JP2011152730A - Inkjet recording apparatus and method for controlling the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a time between completion of a recovery operation and execution of a print job from becoming long. <P>SOLUTION: The inkjet recording apparatus performs a recovery operation of a recording head prior to printing. The apparatus includes analyzing contents of the print job, and determining the time to commence a recovery operation according to the analyzed results. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus that performs inkjet recording using an inkjet recording head that ejects ink, and a control method thereof.

  Conventionally, ink jet recording apparatuses that discharge ink are known. The ink jet recording apparatus forms an image on a recording medium by ejecting ink from a plurality of ejection openings provided in the recording head. In such an ink jet recording apparatus, a recovery operation such as cleaning is performed before the image forming operation is started in order to stabilize ink ejection (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In the ink jet recording apparatus, when ink is not discharged for a predetermined period, capping is performed to protect the recording head.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-179981

  However, after a print job is received and the recovery operation is completed, image data analysis and data expansion are not completed, and the print operation is not started, and after a certain period of time, it is capped to protect the recording head. The Once capped, the recovery operation is executed again at the start of printing.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus and a control method thereof that prevent an increase in time from the end of the recovery operation to the execution of a print job.

  The inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention is an inkjet recording apparatus that performs a recovery operation of a recording head before starting printing, and includes an analysis unit that analyzes the contents of a print job, and the recovery operation according to an analysis result by the analysis unit Determining means for determining a time to start the operation.

  According to the present invention, since the start time of the recovery operation is determined according to the contents of the print job, it can be prevented that the time from the end of the recovery operation to the execution of the print job is lengthened.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the inkjet recording device which is an Example. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a drawing command and a print job development time. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the inkjet recording apparatus 100.

  An example for carrying out the invention is the following example.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The ink jet recording apparatus 100 includes a CPU 11, a ROM 12, a RAM 13, an interface unit 14, a print control unit 15, an operation unit 16, a recovery operation control unit 17, and a data bus 18.

  The CPU 11 controls the overall operation of the inkjet recording apparatus 100. The ROM 12 stores a program for controlling the ink jet recording apparatus 100. The RAM 13 is used as a work area when the CPU 11 executes a program stored in the ROM 12.

  The interface unit 14 is an interface unit for receiving a print job or the like transferred from a host device such as a computer. The print control unit 15 includes a recording head having a plurality of ejection openings for ejecting ink, a recording medium conveyance mechanism on which an image is formed by applying ink. The print controller 15 drives the recording head and transports the recording medium, and forms an image according to the received print job. The print job accepted by the inkjet recording apparatus 100 is data including various drawing commands and image data described in PDL (Page Description Language). Further, the printing control unit 15 performs capping for protecting the recording head when ink is not ejected from the recording head for a predetermined period. The operation unit 16 includes a key input unit for a user to give various instructions and a display unit for displaying various information.

  The recovery operation control unit 17 controls the type and execution timing of the recovery operation. The recovery operation performed by the recovery operation control unit 17 includes cleaning for sucking ink from the recording head. The recovery operation control unit 17 performs the recovery operation again once the recording head is capped. The data bus 18 transmits control signals and data inside the main body.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between the drawing command included in the print job and the image data development time. The ink jet recording apparatus 100 stores in the RAM 13 information indicating the type of each command as shown in FIG. 2 and an indication of the data development time corresponding to the command.

  The inkjet recording apparatus 100 analyzes the type and number of drawing commands included in the print job received via the interface unit 14. Thereafter, the data development time of the entire print job is calculated using the data development time based on each drawing command as shown in FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the inkjet recording apparatus 100. This flowchart shows the flow of processing performed when the CPU 11 loads the program stored in the ROM 12 into the RAM 13 and executes it.

  When a print job is received in S31, in S32, the time required for the recovery operation to be performed before printing based on the print job received in S31 based on various conditions such as the elapsed time from the previous printing performed in S32. Predict. If the received print job is PDL data in S33, the type and number of drawing commands included in the print job are analyzed. In S34, the time required for data expansion for the entire print job is predicted based on the time required for data expansion for each drawing command stored in advance in the RAM 13.

  Here, for example, when 1/10 of the data amount of the print job is analyzed, the operation of predicting the data development time of the drawing command included in the image data is stopped, and the data development time predicted at that time is stopped. X10. The time multiplied by 10 may be used as the entire data development time.

  Next, in step S35, based on the time required for the recovery operation and the predicted data development time, the print head recovery is completed so that the print head recovery operation ends at or near the data development end time of the drawing command. Determine the start time of the action.

  In step S36, data development of the drawing command is started. In parallel with the data development of the drawing command, it is determined in S37 whether or not the start time of the recovery operation of the print head has been reached, and the recovery operation of the print head is started at the start time (S38). If it is not the start time of the recovery operation of the recording head, the data development of the drawing command is continued as it is in S39. If the print head recovery operation is not executed, the process of determining the start time of the print head recovery operation is repeated in S40.

  As described above, by determining the start time of the recovery operation, the time from the end of the recovery operation to the start of data printing after the completion of the data expansion does not increase. Therefore, after the recovery operation started after receiving the print job is finished, capping is not performed until printing based on the print job is started, and it is not necessary to perform the recovery operation again.

  Further, according to the above embodiment, the type and number of drawing commands included in the received image data are analyzed, and the data development time of the drawing command is predicted based on each drawing command. The accuracy of data development time prediction is high. However, the prediction of the data development time is not limited to the above embodiment, and various methods may be adopted. Moreover, it is not necessary to specifically predict the data development time. Depending on the type, number, amount of data, etc. of the drawing commands in the received print job, the recovery operation is started after receiving the print job within a range where the end time of the recovery operation and the end time of data expansion do not deviate significantly. It is sufficient to determine the time until. Further, the prediction of the data development time is not limited to the above, and various methods may be adopted.

  The above processing may be performed by a host device connected to the inkjet recording apparatus 100 via the interface unit 14 instead of being performed by the CPU 11 of the inkjet recording apparatus 100. That is, the host device analyzes the contents of a print job for causing the inkjet recording apparatus 100 to execute printing, and instructs the inkjet recording apparatus 100 to start the recovery operation at the recovery operation start time determined according to the analysis result. You may make it do.

  The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus reads and executes the program. It is processing to do. Further, the program may be executed by a single computer or may be executed in conjunction with a plurality of computers. Moreover, it is not necessary to implement all of the above-described processing by software, and part or all of the processing may be implemented by hardware.

Claims (4)

An inkjet recording apparatus that performs a recovery operation of a recording head before starting printing,
An analysis means for analyzing the contents of the print job;
Determining means for determining a time to start the recovery operation according to an analysis result by the analyzing means;
An ink jet recording apparatus comprising:   The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the analysis unit analyzes a type and number of drawing commands included in the print job.   The determination means predicts a data expansion end time of the print job in accordance with an analysis result by the analysis means, and determines a time to start the recovery operation according to the predicted data expansion end time. Item 3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to Item 1 or 2. A method for controlling an ink jet recording apparatus that performs a recovery operation of a recording head before starting printing,
Analyzing the contents of a print job
A control method for an ink jet recording apparatus, wherein a time for starting the recovery operation is determined according to a result of the analysis.

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