JP2006263971A - Image recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image recording device which improves the picture quality of an image recorded on a recording medium by this image recording device using a line head, increases the processing speed of the image recording, reduces costs of the device, makes the device compact, and also, can properly select whether priority is given to the processing speed or the picture quality. <P>SOLUTION: This image recording device comprises the line head for which a plurality of recording elements are arranged, a recording medium carrying means which carries the recording medium, and a recording medium discharging means which discharges the recording medium. The image recording device also comprises a feed switching means which feeds out the recording medium to the recording medium discharging means or a recording medium circulating means, and a line head position controlling means which controls the position of the line head in the direction for the arrangement of a plurality of the recording elements while carrying the recording medium. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus using a recording head having a recording width equal to or greater than the width of printing, and more particularly to an image recording apparatus that improves image recording quality by printing a plurality of times.

  In an apparatus for recording an image using a recording head having a plurality of recording elements, it is well known that variations in characteristics of the recording elements of the recording head have a large effect on image quality. That is, the interval between a plurality of recording elements is not constant, the light intensity and spectrum of each recording element varies when the recording element is a light source, and the recording element discharges droplets used in an ink jet printer. In some cases, image degradation occurs due to the fact that the size of the droplets is different for each recording element or the direction of droplet ejection is biased. In the case of a so-called line head in which the recording elements of the recording head are arranged over the recording width, although the recording speed is high, the above-described variation in the recording elements of the recording head has a great influence on the image quality.

  In order to solve this problem, the recording medium is transported a plurality of times in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the recording elements, and the image recording is completed by recording a part of the image for each transportation, thereby reducing the image quality. The idea of preventing this has been made conventionally. As in Patent Documents 1 and 2, a recording medium is wound around a drum and rotated, and an image is recorded by a line head in which a plurality of recording elements are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the recording medium rotation direction (a direction parallel to the drum rotation axis). In this case, the line head is moved in the recording element arrangement direction in units of 1 / n of the recording element arrangement interval in synchronism with the drum rotation, and an image is recorded at a recording density of 1 / n of the recording element arrangement interval by n rotations of the drum. There is a known method of recording.

  Further, as in Patent Document 3, a method is known in which the line head is moved in the recording element arrangement direction in synchronization with the drum rotation at recording element arrangement intervals, and recording of defective recording elements is replaced with another recording element. ing.

  Further, as in Patent Documents 4, 5, and 6, recording is performed at m times the recording pixel pitch in the rotation direction, and the line head is moved in the recording element array direction at recording element array intervals in synchronization with drum rotation. A method is known in which an image is completed by rotation, and unevenness due to variations in characteristics of recording elements is prevented.

  Also in Patent Document 7, image quality is improved by recording or overwriting at least one pixel or more with a line head.

As described in Patent Documents 8, 9, and 10, when recording an image with a line head in which a recording medium is reciprocated by a roller or a belt and a plurality of recording elements are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the recording medium conveyance direction, The line head is moved in the recording element arrangement direction in units of 1 / n of the recording element arrangement interval in synchronization with the reciprocal conveyance of the recording element, and an image is recorded at a recording density of 1 / n of the recording element arrangement interval by n recording medium conveyances. A method of recording is known.
JP 7-276617 A JP-A-10-235849 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-245396 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-254665 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-315453 JP 2000-71481 A JP 2002-11865 A JP-A-6-71947 JP 2000-272113 A JP 2002-36530 A

  However, in the method using drum rotation described in Patent Documents 1-7, even when recording on a recording medium that takes a long time to attach / detach the recording medium to / from the drum before and after the start of recording, There is a problem that the processing time becomes long because it takes the same time as when recording on a recording medium having a long circumference. In addition, the rotating drum itself and the recording medium attaching / detaching mechanism to the rotating drum pose a problem of increasing the size and cost of the apparatus.

  Also in the method described in Patent Documents 8-10 that do not use a rotating drum, a stop activation time is required due to the inertia of the recording medium itself and the conveying means when switching the conveying direction of the recording medium, especially when performing high-speed recording. However, there was a problem that the processing capacity was lowered. In addition, in order to reciprocate the recording medium, useless spaces are required on both sides of the line head in the recording medium conveying direction, which causes a problem that the apparatus becomes large. Furthermore, when the image is recorded with an odd number of conveyances and when the image is recorded with an even number of conveyances, the recording medium ejection direction changes. In some cases, wasteful conveyance is required to discharge the ink. Also, when images are continuously recorded on a plurality of recording media, the next image recording cannot be started until the recording of the first image is completed, and this is particularly used when recording with a plurality of line heads. There is a problem that a line head is not formed, and the recording rate is lowered to reduce the processing capability. This is particularly noticeable when recording is performed on a short recording medium.

  In view of these problems, the present invention provides an image recording apparatus having a recording medium conveying means for conveying a recording medium in a direction orthogonal to the direction in which the line head and the recording elements of the line head are arranged. It is intended to realize means for solving the problem.

  That is, it is an object to achieve both improvement in image quality of an image recorded on a recording medium and improvement in processing speed of image recording, and reduction in cost and size of the apparatus. In addition to solving the above-described problems, it is another object of the present invention to realize an image recording apparatus capable of appropriately selecting whether to prioritize image recording image quality or processing speed.

  The above object is achieved by the following configuration.

(Claim 1)
A line head which is arranged at a recording position and in which a plurality of recording elements for recording an image on a recording medium are arranged;
Recording medium conveying means for conveying the recording medium in a direction orthogonal to the direction in which the plurality of recording elements are arranged;
In an image recording apparatus comprising a recording medium discharging means for discharging a recording medium on which image recording has been completed by the line head,
A recording medium circulating unit that circulates a recording medium in which recording of an image conveyed by the recording medium conveying unit is not completed upstream in the conveying direction of the recording medium conveying unit;
A sending switching means for sending the recording medium transported by the recording medium transporting means or the recording medium in which the recording of the image is not completed to the recording medium discharging means or the recording medium circulating means;
An image recording apparatus comprising line head position control means for controlling the position of the line head in a direction in which the plurality of recording elements are arranged.

(Claim 2)
Recording medium position detecting means for detecting a position of the recording medium in the arrangement direction of the recording elements, and the line head position control means determines the position of the line head based on the detection result of the recording medium position detecting means. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image recording apparatus is controlled.

(Claim 3)
The line head position control means allows the recording medium transport means to transport the recording medium from the position of the recording medium position detecting means to the position of the line head based on the detection result of the recording medium position detecting means. The image recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the position of the line head is controlled with a delay of a required time.

(Claim 4)
A recording medium position detecting means for detecting a position of the recording medium in the arrangement direction of the recording elements;
The line head arranges recording elements over a length exceeding the required recording width,
2. The image according to claim 1, wherein the correspondence between the recording elements of the line head and the image data of the image is controlled based on a detection result of the recording medium position detection unit. Recording device.

(Claim 5)
When recording images on a plurality of recording media, recording a part of the first image corresponding to the first recording medium, and then recording a part of the second or lower image on the second or lower recording medium. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

(Claim 6)
6. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a length of a path through which the recording medium is circulated is variable.

(Claim 7)
6. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a circulating speed at which the recording medium of the recording medium circulating unit is circulated is variable.

(Claim 8)
The image recording apparatus includes a paper feeding unit that feeds a recording medium to the recording medium conveying unit,
The recording medium conveying means has a driving roller for determining a conveying speed at a recording position of the recording medium,
When the recording medium is circulated to the recording medium conveying means by the recording medium circulating means, when the recording medium is fed to the recording medium conveying means by the paper feeding means, and the rotation direction of the drive roller The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a first circulation mode that is controlled so that the positions of the first and second positions are substantially the same.

(Claim 9)
The image recording apparatus includes a paper feeding unit that feeds a recording medium to the recording medium conveying unit,
The recording medium conveying means has a driving roller for determining a conveying speed at a recording position of the recording medium,
When recording images on a plurality of recording media, the first circulation mode;
A second circulation mode for controlling the interval between the plurality of recording media to be minimized when the plurality of recording media are circulated to the recording medium conveying means by the recording medium circulation means. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image recording apparatus is an image recording apparatus.

(Claim 10)
A recording medium type detecting means for detecting the type of the recording medium;
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein it is determined whether image recording is performed using the first circulation mode or image recording is performed using the second circulation mode according to a type of the recording medium. The image recording apparatus described.

(Claim 11)
The image recording apparatus includes a recording medium reversing unit that reverses the front and back of the recording medium;
Reversing switching means for switching whether or not to send the recording medium to the recording medium reversing means before, during or after the path of the recording medium circulating means,
After the image recording on one side of the recording medium is completed, the recording medium is sent to the recording medium reversing means, the front and back of the recording medium are reversed, and image recording on the other side of the recording medium is performed. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image recording apparatus has one inversion mode.

(Claim 12)
The image recording apparatus includes a recording medium reversing unit that reverses the front and back of the recording medium;
Reversing switching means for switching whether or not to send the recording medium to the recording medium reversing means before, during or after the path of the recording medium circulating means,
2. A second inversion mode in which after recording a part of an image on the recording medium, the recording medium is sent to the recording medium inversion means for each recording and the front and back of the recording medium are inverted. Item 11. The image recording apparatus according to any one of Items 1 to 10.

(Claim 13)
The image recording apparatus includes a recording medium reversing unit that reverses the front and back of the recording medium;
Reversal switching means for switching whether or not to send the recording medium to the recording medium reversing means before, during or after the path of the recording medium circulating means;
Recording medium type detecting means for detecting the type of the recording medium, and selecting either the first inversion mode or the second inversion mode according to a detection result of the recording medium type detection means. The image recording apparatus according to claim 11 or 12.

(Claim 14)
14. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a recording medium drying unit that dries the recording medium in the vicinity of a path of the recording medium circulation unit.

(Claim 15)
An image memory for temporarily storing image data; image data to be recorded in one transport by the recording medium transport means is held in a continuous area on the image memory; recording is performed at the end of each transport 15. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the completed image data area is released.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the recording medium conveyance path by the recording medium conveyance means and the circulation path by the recording medium circulation means provided for recording a plurality of times form a circulation path that circulates in one direction, and the movement of the recording medium Since the direction is the same direction, the image quality can be improved by recording multiple times, space and time are not required for reciprocating movement, etc. Is done.

  According to the second aspect of the invention, even if the recording medium is displaced in the recording element array direction in the circulation path, the position of the recording medium in the recording element array direction is detected and the position of the line head is controlled. Thus, an image recording apparatus capable of recording an image and improving the image quality can be realized.

  According to the invention of claim 3, even if the recording medium is displaced in the recording element arrangement direction in the circulation path or during recording, the recording medium position detecting means continuously detects the position of the recording medium, and the recording medium position is detected. Since the amount of movement of the line head is controlled by delaying the time corresponding to the conveyance time of the recording medium from the means to the line head, the image can be recorded at an accurate position and the image quality can be further improved. A device is realized.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, even if the recording medium is displaced in the recording element arrangement direction in the circulation path, the deviation is detected and the correspondence of the image data output from each recording element of the head is controlled. An image recording apparatus capable of recording an image at a position and further improving the image quality is realized.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, when recording images on a plurality of recording media, the interval between the recording media for each conveyance can be kept small, and the processing capability of image recording is further improved.

  According to the invention of claim 6, the length of the path through which the recording medium of the recording medium circulating means is circulated is made variable, so that the invention of claim 5 can be easily implemented.

  According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, it becomes easy to implement the fifth aspect of the invention by changing the speed at which the recording medium circulating means circulates.

  According to the invention of claim 8, the position of the drive roller in the rotational direction is approximately when the recording medium is first sent to the recording medium conveying means by the paper feeding means and when it is circulated by the recording medium circulating means. Accordingly, an image recording apparatus capable of suppressing the recording position shift in the conveyance direction for each image recording due to the eccentricity of the roller and further improving the image quality is realized.

  According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, when images are recorded on a plurality of recording media, each recording medium is first fed to the recording medium conveying means by the paper feeding means, and the recording medium is circulated by the recording medium circulating means. A first circulation mode in which the position of the drive roller in the rotational direction is substantially the same when it is circulated to the conveying means, and a plurality of times when each recording medium is circulated to the recording medium conveying means by the recording medium circulating means. By providing the second circulation mode that keeps the interval between the recording media small, it is possible to appropriately select whether to prioritize the image quality or the processing speed depending on the purpose of image recording or the usage status of the apparatus. A device is realized.

  According to the tenth aspect, whether the image quality is given priority according to the type of the recording medium by detecting the type of the recording medium and automatically selecting the first circulation mode and the second circulation mode. An image recording apparatus capable of appropriately selecting whether to give priority to the processing speed is realized.

  According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, the recording medium inversion means that enables double-sided recording according to the first to tenth aspects of the present invention is provided, and after a plurality of image recordings are continuously performed on one surface, the recording medium is Since the image recording is continuously performed a plurality of times on the other surface, the increase in the image recording processing time is suppressed, and an image recording apparatus giving priority to the processing speed is realized.

  According to the twelfth aspect of the present invention, the recording medium inversion means that enables double-sided recording according to the first to tenth aspects of the invention is provided, and the image recording is performed a plurality of times by inverting the recording medium for each image recording. In an apparatus that records images by ejecting droplets onto a recording medium, such as ink jet recording, the interval between multiple image recordings on one surface is increased, and ink bleeding and color mixing are suppressed, giving priority to image quality. A recording apparatus is realized.

  According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, the recording medium inversion means that enables double-sided recording according to the first to tenth aspects of the present invention is provided, and the mode for reversing the recording medium is selected according to the type of the recording medium. In an image recording apparatus that discharges such droplets onto a recording medium, a recording medium with good ink absorptivity is subjected to multiple times of image recording on one side and then multiple times on the other side. By performing this image recording, double-sided recording can be performed by reversing the recording medium once, and the processing time of image recording is shortened. On the other hand, the recording medium with poor ink absorbability is recorded every time image recording is performed. By reversing the recording medium, the time interval of image recording on the same surface becomes longer, ink bleeding and color mixing can be suppressed, and it is possible to appropriately select whether to give priority to image quality or processing speed. Capacity image recording device can be realized.

  According to the invention of claim 14, by providing the recording medium drying means for drying the recording medium in the vicinity of the path of the recording medium circulating means, even if the recording medium has poor absorbency, the image recording is performed a plurality of times. An image recording apparatus capable of suppressing ink bleeding and color mixing and improving image quality is realized.

  According to the fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the image data is held in a continuous area on the image memory for each image recording, and the area can be released immediately after each image recording, so that the unused area of the image memory is divided. However, since the image memory can be used efficiently, the memory capacity to be mounted can be reduced and the cost can be reduced. In addition, since the image data transfer is completed early and the host can be released quickly, an image recording apparatus with improved processing speed is realized.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present invention is particularly suitable for an image recording apparatus that records an image by ejecting ink droplets, such as an ink jet printer, among image recording apparatuses using a line head. First, an ink jet printer 100 as an example thereof. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. However, the present invention is not limited to inkjet printers, and image recording using other types of line heads, such as LED line printers that use light-emitting diodes, abbreviated as LEDs, and that have many light-emitting elements arranged to form a line head. The device is also effective.

  The ink jet printer 100 includes a paper cassette 2 for storing paper 1 as a recording medium, a paper feeding means 3 for sending the paper 1 from the paper cassette 2, and a recording medium transporting means 4 for transporting the paper 1 sent from the paper feeding means 3. (Hereinafter also simply referred to as transport means 4), recording medium direction restricting means 5 (hereinafter also simply referred to as direction restricting means 5) for transporting the paper 1 into the transport means 4 in a predetermined direction, and transport. A recording medium front end detection unit 6 (hereinafter also simply referred to as a front end detection unit 6), which is disposed in the vicinity of the upstream side in the transport direction of the unit 4 and detects that the front end of the paper 1 has reached a predetermined position of the transport unit 4. Recording medium position detecting means 7 for detecting the position of the paper 1 to be conveyed in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction, and an ink jet head for four colors arranged on the upper part of the conveying means 4 to cope with color recording The inkjet head 8 and the inkjet head 8 composed of Y, 8M, 8C, and 8K are also referred to as line head position control means 9 (hereinafter, also simply referred to as position control means 9) for controlling the position in the arrangement direction of nozzles, which will be described later. ), A recording medium discharge means 10 (hereinafter also simply referred to as discharge means 10) for discharging the paper 1 on which image recording has been completed, and the paper 1 conveyed by the conveyance means 4 is circulated upstream in the conveyance direction of the conveyance means 4. Recording medium circulating means 11 (hereinafter also simply referred to as circulating means 11), sending switching means 12 for switching whether the paper 1 is sent to the discharging means 10 or to the circulating means 11, and the recording medium is circulated to the conveying means 4. The recording medium reversing means 13 for reversing the front and back of the paper 1 before, and the paper 1 is sent to the recording medium reversing means 13 provided before or after the path of the circulation means 11. Te is switched or not turning over the sheet 1 without providing the sheet 1 on whether the recording medium inversion unit 13 inverts the front and back of the sheet 1 consists of reversing switching means 14 and the like. An arrow indicated by a broken line in FIG. 1 indicates a direction in which the sheet 1 as described above moves in the inkjet printer 100.

  In the ink jet printer 100 shown in FIG. 1, the number of the paper cassettes 2 is one, and the paper supply method is to supply cut paper cut to a predetermined size, but there are many paper sizes and types. In the case of a recording apparatus, it is preferable that a plurality of paper cassettes 2 be provided, and roll-shaped paper may be cut and supplied in accordance with the image size for each image recording.

  The conveying means 4 conveys the sheet 1 in order to maintain a good image quality of the recorded image, a position perpendicular to the conveying direction, a position perpendicular to the surface of the sheet 1, the direction of the sheet 1 during conveyance, etc. It is configured so that it can be maintained precisely.

  The direction of the sheet 1 at the time of conveyance is regulated in a predetermined direction by the direction regulating unit 5 when the sheet 1 enters the conveyance unit 4 and is held by the conveyance unit 4 after entering. The direction regulating means 5 normally regulates the leading edge of the paper 1 to be perpendicular to the transport direction, so that the sides on the both sides in the width direction of the paper 1 cut at right angles to each other are parallel to the transport direction. regulate.

  The conveying means 4 is provided on the downstream side of the conveying means 4, a conveying means driving roller 41 (hereinafter also simply referred to as a driving roller 41) that determines the conveying speed by the conveying means, and a driven roller 42 provided on the upstream side of the conveying means 4. , And an endless belt 43 that is stretched between the rollers and holds the sheet 1 during conveyance. Further, when one or more auxiliary rollers 44 are provided to keep the position of the endless belt 43 in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the sheet 1, the position in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the sheet 1 of the endless belt 43 is stable. The distance between 1 and the line head 8 is preferably kept constant. A driving force may be applied to the driven roller 42 in an auxiliary manner, but it is necessary that the conveyance speed be determined by the rotational speed of the driving roller 41.

  The roller on the upstream side of the conveying means 4 may be used as the driving roller 41. However, in order to prevent the endless belt 43 from sagging at the recording position, the roller on the downstream side of the conveying means 4 is used as the driving roller 41. Is preferred.

  A recording medium drying means 15 for drying the paper 1 is provided near the path of the circulation means 11.

  In order to convey the paper 1 with high accuracy, the inkjet printer 100 is provided with an auxiliary for ensuring that the paper 1 is brought into close contact with the endless belt 43 so that the paper 1 is conveyed at the same speed as the endless belt 43 moves. A typical roller or other means is provided, but the illustration is omitted. As an example of the other means, a method in which a sheet is attracted to an endless belt by an electrostatic force can be preferably used. On the other hand, it is necessary to reliably separate the paper 1 from the endless belt 43 at a location where the paper 1 is sent from the transport means 4 toward the delivery switching means 12, and a means for this purpose is also provided, but illustration is omitted. As described above, the means for controlling the paper 1 is configured in the same manner for the circulation means 11, but the illustration is omitted.

  Next, the ink jet head 8 which is an example of the line head of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The ink jet printer 100 has four color ink jet heads 8K, 8C, 8M, and 8Y, where K means black, C means cyan, M means magenta, and Y means yellow. One of them will be described as an inkjet head 8.

  2A is a cross-sectional view of the inkjet head 8 as viewed from a direction parallel to the transport direction during image recording, and FIG. 2B is a view of the inkjet head 8 as viewed from a direction opposite to the arrow A in FIG.

  The ink jet head 8 is formed on the ink jet head main body 80, the ink chamber 81 formed in the ink jet head main body 80 for holding the ejected ink, the nozzle plate 82 joined to the main body 80, and the nozzle plate 82. As indicated by an arrow B, an ink jet nozzle 83 (hereinafter also simply referred to as a nozzle 83) for discharging ink held in each ink chamber 81, a common ink chamber 84 for supplying liquid to each ink chamber, and the common ink chamber 84 are indicated by an arrow B. It comprises an ink supply tube 85 for supplying ink in the direction.

  Ink droplets are ejected from the nozzle 83 as shown by an arrow A in FIG. 2A by applying a voltage to an electrode (not shown) provided on the inner wall of the ink chamber 81.

  In this example, 1532 ink chambers 81 and nozzles 83 are arranged at intervals of 0.141 mm over 216 mm so that an A4 width of 210 mm can be printed, but only a part of the end portion is shown in FIG.

  Some inkjet heads use a staggered arrangement in which every other nozzle is shifted by a predetermined distance in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction in order to eliminate technical difficulties. In some cases, a plurality of recording heads shorter than the necessary recording width are arranged in a staggered manner so that the overall length exceeds the necessary recording width. In any case, the time for ejecting the ink droplets may be shifted by the time determined from the amount of deviation and the speed at which the paper 1 is conveyed.

  The inkjet head 8 described here is an example in which all the nozzles 83 are provided on one straight line in the arrangement direction as shown in FIG. 2, but have a staggered shift in the transport direction as described above. It is also possible to use an inkjet head.

  Next, the control relationship between the main components of the inkjet printer 100 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 3 which is a functional block diagram.

  In FIG. 3, image data of an image to be recorded is sent from the host system to the image memory 202 through the interface 201 of the inkjet printer 100, and the line head driver 203 provided for each color is a line head based on the image data. An ink jet head 8 is driven to eject ink droplets.

  On the other hand, the printer control unit 204 is based on the command from the host system and based on the detection data from the recording medium position detecting means 7, the leading edge detecting means 6, and the recording medium type detecting means 16, as described below. Control and drive of each component of the inkjet printer 100 are performed.

  That is, a sheet feeding means driving motor 211 for operating the sheet feeding means 3, a conveying means driving motor 212 for driving a driving roller 41 for driving the conveying means 4, and rollers 51 and 52 (to be described later) of the direction regulating means 5 are driven. The direction regulating means driving motor 213, the circulating means driving motor 215 for driving the circulating means 11, the circulating means adjusting motor 216 provided to be able to adjust the length of the circulating path of the circulating means 11, and the delivery switching means 12 are driven. The feed switching means driving motor 217, the reversing switching means driving motor 218 for driving the reversing switching means 14, and the recording medium reversing means driving motor 219 for driving the recording medium reversing means 13 are controlled and driven.

  The driving means is not limited to the motor, and the driving means may be a rotary solenoid instead of the motor as long as the object to be driven is a position switching means such as the sending switching means 12 or the reverse switching means 14.

  Further, the position of the inkjet head 8 of each color is controlled by controlling and driving the line head position control means driving motor 220 provided for each color.

  These drive controls are performed by a CPU 205 provided in the printer control unit 204 based on control information from the host system and detection data from the recording medium position detection means 7 and the leading edge detection means 6.

  Hereinafter, in order to describe the present invention in more detail, an image recording operation by the image recording apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
Embodiment 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. The first embodiment is an example for carrying out the invention according to claims 1 to 4 of the present invention.

  Image data is sent from the host system shown in FIG. 3 to the image memory 202 via the interface unit 201 and stored therein. Further, in response to a command from the printer control unit 204, the sheet feeding unit 3 starts feeding one sheet of paper 1, and the sheet 1 reaches the direction regulating unit 5.

  The direction regulating means 5 aims at directing the paper 1 in a predetermined direction, and usually regulates a straight line formed by the leading edge of the paper 1 in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the conveying means 4. Various methods for this are known, but the outline will be described with reference to FIG. 4 shows the operation of the direction regulating means 5. FIG. 4a shows the case where the paper 1 is first fed from the paper feeding means 3. FIG. 4b shows the paper 1 being circulated by the circulation means 11. Indicates the case.

  FIG. 4 a 1 shows a state after a short time has elapsed since the sheet 1 reached the direction restricting means 5, and FIG. 4 a 2 shows the direction of the sheet 1 directed to the conveying means 4 by the direction restricting means 5 after the direction is restricted by the direction restricting means 5. Indicates that transmission has started.

  In FIG. 4 a 1, the two rollers 51 and 52 constituting the direction regulating means 5 are in a stopped state, and the leading edge of the paper 1 is brought into contact with the rollers 51 and 52 by the paper feeding means 3. It shows a state where the paper has been reached and paper feeding by the paper feeding means 3 is continued. Both the roller 51 and the roller 52 are arranged so that their rotation axes are perpendicular to the conveying direction of the conveying means 4. The front end portion of the sheet 1 is pressed against a position where the roller 51 and the roller 52 are in contact with each other, so that it is parallel to the straight line formed by the contact position, and thus is perpendicular to the transport direction of the transport means 4. This is because the sheet 1 is curved as shown in the figure, and before the curved portion reaches the direction restricting means 5, it absorbs the portion inclined from the right angle with respect to the transport direction.

  In this state, the speed at which the roller 51 and the roller 52 of the direction restricting means 5 are sent out toward the transport means 4 by the rollers 51 and 52 matches the speed at which the paper 1 is transported by the transport means 4. By rotating in this manner, the paper 1 whose leading end is regulated at right angles to the transport direction is sent out toward the transport means 4. The same applies to the case where the sheet 1 is circulated from the circulation means 11 and reaches the direction restriction means 5 as shown in FIGS. 4b1 and 4b2. By restricting the leading edge of the sheet 1 at right angles to the conveyance direction in this way, the sides on the both sides in the width direction of the sheet 1 are regulated in parallel with the conveyance direction. Are recorded with high accuracy at the position and angle.

  Next, operation | movement of the front-end | tip detection means 6 is demonstrated using FIG. FIG. 5 is a view of the state in which the sheet 1 is sent from the pair of rollers 51 and 52 of the direction restricting unit and passes through the leading end detecting unit 6 as viewed from a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction. The sensor surface of the CCD line sensor is disposed at a position conjugate with the surface through which the paper 1 passes in the optical system formed by the lens 62.

  With this configuration, when the leading end of the sheet 1 indicated by the arrow A reaches the leading end detection unit 6 disposed above the transport unit 4, the time is detected by the light source 61, the lens 62, and the CCD line sensor 63 as a light receiving element. Is done. The CCD line sensor 63 uses a sensor with a sufficiently small interval between the pixels of the CCD, and appropriately determines the magnification of the optical system formed by the lens 62, so that the position in the transport direction of the leading end of the sheet 1 is extremely accurately detected. It is possible to detect.

  Note that the leading edge detection means 6 is not limited to one having a plurality of light receiving elements such as a CCD line sensor, but may be a phototransistor widely used for paper detection in an image recording apparatus. In the image recording apparatus of the present invention, the detection accuracy and the detection resolution must be sufficiently smaller than the pixel interval of the image to be recorded. Therefore, the optical system formed by the lens 62 is positioned at a position conjugate with the surface through which the paper 1 passes. It is preferable to arrange a slit or pinhole made with high accuracy and arrange a phototransistor behind it.

  Since the transport speed of the transport means 4 is precisely controlled, the position in the transport direction of the paper 1 is accurately grasped while the paper 1 is being transported by the transport means 4 by using the time as the reference time.

  Next, the operation of the recording medium position detecting means 7 will be described with reference to FIG. The recording medium position detection means 7 is intended to detect a position in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the paper 1. 6A is a view of the state in which the sheet 1 passes through the recording medium position detecting unit 7 as viewed from a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction, and FIG. 6B is the state in which the sheet 1 passes through the recording medium position detecting unit 7 in the conveying direction. It is the figure seen from the upstream of the parallel direction.

  As shown in FIG. 6 b, the recording medium position detection means 7 uses a light source 71, a lens 72, and a CCD line sensor 73 to determine the position in the direction indicated by the arrow A at the end in the width direction of the paper 1, that is, the direction perpendicular to the transport direction. The sensor surface of the CCD line sensor is arranged at a position conjugate with the surface of the optical system formed by the lens 72 through which the paper 1 passes. With this configuration, the edge of the sheet 1 in the width direction is irradiated by the light source, and an image of the edge is formed on the CCD line sensor, so that the edge is in the width direction of the sheet 1 with respect to a predetermined position. It is detected how much is shifted.

  Next, a process of recording an image on the paper 1 by driving the inkjet head 8 will be described. The fact that the inkjet head 8 is driven means that the line head driver 203 drives the inkjet head 8 based on the image data, and ink droplets are ejected. The inkjet head 8 is driven for each of the inkjet heads 8K, 8C, 8M, and 8Y for each color. Here, one of them will be described as the inkjet head 8.

  Further, the description will be made assuming that the arrangement direction of the nozzles 83 is the main scanning direction and the conveying direction by the conveying means 4 is the sub-scanning direction.

  The inkjet head 8 is driven based on the time detected by the leading edge detection means 6 as described above. In the inkjet printer 100 of the present invention, the position of the inkjet head 8 in the main scanning direction is additionally added. Drive with control.

  For this purpose, the ink jet head 8 is held by the position control means 9 and the positions of the ink jet heads 8K, 8C, 8M, and 8Y for the respective colors are individually controlled. When the ink jet heads 8 of the respective colors are moved by the same amount in the same direction, all the ink jet heads 8K, 8C, 8M, and 8Y may be moved together.

  Next, an example of the position control means 9 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a view of the position control unit 9 disposed above the transport unit 4 as viewed from above the transport unit 4. The same components as those in FIG. 1 are given the same numbers.

  In the position control means 9 shown in FIG. 7, an eccentric cam 91 and a spring 92 are provided for each color with respect to the inkjet head 8. One end of the spring 92 is fixed to the spring holding member 93 and the other end is fixed to the inkjet head 8. ing. The eccentric cam 91 is rotated as indicated by an arrow A by a line head position control means drive motor 220 shown in the functional block diagram of FIG. 3 (not shown in FIG. 7). Is given to the inkjet head 8 in the direction indicated by the arrow B. The position control means 9 of the present invention is not limited to the configuration shown in FIG. 7, and it is only necessary to have a moving method capable of accurately obtaining a moving distance sufficient to achieve the object of the present invention. Electromagnetic movement control means and movement control means using piezoelectric elements can also be preferably used.

  Next, referring to FIG. 8, a part of the image is recorded on the sheet 1 by the first conveyance, and the sheet 1 is circulated by the circulation unit 11 to the upstream side in the conveyance direction of the conveyance unit 4, and an unrecorded image is recorded. The manner in which the ink jet head 8 records the portion after its position is controlled in the arrangement direction of the recording elements will be described.

  In the inkjet head 8 shown in FIG. 8, the interval between the nozzles 83 is twice the pixel interval of the image to be recorded. FIG. 8a shows a state where the recording by the first conveyance is completed, and FIG. 8b shows a state where the recording by the second conveyance is completed. For ease of understanding, every other row is drawn as if ink droplets were ejected for all pixels, but actual image recording is performed based on image data, and for all pixels in the row. Ink droplets are not necessarily ejected.

  In the example shown in FIG. 8, after the first recording, the recording head 1 is circulated again to the transport unit 4 by the circulation unit 11 and the second recording is performed, and the inkjet head 8 is indicated by an arrow C in the arrangement direction of the recording elements. The direction and distance, that is, a distance corresponding to three pixels on the image is moved. By this movement, for example, the row indicated by the arrow A on the image recorded by the third nozzle 83-3 for the first time and the row indicated by the arrow C on the image recorded by the same nozzle 83-3 for the second time are 3 pixels are separated. Therefore, even if the nozzle 83-3 has a non-uniformity such as a small amount of liquid droplets ejected compared to other nozzles, image unevenness due to the non-uniformity is reduced and the image quality is improved. The interval between the nozzles 83 may be the same as the pixel interval of the image to be recorded. In that case, every other nozzle 83 may be used for image recording for each conveyance. Arrows D and E indicate the conveyance direction of the paper 1.

  Image recording can also be performed as shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 9, the nozzles 83 of the inkjet head 8 are arranged at the same interval as the pixel interval of the image to be recorded. FIG. 9A shows a state where the recording by the first conveyance is completed, and FIG. 9B shows a state where the recording medium is circulated and the second conveyance is performed and the image recording is completed. In the first recording, images are recorded every other row in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction, and the rows in between are filled in the second recording. In each of the first and second times, each nozzle 83 is recorded in a direction indicated by an arrow A in a direction indicated by an arrow A from a row indicated by an arrow A in a direction indicated by an arrow C. Image unevenness is reduced and image quality is improved. In this case, unlike the case shown in FIG. 8, the amount of movement need not be an odd number of pixels in the image. Further, the number of pixels is not limited to two and may be three or more.

  The image recording apparatus described above is an example of the invention according to claim 1, and is provided separately from the transport unit 4 and circulates the paper 1 through the transport unit 4 in the same circumferential direction as the transport direction of the transport unit 4. By means 11, it is possible to efficiently carry a plurality of times. Further, a smaller image recording apparatus can be realized as compared with the conventional method using a rotating drum and the method requiring a large space on both sides in the conveying direction for reciprocating motion. Combined with the effect of improving the image quality by recording a plurality of times, it is possible to provide an image recording apparatus in which an improvement in processing speed, a reduction in size of the apparatus, and an improvement in image quality are realized.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the position in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the paper 1 circulated to the transport unit 4 by the circulation unit 11, that is, the position in the main scanning direction is deviated from the time of the first transport, the shift The amount is detected by the recording medium position detecting means 7, the detection result is taken into the printer control unit 204, and the movement amount by the position control means 9 is corrected by calculation by the CPU 05. As a result, the deviation of the sheet 1 is corrected and the image quality of the recorded image is maintained.

  The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 2, wherein the recording medium position detecting means 7 continuously detects the shift amount, and the detection position of the recording medium position detecting means 7 and the recording position of the ink jet head are determined. The above-described control is performed by delaying the interval by the time required for transporting by the transport means 4, and the image quality is further improved.

  Next, the invention according to claim 4 will be described with reference to FIG. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, as in the second aspect, the position in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the sheet 1 circulated by the transport unit 4 by the circulation unit 11, that is, the main scanning direction. Is detected by the recording medium position detecting means 7 when the position of the recording medium is deviated from that at the time of the first conveyance. The relationship between the recording element of the inkjet head 8 and the image data is controlled based on the detection result. To do.

  In FIG. 10a in FIG. 10, the leftmost row indicated by the arrow A recorded by the nozzle 83-4 in the first conveyance is circulated by the circulation means, and the sheet 1 is in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction during the second conveyance. It is assumed that the leftmost column is displaced in the direction indicated by the arrow C to the position indicated by the arrow B due to the deviation. When the arrow B is at a position substantially close to the nozzle 83-2 in the arrangement direction of the nozzles 83, the image data to be recorded in the leftmost column is sent to the nozzle 83-2 by the line head driver 203, and the image is displayed. Record. Similarly, image recording is performed on the other rows using two nozzles 83 apart from each other.

  With respect to the position indicated by the arrow B and the arrangement direction of the nozzles 83 of the nozzle 83-2, the amount of deviation by the fraction of the nozzle interval as indicated by the symbol D is based on the detection result by the recording medium position detection means 7. The shift is eliminated by controlling with 9. In the example described above, only the fraction of the nozzle interval is controlled by the position control unit 9, but not limited to this, the position control unit 9 changes the position of the inkjet head 8 to a part of the nozzle interval and the nozzle interval. You may control the fraction.

  Since the leftmost column of the sheet 1 is recorded by such a recording method, an image is recorded by the nozzle 83-4 for the first time and by the nozzle 83-2 for the second time. As in the case of the above, a deterioration in image quality is prevented.

  As described in the description of FIGS. 8 and 9, the image recording apparatus according to the present embodiment records a part of an image while controlling the position of the inkjet head 8 in the main scanning direction for each of a plurality of conveyances. Is recorded based on all image data to be recorded.

  It is preferable that a part of the image to be recorded for each conveyance is selected periodically with a certain regularity because the processing of the image data and the control of the line head driver 203 can be simplified. The present invention is not limited to this, and a part of image data selected irregularly in the first conveyance may be recorded, and an image may be recorded based on unrecorded image data in the subsequent conveyance.

  The number of times of conveyance and image recording until the completion of image recording has been described in the case of two times in the above description, but the number of times is not limited to two, and the image recording is completed by three times or more of conveyance and image recording. It may be what you do.

  Next, the operation of the transmission switching unit 12 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 is an enlarged view of a part of the ink jet printer 100 shown in FIG. The position of the transmission switching unit 12 shown in FIG. 11 is controlled by driving the transmission switching unit driving motor 217 by the printer control unit 204 shown in the functional block diagram of FIG. When the sheet 1 in which a part of the image is not recorded is sent from the transport unit 4, the position is controlled to a position indicated by a solid line, and the reverse switching unit 14 is controlled to a position indicated by a solid line. The paper 1 is sent out toward the circulation means 11. When the sheet 1 on which image recording has been completed has been conveyed, the sheet switching unit 12 is controlled to a position indicated by a broken line, whereby the sheet 1 is sent toward the discharge unit 10.

  The inventions according to claims 1 to 4 solve the above-mentioned problems by using the circulation means 11 as means for repeatedly supplying the paper 1 to the conveying means in order to improve the image quality by such multiple recording. Is intended.

(Embodiment 2)
Next, Embodiment 2 which is another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Note that the drawings used in the above description are also referred to as appropriate. FIG. 12 shows an example in which images are continuously recorded on a plurality of sheets, and the same components as those in FIG. Further, those not directly related to the description of the second embodiment are omitted. Further, in the drawings after FIG. 12, the paper 1 conveyed or circulated in close contact with the endless belts of the conveying means 4 and the circulating means 11 may be shown separated from the endless belt for easy understanding of the drawings. .

  The second embodiment is an embodiment of the image recording apparatus according to the fifth to tenth aspects of the invention. First, the invention according to the fifth aspect will be described.

  In FIG. 12, a plurality of sheets 1 a, 1 b, 1 c, and 1 d are fed at a predetermined interval by the sheet feeding unit 3, transported by the transport unit 4, and transported by the transport unit 4 again by the delivery switching unit 12 and the circulation unit 11. The state of being circulated upstream in the direction is shown. The sheet 1d is still on the conveying means 4, and the first image recording is completed, and the sheet 1a is circulated again upstream in the conveying direction of the conveying means 4 by the sending switching means 12 and the circulating means 11, and its leading end is The state which reached | attained the detection position of the front-end | tip detection means 6 is shown. A sheet 1 a indicated by a broken line is first fed to the transport unit 4 by the sheet feeding unit 3, and shows a state when the leading end reaches the detection position of the leading end detection unit 6.

  In the first conveyance by the conveyance unit 4, as described in the description of FIGS. 8 and 9 of the first embodiment, a part of the image is recorded on the respective sheets 1 a, 1 b, 1 c and 1 d and is circulated by the circulation unit 11. It is circulated toward the transport means 4 in the same order as the first transport. Then, unrecorded image data is sequentially recorded during the second conveyance.

  By recording in this way, for the four sheets 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d, the sheet 1a is first transported twice to complete the image recording, and then similarly recorded on the sheet 1b. As compared with the case of recording an image, the time interval for each recording can be narrowed, and the overall processing speed can be improved.

  Next, the invention according to claim 6 will be described with reference to FIG. 13a of FIG. FIG. 13a shows an example of means for making the length of the circulation path of the circulation means 11 variable. An endless belt 113 carrying the paper 1 is stretched by the driving roller 111 and the driven roller 112. The driving roller 111 is rotated by a circulation means driving motor 215 engaged with the roller. The sheet 1 sent from the delivery switching means 12 to the circulation means 11 is sent on the endless belt 113 in the direction of the arrow indicated by A from the driven roller 112 to the drive roller 111 and circulated to the conveying means 4. The endless belt 113 is made of an elastically expandable member, and the vertical positions of the upper pressing member 114 and the lower pressing member 115 indicated by the arrow B in the drawing are not shown in the figure and are described in the description of FIG. The circulation path length of the circulation means 11 is made variable by driving and changing the circulation means adjustment motor 216. In this way, by making the circulation path length of the circulation means 11 variable, it is possible to perform image recording on a plurality of sheets 1 at appropriate intervals, and by increasing the circulation path length, the sheets 1 that are continuously recorded can be recorded. You can increase the number.

  Next, the invention according to claim 7 will be described with reference to FIG. The invention according to claim 7 makes the circulation speed of the circulation means 11 variable, and usually makes the rotation speed of the drive roller 111 variable. For this purpose, the printer control unit 204 appropriately controls the circulation means drive motor 215 engaged with the drive roller 111 to make the rotation speed of the drive roller variable. Thus, by making the circulation speed by the circulation means 11 variable, appropriate circulation according to the conveyance speed of the conveyance means 4 and the number of sheets to be simultaneously recorded is performed, and the conveyance means 4 is conveyed. It can be avoided that the intervals between the plurality of sheets 1 are more than necessary, the sheets 1 are overlapped, and the image data is not sent to the inkjet head 8 via the line head driver 203 in time. Both the length of the circulation path and the circulation speed of the circulation means 11 may be variable.

  As described above, by making the circulation path length and the circulation speed of the circulation means variable, it is possible to control the conveyance and circulation of paper having various effects as described below.

  The invention according to claim 8 is to achieve high-quality image recording by using the structure of claims 5 to 7 described above and the structure described below. This will be described with reference to FIG.

  The speed at which the transport unit 4 transports the paper 1 is determined by the rotation of a driving roller 41 provided on the downstream side of the transport unit 4. If the driving roller 41 is eccentric, the conveying speed of the conveying means varies depending on the rotational angle position of the driving roller 41. Accordingly, the sheet 1 is first fed to the conveying unit 4 by the sheet feeding unit 3 and when the leading end reaches the detection position of the leading end detecting unit 6, the first image recording is completed and the circulating unit 11 transports the sheet 1. It is desirable that the rotation angle position of the drive roller 41 is substantially the same when the means 4 is circulated from the upstream side in the conveying direction and the leading end reaches the detection position of the leading end detection means 6. As a result, even if the drive roller 41 is eccentric and, as a result, uneven transport speed occurs, the uneven transport speed is generated in the same manner for the same portion of the paper 1, so that misalignment in the transport direction can be reduced by multiple transports. .

  The sheet 1a indicated by the broken line shows a state when the leading end of the sheet 1a first reaches the detection position of the leading end detection means 6 by the paper feeding means 3, and the position of the sheet 1a indicated by the solid line is determined by the circulation means 11. A state is shown in which the front end of the transport unit 4 is circulated from the upstream side in the transport direction and reaches the detection position of the front end detection unit 6.

  By controlling the position of the drive roller 41 in the rotational direction so as to be at the same rotational position indicated by the arrow A in the above two states, the image recording quality can be improved. In this case, the position of the drive roller 41 in the rotational direction is not limited to the direction indicated by the arrow A, and it may be in the same direction in the above two cases.

  According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, when continuous recording as described in FIG. 12 is performed on a plurality of recording media, the first circulation mode described in the description of the eighth aspect of the invention and the conveying means 4 are circulated. This is an image recording apparatus provided with a second circulation mode for controlling the interval between the plurality of recorded recording media to be minimized. The second circulation mode will be described with reference to FIG.

  In FIG. 14, the interval between the plurality of sheets 1 is narrower than in FIG. 12, and when the first sheet 1a is circulated and reaches the position of the leading edge detection means 6, the four sheets 1b, Sheets 1c, 1d, and 1e have already been fed by the sheet feeding means 3.

  This is a result of control using the means described in the description of the invention according to claim 7 so that the interval between the plurality of recording media circulated in the conveying means 4 is minimized. If necessary, the means described in the description of claim 6 may be used alone or in combination with the means of claim 7. In this case, since the control as described in the description of claim 8 is not performed, unlike the case shown in FIG. 12, the sheet 1a is first fed by the sheet feeding means 3, and the leading end thereof is detected by the leading edge detecting means 6. The position of the drive roller in the rotational direction is usually determined by the circulation means 11 when the circulation means 11 circulates to the conveyance means 4 from the upstream side in the conveyance direction and the leading end reaches the detection position of the tip detection means 6. They do not match and are at different rotational positions as indicated by arrows A and B.

  The minimum interval is a speed at which the image data held in the image memory 202 is transferred to the line head driver 203, a time required for the direction restriction by the direction restriction means 5, and the speed at which the paper is circulated. It is determined in consideration of the size of the error.

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the ninth aspect of the invention, whether to use the first circulation mode or the second circulation mode is automatically determined according to the type of the recording medium. The image recording is set so that the first circulation mode is used when priority is given to the image quality of the recorded image, and the second circulation mode is used when priority is given to the processing speed of the image recording, or the recording medium Is automatically determined and automatically set by the recording medium type detecting means 16 shown in FIG.

(Embodiment 3)
Next, Embodiment 3 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 15. In the third embodiment, the recording medium reversing means 13 for reversing the front and back of the sheet is provided before or after the path of the circulation means 11, and the front and back of the paper 1 is reversed by the recording medium reversing means 13 or the recording medium reversing means 13. This is an example in which reversal switching means 14 for switching whether or not to reverse the front and back of the paper 1 is used without using.

  As shown in FIG. 11, when the reverse switching means 14 is at the position indicated by the solid line, the paper 1 is sent to the circulation means 11 without being sent to the recording medium reversing means 13, and when it is at the position indicated by the broken line, the paper 1 is sent. Is sent to the recording medium reversing means 13. In the following description, the position and state of the sheet 1 to be reversed will be described as sheets 1a, 1b, 1c for the description of the reversal switching means 13.

  The recording medium reversing means 13 of the present embodiment takes in the fed paper 1 from the entrance roller pair 131 as indicated by 1a and holds it by the reversing roller pair 132 as indicated by 1b, and then reverses the reversing roller. By reversing the rotation direction of the pair 132 and sending out from the exit roller pair 133 as shown as 1c, the front and back of the sheet 1 in the circulation means 11 are reversed with respect to the case where the recording medium reversing means 13 is not used. . Each roller pair 131 to 133 is driven by a reversing means drive motor 219 (not shown in FIG. 11) shown in the functional block diagram of FIG. By suitably switching the guide member 134 between the position indicated by the solid line and the position indicated by the broken line, the reversing operation by the recording medium reversing means 13 is more reliable, which is preferable. Although it is not essential to provide three pairs of rollers as described above, an inlet roller pair 131 and an outlet roller pair 133 are provided in addition to the reverse roller pair 132, and the inlet roller pair 131, the outlet roller pair 133, and the reverse roller pair 132 are provided. By appropriately selecting the distance between the two, it is preferable that a plurality of sheets 1 can be received and the processing speed is improved.

  When the front and back of the paper 1 are reversed in such a configuration, the front and back of the paper 1 in the transport means 4 are reversed in the transport direction depending on whether the front and back are reversed or not. By controlling the reading order to be reversed, desired image recording is performed.

  As a method of reversing the front and back, a method of rotating the paper 1 by 180 degrees about a straight line parallel to the moving direction of the paper 1 as a rotation axis may be used, although in this case, the transport direction of the paper 1 in the transport means 4 may be This is preferable because it does not reverse in front and back.

  A basic flow of control of the ink jet printer 100 using the recording medium reversing unit 13 and the reversing switching unit 14 described above will be described based on a flowchart shown in FIG.

  When an instruction to start image recording is issued from the host system in step S100, it is determined in step S101 whether the ink absorption speed of the recording medium is larger or smaller than a predetermined value. If larger, the reversal mode 1 is set in step S102, and if smaller, the reversal mode 2 is set in step S103.

  As described so far, the image recording apparatus of the present invention performs image recording in a plurality of times. The number of times is ie, and the number of times of image recording up to the ie time is represented by an integer i. Note that i is counted separately on the front and back of the sheet 1.

  Regardless of which inversion mode is used, first, i is set to 1 in step 104, and the process proceeds to step S105 to start image recording.

  In step S106, it is determined whether the inversion mode 1 or the inversion mode 2. In the case of the inversion mode 1, the process proceeds to step S107. In the case of the inversion mode 2, the process proceeds to step S112.

  In reverse mode 1, image recording is performed i times on one side of paper 1 and then image recording is performed i times on the other surface. Reverse mode 2 reverses the front and back of paper 1 for each image recording. The reversal mode 1 is suitable when a recording medium having a high ink absorption speed is used as the paper 1, and the reversal mode 2 is suitable when a recording medium having a low ink absorption speed is used as the paper 1. .

  If the process proceeds to step S107, i = i + 1 is set in step S109 until i = ie is reached, the process returns to step S105, and image data i is recorded in the i-th image recording. When i = ie is reached, it is determined in step S108 whether only one side has been recorded or whether double-sided recording has been completed. If double-sided recording is complete, the whole is complete, and double-sided recording is not complete. In this case, paper 1 is reversed in step S110, i = 1 is set in step S111, and the process returns to step S105.

  When the reversal mode 2 is used, the process proceeds from step S106 to step S112, the paper 1 is reversed, and it is determined in step S113 whether or not the i-th image recording has been completed for both sides. Returning to S105, if completed, it is determined in step S114 whether i = ie has been reached. If reached, image recording has been completed, and i = i + 1 is set in step S115. The process returns to step S105.

  The invention according to claim 11 is an image recording apparatus using the reversal mode 1 in the explanation of FIG. 15 described above, and controls the recording medium reversing means 13 and the reversal switching means 14 to first turn the recording medium reversing means 13 on. After the image recording is completed on the one surface of the paper 1 by a plurality of times of conveyance without using it, the recording medium reversing means 13 is used to reverse the front and back of the paper 1 and send it to the circulation means 11 to convey it. Then, the sheet 1 is circulated, and thereafter, the reversal by the recording medium reversing means 13 is not performed until the recording of the image is completed by the plurality of times of conveyance on the other surface where the image is not yet recorded.

  According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, when image recording is first performed on both sides of the paper 1 by a plurality of times of conveyance, the paper 1 is preferably reversed only once, and image recording can be performed with priority on the processing speed.

The invention according to claim 12 is an image recording apparatus using the reversal mode 2 in the description of FIG. 15, and controls the reversal switching means 14 to be at the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. Thus, the front and back of the paper 1 are reversed for each conveyance and circulation.
According to the present invention, the time interval for recording an image a plurality of times on one side of the paper is increased, so that deterioration in image quality due to ink bleeding is prevented, and image recording with priority on image quality is possible.

  The invention according to claim 13 enables the image recording method according to the invention according to claim 12 and the image recording method according to the invention according to claim 13 to be selected according to the type of the recording medium used as the paper 1 It is preferable that an image recording apparatus capable of selecting an image recording method according to the type of recording medium, such as a recording medium for high quality and a recording medium for normal image quality, can be realized.

  The invention according to claim 14 is an image recording apparatus provided with means for drying the paper 1 in the path of the circulation means 11 or along the path before and after the circulation means 11. In the present embodiment shown in FIG. 11, it is provided inside the circulation means 11. However, if possible depending on the size and positional relationship of the conveyance means 4 and the circulation means 11, it is along the intermediate path between the circulation means 11 and the conveyance means 4. May be provided.

  In this embodiment shown in FIG. 11, the drying means is such that the heater 151 of the recording medium drying means 15 is energized by a heater power supply (not shown) and dried by heating, and there is no mechanical moving part and no noise is generated. It is preferable. The means for drying may be a means for drying by blowing air toward the paper 1 using a fan, and the heat generation of the entire apparatus is small, and there is a cooling effect by blowing air, which is preferable.

(Embodiment 4)
Next, a fourth embodiment according to the fifteenth aspect of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In Embodiment 4, when images are continuously recorded on a plurality of sheets in the image recording apparatus of the present invention, a part of the image data is first recorded on the plurality of sheets, and then other than the image data on the plurality of sheets. This example relates to a method of storing image data in the image memory 202 shown in FIG.

  In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which images are continuously recorded on four sheets 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d, but the number of sheets to be continuously recorded is not limited to four. The fourth embodiment is an example in which the image data is divided into two times on each sheet and the image is recorded. However, the number of times the image data is divided is not limited to two. The image data used for the first recording for each sheet is image data 1, and the image data used for the second recording is image data 2.

  The image memory 202 shown in FIG. 3 holds image data to be sent to the line head driver 203. FIG. 16a shows the state of the image memory 202 before image recording is started. FIG. 16b shows a state before the recording of the image data 1 to be recorded on the sheet 1a is finished and the image recording on the sheet 1b is started. FIG. 16c shows a state before recording of the image data 1 to be recorded on the paper 1b is finished and image recording on the paper 1c is started.

  As shown in FIG. 16a, in this embodiment, image data 1 and image data 2 are divided and allocated on the image memory 202 for image data recorded on each sheet. With this configuration, the area where the image data 1 of the sheet 1a is held can be released at the stage shown in FIG. 16b, and the image data 2 of the sheet 1c can be assigned to the area as shown in FIG. 16b. Also, at the stage shown in FIG. 16c, the image data 1 on the sheet 1b is not necessary, and the image data 1 on the sheet 1d can be assigned to the area.

  In this way, the image data used for each conveyance is held in a continuous area on the image memory 202, and is released as soon as recording is completed. Therefore, the unused area of the image memory 202 is not divided and the image memory is efficiently stored. 202 can be used, and the image memory 202 to be mounted can be reduced and the cost can be reduced. Further, since the image data transfer is completed early, the host system shown in FIG. 3 can be opened quickly, and the processing speed of the entire system controlled by the host system is improved.

  On the other hand, unlike the method according to the fifteenth aspect described above, as shown in FIG. 16d, the image data on the sheets 1a to 1d is not divided into the first recording and the second recording in the image memory 202 as shown in FIG. If assigned, the area of the image memory to which the image data of each of the sheets 1a to 1d is assigned cannot be released until the second image recording is completed, so that the image memory 202 needs a large capacity.

  As described above, the invention according to claims 1 to 15 achieves both improvement in image quality of an image recorded on a recording medium and improvement in processing speed of image recording, and reduction in cost and size of the apparatus. The object of the present invention is achieved. In addition to the above-described problems, the problem of realizing an image recording apparatus capable of appropriately selecting whether to prioritize image recording image quality or processing speed is also achieved.

1 is a schematic diagram showing an entire image recording apparatus of the present invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the inkjet head used for the image recording apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the control relationship between each component of the image recording device of this invention. It is a figure explaining an example of the means to regulate the direction of a recording medium suitable for the image recording apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining an example of the means to detect the front-end | tip of the recording medium used for the image recording apparatus of this invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a unit that detects a positional deviation in a direction perpendicular to a conveyance direction of a recording medium used in the image recording apparatus of the invention. It is a figure explaining an example of the means to control the position of the direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the inkjet head used for the image recording apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining an example which records a part of image by multiple times of conveyance performed with the image recording device of this invention. It is a figure explaining the other example which records a part of image by multiple times of conveyance performed with the image recording device of this invention. It is a figure explaining the further another example which records a part of image by multiple times of conveyance performed with the image recording device of this invention. It is a figure explaining an example of the means to switch whether to circulate or discharge a recording medium, and the means to reverse a recording medium used for the image recording apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining an example of the means used for the image recording apparatus of this invention to control the position of the rotation direction of the drive roller when the recording medium is circulated. It is a figure explaining an example of a means to make variable the length of the circulation path of a means to circulate a recording medium, and a means to make a circulation speed variable used for an image recording device of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the example controlled by the image recording device of this invention so that the space | interval of a recording medium might be minimized when a recording medium was circulated. It is a figure explaining the example of the control which reverses a recording medium with the absorption speed to the recording medium of the ink used for an inkjet head performed with the image recording apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining an example of allocation to the memory of the image data performed with the image recording device of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Recording medium 2 Paper cassette 3 Paper feed means 4 Recording medium conveyance means 5 Recording medium direction control means 6 Recording medium front-end detection means 7 Recording medium position detection means 8 Inkjet head 9 Recording medium position control means 10 Recording medium discharge means 11 Recording medium Circulating means 12 Sending switching means 13 Recording medium reversing means 14 Recording medium reversing switching means 15 Recording medium drying means 100 Inkjet printer 202 Image memory 203 Line head driver 204 Printer control unit

Claims (15)

A line head which is arranged at a recording position and in which a plurality of recording elements for recording an image on a recording medium are arranged;
Recording medium conveying means for conveying the recording medium in a direction orthogonal to the direction in which the plurality of recording elements are arranged;
In an image recording apparatus comprising: a recording medium discharging means for discharging a recording medium on which image recording has been completed by the line head;
A recording medium circulating unit that circulates a recording medium that has not been recorded by the recording medium conveying unit to the upstream side in the conveying direction of the recording medium conveying unit;
A sending switching means for sending the recording medium transported by the recording medium transporting means or the recording medium in which the recording of the image is not completed to the recording medium discharging means or the recording medium circulating means;
An image recording apparatus comprising: a line head position control means for controlling the position of the line head in a direction in which the plurality of recording elements are arranged. Recording medium position detecting means for detecting a position of the recording medium in the arrangement direction of the recording elements, and the line head position control means determines the position of the line head based on the detection result of the recording medium position detecting means. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image recording apparatus is controlled. The line head position control means allows the recording medium transport means to transport the recording medium from the position of the recording medium position detection means to the position of the line head based on the detection result of the recording medium position detection means. The image recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the position of the line head is controlled with a delay of a required time. A recording medium position detecting means for detecting a position of the recording medium in the arrangement direction of the recording elements;
The line head arranges recording elements over a length exceeding the required recording width,
2. The image according to claim 1, wherein the correspondence between the recording elements of the line head and the image data of the image is controlled based on a detection result of the recording medium position detection unit. Recording device. When recording images on a plurality of recording media, recording a part of the first image corresponding to the first recording medium, and then recording a part of the second or lower image on the second or lower recording medium. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 6. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a length of a path through which the recording medium is circulated is variable. 6. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a circulating speed at which the recording medium of the recording medium circulating unit is circulated is variable. The image recording apparatus includes a paper feeding unit that feeds a recording medium to the recording medium conveying unit,
The recording medium conveying means has a driving roller for determining a conveying speed at a recording position of the recording medium,
When the recording medium is circulated to the recording medium conveying means by the recording medium circulating means, when the recording medium is fed to the recording medium conveying means by the paper feeding means, and the rotation direction of the drive roller The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a first circulation mode that is controlled so that the positions of the first and second positions are substantially the same. The image recording apparatus includes a paper feeding unit that feeds a recording medium to the recording medium conveying unit,
The recording medium conveying means has a driving roller for determining a conveying speed at a recording position of the recording medium,
When recording images on a plurality of recording media, the first circulation mode;
A second circulation mode for controlling the interval between the plurality of recording media to be minimized when the plurality of recording media are circulated to the recording medium conveying means by the recording medium circulation means. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image recording apparatus is an image recording apparatus. A recording medium type detecting means for detecting the type of the recording medium;
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein it is determined whether image recording is performed using the first circulation mode or image recording is performed using the second circulation mode according to a type of the recording medium. The image recording apparatus described. The image recording apparatus includes a recording medium reversing unit that reverses the front and back of the recording medium;
Reversing switching means for switching whether or not to send the recording medium to the recording medium reversing means before, during or after the path of the recording medium circulating means,
After the image recording on one side of the recording medium is completed, the recording medium is sent to the recording medium reversing means, the front and back of the recording medium are reversed, and image recording on the other side of the recording medium is performed. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image recording apparatus has one inversion mode. The image recording apparatus includes a recording medium reversing unit that reverses the front and back of the recording medium;
Reversing switching means for switching whether or not to send the recording medium to the recording medium reversing means before, during or after the path of the recording medium circulating means,
2. A second inversion mode in which after recording a part of an image on the recording medium, the recording medium is sent to the recording medium inversion means for each recording and the front and back of the recording medium are inverted. Item 11. The image recording apparatus according to any one of Items 1 to 10. The image recording apparatus includes a recording medium reversing unit that reverses the front and back of the recording medium;
Reversal switching means for switching whether or not to send the recording medium to the recording medium reversing means before, during or after the path of the recording medium circulating means;
Recording medium type detecting means for detecting the type of the recording medium, and selecting either the first inversion mode or the second inversion mode according to a detection result of the recording medium type detection means. The image recording apparatus according to claim 11 or 12. 14. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a recording medium drying unit that dries the recording medium in the vicinity of a path of the recording medium circulation unit. An image memory for temporarily storing image data; image data to be recorded in one transport by the recording medium transport means is held in a continuous area on the image memory; recording is performed at the end of each transport 15. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the completed image data area is released.

Images