capacity power supply that is not normally used due to a momentary high load.

<Embodiment 1>
Hereinafter, an embodiment according to a recording apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(1) Description of Recording Apparatus FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view showing the configuration of an embodiment of a color inkjet recording apparatus to which the present invention can be applied.

  In FIG. 4, 202 is an ink cartridge. These are composed of an ink tank in which four color inks (black, cyan, magenta, and yellow) are respectively placed, and a recording head (201). Reference numeral 103 denotes a paper feed roller, which rotates in the direction of the arrow in the figure while holding the print paper (107) together with the auxiliary roller 104, and feeds the print paper (107). ).

  A carriage 106 supports four ink cartridges and moves the mounted ink cartridge (202) and recording head (201) together with printing. The carriage (106) is controlled to stand by at the home position indicated by the dotted line in the figure when the recording apparatus is not printing or when the recovery operation of the recording head is performed.

  Prior to the start of printing, the carriage (106) located at the position (home position) in the figure drives the recording element provided in the recording head (201) while moving in the x direction when a print start command is received, An area corresponding to the recording width of the recording head is printed above. When printing is completed up to the end of the sheet along the scanning direction of the carriage, the carriage returns to the original home position and performs recording in the x direction again.

  The paper feed roller (103) rotates in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure after the previous print scan is finished and before the next print scan is started, and the paper is fed in the y direction by the required width. In this way, printing on one sheet is completed by repeating main scanning and paper feeding for printing. A recording operation for ejecting ink from the recording head is performed based on control from a recording control means (not shown).

  Further, in order to increase the recording speed, the recording is not performed only during the main scanning in one direction, but the recording is also performed in the return path when the main scanning recording in the x direction is finished and the carriage is returned to the home position side. It may be.

  In the example described above, the ink tank and the recording head are detachably held by the carriage (106). An ink jet cartridge in which an ink tank (202) that stores recording ink and a recording head (201) that discharges ink toward the recording paper (107) are integrated may be used. Further, a multi-color integrated recording head that can eject a plurality of colors of ink from one recording head may be used.

Further, at the position where the above-described recovery operation is performed, a capping unit (not shown) for capping the front surface (ejection port surface) of the head, thickened ink and bubbles in the recording head are removed in a capped state by the capping unit, etc. A recovery unit (not shown) for performing the head recovery operation is provided. Further, a cleaning blade (not shown) or the like is provided on the side of the capping means, and is supported so as to be able to protrude toward the recording head (201), so that it can come into contact with the front surface of the recording head. Thus, after the recovery operation, the cleaning blade is projected into the moving path of the recording head, and unnecessary ink droplets and dirt on the front surface of the recording head are wiped off as the recording head moves.
(2) Description of Control Configuration Next, a control configuration for executing recording control of each unit of the apparatus configuration will be described with reference to a block diagram shown in FIG.

In the figure showing a control circuit, 505 is an interface for inputting a recording signal, 501 is a CPU, 502 is a program ROM for storing a control program executed by the CPU 501, and 503 is various data (supplied to the recording signal and the head). In this case, the number of print dots, the number of ink recording head replacements, and the like can be stored. Reference numeral 504 denotes a gate array that controls supply of print data to the print head, and also controls data transfer between the interface (505), the CPU (501), and the DRAM (503). Reference numeral 506 denotes a carriage motor (CR motor) for conveying the recording head, and reference numeral 507 denotes a conveyance motor (LF motor) for conveying the recording paper. Reference numerals 508 and 509 denote motor drivers for driving the transport motor (507) and the carriage motor (506), respectively. Reference numeral 201 denotes a recording head.
(3) Description of Charging / Discharging Circuit The charging / discharging circuit will be described with reference to FIG.

  Reference numeral 600 denotes a power supply unit that generates a DC voltage from an AC power supply and supplies it to the inside of the printing apparatus. Reference numeral 601 denotes a head driving voltage Vh, 602 a logic driving voltage Vcc, and 603 a motor driving voltage Vm. Reference numeral 604 denotes a main board, which includes the above-described recording control unit (500).

  The recording control unit 500 includes a print data generation unit 605, a print duty calculation unit 606, and a comparator 607 that compares the remaining charge amount and the print duty.

  A carriage board 608 is mounted on a carriage 106 together with a 201 recording head. A charge / discharge circuit 609 is provided on the carriage board (608), and controls the secondary battery 613. Reference numeral 610 denotes a selective discharge unit, which controls how many secondary batteries (613) are discharged by a load level signal coming from the recording control unit of the main board. A battery charge level detection unit 611 manages the remaining charge of the secondary battery (613). Reference numeral 612 denotes a selective charging unit, which sequentially charges the secondary battery (613) when the printing apparatus is in a standby state based on the standby time information coming from the recording control unit (500). Charging is stopped during printing.

  A capacitor 614 serves to smooth the discharge voltage of Vh (601) and the secondary battery (613) supplied from the power supply unit (600).

Reference numeral 201 denotes a recording head, which performs a printing operation using a head driving circuit 615 and Vh (601) supplied from a capacitor (614).
(4) Description of Charging / Discharging Sequence Next, the charging / discharging sequence of the secondary battery will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a charging sequence of the charging / discharging circuit (609).

  In step S201, it is determined whether the printing apparatus is on standby. If the printer is on standby, the secondary batteries are charged one by one in order in step S202. In step S203, it is determined whether all the batteries have been charged. If not, the process returns to step S201, and charging of the other secondary batteries is started again. When the printing operation starts, charging is stopped.

  The discharge sequence will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the printing operation starts, when print data is generated, dots in a predetermined area are counted in step S301. In step S302, the dot count value is compared with the peak value of the power supply capacity. If the dot count value does not exceed the power supply capacity, normal printing is performed in step S303. If it has exceeded, in step S304, the remaining battery level is compared with the excess of the power capacity. If the battery capacity is large, the number of discharge batteries is determined based on the load level in step S305, and normal printing is performed by supplying power of the power capacity plus battery discharge in step S306. If the battery capacity is small in step S304, divided printing is performed by dividing the print data into a plurality of pieces in step S307.

It is the figure which showed the characteristic of this invention. It is a flowchart figure of charge. It is a flowchart figure of discharge. It is a figure which shows the structure of the inkjet recording device which can apply this invention. It is a control block diagram of an ink jet recording apparatus to which the present invention can be applied.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 103 Paper feed roller 104 Auxiliary roller 106 Carriage 107 Print paper 201 Recording head 202 Ink cartridge 500 Recording control part 501 CPU
502 Program ROM
503 DRAM
504 Gate array 505 Interface 506 Carriage motor (CR motor)
507 Conveyor motor (LF motor)
508 Motor driver 509 Motor driver 600 Power supply unit 601 Head drive voltage Vh
602 Logic drive voltage Vcc
603 Motor drive voltage Vm
604 Main board 605 Print data generation unit 606 Print duty calculation unit 607 Comparator 608 Carriage board 609 Charge / discharge circuit 610 Selective discharge unit 611 Battery charge level detection unit 612 Selective charge unit 613 Secondary battery 614 Capacitor 615 Head drive circuit

Claims (8)

  A recording apparatus that operates with an AC power source, a DC voltage generating unit that generates a predetermined DC voltage from the AC power source, a charging unit that charges with the generated DC voltage, and a secondary battery that is charged in the charging unit A recording apparatus comprising discharge means.   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the secondary batteries are provided.   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the charging unit is charged when the recording apparatus is not printing.   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the charging unit charges a plurality of secondary batteries one by one when the recording apparatus is not printing.   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discharging unit discharges during printing.   2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discharging unit selects and discharges a discharge amount from a plurality of secondary batteries according to the load during printing.   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the charging unit is charged when not printing and pauses charging when printing.   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the charging unit is charged at a time of non-printing, determines a fully charged state of the secondary battery, and stops charging the secondary battery at that time.

Images