JP2010228208A - Inkjet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a photocuring inkjet printer for miniaturizing and simplifying a device. <P>SOLUTION: This inkjet printer is provided for curing and fixing ink by irradiating the light to the ink on paper, by forming an image by a printhead of discharging photocuring ink to carried printing paper, by paying attention to miniaturization of a device required for a fixation and high sensitivity of reading, by commonly using a light source for a scanner for reading the image and a light source for curing the photocuring ink. A UV scanner integrated with a UV light source of irradiating the light to uncured ink on the paper and an image sensor for reading the image on the paper by being converted into a digital signal by the irradiation light from the UV light source, is arranged on the rear stage more than the printhead to the paper. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an ink jet printer, and more particularly to an ink jet printer suitable for use in printing a digital code such as a bar code or a two-dimensional code.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, printers are known in which an ultraviolet curable ink is used to form an image on an object to be printed, and uncured ink on the object to be printed is irradiated with ultraviolet light to be cured.

  In particular, in a printer used for printing a digital code such as a barcode, when a nozzle of a print head that ejects ink is clogged, a so-called “dot drop” is caused, causing a reading error.

  In view of this, there is also widely known a printer in which a scanner is provided at the subsequent stage of the print head and compares and verifies whether or not the barcode is correctly printed, and the input data and the demodulated data obtained by reading the scanner.

  In Patent Document 1, a scanner is provided in the vicinity of the head of an inkjet recording apparatus that uses UV curable ink, and the scanning speed is reduced or the amount of light is increased at the edge of a solid print portion where ink bleeding is conspicuous. Thus, a technique is described in which ink bleed is efficiently prevented by intensively irradiating UV light, and the total amount of UV light applied to the recording paper can be reduced.

JP 2005-212366 A

  By the way, in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, there is a disadvantage that the apparatus becomes large and complicated by separately installing the scanner and the UV curing light source.

  In addition, when the amount of light read by the scanner is low, there is a problem that the sharpness of the image is lowered and the reading time is long, and the reading error rate is increased.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printer which is intended to reduce the size and simplification of the apparatus.

  That is, the present invention focuses on reducing the size of the apparatus required for fixing and increasing the sensitivity of the scanning scanner by combining the light source for the scanner that reads the image and the light source that cures the photocurable ink. It is.

  Accordingly, the feature of the configuration adopted by the present invention is that an image is formed on a conveyed print object by a print head that discharges photocurable ink, and the ink on the print object is irradiated with light to cure the ink. In the inkjet printer to be fixed, a UV light source for irradiating light to uncured ink on the printed object and light irradiated from the UV light source on the printed object at a stage after the print head with respect to the printed object A UV scanner integrated with an image sensor that reads the image of the image into a digital signal is provided, and the fixing operation and the image reading operation on the object to be printed by the UV scanner are performed simultaneously.

  According to the above configuration, an image of uncured ink formed on the object to be printed by the print head can be read by the image sensor simultaneously with or continuously with the light source of the UV scanner.

  In particular, if the amount of light is sufficient to cure the ink, it can be reliably read by the image sensor, so that the apparatus can be downsized, simplified, and speeded up in a balanced manner.

1 is an external perspective view showing a first embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing from the side surface similar to FIG. It is an external appearance perspective view which shows 2nd embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show a first embodiment of the present invention, which is an example of an ink jet printer using a line type print head.

  The printer 1 conveys the printing paper 7 in the direction of arrow A in the figure by the feed roller 2, the nip roller 3, the conveyance rollers 4, 5 and the conveyance belt 6.

  Reference numeral 8 denotes a line-type print head that discharges photocurable ink, and includes nozzles 9 that correspond to a plurality of colors of ink in order to support color printing. Many of these nozzles 9 are provided in the longitudinal direction of the print head 8 although not shown.

  Reference numeral 10 denotes a UV scanner, which is provided downstream of the print head in the transport direction of the printing paper 7. The UV scanner 10 includes a UV light source 11 and an image sensor 12 such as a two-dimensional CCD sensor. It is configured.

  The UV light source 11 is not limited as long as it can cure the uncured ink on the printing paper 7 by irradiating it with light so that an output with a wavelength of around 380 nm and 2.0 to 4.0 W can be obtained. It can be used by selecting from known ones such as high pressure mercury lamps.

  The image sensor 12 is not particularly limited as long as it can read the image on the printing paper as a digital signal with the irradiation light from the UV light source 11, and can be selected from publicly known ones such as a two-dimensional CCD.

  The UV scanner 10 uses the UV light source 11 in common, so that the uncured ink on the printing paper 7 is cured (fixing operation) and the image sensor 12 reads the image on the printing paper at the same time. Can do.

  The present embodiment has the above-described configuration. An image of uncured ink formed on the printing paper 7 by the print head 8 is cured by the light source 11 of the UV scanner 10 and is simultaneously or continuously image sensor 12. Can be read, and the device can be reduced in size, simplified, and speeded up.

  Next, FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, which is an example of an ink jet printer using a serial type print head.

  Although not shown, the printer 20 includes a feed roller 2 and a nip roller 3, conveyance rollers 4 and 5, and a conveyance belt 6, as in the first embodiment, and print paper 7 in the direction indicated by arrow A in the figure. Carry.

  Reference numeral 21 denotes a print head that discharges photocurable ink, and the print head 21 includes nozzles corresponding to a plurality of colors of ink in order to support color printing.

  The print head 21 is supported by a carriage 23 together with a UV scanner 22 to be described later, and these both reciprocate on the carriage 23 in the directions indicated by arrows B and C. This movement cycle is one reciprocation per unit of paper conveyance in the direction of arrow A.

  Reference numeral 22 denotes a UV scanner, which is provided on the carriage 23 so as to be behind the print head 21 with respect to the print paper 7 when the print head 21 moves in the arrow B direction. The print head 21 and the UV scanner 22 perform image formation, ink curing and image reading when moving in the arrow B direction, and do not perform image formation, ink curing and image reading when moving in the arrow C direction. .

  Also, the print head 21 and the UV scanner 22 can only perform image formation when moving in the direction indicated by arrow B, and can perform ink curing and image reading when moving in the direction indicated by arrow C.

  The UV light source 24 and the image sensor 25 constituting the UV scanner 22 can be the same as those in the first embodiment described above.

  The second embodiment has the above-described configuration, and the present embodiment has the same operational effects as the first embodiment described above.

  7: Printing paper (printed object), 8, 21 ... Print head, 10, 22 ... UV scanner, 11, 24 ... UV light source, 23 ... Carriage, 12, 25 ... Image sensor

Claims (1)

In an inkjet printer that forms an image with a print head that discharges photocurable ink onto a conveyed print object, cures the ink by irradiating the ink on the print object with light,
A UV light source for irradiating light to uncured ink on the print object and a light signal from the UV light source are converted into a digital signal after the print head with respect to the print object. Provide a UV scanner integrated with the image sensor to read,
An ink jet printer, wherein the fixing operation and an image reading operation on an object to be printed by a UV scanner are simultaneously performed.

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