JP2010228402A - Inkjet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem that appearance in print is not favorable due to a phenomenon of a gap in positions of letters to be written-out between nozzles, thus causing the generation of an uneven writing-out alignment position between nozzles, in printing by a conventional inkjet recorder using a plurality of the nozzles as a writing-out time from the receipt of a printing-start signal to the printing is the same for each nozzle. <P>SOLUTION: In a conventional print-control system, an inkjet recorder without having a gap in the writing-out position between nozzles can be implemented by setting up the writing-out time for each nozzle. A shear in print between the nozzles can be corrected by setting up the writing-out time for each nozzle by determining the delay of the printing-start time, and then, by correcting gaps of letters based on the time-delay. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an industrial inkjet recording apparatus used for product marking.

  In the conventional inkjet recording apparatus having a plurality of nozzles, the writing time from when the plurality of nozzles receives the print start signal to when the charging signal is applied to the charging electrode is the same (for example, see Patent Document 1). . For this reason, the writing time cannot be adjusted for each nozzle.

European Patent Application Publication No. 448683

  First, the printing by a conventional inkjet recording apparatus having a plurality of nozzles will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 shows an example of printing using two nozzles. The two nozzles print 5 dots wide and 5 dots long, respectively, the upper nozzle with respect to the deflection direction prints the letter “E”, and the lower nozzle with respect to the deflection direction prints the letter “B”. It shows how it is.

  In the conventional print control method, as shown in the timing chart of FIG. 2, the writing time from when the print start signal is received from the outside until the charging signal is given to the charging electrode is always constant regardless of the nozzle.

Since the ink jet recording apparatus is based on the principle of forming dot matrix characters on the printing material while moving the printing material relatively perpendicularly to the deflection direction of the ink particles,
When a plurality of nozzles prints at the same timing, there is a problem that the characters printed physically are displaced as shown in FIG. 3 and the appearance of printing is poor.

  This character shift is also affected by the distance between the particle beams ejected from the nozzle shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, when the arrangement distance between the particle beams is short, the character shift is small, and as the distance increases, the character shift physically increases.

  As described above, when printing is performed using a plurality of nozzles, there is a drawback in that the character shift occurs due to the timing of printing and the distance between the particle beams ejected from the nozzles, which causes poor printing appearance. . Even when printing is performed using a plurality of nozzles, it is a problem to realize that printing does not shift.

  By making it possible to change the writing time for each nozzle, it is possible to solve the problem of character misalignment described in (Problems to be solved by the invention).

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an ink jet recording apparatus characterized in that character misalignment does not occur even in printing using a plurality of nozzles.

1 is an overview diagram showing an overall configuration according to the present embodiment. It is an example of the printing by the conventional several nozzle. It is a schematic diagram which shows the printing result by the conventional two nozzles. It is an example of printing when printing is performed at the same timing using a plurality of conventional nozzles. It is an example of the printing by a some nozzle in an Example.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the overall configuration of the ink jet recording apparatus according to this embodiment.

  First, the configuration of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1 is an MPU (microprocessing unit) that controls the entire inkjet recording apparatus, 2 is a RAM (random access memory) that temporarily stores data in the inkjet recording apparatus, and 3 is a ROM (read) that stores programs in advance. (Only memory) 4 is a display device for displaying contents to be printed, 5 is a panel interface, 6 is a panel 7 for inputting character information to be printed, 7 is a printed matter detection circuit, and 8 is for controlling the printing operation of the ink jet recording apparatus. A print control circuit, 9 is a video RAM for storing video data to be charged to ink particles, and 10 is a character signal generation circuit for using the video data as a charging signal.

  11 is a nozzle that ejects ink, 12 is a charging electrode in which ink ejected from the nozzle becomes particles, 13 is a plus deflection electrode, 14 is a minus deflection electrode, 14 is a minus deflection electrode, and plus plus electrode 13 and minus deflection electrode 14 Forms an electric field. 15 is a gutter that collects ink that is not used for printing, 16 is a pump that supplies the ink collected from the gutter to the nozzles again, 17 is a sensor that detects the printing object, 18 is a conveyor that conveys the printing object, and 19 is A substrate to be printed, 20 is a bus line for sending data and the like.

  Next, printing will be described. First, when information such as the contents to be printed on 6 panels is input via the 5 panel interface, the MPU 1 creates video data to be charged to the ink particles according to the print information by the program stored in the ROM 3, and the bus. The data is stored in the video RAM 9 via the line 20. When the printing object sensor 17 detects the printing object 19, a print start command reaches the MPU 1 through the printing object detection circuit 7.

  The MPU 1 sends the video data stored in the video RAM 9 to the character signal generation circuit 10 via the bus line 20. The character signal generation circuit 10 changes the received video data to a charging signal. The print control circuit 8 controls the timing of sending this charging signal to the charging electrode 12 via the bus line 20. The ink ejected from the nozzle 11 is converted into particles in the charging electrode 12, receives the electric charge, is deflected by flying through the electric field formed by the plus deflection electrode 13 and the minus deflection electrode 14, and is applied to the printing material 19. Flies, adheres, and is printed.

  At that time, the deflection is performed according to the charge amount of the ink particles. The deflection amount of ink particles having a large charge amount is large, and the deflection amount of particles having a small charge amount is small. Ink that has not been used for printing, that is, ink particles that have not been charged, is collected from the gutter 15 and supplied again to the nozzle 11 by the pump 16. The ink jet recording apparatus performs printing by the above method.

  As described above, when printing is performed simultaneously with a plurality of nozzles, the printed characters are displaced. Also, the degree of deviation varies depending on the distance between the nozzles. It is necessary to grasp how much it actually deviates according to the distance between the nozzles, and to print by providing an interval for writing to each nozzle.

  As a printing procedure, first, a print signal generation circuit for each nozzle and software that enables writing time control for each nozzle are provided in advance, the degree of nozzles is checked in advance, and the writing interval time between nozzles is determined. This information is preloaded in the software and written in the ROM 3.

  Next, the operator inputs information such as a dot matrix and character data to be printed from the panel 6 of FIG. A charge signal is generated by a character generation circuit based on the input dot matrix character and the number of digits of the print data. If the charge signal is a particle that is not required for printing, the ink particle is regarded as an uncharged particle that is not used for printing and passes through the bus line 21. The video data is written into the video RAM 9 shown in FIG. 1, and the video data stored in the video RAM 9 is transmitted to the character signal generation circuit 10 via the bus line 21, and the video signal is charged by the character signal generation circuit 10. Convert to a signal staircase waveform.

  It is possible to reduce printing misalignment between nozzles by preliminarily writing information on the writing time misalignment in the software as described above. By the above method, it is possible to determine the deviation time between nozzles in advance and correct the deviation of the writing position between nozzles. An example of this printing is shown in FIG.

  In the printing example of FIG. 5, information on a time gap of 150 ms is written in the software in advance between the writing time of the nozzle 1 and the writing time of the nozzle 2 in the vertical 5-dot 2-row printing, and written in the ROM 3, and the writing process is performed by the above-described software processing. It is possible to provide a time gap.

  Conventional printing with a plurality of nozzles has a problem in that character misalignment occurs between the nozzles and the printing looks poor. By using the function according to the present embodiment, the writing start time is set in advance for each nozzle, the delay of the print start time is determined, and the character shift is corrected by the delayed time, thereby correcting the print shift between the nozzles. It becomes possible. The difference can be clearly grasped when compared with the result of the conventional high-speed printing described in FIG.

  The present embodiment relates to an ink jet recording apparatus that can arbitrarily set a writing time for each nozzle from an operation unit of the ink jet recording apparatus.

  The implementation procedure of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment. By realizing the function of the present embodiment, it is possible to solve the problem of misalignment between nozzles described in (Problems to be solved by the invention). Furthermore, since the writing position of each nozzle can be set arbitrarily, the print layout setting can be simplified. Even if there is a manufacturing variation in the arrangement position between the nozzles, it is possible to correct the deviation between the nozzles.

  According to each of the embodiments described above, it is possible to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of uniformly aligning the horizontal pitch of columns.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... MPU, 2 ... RAM, 3 ... ROM, 4 ... Display apparatus, 5 ... Panel interface, 6 ... Panel, 7 ... Printed object detection circuit, 8 ... Print control circuit, 9 ... Video RAM, 10 ... Character signal generation Circuit 11, Nozzle 12, Charging electrode 13, Positive deflection electrode 14, Negative deflection electrode 15, Gutter 16, Pump 17, Print sensor, 18 Conveyor 19, Print 20 ... Bus line.

Claims (3)

Pressurized ink is ejected from a plurality of nozzles, and the plurality of nozzles are vibrated at a constant period, whereby ink is atomized at a constant period and synchronized with the period of particle formation based on character information to be printed. By applying a charging signal from the character signal generation circuit to the charging electrode of each nozzle, a charge is applied to the ink particles corresponding to the dots to be printed among the ink particles that have been atomized, and the ink particles to which the charges have been applied are deflected. An inkjet recording apparatus having a plurality of nozzles for deflecting in an electric field and performing printing on a substrate,
An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein a writing time from receiving a print start signal transmitted from the character signal generating circuit to applying a charging signal to the charging electrode is different for each nozzle. Pressurized ink is ejected from a plurality of nozzles, and the plurality of nozzles are vibrated at a constant period, whereby ink is atomized at a constant period and synchronized with the period of particle formation based on character information to be printed. By applying a charging signal from the character signal generation circuit to the charging electrode of each nozzle, a charge is applied to the ink particles corresponding to the dots to be printed among the ink particles that have been atomized, and the ink particles to which the charges have been applied are deflected. An inkjet recording apparatus having a plurality of nozzles for deflecting in an electric field and performing printing on a substrate,
A writing time from when a print start signal is received from the character signal generation circuit to when a charging signal is applied to the charging electrode is set for each nozzle, and is preliminarily incorporated in the ink jet recording apparatus to eliminate the occurrence of printing misalignment due to a plurality of nozzles. An inkjet recording apparatus.   The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operation unit, wherein the writing time of each nozzle can be arbitrarily set by the operation unit.

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